An
explorer (David Brandon) is almost assassinated in the Amazon jungle while
looking for a valuable golden scorpion.
He gets word to his sister Mary (Christine Leigh) that he’s alright, and
she heads on over to the jungle to find him.
Naturally, the bad guys immediately come after her, hoping she’ll lead
them right to her brother. She teams up
with a rugged adventurer (Andy J. Forest) who agrees to help find her brother.
Hunt
for the Golden Scorpion was director Umberto (Nightmare City) Lenzi’s
next-to-last movie. It’s a dull and
lifeless jungle adventure that features none of the hallmarks of Lenzi’s best
stuff. A lot of the problem has to do
with his listless handling of the dialogue scenes, all of which seem to drone
on endlessly. As you can
probably imagine, all of this is about as much fun as an actual trek through
the Amazon jungle.
Halfway
though, the film takes an odd turn and goes from being a jungle film to an
all-out low-rent Exploding Hut action flick.
Lots of stuff goes boom in this section of the movie (which prevents it
from being a total waste of time), but none of it is choreographed very
well. (At least the sound of gunfire and
explosions will keep you from falling asleep.)
Had Lenzi upped the sleaze quotient a bit in this sequence, all of this
might’ve been tolerable.
Another
debit is the cast of non-stars. While they
hit their marks and recite their lines without stumbling over them, none of
them exude an iota of screen presence, chemistry, or charm. Leigh is cute and all, but she’s no Bo Derek
or anything.
Some of the inane dialogue is good for a laugh. I admit I chuckled when a reporter asked a noted explorer, “Do you do the Lambada?”, a reference that was already dated by the time this was released. The best line of the movie comes when the base is under siege. The villain calls the guard station and asks what’s going on. Forest answers, “Nothing sir. The men are just watching Rambo 3!"
I liked this one.
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