Adam and Eve

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, followed by light, water, whales and a whole load of other shizz. Eventually, he created man in his own image. In time, man created Hollywood, and not long after that, the Italians created rip-offs. Adam and Eve Meet The Cannibals is the Italian answer to American 'loss of innocence' movies like The Blue Lagoon (1980) and Paradise (1982), the film following its photogenic titular couple (played by Mark Gregory of Bronx Warriors 1&2, and Andrea Goldman of nothing else) as they struggle to survive after being cast out of the Garden of Eden for sampling the forbidden fruit.

The film is largely an excuse for directors Enzo Doria and Luigi Russo to show their stars in the buff; both Adam and Eve frolic buck naked, making this an equal opportunities exploitation flick—something for both men and women to enjoy. But being Italian rip-off movie-makers, they can't help but throw in lots of mind bogglingly daft nonsense, making their film an absolute hoot of biblical proportions. In addition to the copious nudity, viewers are also treated to a hilarious action scene inspired by Raiders of the Ark (a massive stop-motion boulder rolling after Adam and Eve in a display of pathetic special effects), a couple of dreadful animal attacks (a manky pterodactyl and a moth-eaten bear), a tribe of ape-men (and women), and, of course, the cannibals: a race of laughable pig-faced, ginger-haired creatures.

Obviously, this is far from great cinema, and not really deserving of a very high rating, but for those who enjoy unadulterated trash, Adam and Eve Meet The Cannibals is a must-see.

5.5/10 (rounded up to 6 for IMDb) for the bear and the prehistoric bird, and for Goldman, a terrible actress but very easy on the eye.

Probably the only reason this title caught your eye is that it stars Mark Gregory from 1990: The Bronx Warriors and Escape from the Bronx. This is his first film after Bronx Warriors and boy is it strange. Both directors of Adam & Eve also co-directed the Blue Lagoon rip-off "Blue Island" a year prior, and this film similarly attempts to capitalize on that as well as 1981's Quest for Fire. Although the Italians did exploit a number of genres in the early 80s, this is an extremely small sub-genre unlike the fantasy and sci-fi rip-offs that were more ubiquitous.

Adam & Eve shares much of the same sensibilities as any other Italian exploitation film of that era. There's some skin, there's some sex, some (minor) gore, a fantasy setting, extremely cheap (but charming) production values.

Surprisingly, this film is really not all that bad. The locations they shot the film are absolutely gorgeous which really set the film apart visually from other genre films of that era. The story of Adam & Eve (from the Bible) is well known and the plot of the film incorporates it surprisingly competently. Once cast out from the Garden, the plot involves encounters with what is best described as a tribe of cavemen and then a violent encounter with savages. Oh, there is the bear scene, and it is gloriously bad...I'm talking worse than Yor. Unfortunately the bear scene is short, but by God, if you like 80s Italian exploitation I guarantee you will never forget it.

I found this little known film on Amazon Prime streaming in a very nice 16:9 print. Personally, I loved the film--but I am a MAJOR fan of Psychotronic film in general and Italian exploitation films from that era in particular. Although most viewers will find films like this laughable and worthy of mocking, I really appreciate them as akin to pulp entertainment. Only folks who share my sensibilities are likely to enjoy this movie--all others should seek out the films it rips off (Blue Lagoon & Quest for Fire).

Yes, as the old song goes..."the stuff that your libel to read in the bible, it ain't necessarily so.." And at the start of the movie we find Adam, kind of a dufus actually, just wandering around alone in the Garden of Eden. One day he gets bored and forms a woman's body out of sand and, as it starts to rain, Adam gets on top of the sand. I was thinking', "Adam, what are you doin' on top of that sand??" But then the rain turns the sand into Eve. Both of them are in paradise, so they ain't wearing any clothes. Life is sort of just lovey-dovey, the leopards are friends with the birds...you know, paradise.

Then, after their 1,000th time of watching a sunset after making love, Eve starts to get bored. wants a change, so she eats the forbidden fruit. She gets Adam to eat it too. Women! Always lead to fall of a good man, cause that's the way god planned it. After that life gets tough. Adam has to learn to kill animals and stuff. But this is the way things really went down 6,000 years ago. You don't have to read a book to learn history, just watch the movie.

What's in a title? The original Italian title translates as "The very first love story", but for the international export market, the sly distributors changed it into the much juicier and appealing "versus the Cannibals". Do Adam & Eve confront cannibals? Technically yes, but there's never any flesh-munching going on like in the film's more infamous cousins from Italy, like "Cannibal Holocaust" or "Cannibal Ferox".

This is basically a blatant Italian rip-off of the huge commercially successful "The Blue Lagoon", but then cleverly reprocessed into a Biblical saga with an overload of documentary stock footage of meteorological phenomena (representing God's creation and his wrath) and the endless bickering between two attractive and scantily clad young people. Adam is played by Mark Gregory, whom exploitation fanatics will recognize from "1990: Bronx Warriors" and "Thunder". Eve is depicted by Andrea Goldman, who never starred in anything before or after this film.

BLUE PARADISE starts off in the beginning of time when God created Earth and the heavens. Adam, a young man born from a life-sized cocoon, spends his days yearning for a mate to share his time with. He creates a statuesque figure of a woman made with beach sand, but when rain pours onto his creation it reveals a woman underneath (!!!). Don't ask. This is of course, Eve. In a nutshell, she is tempted to eat the forbidden fruit because "she wants a change", from here on out our duo are thrust into obstacle after obstacle facing natural disasters, badly animated boulders, pteradactyls, and even a savage tribe of flesh-eating cavemen! For a film of it's type BLUE PARADISE is rather tame. There's a bit of violence here and there, but that isn't the main focus like so many of these 70s/80s Italian exploitation films. A rather wild experience it is, far ahead of it's time with good direction, tolerable acting, fantastic music, plenty of bright, colorful characters, quirky situations, and quite a bit of comedy thrown in as well - Eve nagging and complaining, the stock footage, the "boulder" scene - LOL! Worth a look for fans of the psychotronic and unusual.