DNA

* 1/2 out of ****

Off the top of my head, I cannot recall a movie that is so blatant in its bid to steal ideas and scenes from other motion pictures. With DNA, I see each of the three Indiana Jones films, Jurassic Park, Alien, and especially Predator during the climactic sequence, which is a virtual re-make of the John Mctiernan classic. Taking ideas from other films is harmless, but almost re-creating scenes entirely is usually unforgiveable.

Mark Dacascos stars as Ash, a doctor in Sarawak who's having trouble treating the sick with his understaffed and undersupplied clinic. Along comes Dr. Wessinger (Jurgen Prochnow), who claims to have the knowledge to cure millions of sick people, the source being a specific kind of beetle in the jungle. But once they head out, Wessinger steals the beetles, attempts to kill Ash, and uses the DNA from a fossil to create the "perfect killing machine." Unsurprisingly, it's up to Ash and a female CIA agent (Robin Mckee) to stop the beast.

DNA is a bad movie, but it's certainly not unbearable. The acting is actually quite decent, some of the special effects aren't half-bad, and the locations and sets are rather convincing. Dacascos makes for a dashing hero and Robin Mckee is a very attractive woman who looks alluring trudging through the jungle (she gets a frustratingly brief bra and panties shot).

But in the end, any quality emphasized in the film is for naught. DNA is pure schlock, ripping off a movie every five minutes to pass its running time. The Predator parallels at the end are hilarious: Dacascos sets up almost identical traps and even makes a huge leap into a river to escape the creature. DNA also features what has to be the worst helicopter crash I've seen on film, period, a scene so hilariously awful, you're guaranteed to rewind the scene and see it again.

This is one of those cracking movies that is so bad it comes out on the other side as an instant classic. Be honest looking at the cast, story line etc what did you expect. I find this movie a guilty pleasure and would recommend it as a good 90 minutes to while away an afternoon.

This wasnt a bad straight to video B grade movie,which is why I constantly go to the video store to purposely get these movies out. You know what you're in for the moment you rent such movies, so I'm not sure why people are surprised by its triteness. What were you guys expecting? Shakespeare?

Some people say DNA rips off scenes from movies like Jurassic Park,Alien and Predator. I prefer to say that it pays *homage* to those great movies by *borrowing* scenes from them.

As for the special effects, I can find it in my heart to forgive the producers as they probably didn't have enough budget to hire the technical wizards at ILM. Besides cheesy special effects are part of the fun in B movies!

And finally the fact that Mark Dacascos is in it elevates the film and prevents it from falling into the bog of true mediocrity. :-) Mark is truly a talented actor and martial artist and sometimes I wish he gets to do more mainstream films that are released theatrically.

Overall the movie is a fun, slightly cheesy, yet entertaining cheap thrill ride!

When you take three legendary, blockbuster hits Predator (1987), Alien (1979) and Jurassic Park (1993), and you put them in one big cooking pot and add some water. OK, next you put jungle, local Borneo tribes, fake Anaconda snakes, few helicopters and a few gore scenes. Now, Carefully chose actors... But, too late! Jurgen Prochnow with very neurotic performance and nervous eyes, stiff as a board... A fine actor, didn't expect him here... put some B actress just for cuteness, a little kid for more cuteness, Mark Dacascoss for martial arts action fans to see, but WRONG! no martial arts here! And finally add a creature which was created from the bug DNA (a local myth from Borneo tribes, you can see the cravings in the cave at the beginning of the movie, the craves were craved like in 1997... very ancient!) The creature looks like Alien very much, has those movements, but visually it reminds you more of Syl from "Species" (1996), but as a cheap halloween costume, creature has, to look more cool, a heat vision, or a negative vision, or perhaps a combo of sepia and negative... figure it out! It has a cloaking mechanism and it has very lame roars... Now, you spice this with few fake guns, grenade launcher toy and bad acting. And you get this piece of cr... I mean cake. And guess what... you ain't gonna like it.

The film starts in Sarawak , a province of North of Borneo where an idealistic doctor named Ash (Mark Dacascos of Double dragon). He mistakenly reveals his DNA theories to an evil scientific (Jurgen Prochnow , Das Boat) who utilizes on illegal genetic experiments , blending beetle and alien DNA . As a nasty scientist's DNA experiment on the bones of a mysterious jungle creature brings the carnivorous beast to life . Two years later , there appear various bodies dead and wounded ; one mutant , a giant insect-like specie with super powers , lurks in the lush forest from into perilous jungles , waiting for prey . The weird creature begins attacking one by one . Meantime , Ash along with a beautiful doctor( Robin McKee) are surrounded and both of whom set out to track it down.

This is a semi-remake to ¨Predator¨, told in terms of jungle warfare with an over seven-foot-tall monster on the loose . It's a brutal , exciting and violent Sci-Fi thriller with gory action and little logic . So we ought sit through the creature dispatch enemies one by one before the ending showdown comes , leaving the utter mechanics of the thing to keep our interest buzzing . The final confrontation is particularly exciting stuff , even though it makes no great sense . The result is thoroughly unpleasant but undeniably thrilling action movie . Acceptable special effects and special make-up by , nowadays famous , : Robert Kurtzman , Greg Nicotero , Howard Berger . Adequate cinematography by Gerry Lively and nice musical score fitting to action by Christopher Stone . The motion picture was regularly directed by William Mesa , he's usually visual effects supervisor (Dark Water , Deep blue sea) and occasionally cinema director . Rating : Passable and entertaining.