ROAR (1981) - This was one of the first bad/ weird movies I planned to review when I started writing Balladeer's Blog back in 2010, but like Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki it kept falling by the wayside. This film is no longer as unknown as it was in 2010 and has even been the subject of a documentary about its making, called The Most Dangerous Movie Ever Made.
Even making jokes about this flick feels played out for everyone except people who haven't seen or heard of it yet. Let me give it a try, though. "Roar: It's not just the title - it's the script!" or "You'll believe people are stupid enough to make a drama using dozens of UNTRAINED jungle animals."
Yes, untrained. The original movie advertisements for Roar boasted that "No animals were harmed during the making of this film. But 70 actors and crew members were." The end result is not something any human or animal should have been put at risk over, believe me.
Roar is such a bizarre product. Part "animals strike back" film, part Mondo Kane flirtation, part Golden Turkey, part vanity project, part home movie, part masochistic family project, part stunt-casting orgy, I could go on and on.
First up, the general story: A naturalist lives in a large, sprawling home with dozens of lions, tigers, leopards, panthers, jaguars, etc. His marriage is in trouble (of course) and he's in danger of losing his grant money.
His estranged wife plus his two sons and a daughter come to visit but a mix-up causes them to arrive at the naturalist's home while he is trying to pick them up at the airport. This strands the family with a houseful of wild and very dangerous jungle cats.
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