The Caribbean, the 17th century: After her husband Lord Hamilton (Menyhért
René Balog-Dutombé) while on a mission to the Antilles, and
she cannot secure support from the British crown (the crown being
Hamilton's employer), Lady Elena Hamilton (Anita Skulteti) turns to Thomas
Butler (Anita Skulteti), also known as the gentleman pirate, for
assistance. Butler agrees to help Elena, but only in exchange for a night
with the lady, much to the dismay of his girlfriend Pilar (Venere Torti).
Elena agrees reluctantly, but insists she won't pay up before he has
fulfilled his end of the bargain. After Butler has collected a rag-tag
team of fighters and adventurers, course is set to Maracaibo, wheere Lord
Hamilton is held by the Spanish gouvernor de la Vega (Laszlo
Madarasz). On their way, Butler and crew capture a British
galleon to arrive at Maracaibo in the guise of a British delegation.
However, they soon have to find out they were betrayed and are all thrown
into the dungeon, all but Elena and Pilar, whom de la Vega and his
right-hand-man want to rape first - but Elena manages to overcome de la
Vega, take him hostage, and free Butler and his men and Lord Hamilton
alike, and while the others put a plan into action that would blow
Maracaibo to Kingdom Come, Butler risks his life to save Pilar ... Of
course, everything ends happily - with an explosion, yes, but happily all
the same. Towards the end of his life, Italian cult director
Joe D'Amato has found his niche primarily in porn moviemaking, and he
rarely strayed from the genre. Predators of the Antilles however is
a family-friendly pirate movie, and in terms of both story and execution
it's a throwback to Italian adventure movies from the 1960's. And the film
has its charm, too, due to its sense of nostalgia, its narrative
simplicity, its pretty decent sets and costumes (at least considering the
film's apparent low budget), its well-captured atmosphere,and some quite
well-made sea battles (which are very probably nothing more than stock
footage though). However, on the downside, Joe D'Amato isn't exactly an
action filmmaker, meaning his action scenes are awkwardly filmed and
edited and lack proper pacing, plus D'Amato didn't exactly have the
greatest cast on hand, which doesn't help much either. Still, the film
is entertaining enogh to kill less than 90 minutes, just don't expect a
masterpiece, not even one of D'Amato's best or most (unintentionally)
hilarious films.
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