On the indie side of cinema, writer/director/producer Joshua Kennedy's Cowgirls vs Pterodactyls reigned supreme in 2021. The Gooey Films Production made its Blu-Ray premiere about a year ago, but now the acclaimed adventure comes to affordable DVD via oldies.com.
Like the Blu-Ray, the DVD packaging sports dandy artwork (unique to this release). If you're like me, it's always gratifying to own more than one edition of a favorite, and Cowgirls and Pterodactyls is another ideal case in point.
Cowgirls vs Pterodactyls introduces us to Rebecca Crawford (Madelyn Wiley), a schoolmistress who embarks on a quest to retrieve her spouse (Jonathan Tamez), who's been snatched by a petulant pterodactyl. Crawford is joined by cathouse madame, Debbie Dukes (Haley Zega) and famed gunfighter, Bunny Parker (Carmen Vienhage). The school marm's man may not found alive, let alone intact, and to make matters worse, there are other flying reptiles about (including a cute, wee one) to bungle the ladies' chances for success.
Kennedy's fine-tuned script is a genuine gem on all pistol-packin' points, and his amusing sequences complement his lovely leads, who each excels in her own charming and nuanced way. To further their gratifying scenarios, Hammer/007 goddess, Martine Beswick bridges events with witty narration, and scream queen, Dani Thompson fills the inviting interludes as cool-headed bad gal, Doris Yates.
For the film's fruitful visuals, Ryan Lengyel, who crafted the stop-motion effects for Kennedy's mythology masterpiece, Theseus and the Minotaur, rises to the occasion again, presenting winged specimens that are not only threatening, but ripe with personality in the O'Brien, Harryhausen and Danforth vein. And to heighten the creatures' calamity, House of the Gorgon composer, Reger Clark bestows Cowgirls vs Pterodactyls with a catchy, cowpoke score. (His invigorating title track is one of the best compositions to grace celluloid in quite a spell.)
With its snappy pacing, quality acting and amazing special effects, Cowgirls vs Pterodactyls is the best genre-blending entertainment since, well, The Valley of Gwanji. That makes it pretty damn special in my book.
BTW, as extra treats, the oldies.com release comes with cool, Kennedy commentary and a making-of documentary, plus the filmmaker's surreal short, The St. Augustine Monster: an effective Lovecraftian, neo-silent-film homage, with an atmosphere plucked straight from Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Pure, German Gothic brilliance from start to finish!
Order Kennedy's Gooey double whammy at
https://www.oldies.com/product-view/1165D.html
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