IGUANA

By Mike White

I never thought I'd see this film. Although I've only been looking for a few months, it felt like ages and the situation was pretty grim for a while. I certainly built this film up to be more that it turned out to be. According to Katz's Film Encyclopedia, this was Monte Hellman's unsuccessful attempt at a come-back. And I can certainly see why this film didn't catch on.

It's the story of a guy malformed face (half of it resembles a lizard) who declares war on the human race and proclaims himself king of a relatively deserted isle that a lot of damn people come to (including a quiet Michael Madsen).

As each group of people come to the island King Iguana captures and enslaves them which makes for a really dull narrative. Yeah, it was kind of cool to see the whole psychological phenomenon of the captive eventually not wanting to escape ("The Helsinki Syndrome" - according to DIE HARD) but I just wasn't that impressed. I just put it on fast forward an hour into it. I'll save you any trouble and let you know that he kills himself in the end.

If you ever see one Monte Hellman movie, pray that it isn't this one.

Check out our exclusive interview with Monte Hellman in Issue #7!