TAMMY AND THE T-REX

(1994)


Notes: Imperial Entertainment Corp. / Platinic Films. 82 minutes.
Tammy: Denise Richards
Michael: Paul Walker
Byron: Theo Forsett
Dr. Gunther Wachenstein: Terry Kiser
Helga: Ellen Dubin
Billy: George Pilgrim
Weasel: Sean Whelan

Executive Producer: Etka Sarlui
Associate Producers: Joleen Deatherage, Gary Brockette
Produced: Diane Raffill
Co-Produced: Fernando Celis
Directed: Stewart Raffill
Screenplay: Stewart Raffill, Gary Brockette.


Summary: Cheerleading for the "Panthers" sets us in an affluent high school. Michael fights Billy over Tammy; gay black friend Byron looks on. We cut to Dr. Wachenstein testing his mechanical T-Rex model (why is it smoky?) and wanting to proceed beyond the "limitations of that stupid computer."

Michael sneaks into Tammy's room, but schoolchicks rat him out to Billy, who attacks with his gang and leaves Michael in the local suburban wild animal park where lions run loose. Billy asks him, irrelevantly, "What would you do if you had the power to do anything?" In any case, a male lion chases and mauls Michael before a game warden can shoot the animal. Michael remains comatose in the hospital, watched over by a drunken Uncle Bob, his only relative. Dr. Wachenstein and his assistant Helga intrude and declare Michael dead in order to steal his brain and hook it up to the T-Rex.

The T-Rex with Michael's brain sees Michael's body and then itself in a mirror. It stomps Karl, another assistant, and tries to phone Tammy, and terrorizes drunks. Tammy is weepy but at a party, and when the dino hides in the trees, Billy's friend urinates on its leg and gets killed. The dino terrorizes the crowd, but lets Byron go. The cops afterwards eat disgustingly at the scene of the massacre and laugh about gutting deer.

Helga rolls up a flattened Karl. Tammy disappears out the window after the T-Rex shows up and, in a barn, is made to realize about the dinosaur: "You have Michael's brain?"

Dr. Wachenstein later views Tammy as bait to retrieve the dinosaur, but Tammy and Byron plan to retrieve Michael's body after the funeral. The T-Rex cries at Uncle Bob's eulogy. Unfortunately, the body is gross and rats are involved, so after an attempted kidnapping by the Doctor and Helga, Tammy and Byron try to find a body that will suit Michael's brain. With the scientists tied up and the T-Rex in a truck, they display their findings at the local morgue. ("They're all old over here." "Dead is as old as you're gonna get, honey.")

After a chase sequence, the three are trapped in a barn. Dr. Wachenstein wants to tranquilize the dinosaur, which he nevertheless claims is merely mechanical. The T-Rex is able to kill the Doctor, but the cops open fire and kill it.

We cut to a happy home scene. Tammy has the brain hooked up to her computer and video camera and does erotic dancing for this bodyless version of Michael, unto a sort of electrical orgasm.


Commentary: It's actually not bad. The ludicrous, over-the-top humor usually works well, however pre-high-schooly the intended audience.


Dinofilms
Dino-Source