Savage Islands

More in the vein of Raiders of the Lost Ark thrills and spills than Fairbanks swash and buckle, the story is told in flashback with good old-fashioned cut-and-thrust. In the South Pacific islands in the 1880s, Captain Bully Hayes (Jones) saves maidens in distress, performs impossible feats of agility, does battle with a German count (Tilly) intent on nasty military annexations with the aid of an ironclad warship, in a plot that is as credible as Hitler's diaries. Which makes not a lot of difference, for the film is to be enjoyed on a tongue-in-cheek level: lots of stunts and not too much mushy lovey-dovey stuff. Originality never raises its head, but it'll keep the kids from clammering for a glimpse of those video nasties.