10,000 BC *

Director Roland Emmerich has some entertaining films to his credit but this so-called adventure is not going to be listed as one of them. Starring Steven Strait and Camilla Belle, it is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence and is one hour and fifty minutes long.

The story concerns a group of mountain dwelling mammoth hunters whose camp is raided by a group of men looking for slaves. Our hero (Strait) escapes their clutches but his beloved (Belle) is not so lucky. Of course he sets out to save her and in the process meets up with other groups who've suffered the same fate. They join forces, track down the slavers and set about getting rid of the problem once and for all while reclaiming those taken from them.

Emmerich has obviously spent a lot of money building models and creating CG effects so you feel as if you're in a different time. So far, so good. The film looks impressive on a large screen. Unfortunately, the story isn't nearly as impressive so it's impossible to really care about any of the people. Plus, they don't do or say anything to change that. (Why are the hunters starving...they're living on a mountain top. Idiots!) Back in 1966 they solved all of these problems in a similar film (One Million Years B.C.) by casting Raquel Welch in skimpy animal skin duds. No one cared about the story or graphics, they were too busy leering at her. Oh, that we had been that lucky with this film.