User Reviews

Deliberate no-brainer comedy stars none other than Ringo Starr. Ringo plays Atouk, a caveman in one zillion b.c. who is considered inferior by the bigger and stronger men of his tribe, including the leader Tonda (John Matuszak). Cast out for attempting to get with Tondas' mate Lana (Barbara Bach), whom Atouk lusts after, Atouk forms his own tribe with misfits such as his good buddy Lar (Dennis Quaid), friendly stranger Tala (Shelley Long), and her blind father Gog (Jack Gilford).

The movie is co-written by Rudy De Luca and Carl Gottlieb, the latter recognizable for having contributed to the script for "Jaws" and having played Meadows in that classic. It's often silly and childish, sometimes a little tiresome, but it's not attempting to be anything more than a goofy good time for comedy fans.

The dialect spoken by our heroes and antagonists is most amusing: "aloonda" means love, "macha" means monster, "ool" means food, etc. "Zugzug" means...well, I think you can figure that out. It's not really that necessary to have a translation handy. The gags aren't always that successful, but the ones that work are pretty funny. One has to love the cartoon physics every time that Tonda tries to throw something heavy.

The cast is lively and engaging. Ringos' hangdog looks are perfect for his hard luck character, and Dennis Quaid is a total hoot as another guy who often can't seem to catch a break. Both the stunning Bach and the sexy Long look good in skimpy cavewomen clothes. The real highlight of "Caveman" is the fantastic effects work of Jim Danforth and David Allen: those dopey dinosaurs are just hilarious and endearing. Note that the critters are credited as playing "themselves", with the exception of the Abominable Snowman, who's played by Richard Moll of 'Night Court' fame.

Lalo Schifrin's music score is most amusing - the main theme is insidiously catchy - and there's plenty of fine location shooting in Mexico.

Incidentally, this is where real-life married couple Bach and Ringo met.

If you attempted to play a drinking game for every time a character name is uttered - especially Tonda - you'd be drunk before long.

Seven out of 10.

Like airline disaster movies, one staple of 1970's cinema that was ripe for spoofing was the sub-genre of pre-historic melodrama influenced by "Korg: 1,000,000 B.C."(1966). Enter, "Caveman," a movie as willing to stick it to this genre as "Airplane!"(1980) was willing to do so to the Airport series, and countlessly similar movies and made-for-TV movies. You won't exactly find humor on the level of Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Young Ones, or Daria here, but it's still good for some laughs.

Atouk(Ringo Starr) has a huge crush on his tribal leader's wife Lana(Barbara Bach), but even if he didn't he's severely mistreated by Tonda(John Matousak), just because he can do so. Tonda is a huge thug who'd rather allow his fellow tribe-members to get eaten by numerous dinosaurs(which they call "Machas"), than try to save them. After he tries to "zug-zug" with Lana, he's kicked out of the tribe, and on the way finds Lar(Dennis Quaid) who was previously left to die after being injured fleeing a Macha.

Along the way they run into Tala(Shelly Long) and her blind father, Gog(Jack Gilford) who nearly drowns in a tar pit until Atouk and Lar save him. Tala immediately falls for Atouk, but he's not interested, which is a shame because she was gorgeous. Shelley Long has never looked as good as she does here. If I were in Atouk's position, I'd dump my aloonda for Lana and zug-zug Tala till she screamed like a Macha, and perhaps even afterwards. Evan Kim is interesting as Nook, the leader of the much more articulate cavemen, who are NOT all WASP heterosexuals of normal size, and and decides to join Atouk and his growing clan as they team up to eventually battle Tonda and his clan for both Ool(food) and pride. Atouk is admired by many other primitive people he comes across, partially because he discovers fire, chiropractic medicine, hallucinogenic plants, and rhythm, which is why Starr is perfect for the role.

The big disappointment here is the fact that the DVD has no translation card of the primitive language, which was originally offered to patrons of the movie when it was first released. At least they could've made a translation section as one of the special features. Other than that it was as silly as hell, and well worth seeing.

In the Stone Age, the strong caveman Tonda (John Matuszak) is the leader of a hostile tribe and the outcast Atouk (Ringo Starr) feels unrequited desire for Tonda's mate Lana (Barbara Bach). One day, Atouk is walking with his best friend Lar (Dennis Quaid) and they meet the cavewoman Tala (Shelley Long). They save her blind father Gog (Jack Gilford) from a tar pit and Tala fells unrequited affection for Atouk. Soon the smart Atouk becomes the leader of the misfit tribe and dispute the leadership of the whole clan and Lana with Tonda. But in the end, the leader needs a worthwhile mate.

"Caveman" is a hilarious silliness and is among the silliest movies ever made. But is funny and makes laugh a lot with the gags. The movie has its own language that is very easy to translate and understand the meaning of the words. Shelley Long is very beautiful and this movie introduced Ringo Starr to Barbara Bach that married each other in the end of the release year (1981). In the end, it is worthwhile watching this entertaining comedy. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Caveman – O Homem das Cavernas" ("Caveman – The Caveman")

I just had a look at the new DVD of one of my all-time favorite comedies (and I don't watch a lot of comedies), `Caveman.' It's one of the VERY few comedies that I can watch more than once. The rudimentary nature of much of the humor doesn't, in my opinion, make it a kid's film, although I think lots of kids would enjoy it. Bumping your head or falling on your arse has been funny since the Jurassic period. That's one of the great constants of human culture. Mix in some stop-motion rubber dinosaurs and a huge bug, and I think you'd have to have a stick permanently implanted up the bum not to at least get some laughs.

After reading some of the other comments, I'd like to make a point or two about this film: Yes, the stop-motion dinosaurs are not realistic. It's a comedy (duh!), and they're supposed to be funny, not realistically frightening a la Jurassic Park. The language spoken isn't Swedish (are you putting us on, dude from Toronto?), but a prehistoric language fabricated for this film. Caveman flicks have been doing that at least since the 1940 version of `One Million B.C.,' and these made-up caveman languages always sound to me a bit like Esperanto, another fabricated language. The language in `Caveman' may have been intended to parody that old film cliché.

The menu of the new DVD offers multiple soundtracks in English, French and Spanish. Be sure to check them out, suckers. There's really no extras on the DVD (some commentary from Ringo might have been fun), but it has an excellent anamorphic picture, which is enough for me. It never looked quite as good as it does here. It's just a good-natured comedy that's executed with style and artistry. It looks great, has some superb comedic actors that hit just the right note, and gets maximum effect from the simple gags it presents without in the least belaboring them (Mel Brooks fanatics, take note).

Ex-Beatle Starr joins a jock and some real actors in this zany stone age romp. I suppose the ringed one will never be a top actor but I always enjoy his films. This stuff was so goofy it kept me in stitches the whole time. Solid fun with loads of laughs.

It's funny reading the external reviews for this film. Roger Ebert was such a sourpuss! Whereas Janet Maslin and Pauline Kael, both very serious critics as well, took it for what it was--a harmless, enjoyable little romp through the stone age. I'm sure in 1981 it would have been classed in the same category as "Holy Moses", "History of the World, Part I" and the like, an "adult" comedy filled with innuendo and sly scatological humor. These days it would probably be considered a family film. I was 9 or 10 when I saw it on cable at the baby sitter's house and it tickled me to no end. Watching it again recently it's a ghastly enterprise that would barely make the cut on Comedy Central but it does have its charms, chief among them Ringo Starr as the hapless hero. He's a great physical comedian, using only his face, body and a vocabulary of grunts to express himself. The dinosaurs that seem to be around every corner are goofily rendered in stop motion animation, yet they have twice the personality of any modern CG monster. It's all harmless fun and I wouldn't be horrified to show it to my 10 year old nephew.

If you're in the mood for some dumb fun, try this. Take the old Raquel Welch vehicle, One Million BC, and make it even sillier and campier, and you get this fun nonsense. A goofy parody of dinosaur films, this flick never takes itself the slightest bit seriously.

Ringo Starr shows some surprising smarts for acting and comedy, playing a cross between Woody Allen and Barney Rubble. Except no talking: just grunts. A lot of grunts. Everybody in the cast grunts. No dialogue is necessary, anyway, the endless sight gags and slapstick bits tell you what little you need to know about the plot. The plot goes something like this: Ringo goofs up and is banished from his tribe. He and Dennis Quaid (Fred to Starr's Barney)wander around encountering odd Jurassic adventures. Look for Tickle Me Elmo's prehistoric ancestors, bug eyes, screeching high pitched noises, short arms, and all; they are definitely a highlight. The cast all seem to having a blast doing the movie, and the fun comes through on the screen. Shelly Long, John Matuszak, Jack Gilford and all the rest make for a good comedic time. There's all the usual dino dung and other similar type jokes, but they work in this movie.

An exuberant cast, a clever script, and some outrageous sight gags make for cool some modern stone aged entertainment. Just turn your brain cell activity down to the "Sub-Neanderthal" level while watching.

A spoof of prehistoric human movies, and Ringo Starr is surprisingly good in his role. Not that there is a lot for him to do. Much of the humor is sexual (Ringo liking another woman better because her breasts are larger) or scatological (accidentally stepping in dinosaur poop). There are jokes about the discovery of fire and marijuana and how they are better off standing up straight instead of crouching, and one Asiatic man who speaks English words as opposed to the others' speaking in caveman words.

Basically the movie is turn-off-your-brain silliness. Okay if you have nothing better to see.

An excellent movie I always enjoy to watch, one of my favorites of all times.

Ringo Starr excellent as Atouk!

The dinosaurs also funny, I always laugh out loud when I see them, absolutely silly!

Although the actors don't speak English (except the Asian guy!), their caveman language is so real and understandable, they way they explain everything, so funny and easy to understand for everyone!.

This movie is one of a kind!

I hope everybody could enjoy this movie as much as I do every time I have the chance to watch it.

If you want to have moments of fun, this is a must-have in your collection.

The movie sets the tone right away, opening on October 9th, One Zillion BC, with a group of cavemen sauntering crookedly about doing caveman stuff and grunting at each other. The next half hour is filled with more grunting, classic physical comedy, and no discernible language or direction. You'll find yourself wondering if there's a plot to this movie... Grab some 'ool', hop on 'macha', and 'kuda.'

Scrawny Atouk (Ringo Starr) is outcast from the tribe by the burly leader, Tonda (John Matuszak) for his desire to 'zug zug' with the bodacious cave babe, Lana (Barbara Bach). 'Lana nya zug zug Atouk.' He joins the already exiled Lar (Dennis Quaid), becoming the bestest of 'bobos', and are joined by the too-beautiful-to-be-a-cavewoman Tala (Shelley Long) and Gog (Jack Gilford), a dopey blind man. 'Tala alunda Atouk, Atouk nya alunda Tala, Atouk alunda Lana.' Atouk's lascivious desire for Lana propels the story through 'macha' fights, chiropractic discoveries, drugs, music, and 'haraka', and even a quick trip back to the ice age. 'Aiyee!'

Caveman is a light hearted joy to watch. It's a storyline as old as time that is chock-full of to-be-expected humor and punch lines. Don't expect it to be more than that or you'll be in for 'pooka'. Let your inner child enjoy.

Very few films have the capacity to change the way we think and feel about the world around us. This is one of them.

This touching film is about daring caveman Atouk and his brave companion Lar, who are expelled from their tribes, journey through exotic, precambrian lands, learning about the people and world around them. Ultimately they form their own tribe and, more importantly, learn cameraderie, the heart of what it means to be human and to have love. Caught up in the chaos of a savage, ancient world, Atouk and Lar eventually have to struggle just to stay alive.

This movie lost the Best Picture Oscar in 1981, but history will likely remember "Caveman" for much longer. And with more fondness. The cinematography is excellent. Alan Hume's prehistoric world is photographed as a mystical paradise. Then, we see the horror of human greed, lust and cruelty, also stunningly photographed. There is also a nice scene with a bunch of people thrashing about in a large pile of dung. It looked so realistic, that for a moment, I felt like it wasn't a movie, but a documentary.

The acting is top notch, especially early performances from Dennis Quaid, who exposes his buttocks and Barbara Bach, who should have. In one scene, Dennis Quaid makes impressive use of method acting, urinating against a glacier. And Ringo Starr deserved the Oscar he unfairly lost to Dudley Moore that year.

Everyone needs to see this movie at least once. Although it might be a little disturbing, the violence is not gratuitous, the love affairs wistful and heartbreaking. Despite the tragic elements, however, the movie is inspirational. One of the best films to come out of the 80s!

It's underrated films like this that don't get any publicity and the over-rated, pointless films do. I guess that's just the way Hollywood operates. This is one of the saddest, most touching, most unsettling, most moving films I've ever seen. It's one of the best. It nakedly shows the rudimentary nature of humanity, by showing our primal origins, when a fire, meat and the warmth of a lover and support of friends was all that kept us from the brink of death. "Caveman" captures and horrifies the viewer. There is something classical about the plot of "Caveman." If Aeschylus was alive today and making films, he would have made "Caveman."

The vivid imagery and music is outstanding, but the acting and intensity shown is very realistic. This is one of the most harrowing, gripping films I've ever seen, reminding me of so many other films of the era. "Quest for Fire" being one, but "The Killing Fields" being another. "The Killing Fields" is a movie about people who weren't exactly on the front lines, nor are they exceptional warriors. They're everyday people, like you or me, who do what they can to help one another out. "Caveman" is like this.

I can't put my finger on exactly what it is about this film that gets to me so much, but it is THE most haunting, emotional film experience one could hope for.

Excellent performances from the cast. A brilliant score by Lalo Schifrin. Scenes of high emotion, tension, drama, horror and even one or two pieces of light relief, usually involving Shelly Long.

An excellent film. Certainly one of the best foreign films in recent memory, "Caveman" is ripe for a new Director's Cut edition, or perhaps a modern English-version remake featuring John Malkovich. I have only ever seen the original, undubbed and not-subtitled version (I never figured out what language it was -- probably Swedish) and had difficulty with some of the more elaborate dialogues.

This movie is a funny one to describe. A movie in which the language spoke was barely intelligible but it wasn't a foreign film nor were there subtitles, yet it was still funny.

The year is one zillion B. C. and Atouk (Ringo Starr) is trying to make moves on Lana (Barbara Bach) except Lana is property of Tonda (John Matuszak)--remember these are cavemen. All the effort Atouk exerts to lure/woo/steal Lana is consistently rebuffed whereas Tala (Shelley Long) is infatuated with Atouk. The difference between Tala and Lana: maybe three cup sizes.

This movie was good if it could tell a story and be interesting with little more than grunts for language. No one is going to win an Oscar for this movie that's for sure, but this movie was just for fun, so relax.

This film is great for kids and teens, but I doubt if most adults would sit through the film. I saw it as a teen and thought it was great. Then, years later I saw it again and couldn't believe I had liked it so much. But, then, considering my age when I first say it, this really makes sense. There are lots of rude and sophomoric jokes--you know, about poop and sex that only teens and kids would find hilarious.

The film is filmed with all the caveman characters talking a silly caveman language--except for one guy who inexplicably speaks English. The plot involves an evil leader played by John Matuszak (the ex-football star) and his rival, the much smaller and wimpier Ringo Starr, who leads another band of wimpy cavemen.

Some movies are to be taken serious, this is not one of them. It's a comical look at prehistoric life. It's not supposed to be accurate in historic detail, it's supposed to make you laugh and this movie did just that. Ringo Starr is great as the unlikely hero Atouk and his wife at the time, Barbara Bach plays the sexy prehistoric temptress wonderfully. Watch for scenes with Shelley Long and Dennis Quaid and you get a glimpse of their early careers.

This is one of the funniest movies of all time! Fake dinosaurs and pure slap-stick antics. Ice ages,clan wars and even a music video! The pure genius of the movie is the lack of dialog.

The movie plays on the old theme of zero turns hero. When Atouk (Starr) is kicked out of the clan for coming onto the leaders(Matuszak) girlfriend Lana (Bach) the fun starts. From meeting ousted friend Lar (Quaid) and learning to walk up right, to frying dino eggs it is one adventure after another. Atouk tries to win Lana's attention in different ways but fails miserably, however along the way they make new friends, survive and ice age and learn to use fire.

Do yourself a favor and rent this movie, or better yet buy it. If you like movies like "Airplane", "Caddy Shack" and "Dumb and Dumber" Then you will love this on.

It's funny, "Caveman" was meant to be stupid and a spoof of things like "One Million Years B. C." 1966. But it comes off as kind of enchanting and entertaining. As dense as Ringo Starr is, he ends up being the best actor in the movie. LOL. // The Bushwacker 8/18/2021.

I've just seen it for the first time and won't repeat the obvious (silliness, rubber dinosaurs, stage sets looking so artificial, simple plot, juvenile humor) - oh wait, didn't I just repeat that? Oh well, the pleasant surprise was the acting (in this, of all films), especially Ringo's (who would have thought of that?) and of course Shelley Long. Most of the actors were pretty expressive and as natural as they could in that zany spoof (except a few too well groomed hairdos). Even the simple plot is somehow telling with regard to the basic motivations lurking sometimes behind our fancy psyche. Maybe if they didn't want to make fools out of themselves, it all had indeed some potential of becoming a real, serious film about our ancestors' way of life.

I remember seeing this film at the Drive-in way back in '81. Back then I thought it was great. Very funny film with a good solid cast, and the best Dinasores ever. And to see Bull (Richard Moll) as the snow monster is wonderful. With one great joke after another, you don't need to speak cave talk to understand this gem. They just do not know how to make movies like this anymore. Now do not get me wrong, all that CGI stuff is great and all, but I really like these movies with the stop animation, it takes me back to the days of Ray Harryhausen. I recommend this film to watch when ever you need a good laugh.

Four stars.

Bainless and silly, but with a few scattered laughs. The real "star" here are David Allen's stop-motion effects. He's no Ray Harryhausen, but the FX are more than competent. The acting isn't so great, though. Young Dennis Quaid tries, but Ringo and Shelley Long seem to be just walk through the movie, never really trying to get into the spirit of things. A few standout scenes though, most notably a caveman's charades about a recent dinosaur attack, and Ringo "inventing" rock & roll.

Among the numerous scenes that simply fall flat, a caveman stepping in dinosaur poop and pronouncing, perfectly: "that's 5h!+." Woody Allen got away with spouting contemporary dialogue in ridiculous settings, like the Napolinac revolution, etc., because he actually made it funny. Mel Brooks did it a lot, failing almost every time. So did this director.

Still, Caveman isn't a dog. It's certainly not Airplane with apes, but it's not Three Amigos either.

A staple of TBS summer afternoons. A horrible movie which Ted Turner got his hooks into and played it constantly on his network. How many times have I seen this movie? Obviously too many times. Thank you TBS. Misguided. As in, making this movie was a MISGUIDED effort. People thought it would be funny- they were like 'hey Ringo Stars gonna be in it it will be groovy'. And you know what, Caveman is not groovy. Yeah, even with Ringo, not groovy. When you lose time, you can never get that back. That time is gone- whenever I watched Caveman I lost that time, it will never come back. These are our lives, unknown struggles to understand what cannot be.

Caveman is one of those movies which, like Airplane, is funniest at it's first viewing. Subsequent viewings don't really stand the test of time.

That said it's a pretty funny film (anything with Ringo Starr as the main actor has to be inherently ridiculous). Dennis Quaid gets an early part as the hero's side-kick and Barbara Bach is the love interest.

There are plenty of funny moments, but it's the creatures that really steal the film. They're all animated by stop-motion and have the most ridiculously bulging golf-ball eyes. They also have been given a certain amount of anthropomorphism, which makes them characters, not merely decorations.

This movie is also almost entirely dialogued in "Caveman-ish" Apart from one scene, there's no English spoken at all. However, it takes almost no time to pick up the entire caveman vocabulary and you'll find caveman words creeping into your everyday life when you least expect it. Words like "Tonda", "Zug-zug" and "Macha" all have their place and you'll find yourself using them amongst your friends if you watch the movie together with a few beers.

It seems incredible, though, that when the film was released theatrically, they handed out flyers explaining the language and what the words meant. How stupid did they think the average movie-goer was? It's far more fun and entertaining to figure it out yourself, and to be honest, it's not at all hard.

It's also surprising that this flick doesn't turn up on TV more often. It's harmless fun and enjoyable enough to watch every so often.

Even if Ringo was perhaps not the most important member of his famous band, his career as an actor surpassed his former mates with a large point margin. There certainly have been better actors than he, but even so, seeing a familiar face on the screen makes watching the Caveman anyway a moderately attractive item at least. Most of the Stone Age films have been funny even if they were never made to be comedies: seeing animated puppet dinosaurs and listening to Stone Age people talking with silly grunts has usually proved to be too difficult task to perform properly, in case the film was meant to be taken seriously. Caveman does not suffer from this as it was already planned (if anything in it was actually 'planned') to be a goofy parody of ancient humans and their misfortunes. Caveman is content to make parody of a Stone Age film without being a too serious film; not everybody will find it a pleasure because there are no clever jokes at all. More demanding viewers should be warned of puerile humor Caveman has in large amounts, but if you were especially looking for it, try this without hesitation.

Of course the concept of this movie is interesting. Some jokes are good too. But to carry it on for an hour and half is a bit too much for me. The jokes are sometime tasteless and the acting is terrible. Ringo Starr should have stick to music.

I still give it a 3 out of 10 for effort.