Sunday, September 15, 2013

Beast Beneath (2011)

aka The Ghost of Griffith Park

Are you looking for a movie which ends with the homeless population dressed as pirates on a luxury pirate ship, dancing with scantily clad young women who are happy to be with them?  Yeah, me neither, but somehow I ended up watching this thing.

Angelina finds a map in an old family music box and decides to see if her professor can translate it since it's written in a dialect that is no longer known.  She and boyfriend Derek take it to their professor since they don't think anyone else would be able to translate it.  He asks for a copy of the map, which they begrudgingly provide.  Not the brightest idea since it's supposed to be a treasure map and the professor seems kind of shifty.

Later they find out one of their best friends also knows this little known dialect. Wow, what are the odds?  Good thing he does since the professor says there's no way to translate it, which is weird since their friend has already done it. Hmmmm.

When Angelina and Derek go to Griffith Park with the map they meet homeless Pirate George who tells them that a ghost speaks to him and he can help them find the treasure. Surprisingly, this doesn't cause them to back away slowly and they agree to go off with him. Luckily for them, they end up in the Batcave, and not dead in a shallow ditch.

Shortly after they enter the cave, a park ranger shows up and kicks them out since they aren't supposed to be in the park after dark. But the ranger knows George since he lives in the park and just sends them on their merry way.  Now the challenge for Angelina is to find the treasure before it's stolen by the evil professor. Oh and they all need to watch out for the beast that roams the caverns.

All this is wrapped together as a story a father is telling his son while on a camping trip in Griffith Park. As they sit around the campfire, the father provides the back story of the original land owner who is swindled out of his fortune on his death bed by his friend.  The friend, lawyer, and judge who are working together to get the money are cursed by the land owners blind daughter. Legend says the treasure is waiting for an ancestor to find it. Thus we now have some context for our little Angelina and her music box. Blah.

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