The Lost World

This 1992 film was well down the line of movies that have been and will be made based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's science-fiction adventure novel, "The Lost World." It's also not the best nor the worst of the various renditions of movies.

John Rhys-Davies plays Professor Challenger and Eric McCormack plays Edward Malone. In this version, the person of Lord John Roxton is absent and a new character is added. Tamara Gorski plays Jenny Nielson, a wildlife photographer. She became part of the expedition since her wealthy father put up the money for the venture. David Warner plays Professor Summerlee, an antagonist of Challenger, who is selected by the Royal Science Academy to head the expedition.

The setting for this version of Doyle's novel is central Africa, instead of South America as in the novel. There are no noted performances, and anyone familiar with The Lost World story will know the general plot of the film. It has several diversions from the novel, but nothing that makes the story any better. If anything, those may have weakened the story by cluttering it up with too much detail and taking away from the dinosaur-age animals and encounters.

This is a relatively tame sci-fi flick, in spite of the script's attempt at mystery to play on a fright factor. Those who like sci-fi should enjoy this film, although aficionados of the genre will find this one lame compared to such great films as Jurassic Park and King Kong.

Well acted and truer to the book than most versions, this film keeps you interested as long as you are not concerned about the dinos. John Rys Davies and Warner are very good as usual. The rest of the cast are virtual unknowns even today, so you are not seeing seminal performances by current well known actors.

As far as the dinos, think Dr. Who back in the Jon Pertwee era. Some scenes aren't bad but generally we're talking rubber dinos that look like rubber dinos. As in Who, the story outweighs the special effects. (Current Who TV has great special effects of course.) still, as I said, some scenes are better than others.

Notwithstanding them, the film is worth a look.

Finally Conan Doyle's masterpiece is re-made (and without the help of made-up lizards). This film starts off very promisingly indeed, is faithful to the text in the original novel. But before long things start to go downhill. Roxton is nowhere to be seen and the number of people who end up stranded in the lost world is far too large. The film seems more interested in political correctness than drama. Challenger, though well acted, is nothing like the fiery character he was envisaged as by Conan Doyle. In fact everything seems to be very cosy and twee. The dinosaurs are the biggest disappointment of all. Apart from one okay scene by a lake, the giant reptiles are rubbery and lifeless, the T-Rex seemingly rooted to the spot and only visible from the chest upwards. The creatures are also few and far between and there's no sense of awe and wonder about them.

If you want to see a decent adaptation of Conan Doyle's work then watch the silent 1925 version. Even in these days of CGI and other such effects the first adaptation remains the best.

There is something rather endearing about this cheapie production, there is no sex or nudity and any violence or gore is muted, it's obviously made for the family audience.Although low budget it's rather a pleasant looking production.

The acting by the leads is good but some of the natives look as though they would be more at home on urban streets or in a disco than in a jungle, however Nathania Stanford as Malu has a cheeky grin and looks pretty good in a sarong.

The monsters are hokey with no attempt to hide the fact that they are puppets (Jurassic Park this ain't), usually they are more cute than frightening.

All in all not badly done within it's limits.

John Rhys-Davies and David Warner play our dueling professors Challenger and Summerlee in this remake of The Lost World. Unlike the 1962 version that starred Claude Rains and Richard Haydn this one is set in Arthur Conan Doyle's own time of Edwardian England and not updated.

Professor Challenger says he's been to a prehistoric Lost World in East Africa and his rival Summerlee disputes him. So Summerlee goes along on this second expedition and they are accompanied by photographer Tamara Gaski and young Darren Peter Mercer just about hitting puberty. Why he was along God only knows though he proves useful getting in and out of tight places.

The dinosaurs are indeed there including some suspicious natives who worship the beasts when the carnivores aren't eating them. Native girl Nathania Stanford also proves useful in a part Dorothy Lamour would have done decades ago.

Sadly this Lost World and its sequel came along around the time of Jurassic Park and the special effects are really cheap and not so special.

Still the dialog with Rhys-Davies and Warner makes this one somewhat enjoyable.