The Lost World

This version of The Lost World is not as good as the 1925 or 1960 versions, but it is still quite enjoyable.

What few dinosaurs appear look rather rubbery. Give me stop-motion any day. The theme music to this movie is excellent, as is the acting with great performances from David Warner (Titanic, The Omen) and John Rhys-Davies (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).

I rather enjoyed this movie, despite the cheap looking dinosaurs.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

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.

There isn't anything to add regarding most of the production values or plot summaries that hasn't been addressed earlier.What impressed me was our hero,the bold Professor George Edward Challenger- an outstanding portrayal by an outstanding character actor.The original character,as conceived by Doyle,is truly larger than life.Bold,brave,arrogant,brilliant,insightful,virile,unscrupulous when attaining his goals,humorous,and reckless,and resourceful.John Rhys-Davies epitomizes this character without a flaw.(Brian Blessed is the only other actor I can imagine pulling it off,but the portrayal would have had a gleefully sadistic element not in keeping.And Warner is a worthy foil-arch,pompous,equally arrogant and ereudite,yet possessing the same high level of scholarly integrity and brilliance.Watch this,not as great art(I don't think they ever intended it as such,but as a lot of fun.

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.

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.