Tarzan e a Cidade Perdida

As a big Tarzan fan, of both the books and the movies, I gotta say watching this as a kid on VHS was disappointing. I only watched it again many years later because I just happened to stumble onto it while curiously skimming over Casper Van Dien's filmography and decided to make this review.

In 1913, John Clayton aka Tarzan (Casper Van Dien) is preparing to marry Jane Porter (Jane March) in England. But suddenly, he receives a vision sent by a shaman named Mugambe (Winston Ntshona), informing him that explorer and treasure hunter Nigel Ravens (Stephen Waddington) is plundering African villages in search of the lost city of Opar. Now, Tarzan must return to Africa to stop Ravens while Jane follows him to assist on his adventure.

First of all, the story is pretty humdrum and shows little faithfulness to the source literary material. For example, the origin of Tarzans name came from his tribe of apes, not the natives. Jane is American, not British. And Opar is portrayed almost completely differently as a gigantic pyramid instead of an actual city. And finally, with the uncharacteristic supernatural elements, it felt like director Carl Schenkel was going for an Indiana Jones styled adventure, but it all went wrong.

Everyone was miscast here. Casper Van Dien proved he was worth his salt in Starship Troopers and might have made an acceptable Tarzan with his build, but he was no Johnny Weissmuller or Christopher Lambert. His awful fake British accent didn't help. Jane March isn't even trying as she apathetically mutters her lines and is a run-of-the-mill damsel in distress who mostly just complicates things for Tarzan. Finally, Steven Waddington just isn't tough or intimidating enough as a villain to impress the intended child audience, let alone challenge the King of the Apes.

The special effects were very poor and spoke volumes of the films modest $20 million budget; its quality looked similar to the more enjoyable TV series "Tarzan: The Epic Adventures" from 1996-1997. We see badly made slow-motion effects and choppy camera work everywhere. Tarzan's ape friends were men wearing ridiculously fake looking suits and Mugumbe's CGI Cobra form is very cheesy, even for 1998. And, finally, due to the PG rating and a desire to make this a kid's film, the action scenes aren't that exciting or impressive. Almost everything in this film felt stale.

There were some redeeming qualities though. I loved the beautiful landscape of South Africa where filming took place, from the lush jungles to the savannah fields. The porters in Ravens expedition sang a pretty catchy song while crossing a field, and the soundtrack composed by Christopher Franke had some decent pieces here and there. The massive pyramid of Opar itself, which was made with practical effects, looked fairly impressive. Finally, there was some pretty nice footage of real animals to counter the fake gorillas, including a Chimp named Jebba.

In the end, this was a bold but failed attempt to create a modern Tarzan in the 90's that didn't do Casper Van Dien's career any favors, and there wouldn't even be another live action Tarzan flick until 2016. So don't watch this unless you're either bored or a massive fan.

Being something of a Tarzan fan, it really isn't that hard to entertain me with the man in the loin cloth (except for the awful, near pornographic, movie with Bo Darek). And in todays world of cgi crapfests, this was a welcome return to real world adventures. It takes place in a real place the jungles of Africa. Has a real cast, no JarJar Binks to be found. And most importantly has a plot that goes somewhere. I think Casper Van Dien did a great job as Tarzan, and Jane March was excellent as Jane. The only drawback at all was the use of magic at the climax, it sort of negated any need for Tarzan to even show up (except to give us a few pics of eye candy). This film's drawbacks are minor when compared to those of other adventure films. It's got a lot of beautiful, and genuine scenery, which only helps to inspire the imagination. It is extremely family friendly, you can watch this with little kids and not worry about giving them nightmares or rotting their brains. Well worth getting on DVD and having an exciting Thursday evening with your kids, or parents as your own age my determine.

Jeez, this is a hard bunch to satisfy. As my screen name indicates I am a stone cold Edgar Rice Burroughs freak and, for ERB fans, Tarzan flicks are less to be enjoyed than to be endured. Our suffering has been great and it has been long. When you have paid hard wampum to sit through "At The Earth's Core"....when you have an actual opinion as to whether Buster Crabbe was a better actor than Johnny Weissmuller....when you can explain the difference between Nyoka, Sheena and Rulah....then you can tell us what a lousy Tarzan movie this is.

For those Happy Few who fit the description above, you are going to like this film just fine and, in fact, you have probably already seen it. It's not the real McCoy, but you've doubtless given up on that by now.

I enjoyed this film. It was nice to jump PAST the point where Tarzan was discovered, to a point where he had left the jungle and returned to England for socialization. Casper is an intelligent, grunt-free version of Tarzan who returns to the jungle after getting a psychic call "home" from his shaman friend. The movie remained focused on the goal set at the beginning, to save the Lost City from a power hungry treasure hunter. I didn't feel lost or that any of the events were fluff. There is a nice display of magic which was presented well by the special effects team. All of the acting was well done and not overdramatized. I would very much like to see the story continued by this team of creators and actors.

Okay, I'll admit to being an old fart who grew up with Tarzan as a grunting Johnny Weisemuller. But I also read all the books some 40 years ago and should have a fair grasp of the character.

It started okay, with Tarzan being called back to Africa and doing a few cool things to harass the bad guys. Then the downhill slide began and ended in a bottomless pit.

Let's see... Tarzan was needed because a medicine man who can turn himself into a swarm of bees and create warriors out of thin air needed help. Uh, ever consider stinging the bad guys to death? It was nice to hear the old yell again, but not worth sitting through this.

Has anyone mentioned that the gorilla costumes were on a par with the one the Three Stooges used?