The Land That Time Forgot

Most Sci-Fi fans are prepared to tolerate a movies more notable deficiencies provided that the film has an interesting plot with state-of-the-art CGI. That the quality of the special effects were little better than 1975 movie means that this film has nothing to commend it whatsoever. The 1 point is for the women. They looked good even if they weren't called upon to act. What is the point in Hollywood making films like this with a budget so small that the movie appeared to have been made in one afternoon. Indeed frequent shots of the submarine showed the same seagulls unmoved! If Burroughs weren't already dead I think seeing this film might have killed him anyway. Not even Tarzan in super-CGI could have saved this turkey.

I just watched it, absolutely awful.

This movie had terrible acting, dumb situations, and just... well....

Hardly any action, 1 boring dinosaur used twice, lol, well, other than 2 dead ones and a quickie underwater one, and 1 flying pterodactyl.

C. Thomas Howell and Bottoms acting were just bad.

They should be ashamed of themselves for not putting in more dinosaurs and cool stuff. I saw more action in the 1970's TV show land of the lost.

Watch the old 1960's version, way better.

Watch this version only if free and every other channel has infomercials on.

I flicked to the SyFy channel near the start of the movie and instantly judged this to be a cliched, awful CGI, straight-to-video B-movie, and while it is these things, it is also surprisingly watcheable.

After marooning on a desert island, the cast find they are not the first to be marooned there, in addition there are also dinosaurs, well it is the bermuda triangle.

The CGI is very outdated and you have to force yourself to believe it for it to work. The female and male roles are very cliched with women being supportive and men being action-oriented, they are generally ridiculously brazen and immune to post-dino PTSD. Having said that couples are given more than a few moments of embracing and it definitely seems that no-one is an island on this island. These heroes are human.

I was surprised to find themes of brain over brawn, with solutions to predicaments typically having a plan created, and with the final plan being thought up out of geeky scientific knowledge. I was also surprised at the level of working together and the lack of animosity, especially when the nazis are encountered, as it turns out to be more like that Christmas football game in no-man's land than trench-warfare. There is some skullduggery, but overall the theme is of helping each other, and teamwork!

The movie ending is fairly warm-hearted and positive.

I really wanted to like this movie as I have always liked C. Thomas Howell but unfortunately I can't say that I liked it. I can say that I watched it, but that's about it.

I was able to sit through it and that may be the best that Howell can hope for. The dialog was a bit unimportant and even somewhat silly at times. The whole thing seemed like a compromise - which I am sure to some degree (as with anything under budget constraints) it was.

There was no effort exhausted in building characters that you could care about or for that matter knew anything about. When someone got killed you just did not care - at all.

The more fascinating and cerebral aspects of this story were completely glossed over or avoided altogether; although I did find it interesting that there was a brief discussion on the details of refining petroleum. which I had expected would be ignored (okay in movies I guess).

Overall, it barely held my attention and came off as another lame Sci-Fi channel, low budget, bad CG feature.

Don't get me wrong, there were some things to like, but I think in this case, Howell probably had his hands tied as far as time/money are concerned and more money/time could have been invested in script, effects and filming.

I don't understand all the terrible reviews. It wasn't the greatest movie that I have ever seen, but it was entertaining enough.