Le Continent oublié

Not bad at all, despite the flat performances by some members of an attractive cast and the familiarity of it all. "This island never sleeps," says the full-figured DANA GILLESPIE to PATRICK WAYNE...especially when it's crawling with prehistoric creatures. She's clad in an outfit that looks as though Frederick of Hollywood had a hand in the costuming.

Photographed in Spain, the color photography is excellent, the creatures look fairly realistic, and the opening sequence with the plane being attacked by a huge bird is bound to hook you into the story. It's rather like a poor man's "Jurassic Park", but it has its moments.

John Wayne's son, PATRICK WAYNE, is certainly a handsome male lead but has all the animation of one of the dinosaurs, never making us believe he's the leader of the dangerous expedition. Others in the largely unknown cast are pretty good and John Scott's music is effective in creating the necessary suspense.

It's a diverting enough adventure, very watchable and suitable for family viewing.

Summing up: Not bad at all, the sort of film that kiddie matinees were all about.

Best line after a native attack: "I'm sick and tired of running away from those dreadful people!"

American International made four low budget films starring Doug McClure based on books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan books. THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT and it's sequel THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT borrowed heavily from Arthur Conan Doyle's THE LOST WORLD but added it's own twists and turns. THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT is a non-stop adventure in the Indiana Jones mode with Major Ben McBride (Patrick Wayne, son of the Duke) out to rescue shipwrecked Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure from the first film). Among those along for the adventure is Lady Charlotte Cunningham played by a beautiful Sarah Douglas (SUPERMAN II). Despite Amelia Earhart attire she is definately hot. She reminded me of Francesca Hunt in THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF JULES VERNE on the Sci-Fi Network. Along the way they meet Ajor (Dana Gillespie) friend of Bowen Tyler, who looks and dresses like Xena, Warrior Princess (so this is where Xena got that look). Dana Gillespie is stunning and like Xena and Sheena makes a great Jungle Girl (strong, smart, gorgeous, sexy...hey what else could one ask for?) Lady Charlotte and Major Ben create a romantic tension but when Ajor enters the scene Major Ben has eyes for Ajor and Lady Charlotte just goes with the flow chumming up with Ajor as well. I found that refreshing and glad to see the women in this film be more than just damsels in distress (there is a little of that toward the end but it all evens out with everyone being able to do something heroic). Jungle Girl films have been around for a long time (check out the serials!) and I truly love them because they show women to have strength, beauty, and brains. This film is a worthy member of that genre. Like the rest of the series the special effects are uneven but always entertaining (the vehicles and sets are always stunning but these guys never did know how to make a monster). The violence is very very low key, the frights are made funny by rubber puppets, and there is no swearing. Appropriate for the entire family for those into Xena and The Lost World.

I saw this film on a drive in double bill with THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT - and had read the books when I was 11 years old (Ace Paperbacks). LAND has hand puppet dinosaurs that don't move and look silly, PEOPLE has men in rubber suits as dinosaurs that look silly. Both films change the Burroughs stories (probably for budget reasons), but PEOPLE does something interesting - it combines the 2nd and 3rd book in Burroughs' series, using Act 1 of PEOPLE and Act 2&3 of OUT OF TIME'S ABYSS. The Weiros from ABYSS have been changed into Nagaas - a volcano cult dressed in Japanese Armor. (The Weiros were humanoids evolved from Pterodactyls - hard to do on a $1.98 budget.) This way they could take the old prisoner from ABYSS and turn him into Doug McClure's character.

PEOPLE is much better than LAND for a couple of reasons. LAND not only had crappy FX, it looked like it was shot on an indoor stage! So even when there isn't some bad process shot of a hand puppet T-Rex growling, the movie looks fake. PEOPLE was shot on location in Spain, and has some nice big panoramic shots - one amazing shot of the team crossing the crest of a mountain looks like something out of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. The other reason why PEOPLE is better - cavegirls! If you read the books (with Frazetta covers) there were always half-naked cavegirls. As an 11 year-old boy, reading these was like discovering your Uncle's Playboy collection. Half naked girls! LAND has no cavegirls at all, PEOPLE has the Ajor character from the novel in a laced leather outfit that fits the drive in AIP scenario to a T.

I love the books, and would love to do a modern adaptation (with today's FX).

• Bill

With a plot like this one, it's hard to go wrong. A post WWI expedition sails to the Antarctic to try tofind a lost man in a prehistoric land tucked between the high icy mountains. Prehistoric dinosaurs keep popping up throughout the film. Then there's always the evil tribe of bad guys causing plenty of trouble. I can't forget to mention the scantily clad cave girl. I doubt if prehistoric women ever looked like this. Throw in a volcano and you have an adventure movie called 'The People That Time Forgot'. The characters and situations are not entirely believable or realistic and the dinosaurs could have used more work on them, but all in all, it was a pretty good, fun movie that's worth watching.

The Land That Time Forgot was a surprisingly decent entry into the lost world of cavemen / dinosaurs adventure genre of the 70s, but this paint- by-numbers follow-up is nothing special. Block of wood celebrity offspring Patrick Wayne leads a band of rescuers in search of first movie survivor Doug McClure. The resulting chases, fights, narrow escapes etc. are the usual stuff of adventure movies, but the stunt choreography comes off as ordinary and uninspired. Oh-so-British Sarah Douglas is along as one of Wayne's crew but she has little to do here other than stand around looking uncomfortable. And the Lost Land itself, an important and colorful presence in the first film, is less imaginatively conceived this time around. Not a bad time waster when you have nothing better to do for a couple of hours, but try not to expect too much in the way of visionary fantasy. It isn't here.