Les aventuriers du monde perdu

Basically the Walking with Dinosaurs effects team working with BBC Drama.

I may have been full of the Christmas spirit(s) but this seemed to be the best BBC drama I've seen for a while and as far as I know quite faithful to the book. Characters more engaging than the animals (unheard of movies like this) and here's hoping Hoskins as Prof Challenger returns soon.

At a London lecture, an eccentric professor (Bob Hoskins) encounters skepticism when he claims to have discovered a land of living prehistoric creatures. To prove his point, he heads an expedition to the Amazon region of South America. Here, the group of explorers finds ape-men, dinosaurs, prehistoric birds, and other exotic creatures.

The source novel by Arthur Conan Doyle led to the original 1925 silent film. Several remakes followed. This 2001 remake is worth watching, especially for the excellent visual and special effects, and for the cinematography. The CGI effects make the dinosaurs and birds look genuine. And the overall story is reasonably entertaining, though it does drag on for a tad too long.

The filmmakers are attentive to detail in both production design and costumes. The acting is acceptable. Dialogue is variable; uninspired at times; charming at other times. And I liked the pointed sarcasm directed at the snobbery of the academic mindset. The film's ending is unexpected and quite satisfying.

My main complaint is the film's tendency to expand into epic-dom. The plot goes on and on and on, and the cast eventually swells to what seems like thousands. I could have done without the ape-men, who seem slightly hokey, and who distract from the dinosaurs and birds.

Overall, "The Lost World" (2001) is well worth a look, especially for kids, but also for adults who enjoy exploration and high adventure.

A very well made TV adaptation of Conan Doyle's 1912 classic. The plot (of the movie as well as the book) has Professor Challenger (Bob Hoskins) leading an expedition to an isolated region of the Amazon, where it is believed prehistoric creatures have survived. Conan Doyle had based his book on the travels to the isolated Roraima region (the border zone between Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana where flat top mountains named tepuis predominate) by explorer Everard Im Thurn. This miniseries was shot in New Zealand (standing in for the Amazon), and the movie deviates from the book in only a minor questions: having a female character in the expedition (played by the fine Irish actress Elaine Cassidy), and, more controversially, a different ending. But the movie is very well made and very exciting.

Yep! The producers of this film just felt that the story of a group of British explorers wandering through the jungles of South America in search of a hidden plateau riddled with prehistoric monsters had not been tackled enough or not tackled with any degree of accuracy. Despite having been made into film and television fare since 1925 numerous times, the folks at A & E wanted to remake Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel. They wanted to try and create a definitive version of his classic tale. They did do a pretty good job. Sure, one can see the major differences between the book and the film. There are not many, but there are some major ones(the addition of a female character). Yet,despite these changes, the film remains very faithful in spirit to the novel. The characters are central to the story not the dinosaurs. The acting is quite good with Bob Hoskins doing a fine job as Professor Challenger. Edward Fox gives a first-rate performance as Professor Summerlee, bring wit, humour, and even some pathos to his role. Peter Falk is also fine in his role, a role which brings to light the everlasting fight between religion and science to the forefront of the film. The special effects are pretty good and the story is plotted with action, suspense, and wonderful dialogue. But what I liked more than anything about this film was the fact that the producers refused to pander to the less literate and articulate members of the audience. They did not sacrifice characterization for action and special effects all the time. They did not abandon having viewers use their minds and think about the inherent problems of science and religion when they collide. For this I thank them and hope that others take their lead and remember that not all viewers are between the ages of 10 and 25. A fine adaptation and a ripping good yarn!

This is a superb TVM based on the story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A fine cast support the absorbing story line. The special effects are as magnificent as in ‘Walking With Beasts' - but are not overplayed - they are simply a part of the story. Brilliant, and well worth watching.