Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Hitchcoc It's really bad. To take common lizards and stick things on their backs to make them look dinosaur-like. This is just a silly jaunt into parts unknown to a Jurassic Park type place on the lowest of budgets. Irwin Allen who produced a bunch of disaster movies spent about twenty-five cents on this clunker. There are rubbery spiders and goofy natives and cliffhangers. It reminded me of the kind of thing we would have seen in the 1940's with an audience of ten year olds whose standards weren't too high. Unfortunately, this was supposed to be a somewhat serious movie. I recently watched the old silent one which is much better than this--even with the claymation sauropods.

john_vance-20806 In the early-mid 1960s, this movie (along with Titanic and The Day the Earth Stood Still) would appear about once a year on the syndicated "Saturday Night at the Movies". As a kid I anxiously awaited the return of this one in particular.This was definitely great fun and entertainment. Nobody would get (or deserve) any Oscars for this work, but they all deserve a round of applause and lasting appreciation.The concept of finding a completely isolated region of the world filled with fascinating and sometimes frightening plants and animals is nearly as intriguing in our GPS-mapped existence as it was when Sir Arthur penned out the story. The fact that it was unrealistic even when this movie was made was overcome by the exuberant actors and extraordinary sets of The Lost World.Though the characters are pretty well central-casting creations, they are portrayed with enough professionalism as to make them compelling. Even the virtually voiceless native girl played by the absolutely drop-dead gorgeous Vitina Marcus plays a big part in keeping the story together.Great cinema? No. Great fun for a couple of hours? Definitely.

Spikeopath The Lost World is directed and produced by Irwin Allen, who also co-adapts the screenplay with Charles Bennett from the novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle. It stars Michael Rennie, Jill St. John, Claude Rains, David Hedison, Fernando Lamas and Richard Haydn. A CinemaScope production in De Luxe Color, music is by Paul Sawtell & Bert Shefter and cinematography by Winton C. Hoch.A loose adaptation of Doyle's novel, this version was the first talkie to surface after the silent original back in 1925. The story pitches a diverse group of travellers/explorers onto an Amazonian plateau where it is hoped that proof of living dinosaurs can be made. Monster malarkey does follow.Given that it has a diverse reputation and average ratings on internet movie sites, you would be fooled into thinking this was a flop. Far from it! It made very good coin at the box office and it continues to be a well received fantasy favourite shown on TV schedules during holiday periods. In fact, there is a cult fan base out there whom steadfastly will defend the pic from violent attack!Irwin Allen used his average budget in areas other than for the creature effects, this is obvious, while it's true to say that most of the acting is from the school of ham and cheese sandwich. Yet the slurpasaur effects are engaging and effective. Oh for sure none of the creatures look like dinosaurs, which begs the question on why didn't they just write it as a new raft of undiscovered dinosaurs? But suspense and peril is eked out and the world created by the art design team is impressively interesting.The usual character stereotypes exist, including a surplus to requirements female character (St. John), who is attired in pink trousers and brings her pet poodle pooch along for the trip! The formula would get tired over the on coming decades (see Disney's Island at the Top of the World which would crib from this pic), yet there's still a lot of fun to be had with big creatures, big spiders, diamonds and a secret race of people with a specialist appetite - while you can't beat a good old chase finale topped off by peril and twisty strife.Sometimes cheap and cheerful, sometimes full of fun and frolics, all things considered, there's a good time to be had for the discerning creature feature/fantasy adventure film fan. 6.5/10

Neil Welch I was 8 in 1960. And here was a big, colourful, widescreen film with adventure, excitement, dinosaurs, giant spiders, natives, cliff edge escapes, volcanoes - wow! Now, pushing 60, I am not so demanding as to insist that movies from 50 years ago should have effects executed to the same standard as the best of today's - far from it. In fact, I still have huge affection for the best effects movies of my childhood (by which, of course, I mean those by Ray Harryhausen).But hindsight illuminates the offerings of Irwin Allen as very much missing something on the effects side. I'm not entirely sure what or why, but they never quite go as far as they need to for the suspension of disbelief. Perhaps it's errors of scale, perhaps it's messy matte lines, and for sure it is lizards with fins glued on them. But there is something about Allen's films which always disappoints.And the funny thing is that I was aware of it when I was 8, too.