The Lost World (1998)

The choleric, maniacal and bearded Challenger (as Doyle described him in the book) is, by a strange choice of casting, portrayed by a polite, serious Patrick Bergin after a shave here. However, this movie still is way better than the almost simultaneously produced kiddie version for Berlusconi's TV with John Rhys-Davies. It is the darkest among the many adaptations, more reminding me "King Kong" or an Indiana Jones adventure than "Lost World", but it is moving fast and surely entertaining. My main complaint: I didn't like the mad mercenary David Nerman made out of John Roxton. The creatures were not too exactly following today's palaeontological knowledge, but hey, they're movie monsters! Special FX aren't top of the crop, but obviously they didn't have the big budget for more. Michael Sinelnikoff as Summerlee returned a year later for the TV series with the same title (otherwise, this movie is not related to that production). Not a good movie, all in all, but not too bad either.

No, it is not Apocalypse Now or Jurassic Park, or something like that. But it is worth watching. I like to see cheap movies. Cheap movies take less money (obviously), and less money means that the movie can be more subversive, not that this movie is particularly subversive. I am just saying that if we want to build a better, a more rational society, then we need to start looking for entertainment that was created by the people at the bottom, because we are the people at the bottom (at least most of us are, by definition), and people at the bottom have interests that are mainly opposed to people at the top. Thus, movies made with lots of money propagate ideas that are friendly to people at the top (in general!). Movies made with little money can be a bit more expansive in what ideas they propagate (in general).So therefore I am always open minded to movies made with little money. And this movie is one of those movies :-)And it is not that bad. It is the same old story, told a little differently. It is nothing special. But it is entertaining. Give it a chance. The blonde woman playing Amanda is a tad on the hot side, BTW.....and not a half bad actress, either.

I wouldn't normally watch a film like this, but it was on during the 5th day of the PGA golf tournament, and I had to watch something during the lulls between action. The acting is amateurish, maybe high-school drama level. The special effects are "cheesy". The T-Rex didn't look very real. The story is trite. Other than that, it was a pretty entertaining flick.

The movie had the potential to be good. But, after about 20 minutes the viewer should give up. Granted I was not expecting great special effects, but good special effects would have been nice. The effects were BAD, they can't even be classified as special. The make-up, oh-so bad. The storyline BAD, BAD. The blond haired Diva, yea ok she looks this good after living alone for 11 years? The primitive tribes, I think they came from "Gilligan's Island". The costumes - where did the two Divas get those lace up shoes? This movie could have been good, if they never would have made it.*1/2 out of *****.