Tags:
Film: The Lost World
Year: 1992
Director: Timothy Bond
Writer: Harry Alan Towers
Starring: John Rhys-Davies, David Warner and Eric McCormack
Review:
This film begins with a young reporter for a British newspaper wanting to make a name for himself, he is played by Eric McCormack. The film takes place in 1912. McCormack wants to be sent to where ever there is a war and he is informed that one is not going on at the moment. He is given the task of interviewing a well know scientist. McCormack is excited, but deflated immediately when he hears them making a bet that he doesn’t get the interview.
This scientist does not like reporters, so McCormack gets the idea to pretend to be a scientist from Italy. As he goes to meet with him, his maid warns McCormack what could happen if he is lying. The scientist is played by John Rhys-Davies. He immediately sees through his act and attacks him. The police show up during the scuffle, but McCormack does not press charges. This actually impresses Rhys-Davies, so much that he gives him an interview.
Rhys-Davies is an explorer as well as an expert on animals. He claims that while he was exploring Africa, he came across an American who claimed to have found a plateau that had prehistoric dinosaurs. Rhys-Davies was consumed by finding it. On the way, he is attacked by his interpreter, played by Nicky Rebelo. Rhys-Davies kills him and he is left alone with his guide played by Innocent Choda. He finds the plateau, but during the attack by Rebelo he was injured. Rhys-Davies shows a sketch book to McCormack. No one in the scientific community believes him though. McCormack gives him a vote of confidence and this excites Rhys-Davies even more. He invites McCormack to a talk that night.
This forum is made up of Rhys-Davies peers. He challenges his biggest opponent, played by David Warner. Rhys-Davies wants him to lead an expedition to this lost world. Warner declines until McCormack joins in. He then reluctantly agrees. When more volunteers are called for, a boy played by Darren Peter Mercer, and a woman, played by Tamara Gorski, offer to go. Both are ignored. As it turns out, Gorski is actually an American photographer who has explored a lot of the world. She still is ignored despite this.
Warner agrees to allow McCormack to come, but he will not let Rhys-Davies. Rhys-Davies will not give him a map to get there, but does give him a letter that is meant to be opened on a certain day at a certain time. Gorski ends up getting her way to come, as her father is wealthy and pays for the expedition.
On the ship to Africa, Gorski finds that Mercer is a stow-away in a box. He has also forced his way onto this expedition.
Once they get to Africa, we meet more members of this group. There is an interpreter who is played by Géza Kovács, but there is something that is shady about him from the beginning. They also take a woman interpreter played by Nathania Stanford. McCormack as well as Warner takes a liking to her, while Gorski is jealous.
As they prepare to begin their journey, we learn that the letter given to Warner is blank and Rhys-Davies shows up. He will be coming along on this expedition as well. They head up river.
They end up finding the plateau. Rhys-Davies sees a pterodactyl, but Warner misses it. To get up the rock face, Rhys-Davies has a mortar that fires a grappling hook. Warner, Mercer, Rhys-Davies, McCormack, Stanford and Gorski all go up. Kovács is asked to protect the rope, but we learn that Rebelo was his brother and he wants to get revenge on Rhys-Davies. They are now trapped at the top.
They begin to investigate and find dinosaurs. They also run into a couple of tribes of natives on this plateau as well. Will they be able to get the evidence they need to prove to the people of England what they found? Can they make it down to prove it? Will they survive?
I have to say that this one is pretty good at following the main story that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote from what I know. I think that this one did better with making the dinosaurs look like they are supposed to. I thought that Rhys-Davies and Warner were pretty good as far as acting. I thought that Gorski was quite cute as well. The overall story and idea of this is good. I also like that this one is based in Africa, not South American. Not that this makes a much of a difference, but it is something different. Also this one is based on happening in 1912 and much closer to when the actual story was written, so they at least are using things that were available to them. Nothing stood out as being out of place.
I did have quite a few issues with this one though. McCormack was absolutely annoying in this. He tries to be a comedian and his jokes were horrible. Everyone fell in love with Stanford the moment they saw her, but I really didn’t see it. I felt that Gorski was much better looking. I thought most of that acting was pretty corny. The action is weak and how the story plans out is very family friendly. This film has too much Hollywood and based for teenagers for me.
This film is being added to the horror film research due to the fact that there are dinosaurs and a native tribe that is feeding humans to them. I put this as being similar to a Godzilla or Cloverfield type film, which are both horror films.
Now with that said, I would probably avoid this one. There are better versions of this film out there. Some are as faithful to the story as this one, but they do better at building suspense. This one was just a little too family friendly for my liking. There is some good acting, but for the most part it was too corny. The story itself is good as well as the concept; it was just not done well enough on the screen. There are much better dinosaur films as well as versions of this story that would be much more worth your time. I would say though that this is a very average film.
My Rating: 5 out of 10