That was an excellent one.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I saw this in the mid 80s on a VHS. Saw few years back on a pirated DVD. This film has a bare story line, no dialogue other than caveman grunts and groans, a lil slow but exciting and brutally violent, and sometimes laughable pre historic survival movie. The best part of the movie (including Miss Welch) are the creatures. Other than a few real life things blown up in size, they are brilliant. Harryhausen just knows how to make creatures. This is a cult classic, entertaining showcase for Harryhausen's skills, and has enough action. The movie has a giant iguana, ape men, Brontosaurus, a giant spider, Archelon, Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, a Triceratops, Pteranodon n Rhamphorhynchus. Audience get to see miss Welch in a two-piece deer skin bikini. Mankind's first bikini.

This movie essentially begins during the dawn of mankind with the leader of the Rock tribe, "Akhoba" (Robert Brown) slyly trapping a warthog and allowing his son "Tumac" (John Anderson) the honor of leaping into the pit to slay it. This decision angers Akhoba's other son "Sakana" (Percy Hebert) who is quite jealous of Tumac and sees him as a threat to his ambition of one day ruling the Rock tribe as the successor to his father. Additionally, the fact that the beautiful "Nupondi" (Martine Beswick) prefers Tumac over him also infuriates Sakana to no end. But things change quite suddenly when Akhoba and Tumac engage in mortal combat over a piece of meat which leaves Tumac forcibly evicted from the tribe and left for dead. Fortunately, Tumac manages to survive and upon wandering a great distance through the desert collapses near the vicinity where some young women from the Shell tribe happen to be fishing. Having never seen a male outside of her tribe "Loana" (Raquel Welch) takes it upon herself to nurse Tumac back to health. This sudden interest for this stranger by Loana causes some concern by one of the males named "Ahot" (Jean Wladon) who rather fancied having Loana for himself. Anyway, one thing leads to another and eventually Tumac and Ahot engage in a violent struggle which results in Tumac once again being evicted. But this time he has a companion in Loana who forsakes her tribe to be with him. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this particular picture is a British remake of an earlier Hollywood film by the name of "One Million B.C." which was produced in 1940. Personally, I prefer the remake to the original due to two specific reasons. First of all, unlike its predecessor, the 1966 version is filmed in color which enhances some of the special effects. But the main reason this movie is better is the presence of Raquel Welch who created quite a sensation in her fur bikini during this time. No doubt some who remember watching this movie at the local theater or drive-in will know what I'm talking about. In any case, while this movie is clearly not meant to be historical in nature and doesn't have anything resembling a coherent script, it is still a fond memory for me and I rate it as slightly above average.

"People did not live in the days of the dinosaurs. You must realise that the picture is being made for entertainment, not for professors…. I think one has to accept that licence with an 'entertainment picture', because it's not supposed to be a documentary," declared Ray Harryhausen. Before this film, dinosaurs in movies were created by shooting lizards in close-up, with extra body-bits glued onto them to create the desired effect. Here, Harryhausen uses his considerable talent as a stop-motion animator to create numerous monsters of the past, including an allosaurus, brontosaurus, ceratosaurus, triceratops and pterodactyl.One Million Years B.C follows the adventures of a caveman named Tumak (John Richardson). The son of a tribe leader, he is banished from his tribe following a fight with his father over a piece of meat. He wanders alone into the wilderness and encounters various strange creatures, before eventually stumbling across a more advanced tribe who have developed things like music, painting, jewellery-making and agriculture. He is welcomed by these new people and lives among them, quickly catching the eye of a cavegirl named Loana (Raquel Welch). Meanwhile back at Tumak's birth tribe, his father is overthrown as leader by the ruthless Sakana (Percy Herbert), Tumak's treacherous brother. Tumak is forced to leave his new tribe after attempting to steal a spear, and is joined on his wanderings by Loana (who has fallen in love with him). They have various adventures before eventually making it back to Tumak's native home. Upon discovering what has happened during his absence, Tumak challenges his brother for leadership of the tribe. The final battle is interrupted by a massive volcanic eruption which wipes out many of the people in its path.The film is the best of the series, helped along by a solid performance from Richardson as the adventurous caveman and Harryhausen's sterling work in the effects department. Welch is on hand to provide the 'eye- candy' while Martine Beswick provides extra sex appeal as an animalistic girl from Tumak's tribe. Also worthy of note is the score by Mario Nascimbene, a beautiful blend of siren-like wailing and clashing cymbals, reminiscent of the operatic music of the spaghetti westerns. It's probably the best score of the entire prehistoric series. On a more negative note, One Million Years B.C. is the ugliest of the films at a photographic level. Despite promising Canary Islands locations, there is something unattractive about the cinematography and the film's poor use of colour. The story structure also becomes a little wearisome towards the end; an endless cycle of walking around – dinosaur attack – walking around – dinosaur attack – walking around – dinosaur attack. Overall, though, this is a good film with enough going for it to make its weaknesses forgivable. Is it the best film Hammer made? No… but it is a lot of fun, and Harryhausen's contributions alone make it worthwhile. We all know it's bogus as history and repetitive as a story, but One Million Years B.C. works well as what it was intended - that is: wild, sexy, adventure-filled entertainment.

The best thing about this movie is Raquel Welch in a Stone Age bikini. The next best thing about this movie is Ray Harryhausen's special effects work, which is impressive while still containing the charm of stop-motion animation.Pressed to name a third thing, I'd probably say veteran Bond girl Martine Beswick in a Stone Age bikini.Those are the only things.This is a pretty silly caveman flick, which contrasts the lifestyles of the savage brown-haired cavepeople with the peaceful, harmonious blond-haired cavepeople. All the while the cavemen and cavewomen are subjected to unprovoked attacks by dinosaurs and other giant reptiles.Aside from some opening narration, the only dialogue is in caveman-speak, but the story is not difficult to follow. There's not a lot of depth here. Just hairy men, sexy women, and some dinosaurs.Harryhausen's work effectively blends stop-motion creatures with live-action footage to bring the impossible battles of man vs. dinosaur to life on-screen. The impressive parts are when the people interact with the creatures (throwing spears at them or hitting them with rocks). Blurring the lines of what was live action and what was animation was what Harryhausen did best.Raquel Welch is the homecoming queen of the blonde cavepeople, with Martine Beswick as the sexiest member of the vicious brunette tribe. Yes, there's a cat fight. Welch and her bronzed bod steal the show, cementing her legacy as a sex symbol in this iconic role. For a cavewoman, she sure had a good makeup team.