Don't listen to the negative reviews

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I've always enjoyed all three of the Doug McClure / AIP adventure films. I think that At the Earth's Core might be favorite of the bunch, but this one is also very enjoyable. Is it good? Probably not by most modern standards. But I first watched it in the late 70s and loved it. It still provides a lot of entertainment for me today. McClure plays Bowen Tyler. Unfortunately for Tyler and the rest of his fellow shipmates, it's WWI and a German U-Boat sinks their ship. Only Tyler and a handful of others survive. They float aimlessly on the ocean until, as luck would have it, the very same U-Boat surfaces and Tyler and Co are able to take control of the submarine. The Germans and non-Germans are in a constant struggle to control the ship. Running out of fuel, they all agree to head to an unchartered island – known as Caprona. Caprona is full of vegetation, desperately needed oil, primitive people, and vicious dinosaurs. Everyone agrees to work together if they're going to survive. But how long will this truce hold and how long before the many dinosaurs and bloodthirsty tribes get the upper-hand on our heroes? By today's standards, the special effects in The Land That Time Forgot are pretty primitive. My kids would no doubt laugh at them. But that's part of what makes it so enjoyable to me – there is a real artistry to the whole thing. These are practical effects that someone put their heart and soul into. Sure, they're puppets, but they do an amazing job of bringing them to life. The battle between the Allosaurus and the Triceratops (I think) is especially cool and bloody. I loved the effects 40 or so years ago and I still get a kick out of them today. I also appreciate the fact that the one primitive the group meets never learns to speak English. Too often in this kind of movie, a primitive caveman is taught, unrealistically, to speak some sort of broken English in a few scenes. The acting is good. McClure gives a solid performance. He's especially good in his fight scenes. The rest of the cast, including John McEnery, Susan Penhaligon, and Bobby Parr, give workman like performances. I suppose my biggest complaint is how long it takes to really get things going. It seems that just as soon as they finally get to the island and run into the dinosaurs, it's time to wrap things up.

Yay! THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (forget that sappy cartoon THE LAND BEFORE TIME with which it is often confused) is an ALL-TIME favourite of mine which I first saw on TV when I was a kid. After that, I always made a point of watching it whenever it was on, and now, some twenty years since I last watched it, I got hold of the DVD to find out whether it would live up to my memories of it – or whether my enjoyment of this film was simply a matter of nostalgia! I'm delighted to report that this excellent fantasy flick from Britain's Amicus studios is every bit as good as I remember it: a surprisingly strong movie that can be enjoyed by adults as well as kids.Of course, this film and those that came after it were the JURASSIC PARKs of their day: fun-filled spectacles of humans fighting dinosaurs in a prehistoric landscape. Comparing the two, I think this film has the EDGE over Spielberg's effort any day: there's no sentimentality here getting in the way of the danger and death. Had Spielberg directed, good old Ahm would have escaped that evil pterodactyl and there would have been a couple of annoyingly cute kids along for the ride, so yes, I think this movie has the edge.Watching it brings back all kinds of great memories and I realise now how much influence it's had on my life. The creepy fog-enshrouded setting is atmospheric in the extreme and has given me a life-long love of fog, I still get a shiver whenever I see it. The early fight scene on top of the submarine is a masterful set-piece of two-fisted action and I'm sure this scene alone is responsible for the huge enjoyment I get from seeing guys slugging it out on screen. Then, of course, there are the dinosaurs. The first sight of that Pleisosaur through the periscope is still chilling and I've loved these mammoth-sized beasts ever since. Yes, the prop and model effects are poor in the extreme – Harryhausen would have done a good job, but he would have taken too long and cost too much – but as a kid you don't notice stuff like that. As an adult, I actually enjoy the craftsmanship that's gone into these creatures, much more appealing than a computer-created leviathan.What I loved most about this film was Michael Moorcock's script, taken from the original Edgar Rice Burroughs story. There's no pandering to the kiddie audience here, but instead a surprisingly intelligent story with engaging, fleshed-out characters. The first half of the film has no dinosaurs at all, instead showing the power struggle between the Allies and the Germans and very good it is too: taut and suspenseful, like a claustrophobic sea-bound thriller should be. When the gang arrive at the titular 'land', intricacies are forgotten in favour of all-out dinosaur action and adventure, but it's a fine, worthy pay off. The truly downbeat conclusion is still chilling to this day and the intercutting of the volcano footage is done superbly – kudos to the editor for his fine abilities. Meanwhile, director Kevin Connor clearly has the right sensibilities and works hard to achieve his aims in this, his best film.Then there's the cast: hammy Doug McClure, excellent as the lantern-jawed hero who fights first and thinks later; this cemented his reputation as a B-movie hero and he's still one of the best. He went on to appear in many other fun flicks, although none are quite as good as this. Susan Penhaligon is the damsel in distress, and lovely with it, but Moorcock is careful to make sure we know she's an intelligent, capable scientist in her own right. John McEnergy is my favourite character in the film – he could have been a sneering German villain, but instead he's an articulate, sensitive scholar caught up the horrors of a world war. Anthony Ainley, later to play The Master in DR WHO, does well with the 'sneering German villain' duties and it's worth noting that every actor in the supporting cast was established in his own right. Steve James, an American action star who appeared in the likes of THE EXTERMINATOR, is unrecognisable under cave-man makeup.Anyway, this is a lovely little film with great attention to detail. If you've never seen it before, you'll probably find it cheap and twee, but compare it to the other kinds of movies released during the 1970s and you'll realise what a gem it is. Long live Doug!

"The Land That Time Forgot" is arguably the most underrated dinosaur action movie of the 1970s. Good B-movie fun for the kids (and adults) in the family that can't resist dinosaur fare.This Doug McClure vehicle about British sailors who capture a German U-Boat that sunk their ship, then get stranded on a prehistoric island (think King Kong's Skull Island), only to be picked off one-by-one by ravenous dinosaurs and cave men, has pretty high value special effects for a 1970s flick. It is an instant classic, like "Logan's Run," which also featured some of the top special effects the time could muster - until Star Wars changed the whole game. (Of course, I am excluding 1968's "2001" here, a Kubrick film so far ahead of its time that it stands in a special category of its own.)Caprona actually has a plot (unlike the Jurassic Park sequels, for instance), good actors in a fabulous ensemble cast, character development, and a great set-up (Germans and British who want to kill one another, instead have to band together to survive ravaging dinosaurs).The special effects of course are not up to modern CGI, but they are awesome in their palpable physicality: glider planes disguised as pterodactyls that pick up a real actor in their teeth by swooping down; ichthyosaurs that shoot out of the water next to the U-Boat to feed on human prey; prehistoric men that will bash your head in with an ax, but also make dearest friends and love the Edison phonograph music; tar pits bubbling and shooting natural gas flames. We must forgive a scene where two allosaurs (still standing upright and tails down as was the posing custom in 1970s paleontology) have strings attached. Puppetry still beats stop motion, but take the kids to "Dark Crystal" if you want to see it done really well.The band of men and women is eventually defeated by their own infighting. The simple moral is that Nature will get us if we don't work together and get over our differences. As the U- Boat goes down in flames, the viewer actually feels sorry for the doomed characters, and equally sorry for the lone couple that was left on shore to deal with the prehistoric mayhem.This film is good enough to deserve a remake, but also good enough that it doesn't really need one. One the other hand, many modern remakes were made from movies NOT good enough to need a remake, or even to have been made in the first place.

After their ship is sunk by a German U-Boat, a few survivors manage to take possession of the WWI submarine when it surfaces in the dense fog. Unfortunately, due to various reasons the boat heads south until the passengers and crew reach a volcanic island in the antarctic. Once ashore they encounter prehistoric creatures and people in which they must contend with in order to survive. But in order to do that both the English and the Germans will have to put their differences behind them and work together. Having said all of that, this film was essentially tailor-made for a family night out at the local drive-in. It contains plenty of action and special effects and there are no risqué scenes or rough language to worry about. However, in all honesty the action was rather standard and the special effects were somewhat uneven. Along with that the acting was also a bit mediocre. Still, it was entertaining enough for the time spent.