[.ca] Lost World

From Amazon.com:
Not the Steven Spielberg blockbuster, this Lost World is a splendid 2001 BBC TV dramatization of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous adventure story. Bob Hoskins makes an unusually genial Professor Challenger, far less of a bully than Doyle's character, but his slightly stereotyped companions are nicely filled out by a solid cast. James Fox is Challenger's more timid but still covertly adventurous rival, Tom Ward is the mustachioed big-game hunter who faces an allosaur with an elephant gun, and Matthew Rhys plays the tagalong reporter hoping to impress his faithless fiancée. As usual, the adaptation adds a woman--orphaned jungle girl Elaine Cassidy--to the expedition, and an interesting villain (religious fanatic Peter Falk) beefs up the travelogue by marooning Challenger's gang on the South American plateau where dinosaurs, cavemen, and Indians coexist eventfully. The Walking with Dinosaurs-style effects work well for the TV frame, but the real success is in integrating the adventuring with subtle eco-awareness, complex character interplay, and the reliable wonder of soaring pteranodons and carnosaur attacks. --Kim Newman

Slick, Better-Than-Average Version of Doyle's Classic Tale:
The BBC/A & E production of "The Lost World" tunred out much better than I expected, giving us slick storytelling and solid characters with good acting. THE STORY is 'basically' the same. Well, at first I was worried looking at the cover -- six people apparently looking at the dinosaurs. Six? Yes, the film, based on Conan Doyle's 1912 novel, added TWO extra characters to the original expedition team (misunderstood genius Prof. Challenger, natural-born cynic Prof. Summerlee, newsreporter Edward Malone, adventure-loving hunter Lord Roxton), which are about to reveal the secret of the plateau in the Amazon, and to prove that dinosaurs are still living there. THE NEW CHARACTERS are one zealous priest and his niece, played by Peter Falk and Elaine Cassidy respectively. They join in Professor Challenger (Bob Hoskins) and his team in the jungle, only to complicate the situation -- deadly dinosaurs, the more dangerous apemen (or the Missing Link) and the "Indians" (so they say). The addition, in fact, works for the better, getting rid of the annoying elements in the original book, like the patronizing way Doyle treated the natives in the book. And other changes done to the story are justified, but some might find the different tone in the ending (or the modernized answer to Challenger's expedition) slightly anti-climax, compared with the slient version, or Spielberg's "Lost World." SPECIAL EFFECTS are first-rate, with the convincing images of dinosaurs walking in the jungle. The fierce fight between the humans and the allosaurs is the highlight of the film though some kids find it too horrible. (And parents should be warned that there is a suggested scene of cannibalism). The location is fantastic, showing some of the scenes (like the entrance to the plateau) almost exactly as the book tells us. In spite of its length (more than 2hrs 30 mins), "The Lost World" keeps on rolling as smooth as "The Jurassic Park," and it makes you think a little about the way we meddle with the nature. It aspires to be more than just a dinosaur movie, and it succeeds well.

What Do The Drums Say, B'wana?:
Quite watchable made-for-TV (A & E Network) adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's sci-fi adventure. I'll admit I've never read the original story so I don't have any book-to-screen nitpicks to bore you with. Taken as it is, this production is an old-fashioned, "grand" adventure tale that plunges right into the action as soon as the opening credits roll (no time for exposition...got to leave room for those "Biography" promos!) Bob Hoskins goes into "gruff yet lovable fireplug" mode as expedition leader Professor Challenger, off to investigate an evolutionary anamoly where dinosaurs, fierce cannibals and "apemen" exist together on an uncharted plateau in South America. Fellow scientist James Fox gives comic relief playing a skeptical "Scully" to Hoskins' "Mulder". Newcomer Tom Ward plays the dashing Errol Flynn/Clark Gable-type adventurer with much aplomb. Dark-eyed Irish beauty Elaine Cassidy, who starred with Hoskins in the little-known gem "Felicia's Journey" (check it out), gives good support as the locally-raised Englishwoman who serves as thier jungle-savvy guide. Good special effects, especially in an exciting and truly terrifying attack on a native village by a pack of ravenous "Maneater" dinosaurs. Good harmless fun, if you're in a purely "popcorn" mood.

The REAL Lost World:
This is the Ultimate 'Lost World' Dinosaur movie experience. Had this been released in the theaters it may have been just as big, if not bigger, than the Jurassic Park Lost World. It sets around the much more believable theory, unlike Jurassic Park where the Dinosaurs we're magically recreated by a few droplets of DNA from a Mosquito, something Scientists still admit is physically not possible, And set the Dinosaurs as always living, from the time of their origin, in a remote Plateau deep in the South American Rain Forests, land where No man has lived to see, especially since it takes place in the early 1900's when Planes and Helicopters we're not exaclty accessible. All in all, one of the Best movies I've personally ever watched, and the fact that it was never in theaters makes it even more incredible. Well worth the x amount of dolalrs it costs for the DVD, no matter what format it is in.

If it WAS Widescreen I might have been worth the price.:
The word Widescreen is used to promote this two DVD set.It's all over the packaging as an exclusive feature of this edition.Too bad they forgot to tell the people producing the DVD not to pan and scan the film. If I wanted a panned and scannned version I could have taped it off A & E when they broadcast it.This is an overpriced,falsely advertised, rip-off.

Hit and Miss:
I was pleased to see a version of this story that had the special effects to back up the concept. However, I think I almost would have rather had a "special edition" of the version with the perfectly-cast John Rhys-Davies than this creationist-basher. The writers used just enough of the standard Creationist arguments to make them sound like legit, but then showed the character (not in the book) as having no answer to the "problems" posed by the staunchly evolutionist scientist. What I'm wondering is why the filmmakers chose a perfectly good (if Darwin-inspired) story to make a pedestal for evolutionist propaganda. It makes it difficult to watch for me, because I am tired of movies and TV portraying preachers as ignorant and uneducated in the way of science, and to use half-hearted attempts at "legitimate" creationist positions in order to make them look even more foolish strikes me as particularly vindictive. Pros: Good look to the story; great effects. Good cast. Cons: One of many unfaithful adaptations of the book, NOT widescreen, and certainly the writers had a malicious agenda (as opposed to a simple erroneous worldview). Also, the ape-scat scene was pretty nasty.