PodBill Just what I expected

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

MartinHafer The incredibly cranky Professor Challenger (Claude Rains) thinks that there is an oasis of primordial creatures living in the Amazonian basin. But a lot of folks think he's nuts...so he works on an expedition to prove he is right. Ultimately, the do come upon such an oasis...a land filled with both dinosaurs AND unfriendly natives. Can they make it out alive AND with proof that the professor isn't a complete crackpot?The film uses alligators and lizards all painted up and given prosthetics to make them look 'dinosaury'. It's not at all convincing and was VERY troubling when the crew had two of these critters tear each other apart for the amusement of the audiences! Believe it or not, the silent version of this movie had better dinosaurs!!Jill St. John was one of the most beautiful actresses of her time...there's no doubt about that. But, sadly, she is totally wasted in this film due to some very bad writing when it comes to her part. Jenny is supposed to be a very strong-minded who forces her way into a dangerous expedition. She is a very emancipated woman...yet, when danger rears its ugly head, Jenny spends most of her time crying and screaming! Not a great feminist sort of character, that's for sure! Fortunately, Costa (Jay Novello) is even more pusillanimous than she is...and both characters are really annoying. If these two characters sound annoying and poorly written, pretty much the same can be said for most of the others. Their actions and motivations OFTEN make no sense...as if the script was the least important part of this movie!Overall, you have a silly adventure film...not completely terrible but one that should have been better.

Scott LeBrun From the "Master of Disaster", producer & director Irwin Allen, comes this fantasy-adventure that may be too goofy and corny for some tastes. But it's played with a healthy, hard to resist amount of humor, and it's just old-fashioned enough - albeit in color and widescreen - to keep it reasonably fun.Claude Rains plays Professor George Edward Challenger, a scientist who discovered something extraordinary on a past expedition. It's a plateau, deep in the Amazon jungle, where dinosaurs still roam. A news magnate finances a second expedition to the area, so that Challenger can obtain proof of what he saw. In his company will be a hunter / adventurer (Michael Rennie), the magnates' headstrong daughter (Jill St. John), who actually invites herself along, her brother (Ray Stricklyn), a journalist (David Hedison), a pilot (Fernando Lamas), a cowardly guide (Jay Novello), and Challengers' rival Professor Summerlee (Richard Haydn).This second screen adaptation of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story doesn't have much of a sense of awe & wonder, but it's staged and executed with some flair, and has its share of amusements. One thing it sadly lacks is effects work by the legendary Willis O'Brien, who worked on the first film. Here, he's credited as "effects technician", but his primary task was coming up with dinosaur designs. The so-called "dinosaurs" are actually played by ordinary Earth reptiles made to look huge through photographic trickery.Our heroes are a likable enough bunch. Rains chews on the scenery in a flamboyant portrayal. One of his first orders of business is whopping Hedison on the head with his umbrella. St. John is cute, as is Vitina Marcus as a native gal. Rennie is a macho leading man.It gets better as it goes along, delivering a fair amount of obstacles for the group to surmount on their way to freedom. The finale is particularly exciting as they race through mountainous tunnels and avoid lava flows. The music by Paul Sawtell & Bert Shefter is rousing, the cinematography by Winton C. Hoch fairly colorful.Seven out of 10.

utgard14 Subpar dinosaur adventure flick based off of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel, made once before in 1925 and a few times since 1960. It's a misfire of a movie, overflowing with a cast too large playing characters too unlikeable. The only character I really rooted for was Professor Challenger, played by Claude Rains. That was more my affinity for the actor than the part anyway. Special effects are actually worse than the effects made 35 years before! I'll take Willis O'Brien's stop-motion effects over cheap photographic tricks and reptiles with glued-on horns and fins any day. See the 1925 silent film instead. It's a lot more fun.

Neil Welch I was 8 in 1960. And here was a big, colourful, widescreen film with adventure, excitement, dinosaurs, giant spiders, natives, cliff edge escapes, volcanoes - wow! Now, pushing 60, I am not so demanding as to insist that movies from 50 years ago should have effects executed to the same standard as the best of today's - far from it. In fact, I still have huge affection for the best effects movies of my childhood (by which, of course, I mean those by Ray Harryhausen).But hindsight illuminates the offerings of Irwin Allen as very much missing something on the effects side. I'm not entirely sure what or why, but they never quite go as far as they need to for the suspension of disbelief. Perhaps it's errors of scale, perhaps it's messy matte lines, and for sure it is lizards with fins glued on them. But there is something about Allen's films which always disappoints.And the funny thing is that I was aware of it when I was 8, too.