Julian R. White What a movie. I love the dinosaur models that were used, they give you that old sense of dinosaurs being completely mindless brutes and eating machines, even when they're a herbivorous species. It's hilarious. The plot and ending will make you so mad, but also hopeful for the future of those who survived the ordeal. I've read the book too, and Edgar Rice Burroughs has really outdone himself. Definitely a must see for those who love classic science fiction.

sddavis63 A lot of people seem to criticize this movie for what they call its "poor" special effects. I think if that becomes the basis on which you're going to judge the movie, you have to keep in mind that it was made 40 years ago, long before the computer generated stuff that dominates today's movies came about. Personally, I found the special effects to be fine - especially considering when it was made, and in any event I don't think the quality of a movie depends on the special effects. Much more important, to me, are the storyline and the performances. "The Land That Time Forgot" certainly gets a passing grade on those.The story begins with a German U-boat sinking a British civilian liner. A few of the passengers make it on to the u-boat and manage to take control of it for a while. To me, far more than the special effects, the idea that a rag-tag group of survivors from a sunken vessel could take control of a German u-boat was probably the most problematic part of the story. Having said that, though, there's an ongoing struggle to control the sub which was mildly interesting to watch. I wondered why the American who had taken command (Tyler, played by Doug McClure) needed seven days to figure out that the Germans had sabotaged the compass so that they were heading south rather than west. Somehow, that seemed to me to be something that probably should have been noticed earlier. In any event, out of fuel and other supplies, the u-boat suddenly encounters Caprona - what had been thought to be a mythical island in the South Atlantic, populated by dinosaurs and primitive humans, all of whom exist together. The struggle for survival in a hostile environment is on!This was fun. It['s not a masterpiece of movie making, but it's a fun adventure, and it even includes a little bit of ethical thinking about the morality of warfare - especially as Captain Von Shoenvorts (John McEnery) and Lisa (Susan Penhaligon) talk about why the Germans would have sunk a civilian vessel with women and children aboard. As the captain replied - the way the ship exploded made it clear that there were arms in the hold; arms that would have been used to kill German women and children. Not everything is as clear cut as we want it to be!The performances were fine. Nothing outstanding, but nothing that detracted from the movie either. It comes from a story written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who's better known as the author who created Tarzan. Frankly, I enjoyed this more than any Tarzan movie I've ever seen. (7/10)

mgruebel "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.

SanteeFats Not a bad movie, it is entertaining and decently done. Doug McClure plays the lead in this one and does an adequate job. He and his group end up cast away on an island. 'At first they believe it is a normal land. Guess what? It is a blast from the really far past. They encounter all kinds of prehistoric animals and even what I guess are suppose to be cavemen. The overall plot definitely has a Jules Verne bent, although it comes from the great Edgar Rice Burroughs. The special effects are not quite up to the era they were done in but they are not that bad. I don't know if pterodactyls could really swoop down on their prey, I guess no one really does, but hey it worked.