Debby P I guess I'm not a complete fan of Hammer films like some. I found this movie somewhat engrossing but disturbing. All the usual Hammer gore. The monsters were hokey enough to be entertaining, and the plot kept you wondering what was next. However, it was too intense for me to watch it again. Just my opinion, of course, but not recommended for those who are at all faint of heart or disturbed by lots of red stuff.

Leofwine_draca A Hammer adventure yarn mixing plodding characterisation with rousing action in a half-successful combination. This is best seen as a precursor to the later Amicus movies like THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, and shares many common similarities with those movies, from the diverse group of people on a vessel discovering an unknown world to the giant fake-looking monsters that inevitably dominate said world. The main fault is with the slow pacing and the fact that most of the action is consigned to the last thirty minutes instead of being evenly distributed throughout the film. It takes the ship a full hour to reach the uncharted seas and there's too much talk and not enough excitement before then, but this is only a minor flaw.Based on a story by Dennis Wheatley called Uncharted Seas, this is an unashamed B-movie lifted only by an above-average cast. The monsters are terrible and of a cheap-looking DR WHO standard but for me, this can only be a highlight (I have a soft spot for poor special effects, no matter how bad they may be!). Bizarrely, the film bypasses the child audience by including some graphic violence of a man getting strangled and his neck broken, plus people bleeding profusely when being attacked by the various dangers on their voyage. The crooning music which pops up occasionally merely complements the utterly bizarre and unpredictable atmosphere that this movie possesses! Eric Porter is the initially unlikable Captain Lansen who comes through in the end; it's a wonder what this high-class actor was doing in a movie of this calibre at this time! Ageing Hildegard Knef lends some foreign glamour, while the ample charms of Dana Gillespie are on show for the last twenty minutes. Suzanne Leigh (LUST FOR A VAMPIRE) is the irritating screaming heroine who sleeps with any man she can find, and Nigel Stock (famous for his role as Watson to Cushing's Holmes in the BBC series) her father who gets eaten by a cardboard shark! Many familiar British character actors fill out supporting roles, many of them having appeared in previous British horror like Neil McCallum and Victor Maddern. Norman Eshley, Michael Ripper (sporting a hideous scar), Donald Sumptor, Tony Beckley, and Jimmy Hanley round out the main cast. The budget was actually one of the biggest that Hammer had for a film, and it shows in the ship set and the convincing-looking backgrounds; especially impressive is the "ship's graveyard", a mournful scene that the opening credits play over.The action, when it comes, is actually very good and exciting. There's a battle between modern sailors and armoured Spanish soldiers (whose swords are still no match for guns!), a violent tropical storm, a mutiny, an attack by the sentient seaweed (which makes the same noise as a dozen movie monsters of the 1950s) which leaves the victims bleeding and scarred, a hilarious attack by a giant octopus with a glowing green eye (my personal favourite), a battle between a green-eyed giant crab and a giant scorpion (here the movie turns into surreal GODZILLA-like monster action, except not even as convincing - the giant crab has to be one of the worst and most unintentionally funny creatures that I've ever seen!) plus the expected (but impressive) explosive finale.A member of the Spanish Inquisition (complete with Ku Klux Klan hat!) is included in the interests of completeness, along with an obnoxious boy king and a blubbery monster in a pit that was ripped off in RETURN OF THE JEDI. The sheer wealth of funny monsters and well-staged action keeps THE LOST CONTINENT from becoming boring; in the end it comes off as a hugely entertaining and tacky B-movie romp to be seen by those who do not judge their films too harshly and take merit in the simple pleasures of the movies.

MartinHafer This might just be the worst Hammer film I have ever seen--and I've seen a lot of the studio's movies. However, inexplicably, most of the reviews are very positive and I wonder what gives. Littlenemo's review was scathing and they wondered, too, why the reviews were so positive--since the film has so much going against it.As the summary so aptly put it, it all begins like an episode of Love Boat on acid! Lots of very uninteresting people are passengers aboard a merchant ship. When it wanders into the Sargasso Sea, it becomes stuck--stuck because this region is alive and intelligent. And it seems that the place is chock full of other ships that are stuck--and the crews of some are alive centuries later! Considering the lack of women and supplies, this is pretty goofy--as is seeing a group of Conquistadors and Spanish Inquistors in the middle of this sea! None of it makes the least bit sense nor does a lot of what the characters do. For example, when a group of folks are aboard a lifeboat, people keep falling overboard for no reason at all!! Indeed, the acting is really bad--and the no-name cast seems to indicate that Hammer had little faith in this film. And, the monster turns out to be gosh-darn silly. So what positive things do I have to say about the film? Hmmmm. None. Sorry. It's a complete mess--with a dumb plot, bad acting and it's kind of dull to boot.

heywood2001 I thought this romp was somewhat in the vane or spirit of those Doug McClure movies where the U-Boat ends up in a pre-historic lost area of the globe and the crew has to deal with cave people, Dinosaurs etc.I certainly don't hold the feet of this film to any super critical standard since it dosen't seem to take itself seriously anyway. I agree with the one reviewer of the postings on this page that if you just suspend your disbelief somewhat that it's a quite entertaining film since it is quite imaginative in the visuals and the situation (albeit quite ridiculous) such as the Conquistadors stuck there for several centuries. The buxom balloon girl was most pleasant to look at and took to speaking English quite quickly (They have Berlitz books out there).I think a story like this would be a bit more easier to swallow if it had taken place in the 20's or 30's, but again, the movie does not seem to take itself seriously so who cares(Giant crabs are not to beyond the pale, but giant scorpians!).The cast plays it straight despite the absurdity, and that helps to suspend disbelief.The weird factor is very high which is the most appealing factor of this flick.I think there was a bit of 60's political angle of questioning of authority as the ship crew incited the lord kid to question his own blind obedience to the hooded inquisitor. There was a rapprochement between the crew of the ship and the conquistadors both standing in respect for the kid ruler in his burial at sea. So I suppose this could also be kind of a 60's version of 'can we all just get along' type decade influenced feature in this film.Yes! A beer and pizza film.