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It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

In the early-mid 1960s, this movie (along with Titanic and The Day the Earth Stood Still) would appear about once a year on the syndicated "Saturday Night at the Movies". As a kid I anxiously awaited the return of this one in particular.This was definitely great fun and entertainment. Nobody would get (or deserve) any Oscars for this work, but they all deserve a round of applause and lasting appreciation.The concept of finding a completely isolated region of the world filled with fascinating and sometimes frightening plants and animals is nearly as intriguing in our GPS-mapped existence as it was when Sir Arthur penned out the story. The fact that it was unrealistic even when this movie was made was overcome by the exuberant actors and extraordinary sets of The Lost World.Though the characters are pretty well central-casting creations, they are portrayed with enough professionalism as to make them compelling. Even the virtually voiceless native girl played by the absolutely drop-dead gorgeous Vitina Marcus plays a big part in keeping the story together.Great cinema? No. Great fun for a couple of hours? Definitely.

While I'm a fan of adventure fantasy as the next nerd, unfortunately, a sci-fi picture like "The Lost World" has a plot that has become shopworn and a bit too familiar (watch numerous Irwin Allen shows from the 60s, like "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" or "Lost in Space" for reptiles "disguised" as dinosaurs, and the plot of this film is almost copied to the point of scenes practically being identical to that of an episode of "Voyage" in its First Season) to have the kind of resounding effect it might have had for kids back then. A group of characters (like a professor played with bluster and gruff by the wonderful Claude Rains and the dignified and proper Michael Rennie as wealthy hunter, and the usual assortment of colorful tag-alongs, like David Hedison (who would go on to star for Allen in "Voyage"), and curvy Jill St. John as the love interest that seems to come between Hedison and Rennie) pursue the location of a "hidden" world where prehistoric dinosaurs still exist, finding a lot more than they bargained for.Diamonds, lava-flowing volcano eruption, cave-ins, a tribe with spears ready to sacrifice, and giant lizards—oops, dinosaurs all offer dangers to the cast. Included is the smokin' Vitina Marcus as a tribe babe (with a tan to die for) the group encounters and brings into the fold, character actor Ian Wolfe (he's been in a little bit of everything) as the blind, lost scientist Burton White, Richard Hadyn (the Twilight Zone episode "A Thing About Machines" and "The Sound of Music") as the hapless, always-embarrassed professor who accompanies them and often played as a comic foil, & Ray Striklyn and Fernando Lamas, both sketchy and perhaps not to be trusted (Lamas is amusing as the local who offers salutations to the group once they arrive to the jungle prior to traveling into the lost world). With diamonds, greed could motivate a gun from its holster and pointed at people.Marcus seems to be in the film merely as eye candy, and I must admit that it was hard to pay attention to anything else going one when she's bandying about in such a skimpy costume of such barely-there rags. I can only imagine how cool this could have been if Willis O'Brien had been hired for stop motion effects instead of the laughable lizards used as fake dinosaurs that are very unconvincing. The Lost World, in widescreen color, looks every bit the large sets on a Fox lot. I felt like I was watching a television show of "Voyage" expanded to 90 minutes. Still, seeing Rains brushing annoying people aside that get on his nerves (at one point, knocking Hedison to the ground after leaving his plane!), and Rennie every bit the stoic gentleman (on screen) are fun to watch in the same film together. While Jill St John is stuck with the gold digger part, pursuing Rennie, thankfully she's likable enough to flesh out her character a bit (these kinds of films often feature the stunner with the well-manicured pet who has no business participating in a grand adventure that requires a tolerance for the outdoors, sweat, dirt, and monsters). Dinosaurs fighting with their tails threatening Hedison and St. John who try to keep from plunging off the side of a mountain and even the large flowers that open and close on humans who walk within them ("Lost in Space" fans will recognize this), Irwin Allen wasn't about to let such scenes and sets go unused after this film. For a Saturday afternoon, in need of an adequate adventure to waste some time on, "The Lost World" could do the trick, but I have seen "Voyage" episodes from the first season that are just as good.

Well, this is not the sequel to Jurasic Park, as I originally thought it was, but I guess that is what happens when all you have is a label on a video cassette and have basically forgotten when you taped the movie because it was so long ago. Gee, all of that in one sentence, though I think I have done better.Anyway, this is a simple adventure story where a scientist discovers dinosaurs in the Amazon Rainforest, goes to England, creates an expedition, and returns to bring back proof. While they are there, the helicopter is destroyed so they are stuck on the plateau and must pass vicious natives and rivers of lava to escape. And when they escape, they bring with them huge diamonds to make them rich beyond their wildest dreams - a typical American fantasy, or so for its time.My question though is why don't they make adventure movies like this anymore? The last one was the Mummy, and the only really decent ones I have seen are the Indiana Jones trilogy and Congo (and maybe a few others thrown it). This does not include Jurassic Park as I would hardly call it an adventure movie, or even good.The effects weren't that great, but it is the best one can expect from that time. The dinosaurs were basically lizards made to look big and had funny things attached to their heads. After seeing Jurassic Park, such effects make us gag, but once again we must remember the time. Also, if we see or like a movie based purely on its effects, then we are missing out on a lot of good stuff.The other thing of note is that I found some of the scenery to be breathtaking, though most of it was filmed on a set.I was going to give this film a 6, but decided, on policy reasons, to increase it to a 7, namely because I am purposely protesting against those who simply rate movies based on special effects.

Dinosaurs, diamonds, cannibals, Jill St. John! Having had big success the year before with "Journey to the Center of the Earth", 20th Century-Fox repeated the expedition-into-the-unknown formula with this school kid's fantasy adapted from the original tale by Arthur Conan Doyle (previously filmed in 1925). Claude Rains is an ill-tempered, impatient professor who boasts to the British press that he has found Jurassic monsters on an island plateau in the Amazon; with funding from a wealthy newspaperman, Rains returns to the creatures along with a reporter and a natty adventurer (the newspaperman's feisty daughter, along with her dog and younger brother, join the troupe later). Producer-director Irwin Allen co-wrote the script as well, and his cartoony, tongue-in-cheek style is all over this colorful saga. The special effects aren't bad for 1960, and there's enough amusingly dopey dialogue and disparate characterizations to make the film a minor treat. Rains steals the acting honors, while St. John (who boasts about being able to shoot better than any man, but who never gets the opportunity to prove it) carries around her pup in a wicker basket! Non-think entertainment benefits from excellent art direction and design, though Allen's pacing is a bit lax. **1/2 from ****