The Land That Time Forgot (1975) Review

Title: The Land That Time Forgot
Year: 1975
Director: Kevin Connor
Country: UK
Language: English

Based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, The Land That Time Forgot is foremost a prehistoric adventure, transplanting contemporary people into a primitive and dangerous domain. It's that generation's Jurassic Park, albeit this picture seems like it would have dated itself far quicker than Spielberg's 1993 venture. Certainly could have used the help of one Ray Harryhausen, who had made all his best features by 1975. 

During World War I, a German U-boat sinks a British ship and takes the survivors on board. After it takes a wrong turn, the submarine takes them to the unknown land of Caprona, where they find dinosaurs and neanderthals.

Mystery Science Theatre 3000 returned to television, well, Netflix, in 2017 and the seventh episode of the first season just so happened to be The Land That Time Forgot. I had watched it previously at a family friend's house, they told me the movie would be "amazing", and I was not only disappointed but I was bored out of my mind. The main gimmick is the special effects; mainly the dinosaur segments, but even those are poorly constructed.

Kevin Connor uses rubber doll puppets enlarged by camera tricks to make the dinosaurs appear "larger than life" in order to entice his audience, but the effect doesn't work. The camera's many close-ups reveal the obvious fakery and we never feel like we are watching more than just toys. Douglas Gammey's score is jarring, but never suspenseful. The acting makes you really pity the actors involved. 

The film seems to have high reviews on IMDB, but I'll chalk that up to nostalgia. The film is so dated that even movies made 20 years before it have more sophisticated effects. Heck King Kong from 1933 looks better than this steaming pile of crap. Watch it only to see MST3K's commentary.


0 Stars