6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
After a German U-Boat sinks their ship, several survivors manage to take control of the boat. Bowen Tyler is the son of an American shipbuilder and Captain Bradley an experienced seaman. After several tussles with the German crew, they find themselves on a strange island. There they find a place where several stages of Earth's evolution co-exist at the same time. As a result several types of humans are found as well as prehistoric dinosaurs. There are also active volcanoes which all add up to a challenge to survive.
Starring: Doug McClure, John McEnery, Susan Penhaligon, Keith Barron, Anthony AinleySci-Fi | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Perhaps both surprisingly and unsurprisingly, Edgar Rice Burroughs is represented as a source novelist in cinematic adaptations mostly for his many Tarzan the Ape Man stories. That’s probably unsurprising given the sheer number of Tarzan source novels and the subsequent films and television properties at least ostensibly based on them, but it may be surprising simply by dint of the fact that Burroughs was an incredibly prolific and successful author, and one might reasonably think that given the success of the “Tarzan franchise”, some enterprising bean counter in Hollywood would have long ago started adapting other Burroughs works for the screen. There have been at least a few other adaptations, including the relatively recent perceived disaster John Carter, but a generation or so before that film failed to connect with audiences at the box office, a much less fulsomely budgeted outing did at least somewhat better at attracting ticket buyers. The Land That Time Forgot is going to look awfully “quaint”, maybe even downright clunky, to modern eyes raised on bounteous supplies of CGI wonderment, but for those who have a certain fondness for what looks like (but evidently isn't) Ray Harryhausen type stop motion animation and ostensibly lower tech special effects, The Land That Time Forgot may have at least a few passing pleasures to recommend it.
The Land That Time Forgot is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment and StudioCanal with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer
in 1.85:1. Judging solely by screenshots (not always an accurate gambit), this appears to be largely very similar if not absolutely identical to the Kino
Lorber release linked to above. That said, I'm perhaps a bit less pleased generally with the appearance of this transfer than Brian was, and so my score
reflects that difference of opinion. The brightly lit moments here that don't involve special effects or other opticals do pop with considerable authority,
with a nicely suffused palette and generally very good detail and fine detail levels. However, a lot of the more dimly lit material (including a lot of the
interior submarine sequences) can look pretty crushed at times, with a much dowdier looking palette overall. Grain is quite heavy in the composited
special effects sequences, as should be expected, but can occasionally spike kind of randomly at other times as well. The opening mist strewn
sequences look just a tad splotchy at times, but overall grain resolves very well throughout the presentation, even in its chunkier looking moments.
Note: This is a somewhat unusually authored disc, at least from my experience with Umbrella Entertainment releases. While stamped Region
B, this played fine in my Region A player, which is often the case with Umbrella releases. However, this release has no main menu, and simply boots to
the MGM and Orion mastheads and then begins playing. At the end of the film things just go black and "hang", with "Play" still engaged, but nothing
happening. You have to hit "Stop" on your remote or player and then reload the disc to start the movie again, if you're so inclined. The lack of a Main
Menu means the Commentary (see below in the Supplements section) is almost like an audio easter egg.
The Land That Time Forgot features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that is obviously narrow but which has some occasionally surprising oomph in terms of some of the effects like the dinosaur sounds and other ambient environmental noises the explorers encounter. Dialogue is presented cleanly for the most part throughout the track, though a couple of individual lines can get slightly buried in noisier effects moments.
As Brian mentions in his review of the Kino Lorber release, this film has brief moments of excitement which tend to be surrounded with much duller expository sequences, and as such this "thrill ride" is a bit of a stop and go affair. Some of the effects are charmingly old school and may recommend the film to lovers of the legacy of Ray Harryhausen (who did not work on this film, just to be clear). Technical merits are generally okay (video) to good (audio), but this release doesn't have even all of the minimal supplements offered on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray, so those with region free players may want to a bit of contrasting and comparing if they're considering making a purchase.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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