Powerful

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I was so pleased to find this ratings list after I Google the Lost Continent. I had just been email my (Film Student) son to tell him I'd caught it on the Horror Channel and I thought it was a contender for the worst (British) movie ever made. This site has made me see there is a camp, crazy, delectable madness about it that I have bypassed at my peril.I shall watch it again with my son when he is home.I was also v pleased to find there are several cuts as I remember a scene with Dana Gillespie that wasn't in the version I saw on TV recently - in fact, I couldn't find her at all. Thanks for all your reviews.

I remember seeing this flick many years back on TV; it kept my interest for the first hour and twenty minutes , right up to when the colossal creatures appeared. They were so laughable I was FORCED to tune out.After becoming a fan of Dana Gillespie (see her in "The People That Time Forgot" to learn WHY), and finding out she appeared in this pic, I ended up buying it on DVD. An open-minded second-look reveals a fine adventure yarn capped off by a very moody, surreal climax.Quite a few reviewers state that there is no lost continent in the picture; this is not true. When the cast are in the Sargasso sea area you can clearly see mountainous land in the background; in fact, a character even proclaims at one point, "Look -- land!" Some of the cast even end up walking on the "lost continent" which is where they run into the laughable monsters (giant crab, giant lobster, etc.).WHAT WORKS: There's lots of action and adventure; Eric Porter as Captain Lansen is strong; the human-eating seaweed is a plus; the surreal sets for the orangey Sargasso Sea of shipwrecks are fantastic; Dana Gillespie is incredibly beautiful; the balloon shoes & harnesses are creative; and the plot keeps your interest even though much of the writing is weak. The distinctive 60's theme song is also pretty cool.WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Except for Dana Gillespie (Sarah), the characters are all rather unlikable and the biggest flaw is that the creature F/X are horrible (did I mention that already?).FINAL ANALYSIS: "The Lost Continent" is not hailed as one of Hammer's masterpieces, but I think the main reason for this is the lousy crustacean monsters. The flick gets extra points for its high adventure and its undeniably mood. The film will certainly be enjoyable for those of us who are attracted to "lost continent"-type adventure flicks (just bear with the relatively short crustacean sequence). And Dana Gillespie doesn't hurt.The film runs 89 minutes.GRADE: C+ or B-

The lost continent is perhaps one of the most unusual movies I have ever seen. It begins with the captain giving a farewell speech, and the camera makes a dolly shot we see this bizarre people dress as Spanish conquistadors in a foggy atmosphere then we fade to the past introducing the characters each showing hardly no respect for one another even the ships crew don't trust the captain. We have a captain that is smuggling explosives, a doctor escaping from the past, a daughter that wants to see her father dead and a variety of characters that don't know what there in for. Through the film we see a dramatic change of the character but we never see the captain change. Going from deception to murderer, the movie takes a totally different turn. After the boat is in the middle of a tropical storm the captain and some of the crew escape in a small life boat then they confront sharks, hunger, and even them selves. Somehow they manage to find the cruise intact but they are trapped in a strange weed looking island, and then the fun really begins, giant monsters, killer weed, and Spanish conquistadors are the order of the lost continent. This film is not one of HAMMERS best but is sure one of the must bizarre and entertaining movies. In a Saturday night order a pizza and a couple of beers and you on for a good time.

This can best be described as a cult classic. Its a fun movie with a lot of character development, and craftily directed. The movie follows the characters through a voyage at sea through hostile weather and a captain whom seems thoroughly decadent. Many of the characters are depicted as worse than they actually are in the beginning, and then the viewer is lured into sympathizing with them. Its a very common device in the movies, and it works better here than in most movies, due to better writing and directing. There is mutiny, shipwreck, life raft chaos, and a land full of monsters and hostile inhabitants, not to mention the famed "Balloon Girl" who they meet. This movie was banned early on, many places. This movie can be classified as the most iconoclastic horror move of all time, because the director had the audacity to kill two characters immediately after they lit up cigarettes. And you can imagine how the greatest censors of all time, the tobacco companies, responded to that, (quite covertly). This was the real thing that horrified audiences in America. What really makes the movie, though, is attention to even the most minor of characters. Most people don't realize how important character identification and appeal is to them, but it's what makes a movie interesting. And this is an interesting movie.