As usual, the adaptation adds a woman--orphaned jungle girl Elaine Cassidy--to the expedition, and an interesting villain (religious fanatic Peter Falk) beefs up the travelogue by marooning Challenger's gang on the South American plateau where dinosaurs, cavemen and Indians coexist eventfully. The Walking with Dinosaurs-style effects work well for the TV frame, but the real success is in integrating the Boys' Own adventuring with subtle eco-awareness, complex character interplay and the reliable wonder of soaring Pteranodons and Carnosaur attacks. --Kim Newman

As an adventure film, it’s fine: as a film based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s story of the same name, it stinks. They’ve ruined it, as far as I’m concerned: if this had been done to a person, it would probably be called attempted murder.

Granted, they had to update the reason for the explorers being marooned on the plateau, since the book is a tad racist in places. But they could have done that without destroying the original storyline.

And of course there has to be a female in it [this was one of my beefs with the original Michael Rennie version; that and the use of helicopters!].

The finale is so very twenty-first century; the explorers “confessing” that the whole thing was a hoax to save the plateau from becoming a tourist attraction complete with burger bars.

There's probably lots more that I could say, but I only saw it the once, and had to force myself to watch at least half of it, so most of the rest is mercifully blurred in my memory

If they’re going to make a film of a book, why don’t they stick to the book?


A breathtaking adventure with an interesting subplot   March 27, 2004
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is the story of a great adventure. At the beginning of the 20th century four very different men leave London on a strange expedition: they follow the map of a long dead missionary, who thought that he had seen dragons somewhere in the middle of the Brasilian rainforest ...
Professor Challenger is convinced that these dragons are dinosaurs, his dour collegue Summerlee thinks that it is a hoax, Lord Roxton likes the adventure and the reporter Edward Malone wants to impress Claire, the girl he is in love with. Somewhere in the Brasilian jungle they are joined by Alice and her uncle, a missionary - for reasons that you have to see for yourself! The expedition finds the "lost world" on a plateau deep in the rainforest. And then the real adventure begins and Tyrannosaurus Rex is not the only danger they have to face ...
I loved the film, because it is not only action and special effects, but has some deeper levels as well. Darwin's theories come into it and also the idea that being human means that you have to make choices and that you are responsible for them. That makes it really, really interesting to watch. Much more than Spielberg's "Jurassic Park", which has more action, no psychological depth at all and spends not much thought on the scientific and philosophical questions of Doyle's story.
And the acting is excellent! I especially like Bob Hoskins as Challenger. His enthusiasm and his awe in view of the things he sees and experiences in the "lost world" seems so genuine that you are absolutely drawn into the story and see it all with his eyes. And Matthew Rhys as the awkward Edward Malone is quite good as well. The look of dumb shock on his face, when he is faced with another catastrophe (which happens quite often ;-)) is absolutely hilarious!


Christmas Highlight- And A Great DVD   August 16, 2003
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I would call The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle my favourite book. Although once an important book, it has now sunk to be one of Doyle's many lost books, overshadowed by Holmes
That is why I was extremely excited to hear that the BBC was to put it on TV, not being old enough to have seen any of the old films.
Usually TV adaptations never seem to be pulled off properly. This one did it perfectly. Probably because it did not stick rigidly to the text. The addition of Theo Kerr to leave the group stranded (rather than the slightly weak story of Gomez)among other things was a good one, and the big addition of Agnes worked well. The entire screenplay was written in Conan Doyle's style, the additional scenes with the indians and the endings of the characters are entirely in context with the original story. The ending also is nothing like the novel's ending, but again works extremely well.
The characters are performed extremely well. Although Challenger, like Holmes will always be extremely hard to capture, Hoskins does the best job that could be possible. Unfortunately the script doesn't show the worse qualities of Challenger, but for this family adventure, it doesn't really spoil the story at all- Shame he doesn't have that wife though. Summerlee likewise is captured exactly to the story, his contempt for Challenger and the whole adventure is shown perfectly. Little details complete Summerlee's character, definitely the best likeness to the four.
Lord John Roxton's alternate ending to the book is completely true to his character, and the actor is almost perfect (It would be too difficult for actor and scriptwriter too add Roxton's colloquialisms).
Then there's the everyman, the reporter Ed Malone. Matthew Rhys shows himself to be a promising actor, another sterling performance, upstaged by the other actors, however
Elaine Cassidy as Agnes and Peter Falk as Theo Kerr were both good choices, perhaps the role of Falk over-rated
All in all one of the best all-too-common BBC two-parters yet made.