The Lost World [DVD] [2001]

Not the Steven Spielberg blockbuster, this Lost World is a splendid BBC TV dramatisation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous adventure story. Bob Hoskins makes an unusually genial Professor Challenger, far less of a bully than Doyle's character, but his slightly stereotyped companions are nicely filled out by a solid cast. James Fox is Challenger's more timid but still covertly adventurous rival, Tom Ward is the moustachioed big game hunter who faces an Allosaurus with an elephant gun, and Matthew Rhys plays the tagalong reporter hoping to impress his faithless fiancée.

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

DVD Special Features:

Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound
Anamorphic
Commentary by the Producer, Christopher Hall, and the Director, Stuart Orme
Inside The Lost World (30-minute making of documentary)
Subtitles: English SDH, Dutch, Greek
Regions 2, 4

Bob Hoskins leads and all-star cast in this action-packed TV movie adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic adventure story. At the turn of the century, an expedition under the leadership of maverick academic, Professor Challenger, leaves smog-choked London for the rainforests of South America in search of a mythical land--where it is said that time has stood still ... and where dinosaurs still roam.

Accompanying Professor Challenger are a rival academic, Professor Summerlee, the famed and dashing hunter, Lord Roxton, and a young reporter, Edward Malone. They are joined in the Amazonian jungle by a settler, Theo, and his niece, Agnes. Together, they are about to embark on a terrifying adventure. What they will learn in their struggle to survive the lost world will leave them wiser but forever changed.

Great DVD from The BBC, Brand new factory sealed, limited edition packaging, the original Dinosaur story, 145 minutes running time approx, fast dispatch, UK SELLER