|
|
|
 |
|
A plane crashes on an uncharted island, and while most survived the
crash, the plane has been broken into, and a small group led by he-men Ed
(Jeff Denton) and John (Rhett Giles) go looking for the cockpit for the
radio to call for rescue. Their trail leads them through a dense jungle
populated by giant man-eating spiders and flying lizards that just love to
attack humans and carry them off. Eventually they have to notice that the
island hosts many a downed plane, but somehow all of them are stripped of
their radios. Eventually our group of heroes is joined by mysterious Lt.
Challenger (Bruce Boxleitner), another survivor from their crash who has
made it through the jungle on his own and knows too much about the island
for comfort. He also carries a metal suitcase that he defends with his
gun. Eventually, out group make it to a cave populated by giant scorpions,
where some of them, including John, lose their lives, and the others are
captured by a tribe of natives. Weirdly enough, Challenger speaks their
language - not that that helps much, they're all going to be sacrificed to
the island's "God", a giant gorilla. But in the cave they're
kept in, they find a survivor from an earlier crash, Larry (Steve
Railsback), who has collected radio spare parts to eventually call for
assistance. He's batshit crazy though, but somehow they manage to reason
with him ... and make it out alive. But that's when the flying lizards and
the ape attack, then fighter jets our heroes somehow managed to call
attack, but there's an interference on the island that makes all of them
crash. Somehow Challenger dies, but he tells the others there's an atom
bomb somewhere on the island that he was to detonate via remote control,
and that might take out the giant ape for sure - so all our heroes have to
do now is to blow up the island ... Obviously an attempt to
cash in on the success of Peter Jackson's King Kong - which was
released one day after King of the Lost World -, this film
takes remarkably little cues from the King
Kong lore (other than the inclusion of a giant ape, which is
merely a supporting monster here) and instead spins an ok adventure yarn
that's just a bit too clichéed and somewhat overfraught with stale
dialogue to really stand out, plus takes a few too many disaster movie
cues, but it's an ok watch at least.
|
|
|