Planet of Dinosaurs

Peter McGinn

I suppose this movies should be allowed a little slack for its efforts on what must have been a low budget. I have seen reviews that say things like how it is unintentionally funny, totally horrible, good for a B movie, and even praised for its stop-action dinosaur effects, which were good for that time? But then I see that it came out a mere 12 years before Jurassic Park, so perhaps it was mostly about the money. I was impressed with one editorial decision. Near the beginning the most shapely actress they used stripped down to practically a bikini and swam to rescue some supplies, and turned out to be the first victim of the dinosaurs. Imagine sacrificing the most voluptuous actress so soon. Brave risk. It was funny that one woman ran around in a short skirt worthy of lieutenant Uhura, another had a low-cut blouse, and the most buff guy spent half of the action shirtless. Something for everyone. The soundtrack was also odd, reminding me in places of the staccato whistles and hoots from old sci-fi shows like The Outer Limits. Then again, I read that at least one person on the production team had experience with that earlier program, so there you are. I watched this film while riding a stationary bike and I recommend you also do something else while viewing it, unless you are with a set of friends and create a game out of how often they run, or say things like, “Let’s get out of here!” Perhaps create a bingo card game of B movie standard features. Plus snacks. How can you go wrong?

Review via The Movie Database (TMDB)