‘It’s not where they are… it’s when?’
The Land That Time Forgot is a 2009 American sci-fi action film in which castaways are washed onto a mysterious island in the Bermuda Triangle, confronting prehistoric creatures and a stranded German WWII U-boat crew.
Directed by actor and filmmaker C. Thomas Howell (The Day the Earth Stopped; War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave; The Big Fall; Pure Danger) from a screenplay written by Darren Dalton (The Lurking Fear; The Day the Earth Stopped; Hourglass) who also co-stars, loosely based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1918 novel of the same name. Produced by David Michael Latt.
The Asylum production also stars C. Thomas Howell, Timothy Bottoms, Lindsey McKeon, Anya Benton, Christopher Showerman, David H. Stevens and Patrick Gorman.
Review:
Clearly, anyone expecting much connection with Burroughs’ source novel is going to be disappointed because much like the 1974 film version certain changes have been made to update the plot. In the case of The Asylum movie, this means the Bermuda Triangle is involved (which goes nowhere, of course).
As anyone would expect from this particular production company, the CGI T-Rex and pterosaur are pretty ropey and there’s a laughable scene in which a deadly tentacle pops up out of a lake (just a tentacle, nothing more).
And yet for all that can be easily mocked, The Land That Time Forgot is a fairly watchable Sunday afternoon or late-night type of deadhead movie featuring some entertaining encounters with a few Second World War German sailors that result in them all having to work together to try and escape. The acting is generally ok – especially by Timothy Bottoms who seems to be enjoying himself – and C. Thomas Howell even attempts some minor directorial flourishes during chase scenes.
Those familiar with B-movies will also be amused by the appearance of the seemingly ubiquitous Bronson Cave and Long Beach locations. There’s also a rather odd sombre ending which may, or may not have a ‘message’ but let’s just leave it at that. So, while not a good film, The Land That Time Forgot isn’t an entirely bottom-of-the-barrel effort from The Asylum either.
Adrian J Smith, MOVIES & MANIA
Other reviews:
“Well, the acting for a B-Film it was not half bad. There were a few scenes where the acting was over the top cheesy. That made me want some tortilla chips and jalapeños. They thankfully were just few and far between. The direction and cinematography wasn’t awful either.” The B-Flick Chick
“This is one of the few Asylum films that gets it right. It is that modern 1950s style sci-fi flick with the bad special effects and bad acting. It might have been a little long and a little weird, but for what it is, it isn’t so bad. We’ve seen The Asylum get much worse, so I guess we should be happy we made it out this time unscathed.” Direct to Video Connoisseur
“There obviously wasn’t much of a budget for digital dino action so that meant most of the time would be spent with the zero-dimensional characters sitting around talking about their situation or playing Gilligan’s Island constructing thingamajigs out of spare parts and scrap heaps to help them escape.” 1/5 Dread Central
“Despite numerous action scenes and fairly solid acting, The Land That Time Forgot remains rather boring and forgettable. The visual effects are standard Tiny Juggernaut quality and the script moves at a decent pace. Perhaps the material is too familiar or the limited budget never allows the film to escape the vibe of a made for television event picture.” 2/5 Horror DNA
“The CGI effects representing the dinosaurs are better than usual for their films. On the minus side, the staging of the sequences is still down at a B-budget level […] While these may have worked for the 1974 version, for a post-Jurassic Park (1993) film they seem distinctly lacking.” 2/5 Moria
“Since it’s a cheapjack movie, there’s only one dinosaur and a handful of human victims. The only strong similarity to the Burroughs novel is that some of those travelers are WWII Germans who still have a working U-boat […] There’s enough incident to keep this item rolling along, but the dialogue is horribly banal and the actors are just paying the rent.” Naturalistic! Uncanny! Marvelous!
“After a slow start the movie gets better and in the end, it grows into a quite exciting adventure. Positive was also that the German submarine crew were not usual Nazi stereotypes, but just soldiers trying to get home. Special effects are usual Asylum level, so you should know what to expect.” Shameless Pile of Stuff
“Being a fan of the seventies adaptation, I thought I’d see this one too. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever sat through. It’s relatively harmless, with far better acting than I was expecting. There’s some bad acting, but no worse than I expected from my first viewing of a “film” from The Asylum.” The Stop Button
Sure, I’ve seen Asylum films that are more-or-less unwatchable, and others that are OK but rather more rough around the edges than one would like […] The Land That Time Forgot needs little apology […] I’ll just say that I enjoyed it. It didn’t bore me nor did it feel like a waste of 90 minutes of my time.” Undead Backbrain
Cast and characters:
C. Thomas Howell … Frost Michaels
Timothy Bottoms … Captain Burroughs
Lindsey McKeon … Lindsey Stevens
Darren Dalton … Cole Stevens
Anya Benton … Karen Michaels
Christopher Showerman … Stack
David H. Stevens … Jude
Patrick Gorman … Conrad
Stephen Blackehart … Lonzo
Christian Stoehr … Lukas
Scott Subiono … Zander
Lew Knopp … Cooper
Jonathan Sanders … Oliver
Filming locations:
Bronson Cave and Canyon, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California
Long Beach and Malibu, California
Technical details:
1 hour 28 minutes
Audio: Stereo
Aspect ratio: 1.78: 1
Trailer:
Free to watch online:
