Dreadfully Boring

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

A photographer seeing big money hires a rough tough boat crew to take his group to a prehistoric island where he wants to film monsters. Misadventures ensue. Good to catch up with this little flick again after 60-years. It was awesome then, now it's still pretty good. Oh sure, no Oscar bait here, but I will nominate the great Barton MacLane for a Big Personality award. In fact, he carries the movie in gruff tough style, with no backtalk. Seems even the headliners pale in his presence, though the shirtless Denning shows why he moved to Hawaii. And catch the luscious Virginia Grey as the damsel in occasional distress. Her big-eyed opening scenes had me wanting to crawl through the screen. All in all, it's a superior cast, including the luckless Laskars who add exotic color.Good thing those monsters move with all the speed of garden slugs, otherwise it would be a short movie. Still, those toothy close-ups are enough to give a dentist the terminal shudders. And how about that movie critters' death match, where anything goes. No pre-historic flick is complete without that. But I'm still wondering at the monsters' desert background in a jungle-type movie. I guess that was because of special effects. My favorite part is the waterfront dive where everyone gets together at the beginning. It's well stocked and colorful for an indie production, while Captain MacLane gets to show his stuff, along with bulldog first mate, Dick Wessel. I guess my only gripe is with that cheesy gorilla. For some reason a lot of horror movies from that period liked dressed up gorillas as a goofy menace.Anyhow, my kid's dime was well spent then, and my 80-minutes was well spent now. Too bad my wife says I'm hopeless.

This modest budget independent movie could teach today's filmmakers a few tricks. The first is to begin with interesting characters and a good story. The second is to keep the suspense rolling along.Blessedly free of today's stupid-looking computer animation, the prehistoric animals are nowhere near as excellent as in 1933's KING KONG, but light years better than Spielberg's bag of tricks. If you see the new Indiana Jones movie, stay for the credits and notice that hundreds and hundreds of technicians were involved in that movie (as it is in most 2008 action films), too many cooks spoil the stew. All that excess in staff does nothing to make a movie better.Remember that Indy is inspired by the far superior movies of 50 or 60 years ago. Unknown Island is a pretty decent example. See it on DVD.

I saw Unknown Island when I was eight years old, packed into a Saturday matinee in a tiny theater in a little California town with a bunch of my buddies. The movie didn't drive us from the theater in fear, but it was scary enough, and fun enough, that its plot devices became themes for a summer of children's pretend games of dinosaur hunts and battles against giant sloths. The sexual undercurrents of the film were lost on us: bring on the prehistoric beasts!I never expected to see it again, but a browse through the Netflix library turned it up, and I couldn't wait to be disappointed! Of course I was, but so what? It was worth the repeat viewing just to be reminded that there was a time when my imagination could overcome cheesy production values, silly dialogue, and incoherent plotting. Movies are magic, especially for the young. Unknown Island made me long again, if only briefly, for a bag of stale popcorn, a Big Hunk candy bar, and a Captain Marvel serial.And for another summer of games in the woods, running after, or away from, those pesky dinosaurs.

...a tale of a fateful trip. Only this tale is from a 1948 outrageous B flick about scientists who hire a corrupt skipper for a voyage to a strange Island. Once the passengers and crew arrive they encounter prehistoric beasts of which some are laughable due to poor special effects. Although when I saw this film as a kid I was impressed with it. Surprisingly the tagline says it took a year to produce while the film "King Kong" was made 15 years prior with superior special effects. The inhabitants include lovely Virginia Grey, Philip Reed, Richard Denning and Barton MacLane. Filmed in Cinecolor it is fun to watch and has been shown on AMC. It's also available on VHS and DVD so it can't be all that bad.