I admit it. I'm a sucker for these movies. I just love Doug McClure and big monsters and cavemen and all that sort of stuff. I mean how can you not like that kind of stuff? It's awesome! What makes it even better is when it's all combined into one great film. Such is the case with The Land That Time Forgot.

What's funny about this series of movies is that I actually watched and reviewed them in reverse order because they came out on DVD in reverse order. At the Earth's Core was just an incredible adventure and to this day remains one of my favorite movies. The People That Time Forgot wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as At the Earth's Core or this first movie, The Land That Time Forgot. Unfortunately, the fourth movie in the series, Warlords of Atlantis, which also stars Doug McClure, hasn't seen a DVD release yet as of this writing. I really hope it does see a release soon though because these movies are all just flat out fun. They're adventure movies, and whether it be big monsters, sea battles, cavemen, sword fighting, earthquakes, volcanoes, or you name it, they really deliver on the entertainment.

This first film in the series takes place in 1916. A german submarine sinks a British transport ship, leaving the survivors floating in leaky rowboats out on a cold and foggy sea. The fog turned out to be their salvation however, because the Germans didn't see the survivors floating around in their two boats, and as a result, surfaced. The survivors made their way over to the submarine and managed to take control of it. After a back and forth with the Germans, they ended up getting lost thanks to Dietz messing with the compass. With no idea where they were, and running low on food, they decided to put aside their differences and work together for the sake of their own survival.

They eventually located a huge island that Captain Von Schoenvorts identified as a lost continent that an explorer discovered some two hundred years earlier. That explorer had been unable to land there, but because our crew was in a submarine, they were able to follow an underwater cave and make it through the mountainous barrier.

To their surprise they found a world where all stages of evolution seemed to have merged, from dinosaurs to various evolutionary stages of cavemen. They also found something that was fortunate for them. Thanks to a caveman named Ahm that they captured and befriended, they located a large pool of crude oil, which they were able to refine into fuel for their submarine. Unfortunately, in their efforts to secure the fuel they needed to get back home, they had to deal with dinosaurs, attacks by cavemen, and even strife amongst their own people, which was pretty much exclusively caused by the ever acerbic Dietz.

As a whole, this movie was great. Every aspect of storytelling, characterization, creatures, and location all led to one highly entertaining experience. But then, if you think about it, how could it not? It's got Doug McClure! He's one of those special actors that just makes anything he touches golden. Buster Crabbe is the same way. When you see one of these guys in a movie, even if the movie sucks, you can't help but enjoy yourself, and you're always guaranteed to have a great time.

I highly recommend seeing all the films in this series. Each one is a gem and will take you back to those adventure pictures you remember watching on Sunday afternoons when you were a kid. They're just a blast to watch, and no matter how old you are, you'll never outgrow them.