Product Details

• Actors: Wesley Eure, Kathy Coleman, Philip Paley, Spencer Milligan, Walker Edmiston
• Writers: Marty Krofft, Sid Krofft
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: Rhino / Wea
• VHS Release Date: August 10, 1999
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305492255
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,587 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Land of the Lost: Volume 1
"The Stranger"--A stranger appears claiming to be a forefather of the Sleestacks and fights the Marshall family over the Majetti (a dimension mechanism) that will return them to their own time. In the end, Rick gives the key to someone who needs it more. "Tag Team"--Holly and Will are saved from an attack by a T-Rex and an allosaur.

Land of the Lost: Volume 2
"The Search"--Will passes up an opportunity to return to Earth, refusing to leave his injured father behind. "The Paku Who Came to Dinner"--Cha-Ka follows Will and Holly home to their cave and, after smelling Rick's good cooking, decides to stay permanently.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Four Episodes Of A Strong Sci-Fi Series, September 24, 1999

By 

Michael Daly "Monkeesfan" (Wakefield, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Land of the Lost: Volume 1 & 2 Two Pak [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The original Land Of The Lost remains a stellar series. Verisimilitude permeates the show, from the very effective use of video matting to the elaborate miniature sets and often excellent animation (by Gene Warren Sr. and Jr. and Peter Kleinow) of the show's dinosaurs, to the consistently excellent performances of Spencer Milligan (as Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathleen Coleman (Holly Marshall), and Walker Edmiston (Enik).

Bringing out the full power of the show were superior scripts by sci-fi veterans David Gerrold, Ben Bova, D.C. Fontana, and Star Trek/Babylon 5's Walter Koenig, and the flawless direction of Bob Lally and Dennis Steinmetz.

Koenig and Lally wring maximum emotion out of the cast in the episode "The Stranger." I'd like to know if Lally fed his cast gunpowder before shooting, for they fight and argue with an unnerving amount of gusto. Over-the-top then comes into play in the climatic scene where Enik probes the Marshall family's minds and extracts their greatest fears, leaving them as almost helpless wrecks.

From Hitchcockian flavored psycological terror, Volume One then steps into glorious Ray Harryhausen-flavored chase drama in "Tag Team," in which the Marshalls meet the show's resident prehistoric missing links, the Pakuni (Philip Paley plays the youngest, Cha-Ka), and all are chased to a huge crevase by the tyrannosaur Grumpy. Will, Holly, and Cha-Ka are trapped on a ledge twenty feet down as Grumpy gets into a yelling match with another tyrannosaur, Big Alice - the video matte scene of the two dinosaurs over the three humans is one of the best SFX shots ever.

Volume Two opens with Ben Bova's "The Search," in which Rick is electrocuted by energy crystals. Holly laborously brings her dad back to their cave while Will tries to convince Enik to help them. But Enik has opened a dimensional dorrway to Earth, and urges Will to go through, to his home. But Will can't leave his family behind - can't he?

"Paku Who Came To Dinner" is another chase episode that piles on excellent SFX footage in its story of Holly's kidnapping by the Pakuni, who are enamored of the young lady's perfume.

The two tapes capture a memorable sci-fi series.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take a routine expedition to 70s after-school nostalgia, June 20, 2000

By 

Shelley Gammon "Geek" (Kaufman, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Land of the Lost: Volume 1 & 2 Two Pak [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I can't say how much I love these tapes. I have been begging Rhino Records to come out with a DVD version of this via several emphatic e-mails.

They did a superb job of delivering the broadcast quality of these classic shows onto VHS. The FBI warning is just as entertaining.

The four episodes they selected for tape pretty well round out the experience, but I'd love to see all the episodes ever made if they ever come out with them. Very good (if not over-done) acting by all the characters and some of the cheesiest special effects you have ever seen.

Before the tapes arrived, I had all these memories of adventure and cool dinosaurs... seeing the tapes really opened my eyes concerning the perception you have as a child. In the opening scenes when the theme song is playing, "shook their tiny raft...," the special effects are so awful, it looks like they borrowed them from the 1973 "Tidy Bowl" commercial. Still, these were low-budget shows and they still brought great entertainment to children and adults alike in the mid 1970s. The dinosaurs are still menacing even though they have muppet-like mouths (no throats!)... thanks to the original music and panicked family.

The show was watched by adults as well due to the clever concepts in sci-fi... aliens called Sleestak from a different time and place, the most terrifying looking lizard people I ever saw as a child. Even the sounds they made gave me the willies. Enik, the talking Sleestak from another dimension has a powerful voice and an interesting culture which he shares reluctantly with Marshall, Will and Holly.

Exploding crystals and primitive Pakuni abound. It's funny to see all of the necessary-to-live items that the family brought with them on the "routine expedition" before they got thrown into the land of the lost.... Holly brought her makeup kit, they all have tons of rope, pulleys and camping gear. Regardless of some of the cheesy props and poor SFX, it is still an awesome show and especially endearing for those of us who saw it in its hey-day when we were kids. These tapes are well worth the price for the trip to back to the land of the lost, the lost city, and the land of Sleestak, Pakuni and Alice, the Allosaurus.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Be Prepared, April 4, 2002

By 

Scott Rhodes (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Land of the Lost: Volume 1 & 2 Two Pak [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Okay. This show was for kids. Was and still is. It's a fun trip down memory lane for those that saw it first-run as long as the expectations are reasonable.

I bought these remembering that one of the fascinating things about this show was that episodes were written by well known and successful sci-fi authors...Ben Bova, DC Fontana, etc. Yet the dialogue and story lines are still very simplistic and one note concepts...again for kids.

And while it's classic over-acting here (wayyyy over the top), it's the same hammyness that lends charm to the old Star Trek (a la Shatner). Overacting? Yes. But it still evokes more involvement and is preferrable to the dry talking heads of current s.f. shows (like any of the new Star Trek incarnations for example).

Of course, there's the additional charm of being from the mid 70's, the clothes, the hair. (Gotta love Rick Marshall's perm).

One major flaw seems to be the randomness of the episode selection for these two tapes as well as the other two tapes in the series (3 & 4). Issuing them in chronological order would have been a lot more satisfying and as it is, the episodes jump around in time. And running story elements such the mysterious unseen thing in the pit, the colored crystals that can combine for different effects, etc. pop up here without understanding their origin or context.

Was VERY disappointed that none of the 8 episodes released by Rhino here had those funky Pylons or Skylons with their resulting weather changes.

So if you're prepared for simplistic child like stories and dialogue, and stop-animation special effects that are straight out of the 1926 film The Lost World, combined with the puppetry of Sid & Marty Kroft you'll be very satisfied with these.