Product Details

• Actors: Richard Hatch, Key Lenz, John Saxon
• Directors: Terry Marcel
• Writers: Terry Marcel, Harry Robertson
• Producers: John Hardy, Harry Robertson
• Format: NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Studio: Synergy Ent
• DVD Release Date: September 20, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000W90OYG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,573 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Prisoners of the Lost Universe (1983)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Like "Land Of The Lost" Without The Realism, September 22, 2008

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Prisoners of the Lost Universe (1983) (DVD)

"Prisoners of the Lost Universe" is a mid-80's fantasy piece that is so ludicrous that it's funny. I debated long and hard about what rating to give it, but finally settled on three stars as the unintentionally amusing moments are both mirthful and plentiful.

The film starts with an annoying television science reporter, Carrie Madison (Kay Lenz), hosting her weekly show "The Weird and the Wacky." In this introductory segment you see her go face to face with a hooded cobra. Due to some minor musical exposure the cobra goes limp and Carrie turns to the camera and offers up the first in a countless bounty of deliciously bad lines in the film: "You can put a snake to sleep with a high B-Flat...remember, it may only work on snakes that like music." I was so entertained by this scene I had to watch it several times. Carrie then goes to meet Dr. Hartmann (Kenneth Hendel) at his lab. My first question about the film was this: if she's in Los Angeles, why does her 280ZX have right hand steering? Never mind, because during the drive the LA basin gets rocked by earthquakes, making her swerve and run Dan (Richard Hatch) off the road in his right hand drive pickup truck. Their first meeting is rather confrontational needless to say, but she has to run along to see Dr. Hartmann, leaving Dan stranded.

Carrie arrives at Hartmann's lab, and he demonstrates his matter transmitter that can send objects into a parallel universe. We start with Carrie's compact, but soon enough due to another tremor, Hartman falls into the beam and is gone. Dan comes to the door, and they both investigate and during yet another aftershock, both of them fall into the matter transmitter beam and are whisked away. This scene not only has hilarious special effects, but the implausibility of the falls into the machine are likewise humorous.

The humans appear in a mountainous desert. Carrie finds a caveman in a tar pit and helps him out. After reuniting with Dan, they encounter weird natives with flashing red eyes who get run off a cliff by the friendly caveman. After Dan and Carrie scale a vertical cliff (Carrie in high heels), they meet up with a green man who speaks good English. Carrie's first order of business is to take a bath in a lake (of course), where she is promptly attacked by a "water beast". The green guy shoots the beast with his "pod gun" and leaves them to roll around in the grass together.

No sooner has Dan gone to scout for food than an evil warlord, Kleel, played with extreme hamminess by the great John Saxon, shows up to take Carrie to be his because her hair is the color of sunshine. (Really.) Kleel has a gun and shoots Dan who apparently falls dead. Kleel and company ride off to his fortress with Carrie, and a dwarf with a Scottish accent, Malachi (Peter O'Farrell), starts to pilfer Dan's body. It turns out that Dan was only stunned by the bullet, and he promises his watch to Malachi in exchange for passage to Kleel's palace. First they have to stop by a friend of Malachi's to get horses, which spawns another of the most unintentionally hilarious lines of dialogue in film history: "He's got a sort of charm that'll make a snake vomit, but he sells good horses."

Enroute to find Kleel there are many bogus sword fights, a duel with some idiots wearing white sheets in the style of a very low-budget Halloween costume, a close call with an oil fire, and clashes with guys dressed like the grim reaper complete with scythes for hands and tennis shoes. It may be incoherent, but at least it's entertaining. The production team obviously had a lot of ideas for this movie, and none of them were edited out. I think of the final product as something that would happen when a bunch of teenage boys watch "Land of the Lost" for hours on end while playing "Dungeons and Dragons" and drinking vast quantities of Cherry Robitussin. Weird and wacky is right.

The get to Kleel's abode and find that Dr. Hartmann is now Kleel's sorcerer and has provided him with guns and nitroglycerin. Hartmann is a problem child and loves the power of being allied with Kleel. Kleel tries to curry favor with Carrie with jewels and wine (that's a no go), while Hartmann gets blackmailed by the others in a convenient though nonsensical plot twist. Ultimately they fight their way out, blow up Kleel and his palace and condescend to Hartmann, who they bring along only to help find the spot to stand on to get teleported back to their own universe. They find Carrie's compact, and Dan and Carrie get zapped out of the picture and hopefully into obscurity. The end.

This movie has so much going on and so many diverse and superfluous subplots that it's hard to stay focused on. I suppose "Battlestar Galactica" fans will like this because of Hatch, and while fans of fantasy may like this as well, some will be disappointed with the lack of production values, poor acting, awful script, and disjointed editing. People who want a good laugh at a overly pretentious but unintentionally hilarious film from the 1980's, though, have hit pay dirt. This film definitely packs more laughs than scares, and on that basis I recommend it to aficionados of B-movies everywhere.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst movie ever?, December 16, 2010

By 

Mummer - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Prisoners of the Lost Universe (1983) (DVD)

I loved Richard Hatch in the original Battlestar Galactica. I can't believe how awful this movie turned out. The plot, the acting, the action - all stinkers.