TARZAN AND THE LOST CITY 1998
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
3 :-( :-( :-( for a boy and not the man
Cast: Casper Van Dien, Jane March, Steven Waddingham Director: Carl Schenkel Producers: Stanley Canter, Dieter Geissler, Michael Lake Screenplay: Baynard Johnson and J. Anderson Black based on the "Tarzan" stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs
I'm not sure how people usually like their heroes, but when it comes to Tarzan, I usually picture a man's man. I don't mean size, cause Casper Van Dien (STARSHIP TROOPERS) doesn't come small by any means, he's just too petulant a schoolboy to be the brooding, dark Lord of Greystoke.
Having said that, Casper can't act, and even his growling, chimpanzee noises and jungle call comes a little mediocre when compared to last years summer hit GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE – a far superior movie by my accounts. Little things that don't help are the poor quality of the script ie when Tarzan tells Jane: ‘I taught myself to read' ???? Also, Tarzan's ape brethren look like men in monkey suits flying through the trees. This made me laugh, but doesn't help with the poor credibility of costume design.
Lots of unfavourable comparisons can about this movie to the early Weissmuller films, Tarzan the series or even GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN – which I believe to be the best dramatic version to date. This movie tries to bring back the adventure and fun of the 1940 films, but that is another time and place, where Tarzan (Weissmuller) retained a lot of his mystery by grunting and saying very little – and rightly so, considering he was raised in the jungle. Casper Van Dien has too much too say and looks like he's on a Contiki-fun-adventure-holiday in Africa! Jane (Jane March) on the other hand, is sweet but very plain and flat chested. However, the major criticism is not her chest, but the fact she lacks any spark and charisma to be a viable jungle man love interest. When both Jane and Tarzan are ‘boring', then you have a major problem on your hands.
As for the Lost City of Opah, it looks someone has torn a picture of a pyramid out of a National Geographic Journal, and very cleverly computer pasted into the movie. The ending makes little sense, and comes as suddenly and unexplainable as a bolt of lightning striking the bad guy dead. Don't bother asking why, it's just because. As for Tarzan and Jane, I don't think there will be a sequel, at least not if Casper Van Dien is staring in it.
Timothy Voon
e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
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