Prisoners of the Lost Universe: Science transports a mad scientist, a handyman, and a go get um TV reporter to "The Lost Universe" which turns out to be South African renaissance festival run by John Saxon. On the plus side, this is no Frankenstein Island. There is some decent acting with actually appealing actors. Richard Hatch was always underutilized but certainly is appealing here. John Saxon is in full John Saxon mode and plays his evil character halfway between Donald Pleasance and Kurtwood Smith. As others certainly have pointed out the real find is Kay Lenz. Well find is a bit of a stretch. She played a hippy chick intertwined with William Holden in the Clint Eastwood lensed Breezy. Having recently watched that film for the first time it is well worth the look and she is fantastic in it. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance (Best New Actress nominee). Kay Lenz is fantastic in her role with great chemistry with Richard Hatch and a sense of spunky fun.The movie also has some decent ideas wrapped up with some on the spot dialogue. So why am I watching this movie with a Rifftrax soundtrack and comparing it to Frankenstein Island? Well…. Did I mentioned it was filmed in South Africa… in the early Eighties… and they used their entire budget for top name stars like Richard Hatch? Yes, this one had potential but everything else is a pure train wreck. You can't make Lord of the Rings on a 100k budget. It is a combination of LARPers gone wrong and some of the worst, yet strangely creative costumes and makeup ever seen. You have giants, midgets, green people… and sets that would make 60's Star Trek blush.It's all in good fun and the stars mentioned above make most of this more palatable than it should be. For those times even the charms of Richard Hatch or John Saxon cannot win one over I had the soothing jokes of Rifftrax to see me through. An okay time but don't be surprised if you are confused after fifteen minutes and asleep after forty-five.

A film I acquired in the Mill Creek Dive-in 50-pack. Prisoners of the Lost Universe is basically a dorky action, adventure, sci-fi comedy. It's got a couple of giggles and a terrible story.This one is below B-grade with most of the actors - only a couple of them are OK. Most of them are pretty lame at acting even for a comedy.Basically 3 people are teleported to a parallel reality where barbarians and martial artists are abound. There are a few strange alien-like creatures. Can the 3 of them save the people in the parallel reality and get back to their own universe? The film is an OK sci-fi adventure overall. It's not good but it does have it's moments. Not a film worth seeking out but not a bad film to watch.2/10

By accident a scientist by the name of "Dr. Hartman" (Kenneth Hendel), a young television reporter known as "Carrie Madison" (Kay Lenz) and a maintenance man named "Dan" (Richard Hatch) find themselves transported to "a strange and violent land" existing in another dimension. Once there they encounter a number of hostile people and creatures in a desperate struggle to survive. Anyway, so much for the plot. As far as the movie is concerned it pretty much featured one ridiculous "comic book" scenario after another filled with corny dialogue, bad acting, cheap costumes and ludicrous characters. It was pretty bad. As a matter of fact, about the only thing worth mentioning was the presence of Dawn Abraham ("Shareen") and the aforementioned Kay Lenz who at least added some nice scenery to an otherwise totally wasted effort. In summation, my strong recommendation is that you spare yourself from wasting an hour and a half on this drab and uninteresting film. You will be doing yourself a huge favor.

I can accept that the main characters in this movie are lost and that they become prisoners, but whether this is a separate universe is barely pertinent. Same trees, same animals, same language. Just insert a Hyperborian culture and the necessary mystical villain and you have a reason for Richard Hatch to swing a sword.Two big things lacking in the budget - props and a director of photography. The sword the hero swings looks like a scrap of chrome, cut to form. The shots throughout reminded me of a soap opera. Probably, these fight scenes are just like the fight scenes from every big-budget blockbuster, with the difference being, the scenes in this movie are from one angle, motionless, and not edited for any effect. Somewhere between properly-staged cinema and poorly-staged theater, you find movies like this, which in addition to lack of funding for any of the special stuff that movies rely on, has no pacing, no urgency, and mostly, no universe.The action themes were nice, but the silly parts of the score like when bad guys are thrown from a cliff really missed the comedic mark. I mean, really, were those pennywhistles and kazoos?