Essentially an unacknowledged remake of Hammer's most financially successful film "One Million Years B.C.", it's not on the same level as that film but it's still great fun. Ray Harryhausen, the master of stop motion, did not return for this film but Jim Danforth is a more than worthy substitute. The dinosaurs look brilliant for their time and they hold up remarkably well. It's a shame that stop motion is essentially a lost art form in the 21st Century. While both films were shot in the Canary Islands, the locations used here were less exotic and otherworldly. This has a darker, murkier appearance than the previous film, which I didn't really like. I don't think that Val Guest was the director that Don Chaffey was, I'm afraid.As in "One Million Years B.C.", the entirety of the dialogue is in the cave people's fictional language, though in this instance it seems to consist mostly of three words: Neekro (anything to do with killing or death), Akoba (the name of the Sun God, as well as Robert Brown's character in the aforementioned film) and Akita (everything from "over here" to "hey you," basically). These three words were repeated ad nauseam and it gets a little trying after a while. There is too much dialogue in the film and not enough dinosaurs, frankly. At 96 minutes, the film is about 20 minutes too long.With films like this, it's sort of hard to criticise them in the same way as other films. It doesn't have a plot per se but, than again, neither does "One Million Years B.C."! They're both basically a collection of set pieces but the set pieces in the earlier film were better and it was far more visually striking and memorable. When it comes to the acting, Patrick Allen (whose excellent voice was also put to use for the film's opening narration) does the best job of delivering the made-up language with conviction while Imogen Hassall, one of several Hammer actresses to die in their 30s, is not far behind. Victoria Vetri and Robin Hawdon are likable in the lead roles but they're no Raquel Welch or John Richardson.Overall, this is very fun film but "One Million Years B.C." is still the exemplar of the prehistoric fur bikini genre.

Val Guest directed this third prehistoric based Hammer studios film, with fine F/X by Jim Danforth & Roger Dicken. The story involves a beautiful tribeswoman(played by stunning beauty Victoria Vetri) who was targeted for human sacrifice but escaped by the timely intervention of nature. Now on the run, she later finds romance with another tribesman, as they must dodge hostile tribes and dinosaurs in order to survive. Like Raquel Welch before her, Victoria Vetri is the star attraction, and goes farther being unclothed than Welch did! Just as silly and historically absurd as its predecessors, Miss Vetri makes it watchable. Note that the DVD(a double feature) was withdrawn from circulation because it mistakenly used the uncut(Nudity) British version instead! This is the only version worth watching however, so perhaps Warner Brothers will one day re-release it through their archive collection.

The Cave Man vs Dinosaur movie is ridiculed as unscientific. Harryhausen came to the defense of the concept in his Film Fantasy Scrapbook-casually suggesting archaeological evidence was pushing back human origins or closing the gap between them and dinosaurs. We will never prove 100 percent what was living in prehistoric times and I could not care less one way or the other. This is supposed to be a fantasy film. The idea of humans alongside dinosaurs isn't meant to be historical fact, but imaginative fun.In watching this film and its predecessor, what strikes me the most is the total professional manner the actors treat the subject matter. Especially impressive is Patrick Allen who spends a good deal of time shouting Neekro but handles it like he's doing Richard the Third! He behaves as professionally as Frank Langella playing an evil toy in Masters of the Universe.These days people would wink at the camera or have a joke-filled script--claiming that its the only way to deal with such nonsense. One thing about the 60s and a studio like Hammer was that they treated their films seriously.My only real criticism is the inclusion of a quick shot from Irwin Allen's despicable Lost World where in two reptiles were mutilated and killed for the film. Other than that I think the movie does its best with its budget and resources and its unfortunate movies today are too uptight and unimaginative to try something like this.

I'll readily admit that I'm not a huge fan of Hammer's prehistoric adventures. The distinct lack of English dialogue in these films always seem to me to hamper them too much, so that the story gets dumbed down to the level of 'us vs them' chasing and a literal caveman mentality. In the end, the only reason you can watch these is for the spectacle, and indeed that's the case when it comes to WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH, a film that features some great and detailed sequences involving dinosaurs and not a lot else.The somewhat broad storyline involves a blonde-haired cavegirl who escapes certain sacrifice only to fall in love with the member of another tribe. Eventually, she's outcast from there too, and then hunted down by her former neighbours, all of whom seem determined to see her killed. There's not a great deal more to it than that, I'm afraid.There's not really any scope for acting here. Victoria Vetri was a Playboy pin-up, not an actress, so she fills the bikini readily enough and that's all that's required of her. Patrick Allen beats his chest and sports a masculine beard but is given little to do other than look menacing. The romance scenes between Vetri and Robin Hawdon are sweaty and laughable and, as I mentioned before, the only really enjoyable bits are those involving the dinosaurs. Jim Danforth was the man behind them, and a blinding job he does too.