Popular reviews

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  Review by GoodBadMovies ★★½

  Der erste Dino-Film in Farbe! Ein wirklich liebloser, schnell heruntergekurbelter King-Kong-Klon mit ständig in Ohnmacht fallenden Protagonisten und Darstellern in drolligen bis lächerlichen Dinosaurierkostümen, die ziemlich blind und hilflos umhertaumeln und stark nach Elefanten klingen :D Ach ja. Und einen Mann im Affenkostüm gibt es auch noch zu sehen. Der verursacht vielleicht die (unfreiwillig) witzigste Szene des ganzen Films: Eine Reaktion eines gefühlt ewig schreienden Mannes in Großaufnahme. Zum schießen :D Zwischendurch herrscht erwartungsgemäß viel Langeweile.

  Fazit: Charmanter, harmloser, unfreiwillig komischer Abenteuer-Stuss mit unterirdischen Effekten und einigen Längen.

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  Review by Mondo Cinema ★★½ 2

  letterboxd.com/zombifan/list/tokyo-in-flames-mondo-cinemas-giant-monster/

  "Its out of this world!!"

  This late forties giant monsters / jungle adventure has little to boast about other than being the first dinosaur movie in color, and Barton Maclane's performance as a bombastic, lecherous ship captain.
  Other than that, its a "poor man's" king kong right down to a giant sloth (ape costume with fangs) fighting a t Rex.
  Its entertaing enough, and if you grew up watching stuff like this Saturday afternoons on local uhf channels you should enjoy it.
  Viewers will at least get a kick out of the shabby dino suits.

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  Review by Joachim Andersson ★★★ 1

  Short and sweet and full of stiff rubbermonsters, brute men and females that faint when they see a dinosaur. This low budget King Kong ripoff is really routine at best but it is impossible to resist its silly charms.

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  Review by PUNQ ★★★

  Jurassic World '48 with wonderful cheesy special effects of the era to match! Too rooted in B-movie land to be called great, but I found it more entertaining than its reputation would suggest, though some of that comes from its so-bad-it's-good elements. The things is, there wasn't many movies like this being made at the time, so it does stand-out among its contemporaries and Barton MacLane really did elevate the experience with a damn solid performance for such a movie.

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  Review by Michael Brooks ★★★

  This was a well-crafted “lost world” movie that is not only populated by a variety of cool if silly looking dinosaurs it also has a cast of characters that are far beyond what you often find in a low-budget adventure film of this type, which goes to prove that even with little money a good script and can make up for a lot, and Shannon’s screenplay is ably aided by a talented cast of actors who all do excellent work here, with Barton MacLane and Richard Denning providing especially standout performances, and even the low-rent dinosaurs on display has its own element of charm.

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  Review by Muddguts ★★

  I found this DVD at a used shop the other day and being monster and dinosaur movie lover I snapped it up even though I have somehow never heard of it. 

  Despite its many short comings it was an enjoyable 75 minute adventure full of colourful characters and bottom of the barrel monsters. The movie has some credibility with Richard Denning in the cast but IMO he is overshadowed by Barton Maclane as the loose cannon and “jungle fever” ravaged ship captain. Womanizer, drunkard, violent tempered and none too bright he was a blast to watch.

  The only thing missing from the movie was an erupting volcano. On this budget that would be been glorious to see!

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  Review by RazorRex ★★★

  Unknown Island is by no means a masterpiece but it is not bad either.

  Sure the plot is nothing new as it just recycles things from The Lost World and has laughably bad effects but there is enjoyment in this film for how unintentionally hilarious it is.

  Plus this was the first dinosaur film in color so that was nice and the sound effects for the animals were actually decent.

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  Review by Nathan McGee ★★★

  Cheesy old school dinosaur movie here. The acting is shockingly not bad here. The story is average. It is the ususal people go to a unknown island and find dinosaurs. The same old cliche plot since King Kong and Lost World ( not Jurassic Park). The dinosaurs aren't stop motion, but ridiculous looking suits. It is funny as hell to watch. Decent.

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  Review by Michael_Elliott ★★½ 1

  Carole Lane (Virginia Grey) agrees to finance her fiancés (Philip Reed) trip to a tropical island where there are rumors of prehistoric monsters. They hired Captain Tarnowski (Carton MacLane) to take them there but he forces an alcoholic (Richard Denning) into going with them because at one point he claimed to have been on the island and saw the monsters.

  I stumbling into this movie because I was looking for Unknown WORLD but this one came up. I'm really shocked that I hadn't seen it before since I had seen a lot of these KING KONG inspired movies but I'm glad I got around to this one because it was a lot better than I was expecting it to be.…

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  Review by Space Sweeper

  peak problematic pulp-adventurecore

  the scariest thing about this unknown island is that the apes sound like dinosaurs and the dinosaurs sound like apes........ has modernity got it wrong? did Jurassic Park ruin our entire perception of these lumbering beasts, these brutish reptiles?

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  Review by Snatchr ★★★★

  [monkey screams]

  My favorite thing about ye olde dinosaur material is how its always just like

  "Y'SEE... THE DINASARR KNEW NEITHER LOVE NOR GOD, AND THEIR SLUGGISH GAIT EMBODIES THEIR LACK OF AMBITION AND DRIVE THAT WE HUMAN BEINGS SO POSSESS, ITS REALLY NO WONDER THEY DIED OUT! IDIOTS!"

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  Review by Ethan Myers ★★

  Part The Lost World, part King Kong, Unknown Island sees a group embark on a treacherous journey to an island populated by creatures thought lost to time.

  This is the first colour feature film in my Dino-Rama journey which I thought was something worth noting. Sadly, there isn't much I can say for the film as a whole. There isn't anything particularly memorable about it, perhaps with the exception of the hordes of goofy rubber suit ceratosaurs and what I believe is meant to be a giant ground sloth but looks more like Kong's estranged cousin.

  I did find some interesting things about Unknown Island on it's Wikipedia page. Firstly, the film is apparently in public domain, so on that…