Prisoners of the Lost Universe [VHS]

"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.

PRISONERS OF THE LOST UNIVERSE is pretty goofy. Kay Lenz is a TV personality who goes to the home of a scientist for an interview. On the way there, she runs a poor guy named Dan (Richard Hatch) off the road. They part company and Kay gets to the house, where the scientist has invented a gateway to a parrallel universe in his lab (!!). You can guess the rest, as Kay, the scientist, and Dan all accidentally exit this universe and enter the wonky one! John Saxon is a sadistic warlord named Kleel who wants total domination. Anyway, there are bug-eyed natives, a caveman, a green dude, and lots of Ms. Lenz running around in peril! If it weren't for her, I'd have fallen asleep sooner than I did. If you enjoy huge gobs of cheese, then this is worth a peek...

ok i saw this when it aired as a showtime orignal movie in the 80's and thought is was silly fun. a few months ago i found it was running late night on a movie channel and used my dvd burner to burn a copy of it. the story of travel to another universe and the fight with the evil warlord is some great cheese film making,and kay lenz is hot to look at. a pg cheese fest, give it a try it's funny. also it says in the ad that people who bought this video also bought f. scott fitzgerald & the last of the belles ??? what kind of crack are they smokeing to put these two movies together????? (HAha) look for yourself

Being a fan of Battlestar Galactica, and knowing that Richard Hatch was in this movie as well, and thinking I may have seen it when I was young, I found a copy of Prisoners of the Lost Universe on ebay. This turned into one funny and enjoyable movie. Quirky stuff that showed the people behind it had a sense of humor. Man did I laugh.

It's a B flick, and one that is well done and enjoyable. The story revolves around Richard Hatch, Kay Lenz (she played Sandy, Roger Cobb's wife in 80's cult horror flick "House") and a scientist (I forget his name). They end up stuck on a barbaric world (i.e., medieval fantasy flick with science undertones). Legendary John Saxon is the warlord using the scientist to further his own plans. Even the weird elf dude from the movie Hawk the Slayer is here as The Green Man. Swords, monsters, science, funky music. It's all here. My only complaint is that in the 2nd part of the first act or so it sounds like Richard Hatch had a cold during voiceovers and they just left it that way. In a couple places it does not even sound like his voice. But it clears up soon and does not matter much. Lots of funky surprises in this one. This needs to come to DVD!!

IF YOUR IN TO D&D FANTACY ADVENTURE YOU WILL LOVE THIS ! HAVING SEEN IT IN ITS ENTIRETY BACK IN THE 80'S WHEN IT AIRED I CAN TELL YOU THAT SOME HAS BEEN EDITED OUT BUT THAY DID'NT HURT THE STORY LINE AT ALL. AND WHAT A STORY !FAST PACED LOT'S OF ACTION AND VERMIN RIGHT OUT OF THE D&D MONSTER MANUAL ! A MUST SEE FOR DUNGON MASTER'S AND PLAYERS ALIKE !