# Tarzan and the Lost City (1998)

### reviewed by
David Sunga

    TARZAN AND THE LOST CITY (1998)

    Rating: 2.0 stars (out of 4.0)
    ********************************
    Key to rating system:
    2.0 stars - Debatable
    2.5 stars - Some people may like it
    3.0 stars - I liked it
    3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie
    4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out
    *********************************

    Directed by: Carl Schenkel

Written by: Bayard Johnson, J. Anderson Black from stories and characters by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Starring: Casper Van Dien, Jane March, Steven Waddington

Ingredients: True love, Tarzan, Jane, lost city of Opar

Synopsis: Tarzan, (Casper Van Dien) jungle lord turned society guy, is in Britain preparing for his wedding to Jane Porter (Jane March) when he receives a psychic call from an African medicine man, telling him that white men are plundering Africa. Some bad guys led by Mr. Nigel Ravens are on an expedition to find and loot the lost African city of Opar, considered taboo and sacred by the African natives, who unfortunately, don't have the guns to stop Ravens and his men. Tarzan sails back to Africa to stop Ravens. Jane soon follows Tarzan to Africa and is captured by Ravens.

    Can Tarzan stop Ravens?

Opinion: Other than less vine-swinging for Tarzan, and a more liberated Jane, there is nothing new to be found here. Like Kevin Coster's accent in ROBINHOOD, the African language, songs, and drum rhythms in TARZAN AND THE LOST CITY are obviously faked. Tarzan's British accent seems to come and go as well.

The plot also has a big hole in it: the African medicine man Mugambi supposedly summons Tarzan for help, but the shaman apparently possesses enough magical powers to easily handle the white men on his own; he can turn himself into giant bulletproof snakes and hordes of bees, and can make dead bones turn into magical warriors. Even the non-magical African villagers are able to send Raven and his looters scurrying away into a cave - - using mere spears and arrows. So why ask Tarzan to come over from England? The only real purpose Tarzan serves is to rescue Jane, who, predictably gets captured following Tarzan to Africa.

Is it bad? Not really. TARZAN AND THE LOST CITY feels a lot like a Saturday afternoon made-for-TV movie. With the same movie set and characters but a different plot, language, and music, it would have been a sharper, more exotic film.

Actually TARZAN AND THE LOST CITY reminds me a lot of the 12 BOMBA OF THE JUNGLE action series movies made between 1949 and 1955, which - - according to MATT'S BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY MOVIE GUIDE - - were created by hiring a B-movie veteran as the director/writer, and using "a shoestring budget with predictable plots and a heavy reliance on stock jungle footage."

Campy and predictable? Yes, but good enough for a Saturday afternoon.

    Reviewed April 24, 1998

Copyright © 1998 by David Sunga This review and others like it can be found at THE CRITIC ZOO: http://www.criticzoo.com email: zookeeper@criticzoo.com

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