Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

JohnHowardReid Passable Pal. The story is not particularly engaging. Made up of elements from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, H.G. Wells' Island of Doctor Moreau and Homer's Iliad - with a few slices of pseudo Old Testament thrown in - it seems both overly trite and tediously familiar.The acting is no great shakes either. For a change - not a welcome change so far as this reviewer is concerned - it is the male lead who spends most of his screen time displaying his physique, whilst the heroine remains far more demurely clothed throughout. This seems to be Mr Hall's only movie - which doesn't surprise me. True, the girls may think he's a good-looking lad, but he can't act for toffee, and has all the charisma and usefulness of a pistonless bicycle pump.Miss Holden is slightly more appealing. This was her second or third film and she did go on to enjoy a very modest career in the 60s. The support players, led by an appropriately villainous John Dall, have more to offer, with Berry Kroeger excelling as the vicious "surgeon".Pal's flat, lazily unimaginative direction with its plentitude of monotonously dull close-ups doesn't help the dialogue scenes any. Fortunately, the director has handled his action material in a more vigorous manner. The "ordeal by fire and water" packs a moderately exciting wallop. This and other sequences are further spiced by a few impressive sets and dazzling props.Of course it's neither the story itself nor the stars that will attract customers to Atlantis. It's the allure of those destructive-earthquake-watery-grave special effects implicit in the title. Despite some extremely obvious shortcomings and budgetary limitations - crude make-up for the human animals; easily recognizable crowd, arena, forum and fire shots from Quo Vadis; glaringly miniature buildings made of cardboard - the destruction of Atlantis is just impressive enough to justify the price of admission. Just!OTHER VIEWS: Berry Kroeger plays a wizard who turns slaves into pigs. We love the scene in which he compels one of his victims to repeat after him: "Every day, in every way, I'm getting to be a boar!" Climax aside, it would be difficult to think up a more acurate description of the movie itself. It held such promise too, but as it slowly unfolds, the story gets less and less involving, the acting more and more wooden. A bore indeed! - JHR writing as George Addison

rudge49 That's how it looked to me when I saw it on its first release in 1961-I was 11 at the time. And that's how to view it. Don't expect incredibly subtle acting, profound and penetrating dialog, deep insights into the human condition. It's an adventure movie, its protagonist is an ordinary man thrown into incredible circumstances-like Indiana Jones, no ? George Pal's pre-CGI specials effects hold up well, a good example where imagination linked to a strong sense of credibility make up for lack of technology. Think of Ray Harryhausen or the Lydecker Brothers, they were George Pal's contemporaries. Joyce Taylor as Princess Antilla-hmmm,isn't she a lot like like Princess Leaia ? Nice to look at, drives the boys wild, but feisty, rather iron willed and not to ready to cuddle up to those she deems inferiors. Has several familiar themes-Evil Empire headed by-or at least guided by-mad scientist, sees outsiders as inferiors merely to be subjugated for the benefit of the "Master Race", but one of the top men has pangs of consciences, senses they're unleashing forces they can't control. And what they're doing is wrong. Regarding the use of stock footage, scenes from other movies, studios are in business to make money and they often do so by cutting corners and using what they have on hand, profits are made as much through not spending money, avoiding losses as through ticket sales, producers and directors who complete movies on or ahead of schedule and at or under budget are viewed with great favor by studio execs.

bkoganbing At the age of 14 I liked Atlantis, The Lost Continent because I had 14 year old tastes at the time it was in theater. George Pal produced a really neat show for juveniles and it came out at a time when Italian studios were turning out dozens of these films based on classical ancient times. Looking at it more than five decades later I can now appreciate the great cast of character players brought in to support a pair of less than charismatic leads. Any film that has John Dall, Edward Platt, Berry Kroeger, Frank DeKova, Jay Novello, and Edgar Stehli should not be missed.Our leads are Anthony Hall as Demetrios a poor but humble Greek fisherman who catches Joyce Taylor a princess from a far away land. She's run away because she doesn't want to marry Dall and considering he's more than a bit off kilter who could blame her. She still insists on royal prerogatives in dealing even with her rescuer.In the end Hall takes his little fishing boat beyond those Pillars of Hercules at the mouth of the Mediterranean and they find Atlantis or Atlantis actually finds them in a metallic submarine that Dall is captaining. After that Hall is taken to the island of Atlantis where Edgar Stehli is the king, Taylor his daughter, Kroeger a mad scientist physician who has created a race of mutants, DeKova the court astrologer and Platt a priest. Each one of these people gets to strut the stuff that we expect from them. Pal gave them all their heads and they run with it. As an adult this is what I love this picture for.Especially Dall working that death ray machine. The man is truly achieving orgasm as he zaps people into non-existence with a phaser like device. The Atlanteans all dress in classical Peplum style, but have made some really far advances.Juveniles will still love it, many adults will too. But as Atlantis falls, didn't someone think to save that submarine. Whoever did would be ruling the planet.

berberian00-276-69085 This is the best Movie I could find on the Atlantis radiation theme, despite my utter disappointment and dismay - cf., "Atlantis, the Lost Continent" (1961); directed by George Pal. Now I am an old dog and shouldn't allow such mis-classification about a genre that provides lush opportunities for at least 20 movies to be made with box-office success. The problem is, as I see it, perhaps lack of good scenarios and even if they exist to be devoid of inner consistency because they interpret the Atlantic myth as Bronze Age culture, which is not! Plato said with absolute conviction in the dialogue "Critias" (left unfinished) that the story developed 9000 years before his lifetime - a war took place between those outside the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar and those who dwelt within them. Then he gives description of the Athenian civilization, where the Parthenon and other temple structures are not yet built; Athenians are at agriculturalist level of development.The Atlantis island is bequeathed to Hellenic god Poseidon, who fell in love with Cleito, the daughter of autochthones Evenor and Leucippe, which bear him five pairs of male twins. The eldest of these, Atlas, was made rightful king of the entire island and the ocean was called the Atlantic Ocean in his honor. Atlas's twin Gadeirus was given the extremity of the island towards the pillars of Hercules, and the other four pairs of twins — Ampheres and Evaemon, Mneseus and Autochthon, Elasippus and Mestor, and Azaes and Diaprepes — were also given "rule over many men, and a large territory." Those are the Kings of Atlantis. Then he describes the Royal Palace enclosed within three circular moats of increasing width, varying from one to three stadia and separated by rings of land proportional in size ... There is consistent effort in modern interpreters to make here an allusion with Crete-Mycenae structures and archaeology, while in my opinion the issue lies in much older mores and races.Consider the book from Lewis Spence, "History of Atlantis" (1927) - a hilarious piece of writing, would admonish someone, printed for enjoyment by an Occultist and Mythology expert. It is my favorite choice if I have to work on a scenario for Atlantis film. Unfortunately, the contents are not available on-line but I should avail myself to retell it briefly.Atlanteans are from the races of, so called, "Paleolithic Greeks" - Azilian and Aurignacian cultures (those are Cro-Magnon men living c. 10 000 B.C. and before, which had displaced Neanderthals and other ugly head savages from preceding eras). The Cro-Magnons are invaders of Europe from the Atlantic, that is to say, through land-bridges that are remnants of a sunken continent (relationship with Guanches of the Canary Islands). In their new territories of Pyrenees and Dordogne (South-West Europe) traces from their former culture exist in the Basque Language, exclusive Cave Art and fine implements from Wood, Flint and Horn. They have developed a symbolic system of notation (not alphabetic) with strokes, circles, crosses, zig-zags and ladder-like patterns. They build stone abodes for spiritual purposes. The Cro-Magnons were forerunners of modern Neolithic men. Many facts and artifacts about their culture remain uncertain. Enjoy Your Time!