Spoonixel
Amateur movie with Big budget
Roy Hart
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Patience Watson
One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.
movieman_kev
Sadly even the combined great talents of Jeffrey Combs, Michelle Bauer, Sybil Dannng, and yes, even Robby the Robot cant save this boring little film about a small group of people finding a 'lost world' in a cave while searching for diamonds. It kills me because I love the films Fred Olen Ray did in the '80's. For the most part they were just low-budget cheesy goodness that put a smile upon my face. (Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is SOOO good). But this film just didn't do anything for me & even though he'd make a last gasp with the enjoyable "Scream Queen Hot Tub Party" and extremely fun "Wizards of the Demon Sword", the decades after wouldn't be nearly as kind to him movie-writing wise.My Grade: D Retro-media DVD Extras: Commentary by Fred Olen Ray & Gary Graver; Nite Owl Theater (basically just an intro by Fred); 24 minute documentary; 10 minutes of behind the scenes footage; 3 minutes of alternate takes for TV; Stills gallery; & unused artwork Eye Candy: Michelle Bauer & Tricia Burns both get topless while catfighting (There's also 3 topless girls in the Nite Owl Theater special feature)
unbrokenmetal
Despite the title, not a remake of the 1935 trash classic with Gene Autry. In this Fred Olen Ray movie, an expedition enters a (very bright) dark cave and discovers cave girls including the cute Michelle Bauer, dinosaurs, cannibals, a robot firing green laser beams and, above all, the voluptuous Sybil Danning as a black leather alien queen. Now, read it slowly again. Does that make any sense? No, it doesn't, you can't even land a space ship in a cave with walls all around. Therefore, no need to argue whether it's a bad movie, since you already know the answer. This is mindless fun for a special audience, and if you like to see Sybil Danning kill a tiny stop animation dinosaur with a spear, get your copy.
gridoon
....and that happens at around the 50-minute mark, when Sybil (as a character in the film exclaims, "WOW!") Danning appears, well-cast as a fighting alien queen. Up until then "The Phantom Empire" is a plodding, sleep-inducing trek, and the cannibals with Halloween masks over their faces and old rags for clothes are beneath Z-grade cinema. The sole bright spot is Michelle Bauer as a bikini-clad "cave bunny". After Danning's entrance, the viewer can at least focus on her phenomenal figure, and it's easier to forgive the unimpressive stop-motion animation effects (I think "One Million Years B.C.", from 1965, has a better dinosaur battle than the one featured here). But if you want to see something from Fred Olen Ray that looks more like a real film and less like a college project, seek out his "Cyclone" from the following year. (*1/2) P.S.: To claim that you watched this film "for the dinosaurs" is like claiming that you watched "Jurassic Park" for the T & A.
pumaye
You know from the start that will be a harsh movie to go through, but you sincerely hope in something better when it is finished. Not even campy, but a real shame of a movie, made with cheap sets, terrible script, not even enough nudes to justify the rent. A real waste of time