Essentially an unacknowledged remake of Hammer's most financially successful film "One Million Years B.C.", it's not on the same level as that film but it's still great fun. Ray Harryhausen, the master of stop motion, did not return for this film but Jim Danforth is a more than worthy substitute. The dinosaurs look brilliant for their time and they hold up remarkably well. It's a shame that stop motion is essentially a lost art form in the 21st Century. While both films were shot in the Canary Islands, the locations used here were less exotic and otherworldly. This has a darker, murkier appearance than the previous film, which I didn't really like. I don't think that Val Guest was the director that Don Chaffey was, I'm afraid.As in "One Million Years B.C.", the entirety of the dialogue is in the cave people's fictional language, though in this instance it seems to consist mostly of three words: Neekro (anything to do with killing or death), Akoba (the name of the Sun God, as well as Robert Brown's character in the aforementioned film) and Akita (everything from "over here" to "hey you," basically). These three words were repeated ad nauseam and it gets a little trying after a while. There is too much dialogue in the film and not enough dinosaurs, frankly. At 96 minutes, the film is about 20 minutes too long.With films like this, it's sort of hard to criticise them in the same way as other films. It doesn't have a plot per se but, than again, neither does "One Million Years B.C."! They're both basically a collection of set pieces but the set pieces in the earlier film were better and it was far more visually striking and memorable. When it comes to the acting, Patrick Allen (whose excellent voice was also put to use for the film's opening narration) does the best job of delivering the made-up language with conviction while Imogen Hassall, one of several Hammer actresses to die in their 30s, is not far behind. Victoria Vetri and Robin Hawdon are likable in the lead roles but they're no Raquel Welch or John Richardson.Overall, this is very fun film but "One Million Years B.C." is still the exemplar of the prehistoric fur bikini genre.

"Blondes have more fun" is what the popular expression says, but this definitely isn't applicable to the prehistoric world perspective of writer/director Val Guest! The blond-haired protagonist of this film leads quite a miserable life as a fugitive and outcast. She – Sanna – initially lives in a tribe for which the sun is their God and they ritually sacrifice their blond family members. During the ceremony in which Sanna is supposed to be sacrificed, a heavy storm breaks loose and she manages to escape. She joins another tribe and immediately receives a lot of male attention, but the brunettes in that tribe promptly invent the behavior female jealousy and poor Sanna is again exiled. Roaming through the raw landscape, she seeks shelter in a broken dinosaur egg shell and mama dinosaur takes custody over her the very next day. I have tremendous respect for Val Guest! After all, he was the director of some of the greatest and most groundbreaking (Hammer) productions such as "The Quatermass Experiment" and "The Abominable Snowman". Val Guest undeniably was a very visionary and intelligent director, but perhaps this bombastic project was *slightly* over- ambitious and unfeasible. There were quite a lot of dinosaur flicks and caveman adventures being released in that era (1960- 1970), but Guest wanted his to be superior and more realistic than the rest. They even invented a specific language existing of 27 different words, but all I ever heard was "akita". Akita, akita, akita! At a certain point I was convinced that "akita" was the primitive word for "boobs" or "cleavage", because literally all women in this film have luscious curves and are scarcely dressed, so I automatically presumed that all males were delirious. Via the trivia section here on the website, I later found out that "akita" simply means "look over there". Bummer! Even though original and clever, the restricted vocabulary of the cast members quickly leads to dull, repetitive and overlong footage. The dinosaurs look impressive enough, thanks to the brilliant expertise of Jim Danforth, but there's too few action and excitement. Besides, the title doesn't make a lot of sense since the dinosaurs are a lot less fierce than most of the women. Speaking of which, did I mention that the women are gorgeous? Blondes or brunettes, prehistoric women are genuine beauties! Akita, dammit

Hammer's follow-up to One Million Years BC sees it covering similar ground - a caveman soap opera featuring gorgeous, beautifully coiffed cavegirls in stylish fur bikinis vying with each other for the attentions of a series of grubby, unprepossessing cavemen, while assorted animated rubber anachronisms cavort around in the background (and the foreground. And, indeed, the mid-ground).I'm not sure why this movie seems so lack-lustre. Admittedly, it doesn't have Raquel Welch as the sympathetic blonde hottie, but it does have Playboy centrefold Victoria Vetri (who gets her kit off in the uncensored version if you're in the market for that sort of thing)(and I am), not to mention the gloriously pneumatic (and ultimately tragic) Imogen Hassall filling the Martine Beswick role of nasty brunette crumpet.Admittedly it doesn't have Ray Harryhausen animating the critters, but it does have Jim Danforth whose animation is silky smooth and incredibly naturalistic.Admittedly it doesn't have a climactic earthquake, but it does have a tidal wave, preceded by the enormously entertaining spectacle of feverish raft-building and Patrick Allen (subbing for Robert Brown) trying to hold a tsunami back by sheer force of personality with a notable lack of success.Admittedly it doesn't have John Richardson's rugged good looks hidden behind a mountain of hair, but it does have Robin Hawdon making a valiant attempt to be a prehistoric feminist in relatively clean-shaven fashion.I've decided - it's just as good! Bring me the DVD and bring it now! Ahot!

Hammer's follow up the successful One Million Years BC concerns a tribe that sacrifices blonde women to appease their sun god. Sanna a blonde woman escapes during said ritual, the tribal leader Kingsor makes it his duty to find her searching high and low throughout his domain. Sanna (Victoria Vetri) is rescued by an alpha male Tara, from a nearby fishing tribe, he falls for her immediately, but Kingsor turns up to cause trouble. Rather silly caveman social drama that uses annoying caveman talk as a means of communication throughout, it does get repetitive and tiresome towards the end. The plot also involves the creation of the Earths moon which naturally causes more concern for the primitives and also a rather unusual use of a Tsunami, well before they became popular. Another positive is the lovely females whose fur and leopardskin bikinis are very easy on the eye, if you're lucky the first edition of this DVD includes nudity from playboy centrefold Vetri.