Search - Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 7/24/2023...

So bad that its not even worth watching on Mystery Science Theater 3000!

A great movie to watch when you're stoned!

Ronald Reagan III | 12/10/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"PRE-HISTORIC PLANET is one of three AIP films that contain stolen fottage from Russian soviet epic, PLANET OF STORMS. I think that the footage was "discovered" by Roger Corman who was wroking for AIP around this time. The film is an incredibly slow made-for-TV movie but once it gets going it's a bent, giddy and unintentionally hilarious romp with lots of weird looking sets and hilarious looking dinosaurs. If you enjoyed this classic, take a look at the even-better PLANET OF BLOOD (AKA: QUEEN OF BLOOD)."

Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

Steven Hellerstedt | 09/18/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"VOYAGE TO A PREHISTORIC PLANET was made in 1965, stars Basil Rathbone, and the cover depicts one snarling and one glaring dinosaur towering over three space-suited astronauts. Does anything more really need be said?

Plot - The year is 2020 and American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts are traveling to Venus. I've read somewhere that this is a Russia film that had scenes inserted and some phony American credits plastered on it prior to release, but wasn't interested enough to see if my favorite internet search engine could cough up the answers to that mystery. Rathbone plays a scientist on the satellite Lunar 7 and the other `star' in this one, Faith Domergue, is an astronautlette on the Venus-orbiting Vega. A handful of `nauts and John the Robot are on the Venus surface, dodging the stray alamosaurus and/or 12-foot-tall man-eating venus flytrap while finding evidence of an ancient Venusian civilization.

There probably was an okay Russian movie here before Roger Corman Productions got their hands on this one. John the Robot is cool and some of the special effects are a cut above the standard glop they were putting out then. The story drags terribly, though, and Rathbone is apparently included for name recognition rather than to serve the plot or to move things along. Thankfully, they don't dress him up in a goofy costume or otherwise embarrass him. The pacing is terrible, the dubbing is atrocious and there's no drama to speak of. The print, although the color is somewhat washed out and there are some scratches, is in okay condition. Not recommended.
"

Take a Soviet science fiction film, add new scenes, stir...

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 12/01/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, according to my research "Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet" is a Roger Corman production that uses footage from a 1962 Soviet science fiction film produced by the Leningrad Studio of Popular Science Fiction films and entitled "Planeta Bur" (variously translated as "Planet of Storms" and "Storm Planet," but more accurately titled at one point "Cosmonauts on Venus"). This Soviet film was apparently strong on production design, but weak on the plot: Cosmonauts and their robot, that plays dance music, land on Venus looking for intelligent life but only find dinosaurs, killer plants, and, of course, a volcanic eruption. As the crew departs an intelligent Venusian watches they leave. Anyhow, much of the footage from the Venus sequences was used in "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet" in 1965, intercut with new material from writer/director John Sebastian (a pseudonym of Curtis Harrington), which does not really constitute a remake of the Soviet film, but which is certainly in the ballpark. Some of the "Planeta Bur" footage was used in another Corman production, "Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women" (1966, a.k.a. "Gill Woman), which was Peter Bogdanovich's directorial debut courtsey of the Roger Corman apprenticeship program."Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet" stars Basil Rathbone as Professor Hartman, who is in charge of Earth's expedition of three ships to Venus, even though he is back on a Moon Base. One of the ships is taken out by a meteor while another crashes on Venus, leaving the third to rescue it (good thing they sent three ships, huh?). There is one beautiful women in the crew, played by Faith Domergue, but she does not get to go down on the planet. That is because the footage of the astronauts is really of the cosmonauts from the Soviet film, and they did not have a woman in their crew. Got it? Anyhow, two of men from the rocket in orbit, along with their robot, go down to the surface to rescue the crew from the rocket that crashed. There they encounter, well, dinosaurs, killer planets, and, of course, a volcanic eruption. Meanwhile, the big question down on Venus is whether the planet is inhabited by beautiful women. This question might be more than wishful thinking, because some of the boys think they hearing a woman's voice singing. I have to admit that all things considered I would be more interested in seeing "Planeta Bur," even without subtitles, than "Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet" (I have a question about that title: do you have to have "humans" to have history? Because these "dinosaurs" are probably a lot smarter than these humans so maybe they have some sort of oral history going at this point). There are just too many unintentional laughs in this film to ever take it seriously and the cutting back and forth between the old and the new is no where as smooth as it is in, say, the original "Godzilla" with Raymond Burr. Of course, there is something to be said for a "remake" that includes so much footage from the original. But I will stop now. This is a party movie, not something for the serious connoisseur."