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I suppose everyone who read Edgar Rice Burroughs as a teenager has always dreamed of seeing Burroughs done right by Hollywood. The classic Hollywood versions of Tarzan with Johnny Weismueller and Maureen O'Sullivan do Tarzan a grave injustice by making him a moron. The Pellucidar movies that AIP did with Doug McClure in the seventies hint at a world of wonders, but are too cheap and too intent on making a buck. Tarzan was turned into a soft-core porno-stud by John and Bo Derek; and no one has ever even gone near A Princess of Mars. Sure, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes is good, but it isn't Burroughs. It's what Burroughs looks like when handled by embarassed English directors gone slumming. So it comes as a surprise that Tarzan and the Lost City makes an attempt to meet Burroughs on his own ground. It even takes a jab at direct translation of one of the later Tarzan books: Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar.

Tarzan and the Lost City has something of the feel of later Burroughs, in which nothing gets in the way of telling the story. It clocks in at less than 90 minutes, which is a gentle and unlooked-for mercy in these days of 2-hour plus action epics. Its good that this is short, because its goofy as all get out. The peril of taking later Edgar Rice Burroughs as a model lies in the fact that after the first few books, Burroughs lost interest in his character and by the time The Jewels of Opar showed up, Tarzan hung around his neck like an albatross. It is a flat book and Tarzan and the Lost City is a flat movie. It is not enlivened by visual flair or dazzling action. It has bad computer effects. And it has no character development. One can even hear the filmmakers in the background with a checklist: confront great white hunter, check; romantic interlude with Jane, check; antics by the chimp, check; shots of animals from the second unit in Africa, check. It is completely by-the-numbers. This is really too bad, because there is a germ of a good movie buried here. There is a rousing action film begging to be coaxed out of this dull movie if only there were talent anywhere in evidence. Alas, such is not the case. I guess the kiddies will like it.