Jurassic School (2017)
Children's Dinosaur Film
The Asylum offer up their own mockbuster copy of the Jurassic World films, an amiable children’s film where a young boy hatches a dinosaur egg he finds
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs refers to any of an extinct species of reptiles. Dinosaurs emerged on the Earth in the prehistoric past some 230-240 billion years ago and were killed off 64 million years ago.
There has been a great fascination with dinosaurs since the days of silent cinema. They are frequently found in Films About Lost Worlds – some undiscovered pocket of the world where prehistoric life still lives. There is also the recurrent popularity of anthropologically absurd prehistoric adventures where cavemen are seen fighting dinosaurs.
The 1950s gave us the atomically revived dinosaurs beginning with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953). The genre underwent a revival during the 1990s with the massive success of Jurassic Park (1993) and its revival of dinosaurs by genetic-engineering and their bringing to life with CGI effects.
There have also been a variety of animated and children’s dinosaur films or else comedy takes such as the various incarnations of The Flintstones. There are even a number of Alternate History Films where the dinosaurs have not died off.
The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island (1997)
Animation/Talking Dinosaurs
The fifth of The Land Before Time animated films about talking dinosaurs, all having been made for very young children
King Dinosaur (1955)
Planet of Dinosaurs
The first film from Bert I. Gordon, known for his cheap giant animal films through the 1950s. This concerns a space expedition to a planet inhabited by dinosaurs – cue Gordon’s usual cheap effects
Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
Live-Action Transformer Robots
The fifth of Michael Bay’s Transformers films. This comes with more of an outright comedy focus than any of the other films where Bay seems to be second-guessing his critics and spoofing his own peccadilloes in quote marks, only to produce the silliest entry in the series yet
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Genetically Engineered Dinosaurs Amok
The first sequel to the massive success of Jurassic Park where Steven Spielberg returns to direct with a script that seems a mishmash of loose ends that only weakly rehashes the original
Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus (2010)
Giant Monsters
The first sequel to The Asylum’s Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus and marginally a better film. This is less sparing with the cheap effects, while in every other regard it plants tongue-in-cheek and tries to make a virtue out of the sheer ridiculousness of the action
Gappa the Triphibian Monster (1967)
Japanese Monster Movie
This was a fairly crappy and terrible Japanese monster movie from a rival company seeking to copy the success of Toho’s Godzilla films
The Crater Lake Monster (1977)
Monster in the Lake
An attempt to make an American equivalent of a Loch Ness Monster film. This drowns amid a dreary cheapness. The passable stop-motion animation effects have been a frequent source of ridicule
Yor, The Hunter from the Future (1983)
Barbarian in a Post-Holocaust World
Italian cheapie that has become regarded as a bad movie classic. This starts out as a Conan the Barbarian ripoff before, in a twist lifted from Teenage Caveman, we learn we are in a post-apocalyptic future
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000)
Prehistoric Comedy/Cartoon in Live-Action
Sequel to the live-action The Flintstones film. Whether we asked for it or not, this offers up a Flintstones origin story where we see familiar elements of the series fall into place
Tammy and the T-Rex (1994)
Teen Transplanted Into a Robot Dinosaur Body
One of the films that came out in the aftermath of Jurassic Park, notable only for the absurdity of its premise wherein teen Paul Walker’s brain is transplanted into an animatronic dinosaur body and he struggles to reconnect with girlfriend Denise Richards
Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (2009)
Giant Monsters
The Asylum’s first venture into the gonzo shark movie that would spin off a series of sequels and culminate in the Sharknado phenomenon. Despite one of the great attention grabbing titles of all time, this is an unmemorable affair
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026)
Animation/Videogame Adaptation
Sequel to the animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was the second highest grossing film of 2023. From the people behind the Despicable Me films, this exists as little more than eye candy for five-year-olds
Carnosaur (1993)
Genetically-Engineered Dinosaurs Amok
A Roger Corman produced cheapie about genetically engineered dinosaurs that was quickly rushed out to exploit the success of Jurassic Park. Corman went on to make two sequels
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
Giant Monster Bash
A follow-up to Godzilla vs Kong, this tries to offer more of the same but suffers another ridiculous script. This ended up being overshadowed by the acclaim that the Japanese-made Godzilla: Minus One received
65 (2023)
Trapped on Prehistoric Earth
This seemed to have a lot of promise in its set-up of Adam Driver crashlanded in Earth’s prehistoric past fighting off dinosaurs
Shark Attack 3: Megalodon (2002)
Giant Prehistoric Shark
John Barrowman fights a giant prehistoric shark in a film that gained a certain reputation as a Bad Movie
Jurassic Shark (2012)
Prehistoric Killer Shark
A killer shark film concerning a prehistoric megalodon prowling the waters of a lake. This once had the distinction of being the lowest rated film on the IMDB
Valley of the Dragons (1961)
Jules Verne Adaptation/Prehistoric Lost World on a Comet
Among the 1950s/60s spate of Jules Verne films, this was an adaptation of one of Vernr’s lesser-known works Hector Servadac/Off on a Comet. That said, all the but the notion of people swept up on a comet is thrown out and the rest played as a prehistoric lost world adventure
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014)
Museum Exhibits Come to Life
The third entry in a franchise that seems to be stretching to find anything to do with its premise beyond the first film. Everyone involved seems to have only turned up to collect a paycheque and be going through the motions in a show that entirely coasts by solely on your familiarity with the characters
Prehysteria! 3 (1995)
Baby Dinosaurs
The third and probably the best of the children’s dinosaur films from Charles Band where the pitiful effects are at least compensated for by an eccentric sense of humour
Prehysteria! (1993)
Baby Dinosaurs
In the aftermath of the success of Jurassic Park, Albert and Charles Band quickly responded with this children’s dinosaur film that contains some of the most pitiful effects in any film of this era
Walking With Dinosaurs (2013)
Animation/Talking Dinosaurs
Walking With Dinosaurs was an amazing documentary series that recreated prehistoric life with CGI animation. By contrast. the film spinoff is a cutsie animated film with talking dinosaurs. It is a film that is killed by the decision to let the dinosaurs talk with smartass one-liners and contemporary in-jokes
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)
Underground Adventures/The Asylum Mockbuster
A mockbusters from The Asylum made to coincide with the big-budget Brendan Fraser film. Resemblance to the Jules Verne book fairly much ends at the title
Dinosaur Island (1994)
Prehistoric Lost Island/Softcore Comedy
A collaboration between B-budget hacks Fred Olen Ray and Jim Wynorski. Made not long after Jurassic Park, the two have simply made one of their usual softcore T&A films and slapped the word dinosaur on it
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
Videogame Adaptation/Evolved Dinosaurs
The first film to be adapted from a videogame and inauspiciously one of the worst. This is a film made on a decent budget that seems to have set out to be as stupid and brainless as possible
Journey to the Center of Time (1967)
Time Travel
A very cheaply made film (actually a remake of The Time Travelers) about a research laboratory propelled through time. Most of the historical scenes are represented by stock footage
A Sound of Thunder (2005)
Time Travel/Dinosaurs Amok/Ray Bradbury Adaptation
Adaptation of the classic Ray Bradbury time travel story is overblown as a ridiculous big-budget film filled with bad science where the original point of the story disappears in a script that makes no sense
Horror of the Blood Monsters (1970)
Space Expedition to a Prehistoric Planet
Film from Z-budget filmmaker Al Adamson. Most of this is reissued from a Filipino caveman film, along with a handful of filler scenes slung together from odds of Adamson’s other half-finished films
Theodore Rex (1995)
Cop and Dinosaur Partner
Disastrous flop that tries to do a Lethal Weapon buddy cop film by way of Jurassic Park and gives us a film about a cop with a dinosaur partner!
The Mighty Gorga (1969)
Giant Ape
A copycat of King Kong made on a budget of about $1.98 and featuring some pitiful giant ape effects
Prehysteria! 2 (1994)
Baby Dinosaurs
The second and worst of Albert and Charles Band’s dinosaur films made for children, this suffers from the most pitiful and immobile effects of any film of the era
A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1990)
Heroine vs Post-Holocaust Dinosaurs
Despite one of the great exploitation titles of all time, this bikini clad babes vs dinosaurs after the apocalypse effort lacks the cheerful cynicism of other Troma films and is just cheap, dull and unwatchable on almost every level
Adventures in Dinosaur City (1991)
Kids Trapped Inside a Dinosaur TV Show
Feeble and shabbily made kid’s film in which children are transported inside the world of their favourite dinosaur tv show. Featuring some terrible dinosaur effects
Land of the Lost (2009)
TV Series Comedy Remake/Prehistoric Lost World
Big screen revival of the children’s lost world tv series that is now a loud and excruciating Will Ferrell vehicle that reduces the original into lowbrow farce. A majorly unfunny bomb on every level
Prehistoric Women (1950)
Prehistoric Drama
Laughable prehistoric drama about cave women searching for mates – too cheap to afford stop-motion animated dinosaurs and filled with ridiculous dialogue howlers
Queen Kong (1976)
Sex-Reversed King Kong Parody
A spectacularly terrible film. Designed to exploit the 1976 remake, this offers up a sex-reversed parody of King Kong – only the Kong producers didn’t see that way and sued to stop the film being released. Robin Askwith, the star of the softcore Confessions films, engages in a romance with a female Kong amid excruciating puns
Bikini Jones and the Temple of Eros (2010)
Softcore Tomb Raider Adventuress
From prolific B-budget director Fred Olen Ray, this is a softcore parody of the Indiana Jones films
Ice Age: Collision Course (2016)
Animation/Prehistoric Talking Animals
I hate the Ice Age films and their tediously extruded adventures. The opening sequence here and its ignorance of even basic science is the most inane thing in the entire series
Reptilicus (1961)
Revived Dinosaur Amok
Incredibly shabbily made Danish copy of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms about a dinosaur revived in Copenhagen
Cowgirls vs Pterodactyls (2021)
Western With Dinosaurs
This gets you watching with its deliberately ridiculous title but once you do, you soon wish you hadn’t. Winner of this site’s Worst Film of 2021.
Monsternado (2023)
Tornado of Monsters
This tries to go one up on Sharknado and offers a tornado made up of assorted animals and prehistoric life. A completely ridiculous film from prolific British producer Scott Jeffrey
One Million AC/DC (1969)
Prehistoric Erotica
A lost Edward D. Wood Jr film. Clearly made as a parody on the hit Raquel Welch-starring One Million Years B.C., this is adult work depicting the sex lives of cave people