Tarzan and the Lost City

It's 1913: Tarzan (Starship Troopers' Caspar Van Dien) has returned to England from Africa and is about to marry the beautiful Jane (The Lover's Jane March). But on the very eve of his wedding he's sent a vision from an African shaman beseeching him to return to the jungle. It seems that Nigel Ravens (Steven Waddington), a scholar/explorer and poacher, has stolen an amulet that can lead him to the ancient city of Opar. Naturally Tarzan goes back -- and of course Jane packs up her bags and follows him.

Director Carl Schenkel has created an old-time action-packed adventure in which Tarzan, Jane, his African friends, and numerous wild animals work together to defeat Ravens and his evil cohort. The violence is more in the style of a Tintin comic book than a John Woo thriller -- but it's still pretty convincing. And a number of enlightened ideas help the film fit into the 1990s. March's Jane is a cigar and whiskey aficionado who packs a gun and saves her mate-to-be on a number of occasions. And Van Dien's Tarzan is a green avenger who faces off against the Indiana Jones-like Ravens as the movie shows how roving archaeologists help destroy ancient civilizations. At the Showcase cinemas.

-- Nicholas Patterson