Post-Xena Programming

Finally, there's Fun, some incalculable amalgam of entertainment value, cheese, and corn that is occasionally synonymous with "good." You know it when you see it. BeastMaster tries the occasional groovy camera angle, and its producers' refusal to disguise the soundstage's back wall in "jungle" scenes is a nice avant-blah touch, but the show doesn't pack an hour's worth of thrills. Too often, it boils down to a buff Dr. Doolittle talking to the animals--whose voices we don't even hear! Clueless makes me sad. It's not very funny; everyone in it seems to be hoping their agents are calling their cell phones and getting them the hell out of there. Worst of all, it tramples the memory of one of the last decade's sweetest and cleverest teen movies.

The winner is The Lost World, which could amass a Trek-ish cult if anyone gave it a chance. The effects are nicely fake, the fight scenes choreographed with adorable ineptitude, the plotlines entertaining and unaffected: It's a welcome example of the unpretentious mass entertainment that has put butts in seats for a century.

Correction published 7/11/2001:
"Post-Xena Programming" contained two factual errors about The Lost World: Jennifer O'Dell (not O'Neill) plays Veronica (not Victoria). The above version of the story reflects the corrected text. City Pages regrets the errors.