Principal Cast: The Blue Lagoon - Brooke Shields; Christopher Atkins; Leo McKern

Director; Randal Kleiser

Principal Cast: Return to the Blue Lagoon - Milla Jovovich; Brian Krause; Lisa Pelikan;

Director; William A Graham

Dolby Surround sound (4.0); 112/98 mins;

SYNOPSIS

Both films cover the same theme: two very young children become marooned on an idyllic Pacific island; and after the death of the adult minder are left to their own devices. On each occasion the plot jumps to the point where they reach puberty - with its emergence of sexual desire and interests, climaxing (oops!) with the birth of a child. Both films end with an introduction in some form to civilisation. They are linked - with the ending of the first film being the commencement of the second (although the original castaways were found alive at the end of “Blue Lagoon” but found dead in “Return.” with their son alive on both occasions!)

Both films contain a confusing and quite unnecessary subplot involving a mysterious GROUP of natives on the far side of the island, which probably does a severe disservice to the author of the novel.

The first is basically a titillation piece bordering on `soft porn’ - the overriding emphasis seeming to be to SHOW as much bare flesh as possible without getting a stricter censorship classification; and with the Brooke Shields (or her body double’s?) character, Emmeline, you do get to see quite a bit, along with a fair amount of paedophilic nudity.

The second film tends to be a little less of a `flesh fantasy’ (and the `designer’ rags that Milla wears are more up with our times) but still contains a few `tits and bums’. Part of this change could be related to the fact that the children’s female minder provided them with some of the facts-of-life in their early education, with a greater degree of modesty being the outcome.

The locations and scenery are attractive and the cinematography is generally quite good. While both films contain a liberal amount of `toilet talk’ related to puberty (symbolising the children’s naivety and innocence I imagine), there is no foul language or hint of eroticism or smuttiness in the dialogue.

If one had to compare each of the child stars against their same-sex `rival’; Brooke would win by a narrow margin over Milla due to her slightly more believable `innocence’ (though Villa’s striking eyes win votes); whilst with the fellas, Chris would win the `physique stakes’ but tie with Kevin in the acting section. But let’s be honest - none of the lot is particularly great, nor have any of them set the world on fire since!

It may be interesting to note the strong Australian content of these two movies - from the `starring’ role of Leo McKern and the number of minor cast members with DISTINCT Aussie accents, to the Australian crews involved with filming and post-production, the involvement of Ron and Valerie Taylor in the underwater scenes and the fact that Brian May (of ABC TV series “Rush” fame) and the Australian Symphony Orchestra recorded the soundtrack for “Blue Lagoon”.

EXTRAS

Blue Lagoon

? Two audio commentaries

? “Brooke Shields’ Photo Album” - a useless silent mish-mash of photos not particularly related to anything or following a theme.

? A 9-minute `original’ “making of” documentary with the most appalling audio track I have EVER heard on video or DVD. It is so annoyingly bad that I couldn’t determine whether there was any merit to this featurette at all.

? Theatrical trailer

? Comprehensive filmography of the director and five of the cast members (I found the Leo McKern one of most interest)

Return to the Blue Lagoon

? Theatrical trailers for both movies

Both DVDs have extensive chapter selection menus plus multiple language and subtitles options.

OVERALL

Having viewed these two, I have now seen three versions of the story based on a novel published in 1918. The first film I saw was the 1949 British B/W version starring Jean Simmons and Donald Houston (shown very rarely these days and can’t be purchased anywhere). It was by far the most acceptable film, though the sexuality side of the story was directed with typical British understatement (may I say naivety?). These modern versions are far more in-your-face sex-wise and have probably been remade to take advantage of the new liberalism.

It is hard to take either of the review films too literally, with no signs of tension (except sexual), anxiety or desolation caused by their isolation to bring reality to the storyline. But, overall, I guess they are reasonably entertaining if not taken at all seriously.