synergy:

If you've ever read Auel's book you'll know that there is a lot in that book. There's no way it could all be incorporated especially considering that the characters communicated by hand signals. They weren't going to be anything complicated either since these are supposed to be a race of people who had a limited need for communication considering their abilities with memory. Ayla (Hannah) stood out from them as being blonde and tall because that's the way it was written by Auel. She's supposed to tower over them at her adult stage. Anyway, yeah, the makeup sucked and the music could get a little annoying at times, but I thought they did a fair job with it.

BlueVoid:

Ill give this film credit. It tried. It tried really hard. Based on a popular novel, The Clan of the Cave Bear is a prehistoric drama set at the time when both Neanderthals and Cro-Magnum both walked the Earth. After a serious earthquake, Ayla (Daryl Hannah), a Cro-Magnum, is orphaned and found by a clan of Neanderthals who take her in. Never quite feeling like she belonged in the clan, Ayla tries extra hard to fit in, becoming as good as, if not better than any man in the clan. Despite her obviously superior abilities she is continually brought down by the other members of her clan. Its a fairly by-the-books, fish out water, type story set in an unusual time period. There was a lot of care taken to be as authentic as possible, which I appreciate. The problem is that it takes itself too seriously while at the same time being over the top. It comes off as corny rather than sincere, and it ends up being a pretty brutal experience. Just as Caveman had done five years prior, it made the unfortunate mistake of trying to make up a prehistoric language which was a mixture of sign language and grunts. The problem is, unlike its predecessor, this isnt a comedy. Every step it takes seemed overdone, overused, and really awkward. Sorry, I just couldnt take Daryl Hannah running around grunting seriously, and it has nothing solid to fall back on.