My rank: *****
Plot
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Plot
My Comments
Jurassic Park III
Plot
My Thoughts
The movie opens with the grisly murder of a person attempting to unload.....something into a large cage. It must be pretty powerful
cause it picks the guy up and rips him apart. The next scene involves a lawyer speaking to a South American miner about a billionaire.
They also mention something about the park not being safe. Then, they show a mosquito trapped in an amber gemstone.
The movie then moves to the Badlands in Montana where Alan Grant and Ellen Satler are diggign up bones. A helicopter flies in,
carrying one John Hammond. He wants Satler and Grant to be experts to observe and endorse his newest theme park. As compensation,
he offers to fund their dig for three years. They agree.
En route to the island, we meet the rest of the team: Donald Gennaro, the lawyer from before, and Ian Malcolm, a 'chaotician'. Once on the
island, we see the attraction of the park: living dinosaurs. We also meet several other characters. Dennis Nedry, one of the computer programmers,
Robert Muldoon, the park ranger, and Mr. Arnold, the head programmer. Hammond's grandkids, Lex and Tim, also show up to sample the park.
Grant, Gennaro, Malcolm, Satler and the kids all then embark on the actual tour of the park. That's when Nedry, under orders from a rival company,
decides to steal dino embryos. His plan also includes shutting down the park. The tour gets stranded outside the T-Rex paddock, and, well, it gets out.
The Rex throws Grant and the kids down into its paddock, eats Gennaro, and injures Malcolm.
Malcolm is brought back to the visitor's center, while Nedry attempts to escape. He's killed by another dinosaur before he can get off the island. Grant and
the kids make their way back to the visitor's center, getting there just after Satler, Muldoon and Arnold attempt to reboot the system. This leads to the deaths
of Arnold and Muldoon from the raptors, and the raptors entering the visitor's center.
Wow. From the opening to the closing, Jurassic Park is one of the most visually arresting and satisfying films ever made. I loved from the very first time I saw
it in the theatre in 1993. I still love it today on video. It has lost none of its wide-eyed wonder or engrossing plot. It made so much money, and it was well deserved.
I just love this movie.
Cast:
Malcolm: Jeff Goldblum
Harding: Julianne Moore
van Owen: Vince Vaughn
Tembo: Pete Postlethwaite
Carr: Richard Schiff
Ludlow: Arliss Howard
Dieter: Peter Stormare
Kelly: Vanessa Lee Chester
Hammond: Richard Attenborough
Released: 1997. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by David Koepp. Based on the novel "The Lost World" by Micheal Crichton.
My Ranking: ***
The movie opens on a rich couple and their child landing on a deserted beach. The child wanders away and is, well, attacked by small lizards.
They're cute, but end up putting her in the hospital. The scene then shifts to Ian Malcolm, who is on his way to John Hammond's place. The old man is
ill, and informs Malcolm of Site B, the place where the actual Jurassic Park dinosaurs were made. They've been living, untouched, for four years. Hammond
wants this documented so they won't be destroyed.
Malcolm refuses to do it, until Hammond tells him that Sara Harding, Malcolm's girlfriend, is already on the island. Malcolm then hurries preperations and goes
to the island. Little does he know that his daughter has stowed away for the ride.
Once on the island, they find Sara, and another expedition lands. These are sent by the new controlling interests of Hammond's company. They are there to capture animals
and bring them back to the States for a zoo. Part of Malcolm's group, Nick van Owen, lets thae animals go, and basically strands both groups. Soon, they realize that they have to work
together to get off the island.
On the trip to the center of the island, to get to the control center, most of the party is picked off. In the end, Malcolm, Sara, Kelly, Malcolm's daughter, and some of the other party
leave. They also take one of the T-rexes and his kid. This leads to a Godzilla-esque chase through San Diego which Malcolm and Sara end by sending the Rexes back to the island.
Sub standard. All the wonder and exhilaration from the first Jurassic Park are gone. It was a rousing adventure, but it didn't have the same impact as JP. I enjoyed this one, but it felt rushed and
confused. Was it an action movie? A comedy? A horror movie? You couldn't tell from scene to scene. And the ending, which reportedly Spielberg added against advice not to, was kind of dumb.
I almost belonged in another movie. You were exhausted from the whole island thing, then he pulls you into the tacked-on ending. In some ways, this was just a vanity project. I hope JP III, out
this year, isn't as bad. But, it probably will be.
Cast
Alan Grant: Sam Neill
Paul Kirby: William H. Macy
Amanda Kirby: Tea Leoni
Billy Brennan: Alessandro Nivola
Eric Kirby: Trevor Morgan
Udesky: Micheal Jeter
Cooper: John Diehl
Ellie Satler: Laura Dern
Written by: Peter Buchman and Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor. Directed by Joe Johnston. Released: May 2001. My Rating: ***
In the third, and hopefully final, installment of the Jurassic Park movies, we follow Alan Grant as he and his assisstant are duped into going with a pair of 'wealthy' adventurers to Isla Sorna. The pair, actually aren't wealthy, they're actually a divorced couple who have lost their son on the island. The woman's new boyfriend took the boy parasailing and lost him. They think that Grant, who has only been to Isla Nublar, can guide them to the boy.
Naturally, things go awry, and they are chased through the island by dinosaurs. Grant finds the boy, who has been living on his own for a week. After finding their way to through the aviary and to the river, they are cornered by a large carnivore. Grant uses a satelite phone to call his good friend Dr. Satler, and she sends in the calvalry. They get rescued, and the movie ends.
Okay, this one was starting to wear a little thin. I enjoyed it, but they're running out of ideas. I was so glad to see Alan Grant back, rather than Ian Malcolm. Grant lent himself more to the physical aspects of the movie. It was far more believable to see him getting chased than Malcolm. Anyway, the action is pretty well done, and so were the dinos. They get better everytime. We also get to see the aviary, which was in the Lost World book, but not in the film. That added a whole new level of difficulty. It was all right, but not at the level of the original. But, that was to be expected.
