| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This week only, save 69% on select three-movie combo packs on Blu-ray in our Kids & Family Deal of the Week. Offer ends May 25, 2013. Learn more
|
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
The Lost World - Jurassic Park
In the low tradition of knockoff horror flicks best seen (or not seen) on a drive-in movie screen, Steven Spielberg's sequel to Jurassic Park is a poorly conceived, ill-organized film that lacks story and logic. Screenwriter David Koepp strings along a number of loose ideas while Jeff Goldblum returns as Ian Malcolm, the quirky chaos theoretician who now reluctantly agrees to go to another island where cloned dinosaurs are roaming freely. Along with his girlfriend (Julianne Moore) and daughter, Malcolm has to deal with hunters, environmentalists, and corporate swine who stupidly bring back a big dino to Southern California, where it runs amok, of course. Spielberg doesn't seem to care that the pieces of this project don't add up to a real movie, so he hams it up with big, scary moments (with none of the artfulness of those in Jurassic Park) and smart-aleck visual gags (a yapping dog in a suburb mysteriously disappears when a hungry T-rex stomps by). A complete bust.--Tom Keogh
Jurassic Park III
Surpassing expectations to qualify as an above-average sequel, Jurassic Park III is nothing more or less than a satisfying popcorn adventure. A little cheesier than the first two Jurassic blockbusters, it's a big B movie with big B-list stars (including Laura Dern, briefly reprising her Jurassic Park role), and eight years of advancing computer-generated-image technology give it a sharp edge over its predecessors. While adopting the jungle spirit of King Kong, the movie refines Michael Crichton's original premise, and its dinosaurs are even more realistic, their behavior more detailed, and their variety--including flying pteranodons and a new villain, the spinosaurus--more dazzling and threatening than ever. These advancements justify the sequel, and its contrived plot is just clever enough to span 90 minutes without wearing out its welcome.
Posing as wealthy tourists, an adventurous couple (William H. Macy, Téa Leoni) convince paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and his protégé (Allesandro Nivola) to act as tour guides on a flyover trip to Isla Sorna, the ill-fated "Site B" where all hell broke loose in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. In truth, they're on a search-and-rescue mission to find their missing son (Trevor Morgan), and their plane crash is just the first of several enjoyably suspenseful sequences. Director Joe Johnston (October Sky) embraces the formulaic plot as a series of atmospheric set pieces, placing new and familiar dinosaurs in misty rainforests, fiery lakes, and mysterious valleys, turning JP3 into a thrill ride with impressive highlights (including a T. rex versus spinosaurus smack-down), adequate doses of wry humor (from the cowriters of Election), and an upbeat ending that's corny but appropriate, proving that the symptoms of sequelitis needn't be fatal. --Jeff Shannon
Despite what some critics thought when the film was released, I feel that all the principal actors give good performances, especially Sam Neill as Alan Grant and Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm. But admittedly, the dinosaur creations are the main attraction, and Winston's monsters (which won him another Oscar after Terminator 2) are truly frightning. Great entertainment.
The Lost World is an exciting adventure starring Jeff Goldblum, Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore and Pete Postlethwaite. The film picks up four years after the incident at Jurassic Park, where a corporate businessman Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) plans to take dinosaurs off the second island (Isla Sorna, where dinosaurs have been breeding) and bring them to a theme park in San Diego.
Spielberg knows what the audience wants; the film has more dinosaurs, even better CGI and impressive animatronic dinosaurs from the maestro Stan Winston. The action throughout the film is exciting and while not as astonishing as Jurassic, the effects are first-rate. Although the action is good, the story isn't one of Spielberg's best. That said, the principal cast are fine, especially Goldblum as Malcolm ("Ooh, aah, that's how it always starts, and then later the running and screaming") and Postewaite as Roland Tembo, a game hunter intent on shooting one of the Tyrannosaurs. Silly in parts, it's still an exciting adventure movie, with enough action and light humour to satisfy audiences.
Joe Johnston, taking over the reigns from Spielberg, has created an adventure that starts off quickly and hardly ever lets up. Sam Neill, returning to the role which made him famous in the original, is a stronger presence than in the first Jurassic, and the supporting cast of William H. Macy and Tea Leoni manage not to get lost amidst the barrage of CGI dinosaurs. The special effects are, of course the main stars, with Stan Winston's excellent dinosaurs surpass the ones for the original. And the plot (a bunch of people get stuck on an island with dangerous dinosaurs) provides plenty of great scares (a scene with nasty pterodactyls is the high-point) and fast-paced action to satisfy audiences. Great fun.
The trilogy DVD extras are first- rate, with superb picture and sound for all the discs. The special features are exceptional, with a 50 minute 'making of' of the film. Most interesting, however, is the footage of early pre-production meetings with Spielberg and the FX team discussing how certain shots and effects should be done. Also there are storyboards, production photos and web links.
The extras for The Lost Wolrd are fantastic, with a comprehensive 'making of', deleted scenes, trailers and ton of production info. The highlight on the JP3 Disc is the Commantary from the special effects team of Stan Winston, Michael Lantieri and some of the crew. Also, you get a series of 'making of's and trailers. Best of all is Disc 4 "Beyond Jurassic Park" featuring over two hours of never-before-available bonus material from all three films. Excellent entertainment that is a must-have for Jurassic fans.