Action/Adventure: Scientists and others must deal with cloned dinosaurs that have escaped and are running loose on an island theme park.
PLOT:
Dr. Alan Grant (SAM NEILL), a paleontologist, and his girlfriend, Dr. Ellie Sattler (LAURA DERN), a paleobotanist, are accompanied by mathematician Ian Malcolm (JEFF GOLDBLUM) as they're brought to an island theme park owned by a wealthy entrepreneur, John Hammond (RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH). No ordinary park, this one is filled with genetically cloned dinosaurs, including the fearsome T-Rex and the speedy and dangerous "raptors." When a greedy computer programmer, Dennis Nedry (WAYNE KNIGHT), sabotages the security system so that he can steal frozen dinosaur embryos, the existing dinosaurs escape and wreak havoc. While Grant, Ellie and Ian were originally there to endorse the park, they now find themselves, along with the security chief, Robert Muldoon (BOB PECK), trying to survive and to rescue Hammond's grandchildren, Tim (JOSEPH MAZZELLO) and Lex (ARIANA RICHARDS).
WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?
A movie about dinosaurs, where they actually look real, will have nearly every child wanting to see this film.
WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13
While the MPAA reason was not available, we'd guess it was for intense, frightening scenes involving the dinosaurs attacking people.
CAST AS ROLE MODELS:
SAM NEILL plays a devoted scientist whose only bad trait is that he sees children as nuisances.
LAURA DERN plays a similarly devoted scientist, but who likes children.
JEFF GOLDBLUM plays a mathematician who mumbles his way though many lines and is worried about this cloning development.
RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH plays the wealthy entrepreneur who throws caution to the wind and recreates dinosaurs to make a lot of money.
WAYNE KNIGHT plays a computer programmer who sabotages the park's security system so that he can steal and sell the frozen dinosaur embryos.
This is an immensely entertaining film, as long as you can overlook the many minor flaws that permeate its structure. The story, based on Michael Creighton's novel, is very similar to the movie, "Westworld" (that Creighton also wrote and directed). In that story, a "theme park" of robotic characters has a technical glitch and the attractions attack and kill the tourists. Here they've just substituted dinosaurs for robots. While in the past the introduction of dinosaurs into movies resulted in fake looking, jerky moving creatures, that's not so here. These dinosaurs are every bit as realistic as their human counterparts and often have more character. Therein lies one of the movie's bigger problems. Director Steven Spielberg ("Jaws," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Schindler's List," and many more) creates masterful suspense scenes, including one long sequence that should be studied by every budding film school student. Yet this film, that's basically "Jaws"on land, pales considerably when compared to that masterpiece. That's because "Jaws" had interesting, diverse characters that developed as they went along, something that's all but missing in this dinosaur extravaganza. It also had a more subtle suspense to it, where your imagination worked as hard as the director did in making your squirm in your seat. While that's occasionally done here, Spielberg takes more of the "hit ‘em over the head" approach and thrills us without making us think. While it has these problems, it's a visually stunning piece of work, with effects that far exceed anything seen on the screen before it. There are many problems scattered throughout the production, however, that undermine the overall quality of the film. Giving the dinosaurs, particularly the raptors, superior intelligence works dramatically, but is historically questionable and very doubtful. When a line about the people being safe as long as the raptors can't figure out how to open doors is followed by them doing so, it makes your eyes roll. Spielberg easily could have had the creatures clawing at the door and accidentally hitting the handle, but to have them figure it out is preposterous. Just as bad is the fact that Grant knows the T-Rex hunts by sensing visual movement but how does he know this? The scientists at the park would know, but Grant hasn't seen the creatures in action yet. Other problems include continuity errors, such as when a tropical storm is approaching and one side of a truck is rain covered and the other side is dry. Another obvious problem is that the velociraptors (known by their name for being very speedy) can't catch the kids (one of which limps from an injured leg) that they chase in a kitchen. Or the fact that Lex, a teenage girl, can figure out the park's entire computer system in a manner of seconds to lock the door where a raptor is trying to come through. Of course we're nitpicking here, but a director the caliber of Spielberg should make movies that stand up better than this. He's done it in the past, and if he had done that here, as well as develop interesting characters, he would have made a movie that would be considered a classic. As it is, it's a lot of fun to watch, but you wish it could have been that much better. We give it a 7 out of 10.
OUR WORD TO PARENTS:
Parents should be aware that many scenes in this movie are tremendously suspenseful and will probably give younger kids nightmares for a long time to come. One particular sequence has two children trapped inside a truck that's being torn apart by a tyrannosaurus rex and even adults will find the scene very frightening. Beyond the many scary scenes, there's not a great deal else to object to in this film. 1 "s" word is the worst of the profanity, and a very minor line of dialogue barely contains a sexual reference. There are some violent scenes, all revolving around the dinosaurs, but fortunately there is no human to human violence. Since nearly every child will want to see this film, and due to the high level of intense scenes, we strongly suggest that you examine the content before allowing your children to see this film.
While not gory, Ellie does stick her arms (up to her elbows) in triceratops dung, looking for berries the animal may have eaten, and some may find this very disgusting.
A bloody lamb's leg drops onto a truck's sunroof.
Tim had a slightly bloody gash on his forehead.
A T-Rex eats a smaller dinosaur and tears off a chunk of bloody flesh.
A man's bloody, dismembered arm falls down onto Ellie.
One could say that Hammond and his scientist have both as they are playing "God" by recreating an extinct species.
Grant doesn't want to have children, and refers to them as "noisy, expensive" and says, "They smell."
Dennis is working for an outside organization and sabotages the park's security system so that he can steal dinosaur embryos and sell them to that organization.
A raptor transfer into its paddock goes bad and a worker is grabbed and pulled half way into the cage. While the raptor is never seen, we do see that something is pulling the man into the cage, he screams, and everyone panics while trying to save the man.
Grant tells a group of school kids about how raptors hunted and that you're still alive when they eat you.
A cow is lowered down into the raptor's cage and while nothing is seen, the raptor's attack of the cow and painful mooing is heard as the creature attacks and eats the cow.
There's a very long sequence that's intensely suspenseful. Most of the cast is stuck in broken down jeeps just outside the T-Rex paddock. The electrified fence has malfunctioned, and the T-Rex is heard (and felt) coming in their direction. It eventually gets there and attacks the truck that the two children are in as it tries to tear its way through the truck to get to them. The truck is flipped over and begins to sink in the mud as the T-Rex continues its attack from above. It then chases after Malcolm who runs from his truck, and ends up chomping down onto a lawyer hiding in a restroom. Grant tries to save the kids, but the T-Rex is back on them again, and they barely manage to escape up and over a wall, barely avoiding the truck that is knocked over the wall by the T-Rex.
Grant must get Tim out of a truck that's fallen and lodged itself into a tree. As he gets the boy out, the truck gets loose and nearly hits them as they scramble down the tree.
Dennis has an encounter with a dinosaur that turns deadly as the creature comes after him as he tries to get back into his jeep.
Muldoon and Ellie rescue Malcolm but hear the T-Rex approaching. As they quickly drive away, they're nearly caught by the creature.
Muldoon and Ellie try to make it across the compound while avoiding raptors. She runs and makes it into the basement of another building, and a raptor tries to attack her there.
In the middle of the above scene, Ellie slowly turns on the power, switch by switch, to the island. Little does she know that Grant and the two kids are climbing up and over a disabled and very tall electric fence. As the alarms go off, Tim finds himself stuck on the fence as Ellie gets closer and closer to turning on its electricity.
Muldoon is attacked by the raptors, although we hear more of it than we actually see.
Tim and Lex find themselves trapped by two raptors in the industrial sized kitchen. The raptors often come close to catching the two kids.
A raptor tries to get into a room as Grant and Ellie try to block the door while Lex tries to figure out how to use the computer to lock the door.
The raptors try to get Grant, Ellie and the two kids in the visitor's center. They nearly get Lex as she falls through a suspended ceiling. Later, the four are surrounded by the raptors when the T-Rex attacks.
1 "s" word, 6 hells, 3 damns, 1 S.O.B., 1 crap, and 3 uses of "Oh God," 2 uses each of "Oh my God" and "Oh Jesus," and 1 use of "God damn" as exclamations.
A lawyer asks Hammond (about people seen on a tour of the island), "Are these characters auto erotica?" (thinking animatronics), but Hammond tells him they're real.
Whether man should fool with mother nature and if science can ever supercede nature. In this movie, they clone dinosaurs without thinking of the consequences of doing so.
A worker is grabbed by a raptor and partially pulled into the cage. Others try to pull the man out and the scene ends with sounds of gunshots being fire.
A cow is lowered down into the raptor's cage and while nothing is seen, the raptor's attack of the cow and painful mooing is heard as the creatures attacks and eats the cow.
A T-Rex attacks Tim and Lex in a truck, badly damaging the vehicle. It chases Ian and then, finding a lawyer suddenly sitting out in the open, chomps down on the man and swings his body back and forth.
A man is killed by another dinosaur (heard, with only the rocking of a jeep symbolizing the attack).
A raptor tries to attack Ellie, and as she tries to escape, a severed arm falls onto her, indicating that the raptor has already killed another person.
Tim is shocked as the electric fence he's climbing over is turned back on again.
Muldoon is attacked by the raptors, although we hear more of it than we actually see.
The raptors try to catch the kids and later them and Grant and Ellie.
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