Last week two fantastic things occurred my youngest daughters sixth birthday and Mothers Day. My choice for DVD of the Week reflects both. My daughter adores this film, and much of the story revolves around T. Rex parentage and their small reptilian offspring.
After the ridiculous success of the original Jurassic Park in 1993, a sequel was inevitable. And the release of The Lost World: Jurassic Park saw every record imaginable broken for opening weekends and box office dominance yet the critics panned it. I for one never saw it in the theater and waited until the VHS release and I enjoyed this movie way more than I thought I would. I had no idea that many years later my then four year old would end up watching all three Jurassic Parks and attaching herself to this particular film, thanks to the prominence of a young girl playing Dr. Malcolms (Jeff Goldblum) daughter.
Brief tangent here… does anyone else find the way Jeff Goldblum walks a bit odd? Mrs. Blahg and I noticed that he has something between a swagger and a hip swish when he walks… most pronounced in one of the final scenes of Independence Day when he and Will Smith are walking back to the base after completing their mission. Just saying…
So what, if any, connection does The Lost World have with its predecessor? Relatively little. Although I have not read any of the Michael Crichton books these films are based on, my understanding is that Richard Attenboroughs character, John Hammond dies in the first book. Not so in movie-land he survived the first go around and is back in order to prevent his nephew from exploiting the animals on the second site. Huh? Second site? Yep he had another island filled with dinosaurs and has sent a team to record everything they can in order to somehow stop his nephew.
The team he sends includes Julianne Moore as Dr. Malcolms girlfriend Dr. Sarah Harding (how else could they get Goldblum back? Just endanger his girlfriend duh) and a pre-bloated Vince Vaughn as a photographer also another guy cant recall who he is sound man I think. So after a bit of no, I wont go shes there OMG, I have to go rescue her Jeff Goldblum is on his way to the second island to be the prince in shining armor and rescue his more than capable girlfriend from the jaws of certain death.
That would be far too simple of a plot though lets throw in Dr. Malcolms daughter Kelly. Daughter? Yeah he likes the ladies, he just doesnt like sticking around so lets add a bit of family strife and sure enough, she doesnt listen to her chaostician (???) father and she stows away in the magic RV they take with them to the island.
So now Dr. Malcolm must protect his insubordinate child and gung ho girlfriend as Hammonds goons arrive and now we get to the best part of the film the late Pete Postlethwaite portraying a big game hunter intent on bagging the biggest trophy of them all a male T. Rex. From this point on we get a different dynamic as it becomes much more about human vs. human and ultimately culminates in San Diego as the shadow of King Kong is cast very far. Also in the mix is a baby T. Rex with a broken leg and two very pissed off parents. Good stuff. Happy Mothers Day indeed!
Is this the best in the trilogy? Probably not. Im a fan of the first for sure but as far as sequels go, this is great entertainment. And you can even get all three movies in one handy-dandy Adventure Pack for about $20. So go out and either buy it, rent it or stream it just see this movie.
Dont go into the long grass,
Cornelius J. Blahg