Classic Movie Review: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is the second instalment and at the time of its release it was seen as a very poor sequel to the original film. And while it does live up to comparisons with the original film, it is a very fun movie in its own right and has a cast of great characters and all new dinosaurs to hold up even eighteen years later.

Set roughly four years after the events of the first film, Dr Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is summoned to the home of John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) where he is asked to lead a team of experts to the second island that contains dinosaurs in Costa Rica. However when Malcolm discovers that his girlfriend, palaeontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) has been sent in advance, the team leaves a little early. However, once the team gets to the island, they discover two things; Malcolm's daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester) has stowed away in one of the trucks, and that a team of InGen scientists led by Hammond's nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), the current InGen CEO has led a team to the island to extract a number of dinosaurs for a theme park in San Diego.

The Lost World takes no time in getting to the action. This movie relies on none of the suspense in getting to the dinosaurs that the first film did and as a result we can get a lot more fun. Within thirty minutes we are in the middle of a chase of the InGen team and a whole herd of dinosaurs. From this point on it is all action, right up to the thrilling climax which involves a T-Rex rampaging through the streets of San Diego. While this sequence may seem out of place to some, it is a perfect place to show off how big dinosaurs were in comparison to our modern buildings.

This movie has some pretty cheesy, but memorable quotes that are delivered quite well by Jeff Goldblum. The line "Where you're going is the only place on Earth where the geese chase you" is but one of the many wonderful lines. The character of Dr. Burke has some absurd long explanations about different dinosaurs that are fun to sit through as they are quite complex and scientific, but are one of the details that make this film well rounded, but at the same time it isn't taking itself too seriously. The film also has a surprising amount of characterisation for a film of this budget and genre. The leader of InGen's safari team Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) is a well built character and his relationship with others, especially his second-in-command Dieter (Peter Stormare), is something to write about.

The movie introduces some new dinosaurs into the mix. Every kid's favourite spiky tailed herbivore Stegosaurus gets a lengthy action sequence early on, as well as a new small dino called a Compy that terrified me when I was a kid. The Velociraptors also play a much bigger part in the film and their intelligence is fleshed out a little more (although not to same extent as in the third film. The CGI dinosaur design had developed a lot further than what they were at the first time and as a result the dinosaurs are a lot more mobile. Spielberg however still uses a lot of animatronics that work seamlessly with the CGI and is something that you won't find in movies made today.

Jeff Goldblum really does steal the show in this movie. He is well practiced with his character of Ian Malcolm and his own idiosyncrasies just add to his character. Julianne Moore is superb and was having a couple of good years around this time with both Boogie Nights (1997) and The Big Lebowski (1998). Arliss Howard (of Full Metal Jacket fame) is great as the greedy villain Ludlow. My only criticism is that Vince Vaughn should have stuck around for longer as he disappears two-thirds of the way into the film. Keep an eye out early on for a twenty-five year old Eli Roth playing Subway Man (you'll know the character when you see him).

While this is far from being Steven Spielberg's magnum opus (I think he's still searching for that himself), it is an amazing film to re-watch and rediscover as a fun part of the Jurassic Park series. I know for a fact that I enjoy it time after time.

Penguins of Madagascar

Animated children's movies have to walk a fine line between entertaining the kid's that they are aimed at and not boring the parents who have to take them. But what happens when one of these movies tip ever so slightly in the favour of the parents? Whilst I'm not saying that Penguins of Madagascar will bore kids, the adult to child joke ratio has just a few more adult jokes in there.

The elite unit of penguins, Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (Conrad Vernon) and Private (Christopher Knights), break into Fort Knox to steal the last remaining packets of Cheese Dibbles, their favourite snack. Here they are kidnapped by Dave (John Malkovich), an evil penguin who has it in for the penguins. They are rescued by the North Wind, another elite team (who are just better funded) led by grey wolf Agent Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch).

This movie has plenty of silly escapades that will keep the kids happy; a gondola chase through Venice, the penguins falling out of a plane looking for a soft landing and many more jokes along this line, but there are some just hilarious ones for adults too. The first five minutes of the film is a nature documentary narrated by Werner Herzog (who breaks the fourth wall and appears as part of a documentary crew), the break into Fort Knox is lifted perfectly from Goldfinger and Dave gives his squid minions orders by naming celebrities ("Hugh, Jack, man the cannons" and "Drew, Barry, more power" are especially good examples).

The voice talents of some big names also make the film enjoyable and its fun to try and guess who they are. John Malkovich is an obvious one (as I have said in the past). Benedict Cumberbatch makes his third appearance in a big end of the year movie and plays his part superbly, as do Ken Jeong, Annet Mahendru and Peter Stormare who voice the remainder of the North Wind.

Verdict: A great movie to watch with or without kids, if only to hear Benedict Cumberbatch repeatedly say pengwings, as he can't pronounce it properly.

22 Jump Street

So since neither Edward nor I could decide who would review this movie, you're all gonna get a weird (dis)joint(ed) review. So let's get to it.

Edward:

Having first seen 21 Jump Street when I was in high school, it was filled with plenty of jokes that I could relate to. Yet whilst it was funny enough, it always seemed like it was lacking direction in some areas, and I felt that much of the humour needed more of a setup. Now, as I’ve moved on to University, the boys are back and are going to college, with the (self-aware) sequel 22 Jump Street.

The new action packed installment picks up the pace a lot more, and overall I found the jokes quite a bit funnier than they were in the first. Whilst there’s still plenty of the “Suck my d*ck! No you suck my d*ck!!” sort of humor that dominated the original, it feels much more natural and flowing this time around, probably due to the vastly improved screenplay.

The film is also hilariously self-reflexive, taking satirical jabs at Hollywood’s obsession with sequels as we see the 23 Jump Street condominiums under construction, as well as the nature of the industry in general. There are also the absolutely hilarious credits - honestly one of the best parts of the movie - that I urge you to stay for, as they will certainly expel any worries you may have about the direction that this franchise is going in.

The action sequences are not over the top but definitely won’t disappoint, with plenty of eye-candy courtesy of explosions and slow-motion sequences. The acting is also spot on for this sort of comedy, with both Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum just as good as they were in the first and with a great supporting cast.

Verdict: Overall, 22 Jump Street stands up strong and is quite an improvement over it’s younger sibling.  If you enjoyed the first, you’ll be laughing all the way through this one!   

Jack:

Unlike 21 Jump Street, 22 knows it is a TV show spinoff (it also knows it a sequel but hopefully Edward's already written about that). We even get a previously on Jump Street recap, as if this is just another episode of a sitcom version of the original show.

This movie also has a bunch of references to other 80s TV shows and movies, such as The Golden Girls (which if you know the reference when it comes is hilarious) and Top Gun. These references are hilarious, but then again most of the film is funny. Schmidt and Jenko's bromance escalates to a homoerotic level that guarantees even more laughs.

This movie made me laugh so much that Edward must have regretted seeing it with me. The jokes were fast flowing and weren't too stale. However, the majority of the audience must have been a lot younger than us because I don't think they got a lot of the jokes, especially when the references are aimed at an older audience (like a superb Straight Outta Compton joke directed at Ice Cube).

Speaking of Cube, there is a lot more of him in this movie. And he is even funnier than he was in the first movie. His chemistry with both Tatum and Hill is fantastic and you tell they all had a really fun time making the movie. Especially Channing Tatum. He bounces around the screen like an actual teenager with a lot of glee.

The other standout performance comes from newcomer (to the franchise) Jillian Bell (Workaholics). If you are at all a fan of the aforementioned Workaholics, you'll especially like her character because she is just a slightly more unstable and violent version of Jillian on the show.

Verdict: A great sequel that is terribly self aware and just a pleasure to watch.

The Last Stand

This really should be Arnie's last stand. While it was a fun romp through the Nevada desert, Schwarzenegger has no business fighting crime. It is a young man's game and even he acknowledges the fact.

The Last Stand revolves around Sheriff Ray (Schwarzenegger) and his rag-tag group of deputies trying to stop an escaped cartel boss from making his way to Mexico. The plot is almost that simple. The reason the cartel boss escaped is due to FBI agent John Bannister's (Forrest Whitaker) negligence. The whole thing could have been avoided if he checked up on his agents and moved his prisoner in daylight instead of the wee hours of the morning.

I feel like this movie could have been a whole lot shorter than it's 107 minute running time. There are a whole bunch of extraneous shots of glances between Deputy Sarah Torrance (Jaimie Alexander) and Frank Martinez (Rodrigo Santoro), I'm still not sure what his role was in this movie, and these shots in this modified Corvette, where cartel boss Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) shifts gears. Although they looked cool, we only needed to see them once or twice, not every single time he changes speed.

There is a strange sort of familiarity between Ray and Cortez. I feel as though we are missing some scenes where we find out that Ray has run into relatives of Cortez during his stint as a LAPD Narcotics officer. Although they barely hint at this, it would have been nice in this sort of movie to have that explicit connection. It would also explain the reaction Ray gives when he finds out who is making a run for his town.

The cast (apart from the few who I will point out) were not suited for this film. Of course this role was written for Arnie and he does fit in. The same is said for Johnny Knoxville, who is just playing Johnny Knoxville (like he has any other setting!), and Luis Guzman, as the loyal but hesitant and insanely funny deputy.

On the other hand, Forest Whitaker is playing just an angrier version of the role he played in Species. He only really comes off as incapable of following proper protocol. The other person not suited here is Jaimie Alexander. She is capable of extraordinary range and I felt that she was a wasted talent. The way that they built up the character of Cortez, you were expecting a name actor when he would finally be revealed, but instead we get an unfamiliar face.

The person who sort of defies both of those positions and is in sort of a middle ground is Peter Stormare. Whilst you would expect to see him silently shoving body parts into a wood chipper (Fargo, anyone?), here he is playing a loud gunslinger type and at the end of every scene with him, I was waiting for him to spit his tobacco on the ground.

Verdict: Some great driving sequences coupled with callbacks to old Arnie one-liners ("Consider yourself deputised") make for a great action movie. My recommendation to Arnie: quit acting while you're ahead, maybe move into producing and directing like your Twins co-star Danny DeVito.