The Firelight Shocks DVD Review Section

Jurassic Park Boxset Distributor: Universal Pictures - Columbia/Tristar Region: 2 Ratio: 1:85:1 (Anamorphically enhanced) Sound: Dolby Digital

Jurassic Park: Do you really need a plot outline? Palaeontologists arrive on 'Jurassic Park', a forthcoming theme park that features genuine, genetically engineered dinosaurs. They are invited to the park by the mastermind behind it, John Hammond - played by Richard Attenborough, in order to give their 'expert' consent to the project and, thus, to appease the right people. Inevitably, things don't go quite to plan and soon Sam Neil, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and a couple of screaming kids (not to mention a pre-Pulp Fiction Samuel L Jackson) find themselves on the dinosaur's dinner list. This is fantastic stuff people, and probably the best dinosaur flick ever made. Why? Simply because Spielberg gives us a visual Disneyworld, with a new treat around every corner - and boy is it a hell of a lot of fun. I really love Jurassic Park, and it's one of these movies that you revisit simply because it is so enjoyable to watch. It's big budget, blockbuster entertainment at its very best and twenty times better than any billion-dollar facades that James Cameron has thrown at audiences. Hell, I'll take one Jurassic Park over a hundred Terminator movies any day! In saying that, Jurassic Park does have its failings. The ending for one, couldn't Spielberg have thought up a better climax than the T-Rex goes apeshit finale that he finally settled on? Also, the films heavy handed moralising on animal exploitation and American capitalism (note how Attenborough puts his grandchildren at risk by refusing to risk killing the dinosaurs - which is of course his livelihood) doesn't quite pay off in the shadow of all those big special effects sequences. That said though, this is an excellent movie and the best way to see it is on disc. Even if you're not a great fan of the film, this is the sort of movie that DVD was designed for. Oh yeah, and I am gonna end this scribble with the inevitable: 'No, it's not a patch on Jaws' line which so often accompanies reviews of this movie. Happy now? The Lost World Jeff Goldblum plays Ian Malcolm and, save for a briefly seen Richard Attenborough, he's the only returning character from the first. After an unexpectedly nasty opening, the sequel highlights Goldblum going to the 'Lost World' of the title in an attempt to rescue his Palaeontologist girlfriend (Julianne Moore - still hard to watch without thinking about that sex scene in Boogie Nights) from being munched. Moore and a couple of other researchers (including Vince Vaughn) have gone to 'Site B' (basically the dinosaur breeding ground) in order to carry out research on the prehistoric beasts which freely inhabit the island. Sadly, the peace and tranquillity is interrupted by a group of entrepreneurs who are looking to open up a Jurassic Park of their own in San Diego and need to capture some dinosaurs in order to make the idea a reality. This group is headed by big game hunter Pete Postlethwaite who aims to not only help capture dinosaurs but bag himself a dead T-Rex as part of the bargain. Naturally, chaos ensues - quickly followed by a large T-Rex and a flock of raptors. The film reaches its literal peak in the utterly fantastic sequence in which Moore, Goldblum and Vaughn hold on for dear life as their trailer is pushed over the edge of a cliff by a pissed off T-Rex. This is, I kid you not, one of the best set pieces ever put on celluloid and really edge of your seat stuff. The Lost World is a fine film, fast paced and a great deal darker and creepier than the previous movie. However, after eighty minutes of tight suspense and dinosaurs lurking in the grass, the movie digs its own grave by wheeling out what is quite possibly the stupidest ending to any movie ever. A poor, overdone homage to the Godzilla movies of yore, the finale in which the T-Rex tramples its way through San Diego succeeds only in taking a big huge crap over everything which made the first eighty minutes of this film so enjoyable. Sometimes less is more and the original idea for the ending involving a pterodactyl attack seemed like such a better idea. Still, the percentage of this film is excellent, so it's still worthwhile seeing.

EXTRAS: Both films have their own fifty minute making of documentary which is nothing short of fascinating. These include candid interviews with Steven Spielberg (he freely admits that Jurassic Park is no King Kong), Michael Crichton and Stan Winston among others. Highly entertaining, even if you don't like the films. The first film also highlights the original Phil Tippet stop motion animation (which was replaced by CGI) for the dinosaurs and plays out a whole scene featuring this, which looks fantastic, if not quite as slick as the final CGI. There are also storyboards for both films, advertising and marketing materials, cast and filmmaker notes, production notes, vast filmographies, models, behind the scene's stills and a fab dinosaur encyclopaedia. The Lost World includes two deleted scenes, which are of only mild interest, and the first film includes an insightful look at the Foley Artists (where we learn what the sound of the T-Rex eggs cracking actually is). There is also a nice short feature on Spielberg and co. location scouting (the great man even plays out some scenes on a handheld video camera when he finds the places he's looking for). Arguably of most interest are the pre-production meetings, fuzzy as the picture quality is. Here we see Spielberg and Phil Tippet, among others, talk about shooting 'scary' dinosaurs (yup, they were trying to make a horror film) and we get a real insight into the mind of one the greatest filmmakers to have ever walked the earth. Spielberg is a genius and this merely confirms his undeniable gift for bringing films of this magnitude and scale to fruition. I'm not finished yet either. You also get somewhat faded trailers for the first two films and a teaser trailer for the third. As for the picture and the sound... well, let's just say that this is like the cinema in your own living room and the most pleasing set of discs I've ever seen. They look and sound that good. This is one hell of a package and one that I recommended to even the most casual fan of these movies. First class stuff, if only Spielberg would do an audio commentary for even one of his films...