Universal Home Video
Format : Region 2
1.85:1 Enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Sound : English Dolby 5.1, DTS 5.1
Subtitles : English for the hard of hearing.
Extras : Commentary, Tour of Stan Winston Studio, ILM computer generated
dinosaurs, Behind the scenes, Making Of. DVD-Rom
Sam
Neill....Dr. Alan Grant
William H. Macy....Paul Kirby
Téa Leoni....Amanda Kirby
Alessandro Nivola....Billy Brennan
Trevor Morgan....Erik Kirby
Michael Jeter....Mr. Udesky
John Diehl....Cooper
Bruce A. Young....M.B. Nash
Laura Dern....Dr. Ellie Sattler
Taylor Nichols....Mark Degler
Mark Harelik....Ben Hildebrand
Julio Oscar Mechoso....Enrique Cardoso
Blake Michael Bryan....Charlie (as Blake Bryan)
Sarah Danielle Madison....Cheryl Logan
Linda Park....Hannah
Directed by…Joe Johnston
Written by…Michael Crichton (character) Peter Buchman and Alexander Payne
& Jim Taylor
Larry J. Franco....producer
Kathleen Kennedy....producer
Steven Spielberg....executive producer
Cheryl A. Tkach....associate producer
David Womark....associate producer
Original Music by…Don Davis (new music) John Williams (themes)
Cinematography by…Shelly Johnson
Film Editing by…Robert Dalva
Jurassic
Park III effectively killed of the Jurassic Park franchise – and the blame has
to land squarely on the shoulders of Executive Producer Stephen Spielberg and
Producer Kathleen Kennedy. They
ignored the basics of filmmaking – you need a story.
The inconsistencies, plot holes, and down right lack of plot start from the
opening – the kid (isn’t it always) getting lost on monster island.
The aerial shot of the island make it look two – maybe three hundred
square miles, but no matter when the heros come to the rescue they just happen
to crash land so close to the same spot that within a matter of moments they
find the kids parachute – and within two days find the kid.
There are a few nice dialogue touches that add some real humour to the
proceedings and one piece when a monster does a an impression of Crocodile from
Peter Pan, the rest is, however, clichéd beyond belief.
Sam Neil wonders around thinking about the money he must have been paid
and the rest (who come from the not-quite-big-enough-names-for anyone-to
know-who-they-are pool of actors) find themselves out acted by Stan Winston’s
models. William H Macy as The Kids
father manages to organise an expedition complete with world renown
palaeontologist and assistant, mercenaries and equipment in quite a nice private
airplane – then we learn that he has a shop selling Bathrooms and Kitchens.
With that sort of ability he should be at least the Bathroom and Kitchen
King of America. Tea Leoni is
mother of The Kid, and of course, divorced from father – she
plays ‘Blonde Bimbo Mother’ after all someone has to run-around doing
stupid things and screaming a lot. At
least Fay Wrey did it with style. As
for the rest of the cast – they are the usual ‘Star Trek Red Shirts’.
The dinosaurs must think that people are a wonderful delicacy the way
that they will fight each other just for a meal of person.
By now you may be thinking that Jurassic Park III is a complete stinker – but
no. Strangely enough what saves the
film from going into the never-to-be-watched-again pile is Joe Johnston’s
Direction and Stan Winston’s & ILM’s monsters. The director can only work with what he was given, and
he does a not bad job of making the actors move as convincingly as the monsters.
The monsters on the other hand are very good, and almost completely
seamless between model and CGI.
The DVD is an excellent presentation. The
1.85:1 picture enhanced for 16x9 televisions is as flawless as should be
expected from a modern film, and there is even a DTS soundtrack – a bit a
rarity on R2 DVD’s. I
obviously preferred the DTS track, my only complaint being that to listen to the
dialogue you have to have the sound up quite high – and then the dinosaurs are
deafening – but then I suppose they properly were.
The extras on the disc give a slight insight to ‘how it was done’ and
are not bad. The commentary by Stan Winston
and 2 folk who did the GCI work was interesting, but it could have done with one
of the cast or someone from the production side to give a more balanced idea of
the making of the film.
All in all a ‘not bad’ film – but I wont be dashing out to buy a copy when
I give this lent one back.
Return to DVD List
April 2003