Jurassic Park III

Jurassic Park III stars Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, the palaeontologist from the first film who inadvertently finds himself on Dinosaur Island again. As the film opens, Grant's research is in danger of being closed down by lack of funding. When Kirby, a wealthy businessman offers him a large sum of money, Grant cannot resist. All he has to do is go along as a tour guide on a flight over an island. Of course, it's not just any island, it's an island called Isla Sorna, where scientists have succeeded in making even bigger and nastier dinosaurs than before. As it turns out, Kirby was lying; he's not a wealthy businessman at all, and he doesn't want a flying tour, he wants to land on the island because he's looking for his son who was lost there while paragliding. Grant is not impressed because he knows better than anyone how dangerous these dinosaurs really are, and for some reason, no one ever believes him until it's too late. The plane crash lands, and Grant, his assistant Billy, Kirby and his wife, and a few gunmen are trapped on the island from hell.

Jurassic Park III appears to be an attempt to cash in on the success of the previous two Jurassic Park films. The trouble is, we've seen it all before, and it's getting old. OK, we haven't seen pterodactyls before, and it was good to see them, but apart from that there's really nothing new here. The acting and dialogue are good for the most part, and there are some genuinely scary moments, and a bit of humour too, like when they can hear a phone ringing but there's nothing there except a big dinosaur. And the part where they have to search dinosaur dung to find an important object that could save their lives. Unfortunately, Kirby's wife is one of those stereotypical hysterical women that drive me mad with their screaming and shouting and this detracted from my already limited enjoyment of the film.

The special effects are what carry Jurassic Park III. The computer generated dinosaurs are getting better all the time, and their integration into the live action was completely seamless.