The Lost World – return to a different Jurassic Park.

Title: The Lost Word – Jurassic Park

US Release: 5/23/1997

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by David Koepp based on Michael Crichton’s novel

Distributed by Universal Pictures

Cast:

Jeff Goldblum - Ian Malcolm

Vince Vaughn – Nick Van Owen

Arliss Howard – Peter Ludlow

Pete Postlethwaite – Roland Tembo

Julianne Moore – Dr. Sara Moore

Richard Schiff – Eddie Carr

Peter Stormare - Dieter Stark

Vanessa Lee Chester – Kelly Curtis

Richard Attenborough – John Hammond

The Skinny:

                Set some years after the conclusion of the first film, a second island is introduced, not far from original island that hosted Jurassic Park.  This island is later revealed to be “Site B”, the genetic breeding ground for the bulk of the dinosaur population of the park.  Meant to be a habitat to nurse the dinosaurs to a certain age before moving them to park itself, it too was abandoned after a storm struck the island, the same storm that lead to the catastrophic failure of Jurassic park.  Its soon stumbled upon by a wealthy family vacationing on their private yacht.  The only child of the family, a little girl (Camilla Belle, in one of her earliest big film appearances), wonders off and encounters Compsognathus, very small dinosaurs that appear cute and friendly, but soon turn vicious as many more suddenly arrive and swarm the little girl.

                Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) is summoned to the mansion of John Hammond (Attenborough), who’s lost control of his company Ingen after the failure of Jurassic Park, to his greedy and pretentious nephew Peter Ludlow (Howard).  Its revealed Ludlow used his extensive influence to bury the tragedy of Jurassic park, leading the media and ultimately the public believe that its failure was due solely to human error, placing blame on Hammond, Malcolm, and the few other survivors of the park.  Now with the attack on the little girl, her wealthy parents are suing Ingen.  Its assets almost gone from the massive loss of the original park, and fearing bankruptcy, Ludlow intends to re-open Jurassic Park on Site B due to the higher dinosaur population so the company can start generating revenue and start turning a profit to become successful again.  Hammond sees this as his last chance to retake control of Ingen. 

Needing to prove that the dinosaurs still on the island have been living on their own without any outside help, and with said evidence can lobby for a policy of non-interference from Ingen investors and hopefully the public as well.  Hammond requests Ian lead a team on the island, based off his previous experience at Jurassic park.  The team consists of photographer Nick Van Own (Vaughn) and heavy equipment specialist Eddie Carr (Schiff), and assisted by field vehicles outfitted for the primitive terrain and encounters with the dinosaurs.  Ian flat out rejects Hammond request, but is horrified when he learns the 3^rd member of the team is his girlfriend Dr. Sarah Harding (Moore) who’s already on the island.  Ian reluctantly agrees, using the expedition as a rescue mission to get Sarah off the island as soon as possible.

                Ian’s troubles get worse when his daughter, Kelly (Curtis), turns out to be on her own when her mother (Ian’s ex-wife) leaves for Europe with her new boyfriend, and ends up stowing away on one of the field vehicles.  The team finds Sarah on the island, who, along with Nick and Eddie, are awestruck at the sight of real-life dinosaurs, much to Ian’s chagrin.  The situation is further complicated when they witness chinook helicopters bearing the Ingen logo bringing another team to the island.

                The second team turns out to be a big game hunting party, lead by veteran hunter Roland Tembo (Postlethwaite), and Ludlow in tow.  Using their own specially outfitted vehicles and weaponry, they set out to catch dinosaurs alive, and turn out to be very efficient at it.  Despite the carelessness and incompetent attitude of Roland’s second in command, Dieter Stark (Stormare), Roland’s hunting party captures enough live dinosaurs to stage a teleconference with Ingen investors, straight from the island.  Ian’s party, not wanting to see the dinosaurs hurt or a repeat of the mistakes of Jurassic Park, set the dinosaurs free in the middle of the teleconference, leading to panic, confusion, and destruction.

                Roland, wishing to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex a trophy, wounds a T-rex hatchling to use as bait.  However, he must return to the camp as the other dinosaurs were released.  Sarah and Nick rescue the injured baby rex and take it back to their mobile base camp to patch up its wounds.  The baby rex’s parents however, follow them there.  Seeking to save their offspring, they overturn the vehicle and push it nearly off a nearby cliff.  Ian, Nick and Sarah are trapped inside and narrowly avoid falling out of the vehicle as the rear half dangles over the side of the cliff.  Eddie arrives with another specialized SUV and attempts a rescue.  Securing a lead rope for the three to use to climb to safety, he also has to rig a tow cable to the much larger vehicle as its slowly sliding off the cliff.  Flooring this much smaller vehicle in reverse to keep the mobile base vehicle from falling off the cliff, he’s soon beset by the male and female T-rex, who destroy his vehicle and eventually eat him alive.  The mobile base and the smaller SUV slide over the cliff.  Ian, Sarah and Nick hold tight to the lead rope and climb up to safety after the vehicles fall around them and down to the coast below.  Found by Roland’s party, Ian must work with Ludlow and his cohorts to get off the island before the dinosaurs descend on them all and eat them alive. 

                Not only will getting off the island be perilous, the reality of dinosaurs being exploited for profit will prove to be a much bigger problem, one that will follow the survivors even after they make it off the island.

On the Surface:

                Obviously with the huge success and visual breakthroughs of the first film, and a sequel novel to the original novel written by Crichton himself, a sequel was pretty much guaranteed for this film.  Expanding on the CGI techniques pioneered in the first film, along with partial scene compositing, John Williams returning to score the film and Stan Winston’s animatronics, this film was setup to be a bigger spectacle than the first.  Like Spielberg’s first summer blockbuster hit, Jaws, fans lined up for this sequel with eager anticipation, much like Jaws 2 back in 1978 (though Spielberg wasn’t involved much with that sequel), and would be successful at the box office. 

                Unfortunately, this film couldn’t escape the curse that seems to beset most if not all sequels of blockbuster hits.  Critics and fans alike felt the film tried too hard to one up its predecessor.  The ending sequence with the T-rex loose in San Diego felt too much like a rip off of Godzilla, and even a reference or two can be found in some scenes.  The formula of leaving human characters without their modern technology to protect them as they tried to evade the dinosaurs, was reused from the first film, but did update it by adding more people, with most of them armed and not totally without modern technology.  With the addition of more dinosaur species seen on the screen, other species had to be cut, which die hard fans did not like.  For example, the velociraptors were the villains of sorts of the first film, but in this film had only one sequence. 

The underlying message, though it felt more like an afterthought and haphazardly thrown into the script, of preservation of nature and leaving it untampered came off as heavy-handed, and still felt like a PSA in retrospect after many watched the film for the 1^st time.  Fans were scratching their heads asking what went wrong, and critics just thought that Spielberg was just having fun with his success by making big-budget movies for the sake of making big-budget movies.

               

Production Wise:

                Some parts of this film were shot in northern California, not far from the town I grew up in.  Even one of the extras was the husband of a friend to my mom.  Additional shooting was done in Costa Rica, Hawaii, and the city of San Diego for the ending sequence.

                Mercedes-Benz vehicles were used for Ian’s team, painting in jungle camouflage and outfitted with top rack search lights, protection bars for the front and read lights, and heavy-duty front-tow wenches.  The mobile base was an extra long Fleetwood Southwind Storm, with hinged bellows in the middle for turning, was also painted in camouflage, and given an all-terrain outfitting.  Military grade Humvees were also outfitted with elaborate “capturing” accessories: such as outrigger frames on either side for seats, a sniper’s nest on top, and a giant containment claw that would fold down in front.  A customized Jeep Wrangler YJ with a retractable side seat was also made up for the film.

                Spielberg wanted more variety of dinosaurs in this film, after receiving many letters from young fans asking why Stegosauruses were not in the first film.  Other species of dinosaurs to debut in this film are the Pachycephalosaurs, Compsognathus, and Pteranodon, along with several others seen mostly in the hunting caravan sequence.

Why I like the film:

                The main reason I still like this film is because it combined realistic dinosaurs with modern devices.  The hunting party was state of the art with their vehicles, hunting scopes, and weapons.  I remember a former roommate saying he liked the sequel Aliens more than Alien because it took a step further from the first film.  I think that’s what this movie did as well.  The dinosaurs were already established as ferocious and ruthless predators, so to repeat leaving a small group of humans at their mercy would have been stupid.  So logically, other humans would need to be introduced into the storyline.  Make them skilled, efficient, confident, equipped with the necessary vehicles and arm them with the firepower to take down big game.  I still like the look of the Mercedes All terrain SUV’s, as well as the military grade Humvees (this film was one of the first to use them in a non-military setting, before that element was used to death in many other films to follow).

                Pete Postlethwaite’s character as the veteran big game hunter was necessary for such a plot.  My only complaint is the theatrical cut left out his best scene.  So, I recommend watching the extended version where available (which restores the scene and a few others) or watching it in the deleted scenes menu if available on your copy of the DVD.  He’s introduced at a bar where he defends the honor of a female waiter who’s being harassed by stereotypical American tourists.  His performance of him defeating the much younger guy with his hand tied behind his back is comical and on point, showing this guy is old but far from defenseless. 

                Vince Vaughn’s performance as Nick Van Owen was good.  His performance in “Swingers” impressed Spielberg which landed him the role in this film, and his career took off as a result. 

                I still love the sequence where the parental T-rex’s attack the mobile command and nearly push it off a cliff.  As I’ve said in previous posts, adventure movies are a rare breed, and this sequence definitely had an adventure feel to it.  Most wrote it off as over the top, I think it’s the right dosage of adventure injected into the film.  If I don’t have enough time to watch the whole film, I will scene skip to this sequence and watch all the way through.  It’s an underappreciated element that gets forgotten too easily by regular movie-goers.

The film is rated PG-13 for sci-fi terror and violence, namely dinosaurs eating and tearing people apart.  Stream or rent where available for a Jurassic Park movie with a slightly different feel.  The adventure tone and different mix of characters will entertain as long as they are given an honest chance.

                                               

The Count of Monte Cristo – Abridged

Title: The Count of Monte Cristo

US Release: 1/25/2002

Directed by Kevin Reynolds

Written by Jay Wolpert – Based on the original literature written by Alexandre Dumas

Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures

Cast:

Jim Caviezel – Edmond Dantes

Guy Pearce – Fernand Mondego

James Frain – Villefort

Dagmara Dominczyk – Mercedes

Richard Harris – Abbe Faria “Priest”

Luis Guzman – Jacopo

Michael Wincott – Armand Dorleac

The Skinny:

                Edmond Dantes (Caviezel), second mate of a French merchant ship, takes his sick captain, along with the Ship owner’s representative and life-long friend, Fernand Mondego (Pearce), ashore to the Island of Elba.  Knowing Napoleon is currently exiled to the island and under heavy guard by Royal British dragoons, Edmond is desperate to save the life of his captain, and takes the risk to seek medical attention.  After a short skirmish, Fernand and Edmond wound, but do not kill, a few dragoons before being met by Napoleon Bonaparte himself (Alex Norton) who grants them use of his physician.  Before the captain passes away, Napoleon requests Edmond take a personal letter to an old friend back in Paris, but not to tell the dragoons or even Fernand about it. 

                Back in Marseille, the crew delivers the body of the captain to the ship’s owner.  When debriefed, the first mate blames Edmond for the death of the captain and putting the ship’s crew and merchandise at unnecessary risk.  The Ship’s owner disagrees, and commends Edmond for his selflessness.  He gives Edmond the rank of Captain for the merchant ship, passing over the first mate, much to his chagrin.

                Edmond’s fiancé, Mercedes (Dominczyk), meets with Fernand while he meets with the ship’s owner.  Fernand, a spoiled rich boy, keeps pressing Mercedes to have an affair with him.  Mercedes denies him, apparently not for the first time.  Edmond soon joins them with the news he’s been promoted.  No longer having to wait to pay for a wedding to Mercedes, they are both over joyed.  Fernand, however, feels his social status should guarantee him such good luck, and walks away sullen.

                As Edmond celebrates his good news with his father and Mercedes, their dinner is interrupted by the authorities.  Arrested without being told why, Edmond is forcibly removed from his Father’s house and brought before Villefort (Frain), Magistrate of Marseille.  Villefort tells Edmond he’s being charged with treason as he agreed to deliver a personal letter from Napoleon, which turned out to be a plan of escape.  Edmond knew nothing of the contents of the letter, as he’s illiterate.  Villefort believes him and agrees to let him go, until Edmond reveals the name of the “friend” he was supposed to deliver the letter to.  Villefort’s demeanor changes.  He burns the letter and offers give Edmond use of his personal carriage home, which turns out to be a prison cart that takes him to the docks.  Informed he’s not going home but to prison, Edmond escapes and flees to Fernand’s residence, with more authorities in pursuit behind him. 

                Fernand seems willing to help Edmond out of his predicament, but turns on him once he discovers he’s unarmed.  Shocked at his best friend’s betrayal, Fernand confesses to framing to him, with the help of the first mate who was passed over for promotion.  Authorities soon arrive and take Edmond to the Chateau d’if.

                Edmond is introduced to the warden, Armand Dorleac (Wincott) a man driven insane from years stuck on the island, who sadistically flogs the prisoners on the anniversary of their imprisonment, to “remind” them of how long they have been there.  Edmond tries to remain hopeful, but years of solitary confinement and beatings for a crime he did not commit, breaks his spirit.

                While eating his only daily meal in his cell, he’s surprised to find another prisoner digging his way up from the floor.   The other prisoner turns out to be Abbe Faria (Harris), a former soldier who deserted Napoleon’s army after burning a church filled with innocent women and children under orders.  Consumed with guilt, he devoted his life to repentance and honest work as he apprenticed to a wealthy yet humble nobleman.  When the nobleman died, Napoleon wanted his family fortune to fund his army, but Faria claimed he didn’t know where it was hidden, so he was imprisoned in Chateau d’if until he “remembered”.  Nicknamed “priest” by Edmond, he assists Faria in digging out of the prison to escape, in exchange for learning how to read and write, and be trained how to fight, with weapons and hand to hand combat.          

                While digging, the tunnel collapses on Faria.  Fatally injured, he confesses to Edmond that he knows where the treasure is, and even provides him a map to its location.  Edmond swears he will use the treasure to seek revenge if he ever gets out of prison, but Faria still admonishes him to forgive and use the gold to serve others.  Soon passing away, Edmond sees an opportunity to escape by hiding in the makeshift body-bag meant for Faria.  He narrowly escapes the island, being mistaken for a dead body in the body-bag and swims to the nearest island.  There he meets a pirate crew about to punish one of their own, Jacopo (Guzman), for hoarding stolen swag.  The captain wants to exert his authority, but fears killing Jacopo would cause the crew to splinter and mutiny, so he challenges Edmond to a knife fight with Jacopo, the winner allowed to be a part of the crew.  Using his training from Faria, Edmond gains the upper hand over Jacopo, but doesn’t kill him.  Requesting the captain spare Jacopo, he offers to join the crew and work diligently before the mast.  The Captain agrees, and Jacopo, out of gratitude for sparing his life, pledges to be Edmonds right hand man.

                Soon the pirate ship makes port at Marseille.  Having become good friends with the Captain and crew, Edmond his released along with Jacopo to find work ashore.  Finding his old employer (though he does not recognize him after all the years gone by) informs him that the first mate took control of the shipping company in a hostile take-over, Villefort has become chief prosecutor of France when his father was murdered by an unknown assailant, and Mercedes married Fernand only a month after his imprisonment. 

                Further consumed by revenge, Edmond sails with Jacopo and retrieves the treasure.  Now with more than enough gold, Edmond devises an elaborate plan to destroy the livelihoods of Mercedes, Fernand, Villefort, and anyone else involved in his imprisonment.

                                

On the Surface:

                This movie makes no excuses for being a very condensed and very Americanized version of Alexandre Dumas classic piece of historical fiction, and a lot of dramatic license was taken.  To make the film more marketable to American audiences, over 75% of the original story was compressed or cut out altogether.  Luis Guzman’s character of Jacopo was a composite of several characters made specifically for this film so as to keep the supporting cast short and easier for the audience to follow. 

                The Victorian era visuals of pre and post Battle of Waterloo (Napoleon’s last effort to retake control of France) gave the film an almost high-brow feel, as if you had to be educated or a connoisseur of classic literature just to buy a ticket for the film.  Even though the films run time was around two hours, many movie goers avoided this film thinking it was going to be long and boring.  Jay Wolpert, with collaboration from Director Kevin Reynolds, tried to modify the story into a swashbuckler tale, instead of the epic long form that Alexandre Dumas had written.     

Production wise:

                Screenwriter Jay Wolpert added the element of the lifelong friendship between Edmond and Fernand to make the revenge angle more believable.  Kevin Reynolds, garnering a reputation for directing period specific action/drama films, was tapped to direct for that reason. 

                The film suffered from many poor screenings, causing it to undergo many cuts and script rewrites, even going through reshoots late into the year after the seasons had changed, making most of the locations unusable.   This also resulted in the film maxing out its budget, and the studio would not pay any more money for the production.  Reynolds however, was able to improvise in most of the scenes.  While reshooting the ending fight sequence, he used low angles and had the production crew place virgin wheat stock close to the camera to cover up the grass that had turned brown and dead because of the fall season.  When panning around Caviezel and Pearce as they fenced, the wheat passed very quickly at the bottom of the frame, giving a much-needed sense of urgency to the sequence.

                This would be one of the last films veteran actor Richard Harris would act in before his passing, even celebrating his 70^th birthday on set. 

                                 

Why I like the film:

                This film definitely has the Victorian era feel to it, but doesn’t play out in longform as you would see in a masterpiece theater production: getting very long, dull and boring as it played out over several weeks.

                One of my few peeves about the film (which I see in other films too) is how any country in Europe, no matter what time frame or region, all the roles are played by English actors with their natural English accents.  It gives movie goers the impression that all of Europe is British.  So almost every film set in any European country, weather Germany, Austria, and yes France, the characters portrayed as natives still speak in English accents, which kills the realism for me.  Maybe Hollywood producers assume the general movie going public will just accept that any non-American character in a film naturally speaks in an English accent.   I would like to see actors and actresses, English or American, expand their range and/or rise to the challenge of mastering the exotic accent of the country they are tasked to portray.

                I liked seeing Luis Guzman, known more for his comedic roles, portray a serious character.  His facial expressions and tone conveyed a sternness that drove deep when he delivered his lines.  Richard Harris, a master actor who had honed his craft over decades, gave a moral authority to his role as the “priest” Abbe Faria.  In as much that his character acts as Edmond’s conscience, while Guzman as Jacopo acts as the voice of reason (ironic as his character is a pirate), admonishing Edmond to let go his lust for revenge and take his fortune to live as a king elsewhere.   This is one of Henry Cavill’s first big studio films.  Though he has a very small supporting role, and is only 8 years younger than his on-screen mother Dagmara Dominczyk, it’s still very weird to think of him as Superman having seen him perform first in this film.  Jim Caviezel, though not employing any accent what so ever and sticking with his natural American “Yank” accent, does portray the varying emotions of Edmond very well.  From naïve and hopeful, to shocked and betrayed, to angry and scheming, to finally humbled and relieved, I did see him as Edmond Dantes, not a yank playing a role outside his skillset.   Dagmara Dominczyk portrays the female lead very well.  In a time when women were seen as property, but regarded with some esteem if married or married into nobility, her demeanor exemplifies the common mindset of women of the time.   In a time, long before women’s suffrage, if she did not marry, she had little to no options to survive in such a time.  Clearly, she was in love with Edmond, and devasted when lead to believe he was dead.  Going further she was depressed when she had to tolerate Fernand’s infidelity and reckless attitude as her life wore on, but showed to be hopeful and over joyed when she sees Edmond, (in disguise as the Count of Monte Cristo) thinking she would be freed of her depression and reunited with true love.  Dominczyk needs to be in more dramatic films to showcase her abilities.

                Michael Wincott with his trademark raspy/growly voice, sets his character of the warden apart from the rest.  I don’t know why he didn’t have more supporting roles in films, either as the main villain or the head henchman, and the few times I’ve seen him as the villain, his work is wasted on the subpar script and filming of the projects he was in.  Its sad when good actors like Wincott have mediocre careers due to poor material they (probably) are forced to work with.

                Of course, the moral end of the story is always present.  Those who schemed, lied, bribed, stole and murdered to rise up in social rank eventually had a life of anxiety: always in debt, always needing money, and when finally getting it, illegally, only to blow it on bad decisions and addictions of vice (gambling, drinking, prostitution etc.) keeping them in a bad cycle which lead to either a long overdue guilty verdict or death.

                                   

The film is rated PG-13 for the violence and Swordplay, some sensuality though mostly implied on film and not really seen.  Stream or rent where available for when the mood calls for a good swashbuckling adventure, and ignore that it deviates majorly from its namesake.  Enjoy it for what it is not what literary snobs say it should be.