The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

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Jeff Goldblum and director Steven Spielberg return for the first Jurassic Park sequel. Goldblum’s character first scoffs at John Hammond’s (Richard Attenborough) request to catalog and study the flourishing dinosaurs at a second ‘Site B’ island. But when he discovers his paleontologist girlfriend (Julianne Moore) is already there, Goldblum launches a rescue mission. Once on the island, our heroes discover Hammond’s desire to preserve and protect the dinosaurs is being thwarted by his financiers, who plan to move forward with capturing the animals for a state-side amusement attraction.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is one of those sequels where audiences really just want more of the same. To that end, it certainly delivers more thrills, chills and spectacle — including a tense sequence in which two Tyrannosaurs try to push Goldblum, Moore, and co-star Vince Vaughn off a steep cliff in a bus. Spielberg makes sure the film is always moving, and for the most part, always entertaining, even if it strains my suspension of disbelief more than its predecessor did (a bloody jacket and a display of gymnastics ability don’t sit well with me). Goldblum’s quirky disposition gives the adventure a bit of a welcome, sardonic touch, and Pete Postlethwaite is memorable as a philosophical big game hunter hell-bent on taking down a T-rex.

If all this sounds like ‘just another dino movie’, well, it kinda is up until the last twenty or thirty minutes, but hang in there. The Lost World saves its best for last. With Arliss Howard, Vanessa Chester, Peter Stormare, and Richard Schiff.

Oscar Nomination: Best Visual Effects