Have Cheetah-Will View #1 “Jurassic City”

It’s 2:07 pm

Going to start transferring my reviews from the old blog to here.
This was my first film review with Paladin and I posted it 14 Feb 15.
32 films reviewed is not very prolific,is it??? I like to think we are very selective…
For all the new readers and followers here on the new blog….hope you enjoy them!

 

The cheetah and I had the pleasure of watching a fun creature called “Jurassic City” this past week.

The plot starts off showing a secret US Government department at night. Inside,a experiment has gone awry as dangerous raptors have gotten loose.
While the first guard becomes a dino snack,the main troubleshooter of the security team,Captain Talbot,shows up and kills the raptor.
He then is asked to transport several raptors to a underground section of a prison whose warden owes a favor to the agent in charge of the covert department.
While this is going on,a frat party is broken up by the cops and three underage students are arrested for the party and for evading arrest. They are taken to the jail to be booked. They are put into a holding cell with some women prisoners,one,a saucy redhead named Scarlett,starts putting the moves on one of the girls. Tension rises before prison guards diffuse it. More prisoners are checked in,including a serial killer who is big on politeness,a pair of drinking buddies and a young girl on acid. As this activity is going on,Captain Talbot is meeting his small escort and heading to the prison.
What they don’t know is after they left,a further breach has happened with several more raptors escaping and killing anything that moves.
The agent in charge frantically calls Talbot back which he does,leaving the transport to his second in command.

 

As Talbot speeds off,his small teams rolls into the prison but disaster strikes as the raptors,who seemed to be genetically engineered to be far stronger then normal,break out of the APC they are in,killing much of the escort.
The prison guards and the last of the transport team retreat into the prison with the raptors in hot pursuit. The resulting attack kills the rest of the staff except for the warden and one guard,the electric grid is knocked offline and the prisoners are now at risk.
Some of the prisoners want to escape while others seem to think staying put is better,the small group divides and the group that escapes is killed one by one.

The group that stays,which includes two frat girls,one of the drinking buddies and the serial killer,along with the last guard,avoid the raptors but find their options limited. And when the serial killer threatens to kill the guard,the warden emerges trying to save his man but is killed.
As the last four head topside,Captain Talbot is back at his HQ talking to his superior about the breach. The HQ has been destroyed and abandoned except for the agent who tells Talbot it was his idea to allow the breach because the agent wanted to a hero in stopping the attacks. Talbot,after a short gunfire exchange,kills the rogue agent and leaves. He sees several raptors in the street but is helpless to do anything but drive away.
At the prison,the last men,including the serial killer,are killed leaving the last two college girls to make it alive….but as they emerge in the morning light,LA has been over run by various different dinosaurs and the city is burning.

Whew!

Okay,first off,this is a fun low budget creature feature that you see on Saturday nights on the SyFy Channel. Director/writer Sean Cain,who also did another creature feature called “Sand Sharks”,seems a little torn in his direction,does he want to play this laughs (the girl on acid thinks a raptor is a huge bunny rabbit and sees it as a bunny) or does he play for a straight nature gone rampant movie? He goes for the serious and while I think that is the wise move,his CGI team really lets him down with below average work which really hurts this movie. If he had used a better company and maybe tightened up the ending,this would have raised this movie beyond a SyFy movie.

Cain has a far above average cast for a film like this, Ray Wise (Creeper Jeepers 2) plays the warden while Vernon Wells (Commando) plays the rogue government agent is sets the action in motion. The lovely Monique Parent (Breath of Hate) plays a doomed prisoner and Jack Forcinito plays the heroic Captain Talbot. Kevin Gage,who “starred” in one of the worst movies ever made,”Chaos”,does a another sleazy turn as a killer,a part he plays well. Several fresh faces also dot the cast ,Sofia Mattsson standing out as the lead college girl who takes on escaping and pays for it.
The only part plot wise I had with this movie was the ending. In a matter of 4-5 hours while that prison is being attacked,the entire city of LA has been overcome with dinosaurs? It reminded me of the ending of Uwe Boll’s “Alone in the Dark” where Christian Slater and Tara Reid emerge from a night clash only to find complete ruin. It just seems a little lazy to come have so close to have a exciting ending only to blow with a little too much cheese. I know Sean will kick ass on his next movie and I am looking forward to seeing what is next from him.
It doesn’t take away that the cheetah and I both liked it very much (well except for ONE scene). Sort of bummed to see the DVD came with zero extras,no commentary,no bloopers,nada.

The cheetah and I give this a paw and a thumbs up! Thank you for reading.