More terror and suspense with the dinosaurs

Rating: 9/10 (30 July 2001)

I couldn't disagree more with those who say THE LOST WORLD is an awful movie. I have seen it many times in the cinema and on video; and for my money, this is a fine continuation of the JURASSIC PARK story. This time, it is revealed by ambitious billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) that the genetically engineered dinosaurs on Isla Nublar were actually bred on Isla Sorna, situated 87 miles from Nublar. Thus far, the Isla Sorna dinosaurs have remained in isolation. But the Isla Nublar disaster has resulted in Attenborough losing control of his InGen corporation to his unscrupulous nephew (Arliss Howard), who wants to bring the dinosaurs back to the as-yet-unfinished Jurassic Park complex in San Diego.
The only people standing in his way are chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Goldblum's daughter (Vanessa Lee Chester), his girlfriend (Julianne Moore), and two other men (Richard Schiff, Vince Vaughan). More terror and suspense ensue as both Goldblum's and Howard's teams come face-to-face with the island's dinosaur populace. And while Goldblum only loses Schiff from his team and manages to get the rest off the island, Howard still manages to get one T-rex and her infant back to San Diego. The mayhem continues there.
I give this film a 9 rather than the 10 I gave to the original, because not all of the special effects work is exactly as great as before. But I think those who condemn Spielberg's sequel out of hand are sadly mistaken. This has enough Hitchcock-style black humor to satisfy; and the sequence of Goldblum and his team trapped in a trailer being overturned and pushed over the cliff by the T-rex is one of the most hair-raising sequences I have ever seen on screen.