JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH

A T Rex on the attack!

JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH (2025). Director: Gareth Edwards. 

A new expedition goes to the island where the genetically-engineered dinosaurs roam, as blood samples are needed for a drug to prevent heart disease. Naturally millions of dollars are at stake, and some would love to get these samples for major financial gain. Meanwhile, the people in the party -- played by Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, etc. -- have to dodge attacks by various gigantic predators. Complicating matters is a family that has ventured too close to the island and winds up stranded there.  

One big effin fish!

JWR is a perfectly acceptable dino movie with the usual stunning FX work and exciting scenes. The highlights include the attack on the boat by a huge aquatic creature, a scene when a T-Rex goes after the aforementioned family, and a rampage by a huge, flying Quetzelcoatus in a mountain cave. If there's any problem with the movie is that it's too long, with the somewhat annoying family padding out the running time. 

Verdict: One more Jurassic go-round. **3/4. 

KING DINOSAUR

King Dinosaur licks his chops

KING DINOSAUR (1955). Director: Bert I. Gordon.

A new planet named Nova is orbiting around the sun, closer to the Earth than any other planet. A team of four scientists are sent by rocket ship to explore this new world. They are Ralph Martin (William Bryant), his fiancee Pat Bennett (Wanda Curtis), Nora Pierce (Patti Gallagher) and Richard Gordon (Douglas Henderson of Invasion of the Saucer Men). On Nova they discover that the planet is very Earth-like, but as Earth was during the prehistoric era. After encounters with an alligator and a giant ant -- which none of the four even remark upon -- they decide to explore an island and discover it is full of carnivorous monsters! A particularly hungry lizard, referred to improbably as a T-Rex -- hence "King" Dinosaur --  is hell bent on having them for a snack! 

Bryant, Curtis, Gallagher, Henderson

King Dinosaur was the directorial debut for Bert I. Gordon, Mr. BIG, who came out with several movies starring outsized monsters, such as Beginning of the End with its huge grasshoppers. King Dinosaur is not an auspicious debut by any means, but the movie has a certain zero budget charm to it. Although some of the musical score reminds one of a poor man's "Bolero," it whips up some suspense and excitement during the climax on the island. The sound FX are excellent, as they generally are in giant monster flicks. The actions of our heroes are at times inexplicable, and it's also hard to believe that an iguana -- I believe that's what King D actually is -- could beat a crocodile in a fair fight! Both Bryant and Henderson had a long list of credits. Patti Gallagher did only a few films, and Curtis, who was basically a singer, appeared only in this movie. 

     

Verdict: Low-grade monster flick is of interest to Mr. BIG fans. **1/4. 

THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS

The rhedosaurus surfaces in Manhattan

THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953). Director: Eugene Lourie. Colorized. 

When Dr. Tom Nesbitt (Paul Christian, aka Paul Hubschmid of The Day the Sky Exploded) of the Atomic Energy Commission is nearly killed by a revivified dinosaur after an atomic test in the Arctic, he has trouble getting anyone to believe his story. Only the testimony of an independent witness from a shipwreck, as well as several bizarre incidents of death and destruction, alert the authorities -- and paleontologist Professor Elson (Cecil Kellaway) -- that Nesbitt may be on to something. Elson spots the enormous creature in a diving bell, which is gulped by the monster. Then the rhedosaurus, as it is called, pops up in New York Harbor and lays waste to Manhattan ... 

The beast swallows a brave police officer (Lee Phelps) 

A big hit for Warner Brothers, Beast was the first time a prehistoric creature stomped across Manhattan since King Kong twenty years earlier. Ray Harryhausen did the stop-motion effects for the film and they are still excellent, with the rhedosaurus being rather beautiful in its own bizarre way. The success of Beast not only inspired Godzilla but engendered a whole slew of monster/creature movies (Warner Brothers followed up Beast with the first giant insect feature, Them!). The sequence when the beast picks up a police officer (Lee Phelps) in its teeth and swallows him whole -- reportedly excised in theaters but shown on television -- is still quite horrifying and very well-handled. 

Paul Christian and Paula Raymond

The actors in this come in second after the monster, but they are professional and convincing, with Christian a solid lead and some fine support from Paula Raymond as Elson's assistant and Kellaway as the ill-fated doctor. (When you go down in a diving bell to look for a monster, you know it won't end well -- this is another very well-handled sequence.) Others in the cast include Kenneth Tobey [It Came from Beneath the Sea] as Colonel Evans; Ross Elliott as the beast's first Arctic victim; King Donovan as a shrink; James Best as a radar operator; Donald Woods as Captain Jackson; Michael Fox as a doctor who determines that the rhedosaurus carries a plague; Lee Van Cleef as the sharpshooter who brings down the beast with a radioactive isotope at Coney Island; Merv Griffin as an (unseen) radio announcer; among others. David Buttolph has contributed an exciting and highly effective score. As usual, the colorizing process adds a new dimension, although this version is very imperfect and a bit fuzzy at times. Eugene Lourie later directed Gorgo and Behemoth the Sea Monster. 

Verdict: Classic monster movie still remains one of the very best. ***1/2. 

65

Adam Driver pursued by dinosaur

65 (2023). Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.

65 million years ago a spaceship from the Planet Somaris -- which seems exactly like Earth -- is hit by the first piece of a huge asteroid and crash lands in two pieces on our planet in the prehistoric era. The only survivors are the pilot, Mills (Adam Driver), and a little girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), whose parents are among the lost. Mills had a young daughter, Nevine (Chloe Coleman), who died while he was out in space. Half of the spaceship has landed on top of a mountain, and Mills and Koa have to make their way through a hostile landscape (somewhat) filled with dinosaurs in order to find their way home.

Adam Driver

65 engendered serious hatred in  a lot of viewers, probably because it is less of a dinosaur movie than it is a survival movie with a few dinosaurs thrown in. Admittedly these dinosaurs -- precious few of them considering this is the prehistoric era -- look great and the FX work in the film is excellent. But there isn't much of a story here, and the two characters can't even converse because only one of them speaks English (or an alien version of it?) It's actually rather odd that in spite of the close calls that our twosome have to endure throughout the movie -- cave-ins, quicksand, hungry raptors, the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs, and so on -- the film is so blah and even a bit dull. It doesn't help that there isn't enough back story and the whole premise is like something out of an old comic book. The acting is fine, however, although if star Adam Driver were hoping for a tremendous hit he must have been disappointed. The various attempts at pathos don't really work, either. 

Verdict: If you want dinosaurs there are better places to visit. **1/2.

MONSTER WORLD

A little shameless self-promotion here. My dinosaur-on-the-loose thriller is now available in trade paperback and hardcover as well as ebook formats 

"In this dramatic monster-chiller scientists use a time machine to bring prehistoric animals into the early 21st century and their base located on the Yucatan peninsula. Unfortunately, they also bring back the meteor that destroyed the dinosaurs---and now may destroy mankind. As all manner of prehistoric animals -- flying, crawling, and swimming -- create havoc in the complex and surrounding areas, the scientists try desperately to avert global disaster while dodging assaults from huge and very hungry animals, and facing sudden trips back to the Mesozoic era through dangerous, unexpected time loops."

"Energetic and thrilling, with interesting characters."

"Schoell puts the reader through a wringer, as you never know what's coming at you or the characters next."

You can buy this on amazon as a beautiful hardcover or trade paperback, or an inexpensive kindle ebook.

DINOSAURUS!

Ward Ramsey and Paul Lukather

DINOSAURUS! (1960). Director: Irwin S. Yeaworth, Jr. 

On a tropical island two engineers, Bart Thompson (Ward Ramsey) and his partner Chuck (Paul Lukather), come across two frozen dinosaurs -- and a caveman -- inadvertently freed by their blasting. When the monsters and the caveman thaw out, havoc ensues. Not only do the men have to worry about Bart's girlfriend, Betty (Kristina Hanson), but also a little orphaned kid named Julio (Alan Roberts), who is in danger from both a hungry tyrannosaur and the kid's nasty ward, Hacker (Fred Engleberg), who hopes to sell the caveman for a profit. 

Kristina Hanson and Gregg Martell

Dinosaurus! is one of the least memorable dino-on-the-loose films ever made. The premise is fine, but the monster models and stop-motion FX -- this is definitely not the work of Ray Harryhausen -- are mediocre at best. Far too much of the running time is given over to the silly antics of the caveman (Gregg Martell), who is meant to be comic relief but is only irritating. A scene when the T-Rex attacks a bus and apparently crushes the screaming passengers inside is out of sync with the rest of the childish movie. Julio is meant to be just a cute, likable kid, but he acts more like a five-year-old than someone twice as old, and he becomes tiresome very quickly. 

steam shovel vs. T-Rex

This was the first film for Ward Ramsey, who had just a few undistinguished credits afterwards. Paul Lukather had a great many credits, mostly on television. Kristina Hanson, who was more decorative than anything else, only had five credits, and Alan Roberts had a few more as a child actor. A hilarious scene has Betty coming across the T Rex and fainting -- while underwater! The somber score by Ronald Stein is better than the picture deserves. Widescreen photography and color don't add that much to the proceedings.

Verdict: Watch The Land Unknown or The Lost World instead. *1/2.  

THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER

The monster from Crater Lake

THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER (1977). Director: William R. Stromberg.

"I've been stuffing my shoes with newspapers for so long that my feet know more than my head does." -- Mitch. 

A meteor flashes across the sky and lands in Crater Lake in Oregon. The heat from the meteor causes a prehistoric egg to hatch, and before too long a long-necked, big toothed plesiosaurus -- the same creature that is supposedly in Loch Ness -- is snacking on the locals and a few tourists as well.

Glen Roberts and Mark Siegel

The Crater Lake Monster is a low-budget and generally forgettable monster movie that does boast some good locations, atmospheric photography (Paul Gentry), and some decent stop-motion and model work by Dave Allen. The monster has a battle with a steam shovel, but its appearances are simply too infrequent to make this pic a contender. To pad out the running time, there are such characters as a magician and his wife, as well as a convenience store robber and killer, all of whom encounter the creature. There is also way too much footage devoted to two buddies, Arnie (Glen Roberts) and Mitch (Mark Siegel), who rent boats to some of the victims; their allegedly comical appearances only dissipate the film's minor tension. At least Siegel gets the movie's funniest line (see above). 

Richard Cardella and Bob Hyman

Richard Cardella, who plays Sheriff Steve, also co-wrote the screenplay with the director, and Bob Hyman is cast as the town doctor.  Most of these actors had no other or very few acting credits, although Siegel has done a lot of work in visual effects. This was Stromberg's only directorial credit. Animator Dave Allen has the monster moving much like the dinosaur in The Giant Behemoth in one sequence. An unconvincing prop head is also used for other shots. An unintentionally hilarious moment occurs when one character talks about how she can supposedly see thousands of stars in the sky but it's broad daylight outside! The movie has a downbeat conclusion. 

Verdict: A monster you can miss. **.