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The Lost World:
Jurassic Park (PG) 129 mins *‘kir‘k
First time round, we sat with mouths agape as Steven Spielberg conjured up movie magic by bringing dinosaurs out of the encyclopedias and onto the cinema screen. Our sense of wonder distracted us — at least first or second time around — from Jurassic Park‘s complete lack of story or characterisation.
So what can we expect from a sequel? A cynical exercise in blandly repeating the formula, then sitting back to watch the cash roll in and merchandise soar? Surprisingly no: we're treated instead to a thrilling adventure with a strong plot and impeccable effects that makes the original as good as extinct.
Of course, the story didn't end when the credits rolled in Jurassic Park. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) masterminded a second Costa Rican island where genetically engineered dinosaurs were allowed to grow in a natural environment before transportation to his theme park. Chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) reluctantly returns with two others in tow more as a rescue mission to uplift his paleontologist girlfriend Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) than a field trip. Disaster follows, however, when a mixed bunch of capitalists and safari hunters arrive on the island and, at the same time, a mummy Tyrannosaurus Rex takes exception to our heroes doing a bit of first aid on its offspring.
Thankfully, The Lost World is more than a stretched- out chase movie. The ‘issues' of exploitation and attempted control of nature aren’t overdone, although the movie itself is a tad overlong. The much-heralded computer effects are seamlessly attached to convincing model work, thrusting the dinosaurs into the very centre of the action. As the slogan says, 'Something has
Jaws of death: T-Rex versus humans in The Lost World
survived' - Spielberg's imagination and credibility.
The only bone of contention is the certificate. While the censors have proved they can cause a farce at the top end of the classification scale (Crash being the most recent example), here's proof that all is not simple in the kids department. A ’PG’ certificate with a special warning to parents of 'sensitive children or those under eight’ doesn't prepare young audiences for the sustained scenes of terror or the bizarre logic that allows two baddies to be killed off-camera, while one of the good guys is trapped head and foot between a pair of T-Rexs and torn apart. But when you're about to become the biggest box office hit of all time, maybe you call the shots. (Alan Morrison)
I General release from Fri 78 Jul.
Boys zone: the cast talk a good game in Swingers
left his beloved back east lt's months since she called and he's still not got any other conversation. In desperation his pal Trent (Vince Vaughn) decides to drive them to Vegas to play the tables and pick up some babes Yet, even when the pair do score, Mike is too angst-ridden to do anything about it, although he does gain major points on the cuteness scale
Back in LA, the boys hang out With their friends, wandering the trendy bars, drivmg around looking for parties, chatting up girls and generally being yOung, Single, Without love and in search of something slightly better than a walk-on part as Goofy. Even if it is Disney.
Swingers (15) 96 mins 1? t sir
Some things are surely too painful for presentation on the big screen. Not blood and gore, but the inner pain of emotional turmoil. The self-torture which comes at the end of a love affair, for example; the spontaneous way in which you turn from sensible human being into cringeworthy nerd at the ring of a telephone. 'Lord, what fools these mortals be,’ as your man
22 THELIST 11—24 Jul 1997
Shakespeare put li.
Yet foolish Doug Lirnan (director) and Jon Favreau (writer, co—pi'oducer and star) have managed to pull it off in Swingers. Not With the saccharine~ coated sweetness of a love story, but with all the bitterness and angst of the real thing. SurpriSingly, the result is a highly watchable, very funny and entertaining piece of low-budget filmmaking.
Favreau plays Mike, a wannabe actor who has moved out to Hollywood and
Which is Just about all there is to Swingers A heap of talking, the odd homage (Scorsese and Tarantinol, a cover version of 'Stayinu Alive‘ so awful it’s trendy, endless answeiphone messages and lots of male l‘()ll(llll() If you want action, hig budgets and romance look elsewhere, but if wordy dialogue, inventive guerilla filrninaking and socil-searching are your idea of a good night out, go see. (Thorn Dihdiii) I Selected release from Fri 7 l lul.
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Get On The Bus
(15) 122 mins *irf
Financed entirely by fifteen wealthy African-American men — including O.J. Simpson's lawyer Johnnie Cochran and actors Danny Glover, Will Smith and Wesley Snipes — Spike Lee’s new movie takes a group of black men on a three- day cross-country bus trip from South Central LA to Washington DC for the Million Man March, the consciousness- raising rally for African-American men called in October 1995 by controversial Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan.
Lee and his scriptwriter, Reggie Rock Blythewood, have conceived the bus as a microcosm of black America, and the events on the journey explore its fault lines. The angry out-of-work actor (who dreams of displacmg Denzel as a movie idol) takes exception to the gay couple. A Jewish driver replaces one of the crew after the bus breaks down, only to leave in protest at Farrakhan's anti-Semitism. An obnoxious black Republican car salesman joins the trip, boasts of his success, calls everyone 'nigger' and gets kicked off the bus. The light-skinned black c0p confronts the young Muslim, who has a violent past. The absentee father and his delinquent teenage son, who are shackled together by a court order, come to form a deeper bond.
Lee's films have always been polemical, but at his best, as in Do The Right Thing, he makes the drama animate the politics Watching Get On The Bus, you get the impression that the director and writer are simply ticking off the issues (and the stereotypes) on an agenda.
Holding the film together, however, is ,
a performance of enormous dignity 1 from veteran actor Ossie Davis as the ,
group's spiritual leader, an elderly man
who has spent his life vainly trying to buy into the American Dream. He funked going on Martin Luther King’s ; march on Washington in 1963, he tells i his fellow passengers, because he was ’
afraid he’d lose his iob Determined not to miss history being made again, he is the Journey - and the movie’s --
soul and conscience. (Jason Best) I Edinburgh Fi/mhouse from Fri 1 7 Jul.
Marching on: Isaiah Washington in Get On The Bus
STAR RATINGS ‘k t 'k t it Outstanding * t it it Recommended t a: * Worth a try it it 50-50 at Poor