Least Important Things
A podcast about movies, friendship, and finding meaning in the most important of the least important things in our lives.
Least Important Things
Jurassic Park III
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In honor of the 25th anniversary of Jurassic Park III, we're bringing back an episode from the vault via the podcast that started it all–Jurassic Pod.
In this episode, Luke Ferris and Mike Wynne break down the uniqueness of this trilogy within the franchise and in filmmaking.
Dr. Alan Grant unknowingly returns to Isla Sorna to save more children. Can he overcome the ghosts of his past and rescue this franchise from early 2000s sequelitis? Talking dinosaurs, hybrid dinosaurs, and William H. Macy. It’s Jurassic Park Claw Mark!
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Hey friends, I hope you had a great holiday weekend. It's the unofficial kickoff of summer. So I thought in today's episode, while you're regrouping for the end of the school year, heading off into your summer plans, to take a look at an old episode. Yes, an old episode from the original series run that really started off Least Important Things. Mike Wynne, who you all know and love, and I started talking about the Jurassic Park franchise in 2021, which is five years ago, which is crazy. Uh we called it Jurassic Pod, and it essentially morphed into what we now know today as Least Important Things. Now it is the 25th anniversary of Jurassic Park 3, aka Jurassic Park Claw Mark. So I thought we'd go back into the vault and open up this episode of a younger Mike and Luke talking about the third Jurassic Park movie. Now, this this film has become one of our favorites. It's interesting to listen back on the first time we talked about it in the rewatch episode because I think I've grown to love this movie more and more. I actually just recorded a couple weeks ago with Daniel Steven from the Stuck on Sorna podcast, which is a podcast dedicated to the behind the scenes of Jurassic Park 3. He's doing some upcoming episodes for the anniversary, and we talked about the lineage of this film and how it's grown as a fan favorite over time. So in celebration of that anniversary, the fun summer blockbuster season coming, and a little clue at what's ahead. Yes, we are going to go back to a franchise, get back into franchise rewatch shape, and tackle another beloved franchise that maybe isn't a top-tier franchise. It's not your Star Wars, your Marvels, whatever. We like to do more the middle of the range or not as popular or more just an intense, smaller group of fans that love a certain franchise that's still prevalent today or worth re-examining. Now, I'm not gonna tell you what that franchise is, but to give you a clue, a sequel of that franchise we were going to cover came out the same year as Jurassic Park 3 in 2000. So that's a little hint. And if you think you know what our next Rewatch franchise is gonna be, please comment on our socials at least important things on TikTok at Luke H. Ferris on Instagram, follow us on patreon.com slash least important things. There's a lot of cool things happening on Patreon as a platform. They're shifting to more of a social side part of uh the experience following a creator, um, testing some things out there. So please join us on there, get the conversation started, and let us know your guests on the next franchise rewatch series for least important things. All right, enjoy this flashback, enjoy this one from the vaults. It's Luke Ferris and Mike Wynne talking about Jurassic Park 3, Claw Mark. Dr. Alan Grant returns the film franchise to save more children. Can he overcome the ghost of his past and rescue this franchise from the early 2000s Sequelitis? Talking Dinosaurs, Hybrid Dinosaurs, and William H. Macy. It's Jurassic Park, Claw Mark. Welcome to Jurassic Pod, a podcast sixty-five million years in the making. In this show, we excavate, theorize, and decipher the evolution of Jurassic Park, its films, and its fandom. If you're just joining the show, welcome. If you're binging the show three years after we publish this, thanks for joining. Mike, how are you doing? I'm doing fantastic. We're talking Jurassic Park 3. I know I know I said Jurassic Park claw mark, but it's technically Jurassic Park 3.
SPEAKER_06I remember the original like uh advertising for this because this was this came out in 2001. Yes. And that was around the time I was actually I was I was 10 years old, right? So I was actually starting to understand things. I was uh I'm internalizing media now, and so it's from that area era that I remember they would like show the Jurassic Park thing. It looks like a big like steel plate and it's written Jurassic Park, and then it was a raptor call.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I I feel like it was either Burger King or McDonald's they had a brain partnership, and I remember this being everywhere, but obviously it's a big, big franchise, it's the third of the third of the the series, so it's it's gonna be heavily corporatized. But I'm the same way, I do remember the claw mark being really intense, the steal. It felt very cool at the time in 2001. Uh I want to get to some business that we forgot in our second episode. I mean, we're really hitting our stride here in episode three. No mistakes are gonna happen, but in episode two, we forgot. We forgot to talk about our favorite human character and our favorite dinosaur character. We I don't know why we forgot. I'm gonna say it was uh the discussion was so good that we forgot. Yeah, that must be it. But we did text Greg. I'm gonna find my phone. If I don't have it, do you have it?
SPEAKER_06I got it. Hold on, I'll pull it up. You tell us your what's your favorite characters, and I'll I'll pull that up.
SPEAKER_08I think my favorite human character has to be Muldoon, the hunter, the gentleman hunter. Uh he was re-watching it, his character arc, and then and watching some of the behind the scenes really kind of stood out to me as just a character that I always enjoy. And kind of it's it's something that this movie does not have, is that side character for the main characters that has a full arc that's really well done. So I'm sorry, who did you say? Muldoon, the gentleman hunter.
SPEAKER_06But that was the first movie, wasn't it? Oh, oh. Yeah, because we're doing the second one. Yes, yes. The guy who says that his prize is to hunt one of the tyrannosaurus. The tyrannosaurus. My fee is to hunt one of the tyrannosaurs. Tyrannosaurus.
SPEAKER_08Who's your favorite dinosaur? My favorite dinosaur. Uh I I almost want to say the copy is coming back, um, but I'm gonna say the baby T-Rex. Um, really one of the best characters. It's like the it's basically the Robin to the Batman of the T-Rex who we talk about being the main character.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty good. I think my favorite, I'm probably gonna get a lot of flack for saying this, but it's the most I don't know if he's my favorite character, but he's certainly the most memorable character to me. Vince Vaughn's character. I don't know his name. Odd. I don't know his name. I'm not even saying that he would be. Okay, yeah, yeah. I mean, his name he was good.
SPEAKER_08And actually, you know what? In his defense, after watching Jurassic Park Claw Mark, I was kind of hoping Vince Vaughn was gonna show up.
SPEAKER_06It could have used Vince Vaughn, Vince Vaughn would have looked like an Academy Award winner.
SPEAKER_08It could have used Vince Vaughn's character, he certainly could have. Uh, what's your favorite dinosaur from Lost World?
SPEAKER_06Baby T-Rex is a good one. Velociraptors are always good. I've what was the dinosaur that like the elementary kids that like rode in to stegosaurus? Stegosaurus. I'm gonna say stegosaurus. It didn't get enough love in the first movie, obviously. So they made an effort to put it, and then they had that like cool like CGI scene where Ian Malcolm's girlfriend is like dodging Stegosaurus. So that's my favorite.
SPEAKER_08That is a that is a good first kind of initial dinosaur scene. Uh that's a good choice. Uh, do you have uh Greg's text? We texted Greg Jackson, our second guest from The Lost World. Um, apologized that we did not offer this opportunity for him to do it on the recording. But here is his favorite uh personal character, human character, and his favorite dinosaur character.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so Greg said that his favorite human character was Eddie Carr, but I don't get the reference.
SPEAKER_08Read the reference.
SPEAKER_06So he says, I would love the nothing more than to see a West Wing Jurassic Park crossover.
SPEAKER_09What's going on, Leo?
SPEAKER_08Eddie Carr play the actor plays Toby in the West Wing, and that's his reference, if you remember that. Okay, yes, of course. Remember, he's he he he saves them, he he gives his life. Now, this is a good question. So that Eddie's character, remember, he's like working on the Jeep, and he he's he's like he's trying really hard to save them, yes, and he ends up being killed brutally, right? Ironically, Billy, another character that is kind of does something heroic, but actually survives, yeah, which is interesting, anyways. And then what was uh Greg's favorite dinosaur from the Lost?
SPEAKER_06He said he said Velociraptors always have my heart. Yes, and uh I I think that that is true because if Velociraptors were alive, they would be eating Greg's heart.
SPEAKER_08They they would, they would, but they are I mean, they're very emotional in this one. The the Velociraptors have a very emotional part of this movie where the Lost World, they were kind of just in the middle of they're almost humanized, if you could say that. Ooh, we're gonna get into that. Uh first, uh, since we don't have a guest, I'm gonna read our business blurb. Uh, so again, please subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you listen to podcasts, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever. If you want to get involved in the show, please go to our website www.jurassicpod.com. Uh, just scroll down to the Jeff Goldblum laying down shirt list. That's where you can actually click and give your feedback on the show if you have a question or if you want to just say something about the podcast or Jurassic Park or any of the movies, we would love to hear from you. You can also connect with me directly on social at Luke H Ferris. Uh, again, no dinosaurs were harmed in the making of this podcast. Just want to make that clear. All right, let's let's get into Jurassic Park 3, the third Jurassic Park movie. I brought some more box office numbers. If you remember in the last episode, I did some. I would love to do that. Do you want to know some stuff? I guess. Can okay. So, do you want me to remind you what the first two were?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then give me an over-under and I'll go over under with okay.
SPEAKER_08So uh Jurassic Park, the first one, 1993. The budget was estimated to be uh 63 million. Opening weekend was 47 million in June of 1993, gross US was 404 million, worldwide was over just over a billion. So that's Jurassic Park. Um, and it was a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. Lost World budget 73 million estimated, opening weekend 72 million in May of 97, USA gross was 229 million, and then worldwide gross was just over just under 620 million.
SPEAKER_06Interesting. Okay, uh let me guess the budget. Yeah. I'm gonna say that the budget for Jurassic Park 3 was 75 million dollars.
SPEAKER_08Ooh. So only two million more than that's your guess. That's my guess. That's your final guess. It actually was, and again, this is estimated numbers, 93 million. So 20 million more. Now, that's that's a four-year difference, and I think a lot of that has to do with the CGI. I'm gonna guess.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, but it was only an hour and a half long.
SPEAKER_08We'll get into that. Okay, so pretty far off on the first one. Um, do you want to guess opening opening weekend? So remember Lost World was 72, um Jurassic Park was um just over 400 404.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so opening weekend for Jurassic Park 3, I'm gonna say was 60 million.
SPEAKER_08Very close. It was 50, just over 50. Okay. So pretty close, but less than what you're guessing. All right, uh the gross USA, again, Jurassic Park, 404, Lost World, just about 230 million. Gross US for Jurassic Park 3.
SPEAKER_06$289 million.
SPEAKER_08$181 million, so pretty significantly lower.
SPEAKER_06Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_08And then worldwide.
SPEAKER_06Worldwide, I'm gonna say it was it it grossed $325.
SPEAKER_08Very close, $368. Okay. So you were pretty close on the on the cumulative worldwide. Uh Rotten Tomatoes, what do you think?
SPEAKER_0638%, 49%.
SPEAKER_08And we mentioned this in the last episode. Lost World is 53%, and Jurassic Park 3 is 49%. So that not much of a difference.
SPEAKER_06Who was it? Was it Greg last week that said that last week? He said that his favorite was Jurassic Park 3, or was that when he was a kid, when he was a kid, because like we talked about, this was the movie like we were at yeah, we were actually in the prime age to watch this movie. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_08Do you want me to give you the critics' consensus from Rotten Tomatoes for Jurassic Park 3? And just to start our discussion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here we go. This is from the critics. Jurassic Park 3 is darker and faster than its predecessors. That's that's true. True. But that doesn't quite come compensate for the franchise's continuing creative decline. That's that's uh that's I feel like that's pretty accurate, but let's uh Do you know we'll get into this?
SPEAKER_06Maybe I should save it, but the I think what really hurts Jurassic Park, the the franchise as it continues into movie two and three, is the idea was so original that it couldn't be topped. There nothing could come out of it. So like two and three on their own aren't unor aren't totally unoriginal, but because when you compare them to like what the bar was with the first one, there's just no way. There's just no way.
SPEAKER_08I think that's a a great point, Mike, because you start off so strong. And it's interesting because I don't outside of the books being a first there's a first and second book as a source material, it's not like a Lord of the Rings or Star Wars or like Harry Potter's any or other franchises where there's maybe not intentionally, but there's definitely a plan to do a trilogy or multiple movies. I think Jurassic Park was kind of a victim of its own success. There was definitely a framework for the first two, but uh after that, there's not a framework. There's the source material runs up pretty dry. Even though in this in this one a big set piece is to actually take it from the first book. Yeah. But I think that's a good point. Alright, should we get into uh the movie? So um Jurassic Park 3, Jurassic Park Claw Mark, as I'm gonna call it.
SPEAKER_06It didn't have a name, did it? It's just Jurassic Park 3, right?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, which I actually I appreciate. I'm gonna start off because I don't want this to we I don't want to rip into this movie too much because I actually did enjoy it a lot. One of the things I do enjoy about it is compared to today, where it's like any sequels like Requiem or Binanthium or they like they make a uh for instance Jurassic World the next Dominion. Dominion or yeah or Fallen Kingdom Fallen Revenge Kingdom like there Revenge of the Fallen.
SPEAKER_06I feel like the series the the the um the franchise the movie franchise that's the worst with that is Resident Evil.
SPEAKER_08Resident Evil's pretty bad. Uh Transformers is horrible.
SPEAKER_00Terrible. It's you and me, Megatron. No, it's just me, Prime.
SPEAKER_06I actually have to look it up. I'll just fill the space.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, fill this dead air.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. So one of my favorite parts was the Dinosaur Man.
SPEAKER_08Dinosaur Man? Alright, here we go. I'm I'm gonna read out the the Transformers sequels names.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_08Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. That's the second one. Transformers Dark of the Moon, which almost it's like they're trying not to have it be the Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon.
SPEAKER_06Which one which one was shot in Detroit? There was a big portion of one that was.
SPEAKER_08I think that was Age of Extinction because that's when I think they had the Dino box.
SPEAKER_06Shia LeBeau. Shia was in the one that was that was shot in Detroit.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Age of Extinction.
SPEAKER_06He was in f all four of those.
SPEAKER_08Age of Extinction. Uh oh no, he wasn't in that one. Um, and then um The Last Night. What? Like night as K. Are they still making these? And then Bumblebee. Bumblebee was the last one. But yeah, so that's a that's a classic. And I would say no matter what you say about the first Transformers movie, it was successful. And I would say the Transformers movies are victims of their own success. Now, interesting about Jurassic Park 3, when we were looking at the numbers and worldwide numbers, this is a little bit before the China market opens up. Which we'll talk about, I think, uh more in the reboot sequels, because the China market hadn't really opened up at this point where it was where it was part of the film franchise strategy.
SPEAKER_06That's a good point.
SPEAKER_08So that that might be part of why this movie wasn't as successful financially. Okay, we open up to parasailing, very 2000s, 2001 activity. Parasailing um next to Isla Sorna. Isla Sorna. I want to make sure I got the right island. Yeah. Isla Sorna. Site B. Site B. So we're back to site B, not site A. So site B where we were in the Lost World. Um, what did you think about um that opening scene? We were both looking at the C the CGI was rough. It was, it did not age well.
SPEAKER_06I was kind of surprised because the very opening scene is just like a straight ocean shot. There's no characters, there's nothing, it's just a straight shot, like a um like a wide angle shot for the island. I'm just like, you have source or you have stock footage from from from shooting two movies prior to this. You could have just used that.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it's bad CGI.
SPEAKER_06We could have used literally the same uh footage from the first movie. Nobody would have known. No, it's just Hawaii.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, basically. Yeah, it it it was rough to start out with. I did appreciate uh to make it feel like a very sketchy activity, they had the old school orange life jackets that were raggedy. I think that was a nice touch. I did like the uh I don't even know what his name was, but the guy's uh I guess the the main characters, the the mom's lover. I liked his camcorder.
SPEAKER_06Oh yeah, the JVC handicam. Or which Sony handicam.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, which he did a pretty good job. When they looked back at the footage uh later later in the movie, I was like, guys gotta be a cameraman, right? He's got some skills because those back in the day when those you didn't have to do anything, like just holding it. If you think about it, if you hold your hand up straight up like you're holding a camcorder, right? If you look at your hand, it's it's moving. Like we don't, we can't there's no stabilizer. No. And he was he got some good footage, uh, but they go down. We that at least we know. Um, we were discussing to see if that was the right move to like unhook himself from the boat.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I think it was looking back, considering the alternative was go literally go down with the ship.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it was it was probably a good move. Uh we will see him again. I'm I'm trying to remember his name, Ben.
SPEAKER_06He'll look a little bit differently.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, we'll we'll see him again. He'll he'll he'll look a little bit more aged uh later. Nice. Okay, then we uh then we go direct to Alan Grant. He's back.
SPEAKER_06Alan Alan Alan I think that in the second movie, uh obviously having Jeff Goldblum covers a multitude of sins um because he is Jeff Goldblum. But there is something about the I don't know if humility is the right word, but there's something about the the candor of Alan Grant that kind of was missing from the second book.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah. I think his practicality it is a shame because you almost got you, and I don't know if it could have been done, but you had two just heavy hitters characters, including Ellie. You had all those characters together and then they got a they got chopped up, basically. And we throughout the movie, we kept on saying that's a Ian Malcolm line, that's an Ian Malcolm line that they give to Dr. Grant. But I think that happened in The Lost World where it was like that's a that's a Dr. Grant line.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_08What did you think about the whole idea of like I don't know the production backstory of having like Like Ellie as the house, like she's a housewife, she's not really involved anymore. Like she's in the movie, but I wonder if her Laura Durns schedule couldn't make it, or they just didn't feel like it made sense for them not because you can go a totally different way. Like I could have seen this movie been they actually get together, they have a family, and not and he has to leave his family, or they have to leave their family. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_06I picked up on something I didn't mention to this to you, but maybe you picked up on the same thing. I get the impression that he fell in love with Ellie, Dr. Sattler.
SPEAKER_08Definitely.
SPEAKER_06And definitely uh he he actually makes a comment to Billy later on in the movie that I thought was so telling of the psychology. So the Alan Grant is definitely one without a doubt, some uh a character, a guy who's married to the job. He's married to the bones. Yeah, you know, and uh he says later on, um, that's the nice thing he says to Billy, because Billy's like, Oh, I you know, I didn't want to leave the dig site to come out here. And he says to Billy, uh, you know, the bones are gonna be there when you get back. That's the nice thing about bones, they never run away. And I get the that kind of tells me that either it's a you know, either he's had several love interests that have that have kind of said, you know, not necessarily said in so many words, it's me or the bones, but kind of like it's me or the bones.
SPEAKER_07He can't leave the bones.
SPEAKER_06He can't, like he is so married to that work and so passionate about it that he can't leave it. And so these women or these love interests will in essence run away. Um, but but the bones never will. The bones never leave him, the bones never disappoint him, they're always right where he left them.
SPEAKER_08Yep, he doesn't there's they're pr they're almost predictable, like they're in the ground, they don't move. That's a that's a deep uh way to that's a that's like that movie didn't do that good job of like not going that deep. Like it should have.
SPEAKER_06It really should have.
SPEAKER_08But it's there. I it's definitely there.
SPEAKER_06That's probably the 40 minutes I could cut out.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, exactly. So runtime was like an hour and a half compared to the other films, which are over two hours, yeah. And it it shows, I mean, but it's a tight movie. Um so Ellie, and especially we have to bring this up because when he's having dinner with Ellie with her with her kid, they introduce the husband, and he's like the most basic, boring guy, and it's kind of like uh Ellie's kind of given up like the romantic part of like the exciting part of her life. But it is hinted that he works for the State Department, and that'll come up later. Oh, yeah. This movie is tight, everything has a closed loop.
SPEAKER_06Yes. Like if you if if you're listening now and you listen to our our uh rewatch of uh Jurassic Park the first film, there was a big controversy about the T-Rex.
SPEAKER_08The T-Rex shimmy is uh still it's not it's not really debated. Yeah, please please uh write in with your thoughts as we continue.
SPEAKER_06I would love to hear your thoughts, but but the but you're right. This movie doesn't have that type. There's probably a couple things you poke holes in, but for the most part, there really isn't actually.
SPEAKER_08I have one thing one big thing I want to poke holes in, but I mean they everything is tied up, even the swimming that the guy like learned how to swim and they justified him like jumping off into the off the crane into the water and swim back. I mean they did a great job. No one was asking him to do it, no they did it. No. Uh if we go, we bring Grant back to the bones where he he feels at home. Um, and then we're introduced to uh what's his face? Uh Eddie Eddie? No.
SPEAKER_06Billy?
SPEAKER_08Billy.
SPEAKER_06The the his uh his research assistant.
SPEAKER_08Billy, his research assistant, who is putting on the moves on someone who absolutely has no idea why they're there. No, I'm gonna go.
SPEAKER_06Has no idea how bone how fossilization works.
SPEAKER_07No, no.
SPEAKER_08Here he goes.
SPEAKER_05Let's try the toothbrush. Oh yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00I can never tell what's rock and what's bone.
SPEAKER_05What are you doing there? Technically, it's all rock. You can feel the difference. Smooth.
SPEAKER_08That is a rough seed. It's she's I don't know where they're getting these interns, but they are so something that's kind of kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_06Um is that I believe if you looked at the amount of kids that went to college in real world, IRL, right? Yeah, uh, the amount of kids that went to college to study paleontology or be a museum curator, study, study these kinds of things, study fossilization, uh, probably skyrocketed coming out of the 90s into the early 2000s because of these movies, the success of these movies. It just drove a ton of interest. In this movie, we're in 2001, and Dr. Grant is having an issue where he's he he's not finding enough people that have interest in this stuff. And he kind of alludes to that when he's speaking at that one engagement where that all they care about is like him fighting off dinosaurs in the first film. But um, and now he's got this one guy that he trusts, and then somebody who clearly knows nothing about fossils.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it's like almost the opposite of probably what was happening IRL where people were from our generation were all in on dinosaurs, and a lot of them probably went into paleontology. But this is kind of the idea that and I don't know if there's an equivalent now, I guess like reading the newspaper almost. Like there's there's like people like myself who like value old school like reading old school journalism and like doing it as a like moral choice, and that's how Dr. Grant kind of does his business, conducts his b business. Um, we were introduced to uh the couple that are starting off this adventure. Um, you had a really uh interesting contrast between William H. Macy's character and and Hammond's entrance to the camp.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so when Hammond shows up in the first film, he flies in on this helicopter, totally desecrates the dig site, just sand everywhere, and then he's like popping champagne, just totally disrespecting the vibe that's going on at this dig site. And he has a proposition for Dr. Grant, and then you have William H. Macy's character who I don't even remember what his name was.
SPEAKER_08Kirby. I think it's uh the Kirby family.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, the Kirby family. Mr. Kirby shows up and he's so polite.
SPEAKER_08Paul Kirby.
SPEAKER_06Paul Kirby, he's so polite. I'm a big fan of yours, Dr. Grant. I have a proposition for you. I'd love for you to come and have dinner with me and my wife. So, such a different approach to getting to trying to get Grant to go on some island where there's dinosaurs.
SPEAKER_02Kirby Enterprises. Uh my card. How you doing, Billy?
SPEAKER_01What can I do for you, Mr. Kirby?
SPEAKER_03Well, um, first thing, uh, I'm a great admirer of yours, and uh, I have a proposition I'd like to discuss.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, but it it's it I don't know. Now that I think about this movie, because we found out very quickly, as soon as they get on the island, that this is not a wealthy guy. He doesn't own an import-export company.
SPEAKER_06Right. He's not who he says he is.
SPEAKER_08He's not who he says he is, and now re-watching it, it's almost like it's actually a good performance by William H. Macy because he's you can tell he's trying to act confident, but he's not really in their confident guy. No, he's not really a confident guy, which is it's unless you need your bathroom redone. Yeah, then he's he's all he's all in. Um, so anyways, they convince him to go to go uh back to back to to the dinosaur world uh because of money research, similar reasons. Dr. Grant, motivated by money, that's all he gotta say. Yeah, that's all he gotta say.
SPEAKER_06He is one greedy jerk.
SPEAKER_08Uh, one of our favorite lines was So How do you know the Kirby's?
SPEAKER_05Uh through our church.
SPEAKER_08Uh this is some church. It's uh wow, yeah, some goon with the glasses. Uh this movie, man, they uh they really get into it. Um before they hit on the ground, we have to bring up the probably the most notorious line from this from the movie Alan.
SPEAKER_06I forgot about that! Alan, Alan, Alan!
SPEAKER_08So the personalization of the Raptors uh to the point where they actually talk, even in a dream.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's some serious PTSD.
SPEAKER_08They get on the ground and oh my gosh. I think one of the hardest parts about this movie is the yelling of the names.
unknownEric!
SPEAKER_08Oh my god. Eric! Everybody gets their name down to the book. You know what it reminds me of?
SPEAKER_05Uncle Owen!
SPEAKER_08Yeah, Amanda! It's so bad. Uh Amanda Kirby, uh the the mom, pretty rough character. I I I felt like that that whole the couple and how that was written, it was rough. Like she was just there to scream. What are they doing? They're setting up a perimeter to make the place safe.
SPEAKER_01These guys are currently. Trust me, on this island, there is no such thing as a safe. We have to get back on that plane. Will you tell your wife to stop making that noise? That is a very, very bad idea. Amanda! Amanda, honey, Dr. Grant said that's a bad idea. What? He says it's a bad idea. What's a bad idea?
SPEAKER_08I agree. It's a writing issue. It's funky. It's funky, whatever it is. And I think like William H. Macy and her, there's not really any chemistry there. And it's just kind of funky how they're trying to fit this like family plot in this like pretty brutal movie. Because right away, like people are all the goons get killed right away. Um and the Spinosaurus comes in hot. Hot. Like this movie's not wasting any time. Like in in some of the other Jurassic Park movies, there was a little bit of a slow burn kind of building up. Like, you see the other dinosaurs until you see really uh like the main villain. Like, if you think about the T-Rex doesn't show up until maybe halfway through the movie of the first one. You you see the raptors off screen right at the start, but you don't really see an attack. But here, I mean the stegosaurus or the spinus the spinosaurus. Wow, this is gonna be tough. The spinosaurus, who's the new villa, like the villain of the movie, is killing it.
SPEAKER_06The amphibious dinosaur.
SPEAKER_08Crazy. Uh, we learn about the stupid satellite phone that goes off. Alright, satellite phone, um, a bunch of kills, and then our King Kong versus Godzilla moment, Spinosaurus versus T-Rex. Uh, can you break down the the maneuvers and technique of the Spinosaurus and the T-Rex and and kind of the matchup there of why the Spinosaurus has some advantages just on paper?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so if we're doing a tail of the tape between the two, uh you know, you've got the Spinosaurus, who I guess you would say has a better reach because its arms are just longer. It actually has arms. In fact, there's a scene of it rolling, like almost like it's like rolling out cookie dough with the plane with the fuselage. And uh the I would probably say that oh, and the Spinosaurus has the longer snout, too. So it's it's got more of a uh what a wrong term, but like it's got more of a bite to it.
SPEAKER_08Ooh, yeah, that was that's where it snapped the neck. And that's really when you think about it from a strategy standpoint, the Spinosaurus was going for the neck the whole time.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and it had the reach to do it.
SPEAKER_08And the T-Rex was really looking lame. Uh which is a big a big thing for this movie. Like right away, it's telling you like this is the T-Rex is small potatoes.
SPEAKER_06Second fiddle to this.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it's not about the T-Rex anymore. Because they kill off the T-Rex, who had been the hero in the first kind of the hero, quote unquote, we have to say in the first two movies. T-Rex killed. This is not your not your brother, older brother's dress park movie. Um Grant is so happy that these people are not who they say are. He's almost still lighted. Like he's like, We're all gonna die. You're gonna die for sure. I might die, but you guys are all gonna die.
SPEAKER_06At least you're gonna die.
SPEAKER_08Go find your son. I mean, like, and that's why it's interesting. This movie goes so fast because in a traditional, even a big budget movie, that reveal would happen that the that the that they're looking for their son, they're not who they say they are, that he's a tile guy, a bathroom guy, would have been like halfway through the movie.
SPEAKER_06I think so much started to unravel at once. So, like when the plane crashed, I mean, very quickly things start going not to plan. So it becomes very clear to everyone that this is not a professional operation.
SPEAKER_08No, it is a ragtag bunch, like compared to the first two movies where very professional crew, even if they weren't prepared, or even like The Lost World, where there's like a campaign, a militia, and like even our like good guys had some pretty good gear going into it.
SPEAKER_06Well, and did you catch their ask? William H. Macy's character says to the one guy, I don't even remember his name. Um, so I take it you're not a mercenary. The guy says, I never said I was. He says that he was a booking agent. Yeah, he's a booking agent.
SPEAKER_08He books the mercenaries and sometimes fills in. Uh, but he had the batteries for the camcorders. That's right.
SPEAKER_06Oh, he guy knows his way around uh yeah, he you said he must have been a Radio Shack and players.
SPEAKER_08Must have worked at a Radio Shack. Uh this Ragtag group of people, it does watching it 20 years later, it if it feels like you're watching uh a sci-fi movie. It feels very B movie. Um, outside of like Alan Grant, even though William H. Macy is a pretty renowned actor, yeah. It it feels like the side characters are so throwaway and you don't really care about the couple very much. Um so we uh have a nice Lost World throwback when they go to kind of the final scene of when they're on the island that research lab uh where Jeff Gulblum is looking for the frequency to this day, he's still looking for the free.
SPEAKER_06He's still out there.
SPEAKER_08I thought that the whole the whole picking up the phone was the nod to the frequency. Did you like I really wanted Dr. Craig to be like frequency driven down something? Uh let's talk about the the the best joke in the whole movie.
SPEAKER_06The title, I'm sorry, the title for the second movie should have been Jurassic Park The Lost Frequency.
SPEAKER_07That's amazing.
SPEAKER_08This upcoming joke is is gotta be. It's hilarious.
SPEAKER_03I got like I got a buck, I gotta buck a n.
SPEAKER_06Love it. I mean, just the idea that he thinks that he needs to pay for can't pay Alan Grant, but the least I could do is buy everyone a snack.
SPEAKER_08And I guess it's doubling down that this guy does not know what he's doing. And uh so I guess it does it helps a point, but it is so such a I don't know. For me, it was just like such the goofiest joke. It's a good like survival movie joke where it's like, yeah, you don't need to pay the vending machine, like just break break down the down the windows.
SPEAKER_06Um could you imagine if there's actually a guy who's been collecting out of those like every every week he goes to stock those?
SPEAKER_08He flies in in a helicopter, he's like, Wow, pretty low today. Really low. There's a guy there's like the PepsiCo or like Coca-Cola guy who like comes in and is like, Man, they're just not really good.
SPEAKER_06There's a guy at my office who you know, uh like he's the he works for the company that fills the vending machines. And so I've chatted him up a couple times. Awesome guy, just a great guy to chat with. And I asked him, because we have two sets of vending machines, one in one lunchroom and one on the other side of the building. And I asked him, what do you do when one set of vending like when like with items that are like not selling as fast over here? What do you do with them? And he goes, I bring them over there. So do you think that the guy who's running the vending machine operation at Jurassic Park is he's like, I just don't get it. These things won't sell over here. I guess I gotta rotate these out and bring them over.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, he's constantly rotating between the facilities. He's like, it's not working. I always remember what uh at an office I worked at, I had the same vending machine guy, and I would, you know, just chat him up because he's working and you know, you're it was a small break room. He would always like complain to me that like people weren't buying a certain beverage. He would just be like, You guys aren't buying the coat diet coke, like like like I should have been doing that, right?
SPEAKER_06Or like guys aren't buying like the Fanta, like no one's buying Red Bull, and I'm like, Well, it it does it's not like it's not my job to do that, like that's but you know what's interesting about my guy is I'll ask him, How do you decide what goes in the vending machine? He goes, Well, it's basically what people buy. If people buy it, I put it back in there. If they don't, I'll put something else in there. And and I'm like, Oh, really? He's like, Yeah, if you ever want something, tell me what you want, I'll put it in there. If it sells, we'll keep it in there.
SPEAKER_08Oh, so that must have been what was happening. I'm sure someone said, like, I want Diet Coke in there, and then it didn't sell.
SPEAKER_06You must have looked like the guy who asked for the Diet Coke.
SPEAKER_08I don't drink popper, like I don't drink out of vending machines, like I just don't do it.
SPEAKER_06I hope you keep all of this in the podcast. I'm going to.
SPEAKER_08I don't I don't do it. So he must have been like, I think I was the only one who talked to him, and so he must have just been like, somebody asked for Diet Coke, and they're not drinking it. But uh, if you're listening, guy's gonna be like, I don't know my guy's name either.
SPEAKER_06I think I knew it at one point, but he hasn't been there in a while.
SPEAKER_08All right, let's talk about the kid. So there's one kid in this movie, uh, similar to Lost World. Uh, this uh uh Eric uh Kirby. I actually like this kid a lot. I do too. He was cool, um, very much inventive inventive. He had survived eight weeks. This guy has been in some pretty big movies around that time. He was in the Sixth Sense, he was in uh the Patriot. I'm trying to think what else.
SPEAKER_06I remember him in the Patriot. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08He's one of the sons that um shoots in that uh like small, miss small. Yeah, so good, so good. So he was kind of a big time kid actor at that at that point. So it was and I think he's a great actor. I think he does a good job um through this. He saves Grant from the Raptors. Um the Raptors are like pretty much every dinosaur I noticed. Uh it's very like steampunk. Like they all have like a shade of red. The raptors have hair, like they're they're looking they're looking a little cool. Like they're all trying to like very much like 80s punk rock. Uh-huh. That's kind of how the vibe I was for the dinosaurs in this one. Even the uh like uh what are the big brownies? Long neckosaurus.
SPEAKER_06They all had a tinge of color, didn't they?
SPEAKER_08They had color and they were kind of looked menacing. Like all the dinosaurs are definitely menacing, and we don't actually see a ton of dinosaurs.
SPEAKER_06Besides the they didn't have a lot of time to see dinosaurs.
SPEAKER_08No, no, no, we didn't. Uh so Ailen gets saved. Um, they eat some crunch bars that look amazing. Um can we can we this is this is one of the places where we can poke a hole.
SPEAKER_06Like they are in the water truck, and they just escaped a horde of velociraptors, and Eric gets back in the water truck and he doesn't close the room. Yeah, that that's dumb.
SPEAKER_08That's dumb. Like they were being chased.
SPEAKER_06They're be literally being hunted.
SPEAKER_08And they yeah, that was that was rough, but they had to get the right lighting in that. So uh I love his uh in-gen jacket that he's wearing, like the long sleeve jacket he's got rolled up.
SPEAKER_06A lot of n-gen branded stuff in there.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, that was a nice touch. Uh the satellite phone goes off. They think that's for some reason he knows that that's his dad's satellite phone.
SPEAKER_04How did you know we were here? Oh, that stupid jingle from the store. I heard it. My phone.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, your satellite phone. Where is it?
SPEAKER_04I don't have it.
SPEAKER_05When did you use it?
SPEAKER_04Uh uh uh on the plane. I got a call on the plane, and I learned it to Ned.
SPEAKER_08He must have had it when he what dad has a satellite phone in Oklahoma in the 2005.
SPEAKER_06This guy is a o runs a uh in in a shopping mall. He runs a tile and paint store and uh can't pay Alan Grant anything but maybe some free tile. He he alludes to that. He gets a satellite phone. Obviously, he purchases a satellite phone specifically for this endeavor to go to this island. He did not have a satellite phone beforehand. And so his son knows what his dad's satellite phone sounds like. One, he knows his dad has a satellite phone, and two, his dad, I have a lot of questions.
SPEAKER_08The satellite phone is is one of the harshest parts of the movie. I get how it's kind of a plot line and it it builds kind of the the anticipation or the excitement of like, oh, there's danger approaching, but uh this the it's it's annoying.
SPEAKER_06I we skipped over it, but there's a when they first use the satellite phone in the beginning of the movie, the guy who's using it, who is the pilot, he said he he gets a busy tone, and it's and you can hear that on the phone it says all circuits are busy. And I'm just like, how high is the traffic on the satellite?
SPEAKER_08It's a satellite, it's not like satellites like oh, they have three circuits that they can only use in this satellite. It's like the whole point of having a satellite phone is you're like you're pinging off the satellite, and you're not like running. There's not someone up in the satellite that's now moving knobs that's like like oh, sorry, let me transfer you here. Like yeah, it's it's rough, but we'll we'll overlook that for the sake of you just don't have time to even think about time to think about it. So they uh meet up. Uh Billy steals the raptor eggs for no apparent reason. With the best intentions, Lib. The best intentions. Uh the Spinosaurus chase chases them into the Avery. Let's talk about the Avery. I think this is probably the best sequence. Well, it's probably the best sequence of the movie for me. It's one of the best sequences in the book. It's the best, yeah. I just finished the book in preparation of our future book episode, and this is from the first book, so such a good sequence. It's definitely blocked differently, but the I think the kind of the horror nature of pterodactyls, yeah, they they definitely have a horror element, especially when that pterodactyl like turns into camera.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_08Turns right into camera.
SPEAKER_06That is a good, that's actually a really good shot. Whoever the I don't know, um the cinematographer and the uh the the design team that worked on that shot, that that's where they spent a lot of that book.
SPEAKER_08I feel like they this was very much how they do like Fast and the Furious movies, almost where they like, all right, we're gonna do a scene with the pterodactyls, like we're gonna do the Avery. That that's like the pitch for this movie. Like, we're gonna do the Avery, we're gonna have this new dinosaur, and we're getting Aylan Grant back, and that's the movie. Because this this was the well really well thought out.
SPEAKER_06Um Billy base jumping was a little rough for me, but did you there's a there's a big hole in in that scene in the actual like parachute? Yeah, no, not the very good. No, uh, so the parachute that they use in the parasailing says dinosaur on it. The name of the company, I'm assuming.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. D-I-N-O-S-O-A-R.
SPEAKER_06When they when they get to when they when uh Grant and Billy find it on the tree, it says dinosaur. Uh later on they you see oh oh um later on you see the you see it again and it says dinosaur. When Billy Bass jumps in the aviary, uh it doesn't say dinosaur on it.
SPEAKER_08Well, is it ripped?
SPEAKER_06I you should find the scene.
SPEAKER_07That's what he does.
SPEAKER_08You're right. Also, this kid getting attacked by the baby uh pterodactyls, it's it's good. I like it. That's it, that's scary, it's intense.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08I I really like that scene. Um, I like how they kind of get under the water um and and escape. Um Billy, we think, dies, uh, but you know, we feel good because he was heroic.
SPEAKER_06Yes, sacrificed himself for the greater good, just like uh Eddie Carr's character.
SPEAKER_08Yes, but they did not bring back Eddie Carr, that's for sure. Uh so they get out, and now we go to the um I would call the uh the almost like anaconda part of the movie where they're on a boat going down going down a river. Very much like the water scene. Uh the they have a kind of a quiet moment where Grant talks to um the kid about Billy and like seeing them in person. We kind of have our very, very basic kind of wide shot of all the animals hanging out together.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Have to.
SPEAKER_08They have to all hang out together.
SPEAKER_06And then we get into if this move there's a there's a point where the Bronnosaurus like stretches his neck like into the screen. I wonder if they ever considered doing this movie in 3D.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I feel like this was right after the th the what the I don't know how many 3D waves there's been.
SPEAKER_06Spy Kids 3D.
SPEAKER_08Well, this was pretty close. Well, this was not this was a little bit before like the spy kids 3D, and it was before obviously like Avatar, like not like 3D, 3D, but like Depth of Field 3D. Um, and it was a little bit before I think the late 80s three uh 3D uh craze where they did like uh um Friday the 13th 3D movie. So it it could have been like honestly, this this could have set up for it uh pretty well. So the fight in the water is a little chaotic for me. Um, it feels very much like Jaws because they're in the cage, they're in the water. Grant decides to call Ellie, they get his son. I think one of my favorite scenes is when he's watching Barney. He gets distracted by Barney. So good. I think those that really does kind of remind me of uh like the Spielberg balance of kind of horror and humor, yeah, and and kind of thrill and humor at the same time. Uh so I thought I thought that was a nice touch.
SPEAKER_06It was Spielberg-y.
SPEAKER_08It was it was kind of a it this whole this movie does feel like and I I I don't want to bash on the director or anything, but it does feel like if you were Kathleen Kennedy talking to Joe Johnson, Johnston the director, the director, which I don't what else is what else has he done? So he was a visual effect. Oh, he did um The first Captain America.
SPEAKER_06Did he really? Yeah. Wow. So he actually had a career after this.
SPEAKER_08And he did Jumanji. Which one? Uh 95 the 95 one. Did he really? He did Rocketeer and Honey I Shrunk the Kids.
SPEAKER_06So this guy, okay, okay. So I didn't know.
SPEAKER_08He did Hidalgo, the Wolfman.
SPEAKER_06So he's this actually is this was a big get for the franchise, not yeah.
SPEAKER_08This is a pretty solid get. He did October Sky with Laurelini.
SPEAKER_06He did not need to do this movie. Did he have anything? If he did Honey I Shrunk the Kids, was what, 89?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, you're right, 89. And then he did he did a lot of stuff on the young Indiana Jones TV series. He was a visual effects guy for Star Wars in Indiana Jones.
SPEAKER_06Okay, so what was he doing in the late 90s?
SPEAKER_08Late 90s, he was he did Jumanji in '95 and then October Sky, which is a Jake Gyllenhaal Laurelini.
SPEAKER_06Are you sure it's Jake Gyllenhaal? I thought that is that not Toby McGuire.
SPEAKER_08Nope, it is Jake Gyllenhaal.
SPEAKER_06Okay, all right, all right.
SPEAKER_08It's uh you you think you it's I think it's something else. Um so he did those two and then Jurassic Park in 2001, and then Hidalgo right after that. Which I like that. I like Hidalgo, but it it defin it it's kind of this mid-level action movie. This might be his worst movie out of his That's crazy.
SPEAKER_06I definitely thought, and this is my own ignorance. I definitely thought that this was just some young director that Amberlynn got to do the movie because they just knew they knew the movie was gonna make money, no matter what, as long as it stayed under a hundred million dollars, it's gonna make money. Um, and they stayed under a hundred million dollars, estimated, and they were just like, Let's just get some guy, get him some experience, not gonna do good, it's just gonna make money.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and it it does feel like a, and I guess my whole point was it kind of feels like a Steven Spielberg fan film. Like, try to direct like Steven Spielberg, yeah. It's in the direct, like the tone of it is similar. It just there's something a little bit off, and that's kind of like the Rotten Tomatoes review that we consensus that we talked about at the start, where it just it feels it's exciting, it's thrilling, it's a Jurassic Park movie, but it's devoid a little bit of that originality and creativity.
SPEAKER_06It feels like this this reference, you might want to edit this out, but it feels like Dawson from Dawson's Creek decided that he wanted to direct a movie.
SPEAKER_07This is right about the time too of Dawson's Creek. This would be like an alternative plot line because like Dawson's like 20 and like is working on this movie.
SPEAKER_08It like feels like that could have happened.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_08Uh I like it. I don't want to wait for this movie to be over. Um really has fast. So they have this whole uh swimming sequence. Grant is able to get on the phone um and somehow pass the message to Ellie. Um she can't hear him at all. At all. All he all she hears is river. So what what do you think B?
SPEAKER_06I think she hears Site B River.
SPEAKER_08What do you think she so she had to she either must have known he's somehow back with with the dinosaurs, she had to probably call his site. Where is he? Where'd he go? Then she must have known, then her husband's involved. See, I want to watch that part. Maybe it got cut. I want to watch Ellie convincing her husband to send two, not one, two aircraft carriers to Russia.
SPEAKER_06I wonder if there was like a directorial or screenwriting fantasy where this is where Ian Malcolm would have been written in. Because perhaps Ellie would call Ian and say, Have you heard from Alan?
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Uh and Ian would be like, No, I don't. I don't know. Uh, and then the problem is you can't have Jeff Goldboom in for like eight lines.
SPEAKER_07No.
SPEAKER_06So, so, so okay, so that's out, but you're right, she probably has contacts at the dig site. So she calls the dig site or that intern picks up the phone and and has there's like a 20-minute conversation.
SPEAKER_08She doesn't know where she is, she's so confused. Ellie's like, wow, they've really, really fallen down the ladder here with the quality.
SPEAKER_05Wow.
SPEAKER_08But, anyways, um Ellie, the hero of the movie, yes, from afar. Yes, I I like where you're going. Like, almost like to me, what you could have done with this movie, and I know we're gonna go a little off path, but we have the time because the movie's basically over. Here's an idea for me. I love I like the idea of Alan Grant, he's in love with the bones, he can't get it over. I like the idea of him kind of pushing everyone away. Yes. I like the idea of him getting to the point where he he's like broken, like his maybe his research has to stop, he loses his grant money, uh, pun intended, and then he gets an offer from somebody. Now we could say it's this William H. Macy thing, that's fine, that could fit. He gets tricked into trying basically saving this kid. That totally makes sense. I would like it maybe he like he he like uh basically he he has to compromise his morals to have a John Hammond type person pay him to go do re live research. He goes down there, crap hits the fan, and then Malcolm and Ellie go save him and kind of save his dignity at the same time.
SPEAKER_06I I could have seen that as that could be a pretty amazing movie, especially if you can develop Grant in the way of he feels like he has to compromise his morals because he has sacrificed everything in order to stay married to the work. Yeah, he's sacrificed a relationship, or let's assume that he wanted a relationship with Dr. Sattler, with Ellie, and he sacrificed that to stay married to the work, so he feels like, well, I I can't give up this now, so I have to sacrifice my morality in order to stay married to the work. Because if I'm not going to do that, then why didn't I two years ago give up the work to get the girl?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I I like that a lot. Because that's really you could and you I mean, Malcolm, we get we get a lot of development with in Lost World of him. We there's not much more you would need to do right with him as a character. Um so I think that that doing a little bit more work on Dr. Grant could have been helpful. I get the whole idea of bringing in like his protege, but to me, it would have been interesting to do a little bit more character work on Dr. Grant. But hey, we had to get the Raptors involved, and they are really the main character of this movie. So they hold on to the eggs the whole time.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_08The justification is the raptors are good coming after them, they're intelligent beings, they're gonna get them anyways. They surround them right before they get to the beach. They want the eggs. Yep. Ah, but at the start of the movie, we didn't mention this. A very early 3D printer prototype has built the vocal cords of the raptors.
SPEAKER_06I should have mentioned that.
SPEAKER_08Very tight, man. This movie. And it's in this, it's in the special bag that Billy, yeah, his his like lucky pack, which is a callback to Lost World. Yes. It's basically a camera bag. Um, and Dr. Grant communicates with the Raptors. We don't know what they say. What do you think when he he blew into the whistle? What did he say to the Raptors? What do you think? So so what do you think? I got it. I know exact I know exactly what I know you've done a lot of research on raptor vocal noises.
SPEAKER_06So do you remember when you were a kid, Luke, you were outside playing with your friends, or you were in the basement playing with your brother, whatever, and you heard Dinner. And you you and your brother looked at each other and you thought, okay, we we can finish this. We can finish this. We need to finish this. We need to finish this game, we gotta finish this. Then you then you then you hear very probably only like eight seconds after you heard dinner. You say, I'm not gonna say it twice. You know, when mom calls dinner, you come, you go to you, you don't get mom never gets dinner twice.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yep.
SPEAKER_06I think Alan Grant in Velociraptor called dinner.
SPEAKER_08You know, that makes sense because they kind of turn around and like uh no, we really want to finish this. We're about to eat these people. Come on, mom. And then he kind of does they're gonna spoil their dinner.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and she's not happy because she did not slave over, she murdered a triceratops for them.
SPEAKER_08For them, single-handedly, and they are not gonna spoil their dinner with human, with human, with sweet old fatty human, basically candy. If I was a betting man, that's where I would put I think that's 100% true, and there's no way to prove it wrong. Uh basically, this that the whole that whole scene is kind of it kind of reminds me of the first movie where the subtle scientific theory that Grant has is dinosaurs are like birds. They wrap that whole the whole thing up. This one, his whole theory is raptors can communicate, they're more like humans. They were they could have been the dominant species on this planet. So this was kind of like a way for him to like say, like, yeah, they're they communicate, they're an intelligent species, right? Uh then uh they get onto the beach, the cavalry is here, literally. Uh two two carriers. Well done. You know, it's great because at first when we saw Ellie's husband, uh, we were like, this guy's a schmuck.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08And then he comes through. Two carriers. Two carriers. I wow, he's got a lot of clout. There is in the Bush administration.
SPEAKER_06For I it's crazy. Yeah, that is the Bush administration. That's a good point. That's funny. They were they they they were they had a presence.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, our military was was activated pretty quickly uh during that era. They weren't afraid to send military to random parts of the world.
SPEAKER_06They must have been small carriers.
SPEAKER_08This movie came out in 2001, July 18th, 2001. So this is prior to 9-11, which I think is yeah, we don't need to go into it, but I think it's just an interesting fact. Anytime you watch movies during this era, the 9-11 is kind of this pinpoint because a lot of movies that came after 9-11 that were delayed or released, there's edits to them. Most famously, Spider-Man. They re-reshot a lot of the final scene because they didn't there was building destruction and they didn't want to have um destruction. And I think that they actually filmed at the World Trade Center. They were gonna have the final scene be at the World Trade Center. Oh, really? Yeah, I think that's kind of the Which Spider-Man was that? The first one.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_08So just just a fun fact. Um, anything to oh, yeah. Uh we did say that we needed the Raptor subtitles. We looked on the subtitles, there was no Raptor subtitles options, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_06But we got out our Raptor dictionary, our Raptor to English dictionary.
SPEAKER_08And that's how Mike was able to interpret that it was the mother raptor calling for dinner. This whole movie uh could be labeled as a parent trap sequel because basically the kid is able to get his parents back together. The final scene when they're in the helicopter, they're kind of like smiling at each other. Right. Oh, we're a family again. Um if that's what it takes to get your relationship back together, amen.
SPEAKER_06Oh wow. I am just go to therapy of marriages being saved.
SPEAKER_08I am too, but uh, I think therapy would be the the a better place to start than there's different methods of therapy. Raptor therapy, yes, raptor therapy trauma therapy is very good. Uh so we are at the end of Jurassic Park 3. Uh, what are your takeaways? Uh, how did you feel? I was very excited about watching this movie because I hadn't watched it from start to finish in a long time.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it's been a very long time. I was I didn't remember how short it was. I was actually kind of surprised at how short it was. Um, so it's actually kind of pleasant because it's in my opinion, it's the worst of the five that have been released. Soon to be six movies. Um, I'm assuming that the sixth movie that's released isn't is going to become my least favorite. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. Um, yeah, I so so you almost it's like you find it on TV, but you can And you can go through it quick.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. It is the perfect, and that's how I remember watching a lot of it. It is the perfect old school TV movie to go back and forth from a sporting event. Yeah. Which is what my father notoriously has done throughout his life.
SPEAKER_06It's better than the original. Because I think the original is the best TV movie to go back and forth.
SPEAKER_08It is good. I think all Jurassic Parker movies are, but this one is is very much like you don't really need to know what's going on.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Because it's pretty much it's just action. It's self-explanatory. It's action scene. It's it's the basic root of like why people love Jurassic C.
SPEAKER_06It's Mad Max, it's just one giant chasing.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, that's basically what it is.
SPEAKER_06Um yeah, so I I I was pleasantly surprised because I was ready for a long movie that I didn't like. Um I I was surprised at um I really thought that uh Sam Neil, Alan Grant, the actor who plays Alan Grant, uh, I mean he's just he's far less successful than William H. Macy. And it could just be that the character that William H. Macy played wasn't written very well, but Sam Neil killed it. Oh yeah. And William H. Macy was just kind of meh.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it was a weird cast for William H. Macy. Yeah. Like it I think this movie, if you would have maybe done a little bit more character development on Grant and the side cast was a little bit different, it could have been, it could have just like, I think, just been close to the lost world as far as quality. I don't mind that it's that short. I think, yeah, it needs a rewrite. It can't be like I'm sure there was already a lot of rewrites. That's the thing. Like this movie feels like one that was trimmed down significantly.
SPEAKER_06Yes, you're right. You're absolutely right about that. To the bones. That's probably all about the bones. Honestly, I wonder if that's why the budget is higher.
SPEAKER_08Probably. They probably had to do a lot of reshoots. And but it like you said, it's all about the bones. And this is really the bones of what Jurassic Park is. There's not much there's no, and that's probably why I don't necessarily love this movie because there's not much deeper kind of messages. It's it's a it's a big chase sequence.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it's it's a really fun than I expected. I think partly like we talked about already, it it was shorter. I would watch it again because I know that it's not gonna be two and a two hours and 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_08This is a great if you're a Jurassic Park fan, this is like the one you put on while you're like doing a chore or doing laundry, or you're this is like a perfect, if you have like a two-hour and 20 minute flight, this is like perfect. You're gonna watch it all while you're in in the air. You know, you're ascending, you'll finish this movie, and then you'll descend. It's perfect. It's it's really a just kind of a nice summer movie. I this would be a perfect movie if you if you're coming in after a day at the beach, it's like eight-ish, and you're like, I don't know if I want to watch a two and a half hour movie. Yeah. Our hour uh hour thirty. Hour thirty. Yeah. About 90 minutes of of fun and screaming.
SPEAKER_06I really liked just how how absolutely it was intentional, right? Uh, but how absolutely ragtag that group that that crew was. Like these guys, it was just terrible, these guys.
SPEAKER_08They and the nice thing I do, I do like that the the like kind of like the badass guys compared to Lost World, were not at all. Like they ran away immediately, and the guy got eaten immediately.
SPEAKER_06You know what's kind of interesting about this one is in the first one, Laura Dern, female lead for the most part. I mean, she wasn't the true lead, but she was a female lead in that movie. In the second movie, I forget the name of the actress.
SPEAKER_08Uh Julianne Moore.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She was uh a female lead in that movie, had a big prominent role. She wasn't the lead, obviously Jeff Goldblum was, but she had a big prominent role. Um the the gal that played um Mrs. Kirby in this movie. Not only was she not very good, this movie was very male-dominated.
SPEAKER_08Very male dominated. And that and we joked about like uh Billy and like with that we have that bad interns, but like that was an unnecessary, like misogynistic, like yeah, and he like they they were like they start off like acting like he's a playboy, but he's not.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_08Like it was unnecessary to even put that in the movie, right? Because that wasn't his character at all. Like he wasn't like flirting with the mom or like Yeah. It was weird. It is definitely a male-dominated movie, but it's it's weird because it's a male-dominated movie, but it's not a like 80s, 90s action movie, like ripped muscle steroids movie.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08It's just it's just a funky movie that that way. It's it's undefinable. It's Jurassic Park claw mark. All right. What was your favorite, or who was your favorite human character?
SPEAKER_06I think my favorite human character was Eric. Uh, the kid. He was just really resourceful. Very uh, we would say in 2021, he was woke. Very woke. Um, because he Alan Grant's like asking, Did you read Malcolm's book about the island? And he's like, Yeah, it was, you know, Malcolm was you know, he's like totally characterizing Ian Malcolm. Yeah. Um, which is great, it's just kind of funny. Um, when you watch the movies, uh, but so I really liked Eric. And then I think my favorite dinosaur. I think as a kid, I liked the Spinosaurus because it was big and bad and powerful. But I think my favorite dinosaur is the pterodactyl.
SPEAKER_08Oh, they're so good.
SPEAKER_06It's just it's uh well now dinosaur purists will say, well, pterodactyl's not a dinosaur, okay. But uh, you know what? You don't stop listening to this podcast. Okay, I don't care if you come here for science. If you're one of the three listeners and you and you're gonna criticize me about the about the pterodactyl, I'll go down to two listeners. Okay, me and Luke will just listen to the thing.
SPEAKER_08Because you know what it's not that's not the podcast, you know. To steal from James Bonding, we're lovers, not experts.
SPEAKER_06That's right.
SPEAKER_08That's right. And I'm definitely not an expert of it. That's right.
SPEAKER_06Speaking of James Bonding, Terry and Killen, if you want to like guest appear on our podcast too. Yeah, I'd be cool with that. I know that you're like busy, you got stuff going on.
SPEAKER_08All right, I gotta pick my favorite human character, which uh you picked probably the best one. So I I will go with Dr. Grant, who I think, like we talked about in the first episode with Jurassic Park, it is amazing that that Sam Neil, you know, not as well known of an actor, was able to hold his own in a big adventure movie. Um, I thought he did good enough to to keep this movie moving, which it did move fast. And I I thought he really, out of all the actors, really was the the one that sh like there was no comparison. It really was, which I think was hard because like Laura Dern's in it for one scene, so he really doesn't have anybody to play off with from an acting standpoint, even though William H. Macy, who's kind of an enigma, like but yeah, I think you I gotta go with with Dr.
SPEAKER_06Grant and he uh it's almost like Dr. Grant, you're right, he really helped with the pace of the movie. It's almost like Sam Neil knew like that the whole thing was actually just a production meeting for him, and he's just trying to get everybody through.
SPEAKER_07He's like, Oh, this is on me. Getting too old for this. Alright, guys, here we go. Guys, we gotta go to the next one. Come on. Yeah, come on, let's go. Next scene. We only get paid if we get to the end.
SPEAKER_08He really did hold this movie. Uh, and then I think my favorite dinosaur, which we didn't talk about, which is so odd, when they are looking for the elusive phone, they go into the uh Spinosaurus's poop, bringing back a poop, which I appreciate. Yes, I appreciate the poop callback. They're looking for the phone, they find the phone, and then there is a horned T-Rex that shows up and disappears. We never see it again.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08This punk rock unicorn T-Rex is totally ignored. What like how why was that in the movie?
SPEAKER_06That's a good question.
SPEAKER_08And now I'm thinking about it. I feel like that was a merchandising thing. It was probably like we need to get one more cool dinosaur in there. Let's get a horn T-Rex in the movie for 20 frames, maybe.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I don't know what that was all about. Because honestly, it could have been they couldn't cut it necessarily because the phone they needed the phone scene. But they could I mean they could have dealt with that differently. He didn't need to be there.
SPEAKER_08I couldn't remember because I for some reason thought that the horn T-Rex was gonna come back at the end and save them. But but what I'm I might be thinking of King Kong coming back and seeing like like that's where this movie did get a little like King Kong y to me, like it just big creature fighting, which I love in movies, but it's not really for me that's not what Jurassic Park is about. Yeah, but yeah, so I'm gonna go with the Unicorn Punk Rock uh T-Rex.
SPEAKER_06So where does this movie so far we've watched the three? Where do you rank this one?
SPEAKER_08It's it's definitely three. Yeah, it's it's definitely it's definitely the third one. I'm curious to see how it's gonna stack up against the other.
SPEAKER_06I'm so excited to watch the next one. Jurassic World. I haven't watched it since I saw it in the theater.
SPEAKER_08I've watched it, I think, once.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08I think I watched it once, so it's gonna be interesting to re-watch it. Uh Chris Chris Pratt. The I remember the running in the heels.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Is is a big controversial thing. We will have guests in the next episode. I this was definitely just a good old Luke and Mike show, but we're gonna we needed to move it along.
SPEAKER_06You know, we we couldn't. We had to cut out, we weren't able to get more active.
SPEAKER_08We had to cut the guests because we need to move this along because Dr. Grant's exhausted. That's right. Well, thanks for going through this journey. Uh Jurassic Park 3. We're on to uh the reboot. It's a huge gap. It is. It's a huge gap. Enough time to build an entire theme park. It's gonna happen.
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