Jurassic Park III

The hero of the first film (Sam Neill) is enticed into a flyover of his old stamping grounds—only to learn to his horror that the couple who hired him (William H. Macy, Tea Leoni) intend to land and hunt for their missing son. Director Joe Johnston and writers Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor avoid the mistakes of the first sequel The Lost World, especially the bonehead emphasis on comedy that sullied the memory of the original—Neill handles this kind of adventure much better than Jeff Goldblum. The story is short and swift, though there are no characters to identify with and none of the first film’s dizzy horror and excitement—as usual, scenes play like dry runs for the next new ride on the Universal Studios tour. Still, it’s solid, efficient and unpretentious—a $93 million B-movie.