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Title:	The Lost World: Collector's Edition (1997)
Studio Line:	Universal Studios - Something has survived. Director Steven Spielberg takes us back to the scene of Jurassic Park in The Lost World, the blockbuster sequel with even more dinosaurs, more action and more breathtaking visual effects than its record-breaking predecessor. This Collector's Edition contains exclusive interviews and rare behind-the-scenes footage. The Lost World remains among the most successful films of all time and features an all-star cast including Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore and Pete Postlethwaite. It has been four years since the disaster at Jurassic Park and two groups are in a race against time that will determine the fate of the remote island's prehistoric inhabitants. Take home this classic film that will leave you on the edge or your seat...again!
Director:	Steven Spielberg
Cast:	Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn, Arliss Howard, Peter Stormare, Pete Postlethwaite, Richard Schiff, Vanessa Lee Chester, Richard Attenborough
Academy Awards:	Nominated for Best Visual Effects, 1998.
Box Office:	Budget: $73 million. Opening Weekend: $92.729 million (3281 screens). Gross: $229.074 million.
DVD:	Widescreen 1.85:1/16x9; audio English DD 5.1, French Dolby Surround; subtitles Spanish; closed-captioned; single sided - dual layered; 20 chapters; rated PG-13; $26.99; street date 10/10/00.
Supplements:	The Making Of The Lost World; Deleted Scenes; Production Photographs, Storyboards, Conceptual Drawings and Design Sketches; Dinosaur Encyclopedia; Theatrical Trailers; Production Notes; Cast & Filmmakers; DVD-ROM Features Including Live Web Events; Direct Hotlink to the Set of Jurassic Park III.
Purchase:	DVD | DVD DTS | The Lost World: The Movie Storybook -Jane Mason

Picture/Sound/Extras: A/A/B+ Knock me, mock me, pour soup on my head if you must, but dagnabbit, I like The Lost World! This 1997 sequel to 1993's megahit Jurassic Park has received tremendous criticism over the last three years for a variety of reasons, and the general consensus has been that it was a weak follow-up to a pretty good action flick. However, I disagree, as I find TLW to offer a generally satisfying experience. Frankly, I think it's largely comparable to the first movie and I've never felt much disappointment in regard to it. We wanted more rampaging dinosaurs who caused havoc and we got it - worked for me! No, I don't think TLW is a perfect movie, and indeed its flaws open up even wider upon repeated viewings. Quite a few instances of plot holes/lack of logic/sheer stupidity occur. For example, we frequently hear Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) gripe at the others to make sure they don't interfere with the dinosaur's natural environment; she warns that even a bent blade of grass makes the humans involved in the proceedings and takes them out of their desired roles as observers. As such, would someone explain to me why one of the first actions we see her take is to fondle a baby stegosaur? She also traipses through a creek with abandon - might she not mess up that water supply? Poor Moore got saddled with most of the film's incoherent moments, such as the fact that she tells us that the T-rex has the second best sense of smell of any animal in history, she continues to wear a jacket stained with the blood of a baby T-rex. Even an idiot like me would know better to do that - shouldn't she? I also wasn't wild about the film's lackluster environmental message. It's so clearly good guys vs. bad guys, with the latter taking the part of the "rapers of the natural world". My least favorite shot must be the one in which our band of protagonists watches these dudes "round up" the dinos. All of the good guys have pained looks on their faces that strongly reminded me of those Seventies anti-pollution ads with the weeping Indian. Blech! Despite these and other flaws, I continue to enjoy TLW because it's simply a very entertaining and exciting movie. Does it have much of a plot? Nope, but neither did the first one, and few seemed miffed about that. Actually, the original JP had just as many plot holes, and they were just as gaping, so I never have understood why so many people appear to feel that the sequel marked a significant decline in quality. And give the filmmakers credit - at least TLW wasn't a perfect rehash of the original. It's similar, without question, but it seems darker and more cynical. The first film's humor tended to be cute and child-oriented, with gags like Tim's dinosaur joke or the instance when the brachiosaur sneezed on Lex. In TLW, however, the gags are more sarcastic and snippy; for example, when Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) calls for Sarah and uses her last name, Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) pauses and then asks how many Sarahs does he think are on this dino-filled island. It's not fine comedy, but it definitely shows a darker streak than what we found in the first film, and a lot of it works well, largely due to the fine presence of Goldblum. His unusual style may grate on some, but I usually find Goldblum to provide solid and consistently interesting work, especially when he takes roles that suit him. The oddball scientist here fits him well, and he also makes the jump to a more action-hero mode nicely. Malcolm is the only significant carry-over from JP (Hammond, Lex and Tim also appear, but only in cameos) and he has to carry much more of the load than in the first movie, where he was really a supporting character. Goldblum proves that he's up to the challenge, and he helps make the film a success. Actually, the whole cast is made up of terrific actors. Up and down the line we discover strong talent: Moore, Vaughn, Richard Schiff, Peter Stormare. Geez, it's like Spielberg raided every indie film he could find! Do any provide their best work? Heavens, no. But even half-assed performances from actors like this add strength to a movie like TLW, and each of these actors use enough of their asses to be assets. Best of the bunch are Arliss Howard and Pete Postlethwaite. Howard plays greedy, conniving entrepreneur Peter Ludlow and does so with the appropriate levels of sniveling charm and lack of emotion. Usually this kind of character is made into a bullying heavy, but Howard plays him more as a just a money-grubbing white-collar chump, and the portrayal works well. Even better is Postlethwaite as "great white hunter" Roland Tembo. He takes what should be a silly and stereotyped character and somehow makes him full-blooded and even likable. Based on his appearances in films like In the Name of the Father and Dragonheart, I wouldn't imagine Postlethwaite in a role such as this, but he's tremendous; I fully believed him as this tough-guy animal slayer. He's strong, powerful, charismatic and bold, and he's the best acting talent the film has to offer. Of course, no one goes to see a Jurassic Park movie for the human performances, and TLW doesn't skimp on the dino-delights. If anything, the sequel ups the ante from the first movie because it makes the people much more active participants in the battle against their tormentors. Some have criticized a few of these scenes - especially the one that involves some gymnastics - but I thought they were a lot of fun and added spark to the film. After all, the participants in JP mainly just ran around a lot; it's good to see the stalked take a more active part in their preservation. The special effects to the sequel remained up to the level of the original, and probably improved on them as well. Perhaps 30 years from now we'll easily see through all of the trickery, but at this point in time, the results are very convincing. JP started a revolution in computer imagery and TLW carried that baton efficiently. Ultimately, The Lost World doesn't quite live up to the quality of Jurassic Park, but I think it comes much closer than many believe. The sequel lacks the novelty of the original but it takes a slightly different take on the genre and succeeds well in its own right. If 2001's Jurassic Park III can live up to the level established in TLW, I for one will be very pleased. (For the record, I ain't counting on that!) The DVD: The Lost World appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. As one might expect, this is a thoroughly terrific DVD that offers extremely high quality picture and sound. Sharpness looked immaculate from start to finish. At no time and under no circumstances did I note any signs of softness or fuzziness; the image appeared perfectly crisp and detailed throughout the film. Moiré effects and jagged edges caused no concerns, and artifacts from the anamorphic downconversion on my 4X3 TV seemed minor. Print flaws appeared virtually non-existent; I detected a couple speckles of black grit but other than that, I saw no signs of scratches, spots, hairs, rips, grain or other defects. The Lost World maintained a nicely naturalistic palette, and these tones came through winningly on the DVD. Much of the film takes place in a forest environment, and the greens of this setting looked thoroughly lush and lovely. Actually, all of the colors were accurate and attractive, but it was the green hues that stood out to me. Black levels are dead-on; they seemed deep and rich with no signs of gray shades or muddiness. TLW is a much darker film than the original JP, and the heavy tones take on additional importance because of this. Happily, the DVD was up to the task, and I was very impressed with the contrast evident throughout the movie. Shadow detail was excellent at all times; from the dappled tones of Hammond's study at the start of the film to all of the nighttime scenes toward the end, dark scenes always came across as perfectly shaded without any signs of excessive opacity. Ultimately The Lost World offered a truly excellent visual experience. Equally good is the film's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. This is a terrifically-involving affair that surrounds the viewer with audio at almost all times. Of course, the many action scenes provided the greatest amount of activity, but even quieter moments offered convincing ambiance and involvement. Audio always seemed precisely placed within the environment and the sounds moved smoothly between channels for a very realistic image. Sound quality seemed equally fine. Although much of it had to be dubbed, the dialogue always seemed natural and crisp, and it blended well with the rest of the track. I noted no problems with intelligibility and thought the speech was perfectly distinct and clear. John Williams' score came across fantastically well, especially in the way he used drums; these sounded amazingly deep and rich as they pounded their way through the mix. Effects were quite clean and bold, and they displayed no signs of distortion. The entire track packed a serious punch, and I experienced a high level of solid low end; the bass featured in this mix seemed quite taut and powerful. The "round-up" scene is a great one to demonstrate all of the track's strengths, as it combined all of the best parts of the mix in one space. Audio flies about the listener as the vehicles and dinosaurs careen around the screen, and all of the stomping and engines provide ample opportunity to show off the bass response. However, this shouldn't be seen as the film's one demo spot, as it's filled with killer moments; any number of others - most of which involve the T-rexes - would work just as well. Put simply, The Lost World features an absolutely excellent soundtrack that will put your system to the test. The Lost World doesn't offer the killer special edition I've wanted for three years, but it's still a pretty sweet little package. First up is a documentary, the creatively-named "Making of The Lost World". Initially I feared that this show would be nothing more than the brief featurette that appeared on the Dolby Digital laserdisc of TLW, but my concerns were unfounded. We find a full-fledged documentary here through this 53-minute and 10-second program. Actually, the piece resembles the fine show found on the JP DVD, except this one focuses a little less on the special effects side of the equation. In truth, technical aspects of making the film remain the primary topic, but the TLW program also incorporates interview snippets with some of the actors; we mainly hear from Goldblum and Moore, and the creative side of the movie gets more attention from the other participants as well. But things always seem to roll back to the effects, and that's fine, since the amazing technological achievements found here are always fascinating. The program provides a pretty solid little overview of the various processes used to create the various illusions, and it does so in a brisk and entertaining manner. We find a combination of interviews, film clips, production materials like storyboards and outtakes, and footage from the set; all of it forms a coherent picture of the making of the movie. Best part? Watching Goldblum pretend to be rammed by a raptor; essentially he has to repeatedly beat himself in the head with a wooden door, and for some sadistic reason, it's terrifically entertaining. I'd like a longer, more in-depth documentary about the movie, but I found this one to be quite satisfying nonetheless. During the documentary, we get quick glimpses of two deleted scenes. These appear in their entirety elsewhere on the DVD. One shows an InGen board meeting headed by Ludlow, and it last three minutes and five seconds, while the second introduces Tembo and runs four minutes. In the documentary we're told that these segments were cut because they were redundant; the same information is effectively conveyed elsewhere in the movie. This is correct, and the Ludlow scene was a painless loss; I was happy to see it but the film doesn't miss it. Tembo's segment is a little more complicated. Yes, the same main point that comes through in this scene can be obtained through other areas later in the film, but I rather enjoyed this clip. It demonstrates just what a bad-ass Tembo is, and it's pretty interesting. Would the movie be worse off with it back in the film? Nope - you can never get too much Postlethwaite! If you like stillframe materials, you'll enjoy the remainder of the DVD, as most of the rest of the supplements come in that format. In "Illustrations and Conceptual Drawings", we get 121 frames worth of artwork created to design the look of the film. There's some nice images to be found here, and I found this section quite enjoyable. The pieces vary in complexity, but many of them are quite detailed and lavish - I'd love to own prints of a few! Storyboards abound, as that section presents drawings for 12 different scenes. Each contains between six and 78 images for a total of 418 frames. Frankly, I'm not much of a fan of storyboards, but a few of these are good just because they differ from the finished product. The last two presented scenes - "Omitted Air Attack" and "The Original Ending" - are easily the most interesting since they appeared nowhere in the final film. Note that both feature a character almost unseen in TLW: the pteradon. We view this winged beastie in the very last shot of TLW, but it makes no other appearances, although these deleted sequences show that Pterry was meant to play a bigger role. Perhaps he'll arrive the next sequel. The briefest section on the DVD, "Models" offers only nine frames of photos. These show the details of the Site B compound. "The World of Jurassic Park" provides a much more extensive experience through its 125 images. It presents a mini-overview of the effects production, as it starts with shots of dinosaur drawings and maquettes and moves through the building of the Stan Winston puppets. We also witness a few pictures of some of the movie's vehicles. It's a fun section for fans of effects as it presents a nice picture of all the work that went into these critters. "The Magic of Industrial Light and Magic" takes a similar approach during its 131 photos, except it focuses on the folks at ILM. As such, we see some different models but we also witness some short demonstrations of computer techniques plus additional art, such as a different form of storyboard. It' s another interesting section for folks who like to get as much background information about filmmaking as possible. In "Production Photographs", we find 224 stills from the film's set. These include "behind the scenes" snaps of Spielberg and other filmmakers and cast plus publicity shots that come from the movie itself. The section provides some fun glimpses at the set. Lots of supplemental sections provide examples of unused advertising concepts. None do it in as much detail as this DVD. "Posters And Toys" includes 171 frames of material, but a whopping 165 of those are devoted to the promotional pieces. Boy, did they go through a lot of ideas! Please note that you won't find 165 distinct and different artwork ideas; many of them are very similar. However, I love the fact that we get all of them and there's so much detail to be found. Too bad that didn't extend to the "toys" part of this area; six frames doesn't come close to covering the jillions of kiddie products that have appeared for both movies. In the "Trailers" area, we find the theatrical ads for both JP and The Lost World. There's also a promo for next year's JP III, but don't expect much from it; it offers no looks at the new production and is just a fairly generic teaser. The "Dinosaur Encyclopedia" provides a nice general history of a few different breeds. We learn about the dilophosaur, the velociraptor, the triceratops, the gallimimus, the T-rex, and the brachiosaur in entertaining little snippets. Unfortunately, this is the same "Encyclopedia" that also appeared on the JP DVD; while it's a fun feature, it should have been altered to include the breeds of dinosaur unique to TLW. Additional text appears in two other sections. The surprisingly-long "Production Notes" offer a solid history of the making of the film; they pack in a lot of good information. "Cast and Filmmakers" is less extensive. These listings cover five actors and four crew members on the production side (three producers and Spielberg) and the entries lack much detail. The Lost World provides a few DVD-ROM features than most discs and it does so with some flair. (Before you continue, please note that these are the exact same DVD-ROM materials found on the JP DVD, so if you've already scanned that review, you may want to skip past this area.) When you fire up the DVD, you get a screen that shows a vehicle at the gates of the park's entrance, and some beasties lurk in the bushes. The various critters act as links to different aspects of the disc. Click on the raptor and you'll be forwarded to the JP website (if you're online, that is). There you can enter a contest to win a collection of 30 Universal DVDs (the grand prize) or some other smaller items. On the JP site proper, you can send JP-themed postcards or learn more about the JP and Lost World DVDs through plot synopses and the same "Production Notes" and "Cast and Crew Biographies" that appear on the discs themselves. Actually, the biographies are truncated; although we find all five cast listings plus one for Spielberg and all of these include the same information found on the DVD, no other "crew" details appear. The JP website offers a "Downloads" section but despite repeated attempts, I couldn't get this to work. It also includes a link to a JP message board. One general note about this site: it moved very slowly for me. Your experience may differ, of course, but it was a plodding mess when I used it. Highlight the T-rex to "log on here for an exclusive backstage pass to the set of JP III and more". That must be a future development, because all it does right now is send you to the main JP site. When there, if you activate the JP III, you discover nothing more than a JP III logo and a "coming summer 2001" statement. Clicking the brachiosaur lets you do nothing more than sign up for a Universal newsletter. When you target the jeep in the center of the screen, you're sent to the disc's non-DVD-ROM bonus materials. When you click on the dilophosaur, two options become available. You can install a fairly lame T-rex screensaver in which Rexy chases a Jeep around various parts of your monitor or you can fire up a "JP Custom Web Browser". I tried out the latter and thought it looked kind of cool but it was very busy and it seemed to slow down access, so I ditched it pretty quickly. Finally, the DVD-ROM area provides other weblinks to Universal Studios, Universal Home Video, Universal DVDs, and Universal Pictures. Of course, any of these sites or those for JP itself are available to those without DVD-ROM drives, but the disc collects them nicely. Slam The Lost World if you like, and call me an idiot; you won't be the first or the last. Nonetheless, I liked the film when I first saw it in 1997 and I continue to enjoy it. The movie is flawed but still a lot of fun, and it works well as pure action and excitement. The DVD doesn't suffer from many problems; it offers excellent picture and sound plus a nice array of quality extras. I'm happy to have The Lost World as part of my DVD collection, and I think you'll like it as well. Menu: DVD Movie Guide | Archive | Top