The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Superior to the ho-hum original in every conceivable way, Spielberg's obligatory sequel to one of the all-time box-office champs is no great shakes, but it works as light entertainment precisely because it's nothing more, nor less, than a monster movie, with the dinosaurs a fun variant on the atomic mutants of the '50s or the carnivorous aliens of the '80s. Correctly assuming that 99% of the people who'll check out Lost World will have seen Jurassic Park, Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp have wisely dispensed with all of the tedious oohing and aahing that bogged down the first entry in the series. There are no melancholy conversations over ice cream; no long stretches of patronizing, hokey exposition about the vicious nature of an animal we're going to see in action three reels later; no laughably superficial explanations of chaos theory. This movie has the courage of its convictions, however ridiculous and shallow those convictions might be: it is a movie about dinosaurs on the rampage, and by god, dinosaurs on the rampage are what we get. The lack of pretense is refreshing. Recommended. (M D'Angelo)