Age of Dinosaurs

How on earth they got Treat Williams and Ronny Cox to do this movie is an amazing feat. This movie is of course essentially a rip off of Jurassic Park: The Lost World - well... the final two reels anyhow. Unfortunately, the script is so horrible. (If you were a fireman, standing holding an ax, and a dinosaur was in the process of tearing into somebody 4 feet away from you, wouldn't you at least take a swing, instead of standing there for five seconds with a bored look on your face?)

The visual FX are OK for this movie. They are about one generation from being 'done' as the dinosaurs didn't seem to blend in with the lighting from scene to scene, but not entirely distracting. The "script" is just so bad, that is really what takes you out of the movie. Although, I wonder if there was any writing forethought at all, and if this really wasn't just an exercise in improv, then having the effects done to suit the filmed improv. Visually, this movie was a touch better than a similar movie called Carnosaur (1993), though this is twenty years later in the technology for the FX.

The reason for the two stars is simply because the visual FX were at times OK. And I did appreciate the fact that when the dinosaurs tear into people, they didn't feel the need to show the actual teeth tearing the flesh. There were cutaways where you only saw the blood splatter - reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock's style.

The Mythbusters once proved that "you can polish a turd", however in this case, the script is a turd that probably couldn't be polished with out a few more rewrites - or a burning the first draft, and restarting all together.

Using breakthrough flesh-regeneration technology, a biotech firm creates a set of living dinosaurs. But when the creatures escape their museum exhibit and terrorize Los Angeles, a former firefighter must rescue his teenage daughter from the chaos brought on by the Age of Dinosaurs.

We have the benefit of a film starring Treat Williams ("Dead Heat") and Ronny Cox ("RoboCop"), but that is about the best thing you can say for this film. It is exactly what you expect, with such an obvious rip-off of "Jurassic Park" that I am surprised they even bothered to make it.

If you like the cheese that comes out of the Asylum, feel free to check out this piece of work. If not, avoid it. There is no way I am going to try to convince anyone to see this turkey.

Horrible, horrible, horrible. Do NOT rent.

Don't be fooled by the juvenile cover thinking this is a kids movie. We were in a hurry and thought it would be a good choice. Wished we'd checked these reviews first. Lol!

The acting and special effects are atrocious even for a low budget film.

Don't waste your money.

As I watched the first few minutes of the film, I wondered how Treat Williams felt about doing this film. He was the best part - if there has to be a best part.

I'm not sure what else to say to convince you not to rent it, but I have to fill up 10 lines of text.

A dinosaur rampage ! Not the most original idea for a movie but one that sounds like total and enjoyable nonsense , There might be a slight reservation to this and that is AGE OF DINOSAURS is being broadcast on the SyFy nearly every film you see on it is overly reliant on CGI and dumb scripting . That said the film does contain a couple of relatively well known cast members in the shape of Treat Williams and Ronny Cox and even if they're not Hollywood A listers at least it gives some hope for the movie

As Morgan Freeman said to Tim Robbins " Hope is a dangerous thing " and watching this film you know what he's getting at . Any hope that this would be an atypical SyFy channel movie are soon dashed . The dinosaurs are of course poor CGI realisation and one wonders how much fun it would have been working on this production ? " More fun than actually watching it " you cry and you'd probably be right . Once the dinosaurs make a breakout there's no internal logic on a narrative or mis-en-scene level . For example after the mad scientists and the greedy corporate capitalists have brought the reptiles back to life , they all make a beeline for the nearest cupboard because hiding in a cupboard is the only way to escape from a dinosaur . The production team realising that the audience tuned in to see on screen dino carnage try and get around this by introducing spectacle but you end up thinking maybe hiding in a cupboard best suited the story . As the terrible lizards charge down a busy LA street it's obvious this has been achieved by randomly filming an everyday street scene and generating CGI dinosaurs on to the footage . Words fail to convey how unconvincing all of this is as a cyclist peddles down the street not noticing there's a giant T-Rex a few feet away from him . The dinosaurs for some reason then attack a shopping and the first time the shoppers realise there's a lizard attack is when they're on the dino-menu . Considering the time frame involved and that there's a news copter flying around you'd think the shoppers would have been forewarned by someone calling them on their cell phones telling them what's happening . This type of clumsy ignorance is typical of the film but it does contain at least one sensible thinking when the media warn everyone to remain indoors and not to venture out in to the streets which of course negates the production team having to film scenes with lots of extras

This Asylum flick has all the clichés of a good old fashioned low budget TV movie: cowardly scientists that play god, greedy corner cutting businessman bully, innocent and completely stupid teenager girl, action figure concerned father, brave American cops, Ronny Cox (a cliché all of his own), rapacious dinosaurs and really dumb special effects.

Now, I didn't really expect anything else, but frankly I felt offended by the messages in this film. You should never be arrogant, innovative or bold. Stay in your place like so many female characters in the film. If you are a teenager you are dumb. Not just dumb, retarded (in the scientific sense, not the jargon one). If you are a woman, you are helpless. No measure of protection will help you from what you fear will happen. Glass will always break, even if it is cutting edge rocket one. You can do anything to protect your children, including killing priceless dinosaurs and trying to run away from them by going inside the city, so they can kill other people as well; corollary: being a concerned parent trumps any other motivation. Always use extreme violence when threatened: bring the cops and military if possible and shoot bullets into animals rather than call animal control specialists with tranquillizers. Oh, and if you try to revive the dinosaurs, do it en masse, all species, as big as possible, before you announce it to the world in a small building with no TV coverage and let them escape.

Bottom line: this film wasn't just bad, it was offensive and completely stupid. Treat Williams and Ronny Cox rarely play in masterpieces of cinema, but this was just too much. Not even bad enough to be funny.