THE JURASSIC GAMES (2018)

Studio:       Uncork’d Entertainment
Director:    Ryan Bellgardt
Writer:       Ryan Bellgardt, Galen Christy, Adam Hampton
Producer:  Ryan Bellgardt, Josh McKamie, Andy Swanson, Chris Hoyt, Jessi Sanfilippo, Harry Wolohan
Stars:     Ryan Merriman, Perrey Reeves, Adam Hampton, Katie Burgess, Cate Jones, Erica Daily, Lucas Ross, Kyle Pennington, Rett Terrell, Tiger Sheu

Review Score:

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Summary:

Death Row inmates fight to be the sole survivor in a nationally televised game show pitting them against deadly dinosaurs.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Death Row inmates Anthony Tucker, Sarah “Joy” LaFort, Stephanie Rogers, Albert, the Mason Brothers, Victor “The Wasp” Gonzalez, Ren Saizo, William Davis, and Dr. Eli Franklin agree to participate in the nationally televised game show “The Jurassic Games.” While producer Savannah Black monitors the broadcast from the control room with technical operator Brian, The Host outlines the rules for the contestants as well as viewers.

The Host explains that the ten participants, all of whom are strapped into VR simulators, will fight dinosaurs and traps across four stages. Anyone who dies in the simulation will automatically die in reality by lethal injection. The sole survivor who makes it through to the end of the game will win freedom and a full pardon.

For the first stage, contestants are given one hour to find the safe zone. Serial bomber Dr. Eli Franklin becomes the first to die when he is eaten by a tyrannosaurus rex.

Tucker rescues Joy after William assaults her. Following a fight, Joy kills William by bashing in his head with a rock.

Video journalist Laura interviews Tucker’s children Baily and Andrew. Baily and Andrew heartbreakingly claim that their father was wrongfully convicted of murdering their mother.

Joy hangs Tucker with a noose before continuing toward the safe zone alone. Claiming they need to work together in order to survive, Ren rescues Tucker.

Upon returning to the studio, Laura expresses doubt about Tucker’s conviction and complains about having to interview his children. Savannah threatens to fire Laura if she ever questions an assignment again.

Victor forms an alliance with the Mason Brothers by convincing them he has the money to pay for their mother’s cancer treatment. In light of the development, the Host steps in to prevent the trio from being devoured by raptors in a canyon. The Host mentions to the audience that the brothers’ mother Rosetta actually died the day before.

The eight remaining contestants eventually make it to the safe zone. For the second stage, everyone is forced to solve a video game maze. As a prize for being the first to complete the maze, Albert receives a laser rifle. Tucker completes the maze and retrieves the rifle before Albert can kill anyone with it. After everyone completes the onscreen maze, the contestants enter a physical maze where they must evade velociraptors while searching for an exit.

Tucker uses the rifle to protect Stephanie from raptors. Raptors kill Ren. The seven remaining contestants escape the maze’s dead end by crawling through a ventilation grate.

Outside, the Host presents Stephanie with a holographic map to a supply crate as a prize for being the first person to exit the maze. The Mason Brothers forcibly take the map from Stephanie.

News network anchor Jack interviews Savannah about the ethical controversy surrounding the games. Savannah learns that activist group ‘The Cavemen’ is planning to publicly protest by disrupting the conclusion of the game.

The older Mason brother rescues Victor from an oversized, sentient plant. With his face deformed by the plant’s poison, Victor confesses that he was never going to help Rosetta Mason. The older Mason brother stomps on Victor’s head.

For stage three, the remaining contestants are sent into a minefield containing dinosaurs to find the supplies with the holographic map. The older Mason brother refuses to participate further, which results in his head exploding. Pterodactyls pick up the younger brother and drop him on an exploding mine.

Tucker privately tells Joy about discovering his wife’s body after she was murdered. Joy vows to take Tucker with her to the final round, but promises to kill him.

Albert attacks Stephanie. Tucker intervenes to initiate a violent fight with Albert. Albert retreats to a canyon where his flesh is devoured by a swarm of prehistoric insects. Meanwhile, Joy kicks Stephanie off a cliff to be mauled by a saber-toothed tiger.

Brian informs Savannah that he intercepted an encoded message sent to The Cavemen from inside the studio. Savannah confronts Laura about the message. Revealing herself to be one of several activists who infiltrated the Jurassic Games crew, Laura shoots and kills Savannah.

For the final challenge, Tucker and Joy are chained to padlocks in a desert. Several T-Rexes are unleashed. The Host explains that the winner will be whoever finds their key and escapes the perimeter circle first.

Upset over a lack of violent action, the Host takes direct control over the dinosaurs threatening Tucker and Joy. During the fray, Joy confesses that she was the killer who actually murdered Tucker’s wife. Tucker and Joy both break free from their restraints. Tucker outraces Joy to leave the perimeter first. Joy drops dead from her lethal injection.

In the control room, Laura and her coconspirators pull their guns on the Host and his crew. The Cavemen forcibly put the Host into a VR simulator. Laura shoots Brian and takes over the controls to unleash a T-Rex that kills the Host.

Armed soldiers burst into the control room. A firefight ensues. Laura is killed. Having been freed from the simulation, Tucker takes a bullet.

Tucker survives and ultimately reunites with his children. A television announcement reveals that Jurassic Games will return with a new season where the dinosaurs are now outfitted with lasers and other weaponry to make them more dangerous.

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Review:

Feedback from regular readers has made me aware that I’ve acquired a reputation for being harder to please than many peers.  It seems my standards are such that when I do put praise on a film, kind words can be construed as a Mikey from Life cereal recommendation whether I mean it that way or not.

I admit this notion has infected my head enough that when I find favor with a marginal movie, I consciously consider that I could be presenting the film more positively than it deserves.  Since I would never wish to rate something unfairly simply to keep up appearances of having high taste, I want to make something crystal clear about “The Jurassic Games.”

“The Jurassic Games” earns a predominantly positive review because it is precisely the kind of knowingly campy B-movie I expected it to be, and exactly what I wanted to watch at the time.  That doesn’t necessarily equate to it being “good,” and definitely doesn’t mean I think you should see it.

In fact, if you’re here to take a meter reading regarding whether the movie might float your boat, what you really should do is seek out the trailer.  Those two minutes will reveal everything required to decide if “The Jurassic Games” fits your style far better than five minutes with this review ever could.

Sometime after 2040 (you have to closely examine throwaway text to gauge when “The Jurassic Games” takes place), America has found a way to satiate the public’s appetite for violent reality TV by putting ten Death Row inmates in a Thunderdome fight for survival against prehistory’s most fearsome predators.  Sort of.  Contestants are actually hooked into VR simulators operated by a crew of techies and broadcasters controlling the computer-generated action. However, anyone who dies in the simulation will die in reality by an automated lethal injection, just as their death sentences prescribed.

More than anything, the VR angle doubles as a good gimmick for partly justifying why the dinosaurs look like what they are: animated CGI creations.  Although considering this is a production where every penny comes at a premium, the creatures are surprisingly well done.  Of course they can’t compete with the denizens of Isla Nublar, but I’d go so far as to say these are the best effects anyone is likely to see at the Syfy/Asylum level of mockbuster midnight movie.

I’ll do that compliment one better by adding that while there may not be as much dino action as there could be, the filmmakers don’t chintz out when monsters do make it onscreen.  The path of least resistance would be to Battlestar Galactica the effects by repurposing shots or models over and over and over again.  Yet “The Jurassic Games” goes through the trouble of generating a saber-toothed tiger instead of reusing another velociraptor, drops three T-Rexes into the finale when they could have gotten away with one, and even includes triceratopses and brontosauruses, which makes no sense since they were herbivores that wouldn’t attack humans anyway.  The point is, the computer FX crew put in respectable work.

Does every aspect of “The Jurassic Games” try as hard as it can?  Nah.  Interior environments are embarrassingly Spartan, with the Flintstones-like recycling of a singular hallway simulating a labyrinthine maze being particularly laughable.  Still, a truly low-rent production would have grabbed exteriors by shooting the Hell out of a backyard or public park.  “The Jurassic Games” instead takes its team to the sand, a lake, fallen rocks, and a forest.

Again, the movie may be cheap, but it isn’t lazy.  Enough fantasy gives form to the fiction that you can have fun as long as your imagination applies sandpaper to rough patches.

Acting in particular requires generous use of that sandpaper.  The best to be said is that performances are about as minimally believable as necessary for this sort of thing.  A cast can only take so much heat when embodying cardboard cutouts like the wrongfully convicted family man, coldblooded black widow, or cutthroat redneck anyway.  There’s only one tank of charisma for a dozen main players, which is clearly not enough fuel for everyone.  Might as well mention that every extra is obviously a filmmaking friend or family member, as they all bear that distinct non-Hollywood look of someone more likely to be your next-door neighbor.

To put additional context behind the muted acclaim offered at the opening, I’m a guy who grew up on the USA Up All Night kitsch of Rutger Hauer in “Deadlock” and Christopher Lambert in “Fortress.”  Not that “The Jurassic Games” bats in that league, but it scratches an itch for disposable drive-in thrills on a small screen scale.

It’s not particularly hammy.  It’s not particularly humorous.  Yet the movie’s cheesiness comes in tolerable dollops befitting a film that satisfies a particular mood.  That mood might be “there’s nothing better on late night cable, guess I’ll open a beer,” but we need entertainment for times like those too.

Review Score:  65

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