source: Jurassic Prey

Moviecut—Jurassic Prey

I have very few positive things to say about "Jurassic Prey". Like most dinosaur flicks from the last few years, it's neither a good movie nor a so-bad-it's-good movie. It probably isn't one of the absolute worst movies I've ever seen, but I'm fairly sure it is somewhere in the "bottom 100" I have watched. It is one of the worst of the prehistoric genre and should be avoided or watched with extremely minimal expectations and some hard liquor. The cast is generally awful in uninteresting ways; there are in fact ways B-movies can save a poor script with colorful characters and/ or colorful character actors, and this movie doesn't attempt to give us anyone to really care or root for, let alone laugh at. The visual effects are hilariously bad, however I cannot condemn them to the degree some reviewers have. Yes, the puppetry and stop-motion is not commendable, but I still prefer it over most of the cheap CGI in low budget dino-flicks the last few years. In fact I was bothered far more by other effects, such as the bad digital flames, blood, and gun flares among other poorly-executed shots. If there were at least a few more redeeming elements (better gore, characters, and script for starters), I'd elevate my rating to a "3" or "4"; as it is, a "2" feels fairly generous.

When I rented this movie at my local video store, I rented it on account of it being a dinosaur movie. What do I get? Just a cops and robbers story, that just happened to have a dinosaur in it. Okay, look, unless your movie is about cops that are dinosaurs, pick one or the other! The cinematography was absolutely terrible. It feels like someone filmed it with their iPhone. The dialogue was just awful, mostly just cuss words, and nothing more. The plot (or lack there of) just seemed to jump from the robbers at the cabin for about five or ten minutes, and then it just jumps back to the T Rex ambushing people. Okay, now I can talk about the dinosaur. This dinosaur looked absolutely terrible! Most of the shots we see of him, we see either his feet, which are as phony as Barney the Dinosaur's feet (yes, it's really that fake), or his head, which is the most fake looking puppet I've ever seen. And, when we see his full body, he's made from stop motion animation, which was clearly done by an amateur, not someone like Ray HarryHausen. This movie had no plot, it had no story, it had nothing! Absolutely nothing! I wasted my time (an hour and twenty seven minutes) and money (five bucks) for nothing! This is on par with The Cat in the Hat and Santa Clause Conquers the Martians as one of the worst movies ever made. My advice to you is, if you ever come across this movie at your local video store, stay as far away from it as possible. This movie is terrible! Just watch Jurassic Park instead. This trash isn't worth your time or money.

Jurassic Prey is a fictional horror film from United guild directed by Mark Polonia .. I watched this movie a few minutes ago via DVD media, this movie is so silly, ugly, so bad, terrible acting, cheap dialogue, plus silly CGI ... Dinosaur appearance in this movie is so ugly and looks fake once ...... It's really the most boring and the worst movie I've ever seen!

I'm not sure who managed to actually get this published, because this is absolutely bottom of the ranks I've ever seen. Stiff, poor, untrained acting. Insecure actors that must wear big shades. Special effects from a cheap Halloween costume shop (if that), over-the-top, bad sound effects, flat predictable script, terrible filming mistakes (seriously folks, you're not supposed to be able to see the filming crew!)... I can go on but just like I couldn't stand watching this for more than 20 minutes, I don't want to waste any more of your time prattling on about how terrible this is. I think you get the picture. So, even on a scale of 1-10 I'd give this one a 0; it's unwatchable. If this was a movie academy student project, it'd get an F.

****WARNING: There may be spoilers ahead!**** This is a Polonia movie and I think most people go into these flicks not thinking quality. That is the case with this movie and I can forgive that when it comes to no-budget flicks. There are, however, a few cardinal rules I have that filmmakers NEED to follow when attempting to make a movie at any budget. 1. Don't be boring. Boring usually happens when there is an over reliant on padding. Padding usually means that the producers are putting stuff in to make the movie longer. There is padding in this flick. A lot of people cautiously walking around looking for victims and the monster/dinosaur. I guess stealth is needed as this large t-rex/raptor (could never tell as the scale kept changing) had the keen ability to creep up behind people and eat them without them ever knowing. Well, until it was too late. Another source of padding is expositional dialog. Talking heads presenting (usually setting up) key parts of the story. This leads us to rule 2. 2. Show, don't tell. If the characters in the flick are talking about key plot points or character traits then it might be a good idea to take that dialog, throw it out, and write up a few scenes showing the plot point or personality trait. Case in point, the bank robbery scene. When the "real" guns are brought out and passed around there is an argument about using real guns. It plays out like a married couple arguing and is no fun to watch. Especially since the actors aren't top actors. Then it plays out like a poorly acted scene. I think I would have had the lead actor mutter, under his breath, something like, "real guns. I hate real guns. People end up getting hurt." He then could have turned to the provider of guns and said, "you shoot somebody then I'll shoot you." To me this is more interesting and suggests the lead has a bit of a past. Of course this should have been worked out when they were writing this story. If these two rules are followed I generally will find the movie to be entertaining despite the budget or technical limitations. The flick then becomes one of those "so bad it's good" style flicks.

Saw 'Jurassic Prey' as part of my low-budget completest quest when it popped up by chance in the recommended for you section. Part of me was oddly intrigued by the premise, despite it being absolutely ridiculous and there are instances of fun dinosaurs on the rampage films (naming them would be unfair). Was not expecting much from 'Jurassic Prey' to be perfectly honest at the same time. The cover/poster looked cheap, it had a low rating and the reviews were less than promising. So in all honesty was expecting something terrible. Seeing 'Jurassic Prey' with an open mind and fairness intended, it turned out to be irredeemably awful and deserving of every bad thing that has been said about it. Just for the record, am somebody who hates being critical believe it or not and is more often than not encouraging and aims to be balanced and tries to evaluate rather than completely gushing or bashing, so will always severely object to being called an armchair critic/expert that is thrown around a lot immaturely. From start to finish, the limited budget shows in particularly the not always very well organised editing and the abysmal look of the dinosaur. The camera work is similarly disorganised and drab. The dinosaur looks awful and has no personality or menace, essentially being unintentionally goofy and lumbering randomly in scenes that are messily executed, tension-free and with no urgency. Nothing memorable about the music. The human characters are underwritten and have little development or endearing personality with so many silly and less than logical behaviours and decisions (a bugbear of mine and have found myself using it a fair bit recently). None of the actors look comfortable in their roles and don't seem to be having fun at all. Also found too much of the dialogue on the wrong side of dumb and cheesy, complete with some soapy moments, and that it didn't flow very well. The film had an interesting premise with far too over-familiar execution that has nothing new. The lack of imagination and suspense also hurts the film, too much evokes cringing and the thrills and fun are non-existent. It's all very contrived, truly ridiculous, paper thin and often not easy to follow. The direction felt like they were not in control of the material and not at ease with the genre. Overall, awful and with no redeeming features. 1/10 Bethany Cox

OK, this review is based on the 25 minutes of pure boredom that I suffered through when I sat down to watch "Jurassic Prey", and I just had to give up after that, because I had completely lost the will to witness a single minute more of the nonsense that was "Jurassic Prey". First of all, there was nothing that even remotely resembled a cohesive storyline. The movie is about a group of people who rob a bank, albeit you don't see this incident at all, as I guess the budget didn't allow for that. But wait, then there is a most horribly fake dinosaur stalking around in the area as well. A dinosaur? It just makes no sense what so ever. The acting in "Jurassic Prey" was as to be expected from a movie such as this. And actually within the first 5 minutes of the movie, it is already established what kind of acting experience you will be in for. Just watch the scene with the two men wearing shades and the naked guy in the theater, enough said. The acting was wooden and questionable at best. Then lets move on to the dinosaur. Correction, guy in an awfully fake and laughable rubber bodysuit. That dinosaur was so poorly made and so fake that even a blind man would go "for real?" It was so poor that it actually had me laughing hard every time I saw it. And it made absolutely no sense whatsoever that a dinosaur was walking around and just randomly eating people as it sneaked up on them. Yeah, a dinosaur skilled in stealth, it was just that epic! And to add insult to injury, then the scenes where the dinosaur tears into and eats people was just as fake as the dinosaur suit itself. Actually it is so poor that it is worth to see. And did no one edit this movie or even have half a mind to think that if you have guys with shades, then let's at least put in an effort to have the film crew not be reflected in the lenses of the shades? It was just such an amateurish mistake to make. And it happened more than once during the 25 minutes I managed to suffer through. It is rare that I give up on a movie, but it does happen every now and then when I sit down to watch a movie which is actually unbearable to watch. And "Jurassic Prey" was one such movie. And I can with all honesty say that I am not even going to bother with giving this movie a second chance. I have seen enough in the first 25 minutes to last me a lifetime. "Jurassic Prey" scores a bottom-scraping one out of ten stars rating.

I can understand the camera quality. But the CGI? I swear there was stop motion. It was hard to understand. What was with the police with the human dogs? Bad camera shots, bad acting. Not to mention how it was sexist. Also, why would the lady who was robbed become a bad guy? The film made no sense.