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Jurassic Park III

EMAILPRINTUniversal Pictures

Jurassic Park III reviews
42
6.5 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 30 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 93 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Sci-fi

Written by: Peter Buchman
Alexander Payne
Jim Taylor
Michael Crichton (characters)

Directed by: Joe Johnston

Release Date:
Theatrical: July 18, 2001
DVD: December 11, 2001

Running Time: 85 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for intense sci-fi terror and violence

Starring Sam Neill, Téa Leoni, William H. Macy, Michael Jeter, Laura Dern, and Alessandro Nivola

Continues the adventure that began with "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World."

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Not as awe-inspiring as the first film or as elaborate as the second, but in its own B-movie way, it's a nice little thrill machine.

70

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Fast and funny and brings back some of the wonder to the series.

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67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Definitely still beating a dead dinosaur here, but the film is leaner, more exciting and superior in every way to the last outing.

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63

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Anything, Steven, anything would be better than making us watch the same movie again.

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63

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Another of many recent Hollywood plotless wonders.

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63

Boston Globe Jay Carr

What makes it worth sitting through is the chance it offers to catch up on the technical advances since the last installment.

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63

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Despite all its talk of genetic engineering and its deliberately stupid characters, the unintended message of Jurassic Park III is that when it comes to art and entertainment, you can't beat human DNA.

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60

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The sheer physical presence of these creatures is much more believable and convincing than what can be generously characterized as the film's plot.

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60

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Isn't terribly frightening or gory, and at times it's even atmospheric. It also has a sense of humor, and the digs at the prequels hit pay dirt.

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60

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

The ending is so absurd, in fact, that it feels like it was improvised by a committee of 6-year-olds. If the raptors truly were intelligent, they'd have eaten the final reel.

50

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The whole enterprise sags and wheezes like the tired, we're-in-this-strictly-for-the-money sequel it really is.

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50

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

This is a monster movie -- 92 minutes, lots of action, lots of green legs stomping, get in, get out.

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50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The screenplay is so stale that even fans of the previous "Jurassic" installments might think this is one clone too many.

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50

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

At its best, Jurassic Park III is eerily similar to some of the more recent dinosaur-themed video games on the market.

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50

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Has no pretentions to be anything more than a goose-bumpy fantasy theme-park ride for kids, but it's such a routine ride.

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50

TV Guide Ken Fox

While kids of all ages will want to see it, the movie is loud and occasionally brutal, and while the body count is relatively low, it's still pretty scary stuff.

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42

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Maybe if you're younger than 10 you'll be scared or thrilled by this film. Otherwise, be prepared for one of the most unexciting pictures this summer.

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40

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

More of the same -- only less so.

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40

Wall Street Journal Ed Epstein

Exemplifies Hollywood's standard practice of stomping a brilliant concept beyond recognition.

40

New York Magazine John Leonard

With Joe Johnston directing instead of Spielberg, who executive-produces, and a scrum of screenwriters, none named Crichton, the franchise suffers some negligence.

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40

Washington Post Rita Kempley

The story's tired, as are the main characters.

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40

The New York Times A.O. Scott

All it wants to do is scare a smile onto your face, and it often succeeds. After all, how can a movie that offers Michael Jeter as a mercenary not be fun?

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40

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

When a cell-phone gag is the most exciting or inventive thing in a big summer dinosaur movie, you have to wonder if the species might not be ready for extinction.

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38

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Has to be the sorriest excuse for a reprise since "Highlander — The Final Dimension."

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38

USA Today Mike Clark

Even the special effects alone aren't worth the price of admission.

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30

Variety Derek Elley

Game ride that makes the two previous installments look like models of classic filmmaking.

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25

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

The "Jurassic Park" movie franchise does not evolve. Quite the opposite: It degenerates at great speed.

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20

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Drama is minimal and character nonexistent.

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20

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Stinks worse than dino dung. Sure, the creatures look good.

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20

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A serious been-there-done-that number.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 93 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

bob poo gave it a0:
JURASSIC PARK 3 IS RUBBISH!! I am a huge jurassic park fan and love the first 2 films which were both brilliant and i was very excited when i heard there would be a 3rd but how disapointed i was. jp3 was a disgrace to the whole franchise. Firstly, the biggest problem from the start was that Steven Spielberg didnt direct it. Instead the job was given to Joe Johnson, only because he had been pestering Spielberg for the job of directing the lost world. Because of this poor choice of director, jp3 contained stupid humor such as the cell phone. Johnson has directed films such as jumanji and honey i shrunk the kids which are just the sort of films which also include his annoying "humour". Aside from that, other bad points about the film are the lack of people and consequently, the lack of deaths. They were the best bits of the first 2 (Donnald Genaro's and Eddie Carr's to name my favourites) Also most of the chacters just annoyed me (apart from Grant) The plot was terrible there was no imagination to it, and wat was that all about at the end?! The raptors corner them for stealing their eggs but are then confused and run off because of the raptor calls. To make the end even worse the survivors just so happen to walk in to the army on the exact same bit of beach who have also just so happened to have found Billy as well. Them "finding" Billy was to similar to how Ian was later found in the first film. Note that in jp1, Robert and Ellie had a reason to be searching for survivors were he was, but the whole jp3 ending feels rushed. The final nail in the jp coffin is that the main dinosaur was the spinosaurus after a cheesy fight with the t rex. The worst part of the whole film was that stupid cell phone ringing inside the spinosaurus. When Eric hugs his parents through the fence we can hear the jingle so pesumably the spino is just standing there watching them for even longer than it does when they notice it. It seems they couldnt get anything right with this film. Even the toys were the the wrong scale for the previous 1s and most even the wrong scale for others in their own series. Terrible film and a Terrible disapiontment. I can only hope that a Jurassic Park 4 is made that will live up to the first 2 and redeam the franchise.

Kanako J gave it a1:
The worst movie I have seen for quite some time. Good effects, but awful plotting and scripting. And I mean really, really awful. Oh dear.

Izaak V gave it a10:
I love this movie. The mere fact that they brought it out just for more 'jurassic park action' is good enough for me.

Tom M. gave it an8:
Surprisingly, not nearly as bad as Spielberg's second outing. The dino updates and additions and beautiful CGI make this film, but the acting isn't half bad either (if you keep your sense of humor). At least they don't end up in the mainland again.

Hosie W gave it a10:
Hey Bob Y What's wrong wit you ?Stupid or somtin?what would you do if you were stranded on that Island and it was for real? Go hide under a bush? Or try{using your 2 legs and Brain{if you have one} to get off the island before you get eaten! And I also agree with Jeremy H. IT won't be the same without SAM NEILL! But Steven will probably screw it up by not casting Sam in JP4.

Destiny W. gave it a10:
i am the biggest dinosaur fan in the world. the movie was great. the new dino spinisaurus was good. i would say it needed more dinosaurs more killing and the ending needs to be good and it can end in a fight. o yeah why do the people have to survive on an island full of meat eat, fast running, good swimming dinosaurs i just dont get it i would say nobody would make it for 2 min. i would though. ok the movie was good but not as good as the first 2 just know that. whatch it and rate it. the fourth one is coming out cant want to see that and it has my favorite actor in it i think it is going tobe good. do you i do. the effects in the movie were good the dinosaurs needed to be bigger and some of the actors were very good.

Jeremy H. gave it a3:
This movie is a tragic trilogy-maker. Let's hope Jurassic Park IV recovers. It need Sam Neill to exist, we all know that. It wouldn't be the same without him.

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