thanasis-milios I've been a huge dinosaur nut ever since I was 3 years old. Possibly even before that, but my memory of being one goes back to when I was 3 (Yes, I actually remember this) and I saw my very first look at a dinosaur – a rubber (and I've since been told a very annoyingly squeaky) toy Triceratops. My parents bought it for me and from that moment on, my life's biggest passion was born – Dinosaurs. Growing up (and still to this day), I have to see anything that has dinosaurs in it, no matter how good or bad. As a kid, that wasn't really a problem – until 1993 when my 8-year-old eyes befell a little VHS tape on the video store shelf called Carnosaur. The dinosaur on the cover looked just awesome (again, at the time and to my kid eyes), as I had never before seen a live-action dinosaur beyond old black and white movies (side note: When I saw Jurassic Park for the first time later that very same year, it blew my little mind). I looked at the pictures on the back of the box and instantly knew I just had to see this movie. However, when I went to go bring it to my parents to rent it for me, they had forbidden it because it had the dreaded R Rating that has a long and evil history of stopping many young kids in their tracks. Now, to my young mind, I couldn't understand why a dinosaur movie - something I had thought was a topic that was always kid-friendly - was R Rated. Over the years, I kept seeing not only Carnosaur but it's growing number of sequels – first Carnosaur 2 and then Carnosaur 3: Primal Species, always checking out the pictures on the back and thinking how awesome these movies must be. Then in 2001, once I entered Grade 10 in High School and I was able to go out and rent what I wanted, the next time I saw the Carnosaur VHS tape sitting in that video store, I snatched it up and watched it. And yes...it was bad. Very bad. Horrible. Dreadful even. And I loved every minute of it.

Michael_Elliott Carnosaur (1993) ** (out of 4) Diane Ladd plays a mad scientist who plans on returning the Earth back to the dinosaurs. She's created a special serum that will have women giving birth to the creatures and soon they will take over everything. CARNOSAUR was producer Roger Corman's attempt to cash-in on Steven Spielberg's JURASSIC PARK, which would be released later in the year. It's pretty funny that Corman was able to get this thing a theatrical release but sadly the movie doesn't live up to much because it's just a tad bit too mainstream for its own good. Overall the film does manage to get a good feel of those 1950s monster movies where there's really not much of a story and instead of one we just get a monster running around killing people. This is actually one thing that works with the picture and I think another good thing is that the filmmakers never take the subject or story overly serious. This works for a number of reasons but the biggest is that star Ladd takes the material so serious that you can't help but be entertained by her maniac style performance. I liked the fact that she was so serious in the movie simply because it adds a level of entertainment that you wouldn't have had had the actress simply shown up to cash a check. Obviously the special effects weren't going to be on the level of the Spielberg film but for the most part I thought they were good. Yes, it's obvious these things aren't real but that really doesn't hurt the film as they're at least entertaining for what they are. I think what hurts the film is the fact that it's a tad bit too pretty for its own good. With the Spielberg movie being what it is, usually these rip-offs try to just be exploitation 101 and CARNOSAUR really doesn't reach that level. The usually seen nudity isn't anywhere to be found and the death scenes are pretty lifeless and uninteresting. A film like this really needed to deliver for its lack of effects and story but instead we're just given a watered down version of a horror movie.

Boba_Fett1138 Well, OK so this movie was bad but at least not in the way I expected it to be. I was expecting one big "Jurassic Park" ripoff but the movie really isn't being one. It's a movie that just also happens to feature a dinosaur in it but other than that, there are very little similarities between these both movies.But having said that, this still is a pretty bad movie to watch. The one thing that bugged me the most was that it didn't really seemed to have a main character in it. Instead the movie follows a whole bunch of different characters, that we just never really get to know and the movie keeps on introducing new characters, pretty much till half way through the movie. It also definitely prevents you from ever getting into this movie and it even makes the story somewhat confusing, though for these sort of the movies the stories of course aren't exactly the best written ones to begin with already and often are completely secondary to the movie.The best thing I can say about this movie is that it at least knows what it is and doesn't pretend to be anything good or clever. You can tell that most people simply had fun while making this movie and didn't took it very serious at all.Also I must say that I very much prefer the old fashioned special effects, complete with fake looking puppets and a guy in a suit, over some incredibly fake looking CGI effects, that you are likely to see in movies of this sort now days.Don't expect much gore or other great horror elements though. It's all pretty tame, especially by todays standards. It also really doesn't ever manage to create a good atmosphere and tension for the movie, though the movie itself is not all that bad looking, also especially when considering its budget.I honestly did not hated watching this movie and actually thought it was quite entertainment at parts and in some ways but I just can't rate it as a good movie though, since it does a lot of stuff so incredible bad!3/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

udar55 Roger Corman got the genius idea of going head-to-head with Spielberg's JURASSIC PARK the same summer and even cast Diane Ladd, the mother of PARK's Laura Dern. Sadly, the results aren't that good. Dr. Jane Tiptree (Ladd) has created some genetically modified eggs that house creatures made up of the blended DNA of various things including iguanas, ostriches, and chickens. It is all part of her plot to destroy mankind. Standing in her way are drunk night-watchman "Doc" Smith (Raphael Sbarge) and environmentalist Thrush (Jennifer Runyon). The only thing sadder than this movie is that I felt the need to watch it again nearly 20 years later to confirm, "Yeah, it still sucks." The film does have some bright spots in that the dinosaur attacks are gory and there are some funny Coca-Cola product placements. But the dinosaur effects are pretty bad and the script (adapting, but apparently not very well, a 1984 novel) is totally flat. Matching this flatness are woefully miscast Sbarge and the seemingly lifeless Ladd. Ladd, who probably only did 3 days max on this, has absolutely no pulse and delivers one of cinema's worst mad scientists EVER. The film holds the distinction of being the last Corman production to ever play in theaters, grossing $1.7 million over a period of six months or so. Corman did get two sequels out of it though, but I haven't seen them. I probably will now. :-(