Review of Carnosaur 3: Primal Species

Monster fans might get some minor excitement over the third and final entry in producer, Roger Corman's Jurassic Park parody/rip-off about carnivorous dinosaurs (hence the title) munching on military macho types while scientists pursue their agendas for the hungry reptiles used as unstoppable biological weapons. Its a premise that worked well on a modest budget with laughable creature effects and plenty of gore for the first couple of films, but now it seems that all of the originality and ambition has been exhausted in a final attempt to cash in on a sequel-happy studio franchise. Rubbery-looking monsters, nonstop "Warsploitation" clichés, and amateurish performances are just a few reminders that the 1990's direct-to-video craze has been long swept under the carpet resulting in many rare out-of-print digital copies making their way across the Internet. The 'Carnosaur' trilogy is one of those long forgotten series of films that fall into that category. Its too bad that the series ended on a ridiculous note such as this. Billed as 'Primal Species', this is so predictable and washed-out that it doesn't even really matter if Scott Valentine's "war face" is hilarious, or if watching moronic cops and brainless bad guys getting chewed up by what looks like a toy T-Rex you had as a child is your thing. The direction is incompetent, and the editing is a disaster. The monsters get very little screen-time as the camera clumsily fumbles around the action, and minimal bloodshed and gore give this last installment an unsatisfactory grade. Its laughable at best.