MOVIE REVIEW : Ladd Gives Nourishment to an Anemic ‘Carnosaur’

Like mother, like daughter--well, sort of. While “Jurassic Park,” in which Laura Dern is one of its stars, heads toward becoming the box-office monster of all time, her mother Diane Ladd pops up in “Carnosaur,” which opened Friday (Hollywood Pacific) without benefit of press previews. The irony is that Ladd has a meatier--you should pardon the expression--part than Dern, but “Carnosaur,” as the latest release from “the lord of the low budget,” Roger Corman, isn’t nearly as much fun as it should be.

Its premise is promising, and Ladd herself is terrific. She’s cast as a geneticist who’s so grown to loathing all she has done in her career to despoil the planet that she’s determined to bring back dinosaurs to rule the Earth while exterminating the rotten human race. She’s sequestered in a Nevada desert lab and has come up with a successful scheme by which women will give birth to dinos, killing the mothers in the process. Obviously, humans will no longer be able to reproduce.

Ladd rightly plays her mad scientist absolutely straight, but unfortunately writer-director Adam Simon takes “Carnosaur” itself too seriously. A really successful exploitation monster movie supplies the requisite action and gore for thrill-seekers but spoofs itself in the process, providing plenty of dark humor. Simon and his resourceful special effects team do pretty well with the dinosaurs, considering the film’s modest $4-million budget, but the film’s story line lacks clarity and involvement. “Carnosaur” cries out for straight-ahead, hell-for-leather momentum and sheer outrageousness but is instead merely efficient.

Although not onscreen as much as we’d like, Ladd really is the whole show. Technically, “Carnosaur” (rated R for monster violence and language) looks good, and to its credit, it has a refreshingly cynical finish.

‘Carnosaur’ Diane Ladd: Dr. Jane Tiptree Raphael Sbarge: Doc Smith Jennifer Runyon: Thrush Harrison Page: Sheriff Clint Howard: Trucker

A Concorde-New Horizons presentation. Writer-director Adam Simon. Based on a novel by Harry Adam Knight and a treatment by John Brosnan-Knight is Brosnan’s nom de plume . Producer Mike Elliott. Executive producer Roger Corman. Cinematographer Keith Holland. Editor Richard Gentner. Costumes Kristin Burke. Music Nigel Holton. Production design Aaron Osborne. Visual effects supervisor Alan Lasky. Creature designer and creator John Carl Buechler, Magical Media Industries. Art director Jane Hoffman. Set decorator Victor Bazaz. Sound Paul Ratajczak. Running time: 1 hour, 21 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (for monster violence and language).