It’s a universal truth that we need more dinosaur movies. What’s not to love about seeing once-extinct raptors run headfirst stainless-steel kitchen cabinets, or even watching a harmless assistant get swallowed whole by a Mosasaurus? The Jurassic franchise has had a monopoly on prehistoric creatures for the last few decades, and while there are few complaints about the series that gave us a dinosaur-filled park, a prehistoric island and eventually an entire world of horned, winged and razor-toothed creatures, it’s good to seeThe End of Oak Street stomping into cinemas with an all-new and incredibly entertaining take on dino mayhem.
Nonetheless, we’ve been mining not for amber, but for a whole bunch of dino movies that deserve to be seen. Take a look below:
The Valley Of Gwangi (1969)
Director: Jim O’Connolly | Runtime: 1hrs 36m | Streaming on: Sky
Starring: James Franciscus, Gila Golan, Richard Carlson, Laurence Naismith
A lesser cited but absolute must-see entry in the DCU (that’s Dinosaur Cinematic Universe, obvs), Jim O’Connolly’s 1969 B-movie The Valley Of Gwangi is, in a word, nuts. Boasting incredible special effects courtesy of the legendary stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen and a nutty western-meets-sci-fi-creature-feature premise, O’Connolly’s film — about a band of cowboys who nab an allosaurus from a hidden Mexican valley for their travelling rodeo show (naturally) — truly has to be seen to be believed. It’s got very small horses. It’s got very big dinosaurs. It’s got pteranodons, ornithomimuses, and even a bad-ass styracosaurus. And while it may essentially be a slightly-less-good, slightly-more-nonsensical Western riff on King Kong, its back-half is a wonderful Harryhausen showcase with plenty there to fuel fossil heads. It certainly works for me, anyway! JK
King Kong (2005)
Director: Peter Jackson | Runtime: 3hrs 21m | Streaming on: Prime
Starring: Jack Black, Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Kyle Chandler
What do you do with your blank cheque after shepherding a billion-dollar fantasy franchise to Oscar glory? You make your passion project of course. In Peter Jackson’s case, that meant remaking 1933’s King Kong and, in doing so, going bigger than the ape himself. Where other dino movies rack up the tension, Jackson uses his Lord Of The Rings clout to go all-in on spectacle. No expense is spared getting the primates of Skull Island on screen, from its bananas dino stampede, to a rock-’em-sock-’em showdown between Kong and a V-rex (it stands for “Vastatosaurus”), and even a nightmare-inducing sequence involving prehistoric creepy crawlies. Confidently riffing on the lost-world adventure serials of the 1920s and ’30s (only with 200 times the budget), Jackson also lands two note-perfect performances from Jack Black and Naomi Watts. His epic is worth the price of admission and then some. HS
65 (2023)
Director: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods | Runtime: 1hrs 32m | Streaming on: Prime
Starring: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt
It got slightly sniffy reviews on release, but 65 is a fun and fast dinosaur B-movie that deserves a bit more love. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods – the minds behind A Quiet Place – came up with a great, hooky premise for a different kind of dino flick: Adam Driver is a futuristic astronaut who crash-lands on a planet, stranded alongside little kid Koa (Ariana Greenblatt, later seen in Barbie and Ahsoka). Except, said planet turns out to be prehistoric Earth, seeing the pair battle for survival among dinosaurs and an everything-wants-to-kill-you environment. The dino thrills are solidly delivered, Driver brings some welcome intensity, and the final act has a bonkers – and spoiler-y, so we won’t ruin it – race-against-time element that is both deeply silly and incredibly fun. It doesn’t quite knock it out of the (Jurassic) park, but 65 is a big swing, and doesn’t outstay its welcome at 93 minutes. BT
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Finished with our list of three great Dino movies? Why not check out our guides to the best movies on Netflix and what to watch on Apple TV? Or, for those with an even bigger appetite, our lists of the 100 best movies and 100 best TV shows ever made have got you covered.
