Jurassic Park III (2001)

A dinosaur swallows a satellite phone in Jurassic Park III, and every time it stomps toward the cast you can hear the ringtone coming from its belly. That’s the movie in one sound: a fun gag the script treats like a plan. At 92 minutes it’s the shortest trip to the islands, and it plays like the middle episode of a story nobody finished writing. Sam Neill does his best grumpy professor. William H. Macy brings nice, nervous dad energy, while the script gives Téa Leoni almost nothing to do but scream. The Spinosaurus beats a T. rex early, a gutsy move the rest of the movie can’t back up. The foggy aviary, with pterosaurs swooping around a rickety bridge, is the one stretch that feels like the real deal. The ending arrives so fast you’ll check whether your stream skipped. Critics landed at 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 4.3 because the creatures look great and nobody brought a story. $152 says you hear a phone ring in another room tonight and wait a beat before answering.

What works: The pterosaur aviary sequence is genuinely tense, and Sam Neill is as reliably grumpy as ever.

What doesn’t: There’s barely a story, the characters mostly scream and run, and the ending shows up out of nowhere.

Who it’s for: Dinosaur fans who just want to see new dinosaurs and don’t mind skipping the plot.