Hey Theodore Rex! If you're happy for this movie, and you know it. Clap your... oh. Never mind, because there is small amount of people that honestly like this movie. This movie wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. Still, it was just a little too ridiculous. I have to give the movie, some credit as it was trying to do something new with the Dinosaur concept. Too bad, it didn't establish its world that way. In an alternate futuristic a dark and edgy cyberpunk society, a tough female police detective, Katie Coltrane (Whoopi Goldberg) is paired with a talking dinosaur, Theodore Rex (Voiced by George Newbern) to find the killer of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals leading them to a mad scientist bent on creating a new Armageddon. Directed by Jonathan R. Betuel, the movie is badly delivered. It was supposed to capitalize on the 1990s Dinosaur craze that films like 1993's Jurassic Park & TV Shows, 1991's Dinosaurs help create. Sadly, it's fails due to a plot that is hard to understand with a complicated text prologue and horrible dialogue. The plot drags down to a slow pace due to a lot of filler scenes like the undercover clothes scene. BTW- he looks the same, undercover. Things are never explain like why the Dinosaurs have psychic powers or how anthropomorphic dinosaurs even came to this world. The film gets even weirder when clones and cyborgs are also in the film. The movie plot remind me of a mix between 1982's Blade Runner and 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, with similarities. I really think the movie too many concepts in the film. The confusion and sheer randomness of the on screen action is actually kind of impressive It feels like a mess. A little more exposition would be great to have here. Even if the plot was clear, the poor animatronics made it a hard watch. It uses the same technology as the Dinosaurs TV show had at the time. The only problem is that is a step-down. For a movie that was $33.5 million dollars to make; you would think that they would use their money, well, and give the actor that plays the title character, a better Dinosaur suit to wear. The lip movements don't even sync with the costume's movement. Most of the actors signed on thinking the dinosaur would be computer enhanced. The fundamental problem with this movie is that Theodore doesn't act like a T. Rex. He's too anthropomorphized to be taken serious. Theodore Rex is flat out annoying hypocrite of a creature. One minute, he's preaching the teachings of non-violence, and the next minute, he's threating to bite people's head off. They really can't make up, their mind. His running gag about being a "recovering carnivore" is just downright too preachy. Last is his bumbling behavior that remind me of Jars Jar Binks's level of hatred. It does wears thin after five minutes on screen. Most of the jokes revolve around him are just more misses than hits to the funny bone. For a buddy cop comedy, this movie jokes are just unfunny for the most part. Whoopi Goldberg is no help. Whoopi looks agitated and is trying to wing it with her performance but to no avail. Whoopi attempted to back out of the deal, but legal entanglements kept her on the production. The supporting cast is just as forgettable in their performance. I nearly forgot that Richard Roundtree and Bud Cort are in this film. It's funny in a way, that Molly Rex (Voiced by Carol Kane) is just Theodore Rex in drag. It's disturbing as hell, that they look the same. The production crew look like they just reused the same costume. Carol Kane sings in her dinosaur persona, but the songs are not that catchy. It's get weirder with the forced love-interest sub-plot. The pacing ruins it. It's weird that she wants to get with Theodore on the same day of her murder ex-husband funeral. Talk about moving on, too quickly. The editing is just crappy as they intercut sequences that has little to do with each other. Many of the camera shots were unoriginal. It even has the nerves to steal epic shots from 1982's E.T like the flying in front of a full moon shot. There is a lot of shaky cam and oddly done Dutch angles that makes little to no sense to have. Though originally intended for theatrical release, the film went direct-to-video, and consequently became the most expensive direct-to-video film ever made at the time of its release. The film can be compare to 1986's Howard the Duck in how kid friendly it is. It has a lot of sexual innuendos, and brutal action scenes. Sadly, none of them really add much to the entertaining value of this film. I really doubt this movie was made for kids in the first place. Overall: A lot of people might get confused with this to a notable biography of Theodore Roosevelt. It seem like the movie did influence a bit of 2004's Anonymous Rex, which is a book series that, coincidentally, is about a dinosaur detective solving crimes amongst humans as well. Just better written. If you want to check out, a film about crime solving dinosaurs, Anonymous Rex might be the better film to watch, over this. This movie sucks.
