Tom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller star in this monster movie directed by Peter Hyams, and for the most part it’s pretty good.
I remember seeing this when it was first out on video, and whilst it’s still a decent way to kill a couple of hours, it’s impact has weakened in the intervening years.
Miller plays a doctor at Chicago’s Natural History Museum, who discovers something horrifying has escaped from a crate delivered to the museum by a colleague who has mysteriously disappeared during an expedition.
The film’s setting allows for all manner of creepy set pieces and the gore and creature effects by Stan Winston are still cool, but it’s a little too samey.
The cast are all good especially Miller and Linda Hunt who fans of ‘Kindergarten Cop’ will no doubt enjoy seeing together again, but it’s not as good as you probably thought it was when you were 15.
Some of the visual effects look terrible now, especially the sequence where the soldiers attempt to abseil into the museum, but it’s a decent enough creature feature.
A dark atmosphere, cool setting and decent score by John Debney all work in it’s favour, but it has not aged as well as some other similar themed movies.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Younger viewers might be a little bit scared and will certainly be entertained but it has managed to lose much of it’s appeal in the years since it’s release.
