Komodo: [DVD] by Jill Hennessy

I think they're contesting our place in the food chain, quips an Imperilled teen at an especially low moment of Komodo, a regulation trapped-with-monsters straight-to-video quickie. There was a millennial blip of such nature-on-the-rampage horrors in the year 2000 and Komodo settles comfortably onto the shelf with King Cobra, Blood Surf, They Nest, Crocodile, Spiders and Octopus. If you've seen all of them, you'll probably want to see this too--but don't say we didn't warn you. Komodo familiarly packs a few no-name actors to an island supposedly off the shore of Carolina (actually somewhere in Australasia and has them menaced by CGI creatures, then fighting back and beating the beasts. Though the title gives away the nature of the menace, ex-effects technician-turned-director Michael Lantieri keeps the monsters off-screen and purportedly mysterious for half the running time. Teenage Patrick (Kevin Zegers) is traumatised by the deaths of parents (and his dog) and retreats into an amnesiac fugue, but his psychiatrist Victoria (Jill Hennessy) brings him back to the site of the tragedy to stir his memories. It turns out that the local evil oil company has always known that a bunch of giant, flesh-eating lizards were on the loose but kept quiet about it for nebulously nefarious purposes. Oates (Billy Burke), a rebellious company minion, hooks up with Patrick (who shows unexpected resourcefulness in whipping up lizard traps) and the shrink and they have a last-reel confrontation with the monsters that allow for some very distant echoes of Jurassic Park. The CGI and model work is seamless but the monsters have too little personality and, despite their voracious appetites, require all manner of contrivances to bring their victims within snapping distance. Nice bit at the end though with a gory if not dramatic finale. --Kim Newman