Jurassic Park III has dinosaurs to burn. Literally.

        Big, little, smart, flying — all rendered to seem as realistic as the dog sleeping on your couch right now.

        The movie also has a small crowd of clueless humans who strand themselves on the famous dino island near Costa Rica where, clearly, people shouldn't go.

JURASSIC PARK III

2 1/2 stars    (PG-13; intense sci-fi terror, violence) Sam Neill, Tea Leoni, William H. Macy. Directed by Joe Johnston. National Amusements, Danbarry Middletown, Midway Bethel

        There is one smart man among them, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), returning from the 1993 original; he skipped part two, The Lost World. Laura Dern is back, too, but only for a few minutes.

        Dr. Grant is bright enough to declare that no power on Earth could get him back to the dinosaur grounds. Yet his intelligence deserts him when Paul Kirby (William H. Macy) and his wife Amanda (Tea Leoni) show up flashing a checkbook and talking about how, to cap their lives of glamorous adventure, they need Grant to guide them on a fly-over of the infamous island.

        Grant's brain is so badly warped by this exposure that he doesn't even wait for the check to clear. Next thing he knows, he's running from rampaging raptors alongside a couple who turn out to be non-wealthy, non-glamorous parents looking for their little boy, lost on the island in a hang-gliding incident.

        Perhaps this plot strikes you as tortuous and contrived.

        It is, and we haven't even gotten to the part about the talking raptors who organize a kidnap-rescue mission to retrieve two stolen eggs.

        We all know what happens, don't we? This is the second sequel; the pattern is set in stone. Silly people, foolish choices, hungry dinosaurs, running, screaming, escape. And a hint about the next sequel.

        While the technology used to create the critters keeps getting better, the movies don't. The plots get sillier — the JP III screenplay is credited to Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor — and in this case, the direction is noticeably less skilled.

        Joe Johnston (Jumanji) took over from Steven Spielberg, and it shows in many little ways, from the dull, underlit look of the film to the jittery music contributed by Don Davis.

        Luckily, the human performances are solid, particularly Mr. Neill and Mr. Macy, two actors incapable of phony work.

        Parents should note this film is more violent than the last two. Several people are eaten alive, grisly human remains pop up, we even see people digging through fresh dinosaur dung.

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