Simply Perfect

Purely Joyful Movie!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Simply put, "Chased by Dinosaurs" (hereafter CBD) is a mind-boggling, wondrous pseudo-documentary about dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. CBD works not just because we encounter well-rendered spectacular creatures like the gargantuan 100-ton sauropod Argentinosaurus, or the mega-crocodilian Sarcosuchus, or the genuinely freakish herbivorous theropod Therizinosaurus - renditions every bit the equal of the BBC "Walking..." series. CBD succeeds because our Australian host, the appealingly ebullient zoologist/adventurer Nigel Marvin brings an unforced natural realism to the proceedings. Unlike his late, animated compatriot, the "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, Nigel treats his fantastic adventures matter-of-factly like any other wildlife documentary, with awe, yes, but also with cooler professionalism and authority (no knock against Mr Irwin, of course). He employs known and tested wildlife capture and observation techniques (i.e. those he would use on modern animals) on prehistoric beasts as well. For example, he puts a sock over the head of a bipedal ostrich-like ornithiscian Mononykus to calm it down and examine it. For the most part, however, Nigel is not there to trap any beasts, as he did in "Prehistoric Park". He is there just to observe and give his audience detailed and amazing information about the animals.More tellingly, Nigel does not pretend to have all the answers. In "The Giant Claw" episode, set in Mongolia and China, Nigel discovers 3-foot, wickedly curved claws that would put Wolverine to shame and thinks he is on the trail of a carnivorous dinosaur even more fearsome than T-Rex. When he finally catches up to his quarry, called Therizinosaurus, he realizes that his hypothesis does not quite match up. This illustrates the scientific guesswork and trial-and-error involved in paleontological studies of long-gone animals and how our perspective of them constantly shifts as we learn more about them.After witnessing fantastic dinosaurs and crocodiles, what do you do for an encore? Well, Nigel turns to the ocean to try to determine the seven deadliest ocean creatures of all time. Oscillating back and forth through time from the Devonian era to the Oligocene era (I think), Nigel finds and rates truly fabulous water freaks, such as the killer-whale sized fish Dunkleosteus (with bear trap jaw), the ancient sea-serpent-like giant whale Basilosaurus, and a 20-foot spiral-shelled crab-like arthropod Orthocone. Some of his choices are unexpected; Nigel finds an ornery two-horned Arsinoetherium, which looks like a rhino, is semi-aquatic like a hippo, but is actually distantly related to the elephant. Again, Nigel employs modern equipment and traps to lure the sea beasts for their close-up. Despite the seriousness of his quests, Nigel is not afraid to show his comic side. CBD frequently shows him narrowly escaping being bitten or gored. In particular, during the Megalodon (a sperm-whale sized shark related to the great white) sequence, when he initially fails to attach an underwater camera to its dorsal fin from a boat, he gets exasperated and calls one of the crew members who caused him to miss "an idiot" (he apologizes afterwards). But generally, Nigel gets along with the people who aid his dangerous quests. With their help, Nigel finally does get to the deadliest sea creature. I won't reveal what it is, but it lives in what Nigel calls "Hell's Aquarium" and is certainly a sight to see. As in the "Walking..." series and "Prehistoric Park", CBD has its cliffhangers and morbid humor, especially at the very end of "Chased by Sea Monsters".In addition to Nigel's romps, CBD has two more conventional paleontology episodes; the first one concerns the discovery in Argentina of the (to date) world's largest herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs (Argentinosaurus and Giganotosaurus). The second one explores the hypothesis by paleontologist Phillip Currie that carnivorous dinosaurs like Albertosaurus and T-rex were not solitary hunters, but formed cooperative packs.In conclusion, if you are a paleontology, wildlife, dinosaur, prehistoric beast, or Nigel fan, give yourself a treat and watch CBD. Both your emotions and your brain will thank you.

After three ground-breaking programmes that utterly redefined television documentary making, along came this mess of a show. Clearly the objective was to build upon the populist daring of the likes of the late Steve Irwin. Only one problem though: Irwin had charisma, this guy has none. And I mean none. Even the mosquitoes steal some scenes.But, I hear you saying, haven't the dinosaurs got even better? Sadly no. If anything they're actually reduced to a walk on role in long shot or "chasing" the host. I estimate 70% of screen time has Nigel mumbling something either uninteresting or unfunny or warning us about what could happen when the dinosaurs do turn up. Trying to "scare" us in other words. He doesn't need to try. This show IS scary, but for the wrong reasons. It's contrived and boring and an embarrassment to all involved. Don't even bother trying YOUTUBE. Save your money and download limit.

SPOILERSTim Haines and Jasper James, creators of Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts team up yet again to deliver more prehistoric action. Up until now, all "Walking with" programmes were shot with no people except the narrator. But now a there's a presenter in there interacting with and reacting to the dinosaurs. In these three adventures, animal-enthusiast Nigel Marven travels back to several different points in prehistory. In "The Giant Claw" Nigel visits Late Cretacous Mongolia to find a therizinosaurus, a dinosaur with a claw over two-feet long! In "Land of Giants", he visits South America in the Early Cretacous to watch the biggest meat-eating dinosaur bring down the biggest plant-eating dinosaur! And in the "Sea Monsters" trilogy, Nigel visits seven prehistoric seas, each one deadlier than the last. Along the way he has a lot of memorable - and terrifying! - experiences: running through a nesting-site, waving a red flag like a matador; flying with a flock of pteranodons or riding on the back of a giant archelon turtle. He also meets a collection of nasty and bizarre creatures such as scorpions the size of dogs, dinosaurs with feathers, giganotosaurs ( predatory dinosaurs larger than T-rex ) and megalodon a shark that makes the modern great-white look like a goldfish! The creators put a lot of hard work into this, but the person who worked the hardest was Nigel. He needed to have us believe that he was actually there among dinosaurs. He can certainly put on a frightened face when someone else looks upon him as lunch and a convincing grin when he sees something astounding. He has been up close in personal with nature today so he certainly knows what he's doing. The BBC has come a long way since Walking with Dinosaurs and I hope a lot of people know and appreciate that.

Spoilers within!!!I grew up loving Dinosaurs. I love this show. Instead of it being an Indiana Jones adventure its more like the Crocodile Hunter. There's great attention to detail and to science. There's also a lot of humor and well thought out interaction. The film work is marvelous. The special effects are second only to major film work I loved it.BBC did an incredible job of making this a believable documentary. The DVD is broken into a number of smaller episdes, each exploring another aspect of the ancient world. Again, the research was well done.SPOILERI loved Nigels interaction and misadventures with animals, particularly when the Megladon almost ate him and he chewed out his staff for their gaffes!Great great show, wish they'd make more!