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Starring Val Kilmer, Michael Douglas.  In 1975, a young and hirsute Steven Spielburg created a film based on idea of a man eating shark that plagues an island resort and, well, eats men.Jaws was a phenomenal success to say the least. It spawned three sequels, a ride at Universal Studios, and made just about every American think twice about going swimming, even if it was only in Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, like Quentin Tarantino's films more recently, Jaws gave a lot of other filmmakers the idea that they could just put another animal in the place of Jaws' shark and have a well crafted and entertaining thriller. Piranha tried. Anaconda, gulp, tried. And I'm sure in the future we'll probably be seeing some movie called Chihuahua. Although The Ghost and the Darkness' plot could be summed up as Jaws with lions, it doesn't fall in this animal horror trap. Writer William Goldman and director Stephen Hopkins have obviously taken great pains to make the human actors, Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas, the focus of this films' story as opposed to taking the easy way out and letting the lion attacks steal the show. If you're looking for a well made movie that's slightly off the beaten path, The Ghost and the Darkness satisfies that billing. I'd be lion to you if I said this wasn't entertaining.
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According to the prologue, The Ghost and the Darkness is a true story about two lions whose attacks on railroad workers nearly caused the British to stop building their railroads in East Africa during the late 19th century. This isn't an earth shatteringly good film, but I enjoyed it because in today's era of hookers, drug deals gone sour, gang warfare, buddy cops, and people sitting in coffeeshops talking about life and sex, it was a breath of fresh air to see a big budget film set in Africa, examining the lives of pre-20th Century individuals. Instead of shots of urban despair and cars on cinder blocks, The Ghost and the Darkness offers panoramic views of the vast open African plains, with giraffes and antelopes darting passed. Even when I noticed some cinematic clichés--namely the lions' tufted tails sticking up above the tall grass rapidly drawing nearer with ominous music in the background, ala Jaws' shark fin--they didn't bother me as much as they normally might have because they hadn't been seen in such a setting before.