This is the third movie to bring parts of early 20th-century writer H.G. Wells' book The Island of Dr. Moreau to the screen. Earlier versions (1933, 1977) adhered more closely to the story than this one does. Douglas (David Thewlis) is a U.N. peace negotiator who is stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean by an airplane crash. He is picked out of the water by Montgomery (Val Kilmer), Dr. Moreau's assistant, and taken to a tropical island. He is at first prevented from straying much beyond the doctor's house and is befriended by Dr. Moreau's daughter (Fairuza Balk). Gradually he discovers that Dr. Moreau (Marlon Brando) has been mixing human and animal genes to create chimeras intended to serve the human race as slaves. The chimeras are not content to serve, however, and the situation unravels from there. One of the film's many lowlights is Ron Perlman as Sayer of the Law in a send-up of Charleton Heston's Moses. Brando and Balk manage to give interesting performances, but for the most part the film is a tedious and unpleasant exercise overwhelmed by garish make-up and animal costuming.