Florida and theme parks seem to be inseparable. My first was to be Universal Studios, I'm not really into the white-knuckle rides so I thought I'd ease into the theme park experience with a few shows.

     First up was the Beetle juice's Graveyard Revue.

     Next I opted for a couple of the back-stage style shows. Hercules and Xena: Wizards of the Screen gives a glimpse of the special effects, (model, digital, sound), that are put into a show. Here we had around a dozen people from the audience helping out at various times on the three stages. And Centaurs, you rock!

     The Gruesome Gory Horror Make-Up Show used props, clips and gags to impart some of the knowledge of fun with latex rubber. Only one person from the audience assisted here. For us it was a Japanese girl who spoke no English, so the presenters had fun there.

     I only fancied a few of the rides and here are my thoughts. The King Kong attraction is a clever ghost-train with bumps, lights and shadow to good effect. Jaws was similar with the explosions and the big-fish, memorable as the site of the wedding at the end of the film 'Mall Rats'. Better was Twister, in this film, wind, water and movement gave a pretty good thrill.

     But best was the Terminator attraction, while waiting to go in they ran fake Cyberdyne public information films. In the main cinema we had both models and actors interacting with the spectacular 3-D film, (in what felt to be Cinemascope), together with bumps, water and smoke to give an impressive show.

     I have no idea what that must have cost to produce. Perfect sets and performances from Linda Hamilton and Arnie himself taking us from Cyberdyne of the present to the Skynet of the future. This defined the day for me.

Reviewed by Cardinal Cox.