Anonymous Rex

Based on Casual Rex, one of a series of lighthearted fantasy novels by Eric Garcia, the made-for-cable Anonymous Rex would have us believe that not all dinosaurs were rendered exinct 65 million years ago. The survivors dinos had gone into hiding, gradually re-emerging in human form courtesy of a special holographic process. In fact, one out of every ten thousand "humans" is actually a well-assimilated dinosaur, and among these are a pair of private eyes: Ernie Watson (Daniel Baldwin) and Vincent Rubio (Sam Trammell), respectively a raptor and a triceratops. Hired to investigate the "accidental" death of the son of one of Ernie's old girlfriends, the two lizardy gumshoes stumble upon a cult called the Voice of Progress, comprised of fanatical dinosaurs who want to wipe out all humans and take over the world. Things take a serious turn when one of the two detectives is killed, and Ernie's daughter Gabrielle (Stephanie Nicole Lemelin) is kidnapped. Although the special effects are nothing to write home about, the film scores with its wry, knowing humor, likening the plight of the disguised dinos to those people in real life who must "pass" as something they're not (there's even a scene at a nocturnal dino club which looks more like a reptilian gay bar). Anonymous Rex debuted December 4, 2004 on the Sci-Fi Channel.