Theatrical Review- Thor: Ragnorak

Date: Sunday, November 5th 2017
Location: Cinempolis in Roxbury Township, New Jersey
Time: 1:40 pm
Party: 3 (my mom, aunt and myself)

Director- Taika Waititi (his most significant credit is directing some episodes of Flight of the Conchords)
Writers- Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost
Composer- Mark Mothersbaugh (I think he was originally in an 80's band, but I know him best as the composer of the Rugrats music)

Cast:
Thor- Chris Hemsworth
Loki- Tom Hiddlestone
Odin- Anthony Hopkins
The Hulk/Bruce Banner- Mark Ruffalo
Hela, goddess of Death- Cate Blanchett
Heimdell- Idris Elba
Grandmaster- Jeff Goldblum
Valkyrie- Tessa Thompson
Skurge- Karl Urban
Doctor Strange- Bendict Cumberbatch

Write-up:

Opening Comments and Coming Attractions

Gotta start off in saying the amount of commercials was so annoying! It's bad enough we get them at home and now YouTube is making you sit through 2 ads for videos... as if they're trying to kill us inside until we crack and invest in a YouTube Red subscription. It was just overkill.
It was a good sized crowd, but we wound up being in a row where people kept having to get up and use the rest room or buy more popcorn. And they'd do it during action scenes- guys, if you're doing stuff you'd be doing while watching movies at home, maybe you should have waited for this movie come on DVD.  

This got glowing reviews, but I read a few that said that this movie is lighter in humor like "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Deadpool"... but that it also didn't take itself too seriously. The latter part of that is what helps the movie from becoming self-parody. And many of the jokes were funny. At times, there were maybe too many and some tried too hard, but most were genuinely laughable in the best way.

I don't think I'd seen any of the trailers before, but there were 6 of them. Which is a lot, plus all the other commercials, PLUS the ad for the Cinemapolis chain.

Jumanji- this goes way beyond the original version with Robin Williams and the Caldecott Award winning book (yeah, all these years later, I remember the Caldecott. That was a big deal- when a children's book would win every year for outstanding illustration). It stars Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson, but they are actually avatars in a video game. Four kids are playing this video game and they get sucked into the game and they're put inside these avatars that look completely different from them in real life. So it gives the actors a chance to act against type, which I find kinda interesting.
I don't know whether this movie is going to bomb or be hilarious, but it's an interesting prospect. It's kinda funny how all the avatars in the game have different strengths and weaknesses and apparently, Kevin Hart's weakness is cake and the trailer shows him eating cake and potentially exploding.

Downsizing- it stars Matt Damon and Jason Sudekis. The idea of downsizing is an irreversible procedure where people are "downsized" and get put into an made-up community for tiny people. Matt Damon and his wife were going to do it, but she (I think she was Kristen Wiig) calls him after he has the procedure done and says she can't go through with it.
Yeah, between Jumanji and this, and the next trailer, I had a hard time comprehending reality at this point. I believe the term, sorry for the profanity, is mindfuck.

The Disaster Artist-
apparently starring the Franco brothers, it's about this weird British actor who kinda reminds me of Russell Brand who doesn't get a role in a movie he fought for. And then he decides with his friends to make a movie. It was just a very off-beat sense of humor and weirded me out big time.
I don't think James Franco has done any movies I've really liked. And in the case of the Spider-Man movies, he wasn't the reason I liked that movie.

then we got to some really good ones...

The Last Jedi-
This was maybe the first full trailer I saw of this and of course we're excited for it. But there was so much going on that I couldn't process it all. What stood out was Luke saying how this isn't going to end how you think, Raye being in pain and maybe her and Kylo Ren joining forces.

The Justice League-
yeah, we're crossing the line to DC here, but this is a pretty big deal because a lot of people (myself included) never thought that this movie was going to happen. I mean, it's a tall order getting Batman and Superman in the same movie. But then again, they did that and it had mixed reviews despite all the money it made.
I think we might wind up seeing this one because it's the next big blockbuster to come out this year and it's coming soon.

Black Panther-
Not sure what to expect with this movie, but the character in Captain America: Civil War was really good.

The Main Event

Ragnorak is the Norse equivalent of “the end of days”- this is addressed at a couple points in the movie (in the beginning and the end to tie it all in a nice little bow). This isn’t quite a spoiler because it’s in the title and the way it comes about isn’t what you’d immediately expect. An interesting twist on Armageddon, I guess you could say.

After an obligatory opening battle scene set to music (Thor has a new theme song apparently and they kick ass together-- "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin- that song starts with the two "ah-ah-ah!" lines before actual lyrics), Thor and Loki locate Odin (who is M.I.A) with the help of a Doctor Strange cameo.
Interesting new touch on this- usually, the after-credits scenes are stand alone to tease about the next movie in the marvel story arc. The one from the end of Doctor Strange is the actual scene in this movie. Some might say Doctor Strange is just showing off with his teleportation powers, but it’s pretty funny what happens to Thor and Loki in these scenes.
Finally, they find Odin who is departing from existence (what’s with these superhero movie killing off Gods lately?) cuz it’s just “his time”. But his absence is quickly filled by Hela- the goddess of death and his firstborn. Cate Blanchett is in fine form and quite a bad ass in this role, which would be great if she wasn’t so evil and hard to kill. She actually knocks Thor and Loki out of the rainbow bridge on the way to Asgard- who does that?

Thor turns up on another planet where he is forced to fight in an arena. And if you saw any of the trailers, you know he’s up against the Hulk- who’s apparently got a following. Kinda nuts. Of course, it’s a great fight (at one point, Loki- who of course befriended Jeff Goldblum The Grandmaster in charge of all this- celebrates, bringing us back to one of the most memorable Avengers scenes) and how it ends was frustrating- putting it mildly and spoiler-free.
While we do meet some cool characters like the other gladiators and a former Valkyrie (who is in charge of Thor and has him in her power) this part of the movie where Thor plots his and the Hulk’s escape just takes too damn long. It’s bad enough Hela is unbeatable, but throw in another impossible scenario, hopelessness is exhausting.
Together with Loki, all four of them do manage to get away, but it’s an uphill battle. But along the way, we have killer chase and battle scenes and occasional comic relief with Thor and Loki. Gotta love Loki even if he is an opportunistic weasel. And Valkyrie is another bad ass chick. She’s been called this movie’s equivalent of Han Solo.

There’s also a couple of funny Hulk/Bruce Banner scenes, including one where he does his best Tony Stark impression. I mean, I’m kinda sick of Robert in that role cuz it’s not going to win him an Oscar, but that scene (I won’t elaborate) made me badly wish he was in this movie right now. But that’s mainly cuz I haven’t seen him in a while- nothing against this movie. It’s its own unique brand of fun through most of it. The rest- you can decide for yourself

Grade: B+

Summertime: Independence Day (1996)

Director: Roland Emmerich
Composer: David Arnold (damn his manipulative score!)

Notable Cast:
Captain Steven Hiller- Will Smith
President Whitmore- Bill Pullman
Jasmine- Vivica A. Fox
David- Jeff Goldblum
David's father- Judd Hirsch
Jimmy- Harry Connick, Jr.
Russell Casse- Randy Quaid
Defense Secretary- James Rebhorn (died in 2014)
President's daughter- Mae Whitman
Marty- Harvey Fierstein

Notable Awards and Nominations:
OSCAR- Best Visual Effects
nomination- OSCAR- Best Sound
Grammy- Best Instrumental Composition written for TV/Movie- David Arnold

Write-up:

Opening Remarks
It's hard to believe this movie turns 20 next year... makes me feel old :P
I remember when it first came out and what a huge blockbuster it was. I saw it on DVD a couple times, but don't think I really appreciated it until I got older and was able to understand more of the dialogue. Back then, the only thing I really got out of it was the epic presidential speech, the special effects and Will Smith being hilarious.

Oh those days when Will Smith was awesome...

I never thought this was the best movie in the world, but I wasn't aware it was considering "bad" in a lot of circles :P It's not super believable and thrives on special effects more than the things that really matter to a movie- a strong storyline and characters able to support it.

Unlike "Jaws," I don't mind so much seeing this year after year... but I do mind watching it when we have company over and they spend a good chunk of the movie talking about how this president is so much better than ours... that Obama never would have taken the offensive against the aliens, wouldn't have gotten directly involved with the final assault because he has no military experience, etc, etc.
I get that he isn't well liked among my family and their friends, but I don't need the political commentary every goddam time we watch this movie.

Although in truth, I only had to endure that commentary once or twice in the years we'd watched the movie.
I have my grievances with the Defense Secretary character, but beyond that, I just want to enjoy the movie- not relate it to real life and how our country has gone to hell over the past several years.
On that particular note, it's absolutely ridiculous how politically correct we've gotten lately so we don't offend every American.

Plot, Characters and Additional Commentary

Basic set-up: aliens are coming to Earth to annihilate the human race.

We have multiple storylines unfolding at once and like any good soap opera, all these characters come together in one way or another and contribute to the destruction of the aliens or helping out their fellow man.

The movie actually starts on July 2nd (54 minutes) and takes place between it, July 3rd (48 minutes) and July 4th (40 minutes).
Within the first day, Washington D.C., L.A. and New York are decimated.

Will Smith plays a pilot with aspirations to become an astronaut, but for whatever reason, NASA keeps rejecting him (can't imagine why... maybe he's too much of a maverick for their tastes?). He's on vacation, but upon this alien invasion, he gets called into work, leaving behind his stripper girlfriend (who he has yet to commit to) and her 5? year old son.
Not many people would find Jasmine's demeanor believable, but I commend her for it. In a later scene, she comes forward about her profession and says "it's good money... and my baby's worth it." There's such a stigma surrounding strippers and adult entertainers, so I personally find it refreshing that she owns up to it for these reasons.
[But maybe that's just me being biased because I'm currently writing about some characters who adult entertain for varying reasons].

Like I said before, these were the good old days when Will Smith was cool. I never watched "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and I got rid of his album after finding out I only liked 2 songs on it (the rest of was rap... excuse me for not knowing that in advance! We didn't have Internet back then).
But between "Independence Day" and "Men In Black," he was a huge star and one of the funniest actors on the planet... then he got serious with a bunch of dramatic films, dropped a few bombs (the latest being "After Earth," which nearly ruined his son, Jaden's, career... unfortunately not enough to ensure they stopped making "Karate Kid" movies... I still haven't gotten over the fact they did that remake, which out of love for the original, I am refusing to see EVER).

And the latest word is that Will Smith won't even be in the supposed sequel they've been planning for this movie... in that case, it's going to suck big time...
I enjoy a lot about Jeff Goldblum's performance in this movie, but that isn't enough to keep me engaged in this movie. Will Smith is responsible for so many laughs (many are real Laugh Out Loud moments) that keeps us going through the tragedy of it... and just might have made it bearable for a lot of people who find fault in the believability, the excessive special effects and the overbearing score.

Speaking of that score, it is freaking manipulative. When people die or we see destruction everywhere, it is so loud and overbearing that you are coerced into feeling depressed or devastated or (in the case of one death) cry your eyes out.

The Defense Secretary is played by the late James Rebhorn... not one of his finer moments. He annoyed me a bit in "My Cousin Vinny" because he was the expert witness that almost got the defendants thrown in jail for something they didn't do, but when Marisa Tomei's character gave her testimony, he conceded to her points and agreed he might have made a mistake.
He has no silver lining in this movie... except for admitting that Area 51 really exists. If not for that, the aliens would've won. Otherwise, though, he's practically gutless, insisting on taking the easy way out rather than reassuring that the American public is taken care of. He also happened to be the one person against trying out David (Jeff Goldblum)'s idea that gave us the ultimate victory.

Maybe it's because the only Jeff Goldblum movies I've seen were this one and the Jurassic Park movies... but I'm in the minority of the movie-viewing public. I really do like him a lot. Sure, his character is a little lame about his whole "I want to save the Earth" thing and he gets drunk when the military launches an unsuccessful nuclear strike (if I were to get that drunk during an alien invasion, it'd be over more important things... not that I'm belittling nuclear attacks... they still scare the crap out of me)

I seriously do enjoy him in these movies... not so much the Jurassic Park sequel where everything kinda suffers... but in these other two. And nobody could have played this particular character better than him.

The president Bill Pullman plays isn't exactly in the best part of his presidency when this crisis happens. The flurry of negative press is delivered by his press secretary at such a rushed pace that I cannot remember any of it.
But it's times like these that really define a presidency- how you react under pressure amidst circumstances such as this.

Randy Quaid plays a drunken inept crop duster who once, get this, got abducted and probed by aliens. Most people would look at that biography and laugh their asses off because it falls in line too perfectly with this movie... but it's great that he gets to get involved and winds up playing a heroic role in our overall victory.
It comes a little too late, but his stepkids get to remember him as a hero and less for his lack of parenting skills.
I do find it a little ridiculous that his daughter's one bit of characterization is that she doesn't want to die a virgin and keeps making eyes at the young guys she comes across.
Lisa Jakub had much more going for her in "Mrs. Doubtfire."

He doesn't have much screentime, but Harvey Fierstein (also from "Mrs. Doubtfire") is there as well. Again, one of my favorite voices EVER among actors :P
Watching the movie this time around was the first time I really watched him in this movie, rather than just listening to him... I then recollected how he had a boyfriend/partner in "Mrs. Doubtfire" and looked him up. For whatever reason, it took me this long to kinda realize that he's gay :shrug: that would explain all the hand movements and the whine in his voice when he was stressing about calling his mom about the invasion.
...yeah, my gay-dar has never been the sharpest, but so what? And apparently, according to some IMDB messageboards, he really is a nice guy in real life. Not that I ever had any doubts about that.

As far as aliens go, they may not look like much when they're in suspended animation... but in action, they're pretty terrifying. Also infuriating when it comes to the impenetrable shields on their ships. If the aliens in our own world are that much more advanced than us... we're pretty much screwed.

Even more so now that Will Smith won't be in the sequel. He was the only pilot skilled enough to outmaneuver an alien and the only person brave enough to talk smack to their faces.
The entire time he's out on the salt flats either confronting the alien or dragging its ass across the desert... best part of the entire movie :P


"And what the hell is that smell?!" [totally improvised- more to the salt flats than the alien itself- then he proceeds to kick its ass even more]

Final Comment

Gotta love the parody of this in the 2nd Austin Powers movie when they demonstrate the power of the "laser" on the White House.

"That was just footage from the movie 'Independence Day' but the real laser would be a lot like that... yeah."

But it terrifies the president [this is back in 1969] so much he gives in and pays the ransom... but almost blows up the moon:

The President: Jiminy Jumpin' Jesus, I can't believe we're gonna pay that madman. I got nukes out the ying-yang. Just let me launch one, for God's sake.
Commander Gilmour: Sir. Are you suggesting that we blow up the moon?
The President: Would you miss it?
[looks around the table]
The President: Would you miss it?

Theatrical Review: Mortdecai

Date: Friday January 23 2015
Time: 2 pm
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Party: 3 (my mom, sister & I)

Director: David Koepp
Based on the novel "Don't Point that Thing at me" by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Type: Comedic Heist spoof

Cast:
Mortdecai- Johnny Depp
Johanna- Gwyneth Paltrow
Martland- Ewan McGregor
Jacques- Paul Bettany
Krampf-Jeff Goldblum
Georgina- Olivia Munn

Introduction and Trailers
The three of us were the only ones in the theater, but then it's not every day that the local theater has matiness on Fridays... rather strange, considering that movies come out on Fridays. I paid for the tickets, my sister paid for some Reese's Pieces... and we practically had the place to ourselves.

The two trailers were so-so.
The first was for Will Smith's new movie "Focus"... I can't even remember what it's about other than he's a bit of a gambler/player who hires a girl to get to someone he wants to steal from... I didn't even catch the name until we left the theater and saw it on one of the posters.

The second had me thinking about the sad state Adam Sandler's career has taken over the last five years... not that Will Ferrell does a lot of great movies in general... having Kevin Hart as his co-star might give "Get Hard" a boost. Supposedly, Will Ferrell plays a rich guy who is indicted and has jail time coming to him and Kevin Hart teaches him how to "survive on the inside"... why do I get the feeling he's not even going to spend jail time?

Story
Mortdecai is a rich snooty Brit who happens to be an expert in fine art. Occasionally, this allows him to be an asset to the local police. He lives with his wife, Johanna, who takes a strong stance against his new moustache, and his manservant, who takes a lot of accidental damage in the field of duty.
The plot revolves around finding a missing Goya painting.

Casting and Other Comments

This is probably the first time in a couple years I saw a movie before reading any of the reviews... somehow I get the feeling all of them will read the same after a while.

Based on the trailers, I figured this would be a decently funny movie. It's certainly in the vein of the "Pink Panther" movies. The question is whether it's better or worse than the Steve Martin versions of that brand...
I don't know what I came expecting, but the way they were selling soap for this movie... the fact Ellen said on her show that was ridiculously funny and asked how they could survive laughing between takes, I thought it'd be a LOL type of affair.
During the first half of the film, it was anything but that and I was very disappointed.

Johnny Depp is recognizable as this character about as much as his accent is well-done. In which case, it wasn't the best British accent I've ever heard. But I don't think that was the point.
The point was that he's supposed to be the protagonist yet I didn't really find him very interesting.
Gwyneth Paltrow lit up the screen as his wife and attempted to keep Mortdecai grounded as best she could...
The most interesting character was actually the manservant. Jacques suffers from a lot of accidental injuries. Heck, Mortdecai has him accidentally shot at least three times (once in a flashback that was obviously a jab at Dick Cheney's "hunting incident"). But like a good employee, Jacques does everything asked of him without question. He also has a very healthy sex life that leads to some good shenanigans.
And of course I found Ewan McGregor charming... I always find him charming. Even though he is trying to woo Johanna away from her husband (who is less than pleased with the moustache), he doesn't do it in an overbearing manner as to make him unlikable.

One could argue that Mortdecai had all the makings of a primary character. Some defined traits. Motivation. But I didn't feel like he was three-dimensional.
A lot of the other characters had the issue of not being three-dimensional... but the protagonist kinda needs that to succeed.

The editing can be jarring at times, particularly when they transition from city to city, showing the airplane travel over 3D renderings.

To their credit, the movie did get funnier when the action started coming in. The movie began with Mortdecai negotiating a price for a vase with some gangsters of Asian decent, something that goes terribly wrong. At one point, he gets kidnapped by another group of people interested in the Goya painting.
The realization that we were in Moscow, I felt like that flipped the switch and I became invested... between that and the realization that the Russian thugs were threatening to apply shock therapy to Mortdecai's nether-region... probably because they reminded me of two key interests of mine... a great chase scene followed where Mortdecai and his manservant (who somehow managed to follow his kidnappers all the way here) escape on a motorcycle and sidecar.

The movie did get progressively better, but there were still a lot of goofy moments that generated awkward laughter... like how two people who planned to steal the painting from Krampf's residence poured poison randomly over the shellfish platter... whoever wrote the line in the script "It's the shellfish!" should never work in this industry again.
To make up for that, partially, vomit did have practical use in the following chase scene... something I never thought I'd get to say because I usually am very anti-vomit when it comes to movies.

Another positive that came later on was a revelation about Johanna that got her more involved with the movie... making her more than just Mortdecai's wife who might leave him in his absence because of his moustache and the fact they're steeped in debt.

...as for the rating, I thought it was a little much. There was one f-bomb (the only profanity in the entire film). There was a very brief sex scene in a flashback with no nudity to really speak of, one scene where we hear sex noises in a hotel room, and multiple references to Jacques's sex life.
They could have easily gotten away with PG13 on this... I've expressed these concerns previously about G-rated movies. One lewd reference or moment of "peril" automatically garners a PG rating. By those rules, anything that isn't direct-to-DVD and/or based off a show for elementary kids will be PG... therefore the G-rated movie is as good as dead.

Grade: B+
(The first half was worth a B, the second half an A-)

I don't think I'd recommend spending money to see this. Although my mom and sister said they enjoyed themselves as well.
It saddens me to say this as a Johnny Depp fan, but based on recent choices he's made (by that, I mean "The Lone Ranger"... I actually liked "Dark Shadows"), I don't think I can put him in the same class as some other A-list actors... not anymore.

Theatrical Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Date: May 4, 2014
Location: Pocono Community Theater
Time: 1pm
Party: 3 (my mom, sister & I)

Writer/Director: Wes Anderson

Duration: 100 minutes (+3 trailers)

Cast:
M. Gustave- Ralph Fiennes
Mr. [Zero] Moustafa- F. Murray Abraham
Zero- Tony Revolori
Madame D- Tilda Swinton
Heckels- Edward Norton
Dmitri- Adrien Brody
Jopling- Willem Dafoe
Agatha- Saoirse Ronan
Deputy Kovacs- Jeff Goldblum
M. Ivan- Billy Murray
M. Jean- Jason Schwartzman
M. Chuck- Owen Wilson
Young Writer- Jude Law

Theater & Previews:

We arrived a few minutes before the movie started. There was maybe a dozen other people in theater, most of them looked older than 50.

The first preview was for a Richard Linklater called "Boyhood," which I'd seen posters for on IMDB but don't know much about it. It sounds like it's a labor of love he spent 12 years slaving over and is unlike any movie you'd seen before. Something about following around a family for a dozen years and filming them, although I'm not sure if it's an actual family or they're all actors.

The second looked interesting. It was called "Words and Pictures," starring a very handsome Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche (who I know from "Chocolat") and they're teachers that develop an unusual relationship. He's a writer who's an English professor in danger of losing his job because he has a drinking problem. She's a newly arrived art teacher that's a little rough around the edges and fresh from an injury we'll likely hear about later in the film.

Then the third was "Dom Hemingway," which is said to be a Jude Law performance unlike any other... might be interesting to see down the road. He certainly can't do any worse than "The Talented Mr. Ripley" or "Closer".

Write-up:

Every now and then, we will take the trip downtown to see a movie not available locally. We'd been here maybe a handful of times, including the two Oscar winners I picked correctly (The King's Speech and The Artist), "Water for Elephants" and maybe one other that I'm forgetting.

I kinda expected this movie would be another one of those. For whatever reason, Wes Anderson movies are still deemed to be on the independent circuit so they don't come to all theaters.
Since its release date, I've said how much I want to see it, but it's not playing locally. Luckily, it finally did make it and my patience was well awarded.

When it comes to this particular writer/director, a few things are inevitable.

• Bill Murray will be in it somewhere
• We'll get at least one Wilson brother
• The sets will be incredibly detailed, all the way down to the shelf knick-knacks
• I'm going to compare it to "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" because it was my first Wes Anderson film.

I was attracted to "The Grand Budapest Hotel" because it looked like another quirky, fun Wes Anderson movie. A few months ago when it was just coming out, I watched the Behind the Scenes special about it on HBO and all of the reviews were positive. People were saying it was the best movie of the year so far.

I'm happy to say that all of the Wes Anderson movies I'd seen so far, this one has been my favorite... second only to "The Fantastic Mr. Fox".

Other than that, I'd seen "Moonrise Kingdom" which I thought was more serious than it had to be and "The Royal Tennebaums" which was so serious it bordered on depressing.

It's kinda hard to explain what "The Royal Budapest Hotel" is about. It starts out with a girl leaving a key at a statue dedicated to a man and she's reading a book named for the movie. We hear the narrative in voiceover and that leads us to the writer talking to a camera. We go back a couple decades and see the writer much younger (played by Jude Law) talking to the man who owned the hotel.

This man (played by F. Murray Abraham) tells us the story the majority of the movie goes into, following the concierge M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and his loyal lobby boy Zero (newcomer Tony Revolori).

M. Gustave teaches Zero the ropes, telling him how a lobby boy treats the guests so well that he anticipates their needs before they do.
The hotel is located in a very exclusive, but beautiful location. The inside runs like a well-oiled machine, like something we'd only read about or see on film. Just wondrous to behold.
It's also suggested that M. Gustave takes such care of his guests that he meets their every need, some of which are sexual.

This movie is R-rated, but it goes as far as partial or brief nudity (some of this is in paintings and drawings on the walls) and the amount of cussing.
With the former, I was wary because I didn't want to expose my sister to too much. She was a little more concerned with the amount of cussing (she counted 13-14 f-bombs).

The plot takes off when one of the regular hotel guests passes away. He and Zero goes to her estate to pay respects and to see if she left anything in her will to him. Her will bequeathed to him a portrait known as "Boy with Apple."
Her family is all looking for their cut and is taken aback by the concierge's inclusion in the will. Her son Dmitri is the most vocal, very opposed to him getting the painting... for whatever reason :shrug: seems silly to me, but there's gotta be conflict somewhere.

When they arrive back at the hotel, the police are there looking from him... for some reason believing he killed her.
I saw this scene in the Behind the Scenes where he says "I knew something was suspicious, we never got the cause of death" and he proceeds to run from the authorities.

The movie progresses as he's put in jail, he and some inmates plan a break-out and another member of the Madame's family, Jopling, goes after the executor of her will.
Willem Dafoe plays this role almost like it was written for Christopher Walken. He's pretty hardcore about it, although I'm having trouble recalling if he has much dialogue.

The humor varies from being incredibly obvious to an actor randomly cussing up a storm when something doesn't go their way to something that takes a while for the laugh to hit. The pacing is slow at times. There was a period after the prison break scene where I found myself getting bored because not much was going on and there weren't many laughs to be had.

Another thing that can be expected in a Wes Anderson film is pacing. Often times, you'll have a scene where things race by you, both with the scenery and with the dialogue that it's hard to keep up. Then in the scene immediately afterwards, everything stops and it's almost so quiet you can hear a pin drop.

Probably my favorite part was the chase scene (and its hilarious resolution) where M. Gustave and Zero on a toboggan are chasing after Jopling on skis. You get all kinds of twists and turns. You see a sign that welcomes us to the sight of the local winter games (how timely of them :-P), which includes slaloms, ski jumps and sledding tracks. I won't give away the resolution, but it's unexpected and one of the best laughs of the entire movie.

Pretty much all of the actors are great in this. It's certainly interesting to see Ralph Fiennes do a comedic role after only knowing him as Voldemort for the past several years :-P
Most of the cast members, Wes Anderson has worked with before, including Jason Schwartzman (who I will give his due in my "Fantastic Mr. Fox" review), Edward Norton and Jude Law.

Overall, I found it very enjoyable. The details and quirks were as I expected them to be but there were plenty of surprises in between. The scenery was often vast and the fact it takes place in wintertime with plenty of snowflakes... I just love that, it makes it all look so beautiful.
Yeah, winter does suck and the fact we've had so much snow this year sucks, but I'm a sucker for great winter scenery. My "Frozen" review went into it quite a bit ;)

In its constructs, it's probably the best realized movie I'd seen so far this year. I didn't fully enjoy it as much as some of the other ones I'd seen so far, but it was very satisfying.
I guess you could say it's a sleeper hit in that the enjoyment comes in small subtle doses and doesn't hit as many highs as it could have.

Grade: B+

55. Jurassic Park (1993)

Code-name: T-Rex

Type: Action/adventure, drama, sci-fi

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Michael Crichton (based on his novel, also co-wrote screenplay),
David Koepp (other credits include: Jurassic Park II, "Spider-Man" and "Angel & Demons)

Cast:
Dr. Alan Grant- Sam Neill
Dr. Ellie Sadler- Laura Dern
Dr. Ian Malcolm- Jeff Goldblum
John Hammond- Richard Attenborough
Dennis Nedry- Wayne Knight (hey... Newman!)
Donald Genarro (the "bloodsucking lawyer")- Martin Ferrero
Game Warden Robert Muldoon- Bob Peck
Mr. Arnold- Samuel L. Jackson
Tim- Joseph Mazzello
Lex- Ariana Richards

Notable music: John Williams

Notable Awards and Nomination:
OSCAR- Best Sound
OSCAR- Best Sound Editing
OSCAR- Best Visual Effects
nominated- Grammy- Best Instrumental Composition for movie or TV (John Williams)

Write-up:

A Nostalgia Trip Down Memory Lane

This movie and I go WAY back. After "Aladdin," it was the second movie my dad took me to see. My recollections are all but gone by this point (it was 20 years ago and only 7 at the time)... but given that it's a PG13 film, I'm led to believe it did freak me out. Especially with the first T-Rex scene. "Oh my god" was my go-to interjection for every startling moment.

I don't know if it was my idea because I loved dinosaurs at that time (that's still true, but at that time, I want to grow up to be a paleontologist)... It could have been my dad's idea because he was the one who took me.
We had since seen every "Jurassic Park" movie in theaters.

Except for the 3D re-release. I put my foot down on that one.

I never read the Michael Crichton novel, but I have the junior novelization :-P somewhere...

Way back in the day, we had a computer game version of it. Although "game" might be the wrong word. Most of it was screensavers, which were scenes taken right out of the movie.

For that reason alone, I remembered SO much of the dialogue even when I had no idea what they were talking about. Not just in the grand scheme of things, but what different words and phrases meant.
The most vivid was the lunch time scene where Ellie, Alan and Ian gave their reasons to Hammond as to why this was a terrible idea. Specifically, Dr. Malcolm's tirade. So hilarious that it bears repeating.... because it included, as Yogurt from "Spaceballs" put it: "merchandizing!"

"I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here, it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now
[bangs on the table] you're selling it, you wanna sell it."

Then there's John Hammond's flabbergasted response (which I do know by heart):

"I don't believe it. You're meant to come down here and defend me against these characters and the only one I've got on my side is the bloodsucking lawyer!"

Funny how when I was younger, this stuff wasn't just vivid word for word, but down to the line delivery (something people mock Jeff Goldblum for CONSTANTLY) and how it's paced.

I also had a Jurassic Park sleeping bag :-P merchandizing merchandizing!

With Age Comes Knowledge and Understanding

I went to college in the sciences and understand quite a bit of the scientific jargon behind the genetic engineering of dinosaurs.
Having said that, I'm not as bright as the characters from "Big Bang Theory" where I could explain it just as well.

In layman's terms,
Hammond's scientists found a way to lift dinosaur DNA from mosquitos preserved in amber (fossilized tree sap) and fill in the genetic code with frog DNA to create dinosaurs. They also made sure that all the dinosaurs were female.

Having accomplished all this, he decided to use his fortune to create a theme park with the dinosaurs as attractions... a combination of Sea World and San Diego Wild Animal Park, if you will.

The movie opens with an "incident" that happens at the park. Muldoon is the only main character to witness this. They were transporting velociraptors when one of the men doing the transport got pulled into the cage and eaten.
Donald Generro was brought onboard to make sure the park would be safe, most likely because a lawsuit was pending over the man's death.

Cut to paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sadler, who are on a dig in Montana where they had just unearthed a velociraptor.
They're good friends who know each other pretty well, have great chemistry, but for whatever reason, they aren't a couple. (That remains true throughout the film series... I only say this because I'm still surprised that they weren't an item. In real life, Laura Dern dated Jeff Goldblum for a short time after this movie).
John Hammond stops by (rather indiscreetly, might I add), asking them to come to his park to get the opinion of experts. On the helicopter ride, they get acquainted with Dr. Malcolm and Genarro.

Roughly 15-20 minutes into the movie is when its "epic" nature starts to set in.
I state that as fact as well as fanatically.
Underrated it may be, the score that plays when they come into view of the island is one of my favorites from John Williams... the only one that surpasses it is, obviously, the theme from "Star Wars". It has a sense of triumph that draws oohs and aahs almost immediately. You know something exciting is about to happen.

Case-in-point: We're introduced to the Brachiosaurus.
I'm sure my first reaction was a jaw-dropping, kinda like Grant & Sadler.
The last time I saw the movie, I almost teared up :-P my thought bubble would either say "it's so beautiful" or "I wish these were still alive"

After they see the "educational" film and a velociraptor hatch out of an egg (gee, you think there's a theme going here?), we have the lunch room scene where everyone but Hammond and Genarro are absolutely skeptical.

Dr. Malcolm's shtick is "Chaos Theory." In a nutshell, his belief is that genetic engineering goes against the flow of the universe and man will, theoretically, pay the price for it.
Reminds me of the Law of Equivalent Exchange in the animé series "FullMetal Alchemist" or simply the Law of Conservation of Energy... energy cannot be created or destroyed, nor should it be tried.

The last characters (not counting the dinosaurs) to be introduced are Hammond's grandkids, Lex and Tim. Lex calls herself a "hacker," which comes out to mean she's great with computers. Meanwhile, Tim is a Dr. Grant-fanatic dino-phile, well-read and precocious.

Not only does to make the movie relatable to the younger audience that Spielberg undoubtedly targeted with this project, but it provides an opposing force for Dr. Grant to work with...
he's not crazy about kids (something mentioned a number of times, but explained best in the scene where he teases a kid with a raptor claw).

Two cars (one with the kids and Genarro and the other with Drs. Grant, Sadler and Malcolm) leave on a demo tour throughout the park.
Unfortunately, none of the dinosaurs show up on cue.

On top of that, they come upon a sick triceratops- Dr. Grant's favorite species.
Dr. Sadler stays behind with one of the gamekeepers to figure out what happened.
One of the sadder moments in the movie and, sadly, among the loose ends they forget to tie up in the end.

Not that the episode with Dennis Nedry was exactly a "loose end".
Except for the velociraptors, he's the only "villain" this movie has... and not a very good one at that. He's one of the techies working on the computers that operate the electric fences.
Early in the movie, there's a scene where he's meeting this guy ("Datson! Datson! We've got Datson here!") who asks him to steal dinosaur embryos, giving him a tricked out shaving cream container to keep them cold and viable.

I don't know who these guys are working for and we don't get the opportunity to find out why.
Nedry goes out of his way to disable the security systems of the park just so he isn't seen stealing these embryos. The idiot gets himself killed by a dinosaur (a threatening, and supposedly inaccurately constructed, Dilaphosaurus) and the container with the embryos gets washed away in the storm.
You really can't expect much from Newman from "Seinfeld," but it always kinda bothered me that nobody found about all this. Never found that he stole the embryos or killed the electric fences... nothing...

Of course, everyone's too busy avoiding the T-rex and Velociraptors and getting eaten.
And there will be plenty of casualties... luckily they're people we don't really care about...

Sorry Goldblum Haters, Malcolm survives the chaos, but not unscathed. :-P

It should be noted that Samuel L. Jackson, who plays another techie, is among the causalities. He's not as big a bad-ass in this movie, but still... on the principle that he's one of the biggest bad-asses in cinema, he deserved better.

Much Ado about Sequels

I don't have many complaints about the other movies in this series. None of them are quite as "epic" as the original, but each had something I got into.

I thought it was interesting how they featured characters from the original, but not together.

In the 2nd one, Jeff Goldblum (stop groaning, haters!) returns. This time, Hammond asks him to survey what's going on with another island he set up. Only this time, the dinosaurs run free and people like Malcolm's ex-girlfriend, Sarah (Julianne Moore) are studying them.
It's the last installment to feature Hammond because he was practically on his deathbed here. We also see Lex and Tim briefly.

The main story is that he goes to the island to protect Sarah from the dinosaurs while dealing with his teenage daughter, who he almost never spends time with. And there's a family of T-Rexes that end up rampaging in San Diego.

In the 3rd installment, we follow up with Dr. Grant and Sadler (although she's only seen on the other side of a telephone). She's happily married with a kid. He starts the movie at a press conference, denying that the plot of the first movie never happened. He more or less "pled insanity" and kept telling people he never saw any live dinosaurs.

Then he got wrangled into coming to a dinosaur-inhibited island by an estranged couple (William H. Macy, Tea Leoni) looking for their son who disappeared in a wind-sailing accident (caused by a pterodactyl).
Velociraptors make their return here, but the main villians are pterodactyls and a spinosaurus (which took out the T-Rex in record time... making it the movie where it has the least screen time).

My favorite moment in that movie is where Grant finds the boy and they have a pretty intelligent conversation. Firstly about using T-Rex pee to repel predators. And secondly, talking about books.
He liked Grant's first book better, the one he wrote before "Jurassic Park" happened.
And thought Malcolm's book was "kinda preachy," talking too much about chaos theory.
Grant loved that comment for obvious reasons :-P