Review: “Jurassic Park III”

Directed by: Joe Johnston

Produced by: Kathleen Kennedy, Larry J. Franco

Written by: Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

Edited by: Robert Dalva

Cinematography by: Shelly Johnson

Music by: Don Davis, John Williams (themes)

Starring: Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter

Based on the Jurassic Park book series by Michael Crichton

Year: 2001

 

I remember when I first found out this movie was actually a thing that was happening. It was amazingly sudden, if I recall correctly. I was still fairly new to the internet back in 2001, and the only magazines I read at the time were gaming magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly, so it’s not like I was exactly up on the latest movie news. So imagine my surprise when I saw several ads and merchandise hanging around Wal-Mart (as it was written at the time) for a third Jurassic Park film that I had never even heard about.

Review: “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Produced by: Gerald R. Molen, Colin Wilson

Written by: David Koepp (screenplay)

Edited by: Michael Kahn

Cinematography by: Janusz Kamiński

Music by: John Williams

Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Vince Vaughn, Richard Schiff, Peter Stormare, Vanessa Lee Chester, Arliss Howard, Harvey Jason, Thomas F. Duffy, Don S. Davis

Based on the novel The Lost World by Michael Crichton

Year: 1997

 

This review contains spoilers…

You know when I said in my last review, the one for the original Jurassic Park, that the characters didn’t matter so much, and how the big highlight was the collection of dinosaur sequences? Yeah… I didn’t entirely mean it. Case in point: The Lost World, the sequel to one of the most groundbreaking blockbusters ever. You might think that, given a few years and a bigger budget, the film would be even more magical — better effects, more dinosaurs, larger cast of characters. As is the way with these things, however, the film suffers from diminishing returns.

Review: “Jurassic Park” (IMAX 3D)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Produced by: Kathleen Kennedy, Gerald R. Molen

Written by: Michael Crichton, David Koepp (screenplay)

Edited by: Michael Kahn

Cinematography by: Dean Cundey

Music by: John Williams

Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, B.D. Wong

Based on the novel by Michael Crichton

Year: 1993 (2013 for IMAX 3D)

 

I know it’s a common sentiment and, therefore, hardly original, but it bears repeating multiple times until that sentiment is driven into the ground about this wondrous, marvelous film: IT’S SO FREAKING AWESOME!

2012 IN REVIEW: The Best Films of the Year

At last, we come to the climax of my review of the films of 2012. To those of you who continue to keep up with me, I one again apologize for the slow updates — I saw so many movies this past year and have been doing so much this past month that it’s been hard to keep up with a regular update schedule!

This is how I felt ALL WEEK!

I’m currently in the process of moving, with my best friend / roommate moving back to his hometown to be closer to family, so it’s been tough keeping up with the blog, hanging out with him a few more times after seven awesome years of being roommates, while also just figuring stuff out for the next period of my life living as a single person for the first time. It’s tough, but thankfully he lives where my family lives, and it’s only 100 miles away. Lucky for any fans I may have (Hello!…?), it’ll likely result in me doing more reviews, though the higher amount of rent I’ll be paying will undoubtedly impact my ability to go to the theatre as often as I have been.

On that note, before I get to the meat of this final entry, I want to thank everyone who has been reading this blog, regularly or even sporadically. I may not know you, but I appreciate you! This may be a hobby of mine, but it’s meaningful to me and keeps me sharp. I started The Viewer’s Commentary in September of 2011, after lots of personal setbacks and a good long while of feeling stupid and even being made to feel stupid for wanting to start a blog about movies, and by the time I finally decided to just go for it and not listen to the negativity, I still didn’t really know whether I was going to still be writing in even a few months’ time. So to already be in the middle of my second year and still be having a blast getting my thoughts and opinions out there about one of my favorite subjects has truly been a great experience. To those of you who have read, continue to read, and even to those of you I know personally who encouraged me and maybe don’t even share my passion and probably aren’t even reading this now but you supported me all the same, thank you again for being there! I’m definitely looking forward to what 2013 promises to bring! (STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS! FINALLY!)

The film’s villain amongst a bunch of red shirts. This isn’t going to end well…

Anyway, enough self-reflection! You’re here for the rundown of the best films of 2012, aren’t you? I assume so, since you are continuing to read this. I’ll let you get to that, but first, let me explain how this list is working, as I’ve changed it up a bit from last year and from most other “Best Of” lists.

First off, last year I did it in multiple parts (here, here, and, finally, here - in order). None of that this time. You’re getting this all in one big wave!

Secondly, and this is related to the third alteration, there are no longer just 10 films on this list, but rather a whopping 17. Why?

Well, that’s because the third alteration I made is that I’ve decided that a lot of the best films of the year weren’t necessarily my favorites, but I wanted to recognize their greatness by putting them on this list anyway, rather than lump them in with the films that were just average. (I did something similar with the “Films I Liked” this year after realizing I didn’t necessary love nor despise a lot of films enough to put them on the worst or best of lists.)

This did not make the list. This shouldn’t make any lists… BECAUSE IT SHOULDN’T EXIST!

So, while the films below are all fantastic films and deserve to be considered among the best of the year, their order has everything to do with favoritism over quality. After all, lists like these are highly subjective, and while it’s certainly possible to objectively call a film “one of the best,” ultimately by ranking such diverse works against one another, you just have to acknowledge the fact that you’re playing favorites.

 

So, yeah, anyway to review and summarize: These are, in my opinion, THE BEST FILMS OF 2012, but they are ORDERED ACCORDING TO FAVORITISM. Make sense? I hope so! If not, then just keep reading on, ’cause I think you’ll get it, anyway!

2011 in Review: My 10 Favorite Films, 3 – 1

3.  Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (December 21)

This film barely made this list. For the longest time, it was actually on the Notable Films I Managed to Avoid list thanks to its late December release date. In the middle of writing these 2011 in Review articles, however, I managed to run out into theatres and catch an early morning showing a couple weeks ago while it was still on a properly large-sized screen. I’m glad I did, too!

2011 in Review: Notable Films I Managed to Avoid, For Better or For Worse, October – December 2011

<< Part 1 – January – April 2011

<< Part 2 – May – September 2011

Here it is — the final chapter of films I didn’t see in (or from) 2011. This time of year is usually considered the “Oscar season.” This doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t some blockbuster hits still spilling out of the summer months, avoiding much bigger blockbuster hits in favor of taking on films more serious and, presumably, meant for a different audience.

After all, October is Halloween month, and so we usually get a spat of horror films which have a reputation, justified or not, for being generally awful but widely seen films. Since the Saw franchise presumably ended last year with Saw 3D: The Final Chapter, making 2011 the first year without a theatrical Saw release since 2003, perhaps many would consider it refreshing that we got two horror film prequels this year with The Thing and Paranormal Activity 3, with The Human Centipede 2 inexplicably filling in the gap for necessary sequels. Strangely enough, no remakes of horror films. Just a remake of Footloose, which, depending on your perspective, might be scary enough. Zing!

Personally, this was also the time of year where I didn’t really go see any films in theatres at all, having to save up to go see family for Christmas and, thus, get by without pay for work by the end of the year. And Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol nearly made this list, had I not gone and seen it at a 9AM showing this past Sunday, which, technically was seeing the film in 2012, but it’s still a 2011 film and I wanted to have it on my favorite list, as I was certain it would be on there. I spent most of this time engrossing myself with films rented and streamed, as evidenced by my focus on getting to know more established horror films I hadn’t seen before in October and my Christmas movie reviews in December (with a lone Thanksgiving film, for good measure) as well as getting more familiar with my own personal, neglected movie collection once again. (I forgot how good most of the films I own are!)

Closing out the year, we seemed to have gotten a lot of Oscar bait that wasn’t necessarily as promising as previous years. No Black Swans. No True Grits. Even the usually reliable Clint Eastwood, having directed Oscar gold for so many years, was having a tough time this year. Like a second coming of summer, the films of fall/winter 2011 were largely big name releases seemingly missed the summer window in production. Not all of them were bad, and some were even brilliant, but ultimately this felt like a season where there were very few worthy contenders for Oscar gold. Luckily, this might just mean that the types of films being released are just being spread across the year now instead of being concentrated all at once. Ticket sales are supposedly dropping, and the studios are possibly experimenting with timing, but only time will tell if the coming years prove whether this theory of mine that I admit I just came up with holds any water.

My Top 10 Favorite Horror Films (2008)

This is a reprint of an article I posted on Facebook, October 14, 2008 — 3 years ago to the day in about an hour and a half, actually! I was busy constructing a new list tonight, when I found myself struggling, getting off track and, thanks to being sick, I didn’t really feel too motivated to continue, to be honest. Then I happened to remember that I had already created one a while ago. I didn’t realize that it was actually that long ago, though!

 

Around this time, I was going through a phase, writing Top 10 movie lists that will no doubt find their way here one day, much like this list and my Simpsons Movie and Catwoman reviews I posted from my review-writing English class. In fact, these lists were made just a few months after those reviews were written. I was riding high on review writing, and these were my pet projects.

 

Looking over this list, I’m actually pretty happy with how it is, even with 3 more years of experience with the genre. Possibly the main exception I would make is throwing Scream in there somewhere, but that’ll get its own review soon, anyway, so that movie will get its just attention. Don’t worry! Also, while Shaun of the Dead is undoubtedly horror-related, I didn’t put it here since there’s a strong emphasis on films that scare and create suspense.

 

I’m once again presenting it unedited from its original format, typos and all, save for some additional photos just for visual flair. I was pretty loose with the term “Horror” to be honest, but I wasn’t really that well exposed to the genre at the time. Heck, I’m still not, which is kind of the point in me focusing on the genre this month. Hope you like this list, though, as I attempt to recover and recharge by being absolutely lazy!