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The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Previous to this viewing, I had only seen The Lost World once, back when it was originally released in 1997. I seem to remember a lot of people really disliking this sequel to Jurassic Park. I also remember being a bit bewildered at the time because I thought it was just fine as sequels to sci-fi/horror films went.
Seeing it again 8 years later, I have to agree with my original assessment — it is certainly not as bad as people make it out to be, and far surperior to Jurassic Park III, which just left me flat.
I can definitely see some nits to pick, like how stupid the characters have to be to get themselves into the situations they end up in (Vera was literally screaming at the screen when they stole the baby T-Rex in order to fix it's broken leg). But maybe I'm just more accepting of the fact that the Jurassic Park movies are essentially horror films with big budgets and awesome special effects. And in horror movies people do really dumb things so that you yell at the screen and squirm while they ignore you. :-)
Certainly, there were a number of great scenes in this one. The whole dangling trailer scene was intense and just didn't let up. The opening scene was nice and creepy. Plus, they took my favorite character from the first one and put him into the lead role in the sequel with some great lines: "Oooh! Ahhh! That's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming."
Yes, there's a new kid introduced, but she's hardly annoying, and at least she doesn't end up with the cringeworthy line, "It's a Unix system! I know this!" like the girl from the first movie.
Notable cast sighting is Richard Schiff (Toby from The West Wing) as the fourth member of the expedition.
Overall, I'll admit this movie isn't as good as the first one, but is far superior to the third, and is definitely worth a place in my collection for just plain fun. 3/4 stars.
Sin City
Looking back on it, it's pretty sad that it took until mid-April for a movie to seem interesting enough to get my butt in a theater. Prior to seeing Sin City, I was wholly unfamiliar with the comic books, but was definitely intrigued by the trailers and the buzz about this film. I was definitely not disappointed. (Surprisingly, I was able to convince Vera to join me, in spite of the warnings I'd given her that it was supposedly quite violent.)
I would categorize the setting and mood of the film as "extreme noir" — it had all the elements of traditional film noir just taken to (and sometimes beyond) their logical extremes. Most of the movie was filmed against a bluescreen, and the special effects, from the backgrounds to the color hilights, were very impressive and well-done. For the most part I didn't really feel like I was watching an effects-laden film, even though most of the world was artificial.
The stories themselves and the characters' reactions were all suitably over-the-top. As everyone seems to agree, Mickey Rourke steals the show as Marv, the main character in one of the three intertwining stories. I also really enjoyed Benicio Del Toro's turn as a thug in over his head (so to speak), and Elijah Wood's very creepy role.
In the end, this was a movie that was much more about style than substance. The plots were secondary to the visuals and the over-the-top dialogue. But frankly, that didn't bother me in the slightest, and I am really looking forward to seeing it again on DVD. 3.5/4 stars.
Kiki’s Delivery Service
One of the most unique, enchanting, and surreal animated films Vera and I have seen is Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. We were both blown away by this movie, and decided we should quickly work to acquaint ourselves with Miyazaki's other movies. Fortunately, most of them have gotten a decent treatment recently and have been released here in the U.S. on DVD over the last couple of years.
Princess Mononoke is an obvious next choice (I have seen it, Vera hasn't), but Kiki's Delivery Service showed up first, so this was our second shared taste of Miyazaki.
Going into the movie, we had little idea of what it was about. Certainly, even though the main character is a witch, it was a far more straightforward and less surreal experience than his more recent films. As a general coming-of-age story, it definitely succeeded, but I came away with a feeling like it was all just a bit too light and inconsequential.
As usual, the animation and the world it describes are extremely well done and rich in texture. At the risk of horrifying purists, I will admit that we watched the recently dubbed English version rather than dealing with subtitles (animation and Jackie Chan films are two cases where dubbing doesn't bother me :-) Overall, I have to give Disney credit (or is it Pixar who's really responsible?) for doing a decent job with voice talent and dubbing of the Miyazaki films I've seen so far.
In the end, the story was light, but the world was rich in detail and the animation top notch. Not a bad film by any means, but certainly not as impressive as his later movies. 3/4 stars.
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Last Temptation of Christ — ahhh, what a romantic movie. Well, not really, but it does hold a particular significance in that it was the movie Vera and I saw on our first "date" back at the University of Chicago's DOC Films in 1989. As such, I didn't really remember the movie all that well!
So, it being the day before Easter, and having heard from some friends that they had never seen the movie before, we decided to watch it again. Overall, I would say it left two very distinct impressions on me.
The first is that it portrays the world at that time in a much "rawer" way than you're used to, as compared to most films about Jesus. I have no idea if it's really a more accurate portrayal of how society was at the time, but it certainly felt more visceral and appropriate, considering that Jesus spent a lot of his time among those in the lower social orders of society.
The second is the way the movie explores the human side of Jesus, making him into a weaker, reluctant figure rather than the more typically strong person he is normally portrayed as. Although several people have told me they thought he was too weak, I thought it was an interesting choice to take the more extreme view. I was particularly fascinated by the role that Judas plays in Jesus' life, which was much more important and ultimately tragic than it was portrayed by the gospels.
Certainly, picking Willem Dafoe to play Jesus and Harvey Keitel to play Judas were interesting choices. (Our friends joked about the very New York feeling they brought to the Holy Land.)
In the end, the movie was quite different from what I remembered, but I felt it was a powerful and provocative film that stuck with me for quite some time afterwards. 3.5/4 stars.
After such a good start…
I've not been particularly good at posting here recently, have I? I've had a few things to take care of recently, having to do with trademark issues, bringing up mamedev.com, dealing with ingrates, and taking over managing the releases of MAME. I've been trying to set up things that will make it easier to deal with some of these issues over time, but it may be difficult to post additional detailed technical articles for a bit until I catch up.
Anyway, I've got a bunch of movie reviews to feed this page for the next few days, and not much additional news beyond what's been posted over on mamedev.com. Hopefully once I've exhausted the movie backlog I'll have some actual interesting things to say regarding MAME.