Jurassic Park III.

Review #2023: Jurassic Park III.

Cast: 

Sam Neill (Dr. Alan Grant), William H. Macy (Paul Kirby), Téa Leoni (Amanda Kirby), Alessandro Nivola (Billy Brennan), Trevor Morgan (Eric Kirby), Michael Jeter (Udesky), John Diehl (Cooper), Bruce A. Young (M.B. Nash), Laura Dern (Ellie Sattler), Taylor Nichols (Mark), and Mark Harelik (Ben Hildebrand) Directed by Joe Johnston (#060 - Captain America: The First Avenger and #322 - Jumanji)

Review: 

Thirty years ago in June of 1993, Jurassic Park managed to, well, become one of the biggest hits of its time. You already know that it was a hit adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel, and you already know its success inspired a follow-up novel that in turn became its own film with The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). After the release of the film, Steven Spielberg, who directed both features, had no interest in doing any more films in the series as director, but he had someone in mind to do the third film: Joe Johnston, who apparently expressed an interest to direct a Jurassic Park sequel for years (Spielberg would serve as executive producer). The Austin native had been involved with special effects from a young age, most notably beginning his career as a concept artist and effects technician on Star Wars (1977). He became a director with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), the first of his "effects-driven" films, although October Sky (1999) was a noted exception. The timeline from announcing a third film in 1998 to actual release in summer 2001 is a convoluted but fun one to get around to. Various writers were approached with trying to make a draft, starting with Criag Rosenberg, who made a draft that involved teenagers being marooned on Isla Sorna. Peter Buchman was then recruited to do a rewrite when Johnston rejected Rosenberg's draft. Buchman had a two-pronged story: dinosaurs somehow killing people on the mainland and a story where Alan Grant and company crashing on Isla Sorna. Weeks before shooting was supposed to begin in mid-2000, however, the script was rejected by Johnston and Spielberg, with the former having asked David Koepp (who had written for both of the previous films) for ideas, where Koepp suggested making it more of a rescue film. Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (fresh off an Academy Award nomination for Election (1999)) were then brought in to do a script for a couple of weeks to deal with characters and story (due to an influx of action); it is because of them that you see Laura Dern for two scenes rather than none at all. This script was then fiddled with by Buchman and an un-credited John August to the point where Payne was later quoted as saying that the script basically went for action and then took "the rest out". It probably isn't a surprise that Johnston called the production "a living hell on a daily basis", and there would not be another Jurassic Park film for fourteen years.

Jurassic Park III basically takes the series to the most B-level of desires and decides, screw it, run with that. The second film is a movie where almost everyone is a specialist of some sort, and the best actor is the one who is only present in the middle in Pete Postlethwaite. Well, that, and a nice little sequence in San Diego for the climax. The third film, now in the mode of just finding a way to set up getting to the (second) island of dinosaurs, seems the freest of the two sequels in just going with the flow.  Two things are true here with the third film: it is somehow too short of a film, and it also is debatably better than the second film in entertainment value. If the second film was a movie that accomplished 70% of its grasp, the third film probably accomplishes 71% of its grasp, and that is totally fine with me for one sitting. The first two films dealt with scientists liking to play God or corporate stoogery, so I am totally fine with a ridiculous little ride with people that I like a little better than the previous attempt at spectacle-chucking that tries to play itself as a family adventure. Neill was happy to be back for the third film, not so much because of the paycheck (insert your joke here), but apparently, he was most enthused to see if he could do a better performance than he had done in the first film. I enjoy him here, mostly because his cynical attitude works just as well in riding the coattails of being stuck in fresh dinosaur hell without coming off as an imitation of what was done before (or at least being just a schlock B-hero, which is not really an insult). How can you go wrong with a guy who is doing a speech at an auditorium (about humans that probably would've been wiped clean by velociraptors to walk the earth if not for that one big asteroid) and decides to only field questions that don't talk about that dinosaur attack he went through? Macy and Leoni make for a capable bumbling act to serve as the key figures of a would-be rescue mission that is really more of a "get your head together" mission, which does grow on me to make me eventually stop thinking, "hmm, which one could get a dinosaur nibble?" Nivola apparently called his part the only one in his career at that point that he "had nothing for me to latch on to, character-wise". I can't really argue the point, but I will at least say that he doesn't fall by the wayside in flexing to the whims of ambition, which at least makes him out to not being a cardboard villain. It is evident that the 92-minute runtime hinders the film more than it should, as if they really felt the sequence in the driving weather (complete with having just enough for one call) plus a scene exchanging eggs (don't ask) was going to be enough to forgive it ending with abrupt finish. As much as it would be funny to call in the military only to see dinosaurs play friendly with tanks, I suppose you have to keep some things a possibility for another brainstorming session. Or take a long break, I guess. As a whole, the third film is totally fine under the mildest of expectations when it comes to lean spectacle with few bumps in the road in getting to making a ride that won't make you want to jump right out before it arrives at its destination, and I would say that should be enough for those into that sort of thing.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Mask (1985)

Review #1475: Mask.

Cast: 
Cher (Florence "Rusty" Dennis), Sam Elliott (Gar), Eric Stoltz (Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis), Estelle Getty (Evelyn Steinberg), Richard Dysart (Abe Steinberg), Laura Dern (Diana Adams), Micole Mercurio (Babe), Harry Carey, Jr (Red), Dennis Burkley (Dozer), Barry Tubb (Dewey), Lawrence Monoson (Ben), and Ben Piazza (Mr. Simms) Directed by Peter Bogdanovich (#1000 - The Last Picture Show)

Review:
"Directing is really creating an atmosphere, a particular kind of atmosphere and usually one that is very peculiar to the director. It doesn't necessarily have to be. Some directors have no personality and it shows. But one way or another, what the actors are doing or the crews are doing, they're trying to please the director."

Peter Bogdanovich has had a long and varied life, with plenty of it spent in some way around film, a subject he loved starting in his youth. He studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory in his twenties before taking up work at the Musuem of Modern Art as a film programmer. He wrote his first book at the age of 22 in The Cinema of Orson Welles, the first of numerous books about seminal directors of cinema (which later included another book about his friend Welles along with an appearance in The Other Side of the Wind), with further works involving Howard Hawks, John Ford (which he did a documentary of years later), and Allan Dwan. He later desired to make his own films (inspired by the directors he loved along with the French critics-turned-directors like Francois Truffaut), and an encounter with Roger Corman led to his first work with The Wild Angels (1966). 1968 was the year of his first directorial efforts, with Corman having him shoot footage for a English-dubbed version of Planeta Bur that became Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women (which he did not take credit for). His first true directorial debut came with Targets (1968), as Corman had two days of Boris Karloff to use (Bogdanovich would also have a small part in the film while writing the script with help by Samuel Fuller). The 1970s were both his rise and fall from prominence: The Last Picture Show (1971), What's Up, Doc? (1972), and Paper Moon (1973) each recieved tremendous praise and attention, while Daisy Miller (1974), At Long Last Love (1975), Nickelodeon (1976), and Saint Jack (1979) recieved middling-to-negative notice. By the time of Mask (1985), he had already filed for bankruptcy, having self-distributed They All Laughed (1981) to financial failure (the story of that film and its stars is best for another time). His career has lessened in recent years, but he has kept himself busy within films (which also included work in television and documentaries) alongside acting, teaching directing at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and a podcast about his life released this year.

He was inspired to do the film because of his late partner's fascination with The Elephant Man with the similarity of alienation whether beautiful or ugly. There is two versions of the film, with the key difference being in music along with a few additional scenes. The Director's Cut (which I viewed) includes the music of Bruce Springsteen, which was noted as the favorite of Rocky Dennis, and the singer had wanted the music in the film, but catalogue disputes led to the usage of Bob Seger instead (Bogdanovich later sued the studio over this as a breach of contract). The film is based on the brief life of Roy Dennis (1961-1978), who lived with craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, in which calcium builds up in the skull that affects facial features and life expectancy. Wracked with a disease that gradually made him legally blind alongside headaches and troubles, Dennis nevertheless tried to live a normal life with family and school. The film was written by Anna Hamilton Phelan, which took certain liberties with the life of Dennis and his mother (born Florence Tullis), who described the film as a "fairly tale" while liking Cher's depiction of her. It isn't hard to see why one could like this film, since it proves quite interesting in its honesty and care for its depiction of its main subject without needing to wallow in melodramatic cliches. Stoltz, wearing award-winning makeup Michael Westmore and Zoltan Elek, is immeadiately someone we follow along with no need to focus on what he looks like but instead by how we judge others without such a task: through what we hear and see in his actions through the film, whether that involves trying to make the best of his life within school or with the people that accept him for who he is, which Stoltz handles with charm. Cher proves to be an interesting presence, expressive and provocative whenever in view for us with others or up close that makes an organic performance. Elliott shows up from time to time as a collected presence of coolness, proving a worthwhile time without having to say much beyond that distinct voice. The others in the cast make their moments count, such as a bright Dern in one of her first breakthrough roles, or Getty and Dysart in their distinct difference when interacting with Stoltz and Cher, or the warm rough presences of Carey Jr and Burkley. The film utilizes its two hours wisely, making its key moments count with dignity in warmth or tension without suffocation, whereas a lesser director would have turned it into something to cry incessantly at without grace. On the whole, it is a bittersweet achievement of entertainment, one that pulls plenty of emotion for its subject with balance and a game cast to serve as a fair achievement for its director and for its decade as a whole.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Jurassic Park.

Review #642: Jurassic Park.

Cast
Sam Neill (Dr. Alan Grant), Laura Dern (Dr. Ellie Sattler), Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm), Richard Attenborough (John Hammond), Ariana Richards (Alexis Murphy), Joseph Mazzello (Tim Murphy), Bob Peck (Robert Muldoon), Martin Ferrero (Donald Gennaro), Wayne Knight (Dennis Nedry), and Samuel L. Jackson (Ray Arnold) Directed by Steven Spielburg (#126 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind, #168 - Raiders of the Lost Ark, #169 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, #170 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, #302 - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, #351 - Schindler's List, #480 - Jaws, #563 - The Sugarland Express, and #573 - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial)

Review
Jurassic Park is probably one of the most defining movies of the 1990s, and the special effects are the forefront of why this movie is what it is, which is awesome. The effects for the movie are so fantastic to look at, it has managed to not look dated after over 20 years, but it really comes down to the fact that the effects just look great. And yes, computer generated imagery can look good for a film, provided that it doesn't get abused and is used effectively, which this film does (of course it helps that they also used life sized animatronics). The film itself is also pretty good. While the effects may sometimes overshadow the story, it does actually have its moments of scares, making for a decent thriller. I especially like the kitchen scene near the end, it makes for a good way to end the movie, The characters are at least enjoyable, each having at least one memorable scene, especially Neill and Goldblum (Life does indeed find a way). For some reason, it is refreshing to see Wayne Knight (Hello, Newman) in this movie. I guess it's because he is probably the best person to portray a smarmy character and yet still be funny. The science behind the movie is probably questionable (So...flies can just suck blood from a dinosaur and then just happen to get stuck in amber and later just happen to be found preserved millions of years later? The exposition explaining this is actually nifty though.), but the movie manages to shine over it with some fun action and excellent special effects. Take the movie for what it is, and it is one pile of fun.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.