J Jackie Brown (1997) (***1/2, crime, drama) (6-8-04)
Jennifer 8 (1992) (**1/2, thriller)
Jerry Maguire (1996) (**1/2, romantic comedy)
Jetée, La aka The Pier (1962) (****, sci fi) (02-09-03))
Johnny English (2002) (**1/2, comedy) (12-22-03)
Johnny Mnemonic (1995) (**, sci fi)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) (***, action, 3D) (6-10-08)
Joy Ride (2001) (***1/2, thriller) (1-14-02)
Judge Dredd (1995) (**1/2, fantasy, action, live cartoon)
Juggernaut (1974) (***, suspense)
Jumanji (1995) (****, fantasy)
Jurassic Park (1993) (***1/2, adventure)
Jurassic Park 3 (2001) (***, action, sci fi) (7-30-01)
Jackie Brown (1997) (***1/2, crime, drama) (6-8-04) (D.- Quentin Tarantino; Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton) After having watched Kill Bill and seeing a trailer for Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, I rushed out and rented Brown. It looked extremely promising, and I was not disappointed. Once again Tarantino explores the idiosyncratic mind of some of the denizen of the lower side of human nature with a deviously delightful plot, quirky and extended dialogue, and a bevy of delightful off the wall characters. Jackie (Grier) is a stewardess who had a bad time with the law and is reduced to working in a dead end job with the worst airline in the world. It isn’t much, but it is all she has and she wants to hang on to it. To make ends meet she makes a few bad choices with weapon dealer Ordell (Jackson), a man who thinks he is smarter than he is but makes up for it with animal cunning and ruthless brutality. I won’t give any critical details away, but the feds want Ordell and Jackie supplies a convenient entry point, which puts her between the proverbial rock and a hard spot. Fortunately, Jackie is smart and very street savvy. She also finds a friend in aging bail bondsman Max Cherry (Forster), who is also world weary but very professional and wants to hang onto life. Max has spent 20 years working with the dregs of society and still manages to maintain his professionalism and integrity. Here is a man you would really respect and warm up to, if he would let you.
Ordell does not surround himself with the sharpest tools in the shed, probably by design. His kept girlfriend Melanie is always scheming to take him to the cleaners and has already achieved her “goals” in life. His buddy Louis (De Niro) has just exited a four-year stint in prison. He is worse for wear from the experience and finds Ordell’s “real” world rather too much for his simple mind.
The plot is entertainingly complex. If Jackie is going to survive this -- alive and not up the river, she is going to have to be smart, play every angle, and be lucky. You’ll need to check out the film to see how lucky.
The acting is excellent.
As with any Tarantino, the film is an actor’s dream. The plot is great, the humor black, but dialogue is master. Everyone gets a chance to play scenes where dialogue isn’t just the link between scenes, but is an end in itself. Fluid, articulate, and a pleasure to the ears. Who cares whether much of what is said doesn’t further the plot? It stands on its own.
Jackie Brown is based on Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch. Leonard is no slouch with dialogue, but the feeling on the DVD commentary suggest that the movie is about 50% Leonard and 50% Tarantino, who gives any project his unique spin and flavor. The two-DVD set has a respectable set of extras including a making of and deleted scenes. The deleted scenes include a lovely improv between Grier and Keaton where she manages to reduce the improv master to stitches. The key missing extra is a running commentary on the film by Tarantino and some of the actors. However, you get a very clear idea of why Tarantino chose the different actors for the film. And his assessment was dead on.
The film is profane and moderately violent, but much of the violence is not shown. Beginning
Jason and the Argonauts (1963) (***1/2, fantasy)
Jason and the Argonauts (1963) (***1/2, fantasy) (D.- Don Chaffey, Todd Armstrong, Gary Raymond, Nancy Kovack, Honor Blackman, Nigel Green) I have a soft spot in my heart for swords and sorcery and Ray Harryhausen special effects. Jason delivers. Forget the plot. In short, Jason searches for the Golden Fleece, experiences more travails than Ulysses, and ends up with beautiful Medea and the Fleece. Special effects movies of this type are driven by the effects rather than by the plot, which is merely used to create a colorful travelog and links between effects. This works alright in most cases, but does suffer when a story is "based" on mythology; any attempt to accurately recreate the fable suffers. However, here the effects are spectacular and more than compensate. Harryhausen is in top form and outdoes himself in some of his stop-action sequences. The scene where the giant bronze statue of Talos looks down on the two tiny humans and comes creakingly to life is awesome. The Hydra is impressive with all seven heads and a very active tail working together. More than once Harryhausen had to redo a sequence when the phone rang and he forgot which head was doing what to whom. However, the epitome is the three men battling the skeleton warriors. This ranks as one of the finest pieces of stop-action animation ever created. Even if you are not interested in the movie, do watch the last ten minutes if you ever get a chance. Their movement, the shadowing, and the physical movements, which appear to be physically correct are all stellar. Consider the difficulty of choreographing several skeletons with all their component parts moving in a human-like fashion including running and jumping. Don't forget their weapons. Now throw in one or more humans struggling valiantly against these indestructible juggernauts of the dead. Oh yes--the human elements in these scenes were filmed in Italy a year before the stop act was done and incorporated. Speak about planning ahead. (7-19-94) Beginning
The director was a virtual unknown,
and this may well be his best work. It wasn’t even listed on Internet Movie
Database until recently. Noth went on to become well known on TV in shows such
as Sex and the City, and my guess is that his success led to the reissuing
of the film on video and its appearance on imdb. If you like dark noirish atmosphere
and it doesn’t cost too much, give
Jaws (1975) (****, horror) (D-Steven Spielberg, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss) A superb white knuckled thriller from Peter Benchley's book. Followed by a series of abysmal sequels. A New England community is terrorized, although they are slow in learning of and accepting their plight, by one of the most fearsomely marvelously killing machines on earth, a great white shark. The local sheriff (Scheider), ichthyologist Dreyfuss, and renowned shark hunter Shaw set out to end the terror. As in any good horror movie, most of the time is spent building suspense as opposed to showing bodies--although there are a few strategically placed ones to justify your fears. A fine Moby Dick set in modern times with all the hunters carrying some baggage as they try to destroy their nemesis as epitomized by the shark. The drinking scene on the Orca is a masterpiece. Quinn's hatred for the shark is justifiable; his facts about the U.S.S. Indianapolis are basically correct. Once the ship sets to sea, the crew cannot turn back and you cannot tear your eyes away from the screen. Three Oscars including one for the mind numbing, gut wrenching sound track by John Williams; the theme from Jaws is now a classic for inexorably onrushing doom. A must see for all horror fans. Don't let this one being long of tooth (no pun intended) turn you off; it asks no quarter and gives none when compared to modern horror movies. (8-23-93) Beginning
Jennifer 8 (1992) (**1/2, thriller).(D.-Bruce Robinson, Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, Lance Henriksen, Kathy Baker. Graham Beckel, Kevin Conway, John Malkovich, Perry Lang, Lenny von Dohlen) Dark brooding thriller that works best on an atmospheric level. A burned out L. A. cop (Garcia) goes to a northern California town and uncovers a series of linked murders. Someone has a taste for young women. However, no one accepts his hypothesis coupling dismembered bodies from around the state. The rest of the movie is spent protecting the possible eighth victim (Thurman). Unlike a lot of thrillers, if you have a good memory I think that you can actually figure out who the killer is. Ebert savaged the ending, but given the visual and character clues sprinkled throughout, I found it quite believable--although I am not sure that the director didn't play dirty with some of the photography. (4-12-94) Beginning
Jerry Maguire (1996) (**1/2, romantic comedy) (D.-Cameron Crowe; Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Renee Zellweger, Jay Mohr, Regina King, Bonnie Hunt, Kelly Preston) While well acted, I don't think that Maguire worked as romance, as comedy, or as drama, which is too bad for the talented cast. A lack of clear goals and focus damaged the story. Maguire is a ruthless, type-A agent for a high pressure sports representative company, but he develops a conscience. Bad enough, but he makes the fatal mistake of putting his view into print. Shortly, it is no job. He sets up business on his own, but only one football player (Gooding) who has an attitude sticks with him. His last remaining ally is a widow, Dorothy (Zellweger), with a son who quits to join him because of her respect for his position. A sick bunch. For Maguire and Dorothy, any partner is better than none. And Gooding's much quoted line "Show me the money" coupled with an attitude that alienates coaches and players alike pretty much characterizes him. His wife Marcee (King), while loving, is also driven by financial greed and a serious lack of interest in the health risks to her undersized husband.
By the end everyone seems to have gotten what they want, but in my opinion it is a pyrrhic victory. Cruise is back and master of the rat race he denied and he has a woman to whom he probably cannot make a true commitment. Dorothy has a man who is no longer what she wanted and who lacks the true romantic feelings she needs. Gooding has his fame and money, if it doesn't kill him. In short, our cast has limped from the one set of one neuroses to another without resolving anything in their lives.
Maguire does have its moments. I particularly liked the beginning where you got a very good look at the huckster atmosphere of promotion. The chemistry between Dorothy and her sister Laurel (Hunt) was consistently the comedic high point of the film, and Dorothy's son was quite charming. However, for me, the film had no satisfying pay off and no consistent and focused tone. (5-12-97) Beginning
Jetée, La aka The Pier (1962) (****, sci fi) (DW.-Chris Marker; the Chris Marker web page states that the still photography is also done by Marker; Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich, Jacques Ledoux) A 28 minute sci fi short. Black and white and, except for a brief moment of subtle movement, done entirely with still photographs, a voice over narration, and music. In short, a film where the instant reaction is to avoid it like the plague. Not so. A brilliant, almost hypnotic masterpiece by Chris Marker, La Jetee is the model for the much more ambitious and, for me, much less successful Twelve Monkeys. I have been trying to get a copy of La Jetee ever since I saw Twelve Monkeys. La Jetee came with a real reputation, so I had the highest expectations, and I was not disappointed. The film opens in the present where a child sees a man die at the airport. It then snaps forward in time to after the nuclear apocalypse. The world lies in ruins and the few dying survivors in the bowels of the earth try to stave off extinction by developing time travel to save their society. The Experimenter (Ledoux) is able to find one man (Hanich), who can do it because he alone still manages to cling to preapocalypse images of the past and that anchors his travel. As he explores the past, he finds and sees everything that he and the world has lost. Children, youth, a woman (Chatelain), love, the surface, trees, beauty. Then he is snapped back repeatedly to the nightmarish present.
Jetee is a love story. A tragedy. A story of the power of memory and the willingness to risk and sacrifice all for love. A tale of the human spirit. The storytelling is fluid, mesmerizing. The flow deliberate. Inexorable. The outcome foreordained. In summary, haunting and cerebral.
The film making is stellar in its imagination and execution. Brilliant use of images, narration, sound, and music. Using what seems like only the simplest of tools, Marker succeeds in getting past our intellectual defense and striking at our emotional core. We are drawn into his worlds. We experience them. We are moved in a way that most motion picture films can only dream of doing. Only occasionally did it seem to us that he slipped a bit, but perhaps on multiple viewings even these will become strengths not weaknesses.
Considering the subject, one can argue about what you actually saw and heard so it makes a good film for post-discussion. Warning: this is not a film for the slam bang action crowd. If you want a neatly categorized Hollywood ending with all the loose ends tied up, look elsewhere. This review is based on the DVD, a collection of shorts, at Sneak Reviews. The print is excellent. The original French narration has been dubbed in English. Clemons has a VHS version on reserve. At least some of the VHS versions have subtitles and poor visual quality. Beginning
Johnny English (2002) (**1/2, comedy) (12-22-03) (D.- Peter Howitt; Rowan Atkinson, John Malkovich, Natalie Imbruglia, Douglas McFerran, Tim Pigott-Smith, Kevin McNally Blood Howa)This lowers the bar a bit. Rowan Atkinson’s best know role is Mr. Bean from the BBC and from the flim. First I must confess to being a Mr. Bean fan and when Atkinson is hitting his marks, I find him nearly lethally funny. Second, I don’t really think Atkinson’s humor translates well to a full length film. Johnny English has done nothing to change either view. The film has some great belly laughs with too much dead time. The plot, such as is: English (Atkinson) is a low level functionary in the British secret service. With the untimely demise of all the prime agents due in no small part to English’s bumbling, he ends up as Number 1. Think a mixture of Inspector Clouseau and Mr. Bean and you have pretty good interpretation. Clueless, self serving, and more than willing to pass the blame for any mess up on his part. In summary, if you don’t like Bean, avoid this like the plague. If you do like Bean, check it out at the cheapie theater or on rental. If you aren’t familiar with Atkinson, check out some of the BBC Mr. Beans. In particular, Mr. Bean’s Christmas is a gem. If you don’t like that, you don’t like Atkinson.Beginning
Johnny Mnemonic (1995) (**, sci fi) (D.-Robert Longo; Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi, Dolph Lundgren) Based on William Gibson's novel, we have an attempt at creating an action flic that steals so shamelessly from the films that it will be likely that you will keep saying "That scene was from...". These include Mad Max 2, Blade Runner, Tron, Terminator, Strange Day, and Lawnmower Man. Johnny (Reeves) has a "wet wired brain" and is an information carrier. His brain is designed to sop up vast amounts of information, which he then transports to, and downloads at, a destination. I guess in the next century satellite links are too slow. Johnny is rated at 80 Gigabytes, but with the 21st century equivalent of a disk doubler he can handle a maximum 160 GB. For the current assignment, he overloads 320 GB, which will cause a mental melt down and death if he doesn't dump it in 24 hours. And all our boy wants is to get back a chunk of his short term memory ("my childhood") that he had to dump to get into the business. Well, maybe he does like the luxury hotels and the expensive callgirls while the average Joe on the street lives in squalor. However, this is the last run he will do if the bad guys don't chop off his head first. Throw in a woman body guard, a one man killing machine priest, the Yakuza, an EVIL drug company, an underground resistant to technology (which loves using it anyway), and you have the plot. Oh yes, lots of explosions, dismembered bodies,etc.
Mnemonic has good production values with lots of flash and boom, but you have seen just about all of it before and better. Most of the actors are very limited, although Lundgren is over the top as the prophet. The one image that I really did like was when Johnny was surfing the internet with virtual reality gloves and glasses. Beginning
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) (***, action, 3D) (6-10-08) (D.-Eric Brevig; W.- Michael Weiss, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin; Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson; Anita Briem) This is a Disney film with a focus on children. So if you go into it expecting plot, acting, and sophistication, you are in the wrong film. It is an action film designed to showcase the new sophisticated 3D technology, which has the inherent weakness that scenes that exploit 3D effects trump anything else. Given these caveats, it is a fun, mindless piece of family entertainment that does an excellent job of exploiting the emerging 3D technology. Our grandchildren, ages 4 to 11, enjoyed it immensely. The adults considered it fun schlock. As an interesting piece of psychology, the 4 year old had no trouble with the dinosaurs, the falling, the storm, etc. The only thing that disturbed him was the rock bridge. He knew something dangerous was going on, but couldn't understand it. This really unsettled him.
The plot is a modern day Jules Verne that gets our intrepid crew to the center of the earth following a series of cliffhangers, sometimes literally. This consists of Trevor (Fraser), a geologist, Sean (Hutcherson) his obnoxious teenage nephew, and their Icelandic guide Hannah (Briem). But enough about plot. The 3D is impressive, and sometimes is awesomely spectacular in its shock value. With the 3D glasses, the images are still a bit too dark.
In summary, good mindless entertainment for the family. Beginning
Joy Ride (2001) (***1/2, thriller) (1-14-02) D.-John Dahl; Steve Zahn, Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski) What an innocuous title for one of the white knuckle thrillers of 2001. Dahl has made a reputation for quirky, well done little low budget neo noir (The Last Seduction and Red Rock West), but nothing in his past prepared me for Joy Ride. Lewis (Walker) sets out from Stanford to pick up his childhood friend, Venna (Sobieski), from Boulder on the way home. They have both grown up and his interest is much more romantic than he is willing to admit. Along the way he bails his good-for-nothing older black-sheep brother Fuller (Zahn) out of jail for drunk and disorderly. Fuller is a charming loser with a nasty edge and long experience at manipulating his younger brother even though he hasn’t seen him for five years. As with much noir, a moment of weakness leads to the trap door of hell opening up under them. In this case the door is a dirty little practical joke on a trucker. Then you have not one but three people making plausible, but wrong, decisions that only push them deeper into the quicksand. But enough of plot.
The film is so skillfully put together that you are on edge even before anything happens. And then begins relentless, nerve wracking terror. Indistinct sounds and voices. All too clear seductively evil voices. Dark, unclear images. All too clear bits and pieces of images. Dirty, grubby locations. Common items that become objects of dread and fear.
Dahl demonstrates, like Hitchcock, that terror doesn’t require buckets of blood and gore or dismembered bodies. Indeed, less can be more. Our own mind can be our worst enemy. Joy Ride achieves its terror with remarkably little explicit violence. But definitely not for the squeamish. You were warned.
True as with most thrillers, you can pick it apart afterwards. However, even here, on thinking about it we could justify much of what happened. Only the very ending exceeded explanation. But in its lean 96 minutes, your adrenal levels and senses are pumped up too high to rationally criticize it. Staying alive is too important. Comparisons with Speilberg’s Duel will be inevitable, but Joy Ride is a completely different film and stands on its own. By the way, you really should get that fixed. Beginning
Judge Dredd (1995) (**1/2, fantasy, action, live cartoon) (D.-Danny Cannon; Sylvester Stallone, Amand Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Jorgen Prochnow, Max von Sydow Joan Chen, Joanna Miles) Based on the popular British comic book character. The distant future. The world is barren and civilization survives in a few large cities. The extreme crowding and marginal conditions make for enormous unrest. The lid is kept on things (sort of) by an elite police force, The Judges. They are police, jury, and (where appropriate) executioner on the spot. Talk about swift justice. Dredd (Stallone) is a top enforcer. However, the state is too liberal for some who plan to implement a fascist government and this leads to the revival of arch-criminal Rico (Assante). The effects and action are flashy and adequate. The film occasionally rises to the campiness that I suspect was intended (e.g., the Angel family), but too often gets played too straight. Stallone is good at the strutting, snarling, off-the-wall style required (an obvious parody of his other roles). His curled lip, shouting out all but incomprehensible lines such as "I never broke the law. I am the Law." are amusing; but too often he doesn't go over the top. Assante is a delightfully fractured mirror image of Stallone. Chen is her typically campy villainess who appears to be doing all her own martial arts--too bad she doesn't have more to do plot-wise. The violence is generally stylized and not overly graphic--but not a kid's film. The mean machine, a resurrected war robot is great; with its square jaw and almost incomprehensible booming voice, it clearly is a remarkable look alike for Stallone. I think the biggest problem is that Dredd plays it too straight, doesn't pull out all the stops often enough, and is too glossy for its own good. It really needs to be more--well, for want of a better word, cartoonish. Nevertheless, I did find it entertaining, but I think the lower budget Tank Girl works better as a live cartoon. Beginning
Juggernaut (1974) (***, suspense) (D.- Richard Lester; Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, Shirley Knight, Anthony Hopkins) You thought it just happened on buses? Well, in 1974 a luxury liner comes unexpectedly equipped with an undocumented feature: seven 55-gallon drums filled with amatol (a TNT based explosive) and enough booby traps to give even the most ice-water-for-blood demolition expert a heart attack. Pay 500,000 pounds by tomorrow morning or down goes the ship with 1200 souls in almost unsurvivable North Atlantic seas. Tense, well done formula thriller. Particularly taut while showing the operation of a bomb demolition crew. For those unfamiliar with procedure, one expert in contact with the rest of the team slowly works his way through the booby traps while describing in intimate detail what he is doing (for dramatic impact, the movie cheated a little here). If something goes wrong, the next in line follows the same procedure on the next bomb up to the fateful error of his deceased predecessor, and then tries something different. Harris is the squad leader who is wired, driven, and very cocksure of his own talents--in short believable. The passengers' and the government's behavior is believable. Character development is overall weak; you feel that they had good intentions but just didn't have time in 109 minutes to do it. As a mystery it fails in that you are never given enough clues to answer the question of the bomber's identity. However, a near constant flow of adrenaline helps obscure these problems. Juggernaut once again demonstrates that style and build up are more important to the success of a good thriller than just wall-to-wall action. Can you pick out Hopkins in his presuccess days? The book isn't a bad read either. (10-17-94) Beginning
Julia (1977) (***, biography) (D.-Fred Zinnemann; Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Maximilian Schell, Hal Holbrook, Rosemary Murphy, Meryl Streep, Lisa Pelikan, Cathleen Nesbitt, John Glover) Intriguing character study of relationship between the great Lillian Hellman (Fonda) and childhood friend Julia (Redgrave). Based on Hellman's story Pentimento; this is where paint on an old painting becomes transparent with time, which allows the artist to see earlier mistakes. The story is told in flashbacks concerning their childhood together and, ultimately, Hellman's involvement in anti-Hitler activities in Nazi Germany. The cast is excellent. Robards is Dashiell Hammett, Hellman's lover.
The point of her reminiscences is that Hellman has to completely reassess her relationship with Julia. This reassessment is not spelled out explicitly, but is left to the viewer to sort out. Slow, cerebral, and beautifully photographed. In my opinion, it was too slow at the beginning with repetitious footage of Hellman's early days with Hammett. However, after that the story telling works well. (1-12-98) Beginning
Jumanji (1995) (****, fantasy) (D.-Joe Johnston; Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Bebe Neuwirth, David Allen, Jonathan Hyde, Peter Pearce) Along with Toy Story, Jumanji demonstrates that superb computer animation and graphics have come of age in films. They can now represent a substantial fraction of the film (or all of it in Toy Story); yet they now have the maturity to blend with and enhance the story line without trying to usurp it by all of the time screaming "look at me". Jumanji has a better story line than Toy Story, and I rate it at ***1/2 plus 1/2 for technical innovation. Jumanji is based on the children's book by Chris Van Allsburg, which I have not read. Jumanji is a board game where the players must fight their way through a savage fantasy jungle. Only what happens on the board is real. Williams gets sucked into the game as a young man only to be released 25 year later by two young children (Dunst and Grier). To stop all the damage the game is creating (rampaging monkeys, floods, stampedes) in the small New England town, the game must be played out. Only for each of the four players, a wrong roll or decision could make you Purina Lion Chow. Most of the animals exist only as computer bytes. And magnificent beasts they are. They are so realistic that they are distinguishable, barely, from their real counterparts. In part this was a conscious decision on the film makers part because these are fantasy animals from a board game and shouldn't look perfectly realistic. In addition, with technolgy you can improve on nature. The lion is one of the most awesome ever seen on film.
Jumanji is a fine story, skilfully presented by a superb ensemble cast. Williams is subdued and perfect for the part--a fine mixture of hyperkinetic energy and restraint, which does not overwhelm the other actors' roles. It has thrills, chills, suspense, and humor. Everyone looks like they are having a ball and this infects the audience.
The visual effects by ILM are just plain awesome. The animation allows the story to be written the way the writers and director want it and not by what could be done with models or, perish the thought, real animals. The stampede through the town will stick in your mind long after the fade to black. The beasts' movements are extraordinarily lifelike. For example, the rhino sideswiping a car is dead on (I can attest to this since I recently watched it in Hatari). My wife also loved the way the music by Thomas Ackerman blended with the action.
Jumanji can be a bit intense for small children and the thought of a board game turning on them may be too unsettling. However, there were a couple of 5 or 6 year olds around us, and they didn't seem overly intimidated. So it may be OK for children old enough to sit through and follow a full-length film with parents. As an aside, while I still cannot see it in my mind, the great white hunter and the boy's father were the same actor (courtesy of David Demas). Also, see Toy Story. (1-22-96) Beginning
Jurassic Park (1993) (***1/2, adventure) (D.-Steven Spielberg, Richard Attenborough, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Arian Richards, Tim Murphy, Bob Peck, Wayne Knight, Martin Ferrero) Long awaited, and both more and less than expected and hoped for. From Crichton's novel. The plot, if you need it: Rich industrialist creates theme park with real dinosaurs cloned from DNA in blood of preserved mosquitoes. For a shakedown before announcing his wonder, he brings a financial backer, a few select scientists, and his two grandchildren to the secret island. If you know Crichton, nothing this complicated, scientific, and run by men can be stable. After human and natural catastrophes tip things over, the dinosaurs are out of the bag, so to speak, and begin dining on each other and on their human audience. For adults, the plot is no better than **1/2. However, some of the suspense and the DINOSAURS ****+. The plot lacks focus and balance. Never true horror as in Jaws (****), fantasy as in StarWars (****+), or swashbuckling adventure as in Raiders of the Lost Ark (****+). Spielberg's timing and balance are off too often. He gets too schmaltzy and much humor is misplaced and distracts. Character development is generally weak although there are interesting elements. Some scenes where everyone is bonding with everyone and with the dinosaurs verge on nauseating. Although children can be used with devastating effect (Aliens-****+), the children in Jurassic Park are overdone, and the boy is downright obnoxious.
Now having vented the negatives, let's focus on the strengths. When Spielberg et al. hit, they are wondrous. How good are the dinosaurs? FANTASTIC. They exist; they are; they totally upstage the humans. They range from cute and amusing to terrors spawned in the darkest depths of your primordial fears. Much of the action was completely computer generated and is intermixed with breathtakingly good models. In many places you just cannot tell models from computer bytes--and both are REAL. The scene with the T.-rex and the trucks mixes both. When she turns on Goldblum and chases the jeep, she never existed. ILM's computers, second only to the national defense ones, and superb programmers combine anatomically correct skeletal structures, rippling muscles, and pliable skin to give perfect body movement, all with scientifically correct shadowing. There is remarkably little gore, but respect the PG-13 rating for children's sake. Most of the terror is done by innuendo and misdirection, and it really works. Spielberg knows how to create suspense. The movement of the water in the glass as the T.-rex approaches is one of many classic touches.
As truly frightening as T.-rex is in the movie, the two Velociraptors, arguably the most awesome killing machines to stalk the earth, are worse. About man size, but agile and with powerful, massive, grasping fore claws, jaws and teeth to make a Great White Shark green with envy, binocular vision, and a forward facing razor-sharp scythe rear claw for disemboweling. Want more? Add intelligence and a pack hunter. It doesn't get any worse than this. So bird like in structure, some scientists suspect they were feathered; some turkey! [7/1/08 They have now found enough fossil evidence to know that they were feathered.] Actually, the movie beasts are closer in size to our larger North American Deinonychus than the Mongolian Velociraptor, but why quibble over a few hundred pounds in certain, onrushing death. You are most of the way through the movie before you see one, but with consummate skill, Spielberg leaves no doubt that you want to keep it that way. The opening and the oxen scenes set your nerves a-jangle. Just the construction of the fortress cage (without even seeing the creature it holds) tingles your terror nerves. And when you see them, do they live up to your worst fears? Without a doubt! Their stalking of the children is an instant horror masterpiece. As they search the kitchen in a systematic, coordinated manner, their countenances glow with cold, reptilian intelligence. They radiate malevolence as they pursue not just a meal, but vengeance for their prior confinement by these feeble humans.
The dinosaur stampede was clearly copied from the animal stamped on the veldt in King Solomon's Mines (****).
A must see, close up on the big screen. Go, quiver, fear. Then go again. I certainly will.
Continuity Error: Note where the stretch of flat land later becomes a precipice. (6-14-93) Beginning
Jurassic Park 3 (2001) (***, action, sci fi) (7-30-01)
(D.- Joe Johnston;
Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter,
John Diehl, Bruce A. Young, Laura Dern) The dinosaurs in the first two Jurassic Parks didn’t
get enough to eat, so I guess it is time for dessert. Don’t expect much in the way of
character development, plot, or new suspense. I think the franchise is getting long of
tooth (pun intended) and this should end it. However, Park 3 delivers good, solid, mindless summer
entertainment with a few good adrenaline jolts thrown in for good measure. Pay your money,
sit back in an air-conditioned theater, and let the big screen images and Dolby sound wash
over you. Dr. “No Force on heaven or earth could get me on that island!” Alan
Grant (Neill) gets suckered into returning to one of the misty isles where man’s
hubris has recreated nature’s dinosaurs along with a few things that nature probably
didn’t make. The F/X courtesy of Stan Winston’s marvelous models and ILM’s
computer generated images do not disappoint. Dinosaurs really do walk the earth. The human
actors function adequately and are sufficiently human that we have empathy with them even
when we want to throw some of them to dinos. Of course, we can guess fairly accurately
from the outset who is going to be Purina Dino Chow.
Park 3 is perhaps getting too campy. There is a lot
of humor here, but much of it is black. They
even use an amusing allusion to Peter Pan’s Captain Hook. Speaking of suckered, Macy
didn’t realize he was going to be hanging up there on this big crane with a dinosaur
thrashing around him. Of course he was safe. He was hard wired onto the crane. In answer
to his question what happened to him if the crane collapsed and fell into the deep water,
he got that they had frog men who would pull him out. Oh yes, he hates heights. It was not
the high point of the movie for him. The credits by Imaginary Forces are notable. While
not as chaotic as their normal work, you can certainly see their handiwork. As a final
aside, the end does portend Park 4.