I’ve got a couple of pieces of news for you fellow space cadets today. 1st is that the sequel to Independence Day finally has an official title: Independence Day: Resurgence. This is the first of two sequels to the 1996 blockbuster smash starring Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum. According to Variety, what we know of the plot is that the nations of Earth have come together after the events of the first film to collaborate on a massive defense program to help defend the planet from any further invasions. The planet comes under attack from the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Seeing as how the film is still a year off from release, I still find it baffling that ID4 would get a sequel at all. Now, I’ve read a couple of the books that were released after the film, but they really weren’t that good. The confirmed cast at this point is Sela Ward, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Liam Hemsworth, and Vivica A. Fox. Not returning for the sequel is Will Smith, who apparently demanded too much money to reprise his role. That’s a shame, because he was the lead in the first movie, and it made him a major star. Roland Emmerich is attached to direct, as he directed the original film. Say what you will about Emmerich, he knows how to destroy the world. Independence Day, 2012, and The Day After Tomorrow are some prime examples of how he destroys the world. He’s really good at it. Lord knows what would happen if he and Michael Bay were to team up on a movie together. I think it would rip a hole in the fabric of reality. But as it is, Fox Studios released the title reveal for Resurgence:
The second piece of news comes as a major shocker: In a tragic turn of events, a plane being piloted by famed film composer James Horner crashed in a remote area 60 miles north of Santa Barbara. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Horner’s death has been confirmed by his assistant Sylvia Patrycja. This is a major loss not only to the film industry, but also the music industry and his fans including me. James Horner has crafted some of the most memorable music in film. Some of his most notable soundtracks include Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Aliens, Braveheart, Cocoon, and The Rocketeer. His music helped tell stories and elevated movies to something extraordinary. A talented individual, James Horner had over 150 credits to his name, making him one of the most accomplished film composers ever. You may not recognize his name or his face, but you will remember his music. The music which gave voice to so many excellent films. He was a frequent collaborator with director James Cameron on Aliens, Titanic, and Avatar. Of all the composers that I truly respected, James Horner is right up there with John Williams and the late Jerry Goldsmith. His passing is going to leave a lot of holes in people’s hearts including mine. His music has touched millions in ways that I can’t even begin to describe. Only a handful can say that they’ve had a career as prolific as James Horner. The Hollywood Reporter article can be found James Horner Dead. I don’t know if they will read this, but my thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Mr. Horner in this difficult time.
Cast:
Sam Neill: Dr. Alan Grant
Laura Dern: Dr. Ellie Sattler
Sir Richard Attenborough: John Hammond
Jeff Goldblum: Ian Malcolm
Bob Peck: Robert Muldoon
Joseph Mazzello: Tim
Ariana Richards: Lex
Samuel L. Jackson: Ray Arnold
BD Wong: Henry Wu
Wayne Knight: Dennis Nedry
Okay, hands up: Who here doesn’t like dinosaurs? No hands? Fantastic. I love dinosaurs. Always have. I grew up reading about these magnificent and legendary beasts. Over 65 million years ago these incredible animals ruled the world. Tyrannosaurus Rex, triceratops, brontosaurs and the like have been a part of our imagination for decades upon decades since their first official discovery during the mid-19th century. While the fossils have been known for millenia, we really didn’t get into studying these creatures until towards the end of the 19th century as we uncovered more and more fossils belonging to creatures of unbelievable size. As a kid, I was absolutely fascinated with the subject. I’ve been to several museums and read hundreds of books. The movies were also a great source of entertainment when it came to dinosaurs. In the early days of cinema, one of the first movies to feature dinosaurs was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World in the 1920s. Since then we’ve seen many movies with dinosaurs in them, including one of my all time favorite classic monster movies, Dinosaurus!. In 1990, a small science fiction book written by Michael Crichton was published: Jurassic Park. This was the book that the 1993 film of the same name was based on. And what a movie it was.
The film begins on a mysterious island with a group of people awaiting a large cage. The cage, containing unusual creatures, accidentally opens and one of the workers is killed. Later, in Montana, we see two scientists, Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler uncover a new dinosaur skeleton when they get a visit from their benefactor, John Hammond. Hammond is experiencing some legal issues and requires some outside opinions on a new kind of park that he’s built. Being offered funding for 3 more years, they accept his offer to take a look at his park. When they land, they witness the impossible: Live dinosaurs roaming the fields. At this point, everybody should know the story by now. But it isn’t the story that makes Jurassic Park so special. It’s the dinosaurs. What makes them so special in this movie? It’s the way they are presented. Over the past several decades, dinosaurs were depicted as these gigantic, ugly lumbering morons. It wasn’t until the mid 20th century that we learned that dinosaurs weren’t exactly the way we had anticipated. The way they actually moved was vastly different than how they were presented earlier films. Jurassic Park made them realistic and graceful, not the lumbering monsters that we first imagined them to be. They are portrayed as actual animals in Jurassic Park and that makes for a far more compelling experience. With the aid of famous visual effects artists such as Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett and the late Stan Winston, Jurassic Park reinvigorated interested in dinosaurs and broke new ground on visual effects. The combination of puppetry and CG, the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park came to life.
All the visual effects in the world don’t mean a thing if the rest of the film isn’t good. Thankfully, Jurassic Park is more than up to the challenge. The story is absolutely fantastic, as the film was adapted from Michael Crichton’s book which had some basis in real science, so that makes the ideas presented in the movie even more believable. The idea of cloning an actual dinosaur is fantastic. Is it possible to do? Scientists have been talking about it, but I have no idea. The characters are fantastic and believable. Led by the fantastic Sam Neill as Alan Grant, these characters come across as real human beings caught in extraordinary circumstances. Richard Attenborough is wonderful as John Hammond, the eccentric billionaire who had a dream about a dinosaur park. Jeff Goldblum nearly steals the show as Ian Malcolm. Everybody in the film steps up to the plate. We even get a decent performance from Samuel L. Jackson, who would go on to be a major super-star himself.
The moment you first see that brachiosaur, you knew what kind of movie this was going to be. It is an incredible action-adventure film filled with incredible chase sequences. Jurassic Park is one of the most intense movies I’ve ever seen. There’s a palpable sense of danger to every major sequence. It also doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s plenty of humor here. Grant’s reaction to Tim and Lex is absolutely hilarious, but as the movie goes on you see that relationship change. Every aspect of this movie came together perfectly. The music by the legendary John Williams is absolutely iconic. 22 years later, it all still stands up perfectly well. It takes a very special kind of movie to pull that off, and Jurassic Park is by far one of the greatest achievements in film. It broke records and is heralded as one of the best adventure movies ever made. It was so good, that it got several sequels. The Lost World: Jurassic Park was also based on Michael Crichton’s book of the same name, and was released in 1997. Jurassic Park III was released in 2001, but wasn’t received very well. Fourteen years after that, we get Jurassic World. This one I have already reviewed, and it was pretty decent, but pales in comparison to the original film. Jurassic Park’s tagline is “an adventure 65 million years in the making.” It was definitely worth the wait. If you haven’t seen this movie…..why the hell not? Jurassic Park is the kind of movie you go to the theaters for. 10/10 is my final verdict for this movie. It’s a movie that truly captures the imagination and wonder of anybody who sees it. Because of Jurassic Park, interest in dinosaurs skyrocketed. We’re still discovering new species, so there’s potential for new stories. With the runaway success of the latest film, we can expect more dinosaurs in theaters. I can’t wait. Jurassic Park is a classic film in every sense of the word and I will stand by that until the day I die. I can’t recommend this movie enough. It’s a must-own.
Cast:
Chris Pratt: Owen
Bryce Dallas Howard: Claire
Vincent D’Onofrio: Hoskins
Omar Sy: Barry
BD Wong: Dr. Henry Wu
Special effects, for better or worse, have been a major part of film for decades. When Star Wars was released, the game changed. Star Wars broke new ground in terms of story-telling, visual effects and camera-work. It turned the entire industry on its head and inspired generations of film-makers, actors, and fans world-wide. Star Wars set a new standard in 1977. James Cameron, who directed films such as The Terminator and Aliens at the time, started to push the use of visual effects with The Abyss. It wasn’t until Terminator 2: Judgment Day that broke new ground again in the use of CGI or computer-generated imagery. The real behemoth of visual effects was realized in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Jurassic Park. Based on Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name, Jurassic Park not only met expectations, it exceeded them. The combined use of CG and practical was unprecedented and seamless. You had no idea where the puppet ended and the CG took over. When the T-Rex first escapes its paddock….well, let’s just say that’s one of the most iconic moments in film history. It was brilliant, exciting and revolutionary. No one had ever attempted anything on that scale before, and Steven Spielberg knocked it out of the park(pun intended). This was 22 years ago, and I remember going to see this film in theaters. It’s an experience that I will never forget. I love dinosaurs and I love movies. Jurassic Park did the impossible and successfully combined the two. 22 years later, we get a new entry in the series: Jurassic World. How does it stack up against its predecessors?
Jurassic World begins as two kids are sent on a plane to Costa Rica where they get on a ferry to Jurassic World, a new dinosaur park that seems to be more successful than the park in the original film. There are thousands of tourists and business seems to be booming. After seeing the numbers falter, park director Claire and her team of scientists attempt to create a new kind of dinosaur, one that will both terrify and thrill audiences. They succeed in creating the Indominus Rex. When things go wrong(as they tend to do in these situations), Claire enlists the aid of her ex-boyfriend Owen, who is training velociraptors on a different part of the island. If the story and plot seems familiar, it should. If you’re tampering with genetics, something is going to go wrong. Why don’t people ever learn?! Jurassic World largely ignores the events of the previous two films and acts as kind of a re-boot. But I find myself hesitating to use that word. I’ll explain why a little later. The first thing you’re going to notice when you watch this movie is that the park as apparently successful and has been for several years. It has a very futuristic look about the whole thing. It’s actually quite spectacular. There’s a section where people get in these clear bubble-cars so they can roam with the dinosaurs as it were. The other thing you will notice is that aside from BD Wong as Dr. Wu, nobody else returns from the previous films.
That’s one of the biggest issues I have with the movie. Dr. Wu is a hold-over from the original film, but if they really wanted to keep the references to a minimum, they didn’t do a good job. Yes, Jurassic World references the previous films….a lot, and not in a subtle way either. I understand that kids today probably haven’t seen Jurassic Park, but for those of us who adore the original film, these references are painfully obvious. Creating a new dinosaur to wow audiences? As Owen says, “Dinosaurs. Wow enough.” That element was particularly cliche, but I can’t argue with the results. The Indominus Rex is spectacular, smart and enormous. When it comes to the dinosaurs, you will not be disappointed. From the raptors to the t-rex, the film is loaded with dinos. Visually, the film is spectacular, especially if you choose to view it in 3-D. Wow. The landscapes are amazing and the CGI is off-the-charts. This is definitely one you wanna see on the big screen.
The action, when it does happen is absolutely thrilling and spectacular with big explosions and people chased and munched on by dinos. But too much time goes by between set-pieces. Yeah, I get you need to have character development, but when characters that aren’t Chris Pratt are irritating, you don’t really care about that. The film shifts its focus from the action to a couple of annoying kids to try and give the film a sense of urgency. You don’t need to have kids in peril to be a thrilling movie. That also brings me to another point: One of the characters in the film dies in an extraordinarily brutal fashion. For a PG-13 movie, this particular death scene was particularly brutal. So, yeah, don’t take kids under 10 to go see this movie. It does get bloody and scary at times. Not that I get scared, because I’m a man and we don’t get scared. The acting isn’t terrible, but outside of Chris Pratt and Vincent D’Onofrio there’s nothing here that stands out. The characters…oh, man. We’ve got a park director, who is more interested in her numbers than her family, we’ve got another who barely knows how to fly a helicopter, and another who is the resident corporate scumbag. I will say, that D’Onofrio does a fantastic as said scumbag.
Chris Pratt’s character is by far the most interesting character that the movie has going for it. His character, Owen, is a former Navy SEAL, who has been brought on to help train velociraptors so they could, in theory, be used for military purposes. That’s interesting because, Owen ends up actually successfully getting his raptor to obey his commands, so when he has to use them later in the movie, they don’t actually attack, because he presents himself as the alpha, or leader of the pack. Chris Pratt has been making a name for himself in action movies since starring in last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy. He’s got the talent, the looks and the charisma to be a major leading star. There are rumors that he could be possibly end up playing Indiana Jones at some point, and I can see him doing that, because you see elements of Indiana Jones in Owen.
The music in the film uses the original theme by John Williams sparingly, but it is generally very good overall. The film certainly has its issues, but I think the whole is more than the sum of its parts. When I first saw a dinosaur in Jurassic World, my inner kid jumped for joy. It is a spectacular film, but you need to be patient, because some of the slower parts of the movie are frustrating. It just doesn’t have the same magic as the original film. I can honestly say that I can still recommend this movie, because it’s still better than Age of Ultron. I liked Jurassic World. It’s a good movie, but it is no way comparable to the original. Jurassic Park is one of those modern movies that I can say is damn near perfect. Will Jurassic World get a sequel? There’s absolutely no doubt. The movie shattered records in it’s opening weekend earning nearly 210 million dollars. So, yeah, it’s safe to say that we will see another entry. If they can lay off the blatant references to the previous films, that would be great. At the end of the day, I’m going to give Jurassic World a solid 8/10. It’s definitely worth watching on the big screen.
Cast:
Brendan Fletcher: Bill Williamson
Shaun Sipos: Evan Drince
Matt Frewer: Mr. Williamson
Michael Pare: Sheriff Melvoy
For people like me who love video games, the name Uwe Boll is synonymous with garbage. There’s a reason for that. Uwe Boll is notorious for directing movies based on popular video game franchises like House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Bloodrayne, and Dungeon Siege. These movies are universally reviled by basically just about everyone who likes video games, movies, or both. They are terribly made with lousy writing, acting, and effects. And yet, we keep seeing Uwe Boll direct each of these movies one after the other. Bloodrayne and Dungeon Siege each managed to get two sequels each. So….how do these movies keep getting made? Uwe Boll has been getting financial help from some kind of tax shelter in Germany, but some people thought and still think that it’s a great idea to take a game and make it a movie without realizing that what works in one medium doesn’t necessarily work in another. Yet, they all keep trying like fools. Boll is also notorious for speaking out against his critics in multiple ways, most notably fighting his critics in a ring. Uwe Boll has been called the modern-day Ed Wood. Well, as far as video game movies are concerned, I would agree 100 percent. There’s only one video game movie that Boll made that I really like, and even then it wasn’t that great of a movie: Postal. Uwe Boll released a video criticizing everybody in regards to KickStarter and IndieGoGo, but I’m going to address that issue in a different post. There’s stuff that I want to say about that issue that doesn’t belong here. Nope, I’m reviewing Rampage. I never thought that I would say this about an Uwe Boll movie, but Rampage isn’t a bad movie at all. Shocking, isn’t it? Let’s get into it, shall we?
The film opens in a small mid-western town as young Bill Williamson is working out and ends up getting the news that his parents are going to kick his butt out on the street. So, he goes to work only to get criticized by his boss for not working hard. After feeling dejected by everybody in town including his best friend, Evan, Bill has had enough of people and decides to go on one of the largest killing sprees in American history. It’s a very simple setup, yet it’s strangely effective and understandable. It’s helped by the fact the performances in this film are really good. Brendan Fletcher’s portrayal of Bill Williamson is really good. He does a fantastic job playing a guy who is ready to snap at a moment’s notice because of all the crap that’s been dumped on him. The supporting does a fine job, but this is Fletcher’s film, through and through. What’s interesting is that the actors were improvising their lines based on the treatment of the movie they were given. As a result, a lot of the situations feel more natural and more in line with what you would expect during day-to-day life. You generally don’t see that happen in a movie very often. Most of the time it works. The whole movie takes place from the perspective of Bill, so when the killing starts, the camera is right there with him. I’m not a huge fan of the shaky-cam technique, but it’s appropriate here. The actual killing spree starts off with the bombing of the local police department. Then, with a bulletproof suit that he built himself, he goes around town gunning down people left and right. It’s well shot, and the blood effects are not CG, which makes it a little more realistic. It’s decent action, but it has me in a bit of a bind. You see, sometimes I end up rooting for Bill to take down certain people like a coffee shop employee who is being an ass, but on the other hand, he ends up walking into a hair salon and butchers the workers. Because we can relate to how the character feels before the murder spree, it makes the violence that much more uncomfortable to witness. The film was released in 2009-10, and we had several mass shootings in the states already, so the film’s release probably couldn’t have come at a worse time. Thing is, is that Uwe Boll has never been subtle or shy when it comes to controversy. I’ll discuss more of that in a different post. There’s lots of gun-fire and big explosions, so it’s never boring.
I’m not kidding when I say this movie is violent. You see images and flashes of the massacre to come, so you know exactly what’s going to happen. Boll’s use of violence is very peculiar. While the character shows absolutely no mercy for most of the screen time, there’s a scene in which he goes into a bingo hall with a bunch of elderly folks just playing along. I was honestly expecting Bill to whip out his uzis and mow everyone down. He doesn’t. The one time the character shows some humanity is a very poignant one. While there seems to be a social commentary in the film, it seems to me that the message takes a back seat to the carnage. The style of the shots is absolutely phenomenal, and the film is well-paced. The film isn’t perfect by any stretch, there is some questionable use of computer graphics that just seem out of place, and some of the decisions that Bill has made are kind of head-scratching. Why does spare some people and not others? That’s never really explained. I’m also not entirely sure I like the way the film ends.
I honestly never thought that I would say this about an Uwe Boll film, but Rampage is a damn good movie. Yeah, it stumbles in places, but the overall quality of the film is light-years beyond anything else that Boll has released. I guess it was a matter of time before he released a good one, but he did and I have to give credit where it’s due. Uwe Boll has crafted a very solid action film with a kind of a message. It’s a controversial film to be sure, but it is surprisingly important given the state of affairs in today’s world. Rampage has garnered multiple positive reviews and even got a theatrical release in Germany. Brendan Fletcher gives a very compelling and solid performance as Bill Williamson, especially when he goes crazy. The action is hard-hitting and unforgiving, but stylish and spectacular. I just looked out my window to see if pigs were flying, because Rampage is one of the more interesting movies I’ve seen in the past ten years. And it came from Uwe Boll. Who would have thought? My final verdict on Rampage is an 8.5/10. I loved it. If Uwe Boll would give up the video game movies permanently, I can see him rebounding as a film-maker. It’s clearly obvious that he has some talent behind the camera. He really does. This is a movie I can recommend. Check it out.
