Movie Moan 2015: Episode 12 - Jurassic Waste
Wed, June 17, 2015
Classic Movie Moan
Phil, Jamie and Matt have quite a clash of opinions on the mega box office behemoth 'Jurassic World'. One is utterly disappointed, one thinks it's ok, one is indifferent. The only thing we can agree on is that Phil won't be getting a point for this round of the box office predictions game (5:10).
'Terminator: JennYsissies' is soooooooo close folks. One last chance for us to make some cheap Arnold parenting jokes before we see it. (32:13)
On a more positive note, Matt has seen Pixar's latest 'Inside Out' and he's got good news for all of us (38:02).
Memo To The Executives
It's the second part of our look at how to turn 'Mass Effect' into a really good film. Don't worry folks, we'll only take an hour of your time (45:33).
Cinematic Happy Comfort Food
It's finally Jamie's turn to pull a classic movie off the shelf and tell us why it's worth grabbing whenever you need that sweet spot filled. So let us take you into the filth and decay of The Dark Ages as we explore the birth, life and death in one 140 minute flawed masterpiece of filmmaking; 'Excalibur' (1981) (1:45:50).
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Reader Comments (4)
Going into JURASSIC WORLD, all I required was that it be a fun time at the movies, nothing more. JURASSIC PARK is the single most formative cinematic experience of my life, and I knew there was just no chance WORLD would even get close to touching that impact. And it doesn’t. But I do think it’s a fine amount of fun.
What I’m going to say next I mean genuinely, Phil: I’m sorry so many of this summer’s movies have misfired for you so far. I’ve had summers like that where not much worked for me, and it can be a bummer.
Terrific section on EXCALIBUR. Such a hugely underrated (by the general public) film. It’s a gorgeous piece of work.
Also, you did have me almost in stitches with your version of a Michael-Caine-as-Alfred Diet Coke commercial!
No desire to see Jurassic World - but in hindsight dinosaurs will be always be popular with the next generation of kids and everyone seems to have been looking for a change of pace from the steady diet of superhero movies. JP is a one movie story and the sequels will always be hobbled by the fact that the characters must be inherently stupid to keep the story going on.
As for Genisys("And tell me everything you know about... Project Genesys" - see, very easy to spell and say ;-) ) I'm looking forward to it. Hope it taps into the same vein that made the Star Trek reboot work so well.
Matt and Phil, your enthusiasm for Mass Effect is so infectious that I've decided to retry playing the games. BTW - Origin is having a sale and, for those that are curious, you can get the PC version of the trilogy for a nifty $15! My previoius try was with a console version and the horrendous inventory system and control system turned me off. The PC version of the first game is so much better in this respect.
And to get geeky, in turn, there is an awesome texture pack MOD for the first game that dramatically improves the look of Mass Effect called - M.E.U.I.T.M. - which stands for TADA! - Mass Effect Updated/Improved Textures Mod. This along with the SweetFX video tweak makes the first game look great.
Check out this video link:
https://youtu.be/9MtygeBO7_s
The new ME:Andromeda E3 trailer intrigues. And hits upon a similar idea a Star Trek fan came up with and has been approached by Paramount - http://trekmovie.com/2015/06/18/paramount-acquires-startrekbeyond-com-invites-star-trek-beyond-fan-creator-to-pitch-tv-series/ - to pitch for the next TV series. He called it Star Trek Beyond but in light of the upcoming movie he relabelled it to Star Trek Uncharted - where the setting of the series moves to the exploration of the Adromeda galaxy - http://www.startrekuncharted.com/ . Check out his site. He has put up a lot of concept art and scripts. Pretty cool and a great direction to take the franchise.
Not to be left out Jamie - you and Phil did a great talk about Excalibur. Love that movie and the first one discussed that hits the mark as Cinematic Comfort food for me.
I'm with you Phil! Jurassic World was a dud!
JW it's just a redundant, irrelevant, dull and unconvincing cash grab. Creators of this thing try to convince us that they've made an homage to the 1993 classic, but it's nowhere the truth, cause they've misunderstood what makes that picture special, at least from the technical point of view. In 1992, when the first movie was in production, Spielberg and his team did everything to make it look realistic, using cgi only when necessary, whereas Trevorrow animates basically everything, including a hatching dinosaur egg seen in the very first frames of the picture or the bird on the snow seen soon afterwards... It's just unwatchable, without any sense of rhythm or convincing characterization, no sense of wonder or enthusiasm and it looks just cheap (I fully agree with Mr. Gee's assertion here. It really does look like a tv movie. It heavily reminds me of SyFy productions or movies I used to watch as a kid on Hallmark). Howard's character basically symbolizes the movie for me. Dinosaurs are just "assets" here, I guess the cheering audience gets what it deserves for - like Zara - to be eaten by this fully artificial, soulless experience.