The Jurassic Park Trilogy

All praise Steven Spielberg, a God amongst men. If his films were biblical scripture, Jurassic Park would be Deuteronomy. Why you ask? I don't know, but it sounded good.

Jurassic Park
(1993) [Trailer]
Director: Steven Spielberg (IMDB)

Synopsis: Who the hell doesn't know what Jurassic Park is about? Okay, for the people living in hippy commune since the 70's, who haven't seen this.... Scientists create a theme-park on an island in Costa Rica filled with dinosaurs and shit goes south real quick.

Jurassic Park is one hell of a film and when I was in highschool I think everyone I know saw this in the theaters and then owned a copy on VHS. It showcases exactly what I expect from a Spielberg film. Ground breaking special effects, a solid cast (including kids that actually don't annoy me) and a remarkable score. Side note: it's pretty awesome that he made a version of the music with vocals... check it out. Anyways... where was I?

Highlights for me are: Jeff Goldblum, the first appearance of the tyrannosaurus rex, and the electric fence gag... classic stuff. I love this movie and it makes me wish I was a teenager again. Then I realize how shitty I was, never mind, I'm glad I'm old.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
(1997) [Trailer]
Director: Steven Spielberg (IMDB)

Synopsis: Jeff Goldblum, along with a new crew, are sent to a secret island used to breed the dinosaurs for Jurassic Park... again everything goes south quickly. Life will find a way... to fuck you up.

Spielberg returns to direct this follow up, which in my opinion, isn't as successful as the first. I still enjoyed The Lost World, but it's flawed. A lot of what makes part one exceptional, is recycled in this and it works. With all Jurassic Park films you must suspend disbelief, but there are some things that are a huge stretch in The Lost World. Like the little girl half-assing her way into the trip, then later using gymnastics to bust up a raptor. Also the ending, which I won't spoil, but it's pretty unrealistic. However; the film works in a lot of other ways... the suspense is high, the Goldblum is snarky, and the effects are even better then part one.

Jurassic Park III
(2001) [Trailer]
Director: Joe Johnston (IMDB)

Synopsis: Haven't these people learned to not mess with the dinosaurs yet?

No Spielberg directing and no Goldblum acting, I wasn't very excited about the promise of this film, but didn't want to write it off (it's the only one of the three I hadn't seen.) They did manage to get Sam Neill back from part one, which was nice, so I gave it points for that.

The plot is kinda weak and I feel like they could have done something more creative. The dialog also seemed a little stale at times.

My biggest gripe with part 3 is the ending. It felt very anticlimactic and seemed pretty abrupt. Spoiler Warning: when they're flying away from the island at the end, I was totally expecting something crazy to happen and the story to continue on. Then... nothing, just credits?

I didn't hate this, but it could have been so much better.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1978) [Trailer]
Director: Philip Kaufman (IMDB)

This is a remake of the 1950's film by the same name. I haven't seen either one, but I know many consider this to be the best version and also a horror classic. I threw it on last night to see what all the fuss is about... actually there's no fuss, I made that up.

Synopsis: People start slowly changing into emotionless weirdos and a group of San Franciscans fight to avoid becoming clones.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers has easily moved its way into becoming one of my favorite horror movies ever. I seriously loved this film and it's one of the creepiest movies ever made in my book.

I am going to give you a run down of how the creep factor was turned up to 11 on this film.

1.The cinematography. It's all over the place. Weird angles, filming from behind a broken wind shield, and other oddly shot scenes which seem to not fit, but do in an aberrant way.

2. The extras in this are strange. There are lots of random people staring at the camera in the back ground and some of them even look like their faces are blurred out. They'll pop up behind windows, in the street, and in the hallways. It's a great effect.

3. The sound design is extraordinary. The score and all the little perverse noises added throughout help heighten the suspense.

4. The garbage men. There are always dudes taking out the trash, it's a dirty little metaphor.

5. The practical effects. The pods and the clones looked nasty. Love it.

It's also loaded with a great cast including Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, Brooke Adams, and Jeff Goldblum.  Definitely pick this up if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

Gremlins & Gremlins 2

Gremlins
(1984) [Trailer]
Director: Joe Dante (IMDB)

Synopsis: A furry little critter from Chinatown is picked up as a Christmas gift and turns out to be more than its new owners can handle.

This is one of my all time favorite childhood movies and also one of the best Christmas movies ever. Joe Dante is an overall rad dude and probably one of the most effective directors when it comes to blending horror and comedy. There's lots of interesting practical effects and puppetry, which is something you don't see in a films nowadays... stupid CGI. Jerry Goldsmith (RIP) provides an incredible score as he does in every film he's involved in.

There are lots of amazing scenes in Gremlins that I loved as kid and that still hold up for me. Here's my top 5.

1. The final confrontation at the department store... the chainsaw scene is the best.
2. The hatching of the Gremlins at Billy's house and the kitchen massacre scene.
3. The Gremlins watching Snow White... so genius... I love the Mickey ears that you'll briefly see if you look hard enough.
4. The Gremlins getting wasted. Who doesn't love a drunk monster?
5. The teacher trying to feed a snickers bar to a Gremlin.

Gremlins 2
(1990) [Trailer]
Director: Joe Dante (IMDB)

Synopsis: The boys are back and this time they're taking it to the big apple.

Dante returns to direct this follow up and it delivers a cracked out version of part one. It's pretty extreme and goes a bit over the top, but in a fun way. Like part one, I noticed a lot of homages to other classic films: Rambo, The Wizard of Oz, King Kong, and Phantom of the Opera are all given nods and there's also a chorus-linesque scene at the end which is great. There's a very meta scene involving the Gremlins interrupting the movie and taking you out of the film into what is meant to be real life. The blu-ray offers both the theatrical version featuring Hulk Hogan, and the home VHS version featuring the Gremlin's shoot out with John Wayne. Both versions are pretty funny and it's an interesting idea I haven't seen before. 

Although this isn't as good as part one, it's still pretty funny and worth a viewing.

C.H.U.D.

C.H.U.D.
(1984) [Trailer]
Director: Douglas Cheek (IMDB)

If you've ever debated sparing some change for the homeless this movie may change your mind... don't help... they'll only come back as mutants and eat you.

Synopsis: Undesirables living under the streets of Manhattan are mysteriously turning into flesh hungry zombies and a cop, photographer, and soup kitchen cook are the only people who can stop them.

C.H.U.D. is a pretty fun watch, especially as a New Yorker, you'll get some nice views of Nolita in the 80's. Here's a quick comparison picture I put together for this very special occasion: NOW and THEN.

The C.H.U.D.s are creepy and done with 80's practical effects, which I love... there's a little bit of cheese factor going on, but it warms the heart. A lot of the scarier moments were underground in the sewers, which I thought were effective. As with most horror films from the era, the score is primarily synth based, which I normally enjoy and this movie delivers... the music is disturbing.

C.H.U.D. also dishes up some interesting actors who you've seen in other fine films. You have two Home Alone vets... Marv and Kevin's dad. You also have a nice cameo from a young John Goodman who plays a cop.

The main issue with C.H.U.D. is it takes awhile to ramp up, it's a bit of a slow burn in my opinion. Also some of the acting and dialog aren't the greatest.

C.H.U.D. is available on Netflix instant, so check it out if you're looking for some 80's horror.

Prometheus

Prometheus
(2012) [Trailer]
Director: Ridley Scott (IMDB)

I can definitely say that this movie was in the top of my most anticipated films of the year. When I heard Ridley Scott was making a prequel to Alien I got excited, then I saw the trailer and got a boner. This movie has a lot of hype around it, now I'll tell you the truth about it.

Synopsis: Astronauts leave earth to trace the roots of mankind which takes them to a planet where they get more then they bargained for.

Where to start, this movie is absolute shit... I'm kidding it's not shit. I liked Prometheus, but I didn't love it. If you're going into this excepting Alien, you'll be let down. It's a lot different then Alien, which isn't a fault I suppose, but I guess I was hoping it'd be more like it. My favorite horror movies are ones where a group of people are trapped in a space and there's evil critters, zombies, aliens, whatever waiting to get in and kill them. You take movies like The Thing, Alien/Aliens, Dawn of the Dead and you'll see that motif beautifully executed. I really was hoping that Prometheus would follow that track... it didn't. It's really focused on the plot and getting down to where we as humans came from. It's an interesting story, but one that unfolds slowly and in my opinion never really resolves itself. It's a lot of build up, with little pay off. I would go into more depth, but I don't want to spoil anything.

I did love the cast, especially Michael Fassbender, Stringer Bell, and Charlize Theron, all were great. The effects were really impressive, and I like that they threw in practical stuff too. The scene involving the first encounter with the aliens is rad, and the fetus scene is amazing.

This is in theaters now and I would recommend it if you're into sci-fi.

The Bourne Trilogy

I finally saw the trailer for the new Bourne movie coming out this year, it stars Jeremy Renner and is directed by someone who isn't Paul Greengrass... I'm not too sure how I feel about it. The trailer doesn't look horrible, but I have a hard time imagining anyone else other then Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. Regardless, I picked up the trilogy on blu-ray recently and decided to give em a re-watch.

 The Bourne Identity
(2002) [Trailer]
Director: Doug Liman (IMDB)

Synopsis: Secret agent Jason Bourne awakes from a coma with amnesia after being rescued at sea and has to try and piece together who he is and what happened to him.

This is the maiden voyage for the Bourne series and sets the tone for all the others. It's suspenseful, trilling and loaded with solid action. Matt Damon really owns the character and does a great job with it. The fight scenes in this are incredible and do a great job with not getting bogged down or overly inflated... they're just quick and punchy and get right to the point. I never read the books for the Bourne series, and like I've said in the past on this blog, why would I now that they're movies? I know when this film came out a lot of people said the book was better, who cares... this movie does a fantastic job of taking a great story and bringing it to the big screen. I can say with ease, this is an extremely entertaining film and a must for action fans.

 

 The Bourne Supremacy
(2004) [Trailer]
Director: Paul Greengrass (IMDB)

Sypnopsis: Bourne and his boo are half way around the world and trying to keep low key when a turn of events brings him out of retirement.

This time around Paul Greengrass steps in to direct and does a brilliant job keeping the suspense at an all time high. A ton of people complained about the shaky cam feel of this when it came out, but those people are idiots. This style, when done poorly, can be annoying, but Greengrass is a master at it. The shaky cam lends itself to this film and it enhances the actions scenes, giving a personal feel to everything... almost like you're there filming it yourself. There's not much to criticize here, it's intriguing and nail biting stuff with lots of "what the fuck" moments... definitely worth a view if you haven't seen it.

 

The Bourne Ultimatum
(2007) [Trailer]
Director: Paul Greengrass (IMDB)

Synopsis: Bourne is back and still looking to unlock the secrets of his past.

This is probably my favorite of the three. Greengrass has fine tuned the series and delivers 100% on all the elements that made the other two enjoyable. Tangier was the highlight of the series for me, everything filmed there was just the best ever. I love the rooftop stuff and the jumping through windows shots were awesome, especially the last jump where the camera follows Damon through the window. The shaky cam is back and is effective as ever. There's also a lot of cool zooms and over head shots which were impressive. The resolution to Bourne's back story was finally delivered and seemed a decent way to tie up the story. I can't really see where the new movie is going to take  this series, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Planet of the Vampires

Planet of the Vampires
(1965) [Full Movie]
Director: Mario Bava (IMDB)

Vampires are pretty hot right now. You got Twilight and True Blood and let's not forget... Lost Boys: The Tribe. These blood suckers captivate and enthrall us, to the point where people are into this. So I decided to jump on the band wagon and check out Planet of the Vampires, Mario Bava's classic movie that has nothing to do with vampires.

Synopsis: A group of astronauts land on a mysterious planet.. they soon find out they are not alone.

I love Mario Bava and this film further solidifies that love. The direction on this is similar to other Bava movies and incorporates the use of lots of colors and great set pieces. This film is truly impressive for it's age and holds up nicely. As stated before, this isn't about vampires at all: it's more about space zombies, which are way cooler. The astronaut's costumes from this remind me of Ridley Scott's new movie Prometheus, I decided to give you a little side by side comparison HERE. I definitely enjoyed this movie a lot and hopefully they'll be bringing it to blu-ray soon so I can own a proper version, till then it's on Netflix instant for your viewing pleasure.