TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV series) 2015

Danger Mouse - Episode 1

Allo, Allo!

The Last Broadcast

I saw Jurassic World last night. I had no desire to see this whatsoever, but my father wanted to go see it with his grandsons. So free movie night. I saw the original 20 years ago and never bothered with the sequels. Take all that into consideration before you read any further.

Spoiler:

Also, my brother brought his 5 year old son to a PG-13 movie where dinosaurs eat people. He left in tears. I tried to warn him ahead of time.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I saw Jurassic World last night. I had no desire to see this whatsoever, but my father wanted to go see it with his grandsons. So free movie night. I saw the original 20 years ago and never bothered with the sequels. Take all that into consideration before you read any further.

Spoiler:

Also, my brother brought his 5 year old son to a PG-13 movie where dinosaurs eat people. He left in tears. I tried to warn him ahead of time.

I had a feeling that would be the case with this movie. But amazingly, it set big time box office records so it has that going for it. I doubt I won't see it until it's available on Netflix.

So it's basically the same plot as the original one. As long as the CGI is top notch I'm OK with that. But I can wait until the Blu-ray comes out.

tohostudios wrote:

So it's basically the same plot as the original one.  As long as the CGI is top notch I'm OK with that.  But I can wait until the Blu-ray comes out.

That's what made the movie that much more inane. At least in the first one, they had nothing to compare it too. Sure, Jeff Goldblum kept telling them "Hey, maybe we shouldn't", but they didn't know any better.

This version, they looked at the disaster of the first park and collectively said "Let's go even bigger. No way it could go wrong this time."

As for the CGI, eh, I guess it's pretty good. Me personally, I can take or leave all the computer stuff anymore. Gimme old-fashioned real stunts and effects. Since we all know dinosaurs didn't really exist anyway, I guess these looked real enough.

The primary lesson of all monster movies from the 1950s to now is:  a) plot is wholly unimportant, cause it's just an excuse to kick the action into gear.  b) characters are wholly unimportant as long as you have at least one likable lead actor the audience can hang onto.  The only thing that audiences go to see is the monster mayhem.  This holds true for everything from The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms to Jurassic World.  When I was a kid watching Japanese monster movies I wasn't interested in the actors or the story, I just wanted to see Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan stomp on buildings and fight.  

If you're looking for logic in a monster movie, you're definitely barking up the wrong genre.  

and with these numbers I'm sure Universal already has someone working on a script for the sequel...

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $234,151,090   42.6%
+ Foreign: $315,611,864   57.4%
= Worldwide: $549,762,954

P.S. - The original Jurassic Park was SERIOUSLY dumbed-down compared to the Michael Crichton novel it was based on.

S.D. wrote:

Don't watch a cheap print of Metropolis from one of those budget grey market sets.  It has been beautifully restored in recent years and if you're going to watch it, invest in an actual copy.  

This this this. You will regret watching those cheaper copies. They are a terrible reflection of its quality.

"Batman Begins" (2005)



Ten years ago this week (has it really been that long?), Christopher Nolan brought Batman back to the big screen in a very big way and kicked the feeding frenzy for comic book movies into high gear. I still like "The Dark Knight" w/Heath Ledger as the Joker better than this one by just a smidge, but at the time of its release, "Begins" was the best damn Bat-Movie ever and it is holding up very well.

I watched 'The Comic Book Men', which is produced and sort of hosted by director Kevin Smith, and I hate to admit it but I enjoyed the show, it indulged my inner nerdiness

Laverne & Shirley
Carol Burnett Show
One Day At A Time

Quote :

The primary lesson of all monster movies from the 1950s to now is: a) plot is wholly unimportant, cause it's just an excuse to kick the action into gear. b) characters are wholly unimportant as long as you have at least one likable lead actor the audience can hang onto. The only thing that audiences go to see is the monster mayhem.

Which is precisely why I rarely see monster movies.

Quote :

P.S. - The original Jurassic Park was SERIOUSLY dumbed-down compared to the Michael Crichton novel it was based on.

Yes, it was. I read the book after I'd seen (and loved) the movie... if they'd been more faithful to the novel and hadn't "Spielberged" it into a family thrill-ride sort of thing, it actually could've been a pretty badass horror film!!

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

P.S. - The original Jurassic Park was SERIOUSLY dumbed-down compared to the Michael Crichton novel it was based on.

Yes, it was. I read the book after I'd seen (and loved) the movie... if they'd been more faithful to the novel and hadn't "Spielberged" it into a family thrill-ride sort of thing, it actually could've been a pretty badass horror film!!

I made the mistake of reading the novel before I saw the movie, so I was one of the few people at the movie theater in '93 quite disappointed with what I was seeing on the screen.

Quote :

I made the mistake of reading the novel before I saw the movie, so I was one of the few people at the movie theater in '93 quite disappointed with what I was seeing on the screen.

That was me during the sequel, "The Lost World." I read that book before the movie came out and if memory serves, very little of the novel made it onto the screen aside from the title. By the time a T-Rex was rampaging through the streets of San Diego (or wherever it was), I was like "F**k this movie," haha.

I saw some of it again recently on AMC and I didn't hate it as much but that might be because it's been so many years that I don't remember much of what happened in the book anymore. At the time though, I was pretty honked off. It didn't help much when I later read a quote from Spielberg saying that the only reason he even made "Lost World" was because he was contractually obligated to do so, and that his "heart wasn't in it." It shows!!

Oddly enough, even though I'm pretty much sick of the first two JP movies, I still enjoy "JP III," which is the one everyone else seems to hate. It's not Shakespeare by any means but it's a fun, fast moving "B" action flick (with an "A" budget).

I like JPIII as well. It's good junky fun. Nothing more, nothing less.

I read Jurassic Park when it first came out in 1990 and I loved it. I also loved the movie, even though they botched a lot of the material. They clearly didn't understand the Ian Malcolm character, for instance.

I didn't read the book until after I saw the movie...... but like most Criton novels, I would have been disappointed.

Criminal Minds

Hawaii 5-O - season 2

Jurassic World

High Anxiety (1977, Mel Brooks)

Mel's homage/satire on Hitchcock is still quite enjoyable, though it starts to run out of steam in the second half. But Mel, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman make it worthwhile.

Texas Rising
Fringe

Game of Thrones - Season 4, Episode 1

Mr Smith Goes to Washington

Love and Mercy