The frustrating thing is that I will watch a mediocre movie for fun dinosaur thrills. The original Jurassic Park is in a whole league of its own, but I can stomach the immediate sequels just for some more T-Rex - and Jeff Goldblum - awesomeness. I even enjoyed the first Jurassic World for what it was. Fallen Kingdom was so pointless and so far removed from all the other movies that I really don’t know why it even existed. Even the premise of the sequel that they seem to hint at isn’t any longer a Jurassic Park movie.
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One Cut of the Dead. A film about…well, zombies, but not in the way you think it is. A small budget, but a great effort. Go into it without reading a synopsis, as unaware as possible. A bloody riot.
I think I’d make a great free climber. I’m strong, flexible, I have good grip strength, I’m focused and motivated. Perhaps the only things stopping me are my incredible cowardice and abject fear of heights.
So I went to watch Free Solo instead. Sweaty Palms: The Movie as it’s titled in the UK follows a free climber, Alex Honnold, in his quest to climb El Capitan alone without any climbing equipment.
It’s only like three thousand feet or some shit, who cares.
I never appreciated just how much preparation went into each free climb, they do a ton of roped climbs and take extensive notes and memorise and practice routes, and I enjoyed seeing how much of a discipline it was. There was no stupid “Just call me A Lax Handhold, brah.” dudery. In some ways it made me envious; I don’t recall having that passion for one thing to the exclusion of all others in my life, and if I ever did, I never had the commitment or the resources to do it. The complicating factors of relationships, injuries, and attention are well-documented but not overly dwelt on.
Aside from some minor product placement, a gorgeous film full of natural beauty, and superbly (if a little heavily) scored.
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Of all the movies I saw during 2018, I freely admit that I enjoyed Spider-Verse the most. And I’m not even a comic book fan!
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I’m right there with you.
“That name again, it’s Mister Plough…”
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James Gunn is back in as director for Guardians 3. Very cool.
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Yeah, I was very happy to hear that.
The way the dismissal happened just sticks in my craw.
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Well deserved.
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I saw Apollo 11 in the theater, on the big screen. I’m one of those who think the Apollo program was indeed one of the great Wonders of the World, so was predisposed to enthusiastically embrace a documentary using archival footage.
The film was great, and an emotional experience, especially the countdown & launch of the Saturn V, the landing of the lunar module on the surface of the Moon, and the footage of the astronauts descending to and walking on the lunar surface.
Some of the footage suffered from resolution that was poor, such as the TV images, that did not benefit from seeing on a big screen, however it was amazing to see actual archival footage of the historic events.
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Russell had pined after recent Oscar winner Nicolas Cage for the role of Major Archie Gates, an Army vet on the brink of retirement who’s grown cynical at the end of the Desert Storm conflict. He didn’t think Clooney had the grit or gravitas to pull off the role
Oh, how things have changed.
Good film.
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The Rezort. This is a bad film and I am a bad person for watching it.
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Haven’t heard of it, but your post was worth a chuckle-snort if that makes you feel better.
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The Ritual. A bleak, depressing horror film that doesn’t quite manage to be bleak enough to be harrowing, but is more depressing for its lack of achieving that goal. The ending really does leave a lot to be desired. I’d be more on board if the supporting cast weren’t plainly disposable in furtherance of the protagonist learning nothing.
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Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. I was not prepared for how aggressively bad this was. It’s the first installment in the series to go full horror, but not because it is scary. More because only in horror films do you have this many characters make this many inexplicably dumb decisions all the time.
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It made me sad how bad it was. I’ve enjoyed every other Jurassic Park/World movie for what they were. The original was a masterpiece but the rest were still good for silly dinosaur fun. The latest was just lame.
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Exactly! Before this my least favorite was Lost World, but it was still decent. 3 and Jurassic World were pretty fun for what they were. This was just a travesty. It’s the Rocky 5 of dinosaur films.
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