July 9, 2010

An oldie, but a greatie! I absolutely adore this movie and it's one of my (few) favorite Spielberg films. And what's funny is when I was five, I was so scared by this movie that by the time the T-rex chomps down on the lawyer, I had run from the room not to return until it was over. But as an adult, I love it. I even read the book in 8th grade and it has so much about genetics that by the time I got into Biology in High School, I had a step up in the class (first and only time ever!).

What I love so much about this movie is that it is a huge turning point in the difference between "old" film and the new CGI age. At the time, it was not possible to do a completely convincing CGI dinosaur film, but the total use of puppets was just not something Spielberg was interested in. So, this film blends them both. And perfectly, I might add. I could go through the film and point out what is a puppet and what is not (even more amazingly what the actors are actually seeing and what they aren't) and if you are a shrewd film watcher, you might be able to figure it out, but really, why bother? It still looks so fantastic!

I must say that I end up quoting this movie easily on a weekly basis. 90% of them delivered by the absolutely amazing Jeff Goldblum, this man can do no wrong in my eyes, ever. Here are some of my all-time favorites.

[Amusing how often this comes to my mind.]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: God help us; we're in the hands of engineers.

[I say this with a ridiculous frequency, or at least think it with ridiculous frequency...]
Ray Arnold: Hold on to your butts.

[Whenever I speak computer nerd this line comes to mind...]
Lex: I'm a hacker!
Tim: That's what I said: you're a nerd.
Lex: I am not a computer nerd. I prefer to be called a hacker!

Henry Wu: You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will... breed?
Dr. Ian Malcolm: No, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.

[why did he not win an Oscar for this line?]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here: it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility... for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you want to sell it!

[I really want this on a shirt I love it so much.]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs...
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth...

Muldoon: Clever girl.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, expands to new territory, and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously.

Okay, I realize this has been mainly quotes. Oops. Oh well, this film perfectly blends action, science and humor in one terrifying blend.
Need a movie for the kids on the same theme? Don't do what my parents did to me, get Land Before Time. That's for the kiddos.

First, I have to give a little shout out to this site (non-craft shirt, but very cool). If anyone wants to bribe for any reason, let it be known...
Snorgtees.com

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Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
July 3, 2010

With this film having just come out on DVD I thought appropriate to review something I saw far too many times in theaters.

Now first off, I LOVED the books, so there's a slight bias in my review there. But I also LOVED the movie. Why? Not sure. Maybe because it was totally entertaining. Or maybe Logan Lerman is pretty sweet on the eyes. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed it and wished it had done better in the box office. A lot of the faithful readers complain over the adaptation of the book to the screen. And, yeah, it is different, but there are a lot of problematic cinematic issues with the book. For one, it is very episodic, which is great for young readers, keeps them interested, but incredibly hard to do well in a film. Films are short! This also influenced the actors' ages. It's hard to coordinate 12 year olds constantly getting rides and such, though I think after the film came out this was less of an annoyance to the readers. Another big irritation is the whole 'going after my mother' plot. But, dear readers of the Percy Jackson series, you must admit that even the book going off after a lighting bolt where you have no idea where it is, is thin reasoning at best. Even in a kids book. The mother subplot in the book is a much better plot for the movie. Flows better.

Now, all that aside, I still really enjoyed the costumes, casting, humor and even action! Christopher Columbus kind of sapped me out with the first two Harry Potter films, but he redeemed himself very well! There were still sap bits, I mean he is a family film director after all. Now this seems obvious, but keep a watch out for Logan Lerman, that kid is going places. He's already signed up for The Three Musketeers and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (which I could NOT be more excited for! The book is awesome!).

Great movie for kids and adults!

And now, for the Percy Jackson goodies!! (Be warned, there is some shameless self-promotion on the first two items. :)

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