April 2013

Jurassic Park 3D

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Jurassic Park
  • IMDb: link

Jurassic Park

Originally released 20 years ago, Steven Spielberg‘s dinosaur movie (adapted from the novel by Michael Crichton) gets a new run in theaters sporting retrofitted 3D effects. Despite CGI effects two decades old, the film holds up remarkably well and the 3D works (most of the time) to enhance what is still a thoroughly enjoyable popcorn movie.

The film, for those need a refresher, stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum as scientists recruited by a wealthy billionaire (Richard Attenborough) to sign off on his new amusement park which features cloned dinosaurs. Also along for the weekend are the billionaire’s grandchildren (Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards) and his “blood-sucking lawyer” (Martin Ferrero).

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Ginger & Rosa

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Ginger & Rosa
  • IMDb: link

Ginger & Rosa

Writer/director Sally Potter‘s Ginger & Rosa isn’t a bad film by any means, but it’s certainly more concerned with showcasing the talents of its actors (particularly its young leading lady) than presenting a compelling tale set in 1962 London against the backdrop of nuclear proliferation and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Elle Fanning stars as Ginger, the smart daughter of an irresponsible father (Alessandro Nivola) and demanding mother (Christina Hendricks). She’s also surrounded by a collection of equally pompous and pretentious role models (Timothy Spall, Oliver Platt, Annette Bening) who feed the girl’s interest in activism and rebellion without taking the slightest interest in what is going on inside Ginger’s impressionable young mind.

The calm in the storm for Ginger comes in the form of her lifelong best friend Rosa (Alice Englert). By far the more extroverted and promiscuous of the pair, Rosa continues to push Ginger into taking chances and having fun.

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R.I.P. Roger Ebert (1942 – 2013)

/ / News

news-and-notes-roger-ebertWe’ve lost a good one. Sad to report that movie critic Roger Ebert has passed away after a prolonged battle with cancer. I’ll always remember Ebert best debating with Gene Siskel on Sneak Previews and later At the Movies, which was my introduction to film criticism. Gene Siskel passed away in 1999 (has it really been that long?), and now his former friend and confidant, who continued to give his thumbs up and thumbs down on movie reviews for more than 40 years, has passed away as well. It’s hard to imagine what modern film criticism and movie reviews would be like without the influence of Ebert and the thousands, and thousands of reviews he wrote over the years. Much like Siskel, he will be missed. For more on the man check out this piece from the Chicago Sun-Times where Ebert worked reviewing movies for 46 years.

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Psych – Cirque du Soul

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Psych – Cirque du Soul
  • tv.com: link

“I need you to take this vase and go pee in it.”

Psych - Cirque du Soul

In an attempt to bond with Rachael’s (Parminder Nagra) son, Gus (Dulé Hill) takes Maximus (Mateen Devji) to the circus not realizing Shawn (James Roday) has been hired to by a member of the circus (Kirsten Prout) only to have the young boy witness the death of the missing person the psychic detective was hired to find. Needing to get closer to the action to investigate what might be a murder, Shawn and Gus take jobs with the circus as the yodeler and master of ceremony.

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Fatale #13

/ / Comics

Fatale #13Writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips provide a single-issue tale of another Fatale. Set in the Old West, we’re introduced to “Black” Bonnie Smith, a woman with the (eerily familiar) power to bend men to her will and a bloody past that includes the slaughter of an Indian village and dying twice before meeting a pair of men who would change her life.

Killed and then kidnapped by a Native American named Milkfred and a elderly snake oil salesman, both who are immune to her spell, Bonnie is saved from a (eerily familiar) cult who have been hunting her for days. For the first time in years Bonnie has more questions than answers and continues travelling with the unlikely pair to a lighthouse on the prairie to grab the group’s bible which may just have the answers they all seek.

Once again Brubaker and Phillips craft tale with familiar characters in new settings. I’d like a little more revelation about the cults as we see them over time, but the various protagonists continue to entertain. Worth a look.

[Image, $3.50]

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