Author Archives: lovepirate77

Trailer Tuesday: Oblivion & After Earth

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Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found trailers to be endlessly fascinating.

Hollywood loves to compete with itself, releasing two movies within a short time that have similar stories.  Tombstone and Wyatt Earp in 1993/4.  Volcano and Dante’s Peak in 1997.  Deep Impact and Armageddon and Antz and A Bug’s Life in 1998.  Mission to Mars and Red Planet in 2000.  The Illusionist and The Prestige in 2006.  No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits in 2011.  This year we have two post-apocalyptic, “fallen Earth” stories coming out within two months of each other: After Earth and Oblivion. Continue reading →

Review/Analysis: The Croods

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The Croods live in a cave.  That should be too surprising, considering that they are cave people.  But beyond just living in the cave, they define their entire lives by it.  The last surviving family of Neanderthals in the valley, the Croods spend almost all of their time in the cave, emerging only to hunt for food.  The cave has kept them safe, as have the rules implemented by Grug (Nicolas Cage), the father of the family.  Inside the cave live Grug and his wife, Grug’s mother-in-law and the three kids.  Eep (Emma Stone), the oldest child, hates the rules, the cave, and her family, and longs to explore new things, in contradiction to her father’s mantra, “New is always bad.  Never not be afraid.” Continue reading →

Friday Favorites: Favorite Speech – Lincoln

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Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.  It could be a favorite character or casting choice, a favorite song or score, a favorite scene, line of dialogue, shot or simply a moment.  Anything is possible (costumes, sets, etc) and I’d love to hear your suggestions.  Note: Just because something appears here does not make it my absolute #1 favorite thing in that category, but it is simply “one of my favorites”.

There are few things I love more than a good movie speech.  My first memory of intentionally memorizing dialogue from a movie came when Independence Day was released on VHS and I watched Bill Pullman’s speech before the final battle over and over, writing it down and reading along, trying to get both the words and delivery as exact as I could.  A great movie speech can be anywhere from a couple sentences to pages of dialogue, and can be delivered to huge crowds or as a monologue in solitude.  Speeches have been the basis of entire movies (The King’s Speech being the most obvious example).

Lincoln is full of speeches, as you would imagine a movie about politicians to be. Continue reading →

Analysis: The Musical Climax

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I love musicals, but I love musical climaxes even more.  No, not like that, get your mind out of the gutter!  I’ve always enjoyed movies that have either the climax of the story, or at least a major plot point, revolve around a musical number, particularly when it is unexpected.  I don’t mean in musicals, but in movies that otherwise have no musical numbers and are not about music.  In other words, not movies like Crazy Heart, Ray, or A Prairie Home Companion, all of which are in some way about music.

I also don’t mean scenes set to music, either as a montage or to set the mood for the scene, like in Rocky, The Breakfast Club or Cruel Intentions.  I’m not even talking about musical climaxes that are the obvious result of the plot, like in Dirty Dancing, Sister Act, or Little Miss Sunshine.  What I’m talking about are moments when characters in otherwise non-musical movies have some sort of musical performance/dance number/song that resolves their issues, expresses their feelings, or advances the plot in a way that’s unique compared to the rest of the film, and is often unexpected or completely surprising.  Here are some examples of what I mean: Continue reading →

Trailer Tuesday: The Great Gatsby

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Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found trailers to be endlessly fascinating.

Today I’m offering up three trailers from the upcoming 3D film, The Great Gatsby.  All of the trailers use interesting musical choices to highlight the setting and emphasize the emotion of the classic story, and the music is the biggest difference between the three.  Here’s the first one, read on after the jump for my thoughts on it and for the other two:

Continue reading →

Review: Jurassic Park 3D

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Jurassic Park is, to me, a perfect film, one of a very small handful of films which can not be improved in any way.  I’ve already talked at some length about my opinion of the film, so I’ll let that stand on its own and instead discuss the new 3D version here.  We’re currently living the era of 3D re-releases, when 3D screens are commonplace, 3D is the chosen viewing experience of the worldwide masses, and conversion technology has become not only cost effective but immensely profitable.  In fact, last weekend’s top release, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, was delayed almost a year so it could undergo conversion to 3D, a move that proved successful with $232 million in box office receipts so far.

Jurassic Park 3D is without a doubt the best 3D conversion I have seen. Continue reading →

Friday Favorites: Favorite Idea – Star Trek: First Contact

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Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.  It could be a favorite character or casting choice, a favorite song or score, a favorite scene, line of dialogue, shot or simply a moment.  Anything is possible (costumes, sets, etc) and I’d love to hear your suggestions.  Note: Just because something appears here does not make it my absolute #1 favorite thing in that category, but it is simply “one of my favorites”.

Today is an important milestone in Star Trek lore; it is exactly 50 years before First Contact, the day on which humans will meet aliens for the first time.  So in honor of today’s significance (and inspired by my recent trip to one of the film’s locations), this Friday Favorite comes from Star Trek: First Contact, the film that shows us how those events will transpire, according to the Star Trek canon. Continue reading →

In Memoriam: Roger Ebert

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Anyone who has written a film review in the last 30 or so years owes a lot to Roger Ebert, who died today at age 70, just one day after announcing his cancer had returned.  Ebert was the first person to win a Pulitzer for film reviews and popularized film criticism in a way no one else can lay claim to.  Whether in his 46 years reviewing for the Chicago Sun-Times, any of his various TV shows, his blog or even his Twitter account, Ebert brought both humor and a sense of importance to film review that few others could ever match.

I’m somewhat ashamed to say that I was never a huge Ebert fan growing up. Continue reading →

Friday Favorites: Favorite Shot – High Noon

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Hello, and welcome to my new weekly feature.  I’m calling it “Friday Favorites” and it will highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.  It could be a favorite character or casting choice, a favorite song or score, a favorite scene, line of dialogue, shot or simply a moment.  Anything is possible (costumes, sets, etc) and I’d love to hear your suggestions.  Note: Just because something appears here does not make it my absolute #1 favorite thing in that category, but it is simply “one of my favorites”.

1952’s High Noon, is widely considered one of the best of all Westerns. Continue reading →

Analysis: Jurassic Park, Our Generation’s Star Wars

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Before our recent IMAX 3D viewing of Oz the Great and Powerful we were treated to a preview for the 3D re-release of Jurassic Park on April 5th (coincidentally, exactly 50 years before First Contact between humans and Vulcans, according to Star Trek).  This preview was in the form of a 3 or 4 minute clip, slightly edited to make it “suitable for all audiences”, from the T. rex attack on the tour vehicles.  Despite the volume being at levels that could do permanent hearing damage, my biggest recurring complaint about our local IMAX screen, and my general negative feelings about 2D-3D converted films, as opposed to movies filmed with 3D cameras, the scene was still absolutely captivating.  And while I wish they would just re-release Jurassic Park in 2D IMAX like they did with Raiders of the Lost Ark, and even considering that I saw Jurassic Park on the big screen at our local 1920s Fox Theatre, I’m still now officially excited for April 5th.

I still have vivid memories of first seeing Jurassic Park, almost 20 years ago. Continue reading →