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Monday, August 10, 2015

Summer 2015 Capsule Movie Reviews

In the past I’ve written a few mini-reviews of films after seeing them in theater, but this year I’ve been too tired or busy to type my impressions. So better late than never here are three micro-reviews of films I’ve seen this summer at the nearby Spring Grove Cinema.

Jurassic World

First a disclaimer has to be made: I’ve never been a fan of the franchise despite being a kaiju and science fiction lover. The first flick was entertaining, if not very memorable, and what little I saw of the sequels they were pretty abysmal. This opinion puts me in a tiny minority, of course. So it was with low expectations I went into the darkened theater to watch dinosaurs once again run amok.

Expecting a popcorn based confection with no style or substance, I was very surprised to find a genuinely tasty plot blended perfectly with intelligent action along with surprising amounts of emotional moments. Likeable characters played by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard carried the movie mainly due to a very cookie cutter villain played by Vince D’Onofrio (see Daredevil on Netflix to see what he’s really capable of) and a mixed effort by the supporting cast.

Thursday, August 06, 2015

Great Video on CG in Modern Movies


I have been known to complain about poor computer generated special effects in movies and also films that seem to exist only to bombard the audience with artificial imagery, so this video was of great interest during my browsing the Net today. Particularly fascinating is the usage of CG for things we don't even notice -- watch the whole thing. It may change your viewpoint. The final analysis is something I agree with and bless Rocket Jump for including Ray Harryhausen's work at the end.