Jurassic Park, 1993

Jurassic park, 1993
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum



Stage: Home, late night TV selection.



Jurassic park in short: Huge advancements in scientific technology have been able to create an island full of living dinosaurs. John Hammond has invited four individuals, plus his two grandchildren to join him at Jurassic Park. But will everything go to plan? Especially when one of the parks own workers attempt to steal the dinosaurs embryos, and have to shut down all the electricity in the process. It's now a race for survival with everyone located all over the island.



Preps. OMG, again on TV? This is a classic, need to review it one more time.


Reality: This was a masterpiece at the time of creation. Spielberg made a breakthrough as he was the first guy to offer dinosaurus and dino world with its glory and disaster. I remember standing in a queue for a decade before I got the tickets. Therefore I admire the classical aspect of this piece. The same impact as the first King Kong, I might add. Maybe the same as Titanic.
Now, the real story behind isn't about the magic park where you get to play with the dinos. The real story is two layered - first layer: Should you play with science and make things that are extinct? Does the nature know the reason and has cause that this species is extinct? Can we make same measures in climate conditions and can make the world as it is now, to resemble the world at that point?
The second layer, I see here, is in the spending the money rich people have. Making (building) things they believe the world is yearning for, but no real evidence. Still, the movie proves there is no simplicity in life and things really get complicated, especially if being underestimated. The human nature, greed, can never be overunderestimated. The movie proves the concept where greed feeds the island to become the torture place for all that are there just by coincidence, on the grand opening. To make the emotional bondage to the viewer, we have grandsons of the main owner of the island, which connects emotions to the simple story.

Obviously the park turns into disaster, we have the chance to see what it must have really looked like with predators beyond control in an environment, where power reigns. Therefore you are in the middle of action, waiting, how many souls there will be at the end and who will win, vicious dinos or humanity (money). For no apparent reason, you would want everyone to die, maybe for the sake of giving a point. You shouldn't mess with the nature, you shouldn't wake what has been sleeping for a long time for a reason and yes, you shouldn't buy what can't be bought (the love of your grandsons for instance). And you should definitely divide between the time where you can do what you want and the time, where you are a good dinner to a fine predator.

The movie is a classic, I love seeing it, yet I am aware of its issues and limitations. But think about the time it was made. We all ran to the movies to catch it.


My personal rating: 6,0 (more than decent, a classic and one of the rare movies on the topic. One of Spielberg's finest works in terms of story and technical delivery).

Jurassic park on IMDB

Mystic Pizza, 1988

Mystic Pizza, 1988
Director: Donald Petrie
Cast: Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor




Stage: Home TV selection. Luckily that night at least croatian TV had some choice


Mystic Pizza in short: Sisters Kat and Daisy work along with Jojo at the pizza parlour in Mystic, Connecticut. Kat, shortly off to Yale, finds herself drawn to a local architect she is babysitting for, while her more tearaway sister starts dating a guy from the money side of the tracks. Jojo leaves her man at the altar; she loves him but shies away from commitment. Meanwhile the fame of the pizza continues to spread; it seems to contain something almost ..... mystic.


Preps: One of the first movies I saw when my mother bought the VCR. It stood in my memory as a sad drama and nothing nice to remember.. now let's see.




Reality: This is an oldie. Not really goldie, but everything in this piece appears in a way you need to switch to a mindset of the eighties. If you do that you don't mind. A similar story to the one we saw in The perfect storm. A small city where you need to get a good reason or mindset to escape, either by yourself or with the marriage. An oldie, because it poses the issue most young girls had and the challenge - to get the right guy, get married, maybe finish off college, and obviously.. how to get acquainted with your own romantic expectations and the reality you end up with.
How important it really is to divide between standards the society poses and your own ego /self conscience, is maybe the best shown with one of the best movies on the topic so far - also with Julia Roberts, Mona Lisa Smile.
In any case, we follow the story of three friends, two sisters and the third waitress at Mystic Pizza. The famous pizza is only a side story for the bigger bang upon a relationship versus career debate, which is going on all the time. When is the time to get married, should you even get married, should you get involved with a taken guy.. should you take care of a career? A very suitable movie with the right taglines for a girl, who is in the middle of same decisions, best if she is thinking of college. Keep in mind, she needs to derive with a mindset of the 80ies, because nowadays, such a movie couldn't make a dive at all, because it would be swallowed by better and more original pieces.
Still, a catch to the eye, seeing Julia in her early roles, because later on she got notorious. This is one of the rare times the director doesn't use her smile yet, therefore worth seeing also in this sense. Always admire when the cast is praised for the acting abilities and women aren't just some sort of sex symbols.


My personal rating: 5,5 (not bad, a memory well surpassing the real image of the piece. Still, a good Sunday night entertainment).


Mystic on IMDB

The Rock, 1996

The Rock, 1996
Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Nicholas Cage, Sean Connery, Ed Harris


Stage: Home TV selection, late night with nothing smarter to do



The Rock in short: Stanley Goodspeed, who lives in Washington D.C., is a biochemist who works for the FBI. Soon after his fiancée Carla Pestalozzi announces that she is pregnant, Stanley gets a call from FBI director James Womack. Womack tells Stanley that San Francisco's Alcatraz Island has been taken hostage, along with 81 tourists, by marine General Francis Xavier Hummel who, for years, has been protesting the government's refusal to pay benefits to families of war veterans who died during covert military operations. The death of his wife Barbara Hummel on March 9, 1995 drove General Hummel over the edge, and now he's holding hostages in order to get his point across. Stanley is needed because General Hummel has stolen some VX gas warheads and has announced that he will launch them onto San Francisco unless his demands are met. Stanley knows how to disarm the bombs, but Stanley needs someone who knows Alcatraz well enough to get him inside..


Preps: Hm. I have seen this at the movies in that year. I was a fan of action movies and this was just the one to fit the description. However, it never left me with a desire to visit this place. Which means I didn't have it in a good memory.



Reality: Well, this is a clear evidence that sometimes even a good cast cannot make a good movie. Not without a good and solid script and in these days of mass production of such movies, without a differentiation from same genre.
There were some standards set for this type of movie from 1988 with Die Hard. It was a lot harder to make a remarkable piece ever since that standard. Not speaking merely of Willis, but of the complete story, setting, trace it left behind. To be exact, in my mind almost none movies that came even a decade later, couldn't live up to the expectations Die Hard has set. Part one and two. Not the later versions, which were a mere dust to what first and second part represented.
Now, The Rock has a story of once good people that got pissed off by actions of their own government. Should veterans get paid or not? A debate for another place or time. Is really so great if you can say you were a part of war and killed dozens, now you need a pension? Whose fault is it anyway you were sent to the battlefield? And who is to pay? Somehow the movie resists average taste with the unique placement. To be quite honest, a lot of people globally want to see the famous cage. And a lot of movie directors must have dreamt of doing a piece there. Anyhow, now we have it, but it leaves me cold. Connery and Cage are the stars, yet I only feel their egos running around and fame from other movies I saw them in. None of that famous energy pours in my veins. I don't know, what is missing. But there is some spirit lacking that could bring up the potential of this piece high above average.
Ed Harris is the rage, Connery and Cage the voice of public, government and themselves at the same time. Fortunately enough we have an emotional distraction, because the viewer subconsciously wants Cage at least alive, because he has a pregnant girlfriend. Now, the time to speak about morality of this fact is somewhere else. Should FBI bomb stalkers, agents with high risk, high mountain climbers, people that have a job or a hobby with a life risk, have a girlfriend even? This makes them vulnerable (and in my personal opinion, a bit egoistic). True, that you cannot choose your missions or visions in life. We are what we are. But we can at least have a bit of an influence on the people around us and maybe the fact if we form a family or not.
As said, not really the essence of this movie. But it slipped my mind while watching. As claimed before, only average action, average scenario and setting. And cast. So gracious, yet so dissappointing.


My personal rating: 5,0 (watchable, if you really are a fan of Cage or Connery, or if you don't have anything smarter to do).



The Rock on IMDB