Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean to continue

After a dozen years, a new “Jurassic Park” film has finally been greenlighted, after years of so-so script ideas (Like Dinosaurs being genetically mixed with humans) and false starts, the series will finally return next year. Spielberg will produce, no word on a director yet. This year will also see the original film enhanced by 3D this Spring. Hopefully, the production of Jurassic Park IV will not be as rushed as Jurassic Park III, which was often rumored to have production troubles. Also returning is the franchise Pirates of the Carribean. Johnny Depp of course is set to return as the character Captain Jack Sparrow in this fifth movie, but no word on whether we’ll be seeing anyone else from the other four films. Hopefully it’s better than Pirates IV, which had some good parts but overall was not as enjoyable as the original trilogy. Also I gotta wonder if this film will run the same year (2015) as Disney’s planned relaunch of Star Wars.

Review: Dark Knight Rises (Batman III) (Directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway

If Batman Begins is “Star Wars” and The Dark Knight “The Empire Strikes Back”, “Rises” is akin to “Return of the Jedi”-a decent, epic finale but not without flaws in it’s plot/logic and overall not quite as good. The plot borrows somewhat more from the comics this time around, mainly the 90’s “Knightfall” storyline and also from the popular “Dark Knight Returns” story. (Although the past films had their nods to popular comic storylines). Bane is not quite effective as earlier villains, as Tom Hardy has to wear a mask over most of his face for pretty much the whole movie. He’s kind of like Darth Vader, where his voice and physical presence are all he can do (and his voice is more kind of European sounding than Vader’s deep James Earl Jones voice). A problem is also a lot of the film is filmed during the day, which I think takes out a lot of the feel of Batman, which in most incarnations takes place during the night. On the other hand, Bale,Caine, Oldman, Freeman and newcomers to the franchise Joseph Gordon Levitt and Anne Hathaway give good performances. Still it’s an enjoyable finale, just not quite up to the standards set by the first two.

Movie Review: Ted (Directed by Seth Mcfarlane, starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Seth Mcfarlane)

Fun movie by the creator of “Family Guy” (and also the voice of Ted) is similar if you’ve ever seen the show-raunchy jokes, 80’s nostalgia and references, a New England (In this case, Boston) setting etc. It also has a touching story at it’s heart, as Walhberg’s character has to choose between his pal and his girlfriend (and she has to deal with their various misadventures).

Movie Review: “Skyfall” (James Bond 23)

I’m ressurecting this blog after over a year, to work on some movie reviews. Some are copied and pasted from my own reviews at other websites, for the sake of brevity…anyway, onto the first one:

SKYFALL (Directed by Sam Mendes, starring Daniel Craig, James Bardem and Judi Dench)

The film that “Quantum of Solace” should have been. While that film had poorly edited action scenes, this film’s action is very clear and easy to follow. Craig’s Bond is also more of a traditional Bond here, closer to his portrayal in CASINO ROYALE than the frowning, vengeful Bond of QOS. Like the other Craig films, the plot is more realistic than the diamond laser satellites and invisible cars of Bond’s past (There’s still a gadget-laden DB5 though). Javier Bardem is chilling as the villain (The first real decent bad guy in the Craig series) who has a vendetta with Bond’s boss M. Although the plot might seem similar to Brosnan’s THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, it’s handled much better here (The opening also sort of brings to mind YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE as well). Overall, perhaps the best film of the modern Bonds. Still not quite up there with Connery’s earlier films but still great Bond.