MOVIE REVIEW | Fay Grim (2006)

“You see? They have to bludgeon a man into obscurity before they’ll acknowledge his genius.”

When I finished watching Hal Hartley’s 1997 movie Henry Fool, I thought, “Henry Fool is a movie that should be hard to like, because its characters are people that should be hard to like… Yet, for all of that, Henry Fool makes you care about all of them and wish for them to find some sort of happiness and fulfillment.” What I did not think was, jeez, I’d love to see these characters a decade later, mixed up in some spy thriller hijinks. I may not have known I wanted it, but Hartley gave it to me anyway, with Fay Grim.

Henry Fool ended with Simon Grim (James Urbaniak) giving the titular Henry (Thomas Jay Ryan) paperwork to use Simon’s identity to flee America. Now, almost a decade later, Simon is in jail for aiding and abetting Henry’s escape. While Simon’s sister, Fay (Parker Posey) is raising the teenaged son (Liam Aiken as Ned) fathered by Henry. Simon is still a world famous, award winning poet, even if he has to write from behind bars. While his editor, Angus (Check Montgomery) thinks they can cash in on Simon’s incarceration by finding and publishing Henry’s epic novel and self proclaimed masterpiece, something he called his Confessions.

MOVIE REVIEW | The Fly (1986)

“Oh are you serious? A monkey just came apart in there.”

David Cronenberg directing.   Jeff Goldblum in the starring role.  Geena Davis as the love interest.  That’s a pretty 80s-tatsic trifecta right there.  And while Davis flirted with a year or two of superstardom, and Goldblum has always been a constant in the years since, bringing his particular brand of weirdness to all sorts of movies, I’d say it’s the director’s name that is still the most synonymous with this movie all these years later.  Because even though I’d never seen The Fly before now, I had always known it as a David Cronenberg movie.

Awkwardly flirting at some sort of science exhibit (or is it an art show?  I really don’t know), Seth (Goldlbum) meets journalist Veronica (Davis) and convinces her to come back to his home / lab.  Once there, he shows her his life’s defining work.  Using one of Veronica’s stockings as the guinea pig, Seth teleports it from one pod to another, 15 feet across the room.  Veronica is blown away and wants to write about it for a magazine.  Seth begs her not to, but she leaves determined to publish the story.

MOVIE REVIEW | ***JURASSIC WEEK*** The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

“Saddle up, let’s get this moveable feast under way!”

These days, when a franchisable movie is mega successful, it’s not a question of if it will get a sequel, but a question of how many sequels will be shit out before the studio reboots the series and starts again from the beginning.  But in the 90s, sequels were still a little more of a novelty.  And they never had the prestige of their series’ predecessors.  So when it was announced that Jurassic Park would not only be getting a sequel, but that Steven Spielberg would also be back behind the camera, it was a pretty big deal.  Not enough of a big deal for me to be assed seeing it apparently, but I’m here now, aren’t I?  So get off my back, because I just watched The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

After the debacle of his dinosaur filled amusement park, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has lost control of his company that cloned said dinosaurs, and is now scared of how his nephew (Arliss Howard as Peter Ludlow) will wield his power as the company’s new head.  Especially in regards to Site B.  You see, the island of the original movie was just for the tourists.  There was an entire second island where the dinosaurs were bred.  After a severe hurricane, Site B was abandoned.  But it turns out, left to their own devices, the dinosaurs have spread, bred and built an entire prehistoric eco system.

MOVIE REVIEW | ***JURASSIC WEEK*** Jurassic Park (1993)

“Can’t just suppress 65 million years of gut instinct.”

For the last few months, it has seemed like people have been trying to convince themselves they were excited about Jurassic World.  Or at least, I felt like they were trying to convince themselves.  Then, a few weeks ago, it opened and broke the box record for highest grossing opening weekend ever.  So I guess people had been genuinely excited about Jurassic World and I just projected my own ambivalence about the movie on to them.  Then I realised that the reason I was so ambivalent while the rest of the world was getting excited, was because I’ve never seen a single movie in the Jurassic franchise.   I guess I had nothing to get excited about.  So, it’s time to join the rest of the world in getting excited about Jurassic World.  But before I can see it, I have to catch up, starting with the original, Jurassic Park.

Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neil) and Dr Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) are working on an archaeological dig for dinosaur bones when they’re summoned by eccentric billionaire, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), whisking them away to a secluded island somewhere in Central America.  Joining them is mathematician, Dr Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum).  Landing on Hammond’s island, the three doctors soon have their minds blown when they see that Hammond and his scientists have brought dinosaurs back to life.

MOVIE REVIEW | The Big Chill (1983)

Film maker’s telling truly personal stories can go one of two ways. When Scorsese gave us Mean Streets, we got a ground breaking, genre redefining classic that gave new meaning to the word ‘gritty’. Unfortunately , when Lawrence Kasdan did it, we got a naval gazing, self felating in-joke nostalgia fest. Even worse, it became a bit of an era defining classic. We got The Big Chill.

After the suicide of Alex, a group of old college friends who have all mostly lost touch, end up spending a weekend together, reconnecting, unearthing feuds that should have been left buried, and trying to come to terms with the death of their friend. But this isn’t just any group of old college friends. This is an all star cast of the early 80s’ biggest names.