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Makes one think twice about looking for film commentary via an Asylum forum... lord

"No, this movie does not measure up to the first, but then, neither does ANY movie since then in my opinion (including ALL of the "critic's favorites" from that period of time that I've seen, which aren't many I admit...and for good reason. I like movies that avoid pretentious pomposity and excessive cuteness-for-the-sake-of-jaded-verbal-blather-for-blather's-sake...in other words, critics love these types of films, and I detest them...right along with the critics themselves. They all have the easiest jobs in the world, and yet are quite smug and unapologetic about their ill-gotten perks...and about being wrong all the time).

SCUSE ME WHILE I DIGRESS BRIEFLY: Am I saying Jurassic 1 was better than Titanic, Braveheart, The Sixth Sense, Traffic, Fargo, or any other movie of the past 8 years that most critics "get off on"? HELL YES I AM! The First Jurassic is the number 5 movie of all time, from where I sit."

I had to read the above twice to make sure what I was reading was actually printed. Sadly, it remained clear and unwavering, even though my mind seemed to be swaying a tad bit just from the simple concluding sentence above. In fact, this rating of Jurassic Park as the number five film of all time combined with the notion that no better film has been made since the release of said blockbuster leaves me wondering about the intelligence of entering the Audio/Video Asylum for enlightened discourse on the subject of film.

Obviously, the post was pure opinion...but still, I am at a loss as to how any human could state something of this notion; indeed, I can think of a few films this very YEAR that bettered Jurassic Park (pt. 1) in all ways except special effects, something that I usually rank low on the totem pole for reasons to attend a film. Besides the special effects of Jurassic Park, I felt the film to be about as deep and engaging as a trip to Coney Island for a double helping of cotton candy and box of Cracker Jacks. As said in other comments here, the film was good summer fun, much like listening to the 1812 Overture via a Krell system running on Wilson Grand Slams. For engaging the mind and soul, this movie, and the system in comparison, is likely to leave you feeling about as rewarded as sitting in a vat of flaxen seed (although there is something to be said of this).

But if you take a movie as simple as the wonderful You Can Count on Me, it makes the overstuffed Jurassic Park look like a lumbering, over-hyped, shock stick stimulii, vehicle it is, with plastic, stereotypical characters, cliche plot-line and villians, with the only redeeming features being the hapless beasts being used on the Island.

Even the little low-budget Memento, discussed below in this same forum, was a far more engaging and rewarding film that challenged the audience to use their skull contents rather than further strengthen the video game receptor zones located in the base of the skull that are excited by the Jurassic Park ilk. I will give that movie this much credit; the special effects regarding the dinosaurs were really top notch and on another level altogether. The film did rightly deserve the Academy Award (whatever that's worth) for this aspect.

It seems as if the-real-CarlEber is discounting most of the little, low budget movies that lack the real "pretentious pomposity" of the Hollywood-profit motive laden movies that inhabit most the screens across the US. Unfortunately, these are not the movies where you can test the Dolby soundtrack while hearing the roar of a Zero honing in on the USS Arizona, the explosion catapalting a car into a mid-air 360, or the howl of a Spinosaurus loping into a den of luckless fetal position humans.

Might I suggest attending a few more movies that inhabit a place slightly below the radar of the trailers previewed on Fox, TNT, and the ever-enlightening USA-Today.

kelly holsten




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