The Lost World: Jurassic Park. A Review

THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK

The original Jurassic Park became one of the biggest hits of all time. With that, a sequel seemed almost preordained. Thus, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. In a case of "you can't go home again", The Lost World is itself lost in a boring story, poor performances and nothing to justify itself.

Four years after the events on Jurassic Park, scientist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) wants nothing to do with anything about the island. Billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has other plans, despite having lost control of his company to his nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard). Hammond wants Malcolm to go to the hereto unknown "Site B", where the Jurassic Park dinosaurs were created and now have free range over. Hammond wants to have Site B or Isla Sonra to be left alone. Peter wants to bring whatever creatures still there to another site in San Diego to compete with other animal parks like the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Chargers.

Malcolm wants nothing to do with anything with Site B, but he learns that his girlfriend Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) has eagerly gone to chronicle whatever is on Site B. Determined to rescue Sarah, Malcolm goes to Isla Sonra along with videographer Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) and engineer Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff). Unbeknownst to them, there is a stowaway: Malcolm's daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester). More unbeknownst to everyone, Ludlow also goes to the island, accompanied by white hunter Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite). Circumstances eventually force them to join together to stay alive when the dinosaurs inevitably go bonkers. Not everyone survives, but despite Malcolm's incessant warnings, Ludlow gets his creature.

Ludlow will not be denied his great discovery to showcase in San Diego. Inevitably things go awry as the dinosaur rampages through San Diego. Will Ian and Sarah be able to save the day?

I think that director Steven Spielberg had, for the longest time, resisted making sequels save for the Indiana Jones series (and I can make the argument that Temple of Doom is a prequel). He famously resisted making an E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial sequel despite pleas from viewers and studios. Jurassic Park, however, was too good to resist. There could have been a variety of things to take a follow-up to Jurassic Park. The ultimate decision from screenwriter David Koepp (freely adapting the Michael Crichton book) opted to make a film that is dull, lifeless and taking a fascinating premise and doing nothing with it.

There is something irritating about characters who say that they won't do XYZ when we know that they will. It would be nice, for once, if the character said either "Yes, I will go back to try and fix the mess you made" or "I'm not eager to go there, but I will". I think it is because we the audience know that the character will go back. Malcolm's motivation of going to rescue the damsel in distress is not interesting because we do not know who she is.   

Even worse is the character of Malcolm's daughter Kelly. This is the first time we got a mention of Kelly. I leave it to you to decide whether Malcolm's daughter being black needs explanation. It did not matter to me, but one is within their right to wonder. 

It does not help that Chester and Kelly are also awful. Kelly is a terrible character: annoying, whiny and quite dim. At one point, Kelly manages to help Sarah and Ian escape by doing a gymnastic routine to fight the rampaging dinosaurs. You would have to be unconscious to not be laughing uproariously at seeing this moment. I think Kelly had mentioned that she had been on the gymnastics team but if she had, I had pretty much forgotten about it.

Chester gave the worst performance in The Lost World. Robotic delivery and a blank expression throughout, Chester never conveyed any emotion apart from boredom. No one else, however, was all that much better. Goldblum looked equally bored in the film, never trying to do anything new. His expression never changed throughout The Lost World. How and why Julianne Moore is in this film one cannot fathom. Vaughn, I think, tried, but he appeared to overcompensate by being frenetic, at odds with the more sedate manner everyone else had. 

In retrospect, Howard may have been worse than Chester. Carrying a very bad British accent, Howard did not look bored like everyone else in the film. He looked confused. I do not think Howard changed his expression or vocal inflection, as if he was too busy concentrating on having a passable British accent to think about acting. Given how awful that British accent was, he should not have bothered even trying.

The Lost World did not make any sense. How exactly did Kelly manage to stowaway without anyone noticing? When the T. Rex starts rampaging into San Diego, which itself is already bad since the press conference takes place at night, it stomps across a customs office. We see the guards running in terror, but everyone at the customs office never notices this massive monster near them. For long periods of time, no one seems to notice what happened to some of the other characters. 

What sold the first Jurassic Park were the still breathtaking special effects. In The Lost World, they looked, frankly, fake. I was reminded of the Walt Disney World theme ride with the effects being on that level. The green screen looked bad and the animatronic figures equally so.  

As I finished The Lost World: Jurassic Park, I thought that no one had any enthusiasm for anything about it. Sluggish, dull and at times illogical, The Lost World should have remained lost.

DECISION: F

JURASSIC PARK FILMS

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park III

Jurassic World

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World Dominion

Jurassic World Rebirth

Better Man: A Review (Review #1925)

BETTER MAN

Frank Sinatra famously sang of New York, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere". Conversely, British pop star Robbie Williams has made it everywhere except New York. To be fair, he might get recognized if he walked down the streets of the Big Apple; he probably though will get more respectable nods than screaming fans ripping his clothes off. If he came to my hometown, he could walk the streets in complete anonymity. Better Man, the biopic on the former Take That member, is not a bad film. It's reflective of Williams and his public persona: brash, outrageous, simultaneously attention-seeking and withdrawing. It also fails to make the case as to why anyone between New York and California should care who Robbie Williams is.

Working-class boy Robert Williams yearns to be someone. In particular, he yearns to be like the singers his father Peter (Steve Pemberton) so admires and imitates like Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin and his beloved Sinatra. Pete, however, also loves performing and eventually leaves the family to pursue his dreams of being a singer and master of ceremonies. Robert, no academic, has the support of his mother Janet (Kate Mulvaney) and beloved grandmother Betty (Alison Steadman), but also appears headed for nowhere.

He also struggles with deep insecurity and feelings of unworthiness which he masks through an outwardly cocky, downright cheeky personality. His efforts to gain fame come to fruition when he wins a spot in a new boy band created by music impresario Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Harriman). The fifteen-year-old Williams now rechristened "Robbie" (Jonno Davies, with Williams narrating in voiceover), may not be the best singer in the quintet though arguably the best dancer. He is not the creative member of the group, as that role is filled by his frenemy Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance), who has been performing for decades, is a skilled songwriter but has no coordination. 

Robbie Williams becomes a breakout star in Take That, his mix of brashness and pretty looks irresistible to fans and the press. He also continues to struggle with his feelings of low-to-no self-worth, which he compensates for with copious amounts of cocaine, booze and outrageous public antics. Eventually pushed out of Take That, he now must rebuild both his life and solo career. He gets a bit of both through his romance with Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), a member of girl pop group All Saints. Despite his new love affair and a rising solo career, Williams is still tormented by immense self-doubt and increasing addictions. Will Robbie Williams find Angels to guide him back to a balance between being loved by millions and loving himself? Will he reconcile his past to his present and future?  

Better Man opts to use some tropes of a biopic on a musician while adding one new quirk. You have the biographical film subject's musical catalog to chronicle certain points in his life. You have the rise, fall and redemption arc (a point that Williams himself makes in a trailer). You hit the high and low points in the performer's career.

You also have the central character appear as a CGI chimpanzee. I imagine that there are reasons for this decision. Williams, by his own admission in Better Man (the title coming from one of his songs) is undeveloped. There is a British expression of someone being a "cheeky monkey", which Williams' persona certainly fits. It also is something that would make Better Man stand out from other jukebox musical biopics such as Rocketman. 

I also digress to wonder if such an outlandish element would please Williams' ego of standout out, of being so brash as to opt to make something in a jukebox musical biopic that would make it attention-grabbing.

I am not a fan of jukebox musical biopics where one takes the songs that the film's subject is about and using them to fit the narrative. I'm of the belief that songs should be written to fit the story rather than fit the songs into the story. The main difference between say a Rocketman and Better Man is that Elton John's songs are better known than Robbie Williams' songs. Say what you will about Rocketman using I'm Still Standing to sum up Sir Elton's life. At least that song is familiar to people outside the United Kingdom. How many people in America could sing along to She's the One?

How many people in America, moreover, would know who either Nicole Appleton or All Saints are? Oasis and the belligerent Gallagher Brothers who are Oasis' core, Liam (Leo Harvey-Elledge) and Noel (Chris Gun) would be more recognizable, but Nicole Appleton? Better Man wants to make the moment when she removes her mask at a party something that should make audiences gasp. I just was puzzled over why this seemingly random woman inspired Williams to sing this impassioned love song to her.

Same for when we meet the other members of Take That. To be fair, Williams' voiceover does give us at least their names and what he initially thought of them. However, like yet another musical biopic, the Take That members were so unimportant one did not even think they should have bothered. Just like both DJ Yella and MC Ren were pretty much irrelevant in Straight Outta Compton, the non-Gary Barlow members of Take That (Howard Donald, Mark Owen and Jason Orange) got a shout-out and save for the elaborate Rock DJ number were unimportant to things.

There are moments that did surprise me in Better Man. I was unaware that Take That was initially geared towards gay audiences. That does give Williams in his voiceover a chance to quip that he is not upset or distressed over stories that he has had sex with men. He's more upset that those stories say that he was lousy in bed. I was also surprised to see Williams' actual face appear once, when in seemingly archival footage of Take That merchandise, you see his pretty face on a group poster.

I will admit that rather than be moved or shocked when a coked-out-of-his-mind Williams took to the stage with the rest of Take That lying on the floor as they made their entrance, I actually started laughing. There was just something hilarious about this big monkey in an excessively large hat lying barely conscious on the floor as it rises to screaming thousand. I wondered why no one in the admittedly massive stadium audience seemed to notice that one of the performers looked as if he was dead.

Let me now touch on "the monkey thing". I did, eventually, get used to seeing Williams as a CGI chimp. It did not make it any more sensible, especially when he was a child. I thought that perhaps it would have been better if director/cowriter Michael Gracey (writing with Simon Gleason and Oliver Cole) had made the various negative images of Williams that Williams carries around into monkeys. By going all-in on "Robbie Williams is an ape man" deal, it ended up making his metaphorical battle with his past selves during his triumphant Knebworth concert look like something out of a Planet of the Apes film. It was not terrible, but it was odd.

Knebworth might capture why Better Man will not play well in the States. Williams seems obsessed with not just making it to Knebworth but being the main star at Knebworth. As he kept going on about "Knebworth", I kept asking, "Network? What is Network? Why is it so important that he be at Network?" Even for someone who is something of an Anglophile, "Knebworth" is something that I would not have heard of. Better Man, I think, is geared towards where his name is a marquee one, where Knebworth is a big thing. He might just as well have made it a goal of his to play the Neon Desert Music Festival.  

Despite Williams' near-total anonymity in the United States, I did not dislike Better Man. There were moments that did move me. His beloved grandmother's descent into dementia and death just when Williams was about to hit Top of the Pops (the British equivalent to American Bandstand, which itself is now obscure to those past Gen X). The montage of him, post-rehab, going to others to make amends and be at peace with himself is also affecting.

That, however, cannot fully make up for some awful and cliched lines and situations. It might be true that his best friend Nate (Frazer Hatfield) found Williams in a demolished home, using a device to suck the fat off his body. It still looks odd. When Peter Williams berates his son for saying he did not care about him, he yells "I have always been there for you, Robbie". Williams, lying on a pool, looks at him with his monkey eyes and says, "You've always been there for Robbie. Were you ever there for Robert?" or words to that effect.

Better Man, perhaps, is Robbie Williams' newest efforts to do something that, for whatever reason or reasons, he has been unable to do: become as big a star in the United States as he is in the United Kingdom. The film is interesting, though not great. Robbie Williams, working-class hero from Stoke-on-Trent, has achieved great things through a combination of luck, determination, talent and cheek. Better Man is not a bad film so it might be worth looking over. Try as he might though, Robbie Williams will never be his generation's Frank Sinatra.

Born 1974

DECISION: C+ 

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy: A Review

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY

I have seen the comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello meet the Invisible Man. I have seen Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein. Now here I am, seeing them meet another Universal Monster. I have been open about my dislike of Abbott & Costello, the former doing nothing but beating up the latter, who is a childlike idiot. Despite this, I found Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy actually funny, something I could not say before. 

"Pete Patterson" (Abbott) and "Freddie Franklin" (Costello) are in Egypt trying to get some money to go back to the United States. Overhearing Professor Zommer (Kurt Katch) saying that he needs good strong men to move his recently discovered mummy, Bud and Lou arrive unannounced at his house. They are shocked to find Zommer has been murdered.

Worse, the mummy that he found, that of Klaris, is missing. Owing to circumstances from Bud and Lou, the police now think that Bud is a murderer. Desperate to clear their names and stay away from the police, Bud and Lou think their luck has turned when they find a medallion which they hope to hock for some cash.

That medallion is from Klaris, who is the guardian of Princess Ara's treasure-filled tomb. Unaware that two rival groups want to find the medallion, Bud and Lou once again find themselves hunted. One group, headed by Semu (Richard Deacon) is a cult of Klaris worshipers bent on protecting Princess Ara's tomb. The other, headed by Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor) want Ara's treasure. Dragging both Bud and Lou to where Ara's tomb is, Simu and Rontru try to deceive each other for their own aims. Will the mummy return to wreak havoc on everyone? Will Bud and Lou survive meeting a mummy?

I have been immune to the charms of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, finding nothing of great humor from them apart from their "Who's on First?" routine. Curiously in Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, they do a variation of this wordplay routine when they are ordered to literally dig their graves. When Lou tells Bud to "take your pick", Bud picks a pick instead of the shovel that Lou expected Bud to take. From there, we get about a few minutes routine about how Bud's pick is a pick and not a shovel. We get another bit of wordplay when Bud attempts to explain Zoomer's mummy to Lou. The latter is clearly confused over why Zoomer's mummy is still around, growing more confused when told that some mummies are men, and some are women.

Having encountered our dimwitted duo meet two other Universal Monsters, I was leery of them going for thirds. However, I admit that Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy made me laugh. The constant moving of Zoomer's body, with poor Lou always finding it in the oddest of circumstances, made me laugh. There is another funny bit when, after being told that the medallion will bring death to anyone holding it, Bud and Lou keep trying to switch it to the other. 

Even things that normally would have my eyes rolling had me chuckling instead. Bud, for example, is so dimwitted that when photographing Zoomer's body for evidence, he ends up making it look as if he caught Lou murdering the doctor. Lou using his flute to unwittingly both send Bud up in the air with a rope and summing cobras was also funny. 

I think an element in Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy that lifts it in my view is that everyone is basically in on the joke. While Bud Abbott and Lou Costello technically have character names, they keep referring to themselves by their names of "Bud Abbott" and "Lou Costello". At this point, I think even they knew that it was not worth the effort to pretend to be other people. 

Abbott here, I found, is not as abusive to Costello as he has been in other Abbott and Costello films. There are times when Lou gets the upper hand, and while few it is nice to see a little more balance in things. To be fair to Abbott, here Bud is right to be frustrated at Lou. He ended up framed for murder thanks to Lou's idiocy. However, for the most part Bud's physical and verbal abuse towards Lou was small. I can recall only one time, early in the film, when Bud was his usual bullying self. "How stupid can you get?", he snaps at Lou. In his childlike manner, Lou replies, "How stupid do you want me to be?".

The sense of everyone treating Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy as a lark extends to the cast. Marie Windsor, primarily known as a film noir femme fatale, plays a bit against type as the treasure hunter. She is still evil, but her efforts at seducing Lou will bring at least a smile to your face. Deacon plays it straight as Semu, cult leader. It is a laughable suggestion to think that he is Egyptian or some kind of occult priest, but Deacon never sends up the premise. Droll to the point of parody, Deacon does not bother pretending that this is anything serious.

Peggy King, primarily a singer but with some acting credits, appeared in a musical number that has no ties to anything in Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy. Despite having a short runtime of 79 minutes, it does seem to not fit anywhere in the goings-on. That, along with a club number that opens the film and an elaborate dance number at the cult's lair that looks more Thai than Egyptian, are a bit hit and miss but not dealbreakers.

I still do not think that I will be an Abbott & Costello fan. However, it would be false of me to say that I did not enjoy Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. It is good to know that Bud and Lou love their mummy dearest.

DECISION: B-

Dead Ringers: A Review

DEAD RINGERS

Twins, it is believed, are able to communicate with each other almost telepathically. I do not know if this is true. I do not know if this is true or not. However, the twin characters in Dead Ringers probably would agree that they have a greater bond than other siblings. With an exceptionally strong central performance and a strange premise, Dead Ringers does wonderful work in its dark tale.

Since they were children, twin brothers Elliott and Jessica Mantel (Jeremy Irons) have shared everything. They have a gynecological practice and are seen as both experts and trailblazers in the field of female reproductive health. They also take advantage of the situation: Elliot or Ellie, the more sophisticated and aggressive one, routinely has affairs or one-night stands with the patients. Beverly or Bev, shyer, less confident and more bookish, picks them up when Ellie is through with them. Actress Claire Niveau (Genevieve Bujold) falls into that pattern. Unlike other times though, she suspects something is off about the man she was seduced by.

For his part, Beverly has fallen for Claire, making the revelation of the deception hard for the both of them, though not for Ellie. Despite the initial lie, Claire continues an on-off affair with Bev. He now begins to struggle with his feelings towards both Claire and Ellie, medicating himself with her pills. He also starts going bonkers, creating bizarre medical tools and becoming unhinged in the operating room. Ellie attempts to pull his brother together, but will the bizarre love triangle of Elliott, Beverly and Claire bring the twins doom, destruction and despair?

Perhaps I am reading too much into things, but Dead Ringers could be about the duality of individuals, the light and dark sides of a person trying to maintain a balance. I probably am, as this is a story about twins. Still, the appropriately named Mantel Brothers are polar opposites in terms of personality, Elliot the smoother, more charming but amoral one, Beverly the more hesitant and studious one. In their relationship, neither brother built up an independent life separate from the other. Their ties that bind become at times shocking but make for fascinating viewing.

We see this early on when you see them as children. Their efforts at asking a neighbor girl for sex is tied more to their idea of scientific study than pleasure. Here, we see their detachment to concepts like love, their fascination with biology, and the seeds of their eventually destructive lives.

Director David Cronenberg brings a very cold, remote element to Dead Ringers, excellently matching the brothers' overall manner. There is a lot of grey and muted tones in the film. That, however, makes the times that there is color, such as the curiously bright red operating room clothes that the brothers and their team wear all the more eye-catching. It is not done to make things pretty. It is done to have them pop out.

Dead Ringers has the major benefit of Jeremy Irons in those dual roles. One soon forgets that it is the same actor giving two separate performances. In his manner, body movements and facial reactions, Iron quickly convinces us that he is both brothers. Irons' luxurious voice only makes those moments when Beverly is falling apart all the more impactful. You are convinced that the arrogant and cruel Elliot and gentler Beverly truly are different people. 

Sometimes when an actor attempts to play two roles in the same film, it can look false visually or performance wise. Here, Cronenberg does something very clever. He has the brothers simultaneously in the same shot for a surprisingly small amount of time. There are more scenes of them separate from the other. There are also times when, if the brothers are together, Cronenberg will shoot one brother, then move the camera to see the other, and back and forth. This is not a distraction. It enhances both the film and Irons' performance.

In her role, Bujolds makes her sympathetic in her desires for a child, aware as the first woman to catch on their scheme, and tragic as the one who fell for Beverly. 

The adaptation of Bari Woods and Jack Geasland's novel Twins manages to keep things simple but rarely feel long or dragged out. At times, Dead Ringers has an almost dreamlike quality to it. Some of its visions and dream sequences are mesmerizing. Though its Howard Shore score is relatively small, it is elegant and effective when used.

Dead Ringers is a dark and creepy film, but in a good way. It has a standout performance from Jeremy Irons to where you are convinced that he is two different people. Our dual natures of good and evil get a good exploration in Dead Ringers, a film that should be better known.

DECISION: B-

The Crow (1994): A Review

THE CROW (1994)

Whatever the merits The Crow may have, it will always be haunted by the death of its star Brandon Lee, killed on-set with only days before finishing his scenes. Under these circumstances, the filmmakers cobbled together a film that holds up remarkably well. Separate from that tragedy, The Crow works visually in its story of supernatural revenge.

In voiceover from Sarah (Rochelle Davis), we learn of the murders of Shelly Webster (Sofia Shinas) and her rock star fiancée Eric Draven (Lee). Draven had come back to their apartment to find four men beating and raping Shelly as warning against her advocacy for the tenants in their apartment. 

A year later, Draven manages to return from the dead. Horrified and angry about Shelly's murder, he now goes after the four men responsible for her death along with their boss Top Dollar (Michael Wincott), who wanted to push the other tenants out to get the building. Guided by the crow that brought him back, Draven tracks down the four killers: Tin Tin (Laurence Mason), Funboy (Michael Massee), T-Bird (David Patrick Kelly) and Skank (Angel David). 

He also shepherds Sarah's drug addicted mother and Funboy's lover Darla (Anna Thomson) to reuniting with her daughter. Police Sergeant Albrecht (Ernie Hudson), who attempted to save Shelly and stayed with her until her death, wonders if the dead Draven may have come back. As Top Dollar and his henchmen see the Crow and Draven targeting them, it becomes a battle royale to see who will find eternal peace.

It is impossible to know if what we ultimately ended up with is how The Crow would have turned out had Lee lived. I imagine that the film had to be reworked to make it cohesive, such as having Sarah's voiceover pop up from time to time and having the film have a lot of shadow (perhaps to hide Lee's absence). Given the difficult circumstances that director Alex Proyas faced, I think The Crow ended up holding up well. 

The film has an especially strong aesthetic in this dark world, dominated by rain and darkness. There was very little light that I remember, if any. The overall look of The Crow is well-crafted. While you do sense that some scenes were reworked to mask Lee's absence, such as Shelly and Eric's killings, they manage to make the flashbacks more cinematic and even gripping. This might also account for how despite being the lead, Brandon Lee does not appear to be a major part of The Crow.

He felt a bit spread out throughout the film, popping up when needed but also requiring scenes which focused on other characters. For example, we see more interactions between Sarah and Albrecht than between Sarah and Eric or Albrecht and Eric. This might have been the plan all along. I do give credit to screenwriters David J. Schow and John Shirley in managing to take James O'Barr's comic book as well as the revamped plans to make things work.

Again, it is impossible to know what turns Brandon Lee's career would have taken had he lived. Would The Crow had been the breakout role to make him a star in his own right? I cannot say for certain. I can say that, based on what I saw, Lee had great potential and promise. He had an intensity and focus as Eric, matching the character's drive and need for justice. His scenes with Thomson's Darla, where he firmly but gently urged her to take care of her daughter reveal that Lee was playing a complex character. He was driven by righteous vengeance, but he also had compassion.

Ernie Hudson is the de facto costar in The Crow. He was effective as this honest cop who cares about the people on his beat and wants justice for Shelly and Eric. Davis was winning as Sarah, the teenager who was Shelly and Eric's unofficial ward. I normally am not a fan of voiceovers. However, Davis made them work as she set up the story and gave us the summation. She and Thomson had a great scene when Sarah and Darla reconcile. It is unfortunate that it felt both brief and slightly distracting from the overall story of Eric's vengeance on those who destroyed his world. However, given what occurred during production, I will give this some slack.

The film is well-acted by everyone involved. Each actor knew his or her character and Proyas kept them to whatever level they needed to be, whether more grounded or more exaggerated. 

The Crow also has an appropriately dark look, visually impactful while still looking as if it were more fantasy. It also has a strong soundtrack that knows how to use its various songs well. There is the dark opening of The Cure's Burn to Nine Inch Nails cover of Joy Division's Deal Souls. The big song is Stone Temple Pilots' Big Empty, which you can hear briefly when the killers are driving. Here, I do not know if Big Empty's sense of loss fits where it was placed in the film, but it is not a distraction.

After seeing The Crow, I can see why it is so beloved by so many. I found it a surprisingly quiet and simple film, but that is not a negative. It actually makes the film more gothic, tragic and effective. All the elements in The Crow work well, more so given the difficult situation the film faced. One hopes that Brandon Lee can rest in peace knowing that The Crow has granted him immortality.

DECISION: B-

Love, Lights, Hanukkah!: The Hallmark Television Movie

LOVE, LIGHTS, HANUKKAH!

Hallmark Channel is keeping things kosher with another Hanukkah-centered film. Love, Lights, Hanukkah! is curiously part of the channel's Countdown to Christmas series. I guess since this year both Hanukkah and Christmas fell at the same time, it works. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Love, Lights, Hanukkah! even with some flaws that would normally set my teeth on edge.

Restauranteur Christina Rossi (Mia Kirshner) is still grieving the death of her adoptive mother Sophia. The upcoming Christmas season brings mixed feelings for Christina. There is sadness at her mother's absence but joy in the decorating and upcoming Christmas Eve invite-only dinner. Sudden repairs at the ristorante force Christina to shut down temporarily. It does give her a chance to find out about her past. The DNA results come in, and she is delighted to find that she is indeed half-Italian.

She also finds out that she is half-Jewish.

With that, Christina searches out her Hebrew heritage. That leads her to a "close match" of Becky Berman (Advah Soudack). She and her brother Scott (David Kaye) are also restauranteurs who also took over their late father's restaurant. Becky and Scott want to know how close the close match is. With that, they all go for lunch with Ruth Berman (Marilu Henner). It is not long before Ruth puts things together and reveals a family secret: Ruth is Christina's mother! Ruth had impulsively married Giorgio, an Italian soldier, while she was studying in Italy. Giorgio's family forced them to get an annulment and cut off communication with Ruth, who could not tell Giorgio that they had a child.

With that mystery solved, Christina begins exploring what it means to be Jewish. This includes integrating Hanukkah with her beloved Italian Christmas celebrations. One thing she initially does not want to integrate into things is David Singer (Ben Savage). He is a Berman family friend but also a food critic who described Christina's lasagna as "predictable". Christina still holds a grudge about this dish dissing. In both their defenses, Christina had made that David's lasagna while still in deep mourning over Sophia's death. He was unaware that she was emotionally distraught when he sampled her wares. Despite themselves, Christina and David soon start seeing each other and enjoying each other's company. Will they get together through a Jewish mother's intervention? Will their seemingly separate careers allow them to bring these two lovebirds together? Are latke enchiladas kosher?

Love, Lights, Hanukkah! is a surprise in how it actually manages to make the romance between David and Christina natural. They do not officially date until late into the film. They also are seemingly unaware that they hold hands and wrap their arms around each other. Everyone else sees it, but David and Christina do not.

The movie also manages to introduce the conflict that keeps them apart quite well. David leads a peripatetic life and is on his way to Europe to research Jewish influences on Italian cooking. Christina wants to focus on building up her business. While not the most commonplace reasons to separate people, at least it is not without some logic.

Kirshner and Savage have good rapport with each other as Christina and David. I think it is because Karen Berger's screenplay did not force the relationship. In their scenes where it is just them, Kirshner and Savage have a strong chemistry and make the relationship natural. Their scenes are well-played.

Others though are quite shockingly weak. Kirshner is a bit too weepy and almost whiny when not with Savage, who is able to play his scenes with everyone well. As such, it cannot be all director Mark Jean's fault. I give credit to Henner when she steps away from the kitchen table on first hearing Christina's story. She plays the realization that her long-lost daughter has returned well, when she is alone. It is when she returns and tells everyone the truth that things look bad. For a shocking revelation of secret marriages and lost children, everyone seems pretty underwhelmed by the news. Of particular note are Soudack and Kaye, who do not look particularly shocked or upset or delighted to have a new half-sister pop out of nowhere.

As a side note, Kaye also appeared in Eight Gifts of Hanukkah also playing the loving brother to the female protagonist. I wonder if he is condemned to forever play "the nice, slightly wacky Jewish brother" in future Hallmark Hanukkah movies. He did have the few overtly funny lines in Love, Lights, Hannukah! whenever he proposed new Hanukkah dishes. His creations of Holy Guaca-latke and the Whole Enchi-latke will I'm sure appeal to that demographic of Jewish Mexicans who have yearned for kosher tamales.

Are tamales kosher? At my family's Christmas party, brisket was pretty big. Could we be descendants of Spanish Jews forced to convert? However, I digress.

Love, Lights, Hanukkah! was pleasant and respectful of the Judeo and Christian holiday traditions, where both sides got to show the other their specific customs. There is something amusing about David donning a Santa apron to make noodle kugel and listening to Christmas music. You have the Festival of Lights and the Feast of the Seven Fishes, which I figure is an Italian holiday festivity. The blending of holiday traditions, the importance of family, all blend surprisingly well in Love, Lights, Hanukkah!

The aspect about finding Giorgio felt a bit tacked on, but it was not a major element. 

Love, Lights, Hanukkah! is a nice, charming bit of comfort watching. Respectably acted, with no great disasters, this is a pleasant enough production.

One thing did puzzle me about Love, Lights, Hanukkah! How is it that David bragged about knowing how to say goodbye in 40 languages, but not once did he ever say "Shalom"?

8/10

Jurassic Park: A Review (Review #1921)

 JURASSIC PARK

When Jurassic Park was released, it was seen as a fun, thrilling, exciting film with groundbreaking special effects. Whether anyone imagined it would be the start of a major franchise that would be the first of five sequels as of this writing (with one set for release later in 2025) I cannot say. The first Jurassic Park film, removed from what would come after, holds up extremely well, does not wear out its welcome and gives people what they wanted.

Billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has created what he delightfully calls an animal sanctuary. However, after one of the creatures kills a worker, lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) will not sign off on Hammond's new venture on behalf of the investors. The only way to get Gennaro and the investors off Hammond's back is if independent scientists vouch for Hammond's park. With that, Hammond brings paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) to his island. Gennaro for his part brings mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) for that verification.

Why these particular figures? Hammond's new island, which he envisions as a nature/amusement park, has brought back the dinosaurs to life. Intoning with a sense of childish glee, he tells Sattler and Grant, "Welcome to Jurassic Park". Hammond, expecting a positive to enthusiastic response from the three scientists, instead encounters firm opposition to the park's existence from all of them, with Malcolm particularly vocal in his objections. Insisting that they will change their minds, all save Hammond go on a motorized tour, with Hammond's grandchildren Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello) joining them. 

Tim in particular is an Alan Grant fan, which cuts no ice with him since Grant dislikes children. The tour is a bust, with the dinosaurs not appearing. However, there is chaos growing internally and externally at the park. A tropical storm is brewing, while park technician Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) has shut down the systems. Ostensibly, this is for maintenance, but in reality, he is stealing dinosaur embryos to smuggle to Hammond's business rivals. The two things collide when the dinosaurs become loose in the park and Nedry's elaborate computer security software prevents the others from regaining control. 

Soon, total chaos and dinosaurs break out. People start dying and others are in danger. Who will survive and who will not as the dinosaurs start taking over Jurassic Park?

One of the keys to Jurassic Park's success is in anticipation. Director Steven Spielberg builds up the suspense right at the opening, when we see rustling in the trees. We should know that we are not going to see dinosaurs right from the get-go, but the tension builds while we keep getting hints about what they can do. When, later in the film, we see a cow being dropped into a Tyrannosaurus Rex's holding cage, we do not see the dinosaur, but we see the aftereffects of what it did to the cow. The tension slowly builds here too, when big game hunter and Jurassic Park game warden Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck) coldly informs the group that the T. Rex is both smarter and more dangerous than given credit for.

This element in David Koepp and Michael Crichton's screenplay (adapting Crichton's novel) gives audiences hints of what is to come, keeping our interest going. Even after we initially see dinosaurs for the first time at about twenty minutes into Jurassic Park, we know that there will be more. Once we get the first sight of the Tyrannosaurus in all his glorious rage close to an hour into the film, Jurassic Park never fully stops in what audiences expect: visual spectacle and thrills. 

The anticipation continues when it comes to the characters. We know early on that Grant has a dislike to open hatred of children. Therefore, when we see Lex and Tim, we know that there will be conflict. This is added on by knowing that Tim is a big fan, someone who has read Grant's books and is well-versed in Grant's thinking. Tim would be what we would now call a fanboy, so knowing that Grant dislikes children does add two elements to the film. 

The first is a bit of comedy where we see Grant struggle between cool politeness and open contempt. The second is the evolution of his character into a protector of children. Certainly Grant, even for someone who pretty much hates children, is not going to see kids killed. It is an interesting twist that it is Grant, not Malcolm, who risks his life to distract the T. Rex in order to save Lex and Tim. As the film continues, however, Grant becomes fond of them, even allowing himself a moment of humor when he pretends to be electrocuted. It is a credit to Sam Neill that he made Alan Grant both a humorous figure and a man of courage.

This part of Jurassic Park perhaps has not been given much credit: even with the spectacle and visual power of the visual effects, the film does not skimp on the human characters. You have the gleefully wicked Nedry, wonderfully played by Wayne Knight with malevolent joy. Richard Attenborough shows his mix of arrogance, ego and ultimately humility as Hammond, who realizes too late that he cannot control nature. Dern is a showcase for the strong female character, one who can roll her eyes at Hammond's sexism when lives are in danger. However, we also see that she is not a Mary Sue: she too has fears and at one point breaks down in tears. That does not make her weak. It makes her human. In his mix of flirtation, moral indignation and fear, Goldblum does an exceptional job.

The big draw in Jurassic Park are the visual effects, a blend of computer-generated imagery and practical mechanical figures. Despite the passage of thirty years at the time of this writing, the effects in Jurassic Park look thoroughly realistic and appropriately terrifying. To be fair, the birthing of a new dinosaur may not be as completely impressive as it was in 1993, but that is a minor point.

Jurassic Park is also blessed with John Williams score. Appropriately stirring, thrilling and quiet when needed, Williams' music elevates the scenes when it is needed. Note that when the Tyrannosaurus Rex first attacks, there is no music. The lack of music here equally elevates the scene, allowing the tension to build to a fever pitch.

One of the strongest elements in Jurassic Park is that it takes the premise seriously. The T. Rex attack, for example, is played realistically: the kids panicked and terrified, the adults either stunned or cowardly. Extremely well-acted by Richards and Mazzello, this section is simultaneously thrilling and frightening. Richards and Mazzello carry the film well when they have to face the terrors alone.

Jurassic Park will continue to thrill viewers with its mix of brilliant special effects, moments of horror and humor and John Williams' score. A good popcorn film that works on every level, Jurassic Park will never be short of visitors, even on Coupon Day.

DECISION: A-

JURASSIC PARK FILMS

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park III

Jurassic World

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World Dominion

Jurassic World Rebirth