Classic Movie Review Jurassic Park 3

Jurassic Park 3 (2001) 

Directed by Joe Johnston 

Written by Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor 

Starring Sam Neill, Tea Leoni, William H. Macy, Alessandro Nivola 

Release Date July 18th, 2001 

Published June 14th, 2023 

After having compromised to make arguably the worst movie of his remarkable career, The Lost World Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg was finally ready to leave the dinosaurs behind. There was no amount of money that studio executives could promise Spielberg in order to get him back in the director's chair for Jurassic Park 3. That said, staying on as Executive Producer, and retaining his lucrative back end deal, Spielberg did have a hand in choosing his directorial successor. 

Joe Johnston is a long time friend and collaborator of Steven Spielberg and happened to be coming off a pair of well liked and successful films, the 1995 blockbuster, Jumanji, and the critically beloved 1999 drama, October Sky. That plus having worked behind the scenes on each of the previous Jurassic Park movies made Johnston the most natural choice to pick up the reigns on the popular franchise. With Johnston came a new writing team for Jurassic Park 3. Out was writer David Koepp and in was the unlikely duo of Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, fresh off the success of very non-Jurassic Park indie hits Citizen Ruth and Election. 

It's strange to think that Alexander Payne chose to follow up Election, a black comedy of razor sharp wit, with something as wit-free as Jurassic Park 3. Much like Spielberg did his career worst work on The Lost World Jurassic Park, it would be fair to say that Jurassic Park 3 marks a low point in the career of Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. A paycheck is a paycheck and being hot off of a critical and commercial hit created the strange cosmic coincidences needed to put the future auteurs behind Sideways into the Jurassic Park universe. 

That said, while I do think this is the worst script of the career of Payne and Taylor, that doesn't mean the movie is that bad. Jurassic Park 3 is actually an improvement over The Lost World Jurassic Park. Director Joe Johnston smartly keeps his Jurassic Park movie under 100 minutes in length and maintains a frenetic pace throughout its 96 minute runtime. A script this thin could not sustain a movie much longer than that, especially with characters this obnoxious and simplistic. Making Jurassic Park 3 any longer than 96 minutes would be an agonizing watch. As it is, it's not great but it is fast and the action is genuinely well directed. 

Jurassic Park 3 returns Sam Neill to the role of Dr. Alan Grant. After being greatly missed in The Lost World Jurassic Park, having Neill back in Jurassic Park 3 is, at the very least, a welcome bit of nostalgia. Also briefly back is Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler. Her inclusion is perfunctory and convenient, a loving nod to the original Jurassic Park. She's there to be used as needed by the script to underline a plot point early on and provide a convenient ending for the film. 

Sorry, my cynicism keeps sneaking through. I was talking about being happy to see Dr. Grant again. Sam Neill is a steady, calming, soothing presence in Jurassic Park. He's an absolute necessity as he provides a grounded element amid the chaotic special effects frenzy that Joe Johnston is unleashing in Jurassic Park 3. It's easy to see where Johnston's work on Jumanji influenced his work here. Much like Jumanji, Jurassic Park 3 is at its best when it doesn't stop running, upping the stakes, and being an action movie. 

The plot kicks in when Dr. Grant receives an offer to play aerial tour guide for a rich married couple. Paul and Amanda Kirby have charted a plane to fly over Isla Sorna, the second of John Hammond's dinosaur islands and the location of the last movie, The Lost World Jurassic Park. Grant is promised that the plane will not land on the island and that he will just narrate a few facts about what few dinosaurs can be seen during the flyover. What he doesn't know is that he's actually on a dangerous rescue mission. In a convoluted opening sequence, Paul and Amanda's son, Eric has been stranded on the island.

The crew aboard the plane are actually mercenaries who've been hired to extract the boy from the island. Naturally, things don't go well and people end up getting eaten by dinosaurs. Since we don't know the names of the actors playing the mercenaries, and they lack what I like to call 'main character powers,' they're the first to go. The only name supporting actor, Michael Jeter, is also doomed for being a liar and a bit of a weasel, bad guys getting ugly comeuppance is a trope of the Jurassic Park films, aside from John Hammond, the greatest villain of the series, who gets to escape because he's played by kindly grandpa, Richard Attenborough. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: The Wolfman

The Wolfman (2010) 

Directed by Joe Johnston 

Written by Andrew Kevin Walker, David Self 

Starring Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Hugo Weaving 

Release Date February 12th, 2010 

Published February 11th, 2010 

Andrew Kevin Walker is one of the most daring and dark screenwriters Hollywood has ever known. As famous as his script for Seven is, Walker may be known better as the most rewritten screenwriter in history. Rewrites of Walker screenplays include 8Mm, Sleepy Hollow and countless un-produced properties from Superman to X-Men.

His work has been criticized for being too dark and violent for mainstream audiences, despite Seven having made more than 300 million dollars worldwide. It was with this in mind that Walker went to work on a remake of The Wolfman in 2007. Today, The Wolfman is ready for the big screen and, no surprise, Walker's work has once again been rewritten into a compromised, mainstream ready version.

The Wolfman 2010 remixes Lon Chaney's classic creature with modern day special effects wizardry. It is directed by Jumanji and Jusassic Park 3 director Joe Johnston as a wild ride of techno factory dreariness. Benicio Del Toro takes the lead role of Lawrence Talbot an actor raised in America but born in Wales.

Lawrence happens to be touring in England when his brother Ben is mauled to death by some unknown creature. Ben's fiancee Gwen (Emily Blunt) informs Lawrence of his brother's death and calls him back to his childhood home where Gwen is staying with Lawrence's estranged father Sir Jon Talbot (Sir Anthony Hopkins). Father and son parted ways when Lawrence was a child and witnessed the aftermath of his mother's suicide by cutting her own throat.

Lawrence spent years in a mental health facility before going overseas. His return is warm enough for a father who put his son in a psych ward but the undercurrents of discord are resonant in their halting conversations. Lawrence gets on far better with Gwen whose grief rather quickly gives way to a sad flirtatiousness that Lawrence welcomes.

Unfortunately, the romance has to be put on hold as Lawrence searches for the beast that murdered his brother. The townsfolk blame a dancing bear owned by local gypsies but Lawrence, visiting the gypsies, encounters a woman, Maleva (Geraldine Chaplin) who has a different and far more terrifying theory: a Werewolf did it.

Lawrence has no time to be skeptical of Maleva as soon the camp is overrun by villagers and then the angry, ravenous beast himself. Lawrence chases the beast into the forest and is bitten. When his wounds heal startlingly fast there is only one conclusion, he will become a beast himself.

While Lawrence ponders his fate, Inspector Abberline (Hugo Weaving) arrives and with suspicions cast on Lawrence he aims to keep a close eye on him.

The plot puzzle that emerges in The Wolfman fits together well enough. Sadly, director Joe Johnston's hyper-kinetic style does not seem to fit a story that thrives on atmosphere and heightened emotions. Johnston cuts to quickly, whirls and tilts his camera and relies on too many cheeseball effects scenes for the gothic atmosphere to set in.

Watch The Wolfman and you find that stars Benicio Del Toro and Sir Anthony Hopkins are making one movie while director Joe Johnston seems to be making another. Del Toro and Hopkins halt and suspect and busily feel each other out as fits a movie of a slower, more deliberate pace. There are important father/son issues they hope to seed into the story. Director Johnston leaves them no time for that however.

Johnston's charge is to make a fast paced monster movie with modern tech and modern gore. Neither approach is wrong really but the two together are ill-fit and the film falters for a lack of a singular vision. That vision likely could have been writer Andrew Kevin Walker’s whose script the cast signed on for and then saw rewritten when director Johnston came on board by the more by the more mainstream horror writer David Self (The Haunting, Thirteen Days).

The failure to meld two visions into one movie is the failure of The Wolfman and yet it is hard to call the whole film a disaster. Makeup and effects legend Rick Baker's work on Del Toro, what little we see of it in the final CGI heavy edit, is solid as is the work of Del Toro who cuts a strong figure as the titular Wolfman.

It's unfortunate that once again Andrew Kevin Walker finds his work compromised into a by-committee, safe for the simpleton mainstream crowd horror movie. Hollywood studios it seems are the first to underestimate the brains and taste of the majority of audiences and that is part of the downfall of The Wolfman.

Movie Review Hidalgo

Hidalgo (2004) 

Directed by Joe Johnston

Written by Daniel Fusco

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Omar Sharif, C. Thomas Howell 

Release Date March 5th, 2004 

Published March 4th, 2004 

There is a much-abused phrase in Hollywood, you've seen it more than you can even remember. Disney abuses it more than any other studio by far. That phrase is "Based On A True Story.”

Hollywood loves this term because it can lend an air of credibility to a story that is rather blatantly dull or stupid. More often than not the basis of a true story is applied when a story revolves around a person that producers can only prove lived at some point in human history. The rest is a mishmash of hackneyed Hollywood cliché and directorial trickery.

Case in point the latest mediocre Disney "true story" Hidalgo starring Viggo Mortensen.

According to legend recorded by Frank Hopkins himself, Frank Hopkins and his horse Hidalgo raced and won all of the most dangerous and prestigious long distance races in the world. As we meet Frank in the movie, he is winning another race while humiliating a proper English gent played by C. Thomas Howell in an embarrassingly, hammy cameo. Hopkins has made a fortune off not only distance races but also being the fastest deliveryman in the West.

It is while delivering orders to a US military outfit that Hopkins witnesses the brutal massacre of Indians at the Battle of Wounded Knee. It was on the orders that Hopkins himself delivered that the massacre took place and the guilt destroyed him, turning him into a raging, pathetic drunk. No longer a racer, Frank takes a gig with Wild Bill's traveling West show where he humiliates himself daily by falling off his horse.

It is then that Frank is challenged to go to the Arabian Desert and take part in the most dangerous distance race in history, the Ocean of Fire. A race across the Arabian lands, through three countries worth of desert, sandstorms, locusts and triple digit temperatures that could cook a man in his saddle. With prodding from Hidalgo, your typical Disney horse with human characteristics, Frank hops a boat and heads for the desert.

Obviously, this is one of those perfectly Disney-fied adventure plots with plenty of PG derring-do and exotic locations. Director Joe (Jumanji) Johnston delivers on every mediocre cliché you expect from an adventure story of this type. This includes a powerful Arab sheik (Omar Sharif) PC'd up for mass consumption with just the right balance of cliched Arab savagery, religious tolerance and heroism. The sheik has your typically exotic daughter as a love interest for the heroic American and Johnston and screenwriter Joe Fusco even throw in an evil British chick as a symbol of Western imperialism. Oh, but don't forget, this is based on a "true story.”

I will say this for Johnston and cinematographer Shelly Johnson, they make Hidalgo look gorgeous. The racing scenes provide plenty of striking scenery that make up the most compelling moments. Of course, they can't be satisfied delivering just the compelling and interesting race so they interrupt it with a dull, predictable rescue scene when the sheik's daughter is captured by marauders.

In his first post-Aragorn outing, Viggo Mortensen initially shows some deadpan charm. Unfortunately, his best scenes are opposite C. Thomas Howell's hammy and hilarious cameo that can't help but make Mortensen look like gold. Mortensen's deadpan charm quickly turns dead and he's almost blown off the screen by his far more animated horse. Women will still find Mortensen's handsome, Old Spice commercial smile but I have to assume that when the film nears the two-hour mark eye candy must turn sour.

Overlong, cliched but pretty to look at, Hidalgo is a prototype Disney offering that we thought was in the past after last year’s terrifically fun Pirates of The Caribbean and Freaky Friday. Of course, mediocre crowd-pleasing is always easier than inventive and thus Hidalgo will find a nice comfortable spot in the Disney live action library next to Bicentennial Man and Armageddon.

Movie Review Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America The First Avenger (2011) 

Directed by Joe Johnston 

Written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely 

Starring Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Stanley Tucci, Dominic Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell 

Release Date July 22nd, 2011 

Published July 21st, 2011 

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) was a 98 pound weakling with a heart twice the size of his tiny frame. In 1942 all Steve wanted was to defend his country in the 2nd World War. Steve didn't have bloodlust or a death wish, rather, he saw Hitler as just the kind of bully that he'd spent his young life fighting against and he was eager to strike a blow on behalf of those being harmed by Hitler's evil.

Steve wasn't likely to get a chance until he met a German scientist, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who managed to escape Hitler's Germany with some of his extraordinary research intact. After meeting Steve Rogers, Dr. Erskine was quickly convinced that he was just the kind of good man who would be a perfect candidate for his super-soldier program.

A Hero Born

Indeed, Steve was the perfect candidate and after undergoing the remarkable procedure Steve develops the type of body to match his guts, heart and determination. Soon, Steve Rogers is transformed into the symbolic hero Captain America before gets the chance to become a real hero on the frontline in Europe battling Hitler's rogue defense minister Johan Schmidt aka The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving).

Captain America: The Last Avenger was directed by Joe Johnston, a director very familiar with high end special effects having directed Lost World: Jurassic Park 3 and Jumanji. Johnston's effects work in Captain America exceeds even those two exceptional special effects adventures.

Chris Evans 98 Pound Weakling

Most eye-catching is the remarkably seamless transformation of star Chris Evan from the scrawny Steve Rogers to the muscled up Captain. Early on Johnston attempted to merely paste star Chris Evans's face digitally onto that of another actor but it just didn't look right. Then, employing techniques like those used to help Brad Pitt age backwards in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Johnston and his special effects team shrank the real Chris Evans down to size.

The effect is exceptional as are the action effects that show Captain America and his team heroically battling Red Skull and his robotic super soldiers. Yes, comic book fans, Captain America does whip that awesome shield at many bad guys and in many unique ways as well. Just as cool is Cap's James Bond-esque motorcycle; built by none other than Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper); future daddy to Iron Man himself, Tony Stark.

Here Come the Avengers

Chris Evans is a real surprise as Captain America. There was never any doubt that Evans had the physicality to play Captain America but based on his past performances I was shocked at Evans's ability to deliver Steve Rogers as a compelling, sensitive and well rounded character; it really is a terrific performance. Evans is aided greatly by Stanly Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones in support and Hayley Atwell sparks tremendous chemistry with Evans as Captain America's plucky English tomboy love interest Peggy.

Captain America: The Last Avenger's most lasting effect is as the perfect set up for the summer 2012 blockbuster The Avengers. Walking out of Captain America I was excited by the notion of watching Evans's square jawed, classically heroic Cap work opposite Robert Downey Jr's anti-hero Iron Man. If that were Captain America's only virtue, it would be enough. That Captain America happens to be nearly as good a movie as Iron Man and a better movie than Thor or either of the Incredible Hulk films (other members of The Avengers team) is a fantastic bonus.

Movie Review: Nutcracker and the Four Realms

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018) 

Directed by Lasse Hallstrom, Joe Johnston

Written by Ashleigh Powell 

Starring Keira Knightley, Mackenzie Foy, Eugenio Derbez, Richard E. Grant, Helen Mirren 

Release Date November 2nd, 2018 

Published November 1st, 2018 

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms isn’t bad if you’re under the age of 10 perhaps. If you can see it through the eyes of a child it has a lovely, safe, message about self-empowerment and a bright, shiny visual style that is impressively busy. If you can get over how simple the movie is and remember that it was made for children, you might be able to find a way to enjoy it more than I did.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms stars Mackenzie Foy as Clara, one of three siblings, children of Mr. Stahlbaum (Matthew McFadyen) whose wife, and the children’s mother, has passed away not long ago. Nevertheless, the family is to attend the party of Clara’s Godfather, Mr Drosselmyer (Morgan Freeman) and attempt to put their grief aside. This won’t be easy as before they leave for the party, Mr Stahlbaum hands out Christmas presents from their late mother. 

For Clara, the gift is a complex mechanical egg with a keyhole but no key. There is a note with it that reads “All you need is inside” which makes it more frustrating that she does not have the key. Thankfully, at the party, Mr Drosselmyer reveals that he has the key and the key is waiting for Clara at the end of a string which leads her to a magical place called the Four Realms. The Four Realms are an entire fantasy land that her mother had built and populated with fascinating characters. 

Up first is a toy soldier who guards a bridge into the 4th Realm. He is the Nutcracker of the title, real name Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight). Phillip warns Clara not to go into the 4th realm because it is inhabited by the dangerous Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren) and her army of mice. Unfortunately, Mother Ginger’s mouse army has made off with Clara’s key and she needs to get it back to open the egg and unlock its secrets. 

Before Clara can try to get her key back she must first see the rest of the cast including the leaders of the realms including the leader of the Flower realm, Hawthorne (Eugenio Derbez) and the leader of the Ice Realm, Shiver (Richard E. Grant). And finally, there is the leader of the candy realm, known as Sugar Plum (Keira Knightley). Sugar Plum is the most outlandish of the group and begins to explain to Clara that her mother was their beloved Queen and how the realms are now at war with Mother Ginger because of the Queen’s absence. 

Sugar Plum lays out the plot, she too needs the key being held by Mother Ginger so that she can turn on the machine that can make toy soldiers that can then battle Mother Ginger’s mouse army. Eager to open the egg and get at the secret her mother left behind, Clara offers to take a contingent of Nutcrackers to the 4th Realm and go head to head with Mother Ginger. She will come back with the key or all will be lost. 

No points for guessing that Clara gets the key back. The plot requires that she open the egg and we find out what her mother’s cryptic message was about. You can probably guess, just as I did, rather easily, what is inside the egg that has all the answers. It’s a mirror of course, because everything Clara needs is inside herself. Get it? It really is as if the movie were good-naturedly elbowing you in the ribs to see if you understood this, not all that deep insight. 

Indeed, the filmmakers appear quite pleased with themselves for rehashing this old cliche. But, in fairness, it’s a cliche to us jaded adults who’ve seen this kind of empowerment cheese before. For kids, especially those seeing movies for the first time, this may indeed be a revelation and it is pitched in such a simple, easy to consume fashion that it may resonate with children in a powerful way. It was groan inducing for me and perhaps most adults but I get what the movie is going for here and I understand that it is not intended to impress ME. 

There is a harmless, charmingly disposable quality to The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. There is nothing terribly wrong with it as a movie for grade school audiences. It has a broad beauty to it in cinematography and design that children will find enchanting and the empowerment message is fine, not exactly subtle or well crafted, but it’s fine. The part of how Sugar Plum comes to represent the angry, childish aspect of Clara’s grief is, again, not subtle, rather over top, but I can see the message reaching a child and I can’t say that’s a bad thing. 

Do I wish that we would not condescend to children at the movies? Yes, I don’t believe movies have to be dumbed down to reach a young audience. The Toy Story movies are a great example of reaching children and asking them to rise up to meet the movie rather than talking down by assuming children don’t get complex relationships and metaphors. I would argue: how will a child ever fully grow up if we keep speaking down to them? 

That said, Nutcracker and the Four Realms is not the worst example of movies talking down to children. There is a strong attempt by the filmmakers to be on the level with children even as it is patently condescending in its simplicity. But, for the most part, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is a harmless empowerment fantasy with a nice look to it and deeply committed performances from Helen Mirren and Keira Knightley. 

I don’t love this movie by any stretch and if you are not the parent of a very young child, I don’t recommend The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. That said, if you are the parent of a young child, grade school and younger, you could do far worse than having your child watch this movie.