Life Finds a Way

John Hammond: All major theme parks have had delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked, nothing.
Dr. Ian Malcolm: But, John. But if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists.

Just pausing a moment to acknowledge the 15th Anniversary of the release of one of my favorite movies of all time, Jurassic Park.

One of the first Hollywood movies to convincingly showcase the power of CGI special effects and large-scale animatronics, Jurassic Park gave the world it's first taste of what live dinosaurs might really look like. No more stop-motion of the beloved Land of the Lost or merely live actors in suits or puppetry, but realistic, moving, running - and eating - dinosaurs.

Tim: What do you call a blind dinosaur?
Dr. Alan Grant: I don't know.
Tim: A Do-you-think-he-saurus.
Dr. Alan Grant: Ha ha. Good one.
Tim: What do you call a blind dinosaur's dog?
Dr. Alan Grant: You got me.
Tim: A Do-you-think-he-saurus Rex.

I have the John Williams soundtrack to this fantasic movie, and one of my favorite cuts from any soundtrack is cut #4, "Journey to the Island", the section where the helicopter flies in and lands, and Dr. Grant and the others see the herd of brachiosaurs for the first time. I sense the awe that Sam Neill and Laura Dern exhibit in the acting to be pretty close to what anyone would have seeing a giant dinosaur for the first time.

For kids of my generation, dinosaurs were a huge thing. We'd spent years watching old Ray Harryhausen movies, King Kong, and other attempts to capture the majesty of these creatures, but author Michael Crichton, director Steven Spielberg and producer Kathleen Kennedy truly brought them to life.



This is truly one of those movies you can come up on flipping channels late one night, and immediately have to put things down and watch it again. It's that fresh, engaging and enjoyable.

It spawned two sequels, the oddly dull Jurassic Park II: The Lost World which showcased a T-Rex running amok in San Diego and the surprisingly quirky Jurassic Park III that brought back Dr. Grant and somehow made Tea Leoni, William Macy and Michael Jeter (!) action heroes.

Reportedly, Jurassic Park IV is in production - although it's unknown precisely which actors may or may not be coming back, from what I hear Dr. Grant is out, but Ellie Sadler may be in. We'll see.

So happy, birthday Jurassic Park - thanks for bringing back a part of my childhood. In honor of that one of my favorite quotes from the movie:

John Hammond: There is no doubt that our attractions will drive children out of their minds.
Dr. Alan Grant: What are those?
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Small versions of adults, honey.

Movie Quotes Meme UPDATE

I'll be posting the answers to the rest of the Movie Quotes Meme this afternoon around 3. Better hurry and get those last second answers in, or a Sandman might get you!

Ok, that a was a clue if you weren't paying attention.

Here's some more:

The main guy from Enchanted is quoted (from another movie).
Two of the quotes are from non-human characters.
One is from a screen musical.
One was based on a hit TV show of the time, and had the same actors.
One's a horror movie from the 80's.
One's a remake that has subsequently been remade again. So it's like the middle remake.

UPDATE - THE ANSWERS:

1. Play the sunset.
(Glen Holland/Richard Dreyfuss, "Mr. Holland's Opus")

2. It wouldn't be terrible at all. It would be a miracle, not to mention the money I'd save on epsom salts and ace bandages.
(Audrey, "Little Shop of Horrors")

3. I need to talk to you. Every time I call you're either taking a bath, washing your hair or you're out of the country. That was a good one, by the way.
(Ronald Miller/Patrick Dempsey, "Can't Buy Me Love")

4. Now hear this, now hear this. This is your Captain speaking. My fine pinioned pirates, we're approaching the tricky buoy! Sharpen your cutlasses! There may be skullduggery ahead!
(The Penguin/Burgess Meredith, "Batman the Movie (1966)")

5. My little brother got his arm stuck in the microwave. So my mom had to take him to the hospital. My grandma dropped acid this morning, and she freaked out. She hijacked a busload of penguins. So it's sort of a family crisis. Bye!
(Lane Myer/John Cusack, "Better Off Dead")

6. Well, it's a puzzle because, technically, you're not alive. Except you're conscious, so we don't know what it means.
(Paramedic, "Return of the Living Dead")

7. Fish, and plankton. And sea greens, and protein from the sea.
(Box, "Logan's Run")

8. Remember you told me to tell you when you were acting rudely and insensitively? Remember that? You're doing it right now.
(Jim Sting, "WarGames")

9. Hey, hey, I'm sorry, okay? Twenty-six years buried in the deepest, darkest jungle and I still became my father.
(Alan Parrish/Robin Williams, "Jumanji")

10. Not beautiful you understand, but you have a certain prettiness, different from my other heads. I believe I'll lock you in the tower for a few years until your head is ready. And then I'll take it.
(Mombi, "Return to Oz")

11. Jack, let me straighten you out on a couple of points. One, that wall is an ancient ruin. Two, this island is uninhabited. [Loud drumming begins] ...And three, there's an uninhabited German beer hall down there with a mechanical band.
(Fred Wilson/Grodin and Jack Prescott/Jeff Bridges, "King Kong (1976)")

12. So that's how my twelfth husband died. So, now I'm a widow. Well, I've always been a black widow, so now I'm a black widow widow.
(Rosie/Bonnie Hunt, "A Bug's Life")

13. So, let me get one thing straight here... We have a pro football team now, but they're in Nashville?
(Chuck Noland/Tom Hanks, "Cast Away")

14. Patriotism swells in the heart of the American bear.
(Fozzie Bear/Frank Oz, "The Muppet Movie")

15. They were about to confront the villain in its lair, FVB, the evil force that would poison young minds, pollute the environment, and subvert the democratic process.
(Mr. Kite/George Burns, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band")

Movie Quotes Meme

Becky's been doing this for a while and Logtar has challenged me, so here it goes:

* Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
* Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie.
* Post them on your blog for everyone to guess. Fill in the film title once it’s been guessed.

The Rules

* Leave guesses in the comments.
* No Googling or using IMDB search functions. Don’t cheat, suckas!
* Know-it-alls, limit your guesses to three movies.

The Quotes

1. Play the sunset.
(Glen Holland/Richard Dreyfuss, "Mr. Holland's Opus" - Becky)

2. It wouldn't be terrible at all. It would be a miracle, not to mention the money I'd save on epsom salts and ace bandages.
(Audrey, "Little Shop of Horrors" - Rich)

3. I need to talk to you. Every time I call you're either taking a bath, washing your hair or you're out of the country. That was a good one, by the way.

4. Now hear this, now hear this. This is your Captain speaking. My fine pinioned pirates, we're approaching the tricky buoy! Sharpen your cutlasses! There may be skullduggery ahead!

5. My little brother got his arm stuck in the microwave. So my mom had to take him to the hospital. My grandma dropped acid this morning, and she freaked out. She hijacked a busload of penguins. So it's sort of a family crisis. Bye!
(Lane Myer/John Cusack, "Better Off Dead" - Rich)

6. Well, it's a puzzle because, technically, you're not alive. Except you're conscious, so we don't know what it means.
(Paramedic, "Return of the Living Dead" - Rich)

7. Fish, and plankton. And sea greens, and protein from the sea.

8. Remember you told me to tell you when you were acting rudely and insensitively? Remember that? You're doing it right now.
(Jim Sting, "WarGames" - Cathy)

9. Hey, hey, I'm sorry, okay? Twenty-six years buried in the deepest, darkest jungle and I still became my father.
(Alan Parrish/Robin Williams, "Jumanji" - Cathy)

10. Not beautiful you understand, but you have a certain prettiness, different from my other heads. I believe I'll lock you in the tower for a few years until your head is ready. And then I'll take it.
(Mombi, "Return to Oz" - Misty)

11. Jack, let me straighten you out on a couple of points. One, that wall is an ancient ruin. Two, this island is uninhabited. [Loud drumming begins] ...And three, there's an uninhabited German beer hall down there with a mechanical band.

12. So that's how my twelfth husband died. So, now I'm a widow. Well, I've always been a black widow, so now I'm a black widow widow.

13. So, let me get one thing straight here... We have a pro football team now, but they're in Nashville?
(Chuck Noland/Tom Hanks, "Cast Away" - Susan)

14. Patriotism swells in the heart of the American bear.

15. They were about to confront the villain in its lair, FVB, the evil force that would poison young minds, pollute the environment, and subvert the democratic process.
(Mr. Kite/George Burns, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" - Cathy)

Good luck!

Good News!! Good News---- Wait....What???

Land of the Lost film a go

Universal Pictures has just signed Brad Silberling to direct the big screen version of the '70s cult hit Land of the Lost. Silberling joins Will Ferrell on the project which is set to start shooting in March.

The original Saturday morning series told the story of explorer Rick Marshall who, while on a "routine expedition" with his children (for some reason) Will and Holly, fell through a fault in the Earth and ended up in a prehistoric world filled with dinosaurs, cavemen and evil lizard creatures known as sleestaks.

This is great news - even though Will Ferrell is involved and that can only lead to trouble, at least there will be a film. Unlike a certain animated fantasy movie that's supposed to be out right now but is having trouble seeing the light of day.

But I digress. I was troubled after reading on in the article:

The big screen version of the film will cast Ferrell as a disgraced paleontologist who ends up in the prehistoric land with his assistant and a tour guide.

Wait-wait-wait-a-minute!!! assistant?? Tour guide???. No, uh-uh, no way. Will Marshall finds himself in the Land of the Lost with his son and daughter. The charm of the show is not the dinosaurs, or Sleestak, or even the cute little neandrathal Paku - it's the fact that a dad and his young children are forced to work together to survive in a hostile environment. The kids must grow up and learn about their own strengths and weaknesses. That's what made that show fun. If you take the "family" away and have it be about three unrelated adventurers - that's it, the movie's "Lost" before it even films a frame. I hope this is either early information, or that the assistant and tour guide are actually Will and Holly. And even that won't work, because Holly's a young girl. You can just throw in a 20-something tour guide daughter and call it "Land of the Lost". Grrrrrr

Then there's this:

The original creators of the series, '70s TV legends Sid and Marty Krofft are on board with the film and have expressed excitement over the script. "What they did is keep the integrity of the show," said Marty Krofft "but they made it very funny for Will. The adventure is all there. There are going to be 50 Sleestaks!"

I think the next quote they cut for space would have been, "And there will be ponies! And lots of candy for everyone! And maybe some puddin----zzzzzzzzzzz" as an obviously senile Marty Krofft drifts off to sleep. Or rather this demented puppet substitute for the real Marty Krofft (who last I heard he and his brother Sid were in good health). If he really said this, and is enthusiastic about the fundamental altering of the premise... I fear for his mental faculties.

Wait and see...wait and see...

Brush With Greatness - An Evening with Jessica Alba and "Good Luck Chuck"

My ever-connected wife scored us two VIP passes to see the premiere of "Good Luck Chuck" Tuesday evening. The stars of the movie, Jessica Alba and Dane Cook were there at the Regal Pinnacle Theatres in Turkey Creek and we snapped a photo of Ms. "Sue Storm" Alba as she greeted her loyal fans:



The movie was actually pretty good. It was very predictable, as a typical Hollywood boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl, boy-shares-girl-with-stuffed-penguin movie always is. The laughs pretty much kept coming, although a couple of the jokes actually fell flat and you could feel the space kept in the dialogue where they expected the laughs to be.

There was quite a bit of n*dity in it (of the topless female variety) and also an extended scene where the hero is shown having sex with about 20 women, each in their own little video women (a la Brady Bunch). The sexual content in the movie is quite often vulgar, as the hero's sidekick is the most annoying character I've seen in a movie in quite a while. Think Sam Kinison and Wayne Knight's love-child. The sexual and typical (today) gross-out humor was there too, and as always not funny.

But the leads were very good - Jessica Alba has an unfortunately limiting girl-next-door-aw-shucks appeal to her, and Dane Cook is a talented comic actor. The two of them held the movie together through an engaging first half and slower, more broad second half.

See the movie if you like either of these two actors but don't go expecting a Shakespeare in Love.

And We Thought She Just Mommy Blogged...

So we're watching Mystery Science Theatre 3000 from Netflix, and Mike and the 'bots are dissecting Space Mutiny

More horrible a movie I have not seen.

But that's not my point... here's the lead actress:




She's a rough and tumble space princess, let me tell you--

Wait, a second - look closer....




You know, that almost looks like...

Naaaahh.

Couldn't be...

Could it?

Ladies and Gents, I believe the star of "Space Mutiny" is none other than our own...




Cathy from Domestic Psychology!

And all this time we never knew she was an action hero...

88 Miles Per Hour!!!

I Want One


Hey! I can buy my own for the low, low price of $75,000!

Seems a small price to pay for being able to go back in time, right? I mean, the opportunity to see them sign the Declaration of Independence, or witness the Birth of Christ....

Wait, it does work, doesn't it?





(Hat Tip: Les Jones)

Conversations

To fully appreciate this latest conversation with my kids, you have to a) be a fan of Jurassic Park, and b) have a somewhat passing familiarity with the John Williams theme from Jurassic Park. You can listen to a snippet of it here.


Set up: Brainyboy and Tink are at Camp Invention this week at their school, where they and other kids bring various devices in, dismantle them, and recreate things entirely new. And strange. And somewhat useless. But still interesting.

Brainyboy brought in his old, walking Tyrannosaurus robot - articulated with moving head and legs. It doesn't work very well anymore. His friend brought in an old DVD player.


ME: So, you should hook up the DVD player to the T-Rex. Then you could play the Jurassic Park theme while he's walking around.... (singing) "T-Rex is com-ing..he's going to eat you up! And then he'll spit you out!"

TINK: (picking up the tune) "Ob-jects in mir-ror are closer than they ap-pear!"

BRAINYBOY: (another verse) "There's ooh-ing and aah-ing, then running and screaming, too..."


I love my media-addicted kids ;)

Politeness

Overheard in the movie theatre the other night

Two 13-yr-old kids running down steps of theatre, one stumbling: "Sh*t!"

Man with wife, passing them on stairs going up to seats, back at the kid: " 'Shoot!' "


Thank you sir. It probably didn't make a difference to the kid (who looked back at you with bemusement and scorn as you passed) but it was a good try nonetheless.

This is Just Wrong....

I'm sorry Michael but if you agree with this we've got to have a long talk examining our friendship...

Serenity named top sci-fi movie

Space thriller Serenity has beaten Star Wars to the title of best sci-fi movie in an SFX magazine poll of 3,000 fans.

I would wager there was a massive ballot-stuffing initiative by Serenity fans, because that just doesn't make sense the general public - even the general sci-fi public - would choose it over Star Wars.

But interestingly, the poll now shows Star Wars (36%) in front of Serenity (28%).

Sometimes reason prevails...

Bridging the Gaps

Cathy asked in comments to this post how we liked Bridge to Terebithia. I responded in the comments, but I wanted to repeat them in a post.



*WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD*




I enjoyed the movie and thought the acting was very good, especially by the girl who played Leslie. The acting of the other kids was good as well, although the directing was off sometimes - if the big bully boys were supposed to be tough, why were they singing and clapping and participating with the music teacher just like everyone else? Every bully I even knew detested "participating" and especially in music. It would've been more believable for them to have acted as if they were barely interested. Since they participated, I kept expecting them to come around at the end like the girl bully did. But it didn't happen so it felt a bit fake.

Speaking of the girl bully (whose name escapes me), it bothered me a little that Jesse and Leslie didn't seem to feel a twinge of guilt at the pain they caused her over the fake love letter. I was the recipient of one of those practical joke letters long ago and while I wasn't actually interested in the girl it was supposed to be from and assumed it was a fake from the tone of the note, if I had thought it was her and gotten my hopes up, I would've been crushed. But the movie seemed to take special care to present it as an acceptable form of "revenge". The girl was truly hurt and I thought the movie did a disservice to the audience by not addressing this as wrong.

I don't know how old the characters are in the book, but the kids almost seemed to old to be participating in the kind of "make-believe" that Leslie and Jessie were, which kind of took me out of that aspect of the movie a bit. I'm all for escapism and fantasy, and for not losing the aspect of childhood as we move into adolescence (goodness knows I still have it) but Jesse didn't seem to have enough of a "fantasy life" outside Terebithia to justify its creation. Sure we saw him draw and draw well, but nothing else in his life suggested he had any interest in fantasy worlds - trolls, kings, castles, faeries, magic, etc.

I would have liked to see him exhibit either more of a previous interest in fantasy, or come to embrace Leslie's vision of it more slowly. It was too quick and easy. For 7-yr-old Maybelle it was easy to believe, not for 12-yr-old Jessie.

The part where the teacher took Jessie to the museum, basically without her getting his parents permission herself, was creepy. If it had been another movie, I would've assumed some nefarious intent and if I were Jessie's parents I would be highly peeved that she just called him up - personally - and basically asked him on a date without consulting them. Teachers don't interact with students outside of class, especially middle-school-age and up students, without the parents being involved on the front end. I loved that she recognized his talent and wanted to take him and introduce him to the larger world of art but the way she did it suggests things we don't need to see and kids don't need to see as acceptable.

None of the kids we took seemed shocked or particularly upset that the girl died, but almost every one expected her to be in Terebithia at the end, waiting for Jesse and Maybelle. Or even thought she faked her death and ran away. They didn't want her to be gone, and didn't want to accept that fact. In tried and true boy fashion, they invented ways for her to come back. I'm not sure if that's a denial impulse or a male desire to "fix things" but I thought it was interesting.

This may seem a rather negative review, but overall I truly enjoyed the movie. Some of the parts above brought me out of true believability however and I think that was the director and scriptwriter's fault more than the actors or technical minds. Apparently the creator of the Rugrats kids show directed it, and that may explain some lack of acceptable maturity seen in the older kids.

I may be criticizing the filmmakers unfairly based on problems with the source material itself, but I haven't read the book so I don't know. I do know, however, that filmmakers have a responsibility to present positive messages to young people today. That doesn't mean everything in a movie has to be sanitized to the point there is no real conflict or controversy - not at all. I do believe that they need to recognize what things are good what things are bad, and present them that way. If a character stumbles, show the effect of the stumble and how they deal with it. If they do something good, celebrate it. If they do something bad, acknowledge it, explain it, and show how they deal with it (or don't deal with it - either is good storytelling). The ending of the movie, how Jesse dealt with Leslie's death by dealing his relationships with his father and sister, was spot on. But some of the other parts of the movie I illustrated above needed to be addressed in some way that was not. Even small, seemingly insignificant points can be stored by a child and pulled out in a real life situation at a later time without understanding their meaning. I hope a kid somewhere that's being bullied doesn't get the idea that writing a fake love letter is a good way to get back at the bully. It may be a satisfying way of taking revenge at the moment, but revenge is never a positive response to conflict. We need to emphasize that.

The Bridge to Insanitia

Tonight Laura and I will host five ten-and-eleven-year-olds (plus BrainyBoy) in the annual birthday sleepover.

We'll go eat at McAllisters and then across the parking lot to Pinnacle theatre and see Bridge to Terabithia. Then everyone back to the house for munchies, DVD's, outdoor basketball, and general mayhem.

Tink has escaped to a grandparent's tonight and Laura will duck away early while I referee bounce torture facilitate the festivities all night long until everyone passes out.

Ultrasonic

Have you seen the commercial for the new movie The Messengers?

Next time it comes on, ask your kids if they hear the ultrasonic whistle...

Here's the premise: Supposedly there's a set of ultrasonic frequencies that only kids can hear, and as we get older we lose our ability to hear in that frequency range. This is a scientific fact - the movie states that there may be a visual range kids can only see and adults can't....and there lies - MADNESS!!!

Well, whatever. Anyway, at the beginning of the commercial there's a graphic of a sound wave, with the word "Ultrasonic" at the top (while the movie scenes are playing). The commercial came on last night while we were watching TV. We asked BrainyBoy and Tink if they could hear the sound, and they nodded as if, "duh..yeah". Laura and I looked at each other with surprise, thinking they were joking around. I backed up the DVR several times and we played it over an over - every time they could hear the whine, and we couldn't. This caused great amusement for BrainyBoy, though Tink thought it was "creepy" and wanted it to stop.

Amazing they can hear this frequency just fine, but can't hear me tell them to finish eating their dinner or pick up their shoes...

Note: the link to the preview site above doesn't contain the TV commercial, only the theatrical trailer. I haven't found it on YouTube yet, but if I do I'll post it.