Cinematic Throwbacks: June 1993/2003/2013

1993:

So what is there left to say about one of the most beloved and talked about movies of the 90s?

I have always looked back at Jurassic Park as my one childhood wonder movie experience (even though I was just out of junior high when this movie opened). As a kid I wasn't drawn to the big spectacle movies that were out in that time. I mostly went to see comedies, animated movies, the occasional "big" film but not often.

But this one got me. I vividly remember going to see this movie on opening day, and that whole T-Rex scene (you know the one) was awe-inspiring movie magic. As was basically the whole movie.

Universal has tried for decades to tap back in to the brilliance of this Spielberg original. And while they've made a lot of money, none of the subsequent films have ever come close in quality. Or in popularity. This thing was literally still playing in theaters well into 1994. 

What makes the original still the best? Well, obviously, it still tells the most involving story with the best crop of characters. But it remains the only one to really treat the dinosaurs with a sense of awe. All the others basically treat the dinosaurs as nothing but monsters. Many of this film's best dinosaur scenes involve just watching them existing.

The casting is stellar. The chemistry between Sam Neill and Laura Dern is so fun. Jeff Goldblum is at peak offbeat charisma. One key to the movie is that the two kids are mostly not annoying. Most of what they do register as convincing things real kids would do. 

And of course you have a big early part for Samuel L Jackson. But all the bit parts are vividly performed. 

Spielberg is at the peak of his powers here, both orchestrating a slew of iconic set pieces and ratcheting up the tension when he needs to. The John Williams score is fantastic. The early CGI really holds up, as it is wisely integrated with animatronics.

Look, it's a classic. Everybody knows that. People will be watching this one in 2093. 

2003:

You know how zombies were always slow but now a lot of times they are fast? Blame Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, one of the turn of the century's best director-writer teams (I will defend The Beach forever).

Okay, if you want to get annoyingly technical, 28 Days Later does not have zombies per se. It has people being infected with a rage virus that turns them into rabid killing machines within seconds.

We follow then newcomer Cilian Murphy as a Londonite who wakes up from a coma long after the outbreak has come and decimated London. He stumbles around through a deserted city, in non-CGI shots that are incredibly vivid and spooky. And then he runs into also then newcomer Naomie Harris who gives him the lowdown on what went down.

Along the way they meet Brendan Gleeson and his daughter (the worst actress ever) holed up in their otherwise abandoned apartment building. And then they try to travel to find a supposed military safe zone. 

The first two thirds of this film are absolutely fantastic. It's all shot on early digital cameras and looks grimy and gross, but it works for the film. And that 1st hour is a nearly flawless mix of scares, tension, and humor. 

But then there's that 3rd act, which drags the film down. They do find that military safe zone, except it's really not safe at all. Because all the soldiers there are pigs who almost instantly try to rape the two women, as their commanding officer does nothing. Murphy gets exiled but then comes back for shirtless revenge. It's weird. It's the reason I find the sequel to be the better film. 

We are now 11 films deep in the Fast franchise. The franchise is so old that it existed during the early 2000s wave of sequels that were going to be made whether original stars were on board or not.

I loved the first Fast and the Furious, still my favorite in the series. But with only Paul Walker of the main stars returning I wasn't all that hyped for a sequel. 

Except for one reason: John Singleton. Singleton, one of my favorite directors of all time and circa 2003 still maybe #1. His 1991-2001 is as great a run as just about any filmmaker has had. But here he was more or less a hired gun. It felt weird that he did this movie. But it was a good business decision. 

Singleton's biggest impact on the franchise was bringing over Tyrese Gibson. Gibson had broken through as the star of Baby Boy, and he is easily the star of 2 Fast as well.

Walker and Gibson have a great, fun rapport in this. Rewatching it now I kind of wish the two of them had gotten an extra sequel of their own. Gibson is still fun in the franchise to this day, but now it's mostly as pure comic relief. In 2 Fast he's got an edge to him that really pops.

2 Fast also adds in Ludacris to the franchise, after Ja Rule turned down a return (bad move). 

The plot is really generic stuff. There's an undercover cop (Eva Mendes), an evil guy (Cole Hauser), and a plot involving Walker and Gibson becoming drivers for the bad guy. Weirdly they recycled a lot of this plot for the 4th movie.

Wisely, Singleton packs in a lot of action. The racing was still a big thing for these movies then. And there are some great races, with not quite an overabundance of CGI. The candy colored aesthetic dates the movie but in a good way. And he lets his charismatic stars lead the way.

I didn't love this movie at the time. But what this franchise became has retroactively made the movie better. It's like a fun little side adventure. 

2013:

This Is The End is my favorite comedy of the 2010s. 

It seems so simple. Just throw an ensemble of funny actors into a absurd scenario and let them cook. What set this movie apart is that everybody in the movie plays themselves.

So we start with buddies Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel going to James Franco's big LA house party. The party sequence alone is a classic. It's packed with cameos, most memorably a hilariously demented and sick Michael Cera. Rihanna is there. Kevin Hart, Jason Segel, Paul Rudd. Emma Watson at peak cuteness. And also the rest of the main cast: Franco, Jonah Hill, and Craig Robinson. 

This could be the whole movie, but then that darn apocalypse kicks in. First people get raptured, then there's a giant sinkhole (de mayo) that swallow up a bunch of our cameo-ing stars. So we are left with the main cast holed up in Franco's house.

Basically the entire movie takes place there, but the movie never fails to come up with funny stuff to have happen. And then Danny McBride shows up to take things up even further.

The situation itself is really ripe for comedy, but the movie also gets a shit ton of laughs from all the in-jokes and references to all these guys movies. I mean, they are ALL funny. 

Everybody here is the funniest they have ever been, other than maybe Rogen (just cause he has a better track record). Specifically this is by far the funniest I had ever or have ever found Hill or McBride. McBride has probably the 2 funniest scenes in the whole movie (the breakfast roast of everyone, and the maturation argument with Franco).

Baruchel is kind of the de-facto lead and is really great in this. Sadly he hasn't had too many cracks at leading a comedy.

The absurdity just keeps building to the finale, where we get another absolutely ridiculous cameo, and a couple fantastic needle drop moments.

No comedy in the last 15 years has such a high average of laughs as this. It was like the perfect culmination of a whole era of comedy. 

Remember those fast zombies? Boy are they back in World War Z, the adaptation of the book (which, hey, I've actually read!).

This was a troubled production. It was in the works for a long time, went through a couple directors, and a lot of it was re-shot. It was expected to actually be a big flop, but turned out to be one of the biggest hits of 2013. 

It really only shares the name with the book. The book was episodic, with a man recounting lots of disconnected stories told after the great zombie war. Brad Pitt sort of plays that character, but the movie takes place as the zombie outbreak begins and is way more linear.

The film is a little episodic too, as the Pitt character journeys all over the world looking for the origins of the outbreak and possibly find a cure. Similar stuff to other zombie movies. But each stop kind of gets its own action set piece. And this is definitely an action movie, not a horror movie, although it does have some tense moments. 

But the action in it is really visceral and well staged. The opening outbreak in Philadelphia is really chaotic,  as is the Israel sequence, and the one on the plane. 

It's unique seeing Pitt in this. He has never really been.the type to do straightforward action movies. It's not one of his great performances, but he never phones it in. 

There was talk of a sequel, and this ends on a natural starting off point for that, but it feels like one of those things that would have happened by now if it ever was going to. 

The DCEU is now dead, but just 10 years ago it started with so much promise.

I mean, even though Christopher Nolan was not directing, just having his name attached as a producer to a new Superman movie was full of anticipation. I remember they put the teaser trailer on The Dark Knight Rises.

The actual director was Zack Snyder, whose name has been invoked so many times by so many bad faith talkers in the last decade that I kind of never want to hear it again. Back then though he was a guy who had made several movies that had fans but nothing truly huge.

They got.a hell of a cast together for this. Henry Cavill was largely unknown at this point, but I think he proved to be a very good pick as Superman. And they cast some pretty prestigious actors to back him up. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as the Kents. Amy Adams as Lois Lane. Russell Crowe as Jor-El. Michael Shannon as Zod. 

I really liked the way this film was structured. Following a terrific opening set on Krypton, we cut to Earth. But Superman is already Superman. We get some flashbacks to events in young Clark's life where he showed his powers. He's still doing it as an adult, and his sort of urban legend exploits get him on Lois's radar. I pretty much liked the whole movie when this is what it's about. 

Later on Zod and his goons come to earth looking for Superman.  The film is still good as Superman is figuring out what to do, but then the last act of the movie becomes kind of just a chaotic, messy action blowout. All of the interesting character material is thrown out.

Still, I think Man Of Steel was very good, the best film Snyder has ever made, and one of the best of the DCEU. 

They should have slowed down on trying to go right into the DCEU and done a proper sequel to this. 

Other non-deep dive flicks:

1973:

-Battle For The Planet of The Apes: The final installment of the original series. I saw it long ago. 

-Live and Let Die: A Bond movie remembered more for its song than anything else. 

1983:

-Superman 3: This is the one that sent the franchise into free fall, with the Richard Pryor character and other nonsense. 

-War Games: Watched this one a lot as a kid. It taught me that the only winning move is not to play. 

-Trading Places: One of the early Eddie Murphy hits. I perhaps surprisingly have never seen this one. 

1993:

-Last Action Hero: This Schwarzenegger movie was a notorious flop at the time, but over the years it has become a lot more respected. The meta humor was way ahead of its time. I don't think most people got it at the time. I always hated Austin O'Brien as the punk kid who spends the whole time trying to convince movie Arnold that he's a movie character instead of just enjoying the fact he is in the movie. Arnold is fun in this. Lots of enjoyable cameos. Good soundtrack. 

-What's Love Got To Do With It: With the recent death of Tina Turner and this anniversary I watched this for the first time in almost 3 decades. Unlike most music biopic there is not a whole lot of focus on the making of the music. Her solo career only happens at the very end. Much of it is about the abusive marriage to Ike, and that stuff is appropriately brutal. Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne both got nominated for this, and Bassett definitely should have won. 

-Sleepless In Seattle: A huge smash romcom with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. 

-Dennis The Menace: One of the more forgotten TV adaptations of that era. 

2003:

-Hulk: Ang Lee's strange and introspective take on the character was deservedly reviled. Although the MCU Hulk film kind of keeps some of this as canon. 

-Dumb and Dumberer: I kind of liked the actual Dumb and Dumber sequel, but not this d.o.a. prequel.

-Hollywood Homicide: A big flop, pairing Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett in a buddy action comedy. 

-From Justin To Kelly: They tried to turn American Idol stars into movie stars. They never tried again. 

-Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle: A quite terrible sequel that took all the worst aspects of the solid original and turned them up to 11. Too bad. They could have made a bunch of these. 

-The Room: Ah yes, the meme movie of all meme movies. I've only watched this movie with riffs. Was Wiseau serious with this? Who's to say. 

2013:

-Monsters University: The prequel to one of my favorite Pixar movies. This is pretty good too, just doesn't have any of its predecessor's substance. And I missed Boo. But Crystal and Goodman remain top notch.

-The Heat: A buddy cop comedy with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. It's not great, but has a lot of laughs. It might be the last time I really thought McCarthy was funny.

-Rapture Palooza: That summer's other apocalypse comedy featuring Craig Robinson. Not nearly as funny, but it deploys Anna Kendrick's deadpan very well. 

-The Purge: I actually liked all of the sequels to this, but not the original, which is just a dull home invasion thriller that does little with the premise. 

-The Internship: A tired Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson comedy.

-White House Down: 2013's other White House action movie, and the lesser one. Not a terrible movie though. 

-The Bling Ring: A big misfire from Sofia Coppola. 

-Much Ado About Nothing: Joss Whedon took a bunch of his regulars and made this very faithful Shakespeare adaptation in between Avengers films. 

Coming in July....

One of the best comedies of the 80s, National Lampoon's Vacation, turns 40.

John Singleton's unfairly maligned sophomore effort Poetic Justice turns 30. 

The also underrated Terminator 3 turns 20. 

And we got a few turning 10. 

Much to do, much to do.