WELCOME TO JURASSIC WORLD

In the worlds of the late John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough),"Welcome to Jurassic Park". The words uttered by Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg's fictional entrepreneur upon revealing the Brachiosaurus to his guests in the 1993 Blockbuster, Jurassic Park. Now, 22 year and three sequels on, he would no doubt be welcoming his guest to Jurassic…

A WORD ABOUT OPTOMA 3D

Today, after a long wait, I have finally been able to upgrade my home cinema setup to full HD 3D. I am, as always, on a budget. I can't afford the best, top end equipment but have built up a good set up over the past 15 years, with a Pioneer 6.1 THX certified Amp,…

THE UNTOUCHABLES

1987 DIRECTOR: Brian De Palma May Contain Spoilers! "Where is Nitti anyway?" "He's in the car" It was on this day, 25 years ago, that Brian De Palma's reimagining of the television series, The Untouchables was release here in the U.K. As Ennio Morricone's classical and powerful opening score played over the titles, a very telling credit appeared on the screen, almost telling…

STAR WARS: EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES

2002 DIRECTOR: George Lucas May Contain Spoilers! Three years on from the omen of foreboding which was The Phantom Menace, I doubt that I was on my own when I was hanging the fate of the entire Star Wars franchise on this film redeeming itself, and not replicating the first major mistake of the saga.…

AVATARS, BACK TO BACKS AND BAD HOBBITS?

Today sees the launch of James Cameron's 1997 epic, Titanic, now post-converted to 3D. This conversion came of the back of the unbridled successes of Avatar 3D, which will released on Blu-ray 3D in October, but surrounding all this, Cameron has been talking more and more about his upcoming sequels to Avatar. 2009 saw the…

STAR WARS: EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE

1999 DIRECTOR: George Lucas May Contain Spoilers! Dreams shattered. Never has a film or a film maker been subjected to such castigation as The Phantom Menace or George Lucas for adding to their own body of work like this. Alarm bells rang out once the title was announced. The Phantom Menace... What do that even…

TOP 5 BEST SOUNDTRACKS TO UNDERWHELMING FILMS

FILMS SAVED BY THEIR SCORES Some people believe that a film can be saved by its soundtrack, whilst others can take te music or leave it. whilst I would agree that a rubbish film cannot be salvaged by a great score, it can at least make it watchable, so below is a my list of the my…

THE HELP

2011 DIRECTOR: Tate Taylor May Contain Spoilers! Whilst I was watching this drama, set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960's unfold, I found myself thinking back to another film which I reviewed back in July, The Women. Not as a direct comparison and certainly not to malign this with The Women's quality, but the tone had…

NOW PLAYING STRIKES AGAIN!

Earlier this month, I commented on Now Playing.com's Batman Retrospective, but now it's the turn of Star Trek. Back in 2009, the team at Now Playing recorded a retrospective series on the Star Trek movies, from the 1979's The Motion Picture, right up to J.J. Abrams 2009 reboot. Well, I've listened to 11 podcasts, covering…

CHANGELING

2008 DIRECTOR: Clint Eastwood May Contain Spoilers! Clint Eastwood is a director which I some trouble getting behind. I have not seen his entire body of work but I have seen a fair few, and none have really impressed me as much as would have liked. Like his interest in composing and performing gentle country…