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Jurassic World: Rebirth

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Writing one logline to describe all 7 of the Jurassic Park movies is easy. “Very Dangerous Dinosaurs are safely enclosed in cages, then something goes horribly wrong, and the Dinosaurs are released and they kill and eat people, and people run for their lives”.

The 7th Jurassic Park movie, “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” starts out with a scientist within a highly secure and state-of-the-art Dinosaur research facility dropping the wrapper of a Milky Way candy bar on the floor while entering a clean room. What follows is a disaster that turns off all the security in the facility, and once again, the Dinosaurs are released. The good news is that even though the main idea is exactly the same as the other six movies, this time around, this story has more imagination and even better special effects than the previous six.

This film starts 17 years after the security disaster, and there is a major medical science discovery where it is discovered that the blood of 3 specific dinosaurs might contain the cure for all heart disease for the entire world. The story then follows the obvious path as a major medical company, out for a trillion-dollar windfall, a scientist and two adventurers, including Zora Bennett, played by Scarlett Johansson, and her long-time friend Duncan Kincaid, played by Mahershala Ali, travel to this dangerous island to retrieve impossible-to-obtain dinosaur blood. There is the typical evil, only caring about money, representative of a medical company, trying to make trillions on this magic dinosaur blood Martin Krebs, played by Rupert Friend, is typical of the bad people we see in movies like this one.

The big surprise in this movie was the appearance of a father of two daughters Reuben Delgado, played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, who is the great lead actor in the very good Netflix series, ‘The Lincoln Lawyer”. Delgado’s daughters are played by Audrina Miranda and Luna Blaise. Some of the most spectacular special effects in this movie involve Deglado, his two daughters, and their boat captain running for their lives, with many of the scenes infuriating because nobody would take some of the risks they do in this film.

The good news is that this seventh installment is better than most of the previous 4 movies with a better story, even though the reasons for the chaos are still the same.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are an understandably low 51% because there is nothing new enough in this film that we have not seen before, other than the new types of genetically modified dinosaurs, especially one that looks like a combination of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and the creature from “Alien”. Hopefully, this small step in the right direction will create better Jurassic movies in the future, because with the money involved, there will be many more movies like this one.

Hulu Series Review: The Bear Season 4

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The shame about the great series “The Bear”, now in its 4th season, is that after season 2, the series lost its way. What was so good about this series, which premiered in September 2022, is that for some reason, the writers and producers forgot that the greatest thing about this story is that it demonstrated for the first time the nightmare of hard work, chaos, and non stop problems that people who are high level Chef’s in the best restaurants go through, every day. The other great part was showing what it takes to create the best food in the world. Then problems with expenses, employees, turning a profit, etc. In the last two seasons of The Bear, all of these most important ingredients that made the first two seasons so great are almost nowhere to be found.

With few exceptions, this 4th series seems to be about finding excuses for insane, talking at the same time, screaming arguments over issues that ordinarily would not require this level of rage and yelling. This is at its worst in the 10th episode, when Carmen, played by Jeremy Allen White, has an over-the-top, lengthy argument with Sydney, played by Ayo Edebiri. This argument could have been resolved in 10 minutes, and yet it lasted almost the entire 34 minutes of the last episode, ending with Carmen’s friend Richie, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, joining the argument. Regardless, the acting is impressive during many of these arguments, with no evidence of acting; it all seems like real life. However, the point of all yelling is lost, because the reasons for the arguments do not support the extreme overtalking and anger in almost all cases.

As with the 3rd season, there are numerous cameos from well-known actors in this 4th season, including Gillian Jacobs, Will Poulter, Joel McHale, Rob Reiner, John Mulaney, Josh Hartnett, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Brie Larson, and Jamie Lee Curtis. The first time appearance of Brie Larson, who plays Francie, was one of the best parts of this 4th season, including an ongoing, funny, foul-mouthed argument with Natalie during a wedding, played by Abbie Elliot.

By far the best episode of the 4th season was episode #7, about the wedding of Pete and Natalie, which includes the Francie and Natalie argument and an outstanding scene where a young girl is hiding under a table, and is joined, one by one, by the entire cast. The dialogue in this one scene is outstanding, showing the phenomenon that when people are gathered closely together in an enclosed space, tension and problems can sometimes seem to melt away. This episode was rated 9.5 on IMDB, by far the highest rated in this 4th season..

One huge complaint in this series is the nightmare of nonstop chain smoking from too many of the characters. There is no need for this much smoking in any movie, and the Tobacco companies should be barred from funding movies only if they show smoking.

The first two seasons of The Bear were rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the huge drop to 83% is for the reasons of forgetting all of the main reasons why the first two seasons were so good. I do recommend the 4th season of The Bear, mainly for the acting and for the great 7th episode.

Movie Review: F1: The Movie

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My first question about this film is why not just “F1”, rather than “F1: The Movie”, because we know it’s a movie, in this case about the dangerous sport of Formula 1 racing.

This film is mostly about an ongoing dialogue of watching incredibly expensive racecars, that cost between 12-15 million dollars, race at speeds over 200 miles an hour around an oval track, while the racing crew monitors every aspect of the car using impressive advanced technology. The problem with this movie is that there is too much showing of this technology and racing, and not enough of any noticeable story.

The acting starring Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes and Damson Idris as Joshua Pearce, who play the two drivers, and Javier Bardem as Ruben Cervantes, who plays the CEO of the racing crew, is all very well done. With all racing movies like this one, it is at times hard to understand why any person would be willing to risk their life just to race a car, but like all professions like this one, you have to have it in your blood – you don’t have anything else you want to do.

It is impressive the work that went into this film, including risking the two main actors who actually drove their racecars at over 180 miles an hour. Given the risk, it does not make sense to risk lives like this when all of the dangerous driving could have been replaced with relatively simple special effects.

I agree with the middle-of-the-road 84% ratings for this movie, which could have been much better with an improved story and screenplay. This movie is also way too long at 2 hours and 35 minutes, and could have easily told the same story in less than two hours. Mainly for the great racecar driving effects, I do recommend this film.