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quaranmine · 3 months

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Book Reviews with Quara

Since I keep talking about audiobooks, now I want to do a sort of mini book review of the books I've read since starting to "seriously" pick up reading again last year. Also I just like typing about things. I'm skipping Fire Season by Philip Connors and Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams because I've spoken about them already. Keep in mind I am not super-super critical of reading material; generally if I enjoyed it I'm giving 5 stars. If I disliked it though I get a lot more critical because then I want to start analyzing what didn't work for me. Now go forth and learn about what my reading taste is when I'm not reading/writing angsty mcyt fanfic!

Books I loved, aka 5 stars:

Cold Storage by David Koepp

This was the first book I checked out from Libby and it was a banger. I am still trying to replicate that high tbh. When I gave my mom access to my library card in Libby (her rural library has nothing and my city library has everything) I made her check it out too. The narration on the audiobook is fantastic. My mom raved about the narration and basically says she doesn't want to check anything out that wasn't as good--regularly her reviews to me are "good narrator, not as good as that Cold Storage book" lmao. You may know David Koepp as the guy who wrote the Jurassic Park screenplay. This is his first novel.

It's about a mutated fungus that is a sci-fi version of the very real Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which is more commonly known as the zombie-ant fungus. In this book, a version of Cordyceps can infect all lifeforms, including humans, and has been locked away deep in a former US military vault that has since been sold and converted into an underground storage facility. The plot follows two unlikely protags who work in the storage facility, as well as the two retired military people who are the only ones to have seen the fungi in action, as they try to prevent it from being released into the world. It's funny, horrifying, and gory.

They are making a movie of this book. The release date is tentatively 2024, but I worry about it because I have heard so little news on it. They did do filming though. I have high hopes because they cast Joe Keery as a main character, which I think is perfect casting for the guy in question. I have low hopes because they cast Liam Neeson, a white man, as a character who was originally Hispanic and (as I just noticed while writing this) changed the character's name to be more white. Ugh. Who is Robert Quinn and what did you do with Roberto Diaz???????

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

What if you got kidnapped and woke up in a parallel world where everybody knew who you were, but they think you're someone else? What if you're just a quantum physics professor, but this other version of you is a successful theoretical researcher? What if your wife never married you in this universe, and your son was never born? How do you get back home? This book is constantly pulling out interesting new questions, twists, and places to explore. Also I liked that while it does feature romance pretty prominently, it's about a guy who just really loves his wife of 15 years and wants to see her again. I just like it when men love their wives.

Also, a fair amount of Goodreads reviews poke fun at this author for having way too much fun hitting the enter key on his keyboard, but since I listened to the audiobook I never had to deal with any annoying formatting choices lol

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

I feel like we all know about this one already, tbh. If you don't, heavy tw for child abuse and eating disorders. Tread carefully. It's worth it though if you are confident you won't get triggered. If you haven't read it I recommend the audiobook specifically because Jennette narrates it herself and that gives the book so much extra. It was a 6 hour audiobook and I was gripped by it all day.

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

BACKWARDS TIMELOOP BABEYY!!! This one was great. It's about a Mom who witnesses her teenage son kill a man. Every day she wakes up in the past again until she can solve why this happened, the mystery leading up to it that entangles her family, and try to prevent it. First she ways up the day before, then two days, then three, then a two weeks, then a few months, then a few years--until her son hasn't even been born yet. I enjoyed it. Also a plus for British accent narrator (can you tell I'm American....)

A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong

This one was fun. I checked it out because it was longish and I had to drive like 8 hrs roundtrip for a work trip, so I listened to this the entire way. It's about a (Canadian) woman named Mallory who was a police detective in the modern day, who gets attacked while out for a jog in Edinburgh, Scotland. The attacker strangles her and she goes unconscious. When she wakes up, however, she finds herself in someone else's body--in the Victorian era. She's now a 19 year old housemaid, and has to adapt as quickly as possible to avoid suspicion. She quickly finds out that she works for a man named Dr. Duncan Gray, who is a medical examiner. And there's a person who's been murdered in a very similar way to how Mallory herself was attacked. And she's quickly finding out that the person who's body she's in was not well-liked.

My favorite part about this one is the emphasis it has on early forensics in Victorian Scotland. Dr. Gray is a fantastic character and it is so interesting to see him doing his lil cutting-edge forensics research (which Mallory, being educated in modern times, wants desperately to help him with.) Also the narrator, while being Canadian, does Scottish accents for all the Scottish characters. I'm not the best person to ask as someone who isn't Scottish but I thought the accents sounded pretty good lol

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

My mom recommended this one to me. It's also a lot of fun. The title is, mostly, accurate. Ernest Cunningham (protag) is a writer, who mostly creates how-to books for mystery novelists he sells on Amazon. No, he doesn't write mysteries, he just writes the how-to books. But he's very well-versed in the "rules" of how to write a classic mystery! He promises that, as the narrator of this story, he will always be an entirely reliable narrator. The book itself is obviously fiction but within the narrative of the book, it is being told like a nonfiction account of something that the main character is writing down. This book is sort of a bottle mystery--strange murders while everyone is snowed in at a ski resort during a family reunion, anyone? The main character is funny and breaks the fourth wall often. I am convinced that there is a separate audiobook specific version since the narration within the book references it being an audiobook. The main character will be like "so, you probably realize this isn't the real killer, since we still have 4 hours of the book left to listen to" lol. I almost want to check out a print copy of this to see if the text is different.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

First one on the list that I didn't listen to as an audiobook. Honestly, I probably read this book in 4 hours flat. Three of those hours just dead-focused while on a plane (with the book's hold expiring as soon as I landed and took my phone off airplane mode.)

I don't really know how to explain this one. I don't think I understood what it was about until I actually got like 4 chapters in and then I couldn't stop. It's just off-the wall ridiculous. There are talking cats. There are dolphins that want to unionize. There is a volcano lair. There are explosions and assasination attempts. There is a reasonably bleakly accurate capitalist picture of what "villainy" means in our world. There is a poor main character in over his head as he learns he's inherited all this from an uncle he never saw. This book is like...satire comedy. Comedy and outlandish but you're also depressed about billionaires a little while reading it.

Books I thought were Okay (3-4 stars but actually I gave both these 4 stars I think)

The Poisoner's Ring by Kelley Armstrong

The second book to the book I mentioned above. Honestly, I remember very well what the first book was about (i typed the summary by memory) but I have trouble remembering specifics about this one. It's a bit too long as well, at 14 hours. I don't have anything bad to say about it, I just didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first one.

But honestly I do remember it was still a good time. I just really like Dr Gray as a character and the setting, early forensic science focus, etc. These books are also setting up to be an EXTREME slow burn romance between Gray and Mallory, which I don't mind. (Literally by book 2 the most we have is that she thinks he's attractive, so at this rate it will take us 3 more books to get anywhere lol.) I will be checking out the 3rd book when it is released this spring.

Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moines

Also a book that suffered from being too long. It's a 12 hour audiobook but I think that it could have been 8 or 9 hours and gotten the same point across. My mom recommended this to me. It's narrated by Daisy Ridley, who does a good job. I enjoyed it, but I also started to feel like I really wanted it to be done?

Also unsure how to describe this one. Slightly-contrived-but-cute plot about how a bag switch up in a gym connects two women's stories. One is a, frankly quite annoying, American woman who married rich but has now been completely cut off from her money (and even passport) by her ex-husband who's cheating on her with a younger woman. One is a British woman with low self-esteem and a bad job who is struggling to keep her family afloat while her husband suffers from severe depression. I think my favorite was a side character named Jasmine who brought light to every scene imo.

Books I disliked (2 stars but after writing this review I almost want to make it 1 star)

Aurora by David Koepp

David I really believed in you after Cold Storage. But imo, this book isn't it. It throws away every interesting part of its apocalypse-level plot to focus on the characters. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love a good character-focused plot, except I never connected with anyone in the book. I just kind of didn't enjoy any of them. This is a story that is supposed to be about a solar flare taking out all electricity and communications for most of the world. And it only covers like a few days after the disaster AND THEN TIME SKIPS LIKE 8 MONTHS UNTIL EVERYTHING IS HAPPILY SOLVED NEIGHBORHOOD UTOPIA STYLE. I'm sorry????? Assuming I can believe that this little suburban Illinois cul-de-sac has managed to set up subsistence farming in a few months and is living perfectly happily, why would you....not show me how that happened.....

Also the "everything fits together" character moment at the end felt unearned. I was like yeah, okay, I guess this slots together. But the author didn't earn that moment for me. Instead of connecting with the characters and the plot and getting invested I felt like I was just being....told that everything worked out?? Or told that this was an important moment instead of actually Feeling the moment? It's hard to explain but I was like ok great thanks let's all go home now.

Sigh. I just can't get over the whole "throwing away the most interesting part of your setting" part. Again. Why would you spend a significant time setting up the science and how much of a disaster the solar flare is and then not show any of the characters figuring out how to survive it long-term....?

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

This book has such a high rating. It's very popular right now. It took me like 12 weeks of waiting for my hold to come up, and that's with the library having 7 copies.

It is, supposedly, about a smart octopus named Marcellus who helps an elderly lady solve the mystery of her son's disappearance at sea when he was a teenager.

In practice, it is about one minute at a time of Marcellus (the best part of the book) and extended sections of characters that I don't care about at all. I assume all the pieces of the story were supposed to come together later, but I was just highly bored. I was so bored that I DNF'd at 25% when my hold was up. I do not care enough to wait weeks to check it out again. Based on the one star reviews I read, the characters I didn't like did not develop into better people later and remained similarly annoying. Now, I don't need characters to be good people of course. But I do expect to be interested in them. I still don't know how the son's disappearance factors in because I felt like I heard barely anything about the supposed main character woman.

I feel vindicated because my coworker also checked out the book and told me a few weeks ago that she was at 50% and there still wasn't anything happening in the plot. I will ask her tomorrow if she finished it or not and if it ever got better.

Write an entire book for Marcellus the octopus and I'll check it out...

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

This book had so much potential. It's about a group of four women who were formerly assasins but are now retiring at 60. To celebrate retirement, they go on a cruise and then realize that they're the new targets for assasination, presumably because they know too much about the organization that used to employ them.

In execution....very meh. I actually had a Libby glitch on this one, where I think I missed about 1.5 hrs of narration total because the book skipped twice. I have no concept of which parts I missed. What I do know is that, the book was already so cobbled together before the first skip that I didn't realize I had missed anything until the end. Like sure, parts didn't make sense, but I was ready to accept that it was just Like That since the rest of the book was like that. After reading a bunch of reviews of this book I am convinced that there is NO way that all of its flaws can be explained by me missing a small part. After all, I did listen to 8.5 hours of it still.

The characters never felt their age to me. I felt like they either acted like they were 80 or 90, or like they were 20. It just seemed odd to me. The characters also felt very 2D, like the author wrote down three traits per person and called it good. There's a younger woman who appears to know the main character and conveniently helps the group, but I literally never figured out where their relationship originated or how they knew each other. Maybe I missed that too. By the end of the book I still didn't know who anyone was and couldn't remember which person was the main character. The plot jumped around to new locations constantly and often with little transition--this happened even on the parts where I definitely didn't get a skipping glitch. The main villain was a guy I literally had barely heard anything of til that point, although perhaps he came up in the 1.5 hrs I missed. They described the same painting in excruciating detail THREE separate times. It was...too feminist? Feminist in a contrived way where I have to be reminded every 5 minutes the characters are women? Like, I know, I am reading a story about women. Please don't mention it several times a chapter. There are ethical and moral considerations about their profession and chosen organization that never really get given the weight required. There was a love interest for the main character that I hadn't heard of once until he was introduced like an hour from the end--maybe I missed more about him in the parts I skipped? Unknown.

ANNND THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!

#quara talks books #my current book is mr penumbra's 24 hr bookstore by robin sloan and i'm not getting promising vibes from it 30% in #i'm gonna try to finish it but....the mc kind of annoys me #but i could live with that!#what i can't live with is the author's incessant need to talk about google constantly. there's a character who works for google.#does the author have a thing for google....?? why do they wanna **** google's ***** in this random presumably unaffiliated book????#also more product placement vibes like macbooks and kindles coming up a lot #like dude. please. stop. you promised me mysterious bookstore not megacorp tech worship #also the tech talk hasn't aged super well in this book imo #a bit amusing to read about people being very wowed by someone attending a party 'virtually' via webcam #in the post pandemic work from home era of zoom meeetings and teams meetings etc #also getting manic pixie dreamgirl vibes from main love interest #ANYWAY. stay tuned to see if I have to put this book in the middle or bottom tier (it's already missed its chance at 5 stars)

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popentertainment-moviereviews · 10 months

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INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY (2023)

Starring Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Karen Allen, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, Mads Mikkelsen, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Olivier Richters, Mark Killeen, Martin McDougall, Alaa Safi, Francis Chapman, Alfonso Rosario Mandia, Chase Brown, Nasser Memarzia and Anna Francolini.

Screenplay by Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp and James Mangold.

Directed by James Mangold.

Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 154 minutes. Rated PG-13.

“It’s not the years, honey. It’s the mileage.”

A badly beaten-up Indiana Jones said that line to his love Marian Ravenwood on a steamer ship trying to escape the Nazis in the classic film Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first (and still by far the best) of the Indiana Jones adventures. Well, it’s been 42 years, four films and countless miles since then, and now for Indiana Jones it’s both the years and the mileage. After all Harrison Ford is 80 years old now. Can he still wear the fedora and the bullwhip and the mantle of action hero?

Particularly in the first film of the series which was not helmed by Steven Spielberg? (Spielberg and co-creator George Lucas are still on board as Executive Producers but had little to do with the actual filming of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.)

The answer to that question is – sort of. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is another one of the marginally good Indy sequels, holding a certain fun nostalgia before completely losing the plot with a ridiculous ending.

Dial of Destiny alternately feels like it’s trying too hard and yet not hard enough. It has a fascinating subtext – Indiana Jones reaching retirement age – that it touches upon but does not really explore in any depth. (Other than occasional jokes about aching bones, Indy still seems to be pretty functional as a superhero character.)

So, if you’re just going to glancingly look at the mortality of the character, is there any reason to bring him back 15 years after the last unsuccessful reboot Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? (Shia LeBeouf’s character from that film, Indy’s son who was teased as a new series hero before that film was a bit of a misfire – is explained away in this film pretty conclusively.)

Maybe not, but Harrison Ford still has a certain craggy charm in the character, and it’s always good to see him. And if Dial of Destiny is trying too hard – way too hard, honestly – to unsuccessfully recreate the magic of the first Raiders film, it still has enough fun (if slightly overcooked) action sequences and enough of a nostalgic rush to make it mostly worth seeing.

Not that you haven’t mostly seen it all before.

Now, this is not really Dial of Destiny’s fault, and yet it does show some of the lack of imagination going on here. By sheer coincidence, the night before I saw Dial of Destiny, I saw an advance screening of Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One and it turns out that three of the action sequences in Dial of Destiny were dead ringers for action sequences done in Dead Reckoning. For the record, these were a knife fight on top of a train, a car chase which includes both cars driving down long city staircases and another car chase in which the hero is stuck driving a beat-up older Citroen. And honestly, the sequences were managed better in Mission: Impossible.

Now, granted, none of those set pieces are all that unique in action films (although the specific quirk of both using a vintage Citroen as the car for a chase scene is kind of surprising), but is that ubiquity really a selling point for the movie?

Dial of Destiny mostly takes place in the late 1960s – with some flashbacks to WWII with Ford de-aged by CGI to play his younger self. (In general, the de-aging process is not quite as disorienting and unrealistic as it has been in previous attempts, but you can still see the CGI periodically, particularly in the action sequences.)

Also, unlike the previous films, the artifact which is being searched for is not a religious artifact, it is a scientific one – a mysterious dial created by ancient mathematician Archimedes which may be able to facilitate time travel.

Indy and his old ally Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) first ran across half of the dial (Archimedes apparently disassembled the device, realizing it was too dangerous for humanity) during WWII. Shaw spent the rest of his life obsessively searching for the other half.

Years later, long after Shaw’s death and Indy’s moving on, Shaw’s daughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) tracks down Indy in search of the dial. Indy agrees to help her for his friend’s sake, but it turns out that Helena is much more duplicitous than Indy imagined, and soon there are Nazis and government officials hot on their trail as they try to track down the artifact.

Thus begins the globe-trotting adventure which imitates and even ramps up the constant motion of the original without quite recapturing the magic. Also, is it my imagination, or is Indy a bit more gratuitously violent in this film? In Raiders he was resigned to violence only as a last resort…

Original film cast members Jonathan Rhys-Davies and Karen Allen (as Sallah and Marion) show up for brief, nostalgic cameos, although neither is given all that much to do. Still, it’s great to see them. And Allen does get a nice opportunity to do a rueful echo of the classic Raiders scene quoted at the top of this review.

There is no real reason for Dial of Destiny to exist, but for the most part it was fun to see Indiana Jones one last time.

Jay S. Jacobs

#Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny #2023 #Movie Reviews #Harrison Ford #Jay S. Jacobs

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thebuzztrack · 10 months

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A Review of Brian De Palma’s ‘Mission: Impossible’ (1996)

In the thrilling 1996 movie Mission: Impossible, directed by Brian De Palma, Ethan Hunt is a spy who finds himself on the run. His crew members are killed one by one during a risky mission. And the accusation of being a traitor is erroneously assigned to him. Hunt must prove his innocence while facing dangerous enemies, high-tech gadgets, and a mysterious list of undercover agents coveted by everyone. Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt, leading an impressive cast that includes Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave, and Jean Reno. The movie is an adaptation of the hit episodic program of the same name that ran on American television from 1966 to 1973. This movie has sparked a prosperous film franchise that continues to this day. The film features many exciting scenes, such as the mission in Prague, the vault break-in in Langley, and the train chase in England.

It has a run time of an hour and fifty minutes, which is within the range for the usual bracket of 90 minutes to 120 minutes for a traditional movie length. It does not feel like it, though. This presentation of its story feels much more epic than that. David Koepp and Robert Towne co-wrote the script based on a story outline Koepp created with Steven Zaillian. All three writers have established careers in Hollywood with recognizable movies, some of which garnered award recognition. Robert Towne won an Academy Award for his original screenplay Chinatown (1974), and Steven Zaillian won for his screenplay adaptation of Schindler’s List (1993) from the book of the same name. David Koepp is a recognizable name for churning out the scripts and stories for blockbuster movies and small-budget independent films in equal fervor. His writing contributions include Jurassic Park (1993), Stir of Echos (1999), and co-writing credit for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

While watching the movie, I had a chuckle or two because the framing for some of the shots is a bit cheesy, such as the one with Tom Cruise hovering between two of his co-stars with a grin so big that he must have chugged an extra large iced coffee right before the camera began to roll. He bursts with energy while the others in the frame are neutrally composed. It seems unusual and disjointed in retrospect, nearly thirty years after the movie’s production, because the audience has more experience watching Tom Cruise on and off the movie screen. The audience perspective has changed over the years, giving the visual dynamics a different feel. Even after stating all that, I still enjoy the tone and delivery of Brian De Palma’s visual storytelling.

Brian De Palma is an American filmmaker known for his thrilling director career that spans over 50 years. He is known for his exciting, violent, and often controversial films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock and other cinematic legends. His most popular works include Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission: Impossible. De Palma began his career in the 1960s as a part of the New Hollywood movement, which comprised young and innovative directors. He worked with Robert De Niro in his early films, such as Hi, Mom, and Greetings. Later, he established himself as a master of the thriller genre, using unique camera techniques, split screens, and elaborate set pieces to create tension and shock. De Palma has also explored themes like voyeurism, sexuality, identity, and politics in his films, often resulting in criticism and controversy. He is considered one of his generation’s most original and influential directors. De Palma introduced new ways of visual storytelling, like long takes, slow motion, and split diopter shots, which have influenced the thriller genre. He also experimented with genres and styles, including musicals, comedies, and science fiction, which has inspired many other filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, and Wes Craven.

youtube

#Brian De Palma #David Koepp #Emilio Estevez #Henry Czerny #Jean Reno #Jon Voight #Kristin Scott Thomas #Movie #Review #thriller #Tom Cruise #Vanessa Redgrave #Ving Rhames #movies #movie review #Youtube

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tinyreviews · 10 months

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I swear, it’s the theme music that makes the movie magical.

Mission: Impossible is a 1996 American action spy film directed by Brian De Palma and produced by and starring Tom Cruise from a screenplay by David Koepp and Robert Towne and story by Koepp and Steven Zaillian. A continuation of the 1966 television series of the same name and its 1988 sequel series (canonically set six years after the latter), it is the first installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. It also stars Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave and Jean Reno.

#mission impossible #tom cruise #jon voight #emmanuelle beart #henry czerny #ving rhames #kristin scott thomas #vanessa redgrave #jean reno #spy action #movie review #1996 #heist

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mylifeincinema · 1 year

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My Best of 2022: My Top 10 Films!

Finally! It’s time for My Top 10 Films of 2022! This year was not a necessarily good year for film. Sure, there were a handful that I really took to, but aside from them, there a whole lot more that I merely enjoyed, rather than loving or thinking were amazing pieces of cinema. Anyway, this Top 10 works because - and this goes as a quick reminder - My Top 10 Films isn’t necessarily a list of the ‘best’, or ‘my favorite’, but rather a mix of the two that takes both sides of the A&E into as equal consideration as humanly possible. So definitely keep that in mind, especially the fact that how re-watchable each film is weighs in significantly, as well. (Which definitely explains the positions of at least a couple of these.)

Okay... before we dive into things, here are some Honorable Mentions (in no real order), most of which spent some time in the Top 10: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; Jordan Peele’s Nope; Graham Moore’s The Outfit; Akiva Schaffer’s Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers; Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All. Ask me in a few months and any of these could’ve overtaken any of the bottom half of this list, really.

And one last thing, although they aren’t labeled as such below, and I don’t really do ties, my picks for 2 and 3 ARE indeed tied. Depending on my mood, I love each one every bit as much as the other.

Finally, without further ado…

My Top 10 Films of 2022!!

10. Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

It’s got a stellar cast, it’s a ton of fun, and it chooses an approach and sticks with it. If you’re underwhelmed with the ‘twists’, that’s kinda the point; that’s why it works so damn well as a whole piece.

9. Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front

This is one bleak, filthy, visceral, and brutal anti-war film. It’s focus on the people fighting makes even the bigger set-pieces feel intimate, yet no less exhausting. The direction and camera work is just stunning, patient and unforgiving and technically impressive. The makeup is so effectively grimy it had me wiping mud out of my eyes sitting warm and comfortable on my couch. And the performances were chock-full of a hope-tinged desperation that made each and every inevitable death all the more soul-shattering.

8. Tom Gormican’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Hilarious. Just magnificent. A batshit crazy and shockingly vulnerable view into the mind of a man who’s become lost in the industry. Cage and Pascal are downright brilliant together, working off of each other with natural ease and unpredictability. I missed this in cinemas and can’t stress enough how badly I regret that. So fun. So good... Just so, so good.

7. Todd Field’s Tár

It’s rare to see direction as patient as Todd Field’s is here never lose any tension or momentum throughout its film. No wonder this film so completely understands the role of a composer. Tár is a balanced, wholly effective powerhouse of a piece; an orchestra of power, control, and the struggle to maintain the former while losing the latter, and vice versa. And that’s all before we even get to Cate Blanchett. She is an absolute revelation, here. Her drive, her obsession, her control over even the most minuscule aspects of this character. It’s all so beautifully brought to life with cold detachment veiling unrestrained passion. What a performance. What a film.

6. Steven Soderbergh’s Kimi

Fantastic. Easily Soderbergh’s best directorial work since Contagion, or at the very least, Side Effects. David Koepp’s screenplay is incredibly taut, intriguing and paired with Soderbergh’s work, superbly paced. And Zoë Kravitz is just so damn good; her frustration and fear blend and transform throughout in a manner as riveting as it is authentic. This not only does its inspirations justice, but does so in a way that makes it stand up tall on its own.

5. Mark Mylod’s The Menu

Not at all what I was expecting, and I couldn’t be happier for it. Chock-full of pitch perfect pitch black humor that makes some amazingly shocking moments. Anya Taylor Joy is fantastic (as always), but this is Ralph Fiennes’ show. Just a wonderfully twisted, detached performance that’s a delight to experience. And bravo to Nicholas Hoult and John Leguizamo for their scene-stealing performances. The ending might (maybe, probably not, but definitely close) be my favorite of the year. Such a perfect final course to all exceedingly decadent dishes by which it’s preceded.

4. Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin

Significantly more depressing than I thought it would be, but not in a bad way. This is a film about the madness of the world, changing times and one’s reaction to those things being forced upon them, and in exploring the relationships on this island, McDonagh unveils poignant insight into not only the natural flow of change, but how the individual copes with it. It’s shocking and sad and so often hilarious, but mostly it’s a moving portrait of simple folk getting by in an exceedingly complex world, or not getting by at all.

3. Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once

This is such an utterly insane, silly, wildly creative, genuinely heartfelt sci-fi film. Michelle Yeoh is a powerhouse, embodying our protagonist’s complacency and reluctance with a depth beautifully nuanced as it is hilariously bizarre. Daniels’ vision is as weird and messy as it gets, and nails every single note as it ambitiously tackles everything from family and fate to love and regret to taxes and beyond.

2. Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick

A perfect blockbuster sequel. Everything works. It’s equal parts over-the-top spectacle and a heartfelt reflection on aging out of the game. But best of all, all of its pieces work together to create an overwhelming adrenaline-rush of a cinematic experience. Sure, the writing can be paper thin and/or predictably hokey at times, but - if anything - even those aspects add to the straight-forward, crowd-pleasing, damn-near perfect action film this ultimately is.

And My Favorite/The Best Film of 2022 is…

1. Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans

Steven Spielberg is my all-time favorite director, and this is the film he’s been destined to deliver ever since he broke out in the ‘70s.

Sure, this is a celebration of cinema. But even more than that it’s a celebration of whatever it is that grabs hold of our imaginations and hearts and refuses to let go, and a love-letter to the people who encourage us to give in to that passion, for better and worse. It’s a personal, reflective piece of cinema by the all-time greatest cinematic storyteller... and it’s beautiful.

Thank you for reading…

Enjoy!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

More of My Best of 2022...

#film #movies #best of 2022 #the fabelmans #top gun: maverick #everything everywhere all at once #mybestof2022 #the banshees of inisherin #the menu #kimi #Tár #movie #cinema #lists #top 10 movies #the unbearable weight of massive talent #all quiet on the western front #glass onion #top 10 movies of 2022

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librius · 2 years

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Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction action film[4] directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R. Molen. It is the first installment in the Jurassic Park franchise, and the first film in the Jurassic Park original trilogy, and is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton and a screenplay written by Crichton and David Koepp. The film is set on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, located off Central America's Pacific Coast near Costa Rica. There, wealthy businessman John Hammond and a team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. When industrial sabotage leads to a catastrophic shutdown of the park's power facilities and security precautions, a small group of visitors and Hammond's grandchildren struggle to survive and escape the perilous island.

Before Crichton's novel was published, four studios put in bids for its film rights. With the backing of Universal Studios, Spielberg acquired the rights for $1.5 million before its publication in 1990; Crichton was hired for an additional $500,000 to adapt the novel for the screen. Koepp wrote the final draft, which left out much of the novel's exposition and violence and made numerous changes to the characters. Filming took place in California and Hawaii from August to November 1992, and post-production rolled until May 1993, supervised by Spielberg in Poland as he filmed Schindler's List. The dinosaurs were created with groundbreaking computer-generated imagery by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and with life-sized animatronic dinosaurs built by Stan Winston's team. To showcase the film's sound design, which included a mixture of various animal noises for the dinosaur roars, Spielberg invested in the creation of DTS, a company specializing in digital surround sound formats. The film also underwent an extensive $65 million marketing campaign, which included licensing deals with over 100 companies.

Jurassic Park premiered on June 9, 1993, at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., and was released on June 11 in the United States. It went on to gross over $914 million worldwide in its original theatrical run,[5] becoming the highest-grossing film ever at the time, a record held until the release of Titanic in 1997.[6] It received positive reviews from critics, who praised its special effects and Spielberg's direction.[7] Following its 20th anniversary re-release in 2013, Jurassic Park became the oldest film in history to surpass $1 billion in ticket sales and the seventeenth overall. The film won more than twenty awards, including three Academy Awards for its technical achievements in visual effects and sound design. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was followed by five sequels – The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park III (2001), Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and Jurassic World Dominion (2022).

woag..... dinosaurs.......

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courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme · 1 month

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Jurassic Park (1993, Steven Spielberg)

11/03/2024

Jurassic Park is a 1993 film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the novel of the same name written by Michael Crichton.

Spielberg purchased the rights to the book before it was published in 1990, and Crichton was hired to create a film adaptation. David Koepp wrote the final screenplay, in which many of the violent features of the book and much of the narrative part were lost, also making numerous changes to the characters. Spielberg hired Stan Winston Studios to create the animatronic subjects that would bring the dinosaurs to the screen to interact with Industrial Light & Magic's nascent computer-generated imagery technique. If Tron was the first Disney film to use the then newborn computer graphics, Jurassic Park is considered the first big budget film to make use of CGI.

Paleontologist Jack Horner helped the authors and the team responsible for the special effects to make what they were working with as truthful as possible (although the whole appearance of the dinosaurs turns out to be partly wrong due to subsequent changes in evolutionary theories, in particular way in Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus). Filming lasted from August 24 to November 30, 1992 on the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Oahu, California, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

Jurassic Park premiered on June 9, 1993 in Washington, and was released on June 11 in the United States. The film was a huge success with audiences: against a budget of $63 million, it grossed over $914 million worldwide in its first theatrical release, surpassing E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial and becoming the highest-grossing film of all time until the release of Titanic in 1997.

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moviereviews101web · 14 days

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) Movie Review

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – ABC Film Challenge – Action – K (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) – Movie Review Director: Steven Spielberg Writer: David Koepp (Screenplay) Writer: George Lucas, Jeff Nathanson (Story) Cast Harrison Ford (Star Wars) Cate Blanchett (Tar) Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark) Shia LaBeouf (Transformers) Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) Plot: In…

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#2008 #Adventure #Indiana Jones Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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nsfwhiphop · 1 month

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Incoming Text for Taylor Swift:

Hey, Taylor! It's me, Angelo.

I know you want to learn about screenwriting and I have the perfect screenwriter for you, his name is David Koepp.

I encourage you to call David Koepp and ask him to give you advice, you will get the correct guidance from David Koepp.

David Koepp has a lot of knowledge about the world of screenwriting in Hollywood and he can help you find really talented screenwriters in America, he is the go-to person for knowledge, so don’t hesitate to hang-out with him and pick his brain about screenwriting.

David Koepp can help you find a long list of other talented screenwriters for your future films, these screenwriters will help you transform your ideas into a fully finished screenplay.

Once you find screenwriters, you will give them your ideas for new films, what type of film do you want? You will give them the details and they will take notes, they’ll turn your ideas into a fully finished screenplay and voila, dinner is served, screenplay is ready, it’s as simple as that.

You can count on the guidance of David Koepp to help you find talented screenwriters in America.

You will find everything you need with David Koepp.

Go get'em, girl!

Love you, Taylor! Have fun, big hug for you!

P.S.:

Here is the wiki page of David Koepp, click the link:

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theideasofarchimedes · 2 months

Text

JURASSIC PARK

screenplay

David Koepp

based upon the novel

Michael Crichton

and on adaption

Michael Crichton and Malia Scotch Marmo

December 11, 1992

1 EXT JUNGLE NIGHT

An eyeball, big, yellowish, distinctly inhuman, stares raptly

between wooden slats, part of a large crate. The eye darts from side

to side, alert as hell.

A legend tries to place us - -

ISLA NUBLAR

120 MILES WEST OF COSTA RICA

- - but to us it's still the middle of nowhere.

It's quiet for a second. A ROAR rises up from the jungle,

deafening. The trees shake as something very, very large plows ahead

through them, right at us. Every head gathered in this little clearing

snaps, turning in the direction of the sound as it bursts through the

trees.

It's a bulldozer. It drops its scoop and pushes forward into

the back end of the crate, shoving it across the jungle floor towards

an impressive fenced structure that towers over an enclosed section of

thick jungle. There's a guard tower at one end of this holding open

that makes it look like San Quentin.

The bulldozer pushes forward into the back end, the crate THUDS

TO THE FLOOR. A door slides open in the pen, making a space as big as

the end of the crate.

Nobody moves for a second, A grim-faced guy who seems to be in

charge (Robert Muldoon, although we don't know it yet).

MULDOON

Alright now, pushers move in. Loading team move it.

The movement as agitated whatever is inside the crate, and the

whole thing shivers as GROWLS and SNAPS come from inside.

Everyone moves back.

MULDOON (cont'd)

Alright, steady. Get back in there now, push. Get back

in there, Don't let her know you're afraid!

The men go back to the crate and begin to push it into the slot.

The crate THUDS UP AGAINST THE OPENING. A green light on the side of

the pen lights up, showing contact has been made.

FROM INSIDE THE CRATE,

we get glimpses of what's on the other side of those wooden

slates - - jungle foliage, MEN with rifles, searching searchlights.

The view is herky-jerky as the crate put into position.

MULDOON

Well lockedŠ Loading team, step away. Joffrey, raise

the gate.

A WORKER climbs to the top of the crate. The search lights are

trained on the door.

The RIFFLEMEN throw the bolts on their rifles and CRACK their

stun guns, sending arcs of current CRACKING through the air.

The WORKER gets ready to grab the gate when all at once - -

A ROAR from the inside the crate, and the panel flies out of his

hands and SMACKS into him, knocking him clear off the crate.

Now everything happens at once. The WORKER THUDS to the jungle

floor, the crate jerks away from the mouth of the holding pen flash, an

alarm BUZZER sounds - -

- - and a claw SLASHES out from inside the crate. It sinks into

the ankle of the WORKER. dragging him toward the dark mouth between the

crate and the pen. The WORKER SCREAMS and paws the dirt, leaving long

claw marks as he is rapidly dragged toward the crate.

Muldoon SHOUTS orders:

MULDOON

Tasers get in there, Goddamn it!

They FIRE their guns - the wood of the crate SPLINTERS.

Muldoon runs in and grabs the WORKER, trying to pull him free.

The wild arcs of currents from the stun gun flash and CRACK all

around, but in a second - -

- - the WORKER is gone.

CUT TO:

2 EXT MOUNTAINSIDE DAY

MANO DE DIOS AMBER MINE

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

DONALD GENNARO, forty, in a city man's idea of hiking clothes

and a hundred dollar haircut, approaches on a raft being pulled across

a river by TWO MEN.

On the hillside, JUAN ROSTAGNO, thirty-ish, Costa Rican, a

smart-looking guy in workers clothes, is waiting for him.

ROSTAGNO

Tengo mil pesos que dicen que se cae

(I have a thousand pesos that say he falls)

(or)

Apuesto mil pesos que se cae.

(I bet a thousand pesos he falls)

Gennaro finally lands, and Rostagno helps him off the raft.

GENNARO

Hola, Juanito

ROSTAGNO

Hola, bienvenido

Rostagno leads Gennaro towards the mine. Dozen of shirtless

WORKERS claw and SCRAPE at a rocky mountainside that is the site of an

extensive mining operation. The work is all done by hand, pick and

shovel instead of dynamite and bulldozer.

GENNARO

What's this I hear at the airportŠ Hammond's not even

here?

ROSTAGNO

He sends his apologies.

GENNARO

You're telling me that we're facing a $20 million

lawsuit from the family of that injured worker and Hammond couldn't

even be bothered to see me?

ROSTAGNO

He had to leave early to be with his daughter. She's

getting a divorce.

GENNARO

I understand that.

(or)

I'm sorry to hear that. We'd be well advised to deal

with this situation now. The insurance company - -

Gennaro almost falls, Rostagno helps him.

GENNARO (cont'd)

- -the underwriters of the park feel the accident raises

some very serious questions about the safety of the park, and they're

making the investors very anxious. I had to promise I would conduct a

thorough on-site inspection.

ROSTAGNO

Hammond hates inspections. They slow everything down.

GENNARO

Juanito, if they pull the funding, that will really

slow things down.

(or)

If they pull the funding that's going to slow things

down around here.

A WORKER hurries up to them and busts into the conversation,

breathless.

WORKER

(to Rostagno)

Jefe, encontramos otro mosquito, en el mismo sitio.

(Chief, we found another mosquito in the same place)

ROSTAGNO

Seguro? Muestrame!

(Are you sure? Show me.)

The WORKER and ROSTAGNO scramble back deeper into the mine.

Rostagno calls back over his shoulder to Gennaro.

ROSTAGNO (cont'd)

It seems like it's going to be a good day after all.

They found another one! C'mon.

Gennaro struggles to keep up.

3 EXT CAVE DAY

ROSTAGNO and GENNARO move into the dark, dripping cave, where at

least a dozen other WORKERS are gathered in a tight circle, staring at

something intently.

Rostagno fights his way to the center of the group. One of the

WORKERS hands him something and Rostagno examines it carefully.

It's a chuck of amber, a shiny yellow rock about the size of a

half dollar.

GENNARO

If two experts sign off on the island, the insurance

guys'll back off. I already got Ian Malcolm, but they think he's too

trendy. They want Alan Grant.

ROSTAGNO

Grant? You'll never get him out of Montana.

GENNARO

Why not?

ROSTAGNO

Because he's like me. He's a digger.

Rostagno turns and holds the amber up to the sunlight streaming

through the mouth of the cave.

With the light pouring through it, the amber is translucent, and

we can see something inside this strange stone - -

- - a huge mosquito, long dead, entombed there.

ROSTAGNO

(smiles)

Hay que lindo eres vas hacer a much gente feliz.

(Oh you're so beautiful. You will make a lot of

people happy)

CUT TO:

5 EXT THE DIG DAY

An artist's camel hair brush carefully sweeps away sand and rock

to slowly reveal the dark curve of a fossil - it's a claw. A dentist's

pick gently lifts it from the place its has laid for millions of years.

Pull up to reveal a group of diggers working on a large skeleton. All

we see are the tops of their hats. The paleontologist working on the

claw lays it in his hand.

GRANT

(thoughtfully)

Four complete skeletons. . . .

such a small area. . .

the same time horizon - -

ELLIE

They died together?

GRANT

The taphonomy sure looks that way.

ELLIE

If they died together, they lived together.

Suggests some kind of social order.

DR ALAN GRANT, mid-thirties, a ragged-looking guy with intense

concentration you wouldn't want to get in the way of, carefully

examines a claw.

DR ELLIE SATTLER, working with him, leans in close and studies

it too. She paints the exposed bone with rubber cement. Ellie in her

late twenties, athletic-looking. There's an impatience about Ellie, as

if nothing in life happens quite fast enough for her.

Her face is almost pressed up against his, she's sitting so

close.

GRANT (cont'd)

They hunted as a team. The dismembered tenontosaurus

bone over there - that's lunch. But what killed our

raptors in a lakebed, in a bunch like this? We better

come up with something that makes sense.

ELLIE

A drought. The lake was shrinking - -

GRANT

(excited)

That's good. That's right! They died around a dried-up

puddle! Without fighting each other. This is looking

good.

From the bottom of the hill a voice SHOUTS to them:

VOLUNTERR (o.s.)

Dr Grant! Dr Sattler! We're ready to try again!

Grant SIGNS and sits up, stretching out his back.

GRANT

I hate computers.

He shoves the claw absent-mindedly into his pocket and he and

Ellie walk toward the source of the voice. As they walk, we get our

first look at the badlands. Exposed outcroppings of crumbling

limestone stretch for miles in every direction, not a tree or a bush in

sight.

In the dig itself, the ground is checkered with excavations

everywhere. There's a base camp with five or six teepees, a flapping

mess tent, a few cards, a flatbed truck with wrapped fossils loaded on

it, and a mobile home. There are a dozen VOLUNTEERS of all ages at

work in various places around the dig. The Volunteers are from all

walks of life, dinosaur buffs. Three or four of them have CHILDREN

with them, and the kids run around, like in a giant sandbox.

Grant , Ellie and a Volunteer walk down the hill. Grant spots a

KID kicking dirt onto one of the digs. He notices and frowns.

GRANT

What's that kid doing?

(to the kid)

What are you doing there!? Excuse me! Can you just back

off? This is very fragile! Are you out of your mind?

Get off that and go find your parents!

(to Ellie)

Did you see what he just did?

The kid stomps away, pissed off.

KID

Asshole.

GRANT

(to Ellie)

Why do they have to bring their kids?!

ELLIE

You could hire your help. But there's four summers of

work here, with the money for one. And you say it's a

learning experience, sort of a vacation, and you get

volunteers with kids.

He and Ellie arrive to where several VOLUNTEERS are clustered

around a computer terminal that's set up on a table in a small tent,

its flaps lashed open.

GRANT

(to the Volunteer)

Ready to give it a shot, Jerry?

A LITTLE GIRL moves a little too close to the machine.

ELLIE

Want to watch the computer?

Ellie quietly moves her out of Grant's way, to a place she can

see.

VOLUNTEER

Thumper ready?

MAN

Ready.

VOLUNTEER

Fire.

The VOLUNTEER throws a switch on a machine that looks a bit like

a floor buffer. The whole thing hops up into the air as it drives a

soft lead pellet into the earth with a tremendous force. There is a

dull THUD, the earth seems to vibrate, and all eyes turn to the

computer screen - -

ELLIE

How long does this usually take?

VOLUNTEER

It should be immediate return. You shoot the radar into

the ground, the bone bounces back....

The screen suddenly comes alive, yellow contour lines tracing

across it in three waves, detailing a dinosaur skeleton.

VOLUNTEER

This new program's incredible! A few more years of

development and you don't have to dig any more!

Grant looks at him, and his expression is positively wounded.

GRANT

Well, where's the fun in that?

VOLUNTEER

It looks a little distorted, but I don't think that's

the computer.

ELLIE

(shakes her head)

Postmortem contraction of the posterior neck ligaments.

(to Grant)

Velociraptor?

GRANT

Yes. Good shape, too. Five, six feet high. I'm

guessing nine feet long. Look at the - -

He points to part of the skeleton, but when his finger touches

the screen the computer BEEPS at him and the image changes. He pulls

his hand back, as if it shocked him.

VOLUNTEER

What's you do?

ELLIE

He touched it. Dr. Grant is not machine compatible.

GRANT

They've got it in for me.

The Volunteer LAUGHS and touches a different part of the screen,

which brings the original image back. Grant continues, but doesn't get

as close.

GRANT

Look at the half-moon shaped bone in the wrist. No

wonder these guys learned to fly.

The group laughs. Grant is surprised.

GRANT (cont'd)

Now, seriously. Show of the hands. How many of you

have read my book?

Everyone stops laughing and looks away. Ellie raises her hand

supportively. So does the Volunteer, Grant sighs.

GRANT (cont'd)

Great. Well maybe dinosaurs have more in common with

present-day birds than reptiles. Look at the public

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