shakercoola

An American fantasy; a story about a disillusioned man who starts to realise how many lives he has changed and impacted and how they would be different if he was never there. This sentimental story has a heartwarming and inspirational effect and sits perfectly as a festive tale. It explores themes about hunger and greed and how things don't turn out as planned, but also how decency prevents misadventure and it has a wholesome, simple message about compassion, selflessness, loyalty, and self-respect which works well for its family audience. However, the film is overlong and does not escape its contrived effect of loading up unsubtle levels of suffering to make the story arc work. Dark themes are thrown into a balancing act between pathos and feel-good, but they occasionally feel heavy and some of dialogue clogs at times, sounding like doggerel. A key scene involving a sum of money (the equivalent of $130,000 in today's money) stretches credibility. Nevertheless, it is beautifully photographed and has two fine lead performances. The third act being the strongest is uncommon by today's standards. As an aside, Orson Welles summed it up well: it is hokum, but "there's no way of hating that movie."

An American sci-fi thriller; A story about dinosaurs, cloned from ancient DNA, now inhabiting a restricted equatorial region. A pharmaceutical company secretly recruits a team to reach three species that hold the key to life-saving benefits for humankind. This is one of the better-looking and better-sounding instalments since Spielberg was at the helm. Exotic locales are photographed in vibrant colour; the action set pieces are slick. There are no new ideas here, though. The premise of a "world" becoming indifferent to dinosaurs draws attention to the fact that moviegoers no longer hold the same wonder for the way these creatures are rendered. Live-action CGI effects have never been groundbreaking photorealism since the original. There are some suspenseful moments, and there are dashes of innovation in the tropes, but not enough was done to elicit a genuine sense of anticipation, awe or terror for when the dinosaurs appear, so it struggles to keep the stakes high, especially with dinosaur genera we've seen many times before. Each new film, then, is a search for new themes to make the action gel and to contrive a reason to get characters to a remote island. Familiar ideas - the sinister corporation, the defunct theme park, and genetic manipulation gone wrong - seem well worn now. The idea of dinosaurs being used for human research, the only new sub-theme, is barely explored. The main characters have chemistry, offering a modicum of interest before the inevitable peril and chases that must prevail in a formula film.

An American horror; A story about a priest experienced in exorcisms chosen by his superiors to investigate the death of a priest who died during the exorcism of a young girl years before. Finding the now older girl under psychiatric care he discovers from her the demon was the same as one he witnessed in Africa and searches there for answers. This is a convoluted, overwrought thriller and Burton was stagy. As an aside, it is a film more than probably any other damned by direct comparison to an antecedent, like The Godfather III was to the original installments - creditable, albeit flawed in ways one needn't go into. Exorcist II: The Heretic is not creditable but it dared to do something different with some of its telepathic sequences which were lyrical, and it had a hallucinogenic, apocalyptic quality like a strange overly exotic fairytale.