Tag Archives: Jeff Goldblum

Jennie’s Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Letter Grade:
(?)

B+
The Good:

All of the Artistic Aspects
Great Cast


The Bad:

The R Rating Limits It

Cast & Crew:

Directed By: Wes Anderson
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Léa Seydoux, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson, and more

Rated R for language, some sexual content and violence

The story opens with an author (Tom Wilkinson) revisiting how his younger self (Jude Law) came about the story of The Grand Budapest Hotel and its current owner (F. Murray Abraham)/ former lobby boy (Tony Revolori) Zero Moustafa.  It is sort of a story within a story within a story.  Luckily the main focus of the film resides with the early 1930’s storyline.  The main story is set in a fictionalized European styled location called Republic of Zubrowka.  In an also fictionalized history that somewhat mimics the years leading up to World War II.  So much so, that there is an occupation of the hotel towards the end of the movie by the ZZ (seemingly replacing the Nazi SS).  This movie, like all Wes Anderson movies, is quirky and strange throughout.  This one however is not so far over the edge that is distractingly so.  With many of his films, about 1/3 of the way through you’re thinking “No one is actually like this” and start just focusing on the absurdities. Not that this one isn’t absurd in many ways, but something about it already being set in a fictional place in an alternate history makes this OK. (more…)








Movie Review: Jurassic Park 3D

Letter Grade:
(?)

A+
The Good:

The pacing is great throughout.
The special effects are superb, even after all these years.
John Williams’ score is a masterpiece.
Majestic on the big screen.


The Bad:

None

Cast & Crew:

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Michael Crichton, David Koepp
Stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum

Rated PG-13 for intense science fiction terror

In Jurassic Park, an eccentric former flea circus proprietor (Richard Attenborough) pours millions (billions?) of dollars into a new theme park on an island off the shores of Costa Rica. That’s a slightly less convenient travel destination than Disney World, but if the Pirates of the Caribbean could eat the guests you wouldn’t stick that in Orlando either. When a worker dies on the island the investors start to get antsy, and require a thorough inspection of the facility. To placate them ownership brings in 3 specialists, a mathematician who specializes in Chaos Theory (Jeff Goldblum), a paleontologist (Sam Neill), and his paleobotanist sort-of-girlfriend (Laura Dern) to give the island a once-over. They arrive and are astounded to find the park features real-live dinosaurs cloned from ancient Dino-DNA (with a small assist from some frog DNA). Things go great at first, but soon things take a turn and dinosaurs are chowing down on cows, people, and poor defenseless goats, and our protagonists are left to fight for their lives. (more…)








Movie Review: Dallas 362

Letter Grade:
(?)

B-
The Good:

Snappily written.
A nice coming of age story about two friends drifting in different directions.


The Bad:

A low budget indie film from a first-time director, and you can tell.

Cast & Crew:

Director: Scott Caan
Writer: Scott Caan
Stars: Scott Caan, Jeff Goldblum, Shawn Hatosy

Rated R for pervasive language, drug use, some violence and sexuality

[Originally published on 4/2/2005.]

Just got out of Dallas 362, the film starring, written and directed by Scott Caan. It had its world theatrical premiere here at The Neon last night. I enjoyed it. The tone brought to mind Clerks, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. (more…)