Beauty vs Beast: Love Among the Dino Droppings
Monday, June 11, 2018 at 2:50PM Jason from MNPP here - before I saw Call Me By Your Name in theaters 18 times this past winter the movie that held my personal record of "seen the most times seen in the theater" was Jurassic Park, which I saw in the theater 15 times in 1993. Meaning I can place where I was exactly 25 years ago today, since today's the 25th anniversary. I can also place where I was tomorrow 25 years ago, and the day after that 25 years ago, and the day after that 25 years ago... I saw it every single night for a straight week. It was my Star Wars.
Every progressive sequel's dulled the impact a bit more but that first movie, man I can still feel the tingle up my spine the first time the camera panned up that brachiosaurus and John Williams' music swelled and Spielberg cut to the distant dinos bathing themselves in the sparkling sunlight... it was like the four walls of the house my imagination lived inside of were kicked down all at once. Utter movie magic. Every kid that ever smashed their little dino figures together felt it. And yet the human characters kick ass too. With actors like this around...
PREVIOUSLY Last week's Interview with the Vampire race stayed tight and vacillated often but it was Tom Cruise's Lestat who crawled out of the swamp and unto victory over Brad Pitt's Louis at the end. Said Jaragon:
"Lestat is a lot more fun and he gets the last bite."
Reader Comments (7)
Even as an 8 year old watching this movie for the first time, I knew Ellie Sattler was special. While everyone falls apart around her, she is the one who ends up driving the movie and the other characters to take action. Malcolm was annoying but Ellie was inspiring.
This movie is basically perfect and I would never pick against Laura Dern.
This is going to be - and should be -a walkover. Ellie Sattler for life! She really made her female counterparts in the sequels look feeble by comparison - with all due respect to Julianne Moore and Bryce Dallas Howard.
It would have been a more even contest if you'd pitted Alan Grant against Dr. Malcolm. (In real life, as some may remember, Laura Dern ended up dating Jeff Goldblum for a while.) Even then, I'd vote for Sam Neill.
Honestly I thought Goldblum would be doing better, and I thought he'd soundly kick Sam Neill's ass. I know y'all always skew towards the actress but I thought Jeff Goldblum's iconic Ian Malcolm would put up more of a fight! (That said I should've taken into account that my vote is 100% for Ellie, Laura Dern is my god, et cetera et cetera...)
I actually vote for Ian here because while they're both wonderful actors, this is like the least of what Laura Dern can do onscreen but one of Jeff's most pitch perfect performances.
My Actressexual obsession began at 6 years old with Ellie Sattler and Laura Dern. My awakening as a gay boy weren't hot men but actresses whom I couldn't shy away from.
I haven't seen this in eons. I'm not a super fan, but I like Dern a lot. That said--I don't remember her making much of an impression on me in this one. It was sort of a ho-hum role, and she was fine in it, nothing more. Goldblum may have become annoying over the course of the sequels, but I remember him giving the original some zip. I'd go with Goldblum on this one.