Verily Tis Time To See "Thor: Ragnarok"

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Rated PG-13

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins,

Directed by Taika Waititi

The Story:

Ragnarok, the prophesied end of Asgard is at hand. Hela (Blanchett), the Goddess of Death seeks to destroy all that remains of Asgard and take her place on the throne. The only one who has any hope of stopping her is Thor (Hemsworth), and he's going to have to travel across the entire cosmos to get their in time. 

You've seen the trailer, and if that didn't get you psyched to go see this one, then there's not much I can write to convince you.

Waititi delivers the best of the 3 Thor sagas on the silver screen, and yes there's a lot of humor in it...

But I don't think at any point is the humor too distracting, or not in character for any of the characters.

Hemsworth has always been fun in the role of Thor, and they finally tapped into that and let the God of Thunder be the humorous, full of bravado son of Odin that makes the character shine.

He's complemented with the return of Hiddleston as Loki, and once more the brothers find themselves allied and at odds, sometimes both in the same scene.

Many more surprises, returns and losses for this final film from Marvel in 2017.

Is it their best of the year or best ever?

That will be debatable and vary from person to person.

I'm leaning at still giving that edge for this year to Spider-Man: Homecoming, but that may just be because after 5 attempts, I felt they finally got it right.

With Thor, they never really got it wrong, so much as they didn't deliver on everything that it could be.

So go, see the movie and have a good time.

Laugh it up, because things are about to get a lot darker next year with the arrival of Infinity War.

Final Grade: A

Those Pesky Aliens Are Back..."Independence Day: Resurgence"

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Rated PG-13

Starring Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth, Jessie T. Usher, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, Sela Ward, William Fichtner, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner,

Directed by Roland Emmerich

The Story:

20 years ago, the aliens invaded our world, but humanity stood tall and persevered. Now, as the anniversary grows near, it turns out the aliens have been plotting their revenge, and the world might just be doomed after all.

The tagline said "We had 20 years to prepare. So did they."

Apparently, someone forgot to tell the writers that they had 20 years to prepare a good follow up.

Which led to the major problem that audiences could not be prepared for how ultimately dull Independence Day 2 would turn out to be.

Now Independence Day itself is not the greatest movie ever made...

But man, is it a bucket of popcorn, kick back and have fun kind of movie.

20 years later, if they could have harnessed half that energy, this movie would have been awesome.

But they didn't.

They whiffed and missed with nearly any and every attempt to capitalize on whatever they got right in the first one.

Will Smith, the cocky pilot who was going to save the Earth single-handed if need be, gone.

Replaced by generic son, Dylan Hiller (Usher) who is there to inspire confidence, but is bland as cardboard.

So they add Jake Morrison (Hemsworth) to help add to the cocky, charismatic quota, but he's more insane, yelling all the time, than charismatic.

Then we have one of the most rousing movie speeches ever given in a movie, replaced by 2 proverbial "rah-rah, let's get 'em" speeches, one by Hiller that is about as uninspiring as they come;  the other one by President Whitmore (Pullman) himself.

It doesn't even come close to the goosebumpy vibes of the first.

It's like they realized, you know, we can't even begin to top that one...let's not even try.

Jeff Goldblum suffers here, just as he did in Jurassic Park 2 - He's the supporting character, not the lead. When you make him the lead, he has to carry too much of the film, and ultimately it undermines the very fun reasons why we all loved his character so much the first time.

That said, the film isn't that bad. It's one that catches the audience up on a lot of characters and situations that feel like just yesterday we saw for the first time.

The special effects are top-notch, and the story itself is entirely watchable.

It doesn't hold up like the original, but there are still plenty of little things to like about this follow-up.

Final Grade: C+

So Nice, We Went There Thrice! "The Jurassic Park Trilogy"

Jurassic Park (1993)

Rated PG-13

Starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Mazello, Ariana Richards, Samuel L. Jackson, BD Wong, Wayne Knight

Directed by Steven Spielberg

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Rated PG-13

Starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postelthwaite, Arliss Howard, Vanessa Lee Chester, Vince Vaughn, Richard Schiff, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Mazello, Ariana Richards

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Jurassic Park III (2001)

Rated PG-13

Starring Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, Laura Dern

Directed by Joe Johnston

The Story:

Part 1:

Billionaire John Hammond (Attenborough) has created a theme park, Jurassic Park, where he's recreated dinosaurs using questionable scientific methods. He needs some validation by scientific experts that the park is safe and sound and ready for tourists. So he enlists paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Neill), paleobotanist, Dr. Ellie Sattler (Dern) and mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) come to the park. However, when corporate sabotage and a hurricane collide at the same time, things don't go so well, and it's a fight to avoid extinction!

Part 2:

Dr. Malcolm (Goldblum) returns to travel to Isla Sorna, the 2nd island that Hammond (Attenborough) had created his dinosaurs at. He had no intentions of going, except that Hammond enlisted his girlfriend (Moore) and she was already at the island. The team goes to the island and winds up capturing a Tyrannosaurus Rex and taking it back to San Diego to headline the abandoned Jurassic Park that had begun development there. Bad idea.

Part 3:

The return to Isla Sorna, and this time Dr. Grant (Neill) returns by being tricked into coming so that his dig would continue to receive funding. This time it's the Kirby's (Macy & Leoni) whose son (Morgan) had vanished weeks earlier. In the chance he's managed to survive the wilds of Jurassic Park for this long, they want to bring him home alive. However, there are some new dinosaurs waiting to join the party, in addition to the threats we've already seen in the previous two installments.

So, I don't think that anyone hasn't seen at least the first part of this trilogy, and if you stop there, that's fine.

It is head and shoulders above the others in terms of story, characterization and just sheer awesomeness of seeing those dinosaurs for the first time.

I actually saw this in theaters when it came out, and the scene where Alan and Ellie see the dinosaurs for the first time... well, it gave me goosebumps then.

20 years later, I still get goosebumps with that scene.

The elements of the actors, the great special effects on the dinosaurs themselves, and John Williams score create the perfect moment where you soak in the fact that you're seeing dinosaurs, and it's very cool.

There are similar scenes in each of the sequels, but it never quite matches the very first time you see Jurassic Park.

The cast is great, especially the cynical Dr. Malcolm, effortlessly deadpanning his way as the snarky voice of reason.

He's fun in the second installment as well, but when he has to be snarky and the hero at the same time, it just doesn't have the same oomph as the character was able to enjoy in the first film.

Which leaves the third film, which isn't nearly as bad as everyone probably remembers it to be. While not as good as the first, most film trilogies or series all suffer through that. The blame also shouldn't be foisted upon poor Joe Johnston, who gets saddled following Spielberg yet still directs a perfectly fine thriller.

All three have been added to Netflix as of last month, so feel free to revisit, or if you've never seen one (or all) of them, get ready for a pretty wild ride.

Final Grades:

Jurassic Park: A
The Lost World: B
Jurassic Park III: B-

Here's a Movie to be Thankful For... "Independence Day"

E.T. phoned home...and brought back reinforcements!

The Story:

Just days before the 4th of July, communications begin becoming disrupted across the globe as alien spacecraft descend around the globe.  What do these aliens want?  Do they come in peace?  Or are they here for more serious reasons?

How can you not like this movie?

Yet, like almost all of the Michael Bay productions, this one gets glossed over as fluff and frivolity...

But that's the point!

This is a summer blockbuster, popcorn, check your brain at the door and just have fun movie.

An all-star cast tackles their pieces of the puzzle until they are all (or at least the ones that survive) united for the final act against the aliens.

You have the scientist (Jeff Goldblum) who warns the President (Bill Pullman) about the real threat and manages to evacuate the White House minutes before destruction.

Then Marine Captain Hiller (Will Smith) who flies fighter jets but dreams of becoming an astronaut.

Plus, you can't forget crazed vet, possible alien abductee Russell (Randy Quaid) who will ultimately figure out how to stop the alien invasion.

Aside from a few shots that are slightly unbelievable, this is epic disaster that would make Irwin Allen tear up with pride.

Roland Emmerich and his writing partner Dean Devlin throw everything they've got into this one, and the movie just clips along at a great pace.

There are rarely any dull moments, it's quick plot devices that propel the storyline forward through dialogue and circumstance.

While Will Smith was considered the star, Bill Pullman gave the movie it's heart, and Jeff Goldblum gave the movie its humor in possibly my favorite role in the movie.

It's also unabashedly a flag-raising jingoistic American piece of propaganda.

So yes, it's an awesome movie.

Going on 20 years old, it's still a pretty fun ride.

I hear rumors of a sequel...

Will Smith should take a cue from the audience enjoyment from this one versus After Earth and sign up.

It was fun, and we'd come back for more!

Final Grade: B+...A-...take your pick!

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: This is the first time I've watched it in about a decade.  I forgot how fun it was.  I won't make that mistake again.

Up Before the Crack of Dawn... "Morning Glory"

Go back to bed, it's early...

The Story:

Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) lives for the news.  More specifically, she has dreamed of being the producer of  The Today Show since she was a little girl.  Doing her best at a local morning show in New Jersey, her life abruptly changes when she is canned due to budget cuts.  She is desperate to get back in the game, and takes the plunge at the ratings challenged Daybreak show on IBS.  Can she pull her series out of the ratings basement before it's too late?

This is a comedic gem of a movie.  I absolutely love to watch it, and I make no apologies for that.

First and foremost, it's a comedy about the morning news programs.

Second, and wisely, there is a romantic comedy entanglement that plays second-fiddle to the first part of the story, which works great because in the real world, that's exactly what would happen.

Becky has an odd assortment of characters on her show to deal with.  She opens her career with a bang by firing one co-host, leaving her other star (Diane Keaton) to wonder what's going on.  Combing the archives, Becky realizes that she can get curmudgeonly anchorman Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) on her show due to his contract.

Becky tries, but the ratings keep getting worse, and her boss (Jeff Goldblum) threatens cancellation.  Becky pulls out all the stops... and amazingly the ratings begin to rise.

It's good fun throughout, and I can't help but think this is the best role that Harrison Ford has had in the movies in over a decade (Air Force One). 

It's well written, believable, and funny.  And when the weatherman (Matt Malloy) rides the roller coaster, I bust up laughing.  Every time.

Currently available to stream instantly on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: A-

Would I Own It: Yep, and I do.  Very re-watchable.