#187. 'Jurassic Park' at 30
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For its thirtieth anniversary, Sonny, JVL, and Mike revisit Jurassic Park and all three come away loving it as much as ever ("thumbs down" is JVL's ironic verdict — meaning a resounding thumbs up, with JVL noting that even his son Flash "fucking loved it"). The bulk of the conversation is a loving, detailed appreciation of Spielberg's craft: JVL points out the almost Hitchcockian restraint of showing only herbivores until the carnivores actually attack, Mike tracks how long the film withholds its first dinosaur sighting, and both marvel at how sparingly John Williams's score is deployed (only three real needle-drops in the whole film). They dissect the T-Rex Jeep attack as a three-act mini-play with a comic-relief release valve, trace the electrified-fence climb as a Chekhov's-gun payoff planted in the opening minutes, and JVL delivers an extended riff on the ending as a film-school masterclass in ending a story the instant the tension resolves (comparing it to North by Northwest). They also cover the novel's darker, more villainous Hammond (who dies in the book, along with Malcolm), lament the diminishing returns of the sequels (The Lost World, a "garbage cash grab" Jurassic Park III, and the baffling blockbuster success of Jurassic World, which JVL likens to The Force Awakens as a soft-reboot nostalgia play), and admire how well the Stan Winston practical T-Rex effects still hold up next to the now-dated CGI. The long opening stretch covers JVL's son Flash competing in his first Perfect Game showcase baseball tournament (and JVL's skepticism about whether these scout showcases are legitimate or a racket), Sonny battling a nasty sinus infection, a tangent on recut movie trailers and the Barbie/Oppenheimer trailer mashup, worrying pre-release tracking data and marketing missteps for Barbie, a Little Mermaid box-office/demographics discussion, and Sonny's early enthusiastic (spoiler-light) take on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Personal JP memories bookend the movie talk: Sonny wasn't allowed to see it in theaters as a ten-year-old and resented it; JVL, just out of high school, saw it six times in theaters during a stacked summer of 1993 releases; and Mike saw it at a childhood sleepover and had T-Rex nightmares for years afterward. The episode closes with Sonny revealing the results of a prior episode's movie car-chase draft poll — JVL wins in a landslide with Bullitt, Fury Road, and Ronin, while Mike defends his much-mocked picks (The Blues Brothers, The Naked Gun).
From the show notes
Hey everybody: there was an audio syncing issue from minutes 20 to 30 or so that I think has been fixed now (or at least mostly fixed ... Mike is still maybe a quarter-second off in that stretch, but it was the best I could do in 45 minutes in the middle of a work day). SB Hope you enjoy this episode ... we went slightly longer than usual because we didn't have quite enough time this week to do a bonus episode. So we hope you enjoy this super-sized edition of the Sub-Beacon.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00I'm fairly alarmed here. Come on, come on, come on, come on, we gotta get out of here, we gotta get out of here. Now, now, right now. Go, go, go, let's go. Hey. Start the engine. Must go faster.
Mike00:00:46Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I'm your co-host, Mike Warren, and with me as always are my two co-hosts who are always preoccupied with whether or not they could, and they never stop to think with whether they should, Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. You can follow us at subbeacon.com where you can become a patron, listen, comment and join the community. If you're listening to this on our free feed, welcome. We are glad that you've joined us. Just know that when you become a patron, you'll get instant access to our main episodes. So join us over at subbeacon.com. We're going to be doing something a little different this week, talking about Jurassic park. Yes. Jurassic park, not Jurassic world part, whatever, uh, in just a few minutes. But first JVL, how's it going?
JVL00:01:37You know, speaking of so preoccupied with whether or not we could, didn't stop to think about whether or not we should, uh, I am off this weekend to flash's first ever showcase tournament. Ooh, which is the level. Above travel where scouts come and the kids are now, you know, we're now at the level where the kids are being instructed on how to conduct themselves around scouts and, uh, you know, as you will not be surprised a lot of make sure you hustle on and off the field, uh, make sure you never register disappointment, make sure you're a good teammate, uh, and you know what, if anybody talks to you, you gotta just tell them like, I'm just here to help the team. Uh, you know, I've just, uh, we're just taking them one game at a time. One game at a time. There's media training is what you're just trying to, uh, you know, there's not really about me. I'm just, just, uh, we're trying to leave it all out on the field there today.
Sonny00:02:30Wait, I have a question. Is this like, um, or, or is he there with his team or is it like an individual thing?
JVL00:02:38Do you, you, or do you show up with a showcase team? So it is a, a team that is, uh, not easy to get onto and a team of ringers, a team of ringers. Right. And the, and the tournament, uh, is really is not unlike travel baseball tournaments where some programs like really put a high premium on winning the tournament. Uh, nobody is there at these showcases to win or not win. Uh, you know, your, your pitch, each pitcher is gonna get one or two innings in each game they play. And that's it because the idea is to showcase them. Like literally just, you want the scouts where they are to be able to have eyes on each of the kids who are pitching and, uh, it doesn't matter like how well or poorly a kid is pitching there. They're out there just to get seen. And the, the coach is gonna pull them after, you know, three outs or six outs, no matter what. Uh, because again, moving forward, the, the outcomes of the games don't matter at all to anybody who's there. All that matters is getting looks. And, uh, so we'll see, we'll see whether this is real or if this is just a racket. A racket meant to suck money out of gullible parents.
Mike00:03:55So let, let me ask you this JVL, all the things that they're telling the kids to, to think about and to do and, and to, you know, with the scouts hustling on and off the field, not complete, like any, any suggestion for them to remind them to have fun. I mean, this is like, this is like still like a game and a sport and their kids, right?
Sonny00:04:16Sorry. Fun. Uh, no. We invited Pollyanna on the show here.
JVL00:04:21Um, but flash is going to have fun for the first time, uh, in a long time playing baseball because he's, so the team he's playing on is out of the DC metro area is invited on by reputation. And, uh, two of the guys who are on this team are two of his closest buds from when we lived in Virginia. And he thought he would never get to play with them again. And one is his catcher, the guy who was his travel team catcher for like three years. And he thought he would never get to throw to, to this kid again. And we're going to be there. Their dads are great. I'm looking forward to seeing their dads. And, uh, so we are going to have a fantastic time. And as the season goes on, it's been on a lot of this, we're actually going to get a house together at one of these tournaments. So that like, you know, three dads and the three boys, like letting them watch like dodgeball, which is like a slightly too edgy movie for 14 and 15 year olds.
Sonny00:05:13But you know, I'm 13, that's a, that's what it is, but there's, you know, like there's
JVL00:05:18some S and M gear. Uh, uh, the point is it's going to be great and it is going to be loads of fun.
Mike00:05:26You should let them watch bull Durham. I mean, that's they'd be bored by it.
Sonny00:05:31That's true. Probably true.
JVL00:05:33Probably true. So that's, that's what I got going on.
Sonny00:05:35How, how are you sent, you know, well, I, I, I have many questions still about this, this whole thing. So you, you say it's the scouts are going to be there. Are we talking, we're talking college scouts or pro scouts?
JVL00:05:46I believe it's a mix.
Sonny00:05:47All right. So, uh, also you mentioned the possibility. That this is just a scam to separate parents from their money. What, what are the odds? What would you say the odds of that being the case are if you, if you had to like, from your, as, as a parent, who's had a lot of involvement in this world and has seen a lot of things, what do you, what do you think, how, how, how likelihood I'm sorry, what is the likelihood that you are being taken for a ride here? That's what I want to know.
JVL00:06:15Uh, well, so this particular tournament, this is a perfect game tournament. Perfect game is a brand name tournament and perfect game is legit in the sense that I suspect every kid in America who is currently in a major league farm system who grew up in America, played in perfect game tournaments as a high school age kid. Um, this is, it is the biggest and most serious and well organized of all of these showcase events. Uh, and they run events constantly and they feel like you go to their website and it was like, Hey, here are the 4,500 players who played in perfect games, who, uh, who are currently in the minor league system now, that does not mean that, uh, you know, every kid who is, is there is, is going to get wind up, uh, recruited somewhere. It does not mean that they wouldn't do without it. It just happens to be that everybody who does do this cycles through at least the perfect game. Some of them, you know, there's another one, the PBR system, uh, it could be that some of them are scams and some of them are not, uh, it's, it's unclear. It's all new to me and I will report back at the close of the summer showcase season.
Sonny00:07:32How many Sonny Vaccaro types are there handing out like shoe boxes of shoes to kids? Can kids take, are kids allowed to take gloves or bats or shoes or anything like that? Like how does that actually work?
JVL00:07:46Yeah, they can. Uh, yeah, you can take whatever you want. Uh, but here's the thing, basket baseball is not a revenue sport. Yeah. And so there is none of that. Uh, if, if you go to Vanderbilt, which is a super duper serious, fantastic, uh, baseball program and you are an absolute stud, you might get like a three quarters ride, but that's it. Like, you know, I mean, th th that is not the case, you know, every division one men's basketball team in America, all, all 12 guys who are on there are full ride scholarships. Right? That is not how baseball works.
Sonny00:08:21Oh, well, I mean, sure. But I mean, certainly there are still, you know, equipment, I'm, I'm thinking equipment sponsorships here, not, not, you know, like, you know, like again, like Sonny Vaccaro just throwing out boxes of shoes, like they're candy at the cleats.
JVL00:08:36I don't know. I don't think baseball players are into, into their kicks as much as basketball players are. That's a good point. That's a good point. Right? I mean, you know, like baseball cleats are just baseball cleats. Uh, here's the thing I did not know. Um, baseball players are really into shining up their cleats. This is a, this is a thing which I never knew about, which flash has told me, oh yeah, no, that's a thing. You always, you always make sure you shine your cleats up. You never want to show up to a game with dirty cleats. Yeah. There you go.
?00:09:05Yeah.
JVL00:09:06There you go. Okay. So I'll, I'll report back when this is all over.
Sonny00:09:12I'm fine. I have a, I have a sinus infection, which is no fun always. I like the worst. I, I, you know, everybody, everybody gets sick every once in a while. I get sick every once in a while. And I forget that the problem with the sinus infection is that like, you, you just can't breathe.
?00:09:31What?
Sonny00:09:32You just can't breathe.
Mike00:09:33And it's, it's so annoying. It drains everything. I mean, so to speak, like it, it like drains you of like energy and you can't sleep well and nothing tastes good. Right. I mean, it's like, it like ruins a lot of aspects of your life.
Sonny00:09:48Everything sucks. Everything sucks when you're, uh, when you're, when you can't breathe. And uh, anyway, that's what, that's what my, that's what my like last five days have been like just cycling through various pills and taking, you know, are, are you, do you suffer
Mike00:10:03from, from seasonal allergies?
Sonny00:10:06A little bit, a little bit, but not, not particularly. Okay. I've never been a huge allergy guy though. I do wonder if it has gotten worse since I've moved to Dallas, just different, different allergens.
Mike00:10:18Different, different plants. Yeah. I, I mean, I've gotten the sense from a lot of people and as somebody who I of course, like suffer from everything when it comes to allergies, um, that this spring has been the worst, at least in like on the east coast, the worst season, worst spring for allergies in a long time. Yeah. And so like, I'm going through this sort of like off and on rollercoaster of, oh, I've kicked the allergies. Like we're past it. And then there's something else that comes up and it's just, it's not quite the sinus infection or cold type problem, but just, it, it's sort of like a low grade, never ending, like sick feeling, which just sucks the worst, the worst.
Sonny00:11:04Anyway. Uh, I don't, I don't want to complain. I was excited though, right before we got on the air today, guys, big news, big, huge
Mike00:11:12news.
Sonny00:11:13Oh yeah. R rated R Oppenheimer. I'm very excited for this. I assume it's going to be like the end of Munich. I don't know if you guys have seen Munich where, uh, Eric Bana is, uh, is having, he's having some sexy times and he's thinking about all the terrible things that have happened and it culminates with the, he's remembering the attack on the, the Munich games, but I mean, not remembering imagining, I guess, I don't know. Um, uh, but I, uh, I'm just, I'm hoping for something similar with just like, just quite as leading right up to the bomb. Just, just, you know, that's cinema. It's like the train going through the tunnel, except I'm just going to ask that. What's that? What's that JBL?
JVL00:11:57I was just going to ask that. Will it be like the train going through the tunnel at the end of North by Northwest? Will, uh, just get the mushroom cloud if you know what I mean?
Sonny00:12:08I'm excited. I'm excited for sexy.
JVL00:12:11Is this going to be nudity?
Sonny00:12:12Is that, are we rated R for sexuality and nudity? What is the rating for Barbie?
Mike00:12:20That's my question.
Sonny00:12:21PG 13. Oh. For babies. Or maybe even PG. I don't know. For babies.
JVL00:12:27We're going to be at, uh, Cillian Murphy dong. That's what it's going to be. Uh, are we, uh, can we, can we talk for five seconds about the mashup, the trailer mashup of Barbie and Oppenheimer? You did not respond to this when I texted it to you guys, Sonny, which I take it to mean that you did not approve.
Sonny00:12:46I, I didn't, I actually, I actually didn't watch it cause I didn't, I'm sorry. I was, I was busy going to, I was seeing across the spider verse when you sent that and then
JVL00:12:55I, oh, well, somebody, uh, did a mashup where they, they'd recut the Oppenheimer trailer in the style of Barbie and the Barbie trailer in the style of Oppenheimer. And I have to say it made Barbie look insipid and made Oppenheimer look equally cool as it looks in the normal Nolan ish version of it.
Mike00:13:19No, I, I, I agree with that JVL. It was sort of, I mean, well, I don't know, like I I'm such a sucker for these, like, you know, remember it was like about 15 years ago, it was like recut movie trailers were sort of like all over YouTube. I loved those. I loved, you know, romantic comedy, like Peter Gabriel's Salisbury Hill.
Sonny00:13:40I didn't, I didn't, I didn't approve of any of these. I found them. I found them all to be. They're childish, childish accidents in cinematic technique.
JVL00:13:51They remind you, uh, how important musical cues are in the manipulation of emotions, which is something we're going to talk about when we discuss Jurassic park, because one of the things I really keyed into this time is how much of the movie is done without any score whatsoever. Yes.
Sonny00:14:10It's funny. I noticed the same thing when I was watching it this time. I don't know. I don't know why we're on that particular wavelength. But I, I noticed the same exact thing, how, how, anyway, we'll talk about that.
Mike00:14:19Let's talk about that.
Sonny00:14:20Uh, um, but, uh, but no, I, uh, I'm, uh, I, I, I think, I think Warner brothers is starting to freak out about Barbie a little bit, um, because I don't know if, I don't know if you guys saw, I don't know if you guys saw the most recent trailer, but so in the, in the latest trailer, there are actually, there are three title cards. There's a series of title cards. The first, and this is like two thirds of the way through the trailer. And, and there's, you see all the Barbie action and they're in the Barbie world. They're in the real world. And then just out of nowhere, there's a card that says, if you love Barbie, this movie's for you. And then a couple seconds later, there's a title card that says, if you hate Barbie, and then they do a little more Barbie action, then there's another title card. It says this movie's for you. And I'm like, they have no idea how to sell this movie to anybody. They have no idea. They have no idea who, who. Who is gonna show up, uh, the, the, the testing on this movie must be abysmal. I mean, it's funny. So I, I, I think I've already mentioned this on the show, but a, a few weeks back, I talked to a guy, his name is David Heron at, uh, the Quorum and the Quorum is one of my favorite websites because it's the only place where you can find publicly available tracking data. They, they put out tracking data for every movie that's coming out. Um, and it was really interesting. I saw, I was like, oh, look, the, the, you know, I, I mentioned this to him, I was like, oh, the unaided awareness on Barbie. He's really good. That, that must be, that's must be good for them. And he was like, not really. The unaided awareness is very high. The interest is very low. And when, when, when somebody is aware of a movie, but not interested in seeing it, that's actually worse than being unaware of a movie and uninterested in seeing it. Cause you can, you can convince people to see a movie by just putting ads out there and making them aware of it. But if they know it's out there and the interest is low, you're fucked. And I think Barbie, I think Barbie might be totally fucked.
JVL00:16:13Yeah. I mean, I, I don't know about you guys, but the vibe I get from the trailer and the marketing on Barbie is that it is a very knowing deconstruction. Yes. But a deconstruction of something they hate. Yes. And not something. And I just, those don't tend to work, right? No. If, if, if the, the makers hate the thing that they're deconstructing, then they spend the whole time sneering and audiences aren't into it. Uh, and the deconstruction stuff. Definitely works. If the, if the filmmakers have at least the subject as a, a level of guilty pleasure for themselves.
Sonny00:16:52Well, this is, this is a thing I've always believed to be true. And I, I don't think I came up with this observation. I'm pretty sure I'm stealing it from somebody, but I'm gonna keep stealing it. Um, which is that you, the, the best parodies are all made by people who actually love the subject matter that they're parodying. Yes. Right.
Mike00:17:09So like, so, you know, uh, um, take, take airplane for instance, right? Airplane is like a, like total parody of all those, of all those disaster movies. But it's also clear that the, they, that those are the movies that the, that the Zuckers and, and Abrams grew up with. Right. I mean, there's kind of the, the actual movie that airplane is based on was like the, a B movie that of the kind that they went to the theater all the time to see and, and probably
Sonny00:17:35loved. Right. Or like Mel Brooks, Mel Brooks loved Westerns. Mel book like Mel Brooks grew up watching Westerns and war movies and that's one reason why blazing saddles is so, so good.
JVL00:17:45So actually good is because the South park guys and musicals, right. South park guys with their parodies of both the South park movie and, uh, team America, which are really genre parodies about musicals in a way. And these guys love musicals, right. So, yeah.
Mike00:18:02Well, but my thought on the, on the, the, the, the thing about if you hate Barbie, you'll love this movie. It sort of brought me up short. Like I, I didn't have sisters growing up. Uh, I don't have girls now. So like Barbies are something that I'm, I, I readily admit, I'm just a distant from, I don't quite understand it. It's not a part of my life, but I was, I, I first, I stopped myself without hate Barbie, like, like who hates Barbie, but, but then I thought about it.
Sonny00:18:31It's a total, it's a total ideological thing. It has nothing to do. It's like, it's like, do you hate the concept of Barbie? Do you hate the idea of Barbie? And that is, that is who I think. I think a, that is the, the people that they are trying to appeal to in addition to the people who love. And look, I, I think, look, my daughter wants to go see it. My daughter saw the trailer and was like, oh, this looks like great fun. So maybe, maybe, maybe they're, maybe they are hitting enough of those, uh, those people, but I, the way, the way all of the, the advertising for this movie has looked to me is that it looks like it's aimed at like 28 to 42.
JVL00:19:12Uh, people who watched girls.
Sonny00:19:14Yeah, basically. Yeah. 20, 28 to 42 year olds who like, uh, premium cable.
JVL00:19:21Yeah. If, if this is in fact a sneering deconstruction of Barbie, what was Mattel slash Hasbro thinking and licensing it out? Like that's a, I don't understand, like if you own intellectual property like that, you can't let somebody go and crap all over your IP.
?00:19:40Yeah.
Sonny00:19:41Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.
JVL00:19:44I don't know. I mean, that's the one thing that makes me think that maybe we're reading it wrong and that it is more loving than we think it is made.
Sonny00:19:49Well, it could be, it could, the movie itself could be entirely loving the, but that's not how it's being marketed. Yeah. And that's, that's, I mean, look again, I, I think that, I think the studio is freaking out that, that last trailer was so like, I swear to God, you'll love this. Please. I'm telling you, you'll love this movie. Everyone.
Mike00:20:09A lack of confidence. Right. I mean, that's, that seems to be what it is. That's, that seems to be what it, it reflects some, but we'll see or, or that they're just
JVL00:20:16grappling with a lot of sexism in the place of moviegoers.
Sonny00:20:20I think that's probably also true. I think, I don't think we can discount the amount of sexism faced by yes.
Mike00:20:25Hmm. Hmm. Indeed. All right. Uh, well, I guess, should we move on? Let's move on.
Sonny00:20:32Um, Mike, how are you doing, Mike? How are, how are you doing? What's going on with you?
Mike00:20:36Oh, nothing. I mean, nothing. So the only thing I'll, I'll say, so we went, I think. I think I mentioned on the show last week, we went out of town last weekend for a family wedding. We left the big boys, um, with, with their godparents or with, with my older son's godparents and we took the baby. It was a family wedding. It was fine. Nothing really that interesting to report. Uh, although there were pyrotechnics at the wedding, like on the dance floor inside kind of, I'm sorry, pyrotechnics.
Sonny00:21:11Like fireworks, like on inside, on the dance floor, how does that work?
Mike00:21:19I don't know. I'll tell you how it works. It's watching my uncle step over the little box where the little like giant sparkler stuff comes out of and like, just hoping whoever is controlling, this is not like going to turn it on at that exact moment. Uh, and, and, you know, light his ass on fire.
Sonny00:21:38So that's how James Hetfield almost died.
Mike00:21:40I know. Anyway. Um, but no, the, but the big story was what I missed, which was, so we, we had to draw, we basically dropped off the big kids at my eight year old's baseball game in the morning. His godparents met us there and they were gonna, and we were like, all right, we're getting in the car, we're going, we've got to drive to Philadelphia. Did you miss his first home run? No, I didn't miss his first home run, but he had been in a slump, um, at, uh, at the plate for like the last two and a half games. And so he, uh, apparently. He hit a double, could have been a triple. One of the parents emailed me afterward and was like, it could have been a triple if he had like, like, you know, sort of like known, like, you know, just round the base and go to third, um, way back in, into the, uh, into the outfield left the other team scrambling. Uh, apparently it was like a huge hit. He got a put out later at the, uh, uh, later on first base and, uh, he got the game ball and it was like.
JVL00:22:40Awesome.
Mike00:22:41It was awesome. Of course. And I missed it.
JVL00:22:44I'm sorry, but Lauren McCormick has to go to every baseball players are, are creatures of superstition and habit. And clearly the reason he did well is because Lauren McCormick was there. And so I'm sorry, Lauren, you have to show up at all the rest of the season.
Mike00:22:59Yes. That's that's uh, but of course the season's actually over. So, so the, the turn, the tournament starts or the, the, the playoffs start. So that's what, that's where we're at. So part of me hopes that. Like they get eliminated. So like, I don't, you know, it's loser talk.
JVL00:23:15I know Sonny.
Mike00:23:16Doesn't want to hear that. I know. Yeah. Um, but it's fun and look, he's, you know, like this is not a team of like superstars and like, but I was just so proud because. You know, there are kids in this league who, when they strike out, they walk with their heads down and they kick the dirt or they get mad and like, and my son never does that. He just, he's just happy to be there. And, and it paid off, you know, like the, the, the, the positive attitude paid off and it was just great. So, and of course that's the sort of thing the scouts are going to notice exactly. And that's what really this is all about. Um, so, uh, that's, what's going on with me, nothing much more to report. So why don't we just move on? Should we do something real quick on the box office? Since we're not talking about a new movie, we should at least talk about. New movies.
Sonny00:24:10You guys don't want to talk about little mermaids. That's what I'm saying. You didn't want to, you don't want to do a little, we didn't want to do a little more.
JVL00:24:16Can I, can I ask a quick question about a little more, which is number one, the box office, number one of the box office, a mild disappointment in terms of total box office. Yeah. But, uh, Sonny Sean McNulty reported on the demographic breakdown. And I want to say it was like 35% African American, the opening weekend audience, 30% Hispanic. That sounds about right.
Sonny00:24:42I would probably, I would usually flip that, but I think for this movie that, that actually sounds about right.
JVL00:24:46Yeah. That is pretty good as a validation of Disney's idea about inclusivity on this stuff.
Sonny00:24:57Kind of. I mean, look, I mean, the movie did, here's the thing, the movie did okay domestically. It did worse than, I mean, it did worse than Aladdin, beauty and the beast. Uh, what was the other one with lion King? Like it, it, this movie did not do as well as those domestically and it did much worse overseas. I mean, this movie is gonna, this movie is gonna struggle hard to, to get to, I don't know, 500, 600 million worldwide. Um, I, the number that I saw, or the, the reference point that I saw Scott Mendelsohn throwing out was it's closer to solo than Aladdin, which is bad. That you don't want that.
JVL00:25:40Um, if I'm not, so I like Black Panther, a gigantic hit did not do very well in China either.
Sonny00:25:46Um, it didn't, it didn't do that well in China. It did. Okay. Uh, but it did not do, it did not do that well, but it was huge domestically. I mean, Black Panther made $700 million in, in the United States.
JVL00:26:00I'm just saying the Chinese, Chinese territories are a little racist here.
Sonny00:26:03Well, no, and this movie absolutely died. So I think this movie made like $4 million in China. Yep. I like it. Just it. It. So, um, I, I mean, I like, again, I, I, I don't, I, one of the very frustrating things about the world right now is that everybody takes a subject. I know a fair amount about, which is the box office and tries to run their culture war stuff through it. And when I see go broke, Sonny, when I, when I see people, I mean, look, they're there. The problem with this movie is that it doesn't, it doesn't fit into any of the actual real culture war boxes. Cause like it's doing poorly overseas. That's where this movie is having trouble. It's doing okay at home, but not great. It could drop a lot, but it still did. I mean, it still did 117 million or whatever over the four day. That's, that's pretty good. That's, that is not a, that is by no means, um, an enormous disappointment. I, so like the, the complicated answer for this movie is that it did okay. It didn't do that well, uh, overseas. Um, and it's gonna. It, the, the real question is how well it holds over the next few days here. And I, I could see, I could, I could see it. I could see it cratering, frankly.
JVL00:27:15I could see it just falling off the map, but Mario's hold, cuz Mario had been dropping at a very low percentage. And we, we kind of expected that with little mermaid out, Mario would all of a sudden go to like a 50 or a 60% drop.
Mike00:27:31No, it's only what, like 30, 33%.
Sonny00:27:34Well, it, it, Mario dropped, uh, Mario. Uh, Mario dropped 50, some percent after, um, guardians, guardian, either guardians or fast and the furious, I forget which, but then it's, it's back to like in the forties, I think thirties to forties, so it's, it's, it's holding okay. It's holding. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I, I'm, I'm very curious. I feel like every, I feel like, mm, I think, I think, uh, Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse is going to perform better than tracking estimates suggest because of the energy.
JVL00:28:07Don't tell me it's good.
Sonny00:28:08The, the energy surrounding this movie is unlike anything I've seen in. I, so I went to a, uh, press preview that was also, that also had some regular people in it. And the energy for that movie is unlike anything I've seen in a long time. Um, so I, I don't know. I think that might, uh, I, I liked it. I liked it. It's half a movie I they're, they're not, they're not really, uh, explicitly selling this as part one of two, but I'm telling you right now it's part one of two and I was not
JVL00:28:36expecting that.
Sonny00:28:37Interesting. I'll take it. I was not expecting that at the end. I was like, oh, this is half of this is one half of one movie. I will say again, it, it looks amazing. It is. It's one of the most interesting visual movies I I've ever seen. Um, so it gets, it gets points for that. Uh, but it's definitely one half of one movie. Um, so I dunno, we'll see, we'll see how that plays with both. Sign me up. Anyway. I liked it, but we'll talk about that next week.
Mike00:29:03Sure. Uh, well then why don't we, uh, hold onto our butts? Yeah. And get into the main event here. Uh, Jurassic park, 30 years, by the way, I was thinking about this 30 years ago next week. Right. Is the, is the 30th premier and it premiered here in Washington, DC. If I'm not mistaken at the, uh, at the uptown, right. The uptown. Um, yeah. Jurassic park. Uh, I mean, do we need a big boy review? Sonny? What, what, what please do a big boy. Let's let's hear a big boy review of please of Jurassic park.
Sonny00:29:36Jurassic park starring Jeff Goldblum, uh, and, uh, and, uh, I dunno, some other folks as, uh, so Jurassic park, Jurassic park's a really interesting movie, um, uh, because it's, it's a movie, uh, about man really. It's not really about dinosaurs. It's, you know, it's got dinosaurs in it. It's a movie about man and, and how man has perverted his, his, uh, effort. To achieve scientific excellence by no, I don't, I don't know what am I doing here? Um, uh, I, the, I, can I, I thought we might start by just talking about our, uh, experiences with Jurassic park. Sure. I would love to hear that I, so when Jurassic park came at Jurassic park came out 30 years ago, which means that I was, I think 11 when it, when it debuted, it debuted, uh, 1993,
Mike00:30:331990.
Sonny00:30:34No, I'm sorry. I must've been 10. I must've been 10 because it debuted in, um, in, in June of 1993. So I wasn't, I wasn't quite 11 yet. Um, and I was not allowed to go see it. My parents were like, this movie is too scary. This is a, this is an R rated picture. This is not a PG 13 and you can't go see it. And that's, and so I didn't see it until years later.
JVL00:30:57I didn't see it until like your blazer, your tweet blazer with yellow patches. And you said, mother and father, this is simple. It's simply incorrect. I said, Steven Spielberg is an auteur and I am there for his cinema.
Sonny00:31:13I did not deny me cinema. I did not get to see it until years later. I didn't see it until like, probably until like the run up before the lost world, which I did see in theaters. Um, and I, I, I'm sure I saw a VHS of a Jurassic park before that, but I, but it's funny because I read the book. I read the book when I was like 12, I read the book like after the movie had come out. Uh, um, but, and I was like, Ooh, this is, this is great. This is fine. But still was not allowed to go see, see the movie. So I, my, my earliest memory of Jurassic park is like being vaguely annoyed with my parents and all of my friends who got to see it like five times in the theaters, because this was a massive hit, huge, huge, enormous.
Mike00:31:53But this was a, and I'm, I'm about five years younger than you, Sonny. So this is, uh, I had a different experience, but I mean, I think we both can kind of. Uh, you know, share the experience of how big it was and how much of a dividing line there was between the kids who got to see it and the kids who didn't. Yeah. And that this was sort of, I mean, this was sort of this, a demarcation that I still remember,
Sonny00:32:19uh, you know, um, I wonder, I wonder if there are any movies like that now I, I, there must be, I, I assume there must be like movies that the kids today really want to go see, but they can't. I don't know. Like are the Marvel movies.
JVL00:32:33There will be a. People who were able to see it and we're not, yeah, I guess, I guess, I mean, that's an
Sonny00:32:39R rated movie though. So I feel like there is less, like there's, there's more parental cover there, but maybe, maybe not.
Mike00:32:47But this was also, I mean, it was so, um, it was so ubiquitous Jurassic park was in terms of you. I mean, there were, there were toys and there were lunch boxes. I mean, literally from the, from the dialogue of the movie. I mean, you could not escape it. There were t-shirts, everything was like Jurassic park and it really kind of like it defined so much of sort of like what my, like what that part of my childhood was, was like and shaped by whether or not I saw it or not. And I eventually did see it, but, uh, it was so, again, so sort of all encompassing for a movie and everything was, I mean, either, you know. It, it, it was, it was not the first dinosaur movie of that period and it wasn't the last, but it just sort of like it, the early nineties were also such a big dinosaur moment as well. Like dinosaurs were just everywhere too. So, um, I remember seeing it. So when it came out, I was, I was five cause I'm, I'm 35 now. And then I believe I was six or seven when I actually saw it and I was in the first grade. I remember I was in the first grade. And it was a sleepover at Travis peddler's house, Travis peddler lived down the street for me. He was in my first grade class. And the reason I know it wasn't kindergarten is because he did not move into that house until first grade. So it was definitely in the first grade and it definitely gave me recurring nightmares. Um, for the next couple of years that a T-Rex had come to my neighborhood and was eating people out of their house.
Sonny00:34:31I mean, the thing is, the thing is my parents were actually right. My parents were right. Cause this is, this is an R rated. This isn't, this is a, this is a movie that probably should have been rated R with the, with the level of blood and violence and gore. Um, and like just overall scariness, just like, like, I mean, like the thing about Steven Spielberg is that he, he. Is so good at crafting these chase sequences and these dramatic, um, visceral moments that like he can't, he almost can't. He can't help himself. There, there's no, like, there's no, there's no mid setting for him. So he just does it and he does it so well that it's terrifying. I don't JVL you, you must, I mean, you were in college when this came out, right?
JVL00:35:14You must've been funny. I, uh, I remember this as the movie that came out the summer that I graduated from high school, but it's not the first summer I was home from college and interesting, uh, it. So I viewed it as a, you know, I guess a young adult. Uh, but this is at a moment where I say in high school, I would go to the movies with my friends a minimum of once a week, but most of the time, twice a week, we would just, you know, it's what we did. We went to the moral to me and we saw movies and, and that stopped while I was in college. Cuz you know, nobody has time to see a movie while they're in college. But as soon as I got home, I was like, great, we can go to the movies again. And this thing was so fucking good. Uh, I believe. My friends and I, cuz you know, your first, first summer home, you're still hanging with your high school friends. I believe we saw this six times in the theaters and, but you gotta understand. So, you know, Jurassic park comes out and two weeks later, last action hero comes out. Uh, the week after that sleepless in Seattle comes out the week after that, the firm comes out the week after that in the line of fire, like this is, I mean, it's. Really good movies used to come out every single fucking week of the summer. All the time. All the time. This was just the way it, it, it went. And you know, by the time you got past in the line of fire, uh, the rest of the summer was a little bit of a disappointment for me, not for many people, cuz free Willie came out the, the week after that, along with Hocus Pocus as a counter bit of counter program. People who remember what that, remember what that was.
Sonny00:36:57Uh, so you know, Hocus Pocus came out in the summer. That wasn't. Was that the, uh, yeah. Halloween movie?
JVL00:37:03No, no. Oh, interesting. Hocus Pocus was, uh, unless I'm remembering, I believe that's, uh, Miss, Miss, not Michelle Pfeiffer. Um, Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bull.
Sonny00:37:16No, no, no, no, no. That's practical magic.
JVL00:37:18Oh, practical magic. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. So then you have, uh, uh, like one week off, then you get rising sun. And then the week after that, the fugitive, the fugitive. No. I mean, this is. This is like, that's and that's just look, 1993 was a good summer. It wasn't like the greatest summer in the history of movies. Uh, and so I, ah, anyway, the answer is I went and saw this a lot and I fucking loved it in the theaters. Yeah. And I have loved it even more. And this viewing that we just did is the first time that I ever allowed any of my children to see it with me because I thought it would've been too scary for them earlier because again, mo the most serious peril in the movie befalls the two children.
Sonny00:38:06Totally. Yes. Well, except for the lawyer who gets torn.
JVL00:38:09Well, except for them, but, but again, that's happening while, well, the kids are right there, you know, well, when he's getting eaten. So, uh, that's one of the reasons why I think this is an especially tough watch for anything from like ages six to, to 11.
?00:38:25Yeah.
Sonny00:38:26Yeah. I mean, I, I do. It, it's funny. So it's funny. Oh my God. I hadn't realized that last action hero came out. So in such proximity, because I did see last action hero in theaters, I saw, are you sure that didn't come out in 94?
JVL00:38:40I'm I'm looking at the release calendar right now.
Sonny00:38:46I'm going to hold on. I guess that was 93.
Mike00:38:50Yeah.
Sonny00:38:51Yeah. Wow. Um, yeah, I, I, cause I saw that movie in theaters with, I saw that like on, like as a birthday party thing, like took a bunch of kids. Kids to see the last action here in theaters, which is, is funny because that is like that movie actually is adult, but it's adults in intellectual ways, as opposed to just like pure terrifying nightmare, um, uh, imagery ways. Uh, but anyway, um, I, I was watching, so I was watching the movie this time and, uh, a handful of things jumped out at me. The first is that. For the first time. And I, you know, I probably haven't watched in a couple of years, but for the first time, the CGI, the pure CGI stuff, like, so the shots of the, uh, that first shot of the Brachiosaur, you know, state it's the first time I was like, okay, I'm starting to see some of the age on these, on these CGI things, but the, uh, the T the T-Rex stuff, which is a mix of CGI and practical, um, still looks amazing, like is still just is still really, really well done. Most of the Raptor stuff is still really, really well done. Uh, it's really, I mean, it's really something else, how, how well put together this whole picture is. And it just, it goes on rails. I mean, the, the, the, the, the plotting of it and each discrete part taking you to the next discrete part, um, till you get to the part where the park actually breaks down. And then he's, uh, essentially cutting between the kids. And Nedry and the control room, like, uh, doing a George Lucas style three-way, um, kind of almost chase story to a, like the, the whole thing is just, is just immaculately done.
Mike00:40:46Really great. Well, one of the things that I noticed, uh, I was sort of marking, um, I guess in the first two acts of the movie was sort of, when did the dinosaurs show up and how frequently did they show up before the whole kind of the last act gets going? And it, it, what was amazing to me is how, um, is how Spielberg really teases the whole thing. So we don't see the first, uh, we don't see the first dinosaurs until like 20 minutes in actual, actually seeing them. And that's the source, right? It's the reveal.
Sonny00:41:24Well, you do see, okay. You do see the claws. You do see the claws. Uh, scene at the very beginning where you do see the eye and the, yeah, but now I, yeah,
Mike00:41:35but that's like, that is a tease that, that, that is like a prologue sort of thing. Um, yeah. So, uh, so that, but then after that Brachiosaurus scene, you don't see, I mean, and they sort of, it sort of works in the plot of the movie as well, right. As they're going on the tour, you don't actually see any dinosaurs and really teases you and makes you anticipate.
JVL00:41:58Michael, it's even more insidious than that. We see only herbivores. That's right. So, so what Spielberg shows you is he shows you Brachiosaurus. He shows you Triceratops. He shows you the, the ones that are running in herds, the gallium Mimas. Yep. Right. But so with the, the three, uh, carnivores, the Dilophosaurus, the T-Rex and the Raptors, you are told all about them. You're told how the Dilophosaurus, you know, you spit their venom, whatnot, but then they don't show up. That's right. Then we're, and so we don't ever see any of the big scary dinosaurs until they attack. And so that winds up just, it's just, it's almost Hitchcockian in how much it's drawing
Mike00:42:43out the tension. Totally. Totally. And, and, you know, I mean, they, he does this in, in that big way and then in the small ways, I mean, the, the, the, maybe it seems cliche now, but the, to me, it was brilliant to see it in this first movie, uh, this first Jurassic movie, just the shot of the faces of people seeing the dinosaurs for the first time, like holding onto those faces for so I was just, it's something, I mean, it's almost like counterintuitive. It's like, what, why are you not showing us the thing that they're saying, but like to, to kind of build up that, that tension in that scene to then show us the, uh, I guess now kind of, we could see crappy dinosaur CGI. But I just thought that was, it was, it was sort of a master. And you know, I thought about masterwork the in.
JVL00:43:36That is such a throwback because today in movies, characters see things which are literally unbelievable all the time and the characters themselves never bat their eyes at it. And so we, the audience don't bat our eyes at it either. Right. That's right. Uh, you know, ant man and his daughter go into the quantum verse and there is a dude whose entire head is a flashlight and we're just like, yeah, what's up. Yeah. You know, there's no, there's no sense. And if the characters are nonplussed by any of this, then why should the audience? Yeah, exactly.
Mike00:44:11Yeah, exactly. So, um, so I, I, I loved, I love the pacing of it. I love the economy of it. We, we mentioned it earlier, but we should talk about the, the, the, the, the score, which I mean the, the famous Jurassic park. What, like three times in the whole movie, uh, the sort of right when they get to the island sometime in the middle of their time on, on the island and then at the end, and that's it. It's amazing. Yeah. So such, so such economical use of it, um, I, I would've thought it would be an all over the movie. So what, what are our thoughts on this?
JVL00:44:48It's it's a great score, but it's also, as you say, it doesn't overstay its welcome. And the score is only the good stuff. Like there's no like extra 50 minutes of score hanging around in the background, trying to generate emotion where the story in the movie is not earning it, which is what so much of score work is. Yeah. We could just be honest.
Sonny00:45:13Right.
JVL00:45:14Yeah. Well, I mean the score, go ahead.
Sonny00:45:16Sonny. I mean the, the best sequence in the film again, still, still the best sequence in the film. And maybe, you know, one of the like four or five best sequences of Spielberg's career, which is saying something. But is that initial T-Rex attack, right? Where they're just in the Jeeps and there is no music. It's just, they're just quietly sitting there in the Jeeps and there's some discussion. And then all of a sudden you hear the, you know, that, that, that big, uh, tremor, um, that one of the characters, the lawyer at some point is, I think is like, maybe they're trying to turn the power back on. Just nothing. Just, just nothing.
JVL00:45:54No, no sound.
Sonny00:45:56Uh, no music until, until like the actual, you know, movement and chasing starts, which is, is again, there's just a lot of restraint there, which is great. Yeah.
Mike00:46:07Such a good word for the recurring in my mind as I was rewatching this, like, oh wow, this is, there is no fat and there is no like, ah, just do it. You know, it's a movie, just throw it up there. It's it's like crafting.
JVL00:46:21How about the pacing within the T-Rex attack scene itself? Because that scene has like three separate parts of it. There's the, the stuff which happens before the kids are out of the car, the stuff that happens once Lexi is out of the car and grant is working with her and they come nose to nose with the, with the T-Rex. And then you think the scene is over because the, the car, the Jeep has been pushed out and falls into the tree and Lexi and Alan Grant make it down. Again, you like, you pause to have your breath. And then when he goes up, you realize we're not done yet because this fucking Jeep is falling out of the tree. Yeah. And it paces at that. And then at the very, very end of that scene, Spielberg lets you have the, the tiniest bit of comic relief just to let the, just to let the tension, you know, air out of the balloon just a little bit, because otherwise you couldn't stand it with the kid in the lines of kid says that he's entirely off camera. Yeah.
Sonny00:47:26At least we're back in the car. We're back in the car.
JVL00:47:28That's such a great. Yes. And it's great, but it's a great line and the kid delivers it well, but also the audience needs that in that moment because they've just been the T-Rex attack itself is a three act play. Yeah. Yes.
Mike00:47:45Well, and then the comic relief is actually relieving and then it's, but then it's not
Sonny00:47:51even done though. I mean, then, then they come and they, uh, you know, uh. Dr. Stapler, uh, and, uh, and, uh, what's his name? The hunter. Muldoon. Muldoon. Uh, get Malcolm and they throw him in the Jeep and then, you know, he realizes, oh crap, this is about to happen again. Yeah. And like that, that's actually, I think that's actually the best sequence in this whole, this whole, like the, the must go faster, must go faster. I like terrifying, uh, awful nightmare of being chased by a T-Rex. I don't know. I, I, the whole, the whole thing is, is really great.
JVL00:48:29I would like to nominate something else as a, not the best sequence in the movie, but one, one a to T-Rex is one number one. Sure. And that is the climbing the deelectrified fence.
Mike00:48:46Yes.
JVL00:48:47So this is, I mean, the whole movie is an exercise in Chekhov's gun. One of the very first things you see on the park. Sign on the, the fence saying 10,000 volts. And I mean, this comes incredibly early in the movie. It's almost as soon as they touched down from the helicopter, uh, we have the announcements from Mr. Tibbs just in the background of the movie, two or three times talking about getting to the docks. Cause the boat is leaving. Right. All of which is setting up the, the predicate for why we're gonna be alone and isolated on this island. Uh, we even get very, very early and establishing shot just on the flashing lights on the fence. There's an Amber light and a blue light. And so that again, you, the first time you see this movie, you don't quite understand why you're saying that, but because all of the pieces are being put into place for as late in the movie, uh, Grant and the two kids are climbing the fence to get over it. And we are cutting back and forth between them and Ellie Sadler, who's just turned the power back on. And the, what Spielberg does this thing with the camera in that moment where throughout the movie, the camera. Surprisingly locked down for as, as live of a movie as it is, uh, but he moves the camera underneath the fence, looking up at the characters as they are going from one side of the fence over the top to the other. It's a really graceful movement. Uh, and you're watching Sadler go down the, you know, and we see where, you know, it's like the last one is the fence, which is like pushing and pushing and pushing perimeter fence. Yep. Gotta let go. Gotta let go. One, two. And the, you know, the kids are, and then when that kid gets blown off and electrocuted the first time. And I don't know about you guys, but the first time I saw that I was like, you gotta be fucking kidding me. He survived the fucking T-Rex and he survived coming down the thing. And now he's gonna die because of this and, but again, the tension there is so good. Yeah. Yes.
Sonny00:50:50It's so well earned. Well, I mean, you mentioned the, the, the Chekhov's gun aspect of this is all set up like even earlier than that in the, uh, in the, the speech in the, the little lecture that, uh, Dr. Grant gives in the Badlands to the little pain in the ass fat kid, uh, who like, he's like, you think, so you're, you're, you're watching this, this Raptor and you think that maybe if you don't move like a T-Rex, he won't be able to see you. I was like, Oh, that's that comes up later. And then like, and then he's like, and then you see, you see the Raptor in front of you and you think, okay, I'll, I I'm, I'm all right. But that's when the attack comes.
JVL00:51:27It's from the side again, like from the side, from the front, but from the, it's just like
Sonny00:51:31the whole, the whole, the whole girl there, there are like, I like essentially each of the dinosaur attacks is set up in that like 45 seconds stretch of, um, of dialogue there, which is very funny.
Mike00:51:45Uh, in retrospect, can I say, and then maybe we can quickly kind of talk about the differences since you mentioned the novel, Sonny, we can talk about the differences. Uh, or the similarities or the themes, but one sort of thematic thing that I picked up on this time, uh, watching it is how often it is a, it is a man-made object. That is the threat as, as much as the dinosaurs directly themselves, right? The, the Jeep falling down, uh, the tree, the electric fence. Um, and of course, I mean, ultimately the dinosaurs are only a threat because, because of man's. Like, you know, in, you know, in technology, uh, intervention here, I just thought, you know, I mean, that is such a Crichton. Right.
Sonny00:52:29Well, I mean, this is right. Crichton point. This is Crichton's entire intellectual project is that exactly, but, but, but I thought it
Mike00:52:36was done well, like cinematically, like the movie does a good job of the threat is not just these, these, these giant prehistoric reptiles. It's all this other stuff too. So, um, what do we think, I mean, one of the things that when I finally read the novel, I was sort of shocked by was how John Hammond is, is like pure evil in the novel where, and not like, you know, uh, loving, you know, misguided grandfather. Uh, so I mean that I was thinking about that as I was watching this to it, it really does kind of change the, the tone a bit of, of the movie and probably in a good way for a movie to have him sort of be, you know, kind of foolish and hapless and not, not just like cruel and evil.
JVL00:53:20Yeah. I like that change a lot. I mean, there's, you know, this is, I worry that the show is turning us into, oh, and this thing is great too. Yeah. You know what? Everybody has seen this movie and everybody appreciates it. And so it's worth unpacking the greatness of it. Um, if there is a thing about the movie, which feels like a mistake in its construction, it is losing the character of Ian Malcolm too soon. Right. Cause Ian Malcolm is, is such an. In blaze the best character in the thing is, you know, your eyes are on him every time he's on screen in part, this is because Jeff Goldblum is, this is his masterwork and in part because the character just written wonderfully. Um, but on the other hand, I think on closer inspection, the movie is Spielberg is correct to have put that character to the side because the central story being told is the story about grant. And the kids and Sadler and Hammond, and while the audience wants to have more Ian Malcolm, the audience needs to not have more of him because he ultimately is a distraction from the, the actual arc of the story itself. And so it's the right choice to leave us wanting more where a way where if this movie had been tested very early, I'm positive audiences would have said, we need more. Ian Malcolm. Right. And the studio would have said, can you give us, give us more of him? We want to make sure he, we have him all through the third act. Right. And in the movie needs him not to be there.
Sonny00:55:01Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that's basically, I think that's basically right. I mean, it's interesting. I mean, the other big difference of course, is that in the book he dies in the, in the book, Malcolm dies and so does Hammond and they, uh, I think wisely, uh, uh, survive in the movie. And it's very funny reading it. I'm like reading the lost world, um, you know, after he's retconned where he's, it's basically like it's, it's a very, like somehow Ian Malcolm has returned moment. It was like, ah, he, he didn't, he, he didn't really die. It was a, you know, they shocked his heart back to life. It was, that's fine.
JVL00:55:40It was only, he was, he was legally dead for 90 seconds.
Sonny00:55:44Yeah. So he was, you know, the reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated in the book by Mike
Mike00:55:50Wright. Yeah. Can, can, okay. Can, can we very quickly, before we go, just the other thought I had was how crappy the other movies in this God forsaken franchise are when you watch the first one. I mean, I watched the world on VHS a gazillion times, cuz that's the one we had in my house on VHS. So like I loved it because it was what, it was the movie I was watching all the time, but yeah, it's not that great. It's funny.
Sonny00:56:20Gymnastics. I watched, I watched the lost world not too long ago. Uh, I don't know, maybe, maybe it was before I moved to, to Dallas. So I guess like three years ago. Um, and I remember watching it and thinking like, oh, this is better than I remember it. This is better than I remember it. This is better than I remember it right up until the, the, the little girl does the gymnastics kick on the Raptor ruins the whole, and I was like, ah, fuck no, this is bad. This is, I changed my mind. This is bad and dumb. And then like after that, it goes totally off the rails by having the T-Rex running around through like downtown. Everything in San Diego is terrible. Like all that, all that is, all that is bad and wrong. And I'm just like, ah, this was almost, there's there's it's there kind of, and then it goes
Mike00:56:59off the rails. You, you know, what's great is the, what's great in it is the engine team that's there with like the guy, the, the, the guy with like the big red beard and like all of that. I love that and wanted to like get to know them more, but you're right after that, it goes off the rails. And then you have what Jurassic park three, which is just like a garbage cash grab.
Sonny00:57:19Uh, and weirdly Jurassic park three is the least offensive of all these in, in certain regards, because I think it, I think it is, it has the best performances at least with William H. Macy and T. Leoni. Um, but I dunno. I, or is yeah. William H. Macy's in that, right? Yeah. Oh yeah.
Mike00:57:38He's the dad. Yeah. They, they, it's the, it's weird. He's like playing somebody who's in a way he's like doing the same thing he did in Fargo, which is like faking, uh, an emergency. Uh, in order to, to get some money or something, but, and then Jurassic world, I mean just the Jurassic world movies, I have not seen the second one, the first one it's so it's so offensive in how much it just, it it's like more, more, more, and then more on top of that. And like you compare it with just how lean the original movie is just so much money.
JVL00:58:13So I've never understood the audience reaction to Jurassic park world. I just, I don't understand it.
Sonny00:58:18It's it's wild. Do you? I remember, I remember, I remember the weekend that movie came out and just watching like my eyes got bigger the whole weekend because originally it had been, it had been, you know, it was, it was probably gonna make 130, 140 million, something like that. Or maybe even less than that was like, you know, 110, 120. And like the first estimates were, oh, this is gonna make $150 million this weekend. And then the Saturday morning estimates were like, this is gonna make $180 million this weekend. It just like kept going. Like audiences could not get enough of this. This movie.
JVL00:58:49And then it held too.
Sonny00:58:50And then it. It even held. Yeah. I mean, it, it made, it's still the eighth highest grossing film of all time worldwide. I think, uh, you know, unadjusted for inflation, et cetera, but like, the only thing I can
JVL00:59:00think of with that is that. It was essentially like the force awakens that it tapped into a combination of nostalgia for this old thing and a deep longing to have another version of it. Yeah. No matter how crappy it was like, just give me my own new version of that. We want to have one to call our own cuz it is basically a soft reboot.
Sonny00:59:27Yeah.
JVL00:59:28Totally. Just like the force awakens is a soft reboot of, of new hope. Yeah. And that's, and those two movies again, same, same, right? They, they come after a very, very long drought in their respective franchises. Yeah. Uh, they are both middling products and they both. Enormous hits that hold incredibly well and, uh, turn out into historic box office, despite the fact that, that neither one is very good. Yeah. That's about right.
Mike01:00:00It's like, it's like the, it's like the filmmakers thought we can charge, we can make anything we want. Yeah. People will come see it.
JVL01:00:08They'll see it. Yeah. We can have a coupon day once a year. Um, or something. I just, before you, I just want to say one other thing about the ending, um, because this to me is a real film school in a box kind of thing. Um, a movie ends when the tension is resolved. Right. And the, the, one of the, the tricks to landing the ending is that you want to sync up the end of the story with the end of the tension, right? And movies that fail their endings is when they keep telling story after all the tension has gone out of it. And, uh, this movie ends the minute the T-Rex shows up to kill the Raptors, right? That's as soon as that happens. So all the tension that comes out, we're like, oh great. Yes. Now we know how this ends. Yeah. And the credits roll about 90 seconds later because, which is incredibly fast. And this movie Spielberg finds a way to finish that story in 90 seconds without any dialogue whatsoever. And it reminds me a little bit of north by northwest, which we weirdly, we mentioned earlier with the north by northwest, the tension ends when letter falls off Mount Rushmore. Right. And there's 80 more seconds that tell the entire rest of the story in very, very quick flashes. Right. And that's when you get the, the train going through the tunnel and all this. And Jurassic Park concludes the story section by suggesting to us that John Hammond is crushed and he never recovers that Ian Malcolm becomes more of a rock star. The two kids are now prepared to face the trauma of their parents' divorce and that Allen and Ellie are gonna get married and that they're ready to become parents. Yeah. And again, all of this is con is conveyed without any fucking dialogue. I, I. And that is a Marvel of storytelling.
Sonny01:01:48Yeah. I mean, it's, it's there, the knock on this movie is frequently, well, it does, it doesn't really end. It just stops. I'm like, no, it, what are you talking about? It ends fine. Like it, it, it ends exactly as it needs to.
Mike01:02:01There, there was a, there was a YouTube like video essay I saw some time in the last couple of years that was about how modern movies don't end quickly. Don't do exactly what you just described JVL, which is like end when the tension ends and compared it to old, old movies that knew when to get out that like when it was over, it was, you know, when the wizard of Oz was, when, when she's back in Kansas, it's over, you know, it's, it's like not long after that and, and in that way and in so many other ways, it's, you know, Spielberg is, or Spielberg is making in Jurassic park a throwback, which is so strange because you know, it, at the time it was like CGI movie. It was, you know, dinosaurs, it was, it felt like, you know, sort of like movie of the future, but it's actually like so many of his movies, a throwback. Uh, and, and that's, that's just, again, it's what makes it remarkable and make, makes him remarkable. Um, so how do we feel? Do we like Jurassic park or yay or nay? What's thumbs down. Thumbs down.
JVL01:03:01Yeah. You know what? I gotta say is flash.
Mike01:03:04Fucking loved it. There you go.
JVL01:03:06Yeah. And when, when the first and the very first thing, when the universal logo rolled, he looked at me, he goes, oh, this movie's really old. And isn't it? Yeah. I mean, that's the old universal logo, right? The old logo. I don't know that he's ever even seen the old universal logo.
Mike01:03:22It doesn't say a Comcast company underneath whatever it says might as well have been black
Sonny01:03:26and white. You might as well have the RKO tower anyway.
JVL01:03:29And then, then he's like, wait a minute. How are they doing? This is the best CGI I've ever seen. I was like, oh, it's a practical effect. He's like, what do you mean? I was like that Tyrannosaurus Rex's head is a puppet. Yeah. He's like, that's a puppet. He's like, but look at the eyes. The pupils are dilating. I was like, yes, that's a puppet. I mean, it is, this is amazing.
Sonny01:03:47It's a mix, right? I mean, it is a mix. They, it's, it's a, it's a really, it's a really good, I mean, this is, this is the, this is why the movie still holds up to the extent that it holds up. And again, there are, there are like CGI things that you see and you're like, ah, it's not really there. All right. That, that doesn't, that doesn't work anymore. But like the inner, the stuff interacting between people and dinosaur is all, it just looks good. Stan Winston, man could do it.
Mike01:04:14All right. Well, listen, that's all the time we're giving to this 30 year old, but I can't believe it's 30 years old, a 30 year old movie. Uh, thanks for listening sub beacon.com. Come check us out, uh, sign up, become a patron. Uh, thank you for listening and we will talk to you next time.
Sonny01:04:37Do you guys want to know the results of the, uh, the poll, the minute and a minute, I gotta
JVL01:04:43tell you this though, Sonny, you don't. You, you just saying that some of the CGI isn't there. What if I'm just spitballing here? Yeah. What if Steven Spielberg went back in there with some modern technology and just sort of touched up and maybe we get some new scenes where there are, uh, 85 T-Rex's running across the planes and we could get a scene where Dr. Alan Grant like steps over a Stegosaurus or something.
Mike01:05:13Ooh. And what if, and what if Dennis? The imagery is replaced by a, uh, Stegosaurus, you know, like, you know, because like that was really the actual vision. The ultimate edition of Jurassic park, they actually take off on an X-Wing to get out
Sonny01:05:27of there.
?01:05:28All right.
Sonny01:05:29Give us the results, Sonny, uh, in a shocking upset JBL dominates the field, 54% of the vote in a three-way three-way field, uh, for the car. This is for the car chase for the car chase who won the movie chase draft. JBL big winner, uh, with his, his choices of bullet fury road and Ronan, uh, um, Sonny and Mike fighting for scraps. I got 25%, uh, Mike got 22%, um, you know, people, people big on, big on bullet and fury road. I think those were the two.
JVL01:06:02I can't believe you guys let fury road fall to this number six pick.
Sonny01:06:06That's crazy. It's not, it's that the PR it's fury road is everything.
JVL01:06:10King size.
Sonny01:06:11It's it's, it's the whole thing is a car chase. It's not a car. There is king size with car chase scenes. It'd be like, uh, we're gonna make a days of thunder. We're gonna put days of thunder on the list.
Mike01:06:22Well, can I say in, just in defense of my picks, cuz the, the people in the comments were not happy as a, in, in large part with my, with my picks, but I went back and I rewatched the, the blues brothers, uh, final scene. Uh, and like, it was even better than I remember. It's like, it is cuz there's a lot of great comedic car chase. But like, and, and I love the one with, um, in, in the naked gun, remember where he like gets in the car and, uh, and it's like the driving instructor and the, the, the, the teen driver. Anyway, like the, like there's a bunch of funny ones, but like I was laughing out loud at the blues. So like, I, I stand by my decisions and I don't really appreciate how much, how much people were crapping on, on, uh, on my picks.
Sonny01:07:09Your picks were terrible, Mike, your picks were terrible, Mike, but my picks were great. And I, I saw a bunch of people. Yeah. A bunch of people denigrating dual. And I just like, I am sorry. You haven't, you folks haven't watched dual, uh, ever probably I bet you've never even seen it. Uh, so I'm.
Mike01:07:23Yeah. Can I say about that? Pick I'm, I'm having coverage because we, at this wedding with, uh, with, it was my family and my parents were there and, uh, I was mentioning this draft to my dad who doesn't listen to the show. That's okay. I'm not, I'm not bitter. Um, and I, we were just talking about our favorite, his favorite, none of our parents
Sonny01:07:42listen. Yeah.
Mike01:07:44I know exactly. Um, but, uh, we're just talking about different things and out of nowhere, he mentioned dual, like he was a, what about dual? And I was like, you know, Sonny picked that one.
Sonny01:07:53So your dad's smart.
Mike01:07:55He's got, he's got, he's got taste, uh, raised an idiot, but he's smart. Yeah. I'm sure it's fine.
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