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Posts Tagged With ‘ chris pratt ’

 

The Forever and Beautiful Sky

May 8th, 2023

Fifteen years ago, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was born with the release of Iron Man. It’s made billions of dollars. It’s had thirty-two entries released so far, another entry is up for release this year, and another nine and counting are in the pipeline.* Barring some kind of cultural cataclysm, I reckon the MCU will go on for a while yet, but a part of it is over. Jon Favreau’s Iron Man created the framework of what the modern MCU film looks like. Despite being a horror of a human being, Joss Whedon created the tone of the MCU, a union of rampaging snark and grounded mythology with The... Read More

Running and Screaming

June 13th, 2022

There’s an old belief that all little boys go dino-mad for a minute. I have no idea if that’s accurate, but I do know I was no exception. Back then, I recall a zoo of molded plastic critters, everything from the T-rex to the Stegosaurus. I remember junior paleontology books and a bemused father* taking me over and over and over to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science so that I could gawk at the fossils.  I love dinosaurs. I always have. Even now. I recently finished the very good book The Last Days of the Dinosaurs by Riley Black.** Odds are I’ll stop loving them right around the time... Read More

A Little Magic

March 8th, 2020

The internet has given us a great deal. From my laptop or phone, I have access to several lifetimes’ worth of information and culture. I can order a pizza, have it personalized precisely to my specifications, and it will be delivered to my overpriced hovel—all without having to speak to a human being. It’s a kind of magic. The internet has also taken away a great deal. It can feel like decency is in short supply sometimes, and it can also feel like blizzards of information hide the fact that much of the information can’t be trusted. One of the worst casualties of the information age is... Read More

Everything Is (Slightly Less) Awesome

February 10th, 2019

It’s very difficult to be surprised by movies these days. You’ve seen trailers released by major studios that seem to leech most of the drama out of the film they’re promoting. If you go to certain corners of the internet, you can piece together marketing materials, leaked screenplays, and footage and basically get the gist of a film before it’s even playing theatrically. That sucks, so I cherish those moments, particularly in studio blockbusters, when I get blindsided. One of my favorites from 2018 was the last 30 minutes of Avengers: Infinity War. If you haven’t gotten around to seeing... Read More

A Disappointment 65 Million Years In The Making

June 24th, 2018
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

As a parent who loves movies, teaching my kid to be film literate has always been a priority. The trick is making it all age appropriate. It’s not like on his eleventh birthday, I’m going to pour him a big glass of lemonade and sit him down to watch Schindler’s List.* With kids, you need to watch what they watch, see how they react to it, and help them to put things in context. When he was younger, I’d try to curate the good stuff for him, films like The Iron Giant. Yet there  were always touchstone films that I chomped at the bit to show him. This week, one of those touchstones were... Read More

A Group of Remarkable People

April 29th, 2018

When it comes to cinema, we’re living in an age of marvels. Take the long view for a moment, and consider that with theatrical releases and streaming platforms, we have access to a wider and deeper selection of films than at any point in human history. You can immerse yourself in independent films, catch up on old classics, watch virtually whatever you want whenever you want. To say that there are no good movies anymore is wildly inaccurate, you just have to work a little to find them. That concept also means that, increasingly, the theatrical experience is reserved for blockbusters. You know... Read More

I Am Groot

May 7th, 2017

Now that the summer movie season is upon us, we can expect to be bombarded with think pieces about superhero fatigue. These pieces will tell us that audiences are absolutely done with superhero movies in general, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in particular. But you know what? I don’t buy it. I understand the sentiment, though. Summer movies used to be either broad comedies or action flicks about cops on the edge. Now, we’ve got people in garish costumes with goofy codenames interacting with CGI monstrosities. For people like my dear friend Devila, it can be unbearable. She’s... Read More

Star Vehicle

January 1st, 2017

Dear reader, I have to be honest with you. I have a problem. As much as I want you to read this review of the new film Passengers, you really don’t need to read it. All you need to do is direct your eyeballs up a few inches to the picture of the pretty people, and everything you need to know is right there. Let me explain. In the background is Chris Pratt. He’s in sharp relief, handsome. He’s wearing a spacesuit, so that suggests he possesses a degree of competence most of us beta males are lacking. But his mind is in other places, evidenced by the fact that he’s staring... Read More

Explosions And Horses

October 2nd, 2016

My wife hates Westerns, which is a pity. Sure, there are a couple of unassailable classics she likes, like Tombstone or Unforgiven. But those are the exception. She made it through just 10 minutes of Open Range, scoffed at the idea of watching Silverado, and physically left the room when High Noon came on. Thing is, she’s not the only one. I know a lot of people that instinctively recoil at Westerns. Of people I know, Westerns seem to be the second most despised movie genre, with superhero movies taking the crown. Why is that? My wife couldn’t quite articulate it, there’s... Read More

Run, It’s A Serialkillerasaurus!

June 21st, 2015

I remember seeing Jurassic Park in 1993. As a callow young punk, my father and I saw it at the dearly departed Village 4 theater in Boulder. I remember gasps from the audience at that first view of the Brachiosaurus.  I remember yelps of terror during the kitchen scene with the velociraptors. But the scene I remember most is the scene everybody remembers most. The T-Rex attack. The sound of the impact tremors. The sound waves rippling through water. The feeling of primal, escalating dread. Since then, Jurassic Park has become a landmark in blockbuster cinema. Pretty much everyone has had... Read More