Review Round Up 7th April 2013

THIS WEEK'S PREVIEWS

A zany love story that really works, back from the dead-a classic 3D'd & a dud that will steal your money and your time.  

(My movie Pick of the week)

Warm Bodies★★★★

Opens in Australia: 4th April 2013

Other Countries: Release Information

OUR THOUGHTS

Hooray, a paranormal love story with a good script and good acting.  Bravo to Jonathan Levine who wrote the screenplay and directed this kooky kind of love story.  I am watching out for more from him. There is humour and some lovely moments.  It’s a simple story of love can cure all, literally.  Hollywood take note you can make a good teenage film when you want to.  One complaint: that title really sounds like a “Fifty Shades of Grey” kind of story.  Loved the zombies at our preview too.  I want a zombie of my own now.

STUDIO BLURB

A funny new twist on a classic love story, WARM BODIES is a poignant tale about the power of human connection. After a zombie epidemic, R (a highly unusual zombie) encounters Julie (a human survivor), and rescues her from a zombie attack. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and as the two form a special relationship in their struggle for survival, R becomes increasingly more human - setting off an exciting, romantic, and often comical chain of events that begins to transform the other zombies and maybe even the whole lifeless world. (c) Summit

Jurassic Park 3D ★★★★

Opens in Australia: 4th April 2013

Other Countries: Release Information

OUR THOUGHTS

You know the story from this classic 1993 film.  So, there are no spoilers when I share that the dinosaurs still eat the people.  Some of these re-releases in 3D really show the wrinkles around their edges.  However, Stephen Spielberg has always been a master and ‘Jurassic Park 3D’ proves it. In 3D IMAX you will marvel at the realism of these creatures created with twenty-year-old CGI technology.  Here’s hoping ‘Jurassic Park IV’ in 2014 will prove a worthy successor.  The story of a seriously ambitious billionaire who clones dinosaurs that end up escaping and eating the visitors is still an action-packed thrill ride. 

STUDIO BLURB

       Steven Spielberg's phenomenally successful sci-fi adventure thriller is graced by state-of-the-art special effects from the team of Stan Winston, Phil Tippett and Michael Lantieri from George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic. The film follows two dinosaur experts -- Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler Laura Dern) -- as they are invited by eccentric millionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) to preview his new amusement park on an island off Costa Rica. By cloning DNA harvested from pre-historic insects, Hammond has been able to create living dinosaurs for his new Jurassic Park, an immense animal preserve housing real brachiosaurs, dilophosaurs, triceratops, velociraptors, and a Tyrannosaur Rex. Accompanied by cynical scientist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who is obsessed with chaos theory, and Hammond's two grandchildren (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello), they are sent on a tour through Hammond's new resort in computer controlled touring cars. But as a tropical storm hits the island, knocking out the power supply, and an unscrupulous employee (Wayne Knight) sabotages the system so that he can smuggle dinosaur embryos out of the park, the dinosaurs start to rage out of control. Grant then has to bring Hammond's grandchildren back to safety as the group is pursued by the gigantic man-eating beasts. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Identity Thief (★★)

Opens in Australia: 4th April 2013

Other Countries: Release Information

OUR THOUGHTS 

This is not a funny movie.  The producers and director Seth Gordon should be labeling themselves ‘Comedy Thieves’ for putting two fabulous comic actors, Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, together and creating this dull, plodding ridiculous film. The film itself needs an identity— it doesn’t know where it wants to sit.  It’s supposedly a black comedy but it’s not—as hard as it tries.  Then it’s a drama, then it’s a road-trip film, then it’s a heist film, and then after all that, we are meant to be moved and have a cry at the end.  I did cry when it kept going for another half hour after the ninety-minute mark. Best line in the film is in the last two minutes.  Whoever wrote that line needed to write the whole script.  Don’t let them steal your movie money.

STUDIO BLURB

         Unlimited funds have allowed Diana (McCarthy) to live it up on the outskirts of Miami, where the queen of retail buys whatever strikes her fancy. There's only one glitch: The ID she's using to finance these sprees reads "Sandy Bigelow Patterson"....and it belongs to an accounts rep (Bateman) who lives halfway across the U.S. With only one week to hunt down the con artist before his world implodes, the real Sandy Bigelow Patterson heads south to confront the woman with an all-access pass to his life. And as he attempts to bribe, coax and wrangle her the 2,000 miles to Denver, one easy target will discover just how tough it is to get your name back. -- (C) Official Site

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