Film 5 - The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Film Review:

Okay, big moment, this is the first film I ever saw Julianne in. I was fourteen and really liked dinosaurs as all fourteen year old boys do but, it was a certain Ms Moore that really excited me that day back in the summer of 1997.

The Lost World (TLW) is an interesting one. How do you follow the biggest film of all time? It's tough but this film does well I feel and is a bit underrated. Okay, it was never going to be as brilliant as the original, but I liked how it tried to be different. The plot was intertesting and centering it around Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm was a good move, he was able to be both funny and dark. The dinosaurs were all entertaining and the film had quite a dark tone to it, the rain, the dark scenes and the quite brutal dinosaur deaths. It was an easy film to criticise and it was never going to please everyone. But as two solid hours of entertainment, it doesnt go far wrong. Even the most hardhearted critic would have to admit that the sight of the T-Rex rampaging through San Diego was the stuff teenage boys dream about!

There are some wonderful moments, the raptors in the grass - how many times has that scene now been copied? - the T-Rex in the tent, the horrible compy scene and the trailer attack. I could have happily lived without Ian Malcolm's moaning daughter and her awful gymnastics subplot though, why does this film really need a teenage girl in it?

Overall I loved this film at fourteen and I'd be a down right liar if I didn't admit to still loving this film at 27, oh and by the way, summer of '97, I saw this 6 times at the cinema...

Top Julianne Moment:

Sarah Harding and the cracking glass.

Life like T-Rexs, savage raptors in the long grass and CGI that still holds up today but the best moment in the film? The glass. Just a plate of cracking glass over a cliff and Julianne on top. The look on her face as she resists the natural urge to panic and moves slowly over the glass was an acting masterclass in a film you didn't expect to see one. Go back and watch the scene, it's just superb!

Julianne Review:

As per usual I just bloody love her. Okay it's not an Oscar winning performance, it's being chased around by CGI dinosaurs, but Julianne still manages to find the reality in it and create something special as Sarah Harding. She doesn't play the usual damsal in distress that you sometimes find in these action films, she is quite capable of looking after herself and is believable as a brave and educated woman. The way in which she interacts with the other characters in excellent, her sparky relationship with Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm is a joy to watch, when they bicker and argue, it helps root the film in reality. It cannot be easy to act opposite CGI dinosaurs, but there are some excellent moments where her brilliant talent is apparant. The above mentioned "glass scene", the scene with the T-Rex in the tent where if she moves, she'll be spotted and chase scene with the raptors.

I really cannot explain what made me fall in love with Julianne at the young age of 14 when watching this film for the first time. It made me want to watch more of her films and every single one I watched, made me love her a little bit more. It's funny, I've never thought about the fact that it's been 13 years. Life is interesting because at 14, you have no idea about what is to come, the trial and tribulations - very dramatic sounding - and the things that will change. You meet so many different people and luckily some making a lasting connection and stay in your life but so many disappear from your life and you lose touch with them. Even what you do with your life changes and you really have no idea where it can take you, at 14 I wanted to be the next Steven Spielberg and now at 27 I'm an English teacher and I couldn't imagine doing anything else, I love my job. Your personal life changes as well, partners and romances come and go and you think you've found someone who you love so much you can't imagine ever being without and a matter of years down the line, you never even hear from them. There really aren't many constants in life but I think writing this blog, I may have just realised that Julianne is far more than just some actress that I like, she may be one of the most important constants in my life. She's always there for me. I mean obviously I dream that one day I'll get to meet her - never going to happen but I can dream - and I know exactly what I would say to her. "Thank you." When I've been in need of a laugh or a distractions I've had "Evolution" or "The Laws of Attraction". When I've fancied some action or excitement, I've had TLW or Hannibal or Assassins. When I've felt sad or stressed out I've had "Far from Heaven" or "The Hours" or when I've needed to find some faith in life or love again, there's things like "Trust the Man" or "The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio". She isn't just some actress, she looks after me through all her different films and through all my different ups and downs in life. One of my first night's away from home at University, missing my family and friends, I had "The Laws of Attraction", she saved me that night and I love her for it. Thats why I want to say thank you to her. I would give anything to tell her because I know that until the day I die, I'll always have Julianne in my life.

Thank You x

I'm really glad that at 14 I liked dinosaurs, I think the other cinematic option was Speed 2: Cruise Control. Ouch...

Revisit "The Lost World: Jurassic Park"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=878A6J2vbLA

Film 4: Trust The Man

Film Review:

I went to see "Trust The Man" as part of a very special day - Julianne Day - when this was released on the same day as "Children of Men". Saw this first then CoM, sadly Julianne doesnt last long in that, but it was a good balance between the two. This is the second film Julianne starred in which was directed by her husband Bart.

As per usual, really enjoyed this one! Was at the cinema tonight and saw the totally awful "Going The Distance" - it was properly crude and unfunny and shouldn't Drew Barrymor start acting her age?! I was planning to go the route of The Lost World but I thought I needed a romcom where I actually cared about the characters. I really liked the fact that the characters were older and not silly teenagers who have no idea of what love and relationships are all about, I believed these characters and I liked the fact it wasn't a "getting together" story but a "staying together" story which is much harder. The three leads minus Julianne were all brilliant, don't often like Maggie G but was quite impressed by how funny she was in this as with Billy Crudup, there was something really sweet about him, although I could have lived without the therapist storyline. Duchovny was just great - was he playing himself?! - I thought he was just so believable and was genuinely really funny, trying to survive the supermarket, spoonball gone wrong and his sex tap music!

It's quite a simple film but I feel it's down to the performances that it rises above other films of this genre. The way is shifts between comedy and drama is refreshing and doesn't jar and each of the characters gets their own little journey to go on and the ending to each is very satisfying. I think this is perfect saturday night movie fodder, stick it on and enjoy a few laughs and maybe shed a little tear.

Julianne Moment

This is a tie for my favourite Julianne moment. For pure comedy it has to be the cake choking scene played out to "Let's Get It On", she is such an under rated comedy actress and I will never tire of watching this scene. Next is the scene with Billy Crudup outside the theatre where the penny drops that her husband is cheating on her, she gets angry and upset and it comes from nowhere but is so believable. All the character's pent up frustration and anxiety comes exploding out and it really just is an acting masterclass, especially when she realises she's taking it out on her brother and smiles, kisses him on the cheek and says goodbye. Just love it!

Julianne Review

Wow, just love her in this film, you get everything you need from a Julianne film, the comedy and the drama. Her character is initially quite difficult to like because she if quite cold but then as the film develops you realise it is a reaction to her husband's attitude. The scene where she jokes about marriage being overrated may appear to be a funny throwaway comment but you can sense at that point she kind of means it. The funny moments like the cake scene and getting smacked in the face are a real treat as she doesn't do broad comedy very often. Her dialogue with Duchovny works really well, they have such great chemisty and I could have watched them bicker and argue for a full 90 minutes. The dramatic moments are also a delight, the fact that Julianne is able to find these moments in a romantic comedy and make them so raw and painful is a testement to her acting ability, he scene where she sits and sobs in front of the mirror is heartbreaking and the scene where she asks Duchonvy to leave till he knows what he wants is so underplayed and it's perfect. Oh and we get to see Julianne doing a lot of swearing, I like it when she swears, makes me laugh and kind of want to swear myself!

I think this film is about how much work any sort of relationship is and it did make me think about things as I lay in bed afterwards. Relationships are so often glamorised and made to appear easy but I just don't think that's the case, any relationship is difficult, if it's not then I don't know if it's really a relationship. It's got me thinking of all the relationships in my life, past and present and if they were difficult or if they were easy and I think Im already starting to confuse myself, which is never a good sign when you expect other people to read what you've written. Take my partner, I waited quite a while for him to come along and things appear to be going really well, but there are lots of different levels of fear that exist and that is what makes it difficult, the fact that you don't want to be overbearing, you worry about doing the wrong thing and scaring them away, is that a measure of how much someone means to you, the fact you worry about losing them? There are times where you just don't know if you're saying or doing the right thing, so many things you sometimes want to say or discuss but you don't know whether you should bring it up in case it turns int something you don't want to talk about, again, a measure of how much you care for somebody? Maybe I'm just a miser of sorts but I really can't get swept up in the romanticism of relationships, I think you have to work at them from the very start and if you expect two people to open up to each other then you have to be realisitc and ensure you work at it from the beginning. Maybe that makes me a total dullard and a nightmare of a boyfriend but I'd hope that makes me a realist and that means that my relatioinship can exist in the real world rather than just a romantic ideal that exists only between the two of you. Relationships have to take into account bad days at work, annoying family issues, the fact there are just never enough hours in the bloody day, when you are skint and it's three days till payday and all you have in the house is a tin of beans and a Tesco Value sausage roll and when you just aren't in the mood to see anyone and want to sit on your sofa with a duvet and watch Julianne Moore clips on youtube, if they don't surely there can be no long term future? But you also get those brilliant moments where you realise you have something else in common that you've never spoken about, when they say something nice to you that really makes you smile inside, when they do well in a room with all your friends and you get a buzz from the fact you a power couple functioning in a room of real people and when they take time out of their day doing their super important job to get you Kylie tickets. That last one may not happen to many, but who knows!

It applied to friendships as well. You get some friendships that are just easy and you just love every minute of because they make you smile and laugh and they are always there when you need them. It takes a true friend to sit through "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" with you, it takes a true friend to drop what their doing and run into town to have afternoon drinks with you because you're meeting your boyfriend's best mate who clearly is going to hate you. It takes a true friend to call you straight on situations that you know the hardest, toughest answer is usually the right answer. These are real friendships and they exist not just in some romantic ideal but in the real world, where people can see them, believe them and this film does that too, they are real, you know people like that, you are people like that. Then you get other friendships that are difficult, that you have to work at or they don't survive. There is a very old friend of mine who I think about that way, it hasn't been easy over the years, at 18 years olf, 21 years old, 25 years old, tomorrow, but it's real, I would do anything for him and I'd like to think he would do the same for me and I wouldn't trade all the ups and downs for anything because it's been our little journey and I wouldnt want that to change in the slightest. Then you have mates where you think it's a constant trial and you want to shake them and say "Come the fuck on dude" - I think people who say any relationship/friendship doesn't require work and effort is a liar but when is enough enough? When do you give up and call it a day? I felt like that a little over the last few weeks, a friend who I hadn't heard from in too long but then you realise that life sometimes get's in the way and I think that sometimes makes you forget what is important - I know I'm guilty of that! So in answer to my question, when is enough enough? If you're willing to work at a friendship/relationship, then the answer has to be never.

One friend of mine text me just there relating to an issue of lost keys - never a good thing - and I told her I was blogging and it was like therapy and she asked me a really good question. "Therapy for what?"

I don't really know the answer to that (yet?) but I'm just glad I have Julianne.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SGXGki_rSU

Until next time!