A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Pros:  Great CGI dinos, good John Williams score, and at least it's fast-paced. Cons:  Formulaic story, and the third act seemed forced. Although Jurassic Park (in both novel and movie formats) was bound to spawn sequels just as Jaws did, it didn't have to fall into movie by the numbers territory, yet, surprisingly, The Lost World does just that. Even though screenwriter David Koepp, director Steven Spielberg, some cast members and all the techno-wizards are back for this 1997 sequel, one comes away from watching The Lost World - Jurassic Park wondering if Spielberg had his mind elsewhere...perhaps thinking about such projects as Amistad and Saving Private Ryan, or poring over script ideas for Indiana Jones IV . It's not an awful movie, mind you, otherwise I would not own it. But it isn't that great, either, and that is disappointing, considering it is a Steven Spielberg film. Once again screenwriter Koepp takes a few scenes from Michael Crichton's eq...

(C) 2016 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Director Roland Emmerich’s 1996 alien invasion film “Independence Day” is a high tech retread of 1950s-era movies such as “The War of the Worlds” and “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.” Co-written by Emmerich with his long-time collaborator Dean Devlin, “Independence Day” pits a motley crew of characters led by Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, and Randy Quaid against a horde of spacefaring aliens and their armada of enormous flying saucers. Set in the late 1990s, “Independence Day” (or “ID4”) takes place between July 2 and July 4. The Cold War is over, and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq has been defeated in Operation Desert Storm. With America’s national holiday coming up, much of the U.S. military is on leave, and everyone is getting ready for barbecues, fireworks, and rowdy Fourth of July parties. But out in space, trouble looms as a gigantic flying saucer – described by an alarmed scientist as being “one fourth the size of t...