Jurassic Park

On paper, this should not be my kind of film. It falls into the adventure category, it was made for the masses, it features dinosaurs and it is from the 1990's (read: dated, but not in a cool 1970's way). Yes, it took me until today to watch it...because I wasn't really interested before. But this is one of those films that everybody has to see at some point, I guess.

And...

It is awesome!

This seriously kept me on the edge of my seat and had me watch with open mouth, especially during the very first dinosaur attack, when the car with the kids inside gets pushed around.

Now, as this is a Steven Spielberg film, it is of course obvious that all the characters we care about will make it out alive. Even that knowledge that not let me become ambivalent about what I was watching. It is just exciting the entire time. I guess that is all one can ask from an adventure blockbuster.

With a big name director come some big name actors. Sam Neill (who was huge at the time), Jeff Goldblum (always a good choice), Laura Dern, the late Richard Attenborough and a chain smoking Samuel L. Jackson.

Why, oh why did I wait so long to watch this?

9/10

The Fault in Our Stars

The beauty of ticket contests is that sometimes you get to see widely anticipated films before their official release date. Case in point: The Fault in Our Stars - an exclusive premiere, one week before its official local starting date (and even before it premiered in the US!). Even better, not only did I win two tickets to this, but a friend also won, so there were four of us.

I've had my difficulties with the book, as I detailed in my other blog. Primarily, I didn't care much for the book version of Augustus. The character was less annoying in the film, I felt. (My friend S. found his constant grinning annoying, though.) Apart from the story with the previous, deceased girlfriend, which fell between the cracks, the book was thoroughly covered. Sure, it took its liberties here and there, but the essence of the story remained.

The translation to screen worked beautifully and the end product is much more enthralling than the book would have led me to expect. The acting was exceptional on all fronts (Willem Dafoe!) and even though there was a lot of laughing in the theater throughout the first half of the film, there was just as much sniffling and nose blowing through the second half.

We laughed. We cried.

7/10