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Jurassic Park (1993)
Jurassic Park (1993)
1993 | Adventure, Sci-Fi
This is a template for how make a great action/adventure movie. Clocking in, at for what these days, a film of its type would seem to be a modest 121 mins, it divides itself into two solid halves. The first hour debates the science, the sociology and evolutionary issues of both cloning and of course, dinosaurs, whilst skillfully setting up and yet side tracking the audience into not realising who the real villains of the movie are going to be.

From the opening scene, the Velosaraptors are clearly formidable, but the film feeds on the overwhelming desire from the audience to see the T-Rex to the point of distraction. And it works, allowing a still awe-inspiring and music-less might I add, T-Rex sequence, and then giving the fourth act over the Raptors.

This film uses every minute brilliantly, maintaining a sense of pace throughout whist not bombarding us with pointless action. I do think that this film has lost some of its standing with a general audience these days, but for no other reason than the fact that is now almost 19 years old!

But even at 19, besides holding together as tight screenplay, it still has the power to bring out that sense of wonder. The moment that the group are introduced to the Brachiosaurs for the first time is still powerful today. Just the idea of being shown a living, breathing dinosaur is just amazing and Spielberg has effectively bottled that feeling of wonder.

Well worth rediscovering…
  
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Resurrectionist (Matthew Hawkwood, #2)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The sequel to 2006's <i>Ratcatcher</i>, <i>Resurrectionist</i> again follows the exploits of Matthew Hawkwood: a former army officer now working as a Bow Street Runner.

While <i>Ratcatcher</i>, in many respects, was a straight-forward action/adventure set in Regency London, this novel is more of a mystery/crime novel. This time, Captain Hawkwood is on the trail of body-snatchers - colloquially known as 'Resurrection men' - and of an escaped convict from Bedlam Hospital. Initially believing the two cases to be distinct, this later proves to be far from the case ...

Body-snatching was - and is - a pretty gruesome business, and McGee doesn't shy away from the full import of what the grave-diggers were involved in, with some of the scenes described not for the squeamish! Similarly, the early years of medical science are also touched upon - again, some of those scenes are not for the squeamish.
  
Ant-Man (2015)
Ant-Man (2015)
2015 | Action, Comedy, Mystery
Ant-Man is so much damn fun...

It has a great cast, who all share great chemistry, it has some decent and different action scenes, it's frequently funny (the Thomas the Tank Engine crash is iconic by this point), it deals with the Scott Lang Ant-Man whilst providing a satisfactory backstory for Hank Pym, it's a damn good heist movie, and above all, it's its own thing, even if it does have a scene connecting it to the larger MCU.

It's not perfect - once again another MCU film suffers from an expendable villain, a lot of the plot is just Iron Man (genius scientist gets ousted from his company by an angry bald white man who then tries to kill him whilst wearing a variant of his own super suit), but if you can manage to mute that nagging part of your brain, you'll find an intelligent and hugely entertaining heist adventure, all wrapped up in an MCU filter. It's great.
  
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2204 KP) rated The Last Orphan in Books

Jul 7, 2023 (Updated Jul 7, 2023)  
The Last Orphan
The Last Orphan
Gregg Hurwitz | 2023 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Evan Faces a Conflicting Mission
Once again, the US government is tracking down assassin Evan Smoak. Only he doesn’t know it until it is too late. When he is given an ultimatum, he does his own research into the assignment. Will he find a reason to pursue it?

There’s enough background, you could jump in here, but I’ll always recommend you read a series in order. I’m a little vague in my plot teaser since the book takes a little time to set things up, and it’s best to watch things unfold. That’s not to say we don’t get action early and often, which is always page turning. I feel like we didn’t quite get as much growth for Evan, although there was still some. And I enjoy the added bits of humor that come in as the series progresses. The story ends with not quite a cliffhanger, but definitely setting up the next book. Overall, fans will enjoy Evan’s latest adventure