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Sarah (7800 KP) rated Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics (2020) in Movies

Jun 12, 2020

Fun but misses some of the serious side

There’s a lot of fun to be had watching this documentary, mainly from the wacky tales recounted by fairly well known celebrities and the way they’re retold (silly cartoons or acted out by other known celebrities). This is definitely not a serious documentary warning you of the dangers of drugs, it’s more just a light hearted entertaining look at celebrity experiences of LSD. And it definitely is funny. There’s a lot of times I laughed out loud watching this, mainly at the sheer bizarreness of it all. You can tell as well that they’ve obviously spent a lot of money on the production of this film, as there’s a lot of big name stars in this and it looks like a very slick production.

The problem is that this film almost seems to be highlighting the benefits or the fun side of taking these drugs. There are some scientific explanations and some talk about negative side effects, but they almost seem to be pushed to one side in favour of telling the humorous side. And this is what this film is lacking, that “drugs are bad” spiel to at least provide a more balanced view.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Assassination Bureau (1969) in Movies

Oct 1, 2020

The Assassination Bureau (1969)

1969 | Action, Comedy

7.3

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Knockabout black comedy thriller. A feisty journalist (Rigg) challenges the leader of a group of elite assassins (Reed) to have himself killed: feeling his associates have become sloppy and corrupt, he accepts the challenge as it will allow him to purge his organisation. Exploits across Edwardian Europe follow, together with a touch of romance.

Oliver Reed never had the career as a leading man he deserved; Diana Rigg didn't get the film career you would have expected, either, so the film has a certain rarity value. However it's just not very funny, or thrilling, and the duo don't seem to have much chemistry - that said, a script which doesn't seem to know whether to be darkly witty or zany means he seems to be operating at about half-power. With Rigg and Savalas co-starring in a 1969 film about a suave assassin taking on a criminal conspiracy, the temptation is to speculate that this film gives a hint of what On Her Majesty's Secret Service might have looked like had Eon made better casting decisions - one hopes not, for this film isn't great in any department, on top of which the special effects in the climax are rotten and the closing song is pretty grim too. A waste of several great talents.

Kudos

David McK (3649 KP) rated Jurassic Park (1993) in Movies

May 26, 2020

Jurassic Park (1993)

1993 | Adventure, Sci-Fi

8.8

(129 Ratings)

Movie Rating

I've just realised (at the time of writing) that this movie is nearly 30 years old.

Man, I feel old.

Taking some liberties with Michael Crichtons's source material (Hammond dies and was not a very nice man; Grant likes kids), this is a disaster movie with stunning effects (that still hold up pretty well today) for the time, even if our understanding of the 'headline' dinosaurs has changed somewhat in the intervening years since its release (Raptors were the size of chickens, had feathers, and were NOT pack hunters. or so we now think).

Set on a tropical island hit by a storm just as the owner is given a pre-release tour to special invited guests to show off his scientific breakthrough - cloned Dinosaurs, because that's ALWAYS a good idea … - a series of events leads to the power going down, and the 'exhibits' breaking free to wreak havoc amongst those guests. And, lets not kid around the bush here, despite having the likes of Samuel L Jackson, Richard Attenborough, Sam Neil, Laura Dern and - uh- Jeff Goldblum ("life, uh, finds a way") amongst the cast - the real stars are those dinosaurs.

All the sequels (4 so far, with a 5th ion the way in Jurassic World: Dominion) pale in comparison.