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Will Chaos Theory’s Kingdom Find a Way to Survive?
Ladies and gentlemen, the first full trailer for the highly-anticipated Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is here.
In a word: Chaos. In more words, which Jurassic Park character famously specialized in chaos theory? The writers built a subtle, yet clever narrative bridge that necessarily welcomes Dr. Ian Malcolm back after 20 years. Well, he actually made a couple “appearances” in 2015’s Jurassic World…
Looks like visceral director J.A. Bayona (The Impossible) has attempted to add a big, suspenseful chapter to the Jurassic Park cinematic series with Fallen Kingdom, the second film in the Jurassic World trilogy. June 22, 2018, cannot come soon enough, just as long as there are engaging Michael Crichton-esque dialogue and next-level, imaginative plot twists in equal measure. Plus, there must be several genuine edge-of-your-seat animatronic thrills in gritty, acutely enclosing situations like in the 1993 masterpiece.
Time will tell concerning director J.A. Bayona’s signature filmmaking style amidst prehistoric chaos.
Pop-Up Crooks
The Crew Wars is about to add its next episode on the pitch…
Columbus Crew SC will battle Supporters’ Shield winner and MLS heavyweight Toronto FC tomorrow night in Canada in the second leg of the 2017 MLS Eastern Conference Final at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1. And the stakes for this match aren’t just for a spot in MLS Cup but the opportunity to host MLS Cup. This massive game awaits the Crew and its vocal #SaveTheCrew movement (The Resistance) in the stands and here in Columbus whereby a victory could be the best-televised PR moment for Columbus this season, as well as simultaneously being the worst televised PR moment for the Empire (snakes Crew SC owner Anthony Precourt, Crew SC President of Business Operations Andy Loughnane, Precourt Sports Ventures President Dave Greeley and MLS Commissioner Don Garber).
More #SaveTheCrew analysis will come this week as details confirming that Empire representatives Mr. Precourt and Mr. Garber told Resistance forces Columbus Mayor Ginther and Columbus Partnership President & CEO Alex Fischer that they could pay the $5 million fee to apply for an expansion team in the future (FOR THE TEAM THAT’S ALREADY HERE!) during their closed-door New York meeting. Plus, there have been back-and-forth reports involving land being offered for a proposed Crew stadium in downtown Columbus in recent days.
For today, however, before this soccer storm returns to our television screens via the pivotal second leg of the Eastern Conference Final, this blog post is being written with my nieces and nephews in mind.
Paddington, the live-action film with a CGI bear that was a box office hit with rave reviews from 2014 has received the sequel treatment. Accordingly, this fun, heartwarming story that’s been beautifully produced for the silver screen released its first full U.S. trailer via Warner Bros. Pictures earlier today.
If you can’t bear to wait, no worries, as you can enjoy the rambunctious Paddington 2 starting January 12, 2018.
Posting Up Against Giants
Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and Steven Spielberg walk into a newsroom…
Journalism, not the shouting on cable news, is invaluable in a democracy. More specifically, the gritty, old-school reporting approach with pen marks galore, endless stacks of paper and the pursuit of revealing the greater truth to an “off-limits” story instead of merely getting there/yelling something inflammatory first is increasingly becoming a relic of the past.
And it’s in this pre-digital past that Steven Spielberg ventured into for a modern-day reflection. Plus, Mr. Spielberg was able to bring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep together for the first time for a major motion picture.
Steven Spielberg’s forthcoming film The Post isn’t necessarily aiming to revitalize print journalism as much as it seems to be directed towards reigniting the spark of a thoughtful, determined American media.
Considering the times we live, in which news in the political, sports and entertainment spheres are indistinguishably blurred together and run and broadcasted by powerful insiders (former athletes, political operatives, and commentators on both sides, etc.), the question that lingers is, “Who can those on the outside trust?”
It is likely that The Post won’t comprehensively answer this critical question, but this film will transport audiences back to a time when there was information you knew and information you didn’t know. “Metrics” and “analytics” hadn’t yet become fancy synonyms for information. Journalists took a breath, focused and refocused a few times, went to work all day and night while framing a report in a context that far exceeded the words and margins of the said story.
Even when the story was (like in this film) larger-than-life and full of high-level risks and stakes for a nation asking important high-level questions.
The leaking of the Pentagon Papers had its fair share of controversy. It will be interesting to see how the legendary director chose to tell and frame historically significant events involving real people. Nonetheless, the Pentagon Papers and the Washington Post have received the top-shelf Spielbergian treatment in The Post that stars Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep set for theatrical release this Christmas.
And then set for ordering on Amazon several months later.
Damn, Daniel’s Almost Done
Sometimes, the messenger rises above the message.
On that note, 60-year-old Daniel Day-Lewis announced a while back that he was going to retire from acting. This news was a little surprising, particularly given his age and that he still appears to be at the top of his game. Nevertheless, the trailer for his last film, Phantom Thread, recently debuted online. As mentioned in the opening, the story of this film may not necessarily excite one’s cinematic senses, but the lead actor will. Regardless, one should be interested in this forthcoming movie for a couple things:
- Phantom Thread is the final film in the storied career of acting savant Daniel Day-Lewis. This is it.
- Of all the films Daniel Day-Lewis could have made his swan song, why did he choose Phantom Thread?
Let’s get the first glimpse and try to decipher an early hypothesis to the second question above.
Whatever the reason for why Daniel Day-Lewis chose to leave audiences on Phantom Thread, there’s no ambiguity in the fact that he fashioned together one hell of a great career.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 