Pretty much a repetition of the first Jurassic Park movie. Of course, they tried to change the story-line and include some pretty good aerial shots of a crowded theme park. But it seemed all quite predictable. However it was never boring and the action scenes were helped by the familiar music.
Now here was a movie that was intelligent, well written and directed, and a masterly performance from Ian McKellen as an elderly Sherlock Holmes. The famous detective has relocated to a south coast hideaway after ending his career when a case goes wrong. His new housekeeper (a terrific Laura Linney) is fed up with his obvious cantankerous nature, but her young son is not. There are cameo roles for some great British acting talent, and the film is beautifully shot. The only slight disappointment was the case itself, no blockbuster crime, more the unraveling of a mystery. But I found the whole experience to be rich and fulfilling.
Another brilliant movie; the story of Brian Wilson is so well executed. Paul Dano is excellent as the young Beach Boy, retreating to the studio to record something better than The Beatles' Rubber Soul. There were times when his direction of the musicians burst into a gloriously familiar track that had me reeling. The dramatic segments were very well done and the cutting between those early years and a "recovering" mentally ill Wilson in the 1980's was spot on. John Cusack is very good as the older Brian, but here he is upstaged by a subtle and engaging performance from Elizabeth Banks. She seems to have been in lots of films over the last ten years. I first remember seeing her in the comedy horror Slither in 2006 and then more recently in Man on a Ledge, The Hunger Games and Pitch Perfect. This time a best supporting nomination looks a certainty, especially for her scenes with the obnoxious tyrant that is Eugene Landy played by Paul Giamatti.
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