Tuesdays Top-Grossing Reviews: 1996

Year: 1996
Film: Independence Day
Box Office Gross: $306,124,059
Awards: 1 Oscar for visual effects
Actors: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsh, Harry Connick, Jr., Jeff Bridges, Vivica A. Fox, Brent Spiner

This is one of my favorite blockbusters, and definitely my favorite Will Smith movie. He was still new as a leading actor, moving away from his TV fame, and still rising as a rap/R&B star (It was a little before Jiggy became a household word, and before it stopped being one). The movie starts with all the communication systems going crazy, our heroic President (Pullman) trying to figure things out, but still doesn't make sense. Jeff Goldblum figures out what's going on, and tries to get to the White House with his father (Judd Hirsh) because his ex-wife works for the President. With the help of Captain Steven Hiller (Smith), they try to attack the large circular UFOs, fail miserably, and have to find another method to get them away. Smith figures out how to fight one of the individual UFOs (smaller little units part of the big ones), and captures it. This reveals that this has happened before (yet another hypothesis of what happened at Area 51) and now that they've returned, the machines are working again and maybe they can fly the old ship into the mother ship and detroy everything. Writing this, it seems even more preposterous than actually watching it. It all makes a little bit of sense in context (with the realm of sci-fi anyway). There's a lot of humor throughout, even while you're unsure who will survive. Lots of people don't, but of course our hero prevails. I still like it, and even with the 12 years since, the technology they use hasn't made it particularly dated yet, though it might someday. Oh yeah, and the whole thing occurs from July 2-4, hence Independence Day! Below, this is one of my favorite scenes - listening to Will Smith yell at the alien.

Tuesdays Top-Grossing Reviews: 1993

Year: 1993
Film: Jurassic Park
Box Office Gross: $356,784,000
Awards: 3 Oscars for sound, effects editing and visual effects
Actors: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Sir Richard Attenborough, Jeff Goldblum, Samuel L. Jackson, and Wayne Knight

In the true spirit of Spielberg, Jurassic Park was full of wonder, mystery, lots of special effects and a fantastic story that has become part of our culture. I know I'd never heard the cry of the velociraptor before this movie. As for background: Two paleobiologists (one studying plants, the other dinosaurs - Dern and Neill, respectively) are brought to authenticate a new theme park on an island. Attenborough brings them, along with a mathematician (Goldblum) and his own grandchildren to check out the "fully automated" island now covered in dinosaurs. With a bit of scientific hand waving, we find out you can now grow your own dinosaurs and they'll be available as a tourist attraction. However, of course things go horribly wrong and our heroes have to save everyone (although Newman doesn't make it thanks to the little bitty spitting dino) and use their knowledge of what the dinosaurs might have been like to escape and survive. It's got awesome special effects and the wonder that that characters experience seeing a field of dinosaurs holds up every time I see the movie. The terrifying dino-hide and seek scenes scared the bejeezus out of me in the theater in my teens not knowing who would escape and who the dinosaurs would eat. It's great for kids (not little ones, but most kids can be entertained rather than scared) and was a lot of fun rewatching over the years. There are a lot of scenes I enjoy, but my favorite still has to be watching Neill lay against a triceratops and feel her breathe in and out. You really got the sense that these jaded biologists were finding the wonder again. I never saw the sequels, or read the books of sequels. I'm happy in my ignorance that all ended fine and the dinosaurs lived happily ever after on their island alone.

Tuesdays Top-Grossing Reviews: 2006

Year: 2006

Film: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Box Office Gross: $423,032,628

Awards: Oscar and BAFTA (Best Achievement in Visual Effects), People's Choice, Teen Choice,

Actors: Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightly, Orlando Bloom, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, Bill Nighy, Stellan Starsgaard, Tom Hollander

In the second week of this feature I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the highest grossing film (in the U.S. - clarification that I'm only using U.S. highest grossing, rather than global gross). I loved the first in this series, Curse of the Black Pearl, and was really excited for both the second and third installments. However, rewatching Dead Man's Chest was a little disappointing. It's just not as much fun as the first one. We meet up with our main characters as Knightly's wedding to Bloom is destroyed and they are arrested for trying to help Depp's iconic Jack Sparrow (sorry, Captain Jack Sparrow) escape from prison. In exchange for their freedom they have to track Jack down and retrieve the compass he carries and bring it back to the Dutch East India Company who are trying to rid the seas of pirates. They find Jack, but he's trying to remove a curse put on him by Davey Jones (Nighy). He's trying to find Davey Jones' heart. This involves looking for a key to unlock the chest that holds it, then finding the chest. Meanwhile Davey Jones is trying to kill Jack with the Kraken (a mythical octopus type sea creature that can destroy ships). They chase around for quite a while and ultimately we find out Jack has been sent to hell of a sort by jumping into the mouth of the Kraken to save the other ships. The rest of them mourn his loss with the crazy sorceress lady in the marshes. And in the last seconds Captain Barbossa returns and they all swear to get Jack back At World's End. There's also a subplot where Bloom is trying to free his father, Bootstrap Bill (Skarsgaard) from servitude to Davey Jones. Confusing and distracting for most of it, but building up for the final film. There was just too much set up in this film and not enough humor and careful plot direction. I liked it, and expect it grossed the most in 2006 because the first film was so good, and this continued the characters in a respectable, if not superior, way. Definitely didn't hold up to the high standard the first one did upon rewatching.

The Hulk, meh.

I'm not too far behind in seeing The Incredible Hulk, and the reviews I've read seem far and wide in their opinions of the movie. The LAMB averaged just 3.5 lambs in their various opinions. I'm afraid I concur with the average. It was nothing poorly done, but it felt more like a 30 minute episode of The Hulk stretched into 2+ hours with lots of chase and fight scenes. One of my fellow LAMB bloggers mentioned that the only reason to have the first act set in Rio de Janeiro was to have all the rooftops for Edward Norton to run across through the favelas. (Side note - if you want a great movie about the favelas, rent "Favela Rising"). Anyway, Norton has escaped to Rio to try to find an antidote, with the help of Mr. Blue, to the Hulkification of his cells. He gets chased, becomes the Hulk, fights for a while, and then returns to D.C. to get help from his love, Liv Tyler (who does a really good job, a little like her part in LOTR), they get chased, he becomes the Hulk, they escape to find Mr. Blue. Mr. Blue has a crazy Frankenstein kind of lab in Manhattan, he attempts to fix Norton, the bad guys find them, he becomes the Hulk in order to chase down the anti-Hulk, they fight, the Hulk escapes to fight another day. Considering I can sum up the entire movie in 3 sentences, there was too much fighting and not enough plot for my tastes. Plus, LOTS and LOTS of unbelievable elements. Fletch and company documented them, so I won't list them here. I liked it, but wasn't particularly entertained or infuriated. Meh. 3 LAMBS/stars

Tuesdays Top-Grossing Reviews

I'm always fascinated by which movies did well at the box office, and which ones only barely made it. Also, the stats the papers produce about how this year's box office totals compare to last year or the year before always seem a little fishy. So to combat this, I thought I would look at them a little differently. Each week I'll review the top grossing film of a particular year from the last 20 years. These are based on the year the film was released, and not necessarily the year all the money was made since a lot of movies are released at the end of the calendar year and make most of their money in the following year. It seems appropriate to start with the highest grossing film of all time, which was also the highest grossing film of 1997: Titanic.

Year: 1997

Film: Titanic

Box Office Gross: $600,799,824

Awards: 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Director (1998)

Actors: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Victor Garber, Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton

I saw this movie with my college roommate, and we both cried, and then we went home and she cried for hours like her best friend had died. While time has proven that this movie is too long, overly dramatic, and induces mocking and parody more often than praise 10 years after its release, it was still a movie that moved millions and introduced epic scale movie-making to a new generation. Just in case there are a few of you who don't remember or actually missed this movie, I'll recap, with spoilers! It's the story of Rose Dawson, nee DeWitt Bukater, a 90-year-old woman who sees a program on TV about Bill Paxton scavenging the "Titanic" wreckage. She goes to the scavenging ship and starts to tell the story of how she happens to be wearing an enormous blue diamond in a drawing the night "Titanic" sank. The rest of the film is in flashback, where we see a young society debutant Rose (brilliant Kate Winslet at only 22) boarding the ship with her controlling mother (Frances Fisher) and semi-crazy fiance (Billy Zane). She's calm, collected, perfectly dressed, and later we learn sick to death of it all. When she tries to escape all her perfect life will force her to do by jumping overboard, she meets Jack (DiCaprio) a happy-go-lucky artist who won his trip on "Titanic" in a poker game. They fall in love, Jack shows her what it means to be free (doesn't it mean having nothing left to lose?) and she pulls away from her rich, privileged life, ultimately having Jack sketch her naked with the diamond. However, getting in the way of their plans to run away and be free, "Titanic" hits the iceberg and starts to sink. Catastrophe ensues, Rose's fiance gets Jack locked up for stealing, so Rose has to brave the waters to save him, and then they don't make it on the life boats in time, but somehow survive the sinking. However, when the boats come back to look for survivors floating in the freezing water only Rose is still alive - Jack gave up the ghost to save her. It's a heartbreaking movie that you already know will end poorly given the setting, but it's still a classic. There's a lot of heavy acting, dramatic realizations, excessive effects and staging, but overall it's still a classic and has made more money than any other film by a lot. So to start off the Tuesdays Top-Grossing Reviews, I give you Titanic.