Jurassic Park: The Lost World (5 Stars)

Steven Spielberg faced an impossible task with "The Lost World" (shortening the title). How do you follow one of the greatest blockbusters ever made? Instead of trying to recreate the magic, he made a darker, nastier and more chaotic film. Sometimes it works brilliantly. Sometimes it reminds you exactly why the original is untouchable.

The biggest difference is the tone. "Jurassic Park" was full of awe and wonder. Every dinosaur reveal felt magical, and even the terrifying moments were balanced by humour and a sense of adventure. "The Lost World" strips most of that away. Isla Sorna is a much harsher place, where humans aren't simply trying to survive but are exploiting the dinosaurs for profit. The film feels less like an adventure and more like a survival thriller.

Jeff Goldblum steps into the lead role as Ian Malcolm, and he carries the film with his trademark sarcasm and nervous energy. Malcolm is a very different hero from Sam Neill's Alan Grant. Grant gradually became brave because he had to. Malcolm spends most of the film desperately trying to convince everyone else that they're making a terrible mistake. Goldblum is entertaining throughout, but Grant remains the more satisfying protagonist.

The dinosaurs are even more convincing than before. Advances in CGI and animatronics make the creatures feel heavier, faster and more dangerous. Spielberg stages several unforgettable set pieces, especially the trailer hanging over the cliff and the attack through the long grass. These scenes rank alongside anything in the first film for pure suspense.

Where "The Lost World" struggles is its characters. Too many exist simply to become dinosaur food, and few leave much of an impression. The first film gave us characters we genuinely cared about, making every close encounter more suspenseful. Here, the spectacle often takes priority over emotional investment.

The final act remains the film's most controversial decision. Bringing a Tyrannosaurus Rex to San Diego turns the film into a giant monster movie, echoing King Kong and classic creature features. It's undeniably entertaining, but it also feels disconnected from everything that came before. Personally, I love its audacity, though I'm aware that others think differently.

Ultimately, "Jurassic Park: The Lost World" is bigger, louder and more action-packed than its predecessor. The dinosaurs are better, the action scenes are more elaborate and the danger feels more relentless. Yet it loses the sense of discovery, believable characters and perfect balance that made "Jurassic Park" a masterpiece.

It's an excellent sequel that dares to be different instead of repeating the original. That's admirable. But while it delivers some of the series' greatest action sequences, it never captures the wonder that made us fall in love with dinosaurs in the first place.

Success Rate:  + 6.5

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Fighting with my Family (5 Stars)

True Stories #35

Name: Saraya Bevis

Lived: 17 August 1992 – still alive

Film dates: 2005 to 2014, mostly 2010 to 2014

Film made in 2019

This is the story of the WWE wrestler known as Paige. The young woman from Norwich had a whirlwind career, leading to winning the WWE women's championship

Saraya started wrestling when she was 13. Her parents and her two elder brothers were all wrestlers in the family owned business, the World Association of Wrestling. In 2011 she and her brother Zak auditioned for the WWE in London. Saraya was accepted, Zak wasn't. This was heart-breaking for both of them. It had been Zak's dream all his life to join the WWE. It hurt Saraya because she loved her brother and didn't want to be separated from him.

The training in Florida is hard. At first Saraya, who's now taken the name Paige, isolates herself from the other female trainees. She's the only woman from a wrestling family. The others are models or cheerleaders.

People who don't understand professional wrestling say that it's fake. It's not fake, it's scripted. The level of athletic prowess needed to perform in the ring is immense. Despite Saraya's former experiences in England she had difficulty getting through the training programme.

The film ends with Paige's debut on Monday Night Raw on 7th April 2014. It's unusual for a true story to be made so soon after the real events. Florence Pugh does an excellent job portraying Paige. She had help and coaching from the real Paige. Several real wrestlers appear in the film, including the Rock (Dwayne Johnson), the Miz and the Big Show.

Success Rate:  + 1.8

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Seberg (3 Stars)

Amazon Friday #26

True Stories #29

Name: Jean Seberg

Lived: 13 November 1938 – 30 August 1979

Film dates: 1968 to 1970

Film made in 2019

Jean Seberg was born in America in 1938. Despite being cast in the main role as Joan of Arc in 1957, she didn't gain much popularity. In 1961 she moved to France, where she became one of the biggest film stars in France. In 1968 she returned to America, which is where the film begins. She was travelling to America to audition for a part in "Paint your wagon", but the most significant thing about the journey was that she met Hakim Jamal on the plane. He was travelling to Los Angeles with Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's widow. He wanted to upgrade their seats to first class, but the stewardess refused to let them sit in first class, whether they paid or not. Hakim caused a scene, shouting "Is my money too black for you?" Jean, who was travelling first class with her manager, offered to swap seats with Hakim and Betty. This was the beginning of a friendship between Jean Seberg and Hakim Jamal.

The press were gathered at the airport to photograph Hakim on his arrival. Jean posed with them, making a Black Power salute. That was a brave thing to do, but also impulsive and foolish. The FBI was already observing Hakim Jamal, and this appearance at the airport made Jean Seberg a person of interest.

A few words about Hakim: despite being one of the main figures in the Black Panthers, he wasn't in full agreement with the other leaders. Bobby Seale advocated violence and the overthrowing of the American government, whereas Hakim wanted to help the black people by peaceful means. He founded schools to educate black children.

Jean donated generously to Hakim's schools, beginning with $5000 on her first visit. Bobby Seale was less enthusiastic about her. He didn't trust white people. He said that Hakim should take as much money from her as he could and then get rid of her. Having a white women in the middle of the Black Panthers was bad for the cause.

Jean and Hakim slept together. Just once. It didn't mean much to Jean. We see later in the film that she was promiscuous and slept with many men. The FBI was recording the encounter, and the recording was anonymously sent to Hakim's wife to drive Jean away from the movement. It almost worked, but Jean continued to donate money to the Black Panthers. The FBI stepped up its activities. Everywhere she went in America she was under surveillance. Her phone and her hotel rooms were bugged. The things she said in private were leaked to gossip columns, so she was in no doubt that someone was spying on her. On one occasion the FBI broke into her hotel room and killed her dog. Jean became paranoid, suspecting everyone around her of being a spy.

The final straw in Jean Seberg's collapse was when she became pregnant in 1970. The father was, in her own words, "a boy I met in Mexico", but the FBI sent an anonymous letter to a gossip column claiming that Hakim Jamal was the father. She attempted suicide. She survived, but as a result of the overdose her baby was born prematurely and died two days later.

Jean returned to France after the death of her child, which is where the film ends. The what-happened-next text lets us know that she was still under observation by the American government. The CIA still tailed her in France. She was a nervous wreck. After years of suicide attempts, she finally died in 1979. The cause of death wasn't conclusive and was declared a probable suicide. She died as the result of a drug overdose, but there were reports of unidentified men around her as she lay dying. If they'd been CIA agents, as her husband claimed, their lack of assistance would have made them accessories to murder under French law.

The story of Jean Seberg, which was new to me before watching the film, fascinates me, but the film itself isn't perfect. Too much of the story is dramatised. What I mean is, what we see happening to Jean is historically correct, but we also see a lot of activity in the FBI, with agents arguing among one another about the right course of action. The FBI's surveillance of Jean Seberg became public knowledge when the FBI files were leaked to the press after her death, but the internal quarrels of individual FBI agents can't possibly be known. What's the point of showing them? I can only see one motive for adding these fictional elements to the film. The FBI was acting badly. That's obvious. The director and screenwriter wanted to show that not everyone in the FBI is bad. Okay, I get it. I agree. Even an organisation as evil as the FBI had good, conscientious agents, but there's no need to invent good FBI agents just to make it a better story.

You've probably already noticed that this post combines my Amazon Friday and True Stories features. When I started my True Stories marathon, I only intended to include films that I own on disc. I only became aware of the film about Jean Seberg a few days ago, and I felt compelled to watch it. A problem is that it means I'll have more than 40 films to write about. I've decided to make a few changes. After my 30th true film (the next one) I'll slow down. Instead of making every film I watch a true story, I'll reduce it to two or three films a week. There are so many other films that I'm anxious to watch at the moment. That means I shan't finish my 40 true films this month. Apart from that, I'm increasing it to 50 films. I probably shan't be finished until April. I hope my readers are patient. I hope my readers are even interested in my true stories. Some of them are my most popular posts at the moment, but I haven't received any feedback on my true films in general. Do you like them? Please let me know.

Success Rate:  - 11.8

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Into the Wild (4½ Stars)

True Stories #23

Name: Chris McCandless

Lived: 12 February 1968 – 18 August 1992

Film dates: 1990 to 1992 (death)

Film made in 2007

Was Chris McCandless a genius or a madman? Most people would say the latter. I'm sure his family and friends thought he was mad. I'm in a small minority of those who respect what Chris did in the last two years of his life, even though I would never have attempted to imitate him.

In 1990 Chris graduated from Emory with a BSc in History and Anthropology. He told his parents we was planning to study Law at Harvard next. It's unclear whether he really intended to do this or was just telling a lie to keep his parents happy. He never went to Harvard. He didn't even return home with his parents. He remained on campus to finish his affairs, and then he drove due west, the opposite direction of his home. He abandoned his car at the side of Lake Mead in Arizona, removing the license plates to make the car harder to trace. He burnt his drivers license and his social security card, and he changed his name to Alexander Supertramp.

As far as possible, Alex (to use his new name) tried to live without money, but sometimes he needed to buy things, such as a kayak, so he took temporary jobs, such as a farm worker. His dream was to travel to Alaska and live in the wild, with nobody around him, but he made a very roundabout trip. He zigzagged across the USA, sleeping on freight trains, and finally rowed illegally into Mexico.

Several people have attempted to draw maps of his travels, and they don't all agree with one another. This is the map that I consider to be the most accurate, based on the film. I hope it's not too confusing.

Wherever Alex went he made friends. They were good friends who genuinely liked him, but he didn't treat them well. He didn't like to say goodbye, so he slipped away in the middle of the night.

Wayne was Alex's boss on the farm.

Mads was a Danish hippy camping on the banks of the Colorado.

Rainey was a hippy who travelled around the USA in the comfort of a mobile home. Alex could have learnt from him.

Tracy was the girl who could have been Alex's big love. Alex resisted her advances because she was only 16.

Leonard Knight was a man who lives in the desert preaching God's word to the hippy community at Slab City. In the film he plays himself.

This is Salvation Mountain, built and decorated by Leonard in his earlier years.

Of all the friends that Alex made, the closest was Ron Franz, an elderly leather worker. Ron loved Alex like a son and put him up for weeks, but Alex still attempted to leave his house in the middle of the night. Luckily Ron was a light sleeper. He insisted on driving Alex the next 100 miles of his journey to Alaska. Alex promised to visit Ron when he returned. But he never came back.

On arriving in Alaska Alex moved into an abandoned bus, which he called the magic bus. He lived from hunting wild animals. It was paradise for him. After nine weeks he intended to return to civilisation, but his path was blocked by a river which had grown wider because of the melting snow. Due to the lack of wild animals (and possibly the fact that he'd run out of bullets) he had to resort to eating berries. He poisoned himself and died after 113 days in Alaska.

Is "Into the Wild" an inspiration to coming generations to follow Chris McCandless into isolation, or a warning to stay at home in comfort? I don't think it will convince anyone to change his mind. The film will only reinforce the views someone already has. The only lesson that I would draw from it is to be more careful. If you really must do something as crazy as abandoning civilisation, make sure you have a Plan B in case things don't work out. You need a safety net.

Success Rate:  + 0.8

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Jurassic Park: The Lost World (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #11

The correct name of this film is "The Lost World: Jurassic Park", but I've turned it around. I think my alternative title makes more sense. If you object to this, you can leave me a comment complaining about it, but only if your name is Steven Spielberg.

I shan't go into too many details about the plot, because I'm sure all my readers have seen it. It's one of the films most commonly shown on television. It was made in 1997, four years after the first film, and the story itself takes place four years later. Dr. Hammond is still nominally the head of InGen, the company that genetically recreated the dinosaurs, but his health is failing, so the board of directors has given his nephew the power to run the company.

"Lost World" (as I prefer to call it) has more action than the first film. There's no need for further exegesis about where the dinosaurs come from. The first film explained everything. Apart from John Hammond, who we only see briefly at the beginning and end of the film, the only character who returns from the first film is Dr. Ian Malcolm. Hammond sends him on a mission to Isla Sorna, the breeding ground for the Jurassic Park dinosaurs. He's accompanied by the palaeontologist Dr. Sarah Harding, the cameraman Nick van Owen and the engineer Eddie Carr. The first two are presented in great details in the character development section, but we don't get to know Eddie Carr. This is a hint that he'll be killed soon.

That's Eddie in the middle. Rest In Pieces.

Sarah Harding. I can't help feeling that she's a last minute replacement for Laura Dern as the palaeobotanist Ellie Sattler in the first film. They have similar personalities, even though their careers are different.

This is Dr. Malcolm's daughter Kelly, who stows away on the mission. There's not much of a family resemblance, as Eddie remarks when he sees them together. Steven Spielberg needs to plant children in his action films, just as Stephen King puts children in his horror stories.

Camilla Belle was only 10 years old when she appeared in a small role in "Lost World". Since then she's appeared in more than 20 films, and she's also directed a few films. She likes cute little dinosaurs. It's not named in the film, but it's a Compsognathus. Does that knowledge make you any smarter?

The film's cinematography is darker than the first film's, underlining the darker subject matter. More scenes take place at night, but even in the daytime the colours are darker.

Unfortunately, this was the last film in the Jurassic Park franchise directed by Steven Spielberg. None of the following films live up to the quality of the first two films. On the other hand, there's a steady increase in the quality of the computer graphics as technology improved. "Jurassic Park 3" has the best graphics, even though the overall film quality is inferior.

As for a comparison of the first two films, I'm not sure I placed them in the right order. Maybe "Jurassic Park" is better? I don't know. I like the structure of "Lost World", with an epilogue that takes place in San Diego after the main part that takes place on the island of Isla Sonar. It reminds me of "King Kong".

Success Rate:  + 6.5

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Into the Wild (4½ Stars)

I have an ever growing list of films that I intend to rewatch, but that didn't stop me from grabbing this film from my shelf today. I had a good reason. Three days ago there was an article in the BBC about the so-called "Magic Bus" shown in the film. It was abandoned in an open field in Alaska some time between 1960 and 1970. In 1992 the hermit backpacker Chris McCandless took shelter in the bus and lived in it until he died, 113 days later. In 2007 the film "Into the Wild" was made, using a very realistic imitation of the bus. (It would have been too expensive to film at the location of the real bus). This made it popular as a tourist attraction. Since the bus can only be accessed by wading through a river, it's a dangerous place to visit. There have been multiple deaths in the last ten years. Now the US army has removed the bus. The message is simple: Stay away!

What motivated Christopher McCandless aka Alexander Supertramp to drop out of society? Based on the evidence of the film, it was because he was disgusted with the evils of humanity. Why are people bad to one another, day in day out? It doesn't make sense. If you're bad to them, they'll be bad back to you. It's one long domino chain of evil.

I like to think that the chain stops with me. I have many faults, especially my pride, but I don't repay evil with evil. Recently a person I've always considered a good friend unleashed a tirade of hatred against me on Facebook, accusing me of hate speech, though unable to prove it. He unfriended me with the sole purpose of being able to continue lying about me without giving me a chance to reply. Do I yell back at him? No. I repay evil with good, in an attempt to reach his heart.

Chris was on the road for two years, but it was the final 113 days that killed him. Maybe he could have remained in the Not-So-Wild. You can find more love among hippies than in the city, but it's still not a perfect life. Even hippies have relationship problems.

Chris could have found romance with the hippie girl Tracy. He turned her down because she was too young, only 16. He should have realised that age is only a construct invented by the outside world, not something for hippies to worry about. It wasn't until the end of his life that he wrote the words:

"Happiness is only real when shared".

Does that mean that he realised that he'd never really been happy? That would be a sad conclusion to make at the end of his wonderful life. At the end of his life he was suffering, but that wasn't because he was lonely; it was because he was struggling to survive. If he'd been able to live alone in comfort, maybe that would have made him happy.

Success Rate:  + 0.8

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Fighting with my Family (5 Stars)

This film tells the true story about how the wrestler Paige progressed from a small wrestling company in England to becoming the women's champion of the WWE, the world's largest wrestling company. The film ends with her winning the championship on 7th April 2014. It's unusual for a biopic to be made so soon after the events on which it's based. (The film was released in 2019, but it was filmed in early 2017). Maybe it would have been better to delay the film a few years so it could have included later occurrences in her career. On 27th December 2017 Paige was injured in a match, leading to her permanent retirement from wrestling. She's still employed by the WWE, frequently appearing in television broadcasts, but carrying out other roles, such as managing tag teams.

I've seen Paige as a wrestler, and I can verify that the actress Florence Pugh is very similar to her. She's a few inches shorter, but apart from that she's made up to look like her and successfully imitates her mannerisms. They could be sisters. Florence Pugh also appeared in "Midsommar", which I watched earlier this week. I'm starting to notice her as an actress. She seems to have great talent. I'll give a final decision after seeing her in this year's "Black Widow" film.

Success Rate:  + 1.6

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Dragged Across Concrete (2 Stars)

This is the ninth film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

This is a film that I was looking for after seeing "Brawl in Cell Block 99" by the same director, S. Craig Zahler, last year. When the festival hosts introduced the film they said it's not a film for everyone because it's very long (almost three hours) and very slow moving. I was disappointed with the film, but for me the problems lay neither in the film's length nor its pacing.

For the first 90 minutes the film tells two unrelated stories in parallel. It's only in the second half of the film that the two stories merge.

The first story is about two policemen in the American city of Bulwark. I assume the city is fictional. They're tough cops who believe in getting their job done. This might involve being excessively rough with suspects. After Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) is filmed standing on the head of a drug dealer he and his partner Tony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn) are suspended without pay. This causes problems for both of them. Brett's wife is suffering from multiple sclerosis, and he can hardly afford the medical bills. Tony is planning to propose to his girlfriend. They decide to do a job on the side. Brett is given the name of a drug dealer in another town, and he plans to rob him. This will support the two of them while they have no income.

The second story is about Henry, a criminal who's just been released from jail. He's not really a bad man, but for him crime is the only way he can support his mother and his physically handicapped brother. He gets a job as the driver for a very violent criminal gang.

Then the two stories converge. The person that Brett and Tony intend to rob is more than just a drug dealer, he's the mastermind behind a big robbery in which Henry is involved.

Now here are my problems. The two stories in the first half are uneven. We get to know the two policemen and sympathise with their plight. They're both good cops, they've never taken a bribe, but they're forced into a criminal act by doing their job. The story about the criminal isn't told in as much detail. We hardly get to know Henry because we're introduced to his associates too soon.

Then there are ridiculous things. 90 minutes into the story a new character is introduced. We're given details of her private life, and I felt emotionally drawn to her. I thought it was too late to introduce an important character, but I liked her so much that I accepted it. Then bang! Five minutes later she was dead. What was the point? This is poor screenwriting. The film would have been improved by removing her scenes altogether. She was totally unnecessary.

Other things in the second half of the film are illogical. I shan't give away spoilers. All I'll say is that the film's resolution in itself is good, but what leads up to it isn't satisfying. My overall impression is that the film is a mess.

Fighting with my Family (5 Stars)

There's a sentence I've used a few times in my blog, and I'm not ashamed to keep repeating it: "I knew this film would be good, but it's better than I expected". That's definitely true of "Fighting with my Family".

The story tells the true story of the British wrestler Paige, real name Saraya Bevis. It deals with how she became one of the biggest female wrestlers in the company World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). I wanted to see the film because I used to be a big fan of the WWE, or rather the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), as it was called until 2002. I first saw the WWF on television while I was on holiday in Scotland in 1990, but I didn't become a regular viewer until 1997. For me the WWF's greatest years were 1997 to 2002, referred to as the Attitude Era. In those days it was all about flamboyant wrestling, with most wrestlers being anti-heroes. After 2002 it was all about faces and heels, i.e. good guys and bad guys, which I found boring. The audience was programmed by scripted speeches to like one wrestler and hate another. I found this trite, and I stopped watching the WWE a few years later.

During my years as a WWF/WWE fan I watched all the Pay Per View events. I taped them and built up a large collection, which I eventually threw in the trash after unsuccessfully trying to give them away. I'm sure my tape of Over The Edge 1999 would have been valuable to wrestling fans, because it's the only PPV event which has never been released on VCR or DVD. PPV events were broadcast live on Sunday and repeated on Monday, but Over The Edge 1999 wasn't repeated because of Owen Hart's death during the broadcast. His accident happened off camera, but there was a long break while the commentator Jim Ross talked to the audience at home about what had happened. My tape is gone now. Tough luck.

The film itself is about the struggles of a young woman who was an underdog and outsider. She was fortunate enough to be born into a wrestling family. Her father Rick was the founder of the World Association of Wrestling (WAW). Despite its glamorous name, it was a small independent company in Norwich with very few employees apart from his family. Rick's children Zak and Saraya dreamt of joining the WWE, the world's biggest wrestling company. Zak was refused, whereas Saraya was accepted and became Paige. The rest of the film deals with Zak's reaction to being rejected and Paige's difficulties fitting in with the WWE wrestling community.

Most of the actors in the film aren't wrestlers, with the exception of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Nick Frost is absolutely brilliant as Rick Knight. He looks and talks like a wrestler. The WWE trainer Hutch Morgan is played by Vince Vaughan, who has the size and muscular build to be a wrestler. It's excellent acting throughout. I've always liked true stories, and this has immediately become a film I want to add to my Blu-ray collection.

P.S. I wrote this review on March 21st, but I've backdated the post to the day I watched it in the cinema.

Brawl in Cell Block 99 (4½ Stars)

I don't know why Vince Vaughn wastes his time with comedy roles. This is the sort of film that he was born to make. He's quiet, aloof and brooding, and yet his warm heart shows through the cracks in his armour when we least expect it.

The title is misleading. The brawl itself doesn't take place until 90 minutes into the film, and it only lasts ten minutes. That's not a problem. The film is breath-takingly intense from the first minutes.

I don't want to say much about the film's plot. To find out more click here to read my first review. All I'll add today is that I really despised the staff at Redleaf Prison, which contains Cell Block 99. The warden himself is the worst, but they're all despicable characters. It's as if the daily work with hardened criminals has made the evil rub off on them.

"Brawl in Cell Block 99" is harsh and brutal, but Vince Vaughn is so convincing that we can't help taking his side and hoping for him to win against the overwhelming odds.

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Brawl in Cell Block 99 (4½ Stars)

This is the ninth film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

This has been called the greatest performance of Vince Vaughn's career. I can see why. Throughout the film he treads a fine line between being a good guy and a bad guy, but he's always credible.

Vince Vaughn plays Bradley Thomas, a recovering alcoholic who works as a car mechanic. When he's fired there's only one job he can find that pays well enough to support himself and his wife: he delivers drugs for a friend of his. Bradley isn't a dealer, he just carries large sacks of drugs and collects the money.

When a deal goes bad due to the stupidity of his accomplices, Bradley turns against them. He shoots them to stop them killing the police. He's arrested and promised he can be let free if he cooperates by naming names, but he refuses to betray his friend. He's sentenced to seven years in prison.

Shortly after arriving in prison, where he intends to be a model prisoner to be paroled early, he's told that his former drug boss has kidnapped his pregnant wife. She will be killed unless Bradley agrees to assassinate another prisoner.

There are more complications in the plot, but I'll leave it there. This is an ultra-violent psychological thriller. Bradley looks like a monster -- Vince Vaughn is 6'5" and muscular -- but he's really as soft as a baby. All he wants to do is enjoy a happy life with his wife and daughter. However, he's forced to be a violent killer to do this.

The critics love the film. The general public doesn't. This is a rare case where I take the side of the critics. It was released in cinemas in America and England last year, but it did so badly that it won't be released in other countries. Is the film too violent for the public? Or is Vince Vaughn's brooding character too oblique? Whatever the reason is, I recommend "Brawl in Cell Block 99" to all my readers.

Into the Wild (4½ Stars)

"Some people feel they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into an empty space, trying to close the gap to the past".

Wow! That quote from the film is full of meaning. The film's main character, Chris McCandless, speaks the words to someone else, his friend and ersatz father Ron Frenz, but he's unknowingly speaking about himself. Maybe his parents were too involved with their personal problems to show him their love, but his sister definitely loved him. He left his home to get away from society and all its ugliness, but he was really running away from the people who loved him.

I don't want to describe the plot again. I said a little about it in my last review when I watched it in 2015. I didn't write very much then, but I didn't need to. The film is based on a true story. I've always loved films that are about real events, things that really happened. It's not just because I can relate to true events, it's because the films have a different pattern. In a fictional film everything is put together logically. A leads to B, B leads to C, C leads to D, etc. Films are often criticised if they leave loose ends. Films about true life aren't like that. Things happen at random. Things happen that don't reach a resolution. An existentialist would say that life is absurd. Even though I can't relate to existentialism in general, I have to agree with this statement. Life really is absurd.

That doesn't mean that life can't be steered. The decisions that a person makes have consequences. If Chris McCandless had decided to go to law school he would now be living in a big house somewhere surrounded by his children and maybe even his grandchildren. By walking away quietly into an empty space he had a much more exciting life, but also a shorter life.

I have sympathy with Chris McCandless. More than that, I have the greatest respect for him and what he did, even though it was something I personally could never have done. He walked out of the world in order to find himself. I've spent the last few years searching for myself. At times, particularly in the years 2000 to 2006, I didn't make any advances in self-knowledge because there were too many disturbances around me. Too much noise, both literally and figuratively. From 2006 onwards my thoughts turned in on myself. I discovered myself. I wouldn't say I've reached the end of my path. I still struggle with questions of morality, because I don't know whether Good and Evil are absolute or relative values. I'd like to think of them as absolute, but if they really are absolute my brain is too limited to encompass them, so it's easier to think of them as relative.

One conclusion that I've reached relatively recently, in the last 12 months, is that I have to look at the world relatively to myself. I am the measure of all things. I've come to accept that I'm a good person. I'm not perfect, I make mistakes, even in moral issues, but I trust myself to want to do good. For that reason, I can judge people based on their relationship to me. Anyone who thinks badly of me is a bad person. Anyone who thinks well of me is a good person. One step up, anyone who talks badly about me, putting his bad thoughts into words, is a very bad person. At the extreme end of the scale, anyone who does bad things to me is utterly evil.

I'm not saying people should like me. Tastes are different. I find some people boring, so why shouldn't they find me boring as well? However, I'm a strongly moral person, so anyone who thinks that I'm bad is a bad person. It's as simple as that. This isn't narcissism. A narcissist wants everyone to think good about him. I don't. I accept that many people in this world will think badly about me, and there's nothing I can do to change it because they're on a morally lower level than I am. Maybe they'll change, maybe they won't, but it's not up to me to educate them.

That's something I see now, since returning to Germany. My ex-wife thinks that I did bad things in the past. I know I didn't, but I won't argue with her. I'll let her carry on thinking whatever she wants to about me. Maybe one day she'll reach a point of enlightenment when she's able to understand. I have no need to be appreciated by others. I'm beyond that.

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Zoolander (4 Stars)

"I'm pretty sure there's more to life than being really, really good looking".

The fashion industry is so shallow that it's difficult not to make fun of it. Sacha Baron Cohen did it in "Bruno" (2009). But before then Ben Stiller did it just as effectively in "Zoolander" (2001).

Ben Stiller stars as Derek Zoolander, a man who has been named the Male Model of the Year four years in a row. When he fails to win the award the next year, the prize going to his rival Hansel (Owen Wilson), his world falls apart. He's vulnerable to attacks from people who want to exploit him. The fashion company executive Jacob Moogberg (Will Ferrell), better known as Mugatu, hires him to assassinate the Prime Minister of Malaysia, who wants to abolish child labour in his country. Without child labour Mugatu's clothes can't be manufactured as cheaply and his profits will fall.

The film features cameos from a multitude of celebrities appearing as themselves. One of them is David Bowie. Rest in peace.

Another is Donald Trump, who is now campaigning to become the American president. He has gained a lot of support by populist rhetoric, aided by the current fear of terrorism by Islamic extremists. He over-generalises when he judges people, as all populists do. He also polarises opinions sharply. People love him or they hate him, there's no middle ground. Recently one of my oldest friends unfriended me on Facebook because I called Donald Trump stupid. Maybe I was wrong to use that word, I'm sure he's a highly educated man, but he has many viewpoints which I consider to be stupid. For instance, he says that in order to protect America from terror attacks no Moslems should be allowed to enter the country. Judging everyone who carries the label "Moslem" is an act of bigotry. Not all Moslems are terrorists, and more importantly, not all Moslems are Moslems. What I mean by that is that Islam is part of the racial identity of many people, for instance Pakistanis. I have many Pakistani friends who don't read the Koran or visit a mosque. They have no interest in religion at all, but they carry on calling themselves Moslems because it's what they think is expected of them. This is in contrast to British people in England who have no problem in saying they aren't Christians. Donald Trump doesn't understand this.

I first watched "Zoolander" with my friend Tamara, and I'll always associate the film with her. We were lying entwined on her sofa watching the film, but like a good film fan I didn't let myself get too distracted. We've known each other for nine years. I've always liked her, but she's temperamental and frequently turns against me, later forgetting what she was angry about. I'd do anything for her if she needed me. We still talk occasionally, but we're not as close as we used to be. I don't know if she reads my blog. In case she does, she should leave a comment on this post to tell me what she thinks of me.

Jurassic Park: The Lost World (5 Stars)

This was the first film I saw in the cinema after moving to America. I had never watched "Jurassic Park" before this, but I caught up by borrowing it on video from Blockbuster before I went to see the sequel. From what I remember I read about "Jurassic Park" in the newspapers while I lived in Germany, but I didn't go to see it because I thought dinosaur films are boring. I could hardly have been more wrong. "Jurassic Park" is now in my list of 30 films to watch before you die. See the list in the sidebar, and watch them all. Even watch the films again if you've already seen some of them. You won't regret it. If you watch one film a day it'll be a month to remember.

Burger King seems to have been the primary corporate sponsor for "The Lost World" in America. All of the Burger King television ads in early 1997 featured dinosaurs. I ate at Burger King often while I was in America. The price of the food was approximately the same at McDonald's and Burger King, but I preferred the taste of the hamburgers from Burger King. What I liked most at McDonald's was the milk shake and the soft ice cream. What was particularly good was that a local supermarket had vouchers for a free Big King burger on the back of their receipts. I was very short of money when I first arrived in America, so I used to walk around the car park to see if anyone had left his receipt in his shopping trolley. There were always a few, so I could go to the nearest Burger King with a handful of vouchers and eat for free.

After returning to England I didn't visit Burger King as often. Unlike America, there's a big price difference between Burger King and McDonald's. Similar food at Burger King costs two to three times as much as the equivalent at McDonald's. But the Burger King food does taste better, so I occasionally go in for a meal. It's just a shame that there aren't any vouchers for free hamburgers.

Into the Wild (4½ Stars)

I think careers are a 20th Century invention, and I don't want one.

The biggest problem with having a large, meticulously sorted DVD collection is what happens when you make a mistake. This happened to me today. Last week I moved house. I set up my bookcases and spent a few hours putting my DVD's back in their shelves in alphabetical order. Yesterday I decided to watch "Into the Wild", but I couldn't find it. My first idea was that I hadn't unpacked it, so I checked the contents of my not yet unpacked moving boxes. Then I thought that I might have accidentally stored it with the approximately 100 DVD's that I intend to sell. No, not there either. So I stood in front of my bookcases, going through every DVD one by one. And there it was. It had somehow been misplaced, it was between R and S, slotted in between "The Rutles" and "Samhain". That little mistake cost me more than an hour of searching.

So I watched the film again, better late than never. I bought it on June 24th, 2010, and I remember watching it twice in quick succession, the first time by myself, the second time with my daughter, Fiona. That sticks in my mind because after watching it she said it was the best film she had ever seen. I wouldn't rate it so highly myself, but I admit that it's a very good film.

The film tells the true story of Christopher McCandless from his university graduation in May 1990 to his death in August 1992. After graduating he became disillusioned with modern society and decided to drop out. He gave his life savings to charity and left his family in the middle of the night, not telling them where he was going. He adopted the new name Alexander Supertramp, maybe to stop people finding him, maybe just because it was a cool sounding name. At first he had no plans about where he wanted to go, and he did farming work to support himself on his wanderings, but he eventually formed the goal of going to Alaska. Alex (to use his new name) spent two years travelling from West Virginia to Alaska via Mexico.

I don't know what is more beautiful in the film: the scenery or the people. Living on the road Alex met with the most amazingly eccentric people wherever he went. It's only when he reached Alaska that he was completely alone, living in the wreck of an abandoned bus.

I support Christopher/Alexander completely in his life outside society. He says, "I don't understand why people, why every fucking person is so bad to each other so fucking often. It doesn't make sense to me". I could have told him why, but he wouldn't have liked the answer. It's the love of money that does it. If I want to have more money and more of the things that money can buy I have to be cruel to others to achieve my ends. Maybe some rich person might say that he's never done anything bad to get his money, but he isn't thinking it through. Wealth is a finite resource. If one person has more, others have less. The only way to finance a top footballer's salary of millions is to pay other people in other jobs less than they deserve. The top footballer – replace the word with any other career – hoards wealth at the expense of others.

While I respect Alex's journey into the wild, it's not something I could do. To start with, I am very sensitive to cold, so even a few days of living in the snowy wastes of Alaska would kill me. And then I enjoy the comforts of the modern technological age too much to abandon society altogether. I like to listen to music and watch films, so I need my CDs and DVDs. I'm not ashamed to say that. I accept the way I am. All I can say, with some pride, is that my pleasures are cheap. My entire CD and DVD collection is worth less than a Porsche, and it will last longer.

Unfinished Business (3 Stars)

This film has left me with mixed feelings. Some parts of it I loved, some parts I hated, some parts left me indifferent.

Dan Trunkman (Vince Vaughn) is stuck between a rock and a hard place. His wife is pressuring him to send their teenage son to an expensive private school to protect him from bullying. But at work he's told that he will be given a 5% pay cut. He walks out, saying he'll found his own company. He calls on his colleagues to walk out with him, but the only ones who follow him are Tim (Tom Wilkinson), who has just been fired because he was too old, and Mike (Dave Franco), who was just turned down at a job interview. A year later they're still a three-man company selling swarf. Do you know what swarf is? It's so rare that my spell checker doesn't recognise the word. It's metal shavings, the waste product after cutting metal.

To close a big deal the three men have to fly to Berlin. What a city! It's the best place on Earth to party. It's taken a long time, but Berlin has finally regained its pre-war decadence. It's home to every conceivable vice and lust.

For me the film started slowly. Way too slowly. The introductory scene in which Dan leaves his job was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't. I was glad when it was over. The scenes with Dan's family relationships might have been funny if they weren't so tragic. Fat boys get bullied at school. It's an unfortunate fact of life. A lot of the humour was centred around Tim being a horny old man and Mike being a simple-minded idiot. It was funny at first, but the more the jokes continued the less sympathy I had with them. The only parts of the film that I really loved were the Berlin scenes. Beautiful! It's the Berlin that I know and love. And of course, the scenes with Dan's business partner Bill (Nick Frost) are good, because Nick Frost is amazing in whatever he does. It's just a shame we didn't see more of him.

According to the initial figures, "Unfinished Business" is heading towards being a box office flop, not even earning back it's budget. That doesn't surprise me. The fault is probably in the script. It could have been a lot better if it had been streamlined, eliminating minor details and concentrating on the parts that were genuinely funny.

P.S. Even though I speak fluent German, the expression "Flügel schlagen" makes no sense to me. Literally it translates as "flap your wings", but why would a GPS say something like that?

Jurassic Park: The Lost World (5 Stars)

In the second Jurassic Park film Richard Attenborough plays a smaller role. John Hammond, the man who founded the park, is now old and spends most of his time in bed. His nephew has now taken over the running of his company, Ingen. We only see Richard Attenborough at the beginning of the film, in his bedroom, and in the final scene in a television interview. Nevertheless, in these two short scenes he puts on a magnificent performance.