The dust has finally settled from the fallout of the Marvel / Disney feud with Sony over Spider-Man. We’ve had time to reflect on what matters most. Who Won!! Listen in as we put our final stamp on one of the potentially worst decisions in movie history and how it got fixed. Also Doug steps into a hornets nest with his thoughts on the Birds of Prey trailer, remember the old saying ” If you don’t have anything good to say then don’t say anything.” And finally we discuss some familiar characters returning to the Jurassic World franchise. All this plus some reviews and what we’ve been watching. Hope you enjoy the show!

As always we want to hear from you! With your movie reviews, ideas for show topics or just let us know what your watching by calling the voice mail number! 260-573-0015, email us at moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or post your thoughts on Twitter, Facebook or the Ultimate Movie Geeks community

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Hey everybody, we did it again! The Movie Madness Podcast gang got caught up in life. The bad news: we are way behind in letting you know what we think, “sigh.” The great news: you guys get a whole load of terrific mini-reviews to “catch up on” while we get to tell you what we think. Right or wrong, you gotta admit, all of us, Craig, Doug and Jeremy have lots of opinions and we stick to ’em (that is till Doug has to admit defeat). The good news: Craig and Jeremy are right there to give Doug a big hug and comfort him. It’s all warm fuzzies guys! And yes, we are prone to hyperbole (particularly Craig)!

Before we leave you and still on the subject, Craig, our Movie Maniac, was invited to join the guys at one of our favorite podcasts at In Session Film. He had a great time and we think he did us proud! Just click and check out the San Andreas, Top 3 Disaster Movies and WALL-E episode: episode 119.

As always, you can let us know what you think about any of our episodes, the movies we review or give us your Top 5s, 10s or 25s at: moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or call the voice mail # 260-573-0015 or post them to Twitter, Facebook or the Ultimate Movie Geeks community on Google+

And please let Craig know what you think too about episode 119. He was a basket case after.

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Verdict: ✫ ✫ ✫ ✫

In Jurassic Park, people and bratty kids were dropped on an island, learned about genetics bringing extinct species back, and were chased by dinosaurs.

In Jurassic Park 2, people and one bratty kid were dropped on an island, chased dinosaurs, and dinosaurs were dropped in San Diego.

In Jurassic Park 3, people were dropped on an island looking for a bratty kid and were chased by dinosaurs.

Now, in Jurassic World, people and their bratty kids visit an island, spend lots of money on souvenirs, learn about genetics bringing extinct species back and get chased by dinosaurs.

The circle is complete.

Jurassic World is a vacationing theme park that I would have loved to visit. Everything I dreamed Jurassic Park would have been when I saw the first flick, this movie brings it to life! And you’re right there with all the tourists holding dino-shaped balloons and sipping soda from a Jurassic World cup, seeing the bored, young employees mumbling “Enjoy the ride.” with every flip of the switch, and watching Megalodon gobble sharks and saddled triceratops babies carry kids around in the petting/riding zoo. The luxury resort on the hill opens up its balconies to epic vistas of Isla Nublar that you never got to see in the first one. It’s awesome and fun! But behind the scenes, there’s always the corporation watching the bottom line, and focus groups’ figures show that people are getting tired of dinosaurs.

Time to make some new monsters! Enter Dr. Henry Wu (an older, more sophisticated looking BD Wong) the brilliant geneticist who’s been with In-Gen since Jurassic Park. A scientist without empathy or emotion, Dr. Wu loves gene-splicing and he’s so preoccupied with whether or not he could that he doesn’t stop to think if he should. Just like old times! This time around, the boss sent him an email that said, “Give me something bigger, cooler and with more teeth.”

M’okay. How’s Indominous Rex sound to ya? Bigger. Cooler. And much more teeth! Oh, and it’s highly intelligent and bound to give parents nightmares, let alone kids. Looks good on In-Gen’s quarterly statement, right? Unfortunately, no one in In-Gen’s corporate structure listens to the people who work closely with these animals… that they are animals and not just “assets”. So they’re all surprised, yet again, when the “assets” get out and start doing what they do best: hunt… eat… and be wild animals.

The problem is… it’s not any ordinary “asset” this time. It’s the Indomious Rex.

Jurassic World, directed by Colin Trevorrow (who didn’t have much on his resume when he was chosen to helm this ship) is a call back to the original movie that changed Hollywood forever. JP1 was an amazing movie, steered through science and the future of genetics, the danger of thinking we’re in control of Nature, all masterfully crafted by the hands of Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton. Trevorrow forgets the second two movies even happened (thank God), pretty much accepts that Dr’s Malcom, Sattler and Grant never set foot in Jurassic Anything again and drops the movie 20 years after the events of JP1. There is no history of the second two movies ever having existed, however, there is lots of history harkening back to the first movie’s story, including Dr. Wu himself who has been busy in the lab. You’ll have a blast seeing some of the relics found in the “old park” as they call it.

In-Gen knows how to clean up after itself, that’s for sure. The problem is it keeps making messes. In-Gen security chief Vic Hoskins (I’ll always call him Gomer Pyle, Vincent D’Onofrio) struts around and grins like the guy you never want a cubicle next to, and pretty much figures the team of velociraptors that Owen Grady (Chris Pratt in full Indiana Jones mode) raised would be a perfect toy soldier in World War Three’s battlefield simply because they’re trained to do a few tricks. Meanwhile the park’s operations manager, Claire Dearing (an extremely perky but dangerously sharp Bryce Dallas Howard) has in mind that everything is under control with the push of a button or the call on a cell phone. She runs a taut ship and even dresses down an employee for wearing an old “Jurassic Park” shirt. This is a new era, after all, and it’s Jurassic WORLD now. Forget the past, this is the present. Everything’s different. We’re in control and the mistakes of the past are simply that.

Right? Right??

She’s amazing at running a park when everything works. Unfortunately, she’s not so ready for another mess and In-Gen is great at messes! That’s why they’ve got their own military ops division… to clean up messes. But even more unfortunately, this is no ordinary mess. They’ve created a monster… not a dinosaur. A monster with capabilities none of them were ready for because the genetic information it was created with is highly classified, even to the park’s owner. It’s bigger than they thought it’d be. It’s smarter than they thought it’d be. It never had a mommy or anything to cuddle it, and thus it knows nothing of nurturing. And now it’s out of its cage and racing across Isla Nublar killing everything.

This movie is a beautifully done popcorn monster flick with no apologies. All the thrills you got from the first movie are front and center and brought to the table differently. There are jump moments so be prepared! There are also softer parallel stories (the two boys whose parents are divorcing, the history and friction between Claire and Owen) that sort of act as glue to keep everything together. All in all, the movie is well balanced and paces smoothly.

A word on music, Michael Giacchino (Cloverfield, the new Star Treks and now Inside Out) took John Williams’ brilliant original score and kept it solidly original, including the fun flute notes and energetic melodies. It was like Mr. Williams never left the studio and was there smiling the whole time. I enjoyed it very much, not only for the sake of the movie’s pacing, but also for the nostalgia. I highly recommend just leaving JP 2 and 3 off your shelf and seeing 1 and 4 instead!

Okay, guess what, this latest trailer looks like Jurassic World/Furious 8. Don’t worry about it, just check your brain, all your common sense and your grasp of physics at the door and Jurassic World may be a blast! See you there in the third row center on June 12th, 2015.

Hello again everyone! This is the Movie Maniac “shooting from the hip” along with Doug and Jeremy and tons of trailers. Whether it’s The Minions, Avengers: Age of Ultron or Star Wars: The Force Awakens there are some great trailers out there and we are stoked! Join us as we freewheel a pretty good episode about some great movies and maybe even a couple of TV shows. As always we want your input at: moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or call the voice mail # 260-573-0015 or post them to Twitter, Facebook or the Ultimate Movie Geeks community on Google+

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