It was 20 years ago that Jurassic Park was released and because it was directed by Steven Spielberg, the anticipation was great and the movie industry knew it was going to be something special.
But its success surprised almost everybody and it changed forever what it would be like going to the movies.
The most significant change was the use of computer generated special effects instead of stop-motion animation for the dinosaurs.
With the success of Jurassic Park, it suddenly became possible to make movies that were previously thought to be impossible to make. It influenced George Lucas to start making his Star Wars prequels and it allowed filmmakers like James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar) and Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings, King Kong) to actually recreate on-screen what their incredible imaginations could create.
Now Jurassic Park gets the 3D treatment, with Spielberg using the same conversion process that Cameron used for the re-release of Titanic.
It is showing at the Grand 10 in Kelowna and at the Landmark 8 in West Kelowna in the Xtreme auditorium.
From a re-release to a remake of another influential movie: 30 years ago director Sam Raimi (Spiderman, Oz: The Great and Powerful) and his friends Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell made the low-budget horror flick The Evil Dead for $150,000. It spawned two sequels (Evil Dead II & Army of Darkness) and changed the way horror movies were made.
What Raimi and company did was create a movie that was probably one of the scariest and most gruesome of its time but also seemed to celebrate the inevitable campiness of a low-budget movie.
The result was a lot of humour in between the scares and eventually its sequels became more funny than scary.
Since then, the Evil Dead series has been spun off into comic books, video games and even a musical.
The remake of The Evil Dead is being released this weekend with Raimi, Tapert and Campbell serving as producers.
If you do not know the story, five friends become holed up in a remote cabin when they discover the Necronomicon (The Book of the Dead) and unwittingly awaken a dormant demonic presence living in the nearby woods.
Soon after, the demons possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival.
While I do think it is going to out-gross the original (both at the box office and audiences that watch it), I do not think it will have the same influence. However, a sequel to it is already in the works and for the fans of the original, Raimi has announced that there will also be a direct sequel to Army of Darkness.
Opening at the Paramount Theatre, is the Chilean film No, set in 1988 when there was a national plebiscite in Chile on whether or not dictator Augusto Pinochet should stay in power.
The story revolves around Rene Saavedra, who was part of a team hired to create promotional material encouraging people to vote “No” to the dictatorship.r
