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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Wednesday
- July 4, 2001
- Cats & Dogs Opens to
Mixed Reviews
- World Premiere
of Jurassic Park 3 Set for July 16
- Happy Fourth of July - Interesting
Facts
- News Link of the Day
- The Phantom Reedit - Not Kevin Smith
Cats &
Dogs Opens to Mixed Reviews
(by digitalmediafx.com) Cats & Dogs opened in over
3,000 theaters today to highly mixed reviews. The Warner Bros.
FX-filled feature that pits cats against dogs is expected to have
a huge opening, mostly from family audiences. The film will have
a far reach due to the vast number of people who own either a
cat or dog.
Here are quotes
from select reviewers about Cats & Dogs:
Mark Caro
of the Chicago Tribune - "...Making cats look ugly on film
takes some effort, and these are the most hideous felines I've
ever seen...In Babe, I never doubted that the animals were talking.
Here, six years of presumed technological advances later, I kept
being reminded of annoying pet-food commercials. Swarms of computer-generated
mice further undercut the feeling of watching flesh-and-blood
creatures..."
Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun Times - "The dogs and cats talk a lot,
with perfect lip-synch, and they do things we somehow doubt any
animals, however well-trained, could really do. So advanced are
the special effects techniques that the filmmakers even combine
animated faces with real animal bodies, with such uncanny skill
that after awhile you give up trying to find the seams..."
Mike Clark
of USA Today - "It's really a migraine-inducing, furniture-upending
jumble. The worst Disney comedies of the '60s primed us to accept,
perhaps unwillingly, the sight of pets destroying houses —
without being pound-bound by nightfall. But do Goldblum and Perkins
have to smile so goofily after the destruction to their house?..."
A.O. Scott
of the New York Times - "Yes, the script, by John Requa and
Glenn Ficarra, does suffer from some hectic overplotting, and
the elaborate climax fails to make much sense. But despite some
slapdash sentimental subplots...there is enough dopey, exuberant
fun to delight children without driving their parents completely
crazy."
Kenneth Turan
of the Los Angeles Times - "So much work went into "Cats
& Dogs," and there's so little to show for it. A very
resistible movie made from what sounds like an irresistible premise,
it proves one more time that it's easier to make animals talk
than give them anything interesting to say..."
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World Premiere
of Jurassic Park 3 Set for July 16
 (by
digitalmediafx.com) The world premiere for Jurassic Park 3 will
be held Monday, July 16, at the Universal Amphitheatre, right
next door to Universal Studios. Directed by Joe Johnston and produced
by Kathleen Kennedy and Larry Franco, the film stars Sam Neill,
William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan and
Michael Jeter. Steven Spielberg is the executive producer.
The screenplay
for "Jurassic Park III" was written by Peter Buchman
and Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, based on characters created
by Michael Crichton. Industrial Light & Magic and the Stan
Winston Studio once again combine forces to create the dinosaur
effects.
Synopsis (contains
minor spoilers):
Anxious to fund research for his new theory of Velociraptor intelligence,
renowned paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is persuaded
by a wealthy adventurer (William H. Macy) and his wife (Tea Leoni)
to accompany them on an aerial tour of Isla Sorna. This infamous
island, once InGen's site B, has become both a primordial breeding
ground for John Hammond's magnificent creations and a magnet for
thrill-seekers eager to encounter them. When a tragic accident
maroons the party of seven, Grant discovers the true reason his
deceptive hosts have invited him along. In their perilous attempt
to escape with their lives, the dwindling group encounters terrifying
new creatures undisclosed by InGen, and Grant is forced to learn
the dreadful implications of his raptor intelligence theory firsthand.
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 Happy
Fourth of July
(by digitalmediafx.com) Digital Media FX wishes all of its
readers (in the U.S. and overseas) a very enjoyable fourth of
July.
Interesting
Facts
- Taxes in the United States are higher now than when the United
States declared its independence for the same reason (taxes too
high).
- The Walt
Disney World Resort holds over 1,000 fireworks shows a year.
 -
The second and third presidents of the United States, John Adams
and Thomas Jefferson, both died on July 4, 1826. They were two
of the founding fathers of the United States.
- On July
4, 1997, NASA achieves a first by landing a spacecraft on Mars
(the Mars Pathfinder).
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News Link
of the Day - The Phantom Reedit - Not Kevin Smith
According
to the Philadelphia Daily News:
"When
an unauthorized, re-edited version of George Lucas' Star Wars:
Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace began circulating around town
in early June, fans on the Internet were convinced that it was
the work of acclaimed independent director Kevin Smith (Clerks,
Chasing Amy, Dogma).
Dubbed 'The
Phantom Edit,' the reedited film removes nearly 20 minutes of
footage from the original version…"
Click
here for the full story.
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