We’re headed into the heart of summer, and that makes this a great time to talk about the movies.
- Film composer James Horner dies in plane crash
James Horner, best known for his score for Titanic, died earlier this week from injuries he suffered when the plane he was piloting crashed. I’ve long been a fan of his film music, starting with his brilliant score for Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn. I loved the score Jerry Goldsmith did for the first Star Trek movie, and I loved the contrast of Horner’s work on Kahn. He also did a wonderfully uplifting score for Apollo 13. He will be missed. - Remembering Christopher Lee
Horror movie great Christopher Lee passed away June 7th at the age of 93. While he had lengthy career as a monster/creature/villain, he was best known for playing the evil Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels and the wizard Saruman in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies.Top 10 Christopher Lee performances from WatchMojo
- Why Jurassic World being a big hit is bad for movies
Strictly speaking, anytime a movie is a big hit, that’s good for the movies. And by all reports, Jurassic World is a great deal of fun. (I’m hoping to finally get to see it early next week.) But Charlie Jane Anders, writing the io9 blog, suggests that it will lead to more and more over-the-top sequels of franchise movies without a shred of originality. While I have no doubt she’s right, Jurassic World is hardly alone in encouraging such things. And good, new original big movies are always few and far between. On the other hand, if reading her blog post gets you go pull out the disk of last summer’s Edge of Tomorrow (aka Live, Die, Repeat), it will be a good thing.