Burnt

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: John Wells/Starring: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Daniel Bruhl, Omar Sy, Emma Thompson, Uma Thurman, Alicia Vikander and Matthew Rhys

With a globally diverse and talented cast such as that in Burnt, one might expect the movie's success to be a foregone conclusion but unfortunately a movie's quality isn't solely determined by its actor's substantive talents. At the epicenter of the film's impressive actor roll call is Bradley Cooper, who brings a touch of glamour and impressive acting chops to the role. Too bad said talent, which includes seasoned writer Steven Knight (Pawn Sacrifice, Locke) and director John Wells (The Company Men), couldn't pull this film off. Part of the problem is the character of Adam Jones; a hot-shot chef with overpowering bravado, played by said Mr. Cooper. It isn't that I can't buy the idea of a world class chef being hounded by French drug dealers and rival chefs while seeing a psychiatrist and being chick flypaper. But I couldn't buy it. At least not in the way Wells and Knight conceive the character. Though the film is fun to watch, its flavor fades as fast as a Big Mac, rather than lingering like the gourmet cuisine prepared onscreen.

The lead character in question; Adam Jones, has recently arrived in London after having sabotaged his prestigious position as head chef in a Parisian restaurant and slumming in a New Orleans seafood joint, shucking oysters for a living. Fed up with his itinerant life and wasting his culinary talents, Jones settles in London, hoping to assemble a crack kitchen staff for his new restaurant venture. But isn't enough to open an acclaimed restaurant; Jones' arrogance and ambitions crave something more lofty: a 3 star rating from the venerable Michelin Guide.

Standing in his way are said drug dealers, who appear often to collect a sizable debt. Other obstacles are those he has essentially screwed over; who make up a considerable number. Among them is Tony (Daniel Bruhl), who runs a restaurant in a hotel owned by his father and whose Parisian restaurant was ruined by Jones' self-destructive behavior. Jones bullies Tony into letting him take over his floundering hotel restaurant. Funding for the restaurant is contingent on Jones staying sober and drug free, which is accomplished by his psychiatrist; Dr. Rosshilde (Emma Thompson), who administers regular blood tests while also dispensing on-the-fly advice and guidance.

All that remains is for Jones to recruit a team. The film's cinematic touchstone is a famous western, which Jones refers to when he says "I want a crew like The Magnificent Seven." How he goes about assembling them might remind one of the recruitment process in said film. His fame in culinary circles is enough to attract talent though another former colleague, Michel (Omar Sy), chases Jones through the streets and gets into a scuffle with him before agreeing to join his staff. Jones' history with Michel, like many of his former relationships, is fraught with betrayal. It comes to light that Jones once deliberately sabotaged Michel's own restaurant venture, which involved a dirty trick with the health inspector. Why Michel would agree to join Jones' staff becomes apparent later in the film. And of course where would a handsome lady's man chef be without a beautiful and talented she-chef to provide eye-candy and romance for the audience? A woman named Helene (Sienna Miller, teaming up with Cooper again); a talented chef in her own right, is aggressively pursued for Jones' kitchen and as we expect, becomes his love-target.

In Jones' mad pursuit of the 3 star Michelin rating, he becomes monstrous; throwing tantrums and humiliating everyone in his kitchen. Being the best means being a perfectionist and being so means being a SOB, which the staff quickly learns. Destroying dishes in a violent sweep of a counter, shouting in the faces of his colleagues like a drill sergeant; Jones pushes everyone, including Tony, who stands to inherit the hotel and the restaurant.

In trying to anticipate the Michelin operative's unannounced appearances, Tony informs the waitstaff about their tendencies, which generates tension and suspense.

And as Jones chases the ultimate restaurant prize, we know his past will rear its ugly head with drug dealers and a former colleague/now rival chef named Reece (Matthew Rhys) and a revelation about Tony and the film's twist; which involves Michel. We also know he'll have a crisis of self-doubt, where he falls off the wagon and makes a drunken fool of himself. It all seems programmed and mapped. Or as Jones says to Helene while they sit inside a Burger King: "the problem with the (Burger King) food is that it is consistent." Ditto for the screenplay.

Like many well-cast films that falter, the actors give us something to admire when the story fails. Sienna Miller, who shares terrific, onscreen chemistry with Cooper, keeps the audience interested in her character when it's clear she has few places to take it. The same can be said for Daniel Bruhl; who I always find fascinating. I wanted to see Emma Thompson onscreen more but she makes do with the bone she's thrown.

We see the kitchen staff tend to the tiny details of food preparation, which is fine but the food doesn't stimulate one's taste buds, the way it does in films like Babette's Feast or Big Night. The food looks fit to frame but frankly, not to eat. Or maybe haute cuisine is out place on a multiplex screen?

I left the film; not with an appetite but disappointed that the story seemed so mechanical. It was watchable and an effective time-killer but it left me cold. Do all the chefs on T.V. have Adam Jones' problems? Did Julia Childs? I hope not. But after watching Burnt, you might feel cooking is a violent, degrading experience whose only reward are stars in a guidebook. What a pity.

Jurassic World

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Colin Trevorrow/Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D'Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, Ty Simpkins, Jake Johnson, Nick Robinson, Judy Greer, BD Wong, Omar Sy

Colin Trevorrow, director of the amusing, off-the-wall Safety Not Guaranteed, takes on the dinosaur-sized production Jurassic World. Watching the film, I couldn't remember if Spielberg was in the director's chair because much of it bears his stamp. I suppose that's inevitable when he himself co-produced the film.

Though Trevorrow makes the film reasonably entertaining, his can't hope to match Jurassic Park for its originality or Spielberg's thrill-making ability. Jurassic World borrows so from the original the film seems almost like a reboot.

Isla Nublar is now home to Jurassic World; a mega-theme park sprawled across the Costa Rican island. Rather than the park-in-progress seen in the first film, Jurassic World is a fully-functional tourist destination.

When the film begins, we see the brothers Zach and Gray preparing to leave their parents outside their snow-covered home. Zach, a broody, discontented teen, is given a romantic send-off by his girlfriend, while his precocious, younger, Asperger-ish brother concerns himself with other distractions. The dark cloud hanging over the household is the divorce their mother Karen (Judy Greer) and father are headed precipitously toward. While the parents say their goodbyes to Zach and Gray at the airport, the older brother acts peevish, put-upon and unhappy about leaving his girlfriend.

The story cuts to a sleek transport boat as it approaches the impressive Jurassic World. An aerial long shot captures the crowded, vast complex; situated on the lush shoreline of Isla Nublar. Negotiating the crush of people who wander about the shops and tourist attractions inside the park, the brothers find their Aunt Claire; a park executive, who receives her nephews rather coolly. From the first exchange, the boys see their aunt is emotionally detached and totally absorbed in the business of running Jurassic World. After Claire makes a tepid promise to spend time with them the next day, the boys run off while an appointed guardian struggles to keep up.

Meanwhile, we see Claire at work, leading a group of potential investors on a tour of the park and the private labs. We learn something about the park's growth initiatives, which includes scarier, genetically designed dinosaurs with bigger teeth to wow and dazzle the patrons who grow increasingly bored with tyrannosaurs, triceratops and apatosauruses.

As in the first film, the unholy marriage of science and commerce alerts us to the folly of hubris and tampering with nature.

While the boys wander through the park, Claire's administrative concerns lead her to the park's newest exhibit; a genetically engineered creation called Indominus Rex; which is essentially a larger, smarter and nastier T-Rex. Safety concerns about the Indominus' paddock have arisen, which necessitates a meeting between Claire and a former naval engineer named Owen (Chris Pratt), whose expertise on structural integrity makes him an ideal consultant. When we first see Owen, he is standing on a walkway above a pen of velociraptors. As the raptors hiss and screech below, Owen busies himself training the raptors to follow orders. He even assigns them names.
When an unscrupulous military contractor named Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio) shows up to observe Owen's raptor-training, we learn the raptors are to be trained for deployment in combat.

I'm glad the screenwriters kept one foot in the real world; showing us how different parties with different agendas might actually exploit dinosaurs for profit and militaristic purposes. Of course the audience knows both means of exploitation will prove to be short-sighted and foolish.

In a scene where Claire approaches Owen about inspecting the Indominus' paddock, we see his shabby-looking, riverside home. We soon discover they once shared an extremely brief romance, which shows signs of rekindling.

Later, at the park complex, Claire and Owen find claw marks on the walls of the paddock, which suggest the dinosaur has taken flight. Thinking the Indominus Rex gone, they discover the dinosaur has tricked them into believing it escaped. As they find the towering hulk bearing down on them, Owen manages to elude the beast but an unfortunate staff person is gobbled whole. In spite of Owen's efforts to contain it, the Indominus effects an escape, and when he does, he goes on a park-wide, lethal rampage; feeding on other dinosaurs and hapless park employees. Later, the Indominus' love for bloodsport comes to light when Claire and Owen happen upon a herd of dead apatosaurs; their claw-streaked bodies providing grisly evidence.

And like the first film, we know the two youngsters will eventually find themselves stranded and trapped somewhere in the park. While taking a tour of the park in glassy, gyroscopic pods (really cool) Zach decides to drive off road into prohibited areas. Gee, what do you think will happen next?

And you might guess too that the thought of her endangered nephews will cure Claire of her seeming indifference and awaken a warm, familial compassion.

As the Indominus Rex stalks and skulks about, the park closes while the tourists are herded into a makeshift shelter in a warehouse.

Hoskins sees the Indominus' escape as an opportunity to test the velociraptors hunting and seeking skills. Though contemptuous of Hoskins, Owen decides to lead his trained pack on the hunt. Meanwhile, Hoskins' heavily armed, para-military personnel join the pursuit.

One of the parks biggest investors, Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan), takes to the air in his helicopter in hopes of locating the Indominus, only to find the beast has smashed into the park aviary, where pterodactyls are kept. The flying dinos escape, unleashing their own mayhem on the tourists and park personnel.

It's pretty clear where the story will go. As previously mentioned, if you know the first film, this one won't offer many narrative surprises.

I don't know what is more frightening; predatory dinosaurs loose in a theme park or the very realistic throngs of tourists milling about. Though the idea of the park seemed like a fun idea in the first film, Trevarrow is quick to reinforce the impression that such a place would actually be inhumane and maybe immoral. One might have thought that after all the mayhem and destruction visited upon the world in the first few films, the authorities might keep a place like Jurassic World from ever getting off the ground. Implausible as the park might be, the human capacity for stupidity can never be too implausibly rendered onscreen.

Trevarrow does a respectable job keeping the story and action moving, but the film lacks the original's sense of wonder. Or maybe we've become the jaded park patrons Claire derides. Are T-rexs' and velociraptors no longer enough?

The Claire/Owen romance seems like a throwback to a 1940s' B-film; the damsel in high-heels being led about by the rugged, shotgun-toting tough. Bryce Dallas Howard's and Chris Pratt's chemistry manages to distract us from this crumbly, boy-leads-girl movie convention of old.

I liked the shot of the park's tourist area reduced to rubble and ruin to reinforce the film's message that nature isn't something to be commodified. Man proposes, nature disposes; to rework a famous quote.

Like the investors in the film who never seem to learn, the filmmakers may be on a course to create more of these films. Certain developments in the story suggest as much. Jurassic World is mostly fun and mostly painless. One could see a helluva lot worse at the local multiplex these days. Speaking of, is that Woman in Gold I still see on the marquee?