The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 132: Jurassic Punk (2022)
Added 2025-04-21 21:44:09 +0000 UTCOn this week's Watchcast Brad's documentary pick is up to bat, and he's selected Jurassic Punk, a movie that both chronicles the early days of computer generated special effects at ILM, and serves as a character study of the embittered genius that is Steve 'Spaz' Williams.
CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 132: Jurassic Punk (2022)
(00:00:30) - Intro.
(00:15:55) - The central figure of this week's doc: Steve 'Spaz' Williams.
(00:22:44) - Diving headlong into The Abyss.
(00:27:11) - The Terminator 2 flex.
(00:36:39) - Break!
(00:37:05) - We're back, and let's talk about the team around Steve.
(00:44:58) - A movie about some dinosaurs.
(00:51:35) - On hierarchies and Oscar speeches.
(01:00:24) - Running afoul of George Lucas.
(01:04:00) - Steve's first special lady.
(01:06:20) - Steve's post-Jurassic Park career.
(01:20:09) - Maybe the least memorable computer animated film of all-time.
(01:22:11) - Things take a dark turn.
(01:26:57) - Things do manage to improve.
(01:32:16) - A little bit of Where Are They Now?
(01:37:09) - Final thoughts.
(01:47:53) - Notes on our final film for April: Exit Through the Gift Shop!
(01:50:30) - Outro.
Comments
Also funny going back & forth between the two. The shots where he's in a tiered screening room were filmed for the Netflix doc and "Punk" had their cameras slightly behind/offset filming Steve during their filming, using different cuts.
WulfBane
2025-04-21 22:21:58 +0000 UTCJust by chance my friend group's movie night last Saturday was Jurassic Park & Jaws and we put the Netflix "Films that Made Us" on JP afterwards. So I had the "Punk" version still fresh in my mind and certainly one of the parts in the Netflix's different editing/direction, a good part from their side is Tippit was teaching them how to understand how a dinosaur should actually move and animate. Steve knew how to make the computers do amazing things but not necessarily how dinosaurs should move.
WulfBane
2025-04-21 22:10:23 +0000 UTCThis one had a weird tone. It was shot and presented with seriousness of an unsolved murder mystery, but it was just about an alpha nerd and some other nerds doing movie stuff.
Michael Polston
2025-04-21 21:56:41 +0000 UTCWhere to watch in the US: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/jurassic-punk
Matt Hannum
2025-04-21 21:48:27 +0000 UTC
