JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL (2019) – My rating: 7/10

Jumanji: The Next Level is a fantasy adventure comedy directed by Jake Kasdan, and co-written by Kasdan, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg. It is the sequel to 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and the second follow-up to 1995’s Jumanji, and is the fourth installment in the Jumanji franchise. The film’s plot takes place three years after Welcome to the Jungle, in which the same group of teenagers, along with an old friend and two unwitting additions, become trapped in Jumanji, where they all find themselves facing new problems and challenges with both old and new avatars, while also having to save the land from a new villain in order to escape. I waited to see this sequel because I didn’t think it would be very good. The film leaned more toward being good than bad.

It’s now 2019, two years after their adventure in Jumanji. Spencer Gilpin (Alex Wolff), Anthony “Fridge” Johnson (Ser’Darius Blain), Martha Kaply (Morgan Turner), and Bethany Walker (Madison Iseman) are leading different lives but plan a reunion brunch in Brantford, New Hampshire.  Due to depression, Spencer is apprehensive about the meeting and contemplates returning to Jumanji where he felt he had a reason for being. He ends up blowing off the brunch and spends his first night trying to fix the broken video-game system he held on to. The following day Spencer’s friends visited his home and met his grandfather Eddie (Danny De Vito), who is recovering from hip surgery. They also met Eddie’s former friend and business partner, Milo Walker (Danny Glover), who was visiting Eddie for some unknown reason. Learning they had no idea where Spencer was, the group searched the house and found the Jumanji game partially repaired in the basement. Realizing Spencer returned to the game, his friends decide to follow.  So the fun began, starting with a faulty device, which complicated things right from the start.

Jumanji: The Next Level is as entertaining as it’s predecessor with a slightly more complex plot.  Personally, I favor Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle a little more but I was still entertained and enjoyed the movie.  Overall, I thought everyone did a fantastic job of portraying their characters, which got a little tricky. However,  in the end, “all’s well that ends well”.  As of February 23, 2020, Jumanji: The Next Level has grossed $784 million worldwide against a $125 million budget, becoming the tenth highest-grossing film of 2019. The film received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 71% based on 221 reviews with an average rating of 6/10. The website’s critics consensus reads: “Like many classic games, Jumanji: The Next Level retains core components of what came before while adding enough fresh bits to keep things playable.” Dwayne Johnson revealed in a December 2019 interview that another character in the world of Jumanji is an actual avatar, the villainous Jurgen the Brutal and that it would be explored in a potential sequel, which is currently in development. I recommend Jumanji: The Next Level to all — Check It Out!

 

FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW (2019) – My rating: 7.5/10

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (also known as Hobbs & Shaw) is an action film and a spin-off of The Fast and the Furious franchise. The plot follows the unlikely marriage of the Hobbs & Shaw characters introduced in the main series, as they are forced to team up with Shaw’s sister when a genetically-enhanced terrorist and his organization threaten the world with a deadly virus. The film is directed by David Leitch and written by Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce, from a story by Morgan.  For me, this was a must-see but soon became more of the same despite one of my favorite actors at the helm.

A crew of MI6 agents from the terrorist organization, Eteon, attempts to retrieve a virus labeled Snowflake, which can be programmed to decimate millions of people. Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), an Eteon operative with advanced cybernetic implants that allow him to perform superhuman feats, arrives and kills all agents except for their leader, Hattie Shaw, (Vanessa Kirby) who injects Snowflake into herself as a dormant carrier and escapes. Brixton frames Hattie as a traitor who killed her team and stole Snowflake, forcing her to go on the run.
Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), Hattie’s brother, are both informed of the missing virus by the CIA and are assigned to work together, against their better judgment, to track it down. Shaw leaves and goes to Hattie’s house, while Hobbs manages to find Hattie; after a brief scuffle, he brings her to the CIA office. Just as Shaw then returns, the office is attacked and Hattie is taken by Brixton, who Shaw recognizes as an old colleague he previously shot and killed before he was resurrected by Eteon. Hobbs and Shaw pursue and rescue Hattie during an ensuing car chase. They manage to escape from Brixton, who falls off his motorcycle and crashes through the second level of a double-decker bus, creating an opportunity for Brixton to frame the three agents. Hobbs, Shaw and Hattie manage to locate Professor Andreiko (Eddie Marsan) Snowflake’s creator, who informs them that to prevent Snowflake from eradicating humanity, Hattie has to either be killed or use an extraction device, which is located within the Eteon factory in Ukraine, an almost impossible mission.

Okay, I’ll admit Edis Elba’s character was a little different but the rest of the film was pretty much the same old stuff.  The special effects and acting were brilliant as was the flow of the story.  But how long can Hollywood keep making these types of movies and keep them fresh and interesting?  While they continue to be entertaining, the clock is ticking, something new has got to give.  Series star and producer Vin Diesel first said in 2015 that possible spin-offs were in early development. Hobbs & Shaw was officially announced in October 2017. Hobbs & Shaw has grossed $437 million worldwide and received praise for “the charisma of Johnson, Statham, and Kirby”, as well as its “visual style and action choreography finesse”, though some critics “had trouble getting past just how much the film was attempting to fit into its two-hour-and-15-minute runtime”. Personally,  if you are still thrilled by the Fast and Furious franchise, you will not be disappointed by Hobbs & Shaw.  The very least I can say is that it’s similar to other movies of this type.  I still recommend it — Check It Out!

SKYSCRAPER (2018) – My rating: 7/10

Skyscraper is an action film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. The story follows a former FBI agent who must rescue his family from a newly built skyscraper–the tallest in the world–after it is taken over by criminals and set on fire. The first non-comedy of Thurber’s career, it also marks his second collaboration with Johnson, following Central Intelligence released in 2016.

Standing at 3,500 feet (1,100 m) and 225 stories tall, a high level Asian financier, Zhao Long Ji  (Chin Han) financed the construction of the world’s tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, which they call “The Pearl”. Halfway through the construction process, rival gangsters under the control of Kores Botha (Roland Møller), an international terrorist kingpin, decides to use his control of the construction crews to extort millions of dollars in shakedown payments.  To prevent a massive strike of workers, which would potentially halt production and cost millions of dollars, the financiers of the skyscraper agree to the shakedown amounts.   Botha learns the existence of a memory card, created by the financier group, that records as well as tracks his international money laundering scheme.  The financiers believe the memory card will provide them with insurance against any attempt by Botha to extort money from them a second time.

Meanwhile, a former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran, Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson), now assesses security for skyscrapers since having one leg amputated, from the knee down, while on a previous mission.  Will  has been fitted with a modern prosthetic leg and tasked with inspecting “The Pearl,” which houses several floors that function as their own society. Despite numerous risks highlighted by Sawyer, his bosses insist the skyscraper is impenetrable.

Skyscraper is action packed but totally unbelievable.  As usual, Dwayne Johnson gives a brilliant performance but some of the stunts are not humanly possible to obtain.  The organized gang was ruthless as most gangs are, stopping at nothing to achieve their goal, which includes igniting the 96th floor of the Skyscraper.  You can only imagine where the drama and adventure this action will take Will and his family. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Johnson’s performance but criticized the script as clichéd and too similar to The Towering Inferno and Die Hard.  It’s filled with action and many tense moments — a nice way to pass the evening.  Check it out!

 

 

 

RAMPAGE (2018) – My rating: 6.5/10

Rampage is a science fiction movie directed by Brad Peyton, and is loosely based on the video game series of the same name by Midway Games.  It is the third collaboration between Peyton and Johnson, following Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) and San Andreas (2015).  I really didn’t expect much from this film — the trailers looked like a children’s movie as well as the same old thing we’ve come to ignore.  I have much to say about Rampage and  it isn’t all good. Basically, Rampage is about a primatologist who must team up with an albino gorilla to stop two other animals from destroying Chicago.

Rampage starts with Athena-1, a research space station owned by a gene manipulation company called Energyne, which is destroyed after a laboratory rat mutates and wreaks havoc. Dr. Kerry Atkins (Marley Shelton), the lone surviving crew member, is ordered by CEO Claire Wyden (Malin Akerman), to retrieve research canisters containing a pathogen.  The escape pod eventually imploded, causing debris to spread across various locations in the US; a canister in the Everglades is consumed by an American crocodile as well as exposure of a pathogen to a gray wolf in a forest in Wyoming.

Primatologist Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson), a former US Army Special Forces soldier and member of an anti-poaching unit, works at the San Diego Wildlife Sanctuary, a wildlife preserve. He befriends a rare albino gorilla named George, whom he saved from poachers. Davis communicates with George using sign language and gestures, and George shows Davis that he has a sense of humor. At night, one of the canisters crash-lands in George’s habitat, exposing him to the pathogen.  George grows considerably larger and more aggressive over a short time. Davis is contacted by Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris), a genetic engineer, who explains that the pathogen was developed by Energyne to rewrite genes on a massive scale.

Dr. Caldwell was hoping to advance CRISPR research as a potential cure for disease but discovered that Energyne planned to use it as a biological weapon. Meanwhile, Claire and her brother, Brett (Jake Lacy), fired Dr. Caldwell and sent her to prison on false charges for attempting to expose them.  The exposed animals go on a

I think you get the gest of this film, as I am stopping here to talk a little about the quality of Rampage.  The plot is simple and lends itself to a younger audience but the acting was seriously flawed.  Claire and her brother Brett tried hard but just couldn’t pull off the whole villain thing.  Their lines were so corny that I felt as though I watching a Saturday morning adventure project for kids.  The special effects were pretty descent but not the best I’ve seen.  Adding to the corny dialogue was their attempt to come off gangster like, which they never pulled off.  Also, there are some questions about the logic or lack of.  Dwayne Johnson is making movies so fast, that I’m afraid he’s going to acquire a rep for grade B films with bad acting.  I’m truly a fan but lately, I’ve been disappointed with “The Rock” and Disney.  The mutated animals reek havoc, making Rampage somewhat exciting but ridiculous.  See this one on DVD/Blu-Ray, you’ll probably be happier with your choice.

 

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (2017) – My rating: 9/10

I honestly don’t know how they do it.  After seven Fast and Furious movies, they managed to make an eighth one even better than the others.  Dom turns bad?  Now there’s an interesting concept — the main character not only turns bad, he turns his back on the love of his life and the team he calls “family”.  That’s enough, if you’re a follower of the series, to hurry to your local theater and purchase a ticket to see it for yourself.

Director, F. Gary Gray has tied every scene together, giving every character a purpose.  Known for speed, excitement and fast and furious cars, this eighth installment is actually bigger, faster and features a barrage of fast, beautiful, slickly designed cars that would cause the likes of Mario Andretti to blush with envy.  So far The Fate of the Furious has grossed $690 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film of 2017.  An untitled sequel is scheduled to be released on April 19, 2019.

The film opens with Dominic “Dom” Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Letty Ortiz (Michell Rodriguez) on their honeymoon in Havana.  Dom gets involved with his cousin’s spat at an auto show and is challenged to a street race by a local racer named Fernando (Janmarco Santiago). This turns out to be one of the most spectacular races I’ve seen because Dom is using his cousin’s beaten up, ancient, piece of car to race in.  I can only say by the end of the race, even I had new respect for Dom’s driving skills.   The next day, Dom encounters elusive cyber-terrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron), who appears to be a damsel in distress.  He tries to give her a hand with her car but her conversation lets him know that she knows him and is not very friendly.  She shows him a device right after telling him that he will now be working for her.  Cipher leaves after giving Dom full instructions as he fully accepts his new role.

SOME SPOILERS BELOW!

Dom and Letty along with team members Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), Tej Parker (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), are recruited by Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to help him retrieve an EMP device from a military outpost in Berlin. During the getaway, Dom goes rogue, forcing Hobbs off the road and stealing the device for Cipher. Hobbs is arrested and locked up in the same high-security prison where he helped imprisoned Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). After escaping, both are recruited by intelligence operative Mr. Nobody (Kurk Russell) and his protégé, Little Nobody (Scott Eastwood), to help the team find Dom and capture Cipher.  FYI:  Helen Mirren makes an uncredited cameo appearance as Magdalene Shaw, the mother of Deckard and Owen Shaw.

The whole cast moves to Russia where a long chase, war and shoot out takes place among the teams, which includes the Russians.  Here, there is a lot going on and the fate of the world, the movie and the plot depends on the outcome.  This lengthy scene was a bit much and a little hard to follow because it was easy to lose track of who was who.  The environment was extremely cold and the fight was cumbersome.  This may have shaved a few points off of an otherwise exciting thriller movie.  Charlize will blow your mind — you will probably want to blow hers right out of her head.  I highly recommend The Fate of the Furious. If you’re looking for a thriller, you’ve come to the right movie!

 

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE (2016) – My rating: 7.2/10

You know it’s summer when the movie fill ins start. Central Intelligence is one of them. While it’s not a bad movie, it’s not a great one either. It is funny but so unbelievable that it’s stupid. Grant you, it’s not predictable but that’s because it not believable. You wouldn’t be able to figure out the plot because there’s nothing realistic about it. The good news is the chemistry between Hart and Johnson is better than most comedy teams I’ve seen. They seem to have a genuine like for each other, which makes for a great comedy team. I found Central Intelligence to be entertaining even though it bordered on slap stick, which I’m not a fan of.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson plays Bob Stone a CIA agent accused of murder and espionage. He also plays the younger version of himself, Robbie Weirdicht, an overweight high school student who is bullied with no friends. The makeup job that was done on The Rock was one of the most fantastic transformations I’ve ever seen. It’s so good, I’ve posted a picture of the Robbie Weirdicht character to show the result of the skill that went into the making of this character.  Kevin Hart plays Bob’s only best friend from HS, Calvin Joyner who turned out to be an accountant and married his high school sweetheart, Maggie Joyner (Danielle Nicolet).  Their journey is filled with lots of twist and turns including the FBI hunting them down.  Bob’s boss, FBI Agent Pamela Harris, (Amy Ryan) believes Bob has gone rogue and will stop at nothing to arrest him.  While Bob is in the fight of his life, he has recruited an unwilling Calvin to help him.  As usual, Kevin Hart is loud and over the top but teaming up with the Rock makes for a more tolerable and interesting partnership and comedy.  Again, Central Intelligence is by no means a great movie but if you have nothing else to do, it’s entertaining at best.

 

SAN ANDREAS (2015) – My rating: 8.5/10

San Andreas is another natural disaster movie for which we can do nothing about. The story revolves around the broken family of a helicopter rescue pilot, a Caltech Seismologist, a reporter, 2 youngsters visiting from England, a real estate developer and most of California and Nevada. Dr. Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti) and his his colleague Dr. Kim Park (Will Yun Lee) have discovered that their research has paid off when they are able to predict earthquakes. Hoover Dam was the first to be hit with a 7.1 earthquake, killing almost everyone in the area and destroying the entire Dam. Because of the quake, Raymond (Dwayne Johnson) was called in to assist in the rescue efforts, preventing him from accompanying his daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario) on a trip to San Francisco. Instead she hitched a flight with her wealthy step father to be, Daniel Riddick (Ioan Gruffudd).  Once they arrived in San Francisco, Blake met Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and his little brother Ollie (Art Parkinson).  Another earthquake hit and they were all caught in the largest recorded earthquake of 9.6 in history .  The special effects were literally out of this world.  The story was better than most of these disaster movies and the acting was excellent with many stars gracing the screen.  Raymond spent his time trying to rescue his family but getting through all the debris and dodging the falling buildings is a whole other story.  San Andreas is non-stop action with the usual destruction and problems one would encounter during such a phenomenon.  Like most of these types of movies, a lot of the escape scenes were unbelievable but necessary to create the wow factor.  Dwayne Johnson’s character is likable, which made the movie likable.  San Andreas is good entertainment.  I saw it in 3D because of all the special effects — I think it was worth the extra charge.

FURIOUS 7 (2015) – My rating: 6.5/10

I’m disappointed to say, the last movie with Paul Walker was not a good one.  Furious 7 was so digitized and robotic, I almost dozed on it.  Far too many car chases and far too many crashes.  The team must have done billions, not millions, but billions of dollars worth of damage to the cities they frequented.  The destruction of buildings were worst than Ironman 3 and Transformers.  These crash/chase and demolition scenes went on endlessly.  The story line wasn’t much better.  The real kicker [YOU MAY CONSIDER THIS A SPOILER] was when Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) was in the hospital, laid up with severe injuries, including a broken arm, which was cast from shoulder to wrist, decided he had to leave.  His cast arm was bent 45 degrees, so to remove the cast, he simply straightened out his arm and the cast exploded off.  Even the audience laughed.  There wasn’t any semblance of reality in the whole movie.  Owen Shaw’s brother, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) is killing members of the team, one by one, for revenge after the team killed Owen in Furious 6.  Also a Somalian terrorist called Jakarde (Djimon Hounsou), and a corrupt government official called “Mr. NoBody”  (Kurt Russell) are both competing to steal a computer terrorism program called God’s Eye, that can turn any technological device into a weapon. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and the team must reconvene in order to stop Deckard and retrieve the God’s Eye program while caught in a power struggle between terrorist and the United States government.

On the bright side, Hollywood tried to give Paul Walker a farewell at the end, which was descent but also digitized, which sort of spoiled it for me.  I understand digital when the body is absent, but even the fight scenes were digitized.  Some of the movements were so fast, you barely caught what had just happened.   I understand Paul’s real life brothers stood in for some of the scenes and Paul himself had filmed almost half of the movie before he died.  Even though Brick Mansions was not Paul’s last movie, it paid more tribute to him as an actor than Furious 7.  I was very disappointed in the film and saddened that we lost such a fine actor but I’m trying to keep it real.  Overall, it you’re a fan, I still say see it on the big screen since it’s being shown in 3D as well as regular format.  The younger you are, the more likely you are to tolerate the over-the-top crashes and demolition of buildings.  I’m just saying!

HERCULES (2014) – My rating: 7.5/10

Ho Hum, it’s pretty much the same story I’ve seen and heard many times before. While Dwayne Johnson makes a fantastic Hercules, he can’t change the redundancy of the story. Hercules is about a strong man or Demigod (which ever tickles your fancy), who’s family was killed while he was drugged by some unknown person. Since he doesn’t know what happened, he can’t defend himself against the accusation that he killed his wife and 3 children in a drunken stupor. In the meanwhile he’s asked to defend villages, towns and nations against armies, thieves, monsters and robbers because of his strength and knowledge. Finally he comes across a situation that encourages him to commit to saving Greece from a ruthless warlord only to find truth and freedom. I really liked Hercules because I really like period pieces. It was done tastefully and was entertaining. The cast was brilliant and well acted. I think we are at a point in history where not too much will surprise us and I don’t see plots and story lines being too different. I think Hercules is a decent investment of time and money.