Review: Jurassic World: Rebirth

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

By now, you know the formula: People, against their own good judgment, travel to the now-abandoned islands populated by dinosaurs from the other "Jurassic Park" films on a mission and some of them get devoured, while a few others survive and flee the island to the tune of John Williams' now-iconic score. It's now just a matter of how it's executed.

Despite mostly middling reviews, "Jurassic World: Rebirth," while generically following this formula, is one of the more watchable of the recent sequels. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's good or that I'd recommend it - but if you go in knowing exactly what you'll get, you won't be disappointed (or surprised either).

In this film, a group is gathered - a mercenary (Scarlett Johansson), a friend of hers who is handy with getting people out of sticky situations (Mahershala Ali), a scientist (Jonathan Bailey), the sleazy businessman with ill intentions who's just waiting to get eaten (Rupert Friend), and a whole lot of expendable minor characters. Add to the mix a family on a boat vacation whose vessel ends up going in the wrong direction and runs into the other characters, who save them with the caveat that they must travel to the island for the mission.

The mission involves extracting the blood of several of the species there that can apparently cure cancer. I'll remind you at this point that most people don't come to the "Jurassic Park" films for the well-thought-out plots or scientific theories. 

Naturally, the corrupt character played by Friend wants the blood samples to sell to the highest bidder, while Bailey's scientist wants to share it with the world, arguing that "science is for everybody" (can't argue with him there). Johansson and Ali's characters want to retire from their lifestyle with the money the job will bring in.

Just to up the ante, this particular island is abandoned and populated with some of the mutant dinosaurs that were too violent or scary to be included in the original park. Then again, there's a nice sequence in which the group of humans stumble upon a large herd of brontosauruses and are amazed by their beauty. If you're looking for consistency, you're in the wrong movie.

Anyway, the family and the group seeking the dinosaur blood get separated early on after an attack on the water. The family is left to fend for itself - and the daughter adopts a cute baby dinosaur that she names Dolores - while the other group chases after the three dinosaurs from which they need blood. There's a particularly thrilling sequence involving a flying dinosaur from which they need to extract a sample.

As far as summer blockbusters go, you could do worse than "Jurassic World: Rebirth." It is far from the best of the series (that's still Steven Spielberg's 1993 original) or the worst. There's hardly anything original about it and most viewers in the audience will be able to guess what happens next at all times.

But it has some thrilling sequences, a few unique and scary new dinosaurs, and some great cinematography. The cast isn't given much to do, but it's always a pleasure spending time with Johansson and Ali. So, yes, this latest "Jurassic Park" is just business as usual, but it's passable entertainment. It delivers exactly what it promises.

The Best Movies of the 21st Century (So Far)

Mulholland Drive

The New York Times recently released a ranked list of the top 100 films of the 21^st century so far, based on polls it took of directors, writers, actors, and others in the global film industry. Each participant was able to list his or her top 10 list.

Since then, I’ve seen a number of other similar lists pop up. Although I currently don’t have a Rolling Stone subscription and couldn’t read the entire list, that magazine released its top 100 list. That’s more like it.

The idea of narrowing down all of the movies I’ve seen this century to 10 is daunting and a bit ridiculous, so instead I’m including my non-ranked list of the top 100 of the century so far. Then, because narrowing it down to 100 is even a bit limiting, I’ve included a list of runners up - lots of them.

So, enjoy. And drop your own lists in the comment section if you so choose.

Review: F1

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

A sign of a good movie is when a topic of little interest to the viewer still makes for a compelling watch. Such is the case of Joseph Kosinki's "F1," a Formula 1 racing movie about a formerly washed-up driver, Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who returns to racing to help out a friend, Ruben (Javier Bardem), whose team is struggling to stay relevant and ends up clashing with his young hotshot teammate, Joshua (Damson Idris).

Sound familiar? If you think this sounds a little like the blockbuster hit "Top Gun: Maverick," you'd be correct and you might not be surprised to learn that this film is directed by the same person. As for the subject matter, I'll admit to having no interest in professional racing. Cinematically, it has resulted in one decent film ("Days of Thunder") as well as a mediocre one ("Driven") and an overrated satire ("Talladega Nights").

Kosinski's film doesn't reinvent the wheel here or do anything radical to shake up the sports genre. Instead, he does what so many summer blockbusters fail to do these days - develop interesting characters - and even goes so far as to making this the prime feature of the film. As such, "F1" is pretty compelling.

Sonny was once a rising star in the world of racing. As a young hotshot driver, he was known for his reckless style of racing, which ultimately led to an accident that derailed his career. Since then, he has bounced around in various driving stints - we're told he was a New York City cab driver at one point - but the big time has always eluded him.

His friend Ruben, another former race car driver, shows up with a desperate plea: One of his two drivers is out for the season and he needs someone to fill in. Sonny later learns he was only eighth choice in this scenario. But he accepts the offer and immediately clashes with Joshua, an arrogant young driver who clearly has his eyes on bigger things than the APXGP team that he's currently on. Needless to say, the team is not having a good season.

You probably won't be too surprised to see where this all leads, but suffice it to say that the film makes up for its lack of originality with some terrific camerawork amid the nauseatingly fast-paced race sequences. This is a good looking film.

More importantly, the picture boasts a sturdy lead performance by Pitt, one of filmdom's last true movie stars, and has a great supporting cast. Bardem is always a welcome addition to any cast and Kerry Condon, who was so good in "The Banshees of Inisherin," is a scene stealer as Kate, the team's feisty technical director. Idris is solid as Joshua and Sarah Niles makes her small role as Joshua's no-nonsense mother count.

I've missed a number of this year's summer movies (and will likely play catch up on streaming), but a majority of them haven't caused a whole lot of excitement, namely because they are sequels, reboots, or additions to cinematic universes that seem unnecessary. While I'm not saying anyone needed a Formula 1 racing movie, this is a pretty good one. It's fast paced, well shot and edited, and includes a cast that develops characters you care about. For a summer blockbuster, that's typically more than you can hope for.

Review: Caught By The Tides

Image courtesy of MK2 Films.

I've long admired and enjoyed the work of Jia Zhang-Ke, one of China's most highly acclaimed and prolific filmmakers whose work often employs a fiction-docudrama hybrid. His latest, "Caught by the Tides," should have been my cup of tea, considering that it features characters from some of his finest films, was shot over a period of many years (I've always been a sucker for movies that explore the passage of time as a theme), and features the melancholic and often beautifully shot imagery one would associate with a Zhang-Ke film.

With some works, what you get out of it has to do somewhat with what you bring to it - or, rather, how much of yourself you're willing to give to it. In this case, I'll fully admit that at times I wasn't completely following the film - which has an elliptical pattern, even for this director - or as invested in it as I have been with his other works.

This is not to say it's a bad film by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I appear to be in the minority in terms of where I stand on it - which is this: I'd place it somewhere in the realm of Zhang-Ke's films that go heavier on the docudrama angle, such as "24 City" or "Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue," both of which are movies that I'd rank lower in his filmography. 

The film has some of the startling imagery and moody editing and use of music that his best films - namely, "Ash is Purest White," "Platform," "Unknown Pleasures" or "Mountains May Depart" - utilize, but it didn't strike me in the quite the same way. It's entirely possible I could have a different experience watching it a second time (which I eventually might).

Suffice it to say, this film is significantly more elliptical than any of the other films I just praised. It starts in 2001 and ends somewhere during the COVID-19 pandemic (2022, I believe), and various characters pop in and out of the action. There's a fair amount of dancing and singing (karaoke and otherwise) and, as usual, Zhang-Ke's greatest concern is observing the vast changes that China has undergone over the past few decades.

There's an entire section set in 2006 against the backdrop of the Yangtze River, where the forced migration of citizens in the region occurred to make way for the installation of the Three River Gorges dam, a topic that the director covered extensively in his film "Still Life" (another good one).

The film, shot over two decades much like Richard Linklater's "Boyhood," basically follows the story of Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao, a Zhang-Ke regular) as she pursues her missing lover, Bin (Li Zhubin). The picture's various eras can be distinguished by the film stock, which varies from grainy video during Aughts-era scenes to crisper images for sequences set in the present.

Qiaoqiao's character first debuted in Zhang-Ke's acclaimed 2002 film "Unknown Pleasures" and the way she's utilized in this film also recollects her work in "Still Life" and "Ash is Purest White." In some ways, "Caught by the Tides" plays like a greatest hits of the director's work, not only in terms of style and themes that he often explores, but also his cast members and characters.

As such, "Caught by the Tides" feels a little like a summary of his body of work - but, for me, it is a lesser entry. Not a bad movie, but not nearly as evocative as the great "Ash is Purest White," the moving "Mountains May Depart" or his early works that put him on the map, such as "Platform" or "Unknown Pleasures." Perhaps, the film deserves another try - but for now, it's an intermittently interesting work that feels like a minor film for a significant director.

Review: 28 Years Later

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.

Danny Boyle's "28 Years Later" is an expectations-subverting sequel to one of the 21st century's best horror movies that isn't so much interested in giving audiences exactly what they think they want, but is instead an idiosyncratic beginning of a new trilogy that moves the story forward in ways most people won't expect.

The picture opens briefly in the year when the catastrophe struck, causing millions of people in the UK - and years later, the infection has been contained in quarantined England, Scotland and, presumably, Ireland and Wales - to be rage-filled zombies. A group of children watch "Teletubbies" on TV and, moments later, the attack begins. Only one boy escapes the melee and it's not until the end of "28 Years Later" that we discover what happened to him.

The rest of the film is set on a secluded fortress of a Northumberland isle known as Holy Island where some sense of civilization has been restored. A young boy named Spike (a very good Alfie Williams) lives with his aggressive father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), who is suffering from a mysterious ailment (no, not that type).

The island is connected to the mainland by a causeway that can only be accessed at low tide. Every young boy in the village's rite of passage involves being taken to the mainland to hunt the infected, although it's the slow-moving and crawling ones they typically seek out. There's also a type known as Alphas, and Spike and his father come across one of these during their trip. This particular Alpha is faster and smarter than most infected. The Alpha's preferred method of killing is ripping out one's spine and it has disturbingly, ahem, pronounced genitalia.

After a very close call between Spike, Jamie, and the Alpha, the former two return to the village, where Spike learns something upsetting about his father. He sees a raging fire in the distance and is told of a now-mad doctor who lives there, prompting him to collect his mother and flee with her to the mainland to find the doctor, whom Spike hopes will heal his ailing mom. Much of the film is their offbeat and occasionally frightening trip to find Dr. Kelson (a very good Ralph Fiennes), whose demeanor and abode reminded me of "Apocalypse Now," although Kelson is a much milder and even compassionate Kurtz. 

In terms of similarities to Boyle's 2003 modern horror classic, there are some frightening moments involving the infected and its portrayal of a societal breakdown. There are also some moving moments at the end of Spike's journey, making it similar to the original film, which had more heartrending scenes than one might expect in a zombie film.

But that's basically where the similarities end. This is a very different experience than Boyle's original film or the mostly decent 2007 sequel. Boyle's original film made great use of music - needle drops by Brian Eno, Blue States, and Godspeed You Black Emperor and John Murphy's score were great in creating mood - while the lonely shots of deserted London, the film's take on the dangers of militarism, and the relationships between the film's characters all added up to a potent brew.

In "28 Years," the music has primarily been left to Young Fathers, whose score is decent but doesn't quite pack the punch of the original. While the first film had a lonely, melancholic tone to it that made it so memorable, this sequel has a much odder and constantly evolving one. That's not a bad thing - it's just a very different viewing experience. 

The film includes some very tense sequences that are followed by some of a quirkier nature. The scenes involving Fiennes' isolated Kelson take on a more cosmic nature and there's an interesting take on the phrase memento mori that is utilized during these scenes. This section of the film is also its most moving.

The picture ends on a strange - again, not in a bad way - note that is meant to segue into the next film, "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," which is set for a January release. I'm curious to see where this series goes next and hope that Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland can secure the funding for the third and final film, which will likely bring back one of the original film's most beloved characters. As for now, this is a solid start to the new series. Perhaps, no "28" film will ever match the original, but something new and original like this film is the next best thing.

Review: Materialists

Image courtesy of A24. 

Marrying for love or money is question at the heart of "Materialists," the sophomore feature of Celine Song, whose recent "Past Lives" was the best debut I'd seen in a number of years. But for Lucy (Dakota Johnson), the matchmaker lead character in the film, many other qualities are examined at an almost clinical level.

When Lucy meets with clients, they break down their interests in the opposite sex to a degree that's borderline absurd - they must be "fit," they must be no taller (or shorter) than a certain height, they must make a specific amount of money, and so on. The transactions seem more like what might happen when one is buying a car rather than seeking a romantic partner.

Lucy is not particularly adept at love, or even interested in it, but she's very good at setting others up, though one of her pairings goes disastrously wrong. As the film opens, she is being celebrated at her matchmaker firm (do these things exist?) for the ninth wedding among couples she has introduced. 

At the wedding, Lucy is called upon to talk down the nervous bride, who gives a pretty humorous reason for why she ultimately wants to marry her beau. While there, Lucy runs into two men - her ex, John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor who's working for a catering business at the wedding; and Harry (Pedro Pascal), the rich brother of the groom who seems less interested in the services she offers than he is dating her specifically.

Lucy decides to give Harry a try and their relationship seems like one of comfort and low stakes. Meanwhile, Lucy remains friends with John and appears to still have feelings for him, but admits that she cannot get past his low wages and the fact that he lives with some slob roommates in a dingy apartment, the scene of one of the film's funniest moments that involves a used condom.

While "Materialists" is billed as a romantic comedy and certainly plays as such for portions of the movie, it's also too cool and sleek at other times to fit that category. And as the film moves along, it becomes more serious, especially after one of Lucy's clients has a very bad encounter with a date. 

All in all, I liked "Materialists." It's well acted, often funny, and well written. Much like "Past Lives," Song again displays the knack for some thoughtfully placed needle drops - songs by Johnny Thunders and Harry Nilsson are used intelligently here - as well as a good ear for dialogue and examinations of romantic relationships.

If it's not on the level of "Past Lives," that's probably because that film was the most impressive debut I'd seen in at least a decade. If her first film often felt like a knife in the heart, her second is more on the light and breezy side, though it's also pretty sharp in its examination of how modern Americans blend love and commerce. This is a likable and enjoyable romantic dramedy from one of American film's most talented newcomers.

Review: The Life of Chuck

Image courtesy of Neon.

There aren't that many films I would describe as special and even fewer I'd call profound, but Mike Flanagan's "The Life of Chuck" - which is based on a Stephen King novella of the same name - manages to be both. I'm tempted to not describe too much about the film's plot because I think viewers should go into it knowing as little as possible.

Suffice it to say, it's a film in three acts, although movements might be a better word to describe its three parts, especially considering the importance that music and rhythm play in the picture. On its surface, the film's latter two sections involve chapters from the life of Chuck Krantz, an accountant whose existence seems by all measures not exactly extraordinary. 

The first section - which is really the final chapter as the film goes backward in time - may or may not be some sort of pre-apocalyptic story involving a handful of characters who are baffled about signs popping up around their town celebrating Chuck's 39 years, and they assume it must have to do with his retirement from his job. Meanwhile, the internet stops working and soon afterward the cable channels. Part of California has crumbled into the sea, while other parts of the world are burning. The end, as they say, appears nigh.

The first section's primary protagonists are a teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor, great as always) and his ex (Karen Gillan) who decide that with the end possibly near, the persons with whom they'd like to spend their last moments are each other. In between their final scenes together, Ejiofor takes part in some lovely and fascinating conversations with the townspeople about lost hopes and dreams, the nature of the universe, and many other things.

Many films barely have a perspective at all, but "The Life of Chuck" is bursting with ideas. The joy of dance faces off against the love of math, of all things, and both are given room for the wonder they instill. Carl Sagan's concepts of the universe make an appearance and a famous quote by Walt Whitman - "I am large, I contain multitudes" - gets a lot of mileage here.

The second section of the film is just a fleeting moment in Krantz's life and contains one of the most joyous dance numbers of recent memory. Tom Hiddleston is terrific as Chuck in middle age. As this brief section winds down, audiences may likely have little idea where it's all going, but each section is a piece of a puzzle that provides depth for its final section.

The third and longest section is set during the childhood of Chuck (portrayed by a buoyant Benjamin Pajak), who lives with his grandparents, Sarah (Mia Sara) and Albie (Mark Hamill), who raise him as their own after his parents die. I don't want to say much more, other than all three sections are significant to the overall picture here and they come together beautifully by the film's end, which reminded me - oddly enough - of "2001: A Space Odyssey."

The film ranks among the greatest adaptations of King's works - which include "The Shining," "Stand By Me," "The Shawshank Redemption," and "Carrie." Few directors have been able to successfully translate King's work to the screen as Flanagan, who has also directed adaptations of "Doctor Sleep" and "Gerald's Game."  

"The Life of Chuck" plays with apocalyptic scenarios, but it's not science fiction, and there's sort of a ghost story, but it's far from a horror movie. It tiptoes to the line of sentimentality but avoids it and achieves pathos instead. It's ultimately a simple story when you break down the narrative, but it's thematically rich and open to interpretation. And yes, it contains multitudes.