Alex B

Yes, I know this film has its fair share of problems. But, if you can suspend your disbelief for some of the stupider elements, you can enjoy Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Now, to get the obvious out of the way. The writing in this film is moronic. It’s down right stupid for most of the film. But I was able to suspend my disbelief enough to be taken on the ride. I appreciate the attempt to flesh out the characters and they are better than they were in the previous film. They are still meh characters, but at least there is an attempt to flesh them out. The highlight of the film is its direction which I really latched on to. Something about it makes the film a whole lot more engaging. Otherwise, this is a very generic monster movie with dinosaurs. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom isn’t all that good, but it’s fun.

I don’t know why you would bring a bunch of toddlers to this hard PG-13 film and let them CRAWL AROUND IN THE THEATER! Some people are not fit to be parents. M3GAN 2.0 is a surprisingly solid sequel that expands and develops the first film in a decent way. The biggest flaw this film has is its exposition and dialogue. There were so many moments where my focus would start to drift as there would be uninteresting and boring exposition. Otherwise the rest of the film is pretty generic but executed well. Instead of a horror movie with a bit of cheesiness we have a spy-thriller with a lot of cheesiness. A lot of the strengths of the first film are still here. Solid characters and development, funny moments, and good direction are all the highlights. The story is really generic but we are mostly here anyway for M3GAN and her character interactions anyway. Ivanna Sakhno was the standout performance. Anytime she was on screen she stole the show. Everyone else gave a solid performance. The action was also surprisingly engaging. M3GAN 2.0 isn’t a groundbreaking sequel. It’s an action spy flick that is both silly and enjoyable.

AVP: Alien vs. Predator is such an incredibly mediocre movie. It’s completely surface level combination of these two juggernaut franchises into something so basic it’s insulting. I’ll start with the positives. One thing I’ve noticed with this director’s works is that the set designs are top notch. The effects in this film were also pretty good (most of the time) and the action was solid. This film really fails at its characters and story. I haven’t seen a film in a while that tried for so long to get me to like the characters only to completely give up half way through to focus on other aspects. The characters are a joke. They are incredibly bland and I only slightly cared for a single character and that’s it. (Also why are we trying to make Weyland likable?) Since the story is also incredibly generic and executed in the most average way possible, you don’t really care about anything that’s happening for the first half of the movie. The second half is a bit better as is the pacing as it actually focuses on the cooler aspects like actually watching our titular characters fighting each other. Even then as it went on, I began to care less and less about the action and just wanted the film to wrap up. The best character in the end probably was The Predator and even he is incredibly generic. But at least he had cool armor. Really, while watching this film, I was trying to find something I could latch onto and like about this film. I’m a pretty big Alien fan and I’m making my way through the Predator franchise right now. Even then, I found it hard to grasp anything about this film. It’s not bad, it’s a serviceable enough movie that’s just meant to be a cheesy dumb blockbuster and you enjoy because you like both franchises. However I couldn’t really enjoy this and was just waiting for it to end. Maybe if it had been R, it might have had some cool gore that would have made this film more fun (why would you take two R rated franchises and make a PG-13 rated film? That’s so stupid). Anyways AVP: Alien vs. Predator is a skip for me.

Rififi is an extremely well-crafted heist film that is expertly made and holds up remarkably well. The more I sit with this film, the more and more I began to like it. The weakest element is probably the characters. They are undeniably solid, but they are a bit typical. The major difference is in its execution and themes. Instead of glorifying these characters, it shows them as they are. I love the camera work of this film. It’s so simple and yet so elegant. The heist is incredibly well set-up and its execution is fantastic. There is this one scene where they explain what the title means and I was floored during that sequence. Such a fantastic moment and a great way to reinforce the themes of the film. I typically don’t notice this in films either but the lighting was great too. The themes are fantastic. I love how it shows these “tough” guys for what they actually are and how their choices have consequences. The story is really good as is the execution. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before but it’s done well. While watching the film, I wasn’t fully blown away but after sitting with this for a little bit, I realize just how well it was made. It’s clear why Rififi is such an influential film and it deserves all the love and praise it receives.