Movie Review - Jurassic World: Dominion

Director: Colin Trevorrow
Genre: Adventure/ Action
Runtime: 146 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Isabella Sermon, Campbell Scott, BD Wong, Omar Sy, Justice Smith
 
Description: Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures in a new Era.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 23: AN ADVENTURE MOVIE

Review: The image we have of dinosaurs today was largely shaped by Steven Spielberg’s now classic film and masterpiece “Jurassic Park”. Science is now a lot further along in its knowledge of these creatures.

In the third film in the Jurassic World trilogy and sixth in the Jurassic Park franchise, humans have learned to live with the escaped dinosaurs. Biosyn, a multinational company with good intentions, has started a reserve in the Italian Dolomites and is taking care of the global dinosaur population. However, they are particularly interested in Maisie Lockwood, a girl who is a clone of her own mother, a deceased scientist from the time that Jurassic Park was build.

Maisie lives in the forest in the U.S. with Owen and Claire, who have each found their own way of dealing with the dinosaurs. When Biosyn also appear to be responsible for the extinction of global agricultural crops and threatens to disrupt the food chain, it’s time for action. None other than Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ian Malcolm and Dr. Ellie Sattler all turn up to fight Biosyn and find out the truth.

There’s a lot going on in this film. Even with over two and a half hours on the clock, it seems to be cramming to give so much plot and so many characters space. It is therefore striking how nicely everything falls into place. The storylines of the old and new group largely run separately, but do interlock constantly. Even new characters, such as the tough Kayla Watts, are given ample space and a full role.

You would almost forget that this movie is mainly about the dinosaurs, but director Colin Trevorrow constantly uses them when they help the story along, or simply guarantee spectacular action. Trevorrow also throws in some food for thought, but doesn’t rub it in.

It is clear that the makers have an enormous love for 1993’s “Jurassic Park”. It is expressed in shots that are borrowed one-on-one from Spielberg’s masterpiece. You could see it as cheap copying or paying an homage to a film that pioneered the use of computer effects and old school animatronics. Trevorrow didn’t shy away from these either.

“Jurassic World: Dominion” is getting mixed reviews. But I look at it this way: I knew going in, that it was never going to top “Jurassic Park” and no movie in this franchise ever did, will or tried to. The plot might be a little bit so-so, and there is a lot of fan-service and nostalgia in “Jurassic World: Dominion. I loved seeing the old and new gang, together and apart. The film was highly entertaining, we got to see a bunch of dinosaurs, some we already knew and some for the first time. The action is fast paced and it didn’t bore me for one second. Is it a great movie: no, but it’s still good, enjoyable and fun. And as a “Jurassic Park” fan, I loved all the hints to the original and the fan-service. So, I won’t talk crap, because I liked the film and it entertained me.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

Netflix Friday - Volume 110

Some Netflix film tips for the weekend! And there is something for everyone, since I picked a movie for all the different genres.
 

Action: Everest (2015)
The story of New Zealand’s Robert “Rob” Edwin Hall (Jason Clarke), who on May 10, 1996, together with Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal), teamed up on a joint expedition to ascend Mount Everest.
 

Drama: Hustle (2022)
A washed-up basketball scout (Adam Sandler) discovers a phenomenal street ball player while in Spain and sees the prospect as his opportunity to get back into the NBA.
 

Comedy: The Dilemma (2011)
A man (Vince Vaughn) discovers that his best friend’s (Kevin James) wife (Winona Ryder) is having an affair.
 

Animation: Ocean Waves (1993)
As a young man returns home after his first year away at college, he recalls his senior year of high school and the iron-willed, big city girl that turned his world upside down.
 

Romance: Bright Star (2009)
The three-year romance between 19^th-century poet John Keats (Ben Wishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) near the end of his life.
 

Horror: Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)
A prequel set before the haunting of the Lambert family that reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity.
 

Science Fiction: Cloverfield (2008)
A group of friends venture deep into the streets of New York on a rescue mission during a rampaging monster attack.
 

Crime : The Constant Gardener (2005)
A widower (Ralph Fiennes) is determined to get to the bottom of a potentially explosive secret involving his wife’s (Rachel Weisz) murder, big business, and corporate corruption.
 

Thriller: Collateral (2004)
A cab driver (Jamie Foxx) finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer (Tom Cruise) as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles.
 

Documentary: This is It (2009)
A compilation of interviews, rehearsals, and backstage footage of Michael Jackson as he prepared for his series of sold-out shows in London.
 

Family: Paddington 2 (2017)
Paddington (Ben Wishaw), now happily settled with the Brown family and a popular member of the local community, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy’s 100^th birthday, only for the gift to be stolen.
 

TV Show Review - The Handmaid's Tale (Season 4)

Season: 4
Genre: Drama/ Thriller
Number of episodes: 10
Year: 2021
Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Joseph Fiennes, Max Minghella, Alexis Bledel, Anne Dowd, Bradley Whitford

Description: Set in a dystopian future, a woman is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship.

Review: It took a while before “The Handmaid’s Tale” returned with season 4. But Elisabeth Moss, who plays June, is finally back and is great as ever.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO AREN’T CAUGHT UP

This season, June manages to finally escape from the hell that’s called Gilead. After a while, she even manages to end up in Canada where she is finally reunited with her husband Luke. However, in her escape, June did not have the opportunity to take her daughter Hannah with her. She blames herself greatly for this and feels guilty towards Luke about it. Although June’s escape attempt, which she does together with some of the other handmaids, is ultimately successful for her it is obviously not going to be easy. June faces considerable hardship and loss.

So the relationship between June and Luke is what I found most interesting this season. Both are struggling with a sense of guilt about their daughter Hannah who is still trapped in Gilead. June and Luke both deal with it in a different way, but the sadness is very palpable for both of them. Meanwhile, Fred and Serena Joy are still in jail in Canada awaiting the lawsuit filed against them. Fred wants nothing more from his wife, until Serena Joy discovers that she is pregnant with his child.

Season 4 contains a few memorable scenes. Like the speech June gives in the courtroom in front of Fred and Serena, the people who made her life a living hell. But the scene that most impressed me and stuck with me is where June ruthlessly taunts Serena as to why God let Serena get pregnant according to June. Elisabeth Moss should win an Emmy for this scene alone.

But with four season already made, it’s hard to avoid a little bit of repetition. A lot of things happening, we’ve seen before.

But it’s still a great season and I highly enjoyed it. I believe the fifth season, which will come out in 2022, is the final one. Which might be for the best. I really want to know how it ends and what will happen to all the characters, good or bad.

Book Review - 13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough

Title: 13 Minutes
Series: -
Author: Sarah Pinborough
 
Description: They say you should keep you friends close and your enemies closer, but when you’re a teenage girl, it’s hard to tell them apart.

Natasha doesn’t remember how she ended up in the icy water that night, but she does know this: it wasn’t an accident, and she wasn’t suicidal. Her two closest friends are acting strangely, and Natasha turns to Becca, the best friend she dumped years before when she got popular, to help her figure out what happened. Natasha is sure her friends love her, but does that mean they didn’t try to kill her?
 
Review: A hiker finds 16-year-old Natasha dead in a river one morning. When he goes to look for his phone he thinks he sees her hand moving and decides to pull her out of the water. She has been dead for 13 minutes but she can’t remember anything. When she wakes up, she is in the hospital, having no memory of what happened to her. Natasha starts to keep a diary, to try to get her memory back. Her best friends Jenny and Hayley visit her regularly, but are behaving strangely as if they know more about what happened to Natasha.
 
After Becca hears the news of what happened to Natasha, she visits her in the hospital too. She and Natasha used to be best friends, before she dumped Becca and become the most popular girl in school. But she wants to help Natasha solve the mystery.
 
I loved the premise and the book has plenty of suspense. I appreciated this in the book. But eventually the story starts to drag a bit and becomes repetitive. There aren’t a lot of likeable characters in the story either, which makes it hard to identify with any of them, or relate to them. And however everyone is raving about the plot twist at the end, I wasn’t as enthusiastic. It’s by no means a bad book, because I did enjoy big parts of the story. But the negatives I have for “13 Minutes” are pretty important aspects for whether I love or hate a book.
 
I would still recommend this book to whoever loves a YA thriller, because most fans of this genre really love “13 Minutes”. I just wasn’t as enthusiastic about it as most.
 
Rating: 2,5/ 5

Movie Review - The Requim

Director: Le-Van Kiet
Genre: Horror/ Thriller
Runtime: 89 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Alicia Silverstone, James Tupper

Description: A couple (Alicia Silverstone, James Tupper) on a romantic getaway find themselves stranded at sea when a tropical storm sweeps away their villa. In order to survive, they are forced to fight the elements, while sharks circle below.

Review: Big contender for worst film of 2022 is “The Requin”. I always love a shark movie, and most are bad, but still enjoyable. This one was just bad.

Jaelyn enjoys a vacation with her husband Kyle. This turns into a nightmare when a tropical storm wipes out their stay by the sea. The couple is stranded at sea where they come face to face with sharks. Due to a seriously injured Kyle, it is up to Jaelyn to rescue them from their predicament.  

 
It turns out the be more a survival movie than it is a shark movie. The effects are terrible, as is the acting. The dialogues are cringeworthy and the film makes no sense either. Before the storm arrives, the couple is warned and offered a different place to stay, but are told they don’t have to worry because these storms happen often. But the villa they are staying in easily floods and break, and the entire villa drifts off to sea. And nobody comes to look for them, when it’s obvious they are gone. And does it really only take one night to drift off that far into the open water? I doubt it. And they make some pretty weird decisions while trying to survive.

At least they tried, right? I watched it, so you don’t have to. Please, skip it, it’s 90 minutes I’ll never get back.

Rating: 0,5/ 5

00s Movie Review - Super Troopers

Director: Jay Chandrasekhar
Genre: Crime/ Comedy/ Action
Runtime: 100 minutes
Year: 2001
Starring: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, André Vippolis, Joey Kern, Geoffrey Arend, Erik Stolhanske, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Marisa Coughlan

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 22: A MOVIE THAT HAS A CULT STATUS
 
Description: Five Vermont state troopers, avid prankers with a knack for screwing up, try to save their jobs and out-do the local police department by solving a crime.

Review: “Super Trooper” is the kind of movie which could best be enjoyed when your stoned or drunk. A film you should watch with a couple of friends. And I watched it fully sober and on my own and hated it!

I know this movie isn’t to be taken too seriously, but even when, I don’t get why this film has the cult status it has.

We follow a group of State Troopers in Vermont, who are constantly at odds with the local police. The town is far too small for so many law enforcement officers, so they are constantly bored. And that’s where the shenanigans start.

I really lost interest very early on in the film didn’t find it very funny and wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone. I think this is a very unpopular opinion, because the rating for “Super Troopers” on IMDb is very high. This movie just wasn’t for me.

Rating: 2/ 5

Netflix Friday - Volume 109

Some Netflix film tips for the weekend! And there is something for everyone, since I picked a movie for all the different genres.
 

Action: John Wick: Part 3 – Parabellum (2019)
John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is on the run after killing a member of the international assassins’ guild, and with a $14 million price tag on his head, he is the target of hit men and women everywhere.
 

Drama: Casino (1995)
A tale of greed, deception, money, power and murder occur between two best friends: a mafia enforcer (Joe Pesci) and a casino executive (Robert De Niro) compete against each other over a gambling empire, and over a fast-living and fast-loving socialite (Sharon Stone)
 

Comedy: Together Together (2021)
When a young loner (Patti Harrison) becomes the gestational surrogate for a single man in his 40s (Ed Helms) the two stranges come to realize this unexpected relationship will challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love.
 

Animation: Only Yesterday (1991)
A twenty-seven-year-old office worker travels to the countryside while reminiscing about her childhood in Tokyo.
 

Romance: Cold Mountain (2003)
In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier (Jude Law) embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart (Nicole Kidman).
 

Horror: Things Heards & Seen (2021)
An artist (Amanda Seyfried) relocates to the Hudson Valley and begins to suspect that her marriage has a sinister darkness, one that rivals her new home’s history.
 

Science Fiction: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the 74^th Hunger Games sparks rebellion in the Districts of Panem.
 

Crime : Goodfellas (1990)
The story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and his life in the mob, covering his relationship with his wife Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco) and his partner Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) in the Italian-American crime syndicate.
 

Thriller: Small Crimes (2017)
A disgraced former cop (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), fresh off a six-year prison sentence for attempted murder, returns home looking for redemption but winds up trapped in the mess he left behind.
 

Documentary: The Biggest Little Farm (2018)
Documentarian John Chester and his wife Molly work to develop a sustainable farm on 200 acres outside of Los Angeles.
 

Family: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
A young boy (Freddie Highmore) wins a tour through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, led by the world’s most unusual candy maker (Johnny Depp)