Ready Player One was an all around fun and entertaining sci-fi action-adventure from Steven Spielberg that does a wonderful job of throwing nostalgia in your face, but the filmmakers seemed to be having a hell of a time with the material, and the story itself was compelling.
Rampage is not great yet still a fun and entertaining enough action film that features Dwayne Johnson pretty much playing a similar character to that featured in San Andreas, but still his charisma does go a long way.
A Quiet Place isn’t a standout movie on its own, but does have a few standout moments and a few good performances including John Krasinski really coming into his own, leaving behind his character from The Office behind.
Jack Reacher is a well made suspense-thriller featuring a great performance from producer/star Tom Cruise and his supporting cast members. However, while the story starts off with incredible tension the ultimate motives by the villain came off as weak. Even so, this is an entertaining movie with great stunts and action scenes.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is another successful entry into the long-running franchise. There are some fun nods to the original series and previous films, yet makes a mark in its own right. Tom Cruise once again is incredible with his stunt work and the villain this time around was at least devious enough.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is easily the best of the series with the original and third movie after it. The action is intense, the suspense well done and the comedy is right on the money without going over-the-top. Although Tom Cruise deserves a fair amount of credit, I’m giving some of the film’s success to live action newcomer Brad Bird bringing his expertise that has made Pixar so successful into a new world.
Mission: Impossible III is a nice change-up from the lame sequel with a better emotional core for Ethan Hunt as a character and Cruise seemed far more at ease in the role compared to M:I-2.
Mission: Impossible II is easily my least favorite of the five movies in the series, not due to any technical issues, but Woo’s style did not fit in with the core feeling of a Mission: Impossible, not to mention Tom Cruise, as great and deadicated of an actor as he is, looked ridiculous performing kung-fu moves.
Mission: Impossible may be dated in terms of the technology used and some of the dialogue was clunky in order to set up some of the story, but I still was entertained by this first outing of what would become a long-running franchise with Cruise the perfect actor to steer it.
Pacific Rim: Uprising is a visually impressive but vapidly empty sci-fi action-er with mostly paper-thin characters, though they try giving Boyega more to work with, but I’m kind of over destruction porn and the third act takes it up a notch and an ending that sequel-baits.
Tomb Raider might be the exception to the rule of an actually good video game adaptation, and not in a so bad it’s good like the Jolie version. I genuinely enjoyed the action sequences and Alicia Vikander really embodied Lara Croft in the character’s current form, quite well.
The Hurricane Heist could’ve been a great B-movie action-er but outside of some genuinely funny moments, this is the sort of plot I’ve seen many times over the years, most of them destined for the DTV market, where this one should have landed. As it is, this is not in the least terrible and probably passably entertaining at times.
Unsane might not be the perfect or even greatest psychological thriller to come down the pike, it is a well made film, especially considering director Steven Soderbergh used an iPhone to shoot. Beyond the experimental aspect, the performance from Claire Foy was great.
Escape Plan is a fun throwback to the 80s and 90s action genre culminated with starring the two biggest actors of that era. Although neither one of them are at the top of their game, this is still an enjoyable flick well worth at least one viewing if only to see Stallone and Schwarzenegger fight.
Forrest Gump is a wonderful and uplifting drama-comedy that lets viewers see the world through the eyes of an innocent and completely sincere man. Was it Best Picture good, especially over The Shawshank Redemption? Probably not, but I have no problem with it winning.