Movie Review #4975 : JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION.

Sixth sojourn in the Jurassic franchise and it’s a right royal rampage of dinosaury spectacular (as they always are) with the real stars as usual being the theropods themselves - Jenny called it ‘a gloriously wonderful bunch of bullsh*t’ which pretty much sums the proceedings up.

New leads from the reboots meet old leads from the originals and we have dinosaurs and man trying to co-exist which we all know is not such a good idea or at least should know after five previous outings. Enter another megalomaniac trying to take over the world using our dinos as weapons and all mayhem breaks lose when things go awry as they have a habit of doing in Jurassicky movies. It’s all a little tedious for a bit and the dinos may as well have been rabid chipmunks but once we get back to nature with raptors shaking the undergrowth, T-rexes thumping the turf towards terrified humans and dilophosauri squirting their nasty stuff in your face, it all returns to the familiar tension that these movies are reknown for. Good to see grand old man of kiwi actors Sam Neill back in the hot seat, joined by Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and BD Wong from the original with a few new characters through in to boot.

All performances good especially the three-way dino showdown at the end and as the sun sets, there’s no real hint of yet another sequel but then there is nothing to say there won’t be either! Lotsa fun as always.

Overall 7.5/10.

And you could be forgiven for thinking all I do is watch movies; if I could make a living at it I would.

This is a modern-day Tarantino-esque western on Netflix in the vein of Kill Bill and Django Unchained but without the comedic bits of the latter. Which means we’re pretty much left with just the violent bits and there are plenty, including beatings, shootings, slicings, explodings and various other bits of other hapless mayhem.

Amongst it all though is a reasonably good story that jaunts along without being overly-complicated, and we just know there’s a secret twist to be revealed at the end. Basically, young boy wronged grows up to track down and mete out vengeance on he who wronged, gathering a host of rather colourful characters along the way.

Idris Elba is probably the best known name in the cast, playing a nasty bad guy although the other names I don’t recognise apart from Damon Wayans Jr who looks exactly like his old man. Good performances all round with a script that gives freedom and license to the supporting crew which brings the story to life via a myriad of animated antics.

​Nice vivid landscapes against rich blue skies top off the proceedings. This one I think is an 8.5/10.
​​

Agatha Christie outing on Netflix with all the classic whodunnit ingredients: highly dysfunctional rich family, hidden agendas, despised intruders, red herrings and a gumshoe engaged to solve the mystery, which of course he ultimately does.

Lotsa twists and turns as we run through the proceedings, flicking our suspicions from one possible culprit to another while knowing full well it’s usually the most unlikely character who turns out to be the killer.

Good performances from veterans Glenn Close and Terence Stamp with X-Files’ Gillian Anderson turning up in a most unflattering brunette wig! The rest of the cast is adequate but a few go a little unnecessarily OTT and we’re left wondering whether they’re being set up to be the killer or merely overacting. And it doesn’t actually take too much to figure the culprit yet the conclusion is a bit unexpected and perhaps even a little disturbing.

Set in mid50s England, the cinematography is suitably gloomy and the depiction that ‘it’s always raining’ probably pretty close to the mark. Amusing albeit routine but one to check out for Agatha fans. 

Dutch WWII movie on Netflix which is essentially three tales that bisect at varying stages. There’s the German soldier, the Dutch doctor’s family & the downed Allied glider crew each with their own story, all built around the Battle of Scheldt, the offensive to wrest Antwerp from German control and open it up to Allied shipping.

Gritty but not bloody, violent but not OTT, it resists the temptation to descend into shock tactics but does portray well the carnage of war and the horrendous waste of human life. One wrong step in any direction and it would have spelt the end for each of the three main protagonists with numerous comrades falling by the wayside during various melees.

Cinematography is the usual dark European fare but it uses the illumination of explosions to great effect.

No big climax at the end just a carry on as you were segment that fades out with the customary what happened notes.

Didn’t recognise any of the names but then given I’m not familiar with the Dutch movie industry I didn’t expect to.

Well worth a look for war movie fans.