Argylle

Silly, cute and fun. see, this is why you have to take a movie’s aspirations into account. If you approach this flick with the expectation that it will be a towering work of masterful cinema, then you have missed the point from the first few moments. Clearly, we’re in the realm of fluffy entertainment, and given that parameter, this entry achieves what it aims for. Bryce Dallas Howard is the greatest strength here; she’s adorable from her first scene and it’s her presence that makes everything go here. Even when she loses a touch of that luster midway through the story—there’s a tactical error in terms of characterization at that point, but it’s not fatal—Howard still brings enough charm and funny vibes to carry the tale to its satisfying conclusion. Also, there’s a cat who plays a big role, so that’s guaranteed fun right there. No new filmmaking epoch gets started here, but you’ll have a good time with this one if you let it be what it is. Discover that secret and you’ll find the key to being a good movie watcher. 

Jurassic World: Dominion

The gang's all here. I suppose that's a good thing, and I found the presence of the original cast members an enjoyable part of this outing. The action set pieces are also quite good. And I appreciated the story's vision of a modern world where dinosaurs are just a part of the usual landscape, even to the point where you're feeding them at the local pond like the ducks; it makes sense given the progression charted by the previous movies. (As we know, things can spread quickly in this world.) So there's plenty to enjoy in this work. But it also comes across as very much rehashed, recycled, thin on motivation and, ultimately, not especially impactful. The spectacle of realistic looking dinosaurs fighting each other--not to mention the human actors--on the screen just can't have the same impact anymore. It really make sense to let this thing--to say nothing of those things--be a thing of the past, a thing we can appreciate as an object of history and memory, rather than as something that was kept alive long past the time when it should have gone to its rest. Such is life, and it's time here to let life find its way to that end.

Rocketman

Thanks to some unfortunate scheduling, this outing suffers from an inevitable comparison to Bohemian Rhapsody, that other, at least superficially similar '70s rock-icon bio. There is a key difference, though, in that this work's "filmed stage musical" approach doesn't work quite as well as a straightforward narrative treatment of Sir Elton's story might have. Furthermore, the device of telling the story through the artist's songs--without much concern for their temporal sequence, for anyone old enough to be familiar with the discography--makes the life story seem somewhat muddled. Egerton's acting performance--playing someone thoroughly well-known to most of the audience, so a challenge there--is strong, though his singing voice doesn't really match John's very well. And the representation comes with certain other veracity issues, even given--or perhaps because of--the subject's clear participation in the production. (One obvious example: movie Elton never goes as bald as the real-life rocker did). Ultimately the film relies heavily upon the goodwill viewers have for the music; as that resource exists in abundance, this film edges more towards positive territory. It doesn't shoot into orbit, but it flies just high enough for most fans.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Standard-issue dinosaur movie. The plot lines present here are as obvious as the plates on a stegosaur's back, so don't go into this one looking to be surprised. Indeed, some elements are so thoroughly recycled--the bedroom sequence recalls the first movie's kitchen sequence so precisely that one wonders if it was meant to be an homage--that views will be forgiven if they believe their own movie-watching past has come back to life (without benefit of genetics). Thankfully, the leads are likeable; that goes a long way to making this effort less annoying than it might otherwise be. You're just left, at the end--or long before that, really--to wonder: isn't anyone ever going to learn anything?

Jurassic World

Not bad. That doesn’t sound like a bang-up review, but this effort could have been much, much worse than it turned out to be. It might have been nice if there had been even more explicit recognition of the stupidity of going down the same rabbit hole again and again--including that idea’s meta aspects--but again, that would be raising the expectations much too high. Keep the expectations humble with this one, and you just get a satisfying action movie experience.

50/50

You expect a story about a young guy dealing with cancer to give you schmaltz, and there's a dose of that here. But there's also a lot of sharp humor, believable characters--including great interplay between Seth Rogen and the ubiquitous Joseph Gordon-Levitt--and truth in storytelling, all of which come together to form a deeply satisfying viewing experience

Terminator: Salvation

The machine in question, with this movie franchise, may as well be a copier--an old copier with a lot of worn parts and an overused imager. What do you get out of that sort of machine? A copy, yes, but a faded facsimile, one that resembles your original piece, but is tough to read, loses parts of its original whole, and often isn't good enough to get the job done. So it is with the Terminator films: there's some good stuff here, and you never get a bad performance from Christian Bale. But we've seen this premise, these themes, those iconic symbols (and even specific lines of dialogue) too many times before. Their impact has faded.