John Wick: Chapter 2

That "Chapter 2" bit in the title of this film implies a certain amount of literary aspiration. It's may be something of a herring, as most action sequels hardly aspire to the literary levels of a classified ad in the back pages of "Guns & Ammo"--but that doesn't mean this movie is bad. On the contrary, there's intelligence here, as well as the wisdom to tell a story that doesn't just rehash the plot of the first film. This installment certainly delivers its intended aspiration, which is to say, an avalanche of ass-kicking and outright murder on an industrial scale, most of it served with something close to the elan and panache that marked the original. The sequel may lack the surprises and freshness that the first film delivered--though there are a few novelties herein--but overall it succeeds on its own terms, and maybe then some as well. We've come a long way from the days when the second movie in an action series was doomed to be Van Damme-level schlock; this one works, and if they're interested in pulling the trigger again, I'd be up for it.

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.

Date Night

I was all set not to like this movie, but the combination of appealing lead actors and a well-rounded supporting cast--with one or two pitch-perfect cameos--put an otherwise run of the mill movie over the top.