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Boston Globe
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Jurassic World Rebirth' pits ScarJo against T-Rex in a frustrating franchise entry
Since then, we've been treated to 2018's 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' and 2022's ' Koepp has been quite busy as of late, doing double duty for Steven Soderbergh with last year's ghost story, ' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The Quetzalcoatlus in 'Jurassic World Rebirth." Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment Advertisement It's been 32 years since dinosaurs have made their comeback, an opening screen reveals. But now they only exist somewhere at the Equator. People became bored once the creatures were commonplace, causing not only theme park bankruptcies but also the reemergence of dinosaur extinction. In an attempt to juice up interest, a group of scientists tried to reboot dinos by creating a slew of new species. This goes horribly awry, forcing a worldwide ban on visiting the island that currently holds these mutations. In the film's tense opening sequence, an errant Snickers wrapper causes an unlikable scientist working on this project to get devoured. Product placement just isn't what it used to be, though one could argue that this sequence was akin to the candy bar's 'you're not you when you're hungry' ads. Advertisement Scarlett Johansson as skilled covert operations expert Zora Bennett. Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment Enter another brand that begins with S, ScarJo. She plays Zora, a mercenary whose latest assignment is to go to the aforementioned off-limits island for a secret mission. A Big Pharma bro named Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) is willing to pay big bucks for the job, so Zora enlists her most trusted colleague, Duncan Kincaid (Ali), to accompany her. Also on hand is nerdy paleontologist, Dr. Loomis, played by actor du jour, Jonathan Bailey (' Speaking of the Master of Suspense,' 'Jurassic World Rebirth' introduces a MacGuffin so preposterous that even Hitch would find it implausible—and he coined the phrase that describes the ultimately useless thing everyone in the plot is concerned with in a movie. This time it's a heart disease drug that can save millions of people's lives. Krebs wants to be the first to manufacture it, so his company can corner the market. Advertisement That idea doesn't sound far-fetched until you get to the part where the drug ingredients include DNA samples from live dinosaurs, one each from the classes of earth, sea, and air dwellers. The collection device is actually quite clever, and Edwards and Koepp craft more than one effective action sequence involving its use. From left, Xavier Dobbs (David Iacono), Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) and Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) in 'Jurassic World Rebirth." Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment Had 'Jurassic Park Rebirth' stayed solely with this team and their impossible mission, it might have worked as a summer action movie. But Koepp introduces a family of stranded boat passengers who are so one-dimensional and obnoxious that the film stops dead whenever they're onscreen. I'm willing to believe that ScarJo and company would risk their lives on the Equator, because they're greedy and it's their job. I do not, for one second, buy that Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) would drag his college-age and grammar school-age daughters (Luna Blaise and Audrina Miranda) across the Atlantic in a boat barely bigger than the Orca from 'Jaws.' Nor do I buy that Reuben would do so with his eldest daughter's companion (David Iacono) on board, as he's best described by a word that rhymes with 'buckfoi.' Kincaid saves these characters from their vessel after it's been decimated by an ocean-dwelling dinosaur, saddling us with them for the rest of the movie. Weren't they aware that the area they were sailing in was declared forbidden by every country in the world? Every character in this film is paper-thin, but Koepp gets more mileage from the camaraderie between Zora and Kincaid than Reuben and his kids. We get the obligatory scene where the two mercenaries catch up with one sentence descriptions of their prior individual traumas. Ali does a more convincing job as a hired gun than Johansson, but they're both upstaged by Bailey, who brings a refreshing take on the science geek. Advertisement Jonathan Bailey as paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis in 'Jurassic World Rebirth." Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment Bailey's expressions of wonder as he discovers his newfound bravery on this mission are delightful. The film's best scene occurs when he touches a new dinosaur for the first time. Alexandre Desplat's impressive score, which incorporates John Williams's familiar motifs, swells underneath the moment. Believe it or not, Even more surprising, the plot ultimately boils down to a battle between capitalism and socialism. You'll never guess which side wins. The true stars of 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' the dinosaurs, are often left unidentified; we're not sure if they're real or some genetically engineered, made-up monstrosity. The film is so disinterested that it simply throws them onscreen with occasional bits of human beings stuck between their teeth. Rather than chew on disposable characters, those dinosaurs should have eaten their agents instead. ★★ JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH Directed by Gareth Edwards. Written by David Koepp. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, Audrina Miranda, David Iacono. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. 134 min. PG-13 (dinosaurs are messy eaters) Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
Telegraph
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Alfred Hitchcock Presents – the Musical: The master of suspense deserves more craziness than this
Airing from 1955 to 1962, the US TV anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents famously began with the jowly 'Master of Suspense' greeting viewers with the words 'Good evening' and introducing that night's spine-tingler. This intriguing yet disappointing musical spin-off also begins with that phrase, but it's cosily imparted in a wry jazz number by the cast, converging in a mock Fifties TV studio. 'What makes an evening good?' they croon. I don't know, but throwing a confusing clump of inter-cut storylines into a gloop of songs struggles to qualify as the right answer. The show's late composer Steven Lutvak – the New Yorker behind the Tony-winning A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder – apparently sought the blessing of the series' producer Norman Lloyd, but was met with a horrified response. Persistence in the face of resistance can pay off – witness PL Travers warily consenting to a stage musical adaptation of Mary Poppins before her death. But while this slick, big-budget venture attests to the talent of those involved – with John Doyle directing and employing a monochrome design faithful to the series' aesthetic – it doesn't convincingly argue the case for making the jump to tune-filled theatricals. Indeed, if the show, with script by Jay Dyer, also an American, misses a trick by leaving Hitch out of the frame, it also oddly lacks the maestro's artful use of sound. Whether it was the frenzied violins in Psycho or the avian noise-fest of The Birds, the auteur's vision was allied to his nerve-jangling auditory daring. Lutvak's contribution, however, is almost lulling in its sweet, period-pastiche lushness, the lyrics sometimes pulse-slowingly pat too. The show takes valid note of the fact that everyday passions can fuel crimes, and the aura of controlled charm catches the deceptive nature of affluent post-war American society. But it's too choppy, by turns earnestly heartfelt and lightly comic, for its own good. I wanted more of the crazed edge that defines Sally Ann Triplett here as a woman loving the spotlight of police attention after drab years of being a babysitter. There's memorable operatic mania too from Scarlett Strallen as a housewife whose sure touch in the kitchen proves a recipe for lethal success. Those two numbers take their cue from season 1's The Baby Sitter and season 3's Lamb to the Slaughter (derived from Dahl), and buffs may spot other tales from the TV series – here 'Man with a Problem', there 'The Woman Who Wanted to Live'. Other scenarios swim in and out of view – a botched blackmail attempt yields a droll number 'Where did I go wrong?', part-warbled by a trussed-up hoodlum – without the plot-focus being sustained long enough to engross us fully. The constant fixing of lights and cameras distracts from the action too. A quirky summation of the series overall, factoring in the impact on popular culture – a touch of James Graham, perhaps – might have worked better. That said, a straightforward staging of choice episodes, with music kept to a tactical minimum, could work even better still; sometimes it's wisest not to think outside the box. Until April 12;
