Spencer and friends – and others – return to Jumanji. Okay threequel (part 4 if you count Zathura) that focuses on action-comedy and on bodyswap gags rather than plot. Oldsters De Vito and Glover add some kvetchy class, and series newcomer Awkwafina is a standout. CG is variable, but interesting design elements and some affection for the characters helps things along.
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An unscrupulous manager manipulates the careers of multiple music performers throughout the 60s and 70s. Awkward facsimile of the musical biopic subgenre adapted from a stage show. Some of it works (Eddie Murphy is great as a James Brown-ish blowhard) but too much is sketchy by-the-numbers genre pastiche material that doesn’t even have the benefit of actual period songs.
Zombies take over a small US town. Deadpan comedy-horror with a few meta touches. Not all of it works, and the approach is wry rather than outright funny, but there are some good ideas and images, and everyone involved seems to be having fun.
A crime syndicate-affiliated Boston hitwoman starts a gang war after protecting a child. A good central performance and some OK action anchor this very straightforward thriller in need of a stronger script less eager to make its protagonist sympathetic.
A geological event threatens global disaster. Another of Emmerich’s gently-satirical throw-em-to-the-lions iconoclastic pictures, this time playing with Mayan prophecies and CG tectonic plates shifting. Fun if you go with it.
255 Review 