Jumanji: The Next Level Delivers Some Laughs But Can't Quite Hit A High Score

The good news with Jumanji: The Next Level is that it's hard to dislike this Jake Kasdan directorial effort. How many comedy sequels can you say that about? Unfortunately, at the same time, it's also hard to really get wrapped up in this fourth entry in the Jumanji universe (yes, Jon Favreau's Zathura is apparently canon). It's not necessarily because the production is a big mess or that a singular element has gone horribly wrong in the scripting department. It's just the gags just aren't as spry as before, the adventure stuff still feels more perfunctory than it should, enough stuff comes up just short that it begins to add up after a while.

The Farewell Phenomenally Grapples With How To Say Good-Bye

When I was a kid, I thought of all the adults in my life as permanent fixtures. My Uncle's, my Grandparents, family friends, they were all there when I was born, they were there so often when I was young, why wouldn't they be like the sun or the moon and always be around? But growing up means coming to terms with the fact that everyone is mortal. Even the ones you love dearly and never want to see go. Now an adult, I thought I had long since accepted this notion but it's one thing to accept that notion and a whole other to confront it firsthand. Losing a Grandmother and a dearly beloved Uncle in the span of three years made me realize how nobody is ready to say goodbye to those people you once thought of as permanent. 

The Thoughtful Romantic-Comedy Crazy Rich Asians Is Entertaining As Heck

There's a scene a little over halfway into Crazy Rich Asians that seems like a great barometer for determining if this movie will be in your wheelhouse or not. The film's protagonist, Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), is about to go to a splashy wedding and needs to get the proper outfit for the occasion. With her former college roommate Goh Peik Lin (Awkwafina) and her boyfriend's cousin Oliver (Nico Santos) in tow, she proceeds to try on a variety of different dresses while her two companions offer critiques on her choices as a cover of Material Girl blasts in the background. Yep, this is a Clothes Shopping Montage, a staple of romantic-comedies that's been lampooned in all sorts of tv shows like Family Guy or 30 Rock over the years.

The Cast Steals The Show And Then Some In The Fun But Visually Derivative Ocean's 8

Director Gary Ross proves to be a far better filmmaker helming Ocean's 8 compared to his last two directorial efforts The Hunger Games and Free State of Jones, both of which, particularly the latter disaster, suffered from amateurish direction that heavily stilted the already struggling stories they were bringing to life. However, Ross as a filmmaker still finds himself struggling with Ocean's 8 as he (along with the cinematography by Eigil Bryld and some of the editing by Juliette Welfling) channels the visual style and rhythm of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven trilogy in a manner that ends up feeling evocative of those three films without ever being fully accurate or satisfying. It's so familiar yet distinctly not the same, it's like, as Jenny Nicholson once put it in describing a Porg toy from Target, "...waking up to everything in your house shifted a few inches to the right."