Posts Tagged ‘Justice Smith’

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Rosamund Pike, Isla Fisher, Dominic Sessa, Justice Smith, Morgan Freeman, Mark Ruffalo, Thabang Molaba, Ariana Goldblatt, Lizzy Caplan

Running Time: 1 hour 53 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Nine years after the sequel, Now You See Me 2 in 2016, Gangster Squad director Ruben Fleischer reunites the four horseman of magic in the third instalment aptly titled Now You See Me: Now You Don’t starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco.

In the new film some bright young characters emerge, ambitious magicians that are trying to emulate the four horseman. These are June played by Ariana Goldblatt, Bosco brilliantly played by Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) and Charlie played by Justice Smith.

J. Daniel Atlas eloquently played with enough charisma by Eisenberg recruits the young magicians to help him pull off a daring diamond heist in Antwerp, Belgium. Enter the villain.

Rosamund Pike is no stranger to playing the villain, after she played Miranda Frost in 2002’s James Bond film Die Another Day. This time the British Oscar nominee effortlessly takes on a strong South African accent to play diamond heiress Veronica Vanderberg who inherited her father’s South African diamond empire.

She has a sparkling very expensive diamond in which the magicians want to steal at a diamond auction in Antwerp. Many disappearing acts occur in which the diamond is snatched by the four horsemen and their young accomplices. They flee Belgium for a mysterious Chateau in France where they meet chief magician and illusionist Thaddeus Bradley played by Oscar winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby).

Things go south at the Chateau and soon Merritt McKinney played by Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson (The People vs Larry Flynt, The Messenger, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri) is kidnapped by the ruthless but vivacious Vanderberg.

Swiftly a fifth magician appears, Lizzy Caplan reprising her role as Luna and the entire gang head to Abu Dhabi to the Yas Marina Grand Prix circuit whereby Vanderberg Enterprises will be showcasing their new racing car. The magicians land up getting caught in a sandbox quickly filling with sand while Vanderberg seems to escape into the Arabian night.

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t has great entertainment value judging by how fill the cinema was when I saw it. It is a sleek and visually impressive film with a great ensemble cast and sufficient tricky to wow the viewers into being captivated by every sleight of hand and misdirection.

With multiple screenwriters contributing to the screenplay, the narrative is outlandish and pure escapism but that is what magic is all about.

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is pure entertainment with no violence, lots of action and loads of magic helped by a truly talented ensemble cast. Recommended viewing.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Directors: John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein

Cast: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, Rege-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Chloe Coleman, Daisy Head, Bradley Cooper

Running time: 2 hours and 14 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Thank you to UIP for the invitation for the Film Premiere held at Suncoast Cinemas on Tuesday 28^th March 2023

Spiderman: Homecoming screenwriting duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein take on the director’s chair in the big screen adaptation of the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons in a lavish fantasy adaptation entitled Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves which premiered at the South by South West Film Festival in Austin, Texas in early March 2023 https://www.sxsw.com/ .

What the directing duo perfect at the beginning is the casting in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves which features a gorgeous but funny male lead, Chris Pine (Hell or High Water, Wonder Woman) as Edgin, the manipulative hero and as the villainous and vain enemy, Forge wonderfully played with a British panache by Hugh Grant (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Florence Foster Jenkins).

In between the villain and the hero is a host of sidekicks characters including action woman Michelle Rodriguez taking a break from the Fast and Furious franchise to star as Holga, Chloe Colman to star as Edgin’s daughter Kira, screen newcomer Rege-Jean Page as the mysterious fighter Xenk, Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) as the young wizard Simon and the beautiful Sophia Lillis as the changeling Doric.

Filmed mostly in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the directing duo definitely take inspiration from HBO’s Game of Thrones and created a similar slightly medieval allegorical universe complete with dragons, both fat and vicious, mazes with strange creatures in it and wizardry galore but to make this pure fantasy epic work so brilliantly is the superb on screen chemistry between all the cast and particularly between Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez and of course between Hugh Grant and the rest of the cast as he tries to fool everyone into believing that Forge is a benevolent dictator, when in fact he is just a conman.

At 2 hours and 15 minutes, viewers will get their money’s worth in a dazzling and lavish fantasy epic which will suitably satisfy fans of the D and D games and its superb reincarnation as a cinema franchise. Most definitely the scriptwriters and directing duo had to make an impressive franchise debut which will attract fans of fantasy films and they have cleverly pivoted the storyline to attract younger viewers as they also hint at a potential sequel.

By far the funniest scene in the film is when Edgin and the gang visit the graves of dead soldiers as they try and resurrect the dead to question them about a vastly powerful helmet which can protect the wearer from pervading evil sorcery.

The film’s middle section could have been edited, but overall, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among Thieves is a fantastic family action film bound to keep fans enthralled with its spectacular visual effects. For its pure fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among Thieves gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is strictly recommended for fans of this genre.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Director: J. A. Bayona

Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Rafe Spall, Jeff Goldblum, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, Geraldine Chaplin, Ted Levine, BD Wong, Isabella Sermon, Justice Smith

Spanish director J. A. Bayona brings an impressive sense of Gothic Horror to the sequel to 2015’s Jurassic World, in the his latest film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom which is both riveting and tantalizingly watchable without reverting completely into blockbuster CGI overload. Although that said, the volcanic sequence on Isla Nuba off the coast of Costa Rica is brilliantly staged.

Familiar cast members return including Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dering who teams up with macho dinosaur wrangler Owen Grady wonderfully played by Chris Pratt whose phenomenal career path as rocketed since his casting as Peter Quill aka Star-Lord in Marvel’s The Guardians of the Galaxy.

Rafe Spall (Life of Pi) plays the villainous Eli Mills assistant to the immensely wealthy Benjamin Lockwood, played by James Cromwell (The Queen). Audiences should look out for a stand out performance by Isabella Sermon as Lockwood’s tenacious granddaughter Maisie who has to eventually contend with some monsters in her own childhood bedroom.

Watching over young Maisie is her guardian Iris played by the daughter of silent screen star Charlie Chaplin, Geraldine Chaplin (The Impossible, The Wolfman, The Age of Innocence) whom it is so refreshing to see on the big screen again.

As the dinosaurs of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom are consequently rescued just as the volcano at Isla Nuba threatens to make these ancient creatures extinct, a new threat develops on the massive Lockwood country estate in Northern California whereby director J. A. Bayona skillfully uses all the traits of Gothic Horror to add a fascinating twist to a blockbuster sequel with enough suspense to keep audiences entertained while also emphasizing the perennial issue of endangered species, something which endangered wildlife are constantly at risk of becoming in the increasingly technological 21^st century.

Audiences that enjoyed the 2015 Jurassic World, will undoubtedly love this authentic and imaginative sequel.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and recommended for audiences that harbour an abiding fascination for dinosaurs.