The Kissing Booth 2 Review

Kissing Booth 2

Dir: Vince Marcello

Starring: Joey King, Jacob Elordi, Joel Courtney, Taylor Zakhar Perez, Meganne Young, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Molly Ringwald

Film has painted the high school drama in many ever-changing strokes of emotions. While the stories today may not echo the same world settled in the visions of John Hughes, the underlying conflicts for young people are still present and far more complicated. Experiencing the many facets of love, making choices both confident and vulnerable, and finding the person you want to be past those fleeting moments inside the safety of the high school halls are still valuable lessons to explore.

“The Kissing Booth” is back to explore more of these teenage issues with a heavy scope of sappiness and slapstick. However, for Elle (Joey King), who just had the best summer of her life with her new beau Noah (Jacob Elordi), high school senior year is complicated by having to prepare for college, balance a changing relationship with her best friend Lee (Joel Courtney) and his new girlfriend Rachel (Meganne Young), and handle the strains of long-distance love while Noah goes to school across the country at Harvard. 

It doesn’t take long for the drama of these feelings to take hold. As the strain on the relationships in Elle’s life take hold, with a girl named Chloe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) garnering much of Noah’s attention in college and a new boy at school named Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez) strumming his way into a partnership with Elle for a dance competition, everything gets complicated and confusing, both for the characters in the film and the viewers at home.

There is so much going on in “The Kissing Booth 2” that even with a 2 hour and 10-minute running time, it still feels overstuffed with rambling premises. We have evolving character development from the first film, new characters to meet and insert into the storyline, side stories to explore with supplemental characters, a video game-dance competition, a Halloween school dance where tempers flare, and a heated Thanksgiving dinner where all the held back words are unleashed. We move from happy, quickly edited montages of fun and silliness to sad, long cuts of characters gazing into the sadness of their counterpart’s social media on cellphones, back and forth, over and over. 

With so much being packed into the narrative suitcase, it’s strange that the movie still feels so empty. The safety-net storytelling, where characters fall but not too hard or complications arise but nothing a perfectly timed pop song can’t resolve, becomes overwhelmingly contrived and extremely predictably. 

Character growth is so important for sequels, especially in matters of youth where growth happens at exponential speed. The characters here rarely have those moments of maturity, forced or otherwise, that happens in films like this. The harshest reality that exists in this film boils down to Elle having to decide where to go to college. Does her allegiance align with her boyfriend or her best friend? This question is proposed early then completely disappears, only to arrive at the tail end of the film for a resolve that can only be described as a “cop-out”.

Still, there is a charm and sweetness achieved with “The Kissing Booth 2”, one that is often preferred for many movie watchers perhaps especially during this time in our world. Joey King and Joel Courtney accomplish impressive chemistry as best friends throughout the film, with Mr. Courtney going full throttle with the slapstick elements in a scene that finds him rushing across school campus to protect his best friend from embarrassment. It’s funny and cute, one of those scenes that always seems fitting in a school daze comedy. Joey King has an abundance of charm, her performance is a major highlight of the movie. The rare appearance from parental figure Molly Ringwald, playing Lee and Noah’s mom, floods nostalgia into the film from the 80’s films that laid the groundwork for the teen drama. 

“The Kissing Booth 2” will definitely appeal to some viewers looking for an easy and safe escape into a teen universe that is rarely threatening and often more concerned with sweet and silly sentiments of youthful exuberance. However, the lack of exploration into the real complications and struggles faced by young people keeps this film from being much more than a fleeting moment in the hallways of teen movies. 

Monte’s Rating

2.00 out of 5.00

Jumanji: The Next Level Review

Jumanji: The Next Level

Dir: Jake Kasdan

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Colin Hanks, Danny Glover, Danny DeVito, and Nick Jonas

What started with a mystical jungle board game in the ‘90s, then reinvented to an adventure video game for a new modern audience, the mischievous “Jumanji” continues to play its wicked games with a group of young people who narrowly escape being entrapped inside it forever in “Jumanji: The Next Level”. 

The sequel to the 2017 reboot, directed again by Jake Kasdan, continues the adventure with the same cast, adding three new players to the mix with the grumpy duo of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover and a thieving in-game burglar played by Awkwafina, and much of the same thematic adventure storytelling that made the 2017 film such a hit with audiences. 

The young group of friends who barely escaped Jumanji have returned to normal life, graduating high school and moving to different colleges, though they still remain close friends after their video game adventure. Spencer (Alex Wolff) however is having trouble adjusting in New York City after leaving his larger-than-life video game personality Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson). Spencer is also struggling to maintain a relationship with his girlfriend Martha (Morgan Turner), who helped him inside Jumanji as Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan). After coming home for the holidays Spencer is tempted by Jumanji to return to play the game one more time, leaving Spencer’s friends to return to the game to try and save him.

Returning for the fun and laughs is the lively cast lead by the charismatic Dwayne Johnson, the hilarious talents of Kevin Hart and Jack Black, and the spirited Karen Gillan.  This cast is a major reason this film, which often retreads much of what it does well in the first film, works so well. The chemistry of the group, who are game to do the silly stuff with the most serious face, keeps the film very lighthearted, entertaining, and fun. It has an odd Saturday morning cartoon tone. 

As the film likes to reinstate numerous times, “the game has changed”. It has, well…it wants to…but it never fully deviates in any way that would cause the film to stray too far from the formula that found success a few years ago. It has changed some of the flaws from the first film, this time strengthening the big bad guy known here as Jurgen the Brutal (Rory McCann) and allowing the lone female actioner Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) more time to lead the group. Also, a nice narrative touch found in a body of water that allows the video game characters to switch avatar personalities provides the funniest moments in the film.

Still, this doesn’t prevent “Jumanji: The Next Level” from feeling very familiar and more formulaic than the last outing. Some scenes here are directly replicated from the last movie, replace CGI hippos with CGI anacondas or squabbling young people with irritable old people and repeat scenes that worked before. Still, the focus here is fun and laughs, and even though the film doesn’t try to reinvent the story it proudly understands its own entertainment value. 

Monte’s Rating

3.00 out of 5.00

Zombieland: Double Tap Review

Zombieland: Double Tap

Dir: Ruben Fleischer

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, and Zooey Deutch

It’s been a decade since “Zombieland” brought a humorous and horror-filled spin to the living dead mythology, crafting a film that would become a shining moment for the overabundant zombie subgenre of horror.

The film introduced a group of rag-tag survivors living in an apocalyptic world who form a makeshift family while battling hordes of zombies roaming throughout the U.S. Led by Tallahassee, a fantastic Woody Harrelson hamming it up with glee, and assisted by Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin, each with a city-specific name, “Zombieland” had enough gore, enough good laughs, and more than enough fun to execute a horror-comedy effectively.

It’s amazing that in today’s oversaturated, sequel-ready film world that “Zombieland: Double Tap” would take a decade to come to life. While it’s been 10 years in real life, with an Oscar win for Ms. Stone and some performance nominations for Harrelson and Eisenberg, the film doesn’t skip a beat in stepping right back into the zombie world with all the major players returning including some new friends tagging along for the fun.

Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are looking for a place to call home, after battling a group of zombies with all manner of weaponry they lay claim to an abandoned White House. While Columbus and Wichita work on their blossoming romantic relationship and Tallahassee seems content making modifications on his vehicle, Little Rock is having growing pains coming to terms with life in Zombieland.

“Zombieland: Double Tap” is trying to check all the boxes that helped turn the first film into a cult classic. While trying to bring the fun horror moments, which it does with slow-motion living dead carnage and improved super zombies with a particularly clever name, along with heaping amounts of humor, mostly bragging banter from Woody Harrelson and the scene-stealing role of Zooey Deutch playing a dimwitted survivor named Madison, this sequel does a good job of focusing on having as much fun as it possibly can.

While it does a good job of distracting for a quick 99-minute run time, the film lacks any cohesive sense of narrative direction; where the first film focused on the group dynamic and how one would survive in a world filled with flesh-eating zombies, this film becomes a road trip film that never really knows where it’s going. Even when it arrives at its eventual destination in the final act, the film doesn’t know how it got there or what to do to wrap everything up. Part of this is because of the lack of chemistry written for the characters and also because the film never seems to aim for these specific narrative results, this sequel feels wholly content trying to recreate everything that made fans love the original. While it entertains just enough, it doesn’t have the same memorable quality of the original film.

“Zombieland: Double Tap” may not have much direction but it brings back all the familiar humor and horror that made the original film such a hit. It also makes sure to add some welcome characters, like Rosario Dawson playing an Elvis loving fangirl named Nevada, and fresh gags, like a funny look at zombie deaths from around the world, to make it feel new even though it doesn’t really do anything new at all. 

Monte’s Rating

2.75 out of 5.00

The Secret Life of Pets 2 Review

The Secret Life of Pets 2

Dir: Chris Renaud and Jonathan del Val

Starring: Patton Oswalt, Kevin Hart, Eric Stonestreet, Jenny Slate, Tiffany Haddish, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, and Harrison Ford

I once took care of a small puppy, Bode, for a friend over a long weekend. Bode was a rambunctious little one; he loved running for walks, chasing the ball for what seemed like constant hours, and tugging on the chewing rope to the point that you could almost lift him off the ground. Bode also loved my brand-new swede couch and escaping from the makeshift sleeping pen that I would make for him at night. Needless to say, after a long weekend, my swede couch was never the same.

The Manhattan apartment pets return for more escapades in “The Secret Life of Pets 2”, an easy-going sequel that offers a few laughs for both grown-ups and kids while also quickly occupying the 86-minute running time with an amusing mix of stories. It’s one of those lazy weekend movie excursions that will put a smile on the faces of everyone in the family.

All the animal culprits are back.  Tiny dog Max (Patton Oswalt) is finally friendly with Duke (Eric Stonestreet), the big dog that joined the family in the first film. However, they have some new humans to deal with this time around, one of which is a little baby who Max has grown to love…and over protect from the scary world around them. The fluffy bunny Snowball (Kevin Hart), whose confidence has grown to superhero proportions, also returns, along with other friends, for new adventures that bring them all together to battle an evil circus promoter named Sergei (Nick Kroll).

“The Secret Life of Pets 2” starts off fairly familiar but quickly moves in an interesting direction by separating the storytelling style into something that feels more like an anthology instead of one cohesive storyline. The subjects of each story involve the three best characters from the first film, the tepid Max, the brazen Snowball, and the independent Pomeranian Gidget (Jenny Slate). Each has their own adventures that loop into the climatic finale, it fits nicely together in the end even if it doesn’t connect too well during the journey. Still, the writers do a nice job of giving these three characters a connective feature that has them adopt different personas in order to move the story forward; Gidget must take the form cat in order to invade an apartment filled with felines, Snowball moonlights as a superhero in order to save animals in danger, and Max finds an unlikely mentor in a farm dog named Rooster (Harrison Ford) who has all the qualities Max doesn’t have. 

The conflict for these characters shows up a little too late in the story to really have the menace to make the third act more exciting, but it doesn’t feel like that was a high priority for this film at all. While “The Secret Life of Pets 2” may have a few hiccups along the way, the overall feeling is one that is purely fun. If you are looking for a better review of this movie before your next family cinema adventure…every elementary school child was laughing and cheering throughout this film. For a cartoon sequel, that’s the best review you could have.

Monte’s Rating

3.00 out of 5.00

The Equalizer 2

The Equalizer 2

Dir: Antoine Fuqua

Starring: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Bill Pullman, and Melissa Leo

The avenging hero is a classic cinematic archetype that has been represented as a lone samurai, a silent gunslinger, and a vigilante law enforcer; it’s a character that functions to offer that satisfactory pleasure of watching terrible people find their comeuppance with violent, brutal actions. These kind of heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and watching them in all their different formats can be either a tedious lesson in gratuitous violence or an intriguing insight into the composition of human behavior and emotion. The film catalog of director Antoine Fuqua is spotted with these characters, Mr. Fuqua even offered his version of the classic vigilante posse film with the remake of the seminal western “The Magnificent Seven”.

Denzel Washington returns for his fourth outing with Fuqua with “The Equalizer  2”, the follow-up about a justice seeking loner who can disassemble an entire room of bad guys while keeping track of time on his wrist watch. “The Equalizer” was a film that worked mostly because of its simplistic approach to the story and because it was fronted by the talent of Denzel Washington who can make any movie better. “The Equalizer 2” offers another dedicated performance but struggles with making a story worth returning for.

Robert “Mac” McCall (Denzel Washington) has transitioned to another town, taking up occupation as a Lyft driver. On the daily Mac transports people around the city, hearing different happy moments of their lives but also encountering some pretty terrible people along the way, most of these encounters don’t end well for the terrible people. Mac helps the people in his apartment complex, specifically a young man named Miles (Ashton Sanders) who is being coerced into joining the local gang. Tragedy strikes as Mac’s old friend is killed, leading him to track down the killers responsible.

 Vigilante films are structured fairly similarly, however it’s not so much the story that makes these films interesting but rather the character that moves the film into intriguing territory. Characters like Mac in this film, The Bride from “Kill Bill”, Jack Carter from “Get Carter”, Travis Bickle from “Taxi Driver”, or Sanjuro from “Yojimbo” are all different kinds of justice seekers, each with different moral compasses. Denzel Washington composes this character here with a rigid structure, the character is a man with a code and it’s that design that makes him interesting to a large point. 

The narrative with “The Equalizer 2” overstuffs the storylines, adding side stories that range from interesting to unnecessary. The story with a young artist named Miles offers the best moments and insight into Mac’s rigorous code. Still, the narrative seems to be trying for too much; this hurts the pacing of the film in spots, leaving it hindered with dull moments. There are still some very interesting moments throughout the film, specifically the relationship with Mac and Miles and of course when the avenger is left to bring havoc to the bad guys.

There are few unnecessary technical flares incorporated into the film; an annoying first person video game perspective takes all the suspense out of a late scene and the atmospheric overload of wind and rain in the final battle makes it hard to distinguish what is going on. 

“The Equalizer 2” doesn’t always work in creating the kind of story that will compliment an interesting character like the one here. Denzel Washington is consistently engaging in the role; when given the opportunity to function as purely an adrenaline fueled action film with, the film eventual comes to life. 

Monte’s Rating 

3.00 out of 5.00

Kingsman: The Golden Circle Review

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Starring: Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, Hanna Alstrom, Edward Holcroft, and Colin Firth

Throughout cinematic history the sequel was always meant to be bigger and better. However, bigger stories, bigger movie stars, bigger budgets doesn’t always result in better films. For every “Godfather 2”, “Aliens”, and “The Empire Strikes Back” we also get “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”, “Speed 2: Cruise Control”, and “The Sting II”.  Sequels have an undeniable place in the cinematic experience today; and with more films wanting to create franchises out of successful ideas, the sequel doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, anytime soon. 

Director Matthew Vaughn takes a swing at the sequel with “Kingsman: The Golden Circle”. Everything about this sequel is bigger. It’s filled with an abundance of ideas, more movie star power, and action set pieces that are trying at every turn to one-up the original film. For a sequel that is trying to be an edgier version of a James Bond film, it makes sense that it would be trying to be bigger. Unfortunately “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” misses many of the marks that the original film so firmly hit.

Eggsy (Taron Egerton) has saved the world, losing a mentor (Colin Firth) in the process, and is  working to represent the Kingsman like he was taught. However, a new villain named Poppy (Julianne Moore) targets the Kingsman and destroys their entire organization. Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) are left to the task of saving the world again. However, their mission brings them to America and into the assistance of an allied secret spy agency called Statesman. The two agencies must band together to keep the world from succumbing to a mysterious drug.

At a seemingly endless length of 141 minutes, director Matthew Vaughn utilizes nearly every moment to showcase over-the-top action scenes that don’t have the same kind of impact that the brutal church scene had from the first film. Characters are given fancier weaponry, taking the James Bond approach to gadgets to a new extreme with bullwhips that double as versatile light sabers and briefcases that shoot every kind of explosive projectile. The villain has a meat grinder, robot dogs with pulverizing mouths, and drugs that, instead of making people maniacs like the implants did in the first film, make them dancing users. There is a wealth of visual extravagance but basically the same narrative structure as the original film.

The cameos throughout the film are also abundant. Channing Tatum shows up for a moment, full swagger and cowboy hat in tow. Jeff Bridges plays another version of the cowboy character that we’ve seen him play to varying levels of success over the past few films. Halle Berry makes an appearance as a computer guru, doing her best with the minimal time she is provided. These characters, despite the running time, aren’t given much opportunity to make a real impact on the story; instead they play characters of narrative convenience, showing up when the film needs to transition.  Even Sir Elton John makes an appearance, gushing expletives and singing songs in full flashy wardrobe. 

“Kingsman: The Golden Circle” does have a few fun moments, mostly when Taron Egerton is left to showcase his natural charisma and Julianne Moore is provided the time to play her villain with devious glee. However, like most mediocre sequels the narrative isn’t given enough attention, abandoned for spectacle and familiar famous faces. “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” goes for bigger and better but instead just feels longer and forgettable. 

Monte’s Rating

2.00 out of 5.00