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Intense! The Equalizer returns for an edge of the seat thriller. Set in Boston as the first, but following the rules of sequels, it also makes a couple of appearances in Brussels, Belgium, Europe.

Robert McCall remains the calm, collective and now less mysterious "equalizer" to those who need help. This time around we learn more about his past. After leaving his job (not at) Lowe's, McCall finds himself as a Lyft driver throughout Beantown. The set up of the movie tells various stories of the people he drives.

Some for sentimental (and yes, even a governmental message overlay) and some to the title role of the film, an equalizer. Also as side stories, the audience learns about two of his neighbors, helping develop the plot of the film. And then the main plot of the film, as well, which is tied directly to his past, as he investigates a murder.

Some might view the develop the plot of the film as the slow part of the movie

Once the storylines start connecting, the intensity picks up where the final twenty minutes of the film is nothing more than a heart pounding thriller.

The movie is very graphic with some cool death scenes, but once again, very graphic.

With this star studded ensemble and the title alone, audience members come in just wanting to explode and sing along. Instead, they received the flip side of a cover single from a 45 record. (Kids, your parents will tell you what that means)

When producing musicals, to a general audience, they should be snappy, hip, fast-paced and fun. Look at Grease 2 for example enough. A sequel to a musical that fit all of the above. Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again fell flat in everyone of those categories.

Whether it be the scheduling of the main star or the writers of the screenplay, the fault lied there. The actors delivered. Best known from Cinderella or Baby Driver, Lilly James stole the show as Young Donna. Colin Firth showed his wide range of talents. Andy Garcia brought the style and sophistication from the Ocean's movies over to the Mamma Mia set. Stellen Skarsgard delivered. Even Cher proved she can turn back time. Sorry, bad joke and lots of cosmetic surgery (and it wasn't even sung on a naval ship!) But, the film did not work.

Seeing it on FanGirl night made the extremely majority female audience want to sing along with the film, but they couldn't. Once again, because it was mostly the B-side selections from ABBA... which are mostly slower unrecognizable songs.

Stick with what works. No one would care if they sang the same exact songs over again in this flash back / sequel. And much like the end credit from the original that brought the audience to their feet in laughter, song and cheer; this time left the crowd feeling flat and disappointed.

Kid jokes, kids plot. For an hour and 24 minute movie, it had some humor and the rest was filler scenes.

Predictable in its outcome, Dracula sets sail with his monster entourage on a cruise where he meets Wanda, his new "zing". Little does Drac know, she is the direct descendant of his arch nemesis, Van Helsing. Or as Dracula thought, "the owner of the Holiday Inn down the street."

For moving the story out of the hotel and putting it on a cruise ship (which is basically a hotel on a boat), we get to see Dracula in a Hawaiian shirt, booty shorts, long black socks, and yes, leisure shoes! Proving you can take the Count of Dracula and can also take the Dracula out of the Count. Blah, Blah-Blah!

Playing Vlad, Dracula's father, was Mel Brooks. Maybe in four scenes, he did prove he still has it. Plus, what a great name for his character since Vlad the Impaler is the real life version of Dracula.

Don't have high expectations, which is ironic since this movie is set 220 floors and over 2,000 feet in the sky. But, Skyscraper does not reach its peak performance where even the mighty Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson cannot even overcome this obstacle.

Set in Hong Kong, the opening of the world's tallest building - The Pearl. Said to be 50 stories taller than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE... yet, the movie had it coming in several hundred feet shorter than the Burj in reality. Just one of many loop holes. Don't worry, in a few year, The Jeddah Tower (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) and the KL118 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) each will pass the Burj and the fictional Pearl in height. Is there a coincidence, this is now 30 years after tragedy of Nakamori Tower in Los Angeles? Though Skyscraper was not set on Christmas Eve. And instead of being barefoot, The Rock is missing a foot. Errrr, leg.

Security consultant, Will Sawyer (Johnson), is hired as an independent third party consultant to test the fire safety throughout the top half of the skyscraper. Once approved, The Pearl can open for full-time business. Security consultant testing fire safety. Yep.

After an opening scene set up to how Will Sawyer lost his leg, the movie almost immediately turns predictable even in trivial conversations to fully introduce the lead couple. Add into that major plot holes on both sides of the true bad guys and the creator of The Pearl, Skyscraper confuses the audience just exactly which people will fully turn against Sawyer.

Luckily the action is real and it becomes easier to figure out which sub-characters are the true bad guys. The movie steals plot ideas from other obvious actions films like Die Hard, as mentioned above. What few speaking roles each of the characters had lacked originality or non-cheesinesses. Until this movie, only MacGyver loved duck tape this much. Now, so does Will Sawyer. To prove this, he turns his role of duct tape inside out on his hands to Mission: Impossible The Pearl. Once again, a direct steal since Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) did it on The Burj with high technologically developed equipment; which gave it a sense of believe.

The movie turns more into a rescue mission than a Die Hard hostage situation, though they could not help themselves but revisit their opening two scenes at the climax of the film. Predictably.

There is so much more to criticize on every aspect of the film, from the asthmatic son coughing non-stop only to magically breathe fine in order to say his one line, then return immediately to coughing; to the predictable fight scene involving Neve Campbell; to the crowd cheering on Sawyer as he advances throughout the burning building.

The reason why so many sequels are released is because so many movies lack developed* scripts. (Developed includes plot, character depth, dialogue, research, originality and a dab of sophistication.) Skyscraper offered none of the above.

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SHOCK AND AWE. Only way you can describe a sold out Fan Boy (and girl) filled theatre as Marvel did what they do best.

Ant-Man returned for it's sequel to find Scott Lang serving the final 3-days of his two year house arrest sentence after being captured in Germany, helping "Cap" (aka Captain America). Meanwhile, somewhere in San Francisco, Hank Pym and his daughter, Hope (The Wasp) are purchasing what can best be described as the Flux Capacitor* from a Black Arms Dealer. Their transaction is put on hold when a mysterious and elusive ghost appears wanting the same Flux Capacitor*.

Thus, the complexity of the storyline unveils. Good guys vs. the mysterious Ghost. Good guys vs. Black Arms Dealers. Mysterious Ghost vs. Black Arms Dealers. Then throw in Scott Lang vs. the FBI. And the story wrote itself.

**The Flux Capacitor was a cinematic brilliant decision by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zamekis dating back to the original Back to the Future. Its what makes time travel possible. That's all one needs to know. Accept it at face value, the flux capacitor makes time travel possible. Fast forward several decades later and apply that theory here. The box being purchased from the black arms dealer makes entering the realm possible. Thus Hank's quest to save his wife, played by Michelle Pfieffer.

Full of laughs throughout the film, especially all scenes involving Michael Pena or the Elementary School, Ant-Man is the 20th film released under the Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline. Each brilliantly linked together.

And, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, Marvel leaves you with an end credit scene everyone will be talking about!

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What started out as a Pepsi Max commercial then evolved to a YouTube chapter has now taken its next step in evolution... an Uncle Drew movie. For those who haven't seen the original commercial, think Grandmama from the early '90s. Instead of Larry Johnson, insert Kyrie Irving who 'philosophises' youngbloods on the game of basketball and how it should be played.

Set on the premise of an annual outdoor hoops tournament, Dax finds himself in need of a team to coach just 72 hours before the start of the tournament. Broke, homeless and recently dumped; he heard legends of the mythical "Uncle Drew" from his hayday in the 1960's but didn't believe the hype. Until he stumbled into a chance meeting with the blacktop legend.

As predictable as expected, Uncle Drew agrees to play for Dax under several conditions. First, Uncle Drew choose his teammates. And second, Uncle Drew is the weatherman and can only control the heat in his van. Turns out that's a running joke throughout the film. A funny joke none-the-less.

The funny scenes are stolen throughout the movie Chris Webber's character is introduced! When you have acting legends such as Shaq, he must be funny. Actually, the two of them are the comic relief in the film. Especially during the baptism and the night club dance off. Apparently, that's a real thing.

The funny scenes are hilarious, laugh out loud funny. Not just LOL, but actually laugh out loud. The remaining scenes, not so much. And as predictable as the sun rising every morning, the movie ends as expected. With a running time of 103 minutes, scenes still could have been cut. At the end of the day, its a fun summer movie that didn't take itself serious (minus a sentimental moment before the start of the tournament) so the audience shouldn't either and just enjoy the film.

Ray Breslin and his crew are back. Same three basics needs remain in play: 1) Layout; 2) Routine and 3) Help from either inside or out. This time, members of his crew are captured for no apparent reasons, initially.

Captured from around the world and sent to an undisclosed location, Hades is said to basically be version 2.0 of The Tomb (see the original). This time, instead of hosting some of the world's worst criminals, Hades is holding prisoners for ransom. Each, in some way, has access to either high level world security details, Fortune 500 companies, etc.

With a running time of 93 minutes, the first two thirds moves rapidly; with back and forth cut scenes of inside and outside of Hades walking through both the plot and the plan of escape, including heavy action. Where ironically, during the climax of the movie, it moved too fast and didn't allow some of the scenes to develop. Overall, a good movie with a few surprises right up to the very end.

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The park is gone. But life finds a way.... welcome to Jurassic World!

Three years after the disaster when the park was opened because of Indomunous Rex, a volcano threatens to eliminate all life from Nublar island (yes, including all dinosaurs).

From there, the rescue begins. But as Owen Grady said during his recruitment, "what could possibly go wrong."

The action is non-stop, the threats are real. And the T-Rex remains awesome.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom exceeds all expectations, especially when the obvious comparison is to that of Jurassic Park II. John Hammond's vision of the initial Jurassic Park has now evolved fully. To push sequel after sequel something has to be lost for the story to move forward. This time, it was the park/island itself.

Back on the mainland, two new dinosaurs made their mark on the franchise. The Indo Rapter and an unnamed dinosaur self titled "Ramasaurs". The latter becoming the comic relief while the first becoming the top bid from the arms dealers.

One of the more interesting subplots is that of Maisie Lockwood, the granddaughter to John Hammond's former business partner played by James Cromwell.

Owen and Claire have to band together once again, this time to save the dinosaurs, first from extinction then from being in the wrong hands.

Fallen Kingdom is a great, fun and action packed thrill ride without the use of a theme park!

Slow and predictable is not exactly the formula to make something "incredible". Fourteen years after the original was released, Incredibles 2 picks up where the prequel left off. This time, the supers find themselves in a position to come out of the shadows led by Elsatigirl.

Winston Deavor is the recruiter of the supers. Being a Disney/Pixar film, they gave him a Walt Disney (himself) look in a 1964 World's Fair Tomorrowland kind of way throughout his scenes and even in the monorail scene.

With Elastigirl off trying to 1) put the supers back on the public positive and 2) figure out who the Screenslaver (see the pun!); it was up to Mr. Incredible to become Michael Keaton's Mr. Mom. From teaching new math to Dash (which, the education system really has created new math somewhere in the past 20 years!), to fixing Violet's relationship to taming Jack-Jack, Bob Parr has officially met his match.

Throughout the film we are introduced to new supers along the way. Some with names, others, not so much. These events lead to a very predictable plot twist, but cool matchups of fight scenes.

Being a Pixar film, be on the lookout for a Hidden Mickey and the Pixar light! But overall, Incredibles were more normal and average than super.

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Tag, you're it! And thus the game has begun and the plot has been defined! For 30 years a group of best friends every May continued this time honored childhood tradition of who was it! Of course, amendments to their by-laws occur, and yes, they do have written by-laws. Pages of them. All with the same common goal, tag Jerry.

Hogan (Helms), Callahan (Hamm), Chilli (Johnson), Sable (Buress) are the childhood friends who were never able to tag the elusive Jerry (Renner). Ever. Throughout the film they go through great lengths to both tag and avoid tag from each other. Either by dumb luck or happenstance, USA Today stumbled across this game (in real life) and thus the story was born. From there, ESPN had a 30 for 30 about the group of friends. From there, it has evolved to a major motion picture.

The lengths the guys go to, to be both not tagged and to tag seem far fetched, but 1) they guys and that's not the dumbest thing guys have done when together and 2) like every other movie based on a real life story, it shows footage of the actual game throughout the years, proving their idiotic behavior and yes, awesomeness.

An argument can be made for who is the favorite male in the movie but Isla Fisher wins that award on the female side. Foul-mouthed and clearly the most competitive, even though not part of the original team, she assists throughout the movie in her own dynamic way.

This movie makes the audience remissness about their childhood friends and stupid traditions. And everyone has them! Full of laughs and very few dull moments or plot holes, Tag will leave you wanting to be it!

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Gotham has Batman. Chicago has Paul Kersey. Both fight for justice when the police can't. The fact that the movie is set in Chicago is a brilliant part of the direct's vision of the movie.

The Murder Capital of the U.S. finds a family victim of a home invasion. When that happens, Paul Kersey (Willis) trusts the system. He does what he can to help the detectives assigned to the case. But results are slow. Seeing his daughter suffer is painful. And every man has a breaking point.

It is then when Kersey seeks justice. Doctor by day (which is ironic, because he works nights) and Vigilante by night. I guess more so on his nights off.

Type-casted Willis plays the role brilliantly. And Shue even makes fun of him in one scene for him not showing any emotions. Unlike Batman, though, where all criminals are on the look out for the caped crusader; only those that have either directly or indirectly (see Ice Cream Man) affected Kersey are subject to his wrath. And boy does he have some serious wrath! Willis shows no mercy (and nor should he) to those that have hurt him, his family and his community.

Overall the movie starts suspenseful and intense and transitions to revenge and justified. Some scenes were a little slow, but overall this might be viewed as a "guy" movie, but its still a great story with sub-setting.

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The wit, brilliance, pace and style the audience loved from Ocean's 11 and then again in Ocean's 13 is what brought us to Ocean's 8. Unfortunately, it was closer to Ocean's 12. Sister to Danny, Debbie Ocean leaves prison on parole only to find herself immediately recruiting to pull off a jewel heist from the Met Gala.

The movie opens with an opening plot twist and then closes with the same, leaving you wondering if it is indeed true.

Compared to the the Vegas Ocean movies, this movie lacked everything that made those two special. 8 was predictable, slow and presented no style or sophistication. And that's sad because Bullock and Hathaway played their characters to the best of the script. Even with two cameo's this movie didn't make the heist.

Alone. Deserted. Lost. Periled. Adrift.

Set in 1983, finds the true story of Tammy Oldham. Young and carefree, Tammy, native to San Diego, arrives in Tahiti where she meets Richard, a Brit. The movie picks up after a Cat-5 hurricane already capsized their boat. No opening credits just straight adrift and in peril. Talk about intense. The movie jumps from post-storm to the how the two met and began their journey. Then continues to tell the pre and post story throughout the film.

Everytime Tammy (or Richard) jumped in the Pacific for any number of reasons, the paranoid kept waiting for the ghost of Robert Shaw to reprise his role of Quint and say, "You go into the cage. Cage go into the water. Shark is in the water. Our shark." Luckily, spoiler alert, that never happened.

Tammy and Richard found themselves with the opportunity to sail an older couple's yacht from the South Pacific to San Diego for the purse of $10,000 plus two first class airline tickets to a destination of their choice. Which, if we're being honest, if this film was directed by Luc Besson or Jerry Bruckheimer, the older couple would have been the villains in the film. They gave a creepy vibe in all 2-3 scenes they were in. Especially the wife. Seemed destined to become a double-agent, setting up our heroes.

Back on the boat, as an audience member, one can begin assumptions to how the story will end, but will be impressed with a small plot twist.

Real stories like these always drive home the "where are they now", which Adrift did followed suit on, as well. This is the type of film that will do well On Demand (PPV) or for those who hold a MoviePass. Not a summer blockbuster, but not a bad movie either.

There's something about an opening scene, it either instantly grabs you or it doesn't. Some movies have a set up to an opening scene, but they still have an opening scene. Throw in a classic hit from your childhood and you find yourself already liking the movie. Its a cheap, simple formula, but it works.

Deadpool 2 started out just that way. Cue the music Dolly! From there, Deadpool 2 never took itself serious, so it could mock itself, other movies and even its star. Incorporate lots of famous movie quotes and references throughout and you've created something people will talk about at the water coolers the next day. Or in my case, 4-O. Now, the only thing missing from the formula is will it be a hit. Mix in some comedy, action and a few Easter Eggs leaving us wanting more, and you have just that - a box office hit.

Deadpool teased us enough with the expanded Marvel Universe but yet focused specifically on the lead's story. Running time of was just under 2 hours where realistically, they could have cut about 10-15 minutes to make run smoother with less slow points.

Without spoiling the main film, you may leave after Cher completes her soundtrack as there is no final-final Easter Egg after the credits, like most Marvel films. I didn't expect Nick Fury to come to Deadpool saying he was putting together a team, but seeing Jean Gray and Cyclopes would have been awesome. Oh well, still a fun summer movie!

What did you get when you take the Producer of Non-Stop, a type-casted lead actor, a "there's a bomb on a bus" kind of setting and sprinkle in a little Kirk Douglas at the end? The answer - The Commuter.

For Michael McCaughley today was supposed to be like every other day in his life, routine. Some of us can fully relate to his routine, and need it in our everyday life. That was when his routine jumped the tracks (to make a bad train pun).

After having a horrible day, McCaughley boards his commuter train home from downtown NYC. From there a stranger approaches him and asks him one simple question, "For $100,000, would you do one simple task?" Intrigued and desperate McCaughley seeks to see if this conversation was real or hypothetical. Before he can even back out of it, he is already knee deep and acting against his will; trying to find and save a stranger on the commuter train as well as his family.

Throw in a couple of obvious foreshadowing clues and this movie mostly delivers. Fast paced, and not just because its on a train, and it delivers at all the stops... wow, I am full of myself!

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