For all of the movies in the long running Fast and Furious franchise, temporarily suspending all sense of logic and common sense is mandatory before spending two hours realizing just how ridiculous just about all of the stories are. One thing about this spin off of the Fast and Furious movies is that there are less cars being driven This movie involves secret agents, one of them, the sister of Shaw, played by Vanessa Kirby, a half human half robot played very well by Idris Alba and a programmable virus that could kill the population of the world. This part of the story does not make sense, but that is not what movies like this are all about.

In this version the special effects are very well done, with numerous fight scenes involving Hobbs, played by Dwayne Johnson and Shaw, played by Jason Statham. The ending scene involving a helicopter and a series of trucks all chained together that looked extremely dangerous to film and was the best action sequence in the movie. What is always most entertaining about action movies like these are the stunts and fight scenes and this one delivers as expected.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for Hobbs and Shaw are a below average 67% and I give this movie 75%, mainly because of the well made action scenes and some of the comedic banter between Hobbs and Shaw. There will definitely be a sequel to this movie and perhaps another spin off involving Alba’s robot character.

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is Quentin Tarantino’s ninth movie that he has both written and directed. In every movie he has ever made, he has tried to make a movie that is different than any other film produced and he did succeed in making something very different with this production. What I admired the most was the perfectly created period from the year 1969, where every car, and every scene honored the world in that landmark year, 50 years ago. Somewhere in California there are a series of warehouses where thousands of cars are housed and maintained for movies like this one and that alone is very impressive. What I disliked the most was the constant chain smoking that arguably was prevalent in 1969 but to this frequency I thought it was way over done. I also hated the last scene of extreme violence was way over the top and completely unnecessary, regardless of how deserving the victims of the violence were.

Tarantino has succeeded once again in creating a movie unlike any other, however this one is different bad, rather than different good like all of his previous eight movies. I saw no evidence of a real story story here, just a series of disconnected and fragmented scenes involving an actor, Rick Dalton who is on the down side of his career, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and his stunt double Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt. There are other minor scenes involving the late actress Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie that never seem to have any real purpose or connection to the other part of the story involving Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth.  I was surprised how many of these disconnected scenes were not only not interesting, but very boring. I must have looked at my watch 20 times during this way too long 161 minute movie, obviously a bad sign.

The the critics on Rotten Tomatoes are giving this movie an 88% rating and this makes no sense to me because my rating is only 50% mainly for the sets, cars and the many memories of 50 years ago. I do not recommend Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Its too long, there is no real story and there is way too much chain smoking and an insanely unnecessary violent scene at the end. This movie is only for die hard fans of Quentin Tarantino or the year 1969.

The big story for the movie “The Lion King” is that the critics, despite the spectacular special effects and simple but solid story are only giving this high quality production a low rating of 55%.

The most impressive thing about this film is that the computer generated animation is the best I have ever seen, and all the animals look 100% real. The story is simple and is about jealousy, power, friendship and greed. I thought the story was told extremely well, despite what the critics have said. It is definitely not the best animated film ever made, but it is at least, very good. So much for the critics who are in this case, once again, very wrong. Considering the enormous amount of hard work that went into making this movie for several years, to receive low ratings, is probably the most unexpected review of a movie I have seen for quite some time.

The Lion King is a very good movie for kids and adults and I give it a solid 85% rating and do recommend it.