Movie Review: A Quiet Place: Day One

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The third installment of the A Quiet Place movie franchise, “A Quiet Place: Day One” has little or nothing to do with the first two movies that starred husband and wife John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. This film is about the time when the aliens first arrive on planet Earth, with this film taking place in New York City. Samira, a homeless woman, starring Lupita Nyong’o, is just about the only character in this entire movie, along with her cat, who somehow manages to survive so many incidents of sudden death by an attack by the aliens and even drowning. Samira does hook up with two other characters and throughout this story one she becomes friends with, and through all of the running and death, all Samira wants to do is get some pizza at some pizza shop in Harlem.

One of the problems with this movie – as with both of the first two, is getting a good long look at one of the vicious murdering aliens does not really happen. Perhaps this is because of the special effects budget. This third movie has almost no close-up views of any of the aliens.

This entire story is understandably depressing and unfortunately too boring in too many areas. There is not enough of a story, as Samira is either on her own or in massive crowds, running for her life and trying to be very quiet. Staying very quiet and running for your life can get old after a certain number of the same scenes.

This screenplay is so light with interesting and compelling scenes that this 3rd movie might have ended this entire franchise. What could be the next idea? When humanity strikes back and destroys all of these invading aliens?

There is no doubt that the original “A Quiet Place” is one of the best horror movie ideas involving aliens to come out in many years. The idea of aliens who are blind and are extremely sensitive to sound and can kill so quickly and effectively is both horrifying and original. Unfortunately, this new movie did not introduce any new ideas other than the fact that we find out that the aliens can drown and are afraid of water.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for A Quiet Place: Day One are way too high 85%, with my rating around 75%, and a very modest recommendation to see the first two movies if you have not already.

Movie Review: Thelma

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The new movie “Thelma” is the second in recent months about criminal scammers who prey on old people and steal their money. In the film “The Beekeeper” starring Jason Statham an older woman was scammed over the phone by a lowlife criminal who used a virus and computer glitch to steal money from her bank account.

For this film, Thelma, a 94-year-old woman played by June Squibb was called by a scammer, who sounded like her grandson and said he was in jail and needed 10 thousand dollars bail to be mailed to a PO box. For vulnerable old people, scams like this happen all the time and account for billions of dollars stolen every year. For this story, Thelma then decides to take the extremely improbable path of tracking down the criminals and getting her money back.

First, Thelma meets up with her friend at a nursing home Ben, played by the late Richard Roundtree, in one of his best and final acting roles. Thelma then steals his scooter and after Ben catches up with her, they both set out to find the criminals at the PO Box and try to get her 10K back. There are some funny scenes as Thelma struggles to use computers, like most old people who are not computer savvy. There are some well-acted scenes with Thelma’s daughter Gail, played by Parker Posey, and her husband Alan, played by Clark Greg.

The best relationship in this movie is with Thelma and her grandson Daniel, played by Fred Hechinger. There are some very well-done scenes in this movie showing the bond Thelma has with her grandson, especially at the conclusion of this good, but not great movie.

It is very impressive that June Squibb, at age 94, is still acting and doing a very good job in her roles, and this one just might give her another Academy Award nomination.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 99% for this movie is too high, with my rating a solid 85% rating and a recommendation to see this movie for its good acting and humor.

Netflix Movie Review: Trigger Warning

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The new Netflix movie “Trigger Warning” stars Jessica Alba, who recently announced that she is stepping away from the business she founded “The Honest Company”, which has given her a net worth of about 340 million dollars.

Alba’s first return as a movie actress since stepping down is unfortunately a bad Netflix movie “Trigger Warning” about a highly skilled Special Forces commando, played by Alba. Alba’s character Parker returns to her hometown to investigate her father’s sudden death, due to an accident in a cave. The entire story from the beginning to the end, is all about finding new excuses for Alba to show off her violent hand-to-hand combat skills, which far too often result in her killing all comers with a large knife, or breaking their neck, or more rarely – just shooting them to death.

One sign of a very bad script is that the entire reason for driving the story forward is creating another excuse for a violent fight where several people die. Its hard to identify any real consistent or coherent story here, with yet another great example of why anyone with so much fame and wealth would read a script this bad, on a return to acting, and still decide to take this role. This movie represents a very bad decision for someone who is trying to return to making movies.

The critics across this board ranked this film one of the worst of the year with an average rating of only 15%. I agree with this low rating, considering the only thing worth seeing in the entire 2 hours are some of the fight scenes with no real story.

The problem is always the same. Great scripts are hard to find and even harder for anyone to write. The solution is the same as the decision of Jennifer Lopez who recently made the recent bad “Atlas”. When you have so much money, and you want quality over quantity, hire the best screenwriter who has the best idea and then make a good or great movie. Never settle for something easy or expedient. It is always better to wait for quality and never settle for bad or mediocre just to stay relevant.

This movie is too bad to recommend, and I rate it a “fast forward to the action scenes and miss the rest mess.”