Drew Nguyen

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I give this movie 3.5/5 stars overall. As a movie I would give it 4 stars, but as a movie that is a sequel to the original Gladiator movie, I would give it 2.5 stars. I am a huge fan of the original Gladiator and I have been watching it since I was 7 years old. Positives: This second Gladiator movie was not bad at all. Ridley Scott is a good director, though his sequels are not the greatest. Fortunately, this movie was an exciting action flick. The cast did a very good job. Paul Mescal surpassed my expectations and he did a good job. I was pretty concerned that he was not going to do a good job since he was does not have the same gravitas as Russell Crowe, but I thought he still did a decent job. Denzel Washington pulled another awesome performance as Macrinus, and the 2 actors who played the 2 emperors did an excellent job as well (Fred Hechinger and Joseph Quinn). Joseph Quinn did an amazing job in A Quiet Place Day One, and I was equally impressed with his acting as Geta, and Hechinger was impressive too. Pedro Pascal did a good job as General Acacius, and it was really great to see Connie Nielsen back as Lucilla. Nielsen did an amazing job. Derek Jacobi as sentor Gracchus was also good, though he is not given as many lines as in the original movie. The cinematography, the fight scenes, the costuming, and the visual effects were very good. The CGI monkeys did not look fully rendered and composited though, so they looked fake. The Colesseum set pieces were fantastic, and the fight choreography was very good. The sound design was pretty cool. The movie had some good characters and had some interesting themes. There was a lot going for it. Negatives: The scripting was weak. The speeches fell kind of flat and the dialogue was very choppy in some places. They could have done more with the script. I was not a huge fan of the way they used the original Gladiator lines in order to provide fan service to fans of the original Gladiator, especially some of Maximus's most famous quotes. They killed plenty of characters off, and some of the characters were not given enough screen time and character development. General Acacius was in and out of the movie, and he dies more than halfway into the movie. The impact of his death did not hit me very hard because the screenwriters did not give me enough time to invest with his character. I was not a fan of them killing Senator Gracchus the way they did since he was such an amazing character in the original Gladiator (and Derek Jacobi is an amazing actor). Gracchus, as said earlier, had hardly any screen-time and it felt so wrong to just do him in. There was a lack of respect for some of the legacy characters in this movie. Lucius and Lucilla's relationship was not very well developed, so the film-makers were tripping over themselves trying to give them a more personal connection. They had some interesting themes that could have been expanded on more with the characters. The message of the movie was about not giving up on other people, protecting people who are innocent, and destroying corruption. But sometimes I felt like I was lost in the chaos. The numerous character deaths sometimes undermined the whole point of the movie. Overall, this was a very fun watch and I would still watch this movie again. It is nowhere as good as the original gladiator, but it was better than I was expecting.

This movie had me engaged from the beginning to the end. It was not a bad movie but it could have been so much better. It not as satisfying as the first 2. The production values were excellent. The visual effects were amazing, and the set pieces were really cool. I liked the colors used to compose the scenes on the movie. Fede Alvarez is a good director. The action scenes were creative, and it was an exciting film. The alien animatronics were really good. I liked that this movie went back to the roots of the alien franchise. The performances were good overall. David Jonsson was the standout actor because he played 2 different personalities really well. Caelee Spaenee did a great job too as Rain. Her character was a good character. Isabela Merced did a great job too playing the pregnant girl. The other 3 young actors did a good job as well. I hope for the best for all 6 of them that they will continue to succeed in their professions and get bigger movies to star in. The problem with this movie is that the ending was so depressing. I wish Kay had survived and the next installment was about Rain, Kay, and the Android character. Kay's death was unnecessary and should have been changed since almost everyone else was gone. The message of the movie at first was about not giving up on other people. But Kay's death undermined everything because the filmmakers wanted viewers to be shocked at the blood and the gore, and Rain failing to save Kay was a stupid excuse by the screenwriters to kill the character. The Prometheus goo scene when Kay injects herself was a really bad excuse. The ending did not make me look forward to a sequel. My overall rating is a 5 or 6 out of 10. Could have been better.

Really fun movie!! I would give this 4.2/5. Dwayne Johnson is playing Dwayne Johnson, but he is always fun to watch and I love his movies. Chris Evans is a bit miscast since he has some forced humor at the beginning of the movie, but he gets better and his character becomes a really funny guy. The messages were very good since they were about reconciliation, doing the right thing, repentance, and not giving up on other people. The visual effects were very good. J.K. Simmons is a really good actor and he is a great Santa Claus. I think Lucy Liu's character may have been my most favorite of the group since she was hilarious and serious but not the same kind of CIA director in other movies (where they are always stupid or really bad). This movie was rated PG-13 so I would not recommend taking your 5-year old toddler to see it since it is very scary (like the evil witch and the other scary monsters). They could have cut out 5 minutes with more mature content which did not add anything to the plot. Still, it is a great Christmas movie and I highly recommend it for older children and adults. Good job!

I watched this movie on Hulu. It had an interesting setup in the first half of the movie and the filmmakers did a good job getting the me invested in the characters. Noa and Raka were compelling characters. Mae was interesting as well. The visual effects were excellent, the cinematography was amazing, and the voice actors did a good job in their roles. What was frustrating was past the second half when they introduced Proximus which was too late. He didn't even feel like the main antagonist. The world-building was interesting, but the relationships between the humans and apes started to get wonky and it made no sense at the end of the movie. The character arcs were all over the place and the filmmakers couldn't decide what the message of the whole movie was. The themes were interesting but there was too much going on (Is this about taking down evil cult leaders? Is this about trust between humans and apes? Is this about friendship?). The ending climax was too fast. William H. Macy's character wasn't very well developed which was frustrating because the girl kills him after he gets about 15 minutes of screen-time. I was not a fan of how they killed Raka so early because he was in many ways the most likeable character of the movie. Worse, They kept playing the epic music and giving out a drumroll at the end, but they didn't earn it. Because they got so lost as to what the themes of the movie were, it didn't feel right. The filmmakers are setting up for a new series of movies but it didn't make me look forward to what was coming after. It failed to get me excited about later films in this series, unlike other movies this year like Dune 2, Kung Fu Panda 4, Godzilla x Kong, Inside Out 2, and Despicable Me 4 (this is just my opinion since I know people may not like some of these movies). I would give this one a 5/10. I didn't regret watching this movie but I would not watch it again.

This movie was loads of fun. It was very well made and the themes of the story were much deeper than I was expecting it was going to be. Daisy Edgar Jones did an excellent job as the lead character of this movie. She did a good job playing the trauma of a person who lost her best friends to the tornado at the beginning which really fleshed out her character. Her performance was the emotional core of this story. It's fun to see Anthony Ramos getting more roles in his portfolio. He also did a decent job. Glen Powell is very funny, very entertaining, and kind of cheesy in some of his scenes. Glen Powell is just Glen Powell in every movie (except Devotion maybe). The visual effects were amazing and the locations they filmed in at Oklahoma were excellent. The sound design was awesome when experiencing the crazy tornados. I like this one much more than the previous installment because the characters were more likable and it was better made. There was also a lot less cursing and crass content. The script was pretty decent, though there were some moments that felt kind of corny. This was a great experience for me, so I will give it an 8.1/10

I though this movie was very good, but there were some issues with it. Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest directors of alk time. The scripting and cinematography were amazing. I loved Robert Downey Jr and Cillian Murphy's performances. So much gravitas. They deserved their academy awards for their roles for sure. I didn't like Matt Damon and Florence Pugh in this movie. Matt Damon was not very convincing in his performance when acting with Cillian Murphy. He just said the lines back but he was so stiff and there was no expression. He isn't really that good of an actor, but this is just my opinion. I was surprisingly disappointed with Florence Pugh because I liked her in most of her other performances (A Good Person, Black Widow, Little Women). She over-acted her lines, and she really did not fit in the role in this movie. Emily Blunt was pretty good, but I liked her better in Jungle Cruise and the A Quiet Place films. I think the sex scenes were unnecessary and it did not add anything to the movie. They could have made it an implied sex scene without showing it. I give this movie an 8/10. Inception and Interstellar are still my favorite Christopher Nolan movies.

I would give it 4.5/5 stars. I saw it in theaters a few weeks ago, and ai really enjoyed it. It is a very funny movie with an uplifting message of healthy family dynamics that are not always in other comedies. I love Gru and Lucy. Margot, Edith, and Agnes are really cute. All the members of the family love each other, which I really appreciated. The plot was pretty chaotic, but it was really entertaining and there was much less crude content compared to previous Despicable Me films. Maxime Le Mal was very funny, but I think Vector is my favorite villain. It is one of their best installments yet. The animation was excellent. I highly recommend taking your kids to see it!!!!

Such an amazing movie and a redemptive storyline!!! It was a beautifully done movie with great messages, stunning animation, and very accurate studies of the human mind. I like that Disney gave us more of the other emotions as well as Joy and Sadness since we didn't get to see them as much in the previous one. The humor was very clever, the scripting was exquisite, and it got me very emotional at the end since I am a person who also deals with anxiety. They did an excellent job with the scene transitions when showing what is happening to Riley and how she struggling to find her belonging and her life challenges, and at the same time showing the different challenges and conflicts the different emotions are experiencing. The world-building is fantastical. Anger has to be by far the funniest emotion, though he shows a much softer and kinder side than in the previous installment. It was very nostalgic seeing Disgust, Fear, Joy, and Sadness again, and I think it was a smart move to add more emotions as a way of showing how complex the human mind is, making the storytelling more realistic. I appreciate that the film-makers talked to real psychologists to get a better understanding of teenagers, because I think that is very important when telling a good story to make the viewers feel like they can relate to the characters and also showing compassion and humility towards people who struggle with hard things in their lives. Disney and Pixar crushed it with Inside Out 2 and I am so happy that this movie is doing so well in theaters. Hopefully they will continue to put out clean movies that are uplifting and family friendly like this movie with great redemptive messages. Keep it up Disney!!!!