Jean-Paul’s Rating: 3/5 stars

Bottom Line: Fun, but not much of the magic of the original. Kids will still get a kick out of it, though.

Everything is no longer awesome in Legoland. It has become a wasteland where things are destroyed faster than they can be built. Alien Legos from space routinely come down to smash anything pretty that is built. Emmet (Chris Pratt) is still happy as can be, though. Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) is just trying to survive this apocalyptic Legoscape. They soon go off world to attempt to confront Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish).

It is very difficult to recapture something as magical as the first Lego Movie. It was pretty perfect and it spawned a series of less than perfect sub-genre movies. None of them were bad, per se, but neither could they capture the essence of the first. “The Lego Movie 2” is similar, though it should have a leg up on the others since it draws from the same delightful characters of the original. There is still fun to be had in the movie, but it is more just your average children’s movie fun versus genre busting fun and wonder.

Movie number two falls back on its catchy “Everything Is Awesome” song from the first movie to somewhat lackluster effect. There are a couple of new songs that are pretty good, thankfully. First is the wonderful Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi song “Not Evil” and the aptly named synth-dance song “Catchy Song”. In general, the whole soundtrack is pretty good, but those two stand out.

One weird thing that I’m sure has an explanation for it is the mysterious disappearance of Will Ferrell. His voice is still in the movie, both as President Business and as Dad, but Dad speaks from off camera all the time. The good news behind that is we are treated to the delightful Maya Rudolph as Mom in his place. I wonder if it was just a scheduling thing and Will could get to a sound studio but couldn’t get to the film studio.

Judging from the general audience reaction, kids will still like this movie despite its not living up to the first. It was a high bar to achieve and should not be faulted for not making it. It’s still a fun movie with a decent amount of delightful moments interspersed.

Jean-Paul’s rating: 2/5 stars

Bottom Line: Easily the best Transformers movie. Not a compliment.

I saw “Bumblebee” because nothing else was showing and Michael Bay was in no way associated with the creation of the movie except in the amorphous “producer” bucket which also contained Stephen Spielberg. I lie. I want to never see a Michael Bay movie ever again, but I know I will go back no matter how much he hurts me. I can’t quit you Michael!

Here’s what you get in “Bumblebee”: bad acting, John Cena having some decent John Cena moments, lots of schlocky scenes, a generic but ok enough story, action you can actually follow. The latter is huge if you’ve ever seen another Transformers movie where you are treated to scene after scene of Baysian nightmares as indistinguishable movements of metal morph and clash and boom. Unlike those other films, “Bumblebee” seems to put at least some thought into not trying to make the audience motion sick.

The worst part is the acting is just atrocious. I mean there wasn’t much material to work with, but it was sometimes painful watching what was happening on screen. This includes John Cena’s role though he was entertaining at points when he cranked the Cena to eleven. The only props I’ll give is to Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie. It’s not easy when the most charismatic actor you have to work with is a CGIed car that morphs into a robot and she did a good job of making you believe she was talking to the robot instead of the thin air of real life.

I read somewhere that people were comparing “Bumblebee” to “E.T.”. I can only assume that all those people were secretly Stephen Spielberg because aside from the whole “young person accidentally finds alien and tries to hide him from the government who wants to do tests on him and young person finds friendship and acceptance from alien” thing going on, there’s nothing similar at all. Oh. That was all “E.T.” was about. This movie is exactly like “E.T.”. “E.T.” wasn’t that good either.

There was a bit of oversexualization of Hailee Steinfeld throughout the movie as is fairly typical for the franchise and Steinfeld is an adult, I guess, but she’s supposed to be playing a high schooler which always makes it creepy. Good news is someone actually had the sense to make it much less creepy by having her wear bike shorts underneath her short shorts so the questionably chosen camera angles were more modestly revealing than they otherwise would be. Or maybe that’s just a style kids are wearing these days? Regardless, either hurray for the adult in the room or hurray for teen fashion sense!

If you’ve liked previous Transformers movies you should really get your head checked, you might have a tumor or something, but you will also probably like “Bumblebee”. Nostalgic Transformers fans will look wistfully upon the initial Cybertron fight as they see a handful of fairly loyal representations of some classic toys from back in the day. Other than that, best to stay away from this film.

Jean-Paul’s Rating: 3/5 stars

Bottom Line: A reasonably entertaining Odd Couple movie. Kevin Hart did not annoy me. Bryan Cranston is still a better comedic actor.

I will see Bryan Cranston in anything. I will avoid Kevin Hart like the plague. What is one to do when a movie like “The Upside” comes along starring both? See the movie, apparently.

“The Upside” is an occasionally endearing American remake of a, I have heard, much much better French film called “Les Intouchables” which broke box office records in France. I would like to see that movie instead. It is not that “The Upside” is bad. There are plenty of good laughs and the chemistry between Cranston and Hart is pretty good most of the time. It’s just that it’s formulaic. Worth seeing, just not worth seeing again. Or wasting your time writing a review about. Ok, perhaps that’s a bit too harsh. The basic premise is a quadriplegic billionaire named Phillip Lacasse (Bryan Cranston) hires an ex-con named Dell Scott (Kevin Hart) to be his caregiver and they learn important life lessons from each other. And because it’s an American movie, you also have to shoehorn in a love interest in the form of Phillip’s former business partner, Yvonne Pendleton (Nicole Kidman).

Bryan Cranston is always awesome and so is Nicole Kidman even if her role is limited. I was also happy to see Julianna Margulies show up in a small part as a pen pal of Phillip. Then there’s Kevin Hart. I dislike his shtick. Even before his recent homophobic non-apology apology tour that lost him the Oscars hosting gig. His shtick appears for brief moments in this movie, but thankfully not much. When he turns that off, he’s a decent actor. I mean he’s no Bryan Cranston or Nicole Kidman or Julianna Margulies, but there is definitely some potential there. I hope he explores it more.

Anyone know of a way to see “Les Intouchables”? Go see that instead. Take me with you. If not, “The Upside” is an enjoyable enough movie to fill your time. It has a little bit of soul and a little bit of comedy and a little bit of Hart. See what I did there?