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    Movie Review

    Pacific Rim Uprising is a downgrade for blockbuster fans

    Alex Bentley
    Mar 22, 2018 | 12:56 pm
    Pacific Rim Uprising is a downgrade for blockbuster fans
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    When Guillermo Del Toro put out Pacific Rim in 2013, it was a fun and inventive breath of fresh air for the blockbuster movie genre. It traded on a lot of familiar elements, but never skimped on giving audiences the type of knock-‘em-out entertainment that is expected from that kind of film.

    The sequel, Pacific Rim Uprising, produced by Del Toro but written and directed by Steven S. DeKnight, maintains the look of the original, but is only about half as fun. John Boyega (Finn in Star Wars) stars as Jake Pentecost, the son of the dearly departed — and much better named — Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), who sacrificed himself for the good of humanity in the first film.

    Jake lives in a world where the giant monsters known as kaiju no longer exist, but still affect the world in many ways due to the destruction they caused and fear they might come back. When he and Amara (Cailee Spaeny), a young girl obsessed with creating her own giant jaeger robot, are caught trying to steal jaeger materials, they are installed into the ongoing jaeger program instead of being sent to jail.

    That is just the first of many illogical and nonsensical story twists that you’ll have to overcome if you have any hope of enjoying the sequel. Also along for the ride are Jake’s buddy/rival, Nate (Scott Eastwood); a ragtag bunch of jaeger cadets; Jules (Adria Arjona), a woman who seemingly exists merely to create a half-assed romantic triangle with Jake and Nate; and the return of Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), whose screen time is increased significantly — which is not necessarily a good thing.

    The biggest reason the first film worked is because it threw the audience into the middle of the action, with little unnecessary buildup. Uprising is almost all buildup, and it’s the worse for it. It might be different if any of the characters were worth knowing deeper than surface level. But they aren’t, and the time spent delving into their idiosyncrasies feels like the movie is spinning its wheels.

    Once we finally get to any substantial action, there’s no feeling of excitement to it. The stakes in the first film felt real; here, the fighting comes off merely as an excuse for the filmmakers to level as many buildings as possible. Wanton destruction is never as fun as filmmakers think it is; it needs to serve a real purpose to actually be entertaining.

    Boyega, who gets to use his natural British accent, is the lone actor who makes the film worth watching. Spaeny can’t make Amara into anything more than a slightly spunky kid, and Eastwood might as well be a tree for how wooden he is. All of the fun that Day and Gorman brought to the original is decimated by their expanded storylines.

    The detractors of Pacific Rim called it a second-rate mashup of Transformers and Godzilla, and this time they’re actually right. Uprising is a poor imitator of the original, one that’s not worth any movie lover’s time.

    Jaegers in Pacific Rim Uprising.

    Jaegers in Pacific Rim Uprising
      
    Photo courtesy of Legendary Pictures/Universal Pictures
    Jaegers in Pacific Rim Uprising.
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    Movie Review

    Dark comedy Friendship covers male bonding with copious cringing

    Alex Bentley
    May 16, 2025 | 4:16 pm
    Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship
    Photo courtesy of A24
    Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship.

    Comedian Tim Robinson has gained a cult following thanks to series like Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, in which his brand of cringe comedy is on full display. The former Saturday Night Live writer/performer has had a few small movie roles over the years, but he’s now getting his first starring role in the off-kilter Friendship.

    Robinson plays Craig, a mild-mannered suburbanite with a wife, Tami (Kate Mara) and son, Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer). Craig has a boring life that involves little more than going to his middle manager job while wearing the same clothes day after day, anticipating the next Marvel movie, and helping Tami out with her at-home floral business.

    He gets a jolt of energy when Austin (Paul Rudd) moves into the neighborhood. The two men seem to hit it off, with Austin - a weatherman at a local TV channel - even taking Craig on a couple of impromptu adventures. But when Craig commits a couple of faux pas at a group gathering at Austin’s house, their bond starts to fracture.

    Even though the film is written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, it’s clear that Robinson had a big influence on the style of comedy it features. There are no big set pieces with a slew of jokes coming one after another. Instead, the film forces the audience to try to vibe with the very particular type of wavelength it’s giving off, one that could almost be called anti-comedy for the way the laughs come out of left field.

    The 100-minute film is full of random comedic moments, like Steven kissing Tami on the lips, Craig being obsessed with his plain brown clothes, a group sing-along, and more. More often than not, it’s the way Craig reacts to both normal and abnormal situations that gets the laughs. The character is needy and oblivious, two traits that combine to make many of his actions cringeworthy.

    Perhaps most importantly for this type of movie, there are many things in the story that go unexplained or don’t make sense. Seemingly crucial elements are brought up only to fade away just as quickly, while other parts that appeared to be throwaway sections get callbacks later in the film. DeYoung and Robinson are determined to keep the audience on their toes the entire time, never knowing what to expect next.

    Robinson has the perfect face for a story like this, one that’s bland enough to blend into the background but memorable enough to sell the jokes. His demeanor is also excellent, never becoming too expressive, even when he gets angry. With long hair, a mustache, and a certain swagger, Rudd is a great complement to Robinson. Only in a film like this would an everyman like Rudd be considered the suave and cool one.

    There will be some that will see Friendship and come away wondering what the hell they just watched. But anyone who goes in knowing that they’re about to witness a comedy that challenges their sensibilities will likely have a great time.

    ---

    Friendship is now playing in select theaters.

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