Tag: news

Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

  • Director: Gareth Edwards
  • Screenplay: David Koepp
  • Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ed Skrein
  • Cinematography: John Mathieson
  • Score: Alexandre Desplat
  • Genre: Science fiction thriller
  • Runtime: 133 minutes

A mere three years after the critical mauling of ‘Jurassic World Dominion‘, we have another entry in the ‘Jurassic’ series: ‘Rebirth‘. As the name suggests, it’s a soft reboot with new characters yet maintaining the spirit of the OG ‘Jurassic Park‘ (1993). For a little while, the original was once the highest grossing film of all time so of course the studio would milk the hell out of the IP but can we let a franchise heal its wounds for a moment before launching more movies?

That said, ‘Rebirth‘ keeps it simple in terms of plot and the number of characters. Following on from the events of ‘Dominion‘, planet Earth is now inhospitable to dinosaurs. The poor creatures can only thrive near the equator where the climate is closest to their old habitat from eons ago. A greedy pharmaceutical rep (Rupert Friend) recruits skilled covert operative Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) to obtain blood samples from three living dinosaurs so he can develop a cure for heart disease. Rounding off the group are paleontologist (dinosaur nerd) Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and team leader Kincaid (Mahershala Ali). What they don’t immediately know is that the island they shipwreck at was once a testing ground for dinosaur experiments, including one ‘D-rex’ – a ‘Distortus rex’, looking like a Xenomorph on steroids.

Our crew behind the camera are dino-mite too: Gareth Edwards is no stranger to working with big beasts (he directed 2014’s ‘Godzilla‘, which kicked off Universal’s ‘Monsterverse‘) whilst the first film’s screenwriter David Koepp returns to humanise things. Together, they make it feel as fresh as it could be, delivering spectacle and roaringly good fun. A sequel is not required, unless Universal Pictures want the franchise to go the way of the dinosaurs.

My rating: 7 / 10

Small Things like These (2024)

  • Director: Tim Mielants
  • Screenwriter: Enda Walsh
  • Cast: Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Michelle Fairley, Emily Watson, Clare Dunne, Helen Behan
  • Cinematography: Frank van den Eeden
  • Editing: Alain Dessauvage
  • Score: Senjan Jansen
  • Genre: Historical drama
  • Runtime: 98 minutes

Based on Claire Keegan’s Orwell Prize-winning novel, ‘Small Things like These‘ deals with a dirty big stain on Ireland’s history – the Magdalene laundries. These institutions, run by the church, took in ‘fallen women’ (such as unmarried mothers or prostitutes) and effectively held them prisoner, forcing them to work till the point of collapse. Unbelievably, this form of modern slavery was still occurring until 1998 (almost the 21st century!), the year the last laundry closed down.

The film looks at events from an outsider’s perspective, and a male one too, which I found a curious choice. Coal merchant Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy, in his first role post-Oscars win) is preparing for Christmas with his wife and five daughters when he discovers a young woman cowering in the shed next to the local convent. By alerting the nuns to her existence, he’s pretty much led her into captivity. Consequently, Bill silently wrestles with feelings of guilt – did he do the right thing by her? She’ll have a roof over her head, be fed and ‘looked after’. He knows what the nuns are up to – everybody does. It’s an open secret. But nobody dares challenge them as they’re too influential in the community. Bill is also plagued by flashbacks of his mother’s death when he was a boy – she too was a ‘fallen women’ (an unmarried mother) yet she was taken in by a kind-hearted lady (Michelle Fairley), allowing her to raise her son comfortably.

Murphy gives a superbly haunted performance; you can see the trauma in his eyes, while Emily Watson is unnerving as the Mother Superior of the convent. It’s bleak and hard-hitting. I feel as though Ireland is only just beginning to process this shameful chapter in its past. An overdue dedication to the 56,000 women (and the babies) lost to the Magdalene laundries between 1922 and 1998 appears at the end while the sound of crows cawing and children giggling plays over the closing credits, adding a certain chill.

My rating: 7 / 10