Omar Sy Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Shadow Force’ (2025), starring Kerry Washington, Omar Sy, Mark Strong, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Cliff ‘Method Man’ Smith

May 9, 2025

by Carla Hay

Kerry Washington in “Shadow Force” (Photo by Juan Pablo Gutierrez/Lionsgate)

“Shadow Force” (2025)

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Some language in French and German with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Colombia (and briefly in the United States, Mexico, and Spain), the action film “Shadow Force” features a racially diverse cast of characters (black, white, Asian and Latin) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Two married former mercenaries, who used to work for a U.S. government special operations group called Shadow Force, reunite after spending about five years apart, in order to take down the Shadow Force’s former members and leader, who want to kill the spouses for leaving Shadow Force.

Culture Audience: “Shadow Force” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and stupid action movies that have famous cast members.

Natalia Reyes, Mark Strong and Sala Baker in “Shadow Force” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

That sound you might hear when watching “Shadow Force” is the groan of disappointment that so many talented stars signed up for this awful action flick about two former mercenaries who drag their adorable 5-year-old son into their mess. Lionel Richie’s 1982 hit “Truly” is used as a running joke about sentimentality in the movie. The only “truly” description that applies to this train-wreck film is anything to do with how truly mind-boggling that this level of talent ended up in such low-quality junk.

Directed by Joe Carnahan, “Shadow Force” was written by Leon Chills and Carnahan. The movie takes place mostly in Colombia (where “Shadow Force” was filmed on location), with some scenes taking place briefly in the United States, Mexico, and Spain. Emmy-winning producer Kerry Washington is one of the producers of “Shadow Force,” which unfortunately is a bad investment for her. Her interest in doing this movie seems to be that she wants to showcase that she’s got what it takes to be an action movie star, after being known for mostly starring in dramas and comedies in her career. Washington puts in a good effort when expressing emotions in “Shadow Force,” but she should have chosen a better project, because “Shadow Force” is so horrendous, it’s an embarrassment to everyone involved.

The idiocy in “Shadow Force” begins within the first 10 minutes of the film. Isaac Sarr (played by Omar Sy) is driving to a bank in Miami with his 5-year-old son Ky Sarr (played by Jahleel Kamara), who is a big fan of Lionel Richie’s music. Isaac has been raising Ky as a single parent since Ky was a baby. And where is Ky’s mother, who is still married to Isaac? That information is eventually revealed in the movie.

Isaac and Ky have the misfortune of arriving at the bank just a few minutes before a gang of about 10 armed robbers storm inside and take everyone hostage. One of the robbers holds a gun to Ky’s head. Isaac wears hearing aids, but when he’s about to get in a major brawl, he takes out his hearing aids because he says the reduced noise helps him focus better on the fight. All it looks like is what Tyler Perry as Madea might do when she takes off her earrings before getting into a throwdown.

Isaac tells Ky to close his eyes. Things swirl on the screen and then fade to black. When Isaac tells Ky to open his eyes, Ky sees that all the bank robbers are dead because Isaac killed them all by himself. “Daddy got the bad guys,” Isaac proudly tells Ky. Yes, the movie really is this stupid. It’s also an example of lazy filmmaking to skip over what could have been an intense (although unrealistic) action scene. Isaac and Ky quickly leave the bank before police arrive.

In his rush to be a superhero vigilante, Isaac seems to have forgotten that everything he did in the bank was caught on surveillance video. When you find out that Isaac is supposed to be in hiding, his reckless actions make him look like a moron. This bank robbery massacre makes the news, of course. Jack Cinder, a high-level spy for the U.S. government, sees the surveillance video and immediately recognizes Isaac because he’s been looking for Isaac for the past five years.

And when Jack Cinder sees that Isaac has a son, Jack mutters aloud this realization: “Kyrah got pregnant.” Who is Kyrah? (Her name is pronounced “kye-rah.”) She is Kyrah Owens (played by Washington), who is Ky’s mother and Isaac’s estranged wife. When Ky was a baby, Kyrah left them to go into hiding for Ky’s safety because she thinks the people who want to kill them will assume that she wouldn’t leave Ky.

Why is this family in hiding? In one of the movie’s many exposition dumps, Jack hastily explains to two flunkies named Patrick (played by Marshall Cook) and Parker (played by Ed Quinn) that Jack used to be the leader of a special operations group of mercenaries called Shadow Force. Jack says about Shadow Force: “Basically, we did God’s work around the globe.” Isaac and Kyra were members of Shadow Force, but they broke two of the biggest rules of the group: (1) Don’t get romantically involved with each other and (2) Don’t ever leave the group.

Isaac and Kyra fell in love with each other and went absent without leave around the time that she found out that she was pregnant. They went into hiding and at some point got married. The movie’s main flashback to their early life on the run (before they separated) was when Ky was a baby, and Kyrah told Isaac that she made the difficult decision to go away for Ky’s safety. Kyrah promised that she would eventually return. But after five years of having no contact with Kyrah, Isaac assumed that she wasn’t coming back. Ky was told that Kyrah was “away,” and it was unknown when she would return.

Jack wants revenge because when Isaac and Kyrah quit Shadow Force, the group disbanded. Losing two members of the group who quit made Jack feel humiliated because he perceived it as a failure of his leadership. And now, Jack wants to reunite Shadow Force: “I’m getting the band back together,” he says. The goal of the reunited Shadow Force is to find and murder Isaac, Kyrah and Ky.

There’s an underlying reason why Jack is on this evil vendetta. Years before Kyrah met Isaac, she had a fling with Jack. He wanted a more serious relationship than what Kyrah was willing to give, so she broke up with Jack, who has been bitter about it ever since. Isaac finds out about this love triangle later when Kyrah inevitably reunites with Isaac and Ky. Jack happens to have a private island in Colombia, where he gathers the reunited Shadow Force for secret meetings.

“Shadow Force” has a poorly written subplot about Jack being secretary general of G7, a group of countries (similar to the real-life G10), that have formed an alliance for economic reasons. The only reason why this G7 subplot seems to exist is to show Jack snarling at international leaders during a G7 conference and angrily reminding people not to call him “secretary” but to call him by his full title of “secretary general.” Jack acts more like a crime boss than a busy politician/spy.

The other members of Shadow Force are extremely generic. Anino (played by Jénel Stevens-Thompson), Cysgod (played by Marvin Jones III), Scath (played by Sala Baker), Moriti (played by Natalia Reyes) and Varjo (played by Yoson An) all have names that are more interesting than their blank-void personalities. The movie gives no personal information about these characters, which makes it too easy to predict their fate in this shoddily made film.

There are two other people looking for Isaac: Marvella “Auntie” Clanter (played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and Marcus “Unc” Owens (played by Cliff “Method Man” Smith), who are government agents with formerly close ties to Isaac and Kyrah. Auntie and Unc are a sometimes-bickering couple who are work partners and love partners. Unc and Auntie are first seen looking for Isaac at notorious party island Ibiza, Spain, when it just really looks like an excuse for Unc and Auntie to party in an exotic locale. Oscar-winning actress Randolph is doing another sassy character, while Smith continues to be typecast as a street-smart character who likes to bend the rules.

You can almost do a countdown to all the tiresome and unimaginative things that happen in “Shadow Force,” whose action scenes of shootouts, explosions and fist fights are sloppily choreographed and often look downright ludicrous. There are not-very-surprising double crosses between certain characters. And the dialogue is so putridly horrible, it’s a minor miracle the cast members were able to not laugh when saying unintentionally funny lines of dialogue.

“Shadow Force” is one of those abominable action movies where people get in brutal fights and say they’re going to kill their opponents right away, but then they end up standing around and talking or glaring at each other. One of the worst scenes in the movie is when Jack is at the mercy of a law enforcement agent who has captured and cornered Jack, but the law enforcement agent allows Jack to just walk away, with no explanation. It all just seems to be a way for Jack to have the inevitable showdown with the expected people.

One of the few bright spots in “Shadow Force” is Kamara’s scene-stealing performance as Ky. There’s a cute scene where Ky reveals to Kyrah that Isaac’s favorite song is “Truly,” but Isaac doesn’t want to admit it. It turns out that “Truly” was the theme song for the wedding of Isaac and Kyrah. Kamara has a bright future ahead if he continues to be an actor. He deserves to be in much better movies than “Shadow Force.”

Some of the comedy revolves around Ky saying adult things to demonstrate that he hears things that are inappropriate for children his age. In a very “inside joke” part of the movie, Ky mentions the Wu-Tang Clan, which is the rap group that has “Shadow Force” co-star Smith as member under his rap name Method Man. “You can’t fuck with the Wu-Tang Clan,” Ky chirps, as the adults laugh at the kid’s foul-mouthed comment. Ky also gets some uncomfortable laughs from the adults when the Commodores song “Brick House” (also written by Richie) is played in a scene, Ky blurts out that it’s a song about “breasts and booties.”

Putting all of these kid jokes aside, “Shadow Force” is appallingly inept in showing how Kyrah and Isaac constantly put Ky in danger during the couple’s strategy of “kill or be killed” when dealing with their ex-Shadow Force teammates. The spouses try to cover up the truth and outrght lie to Ky every time the assassins come after them. But by the time Ky is put in a trunk of a car that is shot at, flips over, and crashes into a lake, or when he sees people using military assault rifles all over the place, it’s kind of insulting that anyone would think this kid hasn’t figured out that something is very wrong and that people are trying to kill his parents.

During all of this mayhem, Kyrah and Isaac occasionally speak French to each other, as if that’s supposed to make them look more romantic. It doesn’t. Sy (who has done better work in other movies) is very stiff in his “Shadow Force” role as Isaac. Washington and Sy have lukewarm chemistry together as Kyrah and Isaac are more convincing as parents to Ky. Strong is just doing another version of the villains that he’s played on screen in many other roles. “Shadow Force” might be slightly entertaining if you enjoy watching mindless movies to laugh at, but the movie is funny for all the wrong reasons, and it’s not so amusing if you’d rather spend your time doing other things.

Lionsgate released “Shadow Force” in U.S. cinemas on May 9, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on May 30, 2025.

Review: ‘The Book of Clarence’ (2024), starring LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy, RJ Cyler, Anna Diop, David Oyelowo, Micheal Ward, Alfre Woodard and James McAvoy

January 13, 2024

by Carla Hay

James McAvoy (far left) and LaKeith Stanfield (second from right) in “The Book of Clarence” (Photo by Moris Puccio/Legendary Entertainment/TriStar Pictures)

“The Book of Clarence” (2024)

Directed by Jeymes Samuel

Culture Representation: Taking place in 33 .A.D., in an alternate version of Jerusalem, the comedy film “The Book of Clarence” features a predominantly black cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An atheist rogue, who is heavily in debt, pretends to a miracle worker to con people out of money, much to the chagrin of his identical twin brother, who is a follower of Jesus Christ.

Culture Audience: “The Book of Clarence” will appeal primarily to fans of the movie’s headliners and people expecting a witty satire of Christianity and racism, but they won’t get much wit in this movie.

LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy and R.J. Cyler in “The Book of Clarence” (Photo by Moris Puccio/Legendary Entertainment/TriStar Pictures)

“The Book of Clarence” is writer/director Jeymes Samuel’s attempt to make a religious satire like classics from Monty Python or Mel Brooks. But it’s a muddled mess where the best jokes aren’t very amusing. A talented cast cannot save this dull flop. “The Book of Clarence” also lazily panders to unnecessary negative and over-used stereotypes that do nothing substantial for the story.

The best religious satires are those where audience members don’t have to know much about religion to enjoy the satire, because the story and the characters speak to larger issues about humanity and social structures. That’s one of the failings of “The Book of Clarence,” which relies too heavily on comedy where viewers need to have better-than-average knowledge of Judeo-Christian teachings to understand some of these movie’s intended messages.

Another big problem with “The Book of Clarence” is that it goes back and forth between lampooning Christianity and skewering racial oppression of black people, but the movie often loses focus and ends up not saying much at all. There are chase scenes in the movie that are meaningless. Major characters from the Bible are reduced to making shallow appearances, when their characters could have been developed in an impactful way.

In “The Book of Clarence” (which takes place in 33 A.D. in Jerusalem), Clarence (played by LaKeith Stanfield) is an unemployed loser who doesn’t do much with his life but commit petty theft, gamble, and sell and smoke marijuana with his best friend Elijah (played by RJ Cyler), who is a stereotypical stoner sidekick. Black men who use drugs and are involved in criminal activities? What a stupid, unoriginal and overused stereotype in movies.

The movie opens by showing several men in with their hands and feet nailed to crucifixes. Clarence is one of the men. A man who looks like the usual portrayal of Jesus Christ is another one. “The Book of Clarence” circles back to this scene toward the end of the movie, after it’s been shown how Clarence ended up on this crucifix. It’s a long and disjointed slog to get to that point, filled with cringeworthy dialogue and unfunny “jokes” that make everyone look like idiots.

In one of the movie’s early scenes Clarence and Elijah are in a chariot, and they are racing against Mary Magdalene (played by Teyana Taylor) in another chariot. Clarence and Elijah both get shot with darts and fall out of their chariots. Mary Magdalene then races off and isn’t seen again until after a long time-wasting stretch of the movie. It’s an example of some of many pointless scenes in “The Book of Clarence.”

Clarence is heavily in debt to a local thug named Jedediah the Terrible (played by Eric Kofi-Abrefa), who has given Clarence a deadline of 30 days to pay his debt. Meanwhile, atheist Clarence is bothered by the fact that his estranged identical twin Thomas (also played by Stanfield) has become a follower of a self-proclaimed Son of God named Jesus Christ (played by Nicholas Pinnock), who has amassed a growing number of followers but also detractors. Jesus keeps his face hidden under a hood until a “face reveal” that’s supposed to be suspenseful but is anti-climactic.

Clarence still lives with his loving and compassionate mother Amina (played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste), because he is too financially broke to afford his own place. Amina is heartbroken that her only children are feuding with each other. Meanwhile, Clarence is dealing with his own heartbreak issues, because he’s pining for a beautiful woman named Varinia (played by Anna Diop), whom Clarence thinks is out of his league. Varinia also happens to be the sister of Jedediah.

Roman Empire officials are the story’s racist oppressors in “The Book of Clarence,” which has scenes that are obvious parallels to how racist modern-day police treat black men. Clarence and Elijah are minding their own business on a street when they get stopped and harassed by Roman law enforcement saying that Clarence and Elijah “fit the description” of two wanted criminals. Clarence and Elijah have multiple run-ins with a sadistic Roman named Decimus (played by Tom Glynn-Carney), who takes pleasure in targeting people who aren’t white.

When he’s not being racially profiled by white Romans, Clarence is being hunted by Jedediah and his goons, with Elijah as his drug-addled wing man. Clarence thinks up a scheme to get the money that he owes to Jedidiah: He pretends to be a Jesus disciple who can perform miracles, in order to con people out of money. “The Book of Clarence” is basically a ripoff of the 1995 stoner comedy “Friday” (starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker), wrapped in the guise of a religious satire.

John the Baptist (played by David Oyelowo) sees through Clarence’s fake religiousness when Clarence asks John to baptize him. Other characters in the movie that are based on biblical characters are the Virgin Mary (played by Alfre Woodard); Judas Iscariot (played by Micheal Ward); Barabbas (played by Omar Sy); and Pontius Pilate (played by James McAvoy). One of the few white people in the movie who isn’t portrayed as evil is Benjamin (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), a dirty homeless beggar, who gets a makeover that is supposed to be a symbol of “whitewashed” rewriting of history.

“The Book of Clarence” isn’t a cohesive story. It’s just a bunch of poorly conceived sketches that are strung together with bibilical references. Many of the plot developments go nowhere. The acting performances are mostly mediocre or just plain awful. Clarence’s relationships, such as those with his twin Thomas and his would-be love interest Varinia, are boring and hollow, when they should be among the most interesting aspects of the story. Here’s an example of the movie’s moronic dialogue: Clarence says to Varinia: “I am spirit over sandals in love with you.”

The movie is capable of maybe eliciting some mild chuckles from viewers, but mostly the plot just goes around in circles, and then tries to wrap things up in a sentimental way that is unearned and phony, considering how cutting-edge this comedy want to be. Worst of all, “The Book of Clarence” is pretending to be a provocative and clever satire, when it’s really just a witless stoner movie. In that sense, this disappointing dud is just like the movie’s namesake Clarence: a sham wanting more respect and glory than what is deserved.

TriStar Pictures released “The Book of Clarence” in U.S. cinemas on January 12, 2024.

Review: ‘Jurassic World Dominion,’ starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, DeWanda Wise and Mamoudou Athie

June 8, 2022

by Carla Hay

“Jurassic World Dominion”

Directed by Colin Trevorrow

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States and briefly in Malta, the sci-fi/action film “Jurassic World Dominion” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people, Latinos and Asians) portraying scientists, business people and animal advocates involved in some way with the interaction of the dinosaur population that was first seen in 1993’s “Jurassic Park.”

Culture Clash: As dinosaurs and humans co-exist on Earth, swarms of giant locusts are eating crops and killing off Earth’s population, while a group of scientists and other people race against time to save the world.

Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious target audience of “Jurassic” franchise fans, “Jurassic World Dominion” will appeal to fans of the stars of the movie, as well as viewers who will tolerate a mediocre and jumbled story to see some familiar faces.

Beta and Blue in “Jurassic World Dominion” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

Bloated and with a scatterbrained plot, “Jurassic World Dominion” is a disappointing, overstuffed mess with too many awkward jokes and not enough dinosaur action. Bringing back original “Jurassic Park” cast members will just remind viewers how superior the first “Jurassic Park” movie is to this “Jurassic World” sequel. Colin Trevorrow directed and co-wrote 2015’s “Jurassic World,” a spinoff to the “Jurassic Park” series that began with 1993’s “Jurassic Park.”

Trevorrow was set to direct 2018’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” but he was replaced by J.A. Bayona, although Trevorrow co-wrote the “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” screenplay. Trevorrow returned as a director of the “Jurassic” franchise by helming “Jurassic World Dominion,” which he co-wrote with Emily Carmichael. Unfortunately, it seems like the “Jurassic World Dominion” filmmakers couldn’t stick to an uncomplicated plot, because the movie (which is too long, at 146 minutes) goes off on some distracting and unwelcome tangents.

“Jurassic World Dominion” picks up four years after the destruction of the Central American island of Isla Nublar, the sanctuary-like domain of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs co-exist with humans all over the world—a prediction come true by Dr. Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum), who was shown at the end of “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” testifying before the U.S. Senate that Earth would have dinosaurs and humans being able co-exist peacefully. But there would be no “Jurassic World Dominion” if things ended that simply.

The main cause of all of Earth’s problems in “Jurassic World Dominion” (as with most of the other “Jurassic” movies) comes down to one thing: human greed. And there’s yet another evil businessman who’s at the root of it. One of the more frustrating things about “Jurassic World Dominion” is that it lazily recycles and copies too many other things from previous “Jurassic” movies.

The beginning of “Jurassic Dominion” features a news report explaining that, once again, a black market has emerged for captured dinosaurs. As a result, the U.S. government has awarded the global rights to collect the world’s dinosaurs to a biotech company called Biosyn, which is located in the Dolomite Mountains valley. Not only is Biosyn now in charge of collecting all the dinosaurs on Earth but this mysterious company is also in the business of trying to eradicate world hunger by creating crops immune to pests and diseases.

Try not to laugh at the idea that one company has been given control over the world’s dinosaurs and possibly the world’s food supply chain. (The movie makes no mention whatsoever of what the United Nations would have to say about it, because apparently, the United States makes decisions for the entire world.) But “Jurassic Park Dominion” viewers are supposed to believe this flimsy premise, because it’s the basis of all of the conflicts in this movie.

With one company having this much power, corruption is inevitable. And the movie reveals early on who the chief villain is, which should surprise no one: Biosyn CEO Lewis Dodgson (played by Campbell Scott), who has several subordinates, but he’s really presented unrealistically as the only villain mastermind. Meanwhile, there’s a whole slew of heroes who zigzag around the world and eventually join forces for the predictable “we have save the world” part of the story.

“Jurassic World Dominion” is so disjointed and so caught up in introducing a new subplot every 20 minutes, it ends up being too jumbled for its own good. The beginning of the movie re-introduces former Velociraptor trainer Owen Grady (played by Chris Pratt) and dinosaur rescue advocate Claire Dearing (played Bryce Dallas Howard), who are now officially a couple, after trying to deny that they wanted to be a couple for the previous two “Jurassic World” movies.

Owen and Claire are living in isolation the Sierra Nevada Mountains and raising 15-year-old Maisie Lockwood (played Isabella Sermon), the orphaned daughter of Benjamin Lockwood (played by James Cromwell), the co-founder of Jurassic Park. Benjamin’s fate is show in “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” which is why Owen and Claire are now Maisie’s guardians. As shown in “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” (mild spoiler alert) Benjamin’s daughter Charlotte died an untimely death, so in his grief, he controversially used Charlotte’s DNA to clone another daughter, who is Maisie, whom Benjamin presented to the world as his granddaughter.

This “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” plot reveal is talked about multiple times in “Jurassic World Dominion,” because Maisie knows she was cloned from her dead mother Charlotte’s DNA. Maisie is now in hiding with Owen and Claire, who both don’t want her to be captured by the U.S. government for experiments. This is all information that viewers need to know within the first 15 minutes of watching “Jurassic World Dominion.” It’s an example of how badly the movie is written for people who might not know anything about “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.”

An early scene in “Jurassic World Dominion” shows that Claire (who is part of the Dinosaur Protection Group) has been fanatically rescuing dinosaurs from illegal breeders. The scene depicts one such recue at an illegal breeding farm in Nevada. Two of Claire’s dinosaur rescue colleagues—systems analyst Franklin Webb (played by Justice Smith) and paleo-veterinarian Dr. Zia Rodriguez (played by Daniella Pineda)—are with her on this successful mission, but they start to question Claire’s recklessness in putting them in increasing danger. Franklin’s and Zia’s appearances in the movie are really just filler.

Owen and Claire refuse to let Maisie interact with any other people except Owen and Claire. And now, teenage Maisie is starting to resent this control and is beginning to rebel. Expect to see several scenes of Maisie shouting, pouting and being resentful to Owen and Claire. But before Owen and Claire have much time to deal with Maisie wanting more freedom, this family has another more pressing problem: a dinosaur kidnapping.

One of the stars of the previous two “Jurassic World” movies was a female Velociraptor named Blue, who was rescued and adopted by Owen and Claire. Blue (one of the last-known Velociraptors on Earth) conceived a child on her own and gave birth to this child, which is named Beta. And now, Beta has been stolen by poachers, led by a shaggy-haired lowlife named Rainn Delacourt (played by Scott Haze), who works for the most obvious person possible. And then, Maisie gets kidnapped too. A sassy former U.S. Air Force pilot named Kayla Watts (played by DeWanda Wise) has been hired to transport Maisie by private plane during this kidnapping.

But wait, there’s more: Swarms of giant locusts have been causing terror on Earth, by killing people and eating essential food crops. And these giant locusts, which are rapidly spreading across the world, are only eating food crops that were not engineered by Biosyn. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s not a coincidence. But apparently, only a few people on Earth have figured out that it’s not a coincidence. And in this idiotic movie, that small group of people will to have to be the ones to save the world.

Meanwhile, original “Jurassic Park” characters Dr. Alan Grant (played by Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (played by Laura Dern) are shoehorned into a clumsy plot where they reunite with Ian, who now works for Biosyn. Before that happens, paleobotanist Ellie meets up with paleontologist Alan, who is now living in Utah and making money offering paleontological digs for tourists. It’s a reunion scene that should be entertaining to watch, but it just looks so forced and uncomfortably written.

Alan has had a crush on Ellie for years—so much so, that he has a photo of her on his wall. He quickly hides the photo when Ellie suddenly shows up to visit him. Ellie is now divorced with college-age children. Alan is a bachelor who’s happy to hear Ellie is now single and available. And you know what that means later in the movie.

Ian has invited Ellie and Alan to Biosyn, where he is now the company’s in-house philosopher. It’s just an excuse for the movie to have Ian act like a New Age eccentric. Later in the movie, Ian makes this creepy statement: “I had a dog once. It humped my leg so much, I got a callous on my shin bone.” That’s an example of the awful dialogue in “Jurassic World Dominion.”

Biosyn’s head of communications Ramsay Cole (played by Mamoudou Athie) is open about his hero worship of Ian. Ramsay also professes his loyalty to Rasmay’s Biosyn CEO boss Lewis. Ramsay becomes the official Biosyn tour guide for visitors Ellie and Alan, who are both suspicious of Lewis. “Jurassic” movie franchise recurring character Dr. Henry Wu (played by BD Wong), who works for Biosyn as a genetic engineer, is in the movie for less than 15 minutes, where he spends most of his screen time looking stressed-out and worried.

With the reunion of old characters and the introduction of new characters, “Jurassic World Dominion” keeps throwing different subplots into the mix to separate the characters and then eventually bring them back together. There’s an unnecessary detour to Malta, featuring a cameo from Barry Sembène (played by Omar Sy), who was a dinosaur trainer in 2015’s “Jurassic World” movie. Barry’s only purpose in “Jurassic World Dominion” is to tell people that Malta is a gateway for people involved in illegal dinosaur trafficking, and so he can show Claire and Owen what an underground dinosaur fight club looks like.

And what about the dinosaurs in this story? They’re not in the movie as much as some viewers might expect. The dinosaur action scenes are not very terrifying at all. You never feel like the “heroes” are in any real danger. And when you see the lack of serious injuries at the end of the film, considering all the physical attacks that the characters experienced, it all just adds to the movie’s phoniness.

None of the acting in “Jurassic World Dominion” is special, because the cast members are just going through the motions reciting the often-silly dialogue that they have to say. (Expect to see plenty of cringeworthy comments from Goldblum’s Dr. Malcolm character. ) “Jurassic World Dominion” is ultimately a “Jurassic” movie where the dinosaurs have lost a lot of edge, and the human drama is entirely toothless.

Universal Pictures will release “Jurassic World: Dominion” in U.S. cinemas on June 10, 2022. The movie was released in other countries first, beginning June 1 in Mexico and South Korea, and June 2 in Argentina, Brazil and Peru.

Review: ‘The Call of the Wild’ (2020), starring Harrison Ford

February 21, 2020

by Carla Hay

“The Call of the Wild”

Directed by Chris Sanders

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Alaska during the 1890s Gold Rush era, the action-adventure film “The Call of the Wild” has a predominantly white cast that represent the working-class and middle-class whose lives are touched in some way by a very lovable and determined St. Bernard/Farm Collie mix dog.

Culture Clash: The characters have conflicts over greed for gold, as well as ownership of the dog.

Culture Audience: “The Call of the Wild” is a family-friendly film that will appeal to fans of Harrison Ford and people who love dogs.

Omar Sy in “The Call of the Wild” (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)

“The Call of the Wild” takes Jack London ‘s classic 1903 novel on which it based and turns it into live-action/animated hybrid adventure story with moments that are heartwarming, heartbreaking and unapologetically sentimental. The story, which takes place during the 1890s, centers on a St. Bernard/Farm Collie mix dog named Buck, who teaches the humans quite a few things about bravery and emotional intelligence. Harrison Ford receives top billing in the movie, but viewers who don’t know the book’s original story should know that his John Thornton character is mainly in the latter half of the story, although his voiceover narration is throughout the film. The movie keeps most of the plot points the same as the original story, but there are also some changes from the novel.

When viewers first see Buck, he’s living a pampered life in Santa Clara, California, with Judge Miller (played by Bradley Whitford), his wife Katie (played by Jean Louisa Kelly) and their family. Buck is playful and mischievous—so much so, that he ruins the family’s Thanksgiving dinner by trashing the table and eating the entire Thanksgiving feast. Judge Miller gets angry but he’s a kind dog owner who doesn’t abuse his pet.

One night, Buck is stolen by a man who sells the dog to an abusive sailor, who hits Buck with a club and keeps him confined. There are scenes of animal cruelty that might be a little disturbing to very sensitive viewers. Buck is on a ship that is headed to Alaska. Through ingenuity, luck and a will to fight, Buck escapes his cruel owner and finds himself homeless in Dawson City, Alaska. He is taken by an old man, who doesn’t treat Buck much better than the sailor, so Buck runs away again.

While Buck is escaping, he runs into a gold prospector named John Thornton (played by Ford), a recluse who’s come into town for errands. Buck finds John’s harmonica on the street, and John is struck by how intelligent the dog seems to be. Unfortunately, Buck’s old man owner catches up to Buck and he’s back in captivity again.

Buck is eventually taken to a dog pound, where he’s bought by Perrault (played by Omar Sy), a French Canadian who runs a dog-sled service that delivers mail. Perrault immediately warms up to Buck, but his jaded assistant Francoise (played by Cara Gee) isn’t too fond of the dog at first. (In the novel, the dog-sled operators were two men named Perrault and Francois.) Perrault makes Buck part of the dog-sled team, which is lead by an arrogant alpha male Siberian husky named Spitz. The rest of the dogs are of various large-sized breeds.

The dog-sled work is grueling, especially when it’s in the snow, but Buck is a quick learner and he makes friends with the rest of the dogs, except for Spitz. For example, there’s a scene where Spitz makes the other dogs wait for him to finish drinking water from an icy lake, but Buck takes his paws to break open the ice to create a new place where the dogs can drink without waiting for Spitz.

It’s worth mentioning that the CGI visual effects for the animals start off looking very unrealistic, but they get better during the course of the movie. The animals have very humanistic facial expressions and movements, so don’t expect this movie to be completely realistic. You also have to suspend disbelief at some of the superhuman stunts that Buck is able to do. However, the movie doesn’t go too far with the human characteristics for the animals—the animals don’t cry, walk like humans, or talk in human languages—so overall the ways that the animals are presented are mostly realistic.

Whenever there’s an action movie that takes place near a frozen body of water, the inevitable happens: Someone falls through the ice into the water. This happens to Francoise, but of course Buck is there to rescue her and save her life. Her attitude toward Buck starts to change after that incident. She begrudgingly admits to Buck that she underestimated him and that he’s impressed her the most out of all of the dogs in the pack. And wouldn’t you know, Spitz is off in the distance seeing this bonding moment and gets jealous, so he later starts a fight with Buck, leading to a showdown over who’s going to be the alpha male of the pack.

Because the trailers for “The Call of the Wild” make the movie look like it’s only about Buck and John, viewers who don’t know the book might be surprised to see how much of the movie is about Buck’s time in the dog-sled pack. It’s a pivotal part of the story in the novel and the film, because it’s the first time that Buck experiences being part of a dog pack. It’s also the first time he becomes in touch with his wild instincts that originate from the wolves who are ancestors of domesticated dogs. (When Buck uses his primal instincts, he sees a vision of a black wolf with glowing eyes )

So how did Buck end up with John? Buck and the sled team get a new owner named Hal, a greedy, insufferable fop who’s the most abusive owner yet for Buck. Hal wants the dog pack to take him, his sister Mercedes (played by Karen Gillan) and Mercedes’ passive husband Charles (played by Colin Goodell) on gold mining expeditions. Hal beats and starves the dogs into submission. If you love animals, this part of the film is hard to watch, even if you know the animals aren’t real.

Luckily, when John encounters the gold-digging trio and the mistreated dog pack, he rescues a severely malnourished and injured Buck. Hal leaves with the rest of the pack. (What happens to Hal and the dog pack in this movie is different from what happens to them in the original novel.) John takes Buck back to his small and sparse cabin in the woods and nurses the dog back to health.

John lives simply, and his gruff exterior masks a lot of emotional pain. He’s the type of prospector who isn’t looking for gold to get rich. At one point, he tells Buck that all a man needs is enough money “to buy groceries for life.” And it’s easy to see why he feels a strong connection to Buck, because Buck has also experienced a lot of pain.

During Buck’s time with John, Buck meets a pretty female hinterland wolf with white fur, and she introduces him to her pack, which readily accepts Buck, and he spends more and more time with them. (This is where the movie takes a sharp turn from reality, because in real life, a domesticated dog would be attacked and probably killed by a pack of wild wolves.)

It’s during this time that John (who talks to Buck like a human) reveals what happened in his past that’s made him a such a recluse: He had a son who died (it’s not mentioned how he died), and the grief over his son’s death led to him being estranged from his wife. It’s implied in the movie that John left his wife, they’re now divorced, and he let her keep their marital house and everything in it.

John is also a heavy drinker—and this is where the humanistic qualities of Buck are really shown in the movie—the dog scolds John for drinking too much, whether it’s by Buck hiding John’s flask of alcohol or making disapproving noises when he sees John drinking too much. Yes, Buck is not only an incredibly resourceful dog, apparently he’s also an addiction counselor/interventionist too.

Whenever there’s a movie about the wild, wild West, there also seems to be an obligatory scene with a bar fight. That moment comes when John is drinking at a bar and he gets sucker-punched by Hal, who’s angry at John because the dog pack ran off, thereby putting a severe damper on Hal’s gold-digging excursions in the rough terrain. Of course, Buck comes to the rescue when John is attacked. John fights back too, and Hal is thrown out of the bar. Do you think that’s the last we’ll see of Hal in this movie? Of course not.

The rest of the movie is about the bonding time that Buck and John spend together when John decides to take the adventure trip that he and his son had planned before his son died. “The Call of the Wild” is the first movie with live action for director Chris Sanders, who previously directed the animated films “How to Train Your Dragon,” “The Croods” and “Lilo & Stitch.” Fans of the “How to Train Your Dragon” series might see some similarities in the “man’s best friend” theme in both movies and how the animals take on human mannerisms.

There have been other “The Call of the Wild” movies, but this is the first to have this type of CGI animation for the animals. For the most part, it works well, even if the action sometimes look cartoonish because of what some of the things these animated animals do that real animals can’t do. However, this version of “The Call of the Wild” (whose screenplay was written by Michael Green) keeps the story’s message of resilience and friendship intact and treats it with respect. It’s a timeless message that will resonate even with changes in movie technology.

20th Century Studios released “The Call of the Wild” in U.S. cinemas on February 21, 2020.

UPDATE: Because of the widespread coronavirus-related closures of movie theaters worldwide, 20th Century Home Entertainment has moved up the digital release of “The Call of the Wild” to March 27, 2020.