One-upmanship is the name of the game in the Fast & Furious franchise, from its humble carjacking beginnings to its globe-trotting (now globe-circling) feats of saving the world from the MacGuffin du jour. While its plotting implausibilities and character invincibility have always been part of the joke—never more so with its latest entry—each iteration has methodically upped the ante to some ridiculous next stage. Franchise veteran Justin Lin’s F9 follows suit, yet the prior film’s creakiness becomes expounded here. This is…

Since the opening scene of Jaws, many blockbuster filmmakers have strived to riff on Steven Spielberg’s particular four-quadrant brand of graceful thrills and grounded emotion. Utilizing the fundamental calling cards of that director in 2018, John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place was a passable imitation with bludgeoning sound design to keep one’s mind off certain dubious narrative decisions. Successful enough to quickly earn a sequel, A Quiet Place Part II has now arrived after a year-long pandemic delay, adding a few…