A Quiet Place Part II

 Year of Release:  2021

Director:  John Krasinski

Screenplay:  John Krasinski, based on characters created by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck

Starring:  Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Djimon Hounsou, John Krasinski

Running Time:  97 minutes

Genre:  horror

The world has been decimated by a race of savage, predatory monsters which hunt by their acute sense of hearing.  Evelyn Abbott (Blunt), her deaf daughter Regan (Simmonds), son Marcus (Jupe) and newborn baby ferried in a soundproof cooler to muffle his cries, search for survivors and stumble upon a deserted factory, occupied by the bitter Emmett (Murphy) who doesn't trust others.  When Regan sneaks out to discover the source of a mysterious radio broadcast, Emmett reluctantly agrees to find her and bring her back, while Evelyn remains to take care of Marcus and the baby.

The original A Quiet Place was a sleeper hit 2018.  Aside from a lengthy prologue depicting the start of the invasion, the film picks up straight from the end of the first one.  Once again, the film makes use of a brilliantly simple premise, a world where any noise above the faintest whisper could mean death.  It was originally intended to be released in March 2020 but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was delayed, and the film belongs in a cinema rather than on Blu-ray, DVD or a streaming service, because you get the big image and sound design.  It is full of tension and suspense.  It does deliver more of the same thrills from the first film, but it does expand the world more.  It's well paced, and writer, director, actor John Krasinski (best known as prankster Jim Halpert in the US series of The Office (2005-2013)) keeps things moving at a good place and wrings all the suspense out of each scene.  The performances are good with Millicent Simmonds and Cillian Murphy being particular standouts.  

      Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe and Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place Part II

 

Shazam!

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  David F. Sandberg
Screenplay:  Henry Gayden, from a story by Henry Gayden and Darren Lemke, based on a character created by Bill Parker and C. C. Beck for DC Comics
Starring:  Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Djimon Hounsou
Running Time:  130 minutes
Genre:  Fantasy, action adventure, comedy, superhero

In present day Philadelphia, 14 year old foster kid Billy Batson (Angel) runs into trouble with the law while searching for his birth mother.  He is placed in a group foster home, run by kindly Victor (Cooper Andrews) and Rosa Vasquez (Marta Milans).  Billy reluctantly befriends nerdy superhero fan Freddy (Grazer), although he is wary about getting close to anyone.  One day, while on the subway, Billy is transported to a strange temple run bay an ancient wizard named Shazam (Hounsou), who has been searching for one truly good person who is "pure of heart" and who can become his champion and defeat the powerful Seven Deadly Sins.  When Billy says the name "Shazam" he is transformed into an adult superhero (Levi). 

This is an enjoyable superhero film, which comes across at times as a superpowered remake of Big (1988), which is referenced in one scene.   It adopts a lighter, more comedic, tone than most of the other recent movies based on DC Comics.  However it is darker and more gritty than it initially appears, and has surprising emotional heft at times.  There is a lot of fun in the scenes where Billy is testing out his new superpowers, and the story is enjoyable and satisfying.  The performances are good, and the child actors really work well together, with Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer being particularly good.  Zachary Levi is fun and charismatic as Billy's superhero form, and Mark Storng makes a suitably menacing villain.  Djimon Hounsou provides the appropriate gravitas as the ancient mystic. 
With a running time of over two hours, the film does feel stretched, and the climax does fall into the almost inevitable trap of superhero films of feeling like an extended special effects showreel.  It also has the problem of being a superhero origin story and having to hit the prerequisite beats to establish the characters, their powers and their world.  Another thing that I liked about the film was that, while it is set in the shared DC Comics Universe, and there are references to the other characters, the film is pretty much self-contained.  You don't need to have seen any other films in order to enjoy this.   
Just a note:  There are two post credit sequences.  One in the middle of the credits and one at the very end.

Jack Dylan Grazer and Zachary Levi in Shazam!