The Jurassic World Theme Park has been closed for four years to the public but the dinosaurs thrive on Isla Nublar without paying onlookers. Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) return to the island when a volcano threatens to end all life there. Owen is especially concerned about Blue, the raptor he bonded within the last Jurassic edition.

While saving the prehistoric creatures from a threat from nature, Owen and Claire learn of manmade threats to destroy the animals completely and another which would exploit them for financial gain.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom struggles to develop underlying plotlines when the entire purpose of these films is to showcase the dinosaurs. The stories are weak, predictable and plagued by a number of “coming out of nowhere rescues” by both humans and creatures.

Returning stars, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, add stability and familiarity to the film. But among the human cast, the real star is young Isabella Sermon, who plays Maisie Lockwood, whose grandfather, Benjamin helped create the dinosaur-cloning technology. Isabella is amazing!
For cast diversity, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom gets a B+. One of the featured stars, in addition to Pratt and Howard, is a young black actor, Justice Smith playing Franklin, a nerdy, easily frightened, computer tech. There are also other people of color in supporting and minor roles.

Ultimately, the Jurassic Park Series is about the special effects and the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom doesn’t disappoint. And that’s enough to garner a “See It!” rating.

The film is PG-13 for intense sequences of science-fiction violence and peril and is 129 minutes in length.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom also hints at the next film in the series.

In Deadpool 2, the 11th installment of the X-Men series, thing are going well for Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) until he loses a loved one. When he attempts to join her on the other side, he learns that he has to do more good in this world before he can move to the next. His first step is to assist a young, troubled mutant. However, Cable (Josh Brolin) gets in the way of that effort leading Wilson to put together a new team of X-men to fight his old nemesis.

Critiquing Deadpool 2 is easy. If you like the mutants’ series, this episode will not disappoint. And Deadpool 2 gets a See It! rating. It has all the battles, humorous dialogue and over the top action scenes which made the first Deadpool film a success. Ryan Reynolds breathes an everyman type of charm into the lead character. He’s funny and flawed which makes him more credible.

One downside of the mutant series is the lack of racial diversity. The main characters are overwhelmingly white males. However, the creators do embrace black women characters. There’s Storm who was played by Halle Berry in four of the X-Men films. In Deadpool 2, Leslie Uggams returns as Blind Al, Wilson’s confidant. And joining his new team in this film is the half German and half African-American, Zazie Beetz. Her mutant skills are exceptional marksmanship and hand-to-hand skills, and probability-altering powers.

However, due to the overall lack of cast diversity, Deadpool 2, receives a “C” for cast diversity.

It’s rated “R” (for strong violence and language throughout, sexual references and brief drug material) and is 111 minutes in length.

Ultimately, Deadpool 2 is a See It!

They’ve been friends since college, and get together once a month to discuss the book of the month. Diane (Diane Keaton) is recently widowed after 40 years of marriage. Vivian (Jane Fonda) runs a five-star hotel and only gets involved with men she could never fall in love with. Sharon (Candice Bergen) is still recovering from her divorce of almost two decades. Carol's (Mary Steenburgen) marriage slumps after 35 years. The book of the month, the salacious 50 Shades of Grey has the friends reexamining their own situations.

The Book Club is simply not worth the time. It’s Dead on Arrival. First, the characters are not interesting. Even for a comedy, they simply lack the depth to make this film worthwhile. It’s not the performers; it’s the weak script. Further, while the four women are all supposed to be the approximately same age, having attended college at the same time, it’s obvious that Mary Steenburgen is younger than her costars and is in fact 15 years younger than Jane Fonda.

There’s also not a credible subplot. Diane’s love interest Mitchell (Andy Garcia) is obviously younger than her (10 years in real life). He’s a pilot whose invention reducing wind drag on airplanes has made him wealthy but for some unexplained reason, he still works as a commercial pilot. Thus, this rich guy who’s in a profession where he meets plenty of women decides to pursue a much older, very ordinary widow. Is this possible? Of course. Is this likely? Of course NOT!

Speaking of Garcia, he is the only one keeping this film from getting a D- minus in cast diversity. This Hispanic (Cuban) actor has a starring role in what would otherwise be one of the least diverse films I have seen in years.

The Book Club is rated PG-13 (for sex-related material throughout and for language) and is 104 minutes.

Ultimately, it is sad that such talented actors are bound together in this losing production. It’s Dead on Arrival.

After her father’s sudden death, Shaun Russell (Gabrielle Union) and her two children, Jasmine (Ajiona Alexus) and Glover (Seth Carr) make the several hours drive to his large estate. Shaun, who was estranged from her dad, decides to put his house for up sale immediately. But little did she know that there would be four sinister characters hiding inside, more interested in the contents of the house than she is. These men have no qualms about destroying anything or anybody to get what they want. Shaun has to draw deeply into all her physical and mental skills to protect her children and herself.

From the start, Breaking In quickly becomes suspenseful and dramatic, turning the first pleasant, almost boring scene into a shockingly violent one. Being only 88 minutes in length, it gets to the main storyline very quickly. Breaking In gets a See It! rating because it does what a spectacle of this type is supposed to do, keep viewers on the edge of their seats and wondering what happens next.

Gabrielle Union rises to the occasion in the lead role. She’s authentically tough and at the same time necessarily tender while guiding her children through this ordeal. But you can’t have a truly great hero, as Union is in this film, without a supremely wicked villain. Of the four thugs, Duncan (Richard Cabral) is the most heartless, and justifiably raises the ire of both Shaun and the viewing audience.

Another interesting cast member is Ajiona Alexus, who at 22, successfully plays Shaun’s young teenage daughter. Alexus and Union look so much alike, I checked to see if they are related. They are not.

RELATED: THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US IS A BIT BUMPY BUT YOU SHOULD SEE IT.

But Breaking In also is burdened by the weaknesses of this film genre. Characters who can be shot, stabbed, badly beaten but then miraculously recover to the point where they can run fast, climb to rooftops and engage in lengthy, full-blown physical battles. And there are also handguns that shoot an unlimited amount of bullets without being reloaded.

Gabrielle Union stars in the thriller, Breaking In

While writer Ryan Engle created a strong black woman in Shaun, the two black male characters were either dishonest or disgustingly weak and ineffective.

As to our cast diversity rating, Breaking In gets an A-. First, the cast is small which limits the number of roles available. Blacks, whites and a Hispanic actor all have major roles. There are no Asian-Americans featured.

Breaking In is rated PG-13 for violence, menace, bloody images, sexual references, and brief strong language, and, it's a See It!

Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) return in the third and final film series based on the bestselling Fifty Shades novels.

The film opens with Christian and Ana trading marriage vows, looking to a new life of shared love and luxury.

Of course, there’s a lot of sex, but Fifty Shades Freed, more than anything else entertains and it gets a See It! rating.

The story does strain credibility in an effort to bolster the story. In the scenes after the couple gets married, Anastasia behaves more like someone who just met Christian than someone who knows and agreed to marry him: She didn’t know he had a domestic staff at his apartment, he had his own plane, and that she will have a security detail following her around. Apparently, after the long and extensive history of sexual gymnastics, they don’t know each other’s viewpoint on having children.

However, the characters are fuller and richer than in Fifty Shades of Grey where they both seem empty and vacuous. In this edition, they are more interesting and more balanced characters. While sex can be a draw to a movie, there has to be more to a film for it to succeed. Here there’s drama and amusing dialogue.

Fifty Shades Freed gets a B+ for cast diversity. Set in Seattle, a city in which people of color make up about a third of the population, the film has a diverse group of people of color in supporting and background roles.

Fifty Shades Freed is rated “R” for strong sexual content, nudity, and language and it is approximately 105 minutes in length. Fifty Shades Freed will be worth your time and money.

A film critic for over 20 years, T. A. Moreland, also produced and hosted a film review television program in New York City for four years.

Moreland wrote for The New York Amsterdam News, The Harlem World Magazine and a Harlem Critic Blog on World Press. His reviews have appeared in USAtoday.com and international publications: interceder.net and www.newstin.com. Similarly, he provided commentary on the entertainment industry for Essence magazine and BET.

Moreover, T.A. Moreland’s description of the 2008 film “Valkyrie” as a “True Life Mission Impossible” was prominently featured and was the lead quote in the nationwide and international ad campaign for the film starring Tom Cruise.

A prolific writer, T.A. Moreland has written three screenplays and numerous television treatments.

T.A. Moreland resides in Harlem and is an attorney who specializes in energy and economic development issues. He holds a B.A. from Indiana University in Bloomington, Juris Doctorate from the University of Dayton, and Masters from the University of Pennsylvania.

English crime writer, Agatha Christie’s 1934 classic whodunit, Murder on the Orient Express, first filmed in 1974, returns to the big screen for the second time. In the 2017 film version of Murder on the Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh directs and leads an all-star cast including Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom, Jr, and Josh Gad. Murder on the Orient Express is the story of 13, first class passengers traveling on a luxury train to London when one of the passengers is found dead in his cabin, the victim of multiple stab wounds.

Hercule Poirot (Branagh), the internationally known, fictional, detective happens to be on board and is coaxed into solving the brutal crime. The film takes viewers though Poirot’s painstakingly, thorough examination of the suspects and their possible motives.

Murder on the Orient Express is a fascinating, far-fetched, yet definitely entertaining film. And it’s a See It!

It has a Titanic feel to it. Wealthy passengers travel opulently to their destination. Like Titanic, the mode of transportation is damaged. In Titanic, it’s an iceberg; in Murder, it’s a snowy avalanche which derails the train.

While I was familiar with the story title, I was unaware of how the crime would be solved, which added additional intrigue to the mystery. And, the outcome is a truly a surprise.

Again, this is a star studded cast which enriches the production. Murder on the Orient Express gets an “A” for cast diversity. Among the 13 passengers, there is a black man, Leslie Odom, Jr., who starred in the Broadway musical, Hamilton, and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is a Hispanic man. Further, there are many characters of color in background and small roles. Often movies set in time periods such as the '30s have all-white casts, as if people of color only came into the being in the '60s and '70s.

Additionally, the cinematography is creative and exceptional. With scenes shot from a multitude of angles and ranges.

Murder on the Orient Express is rated, PG-13, and is 116 minutes. And it’s a See It!

They don’t know each other but they are both desperate to reach their destinations. Dr. Ben Bass (Idris Elba) has a 10-year-old patient waiting for surgery. And photojournalist Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) has to get to her wedding. After the cancellation of their flight due to stormy weather, they hire a charter plane. The plane crashes midflight, the pilot dies, but they, along with pilot’s dog, survive the incident with injuries. They battle to survive the subzero weather in the Colorado mountains, trying to hang on until they are found.

The Mountain Between Us is often tedious, but ultimately, an entertaining film and gets a See It! rating.

The plot’s not new or unique; there are a number of films before The Mountain Between Us, which were popular with filmgoers including Cast Away and Alive. This movie like others of its type shares the survivors’ painstaking efforts to stay alive.

Also, like Hollywood films in general, it makes sure that dogs are unharmed. While Ben and Alex ration the food from the crash and what they are able to scavenge, while showing the effects of not having enough to eat, the dog somehow always seems well fed and full of energy.

The writers do their best to help viewers get to know Ben and Alex but with only modest success. Great writers develop individuals so rich and full that moviegoers could pass tests on the personalities of the characters in the film. However, Ben and Alex remain enigmas.

While not giving too much away, the story does develop in a way that ultimately works.

This is an interracial pairing, yet race is never an issue or even discussed in the film.

The Mountain Between Us gets an “A” for diversity. Obviously, there is a person of color in a leading role; however, there are others in supporting roles.

It’s rated PG-13 for a scene of sexuality, peril, injury images, and brief strong language. The Mountain Between Us is 103 minutes in length and is a film you should see.