Theme: Flying

Journey 2 The Mysterious Island (2012) – Josh Hutcherson, Dwayne Johnson and Michael Cain

This movie is full of trashy drama and juvenile remarks — it’s all a bit silly, but it has some decent action and curious story features too. I rate it Watchable — that’s a few levels below average, and it couldn’t be much worse, but it’s Watchable nevertheless, if you’re bored and haven’t seen it recently enough to remember how it goes — mainly thanks to its mix of strong and mediocore cast members. If you have seen it before and vaguely remember certain features — and maybe even if you haven’t or can’t — you may still find certain patches are highly skippable for the sake of your own sanity because not every fan of smooth action hero movies wants to sit through scenes of childish screaming, panicking and running past fictional creatures etc, or standing on a cliff and arguing about how to get down it, or even sailing a fantasy submarine vessel without much else going on, for prolonged durations. Indeed, certain patches are barely watchable, and highly skippable, but certain other patches are mildly amusing so it balances out as Watchable.

Cast Members

Josh Hutcherson stars as the rebellious teenager come young man. He’s acting straight here, acting interested in the girl, but he can’t hide his actual bentness to save his life.

Dwayne Johnson plays his stepfather who joins him on his journey as a rare chance to bond with him, and an aged Kristin Davis (from the obscenely named series in the city) plays his mother although we only see her briefly at the start and the end, when everyone’s home. Michael Caine plays the 2-years-missing grandfather who found the island before his grandson — he has the odd bit of banter with Dwayne Johnson, which is mildly amusing.

Then Luis Guzmán plays the pilot for hire, and Vanessa Hudgens plays his daughter — they both come along for the ride when their helicopter crashes in the storm around the island.

That’s pretty much the whole cast there, except the odd cop and homeowner who shows their face in the opening police chase scene.

See also

If you enjoyed this movie, you may also enjoy a slightly more mature movie of a similar theme: The Jungle Cruise (2021) — also starring Dwayne Johnson, but this time as the captain of the ship.

Around The World in 80 Days (2004) – Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan

Not just another early Jackie Chan slapstick movie! This one is genuinely well conceived — compared to the usual cheap early slapsticks at least — with real plot, good ideas and good screenplay. The usual genre, but handsomely upgraded. By 15 minutes in, it already looks like a winner, likely to score Above Average at least. The characters have real depth and backstory here — even Jackie himself. And the humour is well played too — not over done, but genuinely funny occasionally.

Cameos from Richard Branson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sammo Hung and John Cleese were a nice touch.

In the end I’m going to rate this movie Above Average for the action hero genre although if you’re looking for a silly slapstick adventure you can’t do much better!

Steve Coogan makes a good lead character, and Jackie Chan is of course a great sidekick. The lead female, a French artist played by Cécile de France was pretty good at her role too.

Oblivion (2013) – Tom Cruise and Olga Kurylenko

Just one year before the epic movie that was Edge Of Tomorrow, this movie sees Tom Cruise in his element, rebelliously flying planes and riding motorbikes, but not in the usual context. Oblivion is a dystopian lethal tech-controlled dictatorship world where what few humans remain on Earth are expected to follow a strict regime.

Although it’s a fairly simple movie in terms of having few characters – the closing credits list a cast of literally 7 characters long before getting into Stunt Coordinators then listing a bunch of background characters who we never get to know; and although it has a potentially over-memorable plot; it still does very well at sustaining attention even after having seen it several times before and recently enough such that many other movies would become unable to entertain again.

On the balance of pros and cons, I’m going to rate it Decent. It doesn’t have the excitement of Edge Of Tomorrow, and isn’t as slick as Hitman, so it’s neither Tom’s nor Olga‘s best movie for my taste, but it’s not terribly far off — it’s in good company.

Morgan Freeman plays a supporting role, as does Andrea Riseborough (as Tom’s partner, until he realises he’s been brainwashed) — they both do a pretty good job — not wowing, but appropriate.