J.J. Abrams

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Mission: Impossible III (2006)
Rating: ★★★½
Jun 21, 2006Spy/Action Film
For his third outing in the series, Tom Cruise made a smart bet on giving the reins to J.J. Abrams who made his directorial debut and turned in the most enjoyable entry in the series to that point. One of the best moves is in the casting of Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain of the show
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Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek (2009)
Rating: ★★
May 12, 2009Intergalactic Adventures
J.J. Abrams revives the Star Trek franchise by recasting it with younger faces and rewriting continuity. But in the appeal to a hipper, sexier vibe, it feels a long way from Gene Roddenberry’s creation – nowhere in evidence is the original's concern with galactic politics and social issues of the day
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Super 8 (2011)

Super 8 (2011)
Rating: ★★½
Jun 16, 2011Alien Monster/1980s Coming of Age Tale
J.J. Abrams makes a homages to 8mm filmmaking and the films of his youth – you could easily imagine this as a Steven Spielberg-produced film of the era. On the other hand, after the obsessive secrecy in pre-release, the results emerge as underwhelming
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Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Rating: ★★★★
Jan 19, 2012Spy/Action Film
The best of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible films to this point. The live-action directorial debut of Pixar director Brad Bird proves an inspired move and Bird gets all the gadgetry just right along with a series of sensational action sequences
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Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)

Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)
Rating: ★★
May 17, 2013Intergalactic Adventures
I had mixed feelings about J.J. Abrams' reboot of Star Trek This time around the actors seem more at home in the characters and the plot works a good deal better (for the most part), while Abrams creates a hurtling effects spectacle that is the most action-oriented of the Trek films
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Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
Rating: ★★★
Aug 1, 2015Spy/Action Film
The Mission: Impossible films have become superbly polished vehicles with exotic locales, death-defying stuntwork and spectacular action sequences. This enacts it all well; the main problem is that Ghost Protocol is such a tough act to follow that this cannot help but fall in its shadow
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Star Trek: Beyond (2016)

Star Trek: Beyond (2016)
Rating: ★★
Jul 30, 2016Intergalactic Adventures
Gene Roddenbery created a tv series that was about boldly going, confronting different ways of life. The choice to hire the director of The Fast and the Furious films to helm the film made for the show's 50th anniversary says how wrong-headed the reboot series has become – all about cool young leads and hurtling effects sequences
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10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
Rating: ★★★
Mar 19, 2016Trapped in a Survival Shelter/Mysterious Catastrophe
Sequel in name only to Cloverfield, this takes place in a survival shelter where an unspecified catastrophe has happened outside but we cannot be certain what or even if anything at all. Okay but films like Take Shelter and The Divide did this much better
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11.22.63 (2016)

11.22.63 (2016)
Rating: ★★★
May 1, 2016Time Traveller Tries to Prevent the Assassination of JFK/Stephen King Adaptation
Stephen King adapted mini-series in which James Franco finds a mysterious door that leads back to 1960 and sets out to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy
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Overlord (2018)

Overlord (2018)
Rating: ★★
Mar 1, 2019Nazi Mad Science Experiments
J.J. Abrams' produced film about soldiers encountering Nazi mad science experiments during WWII. Despite a decent budget thrown at it, this was a box-office failure. It may be that in a genre where we have gravitated to films about Nazi zombies and Nazi moonbases, this was just too tame
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The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
Rating: ★★
Feb 17, 2018Experiment Opens Up Alternate Timeline
The third of J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield films. This is set on a space station thing and has an alternate timeline plot but seems disinterested in little more than creating a bizarre effect every few minutes
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Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Rating: ★★★
Dec 29, 2018Spy/Action Film
The sixth of the Mission: Impossible films. Not the best of the series but Tom Cruise and associates have everything polished to an expertly honed formula by now and the film is a kinetic ride of intensive and often jaw-dropping action sequences
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