A Quiet Place Part II Review: Slick Monster Sequel Delivers High-Tension Thrills
Plus: Reviews of The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson and Salma Hayek, and the Hong Kong crime drama 'Hand Rolled Cigarette'.
A Quiet Place Part II (PG13)
Starring Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy
Directed by John Krasinski
Following a calm-before-the-storm prologue, John Krasinski’s sequel to his terrific 2018 creature feature picks up mere moments after the first movie. This time, Emily Blunt and her brood venture beyond their farmhouse into a world overrun by gnarly alien predators that hunt by sound. Cillian Murphy, who’s no stranger to post-apocalyptic survival rigours (28 Days Later), plays an old friend of the protagonists’, joins the slick follow-up which once again relies on the power of silence and stillness to generate high-tension thrills (best appreciated on the big screen), even if it has lost of some of the freshness (nothing here can hold a candle to the bathtub birthing or that squirmy rusty-nail-in-the-foot sequence in the original.) But it does allow Millicent Simmonds, as the hearing-impaired daughter whose auditory device is key to defeating the monsters, to shine in a few badass moments. (3.5/5 stars)