Dino-mite! 🦖

 

Some people dig fireworks on Fourth of July. I'll take a T. rex over those every day of the week.

There's another "Jurassic" movie upon us, and while "Jurassic World Rebirth" continues the streak of franchise films chasing the wonder of Steven Spielberg's OG "Jurassic Park," it's fun watching dinosaurs romping and stomping on a big screen again. That's something to watch this July 4 weekend, as is the new Charlize Theron Netflix sequel "The Old Guard 2." And if you're feeling a biblical binge this holiday, the final episodes of Season 5 of "The Chosen" are finally on Amazon Prime Video.

Now on to the good stuff:

Thrill to big-screen dinosaurs again in 'Jurassic World Rebirth'

Scarlett Johansson threw down with Thanos. Jonathan Bailey is at odds with Elphaba. But how will those two do against the mighty Distortus rex? Johansson, Bailey and Mahershala Ali are the newest recruits to the dino-mite franchise in "Jurassic World Rebirth." The movie centers on a team of specialists sent to an abandoned research facility to find dino DNA for a potential miracle drug. There's "Jurassic" homages a plenty, plus all sorts of generic characters, but the cloned critters are as fun to watch as always. (Peep my ★★½ review.)

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And if it's a "Jurassic" film, there's of course a T. rex running around. One sequence in the new movie finds the dino attacking a family trying to escape in a raft, and my colleague Brendan Morrow wrote about how it echoes a scrapped scene from Spielberg's original movie. "In the early '90s, water was still a big challenge for CG, and so the idea of making a T. rex and then having it swim was a bridge too far," recalls David Koepp, screenwriter of the first "Jurassic Park" as well as "Rebirth."

See Charlize Theron do battle in Netflix sequel 'The Old Guard 2'

Charlize Theron turns 50 next month. (I'll be there too soon enough, Charlize!) But age is just a number for the Oscar winner, who's rocking fishnets at movie premieres and throwing down in a sword fight vs. Uma Thurman in the Netflix action sequel "The Old Guard 2." "I have limited time left, and I'm going to do it up the way I want to do it up," she tells my pal Marco della Cava in a new interview.

If you dug the first "Old Guard," more immortal warriors join the battle in modern times in the sequel (which has quite the cliffhanger). It's one of several new movies streaming this week – "Sinners" also makes that roundup, and ranks high on my list of the best movies so far in 2025.

Stream the final episodes of 'The Chosen' Season 5

The biblical series "The Chosen" has proven popular among religious folks and others, and the show's fifth season (now streaming on Prime Video) centers on the days leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. One of the key moments is actually the last scene of the season, as Judas (Luke Dimyan) kisses the cheek of Jesus (Jonathan Roumie) in the Garden of Gethsemane, the infamous act of betrayal that identifies Jesus to the authorities. Dimyan talked about the very particular instructions he had to follow filming that sequence with my colleague Erin Jensen: "I was able to kiss him pretty normally, but they were like: ‘Nope. We want it higher on the cheek.’ And I'm like, ‘Why do we want it higher on the cheek? Is that just to make me feel bad?' "

Erin also got some scoop on Season 6, which is now filming in Italy and depicts the crucifixion. (A planned seventh season will focus on Jesus' resurrection.) Roumie says it was "brutal" filming the upcoming episodes, where he replicates Jesus' injuries on the cross: "It's not something I would ever want to shoot again.”

Even more goodness to check out!

• Breaking news! Take a peek at an exclusive clip and first look photos featuring the Daily Planet reporters from the new "Superman" movie.
• Feeling patriotic and love pro wrestling? Catch John Cena playing the president alongside Idris Elba's British prime minister in the breezy action comedy "Heads of State."
• A classic Marvel supervillain was introduced in the season finale of the Disney+ series "Ironheart." (Spoiler alert: He's a major big bad in comics lore.)
• The new season of Netflix's "The Sandman" is among the high-profile streaming shows that premiere this week.
• Damson Idris is the breakout star of the racing drama "F1: The Movie," and there's good reason why he calls his co-star Brad Pitt "Troy."
• Got thoughts, questions, ideas, concerns, compliments or maybe even some recs for me? Email btruitt@usatoday.com and follow me on the socials: I'm @briantruitt on Bluesky, Instagram and Threads.