Film Review - Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is the new installment in Warner Bros/Legendary’s Monsterverse series and this time Kong is in Hollow Earth trying to find other members of his kind while Godzilla has been hunting Titans on Earth but when new trouble emerges these once deadly rivals will now have to work together to save their worlds.

Godzilla X Kong is not that different to how I felt about Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in that it’s not a bad movie but its only an okay but I liked this one a little more than I did Ghostbusters because when the monsters were fighting I had a smile on my face even though at times I kept thinking “I bet people lived in those buildings that are being flattened like pancakes” as buildings and populated areas are being flattened like it’s nothing in this movie and sometimes that can be fun to watch but sometimes you watch that type of mass destruction and think “Um people might live there.” And this was one of those times.

As for the action scenes well their fun for the most part but after a while feel a bit video gamey as more often than not your looking at digital monsters fighting it out and hearing very loud noises and deep bass in the sound mix especially if you watch it in a theatre with a loud sound system like I did and I wish there was more of a sense of stakes or peril with those big battle scenes that felt more real instead of digital and the human eye is often pretty good at telling what is real and what isn’t.

As for the human characters well their okay but not the reason you’re watching it, Rebecca Hall is such a good actress but this role is doing little to nothing for her save for putting a roof over her head (those bills aren’t cheap nowadays), Dan Stevens and Brian Tyree Henry are having some fun though I did get a bit annoyed with the needle drops during key action moments (seriously guys can we PLEASE stop doing this it’s getting very annoying.) while it was nice to see Rachel House a New Zealand actress from Thor: Ragnarok and Hunt for the Wilderpeople in a small supporting role.

And so that was Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire and it’s fun for the most part but again it doesn’t help that this has come out in the shadow of Dune Part 2: Long Live the Fighters and that film has really shown up the laziness in this industry the last 10-15 years hopefully with streaming and Disney’s dominance starting to abate the other studios will start to lift their game, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Wicked Little Letters (2024)

Wicked Little Letters stars Olivia Coleman as Edith, a woman who lives at home with her conservative father (Timothy Spall) and who has been receiving wicked letters with profane language in them and she suspects her next door neighbour Rose (Jesse Buckley) who is unmarried and likes to go to bars and behave suspiciously but there is more to this than one sees.

Wicked Little Letters is good fun and I laughed quite a bit watching it but the film earns it’s MA15+ rating here in Australia as it has a lot of fowl language and if that kind of thing bothers you a fair bit then I won’t recommend this movie but if it doesn’t it’s good fun.

And firstly I have to mention Jesse Buckley in this movie as she is really one of the best actresses around right now and she is so much fun to watch here in both her rowdy pub scenes, her standing up for herself moments or even in the quieter moments where she is fighting for her innocence and ever since Wild Rose in 2018 she has been a real fan favourite of movie goers and here is no exception.

Olivia Coleman on the other hand who has rarely given a bad performance in a film well I struggled with her performance in this movie at times mainly because I struggled to buy her in this role as a straight laced God fearing woman and she has this devilish sense of humour be it in Hot Fuzz or Wonka and here I just thought “I’m not quite buying it here” now that isn’t to say she is bad on the whole as she gets better as the film goes on but in the opening parts of it I struggled with her performance.

And so that was Wicked Little Letters and it is good fun if your not bothered by fowl language, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Ghostbusters Frozen Empire is the follow up to 2021’s Ghostbusters Afterlife and this time Gil Kenan takes the directorial chair instead of Jason Reitman who directed Afterlife and is the son of the late genius Ivan Reitman, this story sees the Spengler family (Mackenna Grace, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd and Finn Wolfhard) living and working as Ghostbusters in New York City when Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) comes into possession of a mysterious orb that contains a powerful ice goddess who if unleashed could bring about a new ice age in a New York Summer.

Frozen Empire isn’t a bad movie per se but it is also a movie that in all honestly isn’t really much of anything either and in the very small group I saw this in the cinema with all it raised was a chuckle at best and that was mainly at the “look who’s shown up” variety as well which isn’t great for a Ghostbusters movie on either front.

The main problem this movie has is in its scripting, it takes far too long to get it’s main plot into motion and when it does it doesn’t have any of the stakes or horror or comedy or scale that it really should and what the original Ghostbusters movie which celebrates it’s 40th anniversary this year had, it had great laughs, it had great horror moments, it had great visual effects, a comedy cast on top form and an iconic movie monster but then again Ivan Reitman was a genius for the most part so that was no real surprise.

It also doesn’t help that this movie is also the first big movie to be released after Dune Part Two 3 and a half weeks ago and that movie showed what movies really could be when you had a passionate creative team and a willing and able cast working their hardest to deliver something special for audiences whereas here the cast does what they can but no one really gets a chance to shine.

William Atherton from the original is basically a “remember him” fan service cameo, Patton Oswalt only gets one scene which feels like a waste as he fits right in with this universe, the OG Ghostbusters are either exposition dumps on legs or fan service cameos or in the case of Bill Murray here to cash an easy cheque because he was in lockdown for 2 years and wants some easy money plus due to COVID he missed out on being in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City last year and as for the Spengler family their okay and Coon and Rudd have some good chemistry but they don’t really get to show it, Wolfhard really only exists to have an excuse for Slimer coming back and Grace well she does get a subplot of her own but it doesn’t really add much to the greater storytelling.

And so that was Ghostbusters Frozen Empire and once more Columbia Pictures a studio celebrating 100 years this year has delivered another lazy blockbuster, in my State of the Studios roundup last year I said that they really needed to both lift their game and stop relying on Spider-Man to save them and with this and now Madame Web being lazy hangabouts in cinemas that feeling is stronger than ever, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - The Great Escaper (2024)

The Great Escaper stars Michael Caine as Bernie Jordan, a World War 2 veteran who now lives in an England rest home with his wife Irene (Glenda Jackson) and when he is unable to go to an event celebrating 70 years of the D-Day landing he makes his own way to France and comes to learn about the place he helped to liberate all those years before.

The Great Escaper is a very good film and one of the bright spots of this early period of 2024 as a movie year and it does this by telling a good story and telling it rather well for the most part.

The first way it does this is it feels like this movie pays tribute to that particular generation who went and fought the great war of that time in World War II and the scars those who survived and came home would live with, at one point Irene says in the movie that the War was their business and we see the effect it had on her not long afterwards and there is also a moving scene in a bar with Bernie and some German officers (one of which is played by Wolf Kahler from Raiders of the Lost Ark) and you see the bridges that some try to mend all those decades on.

And secondly this movie feels like as much a tribute to Michael Caine as an actor as this has been stated that this is to be his final film role and watching him in this movie it is easy to see why as he looks frail and not as energetic as he normally is in a lot of his earlier roles and watching him play a man who needs a walker to get around was a little saddening to a certain degree but he has picked a great way to end his long and storied career.

And so that was the Great Escaper and it is a good story told well for the most part with some moving moments and a great final role for Michael Caine, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Dune: Part Two (2024)

Dune Part Two picks up right where 2021’s Dune Part One left off and Denis Villeneuve returns to the directors chair and he and Jon Spahits co-wrote the script (Eric Roth who wrote Part One with them hasn’t returned) and Timothee Chalamet once again is Paul Atreides now in hiding with the Fremen and their tribal leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem) but House Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista and Austin Butler) has occupied the planet Arrakis and only sees Fremen and Atreides they want to kill.

To say that I was excited for this movie is a big understatement, not since X-Men Apocalypse in 2016 did I crave the next film in a series like I have this one after rewatching Part One on 4K disc in 2022 and when the film was delayed from it’s November 2nd 2023 release date due to the actors and writers strikes last year I was heartbroken but now it is finally here.

And man oh man it was so worth the wait as this movie not only met my huge expectations it surpassed them right from the first scene which like Part One’s opening scene does such a good job at bringing you into the world of the film right away in a way that you can understand and follow what’s going on, something the 1984 Dune film failed utterly and miserably in doing.

And the craftsmanship on display here is simply top notch, the cinematography by Grieg Fraser, Joe Walker’s editing, the costumes, the production design it is just marvellous to see on a big cinema screen and some shots in particular look absolutely beautiful and Denis’s direction is just as confident and assured as it was in Part One and now that both parts of this book have been properly told on film these 2 films feel like the films that Denis has been building to.

And this feeling came to mind for me when getting to rewatch Part One on the big screen last week before Part Two came out and the sandy/dark edge of Sicario, the thoughtful Sci-Fi of Arrival and the scope and visual effects of Blade Runner 2049 all feel like they were building in their own way along with his own long time love of the book towards Denis making Dune as a proper film adaptation and they are both something very special indeed.

Secondly this movie has a lot more of the Harkonnens and much more action and both are fantastic, there is this great arena fight that is in ink blacks and strong contrast whites and it is beautiful and violent at the same time and serves as a great introduction to Butler’s Feyd which is delicious and he is clearly having a total blast playing this role.

As for the Harkonnens well they cement themselves with this movie as my favourite movie villains in a long long time and other genre film franchises could well learn to make the villains ACTUALLY. FEEL. IMPORTANT!!!!! and no that is not a typo I am being deadly serious because I am so fucking sick to death of sitting through endless genre films that treat their villains like a goddamn afterthought here they are important to the plot, are very memorable in their scenes and in this movie they deliver on the promise that Guerney gave in Part One that they were brutal.

As for the other major action scenes they are simply spectacular especially in the third act where you really feel the cultivation of Desert Power and it is at times simply jaw dropping to watch, though at times the battle scenes feel too brief in terms of their length they are not disappointing in the least.

And lastly I have to talk about the performances as all involved deliver the goods in this movie, Chalamet builds on his work in Dune Part One and Wonka here and comes into his own as a leading man and along with Butler and Glen Powell will hopefully lead to a renaissance for the leading man in films, Zendaya is very good as Chani and has a great role in the films second half, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Florence Pugh, Charlotte Rampling, Christopher Walken, Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista are also very good in their roles while I have to give a shoutout to Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Harkonnen, I love that character and I love him as that character.

Dune Part Two is simply a marvel of a film and along with Part One and Avatar: The Way of Water represent big scale filmmaking at it’s very best and these films should be the standard we accept and not the increasing laziness we see over and over again nowadays and audiences are starting to reject in the cinemas, I can’t recommend this movie highly enough but please rewatch Part One before seeing Part Two, 5 out of 5.

Film Review - The Holdovers (2024)

The Holdovers is the new film by Alexander Payne and takes place in the Winter of 1970 in a New England school where one of the students Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa in his first film role) is left behind as a holdover due to his parents going away for the holidays and he is left with a cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) who is mourning the loss of her son in the Vietnam War and a crusty History teacher (Paul Giamatti) and these 3 people could have more in common than they think.

The Holdovers is very good and throughout some of its early scenes I thought to myself “This could be my favourite film of the year so far” and while it doesn’t quite hit that mark it is still on the list along with Force of Nature: The Dry 2 and The Beekeeper and to have 3 in February is the sign of a good start to a movie year and one of the reasons for this is Payne’s direction, he does a great job at not just directing his actors but also making the New England school feel like this eco system unto itself that is isolated from the outside world.

And also I really like his portrayal of these 3 lonely people who could make up this makeshift family, the crusty father, the distant but loving mother and the wayward son trying to find his way in the world and the script by David Hemingson also helps as well in making these characters feel real and believable as you feel like when watching it that you’ve come across people like these in your own life.

And the performances are a real boost as well, Randolph is very good as Ms Lamb the cook and while she is doing her best to keep it together there are times where you see her struggling with the loss of her son and its tough to watch, Giamatti is excellent and if it wasn’t for Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer he would be a shoe in for Best Actor at the Academy Awards as he is that good here as this History teacher who asks a lot of his students but does so so they don’t end up making a similar or the same mistake he made with his life many years before.

But the real find is Dominic Sessa, this is his first movie and he really shines here as this troubled young boy on his way to becoming a man and while he has very little in his way you can see that he lacks that strong familial stability in his life that can make living be worthwhile and give you that everlasting love outside of that special someone you find in life and I hope I see more of him in movies in the years to come.

But if I have one problem with this movie it is that it’s too long and as good as this movie is I felt that it did start to peter out towards the end of the film and the end in particular I felt ran on too long and a good 15 minutes or so could’ve been removed from this movie and not affected things too much.

And so that was the Holdovers and it’s very good but too long, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Madame Web (2024)

Madame Web is the new Columbia Pictures Spider-Verse movie not to have an actual Spider-Man in it and it stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb who works as a paramedic in New York City but after an accident on the job one day she starts seeing visions of the future and it leads here not just to Ezekiel (Tahar Rahim) but also to 3 young girls (Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O’Connor) who could hold a key to the future.

Madame Web is not a bad movie per se but its also one that really does not work, right off the bat when you hear the first lines of dialogue you start to get a bad feeling and it only goes downhill from there, I honestly do not known what went on during this movie’s production but large chunks of it especially in the editing feel off as if there were chunks of this film that were shot and then removed in order to get the runtime down to under 2 hours.

Also this movie has some of the most obvious looping (a process where actors re record their lines in post-production) I’ve seen, one moment you’ll see and hear the actors talk and their lips are matching the dialogue their saying and then you’ll hear them say a completely different line off screen and their voice sounds much cleaner than in the previous scene.

As for Ezekiel the villain well here we go again another Marvel movie another bad villain that is really only here to be a walking, talking, punching bag for the heroes to fight when you probably could’ve done without him completely and the movie wouldn’t have felt that much different and the action in this movie is so pedestrian.

But lastly I have to talk about this movie’s blatant attempt to tie in to the broader Spider-Man universe which falls flatter than an anchor in the sea and during those moments I just went “what, oh my god” or I just laughed at the movie for trying and failing miserably to do this and also they just feel so predictable because anyone who knows anything about Spider-Man and his story will know exactly what is going to happen to those characters.

And so that was Madame Web and look I didn’t hate this movie but it’s also a dead weight that gets projected in front of you and this year is the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures and they really need to stop relying on Spider-Man and get back to making rom coms and dramas and great epics like they used to, 1 and a half out of 5.