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.

Film Review - The Iron Claw (2024)

The Iron Claw is written and directed by Sean Durkin and stars Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich a member of the famous Von Erich wrestling family who are pushed by their father (Holt McCallany) to win the world title that eluded him, but Kevin and his brothers (Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson and Stanley Simons) will find it tough to do right by each other and their dominating father.

The Iron Claw is a movie I have mixed feeings about but I will say firstly that this is a well made movie, Durkin does a good job in the directors chair in terms of both the dramatic scenes and the wrestling scenes and both work very well both edited together and on their own and the film does have some moving moments in it especially in the second half of the film.

Also the film has a lot of great performances, Efron is most excellent and had it not been for a competitive Best Actor race at the Academy Awards he most certainly would’ve been nominated and it would’ve been a good pick as both physically and dramatically he anchors the film very well, Allen White and Dickinson are very good also as 2 of his brothers while Simons was good but not as good, McCallany is very good also as the Von Erich father who pushes his boys to breaking point and beyond while Lily James and Maura Tierney are solid as the wives who more often than not have to deal with the adversaries the men in their life face and rarely talk to them about.

But at over 2 hours I felt this movie was too long especially towards the end and as the film goes on I felt that it got more and more grim and downbeat and I didn’t find myself enjoying the film as much, I get that some families have tragedies but this just felt repetitive in that respect and after a while I didn’t really find myself all that invested in the suffering and crying and inability of anyone to actually talk to each other and say what they should say.

And so that was the Iron Claw and its well made, has moving moments and good performances but it didn’t work as well for me as others, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Boys in the Boat (2024)

The Boys in the Boat is directed by George Clooney and is based on the true story of the University of Washington Rowing team going to the 1936 Berlin Olympics but in 1930s America the Great Depression has hit hard in Seattle and their coach (Joel Edgerton) will have to push his young team hard if their going to succeed against all the odds.

The Boys in the Boat is a movie that I really enjoyed and the main reason for that is I felt that it was simply a good story well told, George Clooney as a director has been VERY hit and miss for me and I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time but both the Monuments Men in 2014 and Suburbicon in 2017 were awful films that didn’t work for me at all but this one does and he does a good job managing the balance of the dramatic scenes and the rowing scenes, the final race in particular is very well done and it had me tense there for a little bit as well.

Also worth noting is the music score by Alexandre Desplat who delivers another solid score even if it isn’t as good as his score for Greta Gerwig’s Little Women in 2019.

Next is Joel Edgerton’s performance, now he might be still doing that quasi American accent he started doing in the Great Gatsby in 2013 but it worked there and it works here, he’s been an underrated talent for a fair while now and Clooney puts him to good use here, I also enjoyed Peter Guiness as the boat maker for the university rowing team and he plays the mentor part well.

But the ones who really shine are the young cast, Callum Turner and the others members of the rowing team (I’m afraid I forgot the other actors names) work very well and the way they worked as a group and in their individual scenes I was reminded of the movie Memphis Belle from 1990 which starred Matthew Modine and Harry Connick Jr among others and that film dealt with young men in a WW2 bomber whereas this is about a rowing team before WW2 starts but they felt similar to me in terms of being young men with dreams and desires and wanting to do their country and their loved ones proud.

And so that was the Boys in the Boat and it isn’t the best movie you’ll see but it’s one that I really enjoyed, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Argylle (2024)

Argylle is based off of the novel and is the new film by Matthew Vaughn who you may remember from such films as the Kingsman series and Kick-Ass and this time Henry Cavill stars as Agent Argylle the focus of a series of spy novels written by Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) but while Elly is on a train trip one day she meets a real life spy (Sam Rockwell) and hijinks ensue.

Watching the preview for this movie I kept thinking to myself “This will either be great fun or a complete mess” and sadly it is the latter that has won out as I really didn’t like this movie.

Firstly this thing gets so bogged down in twists and turns and surprise reveals that the more this goes on especially in the second half of the film I just sat there going “What” more and more and they also just left me scratching my head more often than not and look I like twists and surprise reveals but it’s a form of slight of hand and when it goes wrong like it does here you find yourself standing there with your pants down and the audience laughing at the colour of your underwear.

M Night Shyamalan when he does this well can sometimes leave enough of a bread crumb trail to where you want to watch that film again to find those clues which sometimes can be right in front of your face but you don’t notice it until the last minute and it works wonderfully well but here it doesn’t and it just makes watching the film all the more baffling and frankly boring.

Next up this movie thinks it is so much more funny and exciting than it really is and I just got so fucking sick of it, every other line in this movie feels like a bad attempt at a joke and I just do not think this works and I’m fed up with it and it’s not just this movie, most big movies now do this and also they do the big action setpiece set to a jazzy jukebox tune and I’m over that bullshit as well.

And this leads me to my next problem with this movie and that is Vaughn’s direction, it just feels so lazy and uninspired as he’s just doing the same thing he’s been doing since Kingsman: The Secret Service nearly 10 years ago and I love that film as well as a lot of Vaughn’s early movies like Stardust and Kick-Ass but here it’s the same over the top fights, the same quasi jokey atmosphere, the same jukebox soundtrack and the same tongue in cheek humour and it feels like the same fucking thing that has now grown so tiresome I’m sick of seeing it.

And next is the cast and almost all of them are wasted here, Bryan Cranston is a great actor but here it just feels like he was just told to be a villain again and he does that, Ariana DeBose, John Cena and Dua Lipa may as well have had their roles played by day player actor as they do next to nothing with the thankless roles their given, Catherine O’Hara plays the same neurotic mother she played in Home Alone 30 plus years ago but she doesn’t go ELLY!! Like she did KEVIN!! In those films while Sam Rockwell I just found to be annoying with his constant talking all the time in dumb spy movie lines.

But the biggest waste is Henry Cavill as Argylle, I mean this is a man who many few was worthy of the mantle of being Superman (no easy task I assure you) and who many more would like to see be the next James Bond and like Daniel Craig in Layer Cake from 2004 Cavill gets the chance to prove he could be a great 007 but no he’s barely in this movie and he doesn’t really get the chance to properly prove he could be a great Bond and that is a genuine shame.

And lastly I love Cats but the Cat in this movie doesn’t get to do anything, no one gives him a fuss or a pat and he doesn’t get to be shown any love by Elly instead he’s a digitally rendered Cat which is obvious at times and he feels more like a prop instead of a cute and cuddly character.

What a waste this movie is, a waste of talent, money, resources and a cute kitty and if there is a worse movie than this one this year then it will most certainly be a bad year at the cinema, 1 out of 5.