Film Review - Venom: The Last Dance (2024)

Venom the Last Dance is directed by Kelly Marcel who co-wrote the first 2 films as well as this one and Tom Hardy returns once again as Venom/Eddie Brock who are now on the run due to the events of the last film Let There be Carnage when an alien overlord known as Knull (Andy Serkis) seeks a codex inside Eddie/Venom’s body and sends his monstrous soldiers to Earth to retrieve it putting Eddie and Venom’s lives and bond in danger.

Venom the Last Dance is not the best movie you will see but like the other 2 films it is a fun time nonetheless and Tom Hardy is once again on top form as Eddie/Venom and like in the last film every time their on screen talking to each other I find myself smiling and laughing a whole lot as their banter is so much fun to watch and very funny.

Outside of Hardy however the film does have some script problems and those mainly fall on the other characters not being all that memorable, Rhys Ifans stars as a quasi hippie dad looking for Area 51 and Aliens and his scenes are okay but they tended to drag on screen after a while, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Juno Temple are government officers wanting the Venom symbiote to go with the other they’ve collected and those scenes are okay but again I just found myself going “Can we go back to Hardy now please.”

What also helps this movie is the third act which is a lot of fun to watch with big action across the board that actually looks like it was shot and edited properly, I don’t want to say too much more about it as there are some fun surprises in store but it definitely put a smile on my face and there is some surprisingly good emotional moments as well.

And when all is said and done while I feel superhero movies have had their day as being the dominant genre in cinemas I will miss Hardy’s Venom, it was a fun character to watch and he always made me laugh in this trilogy.

And so that was Venom the Last Dance and honestly I had a good time here, its fun, funny with good action and some surprisingly good emotional moments, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Smile 2 (2024)

Smile 2 is the sequel to the surprise 2022 film Smile and this time Naomi Scott stars as Skye Riley a pop star looking to mount a comeback tour after surviving a car accident which killed her boyfriend (Ray Nicholson) but after visiting a friend one night she begins to see people smiling back at her in a sinister way and those smiles aren’t exactly ones from grinning fans either.

Smile 2 was a movie that I was looking forward to as I really enjoyed the first film and this sequel does not disappoint at all, Parker Finn who wrote and directed the film gets to strut his stuff here having not only gone through the experience of making the first film but also now knowing he’s making a film for theatres instead of streaming (which is where it was meant to go before getting a theatrical release) and there a lot of exciting moments that definitely put a smile on my face.

Also Naomi Scott is excellent here as the pop star with troubles in her past which begin to come back to the surface due to having the Smile syndrome passed onto her, I’ve liked this lady in everything I’ve seen her in since 2017’s Power Rangers except when she was Princess Jasmine in the live action remake of Aladdin in 2019 and while part of me still doesn’t like the fact she was Princess Jasmine and played a boring version of the character she is very very good here.

The other cast members are good as well, Ray Nicholson definitely has his father’s Batman/Shining Smile and it shows in one scene, Rosemarie DeWitt is good as well as Skye’s mother/manager while Peter Jacobson is good as well as Morris a mysterious man ala Jacobs Ladder who might be able to help Skye get rid of the smiles that haunt her.

And so that was Smile 2 and it is a great time at the movies like the first one was and a welcome balm to my movie going after the debacle that was Joker 2, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Substance (2024)

The Substance is a new film by Coralie Fargeat and stars Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle the host of a morning fitness TV show but who is fired by her boss (Dennis Quaid) as the network wants someone new and younger as the host instead, feeling down she orders a mysterious drug known as the Substance and she creates a new younger version of herself known as Sue (Margaret Qualley) but as with these drugs there are rules attached and those rules will soon be broken.

The Substance is a film with a lot of hype behind it and while I think it is very good I don’t think it lived to all of that hype, firstly I will give Fargeat her dues here she does a very good job directing the film and while this runs for 140 minutes I didn’t really feel the runtime all that much save for the ending, she keeps a tight grip on the reins and gets good performances out of all her actors as well as creates some very nice Verhoeven-esque Body Horror that in one instance reminded me of Total Recall.

As for the performances, the 3 leads here are excellent, Moore delivers some of her best work in a long time as Elisabeth who was once a bright star but is now fading due to the river of time and one suspects there is a lot of truth in that from Moore’s performance given her own stardom over the years, Qualley has become a good young actress since I first saw her in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and she is very good here as the young Sue while Dennis Quaid steals the show as the head of the TV network.

He combines that winning smile with this very slimy personality and he completely understands the role he is playing in this movie as that boss who always wants the next bright young thing and then will happily throw them away once they’ve reached their use by date, there is one in particular with a plate of shrimp that really helps to sell his character well.

Speaking of that shrimp scene this movie has some excellent sound design highlighting the disturbing nature of the Substance and the effect it has on those who use it and while the end of the film runs a little long and at times hammer’s the point regarding ageism and women I wasn’t hugely bothered by it all.

And so that was the Substance and while it isn’t one of my favourite films of the year it is a very good one indeed that will please horror fans, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Joker Folie a Deux (2024)

Joker Folie a Deux is the sequel to the 2019 Joker film which won Joaquin Phoenix an Academy Award for his portrayal of Arthur Fleck aka The Joker and he along with Director Todd Phillips return for this sequel which takes place 2 years after the events of the first film and Arthur has been in Arkham Asylum awaiting trial for his crimes from the end of the first film, during a music class one day he meets Lee (Lady Gaga) another inmate and the two fall in love.

Joker Folie a Deux is going to join some bad company, that being Highlander 2 and Wonder Woman 1984 in terms of being a direct sequel to a popular first film and the same creative team returns for a sequel and completely cocks it up in almost every way, with Highlander 2 it was leaning into Science Fiction with not only the Shield around the world but also changing the immortals origins to being from the now infamous Planet Zeist and with Wonder Woman 1984 it was coming up with a story that made no sense, leaned into bad archetypes and created a central hook in the wishing stone that failed to have any proper framework or rules around it unlike the Genie of the Lamp or the Seven Magic Dragon Balls.

In the case of Joker Folie a Deux it is trying to do 2 distinctly separate movies and failing miserably at both, it wants to be a dreary courtroom drama as well as a stylish romantic musical and neither is given the focus and clarity of storytelling they deserve, the courtroom and prison moments are dull to sit through and the musical moments just had me going “What the Fuck” in my cinema seat and I even saw 2 people walk out of my session during the film (and there was only 6 of us there.)

And what makes this split focus feel worse is that it turns Arthur into a bystander IN HIS OWN MOVIE, Phoenix is a great actor and rarely has he let you down but here he does so as all he does is sit around in a prison, sit around in a courtroom and then give a coutroom speech that feels anti climatic and again PHOENIX WON AN OSCAR PLAYING THIS ROLE, good grief.

As for Lady Gaga I love her, I think she is a wonderful talent and seems to have this big kind heart and soul inside her but she is wasted here, all she does for the most part is sit around in prison clothes and later clown makeup and do a few cabaret acts in the musical scenes and what makes THIS feel worse is that Harley Quinn/Dr Harlene Quinzel is a great character born out of Bruce Timm and his team when they ran the DC animation division and the storyline Mad Love which was later adapted into the Batman Animated Series is a fantastic story.

But once again like the 2016 Suicide Squad film this relationship which is at its core an abusive one is sanewashed and it is fucking irritating as that character goes to Arkham specifically because she is attracted to the glamour of Gotham’s super criminals even though she is warned to be wary of them as they will mess with her head which happens due to the Joker’s influence on her but there is very little of that in this movie in any meaningful fashion but then again Warner Brothers once again finds a way to fuck things up in regards to DC on film and this is far far far from the first time that’s happened too.

Speaking of Warner Brothers fucking things up in a way that pisses me off, the first film in 2019 was co-made with Village Roadshow Pictures and like Furiosa from earlier this year there is no mention at all of Village Roadshow’s involvement with this sequel even though (again like Furiosa) there are webpages listing them involved and that for me personally is deeply disappointing because the partnership between Warner Brothers and Roadshow here in Australia goes back decades and watching WB part ways with them to sign a new distribution deal here in Australia with Universal at the end of 2020 is one I’ve come to hate more and more and its why I don’t get as surprised that WB has thrown away completed movies like they recently have because if they can throw away a 50 year distribution partnership then anything can be tossed aside in their eyes.

Okay that little tangent aside there is the bones of a good movie here and it was one where Gaga did get to play Dr. Quinzel culminating with Arthur in the witness stand answering for himself and his crimes from the first film and really interrogating why that first film worked for many and didn’t for others but we didn’t get that here really at all.

And so that is Joker Folie a Deux and like Highlander II and Wonder Woman 1984 is a sign of a complete cock up by a creative team that got it right the first time around and got it all wrong the second time around, honestly don’t bother seeing this movie, watch some of the DC animation shows instead, if only WB had recruited Bruce Timm from the start of all this in 2013, things could’ve been very different, .5 out of 5.