Tag Archives: American Cinema

Damsel – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While a bit messy in places, strong casting and a solid central premise combine to make a fascinating film at times.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Shadows encroach over the kingdom.

Damsel Review –

I have always loved a good schlocky fantasy film. One that knows its premise and its voice and excels from there. It is in this space that we get gems like The Mummy and Dungeons and Dragons. Today, we are looking at a film that is trying to capture that kind of energy and see if they can pull it off.   

So to set the scene, we open in as a platoon of knights crawl into a dragon’s (Shohreh Aghdashloo) lair, hoping to slay the beast before ending in a conflagration of flames. Centuries later, in a faraway land on the verge of ruin lives Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown), a princess. It is at this dark moment when an envoy from the Kingdom of Aurea arrives looking for Elodie’s hand in marriage for their prince. This marriage would give Elodie’s kingdom enough resources to make it to the thaw. As the family arrives at Aurea, its wealth greets them, and also a sense that not everything is as it seems, for the mountains behind the kingdom cast long shadows.

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Dune: Part Two – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Even with such a weight of expectation that I had for it, Dune: Part 2 still stuck the landing with a gusto I was not expecting.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a screening of this film.

Paul stands in front of an explosion.

Dune: Part Two Review –

I need to be clear when coming into this that this might have been the most excited I have been to see a film since maybe The Lord of the Rings. I adore this universe (okay, only the first three books, don’t @ me), and to see the First Film not only get the universe they were adapting but also have the budget to show it off. Well, there is a reason it was my favourite film of 2021. However, that is a lot of expectation, and in my experience, that can be a recipe for disaster.

So to set the scene, the plan of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) has succeeded. With the help of  Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken), Arrakis/Dune is his, the Atreides are dead, the millennia-long feud is over, and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler) is getting ready to take over from his incompetent brother Glossu Rabban Harkonnen (Dave Bautista). There is only one problem: not all the Atreides are dead, for Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) made it through the desert to the Fremen people and are now in the hands of Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and Chani (Zendaya). It was safety brought with a blood price, which is increasing as the Harkonnen troops send patrols deeper into the desert. For Paul, his new place with the Fremen could be a way to find revenge for the destruction of his family, but is he ready for leadership to be thrust upon him? For once the Fremen are unleashed, can they be stopped?

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Madame Web – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a film that shows that you can have a great cast and an exciting scenario, but that will still not lead to a coherent narrative that has an impact.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Everyone sees the Spider-Person attacking them for the first time.

Madame Web Review –

Some of the best work that is happening in the superhero genre is coming out of Sony’s Spider-Man adjacent Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, that strength is found almost entirely in its animated division, and maybe Venom, if I have had a drink or two. Unfortunately, last year’s Morbius showed us that it is also the source of some of the worst films happening in this space. While we don’t reach those depths this week, we do get a movie that was screaming with potential but ended up being wholly lacklustre.

So to set the scene, in 1973, deep in the forests of Peru, a heavily pregnant Constance Webb (Kerry Bishé) and her security partner Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) are looking for a spider whose venom is meant to have potent healing properties. Constance finds the spider but is betrayed by Webb and left for dead. A local tribe rescues her, but they can only save the life of her newborn. In the present of 2003, Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Webb (Dakota Johnson) is now a paramedic, but when a near-death experience rocks her world, there might be more than just some trauma unlocked.

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Drive-Away Dolls – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a wild but somewhat inconsistent ride that will bring the laughs but probably does not have the lasting effect they were going for.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Love is a sleigh ride to HELL.

Drive-Away Dolls Review –

The early 200s was a wild time for the raunchy road trip film, with gems like Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and EuroTrip. For a while, they had fallen out of fashion, maybe because the old focus of those films no longer ran true for modern audiences. However, in the last few years, we have started to see a resurgence in this genre, and it is just such a film that we are looking at today.  

So to set the scene, we opened in Philadelphia in 1999 on the cusp of the new Millennium or, as it was known at the time, the Willennium. Here, there are two good friends, Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), who could not be more different. But when Jamie breaks up with her girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein), well more, she gets dumped after multiple cheating incidents. Jamie decides to tag along on Marian’s trip to Tallahassee, Florida, to help Marian get some. The only problem is that Jamie persuades Marian to use a service to cut down on the cost by driving a car down there for free (a drive-away). The only problem is that something else might be taking the trip with them, a something that many people want.

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The Beekeeper – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a solid action film and one of Jason Statham’s best roles in a while.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Warning – contains scenes that may cause distress.

Adam Clay sits in a felid with his bee hives.

The Beekeeper Review –

Do you have a world that exists just outside of the one we live in, moving through the cracks of society? Well, can I just say that you have written something that I am very excited about? Today, we look at a film that explores what happens when you upset the wrong person, someone you never should have gone within 100 miles of.

So to set the scene, Adam Clay (Jason Statham) is a quiet person who keeps to himself, tending his beehives with space that he rents off Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), a retired school teacher who owns an old farmstead all by herself. One day, Eloise was doing her bills when spyware was detected on her computer, but the people she called didn’t help. In fact, they were scammers that took everything from her. Clay arrives for dinner to find her body, just as her daughter, FBI Agent Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman), gets to the farm to find out what happened to her mother’s bank accounts. Clay is at a loss as to who would hurt someone as caring as Eloise, but unlike many, he has resources, a lot of resources. The kind that can find things the FBI cannot and does not care if someone goes on a rampage.

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The Color Purple (2024) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it has its powerful moments, you can’t help but sit there and feel that this would have been better not as a musical.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening for this film

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Celie and Nettie play in a tree.

The Color Purple Review –

Today, we are looking at a film that is quite difficult to parse because it is a film of mountains and valleys. When it soars, it soars, and you are captivated by the movie as it sweeps through the sky. But for every peak, we must then wade through a deep valley of missed opportunities. It is such a stark range that it is hard to find your footing at times.

So to set the scene, Celie (Phylicia Pearl Mpasi) and Nettie (Halle Bailey) are grouping up on the Georgia coastline at the start of the 1900s. Things are difficult for the sisters for many reasons, most notably their step-father Alfonso (Deon Cole). His actions have led to Celie being pregnant twice now and both babies being sent away. Life for Celie only becomes worse when she is married off to Ol’ Mister Johnson (Louis Gossett Jr.) and her sister is sent away. But the coming of Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson) might be the chance Celie (Fantasia Barrino) needs to find herself.       

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Lift – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It may not be original, but it needs to be said that Lift failed to launch.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

A literal ton of gold.

Lift Review –

Historically, I have tended to have a better time with the sort of films that Netflix has been championing as of late because even if they are not high art, they still have amusing moments. Or at least bank their blandness of stars with personalities that can shine through. Well, today, we have a film that flounders when it should soar.

So to set the scene, we open on an art auction in Venice that is happening in tandem with London. Cyrus (Kevin Hart), a world-renowned art thief, is there, as is Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the Interpol agent out to capture him. When an NFT for N8 (Jacob Batalon) sale goes wrong, it is time for a chase through the canals. It is a scene of chaos, but it is all a distraction. But when Abby’s boss, Huxley (Jean Reno), discovers a terrorist plot and needs something heisted from a plane in mid-air, well, it looks like Abby will need Cyrus and his team.   

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Role Play – Movie Review

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TL;DR – There are some moments when the film shines. However, there is a lot of space in between those moments filled with missed opportunities.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.  

Role Play Review –

In the Spy and Spy-adjacent world, one of the core narratives that we see is when a spy’s family does not know what they do for a day job. The most famous is probably True Lies, but we see a lot of them moving from the more comical to the more serious, depending on the vibe that they want. That is if you can choose a vibe.  

So to set the scene, on the surface, the Brackett family is your perfectly normal middle-American suburban unit. The father, Dave (David Oyelowo), is an architect. They have two wonderful kids, Caroline (Lucia Aliu) & Wyatt (Regan Bryan-Gudgeon), and oh, by the way, when Emma (Kaley Cuoco) says she is going out of town to work cooperate management, she actually is a very successful assassin. Emma wants to have some time at home, but her handler, Raj (Rudi Dharmalingam), wants her back out in the field. After Emma forgets their anniversary, they decide to have a fun night out where they pretend to be two strangers meeting in a bar. One long ride stuck in the tunnel and the poor advances of Bob (Bill Nighy), and it looks like the night might be a bit of a mess. It would be the wrong time for someone’s cover to get blown.   

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The Holdovers – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It was a wonderful, moving, sad, delightful, and wild ride, unlike anything I have seen before, and it has been sitting in the back of my mind since I watched it. 

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

A failed exam paper.

The Holdovers Review –

When you are watching a film, there are times when you have an experience where you become completely absorbed into the narrative. Taken back 50 years to a place you have never been before, to a place that you have no connection with, but you are taken there wholly. These cases are where the narrative, the direction, and the acting all come together for a perfect work. Today, we look at just such a film that focuses on three actors who give their all to the proceedings.

So to set the scene, it is coming to the end of the year in 1970 as we come to Barton Academy in New England. The term is coming to an end, and everyone is getting ready to go home to their families for Christmas, well, almost everyone. Every year, there is a handful of students who can’t make it back home for the break and stay over at the school, the titular holdovers. Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) teaches ancient civilizations and is hated by most of the students, does not want to be the one stuck with the holdovers but gets out manoeuvred by another staff member. Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) wants to go home for the holidays, but his mother is spending it with her new husband, and Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) lives on campus but is facing her first Christmas alone. They make an odd bunch as the snow comes in.     

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Joy Ride – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A film that is both crass, hilarious, and heartfelt, all in equal measure.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.

The gang on a motorbike.

Joy Ride Review –

In the last run, before we do our best of 2023 lists, I wanted to try films that I knew I would enjoy and just missed, but also those that don’t fit into his category. There was a point in the year when it looked like everyone was putting out mature comedies again. Some were great, others not so much. So, I didn’t give much thought to Joy Ride during its short theatrical ride in Australia, and I think that might have been a mistake.

So to set the scene, it is 1998, and the Chen family has just moved into a new and very white neighbourhood called White Hills. But when Lolo Chen (Ashley Park) found Audrey Sullivan (Sherry Cola), there was an instant connection, a best friend connection that stayed with them all their lives, well up to this point. Audrey is going back to China for the first time, and she is taking Lolo with her as a translator. Lolo wants to see if they can find Audrey’s birth mother while they are there, but Audrey is just focused on her job because if she nails it, she will be moving out of White Hills. But throw in the complications of Lolo’s cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), Audrey’s college roommate Kat Huang (Stephanie Hsu), and her business meeting with Chao (Ronny Chieng) happening in a club, and things soon start falling apart.  

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