Starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgård, Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling, Chang Chen, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sharon Duncan-Brewster

(4-Bad Film)

Tedious. Hollow. Superficial.

Duncan Idaho: Dreams make good stories, but everything important happens when we’re awake.

How long are you willing to stare at something beautiful that you don’t connect to? The newest adaptation of Dune, directed by Oscar-nominated director, Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049), helped me answer this question, because I couldn’t make it past the first twenty minutes without wanting to be somewhere else. With no prior experience with the world of Dune or its source material, my understanding of the plot is certainly limited. As much as I could follow, the story follows Paul Atreides (Chalamet), the son of Duke Leto (Isaac), as he and his family move to a new planet, Arrakis, and attempt to establish themselves there. While acclimatizing themselves to Arrakis, the Atreides are beset on all sides by hostile natives, rivals, and traitors. Dune is often as beautiful as advertised. The problem for me is that it’s devoid of personality. No humor, no distinct characters or character development, no compelling villain, no wit or colorful dialogue. Dune is a chore.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(1,106)

Starring Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Kristen Stewart, Dwight Yoakam, Jared Leto, Patrick Bauchau

(8-Exceptional Film)

Efficient. Tense. Compelling.

Burnham: This is what I do; if some idiot with a sledgehammer could break in, do you really think I’d still have a job?

Single location thrillers are a dime-a-dozen. I imagine they’re less expensive to make than most movies, and, besides, there’s a large audience for them. If a film of this sort is going to make any real impression, it’s going to be because of the director and maybe the star. David Fincher is the director of Panic Room, with Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker starring. That sets up the film to be pretty good and I actually think it’s better than most people give it credit for. Foster plays Meg Altman, recently separated from her husband, she moves into a beautiful new house in Manhattan with her daughter, Sarah (Stewart), and, on the very first night, a trio of burglars-Burnham (Whitaker), Raoul (Yoakam), Junior (Leto)-show up with intel on where secret money is hidden by the house’s previous owner. Fortunately, the new house comes equipped with a seemingly impregnable “panic room” where Meg and Sarah can hide out. Unfortunately, however, the panic room is where the secret money is hidden and Burnham is the one who installed the room, so he knows a few tricks. Really compelling thriller with a great performance from its star, Foster, who’s supported by a cast of interesting characters.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(1,084)

Starring Vin Diesel, John Cena, Michelle Rodriguez, Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Anna Sawai, Shea Wigham, Jason Statham, Cardi B

(5-Okay Film)

Absurd. Silly. Entertaining.

Tagline: Fast Family Forever

Twenty years ago, when the franchise began, Dominic Toretto (Diesel) was a street racer and Paul Walker was still alive. Times change. Now Dom, wanting to lead a quiet life, is called back into action along with his faithful team to square off with a super-spy who is….surprise! Dom’s brother, Jakob (Cena). Fast and the Furious, which has always been at least slightly ridiculous, gradually more so with each subsequent offering, is no longer about racing at all. It barely seems to be about cars. When you remove the limits of what a car can do, when you replace stunts with CGI, when all of the sudden, cars are able to latch on to loose ropes and swing a hundred yards across oblivion, we’ve officially reached fantasy territory and the cars might as well be flying unicorns. CGI vehicles doing absurd things is simply not interesting to me. Seeing real vehicles doing absurd things is spectacular; see Bullitt (1968) for reference. Fast and the Furious has had its triumphs. Entries 5, 6, and 7 were exceptional. Even this new film has its moments. The frantic drive through land mines and the girl fight in Tokyo are good scenes. As a whole, though, F9 is too ludicrous to be thrilling and, despite frequently being laughable, it’s too serious to be funny. F9 is a return to mediocrity for the franchise.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(1,079)

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollabrigida, Peter Lorre, Robert Morley, Bernard Lee, Edward Underdown

(4-Bad Film)

Silly. Uneven. Unfocused.

O’Hara: Time. Time. What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians squander it. Americans say it is money. Hindus say it does not exist. Do you know what I say? I say time is a crook.

Billed as a spoof of the director-star’s earlier success, The Maltese Falcon, Beat the Devil seems to me, not a spoof but an incompetent retelling. With John Huston directing, Humphrey Bogart starring, and Truman Capote writing, somehow Beat the Devil still manages to be a stinker. Bogart is Billy Danreuther mixed up with a gang of crooks on their way to Africa. Biding their time, things grow complicated when Billy and his wife, Maria (Lollabrigida), fall in with a British couple, the Chelms (Jones and Underdown). A great spoof to me should still operate within the genre or story its spoofing. Young Frankenstein, for example, is broad and silly, but it also tells a fun story. Same with Shrek or The Incredibles or Scream or The Princess Bride. Beat the Devil is a film made by people who clearly didn’t know where they were going. Its following describe it as “campy” but it’s not campy enough in my estimation. It’s more like a thriller that couldn’t be bothered to take itself seriously.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(1,021)

Starring Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, Deborah Kara Unger, James Rebhorn, Carroll Baker, Peter Donat, Armin Mueller-Stahl

(6-Good Film)

Intriguing. Adept. Preposterous.

Daniel Schorr: Discovering the object of the game *is* the object of the game.

The Game follows Nicholas Van Orton (Douglas), a big-time businessman that seems to value money over the people in his life. He’s approaching his 48th birthday (his father’s age when he killed himself) and his ne’er-do-well brother, Conrad (Penn), shows up with a surprise gift; an elaborate and mysterious set of experiences known simply as “The Game.” It doesn’t take long for it to get out of hand. David Fincher, in his own assessment, lamented this film’s final act. They never did figure it out and it doesn’t really work. What does work is The Game’s first 2 acts; suspenseful, gripping, atmospheric, handsome, and well-acted. Douglas made a long, successful career largely built on roles like this one; the ice-cold, intelligent man in power. Fincher proves to be a modern master of suspense. Both men are in their element.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(1,014)