Tag: 2024

Review Roundup – March 2024

Posted on by fenrisfil

This month I’m looking at three lesser known movies from 2024 and giving you a double dose of science fiction (sort of) and a horror comedy to chew over. Heads up though, none of these movies did much for me though I appreciate certain elements of all three and the best of the bunch is probably not going to be a lot of peoples cup of tea. I will cover positives and negatives though so you can decide for yourself if you want to give them a chance. The movies in question this month are “I.S.S.”, “Spaceman” and “Lisa Frankenstein”. Let’s dig in.

I.S.S.

I.S.S. is directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Black Fish) and penned by Nick Shafir (In his debut script). The name refers to the International Space Station, the permanent manned orbital platform that has become a central hub of scientific study and international cooperation in space. One of the most notable things about this station is that it is usually manned by a mixture of Russian and US astronauts along with a few from other nations. In this story however it is basically 50/50 between the two main countries and for a good reason since the story asks the question: What would happen on the I.S.S. should Russia and the US have a nuclear war?

The lead character in this story is Dr. Kira Foster (Played by Ariana DeBose), a new arrival to the station. She is joined by five others making up a full cast of just six. Adding a layer of complexity to the situation two characters, American Gordon Barrett and Russian Weronika Vetrov are in a relationship. Things begin friendly but when they witness explosions on Earth both groups get a directive from Earth “Take control of the I.S.S. by any means”. Each crew member must decide where their loyalties lie and what their duty truly is.

Concept Vs Execution

The first thing to say about this movie is I love the concept. What really would happen at the international space station if nuclear war broke out on Earth, that’s an interesting question. The problem is the execution is just sort of uninspiring. It is the kind of premise that in the hands of the right director and cinematographer could win Oscars, but in the hands of anyone else it basically becomes a glorified TV movie and that is pretty much where we land with this one. This is more of a case of missed opportunities than doing anything disastrously wrong. The first act is fine, but nothing special.

The second act is easily the strongest and showed a bit of the potential this concept could have had and then the third act just fails to deliver on any kind of level. It’s the second act that you get the paranoia on both sides, the moralizing over what the right thing to do is and the mystery of what has happened on Earth. But the final act really fails to do anything interesting with that. Still, it could easily have been worse. There’s not really much else to say on this. The movie is the very definition of “Adequate”. 5/10.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Spaceman

Spaceman is based on the novel “Spaceman of Bohemia” by Jaroslav Kalfař and is the feature debut of director Johan Renck. Adam Sandler stars (Continuing to prove himself as a capable serious actor) as Czech astronaut Jakub Prochazka. Prochazka has been sent on a one man mission to Jupiter to investigate a strange dust cloud called “Chopra”. This is a bit of a space race between Czech and South Korea, but Prochazka’s shuttle is a few days ahead and as such he has become a bit of a celebrity back at home. Jakub’s mental state though is strained by the journey and by his difficult relationship with his wife back on Earth.

Things take a turn for the unusual when he is greeted by a giant talking spider. After deciding this wasn’t a figment of his imagination he begins to talk to it. It turns out the creature is somewhat of a kindred spirit, another explorer far from home that had become curious about humanity. Over time they develop a bond and Prochazka is forced to examine his own life and what is important to him.

Looking Outward To Look Within.

This is a weird movie for sure. The vast majority of it is Adam Sandler having a philosophical conversation with a giant spider. Chances are just reading that you have already decided to skip this or watch this and in my view whichever way you are leaning is almost certainly right for you. The movie has a lot of flaws and opening up with faster than light communication via quantum entanglement (Which is not possible), despite the movie clearly being set in the near future was an odd choice. With the movies themes of isolation and loneliness and with a lot of the communication being done by recorded message anyway, it just seemed unnecessary.

That aside, this is not so much a science film as it is a philosophical one and it did pull on my heart strings at times. By the end I found I did care about this giant talking spider and so job done there. The movie removed a lot of the thriller based elements from the novel, lightening the tone a bit and giving it a heavy focus on the philosophical aspects. The problem here is it can be quite boring in places. Still, this is a strong 5.5/10, just a little short of a 6/10. If you like surreal philosophical movies you will probably enjoy it, otherwise chances are it’ll bore you.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Lisa Frankenstein

Lisa Frankenstein is the feature length directorial debut of Zelda Williams. The movie is written by Diablo Cody and stars up and coming youngster Kathryn Newton (Star of the surprisingly good “Freaky” from 2020). In what is designed as a subverted take on Frankenstein the movie tells the story of orphan Lisa Swallows, whose mother was murdered in a home invasion while she hid in the cupboard. Her father remarried. Lisa has a strained relationship with her stepmother but a fairly supportive step sister who tries to get her open up and be more social.

Lisa though prefers to hang out in the graveyard and fantasize about one of it’s residents who she has become infatuated with. After declaring that she wishes she could be with him one night a bolt of lightning strikes the grave and resurrects an apparently lovesick corpse. One thing leads to another and uh.. yeah people die and she starts sewing bits them onto the corpse. I guess you aren’t meant to think too much about this one.

A Frankensteinian Abomination.

This is the weakest of the movies I’m reviewing this month but it’s not totally devoid of positives. I liked the aesthetics, which have a very Tim Burton quality to them. The visual style is quaint and I especially liked the animated intro. Unfortunately those are all the positives I can give you. The movie is effectively a cross between “Heathers” (1988) and “May” (2002), with a little bit of “Corpse Bride” (2005). The problem is it absolutely fails to deliver the charm of any of those movies. The characters are, excuse the pun, lifeless and the script is disjointed and bland. You can see what they are trying to do, but none of it works.

At no point did I find myself rooting for or having sympathy for the protagonist and the events surrounding her lack any kind of consistency. Effectively most of the characters have no personality, but occasionally do things because the plot needs it or they need to vaguely justify killing them later. Random over the top humour is inserted haphazardly and is doesn’t fit with the rest of the movie. None of it is funny. It simply doesn’t work. This is a 4/10 at best. If you want a subverted take on Frankenstein do yourself a favour and watch “May” instead, it is a far better movie.

Rating: 4 out of 10.

Thanks For Reading

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Posted on by fenrisfil

It’s time to review the new Ghostbusters movie. You may remember that I gave Ghostbusters: Afterlife a positive review, though I noted a number of negatives. My hope was the sequel would learn from the good and bad of Afterlife and truly move the franchise forward. Moving the action back to New York (And the famous firehouse) was certainly a positive. The remaining original Ghostbusters were set to return once more, this time not just turning up for the finale. It all sounded good and the trailer was solid. But would it really be up to scratch?

The Ghostbusters Come Home.

Gil Kenan takes the directors chair for this one. The script is by him and the director of the previous movie Jason Reitman. It’s unknown how much involvement Jason had on this one. It’s worth noting that his father and original Ghostbusters director Ivan passed away in 2022 so was notably uninvolved. Returning from the original two movies are Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts and William Atherton. Afterlife’s Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Celeste O’Connor and Logan Kim joins them. The already bulky cast adds in Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, James Acaster and Emily Alyn Lind.

The story picks up in New York where the Spengler family have taken over the firehouse and the day to day business of busting ghost. After causing citywide destruction the mayor of the town (Walter Peck from the first two films) decrees that Phoebe as a 15 year old should not be working as a Ghostbuster. Annoyed by this she heads to central park to sulk and play chess but ends up befriending a ghost called Melody (Lind). Meanwhile Nadeem Razmaadi (Nanjiani) attempts to sell off his grandmothers collection of oddities to Ray Stantz (Ackroyd) who finds particular interest on one unique item inscribed with ancient glyph. It turns out this item contains an ancient evil spirit that if released could threaten the world. Naturally, it does get released and it is down to the Ghostbusters and Razmaadi to fix things.

Busting Makes Me Feel Bored.

Frozen Empire is not a terrible film or even the worst Ghostbusters film. It is however very average and ultimately a disappointment. The unfortunate thing is almost every problem could have been predicted going in, leaving little excuse for it. One thing I didn’t predict was that the film would be boring! Sadly for most of it, that was exactly what it was. Most of the fun stuff is literally in the trailer. Frozen Empire, much like Afterlife is a bit too long. Both movies were only about 15-20 minutes longer than the original, but with a lot less going on you really notice the run time. The movie especially drags through the first two acts where after the ghost chase scene from the trailer, very little actually happens.

It’s not just the pacing that is the issue, but also the focus on Phoebe (Grace). This worked in the previous film somewhat, with that story being largely constructed around her relationship with the ghost of Egon Spengler. But the problem is she just isn’t that interesting. There is a reason Egon wasn’t the main character in the original movies. Egon was at least funny though (Harold Ramis was a very funny man and co-writer of the original). Pheobe is no Egon and really doesn’t work as the franchise lead. It doesn’t help that once again they’ve focused her arc on her relationship with a ghost (This time stealing ideas from “Casper The Friendly Ghost”). It’s also notable that strapping a nuclear accelerator to a 15 year old girl and expecting her to fight ghosts regularly does raise a number of questions. The movie examines these, but not terribly well.

Ghost To Buster Ratio.

The remaining original Ghostbusters do get more to do than in the previous film (Where they literally just showed up for the ending) and this was very welcome. Even Venkman gets a scene before the ending. The roles aren’t large, but didn’t need to be. The big problem though is between that and the focus on Phoebe the other characters get almost no time or character development. When I reviewed Afterlife I said that Trevor (Wolfhard) was largely wasted and needed to get actual character development in any sequel. Well, he has even less of a role in this. This is true of all the other characters introduced in Afterlife, none more so than Lucky (O’Connor) and Podcast (Kim) who feel like they have been grandfathered in and do almost nothing. On top of this there are several new characters thrown in the mix too.

But it’s not just the screen time and character development. Many of these characters are just badly written. None of Afterlife characters display the charm they had in the previous film and many of them are just plain stupid now. Speaking of stupid, this is a movie where the problems that must be solved are entirely created by the good guys in the first place. That is almost always a bad idea, but the fact is had the Ghostbusters not returned to New York, none of the events of the film would have happened. This has the embarrassing side effect of meaning that Walter Peck (Now Mayor of New York for some reason) is actually 100% correct this time around. It could be argued Peck is the good guy and the Ghostbusters are actually now the villains!

Nostalgia Bait.

In Ghostbusters Afterlife I praised how they used the references to the original movie. While re-using Gozer seemed a little lazy, all the nostalgia was directly a part of the plot. They didn’t just drop things in for “‘Member Berries” (Thank you South Park for that term) and they didn’t stop things every few minutes to drop an Easter Egg like they did in the 2016 movie. Sadly though Frozen Empire is back to dropping references in just for the sake of it. They don’t waste too much time with it, but I’m not a fan of that kind of fan service. But it’s not just references to the original, they also brought back the mini-marshmallow men from Afterlife. To be fair, the kids in the cinema will love that but they didn’t add much for me.

The villain of the story is pure CGI and largely forgettable. He ties into the new character of Nadeem Razmaadi (played by Kumail Nanjiani), who is the “Firemaster”. This is a rather obvious reference to Rick Moarranis’ Louis Tully character in the original that was the “Keymaster”. Nanjani is no Moarranis and Razmaadi is no Tully. Ultimately it is an annoying character that adds to the movies character bloat. The big showdown is between the one villain and ELEVEN good guys. They are assisted by not one but two ghosts. To be fair, one of those ghosts is sort of unintentionally helping, with the returning favourite provides the most predictable moment in the entire movie. For reference Afterlife’s showdown was 7 people and one ghost on the heroes side and the original was just the four Ghostbusters. Afterlife managed to give each character a little moment in that finale, not so here.

Conclusion

Ultimately this was a disappointment. Not terrible and certainly better than the 2016 movie but it was boring, cluttered and not nearly as a funny as it should have been. This was a step back from Afterlife and many of my concerns I had with that movie as far as the future direction went seem justified. At this point I’m not sure they can fix it with movies. What they do have though is something that could work as a TV series, where they can actually flesh out these characters and introduce new ones without feeling cluttered. It’s worth noting I suggested the same thing after the previous movie. Sadly, this is a 5.5/10. Just short of a recommendation. I will say though, the children in the cinema seemed to be enjoying it. This may be a kids franchise now.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

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Three years after the release of David Villeneuve’s take on Dune, we finally have the second part. Both films together cover Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel “Dune”. Interestingly, they originally split the novel into two halves and published them in “Analogue Science Fiction And Fact” magazine. So they could have named the first part “Dune World” and this year’s sequel “Prophet of Dune” (as they were called in the magazine) instead of the rather bland “Part One” and “Part Two,” but that’s nitpicking really. Denis Villeneuve directs Dune part two and co-writes it with Jon Spaihts (but this time, without Eric Roth).

The movie sees Timothée Chalamet return to the role of Paul Atreides along with many of the very strong cast of the first movie. Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh join the cast as the previously unseen Emperor and his daughter along with Austin Butler as “Feyd-Rautha”, the character played by Sting in the David Lynch version of the story. Once again, the ensemble cast is incredibly strong. All the pieces are in place, strong cast, strong source material, solid budget and a film maker known for his visuals. This should easily be fantastic… but is it? I’m skipping the synopsis for this one, since this follows on directly from part two, it is hard to cover it without dropping spoilers. The Rest of this review has minor spoilers, but nothing that will impact your enjoyment. Skip to the conclusion of this is an issue for you.

Visuals

So first thing to cover is the look and in that regard this is excellent. The sand worms have never seemed more immense or dangerous. The landscape is imposing and the action scenes frankly put most other science fiction movies of the modern day to shame. The sound design is great too, however I don’t remember any of the music at all after leaving the theater. I remember from the first movie how much of the soundtrack was just noises and ambiance, which is a bit of a trend for modern soundtracks so I won’t hold it too much against this particular one.

With such a strong cast we were always unlikely to have any problems with the acting and it is very strong throughout. The main burden though falls on Chalamet as Atreides and he did a fantastic job. Despite his relatively small stature he managed to come across as powerful when needed and was able to convey both his conflicted conscience and he determination to get revenge for the destruction of his house. Despite the actors performances though, the script doesn’t given them a great deal to work with. With lesser actors that would have seen the film fall flat, but they just about get away with it here. It certainly helps when you have the likes of Rebecca Ferguson and Stellan Skarsgård in support.

Emotional Impact (Or lack thereof).

Now for the negatives. First of all, the emotional payoffs for this movie are built on setups from the previous one, almost entirely. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t re-watch that film before viewing its sequel so after a three year gap I didn’t feel even one of those emotional pay offs. That left the ending somewhat anti-climactic for me. That may be further impacted by the fact that I know the story, so there are no surprises for me. That said, I don’t think a recent re-watch would have helped feel the pay off in regards to the Emperor or Feyd, since neither are in the first film. The Emperor was behind the fall of House Atreides, but it doesn’t feel personal and so it is hard to really care. This was my biggest problem for Dune: Part Two. I really didn’t feel much in the way of an emotional connection to anything going on. Villeneuve’s directing style is very dry, and it reminds me of a lot of my issues with his Blade Runner sequel.

I always felt the biggest thing lacking from Blade Runner 2049 was heart. It was in some ways like a very good AI attempting to replicate the look and soundtrack of the first film, but without the ability to truly understand it. At the time I thought it was just a failure with that film but having seen both parts of Dune I have to conclude that it’s an issue with Villenueve’s approach in general. I think he perhaps focuses too much on the technical aspect of how things look and as a result sometimes forgets that a film is more than just visuals. Maybe it’s just me, but despite the source material and the high quality cast this is a movie that often felt as dry as the endless desert of Arrakis.

Pacing and Characters

My second issue is pacing (And this impacts my emotional reaction too). Some scenes really drag out. Not good in a movie with a running time towards three hours. Despite that, I couldn’t help but feel that some characters and story elements could have benefited from a bit more time spent on them. In what I gather is a change to the novel, the Fremen are split into northern and southern factions. The north is anti-religious and the south are effectively zealots. Another scene really drags out how the rebels got their hands on the Atreides nuclear arsenal. None of these elements are bad in themselves, they just felt unnecessary to the story.

As good as the actors were, the filmmakers wasted every single one of the antagonists. Florence Pugh’s “Princess Irulan” barely has more screen time than Virginia Madsen had in the 1984 movie. Neither her nor the Emperor (Played by Walken) felt like real characters to me. Feyd gets a pretty bad ass introduction, but has no real connection with Paul. When they finally fight it had the emotional impact of two people concluding a minor business deal. Meanwhile, the roles of both Dave Bautista’s “Beast Rabban” and Stellan Skarsgård’s “Baron Harkonnen” feel diminished. Gone is their powerful, intimidating presence from the previous movie, and as a result, their eventual defeat feels somewhat empty. These are good characters with good actors playing them, they shouldn’t feel like they are just there.

Conclusion

Ultimately the positives do outweigh the negatives. When paired with the first film it is both good entertainment and quality art. However it is not a masterpiece and this isn’t the new Lord of the Rings by a long way. Honestly I’m not sure the Dune novels are particularly well suited to movies. However it really does look superb and Chalamet probably does deserve an Oscar nomination. I’m somewhat torn, but I’m going to have to settle on a very strong 6.5/10. The movie would have scored higher had I actually felt something at it’s conclusion, but it is what it is.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Review Roundup – February 2024 (Oscar Bait).

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For this month’s review roundup, I’m looking at a couple of Oscar-nominated movies and one that, in my view, should have been nominated but was snubbed. All technically from 2023. Specifically “The Holdovers”, “American Fiction” and “The Iron Claw”. I will be back to more recent movies next month.

The Holdovers (2023)

The Holdovers tells the story of three people forced to spend Christmas together at a 1970’s boarding school. One student, one teacher and the cook. Initially more students have to stay behind but after one of their rich parents offers to take them all to a skiing resort all but one student departs. The unfortunate “Angus Tully” (Dominic Sessa) remains as the lone holdover, as his parents were unable to be reached. Classics teacher “Paul Hunham” (Paul Giamatti) and “Mary Lamb” (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school’s cafeteria manager, join him. Lamb has recently suffered a tragedy due to the death of her son, a former student at the school, in Vietnam. Paul and Angus meanwhile each have their own issues and a major clash of personalities between them.

This is about flawed characters dealing with past trauma and finding ways to grow past them. Standard Oscar bait, but done with a well paced story that develops naturally. Tully and Hunham are the main focus of the story, while Mary Lambs journey of a grieving mother is somewhat removed from that. The three of them together provide a theme of moving on from past traumas. This is something Tully and Hunham have in common with Lamb. From the second act onwards the cast effectively shrinks down to just those three. Fortunately they all nail their roles with good performances all round. This isn’t a ground breaking movie and it’s the kind of story you have undoubtedly seen before but it is very well done and a great example of how plot and characters are both important in character driven stories. This is a 7/10

Rating: 7 out of 10.

The Iron Claw (2023)

This film was snubbed for the Oscars. In the case of Best Picture, it doesn’t meet the new diversity standards introduced this year. To qualify you have to satisfy two criteria, one for for story/characters, the other for the crew. Of the cast of 45, four are women and two are non-white so it doesn’t meet any of standard A. I’m not bringing this up to be political, it is simply a fact. Now, why it was snubbed from Best Actor is a question beyond the scope of this review. It is however the kind of film that would normally get nominations. The movie follows the real life story of the Von Erich family, a famous family of Wrestling brothers. It follows their rise and then the many tragedies that struck the family and how the brothers tried to cope with it all.

The truth behind the story is more tragic than is depicted on screen. The director felt there was only so much misery he could inflict on the audience and that was probably wise. What we do see on screen is tragic enough. As a wrestling fan I knew the story from a distance, but seeing these tragedies on screen is an emotional experience. This is a story about family, the ambitions of a father for his sons and the bonds of brotherhood. It is also about Wrestling, but you don’t need to be a fan to understand or enjoy it. Honestly it could have been any sport and the story would work the same. The best thing about the movie though is the performance of Zack Efron in the lead role and the incredible total body transformation required to play the role of a bulked up professional wrestler. This is a 7.5/10.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

American Fiction (2023)

The film tells the story Dr. Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an author and lecturer on literature. Monk wants to be able to tell stories without having to make them about being black. He’s published several books in the past but has struggled in recent years and has grown frustrated with the success of other authors pandering to white guilt liberals that want the stories to be “More black”. Eventually he decides that as an F you to the publishers he’d write something deliberately over the top, trashy, cliched and stereotype laden as possible, just to prove his point. Of course what ends up happening is it becomes wildly successful. In between all this he must deal with family tragedy, an out of control brother and a romantic interest.

American Fiction is a fascinating film, largely thanks to its very original approach to dealing with race issues. My guess is both the left and the right will claim the film as some sort of victory for their side and yet the truth (as is often the case) lies somewhere in the middle. What the film effectively is, is a critique of racial pandering in fiction. That’s one hot topic, but the thing here is it looks at it from a black perspective and while doing this, it manages to tell a story that itself on occasion appears to be pandering, but the whole time is in truth making a point. It’s one of the smartest films out there and I particularly like what they did with the ending. No spoilers though on that one. This is an 8/10.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

The Beekeeper (2024)

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For my first major movie review of 2024 I give you David Ayer’s “The Beekeeper”, staring perennial action hero Jason Statham and with notable support from Jeremy Irons, Emmy Raver-Lampman and Josh Hutcherson. This is the only major release in January, but that isn’t entirely unusual since January is a notoriously bad month for the box office, so studios avoid it where possible. Ayer is a solid director with several good movies to his name, but with a patchier track record of late. Penning the movie is writer/director Kurt Wimmer who has a mostly bad track record but did give us “Equilibrium” back in 2002, which was a very good movie.

The movie follows the story of “Adam Clay” (Statham), a Beekeeper in the literal sense but also as it turns out a retired member of the most secret of secret agencies, “The Beekeepers”. When the nice old lady that rents him land for him to work his bees is scammed out of all her savings and takes her own life, he reactivates himself to bring down those responsible. As he follows the money he finds this corruption goes far deeper than anyone would have expected, but Clay takes his profession seriously and will deal with anything that threatens the health of the “Hive”, no matter how far up the corruption goes.

Maximum Statham!

First and foremost this is a fun movie. The movie is effectively split into five chapters with the odd, brief interlude. The first introducing us to the lead and setting up the story, the next four all revolving around large action scenes. One interlude is also an action scene so that is five solid action scenes spread over one hour and 45 minutes. This keeps the pace fast throughout and the time flies by. The most important thing for a movie like this is that those actions scenes are entertaining. This is not on the John Wick level of graceful action choreography, but it is solid, fast paced and clear (That least one is often overlooked in modern action films). Some suspension of disbelief is required of course because Statham’s Beekeeper character is basically an unstoppable ass kicking machine.

Statham has made a career of playing old school action heros and here this is ramped up to eleven. While he doesn’t have the superhero level indestructibility of John Wick, in some ways it is even more far fetched as he simply avoids getting injured for most of the movie and even when he does it is barely an inconvenience. A lot of the time this would be a big negative for me, but Statham is one of the few actors that can still pull off that kind of over powered character (Which is probably why he gets so much work). Clay has a Batman level of determination and morality, in many ways making the character a bit too simple but once again Statham is so comfortable in the role you just roll with it.

The Hornets Nest.

The plot itself is a pretty standard action affair built on the theme of kicking the hornets nest. When the scammers steal the money off the old lady that has befriended Clay they had no idea what they had unleashed, but when Clay sets out for revenge he has no idea just how far up the chain his hunt for vengeance and justice would take him. As a result the story constantly escalates, but it is all pretty predictable. Fortunately the movie doesn’t really rely on each revelation being a major twist. Instead the escalation is more like going up levels in a video game, each new level requiring Clay to be more resourceful and up his game.

One of the things I found most interesting (And this is a minor spoiler) is that the main villain seems to be based on Hunter Biden, which is certainly a bold choice but it actually works pretty well. In some ways this is a refreshing choice for the villain, but it’s actually just a variation on a pretty common trope. For example we basically saw a version of this with the original John Wick movie where the loose cannon son is the catalyst for Wick to go to war with his underworld boss father. Unfortunately most of the villains here are just one dimensional dirt bags, the most notable exception being Jeremy Irons who is both the smartest and most reluctant of Clay’s opponents.

Conclusion.

Overall the movie is a bit by the numbers but presents a fun, fast paced ride that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The ending for me though was a bit anticlimactic and it would be nice to feel Clay was in actually in genuine danger at some point. Ultimately though I had a lot of fun and really isn’t that the main thing we want from our action movies? This is a narrow, possibly generous 6.5/10. It’s not a cinematic masterpiece, but I think most people will get a kick out of it. This has done okay in the cinema so I expect to see a sequel at some point.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Movies Coming in 2024 – Part Two

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The second (First part is HERE) half of this list must be taken with a pinch of salt. Right now, given the state of Hollywood movies, there’s a fairly high chance that more than a few of these films won’t actually hit theaters in 2024, if they’re more than six months away. But we can only work with the information at hand. A lot of the smaller or direct to streaming releases won’t even be announced at this point, so this will mainly be the big Hollywood releases listed in this part. Since it’s a shorter list I’m just going to go month by month on this one. But first here is the the full list:

July
Despicable Me 4 – July 4th (Animation)
Twisters – July 19th (Disaster Movie)
Deadpool 3 – July 26th (Superhero/Comedy)

August
Trap – August 2nd (Psychological thriller)
Borderlands – Aug 9th (Video game adaptation)
Speak No Evil – August 9th (Horror)
Horizon: An American Saga Pt 2 – Aug 16th (Western)
Alien: Romulus – August 16th (Horror/Action/Sci-Fi)
Kraven the Hunter – August 30th (Superhero)

September
Beetlejuice 2 – September 6th (Fantasy)
Transformers One – September 13th (Animation)
Wolfs – September 20th (Thriller)
Saw X – September 27th (Horror)

October
Joker: Folie à Deux – October 4th (Crime/Drama/Musical)
Smile 2 – October 18th (Horror)
The Wolf Man – October 25th (Horror)
Terrifier 3 – October 25th (Horror)

November
Venom 3 – November 8th (Superhero)
The Amateur – November 8th (Thriller)
Wise Guys – November 15th (Crime/Drama)
Gladiator 2 – November 22nd (Sword & sandals)

December
The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim – December 13th (Animation)
Karate Kid Sequel – December 13th (Action/Drama)
Mufasa: The Lion King – December 20th (Animation)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 – December 20th (Animation/Video game adaptation)
Nosferatu – December 25th (Horror)

July

As we head to the school holidays we get the definitely-not-a-reboot of Twister, “Twisters“, which is being heavily marketed as an “update” to the original film, but doesn’t have the same plot or share any characters with the original. I’m pretty sure that is literally what a reboot is (As opposed to a remake or sequel), but they are very insistent on this one. Go figure, I can’t say I have any interest in this one, but then I wasn’t much of a fan of the original either. This is probably a flop. One movie likely to be a big hit though is “Despicable Me 4“, there’s no indication that the Minions franchise has stopped being a licence to print money, but it wouldn’t shock me if this doesn’t quite hit as high as previous ones. The third installment dropped significantly domestically but more than made up for it with it’s global appeal. It is highly unlikely for this to flop, but whether the franchise can still regularly crack a billion remains to be seen.

Capping off July is the biggest superhero movie of the year, “Deadpool 3“, featuring a full crossover with the Fox X-Men universe and possibly some kind of tie in to the MCU. Most importantly we finally get to see Wade and Logan side by side and played by the actors that made those roles their own, Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds. This will be a big test of superhero fatigue, if this one can’t get close to the billion dollar mark, it may well be over for the genre. It’s worth noting neither of the previous Deadpool movies reached that point, but they didn’t have Wolverine in the mix too. If this came out 4 years ago it would be a dead cert. Now? Who knows. What I do know is I’m almost certainly going to be watching this one.

August

August is a busier month for cinemas, but may end as a month of major flops. At the weaker end of the superhero scale is “Kraven the Hunter“, a movie that seems to have turned the fan favourite Spider-Man villain into a completely different Marvel character, specifically “Ka-Zar”. To be fair Sony probably doesn’t have the rights to Ka-Zar even though he has crossed paths with Spider-Man, but it seems a foolish move to turn such a bad-ass Spidey villain into a empathetic do-gooder. Then again the end goal of the Venomverse seems to be to create Sony’s own “Avengers” film out of Spider-Man villains in a universe without Spider-Man. This movie, like that plan sounds doomed to fail.

August also sees the return of the Aliens franchise with “Alien: Romulus“. Now under Disney control, this franchise is unlikely to go in the direction long term fans would like. My suspicion is we will see something similar to “Prey”, basically duplicating as much as possible from the original movie (Or more likely “Aliens” in this instance) and upping the “diversity” level. The end result will be pointless, vastly inferior, but maybe not awful and so coast on people going “Well it’s not as bad as Covenant” to sell it. Your alternative viewing for mid august though is the second part of Kevin Costner’s epicly long Western “Horizon: An American Saga“, which is unlikely to steal too much of Romulus’ box office. Not because of quality, more just because it’s the second half of a movie and likely 3+ hours long. Definite counter programming there.

The Next Big Thing?

Eli Roth’s “Borderlands” is a movie that may end up one of this years success stories, providing it can convince fans of the game to watch instead of play. I’m only vaguely aware of this game, but it’s clear they’ve been very specific in which characters they’ve chosen to use and which ones to leave out. Fan favourites “Doctor Zed”, “Brick” and “Mordecai” are all absent. Not only that but they cast little Kevin Hart as big tough mercenary “Roland”. If you look up the missing characters and the ones they are focusing on you start to see a theme. Basically they’ve taken a fairly well balanced set of game characters and trimmed it until it basically looks like every other big fantasy/sci-fi franchise of the modern day. That’s all I will say on that. The question is though will any of that matter or will game fans just buy tickets anyway? Many think video game adaptations are the new Superhero movie. We will see I guess!

On the darker side of things though we have a couple of potentially interesting movies. First of all M. Night Shyamalan’s latest from his deal with Warner Brothers, which is a psychological thriller called “Trap” set over one night at a music concert. Shyamalan is consistently inconsistent so that one could go either way. One thing I can say for him though is his films always have interesting premises even if they don’t always live up to their promise. On the horror side of things though is the psychological horror “Speak No Evil“, which is set to test just how long a polite Danish couple can maintain their composure when confronted with madness. Neither of these films are likely to rake it in, but they’ll probably make money.

September

As the kids return to school we get the movie I am probably looking forward to the most in 2024, “Beetlejuice 2″. Of course, whenever a franchise I am particularly fond of makes a sudden return, I balance my excitement with more than a little anxiety. Hopefully it’ll all work out okay. Burton, Keaton and Ryder are all back and they are joined by a cast that includes the great talents of Jenna Ortega (Playing Winona’s daughter) and Willem Dafoe (In an unknown role). Another thing we haven’t seen since the 80’s is a theatrical release of an animated Transformers movie, the first since the franchises theatrical debut in 1986. Can’t say they’ve done a great job of marketing “Transformers One” by declaring it the franchises first animated feature. I mean nothing sells your knowledge of Transformers like forgetting that “Transformers: The Movie” exists.

Joining the list of franchise returns is the tenth entry in the Saw franchise. I haven’t seen any of the more recent entries so I can’t speak too much on where the franchise has been going creatively, but certainly it still seems to bring in a solid box office. I expect this one to make money, though it remains to be seen how much more they can squeeze out of this franchise. There is at least one movie in September that is an original and that is Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s “Wolfs“. A story about two lone wolf fixers assigned to the same job (Which is probably why it is not called “Wolves”). This one is directed by Jon Watts, the man behind the MCU Spider-Man movies. I suspect this will be a decent movie, though I couldn’t guess on its box office.

October

Heading in to my favourite month of the year we get my second most anticipated movie of 2024, “Joker: Folie à Deux“. A lot of people have cast doubt on this one due it it being apparently a musical, yet a lot of people also doubted the first movie (Myself included), until we started getting trailers and then slowly we realized we may have something truly special. That first movie was heavily influenced by the Scorsese films “Taxi Driver” (1976) and “King of Comedy” (1982). Scorsese made a couple of films in between those that I think may give us a clue to where things are heading with this new movie, namely: “New York, New York” (1977) and “Raging Bull” (1980). The former is a musical, but both movies are largely centered around a volatile romantic relationship and this movie is of course introducing us to Harley Quinn (Played by Lady Gaga).

Obviously October means horror so it’s no surprise to see two of the most successful new horrors of recent years make their return with “Smile 2” and “Terrifier 3“. Whether either of these can live up to their previous installments remains to be seen but I have no doubt they’ll both make a killing at the box office (Excuse the pun). Joining those though is Leigh Wanell and Blumhouses latest Universal Horror classic, “The Wolf Man“. Wanell did a great job with his “Invisible Man” reboot and his own “Upgrade” so I am cautiously optimistic about this one. With luck I’ll be able to factor all three of these movies into my October Horrorthon reviews for 2024.

November

As he head towards the end of 2024 we are very much in “Likely to be postponed” territory. But as of the writing of this article, November is slated to present us with the final superhero movie of the year in “Venom 3“. We’re yet to get a trailer for this or any real information about it so I’m hesitant to make any kind of prediction. The first two Venom movies were reasonable enough and fairly popular however coming after two likely clangers in this strange shared universe and with superhero fatigue in full force, this could end up a flop too. Because of this it is even more likely to be pushed into 2025.

The second movie with a huge question mark over it is Ridley Scotts “Gladiator 2“. Which supposedly follows Maximus’ son (Played by the relatively unknown Paul Mescal). While Scott is a great director his output in recent years has been very inconsistent. Again this is one of the more likely movies to get delayed and I can’t make any predictions. November does see a couple of original films that may be worth checking out, first up is “The Amateur“, a thriller from “Slow Horses” James Hawk featuring the talents of Remi Malek. That is followed by a new De Niro gangster movie “Wise Guys“. I don’t know much about either but that casting alone is a big selling point.

December

At last we reach the end of the year, and naturally, anything scheduled for release in December has a good chance of being delayed until the next year. However, first up is the movie, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim,” already delayed from 2022. This is an animated feature, and I believe it is set in the Peter Jackson LOTR’s universe, though, since it is set two and a half centuries before those films, I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of crossover. The story is based on the appendices of the original novels, which means they have a lot of freedom in the specifics. That makes the quality hard to judge because I think we all know how badly Amazon’s LOTR’s TV series ended up. Hopefully Warner can do better than Amazon.

December features three big franchise movies due for release including a mysterious Karate Kid sequel (Title as of yet unconfirmed). It’s unknown if it will fit in with the excellent Cobra Kai TV series or be it’s own thing, but it stars both Ralph Machio and Jackie Chan who took on the Mr. Miyagi type roll in the rather strange remake from 2010. Jackie is of course Chinese and not Japanese and as such uses Kung Fu and not Karate, which always made the remake movie ridiculous. Hopefully the film will address the different fighting styles, but we will see. Following this Disney has it’s latest frachise spin off movie “Mufasa: The Lion King“. Released alongside that and providing obvious competition is “Sonic 3” from Paramount. These films have been good and well received so my money is on the blue guy winning that fight.

A Strange Christmas Present

Last but not least though is another movie I’m looking forward to and that is “Nosferatu” from Robert Eggers. The movie stars Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok, and features the talents of Willem DaFoe and Nicholas Hoult. The director is the main point of interest though on this one because I can’t think of anyone more appropriate to helm this particular remake. Eggers of course gave us “Witch”, “The Lighthouse” and “The Northman”. His focus on historical accuracy and blending fantasy with reality in a way that leaves a great deal of ambiguity should give us a refreshing take on this remake of a movie that is now 103 years old. While I am certain it will be good, it’s hard to say if it will make money. As good as The Northman was, it flopped in theatres and I’m not sure Christmas Day is the best date for a horror movies release!

So that’s it for 2024. Chances are this later period will have a lot of movies that are just not on anyone’s radar just yet. It’s also worth noting the best movie of last year (In my humble opinion) was Godzilla Minus One, a Japanese movie I didn’t even know was on the cards at the start of the year. So expect one or two surprises. Hollywood has a fairly light card this year due to the impact of last years writers strike. That gives independent and foreign language movies a huge opportunity to showcase themselves, we will see what they do with that opportunity.

Thanks for reading.

Upcoming Movies in 2024 – Part 1 (January to June)

Posted on by fenrisfil

With the 2023 wrap up out of the way, it’s time to take a look at what movies are coming to our screens in 2024. I’m doing this in two halves, so this is just the first six months. It’s worth noting that several of the big names were actually due out in 2023 but got pushed back due to the various strikes. Dune: Part Two for example was a movie a lot of people were excited for in 2023, but it got pushed back, unnecessarily in my view, due to the strikes. Specifically they wanted the actors available to promote it. These days it’s debatable if the actors actually help or hinder a movies promotion given their tendency to make divisive comments in interviews. Then again, the last Dune movie didn’t perform that well despite meeting audience approval so I understand them not wanting to take the risk.

It’s also worth noting how few superhero movies are hitting the screens this coming year and neither the MCU nor DCU/DCEU have an official entry this year. The DCEU is dead now and James Gunn’s DCU doesn’t launch until 2025. Marvel meanwhile only have MCU adjacent content with their revival of the Fox X-Men universe via Deadpool 3 and three more entries in Sony’s more miss than hit “Venomverse”. This is probably for the best, given the disastrous box office both franchises have had in 2023. It remains to be seen if this little break will help the recent decline in the popularity of superhero movies or hasten it. Disney are putting out two MCU shows next year mind, but I doubt “Echo” or “Eyes of Wakanda” will help much.

First Quarter.

The first few months of 2024 offers several highly anticipated movies, several of which were originally slated for 2023. I’ll start off with a list and then break it down by month. Note, a lot of the movies I’m listing here aren’t big Hollywood Blockbusters. With the writers strike, the major studios took a big hit and as a result have less than normal to bring out. However, often the best movies aren’t from the major studios, so I’ve included a lot of smaller films I think have potential. Some of them aren’t even horrors!

Note: I’m updating this list with review scores as I watch stuff!

JANUARY
Night Swim – January 5th (Horror)
The Bricklayer – January 5th (Action/Thriller) – 4/10
Destroy all Neighbors – January 12th (Horror/Comedy) – 6/10
The Beekeeper – January 12th (Action/Thriller) – 6.5/10
Self Reliance – January 12th (Comedy) – 6/10
I.S.S. – January 19th (Thriller/Drama/Sci-Fi)
Wanted Man – January 19th (Action/Thriller) – 5/10

FEBRUARY
Lisa Frankenstein – February 9 (Horror/Comedy)
Argylle – February 12 (Action/Thriller)
Madame Web – February 14 (Superhero)
Land of Bad – February 16 (Action/War)
Drive Away Dolls – February 23rd (Thriller/black comedy)

MARCH
The Fall Guy – March 1 (Action/Comedy)
Dune: Part Two – March 5 (Sci-Fi)
Imaginary – March 8 (Horror)
NEW ADDITION: Roadhouse – March 8 (Action)
Damsel – March 8 (Fantasy)
Kung Fu Panda 4 – March 29 (Family/Comedy)
Mickey 17 – March 29 (Sci-Fi)
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – March 29 (Fantasy/Comedy)

January.

First up is the Blumhouse horror Night Swim (Which will be already out by the time I post this), this is a movie that was originally due out in 2023 but got postponed. The movie itself looks so so, but it does mark the new partnership between James Wan and Jason Blum who merged their companies on January 2nd this year. This will create a real powerhouse for horror in the coming years especially considering their partnership with Universal. Later in the month Jason Statham’s launches us firmly into 2024 in solid style with the fun looking action movie “The Beekeeper“. It’s classic Jason Statham, if you hate those movies you can probably skip it but if you enjoy them you can expect to be in safe hands.

There’s quite a few lower profile movies for January too that look interesting. Those after low budget horror fun though should check out the trailer for “Destroy all Neighbors“, which looks like “Psycho Goreman” levels of fun with more than a hint of Alex Winter’s “Freaked” (And not just because Winter is in this too). Another interesting one for January is the comedy “Self Reliance” which looks to subvert “Hunting Humans/Running Man” trope. This has been done a few times now (For example the excellent “Guns Akimbo”), but the trailer looked fun and they seem to have found a new angle to it.

Finishing up the line up is a couple of action films in “The Bricklayer” and “Wanted Man” and the science fiction triller “I.S.S.”. The Bricklayer (Which is already out), looks pretty good from the trailer and is from seasoned action director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard II, Long Kiss goodnight). Wanted Man is directed by and starring Dolph Lundgren. Dolph has directed a few action films now and all hover between 5-6/10 on imdb, so don’t expect too much. I.S.S. meanwhile is a sci-fi/thriller based on the idea of what would happen on the International Space Station should nuclear war between Russia and the US kick off on Earth.

February.

February sees our first Superhero film for 2023 and…. yeah, it doesn’t look good. “Madame Web” appears to be Sony scrapping the very bottom of the barrel of the characters they have available. Traditionally Madame Web is an elderly blind woman in a wheelchair that helps guide Peter Parker. I’ve never been a big fan of creating a “Spider-Family” when one of the things that made Peter Parker Spider-Man was having to solve his issues by himself. Madame Web at least was always very hands off, effectively just a quest giver. But it’s still just a gimmick hanger on character and not the kind you would make a movie for. This character is joined by three more Spider-Knockoffs, the only one I care about at all is Julia Carpenter, since she debuted it “Secret Wars” back in the 80’s, when I was heavily reading Marvel Comics.

On a potentially positive note we finally get the Henry Cavill spy thriller “Argylle“, though a word of caution on that one: I’m pretty sure that is a bait and switch. The trailer only shows Cavill playing an in world, fictional version of the character and as the trailer reaches the point of introducing the “Real” Argylle…. it ends. Yeah, it’s totally not going to be Henry. My guess is that the author of the fictional in world books that is central to the story is the real Argylle, in what would effectively turn the story into a “Long Kiss Goodnight” remake. This may or may not cause a backlash depending on if the movie is actually any good! Fortunately the trailer did look action packed and fun, so regardless of who the real Argylle is, it may be entertaining.

Filling out the rest of February are some real wild cards. Probably the most notable is Ethan Coen’s “Drive Away Dolls“. The trailer looked stylish but I honestly couldn’t tell much else about it. Then there’s the action movie “Land of Bad“, which looks like a typical soldiers in action type movie but those can sometimes be very good, so we’ll see. Finally, there is another comedy horror, “Lisa Frankenstein“, the plot is somewhat similar in basic concept to horror cult classic “May”, but with the comedy dial turned up to eleven. Lisa, like may is trying to construct her perfect man, but this time she starts with a re-animated corpse and is basically trying to replace bits of it to make it less… dead. Not sure if it will work in practice, but concepts like this are always a fine line between hilarious and terrible.

March.

March is where things really get interesting in 2024, with a number of highly anticipated movies. This includes the delayed “Dune Part II” finishing off Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s first Dune novel. The trailer for this looks superb and it may be the safest bet of the year for quality. The month also sees a fourth Kung Fu Panda movie, but more interesting for me is “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire“, the fourth canonical Ghostbusters movie and direct sequel to “Afterlife”. The movie sees the franchise return to New York and there is more than a chill in the air. The remaining OG-Busters return once more, though it is unknown how large their roles are this time. My guess is you won’t see much of Venkman in this.

We also get a reboot of “The Fall Guy“, an 80’s TV series now turned into a movie. There seems to be little in common between this movie and the series, but the trailer did look pretty good. Perhaps this will be the new “Equalizer”. A potential movie to look out for in March is Bong Joon-ho’s science fiction adaptation “Mickey 17“. I don’t know the source material (The novel “Mickey7”), but the synopsis sounds interesting and this is an Oscar winning director with a strong list of science fiction and horror movies to his name. The very capable Robert Pattinson takes the lead roll in the movie, so there is a lot of potential. Capping off March is a pair of trope subersions with Netflix’s take on the fairy tale movie “Damsel” and the imaginary friends gone bad horror “Imaginary”. The latter of those is the first of two movies about imaginary friends this year.

Second Quarter.

The second quarter of 2024 features a run of big budget action based movies and a fair amount of horror along with a lot of franchise returns. In all (Of the movies listed), nine are either franchise sequels, prequels, spin-offs or reboots and only six are original films, four of which are horrors. Here’s the list:

April
NEW ADDITION: Monkey Man (Action) – April 5th
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – April 12 (Action/Kaiju)
The First Omen – April 12 (Horror)
Abducting Abigail – April 19 (Horror)
NEW ADDITION: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – April 19th (Action)
Civil War – April 26 (Action/Thriller)

May
Horrorscope – May 10 (Horror)
If – May 17 (Horror
Furiosa – May 24, 2024
Garfield – May 24, 2024
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – May 24, 2024

June
The Watchers – June 7, 2024 (Horror)
Ballerina – June 7
Bad Boys 4 – Jun 14
Inside Out 2 – June 14, 2024
A Quiet Place: Day One – June 28
Horizon: An American Saga (Pt 1) – June 28

April

Already controversial film “Civil War” hit’s theatres April 26th. Hard not to feel that movie is cynically cashing in on extreme tensions across the US in what is sure to be the most controversial election of all time. Fortunately even in the trailer they make it clear the film is pure fantasy since it has California teaming up with Texas! April also gives us a new entry in the “Monsterverse” franchise, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” this time it’s a full on Godzilla and King Kong team up movie and it remains to be seen if they can actually make this work. Certainly the scene of Godzilla running in the trailer was… strange. After the success of the Japanese Godzilla Minus One in 2023, it’s uncertain whether the audiences are still on board with a heroic running Godzilla teaming up with a heroic Kong.

For horror we have an ill advised old franchise prequel “The First Omen“, which just to be a little more confusing is a prequel to the reboot Omen film from 2006 and not the one from 1976. yes they made a prequel to the film that has a 5.5 (62k votes) on imdb rather than the one with a 7.5 (129k votes). Go figure. Though a prequel to the ’76 film would basically just be Rosemary’s baby. All feels a bit pointless to me, but maybe it’ll be a surprise hit. April also sees the release of Universal monster thriller “Abducting Abigail“, a movie little seems to be known about, but seems to be about people kidnapping someone that is actually a monster.

UPDATE: Two new movies have been added to the slate in April that are worth mentioning, both are action films. First is “Monkey Man” from Universal, released April 5th and from the looks of the excellent trailer is a action film/superhero origin movie. That is followed by Guy Ritchies latest movie “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” with Henry Cavill. Ritchies output last year was nothing short of spectacular so I expect good things here as well. It seems April just got kicked up a notch!

May

May brings more questionable sequels with the first Mad Max film without Mad Max in: “Furiosa“. It’s also the first Max franchise movie to feature extremely heavy CGI and it was very noticeable in the trailer (And not in a good way). One sequel that actually looks decent though is “Kingdom of the Planet of the Ape“. Honestly it could go either way, but the trailer was promising. May also brings “The Strangers: Chapter 1“, a prequel to a home invasion film I wasn’t particularly impressed with. In my review of “The Strangers” the only positive I had about it was a surprisingly good performance by Liv Tyler. Another horror out in May is the deliberately misspelled “Horrorscope” about people having their fortunes read and then dying in related ways to that fortune. Straight forward gimmick; we’ll see how it lands.

May sees Garfield back on the big screen, now with Chris Pratt voicing the lasagna loving feline. The new film is called “The Garfield Movie” not to be confused with “Garfield: The Movie” from 2004. June also features a potentially big animated feature with “Inside Out 2“, though Disney doesn’t have the best track record with animation in recent years, so remains to be seen if it will be as much of a success as the original film. Disney can’t claim genre fatigue on their animation since everyone else seems to be doing well in that department. One movie that I think may be a hit this year (One of two for Ryan Reynolds), is “IF“, this years second movie about imaginary friends. These are good imaginary friends though, so don’t expect them to murder anyone. This is pure fantasy/comedy and the trailer looked great.

June

As we roll into the summer we get a pair of franchise action movies with the fourth installment of Michael Bay’s Bad Boys franchise “Bad Boys 4“. Not much is known about that one right now, so there is a chance it’ll get delayed. Before that though we get “Ballerina” a John Wick spin off set between the third and fourth movie of that franchise. The movie does include Keanu Reeves reprising his role, but the actual lead is Ana de Armas. It’s unknown how much of a role Wick will have in it. The third movie vying to be an early summer hit is Pixar’s “Inside Out 2“. While the original was a big hit, we all know how things are going for Disney right now and this isn’t Toy Story. It seems unlike “Anxiety” will be as popular a character as “Joy” was.

On the horror side of things June brings “The Watchers“, the directorial debut of Ishana Shyamalan, M. Night’s daughter. Hopefully she isn’t also obsessed with building movies around a single twist. The big horror movie of June though is the Quiet Place prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One“. If you read my review of the previous movie you’ll know I really liked the prequel section and was indifferent to the rest, so I’m actually on board with this one. Stepping away from horror, the final movie of note in June is Kevin Costner’s latest Western Epic “Horizon: An American Saga“. This is a self funded two part movie with the second due out in august. The total run time is apparently eleven hours, though it was originally meant to be four movies and seems to now be just two. The final length remains to be seen… But probably not by me!

End of Part One

Part two launches right into the summer holiday season and beyond. Right now its pretty barren terrain thanks to last years writers strike. They delayed a lot of films due out last year to make sure they had some content, but that could only stretch it so far. Also the end half of the year is where films are more likely to be delayed again, so it is a lot more speculative. Suffice to say part two will be shorter! Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope it’s given you a few films to look forward to.