Civil War (2024) Film Review

In a dystopian future America, a team of military-embedded journalists races against time to reach Washington, D.C., before rebel factions descend upon the White House.

Civil War is directed by Alex Garland who previously directed Ex Machina (2015), Annihilation (2018) and Men (2022).

Part of the reason my review is so late is because I honestly had no idea what to exactly think of Civil War. There is an incredible amount that I really love about the film, even if the politics can get muddy I do get the point the film was making and in some instances it kind of works.

I’ll start with the performances because they are ultimately what really makes the film, starting with Kristen Dunst she gives a phenomenal performance. She plays a war photographer named Lee Smith who mainly focuses on the job and nothing else at all, there are tons of character moments from her. The ones that stood out were her slowly realizing that doing absolutely nothing while chaos is going on other than getting that one excellent shot is not worth it at all. Dunst gives such a raw performance and her interactions with the rest of the cast is truly investing.

Cailee Spaeny is also quite excellent here, she plays Jessie Cullen an aspiring young photographer who kind of just joins in on Lee and Joel’s (played by Wagner Moura) journey. Her depiction of someone being someone who hasn’t been in this much chaos before is absolutely top notch and at times quite scary, the scenes with her Dunst or her and Moura just having conversations are among some of the film’s best moment.

Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley are both excellent here, they work incredibly well with Spaeny and Dunst the chemistry between the four is top notch. Moura acting as this second in command figure with Dunst who tries to keep the group together is investing to watch. While McKinley’s character doesn’t get a lot of development, McKinley’s performance itself is more than enough to make up for it as it is pretty charming in some areas.

The atmosphere of the film is truly masterful, throughout the whole film and the journey we are sent on with Lee, Joel, Jessie and Sammy the suspenseful atmosphere is felt. Anything could happen at any given moment it’s investing the whole through but there’s one particular moment that really shines. I purposely left out Jesse Plemons’s performance until right now because while he does only get one scene, the scene is a masterclass of suspense. Combine that with his acting, the lines of dialogue that are used and the camera focusing on each of the character’s reactions and you have yourself a wild ride of a scene.

The film’s world itself is quite investing as well, I do like that the film shows the relics of the Civil War taking place. Buildings left abandoned, some completely intact and others completely ruined. Heck sometimes during the journey we encounter towns that flat out pretend the war does not exist. This might be a bit biased since I’ve always had a fascination with abandoned buildings and areas, but I do think the film does a really great job of showing the horrifying feel of these certain areas.

Overall Civil War is a quite fantastic film, it’s filled with suspense, excellent performances and investing dialogue that really grabs the viewer’s attention incredibly quickly!

Civil War is available in Theaters.

9/10 A

Breathe (2024) Film Review

Maya and her young daughter, Zora, are forced to live underground when Earth is left uninhabitable due to a lack of oxygen. When a mysterious couple arrive and claim to know the fate of Maya’s husband, she tentatively agrees to let them into the bunker. However, mother and daughter soon find themselves in a fight for survival when the truth about the strangers comes to light.

Breathe is directed by Stefon Bristol director of See You Yesterday (2019).

My only question after watching Breathe is how in god’s name were they able to get this much talent in this movie? Jennifer Hudson? Common? Quvenzhané Wallis? What exactly is going on here? The script reads like someone had no brainstorming going on and just decided to write it without any sort of outlining or any plan at all.

Milla Jovovich and Sam Worthington are also here which doesn’t help the movie all that much, the characters in general are just horribly written with very little personality outside of cliche character traits. The acting is abysmal, it’s very baffling to see some of these very talented people give performances that could be strongly considered as some of the worst performances so far this year. Jennifer Hudson is given so little to work with from the script despite being the lead, in fact that can be said for everyone involved. The script is so predictable, so terribly written and a huge waste that none of the people involved can pull off a somewhat decent performance.

The movie also spends a pretty decent amount of time with simply trying to open a door, it might have been one thing if the dialogue was at least interesting or there was some sort of mind game going on or maybe an investing back and forth. But unfortunately that’s not what you get here, instead you get some incredibly bad dialogue that makes you want to turn this movie off.

What else can I really say? Breathe is one of the worst movies so far this year, it fails on every single level. How they got so many recognizable names to sign on to this movie is going to remain life’s biggest questions.

Breathe is available on all VOD Platforms.

Disgrace To Cinema F

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (2024) Film Review

A colony on the edge of the galaxy fights for survival against a tyrannical ruling force, relying on the efforts of a small group of rebels.

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is directed by Zack Snyder who has directed by Rebel Moon (2023), Army Of The Dead (2021), Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016), Dawn Of The Dead (2004), Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021), 300 (2007) and many others.

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is only a slight improvement over the first movie, in fact a majority of my criticisms and positives I had with part one can be applied with this one. It’s honestly not that much different outside of largely taking place on a farm which does hurt the scale of the movie quite a lot.

Anthony Hopkins at least is given more to do this time around and he remains as one of the positives of the movie. The same can be said with Sofia Boutella who really tries her very best with the script she’s given, unfortunately it’s not enough to get the viewer into the movie despite once again giving a decently fun performance. One improvement this movie does have over it’s predecessor is Ed Skrein is a bit better here, we are definitely given a lot more about him as a villain and he honestly does a better job this time around even if there are some incredibly lacking areas.

The movie itself is once again beautiful to look at, even though we are restricted to the farm for a majority of the movie. There are still a lot of really solid shots that are undeniably beautiful, finally there’s the action scenes which are pretty neat. They aren’t anything completely mind blowing but are absolutely one of the movie’s best parts.

Unfortunately that’s where this movie ends for me, a major issue I had with part one is it completely failed to make the viewer care about the characters and did not give them any meaningful character development. That applies with part two, sure we are given crumbs but not anything the viewer can really work with, it doesn’t help that the writing is once again very sloppy and remains completely hollow character wise. There’s nothing here that makes the viewer want to invest in these characters at all, it’s all very mindless and goes on for way too long until it decides to end.

It’s a shame really because I want to like these movies, I want to be invested in the movie’s world and it’s characters but unfortunately the movie gives very little reason for the viewer to really care at all. Perhaps Zack Snyder’s cut of this movie and part one (hasn’t been released at the time this was written) will expand on these characters and the world but for now this is a complete mess.

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is available on Netflix.

4/10 D+

Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths Part Two

An endless army of shadow demons seeks to destroy all realities. What mysterious force drives them; and do Monitor and Supergirl’s secrets threaten to crush the heroes’ last defense?

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two is directed by Jeff Wamester who previously directed Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One (2024), Justice League Warworld (2023), Legion Of Super-Heroes (2023), Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022) and Justice Society: World War II (2021).

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two serves as the second part of the eighth and final installment of the Tomorrowverse, a lot of what I said about part one can be applied here. What’s baffling here is part two is a step down from part one which was already a poor opening to the trilogy.

There is a few fine enough action scenes and much like the first part the voice acting is serviceable, but they are so far in between that it ultimately doesn’t matter. We are yet again shown characters who we haven’t been able to really connect with since the Tomorrowverse is ending in the next and final part. One problem throughout the movie that becomes very noticeable is it really can’t decide who our main protagonist should be between Jensen Ackle’s Batman, Darren Criss’s Superman or Meg Donnelly’s Supergirl the movie constantly jumps back and forth between subplots with none of the characters actually getting any real time to shine.

It’s not just the main characters either, the side characters get no real development here either, which is baffling considering how many heroes and villains the movie has access to. The whole movie really seems like it’s not interested in exploring these characters (outside of some very cliched backstories) and if the movie isn’t interested why should the viewer?

I really don’t know what else I can say without repeating my issues that I had with the first part. Part two somehow ends up being far more messy, disjointed and lacking than part one. At least part one had some good moments with The Flash and at the very least attempted to try and say something, part two is as if somebody put something together at the very last second and called it a day. Will this trilogy end on a high note? Guess we will wait and see with part three which is expected to come out later this year.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two is available on all VOD platforms.

2/10 F

Monkey Man (2024) Film Review

An anonymous young man unleashes a campaign of vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless

Monkey Man is directed by Dev Patel which is his directorial debut.

Monkey Man is a film that was nearly flat out going to have it’s release cancelled by Netflix after feeling the film would be too gritty for Indian audiences and was concerned the reaction to the film’s political commentary. Luckily Jordan Peele and Universal stepped in and acquired it and we now have the film released…which is excellent because Monkey Man rules.

I already knew Dev Patel was one hell of an actor, he’s given some quite strong performances over the years. However his directing here is outstanding especially as the film goes on you really start to see a lot of Patel’s strengths as an actor be reflected in the director’s chair. Monkey Man is a revenge tale which obviously isn’t anything new, with that being said the way this film tells that tale and uses the revenge element is what makes this interesting.

Throughout the film you can feel Bobby’s (played by Dev Patel) anger it’s much more quiet in certain parts of the film but it’s always there. Even with the action scenes that get progressively more violent and gory as the film goes on you can feel the anger getting more and more heated as it goes on and the closer the film reaches Bobby’s goal. His anger at the beginning starts as grief and not really knowing where to start or even to really do, but once he figures it out and has a plan set hell breaks loose from there and it’s truly satisfying to see all of this go down especially in stylistic action scenes that truly thrilling.

The atmosphere combined with the action scenes are truly fantastic here, they really blend well with the whole revenge and anger elements I mentioned earlier. Which leaves them to be all the more satisfying to watch, I do think there are some writing issues mainly when it comes to the villains. There’s some sort of a switch of main antagonists during the film that doesn’t feel very fitting especially since this feels more of a personal revenge story of Bobby. Having that said that doesn’t stop the film in any very major ways.

The rest of the cast are quite fantastic as well, they fit the film in their own ways and help compliment the film’s world. Even if a lot of them don’t get the most character development they are at the very least important to the story. They help guide Bobby and create this building a hero type of story that’s incredibly engaging to watch. The topic of corruption and how it can get people to fall for corrupt leaders is truly fascinating, we are shown glimpses of Bobby’s past throughout the film and how he ended up where he is now. Those flashbacks do a fantastic job of really showing how much damage corruption has done and how throughout the years there’s been no change. Until it was time to create a hero to tackle corruption In any single way possible.

Monkey Man is truly a knockout directorial debut for Dev Patel, I truly hope we get to see more of his directing career because this was truly fantastic.

Monkey Man is playing in theaters

9/10 A

Road House (2024) Film Review

Ex-UFC fighter Dalton takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys roadhouse, only to discover that this paradise is not all it seems.

Road House is directed by Doug Liman who directed Edge Of Tomorrow (2014), American Made (2017), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), The Bourne Identity (2002), The Wall (2017), Chaos Walking (2021) and a few others. The film is a remake of the 1989 film of the same name.

Not a whole lot to really say here since I don’t really have any special attachment towards the original Road House but even I will say that it’s a highly entertaining film and Patrick Swayze had this special approach that I don’t think anyone could really replicate. I had some hope that Doug Liman despite his last two movies being quite awful, could turn this into something solid. To his credit there was absolutely a level of attempt here, unfortunately it doesn’t quite land.

Jake Gyllenhaal is solid in the leading role which you would expect since it’s Gyllenhaal who almost always turns in a great performance, the problem is it doesn’t hit that mark that Swayze’s performance did. It just feels like another solid Gyllenhaal performance and nothing more. The rest of the cast are fine enough but the one that’s truly out there is Connor McGregor which is his acting debut. I honestly have no idea what to think of his performance, I definitely did laugh at how unhinged he really gets so that should count for something at least. I don’t think the performance is “good” but it’s so unhinged and his delivery is just incredibly out there that I can’t help but laugh and like it for what it is.

There’s some fine enough action scenes here but the pacing really drags this down especially during the second act, it really does not mesh well at all with the story being told and really turns Road House into a bit of a slog to get through which really does miss the point of the original. The original had a lot of energy and wasn’t a slog to get through, but here all you really get is an unhinged performance and some okay action scenes.

I think if this wasn’t called Road House this would have been a drastically better movie especially since it would have been its own thing. But as it stands this is one of those action movies that almost immediately leave your mind when you finish watching it.

Road House is available on Amazon Prime Video.

5/10 C

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) Film Review

Po must train a new warrior when he’s chosen to become the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace. However, when a powerful shape-shifting sorceress sets her eyes on his Staff of Wisdom, he suddenly realizes he’s going to need some help. Teaming up with a quick-witted corsac fox, Po soon discovers that heroes can be found in the most unexpected places.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is directed by Mike Mitchell director of Sky High (2005), Shrek Forever After (2010), Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011), Lego Movie 2 (2019) and a few others. Kung Fu Panda 4 is the fourth installment of the Kung Fu Panda franchise and is a sequel to Kung Fu Panda 3.

Kung Fu Panda has a been a consistently great series, it might not be some of my favorite animated films but they are always a blast and work mainly due to the mix of jokes, action and the cast. The third movie is definitely the weakest of the trilogy but it still had its charming moments and was honestly a nice wrap up to the story.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is what happens when you try to replicate what the trilogy did but somehow fall short, what mainly works here is Jack Black, Viola Davis, James Hong and Bryan Cranston turning in great performances. Jack Black of course does a fantastic job as Po, even if the writing is much weaker this time around he still manages to squeeze in his charm. Viola Davis plays the villain of the movie which while Davis gives a strong performance the villain “The Chameleon” is just such a disappointing villain. Kung Fu Panda has always had some really solid villains in the past so it’s huge let down to see this one go to waste. The Chameleon is lacking in personality despite Viola Davis’s best efforts.

The action scenes are quite neat combined with the animation complimenting them quite well, there’s no denying the movie looks great. Unfortunately what hurts Kung Fu Panda 4 is the writing issues and the many odd decisions this movie went with. For starters a lot of character absences are very noticeable, which while they are technically in the movie they are turned into nostalgia bait and cameos. Particularly The Furious Five who are pretty much cameos as well as Tai Lung being used for nostalgia bait.

The main idea of the movie is Po deciding who will be his successor unfortunately Zhen (played by Awkwafina is the one, I like the idea of the character but the character development is just not there at all, it doesn’t help that yet again Awkwafina turns in another lacking performance that really just feels like she’s playing herself.

It’s really no wonder there was so much behind the scenes drama with the script and which characters were going to be used in the movie. Because a lot of the decision making feels incredibly rushed and last minute, which is such a huge disappointment because the previous three movies had such great pacing and never felt poorly put together.

Overall there is really nothing that standouts with Kung Fu Panda 4 it has it’s positives and isn’t the worst movie out there, but when you compare it to the trilogy it’s a huge let down.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is available in theaters.

5/10 C

Dune: Part Two (2024) Film Review

Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the universe, he must prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

Dune: Part II is directed by Denis Villeneuve director of Incendies (2010), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), Sicario (2015), Arrival (2016), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Dune (2021) and a few others.

What is there to say about Denis Villeneuve that hasn’t been said already? Villeneuve has quickly become one of the best directors currently working today and Dune (2021) was just one of his many excellent films, it was one of my favorite films from that year and I was very interested to see how Villeneuve would be able to top it…let me tell you he did more than just top it, he made arguably one of the best sequels ever made.

Let’s start with the cast because that’s one of the film’s strongest parts, everyone does a fantastic job here each bring something truly special to the film some of which give career best performances. Timothee Chalamet once again shows he was an excellent choice to play Paul Atreides we get to see his character do a complete turn and it’s quite haunting to see, Chalamet’s powerful and intimidating performance (especially towards the end) only furthers this when he becomes power hungry and it takes over his mind, it’s a huge display of incredibly strong acting that makes Chalamet one of the most interesting actors working today.

Zendaya has a much bigger part in the story this time around and she does an excellent job here, she plays Chani incredibly well and her chemistry with Timothee Chalamet is some of the film’s highlights. There’s so many incredibly moments with Zendaya that truly shows that she is a powerhouse like the little moments of Chani and Paul looking out into the desert which only shows how much bigger this film is in scale (more on that in a bit). Zendaya might not have anything grand in the film, but all of the little moments plus the bigger ones make her performance quite excellent.

Rebecca Ferguson was excellent in Dune (2021) and she is just as excellent here arguably even better, she gives a haunting and powerful performance as Lady Jessica and her interactions with Alia Atreides (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy) is haunting in it’s own right and builds on what is to come in the film, Ferguson is probably my absolute favorite from the film mainly due to just how raw she goes with her performance, especially when the script gives her so much to work with. She takes advantage of every single moment she can to make this performance outstanding.

Austin Butler gives an absolutely insane performance that I truly did not expect coming at all, he plays Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen an absolutely crazy and bloodthirsty fighter, this is definitely a career best performance for Butler who really goes all out and never holds back. There is one particular action scene with Timothee Chalamet and Austin Butler that truly standouts and is quite intense as well. From the atmosphere and tension it truly is a masterwork of a scene. The atmosphere when Butler enters the film is a very noticeable change in a very good way, intimidation sets in and becomes so much more darker as well.

The rest of the cast are phenomenal, Florence Pugh gives a very strong performance as always even if she doesn’t get the most screentime her acting still brings so much to the film. Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista and Christopher Walken are incredibly solid here each of which bring power to the film some of them definitely get more screentime than others but as I said before even when someone is given little screentime in Dune: Part Two they still add so much to the film.

The writing is truly excellent here, there’s so much attention to detail with the script and how it progresses the story as well. It moves at a natural pace and has the atmosphere to back it up, it’s written in this way where it might seem like a regular journey at the beginning but becomes far more darker as it progresses. It explores the world of Dune quite a lot more than the first film and that film did such a good job of exploring it already. But here we get so much more additional information and so many highlights of what makes the world so big, the writing also helps connect these characters and why the viewer should invest in them. The character work is truly incredible, the little moments help build the characters just as much as the big moments do which is truly fascinating.

As I said earlier the scale in this film is far bigger than it was in the first film, that’s mainly due to how much exploration there really is here and of course the visuals which are quite an accomplishment on their own, the sandworms, action scenes and cinematography all combine together to create some of the most visually striking and beautiful visuals ever put to film. Heck even after watching the film I still felt like I didn’t explore everything due to just how much is on screen in so many different moments.

Lastly we have Denis Villeneuve’s direction which is truly outstanding, as I said at the beginning Villeneuve not only made an incredible sequel to Dune (2021) that topped it he made arguably one of the best sequels ever made. Everything he does in this film truly shows excellent he really is in his craft and will go further and beyond to top the previous film. Dune: Part Two really shows how the medium of film is special artists like Villeneuve take you into a world that you never thought you would be so invested in and you eventually feel like you are right there with the characters. Dune: Part Two is truly something incredibly special and very rare, it really does feel like you are watching an event happen before your eyes. If you haven’t already be sure to check this one out.

Dune: Part Two is available in theaters.

B10/10 A+

Damsel (2024) Film Review

A young woman agrees to marry a handsome prince — only to discover it was all a trap. She is thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon and must rely solely on her wits and will to survive.

Damsel is directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo director of Intact (2001), 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Intruders (2011).

The frustrating thing about a lot of these Netflix action movies is they have the ideas and talented people involved they just for whatever reason always fall completely flat. That’s sadly the case here with Damsel a movie that is another attempt of flipping the fairy tale narrative, despite The Princess (2022) coming out 2 years ago I still had hope this would be fresh…unfortunately not the case.

Millie Bobby Brown and Angela Bassett are really solid here and are easily the movie’s strongest parts, the first bit of this movie I will say started out promising. While there wasn’t anything groundbreaking the movie explored the world decently well and we got to know the characters even if they were basically talking fantasy movie cliches. Unfortunately the rest of the movie happens and it ends up being no different than any other fantasy movie that has come out in the last several years.

I will give some credit for is being a surprisingly brutal PG-13 movie, there are some quite satisfying action scenes that I can’t deny are pretty surprising to watch from a PG-13 movie. However that’s where the praise really ends because you need more than some great kills to stick the landing, writing wise it’s very blandly written. Think of any fantasy movie trope and it’s more than likely somewhere in this movie, there’s some similarities to Ready Or Not (2019) which I actually thought they were going to do more with but instead is used for more blandly written story telling.

It doesn’t help that the ending feels very rushed, which is unfortunate because I do think what they went with for the ending is interesting. But there’s just such a lack of character moments and strong writing throughout the movie that by the time the ending rolls around you already checked out of the movie and just waiting for it to be over.

I really do wish Damsel was a better movie, the performances and ideas are there. The writing is just incredibly lacking and leaves a lot more to be desired.

Damsel is available on Netflix.

4/10 D+

Argylle (2024) Film Review

Reclusive author Elly Conway writes best-selling espionage novels about a secret agent named Argylle who’s on a mission to unravel a global spy syndicate. However, when the plots of her books start to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, the line between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Argylle is directed by Matthew Vaughn director of The Kingsman series, X-Men: First Class (2011), Kickass (2010) and a few others.

Say what you will about Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) and The King’s Man(2021) despite being nowhere near as good as the first movie at the very least they had a consistent style to them and for the most part kept the audience entertained. Argylle attempts to do the exact same thing but only it ends up being far far worse. The ugly effects in particular stick out like a sore thumb, Vaughn sticks with his usual style here that does not work here mainly due to the story being told. Despite the concept sounding promising a large majority of it is a bunch of spy movie cliches packaged together in a long and drawn out movie that had no idea what it was doing.

The amount of twists and red herrings becomes obnoxious because it’s clear the movie is adding them for the sake of adding them, there’s no real build up, suspense or payoff at all. It’s the equivalent of trying to tell a purposely bad story that makes no sense with Mad Libs, none of the twists or red herrings aren’t really that shocking either. A bunch of them are predictable as they can get and the others really do not make sense at all.

The only positive here is mostly the acting, Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell are trying their best but it’s not enough to save this disaster. There’s a few okay moments between the two otherwise they have very little to work with. John Cena, Ariana DeBose, Samuel L. Jackson, Dua Lipa and many others are given the short end of the stick as they appear for a few minutes and are never seen again. They do give solid performances but not enough to keep this movie afloat.

It’s quite a shame because I do think Argylle could have been a great movie if the writing was coherent and the movie itself wasn’t filled to the brim with cliches.

Argylle is available on all VOD Platforms.

3/10 D-