Today’s Post by Joe Farace
While my recent mobility challenges have made it difficult to create some new movie reviews for my YouTube channel, I have been watching a few more movies than normal. As I await finishing my three-movie reviews for the Maltese Falcon—the 1931 versions is available now. I promise to finish the video for this (sort of) trilogy real soon now.
In addition to movies I have also been watching Murdoch Mysteries on FreeVee, a free Amazon channel that features commercials, although Murdoch Mysteries seems to run without them with no ad blocker required. The show is stars Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch, a police detective working in Toronto, Ontario in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who solves many of his cases using methods of detection that were unusual at the time. The show is exceedingly charming and often features appearances by actors portraying historical figures, including Charlie Chaplin, Sigmund Freud, Nicola Tesla (and Thomas Edison,) Mary Pickford and many others, often with a whimsical bent. Highly watchable. And now to the movies…
Dune, Part 2
I hate to say this film was a disappointment for me, because I was really disappointed, especially since everyone and their cousin seems to think it’s great. The Tomato rating For Dune Part 2 from critics is 92 (Dune, Part 1 was 83) but I thought while Villeneuve’s attempt was sincere and respectful to the material, I thought it lacked any kind of coherent attempt at narrative. I’m not alone; my friend Cliff Lawson agree with me but we may be the only two guys—we ain’t Siskel and Ebert—who thought the first film was better. And while I watched Part 2 on a Blu-ray from the library (on a 65-inch OLED screen), Cliff saw it on the bog IMAX screen in a theater. To me it’s Lawrence of Arabia in Space. Heck Villeneuve even rips off one of David Lean’s signature shots from his much, much better movie. And don’t get me started with the casting of Austin Butler, one of the most beautiful men in Hollywood since Tyrone Power, as Feyd-Rautha. Puleeze. Sting was perfectly cast in the role in Davis Lynch’s 1984 Dune, but alas at 74, he’s too old for the part today. The whole black and white Triumph of the Will section of the film had special effects that look they were done with a Heathkit H-89A. I guess $190 million doesn’t buy what it used to. Denis, I love ya’ man, especially Arrival and even Blade Runner 2049. Dune, Part 2, not so much.
Drive Away Dolls
With just one–half of the Cohen Brothers directing, I guess you get one-half of Raising Arizona or maybe less. Directed by Ethan Coen and co-written with Tricia Cooke, the screenplay for Drive Away Dolls is funny in spots, hilariously so sometimes. Staring Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan with funny cameos from Pedro Pascal and Matt Damon, the film plows familiar terrain but at the same time the charm and wit of the two leads as lesbians driving to Florida in a “driveaway car” and find a mysterious briefcase in the car’s trunk—mixing in a plot device from Pulp Fiction, who stole it from Kiss Me Deadly. These are two much more interesting films although admittedly not as funny as Drive Away Dolls manages to pull off. They are, pursued by two bad guys straight out of Coen Brothers’ Fargo with similar results. My wife thought this film was a hoot and loved the movie. I laughed many times and enjoyed Ethan Coen’ stylish direction but just thought it was just OK. Take these two opinions as you will.
The Beekeeper
Nobody goes to a Jason Statham movie expecting an art film. Basically what we have here is a revenge film, much like The Equalizer films that Denzel Washington starred in. While Washington is a much better actor than Statham, The Beekeeper is a better film that the first Equalizer film. that I watched. Are the others better? The Beekeeper’s director, Kurt Wimmer directed and wrote the Christian Bale breakthrough film Equilibrium, which my money says got him the role as Batman. If you haven’t seen Equilibrium, you can pick up a Blu-ray on Amazon for 12 bucks bet you’ll love it. All of The Equalizer film were directed by Antoine Fuqua, a director whose work I’ve always admired and who directed the amazing Training Day. And the Equalizer ain’t bad—the “Home Depot” shootout at the end is really clever, it just doesn’t have the runaway pace of The Beekeeper. The film has a 92 audience score, the critics didn’t like it as well.
The Beekeeper starts as a straight revenge flick. Somebody does a woman wrong who Statham’s character—only known as The Beekeeper— has some affection for and he exacts punishment on them, in a big way, on them like Charles Bronson in Mr. Majestyk. But when Jeremy Irons arrives on the scene, the movie makes a hard turn and evolves into a spy thriller, ala Jason Bourne. It’s action packed, it’s violent and all in a good way. If you like that kind of movie, you’ll love The Beekeeper.
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