The second installment in Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic 1965 sci-fi novel picks up where Dune (2021) left off. In this chapter, the exiled Duke of House Atreides, Paul (Timothy Chalamet) establishes himself as a leader. You may remember that in Part One, basically the whole House Atreides was massacred by the evil…
The high-octane ride that is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is again directed by Christopher McQuarrie. He wrote the screenplay with Erik Jendresen. It is the seventh movie in the franchise and is the longest yet at 2 hours 43 minutes. Spectacular stunts, car chases, a runaway train heading for destruction, humour and…
As cultural touchstones go, few are as storied – or problematic – as Dune. Frank Herbert’s dense 1965 novel was (and is still) regarded as a breakthrough in the sci-fi genre, spawning a sometimes-fanatical following. The book was often considered unfilmable – something reinforced by Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed attempt at it in the 1970s. Then…
You don’t have to look hard to see the shadows looming over Lisa Joy’s Reminiscence. The film is essentially a re-working of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, with futuristic elements overlaying the noirish story. What Joy does with the tale is clever, but it never surpasses the original. Joy is better known as a screenwriter, notably for…
Doctor Sleep is the latest Stephen King novel to be made into a motion picture. It picks up the story of Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) 40 years after his terrifying stay at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Torrance has fought…
Arthurian legends get a PG makeover in The Kid Who Would be King. It’s a bit like King Arthur meets The Lost Boys with a splash of Stand by Me thrown in. The result is a rollicking kids-own adventure, with enough to keep adults at least engaged. The idea of a group of kids banding together…
Most film franchises seem to run out of inspiration before too long, but the Mission Impossible series seems to have gone from strength to strength. The Brad Bird-helmed Ghost Protocol was arguably the strongest film to date. Rogue Nation took the series in a slightly different direction under the direction of Christopher McQuarrie (Oscar winning…
Is there anything Hugh Jackman can’t do? The Mr Nice Guy, who completed the Wolverine franchise earlier this year, can act, sing and emcee with aplomb. He’s considered, intelligent and reflective. What a CV! So, I suppose it’s only fitting these qualities are neatly packaged up in The Greatest Showman. This fanciful musical tackles another showman, Phineas Taylor…
A wintry wonderland hides dark secrets in the atmospheric thriller The Snowman, which has undertones of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In the frigid landscape, a sociopath who calls himself “The Snowman Killer” has targeted the one person he wants to appreciate his methodical, unthinkable “skills”. That person is Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender), lead investigator…
