Dave Bautista

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
  • wiki: link

While more successful than The Star Wars Holiday Special, there’s not all that much to The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special other than a holiday message, reworking a character’s backstory to create a familial relationship where none existed before, and bringing the oft-mentioned Kevin Bacon into the MCU when the actor is kidnapped by Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) as a Christmas gift to Peter (Chris Pratt). Bookended by some animated sequences, the budget of the special is quite noticeably less than the Guardians features (especially where Groot is concerned), but fans may get some mild enjoyment from the modest proceedings.

…

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday SpecialRead More »

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Read More »

Dune: Part One

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Dune (2021)
  • IMDb: link

More coherent, but less complete, than David Lynch‘s bizarre 1984 film, director Denis Villeneuve‘s adaptation of the first half of Frank Herbert’s Dune is rich and elaborate storytelling. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still Dune, meaning the story is still complex and bizarre, but, despite only giving us half the story, offers a more satisfying movie experience.

Breaking the film into two halves allows this Dune to spend more time with character, worldbuilding, and setting the stage for a hero’s emergence which won’t fully be explored until the next movie. Gone are the emperor, who is referred to but never seen, the odd space traveling creatures of Lynch’s film, the sound-based weapons which will play such a pivotal role in the second-half of the story, and the narration of the emperor’s daughter which helped explain the story and the large gaps necessary for Lynch to fit the entire tale into a single film.

…

Dune: Part OneRead More »

Dune: Part One Read More »

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
  • IMDb: link

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 movie review

Less ambitious than the original film, the sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy attempts to focus a bit more on relationships and family while, of course, still leaving plenty of time for hijinks and misadventure. As he proved in Guardians of the Galaxy, writer/director James Gunn is right at home with the later, but if the sequel has a major weakness it’s that more subtle emotion isn’t his forte.

Not to take anything away from the sequel which proves to be an enjoyable summer romp, but Gunn struggles mightily during emotional beats which are hamfistedly repeated, underlined, bolded, recalled, and given at least three exclamation marks. While this works for the bawdier humor, exploring the relationships between Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and her sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) or Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and relationships to both his long-lost father (Kurt Russell) and his surrogate father Yondu (Michael Rooker) in repetitive exposition leads to some awkward scenes that drag on far too long. And, because there’s not much to the script other than a focus on these relationships, it’s hard not to be at least a little disappointed in Vol. 2.

…

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2Read More »

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Read More »

Spectre

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Spectre
  • IMDb: link

SpectreFirst introduced in Dr. No more than 50 years ago, and not heard from since the pre-credit sequence of For Your Eyes Only, SPECTRE represented a global terrorist organization focused on achieving their own goals. The rebooted Bond films, which began with Casino Royale, finally get around to reintroducing us to the classic villains and their leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) in the fourth movie of the series appropriately enough entitled Spectre.

I’ve never quite warmed to the rebooted Bond which stripped away several important pieces of the Bond films in rebranding our hero as more thug than spy. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed large parts of both Casino Royale and Skyfall but they’re middling entries to franchise that don’t compare to the best of Connery or Moore. And if Spectre has a major flaw its that while attempting homages to previous entrants to the franchise it constantly reminds the audience of aspects of better films we’d rather be watching. Everything from Blofeld’s new secret lair to the close-quarters fight aboard a moving train against an evil henchman (Dave Bautista) hearkens back to better moments from better films.

…

SpectreRead More »

Spectre Read More »