Josh Brolin

Weapons

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

It will be interesting to see if American audiences will be patient enough for the slow burn of writer/director Zach Cregger‘s Weapons which takes place one month after all but one student from an elementary classroom each leave their homes at exactly 2:17am one morning and disappear into the night. Presented in a series of vignettes highlighting different characters, some of which overlap more than others, the film digs into the trauma and fear the kids’ disappearance has caused before the movie, eventually, reveals the truth behind events. And, if you are patient enough to wait for it, Weapons delivers one of the most memorable climactic sequences in recent memory.

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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.

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Avengers: Endgame

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Avengers: Endgame
  • IMDb: link

Avengers: Endgame movie review

More than the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that began back in 2008 with Iron Man, Avengers: Endgame is the coda to the series that climaxed in the last chapter and now offers an opportunity for one last hurrah, for heroes to take their final bow, and for Marvel to usher out one set of lead characters and set the stage anew.

For my money, the most successful films of the past 11 years have been The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Excluding Winter Soldier, a great standalone film which cares nothing at all about larger continuity (it basically wrecked Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. after all), both Avengers and Infinity War faced enormous obstacles in pulling together various threads of the MCU into a single story. And both succeeded brilliantly. Avengers: Endgame comes off like their less-successful younger brother. I’m not going to call Endgame the Frank Stallone of the Avengers franchise as it may outshine Avengers: The Age of Ultron, but it’s a messy final chapter that offers plenty of memorable moments while failing to live up to what has come before.

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Sicario: Day of the Soldado

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Sicario: Day of the Soldado
  • IMDb: link

Sicario: Day of the Soldado movie reviewScreenwriter Taylor Sheridan reunites Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin for the sequel to 2015’s Sicario. When the United States realize that terrorists are being smuggled across the Mexican border along with illegal immigrants, Matt Graver’s (Brolin) team is brought in to deal with the problem. Wanting to start a war between the cartels, Graver decides to bring back Alejandro Gillick (del Toro) who a personal grudge against one of the cartel leaders.

Stefano Sollima steps in for Denis Villeneuve (who directed the first Sicario) this time around. Since Sicario is easily my favorite of Villeneuve’s films, I was sorry to not see him return. The biggest difference between Sicario: Day of the Soldado and the original is the lack of female lead. Filling that spot is the side story featuring Elijah Rodriguez a young wannabe on the Mexican border (which is never as compelling as it should be). The sequel definitely misses Blunt as the only female characters of import are Catherine Keener as Graver’s boss and Isabela Moner as a cartel princess whose abduction becomes part of Graver’s larger plan. While both are important to the plot, it’s really del Toro’s movie this time around.

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Deadpool 2

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Deadpool 2
  • IMDb: link

Deadpool 2 movie reviewThe Rob Liefeld joke was a nice touch. Following the success of 2016’s Deadpool, most of the core cast (including Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, and Leslie Uggams) return for the sequel featuring more X-Men, more violence, and more irreverent humor from the Merc with a Mouth. Deadpool 2 is quite a bit of fun, although its more complicated plot and larger cast of characters doesn’t always serve the film’s best interests.

Following another crazy opening, the film gets more serious than you would expect before Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) stumbles through prison, a stint as an X-Men trainee, and finally puts his own team together. X-Force Assemble!

Throwing out most of his character’s backstory, the film introduces Cable (Josh Brolin) as a time traveler with murderous intent. Of the other new faces, the lucky Domino (Zazie Beetz) is the real stand-out, Julian Dennison works well as the mutant in crisis who is a the center of several different plot threads, there’s a surprise villain (who I won’t ruin here), and Shioli Kutsuna is fun as an underutilized Yukio.

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