Tag: Rebecca Ferguson

Dune: Part Two

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★1/2Dune: Part Two

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve

Based on the Novel by: Frank Herbert

Screenplay Written by: Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts

Produced by: Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Denis Villeneuve, Tanya Lapointe and Patrick McCormick

Executive Producers: Joshua Grode, Jon Spaihts, Thomas Tull, Herbert W. Gains, Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Kim Herbert, Richard P. Rubinstein and John Harrison.

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Souheila Yacoub, Stellan Skarsgård and Javier Bardem.

‘Power over spice is power over all.’

This is the mantra of the Harkonnens and the basis of the political intrigue in the Dune series.

It’s now the year 10,091.

Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), the daughter of The Emperor (Christopher Walken) creates a voice memo, introducing Dune: Part Two, where the entire House of Atreides have been wiped out over-night. No warning, no survivors.  Except a few.

The Harkonnens now control the harvesting of spice with the ever-present influence of the Bene Gesserit.

The extent of the Bene Gesserits’ power becoming more apparent as the prophecy of the son, known by the Fremens as Lisan al Gaib, gains momentum.

It’s Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) they believe to be the Bene Gesserit’s son, the Mahdi of the Fremen whom they believe will lead them to paradise.

An ideal originally conjured by the Bene Gesserit and encouraged by Paul Atreides’ mother, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) as her pregnancy continues and her daughter grows in her belly.

Paul doesn’t fail in his fulfillment as he adapts to the desert and Fremen way of life with the help of Chani (Zendaya).

Even though he’s an outsider, Chani grows to love him – he’s different to the other outsiders.  He’s sincere.

My initial thought at the end of Dune: Part One of, I hope it doesn’t get cheesy, was unwarranted because despite the glimmers of light between Paul and Chani, this is a dark journey filled with moments like the sucking of water out of the dead and… Almost dead.

The Harkonnens’ are particularly brutal, the young nephew of The Baron (Stellan Skarsgård), Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), is known by the Bene Gesserit as psychotic but manageable.

It’s a fight for survival as the Fremans sabotage the spice harvesters with the help of Paul, each success building his reputation as the Lisan al Gaib, confirming Stilgar’s (Javier Bardem) faith.  Stilagar gives him his Freman name, Paul Muad’Dib.

The build of belief catches fire, fierce stories spread about Lisan al Gaib, ‘Our resources are limited.’  Paul explains.  ‘Fear is all we have.’

Nothing can live down south without faith.  And now, instead of friends, Paul has followers.

There’s A LOT to unpack here, but at its foundation, Dune: Part Two has a heavy layer of religion and how religion is used to gain power – the ultimate power: to control the harvest of spice.

Parts of the story were glossed over, like the return of Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin).  And it’s easy to get lost in the intricacies of the story and characters, but there is absolutely never a dull moment in this film (editor: Joe Walker).

This is a vastly entertaining journey, ‘you will see the beauty and the horror,’ all in the dance of shadows over rock, the disappearance of a mother’s face into shadow after seeing her son forever changed – there’s black and white film used to portray the stark and evil of the Harkonnens alongside the red desert and solar eclipse (director of photography: Greig Fraser), flying black suits and pit fighters with black horns like insidious devils (costume designer: Jacqueline West).

All to the beat of a thumper that blends the desert and call of the worms with the beat of intrigue and violence in the capital (composer: Hans Zimmer).

This is a brutally entertaining film that lives up to the hype and is absolutely worth seeing on the big screen.

Better than Part One which is a big call because Part One was brilliant (winning six Academy Awards) and I’m guessing everyone will walk out of the cinema asking, when’s the release of Part Three?

 

Doctor Sleep

Rated: MA15+Doctor Sleep

Directed by: Mike Flanagan

Based on the Novel Written by: Stephen King

Screenplay Written by: Mike Flanagan

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Cliff Curtis, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Selena Anduze, Robert Longstreet, Carel Struycken, Catherine Parker, James Flanagan, Met Clark, Zackary Momoh, Jocelin Donahue, Dakota Hickman.

Doctor Sleep is the sequel to Stephen King’s famous novel, The Shining (1977).

The film here, follows on from director Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic, never-to-be-forgotten interpretation featuring the axe-wielding Jack Torrance (Jack Nicolson) – ‘Here’s Johnny!’, opening in Florida, 1980, where Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) lives with his mother far away from any snow, far away from the Overlook Hotel.

But the Overlook Hotel hasn’t forgotten him or his Shining.

Using his magic tricks Danny manages to keep the monsters locked away.  But he can’t escape his own demons or the rage he inherited from his father.

Like the novel, addiction continues to plague Dan.  Except this time, we see his addiction and his journey to recovery.

Running away Dan can’t escape from himself but he finds compassion and through compassion he finds himself.

Looking for another bright light, Abra (Kyliegh Curran) finds a shining kindred spirit in Dan.   She introduces herself, writing, Hell😊

Following the detail of the novel we find Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and her crew of empty devils who are the, True Knot who are also looking the next bright shining light.

This band of monsters are hunting those most pure.  Children.

‘Live long, stay young. Eat well,’ says Rose The Hat.

And Abra might be the most pure and brightest of all.

So there’s addiction, then redemption, compassion and all the grime of child-killing-devils contrasting to give the horror more kick.

But it’s not all black and white.

Screenwriter and director Mike Flanagan has captured the different layers of character that Stephen King writes so well (and why I’m such a fan), so Dan has his dirty deeds and the evil Rose The Hat is somehow likable in her loyalty to those in her inner circle.

And it’s a good story.  Shown well.

The soundtrack is restrained yet powerful as a heart beats steady, creating a suspense in the waiting that hangs when the beat stops so I could feel and hear my own heart, waiting for the next door to open, the next magic trick.

The stars wheel, gravity shifts, turning a room to slide into another place.

Yet the trickery isn’t over-done.

Flanagan has managed to get the detail of the novel without losing sight of the story.

I really enjoyed the book and have read it twice so I was hoping for a worthy adaptation.

And I got it.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Rated: MMission Impossible: Fallout

Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie

Written by: Christopher McQuarrie

Based on: Mission: Impossible TV series created by Bruce Geller

Produced by: Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, Dana Goldberg, J.J. Abrams, David Ellison, Don Granger

Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, Angela Bassett, Michelle Monaghan.

With a mega budget, cracking good use of the original TV show’s theme, endless action-packed chase sequences, exotic locations and enough double crosses to challenge a reality TV show, the latest instalment in the Mission: Impossible series, Fallout, more than lives up to its hype.

For those of us who are not fans of Tom Cruise (surely these are legion), the best movie of his is Edge of Tomorrow, where he is repeatedly killed in a variety of violently pleasing ways and then resurrected the next day to repeat the process – all very good fun.

In Mission: Impossible – Fallout, we have to settle instead for seeing Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt get repeatedly beaten, thrown, punched, stabbed, betrayed and pursued as part of the world-in-peril (again) mission he chose to accept in the pre-credit sequence.

The plot involves a nuclear threat and various international legal and covert parties’ desire to acquire key components ahead of their competitors, either initiating or preventing a new world-wide threat to humanity as we know it. So just business as usual.

Cruise actually broke his ankle while filming one scene (you can see him hobbling off afterwards and he isn’t acting!), so you have to give him full marks for throwing himself so enthusiastically into the breathtaking stunts that litter this two hour plus film like blood spatters at a crime scene.

Mission Impossbile: Fallout

Despite this being the sixth film in the series, it isn’t necessary to be familiar with the five that came before, none of which I have seen. There is enough exposition in the opening sequence and at regular intervals throughout the film to ensure we are sufficiently clued in about each character’s backstory. There are smatterings of amusing dialogue amongst the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) team comprising Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Rebecca Ferguson that indicate their shared history, closeness and unwavering loyalty, as well as their expertise in technology, explosives and medicine.

True to its television series origins, there are also a number of double crosses where characters are misled or tricked into betraying vital information. Although these scenarios were generally easy to predict, they were delivered with the requisite gusto and sleight of hand that had the audience relishing each new reveal.

The impeccably staged chase and action sequences are relentless and often very violent, with just enough quiet time in between for the audience to recover before being catapulted into another larger, louder, more explosive one that manages to outdo what has just gone before. Despite all of these action sequences interspersed with meetings with top brass, international terrorists or weapons brokers, the basic storyline remains easy to follow. The best aspect to all this was hearing the audience laugh at each new peril that stoic Tom Cruise faced, which left you wondering, ‘How is he going to get out of this one?’

What stood out most for me was how Cruise’s character retained his humanity and desire to protect the good guys, even under the most trying of circumstances, rather than being a one-dimensional assassin without a moral compass.

Rollicking good fun.

The Snowman

The SnowmanMA15+

Directed by: Tomas Alfredson

Based on the Book by: Jo Nesbø

Screenplay by: Hossein Amini and Peter Straughan

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Piodor Gustafsson, Robyn Slovo,

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg with Val Kilmer and J. K. Simmons.

Waking up from another bender, lead detective, Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender), needs a case to distract him from drinking.

When he receives a disturbing letter signed-off with a picture of a snowman, he may have found the case.  And as the film continues and the bodies pile up, Harry’s eyes become clearer.

Based on Jo Nesbø’s global bestseller, the attempt to condense, ‘The Snowman’ into a film was not entirely successful.

There’s so much going on in the film that I have to say, my confusion grew as the film continued.The Snowman

The inclusion of so many characters, like Rafto (Val Kilmer), another disgraced drunken detective and Mathias (Jonas Karlsson) a detective thrown in the mix for reasons unknown led to time wasting red herrings.

Which is a pity because the main storyline was good.

But without the depth of character given in the novel, a lot of time was spent scratching my head asking, Why?

An avid fan of the Jo Nesbø novels, I was excited to see his story come to life on the big screen.  And Michael Fassbender suited the role of Harry, if not better looking and smaller than imagined from the text – he was a sincere brute, playing the damaged, complicated man perfectly.

I also liked Rebecca Ferguson as the junior recruit, Katrine Bratt.

However, the rest of the cast felt superficial with so many and so little backstory.

The English language used, instead of the novel’s original Norwegian, followed on like the book being translated, so I didn’t mind as that’s how I read the book.  Another successful example being the English version of Wallander: set in the original series’ native Ystad, Sweden, yet the characters speaking in English.

The setting of The Snowman was filmed entirely in Norway with the snow falling and the vast landscape keeping the feel from the novel authentic.

Director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) has used that feeling of vast space and isolation to build the creepy feeling of The Snowman watching.  But that’s as creepy as the film gets.

The Snowman didn’t live up to expectation because the momentum and therefore suspense was lost by trying to fit too much in.

I liked Fassbender as Harry, the setting was beautifully captured, and the story was good.  But could have been much better with a more focussed plot.

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The Girl on the Train

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★☆ (3.7/5)The Girl on the Train

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Tate Taylor

Screenplay by: Erin Cressida Wilson

Based on: ‘The Girl on the Train’ by Paula Hawkins

Starring: Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Allison Janney, Edgar Ramírez; Lisa Kudrow.

Alcoholism, restlessness; hurt – The Girl on the Train is a film about the possibilities, the capabilities of someone lost.

The focus of the film surrounds the mystery of the main character, Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt) watching the world go by through the window of a train.

Sure, Rachel’s got her problems: she drinks, she lies, she has blackouts, and she wants what she can’t have.  And the audience, watching the world with her, sympathise: her heart’s in the right place – right?

But the slow reveal of Rachel’s unravelling makes us wonder just what she’s capable of.

And there lies the mystery.  What is really happening here?  Just how lost is Rachel?

The Girl on the Train is a movie of perspectives.  Of what people see compared to what goes on behind closed doors.  This is a film about what’s revealed to the audience and when.  And I think the mystery was handled well by director Tate Taylor (who won a BAFTA Award for best adapted screenplay for, Help (2011)).

I’m just going to say it – I found the book a slow read.  So for once and a rarity for me to say, the condensing of the story into a movie length narrative made for a more dramatic reveal.  The film concentrated on the main thrust of the story, of Rachel, of her illness, about her blackouts; about what actually happened on that fateful day.

No one can say that Emily Blunt can’t act, and indeed, her acting kept The Girl on the Train firmly on track.  Blunt is phenomenal in Sicario (2015), one of my favourites and I recently re-watched Looper (2012) – another fantastic movie starring Blunt.  I like her authentic, down-to-earth style and think she’s fast becoming one of the greats.  And her performance here is to be commended.

Also to note was the performance of Haley Bennett as the saucy Megan Hipwell and Justin Theroux as Rachel’s ex, Tom Watson.

In conclusion, I have to say there’s no real punch here and I wasn’t on the edge-of-my-seat, but The Girl on the Train is an absorbing mystery, shown well.

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