Recent theatrical viewings

[RCMerchant]

^ Ugh.... Jack Kirby would roll in his grave...

[M.10rda]

He'd definitely roll his eyes in disgust at all of Stan's self-indulgent cameos...

[Rev. Powell]

THE WIDOW CLICQUOT: After her champagne mogul husband's death on the eve of the Napoleonic Wars, the Widow Cliquot takes advantage of a legal loophole allowing a widow to continue her husband's business, shepherding it to international success through bad harvests, embargoes, and mansplaining workers. Well-made bu obvious and over-serious; never trust a movie set in France where even the American actors speak with British accents. 2.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

CUCKOO: A 17-year old girl travels with her blended family to a remote Alpine resort, where she finds strange guests, strange rules, strange experiences, and especially strange sounds. Hard to follow at times, but this nutso horror features fine performances by Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens, and excellent disorienting sound design. 3.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

DIDI: A Chinese-American adolescent experiences crushes, family friction, and social catastrophes the summer before high school starts. Nothing groundbreaking here, but the script is believable and surprisingly funny (to balance out the heavy drama of the climax), and the acting is uniformly excellent (young Isaac Wang is a standout). A crowd-pleaser. 4/5.

[Neville]

I watched "Alien: Romulus". Not a bad film, but it ended feeling more like a Greatest Hits of the series than an individual movie. Or maybe I'm still regretting we're not getting the final chapter in the David vs. Engineeers saga. I admit that at this point I find those much more interesting than the xenomorphs.

[Rev. Powell]

STRANGE DARLING: With a serial killer prowling the countryside, one-night stand may be a bad idea. A stylish, surprising, nonlinear thriller that will satisfy your taste for blood and uncomfortable sexual depravity. This has no real stars (you might know Kyle Gallner) and popped up out of nowhere, but I think people here will like it. 4/5.

[Dr. Whom]

Dune 2

So I finally made the effort to watch it in the theatre. It impressed me a lot less than the first movie. Then I was wondering whether Villeneuve could pull it off, and he did so gloriously. This feels like more of the same.
Kudos for the adaptation. Some emphasis has shifted, and some things have fallen by the wayside (mentats, notably), but you get a smooth flowing movie in return. Anyone wanting to adapt a sprawling novel, take note.
My one gripe is that beating the Harkonnen and the Emperor is super easy, barely an inconvenience. I know that it is like that in the book, and most of the warfare is handled offscreen, but I feel that the movie would have benefitted by having it put onscreen. After all he did it for Duncan Idaho's last fight. Having the Harkonnen as more active and dangerous opponents would have put more urgency in Paul's decision whether or not to start a holy war.
And I would have liked one of the navigators saying 'The Guild does not take your orders'

[Rev. Powell]

ALIEN: ROMULUS: An indentured miner and her "simple" android pal join an expedition to attempt to escape their servitude by stealing cryogenic capsules from an abandoned orbiting space station, not realizing that the reason the station is unoccupied is because of an alien infestation. Worthy entry in the sci-fi franchise with a look that evokes the original, high suspense, moral dilemmas, and anti-android bigotry. I have not seen any of the sequels past ALIENS so I was happy that this one takes place between ALIEN and ALIENS, leaving me little to miss out on (though I'm sure I missed some foreshadowing for the other movies later in the timeline). 4/5.

[M.10rda]

I gotta' get around to seeing ROMULUS (and the previous one).

We took our ten-year old niece to the multiplex for BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE on Sunday. Although she loved the original, I'm a little ashamed to say she tapped out midway through this one after the two abdominal explosions. What can I say, she doesn't live w/ us and she has had a rather sheltered cinematic life.  I dunno if Burton blows it in the second half, but until we left I was enjoying it a great deal. The box office receipts would seem to agree...