Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

4/10

Starring          

Michael Keaton

Winona Ryder

Catherine O'Hara

Jenna Ortega

Justin Theroux

Monica Bellucci

Willem Dafoe

 

Directed by Tim Burton

 

Thirty-six years after the masterpiece Beetlejuice (1988), I was excited to see what the sequel would bring. The filmmakers tried to keep the quirky charm of the original, from the character designs to the special effects, but they forgot about the important thing, a good plot. The movie tries to recreate the magic from the original, but I felt it failed to do that.

The story felt so unfocused and was weighed down with too many characters, with their own subplots unlike in the first film. All this distracted from making the movie very memorable, exciting and impactful. Instead of a meaningful continuation, this movie felt more like fan service.

Characters like Delores (Monica Bellucci) and Wolf (Willem Dafoe) really frustrated me. They felt unnecessary, like filler, and removing them wouldn’t have changed the ending one bit. At first, Delores seems like she’s being set up as the main villain, but the plot quickly moves past her without much thought. This lack of focus made the movie feel scattered, and the humor that worked in the first movie often fell flat here.

One new addition is Astrid (Jenna Ortega), Lydia’s daughter. I liked the idea of exploring Lydia’s relationship with her daughter and how their estrangement adds layers to the story, but I wish it had been done better. Lydia (Winona Ryder), now embracing her ghost seeing abilities, has turned it into a means of making money as the host of Ghost House with Lydia Deetz. She is also dating her producer, which doesn’t help her relationship with Astrid. But even with that setup, I felt like the emotional depth was missing. Astrid explains why they’re estranged, but Lydia’s perspective is never fully explored.

The movie hints at how weird and neglectful Lydia’s family is, but I didn’t feel like it was explored enough either. A stronger focus on those family dynamics could’ve added more emotional weight and made their dysfunction more meaningful.

One thing I noticed is how much screentime Beetlejuice has this time around. He spends most of the movie trying to get Lydia’s attention from the land of the dead.

Astrid got into trouble and found herself in the underworld, because of her crush with a guy which turns out not to work out the way she would have wanted, Lydia reluctantly calls on Beetlejuice to help her. So, we are watching how Beetlejuice is trying to save Astrid and con his way to get Lydia to do what he wants.

In the end, the charm of Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice was not enough to carry the movie for me. I walked away feeling like this movie missed the mark. It’s entertaining in bits and pieces, tried to ride on fans nostalgia, but lacks the charm and wit of the first film. For me, this sequel just doesn’t live up to the legacy of Beetlejuice (1988).

Trap (2024)

Trap (2024)

4/10

 

Starring          

Josh Hartnett

Ariel Donoghue

Saleka Night Shyamalan

Hayley Mills

Alison Pill

 

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

 

The first 50 minutes of this movie are nothing short of amazing. Halfway through its runtime, you can feel the impact of M. Night Shyamalan’s superb writing and directing, and I was glued to my sit blown away by his work. If the story had ended there (in the first 50 minutes) when the protagonist has a one-on-one with Lady Raven (the make-believe famous singer played by Shyamalan’s daughter) this movie will be written down as one of the best films of the 2020s. But sadly, it continued further than the first 50 minutes and it all went downhill, from intriguing to unrealistic fantasy style directing. Even though getting that close and being left alone with a famous singer (in the realm of like Ariana Grande) seemed implausible, I was willing to overlook it. Unfortunately, the second act didn’t just strain beyond realism, it shattered it entirely. The movie just went off the rails and became annoying.

As the confrontation with the killer unfolds, it feels like Shyamalan simply ran out of ideas. The sequence where the protagonist works with Lady Raven is outrageously far-fetched and reeks of lazy writing. The final act, sadly, is downright appalling. For Shyamalan, a filmmaker with such a stellar reputation, to craft such an underwhelming conclusion feels almost surreal. It’s painfully obvious he didn’t want to kill off a particular character, but the contrived execution was insulting. No way would an officer avoid shooting someone who attacks one of their own in such a matter, killing them as it seemed, and the officer had a gun pointed and looked more helpless than the person fighting for their lives. This scene is also an example of bad directing.

The movie centers on a serial killer who takes his daughter to a concert featuring Lady Raven. There, he notices an overwhelming police and FBI presence and quickly realizes they’re hunting him, even though they don’t know his face, they were able to deduce from clues that he will be at this concert. His suspicions lead him to mingle with the staff, asking harmless questions to earn their trust while figuring out how to escape unnoticed, all without alarming his daughter.

The first half skillfully builds tension as we watch him manipulate those around him, keeping his family together while staying a step ahead of law enforcement. But once the second half begins, the movie loses its way. The narrative collapses under the weight of absurdities and illogical decisions.

As much as I loved the thrilling first half, the disappointment of the second makes it hard for me to recommend this film. It starts strong but ultimately lets the audience down. A really missed opportunity.

 

Rebel Ridge (2024)

Rebel Ridge (2024)

 

6/10

Starring          

Aaron Pierre

Don Johnson

AnnaSophia Robb

 

Directed by Jeremy Saulnier

 

Rebel Ridge is an engaging watch, filled with a cat-and-mouse dynamic between the lead, Terry, and police chief Sandy. Their constant clashes make it clear that de-escalation is off the table, ensuring the movie ends as it intends, anything but happy.

When my friend suggested this movie, he said it felt like Rambo, First Blood. To me, it’s more Jack Reacher than it is First Blood. The latter was gritty, with Rambo’s unhinged intensity driving him toward an inevitable end, blowing everything up. Rebel Ridge, on the other hand, has a more tamed and reasonable motive. Unlike Rambo who did not have any form of grounding, in this movie the Summer character provided Terry with the grounding he needed to avoid going completely off the rails.

That said, the movie isn’t without its flaws. There are moments where the make believe feels overdone, and logic takes a backseat. Yet, in an era of lackluster films like The Union or The Killer, it’s refreshing to watch something that keeps you engaged till the credits roll in and does not leave you with the urge to smash your screen.

The story kicks off with Terry riding into town on his bike, only to get run over by the cops. During their search, they find $36,000 on him, money he earned by selling his truck and business partnership. It was meant to bail out his cousin, but the police seized it with no intention of giving it back, which caused Terry a lot of problems.

You see, Terry’s cousin is a state witness who helped put a criminal behind bars. The problem is, he got busted on drug charges in this town, and Terry needs to bail him out before the cousin is sent to state prison. The reason being, if he gets sent to state prison, the chances are he will be killed because he is known for being the guy who ratted out a gangster. So, Terry is racing against time to get him bailed out. However, the town has its own corruption scheme, stealing from outsiders to fund the community and bribe the judge. Terry unwittingly becomes entangled in their racket, with little chance of recovering his money.

As expected, things spiral out of Terry’s control. With his cousin’s life on the line, he takes on the entire police department, determined to get justice his way or go down trying.

You can catch Rebel Ridge on Netflix. It’s flawed, but it’s a welcome distraction in today’s pool of uninspired releases.

The Union (2024)

The Union (2024)

 

2/10

Starring          

Mark Wahlberg

Halle Berry

 

Directed by Julian Farino

 

I have honestly had enough of Hollywood writers trying to sell us these over-the-top, implausible stories. Seriously, how am I supposed to believe that the world or in this case, The Union and its affiliates is in such peril that they’d resort to recruiting a random guy with zero qualifications? The idea that they could train a nobody like Mike (Mark Wahlberg) in just a few weeks to become an agent is not only ridiculous but also lazy writing.

When I watched The Union, it felt less like a real movie and more like fan service for Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry. The plot is forgettable, and as much as I like these two stars, even they couldn’t save this mess. From the moment Roxanne (Berry) shows up and recruits Mike, her high school sweetheart, you can tell the movie is going to be one of those spies flicks we’ve all seen too many times.

What really bugged me was how little sense it all made. Out of the nearly 8 billion people in the world, why Mike? The movie never gives us a good reason. It’s not like he has a hidden talent or some amazing trait. No, it’s just that he happens to be next on The Union’s list after they lose fewer than ten members on a mission. Ten. That’s hardly a crisis, and yet, they act like they’re on the verge of collapse. How can a multinational security covert organization, be in crisis from the loss of a few men and the next person on the list to save the organization is Mike? I know this is repetition, but you will need to see this movie to know how ridiculous this is.

Mike’s transformation is another stretch. A guy with no military or intelligence background is trained and deployed in a matter of weeks to retrieve a list of global agents and their agencies. It’s as if the writers didn’t even try to make it plausible. Watching this play out made me roll my eyes so much, I could almost see the back of my head. It’s frustrating because I love spy movies, but this one felt like a cheap knock off of better films.

If the plot sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The Union borrows heavily from so many other spy movies but fails to bring anything new or interesting for us to see. It is predictable, and I could not wait for the movie to end.

I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone unless you’re a die-hard fan of Mark Wahlberg or Halle Berry. Even then, you’d probably be better off rewatching their earlier, better films. The Union is the kind of movie you forget about the second the credits roll.

The Killer (2024)

The Killer (2024)

3/10

 

Starring          

Nathalie Emmanuel

Omar Sy

Sam Worthington

Diana Silvers

 

Directed by John Woo

 

Growing up in the 90s, there was no escaping the John Woo’s 1989 movie, The Killer. Chow Yun-fat’s performance and the film’s shooting action scenes are forever stamped in my memory, even if the pacing of the movie back then wasn’t perfect. Fast-forward more than 30 years later, and Woo has decided to remake his classic. If he did, it shot for shot, it would have been better, this was a waste of view time.

I went into this with high expectations, hoping for the same gripping action and emotional resonance as the original. Instead, I got a bizarrely boring movie that completely missed the mark. Imagine a John Woo film, where there’s plenty of shooting and action, but none of it manages to hold your attention. I found myself repeatedly frustrated, especially by the cinematography. The movie was raving with strange camera tilts, unnecessary zoom-ins, and bad editing. All these made it hard to take any scene seriously and made me want to scream.

And then there’s the pacing. The original also had a pacing problem, but this one turned it up. Stumbling from scene to scene with no sense of rhythm. It’s as if the filmmakers were in a rush to get to the next poorly executed action sequence, forgetting that pacing is what keeps an audience invested.

The actors didn’t help matters. Everyone felt like they were miscast, struggling to fill roles that were simply too big for them. Nathalie Emmanuel as Zee and Omar Sy as Sey gave performances that lacked the intensity and depth needed for a story like this. Their characters felt underdeveloped, and their motives went completely over my head most of the time.

The plot is another mess altogether. When your main character, a brutal assassin, suddenly decides to spare someone for no discernible reason, you’re left wondering who thought this script was a good idea. It felt like John Woo had typed into ChatGPT: “Write me a script like my other movie, The Killer,” and called it a day. The predictability of the story was almost insulting. Finn, Zee’s handler who works for a drug lord, is cartoonishly evil and obviously set up to betray everyone.

I wanted so bad to like this movie. I really did. But between the bad editing, poor pacing, and lackluster performances, there’s just nothing to like. The original “The Killer” was iconic and this one just wish was not done. If you’re thinking about watching it, do yourself a favor don’t. Spare yourself the disappointment and rewatch the original instead.