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Monkey Man is rather good

It is very violent, very very bloody and I enjoyed it a lot. I think they messed up a bit with the first trailer as it doesn't really give a good impression of what the movie is about. The second trailer however gives a much better idea of what sort of film you can expect. Dev Patel is impressively jacked, which makes it more believeable when he starts brutally wading through hordes of bad guys. I wonder if he's going to do more action orientated movies.

Chilli season 2024 update

I've just potted on my chilli seedlings, including a Carolina Reaper! I really hope that one lives and gives me lots of pain later on this year 😁 #chillies #gardening

A short review of Drive-Away Dolls

So I got to see an advanced preview of this movie and it was wild. I don't know if it is a real thing or not, but the film centres around the premise that there is this company in the US where you can rock up and say you're travelling to some place and if they have a car that needs to be taken to that place, you get to drive it there. In this instance our titular "Dolls" decide they want to go to Tallahassee and just before they arrive at their local Drive Away, someone arranges for a car to go to Tallahassee. They take the car, unaware that it contains a package and then the criminals who were meant to drive the car show up. Chaos and lots of lesbian hijinks ensues.

I recommend it - it was a lot of fun. Very similar in nature to "Bottoms" that I watched last year, but not as violent though.

Dune (21st century edition) review

When I heard my local cinema was going to do a double bill of the two parts of the new Dune, I booked tickets ASAP, because who wouldn't? It was quite a late one as the 2nd part started just after midnight, but definitely worth it.

I don't recall if I wrote a review of part 1, so I'm just going to do the whole thing now. Both parts are stunning - visually and aurally. There done 😁

It isn't completely faithful to the books. I noticed one glaring omission, namely in the book when Paul kills Jamis, he inherits his household, including his wife, whom he takes on as a servant. It doesn't overly affect the plot but I guess it is kind of sexist, viewing the wife almost like property, so I can see why it was left out. There are other differences, but they're very much plot relevant so I won't mention them.

Overall it feels so much more like the book than the previous attempt did tho. It is a lot more coherent for a start and manages to convey the deeper meaning easily without bogging us down with exposition or just throwing it at us in a confusing fashion. I wonder what Frank would have thought of it - he was apparently pleased with the 1984 version.

I also wonder if Villeneuve will carry on and film the other books?

Madame Web review

Sony's latest offering in the Spiderverse is a character I'm heard of, but knew absolutely nothing about prior to watching it. Not that I know much more than what the movie tells us - she's a spider bite victim with precog abilities, but none of the fun wall crawling, super strength or web powers. A super Mystic Meg if you will. And it is that ability that is the core function of the movie - she sees or experiences something bad and then relives it with the knowledge to avoid or stop it.

I also have no idea how the movie fits in the grand scheme of things. It is set before Spiderman exists and no other mention of superheroes is mentioned, so whilst it is a colab with Marvel, I can't tell how adjacent to the MCU it is. Maybe Sony are planning on yet another Spiderman reboot? Or maybe since they've introduced us to some new characters, they'll spin a whole new Spiderfranchise around them?

Anyway, it is a very enjoyable movie. But I can imagine the cheetos munching basement dwellers are getting their tighty whiteys in a knot over yet another female led superhero movie diluting the vastly male dominated genre.