David R. Walker

Archive for December, 2025

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Giovanni Ribisi, David Thewlis, Jack Champion, Laz Alonso, Kevin Dorman

Running Time: 3 hours and 17 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Titanic director James Cameron has proved his worth as a cinematic world builder.

In the third instalment of the Avatar franchise, the new film entitled Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron reassembles his old cast in a multi-themed narrative about the air breathers or Sky People fighting the Na’vi which culminates in a lavish adventure while constantly being threatened by an evil fire tribe headed by the fiery Varang voiced by Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter Oona Chaplin (Quantum of Solace, The Devil’s Double).

Varang heads up the fire wielding Ash creatures who makes a deal with Miles Quatrich played by Stephen Lang in exchange for much coveted arms. In this extraordinary narrative, Sully played again by Sam Worthington along with his family are out to protect Spider played by Jack Champion who has inadvertently found the ability to survive on Pandora without needing an oxygen mask.

Avatar: Fire and Ash has stunning production design by Dylan Cole and Ben Procter coupled with shimmering cinematography by Russell Carpenter. The film itself is a sight to behold, lavish, beautiful and entertaining.

As Sully and Spider avoid capture by Varang, they fall into the hands of the technologically advanced humans on Pandora particularly General Ardmore played by Edie Falco and Selfridge played by Giovanni Ribisi (Selma, Contraband, The Rum Diary) who are desperate to experiment on Spider after he is infused with a strange substance that allows him to breath on Pandora, a substance which if harnessed properly could allow the humans to colonize and exist on Pandora and eternally threaten the Na’vi. General Ardmore views the Na vi as hostiles on the perimeter of their industrial military complex.  

As the final battle looms between the humans and the Na’vi creatures, strange alliances are forged to help protect Pandora’s ecosystem and the existence of the indigenous oceanic tribes, an allegorical nod to climate change and the horrors of ruthless colonialism.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is much better than one expects although the film is extremely long but considering how packed the cinema was when I watched it, it’s definitely a film that is attracting crowds back to the movie theatres.

Something that Hollywood needs at this critical time in which streaming services are blatantly threatening the survival of the collective cinema experience.

Congratulations to James Cameron who delivers another visually resplendent epic film yet again with Avatar: Fire and Ash which should get recognized at the 2026 Oscars for nominations for Best Picture and Visual Effects. If Titanic was the film that made James Cameron famous, Avatar will be his legacy.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is entertaining and visually beautiful with amazing special effects. This epic gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is highly recommended for fans of the first two films. Worth seeing on the biggest screen possible.

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Director: Bill Condon

Cast: Diego Luna, Jennifer Lopez, Tonatiuh, Bruno Bechir, Josefina Scaglione, Driton Dovolani, Aline Mayagoitia

Running Time: 2 hours and 9 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Thank you to United International Pictures for organizing the press preview at Suncoast Cinemas in Durban on Tuesday 9th December 2025.

Forty years after the original Oscar winning film Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) by Argentinian director Hector Babenco which won William Hurt an Oscar for Best Actor back in 1986, Dreamgirls and Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon reimagines the novel by Manuel Puig as a musical with Diego Luna as political prisoner Valentin Arregui and Tonatiuh as his homosexual cellmate Luis Molina in a Buenos Aires prison in the last brutal days of a military junta in 1983 which terrorized Argentina in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is all about the relationship between the two men, Valentin is all machismo and brute strength while Molina possesses a vivid and flamboyant imagination passing the lonely cell hours telling Valentin about his love of cinema particularly the film Kiss of the Spider Woman and all while trying to extract information about Valentin to tell the authorities.

While the original film was dark and serious touching on the taboo subject of homosexuality at the heights of the AIDS crisis in America, this version is lighter and more vibrant helped immensely by the brilliant casting of pop music icon and actress Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers, Maid in Manhattan, Out of Sight) as Aurora the fabulous heroine of our story who Molina aspires to be like. He imagines a transgender version of himself dressed as Aurora with pearls, furs and gorgeous gowns.

Aurora is also the Spider Woman, a role played by Sonia Braga in the original film. Golden Globe nominee Jennifer Lopez (Selena) is radiant as Aurora in Bill Condon’s Kiss of the Spider Woman effortlessly singing fantastic songs from the stage musical by Terrence McNally.

As the film flicks between fantasy and what is really happening in that dank and sweaty prison cell between Valentin and Molina, a relationship based on desire and repression, Kiss of the Spiderwoman brilliantly creates a contrast between the bright and glamourous world of imaginary cinema which Molina conjures up and that of the two men’s sinister political situation under repression, whereby despite the circumstances queer love triumphs.

The 2025 Kiss of the Spider Woman is vibrant and beautifully done with fabulous singing by Jennifer Lopez, a refreshingly different role for an actress who has been type cast in romantic comedies coupled with a sizzling gay relationship between Valentin and his fatally beautiful and vivid lover Molina.

The tone of this film radiates hope and accepts for the LGBTIQ+ community in an era when sexual orientation is not frowned upon or prohibited like it was back in the early 1980’s.

Mexican actor Diego Luna is no stranger to queer roles, expertly playing Harvey Milk’s hysterical lover Jack Lira in Gus van Sant’s Oscar winning film Milk in 2008.  Diego Luna and Jennifer Lopez are brilliant in this musical version of Kiss of the Spiderwoman while Tonatiuh’s portrayal of Molina is suitably camp and tragic.

Bill Condon effortlessly breathes new life into Kiss of the Spider Woman for a new generation of queer cinema lovers and does justice to the vivid imagination of the author Manuel Puig on whose novel this film is based.

Kiss of the Spider Woman gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is recommended viewing for lovers of queer musicals featuring exotic Argentinian dance numbers and a story that will dazzle viewers and give hope to anyone that is living under authoritarian repression because human desire always triumphs over political control.

Eternity

Director: David Freyne

Cast: Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, John Early

Running Time: 1 hour and 53 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

In director David Freyne’s romantic comedy Eternity, purgatory is a plush place, a destination reminiscent of a resort.

Eternity stars Elizabeth Olsen and Miles Teller as a married couple, Larry and Joan who both pass away within months of each other and land up in this Pleasantville type holding resort whereby the recently deceased have a chance to recover from their journey into the afterlife and await their arrival of an afterlife consultant.

The only problem that Joan has is that she bumps into her first dead husband, a Korean war soldier Luke wonderfully played with debonair swagger by British star Callum Turner in his first big film role since starring in Autumn de Wilde’s lush cinematic reinvention of Jane Austen’s classic Emma back in 2020.

The trick with this version of a love triangle with a woman and two men is that both men look very similar and that’s down to the casting of Miles Teller (Whiplash, Top Gun: Maverick) and Callum Turner that physically look the same but act very differently. Joan’s choice between her first husband which she couldn’t make a life with and her second husband Larry in which she made a beautiful life with is hard. She needs help.

The afterlife assistants come in the form of comic back up with Anna and Ryan. Anna is the larger than life character played by Oscar winner DaVine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) and Ryan played with a hint of campiness by John Early.

While the men typically fight with each other when they both realize that Joan has to choose between them for eternity, Joan is awash with emotion about the bizarre and surreal experience of having two dead husbands to choose from.

Fortunately both of them look gorgeous and Joan herself, expertly played by Elizabeth Olsen (Wind River, Avengers: Age of Ultron) is weighing up the choice based on bitter memories and chance encounters. Luke represents cold Blue Mountains, rugged and appealing while Larry represents sunshine and beach wear, relaxed and comfortably American.

As a romantic comedy, Eternity is well paced, brilliantly painted with vibrant production design by Zazu Meyers allowing the actors to inhabit a world somewhere between a busy train station and a multitude of different locations. Fortunately this film works because of the fantastic on screen chemistry between the three main leads, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner and Miles Teller each displaying their comic timing and exuberance.

As a young director David Freyne’s comedy Eternity is fun, frenetic and thought-provoking, a wonderfully light film about some heavy duty topics skilfully dealing with love, death and the afterlife. Like Challengers, Eternity works because of the superb casting.  

Eternity gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing for those that enjoy weird romantic comedy’s not set on this earth. A perfect film for date night.