David R. Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Sharon Duncan-Brewster’

Ballerina

Director: Len Wiseman

Cast: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Keanu Reeves, Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, Lance Riddick, Sharon Duncan-Brewster

Running Time: 2 hours and 4 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Total Recall and Die Hard 4.0 director Len Wiseman returns to directing feature films after a long time in Television as he helms the new John Wick spin off film Ballerina starring Oscar nominee Ana de Armas (Blonde) as ballerina orphan turned assassin who is lethal with a flame thrower.

Audiences need to suspend their disbelief as they re-enter the John Wick universe which is hyper stylized, murky and extremely dangerous. This is a world filled with the Continental Hotels which is basically a B n B for contract killers. Obviously Keanu Reeves is back as John Wick but in Ballerina Ana de Armas firmly takes centre stage in an action film which is incredibly violent and filled with blood lust as the fighting intensifies when Eve travels from the sleek skyscrapers of New York to the bohemian mountains outside Prague to track down the evil tribe responsible for her father’s death.

Ballerina operates on one level as a revenge thriller and on another as a coming of age story of a female assassin who escapes from the beady eyed supervision of The Director wonderfully played with heavy makeup and attitude by Oscar winner Anjelica Huston (Prizzi’s Honour) who adds a level of panache to a film about lethal assassins.

The villain in this piece is The Chancellor played by Irish actor Gabriel Byrne (Vanity Fair, The Usual Suspects) who heads up a cultish tribe whose only mantra is to kill people in a village in the Bohemian mountains.

When The Chancellor’s son Daniel Pine played by Norman Reedus tries to escape the cult with his young daughter, Pine meets up with the Ballerina Eve and literally all hell breaks loose.

Eve fights the whole village and even John Wick is called in to eliminate Eve but she proves to be more than he can contend with. In a bid for her own independence, Eve learns to fight like a girl and use all explosives necessary.

Ballerina is big on lush stylization, dramatic settings like New York nightclubs and snow covered Bohemian villages with killer inhabitants but unfortunately the narrative is a bit weak despite the appearance of a host of John Wick stars including the late Lance Riddick, Ian McShane as Winston and Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Nogi. There is an astonishingly fresh appearance by Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace) as Lena the short lived relative, but her screen time like that of Norman Reedus is too short to be savoured. If the screenwriters were clever they would have given these minor characters more of a back story.

Ballerina is heavy on violence and light on plot, saved by great filming, superb fighting scenes and a heroine that proves that female action stars are forces to be reckoned with. It’s an entertaining film with outlandish characters brandishing weapons from samurai swords to hammers, from grenades to guns.

Recommended strictly for fans of the John Wick film franchise, Ballerina gets a film rating of 7 out of 10. Watch this film if you like your ballerina carrying flame throwers and not bouquets.

Dune

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa, Charlotte Rampling, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, David Dastmalchian, Sharon Duncan-Brewster

Running Time: 2 hours and 35 minutes

Film Rating: 8.5 out of 10

After its impressive premiere at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve’s eagerly anticipated Dune has finally arrived on Commercial cinema screens globally.

Unlike David Lynch’s equally ground breaking film version of Dune back in 1984, this absolutely superb version of Dune is a film for the 2020’s – a vision of the future quite attuned with the current state of the geopolitical world.

Assembling an unbelievably fantastic cast including Oscar nominee Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) as the pivotal hero Paul Atreides, there is also Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (Milk) and Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) rounding off a truly international and talented cast.

To add some much required muscle there is Jason Momoa (Aquaman) as Duncan Idaho and Dave Bautista (Spectre) as Beast Rabban Harkonnen nephew to the brutal and slimy Baron Vladimir Harkonnnen superbly played by Stellan Skarsgard, who is hell bent on destroying the House Atreides, headed by the pompous Duke Leto Atreides played by Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year, Star Wars Episode VIII – The Last Jedi).

On every level, visually and technically, Dune is a truly ground breaking cinematic achievement, a carefully constructed allegorical tale on the fall of colonialism, the collapse of a nobility and more significantly the journey a young heir has to take, from boyhood into manhood.

Dune is equally an astute comment on paternity, the expectations brought onto sons by arrogant fathers, the brittle strength of masculinity, which is often a combination of skill, strength and ingenuity and the complex relationship between mothers and sons, as betrayed in the pivotal scenes between Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica Atreides, beautifully played by Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson.

Visually Dune is an epic, a science fiction story about the fall of the House Atreides, but at its emotional centre is the unique character growth of Paul Atreides, wonderfully played by Timothee Chalamet, who at times does get overshadowed by the grandeur of Denis Villeneuve’s vision of this Science Fiction epic.

Based on the acclaimed series of novels by Frank Herbert, Dune fans will not be disappointed at this brilliant reimagining on the big screen. Dune is both a comment on fragile power structures as it is on the effects of climate change, Dune is at once insightful and incredible, remarkable and respectful.

In a pivotal scene and key to the whole film is the remarkable scene between the young Paul Atreides and the Reverend Mother Mohiam expertly played with an austere aloofness by the commanding Charlotte Rampling, whereby the young heir is tested on his capacity for fear, endurance and leadership?

The Reverend Mother promptly tells Paul’s mother Lady Jessica Atreides exceptionally well played by Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible: Fallout, The Greatest Showman), that she was told only to give birth to daughters, because a son would challenge the intergalactic order.

Dune should be a front runner for Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars, Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score.

Director Denis Villeneuve has outdone himself in his brilliant film about the epic fall of the House Atreides and done justice to the legions of Dune fans globally. From the colour palettes, to the amazing costumes, to the visual and sound effects, Dune is next level entertainment, a film to savour on the big screen, impressive, spell bounding and legendary.

Dune gets a film rating of 8.5 out of 10 and is absolutely a testament to the new decade of the 2020’s, a political society that has been revolutionized, whereby humanity’s existence is fragile purely because they ignored the yearnings of a planet that refused to be mined, colonised and mistreated.

Dune is highly recommended viewing, a visual feast about nobility, patriarchy and greed.