Dan Says its Alright

  Ghostbusters : Frozen Empire continues the trend of diminishing returns from Ghostbusters as a franchise. Worse, it's the first time  a 'Busters film has fallen into outright bad territory. After the classic 1984 original 1989's sequel was considered a disappointment (although it raked it in at the box office) but still had the charisma of its predecessors iconic cast. The female led reboot in 2016 was fun action comedy but didn't stand up the legendary original. In 2021 they started again with Afterlife, pitching Ghostbusters as Stranger Things in order to move things to a small town and test the water without having to bust the bank. Frozen Empire is a direct sequel to that film (and by extension the first two) but feels like little more than a corporate exercise in mud flinging to see what sticks. We start off with a ghost chase through New York, where Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), her kids Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Gary Grooberson (Pa...

  The journey Monkey Man has taken to get the big screen sounds almost as arduous as the revenge quest its title character embarks upon. About to lose funding due to the pandemic, director/writer/star Dev Patel was able to find a hotel on a small Indonesian island that could house the cast and crew. Not being able to bring in new personnel or equipment the story of making the film is one of cameras dangling from string, tables being glued back together so they can be smashed multiple times and crew members standing in for extras. Not to mention Patel himself breaking his hand during filming. Once completed it sat on a shelf with backers Netflix nervous to release it on their platform due to the movies scathing attitude towards right wing Indian politics. Enter Jordan Peele and his Monkey Paw productions who scooped the project up to give it the cinema release it deserves.  The story begins with Patel's unnamed character scraping a living by taking beatings in an underground fi...

Mothers' Instinct is set in 1960 and aims to be a throwback to the glossy thrillers of that era. More specifically, it feels like a stab at aping Hitchcock, marrying tense psychodrama with grand visuals and crowd pleasing twists. Needles to say, it falls some way short of matching the Master of Suspense. Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway play Alice and Celine. They are neighbours, friends and both parents of young boy who are also close. When Celine's son dies in a tragic accident, Alice becomes convinced her grieving friend blames her and is plotting revenge. First time director Benoit Delhomme is an experienced cinematographer and it shows with the film's aesthetic being one of its greatest strengths. It's a small film, set mostly in and around a couple of houses but the period setting is beautifully observed and every shot is painstakingly composed. The pastel colours and stunning costumes are in stark contrast to the grim goings on and provide insight into the cha...

  Godzilla X Kong : The New Empire may sound like erotic fan fiction written by a Kaiju obsessive but its actually the 5th instalment in a decade spanning (how time flies) franchise. 2014's Godzilla finally brought the legendary lizard to Hollywood in a way that wasn't a complete embarrassment but struggled to marry the disparate parts of family drama and giant monster smackdown. Skull Island was a fun mystery island adventure. King of the Monsters went for epic, end of the world monster stakes and Godzilla vs Kong leaned into the silliness of it all. This film takes the ridiculousness of its predecessor and runs with it. And runs and runs. The plot, such as it is, involves a villainous giant ape named The Skar King imprisoned in the Hollow Earth attempting to conquer the surface world. Don't worry if that sounds like a bit of an underwhelming opponent for Big G, the nefarious simian has an ace up his sleeve. There are plenty of other big monsters for our titular duo to thr...