Movie Review: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

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A fairly dull comedy with minimal laughs, that is also sorely lacking in the franchise’s trademark supernatural excitement. The plot moves pretty slowly as it sporadically drop pieces to the puzzle, only for things to move a warp speed once it gets to the third act. (It doesn’t help that most of the clips in the trailer are from the final act, making it feel like all the best stuff is crammed into the final 10 minutes.) The character arcs are kind of weak and cliche. On top of that, characters do some somewhat random, and even downright stupid, stuff to move the story along. While bringing in the classic Ghostbusters team in the previous film felt like a nice pass the torch moment, here they just feel tacked on. The film flirts with deeper topics like the afterlife, and it also hints at some deeper character beats, but ultimately it just breezes past all of that. There’s a brief mid-credit scene that cute but skippable.

** out of *****

Movie Review: Dune: Part Two

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Continuing where the first “Dune” left off, the sequel once again delivers more of what was great about the first film, along with more of what didn’t work, and that includes more of just “more” as the three-hour runtime starts to feel like an eternity. Like the first film, this one looks amazing. The cinematography masterfully shows the scope of all the ships and creatures while the special effects flawlessly bring everything to life that’s not really there. The score and sound effects compliment all the visuals perfectly. Plot-wise, things feel surprisingly rushed considering how long the film is. There’s a lot of political maneuvering that is set up and most of it doesn’t lead to any kind of satisfying payoff. It feels like it’s going to be some “Game of Thrones”-level political chess, but it just fast-forwards through most of it. There’s also an “Avatar” vibe going on as Paul must earn the respects of the planet’s natives by learning their customs. This also feels a bit rushed as he earns their trust and respect pretty quickly. (This story also contains that element of a character fulfilling some sort of native prophecy.) Ultimately, this film would’ve worked better having an hour cutoff of the runtime, especially with how much time is set setting things up only to end things somewhat rushed and anti-climatically.

*** out of *****