Time for six, three, I can only manage three.
Dune: Part 2 (2024), we saw on opening night and just like the first part, it made me feel like climbing up to the rooftop of the highest building and shout: “THIS IS CINEMA!” Denis Villeneuve has once again rewritten how epic sci-fi can be and should be. It is that rare movie that comes along a few times in your lifetime that will make you realise movies can be what dreams are made of. I used to get these child-like wonder type of lovelorn feelings in the beginning of my movie watching experience with movies like Star Wars, Jaws, Blade Runner, The Matrix and others. Then it started to get fewer and far in between, but occasionally there will be some that pop up that made me remember what cinema is all about like Baahubali and Avatar, and now this, Dune: Part 2.
The story starts soon after the events of Part 1, but Villeneuve employs a different storytelling track to chart the sequel which richly builds on the first. There are new characters played by Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh and Austin Butler. It could easily be The Chosen One type of story, but Villeneuve takes the road less travelled by giving us thematic depth, interrogating themes like power, obsession and ascendency by a person not of the same culture. Throw in lots of political intrigue and religious fanaticism, you get a space opera like no other. But this is probably not the way every movie lover looks at these two latest incarnations of Frank Herbert’s seminal Dune; it is the scope and set-pieces. Even in the opening sequence of how the Harkonnen troops scale the stronghold of the Fremen is an awe-inspiring experience. It felt like I was watching something like this for the first time and there are loads of these jaw-dropping set-pieces throughout the massive movie, including how Paul rides the sandworm which is epic.
If I have to nitpick I would say the final battle was over way too fast and felt too one-sided and the much hyped Beast Rabban vs Gurney Halleck fight was “What?That’s-it”. That said, I can’t wait to get the 4K UHD and rewatch it again in the comfort of my home. (4.5/5)
Exhuma (2024), at this moment is still raking in the dollars in Korea, a huge box office hit. Forget critics, if the bread and butter everyday men are watching this, it is worth steeling your fragile heart for a horror movie.
The story begins with a rich Korean family inviting a pair of shamans, Hwarim (Kim Go-Eun) and Bong Gil (Lee Do-Hyun) to solve their supernatural problem. The pair connect their woes to the family’s buried ancestor back in Korea. They return and team up with a geomancer, Kim Sang Deok (Choi Min-Sik) and an undertaker, Ko Young Geum (Yu Hae-Jin) to dig up and cremate the corpse, thinking that will bring the supernatural happenings to an end. Of course, that’s just the beginning of a whole lot of pain and grisly deaths.
There has been a lot of comparison of this movie to The Wailing (2016) probably because of the shamanism involved, but make no mistake The Wailing is the more superior film. That said, Exhuma is extremely entertaining especially in the final hour which had my heart parked in my mouth the whole time.
Writer-director Jae-Hyun Jang has the most specific filmography I know of. He has made 3 films of the same genre, The Priests (2015) and Svaha: The Sixth Finger (2019), interrogating how characters with a strong moral and religious spine will navigate the world of nefarious and supernatural evil. With each film he has sharpened his skills and tools.
Divided into 6 chapters, the movie can feel episodic but Jang knows how to inject adrenaline into expository scenes with a horrific incident. There are no cheap jump scares and there are quite a few scenes that had the half-filled cinema I was in gasped in surprise. God… how I missed this shared collective cinematic experience. Jang also knows how to paint dread in liquid red hues and the dreary atmosphere is deathly palpable. The ensemble acting by the four is top-notched, each providing counterpoints to the others and all of them are immensely watchable. I do wish for a bit more backstory to Bong Gil who is an interesting character.
Though massively entertaining, the movie does have some problems that stop it from being top tier. This feels like two movies rolled into one with the link between them not explained with clarity. Frankly, I was lost with all the geomancy mambo jumbo, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the horrific ride. (3.5/5)
OMG 2 (2023) is the story of Kanti Sharan Mudgal (Pankaj Tripathi), a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva. One day his son Vivek (Aarush Varma), is blamed for misconduct and is expelled from school. Upon confrontation, Kanti realises that his son has been a victim of misinformation and misguidance. Kanti decides to fight the case in court as he believes the whole system is at fault here. He’s guided in his pursuits by divine intervention in the form of a benevolent stranger (Akshay Kumar), who turns out to be a messenger of Lord Shiva.
The synopsis above doesn’t say what is the case of misconduct. Hold on to your horses! It’s masturbation in a school toilet! How’s that for a lynchpin for an entertaining and illuminating lesson into what’s morally wrong and ethically right.
The story has nothing to do with OMG (2012) which was about a shopkeeper who takes God to court for destroying his shop in an earthquake. This time it’s a father who takes on the whole education system to court for not educating his son. It is also an endearing father-and-son story of which I have a fondness for.
The courtroom drama feels preposterous but there’s truth in how both sides argue the case. Masturbation is not wrong but where it is done is and that’s not to say the idiots filming the poor boy didn’t do anything wrong. I thought the courtroom proceedings really turn over a lot of cultural touchstones (think where karma sutra came from) and acceptable social behaviour. I had such a fun time watching this and after all the laughs it manages to provoke me to think where does the buck stop. Pankaj Tripathi really disappears into his role and long since Mirzapur (2018), I would watch anything he stars in. (4/5)
Reel Thoughts 