How did we make it to June already? 2024 has been a wacky and wild year so far and with everything I have to review here today, you will most likely agree that the movies have been too. Some of these movies are good and some of these movies are bad. Here are a few films that you should either check out or avoid entirely!
Everything here, including Dune 2, is available to stream on Max, Peacock, or Netflix. I hate starting things with negativity, but let us kick this Review Roundup off with a film that is 10 years too late to its own party.
#1 Bad: Turtles All the Way Down
What business do I have watching a John Green film adaptation in the year 2024? The same amount of business that John Green adaptations have here in 2024: none. What are we even doing here? How are we an entire decade removed from The Fault in our Stars and we still have teens quirked to the max? While I am not comfortable saying I prefer teen-centered media to have a more grueling tone, like Euphoria, there is something that is, for sure, way more way more palatable there.
My eyes rolling into my head sounded like stone scraping on cement. Did I try to give this movie a chance? Yes! How long did that chance last? I would say it lasted maybe 10 minutes before I started groaning. Yeah, that is not good at all. This whole movie was nothing, but knives to my brain, but one single thing set this movie over the edge for me: Mustard.
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I want to say about halfway through the movie there is a fight between the two protagonists Aza and Daisy. Daisy says something about Aza being like mustard. She goes on a tangent for a few minutes and uses this as a comparison to hurt Aza’s feelings. I would try and explain this further, but I can not even be bothered to go back and figure out what the hell she was talking about.
While I truly have absolutely no issues with John Green as a person, I think this is a sign that everyone involved in producing John Green content needs to grow up. How can anyone speak, write, or hear the words “You are like mustard” and take anything at any level of entertainment? That single conversation to me is what is wrong with this movie all together. Nothing is serious, funny, charming, or enjoyable and everything is annoying and lame. 1/10- Yeah, no.
#1 Good: Night Swim
Alright, look, this is so dumb. I lived at the beach that makes you old for about five years so I know what a good time is. Forget the beach that makes you old, I am now obsessed with the pool that needs a sacrifice. Camp is so back. It never actually left ,but campers, we are thriving right now. Night Swim is good. That is the highest praise I am willing to give it. With that said I still think this is a movie to toss on if nothing else is going on.
Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon are always nice to see and I liked them in this. There was nothing to actually write home about, but they got the job done. If you watch Blumhouse movies for the performances, then you are wrong. That is not why we go to the movies.
We go to the movies to watch Wyatt Russell slam some bombs deep into left field, be forced to retire from the MLB, then discover the healing powers of his in-ground pool. That, to me, is cinema, and I love it. Night Swim is pretty inoffensive compared to other disaster pieces, but that does not mean it is without some wackiness.
I do not think this movie will be anywhere near the top 20 of the year, but Night Swim is a good time. Everything is serious, but not so serious that it is a turn off. It is easy to look past the goofiness to still have a good time. There is not a whole lot else for me to say on this. I liked Night Swim and I recommend it for a short good time. 6/10
Bad #2: Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver
What is it that drives us to subject ourselves to pain? In some circumstances pain is good. Maybe it is leg day and you can feel your muscles shredding on the spot, but that pain is motivational. After a breakup, our pain is so great we just want to lay in bed constantly, but from that pain we always come out stronger. There is absolutely no redeeming pain that accompanies Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon films. The first film, A Child of Fire, was one of the worst films I saw last year. Part two, otherwise known as The Scargiver, is somehow worse.
Part one was boring and disgustingly obnoxious. Every single second of that movie was emotionless, visually unappealing, devoid of any substance and overall super irritating. There were too many characters with no interesting, creative, or discerning qualities. Nothing in the story is engaging in any way, everything is a cliche and worse version of something else, and nothing matters at all. On top of all that there are insane amounts of slow motion shots and action sequences.
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So what about part two? What separates this film from the previous one? Nothing. Absolutely nothing is different here. I can not describe a single second of what happened in The Scargiver. The only two things I know that happened are an entire ten minutes dedicated to every single character talking about their backstory, in painstaking detail, and the antagonist from the first film not being dead.
I do not want to spend any more time talking about The Scargiver. It is lame, disgustingly obnoxious, overwhelmingly self-indulgent, boring, and plain dumb. There is way too much slow motion, no one is interesting, there are too many cultural inspirations for each character to be unique, and it sucks. This movie sucks and it makes me mad. 1/10.
Good #2: Dune 2
We now go from the most forgettable science fiction film of all time to one of the most epic films of this entire generation. Dune 2 is, in every sense, an epic experience. War, violence, love, betrayal, greed, consumption, and trust are all here and they are all fantastic. Challengers is most likely still my favorite film of this year, but, man, Dune 2 is undeniable in how incredible and deserving it is for that spot.
I enjoyed the first Dune. I thought it was incredibly well crafted and built a fully realized universe right away. After a few watches I realized that after a certain point, Dune loses me emotionally. I like what I see, but nothing is exactly compelling me to stay here. Such was absolutely not the case with Dune 2. Clocking in around three hours in length- Dune 2 is so damn epic, exciting, and worth every second. If Dune was a fully realized world, Dune 2 somehow realizes everything even more.
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The action is nonstop and chaotic. Everyone in the cast has fantastic chemistry in all capacities. Whether they were fighting, working together, falling in love, hyping each other up, waging an all-out war, or riding sand worms- everyone killed it. The only way to watch this movie is as loud and as big as you possibly can. This one is an experience and it gave me the same level of excitement that sports and sports entertainment give me.
Dune 2 works for anyone. Whether you kind of like movies or you fancy yourself a Cinefile- Dune 2 is all kinds of awesome and I can not recommend it enough. If Dune was at least serviceable for you, then I think you may find way more satisfaction in Dune 2. I am feeling somewhere between a 9.5/10 and a 10/10. Do not miss Dune 2!
Review Roundup by Nolen Kelly
June is here and things are looking up for 2024 so far. The even mix of good and bad here is not a total indication of what this year is looking like overall, but there is some interesting mix here. Who would have thought that in 2024 Zack Snyder actually found new ways to make his films worse? The Dune franchise is actively re-inventing what modern science fiction epics look like.
Night Swim is as dumb as they come. The dumb is a good time and that is literally all you need. Turn your brain off and have some fun with it! However, your brain will be forced to shut down with Turtles All the Way Down. If you had another John Green film adaptation in 2024 on your Bingo card then you should not be allowed to speak. You have done enough.
In short- 2024 is a fascinating year so far. It is June now, and we have already gotten the highest and lowest points of what Science Fiction offers. We also have witnessed some…unique- shall we say, approaches to coming of age teen dramas and campy horror movies.
So, what did you think of these movies? If you have not seen these yet then what are some of your favorite new films from this year? Let me know below and check back here at Respect My Region for more movie reviews!