Reviews

Having denigrated his storytelling in the first Dune movie, I felt I needed to give credit where credit is due. Villanueve did a much better job on Part Two. I don't know if the writing crew was the same or not, but this was superior to the first. It still had tons of action and still a bit too much noise, but the story was told extremely well. What the movies (both) left out from the novels was much less noticeable in Part Two. I wish they could have done more story involving the Guild Navigators and the Tleilaxu. I am hoping the studio can continue with the story the way Frank Herbert and his offspring told it in the novels. I'd really like to see how they handle Dune Messiah and God Emperor of Dune.

Frank Herbert was a brilliant story teller. This attempt is sadly lacking. The presentation is mostly action, noise and visual candy; not enough story! There is nothing wrong with any of the acting performances. Oscar Isaac has some serious acting chops as demonstrated in his portrayal of Marvel's Moon Knight, but they are not taken advantage of in this movie. He is probably the lamest Duke Leto to date, but I believe the script didn't really allow for more out of him. The Gom Jabar scene lacked drama; it seemed like an afterthought rather than an integral part of Paul's ascension to greatness. I felt no suspense during the hunter/seeker attack. It should be frightening. The final scene has got to be one of the most middle-finger-to-the-audience ever. "This is only the beginning." Oh, really? Thanks for making Chiani into Captain Obvious.

I really wanted to like this. I love Theresa Palmer and Miranda Otto is a superstar. There is not a weak spot in the cast at all. I dont usually mind flashbacks and flashforwards, but there are too many and they are too frequent and they are too short. I guess if you set out to deliberately confuse your viewers, you would consider this a success. But when you take the incredibly great performances by the cast (and some of them are truly wonderful) and put them into a confusing and disjointed mess like this you are failing. Still young and active Joe is easy enough to distinguish from old, beat down reprobate Joe, but it is nearly impossible to tell which period Amy/Freya is supposed to be in.

Honestly, if you want a show people will watch you have to hire better actors. Two or three of the main roles are played satisfactorily. My estimate is about 50% of the cast has any acting talent. Either that or they are being led by an incompetent director. Many of the supporting cast in the ensemble come across like cartoon characters. The over-anxious but brilliant youngster roles are so over the top it's laughable. I was seriously expecting the evil matriarch on ARK 15 to grow a moustache and start twirling it. The dialogue is stilted, predictable and at times nonsensical. It beats watching a test pattern, but not by much.

The entire ensemble is incredible. First rate performances are turned in by everyone from the headliners to the one-liners. Jeremy Renner and Emma Laird are such powerful screen presences and turn in such moving performances the show runners could probably have gotten away with casting a bunch of nobodies for the supporting roles, but they put together an amazing group of actors that play off of each other better than anything else currently on air.

Great concept apparently turned over to a crew that either didn't know what to do with it or deliberately sabotaged it. The characters are unsympathetic, for the most part. With very few exceptions the acting is terrible, stilted, unbelievable. There are far too many subplots that add nothing at all to the story. I find myself hitting the "advance 15 seconds" arrow way more than I'm accustomed to. I guess it's better than a test pattern on the screen, but not by much.

Acting is stiff with no chemistry between characters. Script is hilariously bad. Special effects seem to be on a level with a 1950s Flash Gordon episode. The real problem, though--the alien monsters they must have borrowed from an old Dr. Who episode.

Same Stuff Different Cast. Isn't this simply a revisit of another Canadian effort called Private Eyes with the roles reversed and an even less talented cast?

I recently heard this is supposed to have been conceptualized as a sort of sequel to the books, so if you were expecting a film version of the magnificent but inappropriately termed "Dark Tower trilogy" of Stephen King's story you will be extremely disappointed. The movie is, at best, loosely related to the narrative of the novels which are even more loosely based on the Browning poem Childe Rolande to the Dark Tower Came, but if you just want an hour and a half of fast moving story, you might find it appealing. Idris Elba portrays a believable gunslinger. Matthew McConaughey is certainly malodorous enough as Walter. Jake is convincingly played by Tom Taylor. There is plenty of fast moving "hold on to your seats" action, but the story does not track. There is no motivation for most of the action because we do not have the back story. I sympathize with the constraints put on film makers as far as time, budget and availability of talent, but the film would have benefited from the characters left out of the movie like Eddie (the junkie) and Susannah (the legless schizophrenic) and Oy (the intelligent raccoon- like animal that befriends Jake.) Who knows? Maybe the upcoming (rumored HBO) TV series will be more satisfyingly true to the books, but I'm not holding my breath.

I would like to see TPTB rework this show to make it watchable. I love the other three shows in the One Chicago series and I really wanted to love this newest addition to the franchise. Chicago Fire first got me hooked and then I started watching Chicago PD. Chicago Med probably has the best performances of all, but Chicago Justice has left me wondering who thought THIS would be a good idea. It is not cerebral. It is not emotionally stimulating. The characters are unsympathetic. The dialogue is stilted, clichéd and poorly delivered. I have seen all of the actors in other roles and, for the most part they are better than what we see in this. Jon Seda and Joelle Carter were terrific in previous series, but I can't seem to care about them in this. Carl Weathers really needs to take some acting lessons before he attempts another role. I think the writers or the director must have a problem with Monica Barbaro or why else would they give her nothing but throw-away lines in every episode. Philip Winchester is about as wooden as any actor I can remember. After the colossal failure of Player, why would anyone think he could handle the starring role of a dramatic series.

This second rate attempt to duplicate the wildly successful formula of Castle is, in a word, awful. While Jason Priestly's portrayal occasionally presents us with a sympathetic character, most of the time he comes off as over-rehearsed. Cindy Sampson must think she is in some lousy sitcom; over-the-top sassy girl completely out of her depth. Granted, her lines are terrible, but her delivery is worse. The writers and directors are, apparently going for the sexual-tension- between-buddies theme that has worked in some dramedies, but the dialogue is stilted and unbelievable. Rather than generating suspense or tension, the investigational situations are simply tedious. Instead of subtle insertions into the plot, the clichés are thrown in the viewers face as if to say, "Here you go, morons. Watch this crap!" Give this one a pass, unless there is absolutely NOTHING else to do.