Force of Nature: The Dry 2

Official Australian release date: 8/2/24. Viewed: 30/3/24.
Director: Robert Connolly
Actors: Eric Bana, Anna Torv, Deborra-Lee Furness, Robin McLeavy
Genre: Drama / Mystery
Rating: M

‘Force of Nature: The Dry 2’ comes 3 years after ‘The Dry’, and retains Detective Aaron Falk (Bana) as the lead and the flashbacks to fill in story gaps, but is otherwise a standalone film – it’s certainly not dry this time, set in the rainy Dandenong ranges of eastern Victoria. The plot this time sounds simple – 5 women on a work retreat get lost in the bush. When 4 of them are rescued, Falk and Cooper (McKenzie) set out to find the missing Alice (Torv).

As the backstory unfolds – told via each of the 4 women: Alice’s boss Jill (Furness), sister Lauren (McLeavy) and co-workers Bree (Ansell) & Beth (Stringer), we’re able to piece together that there’s more going on than anyone is initially letting on and start drawing our own conclusions. There’s also the added layer of flashback’s to Falk’s own childhood when he and his parents were camping in the same national park and had their own situation…

Probably not as good as the first film, but still a well-made Aussie drama, with lots of tension, hope, great scenery and enough storyline to keep you interested and guessing. Good cameos from Richard Roxburgh and Tony Briggs, but the film’s carried by Bana and the interaction of the 5 women and the ticking clock to find Alice before it’s too late. Not too long at just under 2 hours, solid score.

Overall: Enjoyable Aussie bush mystery.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Official Australian release date: 28/3/24. Viewed: 29/3/24.
Director: Adam Wingard
Actors: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ is the 5^th film in Warners Bros. “MonsterVerse”, and like all of them does a solid job of making giant Titans/Kaiju fight, with a bit of a storyline holding it together. Returning are Dr Andrews (Hall), head of the Titan-watch company, her adopted daughter Jia (Hottle) and Bernie (Henry), the comedic relief. The new addition is Trapper (Stevens), the vet. The plot is mostly Kong-centric, now that he lives in “hollow Earth” and Godzilla’s on the surface.

Kong finds another part of “hollow Earth” (best not to ask too many questions, as physics went out the window a long time ago in these films) that has other apes and Titans, setting in motion a big battle with the ‘Scar King’, a giant Orangutan. This necessitates a semi-forced team-up with Godzilla, with the help of an unexpected Titan. There’s some time spent on Jia’s journey, but not too much that you get bored of the humans!

As always, the CGI is pretty good, and Kong has more empathy than some human actors. Godzilla still looks great – and gets his “pink plates” upgrade. When they’re fighting each other or different Titans, it’s always pretty impressive to see. Nothing crazily spectacular here, but nor is it boring or excessively dumb. Good se of KISS’ “I Was Made For Loving You”!

Overall: Still fun monster battles

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Dune: Part Two

Official Australian release date: 29/2/24. Viewed: 29/2/24.
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Actors: Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem
Genre: Sci-Fi / Drama
Rating: M

‘Dune: Part Two’ comes 2.5 years after the first film, and hopefully a final film to make it a trilogy in 3-4 years. It picks up pretty much straight after the first film, with Paul (Chalamet) and his mum Jessica (Ferguson) being shown how to live in the Arrakis desert by the Fremen, particularly Chani (Zendaya) and Stilgar (Bardem). There they continue to fight a guerrilla war against the Harkonnen.

To go along with the ‘big bad bald’ Baron (Skarsgard), we get his two nephews – the angry Beast (Bautista) and the psychotic Feyd-Rautha (Butler), who has a big role to play in the final act. We also get introduced to those pulling galactic strings from another planet, the Emperor (Walken) and his daughter, Princess Irulan (Pugh). There’s a few chess pieces in play, but even though it goes for 2 hour 40min, the pacing is generally quite fast and everything really comes together at the end, with Paul embracing his “messiah” role.

I’ll need to rewatch this, but it’s certainly up there with some of the best sci-fi films – better than the first film, and certainly an excellent sequel, similar to ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. The cinematography, costumes, score (or lack of in the final fight), set-design and CGI are all superb. It certainly makes it feel like you’ve witnessed something special and want to see what comes next.

Overall: Epic that delivers

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.