Dune Part One is a 2021 American science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve with a screenplay by Jon Spaihts, Villeneuve, and Eric Roth. It is the first of a planned two-part adaptation of the 1965 novel of the same name by Frank Herbert, which covers roughly the first half of the book.
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Malignant is a 2021 American horror film directed by James Wan from a screenplay by Akela Cooper, based on an original story by Wan, Ingrid Bisu, and Cooper. The film was released in the cinemas and on HBO Max in September 2021. Malignant is mainly a slasher movie, with faint unexplained paranormal tropes.
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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is an American superhero action-adventure film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and based on the Marvel comics character created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin. Our story analysis will closely examine the plot and characters of the film and will contain spoilers.
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The GodFather Trilogy consists of three crime drama films directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and co-written by Coppola with novelist Mario Puzo. The trilogy traces the life of mafia don Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) from the 1940s to the late 1970s. The constituent films in the trilogy were The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990), and were inspired by Puzo’s 1969 novel of the same name.
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Reminiscence is a 2021 American neo-noir scifi thriller drama film written and directed by Lisa Joy, in her feature directorial debut. Joy – together with spouse Jonathan Nolan – were the showrunners for the HBO scifi TV series, Westworld. And of course, Christopher Nolan is Joy’s brother-in-law and one cannot but feel that Reminiscence shares – or attempts to, in any case – similar high concept scifi tropes as Nolan’s Inception and Tenet.
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The Rewrite is a 2014 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Marc Lawrence. The film stars Hugh Grant as a washed-up screenwriter who begins teaching at Binghamton University, and Marisa Tomei as a single mother with whom the screenwriter finds romance. Considering that the main character is a screenwriter, we thought it would be appropriate to conduct a detailed analysis of the story in The Rewrite.
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Fear Street Part Three 1666 is a 2021 American slasher film directed by Leigh Janiak, with a script co-written by Phil Graziadei and Janiak, from an original story by Kyle Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak. Based on the book series of the same name by R. L. Stine, the film was released by Netflix on July 9, 2021 as the third and final instalment in the Fear Street trilogy.
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Fear Street Part Two 1978 is a 2021 American slasher horror drama film directed by Leigh Janiak, with a script co-written by Phil Graziadei and Janiak, from an original story by Kyle Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak. Based on the book series of the same name by R. L. Stine, the film was released by Netflix on July 9, 2021 as the second instalment in the Fear Street Trilogy.
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Black Widow is a 2021 American superhero action-adventure drama film based on the Marvel Comics featuring the character of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 24th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The movie was slated to be released in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
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Fear Street Part One 1994 is a 2021 American slasher film directed by Leigh Janiak, with a script co-written by Phil Graziadei and Janiak, from an original story by Kyle Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak. Based on the book series of the same name by R. L. Stine, the film was released by Netflix on July 2, 2021 as the first installment in the Fear Street Trilogy.
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The Tomorrow War is a 2021 American science fiction action film directed by Chris McKay in his live-action directorial debut. The movie stars Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J. K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson and follows a group of present-day soldiers who are sent into the future to fight an alien army (called the White Spikes).
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A Quiet Place Part II is a 2021 American scifi horror film, and the sequel to 2018’s A Quiet Place, following the family from the first film as they continue to navigate and survive in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by blind aliens with an acute sense of hearing. If you have read our review of the original movie, you would be aware that we found the premise to be critically flawed. Obviously that flawed premise has not changed but there are even more problems with the story of A Quiet Place Part II, as our analysis reveals.
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The Hand is a 1981 American psychological horror film written and directed by Oliver Stone, based on the novel The Lizard’s Tail by Marc Brandel. The film stars Michael Caine as Jon Lansdale, a comic book artist who loses his hand, which in turn takes on a murderous life of its own.
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Logan’s Run is a 1976 dystopian scifi action thriller drama film directed by Michael Anderson, and starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter and Richard Jordan. The screenplay by David Zelag Goodman is based on the 1967 novel Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson.
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Blade Runner is a 1982 dystopian scifi film drama directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford as the titular character. The film was loosely based on Philip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Despite the initial commercial and critical failure of Blade Runner (when it was first released in 1982), the film has attained cult status in the years since and has been retroactively hailed as one of the best science-fiction films of all time.
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Predator is a 1987 scifi action thriller drama film directed by John McTiernan and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film spawned a direct sequel – Predator 2 (1990) – a couple of spin-offs with Alien vs Predator (2004), Alien vs Predator (2007) and Predators (2010) – as well as a reboot with The Predator (2018).
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The Thing is a 1982 scifi horror drama thriller film directed by John Carpenter. Based on John W. Campbell Jr.’s Who Goes There? The Thing was ostensibly also a remake of Howard Hawk’s The Thing From Another World (1951) which was also an adaptation of Campbell’s 1938 novella.
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Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 action-adventure drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Raiders of the Lost Ark starred Harrison Ford as archaeologist-adventurer Indiana Jones and launched a franchise, with three subsequent films.
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Infinite is a scifi action thriller drama directed by Antonio Fuqua. The movie is based on D. Eric Maikranz’s 2009 novel The Reincarnationist Papers and stars Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The premise of Infinite revolves around the concept of reincarnated beings who retain the memories of past lives.
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The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 war action drama film directed by Robert Aldrich and based on the novel written by E.M. Nathanson. The story is a work of fiction, set during World War II and centred around twelve court-martialled soldiers who are promised a reprieve from their capital sentences if they are successful in completing a virtual suicide mission behind enemy lines, just before D-Day.
S P O I L E R S
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Army of the Dead is a 2021 American horror action drama film directed by Zack Snyder, with a screenplay he co-wrote with Shay Hatten and Joby Harold, based on a story by Snyder. The film had been in development hell at Warner Bros since 2007 before being picked up by Netflix in 2019. Army of the Dead marks Zack Snyder’s first new film since Justice League and the release was accompanied has been accompanied with the attendant hype from the buzz over The Snyder Cut and so on.
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Nobody is a 2021 American action-thriller drama film directed by Ilya Naishuller and written by Derek Kolstad. The film’s premise involves a bystander who intervenes to help a woman being harassed by a group of men who then becomes the target of a vengeful drug lord. Cue an ultra-violent revenge flick that is reminiscent of the John Wick franchise.
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John Wick is a 2014 American neo-noir action-thriller drama film directed by Chad Stahelski, in his directorial debut, and written by Derek Kolstad. The movie was a commercial success, spawning two sequels and perhaps inspiring a new ultraviolet action sub-genre. Certainly, John Wick revitalised the career of Keanu Reeves to such an extent that Matrix 4 was surely made on the back of his renewed popularity.
Sound of Metal is a 2019 American drama film directed and co-written by Darius Marder. The film was critically acclaimed and has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film revolves around a drummer (Riz Ahmed) who loses his hearing and follows his efforts to adapt and adjust his life to his new reality.
The Wanderers is a 1979, American comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Philip Kaufman and is based on the novel of the same name by Richard Price. Set in the Bronx in 1963, the film follows a gang of Italian-American teenagers known as the Wanderers and their ongoing power struggles with rival gangs such as the Baldies and the Wongs. The movie stars Ken Wahl, John Friedrich, Karen Allen and Toni Kalem.
