Dune: Part Two 2024
Villeneuve's eleventh film, picking up minutes after Part One. The three call it the best thing they've seen so far this year and tell listeners to catch it in the biggest, loudest theater they can find. They praise the craft team (Greg Fraser, Hans Zimmer), the two mega-sequences back to back (Paul riding the Shai-Hulud, then the spice-harvester raid), and the black-and-white Giedi Prime gladiator scene, shot like Third Reich propaganda. Their recurring read: the movie is skeptical of Paul as white-savior messiah, and it ends by following Chani out the door rather than cheering the victory. Amanda's favorite performance is Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica; Bardem's true-believer Stilgar is the comic engine. Complaints are minor: compressed third-act time, thin crowd VFX. Sean still ranks Sicario and Arrival above it as scripts.