Mid March 2024 Movie Reviews: The Promised Land, Dune: Part Two, The Beekeeper

In this month’s film reviews we’ll go over three very different movies, one that was great, one that was alright, but somewhat disappointing, and The Beekeeper.

The Promised Land (2023)

Zentropa Entertainments, 127 minutes

The Promised Land is a Danish historical drama centering on a former military captain named Ludvig Kahlen. Kahlen, after obtaining permission from the Royal Danish Court and with the promise of wealth and a title should he succeed, sets out to cultivate land on a barren heath so that a settlement can be formed.

Cultivating land on the heath is something many have failed to accomplish in the past due to the weather and the state of the soil. It quickly becomes clear though that Kahlen’s greatest obstacle might not be the elements, but could arise from conflict with a brutal local magistrate.

The Promised Land is an expertly crafted film and one of the best all-around movies I’ve seen that’s been released over the past few years. The movie’s story, direction, and cinematography are all perfect. The acting in the film is also fantastic. Mads Mikkelsen is great as Kahlen, with the rest of the cast being equally up to the task.

The film was a joint Danish-German-Swedish co-production with a budget of around 8.5 million dollars. Despite receiving critical acclaim and screenings at several film festivals, the film never received a large release or much press, something that’s a shame since this movie is of such high quality. I give The Promised Land my strongest recommendation.

Grade: 9.5/10

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Legendary Pictures, 165 minutes

I was a huge fan of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, which came out in 2021 and is based off the first half of Frank Hebert’s science fiction novel of the same name. I never read the 1965 book, but I thoroughly enjoyed that first film, and thought it was really well-crafted sci fi. Considering how great that first movie was, Dune: Part Two, which tells the second half of the first Dune book, is pretty disappointing.

Dune: Part Two is far from an awful movie. The look of this film is fantastic. The effects and cinematography are both spot on, and there’s a good dramatic score that heightens the impact of the visuals. Most of my issues with the film stem from the story and characters, and those are both pretty massive parts of what goes into making a movie.

There are a bunch of new characters we’re introduced to in this one, and I didn’t find any of them to be particularly engaging (like the new villain or the princess). For obvious reasons, two of the more interesting characters from the first film, Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho and Oscar Isaac’s Duke Leto Atredies, are absent from Part Two. In this installment though, we do get a distractingly cast Christopher Walken as the emperor.

I found the main storyline of the movie to be a bit slow. This is a long film and, for what’s supposed to be an epic story, it has a lot of talky politics parts. I think that if you’re a fan of the original Dune book, you’ll be really pleased with what I’m told is a faithful and well-made adaptation.

Personally, I found the story to be just fine, and it also left me with a pretty unfulfilled feeling upon the movie’s conclusion. Dune: Part Two might still be leaps and bounds better than your average Hollywood blockbuster, but I definitely wasn’t blown away how I was by Villeneuve’s first movie in this universe.

Grade: 7/10

The Beekeeper (2024)

MGM, 105 minutes 

As you likely expect, an action thriller starring Jason Statham titled The Beekeeper isn’t exactly trying to be a prestigious film. Unfortunately, even when held to the standard of just being a fun action flick, this one definitely falls short. The Beekeeper is a bad movie. The main issue with it is that it’s only fun-bad around 20% of the time, and the rest of the time it’s simply bad.

Our protagonist, Statham’s character, is a retired “beekeeper,” which is a type of government super spy. He has also, in his retirement, become an actual beekeeper. It is merely coincidental that his new profession and the name of the spy organization have the same name.

Anyways, Statham lives in a barn and makes honey for a kindly old woman. The old woman then falls victim to a phishing scam on the phone where she thinks her computer has a virus. After becoming ashamed, she quickly commits suicide, causing Statham’s character to go out for revenge against the scammers. Also, the head of the scammers happens to be the son of the President of the United States of America. Also again, the daughter of the woman who died is an FBI agent.

Part of the problem with the above summary is that it makes the movie seem like more fun than it actually is – when it’s mostly just boring/bad. If The Beekeeper leaned into the humor of situations and the ridiculousness of the plot it would have been a lot more enjoyable. It also has subpar fight scenes for this type of movie. As it is, this is just a really bad movie with maybe a handful of funny-bad scenes mixed in.

Grade: 3/10