The Prophecy (1995)

Stories about war in heaven and angels using Earth as a battleground were less common when The Prophecy was released than they are now, so it's useful to view it with that in mind. Directed by the writer of Highlander (1986), i.e. Gregory Widen, it attempts a similar balance of fantastical and human story. As such, it's less action-packed than some of the other works I alluded to above. It's slowly paced in the first half, but more rewarding in the second.
On one side there's a cop with a religious background who's hunting for answers, and on the other is an angel played by Walken who's hunting for something entirely different, but the two things are connected.
The black comedy misfires about 99% of the time, but there's enough conflict and drama to keep the core subject matter interesting to the end.

3 perched arguments out of 5

JOY [2015]

Director David O. Russell reunites with his usual cast members for the funny inspirational drama Joy.
It's a slightly fictional bio-pic on American entrepreneur Joy Mangano and the trouble she had with her world famous Miracle Mop, while still trying to juggle being a single mother who took care of her whole crazy family.
Based on Silver Linings Playbook & American Hustle, Russell and his co-stars Jennifer Lawrence  & Bradley Cooper seemed to be the perfect ingredients for success but Joy manages to fumble a bit with a distractingly uneven tone.  Still Lawrence is terrific at portraying characters who are much older than the actress actually is, with a confident performance that is worth giving the film at least a single viewing.  The script seems to start leading into all sorts of potentially interesting arcs for character interaction but never seems to find it's footing and ultimately feels like it needs a good mop-up itself.

3 soap operas out of 5

Dune: Special TV Edition (1988)

A 176 min (PAL) version of Dune!? Holy Reverend Mother’s undies! It’s… it’s… Alan Smithee? It’s 4:3 Pan + Scan and it’s in mono. Bastards!
On the plus side there are alternate edits, angles and footage that was missing from the shorter 137 min theatrical cut. There’s an extended prologue providing a lot more back-story than before via V/O and a series of painted images filmed with a rostrum camera; I have mixed feelings about that part.
The inclusion of an original film poster reproduction is appealing, but hardly enough to entice all but the most obsessive Dune fan. If you identify with that classification then seek it out because the new scenes are fascinating. The 4:3 presentation, however, means it scores badly. If only it had been in 2.35:1.

2½ eyes turned to Arrakis out of 5

Highlander II: The Renegade Version (1995)

Three official versions of the film exist. The theatrical cut (100 mins), known as Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), is an abomination. The Renegade Version (109 mins), aka The Director's Cut, that surfaced in ’95 reconstructs the film by rearranging key scenes, fixing many of the continuity errors and best of all completely rewriting the ridiculous origin story of the theatrical cut. It’s still an illogical mess, but in comparison to its predecessor it’s a masterpiece. A subsequent Special Edition (2004) is reportedly the same as the Renegade Version but with extra CGI and some colour correction; I've not seen it to confirm if that’s true or not. Detailing all of that has left me no room to talk about the actual film. Create a list of synonyms for ‘travesty’ and pick the ten best. That should suffice.

1 shithead out of 5

Candyman (1992)

I'll forever hold a grudge against Candyman for not living up to my childhood memories of it. It's a well-made, well-acted movie with a few very good scenes, but as a whole, it's just not that effective. It has a solid start and an interesting premise, but the writers seem to lose the plot early on, and never explore the most compelling story elements.

Tony Todd is terrific, and succeeds at making The Candyman iconic even when the script fails him. If not for him and Virginia Madsen, I'm not sure anyone would even remember this one. If it had been a better movie, he'd be considered one of the all-time greats. Candyman fails on a lot of levels, but makes the grade in a number of other ways, and I think it's worth watching at least once.

3 would be better without the tacked on second ending out of 5.

Dune (1984)

Scratchy sand, suits with piss in the thighs, giant phallic worms, quasi-religious nonsense and a floating fat man. I love Dune.
It’s a mess that requires you to have a deep knowledge of the book that it’s based on to understand it. You’ll need to be able to fill in the blanks to have even a hope of defending it to the haters. There's some dodgy casting and some inspired casting, and the music is hero music at its finest. One thing is certain: the sets are some of the best you’ll find in an 80’s sci-fi film.

4 litanies against fear out of 5