2nd movie review

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

More From Decider

New Shows & Movies To Watch This Weekend: 'Bridgerton' Season 3 on...

Jax Taylor Admits His "Delivery Is Awful" In 'The Valley': "That's One Of...

What Happened to Regé-Jean Page? Did the Duke Bomb His Movie Star Career...

'9-1-1's Malcolm-Jamal Warner On Amir And Bobby, Working With Peter...

'Unfrosted' Has Everyone Wondering "What's The Deal With Jerry Seinfeld?"

Chrissy Teigen Stuns John Legend On 'The Drew Barrymore Show' With Reveal...

Brooke Shields Flashed Her ‘Mother of the Bride’ Co-Star Benjamin...

Andy Cohen Reveals Sarah Jessica Parker's Reaction When He Suggested Rosie...

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to copy URL

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The 2nd’ On Netflix, Ryan Phillippe Rescues College Kids From Terrorists, Just Don’t Ask Why

Where to stream:.

• The 2nd (2020)
• Ryan Phillippe

5 Sexy Dark Academia Movies to Get Your 'Saltburn' Fix

Stream it or skip it: ‘miranda’s victim’ on hulu, a surprisingly absorbing and complex drama about the adoption of miranda rights, stream it or skip it: ‘american murderer’ on hulu, a scammer story that turns criminal and campy, stream it or skip it: ‘collide’ on hulu, a calamitous pile-up of dramatic clichés.

If you want to protect the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, sometimes you have no choice but to kidnap the daughter of one of the nine Supreme Court justices. It’s a foolproof plan, really. Unless you’re fooled into making your kidnapping attempt on an almost deserted college campus where the only other adult around is a Green Beret killing machine with a heart of gold whose son has a crush on the SCOTUS justice’s daughter. Or I could’ve just told you it’s Casper Van Dien vs. Ryan Phillippe, and you’ve watched everything else on Netflix.

THE 2ND : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The actual plot makes less sense than what I described above, and most of it doesn’t really matter, actually.

I mean, it opens with a sequence in which Ryan Phillippe and another guy are Secret Service agents (I guess?) protecting a U.S. Senator played by William Katt, who is so far more than four decades removed from The Greatest American Hero that he’s leering at a woman (journalist? lobbyist?) who asks the senator about his presidential aspirations and the Second Amendment, but the agents whisk the senator away due to a bomb threat that’s actually a smokescreen to get the senator out in the open for an ambush by masked terrorists. In a rash of gunfire, Phillippe saves the senator but loses his partner. And none of this is mentioned or has any impact on the rest of the movie. Cue the credits!

The trailer is actually much better at delivering both the story and the goods? From that description: “ Phillippe plays Secret Service Agent Vic Davis, who finds himself single-handedly fighting to thwart a terrorist operation and the attempted kidnapping of a Supreme Court justice’s daughter from her college dorm.”

Casper Van Dien leads the terrorist contingent.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: You know how Die Hard is a Christmas movie ? Well, The 2nd is what happens when you want to re-create that movie magic without remembering what went into making Die Hard a great movie in the first place. You’ve still got Christmas decorations and holiday mentions, you’ve still got bad guys with multiple accents, and you’ve still got lots of gunfire.

Performance Worth Watching: The other recognizable face onscreen belongs to Richard Burgi ( Desperate Housewives , 24 , Hostel: Part II , The Sentinel and a veteran of several soap operas), who plays CIA Director Mike Phillips. He turns out to be the mastermind of this whole operation, for reasons that are never really outlined. Just know that the CIA Director believes one Supreme Court justice out of nine holds the swing vote on a court case that will do *something* to the Second Amendment that would be catastrophic enough to warrant kidnapping or perhaps killing the judge’s daughter.

But I’m more impressed that amid all that hullaballoo, Burgi’s CIA chief uses Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story from 1973, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” as an allegory to explain his machinations.

Memorable Dialogue: A pulpy genre piece is gonna rely on some cliche and boilerplate dialogue.

A Russian baddie warns Shawn, Davis’s college-aged son, out of shooting him at the end of one fight in the dorm, saying: “Once you cross that line…there ain’t no going back.”

Since the baddies are working for the CIA, you get to hear one of them mid-fight say: “Believe it or not, we’re the good guys!”

After Davis improbably survives one shootout, his son exclaims: “We heard you were dead!” To which Davis replies: “Nah, they just gave me a workout.” A bit later, in a quiet moment between gunfights and fistfights, Davis out of nowhere says to his son: “Ya know, I’m thinking about retiring.”

Van Dien gets some choice lines, too. Among them:

• “Three people can keep a secret…if two of them are dead.”
• “Too bad we didn’t meet under different circumstances — we could’ve been friends.”
• “You think this ends here? I’m just the tip of the spear!”

My favorite line isn’t even spoken, though. It’s that scene shown above where Phillippe greets the SCOTUS judge, driving up to the scene of a burning car crash, holding a sign written in blood (his own? or that of one of the dead baddies?) that reads: “I’M HERE TO HELP.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: This is not a great movie by any measure.

But that’s not why you’re even thinking of watching this in the first place. In an earlier time, The 2nd would be one of those lone VHS boxes on the Blockbuster New Release shelves that you pick up based on the title just to see who’s in it, then you see it’s got Ryan Phillippe and Casper Van Dien, and you’re intrigued, but wonder why you don’t remember seeing it advertised or showing at your local cineplex. Straight-to-streaming has replaced straight-to-VHS and straight-to-DVD, and a new release on Netflix with a provocative title and stars you recognize can shoot up to the top of the Netflix charts easily thanks to your clicks, which then provokes more fascination by bored viewers such as you.

And Phillippe just showed up again in primetime on ABC’s Big Sky (available on Hulu), so he’s front of your mind. And this action-packed role in The 2nd might remind you how Phillippe recently starred for three seasons as a retired U.S. Marine Corps sniper in USA’s Shooter .

So your interest is piqued. Piqued enough for a B-movie with C- dialogue and an F for logic? The movie only begins to become self-aware in the final scene, cutting away from the ridiculousness it has just set up to roll the final credits. Anyone up for The 3rd? Nobody knows the Third Amendment, so the sequel would likely be The 2nd 2nd, I’m guessing.

Our Call: SKIP IT. The pandemic has made too many of us less discriminating in our streaming habits. Watch Phillippe in MacGruber instead. Or watch Van Dien in Starship Troopers . That’s some top-notch ridiculousness.

Should you stream or skip the Ryan Phillippe action movie #The2nd on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) December 4, 2020

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper,  The Comic’s Comic ; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets  @thecomicscomic  and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories:  The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First .

Watch The 2nd on Netflix

• Stream It Or Skip It

Ted Danson Tells Drew Barrymore That Woody Harrelson Was Once A No-Show To 'Cheers' Set Because He Was Watching The Berlin Wall Come Down

'The Resident's Malcolm-Jamal Warner Says Cast Would Be Open To Returning For A Season 7: "I Think We Would All Jump At The Opportunity"

Jenna Bush Hager Boldly Puts Jake Gyllenhaal’s 'SNL' Performance Down On 'Today': "I Don’t Know He’s That Good"

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Monster’ on Netflix, a Dialogue-Free Indonesian Horror-Thriller

‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Part 1 Climaxes With Penelope and Colin’s Steamy Carriage Ride

'Live's Kelly Ripa And Mark Consuelos Learn Why Ankle Socks Are "Canceled" From Gen Z Members Of Their Studio Audience

The 2nd Ending, Explained

In ‘The 2nd’, director Brian Skiba (‘Rottentail’) brings together two of the biggest superstars of the 90s, Ryan Phillippe and Casper Van Dien. The film revolves around Major Vic Davis (Phillippe), a Green Beret, who must find a way to keep his son and the daughter of a Supreme Court Justice safe while battling a group of highly-trained antagonists.

When the film came out, it garnered mixed reviews, although Phillippe and Van Dien received considerable praise for their performances. The movie has an engaging plot and well-choreographed action sequences. All in all, it’s a fun B-film that does exactly what a movie is supposed to do, entertain its audience. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The 2nd Plot Synopsis

The film opens with Davis and his partner arriving at a US Senator’s office to move him to a secure location after an apparent terror outfit issues a bomb threat against him. This comes against the backdrop of an important Supreme Court vote on the Second Amendment. The senator, Bob Jeffers, is a staunch supporter of gun rights, and his elimination is a top priority for the shadowy outfit.

While speaking to the operative who has been given the mission to detonate the bomb, his mysterious handler talks about a benefactor for whom neutralizing Jeffers is of utmost importance. The convoy is attacked on their way to a safehouse. Although the Senator remains unharmed, Davis’ partner is killed. Some time passes, and the movie finds Davis traveling to his son Sean’s (Jack Griffo) college to pick him up from there and then go camping together.

Davis and Sean have been somewhat estranged since the death of Davis’ wife in the hands of Iraqi militants, who came after his family for what he had done to them. At the same time, several operatives from the outfit arrive at the campus. Their leader poses as a Secret Service driver (Van Dien) for Erin Walton (Lexi Simonsen), the daughter of Justice Walton (Randy Charach). They quickly take out the campus security and are about to abduct their target when Davis intervenes.

What follows is a cat-and-mouse game between Davis and Driver. Davis tries to use the college as a fortress while trying to protect his son and Erin. On the other hand, Driver continues to send in his operatives to take him out and capture Erin. Davis soon learns that he is fighting a CIA ground team. At Erin’s home, Director Phillips (Richard Burgi) of the CIA shows up and tells Judge Walton that he has his daughter, warning him that if he doesn’t do what he tells him to do, Erin will get hurt.

The 2nd Ending

In the end, it is revealed that the bomber’s handler was Director Phillips himself. They both have the same codename, “Father.” Evidently, the CIA or at least one of its factions is trying to influence a domestic policy. Through Phillips’ retelling of Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,’ the film hints that the operatives and their enigmatic benefactor want the judge to give his opinion against the Second Amendment.

In doing that, they succeed. In Ursula K. Le Guin’s story, a child must live in perpetual impoverishment, so an entire city can thrive. Similarly, Phillips, Driver, and their accomplices try to abduct and later kill Erin because they believe that it is for the greater good.

How to Keep a Secret

As Driver says twice in the film, three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead. He survives the explosion after his fight with Davis, and when Phillips returns to his home, Driver is already there, waiting for him with a gun in his hand. Phillips tries to persuade him by telling him that Walton will never talk, nor will he change his judgment. He then implies that they will just hide what happened.

What Phillips fails to realize is that the decision to eliminate him has already been taken by their benefactor. He now poses a risk for their entire operation, being the CIA director who kidnapped the daughter of a Supreme Court Justice to force him to give his opinion against the Second Amendment. Driver sounds almost apologetic when he tells Phillips that history will not remember him kindly, implying that he will be used as a scapegoat. Later, he kills him.

The Possibility of a Sequel

The film’s ending is very open-ended. Davis overwhelmingly triumphs against the odds, defeating Driver, ensuring the safety of both his son and Erin, and reuniting the latter with her father. Sean is in the hospital because of the bullet wound and other injuries. Davis is there with him. The ordeal has clearly brought them closer. Sean learns that his father has been awarded the Medal of Honor.

Davis gives his son the watch that President Clinton gave him after realizing that there weren’t enough medals. As a battle-hardened soldier, he knows how killing another person affects someone and urges his son to focus on the people he saved instead. Erin arrives with a bottle of alcohol. It is quite apparent that she and Sean are romantically involved.

When Davis comes downstairs, he sees that his wife (Samaire Armstrong) has been taken hostage by a group of people whose accent sounds decidedly East European. The film ends as he begins fighting them. He lost his first wife when his past came for him, seeking vengeance. It seems like history is repeating itself. This is a clever way to set up for a sequel. With Driver surviving, he just might return in the future to make Davis pay his dues, just like the group of assailants does in the closing scenes of the film.

Read More: Where Was The 2nd Filmed?

SPONSORED LINKS

• Movie Explainers
• TV Explainers
• About The Cinemaholic

This New Ryan Phillippe Movie Just Hit #1 on Netflix & It’s Totally Worth the Watch

Move over, The Impossible . There's a new movie making its way to the top of Netflix 's charts. And it even stars one of our favorite actors, Ryan Phillippe .

Called The 2nd (referencing the second amendment of the United States Constitution), the 2020 film just made its way to the number one spot on the streaming service’s list of most-watched movies, surpassing The Christmas Chronicles 2 , Peppermint , The Grinch and Rust Creek . Keep reading for everything we know.

The 2nd follows secret-service agent, Vic Davis, on his way to pick up his estranged son, Sean, from his college campus when he finds himself in the middle of a high-stakes terrorist operation. Yikes. His son's friend Erin Walton (the daughter of a Supreme Court Justice) is the target, and this armed gang will stop at nothing to kidnap her and use her as leverage for a pending landmark legal case.

And while some reviews (we’re looking at you Rotten Tomatoes) were less than kind to the small-budget film, we were actually fairly impressed (and entertained). In fact, The 2nd feels like a true throwback to old-school action movies featuring never-ending fight scenes and explosions. Not to mention, watching Phillippe show off his fighting skills is an added plus.

In addition to Phillippe, the action-thriller also stars Casper Van Dien ( All American ), Jack Griffo ( Knight Squad ), Lexi Simonsen ( The Pyramid ), Richard Burgi ( General Hospital ) and William Katt ( The Unwanted ). The film was directed by Brian Skiba, and produced by Phillippe, Geoffrey James Clark, Kirk Shaw, Daniel Grodnik, James Shavick and Josh Tessier.

So, maybe take a break from all of the Christmas movie bingeing and opt for something a little more action-packed this evening.

RELATED 3 Netflix Movies I Thought I’d Hate But Ended Up Loving (OK, & One I Was Right About)

• What To Watch Next?

When a Delta Force soldier realises that his son's friend is on the verge of being kidnapped, he takes on the CIA to save her life in The 2nd. A truly awful movie that should never have been made.

I love a good shoot 'em up action movie. Those one-man hero movies that made the likes of Die Hard so good to watch are right up my street. And I also like Ryan Philippe as an actor and really got into his Netflix show Shooter . So when The 2nd popped up I settled in for what I hoped would be another great flick. Oh how wrong I was.

Despite the premise actually being quite decent, the execution of this film borders on the ridiculous. I would go so far as to say “you couldn't make this sh*t up” but clearly somebody did. So it goes like this…

Shawn Davis (Jack Griffo) and Erin Walton (Lexi Simonsen) are the only two students left on an entire college campus as it breaks for the holidays. Erin's father is a Supreme Court Justice and as such she has her own protective detail. Shawn is waiting for his father, Major Vic Davis (Phillipe) and when both are being picked up at the same time Vic notices something fishy about the guys collecting Erin. It quickly becomes apparent that they are trying to kidnap her. So flexing his Delta Force muscles he takes on the entire group of kidnappers by himself.

But why are they trying to kidnap her I hear you ask? Well, that's a rather convoluted story. There is clearly a challenge to The 2nd amendment in the works. Erin's father has what looks like the deciding vote. So in order to influence him, the plan is to kidnap his daughter until he provides the correct response. The problem is his daughter is so infuriatingly juvenile and spoilt that you could be forgiven for hoping the bad guys actually do succeed!

The acting is atrocious. And I mean ATROCIOUS. It's like they pulled wooden planks off the street and give them a script. The action scenes are hilarious and even those left for dead miraculously bounce back to continue torturing us as the movie rolls on. If I could have stopped watching and spared myself 93 minutes I would have. Sadly, I had to write this review so I reluctantly plowed on. The upside is that I might just save you an evening of misery!

• The Premise Is Decent
• Trailer Sums Up The Whole Movie
• Awful Script
• Even Worse Acting
• Can't Get Back The 93 Minutes Spent Watching It

Related Items

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

WE VALUE YOUR PRIVACY

Privacy overview.

Home » Streaming Service

Two review – a mystery you won’t be able to tear yourself away from

This review of Netflix film Two does not contain spoilers.

Two follows David (Pablo Derqui) and Sara (Marina Gatell), a pair of strangers who wake up in a room with no clue of how they got there. What’s more bizarre, however, is the fact that both of their abdomens have been surgically attached to each other. Very quickly, what started off as a situation that may have caused both parties to have a few regrets snowballs into something far more sinister that there is no guarantee either of them will get out of.

Netflix film Two does not hang about in getting off the starting line. It drops you right into the thick of it, and you experience everything at the same time as the characters. An open mind helps in the opening ten minutes or so, and if you can get beyond the initial what-in-the-Human-Centipede-is-going-on-here shock of it all, you will have a very good time indeed. What I liked about the film was this idea that you couldn’t trust any part of what you were seeing. It was very much like you had woken up in the room with David and Sara, and whilst not quite the same life-or-death stakes that they were dealing with, to take anything at face value would surely prove to be a mistake.  

As things progressed, the mystery thickened. Two is a terrific display of what can be done within the confines of a very scaled-back set, and combined with all of the tiny breadcrumbs it constantly dropped it soon began to share a lot of the same qualities as an escape room, which is probably the best way to describe the overall vibe of the film. Of course, saying this implies that every detail plays a part, and that is absolutely the case. The frame composition was phenomenal, with almost everything becoming a clue. Nothing was in-shot by mistake; it was all very deliberate, and I must say, very effective.

Now, this is a film that gives the brain a bit of a workout. It is impossible not to sit there and try to work out what is actually going on, how David and Sara came to be trapped in this room, why they were treated in such a way, and so on. I will admit, I’m not always a huge lover of that kind of thing, but Two caused me to have the realisation that perhaps I’m just not always a fan because often the films that try it are too long. With a runtime of just 70 minutes, Two is a sprint rather than a marathon, and as such the constant mental gymnastics don;t exhaust but rather energize the viewer. I think not having to wait too long for all of the answers was magical, because it meant it didn’t have the chance to overcomplicate things, which in turn would have meant it had to do somersaults with its pay-off in order for it to feel worth it. I did mention at the start of this review that I had gone into this film with low expectations, but I think there is a lot to be said for the way that it continued to manage them throughout. It always under-promised and over-delivered, never the other way round.

The only thing I can complain about with Two is how suddenly it seemed to finish. Admittedly, given the runtime I’ve just praised it for, it may come across as a slightly confused criticism. It felt a bit like if I’d have blinked I might have missed it, it came together so quickly. In fairness, that is a very nit-picky comment to make, and if that’s the biggest issue that a film has, then you’ve not watched a bad one, but if it had taken its time a little bit more in wrapping things up, it could’ve been perfect.

Whilst I suspect it will be largely overlooked, Netflix’s Two is more than deserving of people’s attention. At first glance, it will be too weird for many, but sticking with it (ha) will see you reap all the rewards. It threatens body horror, but provides a solid little mystery, and I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t enjoy one of those.  

What did you think of Netflix film Two? Comment below. 

Article by Kira Comerford

Kira holds many talents, including photography, videography, events, and film & TV journalism. Joining Ready Steady Cut in July 2021, Kira has written over 90 published articles for the site. If you ever see Kira, you’ll probably find her holding a camera doing her latest film project.

The Politician Recap: Gaining Leverage

The New Legends of Monkey season 2, episode 1 recap - "Graveyard of the Gods"

This website cannot be displayed as your browser is extremely out of date.

Please update your browser to one of the following: Chrome , Firefox , Edge

‘The Second Act’ Review: Léa Seydoux and Louis Garrel Question Their Choices in Slight, Self-Aware Cannes Opener

'Deerskin' director Quentin Dupieux kicks off the festival with a meta-textual amuse bouche, in which four French actors squabble about why they've agreed to make such a formulaic movie.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

• ‘Anora’ Review: Sean Baker’s Whirlwind Sex-Work Romance Sparkles Like the Tinsel in Its Leading Lady’s Hair 21 hours ago
• ‘The Kingdom’ Review: The Daughter of a Corsican Big Shot Practices Her Aim in Cannes Standout 2 days ago
• ‘Emilia Pérez’ Review: Leading Lady Karla Sofía Gascón Electrifies in Jacques Audiard’s Mexican Redemption Musical 4 days ago

In France, the concept of irony is referred to as “deuxième degré” (second degree), where the “premier degré” is the literal or surface meaning, which can be twisted as audiences read an entirely different, often contrary meaning into the material. But the game doesn’t necessarily stop there. There is also “troisième degré,” “quatrième degré” and so on, as deep as you want to go.

Popular on Variety

At one point, operating at what is at least the fourth degree, Seydoux declares, “Reality is reality. Period.” Dupieux has been toying with self-conscious devices since at least 2014, when his film “Reality” hit the Venice Film Festival. I hated that movie — an aggressively unfunny amalgam of sketches in which Alain Chabat played an aspiring filmmaker in search of the perfect groan — though contrarian French culture mag Les Inrockuptibles just ranked it as Dupieux’s best. You say tomato, I say rotten.

“Yannick” centers around a blue-collar worker who interrupts a boring “boulevard” play he’s paid to attend, ordering the actors (at gunpoint) to make it more interesting. Or, as Edouard Baer (one of six actors Dupieux cast in the role of Salvador Dalí in “Daaaaaali!”) postulates, “No one is an actor. It’s a nonexistent profession. ‘Actor’ is a total invention.” The Surrealist painter goes on to complain about the “unbearable” and “appalling banality” of the film-within-a-film.

Is Dupieux bored with movies? Clearly not, or he wouldn’t keep making them, but he seems to recognize (more than most) that audiences have gotten savvy to the codes and clichés, and so he seeks to subvert them, to weaponize convention against itself, while folding in barbs about the contemporary state of cinema. For example, if the scenes sampled here sound lousy, why not imply that this movie was the first to be written and directed entirely by artificial intelligence?

Improvising the dialogue for a long walk-and-talk scene in which David (Garrel) asks Willy (Quenard) to seduce his clingy girlfriend Florence (Seydoux), the actors riff about political correctness, “cancel culture” and trans identity. “You can’t say that!” David abruptly interrupts Willy. “We’re being filmed.” Cute, except the English subtitles have softened the dialogue (the word “travelo” does not mean “trans,” though sensitivity has scrubbed its equivalent from English usage).

Willy’s lines are meant to be offensive (as David/Garrel makes clear), and it may be instructive for moviegoers to note who around them laughs and at what “level.” The third-degree payoff to that exchange comes nearly an hour later in the film. In the meantime, the characters bicker constantly, as when Guillaume (Lindon) storms out of his first scene, complaining that he’s lost faith in the dying art form … until his agent calls to say he’s been cast in Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film.

The problem with irony at any level is that it makes sincerity almost impossible to judge. The resulting ambiguity serves as a cornerstone of zoomer humor, where the concepts of meta-irony and post-irony obscure the author’s intent so completely that audiences can interpret the material however they like. Some take offense, while others see the too-far elements as deliberate subversions of upsetting concepts. Alas, Dupieux doesn’t take anything too far. If anything, he falls short, getting stuck in the infinite loop of his own cleverness.

Oddly enough, considering the film’s tight running time, practically every scene overstays its welcome, including the otherwise smart final shot — an inspired end punctuation, stretched out like all those “a”’s in “Daaaaaali!” Dupieux’s strategy seems to be flipping or repeating certain punchlines for fresh effect, which is fine for a while, until you realize that neither “The Second Act” nor those second-degree readings have much to say.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (opener), May 14, 2024. Running time: 80 MIN. (Original title: “Le deuxième acte”)

• Production: A Chi-Fou-Mi Prods, Arte France Cinéma production, with the participation of Netflix, Arte France, Cine+, in association with Kinology, Diaphana, Cineaxe 5, Cofinova 21. (International sales: Kinology, Paris.) Producer: Hugo Sélignac.
• Crew: Director, writer, camera, editor: Quentin Dupieux.
• With: Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel, Raphaël Quenard, Manuel Guillot.

More From Our Brands

Watch billie eilish perform ‘lunch,’ discuss her new album on ‘colbert’, babe ruth’s ‘called shot’ jersey from the 1932 world series could fetch over $30 million at auction, redbird, fsu trustee launch college sports investment fund, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, the voice finale recap: [spoiler] is named the winner of season 25, verify it's you, please log in.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Link to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Link to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Babes Link to Babes

New TV Tonight

• Evil: Season 4
• Trying: Season 4
• Tires: Season 1
• Fairly OddParents: A New Wish: Season 1
• Stax: Soulsville, U.S.A.: Season 1
• Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza: Season 1
• Jurassic World: Chaos Theory: Season 1
• Mulligan: Season 2
• The 1% Club: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• Outer Range: Season 2
• Bodkin: Season 1
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 2
• Bridgerton: Season 3
• Fallout: Season 1
• Dark Matter: Season 1
• The Sympathizer: Season 1
• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• The 8 Show: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Bridgerton: Season 3 Link to Bridgerton: Season 3
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

Mad Max Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Mad Max In Order: How to Watch the Movies Chronologically

Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Weekend Box Office Results: John Krasinski’s IF Rises to the Top

Hugh Jackman Knew “Deep in His Gut” That He Wanted to Play Wolverine Again

• Trending on RT
• Furiosa First Reviews
• Most Anticipated 2025 Movies
• Cannes Film Festival Preview
• TV Premiere Dates

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part

Where to watch.

Rent The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

While it isn't quite as much fun as its predecessor, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part fits neatly into an animated all-ages franchise with heart and humor to spare.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Mike Mitchell

Chris Pratt

Emmet Brickowski

Elizabeth Banks

Will Arnett

Tiffany Haddish

Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi

Stephanie Beatriz

General Mayhem

More Like This

Related movie news.

Cannes Film Festival 2024: All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival is underway with Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act starring Léa Seydoux and Louis Garrel serving as the opening-night film.

This year’s lineup includes major Hollywood premieres like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, Kevin Costner’s first film of a planned four-part series Horizon: An American Saga , Francis Coppola’s long-gestating Megalopolis , Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness in a reteam with Emma Stone, Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada and Andrea Arnold’s Bird to name a few.

They are joined by new films from stalwart auteurs including David Cronenberg, Jacques Audiard, Ali Abbasi, Jia Zhang-Ke, Christophe Honoré, Paolo Sorrentino, Gilles Lellouche, Mohammad Rasoulof, Michel Hazanavicius, Guy Maddin, Noémie Merlant and Oliver Stone.

Read all of Deadline’s takes below throughout the festival, which runs May 14-25. Click on the title to read the full review and keep checking back as we update the list.

Section: Un Certain Regard

Director: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel

Cast: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Endre Hellesveit, Øystein Røger, Vera Veljovic

Deadline’s takeaway: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s lineage should give you a fair idea of what's in store here, but, surprisingly,  Armand  doesn't dig especially deep into the human psyche, finally falling into a strange no man's land between intense character drama and jet-black comedy.

The Balconette (Les Femmes au Balcon)

Section: Midnight Screenings

Director: Noémie Merlant

Cast: Noémie Merlant, Sanda Codreanu, Souhelia Yacoub

Deadline’s takeaway: The bulky shade of Pedro Almodóvar looms over all these shenanigans, which could be read as “Women on the Verge of Heat Exhaustion” if there were more sense of it actually being hot, one of several flavors missing from Merlant's confection of genres.

Director: Andrea Arnold

Section: Competition

Cast: Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan, Jason Buda, Jasmin Jobson, James Nelson Noyce, Frankie Box, Franz Rogowski,

Deadline’s takeaway: Andrea Arnold knows just how to get under our skin. She embellishes the film with fantastical elements, but whether they're really happening or part of Bailey's childlike desperation to believe in anything magical, the film doesn't make clear. But Arnold certainly wants us to know one thing: Bailey will be OK.

Caught By the Tides

Director: Jia Zhangke

Cast: Zhao Tao, Zhubin Li

Deadline’s takeaway: Jia Zhangke leads his partner and muse, Zhao Tao, on a decades-long romantic odyssey in  Caught By the Tides , which tries too hard to play with time and form for the connection between its leads to be its central preoccupation.

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point

Director: Tyler Taormina

Section: Directors’ Fortnight

Cast: Matilda Fleming, Michael Cera, Chris Lazzaro, Elsie Fisher, Gregg Turkington

Deadline’s takeaway: It's hard to categorize Taormina's film, and, for some, its freewheeling, indie  American Graffiti  vibe might take a little getting used to. But  Christmas Eve in Miller's Point  is a trip for anyone willing to roll with it, and more than cements Taormina as a talent to watch.

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes

Director: Nanette Burstein

Section: Cannes Classics

With: Elizabeth Taylor

Deadline’s takeaway: The tapes recorded in 1964 weren't actually  lost,  but it all makes for a satisfying journey through one of Hollywood's most memorable careers. There is the feeling of intimacy that makes this one special, if not exactly full of new revelations.

Emilia Pérez

Director: Jacques Audiard

Cast:  Adriana Paz, Edgar Ramirez, Mark Ivanir, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez

Deadline’s takeaway: None of this ever seems ridiculous, because Audiard leans into the musical genre’s conventions; rather than bending his provocative story to fit it, he bends the form itself. It may be too soon to call the Palme d'Or with a week of the Cannes Film Festival left to run, but Emilia Pérez looks very much like a winner.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Director: George Miller

Section: Out of Competition

Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne, Lachy Hulme, Matuse, Goran Kleut, Charlee Fraser

Deadline’s takeaway: With Furiosa , George Miller, now seemingly ageless at 79 (he was 34 when the first Mad Max came out), has perhaps given birth to the greatest  Max  yet, a wheels-up, rock-and-rolling epic that delivers on the origin story.

Director: Laurent Bouzereau

With: Faye Dunaway

Deadline’s takeaway: You will find yourself with renewed respect for this great star after watching this documentary on her life. Time for a Faye Dunaway retrospective, and this fine film is perfect reason to do it.

Ghost Trail

Director: Jonathan Millet

Section: Critics’ Week

Cast: Adam Bessa, Tawfeek Barhom, Julia Franz Richter, Shafiqa El Till

Deadline’s takeaway: On the surface, Ghost Trail uses the traditional tropes of the spy movie, but it isn't exactly thrilling, certainly not in the manner of a John le Carré novel. Closer in spirit to Spielberg's  Munich , it's a quietly profound character study about the need for a closure that may never come.

The Girl with the Needle

Director: Magnus von Horn

Cast: Vic Carmen Sonne, Trine Dyrholm

Deadline’s takeaway: It is because this story's truths are so stark that this high-wire work succeeds. Magnus von Horn is a masterful talent, and there is plenty of prize potential within his film. It’s an unequivocal and beguiling triumph. 

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1

Director: Kevin Costner

Cast: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Michael Rooker, Will Patton, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Wase Winyan Chief, Jamie Campbell Bower, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jon Beavers

Deadline’s takeaway: Horizon: An American Saga is an impressive beginning for Costner, who is just trying to keep the American Western alive. But he may, with this innovative roll of the dice, also be trying to keep theaters alive at the same time, that is if there is still an appetite for Westerns. Hopefully there is.

Jim Henson Idea Man

Director: Ron Howard

Section: Classics

Deadline’s takeaway: Howard’s documentary brings fresh energy to the subject through the skillful use of animations based on Henson's impressive drawings and wonderful archival rarities that go beyond what has been seen in previous treatments of Henson's life.

Kinds of Kindness

Director : Yorgos Lanthimos

Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau

Deadline’s takeaway: Kinds of Kindness  is about a ubiquitous interdependence between ruthless power and willing submission that crops up everywhere, which implies that we are all in its thrall. That makes it their gloomiest film yet. Of course, it is also very funny.

Limonov: The Ballad

Director: Kirill Serebrennikov

Cast: Ben Whishaw, Viktoria Miroshnichenko

Deadline’s takeaway: A boundary-blasting biopic that simply drips with punk-rock energy, revealing everything and nothing about a slippery character whose modus operandi was reinvention from the get-go and for whom consistency really  was  the hobgoblin of small minds.

Megalopolis

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Cast: Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf

Deadline’s takeaway: Watching Anthony Mann's  The Fall of the Roman Empire  and eating cheese afterwards would be the only way to replicate Megalopolis ‘ fever-dream grandeur, a series of stunning images, carried along by the loosest of plots, that pontificate on the self-destructive nature of humankind, the only species capable of civilizing itself to death.

My Sunshine

Director: Hiroshi Okuyama

Cast: Sosuke Ikematsu, Keitatsu Koshiyama, Kiara Nakanishi

Deadline’s takeaway: Okuyama does not attempt to hit us over the head or engage in the tropes of this kind of story revolving around the growing pains of youth. There is no melodrama here. Instead he moves his camera (he is also cinematographer) as gracefully as his young dancers, shot in such a way, quietly joyous at times, that it resembles a mood piece. 

Director: Paul Schrader

Cast:  Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Jacob Elordi, Michael Imperioli, Zach Shaffer, Kristine Froseth, Jake Weary

Deadline takeaway: Oh, Canada is made up of pieces of a life put under a cinematic microscope at different periods, all moving in and out of the mind of a man who is dying but still lucid enough to tell the truths of his life as time is running out, some revealed for the first time as he grapples with both morality and mortality.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

Director: Rungano Nyoni

Cast: Susan Chardy, Henry B.J. Phiri, Elizabeth Chisela

Deadline’s takeaway: In Nyoni's sophomore film, the focus is the rub between tradition and modernity, using the occasion of a family funeral as the jumping-off point for a slow-burn drama that builds, rather stealthily, to an unexpectedly emotional climax.

Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot

Director: Rithy Panh

Section:  Premiere

Cast: Irène Jacob, Grégoire Colin, Cyril Gueï

Deadline’s takeaway: The journalists in Rithy Panh's film aren't superheroes; their quest for that truth has its own motivations. Yet the importance of their journey to find it cannot be understated. The film might not walk totally fresh ground for Panh, but there is real power in one filmmaker's dedication to re-examining real world horror from many angles over many years.

Directors: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Roy Dupuis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Charles Dance, Takehiro Hira, Denis Ménochet, Rolando Ravello, Zlatko Buric, Alicia Vikander

Deadline’s takeaway: Anyone with a fascination for political process and the idiocies of bureaucracy will find one joke after another hitting the bullseye in Rumours , a more explicitly satirical work that we have come to expect from Canadian director Guy Maddin. For anyone else, it is mild fun at best.

The Second Act

Director: Quentin Dupieux

Section:  Out of Competition

Cast: Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, Raphaël Quenard

Deadline’s takeaway: Maybe Quentin Dupieux should have paid more attention when he was writing; maybe he should have spent longer in the editing suite. But if the results are always a bit ragged, does it matter? Dupieux might never make a masterpiece, but his slapdash, wild entertainments are irresistible.

Director: Lorcan Finnegan

Section:  Midnight Screenings

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julian Mcmahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Rahel Romahn, Finn Little, Charlotte Maggi

Deadline’s takeaway: Nic Cage as a surfer dude? Unlikely, but who cares? The Surfer  is an object lesson in how to make a film economically by using a single location, a bunch of surfing extras and some stock footage of lizards. Which is the grindhouse ethic at work, for sure.

Three Kilometers to the End of the World

Director: Emanuel Parvu

Section:  Competition

Cast: Bogdan Dumitrache, Ciprian Chiujdea, Laura Vasily

Deadline’s takeaway: Parvu is careful to show the complexity of these characters as well as of their weave of betrayals, mistakes and wrongdoing. The actors bring to their portraits the naturalistic ease combined with intensity that is a hallmark of Romanian New Wave cinema, each one a whole person with their own reasons.

When the Light Breaks

Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson

Cast: Elín Hall, Katla Njálsdóttir, Ágúst Wigum, Mikael Kaaber, Baldur Einarsson, Gunna Hrafn Kristjánsson

Deadline’s takeaway: As an opening-night choice for Cannes‘ Un Certain Regard,  When the Light Breaks  sets a standard for the original and specific vision that is expected of films in this section. 

Wild Diamond

Director: Agathe Riedinger

Cast:  Malou Khebizi, Andréa Bescond, Idir Azougli, Ashley Romano

Deadline’s takeaway: Riedinger's debut feature approaches her subject with remarkable empathy, taking Liane on her own terms and seeing her surroundings largely through her eyes. 

More from Deadline

• Cannes Film Festival Photos Day 3: Anya Taylor-Joy, Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, ‘Bird' & ‘Megalopolis’ Premieres & More
• Cannes Cover Story: Aubrey Plaza Says Francis Coppola “Doesn’t Need My Defense”, Reveals The “Collaboration And Experimentation” Of ‘Megalopolis’

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the conjuring 2.

Now streaming on:

What scares you? It’s pretty easy to see what scares James Wan . The director’s sense of cinematic fear was clearly formed by the horror films of the ‘70s and ‘80s, his work often recalling hits of the era like “The Omen” and “Poltergeist.” In many ways, “The Conjuring 2” is the “ultimate James Wan film,” allowing the filmmaker to play with styles of the era in the retelling of one of its most notable paranormal activities: the notorious Enfield poltergeist. Being able to tie the “true story” behind another horror classic from his youth to this one (“ The Amityville Horror ”) only sweetens the deal. Wan is a kid in a haunted candy store with “The Conjuring 2” and his talent (and that of his team) make this kind of ride enjoyable, even if it doesn’t have the visceral, confident impact of the original. 

“The Conjuring 2” opens with notorious ghostbusters Ed ( Patrick Wilson ) and Lorraine Warren ( Vera Farmiga ) investigating the aftermath of the murders that became known as “The Amityville Horror.” Lorraine has a unique ability to communicate with supernatural beings and has been asked to confirm that what happened at Amityville was demonic in nature and not just a homicidal patriarch. While sitting around a table in the DeFeo dining room, Lorraine has an out-of-body experience that allows her to see the shotgun murders that took place in the house and a “Demon Nun” ( Bonnie Aarons ), which is literally how the recurring vision is listed in the credits, who will haunt Lorraine throughout the film, and issue a warning that Ed’s days are numbered.

After the Amityville prologue, the action jumps to Enfield, England (we know we’re in England because Wan, never a particularly subtle director, uses “London Calling” on the soundtrack, an obvious choice more playful than annoying). We meet the Hodgson family, led by single mother Peggy (Frances O’Connor) and including four children. One of the girls is Janet ( Madison Wolfe ), and she starts to have much bigger problems at home than when she was caught smoking by her teacher. It begins with sleepwalking, progresses to sounds in the middle of the night, and ultimately ends up in possession. A man named Bill Wilkins ( Bob Adrian ) seems to have the ability to take over the poor girl’s body, even speaking through her, resulting in some infamous recordings in which a young girl sounds decidedly like an old man. And that's nowhere near as scary as the crosses that turn upside down or the visions of the "Crooked Man." The local authorities get in touch with the Warrens, who make the trip to England to determine whether or not the Hodgsons are faking the haunting or stop them from becoming the next Amityville.

Children in jeopardy, a put-upon mother, an old house. Sound familiar? It should. Wan and his screenwriters very purposefully hit many of the same beats as the first film, presenting us with a set-up that often feels too similar, and disappoints by comparison because O’Connor’s character isn’t given nearly the depth of Lili Taylor ’s in the original. Taylor’s underrated work in that film helped ground the fear tactics in something real. The characters in “The Conjuring 2” are secondary, introduced with minor definition (mom worries about money, one of the boys stutters, etc.) and then put-upon enough that the Warrens have to save the day. Despite very solid work by Wolfe to capture the fear of a girl who has no idea what’s going on (as well as to be truly scary when she needs to be), the characters in “The Conjuring 2” don’t resonate, so we don’t care as much about what happens to them.

Which is not to say that Wan has entirely lost his ability to scare us. Working with ace cinematographer Don Burgess (a regular collaborator of Robert Zemeckis on everything from “ Forrest Gump ,” for which he won an Oscar, to “ Flight ”), Wan and his team have an incredible ability to produce fear with camera tricks and forced perspective. They’ll start with a shot of a room, zoom in on a face, and then quick-zoom out to reveal something crucial has changed. They avoid traditional, jump-scare edits, knowing that it’s much scarier to stay in one shot as the normal world becomes terrifying around and in it. And they love playing with supernatural POV (that floating camera above the action in the house) and with what they allow us to see. There’s a fantastic scene in which Janet may or may not be possessed by Bill in the background but Wan and Burgess stay tight on Ed Warren’s face, allowing our imaginations to work on what’s going on behind him. At its best, Wan’s incredible camera skills blend with his playfulness—the sound of someone (or something) whistling “This Old Man,” a fire engine toy moving on its own, a dog bell that every modern horror viewer knows will eventually signal menace—to create the kind of thrill ride the director is so clearly trying to replicate. He didn’t just make a film set in the ‘70s, he employs tricks of the era cinematically, recalling movies like “The Omen” and “ The Shining ," but with a modern eye.

“The Conjuring 2” doesn’t live up to the films that inspired it (or the original) not because of the filmmaking laziness we so often see in horror (especially sequels), but almost because Wan and company are having too much fun to streamline their film. The movie runs amazingly long, and could have lost at least 15 minutes to make for a tighter, scarier ride. At times, the non-stop haunting becomes numbing, lessening its ability to scare. The commitment by Wan and his team—and Farmiga and Wilson, who completely devote themselves to their sometimes-goofy roles—makes the ride worth taking, but "The Conjuring 2" can be too recognizable to get under our skin. It is an incredibly robust piece of filmmaking on a technical level, and that alone will be enough for many Wan fans (and those of us exhausted by Hollywood horror films that often show no filmmaking prowess at all), but ghost stories don’t have the same impact the second time you hear them. Even the scary ones.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Now playing

Monica Castillo

Nowhere Special

The Big Cigar

Robert daniels.

Sasquatch Sunset

Film credits.

The Conjuring 2 (2016)

Rated R for terror and horror violence.

133 minutes

Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren

Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren

Frances O'Connor as Peggy Hodgson

Madison Wolfe as Janet Hodgson

Simon McBurney as Maurice Grosse

Sterling Jerins as Judy Warren

Franka Potente as Anita Gregory

Bob Adrian as Bill Wilkins

• Carey Hayes
• David Johnson

Writer (story)

Cinematographer.

• Don Burgess
• Kirk M. Morri
• Joseph Bishara

Latest blog posts

Cannes 2024 Video #4: Jason Gorber on Canada's Films

Cannes 2024: Anora, Limonov, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, Lula

The Legacy of David Bordwell; or, The Memorial Service as Network Narrative

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 Wastes Its Potential

site categories

Conflict, cuts and identity crises: how film festivals are navigating choppy waters, breaking news.

‘Horizon: An American Saga’ Review: Kevin Costner’s Chapter 1 (Of 4) Sets Stage For Epic Story Of American West And Its Complicated History – Cannes Film Festival

By Pete Hammond

Pete Hammond

Awards Columnist/Chief Film Critic

More Stories By Pete

• ‘Parthenope’ Review: Paolo Sorrentino’s Love Affair With Naples Continues But This Time Through The Eyes Of A Woman – Cannes Film Festival
• Cannes Film Festival 2024: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews
• ‘Marcello Mio’ Review: Chiara Mastroianni & Catherine Deneuve Play Themselves In An Amusing Family Affair Like No Other – Cannes Film Festival

Related Stories

Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon: An American Saga’ Gets 11-Minute Ovation At Its Cannes World Premiere

Kevin Costner Reveals The Epic Journey Of His Cannes Western ‘Horizon’ And Has His Say On ‘Yellowstone’ Rancor

Running three hours, this film, scheduled for release by New Line and Warner Bros on June 28, is just “Chapter 1”, first of an unusual planned series of four separate films (not sequels) continuing the massive story, with Chapter 2 already in the can and scheduled for an August 16 release, and Chapter 3 reportedly going before the cameras imminently. Of course this multi-part saga is not unusual for television, where it thrives in the limited series form, but for movies it is virtually unheard of — along with the fact that its star/director, who has been dreaming of this in various forms since 1988, is largely footing the bill.

RELATED: ‘Horizon: An American Saga’ Cannes Film Festival Premiere Photos: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller Luke Wilson & More

RELATED: ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ Review: Chris Hemsworth And Anya Taylor-Joy Take Dystopian Franchise To New Levels

But nothing on this scale has ever been attempted for this kind of release pattern on the big screen, and I would say, at least based on the first part with its huge cast of characters and storylines woven in and out, Costner’s biggest influence may have in fact been 1963’s Cinerama production of How the West Was Won. I know from multiple interviews in the past, including mine, Costner has always noted the impact seeing that film (nominated for Best Picture and winner of three Oscars including Best Original Screenplay) with his father made a lifelong impression on him. It similarly traversed many years, characters and story arcs like Horizon does but was just one long, reserved seat movie event. Horizon has four times its spirit at the very least.

RELATED: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Luke Wilson & Cast Talk ‘Horizon’: “We Can’t Be Consumed With Making Our Pile Of Money Bigger As Much As Our Heart Full” – Cannes Studio

Spanning about 15 years from the end of the Civil War (a factor but not the focus here), Horizon is about the expansion and settlement of the American West, those brave white people who made their way on horse and wagon trains to the promise of a new life. Literally. In the movie Horizon is the name of a basically suburban dream. Flyers are continually seen urging people to come West. “If you want a farm or home the best thing in the West is the town of Horizon. Best grazing land in the world, the richest land, premium virgin land with pure and abundant water, temperate climate, and excellent health,” it advertises to potential settlers.

What it doesn’t say is it is also the home of American Indians, our Native Americans, many who are understandably not too keen about this development on what they consider their territory, and that it could also be a dangerous proposition. But this is a film about Manifest Destiny, and therein will lie many of the complications for these (many) people we meet along the way. And of course in different parts of the world this concept makes this movie still relevant, even as it is told as a piece of our history.

It is clear from this Chapter 1 that Costner, who co-wrote the script with Jon Baird and a story from Mark Kasdan, is interested again in this conundrum with the Indigenous population, just as he was in Dances With Wolves in going for a much deeper and complex study than what Hollywood largely did for decades in its treatment of the American Indian on film. And coming on the heels of another film that premiered in Cannes last year, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the upcoming chapters . In this one the table is set and we meet a lot of the key players, with the emphasis on those white settlers who made their way west as the Civil War had ravaged the Union, but with the promise of changing times giving hope.

Chief among the settlers is Costner’s character, Hayes Ellison, a lone wolf type who would like to keep to himself but keeps getting drawn into things he would rather avoid. He has survival and fighting skills that will come in handy, especially in some confrontations with very bad guys who are making trouble, notably the outlaw Sykes family.

This is a huge cast, but Costner tries to get them all introduced here including the intriguing Sam Worthington character of First Lt. Trent Gephardt, a soldier stationed at Fort Gallant but a guy with questions about himself and where he is going in this new world. Danny Huston’s sympathetic Col. Houghton has his hands full with the emerging droves of settlers, but knows there will be no way to stop, or possibly protect them when they get to Horizon. And you can count in Michael Rooker’s Sgt Major Riordan, who has the same concerns at Gallant.

Others include Luke Wilson’s good but reluctant leader of a wagon train, chosen against his will but trying to live up to the challenge, and Will Patton, a widower still recovering from the Civil War and accompanying his three daughters for a better shot at life.

The Native Americans are authentically cast, as you might expect in any movie from the filmmaker of Dances With Wolves. Standouts include Owen Crow Shoe as Pionsenay, an Apache warrior who is confused and frustrated with clashes with the settlers and none too pleased at this development, as opposed to brother Taklishim (a fine Tatanka Means) who is siding with their father, the Chief, in trying to be non-confrontational. Liluye (an excellent Wase Winyan Chief) is also his wife and mother of their baby, but she seems to have more fortitude and actually believes they should, like her brother-in-law, be resisting the rise of the settlers rather than sitting idly by.

Giovanni Ribisi, Glynn Turman, Tom Payne, Kathleen Quinlan, Angus MacFayden and countless others also pop in and out, some with perhaps more to do in ensuing chapters. There are more than 170 speaking roles in the series which is being shot on locations in Utah, with stunning cinematography by J. Michael Muro who captures the grandeur of the Old West in style. Other shout-outs go to Derek R. Hill’s authentic production design and John Debney’s stirring score.

For Costner, this is an impressive beginning, with the promise of more to come. It even ends with a montage of scenes from the second film coming in August, much like you might see if this were a television production, something it is defiantly not. With Horizon: An American Saga, Costner is just trying to keep the American Western alive, but he may, with this innovative roll of the dice, also be trying to keep theaters alive at the same time, that is if there is still an appetite for Westerns. Hopefully there is.

Title: Horizon: An American Saga Distributor: Warner Bros Festival: Cannes (Out of Competition) Release date: June 28, 2024 Director: Kevin Costner Screenwriters: Kevin Costner, Jon Baird Cast: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Michael Rooker, Will Patton, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Wase Winyan Chief, Jamie Campbell Bower, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jon Beavers Rating: R Running time: 3 hr 1 min

Must Read Stories

Deadline studio at cannes film festival - watch the latest exclusive interviews.

@ Cannes: ‘Apprentice’s Maria Bakalova On Admiring Ivana Trump’s Attitude

‘parthenope, ‘anora’, ‘the apprentice’ & more; read latest from cannes, ‘furiosa’ revving $80m-$85m ww bow; ‘garfield’ $30m+ u.s.: preview.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

14 comments.

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

• Cast & crew

Inside Out 2

Follow Riley, in her teenage years, encountering new emotions. Follow Riley, in her teenage years, encountering new emotions. Follow Riley, in her teenage years, encountering new emotions.

• Kelsey Mann
• Dave Holstein
• Meg LeFauve
• Amy Poehler
• Phyllis Smith
• Lewis Black

• Embarrassment

• Riley Andersen

• Mrs. Andersen

• Mr. Andersen

• Valentina 'Val' Ortiz

• Coach Roberts

• Subconscious Guard Frank

• Subconscious Guard Dave

• Forgetter Bobby

• Forgetter Paula
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

The Big List of Summer Movies

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia The first trailer received 157 million online views within the first 24 hours, more than any other Disney animated film, surpassing Frozen II (2019) , with 116 million views.

Riley Anderson : [from the trailer] I'M THE WORST!

Mom's Anger : Welp, there's a preview of the next ten years.

• Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: The D23 Expo 2022 Special (2022)
• When will Inside Out 2 be released? Powered by Alexa
• June 14, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• Instagram - Disney's Announcement
• Instagram - Pixar's Announcement
• Những Mảnh Ghép Cảm Xúc 2
• Walt Disney Feature Animation - 500 S. Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California, USA (Studio)
• Pixar Animation Studios
• Walt Disney Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 40 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos
• 12-Track Digital Sound
• D-Cinema 96kHz Dolby Surround 7.1
• D-Cinema 96kHz 7.1

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

Advertisement

Supported by

She Survived a Train Accident. Her Train Wreck of a Dad Is Next.

In Garth Risk Hallberg’s new novel, a teenage rebel and her father reconnect amid a sea of their own troubles.

• Share full article

By Dwight Garner

• Barnes and Noble
• Books-A-Million

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.

THE SECOND COMING , by Garth Risk Hallberg

Garth Risk Hallberg’s ambitious but uneven and exhausting new novel, “The Second Coming,” takes its title from an unreleased live album by Prince. One of the book’s central characters, a 13-year-old girl named Jolie Aspern, is on a Manhattan subway platform listening to a bootleg version when her phone slips from her hand and clatters onto the tracks below.

She climbs down after it. A train heaves into view. Oh no! Jolie is rescued, but she is hurt and shaken up. Was she suicidal or just foolish? The next day she is the subject of a New York Post headline: “APP-ETITE FOR DESTRUCTION.”

This early scene is one of many needle drops in Hallberg’s multigenerational and music-drenched novel, which is set primarily in 2011 but frequently flashes forward a decade, and backward even further. By the end, the novel has become a mixtape of sorts, with sections named after songs.

“The Second Coming” never becomes a great rock or music novel. Hallberg doesn’t make you feel what his characters are getting out of these songs. But this is certainly a novel that, to annex a thought from Annie Proulx in “The Shipping News,” makes you realize that one of the bummers of existence is that “there is no background music.”

This is Hallberg’s second novel, if you don’t count “A Field Guide to the North American Family,” a 2007 novella. His first, “ City on Fire ,” a sprawling New York City story set in part during the blackout of July 13, 1977, made an impact when it was published in 2015. It made best-seller lists. Frank Rich gave it a yea-saying review on the cover of The Times Book Review, though he also had a lot of caveats.

Speaking of The New York Post, it ran a “City on Fire” review, too. Its headline was: “Overhyped novel ‘City on Fire’ is a steaming pile of literary dung.” My opinion of the novel is closer to Rich’s, but The Post’s dissent registers with me. Hallberg is an intelligent writer, but he’s a wild and frequently sloppy one. His narratives don’t click into gear; his curveball only sometimes makes it over the plate.

Jolie, the girl who jumped on the subway tracks, is one of the most precocious eighth graders in recent literary history. She wears black and quotes Philip Larkin on how your parents mess you up. She name-checks Itzhak Perlman. She goes alone to a zendo to work on re-centering. Before long she will dye her hair pink, give herself a mental patient’s haircut, get a lot of piercings and stop talking altogether. She’ll drop acid.

She’s already a pint-size rock ’n’ roll survivor. As The Onion once joked about Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love’s daughter, she seems to have been born ready to enter prehab.

She is her father’s daughter. Ethan Aspern is a washed-up actor who has been arrested on drug charges, gone through 12-step programs and burned every bridge he’s crossed. He walks around uttering things like “I’m only going to let you down.” He is not lying. He is scruffy, outstandingly handsome and has a heart of gold that’s visible from a satellite. When Ethan learns about Jolie’s accident, he comes back into her life after many years away and hopes to make amends, if he is not arrested first for abducting her.

Ethan has a tangled back story, with complicated parents of his own. His mother is a serious artist. And the novel summarizes his father’s story this way: “Naval Academy, Yale Divinity, a summer sailing for William F. Buckley of all people. And then right back to Annapolis for a chaplain gig.” Little of this material is picked up in the novel. This information is an indication of Hallberg’s flickering interest in big, interlocking American themes. Scenes play across Sept. 11 and Occupy Wall Street, and take us into Covid.

Hallberg is often at his best when he’s not reaching for big effects, when he gives himself room to breathe. Here’s Ethan defending his hometown, Ocean City, N.J.:

Like, did the Hamptons have stand-mounted binoculars that offered up only darkness unless you paid a quarter? Or the game with the giant mallets and the flying rubber frogs? Did the Hamptons have that? How about not one but two amusement parks called the Jolly Roger, each with a Tilt-a-Whirl so ultra-sketch you had to sign a waiver?

This novel’s scope and ambition are reminiscent of Jonathan Franzen’s novels. But Hallberg’s writing is more in the mold of Richard Ford. Like Ford, he’s enamored of New Jersey settings and lets crucial scenes play out over holidays, for supplemental resonance. He’s given to epigrammatic summing-up statements every other page or so. Ford’s are better; they’re crisper bites of the apple.

We follow Jolie and Ethan around. The narrative baton is passed among unreliable narrators. A lot of the sentences and dialogue are of the sort that might sound good in a Steve Earle song (“But what if I were to try calling on your better angels?”) but not so much in cold print, especially when they pile up.

Ethan is a familiar figure. He’s a beautiful loser, an amiable screw-up of the genus Jim Harrison once classified as the “nifty guy at loose ends.” We know this creature from Thomas McGuane’s novels, and from Barry Hannah’s, and from Harrison’s, among other writers. Hallberg’s amiable screw-up, unlike those in his predecessors’ fiction, is never much fun to be around.

Ethan is almost entirely sexless as well, which gives the novel a deracinated feeling. Like Ryan Gosling in “Barbie,” he seems to have only a smooth plastic panel down there.

Katie Roiphe has written about how a now not-so-young generation of male writers have jettisoned their carnal appetites for empathetic cuddling. The critic Elaine Blair, too, has thought through the new skittishness about sex in fiction written by men, the “fearful suspicion that if a man gets what he wants, sexually speaking, he is probably exploiting someone.”

Younger women hurl themselves in front of Ethan, who is still in his early 30s for much of the novel. When he does sleep with one, even after getting to know her, the vibe is one of disgust and sharp regret. It’s as if he has run over a small animal with a lawn mower.

He blames his weakness on his surroundings: “Apparently he’d been in California long enough to weaken a little on the numinous, the vibrational, and he couldn’t help but think that the sex was somehow related to his feeling of having upset the power balance between them.” Jolie’s first stab at sexual contact is porn-like, horrible, pitilessly bleak.

This novel, like Ethan’s life, lurches sideways. There are many, many characters — siblings, parents, parole officers, lovers, spouses, drug dealers, old friends. There is little sense of momentum; the pages never turn themselves. It is so intensely written that it gave me a headache, as if I had been grinding my teeth. I was glad when it was over.

THE SECOND COMING | By Garth Risk Hallberg | Knopf | 586 pp. | $32

Dwight Garner has been a book critic for The Times since 2008, and before that was an editor at the Book Review for a decade. More about Dwight Garner

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

An assault led to Chanel Miller’s best seller, “Know My Name,” but she had wanted to write children’s books since the second grade. She’s done that now  with “Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All.”

When Reese Witherspoon is making selections for her book club , she wants books by women, with women at the center of the action who save themselves.

The Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro, who died on May 14 , specialized in exacting short stories that were novelistic in scope , spanning decades with intimacy and precision.

“The Light Eaters,” a new book by Zoë Schlanger, looks at how plants sense the world  and the agency they have in their own lives.

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .