In this episode Dara is giving out about recent bad movies, and not the ‘so bad they’re good’ kind. Kevin Costner’s Western opus Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 starts the party with its bloated scale, turgid pacing, and on-the-nose representations of archetypal stories and characters. Far too earnest and self-serious, Dara recommends at least half a dozen alternatives, including Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate and Costner’s own Open Range.
Ticket to Paradise, the George Clooney-Julia Roberts rom-com is next and its generic and self-congratulatory tone are a painful reminder of the earlier Clooney-Roberts crimes as seen in Ocean’s 12 when we were all meant to be tickled by their being in on the joke of Roberts’ celebrity. Dara advises a revisiting of Pretty Woman instead where Roberts’ screen presence and beauty were not to be denied.
The recent animated movies IF and Inside Out 2 are compared – one of them had Dara squirming in his seat, but not for the reason you might think. Finally there’s a word for the execrable The Beekeeper and the joyless gurning of its muscular star, Jason Statham.
And in case you’re worried it’s all doom and gloom, there are at least three recent movies that Dara is more than happy to recommend for their aesthetic pleasures and assuredness of tone.