Tag Archives: gerard-butler

Greenland 2: Migration

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I remember being unbelievably shocked with how much I enjoyed Greenland back in 2020. I think it even won the Year in Review Award for the Best Surprise (That is called the Gomer). I had not expectations that a Gerard Butler end-of-the-world film would be good at all, and I loved it.

Which meant that I had more expectations for the sequel, Greenland 2: Migration. While it was not a bad movie, the sequel was considerably lesser than the original and has several problems.

John Garrity (Gerard Butler) had gotten his family, wife Allison (Morena Baccarin) and son Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis), to the bunker in Greenland just before the comets struck the earth. This movie started by letting us know that the comets wiped out 75% of the human race and destroyed much of the planet. However, the bunker that they had been living in for the last five years was beginning to crumble and the survivors had to scatter to try an escape the dangers of the environment.

They had heard rumors that the impact crater of the original comet was a location where life had sprung forth and that it was where people could restart their lives. John and Allison decided to attempt to find their way to the crater, which was in France.

This was a much more common post-apocalyptic film than the original one was. As the family worked their way toward France, the surrounding were the typical backdrop you would see in The Walking Dead (without zombies) or The Last of us (without any creepy critters). The idea that humans would be the worst things about a post-apocalyptic world is once again at the center of the themes of Greenland 2.

I kept feeling bad during the film for Nathan as it seemed like there would be no young girls his age for him, but the film nicely took care of that.

There were some good moments in the film, though many of them felt too coincidental or forced. Everything kept happening to this family on their trip. Still, it could have been much worse. It is nowhere near as good as Greenland, but I did not hate watching it.

3 stars

How to Train Your Dragon (2025)

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Masterpiece.

I am typically negative on these live action remakes of classic animation. There have been some good ones, but there have been so many more that just does not hit the mark.

How to Train Your Dragon knocked it out of the park.

I loved this live action adaptation. My one criticism is that it is basically a shot-for-shot remake with little if anything new to add. However, I don’t care about that when the adaptation is this epic.

I knew the story. I knew the beats. I was still getting chills and I still had tears running down my face in the final act. This was so well done and affecting to me.

Mason Thames was perfectly cast as Hiccup. You had to get this casting correct if you wanted this movie to be successful, and Thames was masterful. He connected to the audience, he expressed the emotions of his conflict beautifully, and his hero’s journey was just spot on. Toothless was impeccable with the CGI. This felt like a real dragon on screen and you could sense the chemistry between Hiccup and Toothless.

Gerard Butler reprised the role that he voiced in the animated movie with Hiccup’s father Stoick. Butler played this over-the-top role to perfection. His feelings for Hiccup are so obvious, even when he was disappointed b his son’s choices.

Nico Parker was a standout as Astrid. She had a star quality every moment she was on the screen. I was really impressed with her in the role that I was not as fond of in the animated movie. The film also featured Nick Frost, Julian Dennison, Gabriel Howell, Bronwyn James, Harry Trevaldwyn, and the incomparable Peter Serafinowicz.

The cinematography of this movie was just outstanding, especially the flying sequences. I constantly sat in the theater in awe over some of the shots I saw on the screen. It was a beautifully designed and laid out with such care.

Yes, this is basically an exact remake of the animated movie and I know there are some who will crap on the film because of that. I will not be one of those. This is my favorite movie of the year so far.

5 stars

Den of Thieves: Pantera

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Den of Thieves: Pantera is the first, actual, film from 2025. I had never watched the first film and, this being a sequel, I was a little concerned about that fact.

And truthfully, I could never get into this flick. I do believe the fact that I had not seen 2018’s Den of Thieves was a big reason I could never build any connection to the film. I disliked the characters, I thought the story, with a few exceptions, was dull and boring, and I just was peeking at the time through much of the first half of the movie wishing it would get over.

I could care less about the robbery that they were setting up, but I will say that the execution of the robbery itself was my favorite part of the film. Outside of that 20 minutes or so, I really found this to be an excruciating watch.

Without spoiling it, there were no less than two… TWO… Deus ex machina endings for this movie, and I hated both twists… SO MUCH!

According to IMDB, “Butler returns as Big Nick (Gerard Butler), this time on the hunt in Europe for Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) who is embroiled in the dangerous world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia as they plot a massive heist of the world’s biggest diamond exchange“

I thought both Butler and Jackson Jr. were fine with their characters. i just did not care about either one. There was a scene early in the film where Nick gets drunk/stoned etc. and I thought that was so ridiculous that it completely derailed the film for me. I was having enough issues getting into the story so something like this knocked it down even more.

As I said, the actual robbery had some good tension to it, although it was very difficult to swallow. I was more able to give the leeway here because the set up to the theft was so much better than the rest of the movie. Sadly, the post robbery stuff had me rolling my eyes (including a moment that seemed to go from night to day in an instant).

I don’t know if my opinions would be different if I had seen Den of Thieves before going to the sequel, but I did not, so I can only judge this on what they gave me, and what they gave me was substandard in my thought.

2.2 stars

Edit: I went back and looked at my other reviews and I actually did see Den of Thieves in 2018. I gave it a 2.3 star rating. It shows you how memorable that first film was for me.