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From new to old, we found the best movies from various categories and our favorite show.
By: Connor Kneisteadt, Sean Haralson & Vaughn Meyer
Severance (2023) 5/5
Severance is an incredibly intriguing show and it is one that you’ll be invested in from the beginning. It takes an interesting idea about the commentary of workplace struggles and corporate corruption and turns it into a thrilling story about people juggling the unknown from the known.
Severance was released in 2022 and was highly rated on review sites such as IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. It is led by the familiar face of Adam Scott who had roles in Parks and Rec and Step Brothers, and Directed by Ben Stiller. This would lead most to believe that the show would be a comedy seeing who is leading it, but while this show has comedic moments it is a mostly dark and thrilling show about workers wanting to escape corruption in a dystopian future.
Severance follows a group of workers who are “severed” and have agreed to undergo the operation that severs their work life and their home life. During the operation, the company, named Lumon, inserts a chip into your brain that activates the “Severance” When workers come to work, they are essentially a different person from the one that they are at home; the show expresses this as “Outies” and “Innies.” The workers do not know anything about the job that they do and the company is reluctant to tell them.
The technical aspects of the show are very well done; great acting, incredible visuals, and excellent use of a well-prepared story with excellent development of plot and characters.
“It is a slow-burning show that needs you to pay attention to every intricacy and detail.”
The show pleads for your attention as it is a slow-burning show that needs you to pay attention to every intricacy and detail. The payoff for your given attention is a large one as the first season leaves you off on a massive cliffhanger set up for its second season scheduled to
release next year. Episode 1 (Good News about Hell), Episode 4 (The You You Are) and Episode 9 (The We We Are) are the best of the season. If there was one episode that had the least amount of contributions to the storyline, it would be Episode 6 (Hide and Seek).
Hush (2016) 3.5/5
Hush is about deaf Horror Author, Maddie Young, who lost her ability to hear and speak after contracting bacterial meningitis as a child. Maddie used to live in New York City but moved to a secluded forest with just her and her cat. One evening, her friend Sarah visits her to return a copy of her book. Later that night, A mysterious serial killer comes with a crossbow to try and kill Sarah and Maddie. There are a lot of stressful moments, and something that makes this movie better than other break-in-type movies is that they added different aspects to the protagonist. Being deaf and mute makes this so much harder for Maddie to survive, and it makes the movie that much more intriguing. One thing about this movie is that there isn’t much audio, since she’s mute and a lot of it is from her perspective.
Dune: Part 1 (2021) 3/5
Dune was released in 2021 and became an instant hit. It follows the Frank Herbert book saga, written in 1965. The story takes place in the (extremely) far future of 10191, and follows Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) a gifted young boy and warrior, and his journey from the Planet Caladan, where the House of Atreides rules, to Planet Arrakis, rich in the most valuable spice resource; melange, to secure the future for his family and his people. With the race to control Planet Arrakis and to obtain the valuable spice becoming tense, the fight comes down to what Paul has trained his whole life for, and to get this precious melange, he must conquer his fear to survive.
Dune is an action-packed science fiction film that will have you on your feet. Although this movie focuses on the overall series, rather than the movie itself, it introduces the popular series and sets up for a slam-dunk in the next film, coming in 2024. Dune: Part I is a movie for those who are aware of the storyline, and plan to see the films following the first one in the later years, or are really into science fiction, and need something to watch. It’s an overall good film, but it sets the series up for success and has lots of room for improvement.
Napoleon (2023) 2/5
This new release follows the life of Napoleon Bonaparte and his rise to power in France. It begins during the French Revolution and recounts many significant events in Napoleon’s life including many battle scenes. Much of the film is spent examining the relationship between Napoleon and his wife, Josephine. It first follows his journey to becoming a higher-up within politics during the revolution, to then proving himself as a strategic genius in battle, to his reign as emperor of France, and lastly to his downfall and exile from France. The film focuses on many different points in his life but they are told too rapidly and inaccurately for most to appreciate them. Much of it seems to shift the focus on Napoleon’s life in exchange for his wife, Josephine and their struggle to love each other. It is complied of many great battle scenes but ultimatly it is dragged down by its poor story and monotonus and essentially lame love story. At its conclusion it doesn’t offer much insight or details to the life of one of the worlds most notorious man, and really just scratches the surface of what his story can provide. Its lengty runtime will be sure to shy most of the genral audience away from the 2023 flick.
The Game (1997) 4.5/5
The Game follows a wealthy banking investor, Nicholas Van Orton who is celebrating his 48th birthday. He is given a mysterious present from his typically absent brother, Conrad. It is a voucher for a “game” that a company named CRS organizes. Although suspicious, he joins the game, and it constantly gets strangely more personal to him and his experiences to the point where he begins to fear for his life. Already troubled with the childhood suicide of his father, Nicholas begins to conspire that the company is trying to take himself, and his funds down and must find answers for himself. This movie will be a hit with shock seekers and thriller fans. It is full of twists and turns at every corner and even with the movie being from 1997 it still holds up very well. The only hit that will downgrade this one is that at times it is slow and some of its acting feels stale. However, once the “game” begins about 30 minutes into the film it doesn’t look back and fastens you for a mind-boggling ending of edge-of-your-seat entertainment.
