Category: Reviews of Movies

The Time Machine: Directed by Simon Wells. With Guy Pearce, Yancey Arias, Mark Addy, Phyllida Law. Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds humankind divided into two warring races. I feel victim to the TikTok algo again and this movie popped up enough times that I had to check it out…again. I know I saw it when it was released back in 2002, but I had forgotten how tightly packed this 90 minute long film is and how well it works. It has an unfortunate...

My Cousin Vinny: Directed by Jonathan Lynn. With Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, Ralph Macchio, Mitchell Whitfield. Two New Yorkers accused of murder in rural Alabama while on their way back to college call in the help of one of their cousins, a loudmouth lawyer with no trial experience. What a lovely turn of a script. Buy On Amazon!

The Running Man: Directed by Edgar Wright. With Glen Powell, Alyssa Benn, Sienna Benn, David Zayas. A man joins a game show in which contestants, allowed to go anywhere in the world, are pursued by “hunters” hired to kill them. A great reimagining of the story of a national show full of bloodlust, violence, and gratuitous nudity of Glen Powell. The plot itself gets pretty bad once the third act hits and it vaporized my suspension of disbelief when everyone kept assuming that the corporation that has never kept its word was going to keep its word when it made...

Wifelike: Directed by James Bird. With Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Elena Kampouris, Doron Bell, Agam Darshi. When artificial human Meredith is assigned as a companion to grieving widower William, she is designed to behave like his late wife. But in the fight to end AI exploitation, an organization attempts to sabotage her programming. This feels like an HBO movie, with near porn levels of nudity in the first act with an amazingly beautiful cast, which tapers off and refocuses into a story that has some fun elements that make the entire thing pretty recommendable. The robots’ acting is goofy as all...

Wing Commander: Directed by Chris Roberts. With Freddie Prinze Jr., Saffron Burrows, Matthew Lillard, Tchéky Karyo. Blair, a fighter pilot, joins an interstellar war to fight the evil Kilrathi who are trying to destroy the universe. Oh sure, I’ve seen this before, at least a dozen times according to my memories, but have I ever seen it in 2025? Yes, I have. Buy On Amazon!

Predator: Badlands: Directed by Dan Trachtenberg. With Reuben de Jong, Cameron Brown, Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. A young Predator outcast from his clan finds an unlikely ally on his journey in search of the ultimate adversary. I’ve very happy with the direction that the Alien/Predator franchise(s?) are going and Predator: Badlands just re-enforces that opinion. There’re a very limited cast here, I think we see only maybe 4 or 5 actors in the entire film, but the surprisingly (sorta spoiler) thing is that there isn’t a single human in the whole film. All we see are Predators, Human Synths, and...

Spirited Away: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naitô. During her family’s move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts. Such a fantastic and fun story of a girl moving to the country and losing her parents to their own poor decisions. The music is of particular appeal to me, there were a few moments it had my full attention. Buy On Amazon!

Only Yesterday: Directed by Isao Takahata. With Miki Imai, Toshirô Yanagiba, Yoko Honna, Michie Terada. A twenty-seven-year-old office worker travels to the countryside while reminiscing about her childhood in Tokyo. As a retrospective of a life, this is a good one, if somewhat hindered by the fact that the lady is only 27 years old and hasn’t really lived her complete life yet. This is best thought of as “what was my life up to now and where will I go now that I know where I’ve been”, but boy I was disappointed that they left so many dangling threads...

The Fantastic Four: First Steps: Directed by Matt Shakman. With Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, the Fantastic Four must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic herald, the Silver Surfer. Now out on 4k/hdr disk, this film still feels like it was written for people having trouble with fertility who find themselves gifted with the blessing of a child, just for that blessing to be threatened by outside horrors. I haven’t experienced the second half of that, but...

A Walk in the Woods: Directed by Ken Kwapis. With Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Emma Thompson, Mary Steenburgen. After spending two decades in England, Bill Bryson (Robert Redford) returns to the U.S., where he decides the best way to connect with his homeland is to hike the Appalachian Trail with one of his oldest friends, Stephen Katz (Nick Nolte). It’s a sad movie with some moments of levity, but it still made me sad to watch. Time comes for us all and we need to use it as best we can. Buy On Amazon!

Jurassic World: Rebirth: Directed by Gareth Edwards. With Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend. Five years post-Jurassic World: Dominion (2022), an expedition braves isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a groundbreaking medical breakthrough. Hey look, it’s another Jurassic World movie! It’s like the Jurassic Park films, but not restricted to just a single island, now it’s the entire planet that’s being eaten by genetically altered monsters that humanity barely understands. The story is familiar, the action is familiar, the dinosaurs are familiar, and it all works as well as it did the...

Tron: Legacy: Directed by Joseph Kosinski. With Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner. The son of a computer programmer goes looking for his father and ends up inside the digital world that his father designed. He meets his father’s corrupted creation and a unique ally who was born inside the digital world. It’s finally out on 4k/hdr and it’s just a good as I was hoping. That soundtrack is still one of the most emotive soundtracks that I’ve ever heard and the story still makes me cry like a baby. Buy On Amazon!

Tron: Directed by Steven Lisberger. With Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan. A computer hacker is abducted into a digital world and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program. I did this out of order, watching Tron: Ares first, then watching the first two films, but my house was a complete mess and I couldn’t find the 4k disks I just bought, but here we are! I found them! The first movie is simplistic, stylistic, and works on every level for me. I loved...

Tron: Ares: Directed by Joachim Rønning. With Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Jeff Bridges, Evan Peters. A highly sophisticated Program, Ares, is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission. As good as we’re going to get, this is by no means a bad film, but it barely holds a candle to the prior movie or even Uprising, the often unknown television series that lasted two seasons on Disney XD. The music didn’t really capture me the same way Legacy did and the story mostly took place IRL, which is just silly when you have the...

The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz: Directed by Kirk R. Thatcher. With Ashanti, Jeffrey Tambor, Quentin Tarantino, David Alan Grier. This version of The Wizard of Oz is played by the Muppets. A remake of the 1939 film. I had no idea this was even a thing until I saw it come across a movies sale page. I do miss having Muppet adaptations of these classic stories and while this one starts off in a bumpy way that hasn’t aged very well, once they got to the Land of Oz the Muppets were as good as I’ve ever seen them. The...

Long Distance: Directed by Josh Gordon, Will Speck. With Anthony Ramos, Naomi Scott, Kristofer Hivju, Zachary Quinto. It follows an asteroid miner who, after crash-landing on an alien planet, must make his way across the harsh terrain, running out of oxygen, hunted by strange creatures, to the only other survivor. Other than some tik toks, I completely missed the marketing for “Long Distance”, which is a damned shame, this is a great movie! Anthony Ramos does great in a nearly single character story, there’s only one other face we see until the last 20 minutes of the film, and it...

Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult: Directed by Peter Segal. With Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson. Frank Drebin comes out of retirement to help Police Squad infiltrate a gang of terrorists planning to detonate a bomb at the Academy Awards. The third movie in a series of extremely funny movies that never once overstayed their welcome. There’s a dance scene that I enjoyed. Buy On Amazon!

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Directed by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein. With Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith. A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. I watched this again, but this time it was with my mother in law, so I got to explain a few of the jokes, she’s not aware of most of the D&D stuff. I found it comforting that she didn’t really need that explanation though, as...

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear: Directed by David Zucker. With Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson. Lieutenant Frank Drebin discovers that his ex-girlfriend’s new beau is involved in a plot to kidnap a scientist who advocates solar energy. So enjoyable, much funny. Buy On Amazon!

Johnny Eager: Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. With Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold, Van Heflin. The step-daughter of a district attorney falls in love with a gangster on parole who her father originally imprisoned. They’re definitely dynamite in this story of a bad boy going to the races and getting even worse with an innocent young woman by his side. Glenda Farrell isn’t the main squeeze, much to my chagrin, but it was great to see her in the limited time she had on screen. The story of course is great with some really goofy but enjoyable twists and turns...

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!: Directed by David Zucker. With Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban, George Kennedy. Incompetent police Detective Frank Drebin must foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. I watched all three of these in preparation for a date with my wife at the movies to see the most recent entry, it was in the theaters! We ended up falling asleep and missing the new one, but this first one was great and I had forgotten just how great it was. Buy On Amazon!

Ballerina: Directed by Len Wiseman. With Ana de Armas, Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston. An assassin trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma organization sets out to seek revenge after her father’s death. While the style of the movie fits pretty well into the existing John Wick films, I think they leaned a little too hard on John Wick themself to tell this story. I was still pretty happy with the end result! Buy On Amazon!

Civil War: Directed by Alex Garland. With Nick Offerman, Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Jefferson White. In a dystopian future, four journalists travel across the United States during a nation-wide conflict. While trying to survive, they aim to reach the White House to interview the president before he is overthrown. Now that I own this on disk I can rewatch that final scene as often as I want. Buy On Amazon!

Heat Lightning: Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. With Aline MacMahon, Ann Dvorak, Preston Foster, Lyle Talbot. Two killers stop at Olga’s gas station alongside a California highway. A funny yet mature glimpse into the lives of multiple intersecting groups of people in a tiny rest stop in the middle of nowhere, set against the backdrop of a distant storm. It’s a great story with some fun interactions among people that aren’t all exactly as they present themselves. This was on my radar because of the amazing Glenda Farrell, who plays a rich sister that flaunts her riches and body a little...

Thunderbolts*: Directed by Jake Schreier. With Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes must go on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Watching this at home means that I can re-view some of my favorite scenes over and over again, and boy howdy does this movie have a lot of them. There’s a ton of backstory for every character in the “Thunderbolts” team, with two tv shows and 3-4 movies as required viewing if you want to...

Outlander: Directed by Howard McCain. With Jim Caviezel, Sophia Myles, Jack Huston, John Hurt. During the reign of the Vikings, Kainan, a man from a far-off world, crash lands on Earth, bringing with him an alien predator known as the Moorwen. Though both man and monster are seeking revenge for violence committed against them, Kainan leads the alliance to kill the Moorwen by fusing his advanced technology with the Viking’s Iron Age weaponry. I think I watched this all the way back when it originally came out in 2008, I remembered a couple of the big set pieces, but I...

Heads of State: Directed by Ilya Naishuller. With Idris Elba, John Cena, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Paddy Considine. When the U.K. Prime Minister and U.S. President become the targets of a foreign adversary, they’re forced to rely on one another to thwart a global conspiracy. Much more fun than I thought it was going to be, John Cena and Idris Elba are an odd pairing, but it works in every regard I care about. Buy On Amazon!

KPop Demon Hunters: Directed by Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang. With Arden Cho, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Ahn Hyo-seop. A world-renowned K-Pop girl group balance their lives in the spotlight with their secret identities as demon hunters. I’ve heard great things about this movie and everything I heard turned out to be true. The character designs are inventive, the songs are catchy, and the demons were indeed hunted. Buy On Amazon!

Deep Cover: Directed by Tom Kingsley. With Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed, Sean Bean. Three improv actors are asked to go undercover by the police in London’s criminal underworld. Hilarious and always abides by the first rule of improve of “Yes and…”. Buy On Amazon!

The Fantastic Four: First Steps: Directed by Matt Shakman. With Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, the Fantastic Four must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer. This is one of the first Marvel movies in a long time that requires absolutely no knowledge of any other comic book film, no knowledge of the comics, and just an appreciation for a retro-futuristic take on a classic family of adventurers. There’s a perfect soundtrack that goes along...

Hellboy: The Crooked Man: Directed by Brian Taylor. With Jack Kesy, Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Leah McNamara. Hellboy and a rookie B.P.R.D. agent in the 1950s are sent to the Appalachians, where they discover a remote community dominated by witches and led by the sinister local demon, the Crooked Man. I actually watched this …months ago? It might have even been last year, but I was so unaffected by the film that I forgot to even put it on a “to review” list. It’s not actually a terrible film, but it had such a limited budget that all it really...

Whisper of the Heart: Directed by Yoshifumi Kondô. With Yoko Honna, Issei Takahashi, Takashi Tachibana, Shigeru Muroi. A love story between a girl who loves reading books and a boy who has previously checked out all of the library books she chooses. This is another exceptionally well crafted look into the lives of normal yet captivating characters that are just living their lives in their normal manner, but through the fascinating lens of Studio Ghibli. I’m about 90% sure that this movie is the inspiration for the lo-fi girl youtube channel that got me through many long nights of studying...

Star Trek: Section 31: Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. With Michelle Yeoh, Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson, Robert Kazinsky. In Star Trek: Section 31, Emperor Philippa Georgiou joins a secret division of Starfleet tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, and must face the sins of her past. There’s a couple soundtrack elements that remind me of the Borg themes from First Contact, which was a vastly superior film. Also, quick question, at the beginning of the film, when the evil Terrans beam down, there’s like a thousand people there that stretch about a half mile back. can they even hear...

Captain America: Brave New World: Directed by Julius Onah. With Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas. Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the motive behind a nefarious global plan. I have it on blue rays now! It’s a pretty film that missed a couple cool opportunities to be cooler and didn’t stick the landing in the 3rd act. I was ultimately satisfied, but imagine what could have been! Buy On Amazon!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Directed by Jeff Fowler. With Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. With their abilities outmatched, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance. I got this for free by signing up for a chicken nugget newsletter and they still haven’t sent me a single email yet. Sonic 3 isn’t as good as the first two, but is still good enough that I’m happy I own this due to my corporate spam sellout....

Pom Poko: Directed by Isao Takahata. With Shinchô Kokontei, Makoto Nonomura, Yuriko Ishida, Norihei Miki. A community of magical shape-shifting raccoon dogs struggle to prevent their forest home from being destroyed by urban development. “Raccoon dogs” are not “racoons” as I understand them, but after a quick wikipedia journey 15 links deep, I remembered that I was watching a movie and got back to this delightful yet depressing story of animals being killed in humanity’s quest for more space. This is mostly a cute story about loveable shapeshifting creature trying to find their way in an increasingly dangerous world, but...

Superman: Directed by James Gunn. With David Corenswet, Alan Tudyk, Grace Chan, Bradley Cooper. Superman must reconcile his alien Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as reporter Clark Kent. As the embodiment of truth, justice and the human way he soon finds himself in a world that views these as old-fashioned. I got to experience this the same day that I traveled from Florida to Pennsylvania with a day that started at 3am and this showing was at 10pm at an AMC PRIME theater, which was a first for me. The seats were heated, they reclined all the way down...

Lilo & Stitch: Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp. With Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Chris Sanders, Zach Galifianakis. A lonely Hawaiian girl befriends a runaway alien, helping to mend her fragmented family. A live action version of a movie that meant a whole lot to me and much like their past efforts there’s no real reason for this remake and it adds nothing of value to the franchise. It’s cute and is a perfectly fine movie, but it’s definitely not as good as the animated film. Buy On Amazon!

Predator: Killer of Killers: Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, Joshua Wassung. With Michael Biehn, Doug Cockle, Rick Gonzalez, Damien C. Haas. Three of the fiercest warriors in human history become prey to the ultimate killer of killers. About as good as you can get for science fiction, I’m super happy to see that the Predator franchise is back in good hands and they seem to have a handle on what makes the Predatorverse so appealing to so many people. There’s a lot of world building here and some obvious sequel breadcrumbs, but the three stories here are fantastic. Buy On Amazon!

Wicked: Directed by Jon M. Chu. With Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh. Elphaba, a young woman ridiculed for her green skin, and Galinda, a popular girl, become friends at Shiz University in the Land of Oz. After an encounter with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads. I don’t like to slander well liked movies, but I honestly have no idea what anyone saw in this film. The music is flat, everyone is mean to each other, and the story doesn’t actually start until they get to Oz, which is in the last 30...

Thunderbolts*: Directed by Jake Schreier. With Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes must go on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. The MCU is back baby! It also never left! I was somewhat disappointed that they didn’t go with the golden age origin story, but the one they had for the movie works in context of the wider universe that’s been rolling for nearly 20 years now. Buy On Amazon!

Venom: The Last Dance: Directed by Kelly Marcel. With Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans. Eddie Brock and Venom must make a devastating decision as they’re pursued by a mysterious military man and alien monsters from Venom’s home world. Watched again with my wife. This was indeed a movie with a character named “Venom” in it. I have no memories of dancing though. Buy On Amazon!

Kraven the Hunter: Directed by J.C. Chandor. With Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola. Kraven’s complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff, starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared. This is a much better film than I was expecting and would have been even better if it had no connection whatsoever to the Spider-man universe, but alas, Kraven is a well known Spider-man villain that isn’t as interesting as he could be when the movie...

Sinners: Directed by Ryan Coogler. With Miles Caton, Saul Williams, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Jack O’Connell. Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. I finally got around to watching this in an AMC, but sadly missed the Dolby Digital release. I actually tried to see it a few weeks ago, but it had already shifted from the DD theater to the 10 seater and I gave up on seeing it in a theater, but it’s been doing so well...

The 4:30 Movie: Directed by Kevin Smith. With Siena Agudong, Austin Zajur, Kate Micucci, Ming Chen. A group of teens in the 1980s spend the day theater-hopping. I don’t remember seeing a single advertisement for this being in theaters and only caught wind of it on the Amazon “new movies on 4k” page. It likely would not have been a great theater movie, but it was a perfectly fun coming of age movie about movie theaters and the shenanigans that movie fans used to get up to whilst hanging out at the movie theater. Buy On Amazon!

Starchaser: The Legend of Orin: Directed by Steven Hahn. With Joe Colligan, Carmen Argenziano, Noelle North, Anthony De Longis. Set on the subterranean Mine-World, a band of human worker are treated like slaves under the power of the evil overlord Zygon until one, Orin, unearths the hilt of a mythical sword that only he can master. Escaping the planet, he runs into the rogue smuggler Dagg and a pair of helpful droids and the princess, who all team up to return to the Mine-World with a plan to defeat Zygon and free Orin’s enslaved people. Starchaser: The Legend of Orin...

Porco Rosso: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Shûichirô Moriyama, Tokiko Katô, Bunshi Katsura VI, Tsunehiko Kamijô. In 1930s Italy, a veteran World War I pilot is cursed to look like an anthropomorphic pig. I went into Porco Rosso with modest expectations, not entirely sure what to make of a film about a World War I fighter pilot who, as part of the story, is cursed to live in the body of a pig. What I found, though, was a surprisingly rich and layered experience—one that blended whimsical fantasy with poignant historical context, and mixed lighthearted action with a deeper emotional...

Kiki’s Delivery Service: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma, Kappei Yamaguchi, Keiko Toda. Along with her black cat Jiji, Kiki settles in a seaside town and starts a high-flying delivery service. Here begins her magical encounter with independence and responsibility, making lifelong friends and finding her place in the world. This is the movie that actually got the ball rolling on my desire to watch all the Studio Ghibli films, as one of my coworkers had a stain glass mural in her window that features Jiji all over the place, which I thought was cute and whimsical...

Robot Carnival: Directed by Atsuko Fukushima, Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Hiroyuki Kitazume, Kôji Morimoto, Takashi Nakamura, Yasuomi Umetsu, Manabu Ôhashi, Hidetoshi Ômori, Katsuhiro Ôtomo. With Kôji Moritsugu, Yayoi Maki, Keiko Hanagata, Kumiko Takizawa. A collection of short stories, made by different animators with “robot” as the working title. This is on Amazon Prime and I fully have no idea how it ended up in front of me, but it was such a fantastic experience that I’m happy it was in my queue, or suggestion list or whatever the mess of Prime lists actually is. It’s a collection of short stories that range...

My Neighbor Totoro: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Shigesato Itoi, Sumi Shimamoto. When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby. Decidedly lighter fair in comparison to Grave of the Fireflies or even Valley of the Wind, there’s still some extremely emotionally charged moments that really had my heart getting ready to break. I was luckily saved from that sad fate by a well timed catbus, for which I’m grateful that were introduced to earlier in the film, because as a...