Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

GOAT

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A new animated movie came out this weekend that was a mixture of Space Jam and Zootopia. Sony put out this remarkably colorful and fun looking film.

According to IMDB, “A small goat with big dreams gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot to join the pros and play roarball, a high-intensity, co-ed, full-contact sport dominated by the fastest, fiercest animals in the world.“

This film had its ups and downs for me. It looked great for sure. The amazing color stood out well. The story was very predictable. The beginning of the movie was not as strong for me, but the ending was better and more engaging than I thought it would be. I was feeling like I was going to really dislike this, but the ending was able to pull it up for me.

Caleb McLaughlin voiced Will Harris, the goat at the center of the story. Gabrielle Union played Jett Fillmore, the superstar roarball playing cat. Other voices in the cast included Stephen Curry, Aaron Pierce, David Harbour, Nick Kroll, Patton Oswalt, Jennifer Lewis, Nicola Coughlan, Jelly Roll, Jennifer Hudson, Wayne Knight, and Sherry COla.

I think the target audience is not for me. This feels like a film that is targeted to a younger child and I feel as if it would be fairly successful in that manner. However, I did find myself bored through a good chunk of the film as I expected what was coming. I do think they did a decent job of sticking the landing so I did not hate the experience of watching GOAT.

It really is borderline for me. If you have a group of young kids, you could probably find worse movies to take them to, but there are better movies too.

2.9 stars

Crime 101

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We have a brand new crime thriller out this weekend featuring a bunch of actors who we have seen in various super hero flicks over the years. Director Bart Layton, who had directed American Animals and one of my all-time favorite documentaries in The Imposter, does a great job bringing this crime/heist film together.

According to IMDB, “An elusive thief, eyeing his final score, encounters a disillusioned insurance broker at her own crossroads. As their paths intertwine, a relentless detective trails them hoping to thwart the multi-million dollar heist they are planning.”

The film featured Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, and Barry Keoghan in major roles. Each of these performers did a great job in bringing a new face to their roles, and that is a difficult thing to do since they all have major roles that they are known for. Mark Ruffalo specifically does a great job as he is a compelling and original character that never once made me think of Bruce Banner.

Nick Nolte also showed up in this film, giving his best Nick Nolte performance.

I enjoyed this fairly well, even if it felt a little too long. At two hours and twenty minutes, this did feel its length. Strong performances with a pretty good story. I did find this to be an enjoyable film with a bunch of people that I really like.

3.5 stars

Dracula (2026)

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I dozed off during Iron Lung today, but I sure as heck wished I had dozed off during this new version of Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula. It would have made the film seem better than it was.

According to IMDB, “When a 15th-century prince denounces God after the loss of his wife he inherits an eternal curse: he becomes Dracula. Condemned to wander the centuries, he defies fate and death, guided by a single hope – to be reunited with his lost love.“

I found that there were a bunch of things about this version of Dracula that I did not like at all. Directed by Luc Besson, who I loved as the director of The Fifth Element, Dracula was just a waste of my time.

First of all, what is the exact tone of this thing? It bounced around between a horror movie and a comedy, almost slapstick-like. There were scenes where I was laughing at that I am not sure were intended to be funny. Or maybe it was and the scenes were more successful in the end. There was a scene with Matilda De Angelis’s Maria that seemed like it should have been in one of those horror movie parody films. It was easily the worst scene of the movie.

Then, Dracula had a bunch of stone gargoyle friends, like this was a Disney movie. The gargoyles did not speak like they did in Hunchback of Notre Dame, but they looked ridiculous and did not fit with the concept of this movie.

The look of the movie was terrible too. There were so many scenes where the CGI looked bad and that you could tell where the green screen was and there is no excuse in 2026 for your CGI to be this bad.

The whole love story at the center of the film was not believable to me either. Zoë Bleu felt like she was overacting in nearly every scene and I did not feel any chemistry between Zoë Bleu’s character and Dracula, who was played by Caleb Landry Jones. Jones was fine as Dracula, but that is about it. I do not think his performance will be remembered in the echelon of Dracula performances.

I found the ending to be really stupid too. How can you have a star like Christoph Waltz in your film but let him flounder as he did during this version of Dracula.

I just did not like this film much as I struggled to find much positive to say about it. There are a half dozen Dracula movies better than this one, at least, and I am not sure why anyone would choose this version of the film over some of those.

1.4 stars

Iron Lung

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I had no idea what this movie was last week when it debuted as the number two movie at the box office. I heard some talk about it this past week after its massive success. That certainly put it on my radar.

The film was written and directed by YouTuber Markiplier and is based on a video game from 2022 by David Szymanski. Markiplier said the the film would be self-financed and that he would star in the film. With a small budget of $3 million dollars, Iron Lung made a whopping $30 million + worldwide.

With the huge story of the self-made man overcoming the Hollywood order to make a hit movie, the question was, “Was Iron Lung any good?” Sadly, I did not enjoy the film as much as I had hoped that I would.

According to IMDB, “In a post-apocalyptic future after ‘The Quiet Rapture’ event, a convict explores a blood ocean on a desolate moon using a submarine called the ‘Iron Lung’ to search for missing stars/planets.“

The convict was played by Markiplier, aka Mark Fischbach, and the setting was definitely an effectively claustrophobic thriller with an air of uncertainty. I would even go as far as to say that the best part of the film was the setting as it created the desired effect of the audience.

Unfortunately, I found that the story did not grab me and that I found it dull. If I am being honest, I dozed off a couple of times during the movie, so it might not be fair to judge it, but I can say that the story failed to maintain my attention.

I am very happy for Mark Fischbach and I am impressed with his success with this movie. Maybe I should give it a rewatch some day, maybe when it arrives on streaming. As for now, I would recommend people go see it to support someone who is not letting the challenges stop him from reaching for his dream. I just was not much of a fan of the part of the movie that I saw.

2.5 stars

(I reserve the right to raise or lower this score in a future viewing)

Send Help

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Sam Raimi has a new movie in the theater this weekend that has all kinds of Sam Raimi-isms in it. As a director, you can see those moments where Sam Raimi shined through.

The movie featured Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien as our two stranded survivors.

According to IMDB, “An employee and her insufferable boss become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. Here, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, will they make it out alive?“

Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien are fantastic playing their characters. They give these characters some real depth and characterization in this over the top story. It starts out with these two characters seeming to be one-dimensional, but they both improve a ton over the course of the movie.

I have a problem with this movie, but, sadly, I can not explain those problems because they deal with major spoilers for the film. This stuff really makes me question what I felt about the movie, but I am unable to talk about it without spoiling it. I don’t want to do it, but I will just say that there is something that happened that was less than satisfactory for me.

The film looked great and the cinematography on the island was special. The film is shot wonderfully and all the technical aspects were good. There was a scene with a boar that was really awesome.

Without being able to go into specifics on the spoilers, I liked much of this movie, but by the end of the film, I had a lesser feel for the movie than I did in the middle.

3.5 stars

MASH (1970)

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January 31

So another Genre-ary comes to an ending with today’s movie, MASH, the original film from 1970 starring Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould and Tom Skerritt, wrapping up the Comedy Genre-ary 2026.

I love MASH the TV show (it was my #8 in the Top 100) and that probably hurt this film, which I have seen a few clips from, but never sat down and watched the entire thing.

They were saying character names that I loved, but who did not seem like the characters that I loved. Outside of Radar O’Reilly (who was played by Gary Burghoff in the film and the TV series, the only cast member that returned), we saw Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Henry Blake, Hot Lips, Frank Burns, Father Mulcahy, and Spearchucker.

My biggest problem with this film is that it is not the TV show. The doctors of the 4077 MASH felt so much meaner than what I was used to. I did not like some of the things that they did because they felt cruel instead of funny. They were cruder, obnoxious and not as empathic as I expected.

The plot was nearly non-existent. The film was just a series of scenes that were only connected together because they came at the 4077 MASH. That is… until the show turned into a football film. There were several episodes of the TV show where they competed against other units, but seeing them all in full football pads and helmets was weird.

The actors were strong with Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Tom Skerritt, Gary Burghoff, Rene Auberjonois, Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, Jo Ann Pflug, Fred Williamson, David Arkin, Roger Bowen, Michael Murphy, and Timothy Brown.

I am sure that I would have liked this more than I did, if I did not have the TV series so firmly placed in my head.

And with that… the 2026 Genre-ary is closed.

My Blue Heaven (1990)

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January 30

On the penultimate day of the Genre-ary, I watch yet another Steve Martin movie. M y Blue Heaven is actually the fourth Steve Martin movie (along with The Jerk, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) in this year’s comedy Genre-ary.

I rented My Blue Heaven on Fandango at Home to fall into the Genre-ary.

According to IMDB, “An all too uptight FBI agent must protect a larger than life mobster with a heart of gold, currently under witness protection in the suburbs.”

Steve Martin and Rick Moranis are great together. They are a wonderful pair with amazing chemistry, dating back to Little Shop of Horrors. The two lead actors are the reason why this movie holds together because there are some shaky moments in the story.

The story itself is kind of hard to buy because there are so many things that happen that are not realistic. But everything is held together because of Martin and Moranis.

There is a great cast around Martin and Moranis. They included Joan Cusack, Carol Kane, William Hickey, Daniel Stern, Deborah Rush, Bill Irwin, Jess Bradford, Seth Jaffe, Robert Miranda, Melanie Mayron, Ed Lauter, and Raymond O’Connor.

There are some awesome dance routines in the film. It was really entertaining.

My Blue Heaven was fun and funny with some great actors that overcame some of the wonkier marts of the script. A solid Steve Martin movie.

Spaghettiman (2016)

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January 29

I found this low budget superhero flick on Amazon Prime and it seemed like a good fit for comedy Genre-ary.

Boy is it stupid. But, I have to say, it is stupid in the right way.

According to IMDB, “Clark doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about the world. He barely cares about himself. But after an incident with an old bowl of spaghetti and a malfunctioning microwave, he becomes a superhero that can fight crime with the power of spaghetti. However, you have to pay him.“

Clark is really a jerk. He gets these weird spaghetti powers and he starts charging people. He is not your typical superhero.

The paper bag mask reminded me of when Spidey had to wear a paper bag mask and an old FF costume to get home. Lots of fun there. Or, I picture the Unknown Comic from The Gong Show. Either way, this is one more example of the paper bag mask.

There is clearly some Spider-Man love here as the spaghetti makes a Thwip sound when Spaghettiman shoots spaghetti from his hands.

None of it makes any sense, but it is funny. This film understands that it is stupid and it embraces that stupidity with both hands, with spaghetti shooting out of them.

It was a fun time watching this extremely low budget film that couldn’t be more indie if it tried.

The Audition (2015)

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January 28

Time is short tonight, so I went searching for a comedy short to watch, and did I find one!

The Audition was directed by Martin Scorsese and featured Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro competing against one another for a lead role in the next Scorsese film.

Scorsese also stars, along with Brad Pitt. The four icons had come together to make this short as an advertisement for Studio City in Macau and City of Dreams in Manila.

This was a lot of fun with these superstars playing against their own reps in a very meta short. These talented actors are able to deliver the comedy as well as their typical dramatic roles.

Reportedly, the short/ad cost an estimated $70 million dollars.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

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January 27

I had thought that I had seen Dirty Rotten Scoundrels before, but I do not think I have. Certainly not all the way through to the end though I have seen clips of it. I always believed that I was not a fan and that it was not something that I would find funny. I guess this is a lesson to make sure that you have watched something before judging it, because I thought Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was fantastic.

According to IMDB, “Two con men try to settle their rivalry by betting on who can swindle a young American heiress out of fifty thousand dollars first.“

The Dirty Rotten Scoundrels were Michael Caine and Steve Martin and they were absolutely perfect together. The chemistry between the two con men carried the film. Glenn Headly added a nice touch of apparent innocence to the group with her portrayal of Janet Colgate.

I was rooting for Steve Martin in the beginning of the movie, but Michael Caine became someone better than you would expect. It was a fun ending which fit perfectly in with the story.

It had great comedy and showed the quick-wits of both characters. The rivalry between them was so believable, even if some of the things that they pulled off was out there.

This is a remake of the 1964 movie Bedtime story. This new version was directed by Frank Oz, who was well known as a Muppet performer (he did Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear), the voice of Yoda, as well as director of other classic comedy hits such as Little Shop of Horrors, Bowfinger, and What About Bob?

I was sure that I had seen this before, but I had not seen the full film. It was very entertaining and full of Martin and Caine’s comedy chops and timing. I was very pleased to include this one in the Genre-ary for 2026.

Withnail and I (1987)

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January 26

I am not sure where I got this film for the Genre-ary. It must have been on one of the lists that I was searching through. This is a British black comedy called Withnail and I, which featured the feature film debut of Richard E. Grant. I typically like British humor. Unfortunately, I could not get into the film.

I had a very difficult time engaging in the narrative of Withnail and I.

According to IMDB, “Two sloppy actors spend a weekend holiday at an uncle’s country cottage.“

Maybe it is not fair of me, but I just was not into this movie. Did I give it enough of a chance? Maybe not, but I was just not grabbed by the film. Maybe I should give this a rewatch at some time in the future, but right now, I struggled with this movie.

Billy Crystal 700 Sundays (2014)

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January 25

Billy Crystal is a personal favorite of mine. He created a stand up comedy concert film that was based on a book that he wrote about his childhood and his family. It originally aired on HBO and I watched it on HBO Max.

It reminded me of the Charles Nelson Reilly film Life of Reilly, although that movie was darker than 700 Sundays. Both comedians talked about their childhood and their eccentric families with an honesty that you might not usually hear. They included the best of their lives, but also the tragedies that made them who they were.

Billy Crystal’s film was entitled 700 Sundays which was the count of Sundays that Billy had to spend with his father, Jack Crystal, before he died when Billy was 15.

Billy Crystal was remarkably funny, bringing out laughter between the tears in his stories. The set up for each tale brought the humor to the front, even with the deep loss that might also be present.

There were parts of the act that I recognized from previous stand up performances from Crystal. However, everything really fit together well. The stage featured a image of the old house that Crystal grew up in. This house became a important structure in the stories that he would tell.

The show was poignant, powerful and touching. Billy Crystal moved through everything with a flow that kept things moving and kept everyone laughing.

It was a wonderful show.

Mercy

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A new “Screen Life” film is out this weekend featuring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, who was a producer on last year’s classic War of the Worlds. That should have been the first hint.

However, to be fair, this is better than War of the Worlds because, of course, it had to be, right?

I actually liked the premise of this film. It was a lesser version of Minority Report (much lesser), but there were some ideas here that were going to work.

Chris Pratt was fine as the lead actor, playing Chris Raven, the police officer who was on trial for his wife’s murder. All of the videos and internet stuff made him look real guilty.

Thing is.. the near future world this movie was set in had done something new. It placed AI in charge of the justice system, setting the AI up as judge, jury and executioner. It gave the accused 90 minutes in which to prove his/her innocence or else they would be executed. So the whole trial was on a counting clock, which created some tension in the tale.

The AI judge was Judge Maddox, played by Rebecca Ferguson, and I feel like I missed out on something here. Was she supposed to be all AI or was she meant to be somehow human, because the AI judge kept being influenced by Raven and gave some seemingly emotional responses, which seemed to go against the whole set up. This was one of my biggest problems with the movie as I just did not understand what the AI judge was meant to be.

I also picked out the killer immediately. I do not think it was a huge pull for me as it was painfully apparent and predictable.

I thought the beginning of the film wasn’t bad, but the last act or so was aggressively dumber than it should have been. Things happened that made zero sense and played against what the film had spent time setting up.

There was a drone scene too, but at least they did not have to go to Amazon Prime to order it before they use it.

2.6 stars

Chaplin (1992)

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January 24

Charlie Chaplin has been a staple of several of my DailyViews and watches. I have truly enjoyed many of his shorts and movies, including most recently The Great Dictator during this year’s Genre-ary. So when I noticed that this biopic on Chaplin, starring Robert Downey Jr., was listed as a Comedy/Drama, I added it to the list for this month.

I had watched some of this film when I was younger, but I remember stopping it because I was not interested. I was too young to truly appreciate the artistry of the story.

According to IMDB, “An elderly Charlie Chaplin discusses his autobiography with his editor, recounting his amazing journey from his poverty-stricken childhood to world-wide success after the ingenious invention of the Little Tramp.”

This has a remarkable cast, led by RDJ, who would receive an Oscar nomination for his brilliant performance. Other cast members included Paul Rhys, Anthony Hopkins, Dan Aykroyd, Marisa Tomei, Moira Kelly, Kevin Kline, Penelope Ann Miller, Milla Jovovich, Kevin Dunn, James Woods, Diane Lane, Nancy Travis, David Duchovny, and Geraldine Chaplin.

The definitely strongest aspect of the film is Robert Downey Jr. He is amazing with his physical performance as well as his Chaplin replica. It was said that Charlie Chaplin’s actual daughter was in the film and she was impressed and unnerved by his creation of Chaplin.

The film ended with the Academy Award night where they gave him an honorary award and they showed the actual clips from the real movies with the real Charlie Chaplin. It was very powerful.

I thought this movie was really great, led by Robert Downey Jr. I would have liked maybe more about some of the controversies that were brought up during it. Still, I liked this a lot.

War on Everybody

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January 23

On a no school day because of the frigid temps, I got to watch the Genre-ary film early this morning. I pulled up HBO Max and watched a film starring Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña called War on Everybody.

Skarsgård and Peña are crooked cops that seem to flaunt authority at every turn. After returning from yet another suspension, Terry Monroe (Skarsgård) and Bob Bolaño (Peña) discover a heist that is about to be done. This led them to all kinds of trouble with two powerful and dangerous criminals (Theo James, Caleb Landry Jones).

During the investigation, Skarsgård is paired up with Tessa Thompson, and they are one of the best parts of the film. Thompson’s character, Jackie, fits right in with the damaged Terry Monroe. Some of their scenes together are fun and loose.

I think Skarsgård and Peña do a great job of creating these extremely unlikable characters and make them someone whom we want to root for. They are horrible people, but yet they are strangely charming and people you want to see do well. Anti-heroes have been around for years, but these two almost do not fit into that category. The skill of these tow actors is why the characters work so well.

The story is fairly skimpy. The two villains are cardboard cutouts. The action is, at best, okay. This film succeeds or fails on the strength of its lead actors. That is a good thing for this movie.