Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

Leviticus

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I have heard from some that this film is like the gay version of It Follows, a horror film from 2014. While I can understand why some people would think that, Leviticus is more than that. It is a horror film within a coming of age/romance picture.

Leviticus is an Australian film written and directed by Adrian Chiarella. It starred Joe Bird as Naim and Stacy Clausen as Ryan, our two main protagonists who are dealing with their attraction to each other, while being pursued by a supernatural entity that approaches them in the visage of each other.

These characters are well developed and feel very realistic, in a outwardly unrealistic situation. The relationship between Naim and Ryan has some sweet moments, considering this entity is trying to kill them. Both of these young actors do a great job with what they

The horror is limited, as I would say that it is more like a suspenseful-filled film, a thriller of sort, but there are some horror elements present for sure.

This was a well written story that absolutely uses the concept of the religion trying to “pray away the gay” that actually does happen with the conversion therapy. In this case, the “deliverance healer” in this story represents those real-life situations, but he was a much more demonic in appearance. Watching these rituals in the church was absolutely cruel and had a yuck feelings about it.

This film debuted at Sundance this year and did not last much in the theaters. I was able to rent this on Fandango at Home today and I am happy to have seen it.

3.8 stars

Tuner

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I was able to rent a couple of movies from Fandango at Home this afternoon that I have been hoping to watch this summer. With just over two weeks left before I have to return to work, I wanted to get some of them watched. I started with a film called Tuner.

Tuner is a crime thriller that featured, according to IMDB, “A talented piano tuner who suffers from hyperacusis discovers an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes, turning his life upside down.”

Hyperacusis is a hearing disorder where the noises of the every day world can be extremely loud, painful or frightening. It seems like a horrible disorder.

Niki (Leo Woodall) was the main character, working with Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman) as piano tuners when Harry had a heart attack.

With his hearing aids, Niki discovered that he was able to open safes by listening to the sounds of the lock. He wound up with a group of thieves led by Uri (Lior Raz) after Uri found out how skilled Niki was with the safe cracking.

Leo Woodall does a great job in the film and Dustin Hoffman, whose role is small, is very impactful in his screen time. Havana Rose Liu played Niki’s girlfriend, who is a student pianist and composer who was determined to attain a special job as an assistant to a great composer. They have an easy chemistry and you can feel the pain shared between them from their difficulties of life.

The film has a lot of tension and nervousness as you can tell something bad was going to happen to Niki, balancing the aspects of his life.

The ending was really great, though you have to accept some coincidence for it to work. The very end is spectacular and really puts a button on the story.

This was a film that I am glad that I finally got around to seeing because it was truly a well written and acted film.

4 stars

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

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I am a massive Spider-Man fan. I am unapologetic about that. I expected that going into Spider-Man: Brand New Day this afternoon. Maybe I am not necessarily the most unbiased reviewer you’ll see. However, I have been consciously working on being more fair and balanced about MCU movies.

Having said that, I LOVED this movie.

Peter Parker is struggling with his isolated lifestyle after the world forgets that Peter Parker exists (thanks to the Dr. Strange spell). Peter has thrown himself into his Spidey work, teaming up with NYPD to help bring down the criminal elements of the city. A mysterious powered person brings a ton of chaos to the city, Damage Control and Spidey.

I am not going to spoil anything in my review at this point. I am going to try to cover these points as generally as I can.

Performances are top notch. Tom Holland does a remarkable job as Peter Parker, playing the sadness of his life has engulfed him in. I have heard a lot of reviews calling this a much more mature performance from Holland, and that is a perfect description.

Sadie Sink, lips closed on her character, was unbelievable from the moment she was on the screen. She is such an accomplished actor and I think she is going to be an utter star in the world of the MCU.

The relationship between Peter and Frank Castle, played by the wonderful Jon Bernthal, is one of the best ones in the film. I found their pairing to be so great, unexpectedly so. Bernthal and Holland have great chemistry with each other, which you also see in The Odyssey, that Spidey and Punisher, one of the biggest odd couples you’ll see, sparkle together in dialogue, especially.

We know from the trailers that the Hulk has made a return in this film and the scenes with Hulk and Spidey are some of the best of the film. The action is spectacular. Mark Ruffalo does a fabulous job in the role as Bruce Banner, and, after so many years playing the role (since Avengers in 2012), he has such a grasp on Banner.

The special effects and action in Brand New Day is some of the best of any of the Spider-Man movies. Director Destin Daniel Cretton, who brought such a gravitas to Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, shows us once again that he can handle action and fight scenes as well as anyone. There were a bunch of shots that were spectacular.

The film uses the supporting cast of previous Spidey movies, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, just about perfectly. You can feel Peter’s grief over the loss of them as friends and how he is struggling to move on without them. This is the best performance of Zendaya in any of the Spider-Man movies.

One would think that this movie would be packed too full with all of the characters and storylines, but that is not a problem. The film has extraordinary pacing that works so well.

The film showed Spider-Man in the way that I believe he should be shown. The choices he made and the story beats with the character is just the way Spider-Man is portrayed.

I loved this movie and I will be going back to it again. There are so many fun things in the film and I can not wait to see it again.

5 stars

Hadestown: The Musical

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I have been a big proponent of filming stage plays and releasing them as movies, like they did with Hamilton and Good Night and Good Luck: Live from Broadway. I believe this would be such an awesome thing, allowing those who may not have easy access to Broadway plays and the such to see the magic of a stage presentation, not just a movie with the story adapted into a movie script.

So when I saw that there would be a Tony Award winner was doing this, I wanted to make sure that I made my way to the theater to see it, even though it was a play that I had never heard of before.

Hadestown: The Musical was filmed in London and tells an updated story about the classic Greek myth with Orpheus and Eurydice. It kind of mixed that story in with the Hades and Persephone myth as well. and it is placed within the present day.

I did not recognize any of the actors involved, but they were spectacular, as was the overall presentation of the show. I loved the way they presented this story. The circular moving stage, much like they had in Hamilton, was such a fabulous tool to tell this story, especially when Orpheus was walking out of Hades, unsure if Eurydice was behind him. I heard some people in my theater gasp when Orpheus turned around.

The music is amazing. I had never heard any of the songs from this musical, but the music was fabulous.

The performances that stood out the most were André De Shields, who played Hermes and heavily a narrator of the film, and Patrick Page who played Hades. Patrick Page’s voice was absolutely tremendous as the God of the Underworld. Most of the time he would speak through the songs and it worked so well for him. He was amazing in this role. In fact, he was wearing a boot during the show and I came to find out that he had ruptured his Achilles tendon before the filming. He was able to do his performance with the boot and, apparently, a few adjustments. That speaks a lot to Patrick Page’s dedication to the show.

Reeve Carney was Orpheus and Eva Noblezada was Eurydice. Amber Grey played Persephone. They were all great. Nobody had a bad performance.

I had goosebumps after the opening number and some tears running down my face at the finale. It was able to present a classic tale in an emotional, powerhouse film.

I want more like this.

4.5 stars

The Odyssey

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The epic novel from Homer, The Odyssey, was released this weekend from director Christopher Nolan, fresh off his Oscar winning Oppenheimer.

I read The Odyssey in high school and so I am familiar with the story of the movie. I have been excited about seeing this since it was announced.

The very general story of The Odyssey was Odysseus (Matt Damon), after winning the war with Troy, tried to return to his home of Ithaca and back to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and his son Telemachus (Tom Holland). The voyage back to Ithaca faced many serious issues and dangers from the Gods and monsters.

However, the story premise is deeper than just Odysseus trying to get home. It is a deconstruction of the heroic character archetype, diving deep into the choices of our main hero, and as well as the struggles of Penelope and Telemachus and the toxic suitors for Penelope’s hand in marriage.

The movie is an epic film, with amazing look and tremendous performances.

Matt Damon does a remarkable job as Odysseus. He dominated every minute he was on screen and his performance was layered with so much complex subtext. How much of a hero was Odysseus truthfully? I thought Tom Holland gave a top level performance too, with his dedication to trying to find his “dad.” Anne Hathaway was outstanding, especially in the last hour or so of the movie.

The rest of the cast was amazing too including John Leguizamo, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Samantha Morton, Jon Bernthal, Himesh Patel, Mia Goth, and Benny Safdie.

While there is some CGI involved in the movie (Hey there Polyphemus), it is very limited and most of the film is practical. Because of that, it is such a beautifully shot film, with amazing shots at sea and the cinematography is so on-point that I was really impressed. You do not see films of this scale without a bunch of CGI these days, but Christopher Nolan is a director that limits the amount of CGI used on his picture.

The score was perfect too, building such a tone for every scene. Ludwig Göransson did the score for this movie and, quite possibly, could win his fourth Academy Award for this score, after winning for Sinners, Oppenheimer, and Black Panther.

The film is a touch long, though one is to expect that. The first half hour or so dragged just a touch, but it was a vital stretch to set up everything needed in the film.

While I am not as high on Christopher Nolan as a lot of people are, I will not deny that this is one of his best movies ever, if not his best.

4.8 stars

Evil Dead Burn

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Okay… so I am in the minority on this film.

I hated it.

The Rotten Tomatoes score as of this writing sits at 71% critics and 81% audience. Some of my favorite online reviewers enjoyed the movie.

I hated it.

This one was just not for me.

According to IMDB, “After the loss of her husband, a woman seeks solace with her in-laws. As one by one they transform into deadites, she comes to discover that the vows she took in life – survive even in death.“

This was just a brutal film, filled with nastiness, anger and cruelty, that had remarkably graphic gore and blood, but, for me, it was lacking that fun, humorous aspects of previous Evil Dead films in the franchise. This is officially the sixth Evil Dead film in the franchise and some of them prior I enjoyed. This one just felt like a sludge to get through and when they did add in the humor element, it never felt like it fit.

This felt overlong and replaced the parts of the story, which was the human interactions, with silliness and over-the-top violence.

Clearly, there will be horror fans and fans of the franchise that will love this movie. It just was not the film for me.

I was bored through much of the film and I just wanted it to be over. There was a moment about two-thirds into the movie that I considered walking out and going home, but I stuck it out until the end ( I did leave midway through the mid-credit scene. I said, out loud, “Oh, there’s more.”). I’m not sure between Scary Movie (which I saw on Thursday) and this film, which one I would agree to watch again. With a gun to my head…. ugh, choices…

1 star

Moana (2026)

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Disney has been doing live-action remakes of their animated movies for decades now, but the most recent push of this trend started with Alice in Wonderland in 2010. Since then, we have gotten Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, The Lion King (although it is technically all animated), Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Snow White, and Lilo & Stitch. This weekend, the most recent of the animated movies to receive this treatment debuted in theaters.

Moana, the animated series was released in 2016, and just under ten years later, the live-action film was made and released.

I did not watch the original animated Moana before going to see the new live-action film, which was probably a good idea. I believe if I had watched the animation, I would have not enjoyed the live action version at all. Fact is that the Moana live action is a complete recreation of the 2016 animated version with almost nothing new, and it would have stood out even more had I watched the animated movie in preparation for the new film.

Another problem with the film is that the look of the new film is nowhere near as vibrant and magical as the animated film. This looked like they had a lot of the live action actors filming in front of a green screen or an animated background, which you can see easily. The best section of the film was in the middle of Dwayne Johnson’s song “You’re Welcome” when they animated everything.

Catherine Laga’aia as Moana was probably my favorite part of the film as I thought she was lovely and I could not take my eyes off her. Her performance was solid, and I believe she has potential to be much better in future projects. Laga’aia had a presence on screen that really worked for me.

Dwayne Johnson, who I love so much, felt much more underwhelming than he did in the animated movie. There were times when he was noticeably more thick in the waist and torso area than he was in other moments of the film making me think they did some CGI with him, or perhaps put a muscle suit on him. It was noticeable, and not in a good way.

The songs were all decent, except for “Shiny” by Jemaine Clement as Tamatoa. I thought that sounded terrible, so bad that I wondered if it was the theater’s sound system that was causing the problem. The other songs sounded fine so I am not sure why this standout song sounded so poor to me.

I did enjoy the live action dance sequences showing off Polynesian culture, especially in the opening scenes. I wish the backgrounds would have helped amplify the beauty of the dance, but it did not help it at all.

While it sounds like I did not enjoy this movie, I did like it. It is the same movie as 2016’s Moana, and I loved that movie. It does feel like the same movie, but with less of that Disney magic. If you have never seen the animated movie, this would be a sufficient remake, but if you have Disney + and have never seen the animated movie, watch that version.

2.9 stars

The Invite

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After a terrible movie at first, the afternoon picked up dramatically with the extremely funny and truly unexpected film starring Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz called The Invite.

Olivia Wilde directed this film from A24 that went in a way that I had not expected.

According to IMDB, “Joe and Angela’s marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places.”

The Invite was funny, intelligent, well-written and shocking. The film, basically, took four characters and put them together in an apartment and they carried this film through an amazing film. It feels like a stage play in this way.

Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz are absolutely wonderful and they share an amazing chemistry. They bounced back and forth between these characters and the intelligent dialogue was fabulous.

I was very surprised at some of the stuff that they went into during these conversations. I did not expect the way this went. It was funny and turned into a serious film as well. All four of these actors showed a great range in the film and delivered.

I was fully engaged with this movie and I was thoroughly entertained by these talented actors and writers. I was looking forward to this movie and it came through big time.

4.5 stars

Scary Movie (2026)

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I was going to see The Invite at 4 PM today at Cinemark, but I wanted to do a movie in the afternoon to watch to waste the time. The movie that fit into that window the best was a movie that has been out for several weeks, but I had not seen. It was the new film from the Wayans Brothers, Scary Movie.

I was not sure if this was a movie that I wanted to see, because it just did not feel like it was a film that was in my wheelhouse. I had nearly gone a different time, but it just did not work out. So today would be the day for me to see the film from a previous franchise, returned to the public’s eye.

I definitely found a movie to waste my time with.

I hated the newest Scary Movie. Truly hated it.

The film parodied a bunch of horror movies over the last few years, specifically Scream as they used the Ghostface killer from that franchise. However, they also poked fun at It Follows, K-Pop Demon Hunters, M3GAN, Nosferatu, White Chicks, Sinners, Get Out, Wednesday (TV show on Netflix), Smile, The Substance, Terrifier 3, and several more. The problem was that none of the parodies had any cleverness to it and the writing was just poor.

The film was just drug jokes, dropping the n-word, sex jokes, and killing a bunch of people. None of them were funny at all. The only pieces that made me smile a bit were the meta jokes or the breaking of the fourth wall. However, they overdid these too.

I did not laugh at this movie and that is a sin for a comedy, especially a spoof film that has all kinds of leeway to be ridiculous. I was hoping that I would enjoy this with the return of the Wayans, but it was clear that I was just not going to.

1 star

The Furious

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The Furious is a English-language Hing Kong martial arts action thriller that came out earlier this year in theaters. It did not stay in theaters very long, and I had wanted to see it there, but scheduling just did not work out. So when it appeared today on Fandango at Home, I rented it immediately to watch this afternoon.

The story is straightforward and fairly simple. A father fought against the people who snatched his daughter for their child trafficking ring. He teamed up with another man who was in search of his journalist wife who had been investigating the traffickers.

However, just because the film has a simple story, does make it a bad movie. In contrast, the film knows what it needed to be and what it needed as a story to get the film where they wanted it to go. Some films like this make the story needlessly convoluted with storylines that do not make sense or are just crammed into the movie in order to have it. The Furious did what it needed and gave us just enough to be engaged.

Our main character, Wang Wie (Xie Miao), was a mute handyman who clearly had some kind of a background that made this guy a real bad ass. Navin (Joe Taslim), the journalist, had some amazing training somewhere too. Those things are not necessary for this film, and it is very important to suspend your disbelief in this area.

The action is just unbelievable. The fighting is the standout of the film as the choreography of this film and its fight scenes are masterful. Words do not do justice for the action/fight scenes that they present in The Furious.

I was impressed with the young girl who played Wie’s daughter Rainy. Her name was Enyou Yang, and she was an awesome part of the film and helped give Wie the humanity he needed.

High energy action and non-stop tension made this a thrilling and completely entertaining movie that reached a level that we have not seen in a long time. It was one of the best films of the year so far.

4.8 stars

Enola Holmes 3

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The Enola Holmes franchise on Netflix has had two really solid, enjoyable movies and now Enola Holmes 3 joined the trilogy in a very effective way.

I hadn’t heard about Enola Holmes 3 coming until some time in mid-June of this year. I had no idea they were doing another one, but I think they presented another winner. Millie Bobby Brown has grown into this role, and she does an admirable job in the role. Her breaking of the fourth wall moments, as she acted as a narrator, worked very well. I realized in the middle of the movie that I had not thought of her as Eleven (from Stranger Things) once. That shows how effective Millie Bobby Brown has been as Sherlock Holmes’ sister.

Sherlock Holmes is kidnapped, disrupting the wedding of Enola Holmes and Lord Tewkesbury. Enola is on the case, investigating the mystery.

Several returning actors reclaimed their roles from previous films of the franchise including Henry Cavill as Sherlock, Helena Bonham Carter as Eudoria Holmes, Louis Partridge as Tewkesbury, Himesh Patel as Dr. Watson, and Susan Wokoma as Edith.

This movie succeeds on the back of Millie Bobby Brown and her relationship with the characters around her. She is very charming as Enola and she and Partridge have great chemistry.

I was not as impressed with the mystery with previous Enola films. I can’t speak about the plot without spoiling so I won’t go into it further.

I found this to be an entertaining addition to the franchise and I thought it was an easy watch. This is a great Netflix film that is worth the time.

4 stars

Minions & Monsters

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I have hated the previous two Minions movies and I have not been a big fan of any of the Despicable Me franchise either, so I was not excited when they announced a new Minions movie.

However, I had heard some positive word of mouth, especially from online film critic Dan Murrell, a well-know hater of Minion content, and I had some hope.

After seeing Minions & Monsters, I can say without hesitation that this is my favorite Minions movie I have ever seen.

According to IMDB, Minions & Monsters “Follows the Minions in 1920s Hollywood as they search for frightening creatures for their monster movie, partner with a green creature, and must save the planet after unleashing monsters.“

The Minions wind up in Hollywood and that was really fun. The movie had a ton of references and allusions to some of the greatest movies of all time, from Jaws to Casablanca.

There are some real characters in the movie and an actual storyline. They are not incredibly deep, but they are here. There are some big time voice performances too including Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, Phil LaMarr and Bobby Moynihan.

The animation is wonderful and full of amazing color. The times they switched from the typical animation style into a different one were very effective.

This movie does a great job of appealing to the children in the audience while still giving some jokes and items for the adults, which, again, is not something that is typical in a Minions movie.

This was such a nice surprise. This had a feeling of the Looney Tunes to me. For a movie that I had no desire to see at one point in the year, to a film that was entertaining, it sure tells you that if you keep your mind open, anything could happen. Even a fun and enjoyable minions movie.

3.9 stars

Neighborhood Watch (2025)

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June 30

Movie 30

The June Swoon 5 comes to a close with a film I watched on Hulu this morning called Neighborhood Watch, which starred Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jack Quaid.

I had been looking for a final film for the June Swoon and my list just did not have any films that made me excited about watching it. My search led me to this movie and I do like Morgan and Quaid very much so I thought this was a good choice to finish with.

According to IMDB, “When a mentally ill young man thinks he witnesses an abduction and the police refuse to believe him, he reluctantly turns to his next-door neighbor, a bitter and retired security guard, to help him find the missing person.”

I really enjoyed this movie. Were there some moments when you had to just go along with the plot? Yes, there were some times when credibility was stretched. However, there were no moments that pulled me out of the story.

I thought Jack Quaid did an excellent job portraying this young, damaged man whose mental illness was a huge factor in his life. Still, you could see the goodness in him and how much he wanted to be something more than what he was.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character was fairly typical for this type of role. He just is such a likable actor that he overcame the stereotypical grumpy, old man archetype.

Together, Morgan and Quaid bring the film to life with the chemistry between them and the interactions between their characters. They grow to care about the other and seeing how gentle Morgan was with Quaid near the end speaks levels.

This movie definitely has some flaws, specifically in the story, but the two lead performances are so engaging that those do not seem to be a problem at all. The film flied by and, if I am being honest, I would have liked even more at the end. I wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters and that tells me the film was a success.

So that brings an end to the June Swoon 5.

The June Swoon will return in June 2027.

Red Sonja (2025)

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June 29

Movie 29

The iconic character of Red Sonja has been hot lately in comic books so it was a good time last year to do another chance at a full length Red Sonja movie.

The sword-and-sorcery flick starred Matilda Lutz as Sonja.

According to IMDB, “Captured and forced to fight for survival, Red Sonja must rally an army of outcasts to reclaim her freedom and take down a tyrant and his ruthless bride.“

The Red Sonja movie was better than I anticipated. I liked this more than the Red Sonja from 1985 with Brigitte Nielsen… quite a bit more actually. I think Matilda Lutz does a great job of bringing Red Sonja to life. I like how she is not an over the top muscular character, because she feels more like what I see in the comics.

Story wise, there was not a ton of original moments in the film. The scenes all felt like I had seen it before in other sword-and-sorcery movies. However, most of these familiar scenes were executed fairly well.

I loved the Conan mention near the end of the film. I would love to see this Red Sonja with King Conan.

This is a far from perfect film, but I did enjoy watching it. There was nothing here that made me dislike it. It is a good use of the character of Red Sonja.

The Great Flood (2025)

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June 28

Movie 28

We are down to three final days of June for the June Swoon, with today’s entry being a Korean sci-fi/disaster film called The Great Flood.

According to IMDB, “A great flood has hit planet Earth. People, including An Na and Hee Jo struggle to survive in their apartment building, which is sinking into the water. An Na is an AI development researcher and Hee Jo belongs to a human resource security team, who is trying to save An Na from the disaster. But why is Hee Jo trying to save An Na and who is behind it?“

There are some solid moments in The Great Flood. However, the film takes way too many sudden shifts to be effective. Every time the sci-fi elements work their way into the story, it weakens what had come before it. They dropped the sci-fi story in the middle of this disaster film about a flood and it pulled me out of what was happening.

These different genres did not play well together in this movie. An Na (Kim Da-Mi) does a good job of showing the panic of the situation and her desperation in trying to recover her son, Ja-In (Kwon Eun-sung). The kid was both decent in his role and extremely annoying, depending on what the plot needed him t be.

The film looked great and some of the flooding scenes were really strong. However, the sci-fi scenes just messed with the story and the imagery of the sci-fi stuff did not work for me.

I got to the point where the characters lost me and I did not feel compelled to root for them any longer. The film felt way longer than the run time would indicate and had me wondering how much longer it was going.

Still, it was not the worst movie of the June Swoon 5, and if you get past the story aspects of the sci-fi, the disaster movie scenes were solid. It’s a mishmash of a film that could have been better than it was.