Category Archives: 2025 Movie Reviews

In Your Dreams

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No snowflakes around here yet, but this is officially the first film of the 2025 post-Thanksgiving, Snowpocalypse Weekend. In Your Dreams is an animated film currently streaming on Netflix after a short week length release in theaters.

According to IMDB, “Stevie and her little brother Elliot journey into the wildly absurd landscape of their own dreams to ask the Sandman to grant them the perfect family.”

The film has some very deep and potentially troublesome themes that could trigger some. However, the brightness and colorful animation makes even the hardest topics palatable.

The voice over cast included Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Elias Janssen, Craig Robinson, Simu Liu, Cristin Milioti, Gia Carides, Omid Djalili, and SungWon Cho.

I thought this was a pretty decent animated movie. It had some fun and some drama, with a serious topic that the characters dealt with in the story.

I thought that the music was really solid in the film. I loved the use of some of the well known Sandman songs.

The character designs are well done and the dream world was creative and clever.

In Your Dreams was a nice animated movie for a snowy day (or soon to be snowy day).

3.5 stars

Train Dreams

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Based on a 2011 novella, Train Dreams is a drama directed by Clint Bentley and starring Joel Edgerton. The film just started streaming on Netflix.

According to IMDB, “…Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century.“

The film featured a stunning performance from Joel Edgerton, while ripping the heart out of the viewer’s chest with some of the most painful scenes of the year.

It is an emotional tale of Robert Grainier’s life and the losses that tugged at his soul. The pain of his loss was tempered by his consistent search for life. There are some scenes that are just remarkably rough for the character, yet one of the final scenes of the film brings about a feeling of joyous freedom.

Great performances littered this movie. Add to Edgerton the strong work from Felicity Jones, Clifton Collins Jr., Kerry Condon and William H. Macy.

The cinematography of the land is fantastic and the film is a beautiful one to watch.

I found this to be a lovely film that was difficult to watch with the emotional moments being powerful. It is available on Netflix.

3.6 stars

Zootopia 2

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Zootopia was a giant surprise hit in 2016 when it broke one billion dollars worldwide. With that much box office success, one would wonder why it took nearly ten years to have a sequel.

Zootopia 2 is an excellent new animated movie that does a great job of providing a new story and continuing the awesome partnership between Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde.

According to IMDB, “Brave rabbit cop Judy Hopps and her friend, the fox Nick Wilde, team up again to crack a new case, the most perilous and intricate of their careers.“

Ginnifer Godwin and Jason Bateman are the voices of Judy and Nick respectfully. They do a fantastic job with these characters and their voice work is part of the reason this pair is so good together. They are also written well as any friendship you’ll find in the movies.

There is a great voice cast along with Godwin and Bateman. This included Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, Dasvid Strathairn, Idris Elba, Shakira, Patrick Warburton, Danny Trejo, Quinta Brunson, and Bonnie Hunt. In a fun bit of casting, the Zebros were voiced by pro wrestlers, Joe Anoa’i (aka Roman Reigns) and Phil Brooks (aka C.M. Punk).

I liked the story of the film as well. It was nicely developed without succumbing to the sequel-itis where the sequel tried to do way too much, cramming it in. However, this felt very well constructed and worked well. I was worried at first that there would be too much here and make the story feel convoluted, but it came together nicely as it progressed.

The character design is amazing, and the creativity is off the charts. The animation looked fantastic and you could tell that they were having a lot of fun with the film as it translated to the screen.

It had real emotion and some wonderful character moments. It was also hilarious and filled with some great animated action. It was worth the wait to see a sequel.

4.2 stars

After the Hunt

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The film, After the Hunt was a film that I missed out on while it was in the theaters earlier this year, but with it coming available on Amazon Prime, I was able to watch it this weekend. I have to say that I found this to be extremely disappointing and mostly a mess.

According to IMZDB, “A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil levels an accusation against one of her colleagues and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light.”

Thing is, this synopsis from IMDB is much more concise than this film is. I’m not sure what the overall story as meant to be, and it felt as if these characters were jumping back and forth in so many different manners that it muddied the waters of the narrative.

There are great actors in the film. Julia Roberts,  Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny all had important roles in the film and they all can really act. There just was too much chaos in the script to allow any of them to elevate the material. Certainly, Julia Roberts had the strongest performance, but there was just so much going on that was needlessly convoluted that it sapped any semblance of her performance.

The score was constantly in the way. I have never been as distracted by the music in a movie as I was with this movie. The score was nonsensical at times and really caused disruptions.

The narrative was scattered around and did not have a comprehensive idea of where it wanted to go. This was compounded by the different characters and what they brought to the story. Some things were brought in for reasons that I am not sure have a purpose.

I found this to be overly long, messy, and wasteful of some strong performances. After the Hunt never really knew what it wanted to be, and that is hat it became.

2 stars

Wicked: For Good

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Last year, Wicked found its way into my top 10 of the year. I loved the first movie and I was excited to see the follow-up, the finish to the story with Wicked: For Good.

I did enjoy the movie, but it just did not feel as enjoyable as the first half.

We pick up back in Oz with Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) being pursued and demonized as the Wicked Witch of the West, and she is trying to show the citizens of Oz that the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) was a fraud. Glinda (Ariana Grande) was the public face for the Wizard and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), and was being created as the Good Witch.

The strengths of this film included the two leads, Erivo and Grande. Their chemistry was off the charts in the first film, and they both carry it right into Wicked: For Good. Both of them give Oscar worthy performances once again, however, there was too much of the film where they were at odds, which dragged things down a bit. Specifically, with the love triangle between them and Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), which did not seem to work very well.

The film looked beautiful once again. They had filmed this right after the first film, so everything was still in place and the sequel is sensational looking.

While there is no song in the second film that could match the power or emotionality of “Defying Gravity,” I did enjoy the music throughout. The voices of both Grande and Erivo are spot on and could handle anything thrown at them. My personal favorite songs were “Wonderful” featuring both Erivo and Grande with Jeff Goldblum. The scene of them dancing together really was an awesome shot and “No Good Deed” with Erivo standing out.

I just had trouble with this film not reaching the levels of the first film. Wicked was filled with magic and charm, while it felt like Wicked: For Good was too busy trying to cram the parts of The Wizard of Oz to make it fit the story of the original 1939 film. I am not sure much of the Wizard of Oz bits worked for me.

Specifically, the origins of the Scarecrow and the Tin Man made no sense to me and felt extremely shoehorned into the script. I won’t spoil this for anyone who doesn’t know from the stage play, but I did not like the use of these characters.

A lot of the story was not dealt with, as if there were several dangling plotholes left unfilled. Again, without spoiling I can’t go into too many details, but this was a problem for me, especially in reflection.

The second film is definitely darker than the first one with a few surprisingly dark scenes. There was less humor in this new film, which is not a bad thing, but Ariana Grande, whose comedic timing was on full display in the first film, did not have the opportunity as much in this one. Again, that is not necessarily bad, as it might show character growth, but it was a missing feature for me.

Wicked: For Good is a solid film, if not as good as the first one. I wonder what it would be like to watch both films back to back? I wonder if that would change the thoughts I had for part two? Maybe I’ll do that some day.

3.75 stars

Sisu: Road to Revenge

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A few years back there was a film featuring a Finnish protagonist who had become a legend by his brutality and his survival. Dubbed the “Man who refuses to die,” Aatami Korpi stomped through Nazis, killing everyone in his path.

Aatami Korpi (played by Jorma Tommila) is back after the war and he returned to his home in Finland, which had been annexed by the Soviet Union in the peace treaty, to the home where his wife and two sons were murdered.

Korpi dismantled his house, taking the lumber from it to leave the now Soviet Union so he could rebuild the house again. Unfortunately, the man who killed his family, Yeagor Dragunov, played by Stephen Lang, was hired to go and kill the legend, once and for all.

The story was really simple, and Jorma Tommila does not have one line of dialogue, but he did a nice job with his body posture and his facial expressions (that is, when we could see the facial expressions through the crimson mask that covered his face at multiple times in the film) to express the pain and anguish he was going through.

Korpi is beat all the crap in the film, to the point where it is amazing that he could possibly still be functioning, much less alive.

I have to say that while I did enjoy a lot of the excessive violence that was going on in the film, it got to a point where it may have been too much. It was difficult to accept that he was still alive after so much without any sort of magical/mystical abilites.

Some of the things he does is also too cartoonish. Some of the things had me rolling my eyes or trying to decide exactly why he did that. There was one scene with a tank that truly showed this concept.

Because of the violence becoming too out there, I felt like the movie took a step back from the previous one. I do not remember the last Sisu movie being this over-the-top, Looney Tunes type violence and this just was more than I wanted.

It was still a fun revenge flick, but, interestingly enough, Korpi wasn’t in search of revenge. Had the Soviets not sent Dragunov after him, he would have just left the Soviet Union and built his new home. I am not even sure Korpi knew that Dragunov was the man who killed his family until he started bragging about it.

A solid revenge flick that does takes things too far for my tastes, Sisu: Road to Revenge is a decent afternoon watch, it is paced quickly and has some good humorous kills. Lots of blood too.

3.4 stars

Being Eddie

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I watched a second Netflix documentary tonight, this one much more upbeat that the previous one. I saw the Netflix documentary on Eddie Murphy’s life and career called Being Eddie.

We follow through the career of Eddie Murphy, with his own words. There are plenty of moments of Eddie Murphy talking about the aspects of his life, from SNL to Beverly Hills Cop to his Oscar nomination back to SNL.

There are a bunch of other comedians who appear as talking heads on the doc to speak about Eddie’s success and his career. Others in the doc included Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, Arsenio Hall, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, Jamie Foxx, and Tracy Morgan. We meet Eddie’s older brother, Charlie Murphy, who resembled his brother considerably. The doc interviewed writer Barry Blaustein as well as film director John Landis.

The doc was filled with nostalgia over the early days of Eddie’s career. Flashes from SNL and his early movies were great. They spent time on the joke on SNL by David Spade that ticked Eddie off. They touched on the film Norbit, which is widely considered to have cost Eddie an Academy Award for Dream Girls.

They talked about his recording of “Party All the Time” and showed clips of Eddie on different talk shows.

The doc was very fun. It certainly was not deeply in-depth. It did not dive too much into the deep problems and when it brought up difficulties, they were just touched upon.

Still, it was a fun watch and a nice palate cleanser after the rougher “The Perfect Neighbor.”

3.5 stars

The Perfect Neighbor

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There is a new documentary on Netflix called The Perfect Neighbor and it was a tough and sad story.

According to IMDB, “A minor disagreement between neighbors in Florida takes a lethal turn, with police body camera footage and interviews probing the aftermath of the state’s controversial “stand your ground” laws.”

The shots of the doc were mostly from police bodycam recordings. It made for a fascinating narrative for both the people involved in the case as well as the way that the police handled the situation.

Some of the scenes were very tough. When the news arrived at the scene that the woman had died, watching the pain of the family was very difficult.

The film does not go into the “Stand Your Ground” laws very much. It could have been more time spent on that, though it did not necessarily fit with the format of the doc.

The Perfect Neighbor is a warning sign for the division we have in our country. It was a shame that we can’t be more understanding in our world.

4 stars

The Running Man (2025)

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Edgar Wright’s new adaptation of the Stephen King book came out this weekend. It should be mentioned to everyone that this is not a reboot or remake of the movie from 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Dawson, but a closer adaptation of the novel, because if you go into the new The Running Man film thinking it is going to be like that, you might be disappointed.

Ben Richards (Glen Powell) has lost his job and his young daughter is extremely sick. In order to try and get enough money for his family to get her needed health care, Richards applied for some of the game shows on the network. The game shows were violent and dangerous, but could help provide enough money to save his daughter.

However, Ben’s anger over his situation shone through the audition process and led the network head, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), to offer Ben a spot as one of the three runners on the final hunt for the game show The Running Man. A group of Hunters would try to find the runners and kill them, but if they could survive for 30 days, the runner could win a billion dollars.

Of course, the network and Killian were not going to play fair and were as corrupt as you would expect, and things turned badly for Ben.

The best part of the movie was Glen Powell. He showed himself as a capable and engaging action star. He showed how much of a good man he was at first, despite his internal anger, and the contest showed how those morals could be warped. Brolin was tremendous in lesser amount of screen time. You could quite figuratively feel the slime coming off of this character.

The action was really well done and thrilling. Powell is easy to root for and his efforts to survive got tougher with each moment.

The film did feel like it was too long. Some of the middle part of the film could have been trimmed down. I would say that they could have dropped around 15-20 minutes of run time and made this feel more streamlined. I also am not sure if the third act was as good as it could have been, because the first part of the movie absolutely rocked.

I feel like this was very entertaining, but I think it does not quite reach the level of epic. It absolutely could have been more than it was, but I do think that it was an exciting action film at the very least.

3.7 stars

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

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The third film in the franchise of magicians involved in more than just stage magic arrived this weekend. Now You See Me, Now You Don’t is the next film featuring the Four Horsemen of Magic.

The first two movies were fine, but nothing that really jumped out. It was not a film franchise that I expected would have three films, and, this one definitely left some hints at the end that made you think that there might be more coming. I’m not sure if why needed #3, let alone any more.

I mean, Now You See Me, Now You Don’t was okay. I wasn’t offended by anything they gave us. There are some good actors with charisma that are fun to watch and some of the magic is fun.

However, the film’s story was lacking. The film’s dialogue was not clever or must hear. It was very much let’s put engaging actors into certain situations and let them magic out of them. If you are going for anything deeper than that, you haven’t been paying attention to the franchise.

Rosamund Pike was our main villain and she was, at least, fun to watch. There was not much more to the character than that, but she did seem like she was having fun chewing up the scenery. The new magician characters, the new generation of Horsemen, were also fine, though nothing truly original or new.

I don’t think that there is anything in this movie that is going to stick with you for more than a day or two, but I did not hate watching it in the theater. Now You See Me, Now You Don’t is an average time at the movies.

2.8 stars

Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025)

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I had wanted to see Kiss of the Spider Woman in the theater when it was at Cinemark, but the schedule did not permit it and it was gone before the following week. It was one of the big financial flops of the year, but I was still interested so as soon as it could be rented on Fandango at Home (aka Vudu), I watched it.

I loved the film.

This musical drama was based upon a 1992 stage show and a 1976 novel, but I had no background on any previous adaptations. I came into this with a fresh eye.

Set in Argentina in 1983, the film had a backdrop of a revolution that would be called the Dirty War, where the military junta seized control of Argentina. This was set at the tail end of the time period.

According to IMDB, “Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, convicted for public indecency. An unlikely bond forms as Molina recounts a Hollywood musical plot starring Ingrid Luna.“

Diego Luna played Valentin and Tonatiuh played Luis Molina, and the film was carried by them. The movie split the musical away from the prison scenes, which kept the prison more realistic and gritty. The musical parts were in technicolor and were big, bombastic Hollywood fare. Ity created quite a distinct contrast between the different sections of th efilm.

Diego Luna was tremendous as Valentin, the political activist who Molina was sent to spy on.

Jennifer Lopez played Ingrid Luna, the actress who played Aurora and The Spider Woman in the recounted movie that Molina shared with Valentin. Lopez brings a level of credibility that this film required.

The music was catchy, but honestly, I do not think that I would recall any of the songs, which is not a good thing for a musical. Still, the music was entertaining during the watch of the film. I won’t be purchasing the soundtrack on Apple Music, but I think it worked for the film.

I thought this was a great film with some really strong performances.

4.5 stars

Frankenstein (2025)

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Guillermo del Toro has had several iconic films, but he takes a swing at one of the moat iconic monster stories of all time with his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. His new film dropped this weekend on Netflix.

Frankenstein has been adapted multiple times, but this new version certainly has that flair that del Toro films seem to have. It is somehow both a heart-rendering tragedy and filled with life at the same time.

The story is of arrogant doctor Victor Frankenstein, who lost his mother as a boy, which inspired him to take on death in an attempt to defeat it. This led him to work toward a goal of animating a creature made up of pieces of corpses. His success would lead to terrible tragedy for both The Creature and himself.

The Creature is played by Jacob Elordi, who played Elvis in the biopic entitled Priscilla. He does an amazing job taking this character that we all know and reinvigorate him. There are some wonderfully powerful scenes with Elordi as the Monster.

Victor Frankenstein was played by Oscar Isaac, who is always great. In this, Victor does not have much redeeming about him and really feels like the villain of the film. Even Isaac seemed to have trouble making this guy likable. Much of the told through Victor’s POV, but some of the best scenes did not include him.

The film looked absolutely tremendous. It was said that del Toro insisted on using some real sets instead of using CGI and it showed. To be fair, the rendering of the wolves were not the best use of CGI I have seen. The rest of the film looked spectacular.

The music of the score was beautiful, building mood throughout the film. Alexandre Desplat scored the film, which was the third time that del Toro and Desplat collaborated on a film.

There are some things that happen in the movie that I have never seen before in a Frankenstein film, which was welcome. It may be a touch too long as it felt as if it dragged some in the middle, but the overall quality of the movie is exceptional and it fits right in with some of del Toro’s classics.

4.1 stars

Bugonia

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Yorgos Lanthimos has been hit and miss for me recently. I hated his last film Kinds of Kindness, but I was a big fan of The Lobster, Poor Things and The Favourite. So I was hoping Bugonia would be more like the other ones.

This is also the third team up between Lanthimos and Emma Stone.

Lanthimos’s films have a tendency to be bizarre and this film is not the exception. However, it felt fairly down to earth (pardon the pun). However, the third act really became a wild trip.

According to IMDB, “Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.”

I thought this one was solid. I enjoyed the performances by both Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, who share most of the screen time.

There is a lot of violence here, especially with Plemons’ character Teddy, but it fit well with the character. The writing is excellent and keeps the uncertainty about what is happening. It looks like it is just about mental illness, but you can tell there is more beneath the surface.

In the end, I really liked this film and I was engaged in everything. Even the wild ending worked for me.

4 stars

Nuremberg

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Nuremberg was a historical drama film featuring the trial of the Nazis at Nuremberg. After the end of World War II, the US government, along with France, USSR and Great Britain, placed the remaining Nazi leaders on trial.

This was based on the 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai.

The basis of the movie was when psychiatrist Dr. Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) was brought in to make sure that the Nazis were not able to commit suicide. Kelley immediately went to speak with the big prize of the Nazis, Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe), who was Hitler’s second in command.

Russell Crowe and Rami Malek were on fire here. Crowe gave a sensational performance and the scene nearing the end here the two characters were in a throw down in Göring’s cell was just amazing.

The performances were the standout part of this movie. There was also a horrendously horrific video they showed during the trial about the concentration camps and the monstrosities done to the Jewish people, It was tough to watch, but remarkably powerful.

Other actors in the film included John Slattery, Colin Hanks, Michael Shannon, Leo Woodall, Richard E. Grant, and Mark O’Brien.

It was a long film and it took its time, I was engaged most of the entire time. I was impressed with the performances and the look of the film. There were some moments of humor that did not necessarily feel like it worked, but there was not a lot of it in the film.

4 stars

Predator: Badlands

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The newest film from the Predator franchise opened this weekend, from director Dan Trachtenberg, who has now directed three Predator movies with Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers. Those two were really great and it helped me to anticipate this new film.

Trachtenberg takes a big time swing here by making the Predator, which were called Yautja in this film, the protagonist of the film. This was one of my early troubles with the film, because I had a tough time accepting the idea of Dek, the Yautja, as our lead character.

That did not last for long though. I found myself very entertained with the action and the story. I did not expect this film to be like it was. I think it really picked up when Dek meets up with Thia (Elle Fanning). I knew of the character of Thia from the trailers, but it worked much more than I thought it would.

Predator: Badlands improved as the film moved along. I found it exciting and a lot of fun. I did have another issue with a switch in attitude that Dek goes through as it felt too sudden, but I do not want to go into too many details because of spoilers. Again, I did not think it was a deal breaker for the film, but it was something that I thought about.

I thought the third act was really epic.

The CGI was mostly good. There were a few moments where the CGI was iffy, but most of the time, it was exceptional.

It was cool that this film has a tie in with the Alien franchise, leading to a potentially new line of crossover.

Predator: Badlands is highly entertaining and full of energy. It looks great and has some of the most creative creatures and exciting action. It was a lot of fun and not what I expected.

4 stars