Category Archives: 2025 Movie Reviews

Bad Guys 2

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Bad Guys 2 is the newest animated film from DreamWorks, released this weekend. It was a sequel to a surprise hit from a few years ago.

The previous movie was fine, but I did not love it. How would the sequel rate in my mind by comparison? About the same really. Honestly, I would say that this sequel is a little better than the first one.

The Bad Guys are a group of reformed criminals who found it difficult to get opportunities as former criminals in the world. After struggling to find gainful employment on the right side of the law, the Bad Guys are recruited by a new group of criminals to join them for a gigantic theft on a worldwide scale.

I had some troubles with this movie. In particular, I did not like the style of animation that they were using. There was something that I was just not on board with in the animation. I believe it was the way they mixed the three dimensional animation with two dimensional flat looking animation. A lot of it was the eyes of the characters, which seemed to be a different animation style than the rest of the characters’ bodies. It bothered me and it took me out of the story several times.

I was not a huge fan of the story being told either, though I did appreciate the messages that the story was holding to and how they were looking at certain concepts. They definitely looked at how difficult it was to “go good” when no one believed you had gone good. Some of the story was a little slow and predictable.

Of course, they spent a lot of time with the fart jokes. Now, I shouldn’t criticize that since I found the fart jokes in Naked Gun today funny, but they kept it at a scene or so where as this was a main character trait for Mr. Piranha.

However, I will eventually recommend this movie and the biggest reason is for the characters involved and the voice actors of the film. The voice work is easily the best part of the movie. Whether it be Sam Rockwell as Mr. Wolf, the lead of the film, or Zazie Beetz as Diane, his love interest and the current governor. Whether it be Marc Meron as Mr. Snake and his love interest Susan, voiced by the wonderful Natasha Lyonne. Whether it be Danielle Brooks as the main villain Kitty Kat or Craig Robinson as Mr. Shark. This cast was great.

I left out Anthony Ramos as Mr. Piranha, Awkwafina as Ms. Tarantula, Alex Borstein as Chief (actually she is the Commissioner) Misty Luggins (and I think she stole all the scenes she was in), and Maria Bakalova as Pigtail. All of these characters had their moments in the film and helped pull what was not the best film I had seen into a much more watchable time at the theater.

In the end, I am giving this a higher rating than the original, but neither of these Bad Guys films are knocking my socks off. They are okay and that is about it.

3.3 stars

Naked Gun (2025)

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Trying to post review on phone as I have a busy afternoon and this would help. We’ll see if my tech ability matches my plans.

The new Naked Gun arrived in theaters today and it was a lot of fun. I’ve missed this type of movie, a satire film that used to be regular. Some of the top films of this subgenre included Airplane!, Hot Shots and Young Frankenstein. Unfortunately, these films just became stupid instead of funny and this type of movie became rare.

Naked Gun franchise was some of the best of this style of film as Leslie Nielsen led the way as Frank Drebin.

Now, Liam Neeson has taken the lead of this film as Frank Drebin Jr. and showed some remarkable comedic timing while delivering a deadpan attitude and straight face to all the insanity around him.

Pamela Anderson is a co-star of the film and she does an exceptional job. There is a scene with Anderson and jazz that is tremendously funny.

It is also great to have Paul Walter Hauser in the film as Frank’s partner. He fits in well too.

The cast is great and are game for just about anything. Some of the comedy does not hit, but most of it does really well.

The story is much like other Naked Gun films, but the craziness feels fresh and funny.

While I wouldn’t want a million films like this, Naked Gun proves that this style of film can work if it is clever and funny, and provides us with a cast willing to do anything.

4 Stars


The Fantastic Four: First Steps

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I have been excited about this movie since the announcement that Marvel was getting the rights back to the Fantastic Four. To say that the previous big screen efforts to put Marvel’s First Family on the big screen were less than successful would be an understatement. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the fourth attempt to get these characters right.

Fourth time is definitely a charm.

I loved this movie. There were so many things that this film does well, but above all, this felt like the Fantastic Four that I knew from the comics. The adventure felt very much like an FF adventure. This was so great.

We jump right in to the story, without the need for an origin story, although the film does give us some background exposition to catch anyone up to speed in a very clever manner at the very beginning of the movie.

The film wasted no time in setting these four up as a family, which is perhaps the singularly most important piece for a Fantastic Four movie. Sue discovered that she was pregnant and announced the glorious event.

However, their excitement was short lived as a being appeared in New York riding a surfboard, heralding the soon arrival of Galactus, the universal force that would be consuming the planet.

The Fantastic Four head into space to confront the gigantic Galactus.

The casting of the characters in this film is pitch perfect. One of the most controversial casting choices was Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards. Pascal, who has been in a ton of movies lately, does an incredible job of becoming Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic. I believe that Pascal loses himself in the role and truly embodied Reed. You could believe that Reed was a super genius, but still had his own issues, among others , guilt and self-frustration over perceived failures.

Vanessa Kirby was great as Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman. She showed what a powerhouse Sue is in both her use of her powers and the presence that she provides. Joseph Quinn played Sue’s brother Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch. This Johnny was less of a playboy as he has been seen before, though that is implied to be there as well, but he is shown as a much more positive force inside the group. Then Ben Grimm, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, feels like the heart of the team. This version of Ben Grimm is less of the brooding monster that we have seen before and more of a character who has accepted what his life was now.

The chemistry between the foursome is vital for the movie and they all work so well together. They felt like a family, from the relationship between Sue and Reed to the brother-like banter between Johnny and Ben.

The visuals of this movie was stunning. It may be the best looking Marvel movie that we have seen in ages. The imagery in space was as good as you see in any prestige project. I have heard others compare the visuals here to Interstellar and that is a fair comparison. To be fair, there were some moments of iffy CGI when dealing with Franklin Richards, the baby, but I am okay with that. No need to stress out a real baby in some of these situations.

Galactus is an absolute marvel (no pun intended). Voiced perfectly by Ralph Ineson, Galactus has come a long way since his days of being a cloud of dust in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. There is no reason that a giant purple man with antennae-like ears on a helmet should look anything but silly in live action, but this Galactus is positively sensational, if not, scary. This character was imposing from the second we see his outline in the darkness.

Another major controversy among those who want to make this a problem was how Julia Garner was hired to play a female Silver Surfer, based on the Shalla-Bal character. Those who complained about this apparently did not know that the comics did have a version of Shalla-Bal as the Silver Surfer. Garner does a remarkable performance as the Surfer and anyone who wants to complain about it is just looking for issues to have. Surfer was powerful and compelling and did have a story reason for the casting of a female actor in the role, narratively speaking.

The story was filled with stakes and tension, and there were some scenes where I legitimately was not sure what was going to happen. I found so much joy in this as this film got these characters so right, truly for the first time on screen.

They did have some of the typical Marvel humor, but, to be honest, it was kept at a reasonable level. Again, in a film that could be very satirical, this was grounded, keeping much of the drama within the four of them. Even with Galactus coming to devour the earth, this felt more like an internal battle for the FF.

There are two post credit scenes. The first one being a major set up for what is next in the MCU.

The retro feel of the world that this team of Fantastic Four is set is part of the awesome vibe this movie gives off. A futuristic 1960’s feel was all over the setting and brought something different to the MCU. The choice to place this in the 828 universe instead of the 616 one was an excellent choice. It also gave the film a chance to really honor FF co-creator Jack Kirby. This movie did feel like a Jack Kirby style of comic from the 1960s.

Matt Shakman did a magnificent job directing this film. He had directed the WandaVision Disney + series which is still considered by many, including me, to be the best Disney + Marvel show of all time. Shakman brought that feeling of family as he did in WandaVision and there were so many clever visual shots in the film. I loved the way the FF used their powers. Especially Reed, whose stretching could look really goofy, but, instead, was very effective.

I loved this movie. The “It’s Clobberin’ Time” line had me in goosebumps and tears. I was so engaged with the Fantastic Four: First Steps that it is my current favorite movie of the year so far. I saw this in IMAX and, man did everything look great. I can’t wait to see it again.

5 stars

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)

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In 1997, there was a horror movie released called I Know What You Did Last Summer, with Sarah Michelle Geller, Freddie Prinze Jr, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Ryan Phillippe. It was a reasonable hit, but it was not a film I loved. I rewatched it a few years ago and felt that it was a decent watch, but had a lot of stupid things happening in it.

In 2025, a Legacy sequel was released to I Know What You Did Last Summer with younger stars, along with a couple of the actors who had appeared in the first film. It was not a reboot or a reimagining. It was a sequel 28 years later… and not a zombie movie.

A group of friends were involved in a tragedy on the 4th of July and decided to cover it up. A year later, much like before, the friends reunite and a slicker-wearing, hook wielding killer stalked them, trying to murder them.

Couple of things, the movie is basically the same film from 1997. The plot is very similar to the original. Then, the film is basically Jaws. Why don’t the people in charge believe in the dangers coming to their towns on the Fourth of July?

This was truly stupid. The acting was terrible. The characters were all just barely characters. The story is totally stupid and made almost zero sense. The end of the film was such a mess, even for a slasher movie.

There is a pre-credit scene that sets up for a sequel, but I can not imagine that it is something that we will ever see.

The only parts that had any sort of interesting pieces was the part of the movie that nostalgia was involved. The rest was just so bad.

1.5 stars

Superman (2025)

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The DCU is finally here as James Gunn revealed his huge blockbuster to officially kick off the DC Universe films, in a reboot that has been in the planning stages for years. They started off with their classic character, Superman.

I can state, without a doubt, that James Gunn has done an amazing job with a film that soars to remarkable heights and is loaded with a ton of comic book-y fun.

It seems as if you can’t do a comic book movies these days without a ton of controversy, and Superman is not an exception. There have been complaints flying around about the use of the term immigrant in reference to Superman as well as the movie being “woke.” Despite these criticisms and talking points looking to drum up hatred, Superman (2025) is a wonderful movie and a great time in the theater.

No origins here, which is a great thing. We all know where Superman came from and how he wound up in Kansas, so why waste time showing it once again? Gunn is right in that we do not need to see baby Kal-El land, Bruce Wayne’s parents shot or Uncle Ben be killed ever again. We know these stories.

The world of this movie is fully encompassed with metahumans already and the dangers of the world are quite clearly shown.

The opening info tells us that Superman has stopped a war between a couple of countries and this is one of the big sticking points for a lot of people involved. This is the back drop of everything that goes down.

David Corenswet played Superman and he does an unbelievable job at it. He approached Superman with the right amount of heart and joy, even if he seemed to have a bit of a temper. It is really refreshing to see a Man of Steel concerned with saving people around him. There are a bunch of scenes showing that Superman cares for the people of earth, even after they turn on him.

I won’t give away why they turn on him, but it feels like it absolutely could happen in the world we live in today.

Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane are already dating, and she knows about his true identity. There is amazing chemistry between these two and they bring sparks to the screen. Lois Lane is shown as an intelligent and strong woman who will take whatever risk she needs to take for her passions, whether that be the story she is pursuing or the man that she loved.

Superman’s iconic enemy, Lex Luthor, was played by Nicholas Hoult. This is my favorite version of Lex Luthor to ever appear in live action (or animated, btw). Hoult gave him such an evilness, but he did it without creating a cartoon. I understood Luthor’s motivations, even if they were horrendous. Nicholas Hoult was sensational in the role.

There were several other heroes appearing in the film, inside the Justice Gang, which included Guy Gardner, the Green Lantern, played with that slimy perfection by Nathan Fillion. Isabela Merced (from season two of Last of Us) as Hawkgirl, who did not have as much to do, but was pretty cool when she was involved. Mister Terrific, played by Edi Gathegi. Mister Terrific had a major part to play in this movie and he was awesome. I loved how they used these group of heroes instead of pulling out some of the more heavy hitters of the DCU.

The film looked really good, especially any scene with flight involved. The score was decent but James Gunn, who is well-known for his needle drop songs in some of his other movies, did not have many here. That did not distract me. In fact, I did not even think about it until the end credits.

When we first meet them, I was not a fan of Ma and Pa Kent (Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince), but I have to say they grew on me later in the film.

Krypto the dog was well used, even if I thought maybe he was used too much. Krypto has some solid scenes in the film. He is important and not just there to make everybody “awww” over a cute dog.

Some of the jokes did not land, which made a few scenes a touch awkward, but most of the humor worked fairly well. There were not as many jokes as some of James Gunn’s previous films, but there definitely had some humor in it.

I don’t think there is any other way to look at this other than as a triumph for James Gunn’s new rebooted DCU. Superman was colorful, exciting, dramatic, funny at times, and had so much heart that has been missing from Superman in other recent iterations. Outside of a few nitpicks (such as some of the workers at the Daily Planet… what was up with those characters?), I think this was a smashing success.

4.9 stars

F1: The Movie

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I was a week late for this one, but it was not high on my too see list because I am not much of fan of auto racing in any form. However, I knew I have enjoyed other movies centered around the sport such as Rush or Ford vs. Ferrari, and I had heard a ton of positive word of mouth, so I wanted to make sure I had the chance to see this in the theater before it became available on Apple TV +.

I went to the IMAX theater at Cinemark to see this and it was definitely worth it. The film looked amazing with sensational cinematography, had its share of exciting moments and was thrilling at times.

According to IMDB, “After a nasty incident almost ended his career, Sonny Hayes has retired from Formula One and now races a Porsche, but when an opportunity comes from the owner of a struggling team, Sonny makes a return to Formula One racing, alongside a hot new rookie teammate, but soon realizes that he can’t take the road to redemption on his own.”

I thought Brad Pitt was clearly the standout, both in the acting area as well as having the most developed character. Most of the other characters of the film were not necessarily as deep as they could have been, but the main story focused on Sonny Hayes, so it is understandable why he got the most details.

Javier Bardem is always fun, and he does a decent job with what he was given here. Damson Idris is the other main driver with Sonny, playing Joshua Pearce. Kerry Condon was fine too, having some chemistry with Brad Pitt, but, again, her character was not as fully explored as she could have been.

I do think that I had some issues with understanding what was happening during the races as there were a lot of strategies that were pulled out that perhaps a more knowledgeable racing fan might understand more than I did. It wasn’t off-putting, but there were times that I had to stop and try and figure out why they were doing what they were doing.

However, the scenes of the racing were fantastic as was the scenes of the crashes. The film was able to build my own suspense during the races as I did not know what they might be doing.

I enjoyed the music of the film, as it really helped set the mood in many cases. There were some issues that I had with the sound of the film though as some of the voice over work of the announcers was difficult to hear during the racing scenes. I have had that compliant in the IMAX theater before so it may not necessarily be the film’s fault.

Joseph Kosinski directed this film. He had directed Top Gun: Maverick and F1: The Movie shared the same kind of thrills of that movie. The film creates a wonderful world in this F1 racing film and the creative aspect of this movie is its strength. The characters are okay. The story is okay. The look is fantastic.

See this on a big screen because I think it would be the way to truly enjoy this film.

4 stars

Jurassic World: Rebirth

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The seventh film in this franchise was released on Wednesday as Jurassic World: Rebirth found its way into theaters for the Fourth of July weekend.

With Scarlet Johansson and Mahershala Ali leading the cast, Jurassic World: Rebirth resets the franchise after the seemingly final film Jurassic World: Dominion.

It is five years past the events of Jurassic World: Dominion, where it seemed as if the humans and the dinosaurs were going to be living in the same world. Turned out that was not going to work out for the dinos as they found out that living on earth was bad for them and they had to move closer to the equator.

A group of mercenaries led by Zora Bennett (Scarlet Johansson) and Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) went to the island where all the worst of the dinosaurs, the weird mutates from the science experiments were cast out in a chance find DNA of certain dino monsters that can help cure diseases.

Also, there was a family who were out sailing (I guess near the equator) and a dinosaur in the water caused their boat to capsize. They also wound up on this mutant monster island (no Godzilla or Kong to be found). The two groups cross paths at the beginning.

While there are so many problems with this movie, I’ll start with some of the good things. I thought there were some good action scenes or dinosaur chases sequences. There was a scene with a dinosaur and a inflatable raft that was fairly tense. Some of the action was pretty good.

I think Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali are charismatic performers and I like cheering for them. Of course, I was cheering for them because I like them as actors, not because they have characters that I enjoyed. We’ll get back to the characters in a bit.

Unfortunately, that was about it for positives for me. I found myself bored quite a bit at the beginning of the movies. I thought these characters were all just bland and one-dimensional and if they weren’t played by familiar and likable faces, I wouldn’t care about these people at all.

The dinosaurs were not really dinosaurs. They are actually just monsters and most of the designs were okay at best. There were several times when you could easily see the green screen. Some of the monsters were cool and looked good on the screen, but just not enough. Give me more of the T-Rex instead.

The film basically had two stories crammed together in the movie that really did not have any crossover. The mercenaries after the DNA is one story and the family stranded on the island is the other. There was not enough story for either one of them, let alone for both.

There are so many moments in this movie that were basically recycled from the original three films, just tweaked a bit. There really was not anything new or original in the movie.

Rupert Friend’s character is right out of the stereotypical playbook for this type of film. You could easily see what this guy was going to do a mile away.

I’m not even going to comment on Delores.

I was very disappointed, but not surprised at Jurassic Park: Rebirths, which is more like Gareth Edwards’s Godzilla and less like Rogue One. Bringing David Koepp back in (who was a writer on the classic and iconic original Jurassic Park) did not help this franchise at all. It did have a few moments that were decent, but certainly not enough for a two hour and fifteen minute slog.

2.6 stars

Deep Cover

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June 30

I have been a fan of improv comedy for decades. From the Christopher Guest films to Whose Line is it Anyway, I have always lapped up improv. So seeing the synopsis of this movie with improv at the heart of it, I was in on Deep Cover.

Sadly, this was a scripted improv comedy/adventure that flied in the face of the artform.

The cast was interesting with Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom and Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed. Toss in Sean Bean and Ian McShane to make this cast pretty good.

The main three characters are tossed into a story in London criminal underworld by the police to try to use their improv skills under cover.

I just did not grasp this film. As I said, the idea that the improv is all scripted makes it feel too forced. It seemed all they really had was “Yes, and…” and it did not work for me.

2.4 stars

With that, the June Swoon 4: Two a Day comes to a close. Thirty days and sixty movies! I avoided using any in the theater movies for the “It’s Now” films even though I had set the precedent up that I could. The two a day format was harder than I thought it would be. The last week or so got harder to find the movies to watch and I got in a stretch where there were some bad films. Thankfully, I broke out of that run and finished better.

G20

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June 29

The second film of the penultimate day of the 2025 June Swoon was on Amazon Prime and it was an action/political thriller starring Viola Davis called G20.

The G20 is is an international forum of both developing and developed countries which seeks to find solutions to global economic and financial issues. (g20.org). It stands for Group of 20.

This movie has the leaders of the G20 facing a group of terrorists who take over the G20 summit. The leaders looked to President Danielle Sutton (Viola Davis) because she had extensive military service prior to her election. Sutton helped battle the terrorists through the halls of the fictional Grand Diamont Hotel in South Africa.

There is no way around it. This movie is stupid. It is stupid in the way that what Viola Davis does would NEVER be allowed for any sitting US President to do. She is shooting weaponry, fighting hand to hand and battling the forces opposing her. Absolutely NEVER would this happen. So it is as unrealistic as any film could be. It is not unprecedented for a movie president to take on terrorists (for example Harrison Ford in Air Force One), but President Sutton does a whole lot more here.

If you can get past that and just allow the stupidity to get by you, this is not the worst movie I have seen. Silly? Yes. I do like Viola Davis and she carried herself with a swagger in this movie that made you believe that she was the most powerful person on the planet. She does a great job as action hero #1.

Our lead villain was Rutledge, played by Antony Starr. Starr is a much better villain as Homelander in the Boys. Here he feels too much like a dime store Hans Gruber from Die Hard. He had a strange plan involving the world’s currency, making him just an “exceptional thief.”

There is a fun group of ensemble cast including Anthony Anderson, Ramon Rodriguez, Marsai Martin, Elizabeth Marvel, everyone’s favorite Phil Coulson- Clark Gregg, MeeWha Alana Lee, Douglas Hodge, John Hoogenakker, Joseph Steven Yang and Theo Bongani Ndyalvane.

If you can accept this as just a dumb action movie, you might get a kick out of it. If you think of it as a political thriller that features the US president, the flaws come out pretty easily. Viola Davis is a kick ass either way.

K-Pop Demon Hunters

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June 28

The new animated musical on Netflix, K-Pop Demon Hunters, had a lot of buzz and because of that, I moved it into the June Swoon. I also was hoping that I could break the streak of disappointing or downright bad movies that I was on.

I am not a fan of K-Pop music. Nothing against it, but I am completely aware of it. It always felt manufactured to me with boy bands and the such.

I have to say, the music of this movie was sensational and worked so well with every note it used.

According to IMDB, “A world-renowned K-Pop girl group, as they balance their lives in the spotlight with their secret identities as bad-ass demon hunters, set against a colorful backdrop of fashion, food, style and the most popular music movement of this generation.”

The animation on the film was superior. It looked fabulous. The imagery and the colors stood out with every shot. The story itself was a little sparse. Yes, it was a fairly typical story of overcoming personal drama to form together with your family.

I am evidence that you do not need to be a K-Pop fan to enjoy this movie. I thought it was really a fun movie that moved at a brisk pace. It looked great, sounded great and had some wonderful action. It has everything.

4.5 stars

Star Trek: Section 31

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June 27

All I heard from everyone was that Star Trek: Section 31 was terrible. That is was the worst Star Trek movie ever made.

It starred Michelle Yeoh, so it can’t be as bad as they say, right?

Amazingly, somehow, it was worse.

I should have just trusted everyone who said this was terrible.

I pulled this up on Paramount + and it did not take me very long to realize that it may be the worst movie of the year.

I am not a Trekkie, but I can understand why they all despise this movie. It does not feel like a Star Trek movie. It feels like a cheap, low budget sci-fi film with a messy plot and a dirty feel. I would never guess this was a Star Trek movie, except for a few of the mentions, such as a Vulcan. That Vulcan did not act like any Vulcan I ever heard about though. Why did the Vulcan have the bad Irish accent?

The film looked terrible. It was dumb, storywise. The acting was not good, even from the Oscar winner, Michelle Yeoh, who seemed like she was just going through the motions.

Listen to what everyone else tells you. Don’t watch this movie. It is one of the worst of the year.

0.5 stars

M3GAN 2.0

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In 2022, a surprise horror film was released in January involving an AI robot named Megan that turned into a killer. It did not seem like it was going to be anything worthwhile, but turned out to be a big hit and was very entertaining. It became so successful, a sequel felt like it was destined to be released. That sequel was released this weekend.

M3GAN 2.0 was very much different than the original. The original was a horror film whereas this sequel is basically an adventure comedy/tech thriller.

Sadly, this was nowhere near as entertaining as the first M3GAN, as it was much more convoluted and silly. Silly is not a negative overall, as the entire concept does fall into the campy category, but this is not campy enough to make the film more than just a bad movie.

According to IMDB, “Two years after M3GAN’s rampage, her creator, Gemma, resorts to resurrecting her infamous creation in order to take down Amelia, the military-grade weapon who was built by a defense contractor who stole M3GAN’s underlying tech.”

The whole story with Amelia, the other killer robot was messy and nonsensical. These people recreated M3GAN for some reason despite her being a murder robot. The whole mess of the story just did not work for me.

The film was two hours long and that should just never be. Ninety minutes, tops for this. The fight scenes were fine, but shaky at times, which is not a personal favorite.

So much nonsense. I nearly lost my mind when M3GAN broke into a musical number. I mean the dancing earlier at least made some sense narratively. I felt just like Allison Williams did in the scene. She wanted out of there. So did I.

2.0 Stars

Until Dawn

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June 26

I have been waiting for this movie to drop price on Fandango at Home before I purchased it. Then, just before the June Swoon is getting read to conclude (four days remaining) Until Dawn went on sale.

After watching it, Until Dawn was not on sale enough.

Based on a 2015 video game, Until Dawn is a survival horror film with a million jump scares and a bunch of horror tropes and cliches.

According to IMDB, “One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one…only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening. Trapped in the valley, they’re forced to relive the night again and again – only each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Hope dwindling, the group soon realizes they have a limited number of deaths left, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.“

I couldn’t care any less about these characters. Because I couldn’t care less about them, I was bored as the jeopardy surrounded them. The film was chocked full of jump scares but none of them were anything but your typical jump scare. There as little thought behind them.

The concept itself had some possibility, but it also removed most of the drama, since we knew they would basically return at the end of the night. How did this work? No idea.

And the biggest crime here is that the killings were so dull, I am having trouble remembering any of them. Maybe the film just never grabbed my attention.

I did not like this one and I am glad I did not go to the theater to see it.

2 stars

Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse

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June 25

The second film for the June Swoon today is a documentary about the life and career of Art Spiegelman, a comic strip/book writer and cartoonist who you may never have heard about, but a man who has done more to elevate the perception of the graphic novel.

Spiegelman is most well know for his work on the graphic novels Maus I & II, which told the story of the Holocaust and the death camps through anthropomorphic animals. In Maus, the people of Jewish faith were portrayed as mice while Germans (and other Fascists) were shown as cats.

Maus is the first, and currently only, graphic novel that won a Pulitzer Prize and is one of the major factors that allowed a different perspective of graphic novels among the academia. It allowed people to see what kind of stories that was capable of being told in this format.

The doc looked at Spiegelman’s beginnings as a child inspired by Mad magazine and how he wound up working as a cartoonist. They showed his work through the times of the underground comics and included the work of people who inspired him, such as R Crumb.

They outlines how the work on Maus took him years, as he struggled through this very personal story.

I wondered as I watched the doc if it would address the recent controversies of how some schools and libraries have banned Maus from their shelves. The film did have a section on this topic, with Art Spiegelman’s own comments accentuating the fear of what this could mean.

We get several comments, words from Art Spiegelman himself, really showing us who he is as a person as well as a creative force.

4 stars

Revelations

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June 24

The second June Swoon film of the day was on Netflix and it was one that I had to read. What I mean by that is, of course, it is a Korean film and it had the English subtitles for the dialogue.

According to IMDB, “A pastor and a detective, driven by their beliefs, pursue a missing person case, with the pastor seeking retribution after a divine revelation identifies the culprit who abducted his son.“

This was wild. This had a ton of twists and turns as the characters involved all were crazy in some way. The strangest things were happening and I found myself truly engaged with the story. Each character flipped around during the story and I bought everything.

There were a lot of dumb choices made by characters, particularly the pastor, and it built a really strong story.

Like all good Korean films, I forget that I am reading the film as I became even more involved in the movie. It just seems to be natural.

Actor Shin Min-jae stood out among the others in the cast with his crazy performance. Ryu Jun-yeol was also great as the quickly descending pastor.

If you like Korean movies, Revelations would be a decent watch. I was into the film all the way through, even during the moments when I was yelling at the characters.