Category Archives: 2026 Movie Reviews

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

Supergirl

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I went to the next DCU movie today, which was Supergirl. I had heard so many negative things about this movie… well, not necessarily negative, but more like middling. People were calling it forgettable and meh, so I went into the film with low expectations, but an open mind.

I tell you what… I really enjoyed this movie. Based on the classic Supergirl story “Woman of Tomorrow,” Supergirl gave us a Supergirl that we had not seen before on the big screen. I will admit that I was not a huge fan of the “Woman of Tomorrow” comic book storyline, which I know places me in the minority.

We get a Kara who is flying to red sun planets so she did not have her powers, meaning that she could get drunk. On the planet, she encountered young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) who is in search of revenge against Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), a brutal killer who had killed her family. Krem then shot and poisoned Krypto, inspiring Kara to try and save her dog.

Even those critics who did not like the film had positives to say about Milly Alcock as Kara/Supergirl. She is truly a revelation as the character. I think her performance was outstanding and I have a lot of positive thoughts about Alcock moving forward in the DCU.

On the other side, Matthias Schoenaerts’s performance as Krem was a major drawback for this movie. I disliked the way he played this character. Krem had the chance to be such a frighteningly sinister character, but he was so weird in his dialogue and the way he delivered it. He was my least favorite part of Supergirl.

I thought that I would have problems with the character of Ruthye in the movie, because I did have a problem with that character in the comics. However, I thought this was a strong addition to the film. There were a couple of moments when I thought she was getting whiny, but they did not take away from the story or the character for me.

Two big cameos in the film: Superman and Lobo. I loved the use of David Corenswet’s Superman in the film. He felt perfectly used and helped center Kara in the tale. While I thought Jason Momoa was awesome as Lobo, I am not sure that the character of Lobo was really needed for the story. He felt a little crammed into the movie. Again, it is not that Jason Momoa was bad, because he wasn’t. I just feel that he did not play enough of a significance for the roll.

The other area that I had a problem with the music. Some of the needledrops did not fit well and were distracting to the film. There was a time in a bar on this other planet where the band started singing “Cheek to Cheek,” the earth song that was so out of place.

I was engaged and enthusiastic about Supergirl and Milly Alcock’s portrayal. I had heard so many bad things about Supergirl, but I truly thought this was exceptional. The humor worked. The film looked pretty good. The characters were great (with the exception of the villain). The film moved quickly and worked well.

4.3 stars

The AI Doc or How I Became an Apocaloptimist

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I have been wanting to see this doc for awhile now, actually since it was in the theater, but I haven’t gotten around to it. The AI Doc or How I Became an Apocaloptimist documentary did not make me feel better about the concept of AI.

As a teacher, I hate AI. Many of my colleagues use AI such as ChatGPT to help them with lesson plans or ideas to help present material. I do not have issues with others doing that to make their lives easier. My biggest problem is how AI can be used by students to simply write a paper without any of their own writing skills.

So I immediately came into this movie with a negative mindset about AI. After watching this, my concerns were not removed.

The premise of the film, according to Wikipedia, was “old through the perspective of filmmaker Daniel Roher as he prepares to become a father, the film investigates the existential threats and potential promises of artificial intelligence. Roher conducts interviews with leading experts in the field to understand the world his child will inherit, balancing anxiety with ‘apocaloptimism‘.” (Focus Features).

Roher presented a series of talking heads to speak to the idea of AI and what it could mean to the future of the world. To his credit, Roher does provide a fairly comprehensive opinions on both sides of the subject, providing thoughts from the pro and anti AI experts. There are those who believe AI will lead to an new utopia or that could lead to an apocalyptic end of the planet.

He brought in the CEOs of some of the major AI companies (except Mark Zuckerberg, who refused, and Elon Musk, who agreed to come and then got too busy). These CEOs sounded reasonable in the doc, but one wonders what that means.

The doc was a difficult watch. I am not sure how to feel about the info that it was presenting, though I did like the way Roher framed this, with his concerns over the upcoming birth of his first child and the idea of bringing a child into this current world. I do think this is a valuable doc to watch to make sure you have, at least, a surface level knowledge of where the world is heading.

It did not help me figure what to do about those AI generated research papers, though.

3.6 stars

The Death of Robin Hood

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Hugh Jackman played Old Man Robin Hood, much like when he was Old Man Logan in the movie Logan. Except this time, he is playing the big time asshole Robin Hood, who, despite the mythology behind Robin Hood, the man who “robbed from the rich and gave to the poor,” we learned that he was anything but that person.

The film certainly wanted to deconstruct the story behind Robin Hood, and this film does a good job of doing that very thing. There was no sign of Kevin Costner anywhere around.

The movie had some very violent and brutal scenes so we could accept Hugh Jackman as this horrendous character. Hugh Jackman does a fabulous job in this role. You could see the conflict at times when Old Man Robin Hood was thinking back upon the violence that he perpetrated.

However, The Death of Robin Hood turned out to be very slow throughout the whole film, and, dare I say, more boring than not. The whole essence of the film was down and dark, bordering on depressing, and there was little to cheer for.

Faith Delaney, who played little Margaret, was a nice highlight and the few scenes we got between her and Jackman were good. I think they were supposed to help lead toward Robin Hood’s redemption, but I do not think that is what they did. However, they were pretty solid together.

The ending was meant to be more emotional than what it turned out to be, and the whole (SPOILER) death scene (SPOILER… although it is in the title of the movie) was not an awesome moment.

Overall, The Death of Robin Hood was an interesting idea, but I do not think the execution of this movie matched the potential premise. Hugh Jackman was great as always (so was Bill Skarsgård as Little John/Edward), but that upside just did not manage to maintain throughout the film.

2.7 stars

Toy Story 5

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Toy Story has to be considered one of the greatest franchises in the history of cinema. Five movies and they all are critically beloved. I was excited to see Toy Story 5 today.

Toy Story 5 is Jessie’s story. One of the questions I had was how they were going to Woody back to the group considering how Toy Story 4 ended, and I think they had a great way to get him there.

The balance of Bonnie’s room is thrown out when she gets a tablet called Lilypad. Suddenly Bonnie becomes focused on the screen and not on her toys.

The tech vs. toys story is interesting in this film, and definitely a worthy idea that needs to be investigated. I’m not sure it did much with that premise.

I had heard how emotional Toy Story 5 was and that I would require tissues. I was looking forward to having a good cry. However, I did not cry. I had a decent response to the emotional moments in the film, and maybe had a gulp once or twice, but there were no tears or even any tears forming in my eyes to brush away.

Now, I do not want to sound like I hated this movie, because I did not. There were plenty of things to really enjoy in the movie including the animation, which is as wonderful as always, the new characters, especially Conan O’Brien’s Smarty-Pants character, and the overall writing and humor involved.

Woody is my favorite Toy Story character, but sadly, he feels unnecessary for this movie. He was absolutely crammed in because Toy Story has to have Woody in it. It is always fun to hear Tom Hanks’s voice work, but Woody was dispensable to this story.

Toy Story 5 is going to end up being my lowest Toy Story movie on a ranking scale, but it is still a really great film with a lot of things going for it. I can see this being scored lower because it is a Toy Story movie. This would be better than most animated films of the year. Still, I came out of it liking the film, but not being in love with it.

4.1 stars

Deep Water (2026)

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I do love me some shark movies. Even the bad ones, which there are a lot, have their share of fun and wild moments. Deep Water, which is a return to form for Finnish film director Renny Harlin, has its share of moments and scares.

According to IMDB, “A group of international passengers en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai are forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. Now they must work together in hopes to overcome the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage.”

There were a group of superficial characters that meant little to me, but there were some intriguing characters that I liked very much. Finally, there was at least one jerk who I wanted to become a shark-burger. Most of the characters were kind of dull, but I still found myself rooting for most of them.

I was shocked to see both Aaron Eckhart and Sir Ben Kingsley in this cast, as I felt as if this film was a B-level film at best. I still think that is the case, but it is always great to see Kingsley in anything.

There were enough interpersonal relationships between the characters to keep them from being more than juts chum for the sharks. Yes, the characters are not Martin Brody, Matt Hooper or Quint, but you can’t expect that type of writing in every shark movie.

I did think many of the shark attacks were silly at times, especially the one involving the helicopter, but their presence did create a sufficient amount of tension to keep the thin story afloat.

Harlin was unafraid to kill off characters in many different ways, and it did feel as if any of them were ripe for being eaten (or drowned). The stakes are absolutely off the charts.

Sure, there are basic story beats that you see over and again in shark movies, but they do work overall here and the plane crash that led before the sharks, was excellent.

I enjoyed this movie and the film hit me in the feels at the end, which is really should have. I think this is a solid shark movie and I am happy to have rented it on Fandango at Home.

3.75 stars

Martin: Life is Short

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I have always been a fan of Martin Short, even more so since Only Murders in the Building. When the new documentary entitled Martin: Life is Short dropped on Netflix recently, I placed it on my queue so I could get around to watching it. I watched it this Sunday.

This gives the life story of Martin Short, from his childhood, including some terrible tragedies, to his remarkable career, from the flops and major successes.

There were a lot of great interviews from Short’s friends and family including his brothers Michael, Brian, his sister Nora, and Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, John Mulaney, Andrea Martin, Paul Shaffer, Steven Spielberg, and Rita Wilson.

The story spends a lot of time on the relationship between Martin and his wife Nancy. They are shown as the perfect couple, one that others wished they had relationships like.

I loved watching this documentary and it went by quite quickly.

4 stars