Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

Caught Stealing

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Darren Aronofsky, director of The Whale, Mother!, Requiem for a Dream, Noah, Black Swan and The Wrestler, released his newest film this weekend, Caught Stealing, starring up-and-coming star, Austin Butler.

I have been hit-and-miss with Aronofsky’s film over the years. I love The Wrestler and Black Swan, but did not like Mother! or Noah much at all. So I approached Caught Stealing with an uneasy feeling, especially since the trailers for this did not excite me.

I am happy to say that I enjoyed Caught Stealing quite a bit, and it would be near the top of my list of Aronofsky films.

I will say that it has a distinctly different feel than other Aronofsky films, feeling more like a crime film directed by Guy Ritchie.

According to IMDB, “Burned-out ex-baseball player Hank Thompson unexpectedly finds himself embroiled in a dangerous struggle for survival amidst the criminal underbelly of 1990s New York City, forced to navigate a treacherous underworld he never imagined.“

Austin Butler is exceptional as Hank Thompson. Hank suffered from plenty of trauma from his life, shown expertly in dreams and flashbacks. These scenes provide a lot of details and specific traits for our main character and show what a relatable character he is to the audience. Butler provided such a strong performance to help amplify these traits for Hank, giving no doubt about who the audience should root for.

I did love the character of Yvonne, played by Zoë Kravitz. She had some great chemistry with Austin Butler and she provided some of the most amazing moments of the film. I also found Regina King’s work as Detective Roman to be on point. Being honest, the rest of the cast had great actors, but their characters were not developed deeply. The cast included Matt Smith, Vincent D’Onofrio, Liev Schreiber, Chris Russo, Griffin Dunne, Bad Bunny, Tenoch Huerta and Carol Kane.

Perhaps the best performance in the film was given by the cat that Hank had to carry with him through most of the film. The cat was definitely one of the best characters in the film.

The tone of the film did bounce around too much. It would go from anxiousness to almost humor, and it did make it feel somewhat inconsistent. I would not call this a comedy, even a black one. This is more like a film that we might have gotten in the 1990s.

The film was set in 1998, with the San Francisco Giants’ pursuit of the Wild Card being a backdrop for the storyline. Hank was a super fan and he was constantly rooting for his team. The choice of using this as a backdrop is interesting as the Giants did make it to the World Series, only for the series to be disrupted by an earthquake.

I have to say that some of the things that Hank was able to overcome in this movie stretched credibility a touch, but since I was enjoying the movie as much as I was, these issues did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the movie. I will say that the first thing that happened to him probably would have taken me out of the action right away.

This film kept my interest and I enjoyed the work of the actors and the overall story. The tone was shaky at times, but any flaws that the film showed were not major problems. Austin Butler is a major star in the future of films and this is one more great example.

4 stars

The Roses

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The War of the Roses was a 1989 movie starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito about a married couple who have fallen out and go to desperate lengths over the ownership of the house in the divorce.

Now we have a rebooted version of the film, The Roses, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman. It is difficult to review The Roses without thinking about the original film from the late 1980s.

According to IMDB, “Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy (Colman) and Theo (Cumberbatch): successful careers, great kids, an enviable sex life. But underneath the façade of the perfect family is a tinderbox of competition and resentments that’s ignited when Theo’s professional dreams come crashing down.”

What made me the most excited about this remake was the lead actors. I really like Benedict Cumberbatch and I love Olivia Colman. I do not think that I have seen a bad performance from Colman in any films she had appeared in. Some of the films are not very good, but she always brings the goods. This is no exception and these two are easily the standout of the film.

The Roses spends a lot more time building the relationship between Theo and Ivy than the War of the Roses did with Oliver and Barbara. We see the tensions building between them and how it poisons their love slowly, over years. At first it seemed as if it was going to be mostly Theo who caused the rift, but the film definitely came back around to balance out the fault.

The only problem with the slow build in the movie was the finale felt more rushed and may have lacked some overall oomph, especially when compared to The War of the Roses.

I did like the way the film ended though some may not appreciate the manner in which the movie closes.

I thought the film was dark (though nowhere as dark as the first one) and it did have some funny moments that sprung out of character and, in particular, dialogue. I thought this was well written and worked with the tone it had been setitng.

I was not as much of a fan with some of the side characters, especially Kate McKinnon’s Amy. This joke seemed to be pushed too far in the film and was not as funny as it was at the first mention. Andy Samberg was basically the Danny DeVito role, but did not get much to do. It was fun to see The Doctor from Doctor Who, Ncuti Gatwa on the screen as one of Ivy’s employees at the restaurant (the name of which is one of the best jokes of the early part of the film).

I did enjoy The Roses, mainly because of Cumberbatch and Colman. It is not as good as the original film from 1989, but it is complimentary to it.

4 stars

Ne Zha II

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If you were not someone who followed box office results, you would not have any idea the answer to the question, “What is the biggest worldwide box office film of 2025?” The answer is the Chinese film Ne Zha II. It has nearly reached $2 billion worldwide, with not much of that total coming from domestic.

Ne Zha II is receiving a wide release in the US, which could push the film to join the $2 billion club.

According to IMDB, “After a great catastrophe, the souls of Nezha and Aobing are saved, but their bodies face ruin. To give them new life, Taiyi Zhenren turns to the mystical seven-colored lotus in a daring bid to rebuild them and change their fate.“

I am going to start off with the strength of this movie. It is, perhaps, the most spectacularly animated movie I have ever seen. Everything about the imagery on the screen was absolutely stunning. The images, the character design, the backgrounds, art design, the colors…. it was legitimately the greatest looking animated movie I have ever seen and that is saying quite a lot.

I usually prefer when a live action film uses subtitles instead of dubbing because the original voices tend to have the proper emotion. That is not usually the case with animated films that I have seen dubbed. Ne Zha II was dubbed with English and, if I am being honest, I was unimpressed with the voice over work. Part of that may have been how the main character of Ne Zha sounded, as he was screaming in that Anime manner, and I have never been a fan of that. None of the voices stood out to me and I found that a weakness of this version of the film. Of course, I do not speak Chinese, so there is that.

The story was a touch confusing, and that might be because this is a sequel to a film from 2019 that I had never seen. I think they updated that part in the opening exposition, or, at least, that is what I guessed. There was another part of the film that I did not love and that was the attempts at humor. I did not find most of the humor to work and I might have preferred them to stick to the action.

Speaking of the action, it was exceptional. This was part of the animation and it was wonderfully laid out and was amazing to look at in every battle. Everything was laid out perfectly and helped build the tension of the film and most of the action also helped to develop the characters.

Ne Zha II is a massive success and is one of the most visually stunning films of all time. It is also the most successful monetary film of all time too. I am glad that I got a chance to see it even the movie may have a few drawbacks when it comes to story and time. It was certainly worth the two and a half hours it took to watch it.

3.9 stars

Sketch

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I saw one of the biggest surprises of the year today when I went to the family-friendly comedy/adventure/fantasy film, Sketch. When I saw that the movie company Angel Studios was behind it, I had a sinking feeling that this would not be my cup of tea.

Was I wrong about that.

I absolutely loved this movie. It was thrilling, exciting, had tremendously deep characters and strong performances. It had humor as well as wonderful themes and concepts.

It was very creative too, which I love.

We meet young Amber (Bianca Belle) as she was drawing pictures that concerned her teachers. Bringing in her father Taylor (Tony Hale) for meetings, they showed him the bloody, violent art that Amber had been drawing.

Taylor’s wife, Ally (Allie McCulloch), had died recently, and Amber was dealing with her grief and loss through her art. Her father was not dealing with it at all, as he simple never talked about Ally and took all the pictures of her out of their house. This led to Amber being upset and Amber’s brother Jack (Kue Lawrence) over correcting in an attempt to fix things.

When Jack discovered a magical pond that seemed to be able to fix things, he decides to try something rash. Instead, Amber’s drawing wound up falling into the water which brings the monsters that she had drawn to life, terrorizing the town and her family. The chaos surrounding everything forced the different characters to face their grief in order to get together to stop the monsters.

This was so great. I thought both Bianca Belle and Kue Lawrence did an amazing job as brother/sister. I believed everything these two were going through and they did it in, at times, a very subtle way. When you toss in a third child actor playing the obnoxious Bowman Lynch (Kalon Cox), the three kids truly brought out some of the best scenes from each other. Kalon Cox was hilarious with his b-hole kid.

Tony Dale is always great and he brought a lot to this role. He was worried about his kids, but he also had to deal with the grief of losing his wife and the knowledge that his own repressive actions led directly to the chaos that was going on.

The monsters were really cool looking and the way they would be stopped was such a fun way, with colors everywhere.

There are moments of true horror as well, including some jump scares tossed in for the heck of it. The tension would build through the whole film and you were never quite sure if or how Amber was going to deal with her own feelings. I loved Jack and his efforts to help his sister as a way to deal with his own loss.

The writing of this is tremendous as the kids are allowed to deal with their deep seeded emotions while still trying to deal with each other and with the dangers of the world around them. The emotion is not restricted to the adult characters here as Amber and Jack handle some strong feelings.

I did not know what to expect when I went to this as a way to kill time between Nobody 2 and the RiffTrax Live: Time Cop that I was going to. Where I expected just to pass time, I was thoroughly engaged and entertained by this fun, emotional, colorful, well-acted jewel of a film. I think it is one of my favorite movies of the year and that was quite the surprise.

5 stars

Nobody 2

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A sequel was released this week to a movie that did not seem as if it needed a sequel. The 2021 action/thriller Nobody received solid reviews, though it did not make a ton of money at the box office. It found Bob Odenkirk of Better Call Saul fame in the lead role of a docile family man who had a real violent streak inside him.

This weekend, Odenkirk returned as Hutch Mansell once again as a man who just wants to take his family on vacation to make memories. However, as per his luck, Hutch went to a little town where his father had taken him as a youth, and he discovered that there was more to the town than one would expect.

Odenkirk is great as the wrong-place-wrong-time former lethal assassin walked into a mess in the small town and his bursts of violent anger worked against his better judgment.

Other cast members returning from the 2021 film included Connie Nielson as Hutch’s wife, Becca, Paisley Cadorath and Gage Munroe as their children Sammy and Brady, Colin Salmon as The Barber, Hutch’s “brother” and Christopher Lloyd as Hutch’s father, David. This film added John Ortiz as Wyatt, Colin Hanks as Sheriff Abel and Sharon Stone as the big bad Lendina.

Nobody 2 is sort of like a mix between Rambo, National Lampoon’s Vacation and Zombieland (sans the zombies), with a flare of an R rated A-Team. It is extremely violent in the cartoony way and Hutch’s reactions to the terrible things he does are wonderfully fun. The story is very simple. It does not get much more than Hutch wants to go on vacation and he runs into criminals who try to kill him. He responds. That is basically it, and, truthfully, that is all we need.

There are some very funny moments in the movie and they mostly work because of the charisma of Odenkirk and the other actors. There are some creative fights and brutality in the movie. However, there were too many moments when the fights were tough to watch because of a dark look of the film or the bouncy cam. I could really do without the bouncy cam during the fight scenes.

The violence requires a lot of suspension of disbelief too . Hutch makes it through some very difficult moments and he does things that makes you wonder if this guy is invincible. He pulls it off though because of the way Odenkirk carries the character.

Nobody 2 is a fun sequel that should entertain those looking for silly action and rampant cartoon-like violence. I enjoyed the experience.

3.8 stars

Mr. Deeds (2002)

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I was not sure what I wanted to watch as the final film in the Sandler Saturday, because the last couple had snake-bit me so hard. So I decided on Mr. Deeds.

This one finished up the day with a film that was not as bad as I expected.

According to IMDB, “When small-town pizzeria owner and poet Longfellow Deeds inherits $40 billion from his deceased uncle, he quickly begins rolling in a different kind of dough. Moving to the big city, he is besieged by opportunists all gunning for their piece of the pie. Babe, a television tabloid reporter, poses as an innocent small-town girl to do an exposé on Deeds, but his sincere naiveté has Babe falling in love with him instead. Ultimately, Deeds comes to find that money truly has the power to change things, but it doesn’t necessarily need to change him.”

The big difference between this movie and some of the others that I have watched today is that Adam Sandler’s character Longfellow Deeds was a sweet, kind hearted guy. He was not the obnoxious crude a-hole of some of the other characters in Sandler’s oeuvre. That was a nice little switch. He was still just playing himself, but without the misbehavior. Deeds went around helping everyone and he was a beloved individual in the small town where he lived. He was not a foul mouthed a-hole who had to learn a lesson.

This was a remake of the Frank Capra classic “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” which is a movie that I have not seen before so I did not feel the difference. I am afraid that if I see the Capra version, I would see the excessive problems of this film.

I did not recognize Winona Ryder as Babe Bennett, the reporter who pretends to be a school nurse to get close to Deeds. What is up with John McEnroe in these Adam Sandler movies? Were they friends of some sort?

I was happier with this non-offensive film finishing up the Sandler Saturday. At least I did not hate myself for watching it.

Billy Madison (1995)

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What am I doing to myself?

The early films today had some good stuff, but the deeper I got into these films, the more I realized that my initial thoughts were pretty accurate.

Billy Madison followed Jack and Jill on the Sandler Saturday and, again, ten minutes into the film and I was ready for it to be over.

According to IMDB, “Billy Madison is a 27 year-old man whose father Brian is the head of a major hotel chain. Even though he is groomed to replace his father who is about to retire, Billy is extremely immature and unmotivated in life. When Brian considers making Eric Gordon (whom Billy despises) his new replacement, Billy decides to prove to his father that he is capable of taking over. He must repeat grade school all over again (2 weeks for each grade) in order to take over the hotel empire. The further Billy progresses, the more Eric tries to derail Billy.”

Billy Madison is one of the least likable characters I have seen today. To be fair, he does improve over the course of the movie as he is working with the other kids in the different grade levels.

At one point in this movie, someone says, “Everyone in this room is dumber for listening to that.” I knew exactly how that that felt.

There is so much insanity in this film. So many things that just did not make sense. The conclusion of the film with the big competition was so ridiculous.

Steve Buscemi is definitely the standout for the minute and a half he is on screen.

Jack and Jill (2011)

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I was dreading this one. But any kind of Sandler Saturday would not be complete without the infamous Jack and Jill. I had heard that this was a bad movie.

I had no idea.

Jack and jill is one of the worst movies ever made.

Adam Sandler played twins. Jack and Jill. This is one of the most obnoxious films I have ever seen.

Sophomoric. Diarrhea jokes, which are always my favorites. It is borderline racist, among others.

Somehow Al Pacino decided this was a good career move. There were other well known celebrities in the film and I can not figure out why.

This goes on my worst movie list of all time with Movie 43, Batman and Robin, Holmes and Watson, Transformers: The First Knight etc.

I don’t know if YUCK is strong enough for this monstrosity. I’ll pull out the original…

Murder Mystery (2019)

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After the bad taste The Waterboy left in my mouth, I tried to find something for the Sandler Saturday that might not be as awful as that one. I pulled up Netflix and put Murder Mystery on next.

According to IMDB, “When an NYC cop (Adam Sandler) finally takes his wife (Jennifer Aniston) on a long promised European trip, a chance meeting on the flight gets them invited to an intimate family gathering on the Super Yacht of elderly billionaire Malcolm Quince. When Quince is murdered, they become the prime suspects in a modern day whodunit.”

So, this movie had the benefit of matching up Sandler with Jennifer Aniston, who is very charismatic in this movie. Sandler was also at a more restrained level with his performances. This film did not have him so over the top as he is in many other films. He is playing a character here instead of just being Adam Sandler and that seems to always be a key.

Unfortunately, the story of the murder case is desperately messy and filled with clichés. The concept was fun, if not realistic, but there was just too much going on with the other characters and the answer to the mystery was not the powerhouse reveal that it should have been. The film ended in a silly car chase.

I would say that Murder Mystery is a watchable movie on Netflix that is not offensive. I would say it is a mediocre film that has a couple of appealing leads.

The Waterboy (1998)

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Well, it was nice while it lasted.

After two enjoyable movies in the Sandler Saturday, the streak is over as I watched The Waterboy and I was ready for it to be over ten minutes into the film.

Adam Sandler played Bobby Boucher, a waterboy who was constantly being abused and picked on by the coach (Jerry Reed) and other players. When the coach fired him, Bobby went looking for another waterboy position. When he joined the South-Central Louisiana State University Mud Dogs, coached by Coach Klein (Henry Winkler), he discovered that the years of being abused allowed him to direct his anger into tackling people. This led Klein to offer Bobby a place as a linebacker on the team.

There is a solid cast in the film including Oscar winner Kathy Bates, Henry Winkler, Fairuza Balk, Jerry Reed, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Paul Wight, Blake Clark, and Rob Schneider. There are a bunch of cameos too including Bill Cowher, Jimmy Johnson, Brent Musburger, Dan Patrick, Lynn Swann, Lawrence Taylor, Lee Corso, Chris Fowler and Dan Fouts.

This was so stupid. I was so ready for this to be done. I did not like the character of Bobby and I thought everyone around him was so mean and rotten that it made things hard to watch. None of it was funny. It was also sadly predictable.

The football game at the end had some giggles to it, but it was way too late to save this.

I have put this one out of the way. It is a crapfest.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

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We’re off to a great start, this Sandler Saturday.

I would definitely say that Punch-Drunk Love is not an Adam Sandler movie. He stars in the film, but it is an Adam Sandler movie the same way Uncut Gems is an Adam Sandler movie. Uncut Gems was a Safdie Brothers and Punch-Drunk Love was a Paul Thomas Anderson movie.

According to IMDB, “Barry Egan hates himself and hates his life. The only male among eight siblings, Barry is treated poorly by his overbearing sisters. Despite owning his own business, he has gotten nowhere in life largely because of his insecurities. He leads a solitary life, which allows him to hide his violent outbursts that occur when he’s frustrated. His solitude however allows him to think, he stumbling upon a scheme to travel the world on a pittance, travel which he has never done. Concurrently, he meets two people who pull him in two different directions. The first is Lena Leonard, a friend of his sister Elizabeth. Barry is slow to realize that Lena is attracted to him, he making her make all the first moves. Lena is eventually able to get Barry out of his shell, she who sticks around despite his obvious problems. His burgeoning relationship and thus new life with Lena is threatened by the second, “Georgia”, who he contacted in an effort to alleviate his loneliness. Georgia and her “band of brothers” do whatever they can get get out of Barry what they want, no matter the price to Barry.“

Adam Sandler is really good in this movie. Again, he is playing a character and it is a character considerably deeper than most characters he plays. Barry is a socially awkward, lonely man who has a horrible self-image. He is extremely compelling during the film even when he is doing some of the strange things that he does. You can see how much talent Adam Sandler actually has as an actor.

The film is very much a PTA film, weird, strange and fairly chaotic. There are many surreal elements to the movie that work well within the context of the film.

I loved the relationship between Barry and Lena (Emily Watson). It was sweet and original. I liked how it did not go the way I expected.

We are 2 for 2 so far.

Happy Gilmore (1996)

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I kicked off the Sandler Saturday special event her at EYG with Happy Gilmore. This idea came about because I noticed that, though I have said that I hated Adam Sandler movies, that I really haven’t seen very many of them. So I planned a day to binge as many Adam Sandler movies that I could stomach.

Happy Gilmore was the first of the films and I have to say, I kind of liked it.

I know… I’m surprised too.

Of course, I had seen the infamous scene with the Bob Barker fight. It is easily the most famous fake celebrity fight in movie history.

All of the things that I have hated about Adam Sandler movies in the past were in Happy Gilmore, but it felt to me as if they were kept in check. The traits that I have hated in Grown Ups 2 or Pixels were not as annoying as they were there. Perhaps cause it felt like Happy Gilmore was a real character and not just the same Adam Sandler-type that I have seen him play over and over. Maybe if I had seen this at the end of today it would stand out more. But as the first film in the Sandler Saturday, Happy Gilmore was better than I thought.

That does not mean that there aren’t stupid things that would never happen. The whole ending bit with the tower or the Volkswagen hitting him on the golf course are ridiculous, but, for whatever reason, they worked here. I can suspend disbelief for certain things.

So we are off to an unexpectedly good start for the Sandler Saturday.

Freakier Friday

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I remember seeing the original Freaky Friday 1976 version at the drive-in here in Maquoketa. I remember enjoying it tremendously. Of course, I would have been 7 or 8 years old.

I did not ever watch the rebooted film, Freaky Friday from 2003 and this movie, Freakier Friday, is a sequel to that. However, I assume there is no major need to watch that one. I mean, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan switched bodies, and they learned lessons.

Now, throw a couple of more people into the mix as Jamie Lee and Lindsay switch bodies with Lindsay’s daughter and her soon-to-be step daughter and hijinks ensue.

Freakier Friday is a one-note joke that gets stretched way too thin. I get it. The older people are in young bodies and vice versa. It depends on the charisma of its main actors. Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons have moments. This ensemble is decent, but, again, there is only so much you can do with this concept before it gets old.

Because the premise stretches thin, a lot of what they did was just too silly or over-the-top. Most of the film does not work, which does not cover for the moments that do work.

There is a concert scene at the end of the film that is enjoyable.

I don’t have a lot more to say about this movie. It is basically the same as the original concept, but with just four people instead of the two. There is not much original. They do not try and reinvent the story. It is basically the same. It survives on the strength of the actors.

2.5 stars

Weapons

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I have been anticipating the new movie Weapons for quite awhile. The premise of the film was truly creative.

According to IMDB, “When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.“

I really enjoyed how this film played with POV. The film showed the events of the story from multiple different characters. The first section was from Justine’s POV. Justine is played by Julia Garner and she is the teacher whose classroom had the missing kids. I was amazed how unlikable this character was. She certainly played against the trope of the classroom teacher.

We saw POV from Archer (Josh Brolin), police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), Marcus (Benedict Wong), James (Austin Abrams) and only remaining kid Alex (Cary Christopher).

Cary Christopher did an exceptional job as Alex. His pain and anguish was obvious even through his quite nature.

Josh Brolin was great here too. I loved how he was in pursuit of his missing son and he seemed to be more successful with his efforts than the local police.

The acting from the ensemble was all great. It was well cast and they all brought it. The story was creative and well laid out. I do think the truth came out a little sooner than I thought it would, but it did build remarkable tension during the story. Dialogue was well written and sharp. I do think it dragged a little in the middle, but overall, this is a great film.

4.5 stars

Together

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I did not know much about this movie. I knew it starred Dave Franco and Alison Brie, but that was about it. As I was watching the trailers before the movie (which were heavily horror), I thought to myself, “Is this going to be a horror movie?” Not only was it a horror movie, it was a body horror film.

Now, while I do love horror, body horror is my least favorite of the subgenres of horror. So it already had that working against it.

According to IMDB, “Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country. With tensions already flaring, an encounter with an unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love and their flesh.“

After the film was over, I looked at the Rotten Tomatoes score for this and it was 90%. I have to say, that score shocked me.

Because I hated this.

Not only did I not like the body horror stuff, but the biggest thing was I thought there were so many scenes and moments that I found funny. Laugh out loud funny. I was rolling my eyes at some of the scenes because they were so ridiculous. I was trying not to actually laugh out loud in the theater in case others in the room thought it was tense.

However, with the scene at the very end (no spoilers), I could not keep from belting out a laugh. It was the most ridiculous thing I think I have seen in a long time.

The more I thought about this, the worse it became. I thought both Franco and Brie were compelling during the film, but I just was not enjoying the story the film was telling me. It made little sense and I found the stuff that was supposed to be anxiety building to be silly.

I definitely do not agree with the whole world apparently. I hated this.

1.4 stars