Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

Elevation (2024)

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I came across this movie on MAX and, while it was listed as a 2025 film, everywhere else had it as a 2024 release. Had I know that, I could have saved this for the June Swoon, but I do think I have plenty of films available for that. I decided to list this under the “classics” instead of 2025 for that reason.

Anthony Mackie played Will, who lived with his son Hunter (Danny Boyd, Jr.) in the Rocky Mountains. Humanity has been destroyed by these creatures that suddenly just popped up from out of nowhere. Fortunately, the creatures could not go past 8,000 feet elevation.

Hunter was sick and needed certain materials that could only be found in the hospital, which meant Will had to go down the mountain to try and find more. He was accompanied by two women, Nina (Morena Baccarin) and Katie (Maddie Hasson).

I really like Anthony Mackie. He is a star and you can see how he commands the screen in a film like this. Sadly, I do not think the film matches up to the strength of Mackie’s screen presence.

The writing is, at best, passable. The story depends way too much on exposition which can become repetitive and dull. The story is full of contrivances and coincidences that really damages the plot.

Nina and Katie started out really hating one another. There was clearly conflicts between the two women, but that conflict disappeared in what seemed no time, without any true resolution. The relationship between them felt forced and had no basis in reality. I know that the film has giant sci-fi monsters running around, which is why the central relationships have to have a dose of realism if the film is to work. These three characters are lacking in that area.

This felt like a poor man’s The Last of Us, mixed with a little bit of A Quiet Place. It was just not at a level of either of those franchises. Anthony Mackie is great and he is doing everything he could to elevate this script, but there is only so much he can do.

The Monkey

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Horror/comedy movies can be difficult to do. At some times, the tones between the two genres do not mix well and may feel all over the place. However, when they work, you get some highly entertaining moments, and that is what I feel the latest film from writer/director Osgood Perkins (director of Longlegs) accomplished.

The story tells of a winder-up, toy grinder monkey that wound up in the closet of the father of twins Hal and Bill (both played by Christian Convery). It does not take long for the twins to realize that when the monkey’s key in its back is wound, someone near them dies in a shocking and quite gruesome way.

After a close tragedy, the twins decided to drop the monkey down a well to get rid of it forever. Little did they know that this would not be the end of the monkey.

Many years later, the monkey returned to the lives of the now estranged brothers and continued to amass chaos in it wake.

I enjoyed this movie a great deal. I heard some critics claim that the tone was too scattered, but I found the tone to work extremely well. It felt somewhat campy, but I thought that worked for the film.

The design of the monkey was creepy, in particular with the smile that would cross its face just before it started drumming. I thought the creepiness factor was just the right amount to keep this unsettling. I would not call the film scary, necessarily, but the kills of the film absolutely turned in some gory moments. Gore is usually not my favorite type of horror, but it felt like it worked so well with the humorous tone that the gore did not bother me.

Theo James, who played the adult versions of the twins, and Christian Convery did amazing jobs playing the two different characters. They played them with their own original styles that I was not sure they were actually the same actor or if it were just an actor that resembled each other really well.

It was also awesome to see Tatiana Maslany appear as the twins’ mother, Lois. She did not have a long role, but her scenes were very impactful and helped create a feel for this character. Elijah Wood had a brief cameo in the film in a role that really could have been expanded more.

The more ridiculous it became, the more I embraced the silliness and repelled at the kills. I really found this to work well together. Sure the story itself may not have been as deep as one might expect, but that worked within the context of the film too. Maybe I would have wanted a little more depth to the characters, specifically, why Hal and Billy were never close as children. I understand the anger directed as adults, but why did the twins never have the type of relationship one would expect?

Either way, I was entertained by The Monkey and I thought the performances were all really strong, the film was a hoot, and the kills would be appreciated by any horror aficionado. The Monkey was originally based on a short story by horror master Stephen King.

4.2 stars

The Gorge

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Apple TV + released a new movie recently featuring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy called The Gorge. The Gorge is an action/horror film with touches of a romantic film.

According to IMDB, “Two highly-trained operatives are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from an undisclosed, mysterious evil that lurks within. They bond from a distance while trying to stay vigilant in defending against an unseen enemy. When the cataclysmic threat to humanity is revealed to them, they must work together in a test of both their physical and mental strength to keep the secret in the gorge before it’s too late.”

The first hour of the movie is excellent. I really liked the relationship built between Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anna Taylor-Joy) when they were on opposite sides of the Gorge. There was a sweetness to them increasing their connection via notes. When Levi shoots the cable across the Gorge, I was amazed at the efforts he took. I loved when the cable gets blown free and Levi falls into the Gorge.

The action in the Gorge is good, but a lot of that was nothing that we haven’t seen before. No spoilers, but how they escaped the Gorge eventually was unbelievably cool.

I do think the ending was a little iffy at times, but I did enjoy the very end of the film. It is a satisfying conclusion, if not rushed a bit, which is odd considering the film runs over two hours.

I thought this was a fun time for the most part. It looked great and I enjoyed our two main characters. It was definitely a good time and an easy watch.

3.6 stars

Paddington in Peru

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The first two films are absolute, unexpected classics. They are two of the best movies that you will ever see. I will say that I was feeling uncertain about a third film in the franchise, called Paddington in Peru. I’ve seen too many third installments take a bad turn.

While Paddington in Peru is nowhere near as exceptional as the first two, this new film is entertaining and fun as well.

According to IMDB, “Paddington returns to Peru to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy, who now resides at the Home for Retired Bears. With the Brown Family in tow, a thrilling adventure ensues when a mystery plunges them into an unexpected journey through the Amazon rainforest and up to the mountain peaks of Peru.”

Paddington is always an enduring character that is funny, easy to love and fun to watch. He works so well in this story, no matter what situation the writers stick him in. Ben Whishaw does a great job as the little bear’s voice.

There are two actors in this film that are always great in whatever they do, and that is Antonio Banderas and Olivia Colman. I have loved Olivia Colman for years, especially her role in Secret Invasion (which felt like the one great thing in that series), and she is awesome her as Reverend Mother. Antonio Banderas was great in the villainous role and has a really solid character arc. Banderas had to play multiple characters in Hunter Cabot’s family and he does a wonderful job.

Dougal Wilson is the new director for the franchise, replacing Paul King, and he does an admirable job, creating a sweet and charming story with some fun characters and family interactions. Paddington in Peru is not near as good as the previous films, but it is still a great family film with a positive message and a lot of fun.

3.75 stars

Captain America: Brave New World

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The fourth film in the Captain America franchise debuted this weekend from Marvel Studios. It has been a film that has had its struggles dating back to Covid, multiple reshoots and delays. Finally, it has arrived in theaters. As with other struggles, this film has had some middling reviews from critics. All of this made me a little nervous about the movie. I am pleased to say that I enjoyed this a great deal.

Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) was still facing challenges of assuming the mantel of Captain America, but the new president of the United States, Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) reached out to Sam with an olive branch and an offer to reform the Avengers.

Ross, who had done plenty of horrible things over the years, was trying to turn over a new leaf. However, an unexpected assassination attempt changed everything for the new POTUS.

Sam was completely confused when one of the attempted assassins turned out to be his friend and invitee Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), one of the original soldiers who was given the Super Soldier Serum and then experimented on by the government for years. Sam believed in Isaiah’s innocence and it created a chasm between Sam and the admnistration.

This film works well as a sequel to the Disney + series Falcon and the Winter Soldier and also, oddly enough, the Incredible Hulk. There are elements in the film that tied it to The Eternals as well.

Anthony Mackie is tremendous as the lead in this film. He showed that he was an excellent choice to take over the role of Captain America. He is charming and does a really great job with the dramatic moments as well. Harrison Ford, who took over the role of Thunderbolt Ross from the late William Hurt, looked to be having a ton of fun as President Ross who eventually turned into the Red Hulk. Harrison Ford is always exceptional, and he and Mackie have great chemistry. They are the standout of the movie.

You can tell at times that this film has been stitched together from reshoots, but it does a decent job of blending them together. With as many reshoots that this film had, it is amazing that this film is as coherent as it is. The film is a political thriller, but I would have liked even more of that.

The inclusion of Giancarlo Esposito as Sidewinder had been added later. Esposito was great and cool, but he was not in the film very much. I hope that he has more to come down the road in the MCU because the little bit we get of Sidewinder in Brave New World is wonderful.

I loved Tim Blake Nelson returning as Samuel Sterns from the Incredible Hulk. He is another character that could have had more screen time. I loved the look of this character.

No spoilers here, but there is a cameo in this movie that I absolutely loved!

I thought the action scenes were really solid. The aerial action with Sam and Joaquin (Danny Ramirez) was a lot of fun as was the eventual Sam and Red Hulk showdown that we have seen in the trailers.

There are some moments where the film is a little messy, but none of that bothered me. I understood with all of the challenges this movie faced that it may not have been the most polished of films. Some of the first act exposition may have been too much, but there was a lot of material that the film had to provide to those who may not have watched the corresponding films/series.

In the end, Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford were great together and they carried this film. It may not be the best of the Captain America franchise, but, to me, it is a welcome addition.

4.3 stars

Heart Eyes

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I was not expecting a mash up of Rom-Coms and slasher-style horror flick in the new film, Heart Eyes. Directed by Josh Ruben, who worked with this type of tone in the awesome independent film Werewolves Within in 2021, Heart Eyes truly does an excellent job of blending humor, romance and bloody gore.

The last two years, one in Philadelphia and one in Boston, a serial killer had been killing loving couples on Valentine’s Day. After February 14th, the Heart Eyes Killer, or HEK as he was called, would disappear. This year, the killer resurfaced, this time in Seattle.

Ally (Olivia Holt), going through a recent break-up, was struggling to do her job as an advertising creator, especially for the romantic product they are selling. Because her pitch was so dark, the head of her agency called in a freelance advertising designer, Jay (Mason Gooding).

Ally and Jay had a spark between them, but Ally’s own issues kept them apart. However, the HEK saw them together, mistakenly thinking they were a couple, and started to stalk them.

The cast does a strong job with the material. None of the actors were known to me. I saw that Olivia Holt was on the TV show Cloak and Dagger, so I did watch her there. I thought everyone did an excellent job with their characters and I was never certain about what way the story was going to take .

I can’t imagine that it is easy to balance the tone for a film like this. Heart Eyes never feels as if it is too silly with the humor or too much with the romance or too much with the gore. It all balances well, fitting together well. It had the feel of Happy Death Day combined with Scream. It was serious when it needed to be, and funny when it needed to be. All the while, providing us a couple that was worth rooting for and who were very relatable.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It felt like it walked that line that kept everything nicely even and prevented it from becoming just a mess.

4 stars

One of Them Days

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I was never a fan of the trailers for the movie One of Them Days, and I swear it was shown before every movie I watched for months. Because of that, I have ignored this movie for several weeks. However, I have heard positive word of mouth about the film so I figured I would fit it into the schedule. A lot of times when I set up a film like this, I come back loving the movie. Sadly, that is not the case for this one.

Of course, I did not hate this. I would say that it was passable.

According to IMDB, “When best friends and roommates Dreux and Alyssa discover Alyssa’s boyfriend has blown their rent money, the duo finds themselves going to extremes in a race against the clock to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact.“

While I did not love much of anything in the film, my favorite part was easily the performance of Keke Palmer. Her performance as Dreux was full of charm and humor. She pulled off the main protagonist of this film wonderfully well. She was absolutely a star on the screen. I was not as much of a fan of the performance of SZA, but she definitely had chemistry with Palmer. I was not a huge fan of the character that SZA was playing. I feel as if I have seen this type of character before.

The story was too compressed into this time frame and I think it is tough to buy everything happening in this single day. Still, several of the individual scenes were funny and well set up. And i guess the idea that this is “one of them days” is part of the concept.

Keke Palmer and, to a lesser extent, SZA is the reason to watch this movie. Their chemistry and charm carries the film through for me.

3 stars

Companion

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Companion is a sci-fi/thriller that flew under the radar. I knew very little about it before it was released in the theaters. I do not recall seeing any trailers for the film. I had heard some positive word of mouth about the film, but I still knew very little when I walked into the theater this morning to see it.

If you can go into this movie with as little knowledge as you can, please do so. Companion was an outstanding film that was a ton of fun and very creative and imaginative.

In the vein of going into this movie as free as you can, I am not giving any spoilers, nor am I going to give a synopsis, as this is one of those films where it is very difficult to give a synopsis without giving away some major plot points.

Starring Sophie Thatcher (Heretic, Yellowjackets) played Iris and Jack Quaid (The Boys) played Josh, a couple who was heading for a weekend with friends at a remote cabin. Both Thatcher and Quaid do a sensational job in this film as our main characters. They had a great chemistry and worked very well together to create a story that kept the audience on the edge of their seats the entire time.

The film was both exciting and funny, blending both together very effectively. The writing was so good in both structure and dialogue. You had feelings for these character, including the secondary characters played by Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillen, and Rupert Friend.

You may never have heard of this movie, but it is absolutely worth your time. It is a blast and provides such a exceptional experience.

4.2 stars

Presence

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Presence is a small movie that may be advertised as a horror movie, but that would not be accurate. This is much more of a psychological drama than anything else. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Presence takes a different look at the haunted house sub-genre than what we have seen before.

A family moved into a new home after a tragic event struck. Chris (Chris Sullivan) and Rebekah (Lucy Liu) was a troubled couple with two kids, Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang). Chloe’s best friend had recently died, but the parents seemed to be more focused on moving so Tyler can get into the proper high school for the swim team.

Chloe immediately started getting a feeling, sensing that there was something in the house… a presence.

There were some interesting characters involved here. Rebekah seemed much more connected to Tyler and less connected with Chloe. Chris appeared to be a really wonderful father, being very supportive of Chloe and calling Tyler out on his garbage. There were more issues with the family than there was with this “ghost.”

What I enjoyed the most in this movie was how it was shot. There were a bunch of single-shot scenes that were shot as if it were the POV of the spirit. I really enjoyed that gimmick. It was something that I had not seen before and I thought it was a creative use of the camera.

It was also a major surprise at the end that made something earlier in the film make sense. No spoilers on it, but there was something that happened about midway through the film that made no sense. However, it did make sense by the ending of the film which I appreciated.

Overall this was a decent film. It was not what I expected, but the story was good. The acting was fine. I loved the way it was shot. It may not have been the best movie of the year, and it is absolutely not a horror movie, but it was a good time.

3.6 stars

Girl in the Picture (2022)

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January 31

January 31st is here and the 2025 Genre-ary comes to a close with a Netflix documentary called Girl in the Picture, which was based on the books A Beautiful Child and Finding Sharon by Matt Birkbeck.

According to IMDB, “A young mother’s mysterious death and her son’s subsequent kidnapping blow open a decades-long mystery about the woman’s true identity and the murderous federal fugitive at the center of it all.“

This was an excellent documentary covering the tragic story of a young girl named Sharon Marshall. Or at least, it was a young girl who was known as Sharon Johnson. She had been abducted as a child and then raised as the daughter of Franklin Delano Floyd, a kidnapper, murderer and sexual abuser.

Sharon suffered years of abuse at the hands of her “father.” He would use her to make money by making her strip and offering her for sex to other men.

The story also included a boy named Michael, who had been kidnapped by Floyd as well. The boy disappeared and the question about what had happened to Michael was part of the film.

One of the best things about this doc is that all of the mysteries surrounding these people are solved. A lot of times these docs do not have a sense of closure because mysteries are left unsolved. Here though, thankfully, everything is revealed.

It is such an emotional story of pain and loss, but it also gives a great story about how people can help by doing whatever you can.

Girl in the Picture is available on Netflix.

And with this, the 2025 Genre-ary comes to a close.

Invasion on Chestnut Ridge (2017)

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January 30

Today, the penultimate day of the 2025 Genre-ary, I watched a documentary from the series Small Town Monsters. I have seen other episodes from Small Town Monsters before and they are usually a fairly well done look at these unexplained phenomenon. Invasion on Chestnut Ridge is yet another solid doc dealing with the paranormal.

Chestnut Ridge is an area of Pennsylvania where there have been numerous unexplained reports of everything from bigfoot to UFO sighting to giant birds with massive wingspans.

According to the doc, it seemed as if there were a rush of reports during 1973/74 with all kinds of weird things going on. The doc had witnesses giving their stories, including things like UFO sightings and bigfoot encounters, all of which are sufficiently unnerving. One wonders what these people actually saw. Many of them seemed to be reasonable and decent people (Admittedly, there was the one guy with a 2nd Amendment shirt on where the number two was a snake).

I have always been more willing to believe in many things. I do think there is (or was) something called a bigfoot. I am not opposed to people from outer space (though I am not sure if they are able to travel here), but above all else, I enjoy the stories. Small Town Monsters does an excellent job of presenting these “out there” accounts in a enjoyable way.

There was one funny moment. They were interviewing a witness who had seen a thunderhawk and they were blurring out the wording on his shirt. However, the man bent down to describe how the bird had been sitting, and the blur did not go with him. We saw that it was a Steelers shirt. I laughed out loud at that. I wonder why they couldn’t get the blur to follow him down. I know that was a minor thing in the doc, but I thought it was funny.

The doc also detailed the Kecksburg UFO crash in 1965. Something crashed in the woods near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania and witnesses went to see. It was a metallic object shaped like a walnut and that the military showed up and removed it. Of course, specifics are shaky and, like all UFO sightings, it is hard to determine what it was that these people saw.

Admittedly, the doc does not provide any concrete evidence of any of the stories they tell about, outside of the eye witness accounts from many year prior. I still found these stories intriguing and entertaining at least. Are any of them real? Who knows. It is one of those unsolved mysteries.

Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

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January 29

With just three days remaining on the Genre-ary for 2025, I watched an Oscar-nominated doc called Catching the Friedmans, another tough watch because it centered around a teacher and his son who had been accused of sodomy and sexual abuse of kids.

Director Andrew Jarecki, who was the director behind the amazing docu-series, The Jinx, was the driving force behind this documentary.

According to IMDB, the “Documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.”

There are plenty of scenes in this movie that came from home video recordings taped by the Friedman family themselves. Most of these scenes were really tough to watch considering the way some of this was portrayed. It painted a horrible picture of most of these people. There was a dramatic scene taped at Jesse Friedman’s trial of a parent chasing after him screaming that he had raped his son. Unbelievable.

Elaine Friedman seemed to be a spiteful woman, but it is hard to imagine the situation she found herself in daily. Her husband was a pedophile. Her sons hated her. A lot of the recordings by her kids had her screaming like a banshee. She did not come off looking well. Then, the final scene of the doc seemed to go against everything that the doc had shown us up until that point.

The doc sheds plenty of question on the case overall, especially when it came to Jesse. Arnold, the father who was an admitted pedophile, said that he had committed sexual abuse on two kids, but not the countless number at school.

I’m not sure how I felt about this doc because the voice seemed to be all over the place. I’m not sure what the doc was telling me about this story and it felt as if details changed throughout. I do not have a better understanding of what the truth was in this case or to what level these people were guilty or innocent. Maybe that is the idea with the doc… that truth may be elusive and that you may never know for sure what is happening in the heart of a family.

There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011)

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January 28

Today’ documentary for the Genre-ary was a doc from HBO MAX called There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane.

According to IMDB, this documentary looked at… “The accident made national headlines: a suburban mother drove the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway in New York and crashed head-on into an SUV, killing herself and seven others. In the aftermath, Diane Schuler was portrayed as a reckless drunk and a mother who cracked. But was she the monster the public made her out to be…or the perfect wife and mother that many say she was? Investigating the case six months after the accident, this documentary searches for answers to a mysterious and senseless tragedy.”

This was an interesting documentary. The story of Diane Schuler was an odd one. It looked as if she had just been drunk and high and wound up in a tragic accident that killed eight people. Moat of the doc featured Diane’s husband, family and friends and their POV of the situation. They were all certain that there was no way that Diane could be a drunk who drove her car into another vehicle. They were all very determined that this was not possible.

The problem was that all of the evidence of the case pointed to Diane Schuler was drunk and high at the time of the accident. The family of Diane did not provide any possible evidence outside of their denials.

Through the entire documentary, it felt as if some piece of information was missing. The motivation of Diane is questionable. I do not understand why she may have been drinking vodka and smoking marijuana. There was a point of contention about a possible tooth that abscessed, but that did not feel like the overall answer.

There is also another weird event involving an investigator hired by the family who had Diane’s specimens retested, but never got back in touch with the family. This was a truly bizarre aspect of the story. Near the end, Diane’s sister spoke with the investigator who said that he had sent the results and that they were the same as the original one. This was strange.

Some of the images of the accident was just tough to watch. There was a warning at the beginning of the film, but they still caught me off guard.

There seems to be something missing in this story, and sadly, we will never know what it was. Such a tragedy that cost the lives of several humans, including four children.

Last Breath (2019)

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January 27

As we enter the final five days of January, we are coming down to the last documentaries in the Genre-ary. The doc I selected for tonight was a harrowing tale of survival under the most unlikely of circumstances. I watched the doc called Last Breath on Netflix.

This doc was released in 2019, and there is actually a big budget movie set to release at the end of February starring Woody Harrelson about this very story.

According to IMDB, “A deep sea diver is stranded on the seabed with 5 minutes of oxygen and no hope of rescue. With access to amazing archive this is the story of one man’s impossible fight for survival.“

Diver Chris Lemons had his umbilical cable severed during a saturation dive and he was stranded around 100 meters beneath the sea. Somehow, Chris was able to survive for around 30 minutes on the five minutes of oxygen that he had.

The doc is an absolutely stunning accomplishment as it uses real footage from the moment, collected from body cameras and actual radio audio to tell this story. It spoke with the other crew members who were desperate to find Chris before it was too late, but who were fearful that it was already past time.

It was amazing to see these images of Chris atop the structure in the unlikely position among the blackness of the sea. It was powerful watching them pull Chris into the vessel and giving him two deep breaths. They did not believe that they were going to be able to save Chris, and yet they never gave up in their attempt.

This documentary has made me more interested in the movie coming in February, where I had limited interest before.

Flight Risk

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Mel Gibson has fallen quite a bit since Hacksaw Ridge almost ten years ago.

His new directorial work, Flight Risk, is a silly, 90’s style action movie that produced as many eye rolls as it did action moments. I have to say though that I did not hate this movie. It was just not very good.

According to IMDB, “In this high-stakes suspense thriller, Academy Award® nominee Mark Wahlberg plays a pilot transporting an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) accompanying a fugitive (Topher Grace) to trial. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions soar and trust is tested, as not everyone on board is who they seem.“

Michelle Dockery and Topher Grace were both decent in their roles and they both made me care about their characters, even though they both did really stupid things that if you would take five seconds to think about, you would do something different.

Mark Wahlberg is a long way from an Academy Award nominee in this role. He is so over the top that he was tough to watch.

Of course, we all knew what the situation was, because this film gave it to us in the trailers. Wahlberg was a hitman trying to kill Topher Grace, who was turning state’s evidence.

There was a leak storyline that was probably the dumbest of the storylines. When it was just the three of them in the airplane, the movie was much better. Dockery’s character, Madolyn, was so mistrusting of everyone, except one that I would have started to doubt immediately.

There were some funny moments, mostly from Topher Grace, but nothing that was going to make this a better movie. It was not a satire or a parody. It was just trying to be a dumb action movie. With that as a goal, the film is a success.

I did not hate myself for watching this, but I would not recommend anyone go out to the theater to see Flight Risk. You see most of the movie in the trailer anyway. However, this would not be the worst film on a lazy weekend on streaming.

2.8 stars