Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

Office Space (1999)

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January 4

The Genre-ary continued on today with a classic comedy from the late 90s called Office Space. I had heard of this film before, but I can honestly say that I really had no idea what the film was about.

According to IMDB, “Three company workers who hate their jobs decide to rebel against their greedy boss.“

This film is a satirical look at big business and corporations, and the people who work mindlessly within the structure of said business. The ridiculousness of some of the situations did not feel totally made up. I could easily be convinced that things like this actually happen in the offices across the country.

Ron Livingston does a great job as Peter. He is very relatable and you can feel his frustration over his life and his job. Jennifer Aniston appeared as Joanna. David Herman and Ajay Naidu were part of the office staff and friends to Peter. Stephen Root was very invested in his eccentric character and made every minute on screen worthwhile. Diedrich Bader was another standout and his character was hilarious. Another character who maximized his screen time.

Gary Cole is one of the most unlikable characters in the film, and he does a great job with it.

I found this movie very funny and I enjoyed it. There is not a ton of story involved with it, but the characters are fun and the bits are funny.

The Jerk (1979)

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January 3

The Genre-ary continued today with The Jerk, a movie that, when I was compiling the possible list of comedies for the Genre-ary, I realized that I had not seen the entire film. Of course, I had seen parts of the movie. The “The new phone book’s here” scene is iconic. However, I could not recall much of anything else, so if I had seen it as a youth, this would be like a whole new movie.

And, as I said, I did not remember most of this movie, telling me that I had not seen the film all the way through.

Steve Martin is one of my favorite comedic actors, especially recently with his turn as Oliver on Only Murders in the Building. I was a fan of his from the early 80s with his song King Tut and some of his other films such as Roxanne, Parenthood, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and Little Shop of Horrors.

In The Jerk, directed by comedy legend Carl Reiner, Martin played a slow-witted, innocent guy, Navin, who was raised as a poor black kid in a sharecroppers family. That very idea, considering Martin is as white as a person could be, was hilarious. It also was not as insulting as I first thought it might be.

After discovering his own life rhythm, Navin left home to try to find out who he really was. He then embarked on a wild ride that found him becoming a huge success and losing it all.

Martin’s performance reminded me of an actor who is always loud and over the top. I typically am not a fan of this type of role, but Steve Martin brought something extra to it that made it enduring. I can only guess that this film was an inspiration to actors such as Jim Carrey, Kevin Hart, Adam Sandler, and Chris Farley, as they all have made a career of the loud, obnoxious type character that Steve Martin was showing in this film.

The film’s title is not accurate to me though as Navin was not really a jerk, but more of a simpleton. There was an innocence about him that helped make him appealing to the audience.

The film featured several other actors in important roles including EYG Hall of Famer Bernadette Peters, Carl Reiner (as himself), Bill Macy, Mabel King, Richard Ward, M. Emmet Walsh, Jackie Mason, Dick Anthony Williams, Catlin Adams, and Dick O’Neill. Several of these key character actors add a perfect flair to the cast, playing off the ridiculousness of Martin’s Navin.

The Jerk is a classic and I am happy that I finally did take the time to watch the entire film. The plot itself is a little lacking, but it is more of a comedy sketch to see where Navin is at any time during his life.

We Bury the Dead

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It is January and I am going to a horror movie. Typically, that is a bad sign.

However, We Bury the Dead was not your typical January movie. This was watchable.

Daisy Ridley starred as Ava, who is in search for her husband who was lost after a catastrophic military disaster. They discover that the dead was not just dying, but they would rise and hunt.

The zombies were kept at a minimum in the movie and I think that made them more effective. They were scary in appearance, though nothing specific that we haven’t seen before. They did make a creepy clicking noise that was disturbing.

Honestly, the drama among the humans were the creepiest of the movie. Much like the drama of the Walking Dead and other movies, you tend to find out that the human race is as much, if not more, of the monster than the zombie.

The beginning of the film started a little slow and the end turned into too much of a zombie fest.

I think Daisy Ridley was great as Ava and the film had enough feels and surprises to make it engaging. Overall, not a bad start for 2026.

3.4 stars

Eddie Murphy: Raw (1987)

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January 2

It is Genre-ary time and today’s comedy is a stand up film featuring Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy’s Raw is a hilarious film that probably couldn’t work in today’s environment.

It is interesting that this concert film started off with a scene featuring famous black actors including Samuel L. Jackson, Tatyana Ali, Damien Wayans, Basil Wallace, Leonard Jackson, and Gwen McGee. It was a scene of a family night at home with a talent show among the kids. Little Eddie Murphy (Deon Richmond) did some comedy, setting the tone for the rest of the film.

Eddie Murphy showed a remarkable energy on the stage and his routines were very funny. There were a couple of them that made me cringe a bit (aka the homosexual jokes) but most of the show was entertaining. Murphy’s rapid fire delivery and pacing was an impressive demonstration of his comedic skill. He had the full audience enraptured with his words.

There was an ironic section too as Eddie did an imitation of a phone call he received from Bill Cosby about all the profanity Murphy would use on his stage show. In retrospect, a little swearing should not have bothered Cosby a much as some other things he was doing.

The stage section of the film was filmed in front of a live crowd in New York City.

Who Done It? (1942)

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January 1

January is here and that means that it is time to start our annual tradition, the Genre-ary. We have done Sci-fi, Musicals, Documentaries and this year, we will be doing comedies.

I wanted to start off with one of the top comedy duos who I watched a lot as a child. I know there were great comedy duos/team like the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, but Bud Abbot and Lou Costello were my favorite ones.

Of their list of movies, I picked out one I did not remember at all called Who Done It? Bud and Lou get themselves involved in a murder investigation on the set of a radio broadcast of a murder mystery show.

Much like most Abbot and Costello movies, the plot is tangential to the comedy of the film. The comedy comes from the slapstick of Lou Costello physically throwing himself around, bashing his head into things and flopping his body around. There are also plenty of word plays and puns throughout. This film even goes as far as to include some allusions to Abbot and Costello’s most iconic bit, Who’s on First.

You are not waiting for a lot of sense to be made. It is truly ridiculous. But the lengths Abbot and Costello will go to get a laugh is really impressive. It seemed that their very presences would make the other characters around them be dumber, in a good way.

This film also included Mary Wickes, who was Mary Lazarus in the Sister Act films as well as Emma Allen in White Christmas. Her distinct voice and facial image made her stand out among the craziness associated with Bud and Lou.

The film was fast-paced, tangent-inducing, slapstick fun. Yes, Lou Costello was loud and acted in a chaotic, if not insane, manner. It all added to the fun of the pair. They kicked of the Genre-ary in a positive light.

Christy

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Christy is a biopic of female boxer Christy Martin’s rise in the world of women boxing and her subsequent abusive relationship with her coach/husband James Martin. This is a film that I rented off Fandango at Home. It was one of the biggest flops of the year at the box office, which is truly a shame because the movie is tremendous.

I thought both Sydney Sweeney, who played Christy, and Ben Foster, who played James, did spectacular jobs. Sydney Sweeney was practically unrecognizable and, had I not known this was her in the lead role, I never would have guessed it.

Christy followed its titular character through her discovery when she won a tough person contest. She was brought into a gym and she showed off her skills at punching to James Martin. He began training her and prepared her to lead the way in the world of female boxing.

Christy had a relationship with another woman, which was frowned upon by her mother Joyce (Merritt Wever). The family sent Christy away to train with James and to control her. James immediately began to show his attempts to control Christy through manipulation. He pushed himself into a relationship with her and was able to get her to agree to marry him.

That was a major mistake. He showed himself to be not only controlling, but also abusive, as he hit her and strangled her during their marriage. While this was going on, he was skimming from the money earned by Christy from her fights. He even went as far as to say that if she ever left him, he would kill her.

It is a fascinating tale as a female boxer, who was one of the first and most dominate female boxers in the sport, would have troubles with an abusive husband. From the outside, you would think that she could take care of herself, but her boxing was not able to prevent his violence.

The third act events were shocking and brutal. I came into it without any knowledge of the life of Christy Martin and, if you can, I would recommend you do the same thing. It was a tough story.

This is a movie that should have done better at the box office. It did not deserve the audiences to desert it as they did. Hopefully, this will find an audience on streaming because this is an important story for people to see.

4 stars

Song Sung Blue

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I like Neil Diamond. I was never a huge fan, though. At first, I thought this was going to be a biopic about Neil Diamond, however, it was not. It was about a Neil Diamond tribute act called Lightning and Thunder.

According to IMDB, “Lightning and Thunder, a Milwaukee husband and wife Neil Diamond tribute act, experience soaring success and devastating heartbreak in their musical journey together.“

Hugh Jackman played Mike, aka Lightning, and Kate Hudson played Claire, aka Thunder. They do a spectacular job in these roles. I believe they do all their own singing and this movie does a tremendous job of using music to create an amazing tone for the film.

I was so into this movie. It had me emotional throughout as the story progressed. I was surprised how impacted I felt with everything that was going down.

This was a true story, but I am not sure how much of the drama that happened actually happened. It was an extremely powerful story and the performances were wonderful.

I don’t want to go into any specifics to avoid spoilers, but there are some shocking moments throughout.

Greta performances, great music, great storyline. I really loved this movie which took me on an emotional journey that I did not expect to go on. Song Sung Blue was fabulous.

4.8 stars

The Housemaid

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When I first saw a trailer for this movie, I thought to myself, “This is like the Hand that Rocked the Cradle.” I said this to a friend of mine and she said that it was not anything like that. She mentioned that it was originally in a novel by Freida McFadden, which I did not know. I decided that I would give this a chance. My friend was right, this was not in that subgenre of horror film where the babysitter tries to do crazy things for reasons.

According to IMDB, “A struggling young woman is relieved by the chance for a fresh start as a maid for a wealthy couple. Soon, she discovers that the family’s secrets are far more dangerous than her own.”

This one has its ups and downs for me. I am not sure how I feel about it. I think the three main cast members, Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar, do a fantastic job with what the story asks of them. They have great chemistry with each other and are very believable in everything that they do.

One of my problems though is I hate it when people do stupid things in a thriller. There are several things that Sweeney’s character Millie does that makes me want to yell at the screen. Couldn’t she see this coming? Maybe at first, but as the film moved on, why are you not recognizing what is going on? I hate it when the characters do really stupid things.

The end of the movie was fun, but I did see it coming. There was something that, when mentioned in the beginning of the film, I knew was going to come back around as a major piece later in the film, and sure enough, I was right.

There was also a section near the beginning of the third act of the film where suddenly we were doing a ton of exposition, explaining what had gone down. I thought this was a weak point of the movie.

The Housemaid feels like Hollywood camp, but in a glorious way. It feels as if everyone involved understands the assignment in this story and are ready to give it their all. There are weaknesses in the film, but I think I came out of it more positive than negative.

3 stars

Anaconda

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Back in 1997, a horror film about a giant snake appeared. Anaconda, starring Ice Cube, J-Lo, and Jon Voight, was a terrible movie, but it survived the years and became an iconic cult classic film. In 2025, we now got a meta-sequel to the film starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd which debuted this weekend.

According to IMDB, “Four childhood friends are going through a midlife crisis so they decide to remake their favorite horror movie from the 1990s in the Amazon Forest When a real giant anaconda shows up, they get more than what they bargain for and their comically chaotic movie making turns into a life-or-death situation. The movie that they’re dying to remake? It might just kill them, literally.“

I heard some negative things about the new film before I went into it, which made me nervous because I had thought the trailers looked good and I was excited to see it. The negative comments made me feel much more tentative about the movie.

I can understand why some people might not have been a fan of this, but I enjoyed it a lot. I found this funny, the characters likable and entertaining, and the meta qualities of the film worked so well.

I thought there was a lot of clever writing involved in this movie. The humor is solid. There were a couple of jokes that I usually do not like, but, for me, even those worked well.

No spoiler here, but there was a great cameo in the film too.

There are some negatives to the film too though. I do think it started fairly slowly and the film really took off when the characters get on their boat. I do think that I wish the trailer hadn’t spoiled some of the best laughs in the film because I think it would have been so much better.

I am happy that I liked this movie more than what some were saying. I found it funny and engaging. I do enjoy a film with as many meta jokes and Anaconda falls right into that.

3.8 stars

Sentimental Value

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One of the leading candidates for multiple Academy Award nominations, the Norwegian film, Sentimental Value popped up on Fandango at Home this past week. I rented the film and watched it this Christmas afternoon.

Directed by Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value is a serious drama that starred Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning.

According to the plot synopsis on Fandango, “Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), an estranged father and once-celebrated director eager to reclaim his former glory, reconnects with his daughters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). When Gustav offers Nora the lead role in his new film, she refuses and learns he has given the part to a Hollywood star (Elle Fanning).”

The movie is very slow and I had some difficulty in the first hour or so of staying engaged with the film. I had to keep reading the subtitles for much of the film, but I did have some challenge. The performances were solid in the beginning of the movie, but the slow burn was tough to watch.

However, as the story picked up between Gustav and his two daughters, my own engagement picked up as well. No doubt that Skarsgård and Reinsve were special in the film. Elle Fanning gave a very powerful performance as well. As we discovered more about the dysfunctional relationship between them, the more it came off the screen.

The ending was very strong and made me happy that I had continued to watch the film, when I did consider stopping it around the first half hour or so.

3.5 stars

Marty Supreme

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Happy Christmas Eve to everyone. With the year coming to a close soon, there are a few more in theater movies to watch. The first of the few remaining theater films today was Timothée Chalamet’s new film, Marty Supreme.

I was really surprised with this movie. It was not what I was expecting. Apparently, this is slightly based on a real person, but in a fictional story with fictional things happening. The main character of this movie, Marty Mauser, is based on Marty Reisman, an American table tennis player, and it is directed by Josh Safdie.

What surprised me about this movie was how unlikable the character of Marty Mauser was. He was such a jerk to everyone. Selfish. Rotten. Mean-spirited. Obnoxious. Marty is a con man who will do some rotten things to try an accomplish what he wanted to do. During the first half of the film, I was thinking about how Marty was so rotten, yet how I found myself rooting for him. That, surprisingly, did not stay as I was rooting for the other guy in the final act.

Timothée Chalamet was excellent in the role of Marty. He disappeared into the role and I never was thinking about him as the actor that he was. It was a great performance and will probably earn him an Academy Award nomination.

It is a risk having a protagonist as unlikable as Marty Mauser because you take the chance of alienating the audience. However, there is such great writing involved and Marty is such a complex character that you can understand why he is doing the terrible things that he is doing.

The film is a little long, and there was a spot where I thought the movie might be ending (and I feel as if maybe it should have). I can’t go into details without spoiling it.

I expected Marty Supreme to be a good time, feel good story. It is not that. It is challenging and dark. It is a great film.

4.4 stars

The Secrets We Bury

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The Secrets We Bury is a documentary streaming on HBO Max recently dealing with the disappearance of George Carroll.

According to IMDB, “In the early 1960s, George Carroll walked out on his family, leaving his wife, Dorothy, and their four children behind. Decades later, the Carroll siblings are still left haunted by what happened to their father. Seeking much-needed closure for himself and his family, ‘The Secrets We Bury’ follows Mike Carroll as he unravels the mystery of his father’s disappearance and uncovers a story much darker and more complex than his family could have imagined. Told through extensive sit-down interviews with the Carroll siblings and layered with intimate archival footage of the Carroll family spanning decades of their lives, the documentary offers a sensitive look into one family’s journey to find closure. Part mystery and part family drama, ‘The Secrets We Bury’ raises important questions about whose stories we choose to believe, and why.”

This was a slow burn of a documentary that had a wild story involving abuse, disappearances, psychics and murder.

There are beats in this doc that are difficult to believe, making one think that there is a part of this story that is not being told to us accurately. In particular, the psychic who, apparently, was able to direct Mike where to look for his father.

The documentary spent a bunch of time in this story telling us how Mike’s mother could not have been involved with this cover up, how that she believed the story that she told them, about George abandoning them. I think this is the biggest error of the doc. There is no way that I don’t believe that she had, at the very least, the knowledge of what had happened to George, if not participated in it. They did a lot to try and make it seem like she was an innocent, even going as far as to showing us a reading by the psychic where the mother supposedly said as much. Nope. I don’t buy that at all.

This was a intriguing case that will never truly be solved. It was a mysterious and thrilling story.

3.75 stars

Hedda

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The movie Hedda was available on Amazon Prime for a while now. It has been on my queue and I have been waiting to watch it. Today, I was able to fit it into the schedule.

According to IMDB, “In a provocative, modern re-imagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play, Heather (Tessa Thompson) finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt-pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal.“

I have to say that I had a hard time focusing on this movie. It did not grab my attention in the first part of the film.

When I was interested in the film, it was when either Tess Thompson or Nina Hoss were on the screen. Both actors were tremendous with their characters.

There were some powerful scenes in the film, but I just never could get into it. I wish that I was able to focus on the film more. Maybe if I had seen this in a theater, I would have been able to focus in on it better than I did at home.

Because I couldn’t, it is hard to recommend the movie. Two great performances though.

2.8 stars

It Was Just An Accident

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It Was Just An Accident was an international film which was a co-production between Iran, France, and Luxembourg. I had heard positives about the film on FYC and I had a chance to rent it off Fandango at Home.

According to IMDB, “An unassuming mechanic is reminded of his time in an Iranian prison when he encounters a man he suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse captor. Panicked, he rounds up a few of his fellow ex-prisoners to confirm the man’s identity.”

Powerful storytelling as we follow this group of people who had had their lives touched by this tormenter from an Iranian prison. Each person had to reassess their own choices and moral line as they attempt to confirm that this man is who they believe him to be.

There are enough doubts tossed around by the script that you as viewer are never quite sure which way the story will go. Is this the cruel torturer or is it a man who had a similar injury? The tormentor had a prosthetic leg and was dubbed the nickname “Peg Leg.” The man had the same prosthetic, but since the victims were always blindfolded, they could not specifically identify him, and the man had a seemingly cohesive story to cover the possible truth. I will admit that I was never 100% sure during the movie is he was Peg Leg or not.

Without spoilers, I loved the ending of the film. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I really found it to be refreshing.

The performances from the actors were top line. Vahid Mobasseri played Vahid, the mechanic who first discovered the possible Peg Leg, played by Ebrahim Azizi. Mariam Afshari was Shiva, a photographer who Vahid tried to get confirmation from. Other cast members included Majid Panahi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohammad Ali Elyasmehr, Delnaz Najafi and Georges Hashemzadeh.

I really enjoyed this international film. It was extremely well written with some exceptional performances.

4.4 stars

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants

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This is a movie where the trailer helped get me into the theater. I will say that I don’t mind SpongeBob SquarePants, but I have never watched much of his stuff before. However, I thought the trailer for the movie was entertaining and funny, and, since it worked into the schedule well, I decided to give the new Paramount film a chance.

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I must say that, although I do believe I saw it in the trailer, I did not remember that Mark Hamill was in the cast, doing the voice of the Flying Dutchman. That was a awesome surprise, and Hamill was sensational in the role.

According to IMDB, “SpongeBob journeys to the ocean’s depths to face the Flying Dutchman’s ghost, encountering challenges and uncovering marine mysteries.“

The voice actors, most of which were from the series, including Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence and Mr. Lawrence, do a phenomenal job. It was clear that they are experts at their roles by this point, and they bring a lot to the script.

The animation was fun. It had a lot of variety throughout the movie, keeping it flowing from one weird scene to another.

]The script is extremely funny, though there may have been a few jokes that were overused as the film progressed. Running jokes can work, but they can also become a touch old. There were examples of both in this mostly hilarious script.

This was an entertaining animated movie that I laughed at multiple times. I am not a huge fan of this show, but I enjoyed this movie the whole time.

3.75 stars