Tag Archives: film

Rob Reiner/Anthony Geary RIP

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I was working on the third 2025 Year in Review: In Memoriam Part 3 last night, and I thought to myself that I would only have one In Memoriam left. I thought that it would be fine because what are the chances that there would be any other big stars pass away before the year ended.

Oh my god.

I woke up in the middle of the night and saw on TikTok a horrible story that I never would have believed. Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle had been allegedly killed by their son Nick. I felt crushed by this news. I was a fan of Rob Reiner, especially as a director.

Then, I got home from school and I was on X and I saw tweets that kicked me in the gut. Anthony Geary, who played Luke Spencer on General Hospital for decades, had died.

I could not believe it.

Luke Spencer was one of my favorite characters on TV, period. Not just soap characters… but all characters. He was one of the best actors in Daytime, winning multiple Emmy Awards.

Rob Reiner directed some of my favorite movies of all time. The Princess Bride, This is Spinal Tap, A Few Good Men, Stand By Me, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, Misery, The American President, and When Harry Met Sally.

Luke Spencer, along with his on-screen love Laura, became an icon in television. Their GH wedding was watched by 30 million viewers. They were on the cover of Time Magazine.

The Princess Bride is my favorite movie of all time (well, it is 1B to Endgame’s 1A).

Anthony Geary was a prime reason why General Hospital had been such an influential show for me as a youth. Luke was my idol. As a child, I watched all summer long and had my mom tell me everything on days I was at school.

Two men who were absolute icons for me, both gone within a few hours of each other. Both men some of the most influential actors of my life.

Rest in Peace.

Bone Lake

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Okay. I am not sure what I can say about this one.

According to IMDB, “A couple’s vacation at a secluded estate is upended when they’re forced to share the mansion with a mysterious couple. A dream getaway spirals into a nightmarish maze of sex, lies, and manipulation, triggering a battle for survival.”

This movie started out with a scene of two naked people running through the woods. It was just a terrible season and ended in a ridiculous way and I thought to myself, “What did I get myself into.” Then, it switched from the scene and it was a story being told by a boyfriend Diego (Marco Pigossi) to his girlfriend Sage (Maddie Hasson). It was meant to show that Diego was not a very good writer, even though he had recently quit his teaching job to write a novel. So I forgave that terrible scene because it was meant to show characterization of Diego.

The premise itself was common and things were really slow and dull in the first act and a half or so. Some dumb things were happening as it seemed that it was typical type of movie like this.

A little over a half way through the film, the story suddenly went totally batshit crazy. Then, I didn’t know what was happening and, honestly, the film had my attention more than it had before.

Is it a plausible movie? No, it is not. The stuff that goes down is ridiculous. It is also very different than the beginning of the film. It does do some interesting theorizing on couples, but when the chainsaws come out… well, there is only so much time for theorizing.

I am not sure how to feel about this. I was entertained at times while at other times I found myself feeling stupider having watched it. It felt like it was meant to be a satire at times, but I do not think that was the intent. I am torn on Bone Lake.

2.9 stars

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

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I have been anxiously awaiting the latest Knives Out film from Rian Johnson to drop on Netflix/ I knew the film had been released in EXTREMELY limited release, no where near me, and the streamer was my only opportunity to see it. I wish I could have seen this in the theater on the big screen. I was a fan of Knives Out and Glass Onion, the first two films of the series, but Wake Up Dead Man was different.

It was a masterpiece.

There will be no spoilers, of course, in this review, so I am not sure how much I can reveal. I will simply say that the story was brilliant, and kept me guessing the whole way. Even when it appeared to be obvious about what happened, the full reveal was not yet detailed.

Daniel Craig returned as the glorious Benoit Blanc, in a story of murder and mystery in a small church in New York state. In what seemed to be an unsolvable case, Benoit Blanc walked through the crime scenes and the motives with Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), whose dark past made him every bit the suspect as anyone else.

The cast is exceptional. Led by stunning performances by Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig, the remainder of the cast were spectacular. Josh Brolin and Glenn Close were both amazing in this film, showing off how powerful they are as actors. The film included Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Daryl McCormack, Cailee Spaeny, Thomas Hayden Church, Annie Hamilton and Jeffrey Wright.

Rian Johnson’s script was special. I loved the way the story played out and developed the characters and plot. There is so much depth here that it absolutely fills up the screen. The dialogue, as with most Rian Johnson projects, is sharp and witty, and, despite the dark undertones of the tale, had plenty of moments of levity that worked perfectly.

Josh Brolin has had quite a year. This role, along with his roles in Weapons and The Running Man, gives quite the spectrum of his talents as an actor.

The movie is long, but it does not feel such. It is such an engaging mystery with amazing performances and writing that it flies by. I did not think this would surpass the first Knives Out film for me, but it has done so. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is worth every second you spend on Netflix.

5 stars

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #2

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#2

Twin Peaks

“… Wrapped in plastic…”

The number two TV show on out top 100 countdown is one of the biggest phenomenons from the early 1990s. David Lynch brought his flavor of insanity to the small screen disguised as a murder mystery in Twin Peaks.

The first episode kicked off with mild-mannered Pete finding the beautiful prom queen, Laura Palmer, dead on the side of the river, wrapped in plastic. The murder rocked the seemingly normal small town of Twin Peaks, Washington. The call went into the FBI for help in the investigation and the eccentric Agent Dale Cooper was sent.

Cooper had seen this before, and was already on the trail of the serial killer responsible. Using his bizarre techniques of investigation, Cooper made his way through a town that was anything but normal in search of the killer.

Twin Peaks gripped the natioin with its oddball characters and engaging mystery. This was one fo the earliest examples of how impatient the country was, anxious about finally discovering the truth behind Laura Palmer’s death.

The answer did not come until about halfway through the second season, at a point where some viewers had abandoned the show in impatient frustration. Turned out Laura was killed by a spirit called Bob, who had possessed her father, Leland Palmer. The reveal of Leland as Killer Bob was one of the most violent things I had seen on TV to that point, and it was artistically amazing.

There had been reports that David Lynch had intended on leaving the mystery of Laura’s death unsolved, and only bowed to pressure from the network to give a resolution to the crime.

After the death of Leland, Twin Peaks floundered a bit before it found its footing once again with the arrival of Cooper’s crazy former FBI partner. The show was left off on a horrible cliffhanger where Cooper had been possessed by Killer Bob.

A third season was released 25 years after the end of season 2. It was released on Showtime where Twin Peaks was originally on ABC. The third season wrapped up that cliffhanger from the end of the original series, but left off on another one in the final episode of the Return.

Dale Cooper was played by Lynch favorite Kyle MacLachlan. Other cast memebers included Sherilyn Fenn, Lara Flynn Boyle, Michael Ontkean, David Lynch, Peggy Lipton, Mädchen Amick, Sheryl Lee, Jack Nance, Frank Silva, Ray Wise, Piper Laurie, James Marshall, Russ Tamblyn, Catherine E. Coulson, Eric DaRe, Ian Buchanan, Miguel Ferrer, Richard Beymer, Chris Mulkey, Dana Ashbrook, Joan Chen, and Michael Horse. There were dozens more cast members over the three total seasons.

Twin Peaks was at the heights of what television could be. It was bizarre, weird, funny and dramatic. The sad story at its core brought people into one of the most iconic shows of all time.

Jay Kelly

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This movie popped up on Netflix recently and I added it my queue. I was able to watch it this morning.

I have never been a huge George Clooney fan, but I can’t say that his presence has ever kept me from watching a movie. I can say that about his co-star Adam Sandler, who has a bunch of movies that I never watched because he was the lead. I went into this with the knowledge that Sandler has had some Oscar buzz about him so I hoped this would be more like Uncut Gems and less like Billy Madison.

According to IMDB, “Famous movie actor Jay Kelly embarks on a journey of self-discovery, confronting his past and present with his devoted manager Ron.”

I really liked this movie. I thought George Clooney did a sensational job of playing this iconic action movie star who was going through an existential crisis, and I was very impressed with the work of Adam Sandler in this film. He still was able to provide some of the best comedic lines without sacrificing character or intelligence.

Director Noah Baumbach provided a sharp satirical look at Hollywood and how the life of a movie star can be a lonely one. A couple of times, Jay Kelly’s daughter said that he was “never alone” but the film does a great job of showing how he absolutely could be, even while surrounded by his entourage. It showed, as well, the lack of understanding Jay Kelly had on his daughter’s lives.

There were some solid supporting appearances in Jay Kelly. Laura Dern, Stacy Keach, Jim Broadbent, Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Riley Keough, and Grace Edwards.

It does feel a touch long, but I don’t know what I would remove. There are scenes that focus in on Adam Sandler and his life and background that really develops his character that I would not remove at all.

Clooney really does make this role feel like it is something that he has lived through. I believed every thought and feeling jay had during the course of the movie. The film had some neat sequences where something was shot in a way that was original. For example, there was a scene with Jay and his daughter where they were on the phone, but the film shot it as if they were walking beside one another.

Jay Kelly was a engaging movie with some really well developed characters. I was very impressed by the film overall.

4 stars

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #8

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#8

M*A*S*H*

Based on the 1970 movie of the same name, M*A*S*H was a comedy/drama series (perhaps one of the earliest examples of a dramedy) based in the Korean War. It ran for 11 seasons on CBS. Pretty impressive for a war that only ran for just over three years. Truthfully, much of the show was based on the Vietnam War, which was still going on when the show started.

M*A*S*H was set at the 4077th M*A*S*H, which stood for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and showed the humor, spirit and dedication of a group of doctors, nurses, coremen who faced death daily and battled while standing in blood. There were moments of complete jocularity, and then deathly serious moments as well. Some times in a matter of minutes.

Led by Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda), the cast of M*A*S*H was amazing. It included Mike Farrell, Wayne Rogers, Larry Linville, Harry Morgan, McClean Stevenson, Loretta Switt, Jamie Farr, Gary Burghoff, William Christopher, and David Ogden Stiers.

Teh first three seasons of M*A*S*H are my least favorite. Don’t get me wrong, these episodes are still very good, but my favorite time of the show was when BJ Hunnicut came to replace Trapper John and Col. Potter replaced Henry Blake. This time frame, while still with Frank Burns, is some of my favorite television ever.

These characters developed and changed over the run of the show. Margaret Houlihan changed the most, going from a one-note antagonist for Hawkeye and Trapper John, to a deep, three-dimensional character that was more than just what she started as.

The series finale was the highest rated shows ever on televison for years. It was entitled “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen.” It showed the final days of the Korean War and the departure for each of the main characters from the 4077th M*A*S*H.

M*A*S*H was one of the most original and brillaint shows on TV. I can sit down today and watch M*A*S*H, enjoying each episode.

Stitch Head

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I had intended on renting and watching Stitch Head, the animated movie in the style of 3D CG animation, during this past weekend’s post-Thanksgiving, Snowpocalypse Weekend, but it kind of got lost in the shuffle. I did not think about Stitch Head until I was filling in the list of films and I saw the character of Stitch Head on the banner. Oops. So I rented it from Fandango at Home and planned on watching it this week.

The time was tonight and I watched the film.

According to IMDB, “Follows Stitch Head, a small creature awoken by a Mad Professor in a castle to protect the professor’s other creations from the townspeople of Grubbers Nubbin.”

My first thought was that this, particularly the character designs, reminded me of the old Rankin/Bass animated shows like Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The colors of Stitch Head also made me think about the old Christmas shows. That was all good things.

The story was cute with the monsters that were being created by the mad Professor were all scared of humans, expecting the angry mob to burst through the door of their castle at any minute. Stitch Head, the first monster created by Professor, was the one who could keep the monsters calm.

When circus ringmaster, Fulbert Freakfinder, came across Stitch Head, he knew that bringing Stitch Head to his circus would make a lot of money. He manipulated Stitch Head to agree to leave the castle and join his circus.

The voice cast was led by Asa Butterfield as Stitch Head. There was also Joel Fry, Tia Bannon, Seth Usdenov, Rob Brydon, Alison Steadman, Fern Brady, Jamali Maddix, Sway Clarke and Paul Tylak.

Stitch Head was simple in a lot of ways. It was weird as a couple of times, the film seemed like it was about to burst into songs, but they ended about as quickly as they started. The animation was great, bringing me back to those old Rankin/Bass shows and it was fun.

Character design was quirky and creative. Yes, there may not have been anything groundbreaking about this animated movie, but it was solid and enjoyable.

3.75 stars

Wildcat

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I was watching a video on YouTube today of the Kristian Harloff Show. This was the day of the week where Roxy Striar appeared. I always enjoy her TV picks for the week so I played it for awhile. They were speaking about a new movie that Roxy was in, which starred Kate Beckinsale, called Wildcat. Looking at the info for the film, I saw it was rentable on Prime.

It was an action movie, directed by James Nunn, who has a reputation for action.

Sadly, the story was fairly convoluted and messy.

Beckinsale played a former black ops operative named Ada. She had a relationship with another operative named Roman (Lewis Tan). Ada wanted to leave the life and settle down, but Roman was not interested.

Several years later, Ada and her daughter Charlotte (Isabelle Moxley) ran into Roman and they had dinner. They were going to remain friends. Later that night, Charlotte was kidnapped because Ada’s brother Edward (Rasmus Hardiker) owed money to mobsters and had spoke about his sister the former black op.

Ada reunited with her former team in an attempt to pull of a heist to get the money to pay off the mobster.

This had some possibilities, storywise, but it felt that these plot points got too lost among the rest of the pieces tossed into the movie.

I hated the character of Edward. He made every scene worse, with the exception of the very final one.

The action was pretty decent, but there was a bit too much gunfire for my taste. I did like the connection between Ada and Roman. They worked well together.

The final was silly. I am not sure what they were doing.

I did love seeing Roxy in the film. She did great in her small role, and I am so happy that she has gotten the opportunity.

This just is not my type of movie.

2.5 stars

2025 Year in Review: YouTube

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YouTube is forever changing, adding, adjusting. There are a ton of shows, reactors, reviews that I have enjoyed watching.

I think it is very interesting since these shows go up and down the list quite a bit. Here are the Top 15 shows on YouTube for me.

#15. Jeremy Johns. Here is one that has been higher up the list in past years. Jeremy reviews movies and I do like his opinions.

#14. The Geek Buddies. This is another example of a show I used to watch much more, but that I haven’t watched much lately. It has to do with the content available.

#13. Dodgers Nation. The Dodgers won the World Series again and so I do like listening to Doug McKain talk about them.

#12. Fatman Beyond. Another one that would have been higher before. I love Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin, but their schedule and show length catches up with me.

#11. Ashleigh Burton. She depends on what she is watching. I have loved watching her react to Buffy TV shows this past year.

#10. The Hot Mike. The entertainment show that breaks stories on movies and TV. John Rocha and Jeff Sneider have a great chemistry with each other.

#9. John Campea. John Campea has been a movie pundit for many years. He talks daily about all the top movie news.

#8. Dan Murrell. Dan is probably my favorite movie reviewer on YouTube right now. Dan’s reviews allowed me to see two of the Top 5 movies from 2024 in 2025.

#7. Settle the Score. I love this competition show, but it has slipped a little because of the amount of time I have to watch it. Matt Knost hosts and Andy Merriweather is the musical director.

#6. Kristian Harloff Show. Kristian, former Schmoe-Knows guy, does a weekly talk show that discusses movies and TV. He has multiple co-hosts during the week including Roxy Striar, John Richa, Winston Marshall, Mike Kalinowski and others.

#5. Untraveled. Jay and Adam traveling through Spain, reacting to what they see. I have to say, this has only had 4 episodes so far and might have been higher up the list had I seen more of the show. They are really funny, and will show up higher up this list.

#4. Reel Rejects. Greg and John started a reaction channel and they will react to movies, TV shows etc. There are multiple Reel Rejects who join in on the reactions (Roxy, Coy, Tara, Aaron, Andrew). They have great conversations after viewing.

#3. pReview’d. Here is the original Jay and Adam channel. They react and review TV and movies. And cry. They are funny and real. This is the place where friends don’t let friends watch movies (or watch tv or watch trailers) alone.

#2. Bonus Action. Last year’s #1, slipped to number two, mainly because this season’s volume is not finished yet. The crew switched from playing D&D to Daggerheart. Despite the new system, the cast is still the best around.

And the #1 show on YouTube….

FYC (For Your Consideration)

Scott Mantz, Perri Nemiroff and Jeff Sneider get together to talk everything Oscars. They predict the nominations. The predict the winners. They discuss reasons behind their thoughts. Above all else, even when they disagree, there is a level of respect between each other that is awesome to watch. I love the intelligence that they show.

Year in Review: Top 5 Movies from 2024 in 2025

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Every year, I watch some movies from the previous year and I do not place them on the Best Movie list at the end of the year. Instead, I usually do a list here. A lot of times, I would see these films in January or February as they were Oscar contenders that had been released in limited release in November or December.

Of course, the last few years, there has also been the June Swoon where I watch 30 different films daily from the year before.

So this is always the first post of the Year in Review. It is the Top 5 movies from 2024 that I saw in 2025.

#5. Better Man.

The biopic of British pop sensation Robbie Williams and the story of his personal struggles and his eventual comeback. Of course, this film portrayed Williams as a singing monkey. I knew nothing about this performer, but it was very strong and powerful of a film.

#4. Flow. The animated movie that wound up winning the Academy Award for best animated movie. The dialogue free film tells the story of a flood and a group of animals, led by a black cat, in their attempts to survive the natural disaster.

#3. Ghostlight.

A beautiful story of life and loss and finding a way to go on after tragedy.  It starred Keith Kupferer as a middle-aged construction worker who unexpectedly joined a local theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet. The film dealt with depression after a painful death. Ghostlight was an unexpected film that I heard about thanks to YouTube film critic Dan Murrell.

#2. Hundreds of Beavers. This is another film that I had only heard about thanks to Dan Murrell. It is an absurdist comedy with plenty of slapstick. It was one of the weirdest films that I saw this year.

#1. September 5

The first film I watched in this past summer’s June Swoon was September 5. This told the true story of the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis and the coverage from ABC Sports. The drama of this film was done extremely well. This was a film that I was excited to see and I would have seen in the theater had it ever came around here. It is a powerful story.

Eleanor the Great

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As we have the second film of the 2025 post-Thanksgiving, Snowpocalypse Weekend, there is actually snow on the ground. It has been snowing all morning though it does feel as if it is not as much as was forecast.

Still, nowhere to go this afternoon so I rented Eleanor the Great off Fandango At Home (aka Vudu) starring June Squibb.

After the death of her friend and longtime roommate, 94-year old Eleanor Morgenstein (June Squibb) was lonely and grieving. By fate, she wound up in a support group for Holocaust survivors. Not sure what to do, but craving the human attention, Eleanor, not a Holocaust survivor, began telling the stories of her recently passed roommate, who did survive, as her own. From these tales, she met a bright young journalism student, Nina (Erin Kellyman), who had suffered her own recent loss.

This was the feature directorial debut by Scarlett Johansson, and she did a fine job with a story that placed the delightful June Squibb front and center. I am not sure there is a more impressive actress working today than the nonagenarian. She brought an energy to the film that would not have been there without her.

The story was good, but Squibb elevated it into a much higher level. It was a typical “lies get revealed” type story, but Squibb made this more than just a typical tale. You could feel her passion for the film in every moment she was on screen.

The relationship between Eleanor and Nina was another positive of the movie. They had a bond that you could feel on screen. When Nina discovered that Eleanor was not what she had represented herself as, the pain and betrayal cut deep.

It may have wrapped up too neatly in the end, but it did give us an ending that provided hope for the future of the characters.

3.5 stars

Zootopia 2

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Zootopia was a giant surprise hit in 2016 when it broke one billion dollars worldwide. With that much box office success, one would wonder why it took nearly ten years to have a sequel.

Zootopia 2 is an excellent new animated movie that does a great job of providing a new story and continuing the awesome partnership between Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde.

According to IMDB, “Brave rabbit cop Judy Hopps and her friend, the fox Nick Wilde, team up again to crack a new case, the most perilous and intricate of their careers.“

Ginnifer Godwin and Jason Bateman are the voices of Judy and Nick respectfully. They do a fantastic job with these characters and their voice work is part of the reason this pair is so good together. They are also written well as any friendship you’ll find in the movies.

There is a great voice cast along with Godwin and Bateman. This included Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, Dasvid Strathairn, Idris Elba, Shakira, Patrick Warburton, Danny Trejo, Quinta Brunson, and Bonnie Hunt. In a fun bit of casting, the Zebros were voiced by pro wrestlers, Joe Anoa’i (aka Roman Reigns) and Phil Brooks (aka C.M. Punk).

I liked the story of the film as well. It was nicely developed without succumbing to the sequel-itis where the sequel tried to do way too much, cramming it in. However, this felt very well constructed and worked well. I was worried at first that there would be too much here and make the story feel convoluted, but it came together nicely as it progressed.

The character design is amazing, and the creativity is off the charts. The animation looked fantastic and you could tell that they were having a lot of fun with the film as it translated to the screen.

It had real emotion and some wonderful character moments. It was also hilarious and filled with some great animated action. It was worth the wait to see a sequel.

4.2 stars

After the Hunt

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The film, After the Hunt was a film that I missed out on while it was in the theaters earlier this year, but with it coming available on Amazon Prime, I was able to watch it this weekend. I have to say that I found this to be extremely disappointing and mostly a mess.

According to IMZDB, “A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil levels an accusation against one of her colleagues and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light.”

Thing is, this synopsis from IMDB is much more concise than this film is. I’m not sure what the overall story as meant to be, and it felt as if these characters were jumping back and forth in so many different manners that it muddied the waters of the narrative.

There are great actors in the film. Julia Roberts,  Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny all had important roles in the film and they all can really act. There just was too much chaos in the script to allow any of them to elevate the material. Certainly, Julia Roberts had the strongest performance, but there was just so much going on that was needlessly convoluted that it sapped any semblance of her performance.

The score was constantly in the way. I have never been as distracted by the music in a movie as I was with this movie. The score was nonsensical at times and really caused disruptions.

The narrative was scattered around and did not have a comprehensive idea of where it wanted to go. This was compounded by the different characters and what they brought to the story. Some things were brought in for reasons that I am not sure have a purpose.

I found this to be overly long, messy, and wasteful of some strong performances. After the Hunt never really knew what it wanted to be, and that is hat it became.

2 stars

Sisu: Road to Revenge

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A few years back there was a film featuring a Finnish protagonist who had become a legend by his brutality and his survival. Dubbed the “Man who refuses to die,” Aatami Korpi stomped through Nazis, killing everyone in his path.

Aatami Korpi (played by Jorma Tommila) is back after the war and he returned to his home in Finland, which had been annexed by the Soviet Union in the peace treaty, to the home where his wife and two sons were murdered.

Korpi dismantled his house, taking the lumber from it to leave the now Soviet Union so he could rebuild the house again. Unfortunately, the man who killed his family, Yeagor Dragunov, played by Stephen Lang, was hired to go and kill the legend, once and for all.

The story was really simple, and Jorma Tommila does not have one line of dialogue, but he did a nice job with his body posture and his facial expressions (that is, when we could see the facial expressions through the crimson mask that covered his face at multiple times in the film) to express the pain and anguish he was going through.

Korpi is beat all the crap in the film, to the point where it is amazing that he could possibly still be functioning, much less alive.

I have to say that while I did enjoy a lot of the excessive violence that was going on in the film, it got to a point where it may have been too much. It was difficult to accept that he was still alive after so much without any sort of magical/mystical abilites.

Some of the things he does is also too cartoonish. Some of the things had me rolling my eyes or trying to decide exactly why he did that. There was one scene with a tank that truly showed this concept.

Because of the violence becoming too out there, I felt like the movie took a step back from the previous one. I do not remember the last Sisu movie being this over-the-top, Looney Tunes type violence and this just was more than I wanted.

It was still a fun revenge flick, but, interestingly enough, Korpi wasn’t in search of revenge. Had the Soviets not sent Dragunov after him, he would have just left the Soviet Union and built his new home. I am not even sure Korpi knew that Dragunov was the man who killed his family until he started bragging about it.

A solid revenge flick that does takes things too far for my tastes, Sisu: Road to Revenge is a decent afternoon watch, it is paced quickly and has some good humorous kills. Lots of blood too.

3.4 stars

The Running Man (2025)

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Edgar Wright’s new adaptation of the Stephen King book came out this weekend. It should be mentioned to everyone that this is not a reboot or remake of the movie from 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Dawson, but a closer adaptation of the novel, because if you go into the new The Running Man film thinking it is going to be like that, you might be disappointed.

Ben Richards (Glen Powell) has lost his job and his young daughter is extremely sick. In order to try and get enough money for his family to get her needed health care, Richards applied for some of the game shows on the network. The game shows were violent and dangerous, but could help provide enough money to save his daughter.

However, Ben’s anger over his situation shone through the audition process and led the network head, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), to offer Ben a spot as one of the three runners on the final hunt for the game show The Running Man. A group of Hunters would try to find the runners and kill them, but if they could survive for 30 days, the runner could win a billion dollars.

Of course, the network and Killian were not going to play fair and were as corrupt as you would expect, and things turned badly for Ben.

The best part of the movie was Glen Powell. He showed himself as a capable and engaging action star. He showed how much of a good man he was at first, despite his internal anger, and the contest showed how those morals could be warped. Brolin was tremendous in lesser amount of screen time. You could quite figuratively feel the slime coming off of this character.

The action was really well done and thrilling. Powell is easy to root for and his efforts to survive got tougher with each moment.

The film did feel like it was too long. Some of the middle part of the film could have been trimmed down. I would say that they could have dropped around 15-20 minutes of run time and made this feel more streamlined. I also am not sure if the third act was as good as it could have been, because the first part of the movie absolutely rocked.

I feel like this was very entertaining, but I think it does not quite reach the level of epic. It absolutely could have been more than it was, but I do think that it was an exciting action film at the very least.

3.7 stars