I did not have a review of this movie on EYG, but I know I saw the opening of The Other Guys with Samuel L. Jackson and The Rock. I did not remember anything else about this movie, so it is quite possible that as soon as Jackson and Johnson were done, I stopped watching.
I have never been a huge Will Farrell fan, but I have liked a few of the films he has been in and there has always had great word of mouth.
Sadly, there was just too much garbage in this film for me to enjoy it.
According to IMDB, “Two mismatched New York City detectives seize an opportunity to step up like the city’s top cops, whom they idolize, only things don’t quite go as planned.”
There were some funny bits, but there was so much ridiculousness in here that I just could not get into the story. I did not like either character that was the lead. Mark Wahlberg was nothing more than a yelling and screaming jerk who I had a lot of difficulty getting behind. Will Farrell’s cop was a little different at least, but he also found his moments to be cruel, specifically to his wife, played by Eva Mendes.
I do not know why when we have comedy movies about police detectives, the secondary partners are always gigantic assholes? I know that is about all Rob Riggle can play, as I swear every time I see him in a movie, he is playing the same character. His partner was Damon Wayans Jr. and he was at least not quite as obnoxious.
Why would Michael Keaton take the role as the police chief who is constantly coming down on our lead characters? I do not think you could get more cliche than that.
Why do so many people believe that comedy in this type of film substituted by stupidity in characters is the way to go?
I did enjoy the work of Steve Coogan, but there was nowhere near enough with him. I am also not 100% sure what his character was doing. It was very convoluted and messy.
I had hoped that this would be better than I thought it would be, but unfortunately, it was not. I should have turned it off again after Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson were done. That was the highlight of the night.
So here we are. The Year in Review arrived at the Best Movies of the Year. Again, just like the Worst list, this is my opinion. These are my Favorite films of 2025. If you disagree, that is okay. I respect your right to disagree.
We are doing a Top 30. Again, the star ratings that I give to each movie review is not what determines the final spot on this list. They help me choose the possible movies to make the list. Movies can become better or less so over time. It is just the nature of the beast.
Starting off with Honorable Mentions: The Ballad of Wallis Island, Kiss of the Spider-Woman, The Monkey, Phoenician Scheme, Black Bag, Caught Stealing, Good Boy, It Was Just An Accident, Nuremburg and The Roses.
#30. Wicked: For Good. I did not like this as much as last year’s film, but Wicked: For Good was still an enjoyable experience and had some outstanding performances, some good music, and a great story.
#29. Bugonia. One of the weirdest movies of the year. Emma Stone was great and the ending was so crazy that it really made the film special.
#28. Roofman. Channing Tatum does a tremendous job in this film about a man who has escaped from prison and decided to hide out in a Toys ‘R Us. This is a great story and an engaging script.
#27. Predator: Badlands. The Predator franchise has been hot lately, and Predator: Badlands is part of that fire. Placing a Predator in the protagonist role and giving him a sidekick of Elle Fanning worked really well. It was a lot of fun.
#26. Frankenstein. Guillermo Del Toro directed this stylish version of the classic story and dropped it on Netflix. Del Toro brought his indelible skills to this version.
#25. Marty Supreme. This was a strange film, as our protagonist was one of the most unlikable characters in the film. A strong performance by Timothée Chalamet took that complicated character and embraced the a-hole of it all.
#24. F1: The Movie. A great film with Brad Pitt that you really should see on the biggest screen you can. The story of Formula One racing was exciting and dramatic.
#23. Last Breath. A true story that tells the story of deep sea divers who have to go back to the depths to rescue a colleague who was lost in the waters. So exciting and intense.
#22. A House of Dynamite. Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film looks at a potential nuclear assault from multiple points of view. This is an excellent film with some real intensity and great performances.
#21. Naked Gun. Liam Neeson replaced Leslie Nielson in the Naked Gun franchise, as Frank Drebin Jr. , the son of Nielson’s character. The new Naked Gun was very funny and succeeded in following in the legacy of the previous versions.
#20. K-Pop Demon Hunters. This Netflix flick is one that I never would have expected to appear on this list. However, the film was exciting, was filled with awesome music, and animation that was exceptional. One of the most relevant films of th eyear.
#19. Final Destination: Bloodlines. Another that I would not have guessed would be on this list, but it was just a really great movie. The deaths were original and creative, the story was more than you would have thought and you did not know how it was going to go.
#18. Companion. A great film about an android who was built for human companionship, but finds herself in control of her life for the first time. This was a thrilling story.
#17. Dangerous Animals. A shark movie that succeeded in making the sharks NOT the villains. Jai Courtney does a great job as a serial killer who uses sharks to kill his victims. Dangerous Animals was an unexpected thrill of a movie.
#16. Captain America: Brave New World. There are a lot of people who hated this one. That is fine. I thought it was a very solid film. I loved the Red Hulk and I thought Harrison Ford was excellent. Could it have been better? Sure. I enjoyed it anyway.
#15. Zootopia 2. This sequel was funny, had great dialogue and some exceptional voice work. It is one of the most successful films of the year. It is a certified hit for Disney.
#14. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Spinal Tap reformed once again to play one final concert. The mockumentary followed the story of the reunion. This turned out to be Rob Reiner’s final film. This was full of music and the finale with Stonehenge was unforgettable.
#13. Strange Harvest. Another mockumentary, this time focused on a true crime type story. Two police officers look into a decades long case of serial killer “Mr. Shiny.” This was so excellent that I had a hard time thinking of it as fictional.
#12. Life of Chuck. One of my five star rated films of the year, Life of Chuck included three different arcs of the life of Chuck. There is a dance routine from Tom Hiddleston that was sensational.
#11. The Lost Bus. This Apple TV film with Matthew McConaughey was as intense as any film this year. Watching that bus drive through the burning fires was something that I will not forget.
#10. The Long Walk. This Stephen King adaptation was a tough watch. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The story could have been weak, but the characters were so developed and the dialogue was spectacular. There was a great performance from Mark Hamill too. A difficult watch, but highly engaging.
#9. Sinners. One of the best movies of the year. Directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan in a dual role, Sinners was one of the most original films you are going to see. Vampires. Music. Brutality. Just a fantastic film.
#8. Superman. The first main film of the DCU flew into theaters this past summer and it was just what Superman needed. James Gunn brought the humor, the action, the characters and a great start for Superman.
#7. Weapons. Such a fantastic film. A whole group of children disappear, causing the town to lose their minds. This is another movie that played with POV and it does it wonderfully. Great performances from Amy Madigan, Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich and Benedict Wong.
#6. Song Sung Blue. An emotional film detailing the life and career of Lightning and Thunder, a Neil Diamond tribute band. This was filled with amazing music and two top line performances from Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson.
#5. How to Train Your Dragon. The live-action version of the classic animated movie was done brilliantly. I loved what they did with the film. They kept most of the film the same, but what they did differently worked so well. I loved this movie.
#4. Thunderbolts*. A remarkable movie from Marvel Studios. The group of b-level characters came together with humor, emotion and excitement. We met Bob (aka Sentry) and his other side (The Void). This film was about the power of acceptance, and friendship and connection overcoming depression and self-doubt. Then, we learn that they are the New Avengers. This movie deserved so much better than it got at the box office.
#3. Sketch. The biggest surprise of the year, Sketch was an entertaining film that dealt with trouble kids and their sadness. It also has a magical lake that brings things to life… including the drawings of monsters done by our main character. The film was funny, engaging, and just sweeter than you could ever guess.
#2. Fantastic Four: First Steps. We finally got a FF movie worth our time. The film felt like a family. Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny have to take on Galactus, in order to save both their world and their son, Franklin. This was more than just a super hero movie. It felt like a fantastic sci-fi movie. The scenes in space are some of the best of the year. A brilliant cast and some fantastic writing.
#1. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. I thought FF was going to be #1 this year. Then, I saw the new Knives Out film and it was so sensational. The story was so exceptional, with twists and turns unlike any movie before it. I thought I had the story figured out… and then I didn’t. That happened a couple of times. Greta performances from Josh O’ Connell, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, Thomas Hayden Church, Mia Kunis, Kerry Washington and, of course, Benoit Blanc himself, Daniel Craig. I was so enthused when I saw it on Netflix, I thought of Matilda the Musical. (What?) When I saw that movie late in the year, I debated about having it the #1 film of the year, btu I decided to leave Wakanda Forever in that spot. After posting the winner, I regretted it. I wish I had put Matilda the Musical at #1. This is the same situation, a film late in the year that was so great that I wanted to bump a Marvel movie out of the number one spot. I went ahead and did it. It deserves it.
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.
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.
So there was probably few major blockbusters this year that I was looking forward to less than Tron: Ares. I was not a fan of either of the previous films, Tron and Tron: Legacy, though, to be fair, I would be hard pressed to tell you much of anything about those previous movies because it has been a long time since I watched them. I did walk into the movie with as open of a mind as I could, but I was not anticipating it.
I disliked this movie a lot.
There were two things that I thought were really great. First, the soundtrack/score of the film, done by Nine Inch Nails, was sensational and worked so well for the world of this movie. I had questioned the choice of Nine Inch Nails, but they absolutely ruled here.
The second thing that I can say positively about Tron: Ares is the visual effects are amazing. It looks great, although perhaps there were some scenes when the visual effects were too much because it overpowered what was happening in the scene. For the most part, the action with these effects were top notch.
That is where I draw the line for my positives.
The story of the movie was so basic that it was as if it weren’t even there. Jared Leto was fine, but he did not have to do anything really challenging. The rest of the actors felt as if they were not necessary. So many of the other actors had virtually nothing to do, including Greta Lee and Even Peters, who I usually love. Peters, especially, felt like nothing more than a one note villain that could have been so much more.
There were nothing that really tied this movie to anything that happened in previous films, outside of a forced cameo from Jeff Bridges. That is fine, but it felt as if it went out of the way to avoid the previous films.
I was bored for much of the film and, if I did not have the score to entertain me, I may have fallen asleep. There were no characters worth my time and the story was nothing more than searching for the latest MacGuffin.
I was anxious for this movie to get over with for much of the two hour run time. I did not enjoy my time in the theater with Tron: Ares.
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.
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.
The second film of the June Swoon today was one I rented off Fandango at Home and I rented it because they had Bill Murray on the cover and had a decent Rotten Tomatoes score. We are under ten days now left in the June Swoon and the 2025 movies have been tough to find to watch.
According to IMDB, “Novelist and creative writing teacher Iris (Naomi Watts) finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Bill Murray) commits suicide and bequeaths his beloved Great Dane to her. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones, his looming presence constantly reminding her of her friend’s choice to take his own life. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding to the animal, she begins to come to terms with her past, her lost friend, and her own creative inner life.“
I had no idea what this movie was about. I did not know that this was going to be a story about a girl and her dog. I’ve never been a big fan of dog movies that try to tug on the heartstrings. However, this added more to the story than just the dog. The story of Walter (Bill Murray) having committed suicide and how that affected the people around him was very interesting for me.
Naomi Watts is always great. There could have been more Bill Murray for my tastes, but I understand why that is the case with the story.
I am not a dog person, but this was a nice film. I liked the balance between the guilt and sadness of one aspect of the story and the bonding between a very charismatic dog and a human.
So I did a second Shudder movie this morning for the June Swoon. It seemed like a good double feature with In a Violent Nature, and the fact that I am going to 28 Years Later this afternoon. The Surrender fit nicely into the schedule.
According to IMDB, “When the family patriarch dies, a grieving mother and daughter risk their lives to perform a brutal resurrection ritual and bring him back from the dead.“
Colby Minifie (who plays Ashley on The Boys) starred as Megan, whose mother Barbara (Kate Burton) was helping her ailing husband Robert (Vaughn Armstrong). Robert was stricken with cancer and was in terrible shape, in pain and agony.
Colby Minifie and Kate Burton did a tremendous job together in this film, which was, at times, very difficult to watch. Their performances stood out among the best parts of the film.
In fact, I would say the first two acts of this movie were excellent. There was deep issues between the mother and daughter and the grief over what was happening to Robert, as well as his ultimate fate, were creating high levels of stress and anxiety.
However, the third act of this movie really went off the rails. The first two acts dealt with the difficulty of caring for a loved one who was desperately sick and dying and another act handled the relationship between the family members. However, it is when the supernatural things start to happen that the film ceases to work. The character development that was alive in the first two acts of the film really take a back seat to the body horror or scary circumstances that are nowhere near as intense.
With the arrival of The Man (Neil Sandilands), the film still is working because of the uncertainty and the mysterious nature of everything that he is doing with the grieving wife and daughter. After that, things just get weird and there are no explanations for what happened or why things went as they did.
This started strong but ended with a very disappointing result. I still was impressed with Colby Minifie and Kate Burton and their work in their roles. I just wish they would have been given something better to wrap the story up with.
The second June Swoon film of the day is one that had quite a tragic lead up until release. There was an accidental shooting with a gun with blanks that led to the death of the cinematographer of the film that caused a ton of negative press and a controversy in the political world. After charges were dropped against star Alec Baldwin, the decision was made to finish the film for release.
According to IMDB, “An orphaned boy of 13 left to fend for himself and his younger brother in 1880s Wyoming is sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher. His estranged grandfather breaks him out of jail and they go on the run to Mexico.”
Ignoring the backstage drama and tragedy that engulfed the movie prior to its release, I thought Rust was a pretty decent Western. Starring Alec Baldwin as Harlan Rust and Patrick Scott McDermott as Harlan’s grandson Lucas, Rust was beautifully shot and featured some solid performances from the cast.
Alec Baldwin and Patrick Scott McDermott had a nice pairing, working very well with one another. The strength of the grandfather/grandson relationship was at the heart of this film. Harlan was a notorious criminal and killer across the Western parts of the United States during the 1880s. He arrived to save Lucas from being hanged for the accidental shooting of a man.
Lucas did not know who Harlan was and their slow development of their relationship was well done and well acted. Throw in the constant pressures and dangers of being pursued by bounty hunters and the law and Harlan and Lucas had to face plenty of obstacles.
In the genre of the Western, Rust is not going to provide anything new and special, but had everything that a Western should have.
The imagery of the Old West looked spectacular in the film and the landscapes of the time were portrayed beautifully by the filmmakers.
Over all I thought this was a decent film. It took some time to set up and would be considered a slow burn, but I was never bored and I did enjoy the central relationship at Rust’s core.
The film for today on the June Swoon is film I saw on Fandango called My Dead Friend Zoe. It was a film that I had never heard of before, but the timing fit for today so I gave it a chance.
The film deals with grief, loss, PTSD and the military as well as the challenges of a family dynamic between people who struggle to relate.
According to IMDB, “MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE is a dark comedy drama that follows the journey of Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran who is at odds with her family thanks to the presence of Zoe (Natalie Morales), her dead best friend from the Army. Despite the persistence of her VA group counselor (Morgan Freeman), the tough love of her mother (Gloria Reuben) and the levity of an unexpected love interest, Merit’s cozy-dysfunctional friendship with Zoe keeps the duo insulated from the world. That is until Merit’s estranged grandfather (Ed Harris) — holed up at the family’s ancestral lake house — begins to lose his way and needs the one thing he refuses… help. At its core, this is a buddy film about a complicated friendship, a divided family, and the complex ways in which we process grief.“
This is a very deep character study about life after loss and how individuals need help getting through the pain of life and loss. There is a bit of a twist at the end of the movie that recontextualizes the idea of the story, but the fact is that it is still dealing with the loss of an important person in your life.
There are strong performances in the film, especially that of Sonequa Martin-Green and Ed Harris. Two veterans, both with their own pain from loss, trying to get through their lives. Morgan Freeman is always a great addition to a cast, even if he may not have as much to do in this one.
My Dead Friend Zoe may be a touch long, but the character study of Merit, in particular, is full of important little steps and that is a realistic tale. This was based on a true story and it was a very powerful film that lets you think about other people in a different light.
When I saw this for rent on Vudu, I expected it to be another film in the same vein as Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. It had two movies and both were in the top 5 worst movies of their respective years. Taking the Steamboat Willie cartoon from public domain felt like the same kind of sad and pathetic attempt.
Make no mistake, this is a terrible movie….
But…
I don’t know… I guess I came in with the expectations of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, but Screamboat was better than that. It’s not good. Just better than Blood and Honey.
According to IMDB, “A seemingly routine late-night ferry ride in New York City descends into chaos when an ordinary mouse undergoes a terrifying transformation. This mutated creature unleashes a reign of terror upon the unsuspecting passengers, forcing them to fight for their survival. As the body count rises, the remaining survivors must band together to find a way to escape the deadly vessel and confront the monstrous threat“
The piece that felt better than Blood and Honey was this had a satiric side to it. The Steamboat Willie character itself had some funny parts. He would whistle just before killing his victim, much like Mickey would in the original Steamboat Willie animated movie. I kind of liked the backstory of Steamboat Willie, involving the man known as Walt. Some of the kills were sufficiently gross. There were a couple of characters that I wanted to survive the trip on the ferry.
What was bad about the film? Oh, let’s see… the acting, the dialogue was horrendous. Most of these characters were one-dimensional and there were these “bad girls” that I really wanted to get killed by the mouse. I was cheering for Willie when they did. The characters did some really stupid things and made some really stupid choices. Plenty of the choices made no sense. Of course, stupid characters are not uncommon for some horror films, especially the slasher ones. A couple of the deaths of our main characters felt underwhelming.
If I am being honest, there are some funny moments in the movie and they actually felt like they were intended it to be funny. There was one line of dialogue that made me laugh out loud. One character fired a flare gun at Willie and said “Say cheese, mother f@#$%.” I thought that was exceptionally funny.
This is nowhere as bad as either of the two Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey movies and if you want a stupid movie to watch that has some dumb laughs and a murderous version of Mickey Mouse, you could do worse than this movie. Just know what kind of movie this is and do not expect much, and you might even have a passable time.
I have been a fan of shark movies. Sadly, most of them are terrible. There are some exceptions. So when I spotted Into the Deep on Disney +, I thought this would be a good option for the June Swoon 4: Two A Day.
It gave me hope when I saw that Richard Dreyfuss was among the cast of this movie. Dreyfuss starred in the greatest shark movie of all time (heck, one of the greatest movies of all time) Jaws. How could we go wrong?
We could go wrong in so many ways.
Into the Deep was horrible. Just a waste of an hour and a half. After the first five minutes, I had an idea of what kind of movie this was going to be.
According to IMDB, “Pirates on the hunt for sunken drugs kidnap a boat of tourists and force them to dive into shark infested waters to retrieve the contraband.”
That sounds exciting. That was not the basis behind this story. I mean, it was there, but the execution of that storyline was so inept that it was laughable.
The acting was just bad. The dialogue was unnatural. It made no sense. The story was so coincidental and haphazard that it could not be believed. None of the characters felt like real people.
The shark attacks looked ridiculous. It looked like a shark just shaking a hunk of bloody meat. The images of the sharks in the water were impressive as they just swam around. Other than that, there just was not much of anything.
The overall production of the movie felt cheap. The sound was terrible. With the exception of the beauty of the water shots, there was not much to make this stand out among shark films, let alone other movies.
There are so many better movies on Disney +. Take your time and watch those. This was terrible in every way.
Well, there is one on Hulu right now starring Stranger Things star Sadie Sink. It is called O’Dessa and it is something. I feel as if I should sit with this one awhile.
Sadie Sink played the titular character O’Dessa Galloway, a young farm girl who takes her father’s guitar and set off to become a rambler, a traveling musician, like her father. Along the way, she met Euri Dervish (Kelvin Harrison Jr) and she fell in love with him. O’Dessa must overcome series of obstacles in the way of their love to play one song for the world.
There are things that this movie does extremely well and things that it does poorly. It is definitely a mixed bag for me. Starting with the positives, Sadie Sink is absolutely the star of this movie and she showed that she has a bright career after her days in Hawkins, Indiana come to a close. She has amazing charisma and displays a lot of talent, elevating the movie above what the script gives her.
That script is one of the weaknesses of the film as there is not much there below the surface area of plot and character development.
As I mentioned in my recent review of Disney’s Snow White remake, the music in O’Dessa is entertaining and, in the moment, I enjoyed it, but I am not sure that I will remember any of the songs and it did not inspire me to go buy it on Apple Music. So that is a push. I enjoyed listening to the music during the film, but it does not occupy a place in my head as great musicals would.
The post-apocalyptic world is an interesting mishmash of styles and imagery. Some areas felt like the world of “Fallout” while others feature technology and neon energy such as Blade Runner. It felt as if there should have been one or the other.
Regina Hall and Murray Bartlett appear as a couple of villainous characters that do not have much more than the villainy that they commit. Both are outstanding actors that bring more to their roles than what was on the page. The ending segment with Sadie Sink and Murray Bartlett was engaging and thrilling even if there was not a ton of depth to the characters. I truly believe that this is because of the skill of these actors.
Overall, I would give O’Dessa a slight positive as the best parts outweighed the weaknesses and the music is passable enough for an under two hour film. I do not think this will be a cult favorite though which is what it should have strived for.
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.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 