Tag Archives: movies

Pizza Movie

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Easter Stream Binge #4

One of the types of movies that I typically do not hate are the stoner movies. Especially those that include a lot of bullying and stupid humor.

As I started to watch Disney +’s movie, Pizza Movie, after the first ten minutes, everything that I hate about those movies were dropped. I was hating this movie with all of my heart. I considered just stopping the movie. I did not know why I should continue this movie when it was making me feel this way. It’s not as if I paid money at the theater to see it.

Then something really weird happened.

The movie won me over.

I am not sure what happened, but the complete ridiculousness of the movie grabbed ahold of me and suddenly I found myself enjoying the stupidity, laughing at the antics of the three main leads.

Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone played Jack and Montgomery, roommates at college who were anything but the alphas. Matarazzo and Giambrone had a lot of chemistry with each other and their comedic timing was perfectly executed. Bullied and beat up, Jack and Montgomery wound up taking some experimental drugs they found in their dorm room that led them to going through multiple stages.

It was when they started in on these stages that the movie changed for me. Everything became so surreal and so weird that it was difficult to continue to see it as just another bad behavior/stoner movie. It took these two and made them way more interesting than they ever had a right to be.

I am not sure that I have had such a monumental shift in my opinions of a movie, especially from hating it as much as I did in the first ten-fifteen minutes to being entertained by the silliness of it.

3.75 stars

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

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I went to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie today in a packed Phoenix Theater in Dubuque. As I was leaving, I was very disappointed and not entertained, but the kids around me leaving were bouncing with energy, bantering about their favorite parts and were just filled with an excitement that you could feel.

I wish I shared that same kind of feeling.

I was bored through most of this movie. I did not find anything to the story and I am not a big fan of Nintendo or Super Mario to be interested in the characters that were appearing on the screen.

According to IMDB, “Mario ventures into space, exploring cosmic worlds and tackling galactic challenges far from the familiar Mushroom Kingdom.”

The animation was sensational. The colors popped off the screen and every moment looked fantastic. The color and the imagery was another reason why kids are going to love this movie.

The voice acting was fine. Jack Black as Bowzer is great as always. Chris Pratt as Mario is fine, but not that memorable. Other voice actors included Glenn Powell, Brie Larson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Benny Safdie, Keegan-Michael Key, Charlie Day, Donald Glover, Kevin Michael Richardson, Issa Rae, and Luis Guzman.

The problem was, for me, the story was lacking. I did not find anything happening that was engaging. It felt more like a bunch of random adventures with music playing over top. It was not a competent, overarching story that worked. It had some definite strengths to the movie, but the over loaded characters did not feel as if they were given any time to develop.

BUt as I said, the kids of my theater loved what they got. So, my thoughts on this movie are coming from an adult purpose, and I am not a fan. I prefer that the animated film worked for both kids and adults, but I struggled to get through the 90 + minutes of the film.

It is going to make all the money though. I liked the first one much more than this one.

2.4 stars

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S2 E6

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Spoilers

“Requiem”

I guess Skull Island is taking place at Jurassic Park now.

What was that opening scene meant to convey? It was a huge nothing. I guess there had not been many scenes between Kentaro and Hiroshi so the writers felt they needed something to show the audience. Or maybe they needed to throw a Kong cameo in to justify the name.

I don’t know how much more of this show I can take.

I did like how Kentaro ripped into Cate with her ridiculousness. The Cate character does the same thing every episode and it feels like they could just take her dialogue and copy it every scene.

What has been true about this show since day one is that the flashbacks are heads and shoulders above the present day material. That remains to be true. We follow Shaw in his reassignment and we come to meet his father. It didn’t make me feel much better when his father asked him why he was here, and he said was it a fight or fornication. Fornication? Who uses that word in their daily dialogue?

It was interesting to see how Lee’s flashback to his father was similar to the way Lee was thinking in the present. It is meant to show that Lee is not thinking clearly, but if he is on the opposite side of Cate then I am all down with it.

The Godzilla cameo in Kentaro’s dream was ridiculous. It was not as superficial as the Kong cameo, but it wasn’t much above it.

Then, as Lee was attempting to see if it was possible to open a rift to summon Godzilla to fight Titan X, something wonky happened and present day Lee started talking to young Lee on the walkie talkie.

Has the show added a time travel element to it? That ending was an interesting tidbit that maybe becomes something to help the show out. I have found this to be quite the sludge to get through each week, and I hope that the second half of the season would bring more to intrigue me than what it has done before.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

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The original Ready or Not from 2019 was a surprise smash hit featuring a star making turn from Samara Weaving. However, it did not feel like a film that required a sequel. Still, in Hollywood, a successful film, especially a new and original IP, will most likely lead to a new installment. So we get Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.

Ignoring the stupid use of the number 2 in the title (it should only be Ready or Not: Here I Come), this new sequel is a solid continuation on a story which both built on the first film and provided new ground for the sequel.

According to IMDB, “After surviving one deadly game, Grace and her sister Faith must now outrun four rival families competing for a powerful throne – winner takes all.”

The sequel is every bit as gruesome and bloody as the original, with people exploding into pools of blood and sinew all over the place, usually when they are facing Grace and Faith, so the splatter does not miss them.

This film added some star power to the hunters chasing Grace and Faith, including Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar. The Pitt’s Jack Abbot, Shawn Hatosy is here as Gellar’s character’s brother. Elijah Wood played the lawyer behind the competition for the seat on the council that the hunters were competing for. LOST’s Richard, Nestor Carbonell, is another of the hunters, who turns out to be a piss-poor shot.

Once again, this is a group of Satan worshipers, so if that is something that you do not like in your movies, this one is built around it even more than the original. It can be jarring hearing Elijah Wood say “Hail Satan” several times. Of course, Satan worshipers make for excellent villains.

There is a lot of comedy in the gorefest too, and much of it worked. There were some ridiculous characters among the hunters’ families there for support and backup during the game.

The relationship between Grace and Faith had to work for this film to work, and I will say that it was shaky at times. I only heard about their estrangement, not being shown it, but they did win me over as the film went along. Both Weaving and Kathryn Newton do a great job with their performances, though there are a couple of times in the film that made me feel a little icky about what was going on.

Grace takes a real beating in this film and, like so many other action heroes, she shrugs wounds off as she goes. There needs to be some suspension of disbelief that Grace (and also Faith, to a lesser extent) can keep going despite all the stuff that has happened to her (them). Of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and other action heroes who are men would push on too, so why couldn’t Samara Weaving?

It is a strong follow up to the original. I do not think it is as good as the first one, but it does not fall into the garbage as many sequels do. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is a fun time at the theater for fans of horror and good action.

4.2 stars

Project Hail Mary

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I have been looking forward to Project Hail Mary for quite a while. I have heard so many good things about it, and I find Ryan Gosling to be extremely entertaining and a top level actor that it only served to increase my anticipation. I booked my tickets to the IMAX theater at Cinemark and went this morning.

People are right. It is fabulous.

According to IMDB, “Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spaceship light-years from Earth. As his memory returns, he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious substance killing the sun, and save Earth. An unexpected friendship may be the key.”

The film is utterly gorgeous. It looks unbelievable and the special effects are jaw dropping. There is no doubt that Project Hail Mary is an early Oscar contender for the Best Visual Effects Award. I completely recommend seeing it in IMAX too. The bigger the better.

But the visuals are not the only awesome aspect of the film. Ryan Gosling was spectacular as Ryland Grace. He carried this film with every moment that he was on screen, which was practically the entire thing. We saw both the present and the past with this character and he provided us with an amazingly emotional ride right off into space.

I was surprised how funny this movie was. There was a wonderful use of humor and most everything really hit, comedically. Gosling has great comedic timing and he uses the quips and the moments to truly inform the character. I sure hope the Golden Globes do not put this in the Comedy category like they did with The Martian.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed the film and their brand of sly humor came through brilliantly. Drew Goddard, who had also co-written Cabin in the Woods, wrote the script, adapting it from a novel by Andy Weir of the same name. This crew of creators brought such life to the story that it worked on all levels.

I enjoyed the way the story was told. It started off in the space craft with Ryan Gosling and then it would flashback to times when Gosling’s Ryland Grace was on earth and showed us as the movie progressed how Grace wound up in that ship.

I don’t want to go into spoilers, although a major part of the story has been revealed in trailers. I am still not going to talk about it, but this section was so great and infused this movie with such energy and power.

There were a couple of scenes in space that, I swear, I did not breathe during because it was so intense that I couldn’t stand it. They were done so well and brought that action energy to a film that felt like a slow burn at other times. It all worked together so well.

If you force me to criticize the film, it might be a little long. I think they could have shaved off ten minutes, maybe, but I did not feel the length during the viewing.

In the end, Project Hail Mary was a fantastic film with sci-fi elements that is a true crowd pleaser, filled to the brim with emotion and beautiful imagery. One of the best films of 2026 so far.

5 stars

Cold Storage

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With a no school day because of a March blizzard, I got a chance to watch a couple of streaming movies that I have been wanting to see. The first one was recommended by my friend Chris. I had never heard of it before, but it looked interesting.

Cold Storage had a late eighties, early nineties action flick feel to it, as had some fun characters dealing with a bizarre fungus that was turning people and animals into infected, spreading around.

According to IMDB, “When a highly dangerous fungus escapes from a secret laboratory, a former bioterrorism agent is called back into action. Alongside two young employees, he must confront an invisible and out-of-control threat.”

Joe Keery starred as Teacake, a guard at a storage facility, and Georgina Campbell starred as Naomi, a new worker at the facility. They discovered this fungus and how it has multiplied, calling in help from the army.

That help was Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson) who had interacted with the fungus in the past and was one of the few people remaining who had any expertise on this topic at all.

Keery and Campbell worked together extremely well. You immediately buy the chemistry between them and want them to survive the experience. You can feel for these characters. They are just deep enough to keep you interested in their well-being.

Liam Neeson brings the perfect energy for the grizzled, injured former military man with his first hand knowledge. Neeson handled the slightly comedic tone to the movie as well. Neeson has always had a strong sense of comedic timing and he gets a chance to show it here.

The overall story is fairly limited, but it works well as a monster movie. We get a bunch of secondary characters who we don’t mind seeing blow up from the fungus (though the vomiting green goo is unnecessary). While this story is simple, it is just about the right amount of combination of action/horror/comedy to pull off the film.

This was a fun film to watch and I had a great time rooting for these characters to survive the fungus.

4 stars

EYG 2026 Oscar Predictions

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List from Angeline Jane Bernabe and Mason Leib on ABC News.com

These are my thoughts and predictions for Sunday night’s Academy Awards. As I said, these are my predictions for who I think will win. This is not my personal favorites. I will give a second choice as the runner-up in my opinion.

Best picture

  • “Bugonia”
  • “F1”
  • “Frankenstein”
  • “Hamnet”
  • “Marty Supreme”
  • “One Battle After Another”
  • “The Secret Agent”
  • “Sentimental Value”
  • “Sinners”
  • “Train Dreams”

I am a believer in the Sinner’s momentum. I do think that Sinners will overtake “One Battle After Another” which has been the leading candidate for much of the pre-award season. Sinners is also my personal favorite of the nominated films, so I am cheering for it. If not Sinners, it will be “One Battle After Another.”

Best supporting actress

  • Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”
  • Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”
  • Amy Madigan, “Weapons”
  • Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”
  • Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”

This is a strong category, but the performance Amy Madigan gave in “Weapons” was just so special and it made that move more than what it would have been. Sure, it is a genre film and the Academy some times does not favor those, but I do believe this one transcends genre. Second choice: Teyana Taylor (OBAA).

Best actor

  • Timothée Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”
  • Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”
  • Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”
  • Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”
  • Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”

Again, I believe in the momentum of Sinners. Michael B. Jordan’s victory at the Actor Awards was a significant signal that the race had switched. Jordan is a remarkably worthy potential winner as he played two different characters (and one of those he played two different ways when he was changed into a vampire). It brought a lot of energy. Second choice: Timothée Chalamet.

Best actress

  • Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”
  • Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
  • Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”
  • Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”
  • Emma Stone, “Bugonia”

Jessie Buckley. ‘Nuff said. I would have loved to cheer for Kate Hudson because I thought she was exceptional in “Song Sung Blue” but Buckley may have given the best performance I have ever seen. If she does not win this award, there should be investigations. Second choice: NONE. It is Buckley.

Best supporting actor

  • Benicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”
  • Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”
  • Delroy Lindo, “Sinners”
  • Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”
  • Stellan Skarsgård, “Sentimental Value”

I am going with Stellan Skarsgård for his work in “Sentimental Value.” I think Del Toro and Sean Penn may split votes, opening up the large contingent of foreign voters in the Academy to give it to Skarsgård. This is a tough category too because you also have the spoiler floating around in Delroy Lindo. Second choice: Sean Penn, but I could see it being Lindo or Del Toro.

Best director

  • Chloé Zhao, “Hamnet”
  • Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”
  • Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”
  • Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value”
  • Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”

This is the award they will give to this film since Sinners is going to win Best Picture. PTA has been deserving of an Academy Award for years, and this is the one he is going to get. Second Choice: Ryan Coogler.

Best makeup and hairstyling

  • “Frankenstein”
  • “Kokuho”
  • “Sinners”
  • “The Smashing Machine”
  • “The Ugly Stepsister”

The look of Frankenstein was great and it will most likely win this award. I would have liked to see “Smashing Machine” win because the Rock really did transform into Mark Kerr, but that is not going to happen. Second Choice: Sinners.

Best original score

  • “Bugonia” — Jerskin Fendrix
  • “Frankenstein” — Alexandre Desplat
  • “Hamnet” — Max Richter
  • “One Battle After Another” — Jonny Greenwood
  • “Sinners” — Ludwig Göransson

The music of Sinners is almost as important as the characters of the film. The soundtrack brings an authentic feel to this film and Ludwig Göransson will receive another Oscar. Second choice: Max Richter for Hamnet.

Best live action short film

  • “Butcher’s Stain”
  • “Jane Austen’s Period Drama”
  • “A Friend of Dorothy”
  • “The Singers”
  • “Two People Exchanging Saliva”

If I were voting, I would pick “Jane Austen’s Period Drama” because that was by far my favorite short on this list, but the Academy is not giving it an Oscar. “Two People Exchanging Saliva” is weird, wild and builds a fictional world around some of the strangest things. It wins. Second Choice: “A Friend of Dorothy”

Best adapted screenplay

  • “Bugonia” — Will Tracy
  • “Frankenstein” — Guillermo Del Toro
  • “Hamnet” — Maggie O’Farrell and Chloé Zhao
  • “One Battle After Another” — Paul Thomas Anderson
  • “Train Dreams” — Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar

One of the easiest picks to make. The Best Picture is coming down to One Battle vs Sinners so One Battle After Another wins this one. Second Choice: Hamnet.

Best original screenplay

  • “Blue Moon” — Robert Kaplow
  • “It Was Just an Accident” — Jafar Panahi
  • “Marty Supreme” — Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
  • “Sentimental Value” — Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt
  • “Sinners” – Ryan Coogler

See above. Same reason “One Battle” wins Best Adapted. Second Choice: Blue Moon

Best animated short film

  • “Butterfly”
  • “Forevergreen”
  • “The Girl Who Cried Pearls”
  • “Retirement Plan”
  • “The Three Sisters”

This was my favorite animated short of this list and I do think it is the one with the best animation, a true story involving the Holocaust and an Olympic swimmer. It is far and away the best on this list. Second Choice: “The Girl Who Cried Pearls.”

Best casting

  • “Hamnet” — Nina Gold
  • “Marty Supreme” — Jennifer Venditti
  • “One Battle After Another” — Cassandra Kulukundis
  • “The Secret Agent” — Gabriel Domingues
  • “Sinners” — Francine Maisler

This is a brand new Academy Award this year and I think Sinners is going to get it. The casting of this film is just amazing and the cast brings it throughout. Second Choice: “One Battle After Another.”

Best original song

  • “Dear Me” from “Diane Warren: Relentless”
  • “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters”
  • “I Lied to You” from “Sinners”
  • “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!”
  • “Train Dreams” from “Train Dreams”

This song is one of the biggest hits of 2025, worldwide. The Academy is not going to miss this and create a controversy. There are only a couple of shoo-ins. This is one. Second Choice: “I Lied to You” (Sinners)- which would be my personal choice if I had a vote.

Best documentary feature film

  • “The Alabama Solution”
  • “Come See Me in the Good Light”
  • “Cutting Through Rocks”
  • “Mr. Nobody Against Putin”
  • “The Perfect Neighbor”

I have not seen many here. I did see “The Perfect Neighbor” and I loved it. Second Choice: No idea. Probably the Putin one..

Best documentary short film

  • “All the Empty Rooms”
  • “Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud”
  • “Children No More: ‘Were and Are Gone'”
  • “The Devil is Busy”
  • “Perfectly a Strangeness”

I have not seen any of these documentary shorts. I know “All the Empty Rooms” is about school shootings and that is usually Academy fodder, so I will guess that one. Second Choice: How about “The Devil is Busy”?

Best international feature film

  • Brazil, “The Secret Agent”
  • France, “It Was Just an Accident”
  • Norway, “Sentimental Value”
  • Spain, “Sirât”
  • Tunisia, “The Voice of Hind Rajab”

I have only seen two of these, though I am excited about seeing The Secret Agent during this year’s June Swoon. Because I have seen it, Sentimental Value gets my vote. Second Guess: “The Secret Agent.” – Heard good things.

Best animated feature film

  • “Arco”
  • “Elio”
  • “KPop Demon Hunters”
  • “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain”
  • “Zootopia 2”

K-Pop Demon Hunters is winning this. It would not have been my vote, but it is clearly the biggest cultural animated film of the year. Not sure why Elio is on this list. Second choice: Zootopia 2 (which would have been my vote).

Best production design

  • “Frankenstein”
  • “Hamnet”
  • “Marty Supreme”
  • “One Battle After Another”
  • “Sinners”

I feel like I should have gone with Frankenstein, but I am looking for an upset and Hamnet does have tremendous production design. Second choice: (and most likely winner) Frankenstein

Best film editing

  • “F1” — Stephen Mirrione
  • “Marty Supreme” — Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
  • “One Battle After Another” — Andy Jurgensen
  • “Sentimental Value” — Olivier Bugge Coutté
  • “Sinners” — Michael P. Shawver

I have yet another win for Sinners. This could go to several on this list though. Second Choice: F1

Best sound

  • “F1”
  • “Frankenstein”
  • “One Battle After Another”
  • “Sinners”
  • “Sirât”

F1’s use of sound is a key element to the film. While there are some other good choices, I think the Academy wants to reward F1 with something more than a nomination and this makes sense. Second Choice: Sirât

Best visual effects

  • “Avatar: Fire and Ash”
  • “F1”
  • “Jurassic World Rebirth”
  • “The Lost Bus”
  • “Sinners”

Bah. I don’t want to pick this one because there was nothing new done in this film, but it is going to win anyway. What I wouldn’t give to have “The Lost Bus” get this award. It really does deserve it. I was really happy when it got the nomination. Sadly, Avatar wins again. Second Choice: “The Lost Bus”

Best cinematography

  • “Frankenstein”
  • “Marty Supreme”
  • “One Battle After Another”
  • “Sinners”
  • “Train Dreams”

I think this is another unlikely winner, but I just think that this film deserves the cinematography Oscar. Second choice: “One Battle After Another.”

Best costume design

  • “Avatar: Fire and Ash” — Deborah L. Scott
  • “Frankenstein” — Kate Hawley
  • “Hamnet” — Malgosia Turzanska
  • “Marty Supreme” — Miyako Bellizzi
  • “Sinners” — Ruth E. Carter

Another win for the technical aspect of Frankenstein. It did look great and the costumes are top notch. Second choice: Sinners

There are my picks. As always, I will miss some and get some right. I do hope there is a great ceremony and that Conan O’Brien is a funny host. I have Marty Supreme getting shut out. That doesn’t feel right, but I guess we will have to go with it.

2026 Oscar Nominated Shorts- Live Action & Animated

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Spoilers

Every year, I go down to Cinemark the weekend of the Academy Awards so I can see the Live-Action Short Films and Animated Short Films that had been nominated for Oscars. It is always fun seeing these in their blocks.

It was weird this year because the shows were being produced by Roadside Attractions instead of the company that normally did it. It also said that the show was being presented by Taika Waititi, but I never saw or heard one thing from him. That was strange.

I am going to list my personal favorites from 5-1 here. This is not my Oscar predictions. It was just the ones I liked the best. In fact, i can almost 100% guarantee that my favorite of the Live-Action Shorts will NOT be the Oscar winner. I plan on doing my official predictions either later tonight or some time tomorrow before the ceremony.

Kicking off with the LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILMS

#5. Butcher’s Stain. This was my least favorite of all the shorts I saw today. It is a drama taking place in a supermarket in Tel Aviv. I had a hard time getting into this one. I was not interested and found little to grab my attention.

#4. The Singers. This was a fun short. It was the first one we were shown today and it featured a group of men in a bar, drinking and betting on who had the best singing voice. It had some great singing on it, but, while entertaining, I did not find, much depth in the short.

#3. Two People Exchanging Saliva. Weird. Wild. A strange world where kissing is frowned upon and the people go to the extreme of having terrible breath to ward off the kissers. It is also a society that pays for things by getting slapped in the face. This is such a bizarre short that it was tough to follow, but it fit right in with films like Bugonia.

#2. Friends of Dorothy. A sweet short that featured a young man (Alistair Nwachukwu) who meets an older woman (Miriam Margolyes) and they bond over plays. The young man secretly wishes to be an actor and the older woman is encouraging him to do so. This is such a sentimental flick, but it is very engaging as well.

#1. Jane Austen’s Period Drama. This was, BY FAR, my favorite short of the day. It was hilarious. The title lets you know what type of short this is going to be… and the “period” in the title does not refer to a time frame. The names of these characters were making me laugh every time they were mentioned. We had Estrogenia, Labinia, Mr. James Dickley, Mrs. Bitts,  Dr. Bangley, and my personal favorite… Miss Vagianna. It sticks with these jokes throughout the film and it was amazingly funny. Again, while I would love seeing this as an Oscar winner, I can almost guarantee that it will not win. It is definitely my personal favorite though.

Next… Animated Short Films

#5. Forevergreen. The relationship between a bear cub and a tree. Yes, that is what I said. While this was fine, it felt very heavy-handed in its story and I simply found the story not to my liking. Perhaps it was too saccharin.

#4. Three Sisters. I liked this one. It was the first animated short they showed us, and it had some real funny moments with characters who barely made a sound, let alone speak. Three Sisters is quirky and unique and worked well with the animation that it gave us. There were some laugh out loud moments too.

#3. Retirement Plan. Narrated by Domhnall Gleeson, this short follows the life of a man who has just retired and who has planned on doing all kinds of things. We get a list of these plans as the unnamed man gets older with every one. This is very solid animated film with some strong moments. Gleeson does a tremendous job narrating the short. It takes us right up to the man’s death (and actually beyond it) and it is a good short.

#2. The Girl Who Cried Pearls. If I were talking about story only, this might have been my favorite. However the animation of the short was tough on me the whole time. Not only did the characters suffer from the old uncanny valley, their faces were just not what I wanted to see. While most of the film looked great, none of the characters did and it hurt a film that I think was one of the better ones I saw.

#1. Butterfly (aka Papillon). This was an absolutely beautiful short with a very powerful story of swimmer Alfred Nakache. Not only does the film focus on his swimming, it also has comments on the Holocaust and the cruelty of the Nazis. The animation style felt like we were constantly seeing everything in a water color background and it was gorgeously designed. I thought this was the best animated short we saw by a great distance.

Undertone

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I have seen some poor horror movies to kick off 2026. I was not a fan of Iron Lung. I did not like the new Dracula film. Scream 7 was a real disappointment. The Bride was a big swing that did not work, and Psycho Killer is currently the worst film of the year.

So I went into the new horror film, Undertone, which was the big screen debut of director Ian Tuason. I had found the trailer intriguing and knowing it is a new A24 film, I went into the film with hopes that this would break the rotten horror streak.

According to IMDB, “The host of a popular paranormal podcast becomes haunted by terrifying recordings mysteriously sent her way.“

Lead actress Nina Kiri carries the heft of this film on her shoulders as she does a tremendous job in the role as this podcaster who is the skeptic on her podcast about the supernatural topics they cover. Her co-host, who we never see on screen, is voiced by Adam DiMarco, and he has a really strong voice over performance.

The film is a perfect example of the use of sound in the horror genre. Called Audio Horror, the sound design is so tense and anxious that it really affects the audience. The use of the sounds, the silence, the way the sounds change when Nina Kiri puts on her headphones… all of it is sensational and creates a theater experience unlike many.

The camera work in the film is also strong. There are some shots that are specifically designed to make the audience expect that a scare is coming, but many times, the idea that there is something in the dark is only suggested, allowing the audience to provide their own scares. The film does have some jump scares, but they are kept to a minimum and are effective when they appear.

I am not sure that I found the ending overly satisfying, but it was certainly intense and worked as a way to end a film that matched that intensity level.

This is definitely a film that broke that run of terrible horror movies. It is a slow burn, but it moves fairly quickly over the run time of the film. It was a suspenseful theater experience and I would recommend people see this. Not only because it is a good movie, but for the fact that the budget on this film was only like $500,000, which is ridiculously low and there should be more films succeed that take a chance at keeping the budget down.

4 stars

The Bride!

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This one is like Bonnie & Clyde was made in the Universal Monsters franchise while being set in Gotham City.

The Bride! is the new film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal that take a new look at the classic story of The Bride of Frankenstein.

This film is one that left me unsure of how I felt. There were certainly good things that I really liked about The Bride! but there were many other things that just did not work for me at all.

According to IMDB, “In 1930s Chicago, Frankenstein asks Dr. Euphronius to help create a companion. They give life to a murdered woman as the Bride, sparking romance, police interest, and radical social change.”

The standout aspect of this film is 100% the acting from our two lead performers. Jessie Buckley, who is up for an Academy Award in just about a week and a half for her role in Hamnet, is absolutely amazing as the Bride. Buckley’s performance jumps off the screen with her facial features and her confusion. Buckley also played Mary Shelley, who was a framing device for the story, and it seemed as if Mary Shelley was possessing the Bride (also called Ida or Penny). Buckley would switch from her normal voice to the British accent of Shelley. It was confusing at times.

Christian Bale was also great as Frankenstein. He would go by the name Frank and he played this character lonely and desperate. Bale and Buckley have an amazing chemistry and they are the reason to see this movie. I loved the performance of Annette Bening as Dr. Euphronius.

However, there are so many weird things going on in this movie that pulled me out. The tone of this film was all over the place. At times, it felt like I should be laughing, but others I felt horrified. It was not a smooth transition between tones. It was truly messy.

For example, there was a dance number in the film. I loved it and hated it at the same time. I loved the homage the dance routine was to, but it felt totally out of place in this film.

The film had several secondary storylines that could have (should have) been edited out completely. All the scenes with Penelope Cruz and Peter Sarsgaard, who played a couple of detectives chasing the Monsters, felt so unnecessary. Had those scenes been completely dropped, there would have been nothing really that would have to be changed.

The Bride! is a messy, wild and crazy film that has some great performances and some big swings. Some of this worked well for me while much of the rest of it did not work. Great performances in a film that is all over the place. There are some cool things in the film, but not enough to dismiss the weak points.

2.8 stars

Scream 7

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So I have been under the weather over the last few weeks, and I chose to stay at home this past Saturday. I had intended on going to the new Scream 7 film that came out, but I wanted to take the time to try and get better. Today, I was able to go to the film I missed last weekend.

I am going to say that I had heard a lot of negatives directed toward Scream 7 and so my expectations going into the theater today were rather low. I do think that it helped having such low expectations, because I did not hate watching this. Don’t get me wrong, it is a dumb movie and I would not recommend it. I just didn’t find it to be a horrible watch. It was certainly better than the Psycho Killer film from a few weeks ago. That is not saying much, though.

We are back with Sydney Prescott, now with the last name of Evans, and the film took every opportunity to comment on Scream 6 being the film (or the Ghostface killings) where Sydney did not get involved. The meta aspect of this fits in a Scream franchise, but it feels odd that the implication was that the last movie sucked because Sydney wasn’t there.

A new Ghostface finds his/her way to the town where Sydney was living and began killing off easily replaceable characters who have little to no characterization. For example, Asa Germann, who played Sam on Gen V, was only ever referred to as the “weird one.” There is no reason or explanation. That was his sole character trait. McKenna Grace was here too, but all I know about her character was that she was the blonde friend who was in the school play. There were actually some good actors in this film, but they were not given anything worthy to do.

We knew from casting news that Matthew Lillard was returning to the film as Stu Macher, who had been killed in the first Scream film. There was a lot of speculation about whether he was returning as the same character, but that is one of the most obvious bit in the film. No spoilers, but you’ll get it.

Then speaking of no spoilers, the ending reveal is perhaps the dumbest part of the entire movie. There are some cameos in this movie that are just terrible and make zero sense.

It felt like this movie played only on nostalgia without having any original thoughts of its own.

As I said, I didn’t hate this, but I am only a guy who has liked the Scream franchise. I think that if you are a big fan of Scream and its sequels, you are going to hate this. If you just want a dumb time at the movies, set your expectations low and you may not hate yourself for watching it.

2 stars

Paradise S2 E1, E2, E3

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Spoilers

What an unexpected surprise. As I was going to Disney + this morning, there is was. An ad at the top of the page for Paradise season two, the first three episodes dropping together.

Paradise was a Hulu series from last year that was unexpected as well. Starring Courtney B. Vance and James Marsden, Paradise was a sci-fi series that was remarkably compelling and brilliantly set up. It was a sci-fi/apocalyptic show, a murder mystery and a thrilling political drama.

If I had known Paradise season two was scheduled for release in February, I had forgotten it. Three episodes, each about an hour long, starting off the second season was just was the doctor had ordered for a sick day at home.

“Graceland”

Of course, I had not expected the first episode to start off in Graceland, of all places. We get some details that told us how the end of the world came about. Supervolcano explosion, bringing cloud of dust across the planet. I am not sure I knew this detail from season one, but it made a lot of sense.

We are introduced to a new character named Annie, who was hired as a tour guide at Graceland, thanks to her knowledge of Elvis Presley.

We passed time, several years, with Annie while she survived at Graceland. We saw the other security guard at Graceland, who injured her leg on the first day, slowly die over the next two months. It left Annie alone.

That is… until a group of armed men arrived. However, they did not seem to be the typical armed men in this type of a setting. They were friendly, named after TV characters, and befriended Annie. Especially Link, whom Annie drew closer to during the time they all were at Graceland.

It did seem that this group had a hidden plan. They wanted to find the underground bunker in Colorado and kill Alex. They had told us that they were shutting down nuclear power plants, but I wonder how much of that is a cover story.

Annie refused to go with them and wound up heading out on her own, where she found a crashed airplane and an unconscious Xavier.

“Mayday”

The second episode went back to telling the story of Xavier and how he wound up unconscious on that ground. It also showed us how he and his wife met the first time.

The flashback took us to a time where Xavier had injured his knee and was in the hospital. He was placed in the same room with Teri, who had a surgery, a side effect of which made her blind. They bonded during the time when she was getting her sight back.

Xavier and Annie’s meeting was shown and Annie took him back to Graceland.

“Another Day in Paradise”

Then episode three focused in on the show’s main antagonist, Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond, and her recovery from the gunshot of last season and the further development of assassin Jane Driscoll. Jane is a terrible person and, in the course of this hour, assassinated the new President of the US and framed Agent Robinson for the job.

Billy Pace showed back up in a flashback working for Sinatra. He was told to get the rights to the company owned by a man named Miller. Miller refuses and there is an emotional standoff at his home, beside the bed of his comatose wife, Alex. Is this the same Alex from before? Miller gives his wife a lethal dose of something, and as she died, he asked one favor of Billy… don’t harm the boy from his class that was such a genius and who he felt like a father to. Billy kills Miller and ends up leaving the boy alone.

The boy turned out to be a younger Link.

Wheels are turning here.

Man there are a lot of things happening in this show and I am so pleased that it is back.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

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This movie is like Everything, Everywhere All At Once on a combo of speed and LSD.

That is in the good way.

Sam Rockwell leads this intriguing ensemble in a wild, time travel, sci-fi mash up with stuff that you would never expect to see on the big screen. It is a dark comedy, with some extremely dark moments of humor.

Sam Rockwell is great as always. He throwed himself into this project as he does in everything that he ever appears in. He is such a top notch performer that you know you are getting his best in every role.

According to IMDB, “A ‘Man From the Future’ arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.“

This film does not hide its themes about AI. It is anything but subtle that it sets AI as the villain of this film and that it sees AI as being a major problem to the world. While it also blends the idea of technology into the theme, AI is absolutely the leading concept.

This movie is utterly batshit crazy. It has some of the most wild, crazy situations I have ever seen. I compared it earlier to Everything, Everywhere All at Once, and that is a fair comparison, but this takes it to another level. If you were someone who did not like the absurdity of some of EEAAO, then this will not be your cup of tea. If you came out of EEAAO with the wish that the writers would have taken the gloves off and really gone to town with the weirdness, then Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is for you.

I was thoroughly entertained by the film, even if my jaw was agape several times.

Gore Verbinski, who directed the Pirates of the Caribbean films, returned to helm this satire and he brought a vision that just was engaging and hilarious, while still bringing an important message to the screen.

One of my favorite movies so far in 2026.

4.8 stars

Psycho Killer

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So I went to a movie today.

Psycho Killer is a new serial killer film from director Gavin Polone, featuring Georgina Campbell. It was written by Andrew Kevin Walker (who also wrote Se7en). I saw the original poster for this movie when I was doing the banner for February 2026, and it looked good. I saw it at Cinemark today and I realized that Psycho Killer was anything but good.

In fact, it was the worst film I have seen so far in 2026. Yes, the year is only in its second month, but this was certainly bad and it was outside of January.

What was good about this movie?

Hm

Wait a minute….

Um… it is better than last year’s War of the Worlds.

To be fair, I believe this film had a premise that could have been cool and could have worked, but anything that was cool about the movie was discarded and was ignored as the film moved on. It was such a mess, writing wise that one wondered how this could have been written by the guy who wrote Se7en.

There are no characteristics about any of the characters. They are all just one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. The psycho killer is not a character at all. The Psycho Killer is nothing more than a deep (silly) voice.

I have to say as well that the end of this movie is one of the worst endings that I have seen in such a long time. It totally did not make any sense and even the lacking character that this psycho killer had made no sense as to why this was done. It was just DUMB. I thought that I missed something along the way before this ending, but I did not. There was nothing that led to this story arc.

This felt like a lazy film without any real characters or real stakes for anyone I gave a crap about. It has one of the worst ending sequences of the last several years and just is not worth an hour and a half of anyone’s time.

0.8 stars

Agents of Shield S2 E19, E20, E21, E22

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Spoilers

“The Dirty Half Dozen”

“Scars”

“S.O.S. (Part One)”

“S.O.S. (Part Two)”

The Inhumans arc of Agents of Shield wrapped up with the last few episodes. Jiaying and the Inhumans tried to start a war with Shield only to find that things were not going to go in a positive way.

Lots of arcs were resolved in these episodes including:

  • Kyle MacLachlan’s run as Daisy’s father, Cal. His ending is kind of happy, even though the idea of mindwiping someone is iffy at best.
  • Skye officially began calling herself Daisy Johnson.
  • Raina, who had been an antagonist through most of the first two seasons of the show is killed by Jiaying in a way to keep her quiet.
  • Robert Gonzalez is murdered via the Terrigan crystals at the hands of Jiaying. See ya later Edward James Olmos.
  • Agent 33 and her crazed vengeance on Bobbi came to a close when Ward accidentally killed her thinking she was May.
  • Ward apparently is the new head of Hydra.
  • Post credit of the monolith swallowing up Simmons was creepy as all get out.
  • Coulson had his left arm chopped off by Mac to prevent the spread of the Terrigen after Coulson caught the crystal, preventing it from breaking and killing the rest of them.
  • Coulson talked about forming a small team of powered individuals (aka Secret Avengers)
  • Lincoln turned on the other Inhumans to help Daisy and the Shield agents.
  • Mac joined back up with Shield despite his initial doubts.
  • Fitz and Simmons were the Jin/Sun (from LOST) of this show, something always happening to keep them apart.

Kyle MacLachlan is a tremendous actor. He could bring unbelievable levels to a crazed killer. He was basically Mr. Hyde from Marvel Comics, but I could understand and relate to everything he did. I think he was a fabulous character and I was pleased that he had such a strong arc this season.

The whole Agents of Shield connection to Avengers: Age of Ultron with the arrival of the Helicarrier felt a touch awkward since much of the action around the reveal of the Helicarrier and the secrets Coulson was keeping played out in the movie. Because of that, the storylines felt a touch anticlimactic. Still, the season did a great job of wading through the stuff that was necessary and still created some tense moments of action and exciting scenes.