Tag Archives: movies

Sovereign (2025)

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June 20

Movie 20

I’m not sure how to feel about this one.

Sovereign was a film starring Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay that I found after an exhaustive search for a film this morning for the June Swoon 5. Nothing was tripping my trigger until I came across this movie on Hulu. I like both of the actors of this film (which also included Dennis Quaid) and it had a high Rotten Tomatoes score so I decided to put it on.

It was a film that I had a problem with becoming engaged with as the character played by Offerman, Jerry Kane, was such a brusque, unwavering individual with thoughts and opinions that were revolutionary or conspiratorial. It was clear that Jerry had been indoctrinating his son Joe (Tremblay) into his way of thinking, even though Joe did not always seem to be okay with the ideas.

Watching these two interact with the world and the eventual results of the choices was heartbreaking and very difficult to watch. The film certainly did not leave me with a positive feeling.

Both Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay played their roles brilliantly. There was a raw, visceral feel around the characters. Jerry stuck in his ways and lost in himself and Joe who could see a way out, but was tied to his father.

This film is based on a true crime drama and, as I said, I am split on it. I did not find the experience of watching Sovereign an enjoyable one, but the two main performances were so excellent that I am glad that I watched it. It did not leave me in a positive mindset, but there are a lot of strengths to the creation of the film including some wonder cinematography and direction that make the film special.

It is one of those movies that I am glad to have seen but never want to watch again.

Sarah’s Oil (2025)

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June 19

Movie 19

Today is Juneteenth and, in honor of the holiday, I watched a movie called Sarah’s Oil, which was a film that had been on my Amazon Prime watchlist for awhile now. It was on there for so long because it sounded as if it was not going to be a movie that I was not going to like.

However, it was such a great film. I was fully engaged and entertained by the story, the characters, and the relationship between Sarah and Bert. I was in on the show immediately, and the time of the film just flew by.

According to IMDB, “The remarkable true story of eleven year old Sarah Rector, an African American girl born in Oklahoma Indian Territory in the early 1900s, who believes there is oil beneath the barren land she’s allotted and whose faith is proven right.”

Naya Desir-Johnson does a tremendous job as the titular character. I loved how this character was well-spoken and intelligent and not serving any fools. She has great chemistry with Zachary Levi, who played Bert Smith, a Texas wildcatter and con man. This center relationship is important to the movie and, while it is a basic story, they fit very well together.

The prevalent racism of the time (Early 1900s in Oklahoma) is dealt with in this movie and, while it is not out front, the reach of it is felt throughout the story. It is under practically every scene, especially those with people in the town. It just felt as if that was the way it was.

The film was exciting and tense, even though it does feel kind of predictable. The biopic does a really great job of presenting this story in an entertaining way.

Naya Desir-Johnson would have made the list for the “I See Kid Actors” Award last December had I seen this. She doesn’t win the award, but she absolutely deserved to be recognized.

Daily Countdown: Weird Al Songs #10

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#10

The Saga Begins

Title: “The Saga Begins”

Album: Running With Scissors

Released: 1999

Parody: “American Pie” by Don McLean

Written: Don McLean/Al Yankovic

Topic: Star Wars: Episode 1-The Phantom Menace

Genre: Pop/Rock

And into the Top 10 we go…

Weird Al wrote this song before seeing any official script of the Phantom Menace because he was not allowed to see it. So he pieced it together with rumors and web sites. When he was able to attend a pre-screening, he was shocked to see that the song was mostly accurate, requiring only small rewriting.

Lyrics

A long, long time ago
In a galaxy far away
Naboo was under an attack
And I thought me and Qui-Gon Jinn
Could talk the federation in
To maybe cutting them a little slack

But their response, it didn’t thrill us
They locked the doors and tried to kill us
We escaped from that gas
Then met Jar-Jar and Boss Nass
We took a bongo from the scene
And we went to Theed to see the Queen
We all wound up on Tatooine
That’s where we found this boy

Oh my, my this here Anakin guy
Maybe Vader someday later, now he’s just a small fry
He left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin’, “Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi”
Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi

Did you know this junkyard slave
Isn’t even old enough to shave
But he can use the Force, they say
Ahh, do you see him hitting on the queen
Though he’s just nine and she’s 14
Yeah, he’s probably gonna marry her someday

Well, I know he built C-3PO
And I’ve heard how fast his pod can go
And we were broke, it’s true
So we made a wager or two
He was a pre-pubescent flyin’ ace
And the minute Jabba started off that race
Well, I knew who would win first place
Oh yes, it was our boy

We started singin’
My, my this here Anakin guy
Maybe Vader someday later, now he’s just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin’, “Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi”
Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi

Now we finally got to Coruscant
The Jedi Council we knew would want
To see how good the boy could be
So we took him there and we told the tale
How his midichlorians were off the scale
And he might fulfill that prophecy

Oh, the Council was impressed, of course
Could he bring balance, to the Force?
They interviewed the kid
All training they forbid
Because Yoda sensed in him much fear
And Qui-Gon said, “Now listen here”
Just stick it in your pointy ear
I still will teach this boy

He was singin’
My, my this here Anakin guy
Maybe Vader someday later, now he’s just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin’, “Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi”
Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi

We caught a ride back to Naboo
‘Cause Queen Amidala wanted to
I frankly would’ve liked to stay
We all fought in that epic war
And it wasn’t long at all before
Little Hotshot flew his plane and saved the day

And in the end some Gunguns died
Some ships blew up and some pilots fried
A lot of folks were croakin’
The battle droids were broken
And the Jedi I admire most
Met up with Darth Maul and now he’s toast
Well, I’m still here, and he’s a ghost
I guess I’ll train this boy

And I was singin’
My, my this here Anakin guy
Maybe Vader someday later, now he’s just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin’, “Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi”
Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi

We were singin’
My, my this here Anakin guy
Maybe Vader someday later, now he’s just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin’, “Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi”

Source: Musixmatch

Toy Story 5

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Toy Story has to be considered one of the greatest franchises in the history of cinema. Five movies and they all are critically beloved. I was excited to see Toy Story 5 today.

Toy Story 5 is Jessie’s story. One of the questions I had was how they were going to Woody back to the group considering how Toy Story 4 ended, and I think they had a great way to get him there.

The balance of Bonnie’s room is thrown out when she gets a tablet called Lilypad. Suddenly Bonnie becomes focused on the screen and not on her toys.

The tech vs. toys story is interesting in this film, and definitely a worthy idea that needs to be investigated. I’m not sure it did much with that premise.

I had heard how emotional Toy Story 5 was and that I would require tissues. I was looking forward to having a good cry. However, I did not cry. I had a decent response to the emotional moments in the film, and maybe had a gulp once or twice, but there were no tears or even any tears forming in my eyes to brush away.

Now, I do not want to sound like I hated this movie, because I did not. There were plenty of things to really enjoy in the movie including the animation, which is as wonderful as always, the new characters, especially Conan O’Brien’s Smarty-Pants character, and the overall writing and humor involved.

Woody is my favorite Toy Story character, but sadly, he feels unnecessary for this movie. He was absolutely crammed in because Toy Story has to have Woody in it. It is always fun to hear Tom Hanks’s voice work, but Woody was dispensable to this story.

Toy Story 5 is going to end up being my lowest Toy Story movie on a ranking scale, but it is still a really great film with a lot of things going for it. I can see this being scored lower because it is a Toy Story movie. This would be better than most animated films of the year. Still, I came out of it liking the film, but not being in love with it.

4.1 stars

Descendent (2025)

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June 18

Movie 18

I found this movie while searching through Amazon Prime (technically it was on AMC +) for 2025 films that I missed. I had never heard of this movie, but the premise sounded intriguing so I put it on the June Swoon 5 playlist.

Descendent (which is a poor title in my opinion) was written and directed by Peter Cileila, starring Ross Marquand (Aaron from the Walking Dead, as well as a voice actor for the MCU) and Sarah Bolger.

According to IMDB, “A troubled LA school guard, haunted by family tragedy, experiences strange visions after a mysterious light appears in the sky. As his wife’s due date approaches, he races to face his demons before his growing obsession consumes him.“

I must warn you that this movie, though listed as sci-fi thriller, is really more of a character study and it does drag at times because of that. If you read that summary and thought the “mysterious lights” was going to accompany a lot of sci-fi moments, you would be incorrect. There are several sci-fi scenes, but it is not the core of the story.

That core is the psychological problems being dealt with by Sean (Ross Marquand) as his wife Andrea (Sarah Bolger) was having a baby. For me, these characters, especially Sean, were very intriguing and felt as if I wanted to know about them. Seeing how the sci-fi elements fit in the story was an extra treat.

Ross Marquand did a great job with the multiple issues facing Sean. He was confused and lost one moment and angry and off-balance the next. You wondered exactly what he might do during the whole film because of the traumas of his past.

I am not sure how I feel about the ending. The final shot made me wonder what was happening and disappointed that I would not find out.

This is a good film that makes a solid watch if you need something to do. I’m not sure it is worth searching out to see, but if you have AMC+ or can access it on Prime, it is worth it.

Hallow Road (2025)

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June 17

Day 17

This morning, I watched a psychological thriller/horror film called Hallow Road, and it disturbed me. It was tense and taught, but I am not sure how I feel about the ending.

According to IMDB, “Two parents enter a race against time when they receive a distressing late-night phone call from their daughter after she caused a tragic car accident.”

The film featured two outstanding performances at the center of the story from Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys. When I saw Matthew Rhys attached to this film, I was excited as I am truly enjoying his work on Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay. I did not realize that Rosamund Pike was involved until the movie was underway.

Both Rhys and Pike were amazing as panicked parents responding to their daughter’s desperate phone call in the middle of the night. They each showed the entire gamut of emotions as the situation grew worse. Most of the movie took place with the parents inside their car, speaking to their daughter on the phone. The helplessness they felt came through with every new revelation and every unexpected twist.

When it became clear that this movie was taking a shift from compelling family drama into something more mysterious, I was not sure how to feel. While, the unnatural story beats worked as a surprise, I am not sure that it was the route I wanted to see the movie take. It was a sudden shift that, while teased, felt like it came out of nowhere.

However, the film was full of suspense the entire time and the result at the end was powerful. I wonder how powerful it could been if it did not have the twist of story.

The fantastic acting of Pike and Rhys carries this movie and they alone are reasons to see it. I found this on Hulu after a friend’s review from earlier this year.

Deep Water (2026)

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I do love me some shark movies. Even the bad ones, which there are a lot, have their share of fun and wild moments. Deep Water, which is a return to form for Finnish film director Renny Harlin, has its share of moments and scares.

According to IMDB, “A group of international passengers en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai are forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. Now they must work together in hopes to overcome the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage.”

There were a group of superficial characters that meant little to me, but there were some intriguing characters that I liked very much. Finally, there was at least one jerk who I wanted to become a shark-burger. Most of the characters were kind of dull, but I still found myself rooting for most of them.

I was shocked to see both Aaron Eckhart and Sir Ben Kingsley in this cast, as I felt as if this film was a B-level film at best. I still think that is the case, but it is always great to see Kingsley in anything.

There were enough interpersonal relationships between the characters to keep them from being more than juts chum for the sharks. Yes, the characters are not Martin Brody, Matt Hooper or Quint, but you can’t expect that type of writing in every shark movie.

I did think many of the shark attacks were silly at times, especially the one involving the helicopter, but their presence did create a sufficient amount of tension to keep the thin story afloat.

Harlin was unafraid to kill off characters in many different ways, and it did feel as if any of them were ripe for being eaten (or drowned). The stakes are absolutely off the charts.

Sure, there are basic story beats that you see over and again in shark movies, but they do work overall here and the plane crash that led before the sharks, was excellent.

I enjoyed this movie and the film hit me in the feels at the end, which is really should have. I think this is a solid shark movie and I am happy to have rented it on Fandango at Home.

3.75 stars

Ash (2025)

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June 16

Day 16

Today kicks off the second half of this year’s June Swoon 5 with a sci-fi/horror film on Hulu called Ash. Directed and scored by Flying Lotus, a DJ, rapper, filmmaker and record producer, Ash feels like a mixed bag.

According to IMDB, “A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.“

The good parts of Ash included the lead performance from Eiza González as Riya, the woman who wakes up and is confused by the gore and death around her. González did a very strong job of expressing her confusion and fear of the situation that she found herself in.

Another positive is the look and the sound of the film. The score made the film standout from some of the other entries in the subgenre of space monster/horror. The score kept the audience on their toes and uneasy as the mysteries unfurled around Riya. The film’s special effects and imagery was also top notch as everything, especially the body horror aspects of the film, looked specifically frightening or horrendous.

The biggest problem is that this movie, story wise, does not even try to attempt something different than what we have seen before. There are scenes that feel as if they were taken directly out of Alien or The Thing or Event Horizon or Cloverfield: Paradox or many other space monster films.

The film leaned hard on cliches throughout the entire movie. Riya had amnesia at the beginning after awakening to find everyone dead. I mean… was there ever any question about what had happened here? Aaron Paul’s character Brion was very cliche as well. The only thing not cliche about him was that he spelled his name with an “o” instead of an “a.”

The film was only 1 hour and 35 minutes long, but it felt much longer than that. It dragged through the first two thirds of the movie before a fairly spry final act helped pick up the action. I am not opposed to slow burns, but there needed to be something more entertaining during that slow burn to engage my mind. This did not have it.

The film looked great, sounded great and had a decent lead performance, but there is just not enough of anything else to make this anything but a forgettable flick.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin (2025)

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June 15

Day 15

Today’s June Swoon 5 film is another Oscar winner that I had not seen prior to today. It won the Academy Award for the Best Documentary Feature in 2026 and it was entitled Mr. Nobody Against Putin.

My initial thoughts were that this was about the war in Ukraine, and, while the Ukraine War was a major theme of the film, the center of the doc was different.

Pavel Talankin was the main character of the doc, and he was a teacher/teacher organizer/school videographer at a school in the Russian city of Karabash, a town known as the most toxic and poisonous town in Russia. Pavel began filming in earnest after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when the Russian government required schools to have regular “patriotic displays” and use state-written curriculum.

Pavel was always one for openness and freedom, proving what he called a safe space for the students to express themselves. These governmental requirements became such an opposition to what he believed that he went as far as to resign. However, when he was contacted by  director David Borenstein about a response Pavel had made to an Instagram post, Pavel rescinded his resignation to compile more film for a documentary on how the war was affecting the school he worked at.

There were some amazing moments in the doc, none more shocking than when, prior to a Russian flag ceremony at the school, Pavel played the “Star-Spangled Banner” as performed by Lady Ga Ga. I was shocked that he was allowed to get away with that and that did not get him arrested or removed from the school.

The doc featured several other intriguing characters such as “Pavel Abdulmanov, a pro-Putin history teacher; a student named Masha, whose brother fights and later dies in the war; and former students who are drafted into the army“-(Wikipedia)

I was completely fascinated by this powerful, first person film and the perspective it brought to the situation that the school found itself in. As a teacher myself, I could not comprehend how I would react to the same situation and I pray that I never have to find out. Mr. Nobody Against Putin is a tremendous work with some extreme emotional moments.

Agents of Shield S5 E8. E9, E10, E11, E12

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Spoilers

“The Last Day”

“Best Laid Plans”

“Past Life”

“All the Comforts of Home”

“The Real Deal”

The Agents of Shield finished up their adventure in the future with some major battling, found Robin, the little girl (now older woman) who could see the future, killed the Kree, including Kasius and Sinara and had Flint create a monolith so they could return to their own time.

Very busy.

I was not 100% in love with the future stuff, but it did provide us with some major storyline bits including:

  • Yo Yo meeting herself (without arms) and she revealed about Coulson’s sickness.
  • Deke, who seemed to sacrifice himself, arrived back in the present with Shield- and had a surprising familial connection.
  • The Lighthouse is one awesome HQ.

Once back, things got wild as the team learned of Coulson’s impending death, and they got made that he did not tell them about it. Deke was taking in all of the wonders of the earth he had never seen…including Zema. Fitz and Simmons gets married.

The Fitz and Simmons wedding led to a major reveal… that Deke is their grandchild, though no one is aware.

Deathlok came back for back up to close a dimensional riff in a lower level of the Lighthouse. It was manifesting fears from a “Fear Dimension” that was trying to kill them.

General Hale is a horrendous character. She was a clear antagonist for our team, but it does get a little old to have the generals always being the antagonists. Plus, her daughter is a weird assassin of some sort who cut off Yo Yo’s arms.

The whole earth gets blown up plotline is still active and unsolved as of yet, but I know that the series does deal with that story before the end of season 5.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #73

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June 14

Spoilers

The Boroughs

“Welcome to the Boroughs”

There are times when I am not happy with the concept of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. The idea was one episode every Sunday morning for TV shows that I have not seen. Every once in awhile, I come across a show where I desperately want to watch the next episode. The Boroughs is the latest example.

The Boroughs is an 8-episode series on Netflix from the Duffer Brothers (of Stranger Things fame) and when episode one ended, I was wishing it was next Sunday right now.

Taking all of my willpower, I shut off the show, preventing myself from binging it all day long on this lazy Sunday where my schedule is fairly open.

The show centers around a retirement community called The Boroughs and a group of older characters who live there. However, there is some kind of weird, supernatural aspect to the show and, as Ed Bagley Jr. said, “There are owls in the walls.”

If you know about me, I love the evil owl metaphor. On Twin Peaks, the Owls were not what they seemed, and this certainly hooked me immediately.

I was also impressed with how quickly I was able to connect with the characters. They were all so great that, even those that did not get a lot of details, were ones I felt tied to. Such an amazing cast with Alfred Molina, Bill Pullman, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Geena Davis, Jane Kaczmarek, Clarke Peters, Dee Wallace, and Eric Edelstein.

The supernatural mystery was not the main component of episode one. It was the introduction of Sam Cooper, played by Alfred Molina, the widower whose wife had signed the contract to move to the Boroughs. The gruff and grizzled man did not want to be in this community, and he was looking for a way out.

I have to say that I loved Bill Pullman’s Jack Willard. He was such a wonderful breath of fresh air in the episode and his kindness toward Sam was very inspiring. I really hope that the creature that was seemingly feeding off Jack at the end of episode one did not kill him.

What is going on in this community? Is there something sinister with the people who organized the community or is there something about the land? Anything is possible, and I am so in with this. As I said, if this was not the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, I’d be well into episode two by now.

Can’t wait for next Sunday.

Arco (2025)

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June 13

Day 13

Last year when the Academy Award nominations came out, there was one film among the Best Animated Feature category that I had never heard of before. It was a French film called Arco. I placed it on the list for the June Swoon 5 immediately.

I found it streaming on Hulu and watched it this morning with the English dubbed version. I typically am not a fan of the dubbed version, preferring the original voices. However, since it was an animated film, I decided it would not be as jarring as a live action dubbed film would be. Plus, the voice cast seemed very impressive with Will Farrell, Juliano Krue Valdi (who played young Michael Jackson in the biopic film, Michael), Mark Ruffalo, Natalie Portman, Andy Samberg, Flea, and America Ferrera.

According to IMDB, “In 2075, a girl witnesses a mysterious boy in a rainbow suit fall from the sky. He comes from an idyllic far future where time travel is possible. She shelters him and will do whatever it takes to help him return to his time.”

The voice of Iris, the young girl who discovered Arco, was done by Romy Fay, a talented voice actor and singer-songwriter.

The film has several underlying themes in the story that kind of take a back seat to the lost in time aspect for Arco and iris. Some of the characters do not have the depth that they required, but they do seem to work together to form a tapestry of color and creativity. The imagery of the rainbows are lovely and the friendship between Arco and Iris is sweet, even if the backdrop of the world is horrific.

The oddball trio, led by the voice of Will Farrell, feels like something right out of anime. In fact, this reminded me of a Studio Ghibli film, only considerably shorter.

Arco was an enjoyable enough film that had a good message with some amazing visuals. I can see why it received an Oscar nomination.

Merrily We Roll Along (2025)

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June 12

Day 12

I repeat what I said earlier this week, I wish there were more examples of films like this. Not just adaptations of Broadway plays into film versions, but the actual play recorded live and put on the screen.

Earlier in the June Swoon 5, I watched Good Night, and Good Luck: Live From Broadway, which was starring George Clooney and it was awesome to see it in the way that it was shown on the Broadway stage. Today, I added another stage play filmed as it was to the list.

Merrily We Roll Along was a Tony-winning Broadway musical from Stephen Sondheim, including Tony-winning performances from Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe. It was available on Netflix and it has been waiting on my queue for June to begin.

According to IMDB, “Spanning three decades, the turbulent relationship between a composer and his two lifelong friends, a writer and a lyricist and playwright.”

The story is told in reverse chronological order, as we start at the point where the relationship between Franklin (Groff), Charley (Radcliffe) and Mary (Lindsay Mendez) was collapsing and we travel back over two decades through the play. It was a remarkable technique as it would make every scene from the past both hopeful and sad at the same time.

Jonathan Groff was sensational as the lead role of Franklin Shepard. His voice, as we have known from his roles in Frozen and Hamilton, is sublime. I did not know, however, that Daniel Radcliffe, our forever Harry Potter, could sing like he does here. In fact, one of my favorite songs was early in the play and I thought to myself, “Well, there’s why he won the Tony.”

The story itself was woven together beautifully, as it is not just writing the story normally and then reversing it. The foreshadowing from the scene of the past take on a new life in this order, meaning even more to the audience than if it were told in a typical structure.

I want more Broadway plays to be shot on film and shown nationwide, and with the proliferation of the streaming services out there, I wouldn’t think that there would be a lack of a forum for presentation.

Disclosure Day

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Steven Spielberg is back in the director’s chair for the new film, Disclosure Day, which brings Spielberg back to a topic that he seems to love… aliens.

Some of Spielberg’s greatest movies of all time have aliens at the center, from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial to War of the Worlds. Now he is back with Disclosure Day, a film starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor.

This sci-fi film had just about everything that I would have wanted in it. Josh O’Connor played a man named Daniel Kellner, who had been working for the people trying to keep the existence of aliens hidden, but he had a change of heart, stealing away data proving the truth behind aliens and the government’s knowledge and involvement. Daniel was on the run, hoping to be able to show the data to the public.

Meanwhile, Emily Blunt, who played Margaret Fairchild, a weather girl in Kansas City, suddenly begins t show abilities that she had never had before. Speaking languages she did not know and knowing information about people she had never met before. When she started speaking in a strange language on live TV, things got weird for her.

Emily Blunt is absolutely on fire in this film. Her performance might just be arguably the greatest performance of her career, despite having plenty of banger performances to choose from. Emily Blunt takes the story to another level every second that she is on screen and she elevated the whole script. I truly believe that she should be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards next year from this work.

The rest of the cast is great, albeit looking a little less in comparison to Blunt. Josh O’Connor has been doing amazing work recently, including his great performance in the last Knives Out film. We also have Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell, Elizabeth Marvel, Eve Hewson, and Jeremy Shamos.

Then there was the film’s main antagonist, Colin Firth. Firth played Noah, who was the agent with the top secret government agency trying to keep things under wrap, and he pursued Margaret and Daniel across the midwest.

I would not define this movie as an action movie, but they had some really good action, which included a scene with a train that was as good of an action sequence as you are going to see in any movie.

This film saw Spielberg beg the legendary John Williams, 94 years old, to come out of retirement to score Disclosure Day. Williams provided yet another amazing score for Spielberg, capping off an unbelievable career.

The movie might be a touch too long, but I do like how it took its time to develop the story and not just throw out everything about what was happening. The central mystery is handled well and kept me hooked from the beginning. The ending of the film has had some detractors, but I think it worked well. If anything, I wanted a little more before the screen went to black. I found the ending of the film to be quite an emotional moment.

Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors of all time, and a member of the EYG Hall of Fame. His latest film recaptured some of the magic from his earlier filmography, especially feeling connected to films like Close Encounters. I saw this in IMAX and I found that to be a great viewing experience. I would recommend seeing this on a big screen while it is in the theater.

4.6 stars

Bambi: The Reckoning (2025)

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June 11

Day 11

I have had a pretty good run with the 2026 June Swoon 5. Ten really good, enjoyable movies so far. It is sad that had to come to an end, but I kind of expected it.

I have three movies I am going to today at Cinemark and so I needed a shorter movie. I just did a short yesterday and I wanted to avoid another right now. I found a film on Peacock that was only 1 hour and 20 minutes, that would work for the schedule. Unfortunately, it was Bambi: The Reckoning.

I have seen several of these movies. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, and Screamboat. Of those, I did not hate Screamboat as much as I hated the Winnie the Pooh movies, but it was not good by any stretch.

I gave it my best shot to come into this movie with an open mind, but that was wiped away early on.

According to IMDB, “A car wreck strands a mother and son in the deep woods where a mutated, vengeful deer stalks them. As local hunters and an obsessive grandmother converge, the forest becomes a bloody arena for a grieving creature’s primal rage.”

The writing on this is atrocious. I’m not sure that there is one redeeming character in the film. I was openly rooting for Bambi to kill these miserable excuses for human beings. Funnily enough, Bambi did not directly kill several of them.

The dialogue was basically yelling other characters’ names.

When most of these kills are funnier than scarier, you know you’ve got a problem. My favorite was the guy who got dragged behind a van as they were trying to escape from Bambi. What a completely random death.

There are some unintendedly funny moments and so little made sense. I could not bring myself to give this the “So Bad, It’s Good” ranking because there was just nothing good about it. Maybe if the RiffTrax crew would riff this, there might be something worth the time.

This may not sink to the depths of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey or its sequel, but it was nowhere near Screamboat. That is saying something.