Tag: movie-review

Toy Story 5 (2026) Movie Review- Jessie’s Time To Shine

AdamLeave a comment

Let’s address the broken record in the home: Toy Story should have ended after 3! That is maybe the one thing on Planet Earth (aside from hating on anything AI-related) that everyone and their grandmother’s toys can agree on. Even if you are someone that likes and/or loves Toy Story 4, there’s not many that claimed they would cry themselves to sleep if that movie never became a reality. They just need to replay the ending of Toy Story 3 to do that. (Can someone grab me another tissue?!) I bring this up because Toy Story 5 is yet another Pixar sequel that is forced to walk the tight rope between being good enough to justify itself as a sequel and being good enough to justify itself as strictly a Pixar sequel.

While I highly doubt that Toy Story 5 will win over every single naysayer out there, it certainly does the best job it can at justifying itself, by providing a refreshing new POV with Jessie as the main Sheriff this time around and answering the question of how toys can possibly hope to survive in the age of technology. It certainly takes it’s time to put all it’s chest pieces into place and you can certainly feel the overwhelming nature of this franchise having so many different characters that it will make your head spin. However, for a fifth film in a long-running animated franchise owned by Disney, it’s certainly no…… Ice Age: Collision Course.

Premise: Set two years after the events of the fourth film, Toy Story 5 follows Jessie (Joan Cusack), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and Woody (Tom Hanks) as they and the other toys deal with the presence of Lilypad (Greta Lee), a tablet and the new favorite plaything of Bonnie (Scarlett Spears). There is also a side quest featuring an army of factory-sealed, high tech Buzz Lightyear action figures that are looking to fulfill their mission for Star Command after being stranded on a deserted island.

The main thing that Toy Story 5 has going for it is the way it handles it’s toy vs tech premise. In 2026, it is no question that technology has played a role in everybody’s life and has greatly affected how we evolve as human beings. Instead of writing with paper and pencil, we are tapping on iPads and typing on computers. Instead of face-to-face interactions to meet and chat with someone, we are using Zoom and Instagram to do just that. Instead of reading books, we are doom scrolling on Twitter. And of course, instead of kids playing with toys, they are playing with electronics. We might not all like it but that’s the reality of how we operate in the age of tech. And Toy Story 5 is not afraid to showcase that whatsoever.

The film’s overall approach to toys trying to adapt into the age of tech isn’t so much that you had to live with just one or the other but more about how both toys and tech have their merits and it would be foolish to suggest otherwise. In the case of trying to win over Bonnie’s playtime, Jessie and LilyPad have no goal throughout the film other than doing what they believe is best for their kid. While LilyPad wants to help Bonnie find any friend she possibly can, Jessie wants to help Bonnie find the “right” friend.

Co-directors and co-writers Andrew Stanton and Kenna Harris are obviously not blind to our obsession with technology in this day and age and how it has played a major role in our lifetimes. As much as we complain about how the internet and social media has ruined our lives, we really can’t imagine a world without them now because that’s how folks go on with their days. But, just as long as we make sure to make time with the ones we love and make room for others things, tech can still play a good role in our lives if we allow it. Any other film could have easily took the safe route with a whole “tech bad, toys good” message but Stanton and Harris both know that we are beyond that mentality and simply can go back to the days of stones and sticks. We can no longer focus on how life was so much better before tech, we can now only focus on how we can make life better WITH tech.

The other major element of Toy Story 5 is Sheriff Jessie taking the lead this time around. While plenty of purists bark at the idea of a character other than Woody or Buzz taking the main spotlight of a Toy Story film, there’s more than enough justification for Jessie being in the frontline this time around. Even if you complete forgot how the last film left off with Woody deciding to stay with Bo Peep and passing the baton down to his fellow cowgirl, the film makes it clear that Jessie is the one with the biggest connection to Bonnie herself and has to be the one to lead the charge.

Her story ties back to her resonating arc from Toy Story 2, with her yet again fearing abandonment and forgetfulness from her owner, wanting to do everything in her power to make an everlasting impact of her child’s life before it’s too late. She meets up with new friends along the way (the best of which is Smarty Pants, voiced by Conan O’Brien), showcasing how toys and tech can indeed become one of the same and learning along the way that there is absolutely zero shame in that. And yes, without getting too deep into spoilers, the emotional highpoint of the film does indeed serve as a perfect parallel to “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2, with Taylor Swift fitting into the shoes of Sarah McLachlan flawlessly.

Oh, and in case if you are wondering about the subplot with the army of the high-tech Buzz Lightyear action figures that were isolated on an island, it’s mostly just an excuse to give Buzz more action in the film and allow Tim Allen to have a bit of extra fun in the voice recording booth. It’s justified itself enough by tying itself back to the the film’s core themes of toys becoming a thing in the past and needing to make the right upgrades in order to survive for the future. Not to mention, having some of the best gags and references to the previous installments in the entire film.

Buzz himself is giving a role similar to Kristoff in Frozen 2, wanting to do everything he can to please the woman he loves most by acting as her deputy while constantly trying to propose to her over and over again until he’s blue in the face. Thankfully, it’s nowhere near as redundant as it was in Frozen 2 and it concludes in a way that will certainly make the die hard Buzz and Jessie shippers lose their minds. (It does make you wonder why it took so long after 3 for Buzz to want to pop the question!) I imagine that will been seen as too sappy by certain people but hey, at least it’s better use for our beloved space ranger than him finding his “inner voice” (Seriously, what was that all about in the last film?!).

And if you are curious to know how they handled our favorite cowboy’s return, well….there’s not much to say really. Woody is easily giving the least important role he has ever had in this series up to this point, given the shaky feeling that he’s only around now for the sake of merchandising. (Even Andrew Stanton himself admitted he had no idea how to bring Woody back). I imagine Josh D’Amaro and Diana Walden couldn’t bear the thought of having to answer to the millions of parents whose children cried in the theaters because Woody wasn’t there.

While there’s an occasional flirting around with the idea of the older western toys being forced to match up with the newer, high-tech toys along with some amusing back-and-forth between him and Buzz, Woody’s role here feels rather superficial. Even the whole “balding head” and “bear belly” stick that the marketing made such a big deal out of doesn’t end up mattering that much, with Stanton and Harris basically gasping at straws with what to do with him.

This ties back to the weakest link of Toy Story 5, which is the overabundance of supporting characters that this franchise doesn’t know what to do with anymore. Much like Toy Story 4, the film’s desire to put the main focus on the handful of characters that drive forward the narrative and brand new characters it introduces means that a good chunk of the toy gang that the audience followed throughout the first three films is left on the shelfs to gather more dust. Even the toys that were introduced last time around such as Duke Caboom, Ducky, and Bunny are given screentime so slim that you can easily blink and you will miss them. (Not to mention, Bo Peep ends up getting sidelined…..again!) If Toy Story 2 was able to keep it’s core focus on Woody while also finding plenty for the supporting cast to do, then what excuse does these last two installments have?

Sure, characters like Hamm and Mr. and Mrs. Potato head are given a couple more lines than last time and there’s a decent laugh or two with Forky and his new “knife” but Pixar, you might want to pump the breaks on adding more toys if you can’t even bother to play with the ones that you already owned. It’s no wonder Bonnie keeps losing you guys!

And while the overall film resolution is satisfying by itself, you can’t help but think they were going for a much bolder and more daring change to the series’ overall status quo but then they just….backs away. Maybe that has to also factor in the massive number of characters now but even I’m now starting to lose track on which kid owns which toy now. I wouldn’t be surprised if Pixar got spooked by folks who cried foul to the ending of the last film and didn’t want to poke that bear again.

When it comes to everything else, it’s all fine and daddy. The animation continues to be stunning and deserving to be seen on the biggest screen possible (especially when it comes to every playtime scene and the 50+ Buzz Lightyear’s in action), Randy Newman proves he’s still got it as the series’ longtime composer and secret MVP, and while you can definitely tell that Hanks, Allen, and Cusack have shown their age as Woody, Buzz, and Jessie respectively, they are still given whatever energy and life they got left into these characters to make them stand out as some of Pixar’s absolute finest creations. Cusack in particular does her duty to make Jessie’s spotlight feel all the more worth it. While the trailers and clips shown off don’t do a good job at showcasing that, the actual finished film does do her justice. Oh, and Greta Lee definitely feels like she is having a LOT more fun here than she did in Tron: Ares.

To the folks out there that see Toy Story 3 as the “true” ending to the series and find any Toy Story installment to come out after 2010 to be an absolute disgrace, you have already made up your mind about Toy Story 5. To the folks out there that acknowledge this franchise has passed it’s peak and just want an excuse to hang out with some of their favorite toys again, you will find quite a bit to like about Toy Story 5. To the folks out there who love Jessie and see her and Buzz as absolute ENDGAME, you will find a LOT to like about Toy Story 5.

Even as Disney continues to squeeze whatever dollar they can into Pixar’s most successful franchise, you can’t deny that the people making these films are doing everything they can to justify themselves to keep the franchise going creatively. And come on, you are flat out LYING to yourself if you think a movie that is basically telling kids to turn off their iPads every now and then and touch some grass is NOT a message that kids and families need in 2026.

In that sense, Toy Story 5 might not be the Toy Story sequel we needed but it is perhaps the one we deserve.

Other comments:

  • I need a Smarty Pants Disney Plus mini series ASAP! If you did one with Forky, you can do one with Conan O’Brien!

  • I can’t believe they actually allowed Bullseye to speak but man did they found the perfect voice for him.

  • I love my boy Andy but Blaze might just be the best human character in this franchise. Bring her back for Toy Story 6!

  • And yes, they will make Toy Story 6 one day! Just accept it!

  • I can’t help but wonder how much better this film would’ve been accepted if THIS was the first Toy Story film since 2010 and was the TRUE Toy Story 4. At least you wouldn’t have to come up with a contrived excuse to bring Woody back.

  • It’s hilarious how two years ago, everybody was opening arms for Shrek 5 and closing arms for Toy Story 5! How the tables have turned!

  • Also, Shrek 5 looks……well……….yeah!

  • Gatto will be Pixar’s next masterpiece! Get back to me in nine months and I will say I told you all!

The Mandalorian & Grogu (2026) Movie Review- Gen Alpha’s The Clone Wars (2008) Movie

AdamLeave a comment

It’s 2008! We are in the middle of a world changing recession, endless war and chaos continues to rage on in the middle east and overseas, and we got a new Star Wars movie in theaters that just so happens to be three to four episodes of an upcoming tv show strung together with it’s entire plot center around rescuing Jabba the Hutt’s son.

It’s 2026! We are in the middle of a world changing recession, endless war and chaos continues to rage on in the middle east and overseas, and we got a new Star Wars movie in theaters that just so happens to be three to four episodes of an up….(oh never mind) tv show strung together with it’s entire plot center around rescuing Jabba the Hutt’s son.

All kidding aside, The Mandalorian & Grogu‘s mere existence as a feature film is quite bizarre. Coming off seven years since the last Star Wars movie released in theaters, with that being the infamous Star Wars Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, the higher-ups at Disney and Lucasfilm thought that the best way to bring the far, far away galaxy back to movie theaters worldwide involves what is basically a handful of reworked episodes of what was suppose to be Season 4 of the hit Disney Plus series, The Mandalorian, over three years after the show ended and over half a decade since it peaked in quality. And much like Dave Filoni’s other theatrically released feature Star Wars film (Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) MOVIE), it’s main plot involves the main characters finding and rescuing Rotta the Hutt, A.K.A. the son of Jabba the Hutt. (And yes, you heard that right! Jabba the Hutt had a son! Try sleeping tonight with that knowledge in your head! Lord knows how hard I’ve tried since 2008!)

I wish I can say there is much more to The Mandalorian & Grogu than that but there really isn’t. This is not a film that aims to expand the Star Wars timeline in any meaningful way, introduce new and exciting characters and plot McGuffins that could possibly matter later on down the road, or even try to stand out among the very best or even the very worst Star Wars has had to offer over the past 50 years. It’s only reason for existence is to keep the lights going on at Lucasfilm, please the higher ups at Mickey Mouse with the mere fact that they finally got a new Star Wars movie released after several years, and scratching that extra dollar itch in nonstop Baby Yoda merchandise. While there’s very little in here that will cause an online civil war or trigger “rage bait” culture, there’s nothing here that will get you intrigued when watching it or get you excited what lies ahead for the future of Star Wars.

Premise: The evil Empire has fallen but Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they enlist the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his young apprentice Grogu.

To the credit of Mr. Favreau and Mr. Filoni, The Mandalorian & Grogu does do a pretty good job at standing on it’s own two feet to make it accessible for mainstream audiences. Aside from a occasional reference or two and some mumble jumble about established lore that’s treated more as a throw away line than a necessity, you really don’t need to have seen The Mandalorian or any of the animated series such as The Clone Wars and Rebels to follow what’s going on here. The opening crawl does establish the time period of which the film is set in the Star Wars universe quite well and the gap in between the episodic installments that it’s trying to fill. Context is always key but as someone that has only watched the show one time and haven’t bothered to go back to it since each season premiered, I never found myself lost or confused with what was going on. Just a shame I also never found myself caring about what’s going on.

As stated previously, The Mandalorian & Grogu plays like a compilation of several episodes from the tv show crunched together rather than an actual feature film. For every 30 to 45 minutes of the film, it involves Mando and Grogu going on a mission to achieve an objective, completing that said objective, and getting prepared for what the very next objective awaits. And once that certain section is complete, you get a line of dialogue that was clearly meant to act as the end of an episode, a black screen or screen wipe occurs, and then it’s onto the very next section. It’s even more baffling when the pair technically completes their objective less than an hour of the way through but has to have that objective completely fall apart in nonsensical ways just to justify padding the runtime over two hours. If you thought The Rise of Skywalker felt too much like a plot of a video game, Jon Favreau has come into the clutch just to say, “HOLD MY BEER!”

Granted, all of this CAN be forgiven if the film feels like it’s trying to stand out as it’s own thing and push the property forward in any meaningful way but it’s clearly not. The characters, while look cool and act cute, come off more as action figures and expanded merchandise than actual characters. The action sequences, while competently put together, lacks any stakes or personal investment to get you to care. The story, while nothing that will get anybody worked up over, is without any meaningful themes, arcs, or even lore worthy of making an article on Star Wars Wiki. There’s a huge difference between a swing and a miss and not even bothering to put the bat off your shoulders at all.

For all the faults of the prequel trilogy, sequel trilogy, or Rogue One, they all at least felt like meaningful cinematic events that weren’t afraid to mix up the Star Wars canon and dared to push the series into an actual direction for the future. They had moments that showcased the highest highs and the lowest lows of Star Wars that made them all memorable. And even if some of them contained bad stories, bad characters arcs, and bad moments, they at least HAD stories, arcs, and moments of their own. The Mandalorian & Grogu doesn’t even attempt to reach those highs and lows of the franchise, instead aiming for the absolute bare minimum imaginable.

It’s like Disney and Lucasfilm have become so afraid of it’s own audience that they are scared to do ANYTHING different or meaningful with Star Wars, aiming just to make complete corporate slop to please the masses believing that will be enough. However, if the positive reception of recent Star Wars medium such as Andor, Maul – Shadow Lord, and the recent Respawn games in Jedi Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor are anything to go by, those claims are proven false.

Star Wars fans and audiences DO want good stories, characters, ideas, and expansions of the Star Wars universe. You just need to do it RIGHT and make each individual moment of fan service and character growth feel earned and justified. While most of the other Star Wars properties I’ve mention in this review was able to accomplish that, The Mandalorian & Grogu does not. Which yet again makes you wonder, why did this need to be a movie that just HAD to be seen on the big screen?

I don’t want to sound completely doom and gloom with this review. The musical score by Ludwig Goransson is terrific, completely capturing the sound and feel of not just the show it’s based on but also the world of Star Wars as a whole. He’s able to find that right mix of playing like an expanded spiritual version of John Williams while also providing his own distinct voice to the world of Star Wars, something which Michael Giacchino couldn’t quite achieve with Rogue One. As much as I do love Kevin Kiner’s work in The Clone Wars, Goransson does feel like the man that should be leading Star Wars musical scores going forward.

The opening action sequence with Mando and Grogu does provide that special “Batman meets John Wick” lightning in a bottle that the show was able to achieve with it’s very best set pieces, Grogu and Babu Frik are still cute as ever, and even Rotta the Hutt is able to stand out as being the only character in the movie that has the closest thing to a fully fletch character arc. And as I said before, even if you’ve never seen the show or don’t remember anything about that, you should be able to follow everything just fine, even with characters from the animated series such as Zeb and Embo showing up.

The Mandalorian & Grogu doesn’t so much feel like a movie but more of an obligation. An obligation forced by Disney to get a Star Wars movie out in theaters after seven years just to let everybody know that Star Wars movies are still a thing that is happening on some way, shape, or form. It’s feels like the kind of a movie that gets made JUST so the studios can hold on to the film rights to an IP and NOT because anyone creatively involved had an actual story to tell (Can you guess now why we’ve gotten crappy Spider-Man villain-led movies for the past several years?!).

This is the first Star Wars film that is NOT led by teddy bears or taking place during the holidays where you will wonder what purpose does this serve to the overall Star Wars universe. (Even The Clone Wars movie provided an ill-conceived intro to Ahsoka Tano and Solo filled in oddly answered blanks to Han’s backstory while laying the foundation of more “grounded” Star Wars stories to be told later on down the road.) If the film played out just as several episodes of the show, it MIGHT’VE turned out just fine. But as a feature length film, it stood not chance whatsoever.

Despite all the fan complaining about Kathleen Kennedy throughout the past decade plus with her handling of Star Wars, the newly elected CEO of Lucasfilm, Dave Filoni has not gotten over to a very promising start either with Star Wars films. I might sing a different tune this time next year once Ryan Gosling makes his way to the Star Wars galaxy with Star Wars: Starfighter and once we see a fully realized vision for what the next wave of Star Wars films will be. (That’s not even mentioning how Filoni’s other Star Wars work weren’t know for having the greatest starts either.) As of now, I think I might just be fighting with getting my second season of Maul and my third Jedi game with Cal Kestis and call it a day!

As for The Mandalorian & Grogu, congratulations Gen Alpha for getting your own live-action version of The Clone Wars movie from 2008. I hope you enjoy your stay in the Filoni-verse!

At least Sigourney Weaver got paid for her completely phoned-in extended cameo!

Michael (2026) Movie Review- Put Up (Song) Or Shut Up

AdamLeave a comment

Welp, I don’t know if there’s any way I can do this review without getting cancelled by someone. This latest biopic from the most beloved/controversial musician of the past 50 years in Michael Jackson was always guaranteed to be a total success or failure in the eyes of many. For those that just wanted to be reminded of the good old days of little MJ and put themselves in the shoes of someone that was able to experience pure pop rock peak in the man’s prime, Michael (2026) will be seen as an absolute W! For those that were hopping it would dig a deeper dive into MJ’s personal life, hard hitting dilemmas, and even ask the million dollar question as to whether or not those allegations that hauntedly followed him throughout his career would be addressed, Michael (2026) will be seen as a massive L!

And I almost just want to stop the review right there! Similar to 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody, Michael (2026) is not interested in revealing things about Michael Jackson that you didn’t already know and would rather handwave any noticeable cracks on the man’s legacy in favor of delivering the cinematic equivalent of a greatest hits album, playing through the songs that everyone knows and loves while making everyone in the theaters feel like they were with the man’s musical journey all along. This is strictly the Michael Jackson you remember on the big stage and NOT the one off of it.

If all of that sounds okay for you, then you are going to dig this movie. If not, then you are better off watching Leaving Neverland, the biggest scam of a “hit piece” ever conceived outside of whatever the hell Fox News was saying about Fred Rogers back in the day. It’s not entirely free of criticism when judging by it’s own merits, with a rather underutilized supporting cast and the most abrupt ending from an entertainment medium since The Last of Us, but for what it’s worth, Michael (2026) is able to put up song and shut up about everything else to make for an enjoyable musical montage that is worth seeing in complete IMAX for anyone that is a fan!

Premise: The story of “King of Pop” Michael Jackson (Jaafar Jackson). From his childhood as the star of the Jackson 5, through times of abuse by his father Joe Jackson, to breaking away and making the hit album Thriller and claiming his independence as a solo artist.

There are PLENTY of ways you can look at Michael through some rather cynical lens. Even if you take away purposedly leaving out anything about the so-called allegations (which was originally planned until they decided to completely re-shot the ending, causing the film to be delayed from it’s initial October 2025 release date), this is a biopic you can easily mistake as being more in-line with a typical concert movie. Oh sure, you get your backstory about Michael’s troubles with his father and within his own family and how that contributed to this rise to stardom, as well as one big life-changing event that nearly took a hit on his legacy (Again, NO, it’s NOT the allegations!). However, as the very last sequence that got added in through re-shots showcases, this is all about Michael Jackson: The Musician and NOT Michael Jackson: The Person. This is a musical biopic that wants nothing more than to put up song and shut up with anything else.

The good news is that the music is still so damn good! Nearly every scene where Michael sings each one of his iconic songs is a joy to watch and a treat for the ears! The sound design is outstanding, Antoine Fuqua directs the hell out of every single musical sequence, the scenes specifically designed for IMAX makes the whole experience worth that price of admission alone, and it’s able to perfectly capture the atmosphere and pure aura of Michael Jackson in his prime! Even if Michael Jackson: The Person is barely presence on screen, Michael Jackson: The Musician still slaps just as hard all these years later.

The other good news is Jaafar Jackson is able to perfectly slip into his uncle’s shoes as the legend himself. He makes you buy that he is Michael Jackson about as well as anyone possibly could, being able to capture Michael’s mannerism and star power in ways that I don’t think anyone expected when he was casted. Even the dramatic scenes that might feel very surface level and emotionally cold to the cynical mindset, he’s able to add his own unique certain layer to it that feels in spirit with his uncle and in spirit of himself as his own actor. He’s able to perfectly convey the whole journey of every hoop and leap of faith that Michael Jackson had to go through to get to what he is known as today. Quite simply, if it wasn’t for Jaafar Jackson being so good in this role, this film would have failed big time.

It’s unfortunate how the rest of the cast gets quite the short stick. Outside of Colman Domingo’s terrific performance as Michael’s abusive father, Joseph, there’s not much material for the rest of the star studded cast to make an impression. The rest of Michael’s family feel like they are only there due to absolute obligation (outside of Michael’s sister Janet, who declined to be portrayed in the film) and the relationships that Michael has with his agency with the likes of Mike Myers, Miles Teller, and Laura Harrier feels like a complete afterthought. I understand some of that has to do with personal and legal reasons but the film could have done a much better job at representing them even with the limited material they are given to work with.

There’s also the way the film concludes. It’s no secret that the ending of the film had to be changed significantly. Not just to reshot the entire third act so it did NOT cover the allegations against Michael Jackson that had already been resolved and proven to be false but also find a way for the film to end on a complete note after scraping the initial plans to have the film be split into two. While the song they chose to end it with was perfect, it is rather anticlimactic to have the final word of dialogue shown being about how Michael Jackson’s story will continue. Whether that is referring to another film being made or Michael’s legacy continuing beyond his early days will be determine by the box office but man, it almost feels like things were just getting started and then the film just…..stops.

Michael (2026) will be seen as a success or failure depending on what you are going to this film looking for. Do you just wanna see a mild sneak preview of Michael’s beginning and having his nephew perform your favorite songs on the big screen? If you do, then you will be happy. Do you want to see an extensive look of what went on from behind the scenes of Michael’s life and how that contributed to his rise to fame outside of just songs? If you do, then you will be disappointed.

If I were to judge Michael (2026) based on the entertainment scale and the experience I had listening to his songs performed in pure IMAX. I say it’s a solid three out of four stars.

If I were to judge Michael (2026) on standing on it’s own as a biopic and extended look of perhaps the most famous pop singer of all time. I say it’s a in-the-middle two out of four stars.

I guess if I were to combine both ratings. It would average around to a two and a half out of four stars.

Make of all that what you will!

Other comments:

  • Sorry that this took me a while to upload! I was busy for the past week with attending a wedding and covering from a mild cold! I have plenty of more pieces in the works for next month and onwards! Be on the look out for all of those!

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) Movie Review- Saved By Yoshi

AdamLeave a comment

When The Super Mario Bros Movie came out around this time in 2023, I was generous enough to give it a free pass. Yes, it was fan service galore and had as much substance as a happy meal from McDonalds but it was cute and a faithfully surface level adaption of the gaming plumber bros we all know and love while working well enough as a simple story about the powers of brotherhood and how being small can actually be cool sometimes. And with the way the post credit scene gave a glimpse of the potential arrival of Yoshi for the sequel, you would think Illumination would follow through on that teaser by continuing to expand upon this cinematic world with yet another basic and direct adaption of the classic 2D Mario games (most notably Super Mario World) and call it day. However, it seems as though Nintendo and the Minions company had other plans.

Instead, the cast and crew are looking to take things 10X further and jump straight to Super Mario Galaxy! Not only acting as an adaption of some of the most beloved video games of all time but also introducing many more fan favorite characters such as Yoshi, Bowser Jr. & Rosalina (We’ll get to here LATER!), double down on all of the easter eggs, callbacks, references, and even some surprise cameos from not just Mario but also other known Nintendo franchises, AND also acting as a celebration of 40 years of the Super Mario Bros franchise. Oh, and also are looking to do all of this in the spam of just 90 minutes because….god forbid we let children watch a movie that’s more than 90 minutes in the year of our lord and savior 2026!

If what I just told you makes the movie sound too crowded and overstuffed and gives the impression that the actual Galaxy elements feels like an complete afterthought, you would be 100% correct. If this all sounds like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is nothing more than one brief sugar rush that feels more like a collection of cutscenes, gameplay videos, and YouTube shorts of the very best Mario games compiled together than an actual feature film, you would be 100% correct. If that all sounds up your alley, then it will be up your alley. If that sounds like a miserable nightmare to you, then this will be a miserable nightmare for you. But there is one thing everyone will agree on, at least it has Yoshi in it! And Yoshi makes EVERYTHING better!

Premise: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie follows Mario (Chris Pratt), Luigi (Charlie Day), Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), and newcomer Yoshi (Donald Glover) as they journey into outer space to rescue Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) from Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie). Bowser Jr. captures her to harness her power to fuel a super-weapon, free his imprisoned father Bowser (Jack Black), and conquer the galaxy.

Now, I know what everyone and their Yoshi is about to type away in the comments, “IT’S A MARIO MOVIE! OF COURSE THE PLOT IS GOING TO BE SIMPLE AND STRAIGHT FORWARD! WHAT WERE YOU EXPECTING, FAM?!” But, I have a PERFECT counter argument to that!

While, YES, the first Mario movie (and most Mario games in general) did have a very simple and straight forward plot, you could at least follow what’s going on and mostly can summarize what happens in the story in one or two sentences. It was a classic Mario tale with a few new modern tweaks to it about a plumber from Brooklyn going on a journey with a powerful princess to save his brother from the clutches of an evil dinosaur and save a magical kingdom on top of that. Was it great storytelling? Heck no! But it was easy enough to understand and get behind without too much hassle!

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie doesn’t so much have a simple and straightforward plot but rather no plot to speak of. It’s jampacked with so many different characters, coincidences, and contrivances strung together, trying desperately to gloss over any glaring structural issues and give you the impression that it’s perfectly acceptable storytelling…..just because it’s Mario. There’s no coherent end goal, no fully realized character arcs are given time to flesh out, and there’s not a single moment where you will find something you didn’t already find in any other form of Mario media. It’s all about getting certain characters from Point A to Point Z and checking off all the boxes that the filmmakers believe they need to check or else they will get hate mail thrown at them from hardcore Nintendo fanboys for the rest of eternity.

And even if you look at the film from an adaption of the much beloved Super Mario Galaxy, it’s not a very good one. While the Galaxy features does help showcases some of the most gorgeous animation and impressive set pieces that Illumination Animation has EVER shown on the big screen, it’s only faithful on the surface level and NOWHERE else. The Lumas don’t serve much purpose other than being cute little star children that will make for great merchandise to sell and the traveling through planets sequences only exist to get characters from one location to another, almost feeling like you could’ve replaced it with any other detour from any other game and there wouldn’t be much difference.

The most wasted element however has to go to Rosalina. Despite being a fan favorite character and casted by longtime Nintendo superfan Brie Larson (THE MVP of the film’s marketing btw), she barely has any presence in the actual movie. She only exists to be a plot device and be a driving force to motivate the main characters (mostly Peach) throughout the entire movie….and nothing else. There’s even a SUPER long stretch in the movie where the character doesn’t even get to appear on screen. If it wasn’t for the fact that the characters kept mentioning Rosalina by name during that long stretch, I would’ve COMPLETELY forgot she was even in the dang movie until the last 20 minutes.

While some would argue that Rosalina’s role in the Galaxy games were also in small doses, you at least felt her presence throughout the entire experience. You still had Mario checking in on her every now and then with friendly exchanges once you completed each world that made you remember she’s still around whenever you might’ve forgot where she was. Because The Super Mario Galaxy Movie doesn’t seem to be that interest in the Galaxy elements that it’s suppose to incorporate (until it suddenly does towards the tail end of the film), Rosalina ends up being casted away harder than even Tom Hanks in the movie Cast Away!

It makes me wonder why Illumination thought they had to make Princess Peach a “girlboss” in the first movie because the damsel in distress trope is so problematic and outdated….only to then turn around and make Rosalina a damsel in distress in the very next movie. It’s like they just swapped the characterizations of Peach and Rosalina just because one might be more marketable than the other. (And don’t even get me started on the bizarre retcon between them that gave me the same reaction I had when it was revealed in the Wade Whipple show that Knuckles now has the flames of destr…..I mean disaster!)

On the other hand, at least they did my boy Yoshi justice. (And I’m not just saying that because I’m the biggest Yoshi shill in the world!) He has a very unique and welcome presence on screen with a surprisingly good vocal performance from Donald Glover (Easily the best “WTF!” casting in any movie since Vin Diesel as Groot!). He’s not treated like a dumb animal or an incompetent dog that Mario and Luigi has to take care off. He’s cute, funny, useful, resourceful, gets plenty of great moments, and he constantly proves throughout the movie that there is NOTHING he wouldn’t do for his friends. If there’s one thing that even the worst of Mario franchise gets right, it’s Yoshi and that is no exception here.

If we are to go more into the positives. The visuals are as amazing as they were the last time around, if not even better. There’s so many stunning sequences that you can tell the animators went to hell and back for to make them look as good as they did. The best moments are easily the ones where the characters are flying through outer space and any scenes that take place on the other planets separate from the Mushroom Kingdom. There’s so much love and care put into every single detail throughout the film that it makes you wish there was anywhere near as much passion from the writers of the film as there was from the animators.

The soundtrack from Bryan Tyler is still as stellar this time around with plenty of new and unique remixes to classic Mario toons, helping give the film it’s own unique beating heart and theme that you wouldn’t expect from a composer. The licensed music is (thankfully) used much more sparingly this time around and only when the scene absolutely calls for it, the voice cast are as adequate as they were before, and there is one surprise extended cameo, while gaining more screentime than Rosalina (Seriously, Illumination! WTF!), that makes me SLIGHTLY curious to see them in their own future film in the hands of a more capable studio (Please DreamWorks! Find a way to make it happen!).

Say what you will about the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movies from Paramount but at least those films work perfectly well from a “have your cake and eat it too” perspective. They stand well enough as not just faithful adaptions of the games but also as cinematic experiences for mainstream audiences who are not aware of prior Sonic material. It’s got filmmakers who clearly have a huge passion for the speedy blue blur, doing everything they can to make each new installment better than the last one while addressing fan feedback and criticism in satisfactory ways.

With The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, it’s clear that Illumination cares more about milking as many sequels and spin-offs to beloved Nintendo properties as they can before the will runs dry instead of making movies that work in every way a video game adaption should. I will most certainly NOT say that the passion from the cast and crew aren’t there or they didn’t at least have a huge amount of fun in making these films, you just don’t get the sense that the higher ups at Illumination see this series as anything more than water down jokes and paper thin storylines for little kids and key jingling and nostalgia bait for grown adults. And….that kinda sucks.

But again…it does have Yoshi in it!

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is not trying to win anyone that wasn’t won over by the first film nor is it trying to make a new Mario fan out of anyone. It’s just trying to scratch the nostalgic itch out of longtime fans and scratch the easter family movie for kids that will drag their parents to see the film this weekend and nothing else. I just wish we can expect better from not just one of the most popular characters in all of gaming but children and family films in general. And considering, we currently have two other very good animated kids films in GOAT and Hoppers that are still playing in theaters right now, there simply shouldn’t be an excuse for this.

Still, I can’t say I was bored by the movie nor found anything overly offensive from it. And with all the chaos and mayhem that is going on in the world right now, it never hurts to be drowning in pure cartoon delight as pure escapism. And again, it has Yoshi in it! And Yoshi makes EVERYTHING better!

I sure can’t wait though until Sonic The Hedgehog 4 sidelines Amy Rose for 90% of the film and reveals she’s actually Sonic’s *SPOILER*, while giving more screentime to Ryo Hazuki of all characters. **

Unfortunately, Yoshi will NOT be there to save the day! (Or will he?!)

** That’s actually gonna happen in Sonic 4, isn’t it?! F**K!

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) Movie Review- Twice The Blondes, Double The Fun

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Sequels always have a daunting task! It has to offer everything that everyone loved about the original but deliver it in such a way that sets the second chapter apart from the first one! You have to give the audiences something familiar, throw in a few new elements for good measure, and cross that fine line between being the same but different without losing your balance. However, there are some sequels that benefit from staying right on that fine line with no means of trying to differentiate itself from the original or separating itself from it’s own formula, even if it does occasionally flirt with what it would do if it chose to cross that path. Since the new burger tasted so good the first time you had, why bother changing the ingredients when you have it a second time? And that is where sequels like Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come come in!

While it is no doubt more of the same and doesn’t even try to be as fresh as Radio Silence’s original magnum opus, it still contains most of the same old ingredients that audiences loved about the first movie with a few new elements sprinkled in that does enough to justify it’s existence. The cast is much bigger and adds more to the established lore of Ready or Not, there’s a much larger scope and more expansive setting to explore, there’s more bloody kills and guts spewing everywhere than before, and there’s even more beautiful blondes kicking butt this time around. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel nor is it trying to win over anybody that were not fans of the original. It just wants to have a gory, fun time and it certainly succeeds at that.

Premise: After surviving an all-out attack from the Le Domas family, Grace (Samara Weaving) discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game, and this time with her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), by her side. To survive, Grace must keep Faith alive and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. Four rival families are also hunting her for the throne, and whoever wins will rule it all.

Throughout Ready Or Not 2, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olphin and Tyler Gillett make it clear that their #1 goal with Here I Come is to have more fun this time around rather than trying to play a brand new game from seven years earlier. Going bigger, not bolder. Expand the mythos, not deepen them. Be with the grain, not against it. Deliver on expectations, not subvert them. (We even get to see Samara Weaving wearing the exact same bloody wedding dress she had in the first movie!) While that is certainly well and good because the duo are well aware of their own interests as well as the audiences, you can’t help but be mildly frustrated at the intriguing subtext and ideas that the film chooses to handwave.

The film states that the rich families that Grace and Faith are fighting against are these insane religious supremacy overlords that are using their money, wealth, and power to control all the world’s resources. And if they are not successful in killing Grace, then they will lose all of that money, wealth, power, and control over everything. Yet aside from an occasional line or two, Here I Come never really dives deep into that, feeling like it only exists to give the rich families new motives for needing to kill Grace.

And that is where the shortcomings for Ready or Not 2 come into place. Even though it’s longer than the first film and has more locations and set pieces than before, it wants to add more subtext and character dilemma than before. However, because the pacing is so break-neck and Bettinelli-Olphin and Gillett are in such a hurry to get from one glorious kill to the next, these moments never have time to breathe.

There’s the goals of the rich elites to control everything but it never goes into why they want to achieve these goals other than Satan told them so. You got a rivalry set-up between Grace and her ex-husband’s previous finance that doesn’t go anywhere aside from an awesome climatic fight between the two. You also got a sister bondship which includes scenes, while good and well-acted, forces the pacing of the film to come to a screeching halt and suspense of disbelief needed for these moments while the two girls are fighting for their lives. There’s these doors opens for Here I Come to be bolder and risker than the original but it’s clear the film would rather just close it and stay in the house that it’s clearly comfortable in.

Thankfully, none of that detracts from the entertainment value here because all of the successful elements that made the original Ready or Not so fun are still good here. The kills are fun, the blood and gore are turned up to 11, the set pieces and chase sequences, while extremely over-the-top and nonsensical, make for some of the film’s exciting and delightfully amusing moments, and the supporting cast all make for fine additions to these series of films, with the main highlights of the rich families being Sarah Michelle Gellar as the well-intentioned but morally handcuffed rich daughter, Elijah Wood as the straight as an arrow lawyer, and also whoever the heck that guy who was playing the Nintendo Switch 2 (Seriously, what’s his name?! I can’t find him on Google or Wiki!).

The real glue that holds Here I Come together is Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton playing two long distanced sisters. Samara Weaving is able to kick just as much ass as she did the first time around (and does so in that same bloody dress) while being able to match every moment she can with her effortless charisma and mighty war scream (That NEVER get old!). Kathryn Newton, who has already proven herself to be a reliable Scream queen with Freaky and Abigail, has really sold chemistry with Weaving, really buying the core relationship between two sisters who thought they wanted nothing to do with each other but deep down they really do. Even if the more character driven moments between the two sisters did come at the expense of the film stopping dead in it’s tracks, the film wouldn’t have worked as well as it does if it weren’t for these two actresses trying to work out their problems with guns, swords, and pure wits.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is the textbook definition of a sequel that is basically, “What you see is what you get!” Do you want to see more heads and bodies exploding with creative and satisfying kills?! Do you want to see more gorgeous looking locations, well-suited costume designs, and a more expansive world to spend time in?! Do you want to just have fun for 105 minutes with two super hot blondes and the OG Buffy the Vampire Slayer?! If your answer is Yes to any of those, then I can’t see how you won’t enjoy another round with Radio Silence’s most unique original series to date.

As much as I can nitpick about the glossed over subtext and lore, that’s a small price to pay for everything else it does well. Is it more of the same? Sure? Does it taste just as good as the first time around even though you’ve already had it? Absolutely!

Project Hail Mary (2026) Early Movie Review- Operation Cinematic Triumph

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You know how sometimes whenever a new movie comes out and the studio decides to NOT lift the review embargo until the exact day the movie comes out? That’s usually a sign that the studio has ZERO faith in the film they just poured millions of dollars into and hope they could swipe it underneath the rug from any kind of negative publicity in the hopes of making any sort or profit of said film before it hits digital and streaming. There might always be an exception (*cough* Oppenheimer) but whenever a studio usually does that, NINE times out of ten, they know they got a dud on their hands.

Project Hail Mary has been the exact opposite of that. Amazon has given the film PLENTY of attention and early press releases before it hit theaters everywhere this weekend. Only this time, it’s not just for film critics but for film audiences as well! There has not been one but TWO special screenings that has come from AmazonMGM, a studio which absolutely needs a hit after several underwhelming films (Mercy, Crime 101, and that one documentary that shall not be named) to start off 2026. Regardless if this is an act of faith or desperation, you can’t say anyone involved is afraid to show everyone what they got with this latest motion picture.

However, giving a film too much exposure can easily backfire. It can generate overhype and set the film with completely unrealistic expectations of it’s quality harder than any film that wins Best Picture at the Oscars ever could! Or there can be times where all that hype and buzz is absolutely worth it and the film just ends up being a perfectly executed version of the film that it inspires to be that there’s not much to complain about. And I can said with good pride that the film I’m just about to talk about is exactly the latter of what I’m talking about.

Project Hail Mary is an incredibly well made, extremely well acted, and very well paced sci-fi thriller that works (I imagine) not just as a faithful adaption of the critically acclaimed book from Andy Weir (The Martian) but it also stands strongly as it’s own cinematic experience and a thematically moving think tank surrounding art and science . There is not a single second that is boring or uninteresting, Ryan Gosling is pitch perfect in the lead role as Grace and has great chemistry with his so-called co-star (which I’m not going to spoil in case no one is aware of that character yet), it has a perfectly controlled tone that knows when to be funny, serious, and moving when it’s absolutely required, and even if you can see the inspiration from your favorite sci-fi flick from the 2010s (Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian, Arrival, Mr. Gosling’s own First Man! Take your pick!), it is able to have it’s own unique identity while telling a distinct story about the importance of loyalty, friendship, unity, and sacrifice. While it’s certainly not the most flawless film I’ve ever seen and I’m sure there will be nits to be picked from fans of the book, I can’t imagine Project Hail Mary being a better version of itself than what Mr. Lord and Mr. Miller was able to deliver here.

Premise: Science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory slowly returns, he soon discovers he must solve the riddle behind a mysterious substance that’s causing the sun to die out. As details of the mission unravel, he calls on his scientific training and sheer ingenuity — but he may not have to do it alone.

I will say straight off the bat that I have NOT read the book that this film is based on. I’m well aware that Andy Weir’s 2021 spiritually successor to The Martian is one of the more beloved books in recent worry, being a New York Times’ best-seller for 28 weeks in a row. However, I purposedly choose to hold off on reading the book BEFORE seeing the movie in order to not spoil the cinematic experience for myself! Even so, while I’m sure there were some changes had to have been made and plot elements that had to be reworked or cut out in order for it to qualify as a feature film, I really get the feeling that is indeed a very worthy adaption of it’s source material.

The main reason I believe that is because it’s clear how much pure confidence is on display from the cast and crew with the making of this film. You really get the sense that it’s trying to capture a special lightning in a bottle that you don’t get from films these days. They are trying to offer you an experience that you possibly couldn’t get from any other film besides this one, even including the other recent sci-fi flicks that it’s clearly inspired by. It’s trying to engage you in ways that you probably never expected, especially when you discover what the main driving force of the film is suppose to be. And it’s even trying to tell a tale about finding that spark of hope within yourself when it seems like no else can. Even if Grace himself is doubtful that he can complete his mission, the cast and crew have more than enough trust in themselves with Project Hail Mary.

As much as comparisons are going to be made with The Martian (and rightfully so…..in good ways), the main protagonist Ryland Grace is NOT Mark Watney! He’s not someone who has had major experience with space travel or being an astronaut. He’s just a simple teacher who is sent on a mission that can determine the fate of humanity and earth because he simply has nothing left to lose. Project Hail Mary isn’t strictly a story about a man working his way back home, it’s a story about a man working his way so that billions of other earthly live forms (and a very special friend) might have a chance of going back or staying home for the foreseeable future. Even if it’s not a full on direct sequel of The Martian, screenwriter Drew Goddard is able to properly expand the themes of Andy Weir’s work involving sci-fi and space operas once again in ways that will certainly put a smile on the author’s face.

Nothing in Project Hail Mary could have worked as well as it does without Ryan Gosling’s masterful performance as Grace! Much like the tone in the film, he is able to expressive himself exactly the way that the script demands for it whenever he is needed. He has great comedic timing, knows when to transition to being serious and emotional, makes every single dramatic and character beat feel earned, and makes for a overall engaging screen presence that is able to hide any sort of jarring shortcoming that the film might have. And yes, he does have absolutely perfect chemistry with that one special character that I will not mention because it’s a spoiler free review. But, all I will say is this…..Baby Yoda has some SERIOUS competition!

The other MVPs of the film goes to co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. This film makes for the duels’ first directorial feature credit since 2014’s 22 Jump Street. While it’s certainly crazy that it’s been 12 years since these guys have fully directed a film (It’s a shame that Solo: A Star Wars Story didn’t work out but the Spider-Verse films were co-written and produced by the duo, NOT directed!), they make their cinematic return feel worth it. Just like they did with films like The Lego Movie and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, they are able to take this odd and far-reach concept of a man trying to achieve the literal impossible while including it’s own unique brain in it’s head. They know how to get their universally relatable themes about the need for connection and working together in a time of crisis while not being afraid to be funny and moving along the way.

In terms of other technical and productive achievements, Project Hail Mary is the complete package. While there’s not a direct sequence that is as aspiring as the very best scenes from Gravity or Interstellar, this is a very beautiful looking motion picture, making the extra bucks for IMAX actually feel worth it. Any shot in space is a treat for the eyes and the transition from IMAX ratio to normal ratio is surprisingly never jarring. The cinematography by Greig Fraser is on-point, the score by Daniel Pemberton is able to be as equally mesmerizing as it is moving with some truly inspiring song choices, and even though this is a story which the events are told out of nowhere, the superb job from editor Joel Negron has every scene flow together very well and makes this daring narrative choice from Mr. Lord and Miller feel completely justified.

It may seems like I’m scratching underneath the surface with this review but that’s because there’s so much AURA here that I don’t want to spoil it for anyone that is curious to see Project Hail Mary this weekend. Not necessarily because there’s any game changing spoilers to be found (outside of the obvious elephant in the room) but because I want your experience to be as fresh and surprising as it was for me.

Project Hail Mary is sci-fi, adaptions, and cinema as it’s absolute best! It’s able to find the best of every possible world that it can and is able to stand strong on any merit that you chose to measure it with. I can nitpick about there being one or two many “funny” scenes and the way the film continuously teases what ending pathway it will chose to take by the end of Act Two and leading into Act Three is a tad jarring but when a film is this well put together, entertaining, and filled with so much optimism despite taking place in a literal dying Earth, how can you let ANY kind of flaw distract you from everything else?!

This will likely go down as one of the best films of the year, an early frontrunner for Best Picture at Next Year’s Academy Awards, and proof that cinema in Hollywood can evolve without the need of a Marvel superhero or a remake of an animated film from 30 years ago to carry theaters for the future. It’s become rarer every day to recommend a film that fully justifies the $15 to $20 ticket price but Project Hail Mary is exactly that!

You ever seen that meme that says “Never Kill Yourself”? I like to imagine the person that came up with that meme was describing the experience of watching Project Hail Mary!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna pre-order the novel now!

Scream 7 (2026) Movie Review- Weak And Stab-less

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Scream 7 is the first installment in this franchise that attempts to answer questions that it never really intended to when production first started. After Spyglass fired Melissa Barrera over “personal matters” and allowed Jenna Ortega and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon to walk, this seven entry now finds itself addressing social commentary about what happens when a franchise royally s**ts the bed so hard that it has no choice but to bring back the legacy characters that everyone loves and lean balls deep into nostalgia. Unlike with most franchises that has to use that template because of past screw-ups in front of the camera, this film has to use that template because of past screw-ups BEHIND the camera! And oh man, are the results EMBRASSINGLY on screen!

Scream 7 plays like an apology letter to the franchise for excluding Sidney Prescott from the last movie and an outright hostile takeover (And I’m NOT just talking about the one which Paramount had just accomplished) of the previous two movies. Imagine if they made a fourth Creed movie that brought back Sylvester Stallone but left out Michael B Jordan and spend the entire runtime saying sorry for leaving Rocky out last time. This film is all about how great Sidney Prescott is, how the original movies with her are the best of the best, and how the previous two films felt more like Stab movies than Scream movies and…..basically nothing else.

The whole film has a choppy feel to it throughout it’s entire runtime, none of the returning characters or callbacks feel earned, the new characters that are introduced don’t make much of an impression, it brings up current topics that it has no business in exploring or commentating on, and it never fully justifies why Sidney Prescott is back at the forefront that makes the whole behind the scenes drama with Melissa Barrera feel worth it. While Neve Campbell is still as great as ever (and has aged like a FINE wine) and there a couple of solid kills scattered throughout, Scream 7 is the first installment in this beloved horror franchise that never seems like it has a stab point to make.

Premise: When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the town where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter becomes the next target

As stated previously, the most tone deaf element of Scream 7 has to do with the handling of Sidney Prescott and why she’s the main focus once again. It plays in the exact same fashion as every other modern series when they feel the need to go into full course correction mode after previously divisive and/or poorly received installments (Anyone that is able to write a review for Scream 7 that does NOT mention The Rise of Skywalker gets an achievement unlocked!) sank its reputation and feels the need to address it.

The problem here is that Scream (2022) and Scream VI were NOT divisive and/or poorly received installments. Both installments got solid reviews and fan reception while making just as much money as you could make for this franchise. It was able to successfully pass the series baton to a new generation of Scream queens and actually bothering to blaze a path forward for this long-running horror franchise. It’s only because of studio politics that forced this film to have a massive half a million dollar rewrite and needing to pay Neve Campbell her due to come back. It’s not course correction because the previous two films that put the spotlight on Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega were rejected by the fandom or mainstream audiences, it’s course correction due to pure incompetence from Spyglass.

Thankfully, Neve Campbell still has it as Sidney Prescott. She has never given a half assed performance in any one of these movies and is still fully committed here. She is given an actual mother-daughter dynamic to play with this time around, an aspect that Scream (2022) absolutely hand-waved, with Isabel May (A.K.A. Tim McGraw’s daughter in 1883 and 1923) as Sid’s daughter, Tatum (Try not to think too much about the Scream timeline to avoid a brain malfunction). It’s during these moments where the film become the closest to have an actual beating heart to it and gets the best performances out of these two.

Unfortunately, the film can never escape the stormy raincloud that has been raining above it since the departure of Melissa Barrera. The absence of the Carpenter sisters is never addressed and you could almost swear you can swap these characters with two other ones in the movie and nothing much change. You can just put Sam in the same role as Tatum and Tara in the same role as Mckenna Grace’s character or Michelle Randolph’s (A.K.A. Billy Bob Thornton’s daughter in Landman) character in the opening sequence and you basically get the exact same movie. I don’t mean to harp on the studio politics surrounding Scream 7 too much but it just goes to show you how much Paramount and Skydance shot themselves in the foot here.

While the newer characters and returning cast members from the last two films do have plenty of young talent that seems like they are having fun, they all remain rather disposable cannon fodder. Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown are giving less to do here than the last two movies with the latter not even given the chance to deliver her deliciously ham-fisted speech that’s suppose to go into detail what modern day tropes this latest Scream installment is suppose to be mocking. Mckenna Grace and Celeste O’Connor seem to be only here because they have become more popular actresses among Gen Z that you just had to thrown in here. Joel McHale plays the straight forward police officer well but doesn’t have any chemistry with Neve Campbell as her distinct husband. It’s really saying something when the new cast members that give off the best impression are the ones that show up in the opening scene just to get killed by Ghostface.

In terms of returning characters from the original Scream movies, they might be even more underwhelming. While it’s always great to see Courtney Cox’s Gale and ESPECIALLY Matthew Lillard’s Stu, their presence somehow manages to feel even more like an afterthought than the legacy characters in Scream (2022). It particularly uses Stu to address a major global crisis we are all dealing with right now and…..then proceeds to do literally NOTHING else with it. Not only is there no shock value to Stu’s return because the film proceeds to explain right out of the gate why Stu is suddenly back with NO unique twist to it, the methods to his presence makes even less sense with the way the film explains it. I know tech is pretty good in our own world but there no way it’s THAT good as it is in Scream 7.

And in case you are wondering about the Ghostface actors, they are all hands down the worst killer reveals in the entire franchise. While it might leave you with a big “Oh!” in an interesting way at first glance, it falls completely apart the moment you even start to think about their motives and how little sense they actually made. It’s about the most random people you can imagine and have the most tacked-on connections to Sid imaginable, given the indication that this franchises has run out of ideas on how to shock people with who Ghostface is. When even the killer in last year’s I Know What You Did Last Summer have a more justifiable motive, you know something went completely wrong here.

Kevin Williamson makes his return to the Scream franchise after writing the first two Scream movies and Scream 4 while getting a chance for his seat in the director’s chair. Even if the whole film has a feeling that the whole thing was cobbled together at the last second (which I can’t imagine why), he is able to stage the stabbing and killing as best as he could. There’s a handful of real and effective stabbing scenes spread throughout, with the main standout being the opening sequence and the final stand by Sid herself. I’m not even gonna pretend they make even the most logical sense as to why each Ghostface scene is happening but to give the film credit where it’s due, it’s sequences of blood, gore, and kills do work whenever they need to.

Scream 7 is the first movie in the franchise that feels like it belongs more in the world of Stab than it does Scream. For all the faults of Scream 3 or the last two installments, they still did feel like proper Scream entries that was able to get the points they were trying to get across worth it. Scream 7 doesn’t even attempt to be as fun or intriguing as the weakest of Scream movies. Aside from trying to carry favor to Neve Campbell and those that rejected Scream (2022) and Scream VI because they actually dared to push the series forward, I can’t recommend this movie to anyone unless you are a Scream fanatic.

In my review for Scream VI back in 2023, I said that the next movie needed to up it’s game on the spoofs and meta commentary in order for the series to continue moving strong or else the fatigue will set in. While I’m sure the opening box office numbers will say otherwise, Scream 7 confirmed my worst fears in spectacular fashion. It’s a combination of corrupted studio politics and producers and what happens when a franchise is too in love with it’s past that it can’t bother to push forward for the future. As much as I’m a fan of this franchise, it’s probably time to put it to rest.

Wuthering Heights (2026) Movie Review- Sex Over Substance

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When adapting a well-known book onto the big screen, there always comes a very tight rope you need to walk on in order to make a winner out of it. Not only do you have to make it work as a faithful adaption to it’s source material that longtime fans will love, but you also have to make it work as it’s own self-contained story that can land with mainstream audiences who have never read the book (or any book) beforehand and coming into this one with fresh eyes. We’ve seen many times where film adaptions can make changes to it’s source material but still win the hearts of everyone by staying true to it’s origins such as Jurassic Park, How To Train Your Dragon, and (hopefully) Project Hail Mary while also seen adaptations surprisingly fall short BECAUSE of sticking to close to it’s origins and refusing to make changes such as The Running Man (2025) and (hopefully not) Dune: Messiah! Then you get adaptions like Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, that doesn’t seem interested in celebrating it’s successful book series it’s based on but more of making it’s own engaging story of it while wanting nothing to do with it’s book’s origins and is basically only a film adaption in name only. An adaption that seems to wants to be EVERYTHING but have to do with it’s own source material.

I’m not gonna pretend like I’m an expert on the Wuthering Heights series because I sure as heck am NOT but after doing my research on it before seeing the film, I can see why longtime fans of the book would have a grudge against this latest film iteration done by Emerald Fennell. Yes, the film puts the spotlight on a tragic yet heartfelt love story that puts the novel’s themes surrounding abuse and trauma to the wayside. Yes, the two main leads are about 10 to 15 years older on screen than they are in the novel! Yes, Fennell seems to be less interested in exploring the longing of the source material and more interested in plain lust here. And yes, the dark skinned male lead from the novel is replaced by a white, caucasian man (No fault to Jacob Elordi!) in the finished film.

This isn’t so much a fan fiction of Wuthering Heights but more of just plain fiction that’s a response to other fan fiction out there. It’s more of Emerald Fennell wanting to tell her own romantic tale that I’m sure she’s dreamed off since she was a little girl while desperately trying to do her best Greta Gerwig’s Little Women impression. Regardless of what angle you chose to look at this latest take on Wuthering Heights, it just doesn’t work.

Premise: A passionate and tumultuous love story set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire moors, exploring the intense and destructive relationship between Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) and Catherine Earnshaw (Margot Robbie).

As much as there has been a strange hate boner towards Emerald Fennell in the film twitter community, I do find her to be a very talented director. Her debut feature film, Promising Young Woman, was a masterclass of a thriller that was perfectly executed in it’s social commentary of the post-Me Too era while containing one of boldest endings of any film in recent memory. Saltburn made for a worthy sophomore follow-up even though you can hear the gears turning and the perfectly straight forward pathway that Fennell lays out from the very beginning this time around. Say what you will about the narrative and structural choices of those films but you can at least see where she was going with it and her vision felt 100% present throughout. With Wuthering Heights, I’m not entirely sure what Emerald was trying to do here.

For the first half, you think it’s about a broken man and woman who grew up together and bonded under the shadow of abuse of their elder while slowly and chaotically becoming obsessed with one another the older they got, similar to the themes of it’s source material. But then, as soon as the first passionately loving scene between the two comes around at the halfway point, nearly all of that gets shoved entirely to the background in favor of several sequences of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi making out and relentlessly having sex with one another.

I’m sure there are many men out there that are in love with Margot Robbie and many women out there that are in love with Jacob Elordi but Emerald Fennell seems to think that’s all what anyone is coming to this film for. Just for two very attractive people doing things that two very attractive people like to do with one another. And if she thinks that’s the case, then what was even the point of teasing your faithfulness to Wuthering Heights in the first place if you wanted to make your own hot and steamy film about two people that just wanna pork each other with for an hour and a half?

To be sure, the sex scenes in particular are quite tasteful and well done. Fennell clearly is getting the best out of Robbie and Elordi in these sequences, even if the two are about seven years apart in real life. Their chemistry only ever works during these parts, of being two individuals so chained to their tragic lifestyles that it’s only when they are together and f**king that they feel the most like themselves. But considering, these sequences don’t take place until around the halfway point and I’m sure if you combined every sex scene all together that you will only get around ten total minutes of the film’s 136 minute long runtime of them, you might be better off just waiting for the film to hit digital or until someone uploads a compilation of every one of those scenes on YouTube.

The problem here is that the film doesn’t particularly care about wanting the audience to root for Cathy and Heathcliff to get together. It thinks that just because the two knew each other since they were kids and went through some form of childhood trauma that we are expected to invest in their love triangle when they become adults. And considering both show constantly throughout the film that they can’t even be bothered to care about the partners that they are ALREADY committed to, I can’t even imagine a world where the two end up together in the end as a real happy ending.

I don’t want to be the person that compares the new Wuthering Heights to Fifty Shades of Grey but at least the latter is well aware that the audience is ONLY there for the love scenes and sexual tension throughout. It knows that the plot, characters, and themes are absolute dog water that makes Twilight look like a competently told love story in comparison. You only want to see Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan find weird and disturbing ways to bone one another in ways that is only BARELY suitable for film form. While nowhere near as bad or offensive as Fifty Shades of Grey and the best parts certainly work better as a more sexually satisfying experience, Wuthering Heights can’t function properly on it’s own merits because it’s trapped underneath it’s own weight of it’s source material that it’s actively trying to avoid.

That’s not to say there’s no redeemable qualities whatsoever that doesn’t involve the two main leads doing the awkward parent talk. The production design is absolutely lavish, with convincing costume designs, set aesthetics, and location shootings that perfectly mirror the time period that the film itself is set in. Margot Robbie NEVER phones it in with any movie that she is a part off, making an unwinnable situation to her best advantage and taking a great oath to making 2026’s Wuthering Heights work as a theatrical experience. And while there will be (much deserved) discourse surrounding the potential resurrection of whitewashing which may or may not be Hollywood’s ill-fated response to the current political climate, Jacob Elordi works well as the handsome, lustful male lead that is masterful at making his charms disguise his chaotic hidden nature.

When viewing Wuthering Heights as a proper date night movie for Valentine’s Day weekend to get a certain young couple in the “mood” by the time the credits roll, it’s passable at best. When viewing Wuthering Heights as a faithful adaption or a stand alone cinematic experience, it’s a misfire. It’s caught between trying to be a slow burn haunting tale of two people that believe they are faithfully forced to be together and being a straight up sex-filled craved fantasy with no substance required. If the runtime consisted of 90 to 105 minutes, it could have gotten away with it. At a total of 136 minutes, no chance.

I don’t know how this film would have fared if Fennell chose to stick with the actual roots of the source material but it feels like she went over her head here. Not necessarily because she believes she’s better than the source material but more she believes the source material is better than her. When taking that into consideration, it makes sense as to why you shouldn’t try honoring the material because it’s too special to be messed with and just create new material of your own that may or may not bring new medium to the title which the book is based on. If this is how Emerald truly saw her head at here, than this was basically doomed from the start.

Strong performances and production values can not mask the faults of a film so empty, overlong, and directionless in it’s own vision. I’ll still defend Promising Young Woman and Saltburn but as for this one, sorry Emerald, you are on your own!

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) Movie Review- Now That’s More Like It!

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Last summer, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland teamed up once again to bring us 28 Years Later, a sequel that was nearly TWO decades in the making for this series! On paper, this should’ve been a textbook example on how to revive a franchise! Not only because you are bringing back the original blood from the original 28 Days Later but so much so time had past since the last installment in 28 Weeks Later that releasing a new installment now made perfect sense in terms of franchise continuity and this current age of horror we are currently living in. However, there was something that felt quite off!

Whether that was because of Boyle’s bold directing style he’s always been known for, it’s very uneven tone, and ending in a way that felt so out of left field that it never felt like it belonged in the same ballpark to begin with, 28 Years Later wasn’t the pitch perfect relaunch needed to justify an entire new trilogy of films, nagging loose ends be damned. It’s not that the humanity wasn’t presence behind and in front of the camera but it’s more that it got plagued by the virus.

However, that didn’t stop Sony Pictures from wanting to shoot back-to-back new entries to the 28 Days Later franchise in an attempt to jump on the same “welcome back” horror train that have made the new Scream movies a success! Instead of Danny Boyle, it’s Nia DaCosta (Candyman (2021) & The Marvels) that would be in charge of following up on the previous film’s divisive ending in the hopes to keep the franchise’s engine running, (although writer Alex Garland did return for this installment as well). While I’m not sure she will be able to do that from a box office standpoint, she CERTAINLY did it from a quality standpoint!

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple feels like the film that most audiences members were wanting the first time around! It offers a much greater expansion of the post-apocalyptic setting that this series has been set in since day one, it has more layers to the overall themes surrounding humanity and survival, a much better and more balanced tone that never takes you out of the picture, and laying out bread crumbs in ways that actually feel satisfying rather than manipulative. While some of the flaws from the previous film are carried over (shaky cam, certain characters faith left in the air, an extremely juicy cliffhanger, etc..), The Bone Temple is able to pick up where the original 28 Years Later left off in the best and most satisfying way possible.

Premise: As Spike (Alfie Williams) is inducted into Jimmy Crystal’s (Jack O’Connell) gang on the mainland, Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) makes a discovery that could alter the world.

What makes The Bone Temple a successful second impression for 28 Years Later is not only improving upon what didn’t work about the previous film but also expanding upon the things that did. The main aspect being a deeper dive into this post-virus world and the people that have survived/suffered from it. The main driving force here is the exploration of the alpha infected and the forever pantsless, raising the question of which side generally has more humanity than the other regardless of how they were impacted by the virus. While, yes, we have seen stories surrounding zombie-like creatures discovering more humanity within themselves (A.K.A. Day of the Dead), there’s something a bit extra when viewed from the perspective of a literal scientist!

That exploration is on full display between the scenes with Ralph Fiennes’ Dr. Ian Kelson and Chi Lewis-Parry’s Samson. Not only because both actors are able to sell the hell out of each moment they are on screen together but because it gives the deepest dives into the overall message about how everyone in any universe will always have humanity within their grasp, all they have to do is reach for it. Even if these kind of themes have become a staple of these post- apocalypse flicks, the aesthetics performances, and subversive narrative choices is able to help present it in a fresh new light.

When it comes to the virus-infected group presented, the Fingers gang is about as brutal and creepy as they come. While they do have an introduction that comes close to capturing the same over-the-top energy that brought down the previous film, it is able to show great restraint throughout the movie , where you have those moments of goofy levity but are still able to get satisfying gore and take them seriously as a legit threat. And yes, the Fingers gang is clearly motivated based on overly religious faith but it still serves as a nice contrast to everything that has gone wrong in the world that the characters are set in, showcasing the downfall of society in isolation, with the (no pun intended) KILLER performances from Jack O’Connell as the main fingers leader, Jimmy and Erin Kellyman as a more sympathetic fingers member as Kelly. This aids in making the dynamic between Dr. Kelson and the Fingers all the more compelling, the contrast of two different kinds of people who based their actions on either proven science or twisted beliefs.

The main MVP here has to be the woman behind the camera in Nia DaCosta. While she unfortunately got thrown under the bus with her taste with the MCU machinery with The Marvels (which I still enjoy for what it was), she is able to carry over her masterful directorial skills with horror that she displayed with Candyman (2021), with possibly even better results here. While far less camera tricks or random bullet time moments that Boyle did the last time around, she is still able to provide her own significant stamp here. The camera work is beautiful, the atmosphere is haunting yet mesmerizing, the brutality from the fingers clan delivers the skin-crawling horror set pieces that’s needed for a film like this, and even the sound designs offers a few new tricks up it’s sleeve during important key moments that makes the film feel more appropriate to see in a theater. Ms. DaCosta is able to provide her own distinctive voice that is able to feel appropriate to the franchise and NOT off putting.

It’s not quite a 100% though. There are certain sequences that is plagued with that awkward shaky cam that the previously film suffered from, making a handful of moments uncomfortable to watch because of how poorly it’s framed and NOT because it’s legit horrifying. There’s also Alfie Williams’ Spike that feels a bit like a footnote this time around. While his arc here is functional and works well enough in it’s own right, he doesn’t have as much importance to the narrative as he did the first time around, lacking that family dynamic hook that made his character compelling from the previous film. And while there is a surprise character played by a surprise actor (That got me nearly as excited as seeing Tobey Maguire in No Way Home!) that does leave the door open about what a potential third film could deliver, it will certainly make for a VERY depressing “what if?” scenario if we never do get that third film in the near future.

It made have taken a second try but 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is able to deliver the complete full package I wanted from the last film, while standing as perhaps the best installment in this franchise since the original. The acting is terrific, the horror and gore will disgust you in the most delightful ways imaginable, and it is still able to follow the franchise’s overall themes by continuing to offer fresh, new, and different perspectives about a world that has plunged into total chaos without taking you out of it or even inviting comparisons to the world that we are currently live in. I sure hope this is able to find it’s audience because if not, then MAN are they missing out!

We Bury The Dead (2026) Movie Review- Welcome To 2026!

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Well, welcome back to reviewing to me! That’s right! After a year long hiatus, I am back baby! To celebrate, let’s review a new movie that absolutely NO ONE is talking about!

We Bury The Dead is a new zombie survival horror flick that is written and directed by Zak Hilditch and stars the INCREDIBLY lovable Daisy Ridley! Here we follow a woman named Ava (Daisy Ridley) as she goes on a journey to find her missing husband while being forced to confront grief, loss, and the undead that keeps haunting her throughout! She meets a couple of folks along the way who help guide her but soon Ava discovers that the more she tries to discover the truth about her husband’s disappearance and the land of zombies, the more heartbreaking the truth might actually be.

Admittedly, there’s not a ton that can be said about We Bury The Dead other than what you would expect to be based on the cover and premise of the film. It offers a fresh take on the zombie subgenre, that unlocks a very unique vision from the perspective of Hilditich of the land of the undead, while being able to dive into the kind of themes mentioned before in ways that wasn’t done in from similar films such as World War Z, The Walking Dead, and The Last of Us. It certainly does take it’s sweet ass time to get from Point A to Point B and does occasionally slip into those plot conveniences and coincidences that tend to be a staple for these kind of flicks but for the most part, We Bury The Dead is solid and engaging enough that it won’t have you thinking too much about them before the credits roll.

Daisy Ridley is the main driving force of the film and manage to keeps that same engaging presence she always gives no matter what film she is in. She contains great chemistry with the limited cast she is able to interact in, particularly Brenton Thwaites. So much so that most of the film’s momentum comes to a screech halt every time Thwaites is NOT onscreen and only regains that momentum again once another zombie gets thrown into the mix.

However, for a film that is clearly prioritizing atmosphere over action, it does it job about as remarkably as it can. The cinematography is breathtaking, the tone is as grim as the way the zombies look, the visuals is able to assist in the film’s telling of a story about seeking closure in the wake of absolute tragedy, and the haunting score by Clark is able to give off more of that tension, cluster phobic vibe than all the Resident Evil films combined (Don’t let me down this time, Zach Cregger!). While you still get your occasional zombie kill beat here and there, it’s the film’s overall approach to it’s atmosphere and scary vibes that are the main driving force here.

It’s definitely not a perfect movie by any means but the flaws aren’t enough to squander this picture. Like I said, this is a rather slow moving motion picture, which is a warning to those that are going into this purely for the zombie kills and blood gore fest. And the way it resolves certain plotlines, while makes perfect sense thematically, might make one feel empty emotionally and as part of the whole picture. Then again, I feel like if ANY of us become a part of a zombie apolaypse, we would have very little to actually be happy about afterwards.

Regardless, We Bury The Dead is a damn good time for what it’s going for. It’s an engaging another horror flick that checks all the boxes you want out of these post-apocalyptic films while also finding enough of a new voice of it’s own that makes it go well with the shelf of other recent zombie horror flicks. It’ll likely not be on your mind too much just days after you watch it, but hey as a way of kick starting of what will likely be ANOTHER chaotic year, it does it’s job perfectly well.

Other comments:

  • Sorry if this is a rather short review but I figured I needed to flex my muscles a bit because it’s been over a year since I last done a full review for this blog! I do expect to go more in depth with future reviews but also, I wouldn’t mind doing mini-reviews for films once I become incredibly busy in my personal life.

  • Also, have a very happy new year! Whatever your New Years resolutions are, I really hope you stick with them because they are important!