Tag: Netflix
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THE RIP CUTS THROUGH MIAMI HEAT WITH GRIT AND STRANGE GRACE
The Rip delivers a tense Miami thriller powered by strong performances from Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and a sharp ensemble. Joe Carnahan guides the story with heat, momentum, and a surprising softness beneath the gunfire.
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Jay Kelly: Clooney’s Jay Kelly Finds Fame, Family, and a Comic Pause Button
George Clooney shines in Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, a comic yet heartfelt portrait of an actor wrestling with fame, family, and the roles we play in life. This review explores how the film balances humor with reflection, offering a slightly mixed but warmly positive take on its themes of identity and connection.
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Jingle Bell Heist: Diamonds, DNA, and Deck the Halls
This review of Jingle Bell Heist celebrates Olivia Holt’s standout performance and Michael Fimognari’s stylish direction. With clever twists, festive flair, and a comic tone, the film earns an B+ for its joyful blend of crime and Christmas. A holiday caper that sparkles with heart and humor, it’s a seasonal treat worth revisiting.
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The Twits: A grotesque, glittering mess with moments of genuine heart and biting satire
Joe Johnston’s The Twits, starring Margo Martindale, is a chaotic, satirical fairy tale that blends grotesque humor with heartfelt themes of chosen family, empathy, and resistance to greed. A mixed-to-positive review of a film that expands Roald Dahl’s original into a messy but meaningful portrait of love and loneliness.
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Fixed: The Testicle Gospel of Bull
There’s a moment in Fixed when Bull, the Staffordshire Terrier voiced with manic sincerity by Adam DeVine, gazes at his testicles and calls them his “hairy, dangling muses.” It’s absurd, grotesque, and weirdly poetic—an emblem of everything Genndy Tartakovsky’s latest animated fever dream dares to be. This is not a film for the faint of…
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The Penguin Lessons: Juan Salvador’s Long Swim
Peter Cattaneo’s The Penguin Lessons waddles into the canon of oddball inspiration dramas with an earnest heart and a satchel full of feathers. It offers us a reluctant teacher, a rebellious student body, and a creature so plainly unheroic it charms the stoicism right off a rugby pitch. If Dead Poets Society whispered “Carpe Diem”…
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Happy Gilmore 2: Fairway of Regrets, Rough of Redemption
Happy Gilmore 2 returns not just with the swing but with a shadow, offering Adam Sandler the rare gift of reprising a comedy icon whose laughs have ripened into grief. Kyle Newacheck directs with chaotic reverence, splashing irreverence over a surprisingly layered story of guilt, recovery, and fatherhood. The tone is jagged, loud, soulful, and…
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Happy Gilmore: A Swing at Comic Legacy
Released in 1996, *Happy Gilmore* is more than just a fun sports comedy; it really changed the way we think about golf and Adam Sandler’s unique style of humor. Directed by Dennis Dugan and co-written by Sandler and his buddy Tim Herlihy, the movie follows the hilarious misadventures of Happy Gilmore, a hot-headed hockey player…
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Madea’s Destination Wedding: Wedding Bells and Other Crises: Madea Goes Tropical
Let’s set the scene. Madea has packed her wig, side-eyes, and sass for a full-blown destination wedding in the Bahamas. And naturally, the drama follows like an overpacked suitcase on wobbly wheels. Tyler Perry is once again a triple threat—writing, directing, and starring in three roles—and the result is what you might expect: chaotic, overstuffed,…
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I Like Movies: Clerks Jr. with Feelings: A Love Letter to VHS and Awkward Youth
Put on your finest trench coat and prep your Tarantino references, because I Like Movies just hit Netflix, and if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by your own Letterboxd reviews, this one might hit you like a Criterion Collection to the face. Chandler Levack’s indie charmer (with a side of heartbreak) doesn’t reinvent the coming-of-age…
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Straw: The Straw That Snapped the Stillness
Tyler Perry’s *Straw* arrives not with sermon nor spectacle, but with the raw pulse of a woman’s unraveling—tight as breath, quiet as thunder rolling under concrete. This is not a rise-and-triumph tale. It is a lament, cracked open—a portrait of a single mother crossing the faultline between survival and surrender. Taraji P. Henson delivers one…
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The Bullet Train Explosion: A High-Speed Odyssey of Action and Compassion
Shinji Higuchi’s The Bullet Train Explosion revives and reinvigorates Junya Sato’s 1975 classic by merging elements of high-stakes action with profound character introspection. Now streaming on Netflix, this film operates on dual levels as both a sequel and a thoughtful remake, skillfully paying tribute to its predecessor while broadening the story’s thematic depth and emotional…
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The Electric State: Rust-Colored Horizons and Broken Circuits
The *Electric State* comes alive like a flickering neon sign in the dim light of a twilight alley, embodying a unique blend of beauty and fragility that draws you in. Directed by the Russo brothers, this film carries with it the hopes and dreams of many as it explores the poignant narrative of a retro-futuristic…
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Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – A Delightful Technological Romp”
MOVIE INFO: Aardman’s four-time Academy Award®-winning director Nick Park and Emmy Award-nominated Merlin Crossingham return with a brand new epic adventure, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. In this next installment, Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome that seems to develop a…
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The Piano Lesson: A Faithful Yet Flawed Adaptation
MOVIE INFO: Set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression, The Piano Lesson follows the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom, the family piano, which documents the family history through carvings made by their enslaved ancestor. REVIEW: Malcolm Washington’s directorial debut, The Piano Lesson, brings August…
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‘Woman of the Hour’: A Chilling Debut with Room for Growth
MOVIE INFO: An aspiring actress crosses paths with a prolific serial killer in ’70s LA when they’re cast on an episode of “The Dating Game.” Based on a true story. REVIEW: Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, “Woman of the Hour,” offers a gripping yet uneven exploration of a chilling true-crime story. Set against the backdrop of…
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Rez Ball: A Heartfelt Journey Through Navajo Basketball Dreams”
MOVIE INFO: In the heart of Chuska, New Mexico, the Chuska Warriors, a high school basketball team rich in Native American heritage, face their greatest challenge. After the loss of their star player, the team must unite like never before to keep their dreams of a state championship alive. This is more than just a…
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Atlas: J Lo Shrugged
MOVIE INFO: A brilliant data analyst with a deep distrust of AI finds it may be her only hope when a mission to capture a renegade robot goes awry. REVIEW: With Jennifer Lopez alone in an A.I. mech suit for most of her sci-fi flick Atlas, it’s not a big surprise that the story writers…
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Mother of the Bride: Exes Confesses Their Messes
MOVIE INFO: REVIEW: The worst thing rom-coms do is bring exes back together. Mother of the Bride, starring Brooke Shields and Bejamin Bratt, is one of those exes confesses their messes disaster. The tropical destination this time around is Thailand. The misunderstandings are the same. The situations are the same. The arguing the same. The…
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Damsel: A Game of Thrones Style Princess Story
MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES: A dutiful damsel agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to find the royal family has recruited her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt. Thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon, she must rely on her wits and will to survive. REVIEW: In Damsel, staring Millie Bobby…
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Mea Culpa: Tyler Perry Does Housewives Stupid
MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES: When criminal defense attorney Mea Harper (Kelly Rowland) takes on the murder case of artist Zyair Malloy (Trevante Rhodes), the truth isn’t as obvious as it seems. While she tries to determine the innocence or guilt of her cagy-yet-seductive client, it is uncovered that everyone is guilty of something. Tyler…
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Society of the Snow: Getting Past Survival and Hunger to Know Life
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: In 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which had been chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile, crashed in the heart of the Andes. Only 29 of its 45 passengers survived the accident. Trapped in one of the most hostile and inaccessible environments on the planet, they have to…
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May/December: Mirror, Camera, Persona
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, Gracie Atherton-Yu and her husband Joe (twenty-three years her junior) brace themselves for their twins to graduate from high school. When Hollywood actress Elizabeth Berry comes to spend time with the family to better understand Gracie, who she will be…
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Leo: A Cold Blooded Creature Who Wants to Warm Kid’s Hearts
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes; Actor and comedian Adam Sandler (Hotel Transylvania, The Wedding Singer) delivers signature laughs in this coming-of-age animated musical comedy about the last year of elementary school — as seen through the eyes of a class pet. Jaded 74-year-old lizard Leo (Sandler) has been stuck in the same Florida classroom for…
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The Killer: He Bores Them to Death
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: After a fateful near-miss an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal. Review: David Fincher films are full of criminals, homicidal maniacs, serial killers and other assorted murders and murderers. Even his last film, the glorious Mank, featured Hollywood producers who ruthlessly killed…
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Nyad: The Salty Sea Nymph of Movie Determination
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: A remarkable true story of tenacity, friendship and the triumph of the human spirit, NYAD recounts a riveting chapter in the life of world-class athlete Diana Nyad. Three decades after giving up marathon swimming in exchange for a prominent career as a sports journalist, at the age of 60, Diana…
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Old Dads: Stumpy Old Men
Movie info via The Hollywood Reporter: Inspired by Burr and co-screenwriter Ben Tishler’s experiences of becoming fathers later in life, the film revolves around best friends and business partners Jack (Burr), Connor (Bobby Cannavale) and Mike (Bokeem Woodbine). The three find themselves sidelined after selling their vintage sports jersey company to Aspen (Miles Robbins), a…
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Love at First Sight: Statistically High Chance this Netflix Rom-Com Will Be Guaranteed Fresh
Movie Info via Rotten Tomatoes: After missing her flight from New York to London, Hadley (Haley Lu Richardson) meets Oliver (Ben Hardy) in a chance encounter at the airport that sparks an instant connection. A long night on the plane together passes in the blink of an eye but upon landing at Heathrow, the pair…
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El Conde: Living With the Vampire of a Nation’s Horror
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: El Conde is a dark comedy/horror that imagines a parallel universe inspired by the recent history of Chile. The film portrays Augusto Pinochet, a symbol of world fascism, as a vampire who lives hidden in a ruined mansion in the cold southern tip of the continent. Feeding his appetite for…
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The Monkey King: Too Much Monkey Shines
Summary via IMDB: THE MONKEY KING is an action-packed family comedy that follows a charismatic Monkey and his magical fighting Stick on an epic quest for victory over 100 demons, an eccentric Dragon King, and Monkey’s greatest foe of all -his own ego. Along the way, a young village girl challenges his self-centered attitude and…
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Happiness for Beginners: From About Schmidt to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Summary via IMDB: A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It’s supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother’s even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on…
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Heart of Stone: Netflix Fights Back to Reclaim the Algorithm
Summary via IMDB:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13603966/?ref_=tt_mv_close An intelligence operative for a shadowy global peacekeeping agency races to stop a hacker from stealing its most valuable and dangerous weapon. Review: In Heart of Stone, Gal Gadot is Stone, a spy with her own IMF team like Tom Cruise- Heart is the all powerful computer that plots and control it…
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Nimona: F(r)ight the Power
Storyline via IMDB: When Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn’t commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem – who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature…
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The Out-Laws: Living With the Almost Bad In-Laws.
Summary via IMDB: A straight-laced bank manager about to marry the love of his life. When his bank is held up by infamous Ghost Bandits during his wedding week, he believes his future in-laws who just arrived in town, are the infamous Out-Laws. Review: I come to expect a pretty reliable formula for every Adam…
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We Have a Ghost: Going Beyond Spooky
Plot via IMDB: Seeking a fresh start in Chicago, the Presley family moves into a dusty fixer-upper they soon realize comes with a catch: a ghost in the attic named Ernest (David Harbour). Despite Ernest’s attempts at scaring teenage son Kevin (Jahi Winston), the detached, music-obsessed teen soon finds a kindred spirit in this trapped…
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Blonde: Going too Far Up the Skirt of the Blonde Dream
Plot via IMDB: From director Andrew Dominik, and based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates, ‘Blonde’ boldly reimagines the life of one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons, Marilyn Monroe. From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, ‘Blonde’ blurs the lines of fact and fiction to…
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America: The Motion Picture- Doesn’t Let Alternate Facts Get in the Way of Its Own Inane History Lesson.
When filmmakers fall asleep and flunk high school American History, America: The Motion Picture is what’s created years later- an animated, anarchic, free association lunacy that mixes up the American Revolution with the Civil War and shows that it respects America by disregarding its truth and hyping its memes. In this alternate America, George-Bon Jovi-Washington…
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The Hand
Every cut is a bleeding thorn, every breath is a spread of fingers. The ear records all its silences. – Lose a hand and it goes to the trash heap, lose an ear and everyone will think of Van Gogh. – In the landfill the hand discovers fire, it discovers how to conquer the rats,…
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“Paddleton”: Settling into the Gentle Comedy That Is Friendship and Death.
Comedies usually begin with a funeral and end with a wedding. Tragedies begin with weddings and end with death. Paddleton (on Netflix) starts with bosom buddies bonding and ends with bereavement. The film never hides what it is, a gentle comedy stuck in the twilight moments between light and dark, life and death, love and…
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“Velvet Buzzsaw”: An Average Painting in an Average Movie Does Not Equal Greatness
Art has the potential to be great but most of it is mediocre. That is why there are no great film satires about art— the unrelenting tedium of seeing cliches and recycled themes is just a bore. It is like watching an endless strip of recycled black and white frames with one color one, a…
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“Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”: Where You Decide If Netflix Is the Villain or Not?
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Netflix’s interactive full length Black Mirror episode prides itself on its game-ability and meta-ness that stays steps ahead of the average viewer. Binary on screen choices can lead to different outcomes in this sci-fi cautionary tale of a game programmer caught up in both deadlines and fate that is in the hands…
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“Outlaw King” Mucks Its Way Thru Scottish History
For those expecting Outlaw King (on Netflix) to be a sequel to Braveheart will be sorely disappointed. The only appearance of William Wallace in David Mackenzie’s telling of Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine), is his quartered (judging by the outward curve) left hand nailed to a Scottish cross in a public square- and that is…
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“The Christmas Chronicles” Kurt Russell’s Santa Doesn’t Ho-Ho-Ho But He Is Definitely Holly Jolly
Kurt Russell can make you believe he is Santa Claus, although be it one that doesn’t ho-ho-ho, who is not happy with the fatter oft advertised fatter version, and can belt out an Elvis style rendition of any holiday song. Russell’s Santa in The Christmas Chronicles (a Netflix movie) exists between Billy Bob Thornton bad…
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“The Other Side of the Wind”: Orson Welles Own Serious Parody of Himself and Cinema
Orson Welles last film The Other Side of the Wind (on Netflix) reconstituted from footage and assembled by a master team of film editors, directors and Welles scholars, establishes some lofty goals, mainly how to have both a serious film enshrouded in the shell of an intentionally bad one. Wind uses different film styles (black…
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“Apostle”: Getting to the Gore Via Perverted Paradise
Apostle makes you accept or reject its essential contradictions. Accepting it will lead one to discovering one of the better horror films of the year, while rejecting it will make one think it is a mess.
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“Hold the Dark”: Pursuing the Motiveless Malignancy
Hold the Dark is a difficult film to understand and watch because it attempts to explain what the rational mind can only see and understand as evil and motiveless.
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“The After Party” Is at Its Best In Between the Parties
At its heart, The After Party is a clever hybrid of Martin Scorsese’s After Hours and Hal Ashly’s the last detail, two films about finding identity and true friendship in the distractions of life.
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“Flavors of Youth” Explores the Essentials of Identity
Flavors of Youth points out how memory is essential to all identity. How it is the source of all art and creativity.
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“To All The Boys I Loved Before” Is Another 16 Candles
To All the Boys I Loved Before (based on the semi autobiographical novel by Jenny Han) creates lead characters with unusual depth for the genre.
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“The Package” Surprisingly Isn’t a Dick
The Package knows that all teen comedies are about overcoming and being comfortable with the dick.
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Can Even Overcome Being Stranded In Netflix Mediocrity
Guernsey is the perfect choice for those seeking a Netflix and chill night that is gentle, gentile and very British.
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“Brij Mohan Amar Rahe” Is Too Squalid for Bollywood
Brij Mohan tries to give its audience something more substantial than the usual light Bollywood fare. It ends up to squalid for that audience to watch.
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“Like Father” Is A Grand Enough Voyage
Kelsey Grammer and Kristen Bell as the workaholic father and daughter who missed out on the joys of family, keep it believable and poignant by delivering constant nuance performances.
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“The Bleeding Edge”: Shows How the Medical Device Industry Is Bleeding Us Out
The Bleeding Edge is a cry for caution for patients not to accept the latest and greatest unless it has been thoroughly tried and true.
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“Extinction” Gets a Reprieve
Extinction is wry enough to avoid its title.
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“The Warning” Is a Memento of a Beautiful Mind
It’s a Memento meets A Beautiful Mind thriller about a Basque man who discovers that there is a mathematical correlation between a convenience store shooting tragedy and the same spot’s past, present and future.
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“Father of the Year” Is a Bad Dad Every Other Time
Adam Sandler produced Netflix movies aren’t about the quality. They are about how much stuff they can get away with, the more sexual the better. The plots are just setups for the gags. Father of the Year excuse is about an idiot long haired alcoholic father (David Spade) attempts to impress his valedictorian son that…
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“The Skin of the Wolf” Is Beneath Just Barely a Man
There is no explanation, no backstory just observation enshrouded in mythic layers of beautiful cinematography. Everything is left to interpretation, which is both besides the point and probably is the point.
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“White Fang” Is a Good Wolf Movie Not So Much a Good Dog One
The latest adaptation of White Fang, now streaming on Netflix, tries to maintain a balance between London’s naturalism and family dog domestication.
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Sunday’s Illness: Healing a Broken Mother-Daughter Bond
It is all so emotionally and nakedly obvious. And that not only makes Sunday’s Illness good but near great.