Freakier Friday (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on August 9th, 2025
The simplest way I can think to sum up this movie is as such: If you saw the first film (Freaky Friday), then you have essentially already seen the second film already, Freakier Friday. This is due to there being very little difference between the two films beyond the passage of time. Yes, Lindsay Lohan now finds herself in the adult role, but the film’s themes are very much the same. In the interest of fairness, I will admit that there is very little room for deviation given the film’s premise. This is a “walk a mile in another person’s shoes” type movie, and the film delivers on that, so when push comes to shove, the film delivered on what it was supposed to. However, I feel like this kind of movie was the reason that Disney created Disney+ for. As nice as it was to see Lohan return to the silver screen, this film marks Lindsay Lohan’s first theatrically released leading role in 18 years. However, it just felt like the film would have been better suited on the streaming service. I will give this legacy sequel credit for its continuity, as it found a way to bring back nearly every character from the first film, which was something that I did not expect.
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The Naked Gun (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Dakota Nivens on August 2nd, 2025
The Naked Gun (2025) is a beautifully absurd film that had me and everyone in the theater laughing in tears. It is both a continuation and reboot to the original franchise that introduces a new generation of characters, which still honors the classic formula of deadpan delivery, absurd plotlines, and visual gags that gave the original its significance. It was like a breath of fresh air in a lackluster era of Hollywood which felt seriously rich in soul. I can’t even joke; my face was hurting from laughing and smiling throughout the entire movie! Initially, I was apprehensive about the movie because it starred faces I’ve honestly grown tired of seeing in Hollywood, notably Neeson and Huston. It is a star-studded cast with Liam Neeson as Lt. Frank Drebin, Jr. and Pamela Anderson as Beth Davenport. Additionally, Seth MacFarlane is part of the production with Fuzzy Door Productions in partnership with Paramount Pictures. Even though I didn’t care for Neeson having the main role, his acting wasn’t washed up at all and was far better seeing him in a comedy—same with Huston.
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Happy Gilmore 2 (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on August 1st, 2025
I have to admit it is hard to believe that Happy Gilmore came out nearly 30 yeas ago. It’s a hard pill to swallow, because I remember seeing it in the theater with my friends, and, well, that pretty much reminds me that I’m getting old. I’ve been a fan of Adam Sandler since his time on SNL, and it’s been interesting seeing how his career has grown. For me, I’ve remained a loyal fan not because I feel his films are great; honestly, he’s had quite a few duds along the way, but it’s because he seems to be one of the few guys in Hollywood who hasn’t changed with fame. You never hear about scandals. He just seems like a down-to-earth guy who really isn’t so different from his fans. When it comes to Happy Gilmore 2, this film has been something fans have been wanting for a while, though many of us just really didn’t think it was going to happen. After 30 years, was it worth the wait? Well, I’ll say this much: this film was certainly made for the fans.
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The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on July 26th, 2025
“I’m not giving up. We will face this together. We will fight it together… as a family.”
In November of 1961 I wasn’t quite five months old when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the first team of superheroes. Long before a Justice League or Avengers team was created, The Fantastic Four delivered a family of superheroes, and while it would be a few years before I would read my first issue, they created an impression along with Spider-Man, that has given me the love of comics and this kind of entertainment for the remainder of my life. The team first found themselves on film via a cheap Roger Corman film that was never released but found itself on the sci-fi convention circuit for decades.
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Until Dawn (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on July 26th, 2025
When it comes to video game adaptations, I learned a long time ago to not get my hopes up. Sure, there have been a few films that manage to do the source material justice, but for the most part the films tend to just fail in spectacular fashion. Until Dawn is honestly a game I never expected to see turn into a film or TV show, mostly because the game play is basically like a “choose your own adventure” style, and it just didn’t seem like something that could work. The approach the film takes is something different and takes the story into a Groundhog Day direction, only every time the characters re-spawn it becomes a different sub-genre of horror film. While I feel this is a terrible videogame adaptation, this actually turned out to be a fun premise for a film. So how does the film stand on its own? Well, a lot better than I had anticipated.
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I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)
Posted in Podcasts by Jeremy Butler on July 21st, 2025
“So, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for!”
Well, if I’m being pretty honest, I certainly wasn’t waiting for this. In fact, having now watched it, I would have been absolutely fine if we never got it. This reboot-slash-sequel, now better know as “requel”, was about three years too late, as this film seems destined to forever be in the shadow of its previous competition. I won’t do this film the disservice of naming its competition, but I fairly sure that you can connect the dots. Truth be told, I was never much of a fan of the original film nor its sequel, so I didn’t have high hopes for this “requel.” But even so, I still found myself disappointed as I jokingly predicted who the killer would ultimately turn out to be. And predicting who it would be actually wasn’t that hard, because it seemed to be the logical move to make for the franchise, and despite that it still fell flat, as it just felt out of character. That said, it has been a long time since I saw Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. up on the silver screen, and I have to admit that was a nice bit of nostalgia.
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Heads of State (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on July 17th, 2025
I have to admit that when I heard about Heads of State being a buddy action film with John Cena as the President of the United States and Idris Elba as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, I was totally on board. Then when I saw that this was heading directly to Amazon Prime, my excitement fizzled. When you have an action film with those two on the marquee, it just seems like the perfect summer film, and with the director of Nobody and Hardcore Henry at the helm, it just adds to the expectation of pure dumb popcorn bliss. Only Amazon Studios can find a way to mess this up. Still, I tried to go into this with an open mind, but the end result is an action comedy that underwhelmed in such spectacular fashion that I’m somewhat impressed at how mediocre this film turned out despite all its opportunities to impress.
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Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on July 2nd, 2025
“I can guarantee your safety… more or less.”
Some things can not be beat, and they sure as heck can’t be repeated. An old vintage cola commercial used to tell us, “Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby”. And Jurassic World Rebirth is going to do anything it can for 134 minutes to try and tell you that isn’t true, but we know better, don’t we? Anyone who has seen the original Jurassic Park has their favorite moments, but one scene has always stood out for me and so many other film fans I’ve spoken to. When the camera pans to that peaceful swamp pasture and you see tons of dinosaurs walking about without a care in the world. If you didn’t know how to react there, Sam Neill as Dr. Grant showed you how.
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M3GAN 2.0 (2025)
Posted in Uncategorized by Gino Sassani on June 28th, 2025
“Everybody deserves a second chance.”
In some parts of the country there’s a saying. If you don’t like the weather wait a few minutes. It’ll change. That’s exactly how I felt by the time my two hours watching M3GAN 2.0 was through. It was entertaining, to be sure, but I felt like I had been through about five movies before it was finally over. It’s hard to imagine that is has been three years since we first met the robot/children’s toy gone berserk, but it really has. It was my hope that everyone was just waiting until they had a great new idea before they trotted the killer doll out again. Most of the characters and actors who survived their first encounter with M3GAN returned for the sequel, with at least one of them being somewhat of a surprise appearance, and just like that first movie, you really have to be careful who you trust, because killer dolls aren’t the only things that are dangerous here. The humans can actually be a lot worse, and that just might be the point, as M3GAN 2.0 gets a head start in the upcoming heated competition for the coming summer blockbuster season. We’re just weeks away from a DC and Marvel one-two combination, but will M3GAN 2.0 survive the punches? Not likely, I’m afraid.
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007: James Bond – Sean Connery 6-Film Collection (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 23rd, 2025
“If you carry a 00 number it means you’re licensed to kill … not get killed.”
1961 was a pretty big year for many of us. In the NFL one of the new teams entering the league was one in Minnesota called the Vikings, and they would draft a quarterback named Fran Tarkenton as one of their first acts. I was born that June, and a couple of weeks later one of the most important deals ever made in Hollywood was consummated. EON Productions had just been formed as the partnership between Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and their partnership started off with a bang when they acquired the film rights to Ian Fleming’s British secret agent, James Bond. Fleming’s first choice to play his spy was Roger Moore, who later did take over the role, but long after Fleming had died. Sean Connery would fill that role nicely, and within a short period of time Fleming was on board with Connery in the title role.
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28 Years Later (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on June 22nd, 2025
“Memento Mori, it means you must die.”
This movie has been a long time coming and is quite possibly the most anticipated movie of the summer. Fans (myself included) have been waiting almost twenty years for this addition to the franchise to materialize. Since the Rage virus was introduced to the audience back in 2002 with 28 Days Later, we, the audience, have been captivated by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s gritty zombie tale that filled a much-needed hole left behind by George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead franchise. To their credit, the duo did follow up 28 Days Later with the aptly-titled 28 Weeks Later, which if I’m honest, was my favorite of the franchise, to include this latest installment. That isn’t to diminish this addition; I’m just very fond of the Weeks’ film because it was the movie that really made me pay attention to Jeremy Renner. True to its predecessors, 28 Years Later features a brand-new cast of characters to include Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Jack O’Connell, Ralph Fiennes, and Alfie Williams in his first leading role.
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Elio (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on June 20th, 2025
Right on cue Disney’s Pixar is back on the animation scene with its latest and quite possibly one of its most original stories with Elio. True to form, for the last three years, Pixar has delivered and had a film release in the month of June. There was Lightyear in 2022, Elemental in 2023, Inside Out 2 for 2024, and now Elio in 2025. Now that is consistency. Not going to lie, I haven’t been impressed with the latest releases from Pixar, and it felt as though they’d been trading on their reputation in recent years. After all, who would dare speak against the studio that gave us Toy Story, A Bugs Life, The Incredibles, and Finding Nemo? It would be fair to say that the company deserved a little grace. Now we have Elio, and as I mentioned earlier, I rank this among the most original animated stories I’ve seen in recent years and one of the best kid-friendly movies I’ve seen this year thus far.
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The Life of Chuck (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 20th, 2025
“I am large; I contain multitudes.”
I know it may only be June, and it seems strange to be talking about awards season already, but if The Life of Chuck doesn’t take home an armful of awards this year, it will be a criminal shame. I first read the Stephen King novella when it was released in his collection If It Bleeds (2020), it was a story that you can tell King wrote during the COVID-19 panic. I remember liking the story, but it wasn’t one of my favorites in the collection. What stood out the most was the unique way he wrote the story about the end of the world. It didn’t really surprise me that the story was being adapted into a film considering just how many Stephen King stories are brought to the big screen and streaming every year. It was the fact that Mike Flanagan signed on to write and direct that got me excited about this project.
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Dexter: Original Sin Steelbook Season 1
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on June 19th, 2025
“In the beginning there was blood.”
Dexter Morgan is a forensic lab rat for the Miami-Dade Police. He really knows blood splatter. He should, because he moonlights as a killer. It seems that poor old Dex just can’t help himself. His parents were criminals, and he witnessed his mother’s brutal slashing by a chainsaw gang when he was just a young boy. He was adopted by Harry Morgan, a police officer. Harry saw the killer instinct in Dexter and taught him how to channel the urges for the sake of good. Dexter adopted Harry’s Code, which means he only kills others that he’s able to prove were killers themselves. Working for the police with his officer sister, Debra, Dexter is constantly just on the verge of getting caught.
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Wolf Man (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Dakota Nivens on June 16th, 2025
Wolf Man (2025) is another reimagining of a classic werewolf tale with a recursive twist. The film is centered around a family dealing with unresolved trauma as they return to the father’s childhood farmhouse in hopes of reconnecting—only to be greeted by the very curse that broke their family in the first place.Admittedly, I went into the film fully expecting to fall in love; this is honestly because I can appreciate a wicked creature feature. I was already aware that it was Blumhouse Productions before going into the film, but I also learned—after watching the introductory credits—that it was directed and co-written by Leigh Whannell, whom I recognized from his directorial debut, Insidious 3 (2015), and later The Invisible Man (2020). Christopher Abbott leads as Blake Lovell, a husband and father bringing his family—Charlotte, played by Julia Garner, and their daughter Ginger, played by Matilda Firth—back to his childhood farmhouse in an effort to rebuild strained connections. Sam Jaeger takes on the role of Grady Lovell, Blake’s missing father, whose hidden past gradually unravels at the heart of the story’s horror.
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Dangerous Animals (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 15th, 2025
It’s officially summer movie season, and what better time to release a film about a serial killer that feeds his victims to sharks and videotapes it so he can relive the moment over and over again on VHS? That is pretty much the hook for the new thriller being released by Shudder, and I’m all-in for it. I’m a sucker for shark films. Good or bad, I can’t help myself; I have to watch it. But Dangerous Animals is more than just a guilty pleasure; it’s the kind of summer fun I crave to see on the big screen, and this film didn’t disappoint, so grab your snorkel and let’s dive in and discuss the movie I feel audiences are going to sleep on simply because of a crowded box office. First off, the film has one of my favorite openings I’ve seen in a while. It opens up with a pair of friends who are traveling around Australia, and they’ve decided to charter a boat to go diving with sharks. The ship’s captain is Bruce Tucker (Jai Courtney), who is a bit rough around the edges but still manages to be a charming guy. Everything seems innocent enough as we see Bruce take these travelers on this dive of a lifetime
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How To Train Your Dragon (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on June 14th, 2025
“This is Berk. It snows nine months of the year and hails the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here are even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have ponies or parrots … we have … dragons.”
It looks like DreamWorks is joining the live-action adaptation competition, as How to Train Your Dragon represents the first official live-action adaptation of a DreamWorks feature. Emphasis on competition, given the inherent rivalry between Disney and DreamWorks founder and former Disney executive, Jeffery Katzenberg. I won’t spend a lot of time rehashing their history, but in summary, tensions between Katzenberg, Eisner, and Disney resulted in Katzenberg leaving Disney upon conclusion of his work contract with the company in October 1994 and going on to co-found DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen.
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From The World Of John Wick: Ballerina (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on June 6th, 2025
“Needing to know. That’s what got us kicked out of the Garden Of Eden… Eve.”
Ballerina takes place in the rather colorful world of John Wick, and it almost appears to me that it’s being sold as a kind of John Wick 4/2 or perhaps more accurately John Wick 3 ½. With Keanu Reeves seeming to be going back and forth on a potential John Wick 5, there has been a lot of mining in that world while they decide. Of course, there will be a John Wick 5. There’s just too much money to be made, and the streaming series The Continental didn’t really work out as well as everybody hoped it would. The answer is obvious. No one wants to see the John Wick Universe. They want to see John Wick. So this second foray into spin-off territory was padded by making sure Keanu Reeves would show up. Understand: he’s not the main character, and this film takes place during John Wick 3 Parabellum and between that film and John Wick 4.
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Bring Her Back (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 4th, 2025
It would seem that ever since Hereditary came out in 2018, it kind of paved the way for the new sub-genre of horror, “grief-horror”, basically horror films that delve into the emotional horror of losing loved ones and the reckless attempts people may make to reach out to them in the afterlife. This isn’t subject matter most horror fans enjoy; for me I find an odd sense of comfort with these films. When Talk to Me came out, that film especially struck a nerve with me, and I absolutely loved that film from the first-time Australian filmmakers and brothers Danny and Michael Philippou. Talk To Me managed to bring something new to the supernatural genre, and the grief the main character was going through was very relatable for me, so of course I was going to be a little excited about what this duo would do next (at least before they tackled their sequel to Talk To Me). As it would turn out, I wouldn’t have to wait long for their next film, and Bring Her Back tackles the horror of grief in a manner that has stuck with me since exiting the theater.
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Prom Queen (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 4th, 2025
This Memorial Day weekend, Netflix dropped the new horror film Fear Street: Prom Queen. For those who may not be familiar with the Fear Street brand, it was a series of horror stories penned by RL Stine for his readers who were aging out of his Goosebumps series but were not quite ready for the heavy hitters of horror like Clive Barker and Stephen King. These stories were fantastic as a gateway to horror, typically filled with gruesome deaths, but still not crossing the line with too many adult themes. In 2021 Netflix first released a trilogy of Fear Street films. Personally, I only liked the first two, and the third was relatively forgettable. Now Netflix has released Prom Queen, and while my expectations weren’t exactly high, I still was hoping for something better than what we got.
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Sinners (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 4th, 2025
From the moment I saw the first trailer for Sinners, I was totally sold on this film, it looked like it was going to be From Dusk Till Dawn, only set in the Jim Crow era, and I was absolutely excited for it. As an added cherry on top, the film was shot on film and with large-format cameras. This was a film that easily was one of the films I was most looking forward to seeing this year, and it broke my heart having to miss out on seeing it opening weekend because I was sick. Now that I’ve finally seen it, did it live up to my expectations? The hype surrounding this film is insane, especially when you see the box office numbers this film is bringing in and people already wanting to call this the best horror film of the year, and despite it only being May, people are talking about this getting some awards nominations. It’s not surprising when you consider the writer and director is Ryan Coogler, who managed to get Black Panther an Oscar nomination.
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Yellowstone: Season Five, Part 2 (Blu-ray)
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on May 30th, 2025
“141 years ago, my father was told of this valley, and here’s where we stayed. Seven generations. My father was told they would come for this land, and he promised to return it. Nowhere was this promise written. It faded with my father’s death but somehow lived in the spirit of this place. Man cannot truly own wild land. To own land you must blanket it in concrete, cover it with buildings, stack it with houses so thick people can smell each other’s supper. You must rape it to sell it. Raw land. Wild land. Free land can never be owned. But some men will pay dearly for the privilege of its stewardship. They will suffer and sacrifice to live off it and live with it and hopefully teach the next generation to do the same. And if they falter, find another way to keep the promise.”
Yellowstone began with a lot of that there promise five years ago. Taylor Sheridan pretty much built his television empire on the foundation that was Yellowstone. It was a grand design, but something happened along the way.
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Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on May 25th, 2025
“Good evening, Ethan. This is your President. Since you won’t reply to anyone else, I thought I’d reach out directly. First, I want to thank you for a lifetime of devoted and unrelenting service; were it not for the tireless dedication of you and your team, the earth would be a very different place. It might not even be here at all. Every risk you’ve taken, every comrade you’ve lost in the field, every personal sacrifice you made, has brought this world another sunrise. It’s been 35 years since circumstances brought you to us and you were given the choice — since the IMF saved you from a life in prison. And though you never followed orders, you never let us down. You were always the best of men in the worst of times. I need you to be that man now.”
I imagine this is how it happened. It’s January of 2019, and Tom Cruise has just popped into the bathroom to shave.
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Lilo & Stitch (2025)
Posted in The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on May 24th, 2025
“Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind.”
So, the thing I’ve noticed works best for these live action adaptation of Disney movies is continuity, which is something that Lilo and Stitch adheres to very well. I suppose that it wasn’t hard to do when the live action is written and directed by Chris Sanders, the person responsible for the writing and directing of the original beloved animated movie on which this adaptation is based. I should also mention that Sanders voiced the Stitch character himself, something he repeats for this film. So, as I said, continuity is key for this movie. It helps to have the right person at the wheel, and I can’t imagine a better person to be at the wheel than the person ultimately responsible for Lilo and Stitch’s initial creation.
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Landman: Season One (Blu-ray)
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on May 23rd, 2025
“The oil and gas industry makes $3 billion a day in pure profit, generates over $4.3 trillion a year in revenue. It’s the fourth largest industry in the world, ranked ahead of food production, automobile production, and at $1.4 trillion the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t even crash the top 10. The industries ranked ahead of oil production are all completely dependent on oil and gas. The more they grow, the more we grow. That’s the scale. That’s the size of this thing, and it’s only getting bigger…”
If Taylor Sheridan does not own a big chunk of stock at Paramount+, then he should be a major shareholder, because he’s bringing in more bucks than everything else combined except for Star Trek. I’ve enjoyed every one of his shows to date some more than others. I think that Landman has to be the best of them yet. Yellowstone has been the great amber-captured jewel of the kingdom for over five years, but his split with Costner brings all of that to an early end, with the exception of spin-offs. I think I’ve found the new champ,
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