The Reel World

"Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he did sack the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted. Moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely to their homes; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god  Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all of these things, oh daughter of Zeus, from whatsoever source you may know them." - Homer c750 B.C.

Christopher Nolan has a tell, and he exposes it almost every time he makes a film. He's not a one-source kind of a guy, and he's not above creating composite characters or adding a flourish here and there in order to tell a good story. Like Homer before him, he knows how to tell a good story, and while the film is called The Odyssey, it borrows rather heavily from other ancient sources, most notably Virgil's Aeneid. I'm actually quite on board with the approach, because that's what Homer beseeches us at the very beginning of his epic poem, The Odyssey. Nolan himself becomes the bard, the teacher ... the storyteller. I'm not on board with everything he's done here, and the problem is this is too ambitious of a story to tell in 10 hours, let alone three. But the telling of this classic tale could not have been made by anyone but Christopher Nolan. His choice to shoot on 70mm actual film ensures a film that is organic. It lives and breathes just as the old Greek stories still live and breathe in any of us who have read the original work. So allow me to tell you the story ... about the telling of the story.

"We're going to make a monster movie ... Oh yeah."

It's hard to believe that it was over 16 years ago that Despicable Me came out from Illumination Studios. I have to admit I wasn't that impressed, and it was one of my least favorite animation features at the time. I would never have imagined that it would become a very successful franchise and that in 2026 I would be watching the seventh film in the franchise. Here's what is more shocking. I could have not have predicted that the seventh entry in the franchise would suddenly become my favorite and one of the better animated films I've seen in recent memory. What a difference 16 years can make. Over those years the franchise has kind of split into two different intertwined sub-franchises. The Despicable Me films would continue the exploits of Steve Carell's Gru, a mastermind arch-villain wannabe. We are introduced to the minions, who are these short, squarish creatures appropriately called minions because they exist to serve the every want of a villain boss. They are the ultimate henchmen. But their intelligence is somewhat locked into a child-like wonder, and they speak in a sometimes-understandable gibberish. But they have literally taken over the world for themselves. They've branched off into their own franchise, and they've taken over a good portion of Universal Studios amusement park, at least here in Florida. And most of the time I just can't get too excited for the little guys, until Minions & Monsters came along. This one is rather good, and if you're a film buff, and why would you be here if you weren't, this is the Minions movie for you.

“If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you?” 

This movie marks the 30th collaboration between Steven Spielberg and John Williams. Their first was The Sugarland Express, over 50 years prior. This is even more noteworthy, given that when Spielberg initially approached Williams about making the score, Williams first suggested four other composers take the job, since Williams had retired from film scoring. Spielberg insisted Williams score the film himself, and Williams finally agreed. This film also marks a personal achievement for Steven Spielberg, directing at least one sci-fi movie in each decade of his career: Firelight (1964), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Minority Report (2002), War of the Worlds (2005) and Ready Player One (2018). With all those accolades, Disclosure Day had a lot to live up to. And while I won’t go as far as to say that the movie fell short of this expectation, I kind of expected more. It was entertaining, and the cast performances, specifically Emily Blunt’s and Colman Domingo's, were top tier, but I still found myself feeling left wanting.

"We're not rock stars. We're human jukeboxes."

A little bit of quick background. I'm a recording artist with eight albums under my belt, so I likely approached this film a little differently than most folks. I wasn't really all that enthused about seeing the film. You see, I tend to hate when songwriters write songs about writing songs. I think it's pretentious. So what have I done? Written at least a handful of songs about writing songs, so I don't do a lot of practicing what I preach. That's the mindset I had going into the screening. It turned out maybe I do like songs about songwriting and just haven't had the guts to admit it. There aren't any maybes about one thing. I can tell you for certain that Power Ballad turned out to be one of the best films I've seen in the first half of 2026. Who knew? I think that director/writer John Carney knew. It's possible that Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas did. Now I know, and in a minute, so will you.

Let's just get this out of the way from the jump. I very much doubt that any film or filmmaker is going to ever come close to giving us the D-Day invasion of France in any better detail or realism than Stephen Spielberg did with Saving Private Ryan. There have already been countless documentaries. There have been enough films on the subject to make just about anyone a "Hollywood" expert on what is likely the greatest military campaign in the history of warfare. The only way you're going to get anyone's attention or leave any kind of mark on the cinematic history of D-Day is to find an angle that no one else has found. Good luck with that... or maybe there is an aspect that hasn't yet been mined. I didn't think so before I saw director Anthony Maras's latest film Pressure. The approach is so simple it's almost crazy that it hasn't been covered before. What is it everyone always complains about but no one ever does anything about? The weather. Perhaps nothing determines the outcome of a battle more. Just ask George Washington or Napoleon Bonaparte or maybe ask Dwight D. Eisenhower. Because when he was asked what the turning point of the D-Day invasion was he answered that we just had better weathermen than the German's did. That's what Pressure is all about.

We are 72 hours from D-Day which currently is scheduled for Monday June 5th, 1944. If that date sounds just a little off to you be patient. Andrew Scott plays Lt. James Stagg. He's a British expert on meteorology. His wife is pregnant with their first child but he has been called away on a very secret meeting with Dwight Eisenhower who is The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces. What he's about to discover is that the Allies are just three days from embarking on the greatest expeditionary force in history... The invasion of Nazi-occupied France. Brendan Fraser plays Eisenhower. He has relied on his own meteorologist Irving Krick (Messina) throughout the war. Captain Krick's forecasts have been reliable and have led him to many victories particularly in North Africa. But the British claim Stagg is the best there is and so Eisenhower puts him in charge of the team that have the responsibility of delivering a go/no go forecast for the offensive. The two instantly butt heads when Krick gives a clear skies go forecast while Stagg believes there is a strong front moving through the area that will bring the mother of all storms. As the film advances each of these men are engaged in a conflict that complicates the invasion and causing a bit of hostility within the ranks.

“I'm warning you. I got a Saturn Award for Best Fight in a Feature Film, so don't mess with me.”

So, it goes without saying the success or failure of this movie rested solely on Karl Urban’s portrayal of Johnny Cage. Johnny Cage is among the most popular characters in the video game franchise. Not to mention, he was my favorite character back in my Sega days. For me, while I still enjoyed the first film, his absence was felt. I was thrilled when I heard that he was going to be featured in the second film. I will admit when I heard that Urban would be playing the role, I was mildly skeptical. While I know Urban to be a fantastic actor and hilarious, the physicality of the role, I initially thought would be too much for him. Luckily, it proved me wrong. It’s been five years since the reboot, and yet for the most part, the sequel feels like no time has passed at all. Especially given that everyone member of the cast from the reboot returned for the sequel, including a few that I wasn’t expecting. This of course includes some new additions as well as a bit of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina reunion.

"I know you've been waiting a long time for this. The tracks are made, the songs are ready. Let's take it from the top!"

For a little over two hours Michael Jackson has risen from his grave. It's not a miracle. It's a little bit of movie magic and a performance by an actor with a little bit more at stake than the usual paycheck or quest for awards and accolades. When he decided to direct a bio-pic about Michael Jackson, Antoine Fuqua made a couple of smart choices. He hired John Logan to write the script. Logan is likely best known for Gladiator but he has a pretty impressive resume to call upon. But the wisest choice was to hire Jaafar Jackson to play the title character. And while Jackson was required to audition for the part like any other actor might be required to do, he had an edge both in getting the role and in turning it into something a little bit special. He is Michael Jackson's nephew and the son of Jackson Five member Jermaine Jackson. So there's certainly a lot of Jackson power in the film, and it's all put together to pull in a whole lot of a different kind of Jacksons at the box office. So hold on tight, because this story is going to be a whirlwind.

"Want some pie?"

Follow me if you can. Somewhere out there in movieland there is a place called Normal that is anything but. And Nobody lives in the town of Normal. Of course, I'm really talking about Bob Odenkirk. He's the actor who had a heart attack filming the last season of his Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul. Now most actors will look at having a heart attack as a sign to slow down. That's not what Odenkirk did. He decided to push himself by training for his first action film for five years with the stunt guys who did a lot of the John Wick action. That film was Nobody with Odenkirk playing the titular "Nobody". The strange thing is that he had a ton of fun and was quite good in the role and ended up in a sequel. Not willing to take "no" for an answer, he is now starring in his third action film, which also happens to begin with the letters n o. This time out is with director Ben Wheatly and co-writer Darek Kolstad. The film is called Normal, and it's a lot more fun than this setup might make you think. It's not going to win any awards, and it's not going to go down as a classic. What it will do is provide 90 fast-paced minutes of pure entertainment, and you know what? I'm OK with that.

Writer Andy Weir has a bit of a predictable science fiction style that has already struck box office gold. His novel The Martian was directed by the iconic Ridley Scott and starred Matt Damon as a lone astronaut stranded on the planet Mars. Weir's stories have a common theme that mankind might find the answers that confound us on Earth out there among the planets and the stars. Fans of that kind of hopeful science fiction won't be disappointed when they encounter Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's adaptation of another one of Weir's hopeful space stories called Project Hail Mary. The duo have been noted for their work in the Sony Spider-verse films and have mostly experience with animated features. Their work on Project Hail Mary should elevate them deservedly in the world of live-action science fiction with this recent release.

"I put the 'not' in astronaut! I've never done a spacewalk. I can't even moonwalk."

“Is that a freaking pigeon?”

I think this may be the first second-chance love story that I didn’t mind watching. Probably because the film didn’t try to undermine the main character’s responsibility in the situation that caused her to need redemption. Marking the third Colleen Hoover film adapted for the big screen, Maika Monroe stars as Kenna Rowan, a young woman working to rebuild her life after serving seven years in prison for a car crash that killed her boyfriend. Hoover’s popularity continues to grow with this latest adaptation, with at least one additional one scheduled for release later in the year. I have no doubt that more will follow, with the likely exception of the It Ends With Us sequel, which seems unlikely for obvious reasons. In the case of Reminders of Him, this marked a heartfelt and honest interpretation of its source material with some subtle deviations in my opinion. In addition to the story, the chemistry between Monroe and Tyriq Withers, who is quickly becoming a person to watch, makes this a film worth watching. Rounding out the cast are Bradley Whitford, Lauren Graham, Rudy Pankow, and Lainey Wilson in her film debut.