The Reel World

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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“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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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 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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“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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“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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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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“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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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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“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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“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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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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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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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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“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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“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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“We can find you some good guy material.”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been in a transition. Transitions are OK, but for Marvel this one appears to have lasted several years. There have been more misses than hits. Last I checked we were in the fifth phase of the MCU, and so far the results have been underwhelming. I mean, when even a Captain America movie with Harrison Ford turning into a Red Hulk doesn’t capture the box office numbers that were once considered automatic, something is wrong. The fifth phase is now coming to an end with the release of Thunderbolts*. Honestly, my expectations were low, and it appeared that even Marvel was already training us to ignore the last five years and get ready for big things with the launch this summer of The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Robert Downey Jr.’s return as Doom in the next series of Avengers films.
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“If a grudge is self-inflicted poison, then the person who invited you to this wedding is the most poisoned person that I have ever met. She doesn’t let go, and you are the biggest grudge of her life.”

I was a skeptic about this film. I didn’t think lightning could strike twice. A Simple Favor was a unique black comedy mystery film, and I expected that any follow-ups would fall victim to the law of diminishing returns. As it turns out, despite being seven years removed from these characters, for Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, it is as if no time has passed. Both Kendrick and Lively easily slipped back into their roles as well as their chemistry, which was vital to the success of the first film. I should have known that the film would be something special, given that it is the first sequel of director Paul Feig’s 22-film directorial career. Unlike the first film, Another Simple Favor is not based on a novel but an original story, which makes sense given where the first film left off. Returning alongside Kendrick and Lively is much of the cast from the first film, to include Henry Golding and Andrew Rannells.
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“You lost the moment you walked into this restaurant”

Do you know why they serve peanuts on airplanes? Even with all of the allergies out there, it remains an airline staple, and for one very specific reason. Chewing gum is a big deal for the airlines. The little time given to clean a plane between flights makes those of you inclined to put your chewing gum under your seat a bit of a problem. So they serve you peanuts, because peanut oil causes the “sticky” element of gum to completely break down. Try it. Your gum falls apart if you add peanut oil to the equation, and that’s exactly what director Christopher Landon has done with his latest Blumhouse thriller, Drop. Someone added a bit of peanut oil to the production, and it kind of never really sticks together. And that’s too bad. Because there’s a kind of clever and original element here that could have been a lot more interesting. Let’s try to separate the gum from the peanut, shall we?
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Having never played the game and having no frame of reference for this adaptation, I had to rely heavily on reinforcements to let me know if the movie was true to the game. According to my nephew, there were some deviations, such as the final boss, but for the most part, he said the movie was true to the game. From my perspective, A Minecraft Movie was an entertaining movie that doesn’t take itself seriously at all, which is to be expected with Jack Black cast as Steve, the only original character from the game. Black delivers in the fashion that he is famous for, a bit of overacting and breaking out into song in the oddest moments. Adding to the silliness is Jason Momoa, who fully embraced his goofy side that we usually only get to see when he is doing interviews. Jack Black and Jason Momoa being given free rein to crack jokes and overact; what more can you ask for? Along for the ride are Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black), Sebastian Hansen in his second film role, and Emmer Meyer of Wednesday and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which explains why I’m still waiting on season two of Wednesday.
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“When you can lie about everything, when you can deny everything, how do you tell the truth about anything?”

That is essentially the theme of Black Bag. When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband — also a legendary agent — faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage or his country. With a plot like that, you are most definitely going to need some top-shelf actors to convey the nuance and tension of a married couple that can’t fully trust one another. Enter Cate Blanchett and Miachel Fassbender on the heels of his espionage series The Agency. Toss in Steven Soderbergh as the director, and you get yourself a party.
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“Magic mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all?”

“My queen, your beauty is beyond compare, but there is one — her beauty grows — from deep within … Snow White. She is as pure as snow.”

Controversy up front, and this film has had it share of it, starting with the casting of titular character. The casting of Rachel Zegler, a Latina actress, as Snow White, drew criticism, as the character is described in the original material as having skin “as white as snow”. This is actually not that uncommon for a Disney live-action. I would even dare to call it commonplace. And while I don’t agree with it personally and actually like the idea of these stories evolving and that they are “open to all ethnic groups”, I’m just saying that I am not surprised at this criticism. We saw the same thing with the live-action Little Mermaid.
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“We share the same world, don’t we? This world you would die to save. It’s coming. I’ve seen it in the probability. Seen it plain as day. All you heroes protecting this world. Do you think you’re the only ones? Do you think this the only world? We’ll see what happens when you have to protect this place from the others.”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is truly at a crossroads. Since the last Avengers film the studio has released one disappointing film after another. The big tentpole stars and characters have been lost along the way, and that star power has seriously damaged the franchise since that time. Certainly there have been some bright spots. Spider-Man No Way Home was the lone exceptional outing, and the recent Deadpool & Wolverine film was just plain fun.  With Robert Downy, Jr.’s Iron Man. Gone. Chris Evans Captain America. Gone. Scarlet Johanson’s Black Widow. Gone.
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I’ve never been much for Will Ferrell. His brand of comedy never really resonated with me. I always just found it too ridiculous and outlandish.  I suppose You’re Cordially Invited will be the exception to that rule. While the film does play right into Ferrell’s wheelhouse with the over-the-top antics such as wrestling an alligator, it is actually the dynamic, should I say the rivalry, between Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon that is the highlight of the movie. The film is similar to Bride Wars and the Neighbors, which makes a measure of sense as the director of the latter film is actually the director of this film as well. Further aiding the film’s success is that, like Ferrell and Witherspoon, a majority of the cast all have established comedy backgrounds. Joining Ferrell and Witherspoon was Geraldine Viswanathan (Blockers) as Ferrell daughter and one of the brides-to-be, Meredith Hagner (Vacation Friends) as Witherspoon’s sister and the other bride-to-be, Stony Blyden (Hunter Street) as one of the grooms-to-be, and Jimmy Tatro (Home Economics) as the other groom-to-be.
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