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, but things take a brutal turn as we see him stab one of the travelers and let them fall into the water to be devoured by the sharks circling below.

The film then shift gears by introducing us to Zephyr (Hassie Harrisson), an American who has travelled to Australia and has taken up a nomadic life, living out of her van so she can live her best life surfing. She runs into Moses (Josh Heuston), who is having some car trouble, and their brief meeting turns into something a little bit more …This sequence is pretty much a way to give us Zephyr’s back story of living in foster care, and of course she has trust issues and can only trust herself. Moses, of course, seems to have fallen in love overnight, and when he comes to deliver her breakfast in bed (her van), it turns out she’s already gone (cue the sad trombone). All seems lost for Moses till he gets a text message from Zephyr to meet him at a surfing spot, but alas, she gets kidnapped, and only Moses seems to know anything about Zephyr’s existence, so it is up to him to find her.

“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. More on the subject is How to Train Your Dragon, which represents a picture-perfect successful adaptation in my opinion. Helping bring the adaptation to life is at least one familiar face in Gerard Butler, who reprises his role as Stoick. Rounding out the cast are Mason Thames (The Black Phone), Nick Frost, Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2), and Nico Parker in her second live-action adaptation (the first being Dumbo).

"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. So no one has to deal with the whole is he alive or dead question ... yet. But will audiences settle for a John Wick Universe film with a little Keanu on the side? The answer is yes and no. So let's talk about From The World Of John Wick: Ballerina.

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.

Bring Her Back wastes little time with setting the tone of the film as we see Andy (Billy Barratt) and his sister Piper (Sora Wong) return home to find their father dead in the shower. To further the trauma for the kids, a social worker intends to separate the siblings. Andy wants to have guardianship of his sister, but because he’s not quite 18, it isn’t allowed. After some desperate pleas by Andy, they allow him to stay at the foster parents’ home on the condition that he behaves himself. The relationship between Andy and Piper is very much the heart of this film. They are step-siblings, and because Piper is blind, Andy has played the role as her guardian for some time even before the passing of their father. The film really does a good job of establishing this bond early on, and it’s necessary, because once they get to the foster parents’ home, things definitely take a turn.

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.

The film is set in 1988, and Shadyside High is getting ready for prom, and this year the race for prom queen is fiercer than ever. Lori Granger (India Fowler) is a bit of an outsider at her school, mostly because of town gossip surrounding her mother, but she’s decided make a mark at her school and become prom queen. Unfortunately for Lori, the other girls in the running are a group of “mean girls” who call themselves “The Wolfpack”. Their pack leader is Tiffany (Finna Strazza), and it is safe to say they are not happy about having Lori competing for the crown. At least Lori has her best friend Megan (Suzanna Son) as support, even though Megan is just as much of an outsider because of her obsession with horror and pulling harmless yet gory pranks at the school.

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.

The film takes place in the early 1930s and follows Smoke and Stack, (Michael B. Jordan does double duty playing the twins). They are brothers who have fled Chicago to return to their home in the south in the Mississippi Delta to open up a juke-joint. They come to town with cash and purchase an old mill from a man they suspect is a member of the Klan but hope that their money is good enough to not cause any trouble. Too bad it seems trouble seems to always find Smoke and Stack, as we discover that the brothers don’t exactly have a squeaky-clean reputation.

"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. He opens up that can of Barbasol just to make sure there isn't any dinosaur DNA left in the can, but as he takes off the cap, an authoritative voice begins to speak: “Good morning, Mr. Cruise. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to make a two part film of the Mission Impossible franchise. It won't be easy. That's why only the IMF team can be counted on to complete this task. There are agents out to stop you before you even get started. In China there is a virus code-name COVID, and this virus will spread to pandemic levels just as you're starting to get your production crew together. Elements within our own government will take measures to shut you down.  Delays will cost an extra $100 million and necessitate crucial cast changes. They'll be serious injuries, and your release date will be July of 2021 ... I mean November of 2021 ... Would you believe May of 2022? ... Let's shoot for July 14, 2023. You will have to deal with nefarious crew members who will attempt to sabotage the project by standing closer than two meters apart. You may use over-the-top rants to attempt to intimidate these factions into compliance. Beware that said rants don't end up released by the press to the world. Somehow through all of these challenges you must create a pair of Mission Impossible films that will be bigger and better than anything that came before. And remember, Tom, if your film fails to bring in a billion or more, the studio will disavow your team, and your movie will go straight to streaming ... or worse, get shelved as a tax write-off. Good luck, Tom. This message will self-destruct in five seconds.” There's a swoosh of fog, and Tom Cruise is sitting in his bathroom with no shaving cream to complete his original task. I figure that's how it must have gone. And that was just for the first movie.

“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.