“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.

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.

Elio signifies director Adrian Molina’s first Pixar movie as the main director, having served as the co-director on Coco and as a member of the Senior Creative Team for The Good Dinosaur and Lightyear. Well, he has put together a great story and good cast. Through my research I understand that America Ferrara was originally slated for the role of Olga Solis, Elio's mother, but was unable to follow through with due to scheduling issues. I think she would have been good as well, but in my honest opinion, I think there was no way Molina could go wrong with Zoe Saldana. Interestingly enough, it seems this casting change also prompted a story change, as Saldana played Elio’s aunt rather than his mother. Personally, I preferred this shift, as it demonstrates an important principle that not all families are the same and that even when tragedy strikes, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still be family.

“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. For those who may not know, Mike Flanagan has been making a name for himself in the horror genre. The Haunting on Hill House, Midnight Mass, Hush, Doctor Sleep, The Fall of the House of Usher and Gerald’s Game are all hits in his filmography, and frankly, he just hasn’t disappointed me yet. But the surprising thing about The Life of Chuck is that it’s not a horror story, at least not in any traditional sense, so how would Flanagan fare with this project in which at first glance appears he’s stepping out of his comfort zone?

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.