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This review may contain spoilers.

Fan service is bad. Unless I am the fan. In that case it is actually incredibly cool.

This movie was filled with references to previous mission impossible films. About every ten minutes my brother would lean over, point at the screen, and tell me which mission impossible film the reference was from. An actor would pop up and he’d be like “he’s from 3.” In that way this movie was made for movie lovers. Would someone who hadn’t seen any of the other films like this movie? Probably. But they would likely hate the plot. For fans tho, the plot and its tacky insanity that references 7 other films constantly is part of the goofy fun.

Definitely not top tier Mission Impossible. Definitely not the strongest stand alone film. But a very fun time at the movies and a fun way to play with a franchise.

Also always fun to see a collapsed lung represented on screen.

This is live action HunterxHunter with worse writing and better fighting

Watched on Saturday May 3, 2025.

Watched on Saturday May 3, 2025.

This was like seeing a movie in another country without speaking the language. A language close enough to English that you could follow it but not close enough for you to understand everything. But the massive crowd of children in the theater spoke that language fluently.

Kids were jumping up and down, shouting in response to different lines, cracking up. When the credits rolled the kids did a minute long standing ovation while just shouting at the top of their lungs. 

Needless to say the room was electric. Even though this film was clearly not made for me, it was a great time. Even if I had watched it alone I’d still give the film like a B. Compared to most kids movies today this was a banger.

The plot didn’t matter, the rules of the universe were just the rules of the game even though that didn’t make sense, and everything was fan service. And serve they did. It rocked. They should let whoever made this make the Fortnite movie.

This review may contain spoilers.

Went into this expecting something like Call Me By Your Name. Left feeling like this was more akin Tangerine. Less a narrative and more a character portrait/memoir of a person with desires and problems their society doesn’t understand. 

All my life I’ve thought Beat poetry was sort of lazy and lame but this felt different. The life depicted didn’t just feel honest and like people I have known personally, but it was also a life that isn’t represented comionately in media ever. This wasn’t a straight white dude’s stream of consciousness thoughts about wanting to be freer than he already is, it was a sad but kind look in the mirror. 

Also the scene where they take psychedelics ruled.

Would get five stars but there was about 30-40 minutes of it that clearly could have been cut. Pretty perfect film, just too long.

Saw this with my brother today at an accessible (lights on, talking allowed) showing at the Academy Museum. There were probably 100 kids and another 100 parents all reacting as loudly as they wanted the whole film. Simply one of the best moviegoing experiences I’ve ever had. Incredible film, incredible audience, impeccable vibes. 

(I’ve seen the movie many times before and loved it then too, but seeing it with a crowd was very nice)

Let’s just say this one’s not going to Broadway!

To start the music is terrible. To make that worse, the rest of the script is also terrible. The best example of both is in the villain’s song “bye bye.” Not only is it an insane song in which a macho lion repeats the incredibly out of character phrase “bye bye” to menace the main characters, but at the climax of the film the villain delivers what he thinks is the final blow of a fight only to pause and say “bye bye.”

Truly the worst part of this film though was that they framed the whole film as Simba’s kid being told a story as a way to shoehorn in Timon and Pumba. I’m not sure if this was produced during the writers strike or something, but those jokes could have used a few rounds of punch ups.

That said, here stuff that earned this the two stars I did give it:
There are elements of this film that are good. There’s a decent middle chunk that feels almost like the Lord of the Rings where the main characters are trekking on foot towards a distant destination while being trailed by a much stronger foe. There were also moments that felt genuinely Shakespearean which was cool.

This review may contain spoilers.

For nearly two hours I felt mad at the filmmaking style of this film. It was purposefully disorienting, it felt like the viewer missed giant -likely very interesting- parts of the story as the perspective kept swapping and jumping through time. The close up filmmaking style never gave you an establishing shot to know anything larger than that exact focal point at that exact moment. At first the scenes in the present day (mix or the 80s and 2000s?) felt tacky and almost preachy.

And then that ending happened. And suddenly like dissonant chords finding a harmony, everything clicked. Every critique I had had up until that point slipped away.

I think I went into this movie hoping for more world building and a stronger of a sense of place. I thought we would really get a sense of what life was like at Nickel Academy. Almost like a boarding school film. But that wasn’t the point of this film. This film wasn’t about what life was like at Nickel Academy. It was about what life FELT like at Nickel Academy. It was about two individual human beings and their relationship to themselves, their race, society, and the guilt of surviving something when others don’t.

I’d still love to see the other film I thought I was going to see going in. But the film I got instead was better.

(All of the above said, I think the movie would probably be stronger with a bit more set in the present day, to make that arc a little clearer and stronger)

A real mixed bag.

If you are going to see this movie, see it on a giant screen with a big audience. The animation is pretty amazing and this does feel like a real blockbuster musical in a way that makes seeing it with an audience very fun.

The story was pretty ill conceived, the script was poorly written, and the music — well enjoyable — felt forgettable and uninteresting. 

Great movie to take a kid to while it’s still in theaters, but I doubt anyone will really care about it much once it’s out of theaters.

It was worth the price of ission just to see people smoke vapes and use nespresso machines in the Vatican. 

There’s lots that could be said about the political drama that unfolds throughout the movie. But more impressive to me than any of the actual drama was how the cinematographer managed to make that drama visually stunning despite almost nothing all that visually interesting happening at all. I knew going in that this was Oscar bait for some of the actors, but I left feeling that it was also Oscar bait for best cinematography! Really beautiful stuff. Worth seeing on a big screen if you can.

I feel bad giving this film only 3.5 stars but I think that’s genuinely where I’d rate it.

Every actor is phenomenal, the plot is inventive and fun, and I’m a sucker for anything that takes place in the Russian beachside section of Brooklyn. 

My probably unpopular take about this film is that it felt more like a good middle season episode of a prestige TV show than a movie. For example, the Igor/Anora plot line felt like a set up you’d see pay off episodes later, but without the pay off. 

I also felt like a lot of stuff could be cut. I found myself going in and out of enjoying the movie and wondering how long was left. 

Again — I really enjoyed it! But it wasn’t as good as the hype had me anticipating.

It’s wild that this 2 hour 40 minute movie is just part 1. What’s more wild is that if part 2 were already out I would have gladly watched them back to back same day.

That’s not to say this movie shouldn’t have trimmed around the edges more. Basically every scene was a minute too long and the opening 25 minutes clearly should have been no more than 5 minutes. But that said, I loved almost all of this film!

Before I went in I had been told that film bros were upset that the whole thing was lit like it was a commercial —and that was accurate —  but I actually found that really impressive. Most magical worlds portrayed on screen get away with a lot by being dimly lit. You could see every inch of everything for this entire film but every inch was beautiful and magical.

I hadn’t seen this film since high school and I was shocked at how much more sophisticated it was than I . 

For some reason I thought of this film as being much shallower and dumber than it is. Maybe because the kind of guy who tells you they love this movie is usually an overly aggressive bro who loves it for the style and the violence.

I’d love to hear how people who actually know people with memory issues like this think of the depiction of his condition.

My brother is developmentally disabled and I’ve always been incredibly curious what the world seems like from his perspective: what’s confusing, what does he understand, why does he find communication and learning so difficult. The use of the structure of the film to make the audience feel those sorts of challenges along with the protagonist in this film was masterful. I can’t think of any other film putting the audience in the shoes of a character that profoundly. 

On an unrelated note I love that Thomas Lennon has a cameo! Lieutenant Jim Dangle himself.

When I saw this film in high school I thought it was incredibly deep. Now it feels like the kind of film that is actually just shallow enough that a teenager would think it was deep. 

Don’t get me wrong, this is a fantastic, hilarious, and worthwhile film. I was just surprised at how dumb the satire aspect of it was.

Now before you come at me, I am still giving this movie 4 stars. The visuals, the humor, and the practical effects alone deserve that. Not to mention just how delightfully bizarre this film is.

Gotta love a movie about athletes that centers them and their emotions over the actual game. 

In a worse version of this film, the finale would be the US Open. But this film wasn’t about the tennis. It was laser focused on just the power dynamic between the three leads. So focused it actually felt like it had tunnel vision in a good way: there were no other real characters, the extras almost felt like props, the shots were dynamic close ups throughout almost all the matches so you could never fully understand what was happening in a game but knew how the characters felt about it. 

This movie was also just stunningly shot.

I watched it on a plane and after I finished I tried to find another movie to watch but ended up bailing 5 minutes into three different options. Watching a movie where every shot had incredible intention and composition made it hard to want to watch other less artful crap.

You don’t need a review of this movie! You’ve seen it!

BUT have you seen it in 3-D? 

I am not a 3-D guy. Normally it makes me dizzy and I feel like it adds next to nothing to most films. But this was not like most 3-D movies. Sure, two or three times some stuff jumped out at you, but for the most part you just got to see a bunch of handmade claymation dolls and sets in more detail than you ever have. 

Seeing a human traverse space in three dimensions? Been there done that. Watching a puppet walk across a teeny tiny bridge like you the viewer were the size of a bug… now that is worth the price of ission!

I went into this movie expecting it to be horrible. My best friend texted me the day before I saw it saying it was “unwatchable.”

About an hour into the movie I found myself wondering, when does this get bad?

Now don’t get me wrong. I get why someone might hate it. But having spent the summer watching truly unwatchable films with my brother (like Despicable Me 4), I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. 

It was slow and weird and mainly just songs sort of half sung in a dreamlike manner, but I was into it! It felt like they got a blank check and used it to do the skeleton outline of a superhero movie but just making the strangest choices all the way through. 

I also just liked a lot of the songs. I’m a sucker for a weird cabaret vibe.

This review may contain spoilers.

A fantastic kids sci-fi for the Alexa generation. I don’t think it’s quite as good as a lot of the reviews say, but it’s a really really solid kids movie and that rocks. 

A few of my favorite elements:

My favorite part of this film is that everything you assume will happen in the movie happens in about an hour and then the plot keeps going in ways you’d never really expect for another 40 minutes. 

My second favorite part of this film is that the world it exists in follows a lot of kid logic in a fun way. The suspension of disbelief is at about the level you’d need to convince a 4 year old and it adds a lot of charm to the movie. 

My third favorite part is that the film just has subtle dystopian elements throughout. In two less than 15 second shots you can see the Golden Gate Bridge submerged under the ocean, a victim to climate change in this non-specified future.

A profound meditation on death, the circle of life, and one’s responsibilities to future generations. 

I think if this was the only Miyazaki film I’d ever seen I’d find it mediocre. Its plot is moved forward in ways that feel forced and unnatural; None of the characters are that deep or develop much throughout the film; and it’s not exactly thrilling or funny. With any other filmmaker I think I’d chalk this film up as unskilled or sloppy. But knowing the rest of Miyazaki’s work made me appreciate this film in a completely different almost meta and contextual light. The plot felt like it was being forced in a direction because that is how life’s path toward death feels. The characters were flat because they were more symbol than person.

In some ways the message of the movie came off as unclear and muddled but that felt to me like an honest meditation on death. It’s not something that is clear or easy to grasp and explain. In other ways the movie seemed to have a clear message, both the boy and his mother return to their worlds and their chaos knowing they can never make them fully right, but knowing they have a duty to the next generation anyway. Very Miyazaki.

I’m glad I watched and I appreciate the film very much as a piece of Miyazaki’s filmography, but I don’t think I’ll be watching it again any time soon.

There is a special place in heaven for people who make kids movies that don’t suck. 

I’m not saying you should rush out and see this, but if you have to take a kid to a movie this one is laps ahead of most kids stuff. 

It’s essentially taking the transformers franchise and making it a science fiction film rather than a superhero movie. There are elements of a typical superhero movie, but it’s much more about the world building and the society in which the transformers live. 

Spoiler below:
One element of the film really stood out to me: Optimus and Megatron experience the same inciting incidents but it takes them down drastically different paths. That as a set up absolutely rocks. Unfortunately the execution didn’t make a ton of sense. Megatron’s motivations felt shallow and empty and weren’t convincing. With a bit more justification on that front I feel like this movie could have earned another star from me. But unfortunately this film is not much more than meets the eye.

Some film critic on NPR said that this movie was a bad sequel that was all fan service. Seeing the movie myself was a great reminder that film critics are losers and are not to be trusted.

Movie rocked. Tim Burton’s still got it. Michael Keaton rules. Jenna Ortega is a star. 

More films like this please.

Just a horribly written film. And unbelievably long. 

It’s not the plot or the premise I take issue with (although I’d be very curious to hear what survivors of domestic abuse think about the way this film portrays that issue!). 

My issue with the film was that in the most basic ways it just didn’t make any sense or provide entertainment. The actual base reality underneath the plot was so bizarrely off (think “The Room” (2003) but not bad enough to be entertaining) and the dialogue was so stilted that it actually reminded me how hard it is to make a movie! It is a real feat to just make something that feels like it exists in our world or another conceivable world with its own rules and logic. This film unfortunately did not pull that off.

Great -- incredibly dumb -- film. We need more blockbusters like this. Give me insane action. Give me shallow romance. Give me completely unrealistic science!

This was way better than it had any right to be! Definitely annoying and I'd never watch it again, but it really had some good moments!

As a side note, its kind of amazing to see a movie with social politics that seem frozen in time from like 2010.

Truly the worst of the series. Everyone involved should be ashamed this was made.

Honestly not as bad as it could have been! But man does is Zachary Levy's schtick tired.

A lot of this film felt like it was trying to be Elf. It's about a magical guy in a fish out of water circumstance. Zooey Deschanel plays a normal woman who at first is like, "what the hell are you doing?" but then comes around. The issue with it is that none of the magic or jokes are earned at all. They do pretty much zero justification of anything and again, Zachary Levy really just is no Will Ferrell.