Cinema Playground Journal 2026: Week 21 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Corporate Retreat

⭐️

Genre:  Comedy, Horror

Director:  Aaron Fisher

Starring:  Odeya Rush, Alan Ruck, Zión Moreno, Ashton Sanders, Kirby Johnson, Rosanna Arquette for some reason

A horror-comedy that is neither thrilling nor funny, this film sees a group of employees going on a, you guessed it, corporate retreat!  The trust exorcises start to become deadly when the ousted company founder highjacks the weekend and forces them into survival games to "achieve transcendence" or some dumb shit.  Insert random scenarios, none of which seem to have much thought put into them, nor does there seem to be a reason for any of the mayhem aside from pettiness.  Most of the film is goofy, but any attempt at comedy is misdelivered and not very amusing.  Most of the survival games are clumsy and boring, aside from a section late in the movie involving eyes, which was slightly unnerving despite lackluster execution.  There is not a lot in the movie that feels like it's excelling at what the movie sets out to do.  But, to be frank, I'm also not sure what this movie is trying to accomplish.  Being a dark, off-beat satire I can understand, but the movie is made with inconsistent logic based around a premise that doesn't seem to have a genuine reason to it.  It feels like the movie was devised because someone was trying to come up with a quirky setting for a survival thriller and took it as a writing challenge.  If the end goal was to make something, then they succeeded.  If it was to make something coherent, then less so.

Also, Rosanna Arquette is in this movie for about three seconds and I don't understand why.  She just kinda jumps in and ducks out.  What a weird paycheck for her.

I Love Boosters

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Boots Riley

Starring:  Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylor Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, Demi Moore

This surrealist comedy sees a group of professional shoplifters who steal clothing and sell it second-hand concocting a revenge scheme against fashion designer Demi Moore.  It involves a bunch of weird shit, like a teleportation machine, matter deconstruction, a monster who swallows souls through the vaginal region, stopmotion skinless people, and Eiza González having shaved eyebrows, so don't be surprised how eccentric the movie will get in its silly mayhem.  Whether or not it's a movie worth recommending largely depends on a tolerance level for surrealism.  If you like your comedies grounded, then this movie is an easy pass.  But as outlandish as the movie can get, it is done with genuine thoughtfulness and with thematic value.  The hurdle becomes that it's mostly a freight train of gibberish in delivering it's themes, meaning it can become cumbersome after a while.  I have the same problem with Wes Anderson movies, where I appreciate what he's trying to do, I just feel trapped by the movie after a certain period of time.  I Love Boosters is at least constantly changing its gears as it goes, constantly bringing some new nonsense that fits in with its established vibe.  Maybe it's too much nonsense, but you've been warned.  The movie is a relentless two-hour limit test of where the edge of sensory overload is, but if you like your movies off-beat, frantic, and wacky, I Love Boosters is probably a yearly highlight.

The Mandalorian and Grogu

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Science Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure

Director:  Jon Favreau

Starring:  Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allan White, Sigourney Weaver

Buckle up; it's Star Wars time.  And it's back in cinemas, the domain where it made a name for itself all those years ago.  Star Wars has technically never left, having been a constant presence on streaming due to all that content-pushing on Disney+, so if you don't feel like this is the big "welcome back" event since the deflating disappointment that was Rise of Skywalker that you've been wanting, you have good reason for that.  I guess Disney thought that the best way to reintroduce Star Wars to cinemas was do do a feature film version of Disney+'s most popular series, The Mandalorian, which did a solid three season run that launched a couple of spin-offs in the process.  I've seen most of The Mandalorian, and it's pretty fun.  It manages to capture that pulpy adventure feel that you'd hope to get from Star Wars while offering an update on the classic samurai story Lone Wolf and Cub, chronicling a ronin protecting an orphan child.  I haven't watched the third season, which is probably because I need to watch The Book of Boba Fett first and I don't care enough.  I usually tend to get more interested in actually watching Star Wars when I'm not irritated at Star Wars fans, which are instances that are few and far between.  I haven't even watched Andor, and probably won't for a good long while.  My loss, probably.  I wish I cared.

I'm assuming the movie picks up wherever season three left off, seeing the Mandalorian and force-sensitive child Grogu doing bounty hunting work.  They take a job for the Hutts, seeking out Rotta, the estranged son of Jabba and heir to to gangster empire.  Things go south, as deals with the Hutts normally do (just ask Han Solo, who is still picking carbonite out of his teeth), and Mando and Grogu fight to survive.  It all seems like a pretty solid foundation for a lark, but, somehow, the personality of the TV series became muted in the transition to the big screen.  The movie has a lot of effects and action, but it's never very exciting.  Most of the film feels like a placeholder until Star Wars can figure it's shit out and release a real movie, playing it safe by putting two popular characters out and have them do action things.  I'm not even sure much is accomplished by them in the movie, which is weird because a lot is going on, in a segmented manner.  The film feels episodic to the point you would swear that they just took their season four pitch and crammed it into a fragmented movie.  Of course, maybe I should be thankful that they didn't extend this into something longer and equally uninteresting.

The movie's positive qualities give it a hint of sparkle.  Ludwig Göransson's score is a rousing banger.  Action is very hectic and...actiony.  It doesn't always feel like it's moving the story forward but those who come to see people shot with lasers will get that.  And I love the puppets.  I always like seeing Grogu scuttle around, and he has even smaller puppet sidekicks that follow him and mutter barely-English gibberish that are equally fun.  My favorite section of the movie is when Mando is out for the count and we follow Grogu on a little survival adventure.  It's charming, creative, and has the heart the rest of the movie is lacking.  But, for the most part, I just didn't feel like I was on a ride or a journey.  When one goes for pulpy fun, that is what one should be aiming for.  It's better than Rise of Skywalker, but this is not the shot in the arm that Star Wars needed.

Passenger

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Horror

Director:  André Øvredal

Starring:  Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo, Joseph Lopez

Horror is in a renaissance right now, and it's a very good time to be invested in the dark side of cinema, to the point that this year's Oscars had to give a giant chunk of their awards (including acting accolades) to Sinners, Weapons, and Frankenstein.  They can't all be winners, though.  We still live in a world where Renny Harlin's Strangers trilogy got made, after all.  And it's a bad time to open a generic horror flick when you're in the aftermath of what is probably going to wind up being the horror movie of the year.  There's nothing wrong with a good popcorn horror, though if it doesn't get its meathooks into the audience, it's easy for it to just slump you out with disinterest.  It's hard to sit through Passenger when you know you could walk into the next theater and see Obsession again, instead.  Hell, I've already seen Obsession three times.  I've also seen Passenger but am unlikely to think of it again for the rest of the year.

Passenger was directed by horror fan favorite André Øvredal, who helmed beloved indie films Trollhunter and The Autopsy of Jane Doe, as well as more expensive cult films Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and The Last Voyage of the Demeter.  Here he spins a tale of a couple starting a new life on the road in their van.  Along the way, they pick up a demonic spirit that latches itself to them.  All of this feels like padding to the sequences the movie has thoroughly mapped out in its head, including the prologue which you've probably seen most of in the teaser trailer.  Øvredal loves using sweeping, single-take camera movements in this film, always leading up to the ghostie jumping out for a jump scare close up to the camera.  It startles a few times, but it starts to feel like the only trick in his arsenal.  The movie starts being less fun when it tries to make us empathize with the characters it's chasing, who just aren't interesting.  They have weird relationship issues that they need to sort out, but it feels like they have an artificial communication barrier that is a bit of a plot contrivance.  The drama doesn't escalate our urgency in seeing these characters survive because they never feel like real people.  But I guess it would be nice if they lived because they seem harmless enough.  Most of the movie is just paper thin characters wandering/driving around in the dark.  The movie is very good at wandering aimlessly in the dark.  Sometimes it gets creative with it.  More movies should use a projector showing Roman Holiday as a flashlight, even if I did spend those scenes watching that movie instead of this one.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

The Devil Wears Prada 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

In the Grey ⭐️⭐️

Obsession ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Michael ⭐️⭐️

Mortal Kombat II ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Project Hail Mary ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

The Sheep Detectives ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Top Gun ⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Digital

Mother Mary ⭐️⭐️1/2

The Mummy ⭐️⭐️1/2

Normal ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Physical

Avatar:  Fire and Ash ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Bride! ⭐️⭐️1/2 

Coming Soon!

"Let's Keep Food Safe to Eat"/"Mr. B Natural" & Crow T. Robot's Festival of Shorts (MST3K Special)

The Livestream

Welcome to Crow T. Robot's Festival of Shorts!  Introduced by our shorts-master, Crow T. "The 'T' Stands For 'Taste'" Robot!  It took him a while to come up a title for it, but it finally clicked...

"CROWDANCE!"

Of course, he didn't actually come up with this title until the special was already underway, so we're just going to run with the whole "Festival of Shorts" title.  If you have ever watched one of the shorts compilation DVDs, the Festival of Shorts is the same basic thing.  What I particularly enjoyed about Festival of Shorts is that it's a similar format to Shorts Vol. 1, which had introductions by Tom Servo for each short.  That way we're getting new MST3K material to go along with it.  It's slightly grander than Vol. 1 in that the actual intros are light host segments and not just a blurb of slight wit.  Crow is featured (Hampton Yaunt version), as the title suggests, but Jonah and Tom Servo (Baron Vaughn version) also pop in to see how he's doing and help him out when he's in the weeds.  There are not any huge gutbusters in the intro bumpers, but highlights include Crow's fancy French accent introducing the affair (and trying to shoo off an interrupting Servo), Servo listing the "best Januarys" (January Jones, January Hooks, January in the Pan, ect.) and a fun little talk show style interview with Jonah.  The segment of the night honors go to Crow painting Servo head to toe in gold and having him perform a melodramatic monologue as Crow, delivering it in full Lawrence Olivier mode.  The paint seems to bother Servo the most, asking Crow "Isn't this how Shirley Eaton died in Goldfinger?"

The later bumpers that introduce the new shorts are more lackluster.  Mr. B Natrual's has Jonah running to Crow explaining that they found the lost footage of Kinga and Max watching Mr. B at the end of last season, which is good lore but not very funny.  Let's Keep Food Safe to Eat has an intro that isn't really much of anything.  It feels pretty slapped together, fueling my speculation that they initially had it set for the Christmas That Almost Wasn't livestream and kicked it over to the Festival of Shorts stream for some reason.  It's not the only sign that changes were made behind the scenes, because the stream concludes with Jonah stating they'll return for the final livestream in a few weeks, I Accuse My Parents.  I Accuse My Parents was indeed the final livestream, but there was a livestream of Overdrawn at the Memory Bank between this stream and that one.

Whatever.  Doesn't matter.  What matters are laughs and shorts, of which there a few of both.  Let's let the guffaws take us, leading up to our world premiere shorts!

A Case of Spring Fever

Original Episode:  Squirm

Fed up with fixing his couch, a disgruntled man wishes he never sees another spring as long as he lives.  Enter:  Coily, the Spring-Sprite, who grants him his wish to prove just how horrible life would be without springs!

Call it It’s a Wonderful Life…with SPRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGS!  ::whistles::  I really dig this weird little educational short, with its kooky little Looney Tunes omnipotent character that turns the world upside down.  It gets a bit talky in its second half, as our main character lists the many uses of springs.  I do somewhat wonder who the audience of this short was.  I lean toward kids because of the wacky Coily segment, but I can’t really justify the crotchety old man as a main character if it was targeted at a younger demographic.  I also wonder if questioning the usefulness of springs was really a huge problem back in the day.  Or is it a short meant for adult spring manufacturers?  Probably.  Did they need it to do their job?  Probably not.  It’s not like you need to sell the importance of a spring.

But still, if you didn’t have a great appreciation for the many ways springs are used in your daily life, you will when this short is over.

A Case of Spring Fever is a pretty great ending to the abbreviated shorts run on the Sci-Fi era (though I think Robot Rumpus tops all three).  And it’s great that they finally featured this short on the show to give the Willy the Waffle segment in Viking Women and the Sea Serpent some context.

Circus on Ice

Original Episode:  Monster A-Go Go

Why settle for one indignity when you can have two?  Circus on Ice is exactly what it sounds like, a circus on ice.  Here we have ice skating shenanigans being put on for our entertainment.

There’s not a lot to say about this one, except that some of the show is kind of neat.  And some of it...not so much.  When we’re reduced to interpretive dance on a deer being shot then that’s when I get up to refill my popcorn.

The short probably put them in a good mood, as it was zesty and high on energy.  They warmed up with some fast and steady quips for the appetizer, which kept their level respectable for the mean, indigestible main course.

Snow Thrills

Original Episode:  It Conquered the World

The movie going public will THRILL to seeing sporting events in any form, because we’re too fat and lazy to do it on our own!

Before television was a thing, audiences had very limited ways of following sports.  You had to see it live in order to see it in practice, otherwise you had to listen to it over the radio or read about it in the paper the next day.  Shorts like Snow Thrills were meant as a means of small glimpses to things that were difficult to see in certain parts of the country.  Snow Thrills gives us a look at the wonders of snow sports, and why you should spend your vacation at a ski lodge this winter and risk a broken leg.

Nowadays when it’s easy to watch the Winter Olympics every four years, Snow Thrills doesn’t seem all that special, but back then it was something fun.  It wasn’t something you saw every day, or even COULD see every year.  The stunts are cool, and audiences enjoyed them.  Snow Thrills serves its purpose.

The short is very visual, which means there is a lot for our crew to play with.  When they’re not mocking the sports, they take aim at the narrator, and especially get mileage out of his proper pronunciation of the word “ski,” which is supposed to be pronounced “shee” (“You’re full of skit,” Joel responds, the foul-mouthed bastard).  This leads to a lot of fun with the phrase “ski jorring” (pronounced “she-whoring”).

The Selling Wizard

Original Episode:  The Dead Talk Back

For those store-owners who need to know the importance keeping food fresh and cool with attractive packaging, this short is for you.  We see a large selection of refrigeration and freezing units as well as how it might display one's product.

And speaking of attractive packaging, here's a model in a skimpy outfit to guide us every step of the way.

For those maybe interested in how your fridge cools food down, this might be a helpful guide.  Though it's primary focus is to sell coolers to stores who might need them, but let's face facts, these models are long since out of production.  So the last point of interest for those who don't care is a pretty woman in a dress.  Yay!

The Selling Wizard isn't a short I remember much when I think back over the show.  Watching again now it occurs to me that it's probably because of how talky it is, and the riffers can hardly get a word in edgewise.  There are definite moments where they drop to silence and just kind of listen to the short because they can't fit a joke in, which is sometimes frustrating.  What material that does get through is uneven, though there are some nice laughs.  It's not the worst short of the series (my personal vote goes to Junior Rodeo Daredevils on that one), though it's toward the bottom.

Pipeline to the Clouds

Original Episode:  A Tribute to Manos

This is an industrial short made to show the important everyday uses people use water for in their general lives while also acknowledging what it takes for our workers to bring water into everyday homes all across the country.  That stuff doesn't just come out of the faucet like magic, ya know!

This short's a bit haphazard as it shows off the importance of water by showing what a drought can cause and scratches the surface of how we can prevent it.  Unfortunately it only scratches that surface and not much else.  The short doesn't bother to explain how really any of this works and just comes off as a whirlwind of water related imagery.  It's a bit irritating really.  I'm being shown lots of things but I'm not exactly learning anything from them.

Likewise for the riffing, this short is like water itself:  It's there but it's not solid enough to latch onto.  The short has actual content but not enough to work with in any sort of meaningful way.  Jonah's crew is in the theater seats for this one and honestly they seem a little stumped on how to make this funny.  They do jump at what imagery they can however they can though it tends to stay tricky.  They take a few establishing shots of a dam and use them to sass call "DAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYUUUUUUUUUM!"  There are also points where we see pretty women bathing yet all they can do is catcall, which is a little lazy.  But occasionally they'll come out with something great, and Jonah gets the most killer potshot of the entire short as he targets the anti-mask/vaxx movement:

"If there is one thing Americans can be counted on to do it's to selflessly accept mild personal inconvenience for the betterment of society as a whole."

But unfortunately the first short of the Gizmoplex is a disappointment.  It's mostly subpar material aimed at a short that seems like it's an uphill battle to contend with.  This one is a sinker.

The Debutantes

This short compilation livestream concluded with two new shorts, neither of which was accompanied by a "Short of the Month Club" intro by Pearl, though Let's Keep Food Safe to Eat has one on its solo presentation online.  Pearl apologizes for the overdose of Emily shorts this season, because Jonah's crew hasn't taken on a short since Let's Make a Meal in 20 Minutes, which was ages ago.  It doesn't stop her from giving Emily another short, while Jonah doesn't get another one at all this season.

I suspect what happened is that since Emily's crew only had four episodes to themselves, as they had to go off on tour during production, they decided to make up for their lack of content by handing them the majority of shorts.  It's weird that Jonah's shorts were so few and only at the beginning of the season, and even the Mads took a few slots that could have gone to his crew.  That being said, I wouldn't trade the Mads shorts this season for anything.

Anyway, food.  Let's eat!  But are those filthy hands of yours clean?  Of course they aren't, you dirty animal, you!  Let's rectify that, and also take a look at the many ways we keep our food fresh and healthy for when we're ready to chow down.  For example, did you know if you were to leave food sitting out for a week it might go bad?  You did?  I learned that the hard way when I found a pizza box behind the couch that one time, but luckily this short is here to keep you from making my mistakes.

This short is pretty much that in a nutshell, just spelling out food safety for kids and why you shouldn't just eat that Jolly Rancher you found in the parking lot.  It's pretty encompassing, from pointing out what food is spoiled and showing off the healthy eating habits your parents have likely instilled in you already that you haven't thought about but do anyway.  It's informative but like most similar shorts, is easy to just zone out as it drones on.

"If a fly lands on your food, it can leave harmful germs there."

"But add texture and flavor."

This is probably one of the better shorts of the season, and might specifically be Emily's short highlight.  It's one of those silly little fast-talking info dump shorts with a lot of visual cues to bounce off of and educational bits to add on to.  Emily's crew does pretty solid work, from asking about the "Five second rule?" to the moral of just "Say no to leftovers."  Laughs are plentiful, including the implication that a child at mealtime with dirty hands only has them because he was so hungry that he ate dirt.  I guess Servo was right, it was a "Four Screwdriver morning."  I get it.  With kids like these, why wouldn't it be?

Thumbs Up

👍

And now for a very special presentation, as we have a short that acts as a bridge in between Seasons 12 and 13.  As one might recall at the end of Ator, the Fighting Eagle, Kinga and Max were sucked up into the theater and forced to watch Mr. B Natural.  We only got to see a snippet of that event, but now this short has been dug up from the archives and we finally get to see the duo take on Mystery Science Theater's famous musical sprite.

Nevermind that Kinga's hairstyle is clearly her shortened Season 13 do with a little bow, and not the Season 11 & 12 Wilma Flintstone look with the boney hairpins.  I assure you that is irrelevant and this totally was not a result of this short being filmed this season.

::sits crossarmed ala Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons::

Worst Fan Service EVER.

But it's cool that they went back to the pool and did this little short for the fans.  I love that they did this, even as Mr. B isn't really a favorite of mine.  But I guess since I've always felt there was room for improvement on that short, maybe Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt's go at it will make for a more appealing option for me?

My original Mr. B Natural summary from War of the Colossal Beast:

The androgynous music sprite Mr. B Natural appears to a socially awkward boy named Buzz to turn him on (?!) to the wonders of music.  Mr. B gets him to toot is own horn (?!?!) by going out and buying a trumpet.  And with no practice necessary, he is awesome at it.  Mr. B then goes into hibernation, awaiting to be called upon once again.

This weird short has been a long time favorite among MSTies for being something of an oddity.  And it lives up to the oddity part.  It tries to make children interested in music by creating a magical character out of it, but this storyline comes off less encouraging than intended.  Mr. B is a bit of a high pitched annoyance and Buzz doesn't really experience much of a growth.  His story arch pretty much consists of buying a trumpet and reaping the rewards.

Remember kids, being instantly good at music makes you popular.

To an extent, while I think some of the bigger laughs from the original short are missing, this version of Mr. B is a little smoother and more consistent to my ears.  Kinga and Max rely less on the shock expressions, and while they're still present, they work a balance with actual jokes.  I like Kinga's crack that the short feels like being "Trapped in one of the Nicholas Brothers' nightmares" and her verbal disgust to Mr. B claiming "You gotta inspect your horn, boy!"  Max has a few funny bits as well, including some points where Felicia and Patton both stay in character and Kinga treats Max like her stooge to be controlled.  That usually is a tall ask for the Mads when they're in the theater, because they usually play it as riffers first and characters second.  Max also has one of the funniest lines in the short, right at the start as he notes the director's name of "Phil Patton."

"I just love the name 'Patton,' so strong and viral!"

Is it funnier?  Well, it probably depends on perspective.  I think those who grew up with the original Mr. B for all these years thinking it's the funniest segment of riffing the show ever offered will probably treat this reriff with indifference.  I'm in a unique position where I don't really have a large fondness for Mr. B Natural and find this one pretty okay.  I think it's good enough to recommend and while some similar territory is shared, it's unique enough to work on its own.  I'd say it's above average, and even if you idolize Mr. B's place as an MST legend, it's probably good enough for a fresh chuckle or two.

Thumbs Up

👍

Cinema Playground Journal 2026: Week 20 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

In the Grey

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Action, Thriller

Director:  Guy Ritchie

Starring:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Kristofer Hivju, Fisher Stevens, Rosamund Pike

Guy Ritchie is a name that can perk my ears when it comes to a quirky action movie.  Usually, even if his movies aren't anything great, they're usually something.  Something can mean stylish or fun, often both.  But if I had to choose one over the other, I'd favor the latter.  In the Grey is probably the least interesting movie I've seen from Ritchie in a while, but I also haven't seen that Fountain of Youth movie he did last year.  This movie stars Eiza González as a covert operative who is sent to retrieve a large sum of cash that was stolen, which she does so through legal and political means without getting her hands dirty.  Should the occasion call for violence, she relies on her extraction team, led by Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill.  It's an interesting take on a heist movie, though one that doesn't always have the moving pieces that a heist film requires to be engaging.  Heist movies can also sell themselves on attitude, and In the Grey is rich on attitude.  Ritchie movies are usually reliable on that.  The lack of intriguing plot development or momentum just makes it a movie that has more fun with being cheeky than it does with progressing.  The fact that the actors are having a good time does help sell it, and Gyllenhaal, Cavill, and González are all Ritchie veterans and know what's what.  Gyllenhaal and Cavill don't have much character to speak of, choosing to instead be the mysterious enforcers who get the job done.  A lot of the film's character beats lie with González, who holds her own.  González is a more interesting actress than she's often given credit for.  She has a hardened power to her presence that makes her great in roles like this, because she's like Michelle Rodriguez if she had a more emotive voice and the poise a supermodel.  She does well with the role she is given here.  So do Gyllenhaal and Cavill, even though they're given little to do except to look casually dangerous.  They shine more in the suspense and action scenes, of which there are less than you might hope.  There is a certain rhythm that Ritchie is going for in this movie by doing a heist plot through verbilization and negotiation and I'm not sure he achieved it, making it feel long in the tooth before things heat up.  I think it's interesting that he tried, even if the movie is less interesting than it could be.

Obsession

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Curry Barker

Starring:  Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter

Obession is a movie that most horror voices I follow online have been raving about for months.  I didn't think the trailers have been particularly noteworthy, but everyone has been insistent that this was a must-see.  So, I prepared myself, optimistically hoping that I'd see a good movie.  It turns out that it didn't matter what I expected, there was no bar I could have set, and none of the plot turns that I may have guessed in advance would make a difference.  The fact of the matter was that I was thoroughly unprepared to see a movie that went this fucking hard.

The set-up of this movie is very basic Monkey's Paw "be careful what you wish for" stuff (which is also the trite tagline on the poster).  This movie could have easily been a Wishmaster movie, but they cut out the middle man and turned the Djinn into a novelty stick.  Michael Johnston has a crush on coworker Inde Navarrette, but finds his window of telling her that he might want to be more than friends closing when she is about to quit her job.  He makes a wish on a "One-Wish Willow" for her to be in love with him and her demeanor instantly changes in the aftermath, showing a desire to be with him with little focus for anything else and wishing he return his focus similarly.  Or bad things will happen.  All in the name of proving how much she loves him.

Relationship goals.

One expectation I had for this movie was that it would gradually shift from blooming romance to horror as it goes.  Instead, the movie indicates something is very wrong from the get-go.  If I have one issue with the movie it's that it escalates way too quickly, choosing not to ramp up tension but get into the meat within an instant.  I would dock points for the movie never offering much that's new as it goes on but it makes up for it with the fact that it flies with a constant discomfort that gets under the viewer's skin.  And even if I do discredit the movie for hitting too fast, escalation still happens as even though the situation is never at any point manageable, it spirals to a point where it is impossible to contend with.  The third act of the movie, while predictable in several ways, is a zealous delivery of a nasty concoction of cringe, brutality, and terror and will sit with me for a very long time.

Inde Navarrette is remarkable in this movie, managing to make her most innocuous and attractive qualities seem sinister.  She is aided by stellar direction and cinematography, but the movie wouldn't work if her performance is off-point and she always keeps in step with what the film is doing with her.  Even something as simple as a glint in her eye carries a lot of significance.  She is spellbinding.  And she's working with thematic material that has a weight to it as the film asks us to examine the selfishness of Johnston's character in both his choices and his act of taking away her own because he was unable to verbalize himself and handle the situation properly.  The movie also touches upon how keeping our eyes firmly on one thing keeps us from seeing things of value that are just outside of that gaze.  The movie can be as sweet in its life outlook as it is brutal with how much it will deny it to the poor suckers who are stuck within it.  The movie is an anti-romance with base understanding of romantic ideals.  It just also wants to squeeze them until they pop.

The Wizard of the Kremlin

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Olivier Assayas

Starring:  Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Jeffery Wright, Tom Sturridge, Will Keen

The Wizard of the Kremlin is based on the fictional novel about a fictional Russian citizen, who started as an artist and eventually rose to be an adviser to Prime Minister turned President Vladimir Putin.  It's certainly a more interesting study of Putin's rise to power and eventual abuse of it than it is of this completely made up person, who just isn't that interesting.  This is one of those movies where you can see why the filmmakers thought it was fascinating as an idea but in bringing it to the screen there is just little-to-no life in it.  When faced with that, one needs to stimulate with a bombastic style, which this movie does not have.  It's a very lifeless movie full of talented people who all seem on different wavelengths as to what type of movie they're making.  Some actors jump at doing a thick Russian accent, some don't bother at all, working in whatever accent they feel like.  It makes the film come off as amateur hour, which is shocking for a film with this many established professionals.  But Vladimir Putin is British, apparently.  According to Jude Law's performance, at least.  That, in particular, is off-putting, because Law is very well cast otherwise.  He captures Putin's manorisms quite exquisitely, but every time he opens his mouth, the illusion shatters.  On the positive, Alicia Vikander is fun to watch, likely because she's the only character with flavor.  Everyone else is a cold politician.  But intertwining the fictional with the reality proves to be a cumbersome task, something the filmmakers seem out of their depth with achieving.  This movie can't even find a guy to do a quality Larry King impersonation.  How hard is that?

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

The Devil Wears Prada 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hokum ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Michael ⭐️⭐️

Mortal Kombat II ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Project Hail Mary ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

The Sheep Detectives ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ⭐️⭐️1/2

Top Gun ⭐️⭐️1/2

Top Gun:  Maverick ⭐️⭐️⭐️

New To Digital

Faces of Death ⭐️⭐️1/2

Project Hail Mary ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

You, Me & Tuscany ⭐️⭐️

New To Physical

Twinless ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2026: Week 19 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Mortal Kombat II

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Action, Fantasy

Director:  Simon McQuoid

Starring:  Lewis Tan, Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Ludi Lin, Josh Lawson, Mechad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, Heroyuki Sanada

Sometimes it takes me a red hot minute to remember that Mortal Kombat was rebooted a few years ago.  I'm not against it, because there is more that you can do with the franchise than was achieved in the 90's, up to and including making it a hard R with absurd levels of violence.  PG-13 made sense in 1995, because Mortal Kombat players were mostly teenagers while the grown-ups were condemning it for its violence.  Now we're in a generation of adults who grew up with fatalities and Mortal Kombat proper would be more than welcome.  The R-rated movie they released in 2021 was not really a movie worth watching, unfortunately.  The influences of films like Enter the Dragon and Bloodsport were sorely missed, opting for a more Marvel take on Highlander with CGI blood.  That's not even mentioning that the movie took place before the tournament and used an avatar character that wasn't from the games as its main focal point.  Usually, if you're going to make a movie, it's best to try and make one that people actually want to see.  Mortal Kombat 2021 was a movie about a man discovering that maybe he had superpowers and the superpower he wound up with was an Aquaman t-shirt.  Where the fuck is my Mortal Kombat?

I'm not even going to bring up how they used Goro in the movie.  If I did, I'd be ranting at you for a full hour.

Finally getting to the tournament, Mortal Kombat II uses the previous movie's absentee Johnny Cage as it's fresh eyes character, played by the dependable Karl Urban as an aged 90's action movie icon.  Johnny is mostly used as an excuse for rapid-fire exposition, setting up all of the relevant things that they took an entire movie explaining last time.  I suppose this is just in case you're going in blind and, frankly, you might as well.  There is little important that happened in that movie outside of character introductions.  But the tournament begins, and Shao Khan is ready to smash some skulls with fighters Kitana, Sindel, Jade, and a resurrected Kung Lau.  Earth's fighters include Johnny Cage, Cole Young, Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, and Jax, ready to give their lives to protect their realm from invasion for Outworld.  Round one, fight, ect.  And yes, Scorpion is back.  Eventually.  You never make a Mortal Kombat movie without Scorpion.

So, to get to the question most probably have about this movie, which is whether it's worth watching is the last one underwhelmed you.  The short of it is that it's clumsy but satisfying.  The plotting of the film is choppy and fractured, but it manages to achieve a danger level of "anything goes and everyone can die" that previous movies didn't accomplish.  Normally, watching a movie like this brings a conception of plot armor over certain characters for the story to function, but the movie's progress hinges on the fact that these characters are willing to die for their cause, which brings up the need for that plot armor to evaporate.  I was certainly surprised at what characters they were willing to impale and which ones made it to the finish line.  I can't say that for most action movies.  And when we get to the final fight and who participates, it feels like the correct choice.  Based on that, Mortal Kombat II is full-blown Mortal Kombat.

It's not a smooth ride.  Digressions and subplots feel pointless and plot threads from the last movie that this one chooses to pick up fail to function.  It occurs to me that the previous movie tried too hard to find a story within the video game and this movie doesn't want to make the same mistake, not bothering with lore building and just becoming hell on wheels in martial arts spectacle.  Considering that's what Mortal Kombat has always been, I'd dare say that this is a movie made by people that understood the assignment.

The Sheep Detectives

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Comedy, Mystery

Director:  Kyle Balda

Starring:  Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Hugh Jackman, Bryan Cranston, Chris O'Dowd, Nicholas Braun, Molly Gordon, Nicholas Galitzine, Hong Chau, Patrick Stewart, Emma Thompson, Regina Hall, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein

Based on the German novel Three Bags Full, you can tell that the movie version is aiming to be less wry than its inspiration by changing its title to the far more bland "The Sheep Detectives."  That shouldn't dissuade one from seeing it, especially if one has a family to entertain.  The Sheep Detectives is a child-friendly crowd-pleaser which sees shepard Hugh Jackman murdered in the middle of the night.  His flock of sheep take up the case, trying to figure out what happened to their beloved owner because the humans are failing to do so.  This is a film that is a pretty exemplary example of how witty and fun one can make a family film, full of zest and funny business.  The mystery at the center sometimes takes a backseat to the screwball antics, making it a better comedy than a mystery, but the twists and turns do keep one invested.  It also features fairly sweet and resonate stories of family bonds, both in the sheep and in the humans.  There are points where the movie deflates itself with some far-fetching displays of incompetence from its characters, but it's all in the name of laughs and the movie is never not funny and always endearing.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Animal Farm ⭐️

The Devil Wears Prada 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hokum ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Michael ⭐️⭐️

Project Hail Mary ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Digital

The Drama ⭐️⭐️

Exit 8 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Great Awakening ⭐️1/2

Ready or Not 2:  Here I Come ⭐️⭐️⭐️

New To Physical

GOAT ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Solo Mio ⭐️⭐️

Wuthering Heights ⭐️⭐️1/2

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2026: Week 18 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Animal Farm

⭐️

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Andy Serkis

Starring:  Seth Rogen, Gatan Matarazzo, Woody Harrelson, Kieran Culkin, Glenn Close, Iman Vellani, Steve Buscemi, Laverne Cox, Jim Parsons, Kathleen Turner, Andy Serkis

I want nothing but the best for Andy Serkis, who established himself of the Lon Chaney of this century.  His directing career hasn't really lit the world on fire, but I've always held out hope that maybe he had something special up his sleeve.  An adaptation of George Orwell's novella Animal Farm probably could have turned that around, which Serkis has been working on for fifteen years (dating back to a motion capture version with Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt).  Animal Farm has been adapted twice before, once as a British animated film in 1954 and again as a live action TV movie on TNT in 1999 (which had a banger cast that included Patrick Stewart, Kelley Grammer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ian Holm, and Pete Postlethwaite).  I'm not sure you could consider either a perfect adaptation, though there are virtues to both.  If someone really nailed Animal Farm, there could be a cinematic masterpiece in the making.  Don't let me down, Mr. Serkis.

Now I've seen the film, and I'm impressed.  It's not every day where I see a movie where every creative decision made is the wrong one, managing to turn one of the most important stories ever told into a complete oddity that leaves the original text for dead in a ditch.

Conceptually, the movie is the same but dumber.  Animal Farm is a parallel to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and how it led to the rise of Stalin in the aftermath...ya'know, except told with animals on a farm.  The animals revolt against the farmer of the land and drive him away, creating a community where "all animals are equal," only for a greedy and manipulative boar named Napoleon to consolidate power for himself.  This stuff happens in the movie, to an extent.  The animals do drive off the farmer, but in this movie it's not organized and happens completely by accident.  Napoleon does take power, but he does so by teaming up with a conglomerate and by buying lots of consumer products, mixing capitalism into the narrative as something evil that is poisoning the  communists.

What.

The.

Fuck.

I think I can see what Serkis is trying to do here, wanting to give the story contemporary appeal to expand its reach to children, so adding things like corporate greed and consumerism are easy things for a more toddler focused narrative.  So are the goofball stabs at humor in the film.  The traditional version of Animal Farm is a very dark tale, and what levity it does have is laced in its wry satire.  Turning it into a child-friendly narrative is challenging.  It's also a really bad idea.  In trying to both update and cutesify it, all the teeth have been knocked out of the story.  The allegory for the rise of totalitarianism is now functionless and meaningless.  The movie ceases to be its namesake at a certain point, going through select motions of Animal Farm but making the story buckle under the weight of added content.  The film also falls into the trap of previous adaptations by featuring an extended ending that implies that Napoleon gets his comeuppance eventually, which is predictable in the movie's less grim tone while also erasing how haunting the story is by offering the bonus message of "if we work together, this horrible leader WILL lose."  That's nice, but the point of Animal Farm is "WAKE UP AND PAY ATTENTION!  Oops.  Too late."

The one fair thing I can say in this movie's favor is that it's not particularly hard to watch, as opposed to some other animated films I've seen this year like Charlie the Wonderdog or Tafiti:  Across the Desert.  That being said, there is a subjectivity to whether this film is actively worse because I understand why those films exist as they are while, as someone who is familiar with this book, I can't fathom why Animal Farm exists in the state it's in.  I spent most of the movie resisting the urge to pull my own hair out in frustration, as opposed to just being bored.  I'll let the reader decide what type of experience is worse but, for me, this is definitely a contender for worst of the year.  Maybe it's base competency makes it better than that, but few films approach being the complete antithesis of what they're supposed to be like this one does.

Deep Water

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Thriller

Director:  Renny Harlin

Starring:  Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley

THIS IS NOT A DRILL!  RENNY HARLIN HAS DIRECTED ANOTHER SHARK MOVIE!  Sadly, it's not a Deep Blue Sea follow-up but a more sincere effort, opting to be less of a big, dumb entertainer and more of a harrowing survival film.  Harlin is not a good directorial choice if you want your movie to be harrowing.  He's not subdued enough.  I mean, a fucking shark took down an airborn helicopter without leaving the water!  That's the most Renny Harlin thing I've ever seen!

The movie is kinda Society of the Snow but in the water and sharks are eating people instead of people eating other people.  A plane crashes in the ocean and the survivors try to band together until a rescue team comes, except there are sharks in the water.  Really persistent sharks too.  They mad and they hungry.  For the shark movie connoisseur, shark attacks are abound, though many are brief and sudden and they happen to very few people that actually matter to the story.  But it probably was always going to feel that way because every character in this movie is a very base personality type, so development of said characters are thin, and sometimes death scenes are so sudden that it barely registers that someone (or, in some cases, a group of people) actually died.  The movie is an uneven mixture of cheesy action intertwined with stoic survival melodrama, which I don't think I've seen on this scale since San Andreas.  Deep Water is more interesting than San Andreas, mostly because, unlike San Andreas, it actually feels as if the main characters are in danger.  In that sense, the swift threat aspect of the movie is a success and the movie is just entertaining enough.  "Just entertaining enough" is often the ceiling for how good a Renny Harlin movie is going to be, though you can pry Cliffhanger and Deep Blue Sea out of my cold, dead hands.  At least he's done soiling the Strangers franchise so he can finally squeeze something passable out.

The Devil Wears Prada 2

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  David Frankel

Starring:  Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Kenneth Branagh, B.J. Novak, Lucy Liu

I didn't watch the first Devil Wears Prada until I was prepping for this one this week.  I was a little confused at first because I thought it was about a woman who worked for a fashion magazine and finds out her boss was literally the devil.  I think somewhere down the line I got my wires crossed into thinking this was a comedic version of The Devil's Advocate.  But that's neither here nor there because we've officially reached nostalgia range for mid-2000's comedies, so brace yourself for another Meet the Parents movie (kill me).  The Devil Wears Prada is one that hasn't been milked dry, having done a singular movie and dropped the mic for twenty years.  There are sequels to the book it was based on but, as far as I can tell, this second film isn't based on anything in them.  The film brings Anne Hathaway back to her former job at Runway Magazine, this time as a journalist trying to hose down a PR fire for the company.  This, of course, puts her at the whim of the equally demanding and iconic Meryl Streep, who is herself struggling with trying to keep the the magazine together as it switches hands from one owner to another.

The first movie didn't really have much of a story, it was more about a vibe.  What story it did have was devoted to identity and possibly losing yourself in exchange for success.  It was very Breakfast at Tiffany's like that.  If the first movie was about the cost of success, the second is about the cost of preventing failure.  The movie is more panicked, as characters are trying to keep things sturdy in the face of sudden change.  It's solid plot progression for a sequel that is this belated.  The film's villains are mainly progress and capitalism, as print media dies and new company heads threaten to gut the environment that these characters thrive in.  Sometimes the commentary is a little toothless, as ideas like AI are thrown out and never really commented upon, but the most important part of this movie is whether or not it's a fun time at the cinema.  It definitely is.  It's cool.  It's funny.  Everyone looks swaggy and fabulous.  The Devil Wears Prada is still strutting with pride.  If that's what you're searching for, that's what you get.

Hokum

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Damian McCarthy

Starring:  Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Michael Patrick, Will O'Connell, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio

Oddity director Damian McCarthy is back with more spooky stuff in Ireland, as Adam Scott plays a novelist who visits a hotel in the great land, only to find that a little folk tale about the honeymoon suite might be more factual than he assumes at first.  McCarthy is swiftly making a name for himself in the horror community, crafting effective horror films independently, basing all within his home country.  The thing that strikes me about McCarthy's work in the genre is how he weilds shadow like a paintbrush, constructing suspense sequences that can startle even by showing nothing.  Hokum devotes its entire second half to weaving horror out of blankets of darkness.  Sometimes his tendency to not pace himself can trip him.  Oddity's momentum could be non-existent at times, while Hokum can unspool in some unconventional plotting that makes the movie feel jumpy at times.  If there's one thing I'd like to see him work on, it would be that, because as a director, he is already top-tier.  I'd like to see his writing, as solid as it is already, reach that level also so he can be one of the best.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Michael ⭐️⭐️

Mother Mary ⭐️⭐️1/2

The Mummy ⭐️⭐️1/2

Over Your Dead Body ⭐️⭐️1/2

Project Hail Mary ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Digital

Forbidden Fruits ⭐️⭐️

Hoppers ⭐️⭐️⭐️

They Will Kill You ⭐️⭐️

You're Dating a Narcissist! ⭐️⭐️

New To Physical

Cold Storage ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dust Bunny ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2026: Week 17 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Desert Warrior

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Adventure, Action

Director:  Rupert Wyatt

Starring:  Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Sharlto Copley, Ben Kingsley

This Saudi production jumps back to the seventh century, where an Arabian princess is sought to be the concubine of emperor Ben Kingsley.  The princess then enlists the help of bandit Anthony Mackie to help her build an army so she can fight for her land and their freedom.  Desert Warrior excells at nothing but stands decently as an entertaining historical adventure film.  The location work is spectacular, as a lot of the environments envelop the production with an impressive scope.  There comes issue with the pacing, which starts hectic and follows with a slow build to a finale.  It's refreshing that the film feels like it needs to earn its climax, though the road is often paved with monotony as a lot of the story beats getting there feel the same.  When the movie does hit the gas, it's solid spectacle.  It's a frentic action thriller that's trying to pretend it's an epic, almost as if The Scorpion King put in a conscious effort in trying to fool people into thinking it was Sparticus.  There's enough here for some pulp charm, but I'm unlikely to remember it by tomorrow.

Michael

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Drama, Musical

Director:  Antoine Fuqua

Starring:  Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long, Juliano Valdo, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Herrier, Jessica Sula, Mike Myers, Miles Teller, Colman Domingo

Sometimes the elephant in the room is so large that there is no room left for anything else, so you move to the room next to it and hope nobody asks "What smells like elephant shit?"  That's the only thing you can do when you're doing a biopic about Michael Jackson, who was an icon so powerful at his height that, yes, he does deserve biopic.  And if you cut it off at a certain point, we can pretend a lot didn't happen.

Counterpoint:  All of these mutual truths can also be argued for Bill Cosby.  Should we do him next?

So, let's scrub this clean and judge this movie the way it wants to be judged:  a rose-colored glasses look at one of the singular voices that shaped the 80's.  The film takes a look at Jackson growing up under an abusive, controlling father, played by the reliable Colman Domingo.  It chronicles his time with his brothers as The Jackson 5, before eventually breaking solo into superstardom.  The movie is very much in the vein of films like Bohemian Rhapsody, where a lot of it is dramatization of the artists planning out each moment of their careers before it actually happened, wanting the main takeaway of the film to be "Everything I achieved, I knew it was going to happen."  Michael is more insufferable about this than Bohemian Rhapsody because it's far more melodramatic, making star Jaafar Jackson (Michael's real life nephew) daze around in a dreamlike stupor.  I'd hesitate to call Jaafar's performance bad, because he pulls off Michael's choreography flawlessly and is striking in his similarities most of the time.  The problem is that he never finds a relatable humanity in his late family member, portraying him as a larger-than-life caricature that rarely is allowed any drama except "I'm the best" and "Boy, my dad's a real piece of shit" or just "LOOK AT THE MONKEY!"  That problem isn't limited to Michael's portrayal, though.  Most of the characters in the film are one-dimensional, with the exceptions of Michael and his father, who are two-dimensional and very singular-minded.

But there is a competence in the filmmaking.  Michael Jackson was one of the greatest showmen who ever lived, so living up to his stature is a tall order.  This is the thing that the film shines at.  The choreography of his famous body movements is done superbly and the film plays them up in the exact way it needs to in order to be a showstopping crowdpleaser.  This comes right down to the painstaking recreation of what is quite possibly the most famous music video of all time, Thriller.  The film is incredible when it's spectacle.  When it's a drama, that's when it becomes a dud.  But I suppose we shouldn't call too much attention to Michael when he was off the stage, and less attention to Michael beyond the 80's, which the movie doesn't cover at all.  But the movie boldly ends with the words "His Story Continues."  Oh, if only it ended there, though.

Mother Mary

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  David Lowery

Starring:  Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, Hunter Schafer, FKA Twigs

This psychological drama sees Anne Hathaway playing a pop star having an existential crisis, returning to her former costume designer, Michaela Coel, to make her a dress that will reel her back to reality.  The two air out their grievances with each other during the process, putting on what is basically a single-set duet acting piece for the audience.  That's the part of the movie that works, at any rate.  The movie breaks itself in its second half, as it tries to get overtly metaphorical while being completely oblivious to how goofy it has gotten.  The film is trying to provoke an emotional reaction from its audience, but it only provoked dissonance in my eyes, sacrificing dramatic sturdiness for pretty visuals.  It's unfortunate because I was into the performances.  It just got to the point where the movie clearly thought they weren't enough and decided to overcompencate.

Over Your Dead Body

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Comedy, Thriller

Direcror:  Jorma Taccone

Starring:  Jason Seigel, Samara Weaving, Paul Guilfoyle, Keith Jardine, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis

Samara Weaving proves that she's incapable of a happy marriage in every movie she makes in this remake of Norwegian black comedy The Trip, which sees husband Jason Seigel take wife Weaving up to the woods with the intent of murdering her, unaware that she is intending to do the same with him.  It's an expressionistic concept, using the exposing of one's repressed violent outbursts as a form of marital therapy.  It's clever, even if the filmmaking isn't always as sharp as the concept it's toying with.  Weaving and Seigel are great in this movie, but they are playing with a script that only gives them fleeting moments to shine and direction that fails to find a proper vibe for the movie.  It's rhythmless and all over the place, especially when it sees further complications in its second half that are considerably less interesting than when it was just letting Seigel and Weaving playing off of each other.  This movie has so many things about it that make you feel it could have been great if they had just rode with the little ideas that it plays with.  It just kinda sits in place as passive amusement instead.  Could have been worse, but it sucks when a movie is just fine when it has the elements to become a classic.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

The Drama ⭐️⭐️

Hoppers ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Mummy ⭐️⭐️1/2

Normal ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Project Hail Mary ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ⭐️⭐️1/2

You, Me & Tuscany ⭐️⭐️

New To Digital

Protector ⭐️

New To Physical

28 Years Later...:  The Bone Temple ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Christy ⭐️⭐️1/2

Die My Love ⭐️⭐️

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die ⭐️⭐️1/2

Primate ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Send Help ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Shelter ⭐️⭐️1/2

The Strangers:  Chapter 3 ⭐️1/2

Coming Soon!