People We Meet On Vacation

My View:  People We Meet on Vacation  (2026)  PG-13   People We Meet on Vacation follows Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth), best friends and almost exact opposites who live far apart, but for a decade, they have spent one week of summer vacation together. Will the two ever realize that they were meant to be more than vacation buddies? I am a fan of rom-coms, and this one works because the storyline is fun and the chemistry between the two leads works. Emily Bader is perfect as Poppy, the woman who is a writer who travels for a living, which fits her because she never aspires to be tied down to anything, especially the small town that she is from. Alex is the opposite as he loves their small town and wants order in his life. They have a meet-cute as both are off to college (reminiscent of When Harry Met Sally), and things do not go as planned, but both realize that maybe, just maybe, they have found a friend in each other. As usual in this type of film, the two don’t know they are meant to be together, but of course, we figure out that they are from almost the first few scenes. The film is fun and light and follows your usual will-they, won’t-they type of romance, with lots of breakups along the way to show the two that they just might be right for each other.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  People We Meet on Vacation Website Now playing on the Netflix platform

My View: Greenland 2: Migration  (2026)  PG-13   In Greenland 2: Migration, it’s been five years since the Garrity family found safety in the bunker in Greenland when the world was being destroyed by an interstellar comet. Unfortunately, the bunker is becoming unsafe, and the family will have to travel across the vast wasteland of Europe to find a new home. I didn’t like the first one, and this one has even less action and therefore is incredibly slow, with a lot of meeting new people who help the family out. The action sequences are few and far between, and when they happen, they aren’t even close to the scenes in the first film, which was its only saving grace. I will say that, unlike the first film, which made the son feel like an addict by making insulin a constant source of drama, this film only mentions it at the start of the escape and never brings it up again. This time, the family is in search of Eden, in a crater that somehow wasn’t affected by the comet. So, if you want to hear Gerald Butler cough a lot and Morena Baccarin cry a lot, go ahead and watch this one. At least in this film, they find little pockets of humanity, and in this day and age, that’s something.  My Rating: Cable  Greenland 2 Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide

My View:  Primate  (2025)  R  Primate is about a family living in Hawaii who have a chimpanzee named Ben as a pet. Left alone for the weekend, Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) invites her friends over for a pool party. Unbeknownst to the partygoers, Ben has been bitten by a rabid animal, and the once lovable, gentle chimp has become a killing machine. Primate is a movie that deserves an R rating, and even though it has a pretty and young cast, it’s not because of sex or language. It’s because it is bloody and grisly as heck. Most of the scares are not your usual jump-out-of-the-dark horror bits, but an evil presence that is just as horrific as Jason or Freddy. The action sequences are a little weak, but the horror aspect is ramped up as this is one scary and smart chimp that isn’t having a good night, unless you count all the dead bodies he racks up. For a January horror film, this isn’t a bad way to spend some time with a not-so-cute, pissed-off chimp.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee   Primate Website Now playing in theaters nationwide

Indiefest:  All That’s Left of You  (2025)  All That’s Left of You starts with a Palestinian teen getting swept up and hurt during a protest on the West Bank. As she waits to see if her son will recover, she tells the story of their family and their relentless struggle to survive through the years of Israeli occupation. This is a heartbreaking, emotional look at what has happened to the Palestinians throughout the years and how continuing violence can bleed through the years into generations as a three-generational family goes from having a home and business, to living in settlements that are constantly being taken away, and moving to another country is always on the table. The film is a bit too long, and the timeline gets a little confusing, but at its heart are some beautiful moments that show that the love of family can be a comfort in a time of unrest. This is a film of bravery, of loss of both homes and lives, and of how family sometimes is your only hope in tough times.   My Rating: Full Price  All That's Left of You Website  Now playing in select theaters

Indiefest:  Father Mother Sister Brother (2025)  R  Father Mother Sister Brother follows three families from three different places around the world. Each family is reunited when estranged siblings are forced to confront unresolved feelings and strained relationships with their emotionally distant parents. To say that this film is low-key would be an understatement. The movie is three stories about parents and their adult children, all of whom don’t know each other very well and, for the first two stories, don’t make any effort to improve the relationship. The movie is from Jim Jarmusch, a filmmaker that I am not a huge fan of, though I enjoyed his 2016 film Paterson. I'm just not a big fan of watching three people sit around, not talk about anything for 20 minutes, and then leave. Even with acting talents like Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, and Vicky Kreips, I found the film boring and unamusing. Only the third section, about two adult twins (Luka Sabbat, Indya Moore) paying their last respects to their late parents' apartment in Paris, was where there was any life to this film, mostly because of the back-and-forth chemistry the two actors displayed in some touching moments. Fans of Jarmusch’s style of filmmaking will, I’m sure, adore this film and find it warm, funny, and moving. I found it boring, somewhat cold, and strange. My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Father Mother Sister Brother Website Now playing in select theaters

Forgotten Film:  Panic (2000) R  Alex (William H. Macy) has a secret; he kills people for a living. The only person who knows this is his therapist (John Ritter), whom he is seeing because Alex isn’t a happy man. He is married to Martha (Tracy Ullman), and they have a kid, Sammy (David Dorfman). Alex doesn’t want Sammy to follow in his footsteps as Alex did with his dad (Donald Sutherland). Alex doesn’t know what to do and, to make matters worse, he is fixating on a fellow patient from his therapist's office, Sarah (Neve Campbell). And to complicate things even more, dear old dad has given Alex his latest hit…his own therapist. This is a fun, strange, and at times very funny movie, carried by a great cast and Macy's amazing performance. I loved every character in this film, and it’s worth seeing for Barbara Bain’s performance as Alex’s mom. What will Alex do? Watch and find out.  My Rating: Full Price.  Panic Info The film is available to rent/buy on Amazon

Weird Credits: From the credits of Greenland 2: Migration: Wire Supervisor

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: Scream 7 (2026). Sidney (Neve Campbell) has retreated to a quiet new town with her daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). But peace shatters when a new Ghostface emerges, targeting Tatum. Now, Sidney must confront a relentless evil that’s closer than ever. Neve Campbell returns to the series that won’t die. This is the first film in the saga directed by Kevin Williamson, who wrote Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), and Scream 4 (2011).   Scream 7 Info  The film slashes into theaters on Friday, February 27, 2026

Until Next Time!