28 Years Later

My View:  28 Years Later  (2025)  R  28 Years Later takes place almost three decades after a virus was unleashed on the world. A group that has survived has been housed on a small island connected to the mainland by a causeway. A father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and son, Spike (Alfie Williams), leave the island on a mission to go into the heart of the mainland, and there they discover the secrets, wonders, and horrors of the outside world. Back in 2002, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland unleashed 28 Days Later, a horror film that gave us zombies created from a virus that weren’t your old-fashioned slow-moving, leg-dragging creatures but one who could move with speed and had intelligence. In other words, a nightmare that unfolds before our eyes on the screen. Now that directing/writing duo has come back with a new film to explore what has happened since the original film. Unlike the first film, where we, along with the main character, slowly figure out what is happening to the world, 28 Years Later puts us in the middle of a small settlement that has flourished because of its isolation and strict rules. The film follows Jamie and Spike as they leave for a rite of passage for Spike. He is about to go to the mainland to kill his first zombie. They leave the safety of the island and travel inward, where Jamie cooly guides Spike into killing a zombie, but soon, they are confronted with a group of zombies that the two can’t handle, and it’s now a race for life or death. And that’s just the first 30 minutes of the film. 28 Years Later is a very different film from the 2002 film. This is more of a coming-of-age film about Spike and what he will do to save his family. The film is centered around courage, love, and the decision of someone to put their life on the line to save a loved one. I don’t want to give too much away, as the plot makes this a very different type of film from your ordinary zombie apocalypse movie. It is scary, though I will admit I was expecting more scares than it actually delivers. However, it more than makes up for that with a storyline that is moving and rich in feeling. Alfie Williams is outstanding as Spike, who is determined to do whatever he can to help his family, even if it means defying his village. Williams gives us a hero to follow, one who makes mistakes but whose heart is in the right place and makes the best decisions he can. So go and get engrossed in a zombie tale that has incredible cinematography, a bombastic soundtrack, and an ending that you will not see coming.      My Rating: Full Price  28 Years Later Website   Now playing in theaters nationwide.  

Familyfaire:  Elio  (2025)  PG   Elio is about an 11-year-old orphan named Elio, whose love for space is so strong he dreams of being abducted by aliens. One night, his wish comes true when he is taken aboard an alien ship and transported to the Communiverse, a place inhabited by intelligent life from across the galaxy. Mistaken for Earth’s leader, Elio must navigate through a crisis that threatens to destroy the new friendships he has just formed. When adults go to see a Pixar film, we expect to see imaginative storytelling, brilliantly done animation, and a plot that will move you (and possibly make you cry). Elio works on the first two points but misses badly in the emotional department, as we never achieve the impact we needed to create the desired emotional impact. I liked the storyline, as Elio is a fun kid who, while he is in over his head, is still willing to help his newfound friends against an evil warlord who wants to take over the Communiverse. Youngsters are going to love the action and all the trouble that Elio gets into. The cast of characters are fun and the evil warlord, Lord Grigon, is impressive looking in his armor but isn’t scary for young kids to be afraid of. I loved the meeting between Elio and his soon-to-be best friend, the giant-worm-like blob named Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly). Elio instantly realizes that Glordon, though weird-looking and with lots of teeth, is someone he can not only be friends with but also understands what Glordon is going through with his father, Lord Grigon. The animation is visually stunning and brilliantly executed.   However, I never got that catch in my throat from any emotional impact in this film that I wanted. I think the writers missed the boat by not emphasizing Elio’s life with his parents, who he lost recently and is now being taken care of by his aunt (voiced by Zoe Saldana), who apparently has had to sacrifice her dreams to take in Elio. We get glimpses of how hurt Elio is, but those are brief and miss that emotional point that we needed to make the final scenes have more impact. While much better than, say, Lightyear, Elio isn’t up there with the classic Pixar films that we all shed tears at, and that’s too bad. I could have used a bit of a cry. There is a bonus scene after the first portion of the credits and a rather strange promo trailer at the end of all the credits.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Elio Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide. 

My View:  Bride Hard  (2025)  PG-13  In Bride Hard, Sam (Rebel Wilson) is serving as the maid of honor at her childhood best friend Betsy’s (Anna Camp) destination wedding. When a mercenary group takes the extravagant wedding hostage, chaos ensues. However, what the mercenaries don’t realize is that Sam is actually a secret agent, ready to unleash hell on anyone who threatens her best friend’s special day. I have already added this movie (in pen) to my list of the worst films of 2025. The plot is devoid of anything remotely funny, and it absurdly suggests that Rebel Wilson is the agency's top spy. If you think that using hair curlers like nunchucks is entertaining, or if you find it hilarious when Sam kills another bad guy and then takes a piece of wedding cake, saying “peace of cake,” then you won’t mind the hour and forty-five-minute runtime that feels much longer. I couldn't tell if this film was intended as a parody of action films (and perhaps wedding films) or simply a poorly executed comedy. I know it was painful to watch, almost as painful for the guy in the fight with Sam, who kept getting burned by the hair curlers. My Rating:  You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again   Bride Hard Website Now playing in theaters. 

Indiefest:  The Queen of My Dreams  (2023)   The Queen of My Dreams is about Azra (Amrit Kaur), a Pakistani Canadian woman who has had a fractured relationship with her parents since coming out as a lesbian. Azra travels to Pakistan after her father’s passing, guided by memories of her mother’s youth, her love of Bollywood films, and her own experience in rural Canada. The Queen of My Dreams is a film about how, in the blink of an eye, a relationship can change, in this case, when a mother realizes that her daughter is interested in girls and not boys. Through Bollywood fantasies Azra has, flashbacks to her childhood, and scenes from her mother’s past life in Pakistan, we see how the two, mother and daughter, are so alike.  We see how Azra’s mother (played in these flashbacks by Amrit Kaur) was a fiercely independent modern woman who, like her daughter in the future, rebelled against what was thought a woman should be like in the Pakistani culture, eventually breaking away from her parents, just like Azra in the present is doing. I loved the interweaving of the Bollywood musicals into the film, often with Azra taking over a role to show us how she is feeling and experiencing life. The Queen of My Dreams is a lovely tale of two women who blazed their own trail and followed their dreams and not the dreams of their parents.  My Rating: Full Price  The Queen of My Dreams Website   Now playing in select theaters.  

My View:  Surviving Ohio State  (2025)  Surviving Ohio State is a documentary based on Sports Illustrated reporter Jon Wertheim’s cover story on the decades-long abuse scandal of male athletes by a doctor, Dr. Richard Strauss, at Ohio State University. The film features extensive interviews with members of the wrestling team that first brought the scandal to light and then goes into detail on how the abuse wasn’t just concentrated on the wrestling team but on other male athletes and even students who weren’t on scholarship but sought treatment at the student medical center. The film highlights how the university was aware of the doctor’s misconduct yet took no action for ten years, allowing him to have significant freedom. This included taking long showers with teams, conducting full-body exams during every visit with male athletes, and even making inappropriate advances in the showers alongside referees.  Surviving Ohio State has gotten some publicity because Ohio congressman Jim Jordan was an assistant coach on the team while the abuse was going on and claims he knew nothing about the allegations. The first half of this film is a shocking first-person tale through interviews of how the abuse started with each person and how they reacted at the time. It’s a sickening tale of abuse of power and taking advantage of teenagers who don’t have a way to fight back. The second half of the film explores how the university has handled the allegations over the years and how it still has not taken full responsibility for its lack of action. Surviving Ohio State is a film that will sadden you to think how many lives were ruined, how many young men suffered in silence, and how a university kept quiet.My Rating:  Full Price  Now playing on the HBO Max platform. 

Forgotten film:  I Am a Hero  (2015)  TV-MA  Hideo (Yô Ôizumi) is an artist who works on Japanese-style comic books called Manga. He once had a promising future, with a girlfriend and an award for “newcomer of the year” from his employer. However, his life has gone into the dumps, working as an assistant on other people’s work, his girlfriend has thrown him out, and now the world is being attacked by zombies. Hideo is an unlikely hero, though he fantasizes he is, and more often than not, he cannot pull the trigger (literally, in most cases during the film, he fails to shoot his shotgun at critical times). All Hideo wants in life is to be a man of action and courage, but he is more a man of indecision, often freezing when he should act. Yo Ôizumi is pitch-perfect as the ineffective Hideo. He seems to show every emotion broadly on his face, so we are aware of what he is thinking without having to have it explain it to the audience. The reason that this film is a blast to watch is the zombies. The zombies keep some of the characteristics of who they were when they were alive. A gifted athlete is still capable of performing fantastic feats as a zombie. Someone who like to shop, in zombie form, will attempt to enter stores with a determined purpose. The zombies can also talk, so very often they are muttering phrases that they often said while they are alive, like a zombie barista to kill Hideo while also trying to take his order. I Am a Hero is a brilliant, action-packed film that will make any zombie lover want to see this film repeatedly, hoping that if the zombie apocalypse happens, we can also say, “I Am a Hero.”    My Rating: Full Price   Surviving Ohio State Website  Available to rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video. 

Weird Credits: From the credits of Elio:  Additional Sweatbox Coordinator

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)  Five friends inadvertently cause a deadly car accident and cover it up, keep it a secret rather than face the consequences. A year later, they are confronted by a horrifying truth: someone knows what they did and is out for revenge. The friends discover this has happened before and ask for survivors of the Southport Massacre of 1997 for help. This film features Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr., two of the stars of the 1998 film.   I Know What You Did Last Summer Website  The film will be in theaters on Friday, July 18, 2025.

Kraven the Hunter

My View:  Kraven the Hunter  (2024)  R   Kraven the Hunter tells the story of Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a descendant of Russian nobility who has a complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe). Kraven has made himself into the world’s greatest hunter, but he is also one of its most feared. I stopped reading comics a long time ago, so I had no clue who Kraven was. However, after doing some research, I found out he is a ‘supervillain.” Then why the heck would Sony/Marvel make a movie where this character is a hero throughout the film? I mean, maybe he turns bad at the end, but I have no clue other than he gets a new outfit at the end. Russell Crowe tries as hard as he can to lift up this mess of a film, but he is at the mercy of making the film center on one of the worst villains to ever appear in a superhero film, The Rhino. Alessandro Nivola plays Aleksei, a wannabe mobster who finds a doctor who gives him the ability to turn into a man/rhino. Then, he devises a plan to take down Kraven’s dad, Nikolai. Aleksei delivers some of the worst dialogue I have ever heard in a superhero movie, and I have seen Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (RIP Christopher Reeve). I think Aaron Taylor-Johnson could have done something with this role, but we never see Kraven as the great hunter he is supposed to be. I knew I was in trouble when, near the start of the film, a character is talking to a young girl and, in the span of two sentences, says her name twice. I get it. I’m supposed to remember her name, Calypso. The ending of this film is laughable, predictable, and just plain stupid. What was Marvel/Sony's plan for this character? Was he going to do a ‘heel turn,’ where you see a good guy turn bad all of a sudden like you see in WWE? We will never know since this is the end of this character, as he won’t be part of the next version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And no, thank goodness, you don’t have to stay during the credits because this film’s runtime is two hours and seven very-long-minutes. At least the film has that going for it.   My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again  Kraven the Hunter Website  Now playing in theaters.  

My View:  The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim  (2024)  PG-13  The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim tells the story of the legendary King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand. The King and his family must defend their kingdom against an army of Dunledings led by the clever and ruthless Wulf. I am guessing that fans of The Lord of the Rings film series will be disappointed (though there are a few nods to it) mostly because it brings nothing new to the story. I was underwhelmed by the animation, which didn’t give me the splendor of Middle-Earth that we are used to. The animation felt very flat, and too many times, it felt like the film went cheap on the action. I liked that the hero of the story was the King’s daughter, Princess Hera (voiced by Gaia Wise), but the plot of the film feels like it was constructed on a whiteboard, knocking off plot points and characters like they were bit players and not a story worthy of The Lord of the Rings lore. I wanted to be dazzled by the animation and the story. Instead, I got a tale that could have easily been told in less than an hour, not the two-hour-plus run time.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim Website  Now playing in theaters. 

Indiefest:  Oh, Canada  (2024)  Oh, Canada tells the story of Leonard Fife Richard Gere), a terminally ill writer and filmmaker who has agreed to tell his story. Leonard was one of sixty thousand draft evaders and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War. Remembering the past can be a challenging experience. Oh, Canada revolves around a man telling his tale to a documentary crew. It’s a story full of decisions, betrayals, and people he left behind to run away and reinvent himself. Unfortunately for the documentary crew, Leonard is in the final stage of his cancer fight and his memory is clouded. We see this in flashbacks, sometimes showing Leonard being played by Jacob Elordi, as what Leonard looked like when he was a young man. At other times, we see Leonard in the flashbacks, played by Richard Gere, as the storytelling gets confused. Oh, Canada is aided by a strong supporting cast, including Uma Thurman as Leonard’s present wife and Michael Imperioli and Victoria Hill as the husband/wife team of documentary filmmakers who share a past with Leonard. I never felt close to any character in the film, feeling like there was more to this story than what we were being told. Oh, Canada ends up as a frustrating look at a man we never get to know, and while that maybe filmmaker Paul Schrader’s point, I didn’t enjoy the experience.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Oh, Canada Website Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  Carry On  (2024)  PG-13  In Carry On, it’s Christmas Eve, and the airport is incredibly busy. Ethan (Taron Egerton) is a TSA agent who, while at work, gets a call from a mysterious traveler who tells Ethan, let a carry-on bag go through, or your girlfriend dies. They picked the wrong agent. It must be tough to write thrillers that are set in airports. Gone are the days when John McClane could run all over the Dulles International Airport without a care, saying a quip or two, while saving the day. This film tries hard to follow the rules, and for a while, it does. However, during the last third of the film, when our hero Ethan, with the help of a plucky, determined LA cop (Danielle Deadwyler), tries to stop the terrorist plot, things like common sense go out the window. The film’s first half is a fun cat-and-mouse film of Ethan trying to figure out a way to alert someone about the package while our bad guy stays one step ahead of him. Once the package gets through, the film goes downhill with ideas like a cop in an unmarked car being able to get from the highway to the drop-off point of LAX in minutes. Our hero does have some John McClane in him, as he gets beat up and shot a bunch of times, which he seems to forget about because he was a track star in high school. Carry On isn’t a terrible film, I just wish the second half had been as interesting as the first. Much like McClane, Ethan is the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Carry On Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform. 

Indiefest:  The End  (2024)  The End is about a wealthy family who, after surviving the end of the world and spending years alone in an underground salt mine, a stranger shows up to change their world. This is the first narrative film from director Joshua Oppenheimer, known for his Academy Award-nominated documentaries The Act of Killing (2014) and The Look of Silence (2016). For him to choose a musical about the last possible surviving family on Earth is a little strange but I loved his films, so I was game. With a cast that has Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon as the heads of this peculiar underground family and it is a musical (one of my favorite film genres), you would think that I would love this film. Unfortunately, I tired of it rather quickly, and at two hours and almost thirty minutes, it’s a lot of songs that rarely captivate and are filmed almost entirely in long shots, making a small world seem stagy. A couple of songs stand out, including a fantastic song that George MacKay, as the son, sings about his love for the new stranger, a woman portrayed by Moses Ingram. Ingram is the shining light in the film, as her musical numbers have some punch to them. However, while touching on everything from climate change to the privilege of the wealthy, along with nods to race, The End never fully delves into anything except another song that doesn’t pay off. And then another one starts up, and so on. My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The End Website  Now playing in select theaters. 

Forgotten Film:  Rhapsody in August (1991) PG  An elderly woman (Sachiko Murase) living in Nagasaki, Japan, welcomes her four grandchildren to her home for their summer vacation. She attempts to teach them about the atomic bomb that was dropped on her city in WWII and how it killed their grandfather. She learns of her brother’s death and reaches out to his son, an American (Richard Gere), who comes to visit and learn from the woman about her life and city. Rhapsody in August is directed by one of my all-time favorite directors, Akira Kurosawa, whose Seven Samurai is a masterpiece of storytelling. This beautiful, moving film about a woman who wants the past never to repeat itself will bring you to tears. It’s also a love letter to a city that rose from the ashes but never forgot what happened to its people. While not one of his best, it’s still a powerful, exquisite-looking film that will touch you. My Rating: Full Price  Rhapsody in August Info The film is available to rent/buy on Amazon.

Weird Credits: From the credits of Kraven the Hunter:  Fashion Consultant

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  The Brutalist  (2024)  The Brutalist begins in the aftermath of WWII when visionary architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) and his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) flee post-war Europe to restart their lives. When László begins working for a wealthy client, Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce), he little realizes how much his life will change. Many film critics feel this role could bring another Academy Award for Adrien Brody. The film was shot in the VistaVision format, a widescreen camera system that hasn’t been used in an American shot movie in over 60 years.  The Brutalist Website  The film will first be released in IMAX in January 2025 and then to a wide release on Friday, January 23, 2025.

Until Next Time!

Godzilla

My View:  Godzilla (2014)  PG-13  Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) and his wife, Sandra (Juliette Binoche) work at a nuclear reactor site in Japan.  Joe is concerned about unusual seismic activity that has been occurring in the past weeks.  He soon discovers that something big is coming toward the reactor, and  it’s not an earthquake.   If you are a fan of the Godzilla films, you will not be disappointed.  The film does a great job of honoring the Godzilla film heritage, making the monster bigger and badder than ever before.  This is without a doubt the best cast of any Godzilla film, but other than Cranston, very few of the cast are used to their full advantage.  I love Elizabeth Olsen, but most of her screen time is dedicated to either worrying or crying about her family.  Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays her husband and is the son of Joe and Sandra.  Taylor-Johnson does most of the action sequences well, but he has no charisma, and there isn’t any chemistry between his and Olsen’s character.  But you don’t go to a film like this for the humans, it’s all about the monsters and the destruction, and there is plenty to go around.  The film is loud, fun and had the audience cheering when Godzilla did any of his signature moves. The film does a great job of teasing us with glimpses of Godzilla before we finally get to see him in all his glory.  The film was not shot in 3-D, so save a few extra bucks, but you will want to see this one in the theatre, so you can see, full-on, the massive monster destroy a few cities.  The bigger the screen, the better.  My Rating: Full Price  Godzilla Website

Family Faire: Million Dollar Arm (2014) PG  A sports agent, JB (Jon Hamm,) who has seen better days, needs the next big thing to resurrect his career.  He gets the idea to go to India and find cricket players who could make it in Major League Baseball.  I liked the first hour of this film, though you don’t like JB as he is a vain jerk who only complains about being in India, instead of marveling at the sites, as the Taj Mahal. Lake Bell plays the love interest, a doctor who rents out his guest house, and as cute as Bell is, you never see why she would be interested in JB. The problem with this film is the whole second half of the movie is filled with every cliché in the book.  By the end of the two hours (did we really need a full two hours to tell this story), you  don’t care what happens.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee Million Dollar Arm Website 

Indiefest:  The Double  (2013) R  Simon (Jesse Eisenberg) is the type of guy whom nobody notices.  He works as a clerk in a government job and is secretly in love with a co-worker named, Hannah (Mia Wasikowska).  One day Jesse (Jesse Eisenberg) shows up, looking exactly like Simon, and he’s everything that Simon isn’t; confident, brash and has a winning personality that everyone loves.  Worst yet, Hannah likes him too. This is an insane film where Jesse Eisenberg plays two characters who look exactly alike but act very differently.  Part comedy, part tragedy, it’s a film that you have trouble keeping up with, but it has such good performances, you are willing to go along for the ride.  My Rating: Full Price  The Double Website

Indiefest: God’s Pocket  (2014) R   Mickey’s (Philip Seymour Hoffman) stepson dies in a construction job.  When he is asked to investigate, by the boy’s mother (Christina Hendricks), to investigate the death, he learns that it wasn’t an accident.  Investigating it further could cost Mickey his life. It’s sad that this is one of Hoffman’s last roles on-screen as the film isn’t very good, and he isn’t given much material to work with.  Hendricks gives the better performance as her character is multi-layered, whereas most of the other characters in the film are very one dimensional.  It’s a film that had great potential, mostly due to its cast, but never finds a voice and becomes boring very quickly.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  God's Pocket Website

Forgotten Film:  Paper Clips (2004) G  This is a fascinating documentary about a group of children from a middle school in Tennessee who, after learning about the Holocaust, decide to collect six million paper clips, one for each victim.  The film explores, through the kids, our understanding of what happened, but also they get to meet some of the survivors of a horrible time in history.  My Rating:  Full Price  Paper Clips Info

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Godzilla:  Roto Artist: Double Negative

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You:  The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)  Helen Mirren stars in this film as an owner of a prestigious restaurant in France.  Her world is changed when a family from India moves in across the street and open their own restaurant. The Hundred-Foot Journey Info

Until Next Time!