SUMMER 2025

     It's Labor Day, Monday, September 1st. That means that, unofficially, the summer is over. I didn't see all of the summer movies yet but saw most of the ones I actually wanted to see (Fantastic Four: First Steps and Weapons are the only two that I still want to see). As for the box office, the domestic haul for summer movies is at $3.670 billion right now. That's a bit lower than 2024's summer box office tally, $3.677 billion. 2023's was $4.09 billion, thanks mostly to Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Inside Out 2. That box office numbers are dropping every year isn't a shock. I didn't go to the movies once this summer. Jurassic Park: Rebirth came to theaters on July 2nd and was available to buy or rent On Demand on August 5th, so you really only have to wait a month to watch a new movie at home, making going to the movies fairly pointless. And while none of the big blockbuster summer movies were anything fantastic, awesome, exceptional, classic, or worth going out of your way to see, I still love the summer movie season. Here's some short reviews of the summer movie season that was:

THUNDERBOLTS (May 2nd): This movie made $190 million at the domestic box office yet was still considered a failure. That tells you how expensive these superhero movies can be. It's also not a shock that this movie, featuring heroes nobody knows, was a failure. The first half of this is a total blast, though. It's super fun and super entertaining until the second half which is dark and dour. It also doesn't lead up to any sort of great climax that these types of movies need. Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Wyatt Russell are all fantastic in this. 

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE THE FINAL RECKONING (May 23rd): reviewed ** (out of ****)

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH (May 23rd): This went straight to Apple+. It's basically a National Tresure/Indiana Jones type of flick, this one starring Natalie Portman and the dude from The Office (John Krasinski). It's fairly entertaining though nothing special. **

FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN (May 23rd): This is a horror movie that went straight to Netflix and is the fourth film in Netflix's Fear Street series. This movie is super bloody and gruesome. I swear, there's like ten people that have their limbs chopped off in this. It's not great, though it held my interest since I'm a sicko. **

BRING HER BACK (May 30th): Talk to Me was perhaps the last great horror movie, so I had high expectations for this, the Phillippou brother's second feature. While it's certainly intriguing, it was also way too dark and grim for me. Sally Hawkins is really good in this, but that's about it. This film is disturbing in the type of way that you don't even want to keep watching it. *1/2

THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (May 30th): Wes Anderson has finally done it. He finally made a film completely void of humanity. I loved most of his movies until recently, but his last three pictures have not been good. Everything about this is so robotic and stale that it's barely watchable and not enjoyable at all. Benicio Del Toro is usually great, but he can't even save this. *

MOUNTAINHEAD (May 31st): This went straight to HBO. It was written and directed by the creator of the HBO show Succession. It's about a group of billionaires that meet up at a mountain house. Considering all the talented, comedic actors in this (Steve Carrell, Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef), you wouldn't think this movie would be so boring. It's not bad, just a bit too dull. **

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (June 13th): I really liked this movie, the live action re-make of the animated movie. I think the reason is that I never watched the animated version so the story was new to me. ***

28 YEARS LATER (June 20th): reviewed **1/2

F1 (June 27th): This might be the most paint-by-numbers and safe movie that Hollywood has ever made. That's not exactly a bad thing, as these type of feel good, same-old movies tend to be popular and make money. Brad Pitt is good in this as the has-been Formula 1 driver that rises from the ashes to save the day. The one big problem is that, at 2 hours and 36 minutes, this movie is too long, especially considering it's just racing scenes over and over and over. That gets old after two hours. **

JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH (July 2nd): This was better than the last Jurassic Park movie at least. It's nothing particularly great but the action sequences are good and the script by David Koepp (who wrote the original script) is creative enough to feel somewhat fresh. The action scenes on water are the most exciting and feature the best special f/x. Scarlett Johannson doesn't really work in this, though. ***

HEAD OF STATE (July 2nd): This went straight to Amazon Prime. It's an action comedy starring Idris Elba and John Cena. It has a ton of action but not any worthwhile comedy. It's fine. **

SUPERMAN (July 11th): I was pretty disappointed in this, especially considering James Gunn wrote & directed the first episode of the second season of the HBO show Peacemaker and that was light years better. I think with Peacemaker, Gunn has the ability to go balls-to-the-wall (it's heavy on ridiculous comedy, gore, and nudity), which, if you know his history, is his happy place. With Superman he has to be a bit more tame, and it shows. The story is fine, though Nicolas Hoult's Lex Luthor is actually too cruel and evil (Gene Hackman had the perfect mix of comedy & charm to make Luthor someone you actually want to watch). There's also way too many special f/x in this. There are some sequences where this movie just looks like an animated film. Jimmy Olsen, played by Skyler Gisondo from The Righteous Gemstones, is great in this. It kind of tells you something that Krypto, the dog, is one of the better parts of this movie. *1/2

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (July 18th): Weapons was the big horror movie hit of the summer, a movie nobody even really knew anything about until it was released. I think that's because moviegoers want something fresh and new with their horror, not a retread from 1997. You can tell they also re-did the ending probably multiple times since the final scene is strange and feels added at the last minute. I love a good slasher pic, so this is at least mildly amusing for a while. Who doesn't want to see hot 20 years olds running for their life from a serial murderer dressed to kill in a seaside paradise? Adding the original cast as side characters was probably a bad move, as the movie is fine until they all appear out of the blue (and it makes you depressed at how old they all are now...although Sarah Michelle Gellar still looks good). Seriously, what have Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. been doing in the last 25 years? ** 

EDDINGTON (July 18th): This was my favorite movie of the summer. A lot of people didn't like this movie at all, especially when it premiered at Cannes and was disliked by everyone. I was entertaining throughout even though I didn't particularly like the ending, which was at least a bold idea. Joaquin Phoenix is my favorite actor, so I was engrossed with all 2.5 hours of him as the bumbling sheriff in small town, Covid-era New Mexico. ***1/2 

HAPPY GILMORE 2 (July 25th): This went straight to Netflix. The original was better. While there are a few amusing moments in this, it feels like it was mostly made to just feature famous actor and sports star cameos so that there's at least something to look at while the dreadful movie runs its course. 1/2*

THE PICKUP (August 6th): This went straight to Amazon Prime. You would think a movie with Pete Davidson and Eddie Murphy would be funnier. The action sequences are fairly entertaining, but after an hour I was bored out of my mind. *