SUMMER MOVIE PREVIEW 2026

     This is my favorite time of the year. When younger, you had the glory of school ending and the vast expanse of three months of freedom. But you always have the warm weather, the vacations, and, of course, the big, mega-budget, tentpole summer movie season. It's just the greatest time of year, and we're right on the precipice of it, which makes me ecstatic.

    They say that Hollywood makes 40% of its box office during the summer. And while every reporter on Earth has been harkening about the dwindling box office numbers for years now, the studios are still releasing boat loads of gigantic popcorn flicks this year as they do every year. Even though there are less movies released these days than the glory years of the silver screen (pre-streaming, pre-Covid), this summer still has some behemoths: a new Star Wars, a new Spider-Man, a new Toy Story, a live action Moana, a new Minions, and the big dog, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. 

    It's going to be a hell of a summer. Here's a preview:

MAY

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 (May 1): Usually, there's been a big movie to kick off the summer movie season on the first Friday of May (the last two Avengers movie bucked the trend by opening even earlier, at the end of April in 2018 and 2019). This year, sadly, the new Avengers movie was delayed to Christmas, which left a gaping hole in the calendar. What awesome movie would open this year's summer movie season then? Unfortunately, it's a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. The only reason the movie is somewhat of a big deal is because the first film came out 20 years ago. It doesn't feel like the type of summer blockbuster that should be the opening to the season, though. It feels more like a movie that might come out on a random Friday in the middle of June. They did get everybody back for this: Meryl Street, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt. I don't remember ever even watching the original, not that I was the demographic for it, anyway. The plot involves the fashion magazine having to bring back Hathaway's character to stop a scandal. 

BILLIE EILISH- HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D) (May 8): Does James Cameron have teenage kids or something? Because why did he co-direct this movie? After watching Avatar 3, I was pretty adamant that Cameron should be spending his time making something other than Avatar (2 of them were more than enough!), now he's wasting his time directing a concert film?

TOM CLANCY'S JACK RYAN: GHOST WAR (May 20): This one is going straight to Amazon Prime, which makes sense since this is a movie version of a TV show that's already had 4 seasons on Amazon Prime. The Office's John Krasinski is the spy Jack Ryan, a role previously played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Chris Pine, and Ben Affleck. I never watched the show and haven't exactly heard anyone talking about it ever, which probably isn't a good thing. Since this is the movie version, though, you'd think they'd have a larger budget, more exotic locales, and some big time action sequences, right? Wendell Pierce and Sienna Miller also star. 

THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU (May 22): The last Star Wars movie came out in December 2019, so it's been awhile. Disney was focusing on Star Wars TV shows for whatever reason since 2019, but they've all been hit-or-miss and nothing spectacular (the critics loved Andor but a good chunk of that show was boring). This movie is a continuation of the TV show that ran for 3 seasons. Pedro Pascal plays The Mandalorian, a good guy bounty hunter, who has adventures alongside a baby Yoda muppet. Jon Favreau is directing this (yes, the writer & director of Swingers has morphed into a Star Wars director...I don't think in the 90's I ever would have expected that). The trailers make this look like every modern popcorn blockbuster: way too many special f/x and they all look fairly cheap and ultra-fake. While I'm sure this is mildly entertaining like the show, I'm a lot more excited to see next year's Star Wars movie, the Ryan Gosling x-wing flick.

THE BREADWINNER (May 29): Nate Bargatze is the highest grossing touring stand up comedian in the U.S. That feels like kind of a surprise, as I don't think he's famous in the way that, say, Seinfeld or Chris Rock were back in the day. This one is basically Michael Keaton's Mr. Mom. Bargatze takes over the family when his wife is out of town and comedy hijinks ensue. It looks amusing but it's a kid's movie and not, say, The Hangover, which was probably the last high grossing comedy movie...and that was decades ago.

JUNE

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (June 5): I remember going to see the last He-Man movie in theaters. That one came out in 1987 and starred Dolph Lundgren, in case you blocked it out of your memory. I get why that movie came out. The animated show and the toys made from it were super popular back then. I'm not exactly sure why they're making a new one now, though, as He-Man is pretty much a forgotten character unless you're over 40 and vaguely remember your toy chest as a runt. This film only has one somewhat big star, Idris Elba, and the budget was big, so that means all the "insiders" expect this to be a massive bomb. Nicholas Galitzine is He-Man. His claim to fame is he starred in Purple Hearts, Netflix's most successful film of 2022. How successful could it have been, though, if I've never heard of it until right now? The trailer for this new He-Man movie makes it look totally silly and not something I can picture anyone going to see.

DISCLOSURE DAY (June 12): Steven Spielberg is back making an alien movie! Hell yeah! Too bad he hasn't made a good movie since, what? Lincoln in 2012, maybe? It's been awhile. They are keeping this movie fairly secretive. The trailer makes it look like there's some sort of alien invasion, but also that the aliens were here all along and have just been revealed to the public. The trailer also makes this look really bad, though. Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor star. Spielberg wrote the script with David Koepp. Maybe I'll be shocked and this will be awesome. A boy can dream.

TOY STORY 5 (June 19): Pixar stopped making masterpieces a long time ago, but their movies are at least still good. Hoppers was a fun romp, albeit fairly standard and not whimsical and kinetically alive like some of their early stuff. They haven't made a Toy Story film in 6 years, and before that part 3 came out in 2010, so it's not like they're constantly beating a dead horse with this franchise. The plot in this one involves a little girl disregarding her toys for a new Ipad like device, which is the big bad. The early buzz around this movie from those that have seen it is fantastic, though that's not a big surprise. Everyone loves Toy Story. Expect this to be a massive hit. 

THE INVITE (June 26): This film was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival this year. It stars Seth Rogen, Oliva Wilde, Edward Norton, and Penelope Cruz. Wilde directed this. It's two couples having a dinner party and is apparently a dark comedy. 

SUPERGIRL (June 26): This is the 2nd film in the new DC Comics universe that James Gunn has created. Superman from last year wasn't a box office failure but wasn't a massive hit, either. I thought it was a total disappointment in terms of quality, though. Supergirl looks like a lot of fun, though. Milly Alcock plays Supergirl, in this version a morbid, drunk, rebellious teen type of a hero. It's based loosely on the recent comic book written by Tom King. In the comic book at least, Supergirl decides to help a little girl get revenge on her father's killer out in the cosmos. In this movie version, they've added Lobo, who's basically a motorcycle riding, bad boy alien dude, played by Jason Mamoa. Craig Gillespie directed this, and he has a pretty great track record, having directed both I, Tanya and Cruella, which both made my Top 10 Best Films of the Year list (in 2017 and 2021). This should be a blast.

JULY

MINIONS & MONSTERS (July 1): I guess I should, like, go and watch one of the Despicable Me or Minions movies since they're box office juggernauts and seemingly loved by all. I've seen a few short scenes from them here and there but have never sat down and watched an entire film. As a 46 year old man without kids, though, sitting down solo to watch a Minions movie might be seen as being close to getting a one-way ticket to the looney bin. This is the 7th entry, and they have come up with a fairly creative idea for a new film. The Minions are helping make movies in Italy in the 1920's (I told you it was creative). They want to make a monster movie but need a monster so they get an ancient book to summon one. The film seems to feature a few quests to far away locales to find new, more monstrous monsters. It looks fun and will be a total smash at the box office. 

MOANA (July 10): It's funny, but you wouldn't really think that a new, live action Snow White would be a total bomb & critical disaster while a live action Lilo & Stitch would be a gigantic hit...but that's exactly what happened last year. Moana was the last great Disney cartoon, but even part 2, which, by most accounts, wasn't very good, made a boatload of cash ($406 million domestic). This live action version stars The Rock. There's no reason for this film to exist, though, as the original cartoon is awesome. Will they keep all of the great Lin Manuel Miranda tunes? Hopefully. I'm still waiting for a live action version of The Emperor's New Groove.

EVIL DEAD BURN (July 10): I'm glad that the Evil Dead franchise has continued on past Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. The problem is that these new ones aren't funny, they're just bloody and horrific. That kind of loses the point to why Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn is one of the greatest horror films ever made. Oh, well. This new one is directed by Sebastien Vanicek, a French director who has only made smaller horror films so far. The first teaser trailer for this doesn't elaborate much about the film, though it does star a woman and seems to take place in a delipidated mansion.

THE ODYSSEY (July 17): This is the big summer movie, the one that everyone will be talking about and that everyone is going to go see. People get excited for a Christopher Nolan movie just because it's a Christopher Nolan movie. That's pretty rare in this day and age. This film is an adaptation of the famous Greek book. And no, Medusa isn't in the book. A cyclops is. A witch that turns men into pigs is. There's Scylla, the six-headed sea monster. I think the Sirens are probably the most famous: the beautiful creatures that lull you to sleep and death with their song. I don't know how Nolan is fitting all of this into a film that's apparently shorter than Oppenheimer (that was 3 hours long). Hopefully he doesn't cut the Laestrygonians, a race of cannibalistic giants who smash ships to pieces. I never read this book in school. It sounds awesome. The trailer doesn't show any of these monsters, so who knows if the special f/x will be decent or silly and lame. Odysseus is played by Matt Damon. His wife, Penelope, is played by Anne Hathway. They've also got a Spider-Man reunion going with Zendaya and Tom Holland in this. Jon Bernthal, Robert Pattinson, John Leguizamo, Travis Scott, Himesh Patel, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong'o, Mia Goth, Elliot Page and Benny Safdie also star. Jesus, that's, like, everybody. 

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY (July 31): It's kind of weird that this film is coming out so late in the summer. Usually, a big super-hero movie would hit in early May or July 4th weekend. August has typically been the dead zone for film trash leftovers. I don't have to predict if it will be a hit, though, because Spider-Man is one of the few bullet-proof superheroes and this will be a money printing machine. The last Spider-Man movie made $814 million domestic in 2021, which is insane (it's #3 on the all-time domestic box office list, behind Star Wars 7 and Avengers: Endgame). The whole gang is back for this: Tom Holland as Peter Parker, Jacob Batalon as Ned, and Zendaya as Mary Jane. Stranger Things' Sadie Sink is in this, rumored to be Gwen Stacey. The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) are also in this. The two big bads are Tombstone and The Scorpion, which is a bit of a letdown because nobody gives a shit about those villains. Who cares, though? It's a Spider-Man movie! I'm sure it'll be popcorn movie bliss.

Review: AVATAR: FIRE & ASH

     The best thing I can say about Avatar: Fire & Ash (the 3rd film in the franchise) is that it looks fantastic. The movie is probably around 95% special f/x, meaning it basically just looks like a computer animated film, but it's definitely one of the best looking movies I've ever seen. There's so many special f/x in this that it’s just a visual feast of layer upon layer of imagery: flying birds in front of floating islands in front of a majestic sky filled with multiple suns and moons and gorgeous, puffy clouds. This thing is stacked with special f/x and it all mostly fits seamlessly together in a fairly cohesive way. And these special f/x aren't, like, typical, been-there-done-that special f/x you see in movies all the time. This is state of the art, unbelievably vivid and super colorful stuff. I didn't even watch this at a movie theater, I watched it on a non-4K TV and it still looked downright majestic. I remember, years ago when Michael Mann's Miami Vice movie came out, one reviewer mentioned that watching it felt like looking through a window because it was shot with a new HD camera. Watching Avatar: Fire & Ash kind of gave me that same feeling that, yeah, movie technology at this moment is pretty revolutionary. There's a catch to all of this of course, though. The reason Avatar: Fire & Ash looks like it took a thousand computer programmers ten years to make it...is because it did! And it's also one of the most expensive movies ever made, so much so that even after grossing almost $1.5 billion dollars at the global box office, director James Cameron said that it didn't make enough money so they might not make a planned 4th film. 

    While Avatar: Fire & Ash looks amazing and is super detailed, super colorful, and wonderful to stare at in awe...it's also 3 hours and 17 minutes long. By the time the 3 hour mark hits, I doubt you even care how great the movie looks. You're probably thinking: get me outta here!

    The original Avatar came out way back in 2009 and the sequel, Avatar: Way of Water, came out in 2022. I don't remember a lot from either film to be honest, except for the fact that there were blue aliens riding flying beasts in some other world. There was also the U.S. military trying to kill the aliens and take their jewels, and a human that "joined" the aliens, hence why I vaguely remember thinking Avatar was just a rip-off of Dances with Wolves, which was also pretty much just a copy of the Pocahontas/John Smith story. I do remember the final battle sequence from Avatar: Way of Water being fairly exciting, which isn't a total surprise considering James Cameron is a master at action. 

    So here we are at #3. What's different? What's new? What's the point?

    The basic premise in Avatar: Fire & Ash is that the U.S. military is again trying to kill the blue aliens. The only thing new in this 3rd entry is the villainous Ash alien group that have white skin and live in tents next to a volcano. The action is kick started when the Ash alien group attacks a travelling convoy flying through the sky and there's an exciting battle. The big bad, Varang, is probably the best part of this new entry. She's evil, nefarious, cruel...and then just ends up sleeping with the U.S. military dude Quaritch, who was the big bad in #1 and #2 (he died but then became a blue alien along the way). A better movie would just have Varang and her gang (who are so similar to that Native American villain tribe in The Last of the Mohicans) fighting the good guys and that's it. Nope! We have to, again, insert the U.S. military into this film in a way that makes this play out exactly like the 1st and 2nd movie. At this rate, why even bother to make a 3rd feature if it's just the same? At least the 2nd one had a new ocean tribe. This fire tribe is barely there and instantly merged into the deja-vu plot. 

    The saving grace in all of this is that the action scenes are entertaining and wild. Sure, this film is the silliest thing you might ever watch, but at least it's fun to see a bunch of chase and battle scenes in a lush, tropical paradise. After awhile, though, watching any of this will test your limits. It took me 2 days to watch this movie in two 1.5 hour chunks and I was still bored for a lot of it. One problem is that the actual family story isn't all that interesting. Beyond the visuals, the dialogue, characters, and plot are perfunctory at best. This is bare bones story telling: bad guy fight good guy, good guy saves day. There is some sort of naturalistic, environmental religious mumbo-jumbo going on with a "mother earth" that the aliens worship...but none of that is intriguing in the least. 

    I think making two Avatar films was fine...but making a 3rd feels like just putting salt in a wound. It's too much. James Cameron is one of the best living directors still working and still making big movies that people watch. His resume is legendary and will go down in the annuls of film history as one of the greatest, so it's just kind of sad to see him wasting his time rehashing things. Avatar: Fire & Ash is basically just Avatar: Way of Water with a few slight differences. I'd rather see Cameron doing something new, something different, because hell, he doesn't have too much time left, and I'd hate to see such a creative person end on a note like this, making a film we've seen before that doesn't need to exist. **

Review: SCREAM 7

     The original Scream movie came out on December 20th, 1996, so technically it's the 30th anniversary of its arrival. Even with 30 years past, it's still pretty glaring that there's the 7th installment of a franchise and they didn't try to trick you by calling it something else. Nope, the 7 is right there in the title. Yes, they're proclaiming to the world: there have been 7 of these movies already. I mean...at this point, after 7 installments of a film franchise, does originality even matter anymore? Play the hits! Right? Wrap yourself up in a blanket of nostalgia. And, for the others that might watch Scream 7 that are too young to remember or even have been alive in 1996 when the original hit, or in 1997 when the sequel hit, or 2000 when the 3rd hit...if it's not nostalgia, then is it just...this is a bloody slasher pic, they're all the same, enjoy horny teens being butchered! We know this is what you all want.

    There can't be that many 7th entries in a film franchise, can there? The only ones are horror and superheroes. There's definitely been more than 7 Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers, Superman, Spider-man, and Batman movies...which means that 7 Scream films in 30 years isn't shocking or gasp-inducing or anything. What is kind of surprising is that this 7th edition is going to end up being the highest grossing installment (inflation not factored into the equation, which perhaps makes this point ultimately moot). What's also surprising is that, 7 movies in, 30 years past, we still have a movie with a few of the originals: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Matthew Lillard, and Kevin Williamson. It's also surprising that these four actually want anything to do with this franchise at this late stage. Is it stalled careers, barren bank accounts...I mean, they're not doing this for the art, are they? Not that a slasher pic is art, although, at least in my mind, the original Scream is a masterpiece, thanks to not only one of the greatest scripts ever written, but thanks to a bunch of fantastic performances by the B-crew of lesser stars that peaked exponentially for one film only (Cox, arguably, was the one star that was in something else more famous at the time). 

    So what do we have here, now, with Scream 7? What is this? What are we doing? Why does this exist? And do you care? 

    If you look at the Friday the 13th films, they were released consistently every year for almost a decade. The 1st one came out in 1980, and the 7th came out in 1988. Scream disappeared for a long time after the 3rd entry. There was an 11 year gap between 3 and 4. Then there was another 11 year gap between 4 and 5 (Scream 4 was the lowest grossing entry and, at $38 million domestic, a complete disappointment). The last 3 Scream movies have all been released in the last 4 years. And since Scream 7 will be the highest grossing and a total success, plus add the fact that Ellison's Paramount loves franchises and beating dead horses to milk every bit of cash out of something barely worthwhile, this franchise is going to return and return sooner than you might think or want. The problem arises with the fact that...these films are all pretty much the same. What can you do different? Or...do you even have to do anything different?

    Scream 7 was co-written and directed by Kevin Williamson, the original creator of the franchise and writer of the first 2 films (and also the creator of Dawson's Creek...though, literally, he never did anything good again after his initial one-two punch of triumph). Neve Campbell is back as the main character (she sat out part 6 because she asked for more money than they wanted to give her). She's happily living in a suburban town with a husband who's the chief of police and a 16 year old daughter. The opening of the film is typical Scream territory; some cute, young kids are butchered by Ghost Face after receiving a phone call. The catch this time is that the opening takes place in the same house from the original film but now it's an Air B&B murder house! So meta, right? And, I suppose, it's fairly creative, although not awesomely original, which is kind of the big problem to this film. It's an entertaining slasher pic, it has a few good jump scares, it's an easy watch, it's what-you-expect, but any kind of shockingly great originality is totally absent. It's just another murder-mystery horror flick, been there done that.

    Once the fresh, new murders occur, Neve Campbell's life is turned upside down when Ghost Face arrives in her town to threaten her daughter and her daughter's friends. Ghost Face is revealed early on to be Stu, played by Matthew Lillard, who was killed in the original film. But...wait! He's dead! Or is he? Or is it a fake? I think this entry in the franchise is definitely helped by the return of Lillard, who brings his usual zany energy to the role and is at least something fresh added to the mix. 

    After all the usual elements are in place, we get the usual Scream picture. The one difference is that the kills are, for whatever reason (maybe Williamson loves the Final Destination movies), especially gruesome this time around. We get a head on a spike with a mouth spewing blood, a stomach knifed open with a pile of guts splattering onto the ground, and a slow-mo knife through the head kill. And while the script is light years away from the great original script, Williamson as a director at least knows his horror movie tropes: his use of suspense, shadows, and movement. There's Ghost Face appearing and disappearing in the background. A typical suburban home becomes a terrifying maze with construction plastic tarps amidst a remodel. 

    Neve Campbell is too good of an actress to be in this type of a movie, because she's acting heartfelt and emotional when, hey, this is a frigging midnight Grindhouse type of a flick, right? Joel McHale, who was once on E's The Soup (remember?), is pretty good as the cop husband. Neve Campbell's daughter, the new scream queen, is played by Isabel May. She's pretty forgettable honestly, but does a decent enough job to not be glaringly problematic. There are two supposed comedy sidekicks, Courtney Cox's TV assistants. Sadly, they get nothing amusing to say or do in this film. Which is a bit of a problem because the comedy and "rules" of the original are kind of what made that film pop and made it unique. This 7th entry is not unique. That's not exactly why it's gotten bad reviews from pretty much everyone. The reason it's gotten bad reviews is because of the ending killer reveal. It's a disappointment. But as for the totality of it all: this is the 7th one and we've all been here before. You want hot babes running for their lives, being scared, and a creepy killer in a ghost costume hiding in the shadows and picking people off one by one. This film has got you covered. If you're a sicko and like that sort of thing, then you can't really go wrong with this one. These films aren't going to get better. They're just going to chug along just the same as always. And someday, if they're gone, admit it: you'll fucking miss 'em. **1/2

THE TOP 10 MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS OF 2026

1- WERWULF: Robert Eggers' movies are always highly anticipated. I had heard that he was going to do an adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol' next, but he's making this werewolf movie first. It has the same cast as 'Nosferatu': Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, and Willem Dafoe. It's set in England in the 13th century. Sadly, it's not supposed to come out until Christmas day.

2- THE ODYSSEY: This is one of the big dogs of 2026, the newest from director Christopher Nolan after he swept the Oscars a few years ago. The trailer to this already came out and it looks good, albeit the special f/x creatures are only glimpsed at. Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Jon Bernthal star. Nolan is one of the very few directors that make films people actually go to see in theaters, so this should be all anyone is talking about come July. 

3- SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY: It seems that after every recent Marvel movie comes out, everybody online debates the death of Marvel movies in terms of relevance, box office, and enjoyment. Spider-Man movies are bullet proof, though. This will be a giant smash and hopefully just as fun and entertaining as the first three. The new additions to the regular cast include Sadie Sink (who's rumored to be playing Gwen Stacey) and Tramell Tillman from 'Severance.' 

4- FLOWERVALE STREET: Currently, David Robert Mitchel is my favorite writer/director. It's a travesty that he hasn't made a movie since the highly entertaining and bonkers 'Under the Silver Lake' way back in 2018. And, shockingly, he's only made three films. The other two were 'It Follows' and 'The Myth of the American Sleepover.' He's back with a film about a suburban street in the 1980's where strange things occur. No, I don't know what that means, but I did see a picture of the film that had dinosaurs in it. Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway star.

5- DUNE: PART 3: This is apparently going to be the last 'Dune' film that Denis Villeneuve directs. It's an adaptation of the second 'Dune' book, a book that's so short it was originally serialized in a sci-fi magazine. The book was also savaged by readers when it first came out. The reason? Well, I started to read it and was bored to tears and didn't bother to finish it. The book picks up years after the first book when Paul Atreides is the ruler of the planet. A group hires an assassin to infiltrate Paul's ranks and murder him. That's literally the whole plot. I'm guessing the film will add something to more to this plot. The same cast is back but Robert Pattinson has been added. I adored the first 'Dune' film and thought the second one was so-so. I'm intrigued, though, and Villeneuve is a visual master.

6- RESIDENT EVIL: Zack Cregger is the new, 'hot' horror director. 'Barbarian' was a word-of-mouth hit and 'Weapons' was a surprise box office success. He's making a new 'Resident Evil' film, but he swears that this time it'll be more like the video games. I loved 'Weapons' and can't wait to see what he'll do with a zombie flick. 

7- THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING: This 'Hunger Games' book is one of the best in the series. It's a prequel, showing Haymitch's time competing in the games (Woody Harrelson played him in the original films). The trailer already came out, and it looks fantastic. Francis Lawrence, who directed the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 'Hunger Games' films, is back at the helm. The main stars are unknowns, but the cast includes Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Jesse Plemmons, Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, and Maya Hawke. 

8- AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY: It's been a while since the last 'Avengers' movie. 'Avengers: Endgame' was the last one and still holds the record for biggest opening weekend, at $357 million. That was in 2019. Marvel, of course, stupidly killed off Iron-Man, and they haven't really been the same ever since. Nothing matters, though, since both Chris Evans as Captain America and Iron-Man are back in this one. Robert Downey, Jr. is playing Dr. Doom in this, though, not Iron-Man. How that will work when Dr. Doom wears a mask is one of the year's great questions. They could conceivably just say Robert Downey, Jr. is playing Dr. Doom and yet you might never know. The first trailer of this was released and it showed that Chris Evans is back, even though Evans had previously said he was done playing the role (the new Captain America in the Marvel movies and TV shows is Anthony Mackie). The rest of the usual players are back: Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, etc. Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk is not in this, though, for unknown reasons. The Russo brothers are directing this. They previously directed 'Captain America: Winter Soldier,' 'Captain America: Civil War,' 'Avengers: Infinity War,' and 'Avengers: Endgame.' They know what they're doing in terms of 'Avengers' films. Their last film was one of the biggest bombs in the history of film, though, Netflix's 'The Electric State.' I'm guessing this one will be a huge hit. Whether or not it's actually a good movie is questionable, though. 

9- WUTHERING HEIGHTS: Emeral Fennell is back after getting everyone talking about her last film, the wild and shocking 'Saltburn.' She's adapting Emily Bronte's classic 'Wuthering Heights.' It stars Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie. Fennell's movies are always acid-laced and weird, so I'm curious how much she'll stray from the book. The trailer makes it look like it keeps the plot but has psychedelic-style visuals. The book is pretty much just a standard romance. It also has a great tagline: 'Frankenstein meets Barbie.'

10- THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU: Is the pandemic finally over? Because we're getting the first 'Star Wars' film since the pandemic, the first 'Avengers' movie since the pandemic, and the first David Robert Mitchell film since the pandemic. It is crazy that there hasn't been a 'Star Wars' movie since 2019. You can blame Disney+ for that, as they've been putting out 'Star Wars' TV shows every year. This new film even started as a TV show, 'The Mandalorian,' which was good but nothing great. This means that this movie is basically just season 4. Jon Favreau is directing. You know, I never in a million years thought the writer/director/star of 'Swingers' would eventually end up making a 'Star Wars' movie. But I'm happy, because a new 'Star Wars' movie is actually going to be in a movie theater, the first time in seven fucking years. 

THE BEST FILMS OF 2025

1- ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

2- MARTY SUPREME

3- IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT

4- EDDINGTON

5- WEAPONS

6- NO OTHER CHOICE

7- COMPANION

8- HELL OF A SUMMER

THE TOP 10 MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS OF 2025 REVISITED

 1- TREY PARKER, MATT STONE & KENDRICK LAMAR SLAVERY MOVIE:  This didn't come out and it still doesn't have a release date. The rumored title is "Whitney Springs." 

2- PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON FILM: "One Battle After Another" was the best movie I saw in 2025, though I have yet to see everything. Right now, it's the favorite to win Best Picture at the Oscars. The thing I loved about this movie was the energy. I felt a similar feeling watching "Pulp Fiction." It's weird, thrilling, alive, new, fresh, bold, and totally engrossing. And Sean Penn, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Benecio Del Toro all give excellent performances in this. Just an all-around great film. ****

3- JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH: I did a short review of this. ***

4- SUPERMAN: I did a short review of this. *1/2

5- FRANKENSTEIN: This movie is really good until the monster enters the picture, then it becomes silly and un-scary. The whole thing does look really expensive and cool. Maybe I'm just tired of this story constantly being re-done. It's good, not great. **1/2

6- EDDINGTON: I did a short review of this. ***1/2

7- 28 YEARS LATER: Reviewed. **1/2

8- MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING: Reviewed. **

 

9- PREDATOR: BADLANDS: This is a fun, entertaining film, although totally light years away from what I'd consider a "Predator" movie. I get it: they can't keep doing what they were doing for the franchise to remain fresh, but it doesn't mean I miss the old days. **1/2

10- THE RUNNING MAN: This movie isn't awful, but it's a total disappointment considering I like director Edgar Wright. I don't know what the fuck happened with this, but it feels like the studio re-cut it and re-did the ending or something. In the end it just doesn't work. *1/2

FALL MOVIE PREVIEW 2025

     The Venice Film Festival is going on right now, and a bunch of the big Fall movie releases were shown there. This always pisses me off, because I have to wait until November 7th to see Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein while a lucky few already watched it (all of the critics basically said that it's good not great). The Rock's film, The Smashing Machine, about a UFC fighter, got good reviews at the festival, as did Yorgos Lanthimos' re-make of Save the Green Planet (which was a bad movie), Bugonia, which stars a head-shaved Emma Stone. Just reading about all of these new movies (that will eventually be released for the common man to finally watch) got me excited for the new Fall movie season. Here's a preview:

SEPTEMBER

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES (September 5): This is the 10th installment in this series. I guess they're counting the spin-offs like The Nun and The Nun 2, which were actually fairly decent. The setting for the first Nun movie was really cool: a creepy, dilapidated convent in the Romanian hills. The setting in this one is a haunted house a family moves into in Pennsylvania. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as The Warrens. It's based on The Smurl Haunting in West Pittston in the 1970's. The real life Warrens investigated and found 4 entities there, one of them demonic. If you read about it, you find quotes like this: "their daughter Dawn was nearly raped by the entity." Now that's a fucking movie! Ghost rape. I have heard of Pittston, PA. They have the Tomato Festival there every year. They used to have a tomato fight during the festival, but it was deemed too much of a waste of food and discontinued. Now they do a spaghetti eating contest. I wonder if the demon entity is still around. Maybe he could cause some havoc at that spaghetti eating contest.  

SPINAL TAP 2: THE END CONTINUES (September 12): The band is back, finally returning for a sequel 41 years later. That has to be the longest between a movie and its sequel, right? At least, with the same cast and director. I haven't watched the original in years, though I still remember "Smell the Glove" and the dwarfs circling the miniature Stonehenge. I doubt this movie will be even half as good as the original, but that should still make it pretty good. Seriously, what's the last great comedy movie that came out? Borat 2 and Palm Springs are the only recent good comedy movies I can think of, and those came out 5 years ago. Is the comedy film dead? 

THE HISTORY OF SOUND (September 12): After Gladiator 2, I thought Paul Mescal might keep going the Hollywood big time route. Nope! He plays a gay guy that falls in love with a fellow student at a music school in 1917. It played at Cannes but didn't get great reviews. 

THE LONG WALK (September 12): This is a Stephen King novella, collected in The Bachman Books, a collection I've never read (The Running Man is also in that collection...and coincidentally this Fall there's a new Running Man movie). I'm guessing King wrote this one first and then was, like, let me write one where they run! This is apparently the first novel he ever wrote. He started it as a Freshman at the University of Maine. It takes place in the future where's there's some sort of dystopian walking contest where only the winner lives. The movie stars Cooper Hoffman from Licorice Pizza and was directed by Francis Lawrence, who might have a crush on Jennifer Lawrence (he directed 3 Hunger Games movies and Red Sparrow). 

A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY (September 19): This is Margot Robbie's first starring role since Barbie. One has to wonder...what the heck has she been doing for the last few years? This also has Colin Farrel. It's about two people that meet at a wedding, fall in love, and travel through time. Okay. Sounds awful.

THE LOST BUS (September 19): Matthew McConaughey stars as a bus driver stuck in the middle of the Camp Fire in California, a wildfire that destroyed a whole town and killed 85 people back in 2018. It's directed by Paul Greengrass, who loves putting us through misery once again, as if real life wasn't enough (he's one of the few that boldly made a movie about 9/11...plus he made a movie about that mass shooter in Norway that killed 69 kids at a summer camp on an island). Greengrass also directed a few of those Jason Bourne movies, so he at least knows how to direct an action movie, which should help.

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (September 26): This is probably the #1 movie I'm looking forward to this Fall. Paul Thomas Anderson is writing and directing this loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro. DiCaprio has said in interviews before that his one big regret is passing on starring in Boogie Nights. Well, he's finally in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, 28 years later. I did read Vineland but barely remember it besides the main character being an ex-hippie, conspiracy nut in Northern California. The trailers don't make it look good, but Anderson's last film, Licorice Pizza, was one of his best, so hopefully he keeps rolling with the good ones.

ELEANOR THE GREAT (September 26): Scarlett Johannsen directs her first film, this one about a woman played by June Squibb that fakes being a Holocaust survivor. June Squibb is 95 years old in real life. How the heck did a 95 year old star in a movie? I think most 95 year olds are drooling in a wheelchair.  

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 (September 26): This is the 4th entry of these Strangers movies, which is kind of confusing because this is Chapter 2. They're slasher films where strangers kill people in a secluded location for no reason. Chapter 1 featured Riverdale's Madelaine Petsch, who's character survived, and she's back in this one. This is supposedly a trilogy, and they filmed all 3 in 52 days in 2022 in Slovakia. Seriously, after the first one that starred Liv Tyler in 2008, did anyone ask for 4 more?

OCTOBER

PLAY DIRTY (October 1): Shane Black is co-writing and directing this straight to Amazon Prime movie. It stars Mark Wahlberg and Lakeith Stanfield. Black is a legend (he co-wrote the scripts for Lethal Weapon, The Monster Squad, and The Last Boy Scout), but he hasn't made anything worthwhile since The Nice Guys (which he co-wrote and directed). The last movie he co-wrote and directed, The Predator, was lousy. How hard is it to make a Predator movie? This is a heist movie, so it seems to be more in his wheelhouse. I had heard rumors once that he wanted to make The Nice Guys 2. Oh, please God, make it happen. That was one of the most entertaining movies ever made.  

ANEMONE (October 3): Daniel Day Lewis retired from acting but he's back. The reason? His son is directing this movie. The plot has a guy going into the woods to find his brother. Apparently, his brother is one of those Unabomber type nutjobs, thus why he lives in the woods. Daniel Day Lewis' last acting role was in Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread back in 2017. 

ROOFMAN (October 3): Derek Cianfrance is a fantastic writer/director that doesn't do much, which is a shame. He made two good movies, Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines, and an interesting HBO mini-series, I Know This Much is True. He did make the dull movie The Light Between Oceans. His latest stars Channing Tatum as a real life serial robber that mostly robbed McDonald's by drilling through the roof, hence the title. He escaped from prison and lived in a Toys R Us. I kind of think a documentary about this dude would be more entertaining. And, like, didn't Toys R Us have security cameras? They didn't notice some guy was living in their store? If you read about it, it says at night when the Toys R Us was closed he would ride a bike around the aisles. It also says during the holidays he decided to move out of Toys R Us and live at a Circuit City. Oh my God, there's no way any of this true. And, what? Circuit City wasn't busy during the holidays? There are more holes in this tall tale than the ones he drilled in the McDonald's roofs. 

THE SMASHING MACHINE (October 3): The Rock stars as a UFC fighter you've never heard of, Mark Kerr. Instead of him just, you know, acting, they decided to give him heavy makeup to look like Frankenstein. Maybe if I watch the movie it won't be jarring, but it sure is when watching the trailer. On the plus side, this got great reviews at the Venice Film Festival. It also stars Emily Blunt. The director is Benny Safdie, who just played the villain in Happy Gilmore 2. He's more well known for directing Uncut Gems and Good Times with his brother. The big question is: will the Academy take The Rock seriously and nominate him? 

AFTER THE HUNT (October 10): Luca Guadagnino is one of my favorite directors these days even though I didn't care much for his last picture, Queer. Challengers, however, was the best movie of 2024, and his HBO series, We Are Who We Are, was so great I still think about it, even though nobody ever heard about it or watched it. This film already played at the Venice Film Festival and got savaged by a critic at Deadline. It stars Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield. It's about a sexual abuse scandal at a college. Luca Guadagnino is set to re-make American Psycho next, which should be more interesting, albeit pointless. He's already re-made two classics (Suspiria and La Piscine) to varying success, but I still wish he'd focus more on originals. 

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (October 10): From the director of Chicago, Bill Condon, comes this new musical adaptation starring Jennifer Lopez. Kander and Ebb wrote the musical, based on a novel from 1976. Kander and Ebb are mostly known for Cabaret and Chicago. I'm guessing this was one of their lesser musicals, though it did play on Broadway in 1993. It's about a prisoner in Argentina who hallucinates about a Spider Woman. No wonder this wasn't a smash hit on Broadway.

TRON: ARES (October 10): Tron is still a thing? I mean, I do realize Hollywood is out of ideas...but another Tron? I never even saw the belated sequel, Tron: Legacy, that came out 28 years after the original. This one's only 15 years after the 2nd one, though. They're getting closer together! Soon they'll be a Tron every day in the future. This one stars Jared Leto, Evan Peters, and Scully from The X-Files. Jeff Bridges is back, too. 

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE (October 10): Kathryn Bigelow is back directing after 8 long years (her last movie was Detroit...but she's mostly famous for being the first woman to win a directing Oscar for The Hurt Locker). This one is about a missile attack from an unknown place and how the White House handles it. Idris Elba stars. 

BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER (October 15): Conclave director Edward Berger's latest stars Colin Farrell as a gambler in Macau, China. Berger also directed All Quiet on the Western Front, so his movies lately have been pretty popular with the Academy. It's based on a novel and hits theaters two weeks before Netflix.

BLACK PHONE 2 (October 17): Maybe I should watch The Black Phone? I did read the Joe Hill short story the first movie was adapted from. There wasn't much to it, was there? They certainly added some heft to it if they're already making a sequel to a movie based on a short story. Ethan Hawke is back in this. I'm more excited for Joe Hill's new novel coming out in October, his first novel since 2016's The Fireman. It's 896 pages and about a group of kids that summon a dragon with a spell and soon realize that they have to give it a sacrifice every year.

GOOD FORTUNE (October 17): Remember Aziz Ansari got taken down by #MeToo and pretty much disappeared? Well, he's back, writing and directing this film starring Seth Rogen, Keanu Reeves, and Sandra Oh. It's a body swapping film and Keanu Reeves plays an angel. 

BLUE MOON (October 17): Richard Linklater directs this film starring Ethan Hawke as song lyricist Lorenz Hart. Linklater had a different movie that premiered at Cannes in May and that hasn't even come out yet. This one is about how Lorenz Hart's former creative partner, Richard Rogers, went on to become the powerhouse Broadway team Rogers & Hammerstein. The film takes place during the premiere of the musical Oklahoma!.

BUGONIA (October 24): This is a re-make of a really bad movie, Save the Green Planet!. It's a South Korean film that I recently just watched. Why Yorgos Lanthimos decided to re-make it is beyond me. It stars Jesse Plemmons and Emma Stone. The story is that two crackpot losers kidnap a rich CEO because they think they're an alien. Stone plays the CEO and the big story is that they shave her head in the movie. I guess it's a big deal when a famous actress shaves her head? God forbid a woman not have long hair. The horror! Our culture is fucking stupid. 

FRANKENSTEIN (October 27): Guillermo Del Toro adapts Frankenstein for Netflix. Stupidly, it's not coming to Netflix until after Halloween, but they are releasing it in theaters a few days earlier. Oscar Isaac plays the Dr. and Jacob Elordi (from Entourage and Saltburn fame) is the monster. I get why Del Toro is making this, but c'mon, how many adaptations of Frankenstein do we need? 

SPRINGSTEIN: DELIVERY ME FROM NOWHERE (October 24): Jeremy Allen White, from The Bear and Shameless, plays Bruce Springstein in the 80's while making his album Nebraska. It was written and directed by Scott Cooper, who last made that bad Netflix film, The Pale Blue Eye, that had Christian Bale investigating a murder at West Point in the 1800's. Cooper is probably best known for Out of the Furnace with Christian Bale and Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges. Usually these music biopics work if the singer did drugs or had a wild life or something, right? Wasn't Bruce Springstein's life just boring suburbia? Jeremy Allen White has already won two Emmys for The Bear so now the story is will he win an Oscar for this?

NOVEMBER

DIE, MY LOVE (November 7): This one stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. Lawrence plays a mother who's depressed after having a baby. It's directed by Lynne Ramsay, who made one good movie I've seen, You Were Never Really Here, that starred Joquin Phoenix. This movie played at Cannes and everyone said Lawrence is fantastic in this...but this is the type of movie nobody wants to watch.

NUREMBERG (November 7): Another depressing film that I doubt anyone wants to watch. This is about the Nazis on trial. Russell Crowe and Rami Malek star. It's written and directed by James Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt previously wrote the scripts for those 2 Murder Mystery movies that starred Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston. You wouldn't think that guy would be making a serious movie about the Nazis. He also co-wrote next year's Scream 7. The most shocking thing about that movie is Kevin Williamson is directing it but not writing it. Also...do we really need Scream 7? And...there have actually been 7 Scream movies? 

PREDATOR: BADLANDS (November 7): Prey, the last live action Predator movie, was awesome. It also went straight to Hulu and I doubt few know it exists. This one is from the same director, Dan Trachtenberg. It stars Elle Fanning. She teams up with a Predator on an alien planet to fight other Predators. I watched the trailer and it doesn't look good. The "good" Predator walks around without a mask which is fucking dumb. 

SENTIMENTAL VALUE (November 7): Joachim Trier had a big hit with 2021's The Worst Person in the World. He's back with the same star, Renate Reinsve. Stellan Skarsgard plays a famous movie director. His daughters attempt to reunite with him when their mother dies. 

JAY KELLY (November 14): George Clooney and Adam Sandler star in Noah Baumbach's latest, which is coming to Netflix after a few weeks in theaters. This played at the Venice Film Festival and got decent reviews, though nobody raved about it. Clooney plays a famous actor and Sandler is his assistant. 

NOW YOU SEE ME; NOW YOU DON'T (November 14): I never saw the first two movies in this series. First off, they look fucking dumb. Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson are magicians but also bank robbers? Is that the plot? Obviously, somebody liked the first two if they made a third one. You know what would be great? A comedy about a magician starring Will Ferrell. Granted, his days of making classic, Anchorman style comedies are over, though. 

THE RUNNING MAN (November 14): Not that Schwarzenegger's Running Man is a classic or anything, but it's a pretty famous movie, so why bother remaking it? They remake anything remotely famous, though. The weird thing is that the trailer for this makes it out to be an over-the-top comedy. Isn't this about a game show where you have to kill everyone to win? How is that funny? Edgar Wright is directing this, and he used to be one of my favorite directors. His 3 films with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are great. The last movie he directed, Last Night in Soho, was just okay. Replacing Schwarzenegger in this is Glen Powell. The Stephen King story famously ends with an airplane crashing into a building. The original movie nixed that scene and that was before 9/11, so I doubt we'll see that in this one, too.

WICKED: FOR GOOD (November 21): Considering the first Wicked was a big hit, I wouldn't be surprised if down the line they somehow concoct a 3rd one. The first one ended with the Wicked Witch becoming the Wicked Witch. I never read the book, but the first movie wasn't any good. The songs were average at best and the story made no logical sense. I also hated that the whole movie was just filmed with green screens so it looked like a video game. Go watch The Wiz. You know how awesome those sets are? How it's filled with a cast of hundreds and feels energetic and big and alive? Yeah, we miss those days. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are back and it's the same director, so if you liked the first one you'll probably love this. 

ZOOTOPIA 2 (November 26): The first animated kid's movie Zootopia was a big hit, so much so that it took 9 years for this sequel to finally come out. What was the hold up, anyway? In this one, a new reptile resident of Zootopia shows up and the main characters, who are animal cops, go undercover. Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Idris Elba, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Macauley Culkin are a few of the voices in this.

WAKE UP DEAD MAN (November 26): This is the 3rd Knives Out mystery. Rian Johnson is back writing and directing and it's releasing in theaters in November and going to Netflix on December 12th. This one is a locked room mystery where a priest is murdered in his church. Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Mila Kunis, Glenn Close, and Josh Brolin star. While I love Agatha Christie style mysteries with a genius P.I., neither of the first two films were that great. I'm starting to think Rian Johnson isn't going to make a good movie again (Brick, the High School noir mystery, was the only one I liked).

HAMNET (November 27): Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley star in this adaptation from the novel about Shakespeare's dead son, Hamnet. Chloe Zhao, who directed The Eternals and won an Oscar for Nomadland, is at the helm. This just played at Telluride and got good reviews, though Variety did say "it's so emotionally raw as to be almost excruciating at times." Oh, jeez, another fun night at the movies!

DECEMBER

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S 2 (December 5): The first film in this video game adaptation was a smash hit. The idea behind the video games is good: basically, the animal robots at a Chuck-E-Cheese like place turn murderous. The problem with the first film was that it was rated PG-13 so the kids that play the video games could actually go see it. This one is also rated PG-13. The video games are scary as hell and it's a great premise, but the first film didn't reach its full potential of awesome fright fest. I feel like an R-rated gore fest would be better, right? 

AVATAR: FIRE & ASH (December 19): Honestly, is there anyone on Earth that asked for a 3rd Avatar movie? Not that the first 2 movies were bad or anything, they were fairly entertaining and made a boatload of cash, but once you've seen one Avatar you've seen them all. James Cameron is a director that's made a ton of classics (The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies, Titanic). I wish he'd, like, go direct something not Avatar considering he's old and he probably won't make many more movies. There's supposedly part 4 and 5 in the Avatar series "in development." You know, I always heard that he wanted to make True Lies 2. Schwarzenegger isn't doing anything these days because his Netflix show was cancelled. Hello? Make a movie people actually want to see, Cameron.

THE HOUSEMAID (December 19): This is based on a best-selling novel about a maid and a family with dark secrets. I don't know what those secrets are because I never read the book. It stars Sydnee Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. It's directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids). The book was a success, so it spawned two sequels. What we really want to know is if Sweeney is going to wear a French maid's outfit in this movie. Oh, it's not a comedy? I guess the answer is "no" then. And where the hell is Euphoria season 3? Sydnee Sweeney is going to be in a wheelchair and still in High School by the time it comes out.

MARTY SUPREME (December 25): Supposedly, Leonardo DiCaprio once told Timothee Chalamet that to stay a successful actor in Hollywood, stay away from super-hero movies and hard drugs. Chalamet is keeping that promise by starring in a ping-pong movie. He plays a professional ping-pong player in the 1950's. It's directed by Josh Safdie, who has made a few good movies with his brother, Benny (Uncut Gems and Good Times), but his going solo with this one. The trailer makes it look great...not that I'd, like, actually drive to a movie theater and pay to see this or anything.

ANACONDA (December 25): Okay, this sounds like an April Fools prank or something. Jack Black and Paul Rudd head to the rainforest to re-create their favorite movie, Anaconda. Wait. What? This can't be for real. I guess it's a horror comedy? Even more shocking, this is the 6th entry in the Anaconda series. There were actually 4 sequels already? I must be living in a cave.