Movie Review Barbarian

Barbarian (2022) 

Directed by Zach Cregger 

Written by Zach Cregger 

Starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgard, Justin Long, Richard Brake

Release Date September 9th, 2022 

In theaters only 

Barbarian lives up to the hype. The movie that has used audience reaction footage as its main marketing image, creating a strong amount of buzz without giving away the shocking twists, is as good as those audience reactions shots indicate. Written and directed by former The Whitest Kids U Know star Zach Cregger, the combination of old school scares and modern, outlandish humor, comes together brilliantly. That's not to say that Barbarian is a laugh riot. Rather, the laughs are flawlessly in place as a release valve for the tense and exciting horror movie thrills. 

Barbarian stars Georgina Campbell as Tess Mitchell, a young and ambitious documentary filmmaker who has come to Detroit to interview for a job. Tess has rented an Air BnB but there is a problem, someone else has also rented this home. Alexander Skarsgard plays Keith, a nice enough, seemingly normal guy, who claims to have rented the home via a different home rental app. Being that it is late at night in a bad part of Detroit, Keith invites Tess to take the bedroom and stay the night while he sleeps on the couch. The two proceed to have a pretty fun night until Tess heads to bed.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review All Jacked Up and Full of Worms

All Jacked Up and Full of Worms (2022) 

Directed by Alex Phillips

Written by Alex Phillips 

Starring Phillip Andre Botello, Trevor Dawkins

Playing at Fantastic Fest in Austin Texas through early October

It’s important to go into a movie with a title such as All Jacked Up and Full of Worms with the right mindset. You can’t approach All Jacked Up and Full of Worms with the same expectations you may have for a normal mainstream movie. That might appear to be common sense but you'd be surprised how often movies like All Jacked Up and Full of Worms suffer from criticism from people whose mainstream tastes go with them wherever they go. 

I approached All Jacked Up and Full of Worms with the same open mind with which I approached the Tommy Wiseau starring Best F(r)iendsmovies. I didn’t expect a classically mainstream, straight-forward entertainment. And I was prepared for something that may not make much sense but did so with stranger, more transgressive intentions. All Jacked Up and Full of Worms met my expectations. It also is just what it advertises, all jacked up and full of worms.

Find my full length review at Horror.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review See How They Run

See How They Run (2022)

Directed by Tom George 

Written by Mark Chappell

Starring Sam Rockwell, Saorise Ronan, Adrian Brody, David Oyelowo, Harris Dickinson 

Release Date September 16th, 2022 

Loosely based on the work of Agatha Christie 

See How They Run is a delightful mystery comedy. The film starring the duo of Sam Rockwell and Saorise Ronan has a distinctly British sensibility that is at once dignified and broadly comic and physical. The film tells the story of a murder amidst a murder mystery on the stage. A famous acting troupe on London's famed West End is presenting the latest adaptation of an Agatha Christie drawing room murder mystery when a visitor from America winds up a corpse on the stage. 

Adrian Brody plays the murdered man, a Hollywood director named Leo Kopernick. Leo is an abrasive, loudmouthed ladies man who has rubbed just about everyone the wrong way since he's arrived at the playhouse. Leo was brought over by producer John Woolf (Reese Shearsmith), to help with the film adaptation the play The Mousetrap. written by the legendary Agatha Christie. When Leo is murdered backstage and his body is dumped on the stage in the midst of the play, just about anyone might have wanted to kill him.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Classic Movie Review Sambizanga

Sambizanga (1972)

Directed by Sarah Maldoror 

Written by Sarah Maldoror, Maria Coelho Pinto de Andrade 

Starring Domingos Oliveira, Elisa Andrade 

Release Date Unreleased 1972 

Coming Soon from the Criterion Collection Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project 

Martin Scorsese is working to build the film education anyone willing to watch along. With his work with The Film Foundation, Scorsese has started an incredible online film club where every month a work of historic film significance is made available for free for a single day for fans to watch together online. There is no cost to watch these incredible movies curated by and with an introduction by Martin Scorsese. Fans can interact via an online chat or can simply watch the film for via the partnership of Scorsese, The Film Foundation and Delphi. 

This has been going on since the early part of 2022 and has brought about the opportunity for film lovers to watch remarkable works such as the 1945 Powell and Pressburger feature, I Know Where I'm Going, Federico Fellini's 1954 masterpiece La Strada, the 1979 Indian feature film Kumattyand most recently a fully restored and rediscovered cut of Sarah Maldoror's lost African classic, Sambizanga. Lost to time over rights issues, a cut of the film was found moldering and fading in a French warehouse several years ago. Once it was out of the tangled web of distribution issues, the experts at the film foundation and Cineteca De Bologna, took up the painstaking work of restoring the print so that it could be presented to the world again.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here.

Classic Movie Review Scrooged

Scrooged 

Directed by Richard Donner

Written by Milton Glazer, Michael O'Donaghue 

Starring Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, Bobcat Goldthwaite 

Release Date November 23rd, 1988 It’s strange, as much as I admire Bill Murray, I haven’t been much of a fan of his many movies. I like them but rarely love them. I have a rather controversially low opinion of Groundhog Day that many have argued with me over and, as for the rest of Murray’s oeuvre, the only Murray movie I watch regularly is Lost in Translation. I like Ghostbusters but I might as well hate it because in the internet age if you don’t LOVE Ghostbusters, apparently you don’t like it at all. 

So if I don’t love Bill Murray’s work then where am I on Scrooged? I may not LOVE most of Bill Murray’s film work but I really do like Scrooged. In fact, of all of the awful Christmas movies out there, and I have suffered more than my share, Scrooged is the one I can watch more than once. You can have your A Christmas Story, your gross-out Christmas Vacation and even the over-played It’s A Wonderful Life, Scrooged is the only Christmas movie I can truly get behind.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here.

Movie Review Knock at the Cabin

Knock at the Cabin (2023) 

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan 

Written by M. Night Shyamalan 

Starring Dave Bautista, Abby Quinn, Jonathan Groff, Rupert Grint, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka Bird

Release Date February 3rd, 2023 

Published February 3rd, 2023 

A Knock at the Cabin stars Dave Bautista as Leonard, a schoolteacher who has been chosen to try and stop the apocalypse. Leonard arrives at a cabin somewhere in Pennsylvania where he meets 8-year-old Wen (Kristen Cui) while she is catching grasshoppers for a science project. Leonard is kind but he's also sweaty and distracted. Eventually, Wen begins to suspect that Leonard has an ulterior motive. She runs back to her cabin just as Leonard's friends, Sabrina (Nikki Amuka Bird), Redmond (Rupert Grint), and Adriane (Abby Quinn) show up. 

Wen runs to the cabin to warn her two dads, Daddy Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Daddy Andrew (Ben Aldridge). They come running into the cabin and find that the foursome, led by Leonard are indeed at the door and planning to come inside whether they are invited or not. After a brief scuffle, the four manage to subdue the loving couple and begin to explain why they are there. According to Leonard, the four experienced the same apocalyptic visions. Those visions brought them here where they hope to save the world.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review 80 for Brady

80 for Brady (2023) 

Directed by Kyle Marvin

Written by Sarah Haskins, Emily Halpern 

Starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita Moreno 

Release Date February 3rd, 2023

Published February 3rd, 2023 

80 for Brady sure is a movie that exists. It's got movie stars; it was shot by a director with a camera, and it was edited into what is a series of scenes that seem to make up a story. It is definitely a movie. It's also not that much more than that. Vaguely inspired by the kind of true story best suited to a 3-minute segment on CBS Sunday Morning, then for a big screen feature film, 80 for Brady is a fawning tribute to the ego of the recently retired football star Tom Brady who gets to relive one of his crowning achievements while everyone fawns over how great he is. 

80 for Brady stars Lily Tomlin as Lou, a cancer survivor who credits falling in love with football during her recovery to getting her through a hard time in her life. Well, Football, and her three closest friends, Trish (Jane Fonda), Maura (Rita Moreno) and Betty (Sally Field), each of whom also embraced football alongside their friend. This happened when they happened to see a rookie Tom Brady take over as the starter for the New England Patriots.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Classic Movie Review Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Directed by George Roy Hill 

Written by William Goldman 

Starring Robert Redford, Paul Newman 

Release Date September 23rd, 1969 

Published February 14th, 2023 

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid arrived at the height of a movie world renaissance. In 1969 filmmakers as varied as Sam Fuller, Sam Peckinpah, Dennis Hopper, and Arthur Penn were riding a creative high fueled by the demise of the studio system and the excitement of the free love generation who were eager to embrace these new and daring filmmakers. It was a heady moment that was met with some of the best American cinema of the century. 

The western was also in a renaissance at the time with films like True Grit, which earned John Wayne an academy award for best actor, Sam Peckinpah’s shocking, violent, and unforgettable, The Wild Bunch, and Arthur Penn’s Bonnie & Clyde, which embraced western themes, despite not being a traditional western, all achieving monumental success. Westerns reflected the rebelliousness of the time. It celebrated mavericks and outlaws who defied authority to become icons of the American dream, bathed in blood.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review The Death of a Unicorn

The Death of a Unicorn 

Directed by Alex Scharfman

Written by Alex Scharfman 

Starring Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, Tea Leoni, Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant 

Release Date March 28th, 2025 

Published March 28th, 2025 

Did you know that there is a website that will tell you whether or not a dog in a movie dies? DoesTheDogDie.com is a real thing. People love dogs so much that they cannot stand the idea of seeing a dog die in a movie. Thus, this website is a wonderful guide for dog lovers. Myself? I’m thinking of starting a similar website called DoesPaulRuddDie.com. Because, when you think about it, what actor is nearly as beloved as man’s best friend? Paul Rudd, of course. Who would want to see a movie where Paul Rudd dies? Not many people, I’m sure. And, since Paul Rudd is now starring in a horror comedy called The Death of a Unicorn, the value of my idea takes on an air of necessity. 

The Death of a Unicorn stars Paul Rudd as Elliott, a widower trying desperately to connect with his college aged daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), and failing miserably. The biggest issue is that he’s invited her on a trip as a prop to show off to potential new legal clients, the uber-rich Leopold family, including patriarch Odell (Richard E. Grant), Belinda (Tea Leoni) and their dopey son Shep (Will Poulter). Elliott believes that the family won’t hire him unless he can show them that he is also a thriving family man. Ridley goes along with this because it’s what her late mother would have wanted her to do.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Out of Darkness

Out of Darkness (2024) 

Directed by Andrew Cumming 

Written by Ruth Greenberg

Starring Safia Oakley-Green, Kit Young 

Release Date February 9th, 2024 

Published February 9th, 2024 

Out of Darkness follows a small tribe of people in the Paleolithic era as they flee from fighting and oppression. The leader of the tribe is Adem (Choku Modu), a hard man who leads with fierce, muscular pride. With Adem is his pregnant wife, Ave (Iola Evans), and his beloved son, Heron (Luna Mwezi). Adem's younger brother Geirr (Kit Young), is green and still learning to hunt while also having to carry a leadership role under his brother. 

Not all of the tribe are family however. Odal (Arno Leudig) is an older man, valued more for his experience and wisdom than for contributing to the small tribe as a hunter. But the true outcast, outsider, of the group is Beyah (Safia Oakley-Green). Beyah is quite young but also quite headstrong and tough. She knows that she has to protect herself as Adem makes clear, he will protect his family first while Beyah and Odal fend for themselves.

Find my full length review at Horror.Media, linked here. 

Classic Movie Review I'll Do Anything

I'll Do Anything (1994)

Directed by James L. Brooks

Written by James L. Brooks

Starring Nick Nolte, Albert Brooks, Julie Kavner, Whittni Wright, Joely Richardson 

Release Date February 4th, 1994

Published February 7th, 1994 

On the surface, I'll Do Anything looks like a norm-core, slightly meta, Hollywood pastiche. It's about a struggling actor named Matt Hobbs (Nick Nolte) who unexpectedly gets custody of his 8 year old daughter, Jeannie (Whittni Wright). While she will start a Hollywood career of her own, Matt struggles to find work and remain relevant in a careless, thoughtless, Hollywood where even having a long ago Emmy nomination is not enough to help you find gainful employment in movies or TV. 

In its subplots, that normie, been there, done that quality remains as we follow Albert Brooks as a hack movie producer in the Joel Silver-Jerry Bruckheimer vein. Brooks' Burke Adler is obsessed with audience scores and the kind of math that somehow only makes sense to Hollywood executives. Burke's function is to provide a minor villain character but Brooks is far too appealing, even as a bit of a scumbag, for his villain qualities to take hold.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Ricky Stanicky

Ricky Stanicky (2024) 

Directed by Peter Farrelly 

Written by Jeff Bushell, Peter Farrelly, Pete Jones, Mike Cerrone, Brian Jarvis, James Lee Freeman 

Starring John Cena, Zac Efron, Jermaine Fowler, Andrew Santino, William H. Macy

Release Date March 7th, 2024 

Published March 8th, 2024 

I am ashamed at how many times I laughed during Ricky Stanicky. I feel, because I am a high-minded professional film critic, that my palette should be more... sophisticated. Comedy should have the air of sophistication, the notion of being intelligent. It should have deeper meaning and larger goals beyond just getting a laugh. And yet, there are movies like Ricky Stanicky that wear their stupid on their sleeve and remain mildly irresistible. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't love Ricky Stanicky. It's not always a winner. The film is deeply low brow and the plot mechanics are iffy at best. What works however are the performances of the main cast which work very hard, sweatily trying to make you laugh. That's certainly the case for star John Cena, the former pro wrestling champion who kicks his dignity to the wind and throws himself into a deeply meme-able performance, for better and for worse.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Drift

Drift (2024) 

Directed by Anthony Chen

Written by Susannah Farrell, Alexander Maksik 

Starring Cynthia Erivo, Alia Shawkat 

Release Date February 9th, 2024 

Published February 12th, 2024 

Drift stars Cynthia Erivo as Jacqueline, an African woman struggling to get by on the streets of Greece. We meet Jacqueline as she's struggling to find a place to stay and stay safe for a night. She has a small bag and the clothes on her back. She has no money and only finds a brief refuge as she sleeps for a night in a cave on the beach. Washing her clothes in the ocean, she's a mystery, we don't know why she's here or where she intended to be. 

Struggling for money or food, Jacqueline takes to offering foot massages to tourists on the beach. This gets her a couple of bucks to get a sandwich that may be her only meal for a day or so. Meanwhile, an African man keeps popping up, calling her sister, and claiming he wants to help her. Is he for real? Is he trouble? We will never know as Jacqueline manages to escape him twice before we can see what his motives are.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Arthur the King

Arthur the King (2024) 

Directed by Simon Cellan Jones 

Written by Michael Brandt

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Simu Liu, Juliet Rylance 

Release Date March 15th, 2024 

Published March 15th, 2o24 

There is nothing remotely surprising or unique about Arthur the King, aside from that strange title. Forgive me a moment of being pedantic, but, in context, I have no idea what led to this title or the name of this dog. In the scene where Mark Wahlberg, as Adventure Racer Michael Light gives the dog the name Arthur, The King, he says the dog is acting like a King because he wasn't begging for food, he was patiently waiting to be offered food? And this is, I guess, a reference to King Arthur? Was King Arthur known for patiently waiting to be offered food before he ate? 

It feels like a reach and the movie gives us no context for why Michael Light made this logical leap to 'he's a King because he doesn't beg and waits patiently,' you know, like Kings do. I'm sure that the real life Michael Light had a more reasonable explanation than this in arriving at this moniker for his new dog friend. The movie just makes it feel awkward and bizarre because it's in a rush to keep this overly familiar, sports crossed with dog movie moving. Title aside, Arthur the King delivers exactly what is promised, a charismatic pooch, a rugged athletic hero, and an underdog story that lives up to the word, underdog, in more ways than one.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here