Movie Review A Working Man

A Working Man 

Directed by David Ayer 

Written by Sylvester Stallone, David Ayer

Starring Jason Statham, Michael Pena, David Harbour

Released March 28th, 2025 

Published April 1st, 2025 

A Working Man stars Jason Statham as Levon Cade, a construction worker who used to be an English Special Forces operative. When the daughter of his boss, Jenny, played by Arianna Rivas, is kidnapped by human traffickers, Levon’s boss, played by Michael Pena, asks Levon to use his Special Forces skills to get her back. He’s reluctant to jump in as he is in the middle of a custody battle for his daughter with her grandfather who cares for the child in the wake of her mother’s suicide. That said, the premise of the movie has Jason Statham brutally murdering human trafficking scum, his hemming and hawing won’t last long. 

Entering the bleak world of human trafficking, Levon needs all of his skills from torturing drug dealers to pretending to be a drug dealer. He’s a natural detective with the chameleonic abilities of an undercover cop and the physical gifts of a Navy Seal. It’s wish fulfillment male revenge fantasy nonsense that hand-wringers like myself cannot criticize for fear of being accused of siding with the human trafficking scum. Thus, populism bullies us into just pretending that A Working Man is good because human trafficking is bad. Working outside the law, subverting the justice system is good, and the rule of law is useless.

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

Classic Movie Review Tommy Boy

Tommy Boy 

Directed by Peter Segal 

Written by Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner 

Starring Chris Farley, David Spade, Brian Dennehy

Release Date March 31st, 1995 

Published April 1st, 2025 

Tommy Boy is now 30 years old and watching it again with wizened eyes, I noticed something about Tommy Boy that I’d never noticed before. Tommy Boy contains, almost unintentionally, a concept that I am calling ‘Utopian Capitalism.’ What is Utopian Capitalism? It’s the kind of capitalism that we were sold in school, a notion of capitalism where profits are important, but not as important as helping people keep their jobs. Callahan Auto, the fictional auto parts company at the heart of the plot, is an American company with many employees and is saved by Tommy through hard work and a dedication to people before profits. 

Tommy Callahan (Chris Farley) is the dopey scion of a multi-millionaire businessman, Big Tom Callahan (Brian Dennehy). Big Tom has run a great company funded by his ability to sell people on the quality of the products made in his Ohio plant. When Big Tom dies, the company falls into Tommy’s hands and to say that he’s not ready for this responsibility is a grave understatement. Tommy spent seven years trying to graduate from Marquette University and his major appears to have been being as drunk as humanly possible.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media

Documentary Review Accepted

Accepted

Directed by Dan Chen 

Written by Documentary 

Starring T.M Landry College Prep

Release Date June 12th, 2021

Accepted is a harrowing story, one that begins triumphantly and slowly devolves into an ambiguous sort of tragedy. Director Dan Chen endeavored to explore the incredible success that was T.M Landry College Prep in Louisiana. This factory school that sent low income kids to Ivy League schools was a viral sensation in 2017. That year, the school uploaded a series of videos showing their students reacting to getting into the college of their choice. 

Every news outlet from Fox News to CNN to entertainment outlets such as The Today Show, The View, and Ellen, picked up the story of inner city kids blasting open the doors to the Ivy League. It indeed was a great story and with the charismatic showman Michael Landry at the helm, it appeared there could be an entirely new educational paradigm on the rise. T.M Landry, the T.M is for Tracy and Michael Landry, did not have textbooks or a set schedule or classrooms.

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

Movie Review Big Hero Six

Big Hero 6 

Directed by Don Hall, Chris Williams

Written by Jordan Roberts, Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson

Starring Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter, Daniel Henney, Jamie Chung

Released November 7th, 2014 

On June 29th, Disney is bringing back Baymax! The hero of the 2014 animated movie, Big Hero 6, is getting his own 6 episode series and fans are excited to have Baymax back. The voice of Baymax, Scott Adsit is returning as is Ryan Potter as the voice of Baymax's best friend, Hiro. And, Maya Rudolph is reprising her role as Hiro's aunt. There is no indication that the Big Hero 6 mech team will be back, they had their own series which just ended its run last year. With Big Hero 6 returning as a series, I decided to reflect on the 2014 movie which was a surprisingly thoughtful and dramatic kids adventure with some big themes regarding death and grief. 

At its core the animated movie Big Hero 6 is a story of grief and recovery. Our hero, Hiro, has lost his brother in a tragic fire. The villain, Dr. Robert Callaghan, has lost his daughter in the tragic pursuit of science and profit. These stories intersect because Dr. Callaghan's attempt at revenge leads to the death of Hiro's brother Tadashi. Hiro's journey dealing with this loss leads him to battle Dr. Callaghan's grief with the love and support of a new surrogate family.

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

Movie Review Clara Sola

Clara Sola

Directed by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén

Written by Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Daniel Castaneda Rincon

Starring Wendy Chinchilla Araya 

Released July 21st, 2021 

Clara Sola is a bold, strange and mysterious movie about faith, sexuality, and the senses. It’s the story of a childlike woman of about 40 years old who may or may not be a healer. The woman’s mother believes that her daughter is the living embodiment of the Virgin Mary but the woman, Clara, would prefer to live a normal life, one unencumbered by her mother’s expectations and the requirements of a virgin healer/savior. 

Clara is played by dancer turned actor Wendy Chinchilla Araya, in her first acting role. It’s an unusual and rather brilliant performance that captures both the childlike desires of a stunted intellect and the adult desires of a grown woman. Clara is a dichotomy and her alien-like presence immediately grabs and holds your attention. It’s a captivating performance even as there doesn’t appear to be much of any story going on.

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

Classic Movie Review Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman

Starring Bob Hoskins, Kathleen Turner, Charles Fleischer, Christopher Lloyd

Released June 22nd, 1988 

Detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) stands framed by a tunnel leading him to a physical and emotional destination. On the other side of the tunnel is the place where he needs to go to save his new friend, Roger, but it is also the place where, years earlier, his brother and partner was killed. The conflict weighs heavily on him as he ponders his fate, past and present colliding in a whirlwind of emotions.

I could be describing a 1940’s detective movie directed by John Huston or Jules Dassin with a story by Daschiell Hammett and starring Gene Tierney or Robert Mitchum. Instead, the movie I am describing in the opening of this review is Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the iconic live action-animated feature from visionary director Robert Zemeckis. The comedy comes from the remarkably brilliant clash of animated storytelling and Zemeckis' love of classic detective stories.

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

Movie Review Marcel The Shell With Shoes On

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp

Written by Dean Fleischer Camp, Jenny Slate, Nick Paley

Starring Jenny Slate, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann

Released June 24th, 2022 

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On bursts forth from the imagination of Jenny Slate and her creative partner, Dean Fleischer Camp. The story of a lonely little shell with shoes on and the documentary filmmaker who briefly lives with the shell and makes a movie about him, Marcel the shell with Shoes On is a wildly inventive and genuinely lovely movie. Vibrant, strange and endlessly beautiful, Marcel the Shell with Shoes on is one of the reasons we love going to the movies. 

Marcel, voiced by co-creator Jenny Slate, has lived a lifetime in the last two years. It’s been that long since most of Marcel’s family of fellow shells disappeared. Since then, it has only been Marcel and his grandmother, Connie (Isabella Rossellini). Together, they’ve invented ways to survive on their own as one person after another moves into and out of their suburban, multi-bedroom home. What was once the home of a loving couple has become a permanent Air B & B.

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

Movie Review Prey

Prey 

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg

Written by Patrick Alson 

Starring Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Michelle Thrush 

Release Date August 5th, 2022

When it’s good, the Predator franchise is arguably the best action movie franchise going. As my proof of that claim, I give you the new Predatorprequel Prey. Debuting on Hulu, Prey is a gorgeous looking movie that also happens to be a badass, blood and guts action movie. Everything you’ve enjoyed about the Predator franchise, aside from Arnold Schwarzenegger, can be found in Prey making it a must see for fans of the franchise and just a really terrific action movie. 

Prey stars Amber Midthunder as Naru, a young Comanche woman in 1718 who dreams of being a hunter like her late father. Being a young woman she is underestimated by everyone, including her older brother, Taabe (Dakota Beavers), a beloved young warrior and leader in the tribe. When what they believe is a lion begins to lurk near their settlement, Taabe is part of the hunting party to catch and kill the beast. Naturally, Naru tags along in hopes of getting her chance to prove herself as a hunter.

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

Movie Review Saw 6

Saw 6 

Directed by Kevin Greutert

Written by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan

Starring Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Shawnee Smith

Released October 23rd, 2009 

Since the series debuted in 2004 I have been trying to convince people of the insidious brilliance of the Saw movies. Not merely another torture porn horror series, the Saw movies have a theory behind them. The lead character Jigsaw, aka John Kramer, played by Tobin Bell, believes that he can teach those who have taken their lives for granted to appreciate the gift of life. Jigsaw’s 'tests' are designed not merely to put these people in life and death situations but to reveal their true selves, their inherent nature, morality and character. Each is given a chance to reveal who they are through the choices they make and in doing so save their life or doom them.

The latest in the series, Saw 6, took this theory of death, this dark experiment, and teamed it with a ripped from the headlines plot that, at the time, gave the series a new juice. Jigsaw is long dead by Saw 6 but his game continues with the help of his minion, Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor). Why Detective Hoffman turned from good guy cop to willing accomplice of Jigsaw is woven through the past four “Saw” movies. In this game, Detective Hoffman captures an insurance guy named William (Peter Outerbridge). William's job for years has been finding ways to keep his company from paying claims. With his team that he calls 'the dog pit' William figures he can find some way to deny just about any claim.

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

Movie Review Sharp Stick

Sharp Stick

Directed by Lena Dunham

Written by Lena Dunham

Starring Kristine Froseth, Jon Bernthal, Scott Speedman, Lena Dunham

Release Date July 29th, 2022

Sharp Stick is an utterly bizarre and deeply off-putting new movie from writer-director Lena Dunham. Now, before you start on the assumption that I am one of those people who hate anything related to Lena Dunham, I assure you that is not the case. I, like most others, found Dunham through her HBO series Girls, and I have been a fan of her sharp, and offbeat work since that series began and ended. 

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Dunham’s next project as Girls showed a lot of potential for the growth of her talent as a writer. I’ve also not paid much attention to her social media where I am told she’s made many unfortunate statements that I am not eager to investigate. Bottom line, I didn’t go into Sharp Stick with a negative opinion of Dunham but I did come away with a very negative opinion of this film.

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

Classic Movie Review Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Written by Quentin Tarantino

Starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi

Released October 9th, 1992

It seems hard to believe now, but in the early 1990's Harvey Keitel was having a hard time finding work. While his close friends Martin Scorsese and Robert Deniro were scoring bigger and bigger films, Keitel was turning away stereotypical thug roles that played too much off his legendary character from Mean Streets. Keitel hadn't worked in a couple years when a hyperactive, young, writer-director named Quentin Tarentino accosted him. Tarentino offered Keitel the role of Mr. White in Reservoir Dogs after writing the role with Keitel in mind. What might have happened had he said no? Thankfully we will never know.

In a diner on the outskirts of Los Angeles a group of similarly dressed guys sit around a table and discuss the true meaning behind Madonna's song “Like A Virgin” and the various reasons to tip and not to tip. Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Brown (Tarantino), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) and Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), have been called together by Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) to rob a jewelry store of a couple million dollars worth of uncut diamonds.

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

Classic Movie Review Scream

Scream 

Directed by Wes Craven

Written by Kevin Williamson 

Starring Neve Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard

Released December 2oth, 1996 

Scream was a flashpoint in the horror genre of the mid to late 1990s. Some credit a smart marketing campaign, the film was distributed by Dimension Films, a branch of then indie powerhouse Miramax. Putting aside all that we know about Harvey Weinstein and his company, they made Scream a phenomenon through incredible word of mouth at a time when the horror genre was at the lowest of lows. 

In the previous year to the release of Scream, the highest grossing horror movie of 1995 ranked 82nd overall in theatrical gross and brought in just $21 million dollars in worldwide sales. That movie was Tales From the Crypt: Demon Night. Now, in terms of business, that movie did make money and there was a strong business model in terms of low budget horror and $20 million dollars in revenue. But, the genre was truly at its lowest in terms of reputation and cultural impact until Scream came along.

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

Movie Review Vengeance

Vengeance 

Directed by B.J Novak 

Written by B.J Novak 

Starring B.J Novak, Boyd Holbrook, Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher

Released July 29th, 2022

Vengeance stars B.J Novak as a feckless writer bouncing from one meaningless hook up to another while dreaming of being a podcast star. He claims that he wants to tell the story of America but his naked ambition is clear to everyone but him. Novak’s Ben Manolowitz’s life is turned upside down when he gets a call in the middle of the night telling him that his girlfriend has died. 

This is a curious phone call because, as I mentioned, Ben’s not a guy who goes for commitment. He doesn’t have a ‘girlfriend,’ he has a series of meaningless sexual encounters that pass the time when he isn’t working. The man on the phone, Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook), however, is convinced that Ben was his sister, Abilene's (Lio Tipton) boyfriend. Abilene has been found dead of an apparent overdose somewhere in West Texas.

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

Movie Review Nope

Nope 

Directed by Jordan Peele

Written by Jordan Peele 

Starring Keke Palmer, Daniel Kaluuya, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott

Release Dated July 22nd, 2022 

A shoe stands on its end, the toe pointing into the air. It’s an evocative image, shoes don’t do that. But a shoe does do that in the new Jordan Peele horror thriller Nope. Come to think of it, the sight of a shoe in such an unnatural position is the kind of image that might cause one to say ‘Nope’ while slowly backing away from whatever might be the cause of this image. It’s not just a shoe though, there’s a well placed drop of blood on that shoe as well that offers another disturbing aspect to this sight. Then the context for the shoe comes fully into frame and… 

I am not going to spoil this for you, I promise. I am going to do a little tap dancing to get through this so bear with me. I want you to see Nope because it is so unique and thrilling. So, trust me when I tell you that nothing I write in this review will reveal anything important regarding the surprises and shocks of Nope. And trust me again when I tell you that those shocks and surprises are worth every penny of your ticket price.

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

Classic Movie Review Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams 

Directed by Phil Alden Robinson

Written by Phil Alden Robinson

Starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Amy Madigan

Released May 5th, 1989

If you build it he will come

Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) became a hippie as a way of breaking away from his father. Now, at age 36, Ray is consumed by the notion that he is becoming the same failed dreamer that his father was. Thus why, when Ray is visited by a voice amidst his cornfield and told “If you build it, he will come” he decides to do something radical and illogical. Something his father would never do.

Ray follows the voice to a vision of a baseball field in the middle of his massive cornfield. The field will consume a great deal of acreage and possibly bankrupt Ray and his family but ,with his wife Annie’s (Amy Madigan) support, Ray plows under the crops and goes ahead with his crazy dream . When the next spring arrives so does the ghost of legendary ballplayer ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta R.I.P)

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

Movie Review Alone Together

Alone Together

Directed by Katie Holmes 

Written by Katie Holmes

Starring Katie Holmes, Jim Sturgess

Release Date July 22nd, 2022

There have been a few pandemic movies but not in the sense of a thriller or expose of the incompetence that caused the pandemic. Rather, so far, filmmakers have preferred telling more human stories than going after the bigger stories that will require a more complex take. The latest small scale pandemic story comes from actor-director, Katie Holmes. 

For her second time behind the camera as a director, Katie Holmes settled on a relatively small scale story. Alone Together finds Holmes starring alongside Jim Sturgess as strangers stranded at the same Air B’n B just as the pandemic was beginning to overtake New York City. Holmes certainly isn’t taking it easy for her first directorial effort. Despite the small scale story, Holmes takes on the challenge of directing and starring in Alone Together, which is not as easy as Holmes makes it seem in this charming film.

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

Movie Review Spin Me Round

Spin Me Round 

Directed by Jeff Baena 

Written by Jeff Baena

Starring Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza 

Release Date August 19th, 2022 

Spin Me Round is a bizarre movie. The comedy starring the lovely Allison Brie and the brilliant Aubrey Plaza has a ridiculous amount of promise and falls short. The idea behind the narrative is a good one, and with Brie and Plaza, along with supporting ringers such as Tim Heidecker and Molly Shannon, Spin Me Round should have been a no-brainer indie comedy sensation. Instead, director Jeff Baena throws in one twist too many and leaves one MAJOR plot thread dangling, leaving Spin Me Round to spin its wheels. 

Spin Me Round tells the story of Amber (Allison Brie). Amber has been the manager of an Italian themed chain restaurant for most of her working life. She did try to leave and start her own restaurant but it didn’t work out. Thankfully, her old boss, played in a completely wasted cameo by Lil Rel Howery, brought her back and she seems content to work there for the foreseeable future.

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

Movie Review Bodies Bodies Bodies

Bodies Bodies Bodies 

Directed by Halina Reijn

Written by Sarah Delappe 

Starring Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Rachel Sennott, Pete Davidson

Release Date August 5th, 2022

Bodies Bodies Bodies is a mixed bag. At once a horror whodunnit and a snappy send up of Gen-z, Bodies Bodies Bodies has a tricky tone to pull off and I don’t think it quite threaded the needle. The movie wants laughs and scares in equal measure and while it earns both, the whole is never as good as the parts. In the end Bodies Bodies Bodies is quite effective but not as effective as it needs to be. 

Bodies Bodies Bodies stars Amandla Stenberg and Maria Bakalova as a young couple traveling to a hurricane party. Stenberg is Sophie and Bakalova is Bee, and what Bee doesn’t know is that they have not actually been invited to this party. This is despite the fact that the party is being put on by Sophie’s oldest and closest friend, David (Pete Davidson). Sophie has dropped out of the lives of her closest friends while she was in rehab and while getting clean, she met Bee and fell in love.

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

Movie Review Get Away if You Can

Get Away if You Can 

Directed by Dominique Braun, Terrence Martin

Written by Dominique Braun, Terrence Martin

Starring Ed Harris, Dominique Brau, Terrence Martin

Release Date August 19th, 2022 

Imagine being trapped on a boat in the middle of the ocean, no land in sight. Now imagine it’s you and the most insufferable, bickering married couple you can imagine. That’s the equivalent experience of watching the new movie Get Away if You Can. A romantic boat trip intended to save a marriage becomes a slog from one boring encounter to the next, and from one obnoxious argument to another. 

Get Away if You Can was written by, directed, and stars Dominique Braun and Riley Smith as the married couple. She’s from Brazil, he comes from a wealthy family in the boat business, headed up by his domineering father, played by Ed Harris. While he is deeply in love with his wife, the man’s family is opposed to his wife. The man’s father is fully convinced that the wife is a golddigger who is out to get her son’s fortune after Dad kicks off.

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