April 20, 2026

The Family Plan

Rating: 4 of 5 Summer Vacations
Watched this after really enjoying the sequel. It’s another fun ride, where Mark Wahlberg plays a suburban car salesman with a secret past as an assassin, unbeknownst to his family. His past comes to find him, and again, hilarity and drama ensue.

March 31, 2026

Train Dreams

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
A turn of the (19th) century drama about a mans adult life. Finding work, finding love, building a homestead, and of course, it needs tragedy and loss, or it’d just be boring. Moderately paced, it never really speeds up or slows down, just keeps plodding along, like the protagonist. Lovely photography and cinemaphotograpy. Wasn’t until 1/2 way through I realized it was filmed in 3:2 aspect ratio. That just fit the intimate nature of the filming.

March 31, 2026

Anaconda

Rating: 3 of 5 Ant Men
It’s a comedy staring Jack Black. So, that about sums it up. A couple friends go to remake “Anaconda”. Fun ensues. There are snakes, water, jungle boats, bad guys. All the things you need. And, the result is fine. Shut off your brain, grab a soda and some popcorn, and double screen away.

March 20, 2026

Wicked for Good

Rating: 4 of 5 flying monkeys
Wasn’t a huge fan of the first part. 2nd half was OK, but wasn’t really looking forward to this. It was really good, not just better than I expected, but actually quite good. Of course, amazing visuals, but a decent plot as well. Songs were fine, a bit too “manufactured pop” for my tastes, but not annoying.

March 10, 2026

War Machine

Rating: 1 of 5 alien invasions
Army guy with something to prove, a group of Army guys training for an exclusive Ranger position. Final exam turns crazy when Aliens invade as they’re heading into the big last training mission. Hillarity ensues as the unstoppable Alien war machine makes boom-boom on the entire squad. Think Predator, where the Predator is a big robot, badder than anything in the future world in Terminator. A big meh from me.

March 10, 2026

Ballerina

Rating: 4 of 5 gold coins
Basically, a female John Wick flick. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s got all the action of a Keeanu flick, but with Ana de Armas as the protagonist. And nobody had to kill her dog to set her off. Many of the cast from the Wick films fill their same roles, and Keeanu shows up for a couple scenes as well. Takes place between movies 3 and 4, timeline-wise.

March 10, 2026

Would You Rather

Rating: 1 of 5 icepicks
Looking at the cast, you might think, wow, plot sounds bad, but they have decent actors in this! Well, aside from John Hurt, who must have needed some fast cash, I believe they got their big roles after this film. It’s just another torture horror film. Not sure what makes this genre interesting for anyone except serial killers. Yuck.

March 1, 2026

Dead of Winter

Rating: 4 of 5 frostbitten toes
Very atmospheric, tense, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. No big action scenes, no CGI (at least nothing big), no chases. Just people in the snow and ice, good ones and bad ones. One of the good ones is Emma Thompson, a grandmother who just went out to ice fish. Her performance alone is worth the price of admission.

February 28, 2026

Predator Badlands

Rating: 4 of 5 Synths
Didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. Fun new creatures, familiar old ones, good effects, and a decent amount of humor tossed in. Plus, they found a way to pay very few actors making it.

February 24, 2026

Tron Ares

Rating: 1 of 5 pointless sequels
Terrible acting, and the entire film is nothing more than one long CGI chase scene. Total waste of time.