Director: Timo Tjahjanto
Writers: Derek Kolstad and Aaron Rabin
Stars: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Christopher Lloyd

Synopsis: Former assassin Hutch Mansell takes his family on a nostalgic vacation to a small-town theme park, only to be pulled back into violence when they clash with a corrupt operator, a crooked sheriff, and a ruthless crime boss.

Over four years after the 87North’s Nobody surprised audiences with its brutal action set pieces and iconic performance from Bob Odenkirk, a sequel finally arrives with director Timo Tjahjanto now at the helm. Many sequels will often try to outdo what worked about the first, to the point where the overall film is lost in trying to forge a different path or follows the original too closely. Luckily for Nobody 2, Tjahjanto manages to spice things up in the director’s chair. Nobody 2 is an absolute blast of a sequel that takes the simplicity of what worked so well in the first film’s story and cranks the blood-soaked chaos to new highs. Many will say it’s to a fault as the often repetitive story beats within action screenplays, and even more thin plotting than its predecessor, make it less impactful on the whole; but the sequel clearly knows what it is and doesn’t waste any time providing solid laughs and brutal dismemberments at a healthy rate. All of that, tied together with Bob Odenkirk’s signature charm and the usual relentlessly pulpy action sequences from Tjahjanto, and you’ve got a pretty decent 89 minutes of fun, even if it pales in comparison to his other directorial efforts.

This continuation, more or less, has very little story to work with as we follow Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk) as he yet again struggles to connect to his two children and wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen). Every day, he’s often in fist fights working to pay back the debt he owes to The Barber (Colin Salmon). Still, when he decides to take a vacation and spend time with his family at his childhood spot of Plummerville, it isn’t long before the fighting finds Hutch again, and he is in the midst of more violence and clashes with another corrupt crime world. Considering that these two films likely exist due to the success of John Wick and the recent surge in secret assassin action films, I usually don’t mind recycled plot points and emotional beats as long as the elements surrounding them contribute to a great experience. However, this sequel can often come across as a retread. From the entire opening minutes repeating the same interrogation and days of the week scene from the original, to melodramatic beats of tension between Becca and Hutch, the film plays it a bit too safe. While there are differences like the setting change, the more playful tone overall, the story ends up as less of a fresh take on the concept in comparison. 

However, despite the presence of rushed and barely present story beats, the action and film setting are still exciting, thanks to one of the next great directors of action films being behind the camera. While never quite reaching the level of scrappy rawness found in Tjahjanto’s Indonesian action films, such as The Night Comes for Us and The Shadow Strays, the sequel captures a similar kinetic energy that was absent in its predecessor. The camera is never stagnant and always finds new ways to creatively showcase a body being thrown into a car window or a katana going straight through someone’s face, and it’s amazing to witness. What manages to be even more creative in its use here is the theme park setting, especially within the funhouse madness of the film’s third act. Crane games, wack-a-mole machines, water slides, and even a full funhouse mirror sequence are all used for Home Alone-like bloody kills galore, in a similar vein to the first film, but in a much more unique environment.

These scenes are aided immensely when you have the talent of an actor like Odenkirk as the lead of your film, who could even read a phone book entertainingly. Christopher Lloyd as David Mansell and RZA as Harry Mansell also return to play their scene-stealing roles from the first film, but I was most surprised at the acting showcase of Sharon Stone as the main crime boss, Lendina, in the film’s driving antagonistic force. She doesn’t get much to do aside from face value generic villain one-liners and unmemorable interactions with her corrupt goon police men within Plummerville, but I at least appreciate the silly nature that she brought forward in an otherwise placeholder villain role. She clearly knew the type of film she was in and rolled with it in the time she had. 

Nobody 2 doesn’t quite match the fresh juice of the first film due to its redundant story beats and lack of depth, but it still manages to capture enough of the fun B-movie action tone that is promised, thanks to a brisk runtime and a great director crafting it all. With plenty of head-bashing, bloodied brawling, and gunplay to spare, it’s hard not to be satisfied with this sequel as a whole.

Grade: B-

Director: Seth Worley
Writer: Seth Worley
Stars: Tony Hale, D’Arcy Carden, Bianca Belle, Kue Lawrence, Kalon Cox

Synopsis: When a young girl’s sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life—chaotic, real, and on the loose. As the town descends into chaos, her family must reunite and stop the monsters they never meant to unleash.

These days, it’s difficult to talk about a movie being distributed by Angel Studios without dedicating a great deal of focus to the fact that said movie is being distributed by Angel Studios. The company was put on the map by the surprise (and controversial) success of its 2023 hit, Sound of Freedom, a drama about rescuing victims of child sex trafficking that starred a devout, anti-abortion, pro-QAnon Catholic in Jim Caviezel, and one that instituted a pay-it-forward ticketing scam – to call it what it was – that bolstered the film’s box office numbers and ultimately saw the film’s screenings reach capacity at alarming rates. Sound of Freedom’s supporters wanted to make sure that people could see the film for free, to have them witness the magic of its messaging, even if that magic was and should still be considered dark. Since that movie’s release, Angel has quadrupled down on its mission of forcing faith-based dramas into multiplexes, most notably the animated King of Kings, in which Charles Dickens tries to recite A Christmas Carol to a London audience only to be interrupted by his son, who wishes to tell the story of Jesus Christ.

In other words, Seth Worley’s Sketch deserves better. It deserves a better home, a more inclusive one to prop up its core themes – the importance of family and imagination foremost among them – and one that doesn’t use the film’s credits as an opportunity to promote an app tie-in where fans can use AI to create their own monsters, ones inspired by the drawings that take center stage in the movie. It should be noted that Sketch premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by Angel in April, so it’s not fundamentally a studio brainchild. But it begs a dispiriting question: When a distribution company has created so much ill will for itself on the shoulders of its core values and behaviors, and later inserts those tendencies into the final product of a perfectly fine film, why would anyone in their right mind send any good will its way, no matter how much the movie in question may deserve it? 

I’d argue that Worley’s film – a family drama that fills something of a genre void in a theatrical landscape that would prefer to pretend that The Fantastic Four: First Steps fits its mold – isn’t actually worth the Angel-inflicted fuss, as while it is, indeed, perfectly fine, it’s also precisely that: Fine. Even if it imagines adolescent trauma in a far more effective fashion than most modern offerings tend to, especially those in the horror genre, there’s a surface-levelness that is unmistakably rote. Starring Tony Hale as Taylor Wyatt, a father who internalizes his grief in the aftermath of his wife’s passing to the point where his children, Amber (Bianca Belle) and Jack (Kue Lawrence), feel they’ve been left on a depressing island to fend for themselves, Sketch exists with one idea in mind: The fact that processing your emotions is a difficult but necessary task. Creatively exorcising her demons is the only way Amber knows how to cope, and when the vaguely-frightening Sesame Street-esque illustrations she scribbles into a notebook that her guidance counselor gave her begin to come to life after falling into a magical pool – Together, anyone? – it’s her job, along with her brother and the school bully/know-it-all (Kalon Cox) to navigate their now-uniquely colorful world. 

As the youthful trio ventures through their town and nearby woods in an effort to outrun and outsmart the monsters of Amber’s own creation, Taylor and his sister, Liz (D’Arcy Carden) search for the kids who are theoretically supposed to be in school. The affair is spirited enough, and Worley’s scribbled creations are brought to life spectacularly; the visual effects team deserves some serious kudos, especially considering how much humanity has been poured into each design, unlike the monstrosities that appear in the film’s credits. Yet there’s something missing when it comes to Sketch’s handling of its central loss, that dances between offering unique ways to grieve and barely saying anything more than “death is strong, but love is stronger.” There’s truth to that idea, and Worley and co. have a handle on the necessary knowledge that they aren’t about to offer any revelations related to distinct heartbreak, only in how they depict it being endured. Perhaps that should be enough; in this case, it almost is. If only this critic’s cynicism wasn’t hardwired to balk whenever presented with the idea that any emotion can be made easy as long as it is felt by you and those you cherish as a whole.

Grade: C+

Director: Amy Berg
Stars: Jeff Buckley, Mary Guibert, Rebecca Moore, Joan Wasser, Ben Harper, Aimee Mann

Synopsis:  Never-before-seen footage, exclusive voice messages, and accounts from Jeff Buckley’s inner circle paint a captivating portrait of the gifted musician who died tragically in 1997, having only released one album.

The immortality of musicians gone too soon is a well-worn trope in movie history. It is how we’ve received a combination of authorized and unauthorized stories of woe about Jimi Hendrix, Freddie Mercury, and Amy Winehouse. Because music taste and experiences are so personal and ephemeral, these stories seem to resonate within this industry more than any other. It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley joins the recent splurge in documentaries about iconic ‘90s musicians, with his tragic death leading to one of music’s most tragic “what if” scenarios. 

For many, Buckley became the iconic singer of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, which recently crossed a billion streams worldwide. Yet the singer-songwriter’s original songs remain undeniably influential, laying the groundwork for bands like Arcade Fire or the burgeoning Midwest emo scene to find pop success. Wisely, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley takes a much bolder stance than parading through dozens of artists talking about his greatness. Instead, director Amy Berg places us with the people who loved him the most: his family, his girlfriends, and his band. 

Berg, an acclaimed filmmaker and Oscar nominee for Deliver Us From Evil, knows there are pitfalls to musical bio-documentaries like It’s Never Over. The simple rise and fall story does not work in the case of Buckley, who died while writing his second album. Instead, his “fall” is filled with regret by those who knew him best. They wonder how they could have helped and recognize the incredible pressure he was under in life. 

Buckley’s mother tells stories about causing Jeff grief, including a time she fought with his critics in a Jeff Buckley chat room. As a young mother, she admits she “grew up” with him, and more often than not, he was the more mature figure in their family. That unhealthy relationship becomes one of the most fascinating subjects for Berg to explore. 

When you’re seemingly destined for greatness, these small moments can weigh on you. Buckley was especially unique, and his parentage made the specter of an early death hang over him like a grim reaper. While he seemed to embrace it, those who were around him explained that the fear was always present. Thirty years of hindsight might do that to a person, especially when grief forces you to relive all the moments you were unable to help someone you love. 

However, Buckley was a musical prodigy, and we all find ways to justify non-normative behavior when the opportunity to touch greatness presents itself. Berg wisely holds this truth in her hands and delivers a film that is not only accepting of that fact but also non-judgmental about his friends. It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley provides them a place to mourn in public and to remind us that sometimes, the people we love most are the most foreign to us. 

She also adds a patina of chaos over the documentary. It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley incorporates journals, his nonstop sketchings, and animation to bring the words of his music to life. The chickenscratch handwriting becomes illuminated, and unlike many documentaries about musical acts, It’s Never Over utilizes the medium to visualize Buckley’s words and the worlds they created. As we hear stories about Buckley’s insistence on taping over Michael Bolton cassettes with random cat noises and audience laughter, it becomes clear that Buckley’s mind was exploding with creativity. Yet, he never had the time to let it all out. 

While his rise at small venues and performing covers is exciting, the period after the release of Grace falls a little flat. The story slows down too much, and the bloated nature of the music documentary sneaks into the fold. We do not fault Berg for using every bit of archival footage she could collect. However, we had already established his love for Led Zeppelin and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Exploring the moments he met both artists reveals a kinship but does little else to help us learn more about Buckley.

While the musical bio-documentary has become a way to celebrate the arc of a musician’s career, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley implores us to wonder about what could have been. It is a story soaked in tragedy, and as such, Berg gives the people who loved Jeff an outlet to express that sadness. While it’s never as formally daring or as proficient as Buckley, It’s Never Over should help expand knowledge of his talent. Having more Jeff Buckley blasting through car speakers has only ever been a good thing.

Grade: B-

Director: Tim Story
Writers: Kevin Burrows, Matt Mider
Stars: Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer

Synopsis: A routine cash pickup turns into a deadly pursuit when two mismatched armored truck drivers are ambushed by ruthless criminals with plans beyond the cash.

I’m beginning to wonder if Eddie Murphy is just cashing a paycheck at this point. In nearly every recent comedy he’s done, he seems to sleepwalk through the script, taking on reserved roles that demand very little from him. Take his latest, The Pickup, for example. His co-star Pete Davidson gobbles up what might generously be called the fast-talking witticisms and charisma traits that used to define Murphy’s screen presence.

The problem is, Davidson can’t hold a candle to Murphy in that department. Murphy built his career on confidence, swagger, and razor-sharp satire. But now, he plays every role like he’s Danny Glover muttering, “I’m too old for this sh*t.” So why take on The Pickup, now streaming on Prime Video? Well, maybe when you get to that age, you start doing things for the money.

Then again, maybe it’s not an age thing at all, which is kind of the crux of The Pickup. Everyone, from Davidson to the consistently excellent Keke Palmer (Nope, One of Them Days), seems to be phoning it in, slogging through a script packed with exposition, little on laughs, and even lighter on intrigue.

The story follows two armored car security guards at very different points in their lives. Russell Pierce (Murphy) has been on the job for nearly a quarter of a century and is just six months away from retirement. He kisses his wife (Eva Longoria) goodbye before heading to work, ready to celebrate their anniversary that evening. Russell takes his job seriously—no food, no music, and certainly no fun inside the vehicle—just straight professionalism.

However, those strict rules are tested when his boss (Andrew Dice Clay) assigns him a partner: the new guy, Travis (Davidson), who just last week made the mistake of pulling a gun on a woman at a bank who was merely trying to slip him her number. That woman, Zoe (Palmer), had only asked for a pen, but instead, she got a memorable “How I met your father” story in the making. Travis mistook her gesture as the start of a robbery, not a romance.

Somehow, Zoe still agrees to go out with him, and they end up spending the weekend together. Travis is so smitten, he walks away from the experience beaming, and still wearing the same pair of underwear from Friday. I only bring this up because the script, by Matt Mider and Kevin Burrows, brings it up repeatedly, as if they’ve discovered an untapped reservoir of hygiene humor they feel compelled to return to again and again.

Prime Video’s The Pickup comes from writer-director Tim Story, which makes its listlessness a mild surprise given the talent involved. Story’s filmography includes several genuinely funny entries—Barbershop, Think Like a Man, and Ride Along (we’ll politely leave out the turn of the century of The Fantastic Four films). While none of those are masterpieces, they’re consistently humorous and entertaining.

What those films had, beyond tighter scripts, was a strong cast chemistry. Here, Murphy and Davidson have little comedic friction, and the latter has even less spark with Palmer, not even enough to mine for laughs. The movie, like the Ride Along franchise, also leans heavily on yawn-inducing action, trudging through the genre playbook step by step, day by day, as the saying goes.

The plot is ultimately pointless, riddled with holes, as if someone dusted off an old ’90s script and forgot to update it for today’s tech-savvy world. In an age of digital surveillance, cell phone tracking, metadata, geotagging, and forensic monitoring, the film seems oblivious to how easily these characters would be caught, should I go on?

The Pickup isn’t one of the year’s worst films, but it might only be entertaining in a Rob Schneider sort of way. What’s most perplexing is the misuse of a talented cast, a seasoned action-comedy director, and writers Matt Mider and Kevin Burrows, who, after all, penned The Package for Netflix, which I still consider one of the funniest streaming comedies to date. 

But no, this isn’t that. The Pickup is just another classic streaming disappointment, seemingly made to fill a content quota in the ongoing platform wars, nothing more or less. Which is a shame, because with this much comedic talent, there is no reason this couldn’t be a mainstream crowdpleaser, instead of recycling the same old product almost weekly. 

Which begs the question: if streaming networks are just churning out movies and television to feed the content mill, why not take creative risks if you’re going to fill a quota anyway? Make your content stand out. Instead, I can scroll through my reviews for InSession and find a growing pile of Prime Video garbage—The Pickup, Space Cadets, Canary Black, Brothers—and struggle to find any reason these films exist other than to waste your precious time.

You can stream The Pickup only on Prime Video starting August 8th!

Grade: C-

Director: Nisha Ganatra
Writer: Jordan Weiss
Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters

Synopsis: 22 years after Tess and Anna endured an identity crisis, Anna now has a daughter and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover that lightning might strike twice.

Legacy sequels have a power over us. They tug on that need for the familiar and nostalgia for something we once loved. Many of these films have come out in the last ten years and they don’t always play by the rules of their originals or they change their tone to fit today’s market. Often they are a rehash or a reimagining of their original. Freakier Friday takes that route, where it is a continuation, but also a bit of a rehash of old material in a new package. Though for this franchise, that’s not at all a bad thing.

The 2003 Freaky Friday is a classic for a reason. It’s a simple story told well. The freakier sequel takes the elements that worked well and adds to it. Because of Disney magic (money), not just the swapped pair of Anna (Lindsay Lohan) and Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis), but the whole principle cast is back including original love interest Jake (Chad Michael Murray), boorish teacher Mr. Bates (Stephen Tobolowsky), and hunky stepdad Ryan (Mark Harmon). They even reunited the original members of Pink Slip, one of the coolest movie bands in history.

This is what’s different about legacy sequels almost a decade into their prominence. They know we’ve watched this film over and over. They know we would notice if an actor who hasn’t died or has been cancelled doesn’t make at least a cameo appearance. They know we are beyond remake territory, which involves call backs, references, and overt homage. We need a furtherance of the story that was. We need to know where these people are now and who they are now.

This is why it’s a bit of a let down that Freakier Friday‘s plot hinges on nearly the same goals as the original. Both films involve a life-changing concert and a rehearsal meal for a wedding between a single mother and a hunky new beau. The plot of Freakier Friday hits nearly every beat of the original while integrating in the new cast. The story, while still powerful with mother/daughter energy, now adds in sisterly and blended family energy, but it’s basically the same as the original. You don’t come to a film like Freakier Friday for a grand new scheme or Marvel level machinations, you come for the same chemistry from the original. 

Jamie Lee Curtis may have a long legacy of great roles in her career, but pretending to be a teenager who doesn’t understand the aging body she’s stuck in is something she’s perfect at. Let that be repeated that Jamie Lee Curtis is perfect in both Freaky Friday and Freakier Friday. She simply has a spark of youthful verve that is otherworldly and outrageously funny. Her physicality and ability to channel the essence of the character is uncanny.

This time Curtis has Lindsay Lohan as a partner and not an adversary. Here, Lohan reminds us why we so thoroughly enjoyed her in the early ’00s. She’s got great timing, an expressive face, and can still pratfall with the best of them. The scene she and Curtis share where they, playing the teenagers inhabiting them, try and seduce Anna’s former flame, Jake, is utterly, dementedly, crying laughing perfect. It makes you want Lohan to keep this momentum going and find projects worthy of her depth of talent because in spite of the twists and turns her career has taken, she’s a very talented actress and deserves more roles like this one.

Freakier Friday is a film that isn’t going to be a prestige player or going to change the way people see cinema, but it is a very enjoyable film. Not just enjoyable, but laugh out loud funny and tearjerking in the life lessons it imparts. It’s also got a far less problematic device for the body swap this time around and you get the absolute pleasure of seeing Manny Jacinto dance and Chad Michael Murray back lit by the sun as he gets off a motorcycle. Freakier Friday is purely a fun ride and sometimes that’s enough.

Grade: B

Director: Alex Simmons, Carina Mia Wong
Stars: Abby, Cloud, Dexter

Synopsis: A group of teens find belonging at a LARP camp, building a fantasy world facing climate disaster. Through roleplaying heroes facing apocalypse, they find strength to heal past trauma and emerge empowered in life.

Fantasy worlds have been a means for people of all ages to escape. Either from their grueling jobs or tedious schoolwork, these alternate worlds allow us to be who we are without judgment. Live-action roleplaying, better known as LARPING, takes the player to worlds only limited by their own minds. Bridging reality with fantasy is We Can Be Heroes, a documentary by directors Carina Mia Wong and Alex Simmons that will heal your inner child. It’s a window into the world of children of varying ages, genders, and walks of life, allowing us to take a peep into their extraordinary minds, helping them heal the ailments their minds are struggling with among their peers while also getting battle-ready.

As a child, I was always envious of those kids who got to pack up for a week or so in the summer and head off to summer camp. Always eager to hear their stories to live vicariously through them. Now, as an adult, I’m reminded of that jealous feeling with We Can Be Heroes. Seeing a group of children fully supported by those around them is about as magical as the world created in this film. Their camp is a one-week-long LARP session where children must work together to create a campaign they all can agree on. Their creativity is on full display, with some kids showing up to camp with already made foam armor and their backstories already written. Wong and Simmons make us all feel like kids again by highlighting a few kids who all have their own reasons for joining camp.

Through group work sharing what are some tough life challenges, the campers open up to one another, giving affirmations to make sure that each child knows they are loved and supported. Who stood out the most to me was the master swordsman Cloud. At just the age of 11, Cloud spends his time working on his fight choreography with his lightsabers. He has such a distinct matter-of-fact personality, and while LARPING, he likes to work in the shadows, planning and scheming in the background. Under his surface is a child who is having a difficult time coming to terms with his grandmother’s passing away. He displays a unique sense of maturity while talking about his mind’s roadblocks, which makes his twitch to his LARP character even more enthralling.

Cloud isn’t the only unique voice among the group; there’s also Dexter, a young man from a homeschooled background who hopes that his crush will be there so he can finally secure her phone number. While working on his newest installment of his graphic novel, he is leaving his comfort zone to be with other kids who are similar to him. We Can Be Heroes also shows how inclusive Wayfinder is; those who run the camp do everything in their power to make sure 17-year-old Abby can join in on the fun. Diagnosed with medical issues that cause her to live with a feeding tube, she faces life’s obstacles head-on. She’s one of the most captivating kids to see in the field of their fantasy world they call The Big Green. Choosing to be the only healer in the group, she’s an important part of the team.

What makes the connection of these campers feel so dear is that it takes place in a COVID world. Kids whose lives have been changed in ways we probably still don’t understand are more than ready to get away and be around other people. Wayfinder is their escape from their life issues, of course, but its importance now is at an all-time high. It highlights what being cooped up for months and years has done to younger generations during their most formative years. Wong and Simmons make sure to show all the great work that the camp has done for kids going back to its creation. They show that kids are a lot more accepting of each other’s quirks and differences than what is assumed.

To get the audience into the zone of The Last Green, the camera work brings us to the heart of the battle. Often it feels like we are members of the campaign ourselves, watching with our colleagues, trying to find a weak link in the chain mail of the enemy. We Can Be Heroes made me yearn for those sleepovers with my childhood friends, especially when the kids are in their sharing circle; the camera view has us sitting in the ring listening to fellow campers share secrets with one another. The best moments from cinematographer Peter Alton come when showcasing the epic moments of their campaign, especially when Cloud is serving up some sword-slashing action.

What makes We Can Be Heroes shine is the multitude of personalities on full display, with no shame or worry about being judged or ridiculed. Making the audience feel like one of the campers, it allows those who haven’t had a camp experience a small slice of being there. It’s refreshing to see acceptance on this level, and it’s a reminder that we could learn a thing or two about being ourselves from tapping into our inner child.

Grade: A

Director: Zach Cregger
Writer: Zach Cregger
Stars: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich

Synopsis: When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.

Weapons is from Zach Cregger, a filmmaker who has built quite a cult following over the past three years since his breakout 2022 independent horror film Barbarian. That smart, ominously funny, and frightening hit was one of the most unpredictable thrillers of the decade, delivering thrills, chills, and spills, proving that the line between horror and comedy is much thinner than most of us realize.

The former comedian, floundering in comedy films since shifting to horror, has made his fourth film behind the camera. Although it’s not his best, it is damn close. Weapons is a thrilling, gruesome, and downright wicked horror thriller that packs a handful of dirty punches. A masterclass in frozen fear, Cregger’s latest horror haunt is completely creepy and gloriously ghastly from start to finish. 

The story tells the tale of the doomed community of Maybrook, a quaint small town in Pennsylvania. One of the residents is Justine Gandy (Julia Garner of Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps), an elementary school teacher who discovers that all but one of her students—Alex (Mank’s Cary Christopher), the only child from Justine’s class to show up the next day—are missing, leading her to question what happened to the rest of her students.

An outbreak of chickenpox? Did they start testing for COVID-19 again? A field trip that no one informed Justine about? No, that would all be too simple. What happened was that seventeen of Justine’s students, one by one, woke up at 2:17 in the morning, climbed out of bed, walked out the front door without their parents or family noticing, fled their homes, ran into the cold darkness, only never to return. 

Justine, perhaps experiencing survivor’s guilt, is put on leave by her boss (Benedict Wong) as she becomes the target of the vengeful. She turns to alcohol to cope with the mystery. She seeks comfort from her ex-boyfriend, Paul (Blue Jasmine’s Alden Ehrenreich), hoping that perhaps rolling around in the sheets with him will somehow shed light on what happened. Soon, Justine begins to have dreams of the children and a mysterious woman. One of the parents of a missing student, Archie (Josh Brolin), has similar nightmares. He soon confronts Justine, as they seek to unravel the mystery. 

Weapons is a nail-biting horror thriller, a real armrest-grabber, causing the hair on your forearms to stand and your knuckles to turn white. (The movie should come with a warning for those suffering from arthritis.) From the very beginning, Cregger’s script grabs you and doesn’t let go. Within the first few minutes, the children disappear, mob mentality begins to set in, and mass hysteria creates unbearable tension. 

Without giving away any spoilers, not all of the chances Cregger takes work, but it’s the sheer ambition in his swings that keeps the viewer constantly engaged and entertained. Perhaps one of Cregger’s greatest gifts is the way he intentionally plays with his audience. He toys with us, winding us up. We know the dreaded “jump scare” is coming, but he creates such controlled anxiety that when the scene finally hits, it rips and hard.

That being said, Weapons tends to settle into a slow burn more than anticipated. Then again, that’s what slow burns are for. The cinematography from Larkin Seiple (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and the collaborative nature of the frenetic, pulsating score from Cregger, Hays, and Ryan Holladay can be felt viscerally. These are meant to make you feel uneasy, uncomfortable, and even unhinged.

However, what makes Weapons even more powerful is that it offers no easy answers, and not every subplot is resolved. If anything, the metaphor is far from subtle, not exactly obvious, but so well executed that it elevates the genre picture into something bold, ambitious, and unwilling to pander. Cregger guides us with the hands of a steady and seasoned thriller filmmaker, forcing the viewer to look and take in what we would typically turn away from.

You can watch Weapons only in theaters on August 8th!

Grade: A-

Director: Rich Lee
Writer: Kenny Golde, Marc Hyman
Stars: Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Iman Benson

Synopsis: A gargantuan invasion is coming with this fresh take on the legendary novel of the same name, that is filled with present-day themes of technology, surveillance, and privacy.

It wasn’t long ago when almost all of humanity was locked down due to the spread of the coronavirus across the globe. During that time, social interactions and engagement with news happened solely from within the confines of our four walls, virtually witnessing events and trying to make heads or tails of the world and what might come next. It was also during this time that art inspired by these moments of fear and paranoia began to be brought to life, be it in the form of movies, TV shows, or even video games, and it would appear that War of the Worlds, based on H.G. Wells’ masterful work of the same name, is no exception.

Will Radford (Ice Cube) is an analyst at the Department of Homeland Security whose job is to surveil everyone and look for any potential threats against the country. This surveillance allows him to track people’s movements, pull up their personal info and even look at what they order through Amazon. While on his usual work day, he begins getting notified about strange weather occurrences by his friend at NASA, Dr. Sandra Salas (Eva Longoria), and as these begin to get more violent and frequent, it is followed by the arrival of aliens on Earth, who begin laying waste to everything in their path. Left to track everything on his screen and watch the end of the world unfold through social media, news channels, and video calls; Will has to figure out how to save his family and friends, as well as take on the alien threat.

The entire movie is shown through Will’s computer, in a style similar to movies like Searching and Unfriended. These were immersive concepts done at the time, and even had some success with Missing, the spiritual sequel to Searching, but nonetheless an interesting medium to pull off storytelling when used right. The movie was also filmed during the pandemic in 2020, making use of the quarantined settings people found themselves in at the time, and trying to bring that quality to seeing a worldwide situation play out. On paper, this could be a fascinating concept to work with, and there are a lot of directions it can go as far as looking into conspiracies and paranoia that was rampant at the time. Unfortunately for War of the Worlds, it does none of those things, and instead spends 90 minutes showcasing the end of the world with shoddy CGI effects, terrible acting, and a thinly written script with plot twists you see coming from 10 miles away, making it, by far, the worst movie of 2025.

War of the Worlds was shelved for the last five years, until being unceremoniously released on Prime Video on August 1st, with a trailer for the movie uploaded online only a week prior to the movie. One need not have to guess why that was done soon after the movie’s opening. From the start, it is made clear that something is going wrong with the world, and with all the information being shared with the audience, there is no sense of urgency created in any scenario. Everything that takes place in the movie is conveyed as if it is another Tuesday afternoon in the city, with hilarious videos like a mother showing a school being destroyed by a tripod with her child in it and saying “everyone and my kid is dead” in the same way someone would read the ingredients off a cereal box. The acting from everyone does little to help their cause, as Ice Cube, Eva Longoria and co. act blankly through the video chat functions on their devices–working perfectly with Wi-Fi and data plans intact as all servers and communication lines are collapsing, mind you–as if they aren’t surrounded by literal aliens shooting at them, often just having the most nonchalant “oh damn” or “whoa that’s crazy” reactions to seeing everything being torn to shreds in the blink of an eye.

The movie’s attempts to make the viewer care about its characters are also incredibly flimsy. Will is shown to be a man who is trying to come to terms with the loss of his wife recently, creating a rift between him and his children. He wants to be there for them, but cannot seem to make the right decisions or be kind enough to them, particularly with his daughter, Faith (Iman Benson), who is pregnant and about to have a child. Yet throughout the entire movie, he is mostly shown to be indifferent to everyone around him, often spying on them and snapping back when called out on being very indifferent to them. It makes one scene where he finally tries to connect with Faith, in the middle of everything going to hell, and the conversation between them feels very haphazardly placed, almost in a way to add something meaningful because something was missing. The same can be said for Will’s connection with his son Dave (H. Hunter Hall), who he always shuts down as his son tries to convey something about what’s happening, and refuses to listen to him as he believes Dave isn’t serious about life. This eventually builds to a moment between them that similarly feels randomly added.

At 91 minutes, War of the Worlds also moves at a snail’s pace, often just stalling to bring in different plot points ranging from an anonymous hacker threatening to reveal government secrets–and building to a reveal that comes from 10 miles away–to Faith’s boyfriend Mark being a skilled Amazon delivery worker whose biggest contributions to the movie involve telling the audience how good Amazon Prime is getting, an obvious attempt to tie the movie even more to the streaming service it is available on, to a potential government conspiracy built around surveillance and invasion of privacy. As a result, it’s hard for the viewer to be invested entirely in an alien invasion when the movie keeps moving away from it and occasionally inserts CGI tripods that look like they were rendered with five minutes to spare. When the movie eventually builds to its “thrilling” climax, it feels unearned in every possible way, and any characters who want to attempt anything that feels like a major sacrifice do so in the most emotionally hollow manner possible.

For all intents and purposes, War of the Worlds is the worst movie of 2025. It fundamentally misses the entire point of H.G. Wells’ book, and doesn’t even come close to other adaptations like the far superior 2005 movie from Steven Spielberg. And yet, despite all this, War of the Worlds really should be seen by everyone. There is something so fascinatingly bad about every decision it makes, that it makes seeing what plays out unintentionally funny as well. When Ice Cube sees entire cities get wiped out on his screen with blank expressions that seem primed for future online memes, there are laughs to be had. So bring some people together, grab a few drinks and watch along. If nothing else, watching the end of the world has not been funnier in years.

Grade: F