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

Director: Julian Glander
Writer: Julian Glander
Stars: Jack Corbett, Grace Kuhlenschmidt, Elisie Fisher

Synopsis: A teenager in suburban Florida desperately hustles to make $5,000 in this dreamy and surreal animated coming-of-age story.

Animation is a medium often pigeon-holed into the realm of all ages entertainment, but it can express something more than simple stories of general interest. Sometimes it can interpret the thoughts, feelings, and dreams of its creators in a medium that has no limits. It’s a portal to distant worlds and while some computer generated animation has snuck into and evolved live action filmmaking, there’s nothing like a purely rendered experience. The experience of seeing a film like Boys Go to Jupiter is like no other.

Boys Go to Jupiter is a classic coming-of-age tale. Billy 5000 (Jack Corbett) needs money to escape his circumstances and the prison of his home town in Florida. Yet, the life lessons imparted by writer and director Julian Glander are not so simple. The story takes on capitalism, family, friends, and first love in a way that is bizarre, but utterly human. Even rendered as designs that look like the first versions of what we know as 3D animation, these characters are droll and truth driven.

The script is a wonderful tapestry of dry humor and relatable circumstances. We’ve all felt the pangs of first love, outgrew friends, and learned even when we find a life hack, we can be slapped and dropped back down to the start of the game. Glander’s world is magical, but is earth bound in spirit and the pragmatic aspects of life. No amount of chants, hacking, snatching, or performed nonchalance can keep Billy from failing like the rest of us. The beauty is in when he finds a different path.

That is the beauty in the film’s medium as well. Glander could have done as many animated films do and used the latest and slickest of technological devices to create his film, but he chose instead to cultivate an aesthetic. Even as most of the characters look like Playmobil figures, their faces are as expressive and emotive as their rubbery limbs and bodies. As soon as you get settled in the world as it is, Glander adds depth. The sequences move beyond the parameters we think this film’s style should have into a transcendent world of shape and color. As much as you may balk at first, if you let it wash over you, the animation can take hold of you as anything coming from the latest millions spent by Dreamworks or Pixar.

The music featured in the film is also gorgeous. All of the songs are written by Glander and performed by the cast. Don’t be fooled, though, Boys Go to Jupiter is not a traditional musical. While the songs are sung by the characters in the moment, they don’t explain the plot or advance it. The songs are more like conduits to a character’s thoughts or a transitional experience to introduce a new motivation or character. They’re all lusciously layered synth-pop gems that could stand on their own as much as they enhance an already joyful experience. The haunting melodies sink into your skin and envelop you warmly while you contemplate the lyrics that evoke something primal inside of you. The song “Winter Citrus,” featured twice in the film, is a dreamy testament to the power of creation and commerce and where the two connect in our always striving human ambition.

Boys Go to Jupiter is not going to be for everyone, but the people who let it into their psyche, who hum the music, and meditate on how much time we spend in search of meaninglessness are going to have an incredible experience. Julian Glander has been steadily working in animation for a while, but with his feature debut he has gone beyond the short form and proved he can make something that stands on its own. Boys Go to Jupiter is an experience like nothing else you will see in a theater this year and it’s well worth every second of your time.

Grade: A

Director: Antonio Negret
Writer: Daniel Negret
Stars: Sara Canning, Alejandro Fajardo, Kuri Fuerez

Synopsis: A Missionary converting an Indigenous Community in a remote Ecuadorian volcano must come to terms with her own Faith when her son is possessed by dark forces.

Somewhere within Shaman there is a film that balances all of its ambitious swings. Theological disputes between cultures and the dangers of colonialism get overshadowed by a mediocre exorcism film. It’s a shame that the more interesting moral questions the film poses go relatively untapped, leaving them almost entirely to instead focus on cheap scares and underwhelming performances. What starts out as a visually eerie film that establishes an unease almost instantly quickly falls apart as its best moments fade into a disappointing mixture of run-of-the-mill horror jump scares.

Director Antonio Negret’s feature debut Shaman introduces audiences to two differing cultures: Catholic missionaries have entered an Indigenous community’s land to convert them. In fact, the film opens with Candice (Sara Cunning) witnessing a young woman converting while her son plays in a nearby field. There’s a sense of unease immediately, mostly due to how Candice doesn’t completely let her guard down while keeping tabs on her son. If her people were there to help, what threats could there possibly be to her son? Unbeknownst to her, her son Elliot (Jeff Klyne) finds himself wandering in a cave that locals told him was off-limits in pursuit of his missing ball. A once studious child who was well on his way to becoming a leader of his missionary group with his upcoming confirmation was now missing.

When Candice discovers her son is not under the safety of her roof she panics, it’s totally out of her son’s character to do this, and their final conversation is part of the reason he is missing in the first place. Eager to get her son found before his big day of being recognized by his church, she takes to the streets of their small community desperate for answers. All clues lead to Candice entering the same cave that Elliot was told not to enter, as she walks through the narrow walkway she finds her son. Elliot is knocked out cold, seemingly in a deep slumber being cared for by a shaman. Chaos quickly envelops their lives as, against the shaman’s wishes, she removes her son from his watchful eye. Elliot is now slowly falling into a demonic possession, which makes his mother go mad, blaming the people she once sought to convert for the ailments that have inflicted her son.

There’s a much more interesting story just below the surface of Shaman; unfortunately, writer Daniel Negret shifts the focus from the missionary work to a lackluster exorcist film. The theological differences between these two opposing cultures are neglected; Negret gives us small moments, mostly through Father Meyer (Alejandro Fajardo) and Candice when discussing the best way to treat her son. Candice believes her son’s illness was caused by these shamans, but her reasoning is never fully developed enough to feel like anything other than a prejudice against this other culture. The film focuses too much on the colonizers’ lives and their point of view that the indigenous community barely gets a characterization that isn’t directly connected to those who are invading their lives.

When Elliot becomes fully possessed, the film turns into a final act that seems like it comes from an entirely different film. As the tone shifts from eerie to over-the-top theatrics, this is where it lost my interest. This could be in part because director Negret is trying to balance more than he can for his first feature, but for all the cultural imagery from the Indigenous people that is used, we really don’t get much insight into who they are and what they believe. Showing the film from the white lead’s perspective doesn’t give the native culture much grace when Elliot falls ill. While it doesn’t feel that their culture is neglected purposefully, it does feel like those making the film were more interested in making an exorcism film than in exploring the horrors of colonialism.

What saves Shaman is the lead performance from Canning, who puts out a performance that is a contained paranoia. She’s a woman who is worried about her son, seeing him fall deeper and deeper into his sickness, and she refuses to do nothing. Even while her character is written as one-dimensional with her distrust of a foreign to her culture, Canning’s performance adds depth to moments that would fall flat with a lesser talent. She isn’t afraid to show deep emotions through her face alone; one moment that sticks out is in the beginning of the film as she goes from hopeful, as she gazes on a new member getting baptized, to unnerved, watching her son play in the distance. It also helps that this moment is a visual flex from cinematographer Daniel Andrade, who opens the film with a glowy idyllic view of their missionary community that quickly grows dark.

Ultimately, Shaman doesn’t say much worthwhile about religion, other than that each culture has its differences, but those differences are barely tapped into in a meaningful way. While the opening of the film could hook you, there’s not enough explored within the film’s more intriguing moments to reel you in.

Grade: D+

Director: Iain Morris
Writers: Allison Burnett, Melissa Osborne, based on the novel by Julia Wheelan
Stars: Sofia Carson, Corey Mylchreest, Dougray Scott

Synopsis: An ambitious American student travels to Oxford in England to fulfill her dream, but encounters a charming local who changes both their lives.

I’ve wanted to watch My Oxford Year long before I set my eyes on the trailer. And no, it’s not because I read the book it is based on, which I haven’t by the way. My interest was piqued when I saw a teaser poster of the two leads: Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest. I was immediately intrigued and honestly just wanted to see what the chemistry between the two of them would be like. When the trailer dropped, you better believe I was one of the first to watch it. I loved it so much that I immediately forwarded the link to a very close friend of mine. Spoiler: she did not share in my enthusiasm. 

But that wasn’t an issue for me, because I can’t remember the last time I was actually counting down to the day a movie is set to premiere. Yeah, the sequel to the Chinese hit Ne Zha was a high for me, but if something came close to it, it was My Oxford Year. It didn’t help that when “made by the producers of The Fault in Our Stars” showed up on my screen, something from the comments section caught my eye. It read, “When the producers from The Fault in Our Stars popped up I got scared… I don’t think I have that many tears in me again.” Dang! 

Is it a cozy rom-com; is it going to weigh on my heart like another The Notebook?”I really could not tell. So let’s just say that I was equal parts excited and wary going into the movie. 

Okay, when August 1 came around and the movie premiered on Netflix, I was ready to watch and be touched and moved by these new characters and this new world. I will not lie, the idea of Oxford added another beautiful layer to the new world I’m venturing into. 

However, in the first twenty minutes of the movie I was still grappling with the idea of what Netflix means to accomplish with it. On the one hand, they seem to want to push the envelope with the characters – Harry Trevaldwyn’s Charlie for one thing – and for another, they were playing it a bit too safe with the plot. To top it off, none of their moments designed to make me haha was able to get a smile out of me – and I’m usually the type to howl my head off at every little joke in a movie. 

So let’s just say that early on, I had already acquainted my mind to the idea that it’s not one of those rom-coms that makes you LOL. Don’t get me wrong, my interest in the movie has by no means flatlined, even though our protagonists’ first little encounter is somewhat cliché. Anyway, Anna De La Vega (Carson) and Jamie Davenport (Mylchreest) accidentally headbutting in the latter’s office was weirdly satisfying. I love it when movies have relatable little accidents in them. 

Moving on, I found it quite hard connecting with the characters – everything seemed to be moving so fast that I kind of got lost in the mess of the flowing plotlines. I could have told them to cut the unnecessary plots to make more room for character building, but would they have listened? Well, to be honest, not many people listen to me, so it wouldn’t have been their fault. Still, I so badly wanted to feel the pain that Jamie’s father must be feeling. I did understand the concept of his pain, I just couldn’t feel it. 

Even when the movie’s great tragedy happened, I was like, “Oh well.” However, if something in the movie touched me, it was the moment Anna walked into the classroom as Oxford’s newest lecturer offers her new students cake and quotes the same thing Jamie does on his first day teaching. I just have one lil suggestion to make: Bella Thorne’s Midnight Sun handled rom-com tragedy brilliantly. My Oxford Year could learn scores from it. 

One other thing: I understand that they tried to weave poetry into the plot, but they barely did it in any way that was powerful or moving. The exploration of British culture, or at least the clash of it with American ones, was also not done in a satisfying way. It seemed like the writers were on a mission to fixate on every little popular stereotype about jolly old England, instead of giving us an intimate understanding of these new people and their culture. 

If My Oxford Year was going for my emotions, it didn’t get it. And it’s sad to say knowing quite well that it was going for my emotions. That, in itself, might just be the saddest thing about the movie.

Grade: C-

Director: Jon Holmberg
Writers: Jon Holmberg
Stars: Alex Kelly, Lucy Smith, Paul Tylak

Synopsis: Willie’s dream of fighting crime with his cop dad is shattered when his baby brother Charlie arrives. Besides stealing all the attention, Charlie turns out to have actual superpowers.

“What superpower would you have?” is a common playground hypothetical. We like to imagine ourselves as more. We want to be beings of power and righteousness who fight crime and save people. Usually we are in grade school when we imagine this, but it is a fun thought experiment to wonder what would happen if a baby were granted incredible powers. Super Charlie attempts to answer that question.

A baby can’t do it on their own, though, so Charlie (Lucy Smith) is blessed with a superhero-obsessed older brother, Willie (Alex Kelly), who mentors Charlie in the ways of crimefighting. Willie is, like most kids who have dreamed of superpowers, more than a little miffed he wasn’t given the powers himself. While Charlie’s mind has grown exponentially he’s still very new to the world and can’t understand Willie’s exploitative ideas. The story sort of borders on a Cain and Abel like relationship. Not unlike another pair in the film.

The film begins fifty years prior when a special space rock drops a superpowered cloud through Earth’s atmosphere, Anton (Paul Tylak) and his sibling, Inferio (Brendan McDonald), are having a bike race. Inferio gains superpowers and wins the race and takes revenge on Anton for cheating. Inferio then compels Anton into lifelong service making better technology for Inferio’s criminal empire. 

Though, there may have been something lost in the translation of the script from its original Swedish to English or the attempt at not revealing Inferio’s true identity got a little ham fisted. Inferio is constantly referred to as Anton’s brother. Yet, in the opening sequence they are clearly modeled as a tween girl and when Inferio’s true identity is revealed, they’re modeled as a woman. It’s more than a little confusing and can drag you out of the plot.

The plot itself, written by Jon Holmberg, adapted from Camilla Läckberg’s book series, is juggling a lot. It’s not overly convoluted, but there are many threads that have to delicately come together for it to make sense. For an all ages film with few original laughs, this isn’t the best use of the limited attention span of viewers. There are plenty of cool superpower effects and action scenes, but the child trying to solve a mystery while caring for another child who can do amazing things is a bit of a drag.

There is one sequence that has a great animated effect. While Willie is coming up with his initial scheme, one of the posters on the wall of a superhero and sidekick begins to speak to Willie and be the angel and devil on his shoulder. These characters are kept in their 2D mold, even after they jump off the poster. It’s kind of reminiscent of 2D animated characters in a live action film. It’s a great effect. It’s made even better as the sidekick represents the side of Willie’s psyche who wants to do the right thing by Charlie and mentor him and the superhero represents the jealous side of Willie, who wants to manipulate Charlie so that Willie can be the hero.

Super Charlie is an O.K. romp. It has some exciting action scenes and unique character development. Even with the short runtime, the story can wear a bit thin in places. As it’s not trying to reinvent a genre or elevate the art of animation this can make for dull watching. Super Charlie does its job in making a coherent piece of entertainment that is at least mildly entertaining and will likely spawn a sequel to keep the cycle going.

Grade: C

Director: Akiva Schaffer
Writers: Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, Akiva Schaffer
Stars: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser

Synopsis: Only one man has the particular set of skills… to lead Police Squad and save the world!

It’s been a while since Liam Neeson gave a damn. While I respect the hustle of collecting one easy paycheck after another, essentially becoming this generation’s Charles Bronson when he collaborated with The Cannon Group, the films he made were of extremely poor quality. The unfortunate box office hit of the awful (yes, I said it) Taken has resulted in Neeson being typecast in the “particular set of skills” genre, with the only pictures of note he has made within that time being his four collaborations with Jaume Collet-Serra. The rest of it can be thrown in the trash (with the exception of Martin Scorsese’s Silence, since it isn’t part of that canon). 

After giving up watching his last few efforts that likely treaded in the same bland screenplays as Taken, I wondered when we would see the film that will (hopefully) free the 73-year-old Irish actor from the shackles he has sadly been stuck in since Taken. I never, in a million years, expected that the film to bring him back to the glory days of his best acting performances – in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins or Michael Caton-Jones’ Rob Roy – would be a reboot of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker’s The Naked Gun, which is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of comedy. 

What ZAZ pioneered has sadly not been replicated in an era that seems to be ashamed to make comedies for the big screen, which is incredibly stupid, because why would you not make a breezy time at the movies for people to turn their brains off and simply have the time of their lives in under ninety minutes? That’s what was so brilliant about all three Naked Gun movies (in turn based on the incredible TV series Police Squad!): they never overstayed their welcome and packed enough laughs for audiences to have an entire day’s worth of fun. Writer/director Akiva Schaffer and co-writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand approach their reboot of The Naked Gun in that same vein: the film is under 90 minutes, and the laughs come every minute. 

Whether or not the film would work was entirely dependent upon its understanding of why ZAZ’s comedy was so good (“was” because their last efforts were complete garbage). At the pinnacle of their career, the trio was able to make us laugh about anything through their genius associations, wordplays, and sight gags. When Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin offered a smoke to a suspect and said, “Cigarette?” they would usually reply with a variation of “Yes, it is” or “Yes, I know.” 

Even better, while in an interrogation, if a character said, “Let’s say you did go to the movies,” the suspect would reply, “Okay,” and repeat “You did go to the movies” in unison with everyone else. That’s the level of stupid we’re dealing with here, and what Schaffer captures in his 85-minute fourth installment, now with Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr, who continues his father’s work within Police Squad. The plot is unimportant, and the director knows it too, by having Kevin Durand’s Sig Gustafson steal a thingamajig at the top of the movie that’s aptly named “P.L.O.T. Device.” 

In a film like this, nobody cares about the plot or its leaps in logic. It’s a pure farce from beginning to end, and only cynics will actively scrutinize something that doesn’t need to be examined, because everything is a spoof! Visually, it’s a sight gag festival. Verbally, it’s a pun festival. There are so many mile-a-minute jokes that one can watch the entire thing on mute and have an amazing time, while another can only listen to the soundtrack and laugh their socks off. The sad part is that, because of how funny The Naked Gun is, you forget the joke you were laughing about a few minutes ago, because the one you’re laughing at now is even funnier. For instance, when Drebin interrogates Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson) about the disappearance of her brother, she tells him she graduated from school in Los Angeles. 

Drebin then replies, “UCLA?” Beth, “I see it every day.” This is pure ZAZ, captured at its most potent essence, and the contagious laughter emanating from the audience is enough to cure the woes of this world. Simply put (and this is a sentence I avoid to use), it’s the movie the world needs right now, one so hilarious it’s bound to loosen up the cynics and make us realize that life is beautiful if we just have a laugh. And Liam Neeson is perfect. It’s the best performance he’s given since…*check notes*…Qui Gon-Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Whatever you think about that movie, he was arguably the best part. 

The thing is, Neeson, much like Leslie Nielsen at the time Airplane! was released, is an underrated comedic talent. But he’s been stuck in a rut of mediocrity for the better part of seventeen years. He never could show the world that he could make us laugh until today. His sense of comedic timing is just as good as Nielsen’s, although he has a much different “particular set of skills” to play with than when Nielsen first portrayed Frank Drebin. Maybe that’s the advantage he had for portraying essentially variants of Bryan Mills for the past seventeen years – he is able to distill them inside a riotously deadpan turn to not only breathe new life into the iconic presence of Frank Drebin, but also for his career. 

Like I said at the top of this review, it’s been a while since Neeson gave a damn. And all that was needed for him to deliver what will likely be remembered as one of the finest roles of his career was a good screenplay, and one that allows the actor to let loose and have fun, either alone in his nonsensical soliloquies (worthy of Leslie Nielsen) or through the incredible chemistry he shares with Pamela Anderson, who equally steals the show. She, like Priscilla Presley in the original series, understands what’s needed for her character to be of equal measure to Neeson attempting to free himself from the “tough guy” antics that have defined his mid and now late-stage career. 

Perhaps the villain, played by Danny Huston, isn’t up to snuff, but when Schaffer replaces the name of the “crypto.com arena” with “ponzi-scheme.com arena” in its climax, where the antagonist’s plan is set in motion, it doesn’t matter. The plot doesn’t matter. It’s all about the jokes. Nothing more, nothing less. That’s what ZAZ did when they crafted Police Squad! and the subsequent Naked Gun installments, and that’s exactly what Schaffer is doing here. And unless you’re the most heartless person in the universe, there’s no way you won’t find enjoyment in this much-needed breath of fresh air for a genre that has been sadly shunned by Hollywood studio executives who have no idea what they’re doing. 

The timing is perfect to stick it to ‘em and see this masterpiece in droves. Comedy needs it, and the world needs it, too.

Grade: A+

Director: Ebs Burnough
Writer: Eliza Hindmarch
Stars: David Amran, W. Kamau Bell, Josh Brolin

Synopsis: Explores Kerouac’s “On the Road” through today’s lens, as celebrities and travelers reflect on authentic experiences in our digital age, echoing the novel’s timeless search for genuine connection.

America. This name evokes many details; lately, it’s been more negative than positive, but it still holds its allure and mystery in the collective consciousness of people everywhere. Sometimes, we need a reminder of why we love this contradictory continent and why it will always carry its mystical and magical resonance in outsiders’ hearts. Ebs Burnough’s latest documentary, Kerouac’s Road, is one of those Americanophile works meant to reinforce the mental image of America at its core — a single, endless road of travel, with no settling down or permanent residence.

To this day, Jack Kerouac’s novel “On the Road” is still an important piece of literature. For one thing, Kerouac wrote it with truth, ambition, and curiosity for the Americans of his generation. And because it has been rooted in its times and the locality of its setting; the American road, stretched as far as the eye can see and beyond.

Burnough interviews celebrities, famous writers, and theorists, but also Kerouac-like travelers who only care about the road, not the destination. His interviews with the roadies not only define what America means to them, but also their perceptions of the road, poverty, and what home means to different people. Burnough chooses a diverse group of travelers and drivers; people who refuse to settle and their stories are both interesting and thought-provoking.

One of the things I -ashamedly- just discovered through the documentary was that Kerouac was a son of French-Canadian immigrant parents. It makes it really sad when we observe through the documentary how this man who has felt like an outsider to America; the only country he has known, is considered one of the quintessential American writers, one of the writers who are heralded as the “voice of America.” This country has been built on immigrant shoulders and through their sweat and hardships, and now it strays so far off from the core of its origins. There are also many other interesting parts like speculations about his sexuality, his complex relationship with his mother, his stance on war, religion, and social issues.

As far as a documentary goes, Kerouac’s Road is conventional, playing it safe. There are passages narrated from Kerouac’s writings. There are interviews with celebrities who represent the masculine car trope in our minds. There is minimal presence from the director -save for a few laughs or his voice asking questions- and the subjects have enough room to express and exist without forced directorial intervention, especially the regular people. Would it have benefited from Burnough’s complete disappearance? Absolutely. Unfortunately, when the curtain is lifted to reveal his voice questioning the subjects, it doesn’t turn into a companion documentary to The Motorcycle Diaries. Instead, it falls back into its banal state as Burnough’s project explores America through Kerouac, and vice versa. But if his voice had been completely cut out, this could easily have become a travel vignette suitable for a modern photo album on social media, rather than constantly reminding us that it’s a traditional Kerouac documentary.

The question remains: is a Kerouac documentary too cliché for our current times? Yes, the topic has been made and remade, done and adapted multiple times. There could be some problematic or outdated aspects of the source material. But the question at the core of it remains lively and relevant. What does it mean to set sail on the open highway? What does it mean to want to find oneself in a society that is not originally one’s own?

Kerouac’s Road nails that nihilistic experience of existing in a rootless world. It tackles the American dream through the perspective of an immigrant who, in his attempt to understand a country that once felt foreign to him, has etched his name forever into its mythos.

Grade: B+

Director: Steven Kostanski
Writer: Steven Kostanski
Stars: Conor Sweeney, Adam Brooks, Kristy Wordsworth

Synopsis: Workaholic yuppie Conor is in an existential rut until one night he catches a bizarre ad for a party hotline hosted by a strange dancing goblin: Frankie Freako. Could this be just the recipe to spice up his boring life?

With movies like Manborg and PG: Psycho Goreman, one aspect director Steven Kostanski has mastered is making audiences feel as though they have been transported back to the 1980s. His style of do-it-yourself filmmaking that blends green screen backgrounds and special effects with actual puppets and prosthetic work make for movies that are often incredibly entertaining, fully embracing the era they evoke. In Frankie Freako, Kostanski once again brings these flourishes to his storytelling, crafting another unique and appropriately freaky experience.

Conor (Conor Sweeney) is a workaholic who has left behind many of his passions and creativity along the way, with his wife Kristina (Kristy Wordsworth) taking notice of this and considering him to be more uptight as of late. While Kristina is leaving for the weekend, she wants Conor to find that spark of fun once again. When Conor sees a commercial with a character named Frankie Freako (Matthew Kennedy) offering an experience that’s incredibly fun and hoping it will prove that he still has some spirit left in him, he calls the hotline wanting to party. However, when Frankie shows up, he brings destruction and chaos with him, and eventually brings Conor on a journey that takes them beyond the world he knows.

Much like the two aforementioned movies, Frankie Freako is very much a love letter to ’80s cinema, from its visuals and animatronic work to its musical score and action sequences. Its self-awareness is prevalent in every moment of its runtime, from the naming of its main characters to embracing the weirdness that ensues as it progresses. Throughout it all, Kostanski’s earnestness and love for the project comes through in spades. The puppetry work for Frankie and his friends Dottie Dunko (Meredith Sweeney) and Boink Bardo (Adam Brooks) is wonderful, and the homages made to movies like Gremlins and The Garbage Pail Kids Movie are present throughout its runtime from the visual look of the characters to some of the gross-out humor provided by them, with each of their “fun” activities getting on Conor’s nerves with each passing minute. The voice work is also stellar, with funny work from Kennedy, Sweeney and Brooks, who bring the gang to life wonderfully.

As a whole, Frankie Freako isn’t a particularly layered story , keeping it focused on its initial premise with Conor and his lack of fun in life. When it is eventually revealed that Frankie is an alien who is on the run from President Munch (Rich Evans, of RedLetterMedia fame), who would rather have them live 9-to-5 lives on the hotline instead of let loose and party, the sci-fi world is brought to life in vibrant and fascinating ways, and adds an extra layer to the proceedings, though it doesn’t spend as much time with this aspect of the movie as it does back on Earth. Conor Sweeney’s portrayal of…Conor, a man who is slowly opening up to everything else life has to offer and eventually coming around to Frankie’s antics and his approach to everything, is very effective, and he’s likeable enough to root for as the movie progresses, but beyond a few moments, the characterization is also fairly limited.

Still, despite some issues, it is Frankie Freako’s commitment to the absurd and over-the-top situations it finds itself in that make the movie an entertaining watch overall, and serve as another reminder of Kostanski’s passion for the era of movies which he evokes and the nostalgic aspects of it that make revisiting the ’80s special, down to 1-800 toll free lines that charge $2 per call.

Grade: B