Category: Below – Above Average

A Quiet Place: Day One “Review”

Release date: June 27, 2024 (USA)

Director: Michael Sarnoski

Story by: John Krasinski; Michael Sarnoski

Budget: $67 million

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

Based on: Characters; by Bryan Woods; Scott Beck

I’ll be separating this “review” as two parts:

Part 1 Spoiler Free – Part 2 Spoiler “Discussion”

Spoiler Free “Review”

If you’re a cat person or even more so a cat parent this movie will have you on the edge of your seat. Best character was the cat. We’re introduced to our therapy cat when Sam, our main human character played by Lupita Nyong’o is in a hospital being treated for her cancer.

You decide, is Sam driven by the love of pizza. The love of her father and the small things in life or the power of companionship? Something to think about as you watch this third installment that’s a prequel to the Quite Place franchise.

As seen in the trailers and it didn’t occur until seeing him in the movie. But Henri played by Djimon Hounsou is the guy from the island in Part 2. Possibly next year with the third part we’ll get to see what’s going on with him and the family we were introduced to in Part 1.

With the movie having a lot of quite scenes sadly they ran a little long or got boring before momentum built back up once more. Something keeping this movie back from being great is it never felt like the characters were in danger unless they purposefully did something stupid to get themselves into dire consequences.

Our other character alongside Sam is Eric played by Joseph Quinn. I’m not sure his connection to the franchise if any but these three human characters are played well enough. Sadly I just never connected with them and had all my focus on the cat.

This movies energy felt like part 2 rather than part 1. Nothing really seemed to have happened. No stakes were planted to keep you engaged. I really hope for part 3 to possibly wrap this franchise up, they look back at what made Part 1 so great and focus on that energy and feeling. I want the silence to feel impactful. I want to be silenced myself as I’m along side the characters on screen.

It’s moments attempted to create connection that failed and when they failed it prevented this movie getting on my possible re-watch list. With that I’d give A Quiet Place: Day One a 6.5/10. It’s another installment to this franchise giving “origins” to some characters that maybe we’ll get to see developed in a later installment. Let’s hope they find the secret formula before they create to many installments and ruin the franchise with mediocrity.

Spoiler “Discussion”

Some light spoiler discussion.

Who turned off the car alarm twice in this movie? (Yes the scenes were that quite / long / boring I had these thoughts in my head).

Is this an advertisement for therapy animals? Specifically by maybe a cat adoption agency or for hospital therapy?

How comes they talked during scenes with no surrounding noise when they already established they can only talk with surrounding noises? Continuity is a little broken in scenes. (Don’t worry no Abigail rants for this one).

Little bigger spoiler talk

When everyone is being evacuated already being informed to stay quite……wtf did a bunch of people start screaming O.o. Stupid!

It’s the decisions the humans made that kept me from being attached to anyone but the cat.

Does the cat make it? It was on my mind the whole time. Guess you’ll have to watch the movie to find out.

7/10 for cat lovers.

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The Watchers “Review”

Release date: June 7, 2024 (USA)

Director: Ishana Night Shyamalan

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures

Based on: The Watchers; by A. M. Shine

Cinematography: Eli Arenson

Music by: Abel Korzeniowski

I didn’t know this was based on a horror novel until now. Fun fact 😀 – The Night Shyamalan family name was what brought my interest into this film. The Watchers was directed by his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan.

Her prior works were “Old” back in 2021 along with “Knock at the Cabin” in 2023 as a second unit director to her father who Directed them both. Knowing this information I can definitely see her style coming through which sets her apart from her fathers work. If Old was a dud, Cabin had promise, then I see her work improving which may give insight into this review before diving into the movie itself.

The Watchers sets this movie up perfectly to hook your interest. Some of the most epic of designs shown without being shown to the viewer. Less is more approach was taken and the sound work was let loose to captivate.

The feature introduces the audience to this expansive world within an untouched forest in western Ireland. We find ourselves following the story from the perspective of Mina and her MVP of a bird.

Something strange is going on within this forest, many individuals have gotten lost never to return. What happens when one goes past the sign of no return?

Well the Watchers shall be sure to inform you of this rather quickly upon nightfall. Stay within the light. Don’t turn your back to the mirror. Don’t open the door after dark and don’t go near the burrows. The Watchers see you but you don’t see them.

This will be a non spoiler review so I’ll be vague until the end when I tag spoiler section for all to be prepared.

Mina finds herself joining 3 other individuals whom fate aligns with her own. Stay within the shelter at night. Venture out during the day for resources / food and surrender this as her new way of living.

I’ll leave the story here for you to explore and if interested in somewhat more of a tease stick around for the tid bit spoiler section at the end.

I mentioned it earlier but I can’t express my love enough over the sound work in this film. I felt like things were around me. There was literally a scene that stole my breath away in complete tension. Who every created these watchers made the coolest designs.

Now before jumping into spoiler ish town. I’m giving this a personal rating of 6.5/10. It could have been a 7 and for others maybe a 7.5 however without going into further details I’d love you to explore this title and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Spoilers ish Town

Less is more was a key, however the more you see of these Watchers the less I was intrigued and more disappointed the film went a generic direction.

If you’re into D&D / Lore & Fantasy then you could very well dive into this feature and have a feast of it. That’s why my 6.5 – 7.5 rating comes from as you may enjoy the feature more or less upon those factors.

Not knowing this was based on a book I felt the story should have ended 20 minutes earlier and left to be baked in the oven a little more to flesh out an epic sequel.

It had what it needed to be a solid great movie but ended up being a good movie. I had a good time and enjoyed the journey. Just sad the film fumbled the ending.

Looking on the wiki I see this was impacted by the SAG-AFTRA strike. Maybe the book has a different ending and there’s hope for what made the beginning and middle so awesome?

Lastly yellow bird MVP.

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In a Violent Nature “Review”

Release date: May 31, 2024 (USA)

Director: Chris Nash

Distributed by: Shudder, IFC Films

Box office: $2.1 million

Cinematography: Pierce Derks

Produced by: Shannon Hanmer; Peter Kuplowsky

Welcome back to Popped! Fellow movie going lovers.

A movie not originally on my watch list I was recommended to watch this title and intrigued with a description of one of the kills in this feature.

In a violent nature takes an interesting approach to the slasher movie genre by taking the POV of the “Villain”. A leather face origins? I was quite excited to see that this title was a Shudder movie. What timeline we find ourselves to have Shudder movies on the big screen.

With Hollywood and big studios making budget cuts and movies with highly inflated budgets making them loose millions. I feel there’s a home for this style of film with extremely small budgets.

I appreciate what the creators were trying to achieve here. Even if personally I felt they missed the mark in some aspects. But where they didn’t miss the mark was the deaths and kills. This feature was a true torture porn flick going in on the details of each death.

To score this movie higher I’d of trimmed the fat and including some story details to attach me to our main character. Shortening the expositions when travelling the terrain of this universe would have been nice and prevented getting to realms of boring between fun moments. Tweaking the ending by saving an additional 10/15 minutes and this could have been a solid hour story with a unique and interesting perspective.

Until the ending I was at a 6/10 but sadly wasting 10 minutes on a conversation leading nowhere I had to drop it to a 5.5/10 praising the details of gore, deaths and story telling attempts. Failing on keeping my attention and having me care for this character on why he’s doing the acts that he’s doing.

Have you checked out In a violent nature? Curious to see what I mean by torture porn? Let me know in the comments and I’ll see you in the thunder dome of the next review.

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IF “Review”

Release date: May 17, 2024 (USA)

Director: John Krasinski

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

Box office: $59 million

Cinematography: Janusz Kamiński

Edited by: Christopher Rouse; Andy Canny

Watched this movie Thursday evening and a mixture of being busy and not caring enough sadly for this film I waited till now to write up this review.

If you have kids by the way I do highly recommend this feature. It’s just my 34 practically 35 year old self where the last 30 minutes I was honestly falling asleep (I was tired so any “boring” hit me hard).

The trailers kept the content shown very specific and direct on its focus of the IF’s. Literally leading up to the start we had 4 minutes of pre show going over the different IF’s and about the movie. Someone by me said “They just showed the movie and spoiled it” mind you 30 minutes from then you could hear them laughing and having a good time.

IF is a heartwarming movie that beautifully portrays the theme of “The power of imagination & the everlasting bond with our imaginary friends”.

*Potential spoiler warning*

The story delves into the emotional journey of dealing with loss, both in childhood & adulthood. Showing how these imaginary companions can serve as pillars of support throughout our lives.

I was enjoying this feature until roughly the last 30minutes where the story took a path, I felt was aimed toward children than the story route I had personally been on till this point. While I would personally rate IF as a 6.5 / 10, it does shine through its cute narrative and heartfelt moments that tug at the heartstrings. IF captures the essence of innocence & resilience, making it a touching tale for audiences of all ages.

The final scene at the end of the movie was the journey I personally wanted to see but again if you have children I’d strongly recommend IF.

Performances all round were great and Cailey Flemin crushed her scenes which in particular without spoilers made certain scenes in the hospital my favorite scenes.

It’s sad that Garfield arrives this coming week which will totally walk over IF specially in the states as it’s a holiday weekend. With some breathing room before Inside Out 2 I hope IF does well and I look forward to the emotions you unlock and feel as you watch IF in theatres.

Thank you all very much for coming by Popped for another movie review. Birthday is on the 21st and I’m excited for a few movies coming up this weekend. Garfield review should be here Thursday morning the 23rd. Wuvering Waves releases the night of 22nd and Furiosa is coming out this weekend also which are both on my top 10 predication list which I’ve just updated totals for IF.

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Not Another Church Movie “Review”

Release date: May 10, 2024 (USA)

Director: Johnny Mack

Producers: Jimmy Cummings, Paul Saleba, Jim Cardwell, Jaron Marquis, Vern Nobles Jr., Johnny Mack

Music by: Ainz “Brainz” Prasad; Ameya Saraf

Production companies: JMC Media; Monty the Dog Productions

Went to watch 2 out of the 3 other movies released this weekend outside of the Epic Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Sometimes to get to 50 movies in a year you have to watch some not so epic movies along the way.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll round out the 3 by watching “The Last Stop in Yuma County” however for today it was this and “Poolman” . Lets begin shall we.

The plot for this film is Taylor Pherry (The P is silent) is given a mission from God to tell his family’s stories and inspire his community. What he doesn’t know is that the devil has plans of his own. The opening objective before this is for Taylor Pherry to find a successor for Hoprah Winfrey.

The sheer randomness and complete stupid silliness this movie offers with stories occurring across multiple different characters is definitely not boring.

It may not be a good movie but I wasn’t bored. From terrible green screen scenes to utter crazy Nutty Professor vibes this movie was somehow made and wants to offer a sequel before finishing the first feature.

Kevin Daniels plays Taylor Pherry & MaDude, Jamie Foxx is God, Mickey Rourke is the Devil. I loved the Nutty Professor but this was just not a good movie. Like I said I wasn’t bored and its totally silly so you’ll have some laughs but to give this anything higher than a 4 would be insulting to another film I reviewed recently.

At least it gets placed on the newly created Bottom 5 movies of 2024 list that I’ve just uploaded as we now have a Bottom 5 for 2024. Check out the next popped review to see if the second feature of the day ended up on this list and which was the more entertaining movie of the day.

Thank you all for reading and I’ll catch you in the next popped batch.

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Abigail “Review” “Rant”

Release date: April 19, 2024 (USA)

Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Box office: $34.7 million

Cinematography: Aaron Morton

Edited by: Michael P. Shawver

Let’s begin shall we because I’m going to cook and I’ll let you know when to get off before the main course is in the oven.

Abigail is a perfect example of why I’ve had such contrasted reviews to others recently. Trailers are a great marketing tool. Get the message out and gather interest buzz for an upcoming title. However, to much material is being shown and it’s impacting the movie experience.

The first hour of this movie is a lengthy version of the trailer. – If you didn’t see the trailer then excellent enjoy that first hour because it’s a pretty cool mystery and exploration of the movie before the reveal which so far I’m being totally spoiler free unlike the trailer.

A universe of sorts is created and draws the viewer in for those that have and haven’t seen the trailer. – This is your starters. I hope you enjoyed because from here some enjoy steak medium rare, others rare, medium, burnt, well done ext.

I put up with the meal thus far at around a 6/10 balancing having saw the trailers and being recommended this title by a friend….. sadly I ended up coming out with a 4/10 hoping to have watched Madame Web again.

Okay, let’s start the oven if you want to jump off here to not ruin your dinner.

Note to studios. Please make a teaser trailer and MAYBE 1 trailer before the movies release. Especially for movies like this where you spend so much time keeping the reveal (THAT’S IN THE TRAILER) away from the audience that already knows what’s to come. Be smart with the trailer and be deceptive and add mystery within to avoid this. To many trailers and way to many reveals are being shown. Challengers was another great example.

People informed me based on the trailer they expected more of what was being shown. Along with thought the plot took to long to get to where they wanted it to get to based on already knowing the characters from the trailer. I got to enjoy the ride of each character and the plot reveal due to not watching the trailers.

Okay steaks going into the oven now. Let’s get to what brought my 6 down to a 4. The meat and potatoes of my “Rant”.

When so many vampire movies exist and so much lore and tropes have been used. There’s a common and never touched established use of vampires. When you first become a vampire (By the way they literally mention this at the end of the movie which dumb founds me how this occurred) you’re a weak ass vampire. You’re stronger, you’re better than your human self. But never has a new vampire been stronger, even when that vampire is a kid been stronger than an older pre existing vampire which we know from the movie has been AT LEAST 2 years based on another vampire telling us that. Mind you a 2 year old vampire that needs help to kill the child vampire. O.O WTF! Who f$%ked that one up?

Abigail even mentions it takes a long time to learn all the cool shit…. so why didn’t she use any of that when the quirk of her character was that she was a ballerina? Utilize that rather than pushing down on a steak with a human O.O. Whoever wrote the ending of this movie needs to watch some good examples of vampire movies. BLADE the original Blade series. Along with True Blood tv show.

Another reason I bring up this rant and Blade is due to Blade being rebooted by Disney. PLEASE DONT FUCK IT UP!

Lastly for the 4/10 is the movie didn’t even follow its own established lore and plot. When one character is bitten and controlled. (Which took awhile to occur mind you) Why does the other human for 1 instantly get turned and 2 is able to control the master O.o.

If it wasn’t for writing this review / rant I’d of walked out during the 5 different endings this movie could of had. Every time throwing up an over used trope or gimmick horror scene done to death.

If you haven’t watched the trailer then check this out on streaming. If you’re still interested after reading all this then good luck and love to hear your thoughts over this overly cooked meal I’ve prepared.

Thanks for coming to Popped for this burnt batch but look forward to what’s to come with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes later this week.

Check out better Vampire movies/shows mentioned before or if this is 2020’s version of a Vampire going forth I’m out for this section of the monster verse.

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Late Night With the Devil “Review”

Release date: March 22, 2024 (USA)

Directors: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes

Distributed by: Umbrella Entertainment

Box office: $4.4 million

Cinematography: Matthew Temple

Produced by: Mat Govoni; Adam White; John Molloy; Roy Lee; Steven Schneider; Derek Dauchy

For a movie that wasn’t on my radar. Then the amount of buzz surrounding opening week put this film on my radar. I’ll have 2/3 different reviews for this feature from non spoiler to somewhat spoiler.

Non Spoiler Review: – The setting wasn’t for me but I’m glad I stuck with it.

Non Spoiler with more info Review: – The 70’s look of the film. The biography style intro to the host and his Night Owl passed before getting into the main show was off putting for myself. I was honestly ready to leave if it wasn’t for the first act of the main late night show bringing my attention back to the film.

Honestly I don’t want to say to much with this title for those on the fence as to not influence your experience. I’m glad I stuck with it and the first 20minutes (Guessing time frame) were the most slow / dryer parts to get through.

Before going into some spoiler info in the next section I came out with this feature for myself is a 6.5/10. I class this as a niche film like that of Lisa Frankenstein which I’ve yet to review. This could be someone’s most favorite movie of the year however not for all, specially those having a hard time getting into the beginning of the film. Which is important mind you for the show itself.

Spoiler ish Review: – Late Night With the Devil is set in the 70’s and focuses on Jack Delroy played by David Dastmalchian (Poker dot man from suicide squad) hosting a late night talk show and aiming to grow his numbers and beat the top competition.

The parts at the beginning setup his past / history which is used later for the film. It did drag me out of the film and needed some time to cook for me to get back into the experience.

The premise of Jack Delroy late night show is around a Halloween episode and focuses on proving a skeptic of the supernatural wrong in his skeptic beliefs.

I won’t go any further than that as I want you to experience the film and make your decision. I personally went from a 4 up to a 5 and slowly climbed to a 7 before settling at a 6.5/10 for my rating. Which is slightly below that of Lisa Frankenstein which got a 7/10 but fits in that niche horror/comedy genre.

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The American Society of Magical Negroes “Review”

Release date: March 15, 2024 (USA)

Director: Kobi Libii

Distributed by: Focus Features, Universal Pictures

Box office: $1.3 million

Edited by: Brian Olds

Music by: Michael Abels

Usually with movies that show a lot of the story points within the trailer I’ll tune out as I’ve already seen the movie. With this title I still had a good ride throughout. Sadly several moments felt slow due to watching the trailer however I appreciate having those scenes to better connect and learn about each of the characters being introduced into this world.

I enjoyed the messaging and teachings the movie offered while having a fun entertaining world brought to life with fantastic acting and visuals. The trailer had me but the review ratings I saw prior to watching the title had my expectations in check. Maybe that’s why I came out on top of some of these rather low scores.

I’d of loved some more magic however that wasn’t the point nor focus of this story. Now I haven’t read the other reviews giving this feature average to lower scores however I could only criticize a few things mentioned above.

Question for you all though. Would you be able to put your job first or others if it meant any connections with loved ones along the way would be erased and be forgotten? A thread of the movie which is shown in the trailer but a thread that asks a hefty price to either uphold or sacrifice.

Justice Smith (Aren) is a gem along with his supporting cast members, most specifically his mentor along the way David Alan Grier (Roger) & love interest An-Li Bogan (Lizzie). These three actors / characters were what kept me in this world wanting more and enjoying the slow times despite taking this movies score for myself down a couple pegs.

Despite not typing up a review for it yet. I give this movie the same score as that of Argylle 6/10. Despite enjoying this movie overall, the execution of certain slower scenes did kill momentum and excitement in my watch despite loving them for building the other characters and the world.

A double edge sword but a sword I would say keeps me wanting to come back for any potential sequel or continuation within this magical society. Argylle on the other hand had an excellent stellar first hour which nose dived to the bottom of the barrel and would be hard to come back for a sequel unless tempted by a positive word of mouth.

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Imaginary “Review”

Release date: March 8, 2024 (USA)

Director: Jeff Wadlow

Distributed by: Lionsgate, Lionsgate Films

Budget: $10–12 million

Music by: Sparks & Shadows

Production companies: Blumhouse Productions; Tower of Babble

Despite seeing a trailer for IF first, Imaginary was released this month to a fairly quite response. Now think back to January when I mentioned my hopes for Night Swim and I’ll recap those thoughts here.

I’m hopeful that once Black Phone 2 releases we get to understand what Universal is attempting with this horror verse their cooking up. Imaginary would be a great fit and a helpful boost for Night Swim if connected with 5 Nights at Freddy’s along with M3gan etc.

Possibly going in with low expectations from review scores, but I had a pretty good time in this one. I enjoyed the characters and was curious of the plot threads moving the feature forward. It’s not an overly long film but does attempt to throw in some twists and reveals for those invested.

A slight weakening towards the end and overall feature wrap up with repeated content from their competitor studio films. I enjoyed getting to know this family. Somethings that pulled me out at first was the cheap or poor “monsters/creatures” which didn’t feel scary or create tension when on screen.

The ending scenes were probably the weakest in my opinion with quick out of nowhere resolutions and “bow ties” to the story but I’m hopeful this goes somewhere within a horror verse….and please no sequel. Having a universe for the horror franchises will be fun to create a combination original movie using material from these mid movies to hopefully get something truly epic.

I can hope can’t I? Haha with that being said I felt this movie is a 6/10 putting it slightly above Night Swim as this movie actually has some enjoyable content that could bloom into something sinister with some extra cooking.

“Side note I looked up Sinister as this title was in my mind almost the whole movie” – If that interest you, then do yourself a favor and watch Imaginary. If my hopes come true then let’s discuss this movie in the comments as I could see this being my most favorite movie of all time if a potential sequel or sequel verse movie came from these foundations.

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Kung Fu Panda 4 “Review”

Release date: March 8, 2024 (USA)

Director: Mike Mitchell

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Budget: $85 million

Music by: Hans Zimmer; Steve Mazzaro

Produced by: Rebecca Huntley

Kung Fu Panda 4 has returned since it’s last feature length film back in 2016. To my surprise there’s been a tv show spin off for Kung Fu Panda between 2016 and now 2024 which is probably why I was disconnected from the character after all these years.

I did have some fun for about half the movie however that start and ending was a slog to get through. If you want any surprise to the story or what’s going to unfold in this feature then I’d recommend skipping the trailer. It shows the whole plot….which you could probably peace together by the time the adventure gets going.

If you’re finding it hard to get through you wont have to wait to long as about 25 minutes in Po and our newly added character Zhen come across the Happy Rabbit Tavern while looking for passage to the main city. This was when surprise laughs and a spark of fun ignited the film and kept me going until the final few acts.

Happy Rabbit Tavern & The City for me personally was so much fun and kept me in the film. Outside of that I’m reminded this series has defiantly out lived my younger years and stayed with the youth with few jokes for the adults to get.

I probably wont be back for a fifth Kung Fu Panda unless something drastic happens like a cross over with Shrek or Puss & Boots… ? Possible? Na I doubt it but that would totally be fun.

I’d give Kung Fu Panda 4 a 6/10 some fun acts to help with the predictable and sloggy destiny of this movie coming and going in a eh batch of popped reviews.

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