Category: Below – Above Average

Smile 2 “Review”

Release date: October 18, 2024 (USA)

Director: Parker Finn

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

Budget: $28 million

Cinematography: Charlie Sarroff

Music by: Cristobal Tapia de Veer

Welcome to the second “Review” in this week’s batch. Following that of We Live in Time. Buckle up for this “Review” you may experience a twist like no other!

Don’t Drink The WATER – Crazy is source

Shall I start with the jaw-dropper and move into the why! to save people time and only dive into detail for those interested? Go watch M. Night Shyamalan’s trap over this film or The Substance. You can skip Smile 2 if you’re waiting on a sequel to Smile.

“Review” Begins

The intro to Smile 2 started off strong. Setting the film up as a direct sequel to Smile following the events at the end. This molded nicely into the introduction of our main lead which turned out to be black mold and not the most perfect analogy to avoid spoilers.

I will attempt not to spoil and yet get close to the line while explaining my disappointment in this sequel to Smile. Summed up the amount of “scares” that occur has plenty of time to bore the viewer if you’re not connecting with our main lead and those around her. You’ll either tune out awaiting the next scare or jump scare which will be wasted on you as it’ll occur during your pit of boredom that it had no affect.

There was 1 true jump scare for me personally, that occurred after 1 hour of watching this film. For those coming over from watching Terrifier 3 this past weekend, Smile 2 will seem like a baby film. Even those interested in this kind of horror will find themselves feeling desensitized and may even have scenes lost on you because the movies had time to create that feeling of boredom.

For those interested in the story of Smile, you can honestly watch the first film and wait for the third. Those wanting a thriller horror then check out Trap, Long Legs, and Cuckoo. For those wanting body horror, check out The Substance.

Smile 2 had moments of being a good watch movie at a 7/10 however I’d have to say this is above average at best giving it somewhere around a 5.5 or 6/10. I wish the ending wasn’t so rushed as it could have landed at 6.5/10 but that’s where I recommend The Substance as this movie just continued to fail on so much fronts.

Hopefully, Smile 3 grants us a true sequel to Smile without repeating the exact same formula on another individual without any of the good stuff we got to explore in the first film. Such a shame as the start had so much promise.

0

My Old Ass “Review”

Release date: September 13, 2024 (Canada)

Director: Megan Park

Distributed by: Amazon MGM Studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Music by: Tyler Hilton; Jaco Caraco

Produced by: Tom Ackerley; Margot Robbie; Josey McNamara; Steven Rales

Production companies: Indian Paintbrush; LuckyChap Entertainment

If I could ask my older self one question, should I have watched this movie? The answer would have resulted in one less-viewed movie this year.

Let’s discuss…

Watched the trailer and ready for an exciting movie ahead? I was until an hour into the movie when the direction bored me, and then the film just…ends? Leaving me confused if more was to come but knowing it’s over and kind of felt like the movie was kind of ass. 6/10 If I’m being nice. Felt like an average slightly above-average movie.

So many plot points and story devices left unanswered which literally the trailer lures you in with. The main characters choices in the movie made no sense. Even trying to get behind her decisions they leave literally an entire plot and character out during this self-discovery. I’m not so much ranting but more disappointed that I watched this movie and wasted almost 2 hours after trailers to view this title.

Why does Amazon release this on the big screen while Wolfs by Apple gets placed on Apple TV :S lame. If they wanted to keep this movie short and concise they added SO MUCH fluff that was left unresolved.

Without going into spoilers this movie had a message to tell and only had content for it for about 20 minutes of the film. They pumped it up with the family, friends, weird mushroom storyline and left it all abruptly to sum up the main films focus.

I don’t know, a waste of time seems harsh but that ending was weak sauce. My Old ASS? This movie’s ASS! Catch it on streaming tbh am I going with a 3? Na it’s not a bad movie just average to above average at best.

I feel as if the trailer got me like it did so many with the Civil War movie trailer. Setting you up for one thing and delivering on another.

0

Twisters “Review” & Longlegs “Review

Release date: July 19, 2024 (USA)

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Music by: Benjamin Wallfisch

Story by: Joseph Kosinski

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures

Based on: Characters; by: Michael Crichton; Anne-Marie Martin

Debated separating these two reviews as I’m behind. To be honest you’re not missing out on anything so lets tame the beast of these two.

Twisters starts off with a fun group of characters and loved seeing Nik Dodani…..however, that’s shortly lived before you’re left with the worst character of the movie Javi played by Anthony Ramos.

Every time he was on screen I was tuning out. I’d have cut his whole character out. Focused on David Corenswet (The new Superman) being the opposing group and made a better movie.

There’s some stakes created about an hour in. That’s ruined by the lack luster energy going into the finale. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s only just above average with a tornado level of 5.5 / 6 out of 10.

Loved Glen Powell and his wrangler buddy. The tornado wranglers were the best parts of the movie. Honestly thinking back to how tuned out I was after that intro I’d go with a 5.5 / 10 barely above average movie. Let’s get into Longlegs a better movie but still only a 1 time viewing experience.

Release date: July 12, 2024 (USA)

Director: Oz Perkins

Distributed by: Neon

Budget: <$10 million

Cinematography: Andrés Arochi

Produced by: Dan Kagan; Brian Kavanaugh-Jones; Nicolas Cage; Dave Caplan; Chris Ferguson

It’s a good thing these movies are cheap to make because this is very niche audience focused horror movie. I wont spoil this movie as for some, this is a good movie with some aspects preventing it from being better.

On the contrary the reason why people don’t like this movie as much are the reasons why I enjoyed it. So check it out and be prepared for a slow burn of a feature before getting into the good stuff.

Even then the good stuff is short lived with Nicolas Cage on screen. I wanted more from his character! That being said this had some excellent performances in moments however it wasn’t enough to keep myself and my brother in law engaged as he ended up falling asleep during this.

A 1 time viewing experience for sure but I wouldn’t go above a 6.5/10 into a solid good. Just a good for this one.

All going well next week Deadpool & Wolverine comes to save the end of summer 2024. Some gems dropping between then and November. Let me know what Fall movies you’re looking forward to after D&W.

Thanks for reading this double dose of ehh and here’s hoping we can fill the top 10 with 9’s before December. I believe there’s 4 more titles left to bump off then the true contenders fight it out for the 2024 top 10 list for Popped. Blog

0

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.

0

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.

0

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.

0

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.

0

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.

0

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.

0

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.

0

A WordPress.com Website.

Up ↑