Death of a Unicorn “Review”

Release date: March 28, 2025 (USA)

Producers: Jenna Ortega, Alex Scharfman, Jacob Epstein · See more

Distributed by: A24

Edited by: Ron Dulin

Finally our last “Review” this evening with our triple decker “Review” coming to a close. Wish this wasn’t so but brace yourselves for this one.

From the studio and creators that brought us the greatest movie of 2023. My favorite title that year. Brings us Death of a Unicorn. Maybe it’s the lack of connection for the family daddy daughter intro. Maybe the fact they showed us the ending scene in the poster which feels oddly familiar…Cap4? Or the fact I had so many actors in this title that I usually enjoy. Just not hitting with me. Or simple the fact it was a 40minute tale drawn out for almost 2 hours when I’d rather watch a better executed title on Max called Common Side Effects that tells this story vastly superior.

After hitting a Unicorn while on a business trip Jenna Ortega’s character Ridley is a deep connection with it when touching it’s horn before her father Elliot played by Paul Rudd smashes its head in ending it.

Not sure where the Wednesday Ortega was or the Ant Man 1 Rudd was but their performances this time round were rather weak. Best character and actor in this title for me personally was Griff played by Anthony Carrigan.

I could go on about this feature but from the trailer you can piece together this film. Unicorn Revenge with some family drama. Maybe you can stretch it to a deeper meaning with why I connect it with Common Side Effects but just checkout that series over this film. Then watch this and tell me what you think.

My worst movie of 2025 thus far. I enjoyed Snow White more than this. Ash had a solid last 40minutes compared to anything in here. Cap 4 at least had a good story device within the marketing spoils. So with that going joint 3/10 with Cap 4. Death of a Unicorn is going in at my streaming “Review” score. Not worthy of the big screen over other recent films like Last Breath, Magazine Dreams, and the plethora of solid good 7 tier range films that have released the past month.

Looking at other platforms it’s pretty across the board mid 55%-57%.

With that, wraps our third title “Review” for this evening.

Appreciate you coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Was I wildly off compared to your experience? Did you have an answer for our horror studio? I’m personally placing Neon & Blum House fighting it out. A24 is so hit and miss with massive misses recently that 3rd place has yet to hit the wells flooring.

That wraps up March for movies and leads us to the first title in April – Minecraft. Expect some Popped Dates soon with community discussions on various topics. Also Anime “Reviews” to come soon also as we wind down March.

March 27, 2025 1

Ash “Review”

Release date: March 21, 2025 (USA)

Director: Flying Lotus

Producers: Matthew Metcalfe, Nathaniel Bolotin

Distributed by: Amazon.com

Production company: XYZ Films

Looking like the Returnal video game and starring Aaron Paul. I took a dive into the space of Ash…. let’s discuss. (Really! I’d love to discuss. But not about this movie….directly..?) Confused? Let’s work backwards to understand…. get it ;p.

Shudder, the horror streaming platform has once again got a movie into theatres. Going by the RT scores. Good for them! I’d like to discuss this in a new segment I’ll be making, possibly every week or 2. We need a bigger discussion directly rather than throughout “review” postings.

Riya, played by Eiza Gonzalez wakes up after some visual imagery with a head wound and unsure what is going on. It’s now up to Riya to explore this space to not only piece together what’s going on but also to survive and something has destroyed the station and even killed her crewmates ! :O! The movie starts you off later in the timeline to piece together throughout.

If you’re interested then stick with the next hour and 20 ish minutes. If not. Good luck! You’ll be waiting awhile to get a recap then “enjoy?” the last 40minutes as you get to go forward past that point to wrap the 2 hour film up.

Maybe it’s not for me but it’s definitely hitting for some with reviews from 5.8 to 76% scores on media platforms. Sadly this film for me personally was intended for the Shudder streaming platform to enjoy that last 40minutes. But that’s where the bigger discussion comes from.

This movie does save some cool music and sound effects for the later half. Intriguing story / development. For some, some visual horror and jump scares even if they failed for me personally. It’s a cheap movie, but hey, it’s a movie after all. Enjoy your popcorn and relax. Or you could go watch the Alien franchise :S.

It’s a straight up streaming movie for me personally. 3.5/10 – Others are enjoying it so maybe worth checking out. At least to see that final 40 minutes. You know me and those last 40 minutes 😉 (Nod to Ne Zha 2 :D).

Bigger conversation – I’ll probably type up a Popped Date 😉 about streaming services and their movies going onto the big screen. I love it! Keep it coming. But maybe get your better movies on the big screen rather than your mid B tier. It’s a reason why we call movies a streaming movie.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see a “Streaming Movie” actually being praised and on the big screen winning awards. That after seeing it on the big screen get to go home and in a few months get to experience it again! Disney + and other platforms have issues with their sound mixing. Sometimes headphones are better than speakers. But the theatre has the immersion.

No worries about picture, sound or comfort as it offers the ultimate experience. So why not bring your ultimate features? A small piece of the bigger convo I’d like to discuss.

Sound interesting? Then keep an eye on that Popped Date and maybe a Youtube video will be created from that discussion?

Thank you for taking the time to come by Popped for your movie “Reviews”. I started this journey last year and despite the second year attempting to elevate this space with a podcast. The execution was poor and not worth yours or my time. That being said, I’d like to elevate and expand this space. Make it a platform / community where we enjoy movies and share our experiences and discuss.

I have have a ton of time to watch the movies. But editing YT Videos or content isn’t the best either for myself. So I’ll continue to cook and through the Popped Dates will create a space to plant those seeds and see what blooms. I’d like to get that down in the second year of Popped and possibly move in that overall goal by or into the third year. What comes after the third year ? Good question! But by 2026 I’d like to have found those answers and look forward to having you along with me on this ride.

Once more, greatly appreciated. I’ll see you next batch!

March 23, 2025 0

Borderlands “Review”

Release date: August 9, 2024 (USA)

Director: Eli Roth

Budget: $110–120 million

Distributed by: Lionsgate, Lionsgate Films

Based on: Borderlands; by Gearbox Software

Music by: Steve Jablonsky

Short “Review“: So bad it’s good? So bad don’t waste your time?? So bad go watch the next movie I post about??? Go play the games and don’t waste your time nor money on this feature???? Watch the first 15 minutes and bounce??

Main “Review”:

Okay you’ve got the picture from the above. Lets begin the “Review”.

From 0% RT Score to currently standing at 6% this is a movie that starts surprisingly strong…..for 15 minutes and then jumps into a train and drives eyes wide open into a wreckage of steaming thresher sh*t.

Cate Blanchett playing Lilith started strong and held this movie up for the majority of the film. Ariana Greenblatt playing Tiny Tina which I didn’t even know was Tina from Tina’s Wonderland was a cool surprise. I’ve always been interested in the games without playing them so I didn’t get all the easter eggs and surprises but the writing for this film was awful.

Meeting Claptrap voiced by Jack Black was 20% okay and 80% annoying! This was just before we met backup with Tiny Tina due to her dad in search for her and requested the aid from Lilith to recover her from Kevin Hart’s character Roland & Florian Munteanu playing Krieg.

I have no idea if the backdrop was green screened/CGI or what not but these scenes were so off. The explosions that Tiny Tina controls with her stuffed rabbits and the cars interacting with terrain was odd.

The actions scenes were paired with great music but the scenes felt like riding the transformers ride at Universal Studios. No danger was felt, just buckle up in this simulated ride and watch the explosions and actions go by as you jam to the music.

The first few scenes within the 15 minute mark I was honestly having a good time like a 7/10 and was confused how this got a 0/100 %. I kept watching and I kept buckled up on this trainwreck of a ride.

20 Minutes into this movie I went down to a 5.5/6 out of 10. Krieg felt like a knock off Drax found on temu. By 45minutes I was getting bored. Some good scenes here and there but that mostly ends when we connect the entire group. I’d love to have a bounty hunter movie based around Lilith and ignore the rest of the cast. Writing is just awful and continues to get worse as the trainwreck continues.

By the hour mark I was down to 5/10 then 4.5/10. Forceful emotional scenes despite not creating any connection to characters. By the time they attempt to do such connection the movies to far gone and I just couldn’t care less.

Tools and pieces of the movie to progress the story was just handed over to characters. Nothing was earned, gained or rewarded just handed over within seconds of requiring said item. Such awful development for both story and characters. Such terrible writing and script this movie had. Good thing we have Cate Blanchett right…..right!?

Bad guys just switch sides for no reason given as their immediately killed providing NOTHING to the scene nor story. 4/10 WTF. How and Why was this movie made? Go make the Warcraft sequel rather than making this BS.

Cate Blanchett saves us from this movie please end good……..Cate…. Cate!! No Cate they got you to! Awful twist fucking terrible let this trainwreck continue to fly into the poop. 3.5/10. You started at a 7 come on!

You ruined the progression video game movies climbed up and succeeded to finally be seen as good. Now were two steps forward 5 steps back. Please don’t mess this up for Sonic 3 at the end of the year. I’ll be PISSED! This movie disrespects the viewer and throws thresher piss all over them.

We’ve entered stream or walk out territory. I honestly can’t place a score between 1 – 3 out of 10. I’ll say just place it in the background at home and watch it. If you like it then cool. If not, you didn’t waste your time nor money on this awful film. I can see why it’s sitting at a 6% on RT and applaud all those that make it through to the end of this feature.

If you choose to watch this title still then good luck, have fun and I’ll see you on the other side. Kind of curious to check out the steam sale currently going on for the borderlands franchise to see how it compares.

Thanks for reading and coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews”. Stay tuned for Cuckoo coming right up next.

August 9, 2024 0

Poolman “Review”

Release date: May 10, 2024 (USA)

Director: Chris Pine

Distributed by: Vertical

Production companies: AGC Studios; Shiny Penny; Wicious Pictures; CatchLight Studios; Barry Linen Motion Pictures

For a movie not on my list what so ever and happen to see it releasing this week with 3 other titles the dice were rolled. When a 3 sided die is rolled 9 times and there’s 3 1’s,2’s &3’s the decision was made to watch all 3. If it wasn’t to try hit 50 movies in 2024 I truly would have been home watching WWE as during this performance it was announced: Logan vs Cody!

What can I say about this movie other than it was very slow only picking up at the final 30 minute mark and didn’t get me interested until then. The trailer did a fantastic job drawing me in unlike the film did.

With such an incredible cast I was hoping this would have been the better movie of the day. I was bored. Everyone did a fine job with their acting. The story once it picked up was okay. But it wasn’t anything worth sticking around an hour to get into the slight interesting content.

The film is about a Los Angeles pool cleaner Darren Barrenman played by Chris Pine as he’s approached by a femme fatale to help uncover corruption in a shady business deal.

If you’re into the movie by this point then maybe it’s a movie for yourself. I’ve watched slow movies before that were worth the pay off getting to the end. I’ve watched artsy movies that have entertained and intrigued my curiosity. But sadly nothing hit and thus it makes the number 1 slot for me personally on my bottom 5 movies of 2024 thus far.

But hey May 25th is looking very cool specially since that’s my wife’s birthday :D. We’re going out on the 18th for an event and doing nothing on the 21st for mine so maybe I’ll get to watch this match before we go out for dinner.

That aside, go watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, have an epic time and I’ll go finish the 3 movies that released this weekend by watching “The Last Stop in Yuma County” and hopefully have a better time than the performances watched today.

Do you have a bottom 5 list yet for 2024? How about movies you’re looking forward to in Summer and the remainder of 2024? Let me know in the comments and keep an eye on my 2024 lists tab on the home page to follow along with my predictions of Summer 2024 Grossing.

Thank you all for reading another popped review and I’ll see you right back here tomorrow.

May 10, 2024 0