Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing “Review”

Release date: April 18, 2025 (USA)

Cinematography: Kazuya Iwai

Distributed by: Shochiku

Only got on my radar due to being a movie and not a concert exclusive movie. I’ve seen nothing of Miku content. I don’t watch V-Tubers outside of Ironmouse so I’m probably not the targeted audience for this title. With that caveat said. Shall we jump into this “Review”?

I’m going to compare this to Colors Within for comparison as “Reviewing” an anime movie focused around music. Firstly before that. I did love the messaging and get the point behind what Miku was attempting. I just didn’t connect with her song which impacted my experience.

Side Note for readers: You’re going to hear the word SEKAI a lot in this movie. A potential drinking game? I’ve only heard this in reference to Isekai’s. SEKAI in Japanese means “World” or “Universe” which you’re going to be jumping around a lot which was a little jarring at first to know if the characters were the same people or different versions of one another.

The story / premise of this movie is based around Miku wanting to reach those in need of support and form a deeper connection through emotional music. (Sadly her song didn’t hit with me unlike Colors Within) In order to achieve this due to having difficulty connecting with those surrounded in darkness, she reaches out to others that are able to reach people through their music (Which I did enjoy once you finally get there).

For around 45minutes this movie was okay. Then it started to “Cook” as people say. Some very interesting story and character development occurs that got me interested in the title….which was sadly ruined by repetitive conversation going over and over what Miku’s mission was and how they were going to achieve her mission and reach her and others alike.

The reason why I compare this to Colors Within is because this process setting up the concert was extremely drawn out and should have been cut down. While Colors Within was enjoyable and the music did connect with me which kept me engaged wanting to see their performance. Miku can’t sing was sadly not resonating with me but maybe that’s because I knew nothing of these characters. I disliked the robotic voiced characters over the human ones. (Apologize if these people are big in this world. I’ve no idea.)

For me personally it was good overall. I’d give it a 7/10. But fans are loving this title. Socials are from 6.4 on IMBd to 96% on RT & Fandango. Fun fact for those wanting more after the credits. There’s an after show which plays for an additional 10-15minutes. (Which was weird as the lights up go up during the credits. So having an anchor concert in bright lights was off).

Did you checkout this title? Have plans to? Seen Colors Within? Love to hear your thoughts below. Colors Within is $10 right now on Amazon Prime which I may actually go purchase to revisit their music.

Thanks for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and I’ll see you next batch :D. Big one next week! Thunderbolts. – Spoilers are all over the internet so be careful if you’re hiding from them.

April 26, 2025 0

Sneaks “Review”

Release date: April 18, 2025 (USA)

Directors: Rob Edwards, Chris Jenkins

MPAA rating: PG

Producers: Laurence Fishburne, Gil Cloyd, Helen Sugland, Leonard Hartman, Patrick Worlock

Running time: 1h 28m

Production companies: Cinema Gypsy Productions · See more

Maybe the low expectations. Maybe all the heart and soul in this feature. I have to say, had a solid time in this one. Shame not many will see it over movies like Minecraft though.

The trailer does a great job focusing on the shoes so I wont go into the other layer this title has. For a movie about shoes this title captured (At a lesser quality) the feeling of toy story and similar titles with talking inanimate objects.

The combination of music, characters, emotion and meta jokes was such a surprise I was between great and solidly good. I think others maybe at the lower end of fine to good but this title got me thoroughly entertained.

Edson our high school basketball player (Voiced by Swae Lee) finds himself in competition for these beautiful new shoes which he’s in dyer need of for this career. The Collector (Voiced by Laurence Fishburne) has other plans. In an adventure between them both. Our main story comes from the journey of our sibling shoes during the theft. Being stolen from Edson they find themselves apart. (Shoes are called Ty & Maxine (I believe it’s Maxine)).

Ty is the type of shoe that wants to be owned by the Collector and treated well on a pedestal. Maxine on the other hand being brand new out the box, wants to experience life with someone that will use them for their aspirations in life. The Collector by the way has his companion dog called Mercury which is solid in this feature.

There’s so many more characters and fun people in Sneaks to enjoy. Even the narrators of the story were a lot of fun. Meta jokes and lots of shoe puns / jokes.

If you check Sneaks out let me know what you thought. Not many scores are posted so IMBD alone has Sneaks at 5.2/10 & RT Critic score at a 50%. So take this with a grain of salt. I love me some animation movies and this got me in the gooey center. Talking about it with my wife last night I was chuckling looking back at certain jokes and lines.

If working man is a switch your brain off popcorn flick. Maybe this is leave your critical animator eye at the door. It’s not Into the Spider verse, but the combination of music, soul and laughs had me scoring this at a 7.5 / weak 8 Popped Score. Worth a viewing. Has some nice messaging and definitely better than Minecraft which is insane people are still coming out to cause havoc with the chicken jokey scene.

Enough of that though let’s not dive into a rant. Today we check out The Wedding Banquet. Any movies that caught you off guard? I’m usually one to have some sort of opposite experience to others so I’m curious what’s yours.

Thanks for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

April 18, 2025 0

Drop “Review”

Release date: April 11, 2025 (USA)

Director: Christopher Landon

Producers: Michael Bay, Cameron Fuller, Jason Blum, Bradley Fuller

Language: English

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Box office: $3.4 million

Trailer was pretty cool and had me intrigued. Let’s discuss the final Drop of this weeks Batch.

Welcome to the final feature of today’s batch. Having seen the trailer ? There’s still a lot of enjoyment in this title. Does it show a lot of the thrill? Yea, but it doesn’t ruin it. The intro sure does hook you if the trailer hasn’t already.

Violet is a widowed mother trying to get back out there in the dating game. This feature is around that date and the craziness that consumes this date when Violet begins to receive Drop messages being sent to her cellphone.

A short movie of an hour and a half, it’s got good pacing and even has some extra fun for those that watched the trailer. (You know me and the battle against the spoilery trailer :D)

Everyone’s a potential suspect. So who’s your suspect in this mystery? Check out Drop at your local theatre to find out. Going to be fairly short with this one to avoid spoilers and all.

A solid good movie worth checking out with a 7/10 Popped score. Maybe a sequel in our future? We shall wait and see for what stories can be created. I’d love to learn more though but let’s discuss that in the comments :D.

Socials on this title are fairly high with 6.5 IMDb to 83% on RT.

Thanks for checking out this weeks triple batch of “Reviews”. Anything stand out to you? Something I missed (Other than Warfare. Seeing that Tomorrow/Monday). Lots of features releasing throughout April so it’ll be a busy month of movie going experiences and entertainment.

What title are you most looking forward to?

See you next batch!

April 12, 2025 0

The King of Kings “Review”

Release date: April 11, 2025 (USA)

Director: Jang Seong-Ho

Based on: The Life of Our Lord; by Charles Dickens

Box office: $7 million

Music by: Kim Tae-seong

Production company: Mofac Studios

Loved the animation and was curious to check out an Angel Studio movie. So what better way than to checkout The King of Kings on Passover.

I’m not religious to start with so take this experience with that knowledge. In school studying Religious Education I wasn’t really into all this but the information learnt was useful to know of different religions. Having media and tales told through well created content like The King of Kings would have been great for my childhood self and recommended for today’s youth. More stories and tales should be created by this team for all religions. They did a very good job.

This feature kept me entertained despite all the distractions occurring. I watch a lot of movies but the audience for this title were something else. Lots of talking, babies crying. People on cellphones, some recording small scene clips. There was an awful lot going on but the feature kept me entertained.

What’s The King of Kings even about? Well this is a tale being told from a father to his imaginative son (Whom has a fascination for King Arthur, Dragons and Sword Fighting). A story told by Charles Dickens of Jesus Christ. From his birth to his resurrection. Loved all the interactive scenes between storytelling and “real life” segments along with telling a story through the eyes of a curious young boy.

Mentioned at the start. I’m still in the camp of King Arthur. Didn’t quite resonate with these religious tales in my youth and still love Dungeons & Dragons. (Not that they can’t both be enjoyed by any means). This was a fun experience and mostly being enjoyed on socials from 62% to 7.2/10 on RT & IMDb. Maybe it’s the impact it had on the audience I was with but I had a very good time with a 7.5/10. The crowd applauded throughout the ending and despite going hard at the end. Angel Studio made a good point of having children experience this title.

(P.S My own little message on that ending pay it forward message) – About the paying it forward program that Angel Studio’s offers. Please actually use it when you’re unable to afford or experience this feature. Taking free tickets, refunding them or just experiencing this on someone else’s dime is pretty low when the children at the end of this title are literally speaking to the audience for those unable to. It’s a good message when heard and used by the right people. It’d be horrible if someone that doesn’t require this pay it forward program to exploit for free tickets / money.

I’ve got a few Popped Dates planned. One of those is the discussion on this current Minecraft Chicken Jockey meme going around. The fact Jack Black & the films director are endorsing it is shameful and needs to be discussed. Not just for this title but future installments and for others interested in replicating it with other properties. Having fun is one thing. But disturbing public viewings, creating chaos, causing damage to property and further stress and work on theatre staff is not having fun.

Little different on the ending to this “Review” but felt right to place that here on a title that had an audience with little ones. This is 2 of 3 in this week’s batch of “Reviews”. Prepare for the last… Drop ;).

April 12, 2025 0

The Amateur “Review”

Release date: April 11, 2025 (USA)

Director: James Hawes

Distributed by: 20th Century Studios

Based on: The Amateur; by Robert Littell

Budget: $60 million

Edited by: Jonathan Amos

Checked out the Chinese Theatre in LA after the Nintendo Switch 2 Hands On Event. Guess what we watched 😀 Haha buckle up for a triple batch “Review” starting with The Amateur.

So we’ve discussed recently the things a father would do to get back his daughter or that of the fatherly bond to return a daughter. How about taking that energy and seeking to revenge the death of your wife.

Laurence Fishburne (Playing Henderson) is back!(Thankfully because he’s awesome!) as Morpheus!? Not this time! Henderson aids our CIA Decoder Charlie Heller (Played by Rami Malek) in his training for revenge. Maybe some lessons along the way of what type of person Charlie is but firstly. The reason for why this movie exsists.

Rachel Brosnahan (Playing Sarah, Charlie’s wife..well.. yea wife 😀 :*(.. )

Watched this with my wife and she was in tears. She fell in love with this couple and made such an impact on the story and purpose for character motives and direction. This was a fun movie with much better pacing than similar movie Black Bag. My wife and I enjoyed this type of thriller being told with different methods for action than just guns. Lots of fun surprises even if the trailer showed 2 of the big kills.

This feature did feel a little long, maybe 20 minutes which is where I’m back and forth between a fine movie and a good one. Maybe if the seating was more comfortable it’d be a 7 and my wife had a good time with this one but wow I’ve been spoilt with Harkins Theatres. Their seats, popcorn quality, staff are all incredible and going to other theatres has definitely highlighted their charms and excellence. Big shout out to them after experiencing the IMAX Chinese Theatre in LA.

A weak 7/10 Popped score but a fun thriller that’s mostly being seen in that above to great rating on socials. 61% RT to 89% on Fandango. Stay tuned for a very different type of movie in this weeks batch. King of Kings.

Did you check out The Amateur this weekend? Love to hear your thoughts below. Thanks for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and don’t forget this is 1 of 3 for this batch :D.

April 12, 2025 0

Hell of a Summer “Review”

Release date: April 4, 2025 (USA)

Directors: Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard

Distributed by: Neon

Box office: $1.8 million

Production companies: 30West; Aggregate Films

We’re back movie goers with a fun one – A trip to memory lane of older slasher movies in this campy fun Hell of a Summer.

Thoroughly enjoyed the pacing of this title. No stretching moments or story plots out. Sets title up. Shows you type of action and then goes into the introduction of our characters.

Great cast across the board here. From our camp lead Jason played by Fred Hechinger. Plays the old guy in the group quite awkward but charming qualities. Then our several counselors of Camp Pineway.

(Honestly there’s a lot of great younger actors here so let’s include them all. Skip this part if not interested.) From Finn Wolfhand playing Chris. His friend Bobby played by Billy Bryk. The popular ones Demi & Mike played by Pardis Saremi & D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. Supporting (Love?) interest – Claire & Shannon played by Abby Quinn & Krista Nazaire. Then our supporting characters with their own personal charms and personalities – Miley (Julia Doyle) – Ezra (Matthew Finlan) – Ari (Daniel Gravelle) – Noelle (Julia Lalonde).

What more can I say for this title honestly. It was a fun one. Half way in things start to heat up and then all the slasher fun begins. Loved all the surprises left out of the trailer. Was refreshing to see for a change.

Grab some popcorn and enjoy a solid 7/10 good experience packed with campy jokes and more camp like humor. Would love to hear yours thoughts on this one. Seems mixed online from 55% on RT, 6 on IMBD & Letterboxd. 98% of google users like the movie also which I’m curious how that’s calculated.

Anything I may have missed before we dive deeper into April that should be checked out? The Friend? Comes to mind but let me know if there’s others. Possibly Wednesday morning I’ll release a Popped Date while waiting in the queue for Comic Con Hotels Raffle :D.

See you all then and catch you Friday night with The Amateur “Review”. Big Nintendo Day that day for me 😀

April 7, 2025 0

A Working Man “Review”

Release date: March 28, 2025 (USA)

Director: David Ayer

Producers: Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, David Ayer, Bill Block, Kevin King Templeton, John Friedberg, Chris Long

Distributed by: Amazon MGM Studios

Based on: Levon’s Trade; by Chuck Dixon

Cinematography: Shawn White

Welcome to the 2nd movie of this weeks “Review” batch with A Working Man.

Jason Statham is back in another action packed popcorn flick playing the character Levon Cade this time round. A working man and ex military. His skills and family situation will be put to the test.

I absolutely loved the chemistry between Levon & his daughter Merry Cade (Played by Isla Gie). This feature is a perfect fathers day popcorn flick for anyone into action and fatherly love for his daughter. Bonded by family and father hood. Levon goes on the hunt to search for his bosses daughter Jenny Garcia (Played by Arianna Rivas) when she’s abruptly kid napped one night during a pub crawl with her gal pals.

Michael Pena plays Joe Garcia, Jenny’s father and although the chemistry isn’t felt between the family. He’s a name from Ant Man that could draw people in along with Statham himself. Not to forget David Harbour being in this title but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The trailer keeps mostly to the intro / first half and packs this feature with a ton of action. Left with plenty of material for a potential sequel this is a fun experience worth checking out if you’re into these types of movies.

No end scene to stick around for so many no sequel. But I’d be happy for a return to these characters and to see what crazy situations could come from this title.

Overall a solid 7/10 good movie. Those online are fairing a lot more mid tier with 53% to 5.7/10. Google users are at 96% so some of us are thoroughly enjoying the action packed into this one.

Ready for the next feature in our triple decker “Review” this evening? Stick around to find out how this all ends!

March 27, 2025 0

The Woman in the Yard “Review”

Release date: March 28, 2025 (USA)

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Language: English

Producers: Jason Blum, Stephanie Allain

Written by: Sam Stefanak

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Welcome to the first of a triple batch “Review” this evening. First up, another contender for the Blum House Universe – Woman in the Yard.

Ramona (Played by Danielle Deadwyler) is struggling with grief after loosing her husband. Tay her son (Played by Peyton Jackson) is doing his best to be the man of the house in his fathers absence & Annie (Played by Estelle Kahiha) Tay’s little sister is still rather young but has story for growth within her character throughout her story.

As the setting of this family is laid out within the opening scenes. Tay is requested to put the family dog out into the yard before the events take a turn. “Mum, there’s a woman in the yard” – From here the story takes a turn. Without getting into spoilers I’ll be vague but establish levels of interest / areas that worked into my scoring.

Paranormal vs Psychological horror – What are you expecting from this feature? I’ll leave this here and let you experience. A story of grieving told through the studio Blum House.

The use of music, sound, camera work and visual cinematography is what established a feature that created tension and put me on edge when seeing this title. It didn’t need to use jump scares or cheesy visuals. Those scenes were present but worked due to the settings laid out and built upon in this tale. Plenty to experience with this and to enjoy. At least I across the board I feel most will find this title good. Looks like online critics aren’t fairing as well but we’ll get to that later on.

Example of great tension for those into Doctor Who – Weeping Angels mechanics are in play 😉 – Don’t look away now. Dogs warning barking is the first sign of trouble….. when did it get so quite? This and plenty more is to be explored, experienced and elaborated upon going into this one hour 25minute feature.

Stay tuned for my Blum House Universe proposal lists 😀 I’m curious your thoughts on it also.

Popped score of 7.5/10 – Solid Good Film throughout with elements of greatness but just shy for myself. With an RT score from critics of 40% & IMBd currently at 6.7/10 I’m definitely the higher end of the spectrum with this one.

Speaking of laying the ground work with settings. What Horror Studio are you most into consistently? – Blum House | Neon | A24 – Love to hear your thoughts by the third title of our batch of features this week.

March 27, 2025 0

The Alto Knights “Review”

Release date: March 21, 2025 (USA)

Director: Barry Levinson

Producers: Barry Levinson, Irwin Winkler, Jason Sosnoff, Charles Winkler, David Winkler

Budget: 45 million USD

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures

Cinematography: Dante Spinotti

De Niro got me in. The Bullet that didn’t kill me kept me there. The story that unraveled had me wanting to finish this once and for all. The right way. Frank Costello’s way 😀

Based on true events. The Alto Knights is a tale being told of Americas two most notorious gangsters, Frank Costello played by Robert De Niro & Vito Genovese….played by Robert De Niro.

At first I had no idea what I was watching. So many factions and sides to this back and forth Piece by Piece storytelling between movie and documentary. Then it clicked. I got it. It was like the match being lit before the fuse made contact.

I was in! I had my side and I was rooting for the boss. Which Boss? Ah! You didn’t pay attention to the clues ;), enough’s enough. Let’s get into the meat and potatoes shall we.

I’m not going to ruin this experience. So did I enjoy it? Yes! De Niro and all the other actors did a great job. From having no knowledge and a little hard to navigate into. I was won over and thoroughly enjoying it. Even at the cost of the fuse reaching it’s destination in fireworks.

Fireworks you say? I’ll let you enjoy, sit back and watch history unfold on this tale. Learn some history that this was based on and have a good time. For myself personally. I felt the feature was very good, giving this a Popped score of 7.5/10. Good watch, maybe wont revisit it but enjoyed the ride. Others looking online while writing this. Seem to of had the opposite experience with some platforms ranging from 39% to 6.1/10. With google users rating 88%.

With this info, use your best judgement if The Alto Knights is worth checking out and spending 2 hours with these characters. I had a good time. Love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks for coming by Popped.blog for your movie “Reviews” , stay tuned for tomorrow with Ash! – Want to hear my thoughts on the movie as a spoiler “review” also let me know and I’ll dive deeper into previous or up coming batches.

March 22, 2025 0

Locked “Review”

Release date: March 21, 2025 (USA)

Director: David Yarovesky

Producers: Sam Raimi, Zainab Azizi, Ara Keshishian, Petr Jákl, Sean Patrick O

Based on: 4×4; by: Mariano Cohn; Gastón Duprat

Production companies: ZQ Entertainment; Raimi Productions

Had no idea about this movie prior to going in. The actors / Producer caught my eye and …. was locked in on this one ;).

This “Review” will be short due to a fairly simple setup but a whole lot of depth once locked in.

Bill Skarsgard plays Eddie Barrish, a down on his luck / deadbeat dad. Take your pick. Having to turn to crime in order to get by and acquire money to repair his vehicle in order to pickup his daughter. Eddie finds himself within the vehicle that will lock him in for a ride he wasn’t prepared for.

Anthony Hopkins plays William, a character played through the car to interact with Eddie in this horrific yet enlightening? Experience to come for them both.

I’ve come to thoroughly enjoy all the projects that Bill Skarsgard signs up with. Locked is yet another title on his belt which is a solid good experience. He mostly carries this movie as the majority is played out within the car itself. Great camera work and story telling.

Again I wont go into details or plot points for those curious on this one so I’ll slap this with a straight up 7. Good ride on this one and glad I checked it out.

Have you checked out Boy Kills World? If so you’ll enjoy this one. Tomorrow I’ll be checking out The Alto Knights so check back later on tonight for a slightly different movie.

Thank you for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and I’ll see you, next time.

March 22, 2025 0