Category: Great Movie!

Cuckoo “Review”

Release date: August 9, 2024 (USA)

Director: Tilman Singer

Distributed by: Neon, Weltkino Filmverleih

Budget: $7 million

Music by: Simon Waskow

Produced by: Markus Halberschmidt; Josh Rosenbaum; Maria Tsigka; Ken Kao; Thor Bradwell

WOW! Just seeing this cost 7Mill compared to Borderlands 100+ Mill is insane. This is a great film straight up. Great characters, excellent suspense and actually an evil that is scary.

Going to be vague to allow mystery for your viewing experience. No spoilers here. One of my fave Neon movies in quite some time.

Little about the story setup: Seventeen-year-old Gretchen reluctantly leaves America to live with her father at a resort in the German Alps.

Some unsettling scenes, twisted and creepy characters mixed with great writing. Character growth and development. It was such a great breath of fresh air after watching Borderlands.

Plagued by strange noises and bloody visions this resort has some deep layers to pull back truly Alice in wonder land style with how deep does this rabbit hole go.

It’s been a minute that I’ve felt uneasy and a little scared in a horror movie. I’m happy this film brings that feeling back and gets an almost perfected batch of popped popcorn in horror granted to this feature. I was close to giving this a 9/10 however some flaws weakening the end with such a strong beginning and middle. I dropped it down to a 8.5/10 as it ends solidly despite a slight hiccup.

Save your Borderlands money and go watch Cuckoo. Thanks for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and I’ll see you again real soon with Alien.

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Kill(Hindi) “Review”

Release date: July 4, 2024 (USA)

Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat

Distributed by: AA Films

Production companies: Dharma Productions; Sikhya Entertainment

This is the first Hindi movie I’ve seen in quite some time and the trailer does a good job to prepare you for what type of movie this is.

On the other hand I didn’t do my job of explaining the movie to my wife whom had a very different experience.

Let’s get into the “Review” shall we.

Kill is almost two movies which takes roughly 45 minutes to setup the movie Kill that is shown in the trailer. I was pretty much hooked from the get go with some small character setup and introduction into what “Kill” was.

I wont go into spoilers as this was a true rollercoaster of a movie but this earns its R rating for sure. Packed with SO MUCH ACTION and intense amount of gore. My wife was cringing and eerring during this movie.

Sadly though the first 45 minutes despite having my attention. Had my wife bored and asking how long has this movie been on for. Then the tables shifted as the movie “Started” and everything we’d had seen thus far was child’s play in comparison.

It would have been nice to learnt more about certain characters and their groups (Without going into spoilers). Without setup from other sources, it was confusing going in trying to understand who’s who and who belongs to who’s group. You work it out by the time the film “starts” however that could be a hurdle at first for the films pacing.

Pacing was what killed it for my wife. While I’m at an 8/9 my wife was at a 3. An hour in we get an epic sound track you expect from a Bollywood movie. We ended up coming out of the film at an 8.5 for myself and a 5 for my wife. She’d watch this on streaming where I’d be happy to watch this again on the big screen.

Sadly my local theatre ends it’s showtimes today but hopefully you’ll be able to catch it somewhere near you or on streaming at some point down the road.

Thanks for joining us here at Popped! For another Popped “Review”, Longlegs should be up this weekend and Twisters next week before we get the big chimichanga movie that is Deadpool & Wolverine :D.

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Despicable Me 4 “Review”

Release date: July 3, 2024 (USA)

Directors: Chris Renaud, Patrick Delage

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Box office: $25.4 million

Music by: Heitor Pereira (score); Pharrell Williams (songs and themes)

Produced by: Chris Meledandri; Brett Hoffman

This will be a shorter “Review” as by now you’ve probably seen the first 3 and learnt the formula to these movies.

“Despicable Me 4” delivers another hit with its signature mix of humor and heart. This installment delights fans with a blend of new characters and beloved favorites, showcasing the continued growth of our favorite personalities.

Poppy stands out as a fantastic addition to the crew, bringing a fresh dynamic to the group dynamics. As is the summer trend Poppy has a cat which stars in one my favorite scenes.

The movie is a great fun ride that keeps audiences entertained throughout, mostly. Making “Despicable Me 4” a must-watch for fans of the series and scoring a Popped score of 8/10.

By the way, unless your little one is enjoying the minions flying/floating across the screen there’s nothing at the end of this movie. Saving you 6minutes.

Story Time

If you’d like to know a little more about this film then let’s carry on shall we.

Due to some rivalry based on an incident during Gru’s child hood. A new villain whom has his own minion army (That of cockroaches) has escaped maximum prison and is out to take Gru’s newly born baby son.

Placing the Gru family into a safe house by the AVL company. This forks our story between the Gru family living as a “normal” family with 3 assisting minions. With the remainder minion army going off to the AVL. Thus the Mega Minions were born (Queue the power puff girl theme tune).

Enjoy seeing our loveable bunch living in their new lives while flipping back and forth to our heroic minion fantastic 5 crew “Saving” the lives of everyday citizens.

Hope you enjoy and as I mentioned from the top. Another hit addition to this franchise but quite possibly the final one? Unless they keep coming up with new villains / missions this felt pretty wrapped up for Gru. Maybe the kids take over next? Another recent trend for bigger movie franchises.

Thanks for reading everyone, appreciate your time and support.

If you’re celebrating the 4th of July happy 4th everyone! For everyone else around the globe, enjoy “Despicable Me 4” only in theatres!

Popped Review – 8/10 “Despicable Me 4”

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Bad Boys Ride or Die “Review”

Release date: June 5, 2024 (USA)

Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah

Budget: $100 million

Distributed by: Sony Pictures Releasing

Based on: Characters; by George Gallo

Cinematography: Robrecht Heyvaert

Whilst getting the photos for this review posting, I looked into how old Will Smith & Martin Lawrence are now. I had no idea that Will was 55 and Martin was coming up to 60 years old. These guys are looking incredible and I can see them wrapping up or passing this franchise off in the 5th installment if we get another one.

Just yesterday I was able to watch the 3rd feature for the first time in preparation for the fourth installment. From start to middle ish I felt the same energy as the 3rd title. Which I enjoyed btw probably around a 7. However, despite a weak momentum up and down during the middle. This feature comes into its own into the second half of the movie once someone joins the team (No Small Spoilers Until The End).

It combined so much growth that has been developing and established in the previous 3 titles. This wasn’t a sequel for sequel sake but a film that continues to build on the building blocks before it to make something truly worth enjoying and sitting down at the movies for.

The crowd was cheering and laughing along to many moments of Ride & Die including an explosive round of applause at the end as credits rolled. Of which by the way are very short and offers no end scene like the third feature did.

The plot focuses on the continuation to the previous installment with their late police captain, now being linked to drug cartels and our epic duo team Marcus & Mike embark on a dangerous mission to clear his name.

Overall from start to middle I’d of given this a 7/10 however the second half just kept building and building to land a 8.5 strong ending that took the franchise from retirement to another solid title before potentially handing this over to “the next generation” as we get to live the remainder of the series with them in the back seat.

Creating some space between the review above and the Spoiler ish area.

Appreciate you all for reading and coming to Popped to hear my “Review” on the theatrical features coming out in 2024. I’ll continue to tweak and find my style throughout this year to grow and improve this format for years to come.

Rating system I’m thinking of ironing out for better understanding for the reader is that 5 is average. Anything 6 or above are still good to master piece titles and still worth viewing.

When a title has .5 it either had something that pushed it up toward the next rating or dropped due to failing on a particular area holding it back.

Stay tuned for Friday as I upload that rating system. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts and opinions on this system as I continue to grow the amount of movies watched year over year. 2024 = 50+ 2025 = 70+ Until we reach 100+ movies a year.

Spoiler ish Town

The moment Armando (Mike’s Son) joins the team is when the struggles of the middle wade through into a joyous time. The cast start to have fun it feels and it radiates on the screen and felt (at least to my audience) by the viewer.

Lots of cool action scenes to see on the big screen. Go watch this in theatres you’ll have a blast.

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Spy x Family Code: White “Review”

Release date: April 19, 2024 (USA)

Director: Takashi Katagiri

Distributed by: Toho Co., Ltd.

Adapted from: Spy × Family

Animation by: Kyoji Asano

Box office: US$45.9 million

If you enjoy the Spy Family Anime you’re going to enjoy this movie. Spy Family is a Solid A show with episodes of S tier. This movie would be inline with it’s A tier content rather than an S.

Who’d have thought a treasure disguised in chocolate could go so wrong but thus this wacky movie used that as it’s fuel for the steam to power ahead. Anya is one of my favorites along with Bond the families pet dog however the storyline written for her goes completely insane and focuses VERY much on the youth audience rather than her more detailed calculated adventures from the anime series.

I did appreciate no homework being required as new comers of the series can easily jump in here. Do minimal research on the side characters but can easily jump in and know about this family and begin connecting with their favorite characters.

Maybe an 8 is to high maybe a 7.5 is to low but considering I love this show and the movie was more of the continued awesome show in a longer format I’d have to personally go with an 8/10. Had a blast and don’t over think the decisions along the way. It looked cool, the characters are cool. Nothing needs to make sense or be grounded to being real after the crazy stuff I saw.

Code: White….more like Code: Brown…. yea I’ll let you digest that for a bit and come to your own conclusions. See you after my surgery with either Challengers or The Fall Guy in the next popped “review”.

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Dune Part 2 (2024) “Review”

Release date: March 1, 2024 (USA)

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures

Adapted from: Dune

Budget: $190 million

Cinematography: Greig Fraser

The 2024 slump is over as we kick off March with Dune Part 2! Thus far we’ve had Mean Girls in my top movies of 2024, well the place holders can start dropping off as Dune Part 2 has taken the first of 10 slots on my top 10 movies of 2024.

If you skipped Part 1 I think you’d be fine jumping in here and going back for further details later. This literally picks up after the ending of the first part, minus a slight time passing as Paul & Lady Jessica (Paul’s mother) felt apart of the Freman he met up with at the ending of Part 1. After defeating his opponent that challenged him in order for Paul to prove himself worthy to join.

Part 2 is the second half of the first book in this epic sci-fi feature which I’m hopeful and excited to see the remainder of this story on the big screen.

I’m not going to spoil as I want you to go out and watch this on the biggest screen you can find. Beware to bring ear plugs if sensitive to loud music/sound as Part 2 has several LOUD scenes that feel totally epic but LOUD!

Dune Part 2 picks up the War over Spice and turns it to 12. This feature is packed with action of various variety that keeps the pacing engaging which is welcome for a rather lengthy 2 hours and 45minute mammoth war film.

Dive into the War is one layer of this epic, the other follows the titles of later books, if Paul is the Prophet that will lead the Freman to paradise as written.

Again without going into spoilers those that have seen the trailer will be delighted by the epic ness of that arena scene. The action is so good and the second half has so much more to unpack that I look forward to hearing from everyone once you’d enjoyed your popcorn watching this movie.

I thoroughly loved: Spice Wars – How to Train your Sand Worm: Edition 😀 With a mighty 8.5 out of 10 which I’d love to watch once again for those awesome action set pieces as we wait for the next title in this epic series.

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