book-review – Popped!

Release date: April 18, 2025 (USA)

MPAA rating: PG

Running time: 1h 35m

Distributed by: A24

A24 is back at it again with another title. Is this being praised by fans or are movie goers actually enjoying this? I’d love to know if this is a Joker 2 situation or am I completely out of touch these days liking Sneaks and ….. Let’s get into it 😉

The trailer didn’t interest me but I have a mission to 100 so checked out Legend of Ochi.

With a dark intro into this world of Ochi and the gang of young boys lead by Willem Dafoe (Playing Maxim) going against this “Evil?” creature I was optimistic! That was short lived. Not going to harp on a young actor. The main lead Yuri (Played by Helena Zengel) seemed to have her dialogue out of sync with her lip sync. In addition to her character being annoying.

The story and hope for Ochi and his clan was what got me…..sadly (Some Minor Spoilers?) You don’t get to see them much compared to the humans….

Our human group Maxim and his son Petro (Played by Finn Wolfhard) along with daughter Yuri among the many boys of this village are hunting / defending the village from these creatures. Maybe I missed the why behind Maxim’s motives but I had enjoyment / investment into these human characters. I wanted to see Ochi and the story behind them all.

My comparison or reference is going to see Gremlins and having their story forgotten about or not written in for the sake of this humans and their journey.

For my personally this missed massively where I wouldn’t even stream it or at least watch the beginning scene and ending 15/20 mins. The remainder was a slog. I looked up how long this feature was. 1 Hour and 35minutes. I felt like this was longer than 2 hours. People were shocked I liked Sneaks. :O If you liked Ochi more than Sneaks or even liked Ochi and didn’t watch Sneaks. I’ve lost it 😀

The Legend of Ochi felt like a waste of time that offered me nothing. I could do a spoiler “Review” if interested and the further reasons why I didn’t like this title. I came for the legend and got a hunt to extinct Ochi. 2.5/10 Popped score on this one. Going to bump Cap 4 up as it doesn’t belong in it’s placement currently. Ochi is going down in my bottom 5 list of 2025 thus far.

Maybe a little harsh but compare this with Sneaks. Let me know what you preferred and I’d be curious to see if I’m out of touch with the general viewing audience or if we have a Joker 2 situation occurring with A24 fans here.

IMBd had this title at 6.2/10 up to RT score of 80%.

Thanks for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” stay tuned right after this for The Accountant 2 “Review” :D.

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 ;).

Tag: book-review

The Legend Of Ochi “Review”

The King of Kings “Review”