Tag: books

Sarah’s Oil “Review”

Release date: November 7, 2025 (USA)

Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh

Producers: Zachary Levi, Cyrus Nowrasteh, Jon Erwin · See more

Production companies: Kingdom Story Company, Wonder Project

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

Running time: 1h 44m

Another true story inspired movie ready to affect my heartstrings – Where do I sign up? 😀

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if checking out this title was going to be possible this week. Seeing that 98% on Fandango, I couldn’t pass that opportunity up.

Sarah’s Oil is an incredible story about the young girl in the poster (Sarah Rector – Played by Naya Desir-Johnson) who is given an allotted land within Indian Territory back in the early 1900’s. Sarah comes to find, through God, that there’s oil in this land which sets her on an extremely difficult path to maintain control of this land and oil.

2025 really was the year of true story-inspired/based movies, and this one may actually be the best yet…or close to Last Breath, which is my current #1. Need to rewatch and see who gets it.

Zachary Levi tapped into his Chuck persona, which is the side of him I fell in love with (Playing Bert Smith). This got me in the feels for sure. Maybe didn’t shed tears like Christy. But held bigger emotional punches throughout that had me rooting for Sarah & her family.

Incredible performances throughout, and honestly, a beautifully envisioned and shot movie.

This will knock off Colors within from my top 10, and with that, Popped score of 9/10.

Thanks for coming by, Popped everyone for your movie “Reviews”. We have Nobody coming up next, but not the Nobody you may be thinking of 😀 Which makes it hard to find the breakdown of director, etc., but I’ll do my best to pull accurate info for the next “Review”.

Coming up this weekend, we have a triple whammy – Keeper, Now You See Me & Running Man.

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The Legend Of Ochi “Review”

Release date: April 18, 2025 (USA)

Director: Isaiah Saxon

MPAA rating: PG

Running time: 1h 35m

Cinematography: Evan Prosofsky

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.

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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 ;).

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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.

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The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim “Review”

Release date: December 13, 2024 (USA)

Director: Kenji Kamiyama

Adapted from: The Lord of the Rings

Story by: Jeffrey Addiss; Will Matthews; Philippa Boyens

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures

Budget: $30 million

For someone who watched LOTR once back in the day and then the Hobbit trilogy once, before watching the first film’s extended cut last year (Which I loved and became invested in the series unlike my first viewing), I probably wouldn’t have had this on my list of movies to watch. After my experience last year, I’m even more grateful to have watched it, as I’d have missed out on such a cool anime movie of LOTR’s.

As much as I didn’t like Wulf and his sudden switch in perspective on events that occur in the setup of this movie. I really enjoyed all the characters. Wulf and his dad just completely suck (Wulf’s Dad sucks for his actions while Wulf himself sucks for his poor writing).

The war of Rohirrim comes to be due to our main female lead, Hera refusing to marry and supported by her father and older brothers would have a war break out with Wulf and his people that leads to bigger stakes than just a rejected proposal.

This tale goes back almost 200 years from the original series where Frodo comes into contact with the ring. Here we get some sprinkled easter eggs. Delicious lore setup and exploration. Along with extra character history that I’m hoping leads to future movies that tie nicely in with this series.

The music is rather nostalgic to the original series. Even if a little reworked/tweaked, I was delighted to hear a familiar tune as we come into, through, and out of this movie.

Lots of good action is sprinkled into this 2-hour feature. Some extremely long credits of roughly 8 minutes and no end scene. This was a fun title to watch. Maybe I’ll watch it again as a recap for the entire series but otherwise, this is a solid 7/10 good watch movie.

Thank you for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and look forward to Kraven potentially tomorrow. Next week Sonic 3, maybe another 1/2 movies before the years out but Sonic 3 is my most anticipated movie of 2024 and I’m so hyped to sink my teeth into it :D.

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The Best Christmas Pageant Ever “Review”

Release date: November 8, 2024 (USA)

Director: Dallas Jenkins

Distributed by: Lionsgate Films

Based on: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever; by Barbara Robinson

Narrated by: Lauren Graham

Produced by: Kevin Downes; Jon Erwin; Andrew Erwin; Darin McDaniel; Chet Thomas; Daryl Lefever

Welcome to the latest batch of Popped “Reviews” fellow movie-going lovers. Today bringing you The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and up next Conclave.

Big shout out to Harkins for showing this “The Best Early Access Screening”. Glad I was in the area to catch it because I may very well have a new seasonal movie to play :D.

This isn’t usually a movie I’d check out and another reason, which I’ve mentioned before. Why I love watching so many movies this year. I get to see movies I may have skipped, which are honestly really good.

Instantly I fell in love with this movie due to a family of children called the Herdmans. While setting up to write this “Review” I found out this is a series of 3 books, so I’m really hoping for 2 sequels :D.

All the children did an excellent job in this movie, especially Beatrice Schneider, who played Imogene Herdman. She was fantastic and I really connected with this group of kids. Honestly, I’m a sap when it comes to movies like this where characters are made as outcasts or treated differently to others. I really bond and connect with films of this nature.

The Herdmans experiencing a Christmas Story for the first time was done in such a refreshing way that even I became interested.

It’s based on a book of the same title name. However, to avoid spoilers for those like myself going in blind or just seeing the trailer. This feature is based around a town celebrating the 75th anniversary of their Christmas pageant.

After the lead of the pageant getting into an accident, its up to one of our main adult leads Grace, played by Judy Greer to take the reins. Our little group of outcasted Herdmans get themselves into the pageant and from there enjoy this experience.

It was heartwarming and got me in the feels. It’s not Wild Robot but it belongs in the season and a must-watch for families or those wanting a good time. I’d watch this seasonally which easily gets it in the 8/10 great movies ranking.

I appreciate you coming by Popped for this “Review” of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Have you seen it or plan on watching it? I’d love to hear your thoughts below.

Stick around to see a “Review” on Conclave. Or take a nap which I ended up doing throughout.

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