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.

November 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 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