Tag: film

Novocaine “Review”

Release date: March 14, 2025 (USA)

Directors: Robert Olsen, Dan Berk

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

Production companies: Infrared Pictures; Safehouse Pictures; Circle of Confusion

During the feature I kept thinking how much Jack Quaid hadn’t aged from Dawson’s Creek….well, that’s because I was thinking of Joshua Jackson from that and Fringe. Any who, The Boys & Companion is Jack Quaid :D. Shall we begin.

With there being 10 days until the official release of this feature I’ll be very protective of spoilers. The marketing of this film was handled very well compared to a certain title released last month. I believe 2 scenes were cut from the trailer from the film which added to certain points.

From a romantic comedy intro to a action packed twist when our couple experience a bank robbery. This was a fun ride throughout. The last act did cost it an 8/10 great popped score placing it very good at a 7.5/10 but would recommend this title for a fun action comedy with complements to the romantic comedy.

Jack Quaid playing Nathan Caine, an assistant manager at the bank is head over hills interested in Shari, an employee at the bank being played by Amber Midthunder. Nathan has a disease that affects him from feeling pain. So much that eating a slice of cherry pie could cost him biting off his tongue. Mix this “Super Power” with the fact his love interest is taken as hostage during the bank robbery, this film goes off to explore many fun ways to implement this into a wacky over the top action movie.

Sit back, and enjoy the ride on March 14th at your local theatre. Popped Scoring of 7.5/10.

Happy March everyone, looking forward to Mickey 17 this coming week, Looney Tunes next and to explore maybe some hidden gems along the way before Snow White releases end of the month. Whatever your thoughts are on Snow White, we have Minecraft right around the corner leading us into the glorious summer box office of 2025.

Let’s shoot for end of April to look ahead into Summer and cast our predictions for the slate ahead. Thanks for coming to Popped for your movie “Reviews” and I’ll see you, next batch.

0

Oscars 2025

Howdy everyone and welcome to Popped.blog where today is the big day for Oscars!

Goodluck to those voting / participating, this is my first year to get into the Oscars after seriously committing to “reviewing” movies. When 2024 Oscars came around and I watched 1/10 of the Best Pictures. I knew something had to change haha. By the way, that movie was Barbie. I purchased Oppenheimer and still to this day have yet to watch it…. hopefully by time Oscars 2025 starts I would have :S?

That being said, let’s have fun and all the love for everyone voting differently to what I place. May we have fun and have enjoyed awesome content along the way.


Here, the full list of the 2025 Oscar nominations:

Best Picture – Anora

Anora – 8/10 Popped Score – Winner 5x Oscar Winner
The Brutalist – 8/10 Popped Score
A Complete Unknown – 8.5/10 Popped Score
Conclave – 6/10 Popped Score
Dune: Part Two – 8.5/10 Popped Score – (Reviewed Prior to Score Changes)
Emilia Pérez – Sadly wasn’t able to watch in time
I’m Still Here – Sadly wasn’t able to watch in time
Nickel Boys – Never Finished the Review it seems! 7/7.5 /10 Good Movie
The Substance – 9/10 (Would LOVE IT to win)
Wicked – 9/10 (My Vote)

Best Actress – Mikey Madison

Cynthia Erivo, Wicked (My Vote)
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison, Anora – Winner
Demi Moore, The Substance (Would Love her to win)
Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Best Actor – Adrien Brody

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist – Winner
Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown (My Vote) – Dune Part 2 & Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

Best Supporting Actress – Zoe Saldaña

Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande, Wicked (My Vote)
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez – Winner

Best Supporting Actor – Kieran Culkin

Yura Borisov, Anora (My Vote)
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain – Winner
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

Best Director – Sean Baker

Sean Baker, Anora – Winner
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
James Mangold, A Complete Unknown
Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance (My Vote)

Best Original Screenplay – Anora

Anora – Winner
The Brutalist
A Real Pain
September 5
The Substance (My Vote)

Best Adapted Screenplay – Conclave

A Complete Unknown (My Vote)
Conclave – Winner
Emilia Pérez
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing

Best Cinematography – The Brutalist

The Brutalist – Winner
Dune: Part Two (My Vote)
Emilia Pérez
Maria
Nosferatu

Best Original Score – The Brutalist

The Brutalist – Winner
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked (Would Love)
The Wild Robot (My Vote)

Best Original Song – El Mal

“El Mal,” Emilia Pérez – Winner
“The Journey,” The Six Triple Eight
“Like a Bird,” Sing Sing
“Mi Camino,” Emilia Pérez
“Never Too Late,”  Elton John: Never Too Late (My Vote)

Best Editing – Anora

Anora – Winner
The Brutalist
Conclave (My Vote) – Should have been Challengers though
Emilia Pérez
Wicked

Best Production Design – Wicked

The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked – Winner (My Vote)

Best Costume Design – Wicked

A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Gladiator II
Nosferatu
Wicked – Winner (My Vote)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling – The Substance

A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance – Winner (My Vote)
Wicked

Best Sound – Dune: Part Two

A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two – Winner
Emilia Pérez
Wicked (My Vote)
The Wild Robot

Best Visual Effects – Dune: Part Two

Alien: Romulus
Better Man (My Vote)
Dune: Part Two – Winner
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked

Best International Feature – I’m Still Here

I’m Still Here (Brazil) – Winner (My Vote)
The Girl with the Needle (Denmark)
Emilia Pérez (France)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)
Flow (Latvia) (Would love)

Best Animated Feature – Flow

Flow – Winner – My Runner Up Choice
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot (My Vote)

Best Animated Short – In the Shadow of the Cypress

Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress (My Vote) – Winner
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!

Black Box Diaries
No Other Land – Winner
Porcelain War
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane (My Vote) – Sounded Cool 🙂

Best Live-Action Short – I’m Not a Robot

A Lien
Anuja
I’m Not a Robot – Winner (My Vote)
The Last Ranger
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

Best Documentary Feature – No Other Land

Technical issue deleted this segment 😵

Best Documentary Short – The Only Girl in the Orchestra

Death By Numbers
I Am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
The Only Girl in the Orchestra – Winner (My Vote)

I’ll update this page during / after the Oscars declare / announce the winner. Again good luck to you all. I’m not winning for sure haha but went with my heart for the love of Wicked and Substance. Shame Challengers wasn’t mentioned :(. Next year, Ne Zha 2 Let’s GO! 😀

7/23 I got right 😀 for 2025. Maybe better luck next time? Despite getting it wrong, 1/23 was my runner-up / 2nd choice 😀

0

Ne Zha 2 “Review”

Release date: February 14, 2025 (USA)

Director: Jiaozi (Yang Yu)

Budget: $80 million

Based on: Investiture of the Gods by Xu Zhonglin

Distributed by: Beijing Enlight Pictures CMC Pictures (Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canda)

Box Office: US $1.40 Billion

I’m so happy to have watched the 1st feature yesterday and now be apart and won in by this franchise. From streaming in the background to less than half way getting fully engaged and falling in love with a new franchise. Let’s dive into the sequel, with Ne Zha 2.

If you’re coming into this “Review” unaware of this franchise then let’s discuss the over-view rather than the sequel. If you’re coming into this “Review” to read about the sequel knowing and enjoying the first title…. then hear this. The sequel of Ne Zha makes the 1st title look like a okay movie. With 5 times the action, family development, friendship, emotion, lore, world building, epicness, humor, Villians, Heroes, etc, etc 😀 you’re going to love it.

If you read the previous “Review” you’ll know that I’m locking this feature into my 2025 best animated feature Oscar spot. Unless something comes out and totally surprises me. Animated titles for 2025 have an extremely hard battle ahead of them to dethrone this epic cinema master piece.

The Ne Zha franchise is based on a Chinese mythological character, focusing on the story of a young boy named Ne Zha who is born as a demon child. Destined to bring destruction, but fights against his fate to protect his village and defy the established order, often battling powerful deities and challenging the heavens with his supernatural abilities; the narrative explores themes of rebellion, self-determination, and overcoming prejudice against one’s perceived destiny

Anime enjoyers out there could relate to this with Naruto as Ne Zha. Also for the fighting and powers/abilities. Those into Dragon Balls Z and similar animes would get behind this franchise.

The animation is very well done and event improves with the sequel. Will there be a third title? Think, will there be a 4th,5th and 6th haha. The amount of lore and world building established in the sequel is insane where this franchise will take it.

My spoon is ready and my desert is before me 😀 Let’s get to eating good.

I’m super pumped to watch this again including that of the original. Popped Score for Ne Zha 2 is an easy top score of 9/10 going into my #1 spot of 2025 thus far and into my #1 spot for best animated feature.

Thanks for coming by Popped.blog for your newest batch of movie “Reviews”. This is a epic masterpiece and I’m excited to hear from yawl on this title / franchise.

See you back here Sunday night with Nickel Boys and my overall thoughts with the Oscars.

3

Heart Eyes “Review”

Release date: February 7, 2025 (USA)

Director: Josh Ruben

Producers: Christopher Landon, Adam Hendricks, Greg Gilreath

Distributed by: Screen Gems, Republic Pictures

Budget: $18 million

Music by: Jay Wadley

Character design and trailer were intriguing. Well butt in seat, lets check this title out shall we..

If you read my previous “Review” you have a gage in where this is going.

From the opening scene I was worried. The campy B horror movie was showing and I buckled in for a bumpy ride hoping for a decent movie at best. A glimmer of light came after this intro segment that unlocked a new category shortly after….. It’s so bad it’s good?

Before we get ahead let’s go into the movie shall we. Think Scary Movie where the killer (Heart Eyes) is going around killing couples. It felt like the movie was having fun on itself having parodies and following tropes overly used in other scary movies. Sadly for myself this teetered on the It’s so bad it’s good…..for some people? But not for myself.

It walked the tight rope but fell in the bad camp for myself. Or at least it’s almost so bad its good for some people tier. Slightly missing the mark of being good. Was it the execution? The overly used tropes. The fact that metal straws wont save the day? Or the fact that the coffee shop scene was the highlight for myself on the discussion of metal straws vs plastic cups… yea it’s not for me but it’s for someone. Which is clearly shown in the mid reviews on several platforms.

Check it out have fun? Or save yourself some time and wait for the hopeful better horror movie “The Monkey”? Either way this will be joining Love Hurts in my bottom 5 list for 2025 with a popped score of 3.5/10.

Going to attempt to have Captain America 4 review up by Sunday. All depending when I have chance to check the title out. Paddington 3 should go live Thursday morning. If possible I’ll try squeeze in “I’m Still Here” this week also before my surgery a week from today.

Thanks for coming by Popped.blog for your movie “Reviews” and excited / hopeful for the movies coming ahead of us in February 2025… January started off pretty good so dips are sure to occur.

See you next batch 😀

0

Love Hurts “Review”

Release date: February 7, 2025 (USA)

Director: Jonathan Eusebio

Producers: David Leitch, Kelly McCormick, Guy Danella

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Budget: $18 million

Production company: 87North Productions

Not going to lie. I did see the RT score of 23% prior to watching this one. That being said, my love for Ke Huy Quan from Everything Everywhere All At Once had me enticed to still check out this feature.

If you’re a fan of anime then go check out Sakamoto Days. It’s similar in premise of bad guy gone straight for love, however the implementation here was poorly executed….unless you’re discussing the execution scenes then we’re having a good time.

Ke Huy Quan plays Marvin, a Milwaukee realtor who receives a crimson envelope from Rose, his former partner-in-crime whom he left for dead… She’s Back!

Living between his new life as a realtor clashed with his past, the story of love, brotherly conflict and family drama commences. Storyline wise you’re not getting anything special here. Sadly all the valentines stuff is pretty meh and poorly written.

The characters however are fun and a delight during fight sequences. This is the strength of Love Hurts and the only reason for checking out this feature. Between Ke Huy Quan (Marvin), Mashawn Lynch (King), Andre Eriksen (Otis) & Mustafa Shakir (Raven) these 4 actors were a treat and saved this feature from dropping below this tier I’ll be scoring it within.

For such a short movie, coming in at 1Hr 23minutes. There shouldn’t be any lows and boring segments. Short concise movie getting to the point and have fun with it. Sadly that wasn’t the case but glad the 3 fight scenes were enjoyable even if the fourth was a dud in comparrison.

Happy Valentines to me, we have our first movie of 2025 to make it on the bottom 5 list. Don’t worry it’ll have a valentine to join it shortly. Stick around for the next “Review”. Love Hurts gets a popped score of 4.5/10, no amount of boba will save this title.

With that “Review” conducted we have our first stale batch of “Reviews” coming at you to begin February. Big Ooof, but let’s hope next week has something exciting with Cap 4 & Paddington?

1

Dog Man “Review”

Release date: January 31, 2025 (USA)

Director: Peter Hastings

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Based on: Dog Man; by Dav Pilkey

Music by: Tom Howe

Produced by: Karen Foster

The poster looks super cute and enjoyed watching Captain Underpants so had to check this title out.

To my surprise there was a Bad Guys 2 short prior to the movie. Love this direction for DreamWorks as 2024 Inside Out 2 didn’t have a short which was mind blowing for a Pixar movie not to feature a short.

Buckle your seatbelt as Dog Man takes you through a barrel of laughs, emotion & visual overload. A great fathers day movie, I wasn’t expecting to have so much love and bonding in this movie.

From prior to Dog Man existing, this cop duo was the brains and brawn of the police force. Sadly, due to an explosive incident attempting to capture Petey, the head of Dog and body of the Man became Dog Man and thus the emotion begins. Going from having your best friend one minute to being merged the next. There’s a lot of heart and loneliness to Dog Man at first.

That’s until Chief calls Dog Man and centers his focus onto capturing Petey. An “Evil” cat that’s out to do bad. You know what could top his evilness? A clone of himself! Thus Lil Petey was born! Loved loved loved these three characters. Chief is great along with Flippy the Fish, Flippy. You’re going to have a blast watching this movie.

So many moments of greatness, I’m back and forth on a 8 or 7.5. I’m excited to see more as there’s plenty of source material to expand on this franchise. I’d love to watch it again but somethings keeping it back from an 8 due to moments of lengthiness despite being an hour and 34 minutes long.

Did you check out Dog Man? Excited to check it out this weekend? Love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Stay tuned for 1 last movie of the month with Love Me. (Which maybe the movie I thought Companion was :P) Coming Friday Night.

Thanks for coming by Popped.blog fellow movie goers and have an awesome weekend ahead with Companion and Dog Man :D.

0

Companion “Review”

Release date: January 31, 2025 (USA)

Director: Drew Hancock

Producers: Zach Cregger, Raphael Margules, J. D. Lifshitz, Roy Lee

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures

Budget: $10 million

Cinematography: Eli Born

When you have the day off to watch films and it happens to coincide with a horror secret movie. You just gotta take the Mrs to go check it out :D.

In my head I thought Companion was the virtual reality AI movie that’s coming up but I was wrong. I did hear lots of positive buzz so did go in with higher than usual expectations.

My wife and I had a good time in this movie. It’s a good one time watch about a group of friends going out into the middle of nowhere to hangout. I’ll keep it spoiler free so I’ll keep it short. If you enjoy Jack Quaid staring in another upcoming movie Novocaine or Lukas Gage who was in Smile 2 along with Sophie Thatcher in the recent release of Heretic, then you’re going to have a good time. Great performances from everyone.

The plot/story points can be weak and pulled apart but overall it’s not bad. A good one time watch movie I’m sitting between a 7/7.5 on this title. With the audience reaction to certain scenes I can see some enjoying this more than others. I’m feeling this sits nicely at a 7 when looking back on this feature and if I’d watch it again.

That’s been this weeks latest batch of “Reviews”, pretty short but don’t want to spoil the experience here as that’s the whole point of this title. Keep an eye on Popped.blog for another “Review” staring that of Dog Man to wrap up the first month of 2025.

Overall a good month of movies. Definitely starting stronger than 2024 and something I’m excited to see more from as we get nearer to the summer with big block busters releasing.

1

Flight Risk “Review”

Release date: January 24, 2025 (USA)

Director: Mel Gibson

Budget: $25 million

Distributed by: Lionsgate Films

Music by: Antônio Pinto

Production companies: Icon Productions; Davis Entertainment Company

I was curious to see how entertaining this movie would be, considering it’s mostly taking place on this plane and between 3 individuals. To my surprise it wasn’t all that bad. Good enough to say that it’s now created a new Popped rating tier of “Fine”.

Flight Risk is a movie focused around 3 individuals, a U.S Marshal played by Michelle Dockery, Winston our “Witness” protection fugitive played by Topher Grace, and lastly the guy that keeps this title entertaining and possibly even worth watching, our “Pilot” played by Mark Wahlberg.

The movie just goes, quickly showing us Winston for moments cooking his cup noodles before the doors come crashing down with our U.S Marshall taking him into custody. Apparently he’s been avoiding them quite some time and been quite a nuisance to catch up to.

Introductions into the film brief as they were it would have been nice to learnt more about them prior to setting up this interaction before getting to our In Flight Entertainment for the next hour and a bit. For an hour and half feature. They did a good job keeping the viewer somewhat entertained.

Despite some questionable actions from the U.S Marshall which made me feel like she wasn’t well trained to be a field agent. The cast did fairly well outside of Markie Mark. Just like with Presence, having this be a shorter movie I wont go into spoilers even if shown in the trailer.

What little enjoyment there is outside of the trailers setup, I’ll allow you to experience that fresh. We had 1 guy clap for this movie upon entering the credits but no one joined in. Make of that as you will haha.

With all this said I’ve painted a picture of my experience but I’d love to hear how your movie going experience was. At a 6.5/10 I feel as I need to create a tier between above average and good. Thus the “Fine” tier will be born :D. I’ll slowly convert the 6.5’s to the fine tier going forward but now I must rest as tomorrow holds a big day of movie going enjoyment.

The Brutalist, The Colors Within, along with a mystery secret movie all await :D. Going to be a journey, but a journey I’ll take in order to experience this beautiful industry of creating movie magic. Even if the magic on the tin sometimes comes with an expired warranty.

0

Presence “Review”

Distributed by: Neon

Budget: $2 million

Music by: Zack Ryan

Produced by: Julie M. Anderson; Ken Meyer

I’m writing this at 1:18am so let’s hurry this along so it doesn’t play on my mind haha. You know what they say about 3am :S. Without further ado, Presence “Review”.

Presence takes place in the POV of “Casper” the “Friendly” ghost as we don’t fully know who this presence is. I’m going to name it Casper for this “Review”. The film starts of almost to floaty as we navigate around this home. Never leaving while always looking out. Our “Happy” family comes for a house tour to setup the stage for this feature prior to making a purchase and living there for the remainder.

I’m not going to get deep with this one to avoid spoilers / the journey. For such a short film I’ll leave the door open for the experience while giving my impressions of the film. (Maybe a small segment to end with a slight spoiler).

Picture Paranormal Identity photography style of filming for this title set within this home. Focused on this family of Mum & Dad with their Son & Daughter. I hated the Mum & Son while became attached to the Dad & Daughter. This title is rather slow and can be boring if not “attached” or connected with a character in the film. Without that connection I can see this movie having little to nothing for you as a viewing experience.

It’s Paranormal Activity with little to light Activity and more Paranormal Presence with a Family Drama being viewed from the sidelines.

I’d say its not a bad movie. But the ending did keep it from getting a good rating for a Popped score of 6.5/10. It’s unfortunate as I was interested in this story / journey. It’s just a shame that ending kind of fell apart. (More in the spoilers segment below).

Spoiler ish Segment

Beware!

Let’s Begin.

It’s established early ish on that this Presence is able to interact with objects in the real world. Then is able to be felt / be known to certain individual/s. Soooo how comes the ending threw that aside to deliver such a jawing outcome O.o.

Also, a character sets up a clue to be solved by stating a Window that cannot be opened…..the window I’m assuming they allure to at the end was never mentioned being unable to be opened… Sooo, why drop that “Clue”.

I’m sure you can break into some more than that but I’ll leave it there and await your thoughts below.

Spoiler ish Segment Fin

Thanks for reading and coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” :D. Stay tuned for the next batch coming at you real soon.

Tomorrow night planning for Flight Risk. Monday I’m planning for The Brutalist, Colors Within & A Secret Movie :O :D. Wednesday & Thursday have some surprises instore also so stay tuned for a jam packed movie week.

We’re thus far OnTrack to 4x our 2024 January watched numbers :O which is insane!. 300 Movies in 2025 if we kept up that pace haha. I kid I kid, 100 is a pretty reasonable goal for 2025. See you tomorrow night!

0

One of Them Days “Review”

Release date: January 17, 2025 (USA)

Director: Lawrence Lamont

Producers: Issa Rae, Sara Rastogi, Deniese Davis, Poppy Hanks, James Lopez

Distributed by: Sony Pictures Releasing

Budget: $14 million

Production companies: TriStar Pictures; Hoorae Media; ColorCreative; Big Boss; MACRO

Mainly watched this movie due to seeing Morgan Peter Brown in the trailer for this feature. It may have taken almost 45 minutes to see him but loved! That he was in a big screen title :D.

I’m not going to lie, this movie wasn’t for me. The humor wasn’t hitting with me and I’m probably just not the audience for this feature as younger movie goers were loving it.

Took 40minutes before I genuinely laughed to give you context going in on my experience. It’s an okay movie personally. I prefer the Friday movies & Dude Where’s My Car for buddy duo’s getting up to crazy events in their daily lives.

Keke Palmer playing Dreux & SZA playing Alyssa are our buddy duo as they come to find themselves in a bit of trouble having 9 hours to pay their rent or get evicted. Coming up with ways to both find and earn the money had its charm. I enjoyed certain characters over others. It’s mainly just the jokes weren’t hitting for me which was hard to get through some scenes.

Where I sat in the theatre was mostly quiet but maybe this is for the younger crowd? I have no idea. Check it out if you have time. I wanted it to be on par with Wolf Man slightly under but the amount of time for a short hour and 37 minute title that I felt mid just getting through the scenes / checking my watch waiting for Morgan Brown to turn up was to much to say this id slightly above average at best with a 5.5/10 Popped Score.

I hope you enjoy the jokes and all but it wasn’t for me. I’m hoping for a better experience next week with Flight Risk & Presence? Possibly The Brutalist if I’m able to find somewhere close to watch it for last years potential best picture? The Colors Within would be nice to see also if the theatres near by get booked.

However, until then, expect to see some Anime “Reviews” coming soon. Sakamoto Days, My Happy Marriage Season 2, and potentially Solo Leveling Season 2. Thanks for coming by Popped. Blog and enjoy your movie going week.

0

A WordPress.com Website.

Up ↑