Tag: movies

The Wedding Banquet “Review”

Release date: April 18, 2025 (USA)

Director: Andrew Ahn

Story by: Ang Lee, James Schamus, Neil Peng

Running time: 1h 43m

Screenplay: Andrew Ahn, James Schamus

Distributed by: Bleecker Street, Universal Pictures

Super cute trailer got me curious for a fun comedy at the movies. After all the action we’ve had this spring.

The Wedding Banquet focuses the story around 2 gay couples that are best friends. Lee & Angela (Played by Lily Gladstone & Kelly Marie Tran) are attempting to have a child through IVF and Min & Chris (Played by Han Gi-chan & Bowen Yang) having their own set of relationship and personal troubles.

The first hour until we get nearer to the trailer segments was a little long setting up our characters and getting to know them. I didn’t personally find a connection with them until the stories started to intertwine. Min proposes a green card marriage with one of his friends as his grandmother is threatening to return him to Korea due to his visa expiring.

I loved the character of the grandmother Ja-Young (Played by Youn Yuh-jung) as she has her own journey and development. Angela’s mother is also a fun addition May Chen (Played by Joan Chen).

Loved the Kingdom Hearts shout out which may bring this rating up haha but honestly it was fun and a good watch even with the slow burn. Popped scoring of a fine to good but personally I’d settle with a 6.5/10 for The Wedding Banquet.

Enjoy the character journeys, personal growth and fun times ahead, specially in the second half.

Thanks for coming to Popped for your movie “Review” of the Wedding Banquet. I’ve heard from others I’m definitely alone on my enjoyment of Sneaks, so I’m curious if this is another hit or miss with movie going watchers. IMBd has this title at a 6.7 along with Metacritic. RT is sitting strong with 88%.

Stick around for the next “Review” Sinners.

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Sneaks “Review”

Release date: April 18, 2025 (USA)

Directors: Rob Edwards, Chris Jenkins

MPAA rating: PG

Producers: Laurence Fishburne, Gil Cloyd, Helen Sugland, Leonard Hartman, Patrick Worlock

Running time: 1h 28m

Production companies: Cinema Gypsy Productions · See more

Maybe the low expectations. Maybe all the heart and soul in this feature. I have to say, had a solid time in this one. Shame not many will see it over movies like Minecraft though.

The trailer does a great job focusing on the shoes so I wont go into the other layer this title has. For a movie about shoes this title captured (At a lesser quality) the feeling of toy story and similar titles with talking inanimate objects.

The combination of music, characters, emotion and meta jokes was such a surprise I was between great and solidly good. I think others maybe at the lower end of fine to good but this title got me thoroughly entertained.

Edson our high school basketball player (Voiced by Swae Lee) finds himself in competition for these beautiful new shoes which he’s in dyer need of for this career. The Collector (Voiced by Laurence Fishburne) has other plans. In an adventure between them both. Our main story comes from the journey of our sibling shoes during the theft. Being stolen from Edson they find themselves apart. (Shoes are called Ty & Maxine (I believe it’s Maxine)).

Ty is the type of shoe that wants to be owned by the Collector and treated well on a pedestal. Maxine on the other hand being brand new out the box, wants to experience life with someone that will use them for their aspirations in life. The Collector by the way has his companion dog called Mercury which is solid in this feature.

There’s so many more characters and fun people in Sneaks to enjoy. Even the narrators of the story were a lot of fun. Meta jokes and lots of shoe puns / jokes.

If you check Sneaks out let me know what you thought. Not many scores are posted so IMBD alone has Sneaks at 5.2/10 & RT Critic score at a 50%. So take this with a grain of salt. I love me some animation movies and this got me in the gooey center. Talking about it with my wife last night I was chuckling looking back at certain jokes and lines.

If working man is a switch your brain off popcorn flick. Maybe this is leave your critical animator eye at the door. It’s not Into the Spider verse, but the combination of music, soul and laughs had me scoring this at a 7.5 / weak 8 Popped Score. Worth a viewing. Has some nice messaging and definitely better than Minecraft which is insane people are still coming out to cause havoc with the chicken jokey scene.

Enough of that though let’s not dive into a rant. Today we check out The Wedding Banquet. Any movies that caught you off guard? I’m usually one to have some sort of opposite experience to others so I’m curious what’s yours.

Thanks for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

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Warfare “Review”

Release date: April 11, 2025 (USA)

Directed by: Ray Mendoza; Alex Garland

Running time: 1h 35m

Budget: $20 million

MPAA rating: R

Distributed by: A24

Solid trailer to begin with but what’s more solid is seeing this budget! $20 Million for Warfare while Disney spends 10 times this is an insane difference. Nice job A24.

I mentioned it the other day how A24 are inconsistent with their quality of movies comparing to neon. Well here is Warfare the movie we thought we were getting when Civil War released last year. I’m going to end this “Review” with a bit of a spoiler that I’ll mark clearly with if you’re interested. But before that let’s discuss Warfare and why I may even nominate it the Oscar for sound/editing.

The entire movie has been created from memory from all those that survived this war. Stick around throughout the credits to see the veterans and their movie counterparts. It’s pretty remarkable seeing this after watching what goes down during this title.

Warfare sets the viewer up with a platoon of American Navy SEALS on a surveillance mission in an insurgent territory of Iraq. Throughout the setup of this mission the silence and lack of action was so powerful when action gets going. I mentioned Oscar earlier. This is where it could win it. Any action after those intense silence moments sets the theatre a light with explosions that will shake you in your seat. Make sure to watch this in a theatre. The sound was incredible and the edit created so much suspense.

It’s a well crafted war film that’s definitely worth the view. Popped scoring of 8/10! Warfare is great. Stick around for the nitty gritty if you don’t mind some “story” spoilers.

Placing the thank you here to seperate my thoughts above to the Nitty Gritty below. So with that thank you for coming to Popped for your movie “Reviews” and looking forward to the week ahead. Sneaks on Thursday, followed by potentially sometime over the weekend or early next week, Sinners & The Wedding Banquet.

See you next batch on the Popped.blog 😀

Potential Spoiler Chat – The Nitty Gritty

Didn’t want to take away this from your movie going experience. So placing the nitty gritty at the bottom of this “Review”. Despite being a surveillance mission and not wanting to take away the fact this is based on real Navy SEALs literal memories.

The story / plot is the weakest for me personally. I got to the end feeling like nothing was achieved. Think of Warfare as a piece of action from a slice of War. You’re focused on a singular point of conflict without getting the bigger picture. To get this title into a stronger 8 and maybe even a 9. I’d love to have seen a bigger picture pull out and the impact of this surveillance mission on the overall war that’s occurring over Comms.

Maybe I missed something or the point trying to be communicated to the viewer but that’s the nitty gritty of it all. Had a great time watching this title but don’t go in expecting a story with mission objectives and a moving plot. Theirs a moving plot for the characters, emotion and for survival but you’re in place for the majority of this movie and A24 and the cast made it a worthy watch at the theatre.

If you read to the end I’d love to hear your thoughts on Warfare in the comments and what did you think of Civil War? Will A24 be releasing War movies like these every April going forth? I’m curious to see if their branching out the scope to a realistic global war movie that’s grounded like these on a small budget.

Thanks for coming by Popped and I’ll see you next batch.

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Drop “Review”

Release date: April 11, 2025 (USA)

Director: Christopher Landon

Producers: Michael Bay, Cameron Fuller, Jason Blum, Bradley Fuller

Language: English

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Box office: $3.4 million

Trailer was pretty cool and had me intrigued. Let’s discuss the final Drop of this weeks Batch.

Welcome to the final feature of today’s batch. Having seen the trailer ? There’s still a lot of enjoyment in this title. Does it show a lot of the thrill? Yea, but it doesn’t ruin it. The intro sure does hook you if the trailer hasn’t already.

Violet is a widowed mother trying to get back out there in the dating game. This feature is around that date and the craziness that consumes this date when Violet begins to receive Drop messages being sent to her cellphone.

A short movie of an hour and a half, it’s got good pacing and even has some extra fun for those that watched the trailer. (You know me and the battle against the spoilery trailer :D)

Everyone’s a potential suspect. So who’s your suspect in this mystery? Check out Drop at your local theatre to find out. Going to be fairly short with this one to avoid spoilers and all.

A solid good movie worth checking out with a 7/10 Popped score. Maybe a sequel in our future? We shall wait and see for what stories can be created. I’d love to learn more though but let’s discuss that in the comments :D.

Socials on this title are fairly high with 6.5 IMDb to 83% on RT.

Thanks for checking out this weeks triple batch of “Reviews”. Anything stand out to you? Something I missed (Other than Warfare. Seeing that Tomorrow/Monday). Lots of features releasing throughout April so it’ll be a busy month of movie going experiences and entertainment.

What title are you most looking forward to?

See you next batch!

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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 Amateur “Review”

Release date: April 11, 2025 (USA)

Director: James Hawes

Distributed by: 20th Century Studios

Based on: The Amateur; by Robert Littell

Budget: $60 million

Edited by: Jonathan Amos

Checked out the Chinese Theatre in LA after the Nintendo Switch 2 Hands On Event. Guess what we watched 😀 Haha buckle up for a triple batch “Review” starting with The Amateur.

So we’ve discussed recently the things a father would do to get back his daughter or that of the fatherly bond to return a daughter. How about taking that energy and seeking to revenge the death of your wife.

Laurence Fishburne (Playing Henderson) is back!(Thankfully because he’s awesome!) as Morpheus!? Not this time! Henderson aids our CIA Decoder Charlie Heller (Played by Rami Malek) in his training for revenge. Maybe some lessons along the way of what type of person Charlie is but firstly. The reason for why this movie exsists.

Rachel Brosnahan (Playing Sarah, Charlie’s wife..well.. yea wife 😀 :*(.. )

Watched this with my wife and she was in tears. She fell in love with this couple and made such an impact on the story and purpose for character motives and direction. This was a fun movie with much better pacing than similar movie Black Bag. My wife and I enjoyed this type of thriller being told with different methods for action than just guns. Lots of fun surprises even if the trailer showed 2 of the big kills.

This feature did feel a little long, maybe 20 minutes which is where I’m back and forth between a fine movie and a good one. Maybe if the seating was more comfortable it’d be a 7 and my wife had a good time with this one but wow I’ve been spoilt with Harkins Theatres. Their seats, popcorn quality, staff are all incredible and going to other theatres has definitely highlighted their charms and excellence. Big shout out to them after experiencing the IMAX Chinese Theatre in LA.

A weak 7/10 Popped score but a fun thriller that’s mostly being seen in that above to great rating on socials. 61% RT to 89% on Fandango. Stay tuned for a very different type of movie in this weeks batch. King of Kings.

Did you check out The Amateur this weekend? Love to hear your thoughts below. Thanks for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and don’t forget this is 1 of 3 for this batch :D.

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Freaky Tales “Review”

Release date: April 4, 2025 (USA)

Directors: Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden

Distributed by: Lionsgate Films

Music by: Raphael Saadiq

Production companies: Entertainment One Films; MACRO Media; Gowanus Projection

Was between this and luckiest man in America. Can’t speak for the latter but glad I checked out Freaky Tales 😀 was a solid good time.

Apologize for the lateness on this “Review”. I’m sure most theatres may have lost this title in their bookings this week with the amount of content releasing. That being said if you can find a showing. It’s worth checking out :D.

Freaky Tales is an interesting title. Telling a story across 4 chapters that interweaves even if slightly at first connects to make a solid good movie. I’d even say a weaker great movie. So what is it about?

Take Scott Pilgram vs The World & Kill Bill, with your main enemy being neo-Nazis set in 1987 Oakland California. Each chapter focuses on a different set of characters. From an NBA star, to a corrupt cop. Female rap duo and Punk teenagers. Sit back and enjoy this these freaky tales dealing with this group of Nazis.

Some surprise cameos in this title are so worth checking out and everyone did a great job in each role. Only thing that took me a bit to get into is the first chapter. It’s aspect ratio or quality was vastly different to chapters 2 through 4. It’s a creative choice but interesting for sure. Part 4 was what brought this solid 7 up into the 7.5/8 region for me personally.

Thus with that we come to presenting Freaky Tales with a great score of 8/10. Other platforms range from 72% to 88% with 91% of google users liking this movie. So people are thoroughly enjoying this title.

Have you checked out Freaky Tales? On your radar? Love to hear your thoughts on this one. Stay tuned throughout this week as several titles release.

Plan on “Reviewing” The Amateur, Drop, King of Kings, Warfare & Sneaks this week. So lots to look forward to as April ramps up. Before we get to May, keep an eye on Popped Dates for my Summer expectations / hopes and predictions :D.

Thanks for coming to Popped for your movie “Reviews” and we’ll see you, next batch.

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Hell of a Summer “Review”

Release date: April 4, 2025 (USA)

Directors: Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard

Distributed by: Neon

Box office: $1.8 million

Production companies: 30West; Aggregate Films

We’re back movie goers with a fun one – A trip to memory lane of older slasher movies in this campy fun Hell of a Summer.

Thoroughly enjoyed the pacing of this title. No stretching moments or story plots out. Sets title up. Shows you type of action and then goes into the introduction of our characters.

Great cast across the board here. From our camp lead Jason played by Fred Hechinger. Plays the old guy in the group quite awkward but charming qualities. Then our several counselors of Camp Pineway.

(Honestly there’s a lot of great younger actors here so let’s include them all. Skip this part if not interested.) From Finn Wolfhand playing Chris. His friend Bobby played by Billy Bryk. The popular ones Demi & Mike played by Pardis Saremi & D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. Supporting (Love?) interest – Claire & Shannon played by Abby Quinn & Krista Nazaire. Then our supporting characters with their own personal charms and personalities – Miley (Julia Doyle) – Ezra (Matthew Finlan) – Ari (Daniel Gravelle) – Noelle (Julia Lalonde).

What more can I say for this title honestly. It was a fun one. Half way in things start to heat up and then all the slasher fun begins. Loved all the surprises left out of the trailer. Was refreshing to see for a change.

Grab some popcorn and enjoy a solid 7/10 good experience packed with campy jokes and more camp like humor. Would love to hear yours thoughts on this one. Seems mixed online from 55% on RT, 6 on IMBD & Letterboxd. 98% of google users like the movie also which I’m curious how that’s calculated.

Anything I may have missed before we dive deeper into April that should be checked out? The Friend? Comes to mind but let me know if there’s others. Possibly Wednesday morning I’ll release a Popped Date while waiting in the queue for Comic Con Hotels Raffle :D.

See you all then and catch you Friday night with The Amateur “Review”. Big Nintendo Day that day for me 😀

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A Minecraft Movie “Review”

Release date: April 4, 2025 (USA)

Director: Jared Hess

Budget: $150 million

Producers: Jason Momoa, Vu Bui, Torfi Frans Ólafsson, Jill Messick, Mary Parent, Roy Lee, Jon Berg, Cale Boyter

Story by: Allison Schroeder; Chris Bowman; Hubbel Palmer

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures, Legendary Entertainment

Well, Well, Well, It’s finally crafted itself into existence……wish it hadn’t.

Jack Black is back again and despite Jason Momoa and himself trying to pull the wool over your eyes that you’re having a good time. This movie was a freak train wreck through and through. I’m honestly so confused by what I’ve just watched I’m like was this bad bad or bad good bad.

Honestly it’s bad. It speed runs the intro. Setting up little of the world, specially for those with little to no knowledge of the franchise. The jokes are just Jack Black trying to capture the days of School of Rock with Momoa by his-side. How’d this thing get past a test screening.

Just as Sonic & Mario with a slight boost with Detective Pikachu started to turn the tables on bad video game movies. We have this and Borderlands showing us how little we’ve grown away from those times. We’re a tug of war battle away from loosing the bad video game movie stigma and I’m not appreciating it. Mario Bros 2 launches next year, FNAF is end of this year. Followed by more Sonic & now Legend of Zelda. Please slow down and think of what you’re creating and why Sonic & Mario worked.

Again some of this is god awful and maybe would make you laugh at how dumb it is but seriously even if the fans of the franchise were hating this. It’s freaking stupid. Bonus point for you all. My fave thing to point out it seems. The freaking end scene is in the trailer! Like WHAT! STOP showing off your end scenes in the trailer. I’m so over it. Seriously I was thinking of a 3.5 but Cap4 was better than this. Honestly after watching this and Death of a Unicorn Cap4 needs to be bumped up slightly because now I’m feeling bad for it. Yea it showed off this ending material but it’s at least somewhat good despite that.

Going with a 2.5/10 to join Screamboat. What a waste of the evening. Maybe I need sleep from being price shook by Nintendo but hey that’s the world we’re living in and the timeline that’s playing out.

Plan to check out Minecraft. A fan or new to series? Love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Maybe the sequel will be better…… shudder!

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Screamboat “Review”

Release date: April 2025 (USA)

Director: Steven LaMorte

Producers: Steven LaMorte, Amy Schumacher, Michael Leavy, Steven Della Salla, Martine Melloul

Distributed by: Iconic Events

Based on: Steamboat Willie; by: Walt Disney; Ub Iwerks

Music by: Yael Benamour; Charles-Henri Avelange

Shall we rapid fire today’s “review” batch.

Maybe more inline for those into Terrifier? (I never really sat down to watch the series) but Screamboat had a lot of promise for a B rated horror movie. Sadly it outstayed its welcome going on 30minutes to long and tried to wrap the feature up for a sequel / series.

Honestly I hoped it was so bad it’s good but it’s just bad. With some enjoyment for the first hour then walk out honestly. (Unless you’re digging it). Once the addition of the whore birthday party of Disney Princess’s left center stage this movie was between Willie and some random human characters that bored the poopdeck outta me.

Why was Pete a human and not recreated like Willie was? Is his public domain on a separate timeline? Honestly New York vs Willie Mouse wasn’t what I signed up for.

Honestly, enjoy the first hour. If you’re not committed then walk out and catch it on streaming. It’s lower than streamer and lower than so bad it’s good. Popped Score of 2.5/10.

I’ll update the bottom 5 list tomorrow. It’s been a long day with the Switch 2 Direct and then staying up for this batch but hey. That’s showbiz baby 😀 Gotta keep on keeping on to hit 100 :D. Honestly I after this evenings batch I may take the weekend off….. yea get ready for the next one.

Watching this to tempt me into Terrifier franchise wasn’t the smartest move but hey, go watch it with a group. Maybe get drunk before or get ready to cheese over this. Enjoy the classic tunes and whistles. Mixed with Joker laugh. Maybe you’ll have an okay time.

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