nicolas-cage – Popped!

Release date: May 2, 2025 (USA)

Director: Lorcan Finnegan

Starring: Nicolas Cage; Julian McMahon; Nic Cassim; Miranda Tapsell; Alexander Bertrand; Justin Rosniak

MPAA rating: R

Running time: 1h 43m

Producers: Nicolas Cage, Leonora Darby, Robert Connolly · See more

Solid trailer got me in the theater to check this title out.

The Surfer had me mesmerized throughout. Let’s discuss 😀

Avoid spoilers at all costs, but also, if you were told what goes down in this movie. You probably wouldn’t believe them anyway. This is a good kind of bizarre and weird. The type of weird I’m happy to lose myself within for hours as I navigate the story and what’s going on.

The Surfer, staring Nicolas Cage (In what could be his best movie since 2020? I’ve missed a few since then but this is on another level) as The Surfer :p is a father taking his son to surf on an Australian beach in Cage’s childhood beach. This is until the locals “politely” let them know “Don’t live here, Don’t surf here” before you go on an adventure.

Story wise I’m leaving it here. Go explore. Try not get heat stroke and attempt to stay grounded. Reading some reviews online this is going to be very divided. Again, this is the type of weird and bizarre shit that I’ll shovel into my mouth for breakfast and be cracked out on sugar for the entire day. Loved it!

I’ll need to watch it again to connect more dots and dissect this feature but damn was it a Gooden. Buckle in for a trippy ride and either enjoy it or it seems totally hate it? No middle ground with this one. Socials have it from 45% on Fandango to 87 on RT.

For popped I’m placing this in with last years “Last Stop In Yuma County” with a 9/10 and entering my top 10 list for 2025 thus far.

Fantastic performance all around. Great pacing and tone. Loved the build up and pay offs along the way. Setups and all, loved this title. Can’t wait to watch again with others and discuss.

Speaking of which. Like to discuss this in the comments below I’d be curious your thoughts. Keep spoilers labeled and let’s have fun with it.

Thanks for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and we’ll see you next batch Thursday with a couple of interesting ones all going well. Fight in Flight & Clown in the Cornfield.

Release date: July 19, 2024 (USA)

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Music by: Benjamin Wallfisch

Story by: Joseph Kosinski

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures

Based on: Characters; by: Michael Crichton; Anne-Marie Martin

Debated separating these two reviews as I’m behind. To be honest you’re not missing out on anything so lets tame the beast of these two.

Twisters starts off with a fun group of characters and loved seeing Nik Dodani…..however, that’s shortly lived before you’re left with the worst character of the movie Javi played by Anthony Ramos.

Every time he was on screen I was tuning out. I’d have cut his whole character out. Focused on David Corenswet (The new Superman) being the opposing group and made a better movie.

There’s some stakes created about an hour in. That’s ruined by the lack luster energy going into the finale. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s only just above average with a tornado level of 5.5 / 6 out of 10.

Loved Glen Powell and his wrangler buddy. The tornado wranglers were the best parts of the movie. Honestly thinking back to how tuned out I was after that intro I’d go with a 5.5 / 10 barely above average movie. Let’s get into Longlegs a better movie but still only a 1 time viewing experience.

Release date: July 12, 2024 (USA)

Director: Oz Perkins

Distributed by: Neon

Budget: <$10 million

Cinematography: Andrés Arochi

Produced by: Dan Kagan; Brian Kavanaugh-Jones; Nicolas Cage; Dave Caplan; Chris Ferguson

It’s a good thing these movies are cheap to make because this is very niche audience focused horror movie. I wont spoil this movie as for some, this is a good movie with some aspects preventing it from being better.

On the contrary the reason why people don’t like this movie as much are the reasons why I enjoyed it. So check it out and be prepared for a slow burn of a feature before getting into the good stuff.

Even then the good stuff is short lived with Nicolas Cage on screen. I wanted more from his character! That being said this had some excellent performances in moments however it wasn’t enough to keep myself and my brother in law engaged as he ended up falling asleep during this.

A 1 time viewing experience for sure but I wouldn’t go above a 6.5/10 into a solid good. Just a good for this one.

All going well next week Deadpool & Wolverine comes to save the end of summer 2024. Some gems dropping between then and November. Let me know what Fall movies you’re looking forward to after D&W.

Thanks for reading this double dose of ehh and here’s hoping we can fill the top 10 with 9’s before December. I believe there’s 4 more titles left to bump off then the true contenders fight it out for the 2024 top 10 list for Popped. Blog

Tag: nicolas-cage

The Surfer “Review”

Twisters “Review” & Longlegs “Review