80 For Brady January 20, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Lighter than a feather and filled with enough New England Patriots propaganda to get itself banned in Atlanta, Buffalo, New York, and Miami, 80 for Brady would probably have cleaned up at this year’s AARP Movies for Grownups Awards if it had been given a timely qualifying release. Of course, there’s always next year, where there’s potential for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon to be upstaged in the categories of “Best Buddy Picture” and “Best Intergenerational Film.” At the time of the film’s announcement, famed Patriots/Buccaneers Quarterback Tom Brady had just announced his retirement from football after 22 seasons, which included 7 Super Bowl titles, 3 NFL MVP honors, 15 Pro Bowl selections, as well as an extended list of other career achievements. It does take a certain amount of hubris on Brady’s part for his first post-football move to be the commissioning of a movie about four fans who worship him as a god. Granted, this is inspired by a true story, even if the script by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins, part of the writing team behind 2019’s Booksmart , takes some very creative liberties with the truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UeGXB2NjR8 The 80 in 80 for Brady denotes the ages of four friends who have centered their strong friendship over their love of Tom Brady and his New England Patriots. It all started on September 23, 2001 (a date celebrated every year by Patriots fans) when Lou (Lily Tomlin) was stuck at home recovering from her last round of chemotherapy. Her close friends Trish (Jane Fonda), Maura (Rita Moreno), and Betty (Sally Field) tried to entertain her by getting the TV to work, but it was stuck on one channel. At that exact moment, young Tom Brady steps into the pocket after regular starter Drew Bledsoe was taken out of the game due to a nasty sack. From there, the rest is history, for both Brady and his cohort of dedicated octogenarian fans. Fast forward to 2017 and the Patriots are going to another Super Bowl. Instead of staying home like they always do, the group decides to make the trip down to Houston for the big game. “The Super Bowl is no place for four old women,” says Maura, who happens to be right. But that statement being true is what makes for the most of the fun within 80 for Brady , as four Hollywood legends with effortless charm and chemistry blaze through the biggest event of the year. Much of the material is light and fun, made to purely entertain you for the ninety-eight-minute runtime and nothing more. And compared to most of the entries in this specific genre, which include Book Club (plus its upcoming sequel) and Poms , this one works fairly well. Moreno, who technically doesn’t qualify for the club, considering she’s 91, clearly has the most fun within the ensemble. It’s unfortunate that the only dance routine within the film is poorly choreographed and doesn’t allow the original cinematic Anita to show off her long-lived talent. There are some attempts at drama, but it’s all so clean and shallow that it barely even registers. The stakes are pretty much nonexistent, and the jokes can be seen from a mile away. Director Kyle Marvin keeps everything breezy, and cinematographer John Toll (recipient of two Academy Awards) makes the Super Bowl festivities look as appealing as possible. Football fans may not be totally won over by 80 for Brady , but its intended audience of retirees will undoubtedly eat it up. And in a time when one of the largest sustainers of adult theatrical programming is not returning to the cinema, we’ll take all the help we can get. So, take your parents and/or grandparents out for a nice time, and maybe try to convince them to get back into their old cinemagoing habits. Paramount Pictures will release 80 for Brad y in theaters nationwide on February 03rd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Mercy January 21, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen As a proud Minnesotan, Mercy really isn’t the right movie for the moment. Now entering its third week, the ongoing inhumane ICE raids throughout the Minneapolis area have ravaged the community, forcing citizens to fear those who have supposedly sworn to protect them. Minnesotans have always exemplified a strong communal spirit, so we will prevail. Within the opening scenes of Mercy , there are several moments where masked law enforcement officers arrest vaguely defined bad guys. These officers then make speeches about how they are doing what needs to be done to uphold the law. The country is at war with its morals, and the wrong side is winning. In fairness to Mercy , it was conceived, written, and produced years before today’s headlines, and it certainly had no intention (or courage) to make a statement. But this is also a movie that is not right for any moment, with little to warrant the amount of time and energy that went into its creation. January is always good for one movie that a studio would like to bury with as little fanfare as possible. Mercy is this year’s poster child, falling in line alongside such classics as Flight Risk , The 355 , Mortdecai , Dolittle , Serenity , and the bulk of the Underworld movies. We’ll at least always have my beloved The Beekeeper . Perhaps the only redeeming quality this film has is the presence of a 50-foot-tall Rebecca Ferguson, domineering over her chained-up prisoners. I’d imagine someone will get a kick out of that (not me, of course…). Her existence is a function of the Mercy Program, which has rapidly usurped the traditional legal system within Los Angeles County. Things such as rights and due process were clogging the judicial pipeline, so an artificial intelligence system was promoted to the simultaneous roles of judge, jury, and executioner. In this courtroom, you’re guilty until proven innocent, and you only have ninety minutes to overturn the verdict. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSS4yqd0x6o Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) was an early proponent of this new system, arresting many of its initial convicts. Now the shoe is on the other foot, with him being locked in the steel chair. The system anthropomorphizes itself through Judge Maddox (Rebecca Reguson), whose sleek looks are matched by the coldness it displays towards humanity. Facts and logic trump emotions, which run hot as Chris stands trial for the alleged murder of his wife, Nicole. Within his allotted time, Chris is given full access to the municipal database, which pretty much lets him do whatever the plot needs of him. An authoritarian near-future sci-fi plot such as this shares several ideas with Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report , which imagines a world where supposedly incorruptible foreknowledge can be used to prevent a crime before it is even committed. Director Steven Spielberg and screenwriters Scott Frank and Jon Cohen brought thought-provoking nuance to this concept in the 2002 film adaptation starring Tom Cruise. Humans no longer trust themselves to be their own police, somehow thinking that a system built by them will be a better replacement. Freedom has been traded away in favor of alleged security. Mercy fully lacks any interest or ability to mingle with those ideals. Director Timur Bekmambetov and screenwriter Marco van Belle would rather disorient the viewer than engage with them. Legal jargon and plot revelations fly at an increasingly accelerated pace, all of it seemingly pulled out of thin air to service whatever needs to happen at this exact moment. And not to spoil the ending, but this film cowardly talks out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to artificial intelligence, government surveillance, and the increased militarization of the police. Bekmambetov was also a leading producer for last year’s Ice Cube-starring War of the Worlds , a cinematic calamity that will always be easy to laugh at. That film was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, employing the “Screenlife” strategy to make it appear as if the film's events were unfolding on a computer monitor. Used more as a cost-cutting measure rather than a means to upend the cinematic grammar, this aesthetic wholly lacks any sense of cinematic integrity. War of the Worlds at least had the benefit of solely being watched at home through Amazon Prime. Mercy putting it all on a silver screen is just lame, hitting way too close to my usual experience at work. A significant portion of this film’s marketing budget has been used to promote its release in IMAX 3D, a format I imagine would be an absolute nightmare to experience. Pratt is a terrific star when given the chance to feed off other people’s energy, such as in the many seasons of Parks and Recreation and the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. This film fully strips away that asset, locking him in a single location, devoid of all humor or thrills. Rebecca Ferguson gets even less to do as the artificial overlord, dryly reciting lines and mugging for the camera anytime a music sting cues a reveal. This story offers little mercy to their careers and to its audience. Luckily, I’ll be able to get my revenge a year from now when we’re able to discuss the worst films of 2026. Amazon MGM Studios will release Mercy in theaters nationwide on January 23rd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Greatest Beer Run Ever October 5, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Peter Farrelly, the newly claimed king of oversimplification of American history, has made his grand return from his fruitful Green Book campaign to bring us a, you guessed it, oversimplified take on American history. Staying within the same period as Green Book , but shifting locations across the world, Farrelly’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever (which he was able to rope Apple TV+ into fully funding, which has now completely abandoned with an unceremonious dump onto their streaming platform) is here to tell you that the Vietnam War was bad for everyone involved, America included. Cue the dramatic reveal music . Of course, I’m only half-kidding. But that ironic reaction is understandable (and one that many critics share ) for a film that has such broadly low ambitions and often overplays the same beats across a slightly bloated 126-minute runtime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqxziDlZOIo Fortunately for Farrelly, just as he had two Oscar-caliber performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali to shield him from some of the flak within Green Book , he has a more-than-capable Zac Efron to deflect most of the negatives here. The High School Musical alum has been willing to step outside of his comfort zone in the past couple of years, handing his dashing good looks over to filmmakers who can use them to their film’s advantage. Both Joe Berligner and Harmony Korine were able to deliver a wild one-two punch in 2019 with Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile and The Beach Bum . The Greatest Beer Run Ever seems to be the culmination of that hard work, as he delivers an effortlessly comedic performance with tinges of tragedy when required. Efron stars as John “Chickie'” Donahue in this wild true story. It’s 1967, and America is at war… again. But unlike every other war in our nation’s history, no one, including the patriotic Chickie, knows who we’re fighting for, or who we’re against. Many of his friends have already been killed, each one of them labeled as heroes for “dying for their country,” a sentiment that Chickie’s rebellious sister doesn’t share as she conducts protests within the community. Since he doesn’t agree with protesting the war, Chickie (half-drunkenly) decides that the best way to show his support for our troops would be to go over to Vietnam and bring them a beer. Just like any friend who shoots their mouth a little too much, no one believes Chickie will go over there, which, in turn, makes him want to go even more as a way to prove that he’s not a big-mouth screw-up. So, he boards a vessel to complete, as the title would suggest, the greatest beer run ever. Re-teaming with his Green Book co-writer Brian Currie and Hall Pass co-writer Pete Jones , the trio finds many moments to showcase Chickie’s overoptimism about his odds of survival, which gets him labeled as “a guy too dumb to get killed.” The first hour exemplifies this quite well, with a few set pieces, such as one where Chickie fakes being a CIA agent or another time when he hides under some blankets to surprise his friend who just ran through a field of bullets to meet him. Efron’s enthusiasm is contagious, even if it often leads to moments where you question how much danger his mission puts other people in. Farrelly pivots away from slapstick to a darker brand of comedy once we pass the hour mark, giving us an uneven morality tale of how war is hell. There are some odd musical choices for serious scenes, and just an overall sense of “been there, done that” with the messaging. Russell Crowe’s late integration as a wartime photographer offers an interesting buddy dynamic between him and Efron, but Farrelly dispatches him too quickly before any lasting impact can be felt. Did critics put out the hit on Farrelly after he “stole” the Oscar for Best Picture from Alfonso Cuarón and Roma ? That may be a minor part of the truth, but there’s also the fact that Farrelly has once again taken an interesting true story and accomplished nothing more than turning it into a feel-good story about how obviously bad things were. There could be worse things in the world, such as watching Farrelly’s recent work of Dumb and Dumber To and Movie 43 . There’s not enough beer to make me want to do that again. Apple Original Films will release The Greatest Beer Run Ever in select theaters on September 23rd, followed by its streaming premiere on September 30th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

25 Most Anticipated Films of 2024 January 15, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen Here we are at the top of the year with nothing to do but look ahead to what awaits us. As always, there’s so much on paper that looks appetizing, with just as many more still unknown. Some of the movies on this list should have come out last, and some of these still might not come out until 2025. The double WGA-SAG strikes have put a dent in the normal flow of business, with the only remedy being time. Everything is a guessing game, a fun one nonetheless. This takes us to the first ground rule for this list, which is that there must be some sort of verifiable evidence that a film is going to be released this year. It either must be in production, post-production, completed, or even mentioned in a reputable article that it’s on its way. We also won’t count films that have already been seen in public, whether that’s at festivals or theatrical releases in other territories. Join me as I delve into the most anticipated movies of 2024, each poised to leave an indelible mark on the cinematic landscape. Get ready to navigate the sea of upcoming releases that promise to redefine the art of storytelling and captivate audiences worldwide. Honorable Mentions C’est Pas Moi (dir. Leos Carax) Juror #2 (dir. Clint Eastwood) In the Hands of Dante (dir. Julian Schnabel) Civil War (dir. Alex Garland) Wolfs (dir. Jon Watts) Emanuelle (dir. Audrey Diwan) 24. Rebel Ridge Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier reteams with Netflix for another tense and violent thriller. Aaron Pierre ( Foe ), Don Johnson, James Badge Dale, and James Cromwell lead the cast in this small-town conspiracy actioner that follows an ex-marine taking on a group of dirty cops. Saulnier’s last film was Hold the Dark in 2018, with his earlier films, Blue Ruin and Green Room , netting him some serious acclaim. Expect this to hit the fall festivals. 23. The Shrouds Even at the age of 80, David Cronenberg hasn’t lost an ounce of energy. He’s recently finished production on his follow-up to 2022’s Crimes of the Future , with the most likely landing spot being this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Diane Kruger will feature in three roles, with Vincent Cassel starring as a wealthy widower who builds a machine to connect with the dead. 22. The Rivals of Amziah King Writer/director Andrew Patterson made one of the best directorial debuts of the past few years with 2020’s The Vast of Night . He’s both writing and directing his follow-up, which is a crime thriller starring Matthew McConaughey as the titular character. The plot is still under wraps, with filming finishing last year in Oklahoma. Kurt Russell and Rob Morgan also star. 21. Voyagers Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones reteam after Under the Banner of Heaven for this biopic directed by Sebastián Lelio ( A Fantastic Woman, Gloria Bell ). Garfield will play Carl Sagan, with Edgar-Jones as Cosmos filmmaker Ann Druyan. Before the pair married, they worked together on The Golden Record, the ultimate message of humanity to extraterrestrial life for the 1977 NASA interstellar probe. 20. Here Robert Zemeckis is in desperate need of a hit, and this reteaming with Forrest Gump stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, as well as writer Eric Roth, seems to be his best chance yet. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, this ambitious yet intimate drama “covers the events of a single room and its inhabitants spanning from the past well into the future.” And it wouldn’t be a Zemeckis film without some sort of technical wizardry, with generative A.I. providing face swap and de-aging technology for the actors. 19. Horizon: An American Saga Kevin Costner is going the Matrix and Rebel Moon route by releasing both parts of his Western epic within the same summer. Costner co-writes, produces, directs, and stars, with Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, and many more rounding the sizable cast. It’s been 20 years since Costner last directed (2003’s Open Range ), so here’s hoping he’s still got the magic from Dances with Wolves in him. 18. Eden Ron Howard has assembled one of his finest casts yet for this sprawling story of several people leaving society to converge on the Galapagos Islands. Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney, and Felix Kammerer comprise the group, with Tetris writer Noah Pink penning the script. Distribution is still up for grabs, with the best possible scenario being that it doesn’t go to Amazon after they executed an insulting release for his excellent Thirteen Lives just a few years ago. 17. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga My faith in George Miller is enough to overcome the lackluster trailer for this Mad Max prequel. The 77-year-old Australian director is fearless when it comes to the desert, with Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth venturing out with him. The film will likely repeat the path of the 2015 film, bowing at Cannes before making a scene in theaters. 16. Gladiator 2 Ridley Scott is on a bit of a period-piece hot streak (I guess it depends on who you ask) between The Last Duel , House of Gucci , and Napoleon . He’s previously done the sequels for the Alien and The Silence of the Lambs franchises, and now he’s returning to one of his most famous properties: Gladiator . Paul Mescal plays the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus, with Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal lending their movie star names to the cast. 15. Untitled Mike Leigh Film After his last two films were period pieces ( Mr. Turner and Peterloo ), famed British director Mike Leigh is “returning to his ongoing exploration of the contemporary world with a tragicomic study of human strengths and weaknesses.” The film was originally set to film in 2020 before being delayed by the pandemic, finally starting and wrapping this past summer. Leigh has been a Cannes staple over the past several decades, so expect him to try and make a grand return to the Croisette. 14. Havoc Writer/director Gareth Evans is the mastermind behind the two The Raid films, both of which have a legitimate claim to be the best action movie of the past decade. Shot in 2021 and supposedly set to come this year, his latest action feature stars Tom Hardy as a “bruised detective who must fight his way through the criminal underworld to rescue a politician's estranged son, unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city.” Evans’ latest film was 2018’s Apostle from Netflix, and he’ll team up with the streamer again for distribution. 13. Mother Mary As one of the first films to secure a production waiver during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, David Lowery’s Mother Mary should be all set to bow this year. Anne Hathaway stars as a musician as we follow her relationship with a fashion designer, played by Michaela Coel. Hunter Schafer also stars in this A24 epic pop melodrama, with an original score and songs by Daniel Hart and Charli XCX. 12. Maria Pablo Larraín concludes his biopic trilogy consisting of Jackie and Spencer by moving further east to Paris, specifically in the 1970s. Angelina Jolie stars as Maria Callas, one of the world’s greatest opera singers, during her final days in The City of Light. Spencer scribe Steven Knight returns to pen the script, and El Conde cinematographer Ed Lachman will stay behind the camera. 11. Mickey 17 Not much explanation is needed for the reason behind the hype for Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to Parasite . The South Korean writer/director has been patient ever since hoisting the Academy Award for Best Picture, finally returning to Hollywood for an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel. Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Steven Yeun, and Naomi Ackie are the on-screen talent; with Jung Jae-il (composer), Darius Khondji (cinematographer), and Jinmo Yang (editor) headlining the crew. 10. The Order Assassin’s Creed aside, Australian director Justin Kurzel has crafted one of the most underrated filmographies of the past fifteen years. His striking visuals and bold direction lifted both Macbeth and Nitram into my Top 10 of their respective years, and that grittiness will only continue with his newest film. Nicholas Hoult plays an FBI agent tracking down a group of domestic terrorists robbing banks in the Pacific Northwest who are led by Jude Law. Kurzel has bowed his films at both Cannes and TIFF in the past, so a glitzy premiere at either location seems to be in the cards. 9. Nosferatu Between his first three features, Robert Eggers has proved himself to be a master of gothic horror, so it makes sense for him to tackle one of the most famous gothic characters in cinema history. A great cast comprised of Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp, and Willem Dafoe has already featured in some kick-ass first-look images. With a planned Christmas Day release, here’s hoping for this to become the feel-bad movie of the holidays. 8. Dune: Part Two While I respected and appreciated the first part more than I actually liked it, there’s never a moment where I’m not excited about a new Denis Villeneuve film. It also doesn’t hurt to have new cast additions in Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Léa Seydoux, and Christopher Walken. Will this be the conclusion of Paul’s story, or be the second chapter in a trilogy? Either way, there’s so much to look forward to here. 7. Blitz After detours into television ( Small Axe ) and documentaries ( Occupied City ), director Steve McQueen is returning to feature filmmaking with a drama set during The Blitz bombing campaign of London in early WWII. Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, and Stephen Graham lead the ensemble cast. Cannes boss Thierry Frémaux presumably let it slip last year that the film was going to premiere at the 2024 edition of the festival, along with the fact that Apple will be making it their top awards priority. 6. Conclave I only need to read the logline to know that this film will be right up my alley: “It follows Cardinal Lomeli as he oversees the group of Cardinals responsible for selecting a new Church leader while trying to uncover a secret from the late Pontiff.” Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rosellini pack the cast, with All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger at the helm, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy scribe Peter Straughan writing the screenplay. 5. The Brutalist Brady Corbet made one of the most divisive films of 2018 with Vox Lux , which turned out to be one of my favorite films of that year. His next feature has been stuck in development limbo for years, finally breaking last year with a cast led by Adrien Brody as an architect who moves to America after WWII to rebuild his life and career. Felicity Jones plays his wife, with Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, and Raffey Cassidy also part of the cast. Based on Corbet’s previous works, there will definitely be more under the surface that won’t be revealed until the projectors start churning. 4. Joker: Folie à Deux In a similar vein to Dune , the original Joker wasn’t one of my most beloved films of 2019. And yet; bringing back Joaquin Phoenix while adding Lady Gaga, and crafting this sequel in the form of a Liza Minnelli musical is too irresistible to ignore. While the majority of comic-book movies are cookie-cutter and forgettable, here’s something that sounds like it’s going to challenge its audience. 3. The Way of the Wind Terrence Malicks’s upcoming film about the life of Jesus Christ makes its fourth consecutive appearance on this list (They shot this movie in 2019!). And to be honest, I’d say it’s more likely than not that it’ll be here again next year. Religion has always played a large role in Malick’s filmography, so the prospect of him going straight to the source will make for an unforgettable spiritual experience. 2. Megalopolis Sure, Francis Ford Coppola hasn’t made a decent movie in over 25 years. But when you’re the director of The Godfather trilogy, The Conversation , and Apocalypse Now , you get a free pass for life. He’s poured over $100 million of his own money into his likely final film, with a script he’s been trying to film for almost four years. Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Giancarlo Esposito, and Shia LaBeouf lead the cast. Driver supposedly plays the lead, an architect looking to rebuild New York City after a disaster. For better or for worse, this will be an experiment that any self-proclaimed cinephile has to witness. 1. Kinds of Kindness Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone aren’t letting the success of Poor Things slow down their collaborative process one bit, with the pair having already shot their third feature together this past year. Poor Things cast members Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley star alongside Jesse Plemons, Hunter Schafer, Hong Chau, and more. Lanthimos co-wrote the screenplay with his usual partner Efthimis Filippou, their first collaboration since The Killing of a Sacred Deer . Three separate stories will be told, with the cast playing different characters in each one. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

El Conde September 6, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Whether it’s Jackie Kennedy regaining her composure and building her husband’s legacy after his assassination, Diana Spencer trying to survive a haunted house and its demonic inhabitants over a holiday weekend, or Pablo Neruda being hunted down like a dog, Chilean director Pablo Larraín has repeatedly brought his own unique vision to the biopic genre. His protagonists are not 100% mimicries of their real-life counterparts (that’s not to discredit the outstanding performances of Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart), instead, they’re distillations of their spirit and persona, allowing room for interpretation and speculation. It’s what makes them feel so real, as they’re not tied to the track of traditional biopic storytelling. El Conde (translating to “The Count”) is Larraín’s most radical form of interpretation, as it theorizes that the person with the darkest heart in all of Chilean history, dictator Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell), actually was a creature of the night. More accurately: a vampire. He was born to unknown parents during the French Revolution, witnessing the beheading of Marie Antoinette and even stealing her disconnected head and keeping it as a trophy all these centuries later. Over time, he traveled around the world and rose through the ranks, landing in Chile (“a country without a king,” says the mysteriously contemptuous narrator) and enacting a coup d’état. He was eventually thrown out of power, forcing him to fake his death, which sees just as many people salute his casket as those who spit on it. Now he’s a literal walking corpse living in a rickety old compound, one where the wind is always howling, and his only company is his idiotic children, bored wife, and loyal butler, all of whom wait impatiently for him to die and bequeath them their inheritance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGvX7ma7Xnk Larraín takes the metaphorical violence within Jackie and Spencer and turns it into literal violence in El Conde . As all vampires must do, Pinochet feeds on the living, following a regimen that involves slicing victims’ throats, ripping open their ribcages, and plucking out their still-beating hearts. And then he places those hearts in a blender and drinks every last drop. Still keeping a modicum of a metaphor, these victims are usually the working-class people of Chile, those unlucky enough to be in the path of the charging bull of history. These acts of brutality have an unsubtle and morbid humor to them, with the joke eventually running just as thin as the premise. Beating that dead horse is the introduction of an outsider to the family, a nun (Paula Luchsinger, sporting a haircut and eyes that make her a dead ringer for Maria Falconetti from The Passion of Joan of Arc ) who intends to be a catalyst for the familial backstabbing and drive a literal stake through the heart of the beast. She talks to each of the adult children as if they were toddlers, speaking down to the audience as she recounts the horrible acts the family has committed, including nothing short of murder and corruption. It borders on pandering like Adam McKay on his worst day, and becomes quickly redundant as Pinochet literally sucks the blood out of the country. Cinematographer Edward Lachman, a frequent collaborator with Todd Haynes, breathes the necessary life into the film by draining it of its color. The monochrome black-and-white cast big shadows, with the blood of the innocent painting around those dark corners. A baroque score ties the final knot in the film’s impressive gothic details. This could be considered Larraín’s most impressive production. El Conde doesn’t have as much bite as its fangs might suggest, but Larraín packs just enough passion and wit into his material to make it pop. He’s just announced his biopic trilogy capper, Maria, starring Angelina Jolie as the famed opera singer Maria Callas. I look forward to seeing the possibility of the heightened nature of this satire melding with his previous work. Netflix will release El Conde in select theaters on September 8th, followed by its streaming premiere on September 15th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Love Lies Bleeding March 13, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen From its neon-drenched cinematography, pulpy story, casting of Jena Malone, and Clint Mansell’s electronic score, one could be fooled into thinking that Love Lies Bleeding is the cinematic return of Danish bad-boy filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn. Blood red tinges over the studio logos, and the opening shot traverses up an abyss so deep that it would make James Cameron blush. The camera keeps moving into a gym at the center of a podunk desert town. Sweat is dripping off every face, muscles are firm and perpetually flexed, the cardio machines are always whirring, and the clanging of weights punctuates each roid rage-induced grunt. Writer/director Sean Durkin showed the peak of the male physique with The Iron Claw , and now it’s time for Rose Glass to do the same for the ladies in her sophomore feature. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AULR_GPteNQ At the helm of the gym is Lou (Kristen Stewart), a lonesome and frantic person who’s never had a life outside the ten square miles that surround her. Her job is demeaning, dealing with alpha bros “getting their gains” and cleaning toilets by hand. All that changes when Jackie (Katy O’Brian) blows in with the tumbleweeds. Lou has never met anyone like Jackie, which is unsurprising since no one in the world is like Jackie. She’s an aspiring bodybuilder on her way to the national championships in Las Vegas, this town being just another stop on her solo journey. Also in the mix is Lou’s father (Ed Harris), the proprietor of a gun range that’s riding high off the gun fetishization in Die Hard . But that’s just a front for all the criminal activities that go on behind the back door, with Lou’s POS brother-in-law (Dave Franco) also participating. Glass does show many similarities to Refn in her direction. Improving on what she displayed with her 2019 debut Saint Maud , Glass wrings tension out of every scene. The sound effects are ratcheted up to eleven, with pumping of blood through veins and flexing of muscles being treated with both reverence and horror. Every character is ready to pop at any moment, each outburst promising gory results that beg you to look away. As a corkscrew rollercoaster, it makes sense that Love Lies Bleeding also packs a steamy love story between Lou and Jackie. Their power dynamics may be obvious physically, but there’s never a moment when either is fixed in their position. Stewart and O’Brian have excellent chemistry together, both emboldened by Glass to crank up the heat. Neither of them is one-note; with Stewart displaying repressed strength for the timid Lou, and O’Brian showing compassion to counter her hulking physique. With his long flowing mane (just cut it off, man!), Harris is a deadbeat criminal genius from hell. He fills in the gaps of characterization for his antagonistic role, and so does Franco with his nasty mullet. Glass may also swing for the fences a little too much near the end, resulting in some foul balls instead of the expected hits. But it’s easy to forgive the ambition, as there’s a lot here that you haven’t seen much of before. And with Refn out of the picture for now (and not in his peak form), there’s a vacancy for the role of delivering the unhinged pulp we so desperately crave. A24 will release Love Lies Bleeding in select theaters on March 08th, followed by a nationwide expansion on March 15th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

A Real Pain October 24, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Without having seen Jesse Eisenberg’s freshman feature as a writer/director, When You Finish Saving the World , I can already tell you that his sophomore work, A Real Pain , is a major improvement. You can just feel the extra confidence that Eisenberg has in every facet of his production, so much so that he even allowed himself the time and space to be in front of the camera this time around, sharing it with Kieran Culkin to create a wonderful buddy dramedy. Joan Didion said it best when she told her readers: “I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment.” Although I’m fairly confident that Benji (Culkin) has never come across these words, it’s the mantra he lives by. “You meet the craziest people here,” he says as he explains to his cousin David (Eisenberg) why he arrived at the airport several hours earlier than he needed to. This was all while David frantically left several voicemails to him, worrying about every detail about their flight and trip to Poland to discover exactly where their Holocaust-surviving grandmother came from. They’re yin and yang, although the poles they inhabit aren’t as separated as you would believe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2et8Vpu7Ls In actuality, when we first see Benji, he’s sitting alone in the airport with a dead look on his face. It’s only when David’s right in front of him that he sports his trademarked charismatic humor. That cycle repeats again and again throughout their trip, with Benji lighting up the room every time he interacts with the few other people accompanying them on the tour. David just kind of floats on by, exchanging pleasantries all while keeping to himself. For the most part, that opening shot in the airport is the only time we ever see Benji alone. For as much as this is a two-handed film (a major reason why Culkin running in the Best Supporting Actor category at this year’s Oscars is grounds for fraud), everything comes from David's perspective. Small details come to light, such as Benji having a much deeper relationship with their grandmother, which they realized, and the fact that despite the two of them essentially being joined at the hip as kids, this is the first time they’ve interacted in months. Each discovery brings a new meaning to the smiles and nonchalance of Benji, whom we incrementally see as a person of great contrasts. As a writer, Eisenberg displays a deft touch in balancing the highs and lows of this journey. At its heart, this trip across the world is about reconciliation and grief, reaching its peak when, while smoking weed on the roof of their hotel, the cousins have nothing left to talk about except the elephant in the room. They’ve each grown up in different directions, running away from their problems and themselves. But this is also a very funny movie filled with American tourist antics and one-liners. One would think that it would be nearly impossible for both Culkin and the audience to shed the image of Roman Roy so quickly after the conclusion of Succession . While Roman and Benji are cut from a similar cloth, Culkin does so much to keep this character honest and alive. It’s impossible to always love someone who operates at the heights that Benji does, never holding back his opinions and perpetually occupying the center stage. Even in its most loathsome moments, you still deeply care for him. Eisenberg also finds ways to break free from his straight-laced archetype, most notably during an extended monologue once Benji leaves the room. The country of Poland and the overall Jewish experience become supporting characters in their own right. Eisenberg examines the past and present by showcasing how locations around the country have changed in the several decades since WWII, many of them drastically homogenized to try to make people forget. A walk through a well-preserved concentration camp is done with relative silence, with the stakes of this trip staring right back at Benji and David. They can do nothing but stare back, opening themselves up to pain, both in its most unpleasant and cathartic form. By the time the ninety minutes are up, A Real Pain has taken you on a journey with not just these characters, but also with yourself. This review was originally published from a screening at the 2024 Twin Cities Film Fest. Searchlight Pictures will release A Real Pain in select theaters on November 01st, followed by a nationwide expansion on November 15th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Room Next Door September 7, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen The unmistakably romantic, sumptuous music of Albert Iglesias once again draws open the curtains for a film by Almodóvar. Although this is their 14th feature collaboration as composer and director, The Room Next Door marks the first time the strings have been used to reinforce dialogue in the English language. The story, one of the few not to be an original idea by the famed auteur, comes from Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through . New York City serves as the backdrop, with it never looking more beautiful as the seasons, and towering buildings always casting perfectly symmetrical lines. Even down to the smallest of spaces, such as Martha’s (Tilda Swinton) junk drawer, the colors pop with radiance. Unfortunately, the never-ending revolving door of serenity is perpetually tinged with the darkness of reality, as Martha lounges in her perfect surroundings riddled with the cancer that will most likely kill her. Rushing to her aid once she hears the terminal news is Ingrid (Julianne Moore), a longtime friend of Martha, although they haven’t spoken in a few years on account of their busy careers (Ingrid is a famous novelist, while Martha hurries to the next battle as a war correspondent). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x25RHMEkHks While time has been no barrier in the rekindling of their relationship, Martha has not been so successful with her daughter. They’ve been estranged nearly all their lives, neither of them being exceptional at fulfilling their parent-child duties. Ingrid now finds herself trying to mend that bridge before it’s too late, a timeline that’s being hastened by Martha’s decision to forgo treatment. The closer people get to death’s door, the more honest they become about the life they’ve lived. Swinton, reunited with Almodóvar for the second time after marking his unofficial English-language debut in 2020 with the short film The Human Voice , is an active member of the actress pair, delivering a cascade of monologues about her past, a few of them supplemented with flashbacks. While Google Translate was clearly not used based on Almodóvar’s consummate professionalism and prowess as a screenwriter, quite a few moments get lost in the translation. Swinton and Moore navigate the pitfalls with relative ease, biting into the high drama with gusto. There are more than a few moments of unintentional hilarity that pivot from us laughing at the movie to laughing with it solely based on the delivery of the lead pair. The younger cast doesn’t fare nearly as well, with their handful of scenes leaving them stranded to exchange lines that could have used a little more proofreading. It's these intermittent eyebrow-raising moments, many of them swept away before their intention can be deciphered, that keep The Room Next Door at a medium temperature. There’s always a feeling that Almodóvar could reach his trademarked boiling point of melodrama, but his confidence in the material just isn’t there. It’s still a remarkable improvement from The Human Voice and his most recent English-language short, Strange Way of Life , so there’s plenty of hope that, if he were to continue working outside his native language on such projects as his abandoned A Manual for Cleaning Women , it would reach the lofty heights we expect of him. That bar also means that a disappointing feature from Almodóvar is still very much worth the investment. There’s still no one who serves actresses better than him, with a nice supporting turn from John Turturro (mostly interested in sex and the hopelessness that climate change has brought) thrown in there for good measure. Here’s hoping he continues to challenge himself, bringing along A-list talent looking to rise to a new level. This review was originally published from the North American premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics will release The Room Next Door in select theaters on December 20th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Rustin September 13, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Rustin is exactly what you expected based on the premise: a by-the-numbers awards-baiting biopic filled with stars that’s made for the most general of audiences. Some would call that a cynical way to look at it, others would say it’s the only true way. In the end, it doesn’t matter as director George C. Wolfe’s film never does anything astounding or abysmal (save for maybe the extremely overbearing jazz score by Branford Marsalis) to ignite much passion in that argument. As the unsung hero of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, Bayard Rustin is the perfect figure to be given the biopic treatment. It also helps that he had the personality of a movie star, always taking over the room with his magnetic personality and witty banter. But these “attention-grabbing antics” and the fact that he was a homosexual made him unpopular within his ranks, particularly to NAACP president Roy Wilkins. But Rustin has Martin Luther King Jr. on his side, whom he recently convinced to stage a peaceful demonstration at the National Mall. He’s promised over 100,000 attendees, making it the largest political rally in American History, and he only has eight weeks to organize and execute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lBqMhZ3NBg Those eight weeks fly by due to Wolfe’s ever-accelerating pacing and Dustin Lance Black and Justin Breece’s quick-on-its-feet script. Each scene is filmed with vigor, lasting only a few minutes before moving on to the next one. It’s an accomplishment that so much story is told within the 100-minute runtime, but it also begs the question as to why everything is so condensed and constricted. A life and moment in history as eventful and important as this could have been given at least another half hour, allowing for some of the less-than-satisfying subplots, such as Rustin’s tumultuous love triangle, to be given more time to develop. Wolfe is also venturing a little more out of his element in this feature. As a winner of multiple Tony awards, 2020’s film adaptation Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom provided a nice middle ground for his skills, with Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis giving career-defining performances. Rustin finds Wolfe still in that stagy mood as the flat camerawork makes the sets glaringly obvious, which the actors enter and walk around with overly careful coordination. The scenes may be flowing at a fast pace, but it never feels like they’re on the correct course. Fortunately, there’s a hero who swoops in and saves the day by the name of Colman Domingo. He’s been putting in the work over decades, with some flowers blossoming in the form of a Tony nomination and Emmy win just in the past few years. Now, an Oscar nomination (and potential win) is in his sights, as his portrayal of the titular character is effortlessly engaging. He’s backed up by an admirable supporting cast, many of whom deserve more time than they get. Rustin won’t live on in the public consciousness for its craft, but it most certainly will because of Domingo’s performance. It’s a shame the whole package couldn’t come together, but it’s hard to complain when the headliner is just that good and the objective of the mission is to enlighten just as much as it is to entertain. This review was originally published from the international premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix will release Rustin in select theaters on November 03rd, followed by its streaming premiere on November 17th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Girl in the Spider's Web November 15, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen After watching The Girl in the Spider’s Web , the only thing I could think about was how badly this film tried to be like James Bond. There’s the dark protagonist that uses questionable methods to serve justice, the villain that wants to control the world, and the underdeveloped love interest that always gets in the way. Spider’s Web even has an opening title sequence that serves no purpose other than to make you think you’re watching a James Bond film. One could say that the only thing that the 007 films have that this film doesn’t have is a sense of quality, which in the end makes Spider’s Web a pale imitation of its far superior predecessors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKMSP9OKspQ Spider’s Web is directed by Fede Alvarez, who previously proved himself with the horror thriller Don’t Breathe . Unfortunately, he brings none of those thrills to this film, as it ends up being a boring slog. Alvarez really tries to make this a hard - action flick, which totally goes against the source material. Lisbeth is treated here as a heroine who is able to fight off five guys at a time, when really she’s a tortured anti-hero who uses her genius skills to be ahead of her enemies. Alvarez also relies heavily on action set pieces in order to mask the overall drabness of the story. Unsurprisingly, the set pieces are just as drab as everything else. The car chases and stunt work are by the numbers and hard to watch as the editing jumps around at a frenetic pace. Going along with the theme of unoriginality is the writing. The main MacGuffin plot follows Salander as she goes around Sweden tracking down a laptop containing a program that can control the world’s supply of nuclear weapons. The plot feels more in line with a cheesy 80s Schwarzenegger flick rather than a modern thriller. It also goes against the hard-grounded tone that the film tries to convey. Lisbeth deals with her inner demons in one scene and in the next, she is trying to stop a nuclear holocaust. It’s a crazy shift that rips the film of any tension and believability. Filling the boring world are some equally bland characters. Many don’t have a name or are so basic that you’ll forget their name immediately after hearing it. The writers try to make each one cool by giving them super skills like fighting or hacking, but they forgot to give them personalities. Each one feels more like an object to move the plot forward rather than an actual human with feelings. The one good thing that can be said is Claire Foy, as she fearlessly dives into the role of Lisbeth Salander. Her accent is on point, and she brings a good amount of grit to the character. It’s a shame that she is wasted on such lousy material. The rest of the supporting cast fails to make an impact and feels cut and pasted out of any typical action movie. Lakeith Stanfield plays Edwin, an NSA agent who hunts down Salander in a game of cat and mouse. Stanfield has done much better work than this and just seems not to care, and really, who can blame him? Sylvia Hoeks plays the archetypal villain who wants to hold the world hostage. She tries to give her character an edge by being playful and menacing, but it backfires and ends up making her laughably bad. Lastly, Christopher Convery plays August, a kid who gets trapped in all this mess. Now he’s only just starting his early career, but Convery was terrible in the role. His painful delivery ruined about every scene he was in (which is a lot) and immediately crushed any hopes of sympathy for his character. Just like its frozen tundra setting, The Girl in the Spider’s Web is cold and lifeless. Save for Claire Foy, everything in the film ends up being a cheap knockoff of other generic action thrillers. Instead of watching a film that wants to be James Bond, just watch a James Bond film, because at least those are pretty good. Sony Pictures Releasing will release The Girl in the Spider's Web in theaters nationwide on November 09th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The United States vs. Billie Holiday March 4, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Another awards season, another tortured celebrity biopic. Last year was Judy, and the year before that was Bohemian Rhapsody . A few years earlier was La Vie En Rose . Before that was Walk the Line , and before that was Ray , and so on and so on until the beginning of time. Why do these movies keep being made if they all use the same recycled formula? The answer is the Oscars. All of those movies I just listed won an Oscar for a leading performance by an actor portraying a real-life celebrity. Biopics are the baitiest of genres when it comes to the Oscars. There’s no purely objective way to critique a performance, but it sure is a lot easier to judge a performance by comparing it to a real person than it is to judge a fictional character. Is that lazy and unoriginal? Of course! But it works so well and requires a lot less effort than the alternatives. Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Speaking of lazy and unoriginal, The United States vs. Billie Holiday is the newest entry into this tirelessly imitated genre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USi-ppCfxEA Lee Daniels of Precious and The Butler fame directs this true story of the persecution singer Billie Holiday faced from the federal government because of her anti-lynching song “Strange Fruit”. Holiday also struggled with a heroin and alcohol addiction, something that the government constantly used as blackmail against her. The framing of this grand story surrounds an interview Holiday takes just before she dies. She’s questioned about many things, most notably why “Strange Fruit” was a song she was willing to kill her career, and eventually herself, for. It’s a question Holiday has no peace of mind to answer, as she’s already given her answer by living a life filled with hate and bigotry. Daniels treats Holiday as a martyr; someone who died because of the wickedness of others. While that approach has worked in several biopics before, the barrier that Daniels refuses to even attempt to overcome is to give his martyr some humanity. Unlike every other musician's drug addiction film, Daniels doesn’t seem all that interested in learning about the character of Holiday. He’s simply a con artist taking someone’s true pain for his personal gain. He offers little sympathy for Holiday’s condition, which can be seen by the endless barrage of close-ups of needles being stuck in arms. It becomes pure misery porn that doesn’t contextualize Holiday’s present with her past. Brief flashbacks here and there give glimpses into her childhood, one filled with whorehouses and abuse, that only aim to shock and traumatize the viewer. Similar to Daniels’ exploitative directing is the screenplay by Suzan-Lori Parks, which has the same quality as a high school play. There is nothing in this script to deviate from other biopics about black singers, such as Ray and Get On Up . It’s the same old story of success, tragedy, and redemption that you and I have seen a thousand times before and will see another thousand times again. Only this time, it’s just plain boring to watch as the two-hour runtime feels like three, and the message about racism and drug addiction boils down to “it’s bad, don't do it”. Sure, the cinematography and production design is top-notch. There’s one brief sequence seemingly done in one take that blew me away with its inventiveness and tonal ignorance. But all those window dressings mean nothing when the core is empty. So, who’s the person looking to win an Oscar for their titular portrayal? That would be Andra Day, already a Grammy nominee. Ms. Day has recently won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama and is looking to claim her spot in the Oscar race. Her performance is about the only thing that is worth praise, as she both acts and sings circles around her contemporaries. It’s absolutely stunning that this is her first lead role in a film. The rest of the supporting cast pale in comparison as Trevontae Rhodes is disappointing as conflicted federal agent Jimmy Fletcher and Garret Hedlund is downright embarrassing as bureau head Harry J. Anslinger, who acts like the identical twin of Dick Dastardly. The United States vs. Billie Holiday is a tiring and soapy entry into the never-ending genre of musician biopics. Except for a great Andra Day lead performance, this is an entirely forgettable and shameful attempt to cover such an iconic time and figure in American history. Hulu will release The United States vs. Billie Holiday on its streaming service on February 26th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Bad Boys: Ride or Die June 4, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen It may seem like another lifetime ago, but we’re only four years removed from the third entry in the now long-running Bad Boys series, Bad Boys for Life , being the highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office. Of course, that year happened to be 2020, so more than a few asterisks should be applied to that record, especially since 1917 and Jumanji: The Next Level were not that far behind in the rankings. But the film’s lucky-as-hell January release date is not the only credit it should be given, as Michael Bay replacements, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, made the smart choice of dumping out the racist jokes and nihilism for coherent storytelling and bearable action. In other words, they actually made this franchise fun to watch. So, where does your sequel go when the previous entry had the benefit of being able to shake everything up? Not much of anywhere, it turns out, as Ride or Die pretty much peddles more of the same from the Bad Boys for Life . That’s not a bad thing considering the very real alternate reality we could have lived in where Bay kept digging this franchise into the ground, à la his Transformers pentalogy. We’ve been here and done this before, so there’s not much use in getting all worked up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRFY_Fesa9Q The attempt at uniqueness in this fourth entry comes from our main character’s age. The thoughts of mortality are starting to creep into the psyches of Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), as the now AARP-qualified detectives are slowly being physically and mentally edged out of the game. Bad Boys for Life may have toyed with these ideas through obvious Gen-Z mockery in the form of the up-and-coming AMMO squad (all of them returning for this sequel), but this entry is where the pedal really hits the metal. For starters, Mike is transforming from a boy to a man by marrying Christine (Melanie Liburd), with Marcus suffering cardiac arrest on their wedding dancefloor. A new lease on life puts some perspective on Marcus, almost adopting a new zen-like “go with the flow” identity. There’s also Mike’s son, Armando (Jacob Scipio), still in prison after the events of the last movie. He gets brought back into the fold once the deceased Captain Howard is framed for corruption by some no-good goons that he can identify. Even though Michael Bay is out of the director’s chair, this is still a Jerry Bruckheimer production, which means the plot will be generic and the action will go boom. The bad guys may be hiding in plain sight to our characters, but we, as the audience, can spot them from a mile away, especially when they make vague speeches about rectifying the past and doing stuff for the greater good of the country ( Hot Fuzz just keeps getting more relevant by the day). All that really matters is that their faces and demeanor make it super satisfying when they get punched, or, in this case, shot in the head. The carnage is quite high and gruesome, with limbs and skulls being split by bullets and throats getting slashed on multiple occasions. Adil and Billal still keep everything flowing with jittering energy, almost like a kid hopped up on candy, a craving Marcus struggles to control after his operation. A drone camera becomes the director’s best friend during the firefights, ducking and dodging through smoke and a hail of bullets. A first-person POV is sometimes employed, with the camera swapping bodies at a moment’s notice. The giddiness of the production doesn’t always match the tone of the story. I can only take a scene where a bad guy forces someone to commit suicide so seriously when it’s immediately followed by a Fast & Furious montage of the finest bikinis in Miami. Smith and Lawrence do better with the balance, both of them never showing a single hint of losing a step after inhabiting these roles for almost three decades. The film grinds to a halt on several occasions for them to just stand around and bicker, but their unmatched chemistry makes it all tolerable. The script may start hinting at the end of the road for these characters, but everyone involved still has enough left in the tank for a few more rounds. Sony Pictures Releasing will release Bad Boys: Ride or Die in theaters nationwide on June 7th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen