No, it’s not The Onion. A Whac-a-mole movie is in development.
Category: Movies
Movies high, low, action, adventure, comedy, drama, sci-fi, horror, western, zombie, samurai, dvd, blockbuster
-
Speed in 4K
Pop quiz hotshot. What 90s action movie starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and Dennis Hopper holds up nearly 30 years later?
It check all the boxes you want in in action movie:
✔️ a cool underdog to root for
✔️ a charismatic villain
✔️ a diverse cast of side characters adding life to the story
✔️ tight pacing with just enough breaks to catch your breath
✔️ snappy dialogue
✔️ thrilling action sequences that defy physics
✔️ explosions
✔️ a satisfying endingThe cinematography and camera work look excellent in 4K. One thing I appreciated was the sound mixing. The dialogue wasn’t drowned out by music or action, something that seems to be rare these days.
-
The Oscar Best Picture Nominees, each uniquely weird
Wesley Morris ties all the 2025 Oscar Best Picture Nominees with a common thread: they’re each uniquely weird.
They’re weird — every single one. They take weird forms. The people in them do weird stuff. They induce weirdness in you.
I’ve seen 9 out of 10 of the nominees (still waiting for I’m Still Here to be available), and my vote would either be Conclave or Anora. Each contains beautifully composed cinematography for their respective stories with casts that held my attention the entire time. But they’re vastly different. Conclave runs along as a tense thriller, while Anora is a fable with a Three Stooges episode in the middle.
And regarding Wicked, I texted two friends:
begrudgingly and surprisingly enjoying it. It’s like skittles in movie musical form
-
The story of Neon films
Whenever you see the buzzing, fuchsia Neon title card, you know your going to get at the very least something different and interesting. Eric Ducker at the Ringer tells of how six people in a WeWork space grew to a 55 person team consistently supporting awards campaigns.
-
Cabin in the Woods 4k
I think Cabin in the Woods still succeeds in deconstructing the horror movie genre while placing Easter eggs as callouts to other movies and stories.
Beginning with the cheery introductions of our characters, with an early career Chris Hemsworth playing the quintessential jock, the film leads us down a road to the middle of nowhere and stopping at a rundown gas station complete with a grizzled, creepy old man. Once the sun sets, Evil Dead vibes consume the woods, and our team makes the first of a series of bad decisions, descending to the basement, because a horror movie cannot exist without a series of bad decisions. If you pay attention to all of the different objects spread throughout the room, you’ll be rewarded when the film reveals the imprisoned menagerie of monsters.
Chaos ensues. As the gang is killed off, we meet our villain, played by Sigourney Weaver, who attempts to reason with our final girl, played by Kristen Connelly. Typically, the final girl perseveres with grit, determination, and wits–the last person with any agency to make a choice–to defeat the villain and survive. Connelly’s character makes a choice that makes the ending surprising and unique.
-
MGM now owns James Bond
For the last six months, I’ve been going through the James Bond movies in order. I’m about halfway through and it’s fun watching them as time capsules to the eras that they were made. Amazon now has full control as to what they’ll pack into future installments.
The common refrain regarding this move is how will Amazon screw this up. Dilute Bond with so many poor quality spin offs like Disney did to Marvel and Star Wars? Or crank out shoddy movies to cash in on the name?
John Gruber probably had the most astute takeaway:
Amazon taking control of James Bond is like McDonald’s taking over a great steakhouse chain like Del Frisco’s.
-
Kill Bill in 4k
It’s been of the 20 years since I’ve watched Kill Bill vol 1 and 2, Quentin Tarantino’s homage to 70s era kung fu action movies and Japanese cinema. That’s a long enough time that upon rewatch, it was like experiencing them for the first time again – only this time in 4K with surround sound, not a bad DVD copy on a CRT computer screen with minute speakers.
Both movies still hold up. Colorful costumes and cinematography, engaging dialogue, an excellent stunt work in choreography for the fight scenes, particularly the nod to Lady Snowblood.
In Kill Bill Volume 1, The Bride (Uma Thurman) faces off against O-ren (Lucy Liu) in a snow covered garden.
-
This is the Tom Green Documentary
This is the Tom Green Documentary is an insightful work of nostalgia, showing his rise, how he made it work, and how he understood media and technology. The documentary serves as a segue to his new reality series on Prime.
He performed TikTok, street style pranks before Gen Z was born. He executed Jackass style physical stunts before the Jackass crew got together. He even produced a web stream talk show before podcasting became a word.
Green’s parents and friends all appear, and towards the end, there’s a contemplative aura about him.
-
Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music
If this isn’t infectious, I don’t know what is. Questlove drops a trailer for a documentary about 50 years of SNL musical guests.