Source: https://www.reeladvice.net/2025/08/the-life-of-chuck-2024-movie-review.html

The Life of Chuck is the rare kind of experience that lingers with you long after the credits roll. Adapted from Stephen King’s novella, Director Mike Flanagan crafts a meditation on life, mortality, and the small details that often carry the deepest meaning for a person. It’s a story that feels both simple and complex, reminding us how each ordinary life has its own meaning and purpose how fleeting and short it may be.

The film begins with middle school teacher Marty Anderson noticing strange phenomena particularly advertisements that appear across town, each celebrating an unfamiliar accountant named Charles “Chuck” Krantz with the message, “Charles Krantz: 39 Great Years! Thanks, Chuck!” As the townsfolk speculate that the end of the universe may be at hand, the mystery reveals itself with the portrait of Chuck’s life unfolding.

What elevates The Life of Chuck for us is its range of emotional complexity. One moment it’s whimsical - and yes, Tom Hiddleston can dance far better than we thought - and the next it’s somber, reflective, terrifying and even quietly devastating. The casting choice that portrayed Chuck (with Tom Hiddleston, Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak, and Cody Flanagan) was perfect as it actor brings nuance to the respective stage of Chuck’s life. For us though, Benjamin Pajak delivers a surprisingly deep and complex performance that anchors the film’s strongest arc.

Still, The Life of Chuck is not without flaws. Its first two acts feel fleeting, as if rushing through ideas without fully exploring them, especially when compared to the more substantial final act. The narration by Nick Offerman was done well by the actor but it occasionally veers into heavy-handedness. Despite these shortcomings, Mike Flanagan succeeds in delivering a film that’s both thought-provoking and emotionally affecting. The Life of Chuck may not provide easy answers but it invites reflection on how we value our time, our choices, and the quiet details of our existence. It’s a flawed yet deeply worthwhile experience.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

So I finally got to the last Sean Connery James Bond movie, which was never say never again from 1983 and I thought it was a good movie. I thought there were some good chase scenes and action. I also thought that Klaus Brandauer as the villain was good

There were some negatives though. I thought the acting overall was lacking and it took a little bit to get going so in other words the movie didn’t grab me until a while in

Rating-3.5/5

So I finally got around to seeing the 1979 Steve Martin movie the jerk and I thought it was a great movie

I thought the performances, especially from Steve Martin and Bernadette peters were very well done. I liked the story because I went into it knowing nothing so I liked all the different avenues that it took finally I liked the comedy. I thought there were a lot of good subtle humor moments.

Rating-4/5

I felt like I wasted my time.
I think the main reason this film has an 8.3 IMDb rating and is considered one of the top 100 movies is because it was Tarantino’s debut. However, I’m not someone who judges movies based on their background stories, I only try to give each film the rating it truly deserves.

3/10

Edit: Downvote more so that I can understand I'm on the right path.

Source: https://www.reeladvice.net/2025/08/mudrasta-ang-beking-ina-2025-movie.html

Knowing Roderick Paulate as a comedy icon probably shows our age, but he has always been one of those actors we watched growing up. In Mudrasta: Ang Beking Ina, his big-screen comeback, Paulate proves he hasn’t lost his comedic touch bringing energy and laughs on almost every scene. Unfortunately, beyond his performance, the film struggles to find its own footing.

The story follows Victor “Beki” Labrador (Roderick Paulate), who reveals himself at the wake of his high school sweetheart Enrique Santillanes (Tonton Gutierrez). Things take a dramatic turn when Enrique’s will grants Beki half of his estate and control of the family business and this can only be relinquished on one condition - he must live in the family mansion with Enrique’s orphaned sons and their sharp-tongued grandmother for one year.

At its core, Mudrasta: Ang Beking Ina is exactly what you’d expect it to be - a mix of slapstick, melodrama, and camp. The film’s highlights come almost entirely from Roderick Paulate himself. At 65, he still knows how to command laughs and win over audiences. One of the more clever touches was how the film handled flashbacks, casting the same veteran actors to play their younger selves. It was a quirky choice that added charm and humor in unexpected ways. Sadly, these bright spots are weighed heavily down by outdated storytelling and thinly developed conflicts. The family drama between Beki and Enrique’s family, which should have been the heart of the narrative, never lands with enough depth and development to feel believable or emotionally engaging. Instead, the plot moves from one conflict to another, never giving the audience a chance to connect with the characters. In the end, Mudrasta: Ang Beking Ina showcases Roderick Paulate’s enduring star power but leaves little else to celebrate with.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

This was definitely enjoyable if this is your vibe. For those who don't know what this is about: James McAvoy plays a misanthropic and mentally unstable Edinburgh police detective who we follow around Christmastime who engages in drugs, alcohol, prostitution as well as what he calls "The Games," which are Machiavellian mind games against his friends and coworkers in order to get a promotion. It's based on a book by the same author who wrote the book Trainspotting.

James McAvoy is fantastic and absolutely amusing as someone who is a complete piece of shit. I put him in the same category of actors like Walton Goggins, John Tuturro, Christopher Walken, Daniel Radcliffe, and Gary Oldman where they can take on crazy roles and you'll love the ride.

If you're someone who likes Eric Andre, Sarah Sherman (aka Sarah Squirm), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Tim and Eric, American Psycho, Anthony Jeselnik, and the Daniels movies this is a fun ride. Watch with friends who you know also like that vibe too. It's on Prime and Tubi at the moment.

So I recently watched the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg movie sister act for the first time and I thought it was above average

It took a little bit to get going, but once you really got into the choir part, the movie was very good from then on. I thought the performances were decent. I’m not the biggest Whoopi Goldberg fan, but she gave a good performance.

I also wish there was more comedy. It had some moments but not enough. So overall, this wasn’t above average movie.

Rating-3/5

So the 1992 horror comedy death becomes her was the movie I wanted to see for a while and overall I thought it was average

I thought the main three performances by Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and Bruce Willis were good, but overall I was wanting more. It had some ridiculous moments, but I was wanting more ridiculous.

Other than that, I thought the story was decent, and the rest of the acting was as well. Overall, I’m just disappointed because I was wanting more from the movie.

Rating-2.5/5

I love the movie. It was very nice and touching. I now get the cultural references like "Life is like a box of chocolates "

So I had heard about the anime movie the first slam dunk from 2022 for years now and he got positive reactions. I finally decided to check it out on Netflix and this is an amazing movie.

On thr one hand, I enjoy sports movies, and this had a lot of basketball action. But along with that, it had a very good story that involved flashbacks to the various players on the main team so you get to see the build up to the main game

Along with that this movie was exhilarating and had me on the edge of my seat a lot of times with the slow motion and the score

Rating-4.5/5

I saw this in the theater 30 years ago and re-watched out of curiosity: did it correctly predict the future? How similar is it to "The Matrix", which Keanu starred in four years later?

To the first question: kinda. The characters FaceTimed each other and received messages on 90s TV screens instead of on smartphones. The virus in the movie was different from the one that shut down our world earlier this decade.

Unlike Neo, the main character was an information courier and not a hacker. But both characters had information uploaded to their brains and both movies had a grungy aesthetic.

The scene in the hotel in Beijing reminded me of The Continental in the "John Wick" franchise and Ice-T's character was similar to the Bowery King.

The only thing I remembered vividly from ny first viewing was the guy with the laser whip. We don't have those yet in 2025. Nor can we upload our consciences yet.

Dolph Lundgren was second-billed despite being in about three scenes. He was probably the best known actor to Western audiences among the supporting cast.

Keanu's suit was terrible and I was distracted by his negative sideburns.

"Johnny Mnemonic" is a standard 90s special effects action thriller. It's not great but it's not terrible, either. You're not missing much if you haven't seen it.

I'll keep it short and spoiler free. Didn't like it, but I guess this has more to do with me not liking James Gunn's works than Superman. I can't get invested when everything ends with a joke or an ironic twist that is meant to be funny and all the meta humor has gotten really old. I also didn't like Lex, he doesn't act how you'd expect him to act if you read the comics or the cartoons.

So I just finished watching the 2006 studio Ghibli movie tales from EarthSea and I thought this was a great movie.

I thought it had an engaging story with unique characters and a good score. I was along for the ride the entire time only small negative might be that it took a little bit to get going and the beginning was a little off.

Rating-4/5

"Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962). Directed by John Frankenheimer.

Another Goodwill purchase, and thankfully a truly wonderful surprise! Burt Lancaster is an actor who found his niche and cuddled up into it like a well-contented cat.

First of all, I frickin' LOVE widescreen black and white films! I don't know how short the window was for this combo in cinema history, but the crushing confinement of prison life ironically framed in a wider aspect ratio creates a grand austerity that serves the story perfectly. Lancaster's steel stare and hard-set jaw, the lack of color, the lack of LIFE, makes you feel the oppression and the soul-crushing loss of autonomy inflicted by long-term imprisonment.

Karl Malden and Thelma Ritter are the other two stars of note, and both deliver distinct, nuanced, and more lively performances to contrast against Lancaster's barely controlled and justifiable rage at a system that has betrayed him and taken most of his life from him.

Karl Malden as Warden Harvey Shoemaker is a diehard believer in the authoritarian model of strict control, that rules and order will guide broken souls back to social conformity, but his failure is a lack of curiosity about what breaks people in the first place. Because Harvey is unwilling or unable to acknowledge the source of the damage, he never once forges a path toward actual rehabilitation.

Thelma Ritter as Elizabeth Stroud, the mother of the Birdman, has the best arc of the three main characters, and I would love to read a well-researched book about Robert Stroud, because Ritter's seemingly loving and steadfast portrayal of a devoted matriarch is a façade behind which lurks a paranoid obsession that howls the Jocasta Complex like an orchestral choir of jealous sirens.

When Robert finds companionship with Stella Johnson, a fellow bird lover and advocate for Stroud's burgeoning knowledge of avian husbandry, Elizabeth becomes envious, accusatory, and absolutist, demanding her son's total devotion to her above all other females.Robert's refusal to kowtow to Elizabeth's crippling insecurities provides his greatest moment of growth. He had long defended his mother's honor, and incurred additional prison time due to striking out at the slightest impunity against her, but when she finally fell from his grace, she disappeared from his world entirely and at last, Robert Stroud became his own person.

The scientific pursuits of Stroud in bird pathology, biology, and reproduction comprise much of the middle of the film, and they are the most exciting and engaging sections as Stroud struggles to find out why his birds are dying. That his tiny cell becomes decorated with cages beyond count is a deeply ironic contrast between his freedom to pursue his passion and the fact that both he and the birds are still behind bars.

The film does falter a bit in the final act. While the title is the "Birdman of Alcatraz", Stroud never had birds on that infamous island where he finally finished his sentence. He spent those years writing about the failure of the prison system to prepare inmates for life outside of incarceration, slipping one last literary shiv into Warden Shoemaker's back for his lack of forward thinking.

The ending feels a bit anticlimactic, but the journey is very much worthwhile.

So I never heard of the 2020 studio Ghibli movie earwig and the witch before tonight. I decided to give it a try and it was another just OK outing

I did like the art style because it’s 3-D animated instead of the normal animation. Other than that, it was a bit of a disappointment. I thought the characters were OK and I thought the story was the same way. The biggest thing is I was wanting more. It was kind of lackluster.

Rating-1.5/5 (meh)

Source: https://www.reeladvice.net/2025/08/one-cut-of-dead-2017-movie-review.html

It’s hard to review One Cut of the Dead because the less you know, the better the experience will be for you. This is one of those rare films where going in blind and not knowing anything makes all the difference. What we can say is that it’s easily one of the most fun and surprising zombie films we have seen in quite a long time. It will constantly break the mold and will completely catch you off guard with its quirkiness and revelations.

A film crew is shooting a low-budget zombie movie in an abandoned water filtration plant rumored to have ties to wartime human experiments. Things take a terrifying turn when they encounter actual zombies. But rather than stop production, the eccentric director insists the cameras keep rolling no matter what.

Is One Cut of the Dead perfect? Not exactly. The opening act feels rough and close to a B-movie in style, while the middle section will feel slow. But trust us as both are actually essential for what comes after. The film’s final act brilliantly ties everything together, revealing just how meticulously crafted the entire story and execution for the film really is. It’s chaotic, inventive, and wildly entertaining. This isn’t just another zombie movie but it is a clever and love letter to filmmaking itself. Few films manage to surprise us this much, and One Cut of the Dead is one that absolutely does. Embrace the quirks, accept the camp, and let it sweep you away.

Rating: 5 out of 5

So I finally got around to seeing Kiki‘s delivery service from 1989 and overall it was an OK movie. I thought the movie had a solid main character that you could get behind, but other than that nothing really stood out to me in terms of great.I thought the story and the characters were average

Rating-2/5

Was the juxtaposition of the music with the images of the reveal of the killers from the past and that they are the RV couple at the ending supposed to be a surprise? It was too obvious at the beginning when the couple was checking in that the couple working the front desk were killers from the way they looked at the guests, and the very clearly shown blood on the guys shirt cuff; and very obvious that the RV couple in the present was them in the past.

The songs of Tom Waits are not meant to be played during the day. If you try to do so, your radio pops, the speakers fry, gravelly thirdhand accounts of weary waitresses and soulful stevedores lose all meaning; the syllables garble and become indistinguishable from lawn mower whine, TV infomercial. It cannot be done, The Lurid Romanticism of Casually Employed Souls cannot coexist with such mundanity. 

Call me a temporal fetishist—this dovetails neatly with my longtime opposition to morning sex—but the night is magic, as irrational that may feel under the sun’s Protestant glare. But as the Earth rotates and the halogen hypno-summons all manner of lonely firebug, you can crank Ol’ Tommy right the fuck up; it’s his time.

Loneliness is key. Downtown Los Angeles, which Choose Me adopts as a tragicomic stage for scenarios of Waitsian import, might be the most alienating urban setting in America.

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Land of Bad offers a rather underwhelming and uneven storyline, yet its final 15 minutes deliver a surge of intensity that partially redeems the experience. The cinematography was good and acting was also good with not a good story line.

Going into 2023’s Leo, it was a movie I knew nothing about but I had wanted to see since it came out. I really liked this movie.

I liked the characters and different personalities. I also enjoyed the story. It was entertaining while also being heartfelt.

The only small issue I had was the amount of songs and the songs themselves. I felt they were not necessary

Rating-4.5/5

Before seeing Fantastic Mr Fox from 2009, I had only ever seen 2 Wes Anderson movies: 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums and 2018’s Isle of Dogs

I liked those movies more than this one. I liked the animation but did not care about the characters or story. Overall, it was just an ok movie

Rating-2.5/5

So I wanted to see the 2023 family movie Wonka when it came out, but I just never have a chance and I finally got around seeing it on streaming. I really liked the movie for the most part except for one tiny thing.

I thought that this movie was marketed wrong. Yes you get snippets of a couple songs in the trailer, but it never occurred to me that it was gonna be a musical. I enjoy musicals but not for a good portion in the movie you had a new song every 5 to 10 minutes.

Other than that, I really liked the movie. This is my favorite Timothée Chalamet performance because in this movie he showed some personality and a fun side. I thought all of the performances were really good, but the biggest positive was the story. I enjoyed the journey that you are on from the highs and the lows that Wonka has to go through.

Rating-4/5

So I’m a Kurt Russell fan, but there are some of his early movies that I had not seen. One such movie was the computer wore tennis shoes from 1969.

I was not a fan of this movie. I thought the only good part of this movie was Kurt Russell. I thought the acting was not good and I did not care for the story. There were a couple unique scenes near the end, but other than that, it did not keep my interest.

Rating-2/5

As far as the Mighty Ducks franchise goes, I only ever seen D3. Seeing the first one from 1992 was a good surprise. I enjoyed pretty much everything about this movie.

I liked the performances and the underdog story. I also liked the hockey action. Now I am interested in seeing the second movie. Also, this is my favorite Emilio Estevez performance.

Rating-4/5