another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

Saw Spellbound (2024), an animated kids musical from Skydance. If you know what's happening, it's actually a really good metaphor. However, the real plot of the film is not what was advertised and it can be pretty traumatic for kids, so it kind of tanked and angered many parents. Still, fun enough.

Completed with Mr. Holmes (2015), a slow, melancholy film about an elderly and retired Sherlock Holmes trying to stave off dementia in order to write the truth about his final case, all while a young fan encourages him to pick up the profession again. It's surprisingly good, with great acting.

Wicked: For Good (2025) is the second film in the Wicked series. It gives us a different view of the events of the Wizard of Oz, especially how Dorothy (an unexpected visitor) "defeats" the wicked witch, Elphaba. It's not as good as the first (mainly the music is weaker), but still enjoyable.

Repeating challenge 15 (object) by watching Now You See Me 3, which revolves around a gigantic diamond that an ever-growing group of magicians tries to steal from a rich de Boers knockoff (played great by rosamund pike). It's not as good as the first two but still a solid enough popcorn mystery.

Watched Rango (2012) with a group that hadn't seen it. It's a western from Gore Verbinski about a pet lizard thrown into a western desert town. He pretends to be a heroic legend, they make him the sheriff, and he has to investigate missing water...which of course is nefarious. It's really fun.

Finally done with I Like Me, the 2025 John Candy documentary. It's pretty standard in format, but really does a good job showing his rise to fame and what it cost him in health - plus what society expected him to be vs what he was on the inside. Really well executed, and lots of early 90s film.

Rental Family (2025) is a fantastic drama where a struggling expat actor lands a gig at a rental agency, where he plays roles in the lives of various people to fill in for things they're missing, such as husbands, fathers, and more. One of the key moments involves Brendan Fraser taking a train ride.

Blade Runner (1982) is the title of the main character's job, a cop who hunts down rogue Replicants (androids) on a decaying futuristic Earth. It's an iconic film, with synth music, stunning visuals, some wild acting performances, and a billion themes to explore.

-Films with 20 plot threads that all come together cleanly -Cheesy monster films with practical effects, especially suits and miniatures -Satire that was ahead of its time -Action films that are also heavy vibes/music jam films -Films full of unexpectedly real science used correctly

Finally done with The Running Man (2025), where Glen Powell plays a man who signs up for a reality TV show to get his family out of poverty. He has to survive for 30 days with the public and a goon squad hunting him down in a rigged contest. Powell worked with Tom Cruise on character and his running

Tron: Ares (2025) features an oldie but goodie: objects that can exist in the real world, but only for a limited number of minutes. 29 minutes, to be exact (with no reason given). This one is by far the worst of the three Tron films, just feeling...empty most of the time. Music's solid, of course.

Predator: Badlands (2025) is the story of a runt Yautja (the predators) that goes to a death world to bring himself honor by defeating the "unkillable" boss monster of the planet. While there, he fights against many critters, including vine monsters and a field of razor-grass. The plants are deadly

Stretching this to include Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988), which stars famous disc jockey Casey Kasem as Shaggy. Dracula and his realm of monsters host a wacky race every year, but their werewolf retires. Shaggy is chosen to replace him; winning turns him back to normal. It's a gas.

Done with The Smashing Machine (2025), the Mark Kerr fighting biopic and Oscar-bait starring the Rock. It's...not great. The performances are legit, with the Rock giving probably his best acting ever, but the directing and music are tragically bad, ruining a lot of the interesting moments.

Done with Addams Family Values (1993), in which Fester gets married to a pastels-loving psycho. There are multiple plotlines with characters dealing with polar opposites, including the glorious camp sequences with Wednesday. This is a really fun sequel and seeing Raul Julia always makes me smile.

Well, I just went the easy route and watched The Long Walk (2025). It's haunting. Everyone was in shock and silent as we left the theater, and I just drove home in silence. It's one that's gonna stay with me awhile. You really do find yourself connecting with the boys, making it rough when they die

Watched The Cabin in the Woods (2011), a meta horror flick where a group of 5 college kids are terrorized in the woods...by far more than it seems at first glance. Characters are chased by a variety of monsters throughout the film, which is a wild ride of fun tropes and subversions.

Weapons (2025) is an incredible thrill ride horror mystery about the mystery of a group of students who all disappear in the middle of the night, leaving a traumatized community. Red plays a big role, but to really discuss why is a spoiler. Highly recommend although it's not an entirely perfect film

Completed with Nobody 2 (2025), which has a poster of Bob Odenkirk being punched in the face. Him and the fist = 2. It's a quality sequel to a fun action romp, this time in a location you don't normally picture explosions and shootouts occurring in, but one that makes for great viewing.

Yeah, easily covered by seeing Superman (2025), in which one actor is in multiple roles. I won't specify due to recency and spoilers, but it's done well, makes sense in comic book lore, and it's a nice story beat. Real good reboot of Superman, btw. It remembers that Superman is inherently goofy.

Mahershala Ali's birth name is Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore; Ali is a nickname. He's a main character in Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025), a solid entry to the Jurassic Park franchise that tries to go back to the simple "dinos attacking people on a tropical island" plotline that worked well before.

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) is an animated Dreamworks film that focuses on Sinbad choosing integrity over cowardice. He fights to retrieve a macguffin and then, when he could have fled after a failure, instead returns to face his fate and save a friend. Solid film, good voice cast.

The people making the Twisted Metal show get it. This is how you do gaming adaptations! Rob Zombie, fun nods to the gameplay, characters from the games. It's like a love letter to Twisted Metal. It's all here!

Bride Hard (2025) is the result of someone pitching what if Die Hard but at a wedding and it's a comedy with no funny jokes? Trained mercs crash a rich family's wedding to steal gold but don't count on one of the bridesmaids (Rebel Wilson) is actually a trained secret agent. It's all about Greed.

Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) has a final act where a group of survivors from different time periods have to team up to take on a series of foes. Their lack of ability to communicate verbally is a key part of this, as they have to adapt to using other methods to work as a unit. Great film.

Went with the obvious new release, How to Train Your Dragon (2025). Close to shot-for-shot remake of the animated classic that doesn't quite live up to the one it's copying. The acting is far worse (Mason Thames has brutal line delivery), they leave out a ton of iconic jokes, but the action is lit

Finally completed with the thrilling zombie horror flick Train to Busan (2016). A group of commuter passengers have to survive a zombie onslaught as their train heads to Busan. The survivors are almost always in motion, moving forward to their final destination. It's incredibly good for horror.

New Big Picture - "A GOOD MAN IN ARLEN" www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L73...

Tornado (2025) is a low budget British film that's basically a stark western revenge story. A group of thugs have bags of gold that are stolen from them by a little boy and young girl; the girl is the daughter of a samurai in a traveling show in 1790 rural UK. The entire plot revolves around gold.

Finally completed with Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025). Not one, not two, but THREE mcguffin objects are key parts of the film and the quests to get each one define the story. It's a great conclusion to the franchise but tries a bit too hard to tie the entire film series together.

While I technically didn't watch a new one for this, I marathoned all 7 Mission Impossible movies prior to the one in theaters. ILM worked on 4 of them, plus the new one.

Ginger Snaps (2000) is about the struggle of two fatalistic sisters when one of them is bitten by a werewolf (non-human mammal!). It's surprisingly good for a low budget Canadian horror film. Looks at the curse as a metaphor for puberty in a convincing way. Highly recommend to horror fans.

Completed with Lilo and Stitch (2025). A key plot point is that Lilo is 6 and may be taken away from her sister, who has custody. It's not a good remake and character changes completely bastardize key plot points and themes from the original. Another in a string of terrible Disney remakes.

Fight or Flight (2025) is another absurdist action flick with a premise fun enough to explore: good guy fights a planeload of assassins while in midair. It's got Josh Hartnett getting some action in and having a blast, it's got wild fight sequences using many plane props, but overall it's popcorn.

Did this with The Prestige (2006), Christopher Nolan's period piece about rival magicians trying to steal each others secrets. The plot flips back and forth and shows events from multiple perspectives/time periods, expertly interweaved. Great cast, amazing twists and turns, and worthy of praise.

Death of a Unicorn (2025) revolves around exploiting unicorns for their healing abilities, which can cure anything - aka the best medicine. It's a great black comedy/satire/horror flick with a phenomenal cast.

A Minecraft Movie (2025) features an entire realm of fire - the origin of the villains - pretty prominently. It's not a great movie overall but one that kids can enjoy. The humor is hit or miss, there's a strange subplot seemingly added to pad the runtime, some main characters are blank shells.

Done with "10 Things I Hate About You" - which is counting numbers! Fantastic 90s adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. It gave us breakout roles for Julia Styles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and is legit fun and funny.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2025) is an old-school throwback featuring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig as buddies that team up to fight an alien invasion. It's kind of all over the place, not always in a good way, but definitely feels like the old cartoons.

Completed with Queen of the Ring (2025), a biopic about Mildred Burke, one of the pioneers of women's wrestling and the first "million dollar" athlete. It follows her career from wrestling men at carnivals to headlining major wrestling events with an entire stable of talented lady wrestlers.

Completed with Gosford Park (2001), a delightful murder mystery and black comedy that featured Dame Maggie Smith, among an absolutely bonkers stacked cast. It's got about two dozen different plot threads going at once, all of which get payoffs, it's got cool camera work (always moving), and it's fun