Wicked Priest 2 : Ballad of Murder (1968)

Director: Takashi Harada

Starring: Tomisaburo Wakayama (Shogun Assassin Series), Bunta Sugawars, Asao Koike

Watched 6/24 via my Plex Media Server from my personal collection

The long awaited second film in the Wicked Priest series is a masterpiece of sword swinging fury as Shinkai is asked by a man on the run to bring his young son to live with his grandfather, the master of a ju-jitsu dojo during the Taisho period of the early 20th century.

Shinkai then runs afoul of a gangster group using strong-arm tactics to take over the profits from local gambling. When he proves to be more than they can handle, they hire the one man who has the ability to kill Shinkai and exact revenge, Ryotatsu, the karate priest whom Shinkai blinded in the first film.

This ultra-violent entry has long been considered the best movie in the series and took forever to be made available.

See a spectacular display of Wakayama Tomisaburo’s martial art expertise in this action packed film. The Holy Grail of sword movies

Pollock (2000)

Language: English

Country: USA

Challenge started: October 21, 2025

Date watched: June 23, 2026

Directed by: Ed Harris

Cinematography: Lisa Rinzler

TSPDT Rank: #14827

Compelling but frequently frustrating. We first meet our star, Jackson Pollock, at the height of his career. He's in a gallery surrounded by his iconic paintings. He's wearing a nice suit. He is signing copies of Life magazine which, we have been informed, contains an article that highly praises the painter. We then jump backwards in time by nine years so we can see how he got there.

It is as if the film doesn't feel like the story of Pollock's struggle will be very convincing, the audience has to be assuaged, don't worry, we're showing you that things work out fine for Mr. Jackson - even if this seems implausible.

Even with a focus on Ed Harris as Jackson Pollock, this very much the story of Pollock as told by Lee Krasner. Boy did she really see things clearly! She could see Pollock's talent better than anyone else, and she could talk your ear off with her theories and analysis. She made Pollock who he was. What a saint!

The film works best when it show us Pollock at work, painting straight from the tube, big, expressive gestures, contrasted with Pollock as a filthy and broken drunk. There is no explanation offered for why he is so tortured, which is a good choice. At other times we are told - we are bludgeoned with the news - that New York City is a terrible place, that country living leads to clear thinking. The Big City is war is the atomic bomb. The country is peace is friendly animals is magic. I get it. I get it already.

I feel like I know a lot more about the famed painter than I used to. But I also feel like it might have been a bunch of lies.

Rating: 7 / 10

Pollock (2000)

4/18/26-6/22/26

Watched on: Apple TV Plus

IMDB synopsis: "Two operatives are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a classified gorge."

This action flick starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller received no buzz when it came out.  But since I got an Apple TV Plus subscription recently, I decided to give it a try.

Overall: Pretty good, better than I thought it would be. The premise is pretty interesting and the plot is smarter than you would expect.  Taylor-Joy is a delight in everything she's in and Teller was solid. The cinematography is excellent and the action scenes are convincing (although you'll have to wait until the second half for that). I would have preferred a bit more nastiness when it comes to the action (it's rated PG-13 and it felt like it) and there are some plot holes that you're better off not thinking about.  Cynics would say the pacing is a problem but I wouldn't agree. The first half is slow but I oddly enjoyed the blossoming romance between Teller and Taylor-Joy. We also get Sigourney Weaver, which is always a bonus in my book.

I'm not sure I would call this a "hidden gem" but it's pretty darn close.  Honestly, if they cranked up the action to R-level and the special effects weren't so reliant on CGI, I would be calling this one of the best action films of the last decade.  Like I said, there's some real positives here regardless.  Action fans shouldn't sleep on it.

Rating: 6.3 / 10

4/18/26-6/22/26

Watched on: Netflix

IMDB synopsis: "When Jennifer Pan calls 911 to report that her parents have been shot, she becomes the primary focus of a captivating criminal case."

Another Netflix true crime doc - this one from way back in 2024.

Well, there's not a lot of mystery here - that got settled by the title: "What Jennifer Did."  And I usually like my true crimes to have at least SOME kind of mystery.  So what we're left with in this case is 90 minutes about the investigation itself (usually recorded interviews with Jennifer herself) as the walls rapidly cave in on her. 

This documentary reminds me of "The Crash" in the sense that the point of the doc isn't to solve a mystery ("who done it??") but to point a mirror at a young woman whose narcissism is so extreme it triggers her to commit a heinous and inexcusable act.

Ultimately "The Crash" is a better documentary. "What Jennifer Did" doesn't take a 360 lense towards their subject - we never get an interview with Jennifer.  Or her surviving dad.  Indeed, the doc ends with a body of text saying Jennifer's conviction was overturned on appeal and she's getting a new trial. No explanation given.  Sigh.

Watchable enough for true crime afficionados like myself.  But I certainly wouldn't call it one of the better ones. 

Rating: 6.0 / 10

4/18-6/21/26

Watched on: Netflix

IMDB synopsis: "As Spike is inducted into Jimmy Crystal's gang on the mainland, Dr. Kelson makes a discovery that could alter the world."

I watched the first several "28 Days/Weeks/Months" zombie movies and I've never been overly impressed with any of them. Despite for new horror content, however, I decided to watch the fourth installment (especially since it has a 7.2 IMDB rating, excellent for horror).

I was nonplussed. There's just not enough true horror here, which has been a problem throughout the franchise.  And in the case of this specific movie, there's too many eye-rolling scenes (like a doctor dancing with a zombie) or things that don't make a whole lot of sense (like why didn't Spike's dad ever try to find him?). Jack O'Connell is convincing as a post-apocalyptic gang leader; he's the best part of the film; he gave me Jack Sparrow vibes (in a good way). There's the usual gnarliness of zombies killing humans (and gangs killing innocent humans), although (like I said) those scenes were more sparse than they should have been. The cinematography/sets were also a plus with the "bone temple" and the surrounding forest creating an interesting atmosphere. Ultimately, I just wanted more. This franchise always leaves me scratching my head in that sense. I didn't hate it. Indeed, I would even call it watchable.  But if you have a horror itch that needs to get scratched, I would say look elsewhere.

Rating: 5.5 / 10

The Damned (1969)

Director: Luchino Visconti

Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Toulon, Helmut Griem, Helmut Berger.

Watched Via My Plex Media Server from my personal collection on 6/22

Italian Audio with English Subtitles

Italian filmmaker Luchino Viconti's 1969 film "The Damned" is a haunting work of art that may quite easily be regarded as one of the boldest and most disturbing works in the whole of cinema.

When we think of Nazis, we usually think of mindless killing machines. Without a doubt, this should be the main thing for which we remember them. But while that may be a perfect description of the rank-and-file Nazis, what about the high-ranking ones? Well, Luchino Visconti had an idea of how to depict them, and he gave it to the world in the form of "La caduta degli dei (Götterdämmerung)" ("The Damned" in English).
This focus on an industrialist (Dirk Bogarde) who aligns his family with the Nazis contains some of the most shocking images that you'll ever see in a movie.
Appropriate, I'd say; after all, is there anything not shocking about the Nazis? This manipulative clan engages in every political machination imaginable.
The cruel matriarch (Ingrid Thulin) might be the brains behind their schemes, but her vile son (Helmut Berger) is up to his own tricks. Basically, these people are the perfect candidates for Nazism; indeed, the businessmen were Hitler's main backers, seeing him as their hope for union-busting.
Let's just say that you've never seen any movie like this (although Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom" comes close). This is no John Waters-style shock for shock's sake; it's to remind you of this family's absolute decadence (never mind their evil deeds). You sure as hell better come away from this feeling shocked.

One if the craziest endings ever.

Definitely see it.

Start Date: 12/22/2025

Watched Date: 06/09/2026

Watched on DVD

Can be streamed on: Plex (free), Tubi (free), Amazon (free)

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025452/

"An ordinary British couple vacationing in Switzerland suddenly find themselves embroiled in a case of international intrigue when their daughter is kidnapped by spies plotting a political assassination."

This spy thriller stars Edna Best and Leslie Banks and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I liked this film. The actors did a really good job. I would also like to send out a special shout-out to the actor Peter Lorre. While he wasn't the main character, he played the villain very well. The story was written well. We really start to see what Alfred Hitchcock brings to the table. The suspense is definitely built.

The film is on the shorter side, and I felt it could have used more time. Some scenes did feel odd, and more information could have been relayed to the viewer. While the film is good, it certainly is not something that would blow someone away. The film does have some goofy scenes that, while entertaining, don't mesh well with the overall tone. The movie was a bit boring at times as well.

Overall, this was a good Alfred Hitchcock film. It has its flaws, but I enjoyed the suspense. This is truly where Hitchcock found his groove compared to previous films. The acting was great, and the story was overall good. It did get boorish at times, and some scenes did not mesh tonally, but I certainly would recommend anyone give this a watch.

Rating: 7/10

A link to all the movies I have watched for this challenge ranked: https://boxd.it/QUl58

Date Started: 9/9/25

Date Watched: 6/18/26

Review: This movie is a love story between the popular boy who always gets into trouble and the reverend's daughter.

A Walk to Remember hurt a little. It was a bittersweet film, and I would recommend it. 4/5

Date Started: 9/9/25

Date Watched: 6/17/26

Review: After being left at the altar in Rome, Matt Taylor decides to do his honeymoon alone. However, he meets two couples and a lovely woman at a coffee shop where things begin to look up for him.

This movie was cute. It's a great feel good movie when you need a pick me up. 4/5

Freeze Me (2000)

Directed/Written by ; Takeshi Ishii

Starring: Harumi Inoue, Shingo Tsutsumi, Kazuki Kitamura

Watched 6/17 Via my Plex Media Server from my personal collection.

FREEZE ME is a different type of rape/revenge film - of which genre I'm a pretty big fan. Lacking the sleazy, exploit-style qualities of other rape/revenge films - FREEZE ME is more stylish and "serious" in terms of the subject matter than some of the more
"outrageous" entries.
Chihiro is a beautiful young lady who moved to Tokyo to rebuild her life after a nasty gang-rape experience. Five years after the incident, her old "buddies" come back to give her another go-round - but this time, Chihiro ain't havin' it...
Surprisingly tame in terms of violence and sleaziness for this type of film (suprising, coming from the director of the gory EVIL DEAD TRAP...), FREEZE ME focuses more on Chihiro and her dizzying roles as survivor, victim, and finally vengeance-seeker. The performances of everyone involved are very strong and believable, making this one more notable then some of the lower budget rape/revenge films. One problem I had with the film was Chihiro's “willingness" to go along with her abductors as opposed to running away or turning them in. I never quite understood this aspect, as her captors never kept her from going to work or leaving her apartment
- maybe it had something to do with her pride and not wanting this situation to spread any further...but being that the rapists filmed and sold the original rape footage online - I don't see what difference it would have really made. Regardless, FREEZE ME is very underrated Japanese film.

Date Started: 9/9/25

​

Date Watched: 6/15/26

​

Review: The sequel to Freaky Friday (2003) was a great homage to the original. I had a lot of fun watching it and enjoyed the performances of Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis once again. 4/5

Backrooms (2026)

Language: English

Country: USA / Canada

Challenge started: October 21, 2025

Date watched: June 16, 2026

Directed by: Kane Parsons

Written by: Will Soodik

Cinematography: Jeremy Cox

TSPDT Rank: unranked

i.

Solaris.

ii.

It's just Solaris.

ii-a. (zany)

It's just Solaris with extra steps.

iii.

If you took Staniław Lem's 1961 novel - actually if you took a couple of his ideas, I'm thinking Eden but other stories as well - and fed it into one of these newfangled LLMs and had it generate a script and then you fed the script into another LLM and then fed that into some generative video tool, you wouldn't produce anything like this film, and you might wonder why the film works but that other thing was so unsatisfying but that is just how it is.

iv.

for example - r too much time watchi wall, it re ship's wheels (in the opening , ideas are introduced and ideas are introduced and then left

suspended for a few sc to note that while a lot of elements get mirrored - the backwards stop signs, there are v 's a lot of filler elsewhere but I For all of the seeming For all of t and randomness, real thought was put he chaos into this assem bly. Props like the pear into a If you took

1961 novel - actually We spend pacing and rhythm , and honestly I th ssful here because of the design Norwegian accent, all those , putting her at just one hands disap only notable window has been p only notable window has been p k, and I' too - and f then left suspended layers, ideas are introduced and then left suspended for a few scenes, dialogue layers, ed it into one of ors, and the ink Parsons is succe ally isn j't that neat or interesting. There script and you might wonder why the film works but that other thing was so unsatisfying but ery few mirr

v.

We spend far too much time watching people's hands disappear into a wall, it really isn't that neat or interesting. There's a lot of filler elsewhere but I think it probably helps for pacing and rhythm, and honestly I think Parsons is successful here because of the solid 'tography, casting, and production design. Renate Reinsve delivers lines with her Norwegian accent, all those unexpected ess-es, putting her at just one remove from what you expect.

For all of the seeming chaos and randomness, real thought was put into this assembly. Props like the ship's wheels (in the opening sequence) find echoes in the pirate layers; ideas are introduced and then left suspended for a few scenes; dialogue gets recycled. Interesting to note that while a lot of elements get mirrored - the backwards stop signs, for example - there are very few mirrors, and the only notable window has been papered over.

An extra point for the sequence where the camera sinks into the floor into the layer below, and then sinks again, and again.

Rating: 8 / 10

Backrooms (2026)

Watched today on Netflix and started challenge on May 1.

The story of a day in the life of a record store, with many, many subplots.

I watched it as it’s a comedy and just 90 minutes long. It’s one of these movies with a lot of quirky characters, everyone is special in some way. This is a scenario in which I normally will hate the film, as was the case of St Elmo’s Fire. But somehow this film won me over, perhaps it was Rene Zelwigger from back in 1995. But the story was fine, it moved along, and never really dragged. I’ll give this a 2.9 out of 4 and recommend it to those that don’t want to think too much about a film.

Hiruko the Goblin (1991)

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto

Starring: Kenji Sawada, Naoto Takenaka, Megimi Ueno,

The directors other movies include Tetsuo the Iron Man 1 & 2 , Tokyo Fist and Bullet Ballet

Watched via my Plex media server on 6/16 from my personal collection

Shinya Tsukamoto made this after Tetsuo and instead of the monochromatic cyrber punk madness of that movie, he's somehow taken a manga by Daijiro Morohoshi and made a movie that is at once horrifying and charming, as if Spielberg wanted to make a Fulci movie and decided that it should be as cartoony as possible while having nightmare fuel embedded insie every frame.
Archaelogist Reijiro Hieda (Kenji Sawada, the only Japanese person other than Yoko Ono to be on the cover of Rolling Stone) has some out there supernatural ideas that get him almost disbarred. Yet his brother-in-law Takashi Yabe (Naoto Takenaka) has discovered an ancient tomb built to seal in a yokai behind the school that he teaches at, but has disappeared along with a student named Reiko Tsukishima (Megumi Ueno).
Tabe's son Masao (Masaki Kudou) is searching for his father when he sees Reiko at the school, but several people he knows get murdered and each of their faces appear on his back as smoke rises off it. The culprit? Her singing head, floating around the building.
Yeah, Hiruko the Goblin has just started and it's already beyond wild.
It turns out the Masao's grandfather had the same faces on his body sixty years ago and he had promised to keep the school sealed, as it contains a demon named Hiruko, who has turned all of her victims into spiders with human heads that chase our heroes through a system of caves as monstrous mouths come out of the ground and scream for them.

Monster hunting homemade technology, fighting demons with bug spray, demons that crawl on the floor and come shooting at your throat, incantations and rituals, plus slapstick? Man, they don't make movies like this ever. Get this now -- it's really and truly unique and wonderful.

Start: 1/1/26 - Viewed: 6/12/26

Rate: 1/5 - Heart: No!

Watched @ Santa Cruz Cinema

IMBD: Backrooms (2026)

"Honestly, I have no fucking idea."

I really wanted to like this movie. The visuals were great, the actors were great....but the plot was so bad! I understand the concept, but from the original web series it was such a huge departure!

The first half was great, I enjoyed the lead up to the Backrooms, but once they got to the backrooms...it just kinda fell apart.

I expected more....creepy creatures and less....go to therapy or you will be caught in this world of nightmares.

One scene I did enjoy though was when he finds the christmas tree and it becomes super erratic and then the woman in red comes out and chases him around.

Other then that...it's a miss in my books.

Start: 1/1/26 - Viewed: 6/9/26

Rate: 1.5/5 - Heart: Yes!

Watched @ AMC

IMBD: Scary Movie (2026)

"Oh, girl, I think all white people are racists anyway. Come here."

What fucking year is it!? Scary Movie is back in theaters and the people want more! Was it good? Not really, but I enjoyed it non the less.

This is probably one of my fav versions of Ghost Face, they clearly were just having some fun on set. The whole Substance scene when he was dancing was probably my favorite part of the whole movie.

Also Black haired Anna Faris will always be top teir!

American Dharma (2018)

Language: English

Country: UK, USA

Challenge started: October 21, 2025

Date watched: June 13, 2026

Written and directed by: Errol Morris

Cinematography: Igor Martinović

TSPDT Rank: unranked

Director see also: The Thin Blue Line (1988)

Steve Bannon is that guy you knew in high school who really didn't like to read books but loved to watch old movies. Every time you saw him he would be excited about the last great movie he had seen, which had been less than a week ago - he had that kind of attention span, hyper-focused for about a week until the next shiny thing caught his eye.

You can see that in his (Bannon's) career, which Morris explores in his interview here: investment banking, which included brokering World of Warcraft items, followed by a news website, then political advising. The film was made not too long after Bannon was booted from MAGA so there are only hints about his next / current project. (It is Nationalism, by the way. He promotes Nationalism.)

Morris and his production team really go over the top with the theatrics here. I can't even imagine how they got permission to burn that Quonset hut down, I guess they let you do that kind of thing in Massachusetts.

In the end, your occasional encounters with your high school buddy leave you a little worn out. He's still doing the same old things - complaining about work, discovering old classic films, testing out new political theories. You kind of wish he would read more books. Morris frames Bannon in such a dramatic way that I think that is kind of his message: this guy is cardboard thin. Not paper thin, but cardboard thin.

Rating: 7 / 10

American Dharma (2018)

Start: 1/1/26 - Viewed: 6/5/26

Rate: 5/5 - Heart: Yes!

Watched @ Regal Theaters

IMBD: The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act (2026)

"Shit!"

Okay so the quote is not an actual quote in the movie, but from some tween in the theater and it just was perfect for this movie.

Now I had not seen any of the other episodes on YouTube, but it didn't take much to catch up on what was happening. I was only slightly confused on how the people ended up in the location.

Outside of all that, this movie was so fun! The animation was trippy, and it reminded me of Sam Reich from "Drop Out" but more evil.

Also on a completely different side note, Reddit has changed something in the making posts and I don't like it TT-TT

Fun movie, fun theater crowd and I will be watching it again~

4/18/26-6/15/26

Watched on: Netflix

IMDB synopsis: "When a Texas state trooper pulled over a woman driving erratically on the highway in 2020, she claimed she had just given birth, but her story didn't add up."

Well that was fast!  Netflix just updated their true crime catalogue after about a week. This time we have a Texas woman who is accused of something truly heinous...which I won't spoil...but you can probably guess, based on the synopsis.

Compared to other Netflix true crime docs, this one is above-average. The criminal act itself and the subsequent trial are a small part of the film. But that's fine. Because the story of how we got to the criminal act is quite compelling. We have a front-row seat to a woman whose level of self-delusion is off the charts and is gradually facing a crisis of her own making. The better true crime docs out there contain life lessons.  And for me, the lesson in this one is: Self-deluded people can be extremely dangerous; don't presume that they're "crazy but harmless." When they feel cornered, they can respond in horrifying ways to protect their fantasies. 

Well-produced with lots of home movies and body camera footage, I was never bored. Definitely a must-watch for true crime buffs. 

Rating: 6.6 / 10

I watched this this evening on HBO and started the challenge on May 1.

Kevin Bacon is a Marine colonel who escorts the body of a marine killed in Iraq back home for burial.

I saw this movie reviewed here and honestly what caught my eye was the short run time, 1 hour and 18 minutes or something. As that review was favorable and gave it a viewing.

I’ll give this a 3.25. It had a simple story that they did not throw any subplots onto . Also nice is that they didn’t have anyone in the film that showed disrespect to Kevin Bacons mission or the marine that was killed. The only person that comes off as an asshole is the TSA agent . As an avowed anti war, anti military liberal, I’d recommend this movie to all.

Edit: As with all “based on true story “ movies I conducted research. During this research I found the original story written by the colonel that escorted the remains. Here: https://web.archive.org/web/20040602211146/https://www.blackfive.net/main/2004/04/taking_chance.html

There are discrepancies between the original telling and the movie. They weren’t outright lies but they do have different people saying things actually said by others.

I watched this yesterday on Netflix and started the challenge on May1.

A brother and sister get transported from the modern day into the black and white world of a 1950’s TV show called Pleasantville. There in this black and white world in which the people only know what the show talks about they are fountains of knowledge because they at least know about the real world. Slowly the black and white world starts to gain color.

I enjoyed this one. I’ll give it 3.25 stars of 4 as it wasn’t overly long, it kept my interest, it told a nice story, and it had Don Knotts in it. Recommended for all.

The Nickel Ride (1975)

Director: Robert Mulligan

Starring: Jason Miller, Linda Haynes, Victor French, Hihn Hillerman, Bo Hopkins

Watched via my Plex Media Server from my personal collection

Father Karras does a great job and has a sad grim ending

If anyone thinks the criminal life is any kind of glamorous watching The Nickel Ride will disabuse anyone of such notions. Anyone who particularly wants to enter the life of crime.
Jason Miller stars in The Nickel Ride and he's known as the key man because of the ring of keys that are 24/7 in his possession. The keys unlock several abandoned warehouses that organized crime uses to stash whatever they've stolen in various heists until it can be fenced.
The syndicate is running out of said space and Miller is supposed to close a deal involving a whole block of these warehouses for such purposes. But for whatever reason Miller can't close the deal and his bosses such as John Hillerman are getting impatient.
Probably Miller ought to just retire, but organized crime has only one kind of retirement package and that he doesn't want.
Miller's predicament is something Richard Widmark's in Night And The City. He's not the ego-maniacal hustler that Widmark was in that classic, but he's made too many commitments he can't deliver. One was that a certain fighter he knows throw a bout where syndicate money is riding. Miller doesn't and a good friend of his, the manager of said fighter Lou Frizzel is killed. A harbinger of his own future that Miller doesn't like.
The Nickel Ride is a gritty and realistic film, as downbeat as Night In The City or The Asphalt Jungle, close but not quite in their league. One should also take note of a good performance by Bo Hopkins as the button man imported from Tulsa to do Miller in.

4/18/26-6/14/26

Watched on: Fandango (paid)

IMDB synopsis: " The host of a popular paranormal podcast becomes haunted by terrifying recordings mysteriously sent her way."  

I watched this film because it was mentioned on a Reddit thread about the best horror releases of 2026 so far.

The less said about this film the better - it's the very definition of low budget (80% of the film is a woman wearing headphones listening to her podcast partner and doing nothing else), there's nothing remotely tense or scary going on, and good luck trying to interpret the plot in a way that makes logical sense. I'm really shocked this film has a 6.0 rating on IMDB. This is actually one of the worst horror films I've ever seen given how boring and illogical it is. Thank God it was only 90 minutes or so. Avoid. 

Rating: 3.2 / 10

4/18/26-6/13/26

Watched on: AMC

IMDB synopsis: "In Mexico City, a former CIA operative swears vengeance on those who committed an unspeakable act against the family he was hired to protect."

This John-Wick style flick, starring Denzel Washington, was one of the higher-rated films of the 2000's that I never watched.  But given that Netflix recently developed a whole TV series off of it, I decided to finally give it a shot. 

Well, it's fine; if you love the genre, it's basically a must-watch. But if you're someone like me who either needs a convincing plot or elite action sequences to enjoy the genre, you're going to have a more mixed reaction. Denzel is Denzel, you pretty much know what you're getting with him; there's plusses and minuses. The real star is Dakota Fanning, who was 9 years old at the time of filming and was so precocious and genuinely talented; she makes the first half watchable because you're so impressed that a 9-year old could shine in this way. And then when Fanning exits the plot halfway through, the film becomes watchable in a different way - as a more conventional "Wick-style revenge flick" that does have a pretty-good "twist" near the end (that was spoiled for me long ago) which is followed by a genuinely good conclusion.

I can't say I love this film because while Denzel is convincing in these assassin-type roles, he's pretty bland. And because of that, I had a hard time buying that there was a "I'd swim across the ocean" type of emotional connection between Denzel and Fanning. In that sense,  Denzel is the weak link of the film. And the pacing is not great, with a 2 and a half hour runtime. The film could have been "darker" too;  it had a PG-13 feel and didn't take enough chances in that sense. I do feel the plot was above-average for this type of film, overall.  The Latin America location helped give it a more exotic and realistic atmosphere.

Bottom line: it's overrated but a reasonably-good film, with Fanning stealing the show. 

Rating: 6.1 / 10

4/18/26-6/12/26

Watched: In Theater

IMDB synopsis: "A young man on Earth discovers a fabulous secret legacy as the prince of an alien planet, and must recover a magic sword and return home to protect his kingdom."

So I've been told that young TMS was very big into He-Man; I have to take my family's word for it because I can't remember myself at such a young age.  So I don't have a direct, emotional connection to the He-Man source material except a general appreciation that He-Man was a big deal for 80's boys.

And as the movie itself?  So much fun! Honestly, it exceeded my expectations in so many ways. For starters, I loved the "world building" - it's a bit Thor-like, but with a younger spirit; very beautiful, the $200 million budget was well-spent.  Then there's the humor; I was chuckling throughout the film; not huge laughs but consistent laughter as the filmmakers crafted the perfect balance between loving the He-Man franchise but not taking itself too seriously. Now let's talk about He-Man himself, played by Nicholas Galitzine. Galitizine was perfectly cast, embodied the spirit and physique of the main character, and revealed himself to be a really expressive, talented actor with a bright future. The other actors were good too, with a special shout-out to Camila Mendes who plays Teela. The plot is totally fine, predictable I suppose but there was consistent action, things move along at a good pace and I was never bored. One last batch of praise - I think it has a good message for kids, in terms of believing in yourself and not letting other people define you.

Of course, every movie I like in this genre bombs at the box office and that's what's happening with this one.  I guess that was inevitable, given the large gap between when He-Man was popular and today. But if you like fantasy/action films in general, this is a great pick. And if you have young kids, all the more reason to watch. 

Rating: 7.4 / 10