Mortal Kombat 2 Warner Bros
Karl Urban. Directed by Simon McQuoid. 2026
The fan favorite champions -now joined by Johnny Cage himself -are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.

I found the 2021 "Mortal Kombat" pretty forgettable. I watched it again the other day as prep for the sequel and it was almost as if I had never seen it before. I got the impression from the trailer that they were trying to make the sequel a little more fun. And when Karl Urban as "Johnny Cage" is on screen, the movie is fun. I only wish he were in more of it. A lot of the movie focuses on "Kitana", and she's a self-serious bore. The fight scenes are well-constructed for the most part, and one of the last kill-moves got a round of applause from the audience I saw it with.

1948. First in a series of 16. Use to watch these on Jungle Theater summer afternoons as a kid. Gonna try and watch them all over course of the summer.

I fell asleep near the beginning and near the end.

Not a good movie and Alan Ritchson needs to go to acting school and he can't act for shit.

Hulu

Renate Reinsve is somebody to keep track of since she continues to put out good work.

The Long Game

2025

Amazon Prime

"Holly meets a mysterious older man (Jackie Earl Haley) who says he can help her career. She just needs to help him with '80s starlet Mariah McKay (Kathleen Turner), a rich recluse who has faded into obscurity."

I marathon'd them a few years ago (But didn't get to see Savage Mutiny) Jim's diving cliff isn't as gorgeous as it used to be, but it's still standing:
^Jump to 13:54

Ha, we enjoyed it! The action was good and plausible. A team goes out for training and lo! and! behold! and alien attack occurs. Fun!

The Sheep Detectives Amazon/MGM
Hugh Jackman. Directed by Kyle Balda. 2026
Shepherd George Hardy reads murder mysteries to his sheep. When he's killed, the sheep realize he was murdered and set out to solve the case themselves, venturing from their meadow into the complex human world.

I had no intention of seeing "The Sheep Detectives" in the theater, -because, you know, talking sheep, -but over the weekend I heard several raves for the film and then there's that 96% Audience Score. So here I am on "Discount Day" sitting with the other retirees, eating my free popcorn.

"The Sheep Detectives" is not a Kid's Movie, and the characters, dialogue and humor are aimed more at Adult audiences and attention spans. While there is some Physical Comedy, most of the film's humor is that this is a Legit Murder Mystery acted out by sheep. And these are not cartoon sheep; the sheep are realistically rendered, and don't do anything real sheep can't do (mostly), and while the sheep talk amongst themselves, humans don't hear them that way. It's very much like "Babe".

The characters, -both Human and Sheep, -have some dimension and their own little character arcs, at least as much as a Light Comedy can ask for. I went in fairly blind, so I was surprised that the voice cast included Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Bryan Cranston, and Chris O'Dowd. Emma Thompson is the most recognizable of the Human cast, and because of that I found her a little distracting. The animation of the sheep is utterly convincing and never gets in the way of the story.

"The Sheep Detectives" is an excellent film, and it really grew on me as I watched it. Honestly, I got a little misty-eyed a couple of times near the end.

2013

"A serial killer (Elijah Wood) removes his victims' scalps and attaches them to the vintage mannequins he restores in his late mother's shop."

Watching Elijah Wood creeping up on some hot ladies at night perfect 2am movie watching.

Punisher: One Last Kill Disney+
Jon Bernthal. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. 2026
Frank Castle, a PTSD-addled veteran, returns to action when Ma Gnucci, a wheelchair-bound crime matriarch, seeks revenge after he killed her son, forcing him to fight off the city's criminals descending upon him.

I intended to Watch "Punisher: One Last Shot" when it dropped Tuesday Night, but Disney+ screwed up the Dolby track; there was no "Center Channel" and the dialogue was coming from over my left shoulder. Disney+ got the problem fixed overnight. I'm glad I waited, because the Atmos track is really terrific. As for the film, it certainly delivers on the bloody relentless carnage for the better half of its approximately forty-two-minute running time.

Story-wise, though, I found the film a bit lacking. The first twenty minutes deals with Frank Castle and his PTSD. Frank confronts the ghosts of his past in the "Theater of His Mind". Of course, this allows Bernthal to act his ass off, but its well-worn material in terms of "The Punisher" and I'd have rather seen a more nuanced story. I'd prefer to see The Punisher using his head and his combat skills rather than behaving like a Grizzly Bear with a machine gun. However, if you want to see The Punisher kill dozens of nameless goons, this is your film. Personally, I'll stick with "Punisher War Zone". At least they got him in his proper "costume" for a moment at the end.

2019

Showtime

"Released from prison, a talented boxer wants nothing more than to reconnect with his young son and live a quiet life. But when his brother gets on the wrong side of a shady developer, he must risk everything to save his sibling before it's too late."

Timothy Spall was chewing the scenery but mostly forgettable.

2016

"Adam, a real estate developer in Vancouver, courts the perfect woman while reaching out to a woman he has wronged."

It was not that bad and John Cho stole the movie.

Ingrid Haas is not bad to look at.

Netflix

Kate Winslet directed

"The film takes place just before Christmas, when an unexpected turn in their mother's health thrusts four adult siblings and their exasperating father into chaos as they navigate messy family dynamics in the face of potential loss. But their quick-witted mother, June, orchestrates her decline on her own terms -- with biting humor, blunt honesty, and a lot of love."

It was not terrible and had some good scenes though it could have been better.

Once again Timothy Spall steals the movie.

I wish Kate Winslet and Andrea Riseborough had more scenes together.

Toy Story 4 Disney 4K
Tom Hanks. Directed by Josh Cooley. 2019
When a new toy called "Forky" joins Woody and the gang, a road trip alongside old and new friends reveals how big the world can be for a toy.

I had my doubts about "Toy Story 4" going in, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. "TS 3" ended the series on a perfect note, and going for a fourth seemed a bit of a reach. However, The Disney Team managed to find a compelling story and it's a fine film. I had forgotten about characters like "Gabby Gabby", a Sixties-styled baby-doll voiced by Christina Hendricks, who begins as something of a villain but gets a touching redemption arc. And then there was Keanu Reeves as "Duke Caboom" a wonderfully Canadian motorcycle stunt-toy. He quickly became my favorite character in the film.

Necessary or not, "Toy Story 4" is a terrific disc and the film really impressed me with how "real" everything in the film looks, even though it's all ones and zeroes. It just shows what you can do with a little bit of talent and a whole lot of money. Disney has hardly been at their best creatively these days, so let's see if they can pull off "Toy Story 5".

Escape to Victory youtube. (Free)
Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine. Directed by John Huston. 1981
In World War II, a group of Nazi officers come up with a propaganda event in which an all star Nazi team will play a team composed of Allied Prisoners of War in a Soccer (Football) game. The Prisoners agree, planning on using the game as a means of escape from the camp.

Over the last ten years or do, I've tried to catch up on a lot of the films I wasn't compelled to watch in theaters or passed up renting from Blockbuster. "Escape to Victory" certainly fits that bill, though I think it was just called "Victory" when it played around here, and it's a solid enough effort from venerable old warhorse John Huston, who directed enough classics not to have to take a lot of crap for his more middling efforts.

"Victory" is about a soccer game between Allied POWs and a Nazi All-Star team in the midst of World War II. The cast includes Michael Caine as the Prisoner/Coach, Sylvester Stallone as an inconvenient American escape expert who becomes a goal tender, and Max Von Sydow as a German Commandant who proposes the game. The film also features top European Footballers of the time, and, of course, the legendary Pele. Bill Conti (of "Rocky") provides a rousing score that does a lot of heavy lifting for the film.

"Victory" is a perfectly competent film, but it feels like it's built out of parts from a thousand other, better, WWII "POW" films, like "The Great Escape", "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Stalag 17". Maybe even "Hogan's Heroes". It just doesn't bring anything new to the table.