Rob_Keyes

10/10

The world's best cinematography combined with epic storytelling and music. There's nothing like it or the heart (and time) put into it.

Pluribus is another slow-burn, must-watch from Vince Gilligan, this time with a sci-fi slant. Rhea Seahorn puts on an acting shop, most of the time carrying sequences entirely solo.

Pluribus is unique and is another top tier sci-fi release from Apple TV who dominate the genre. It'll make you think, and after the finale, it'll make you demand more ASAP.

A House of Dynamite starts with a gripping first chapter that promises a tight, propulsive thriller, powered by a great cast and an immediately intense setup. But as the film replays the same events from new perspectives in each subsequent chapter, the impact gradually fades.

What begins as an intriguing structural choice slowly drains the momentum, with each retelling diminishing the urgency rather than deepening it. By the time the film arrives at its non-ending, the dangling plot threads from earlier feel less like deliberate ambiguity and more like unfinished business. A House of Dynamite asks its audience to think, but it does not earn the time or patience it demands to make that reflection.

Eddington targets interesting, timely topics with its 2020 setting, featuring over-the-top characters weaving through COVID-19 conspiracies and BLM riots in the least nuanced way possible. It's also too slow and oddly uninteresting, leading to a fast-paced but ultimately goofy finale.

Great actors with little to work with and not a satisfying watch. Difficult to recommend this one to anyone valuing their time.

Fountain of Youth is a strange movie and ultimately would have worked as an easy to watch weekend rental, when the big fun B-movies had more room to breath in our entertainment-overloaded era.

Apple TV+'s big budget allows for director Guy Ritchie to play with a big cast in big, beautiful sets, but we'd all be happier if that money was re-allocated to the story and script.

Fountain of Youth attempts to launch a modern Indiana Jones or National Treasure, and has glimpses potentially exciting lore, but overlays it with mind-numblingly dumb dialogue and action set pieces where unnamed, oftentimes faceless, people are killed - regardless of their faction - as our goofy lead laughs and punches his way through every situation presented.

This makes the protagonists difficult to understand or root for and undercuts the personal relationships of our adventurers. Throw in an obvious little twist, and the third act becomes more dumb than fun.

Fountain of Youth will make you yearn for more of the movies that inspire it, and marks another big budget miss for Apple's film asperations, down there with Wolfs, Ghosted, and Argylle.

It's harmless, but go watch The Gorge instead if you subscribe to Apple TV+.

The live-action How to To Train Your Dragon is almost a shot for shot a copy of the original, where every sequence, character, and set piece just isn't quite as great, with one exception.

That exception is Gerard Butler who reprises his role as the protagonist's father and viking leader, again emphasizing the copycat nature of HTTYD which has hit theaters just 15 years after the original animated masterpiece from DreamWorks.

Director Dean DeBlois returns for the remake, adaptation, or whatever this clone should be called and delivers and adequate job of translating the work of animators to live-action, the background players and sets feel inauthentic and less dynamic, reading like a stage play where it's tough to buy what's happening on screen.

The lead cast, for the most part, are great even if it feels like they're imitating what we've seen before, but what holds the new How To Train Your Dragon back is that it feels simply "less than" what came before. The pacing is a bit off, the support characters aren't fleshed out enough, the music feels familiar but not powerful enough, and some of the emotional beats are lacking.

The biggest sin though is that when the original released in theaters, just months after Avatar took the world by storm, its own dragon flight sequences seemed superior and more epic. In the live-action HTTYD, this is a big miss and the earlier flight sequences with Toothless are bad, shot with shaky cam and unclear sense of scale and speed.

Overall, 2025's How to Train Your Dragon is good, but not good enough to justify its existence to viewers of the originals. It's disappointing and I can only hope the sequels attempt to innovate and improve instead of trying desperately to just be another copy of the work of the original crew.

Ballerina is a thrilling visual showcase that earns its place in the John Wick franchise, even if the journey of its lead, Ana de Armas’ Eve, doesn’t hit quite as hard - physically or emotionally as Wick himself.

Still, this first John Wick film spinoff nails the essentials: a compelling lead audiences can root for, industry best action design coupled with vibrant lighting and pulse-pounding music, and slick production design with memorable locations and set pieces.

There are standout moments of inventive carnage, one involving grenades and furniture, and another involving a flame thrower. It’s John Wick through and through, bolstered by appearances of familiar faces like Ian McShane’s Winston and Anjelica Huston’s Director who add weight and deliver audiences a clever re-framing of Wick’s Chapter 3 appearance. And while Keanu Reeves has a part to play here, and in the third act, his role seems to break the logic of the franchise's canon.

Ballerina is a must-see for John Wick fans, and Ana de Armas deserves to come back for more.

A Working Man is an easy recommend for anyone looking for that classic action movie rental for the weekend. It's got top tier action from Jason Statham whose character hits all the easy-to-root-for tropes, from personal tragedy and loving father, to heroic veteran and super skilled and fearless badass who can take on an unlimited number of opponents in any situation.

David Ayer's polished filmmaking, solid action, and some notable supporting cast performances (not from the villains though) make A Working Man a fun action romp that easily earns itself sequel potential, not unlike The Beekeeper 2 we're still waiting for.