Nothing makes a demon feel welcome like a child experiencing trouble at home. If mom and dad aren’t getting along, a demon always comes calling for that child. This is the setup for Other Mommy, where the demon appears in the form of the child’s mother–who is alive and well. Playing the role of both mommies is Jessica Chastain, and her performance in the dual role elevates the movie above its modest jump-scare aspirations.
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In hindsight, the idea behind Chris Hansen’s To Catch a Predator was brilliant. Take one part reality TV, one part investigative journalism, one part voyeurism, season with righteous anger and presto–out comes huge ratings. The sensationalistic pull of the show was hard to resist. Who wouldn’t want to watch child predators humiliated, handcuffed and dragged away by cops? The show delivered as promised, regardless of the ethical and legal concerns raised along the way. But what effect did the show have on those behind it, who compromised their morals in exchange for success? That’s the question the movie addresses, in the most audacious way possible.
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One thing I’ve learned from watching action movies is to never let a ridiculous plot get in the way of being entertained. Runner is such a movie, which involves a donated liver that can only be transplanted into someone with the extremely rare RH- blood type, or as they say in this movie, “RH null”. How rare? The internet tells me that only fifty living people are estimated to have this blood type. This means that the odds of a donor suddenly becoming available are extremely high. So when it’s revealed that two people with that same blood type both need the liver, well, I shrugged and rolled with it.
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Buddy works best as a satire on Barney and other children’s shows. Its overall construction is a jumble, but when the movie hits, its black comedy gold. Cristin Milioti gifts her fans with another engaging performance in her increasingly eclectic career. Recommended. Continue reading Buddy
Being a dental hygienist is a thankless job. They diligently scrape off the gunk build-up on our teeth, fully aware that they’re going to do the same thing in six months. Which is why I would advise that anyone interested in this career avoid Insidious: Out of the Further. Not only is the kindly hygienist in this movie forced to clean the worst set of teeth I’ve ever seen, he has a second pair like a geriatric Zenomorph! Maybe that Starbucks barista job would be a better option after all.
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Since 1993, almost every movie released that featured dinosaurs had “Jurassic” in the title. This is strange, given how often Hollywood studios copy off of each other’s homework. The End of Oak Street is the first serious attempt at a dinosaur movie outside of that franchise, and it made me wonder why it took so long. There’s plenty of action involving humans either running away from or being eaten by elaborate CGI dinosaurs, which is precisely what we want from a movie like this. If anything, it should inspire those behind the Jurassic films to make better sequels.
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Everyone knows that “helicopter parenting” is bad, right? Apparently not, since the good folks at Pixar have revisited the topic again, seven years after Toy Story 4 made it clear that toys need to know their place. Don’t they have a “prime directive” to guide them in situations like this? Anyhow, in Toy Story 5 it’s Jessie instead of Woody who decides to take matters into her own hands with current owner Bonnie, and things turn out about as you’d expect. There’s also a platoon of newly-awakened Buzz Lightyears that find their way into the story, and who doesn’t love more Buzz?
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During a quiet moment in Pressure, Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) poignantly asks a colleague, “What is wind?” His question is rhetorical but it reflects the philosophical differences he has with a rival who bases his optimal D-Day forecast upon historical charts. In the face of unrelenting pressure from everyone around him to change his pessimistic weather forecast, Stagg stays true to his convictions, because he knows that predicting the weather requires more than pattern-matching. It requires curiosity and insight, two things that ultimately won out in what was proven to be the most consequential weather forecast in history.
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At one point in Passenger, the heroine uses her van’s camera system to find the ghost that’s been following her. I’ve seen dash cams and backup cams before, but this was cooler. It gave her a 360 degree view outside of the van, which eventually revealed the ghost. While the scene played out exactly as I expected, it was a clever way of using modern technology so that for once, the poor girl can finally look around without her head on a swivel. This and other little details showed that the filmmakers wanted to make an interesting “stalking ghost” movie, and I was entertained by the results.
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Getting your wish is the worst thing imaginable in Obsession, a twisted take on love and romance that horrifies before going full-on horror. I appreciated the movie’s darkly comedic take on desire and relationships more than its gruesome endgame, but it’s a wild ride either way. Recommended. Continue reading Obsession (2026)
