Cinematic Disasters - Mac and Me

 

So it's been three months since I did a Cinematic Disasters. Let's get back into a world of terrible movies with a very obvious E.T. rip-off.

Mac and Me is a sci-fi movie produced by Mac and Me Joint Venture (I'm not kidding that's the production behind this movie) and Orion Pictures distributing. Steve Feke and Stewart Raffill wrote the screenplay with the latter of whom also directing.

The story is, an alien gets separated from his family and lands on Earth. At first he's only but luckily he runs into a young boy named Eric and the two become unlikely but good friends. Eric then decides to help Mac get home to his family and while avoiding people who want to capture Mac.

Boy, that plot doesn't sound familiar does it folks? The only thing that was missing was for the boy's name to be Elliot.

My Thoughts

Before I get into plot details let me show you what Mac looks like.

Yeah I wouldn't befriend this thing even as a kid. Sure E.T. was no looker himself but at least his mouth and facial expression didn't look like it was always gonna give you a blowjob. I'm not joking, Mac's face always looks like this, it never changes. This movie was made for an estimated budget of $13 million, higher than E.T.'s $10.5 million. You mean tell me they couldn't be bothered to make one maybe two more facial expressions?

And it's not just Mac that looks cheaply made, it's the whole movie! How does that even happen? You're budget is bigger than the movie you and your crew is ripping off and yet, the original movie is eye candy while yours looks like it's more suited for either TV or direct-to-video. Although I really shouldn't be surprised. Guess when doing research into this movie, there was zero pre-production time. When Stewart Raffill was hired there wasn't even a script yet, but there was a release date and corporate promotion tie-in that was already locked in. So Raffill along with Feke had to write a script in a just a few weeks while sets and Mac were also being build. So they didn't have time to prototype and refine special effects. They had to shoot whatever came out first. It also doesn't help the crew was more familiar with B-movies and Raffill who openly admitted to taking the job just for the paycheck. So the lesson here folks.

1) Also make sure you have plenty of pre-production time for your movie no matter what.

2) Get a crew with a more diverse experience and a director who's actually passionate about the film and not just the paycheck.

Okay let's get into some story beats. The movie opens up with Mac and his family. Yes, Mac has a family. Cause you know what's worse than one alien who's head looks like an infected testicle? Four aliens who's heads look like infected testicles. So Mac and his family see and screw around with some sort of NASA machine (I'm not quite sure what the proper name is) and get vacuumed up. Literally this machine has a tube and it sucks everyone of them up. Then during the opening credits Mac and his family are taken to a NASA research facility, then they break out of the machine run around for a bit where Mac and his family get separated during the chaos. Also when this going for some reason none of the armed guards are allowed to tackle or shoot them. Every time the guards get any sort of chance to take these aliens down or out, they're always told to let them walk away or don't shoot. To where I ask why? Why not let the guards shot them, or at least capture them? None of the scientists know that these aliens are friendly. So after Mac escapes he runs into the street where he gets run over by a car, where he sadly doesn't die and end the movie quicker.

Also I like to mention that during this same exact car scene that they gave Mac stretch and smash gags like something you'd see from a Looney Tunes cartoon. But the problem because of Mac very realistic design the gags look more creepy then funny.

Later on we go to Eric, his brother, and his mom moving into their new place. During this scene Mac has snuck in and causes some damage to some lamps and other stuff around the house. Now Eric is the only one who kinda saw Mac, but their are footprints that prove Mac was there. Eric tells his brother and mom he didn't do this but they don't believe him and instead think he causes the damage. Which doesn't make sense. Eric is crippled from the waist down, how is he gonna cause so much damage? Hell, both his mom and brother see the footprints that Eric points out and yet still don't believe him. Which makes Eric's brother and mom even bigger idiots cause the footprints clearly don't look human or belong to any sort of normal animal.

The next morning Eric catches Mac in the act of destroying the house where Mac uses the drill to drill holes in the wall, a saw to cut open a hole in the door, and has taken every plant from around the house and put them in random places through the house. Eric is once again blamed for all of this, where I question...how?!? Okay maybe Eric could've gotten the power tools, but what about the plants? How could Eric who let me remind you is paralyzed from the waist down possibly have taken all the plants in the house and rearrange them? I even think some plants and I could be wrong, but I think some plants are in areas where he couldn't reach!

So Eric is upset that nobody believes he didn't do it and goes outside to let off some steam. Which leads to the best moment of the entire movie.

First off, you gotta love they didn't even try to hide the fact that was a dummy. Second, on boy the CGI at the end. Thankfully we've come a long way since the 80's. The scene also gets funnier because Debbie (the girl in the clip who's Eric's next door neighbor) sees Eric in the lake and shouts at him and I'm serious when I say this, she shouts "Swim to the side, Eric! Swim!" She...she does know he's in a wheelchair right? Then Mac dives in to save Eric, and I'm using dives very loosely because all the filmmakers did was cut to the puppet being upside in the water and then sinks. So after Mac saves Eric, Eric's mom later arrives and she along with other adults come to the conclusion that Eric might be losing his mind. Yes, Eric's mom thinks he tried to commit suicide! Which begs the question, did Eric not tell anyone what happened? I imagine he did because he once again brings up Mac (who at this point in the story Eric is calling him the "little creature") so he had to have told them he unintentionally rode down the cliff. Do they just not believe him? If so why? Eric could just point to the fact his brake handle broke off. And if they don't believe that then Debbie could tell them what she saw. God this scene is just hilarious in so many ways. 😆

After some other scenes involving Eric and his family and Mac feeling lonely, Eric decides he's gonna capture Mac by alluring him with Coke Cola. And get use to seeing Coke because it's the only soda that exist in the entire movie. There's no Pepsi, no Mountain Dew, no Sierra Mist, just Coke and nothing but Coke. But in all seriousness I get movie's sometimes need product placement, but the trick is to not make it so obvious. Mac and Me does nothing but make it obvious. So Eric and Debbie capture Mac with a vacuum cleaner strapped to Debbie's back. And somehow Mac being in the vacuum cleaner makes him have Debbie fly up a wall, spin her around when she's on her back, and drag her throughout the house. Now the movie does show Mac has powers but it never explains how they work or how powerful they are. During this same scene Michael (Eric's older brother) meets Mac and now finally believes everything Eric has told him, but Mac after being let out the vacuum cleaner is hurt. So what do they do to heal him up? That's right, they give Mac a nice healthy cup of Coke. Later Mac is scared off by the sounds of sirens and Eric's mom and runs away.

After some scenes with Eric, Michael, and their mom, we see Mac trying to contact his family with their whistling, because that's their way of speaking to each other. After that bit, we get a chase scene where Mac gets into a power wheels truck and is being chased by the neighborhood dogs. He then later crashes and despite the power wheels being on the ground, somehow Mac winds up in a tree? During this scene we're giving a music interlude where we're meant to feel sad that Mac is alone and wants to befriend Eric. But all it really does it just waste time.

Later on some agents of some place, I don't know if there FBI or they work for some other agency the movie never explains it. But they're in Eric's neighborhood questioning if they've seen anything out of the ordinary. They somehow come to the conclusion that this neighborhood and only this neighborhood is where Mac is located. They don't have any proof of that. Yes when Eric and Debbie captured Mac there was a power surge. But it wasn't a power surge that'd make everyone raise an eyebrow. It was just a plain regular power surge.

After questioning about Mac's family, Debbie and Eric have to go to a birthday at McDonald's. But they can't leave Mac alone with special agents trying to find him, so Eric comes up with the idea to dress Mac up as a teddy bear. We are then lead to the biggest product placement scene ever! For some reason everyone just breaks out into dance. I'm not joking folks. Everybody just starts dancing out of nowhere at McDonald's. They're so into dancing they take out to the parking lot. And this scene goes on for like four maybe five minutes.

So after that bit of what's going on, the agents give chase to Eric and Mac. Which I don't know why they're chasing after Eric. They never had any proof he's the one who's protecting Mac. But we have this chase scene, where yes, it reminds me I could be watching E.T. right now, but to be honest some of the stunts they do in this chase is pretty impressive. Eric and Mac later lose the agents thanks to Michael arriving in time to lend a helping hand. Then their mom catches up with the agents and before one of them can even finish their sentence, Eric's mom suddenly realizes Eric was telling the truth about the "little creature from outer space". This moment comes right out of nowhere because she has no reason to assume that.

Later on our heroes go trough a long journey to find Mac and reunite him with his family. I don't know how they're gonna do that because they don't have single clue where the family is located. All they had to go by was Mac was pointing, sometimes not pointing in anywhere specific just pointing. But they finally find Mac's family and they see his family is dying from dehydration. So what's the big plan to save them? They bust out the almighty Coke Cola! Cause as we all know, Coke Cola is God's drink! We all bow down before Coke Cola! We all conform to Coke Cola! 😂

So everyone gets into the van and the gang makes a pit stop at a local gas station. Michael fills up the van, meanwhile Mac and his family enter the grocery store to pick up...more Coke. Okay I was joking previously but for real! How much did Coke pay to get their drink in this movie? Cause this like the sixth time we see bottles of Coke and nothing but Coke. Alright, now that I got that rant out of the way let's get back to the story. So naturally people are freaked out by the alien family which brings attention to a police officer who has his revolver pointed at Mac's dad. Now Mac's dad easily gets the gun out of the cop's hand because the cop is frightened by what he sees. But as the family walks out of the store more police show up and because Mac's dad is still holding the gun and is waving it around like a toddler would wave around their toy, the local police, and I kid you not, open fire on them and the shooting got so crazy a building blew up. But worse than that, Eric got caught in the crossfire and dies. I'm not making a joke about that. Eric actually died. But don't worry, Mac and his family somehow survived the explosion. And the alien family come together and use their powers to bring Eric back to life. They don't fix his legs though. Mac and his family are powerful enough for resurrections, but not powerful enough to heal disabilities. Worst miracle workers ever.

Then we finally make it to the ending...and I was utterly speechless when watching it. Because instead of Mac and his family finding a way to get back to their home planet, they're instead sworn in to become U.S. citizens, to the point they're wearing human clothes and drive around in a pink Cadillac. Then as we pan out, a pink bubble appears that reads "We'll Be Back". You guys have no idea how much I wish I was making this up. Also the audacity of the writers. "We'll Be Back"?! Did they honestly believe this was gonna get a sequel?

So that was Mac and Me, and it's amazing. It's a bad movie done in the best way possible. Just so many baffling moments you can't help but smile at the unintentionally hilarity.

My final rating is, So Bad, It's Good.

That's all for now. Come back on Saturday, Aug 8th, for my review of the newest Eli Roth horror movie, Ice Cream Man. Until then, I'm gonna enjoy myself a Coke.

Road to Street Fighter (2026) - Street Fighter Alpha: Generations Review

 

I'm back on the Road to Street Fighter (2026) and we're almost at the finish line folks. So far the animated Street Fighter movies have been doing well. Will this one be any different?

Street Fighter Alpha: Generations is an anime film that's based on the video game Street Fighter Alpha 2. Unlike the previous anime films this one was made specifically for the English market and didn't receive an official Japanese release until it was a bonus feature in the Japanese DVD & Blu-Ray release of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Production was done by A.P.P.P.P. and Manga Entertainment was the distributor. The movie was written by Takashi Nishiyama and Mitsuhiro Yamada and the director was Ikuo Kuwana.

The story is, Ryu travels to his old dojo to visit his master's grave. During this visit he's challenged by Gouki aka Akuma to a fight, which Ryu later accepts. But this won't just be a fight to see who's the strongest, it'll be a fight to see if Ryu will fall to the darkness of the Dark Hadou just like Gouki did before him.

• Negatives 

I've got nothing.

• Mix

There's quite a lot of mix this time around. One of them being the art style. Some characters look fine, others generic but nothing insulting, but others times they look hideous.

But art can be subjective, what about the fights? Well, they were okay. While they have creative touches, most of the time they don't seem to have the same fluid motion as the last Alpha movie or Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.

There's also the dubbing this time around. Now some are really good like Simon Prescott as the Old Master/Grandpa. He brought a nice world-weary delivery to a character who's role is a wise mentor. Some take time to get use to like Richard Cansino as Ryu. He has a stoic intensity that's good for Ryu, but sometimes he can be a little stiff. But the worst is definitely Steve Cassling as Ken. Now I fully admit I'm not familiar with Cassling's work but he didn't fit Ken at all. Ken this time around sounded very flat and he sounds older, like an old man kinda of old. Which is because if I remember correctly in the games Ken is a year younger than Ryu.

Then lastly there's the story. So far none of these animated Street Fighter films have particularly strong stories, but they're was at an effort. Here, it's just a match up between Ryu and Gouki/Akuma. Which isn't a bad thing, I enjoyed the build up between these two. And it's also nice to see Akuma's backstory. But everything else is pretty thin. My biggest problem being we already seen Ryu struggle with the Dark Hadou in the last Alpha movie and it was done better there. The only difference is the villain didn't want to weaponize his powers he just wanted a fight.

• Positives

I also got nothing here either.

So yeah, this wasn't disappointing but it's definitely not something you immediately need to watch. Not unless you're a hardcore Street Fighter fan and even then you don't really need to rush to watch this on streaming or get a physical copy.

My final rating is, a low Okay.

That's all for now. Come back on Thursday, Aug 6th, for a brand new Cinematic Disasters review. I'm gonna have a lot of fun with that one. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review

 

Alright, it's a brand new era for Tom Holland's Spider-Man! Was it as exciting as the trailers or does it suck?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a comic book movie based on the iconic Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It's the 38th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the fourth MCU Spider-Man film, and the overall ninth live-action Spidey film. The movie also takes partial elements from the Brand New Day storyline. Columbia Pictures along with Marvel Studios and Pascal Pictures handled production while Sony Pictures Releasing was the distributor. Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers once again return to write the screenplay, but this time the director isn't Jon Watts but Destin Daniel Cretton.

The story is, it's been four years since the events of No Way Home and the world has not only forgotten Peter Parker is Spider-Man but also forgot he exist. During those years Peter Parker has been anonymously protecting New York and Spider-Man is now a celebrated hero, but Peter is keeping himself distance from the ones he cares about. Things will take a dark turn when not only a new villain appears, but Peter's powers are going through a possibly dangerous mutation.

Initial Reaction

I've been waiting for this movie since No Way Home, cause I've been curious of where Holland's Spider-Man will go next? I got really excited hearing street-level crime and even more excited by the trailers. So hopefully all this hype was real.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

It all stems from the writing. Now the good stuff is Spider-Man is stopping a much smaller crime. Spider-Man: Homecoming also had Spidey doing stopping small crimes but it was mostly him trying to escape that and wanting to join the "big leagues", but with Brand New Day it's small crime through and through. So it was great to see the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. But what we also got with this movie is we see Holland's Spider-Man really go through it. Sure he lost more family in No Way Home, but here he's always working to keep his mind busy so he doesn't have to think of the people he had to leave, then he finally meets up with again but then later has a breakdown, and that mutation you've been seeing in the trailers and TV spots, that's what the movie called "the spider trying to eat the man". Yeah, Holland's Spidey this time around is going through a lot. Where the story stumbles a bit is it does feel like the movie has the typical MCU obligations. Setups for future movies and humor where it probably didn't need to be. The other mix feeling is Sadie Sink's character. Yeah I'm not telling who she is even if some of you already know. But I digress, I understand why her character or this version of the character is the way she is. Unlike her comic book counterpart she doesn't have the support system she does in the comics. Now Sink's character does slightly redeem herself near the end. So I dig what the writers did with this version, however I think they went a little extreme with the character's actions. I think what it was is the writers wanted to give Sink a big memorable and slightly scary performance that shows her character is a powerful force. But they [McKenna & Sommers] prioritized the scary part a little too hard.

Pros

One pro is the performances especially from Tom Holland and Sadie Sink. It's great to see Holland be able to show more of his range as an actor. Not only does he have good chemistry with Zendaya, but Holland sells the inner turmoil that Peter/Spider-Man is going through. He carries the isolation and grief of the entire movie. Matching that mature weight is Sadie Sink. She was great with her character's fury and vulnerability. I know previously I said the movie's humor felt like an obligation, but I still want to praise a lot of the tone. As far as Holland's solo Spidey films goes, this one so far as a darker tone. Which is refreshing to see especially since a lot of comic book films have studio heads thinking audiences still want lighthearted romps attached to every single comic book character under the sun. The last thing I'll say about Brand New Day is Cretton's directing. There are a lot of great looking shots in this movie. For the longest time it seems like Marvel just wanted a lot of their movies to look like it was directed by the same guy. But I'm happy to see that or at least it seems like Marvel is allowing more of their directors to add a lot of their style to the movies they're directing.

While it has its issues, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is something I wanted from Tom Holland's Spider-Man. More low-level crimes, less tech, little to no mentor figures, etc. Hopefully this'll continue in the next MCU Spider-Man movie.

My final rating is, Good.

That's all for now. Come back on Monday, Aug 3rd, for the return to the Road to Street Fighter (2026). Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Comic) Review

With Spider-Man: Brand New Day arriving in theaters tomorrow, I thought it'd be a good idea to look at the comic storyline the movie took some, not all, but some ideas from.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a 2008 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. While the story arc itself took place in issues #546-564 the entire Brand New Day status quo runs from issues #546-647 and it's also accompanied by tie-ins, one-shots, and annuals. Dan Slott wrote issues #546-648 & #559-561, with Marc Guggenheim writing issues #549-551, Bob Gale writing issues #552-554, 558 & 562-563, Zeb Wells writing issues #555-557, and lastly we had Slott, Guggenheim and Gale all writing issue #564. Then we have a lot of artists doing a lot of issues. One of them being Steven McNiven drawing issues #546-548, Salvador Larroca drawing issues #549-551, Phil Jimenez drawing issues #552-554, Chris Bachalo drawing issues #555-557, Barry Kitson drawing issue #558, Marcos Martin drawing issues #559-561, Mike McKone drawing issues #562-563, and lastly Chris Bachalo & Paulo Siqueria both drawing issue #564.

The story is, after the events of One More Day (🖕👎) Peter Parker's life has changed forever. He's never been married to Mary-Jane Watson and his unmasking during Civil War has been altered. Not only that but he's been struggling with getting a new job since the Daily Bugle is struggling with selling papers and J. Jonah Jameson is refusing to sell the Bugle to new owners, not to mention but thanks to the Superhuman Registration Act he hasn't been Spider-Man for quite awhile. But he'll have to step back into action when new villains appear and put people in grave danger.

• Negatives

I've got nothing here, so just move onto the next part.

• Mix

If there's one mixed feeling I had with this storyline it's the writing. As per usual with this section of this review let's get into the good stuff. Now the one part of Brand New Day is to be an accessible jumping-on for newer readers and it does succeed in that. You can pretty much read this arc without too much knowledge of prior events/stories. Not to mention but it was fun to see the writers experiment with new villains. I actually had a bit of enjoyment with Freak, but the more breakout villain is definitely Mister Negative. There's also some fun to be had with the villain Menace even if they're little too much Green Goblin. The story arcs are also much more self-contained so new readers won't feel like they have to do too much homework. Now here's the part where the slight negatives come in. Firstly the shadow of the ever controversial One More Day lingers. It was hard for me to truly get into these otherwise fun stories, but because I know how we got here it's really hard to fully love these comics. There's also the fact that sometimes Peter is out of character. Sure he's not all around perfect, but he still should feel like veteran at the superhero game. Especially since only some aspects of Peter's life and events were slightly altered, this isn't a full blown reboot to the point where he's a rookie.

• Positives

I'll first compliment the pacing. All of these stories were a breeze to get through and never felt like a drag.

My biggest praise goes to the art. Each artists brought their respective strengths for this back-to-basics relaunch. Steve McNiven brought a polished, realistic, and highly detailed style. His art has that cinematic clarity he brought to titles like Civil War. Phil Jimenez was also highly detailed but his figures were more stylized and expressive. Salvador Larroca brought a good balance of dynamics with a strong sense of character acting and action. Then you've got like Barry Kitson with a clean adventure feel and Chris Bachalo with an even more stylized look adding even more visual variety. But the biggest name that became a standout is Marcos Martin. Who's art has been favorable compared to the very first Spider-Man artist Steve Ditko. Which after reading I can see why. Much like Ditko, Martin's style has the classic slinky acrobatic anatomy, expressive hands, and narrower eye lenses on the Spidey mask. But he also compared more modern elements like McFarlane looking "spaghetti webbing" along with pages that have naturalistic yet highly designed flow. And his action sequences have intentive staging and clean motion. Marcos' art has loads of personality.

While I enjoyed some of Brand New Day, it's not in the top five of my favorite Spider-Man stories. Especially with that One More Day cloud over my head when reading despite it being years ago since both of these were released.

My final rating is, Okay.

That's all for now. Come back on Saturday, Aug 1st, for my review of the movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Looking Back at the Films of 2025 Part 7 - Smurfs & War of the Worlds (2025)

 

Well everyone were back at it again. Another installment of the Films of 2025. And this time around the films of yesteryear are really making glad I skipped these two. Well, I'm glad I skipped out on one of them.

Why Didn't I See Smurfs?

Cause I've never been a Smurf fan. I mean sure I saw a couple of episodes on Boomerang, but as far as classic cartoon characters I never got into Smurfs. Tom & Jerry, yes. Looney Tunes, yes. Scooby-Doo, yes. Smurfs...not so much. It also didn't help the marketing for these movie was absolutely dreadful. I mean seriously, "Influencer Smurf"?! Really?!

What is Smurfs?

Smurfs is an animated "musical" (I'll explain later why this is in quotation marks later) comedy based on The Smurfs by Belgian comics artist Peyo and acts as a reboot to the Smurfs film series. Production was done by Paramount Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Pam Brady wrote the screenplay while Chris Miller directed.

The story is, years ago the Intergalactic Evil Wizards Alliance attempted to use four magical books to rule the world but were defeated by Papa Smurf and his brothers, where Papa hid one of the four books away. Now in the present one of the evil wizards and Gargamel's brother Razamel has kidnapped Papa and wants to know where that book is. Meanwhile the Smurfs go on a rescue mission to find and Papa and save the world.

My Thoughts

The Good: The animation was at least good.

The Bad: Where do I begin? Let's start with the voice acting. Firstly Rihanna is terrible as Smurfette. Even if she could emote more with her voice, her voice still wouldn't fit Smurfette's design. Everyone else from John Goodman to Nick Offerman aren't bad but this still isn't there strongest work. They still have some emotions to their voices but it sounded like they were going through the motions. Then we have the humor. I'll admit I laughed two times but those two moments didn't help this movie. Most of the jokes just fall flat or just aren't funny. Then there's the writing. One confusing thing is the Smurfs travel to different locations but for some reason it's live-action yet the Smurfs are still animated. Why? Never explained. There's also this whole thing where Smurfs are guardians against evil to the point they could possibly have to defend the multiverse. I'm not joking, that's actually in this movie. Cause apparently the Smurfs are now on par with DC and Marvel superheroes? Then we also have a generic message about finding who you are and it's not all that interesting. Now about that whole musical thing I think the songs weren't meant to be here, I think they were mandatory. Because not only are they forgettable, but I don't think there's that many? I think maybe there were at most four? So can you really be called a musical when you don't have that many songs? The last thing I'll touch on is how this is supposed to be the improved version. Yeah that whole thing about "Influencer Smurf" and the Poots are their fart gimmick, remember those from the marketing? Well those are all gone. Not that I'm complaining mind you, but what does it say about your movie when even the re-edited version is bad.

The Okay: I've got nothing.

Final Verdict: Bad.

Why Didn't I See War of the Worlds (2025)

Since COVID was over I started go back to theaters more and more I've since almost stopped reviewing streaming movies. Sure I'll do one every once in awhile but for the most part I just don't do them as much as I use to. And because of that decision I'm out of the loop of what's streaming on a lot of these services. So I didn't know about this movie until I saw reviewers like Fanboy Flicks ripping this movie apart on YouTube.

What is War of the Worlds (2025)

War of the Worlds (2025) is a sci-fi film based on H.G. Wells' classic 1898 novel The War of the Worlds. Bazelevs Company and Patrick Aiello Productions produced the move and even though Universal Pictures is the distributor it was released on Amazon Prime Video. Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman wrote the story with Rich Lee directing.

The story is, DHS officer Will Radford was doing his usual job of working for the government's surveillance program by monitoring every person in the United States. Then everything changed when large machines emerged out of meteors and started attacking the entire planet. Will must now help government put a stop to this invasion while at the same time keeping his family safe within the building of the DHS headquarters.

My Thoughts

The Good: This'll make for a great movie night with your friends when you don't want to enjoy, but you want to rip one apart like Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The Bad: Let's start off with our main character Will Radford. I get he's going through somethings because his wife has been dead for four years, but that still doesn't change the fact he's stalking his kids. I'm not joking he's using government surveillance tech to spy on his pregnant daughter's eating habits even going as far as to use the fridge camera to see what's in there. Let me repeat myself, I'm not joking! Then there's the special effects. The Tripods' CGI isn't the worst CGI I've ever seen, but that still doesn't change the fact they're bad. The Tripods are PS3 levels of bad CGI. Then there's Ice Cube's acting. No matter how he talks even when he's supposed to be sincere he still sounds a little annoyed. It also doesn't help that some of his shock facial expressions can make for some good memes. I mean just look at this face.

Tell me that is not a good meme reaction when you want to be shocked in a sarcastic way 😆. Then we have the fact that the writers had no idea what they were talking about. Cause when it comes to data they were clearly clueless. Cause these aliens feed on our data yet the movie treats data like it's limited, when it actuality the aliens could feed on this for a lifetime. All they have to do is make copies of the same thing. Also according to this movie once GPS data is deleted (or as the movie weirdly puts it emptied) planes and jets will instantly stop flying and crash to the ground, and once DOD data is "emptied" the army will be powerless. Cause I guess in this movie's world even the guns need Wi-Fi 🤷🏻‍♂️😆? There's also some basic common knowledge aspects the writers should know. Like if a satellite is completely destroyed you're not gonna be able to get footage from it. Hell, the writers don't even know how to use a Trojan horse metaphor correctly and you don't have to be a tech geek understand that one you just have to get a basic understanding of the myth. And lastly this movie is a shameless whore for Amazon. One of the characters is an Amazon delivery employee, Amazon gift cards are mentioned three times, and at one point a drone from Amazon Prime Air is used as a plot device. I'm dead serious folks 😆.

The Okay: I've got nothing.

Final Verdict: So Bad, It's Good.

Well this edition wasn't a total waste. At least I got a good laugh out of War of the Worlds. But that's all for now. Come back on Thursday, Jul 30th, where I'll have something special planned to celebrate the upcoming MCU movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Pinocchio Unstrung Review

 

Well I once again dive into the world of the Twisted Childhood Universe. Let's say what was cooked up this time.

Pinocchio Unstrung is a independent slasher film and the fifth installment of the Twisted Childhood Universe, that acts a horror retelling of 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. Jagged Edge Productions once again produced while Altitude Film Distribution was the distributor. Rhys Frake-Waterfield both wrote and directed.

The story is, after one James' friends died Geppetto creates Pinocchio so James can have a new friend in his life. It all seems fun, until Pinocchio starts killing people in order to protect James.

Initial Reaction

So I think you all know why I'm reviewing these movies. It's a form of morbid curiosity.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

The biggest mix is the writing. The writing for characters and overall plot will had into some familiar territory, so there's not exactly any new ground being broken here. There's also some humor that sometimes doesn't work. There was a good darkly funny moment involving gym equipment and a pretty funny video chat. But then sometimes a joke doesn't land. But I think the two things that saved the story was 1) I can't say it was boring or any other form of awful experience. And there's a couple of themes such as identity and grief going on. That's thematically ambition for this genre of horror flicks.

Pros

Now to get into the good stuff and there's plenty of it. For starters and this is the movie's biggest strength, the puppetry and other practical effects. This movie commits fully to its practical work and animatronics. It was really awesome and creepy to this horror version of Pinocchio move around because he's tangible and not some cheap CGI creation. I also gotta give credit to the kills. There very creative. There's the previously mentioned gym equipment and Pinocchio even uses his own puppet features to kill people with. The last thing I'll give credit to is shockingly enough the performances. Despite not being in the movie that long Robert Englund plays a delightful evil Cricket perfectly balancing menace and humor. Then there's Richard Brake who plays a really messed up version of Geppetto and anchors the movie with both grief and detachment. I also gotta praise Jude-Evan Lloyd as the voice of Pinocchio. He's a very young child actor but he did a really good at playing a very naive monster.

Pinocchio Unstrung isn't gonna end up on the top best films of 2026, but it's still a very entertaining watch. So if you're curious, give it a shot.

My final rating is, Good.

That's gonna wrap it up. Come back on Monday, Jul 27th, for part seven of Looking Back at the Films of 2025. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Road to Avengers: Doomsday - Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment Review

We're back once again to the Road to Avengers: Doomsday. Also once again we see Doctor Doom teaming up with a Marvel hero.

Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment is a 1989 graphic novel that was published by Marvel Comics and can be found in issue forty-nine of Marvel Graphic Novel. The writer was Roger Stern and the artist was Mike Mignola (aka the creator of Hellboy).

The story is, Doctor Doom and Doctor Strange has entered a realm ruled by the sinister Mephisto, all in an effort to save a soul that means everything to Doom. But the questions are what price will be paid and is Doom willing to make the sacrifice?

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

Let's keep it moving.

• Positives

One positive is the pacing. These may not be the quickest read but it's also not something that drags on and on. Pretty good for a graphic novel that's eighty pages long.

My other bit of praise goes to Mike Mignola's art. Now this was pre-Hellboy Mignola so maybe his style around this time wasn't noticeable during this point of his career. But regardless he does an incredible job. You get a gothic otherworldly visuals. Great use of heavy shadows, demonic realms, and a mystical atmosphere. And the colors provided by Mike Badger beautifully add to the moody feel.

The last aspect I'll praise is Roger Stern's writing. For Doctor Strange we see how he is kind of an opposite of Doom when it comes to his use of the mystical arts. But he's biggest story element is how he gets a different view of Doom even though he still feels the need to keep his guard up. But the best writing is for Doctor Doom. This story gives us more layers to his character by giving us more details to his backstory and motivations. We see him more humanized through his love and determination to save this trapped soul, however by the end he still isn't softened and redeemed. One of my favorite moment is Doom does save the soul, but it doesn't go the way I expected. I'd go into my details but they're spoils and I really don't want to give that moment away. It's just such a brilliant moment.

I loved this story! So far when it comes to Doctor Doom stories as of right now this is my number one.

My final rating is, A Must Read!

So first let me apologize for uploading this so late. But what was supposed to be a quick nap turned into something longer. Always make sure the alarm on your phone is actually turned on folks.

With that being said, come back on Saturday, Jul 25th, for the newest horror movie, Pinocchio Unstrung. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.