Looking Back at the Films of 2025 Part Two - Heart Eyes & Popeye's Revenge

Okay we're on to part two. Let's do it!

Why Didn't I See Heart Eyes?

I didn't know about this until I saw it on the DVD and Blu-Ray copies on the shelves at Wal-Mart. So since I was way too late to get a review of it, it was best to save it for this segment.

What is Heart Eyes?

Heart Eyes is a romantic comedy slasher that was produced by Spyglass Media Group and Divide/Conquer with Screen Gems distributing. The screenplay was written by Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy with Josh Ruben in the director's chair.

The story is, each Valentine's Day a masked serial killer known as Heart Eyes hunts and kills couples. Elsewhere, in an effort to make her ex-boyfriend jealous marketer Ally kisses freelance advertiser Jay, but this fake loving kiss catches the attention of Heart Eyes who mistaken them as an actual couple. Now Ally and Jay must find a way to survive this deranged murder or else they'll be another set of victims.

My Thoughts

The Good: One praise I want to give is the kills. There pretty brutal and often times darkly funny, which mixes well with the movie's overall dark comedic tone. Speaking of comedy, let's get to it. While sometimes things just weren't funny, I found myself laugh more then less. My favorite part is when Ally and Jay yet just barely survived Heart Eyes, they're both frustrated and Jay shouts "Will you go kill somebody else!" I just loved that part. The last thing I'll credit is our leads Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding. While I don't think their chemistry is gonna blow the world away, I do think they were very charming and pretty funny together. And they worked so well with the movie's tone.

The Bad: I've got nothing.

The Okay: My only slight issue was the story. Now our characters trying to outwit and survive Heart Eyes, that was all good. We got some pretty good character moments, the previously mentioned comedy, the previously mentioned kills, etc. But where it dipped quite a bit for me was the identity reveal. Without trying to give too much away, one piece of the identity reveal involves a character we barely saw. They shared one scene with Ally and that's it. We didn't any other clues or hints.

Final Verdict: Good.

Why Didn't I See Popeye's Revenge?

Now truth be told I was keeping an on this newest public domain horror movie, but as time I went by I did start to slowly forget. So, I guess I'm sorry.

What is Popeye's Revenge?

Popeye's Revenge is a slasher film that's a horror reimaging of E.C. Segar's character Popeye. It was produced and distributed by ITN Studios. Harry Boxley wrote the screenplay with William Stead directing.

The story is, a boy named Johnny is born deformed and because of this he's treated like an abomination. This repeated mistreatment eventually leads him to murder a child and causes an angry mob to go after him. Year later and believed dead, Tara and her friends inherit the house where many tragedies occurred. What they think was gonna be a simple plan to convert into a summer camp, they quickly learn that Johnny now going by Popeye is back, and he plans to kill everyone.

My Thoughts

The Good: I've got nothing.

The Bad: Oh boy, where do I begin? Let's start off with our characters. Oh boy, these characters are so one dimensional. They either little to no personalities to talk about. They were boring. So when any of them get killed you're not gonna care because there was nothing to care about them. Then there's the filmmaking. Let me break it down for you. When it came to the kills, those were decent. It's clear the filmmakers took some time to bring focus to those, but holy crap, did anybody working on this movie knew how to throw a convincing fake punch? Remember how you and your buddies would pretend to have a fake fight, and when you went for a punch you'd always make sure your fist was a mile away that way you didn't actually hurt your friend? That's what the punches in this movie reminded me of. I don't know what the situation was. Either the filmmakers rushed to get this movie out to the public, so they didn't both to do more takes for the action scenes, or they were deathly afraid of any of the actors getting hurt. Either way, when it comes to hand-to-hand it looks incredibly amateurish. It was laughable. But I think the absolute worse thing about this movie, or maybe the second worse depending on your view point, is Popeye himself. This verison was Popeye in name only. We don't see him eat spinach, he doesn't say any of his iconic catchphrase like "Blow me down", "That's all I can stands, and I can't stand no more!" or his most famous "I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam". No, instead we get snarls, groans, grunts, and his one vocal line of "TaRa!". At least with those Twisted Childhood Universe horror flicks like Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood & Honey, they'll have one or two things that'll tell you these are truly those childhood characters corrupted versions. But with this Popeye he might as well put on a hockey mask on go by the name of Jason.

The Okay: Some actors and actress are decent at best, but then you have actors so bad I don't even think they'd be go enough for porn. Then we have the special effects. Now the practical stuff was actually pretty decent, but when they used CGI it's bad. So bad it would only be good for SyFy original movies or Asylum mockbusters.

Final Verdict: Bad.

So that's all for today. Come back on Saturday, Feb 28th for my review of Scream 7! Oh man am I excited for that one! Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Underrated Films - Legends of the Knight

 

Boom! That's right, another underrated film review and this review is another documentary. Now before I get into the review I do want to explain a few things. Now originally I was gonna save this for later because I thought it was still on Tubi. But in typically streaming fashion it was there one moment then gone the next. I was able to find on another streaming service called zoneify. So I figured I could save this review for the next month or the one after that. But I got worried it could quickly disappear by then and decided to do it for this month. So here we are, enough of the explanations, let's get to reviewing.

Legends of the Knight is a 2013 documentary that was produced by Brett Culp Films, Broadcast Thoughts, and POP Kollaborative with Brett Culp directing it.

The documentary gives us a bit of information of how Batman is a pop culture icon. But more importantly then that it explores how people from different walks of life have been inspired by the strength and resilience of The Dark Knight to overcome the odds, achieve their dreams, and do good in the world.

Why It's Underrated

Be honest, how many how you have actually heard of this documentary? No matter how much of a hardcore Batman fan, how many of you actually knew this existed? Don't be ashamed, I didn't know about this until high school when I was working on a PowerPoint project and that was back in 2013, and I think by that rate the doc was already out for months. So don't blame yourself if you haven't heard of this. I imagine it goes under a lot of people's radars.

My Thoughts

Now before I get into some of the documentary's more positive aspects there is just one slight, tiny issue. That being the pacing. Now 99.99% of the time things to by very nicely, but sometimes the documentary just get slow in some spots. But I was willing to forgive because of the much better bits.

Alright now that I got that out of the way, let's get into those better bits. That being this is a very uplifting watch. I was both interested and very touched by a lot of these people's stories and how they were inspired by Batman. There's one guy (sadly I don't remember his name so please forgive me on this part) who only has three fingers on both hands and one leg and yet he can kill it on Dance Dance Revolution, one boy named Kai fought through cancer, and then we had another guy who calls himself Petaluma Batman who helped bring awareness to a missing girl. And that's only three stories, there's plenty of tales just as inspiring just like these all because they were inspired by Batman.

I also want to praise Legends of the Knight on how it touched on Batman's appeal. While we see fans talk about how The Caped Crusader inspired them, there was a nice bit that I liked where we see psychologist and college teachers who wanted to study Batman and his villains. There's even one doctor (again I apologize for not remembering names) who actually uses the comic books as a way to have his clients be more open about being in therapy. If that doesn't tell you just how powerful storytelling in comic books can be I don't know how else I'm gonna convince you.

The last thing I'll praise is and I didn't think I'd ever say this about a documentary, but this something the whole family could watch. Now I'm being serious. If by any chance you have a family who like watching documentaries together give this a watch. You won't be disappointed. Well watch it if you can find that is.

I truly love this. I've seen it at least three times and I enjoyed after each viewing.

My final rating is, Great.

So that's all for now. By the way, if want to support Brett Culp and his mission to spread a positive message, you can check out his website right here. But anyways, that's all for me. Come back on Thursday, Feb 26th, for part two of Looking Back at the Films of 2025. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Road to Avengers: Doomsday - Fantastic Four: Origin of Doctor Doom Review

 

Alright it's now part two of the Road. This time around I'm talking about Doctor Doom's origin story. Although I should explain something first. There's actually two stories to this. Doom's origin and The Final Victory of Doctor Doom. But I'll only be focusing on Doctor Doom's origin story. So sorry if I'm not providing a review for the second story.

Origin of Doctor Doom is a 1964 story published in the second annual of the 1961 edition of Fantastic Four. It was published by Marvel Comics with the writer being Stan Lee and the artists being Jack Kirby.

The story is, we go back years before. Before Victor Von Doom became the Fantastic Four's greatest enemy, Doctor Doom. We'll bare witness to how a once respected man went down a road that turned him to something unrecognizable and evil.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

First let's go over the story, and I'm gonna start with how it portrays Doctor Doom. In my review for Fantastic Four #5 I mentioned how he was very campy and over-the-top. Here, he was much more of the Doctor Doom that I now. Very serious, very focused, and also a very tragic character. But we also see the stuff fans are familiar with when it comes to Doom. his country Latveria, the forging of his armor, and how he came and learned how to control both magic and science. So it was go to read these things that issue number didn't mention. However and maybe this is just a nitpick, but we see Doom (way before the armor) and he just so happens to meet Reed at that same college. It felt little contrived. But like I said maybe it's just a nitpick on my part.

• Positives

One praise I want to give is the pacing. Sometimes Stan Lee's writing gives the story great pacing, sometimes it's just decent. This is one of those times when the pacing is good. I was able to read everything from textboxes, thought bubbles, and word balloons without it feeling like some moments dragged.

The last thing I'll praise is Jack Kirby's art. Yeah I know what a shock. The guy who has the last name "The King" did a fantastic (pun unintended) job. But the guy's use of dynamic panels, shadows are just great. I especially loved the moody tone he drew at the very beginning of the annual. I thought that was the best art out of the entire thing.

So while I had a slight issue with annual I also still found this to be a story to read if you want to know more about the character of Doctor Doom.

My final rating is, Good.

That's all for now. Sorry if I was late uploading this but I fell asleep and before I knew it's like 9:58 or something like that. But anyways, come back on Monday, Feb 23rd, for yet another Underrated Films review. And this time I'll be doing a documentary. What is it about? Well you'll just have to wait and find out. But until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die Review

 

The director of the the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy has given us a brand new movie. But is it a hit or a skip?

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is a sci-fi action-adventure comedy that's produced by Constantin Film, Blind Wink Productions, and 3 Arts Entertainment with Briarcliff Entertainment distributing. Gore Verbinski directed with the screenplay being written by Matthew Robinson.

The story is, a man from the future has traveled back in time to recruit the precise combination of people who'll help stop an A.I.-driven apocalypse. But first they must battle rouge tech which also makes this a race against time if they ever want to save the future.

Why The Delay?

If you read my review for Goat on Saturday then you're fully aware that this was suppose to be uploaded yesterday. The reason why I didn't upload the review then was because my aunt/my mother's sister decided to drop by and pay a visit because they were both heading to my cousin's baby shower. So instead of focusing on this movie I decided to spend some time with her before both her and my mom headed out to the baby shower.

Initial Reaction

Now if you read my most anticipated list then you know I've been looking forward to this movie. Mainly because of the director, Gore Verbinski. That guy was a huge part of my childhood what with the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films and his highly underrated animated film Rango. So I wanted to what he's been up to. By the way I'm well aware of his previous film A Cure for Wellness, but I have yet to see that movie.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

My only slight, SLIGHT, issue was the handling of the movie's story. The A.I. fear is there, and he does touch on a lot of current fears of what it does or what it could do if not handled correctly. But there are times when the movie feels more like a fear of unchecked technology in general then just A.I. The best way I can describe it without going into full spoilers is, one of the characters went through a horrific event and lost someone. Then they go to a tech company who said they can bring back what they lost. But they thing is that was plot point and the A.I. thing felt like two completely different things. Now granted that would later be used in the story, but then it felt tacked on. Who knows, maybe it's me not understanding this, which is probably is cause I've only seen this movie once. So maybe down the line after more repeated viewings I'll understand it later.

Pros

Let's start off with one huge positive, that being Sam Rockwell's performance. The guy was fully committed to this role. He carries the movie with a great amount of energy and also brings a good amount of humanity too. His acting in the diner scene at the beginning of the movie alone is incredible. But it's not just Sam Rockwell that does a great job here. We also have the other cast members pulling their own weight. They captured the comedy, action, and more emotional moments just as much as Rockwell did. By the way, if you're wondering why I didn't say any of the cast members' names is because I believe the marketing kept that a mystery so in respect of the movie I'll keep it a secret as well. Then there's the dark comedy. If you know me if the dark comedy lands well I praise it, and the dark comedy for the most part did land. Hell to my shock there was a joke about school shootings. Now before you give this movie so shit, let me unpack that. That joke was more of comedy being used to show a truth. Because the teachers just acted like this is an everyday thing while the new guy was realistically shocked. So I hope that explanation cleared somethings up.

Overall while some will find issues here and there like I did, as it stands I had a lot fun with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die. I think you should give it a watch whenever you can find the time.

My final rating is, Good.

Okay that's gonna do it for me. I liked to apologize for the delay but hope you can still understand. Having said that, come back on Thursday, Feb 19th, for the second part of my Road to Avengers: Doomsday. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Goat Review

 

So Sony Animation has made another movie that isn't related to Spider-Verse or Hotel Transylvania. Let's hope it's a good one.

Goat is an animated sports comedy that's produced by Sony Pictures Animation with distribution by Sony Pictures Releasing. Tyree Dillihay directed with Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley writing the screenplay.

The story is, a small goat named Will has big dreams of playing the dangerous full-contact sport of "roarball" which is dominated by massively huge apex predators. Will gets a once in a lifetime shot to join the pros but he's ridiculed by his teammates for his size. But instead of letting these taunts and jokes bring him down, Will is determined to prove that "small can ball".

Initial Reaction

Now originally I wasn't really looking forward to this, because I just wasn't all that interested. But since I want to support animation that just isn't the usual suspects of Disney, Pixar, or DreamWorks. So I figured I'd give this a chance.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

The one gray area and I believe we all saw this coming just from the trailers alone, but we do have a very familiar underdog story. But if I've said once then I've said it a million times if you provide just enough entertainment with a familiar story then I think people will be a little bit more forgiven, and Goat does just that. Will is a very much the big dreamer who wants to chase his dreams. But I think he's story just get very interesting when he stops doing not for payment and the love of the game, but he meets the players who also have struggles like relevancy and legacy. So he stops doing it for the love of the game and instead does it so he can help others despite his teammates not liking him at first. And the plus side even though "roarball" is clearly just basketball, at least the filmmakers made the right decision but having the game be played in different environments. And I don't mean just a different city, I mean at one point the characters will be playing on a field on ice, a jungle, or fire.

Pros

Let's start off with the thing we all think about with these movies, the animation. I liked it. It was beautifully done, just something that'll really capture your eye. But what I found to best it's best aspect was the movements of the animals. I don't mean when they do wacky movements or anything like that per say. I mean we the animators got to do something fun by having the animal's movements be very different from each other and how an animal would handle being in a different environment like those previously mentioned basketball fields. Now let's move onto the pacing. Typically with these animated movies whether they're aimed at kids or adults, I'm expecting the pacing to a be breeze to get through and thankfully this continues that. From beginning to middle to end never ever slows down to the point where it feels like a chore. Then there's the humor. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Although we don't have those moments where the jokes were clearly meant for children then adults, but they weren't the worst things I've ever heard. The last thing I'll praise is the voice cast. Especially from Caleb McLaughlin and Gabrielle Union. McLaughlin (who I imagine is happy is doing something outside of Stranger Things) does an excellent job being Will. He captures the character's determination as well as the vulnerability. He also shines with the moments of overcoming doubt. Lastly there's Union. With her voice she brought a commanding presence and confidence. But what she also brought was very mentor-like moments during the intense game scenes.

While Goat has some flaws I think this is still worth checking out. Sure the story's familiar but it was fun to see an animated movie that isn't a sequel or based off an I.P. Especially since the movie does provide a lot of entertainment value.

My final rating is, Good.

Okay that's gonna do it for now. Come back on Monday, Feb 16th, for my review of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

What You Probably Didn't Know About The Godfather

 

Holy shit! I just realize my last What You Probably Didn't Know About was two years ago. So I think it's high time I make a new one. And what better way for a return then telling you things about one of the top classics.

1. The cat that Marlon Brando held in the opening wasn't in the script. It was actually a stray that director Francis Ford Coppola found while on the Paramount Pictures lot. Another fun fact is the cat's purring muffled some of Brando's lines and as a result most of his dialogue had to be looped.

2. The slap that Vito gives Johnny was another moment not in the script. Brando improvised it thus Al Martino's reaction was real. James Caan would later say "Martino didn't know whether to laugh or cry".

3. Francis Ford Coppola insisted on the film being titled "Mario Puzo's The Godfather" instead of just "The Godfather". The reason being his original screenplay draft was so faithful to the novel, he thought Mario Puzo deserved credit as well.

4. The line of "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli" was ab-libbed by Richard S. Castellano.

5. Stanley Kubrick thought the film had the best cast ever and could be the best movie ever made.

6. To add a sense of realism to the wedding scene, Coppola had the cast act out freely and improvise in the background. Another facts are they were only two days to shoot that scene and Coppola shot specific vignettes amongst the action.

7. George Lucas was the one would put together the crime montage aka the "Mattress Sequence" as a favor to Francis Ford Coppola for helping him fund American Graffiti. He would also ask not to be credited.

8. Francis Ford Coppola was reluctant to let his sister Talia Shire audition for the role of Connie. He felt like she was too pretty for the role and didn't want to be accused of nepotism. But the author of The Godfather himself Mario Puzo requested she get a chance to audition.

9. According to Richard S. Castellano, when he once defended Gordon Willis during a disagreement with Francis Ford Coppola, Coppola got revenge on him [Castellano] by having him do twenty takes of the shots of Clemenza walking up four flights of stairs.

10. Sergio Leone, best known for directing The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, was once approached to direct the film. But he turned it down because he felt like a story that glorified the Mafia wasn't interesting enough. He would later regret his decision, but did go on to direct his own critically acclaimed gangster film, Once Upon a Time in America.

11. Paramount Pictures originally wanted to make the movie a low-budget gangster film set in the present rather then a period piece set in the 1940s and 1950s. But Coppola rejected this along with Mario Puzo's original script based on this idea.

12. The scenes of Michael and Kay's wedding at the beginning were actually shot at night. Due to the rushed schedule, Coppola had to direct their scenes in the bag. Also during this time cinematographer Gordon Willis furious at having to set up so many lights.

13. The only comment Robert Duvall made about his performance was the he wished "they would have made a better hairpiece" for his character.

14. The immortal line of "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse", has made its way into each Godfather movie one way or another.

15. Coppola would hold improvisational rehearsal sessions that would have the main cast in character for a family meal. The actors and actresses couldn't break character, Coppola saw this as a way for the cast to organically establish the family roles in the film.

16. Orson Welles lobbied to get the role of Don Vito Corleone, he even offered to lose a good amount of weight in order to get the role. While Francis Ford Coppola is a Welles fan he had to turn him down not only because he already cast Marlon Brando in mind, but also felt like Welles wouldn't have been right for the role.

17. Peter Bart (a Paramount executive) bought the film rights to Mario Puzo's The Godfather before it was even finished. At that point it was still only a 20-page outline. His book would later be published in 1969 with filming commencing in March of 1971.

18. Francis Ford Coppola and Paramount Pictures had a huge amount of tension between them. The reason being is Paramount would frequently try to replace Coppola because they felt like he had an inability to stay on schedule, had unnecessary expenses, along with production and casting errors. In actuality Coppola had completed filming ahead of schedule and did it under budget.

19. One of the reasons why Coppola finally agreed to direct the movie was because he was in debut to Warner Bros. following a $400,000 budget overruns on George Lucas' THX 1138. George Lucas urged him to take the job.

20. Mario Puzo had no prior film experience. So after winning two Oscars for co-writing both The Godfather & The Godfather Part II, he went out and bought a screenwriting book so he could properly learn the craft. He found out that the book's first chapter told readers to "study The Godfather". He would later toss it aside.

I hoped you enjoyed this. Hopefully I can make more later on during this year. But that's all for now. Come back on Saturday, Feb 14th, for my review of the newest animated movie, Goat. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Underrated Films - The Grey

 

New year, new underrated movie to review. Let's get to it.

The Grey is a survival thriller movie based on Ian MacKenize Jeffers' short story Ghost Walker. It was produced by LD Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, and 1984 Private Defense Contractors with Open Road Films distributing. Joe Carnahan directed and wrote the screenplay along Ian MacKenize Jeffers himself.

The story is, after working for a grueling five weeks shift at an Alaskan oil refinery, John Ottway and his co-works take a plane ride home for a much-needed vacation. On their way home a brutal storm causes their plane to crash into a frozen wilderness. Now, John must protect the eight remaining survivors against mortal injuries, the icy elements, and a pack on hungry wolves.

Why It's Underrated

Be honest, have you ever heard of this movie? I won't blame you if you haven't cause neither have I until I started looking into Carnahan's filmography after watching Copshop.

My Thoughts

I'll get into one slight issue I found with the movie before getting into praise. I'm very mixed on the ambiguous ending. I get the movie has a refusal to offer easy comfort, but the thing is they tease a big fight then cut to black and then we're given a post-credit scene. However I felt like a quick montage during the credits could've given us one last intense survival moment without throwing the themes away for the sake of an action moment.

Okay let's get into praise starting with the tone. This is quite an intense movie, I wasn't fully expected to be on edge after the plane crash (which by the way is brilliantly done). But throughout the movie there's always this unnerving dread even with the more quieter moments. And what really gives you that dreadful feeling isn't just the wolves themselves, but the environment they're in. The Alaskan wilderness is punishing both with it's brutal cold and constant sense of isolation.

Then there's the depth. I'll be honest, I was expecting a full blown action flick. But I was pleasantly surprised to watch a movie tackle themes of not just survival, but facing death, illusion of control, faith vs. nihilism, what it means to live despite everything feeling meaningless. So while the action is brutal but fun to watch, this added layer was very welcomed.

The last thing I'll praise is Liam Neeson's performance. This is one of his top best pieces of work. He brilliantly played a grieving, broken man. Bringing both a quiet intensity and an emotional rawness that really carries the film. One of my absolute favorite moments of his is when John is just sitting on the ground, his angry and shouting to the sky or as I should say God and saying "SHOW ME SOMETHING REAL!" It was an incredible moment by Neeson.

Guys, you should definitely give The Grey a watch. I know I had some slight issues with the ending but that was just my perspective, so maybe you'll like far more then me.

My final rating is, Great.

So that's all for now. Come back on Thursday, Feb 12th, for the return of What You Probably Didn't Know About. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.