Heart of the Beast Review

 

Alright we got a new David Ayer film! Let's see what he's brought us this time.

Heart of the Beast is a survival thriller that's produced by Wild Chickens Productions, Temple Hill Entertainment, and Kino World with Paramount Pictures being the distributor. David Ayer directed and Cameron Alexander wrote the screenplay.

The story is, retired U.S. Special Forces veteran James Belmont and his traumatized German shepherd Odin jumped on a plane and were heading towards a remote area in Alaska for some peace and quiet. But out of nowhere James suffers a heart attack and crashes the plane in a desolate, rugged landscape. Now the two must face a grueling 58-mile trek to safety in an unforgiving wilderness.

Initial Reaction

I was looking for to this because I think David Ayer has directed a lot of pretty good movies. So it's no surprise this movie caught my attention the moment I found out he was directing this. But no only was I interested because Ayer was directing, I was interested because this seems far different from what he usually does. Most of his movies are action thrillers and crime thrillers, Fury and Suicide Squad at first being the only two exceptions (by the way somebody at WB really should release that Ayer cut of Suicide Squad). So seeing how this was survival thriller and a story about the bond between man and man's best friend I was curious what Ayer was cooking up this time around.

Cons

 I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

There's two mix bags. The big one is the movie doesn't do anything new in the survival thriller genre. It's still good but very simple as well. The biggest thing saving it is Belmont and Odin's friendship which I'll get into later. Then there the CGI. It didn't bother me because I've seen some pretty bad CGI before. But even though the rather decent at best quality didn't ruin the experience for me, I still can't rank it any higher.

Pros

One praise I'll give and I've previously mentioned is the bond between Belmont and Odin. These two and their friendship are the heart of this movie. We seen them both take care of each other and we see the friendship is deeply rooted in mutual dependence, trauma, but most importantly of them all loyalty. These two are willing to protect each other no matter what. There's also the nature aspect of the movie. What I mean by that is Ayer and cinematographer Mauro Fiore captured both the beauty and hostility of the wilderness. We'll some beautiful landscapes one moment, then intense wildlife encounters the next. There's also Brad Pitt's performance. Pitt perfectly captures a war weary veteran without having to say much. We're told so much with his glance that shows a wounded soul and quiet devotion towards Odin. Pitt shows great chemistry with Uber (the dog who primarily plays Odin). They both acted like they've known each other for years. The last thing I'll praise is the ending. It's hard for me to go into detail without going into spoilers, but it's bittersweet. The best way to describe it is devastating yet hopeful. That's all I'll say.

While the movie has its flaws I really liked what I saw. I think the good helps outweigh the more gray areas.

My final rating is, Good.

So that's all. Come back on Thursday, Oct 1st for my review of Ice Man Cream. The 1995 film not the Eli Roth one I review awhile back. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Forgotten Island Review

 

DreamWorks has released a new animated movie and the trailers had me extremely worried about this movie's quality! Hopefully this is just bad marketing and not the actually movie.

Forgotten Island is an animated fantasy comedy movie produced by DreamWorks Animation with Universal Pictures being the distributor. Joel Crawford & Januel Mercado both wrote and directed.

The story is, childhood friends Jo and Raissa but they'll soon be going their separate ways what with Raissa soon going Caltech. They decide to spend one more day together on the beach where Jo finds a magical sand dollar and transports them to the magical world of Nakali. But when they get there they wake up with no memory of the night before. Now the two best friends must figure out what happened that way they'll find their way back home.

Initial Reaction

Now as you read with my opening I didn't have the biggest expectations with this movie. Because the trailers for this made it seem like the movie was gonna be "LOL! How randomly quirky! Aren't these two gals sooo quirky! LOL!". So when going into this a part of me was fill with dread, the other part was hoping maybe this'll be a Transformers One situation where the trailer didn't do the movie any favors.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

The one of two gray areas stem from the writing. Let's start off with the problem. That being the humor in this. Now I'll admit some parts did get a laugh out of me, but sometimes the humor just fails miserable. Mainly because the writers thought being loud and obnoxious meant being funny, which it wasn't. Sure the kids might laugh, but I always viewed DreamWorks Animation movies much like Pixar films to be animated flicks that both kids and adults can laugh at. And yes, their are moments where Jo and Raissa are a bit of "Quirk Chungus" to them. There's quite literally a moment where the two just bust out a freestyle rap. Why? Because they're so quirky! Now that I got that rant out of the way let me tell you about the good stuff. The movie does deal with themes of co-dependency, fear of growing apart and how shared experiences can shape relationships among many other themes as well. The movie also steep into Filipino culture. Now you guys know I'm not one of these woke people who think every bit of culture needs to be in every single movie because "RePrESeNtAtIOn!" No, the Filipino culture or as I should properly say Filipino folklore adds to the movie story instead of most entertainment where it feels like the characters pause the entire story so they can lecture the evil and extremely cartoony bigot. So the more serious aspects of the story are pretty good, but man, a lot of this humor. Every humorous moment that didn't work really should've gotten rewritten. Then there's the animation. Now yes the animation is really good. That shouldn't be a surprise since DreamWorks Animation is great with their animation. But what dragged it down was two things. One, the Spider-Verse style. I've grown so tired of the Spider-Verse animation style. It's like almost every animated movies uses it. This movie uses it, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish used it, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem used it, etc. Once Beyond the Spider-Verse is released can this style please be put to rest for a couple of years? Then there's times when the animation switches from 3D to anime. Which isn't a bad thing. Anime is a beautiful art form just like more traditional American animation is. But the filmmakers really over did it because sometimes a character will have an expression an anime character would have then they would repeat that gag but with a different facial expression. So yes the animation is quite good but much like the humor there's somethings the filmmakers should've toned it down on.

Pros

So do I have anything 100% nice to say about Forgotten Island? Yes, yes I do. For starters the pacing is good. The runtime is never too fast or nothing is ever dragged out. There was also the cast. H.E.R. (yes that's actually one of the actresses' stage names) and Liza Soberano actually have some pretty good chemistry. They truly sound and act like two people who've been friends for years. And when they script isn't telling them to act quirky™️, they actually can bring some good emotional beats. Even the supporting cast once they get into the better material can do a good job. The biggest example being Dave Franco as Raww. Sure he does good when Raww is in a far more serious mood, but Franco also does good with some humorous bits as well.

So yeah, the trailers did hurt this movie quite a bit, but at the same time the filmmakers themselves also didn't do this any favors too. It's not entirely bad it's just decent.

Which brings the final rating to a low Okay.

That's all for now. Come back on Monday, Sept 28th, my review of the newest David Ayer & Brad Pitt movie, Heart of the Beast. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Looking Back at the Films of 2025 Part 9 - The Lost Bus

 

Alright got another edition. I don't have much to say for an opening so let's get to it.

Why Didn't I See The Lost Bus?

Well if you read on the poster the movie says it was playing in select theaters, and my theaters were not the chosen few. But I saw it was gonna come out on October 3rd when it came to streaming. Then I found The Smashing Machine was releasing on that day and give it a watch instead. Now I could've saved a review for Monday of that month but I also decided to see Good Boy instead. So I cut my loses and saved a review for later. By the way, The Smashing Machine is great but I strongly recommended you watch Good Boy.

What is The Lost Bus?

The Lost Bus is a survival drama that's based on the 2021 book Paradise by Lizzie Johnson. This portrays a fictionalized verison of the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California. Productions was done by Apple Studios, Blumhouse Productions, and Comet Pictures with Apple Original Films acting as the distributor. Paul Greengrass directed and wrote the screenplay with Brad Ingelsby.

The story is, on Nov 18th, 2018 high winds and dry conditions lead by a Pacific Gas & Electric transmission line failure ignite a fire, because of this combination the fire's embers quickly spread throughout northern California creating multiple spot fires. During the chaos 22 children are unable to leave their school because their parents work out of town and won't be able to get to them. Luckily struggling school bus driver Kevin McKay is able to pick them up along the kids' teacher Mary Ludwig. Even though the fires are getting worse and worse by the minute Kevin is determined to the get kids and Mary to safety.

My Thoughts

The Good: One praise I gotta give is Greengrass' directing. While I slightly criticized his directing in The Uprising, I think it worked much better here. Greengrass really made you feel like you're in this terrifying wildfires. Everywhere our characters turn there's dense smoke, flaming buildings, something is falling, and burning embers are flying in every direction. It was an experience that had me on the edge of my seat (or couch since I was streaming it). I also gotta praise the effects team, they deserve a round of applause. Sure there's some instances where CGI was used, but 99.99% of the time the fire effects are actually real. Thanks to a mixer of visual effects, digital enhancements, controlled gas lines among other things, the effects team made amazing inferno effects. It makes me want to see behind the scenes footage to see the breakdown of how this was done. My last praise goes to Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera's performances. McConaughey really grounds the movie playing a tired struggling everyman. What McConaughey also does is show the fear that Kevin has to push down as much as possible. Because of that you really feel for the guy. He's not some slick action hero, he was just a guy who happened to be the only one who could help these kids and their teacher. And with Ferrera we see a woman who's just trying her best to comfort her students and give them hope. Together you're really rooting for these to succeed and that's thanks to McConaughey and Ferrera's acting.

The Bad: I've got nothing.

The Okay: Now I'll be honest, yes. Yes there's quite a few predictable moments. But those moments didn't make me roll my eyes because there actually pretty decently done. Also let's be honest once again a lot of disaster flicks have predictable elements to them. It should depend on how well those scenes are executed.

Final Verdict: Good.

So that'll wrap things up. Come back on Saturday, Sept 26th, for my review of the newest DreamWorks animated movie, Forgotten Island. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Road to Street Fighter (2026) - Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Review

 

Well folks here we are. The last stop on the Road to Street Fighter (2026)! Sadly we end on a whimper and not a bang.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is a martial arts action film loosely based on the Street Fighter video games by Capcom. The movie also serves as a non-canonical spin-off and theatrical tin-in to 2008's Street Fighter IV. Hyde Park Entertainment along with Capcom & Adlabs Films produced while 20th Century Fox was the distributor. Andrzej Bartkowiak directed while Justin Marks wrote.

The story is, as a young girl Chun-Li's world was changed forever when her father was taken from her. Years later she receives a mysterious scroll that guides her to Bangkok. It's here she'll try to find her father while trying to put a stop an evil man named M. Bison.

• Negatives

There are so many problems with this. Starting with how generic it is. If you removed the Street Fighter elements, which this movie has little of, and replaced the title with something like "Path to Vengeance" you'd still have the same story. And I just realized this is now the second time I've said this about a video game movie. But I digress. The point is with or without the Street Fighter name or elements there's nothing about the movie's story that helps it standout. It doesn't do anything new in the action genre. It doesn't do anything new in the video game movie genre. It doesn't do anything new in the martial arts genre. It doesn't do anything new no matter what!

Speaking of those Street Fighter elements, can I mention how they don't fit for what this movie is going for. It has this gritty, grounded realistic tone and yet it has Chun-Li doing the Spinning Bird Kick and firing Haduokens. Those aren't realistic. So this movie has no idea what it wants to be? Gritty revenge story set in the real world or Street Fighter.

Then we have the dialogue. They really really needed to bring in another writer to clean up this dialogue because holy shit is it bad. Here's the movie's most infamous lines.

M. Bison: You see, your father has been the milk of my business. But even milk has an expiration date.

Yeah Bison, ya should've used a different beverage or diary product for your lifeblood metaphor. Milk is something that spoils the fastest. Also, "milk of my business"? I don't recall that ever being an expression. 😆

Then we have the acting. I don't know if the director doesn't understand how to director actors or if he was simply being lazy, either way the acting isn't good. Everyone ranges from flat, to bizarre, to stiff, to awkward. Michael Clarke Duncan and Neal McDonough are trying but they just can't. The material their given whether from the director or the writing is giving them nothing to work with.

The last thing I'll dismantle is how hardly anyone looks like their Street Fighter characters. Let me ask you question for any Street Fighter fan, especially the newer ones. Who is this guy supposed to be. 👇🏻

Go on, guess. Take your time I'm not gonna rush you. Don't know. Well I'm not gonna be too hard on you. Only people who watched the movie would've gotten the answer.

This guy is M. Bison. Yes. This guy is supposed be this guy.

Hate to state the obvious but you'll quickly notice that Legend of Chun-Li Bison is missing a few things. There's only one character who even comes close to his game counterpart and that's Vega. The other time is when Chun-Li went to some club I forget what it was, but when she was there she's wearing a blue dress and has her hair buns. But after that she's in regular street clothes. So basically Chun-Li's iconic dress is reduced to a cheap easter egg. Because of this I apologize to the '94 live-action movie. Granted some of the characters in that still don't look like their game counterparts. But at least there was an attempt!

• Mix

There's some decent fighting. Sometimes there's some quick cuts, but most of the time there's some decent fights.

• Positives

I'm not giving this movie any compliments because it doesn't deserve any.

This is just bad. Just plain bad. There's been plenty of terrible video game movies and this one ranks in the top ten.

My final rating is, Awful!

That's all for now. Fingers crossed the 2026 Street Fighter movie next month is at least decent 🤞🏻. But come back on Thursday, Sept 24th, for part nine of Looking Back at the Films of 2025. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and avoid this movie whether you're a Street Fighter fan, film buff, or both.

Resident Evil (2026) Review

 

We got a brand new Resident Evil movie, but! Will this one be a winner and be far better than the Paul W.S. Anderson films & Welcome to Raccoon City? Or is just another failure?

Resident Evil is a horror movie based on the Capcom video game series of the same name. Production was done by Columbia Pictures, Constantin Film, Davis Films, Subconscious, Vertigo Entertainment along with Playstation Productions with Sony Pictures Releasing acting as the distributor. Zach Cregger directed and wrote the screenplay along with Shay Hatten.

The story is, a young medical courier named Bryan agreed to deliver one last and sensitive package to Racoon General Hospital in Raccoon City. On his way he accidentally hits a woman with his car and later finds her bloodied & catatonic. But this strange encounter will soon lead Bryan into a fight for survival when he encounters people turned into monsters because of an outbreak.

Initial Reaction

Originally I thought this could work. Mainly because Zach Cregger was in charged and he's made some really good movies. So all seems to be well...until the trailers and info was coming out. When I saw those trailers and read what Cregger was saying I quickly became highly skeptical of this movie. But I was gonna give it a chance.

Cons

This is gonna be controversial to say especially since this movie is getting so many great reviews but, I don't consider this a good Resident Evil movie. The horror elements which I'll get into later are good, but it's Resident Evil elements suck. The reason is because if you were to strip away the mentions of Racoon City, Umbrella Corporation, and retitle this something like "Infection", you'd still get the same exact movie. To me if you're gonna make a Resident Evil and use Racoon City and Umbrella Corporation then they need to be consistent throughout the movie and not just throwaway lines. And I know people are gonna say two things and then some to defend this flick. 1) There's been other games that don't use Racoon City and take place in different parts of the world. That's true, but this movie used Racoon City as part of its plot so you'd think they'd make it a bigger deal that Bryan is going there. Especially since if I remember  correctly this movie takes place somewhere during Resident Evil 2. 2) Cregger said he was giving you the "feeling" of playing a Resident Evil game. Okay...and?! He could've made the audience and fans have the feeling of playing a Resident Evil game while still having the story ACTUALLY be Resident Evil. The experience of playing the games is only one ingredient out of many.

Middle Ground

My only mixed feelings on the movie was the humor. I'll admit there were a couple times I laughed, but there was also moments that didn't need humor. I get Cregger was a founding member of The Whitest Kids U' Know so I should've expected much, but I still feel as though some stuff could've been cut out. Which is funny for me to say because Cregger did cut out a lot of comedic bits.

Pros

One thing I'll praise is the pacing. This movie goes by at a great pace. Yesterday when I saw this I got to the theater for an early showing and by the time it was done not only did I feel like I wasn't in the theater that but I still had plenty of time to get some lunch 😆. Another thing I'll credit is the scares. Granted not everything scared me, but there were quite a lot of moments that freaked me out. Like when infected mice came out of a guy's stomach. That was disturbing and gross. The last aspect of the movie I'll say is good is Austin Abrams' performance. Regardless of fans feel about this movie I'd like to think we can agree that Abrams carries the movie. He does a tremendous job at showcasing an ordinary guy thrown into an increasingly deadly scenario. One of my favorite scenes is when he breaks down and records a message to his pregnant girlfriend and regrets his reaction to the news about her being pregnant. That was an amazing moment done perfectly by Austin Abrams.

Overall while there are some enjoyable things in this movie, but at the end of the day this is a Resident Evil film in name only.

My final rating is, a very low Okay.

If you are or were curious about seeing this movie then just wait for it to come to a streaming service. That's all for now. Come back on Monday, Sept 21st, for the last part of my Road to Street Fighter (2026). Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

The Transformers: The Movie Review

 

Back when Transformers One was released it wasn't until a couple days later I realized I missed a huge opportunity to review this prior to Transformers One coming out. But apparently that was a blessing in disguise because the good folks at Hasbro decided to celebrate this movie's 40th anniversary but re-releasing it to theaters. Although I'm little bummed out because that big Fathom event will include new footage but I sadly won't be able to see it because that event isn't close by. Oh well, I can still celebrate the 40th anniversary by reviewing this anyways.

The Transformers: The Movie is an animated sci-fi action film based on the Transformers TV series and acts as a bridge between the show's second and third seasons. Production was done by Sunbow Productions, Marvel Productions (and yes, that is connected to Marvel Comics. This was an old production studio of theirs), and Toei Animation with De Laurentiis Entertainment acting as distributor. Nelson Shin directed while both Ron Friedman and Flint Dille wrote the screenplay. So if any of you 80's kids want to blame someone for traumatizing you those are the writers to go after. 😆

The story is, it's the year 2005, twenty-years after the second season of the show. The Decepticons have conquered the planet Cybertron but their leader Megatron still wants to kill all Autobots. His plan to invade Autobot City will lead to one final fight between him and Optimus Prime. But while this war is going on something far more evil is in space devouring entire planets. This evil is known as Unicron, and he has his sights set on destroying the one thing that can kill him, the Matrix of Leadership.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

The first slight issue is the tone. Now I liked that the filmmakers took the risk of making things a very dark compared to show's lighter tone. With the darker tone they were able to take risk and do more serious stuff with the material. You get that very serious vibe with moments like the opening Unicron scene, the battle at Autobot City, and the deaths. Oh boy the deaths. This was actually my second time watching and I was still shocked by how many characters straight up die in this. It's no wonder kids in the 80's were shocked and traumatized 😆. Poor kids thought they were in for a fun movie next thing they know they had to see their favorite Transformer die because they didn't buy enough of their toys. But with all that said sometimes the movie will give you tonal whiplash. One moment we'll see something brutal then the next moment the Autobots are dancing while Weird Al's Dare to be Stupid is playing in the background. No, for real, that last part actually happens. It's by far the weirdest part of the entire movie.

Then there's the animation quality. For the most part the animation is really good. Transformation sequences can have a fluid movements and there's lots of time when it feels like an anime. Although the latter shouldn't be too surprising considering Toei Animation was involved. But there are moments where characters can be very stiff.

• Positives

One praise I'll give is the pacing. Now if you know me then you know I'm not a full blown hater of the Michael Bay Transformers movies, but I do admit a lot of them have some slight pacing issues. Not the case here. This movie is a breeze to get through.

Then we have the music. Vince DiCola's score is pretty good. I especially loved the music when one of the major Autobots died. DiCola's score really set the tragic mood for that scene. But then we have the songs. You got the main staple song that being "The Touch" by Stan Bush, but my personal favorite is "Instruments of Destruction" by NRG. Sure the music is 80's as all hell but I think that adds to the movie's charm.

The last thing I'll credit is the voice acting. Peter Cullen despite his limited time as Optimus Prime still delivered, especially since this time around he was playing it straight so you get to hear more of a serious tone in his work. Then you have newcomers like Judd Nelson (if that name sounds familiar it's because he plays John Bender in The Breakfast Club) who brings out Hot Rod's youthful energy, swagger, and eventual growth. Robert Stack (probably best known to some as the later host of Unsolved Mysteries) gives a stiff, military authority, and slightly formal voice for Ultra Magnus. Which is perfect for that character because he's a good soldier but an imperfect leader. Leonard Nimoy gives Galvatron a colder, calculated menace, and a slightly contained madness. Lastly Orson Welles (best known for the ever classic Citizen Kane), in his final film role before he sadly passed away, was amazing as Unicron. He brings out Unicron as an ancient and terrifying destructive god. And the best part of his performance is Unicron sounds indifferent rather than a cartoonish villain.

This was a fun movie to watch. I think even with those slight flaws your experience watching the movie isn't gonna be ruined. I think the better aspects slightly help, just slightly.

My final rating is, Good.

Now you can come back on Saturday, Sept 19th, for my review of Zack Cregger's Resident Evil, but right now I want to be serious for a moment.

So as all of you Transformer fans know, on August 27th, news broke that Peter Cullen the voice of Optimus Prime had passed away.

It's sad to hear such a talented man is gone but worse than that it's sad to know a great man and a hero to many is no longer with us.

There's a quote at the end of Transformers: Age of Extinction that Optimus Prime said that's always been stuck in my head. This quote is now even more special and hits hard given Cullen's passing.

It goes, "Whenever you look to the stars, think of one of them as my soul."

I don't think I have the right to speak for every single fan, but we'll be doing just that Peter Cullen.

Rest in Peace.

Fan Film Mondays - Logan the Wolf Review

 

Alright! Another edition of my newest segment. Let's see what today's fan film has in store.

Logan the Wolf is a 2024 fan film that's based on the fan favorite Marvel Comics' character of Wolverine. The short film was directed by Godefroy Ryckewaert who also wrote the story with Maxime Ecoiffier (who also plays Logan). They uploaded the short on YouTube.

The story is, Logan has a bounty placed on his head. A group of hunters have found him and Logan at first keeps the beast inside but once that's no longer an option, he'll unleash a fury upon these hunters. One they've never seen before.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

I'm gonna be fully honest. It's the story. It's very basic and thin. Here's how it goes. Bounty hunters are looking and find Logan, Logan gives them a warning, they don't listen, and then they fight fight fight. That's basically the movie. But I don't think it's a bad thing. They made this in only five days. So I imagine this was just a fun little project that a group of friends made just because they thought it'd be fun to do. And guess what? It is indeed fun. We get to see an alternate version of Wolverine (in this case a Viking version) just mess people up. So if anything this is a popcorn flick and it's one that delivers.

• Positives

One praise I'll give is the concept. It's simple but a very enjoyable simple. It's Wolverine but as a viking. That's just badass. But what made this premise so entertaining was there was a clear as day passion when making this. The directing and action should half of that passion, but so did the costumes and cinematography. Everything from wolf motifs to pelts to the forest setting and makeup show Ryckewaert and his crew put in the work.

The last thing I'll is the action. The action is awesome! Whether it's swords and axes clashing or Wolverine's claws tearing people up it's a thrill to watch. The main fight between Logan and the bounty hunters is fantastic bloody brawl that's right up there with the bloody intensity of official Wolverine films such as Logan and Deadpool & Wolverine.

While storytelling is pretty basic I still say you should give this watch. It's a blast. And it's very short too. It only 11 minutes long and it goes by quickly. And I strongly recommend you watch the full 11 minutes because there's some surprises at the end.

My final rating is, Good.

That's all for now. If you want to watch this then click here. Due come back on Thursday, Sept 17th, where I'll review The Transformers: The Movie. All in celebration of the movie's 40th anniversary. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.