Tag: Action

GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE – Review

Director Gore Verbinski (PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN) teams up with the great Sam Rockwell for a sci-fi action/comedy with something to say, where a man from the future, who is trying to save humanity from an all-powerful Artificial Intelligence creation, travels back in time to try to stop it at a critical moment. He’s already done this 116 times, but why not try a 117th.

On a dark night in L.A., one man enters a diner full of people, while holding a detonator button and wearing a strange outfit covered in wires and tactical gear. He says he’s not there to rob the place but he does have a bomb, so they better sit still and listen up. Then he tells them he is from the future and he’s there to recruit people to help him save humanity from an coming A.I. apocalypse, something he has already tried unsuccessfully 116 times before.

In a world-weary, slightly sarcastic tone, he tells his captive audience about his mission to save the world. Most people in the diner assume he’s a crazy homeless person but this joker is deadly serious, although you’d never guess that from his crazy get-up. Others barely look up from their cell phones – until he snatches their phones and tosses them away. He strides about the room, jumping on tables, calling out people by name to convince them this is real, and gradually, they start to listen to this character who seems to know things about the people there, who they are, what they are about to do next. He tells them that somewhere in this group of 47 people in this diner is a magic combination to save the world. Then he asks for volunteers to help him in his quest.

This is crazy, funny opening scene kicks things off in goofy, high-energy high-gear, as an unrecognizable Sam Rockwell, his face obscured by full beard, smeared dirt and a ski cap pulled low, brilliantly delivers his speech, about cell phone addiction leading to societal collapse and AI domination, while in constant kinetic motion. Rockwell goose-steps across tables, snatches handfuls of fries off plates, and slips into booths with lightning speed, to call them by name and share personal details about them – and pausing to yell at the waitress just before she picks up the phone to call the police.

Rockwell’s wild guy from the future does get a few volunteers (plus a few hands also go up from diners he refuses to take, due to poor performance on past runs). But he needs a few more, so he “drafts” some into coming along, based on either good past results or just because he hasn’t tried that combination before. One of the people who does volunteer is a young woman in a bedraggled princess costume, named Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson). At first, he refuses to take her, but then he relents – because he’s never pick her before. She might be the magic addition to this combination that makes his mission work this time.

The crew he assembles also includes a couple who are teachers, Mark (Michael Pena) and Janet (Zazie Beetz), and a grieving mom named Susan (Juno Temple), and blustery guy named Scott (Asim Chaudhry) plus a few more. Their mission is to install a bit of software that was developed in the future, which installs controls on an A.I. creation built by a 9-year-old boy (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt), before it can achieve singularity and surpass human intelligence. They have to reach the home of that boy before that happens, and time is short. The man from the future wears a timer counting down the minutes and knows where the boy is, and it isn’t even far, but that doesn’t mean it is easy to get there. Many have died trying over those 116 attempts.

This is director/producer Gore Verbinski’s comeback film after nearly a decade away from film making. GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE (a phrase that is supposedly something virtual-reality gamers in this film say to each other) was independently made, maybe because no studio would touch a film that has A.I. as the villain. Nonetheless, Verbinski turns in an high-energy, entertaining film, with a good cast, while he and scriptwriter Matthew Robinson have their say about dangers of cell phone addiction and A.I. generally.

The ticking clock helps drive this energetic, entertaining gonzo comedy/adventure/action tale. which delivers with action and physical comedy but also delves into dark comedy (sometimes very dark, even unsettling), satire and social commentary, particularly in some flashbacks sequences. As the quest unfolds, we get flashbacks to some characters’ personal stories, specifically Haley Lu Richardson’s Ingrid, Michael Pena’s and Zazie Beetz’s and Juno Temple’s mom, as well as Sam Rockwell’s character’s tale. In flashbacks, we learn more about their alternate or near-future world, where school shootings are so common that schools come equipped safe rooms, disconnected teens are constantly on their phones or threatening if not, people are cloned in secret but come back with ads, and virtual reality goggles are so good, that people sign up to live in that alternate reality full time, permanently. All the flashbacks give us insight on how screwed up their world already is and, in the case of Rockwell’s character, part of how it got there.

Verbinski picked the perfect actor for the lead role but we know it is Sam Rockwell giving this speech largely because his name is in the credits. His face is well hidden, although why isn’t clear. His costume, however, is a perfect comic mishmash of electronics, wires, tactical gear and topped by a clear raincoat, making him look like a homeless person in a homemade time-traveler/bomber outfit.

As the story progresses, the lead shifts a bit toward Haley Lu Richardson’s Ingrid, as it hurtles towards it’s wild end with not just practical effects but also vibrant, even eye-popping visual effects.

I love the concept for this satiric dark comedy film, and it is a lot of fun, as well as having something to say, and Sam Rockwell is the perfect choice for the lead. While not everything is perfect, GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE still is an entertaining quirky, fun and involving film, with something important to say. The film deserves credit for being a unique concept on a timely topic, instead of a timid retread, and it deserves credit for its snappy pace, good storytelling, its band of misfits characters, its determined use of practical effects and nicely-done visual effects. Sam Rockwell deserves credit for a winning and determined high-energy performance under all that makeup and forty pounds of costume. We should reward all that by seeing this film, in a theater, and if you do, you will be rewarded with an entertaining and thought-provoking experience.

GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE opens in theaters on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH – Review

Varang (Oona Chaplin) in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Director James Cameron is back with a third installment of his AVATAR franchise, which continues to deliver astounding visual effects and world-creation at the highest level. In the first film, a human expedition looking for resources to extract is sent to world called Pandora, a place with an un-breathable atmosphere and inhabited by tall, blue, technologically less-advanced people, dispatches a Marine, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), in the form of an avatar that looks like the forest-living Na’vi people, to learn more about them. But after falling in love with a Na’vi warrior woman, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), Jake switches sides and leads a rebellion against the humans. The second film takes place some 15 years later, as Jake, wife Neytiri and their kids hide out from the human among some beach-dwelling peoples, pursued by Jake’s nemesis and fellow Marine, Quaritch (Stephen Lang). This third one, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, takes place shortly after that second film.

The main reason to see AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, are the spectacular visual effects and it’s breathtaking world-building. The 3D visual effects are immersive and beautiful, with one breathtaking vista after another. AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH continues to astonish with innovative visual effects that combine motion-capture and digital effects, like the first film, and now including 3D like the second one, but the effects are even more fully integrated, allowing one to entirely be enveloped by its imaginary world. The impressive effects even continue in the scenes with regular non-CGI or motion-capture actor, creating a seamlessly believable world.

Since the outstanding visual effects are the major reason to see this film, the best way to do that is in a theater, on a big screen with 3D capability. If you watch it on a small screen at home or on a phone, you will be missing out most of the reason to see it at all.

The reason why that matters so much is, despite all that visual effect artistry and technical dazzle, the characters and story do not reach that same high level, remaining familiar figures from a classic hero’s tale, with the addition of a historical tale of a colonial or corporate power moving in on a less-technological indigenous one. These indigenous people are aided greatly by that fellow who switched sides, which sets up a David and Goliath / underdog tale.

Action is plentiful and looks great but the story adds more and more characters without expanding on the ones already there. The main characters remain underdeveloped, being either noble good guys or evil bad ones. The story focuses on battles and those breathtaking new vistas but that can hold audience interest forever.

The effects are 3D but the characters remain 2D. It is not the fault of the cast, but the writer. The characters are written to be simple: Worthington’s Jake is noble and brave, Saldana’s Neytiri is emotional and protective, Stephen Lang as Jake’s enemy is relentless, while Giovanni Ribisi’s corporate boss is greedy and heartless. If the story is familiar, the audience has to care about the people in the story to maintain interest, and that means making them more real, more rounded and full-developed.

This story introduces new peoples on Pandora, with peaceful trading peoples who travel through the air in ships attached to blip-like floating creatures. There is another, less peaceful group too, the raiders/pirates known as the Ash People, who prey on the traders and others less warlike folk.

Quaritch, now also using an avatar body, sets out to make contact the war-like Ash People, with the aim of forming an alliance. He hits it off with the Ash People’s fierce, fearless, blood-thirsty queen Varang (a splendid Oona Chaplin, granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin), and a deal is struck.

Meanwhile, Jake struggles with getting the Na’vi and water-based Metkayina Clan to consider using human weapons that he retrieved from the water after the last battle, rather than just bows and arrows. Jake and Neytiri, in addition to their own kids, have adopted two more: Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the Na’vi child of the avatar of the scientist played by Sigourney Weaver in the first AVATAR, and a human boy nicknamed Spider (Jack Champion), the biological son of Jake’s enemy Quaritch, who needs a special mask to breath the air, a mask that has to be continually replenished to keep him alive.

Stephen Lang’s Quaritch and Oona Chaplin’s Ash queen are by far the most interesting in this one, but if left undeveloped, will just join the crowd of cookie-cutter characters. The story is packed with action and battles and so full of twists (and new characters) that there isn’t much time to do much with this growing cast of characters anyway. But failing to develop the characters beyond the two-dimensional means that maintaining interest in the familiar tropes of this tale will become increasingly challenging.

Reportedly, director/writer James Cameron has two more of these visual effects extravaganzas in the planning stage but unless he starts creating depth to this characters to sustain this hero tale, he is likely to see waning audience interest, something already underway. It can’t just be pretty pictures.

AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH opens in theaters on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

SPEED TRAIN – Review

A scene from SPEED TRAIN. Courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment

It’s been just over 30 years since Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves found themselves trapped in a bus that couldn’t go slower than 55 without going BOOM! in the original SPEED. Since then, there have been a ton of movies based on comparable perils in every sort of public transportation vehicle, with the possible exception of pedicabs and rickshaws (no one could cover EVERY action movie from Asia). The title of SPEED TRAIN tells you most of what to expect.

In a high-tech near future, featuring rapid rail transit and brain implants that can enhance all sorts of learning and functions, we meet a bunch of people in a mostly talky first half hour. One car on this train’s maiden voyage (Do trains have voyages? If not, insert your own alternative noun.) contains shackled violent prisoners being shipped to the death chamber. The rest are occupied by the usual assortment of random civilians, with focus on a pair of cheerleading coaches and their two captains heading for a big competition.

Unbeknownst to all is that Loklin (Louis Mandylor) designed much of that tech, but got shafted on the many millions he should have received. He’s set up a high-priced pay-to-play game, in which rich jerks can remotely control the body of a designated prisoner, who is let loose to fight or kill anyone in their path. He’s also taken command of the train, speeding it up to Doomsday velocity as it crosses the country.

The degree of harm the thugs and their masters do is surprisingly limited by unexpected fighting skills among the regular passengers – especially the cheer coach who is ex-military (Scout Taylor-Compton) and an Interpol agent with family problems. The players aren’t all that interesting, but the action is first-rate. Plenty of hand-to-hand mayhem and bloodshed. Louis Mandylor is a hard sell as a Lex Luthor-level genius, but he does well showing the deranged evil side of his character.

A side note you may also find interesting. I grew curious after seeing Louis in a lot of films lately. He’s a year younger than his brother, Costas. Both have around 170 screen credits, and 17 or 18 awards and nominations for their work. Costas has more total screen time, since one of his credits was for 88 episodes of the fine TV series “Picket Fences.” Louis’ resume includes more off-screen activity, with 13 gigs as director and 16 as a producer. Their family gatherings must a hoot of (I hope) friendly competition.

The performances are competent. Production values are laudable, with appealing sets and graphics keeping the confined setting from feeling claustrophobic. The script falls short on developing personalities for empathy, and has a few plot holes, but delivers on brisk pace and well-staged action once that phase begins. For mindless escapism, it’s a reasonable time investment.

SPEED TRAIN opens in select theaters and streaming on demand on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

SAMURAI FURY – Review

A scene from SAMURAI FURY. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

The year is 1461 (for the movie, SAMURAI FURY, not us, though many think we’re regressing globally). Japan is in a state of chaos. The country is ravaged by plague, with 82,000 deaths, and counting; the peasants who haven’t succumbed are starving and besieged by different groups of debt collectors, using the most despicable tactics; a slew of ronin (samurai with no master to serve) are roaming the country without purpose; the Shogun ain’t doin’ diddly-squat to help anyone or stem the violence from the monks and warlords. In the midst of this, one ronin, Hasuda Hyoe (Ôizumi Yô) emerges as a good guy, who might just make a difference. That may require butting heads with his longtime friend Honekawa Doken (Shin’ichi Tsutsumi), who is in charge of forces defending the ruling class.

Hyoe picks up a spirited apprentice he calls “Frog” (Yuya Eendo) among the cringing masses and sends him off to an old sensei for a year of training. Then he gradually assembles a rag-tag army of other ronin and willing villagers to storm the capital in Kyoto. Their main goal is to destroy all the loan papers the monks holding them have been wielding to brutalize debtors and their families during this time of extreme hardship. His plans are intricate, building slowly to what will, ideally, become the Big Day.

Standard stuff, so far, as this sort of theme is quite common in East Asian martial arts and action period fare. Since it’s set in an era before guns, swords, spears, staffs and arrows are the non-anatomical weapons of the day, with occasional explosions. That calls for top-notch stunt choreography, and the film delivers superbly on that front, with relatively little wire work, thereby maximizing its grittiness.

Genre fans have seen the de rigeur training sequences in the majority of these films. Frog’s regimen for mastering the pole (the weapon, not the stripper support) is unique, and much more interesting than most, both visually and in content. The climactic battle sequences are huge in scale, bloody in execution and fascinatingly intricate. Kudos to writer/director Yu Irie for elevating the level of writing and action above the norm, and for crafting so many elaborate sets for the long course of events.  Frog’s character arc is particularly satisfying, as well as the frenemy situation that unfolds between Hyoe and Doken.

The 135-minute running time is just fine for the material presented. It seemed shorter, which is among the highest compliments I ever give.

SAMURAI FURY, in Japanese with English subtitles, is available from WellGo USA in digital format beginning Oct. 7, and in 4K and Blu-ray formats starting Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

THE VILLAGERS – Review

A scene from THE VILLAGERS. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

I’ve enjoyed a slew of Ma Dong-seok’s contributions to Korean action flicks. The rotund, open-faced actor usually plays sidekicks and minor parties – often adding some comic relief. Most of his 14 awards and nominations, to date, have been for supporting actor gigs. But in THE VILLAGERS, he’s the action star.

His character, Yeok Gi-cheol, is a former MMA champion who had aged into coaching. His integrity gets him banished when he confronts the sport’s honchos about their corruption. Fortunately – or so it first seems – an admirer gets him a job in the village giving rise to the film’s name, teaching phys ed and serving as assistant dean at a high school.

The latter title merely sticks him with the thankless task of collecting overdue tuition from the students and their families. Because he looks like an overweight, middle-aged simpleton, he gets less respect than Rodney Dangerfield. The main drama comes from the ignored efforts of a student, Yoo-jin (Kim Sae-ron) to get the school and cops to investigate the disappearance of her best friend. Despite being only 15, the missing girl had been working at a night club that catered to very adult tastes, raising many possible crime-free explanations about her fate. Yoo-jin insists that her pal was not the sort of unhappy teen who runs away that the authorities want to presume. Deaf ears on lazy cops’ heads abound.

Since all her efforts have been rebuffed by every adult in the picture, Yoo-jin is skeptical about Gi-cheol’s attempts to help her. It becomes apparent to us long before them that there’s something big going on, with cops, politicos and school honchos in on whatever it is. His default setting is that of being baffled by how little anyone in any position of responsibility cares what happened to her – especially the cops’ reluctance to even open a file for investigation.

This sort of little guy(s) vs. systemic corruption is a common theme in films from all around the world. Bollywood cranks out tons of these with high-octane, one-man-army vigor. Usually, the action quotient is higher than in this one, which plays out more like a slowly unfolding procedural. Gi-cheol could and should be delivering more beat-downs than he does, spreading his frustrations to the viewers.

The conspiracy is a spider web that takes a long time to penetrate. But the two stars keep it interesting, even as daylight starts peeking through the fog of criminal enterprise and cover-up later than viewers might prefer. Even so, the climax makes the journey worthwhile.

There’s a sad note in all of this. Kim Sae-ron was a charming, talented actress with a dozen awards and nominations on her resume, including one of my favorite Korean imports, THE MAN FROM NOWHERE. But she committed suicide a few years after this film’s release when she was only 24. A real loss for all.

THE VILLAGERS, in Korean with English subtitles, is available streaming in digital format from WellGo USA starting Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

AFFINITY – Review

A scene from AFFINITY. Courtesy of Well Go USA

Hulking Marko Zaror stars in the action flick AFFINITY as an ex-SEAL living low in Thailand, riddled with PTSD, and kicking himself over an old mission failure. He rescues a woman (Jane Mirro) on the run from something bad. She calls herself Athena but has no memory of her life before that moment. He becomes her protector and lover. But only briefly, before she’s snatched and in need of another rescue. The more we learn about her, the less sense the plot makes.

Zaror is a legit stunt man and martial artist. As an actor, he’s like Arnold Vosloo with less emotional range. Or Dave Bautista without his capacity for humor. But his thespian side seems relatively good compared to the rest of his non-combat skill set, since he shares credit for the lamentable story idea and screenplay. As solid as his fight scenes are, the talky parts between them are quite unconvincing and under-stimulating. You can’t wring much romantic juice from a wounded warrior and a blank slate of a paramour. That makes the whole rescue quest go south on the empathy scale. The obviously low budget doesn’t help either.

The evils to be conquered include designer drugs, crimes large and small, and a demented scientist driven by a Pygmalion obsession. So Zaror delivers beat-downs to many who richly deserve it, making the fight scenes gritty and gratifying. Some semblance of protagonist energy comes from Zaror’s cohorts, played by Louis Mandylor and Brooke Ence, but not enough to boost the production into an emotionally-engaging experience.

The inevitable climactic battle is the film’s best feature, and almost worth what you have to sit through to get there. Basically, watch this for the fights. Fast-forward through the rest.

AFFINITY is available via digital streaming from Well Go USA starting Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025.

RATING: 1.5 out of 4 stars

LAST RONIN – Review

A scene from the Russian post-apocalyptic action adventure film LAST RONIN. Courtesy of Well Go USA

In old Japan, Ronin were Samurai without masters, roaming the land on their own, yet mostly still living by their code of honor. Their status and role in society varied through the centuries, but the lone wandering warrior image persists, and has been glorified in dozens of films from Japan and elsewhere. The anachronistically-title THE LAST RONIN is a bare-bones post-apocalyptic adventure from Russia. Yuri Kolokolnikov stars as the eponymous figure – a grizzled older fellow, looking somewhat like Ron Perlman, traveling alone through the desert hellscape. The katana (sword) on his back is the most important of his few possessions. We learn that his main reason for living is to find the guy what kilt his pappy and wreak vengeance upon him.

He’s approached by a tough young woman (Diana Enkaeva) who wants to hire him as a bodyguard. She offers to pay in bullets, which is the main form of currency in that dismal future. Her goal is reaching a wall that’s a long trek away from the enclave in which she was raised. We gradually learn why she left shortly before the end of their sojourn. Along the way, they run afoul of a marauding gang and a few other menaces scattered around this low-tech, scarce-resources, sparsely populated era.

Everything about their world and the production is minimalist. There’s a lot of bleakness in the environment and the lives being lived therein. But writer/director Max Shiskin sprinkles in a satisfying amount of violence – mostly blades, arrows and bullets, with bits of martial arts – to contrast with the stars’ dreary slog. The final act takes some surprising turns when an unexpected (by them and us) destination is reached.

The underplayed performances of the principals work well in defining the milieu and their resulting personalities. This matters, since most of the foes they encounter are faceless or anonymous, putting the dramatic load squarely on their shoulders. It’s something like a MAD MAX world, but far less noisy and flashy. No extant vehicles to be found, and the weapons du jour are simpler.

The closer our world leaders come to blundering and blustering us into this sort of future, the more tales in this genre seem like training films than fantasies. Alas.

THE LAST RONIN, in Russian and some French with English subtitles, debuts in digital formats on various platforms on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, from Well Go USA.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

BARRON’S COVE – Review

A scene from BARRON’S COVE. Courtesy of Well Go USA

The intense drama BARRON’S COVE opens with the gruesome death of a young boy, Barron, when the prank pulled by a couple of his “friends” goes horribly awry. The perps deny any knowledge of what happened. Caleb (Garrett Hedlund) is the grieving father who smells a cover up when the local authorities dismiss it as a suicide, so he starts going all Bronson on those who oppose his efforts to uncover what really happened. His ex-wife blames him for failing to pick their son up after school. He blames his uncle (Stephen Lang) who runs the construction supply business that employs Caleb as hired muscle for collections and contract ”compliance” among his clientele. That’s who demanded he perform one of his typical bullying tasks that made him late for his son.

Caleb demands the truth from one of the playmates, Ethan (Christian Convey) – a wretched brat who happens to be the adopted son of the politically ambitious scion of the region’s most powerful, influential family. Caleb goes off the rails over the lack of answers, spurred greatly by Ethan’s rather psychotic response to all questions. Desperate for answers, Caleb kidnaps Ethan to scare the truth out of him. It does not go smoothly. As the hostage hiding and sweating situation progresses, a raft of dirty secrets, side deals and betrayals unfold. Violence occurs; more is threatened.

Hedlund gives an excellent performance, showing the thuggish and sympathetic sides of Caleb’s nature convincingly throughout his emotional roller coaster of discovery. Convey starts out as thoroughly despicable before showing what may or may not be an element of vulnerability. He keeps us guessing. Lang is his usual hard-nosed evil self; he does boss-bully as well as anyone in the biz. Hamish Linklater turns in a very credible stretch from his usual nice-guy roles.

Cruelty towards children – however well-deserved it may seem in context – will be hard for many to watch. Otherwise, it’s a fast-moving, suspenseful action tale that navigates those waters capably.

BARRON’S COVE debuts on Blu-ray and DVD through Amazon from Well Go USA on Tuesday, August 5, 2025.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

SHE RIDES SHOTGUN – Review

Anna Sophia Heger as Polly and Taron Egerton as Nate, in SHE RIDES SHOTGUN. Courtesy of Lionsgate

To set the stage correctly, despite the inferences the title SHE RIDES SHOTGUN suggests, this is a contemporary crime flick, not a western. An 11-year-old girl Named Polly (Anna Sophia Heger) is picked up from school by a sketchy-looking stranger (Taron Egerton), claiming her mom had sent him to bring her home. She reluctantly gets in the car. But instead of taking her to the house, they hit the open road. We soon learn that Nate is her father, recently released from a prison term long enough for Polly not to recognize him. We next learn that Nate aligned himself with a skinhead gang while in the Big House for protection. Not a place to fly solo, as we all know from a slew of other films, if not from personal experience. But once he was released from the Graybar Hotel, he tried to quit, rather than continue doing their bidding.

Nobody quits the violent, meth-making (among other felonies) conglomerate without approval, which is never given. The prison “chapter” is just a small part of a large, well-connected entity, including cops and politicians among its ranks of members and allies, covering an undefined, but apparently extensive, chunk of the North American map. Nate is on the run because the vengeance payback for his disloyalty is not only to kill him, but everyone he cares about. They’ve already whacked his ex and her current beau, leaving Polly as the last one left to protect. That becomes his main mission.

There have been a plethora of bonding-on-the-run action flicks, ranging from buddies, to lovers to families. Many have ranged from effective to compelling. Not quite so, in this case. For a couple of seemingly interminable hours, we watch them scramble around an arid southwest landscape, desperately trying to wind up out of reach of the bad guys. All sorts of minions pursue them from one clash to the next. The pair steal cars, commit petty robberies and try everything they can to get far enough from the bad guys for safety.

The chasers aren’t just card-carrying skinheads. Cops and ordinary civilians are tied in with the gang for potential threats from whatever unlikely folk they meet along the way. Polly gradually learns to trust her dad, and picks up some survival skills in the process. All of this builds to the inevitable type of large-scale action sequence that is a climactic must for the genre. John Carroll Lynch heads the pursuers with a smugly cold determination worthy of a Bond villain.

On the plus side, seeing Welshman Egerton, best known here as Egsy from two excellent KINGSMEN movies, play a skinhead-adjacent American is intriguing. He looks and sounds the tattoo-laden part. Heger also fares well on the performance scale. The final battle is big, loud and bloody enough to reward one’s patience through the overlong, almost tedious, run-up. Director Nick Rowland makes good use of barren environs and seedy settings befitting the premise.

But the script by a trio of writers is severely lacking. The dialog – especially the talks between Egerton and Heger – is so bland and excessive that it dilutes the potential punch of their performances. There’s never one of those gratifying moments where they credibly click. Cutting 10-15 minutes of the blather would have resulted in a tighter, more suspenseful package. The film is further dinged by its illogical setup for the final confrontation. I can’t be more specific about that without spoiling it for those who choose to buy a ticket, or click on it upon home-market release, which shouldn’t be too long in coming. Bottom line – not as good as it could have been.

SHE RIDES SHOTGUN opens in theaters on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

M3GAN 2.0 – Review

If there’s one thing we’ve learned after more than a hundred years of horror movies, it’s this: you just can’t keep a good “monster” down. That’s certainly true of the “Golden Age” icons, whether it was Frankenstein’s monster or Count Dracula (even in the “Silver Age,” it was a given that Christopher Lee would be back for blood). It may be more certain now in the age of “spin-offs”, prequels, and countless sequel. Plus it also extends to those fiends without flesh, like Chucky of CHILD’S PLAY. And now there’s a “gender flip” on that. Back in 2023 the January film “doldrems”, when often the thriller “dregs” would be dumped into the hungry multiplex, a chiller with a satiric “bite” brought us a new horror “heroine”. Well, she’s baaack! Finally, leaping off the toy shelf and into our nightmares comes M3GAN 2.0.

This one begins far away from the sunny California suburbs of the original. In the Middle East a super secret agent is on a rescue mission, which goes sideways. She’s ignoring all the orders from the US command center, as we learn that the agent is a robot. The story then shifts to an update on the main characters from the first flick. Gemma (Allison Williams) is part of media crusade warning parents about the dangers to their kids in the online world. But she has her own tech company with her loyal staff Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez). Gemma’s still the legal guardian to her niece Cady (Violet McGraw), who channels her trauma into her Aikido lessons. Oh, and Gemma’s in a thriving relationship with a former cyber-security expert, Christian (Aristotle Athari). But what she’s focused on right now is the powerful exo-skeleton they’re trying to sell to the tech billionaire mogul, Alton Appleton (Jemaine Clement). That day doesn’t go well, but the night is even worse, when Gemma and Cady are awakened by home intruders. They’re not burglars, but rather, agents of the FBI. Their commander (Timm Sharp) tells Gemma that they want information about M3gan, whose designs were the basis for their now missing rogue spy assassin Amelia (Ivana Sakhno). After the “guests” leave empty-handed, Gemma is startled when the old M3gan program announces her return via the big screen TV (and other devices). Soon it becomes obvious that the only way to stop Amelia’s path of destruction that leads to a sentient “doomsday” device from the 1980s, is for Gemma and her gang to team up with M3gan. But can the devilish doll ever be trusted despite all the “fail-safe” software that Gemma installs? Will Cady be put in danger once more as they’re drawn into a vast conspiracy that could end the planet? These toys aren’t playin’ around!

Yes, the “old gang” is back together again. And their comic timing is just as sharp two years later. The leader of “the pack” is probably Williams, as the frazzled, but full of steely determination, Gemma. She’s still the protective “mama bear” even as she’s rattling off endless bits of “techno-jargon” while making us root for her as she is often needed to be the “voice of reason” or a real “wet blanket”. Her family “jewel’ is the nearly teenaged McGraw as the sassy and very “pro-active” ( a certain martial arts movie star is her “role model”) Cady. Epps and Jordan are quite the effective loyal but bumbling comedy team as “sidekicks” Tess and Cole. The big comedy MVP might just be Clement as the arrogant, abusive snob Alton, who could perhaps be a satiric riff on a real-life odd uber “tech-bro”. We’re just waiting and yearning for his sneer to be “deleted’ ASAP. Other comic standouts are Sharp as the gung-ho mucho macho spy chef and Athari as the too, too sensitive and empathetic nurturing BF Christian. As for the “big baddie”, Sakhno is the face of pure banal evil, with big expressive but vacant “peepers” as Amelia, the Terminator packaged as a waif-like supermodel. And though she’s a mix of stunt folks, puppetry, and CGi, special kudos should go to M3gan’s main body double Amie Donald and the supplier of her snarky quips, vocalist Jenna Davis.

And this veteran cast is guided by OG director Gerald Johnstone, who also collaborated on the script with Akela Cooper (who created the characters with James Wan). They’ve decided to opt for a completely different tone with this outing, skirting around much of the first one’s horror “vibe” and making a scathing parody of cyber “chaos” and firing lots of parody “salvos’ at the modern action “high concept” blockbusters. While some of the set pieces and sequences take on THE MATRIX, Johnstone and company have some fun with the worlds (and imitators) of JOHN WICK and James Bond (I’m surprised the big secret villain HQ wasn’t inside a dormant volcano). Like ALIENS, it takes on new targets, though the hardcore fans will enjoy a riff on the “meme-fodder” murder-dance of M3gan and her aggressive, snarky “attitude”, guaranteeing that she’ll be a popular costume for the next Halloween and beyond. The doll doesn’t get all the best gags as the evil ‘mastermind’ has a casual “sing song” delivery as he tries to be a “Michael Scott” style cool, friendly boss. Now, as with most of the “straight” action-thrillers it piles on the endings along with the henchmen bodies literally exhausting us with “overkill”. But it’s easy to forgive its over-indulgences when we get a truly uproarious song scene and a “bizarro” AI convention. Sure, the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE epics need a good drubbing and this demonic doll can certainly dish out the “burns” and cyber “side eye”. If you can handle sharp satire and even sharper weaponry, then you may want to “click”on the upgrade that is M3GAN 2.0. Powering down…


3 out of 4

M3GAN 2.0 is now playing in theatres everywhere