Wonderful weekend to one and all!
All Her Fault (2025 mini-series, Peacock)
After the sheer hell of watching and reviewing the odious atrocity 'After The Hunt', we wanted to kick off the Thanksgiving holiday by leaving you beloved visitors with a genuine 5 star highest recommendation.
We got one!
And what a riveting corker of a psychological mystery it is, brimming with twists, red herrings, blind alleys and final revelations to keep your jaw dropped to the floor.....performed by cast all working at the very top of their game.
Unraveling a maze of secrets, dysfunction and violence, this series' 8 episodes will leave you pinned to your flatscreens from start to finish.
Each episode, put together like a finely calibrated Swiss watch, delivers a massive twist and a red herring designed to throw you a curve. We caution you not to waste time at arriving at your own 'Aha!' moment because chances are, the very next episode will pull the rug out from under you.
Set in Chicago, we're tossed into a sea of troubles facing an upperclass community, whose residents reside in glass and steel houses and all send their toddlers to the same expensive private school.
Marissa Irvine (Sarah Snook, giving an Emmy worthy performance, arrives to pick up her little boy from a playdate with a school friend at what she thought was the address of the schoolmate's mom, Sarah Kaminski (Dakota Fanning).....a playdate Sarah had arranged completely via text messages, including Sarah picking up Marissa's son at the school.
But the address belongs to a total stranger who knows nothing of any of this....and neither does Sarah, who says she never sent any such text messages to Marissa. The playdate's revealed as nothing but a clever ruse to kidnap Marissa's son.
That's all you'll extract out of us. Now all you have to do is sit back and let this series confound, surprise and dazzle you with an escalating pile of 'What the actual ****!' twists and turns. And in the the last two episodes, brace yourselves for an avalanche of twists guaranteed to keep your mouths wide open in shock for so long, your jaw might start aching.
It's a pleasure to spread the good word about this one, before the long holiday weekend commences......a gold-plated bona fide BQ 5 star (*****) FIND OF FINDS.
Happy Thanksgiving.....see you in few days.
After the Hunt (2025)
Danger Warning! Danger Warning! Danger Warning! Danger Warning! Danger Warning!
Do. Not. Waste. Your. Precious. Time. Watching. This. Film.
Yes, what you've read or heard is true enough. Julia Roberts gives an awards-worthy performance here. She's superb.
Is it worth suffering through this obtuse, pretentious, piece of arthouse, culture vulture crap?
Is it worth enduring 2 hours and 40 minutes of excruciating, mind numbing, butt numbing cinematic excrement, accompanied by what has to be the most idiotic, annoying 'music' accompaniment ever grafted on to a movie that wasn't worth sitting through to begin with?
We did it so you don't have to. No need to thank us, it's part of our job.....which in this case, was the same as the guy who shovels out the elephant enclosure at the zoo.
Pardon us if we skim through the synopsis, because just recalling this film may trigger the killer migraine we got from watching it.
We're on the Yale campus, deep into the Days Of Our Lives of the Philosophy department. Top prof Alma (Roberts) is hoping for tenure as his her colleague and best friend Hank (Andrew Garfield). Alma's overseeing the dissertation of PhD. candidate Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), the daughter of the University's biggest deep pockets donors.
Then things go awry. Maggie claims Hank raped her, which Hank vehemently denies. Alma, who's constantly stricken with bouts of intense stomach pain, is forced to walk a wobbly tightrope between her longtime friend and his accuser, the girl she's mentoring. (Not to mention suppressing a traumatic episode from her own past.....)
Don't make the mistake of thinking that sounds like a fascinating premise for a powerful gut punch of a drama. The wildly overrated director Luca Guadagnino does everything in his power to slow every scene down to a crawl, sometimes leaving the camera to simply stare at the silent actors for an eternity.
And let's not forget to bestow our Hall of Shame award on the so-called 'composers' of the 'score', Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Oh Sweet Heavens do we hate these guys with their atonal moaning and warblings and God only knows what-all.
This destructive duo do everything in their power to interrupt scenes with one lamebrained, foul idea after another......ticking clocks, chords repeated endlessly, and their usual wallpaper of random noise. What's truly funny about this.....we began to think that maybe these musical posers hate the film even more than we do......
We'll stop now, because we'd rather spend time cleaning out our cats' litter box and taking out the recycling bin than spend one more second discussing this worthless abomination.
1 star (*) for Julia Roberts. She might very well take home an Oscar for his performance but experiencing it comes at way too high a cost.
Novocaine (2025)
Whether the filmmakers who put together this rambunctious little action-comedy meant it or not, their movie comes off as a clever spoof.
Of what, you ask? Think about all the action movie heroes of the last 20 years or so......(excluding all Marvel/D.C.superheroes)......
Though mere mortals like us viewers, they seem capable of enduring amounts of physical punishment and pain that would leave the rest of us in the hospital anywhere from a year to a decade.....
We loved Bruce Willis's indestructible John McClane in all his "Die Hard" movies, even as we overlooked his remarkable ability to absorb more bone crushing agony than Wile.E. Coyote in pursuit of the Road Runner. (Not that he wasn't good at showing us how much it hurt.....Willis, we mean, not the Coyote...)
But what if we came upon an unlikely action hero who really can't gasp, screech and moan when he suffers industrial strength boo boos?
Which brings us to "Novocaine"s all around nice guy and bank loan officer Nate, played in likable, everyman, Jack Lemon-ish style by Jack Quaid. Nate's such a sweetheart that cute bank teller Sherry (Amber Midthunder) is going out of her way to flirt with him.
And she subsequently finds out from Nate that he was born with a genetic disorder that's left him without the ability to feel any pain whatsoever. The poor guy even needs an alarm to remind him to pee before his bladder bursts.
Nate's fallen hard for Sherry, which comes into play when a pair of brutal bank robbers force Nate to spill the bank vault combination after beating up Sherry. At the sight these murderous goons dragging her along as a getaway hostage, Nate vows to track them down and rescue his potential girlfriend-to-be.
Then the fun stuff commences......Nate's non-stop onslaught of violent encounters leaves him with pulverized bones, a hand fried to a crisp, limbs bent and twisted in positions they were never meant to go.... a catastrophic parade of inflicted pain that would leave any ordinary human shrieking in torment.
But not our Nate, whose flesh feels nothing, and can only annoyingly shrug off each injury as interrupting his Quixotic singe-minded quest to save Sherry from those psycho thugs. And here's where Jack Quaid truly excels, delivering a master class in white middle class exasperation mixed with bravura physical comedy. He's brilliant all the through the film, a blood soaked, broken boned Energizer Bunny. And the more misery inflicted on him, the more we erupt in sick laughter......
We also liked that just when the film starts to run out of steam and storyline, the script pops open a plot twist that raises the stakes for both Nate and Sherry.....which serves to keep the mayhem going for the last third of the film.
Nasty, inventive fun. It breezed in and out of theaters in a week or less, but you can catch it on Prime or Paramount+ if you're in the mood for a guilty pleasure wallow in.
3 stars (***).
The morbidly obese Trump snaps, "Quiet, Piggy" at a woman reporter who dared to ask him a question he didn't like......
Trump rolls out the Red Carpet for bloodthirsty Saudi despot MBS, who ordered an American journalist dismembered with a bone saw.....
The Running Man (2025)
Maybe we're the odd blogger out here, but we didn't enjoy this huge chunk 'o multiplex mayhem as much as we though we would.
Sure, it's noisy, non-stop, crammed to capacity with R-rated carnage, and smeared with a thin layer of social satire we're supposed to chuckle at, nodding our heads in agreement as we admire its cleverness.
Yeah right......whatever.
Steven King's novella about a literally killer game show was written under his non-horror pen name Richard Bachman.....and it famously hit the screen in 1987 as just another in the long line of Arnold Schwarzenegger slambangers......(and oh how audiences loved it when Ah-nuld once again got to spit out, "I'll be back!")
Little did we know that King/Bachman's bleak violent tale would encourage a whole new genre of futuristic dystopian gladiators, egged on by corporate greedmongers feeding raw meat to a bloodthirsty, easily pleased public.
And now, 38 years later, comes this higher-tech, fast 'n furious remake from that enthusiastic purveyor of pulp cinema Edgar Wright ("Baby Driver", "Shaun of the Dead", "Hot Fuzz", "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World").
To Wright's credit, he wastes no time plunging into the plight of hot tempered yet empathetic workin' stiff Ben Richards (Hunk of the hour Glenn Powell, never more than adequate). Chronically unemployed and broke, with a loving wife and flu stricken baby desperately in need of meds he can't afford, he auditions for 'The Running Man'. It's TV's live hunt-'em-down-and-kill'em game, with contestants always hoping to win a billion bucks by being the last one alive and always wiped out by a team a team of the show's pro hunters. (So none of the sucker contestants ever get their mitts on the dollars, which feature Arnold Schwarzenegger on the face of each bill...nice joke.)
To the delight of slimy network honcho Dan Killian (Josh Brolin, coasting as if he already sensed the film's a waste of his time), Ben outwits, outfights and outlasts one catastrophic attempt on his life after another. Lotsa stuff blows up, lotsa cars crash, lotsa people die........but not Ben. Yay?
After a grueling, punishing 2 hours (for us as well as Ben) we come to an endless grand finale aboard a jet plane where Ben equally doles out and endures even more physical whup-ass versus a variety of assailants. In this one sequence, the film tosses in so many plot contrivances and reversals of fortune, it can barely get out of its own way to reach the end credits.
At long last, 'The Running Man' indulges itself in a typically 1980's supposedly satisfying ending, designed to make viewers sigh with sated contentment.
We left sighing with relief that whole chaotic mess was finally over. This movie looks like it could've been produced by Dan Killian himself as a tie-in franchise for his top-rated game show, coming from a guy who only holds his worldwide audience in contempt......1 & 1/2 stars (*1/2).
Blood Oath by Steve Urszenyi (2025)
There's nothing to get a reader's blood pumping faster than another Steve Urszenyi action crammed thriller about ultra Special Agent Alex Martel. Supreme sniper, fearless fighter and deployed by the CIA, FBI, Interpol and who who knows how many other clandestine special ops teams, this woman is a global force to be reckoned with. And woe to any terrorists, mercenaries, oligarchs or tyrannical regimes who unwisely tangle with her.
This time the stakes rise up higher than ever for Alex. While on a Serengeti Plains photo safari with her father, General David Martel, bloodthirsty rebels kidnap and brutalize her dad, planning to turn him over to Chinese forces. Gen. Martel faces certain death, but only after the Chinese have tortured him for top secret info that will severely damage a vital operation in Africa. To further up the catastrophe level, Russian forces under the command of an equally ruthless officer are on their way to eliminate the General altogether.
Alex, fueled by a raging desire for payback and a long ago oath she and her father took to protect each other, wants an immediate rescue mission with guns blazing. But she's forced to hold back and proceed with caution by the the CIA director and her own boss (and hopeful love interest) Caleb. Anyone who know anything about Alex, (including her adversaries well aware of her skills) knows she can't be contained and kept in check for too long......especially with her father in such immediate danger.
Readers of this series who know the kind of explosive action and suspense that erupts in the Alex Martel universe will not come away from this book disappointed.. In fact, the ending may leave them surprised and intrigued at an all new, even more perilous path that Alex has been left to take.
A top notch,, turn-the-pages-faster-than-bullets thrill-a-thon......a guaranteed 'don't miss' for all armchair secret agent adventurers.
5 stars (*****).
Leave it on the Track by Margot Fisher (2025)
In Moab Utah, queer teen Morgan 'Moose' Shaker loved, more than anything, roller skating with her two dads.......(and with her shy, growing crush on a popular girl at her school coming in second.) Then an indescribable tragedy at the rink left her fathers dead and Moose with terrible severe injuries, both physical and emotional.
Now under the guardianship of her half sister Eden in Portland Oregon, Moose not only struggles with recurring PTSD from her ordeal, she's thrown into a new life, new environment and a sibling she barely had any contact with growing up, now in charge of looking after her. Eden, who skates in a local roller derby team, offers Moose a lifeline, something to engage with......by trying out for the league's junior team. Reluctantly at first, but then with full determination, Moose secures a place on the team, makes friends with some of her teammates and finds herself in an all new crush and a whole new set of challenges. (Once again, physical and emotional.)
Author Margot Fisher surely knows how to make your heart ache for Moose and cheer her on as she takes her up-'n-down journey through the literally rough and tumble sport of roller derby, her nightmarish flashbacks from her past and the rapturous, sometimes awkward moments of her first love. Some bad choices and bad behavior lead Moose into a crisis that further upends her world, but as a reader, I never lost sympathy and hope for her......and the good news for us, neither did author Fisher.
There's plenty of diversity and unforgettable characters on the roller derby team and the book doesn't flinch as it takes you on a punishing, knockabout thrill ride in its descriptions of the actual games. But there's always plenty of heart on display here, along with the multiple contusions, abrasions, and assorted sore ribs, knees and muscle aches.
You'll want to stay at Moose's side every step of the way as she navigates herself through gut wrenching tragedy, new found maturity,, romance and the chances to start the healing of her own internal hurts........and all this on roller skates, no less!
4 stars (*****) It's swell on wheels.
Wondrous weekend to BQ visitors.....see you next week with a whole new batch of movie and book reviews....
Regretting You (2025)
......continues on with the influx of films based on the novels of ultra best seller Colleen Hoover...(or 'CoHo' as she's lovingly known by her multitude of readers.)
Hoover, much like Nicholas Sparks, specializes in weepy, 'all the feels' soap opera-ish dramas, brimming with heartache, pathos, redemption and all that other stuff designed to leave you tearing through a box of tissues as your tear ducts gush like open fire hydrants.
At this stage, we wouldn't hazard a guess as to whether 'Regretting You' and subsequent Hoover adaptations will suffer the same fate as did the Nicholas Sparks once prolific books-to-movies machine. (.....which finally came undone from too many Grade B-minus Sparks films dropping dead at the box office.).
The Hoover onslaught kicked off with last year's high profile "It Ends With us", which not only rang up big bucks, but now lives on forever in the endless toxic legal battles between star Blake Lively and and co-star/director Justin Baldoni.
"It Ends..." hit the bullseye with its primal concentration on domestic violence, but 'Regretting You', with its convoluted backstories, hidden secrets and thwarted romances is kind of a wandering unfocused mess.
Sisters Morgan and Jenny (Allison Williams, Willa Fitzgerald) have married their exact opposites. The quiet calm Morgan wedded boisterous party-hearty Chris (Scott Eastwood), while wild child, outgoing Jenny ended up, for some reason, with quiet, staid introvert Jonah (Dave Franco.)
Anybody care to guess who should really have ended up with whom? Easy now, don't everybody raise your hands all at once......
Born-to-be-soulmates Jenny and Chris die together in a car crash.....in the midst of carrying on a hot 'n heavy affair behind Morgan and Jonah's backs. The tragedy leaves Morgan with her and Chris's now 17 year old daughter Clara (McKenna Grace) and leaves Jonah with baby Elijah, who was actually fathered by (brace yourselves)....Chris.
And now comes an avalanche of Hoover-ian angst as Morgan and Jonah figure out their spouses' betrayal, which includes little Elijah not being Jonah's biological son. Holy heartburn, it also dawns on slow-on-the-uptake Jonah who he was truly meant to be with all these years.....
Enough drama for you? Wait! There's more, as the film tosses in the blossoming meet-cute love between Clara and struggling high school fledgling filmmaker Miller (Mason Thames.)
All these turgid soapy complications compete with each other for screen time, but a major chunk of the film devotes itself to the Clara-Miller up-and-down romance. This almost qualifies the film as officially a Young Adult drama with some adult subplots orbiting around it.
Director Josh Boone ("The Fault In Our Stars") manages the action and actors efficiently enough, but without adding much else. The film never rises above the ordinary look and feel of a made-for-TV movie and none of the cast makes much of an impression.....(unless you factor in McKenna Grace forced to spend the second half of the film in the throes of either tears or tantrums.)
Nothing much to praise or denigrate here....other than to mention it's certainly odd seeing that wonderful formidable film villain Clancy Brown ("Highlander","The Shawshank Redemption") reduced to playing the typical Hallmark movie role of a lovable old Grandpop.
Final thoughts: any more Hoover book-to-movie projects had better have more charisma and 'oomph' than this one. (Plus, here's hoping everyone involved in this got along just swell with each other, so we don't have to read about multiple lawsuits down the road.....)
2 stars (**). For the Hoover 'CoHo' fans and anyone who's got a crush on any of the cast members. Beyond that, we'd say wait'll it pops up on a streaming service you already subscribe to.
