On Wednesday this week, the news came out that Tim Curry passed away at the age of 80. this came one day after Dolly Parton passed away at the same age. Curry was always an interesting actor to me, and he was the main reason I am not fond of clowns. Still, with those adult roles like Legend or The Hunt for Red October, he still took part in a lot of films that meant a lot to kids. His voice work and children’s programming was prolific. So, as I reflect on what an incredible career Curry had, here is a rankings of the roles he played that meant something to me.
- Dr. Frank N. Furter (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)
- Wadsworth (Clue)
- Pennywise the Dancing Clown (It)
- Long John Silver (Muppet Treasure Island)
- Professor Oldman (Scary Movie 2)
- Hexxus (Ferngully: The Last Rainforest)
- Sir Nigel Archibald Thornberry (The Wild Thornberrys)
- Herkermer Homolka (Congo)
- Cardinal Richelieu (The Three Musketeers)
- Forte (Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas)
On to the reviews!
After his billionaire industrialist boss is murdered in front of him, Cole Reed is set up to take the fall for the crime — leaving him on the run as he works to uncover an international conspiracy.
Jason Statham’s last three films were 2024’s The Beekeeper, last year’s A Working Man, and Shelter earlier this year. In those three, he played a highly skilled assassin, a retired Royal Marines Colour Sargeant, and a former Royal Marines Commando. The range is astounding here. Knowing this, it shouldn’t surprise you that in Mutiny he is playing a former commando and police officer who is now a bodyguard. The problem with these last films since Beekeeper is the fun is just not there anymore. You never really feel like Statham is ever in any danger and all his adversaries are just cannon fodder. Looking into the story more, this is such a simple plot that I think wants you to think it’s more complicated, but those possible interesting storylines never really go anywhere. Annabelle Wallis plays the third Captain of the ship, and she isn’t given anything to do except watch what Statham is doing. I’m still waiting for another film other than 2021’s Malignant where she really works in her role. This film is your standard Statham film, and by now that is starting to grow tiresome. It’s ok though. The Beekeeper 2 is set for release on January 15th, 2027. Ideally that will bring the fun this film desperately needed a little of.
A brave girl and her friends must escape a kids television show.
For people familiar with Adult Swim and their Infomercial series, Casper Kelly is well known. He is the reason why Too Many Cooks has been bouncing around my head for over a decade. He followed up his run there with the “Fun Size” segment in 2025’s V/H/S/Halloween. Once that wrapped up he moved on to this, his directional feature film debut. The topic he chose to focus on this time was a genius move. As a child of the 90’s, I ran the gamut of children’s programming, but there was one big hole in what I watched. I watched a lot of Sesame Street and Mr Roger’s neighborhood at first, then moved on to the iconic Disney Afternoon cartoons. I never really watched Barney. That isn’t to say I don’t know anything about that show. I have watched it before, and doing so made watching this film so much more enjoyable. Buddy is basically what if the Barney show was actually a prison where the fun, happy host is a nightmare keeping them trapped in the show. This gimmick is given away in the what I through was incredible opening 30 minutes or so. Keegan Michael Key is fantastic as Buddy and it’s really fun to watch the cracks in his facade show up. Cristin Milioti and Topher Grace show up in the second act, and while Milioti is really good in this, this storyline is a little underbaked. We do get some references that this storyline is taking place in a bigger world of the story, but they just provide more questions with no answers. The idea of this film is sound, and when we are in the It’s Buddy World, the film really works most of the time. The kids are all acting like the eager kids from those kids shows, and that helps to add to the feeling. That feeling is a creepy alternate version of a show that you might have grown up with that was only ever super happy and loving. Buddy is very much not that, and I am here for it.
A director making a slasher sequel becomes obsessed with casting the original film’s ‘final girl,’ leading both women into psychological and sexual chaos.
I did not overly enjoy Jane Scheonbrun’s previous film, 2024’s I Saw The TV Glow. That was a film I really tried to get into, but it just wore me down to a point I was waiting for it to be over. After watching this new film from Scheonbrun, I think I might not meant to like their films. They just don’t feel they are for me, and that is perfectly fine. I see that this film is being classified as a horror film, but it is only such in the loosest of terms. Yes, the Camp Miasma franchise is a parody of the Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th franchises, and we do have a pretty gory montage of the killer of the series going on a spree. All of that stuff though isn’t part of the real storyline for the most part as it the conduit for what I feel the real storyline was: the sexual awakening of Hannah Einbinder’s Kris. Einbinder is pretty good in this, but it’s Gillian Anderson who is the standout as Billy Presley. Billy was the final girl in the original Miasma film, and there is one scene in that film we see so many times it is almost as if Schoenbrun is hitting you over the head with it. I know this is coming across as I didn’t like the film, but I don’t think this a bad film. It’s just a film I don’t quite get. The last 20 minutes will continue to befuddle me. Still, the production design, score, and our two leads make this a worth film seeing.
In a post-apocalyptic world, a virus wipes out humanity. Survivors face roaming scavengers called Reapers. Protagonist Hig, a pilot, survived the flu but lost his wife.
At 88, Ridley Scott is ever busy. When he isn’t causing chaos in the production plans for the Alien series, he is working on a Bee Gees biopic. Both or either of these projects will take the director into his 90s, and time comes for us all, but first we have The Dog Stars, his current post-apocalyptic release. At first, you might think this is a response to the COVID fun times, but while that might be what was in Scott’s mind, this is based on the 2012 novel by Peter Heller. The question the film doesn’t really nail down for me is what is the timeline we are dealing with. We do see a date at one point (2035), but we never find out how long it has been since society fell apart. When we make trips into what I sure is Denver, things look so overgrown and broken, it has to be a decade plus. However, Hig can pull out 12 packs of Sprite for example and throw the timeline into question (those only stay good for at most a year). Leaving the timeline to the side for now, the cast is solid here. Elordi does most of the heavy lifting, with Qualley having probably the second biggest one, even if she doesn’t show up until the second act. Brolin and Pearce are also good, but they aren’t asked to really do anything outside of their comfort zone. Story wise, that is where I have most of issues. This film didn’t need to be 2 hours. There is a solid 90 minutes somewhere in this, and a lot of time that I don’t think was used the best. There is setting the tone of the film, and there is padding the runtime. More of an issue is how uneven the conflict is. I don’t think this film is or should have been an action film. It is more a contemplative drama about learning there is more to live for when you think everything is over for you. However, you do need something, and we got three instances of action. The problem is two of them hit very close to each other at the end of the second act. The third is way too short of a sequence, and looking back might have been more of a case of running out of time to wrap up the film. That is a lot of negative, but I really did enjoy the film as a whole. The cinematography was on point, even if it was Italy that they shot and not Colorado. I just wanted this to stick with me more than it ended up doing. I have a felling this might end up like sadly a lot of Scott’s films lately since 2015’s The Martian: highly watchable, mostly pretty good, but forgettable months later. Looking at you Napoleon and All the Money in the World.
Professor Se Jeong attends a biotech conference, only to witness it spiral into catastrophe when a rapidly mutating virus is unleashed. As the outbreak spreads and the infected begin to transform, authorities seal off the entire facility.
It is a well know thing that I am not a very big gross horror film person. That means I tend to stay away from the gory movies for the most part. The exception to the rule is most zombie movies. I’m not going to be a real original here, but I really enjoyed 2016’s Train to Busan. The limited setting for this area of the genre really works for me. So when Yeon Sang-ho decides to make a new film, it quickly appears on my radar. What adds to it is this would not be a standard zombie film. What we are dealing with this is a contagious mold virus that is deployed in a high rise building as a terrorist attack. The attacker is trying to elevate human kind to that of ants, in that communication is perfect as it is a hive mind. The cool thing here is the infected continue to learn as the film goes on, and that new information is “downloaded” to all the other infected, making the force our protagonists are trying to get through continue to be more and more of a problem. While this plot point does make for an enjoyable watch, the storyline is less interesting than Sang-ho’s previous films. One problem is we have a party of survivors that is just too big, and from the jump you know which 2 or 3 would make it to act three. I also don’t think the ending is following the rules the film itself sets up earlier just to set up a sequel (Busan had a sequel and a prequel). One other thing that I liked less was the story kind of got a little loose in the final act. We get characters turns, area expansions, exposition dumps, and an end that just ends. That just makes this a film that was fun to watch, but I don’t think I’ll be watching it again for a while.
Two rock-bottom drivers transport a wealthy teen to rehab, but their simple job spirals into a chaotic journey of drugs, danger, and crime as their passenger derails their plans.
Comedies have been kind of a mixed bag this year. I have only really liked a few, and there have also been a few I thought were awful. Nestled between Super Troopers 3 and Balls Up towards the bottom of the comedy rankings is this film. Back when this premiered at Sundance in January, it had a much more colorful title: The Sh*theads (I censored that by the way). For some reason, the folks in marketing thought Idiots was much more palatable title. They may be right on the title, but the film itself an unpleasant watch. O’Shea Jackson Jr and Mason Thames are fine in this, but Dave Franco’s Mark just never worked for me. it was painfully unfunny at times, and while they try to have character development for our leads, it never works. Something I wished it did more of was show more of how Thames’s Sheridan was such a terror and legend. There is a lot of tell and not show for that character. The blessing here is this wan’t terrible wrong, but I still could have cut out a solid section of the movie that just doesn’t go anywhere. I have pretty good sense of humor, but this one just didn’t do a thing for me. I may have chuckled a couple times, but I don’t think it was ever due to a purposeful joke. If you are desperate for a comedy to watch right now, just go watch Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie that is on Hulu now. You deserve a laugh and Idiots probably won’t do it for you. I know it didn’t for me.
Follows Wile E. Coyote as he enlists a billboard attorney to sue the Acme Corporation that repeatedly selling him alleged faulty products.
This film has had quite the journey to being released this weekend. This film’s production was announced by Warner Bros way back in 2018. Originally with a release date in July 2023 that would go to Barbie, it was removed from the schedule by WB. On November 9, 2023, WB officials announced the film was completed, but they had no intention of releasing it. They instead preferred to claim a tax write off of $30 million. That would make this the third film to be cancelled in favor of a write off by WB (the other being Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt). 4 days later, WB decided to reverse their decision and allow the filmmakers to try and shop the film to other distributors. That is how Ketchup Entertainment ended up releasing the film. What is baffling about WB’s decision to give up on it is that this was a really good film now that people got to see it. It was much smarter than most of the Looney Tunes films we have gotten, and it never really beats you over the head with the references. We are dealing with Who Framed Roger Rabbit? rules here. Humans and cartoons just coexist. What was nice here was the humans don’t know who Bugs or Daffy are, so they are just side characters that are there to move the plot along. The only LT characters we get a substantial amount of time with here are Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Tweety, and Foghorn Leghorn. That isn’t to say that everyone else doesn’t show up at some point during the film. Well, almost everyone (my boy Marvin seemingly is absent). What I think might hold back the film a bit is it isn’t really a kids movie. I’m not saying it is inappropriate, but the subject matter of Wile E. suing Acme isn’t really fun if you are a kid watching it. It is a legal comedy, and not a zany Looney Tunes adventure. That is what Space Jam and Back in Action are for. As for the humans, Will Forte is pretty good here as the put upon lawyer Wile E. turns to in his efforts. Lana Condor is fine as his niece that is probably the best law mind in the film, and John Cena is ok as Acme’s top lawyer. You aren’t here for the humans though. You are here for Wile E. Coyote, and that is all you really need in this film. Unless you are from Warner Bros. You don’t think you need any of this, and I’m so glad you get to see first hand how wrong you are.
When his 8-year-old son is abducted, a widowed crime writer looks to his estranged father, a retired former police detective, for help, only to discover a connection with the decades-old case of a convicted serial killer known as “The Whisper Man.”
I went into this one hoping for something in the vein of 2013’s Prisoners. There isn’t much connective tissue between the two other than kidnappings, but the tone is what I was after. For the most part, Whisper Man achieved that. Adam Scott is really good in this, and between this and Hokum earlier in the year, he has had a great year so far. Also turning in a good role is De Niro as Scott’s father. The shame though is the story could have used some tightening. It isn’t a great sign that when I looked at the cast list before I fired this one up, I could figure out who was the Whisper Man. Possibly that is what made the turns in the third act not hit like I think they should have. What I would have liked is a little more about the Whisper Man and how his pattern works. We never get a great idea of the timeframe from kidnapping to murder for him. Because of that, we never know how much time they have to find Jake. In the end, this is just another middle of road crime thriller that I wish was better. 
As we enter September, we might finally see a weekend Spider-Man is not atop the weekend box office chart. I think that might come as early as this next weekend. Popular thinking is that a film after a few weeks drops on about 50% week after week. Spidey has dropped 45% and 43% the last two weeks. So, when that continues next week 44% of $22.2m (what it made this weekend) is only $12.4m. Surely By Any Means or Fall 2: Deadpoint can make more that that and end Brand New Day’s 5 weekend run on top.
- Fall 2: Deadpoint
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- By Any Means
- Coyote & Acme
- The Odyssey
Looking at my calendar of my review schedule is a little daunting the next few weeks, but the nice thing is none of them will be as busy at this week’s 8 film slate. I have at least 4 films the next few weeks, but that is the life I have chosen. This week it is the next Mystery Monday (the 3rd of 5 in a row right now). I am fairly sure that will be Fall 2, so that saves me a viewing of it later in the week. That leaves How to Rob a Bank, Onslaught, and By Any Means on Thursday and Saturday in some combination I haven’t quite decided on just yet. August rankings will be posted on my Instagram on Tuesday, and at least one of the films this month cracked the top 10.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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