Weapons (2025)

At 2:17am, 17 children disappear. Told in snippets from different points of view, it's best to know nothing else going in. It's a creepy little film, full of tension and frequently hilarious. It had my whole theater laughing and screaming.

3½ cans of soup out of 5

Cocaine Bear (2023)

What's scarier than a bear on the loose? One that stumbles upon a cache of cocaine, with the usual predictable results. This one was a whole lot of fun, full of mid-'80s vibes and some pretty brutal kills. It's very dumb at times, but passable for this kind of raucous horror-comedy. I just didn't want it to end.

Inspired a whole host of "animals on drugs" direct-to-streaming B-garbage (including Meth Gators and Crackcoons), but this one was the first and best.

3 kilos out of 5

HAIL, CAESAR! [2016]

The Coen Brothers dazzle with their impressive cast in thee Classical Hollywood Era comedy Hail, Caesar!
Using real-life Hollywood fixer Eddie Mannix as the leading character, the story tells of the disappearance of a renown actor off the set of their latest big budget epic, all the while dissecting the behind-the-scenes buffoonery that went on to divert audience's attention from the Red Scare.
It's an incredibly authentic recreation of the Post War Hollywood era, thankfully littered with light, silly performances from all folks involved and a breezy air about it that is just off-beat enough to keep film-lovers intrigued.  However, anybody not familiar with how film studios work behind-the-scenes or of the paranoid times the story is set in, will probably find themselves bored and wondering what's with all the weird silliness afoot.
Think of it as The Coen Brothers' own thematic prequel to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.

3½ noodle lassos out of 5

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES [2013]

The comparisons to the more popular supernatural teen romance franchise are inevitable with The Fisher King writer Richard LeGravenese's Beautiful Creatures.
Only what we have here is something much more enjoyable than sparkly vampires with a story that can easily be predicted by the first 5 minutes but it doesn't really matter.  The characters are more interesting, the dialogue is punchier & funnier and the actors are far more appealing, including Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson and Emmy Rossum turning in some delightful hammy and diabolical performances.  All in all, if there were a franchise, I'd have no problem watching more.

3 three dimensional movies out of 5