Honey Don't! (2025)

The second in Ethan Coen's "loose" lesbian B-movie trilogy, full of murder and sex and lots of senseless violence that leads nowhere. Margaret Qualley does her best Natasha Lyonne impression as private eye Honey O'Donahue, while Aubrey Plaza plays her prospective love interest and Chris Evans portrays a polyamorous cult leader. Aside from some skin, I didn't find it very titillating. I recall feeling a similar way about Drive-Away Dolls, although at least that one had a fun MacGuffin element. It's pretty empty at the end of the day, and the more I mull on it, the less I enjoyed it. The whole thing is a mess and I'm being generous with my rating because I like the way it was shot, but that's about it.

2 fingerings out of 5

Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)

What to do after you've already remade the movie and want to bleed more money out of the IP? You make a prequel! Mufasa, the original King of the Pride Lands (and father to Simba), gets his own backstory and of course all it does is succeed in undermining the original film. We've been down this road before. It plods along like a dull roar, with original songs from Lin-Manuel to help keep the action moving. I found it a bit too sycophantic and strangely politically motivated, although it ultimately managed to win me over (but just barely).

2½ Milele out of 5

The Lion King (2019)

For some reason, they thought they'd remake the seminal classic The Lion King as a "live action" film with photorealistic animals. It's about as pointless an exercise as remaking Psycho, in my opinion. Trying to add emotion to an animal's face is foolhardy, so the bulk of the performance comes through the all-star voice cast. It's basically made for the latest generation of kids who grew up on CG movies rather than traditional cel painted animation. It gets good marks for essentially replicating the exact same plot and layout of the original (with some additional fluff), but you might as well just stick to the classics. While competently made, I have no desire to see this version again.

3 circles of the Hollywood machine out of 5