The Housemaid (2025)

A woman with a troubled past becomes the live-in maid for a wealthy household that seems to house a lot of secrets within. It's a twisty-turny psychological thriller with mysteries abound that keep unraveling. Lots of weirdness and inconsistencies throughout. It all falls apart towards the end, but it's an entertaining ride getting there. It also poses the question: Who would win in a fight? Amanda Seyfried or Sydney Sweeney's cleavage?

2½ deadbolts out of 5

Last Christmas (2019)

Emilia Clarke stars as a disillusioned "elf" who works at a year-round Christmas shop, and falls for the perfect man, who rides his bike everywhere and volunteers at a homeless shelter. This is a very predictable movie, but only if you know the song inside and out. That doesn't mean it isn't effective. Emotionally manipulative, sure, but it still managed to stir those long dormant feelings within me. This is one of those movies I wouldn't accept any other time of year, but since it's Christmas, I'm feeling charitable.

3 Wham!s out of 5

Jackpot! (2024)

God, this movie was so fucking dumb, but it's kinda fun if you buy into its wacky premise. In the near future, California hosts a Grand Lottery, whereby the winner must survive by sundown in order to collect their winnings. In the meantime, everyone has carte blanche to kill the ticket holder and take it for themselves (the only caveat being that no guns are allowed). It's basically The Purge: Lottery Edition. Which makes less sense the more you think about it, but it's just a flimsy excuse for ultra levels of violence and over-the-top mayhem. I like Awkwafina and John Cena so I enjoyed it enough, although the bloopers at the end were probably the best part of the whole enterprise.

1½ Machine Gun Kelly panic rooms out of 5

GHOSTBUSTERS [2016]

Paul Feig's Ghostbusters reboot never stood a chance against the army of "It Raped My Childhood" pussies and it's a shame because it really isn't that bad.
It basically follows the exact same formula of the first two films: bumbling scientists get together in New York City to hunt ghosts, everyone thinks they're a hoax, seedy government folk try to bring them down, they visit the mayor as a hole opens up in the sky which leads to a supernatural mayhem montage and finishes off with a giant icon trudging through the city streets.
It's pretty obvious this won't make the same surprising cultural impact as the original film did but it's going to toss some pretty funny yuk-yuks and fantastic cast chemistry at you with the best it can.  It's stitched together with more finesse than the 1989 sequel but like that film, if you're a kid, it's going to be a pretty damned fun ride with plenty of wide-eyed moments for a new generation of rugrats.

3 pairs of cuckoo pants out of 5

GHOSTHEADS [2016]

Mega-Ghostbusters fan Brendan Mertens shows his love for the film franchise with the documentary fan-flick Ghostheads.
It mostly centers around a number of dedicated fans from all over the map who share their adoration for the films through cosplay, internet forums, conventions and various other forms of geek-love.  As an added bonus it interviews cast & crew from the movies and animated television show for whatever reason.  It could have heavily benefited by exclusively focusing on stories of it's fans and instead wastes a lot of time on the celebrities sharing their foggy memories of the films they made over 20 years ago.
As a whole, it's an aimless mess by never really knowing exactly where it's headed or what it wants to say besides the obvious but it's heart is in the right place and that's enough for this Ghosthead.

2½ ghostbusting ringtones out of 5

SPY [2015]

Director Paul Feig's thriller/comedy, Spy, is as funny as it is violent, quite often simultaneously.
Melissa McCarthy plays a desk-bound CIA analyst who's thrust into the field to recover a nuclear device, much to the dismay of a far more experienced field agent, played by Jason Statham.
Whoever's idea it was to team-up McCarthy & The Stath knew it would work wonderfully, especially when both are sticking to what they do best, being the typical lost-in-luck American middle-aged white woman or the grunting hard-assed Pip-pip with a temper.
Instead of parodying the Bond/Bourne films, Spy simply inserts the fish-out-of-water character into the fold and runs with that, quite often letting the jokes create themselves along the way.  The number of characters gets to be a bit of a mess by the end of the film but it's a wildly entertaining and hilarious ride along the way.

4 Cranks out of 5

THE HEAT [2013]

I really didn't expect much from Bridesmaids director Paul Feig's buddy cop comedy The Heat so it's hard to be disappointed with such expectations.
Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock have great chemistry and are serviceably funny as the foul-mouthed oil & water partners.  However it takes a good 40 minutes to get going making for a very dull introduction to a very predictable story and being an action-comedy that's hardly acceptable.  It's the type of film where you know exactly what you're getting into and if you're fine with that then it's okay.  If you're not fine with this sort of stupidity then steer clear.

2½ shit jerk dick fucker assholers out of 5