Movies Merica

Hey! Feel like the topic of political violence doesn’t come up near enough nowadays? Have you ever been doom scrolling and thought, “This is cool and totally not rotting my brain, but ya know what would be cool? Putting this up on a movie screen for 2 hours and 41 minutes!” If this is a current and accurate description of you, dear reader, get ready to be happy because boy! Is “One Battle After An...

You may think the American economy stinks now but it’s still not bad enough to warrant the twisted walk that’s portrayed in the movie “The Long Walk.” This movie takes place in a alternative history that resembles the 1950s. There was a great war and most people are in poverty. However there is an annual event called The Long Walk that’s meant to inspire every state in America to work harder to ma...

In “The Conjuring: Last Rites”, Ed and Lorraine Warren have worked over a thousand cases as spiritually guided paranormal investigators, helping save people from demonic forces. That doesn’t mean they’ve seen everything and this latest case might be the one that breaks them. This is the real-life Smurl case in suburban Pittsburgh, where the introduction of a possessed mirror into their home, also...

Fighter pilots have “Top Gun.” Race car drivers have “F1” and “Days Of Thunder.” What movie did firefighters have up until 1991 to put their heroics on full display? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, until a director, mostly known for making comedies, decided that firefighters finally get their day in the sun. That director was Ron Howard and the movie that helped the aura of firefighters burn so brigh...

In the new Ron Howard movie, “Eden”, a group of disillusioned Europeans settles on a remote, uninhabited island in the Galápagos. They’re inspired by a man, played by Jude Law, who came to the island and supposedly found happiness. They soon discover that their greatest threat isn't the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but one another. Human nature is what it is after all. Sinful. As tensio...

The star of “Nobody 2”, Bob Oedenkirk, typically plays sleazy, cowardly, funny characters, like in “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.” However, in the “Nobody” movies, he gets to stretch his acting chops by playing an unassuming, middle-aged, ass-kicking secret agent, named Hutch Mansell, balancing life with a wife and two kids. In this sequel, since he’s always gone dishing out pain, his famil...

If you like a horror movie that will keep you guessing and constantly exclaiming “OMIGAWD WHAT AM I WATCHING!!!?”, then the movie “Weapons” just might be that movie for you. This movie is brought to us by the director of the surprise horror hit from 2022, “Barbarian.” That would be one Zach Cregger and we’ll see if he goes two for two with this latest offering from him. “Weapons” starts off with t...

In 1998, we got the sequel to the movie “The Fully-Clothed Gun”, known as “The Naked Gun.” Leslie Nielsen played ace detective Frank Drebin who showed everyone the wrong way to be a cop. Now, in 2025, we’re getting the inevitable. A remake of “The Naked Gun” starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. who now has to carry on his father’s legacy of being a cautionary tale with a badge who shoots first...

In this episode we talk about what is no doubt the most anticipated movie of 2025, James Gunn’s “Superman.” Gunn is more known for his quirky movies with unusual characters engaged in constant frenetic action. This time he takes on the most well-known superhero, the first son of Krypton. No small feat. Can he make everyone with their own idea of who they think Superman should be happy? In this lat...

We learned about dino DNA for the first time in 1993 with the first Jurassic Park movie. That DNA must have staying power but they’re still churning out Jurassic movies 32 years later. This time, in “Jurassic World: Rebirth”, it’s Scarlett Johanssen, post-Black Widow, taking the lead. She plays Zora, a merc hired by a questionable pharmaceutical rep to help a dinosaur expert get access to a forbid...

In 2022, director Joseph Kosinski wowed us with amazing sights from inside fighter jets in “Top Gun: Maverick.” In 2025, he’s dropping our jaws to the floor with awesome sights from inside F1 race cars in the summer blockbuster “F1” starring Brad Pitt. PItt plays veteran driver Sonny Hayes who is asked by his friend, who owns a team, to help them win and maybe mentor their young driver too. Hayes...

First there was “28 Days Later.” Then “28 Weeks Later.” This week we got “28 Years Later.” We better appreciate this one big time because the next one has to be “28 Decades Later”, and none of us will be around. For now, let’s focus on “28 Years Later”, which is the latest in this series of movies centered around an outbreak of what’s called the Rage Virus. People are infected with the Rage Virus...

You know the John Wick movies are successful when they’re making spin-off TV series and movies off of that franchise. This week we get the first, and most assuredly, not the last John Wick spin-off movie, “Ballerina.” Ana De Armas takes the starring role in this as another assassin who, like John Wick, was trained to kill by the Ruska Roma criminal organization. Perhaps she’s even more lethal than...

Did you just watch a feel good movie and need to rid yourself of the good feelings? Then the movie “Bring Her Back”, from the directors of “Talk To Me”, just might be what the doctor ordered. There’s nothing sunny and bright about this movie,  but it is a horror movie, so that tracks. Piper and Andy are step-siblings who are placed with a foster mom, Laura, after tragedy strikes. Laura is a bit “o...

The Mission:Impossible movies started in 1996 with Tom Cruise playing Ethan Hunt for the first time. Now 29 years later, we might be getting the last Mission:Impossible movie with “Mission:Impossible The Final Reckoning.” We were left with a cliffhanger in the last Mission:Impossible movie, so we’ll perhaps get the conclusion we’re looking for. Is it worth going to the theater to see if we do? Che...

Have you ever been watching a classic vampire movie like “Fright Night” or “The Lost Boys” and thought, “This is good, but this could be great with two of the guy who played Apollo Creed’s kid in those ‘Creed’ movies as well as some blues music and a dash of racial commentary!”? Well, put up your black square on Instagram and clutch your George Floyd bobblehead in celebration because a celebration...

“War is hell” is a common phrase, but as we live our peacetime lives, it can be hard to visualize what that phrase really means. The movie “Warfare” provides a way to see and comprehend that phrase. The movie is directed by “Civil War” and “Ex Machina” director Alex Garland and Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza. Mendoza was one of the soldiers in the middle of the real-life battle that this movie shows...

Val Kilmer was one of the most eclectic and enthralling actors of his generation and one of the movies that heavily showcased this is this week’s movie, “The Salton Sea.” Kilmer showed he could be wacky, like in “Top Secret!” and “Real Genius” or deadly serious like in “Spartan” and “The Doors.” In “The Salton Sea” he sort of combines those two and it makes for an entertaining and captivating perf...

There are a few thing certainties you can count on in movies. If it’s an Adam Sandler movie, there’ll be at least one fart joke. If it’s a Jason Statham movie, there’ll be at least one dude getting a limb broken and plenty of punching. This week’s movie “A Working Man” that bill. Statham plays Levon Cade, who used to be an elite military operator, but now tries to make an honest living as a workin...

I’ll admit it. All us guys, at one point or another, have fantasized about being some one-man action hero that kicks a bunch of bad guy butt to rescue a beautiful woman. It’s a great fantasy until reality kicks in and you start thinking “I don’t wanna do that! I could experience pain!!!” The main character in this week’s movie, “Novocaine”, doesn’t have to worry about the pain part AND he reluctan...

I have a movie telling a harrowing true life tale about a deep sea, or saturation, diver in mortal peril this week called “Last Breath.” It stars Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole and Cliff Curtis. As you know, there are thousands of miles of pipes in the ocean and somebody has to maintain them. That’s where saturation divers come in. They dive to dangerous depths out in the middle of freezing...

If you thought you hated Valentine’s Day, you’ve got nothing over the serial killer in “Heart Eyes.” No Hallmark cards, 2 hour wait times at a fancy restaurant and overpriced flowers for this killer. This Heart Eyes Killer’s MO is to kill couples in different cities every Valentine’s Day. You’ll see people get maimed in this movie but ubiquitous rom-com movie tropes get pummeled as well in a bitin...

We’re now up to the 35th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that movie is “Captain America: Brave New World.” At the end of “Avengers: Endgame”, the OG Captain America, Steve Rogers, gave Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) the Captain America shield. Sam, had been Falcon up until that point, starting in the movies with “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” After, the “Falcon And The Winter Soldi...

Do you have that problem where someone is always asking you to watch a romantic movie but the movie has too much of that, ya know, love and romance? I just might have the solution you’ve been looking for in this week’s movie “Companion.” This movie is a romantic movie in marketing only to perhaps help you get your special someone to watch it with you. Then you’ll both get to watch how the movie sp...

In 1993 Mel Gibson’s first directorial effort was a smaller movie named “The Man Without A Face.” Since then he’s made nothing but big, epic movies like “Braveheart” and “Hacksaw Ridge.” Now he’s going back to his smaller movie roots with the suspense thriller “Flight Risk.” Mel starred in “Father Stu” with Mark Wahlberg and apparently they forged a friendship because Wahlberg is the name at the t...