Love Me (2025) Film Review

A buoy and a satellite meet online long after humanity’s extinction. As they learn what life was like on Earth, they discover themselves and what it means to be alive and in love.

Love Me is directed by Sam and Andy Zuchero which is their directorial debut.

Love Me is the most disappointing film of 2025 so far and it really stings, the movie has all the right Ingredients to make something truly special. There’s themes of love, what it means to be a human and connection in a post-apocalyptic world. Unfortunately the movie has a ton of tonal shift problems when the movie switches styles and unfortunately does not really explore this world in any impactful way.

Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun both give fantastic performances here, we start the movie off with a Buoy (voiced by Kristen Stewart) and a Satellite (voiced by Steven Yeun) the Buoy seeks connection while the Satellite carries knowledge of humanity. We get a lot of this interesting bits about humans and wanting to connect with one another, this part does admittedly go on for a bit too long and the similarities to WALL-E (2008) are hard to ignore but I do think the movie makes the idea its own.

We eventually get to see Stewart and Yeun as actual people but unfortunately it’s not for very long, for the most part we see them as digital avatars (that’s definitely some of the weaker parts) which results in a lack of real emotional connection for the viewer. I get what they were going for here and there are times it’s interesting but a lot of the time it really feels like a huge waste of two brilliant actors and not utilizing their full talent. The digital avatar elements have their place but they ultimately don’t result into anything impactful, it feels much more like a showcase of what could potentially be a good idea and forgets to use the substance.

Love Me would have absolutely worked better as a short film, I admire the swings the movie was willing to throw but ultimately a lot of the themes are incredibly one note. The movie wants to explore the nature of love and what it means to feel but unfortunately you don’t really get that here at all, the writing is incredibly shallow and the constant tonal shifts completely distract the movie from throwing anything hard hitting or meaningful that could have been said

Overall despite my criticism I don’t think Love Me is a terrible movie, it’s one that has the right ideas just very lacking execution. I am very interested to see what Sam and Andy Zuchero will do next though.

Love Me is available on all VOD platforms.

5/10 C

Plankton: The Movie (2025) Film Review

Plankton’s tangled love story with his sentient computer wife goes sideways when she takes a stand and decides to destroy the world without him.

Plankton: The Movie is directed by Dave Needham director of The Loud House Movie (2021).

After the disaster that was last year’s Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie (2024) I went into this one expecting the same sort of disaster..luckily that was not the case here. That doesn’t mean to say that it’s necessarily a good movie but talk about an improvement.

The voice cast does a really solid job here, there isn’t necessarily any standouts it’s very much what you expect from anything SpongeBob related but unlike the Sandy Cheeks Movie there was actual charm here. The relationship between Plankton and Karen is actually explored decently well, again nothing mind blowing but the fact they even bothered at all considering how lacking in writing the last movie was deserves some credit.

The animation styles used are decent, some of the 3D animation does feel a bit empty at times. It’s moments like those that you kind of wish the movie was the typical SpongeBob 2D animation style, but at the very least some of those moments are made up with some song sequences. The music numbers are a mixed bag for me in terms of the songs themselves, but I do think what’s going on the background and the different styles being used are quite great as well as creative at times. The songs themselves are never going to reach the quality and fun feel of the songs from the show, but they are at least tolerable and don’t overstay their welcome (you will more than likely forget about them as soon as the movie is over anyway.)

Finally it’s nice to see that there’s still some charm from the show here, for one thing the voice acting was much more lively especially from Tom Kenny who sounds much more awake than he was in the Sandy Cheeks Movie (2024) leading to this movie just having more entertaining moments. Plus there are some moments that are genuinely funny, nothing that’s going to knock your socks off but entertaining at the very least.

Not much else to say here, Plankton: The Movie is probably the most 5/10 movie ever made but given just how dreadful the last movie was. That should be taken as a compliment.

Plankton: The Movie is available on Netflix!

5/10 C

The Unbreakable Boy (2025) Film Review

When Scott and Teresa learn that their son, Austin, is autistic and has brittle bone disease, they initially worry about his future. However, with Scott’s growing faith and Austin’s incredible spirit, they become unbreakable as they find joy, gratitude and courage in the most trying times.

The Unbreakable Boy is directed by Jon Gunn director of Mercy Streets (2000), My Date With Drew (2004), Like Dandelion Dust (2009), Do You Believe? (2015), This Week (2015), The Case Of Christ (2017) and Ordinary Angels (2024).

Without wasting so much time with the intro it comes to no surprise The Unbreakable Boy is terrible and that’s mainly due to a multitude of factors. The movie was supposed to come out 3 years ago back in 2022, it kept getting delayed and pushed to release date until release date as well as even being shelved at one point (I believe) until the movie just released this year.

The second main factor is this is just yet again Sia’s disastrous film Music (2021) while this movie is not as bad and as an Autistic person I don’t find this one nearly as offensive. This has a lot of the same issues that Music (2021) did the main one being that the supposed main character in this case Austin a boy who’s on the autistic spectrum isn’t the center focus in his own film.

The performances are mostly terrible, with the exception of Meghann Fahy who is trying her absolute hardest to give a decent performance that could MAYBE get this movie to stand on its feet. But the end result is as expected unsatisfactory, Zachary Levi’s character Scott is the center focus of the film who deals with alcohol addiction which of course is a serious issue and I think would be perfectly fine to explore heavily in any other film. The problem here is as I said before that Austin the character that the little marketing there is of this movie would have you believe is the center focus takes a back seat. Jacob Laval does about as well as he can, the portrayal of autism here isn’t nearly as bad as it was in Music (2021) but it’s just the way the movie goes about making Austin as a character as generic as possible not giving him any sort of character.

Zachary Levi is just terrible here, the chemistry between him and Meghann Fahy isn’t there and combined with the script and the odd choice to give him an imaginary friend (played by Drew Powell), it’s a terrible performance that even when they are trying to do some father and son moments they still fall flat due to the bond itself being nothing more than a few scenes. Granted they try to make these moments work during the last 20 minutes or so but by then it’s far too late and the viewer has already checked out.

Finally The Unbreakable Boy much like Music (2021) is just inspiration porn, it’s the type of movie where someone who might have sat at the same lunch table with an Autistic person once will post on Facebook and say “this is such a powerful film guys” when it’s anything but that. The movie does not give Austin his own character, the most it does is say he’s unbreakable due to the many accidents because of his brittle bone disease. I would argue that we get more about his brittle bone disease than Autism, which would be fine if the movie wasn’t trying claim that Autism was the center focus topic of the movie.

Overall The Unbreakable Boy is terrible, outside of the performance from Meghann Fahy this is a terrible movie that came and went which is not hard to see why. As an Autistic person this fairs a tiny bit better than Music (2021) but that should really not be taken as a compliment it’s still dreadful.

The Unbreakable Boy is available on all VOD Platforms.

1/10 F

One Of Them Days (2025) Film Review

When her boyfriend takes her rent money, Alyssa and her roommate race against the clock to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact.

One Of Them Days is directed by Lawrence Lamont which is his directorial debut.

One Of Them Days is a film that answers what if the phrase “can this day get any worse” was a human and made a movie. Well turns out it would be a genuinely hilarious film with incredibly solid performances that are so charming and a whole lot of fun.

The performances from Keke Palmer and SZA are both fantastic here, right from the very beginning the two show their natural chemistry right off the bat and remains strong throughout the film. The two both have excellent comedic timing, filled to the brim with jokes that gave me a ton of laughs and puts the film above so many other modern comedies that struggle to even get a chuckle out of the viewer.

Keke Palmer has the natural charisma, comedic timing and the balance of humorous moments and serious ones to really hit her performance out of the park (as well as this film.) I’ve said before in the past how Palmer is a powerhouse actress and One Of Them Days only reinforces that. SZA is also quite fantastic, she might not be a seasoned actress like Keke Palmer is (in fact this is SZA’s acting debut.) However for an acting debut this was quite solid, as I said before she works with Palmer incredibly well and she really does feel like a natural fit for the film.

The film tackling the theme of everything just going completely wrong has such chaotic energy to it, it’s both hilarious and quite clever at the same time. While there are some cliches in the road the whole “friends have a falling out” plot line rears its head however that doesn’t take away from the film’s writing. The script from writer Syreeta Singleton is hilarious and it helps that Keke Palmer and SZA can turn a what would be ordinary piece of dialogue into something quite funny. There’s even some jokes here that are actually clever and tie into the film in meaningful ways as well.

I also do think the film succeeds in balancing its humor with the serious moments, there is some actual great character moments reflecting on how much the day absolutely sucks and wishing for it to get better. It’s not anything incredibly deep, but it’s incredibly genuine and really does have this charm attached to it.

Overall One Of Them Days is a whole lot of fun! Between great performances, hilarious laughs and a solid story. This is one I absolutely recommend checking out!

One Of Them Days is available on all VOD platforms.

7/10 B

Picture This (2025) Film Review

Struggling photographer Pia is told she’ll find true love and career success within the next five dates she goes on. With her sister’s wedding looming and her family playing matchmaker, her ex soon reappears, throwing her life into chaos.

Picture This is directed by Prarthana Mohan director of The Miseducation of Bindu (2020), All For Her (2021) and Christmas Is Cancelled (2021).

Not a whole lot to report here, Picture This is the first thing you think of when somebody talks about how forgettable a lot of streaming movies are. Outside of a few performances and the cultural aspects that do help this movie at least have some sort of identity. The movie is very much a forgettable romantic comedy that you will forget about after viewing.

The performances I will say are a lot better than you would think, Simone Ashley is easily the standout with her natural charisma and her ability to give her character Pia some actual depth (all be it not anything groundbreaking) is easily the movie’s best asset. Her chemistry with Luke Fetherson (who plays Pia’s best friend Jay), ends up leading to some of the movie’s most enjoyable moments. While not completely original their dialogue at the very least is more engaging than the rest of the movie’s formulaic plot.

Hero Fiennes is fine enough here, but unfortunately the dialogue doesn’t give the necessary character development or chemistry with Simone Ashley to make his character Charlie (ex-boyfriend of Pia) work at all. The only thing we are given about him is the typical cliches the genre likes to throw at the viewer, upon immediately seeing his character you already have a good idea of where the movie is going to go with Charlie.

Everything else is incredibly bland unfortunately, while there is some vibrant depiction of the Indian wedding festivities which adds color and cultural richness. The rest of the filming really doesn’t standout and absolutely suffers from the low budget feel, it feels like it needed more of a stronger push to pop out but can’t quite do it. The writing is about as bland as you can really get with romantic comedies, while not terrible (this actually fairs a bit better than some straight to streaming romantic comedy films when it comes to writing.) but that still does not give the movie the power it needs to reach the finish line.

Overall Picture This isn’t the worst attempt but it’s definitely one of the most forgettable, Simone Ashley’s charming performance and the few moments of potential aren’t enough to save this movie from being forgettable.

Picture This is available on Amazon Prime Video.

4/10 D+

Bloat (2025) Film Review

A young boy becomes possessed by a legendary demon after almost drowning in a lake. As his parents race against time to save his soul, the evil monster tries to tear the family apart and destroy everyone in its path.

Bloat is directed by Pablo Absento which is directorial debut.

Screenlife films I always found to be quite fascinating, Unfriended (2014), Unfriended: The Dark Web (2018), Searching (2018), Host (2020), Profile (2018) are ones that I quite love and feel the succeed with the whole idea of the sub genre. Unfortunately every now and then you get a movie like Bloat which fails to do much different than other films that came before it.

It’s strange because the first bit of the movie is actually pretty promising, there’s some neat folklore here and the movie attempts to tackle the themes of distance and inability to be a proper husband and father due to being stationed so far away (Jack who is played by Ben McKenzie is a military man). There’s this real mystery as to why his son is acting strange, the movie has the atmosphere and to its credit it works. There was some potential here that if the movie went down this route it could have been a half decent movie.

Unfortunately when the second half of the movie happens that’s when the movie takes a nosedive in quality, the movie uses supernatural Japanese folklore. Which as I said before the folklore itself is interesting, however the way it’s executed is terrible and very much feels like it was shoehorned in. It becomes quite laughable at this point with scares that result into “look guys the screen is glitching like crazy!” This goes on for far longer than it should and the movie just ends.

Ben McKenzie isn’t terrible here, but with a script that is incredibly shallow and has no sense of direction you can only really do so much. Occasionally you will get something interesting with the screenlife layout but there is not anything here that hasn’t been done in the films I mentioned at the start of the review, it’s all just terrible horror tropes combined with nonsensical writing that just gets worse as it goes on.

Overall Bloat is terrible and has very little going on here. There was promise at the beginning but afterwards everything just hits a wall and never gets back up.

Bloat is available on all VOD platforms.

3/10 D-

Inheritance (2025) Film Review

When Maya learns that her father was once a spy, she suddenly finds herself at the centre of an international conspiracy. In her quest for answers, she must travel the globe, mastering her father’s skills and unraveling the mysteries of his past.

Inheritance is directed by Neil Burger director of Interview with the Assassin (2002), The Illusionist (2006), The Lucky Ones (2007), Limitless (2011), Divergent (2014), The Upside (2017), Voyagers (2021) and The Marsh King’s Daughter (2023).

Inheritance is completely shot on an iPhone which is admittedly quite impressive and for the most part effectively captures the movie’s spy thriller atmosphere. Unfortunately a bland story that does not stand out all that much in such a crowded genre can’t save this movie from being incredibly forgettable.

Besides the filming and atmosphere, the performances are definitely the movie’s better parts. Phoebe Dynevor and Rhys Ifans are both solid and are actually able to give the movie much more of a personality, even when the writing is on the lacking side of things. Dynevor is able to transform from a lost civilian to a reluctant operative, we get to see some vulnerability from Dynevor’s character Maya as she goes on this journey, but unfortunately we really don’t get any satisfying results as the movie starts to become your very traditional spy movie. It also does leave a lot more questions than answers about these characters and not in a good way.

The filming is nice and does work effectively, it leads to some raw moments that are effective especially when it comes to the more action filled moments. But at times it does come off as someone’s travel vlog which does take away from some of the atmosphere, it’s sort of a whiplash going from some raw moments as well as action ones to scenes that look like you would find in someone’s photo gallery.

The bland story is ultimately what does Inheritance in, it’s not poorly written by any means it’s just a very forgettable story that doesn’t offer anything in the way of standing out. Sure there’s the whole element of being shot on an IPhone which as I already said before it’s impressive but that’s all the movie has in terms of standing out.

Overall Inheritance isn’t a terrible movie, but it’s a forgettable one that could have been interesting had the movie been more focused.

Inheritance is available on all VOD platforms.

5/10 C

Heart Eyes (2025) Film Review!

For the past several years, the “Heart Eyes Killer” has wreaked havoc on Valentine’s Day by stalking and murdering romantic couples. This Valentine’s Day, no couple is safe.

Heart Eyes is directed by Josh Ruben director of Scare Me (2020) and Werewolves Within (2021).

I actually quite like Ruben’s previous work, while I wasn’t crazy about Scare Me (2020) I really appreciated the small cast and for the most part found it to be quite different from a lot of other horror comedies. Werewolves Within I thought was a huge improvement (also a pretty good example of a great video game adaption film) it’s one of those modern horror comedy films that I do think is genuinely funny and has a lot of charm.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said about Heart Eyes, holiday horror slasher films have always been a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine and was hoping that maybe this could be good one…that’s not what happened here. Outside of a few decent kills, some fine enough song choices and the acting being overall not terrible. This movie quite honestly just feels like yet another horror comedy that really does not add anything new to the table and really tries to be Scream as much as possible rather than have its own identity.

The performances as I said earlier are not bad here, Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding have just enough chemistry to make some scenes work and the rest of the cast are solid. But there’s nobody here that really elevates the material given into something interesting that the viewer can grab a hold of, especially when the disastrous third act rolls around and the acting actually starts to lead into terrible territory. Granted that has a lot more to do with the writing of the movie rather than the performances, as the third act’s killer reveal is laughably terrible and makes everything that came before it so much worse.

The kills as I said before aren’t bad here, but as I say in a lot of terrible slasher movies like this good kills can only get you so far. Some of the song choices aren’t bad either, Amazed by Lonestar is always nice to hear and a lot of the other songs do fit the atmosphere the movie is going for which is actually quite impressive considering how much the writing misses the mark in that department.

The writing does a lot more of the killing than the movie’s villain “Heart Eyes” could ever dream of. The attempt of being a parody of romantic comedy films just doesn’t land here, the jokes are not funny and the characters aren’t interesting enough or even well written enough to make the viewer really care about them. We are given a few character moments but a lot of it is incredibly surface level at best, Holt and Gooding just don’t have the chemistry to really back this movie up at all. Lastly the movie heavily trying to be a Scream clone is what ultimately hurts this movie, it’s painfully obvious that it tries to recapture the magic of Scream but with this romantic comedy feel that never really lands and ultimately starts to fall in line with a lot of other bad Scream clones.

Overall Heart Eyes is completely forgettable, had the movie been better written and tried to find its own identity this could have easily been a half decent movie.

Heart Eyes is available on all VOD platforms.

3/10 D-

Most Anticipated Films Of March 2025!

February came and went, overall a decent month for film. I do have 4 reviews left from February so keep an eye out for those coming very soon. March looks to be where we really start kicking off this year with tons of great releases!

16. The Fetus – March 7th (Theaters)

15. Locked – March 21st (Theaters)

14. Control Freak – March 13th (Hulu)

13. The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie – March 14th (Theaters)

12. The Rule Of Jenn Pen – March 7th (Theaters) and March 28th (Shudder)

11. Revelations – March 21st (Netflix)

10. Opus – March 14th (Theaters)

9. O’Dessa – March 20th (Hulu)

8. Borderline – March 14th (Theaters and VOD)

7. Holland – March 27th (Amazon Prime Video)

6. The Actor – March 14th (Theaters)

5. The Assessment – March 21st (Theaters)

4. Ash – March 21st (Theaters)

3. Bob Trevino Likes It – March 21st (Theaters)

2. Death Of A Unicorn March 28th (Theaters)

1. Mickey 17 – March 7th (Theaters)

Captain America: Brave New World (2025) Film Review

Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the motive behind a nefarious global plan.

Captain America: Brave New World is directed by Julius Onah director of The Girl is In Trouble (2015), Cloverfield Paradox (2018) and Luce (2019). The film is the fourth installment of the Captain America films, a continuation of the miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) and is the 35th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While I don’t think Captain America: Brave New World is one of the absolute worst in the MCU, it is definitely one of the most bland. From the lack of character development from a lot of its characters, to saying next to nothing about its own politics. The movie is a giant mess that has its positives but ultimately is a misfire.

I will say that the performances here are not that bad, Anthony Mackie has always been pretty solid when it comes to the MCU films and here is no exception. While Sam Wilson does not get the development he deserved, Mackie has a lot of charm which is able to be shown at times which are easily some of the movie’s best moments. However the writing really stops him from building Sam Wilson further as a character, wooden dialogue and bland plot points really don’t do Wilson any favors at all.

Despite Danny Ramirez being benched during the later half of the movie I do think the scenes he shares with Anthony Mackie are genuinely great, they have nice chemistry and those moments (one in particular at the end) are genuinely touching. It’s such a shame Ramirez’s character Joaquin Torres is just tossed aside midway through the film and doesn’t really grow as a character, he does have his moments but it’s not really enough to say that his Torres grew as a character.

Harrison Ford as Thaddeus Ross or Red Hulk is not bad here, this is by no means one of Ford’s greatest performances. But I do think considering the script he was given he did the best he could with it and squeezed out some great moments, Red Hulk as a character was fun and the action scenes between him and Sam Wilson are by far some of the movie’s best moments. They aren’t anything crazy but they are simple and straight to the point, it’s filled with Hulk rage that leaves destruction basically anything you can really ask for. It’s just a bit of a shame this happens way too late.

As for the rest of the characters they are all either forgettable or don’t have the writing to back them up. Giancarlo Esposito gives a fine performance here but his character Sidewinder barely does anything, he shows up for a couple scenes and that’s it. Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns was nice to see but the movie fails to make him a compelling villain, a lot of the writing really makes him come off as a “generic bad guy with very typical goals”

The main issue here is the writing, the movie attempts (at least I think it does) to try and build Sam Wilson as a character but as I said earlier the movie lacks the firepower to do the job, instead he’s reduced to a very standard hero that really does not have any interesting character moments. Sure Wilson is likable but the movie doesn’t give any sort of reason to really care about any of these characters. The story jumps all over the place with several scenes feeling incredibly rushed and put together at the last minute, while the action scenes are actually great and put the movie back on track at some points. There’s just a lot of meandering that takes a lot away from these moments.

There really isn’t much else to say here, Captain America: Brave New World definitely had the potential to be a big step for Sam Wilson, instead it feels like a whole lot of nothing was said, with very little explored about these characters or their stories.

Captain America: Brave New World is available in theaters.

4/10 D+