The Gorge (2025) Film Review

Two highly-trained operatives are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from a mysterious evil that lurks within. They work together to keep the secret in the gorge.

The Gorge is directed by Scott Derrickson director of The Black Phone (2022), Doctor Strange (2016), Deliver Us From Evil (2014), Sinister (2012) and a few others. 

The Gorge is one of those films that are on the brink of being a half decent movie but just miss the mark due to some elements really holding it back. There is a lot the movie gets right but there’s also a ton that it gets wrong which ultimately cost it. 

The performances are by far the best part of the movie, Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy actually have really strong chemistry between one another. There’s some genuine romantic moments that you actually believe as the viewer, it helps that Teller and Joy are already fantastic at what they do, their performances here might not be one of their absolute best or striking. But there’s no denying they really help build the film’s atmosphere and give it some much needed life, the two bounce off of each other well and the moments they first meet are filled to the brim with charm. 

There are some neat sci-fi horror elements here that do a bit of world building, the monster stuff also has its moments of fun. The first half of the film does a pretty solid job with its character building particularly with Levi (played by Miles Teller) and Drasa (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) as well as the world building. We are introduced to some of this film’s rules and the dangers of it all which in turn creates a decently suspenseful atmosphere. 

Having that said after the introduction the movie starts to fumble, what kills The Gorge is the direction and the struggle to really standout among tons of other sci-fi horror films. It’s a bold choice by Derrickson to combine so many genres at once in this case romance, horror, thriller and sci-fi but that results in the movie becoming a bit of a mess and constantly switching the tone which often gives whiplashes to the viewer. Granted nothing ever reaches a point where the movie becomes terrible, it’s just incredibly bland direction throughout that really does not seem to know where it wants to go. 

It becomes a hollow shell that lacks the storytelling to really back it up and give these characters and world more depth, as great as Levi and Drasa were during the first half of the movie they never truly evolve by the end. That’s mainly due to how bland and forgettable the rest of the movie becomes, there’s a few moments during the second half that are fun enough but don’t really result to anything that really helps the movie in the long run.

Overall I don’t think The Gorge is a terrible movie, the acting remains consistently great and there are fun moments. It’s just your very definition of a straight to streaming movie, the one where as soon as you immediately watch it you will forget about it after a few hours. 

The Gorge is available on Apple TV+ 

5/10 C

Dog Man (2025) Film Review

When a police officer and his faithful police dog get injured in the line of duty, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together — and Dog Man is born. As Dog Man learns to embrace his new identity, he must stop feline supervillain Petey the Cat from cloning himself and going on a crime spree.

Dog Man is directed by Peter Hastings director of The Country Bears (2003). Dog Man is a spin-off and story within a story of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) and serves as the second film in the Captain Underpants franchise.

Dog Man was a nice surprise, it’s not anything groundbreaking but I would be lying if I said it did not have any charm. There is a lot of detail that went into this movie and much like Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) it’s just a whole lot of fun from start to finish. 

The voice cast is pretty strong here, Lil Rel Howery is quite fun here that gives a decent amount of laughs. Pete Davidson is the standout here and actually gives a pretty solid performance as Petey, Petey at first is your basic rival to the hero but eventually does grow into his own character. Davidson’s voice acting does some great work here he gives the character this emotional punch needed to really pull it off while also fitting the atmosphere of the source material, there isn’t really anything new being said about his character but it’s still charming nevertheless. 

The animation is gorgeous and has a lot of attention detail put into it, the film manages to capture the spirit of the illustrations from the books and translates it well into CG animation. It’s described as “high-end handmade” and you can really see that while watching, the crafting is incredibly well done here and gives these characters life especially with the range of emotions shown here. It captures the world of the books incredibly well and lets a lot of the animation do the talking even when the characters are talking on screen. 

The story is also quite a lot of fun, Dog Man himself doesn’t talk but he still makes the story incredibly entertaining to watch and we can still piece together his character through his emotions. It’s enough to connect the viewer to the character and make you root for him, as I said earlier there really is not anything ground breaking that’s being said here very usual power of love and friendship. Although I do like the theme of loneliness being discussed here, it’s not incredibly deep but showing how lonely Dog Man is or Li’l Petey feeling like a mistake or a unwanted child at times really does give the film the emotional core it needs. 

Overall Dog Man is a blast, there was clearly a lot of passion put into the film and the love for the source material just like with the previous film Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017), really benefits the film incredibly well! 

Dog Man is available on all VOD platforms.

6/10 C+

Hunting Daze (2025) Film Review

Nina, a young woman with an unpredictable character, joins a band of hunters in an isolated chalet. The arrival of a mysterious stranger disrupts her new place in their male microsociety.

Hunting Daze is directed by Annick Blanc which is her directorial debut. 

Not a whole lot going on here, I like some of the ideas the movie goes for and I think the acting and cinematography combined with the location does a lot of the heavy lifting. But ultimately when it comes to character writing and trying to make a point it falls on the weak side of things.

The performances are solid here, Nahéma Ricci and Bruno Marcil in particular do quite well. They build some of the movie’s atmosphere which is nice, everyone else is great as well and actually do have interesting conversations even if they end up leading to nowhere. There are some raw moments with the acting, especially with the quiet nature of the woods that’s used for the visual style, cinematographer Vincent Gonneville does a lot of lifting for these scenes as he’s able to tell some sort of a side story of what’s going on here. Even if the movie takes the viewer out of the experience later on the fact that the movie got the viewer into the movie at any point is worth noting. 

Hunting Daze attempts to explore the pack mentality of self-created brotherhood which sounds interesting on paper, but the main problem here is the exploration of it really does not dig deep enough to really justify exploring. It makes very basic observations that anyone can really come up with, there’s not a moment here where anything stands out or tries to dissect what exactly is going on and why it’s happening. It all feels like it’s just thrown into your face without any sort of meaningful exploration, which is a shame because some of the dialogue during the later portions of the movie do suggest some dissection but ultimately nothing comes of it. 

The visual style combined with the location is at the very least beautiful to look at, it has the atmosphere to back it up and even at times brings in some creative moments. Even when the character writing is incredibly messy (especially early on) the atmosphere remains consistent and doesn’t shy away from the mysterious feel where anything can appear in the woods. 

Overall Hunting Daze almost works but misses the mark, had the movie been a lot stronger in the character writing department and a much more focused story this could have been a decent one.

Hunting Daze is available on all VOD platforms.

5/10 C

Love Hurts (2025) Film Review

A realtor is pulled back into the life he left behind after his former partner-in-crime resurfaces with an ominous message. With his crime-lord brother also on his trail, he must confront his past and the history he never fully buried.

Love Hurts is directed by Jonathan Eusebio which is his directorial debut. 

I was excited about this one because of Ke Huy Quan being in the lead role, he’s one of those actors where it’s next to impossible to not root for him. He seems like a genuinely nice person who clearly has a love for film and is very thankful, so it’s incredibly disappointing to see how much of a mess this movie really is. 

Ke Huy Quan really tries his best with the script but he can only do so much, occasionally there’s one or two jokes that land which is mainly due to Quan’s charm and I do appreciate the enthusiasm he brings to a very familiar character. But for the most part it’s a complete miss, the chemistry between him and Ariana DeBose is bland and fails to even really be romantic. Ariana DeBose is in another role that doesn’t allow her to show her ability as an actress, she’s given such a cliche and underwritten character part that ultimately the viewer forgets by the end of the movie. 

Marshawn Lynch is quite honestly the film’s best part, sure his character is really nothing more than “funny henchmen” but he is clearly having a blast and he’s kind of just doing his own thing which leads to the film’s few good comedic moments. 

The writing is what completely breaks this movie, it’s not romantic nor is it funny. It’s a huge mess that doesn’t utilize its elements, especially when it comes to characters. Most of the supporting characters are there for nothing more than terrible jokes, cliches or just to fill in some gaps. 

Some of the action scenes are fine enough combined with violence there was actually a lot of potential to do something interesting with it here, but what ruins it is the sloppily put together set pieces that really don’t have any distinctive style. Nothing really stands out at all unfortunately, it very much feels like an early terrible 2D fighting video game where it has no really push to it at all. Quan’s fighting choreography can only do so much before the action scenes become incredibly bland. 

Overall I’m just more confused than anything else, Love Hurts leaves a lot more questions than answers a couple of them being “what exactly happened here?” How does such a simple concept lead to such a cobbled together mess that wastes so many talented actors and actresses? By far the most disappointing movie of 2025 so far. 

Love Hurts is available on all VOD platforms.

3/10 D-

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare (2025) Film Review


Wendy Darling strikes out in an attempt to rescue her brother Michael from ‘the clutches of the evil Peter Pan.’ Along the way she meets Tinkerbell, who will be seen taking heroin, believing that it’s pixie dust.

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is directed by Scott Chambers director of Firenado (2023), Kingdom of the Dinosaurs (2022), Beneath The Surface (2022), Exorcist Vengeance (2022) and many others. Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare serves as the third installment in the Poohniverse or The Twisted Childhood Universe. 

After a much needed improvement from Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, I was curious to see if they would actually continue building on said improvement and well in some ways they kind of do but in most ways Neverland Nightmare is a bit below Blood and Honey 2. 

The visuals are getting a lot better along with the effects that do bring some brutal kills into the mix, which are by far some of the best parts of the movie. There isn’t anything absolutely groundbreaking or any kills that are going to be fondly remembered, but much like with Blood and Honey 2 you can tell that they improved and put a lot into the effects. 

Having that said effects and kills alone can’t make a good movie, Peter Pan as a character lacks a lot of development here. It really doesn’t help that he heavily feels like Heath Ledger’s Joker but without any of the sort cleverness or power that went into the character. He very much feels like a typical slasher villain which is fine in some cases, but for a movie that is named after him he really does not get a lot of time to really show that he stands out in the movie’s universe. I will say though Martin Portlock does a decent job of trying to make the character work and at times he does. 

Wendy Darling was played fine enough by Megan Placito but even she was heavily lacking in development, the way the movie tackled Tinker Bell….was definitely a choice. I’m sure the intentions were good but the way the LGBTQ+ elements were used in this film comes off as insultingly bad, I give so much credit to Kit Green (who plays Tinker Bell) for doing what she can with the very questionable part. 

The rest of the movie falls into the very genetic slasher side of things, this is a similar problem that the two Winnie The Pooh movies suffered from, taking the characters and not really doing a whole lot with them. It’s very much the exact same thing as the Pooh movies except with Peter Pan characters, there are some tweaks here and there but they ultimately don’t end up mattering all that much.

Overall Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare sits comfortably between the two Pooh movies, there’s still some improvement being shown. But this has ways to go in order for any of these movies to differentiate from one another, maybe we will see that happen in the next one..

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is currently waiting for a VOD release.

3/10 D-

Quick Review: My Fault: London (2025)

An 18-year-old girl moves from America to London with her mother and wealthy stepfather. She meets her stepbrother, and an attraction brews despite their efforts. Unaware, her estranged father tracks her down after release from prison

My Fault: London is directed by Dani Girdwood and Charlotte Fassler which is their directorial debut. The film serves as a remake of the 2023 Spanish film My Fault which is based on the novel Culpa Mía by Mercedes Ron.

First and foremost I have not seen the original Spanish film, I had no idea this was a remake before watching it and considering how I felt about this movie and the reviews for the original I did not bother watching the original. 

I’m not exactly sure what to really say here about My Fault: London there’s the occasional decent shot from cinematographer Ed Moore who does a surprisingly solid job of building certain scenes. It is not anything mind blowing but for a movie like this it was definitely not expected. The acting is rough, Asha Banks and Matthew Broome try the best they can with a script that is very much fanfiction like (it does not help that this was originally a Wattpad story) which leads to a lot of laughably bad moments and ones that really make you regret watching (falling in love with your stepbrother plot is here). 

The 119 minute running time also heavily hurts the movie, it overstays its welcome almost immediately and never really picks back up. There are some decent visuals here but they admittedly do not serve any point outside of making the movie look a touch better, I give props for at least attempting to make one of these films based on a Wattpad story look decent visually.

I don’t have much else to say, what you see is what you get with My Fault: London I’m clearly not the target audience for this one, there’s definitely far worse out there but that is not exactly a compliment.

My Fault: London is available on Amazon Prime Video.

3/10 D-

Wish You Were Here (2025)

A woman searching for a spark finds a whirlwind night of romance with a man only to discover he is terminally ill and commits to helping him spend his last days living life to the fullest.

Wish You Were Here is directed by Julia Stiles which is her directorial debut. 

Wish You Were Here is yet another romantic drama film where one person is sick and only has a certain amount of time to live, the message is the exact same thing “spend time with the people you love most” or “never take your time on earth for granted” it’s been done and said countless times at this point. The main difference here however is somehow the writing is worse than usual. 

Isabelle Fuhrman is what admittedly got me interested to watch this one, she’s not terrible here but the writing just does not do anyone any favors at all. Same goes for Mena Massoud, they both have nice chemistry but the script doesn’t allow them to properly connect at all. Mainly due to them not sharing the amount of screen time that’s needed to make it work, the script is lacking in powerful moments and filled with moments that completely take the viewer right out of the movie due to how terrible and laughably bad they are. 

The supporting cast are the highlight here, Gabby Kono-Abdy was not bad, Kelsey Grammer and Jennifer Grey although not given a whole lot to do were fine enough. This is one of those movies where the supporting cast were far more interesting than the main characters, in some cases that can be a good thing but not in this one. Although we get a bit more about the supporting cast we still really don’t learn all that much about them. 

That’s the biggest problem here, the movie doesn’t bother to really build its characters. It goes for the most bland character writing possible and mainly sticks with that until the movie ends, there is clearly heart here and an occasional glimpse of a touching moment. But it’s nowhere near enough to really justify anything that will feel moving to the viewer, which is a shame because I do not think the direction is all that bad. It’s mainly the terrible script that keeps rearing its head that completely breaks the movie. 

Wish You Were Here is available on all VOD platforms.

3/10 D-

Flight Risk (2025) Film Review

A U.S. marshal boards a small plane to transfer a government witness to New York. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions start to rise as not everyone on the flight is who they appear to be.

Flight Risk is directed by Mel Gibson director of The Man Without a Face (1993), Braveheart (1995), The Passion Of The Christ (2004), Apocalypto (2006) and Hacksaw Ridge (2016). 

Say what you will about Mel Gibson as a person but as a director he can really direct incredibly well and he’s shown that quite a few times now…so what happened here? Flight Risk is a baffling mess that even when the trailer came out I could not believe this was from Gibson and the trailer was just scratching the surface. 

The performances are already in competition for worst of the year Michelle Dockery is the best here but that’s not saying much at all, she’s still incredibly bland especially during what are supposed to be the more thrilling moments including when backstory elements are revealed. Topher Grace’s character is just annoying here, his back and forth with Mark Wahlberg was funny (unintentionally) for maybe about 5 minutes before it started to get old. Then there’s Mark Wahlberg who gives an atrocious performance combine that with an awful wig, with going way too over the top every 5 seconds and you have yourself a performance that makes you question how on earth did somebody approve of this. The line delivery, chemistry and such from all three of them is just not there at all, the delivery is terrible and somehow gets even worse as the movie goes on. The moments where the movie is trying to have some back and forth between the characters completely misses due to the huge lack of chemistry and all 3 failing to bounce off of each other.

The writing is horrendous, the line “Y’all need a pilot?” is as bad as you saw it in the trailer but would you believe me if I said that it somehow gets worse from there? None of it is engaging, suspenseful or striking it’s all incredibly awkward and does not have a lick of thought put into it, this leads into an atmosphere that is incredibly lacking. There is no suspense present throughout the movie, any sort of attempt to try and bring some suspense into the mix is almost immediately met with terrible dialogue that takes the viewer right out of the movie. This seems like the movie is trying to capture the classic cheesy one liners of 80s action films but completely misses the point on why those actually worked, where as those movies did not take themselves seriously. Flight Risk does and that’s the main issue, everything that happens in this movie gets more ridiculous after the next and not in a good or fun way. 

Lastly the movie’s visuals, editing and pacing are terrible, the cinematography is ugly with several shots unpleasing to look at. The editing is choppy lacking a proper flow and the pacing is just a giant mess, it’s 91 minutes long but feels way longer than it really is. In fact there’s moments where the movie could have easily wrapped up but instead decided to pad out as much as possible. 

Overall Flight Risk is atrocious, outside of a few unintentionally funny moments this movie has nothing going for it. I’m not exactly sure which is more baffling, the film’s quality or the fact this was directed by Mel Gibson.

Flight Risk is available on all VOD platforms.

1/10 F

The Dead Thing (2025)

A young woman lost in a series of meaningless connections falls in love with a charismatic and sensitive man, who hides a dark secret that turns her affair into a dangerous obsession.

The Dead Thing (2025) is directed by Elric Kane director of Murmurs (2004) and Kissy Kissy (2007). 

Going into The Dead Thing I really did not know what to expect and for the first few minutes of the film there were some intriguing ideas only to be met with very messy storytelling later on that ultimately stops this movie in its tracks. 

The performances are fine enough here particularly Blu Hunt who tries her best with the script that’s given. The performances really don’t bring anything towards the characters, we get a few glimpses but nothing to really chew one. That’s mainly due to the messy storytelling that even at times could confuse the viewer (not in an interesting way) on what is actually going on here. It doesn’t help that the characters just don’t have strong writing attached to them. 

It’s worth noting that the movie does give some decently effective uses of lighting and shadows. Cinematographer Ioana Vasile captures an effective atmosphere and actually does create this “world of the unknown” type of feel where anything could happen, things may seem normal but they really aren’t, it’s by far the best part of the movie and the one that it gets right. Vasile really does a lot of heavy lifting when there’s certain scenes that have terrible dialogue but the filming is quite nice and fits the scene. 

Unfortunately filming alone can’t really save the movie’s script which is what completely breaks the movie. It has interesting ideas, but they are executed in such a sloppy way such as the “dark secret” which ends up being quite predictable. The romance lacks so much chemistry and very clearly needed another look in the writing department, the slow burn elements don’t work here at all and only drag out the movie far longer than it needs to. 

Overall The Dead Thing is a very forgettable misfire that really does not have a whole lot to it, what could have been an interesting premise ends up being filled with cliches, terrible writing and lacking of emotion and suspense. 

The Dead Thing is available on Shudder.

3/10 D-

Bring Them Down (2025) Film Review

Michael, the last son of a shepherding family, lives with his ailing father, Ray. Burdened by a terrible secret, Michael has isolated himself from the world. When a conflict with rival farmer Gary and his son Jack escalates, Michael is drawn into a devastating chain of events, forcing him to confront the horrors of his past and leaving both families permanently altered.

Bring Them Down is directed by Christopher Andrews which his directorial debut! 

Bring Them Down might seem on the basic side of things at first, but the film does become a lot more as it goes on. Mainly due to how well it tackles the themes of violence, grief and loneliness. The film is also if you took Banshees Of Inisherin (2022) and replaced the comedy with nothing but tragedy, you get yourself a pretty violent picture. 

The performances are absolutely phenomenal here, Christopher Abbott who plays Michael O’Shea is our main character and he does such a wonderful job here. He has minimal dialogue here but that does not stop him from expressing the many emotions he goes throughout the film, whether it be rage, grief or just registering what is exactly going on. He expresses it with his actions and ends up leading into some violent moments, the decisions he is met with throughout the film are intriguing one side of him does not want to become this violent person while the other that slowly creeps on him throughout the film does. When you tack on Michael’s past as well it becomes a very messy game of morality and how violence can spread from person to person. Abbott does all of that through his performance, this is truly one of his best performances to date.

I have praised Barry Keoghan so many times before and here he is again where he hits out of the park, Keoghan plays Jack a young boy who might seem a bit out of place in this film’s atmosphere at first. However he too quickly falls into violence when he and his friend Lee cut off sheep legs the sheep belonging to Michael O’Shea and his father Ray O’Shea (played by Colm Meaney.) from here it starts to become a game filled to the brim of suspense, anger and revenge that ultimately leads into tragedy hurts everyone. This is all thanks to Keoghan’s performance and how incredibly subtle it really is, especially the scenes of both Abbott and Keoghan together. It’s a ticking time bomb of two people who have shown they do not mess around and anything could happen at any given moment. A lot of what I said earlier about Abbott can be applied to Keoghan their performances are very in sync with one another and bounce off of each other incredibly well. 

The supporting cast are also fantastic especially Colm Meaney and Nora-Jane Noone who really give strong performances that really help tell the story of what’s going on here, the way they react to the events is raw and the ultimate finale of how they react is drastically different which really paints the already incredibly grim picture. 

The writing combined with the cinematography and the atmosphere is absolutely well done, the writing has a lot of raw moments that really bring the viewer into this violent world. The cinematography from Nick Cooke is sharp, detailed and has this dark feeling to it that gets under your skin quickly. Christopher Andrews does such a fantastic job of creating a incredibly dark atmosphere that doesn’t heavily rely on showing a ton of violence, while yes there is some gore, the more extreme moments aren’t shown the film is relying on the actions of the characters and the atmosphere to really tell it all and the film does that perfectly. 

Overall Bring Them Down is an incredibly solid  film that really does a great job of exploring its themes and giving a lot of detail towards the characters. There are some minor bumps in the road when it comes to story (it admittedly does take a bit to get going) but that is not enough to stop the film from being incredibly thrilling. 

Bring Them Down is currently in theaters!

8/10 B+