The Parenting (2025) Film Review

Boyfriends Josh and Rohan plan a weekend getaway to introduce their parents, only to discover that their rental is home to a 400-year-old poltergeist.

The Parenting is directed by Craig Johnson director of True Adolescents (2009), The Skeleton Twins (2014), Wilson (2017) and Alex Strangelove (2018).

The Parenting is what happens when you take The Evil Dead (1981) and comedies where the parents of each party dating each other meet. Nothing exactly we haven’t seen before, but I got to say this surprised me. There’s some genuinely good bits here that did get some laughs out of me, that’s probably due to the cast having a blast (also a surprisingly packed cast as well?)

Speaking of which the acting while not exactly anything excellent is still quite a lot of fun. Brandon Flynn and Parker Posey in particular do a great job here, Brian Cox has some hilarious parts as well and Nik Dodani worked well with Brandon Flynn. Both have great chemistry and the comedic timing for the two is actually quite solid as well.

Admittedly there really isn’t a whole lot going on here, the plot is about what you expect but I do have to give credit for the sort of chaotic energy the movie goes for. It’s very reminiscent of Scary Movie (2000) where the parody movie genre was at least entertaining, there’s some moments like that here that do actually work in this movie’s favor.

As I said before it’s mostly the cast that makes this work, each character is at the very least given something to do which in turn gives everyone a few moments to shine. Even if Cliff (played by Dean Norris) is really not given so much to work with, the moments we do have are genuinely fun and he actually does end up being likable. Directing wise this was alright, Craig Johnson has showed better direction before with some of his previous films mainly The Skeleton Twins (2014) but I do think he did a decent job with the comedy here and some of the horror (even if that took a backseat for most of the film.)

Overall The Parenting isn’t too bad, it’s absolutely not going to be for everyone and I don’t think this is something I’m ever going to watch again. But I will say this was a fun time and if it sounds like your thing I say check it out.

The Parenting is available on HBO Max or Max

6/10 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

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+

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-

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+

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-

Kinda Pregnant (2025) Film Review

When Lainy’s plan to settle down and start a family falls apart, she puts on a fake baby bump, tells a lie – and accidentally falls for her dream guy.

Kinda Pregnant is directed by Tyler Spindel director of Father Of The Year (2018), Deported (2020), The Wrong Missy (2020) and The Out-Laws (2023).

I really don’t think you need me to tell you that Kinda Pregnant is atrocious, it’s one of those movies where just the idea and who is involved is enough to turn anyone off. You remember how last year Katy Perry tried to make a comeback last year but failed miserably? Well that’s Amy Schumer with this movie and would you believe me if I said that this is far worse than anything Katy Perry could have conjured up?

Amy Schumer is of course atrocious here, she’s doing her usual shtick that worked back when she was at the peak of her career. But now it’s predictable, old and incredibly unfunny (I think it was never funny but people clearly liked it), Schumer seems insistent on this type of humor still working throughout the movie but ultimately falls flat with none of it landing outside of maybe two or three jokes from the beginning.

The supporting cast unfortunately can’t salvage a terrible script (which is partly written by Schumer), Will Forte and Jillian Bell aren’t horrendous here but they aren’t given good material to have their characters standout. They are basically here as support for Schumer’s obnoxious character Lainy Newton who I promise by the end of the movie you will absolutely hate, it also doesn’t help that Forte and Schumer have absolutely no chemistry between one another. Leaving a lot of their scenes with such an awkward feel that never goes away.

Kinda Pregnant also drags out for way too long, despite being 98 minutes long the movie feels like it’s 2 hours that’s mainly due to just how the movie is structured. It’s basically Schumer being obnoxious with wacky shenanigans occurring, some unfunny jokes are told and then it moves on to the next scene rinse and repeat until the movie decides to end. It’s no surprise that a Netflix movie starring Amy Schumer is terrible but to be this unimaginative, lazy and unfunny is truly something else.

Overall Kinda Pregnant is horrendous in just about every single way possible, it’s a movie that pretends it’s about female empowerment yet it portrays pregnant women as stupid. This is a prime example of a movie that is sort of baffling to see and wonder how nobody said “actually let’s do a rewrite” easily the worst movie so far this year.

Kinda Pregnant is available on Netflix

No Good Qualities Just Horrendous (that’s the new rating replacing Disgrace To Cinema) F

Most Anticipated Films Of February 2025+Announcement!

Well here we are in February, after such a slow month we can now move on to February. But before the most anticipated films list a few things.

First I do have my review for Companion coming either later today or early tomorrow, it’s the last film I saw in January and by far one of the best!

The second thing is I’m going to be making a series of posts called release date roundup, where each week I’ll post about release dates that got revealed that week and talk a bit about the movies. I’ll be posting the first one this weekend, so keep an eye out for that.

Anyway February seems like an alright month for films, outside of The Monkey, Bring Them Down and The Looney Tunes movie there really isn’t anything I’m incredibly hyped for. But there’s always room for surprises, January was surprisingly not a terrible month so that could very well be the case here too! Anyway on to the list!

9. Timestalker – February 7th (Theaters)

8. I Love You Forever – February 14th (Theaters)

Paddington In Peru – February 14th (Theaters)

6. Cleaner – February 21st (Theaters)

5. Jazzy – February 7th (Theaters and VOD)

4. Love Hurts – February 7th (Theaters)

3. The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie – February 28th (Theaters)

2. Bring Them Down – February 7th (Theaters)

1. The Monkey – February 21st (Theaters)

You’re Cordially Invited (2025) Film Review!

A woman planning her sister’s ideal wedding and the father of a bride-to-be discover their destination weddings at a remote resort are double-booked. When both parties decide to share the small venue, chaos ensues and disaster awaits.

You’re Cordially Invited is directed by Nicholas Stoller director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Neighbors (2014), Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), Bros (2022) and a few others.

You’re Cordially Invited is very much a bad early 2000s romantic comedy movie that somehow ended up releasing in the 2020s, while it’s not one of the absolute worst out there (trust me they could have done a lot worse) this movie suffers from some of the exact same problems as a lot do in the genre.

I will say for the first 30 minutes or so the movie actually had a promising start, the jokes were decently funny, Will Farrell was giving a genuinely touching performance as a father who desperately wants to make his daughter’s marriage the best it can be. Geraldine Viswanathan was actually not bad here in the supporting role, she gives a genuine performance that isn’t really affected from the movie’s over the top style it tries to use for the rest of the movie. It’s not a mind blowing performance by any means but it is a decent one that does make you feel invested towards her.

Unfortunately the rest of the movie goes towards a very over the top style that was common in the 2000s, sometimes it worked other times it didn’t and here is an example of it NOT working. Will Farrell’s usual shtick appears that takes so much away from his character and turns him into familiar territory that we have already seen Farrell do before. Reese Witherspoon is fine enough of here but much like Farrell doesn’t really do anything we haven’t seen her do before.

The writing is filled to the brim with predictable plot elements, terrible jokes and it becomes incredibly cliched. It’s also one of those movies where it does not know when to end, there’s so many points where the movie could have easily ended as all of the plot points were wrapped up but it still kept going on and on. There’s absolutely no reason why this needed to be 109 minutes long, stretching a romantic comedy like this is already asking for issues to arise but to cram in as many gags that go on for way longer than they should seals the movie’s fate.

Overall You’re Cordially Invited is incredibly forgettable, while it’s not the worst romantic comedy out there it is one of those movies where you put it on in the background while doing chores and don’t think much of it.

You’re Cordially Invited is available on Amazon Prime Video!

4/10 D+