Clayface Review

 After being disfigured by a mobster, rising actor Matt Hagan tries an experimental gene therapy with Dr. Caitlyn Corr, and it seemingly restores his movie star looks… But soon he discovers his skin can melt and morph, and he goes for revenge against those who wronged him.

Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagan brings a lot of pathos to the character, and I liked the emphasis on his acting as a character. And Hagan’s descent into villainy feels very natural and believable.

Naomi Ackie is solid as Doctor Corr; her character is a bit reserved, but her calming nature on Matt brought an interesting dynamic to the character.

David Dencik plays the mobster Markos Szabo, and the actor does a solid job as an intimidating figure. Unfortunately, the character is written as a generic mobster we’ve seen 100 times before, so there’s nothing really much to help him stand out or feel unique, so while he works as an obstacle, he doesn’t really feel special as a character.

Character actor Corey Johnson plays one of Szabo’s henchmen in the film. I've seen them in small roles over many years, and it was nice to see he had a very memorable and funny sequence. And ironically, he was also in Morbius, and this film in Morbius feels very similar in places.

Max Minghella plays Detective John Borrelli/Caitlyn’s boyfriend, and I thought the actor brought a lot of personality and charm to the character, not to mention I thought Minghella and Ackie had good chemistry together.

The film takes place in Gotham, and I liked the design for the city; it’s a mix of art deco and steel city, with the sketchy neighborhoods looking like multicolored Coney Island. It kind of feels like they’re taking elements from different Gotham cities (Burton, Nolan, and Schumacher) and kind of hodgepodge the best elements into one.

I also like the design of the mobster's club; it felt like Scarface mixed with a rave. Not to mention one of the more memorable and fun sequences takes place there; it’ll definitely be a highlight for most people.

Aaron Paul played Matt‘s abusive dad, and all of the flashbacks with his character were cut from the final film except for one quick cameo, which many people might not even pick up is Aaron Paul, but if you do, it’s a little funny to see him pop up for like two seconds randomly.

The pacing felt a little quick, but not in a hard-to-follow way; more of the filmmaker is trying to fit a certain amount of information through montage. It's not bad, but on first viewing, it can feel like a lot is going on, and the movie is longer than it actually is, but by the end, everything comes together in a satisfying and cohesive way.

There was a good mix of practical and CGI special effects, the way they used his body-morphing powers. I thought it was both very creative and used for both fun and creepy purposes, sometimes in the same scene.

I thought Matt’s story and his descent into villainy were pretty well told; there were a few details here, and there I wish they had been expanded more or I would have taken a little bit more time to develop, but I feel where the story and all the characters wrap up will leave people satisfied with Matt’s journey.

There is this actor I’ve never seen before called Joshua James, who plays Matt‘s friend, and I thought for the first performance I’ve seen, it was a very dynamic and left a good impression of this guy's skills and range. I hope to see him in future projects.

Joana Ribeiro plays Mia Torrez, the mobster‘s girlfriend who gets Matt into trouble, and I like the actress and the character. It was interesting; I just wish they had given maybe her one more scene to get things from her perspective, because it felt like there was more going on with her character than we were seeing, but that’s just a personal thing

The cinematography was solid, nothing too extravagant, but there was a nice variety of lighting throughout the movie, so the cinematographer did a good job at capturing different looks and making it all feel part of the same piece.

I thought Matt and Caitlyn’s teased romance was not the strongest part of the film, like the actors have OK chemistry, but not enough that you think she might break up with her boyfriend John over it, not to mention again her and John have, I think, better chemistry, but given the nature of the story, I don’t think it takes away from the film too much.

I thought the kills were (no pun intended) well executed 😂 in both pacing, build up, and payoff, and each kill ran the gambit well, with some being scary and some being more satisfying.

Clayface feels like Darkman and The Fly got mushed together, and while it may not hit the highs that The Substance did when it comes to body horror and commentary on fame, we did get a sympathetic and interesting villain origin story that, while taking place in the Batman universe, was able to stand on its own and have some creative and well-shot sequences that should satisfy both horror and comic book fans. I give Clayface a low for stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️; it did accomplish quite the… feat of clay 😂

Street Fighter (2026) Review

 

Adopted brothers Ken and Ryu must put aside their differences after the loss of their sensei to enter a fighting tournament and help Interpol agent Chun Li in stopping dictator M Bison, who is also hosting the tournament.

I enjoyed the central story about Ken and Ryu and their friendship/conflict with each other; it can be a bit cliché and hammy points, but overall it was enjoyable and a nice grounding story in a world filled with over-the-top and distinct characters.

The movie takes place in 1983, and I love the retro 90s feel of the film and the filmmaking; it really captures the time period well in certain sequences.

Ken is pretty much Thor from Thor Ragnarok, a big blonde airhead, but I thought the actor Noah Centennial brought a lot of energy and pathos to the character.

I think my favorite character in the film was Chun Li. The actress brought a lot of fun sarcastic humor and really committed to the role, not just with her performance, but also with her workouts and training to resemble the character, plus she did get the signature fight moves and giant legs down. So for me, she was the real highlight of the film.

When I’ve played the games, I always like to play as Blanco, and while Jason Momoa wasn’t in the movie a whole lot (which is kind of the mantra for a lot of characters in this movie lol), I did find his performance funny and even sweet. Also, his action scenes were very kinetic and well choreographed, and his CGI always looked authentic, and I really like the design of the character.

David Dastmalchian plays M. Bison like Kevin Spacey plays a generic dictator. Like, the actor does a fine job, but this character is as one-dimensional as a dot, like they must’ve scraped the bottom of the cliché villain lines barrel to get most of his dialogue throughout the film lol

I thought Cody Rhodes as Guile had some of the funniest moments in the film; he had a really good straight-faced delivery to some pretty wacky lines and really embodied the character, both in his fighting style and overall video game look. So if they ever want to make a live-action Johnny Bravo movie, I think Rhodes would be perfect lol.

50 Cent has the right haircut and does some good boxing… That’s all I can really say about him because that’s all his character really does in the movie.

As well as the film captures the look and inclusion of characters, unfortunately, there are just too many movie plot lines going on at once; they look like strings on a conspiracy board. If the film gets a sequel, hopefully they focus on fewer storylines so the ones they have get more development.

I wish Ken and Chun Li had more screen time together because the actors had good chemistry together.

I like the music they played in the soundtrack, but the movie takes place in 1993 played songs like “who let the dogs out” which came out in 2000. So while the soundtrack is fun, it is not historically accurate lol

I wish Dhalsim was in the film more; he brought a lot of charisma and charm to the role, hopefully, he gets more screen time in the sequel.

There’s not a “fighting tournament” cliché they don’t stuff into the film.

Lights SPOILER… This movie has one of the lamest multiracial movie gangs I’ve ever seen. First of all, they do not look intimidating at all, and they hit one guy in the face with a rock, and he smiles back, and then these four people literally run away. The leader actually says, "Let's get out of here," before they run away… They make the Scooby gang look like NWA lol

Street Fighter (2026) may not be the most original movie or the most coherent, but it does have self-aware humor and stylish fight scenes to make an entertaining film, and I’m hoping again that a sequel can smooth out some of those films' issues and make an even better sequel. I’ll give it three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️… review over lol

The Social Reckoning Review

The film follows the events that led to the 2021 Facebook leaks by Frances Haugen & Jeff Horwitz (played by Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White).

Mikey Madison was my favorite character in the film; she was down-to-earth and likable, while Madison brought a nice sense of humor to the role, definitely showing Madison has enough star power and charisma to really carry a film.

Jeremy Allen White was also good in the film; his character was a pretty basic “investigative journalist” type, just very business-oriented and straightforward, unfortunately not much beyond that, but for what he was given, he was serviceable to the overall story.

Betty Gilpin plays Horowitz‘s boss at the New York Times, and she brought a very good deadpan sense to humor and gave some of the funniest line deliveries in the film; she was a real highlight.

Jeremy Strong plays Mark Zuckerberg, and he’s really good at capturing the mannerisms and speech patterns of Zuckerberg. I do kind of wish they had gotten Jesse Eisenberg back for consistency, but the character isn’t in the movie a whole lot and is more of the antagonist, so it being a different actor kind of fits the movie since it’s so tonally different from the first film.

Bill Burr has a very funny role as one of Mark Zuckerberg’s former investors, and I also think Burr did some of the best acting of his career and was another nice surprise for me.

The directing was kind of flat; Sorkin comes from TV, and the shots all had a very standard cutting back-and-forth between medium close-ups of that well-not-bad, pretty monotonous quick look. The film definitely could’ve used a stronger visual flair.

I like the overall pacing of the story, and it went back-and-forth in time but never got confusing.

The sofa commentary does get a bit heavy-handed at times, like trying to hold a skyscraper in your hand—levels of heavy lol, like never to the point where it gets too annoying, but you can definitely tell Sorkin brought his soap box for this lol.

The soundtrack was very standard and reminded me of a 90s movie in certain spots, but I was a little bummed they never brought back the iconic “Hand Covered Brusies” song from the first movie; there was one moment at the climax that would’ve been perfect for it.

Also shout out to the actors who played Horwitz’s interns; I had never seen them before, and they were pretty funny, so I hope to see more of them in the future.

Overall, The Social Reckoning is a fine movie with good performances all around, and it’s an interesting enough story to keep my interest, but the visuals are pretty flat, especially compared to the first one, and the social commentary is as subtle as getting hit by a truck lol. I give the movie three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️. It's a good movie to add to a list of "It's Sunday and there's nothing else to watch” type of movie lol

Verity Review

Indie writer Lowen Ashleigh (played by Dakota Johnson) is hired to ghostwrite famous author Verity Crawford's (played by Anne Hathaway) popular book series after an accident leaves Crawford in an almost vegetarian state. While seemingly having a romantic connection with Verity‘s husband (played by Josh Harnett), Lowen discovers some of Verity’s notes that could lead to a darker conspiracy.

The cast is all really good, the standout being Hathaway, who plays Veirty as very manipulative and hard to pin down as far as her motives and personality; we spend a lot of time questioning what’s going on with her.

Dakota Johnson is very good at playing an arachidonic and like a sarcastic character and does a lot of good facial reacting while reading Vicky's notes.

Josh Hartnett brings a lot of laid-back charm and heart to his character, and despite the fact his character is possibly starting a romance with a woman while his wife is in a vegetative state, you always have a certain level of sympathy for him, which is a fine line to ride at the movie does well.

Most of the film takes place in a lovely lakeside mansion, which the crew takes full advantage of photographing. And the overall film direction was very cozy yet claustrophobic at the same time.

The way the story plays with people's perception of events and all the twists and turns goes very uniquely and intriguingly and is great at bringing the audience into the mystery.

Speaking of the mystery, I was very impressed with the film's pacing because the mystery unfolds in a slow-burn manner, but never to the point where it gets boring, everything on phones in a very natural and mostly believable way

I will say the film's big twist does go in some pretty interesting directions. I didn’t quite guess; they do stretch believability a little bit, but not to the point that it breaks.

The film did leave me a little bit wanting, like wanting to know what happens next, not sure if there’s a sequel book we might get, but it does leave things in a very interesting place.

Verity takes a very simple premise and, with a very good cast and fun/juicy surprises for the audience, makes an entertaining and intriguing mystery film. I give it a high three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️. It's not the biggest mindblower, but it is a good time

Digger Review

 

Digger Rockwell (played by Tom Cruise) is a Texas oil drilling billionaire who causes a ecological disaster and must navigate the consequences on a global scale.

Right off the bat, I quite enjoyed Tom Cruise‘s performance; it’s probably the most different kind of performance he’s done in a while. Now the character feels like a mix between Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, and The Rich Texan from The Simpsons… which, given that all three of those characters are literally over-the-top cartoons, makes Cruise’s performance very broad at times. But for the most part, he manages to bring a charisma and energy to the role that makes him hard not to watch and get some sort of dark comedic joy out of watching.

Now I would describe this movie as an environmental Dr. Strangelove, trying to take ecological disaster and turn it into a political farce. And the director Alejandro González Iñárritu did a great job with a lot of unique camera work, very bright but stunning cinematography, and gorgeous sets throughout. Unfortunately, like Cruise’s performance, the humor goes very broad, like it’s trying to hit Cohen Brother level. Unfortunately, many scenes can go past broad, like this humor is in orbit that goes so far out there lol. Now I will admit there were scenes. I got some good chuckles and laughs out of it, but so much of the film has characters chewing scenery like they’re in a competitive hot dog eating contest that it can be too much and not hit as well as it should.

Furthermore, while not overly so, some of this movie's messaging can feel a bit heavy-handed at times, like trying to hold Stonehenge with one hand lol.

Now I’m not going to spoil anything, but there is something else going on in this movie that they’re not showing in the trailers, and how that stuff works into the film was actually an interesting surprise and concept. That while it doesn’t excuse the issues I have with the humor at times, it does recontextualize, as a lot of scenes at least give them an interesting read.

John Goodman plays the President of the United States, and as someone who is a veteran of many Cohen Brothers movies, he manages to ride that line of “broad acting” pretty well. Hey man, just bring something to the role that might not have been written on the page through his performance.

Riz Ahmed plays an environmental scientist, and I think he’ll be most audiences' favorite character, not only because he’s the most likable character in the film, but also because his humor is a little more toned down and feels more relatable and "realistic," not to mention he does some of the best comedic drunk acting I’ve seen in a while. He finds that perfect middle of feeling realistically drunk but having good comedic timing.

Sandra Hüller plays Rockwell‘s half-sister/business partner, and she’s good in the film, not in it a whole lot, and I wish they had explored her character a little more, but again, she’s one of the more relatable characters and brings a quiet magnetism to the role that helps the character stand out.

Michael Stuhlbarg plays the sniffling vice president, and I have to give credit to Stuhlbarg for really committing to the character and just making him as anxious as possible, like certain scenes, he feels like a shaking Chihuahua who’s in a room they don’t recognize; he’s like, "Huh! Who-What?" You talking to me." 🫨🫣 lol

Jesse Plemons plays the producer of the film, and while his character comes off strange and almost creepy at first, there’s a lot more complexity and interest to his character that I kind of wish the movie had gone a little bit more into, but Plemons had a nice scene-stealing moment that I thought brought a lot of interest and dimension to the whole story.

Sophie Wilde plays a character in the story that I don’t want to spoil, but she’s an actress. I’ve never heard of her before, and I thought she was very good and brought a lot to her role, so I hope to see her again in future projects.

I will say while the humor was very hit and miss for me throughout the film, the writing and directing still managed to bring a lot of twists and turns and just intriguing setups that, throughout the film, I at least wanted to know where everything was headed.

This is a bit of a strange complement, but I like how the budget for this film was used. It is estimated to be between $125 and $180 million, which is blockbuster levels of filmmaking, and I appreciate such a big-scale amount of money was given to a film that takes such big, creative strokes, like walking away from this movie. The thing I appreciate most was the chances it took. Its batting average isn’t the best, but it’s nice that the casting crew tried something different on this scale.

So Digger has been a very polarizing movie with critics, many of you who haven’t been… Digging it 🪏😂, and I can see where they’re coming from and agree with some of their criticisms; however, there was a lot of creativity, solid and intriguing performances throughout, and an interesting twist that was not smooth down, definitely chipping away at some of the films, sharper corners, and issues. I give Digger a low three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️. I can understand if people walk away not really vibing with the film’s attempt, but the attempt is admirable, and if nothing else… definitely unique.

Primetime review

 

Primetime tells the story of Chris Hansen, host of To Catch a Predator, where he and his team catch child predators in sting operations, and their show getting promoted to the primetime slot and how it affects the crew and their show.

The film has a lot of style with a perfect recreation of the show looking like mid-2000s reality TV, which it’s flat and monotone style works in great contrast with the rest of the film that uses a lot of vibrant but seedy looking cinematography; the two look like a great visual contrast.

Robert Pattison does a good job as Chris Hansen; it’s not the most historically accurate, I presume, but for this movie it works. His character feels like he’s very obsessed with image and how he’s presented, so he comes across as like overly professional and cheery, but you can sense his insecurities and his eccentricities bubbling under the surface. His character is almost like Jerry Maguire meets Patrick Bateman, lol.

Skyler Gisondo plays “Decoy Dan," an actor who is hired by the crew to pretend to be a 13-year-old in the sting operations, and I will admit it is a little bit of a stretch. I think this clearly nearly 30-year-old is supposed to be 13, but they sort of bring that up in the film. But Dan’s character serves as the heart of the film, and you can see the effects of what this kind of work can do to a person and how that stress is multiplied with Hansen‘s ambition, and Gisondo brings a likability and grounded feel so you don’t get lost in the movie's frantic energy.

Marriott Weaver plays Hansen’s assistant, who sort of has a “deal with the devil” type storyline, with people telling her not to stick with Hansen and her contemplating whether she should leave or not, and Weaver felt very natural and had some fun dark humor moments I really dug.

I will say the film does have maybe too many different storylines going on, between Decoy Dan trying to make it as an actor, the assistant’s story, and Hansen himself having to deal with a blackmail plot, not to forget the actual "catch a predator" stuff. It's just a lot of different storylines that don’t come together in the most cohesive way; they’re all well told, but I think the film would’ve been stronger if all these different plots didn’t feel so detached from one another. Plus some other storylines would have felt stronger if they had more time to develop.

Matthew Maher plays the computer expert for the team, and he brings a high energy and humor to the role that brings a nice levity to some of the more unsettling moments

Anna Farris is in the film in a small role; she’s good, but I’m surprised they got a bigger me like her for the role.

I was surprised when Alex Winter showed up; it's definitely a different role for him, and he was very good. Plus Bokeem Woodbine was very funny as this almost Yosemite Sam-type sheriff who helps Hanson and his team.

The soundtrack also was very good at setting the mood of the film

Primetime is an interesting look at characters whose mental states are unwinding while working on the show with a very bleak topic. It may not be the deepest or most original film, but it’s good at playing with uncomfortableness for both comedy and drama. Plus the performances and style do a lot of heavy lifting, plus the subject matter is interesting enough you want to see what happens next. I give it a low four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. It's definitely one of the more unique bio films. I’ve seen as far as style