Monthly Archives: July 2025

Movie Reviews

The Naked Gun Review

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The Naked Gun

  • Director: Akiva Schaffer
  • Writer: Dan Gregor & Doug Mand & Akiva Schaffer
  • Starring: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, CCH Pounder

Grade: A-

So many comedies have tried to replicate what David and Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams perfected with films like Airplane! and The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, but it takes a keen comedic mind to do it right. On paper, a reboot to The Naked Gun starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson sounds like one of the many legacy projects that comes and goes without any fanfare, but director Akiva Schaffer (who co-writes the screenplay with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand) has a clear affinity for what works so well with the franchise, and the result is one of the best comedies in years.

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Movie Reviews

Cloud Review

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Cloud

  • Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
  • Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
  • Starring: Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Daiken Okudaira, Amane Okayama, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa

Grade: B+

Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that I watched Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud as the internet pivoted once again to the worst, when X (formerly Twitter) essentially became a safe-haven for Nazism, and Elmo’s account was hacked to spew anti-Semitic hate. The long-time Japanese auteur has made a career out of psychological horrors that explore our modern anxieties around technology and manipulation, and his latest film touches on how the internet warps our reality. It’s a subject that Kurosawa used almost 25 years ago, but Cloud feels like a modern update to those sentiments.

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Movie Reviews

Jurassic World: Rebirth Review

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Jurassic World: Rebirth

  • Director: Gareth Edwards
  • Writer: David Koepp
  • Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend

Grade: C-

The Jurassic Park franchise has slowly become one of the most stale and lifeless franchises in the current blockbuster era. Entries like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World: Dominion have failed to recapture the magic of the original film with some of the worst screenplays ever written for a major blockbuster. Despite the poor critical reception, the series manages to rack up billions of dollars. Although Dominion was perceived to be the final entry, the box office would not let the franchise die. 

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