Review of BRING HER BACK: Foster with Fear

July 17, 2025

17 year-old Andy (Billy Barratt) was a good elder brother to his visually-impaired step-sister Piper (Sora Wong). When their father suddenly died, they had to be taken to stay with a foster parent. They were assigned to veteran counselor Laura (Sally Hawkins) to take care of them. Laura seemed friendly even as she was still mourning the death of her blind daughter Cathy (Mischa Heywood) and was also raising a deaf-mute boy Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips).  

In the last decade or so, Australian horror movies have been picking up momentum, and being appreciated all over the world for its unusual take on the usual horror tropes. The first Australian horror I've seen was of the disturbing, psychological kind. "Dead Calm" (1989), starring Sam Neill with pre-famous Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane, was about a couple sailing on their yacht who picked up a marooned stranger who may be a killer .

However, the current attention with Australian horror was revived with "The Babadook" (2014), about a widow raising her disturbed young son, who believed the monster in his bedtime storybook is alive. Following that, there was "Killing Ground" (2016) about a family vacation gone grisly wrong, "Hounds of Love" (2016) about a couple on a serial killing spree, and the depressing "Relic" (2020) about an elderly widow dealing with dementia. 

In 2022, twin brothers and YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou made their directorial debut with "Talk to Me." This was about a group of teenagers playing with a ceramic hand, which allowed the holder to communicate and be possessed by spirits.  "Talk to Me" was co-produced by Causeway Films, which also produced "The Babadook." This film now ranks among the biggest worldwide box-office hit films distributed by A24. 

"Bring Her Back" is the much-anticipated second film of the Philippou twins, also co-produced by Causeway Films and distributed by A24. The centerpiece of its horror is the completely unhinged performance of Sally Hawkins as Laura, a woman driven to murderous psychosis by the death of her daughter. From the start, Laura exuded an air of weirdness, which Hawkins expertly escalated into full psycho-biddy mayhem with measured skill.

Barratt's Andy was abused and gaslighted, but he would still do what he can to protect his sister. Wong, really visually- impaired with her inborn coloboma and microphthalmia, was naturally vulnerable in her film debut. Wren Phillips's Ollie had the most disgusting scenes here, including a knife-chewing stunt sure to make you flinch.  Child abuse is true horror, never easy to swallow, especially now when disturbingly magnified on the big screen like this. 7/10

Review of SUPERMAN (2025): Concerning Clark and his Choices

July 7, 2025

After gaining access to files from the Fortress of Solitude, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) has accused Superman (David Corenswet) of being sent to Earth to subdue it in the name of Krypton. With his powerful henchmen -- the nanotechnology-charged Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría) and the mysterious masked fighter Hammer of Boravia -- Luthor was able to bring Superman down on his knees and incarcerate him in a pocket dimension. 

Writer-director James Gunn began the film with an intro recounting events from 3 centuries ago, 3 decades ago, 3 years ago, 3 days ago, 3 hours ago, up to 3 minutes ago until we see a severely injured Superman hurtling down from the sky into the snows of Antarctica. He was involved in an armed conflict between two countries -- Boravia and Jarhanpur. Of course, Luthor was behind the scenes manipulating the strings of the war, and the Hammer.

As we have previously seen in his previous Marvel films -- the "Guardians of the Galaxy" series (2014, 2017 and 2023) and the reboot of "The Suicide Squad" (2021) -- Gunn's signature brand of action and humor and pop rock music are also all over his version of "Superman." With this heartful story that made Superman the unexpected underdog, Gunn was able to restore our emotional connection to this beloved superhero from planet Krypton. 

A major factor for this film's success was the casting of David Corenswet as the Man of Steel. Aside from his relatively unfamiliar and unwieldy name, Corenswet is coming in with the disadvantage of taking over the role many fans think should have stayed with Henry Cavill of the Zack Snyder DC films. However, Corenswet brought to his Superman a winsome charm, as well as a tangible sense of human vulnerability that makes us care for him.

The humanity of this Superman are obvious in his various personal relationships. Corenswet's Clark Kent has an electric chemistry with Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane, certainly more than Cavill and Adams did. The scenes he shared with his Earth parents Jonathan and Martha Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell) creates a wave of filial nostalgia. Even how Superman treated the robots of the Fortress, like Greg (Alan Tudyk), evoked pure kindness.

Particularly delightful among Superman's relationships was the one he had with the super-dog Krypto.  It is a Kryptonian breed, but it looked furrier and more terrier-like than the cartoon Krypto.  This naughty canine would just do whatever chaotic activity it set its mind on doing, while poor Supes helplessly tried to order him to stop, to no avail, resulting in some of this film's most unpredictable and unruly scenes. Dog owners will identify, and smile. 

Superman also interacts with a new group of heroes called the Justice Gang. Their Green Lantern  (Nathan Fillion) with a weird streak and who sported a blond bowl haircut. Their Hawkgirl (Isabel Merced) was a fearsome flying fighter, but had a grumpy attitude about her.  The coolest of these new heroes was Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), whose extraordinary techie action scenes elicited spontaneous applause. Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), a metahuman who can convert his body into any element, is introduced with a conflict of dramatic heft. 

And then there is the classic genius villain -- Lex Luthor. Nicholas Hoult gave him an air of angry pride we did not see from previous actors. The way this Luthor was "personally" fighting Superman virtually by calling out every punch and kick delivered by the Hammer was ingeniously executed. This Luthor evil was borne out of extreme envy, the intensity of which Hoult conveyed with such remarkable restraint, which may make him Oscar-bound.

There were several callbacks to the original 1977 "Superman" film by Richard Donner from which Gunn gained his inspiration for this version. Of course, the iconic theme music by John Williams was heard many times, evoking memories of younger days past. The singular silver font and presentation of the closing credits was met with cheers. Christopher Reeve's son Will Reeve even has a cameo appearance as a news reporter. 

The Daily Planet crew were all there, led by their gruff editor-in-chief Perry White (Wendell Pierce). For serious DC fans in the know, there were cameos by government agent Rick Flag, Jr. (Frank Grillo), and tech billionaire Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), who was the corporate sponsor behind the Justice Gang. Before the film ended, there was also a sneak preview of a certain Super relative who is set to have a movie of her own in 2026. 

Overall, Gunn's vision of Superman was old-fashioned and sentimental, but updated with complex science fiction with innovative technology. How Lois Lane can pilot a new-fangled air craft or how Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) could be an irresistible ladies' man may seem silly, but chalk those up to Gunn's campy sense of comedy. I have high hopes this film could give the struggling DC film universe the boost it needs to reach new heights it deserves. 9/10

Review of JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH: Misguided Mutants

July 3, 2025

A giant pharmaceutical company, Parker Genix, is planning to develop a cardiology wonder drug from the DNA of dinosaurs.  Company agent Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) recruited covert operations expert Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to lead an expedition to acquire blood samples from three massive dinosaurs from sea (the Mosasaurus), land (the Titanosaurus) and air (the Quetzalcoatalis). 

To get to the Ile Saint-Hubert in the Atlantic Ocean, they hire the boat and team of Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali). However, before they reached their destination, Duncan's radio picked up a distress call sent by a father Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), when the sailboat carrying him, his daughters Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda), and Teresa's spaced-out boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono), capsized. 

The "Jurassic Park" franchise was born in 1993, when the first film directed by Steven Spielberg was released, enthralling the whole world with its life-like resurrection of three-dimensional dinosaurs on the big screen. Sequels were released in 1997 and 2001. The series was rebooted with another trilogy retitled "Jurassic World," shown in 2015, 2018 and 2022. To be honest, none of the sequels ever matched the magical quality of the original. 

This present film is yet another attempt to revive interest in the franchise. For the screenplay, they brought back David Koepp, who co-wrote the first film along with Michael Crichton. The mood of the story reflected real life issues. Set 32 years after the dinosaurs were revived, public interest about them has already waned, a concern which pushed Dr. Loomis to accept the project. I suspect this revival of interest was also what this reboot wants to achieve. 

We know that people watch these Jurassic Park / World films more for the dinosaurs, not the annoying human characters. You can easily predict who among the humans will survive to the end -- just look at the cast list. Characters played by the lesser-known actors will die first (except the children, of course). As expected, the most evil character will die in the most grisly way (though nothing tops the way Dennis Nedry died in the first film).  

The absolute best action sequence in this new film was the one that featured a gigantic T-Rex chasing Reuben's family as they rode a sturdy rubber emergency raft down a raging river. The scene of a tearful Dr. Loomis during a close encounter with titanosauruses in the cornfield was awe-inspiring, though not as much as awesome as the initial brachiosaurus sighting in the first film. They teased about a velociraptor but it turned out to only be a short cameo. 

In the grounds of the abandoned lab, Zora, Loomis and company were attacked dino-mutants, tragic freaks born out of failed genetic experiments in the past. Seeing these hideous man-made creatures were not my cup of tea at all. We watch Jurassic Park to see dinosaurs that really existed come to life, not to see ugly deformed monsters, sorry.  I hope future installments of the coming trilogy will not dwell on these mutants anymore. 6/10

Netflix: Review of K-POP DEMON HUNTERS: Shielding with Song

July 1, 2025

Demons have been stealing the souls of poor unsuspecting humans and channeling them to strengthen their leader, Gwi-Ma. A group of three enchanted women came together to hunt and fight these demons. With their gift of song, these women united the souls of the people to created a shield called the Honmoon to protect the human world. Succeeding generations of Hunters used their singing voices to maintain the Honmoon.

The present day Demon Hunters were in the form of K-pop girl group called Huntr/x, namely lead singer Rumi, dancer MIra and rapper Zoey. They were under the tutelage of Celine, a former demon hunter who raised Rumi, whose late mom was also a hunter. One day after their world tour, Rumi lost her voice as mysterious marks were appearing on her skin. Meanwhile, a boy band of demons called Saja Boys were fast gaining in popularity.

Co-writer and co-director Maggie Kang came up with main story, mixing in elements of Korean mythology and K-pop to create her dream culturally-focused animated movie. The principle of demon hunters and the impenetrable Honmoon created by their songs that kept humankind safe were fascinating. Just as interesting was the idea that gaining a bigger fandom was the be-all and end-all solution to the critical problem

K-pop is so ubiquitous nowadays, every song in the film is so catchy. Huntr/x had songs like "How It's Done," "Golden" and "What It Sounds Like." They even had a song Rumi did not like called "Takedown," but it wasn't any less poppy. The Saja Boys were winsomeright off the bat with the irresistibly sing-along-able fiest hit, "Soda Pop." Their second song "Your Idol" could  be a metaphor of how the public can easily be brainwashed by their hypnotically powerful music.

The handsome rendition of Saja leader Jinu and his romantic interactions with Rumi will thrill fans, especially the young female kind.  The Ru-Jinu love team had great chemistry together, as evidenced by their duet "Free." There were also other aspects of Korean life shown here, like relaxing in bath houses, medicinal tonics that can be fake, wacky TV game shows with celebrities, the cute tiger and the cuter bird with the hat. 8/10

 

Review of F1 THE MOVIE: A Racer's Redemption

July 1, 2025

Back in the 1990s, Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) was considered a promising prodigy in Formula One (or F1) car racing. However, in 1993, he experienced a bad car crash during the Spanish Grand Prix. He  sustained serious back injuries and had to prematurely drop out of the F1 circuit for good. In the years following this accident, Sonny continued a racer-for-hire in minor races as he battled gambling addiction and failed marriages. 

One day, Sonny was approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), who was now the owner of the APXGP F1 Team. Ruben's team had not been doing well in the current season, finishing last in the previous championship. Investors have threatened to withdraw support if APX fails to win any of the remaining GP races that year. Ruben wanted Sonny to drive for his team, together with rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris).

As an actor, Brad Pitt has consistently done well both commercially and critically. He had one Oscar for Acting (Supporting for "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"), nominated for 3 more.  He is also very active as a film producer in his own production outfit Plan B entertainment, which he owned on his own since 2005. Plan B had won three Oscars for Best Picture ("The Departed," "12 Years a Slave" and "Moonlight"), nominated for eight more.  

F1 is the latest project released by Plan B, and it does not seem farfetched that it will attract Academy Award attention as well. The story is simple and frankly, quite familiar, so may find yourself predicting what will happen next in the strained relationship between Sonny and Joshua, and likely guess a lot of things right. The star power of Brad Pitt was a big factor to make the dramatic redemption story of Sonny Hayes pop out on the big screen, enhanced by awesome production design by Ben Munro and cool costumes by Julian Day. 

Ehren Kruger's screenplay put Sonny and Joshua into all kinds of tight situations and perilous accidents in Grand Prixes in Britain, Belgium, Italy, Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi. Director Joseph Kosinki upped the danger and suspense of these racing scenes with intense cinematography by Claudio MIranda, rapid editing by Stephen Mirrione and heart-pounding music by Hans Zimmer. After this, Kosinki's plan for a sequel featuring Pitt's Sonny and Tom Cruise's Cole from "Days of Thunder" (Tony Scott, 1990) is a certainly a very exciting idea. 8/10