Movie Reviews from Chris

★ ★ out of ★★★★ Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (2026) Runtime: 104 minutes MPAA: Rated PG-13 for violent content, terror and some language. Here's a funny story. I've taken a habit of jotting down some notes of what I think about the movie as it's playing, just to help me when writing on how I feel about it. For Michael, that was about 15 points. Surely, for a mindless video game adaptation, there wouldn't be so much to jot down, right? 20 minutes into Five Nights at Freddy's 2, the follow-up to the 2023 adaptation, I stared at the screen with contentment, without anything in particular to say. Yes, the first movie already set some expectations in terms of structure, dialogue, plot armor, and the lack of claustrophobia. Yet, by the time the credits rolled, the number of things I had to say was already 25. All this for the movie titled "Five Nights at Freddy's 2". You get the point. As it turns out, this sequel is not as simple as one thinks. Set a year...

★★ 1/2 out of ★★★★ ( 👍 ) Michael (2026) Runtime: 127 minutes MPAA:  Rated PG-13 for some thematic material, language, and smoking. Even decades after his passing, Michael Jackson continues to captivate the world through his music, dance choreography and stage presence. From "Thriller" to "Billie Jean" to "Bad", these songs remain ubiquitous in media, whether it's in videos or movies. Which leads to the inevitable production of documentaries and this recently released biopic, summarising the first half of his life into a mere two hours (with text reading at the end of the film, "HIS STORY CONTINUES"). Directed by Antoine Fuqua, who also helmed movies like Training Day and The Equalizer franchise, this conventional and sometimes workmanlike production chronologically delves into Michael's upbringing, involvement in the Jackson 5, his sudden and unlikely rise to stardom, up to the 1984 Pepsi incident and a 1988 Bad tour. If that sounds li...

★ ★  out of ★★★★ Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) Runtime: 109 minutes MPAA: Rated PG-13 for strong violent content, bloody images and language. Released in 2014, Five Nights at Freddy's, an indie point-and-click survival horror game, immediately blew up thanks to its deceptively simple yet intense gameplay, gaining further traction from creators like Markiplier on online platforms primarily YouTube. This was a launchpad for multiple sequels on various consoles, all while giving rise to a burgeoning and increasingly convoluted lore. In an admittedly good move, the film adaptation doesn't confuse newcomers with its lore, and has well-designed sets that evoke the vibe of an abandoned, creepy pizzeria. Unfortunately, despite a decent attempt on a story of grief and redemption, it far from captures the essence of what made the games terrifying, strangely lacking in thrills, atmosphere and occasionally lagging in pacing. Of course, one wouldn't expect it to precisely follow th...

  ★  1/2 out of ★★★★ Madame Web (2024) Runtime: 116 minutes MPAA:  Rated PG-13 for violence/action and language. It might be a coincidence in my schedule to have watched Madame Web after Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire. Despite having drastic differences - one being a "science-fiction" film and this being a "superhero" film - both are pretty much on par with each other in terms of quality and enjoyment (perhaps to a lesser degree for this one) and share a similarity: full of potential and unique ideas, but ultimately wasted. Amidst the wave of strongly negative reviews that have circulated around the internet and audiences, Madame Web is far from an absolute disaster but still isn't anywhere good. Directed by S.J. Clarkson, writers Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless and Claire Parker forget that a narrative is vital to the movie, simply throwing their characters in the same scenarios repetitively until the final act. Madame Web opens in a Peruv...

★  1/2 out of ★★★★ Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023) Runtime: 133 minutes MPAA:  Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, sexual assault, bloody images, language, sexual material and partial nudity. I've got an interesting challenge for you: get a tally counter and press it every time director and co-writer Zack Snyder's unimpressive emulation of Star Wars uses slow-motion. It's a trademark of his films, most of them which come off as unnecessary and overly frequent. But it'll be fun continuously hitting that tally counter. Originally pitched as a Star Wars movie over a decade ago, but never getting off the ground, you can observe the blatant similarities to that beloved film franchise: the opening, which features our protagonist looking at the planets and stars in despair, the plot which involves fighting an evil ruling force, as well as visits to bars where we encounter various creatures and bounty hunters. Rebel Moon is visually magnificent, accompan...

★ ★  1/2 out of ★★★★ Leave the World Behind (2023) Runtime: 141 minutes MPAA:  Rated R for language, some sexual content, drug use and brief bloody images. In a usual post-apocalyptic film, we'll get characters stranded in a city, fighting zombies, aliens, robots or in war. There'll be action sequences, jumpscares, generic exposition and sometimes incomplete endings that require additional installments. Leave the World Behind introduces a unique take on this overdone genre, primarily focusing on a family who's disconnected from the outside world as they're on a vacation, and instead scrambles around the vacation house, which serves as the primary setting of the film. It's a piece that has great ideas, performances, and moments, but fails to coalesce into something satisfying or impactful. Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) rents a vacation house for her family, consisting of husband Clay (Ethan Hawke), and children Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie)...

★ ★  out of ★★★★ The Creator (2023) Runtime: 133 minutes MPAA: Rated PG-13 for violence, some bloody images and strong language. Note: Criticisms regarding the film also includes discussions about the plot. You have been warned. Numerous things go boom and various cars flip over and crash in director Gareth Edwards’ The Creator, an ambitious science fiction piece that echoes the likes of Star Wars, The Matrix and Blade Runner. Unfortunately, despite gorgeous set pieces and impressive performances, the script from Edwards and Chris Weitz ultimately falls short compared to its technical achievements, reducing potentially great ideas into a generic battle between human versus AI, without giving us much introspect into why a war is necessary or why artificial intelligence is so important in our lives, especially the emotional components (besides, obviously, completing our tasks efficiently), instead boiling it down to a simple misunderstanding be...