By Bob Garver   Poster credit IMDB               From its ridiculous opening scene, there is little denying that “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is one of the stupidest movies of 2025. Its only real competition comes from Disney’s live-action “Snow White” remake thinking that its Dwarfs were fit for human eyesight. And it’s not even the fun kind of stupid horror movie. It was never really on the table for this to be a “good” horror movie like “Sinners,” but it could have at least

By: Bob Garver   Poster credit IMDB               2016 was a great year for animation. Disney gave the world a new musical masterwork in “Moana.” Pixar had its biggest hit up to that point in “Finding Dory.” Even underdog Laika came out with cult classic “Kubo and the Two Strings.” But the winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar that year wasn’t any of those films (“Finding Dory” wasn’t even nominated), it was another Disney movie, “Zootopia.” It wasn’t a terribly controver

By: Bob Garver Poster credit: IMDB Previously, in “Wicked” Aspiring witches, green-skinned outcast Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and pink-and-popular Glinda (Ariana Grande), started off as enemies at school, but then became friends. They decided to go their separate ways after discovering a plan by the nefarious Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) to blame and punish animals for problems in the Land of Oz. The Wizard and henchwoman Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) tried to have Elphaba captured

By Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB It was all the way back in 2013 that audiences were first introduced to the Four Horsemen of Magic – J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher). The quartet blurred the line between “magic tricks” and “heists,” in that they would make the money and valuables of rich evildoers disappear and then reappear in the hands of their audiences. The film spawned a 201

By Bob Garver Poster Credit: IMDB “Predator” and I got off on the wrong foot. I’m not talking about the new movie, but rather the 1987 original, and by extension the whole franchise. I rented the film hoping to enjoy some action-movie interaction between two future governors: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura. Unfortunately, there was little to no interaction between the two, and Ventura’s character got picked off by the Predator earlier than I would have liked. I spent

By Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB How is it that Halloween of 2025 couldn’t give us a better horror movie than “Black Phone 2”? It’s not that I’m shocked that a Halloween horror movie is a disappointment. I’m just shocked that we got such a disappointing movie this year. 2025 has been such a banner year for horror thus far. “Sinners,” “Weapons,” “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” and “The Conjuring: Last Rites” were all blockbusters. There’s serious Oscar talk around those first

By Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB The legacy of the “Tron” franchise is complicated. On a consistently positive note, the series has always been a feast for the eyes and ears, with pleasing, if not groundbreaking special effects and musical scores that heart-pumpingly convey that technological developments are happening every minute. But the films have never quite stuck the landing critically or commercially. The 1982 original is a “cult” movie that defenders see as ahead of t

By Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB A popular criticism I’ve heard about “The Smashing Machine” is that it tries too hard to subvert...

By Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB             Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson is known as a top-tier talent without top-tier...

By Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB Jokes linking football and religion, especially Christianity, are common. “One gets Americans to sit...

By: Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB NOTE:  Many theaters have this Japanese animated film available in both “Subbed” and “Dubbed” versions....

By: Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB             A few days before I saw “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” a friend of mine asked me about my...