Viewing Journal: 8/29/2026

351) LEGEND 

OF THE WHITE DRAGON 

(2026 dir. Aaron Schoenke) Date Seen: August 29 2026

unfortunately the vast majority of this felt like a bunch of pre-vis rehearsal & camera tests frantically cut together in After Effects —less crafted than piled upward. & It’s especially painful seeing the late JD Frank trapped in a character with so much brooding gloom, knowing what he was actually carrying in real life. He was an actor of genuine warmth & charisma, + more range than anyone bothered to discover (I personally wish he'd been BLOODSHOT instead of Diesel)

WHITE DRAGON is thankfully never awful, but it is approaching mediocrity in a directorial sense; To the point where it almost makes the 2017 POWER RANGERS look hyper-competent. I do feel i need to say that it does feature some quality work being done in the costuming department. As a kid I always hated when Tommy the Green Ranger became the White Tiger-themed hero, solely because I hated the new costume that wasn't badass lizard green anymore. But the "White Dragon" suit in this had a pretty dreamy retro tokusatsu look, on par with designs like G1 Ken's (minus the cape).

[watch Joseph Kahn's POWER / RANGERS short, if you haven't already]

Viewing Journal: 8/28/2026

350) COLONY 군체

(2026 dir. Yeon Sang-ho) Date Seen: August 28 2026

It turns out Umbrella really was behind everything.. I'm just here for all the gooey & the nasty. This will probably be the gnarliest zombie film of 2026 until Cregger's "you know what" comes out

Viewing Journal: 8/27/2026

349) INSIDIOUS: 

OUT OF THE FURTHER

(2026 dir. Jacob Chase) Date Seen: August 27 2026

just 'cause you get out of the Further, doesn't mean you go into the stinker.

btw that CAVEAT homage didn't work for me. Kinda reduced the original imagery's inventiveness to a cheap carnival scare.. Hopefully with the bread this thing makes over the weekend Jacob Chase can do something more personal again. 

Viewing Journal: 8/26/2026

 

348) 

THE DEATH OF ROBIN HOOD

(2026 dir. Michael Sarnoski) Date Seen: August 26 2026

action scenes aside, this felt like

Bergman doing UNFORGIVEN (1992).

I was deeply mesmerized by most of it,
+ easily Sarnoski's best film to date

Viewing Journal: 8/25/2026

347) PEOPLE 

  WE MEET ON VACATION

(2026 dir. Brett Haley) Date Seen: August 25 2026

Proof a charming cast alone cannot carry an entire film.. Writing kinda plays like if Nora Ephron started a promising outline but then suffered a series of small strokes (Especially lousy 3rd). America continues to be starved of good rom-coms i.m.o.. which is weird 'cause the genre used to be our bread & butter.

346) PLEASE

(2026 dir. Anna Mantzaris) Date Seen: August 25 2026

Captures a specific ennui about modern loneliness, where everybody’s so desperate to connect --but then also (annoyingly) how all of our antennae feelers keep obliviously brushing passed each other right when it seems we're about to connect. [my first Anna Mantzaris film! Socks are properly knocked off, similar to when i first saw an Emma de Swaef]

345) CLOAK & DAGGER

(1984 dir. Richard Franklin) Date Seen: August 25 2026

Would make a awesome double-feature with BMX BANDITS. A pretty solid case study in visually economic storytelling.. That San Antonio River Walk sequence is superbly Hitchcockian. (I remember as kids my cousin Alex rented this dvd for our sleepover but my bitch-ass fell the fuck asleep)

Viewing Journal: 8/24/2026

344) TONY

(2026 dir. Matt Johnson) Date Seen: August 24 2026

YMMV obviously, but I thought this was a surprisingly stock coming-of-age movie considering the talent involved.. Banderas & the guy from HOLDOVERS are pretty good in it though. Why does it feel like Matt Johnson's visually more inspired when directing pseudo-doc/ found footage things? 

Viewing Journal: 8/23/2026

343) MUTINY

(2026 dir. Jean-François Richet) Date Seen: August 23 2026

Aside from a few inventive kills this was mostly a disappointment for me. Shame too, because I've enjoyed a lot of Richet's english language actioneers in the past.. SHELTER from earlier this year is a much smoother Statham flick.

342)

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS

(2001 dir. Rob Cohen) 3rd Viewing: August 23 2026

25th Anniversary @ Cinemark

Always surprised when people still cry shot-theft over Joseph Kahn having the same 3D CG bit in TORQUE of nitrous & petrol flying through the engine combustion chamber. Cohen lifted the idea directly from Kahn's own 90s VW "Turbonium" commercial. + every other oil company duplocated that one ad nauseam still to this day.. (even if Kahn had borrowed the idea, I don't really see what the problem is. Especially within movies built entirely around images of vehicles) Shots like that are fun for a reason = why people reproduce 'em.

Viewing Journal: 8/22/2026

341) 

THE RIVALS OF AMZIAH KING

(2026 dir. Andrew Patterson) Date Seen: August 22 2026

Patterson finally following up his excellent debut THE VAST OF NIGHT with something! & it's a great one too --alive and assured in a way not too many films have been for me this year.. The opening hour of RIVALS especially were a strong storytelling thunderclap for me. (Also features McConaughey's best performance since KILLER JOE)

Viewing Journal: 8/21/2026

340) 

THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE 

(2026 dir. Ben Gregor) Date Seen: August 21 2026

based on some of the promotional stills I'd seen for this, I was worried it was going to look like wall-to-wall mismatched lighting & chromakey blurred edges for the majority runtime, like the 2010s Disney ALICE movies or OZ THE GREAT & POWERFUL. Loads of that ambient occlusion is thankfully missing. & just also as an overall family fantasy story, MAGIC FARAWAY TREE is a pretty swell time at the movies. British humor compensates for a lot too.

Viewing Journal: 8/20/2026

339) SUPER TROOPERS 3

(2026 dir. Jay Chandrasekhar) Date Seen: August 20 2026

Was hoping one of these POLICE ACADEMY movies would eventually climax with a Waco like standoff between these chuds & an armed sovereign citizen type group.. an all-out "War of the Imbeciles" bloodbath. That's the lowbrow EDDINGTON counterpart the country deserves.

338) MANHUNTER

(1986 dir. Michael Mann) Date Seen: August 20 2026

"The Final Cut"

4K and 40th Anniversary

Just to be clear, Mann's 1986 cut of MANHUNTER is a flawless 5 out of 5 star masterpiece in my eyes --it's specifically this new cut i'm giving 4 point 5 to.. I do love the overall better sound mix, new dialogue, & especially love the longer moments with Hannibal, but I am not a fan of the modernized colorist changes to almost every other frame. They're fascinating to look at but aesthetically unnecessary imo.. I hope the eventual blurays also have a 4K of the theatrical cut included & not just this version.. And who drops their neon credits?! Come on!