Category: Movies

“Primate” (2025) / Z-View


Primate
(2025)

Director: Johannes Roberts

Screenplay: Johannes Roberts, Ernest Riera

Stars: Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, Troy Kotsur, Stuart Whelan  and Ben Pronsky.

Tagline:  Something’s wrong with Ben.

The Plot…

Lucy Pinborough is heading home with some girlfriends from college.  Home is a remote Hawaiian house owned by her father.  Her dad is a famous novelist who is going to be away for the weekend on a book tour.  Lucy plans to have a party at her house with her girlfriends and some guys they met on the plane.  Oh, and Ben will be there as well.

Ben is a chimp that Lucy’s family adopted when he was just a baby.

What nobody knows is that Ben has contracted rabies.  And is about to become murderous.

Party on!

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Here’s a little known fact: Hawaii is the only state in the US that maintains rabies-free status due to its strict rabies vaccination and quarantine requirements.

I had never seen Johnny Sequoyah before this.  She was excellent.

Primate (2025) rates 3 of 5 stars.

“Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” by Leo Leibelman!

Leo Leibelman is a freelance artist who has provided art for comics, trading cards, novels, instructional materials, film storyboards and more.  Leo Leibelman takes commissions.

How cool is that that Leibelman chose to paint Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes?  Such a cool, underated movie, that deserves more recognition!

“Listen to me John. How many other white apes have you seen? You’re like me, not them. You have another family, far away, one you have never seen.”Capitaine Phillippe D’Arnot

“Sisu: Road to Revenge” (2025) written & directed by Jalmari Helander, starring Jorma Tommila and Stephen Lang / Z-View


Sisu: Road to Revenge
(2025)

Director: Jalmari Helander

Screenplay: Jalmari Helander

Stars: Jorma Tommila, Richard Brake, Stephen Lang.

Tagline:  When they took his family, he took revenge.

The Plot…

After the events in Sisu, Aatami Korpi returns to his homeland to retrieve the lumber he used to build the home where Russians murdered his wife and children.  Korpi plans to rebuild the house in a new land.

After his family was murdered Korpi became obsessed with revenge.  His exploits as  “the commando who refuses to die” were spoken in hushed whispers by Russians and Nazis alike.  Korpi killed untold numbers of enemy soldiers and became a legend.

Now as Korpi makes his way home with his truckload of lumber, it has become known he has returned.  The KGB wants Korpi dead as revenge for the many Red Army soldiers he killed.  Yeagor Draganov, the man who killed Korpi’s family, is released from prison with the promise of his freedom and riches if he can kill Korpi.  Draganov is given as many soldiers and weapons as he needs to get the job done.

Let the fun begin!

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Sisu: Road to Revenge reminds me of the Road Runner cartoons I loved as a kid.  And that’s a good thing.

Sisu: Road to Revenge (2025) rates 4 of 5 stars.

“Rocky” Getting 50th Anniversary Limited Theatrical Release Plus Sneak Peak of “I Play Rocky”

Rocky, the Academy-award winning best picture, will be returning to theaters this November to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film’s release.

This limited release will feature a 4K version of the original film plus an exclusive look at the upcoming Sylvester Stallone biographical feature, I Play Rocky directed by Peter (Green Book) Farrelly, with an introduction from the I Play Rocky cast.

Finally a film to get me back into a theater!  For more details check out…

Rocky Will Receive 50th Anniversary 4K Run In Theaters at Bleeding Cool.

Talk About a Stranger (1952) starring George Murphy, Nancy Davis, Bill Gray, Lewis Stone and Kurt Kasnar / Z-View


Talk About a Stranger
(1952)

Director: David Bradley

Screenplay: Margaret Fitts; story by Charlotte Armstrong

Stars: George Murphy, Nancy Davis, Billy Gray, Lewis Stone, Kurt Kasznar, Kathleen Freeman and Stanley Andrews.

Tagline:  It Sends Chills Down Your Spine!

The Plot…

A mysterious man who has moved into a remote house that had sat abandoned gets on the wrong side of a twelve year old boy.  The child decides to make the man’s life hell.

And does.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

The boy’s parents sure give him a lot of freedom!  Of course it was a different time.

Talk About a Stranger (1952) rates 3 of 5 stars.

“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War” starring John Krasinski – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

I like the poster and trailer for Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War.  Hopefully the movie will be as good.

Deal me in.

No operation stays dark forever.

Stream Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War, May 20 on Prime Video.

When CIA analyst Jack Ryan stumbles upon a suspicious series of bank transfers his search for answers pulls him from the safety of his desk job and catapults him into a deadly game of cat and mouse throughout Europe and the Middle East, with a rising terrorist figurehead preparing for a massive attack against the US and her allies.

“Tin Soldier” (2025) starring Scott Eastwood, John Leguizamo, Jamie Foxx and Robert De Niro / Z-View


Tin Soldier
(2025)

Director: Brad Furman

Screenplay: Brad Furman, Jess Fuerst, Pablo Fenjves; story by Brad Furman, Jess Fuerst

Stars: Scott Eastwood, John Leguizamo, Nora Arnezeder, Jamie Foxx, Rita Ora, and Robert De Niro.

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

The Bokushi aka Leon K. Prudhomme is a cult leader up to bad things.  Emmanuel Ashburn recruits Nash Cavanaugh, a former soldier with PTSD, to infiltrate Bokushi’s cult.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Who would have thought that a movie starring Scott Eastwood, Jamie Foxx, Robert De Niro and John Leguizamo could be terrible.  I tapped out after just 25 minutes.

Tin Soldier (2025) rates 1 of 5 stars.

“The Outpost” (2019) starring Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry-Jones and Orlando Bloom / Z-View


The Outpost
(2019)

Director: Rod Lurie

Screenplay: Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson; based on  THE OUTPOST: AN UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICAN VALOR by Jake Tapper

Stars: Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, Jack Kesy, Cory Hardrict, Milo Gibson, Jacob Scipio, Taylor John Smith, Jonathan Yunger and Orlando Bloom,.

Tagline: The mission was survival.

The Plot…

During the war in Afghanistan, Camp Keating, a US army base is situated in a valley surrounded on all sides by steep mountains.  It is the absolute worst location to defend.

So when hundreds of Taliban soldiers attack from all sides… the mission becomes survival.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

The lead actors in the film played real soldiers who survived the actual battle.  Some of the background soldiers were actual soldiers.

Stars Scott Gibson and Milo Gibson are the sons of Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson.

The Outpost (2019) rates 4 of 5 stars.

“Brother Orchid” (1940) starring Edward G. Robinson, Ann Southern and Humphrey Bogart / Z-View


Brother Orchid
(1940)

Director: Lloyd Bacon

Screenplay: Earl Baldwin; Jerry Wald (uncredited); Richard Macaulay (uncredited); based on Brother Orchid by Richard Connell

Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sothern, Humphrey Bogart, Donald Crisp, Ralph Bellamy, Cecil Kellaway, John Ridgely and Tom Tyler.

Tagline: Not Since “A Slight Case of Murder” has there been such a hysterical homicide, such mad mirth!

The Plot…

Little John Sarto rose from the streets to become head of a crime syndicate.  He’s rich.  People fear him, but he doesn’t want that.  Sarto craves to be respected.  To have… class.

So Sarto suddenly decides to give up his life of crime and become a gentleman of leisure.  Sarto turns his syndicate over to his second in command, John Buck.  He tells his girlfriend, Flo that he’s going to Europe and he’ll see her when he returns.

Things don’t go as planned in Europe.  Every move Sarto makes is a bad one.  He loses money on every deal.  Five years pass and Sarto is broke.  So he heads back to the states where he plans to regain control of his syndicate, and hook back up with Flo.

But it’s been five years.

Flo still loves Sarto, but thought he’d left for good.  So she has a new man.  John Buck and the crew felt abandoned when Sarto left.  Buck isn’t going to give up control of the gang.  So he puts out a hit on Sarto.

Sarto is caught off-guard and barely escapes with his life.  He finds himself injured and outside of a monastery.  The monks don’t recognize the infamous crime boss and take him in.  Sarto plans to stay there until he heals…

… then he will get his revenge.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Brother Orchid is one of five films that Robinson and Bogart made together.  It is the only one where neither of them is killed.

Brother Orchid (1940) rates 4 of 5 stars.