HORROR films are taking the limelight this year with films like THE SURRENDER streaming on Netflix this week and the film BRING HER BACK set to open next week.
FILM REVIEWS:
AIR FORCE ELITE: THUNDERBIRDS (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Matt Wilcox
AIR FORCE ELIT: THUNDERBIRDS provides an inside look at the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds flight squadron.
As the documentary title implies, AIR FORCE ELITE: THUNDERBIRDS, the doc cannot help but keep touting the elite group. No doubt it is an elite group. The voiceover at the beginning tells us that the Thunderbirds are the best of the best and they are to prove that being good is not enough, but to be excellent and to inspire. Of course, the job is also a highly dangerous one, with accidents and deaths not being common.
The USAF Air Demonstration Squadron is the air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF). The Thunderbirds, as they are popularly known, are assigned to the 57th Wing and are based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Created 72 years ago in 1953, the USAF Thunderbirds are the third-oldest formal flying aerobatic team (under the same name) in the world, after the French Air Force Patrouille de France formed in 1931 and the United States Navy Blue Angels formed in 1946. The Thunderbirds Squadron tours the United States and much of the world, performing aerobatic formation and solo flying in specially marked aircraft. The squadron's name is taken from the legendary creature that appears in the mythologies of several indigenous North American cultures.
It is good to note that it is mentioned in the film, the different formations of the Thunderbirds. Two Thunderbirds perform a calypso pass. Much of the Thunderbirds' display alternates between maneuvers performed by the diamond and those performed by the solos. They have a total of eight different formations: The Diamond, Delta, Stinger, Arrowhead, Line-Abreast, Trail, Echelon and the Five Card.
In the doc, the audience gets to meet the team of Thunderbirds for the year 2023. The audience is informed that the team is always changed every year, with 50% of the members rotated out. The 2023 team has members named Thunder, Threat (a female among the other males), Astro, among others.
The doc touts only the trait of being better than others. It ignores the fact that one should also care for others, like one team member for another member, to work in a team. And typical in Trump’s America, the need to prove oneself ‘great’ and ignoring everything else is the typical point that Americans are so unpopular, not only now but also at other times. Glaringly absent is the omission of other air display pilots around the world. Most countries have their equivalent of Thunderbirds. (This reviewer hails from Singapore, where the SAF also has an elite air display team. The reviewer's brother is a Singapore Air Force Fighter Pilot, so the reviewer is aware of the sacrifices this industry faces. Singapore is not at war with any other country, but the dearth toll of the air force pilots is high, most of the fatal accidents occurring during the exhibition air shows.
AIR FORCE ELITE: THUNDERBIRDS is a Netflix original documentary that opens fro streaming this week on Netflix. Despite its flaws, the doc provides solid insight into the risk and training of the individuals, gaining one’s respect, undoubtedly for bravery, coverage, and dedication.
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BAD SHABBOS (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Daniel Robbins
The new Jewish comedy/drama BAD SHABBOS follows a Jewish family experiencing a bad shabbos. The film plays like one of the too familiar Hollywood dysfunctional family gatherings, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, so do not expect anything new except maybe humour on the Jewish tradition.
Shabbos, also known as Shabbat or the Sabbath, is the Jewish day of rest, observed from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. It's a time for rest, reflection, and communal observance, remembering the biblical creation story and the Exodus from Egypt. Shabbos involves abstaining from work and certain activities, focusing on family, prayer, and spiritual renewal. Driving is also supposed to be frowned upon, and the characters hide the fact that they have driven to the dinner.
Directed by Daniel Robbins and written by long-time collaborators Robbins (Pledge, Citizen Weiner, Uncaged) and Zack Weiner (Pledge, Citizen Weiner), is a comedy drama about an engaged interfaith couple who are about to have their parents meet for the first time over a Shabbat dinner when an accidental death gets in the way.
It all begins when David (Jon Bass) and his fiancée Meg (Meghan Leathers) gather for his family's traditional Shabbat dinner on New York's Upper West Side, things spiral faster than you can say “hamotzi” when an accidental death (or...murder?) derails the evening entirely. With Meg’s devoutly Catholic parents due any moment to meet David’s very Jewish family, soon Shabbat becomes a comedy of biblical proportions. The chamber piece becomes a ‘hide the corpse’ comedy.
Hiding the corpse resulting in a death to be hidden for whatever reason is a familiar premie, as can be seen in the recent film, THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA in which Jessica invites herself to a friend’s dinner party and then hangs herself, with the result of the two couples trying to hide Jessica’s body.
In BAD SHABBOS, the motive for hiding the body is not as credible as in THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA, nor are the comedy or performances (JESSICA had stars like Rufus Sewell) as good, but BAD SHABBOS boasts a good Jewish slant to he proceedings.
BAD SHABBOS is what one would call an uncomfortable comedy - one in which the audience is supposed to laugh at the mishaps and trials of the characters. Another example of the uncomfortable comedy is THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS, in which mishap after mishap happens to the poor couple (Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis in the original) that visit New York City. One feels sympathetic to the unfortunate couple but yet the audience is supposed to laugh at the mishaps.
The film has an overall good, happy ending in which every family member ends up in a good place. The happy ending appears to be too much of a cop-out and too good to be true
BAD SHABBOS has played in multiple Jewish Film Festivals around the United States and has won the Audience Choice Award at the Boston Jewish Film Festival. The film opens in Theatres in Canada on May 23rd.
Trailer:
BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY (Lijepa večer, lijep dan)(Croatia/Canada/Poland/Cyprus/Bosnia/Herzegovinia 2024) ***
Directed by Ivona Juka
Despite the bright and cheery title of the film, BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY is a very solemn, serious and tough film to watch, depicting a time in the history of then, Yugoslavia when homosexuality was outlawed and gays were punished, imprisoned and beaten almost to death.
The film begins in 1944 where 4 friends fight as rebels against the Nazis, thus deemed heroes. But their sexual orientation cannot be forgiven and they are then exposed and punished.
The film is shot in Croatian and in black and white.
The film follows four close friends—Lovro, Nenad, Stevan, and Ivan—who, as young students, joined the Partisan resistance during World War II to fight against the Ustashas and Nazis. Sixteen years later, in 1957, they had become renowned filmmakers in Communist Yugoslavia. However, their sexual orientation raises suspicion among the authorities. A Communist Party loyalist named Emir is assigned to sabotage their careers and lives. As the friends strive to maintain their artistic integrity and personal freedom, Emir's own beliefs are challenged.
Of all the film;’s characters the most intriguing one is that of Emir. At one point, he invites the 4 friends to his cottage by the sea while the 4 frolic around. He sympathizes with them, yet turns them in. This is a troubled soul who is always wrestling with his conscience. His love life is also empty and he longs for companionship. The film shows him finally doing the right thing.
One thing about the film is that the actors portraying the characters with a 16-year difference do not age at all, in looks, which makes it all look a bit weird.
The film is more positive in the first half before turning really harsh in the second half, with a few very hard-to-watch segments like the beating of the gay characters. The segment really makes the audience wonder why there is so much hate and disgust for fellow human beings.
Director Juka grew up with a family member who was never allowed to "come out" and lived in the shadows of his true self. Juka was inspired to shed light on a dark time in history. Through the director’s extensive research, which included PhD theses on homosexual persecution in communist Yugoslavia, he discovered the remarkable resilience and unwavering strength of those who fought for their right to be different and authentic, which he depicts in the film. Despite the persecution and imprisonment, they never gave up. This film pays tribute to their courage, but it is also about our power of love to conquer hate and a call for acceptance and understanding in our polarized world. Homosexuality was just barely acceptable in the new (Yugoslavian) regions in the 1990s.
The film also delves into the other themes of love, loyalty, artistic expression, and political oppression.
It was selected as Croatia’s official submission for the 97th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film, though it was not shortlisted. The film opens in theatres on May 23rd.
Trailer:
FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Matt Palmer
FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN is a new 2025 slasher horror film and the fourth installment in Netflix’s Fear Street series, inspired by R.L. Stine’s 1992 novel The Prom Queen.
(Fear Street is a series of American horror films based on R. L. Stine's book series of the same name. Involving slasher and supernatural elements, the films' overall story revolves around teenagers who work to break the curse that has been over their town for hundreds of years. The first 3 films were released in 2021.)
FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN is set in the cursed town of Shadyside during the 1988 prom season. As the popular "It Girls" at Shadyside High vie for the prom queen crown, a mysterious killer begins eliminating the candidates one by one. The story centres on Lori Granger (played by India Fowler), a determined outsider who enters the race and finds herself entangled in the deadly mystery.
The films pays homage to a whole spate of horror films like PHATASM 2 (there is a segment of it in the film as characters enter a cinema to watch PHANTASM 2), of course CARRIE which also deals with a build girl at Prom, the SCREAM films, all the slasher movies of curse and the Friday the 13th franchise as well. Besides paying homage, one can say that director Palmer steals a lot from these successful films. There is no complaint here, as Palmer is quite blatant about it, not hiding the fact and using the stolen or homage scenes to the best of their entertaining capabilities. The result is very fast and entertaining, rather violent (there are dismembered limbs, electrocutions and a tossed head in the punch bowl. The film contains no original songs, but uses popular spirit lift songs, including hits like "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a song by British synth-pop duo Eurythmics, and ‘Gloria’, all the songs released prior to the year 1988, the year the story is set.
The 1988 setting means there are cell phones invented yet, which means that the girls at the prom cannot contact each other to know the whereabouts of the killer.
The film also pays homage most of all to MEAN GIRLS and the story pushes the point to the limit. Even the parents of the meanest girl are just as mean to poor Lori, who has to endure all their belittling. The film also works well as a whodunit, with the audience curious as to the identity of the killer. The identity is revealed near the climax and just as one would think one has got the identity correctly, for example, perhaps the geek, Devil, Devlin, is killed, or perhaps the mean girl’s date, he is killed as well. The film moves on with a plot twist even after the killer’s identity is revealed. The film is good old, violent and dirty fun, especially for teens, as most of the adults in the film are depicted as grown idiots.
FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN is available for streaming on Netflix starting May 23, 2025.
Trailer:
LILO AND STITCH (USA 2025) **½
Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp
The main live-action character is Lilo, a young adolescent Hawaiian girl played with zest by Maia Kealoha. She is an orphaned six-year-old Native Hawaiian girl "who loves hula, surfing, and wildlife, with a special affinity for all things ‘gross'." She is portrayed, expectedly, as very imaginative yet rebellious, which gets her into trouble often and ostracizes her from her classmates, who consider her a "weirdie". When the film opens, her parents have already passed and she is being taken by social services unless she and her sister are successful in the conditions set up by the councillor. Which, of course, they do at the end.
So, as the story goes, Lilo adopts a dog-like alien named Stitch to mend her fractured family, unaware that Stitch is genetically engineered to be a force of destruction, and is being pursued by aliens and social workers, while Lilo teaches Stitch the idea of family.
Films with surfing as a backdrop often contain gorgeous bodies to look at. In the case of this film, though it is one for family and little children, the fact is true. The winner turned out to be the male with the two actors, Billy Magnussen playing Agent Pleakley, a Plorgonarian agent of the United Galactic Federation and their "expert" on Earth and Kaipo Dudoit playing local surfer, David Kawena. Girls in the audience for the film targeted more for a female audience can go wide-eyed.
The combined animation and live-action film is more catered to the kids who should have no problem enjoying the film. For the older folk, the film tends to be quite a bore, with childish jokes, an unimaginative and silly plot and a lack of adult humour.
LILO AND STITCH opens in theatres May 23rd, for America’s Memorial Day Weekend, counter-programming for the Tom Cruise blockbuster MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie.
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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING is a 2025 American epic action spy film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen. The sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), it is the eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, and Angela Bassett reprise their roles from the previous films.
There is much more plot in this film than in the previous MI film titled THE RECKONING Part 1. Set Action piece-wise, this latest installment comes pale in comparison to the last. The underwater and airplane flying sequences cannot be compared to the more exciting train and hang-gliding sequences of the former. One reason is that it is hard to convey suspense and thrills in an underwater segment. Most of the difficulties, like the need not to hold one’s breath but to exhale while that deep is conveyed by dialogue before the dive rather than during it. But still, this film, running at close to three hours (211 minutes), is an absorbing action piece that Marley keeps the audience glued to the screen for the most part. At a budget of a reported 300 - 400 million dollars, really high, the film should undoubtedly make its money back. After all, the film boasts Tom Cruise and a well-known, successful action franchise. So far, the film has premiered everywhere, including at Cannes.
IMF (Impossible Mission Force, not International Monetary Fund) agents Ethan Hunt and Grace pursue Gabriel, an agent working for the Entity artificial intelligence. Yes, the film is updated to include AI. Instead, Gabriel captures them and coerces Hunt into retrieving the core module, revealed to be the "Rabbit's Foot”, from the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol for him, which would give him control over the Entity's source code. Hunt and Grace escape with the aid of IMF agent Benji Dunn and new recruits Paris and Theo Degas. They discover a device that Gabriel used to communicate with the Entity, which shows Hunt a vision of a coming nuclear apocalypse. Hunt realizes the Entity needs access to a secure digital bunker in South Africa to ensure its survival. Hunt sends his team to retrieve the Sevastopol's coordinates, while he rejoins Luther Stickell to disarm a nuclear device Gabriel planted in London. Stickell reveals that he developed a malware for the Entity called the Poison Pill, but Gabriel has stolen it. Sacrificing himself, Stickell stays behind to stop the bomb. Hunt then surrenders to U.S. President Erika Sloane, who urges cooperation due to the Entity's escalating control over global nuclear systems. With only four days before it launches global strikes, Hunt convinces Sloane to let him act independently to locate the Sevastopol, against CIA Director Eugene Kittridge's objections. Hunt's team travels to St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, home to a Cold War–era sonar array that detected the Sevastopol's sinking.
St. Matthew Island is an uninhabited, remote island in the Bering Sea in Alaska, 183 miles west-northwest of Nunivak Island. The entire island's natural scenery and wildlife are protected as it is part of the Bering Sea unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and as the Bering Sea Wilderness
The script emphasizes how each task is almost impossible to complete, but nevertheless, Hunt succeeds in all his endeavours. It is remarkable to see Cruise as Hunt gets his entire wetsuit ripped off his body, except his specially designed underwear that stays on his body during the underwater segment, where he grabs a torpedo to take him halfway up to the surface.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING opens in theatres in North America on May 23rd, and should hold first in the box office in its first few weeks. Nothing can keep the Mission: Impossible fans from getting excited, not to mention the excellent Lalo Schifrin MI score.
Trailer:
THE SURRENDER (USA/Canada 2025) ***½
Directed by Julia Max
When the family patriarch, Robert (Vaughn Armstrong), dies, a grieving mother, Barbara (Kate Burton) and daughter, Megan (Colby Minifie), risk their lives to perform a brutal resurrection ritual and bring him back from the dead.
Taking care of a sickly elderly parent is one of the most formidable tasks given to a son, daughter, or spouse. THE SURRENDER captures, in its first 30 minutes, the torture a daughter and wife of the ailing family patriarch have to go through in his dying days. Giving medication, taking care of his bowel movements and just watching him move in and out of consciousness while arguing constantly with each other, it is just too much for mother and daughter to bear. (I, and like many others, the situation is familiar. I had to look after my father with kidney disease and my mother with Alzheimer’s, so I appreciate the candidness of the story.) I am sure many in the audience will be able to identify with a similar situation.
THE SURRENDER is, at best, besides being a horror film succeeds more of a dark black comedy drama about family loss and grief. Being a caregiver of a loved one is an emotionally wrenching process and often when the person passes, it is a relief and life can go on as before. But not for Meghan and her mother, Barbara. They attempt to bring their dead loved one back to life. The big scene is when Barbara and Megan sleep beside Robert with Robert in the middle, only to wake up in the morning to find Robert dead with his mouth open.
It's an exploration of letting go of a loved one, but more important, letting go of the complex emotions surrounding our memories of them. When a family member dies, there's a moment when it feels unreal, as if there isn't a clear distinction between life and death.
Director Max also adds in some humour to the situation - humour that hits the nail on the head. The mother at one point tells the daughter to move her negative energy away, while the daughter pokes fun at the mother’s yoga instructor, whom the mother takes advice from. Funny too is when Megan first makes fun of what she calls her mother’s voodoo.
The mother and daughter's troubled dynamics play well, and the two actresses, Minifie and Burton, are both excellent, and they are a total hoot to watch. One can definitely observe how well the humour plays without it becoming silly. The segment when the mother confesses to Megan that she intends to bring Robert back to life is a case in point. The situtaion is well constructed and executed, funny but not silly, Megan to Barbara: “This (bringing Robert back to life) is fucking crazy!”
The film’s humour turns into gory violence in the second half, with director Max upping the ante in her scary tale with segments too gruesome to watch.
THE SURRENDER is director Max’s first film, and it is an impressive debut at that. Julia Max will definitely be a talent to look out for and a talent to be reckoned with.
THE SURRENDER is a Shudder original horror film that opens this week for streaming on the horror streaming service. This is one of Shudder’s better films.
Trailer:
