Masters of the Universe (2026) | REVIEW

The villain ‘Skeletor’ (Jared Leto) in Travis Knight’s MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE — PHOTO: Amazon MGM Studios & Sony Pictures Releasing International (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Travis Knight — Screenplay by Chris Butler, Aaron Nee, Adam Nee, and David Callaham.

I can’t say that I have much of a prior relationship with the 1980s Mattel toy line or the animated series that were built around it (or, for that matter, a big relationship with the 1987 live-action film adaptation). In fact, even though I’m pretty sure I saw the Dolph Lundgren film when I was young, I mostly know the characters from my father, who, still to this day, quotes Frank Langella’s Skeletor from time to time. Still, I was curious to see what a new film adaptation of the story could be like, especially given the years of development hell it went through. Well, Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe was recently released on Amazon Prime Video, so I finally got to see the film just the other day. Having now seen it, I will say that I mostly enjoyed the Bumblebee-director’s attempt at giving new life to He-Man and the many characters, but I don’t think this is a complete home run.

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Balls Up (2026) | REVIEW

Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser in BALLS UP — PHOTO: Amazon MGM Studios (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Peter Farrelly (Ricky Stanicky) — Screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

Peter Farrelly’s Balls Up follows product inventor Elijah DeBell (played by Paul Walter Hauser) and salesman Brad Lewison (played by Mark Wahlberg) as the mismatched duo travel to Brazil to pitch their newly developed condom, which is a condom that goes over the testicles. They, and their company, are hopeful that the condom can become ‘the official condom of the World Cup’ that the country is hosting. Even though they initially impress the representatives they meet, an incident at a party leads to them losing the deal that they were working towards. Instead, Elijah and Brad find themselves at the World Cup final, drunk and frustrated over the fact that another lesser company got the role that they had worked hard for. Feeling taunted by the World Cup mascot, Elijah and Brad run onto the pitch in the final moments of the game and are to blame for Brazil ultimately losing the match. Now, they’re stuck in Brazil, where they have become public enemies, and they have to navigate dangerous situations if they are to survive.

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Crime 101 (2026) | REVIEW

Barry Keoghan (Left) and Chris Hemsworth (Right) in Bart Layton’s CRIME 101 — PHOTO: AMAZON MGM STUDIOS (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Bart Layton — Screenplay by Bart Layton.

Based on a Don Winslow novella of the same name, Bart Layton’s Crime 101 follows a disciplined and lonely thief named Mike (played by Chris Hemsworth), who has done a good job of avoiding capture and planning out his robberies over the years. Now, after having completed a mission in which he stole diamonds (but which almost cost him his life), he’s on the fence about what to do next and is unsure about going straight into the next heist, even though his underworld middleman, Money (played by Nick Nolte), is frustrated by his unwillingness to go straight into the next job. So, while Mike strikes up a romance with a woman he encounters named Maya (played by Monica Barbaro), Money enlists a wild and unpredictable thief called Ormon (played by Barry Keoghan) to do what Mike won’t and possibly cut off the loose end that Mike personifies. Meanwhile, LAPD detective Lou Lubesnick (played by Mark Ruffalo) has managed to connect the crimes Mike committed and has determined that one person committed all of them. While both the criminal underworld and law enforcement are trying to track down Mike, he attempts to juggle a blossoming romantic relationship with getting ‘one last job’ done so that he can put his criminal days behind him for good. That ‘last job’ will involve Sharon Combs (played by Halle Berry), an increasingly disgruntled insurance broker, who may or may not be interested in breaking bad.

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John Candy: I Like Me (2025 – Documentary) | REVIEW

PHOTO: Amazon MGM Studios.

Directed by Colin Hanks.

Not a month goes by in my family without someone referencing Uncle Buck. It’s fair to say that John Candy has a special place in both my heart and the hearts of my family members. Therefore, I was especially excited to watch Colin Hanks’ film about John Candy‘s life, which, tragically, ended much too soon back in 1994. Actor John Candy, a gentle giant with a special comedic talent, is best known for Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and the many other John Hughes films in which he appeared. This latest Amazon Prime Video documentary paints a beautiful portrait of Candy but is, ultimately, both heartwarming and heartbreaking, as you see how many lives he touched, how much of a positive inspiration he was to others in the industry, but also the hole that he left behind for his family. A beloved father, actor, and comedian, John Candy was larger than life, and the documentary does a good job of emphasizing just how talented he was with archival footage of his Second City skits, his films, and plenty of footage of him making public appearances and still being witty as ever.

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War of the Worlds (2025) | REVIEW

Still image of title card from trailers — PHOTO: Universal Pictures.

Directed by Rich Lee — Screenplay by Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman.

Only rarely is a movie deemed to be so bad that its reputation takes on a life of its own. In the case of Amazon Prime’s War of the Worlds, we have one of the most critically derided films released by a streaming service, maybe ever. Not only is it narratively unsound, a visual disappointment, and a poor adaptation of a well-known narrative, but the film as a whole also represents everything film critics, cinephiles, and film historians fear about the state of cinema and its future. This is a film with shameless corporate self-promotion on the part of the streaming service, which shows no appreciation for the material it is adapting or any apprehension about what they might treat their audience to. The Ice Cube-led War of the Worlds film from Amazon is, like you’ve heard, the worst film you’re likely to see this year. It is, at once, both embarrassing and alarming how faulty and ill-conceived it is. 

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You’re Cordially Invited (2025) | REVIEW

Margot (Reese Witherspoon) and Jim (Will Ferrell) in YOU’RE CORDIALLY INVITED — PHOTO: Glen Wilson/Prime Video

Directed by Nicholas Stoller — Screenplay by Nicholas Stoller.

You’re Cordially Invited is the second Amazon Prime Video January release since 2023 to be explicitly a comedy about weddings. Back in 2023, it was the Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Lopez action rom-com Shotgun Wedding, which was relatively forgettable despite having a decent cast. This latest Prime Video wedding-centric January release is a star vehicle for Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon from Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Neighbors director Nicholas Stoller. Although, admittedly, it isn’t as good as Stoller’s best films, I had a relatively good time with this comedy of wedding hijinx one-upmanship. 

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Brothers (2024) | REVIEW

Peter Dinklage, Glenn Close, and Josh Brolin in BROTHERS — PHOTO: Prime Video.

Directed by Max Barbakow — Screenplay by Macon Blair.

Max Barbakow’s Brothers, from a script by Macon Blair (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore), is a buddy action crime comedy that follows twin brothers Moke (played by Josh Brolin) and Jady Munger (played by Peter Dinklage) who, after a shared history of crimes over the years, team-up to do ‘one last job’ together. During their previous ‘last job’ years ago, Jady was apprehended and sent to prison while Moke managed to get away, and so at the start of the film, they find themselves on opposite ends of life. Jady has just gotten out of prison, under suspicious circumstances, while Moke is trying to start a family and live as a law-abiding citizen. However, when Moke loses his job due to his criminal past, Jady finds an angle to convince his brother to join up with him for a road trip and a heist. Meanwhile, we discover that Jady made a shady deal with an aggressive crooked cop (played by Brendan Fraser) and his judge father (played by M. Emmet Walsh), who intend to keep track of whether or not Jady follows through on their deal.

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Road House (2024) | REVIEW

(L-R) Jake Gyllenhaal and Conor McGregor in ROAD HOUSE (2024) — PHOTO: Amazon MGM Studios / Prime Video (Still image from the trailer).

Directed by Doug Liman (Chaos Walking) — Screenplay by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry.

Whether its fans liked it or not, for more than ten years, there had been talk of an attempt to remake the Rowdy Herrington 1989 action cult classic Road House starring Patrick Swayze. Now in 2024, it is finally here, as it has been remade for modern audiences by The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, whose remake stars Jake Gyllenhaal in the role popularized by Patrick Swayze’s iconic performance — Dalton. Like in the 1989 film, Dalton is hired to be the bouncer at a bar early on in Liman’s film, but there have been significant changes, including the fact that now Dalton has a background in UFC fighting. He doesn’t have the steely focus as a professional bouncer either. Rather we first meet him as he gets ready to scam fighters in an underground circuit. In these opening scenes, Dalton is suicidal and only narrowly survives a suicide attempt early in the film. When he finally gets to the bar that he is supposed to be the bouncer at — a sunny, tropical Florida-set bar called ‘The Road House’ — it doesn’t take long for him to get involved in a fight to get a motorcycle gang off the premises. Soon, a local crime boss (played by Billy Magnussen) tasks the psychotic enforcer Knox (played by Conor McGregor) with taking out Dalton for good.

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‘Hijack,’ ‘The Crowded Room,’ ‘Ted Lasso,’ ‘Silo,’ ‘Jury Duty,’ and ‘Black Mirror’ (2023) | Bite-Sized Reviews

(L-R) Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso (Apple TV+), Idris Elba in Hijack (Apple TV+), Rebecca Ferguson in Silo (Apple TV+), Tom Holland in The Crowded Room (Apple TV+), Ronald Gladden in Jury Duty (Amazon Studios), and Aaron Paul in Black Mirror (Netflix).

In this edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, I take a look at six series or seasons that I recently finished, four of which are Apple TV+ releases. The outliers are Netflix’s latest season of Black Mirror and the Amazon surprise hit of the year titled Jury Duty, but the remaining four series do a good job of showcasing how Apple’s series library is growing rapidly. Are any of these worth your time? Well, let’s have a look.

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AIR (2023) | REVIEW

Matt Damon and Viola Davis in AIR — PHOTO: Amazon Prime Video.

Directed by Ben Affleck — Screenplay by Alex Convery.

Ben Affleck’s AIR is a biographical drama about the origin of the highly successful original AIR Jordan basketball shoe, which was designed with Michael Jordan in mind when he had yet to actually play an NBA game. It follows Sonny Vaccaro (played by Matt Damon), a basketball talent scout for Nike, as he tries to convince first Nike and then Michael Jordan and his parents, including his mother Deloris (played by Viola Davis), to choose Nike, which was, at that time, not the massive company that it is today, as his brand of choice. There are, however, quite a few obstacles that Sonny must overcome. Jordan allegedly prefers Adidas, Nike likely cannot afford to compete with Adidas for his signature, Nike is considering axing their basketball division, and Sonny doesn’t have the best relationship with Jordan’s agent (played by Chris Messina).

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