Author: Laurie Coker

As a lifelong animal lover and advocate for their protection, I found Joshua Zeman’s Checkpoint Zoo to be one of the most impactful documentaries I’ve watched in years. The film highlights the incredible efforts of Feldman Ecopark’s owner, staff, and volunteers to rescue nearly 5,000 animals trapped in Kharkiv, Ukraine, when the Russian invasion turned… Continue reading Checkpoint Zoo – a tribute to human bravery, compassion, and sacrifice amid chaos

Sometimes you just want a late-summer blast that doesn’t demand much of your brain beyond keeping up with the next punchline or the next punch. Nobody else delivers exactly that: a quick, 89-minute burst of bone-crunching, campy chaos that swaps the first film’s surprise for a looser, more playful good time. Directed by Timo Tjahjanto,… Continue reading Nobody 2: a quick, 89-minute burst of bone-crunching, campy chaos

I’m not a big horror fan. There are exceptions—filmmakers who avoid lazy jump-scares and create something hauntingly memorable—but most horror movies leave me indifferent. Still, I went to see Weapons with a group of friends: three walked out raving, one firmly declared they “hate horror,” but stayed curious. The premise is compelling: at exactly 2:17… Continue reading Weapons: confident unforgettable filmmaking – just not for me

Let me start by saying I’ve never been the biggest fan of spoof comedies—the kind of films where jokes fly so fast you don’t have time to decide if the last one was even funny. Slapstick and wordplay, pratfalls and puns—it’s not the flavor I usually crave. That said, I try to watch movies on… Continue reading The Naked Gun (2025)- not a bad remake of a classic spoof

I do like dark satire—and when it’s done well, there’s nothing more cathartic. Oh, Hi! isn’t perfect, but it commits hard to its tone, and I appreciate the audacity of that. Writer-director Sophie Brooks clearly has something to say about gender roles, dating clichés, and the way post-breakup narratives get warped—and she says it through… Continue reading Oh Hi – a scathing and wild satire on dating

Happy Gilmore 2, now streaming on Netflix, is less a standalone film than a nostalgic sideshow built for longtime Adam Sandler fans. It leans heavily on callbacks and cameos, functioning more like a reunion special than a sequel with fresh legs. That said, for anyone who remembers the original’s crude charm, this return visit might… Continue reading Happy Gilmore 2 – a nostalgic sideshow built for longtime Adam Sandler fans

Drowning Dry, directed by Laurynas Bareiša, is not a film that announces itself loudly. Instead, it moves with quiet certainty and emotional precision, gradually unraveling a domestic story with the weight of a psychological thriller. What begins as a lakeside weekend to celebrate a child’s birthday and a martial arts victory turns into a haunting… Continue reading Drowning Dry — A Quietly Devastating Exploration of Family, Memory, and What-Ifs

James Gunn’s Superman is a confident, often charming reboot that understands what makes the character resonate, but also occasionally leans so hard on familiarity and messaging that it forgets to dig deeper. The film drops us into a fully-formed DC Universe, skipping over the usual origin story and opening instead on a bruised and bleeding… Continue reading Superman: Gunn’s Reboot Flies, Even If It Doesn’t Break the Sound Barrier

There’s suspension of disbelief, and then there’s Jurassic World: Rebirth—the latest, and hopefully final, gasp from a franchise that once roared but now mostly wheezes. Directed by Gareth Edwards with Steven Spielberg still listed as an executive producer, the film feels less like a thrilling new chapter and more like a stitched-together collage of better… Continue reading Jurassic World: Rebirth – A Fossilized Franchise in Desperate Need of Extinction