MOVIE REVIEW: HOPE

 

A police chief, a policewoman and a group of hunters try to track down and kill a mysterious creature that's laying waste to a Korean village.

Director: Na Hong-jin

Cast: Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender

Release Date: September 9, 2026

 

Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated R for strong bloody violent content and language throughout.

Runtime: 2h 36m

Review:

Hope, the latest South Korean sci-fi import, boasts a fun tone along with a series of impressively staged action sequences which propels the majority of the film before the story takes a turn that’s bound to be divisive.  Writer/Director, Na Hong-Jin, displays real confidence and talent behind the camera as he sets up the characters and mystery with impressive restraint as he builds tension before revealing the monsters, almost forty minutes into the film.  There are bits of 90’s Michael Bay smattered throughout as Hong-Jin uses a kinetic pace to establish the setting in town and in the forest that makes for a visually engaging experience that sets with the collections of characters.  The only thing keeping the action sequences from really hitting is some incredibly shoddy early 2000’s level CGI that’s rather distracting throughout.  The script doesn’t offer up a ton of backstory on the motley crew collection of locals, but it does give the whole thing a fun, almost goofy tone amidst all the carnage that recalls other genre bending movies like Shaun of the Dead or Return of the Living Dead.  There are some truly hilarious moments spread throughout the film with the cast showing off some strong comedic timing, a story from a survivor recounting his bathroom trip in the woods is a gut buster.  Hwang Jung-min bumbling police chief serves as the main character for the film, with him delivering solid work as he tries to be brave in the face of the horror unleashed on his unsuspecting town.  He brings a perfect, everyman quality to the character that serves the film well with him being believably frazzled from start to finish.  Zo In-sung brings more self-assured energy as his second cousin, Ko Sung-ki, who investigates the local woods with a group of his friends.   Jung Ho-Yeon brings a rather chaotic, unhinged energy as a rookie cop, Im Sung-ae, as soon as she appears onscreen about halfway through the film.  The rest of the characters are mostly a collection of types rather than fully realized people which is easier to forgive since the majority of them are little more than cannon fodder.  Issues start to pop up in the back half of the film as the story starts going in some unexpected directions with more than a handful of story threads left unanswered which makes the whole thing feel like set up for a sequel which may or may not come although Na Hong-Jin has stated the script for that sequel is complete.  As a standalone film, it leaves Hope slightly unsatisfying which is a shame since so much of the film works so incredibly well. 

B- 

MOVIE REVIEW: ONSLAUGHT

 

An Army sniper unleashes her lethal skills to protect her young daughter from a rogue squad of genetically engineered soldiers.

Director: Adam Wingard

Cast: Adria Arjona, Dan Stevens, Eric Wareheim, Reginald VelJohnson, Michael Biehn, Alex Pereira, Drew Starkey, Rebecca Hall

Release Date: September 4, 2026

 

Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated R for strong bloody violence, some gore, sexual material/nudity, and language.

Runtime: 1h 32m

Review:

Adam Wingard’s Onslaught is an efficient homage to 70’s/80’s B-movies with is barebone, bloody story offering up a set up to unleash a series of set of survival set pieces for Adria Arjona’s PTD riddled vet to survive as she protects her daughter.  Wingard is clearly in his wheelhouse as he delivers a slick looking pulp film that echoes 80’s John Carpenter at various points during its runtime along with a healthy dose of old school grindhouse film.  The action set pieces are all well-constructed and shot with a keen eye to make sure they leave a lasting impression especially when the murderous death squad appears.  The film is populated by over-the-top characterization with the villains being appropriately sleezy and kinky, which leaves you wishing the script had given them a bit more to do.  Michael Biehn, Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens are both more than game to play in this sandbox, but the film never takes advantage of their substantial talents with their roles being little more than extended cameos.   Drew Starkey has a bit more time to work with his special operative character, Cyrus, who is deployed to contain the death squad.  Adria Arjona carries the lion’s share of the load here as she tries to squeeze out every bit of pathos out of her character.  Arjona is solid throughout, delivering a focused turn that’s engaging enough to make you care about her and her daughter’s survival.  The back half of the film turns from the bloody action of the first half into something that’s much closer to slasher horror.  The death squad turns into tactical gear adorned versions of Michael Myers, Jason and Leatherface as they stalk through the trailer park delivering more than a handful of effective jump scares along the way.  The series of fights that occur are brutally bloody bits of orchestrated mayhem with only the final face feeling a tad underwhelming.  Onslaught is the kind of movie that falls apart if you think about it too much and it has the presence of mind to move everything along at a steady pace and not overstay its welcome. 

B

MOVIE REVIEW: BUDDY

 

Dressed as a unicorn, a beloved children's TV host reveals his true self as a dark and violent force of nature.

Director: Casper Kelly

Cast: Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Patton Oswalt, Michael Shannon, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key

Release Date: August 28, 2026

 

Genre: Horror 

Rated R for bloody violence, some drug content and language – all involving children.

Runtime: 1h 35m

Review:

Buddy is a hilarious campy horror oddity that delivers as much gory fun as it does scares in a nightmarish multicolored kid’s show.  Casper Kelly carefully creates Buddy’s world with such attention to detail that the show itself could probably pass for the real deal.  There plenty of inspiration pulled from Barney along with bits and pieces of other children’s shows over the years.  It’s disarmingly familiar from the moment the film opens but there’s always a sense that there is something off kilter about the whole thing.  Kelly doesn’t take long to unfurl the insanity of the world these kids are trapped in with Keegan-Michael Key’s psychotic Buddy.  Keegan-Michael Key’s voices the character with impressive glee as he switches seamlessly between saccharine sweet and menacing.  He carries the lion’s share of the load as the lynch pin of the whole thing aided by some solid supporting turns from people like Patton Oswalt and Michael Shannon as other anthropomorphic characters.  Oswalt is lots of fun as Strappy, a talking backpack, who faces a full-on existential crisis as his world reveals itself to be incredibly murderous and fraught.  The child actors are just as strong, led by Delaney Quinn, who plays Cristin Milioti’s missing daughter.  Quinn plays up the children’s show actor initially before she finds out the level of danger, she finds herself in.  Milioti’s Grace does the most she can with her limited screentime, especially early on as she tries to remember a missing child nobody else seems to remember.  Once she’s sucked into Buddy’s realm she easily transitions into the adult players on show before coming to her senses and doing everything possible to save her daughter.  The story gets progressively darker as it goes along and there are a handful of juicy details tossed about that makes everything feel like some sort of twisted Monsters Inc which makes Buddy something distinctive in the horror genre.  

B+

MOVIE REVIEW: THE DOG STARS

 

Survivors of a deadly pandemic traverse a post-apocalyptic landscape to find the origin of a mysterious radio transmission.

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley,  Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong, Daisy Kakkar

Release Date: August 28, 2026

 

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated R for strong violence, and language.

Runtime:  1h 58m

Review:

The Dog Stars boast a top line director and cast but it struggles to find something new or interesting to say in a genre that’s been run ragged by this point.  Ridley Scott’s film is more of a meditation on grief and the ability to find hope after extreme loss with the occasional action set pieces replete with post-apocalyptic marauders.   Scott takes full advantage of the Italian landscape subbing in for the Rockies by delivering plenty of sweeping shots of the terrain as we follow Jacob Elordi’s Hig fly from spot to spot in his old Cessna.  The aforementioned action set pieces are all well-constructed jolts of energy when they take place however those expecting more of those moments will be left wanting for more.  The overall pacing of the film is strangely disjointed as we’re given large stretches of quiet character moments before those set pieces pop up.  There’s not much time spent on who or why these marauders have gone full Mad Max with only Allison Janney’s Grand Junction getting the slightest bit of backstory but her character comes and goes so quickly it barely leaves an impression.  There are some strange similarities with Neil Marshall’s underrated 2008 film, Doomsday, which is also populated with strange and dangerous survivors, but this film is so incredibly self-serious that it barely gives itself a moment to breathe.   The main cast keeps the whole thing from being a total disaster with Jacob Elordi delivering a solid, soulful turn as Hig who can’t let go of the memory of his wife.  He and Josh Brolin have great chemistry together onscreen, but the story separates them for large portions of time unfortunately.  It’s a shame because you can tell Brolin is having a ball playing Bangley, a gruff former Marine survivalist, who has been surviving on an abandoned airfield with Hig for an undetermined amount of time.  Margaret Qualley and Guy Pearce make up the rest of the main supporting characters with Pearce playing a different sort of gruff survivor although he’s more concerned with the safety of his daughter.  Qualley and Elordi work well together to make their relationship entertaining enough even though there’s nary a question the two will ultimately end up together by the time it’s all said and done.  It’s something that The Dog Stars suffers from in general, for all its thoughtful reflections on grief there’s very little that happens that’s surprising or revelatory which makes it all feel like a missed opportunity.   

C+

MOVIE REVIEW: COLONY

 

Trapped inside a sealed building during a deadly bioterrorist attack, a desperate group of survivors must navigate growing panic and betrayal as they fight to stay alive.

Director: Na Hong-jin

Cast:Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, Kim Shin-rok, Shin Hyun-been, Go Soo

Release Date: September 9, 2026

 

Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated R for bloody violent content and some language.

Runtime: 2h 3m

Review:

Yeon Sang-ho’s latest zombie horror film, Colony, is a kinetic action-packed zombie fest that packs together a handful of tropes into a bloody, mucus filled goodtime.  Sang-ho film waste little time taking off as his script is decidedly lean on characterization, focusing instead on sleek pulse pounding action set pieces.  Those action sequences are impressive across the board as infected people fling themselves at survivors in a steady succession of increasingly complicated contortions.  It all plays out like the slimiest Cirque du Soleil performance ever to occur in a mall.   The setting will illicit memories of Dawn of the Dead, the original and remake, but there are more than a few whiffs of the 28 Days Later franchise and The Last of Us series thrown in for good measure.  The central concept of an evolving zombie hivemind horde gives the action a dash of freshness as the survivors have to constantly keep on their toes with the infected learning their tactics.  None of the concepts, including the hive mind, is terribly groundbreaking but it’s a testament to Sang-ho’s talent as a director that it’s all so thoroughly entertaining especially if you’re looking for a fun zombie thrill ride.  While there’s plenty of splatter fun to enjoy during the film’s frenetic two-hour runtime, the characters are all little more than thinly scripted types with none of them getting enough time to get properly fleshed out.   Jun Ji-hyun’s biotechnology professor, Kwon Se-jeong, serves as the film’s defacto lead with her bringing strong, confident screen presence to the role.  She exudes self-determination and intelligence throughout which leaves you wishing the script had given the character a tad more depth to fully take advantage of her performance.  Koo Kyo-hwan’s bio terrorist, Seo Young-cheol, who caused the outbreak takes center stage in the second half of the film and is played with enough nefarious glee that you just can’t wait for him to get his comeuppance.  The rest of the supporting cast does its best with their limited screentime with only the brother sister duo, played by Ji Chang-wook and Kim Shin-rok, leaving a noticeable impact.  Once its all said and done, Colony, may not reach the heights of Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan but its still a bloody fun zombie film.  

B

MOVIE REVIEW: HOT SPOT

 

In a near-future society ruled by sentient AI, a private eye who's investigating a murder case encounters a rebel group that's capable of undermining the digital overlord.

Director: Agnieszka Smoczynska

Cast: Andrzej Konopka, Noomi Rapace, Reika Kirishima 

Release Date: August 21, 2026

 

Genre: Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated R for strong violent content, gore, graphic nudity, sexual content and brief language.

Runtime: 1h 41m

Review:

Agnieszka Smoczynska’s Hot Spot starts off like a solid cyberpunk amalgam of The Matrix and Mad Max paired with striking visuals but whatever energy it starts with quickly fizzles as reveals a meandering, muddled plot that borders on absurdity at various points during its runtime.  Konopka’s garish visual style gives the film a psychedelic energy that should make the entire thing much more entertaining than it is.  Plot points are dictated at various points during the film which makes for more than a few moments of clunky exposition that doesn’t come close to explaining what’s going on outside of the most basic aspect of the AI totalitarian dystopia on display.  All other bits of oddity thrown on screen like Andrzej Konopka’s detective, Jan 623, generally bizarre wardrobe and look, man eating pet worm, or his partner randomly having elf ears aren’t given even a passing line of explanation.  Konopka seems dead set to make things odd just for the sake of being odd with these choices, amounting to nothing in the grand scheme of the story.  The script has plenty of ideas bouncing around but it doesn’t have any conception of how to form these assorted themes and concepts into a cohesive whole.  While the film has a decidedly advent garde looks and feel there barely enough to make any of it engaging enough for you to care about what’s going on, making the whole thing an increasingly difficult slog as the film drags on with very little actually happening.  The primary cast of Andrzej Konopka, Noomi Rapace and Reika Kirishima have all clearly bought into the director’s vision and seem primed and ready to do anything and everything she asks of them.  It’s shame that they’re given virtually nothing to work with outside of the most abstract bits of a concept, none of which is fully realized.  The cast generally seems desperate to be given something substantial or meaningful to work with.  It all makes Hot Spot feel like a hollow, wasted attempt at a film that’s so incoherent and incomplete that it leaves you wondering how it all went so wrong during the creation of the project.  

D-