MOVIE REVIEW: SCARY MOVIE 6

 

Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer, Shorty, Ray, Cindy and Brenda find themselves targeted by another mad slasher.

Director: Michael Tiddes

Cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Cheri Oteri, Chris Elliott, Dave Sheridan, Lochlyn Munro, Jon Abrahams, Anthony Anderson, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans 

Release Date: June 5, 2026

Genre: Comedy, Horror

Rated R for crude sexual content, graphic nudity, strong violence, and drug content and language throughout.

Runtime: 1h 36m

Review:

Scary Movie 6 sees the return of the Wayans brothers and nearly everybody from the original movie for what should be a raucous return for horror spoof franchise unfortunately what we get is a collection of mostly unfunny and lifeless scenes that recycle tired jokes more often than not.  There’s plenty of fertile ground in the horror genre to pick from over the last twenty-five years they could have mined to spoof but for some reason it fumbled away as we get unconnected recreations of famous scenes but little more.  Five writers are credited, including three Wayans, which just leaves you wondering why they couldn’t deliver something slightly a tad more cohesive and funnier.  The jokes do come at a steady pace but most of them just don’t land mainly because they’re fairly lazy and predictable.  The plot is still using the Scream franchise as its overall template, borrowing heavily from Scream 5, which seems more than a little passé by this point.  It would all work better if the spoofs of recent horror hits were worked into the flow of the film as opposed to random non sequitur tangents.  It would all be more forgivable if they were at least funny and took advantage of the talented cast.  Anna Faris and Regina Hall are highlights of the whole thing, especially when they get to work off each other, but those moments are few and far between.  Faris’ best moments don’t come until the very random John Wick spoof in the final act that also throws up the cleverest concept of the whole film which leaves you wondering why the concept of legacy characters killing off reboot characters wasn’t the central thread holding it all together all along.  The rest of the cast do what they can with what they are given with Marlon and Shawn Mayans regurgitating the same weed and gay jokes from the first two films while Olivia Rose Keegan, who delivers a rather fun impression of Faris as her daughter, and Cameron Scott Roberts just seem to be begging for something to do.  Cheri Oteri, Dave Sheridan and Anthony Anderson along with a handful of other familiar faces return for small cameos that aren’t as impactful or funny as they should be.  Scary Movie 6 ends up feeling like a massive misfire since the Wayans have proven to be more than capable of delivering a solid spoof with the first Scary Movie and I'm Gonna Git You Sucka serving as prime examples of how funny they can be. 

D

MOVIE REVIEW: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

 

Bob is a washed-up revolutionary who lives in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited and self-reliant daughter, Willa. When his evil nemesis resurfaces and Willa goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her as both father and daughter battle the consequences of their pasts.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti

Release Date: September 26, 2025

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Rated R for pervasive language, violence, sexual content, and drug use

Runtime: 2h 50m

Review:

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another delivers a little bit of everything with bits of humor, drama and heartfelt emotion, melded into an epic chase movie that’s populated by a collection of caricatures brought to life by its top tier cast.   Anderson’s film pulsates with energy from the moment it starts and rarely lets up which is an impressive feat for a film that’s nearly three hours long.  He stages big set pieces throughout the film that give the film an epic feel, culminating in a cleverly shot car chase over a series of hills.  There’s a constant beat to the whole thing as we follow Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob journey from revolutionary to paranoid, burnout single father who’s just trying to do the best he can with his daughter.  We follow his torrid love affair with Teyana Taylor’s all-in extremist, Perfidia Beverly Hills, which takes a turn once she’s pregnant and Bob reassesses his life.  The story is draped in a series of hot topic issues such as domestic terrorism and extreme immigration enforcement, but it never delves into them in any substantive way.  The characters exist on opposite ends of the power structure, and both use the levels available to them to reach their ultimate goals which allows for a rather colorful collection of characters to be thrown onscreen. Leonardo DiCaprio leads the way with an unglamourous role that he dives right into with impressive gusto.  There is a fair amount of depth to his character as he evolves from his frenetic love affair with Perfidia to what he becomes sixteen years after the fact.  He does his best work after the time jump by delivering a level of authenticity behind his bumbling burnout with his heartbreak for his lost love and genuine drive to save his daughter.  DiCaprio and Chase Infiniti have a moment near the end of the film that delivers an emotional, heartfelt exclamation to the whole story.  Infiniti, in her big screen debut, proves to be more than capable of holding up her side of the story by giving her character a believable naiveite to start before moving into self-survival mode.  She’s able to convey a hefty amount of emotional information with simple looks or gestures as she’s swept up in the insanity that her character is dropped into.  Sean Penn’s Col. Steven J. Lockjaw is a rather fascinating collection of facial tics and pent-up self-hatred.  Penn is clearly having a ball playing with the clear contradictions that make up the character from giving him a very specific gait when he walks, likely due to his secret proclivities, or his measure but off-putting speech pattern.  Benicio Del Toro is perfectly suited for his role as the laid-back karate sensi/migrant mover, but you wish the film had spent a bit more time on fleshing out the character to give him a bit of depth.  Likewise, Teyana Taylor’s Perfidia is a kinetic ball of anarchic energy in the film’s opening act leaving a strong impression, but the story takes her offscreen rather quickly never to return.  Small nitpicks aside, One Battle After Another is an engaging ride that is hard not to enjoy thanks to its razor sharp direction and strong performances.  

A-