They brought Stitch back! And he brought the Thunder (CREDIT: Ingvar Kenne/A24; Disney/Screenshot; Marvel/Screenshot)

Lilo & Stitch (2025)

Starring: Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders, Sydney Elizabeth Agudong, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Magnussen, Courtney B. Vance, Hannah Waddingham, Kaipo Dudoit, Tia Carrere, Amy Hill

Director: Dean Fleischer Camp

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Rating: PG

Release Date: May 23, 2025 (Theaters)

Thunderbolts*

Starring: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce

Director: Jake Schreier

Running Time: 126 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: May 2, 2025 (Theaters)

Bring Her Back

Starring: Billy Barratt, Sally Hawkins, Sora Wong, Jonah Wren Phillips, Sally-Anne Upton, Stephen Phillips, Mischa Heywood

Directors: Danny and Michael Philippou

Running Time: 104 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: May 30, 2025 (Theaters)

Okay, wow, I just noticed something weird. Or maybe not that weird. And maybe millions of other folks have already noticed this before me. But that doesn’t mean it’s not weird!

Well, anyway, I’m just catching up with some quick off-the-cuff reactions to some of the movies I’ve seen in the theater recently, specifically the live action Lilo & Stitch, Thunderbolts* (with an asterisk), and Bring Her Back. And the thing I’ve just noticed is: all three of them are about home!

With L&S, that’s obvious, because the famous quote from the original is about ʻOhana, a Hawaiian term for family, and it’s been preserved for this reboot. Then the Thunderbolts* crew consists of a bunch of misfits who find home by going on an adventure together. Bring Her Back concludes this unlikely trilogy by offering a truly disturbing portrait of home in which a grieving mother played by Sally Hawkins “welcomes” her new foster children into her house by sneakily involving them in her unnatural scheme to resurrect her dearly departed daughter. All three of these movies reminded me that I’m glad I’ve got a home in my own life (multiple homes, really) and that I typically enjoy it when the characters in the movies I watch find their homes as well.

Grades:
Lilo & Stitch: 3 out of 5 Ohanas
Thunderbolts*: 3.5 out of 5 Ohanas
Bring Her Back: 4 out of 5 Ohanas