October 15, 2026
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Alexander Volkanovski, Andrew Koji, Andrew Schulz, Callina Liang, Cody Rhodes, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, David Dastmalchian, Don Lee, Eric Andre, Hirooki Goto, Jason Momoa, Joe "Roman Reigns" Anoa'i, Kitao Sakurai, Kyle Mooney, Mel Jarnson, Noah Centineo, Olivier Richters, Orville Peck, Rayna Vallandingham, Street Fighter, Street Fighter 2026, Vidyut Jammwal
What exactly is a street fighter? (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)
Starring: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Andrew Schulz, Eric André, Vidyut Jammwal, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jason Momoa, Don Lee, Orville Peck, Olivier Richters, Hirooki Goto, Mel Jarnson, Rayna Vallandingham, Alexander Volkanovski, Kyle Mooney
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Over-the-Top Candy-Coated Action Violence and Some Cheeky Hints of Nudity
Release Date: October 16, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: It’s 1993, and the best combatants on the globe are converging in Metrolao City for the second World Warrior Tournament. The top attractions are American bad boy Ken (Noah Centineo) and Japanese orphan Ryu (Andrew Koji), who were best friends until the death of their mentor drove them apart. Rounding out the bill are a colorful cast of fighters sporting unforgettable fashions and supernatural abilities. Mostly operating outside the tournament is Chun-Li (Callina Liang), who’s intent on avenging her father’s death at the hands of M. Bison (David Dastmalchian), the dictator who has nefariously organized the tournament. Also, there are animated sequences to explain some of the backstory.
What Made an Impression?: Ham It Up: For a Street Fighter movie to be taken seriously by audiences in 2026, it must take itself profoundly unseriously. So it’s no surprise then that the most memorable performances are the most over-the-top or counterintuitive ones. Ergo, Dastmalchian chews as much scenery as possible, while Eric André is his typical id-driven self as the announcer Don Sauvage. On the other end of the spectrum is Kyle Mooney as a dorky Interpol agent with a huge crush on Chun-Li. But really everyone in the cast is given free reign to be as colorful as they want. And I’ve certainly got to hand it to (a barely recognizable) Centineo for lovingly lampooning the pretty boy persona.
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: If you ever forget what decade this movie is set in, that amnesia won’t last but more than a second. That’s because the soundtrack is filled to the brim with the likes of Soundgarden, 4 Non Blondes, and White Zombie. I’m happy to rock out to this era, but it’s also a bit much. It felt like someone merely pushed play on a “Most Xtreme Hits of the 90s” Spotify playlist without actually curating it with an eye to how well it would match up to each scene. Some of the set pieces manage to have some resonance with these tracks, but at a certain point, you can’t help but groan, “Okay, we get it, you wish that Bill Clinton was still president.”
Having Too Much Fun: Director Kitao Sakurai and his co-screenwriter T.J. Fixman bring plenty of self-aware flourishes to ensure that the nostalgia isn’t just empty calories. That’s epitomized by an ESPN-style documentary (complete with what sounded like Chris Berman narration) telling the tale of Ken and Ryu. Everyone involved knows how silly this whole affair is, and that’s absolutely the wisest approach. But at a certain point, their enthusiasm becomes a little unbridled, as the clever playfulness gives way to overwhelming cacophony. It’s still a good time for anyone with any affection for the video games, but it also feels like a missed opportunity for an honest-to-goodness masterpiece that wasn’t that far out of reach.
Street Fighter (2026) is Recommended If You Like: Wrestlers turned actors, Rappers turned actors, Video games turned cultural objects
Grade: 3 out of 5 Hadoukens
January 12, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Sports, Television
@fter Midnight, Australian Open, Creative Arts Emmys, Emmys, Eric André Live Near Broadway, Eric Andre, Kali Uchis, Mean Girls, Mean Girls 2024, Orquídeas, Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations, Primetime Emmys, Soul, Tennis, The Book of Clarence, The Vaccines
Where’s the Ranch?! (CREDIT: Adult Swim)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–The Book of Clarence (Theaters)
–Mean Girls (Theaters) – They’re singing this time.
–Soul (Theatrical Re-Release) – Finally, there’s some Soul in the theater!
TV
-Creative Arts Emmy Awards (January 13 on FXX)
-Primetime Emmy Awards (January 15 on FOX)
–@fter Midnight Series Premiere (January 16 on CBS) – The successor to @midnight; Taylor Tomlinson hosts.
-Eric André Live Near Broadway (January 18 on Adult Swim)
Music
-Kali Uchis, Orquídeas
-The Vaccines, Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations
Sports
Australian Open (January 14-28 on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN+)
November 15, 2023
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Addison Rae, Amanda Barker, Amy Schumer, Anderson .Paak, Andrew Rannells, Anna Kendrick, Ashley Liao, Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Burn Gorman, Camila Cabello, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Daveed Diggs, David Fynn, Eli Roth, Eric Andre, Fionnula Flanagan, Francis Lawrence, Gabriel Davenport, George Somner, Gina Gershon, GloZell, Hunter Schafer, Icona Pop, Isobel Jesper Jones, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Jason Schwartzman, Jenna Warren, Josh Andrés Rivera, Justin Timberlake, Kenan Thompson, Kevin Michael Richardson, Kid Cudi, Kunal Nayyar, Max Raphael, Milo Manheim, Nell Verlaque, Nick Benson, Patrick Dempsey, Patti Harrison, Peter Dinklage, Rachel Zegler, Rick Hoffman, Ron Funches, RuPaul, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving 2023, Thanksgiving movie, The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Tim Dillon, Tom Blyth, Tomaso Sanelli, Trolls, Trolls Band Together, Troye Sivan, Viola Davis, Walt Dohrn, Zoe Renee, Zooey Deschanel, Zosia Mamet
Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving! (CREDIT: Pief Weyman/TriStar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Starring: Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Josh Andrés Rivera, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman, Fionnula Flanagan, Burn Gorman, Ashley Liao, Max Raphael, Zoe Renee, Nick Benson, Isobel Jesper Jones, George Somner
Director: Francis Lawrence
Running Time: 157 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Kids Killing Kids
Release Date: November 17, 2023 (Theaters)
Thanksgiving
Starring: Nell Verlaque, Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Rick Hoffman, Gabriel Davenport, Gina Gershon, Tim Dillon, Tomaso Sanelli, Jenna Warren, Amanda Barker
Director: Eli Roth
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Rating: R for Having Some Friends Over for Dinner, and a Trampoline Striptease
Release Date: November 17, 2023 (Theaters)
Trolls Band Together
Starring: Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Camila Cabello, Eric André, Kid Cudi, Troye Sivan, Daveed Diggs, Amy Schumer, Andrew Rannells, Zosia Mamet, Kenan Thompson, RuPaul, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Icona Pop, Ron Funches, Anderson .Paak, Kunal Nayyar, David Fynn, Kevin Michael Richardson, Patti Harrison, Walt Dohrn, GloZell
Director: Walt Dohrn
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Rating: PG for Some Mild Worries About Being Eaten Alive
Release Date: November 17, 2023 (Theaters)
More
December 16, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Adam Buxton, Bobby Canavale, Bono, Chelsea Peretti, Eric Andre, Garth Jennings, Halsey, Jennifer Saunders, Letitia Wright, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Kroll, Nick Offerman, Peter Serafinowicz, Pharrell Williams, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Sing, Sing 2, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly
Sing 2 (CREDIT: Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures)
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Bobby Canavale, Tori Kelly, Nick Kroll, Halsey, Pharrell Williams, Nick Offerman, Letitia Wright, Eric André, Chelsea Peretti, Bono, Garth Jennings, Adam Buxton, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Serafinowicz
Director: Garth Jennings
Running Time: 112 Minutes
Rating: PG for Threats of Grievous Bodily Harm
Release Date: December 22, 2021 (Theaters)
In Sing 2, Bobby Canavale voices wolf/media mogul Jimmy Crystal, who’s basically the lupine version of the studio executive that Graham Chapman played in Monty Python‘s “20th Century Vole” sketch. He says that he wants to see something “big” and “different,” but really that’s just code for “I’m impossible to please!” When we first meet him, he’s auditioning a menagerie of potential acts for his next live show, and they all look pretty unique to me. I mean, have you ever seen a lemur sing Billie Eilish’s “Bury a Friend” while doing gymnastics or a trio of ducklings nailing Eminem’s “My Name Is” while dressed like Dick Van Dyke-style chimney sweeps? Maybe Jimmy Crystal has, because he immediately dismisses them with a “been there, done that” attitude. So what does he want? Guaranteed cash flow, I assume, because just about the only thing that excites him is the mention of legendary lion Clay Calloway (voiced by Bono), a rock icon-turned-recluse who nobody’s heard from ever since his wife died. And for some reason, plucky koala impresario Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) has promised that he can book Calloway.
Moon and his musical crew are basically in the business of putting on the sort of live musical spectacular that you’d see at Las Vegas. They perform a jukebox medley of all sorts of hit songs along with a vague storyline. At the beginning of Sing 2, they’re putting on something inspired by Alice in Wonderland, but they’re eventually told to come up with something original, so resident librettist pig Gunter (Nick Kroll) crafts a space opera about traversing the planets of War and Joy. That sounds like a pretty great show to me! They don’t need a giant cat voiced by one of the most famous rock stars of all time to make it work. I mean, I’m not saying that they should get rid of Bono, but I understand the over-the-top theater kid appeal of this endeavor with or without him.
The other major thought about Sing 2 that I want to express has to do with its inclusion of U2 songs. Quite a few are featured, and the implication seems to be that in the Sing universe, every single U2 song is a Clay Calloway song, which suggests a whole host of metaphysical implications that I’m not sure writer-director Garth Jennings is prepared to grapple with. (Or maybe he is! And if so, I’d love to hear his thoughts.)
Anyway, this is all pretty lightweight, but I can’t deny that my ears pricked up and my heart swelled at some key moments. The voice cast has been assembled for good reason. Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, and Taron Egerton all know how to sing. And I’m particularly invested in Tori Kelly as nervous elephant Meena, because she’s a 100% Certified Cutie (Kelly, that is, not Meena, although I don’t judge if you’re into cartoon pachyderms). Halsey joins the fun with a full-on Joisey accent, while Kroll, Eric André, and Chelsea Peretti deliver an acceptable amount of funny. It’s bright, it’s buoyant, and my only major disappointment is that the Minions didn’t show up again after they appeared for the Illumination production logo.
Sing 2 is Recommended If You Like: Relentless soundtracks, Cartoon characters embodying clichés about evil media moguls, Elephant trunks holding ice cream cones
Grade: 3 out of 5 Big Leagues
March 26, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television
Bad Trip, Eric Andre, Evanescence, Lil Rel Howery, Pooch Perfect, Rebel Wilson, Solar Opposites, The Bitter Truth, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Tiffany Haddish
Pooch Perfect (CREDIT: Christopher Willard/ABC)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Bad Trip (Streaming on Netflix) – Eric Andre strings Lil Rel and Tiffany Haddish along for his shenanigans.
TV
–The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers Series Premiere (March 26 on Disney+) – Ducks never say die.
–Solar Opposites Season 2 (March 26 on Hulu)
–Pooch Perfect Series Premiere (March 30 on ABC) – Rebel Wilson hosts a dog grooming competish!
Music
-Evanescence, The Bitter Truth
March 26, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Bad Trip, Dan Curry, Eric Andre, Kitao Sakurai, Lil Rel Howery, Michaela Conlin, Tiffany Haddish
Bad Trip (CREDIT: Dimitry Elyashkevich/Netflix)
Starring: Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish, Michaela Conlin
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Running Time: 84 Minutes
Rating: R for Thoroughly Shameless Crudity, Nudity, and Psychoactive Drug Indulgence
Release Date: March 26, 2021 (Netflix)
I sure wish I had been able to experience Bad Trip in a packed theater, but at least my hearty laughs in my solo viewing experience were enough to fill my living room. This delightfully demented piece of guerilla filmmaking is basically a feature-length version of the man-on-the-street bits from Eric Andre’s anarchic eponymous Adult Swim talk show. Starring alongside Andre are a couple of famous funny people as well as dozens of unsuspecting members of the public. There’s a bit of a story (with the screenplay credited to Andre, Dan Curry, and director Kitao Sakurai), in which Florida Man Chris (Andre) has a chance meeting with his old school crush Maria (Michaela Conlin), who invites him to come check out her art gallery in New York City. He then invites his best pal Bud (Lil Rel Howery) on a road trip to the Big Apple, and they abscond in a car that belongs to Bud’s incarcerated sister Trina (Tiffany Haddish), who busts out and tracks down the boys with deadly intentions. The narrative actually hangs together a lot more nicely than I would expect in a prank film, but ultimately it’s just an excuse for a bunch of outrageous shenanigans.
Practical jokes can be hilarious, but ethically speaking, if you’re going to be a professional hooligan, you ought to be careful about who you select as the butts of your jokes. I approve of Andre’s mischief because he is consistently the target of his own pranks. He renders himself into every possible version of a fool, while the unsuspecting public provides another layer of humor by serving as witnesses struggling to make sense of the chaos unfolding around them. In Bad Trip, that chaos includes fake blood splatter, fake projectile vomit splatter, and fake semen splatter. (Shame is a foreign concept to Eric Andre.) The crowd might get hit by some shrapnel, but Andre’s the only one who’s truly suffering for his art.
Bad Trip unsurprisingly holds up when considered on a scene-by-scene basis. But it’s tough to sustain a narrative when utilizing a sketch-comedy sensibility. But shocker of shockers, it turns out that the script delivers some satisfying emotional payoffs to all of its characters. It helps that everyone involved takes a decidedly askew approach to the tropes of buddy flicks. For example, there’s a runner about the notorious 2004 Wayans Brothers cross-dressing comedy White Chicks that improbably gets its own little mini-arc and cathartic conclusion. We all need a space for our ids to run free every once in a while, and I’m so glad that Eric Andre and his cohorts have put theirs on display for all the world to see.
Bad Trip is Recommended If You Like: The Eric Andre Show, Jackass, Borat
Grade: 4 out of 5 Stolen Cars
June 30, 2020
jmunney
Comedy
Eric Andre, Eric Andre: Legalize Everything, Legalize Everything, stand-up comedy
Eric Andre: Legalize Everything (CREDIT: Brian Roedel/Netflix)
When you go to an Eric Andre show, you know what you’re getting yourself into. (Or at least you’d better.) But that sense of familiarity can also lead to a bit of a problem, or perhaps a challenge. Eric is always ready to regale us with stories of his drug-fueled and sex-filled escapades, and we know that, so there’s not much shock value to him delivering the most graphic details, whether they’re fully real or a tad embellished. Compare that to The Eric Andre Show on Adult Swim, which derives its wonderment from him interjecting his shenanigans into the unsuspecting public.
Ergo, the most satisfying moments of Andre’s Netflix special Legalize Everything arrive when he ropes in some folks who have no idea they’re about to become comedic cannon fodder. Like the boyfriend of an ex-fling of Eric’s who’s basically a jerkwad 80s movie villain, whom we get to know via a revealingly aggressive text exchange. Then there’s the (very cool) mom of an audience member who finds herself pranked into a surprise FaceTime session. Where others might lean back in the name of safety and propriety, Eric Andre always charges ahead like the most adorable butt-sniffing pit bull. He’s the wokest hedonist there ever could be. You know what he believes in? “Live, laugh, love.” We should all be filled with such ranch.
June 19, 2020
jmunney
Cinema, Comedy, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television
Amanda Seyfried, Billy Porter, Bob Dylan, Eric Andre, ESPYs, Gillian Jacobs, Homegrown, Joel McHale, Kevin Bacon, Legalize Everything, Matthew Rhys, Neil Young, Perry Mason, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Search Party, Sherman's Showcase, The Twilight Zone, You Should Have Left
Eric Andre: Legalize Everything (CREDIT: Brian Roede/Netflix)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–You Should Have Left (On Demand) – Blumhouse horror starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried.
TV
–Sherman’s Showcase Black History Month spectacular (June 19 on AMC and IFC) – Just in time for Juneteenth!
-2020 ESPYs (June 21 on ESPN)
–Perry Mason Series Premiere (June 21 on HBO) – The classic defense attorney returns to TV in the form of Matthew Rhys.
–Search Party Season 3 (June 25 on HBO Max)
–The Twilight Zone Season 2 (June 25 on CBS All Access) – Guest stars include Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, and Billy Porter.
Comedy
-Eric Andre: Legalize Everything (June 23 on Netflix) – Legalize “everything”? Including … ranch?
Music
-Bob Dylan, Rough and Rowdy Ways
-Neil Young, Homegrown
July 17, 2019
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Alfre Woodard, Beyoncé, Billy Eichner, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Disney remakes, Donald Glover, Eric Andre, Florence Kasumba, James Earl Jones, JD McCrary, John Kani, John Oliver, Jon Favreau, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Shahadi Wright Joseph, The Lion King, The Lion King 2019
CREDIT: Disney Enterprises
Starring: Donald Glover, JD McCrary, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, James Earl Jones, John Kani, John Oliver, Beyoncé, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Florence Kasumba, Eric Andre, Keegan-Michael Key
Director: Jon Favreau
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Rating: PG for Leonine Fratricide
Release Date: July 19, 2019
I’ve expressed before that Disney’s recent spate of remakes of its animated catalog is not an inherently bad idea. Plenty of stories have been told and then subsequently retold in fresh ways. For a classic example, William Shakespeare’s plays have remained relevant as many different versions have had their say over hundreds of years. But the major difference, and this is especially clear in the case of The Lion King, is the source document. A feature film that has been recorded on and uploaded onto a variety of durable formats sets a more indelible imprint than an initial theatrical performance that was presented before such recording technology existed. If you want to revisit the journey of Simba’s ascendance to the throne, you can always pop in the DVD or find the right streaming channel. Thus, a fresh feature length retelling demands that there be something new on offer.
The Jon Favreau-directed photoreal Lion King remake does in fact offer something new, at least (or if only) on a technical level. Every speck of dirt and strand of fur is rendered in painstaking fashion. But to what end? I’m reminded of Steven Soderbergh’s mashup of Hitchcock’s original Psycho and Gus van Sant’s remake, which is the sort of thing that you do just because you feel like it. And so, as far as I can tell, the team at Disney recreated the “Circle of Life” opening sequence with an updated animation style just because they felt like it. I have a bit of a Pavlovian reaction to that wonder of a kickoff, but this time it was just a secondhand Pavlov to a secondhand routine.
On a positive note, I will admit that I found this viewing experience valuable for making me feel more amenable to the adult perspective of believing that Simba just needs to get around to taking care of his responsibility. But I don’t know if that is a unique feature of this version or just a function of me happening to see this particular version instead of the original on this particular day.
In conclusion, while I have mostly focused on the disappointments, I do ultimately recommend nü-Lion King thanks to the Timon and Pumbaa of it all. As Simba’s meerkat and warthog companions, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen are given more free rein than anyone else in the cast to find the characterization that suits them. Their performances avoid any inadvisable postmodern Shrek-style smart-aleckry, while also suggesting that they are at least self-aware of the all-franchise-fare-all-the-time pop culture landscape they are operating within. If you’re going to go back to the well, you can’t be too precious about what came before, and thankfully, enough of Timon and Pumbaa’s non-preciousness is on display here for us to get by.
The Lion King is Recommended If You Like: The wonders of animation technology, Perfectly suited yin/yang comedy duos
Grade: 3 out of 5 Circles of Life
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