April 5, 2026
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Jack Black, Jack White, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 51, SNL, SNL Season 51
A Jack Snack: time to lap it up! (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)
Jeff “jmunney” Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then reviews all the sketches and segments according to a “wacky” theme.
Congratulations! To whom, you may ask? Why, to the universe, for finally allowing Jack Black and Jack White to share the bill on the same Saturday Night Live, specifically the April 4, 2026 episode. This also happens to be Mr. Black’s fifth time hosting, as well as Mr. White’s fifth time as solo musical guest (sixth time as MG when you include his stint as a member of The White Stripes).
Because of this yin/yang-style pairing, my Review Gimmick for this episode will involve determining a Pair of Opposites to represent each sketch and segment.
More
March 31, 2026
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Aaron Horvath, anya taylor-joy, Benny Safdie, Brie Larson, Charlie Day, Chris Pratt, Donald Glover, Glen Powell, Issa Rae, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Kevin Michael Richardson, Luis Guzmán, Michael Jelenic, Super Mario, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
As Yoshi as They Wanna Be (CREDIT: Nintendo and Illumination)
Starring: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Benny Safdie, Donald Glover, Brie Larson, Issa Rae, Luis Guzmán, Kevin Michael Richardson, Glen Powell
Directors: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Rating: PG for The Typical Peril
Release Date: April 1, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: The Mario Brothers are headed to outer … space! After subduing their iconic archvillain Bowser (Jack Black) in their initial Illuminated big screen adventure, Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) team up with a few new friends, like the dino-esque, tongue-heavy Yoshi (Donald Glover) and daredevil pilot Fox McCloud (Glen Powell). Then there’s the mysterious adoptive mother to a brood of squeaky-voiced star creatures, Rosalina (Brie Larson), who may just have a connection to the Mario brothers’ good buddy Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy). Getting to Rosalina is also a key part of the plan of the scrappy Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), who’s trying to retrieve his father and pull him back into the family business.
What Made an Impression?: Where’s My Controller?: After the massive success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it’s no surprise that my biggest takeaway from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is pretty much exactly the same. Which is to say: why not just play the games? The character designs and graphics are essentially identical, and the plot (such as it is) is just a series of jumps and flips into the power-ups of the Nintendo-verse. This outing felt at least a little different to me, as it’s primarily based on a game that was released at a time when I wasn’t playing too much. But different doesn’t necessarily mean exciting.
An Egg of an Idea: To get real with it, a Super Mario movie doesn’t really need to have a full-on plot to succeed. At least that’s how I feel based on the one part of this movie that I did unequivocally enjoy: a brief sequence in which Yoshi bops around town to the tune of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize.” If there could have been more of those diversions that offered a clear rush of imagination, then I would have been satisfied.
Banana?: One other thing that I kinda, sorta liked (or at least explicitly noticed) was a crew of blue-and-yellow robots that some quick googling tells me are probably Gearmos. Their color scheme in this movie is inescapably reminiscent of fellow Illumination crew the Minions. I don’t know if that reference was intentional, but any reminder of a much better cinematic franchise was welcome to get through this profoundly straightforward enterprise.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is Recommended If You: Spend all your time hitting your head against boxes and hoping that a star or flower will pop out of it
Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Lumas
December 23, 2025
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Anaconda, Anaconda 2025, Daniela Melchior, Ione Skye, Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Selton Mello, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Tom Gormican
They want more than none (CREDIT: Matt Grace)
Starring: Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Thandiwe Newton, Steve Zahn, Daniela Melchior, Selton Mello, Ione Skye
Director: Tom Gormican
Running Time: 99 Minutes
Rating: December 25, 2025 (Theaters)
Release Date: PG-13 for Chomping and Squeezing and Some Drug Tripping
What’s It About?: Back in the ’90s, a group of friends were dreaming of a silver screen future. But flash-forward to the 2020s, and they’ve all settled into B-grade (maybe B+) lives. Doug (Jack Black) is a wedding videographer whose cinematic instincts keep getting rebuffed by his clients; Griff (Paul Rudd) is a bit part actor whose big break is nowhere in sight; Kenny (Steve Zahn) is working as Doug’s screwup assistant and trying to get sober; and Claire (Thandiwe Newton) is adrift in her foundering marriage. Upon reuniting, they decide in the thrill of the moment to produce an amateur remake of one of their favorite movies of all time: the notorious 1997 creature feature Anaconda. So then they actually fly down to the Amazon, rent a real live snake, and start shooting an actual goshdang moving picture. But it doesn’t take long for things to become pear-shaped, as the crew gets tightly wrapped within a misadventure that’s starting to resemble the original way more than they bargained for.
What Made an Impression?: How Not to Get Bit By an Excess of Cleverness: I haven’t been closely following the pre-production leading up to 2025’s Anaconda, but this definitely feels like a case of desperately trying to reboot intellectual property by any means possible. Settling on a goofy self-aware version could have been too cute by half, but with Jack Black and Paul Rudd in the leads, you’ve got the exact right stars to thread the needle. And honestly, Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten’s script gets the point across pretty well on its own. As for the rest of the main players, Steve Zahn is absolutely a reliable enough supporting player, while Thandiwe Newton may be a little less practiced in this arena, but she understands the assignment as well as everybody else.
Subheading About What Made an Impression: As an example of how Anaconda makes the meta approach work, characters say the word “themes” as a punch line all by itself multiple times… and it works each time! (It certainly helps that one of the horror themes du jour they’re poking fun at is intergenerational trauma.)
Making It Happen: If Anaconda wants us to teach a lesson alongside all the slithering chaos, there are two opposing pitfalls it could have easily fallen into: telling us that it’s much safer to just give up on our dreams, or stubbornly insisting that we never give up on our dreams no matter what our reality. It’s not cynical enough for the former, and it’s actually thoughtful enough to avoid the latter. The message (as sweetly underscored by Doug’s wife Malie, played by the always-sweet Ione Skye) isn’t that we should just drop all our responsibilities to reclaim our lost passions. But rather, if we don’t give ourselves a chance (or at least an indulgence) every once in a while, our souls will just slowly wither away. And if we’re lucky, our most supportive loved ones will be there to nudge us along (and hopefully serve as our emergency contacts in case anything goes wrong!).
Anaconda (2025) is Recommended If You Like: Scream but wish that it were a creature feature
Grade: 3 out of 5 Themes
April 8, 2025
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
A Minecraft Movie, Andrew Barth Feldman, Andrew Burnap, Andy Grotelueschen, Ansu Kabia, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, Gal Gadot, George Salazar, Jack Black, Jared Hess, Jason Kravits, Jason Momoa, Jemaine Clement, Jennifer Coolidge, Jeremy Swift, Marc Webb, Martin Klebba, Patrick Page, Rachel House, Rachel Zegler, Sebastian Hansen, Snow White, Snow White 2025, Tituss Burgess
When it Snows, it blocks (CREDIT: Disney/Screenshot; Warner Bros./Screenshot)
Snow White
Starring: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Ansu Kabia, Patrick Page, Jeremy Swift, Tituss Burgess, Andrew Barth Feldman, Martin Klebba, Jason Kravits, George Salazar, Andy Grotelueschen
Director: Marc Webb
Running Time: 109 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: March 21, 2025 (Theaters)
A Minecraft Movie
Starring: Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Sebastian Hansen, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge, Rachel House, Jemaine Clement, Jared Hess
Director: Jared Hess
Running Time: 101 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: April 4, 2025 (Theaters)
A few days ago, I saw Snow White (the version where Rachel Zegler plays the Friend of Grumpy). Then the very next day, I saw A Minecraft Movie (the one released in 2025, in case you’re reading this in the future). And I couldn’t help but ask myself: would I like to live in either of these magical realms?
More
April 6, 2025
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Brandi Carlile, Elton John, Elton John and Brandi Carlile, Jack Black, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 50, SNL, SNL Season 50
a group of April Foolz (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)
Jeff “jmunney” Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then reviews all the sketches and segments according to a “wacky” theme.
Happy April, everybody! And I’m not fooling when I say that.
The reason I’ve assembled you all here today is to convene in the wake of the April 5, 2025 episode of Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by Jack Black, along with the two-for-one musical guest combo of Elton John and Brandi Carlile. It’s been 19 years and 4 months since Mr. Black last hosted, and that was one of my favorite SNL episodes ever. As for Mr. John and Mrs. Carlile, they’ve both graced the 30 Rock stage with their presence before, but never yet combining forces! So there’s plenty worth getting excited about here.
Since this is the first episode of April this year, I’m going to take inspiration from that old axiom of “April showers bring May flowers” and review each sketch and segment by concluding whether they’re more like showers, or more like flowers. That’s not to say that one is good and the other is bad – instead, it all depends on all the context.
And, away… we… go:
Trump Tariff Speech: More than a shower, this is a steady rain that keeps on persisting.
More
September 3, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Adria Arjona, Aileen Wu, Alex Neustaedter, Alia Shawkat, Alien: Romulus, Alison Pill, Amy Morton, Archie Renaux, Ariana Greenblatt, Ariel Donoghue, Édgar Ramírez, Barbara Hershey, Between the Temples, Blake Lively, Blink Twice, Bobby Lee, Borderlands, Brandon Sklenar, Cailee Spaeny, Carol Kane, Caroline Aaron, Cate Blanchett, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Daniel Betts, David Jonsson, Dolly de Leon, Ed Begley Jr., Eli Roth, Fede Álvarez, Florian Munteanu, Geena Davis, Gina Gershon, Haley Bennett, Haley Joel Osment, Hasan Minhaj, Hayley Mills, Isabela Ferrer, Isabela Merced, It Ends with Us, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janina Gavankar, Jason Schwartzman, Jenny Slate, Jonathan Langdon, Josh Hartnett, JT Mollner, Justin Baldoni, Kevin Hart, Kevin McKidd, Kid Cudi, Kyle Gallner, Kyle MacLachlan, Levon Hawke, Liz Caribel, m. night shyamalan, Madeline Weinstein, Marnie McPhail, Matthew Shear, Naomi Ackie, Nathan Silver, Robert Smigel, Saleka Shyamalan, Simon Rex, Spike Fearn, Strange Darling, Trap, Trew Mullen, Willa Fitzgerald, Zoë Kravitz
CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures (CREDIT: Screenshot)
I saw a bunch of movies in August 2024 that I haven’t released my full thoughts about yet, as it’s been too hot to say too much about any one movie. So I waited until September in the hopes that it would cool down at least a little bit and that I wouldn’t overheat from all this film analysis.
More
March 7, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Awkwafina, Bryan Cranston, Dustin Hoffman, Ian McShane, Jack Black, James Hong, Ke Huy Quan, Kung Fu Panda, Kung Fu Panda 4, Lori Tan Chinn, Mike Mitchell, Ronny Chieng
Skadoosh Skadoosh Skadoosh Skadoosh (CREDIT: DreamWorks Animation)
Starring: Jack Black, Awkwafina, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane, Ke Huy Quan, Lori Tan Chinn, Ronny Chieng
Director: Mike Mitchell
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Rating: PG for Typical Cartoon Mayhem
Release Date: March 8, 2024 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Giant panda Po’s (Jack Black) status as the Dragon Warrior has always been met with skepticism by some of the other talking animals around him. But now he’s actually expected to retire and find a successor, as he settles into a role as more of a local wise man. That feels like even less of a natural fit for this rotund goofball, but luckily Kung Fu Panda 4 is more interested in sending him on one last great adventure. A shapeshifting reptile known as The Chameleon (Viola Davis) is stealing all the kung fu masters’ powers, so Po teams up with streetwise fox Zhen (Awkwafina) for what might be his most dangerous mission yet. Fortunately (or annoyingly), his biological dad (Bryan Cranston) and his adoptive goose dad (James Hong) are sneakily following right behind to make sure nothing too deadly happens to their boy.
What Made an Impression?: Locating the Lore: Before this fourth cinematic outing, I’d only ever seen the first Kung Fu Panda. I was hoping to catch up with 2 and 3, but alas, I didn’t get around to it. I wasn’t too worried about those shortcomings, though, because this series isn’t exactly beholden to impenetrably dense mythology the way that less kid-friendly franchises often are. Still, in addition to the big screen sequels, it has spawned multiple TV spin-offs that add up to more than a hundred total episodes. So while I didn’t exactly feel lost in the Kung Fu Panda lore, I did get the sense that there have probably been more fulfilling adventures in Po and Co.’s pasts. Jack Black is infinitely charming (and he delivers a killer cover of a certain late 90s pop hit during the end credits), but my mind drifted to all sorts of other topics while I watched KFP4.
Rolling Around: So while KFP4 didn’t exactly make me immediately seek out my own martial arts training, at least the animation is reliably colorful and engaging. It makes solid use of the geography, with Po and his cohorts rolling around and causing mayhem on cobbled streets and imposing castles. And there are some solid visual gags dispersed throughout, including a riff on that old saying about bulls in a china shop, as well as a moment with Po summoning his (multiple) inner voice(s). They didn’t exactly release my inner child, but they were worth a few chuckles.
Who’s That Voice?: My mental energy during this viewing was mostly spent on trying to identify the actor behind Po’s dad Li Shan. I was pretty sure I knew him primarily as a sitcom dad. And while that did turn out to be accurate, it’s been nearly two decades since that was his signature gig. Meanwhile, my viewing companion confessed that it took her nearly the entire running time to pinpoint Viola Davis’ inimitable purr as the voice of the big baddie. Honestly, film culture doesn’t talk often enough about the great joy of trying to identify voiceover performances without looking at the credits. We should rectify that.
Kung Fu Panda 4 is Recommended If You Like: The underdog (or the underpanda, as it were) remaining the underdog forever
Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Skadooshes
April 4, 2023
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Aaron Horvath, anya taylor-joy, Charles Martinet, Charlie Day, Chris Pratt, Fred Armisen, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Kevin Michael Richardson, Michael Jelenic, Nintendo, Sebastian Maniscalco, Seth Rogen, Super Mario, The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Plumbing the depths (CREDIT: Nintendo and Universal Studios)
Starring: Chris Pratt, Anya-Taylor Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan Michael-Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalco, Charles Martinet, Kevin Michael Richardson
Directors: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Rating: PG for Scrapes and Scuffles That Don’t Leave a Mark
Release Date: April 5, 2023 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: The Mario brothers are ready to take their plumbing business to the next level! Better watch out for those pipes, though. Based on the long-running series of Nintendo video games, the gang’s all here in the faithfully colorful Super Mario Bros. Movie. Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) find themselves suddenly sucked into a fantastical kingdom where wooden blocks hold the promise of physical transformation. They team up with Princess Peach (Anya-Taylor Joy) to defeat the over-the-top villainous Bowser (Jack Black), while a mushroom creature (Keegan Michael-Key) and a goofy gorilla (Seth Rogen) round out the core crew.
What Made an Impression?: Mario and Luigi have of course made it onto the big screen before, though 1993’s live-action Super Mario Bros. was widely considered an unmitigated disaster. Bizarrely enough, this latest cinematic adventure keeps the same basic skeleton, as the Mario brothers drive around Brooklyn in their plumbing van, only to then find themselves in the middle of an interdimensional conflict. But beyond that shared setup, it’s a vastly different journey this time. The 1993 version isn’t exactly a misunderstood classic, but it is unlike pretty much anything else that came before or after. Meanwhile, this computer-animated update is basically a series of right-down-the-middle cutscenes.
It’s harmless and amusing in spots, but stripped of way too much personality. It all starts with the voice of the stocky fellow at the center. Chris Pratt has some useful tools in his skill set, but bringing to life an iconically cartoonish ball of energy is not one of them. There’s even a joke about how he sounds nothing like the Mario of the video games! Now look, Bob Hoskins didn’t exactly sound like classic Mario either, but he brought something undeniably unique. Pratt’s mandate, meanwhile, appears to be to turn him into Bland Everyman Hero.
At least everyone else is able to stretch and have some fun. Black in particular has a blast, as he transforms Bowser into the dragon-turtle version of Tenacious D, while Fred Armisen’s Cranky Kong sounds just like his impression of Anna Nicole Smith trial judge Larry Seidlin. There are also plenty of reliable needle drops, though I’m not sure some of them have anything to do with Mario. (“Take on Me,” anyone?) Ultimately, my favorite part of The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the Illumination logo at the beginning that features a Minion attempting to drive a go-kart, which led me to realize that it’s high time to incorporate those little yellow fellas into the Nintendo universe.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is Recommended If You Like: Bright colors and simple plots
Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Power Ups
March 30, 2022
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Apollo 10½, Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, Bill Wise, Danielle Guilbot, Glen Powell, Jack Black, Jessica Brynn Cohen, Josh Wiggins, Lee Eddy, Milo Coy, Natalie L'Amoreaux, Richard Linklater, Sam Chipman, Zachary Levi
Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (CREDIT: Netflix)
Starring: Milo Coy, Jack Black, Josh Wiggins, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Jessica Brynn Cohen, Sam Chipman, Danielle Guilbot, Glen Powell, Zachary Levi
Director: Richard Linklater
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Some Mildly Adult Moments
Release Date: April 1, 2022 (Netflix)
Isn’t it cool when kids do something that only adults are supposed to do? Well, maybe not all the time, at least not in the real world. Sure, a toddler dressing up like a doctor is so gosh darn cute, but that same toddler performing surgery is probably not the best idea. But we’re talking about fictional worlds right now! And that means that children can hold down dangerous jobs, and perform them quite admirably to boot. That brings me to the Richard Linklater-directed Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, a rotoscope-animated adventure in which a boy named Stanley (Milo Coy) is recruited by NASA to participate in the Apollo 11 mission. Now that’s some historical revisionism I can get behind.
In this alterna-vision of the 1960s, finding fresh astronauts is akin to the modern practice of college scouts traversing through middle schools to find the next big football or basketball phenom. A couple of NASA officials (Glen Powell, Zachary Levi) are hanging around a recess kickball game because one of the lunar modules is too small for adults and they’re hoping to find someone here who can fit in it. So they key right in on Stanley, and I’m all ready to go for some astronaut training montages. But not so quick, as that’s not exactly what Linklater has in mind. Instead, this is mostly a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale about growing up in a big family in 1960s Texas, with the Space Race serving mostly as a background event. An important background event that sets the tone, but not the main event no matter how you slice it.
If Apollo 10½ had focused more on the child astronaut conceit, it would’ve been a lot more unique than what we actually ended up with. Instead, it’s a familiar piece of coming-of-age nostalgia from an oft-explored era. A well-made piece of familiar nostalgia, with compelling narration from Linklater vet Jack Black as adult Stanley, but decidedly familiar nonetheless. So just keep your expectations in check about the potential for freshness, and you should be able to find something to enjoy here.
Apollo 10½ is Recommended If You Like: 1960s fashion, 1960s TV shows, 1960 music
Grade: 3 out of 5 Lunar Modules
May 15, 2020
jmunney
Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television
All Visible Objects, Brec Bassinger, Celebrity Escape Room, Charli XCX, Community, DC's Stargirl, Graduate Together, Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020, Holey Moley, How I'm Feeling Now, Jack Black, Joel McHale, Luke Wilson, Moby, Red Nose Day, Stargirl, To Tell the Truth
CREDIT: The CW/YouTube Screenshot
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
TV
-Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020 (May 16 on Various Networks)
–DC’s Stargirl Series Premiere (May 18 on DC Universe and May 19 on The CW) – Starring Brec Bassinger as Stargirl; Luke Wilson and Joel McHale also appear.
–Community Cast Reunion Table Read and Q+A (May 18 on YouTube)
–Celebrity Escape Room (May 21 on NBC) – A Red Nose Day celeb goof-off hosted by Jack Black
–Holey Moley II: The Sequel Premiere (May 21 on ABC) – Mini-golf is so hot right now.
–To Tell the Truth Season Premiere (May 21 on ABC)
Music
-Charli XCX, How I’m Feeling Now
-Moby, All Visible Objects
Older Entries
Jmunney's Blog 