The Movie ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’ is a Sequel to the First ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Movie, Now Here’s My Review

December 4, 2025

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Da Bear (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)

Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Matthew Lillard, Theodus Crane, McKenna Grace, Teo Briones, Freddy Carter, Wayne Knight, Audrey Lynn-Marie, Skeet Ulrich

Director: Emma Tammi

Running Time: 104 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Violence That Feels Like It Should Look Bloodier

Release Date: December 5, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Have you ever had to deal with your younger sibling pining for her ghost friends inside murderous animatronics? That’s the very common dilemma that Mike Schmidt is dealing with while looking after his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) in the wake of the massacre at the end of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s flick that resulted in the death of serial killer William Afton (Matthew Lillard). Mike and Afton’s daughter Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) are doing their best to look out for each other, but the spirits at the shuttered entertainment pizza joint are restless and still calling out to whomever they can lure into their clutches to escape their containment. Meanwhile, Abby is doing her best to make a good impression at her school’s robotics contest, but her teacher (Wayne Knight) is kind of a jerk.

What Made an Impression?: Land of the Rising Dead Kids: The primary antagonist this time around is the spirit of a little girl named Charlotte (Audrey Lynn-Marie), a victim of Afton’s who blames all the clueless parents at Freddy’s for her demise, since they just sat around and did nothing. That blame is now extended to all parents in her afterlife. This is kind of reminiscent of J-horror ghost stories, wherein the curse of a murdered child eternally reaches its coils into anyone who comes into contact with its presence. FnaF 2 is nowhere near as good as the classics of that genre, like The Ring or its Japanese original. But there was also a fair deal of schlock in that trend, so FnaF 2 surely isn’t the worst example, either.
Bang, Clank, Sizzle: When the monsters in your movie are lumbering animatronic animals, the sound mix tends to be filled with crashing metal, twisting gears, and crackling electricity. Unfortunately, these aren’t exactly the most pleasant sounds, though they’re certainly true to the situation. It’s not as bad as the worst Transformers sequels, which were incomprehensible in their garble of machinery. Considering that FnaF 2 is ostensibly a horror movie, this arrangement is horrifying in the sense that it tested my patience. But I’m not sure that was the intention.
Where’s the Edge?: Maybe if I were more well-versed in the lore of the FnaF video games and their various spinoffs, then perhaps these movies would hit harder for me. But I don’t really feel like I’m missing anything. The plots are straightforward and easy to follow, character motivations are clearly spelled out, and the visual language is sensible. There’s just no verve or pizzazz. Freddy and his crew may be ostensibly let loose, but the reality is that they’re still on a tight leash. But at least Wayne Knight gives a bizarrely great performance, so you might laugh a few times!

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is Recommended If You Like: Cold pepperoni

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Animatronics

In ‘The Beekeeper,’ Jason Statham Takes His Grievances Straight to the Top of the Hive

January 10, 2024

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Honey, Honey (CREDIT: Daniel Smith/© 2024 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved)

Starring: Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Jeremy Irons, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad

Director: David Ayer

Running Time: 105 Minutes

Rating: R for Excessively Excessive Violence

Release Date: January 12, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: After his neighbor Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad) is scammed out of millions of dollars in a phishing scheme, a mysterious man known as Adam Clay (Jason Statham) takes it upon himself to wipe out the entire organization preying upon these vulnerable seniors.  Meanwhile, Eloise’s FBI agent daughter Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman) starts investigating both Clay and the people who swindled her mother. It soon becomes clear that everyone is in for a lot more than they bargained for. The scamming operation is run by a tech bro master of the universe jerkoff (Josh Hutcherson) who is connected to some very powerful people, while Mr. Clay is the product of an organization known as “Beekeepers,” who were engineered to root out problems just like this one. But he’s gone rogue, and that does not bode well for anyone standing in his way.

What Made an Impression?: Hooking Our Sympathies: Who among us in 21st Century Planet Earth hasn’t been victimized by intrusive pop-up viruses or pushy call centers? Even if you’ve managed to escape without losing any cash or computer data, you know how much of a nuisance they are. So it’s not hard to understand Clay’s instinct to incinerate where it’s all happening. That has to be one of the most popular revenge fantasies nowadays. So it’s a bit of a shock that that destruction is merely the first blow in the War of Clay vs. The Scammers, instead of the final battle. Where does The Beekeeper go from there to keep the melee coming?
A Study in Extremes: As it turns out, the answer to that question is: turn Jason Statham into a one-man wrecking crew. That’s not exactly a new innovation, but director David Ayer takes the concept to grotesque extremes that I don’t think we’ve ever quite seen before. Where one punch to the head is enough to dispatch a foe, at least three more punches are added. And where the amputation of fingers is presumably enough to teach someone a lesson, he’s instead tied to a car and dragged into the bottom of a river. I suppose the idea being explored here is the consequence of creating super-soldiers, but the mysterious nature of the Beekeepers precludes the script from fully exploring that possibility. Either way, it’s not particularly pleasant to watch Mr. Clay execute his mayhem.
Ironing Out the Details: While I’m often put off by the sour worldview in David Ayer’s films, at least he’s able to attract top-notch talent in front of the camera. Statham can play this type of character in his sleep, and he’s not really being asked to elevate it higher than its B-movie trappings. But in the supporting roles, there is often room to deliver some gravitas, and who better to deliver than Jeremy Irons? With his pristinely pressed suits, he serves as a corporate executive tasked with making sure the operation runs smoothly. That description could also accurately describe the entirety of Irons’ acting career. If we must descend into a grotesque bloodbath, at least let the professionals chaperone us.

The Beekeeper is Recommended If You Like: January pulp, Classically trained actors in lowbrow flicks, Slamming appliances out of frustration

Grade: 2 out of 5 Hives

Are These Robot Animals Our Friends? Let’s Find Out During ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’

October 26, 2023

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5, 5, Freddy’s coming for you (CREDIT: Patti Perret/Universal Pictures)

Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Matthew Lillard, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kat Conner Sterling, Christian Stokes, Joseph Poliquin, Lucas Grant

Director: Emma Tammi

Running Time: 109 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Slicing and Dicing

Release Date: October 27, 2023 (Theaters and Peacock)

What’s It About?: Ever since his younger brother was kidnapped when they were kids, Mike Schmidt has been irrevocably haunted to the point that he can’t hold down a job without his barely hidden anger bubbling up to the surface. With his spotty employment record, the only gig that he can find is overnight security at the long-closed children’s entertainment center Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.  He pretty much has to accept it, especially since he’s the legal guardian of his sister Abby (Piper Rubio), and neither of them wants him to give up custody to their awful Aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson). But there are strange things afoot at Freddy’s: a police officer named Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) randomly arrives to show Mike the ropes, the career counselor who got him the job (Matthew Lillard) sure seems to be hiding something, and oh yeah, the place’s signature animatronic animals apparently come alive on their own.

What Made an Impression?: Showing Their Hand: Five Nights at Freddy’s is based on a series of video games that is just filled to the brim with lore and backstory that’s only hinted at in the actual gameplay. I’m no FNaF expert, though I’ve done some research, so I came in with suspicions about which characters had more going on than initially meets the eye. But even if you’re a total newbie, it shouldn’t be hard to have some sense of what’s going on. Vanessa’s police work seems to exclusively revolve around Freddy’s, and the career counselor is both spooked and excited when he realizes who his new client is. Not to mention that Lillard’s performance is pretty much a redux of his career-making turn as Scream‘s sniveling Stu Macher. So it’s no spoiler to say that these two probably have some idea about why dead bodies keep piling up. Despite that lack of surprise, the explanation is sufficiently twisted to feel the gut punch.
How Supernatural Is It?!: The truth about Freddy and his fellow robot animals is both prosaic and ghastly. The logical side provides the skeletal structure for the story to rest upon, while the supernatural elements are ultimately the main attraction, and how you cotton to them will most likely determine how much you do or don’t appreciate this movie. Every night, Mike dreams about the day his brother was abducted, as his subconscious begins to be invaded by a group of kids who might just be the youngsters who disappeared decades ago at Freddy’s. We never get a full explanation of these supernatural processes, and that’s certainly not necessarily, as a hallmark of the supernatural is that it exists beyond logic. But if those aspects aren’t viscerally grabbing you by the collar, you might feel compelled to let your mind wander to figure out their origins instead, and that was pretty much how it went for me. However, if you’ve been permanently scarred by childhood trips to Chuck E. Cheese (Freddy’s obvious inspiration), then maybe FNaF is exactly the sort of exposure therapy you need to resolve your trauma.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is Recommended If You Like: Whatever the love child of The Shining and Goosebumps would be

Grade: 3 out of 5 Fazbears

This Is a Movie Review: ‘The Disaster Artist’ is James Franco is Tommy Wiseau is the Star Inside Us All

November 30, 2017

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CREDIT: Justina Mintz/A24

This review was originally posted on News Cult in November 2017.

Starring: Dave Franco, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Alison Brie, Ari Graynor, Josh Hutcherson, Jacki Weaver, Zac Efron, Megan Mullally, Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, Hannibal Buress, Nathan Fielder, June Diane Raphael, Andrew Santino, Charlyne Yi, Melanie Griffith, Sharon Stone, Bob Odenkirk, Judd Apatow

Director: James Franco

Running Time: 105 Minutes

Rating: R for an Auteur Asshole

Release Date: December 1, 2017 (Limited)/Expands Nationwide December 8, 2017

When I watched Shane Carruth’s 2013 film Upstream Color – about a man and a woman who ingest a larva with the power to drastically affect the human mind – I was excited by the conscious-altering possibilities. But I was ultimately disappointed by the impenetrable narrative. Upstream does have its fans, but I thought an opportunity was missed by presenting an abstract subject with just-as-abstract storytelling. But now we have a film that is more along the lines of what I thought Upstream Color was going to be, and that film is The Disaster Artist, which imposes a typical biopic structure onto one of the strangest individuals of all time. There is the classic rise-fall-rise and a soundtrack that raises the roof with beats that were first hits about a decade before the events of the film, but all this normality only illuminates the unfathomability that is Tommy Wiseau.

Wiseau has achieved a very unique sort of fame as the writer-director-producer-star of the 2003 independent melodrama The Room. It has been called by some the worst movie of all time, but that descriptor is way off-base. A better take that others have offered is “the greatest bad movie of all time,” but that is still not quite right. “A surreal masterpiece” is the moniker that I prefer. For The Disaster Artist to be successful, it does not need to be as surreal as The Room, as The Room already exists. Although perhaps a perfectly valid option would have been to simply remake The Room shot-for-shot with a new cast, which The Disaster Artist does in part in a delightful post-credits segment featuring recreations of classic scenes from The Room presented side-by-side along the originals, displaying how the new versions are accurate to every inch and millisecond.

James Franco directs and stars as Wiseau, and this proves to be the perfect outlet for his incorrigible proclivities. Wiseau is infamously dodgy about his personal background, but based on his accent, it is clear enough that he is from Eastern Europe, though he claims to be from New Orleans. But it is perhaps most accurate to think of him as a vampire caveman alien, as his odd syntax, singular worldview, and inexplicable behavior go beyond simply being lost in translation. Nobody but Tommy could be Tommy, but Franco comes as close as possible. And this is not the sort of lark that much of his career has come off as. Instead, it is in service of a strangely uplifting story about never giving up on your dreams.

Alongside Wiseau is his Room co-star/friend-despite-all-obstacles Greg Sestero (who co-wrote the book of the same name that The Disaster Artist is based on), played by James’ younger brother Dave. The younger Franco is a little more boyish than the deeper-voiced Sestero, but they both have an all-American squeaky-clean handsomeness befitting the moniker “Babyface,” Tommy’s nickname for Greg. The Franco brothers have significantly different faces than Sestero and Wiseau, though their looks are well approximated by solid hair and makeup jobs. This is not an exact encapsulation of the original Wiseau-Sestero dynamic (how could it be?), but there is some weird magic in the Franco pairing that works as an avatar to this weird creative pairing.

I read The Disaster Artist when it was first published in 2013. I have not re-read it since, so my memory of it is not perfectly fresh, but I remember enough to know that there is some streamlining at play here. But the liberties that were taken serve to bolster the film’s thesis that has been borne out by the directions that Wiseau and Sestero’s lives have taken since The Room has become a cult classic. In one scene, Tommy approaches a producer (Judd Apatow) at a restaurant, who assures Tommy that he will never find success in Hollywood in a million years. “But after that?” Tommy earnestly asks. It has not literally taken him that long to achieve his stardom, but “more than one million years later” might be the best figurative way to explain how long it took him to realize his dreams, and that boundlessness beyond normal temporality is the engine that The Disaster Artist runs on.

The obvious antecedent to this film is Ed Wood, but that earlier biopic was released more than a decade after the death of its titular maker of the worst films of all time. Tommy’s story is not over, and now it is inextricably tied up with the most fervent fans of The Room, many of whom populate the cast of The Disaster Artist. There are several moments in this making-of in which classic lines from The Room are uttered in Tommy’s personal life that could come off as fan service but avoid that pitfall because of how nakedly autobiographical The Room is. James Franco and his crew of shockingly eager collaborators have invited us all to take place in this autobiography, and the result is intoxicating.

The Disaster Artist is Recommended If You Like: The Room of course, Ed Wood, James and Dave Franco’s old Funny or Die videos, How Did This Get Made?

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Doggies

SNL Recap 11/23/13 Josh Hutcherson/Haim

November 24, 2013

jmunney Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television , , , , , 2 Comments

He had a real peaceful look on his face before he exploded.

Piers Morgan Live
It would have been nice if in addition to showcasing whatever they wanted to showcase what was in the news this week, they also put Taran’s Piers Morgan to greater use. C

Josh Hutcherson’s Monologue
Having seen The Hunger Games made all the beats of this monologue super obvious.  The key party business was interesting, though. C

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