Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
October 31, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews A House of Dynamite, Abubakr Ali, After the Hunt, Andrew Garfield, Angel Reese, Anthony Ramos, Arielle Friedman, Arturo Castro, Ayo Edebiri, Aziz Ansari, Ben Leonberg, Brian Tee, Brittany O'Grady, Chloë Sevigny, Damian Lewis, Evan Peters, Francesca Carpanini, Gabriel Basso, Gbenga Akinnagbe, George Orwell, Gillian Anderson, Good Boy, Good Fortune, Greta Lee, Hasan Minhaj, Idris Elba, Indy the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Jared Harris, Jared Leto, Jason Clarke, Jeff Bridges, Joachim Rønning, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jonah Hauer-King, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever, Kathryn Bigelow, Keanu Reeves, Keke Palmer, Kyle Allen, Larry Fessenden, Lío Mehiel, Luca Guadagnino, Malachi Beasley, Michael Stuhlbarg, Moses Ingram, Noah Oppenheim, Orwell 2+2=5, Raoul Peck, Rebecca Ferguson, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Shane Jensen, Stuart Rudin, Tracy Letts, Tron, TRON: Ares, Willa Fitzgerald Leave a comment
Good Boy, Good Times at the Movies (CREDIT: Ben Leonberg/Independent Film Company and Shudder)
Okay, here we go. It’s time for me to release my thoughts about the new movies that I saw in the month known as October 2025 that I haven’t explicated until now. Trick-or-treat furever!
July 17, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews Alex Winter, Amy Sedaris, Billie Lourd, Billy Campbell, Chase Sui Wonders, Chris Miller, Chrisy Prynoski, Dan Levy, Freddie Prinze Jr., Gabriette Bechtel, Hannah Waddingham, Hugo Miller, I Know What You Did Last Summer, I Know What You Did Last Summer 2025, IKWYDLS, James Corden, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jimmy Kimmel, John Goodman, Jonah Hauer-King, JP Karliak, Kurt Russell, Madelyn Cline, Marshmello, Maya Erskine, Natasha Lyonne, Nick Kroll, Nick Offerman, Octavia Spencer, Rihanna, Sandra Oh, Sarah Pidgeon, Smurfs, Smurfs 2025, Spencer X, Tyriq Withers, Xolo Maridueña 1 Comment
We Smurfed What You Smurfed Last Smurf (CREDIT: Paramount Animation; Brook Rushton/Columbia Pictures)
Starring: Rihanna, James Corden, John Goodman, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Dan Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Kurt Russell, Xolo Maridueña, Hugo Miller, Chris Miller, Billie Lourd, Marshmello, Spencer X, Chrisy Prynoski
Director: Chris Miller
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Rating: PG for Smurf Action and Some Rude Smurfin’
Release Date: July 18, 2025 (Theaters)
Starring: Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Billy Campbell, Gabriette Bechtel
Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Running Time: 111 Minutes
Rating: R for Twisting, Poking, and Hanging, Plus a Few Seductions and a Couple of Joints
Release Date: July 18, 2025 (Theaters)
A couple of decades-old franchises are getting revived at the multiplex this weekend. That sentence could apply to just about any weekend from the past 25 years or so. But in case you’re reading this review from the future (or the past), the weekend I’m specifically referring to right now is the one that begins on July 18, 2025. And the movies I’m talking about are Smurfs (no “the”) and the same-titled lega-sequel I Know What You Did Last Summer. Is there any way both of these movies could possibly appeal to the same person?! Let’s use myself as a test case.
March 17, 2022
Cinema, Movie Reviews Brittany Snow, Dermot Mulroney, Fivel Stewart, Iris K. Shim, James Gaylyn, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, MeeWha Alana Lee, Mia Goth, Odeya Rush, Owen Campbell, Sandra Oh, Scott Mescudi, Stephen Ure, Ti West, Tom Yi, Umma, X 5 Comments
Umma (CREDIT: Saeed Adyani/Sony Pictures); X (CREDIT: Christopher Moss/A24)
Starring: Sandra Oh, Fivel Stewart, Dermot Mulroney, Odeya Rush, MeeWha Alana Lee, Tom Yi
Director: Iris K. Shim
Running Time: 83 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Terrifying Memories and a Terrifying Present
Release Date: March 18, 2022 (Theaters)
Starring: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow, Scott Mescudi, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, James Gaylyn
Director: Ti West
Running Time: 105 Minutes
Rating: R for Plenty of Sex and Violence
Release Date: March 18, 2022 (Theaters)
This week, we’ve got a couple of new horror releases arriving with pithy, vague titles. They pair well as a potential double feature, so I decided to go ahead and review them together. They’re also both operating in familiar subgenres with their own unique flourishes that you may or may not see coming. Let’s dig in.
First off, we’ll take a look at Umma, which to English speakers might sound like baby-talk. In a way it kind of is, but anyone who knows Korean will surely clock what’s in store. Starring Sandra Oh as a single mother named Amanda who lives alone with her daughter (Fivel Stewart) in an electricity-free home, this is one of those supernatural tales in which a ghost attaches to a person’s soul and just won’t let go. The East Asian pedigree suggests a throwback to the early 2000s when The Ring and The Grudge inaugurated a wave of J- and K-horror. But while those influences are certainly noticeable, a story of what we owe and inherit from our mothers resonates across cultures.
March 11, 2021
Cinema, Movie Reviews Alan Tudyk, Awkwafina, Benedict Wong, Carlos López Estrada, Daniel Dae Kim, Don Hall, Gemma Chan, Izaac Wang, Kelly Marie Tran, Lucille Soong, Raya and the Last Dragon, Run Boy Run, Sandra Oh, Thalia Tran Leave a comment
Raya and the Last Dragon (CREDIT:
Walt Disney Animation Studios/YouTube Screenshot)
Starring: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Izaac Wang, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, Thalia Tran, Lucille Soong, Alan Tudyk
Directors: Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: March 5, 2021
Now that I’ve seen Raya and the Last Dragon, do I want a dragon of my own? It doesn’t have to be a “last” dragon, but I guess if that’s all that available… Anyway, if she’s voiced by Awkwafina, I won’t complain. In fact, that’s a positive in my book! She’s good company. That’s probably my most positive takeaway about this movie. Sisu’s a friend to all, as she’s been imbued with the personality of the lady who voices her, i.e., one of our favorite current Queens-bred rapper-actor-comedians. And I’m also happy to report that friendship ultimately shines through brilliantly in this flick, even with creatures who initially seem like they’re going to be enemies. That’s great news in a world in which magic objects can turn people to stone. You suddenly find yourself alone, but next thing you know, a dragon’s your best friend.
Also, the music reminds me of Woodkid’s “Run Boy Run,” a song that’s had a surprisingly strong pop cultural impact.
Grade: 3 out 5 Credit Purchases
March 31, 2019
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television Bowen Yang, Sandra Oh, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 44, SNL, SNL Season 44, Tame Impala Leave a comment
CREDIT: Megan Krause/NBC
Jeffrey Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then organizes the sketches into the following categories: “Love It” (potentially Best of the Season-worthy), “Keep It” (perfectly adequate), or “Leave It” (in need of a rewrite, to say the least). Then he concludes with assessments of the host and musical guest.
Love It
Discover Card – There’s a current ad campaign about people reaching their doubles at customer service, and there’s a current hit horror movie about people being targeted by their doubles. Somebody at SNL made the connection and astutely decided, “Let’s mash ’em up!” And lo and behold, we have this hilarious commercial parody in which it turns out that the you’s of Discover Card are actually the Tethered of Us, and Ego Nwodim finally gets a showcase performance.
It’s good to know that everyone can be so wonderfully, specifically overwrought in the Test Prep sketch.
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