THE WEEKEND WARRIOR April 4, 2025

A MINECRAFT MOVIE, HELL OF A SUMMER, THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA, THE FRIEND, SCREAMBOAT, ERIC LARUE, FREAKY TALES

Well, last weekend certainly was interesting, since three of the wide releases did considerably better than I expected, and neither of the two I saw were very good. I’ve never been great at predicting faith-based films, so this whole decision to release The Chosen webseries in advance installments is something I just don’t get. Not that I was surprised by how well Part 1 of Last Supper did this past weekend, but it will get interesting as two more installments are released over the next two weeks. I was more mystified by how well A Working Man and The Lady in the Yard did, just because moviegoers seem to have cooled on genre films this year, and both of those also did much better than I was expecting, because I thought both movies were garbage.

We come into this weekend with another potential blockbuster, which has the benefits of Disney’s Snow White just not connecting with audiences and already starting to absolutely tank following its bummer of an opening weekend. Besides that bigger movie based on a popular video game, we have a bunch of odds and ends, including, yes, another The Chosen movie.

Although I didn’t watch any movies and chose not to cover this year, I should mention that if you’re in New York, Film at Lincoln Center and MOMA have just kicked off the 2025 New Directors/New Films, and while there’s tons of discovery stuff every year, I just didn’t have the bandwidth to cover this year.

A MINECRAFT MOVIE (Warner Bros.)

I’ve probably covered a few dozen video game movies since I started writing this column in various formats, and it’s pretty obvious that Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie is hoping for the success of the 2023 The Super Mario Bros Movie or family hits like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and its sequel. The LEGO Movie from 2014 is another example of one of Warner Bros’ bigger animated hits, although that’s only connected to video games through the fact that there were LEGO versions of video games of popular franchises like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Marvel and DC superheroes.

Based on the hugely popular LEGO-like building video game that anyone under 20 is likely to have played – I’m considerably older – A Minecraft Movie is directed by Jared Hess of Napoleon Dynamite fame. It reunites him with his Nacho Libre star Jack Black from that 2006 comedy, which opened with $28.3 million and grossed nearly $100 million worldwide at the height of Black’s career before he voiced the character of Po in 2008’s Kung Fu Panda and immediately became a superstar among kids and family audiences. Those movies alone have made over $2 billion worldwide, including last year’s Kung Fu Panda 4, which opened with $58 million and did quite decently with $193 million just in North America. That was Black’s follow-up to 2023’s mega-blockbuster, The Super Mario Bros, also based on a popular video game, and we can’t forget that this also follows Black co-starring in the eeriy similar Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level, which grossed $400 million and $300 million respectively just in North America. Also, Black played R.L. Stine in two Goosebumps movies and starred in Eli Roth’s The House with a Clock In Its Walls, those last five being family-friendly live action movies, so that Black is recognizable among kids and popular among Gen Z and Millennials, making him smart casting to play Steve. Presumably that’s someone from the games, which I’ve never played.

This is almost more of a two-hander between Black and Jason Momoa, who is coming off his run as Aquaman in a number of DC Entertainment’s movies, beginning with an appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and then starring in 2018’s Aquaman, which was a massive hit, and the 2023 sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which was a relative bomb, opening with just $27.8 million and doing far better overseas than its $124.5 million domestic take. It kind of ended that particular phase of the DCEU on a low note, though Momoa is still a popular star, having even joined the “Fast and Furious” franchise with 2023’s Fast X.

The other two big stars in the movie are Oscar-nominee Danielle Brooks from The Color Purple and Emmy winner Jennifer Coolidge, who is best known from her two seasons of “The White Lotus,” but whose comedy work was on display in the films of Christopher Guest and the Legally Blonde movies. The obligatory kids in this one are played by Emma Myers from Wednesday with her little brother, Henry, played by Sebastian Hansen. The plot is quite similar as the recent Jumanji movies with a quartet of people from earth ending up in Steve’s Overworld, fending off creatures from the Nether, led by the evil Melgosha, voiced by Rachel House of Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok. Hess even got back Jemaine Clement, who starred in Hess’ early film, Gentlemen Broncos, for a small role, as well as Clement’s “Flight of the Conchords partner,” Bret McKenzie.

Reviews for A Minecraft Movie will hit around the same time on Wednesday afternoon as this column (and my own review, which you can read below), and it will be interesting if film critics with kids give this a pass or if this continues the tradition of younger audiences flocking to movies they want to see without any regard for reviews. Warner Bros. doubled down by announcing that an extended five-minute look at James Gunn’s Superman would precede A Minecraft Movie, and that could help bring in older males who might not have gone to see it otherwise. I can imagine a few will just use their AMC A-List or Regal Unlimited just to watch the preview and then leave.

Fortunately for Warner Bros, Disney has done so poorly with Snow White that it’s likely to give up theaters that can readily be scooped up by Minecraft, allowing it to open massively in over 4,200 theaters. While there are precedents that can be used to point A Minecraft Movie to a huge opening, the general downturn at the box office might keep this one from opening in the $100 million range, and it probably will win the weekend with a solid $70 to $75 million or more as this one mainly targets family audiences.

Mini-Review: As I probably mentioned above, I’ve never played the Minecraft game, but I’ve seen friends kids playing it or watching countless YouTube videos about the game, and yet, I still do not get the appeal of it at all. That aside, obviously kids love this and the cast put together by director Jared Hess is promising enough to offer lots of laughs for their parents, so it probably doesn’t really matter what I think of it.

First, we get an extended prologue introducing Jack Black’s Steve and telling his backstory of how he got to the Overworld using a magical (cube-shabed) orb to open a portal to that dimension. Once there, he uses his skills to build houses and other things, using the resources on hand. We then meet Jason Momoa’s Garrett “Garbage Man” Garrison, a video game champion who now sells odds and ends at his store, mostly stuff that he’s found in abandoned storage spaces he’s bought. Next, we meet Emma Myers’s Natalie who has been put in charge of caring for her younger brother Henry (Sebastian Hansen), as they’re moving into a new home, welcomed by their realtor (Danielle Brooks). Henry is quite creative in inventing and building things, and eventually, the four of them end up going through their own portal and encountering Steve after he escapes from the “Nether,” a darker version of Overworld run by the malevolent Melgosha (Rachel House), who lords over an army full of pig creatures.

I’ll freely admit that Jared Hess and his humor can be an acquired taste, even his beloved Napoleon Dynamite, and this isn’t a movie on the level of a Barbie or even a LEGO Movie, in terms of the humor. The movie looks nice with all of the worlds created, but there’s just a lot to take in, and if you’re not already invested in the concept from the games, it’s tough to care.

This movie could have easily been all Black and Momoa, and it might have been great, but the other characters just aren’t nearly as interesting, and the amount of time we spend returning to earth to watch Jennifer Coolidge’s character, the vice principal of Henry’s school, canoodling with a silent Overworld villager – the kids in my audience got excited when they saw him. The obligatory kids also don’t really do much to keep the viewer invested, and that’s just par for a film that just doesn’t deliver characters who the viewer might care about.

You can tell that Jack Black is throwing his all into his role with not one, not two, but a bunch of song and dance numbers, because apparently, he’s become the comic actor who has to perform in every movie in which he’s cast. Some might enjoy it and find that fun, but I didn’t think it was necessary.

Ultimately, A Minecraft Movie works better as an action-adventure than it does a comedy, despite Black and Momoa clearly giving it their all and fully throwing themselves into their characters and the concept. Maybe those who know the games will be more appreciative of any easter eggs and characters that appear, but for a layman like myself, it was just a grueling experience to get through. In other words, I left this film neither knowing nor caring any more about Minecraft than I did going into it.

Rating: 5.5/10

HELL OF A SUMMER (Neon)

Finn Wolfhard makes his feature directorial debut, co-writing and co-directing this horror-comedy with fellow actor Billy Bryk, which debuted during the fall festival season in 2023 and is finally being released by Neon in 1,250 theaters. It puts a spin on the Friday the 13th slasher trope by following a bunch of summer camp counselors terrorized by a killer. Besides Wolfhard and Bryk, the film also stars Fred Hechinger from last year’s Gladiator II (and Thelma) as well as Canadian First Nations actor D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai from the series Reservation Dogs, who also appeared in the Alex Garland co-directed Warfare next week.

Reviews for the movie have been mixed at best since it premiered at festivals, although Neon is opening it fairly wide with seemingly very little fanfare, so it’s likely to end up making under $3 million to end up on the lower end of the Top 10, probably right between last week’s The Woman in the Yard and Death of a Unicorn.

Mini-Review: I may have gone into this movie a little skeptical, only because there have been so many great horror-comedies based on the slasher subgenre of horror, and this one seems to clearly be satirizing Friday the 13th, though moving it into present-day with younger people

After a prologue where we see two people being murdered, we meet Fred Hechinger’s Jason as he’s returning to Camp Pineway as a counselor even though he’s already in his mid-20s, but as the eldest of this summer’s counselors, he takes on the role of “elder statesman” to the younger counselors, who don’t trust him, since he’s so old. Much of the film is told through Jason’s viewpoint, particularly his relationship with Abby Quinn’s Claire, who he’s known from many years attending Pineway. Wolfhard plays Chris, who arrives with his friend Bobby, played by Bryk, who really is just hoping to hook up with one of the female counselors while at Pineway. Woon-A-Tai plays the rugged athletic Mike, who is already in a relationship with the camp’s Queen Bee Demi, played by Pardis Saremi.

Overall, the movie is filled with great characters that are more than just your typical teen slasher fodder, and I’d even compare the casting of the actors to that of Olivia Wilde’s hilarious Book Smart, because there’s a mix of familiar and newer faces, all given moments to shine comedically. If nothing else, this is the first time I’ve really liked Hechinger in anything (even last year’s Gladiator II, which was one of my favorite movies), and he does a good job leading this valid young ensemble cast.

Hell of a Summer really works more as a comedy than as a horror film, mainly since a lot of the gorier kills happen off-camera, possibly to save money on practical gore (of which there’s still plenty). There are others issues like the camerawork, which sometimes feels sloppy with scenes that aren’t very well lit, but that’s relatively minor since Wolfhard and Bryk’s writing and direction more than make up for any of the film’s issues, which are mostly indicative of the film’s lower budget.

Bryk and Wolfhard bring a much-needed youthful energy to this surprisingly original slasher comedy, making Hell of a Summer a fine way to spend your time if you’re a fan of movies set at summer camps, even if it’s only early April.

Rating: 7/10

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA (IFC)

Paul Walter Hauser stars in this true story dramedy from director Samir Oliveros about Michael Larson, the man who went on the nascent game show, “Press Your Luck,” in the mid-80s and ended up winning over $100,000, drawing attention to the flaws in the game, which allowed him to become a bit of an underdog hero, even while being suspected and accused of cheating. The cast surrounding Hauser including the super-hot Walton Goggins, the great David Strathairn, as well as Haley Bennett, Shamier Anderson, Patti Harrison, and even a smallH role for Johnny Knoxville.This is probably going to be in fewer theaters with a moderate release between 500 and 800, and while that could still lead to over a million in its opening weekend, it might have a tougher time getting into the top 10, and if it does, it will be on the lower side of things.

Mini-Review: I was generally looking forward to this since I genuinely love game shows, and “Press Your Luck” was always a fun one, even the most recent iteration, hosted by Elizabeth Banks.

We meet Hauser’s Michael Larson as he’s snuck his way into auditions for his favorite show under a false name. When he’s discovered and thrown off the set, he finds some pity from the show’s runner, played by David Strathairn. Canadian actor Shamier Anderson, who was great in John Wick: Chapter 4, plays a very different role as the head of casting who is much more skeptical of Larson as he’s invited to appear on the show, but Michael begins a run of wins at the “game of luck” that gets people suspecting that he’s memorized the patterns, and therefore, is cheating. He begins to look into Larson’s background and is driven to take him down before he walks away with over $100,000. (This is the early ‘80s and that’s a lot of money for those times.)

I wasn’t familiar with Columbian filmmaker Samir Oliveros’ previous work, but he’s working from a decent screenplay co-written by Maggie Briggs, that’s allowed himself to assemble a solid ensemble, which includes Walton Goggins as “Press Your Luck” host Peter Tomarken, as well as Maisie Williams from “Game of Thrones” as a P.A. on the show.

The film cuts between the show taping with everything happening behind the scenes as the studio head alternates between being amused and furious without of money the studio is losing, and everyone trying to figure out what to do about it. The other two players have very different reactions to Larson’s incredible run, but he finds an ally in Brian Geraghty’s Eric, who is rooting for his competition once he learns about how tough things have been for Larson.

This is a movie that could have been quite boring, especially if you know the story in advance, but I enjoy Hauser when he plays this sort of “every man,” and Larson become a bit of a hero to those watching his run. He also has a sadder backstory involving being separated from his wife and daughter, so it’s not a King of Comedy situation where Larson is just a scam artist trying to exploit flaws in the system.

The Luckiest Man in America might not be the most exciting movie of this ilk – Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour from last year might have it beat – and I’m not even sure this needs to necessarily be a theatrical experience, but Hauser is good, and it’s an interesting story that offers something different from everything else currently in theaters.

Rating: 7/10

THE FRIEND (Bleecker Street)

This new dramedy from filmmakers David Siegel and Scott McGehee opened in two theaters in New York last weekend following its premiere during festival season last September. It made $66,853, roughly over $33k per theater, which isn’t bad. I wrote about the movie a little last week, and my interview with the filmmakers is now live on Cinema Daily US. Essentially, it follows Naomi Watts’ Iris, an author and editor whose mentor, played by Bill Murray, dies suddenly, leaving his Great Dane Appolo to be cared for by the woman living in a small New York apartment. Bleecker Street expands this into over 1,000 theaters this weekend, and while a dog movie might seem like something a little different than… the movie pairing Steve Coogan with a penguin…The Friend got an R-rating, which is definitely going to limit its audience to older folk. I think it can probably make $1 or $2 million since it’s quite a crowd-pleasing easy-to-market film towards adults who might not be interested in other films in theaters.

You can also watch my original review for The Friend over on Cinema Daily US, as well.

SCREAMBOAT (Iconic Releasing)

I’m not sure I’ll have a chance to see this horror movie based on the early Walt Disney short, “Steamboat Willie,” which introduced the world to Disney’s iconic Mickey Mouse, but this is another example of how properties that enter the public domain literally can be used for any way that filmmakers can imagine. This one takes the idea of the “Steamboat Willie” cartoon for a movie set on a late-night New York City boat ride that’s interrupted when a mass is transformed into a ferocious murderous monster. Because the movie is opening on Wednesday, one has to imagine that anyone really interested in a horror version of Mickey Mouse, or um… “Steamboat Willie”... will go see this earlier in the week, not leaving much business for the weekend, but it’s essentially going to be in 500 theaters and could end up making a couple million this weekend but probably less than a million over the weekend. If I do have a chance to watch this, I might post some comments on my Letterboxd later in the week.

THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER PART 2 (Fathom Events)

I probably don’t need to add too much about this beyond what I said about this franchise last week, although Part 1 did so much better than most people expected, opening in third place with $11.5 million. Presumably those who went out to theaters liked it enough to catch Part 2, although in theory, they could just wait for all of it to show up on Prime Video, because it is essentially a biblical web series. One thing that separates the release of Season 5 in theaters vis-a-vis Season 4 is that those episodes were released every two weeks, while Fathom Events is going weekly with this roll-out. Part 1 of Last Supper already opened better than the beginning of Season 4, but a big unanswered question is whether Fathom will keep Part 1in theaters with the release of Part 2 or whether they might replace those theaters, making the series’ theatrical premiere far more exclusive if it’s only for one week. If Part 1 *does* remain in theaters, there’s a chance that The Chosen could take up two places in the Top 5, although Part 1 is likely to have a pretty big drop this weekend. Staying in line with Season 4, Part 2 should open lower, but I still think it will be good for $8 million or more, going up against A Working Man for second place.

There’s also something called (checks notes) PÁRVULOS: CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSE, which is listed as opening wide as well from a distributor called Firebrook Entertainment. Apparently, this is a Spanish-language horror film from Mexico, directed by Isaac Ezban, about three young brothers living in a cabin in the woods with a disturbing secret in their basement. Since I don’t even know where this is playing or much about it, that’s all I have to say about it, but I highly doubt that it will be able to get into the top 10.

THE BOX OFFICE CHART

We have another weekend where there’s one big movie, a secondary movie that can do well due to it being the continuation of a popular series, and then a lot of other stuff that’s just going to try to scrape together as much money as it can make.

1. A Minecraft Movie (Warner Bros) - $74.6 million N/A
2. The Chosen: Last Supper Part 2 (Fathom Events) - $8.5 million N/A
3. Disney’s Snow White (Disney) - $7.2 million -50%
4. A Working Man (Amazon MGM) - $7 million -55%
5. The Woman in the Yard (Universal) - $4.3 million -54%
6. The Chosen: Last Supper Part 1 (Fathom Events) - $4.2 -65%
7. Hell of a Summer (Neon) - $2.7 million N/A
8. Death of a Unicorn (A24) - $2.5 million -56%
9. The Friend (Bleecker Street) - $1.8 million
10. The Luckiest Man in America (IFC Films) - $1.1 million N/A
– Screamboat (Iconic Releasing) - $800k N/A
– Parvulos: Children of the Apocalypse (Firebrook Entertainment) - $700k N/A

ERIC LARUE (Magnolia)

Michael Shannon’s directorial debut stars Judy Greer and Alexander Skarsgård – I should have an interview with the on Cinema Daily US soon – as a married couple whose son Eric is in prison for a school shooting situation, which has put them at odds with their community. Based on the stageplay by Brett Neveu, Shannon’s film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023, and I had a chance to talk to him for Above the Line. Greer and Skarsgård’s characters, Janice and Ron Larue, try to find their way through the situation they’ve found themselves in by their own forays into faith and religion, in order to deal with the situation. I definitely was impressed by the film, including the supporting cast that includes Tracy Letts, Paul Sparks, Alison Pill, and more, though I think it might be a tougher sell than Franz Kranz’s Mass from a few years back, and I’ve decided not to review it at this time.

FREAKY TALES (Lionsgate)

Filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Half Nelson, Captain Marvel) are back with this new Oakland-based anthology film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January 2024 but is finally getting a limited release. It’s an anthology film set in 1987 Oakland, California that mixes a bunch of genres as it tells four very specific stories.

I remember being quite jealous of those who got to see this movie last year since I’ve been such a big fan of Fleck and Boden almost as long as I’ve been writing about movies. Even so, I didn’t read many reviews or try to know too much about the movie before I finally saw it. The anthology device as well as setting the movie in Oakland of the ‘80s – apparently, Fleck is from that area – but this is a movie where I only even remotely enjoyed half of the stories. The first one stars Jack Champion of the Avatar sequels and Ji-young Yoo as two young Oaklan punks who find themselves being harassed by the local Bay Area racist skinhead coalition. The second story involves two young female rappers, Barbie and Entice (Dominique Thorne, Normani), who take on hot local rapper Too $hort in a rap battle. (DeMario Symba Driver plays the rapper, though the actual Too $hort narrates the film and appears in a small role.)

The third story is where things get interesting, with the ubiquitous Pedro Pascal showing up as a debt collector who crashes an underground poker game for his last job before retiring. We’ve learned earlier that he lost his pregnant wife, but we’ll only learn how in this segment. Tom Hanks makes a bit of a cameo during that segment, as a video store clerk, and sometime during one of the segments, Ben Mendelsohn shows up as a corrupt and racist cop, but he ends up playing a much bigger role in the fourth part, which stars Jay Ellis (Top Gun: Maverick) as basketball player, Sleepy Floyd

The biggest issue with Freaky Tales is that it comes off as very erratic and unsure of itself, whether it’s meant to be a comedy or a genre flick or a bit of both. The Pedro Pascal segment, which is the best of the bunch, sufferers, because it comes across so much like something inspired by Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, and then, the fourth segment’s use of martial arts also harks back to Tarantino’s Kill Bill. Maybe it’s just a coincidence since there’s a good chance that Boden and Fleck were more likely influenced by Bruce Lee or other things, but comparisons to those two movies are inevitable. There’s also this running subplot involving Sleepy Floyd as a motivational speaker and some strange alien stuff that I didn’t fully understand and barely can even remember.

Freaky Tales tries hard to be an entertaining movie that shows different sides of Oakland, but the movie alternates between feeling derivative and just not being very interesting, and that ultimately kills it from being a movie that must be seen, especially considering how many better films Boden and Fleck have made.

Rating: 5.5/10

GAZER (Metrograph Pictures)

Ryan J. Sloan’s psychological thriller stars Ariella Masroianni as Frankie, a single mother who has a condition that causes her to have blackouts, so she makes recordings on cassette tapes to help her avoid it. I don’t really have a lot more to say about this as I found it so boring that I didn’t even stick around to watch the whole thing, so no review for this one.

Other movies out this weekend….

WILLIAM TELL (Samuel Goldwyn)
A NICE INDIAN BOY (Blue Harbor Entertainment)
DARKEST MIRIAM (Game Theory Films)
FINALEMENT (Rialto Pictures)

I guess I’m not quite ready to do a full Repertory Round-Up, but if nothing else, I can let you know what’s going on at my local theater… METROGRAPH.

First of all, they’re showcasing a 4K restoration and a first-time U.S. release of Shinji Sômai’s 1985 film, Love Hotel (Cinema Guild), a strange entry into Japan’s “pink films” genre, which offers the type of sex and nudity often found in those films, but also a poignant love story between a cab driver (Minori Terada) and a sex worker (Noriko Hayami), who he had a violent interaction with in a love hotel years earlier. This was tough to watch at times since I’m not really a fan of violence against women in any form, but when the film cuts forward two years, we learn more about the two characters and their motivations for continually reconnecting despite their dysfunctional relationship. I generally enjoyed this with a few minor trepidations, and those who love ‘80s Asian cinema might want to give this a look. They’re also showing Tatsumi Kumashiro’s 1973 film, Lovers Are Wet, as part of its “In the Pinku: The Return of Roman Porno” series, which continues through the month.

On Saturday afternoon, the bimonthly “Saturday Afternoon Cartoons” returns with an “April Showers” edition, and if you’re into old school cartoons, you really should check out what Tommy Stathes has going since it usually offers roughly an hour of rarely-seen toons, as well as an informative QnA. Great for kids with the caveat that cartoons in the ‘20s and ‘30s weren’t particularly PC.

The Metrograph’s Filmcraft series is changing it up with “ASC Presents Midnight Cowboy” on Saturday night with John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winning 1969 drama starring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman screening followed by a QnA with cinematographer, Adam Holender.

“Welcome to Suburbia” is going strong and on Sunday, they will have a 20th Anniversary screening of Todd Solonz’s Palindromes with Solonz and “special guests” doing a QnA, plus the film will continue screening over the coming week. Other films screening in that series this weekend include Kevin Smith’s Clerks and Greg Araki’s Mysterious Skin, and on Thursday night, you have one more chance to see Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko and Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides.

The “In Good Faith” series continues this weekend with Paul Schrader’s First Reformed, and a little movie called The Exorcist, as well as rescreenings of other movies in the series like Pwell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus from 1947.

“The Body Between Us” will screen the popular 1985 board game-inspired comedy Clue, as well as Hitchcock’s Rope (1948), and on Thursday afternoon, there’s one more screening of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s brilliant noir-thriller Diabolique from 1955.

“Filmcraft: Inbal Weinberg” is coming to a close with one final screening of Almodovar’s All About My Mother (1999) on Thursday night. “Filmcraft: Monika Willi” also continues through the weekend with screenings of the Austrian editor’s Untitled, as well as a sold-out Saturday screening of Todd Field’s Tár and Michael Haneke’s Amour on Sunday.

That’s it for this week, as I’m still not up for doing a full repertory round-up, but next week, there are four new wide releases, five if you include the third and final chapter of The Chosen: Last Supper, which I guess I should.