THE WEEKEND WARRIOR July 11, 2025 (Part 2)
Apocalypse in the Tropics, Sovereign, Bang, Hot Spring Shark Attack, Push
Maybe you caught the first part of this week’s column with my analysis of Superman’s box office chances, which I decided to put behind the paywall, because heck, I should be getting paid for writing stuff, and this column continues to be an ordeal to finish this week. I was hoping the second part of this would include some reviews, but unfortunately, there just isn’t a lot of good stuff in limited release this weekend, though I do have high hopes for this Netflix doc…
APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS (Netflix)
Opening on Friday in select theaters ahead of its Netflix streaming debut on July 14 is this Oscar-noninated doc from Petra Costa (The Edge of Democracy) about how the evangelical movement of Brazil helped get President Jair Bolsonaro elected, creating the threat of a national theocracy in Brazil. I somehow missed this last year, even though it played the New York Film Festival and others, and the topic of Brazilian politics is something I’m interested in since most of family lives in Brazil and knowing how much they hated Bolsonaro. It’s also very relevant right now with the Criminal-in-Chief wanting to put tariffs on Brazil for their “treatment” of a former President who tried to stage a coup. Even though this played Doc-NYC last year, I somehow missed it, but I’ll probably have to wait and review it next week.
SOVEREIGN (Briarcliff)
Nick Offerman and a teenage Jacob Tremblay from Room stars in this real-life drama from Christian Swegal that recently debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, playing a father and son, who are anti-government extremists that find themselves in a standoff with the local police chief (Dennis Quaid) in charge of the manhunt to find them. I saw this a few weeks back when it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and I’ve decided not to write a full review of it, mainly since a month is a long time to remember what I liked or largely didn’t like about the movie. It was fine, and I’m generally a fan of Offerman, just not that interesting a movie to me, compared to last year’s The Order.
BANG (Saban Films)
This new action thriller from Wych Kaosayananda, who might be better remembered as “Kaos,” the director of 2002’s Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, which was indeed chaotic and quite awful even for the biggest Lucy Liu fan on the planet. The movie stars Jack Kesy (Hellboy the Crooked Man) as William Bang, mostly referred to simply as “Bang,” a ruthless assassin who survives an attempt to kill him, in order to turn a new leaf, going against his adoptive father (Peter Weller), the big boss behind most of Bang’s hits.
This movie starts out so horribly with the type of violence and sexism that permeates many action movies geared primarily to men, and while it does get slightly better thanks to Bang’s revelation, where he is shot full of holes and ends up getting a heart transplant, there’s just too much other bad stuff to forgot the nice romance he develops with the widow of the man who donated his heart.
I watched most of the movie not realizing that Bang’s father was played by the once-great Peter Weller from Robocop, but he is so bad in this movie, possibly one of the worst performances I’ve seen all year with just a horrid Eastern European accent that really took me out of enjoying any of this.
Ultimately, this movie is no better than Jason Statham’s A Working Man from earlier this year… and it’s even worse, because it doesn’t have Jason Statham in it. Doesn’t look like “Kaos” has improved much as a director in the past 20 years since his earlier action movie, and this looks like another Saban Films classic not worth seeing in theaters.
Rating: 4/10
HOT SPRING SHARK ATTACK (Utopia)
I started watching this Japanese shark comedy from filmmaker Morihito Inoue with some amusement, since it sets up this insanely ridiculous premise of a giant shark attacking people who are leisurely bathing in the hot springs of a Japanese tourist resort. The movie even stars Daniel Aguilar from Shin Godzilla! I actually was hoping I could enjoy this movie in a similar way as 2017’s One Cut of the Dead, especially since I love shark movies, but this verges on being very silly and absolutely stupid, and ultimately, it was so bad that I couldn’t get through it. Anyway, it’ll be on VOD this Friday and supposedly it’s supposed to get a limited theatrical run, but I only can find screenings on Weds, July 9, which was last night. Either way, I wish I could recommend this one, but I mostly definitely can not.
PUSH (Shudder)
Premiering on Shudder this Friday is this semi-horror film from David Charbonier and Justin Powell, which premiered last October at Sitges, the Spain-based genre film festival which has always sounded like a lot of fun. The movie stars Alicia Sanz (El Cid) as a pregnant realtor showing a large spooky mansion, who finally gets a viewer in Raúl Castillo, who ends up terrorizing the woman. At first I thought this was going to be a typical woman walking through a location in the dark as we’ve seen in many haunted house movies, but it turns into more of a home invasion, and not a great one at that. I actually didn’t even realize that Sanz’s character was pregnant for much of the movie, but once you realize that, it makes the film’s generic title – seriously, “Push” is the best they could come up with? – that much more obvious. I guess if you have Shudder (I don’t), this could be worth throwing on, but
Other stuff out this week…
ABRAHAM’S BOYS: A DRACULA STORY (RLJ Entertainment)
LITTLE, BIG, AND FAR (Grasshopper Films)
WE ARE GUARDIANS (AREA 23A)
AMONGST THE WOLVES (Sunrise Films)
DON’T LOG OFF (Dread)
ALL ALONE TOGETHER (Ethos Releasing)
WILD DIAMOND (Strand Releasing)
REPERTORY
Opening at the DCTV Firehouse Cinema down in my neighborhood on Friday is a 20th Anniversary rerelease of Jonathan Berman’s documentary COMMUNE (First Run Features) about the copy that started the Black Bear Ranch in Siskiyou County, California in the ‘70s, a commune that evolved into a “child-snatching cult.” The film’s run at DCTV will include a performance by composer Elliot Sharp after a screening on Friday, a QnA with Editor Michael Taylor on Saturday night, and then one with Berman himself on Sunday.
The fantastic new series “Come As You Are: ‘90s Music on Screen” will screen Cameron Crowe’s pivotal Singles (1992) this weekend, as well as Doug Pray’s doc Hype! From 1996, and Nick Bromfield’s more recent doc, Kurt & Courtney from 1998.
This weekend’s “In ‘Scope and Color!” offerings include Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (1963), Kon Ichikawa’s 1963 film, An Actor’s Revenge, as well as one of my favorite P.T. Anderson movies, Punch Drunk Love (2002), starring Adam Sandler, which will screen over the weekend and a few times next week.
I still don’t know what “High Voltage” but they’ll show Park Chanwook’s Oldboy a few more times this weekend.
“Florida Is A Feeling” screens Brian De Palma’s Scarface (1983); John Huston’s Key Largo (1948), starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall; and Kelly Reichardt’s 1993 debut, River of Grass. Michael Mann’s Miami Vice will screen one more time on Monday night.
“Not a Film: The Films of Jafar Panahi” begins this weekend with a great selection of the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker’s work, this weekend showing The White Balloon (1995) and The Circle (2000).
“Chang Cheng: A Silent Storm” begins this weekend with many screenings of Wong Kar-wai’s 2004 sci-fi film 2024, both in 35mm and DCP. Not a huge fan of the film though it does star the wonderful Maggie Cheung.
“The Show Must Go On” mostly ends on Thursday night with screenings of Madonna: Truth or Dare and De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise, but there’s also one more screening of Death Becomes Her on Tuesday afternoon.
Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown gets one more screening on Thursday night as part of “Volver A Carmen” and “Scenes from the ‘End of History” just won’t end, as there will be one more screening of Edward Yang’s Mahjong (1996) and Wong Kar-Wai’s Happy Together (1997) early next week. I’m presuming that the Chinese contingent of the neighborhood have been going out to see those last two movies a lot.
The 4k restoration of the doc, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse continues to run for the next week, and even Masayuki Suo’s Shall We Dance? Is threatening to end soon.
Staff Picks playing through the weekend (mostly late night), include the animated Pink Floyd: The Wall, Cronenberg’s Escape from New York, and Ken Russell’s Crimes of Passion. Also playing on Friday and Saturday late night are two movies by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Pulse and Cure.
Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch plays on Thursday night and then again on Sunday afternoon. On Monday night, you can see new 4k restorations of Jess Franco’s Vampyros Lesbos and She Killed in Ecstasy, both from 1971, compliments of Severin Films. Brian De Palma’s Body Double (one of his best movies in my opinion, not Phantom of the Paradise, David!) will screen on Tuesday night.
NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG
On Saturday afternoon, you can see Desperately Seeking Susan at Prospect Park as part of “Summer in the City,” while Williamsburg will be showing Die Hard With A Vengeance (my favorite installment of that franchise) on Saturday and Sunday at brunch time. Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together (which has been playing for weeks at Metrograph) will play on Monday night at Williamsburg. Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth will play at Williamsburg on Saturday and Sunday morning as part of “Recent Restorations.” Tuesday night at Williamsburg, you can see Jess Franco’s Venus in Furs (1969).
Robert Zemeckis’ Death Becomes Her (1992) also will play on Monday night at Prospect Park as part of “Stage and Screen.” Also on Monday night at Prospect Park is the original Beverly Hills Cop (1984) as part of “Music by Harold Faltmeyer.” Not really “repertory” but cinematographer Jomo Fray will be at Prospect Park Tuesday night for a QnA following Ramell Ross’ Nickel Boys, the most overrated movie since Moonlight, as part of “Adventures in Black Cinema.”
Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love continues to play with the 2001 In the Mood for Love short this weekend.
“Tom Cruise, Above and Beyond” continues in Astoria, Queens this weekend with Jerry Maguire on Friday night, Edge of Tomorrow on Saturday afternoon, and Interview with a Vampire on Saturday night, as well as The Firm on Saturday afternoon. Jerry Maguire and Interview both repeat on Sunday. This series will be running through the summer with so many great Cruise movies. Normally, I only go to see Tommy Stathes’ cartoon series, but MoMI is getting in on the act on Saturday afternoon with “Out of the Inkwell: The Silent Cartoons of Max Fleischer” with an introduction by Fleischer’s grandson, a panel afterwards, and piano accompaniment throughout (presumably just with the toons).
That’s it for this week. We’ll see what I can make happen next week, as the studios release I Know What You Did Last Summer, Smurfs, and Ari Aster’s Eddington, none of which I’ll be seeing before Monday night. (Do people not understand that I need to see movies BEFORE writing about them, so I can get this column posted in a timely manner by Wednesday or Thursday morning?)
KAOS LIVES!