My October 2025 Movie Picks and Pans: Hot New Movies featuring Downton Abbey, Spinal Tap and Mathew McConaughey!

[I review "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale," "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues," and the new Mathew McConaughey movie "The Lost Bus"]

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025)

A tidy wrap-up of the beloved TV series.

This British television series, "Downton Abbey," set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV in September 2010 and in the United States on PBS in January 2011. The show ran for fifty-two episodes across six series, including five Christmas specials. The series, set on the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1926, depicted the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era, and how the great events of the time effected their lives and the British social hierarchy. The TV series ended ten years ago but there have been two movies since, the last one in 2019. 

The series was a huge success and had many fans. Now the characters are all back so we can say goodbye and not wonder what happened to them. 

NOTE:  This review is aimed at fans who have watched the series.  If you have never watched the show and are planning to start at the beginning or you are still watching, this not only could have some spoilers but probably wouldn't make much sense to you, so come back when you have gotten caught up.

When we last saw the Crawley family and their servants, Violet (Maggie Smith) had died (sadly, Smith had also died in real life); Barrow (Robert James-Collier) had resigned as butler and accepted a job with the actor and lover Thomas Dexter (Dominic West); Andy (Michael Fox) had moved up as head butler; Lady Mary's (Michele Dockery) marriage to Henry (Matthew Goode) was in trouble; Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) was running a magazine; and Robert Crawley, Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and Cora, Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) were worried about the future of Downton Abbey, as finances were tight and running a big estate wasn't cheap. If you remember, Robert married Cora, an American heiress, which helped him keep his stately home - Downton Abbey.  It was a thing in England in those days. English aristocrats with no money married wealthy American women to keep up the facade. The men liked the money; the women liked the title and the English accent didn't hurt.  

Now as we catch up with the characters in this finale directed by Simon Curtis, it's 1930.

Barrow is still with Dexter who is appearing in a Noel Coward play in London. The Crawleys, minus Mary, have come to London to see the play. Later, at a party the news breaks that Lady Mary and husband Henry Talbot have divorced and a huge scandal ensues making Mary a pariah in their aristocratic society.  In those days in Britain, a divorced woman was not allowed into society. And let me say that it was not just a British thing. I remember growing up in the Midwest when my parents would tsk tsk about divorced women too. They grew up in that Downton Abbey era (they were old when I was born) and it was still alive and well in the 1950's and 1960's.  

Meanwhile, Robert and Cora are still concerned about the future of Downton and whether or not they should turn over management to Mary. This was a time when only males inherited but Robert and Cora have no male heirs, so what to do about Downton?

It doesn't help that Cora's American brother, Harold (Paul Giamatti), has arrived from America with his financial adviser, Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), and it turns out, after the death of their mother, Harold has lost all of Cora's money that he had been entrusted with.  Sambrook had supposedly saved Harold from complete financial ruin and now Harold wants to invest Downton's remaining assets to recoup his losses and repay Sambrook. Sambrook and Mary have a bit of a dalliance which results in his blackmailing her when she leads the family in rejecting his proposal to invest Downton's income. Meanwhile, Tom Branson (Allen Leech) arrives with daughter, Sybbie (Fifi Hart), and reveals that Sambrook is a bit of a fraudster.

Mary's divorce causes Downton neighbors to shun the Crawleys, and they all decline a dinner invitation but when the Crawley's decide to invite Noel Coward (Arty Froushan) to dinner as a way to rehabilitate Mary's reputation, the neighbors can't resist. And plucky Lady Merton (Penelope Wilton) is involved with organizing the annual county fair with the help of Daisy (Sophie McShera) and isn't taking any crap from traditionalist (and chauvinist), Sir Hector Moreland (Simon Russell Beale). 

Meanwhile, downstairs, Anna Bates (Joanne Froggatt) is expecting a second child; both Carson (Jim Carter) and Mrs. Padmore (Lesley Nicol)are retiring, though Carson just can't help himself from meddling upstairs despite his wife's, Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan), attempts to reason with him; and Molesley (Kevin Doyle) has become a playwright and is excited that Noel Coward is coming to a dinner party at Downton.

This film is less about a dramatic storyline and more about little moments with the characters, the ensemble actors, and wrapping up the series. Not a lot happens in this final installment, but it's wrapped up nicely, it's absolutely beautiful to look at, the actors deliver, and at the end, we get to enjoy some nostalgic moments from the past, my favorite part seeing Mathew Crawley (Dan Stevens) again, who we lost in early episodes, and who went on to make a name of sorts for himself in horror films.  But I always did love that Matthew Crawley. 

And there is a beautiful upward pan shot of Downton Abbey as Cora and Robert walk away.  That was especially nostalgic for me as I have been to Highclere Castle, where Downton was filmed.  I walked the grounds and touched everything in that main room where the family would congregate. It will always be a high point of my trips to England.

At the end, be sure to watch the credits because halfway through we see all of the characters happily moving on.

Rosy the Reviewer says...I can't say this was my favorite "Downton Abbey" get together, but it was a satisfying ending to a beloved show. (In theatres and for rent on Amazon Prime)

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025)

The Boys are Back in Town!

It's been 40 years since the first Spinal Tap film (feel old yet?) and Martin "Marty" DiBergi (Rob Reiner, who directed the first film as well as this one) wants to do another documentary, a reunion and final show of the legendary rock band, Spinal Tap. Marty discovers that Hope Faith (Kerry Godliman), the daughter of Spinal Tap's original manager, Ian Faith, has inherited a contract requiring Spinal Tap to do one more concert so that fits right in with Marty's documentary idea. 

So what have the original members - Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) - been doing these last 40 years?

Well, Nigel, the former lead guitarist, now runs a cheese-and-guitar shop with girlfriend Moira (Nina Conti).  David, the former guitarist and lead singer for Tap now produces music for true-crime podcasts (one was called "Night of the Assisted-Living Dead") as well as on-hold music - you know, that music you listen to on your phone when you are waiting for a customer service person? David's wife has become a nun (June Chadwick).  Derek, the bass player for the band, is the curator of a glue museum and has composed a symphonic work called "Hell Toupee." 

Nigel and David had been estranged and haven't played together in 15 years but they are open to performing together again, especially since there is increased interest in the band since Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood performed Tap's song "Big Bottom" and it went viral.  But the band needs a drummer because, as you may remember, all of the drummers for the band, mysteriously died.

Their old manager, Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher), was so stressed by her experience with the band that she became a Buddhist and their old PR man, Artie Fufkin (Paul Shaffer), has become a used-car salesman obsessed with sky dancers, those blow-up balloons waving at us from used car lots, so the band hires Simon Howler (Chris Addison), a sleazy promoter who for some reason cannot comprehend music, and they all travel to New Orleans to practice. They still need a drummer and ask Questlove if he would fill in but since all of Spinal Tap's drummers have had "accidental deaths," he is not interested. Gee, I wonder why.  But they are fortunate to find Didi Crockett (Valerie Franco), an enthusiastic young female drummer. Will she make it out alive?

The band lives in a "ghost house," a tourist attraction so people are wandering in and out on tour of the premises.  Kind of funny. Paul McCartney and Elton John drop by. Paul sings along with "Flower People" and Elton agrees to sing "Stonehenge" at the concert. Having them in the film was actually quite funny. And it wouldn't be Spinal Tap if things don't go very wrong at the concert, right?

The original Spinal Tap, written by Reiner, McKean, Guest and Shearer, was a ground-breaking parody film of rock stars on the way down that added the word "mockumentary" to our lexicon.  It was so good that we had friends who thought it was a real documentary, not a very good one, but real.  We tried to convince them that it was a parody and it was supposed to be bad, but they would not believe us and we actually had a bit of a row over it. IT WASN'T REAL! But the movie was VERY funny.

As for this film, also written by the four of them...well, you know how I feel about sequels.  

I always have to ask, was it necessary to do another film? And if so, does the sequel do the original justice?  The answer to those questions this time is probably no and no, but I was a huge fan of the first film and love these characters, so I was willing to hang in there. It doesn't have a lot of laughs, though you might chuckle a bit. Not really any new songs, either, though there are snippets of the original songs that you can enjoy again. But Paul McCartney and Elton John were clearly having fun, and if you loved the Spinal Tap guys and were a superfan, you might have fun spending some time with them again too.

As an aside, you bibliophiles out there might be interested to know that Rob Reiner has also published a "memoir" of the band to coincide with the release of the sequel and add to the back story: how the band met, how they came up with the fictitious band idea and those quotable lines like - “Hello Cleveland” and “These go to eleven.” You might not know that the Spinal Tap anthems (e.g. “Big Bottom,” “Stonehenge”) were written ahead of time, but other than that,  everything in the film was improvised (It most probably was in this sequel as well). It’s a behind the scenes tell-all of the making of the film and what happened after as well as info on the making of the sequel. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...sadly this film sequel does not go to 11. (In theatres and for rent on Amazon Prime) 

The Lost Bus (2025)

A real-life thriller about the worst wildfire in California history - the 2018 Camp Fire.

Matthew McConaughey is Kevin McKay, a school bus driver who has returned to his childhood home because his Dad has died.  His wife has also left him and he is struggling with mounting bills and more family turmoil - his son, Sean (McConaughey's real life son, Levi), says he hates him, Kevin's Mom (Kay McConaughey, Matthew's real life Mom) is losing her grasp on reality and Kevin's boss, Ruby (Ashlie Atkinson), is giving him grief. It gets worse.  His dog dies.  He is not a happy man. And he has no idea things are going to get much worse as he heads into the bus ride of his life. 

A fire has broken out near the town of Paradise and Kevin's boss, Ruby, the bus dispatcher, asks him to help evacuate 23 children from their school.  When he arrives to make the pickup, he insists that teacher, Mary Ludwig (America Ferrara), rides along to help him with the kids.  

Let the nightmare begin. The fire is already out of control and we are taken along on a scary ride through burning forests and falling live power cables. 

The film plays out like a documentary with Chief Martinez, the Cal Fire Battalion Chief (Yul Vasquez), trying to stop the fire and Kevin trying to get that bus through the raging fire that turns day into night and save the children. There is great footage of our heroic firefighters and the film does a good job of recreating just how harrowing that fire, the worst in California's history, was. 

McConaughey hasn't been in a major film in several years and it's easy to forget how good he is at making us care about everyman characters. It's great to see him exercising his dramatic acting chops. America Ferrera doesn't have as much to do as McConaughey but she is a consistent presence and the claustrophobic atmosphere of the bus makes for intense interactions between the two. And all of the disaster movie tropes are in play: an unlikely hero, children in jeopardy, no way out, bad guys.

Director Paul Greengrass, who is known for his true life depictions ("United 93" and "Captain Phillips") co-wrote the screenplay with Brad Ingelsby (based on the book "Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire" by Lizzie Johnson), and he has created a white-knuckle disaster movie with a "you are there" feeling.  The effects are spectacular. It's like we are on that bus too. 

The film ends with an epilogue about what happened to Kevin and Mary later...oh, and turns out the Pacific Gas & Electric Company was held accountable for starting the fire.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like disaster movies, this is a white knuckle experience that also shows the devastation that wildfires can cause and how regular people can overcome unimaginable odds and become heroes. (Apple+)

See You Next Time!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to like it and share it on Facebook, X, or other sites; email it to your friends and/or follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer where I share short reviews about TV shows I am watching, books I am reading and all sorts of other fun stuff that doesn't appear here!

And next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll over to the right of the synopsis to where it says "Critics Reviews" - Click on that and if I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list (NOTE:  IMDB keeps moving stuff around so if you don't find "Critics Reviews" where I am sending you, look around.  It's worth it)!

Some New September Movies You Will Want To See: Spike Lee's Latest, a Fun British Murder Mystery with Geriatric Detectives and a Shocking Documentary!

[I review Spike Lee's - "Highest 2 Lowest" - as well as "The Thursday Murder Club" and the documentary "Unknown Number: The High School Catfish"]

Highest 2 Lowest (2025)

When a music mogul is caught up in a ransom plot, he must make a life-changing moral decision.

David King (Denzel Washington) is a New York City music mogul and the founder of Stackin' Hits Records. He needs to buy back his majority ownership of his company to avoid a buyout by a rival label.  But to raise the cash to do that, King needs to put up many of his personal assets including his penthouse and art collection as collateral. But the day the deal is to go through, King receives a call from an anonymous caller who says he has kidnapped King's son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), and the kidnapper demands $17.5 million in Swiss 1,000-franc notes.  There goes King's deal to buy back his company but he agrees with his wife, Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera), to pay the ransom.  But then, in a twist of fate, we learn that it wasn't Trey who was kidnapped, it was Trey's best friend, Kyle (Elijah Wright), who is also the son of King's driver and best friend, Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright).

So now King is caught in a moral dilemma and needs to do some soul searching. Does he pay that ransom and ruin his business for somebody else's son? And what happens, if he goes after the kidnapper himself? 

Spike Lee directs this crime thriller which he describes as a "reinterpretation" of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film "High and Low," which was based on the 1959 novel "King's Ransom" by Ed McBain.  This is Lee's fifth collaboration with Washington and the first since "Inside Man," which he directed 19 years ago.

I have always been a big Spike Lee fan ever since his first feature film "She's Gotta Have it (1986)," and this film has many of the elements we have come to expect from Lee.  It's a bit of a love letter to New York City exploring urban life; it has a big opening sequence, dynamic camera movements and a bold style. It's a commentary on the music business, and it wouldn't be a Spike Lee film without some sports references ("Go Yankees!") But it's also a story of friendship and family, which I liked, but sadly the first half of the film was slow moving and felt overdramatic and the soundtrack was annoying, but then happily as the film progressed, the second half picked up and there was Spike Lee at his best. I also appreciated the sharp dialogue thanks to the screenplay by Alan Fox and the appearance of A$AP Rocky as a greedy, ambitious rapper.  

So Lee's surefire direction is apparent here, but this movie is all about Denzel Washington, who is at the top of his game. Nobody plays it big like Denzel. But Wright, coming off his Oscar nom for "American Fiction," is also a wonderful actor and holds his own with Denzel. Uh, Denzel, may I call you Denzel?

Rosy the Reviewer says...though the film has some issues, it's compelling and has a message of hope, that sometimes life's "lowest" is more about getting back to the basics than taking you down. Thank you, Spike! You still got it!  May I call you Spike? (Netflix)

The Thursday Murder Club (2025)

Four retirees living in a retirement village, pass the time trying to solve cold cases but soon find themselves involved in a real life very hot whodunit.

As a retiree myself, I learned that in retirement, it is important to find meaning, and psychiatrist Ibrahim Arifv (Ben Kingsley), former trade union leader Ron Ritchie (Pierce Brosnan), and Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren), whose former work remains a mystery for much of the film, though I figured it out early, have found meaning by forming the Thursday Murder Club (TMC), which meets weekly to discuss old cold cases. They all live in Cooper's Chase, a retirement village in the English countryside and are soon joined by new resident, Joyce (Celia Imrie), a retired nurse, whose medical knowledge is needed. The group was inspired by a murder case once handled by Detective Inspector Penny Gray, a friend of Elizabeth's who is now comatose in hospice.

Meanwhile, Ian Ventham (David Tennant), one of the owners of Coopers Chase, wants to redevelop it into luxury flats.  His partner, Tony Curran (Geoff Bell), opposes that idea as do all of the residents. Tony promises the residents he will block the sale but then Tony is found dead.

The TMC now has a real case to investigate and they enlist the help of young detective constable Donna de Freitas (Naomi Ackie), who has just come from London and is bored with the routine tasks she is given at the police station, not to mention the English countryside where nothing seems to happen. The Club must now rule out the usual suspects, and in so doing, find themselves embroiled with local crime boss, Bobby Tanner (Richard E. Grant), another murder, and that earlier unsolved case that Detective Penny Gray had been working on.

If you like cozy British mysteries, how can you go wrong with this very British story based on the book by Richard Osman, which is part of his popular mystery series (screenplay by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote), directed by Chris Columbus and with such an oh-so-British all-star cast? The film is also a sort of comedy and has some funny moments, but what I liked most was that even though these actors are "of a certain age," the film did not try to create comedy by making fun of them. Some filmmakers think it's funny to see a sex-crazed 80-year old smoking pot and telling everybody to f**k off. I don't.

Rosy the Reviewer says...though the resolution of the film is kind of a stretch and the plot one of those convoluted ones we have come to expect from British mysteries, it's fun watching these veteran actors do their thing. And do you think there will be a sequel? Duh. (Netflix)

Unknown Number: The High School Catfish (2025)

This true-crime documentary focuses on the cyberbullying of a young girl and her boyfriend in a small Michigan town.

In 2020, teens Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny, who were boyfriend and girlfriend living in small Beal City, Michigan, started to received thousands of text messages - 40 to 50 a day. The texts were very graphic and from an unknown number. It was assumed that the messages were coming from a classmate attempting to break up their relationship. The texts were not only really explicit but cruel, even telling Lauryn to kill herself. They also referenced personal aspects of their lives that only someone close to them would know.

The harassment went on for over a year, causing paranoia in the town and ruining relationships as everyone was suspicious of everyone. Lauryn was even accused of doing this to herself, but eventually the FBI became involved and the identity of the catfish was discovered. 

And it was totally shocking.

I love documentaries and have always been fascinated by catfishing (I have been watching "Catfish," the TV show from the beginning), though this wasn't really a standard catfish story. But it is an extremely compelling mystery directed by Skye Borgman, and the ending is about as shocking as you can get, but I wish there had been answers. Even now, I don't really understand why the person did it, even though there was an attempt to explain, but mostly I was left feeling very strange by Lauryn's final reaction to it all and the end of the film was very unsettling.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like documentaries, this is an engrossing one that will shock you. (Netflix)

See You Next Time!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to like it and share it on Facebook, X, or other sites; email it to your friends and/or follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer where I share short reviews about TV shows I am watching, books I am reading and all sorts of other fun stuff that doesn't appear here!

And next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll over to the right of the synopsis to where it says "Critics Reviews" - Click on that and if I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list (NOTE:  IMDB keeps moving stuff around so if you don't find "Critics Reviews" where I am sending you, look around.  It's worth it)!

"The Pickup," "Death of a Unicorn," "The Woman in the Yard" and "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me:" My Movie Picks and Pans for August 2025

[I review "The Pickup," the new Eddie Murphy-Pete Davidson buddy movie as well as two horror films and a documentary - "Death of a Unicorn," "The Woman in the Yard" and "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me," a documentary about a rock band you might not know about]

The Pickup (2025)

Two mismatched armored car drivers find themselves in a heist situation.

I have always been a big Eddie Murphy fan ever since he was on SNL. He created some of the funniest characters of all time. But is it me?  Do comedians get less funny as they get older?  I noticed it with Richard Pryor, Chevy Chase and others. It seems as they age like they start to take themselves too seriously and suddenly aren't funny anymore. I think that has happened to Eddie.

Russell Pierce (Murphy), a veteran armored car driver close to retirement, and Travis Stolly (Pete Davidson), a rookie who aspires to be a police officer, team up for the first time on duty. It's Russell's 25th Wedding Anniversary and he needs to get home to take his wife, Natalie (Eva Longoria), out for dinner and surprise her with the ring he had reset for her, so he is not happy that they have a particularly long day of pickups. And he is really unhappy when young criminal mastermind Zoe (Keke Palmer) and her cohorts, Banner (Jack Kesy) and Miguel (Ismael Cruz Cordova), ambush them. 

After an intense car chase with cars blowing up and money containing dye thrown all over the place, Zoe manages to hijack the armored car. Travis recognizes Zoe because...wait for it. Wouldn't you know? Travis and Zoe had "met cute" the day before and had a one-night-stand where he had just coincidentally told her everything about his work including his schedule and the route he was going to take. Assuming that Banner and Miguel are dead after both of their vehicles have violently crashed, Zoe reveals that it's not the money in the truck that she wants, it's the armored truck itself because her plan is to use it for a pickup of $60 million from an Atlantic City casino, and she wants Russell and Travis to help her. Since she has a gun on them, they figure they don't have much choice.

However, Banner and Miguel survive and now they are mad that Zoe has abandoned them so they are on the hunt for Zoe, Russell and Travis. In the meantime, Zoe reveals her real reason for wanting to rob the casino and Russell's wife, Natalie, has tracked them down, because, hey, it's her 25th Wedding Anniversary and she wants to know where the heck Russell is.  Now she is also involved but why she is even in this movie is a mystery. Eva must have needed the work.

More car chases, more shenanigans, more I don't care anymore.

Written by Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider and directed by Tim Story, this is the #3 most popular movie on Netflix right now, so I guess Eddie Murphy can still pull an audience but, like I said, sadly he just isn't funny anymore, nor is this movie. Eddie used to have the funniest facial reactions and doesn't even do that here for a cheap laugh. Pete does Pete, that Chad character he created on SNL, but the relationship between Eddie and Pete just didn't work. This is supposed to be a "buddy movie" but these guys have zero buddy chemistry. And I have never been a Keke Palmer fan. She always tries too hard to be perky, but at least here she has toned it down so I didn't mind her as much. And Andrew Dice Clay as the armored truck company boss was unrecognizable. He used to be funny too. 

I think this movie was supposed to be fun, but it wasn't. Even the car crashes weren't fun. They were over-the-top and unrealistic. How many car crashes in slow motion do we have to see?  

Rosy the Reviewer says...predictable and dumb. Cliche after cliche after cliche. I felt used. I liked Eddie better when he was funny.  (Amazon Prime)

Death of a Unicorn (2025)

While on his way to a weekend retreat at his boss's house with his daughter, a man who works for a pharmaceutical company kills a unicorn which leads to mayhem.

I like the occasional horror film, but for some reason this month I have been drawn to them.  Maybe it's because pretend horror takes my mind off the real life horror of world events. And I am not alone. It's actually been documented that in times of economic and political upheaval, more people are drawn to horror films. 

Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) and his teenage daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), are travelling through the Canadian Rockies on their way for a weekend at the estate of Elliot's boss, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant) and his family- his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni) and son, Shepard (Will Poulter). Elliot is up for a promotion in Odell's pharmaceutical company. Odell is suffering from cancer. 

On the way, Elliot accidentally strikes and injures a unicorn with his car. Okay, I know. Unicorns don't really exist.  Suspend your disbelief.

When Elliot and Ridley inspect the unicorn, Ridley touches its horn and is cosmically transported until Elliot bashes it with a tire iron, splashing them both with blood.  They stash the unicorn in the trunk and head to the Leopolds' estate. Elliott plans to bury the unicorn after everyone is asleep.  Ooo---kay. Not sure that's a good plan. But then something really strange happens. Ridley discovers that her acne is gone and Elliot's vision suddenly improves and so do his allergies. It looks like unicorns have healing powers.

After arriving at the Leopolds' estate, they all discover that the unicorn wasn't dead. They shoot it but when Odell learns that the unicorn has healing powers, he brings in a bunch of scientists who grate pieces of the unicorn's horn off.  Odell ingests it and suddenly Odell's cancer is gone. Still with me?

Gee, Odell runs a pharmaceutical company.  I wonder what his plans are for the unicorn. Yes, he plans to exploit it.  In the meantime, Ridley remembers seeing the famous Unicorn Tapestries and gets the feeling that something bad is going to happen. Ya think? Well, she's right. Turns out, there is more than one unicorn, and they don't like that their friend is being taken off to be experimented on. All hell breaks loose.

Written and directed by Alex Scharfman, this is one of those "what if" stories.  What if unicorns are real and have curative powers and also get violent when Big Pharma tries to exploit them? 

All of the characters in this are larger than life which is sometimes fun but here could be interpreted as over-acting. There is lots of guts and gore (there is a fun homage to "Alien"), but is this film really a horror film?  It wants to be, but since it's so over-the-top, it's not really scary. It's more of a cartoon. Yes, it is funny at times, makes fun of rich people and it's a statement about the greed of Big Pharma, but I'm not sure the presentation really makes that hit home. Though the film has some originality and may have meant well, it has a one note premise: unicorns gone wild, and it went on way too long with a very strange ending. When the police arrived, I couldn't help but wonder, how do you tell the police, "Unicorns did it?"

I like Paul Rudd. He does "dufus" really well. Jenna Ortega is everywhere these days and Poulter has made a name for himself playing bullies (he does it again here) but redeemed himself in his recent stint on "The Bear." Leoni and Grant are veteran actors but despite all of this star power, it wasn't enough to save this movie. I liked the idea of unicorns running wild in a horror film and there were some fun moments, but not enough for me to recommend this movie. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...much as I sometimes like to watch horror films to take my mind off real life horror, sadly, this movie just reminded me that I don't like silly, over-the-top horror. But if that's your jam, you might like it. (HBO Max)

The Woman in the Yard (2025)

What would you do if a mysterious woman clad in black appeared sitting in your yard and she wouldn't leave?  Call the police?

Well, that's not what Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) did. She should have.  Ramona is a widowed mother living on an isolated farm.  She was in a car accident that killed her husband. She is grieving, hobbling around on crutches, and not doing well, distancing herself from her two children, Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and Annie (Estella Kahiha).  

Suddenly, a woman all in black appears sitting in their front yard and says  "Today's the day."  There are repeated attempts to get the woman to leave by both Ramona and Taylor but the woman remains, and in fact, appears to be moving closer and closer to the house. Then the cell service and power goes out and Charlie, the dog, goes missing.

Turns out there is more to the car accident than Ramona has revealed.

Not sure if it's Deadwyler, the screenplay by Sam Stefanak, or Jaume Collet-Serra's direction, but Ramona was not a sympathetic character. Yes, she is a grieving widow but she is actually a pain in the butt to her kids and to the audience watching this film.  She is useless.  As she hobbles from her bedroom down the stairs, I couldn't help but say to myself, "Why doesn't she sleep downstairs?" And why is the crashed car sitting on the property? I rolled my eyes more than once, and finally said out loud to the TV, "What the Hell?"  If Deadwyler had generated a bit more warmth or smarts, I might have cared, but I didn't. It doesn't take much to figure out what the woman in the yard represents but even figuring that out, I still didn't care.

I was hopeful going into this film.  I usually like Blumhouse horror films, but I can't say this film was actually a horror film.  It was more of a psychological look at grief and guilt with a few gotcha moments, but even so, not that well done.  And I am not a fan of an ambiguous ending that makes me go "Huh?"

Rosy the Reviewer says...when it comes to horror, I have been a big fan of Blumhouse productions but they have their ups and downs and this one was definitely a down. Not recommended. (Peacock)

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (2012)

A rock documentary about the rock band, Big Star, that received critical acclaim but commercial failure though today it is a success as a cult band phenomenon.

Remember The Box Tops and the song "The Letter?"  Alex Chilton was the lead singer for The Box Tops and was only 16 when he recorded that song.  He had huge success at a young age and later formed the band Big Star with Chris Bell.  This documentary tells the story of what happened to Chilton and Bell as they starred in the most famous band you have never heard of. 

Founded in 1971 in Memphis, the band found a home at Ardent Studios, noted for its connection to Stax Records (Sam and Dave, Led Zeppelin and Isaac Hayes recorded there). Their albums were critically acclaimed but a series of events caused distribution issues, and despite their getting credit for influencing other bands like R.E.M. and Cheap Trick, they never really had success until much later, when they had a cult following in the 90's. Their song "In the Street" was the theme for "That '70s Show," though it was performed by Cheap Trick.  

Written by Drew DeNicola and directed by DeNicola and Olivia Mori, the film uses archival materials and all kinds of talking heads to track the history of Chilton, Bell and Big Star, but the talking heads are people you will probably not recognize nor are they routinely identified, and that's the problem with this movie. It is never clear who is talking and what their connection to Big Star was. 

The story of Big Star is an intriguing one but the film goes on too long with too many people talking and conjecturing with little actual footage of the band performing and the film doesn't really manage to make a point about why Big Star didn't make it big. There are hints at drug and alcohol use that contributed to Chilton and Bell never really finding their niches, but there is never enough information to understand what really happened and why they didn't become big stars during their lifetimes.  Both died young - Bell is in the "27 Club" and Chilton died at 59.

Big Star was clearly a band ahead of it's time with an interesting story, and I am glad it is getting some props. However, even though I am a big fan of music documentaries, this film just did not come together for me.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you are/were a fan of Big Star or are a rock documentary nerd, you might enjoy this, but otherwise, not recommended. (HBO Max).

See You Next Time!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to like it and share it on Facebook, X, or other sites; email it to your friends and/or follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer where I share short reviews about TV shows I am watching, books I am reading and all sorts of other fun stuff that doesn't appear here!

And next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll over to the right of the synopsis to where it says "Critics Reviews" - Click on that and if I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list (NOTE:  IMDB keeps moving stuff around so if you don't find "Critics Reviews" where I am sending you, look around.  It's worth it)!

"Happy Gilmore 2," "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan" and "Zarna Garg: One in a Billion:" My Movie Picks and Pans for July 2025

[I review "Happy Gilmore 2," the documentary "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan" and Zarna Garg's comedy stand-up "One in a Billion"]

Happy Gilmore 2 (2025)

First there was "Happy Gilmore."  Now here he is again 29 years later.

Okay, since you know I hate sequels (except "The Godfather Part II), you may be wondering, "Rosy, why are you reviewing a sequel to "Happy Gilmore?"  Well, my peeps, I didn't see the first one, so in a way this isn't really a sequel for me.  I don't have anything to compare it with.  I am seeing it with new eyes.  And since "Happy Gilmore 2" is currently the #1 watched movie on Netflix right now and Adam Sandler has been on every talk show on the planet hyping this movie, I thought I had better do my due diligence and take a look.

So if you saw the first one, you know that Happy started out playing hockey but despite his powerful slapshot, his temper and poor skating ability limited his career.  But then he discovered golf where his slapshot came in handy and he went on to win his first Tour Championship in 1996. 

Now 29 years later, we learn that Happy went on to have a successful golf career winning five more championships.  He also had five children with wife Virginia (Julie Bowen), but sadly, tragedy has struck Happy.  Virginia is no longer with us, he has lost everything including his grandma's house (again), and he has become an alcoholic using a plethora of objects as flasks so he can stay "hydrated (my favorite is his drinking out of a cucumber)!" 

So Happy has quit golf and is now not so happy.

His kids Gordie (Maxwell Friedman), Wayne (Ethan Cutkosky), Bobby (Philip Schneider) and Terry (Conor Sherry) have moved out and are working to help support Happy and their sister Vienna (Sunny Sandler, Adam's real life daughter), who wants to go to ballet school in Paris.  The $75k per year cost is daunting to Happy, but then he is approached by Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie), the CEO of Maxi Energy Drink and whose bad breath is a recurring motif in the film. Manatee is starting a new golf league called Maxi Golf, a league that make golf more fun and exciting - kind of what Banana Baseball is to baseball.  Manatee wants Happy to be the league's star.  Happy declines but wanting to find the money to pay for Vienna to go to ballet school and with encouragement from his friend, John Daly (playing himself), he starts to clean himself up by joining a support group, "Alkies for Life," coincidentally run by his old arch nemesis, Hal (Ben Stiller). Happy works on his golf skills, gets his mojo back, and eventually joins the next Tour Championship where Maxi Golf is rising fast. Manatee challenges the Tour Championship golfers to a tournament - the top five Maxi Golf golfers vs. the top five old timers - and the film culminates in a no-holds barred golf-off.

There are ups and downs to Happy's return to golf including his struggles with alcohol and Maxi Golf turns out to be a bit dodgy. Will Happy be happy again?

Lots of golf action and cameos from real golf champs. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka (and his wife!) and Bryson DeChambeau make up Happy's team against Maxi Golf and Fred Couples, Nick Faldo, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and others also make appearances. There is even a spoof on Scottie Scheffler's real life arrest before last year's PGA Championship.

Acting and celebrity cameos also abound - Ben Stiller, Julie Bowen, Kevin Nealon, Christopher McDonald, and Dennis Dugan reprise their roles and everyone from Travis Kelce to Bad Bunny to Ken Jennings to SNL alums seem to be in this along with others - too many to mention. Even Adam Sandler's real life family members make appearances. It starts out being fun to try to spot who's who but as more and more celebrities crowd the film, it becomes exhausting and actually distracts from the story.

Written by Tim Herlihy and Sandler and directed by Kyle Newacheck, the first half of the film is actually quite sweet. However, in the second half of the film, the "shark jumped," if you know what I mean, and it just got too silly and went on too long.  And though there are clips from the first film to try to remind you of what happened and who some of the characters relate to Happy, some character relationships are unexplained this time around (not sure why Hal (Stiller) was Happy's arch nemesis or why Shooter McGavin (McDonald) was in a mental hospital - or frankly why he was in the movie - or why John Daly was living in Happy's garage), but you can mostly enjoy this film without having seen the original.  

Sandler is not the best actor in the world, but there is something endearing about him. He is so earnest and sincere in what he does that it shines through and makes you root for his character.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you enjoyed the first film, are an Adam Sandler fan or enjoy your golf with lots of hijinks, you might enjoy this, but if you don't like slapstick comedy and very broad humor (bare butts and bad breath and fart jokes abound) then, you might not.  But all in all, the film has some fun moments and a good message. It is all about rooting for the underdog, second chances and redemption.  It's upbeat and don't we need that right now? (Netflix)

Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan (2025)

What you didn't know about Ed Sullivan.

Okay, so you aren't sure you even know who Ed Sullivan was. "The Ed Sullivan Show" was the longest-running variety show in U.S. broadcast history.  On Sunday night, it featured singers, dancers, acrobats, puppets, you name it.  "America's Got Talent" is the closest thing we have to that today, but back in the 1950's and sixties, when there were few TV channels, most Americans - 35-50 million of them - all sat down at the same time to watch Ed Sullivan and then talk about it the next day.

Sullivan was the first to have Elvis on TV (though they only filmed him from the chest up - he wasn't called Elvis the Pelvis for nothing) as well as the Beatles.  I, of course, was a huge Beatles fan and the night they were on, my girlfriend, Linda, and I sat on the floor in front of the TV screaming along with the girls in the TV audience. My parents shook their heads.

Though there are some biographical elements in this documentary directed by the late Sacha Jenkins, this film is less about Sullivan's personal life and more about the impact "The Ed Sullivan Show" had on television history and civil rights, which I did not know about and you might not have known about either.

What I didn't know was that Sullivan broke the "color barrier" by featuring black artists on the show at a time when racial discrimination was still rampant.  Though the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled segregated schools unconstitutional in 1954 and the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, racism never really went away and few black artists ever appeared on TV.  Southern politicians wanted segregated TV shows. They did not want to see black performers on the same stage as white performers. But Sullivan had full control of who performed on his show and he went against sponsors and critics to showcase black talent. "The Ed Sullivan Show" was one of the first mainstream shows to do that.

Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder at 13, Nat King Cole, Nina Simone, James Brown, The Jackson 5, The Temptations and The Supremes all performed on the show and snippets of their performances are included in the documentary along with Belafonte, Smokey Robinson, Otis Williams and others weighing in on the influence this show had on American life.

Though Sullivan died in 1974, his voice is recreated as narrator and features his comments on racial issues over the years from his letters, articles and columns.

So why did Sullivan care so much?

Growing up in Port Chester, New York, in an Irish-American family, Sullivan played baseball and played against teams with black players.  He believed in integration from an early age, possibly because the Irish had also been through discrimination when they settled in America.  He recalls how some of his team mates did not want to play against black players, but he was taught "to respect the rights of the underdog."

"I always resented [those players that didn't want to play against black players] very deeply because the Irish had been through that...My parents knew these things were wrong, and they were not just broad-minded, but sensible."

So how did Sullivan, who started out as a newspaper sports writer end up hosting a TV show?

He was later assigned a newspaper Broadway column which led to his being the master of ceremonies for the Harvest Moon Ball, a famous New York amateur dance contest.  At the time, TV was new and someone was needed to host a Sunday night variety show - "The Toast of the Town" - which he did and that eventually became "The Ed Sullivan Show." 

Through a series of opportune events, Sullivan, an unlikely TV personality, became the host of the longest running variety show in TV history, one that gave opportunities to black performers who until then were not seen on TV. And that was not received well. There were protests about black performers appearing on the same show as white performers and Sullivan was told not to shake hands with the black performers or touch them. Sponsors were targeted. Hard to believe all of that was happening just 75 years ago. But Sullivan went against the protests and not only shook hands with black performers, he embraced them.

Belafonte, who appeared on the show 10 times, says that Sullivan "pushed the envelope as far as the envelope could be pushed," especially when CBS threatened to stop him from performing the first time in 1953 because of his left-wing politics and Sullivan went to bat for him with the network.

Sullivan and his voice and mannerisms have been made fun of by comedians over the years because yes, he was not your typical TV host. He was not classically handsome, often called "The Great Stone Face" and was very stiff on camera, but he made his mark on TV with a show that ran for 23 years. TV Guide ranked it 15th in the top "50 Greatest TV shows of All Time." But more importantly, Sullivan made a huge contribution to racial equality.

Sullivan died three days after the show ended.  He died on a Sunday night.

Rosy the Reviewer says...The Ed Sullivan Show was "appointment TV" of the highest order.  I was there every Sunday night with my family and knowing what Sullivan did to promote black artists makes me very glad I was. And you can be there too, for a little while, when you watch this highly recommended documentary (Netflix).

Zarna Garg: One in a Billion (2023)

Comedian Zarna Garg's first comedy special.

Born in India, Garg grew up in Mumbai.  Her mother died when she was 14 and her father tried to force her into an arranged marriage.  Zarna ran away and eventually she emigrated to the U.S. to live with her sister in Ohio. She eventually earned a law degree, married and was a stay-at-home mom for 16 years until her children encouraged her to try stand-up comedy.  I guess she was a funny mom.  She performed at an open mic in New York City in 2018 and in 2021 won Kevin Hart's comedy competition (Lyft Comics) on Peacock and in 2022 she was highlighted as "one of the gutsiest women comedians in America" on "Gutsy" on Apple TV hosted by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

I first saw her interviewed on "The View" this year when she was making the rounds promoting her memoir, "This American Woman: One in a Billion," so named because she credits American women for giving her the strength to fend off the expectations of her culture and go her own way, especially starting a comedy career in her 40's. She thinks our expression of "one in a million" is not much of a compliment. It's "cute." India has a population of over a billion, so where she is now from where she started, she is "one in a billion." Now that's a compliment.  I thought her story was so compelling that I wanted to read her book which I did and which in turn led me to want to see her comedy routine. 

Which I did.

Written by Garg and directed by Brian Volk-Weiss, this is her first stand-up comedy special and she is very funny and endearing.

Her family-friendly routine takes the audience through her journey, makes fun of the cultural differences between Indian parents and American parents and family expectations (no art majors in Indian families), complains about her mother-in-law (she stalks her TikTok account), explains why Indian kids are smarter and win all of the spelling bees (their parents don't tell them to follow their dreams like American parents do, but to be practical), and more. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...a fresh addition to the comedy world (Amazon Prime.  You can also catch her latest special "Zarna Garg: Practical People Win" now streaming on Hulu and find her book at your local library)

See You Next Time!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to like it and share it on Facebook, X, or other sites; email it to your friends and/or follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer where I share short reviews about TV shows I am watching, books I am reading and all sorts of other fun stuff that doesn't appear here!

And next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll over to the right of the synopsis to where it says "Critics Reviews" - Click on that and if I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list (NOTE:  IMDB keeps moving stuff around so if you don't find "Critics Reviews" where I am sending you, look around.  It's worth it)!