Monthly Archives: May 2025

May 26 2025

Mel’s 5 Second Review: Wolf Man

Wolf Man (2025)
Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, Sam Jaeger, Zac Chandler, and Benedict Hardie
Directed by: Leigh Whannell


So I’ve been wanting to see this since it came out, but due to all the negative reviews I’d seen about it, I was apprehensive about spending any money on it. But it’s now streaming on Prime, so I decided to jump in. And you know, I wouldn’t have been mad about spending a few bucks on it.

A family at a remote farmhouse is attacked by an unseen animal, and as the night stretches on, the father begins to transform into something unrecognizable.

I really don’t understand all the hate this film got. No, it’s not reinventing the wheel, but it’s a good time. It has a few good, tense moments, and I actually quite enjoyed the POV shots changing between the family and the infected Blake. It’s a good idea that I don’t remember seeing before. The make-up effects were well done, even if the wolf design was slightly underwhelming. Christopher Abbott does a great job conveying a man who’s desperately trying to hold on to his humanity even as he feels it slipping away. Everyone was great, actually, except maybe Matilda Firth as daughter Ginger. She wasn’t as horrible as I’ve seen others accuse her of, but she wasn’t great. I don’t like being too hard on child actors, though. It’s a tough gig. The cinematography was stunning, as were the locales, but that happens when you film in New Zealand. I do wish they’d gone for a different ending, though. It felt very predictable and safe.

So if you’ve been on the fence about this one because of the reviews, I’d suggest just seeing it for yourself. You never can tell what you’re going to like based on what other people have thought. I know I definitely can’t. I often end up liking things others hated, or hating things others loved. This one gets a 7.5/10 from me.

M.

This film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

May 8 2025

Mel’s 5 Second Review: Coherence

Coherence (2013)
Emily Foxler, Nicholas Brendon, Maury Sterling, Elizabeth Gracen, Lorene Scafaria, Hugo Armstrong, Alex Manugian, and Lauren Maher
Directed by: James Ward Byrkit


So this film has been on my watch list for years. I’d always heard such good things about it that I really wanted to see it. So yesterday I finally took the plunge. And I have to say, I’m pretty disappointed.

Eight longtime friends come together for a dinner party on the night that a comet is passing overhead. What begins as a fun evening devolves into fear and paranoia as strange things start happening.

SPOILERS INCOMING

I had high hopes for this film and, to its credit, it has some great ideas. The comet seems to affect reality, splitting it into what is probably infinite possibilities. The friends come to realize that walking through a “dark space” outside will bring you to another reality where exact copies of themselves reside, with just some very slight differences. That was all great. But everything else… not so much.

The acting, first of all, feels weird, very forced. I guessed that maybe a lot of the dialog was improvised and, after looking it up, saw I was right. But it wasn’t seamless improv. The actors (none of whom I’d ever seen before save Nicholas Brendon who played Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) seem to struggle with thinking of things to say, so it all sounded hollow. They also ended scenes very abruptly with hard cuts to black, which was very off-putting. The camera work was just plain bad, all weird angles and shakiness. And the ending was very underwhelming. They could have done so much with such an interesting idea, but they chose the low-hanging fruit.

I’ll give it a few points for an original idea, but I can’t give it more than a 5/10. Such a shame.

M.

This film is currently streaming on Prime.