Thank you RLJE Films for sending us a Blu-ray to review!

I Am Mortal takes place 213 years into the future in the year 2235. According to this film, mankind pretty much dresses the same way (in the 2020s) and occasionally reads paperback books still. It’s assumed that humanity has been through some devastating warfare as the main city is in a domed environment and much of the Earth’s surface is barren. The main character, Logos, is a terraforming engineer trying to restore the land to its pre-devastated state.

Humanity’s leader refers to himself as “The Pilot” and he believes that God is a fantasy and that free will is undesirable. His gods are science and technology and he has discovered a way to modify people’s genes and wipes their memory if they defy his orders. In order to fit into The Pilot’s society, people must take a daily medication called “maintenance” that keeps them compliant and suppresses their critical thinking abilities.

When The Pilot deems people to be at their peak, he grants them the opportunity to become immortal in exchange for their service and compliance. Logos is days away from his gift of immortality, but he’s not looking forward to it as much as he thinks he should be. Sensing Logos’ hesitation, a group of rebels contact him to let him know that he’s not alone. The resistance group meets in an abandoned church and wants to tamper with the maintenance medication to let humanity know that God has a purpose for them and that they are intended to die in order to truly live.

Thank you Lionsgate for sending us this Blu-ray to review!

American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story is based on a true and remarkable story. Kurt Warner is considered the NFL’s greatest undrafted player. Kurt was inspired by Joe Montana’s Superbowl XIX performance and actually broke his record in Super Bowl XXIV. However, it took him a long time to get into the NFL.

During college, Kurt spent four years on the bench because the coach there didn’t like his playing style. I’m not savvy on football terms, but apparently Kurt didn’t stay in the pocket enough. When he did play, he did extremely well.

While in college, Kurt met Brenda, a divorced mother of two with one of them being blind. Their relationship had highs and lows and Kurt had to prove that he was going to treat her better than her ex-husband. Eventually Kurt got noticed by the Green Bay Packers, but only lasted two days in their training camp.

Thank you 20th Century Studios for sending us a Blu-ray to review!

The King’s Man is a prequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle. This origin story takes place in 1902 with Orlando (the Duke of Oxford), his wife, Emily, and their son, Conrad, supplying provisions through the Red Cross. A marksman’s bullet takes the life of Emily and wounds the Duke’s leg. Before she dies, Emily makes Orlando promise that their young son won’t see warfare again.

Fast forward twelve years during World War I and Conrad is a strapping young teenager and instead of pursuing females, he wants to jump into the battlefield to protect his country. The Duke has high-ranking military official friends who can only deter Conrad so much. In a last-ditch effort to convince him that there are other ways to save the country instead of being on the battlefield, the Duke takes Conrad on an undercover mission to assassinate Grigori Rasputin. Though the mission was successful, it didn’t change Conrad’s mind and he enlists anyway.

Thank you MGM for sending us a Blu-ray to review!

My family saw the first computer animated Addams Family movie in the theaters in 2019. The film was mildly entertaining, but mostly a disappointment. I’m happy to report that overall we found this sequel to be better than the original movie on many fronts.

The Addams Family 2 begins at Wednesday’s science festival which has many uninspiring science projects including the typical baking soda volcano. Wednesday’s entry is quite fascinating as it transfers the intelligence of her octopus, Socrates, into her Uncle Fester. When it comes time to announcing the winner of the science fair, Wednesday is visibly disappointed when everyone is given a participation trophy. The professor takes note of her disappointment and consoles her while asking for her data so he can improve upon her work. Wednesday tells him it’s a family secret.

Gomez Addams also takes note of his daughter’s disappointment, but she rebuffs any attention and consolation he offers her. In an effort to strengthen the family bonds, Gomez and Morticia decide that a family road trip is in order. Instead of bringing the family closer, a wedge is further driven between Wednesday and her family. Apparently, she discovers a mix-up of babies at the hospital she was born in and wonders if she is even an Addams.

Thank you Paramount for sending us a screener of Rumble to review!

Most stories start with a “what if?” scenario. Some famous examples include “what if toys had feelings and lives that nobody could ever see?” or “what if a robot was sent back in time to murder the mother of an influential enemy leader before he was born?” When someone inevitably decided to take fantasy’s most gruesome residents and the most physical televised sport and put them together, they (namely Paramount) created Rumble: a movie whose premise is based wholly on monsters wrestling. (For those of you invested in the cast, there are a few names in there you’re bound to recognize.)

The film follows a young adult by the name of Winnie, who lives in a small town known for its monster wrestling. The town, named Stoker, is famous because of a coach-monster duo that are considered the greatest of all time. However, this duo was lost at sea several years before the story begins – leaving Winnie without a father. When the monster champion that replaced that duo decides to leave town for bigger and better things, Stoker is in a conundrum: monster wrestling is their biggest source of income. Since the town no longer has a use for the stadium, they plan to tear it down. It’s up to Winnie to find a champion for the town that will replace the one that left them before it’s too late to save the stadium.

I won’t go into too much detail on the plot (to avoid spoilers), but I will say that there are a lot of parallels and thematic elements in the story that I immensely enjoyed. The plot is stereotypical, but the characters make the movie and bring it to life. Their interactions are hilarious, and they don’t feel like comedy. They just feel real. There’s a certain sense of uniqueness with the dialogue that isn’t really represented in a lot of other movies I’ve seen. There are a couple of very minor plot inconsistencies, but it’s a kids movie. Paramount probably put those in because of its target audience.

Thank you MGM for sending us access to a digital version of the film to watch!

My family saw the first computer animated Addams Family movie in the theaters in 2019. The film was mildly entertaining, but mostly a disappointment. I’m happy to report that overall we found this sequel to be better than the original movie on many fronts.

The Addams Family 2 begins at Wednesday’s science festival which has many uninspiring science projects including the typical baking soda volcano. Wednesday’s entry is quite fascinating as it transfers the intelligence of her octopus, Socrates, into her Uncle Fester. When it comes time to announcing the winner of the science fair, Wednesday is visibly disappointed when everyone is given a participation trophy. The professor takes note of her disappointment and consoles her while asking for her data so he can improve upon her work. Wednesday tells him it’s a family secret.

Gomez Addams also takes note of his daughter’s disappointment, but she rebuffs any attention and consolation he offers her. In an effort to strengthen the family bonds, Gomez and Morticia decide that a family road trip is in order. Instead of bringing the family closer, a wedge is further driven between Wednesday and her family. Apparently she discovers a mix-up of babies at the hospital she was born in and wonders if she is even an Addams.

Thank you DreamWorks for sending us a Blu-ray to review!

This film takes place thirty years after the previous one and all of the babies have grown up now. Tim is a stay at home dad with an over-active imagination. His mega-successful brother, Ted (the star in the previous movie) is a busy CEO and showers Tim’s family with lavish gifts instead of his presence at holidays. Tim’s second grader daughter, Tabitha, is growing up and no longer finds his antics humorous. Tim is afraid that they are growing apart. The youngest daughter, Tina, is an agent at Baby Corp. The school that Tabitha attends may be part of the reason that she is growing distant from her dad. In order to investigate matters Tim and his brother Ted must infiltrate the school as youths.

In his youthful form, Tim goes by Marcos Lightspeed and befriends his daughter. She confides in him and he learns her true feelings about him. Marcos/Tim and Ted also learn about an evil plan that will allow babies to rule the world without their parents getting in their way. Despite their years apart, Tim and Ted must set aside their differences and work together to save the world.

The main theme of this movie is that just because people grow up doesn’t mean they have to grow apart. That’s a great message. From an appropriateness standpoint, it’s worth noting that you’ll see some butts. There are a couple of moments where Ted is naked, but there are objects conveniently placed that prevent seeing anything between his legs. Many computer animated films are promoting the LGBTQ agenda and I did see a rainbow bumper sticker on one of the cars.

Thank you Flexclip for providing us with a one-year business membership!

There are many programs available for editing movie clips. My kids laugh at me for still using Microsoft’s Moviemaker software for editing our YouTube videos. Flexclip was developed by PearlMountain Limited and have over three million worldwide users and nearly four hundred thousand registered accounts. Over six hundred thousand videos have been made/downloaded using their online tools.

Through the website, you can create a video for free and use various tools including their converter, trimmer, compressor, and recorder. In total, there are four plans available and they all have different features and limitations. The Free plan allows one stock (premade) video and twelve projects. This plan is limited by 480p SD downloads and the video length can’t exceed one minute. The freely made videos will have a FlexClip intro on them. The $5.99/month Basic plan lets you make three-minute 720p HD movies. There is still a one stock video limitation, but you can have an unlimited number of projects.

The Plus plan is $9.99 a month and allows you to use five stock videos and they can be up to ten minutes in length. The videos are offered in Full-HD 1080p. Like the previous plan, you can have an unlimited number of projects.

Thank you Paramount for sending us a screener to review!

SpongeBob Squarepants has been around since 1999 and is still going strong. Now that my kids are getting older, I haven’t watched it on TV in a while. The main characters are still there and the 3D rendered versions of them look great.

There are some impressive cameos in this film including Keanu Reeves and Snoop Dogg. Another new character is King Poseidon who is super paranoid about his appearance and is desperately seeking out a snail to use its slime to remove facial wrinkles. Poseidon posts a bounty for someone who can give him a snail amidst the shortage of them.

Thank you Abramorama for providing us with a screener to watch!

‘Til Kingdom Come is a documentary about the strange political and religious partnership between the United States and Israel. In the 1980s Evangelicals were often viewed as KKK/white supremacists by Israelites. In 1983, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein founded the Holyland Fellowship of Christians and Jews which is now known as International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Their goal is to build bridges of understanding and cooperation between Christians and Jews. Not long after its founding, some popular televangelists like Pat Robertson and John Hagee supported this ministry with over four million in donations through telethons and other financial gifts. Through these gifts, poor people in Israel overlooked by the government are given food items and care that they could not afford on their own.

Binghamtown Baptist Church in Kentucky is located in a poor county with nearly half of the children living below the poverty line. This church, in their own words, "indoctrinates" the youth about the importance of the Jewish people and Israel's role in the end times. They fully believe in the promise of Genesis 12:3 in receiving blessings from God by blessing Abraham’s people. They have raised thousands in supporting Israel and continue to do so faithfully because of this promise. Interestingly enough, they are doing well financially even with the economy in a downturn. Their associate pastor, W. Boyd Bingham has miraculously survived cancer and dedicated his life to serving the Lord faithfully. He’s also depicted cleaning his guns and shooting targets in a forest.

Meanwhile in Palestine, a Christian church is experiencing a decline in membership due to the political unrest and loss of territory. Through Trump’s presidential run, he relocated the US Embassy to Jerusalem and granted Israel settlement rights to the West Bank. Although Christians and Jews have different views on religion, when partnered together politically they are an unstoppable force.

Thank you Universal Pictures for sending us this Blu-ray to review!

The War With Grandpa is a star studded comedy featuring Robert De Niro, Uma Therman, Rob Riggle, Cheech Marin, and Christopher Walken. The grandpa (Robert De Niro) is a widower who is struggling to get by since his wife passed away. Most technology eludes him like self-checkout registers at stores and smart phones. After a legal scuffle, he agrees to live with his daughter’s (Uma Therman) family though the transition won’t be easy for either of them. The grandson, Peter, is forced to give up his room and relocate to the attic where he shares living space with mice and bats. It goes without saying that Peter is not happy with his new accommodations.

After sharing his struggles with his friends, he follows their advice and declares war on his grandpa to get his room back. At first, his grandfather brushes off the declaration of war and first couple of pranks. Upon realizing that Peter won’t be giving up, he decides to fight back as long as they agree to no collateral damage and no tattling on each other. Let the games begin!

Prepare for some funny pranks though a couple of them involve obscured nudity. Grandpa has a tendency of dropping his pants unintentionally. Thankfully, any naughty bits are obscured by conveniently located plants. There is also some language including hell and *ss.

Thank you UberStrategist for sending us a screener to review!

Insert Coin is a documentary about the rise and fall of the popular arcade game making company, Midway. Though Midway has been around since 1958, this film covers the 80s through their bankruptcy in 2009. The 1981 acquisition of Bally is also discussed with their rivalry with Williams. These companies combined are well known for their pinball and early video games like Defender, Joust, Robotron 2084, and Rush. In the mid-80s people were getting tired of the copycat and low-quality games and as a result, the industry was losing its audience.

In 1988, the recently re-branded Midway released Narc which was an arcade hit and stirred up some controversy with its bloodiness and dismembering of body parts. Smash TV did well in the theaters but Midway had to learn from a mistake of teasing the gamers about a nonexistent hidden area (Pleasure Dome) and shipped out ROM chips to actually add it to the game. Countless quarters were spent trying to find that mystical area.

It’s interesting to know that a successful arcade game was one that generated $700/week. NBA Jam was such a success that the arcade machines were deemed defective because their quarter holders were filled to capacity! Their most popular franchise, Mortal Kombat is covered in detail with its over-the-top violence and backlash for it. The film adaptation is also covered. Mortal Kombat was so edgy that Nintendo removed the blood from their SNES release. SEGA left the game intact to attract an older audience.

As a Christian who’s interested in bridging the gap between faith-based entertainment and entertaining execution, I look forward to big-budget productions that can nail Christian themes while still being something that can work in a secular space. While not necessarily a huge blockbuster (premiering at an online version of a Filipino film festival earlier this week), director John Valdes Tan adapts Filipino author Pio Arce’s Oligase for film. Endorsed by CBN Asia (the Asian chapter of the Christian Broadcasting Network), it’s a film that shows the uncomfortable struggle of an indigenous girl who wants to leave her tribe in order to pursue an education.

Based on the indigenous tribe of the Matigsalug tribe in the Bukidnon province of the Philippines, Oligase is a legend of a mythical demon of fear, who consumes innocent children that dare to learn outside knowledge of the tribe. In essence, this legend is shown to be a deterrent to leave, but protagonist Laha stumbles across a school when selling crops with her mom in town. Inspired by the teacher Connie (and disbelieving of the Oligase), she longs for the day when she can leave the village and educate herself.

Laha’s plan is settled as she realizes that she has been forced in an arranged marriage to the village chief, and runs away with farmhand Salantay in order to escape to the city. Unfortunately, this causes problems for Salantay, who is forced to leave the village and head to a bible school that his father went to; Salantay’s dad is known as one of the only people in the tribe to be able to read, and has been chastised for it.

Laha’s life continues to spiral up and down as while she does receive her education, a series of unfortunate events cause her blessing to be a curse. She is raped by Connie’s husband and forced on the streets as a prostitute, trying to find a way out of her situation. Meanwhile, Salantay learns about the misconceptions of the Oligase, and that while demonic spirits are out to prey on the tribe, the Lord Jesus is there to cast them out.

Thank you Wood Entertainment for sending us a screener to review!

Skateboarding has been around since the 1950s and its popularity has had its ups and downs. Skate parks would come and go and when they disappeared, underground and street skating took off. Pretending I’m A Superman – The Tony Hawk Video Game Story features many professional skaters like Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen, Chad Muska, and Eric Koston who share their experiences with this sport and various milestones before it became mainstream.

The popular Thrasher magazine started circulating in 1981, and the following year Tony Hawk became a pro skater. In 1986 Atari released 720°, a skateboarding game followed by California Games and Skate or Die in 1987. In 1989 the movie Gleaming the Cube was released. In the mid 90s skateboarding started to become popular and was showcased in the X Games, which was founded in 1994.

In 1997, Sega released a popular arcade game with a moving skateboard called Top Skater. Once Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater dropped in 1999, the sport would never be the same. Each new release would get better and when the fourth one came out, the other three were still in the top ten sales charts. Not only did this game revitalize the sport, but the skaters in the game became household names and the bands like Primus and Bad Religion got a whole new fan base. The inclusivity of minority and female skaters appealed to many people as well.

Thank you Lionsgate for sending us a screener to review!

Oliver is a twelve-year-old genius whose parents are considering separating. To comfort him in these difficult times is his dog, Henry. Oliver also has a friend Xiao, in China, who plays online VR games with him. Xiao is also quite smart and is an accomplished hacker.

At this year’s science fair, Oliver shows off his mind-reading device. A fictional technology tycoon named Mr. Mills is in the audience and Oliver wants to make a good impression on him. Although the experiment didn’t go as planned, Mr. Mills (Kunal Nayyar) is impressed with Oliver's work and sees potential in it. At home, Oliver fine-tunes his project and with the help of a friend, hijacks a satellite to give the mind-reading device enough power. This move doesn’t go unnoticed by government officials. The project is a success and Oliver can hear his dog’s thoughts while wearing a special collar.

As it turns out, Henry is quite smart, talkative, and funny. Henry’s simple views on life are quite insightful and may help in repairing Oliver’s parents' marriage. There’s a school dance coming up and Oliver needs to work up the courage to ask his crush to the dance. The rest of Henry’s plans to rekindle Oliver’s parents’ romance revolves around them being at the school dance to hear their wedding song.

Thank you Tripp Fuller for sending us a screener link to review!

The Road to Edmond was released in 2018, but now it’s available to watch on Amazon Prime for free. The movie begins with a young youth pastor named Cleo who is forced to take a 2-week sabbatical for telling one of his students that God loves her just as she is when she came out as gay. Cleo’s stance of acceptance goes against his church’s doctrine and that’s why he’s being reprimanded.

Not sure of what he did wrong, Cleo decides to clear his head by packing some camping gear and heading out on his vintage Schwinn bike without a particular destination in mind. On a rest stop, Cleo declines the advances of a lady, and later witnesses his bike getting ran over. The guy who ran over the bike is named Larry and he’s on a road trip with his father’s ashes. Without any better transportation options, Cleo decides to join along for the ride.

Please note that the rest of this post contains spoilers.

Larry is very talkative and tries to cheer up Cleo with crude humor and insightful questions. Having a religious background, Larry asks Cleo for his “Jesus Pitch” and it’s not very convincing. In fact, Cleo’s faith is shaky and on the road trip Larry gets him to swear, drink, and try marijuana. They even go to a gay wedding.

Thank you Lionsgate for sending us a digital screener to review!

I Still Believe is based on the true story of Jeremy Camp’s college days before he became a popular Christian artist who sold five million CDs. This film was supposed to be released in theaters on March 13, 2020, but those plans were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Christians and fans of Jeremy Camp’s music can support this film by renting a premium video on demand on sites like Amazon for $19.99. The digital rentals are good for 48 hours.

This film has a star-studded cast including Gary Sinese and Shania Twain as Jeremy’s parents. Jeremy Camp is played by KJ Apa who does not lip-sync, but puts his own spin on the popular Christian hits sung throughout the movie. I must confess that I’m not familiar with Mr. Camp’s music (despite owning a CD!) so none of the songs performed in it sounded familiar to me. It’s really fascinating knowing the inspiration of two of his hit songs “I Still Believe”, and "Walk by Faith”.

The events in the movie are based loosely on Jeremy Camp’s written biography, I Still Believe. Some artistic liberties have been taken. In the film, the love triangle is between Michelle Henning, Jeremy Camp, and his musical mentor, Jean-Luc La Joie. In reality, the love triangle was with a friend from Jeremy’s Bible study instead.

Thank you Paramount for sending us a digital screener to review!

There have been many movies adapted after popular video game franchises. Sadly, most of them are not very good. This film had a rocky start after fans heavily criticized Paramount’s original design of the blue blur. Sonic’s final appearance looks much closer to Sega’s design with the exception of his arms being blue instead of cream colored.

Sonic is voiced by Ben Schwartz and he does a great job with bringing out the attitude that gamers have grown to love. While Sonic is often cocky, there’s a lot of loneliness shown as he must remain hidden from humans while living on Earth. In the fictional town of Green Hills, Montana, Sonic watches many residents of this small community without being detected (for the most part).

When Sonic lets his emotions get the better of him, he causes a mass loss of power and the government calls upon Dr. Robotnik to discover the source. Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Eggman is quite funny and he provides a lot of humor in this film as expected.

Thank you Thinking Man Films for sending us a screener to review!

The book of Exodus documents many of God's miracles from the twelve plagues of Egypt to guiding the Israelites in the desert and parting the waters allowing them to cross on dry land. Director Cecil DeMile was so inspired by this book that he made the movie The Ten Commandments twice! I have fond memories watching the 1956 Charleston Heston version and these movies have also inspired film maker Tim Mahoney to create the Patterns of Evidence series. Sadly, many of these miracles are downplayed or considered mere fairy tales in today’s society. The Red Sea Miracle aims to determine where the parting of the waters occurred and the path that the Israelites took to eventually get to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments.

Before seeing this film, you should watch Patterns of Evidence: Exodus and Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy to understand the non-conventional timeline they use for dating these events. Like the previous films, Tim interviews several Egyptologists and scholars on their thoughts on where the Israelites went and where the parting of the waters took place.

There are two schools of thought on how epic of a journey this truly was. The Egyptian theory is that there was 50,000 or less Hebrews and they didn’t travel too far before having shallow water part before them. The Hebrew view is that there were roughly two million Israelites who traveled a great distance for about a month before having a large body of water parted for them.

Thank you LionsGate for sending us this Blu-ray to review!

Arctic Dogs begins with a flashback of Swifty (an arctic fox) all dressed in white and nobody noticing him because he blends in so well in the snowy town of Taigasville. He wants to be noticed and recognized like the delivery dogs that the town kids all look up to. In the present day, Swifty works at the delivery company, but not as a delivery dog since he’s underweight and under-qualified.

His childhood crush, Jade, needs a package urgently delivered, but she missed the shipment time because Swifty covered her with snow on his way to work that day. Without his boss’s permission, he offers to deliver it personally. By doing so, he jeopardizes his job and the town’s safety.

I won’t give away any spoilers in case you plan on seeing this film. With that said, there are a couple of political messages worth noting. The premise of being something that you’re not designed to be is very politically correct these days, but oftentimes, restrictions are in place for a good reason. Swifty isn’t even twenty pounds and struggles pulling packages weighing more than he does. Perhaps there was some logic in the company not taking his dream position seriously.