2025 Movies

‘Companion’ Movie and 4K Review

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

The following review was written by Ultimate Rabbit correspondent, Tony Farinella.

Hollywood is famous for reflecting what is happening in our world, especially when it comes to current events.  Everywhere we turn these days, we hear about artificial intelligence.  As someone who owns Apple products, I can have my emails and text messages summarized and changed in order to sound friendly, professional, or concise. My incoming emails can also be summarized for me. While I think certain aspects of artificial intelligence can be useful or interesting, it is like most things in life: too much of a good thing can quickly turn into a bad thing.  “Companion,” directed by Drew Hancock, is the latest artificial intelligence film from Hollywood.

“Companion” opens up by introducing us to Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) who have a meet-cute in a grocery store where he knocks over oranges.  At first, they seem like your normal, everyday couple who meet, hit it off, and fall in love.  Iris informs the audience of two pivotal moments in her life: the day she met Josh and the day she killed him. Iris and Josh meet up with Josh’s friends, Patrick (Lukas Gage), Eli (Harvey Guillén), Kat (Megan Suri), and Sergey (Rupert Friend). Sergey has a beautiful home with an even better view, so they look forward to a weekend of friendship, booze, and good times.  However, it doesn’t take long for things to take a turn for the worse when Iris ends up killing Sergey.

After this unfolds, all hell breaks loose for the remaining five characters. Speaking of the characters, they are unlikable and one-note. “Companion” was a low-budget film, as it was made for $10 million and takes place in essentially one setting.  However, a low budget film isn’t an excuse for lazy writing or poor character development.  These are not interesting people to spend time with, unfortunately. Josh is an insecure manchild who plays the victim card. Kat is an ice queen. Eli and Patrick are a one-note gay couple. Sergey is just a boring pervert. There isn’t a lot of meat on the bones with these characters.

The film doesn’t offer a lot of new insights or opinions on the issue of artificial intelligence, control, or how we view and treat each other or robots. It is clear Josh is abusing his relationship with his robot Iris, but we have seen films in the past where the robots look for revenge on their human counterparts because the humans treat them in an inhumane fashion. The discussion about abuse of power has been done to death in films, and this film falls flat after a promising start. Maybe I’ve become jaded to these films, but what else can really be said about the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence?

When I think of a great film on the subject of artificial intelligence, I think of 2014’s “Ex Machina.” I also think of the 2019 remake of “Child’s Play” and 2022’s “M3GAN.” The groundwork has been laid for these films in the past, and I know we have seen robots and humans in the “Terminator” franchise. I could go back even further, but you get the picture. “Companion” feels like a gimmick, and when a movie is a gimmick without a proper story or well-written characters, it feels like we have been there, done that. Plus, the market is so oversaturated with these films at the moment.  If you can count on Hollywood for anything, it is to take a popular idea and run it into the ground.  I think they need to let this genre breathe for a while and return with a new take on the genre.

Even though I’m aware this review sounds incredibly negative, there are certain aspects of the film I did like. I thought it was beautifully shot and had a tremendous soundtrack filled with banger after banger. The performance from Sophie Thatcher was fantastic, as she appears very fragile and vulnerable but also bad-ass and tough. It runs a brisk 97 minutes and is not bad to watch, but it doesn’t break any new ground.  It’s an average movie that is inoffensive and forgettable but well made. You won’t hate yourself for having watched it, but you won’t remember much about it after it’s over.

* * out of * * * *

4K Info: “Companion” is released on a single 4K disc from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment.  It has a running time of 97 minutes and is rated R for strong violence, sexual content, and language throughout. There is a digital copy of the film included inside the 4K packaging.

4K Video Info: On 4K HDR, the film lends itself perfectly to the format with a striking and vibrant transfer.  A 2025 film like “Companion” stands out on 4K, as the picture quality is stunning.

4K Audio Info:  The Dolby Atmos track was top-notch throughout the course of the film, as I only had to adjust the volume twice when it was a little top heavy during a party scene. Subtitles are included in English, Spanish, and French.

Special Features:

I Feel, Therefore I Am

Love, Eli

AI Horror

Should You Buy It?

“Companion” is a film that doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to the subject of artificial intelligence in cinema, and it left me feeling underwhelmed and disappointed. When a film is low-budget, it needs to be high on ideas, but this one doesn’t have anything new to say about this subject matter.  The cast is full of likable actors, but their characters are one-dimensional and bland.  The kills are run-of-the-mill and ordinary.  There was clearly a lot of skill behind the camera, but this film needed a sharper screenplay to really set itself apart and allow it to stand out. The 4K with a slipcover offers a remarkable visual and audio experience, so if you did enjoy “Companion,” you will be happy with the presentation. You will also be pleased with the special features included here. For everyone else, I think you need to rent or stream the film first before you decide to add it to your collection. While the film has a high score on Rotten Tomatoes, it didn’t work for me.

**Disclaimer** I received a copy of this film from Warner Brothers to review for free.  The opinions and statements in the review are mine and mine alone.

‘Paddington in Peru’ is a Wonderful Adventure Not Just for Kids, But the Whole Family

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

I initially avoided the “Paddington” movies upon their initial release. Watching the trailer for the first one had me under the belief that the filmmakers were determined to dumb down the classic works of Michael Bond as I watched the beloved bear clean out his ears with toothbrushes and almost eating what was on them. Yuck! Plus, Colin Firth, who was originally supposed to voice Paddington, dropped out of the original film during post production, and this did not give me a lot of hope for the final version which was eventually going to be unveiled before a worldwide audience.

Alas, I was proven wrong with not only “Paddington,” but also with “Paddington 2” which proved to be an even better film than the original. “Paddington 2” also earned a rare 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes for a time before some bastard critic made the blasphemous decision to give it that one negative review. I would shudder to call them kid movies as that would simply mean they were meant for a certain age group and only that one group. Truth is, these are movies for the whole family, just like the best Pixar films are, and they have something for every age group to enjoy. Hollywood does not make enough movies like them these days, and they threaten to become a rarity now more than ever before.

The same goes with “Paddington in Peru,” the third movie in this beloved franchise which arrives to us seven years after “Paddington 2.” After watching this marmalade loving bear and the only creature, animal or human, who can make a red hat look cool these days, brave the adventures London has thrust upon him, he now returns to Darkest Peru where he once grew up. This time, it’s personal! Granted, that last sentence was the tagline for “Jaws: The Revenge,” one of the worst films, let alone sequels, ever made, but it seems inescapably appropriate to use here.

His sudden exodus from London comes when he is told that his Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton) has gone missing from the Home for Retired Bears, and no one can find her. Joining him on this expedition is the Brown family: Henry (Hugh Bonneville), Mary (Emily Mortimer), Judy (Madeleine Harris), Jonathan (Samuel Joslin), and Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters). Through thick and thin, the Browns have had Paddington’s back even as this bear’s adventures have proven to be as exasperating as they have been thrilling.

What I really love about the “Paddington” movies is how wonderfully realized the human characters are. Just when I expected they would be rendered as one-dimensional doofuses, they prove to be more complex than the average family movie would allow them to be. I also love how the kids have evolved from then to now as this is not always the case in movies, let alone sequels.

And like any good sequel, “Paddington in Peru” does take the time to introduce new characters into the mix. Among them is Hunter Cabot, a tour guide and treasure hunter played by Antonio Banderas, who is clearly having the time of his life in this role. In addition, he gets to play many members of Hunter’s family from generations before him, and it results in one memorably hilarious moment after another.

But even better is the ever so brilliant Olivia Colman who steals every scene she has here as the Reverend Mother who oversees the Home for Retired Bears. She makes a grand entrance singing a song which almost turns “Paddington in Peru” a musical along the lines of “The Sound of Music,” and when she finished, the need to applaud her efforts was quite justified. Also, I love how her voice says one thing, but her eyes are quick to say something else. Seriously, watching Colman’s eyes dart back and forth is a wonderful delight throughout.

Hugh Bonneville remains an entertaining presence as Henry Brown who always goes from being an uptight dad to a loving and risk taking individual even when a tarantula presents an unwelcome presence in his life. I also love how Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin continue to grow into their roles as Judy and Jonathan, and watching them traverse the perils of adolescence into adulthood is a welcome sight for me. As for then lovely Emily Mortimer, she does a lovely job of stepping into the role once inhabited by Sally Hawkins of Mary Brown to where calling her a replacement would be insulting and unfair to both her and Hawkins.

And at the center of it all is Ben Whishaw who once again voices Paddington to where it would be unthinkable to consider anyone else in this role. Right from the start, Whishaw has given this bear we all want to look after a solid dignity and politeness which might seem far too easily manipulative in the hands of any other actor. Some will be quick to say that the computer did all the work for Whishaw here, but he adds to the visual effects in an immeasurably way to where when Paddington gives an adversary that hard stare, he makes that stare even harder than it already is, and we should all be expecting that at some point here.

Of all the “Paddington” movies to date, “Paddington in Peru” is the least of the three. I don’t say this to degrade it in any way as saying the least does it more justice than calling it the worst as doing so would be a grave insult. Granted, this one threatens to be a more formulaic adventure movie as we watch Paddington go from unfamiliar surroundings to more familiar ones, but this sequel still proves to be a wonderful adventure for all ages, and that is saying quite a bit in this day and age.

And, as always, I leave you with the immortal words of Michael Bond which continue to speak volumes:

“Please look after this bear. Thank you.”

Also, when it comes to the online attacks Tony Farinella and I continue to get, I feel the need to add this:

“Please look after this film critic. Thank you.”

* * * ½ out of * * * *

‘Heart Eyes’ – A Romantic Comedy Slasher Film Worth a Look

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

“Heart Eyes” comes to us packaged as a horror comedy filled with blood, gore, creative kills, mystery and a pair of sexy leads, one of whom looks like he just stepped off the set of “Bridgerton.” Perhaps the filmmakers wanted to give February 14th another horror classic as “My Bloody Valentine” may not have the same staying power these days have (assuming it ever did). As for “The St, Valentine’s Day Massacre,” that’s a gangster film not many have watched in a long time (and they probably should). Whatever the case, it is here and, judging from its gloriously bloody trailer, looks to be Valentine’s Day’s answer to Eli Roth’s “Thanksgiving.”

The masked serial killer of this film is called the Heart Eyes Killer, and he, his gender assumed, wreaks havoc on Valentine’s Day by killing couples who are madly in love. Clearly, the filmmakers have brought all the tools to the table as this killer has everything a growing serial killer needs; a machete, a simple knife, night vision, martial arts training, and if he doesn’t have any weapons on him at any given moment, he will be quick to make use of whatever automotive parts or kitchen tools available at his (again, I assume) disposal. The first kills come to represent how good this psycho is with their aim and viciously cold he is ending the existence of those unlucky to be in their way.

From there we head over to Seattle, Washington, home of the Space Needle. Ally (Olivia Holt) has a chance meeting with a “Bridgerton” looking dude named Jay (Mason Gooding) at a coffee shop where it turns out they like the same drink and the same amount of sugar and honey put in it. The chemistry is very palpable to where there is no denying this is love at first sight, but Ally is still recovering from a breakup from an ex who has quickly moved on to another love, and Jay is only in town for a day.

Well, it turns out they are to be co-workers on an advertising project which needs to be salvaged as Ally’s take on love is not the least bit appealing to her condescending boss who is given an inspired portrayal by Michaela Watkins. This leads to dinner, drinks, and an arrival at someone’s apartment. Unfortunately for them, the Heart Eyes Killer is waiting for them there, and they become the killer’s favorite target even though they are not exactly a couple.

In a lot of ways, “Heart Eyes” plays a but like a “Scream” movie as we spend our time trying to figure out who the killer is, and if there is more than one. All the while, we are treated to a film score by Jay Wadley which sounds like Marco Beltrami leftovers. But while I have been down this road many times before, I still enjoyed what this romantic comedy slasher flick had to offer as it held my attention throughout, and it never lost my attention throughout.

The beginning which features a couple getting engaged, and the man proposes in a rather gross way to put it mildly (watch it for yourself), and it quickly reminds us of how difficult it is to get a proposal just right. Those who are lucky enough to do so strive for perfection, and they should just be happy they didn’t get an arrow through the eye or get smashed in a compactor to where one of their eyes shoots out of its socket. This sets this film off to an inspired start to where I was curious to see where things would go from there.

As for the kills, they are as creative as one might expect for a slasher flick. A tire iron will never look the same, a machete cannot help but be a welcome sight even if it isn’t being wielded by Danny Trejo, and an arrow which ends up in the most painful, let alone fatal, spots of the human body. Just when you think you have everything, there is another which cuts much too close, and I don’t just mean to one’s private parts.

Oh yeah, there are also a pair of police detectives out to investigate and solve the crime, and they go by the last names of Hobbs and Shaw. The fact that one of them is played Jordana Brewster should help to clue the average viewer as to what franchise this is all referring to. For the more naïve ones, it might just refer to a drift, particularly from Tokyo.

What really holds “Heart Eyes” together the most is the irresistible chemistry between Holt and Gooding. Together, they power a film which might have easily come across as an average slasher flick, but instead works as a subversive answer to the regular romantic comedy.

As you may expect, the identity of the killer is eventually revealed, or is it really? I imagine there are some who will say, “I knew who it was all along,” but even those schmucks will be wondering if there is a second shooter on the grassy knoll. This all results in a number of inconsistences which tend to make for the worst plot holes of all, but I was having enough fun to where I lost any interest in examining just how big those holes were.

Director Josh Ruben and screenwriters Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon and Michael Kennedy were intent on taking the kind of slasher flick we all grew up watching and mashing them together into something which is recognizable but still its own thing. When it comes to romantic comedies, I usually find myself running in the opposite direction from them like everyone else, but the scene in which Ally and Jay share their vulnerabilities with one another while hiding in a van at a drive in showing a film starring Cary Grant while the couple who own the van have loud and passionate sex in the rear proved to be moving enough to where if Elton John’s song “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” started playing in the background, I would have been totally cool with that.

It will be some time before critics, film buffs and horror movie addicts can proclaim “Heart Eyes” a horror classic for the ages. Some works age like a fine wine, and while this one is no classic, I like to believe people will come to appreciate it more in the future than upon its release. It is not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I found it to be a fun ride which is worth the price of admission.

And looking at the pattern of this serial killer’s victims, it makes me wonder what this film’s tagline could have been. I am thinking it could have been something like “it’s better to be single” or “just when you thought it was safe to get into a romantic relationship,” this one reminds you of the advantages of going into Valentine’s Day solo. Then again, mistaken identity, as it is shown to be here, is a real bitch.

* * * out of * * * *

‘One of Them Days’ Takes a Familiar Store and Infuses it with Stong Characters

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

I have been around some of the neighborhoods featured in “One of Them Days” as they are not too far from where I live. They all seem to have a nice family vibe going on and are filled with all kinds of blue-collar workers who, like everyone else I know, are living paycheck to paycheck. I keep thinking a lot of people will look at these neighborhoods and apartment buildings as being very “ghetto,” but that is far too easy an assumption to make. Either that, or I am doing everything I can to not sound too white while writing this movie review.

Seeing the way the apartment buildings and inner-city areas are portrayed in “One of Them Days” helps to make this film stand out a bit. The story is old as they come, and we have seen it being done in so many movies of all kinds, but the way certain environments are shown here makes it feel a lot fresher than I ever could have expected. It also helps that the film has a strong cast who portray characters you want to follow from start to finish.

We meet best friends Dreux (Keke Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA) who share an apartment in a building off of Obama Boulevard, the kind that needs a serious visit from the Los Angeles Housing Authority. The ceiling is falling apart, the air conditioning units don’t work, and everyone has one roommate too many because, as we often hear, the rent is too damn high. And into this “jungle,” as the characters like to call it, is a young white woman named Bethany (Maude Apatow) who is all smiles and comes with a dog who clearly needs a lot more training.

To top things off, Dreux gets a visit from her landlord, Uche (Rizi Timane) who informs her if he doesn’t get the rent by six o’clock, she and Alyssa will be drop-kicked out onto the street. Dreux says Alyssa has already given him the rent money, but it turns out Alyssa’s good for nothing, live in boyfriend Keshawn (Joshua David Neal) has run off with it and into the arms of another girlfriend of his, Berniece (Aziza Scott). This leads Dreux and Alyssa to go on a desperate mission to get the rent money before it is too late, and the clock starts clicking like it does on the average episode of “24.”

In a lot of ways, “One of Them Days” is a version of the book “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” and so many other stories dealing with missions needing to be completed before the clock strikes midnight. Dreux and Alyssa’s adventures involve parking in the wrong spot at the wrong time in Los Angeles (seriously, those parking enforcement officials are like ninjas), donating blood for money, and attempting to get a loan at one of those quick credit offices who are just waiting to overcharge their customers on interest payments.

Like many cinematic comedies, the jokes are hit and miss as I have seen some of them done better. The donating blood scene goes a bit over the top, and I remember a better example being done with Al Bundy on “Married With Children,” but the credit office scene is a hoot as it shows an employee laughing her butt off at a low credit score, something I have not seen before. But what keeps the movie together are Keke Palmer and SZA. Even as the comedy gets a bit too broad, they both nail their character’s individual strengths and vulnerabilities perfectly as they show how Dreux and Alyssa clearly want better futures for themselves, but life too often gets in the way.

In addition to making the rent, Dreux also has an interview with a corporate company for a job which will allow her to ditch her waitressing job and move up in the world. As for Alyssa, she is one of the many struggling artists out here in Los Angeles whose self-confidence is so low to where they hook up with people who can never truly value who they are.

Palmer is wonderfully energetic here as Dreux, a person eager to rise above her meager place in life, and I especially enjoyed SZA who takes Alyssa from someone lacking in confidence in herself and her work to one who has more than earned their newfound confidence in life. Even as their characters go through the usual routines of loving and hating one another to where they never want to talk to each other again, and we know they will quickly realize how much they need one another long before the story ends, both these actresses kept me wanting to follow their plight throughout.

Palmer and SZA are also supported by a strong cast which includes Katt Williams as a man named Lucky, and this is even though this character is not having any luck at life in the present. You also have Vanessa Bell Calloway whose character of Mama Ruth doesn’t get much screen time, but who remains a very strong presence nonetheless. And there is no forgetting Patrick Cage who plays the interestingly named Maniac, and he is a human being who almost dares you to judge a book by its cover. While his outward appearance might have one thinking he is that kind of a person, the reactions others have to him, let alone to a certain object of hardware he has in his car, are quite telling of those around him. In the end, Cage makes Maniac into a resilient character who gas been through a lot and has evolved a lot in the process.

I also got to say that I love how strong the women are as presented here. I say this because this relates to all the women I have worked with in life, and they often prove to be much stronger than us men for many reasons. “One of Them Days” proved to be a reminder of this for me, and this is not just because many of the male characters are such babies here. Heck, Keshawn is such a man child that you just want to smack him silly. Some out there might say that the female characters are made to look strong to help satisfy certain demographics, but I prefer to believe they simply reflect a reality we should not be the least bit surprised by.

“One of Them Days” is not going to go down as a classic motion picture, but that’s okay because I enjoyed it for what it was. If you are looking for a nice diversion from your problems for an hour or two, I think this one will do the trick.

* * * out of * * * *

Danny Boyle’s ’28 Years Later’ Finally Unleashes Its First Trailer

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

And so, it has finally arrived: the first trailer for the long-awaited sequel, “28 Years Later.” Like another sequel, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” it was stuck in the deep, dark and despairing pit known as development hell. But like said sequel, this one finally emerged from its depressing depths and looks to promise us another round of infected zombies running way too fast and devouring everything in their path, and it looks to be a creative reinvigoration for Danny Boyle, the Oscar winning director of “Slumdog Millionaire.”

The story so far indicates that almost thirty years have passed since the Rage Virus was unleashed upon the world after a group of animal rights activists naively released an infected chimpanzee from its cage (the road to hell is always paved with good intentions). After what looks like a prologue in which a harried parent locks a group of children into a room where they watch the Teletubbies before blood starts flying everywhere, we are taken to an island where humans can find peace as they are surrounded by water which acts as a much-needed border between them and the infected. Like those characters from the “Dawn of the Dead” remake, they think this island will offer them a safe haven, but we all know this will not last very long.

This first “28 Years Later” trailer promises an especially visceral and bleak time at the movies as humanity still struggles in a post-Rage Virus world. But then again, remembering how “28 Weeks Later” ended with dozens of infected running towards the Eiffel Tower, we could not have expected things to get much better. And keep in mind, the tagline for this sequel states, “Time didn’t change anything.” With Boyle returning to this franchise as a director for the first time since “28 Days Later,” and Alex Garland returning as screenwriter, it will be interesting to see how life has evolved (or perhaps devolved) for the characters we see here and the virus.

Movie trailers for the longest time have been using special remixes of popular songs to get the audience’s adrenaline pumping as excitement is always promised for eager film buffs, and the hopes of a huge first weekend opening at the box office is always in the air. With “28 Years Later,” we instead get an old recording of Rudyard Kipling’s war poem “Boots” read by Taylor Holmes. Holmes’ increasing the intensity of Kipling’s words makes the images thrust at us here all the more horrifying, and it makes this one of the best and most memorable movie trailers I have seen in some time.

The big question I have, however, is this; where is Cillian Murphy? After winning the Best Actor Oscar for his role in “Oppenheimer,” it was said he would be reprising his role of Jim and also be serving as an executive producer on this sequel. While actors such as James Bond front-runner Aaron Taylor Johnson, Jodie Comer and an especially beat up Ralph Fiennes dominate this trailer to where no infected person could easily upstage them, I kept waiting to see Murphy somewhere in here. Rumor is, there is a corpse which rises up from the grass that looks a lot like him, and it makes me wonder what will become of Jim this time around.

“28 Years Later” is said to be the first of a trilogy, and the next film, “28 Years Later II: The Bone Temple” is currently being shot with “Candyman” director Nia DaCosta at the helm. Boyle’s sequel, which said to have been shot mostly on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, will be released on June 20, 2025.

Please check out the trailer below.