Academy of Doom (2008)

A story about precarious tricks and unstoppable discipline to inspire young viewers. They'll learn that like any dream, achieving Cloud 9 is possible.

Gretel & Hansel falters due to its razor thin story and lack of characterization. It loses sight of horror’s key rule: In order to create an effective tale, characters and emotions must be emphasized.

The July episode of Incluvie Movie Highlights provides 4 exciting films that have polarizing reviews! Special guest and Incluvie movie critic Daleyna joins in to discuss Mr Malcolm's List, a regency-era film set in England, starring leads of Indian and African heritage (Freida Pinto and Sope Dirisu), which is a first! Don't Make Me Go, starring an Asian and Blasian lead (John Cho and Mia Isaac), is a sincere film with a controversial ending! Don't worry, no spoilers. 1Up, about a team of female gamers led by Paris Berelc, who's half Asian, receives acclaim on Incluvie, but much hate everywhere else on the internet. And the feature film... is Nope ! One cohost thinks the film was imaginative, while the other cohost insists it was boring (but with good social commentary)! Who thought what? Tune in with your hosts: Cathy Yee and Hazel Bolivar!

The film may be a thriller, but I wasn’t thrilled by it. If anything, I was bored and annoyed.

I write for a diversity-focused film review blog, so I’ll be honest: I really wanted to like Pretty Lethal. Starring Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Iris Apatow, Avantika, and Millicent Simmonds, Amazon Prime’s new thriller seemed like it would be a girl power movie about dancers with a horror action twist. Sort of a Suspiria for teens. But with shallow and unlikeable characters, a confusing plot, an overreliance on violence, and cringey dialogue, any fun the movie started out with was quickly lost. What was left was a faint echo of greater horror movies about dancers made before. 

Neo Sora left a realistic and yet hopeful notion for the near future and the now.