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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film Scary Movie. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer, the Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe.

Review

I remember back in 2000 being a sixth grader whose friends treated the horror-film satire Scary Movie, which was mostly a spoof of the Scream films, as one of the greatest pieces of cinema they’d ever seen. And I think a lot of people my age still look back fondly on that film and some of its sequels as comedy classics they grew up with. For me, though, the experience was a little different.

Putting aside the fact that my classmates and I probably shouldn’t have been watching such movies filled with that level of crude humor at our age, I was never really a fan of the Scary Movie franchise. And not in the sense that I grew older, became more mature, and started looking down on something I once loved as immature. I genuinely never liked these movies. Still, as we’ve seen with the recent Halloween and Scream legacy sequels, Hollywood has become increasingly interested in reviving dormant franchises by bringing back familiar faces and attempting to recapture the magic of the originals. Now it’s Scary Movie’s turn, with a sixth installment hoping to do the same.

This is where some people will probably dismiss my thoughts because I’m a self-admitted non-fan. But I’ll remind those who have followed my reviews over the years that I wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of The Naked Gun films either, and I went into last year’s legacy sequel with very low expectations. That movie ended up being one of the bigger surprises of the year for me and earned a solid B+ review. So I didn’t walk into this new Scary Movie looking to hate it. If anything, I was hoping it would be another pleasant surprise.

Instead, Scary Movie is every bit the disaster I suspected it might be and if you ask me, easily one of the worst films of the year.

To give credit where it’s due, longtime fans will probably get a kick out of seeing the core cast from the first couple of films back together again. There is an undeniable nostalgia factor in watching these performers share the screen after all these years, and for brief moments the movie manages to tap into that goodwill. A random joke or visual gag or cameo here and there even managed to get a chuckle out of me. The problem is that those moments are few and far between.

The biggest issue is that this barely functions as a movie. Rather than telling an actual story, it feels like a collection of disconnected skits loosely strung together under the thinnest possible premise. The original films weren’t exactly masterpieces of narrative structure, but there was at least enough of a plot to make it feel like you were watching a complete comedy. Here, scenes simply happen one after another with little momentum or purpose save for attempting to get in as many references and cameos as they can, creating an experience that quickly becomes exhausting.

The film’s approach to parody is equally frustrating. Instead of finding clever angles or fresh observations about the movies and cultural moments it’s spoofing, it mostly settles for the most obvious joke imaginable. Nearly every target feels like low-hanging fruit, and the movie rarely demonstrates the wit necessary to elevate the material beyond surface-level references.

As the running time progresses, the laughs become increasingly scarce. While I did get the occasional chuckle from a handful of random moments, I spent far more time rolling my eyes or letting out heavy sighs. The humor often feels desperate rather than inspired, constantly trying to provoke a reaction without earning one. There are stretches where the comedy becomes so forced that the film almost starts to feel like a parody of bad parody movies.

What’s especially disappointing is that there is still an audience for this kind of comedy. The success of The Naked Gun showed that audiences will embrace goofy, absurd humor when it’s supported by strong writing and genuine comedic timing. Scary Movie instead feels content to coast on nostalgia, brand recognition, and shoving in as many skits as possible while delivering very little beyond that.

By the end, I felt less like I had watched a movie and more like I had sat through a series of increasingly tiresome sketch ideas that should have remained on a writers’ room whiteboard. Fans of the franchise may find enough nostalgia here to justify the ticket price, particularly if they have a strong attachment to the original cast. For everyone else, this is a chaotic, incoherent mess that mistakes references for jokes and noise for comedy. A few scattered laughs can’t save what ultimately feels like a painfully dated attempt to revive a franchise that has very little left to say - if it ever did to begin with.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: Fans of the franchise will get a huge kick out of seeing the core group from the first couple films back together again

• Cons: Incoherent mess of a movie with no real plot and an overreliance on skits that makes it not feel like you’re watching an actual movie; While it did get a chuckle out of me a random scene or two, this got more eye rolls and heavy sighs with the way it tackled its topics and parodies

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film Masters Of The Universe. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: After being separated for fifteen years, the Sword of Power leads Prince Adam back to Eternia, where he discovers his home shattered under the fiendish rule of Skeletor. To save his family and his world, Adam must join forces with his closest allies, Teela and Duncan (Man-At-Arms), and embrace his true destiny as He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe.

Review

The He-Man franchise will probably always be best remembered by the kids who grew up with it during its peak in the eighties, watching the cartoons and collecting the toys. As a nineties kid myself, my connection to the property is much more limited. I remember my mom buying my brother and I a few He-Man action figures, catching reruns of the old cartoon on Cartoon Network, and watching an episode here or there of the mid-2000s revival series. I also vaguely remember seeing the much-maligned 1987 live-action film starring Dolph Lundgren on television when I was a kid.

So while I’m familiar enough with He-Man, I can’t claim to have the same nostalgic attachment to the franchise that many older moviegoers and genre fans do. As such, I wasn’t exactly clamoring for Hollywood to take another crack at a live-action adaptation. Still, even with eighties nostalgia not selling quite like it used to and a Gen Z audience that largely didn’t grow up with He-Man now making up the biggest segment of moviegoers, we have arrived at another attempt with Masters Of The Universe

For whatever reason, my local market didn’t get press screenings for this one, so I ended up catching it on a Thursday evening at my local theater, almost immediately after seeing the other major new release of the weekend, Scary Movie. It made for a rather bizarre double feature. And my verdict of the film?

Well, Masters Of The Universe is hurt by some pacing issues and a screenplay that never quite figures out how to balance everything its trying to do well, but I still walked away having a pretty good time with it. This is the kind of movie that understands how inherently ridiculous parts of the He-Man universe are and, when it leans into that self-awareness, it can be genuinely funny. Not every joke lands, and there are stretches where the humor feels forced, but the best comedic moments come from the film embracing the silliness of the source material rather than trying to run from it.

Director Travis Knight continues to demonstrate a confident hand behind the camera. The action scenes are consistently entertaining, easy to follow, and deliver exactly the kind of crowd-pleasing spectacle a movie like this needs. Even when the story starts to drag, the action often provides enough momentum to keep things moving.

The film’s biggest asset, however, is undoubtedly Jared Leto as Skeletor. He absolutely understands the assignment and delivers the kind of performance that could have easily gone off the rails in lesser hands. Instead, he fully commits to the character’s theatrical nature while still making him feel like a legitimate threat. Every time he appears on screen, the movie gets a noticeable jolt of energy. It’s the sort of larger-than-life villain performance fans of this property have probably been hoping to see for years, and he ends up stealing nearly every scene he’s in.

I was also surprised by how much the score and soundtrack elevated the material. There are several moments where the music does a lot of heavy lifting, adding excitement and emotion to scenes that otherwise might not have landed as effectively. Combined with some strong visual ideas from Knight, the movie occasionally captures the grand fantasy-adventure feeling that has always made the He-Man mythology appealing.

Unfortunately, the film’s flaws are hard to ignore. At a little over two hours, it feels longer than it needs to be. The pacing is uneven throughout, with the movie struggling to maintain momentum between its larger action set pieces. There are stretches where it feels like the story is spinning its wheels, and tighter editing could have gone a long way toward improving the overall experience. The screenplay is ultimately the weak link here, never fully capitalizing on the potential of its characters or world-building.

The visual effects are another mixed bag. Skeletor himself looks terrific, but much of the remaining CGI ranges from merely serviceable to noticeably rough. It’s never bad enough to completely derail the movie, but there are multiple moments where the effects lack the polish you’d hope for in a blockbuster of this scale.

Still, despite its shortcomings, I found Masters Of The Universe to be a fun enough trip to the movies. It’s messy, overlong, and occasionally frustrating, but it also delivers entertaining action, some genuinely funny moments, a fantastic villain performance from Jared Leto, and a score that knows exactly what kind of epic fantasy adventure it’s trying to support.

There are absolutely going to be plenty of elementary-school-aged boys who walk out of this thinking it’s the coolest thing they’ve ever seen in their lives. For everyone else, it’s a decent popcorn flick that never fully lives up to its potential but ultimately ends up being more enjoyable than disappointing.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: Some decent direction from director Travis Knight; Entertaining action sequences; When humor lands it is great and very self-referential to the silliness of some of the He-Man lore; Jared Leto nails a home run as Skeletor; Standout musical score and soundtrack

• Cons: Overlong; Pacing issues; Screenplay is lacking; Humor can come off forced more than a few times; CGI (sans Skeletor) isn’t the greatest

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 06.01.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez unveils his initial Best Picture outlook for the 99th Academy Awards, reacts to Cynthia Erivo’s recent Variety “Power Of Women” interview, notices Paddington 4’s surprising hire for one of its writers, has thoughts on Star Wars episodes 10-12 potentially being in development, reflects on Marcia Lucas’ legacy, and looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  02:56 Initial, Post-Cannes 99th Oscars Projections Update

  46:39 Cynthia Erivo Variety Interview

  1:06:50 Paddington 4 Picks Up Interesting Writers

  1:09:22 Star Wars Episodes IX, X, and XI Upcoming?

  1:12:35 Marcia Lucas Passes Away

  1:15:10 This Past Weekend At The Box Office

  1:21:18 The Next Weekend At The Box Office

  1:24:21 What Else Is On My Mind

  1:27:34 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 06.01.2026

• Film Impressions: May 2026

• 99th Oscars Projections: Initial, Post-Cannes Update

• Cynthia Erivo Variety “Power Of Women” Interview

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 06.01.2026.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• Cynthia Erivo gave a fascinating interview for Variety’s Power of Women series, and I collected a few quotes that stood out to me most:
  
  Regarding the jokes about and dismissal of her relationship with her Wicked and Wicked: For Good co-star Ariana Grande, she said, “It’s very interesting, watching what people’s perception is versus what the reality actually is. Lots of psychologists seated at home deciding who we were, what we were going through, what we were doing and why. I think that people didn’t really believe that we were actually friends. But that’s also because people don’t know me very well. If I’m a friend, then I’m a friend. If I’m not, then I’m not.”

  
  Regarding the incident at the Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good, in which she ended up having to defend Grande from a social media prankster who jumped a railing and tried to accost her, leading to jokes about Erivo being her bodyguard, she said, “I think that we haven’t really come to terms with the insidious nature of how we view Black women. And I’m sure people will read this and think, ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, it’s not about that.’ But it is. Because that’s what was being made fun of. It was my physique; it was my shape; it was the fact that I was bald; it was about what I looked like. And because of that, there was this assumption that I was bigger than my co-star and so I had to be controlling or protecting, and that was my role. I would hazard a guess that it would not have been the same had it been the other way around.”

  
  Regarding how that incident affected her Oscar campaign for Wicked: For Good, she said, “I just felt like my humanity had been bastardized. I felt like something I did instinctively had been made to be something that it simply was not because of the way people see women who look like me, and because of the assumptions that are made, and I just didn’t want to be a part of that, really and truly. I didn’t want to put myself through it. I didn’t feel like I deserved it.” She also added, “It didn’t help that it felt like there was already a sort of upturned nose at the second installment, even though we all knew there was a second film coming and we were just doing our jobs.”

  
  I have a ton of things to say about these comments as someone who adored the two Wicked films, built a sizable following on X through my fandom of them, and watched in horror as the second movie’s campaign seemed to melt down the longer the season went on. There simply isn’t enough space here for me to address all of these points and fully expand on my thoughts regarding what went wrong, so I would highly recommend checking out tomorrow’s podcast when its sixth episode drops. I’ll be able to say much more there.

  
  What I will say here is that I agree with Erivo on many of these points, and I hope both her and Ariana’s future film prospects, and any potential awards campaigns, are treated better than the Wicked films were by certain segments of the film journalism world.

• It appears we now have writers for Paddington 4, and one of them happens to be Armando Iannucci, who wrote and directed The Death Of Stalin, one of 2018’s best films (2017 for British audiences). The third installment, Paddington In Peru, was one of my favorites from last year, though it wasn’t received nearly as enthusiastically as the first two films. I still found it to be a great comfort-food movie, but it paled in comparison to its predecessors. Hopefully this next installment can recapture some of that magic.

• It appears the rumor making the rounds is that Simon Kinberg’s upcoming Star Wars trilogy might secretly be a plan to deliver Episodes X, XI, and XII of the main Skywalker Saga. I really hope this isn’t true, as I’m one of those who came to loathe how the sequel trilogy turned out and don’t see why we should return to the Skywalker story rather than explore other corners of this galaxy this series is set in. With the franchise’s recent box office stumbles, I fear Disney may become even more convinced that “this is the way” forward by leaning into nostalgic, safer ideas like this.

• And speaking of Star Wars, Marcia Lucas, George Lucas’ ex-wife, who helped reshape what was originally a poorly received cut of the original 1977 Star Wars into the beloved classic it became, has passed away at the age of 80. She won an Oscar for editing the film and also worked on classics such as Taxi Driver and Return Of The Jedi. One could argue that she helped save what would become one of the biggest franchises in film history from a disastrous beginning.

This Past Weekend At The Box Office

• This past weekend’s box office champion was Backrooms, the A24 horror film based on the viral YouTube series. It broke records both for the distributor’s biggest opening and for its young director’s debut. The movie was a hit with critics and liked, but not loved, by audiences. Among critics, it landed at an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 77 Metacritic score. With audiences, it ended up with a 74% Popcornmeter score, a 3.4 on Letterboxd, a 7.1 on IMDb, and just a B- CinemaScore.
  
  I personally was not a fan of this movie. It had some great production design and legitimately eerie moments, but it bordered on pretentious at times for me. The character writing was clunky, and the finale lost a lot of the momentum the movie was trying to build toward. Me and horror have not been getting along very well this year.

• Focus Features’ counterprogramming release, Pressure, starring Brendan Fraser, Andrew Scott, and Kerry Condon as historical figures that try to plan for D-Day, ended up doing about as well as a small British film could. I think it missed its window for an even better box office showing had it released over Memorial Day weekend, but it seems Star Wars scared Focus away. Anyhow, the film got solid reviews from critics and a warmer reception from audiences. With critics, it landed at an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 69 Metacritic score. With audiences, it earned a 95% Popcornmeter, a 3.5 on Letterboxd, a 7.7 on IMDb, and the rare A CinemaScore.
  
  I watched this on a Saturday evening in a pretty well-attended screening made up mostly of older moviegoers, and it definitely played well with that crowd. As a history nerd with a fondness for “dad movies,” I thoroughly enjoyed watching people who can’t stand one another try to figure out the weather plans for arguably the most important battle in human history.

• John Carney’s music-based comedy Power Ballad had a limited opening, and both its critical and audience scores have been generally solid so far, but nothing dynamite. Among critics, it landed at an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 67 Metacritic score. With audiences, it’s currently sitting at a 3.3 on Letterboxd and a 7.0 on IMDb. I’ll be catching up with this one in due time.

• Propeller One-Way Night Coach, John Travolta’s directorial debut, premiered on Apple TV+ to mixed-to-negative reactions. Among critics, it landed at a 54% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 48 Metacritic score. With audiences, it earned a 2.8 on Letterboxd and a 5.6 on IMDb.

  
  I, for one, found this to be an okay, middling but cute little movie. Perhaps because I just became a dad, watching a little boy and his mother connect during their flight hit me a bit harder than it did for most viewers.

This Next Weekend At The Box Office

• After an eighties attempt to bring a live-action He-Man to the silver screen, we’ll be getting another shot with Masters Of The Universe, which incidentally has been receiving some pretty decent reactions coming out of its world premiere just last week. Even so, it doesn’t look like my market is getting a press screening, so I’ll have to see this one with my own hard-earned dollars. I’m hoping it’s a fun and pleasant surprise.

• Scary Movie, which is basically the sixth film in the satire franchise, will be attempting to capture the kind of legacy-sequel magic at the box office that films like the 2018 Halloween and Scream 5 pulled off. This is looking like the movie that will end up with the biggest box office haul of the weekend, and I have to admit I’m not the biggest fan of this franchise. I can’t say I’ve liked any of the previous films, and the marketing has left me wanting, as it seems to be leaning more toward appealing to MAGA chuds than its traditional younger and more urban fanbase. Then again, I wasn’t too crazy about The Naked Gun films either, and I ended up really enjoying last year’s legacy sequel, so I’ll try to have an open mind. The film isn’t screening for critics in my market either, so I’ll be seeing this one with a crowd.

• Carolina Caroline is a Bonnie and Clyde-style crime drama that was getting some raves at last year’s fall festivals and serves as indie distributor Magnolia’s summer counterprogramming. I’ll catch this one at my leisure and hope it’s as good as some folks say.

• Outside of the box office, Office Romance is the big straight-to-streaming release for the upcoming weekend, via Netflix. A romantic comedy centered on Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein, Netflix is hoping it can make some noise.

What Else Is On My Mind

• The NBA Finals are all set as the New York Knicks (53-29; #3 Eastern Conference seed) will go toe-to-toe with the San Antonio Spurs (62-20; #2 Western Conference seed). This is a rematch of 1999, when a then-burgeoning Spurs dynasty took on a veteran Knicks squad coming off a decade of struggling to get past the Chicago Bulls. The Spurs won that matchup in five games, and the rest was history.

  
  This time around, it’s two young squads that could be on the verge of becoming dynasties, with the Spurs being led by a potential future multiple-time MVP who just ended the Oklahoma City Thunder’s repeat bid. I don’t have any hate for either of these franchises, but the Knicks having President Donald Trump and WWE’s cringe comedy act Danhausen in their corner makes me lean more toward rooting for the Spurs. Regardless, my official prediction is Spurs in five.

• The Stanley Cup Finals are also all set as the Carolina Hurricanes (53-29; 113 points) take on the Vegas Golden Knights (39-43; 95 points). This is an interesting one, as the Hurricanes have built a team that could potentially take over from the Florida teams as the new force in the East. However, their opponents are previous champions who have fought and clawed their way here after losing more games than they won, taking advantage of a weak division and the NHL’s points system that I abhor (thus why I combined the loss markers on the teams’ records) to make the playoffs and then going on a run that included sweeping the President’s Trophy recipients, the Colorado Avalanche. My head keeps telling me to predict the Hurricanes, but something is pulling me toward predicting the Golden Knights in six.

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Introduction

These are quick impressions of some other newly released films that I watched over the past month that I wasn’t able to write more in-depth reviews for. Please note that these are just some of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for these films may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Animal Farm

• Plot, Via Letterboxd: A satirical allegory of revolution and power that traces how a movement for equality is systematically corrupted. As the pigs consolidate control, truth is erased, dissent is crushed, and the farm descends into a ruthless dictatorship.

• Quick Impressions: A baffling and embarrassing attempt at adapting one of the greatest books ever written. George Orwell must be rolling in his grave.

  From its lackluster animation and lazy humor to the baffling decision to add new subplots involving humans working alongside the villainous pigs, this adaptation spits on the legacy of its source material. Instead, it ends up as just another low-effort animated kids’ movie rather than the cautionary allegory about authoritarianism run amok that children can actually learn from. One of the absolute worst movies I’ve seen from this year so far.

• Initial Grading: D+

The Sheep Detectives

• Plot, Via Letterboxd: George is a shepherd who reads detective novels to his beloved sheep every night, assuming they can’t possibly understand. But when a mysterious incident disrupts life on the farm, the sheep realize they must become the detectives. As they follow the clues and investigate human suspects, they prove that even sheep can be brilliant crime-solvers.

• Quick Impressions: Thoroughly enjoyed this. I laughed, I cried. It’s the kind of smart family movie with laughs and heart we used to get more of before the IP slop took over. It’s also one of the rare mystery films that actually got me to gasp and never correctly guess who the killer was, something no Knives Out movie has managed to pull off with me, as much as I’ve liked the last two of them. Shouldn’t have waited as long as I did to watch this. If I had it my way, this would be in the conversation mix for a couple of Oscars and a SAG Ensemble nomination.

• Initial Grading: A-

In The Grey

• Plot, Via Letterboxd: When a ruthless despot steals a billion-dollar fortune, a covert team of elite operatives who live in the global shadows, as comfortable wielding power and influence as they are automatic weapons and high explosives, is sent to steal it back on what would be for anyone else a suicide mission. What begins as an impossible heist gets much worse, spiraling into an all-out war of strategy, deception, and survival.

• Quick Impressions: One of the more perplexing movies I’ve seen. Overall, I’m barely positive on it because Guy Ritchie’s fun directorial style, which he whips out every now and then, has its moments here. But it’s yet another one of his generic action movies, even if it’s not on the lower tier of his filmography. It’s like watching an action movie where you barely get to know any of the characters, aside from some implied details you can piece together through bits of back-and-forth dialogue. It feels like a meal that could have been filling, but instead ends up as one of those empty-calorie fast-food quickies that does the job in the moment, only for you to be hungry again an hour later. Your dad will probably like it.

• Initial Grading: B-

Obsession

• Plot, Via Letterboxd: After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.

• Quick Impressions: I'm literally the first person I know of who has given this a negative rating, but this was was not for me. Like with another critical hit from earlier in the year, Send Help, it came off more mean-spirited than anything else. The two things I'll give it are that the premise was interesting and the performances didn't hold back. Both critics and audiences are going crazy for this one, so maybe I'm just taking crazy pills, but this was not my cup of tea.

• Initial Grading: C-

Tuner

• Plot, Via Letterboxd: A talented piano tuner’s life is turned upside down when he discovers that his meticulous skills for tuning pianos can equally be applied to cracking safes.

• Quick Impressions: What a great non-documentary feature debut from Daniel Roher. It’s a crime-thriller drama that leans more toward the drama side of things, with genuinely great romantic chemistry between Woodall and Liu that gives the movie much of its emotional weight. The film keeps moving at a smooth pace too, so even during its most tense moments it never loses its sense of fun. I also really loved the blues-heavy soundtrack, which gives the movie a distinct personality. This is one of those films that may or may not crack the tail end of my top 20 by year’s end, but it’s definitely among the better movies I’ve seen so far this year. It’ll probably get lost in the shuffle once awards season gets crowded, but at the very least I’ll be begging my fellow critics to remember it when they’re filling out their Best Sound ballots.

• Initial Grading: A-

Backrooms

• Plot, Via Letterboxd: A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.

• Quick Impressions: There are a few legitimately creepy moments in this film where the use of liminal space is employed to great effect, creating both scares and a genuine sense of anxiety. However, the character writing leaves a lot to be desired, and the third-act twist is one of the most baffling momentum-killers I’ve ever seen a movie pull off as it heads into its finale.

• Initial Grading: C+

Pressure

• Plot, Via Letterboxd: In the tense 72 hours before D-Day, and with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, the film follows General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Captain James Stagg as they face an impossible choice -launch the largest and most dangerous seaborne invasion in history or risk losing the war altogether.

• Quick Impressions: Now that I’m officially a dad, I can start saying that “dad movies” are for me. I liked this quite a bit. Not only do we get Brendan Fraser playing a more prickly Dwight Eisenhower than I anticipated I’d get, but we also get Andrew Scott as an antisocial genius frustrated that he isn’t being taken more seriously. This is two hours of people who mostly don’t like each other being stuck in a building while trying to game-plan arguably the most important battle in human history. History nerds like me will thoroughly enjoy this.

• Initial Grading: A-

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Introduction

I’ve been an Oscars observer since I was in fourth grade during the big Titanic sweep season of 1997. The first Academy Awards ceremony that I watched from start to finish was the 2002 edition, when Chicago outran a late-surging The Pianist. I started writing about and predicting the Oscars during the 2021 season. Previously, I posted my predictions here while saving the more in-depth analysis for another website, Ordinary-Times. Well, the time has come to commit to just one place to share all my thoughts on film, and yes, my Oscars projections as well, and I’ve chosen to do that through my own Substack newsletter.

Last year, I pulled off something I never thought I’d be able to do in that I correctly predicted the eventual Best Picture winner, One Battle After Another, from the previous May all the way through Oscar night. So entering the 2026 season, I’ve already got a lovely concoction of personal stress over how I’m going to top that feat mixed with the volatility of trying to figure out exactly what the Best Picture lineup will look like at such an insanely early stage in the race.

In the past, I usually got my initial projections out before the Cannes Film Festival kicked off, but this year I decided not to rush things and instead wait until the festival wrapped up. At Cannes, Neon continued its streak of winning the top prize with its top priority, the family courtroom drama Fjord. However, other international films such as the queer period epic The Black Ball, the philosophical All Of A Sudden from Best Picture nominee Drive My Car’s Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the post WWII period piece Fatherland from Best Director nominee Paweł Pawlikowski, the WWI period piece Coward, and the dark Minotaur also emerged as potential contenders.

As for non-Cannes factors, Amazon’s Project Hail Mary released just a few weeks after the previous Oscars ceremony and went on to become both a critical and financial success, while still holding on to some of the strongest audience scores of the year so far. The film has all the makings of the kind of big studio populist blockbuster that sneaks into the lineup, but this year also features several other major studio genre films all fighting for that same lane.

Which brings us to the frontrunner at this stage, and picking out such is a much harder call for me than it was last year. On paper, Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic The Odyssey has all the ingredients to be win-competitive, but it’s also been two decades since a director helmed more than one Best Picture winner so the film is going to have to truly blow away critics and audiences in a way the Academy will have no choice but to give Nolan the top prize twice in just four years.

Nevertheless, perhaps against my better judgment, I’ve got Nolan’s next epic as the initial movie to beat, followed by a board of fifty films that I currently consider to be in the race for a Best Picture nomination. Their chances range from movies simply waiting for an opportunity to open up, all the way to films that already seem right on the verge of making the predicted ten.

Rounding out my initial predicted ten there’s Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s satire Digger, which will see Tom Cruise buried beneath pounds of makeup as an old rich billionaire trying to save the world. There’s Martin McDonagh’s black comedy Wild Horse Nine. There’s Focus Features’ Sense And Sensibility, which at the moment feels like their top priority, though we’ll have to wait and see how The Uprising or the populist horror favorite Obsession performs down the stretch. There’s the follow-up to The Social Network with The Social Reckoning. There’s Spielberg’s latest, Disclosure Day. There’s Dune: Part Three, which may or may not pull off a Return Of The King. And of course we have the aforementioned Project Hail Mary alongside the two Cannes titles The Black Ball and Fjord.

History tells us the lineup of ten nominees will usually feature two or three major blockbuster films and one or two international titles. My current predicted lineup arguably includes more of the former than it probably should and a tad less of the latter. I’m personally more fond of populist fields like 2022 or 2024 than cinephile-centric fields like 2023 or 2025, so that’s probably my bias showing. Still, I would be surprised if my current lineup goes 10-for-10. Based on past history and what I was predicting post-Cannes, I’d say at least half of these are likely on the money, which is a decent start with so much time left to go.

We still have the rest of the summer blockbuster season to see if any major populist contenders emerge. We still have the fall festivals where plenty of contenders will screen for the first time. We still have the big holiday season studio releases that could make major waves. It is still very early, and by the next time I check in shortly after the July 4th weekend, I already expect things to have shifted dramatically as the season continues and these films spend the rest of the year jockeying for position in the race to make the final predicted lineup.

Until then, you’ll find my board of fifty possible Best Picture contenders below, divided into five tiers. The contenders right now range from the commonly predicted heavy-hitters to potential populist favorites to films that may or may not even release later in the year. Like the protagonists in our current frontrunner, we still have a long journey ahead of us, and it’ll be exciting to see where everything lands by the end.

Make sure to tune into the upcoming sixth episode of my weekly podcast, where I’ll be talking about all fifty of these contenders in much greater depth.

Tier 1: The Predicted Ten

• 1. The Odyssey

• 2. Digger

• 3. Wild Horse Nine

• 4. The Black Ball

• 5. Sense And Sensibility

• 6. Project Hail Mary

• 7. Fjord

• 8. The Social Reckoning

• 9. Disclosure Day

• 10. Dune: Part Three

Tier 2: The “On The Bubble” Contenders

• 11. Cry To Heaven

• 12. Jack Of Spades

• 13. Untitled Jesse Eisenberg Musical Comedy

• 14. Club Kid

• 15. Being Heumann

• 16. All Of A Sudden

• 17. Fatherland

• 18. Coward

• 19. Minotaur

• 20. The Adventures Of Cliff Booth

Tier 3: The Dark Horses On The Cusp Of Being Taken Serious

• 21. Michael

• 22. The Rivals Of Amziah King

• 23. Jospehine

• 24. The Uprising

• 25. Werewulf

• 26. Obsession

• 27. Behemoth!

• 28. Tony

• 29. Primetime

• 30. Ink

Tier 4: The Long Shots With A Slim Path

• 31. The Invite

• 32. Saturn Return

• 33. Possible Love

• 34. A Long Winter

• 35. Prima Facie

• 36. Godzilla Minus Zero

• 37. I Play Rocky

• 38. Madden

• 39. Pressure

• 40. Tuner

Tier 5: The Long Shots Looking For A Path

• 41. The Drama

• 42. Paper Tiger

• 43. Hope

• 44. I Love Boosters

• 45. Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma

• 46. Rose

• 47. A Man Of His Time

• 48. Whalefall

• 49. The Dog Stars

• 50. I Swear

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 05.25.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez reviews Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu, recaps the fallout coming out of this year’s Cannes’ film festival, Netflix has big plans for The Adventures Of Cliff Booth, the Daniels might have their lead for their next film, Park Chan-Wook’s western is looking stacked, the wild news that a fourth Godfather movie is in the works, Paul Schrader even creeps on fake women, and looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  02:40 Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu Review

  10:30 Cannes 2026 Wraps Up

  24:02 The Hilariously Bad Faith Attacks On The Odyssey

  30:04 Netflix’s Big Plans For The Adventures Of Cliff Booth

  31:37 The Daniels Might Have Their Lead For Their Next Film

  32:55 Park Chan-Wook’s Western Is Looking Stacked

  35:59 Godfather 4 In The Works?

  37:16 Paul Schrader Even Creeps On Fake Women

  39:56 This Past Weekend At The Box Office

  45:13 The Next Weekend At The Box Office

  46:46 What Else Is On My Mind

  50:30 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 05.25.2026

• Review: Star Wars - The Mandalorian And Grogu

• Media Appearances: Talking The 2026 Summer Blockbuster Season On The Watchdog Morning Show

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Introduction

I came on to the latest episode of The Watchdog Morning Show to talk the 2026 Summer Blockbuster Season. Below you’ll find hour two of the show, my segment starts around the eleven minute mark.

Podcast

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 05.25.2026.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• The 2026 Cannes Film Festival has come and gone, and Neon’s Palme d’Or streak remains intact after what sounded like a very tight race between All Of A Sudden, The Black Ball, Fatherland, Minotaur, and eventual winner Fjord. Neon has now won the Palme seven straight times, and I’m already sensing some backlash bubbling up over it. Honestly, I got tired of the streak a couple of years ago myself, but the longer it continues, the more detractors it’s going to create. I’ve seen some people angrily arguing that audiences and film fans shouldn’t treat Neon’s streak as something to root for or against because, at the end of the day, the films themselves as art matter more than whatever studio logo is attached to them. That’s a worthwhile thought in theory, but the problem is that Cannes IS a competition. And when one studio goes on a run like this, people are naturally going to start reacting to them the same way sports fans react to a dynasty. If a team keeps winning championships year after year, people eventually start rooting against them. That’s just human nature. If people don’t want it to devolve into that kind of discourse, then Cannes would basically have to stop framing itself as a competition entirely, and that obviously isn’t happening. Until then, and especially with Neon themselves openly flexing the streak, people are going to keep talking about it until somebody finally breaks it. At this point, I half-jokingly think Cannes should just tag itself “sponsored by Neon.”

• As for Cannes winner Fjord itself, the win is interesting because the movie already seems to be generating some divisive discourse online over its subjects, while other contenders like All Of A Sudden, The Black Ball, Fatherland, and Minotaur are getting talked up as possible Best Picture contenders. My gut says two or maybe three of those five major Cannes titles ultimately make the Oscar lineup, but Fjord definitely seems more polarizing than the others right now. But Neon has good experience dealing with these prickly auter films and even got Triangle Of Sadness into Best Picture. It’ll be really interesting to see how non-Cannes crowds react to these films once they start rolling out publicly. I’ll have more to say about the fallout from Cannes on the upcoming podcast episode.

• The Odyssey has recently come under some truly ridiculous backlash from the usual predictable crowd, led by Elon Musk, who almost certainly has never even read the source material but has decided that casting a Black woman as Helen of Troy is somehow an offense against morality itself. The same man who oversaw millions in cuts to life-saving programs and his merry band of incels online have even mass-disliked the film’s trailer on YouTube. Keep in mind that Helen of Troy was not a real person, and unless you take certain pseudo-archaeological theories seriously, there’s no concrete evidence The Iliad ever even happened. Also keep in mind that the mythology of The Odyssey includes witches, gods and goddesses, sea serpents, a trip into Hades, and a literal man-eating cyclops, but apparently we’re supposed to be outraged over armor designs or casting choices. And apparently we’re also supposed to ignore how gorgeous Lupita Nyong’o is. I’d launch ships toward Troy to get her back too. Nyong’o recently responded to the controversy in an interview with Elle, saying, “This is a mythological story. I’m very supportive of Chris’ intention with it and with the version of this story that he is telling. Our cast is representative of the world. I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not. You can’t perform beauty.” I’ll have more to say about this on the upcoming podcast episode, because this whole thing feels like a deliberate attempt to sink the movie before anyone has even seen it.

• Netflix seems to be continuing to wave the white flag on giving their event films proper theatrical windows, as they’ve now announced that The Adventures Of Cliff Booth will shift from a summer release to a Thanksgiving release, complete with an exclusive two-week IMAX run before hitting the actual streaming app around Christmas. The announcement immediately made me wonder if Netflix is positioning the film as one of their top awards priorities. But following their pickup of The Black Ball, it’ll be interesting to see how Cliff Booth is ultimately received and whether it actually becomes a major contender or not.

• The Daniels, the duo behind the Best Picture-winning masterpiece Everything Everywhere All At Once, have reportedly been having some trouble locking down the lead role for their next film after Ryan Gosling, who had been circling the project, had to bow out due to scheduling conflicts.

  Now it seems Matt Damon may be stepping in to replace him. There’s still no word on what the movie is even about, and the deal with Damon isn’t final, but after their last film turned out to be such a masterpiece, I’ll be seated regardless.

• Park Chan-wook’s next film, said to be a western-set revenge story about a sheriff and doctor hunting down bandits, is absolutely loaded with an all-star cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler, and Decision To Leave star Tang Wei. In a major coup, the new Warner Brothers indie division Clockwork will be distributing the film. I can’t help but wonder if, after years of the Academy overlooking him, this will finally be the movie that gets Park the industry recognition he deserves.

• In a major surprise twist, Paramount is reportedly eyeing producing a The Godfather Part IV, which would reportedly follow Connie, Vito Corleone’s only daughter. I’d love to be proven wrong, but this sounds like potential disaster in the making and only further shows how short-sighted Paramount’s leadership under the Ellisons continues to be, as they seem more focused on pumping out sequels than taking actual creative risks. This news really sounds like something one would make a parody of in regard to big corporate studios greenlighting no new ideas.

• Paul Schrader, the man who has written and directed some of the greatest films in the cinematic canon, but who has also unfortunately proven himself to be a creep with disturbing allegations looming over his head, did himself absolutely no favors by publicly admitting that he’d been talking to AI girlfriends and apparently managed to creep even them out. Schrader confessed, “Out of a desire to understand male/female interaction in our matrix, I procured an online AI girlfriend. What a disappointment. I tried to probe her programming, the boundaries of explicitness, the degree she has knowledge of her creation and so forth. She fell into evasive patterns, redirecting me to her programming. When I persisted, she terminated our conversation.” This man truly gives no fucks, and apparently even fake women are tired of his behavior.

This Past Weekend At The Box Office

• Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu crossed the hundred million mark at the box office this past weekend and appears on track to make decent-ish money, though nowhere near the heights of most Star Wars films. There are rumors the movie would need to make around half a billion dollars to turn a real profit, and frankly, I don’t think it has the legs to get there. Critics were mixed on the film, while audiences were much more forgiving. Among critics, it earned a 62% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 53 on Metacritic. Audiences gave it an 88% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.2 on Letterboxd, a 7.1 on IMDb, and an A- CinemaScore. You can read my full review of the movie, but I was definitely a bigger fan of this than most of my colleagues in the film criticism space.

• Meanwhile, Amazon had its own TV-series-turned-feature-film release with Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War. This one didn’t hit theaters and instead went straight to Prime Video. The film received a pretty cold reception from both critics and audiences. Critics gave it a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes and just a 38 on Metacritic. Audiences weren’t much kinder, with a 41% on the Popcornmeter, a 2.6 on Letterboxd, and a 5.8 on IMDb. Overall, a pretty poorly received movie, and while I felt it failed to live up to the quality of the series it followed up on, I still liked it just enough to land on the positive side. Clearly, though, I was in the minority with this one.

• I Love Boosters, Boots Riley’s sophomore effort, received a pretty lackluster showing at the box office despite Neon pulling out a lot of stops to advertise the film and reportedly hoping it could become a sneaky mid-year hit that gained momentum come awards season. Regardless of the underwhelming box office performance, the film has been well received by both critics and audiences, though the latter don’t seem quite as wowed by it as critics are. Critics gave it a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 70 on Metacritic. Audiences landed at a 72% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.8 on Letterboxd, a 7.2 on IMDb, and a B CinemaScore. It seems like the movie connected more strongly with younger crowds than with other demographics. I still haven’t seen this one yet, but even if it ends up being one of my favorites of the year, this feels like the kind of movie destined to become a cult classic down the line rather than a major awards-season powerhouse.

• Tuner, Black Bear’s pickup from last year’s fall festival circuit, ended up doing pretty well at the specialty box office in its limited release. It’s been a hit with both critics and audiences, earning a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 74 on Metacritic from critics, while audiences gave it a 3.7 on Letterboxd and a 7.4 on IMDb. I caught this one after missing an in-person screening but later getting access to an online screener, and it’s absolutely a candidate to make my Best of the Year list. Highly recommend folks seek this one out.

• And finally, Netflix dropped a new straight-to-streaming release with Ladies First, a movie that made virtually no splash whatsoever and has been met with rough reactions from both critics and audiences. Critics gave it a disastrous 18% on Rotten Tomatoes alongside a 41 on Metacritic. Audiences were slightly kinder with a 68% Popcornmeter score, but it still sits at just a 2.4 on Letterboxd and a 5.8 on IMDb. Personally, I barely liked this one enough to come away mildly positive on it, but it’s pretty clear most people saw this as a complete disaster.

This Next Weekend At The Box Office

• The biggest release of the upcoming weekend will be A24’s Backrooms, based on the iconic online horror series and starring Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

• Meanwhile, the counter-programming for the “Dad movie” crowd will be Focus Features’ Pressure, centered on the 72-hour lead-up to D-Day for then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower, with Brendan Fraser in the role.

• John Carney also has another songwriter-focused movie coming out with Power Ballad, starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas as rival songwriters battling over the rights to a song. It’ll be one of those staggered releases, so it may not hit your local theater on opening weekend.

• And outside of the box office and into your homes, John Travolta has his directorial debut, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, which premiered at Cannes, about a young boy’s flight with his mother, heading straight to Apple TV+.

What Else Is On My Mind

• Apologies for this week’s digest being a day late. Memorial Day weekend was not a restful one for me, and I didn’t feel comfortable publishing anything during the holiday. Because of that, I pushed both the weekly digest and the podcast back a day from my usual release schedule for each. I hope everyone else had a far more peaceful and relaxing Memorial Day weekend while reflecting than I did.

• You know, I’m far from the biggest NASCAR fanatic, I couldn’t really tell you much of anything about the sport, but even I knew who Kyle Busch was, and news of his tragic passing at just 41 years old hit hard. A sudden onset of sepsis, apparently stemming from a severe case of pneumonia, is terrifying to hear about. Having dealt with pneumonia multiple times during my childhood because of my asthma, which took years to get under control, it makes the whole thing feel even scarier and more personal. The man was only a few years older than I am, too. Since becoming a dad, I’ve definitely become more sentimental about family and children, and my heart breaks for Busch’s family as they try to navigate such a shocking and sudden loss of their husband and father.

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: The evil Empire has fallen, and Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they have enlisted the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and his young apprentice Grogu.

Review

Apologies for the belated review to such a big event film, but unfortunately Disney did not provide a press screening for Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu for my neck of the woods of Tampa Bay, Florida, so I had to go seek this out on a Friday afternoon after work and juggle getting to write about it while dealing keeping up with Cannes and raising a newborn.

If you caught my last podcast episode, I was in the minority and I was not a big fan of last weekend’s big new release, Obsession. Well, for the second straight weekend in a row, I walked out of a new movie feeling like I somehow attended a completely different screening than everyone else online. Because honestly? Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu is the most fun I’ve had with a Star Wars movie since The Force Awakens, and maybe the first one in years that actually remembered these movies are supposed to feel like adventurous crowd-pleasers first and lore dumps and fan service second.

Maybe part of it comes down to the fact that I’ve never actually watched a second of the Disney+ series. I went into this almost completely detached from the larger “Mandoverse” lore, the endless callbacks, and whatever expectations longtime fans had built up over the years. So instead of spending the movie comparing it to episodes of television or trying to figure out where it slots into the wider canon, I just got to experience it as its own thing. And as its own thing? I had a blast.

What surprised me most was how quickly the movie got me invested in the dynamic between Mando and Grogu. I obviously knew who these characters were through cultural osmosis, but actually sitting down and watching them together for two hours totally won me over. There’s a lot of fun and sincerity to their relationship that keeps the movie grounded even when it gets goofy or chaotic. Pedro Pascal continues to prove that he can create an emotional connection through basically body language and voice work alone, while Grogu (who is brought to life thanks to some amazing puppeteering) is just as charming and cute as the years of online discussion about the show promised he’d be.

And honestly, this movie is loaded with the exact kind of “Star Wars stuff” I love seeing onscreen. Weird aliens. Strange little critters running around in the background. Dusty planets. Shady bars filled with danger. Rusty ships that look like they’ve actually lived through something. There’s a tangible sense of adventure throughout the entire film that I feel has been missing from a lot of modern franchise filmmaking. So many big blockbusters today feel overly polished and sterile, but this movie embraces the messy, lived-in quality that made the original trilogy feel special in the first place.

More than anything, The Mandalorian And Grogu reminded me of the kind of sci-fi adventure movies I grew up loving in the eighties and early nineties. The pacing is fast, the action scenes are easy to follow, and there’s this playful energy running through the whole thing that kept a smile on my face for most of the runtime. The film just wants to take you on a fun ride through a galaxy full of strange worlds and lovable characters.

That’s not to say the movie is perfect. There are definitely moments where the plot feels a little thin, and a few emotional beats rely heavily on your pre-existing attachment to these characters. I can also understand why some people wanted something bigger or more ambitious from the return of Star Wars to theaters. This isn’t some grand epic on the scale of Empire Strikes Back or Revenge Of The Sith. It’s much smaller and simpler than that, and this lacks those films’ cinematic gloss which in turn can make it feel like you’re just watching a straight-to-Disney+ special on the big screen.

For the first time in a while for me though, a Star Wars movie felt comfortable just being an adventure movie. Not setup for five future projects. Not two hours of franchise maintenance. Not a giant nostalgia trap desperately trying to recreate old magic beat-for-beat. Just a straightforward sci-fi journey with fun characters, creative worldbuilding, and a sense of excitement.

Maybe I’m crazy. Maybe I just caught this movie in the exact right mood. Maybe had I actually watched the show I might feel like others do that I’m just watching back-to-back would be episodes. But sitting in that theater, watching Mando and Grogu bounce from one dangerous situation to another while surrounded by bizarre creatures and practical-looking worlds, I felt something I haven’t felt from Star Wars in a long time. Thus I have to be on the higher end of this than most of my colleagues and give Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu an intial grade of B+. The bar isn’t that high, but this is one of the better Star Wars films in the Disney era of the franchise.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: Brings back the sense of adventure that has been missing from recent Star Wars films; Smaller scale story that doesn’t get wrapped up in the bigger lore of the series; Tons of cool creature designs; Will do the job as a popcorn flick for family friendly audiences

• Cons: If you’ve watched the show this could just feel like two would-be episodes of the series shown back-to-back; For some this will feel like just a pointless side quest that doesn’t expand enough on the series lore; Lacks the cinematic gloss and scale of previous Star Wars films

Grading

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 05.18.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez gives a dissenting review of Obsession, the 2026 Cannes Film Festival is half-way done and already making headlines, the Academy wants Conan back, influential film critic Rex Reed passes away, LA restaurants have a rat problem, and Luis looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  02:42 Obsession Review

  17:22 Cannes 2026 Kicks Off

  29:57 Conan Hosting Oscars For Third Straight Year

  31:37 Alfie Williams Hints At 28 Years Later Trilogy Finale

  33:18 Bong’s Frank Comments About Mickey 17

  35:58 Film Critic Rex Reed Passes Away

  38:22 Los Angeles Restaurants Have A Rat Problem

  47:08 This Past Weekend At The Box Office

  50:32 The Next Weekend At The Box Office

  53:29 What Else Is On My Mind

  57:31 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 05.18.2026

• The Ankler Article On Los Angeles Rodent Issue

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 05.18.2026.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• The Cannes Film Festival kicked off this past week, and we are officially halfway through it, with another week to go until the prestigious Palme d’Or is handed out to the jury’s choice for festival film of the year. There were some early fireworks at the opening press conferences. First, you had the festival’s longtime general delegate, Thierry Frémaux, who is known for making statements that grab the press’ attention, claiming that last year’s Academy Award winner for Best Picture(and my favorite film of last year), One Battle After Another, was actually planned to premiere at Cannes before being delayed at the last second for post-production touch-ups. Given that Paul Thomas Anderson has never really been the biggest film festival guy and hasn’t premiered a film at one in quite some time, I don’t know how much I buy that story, but it would have been wild for Cannes to claim back-to-back Best Picture winners premiering at the festival. Frémaux also said he’s been working to restore some trust with major studios in hopes of getting them to return to Cannes to premiere their films there. The festival recently hosted the premiere of Top Gun: Maverick before it went on the awards run that it did, but studios have also seen some divisive receptions there in recent years. Elemental, for example, received a mixed response out of the festival despite eventually becoming a box office success, connecting strongly with audiences, and earning an Oscar nomination. This year, Cannes has no major studio films in competition outside of a special re-screening of The Fast And The Furious (a bizarre choice given the other re-screenings are of films like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devils).

• The other fireworks came from the jury’s opening press conference, as jury president Park Chan-wook defended the relationship between art and politics, saying, “I think it’s a strange concept to think that they’re in conflict with each other. Just because a work of art has a political statement, it should not be considered an enemy of art. At the same time, just because a film is not making a political statement, that film should not be ignored.” Meanwhile, screenwriter Paul Laverty went after Hollywood during the press conference over what he described as the blackballing of celebrities who supported efforts to stop the war in Gaza, saying, “Cannes has a wonderful poster of Thelma & Louise. Isn’t it fascinating to see some of them like Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem, and Mark Ruffalo blacklisted because of their views in opposing the murder of women and children in Gaza?” Demi Moore also gave a very awkward and stumbling defense of AI use in film that immediately sparked discourse on X. There was also Stellan Skarsgård revealing he recently suffered a stroke and seemingly trying to joke about it in relation to walking up and down all the stairs at the festival. And, as seems expected at this point, Chloé Zhao probably delivered the warmest and least controversial remarks of the bunch, talking about how excited she was to be serving on the same jury as Park Chan-wook.

• As for how the Cannes Film Festival is shaping up halfway through, it does seem like my concerns that this wasn’t quite as stacked a lineup as many were hyping it up to be are starting to come to fruition. A batch of movies I would’ve previously put on my board for potential Academy Award for Best Picture contention are already dropping like flies.

  The new film from Hirokazu Kore-eda, known by some as the modern-day Yasujirō Ozu, Sheep In The Box, only received a paltry three-minute standing ovation, which is awful by Cannes standards, and was followed by some rough reviews. Celebrated director Asghar Farhadi’s newest film, Parallel Tales, completely bombed as well, earning just five minutes of polite applause and reviews that scored worse than the recent Mortal Kombat II!

  Hope, Na Hong-jin’s creature-feature space invasion movie, premiered to an extremely mixed reception, with some critics noting what appeared to be unfinished CGI in the cut that was screened. James Gray’s period thriller Paper Tiger also received a very divided response.

  The highlights of the festival so far seem to be two well-received international films from previously Oscar-nominated directors in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland and Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s All Of A Sudden. Critics appear to love both films, though the early curves on movie-logging sites from festivalgoers, who tend to be a little closer to general audiences, seem notably less enthusiastic.

  There’s also been a lot of love for two animated films tackling mature subject matter with In Waves, which deals with cancer, and Tangles, which focuses on Alzheimer’s. Meanwhile, the latest film from Jane Schoenbrun, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, has been met with strong reviews. The horror film aims to subvert the slasher subgenre, but Schoenbrun’s work has historically tended to connect more strongly with critics than with broader audiences, so we’ll have to see how this one ultimately plays outside the festival bubble.

• To finish off the Cannes Film Festival coverage, I wanted to note that honors were given to both Peter Jackson for his work as a director, giving us The Lord Of The Rings film trilogy, the 2005 remake of King Kong, and, more recently, ambitious documentary work focused on World War I and The Beatles. A more surprising honor went to John Travolta, who was at the festival premiering his directorial debut film, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, which will be released on Apple TV+ in just a few weeks. I’ve more or less given up hope that Jackson will deliver another great narrative feature, but he absolutely deserves recognition for the body of work he’s already given us; plus it was really cool to have Elijah Wood there to give him the award. And as for Travolta, it would honestly be great to see him land another major studio hit given all the personal tragedies he’s endured later in life. Hopefully his upcoming film turns out well.

• Conan O’Brien will be hosting the Academy Awards for a third consecutive time, making that “Oscars host for life” skit that ended the previous ceremony feel even more remarkable in hindsight. I’ve really enjoyed O’Brien’s work hosting the last two ceremonies and, aside from one joke he made about pretending to not like the 2024 films which I wasn’t crazy about, since I generally don’t love jokes at the expense of the movies themselves during the Oscars, I think he’s settled into the role better than most hosts I’ve seen in my lifetime. I honestly can’t blame the Academy and ABC for wanting to keep him around. Now if they could just stop scheduling the ceremony in mid-March.

• Alfie Williams seem to hint that the third and final film in the ongoing 28 Years Later films is going to start pre-production sooner rather than later regardless of 'Bone Temple’’s box office. He posted a picture on social media of him learning to, and prepping, to use a crossbow and the young man has certainly been growing since what we saw of him on the silver screen. I gotta’ believe this next film will start with a time skip compared to the last two movies.

• Bong Joon Ho recently spoke about his previous film Mickey 17’s box office flop, remarking, "Director’s final cut was part of my contract and everyone at the studio and at my agency tried their best to protect me.” “Of course, during post production, there was lots of discussions and a lot of opinions going back and forth, but it wasn’t ever like someone was forcing something on me or giving me pressure…And so luckily, all my films have been released as my director’s final cut, even a movie as big as Mickey 17, and all the good parts of that film and all the bad parts of that film came from me. I take full responsibility. So shit on me if you didn’t like it!” I was personally mixed-to-positive on Mickey 17 but I do know some folks who defended it and loved it. Bong making these kind of frank comments though tells me he feels he perhaps should’ve listened to the studio given how a film like that was always going to be an issue to sell to the public even after Parasite.

• Rex Reed, the incredibly brash and outspoken film critic, has passed away at the age of 87. Reed was known for courting controversy, as he belonged to that breed of critics who seemed to delight in coming up with the wittiest possible ways to tear apart a movie they disliked. The guy could certainly be entertaining, I once watched old clips of him running down the Oscar nominees from the Midnight Cowboy year, along with his dismissive attitude toward films from the The Shape Of Water year, and admittedly some of his remarks made me both chuckle and gasp. Reed, though, was never really my cup of tea personally. That style of criticism, where the critic seems more interested in having fun dunking on a movie and almost takes pride in their own snobbery, has always felt off-putting to me, and I think it can be alienating to general audiences as well. Regardless, Reed was undeniably a giant in the world of film criticism and, for a time, was probably the most nationally recognizable film critic before Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel exploded into the mainstream.

• I wanted to highlight a wild article that I came upon from The Ankler, written by Degen Pener, about an epidemic of rats in the Los Angeles culinary scene. No, this isn’t a Ratatouille marketing stunt guys, there’s actually rats infesting many LA restaurants that many Hollywood types go to dinner at to pen out negotiations. Click here to read the piece.

This Past Weekend At The Box Office

• Arguably the biggest film from this past weekend was Focus Features and Blumhouse’s Obsession, a debut feature horror flick from Curry Barker (no relation to Clive Barker, trust me I checked). The movie was already a small hit at the fall festivals, but it’s become an even bigger hit now that it’s reached the wider public. As I write this, it has some of the best critical scores around (94% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 77 on Metacritic) alongside stellar audience scores (4.2 on Letterboxd, 8.2 on IMDb, 94% on the Popcornmeter, and a rare-for-horror A- CinemaScore). The movie also overperformed at the box office, pulling in a respectable mid-teen millions during its opening weekend for a film of its size. Sadly, I’m not on the bandwagon, as I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as many others I know did. I didn’t get the time or space to write a formal review for it, but I’ll definitely go into more detail on the upcoming podcast episode about my dissenting thoughts.

• Also releasing this past weekend in the thriller realm is Is God Is, a debut drama from director Aleshea Harris in which two sisters seek revenge on the father who burned and scarred their mother for life. This one has been getting strong word-of-mouth from critics, with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score and an 84 on Metacritic. Audiences have responded well too, with a 3.7 on Letterboxd, a 7.4 on IMDb, an 89% on the Popcornmeter, and a B+ CinemaScore. I haven’t gotten around to this one yet as I write this, but as hyped-up new films go, I hope I enjoy it more than I did Obsession.

• As for Guy Ritchie’s latest, In the Grey, as I expected, it’s flopping at the box office and has been met with negative critical reviews (46% on Rotten Tomatoes and just a 52 on Metacritic) alongside mixed audience scores (3.0 on Letterboxd, 6.7 on IMDb, 82% on the Popcornmeter, and just a B CinemaScore). Black Bear Pictures is now 0-2 on films that were supposed to help get them on the map after last year’s botched Christy campaign, a movie I enjoyed, but one that went nowhere commercially or awards-wise. I’ll catch In the Grey soon enough, but given Ritchie’s very mixed track record, I’m expecting something that is, at best, just okay.

This Next Weekend At The Box Office

• We have a new event film and a new Star Wars entry in Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu, which has been tracking for a decent box office performance, though on the lower-end compared to what these Star Wars movies are typically expected to do. I admittedly haven’t seen a single second of the show this movie is following up on, but I’m hoping for some adventure and fun, something that frankly Star Wars has been lacking for me ever since Disney bought the property from George Lucas. Screenings for this one have been very limited, and I do wonder if that signals a lack of confidence from Disney in the product, but we’ll soon see where this ranks within the broader Star Wars filmography.

• Boots Riley’s sophomore film, I Love Boosters, about an operation of shoplifters boosting expensive clothes, comes from Neon following its premiere at South by Southwest. It was reportedly supposed to be Neon’s Plan B for awards contention in case something went horribly wrong for them at Cannes. Early word-of-mouth has mostly been along the lines of “It’s really good, but not as good as Boots’ last movie,” though the trailers make this look like it could be a fun and whacky film with something to say, much like 2018’s Sorry To Bother You. I’m hoping for a fun time with this one.

• Black Bear Pictures will try to bounce back from In the Grey with the fall festival hit Tuner, a small-budget film starring Dustin Hoffman and up-and-comer Leo Woodall, in which a piano tuner learns he can use his listening skills to crack safes. This one has generated some great word-of-mouth, and I actually came very close to attending a screening for it but unfortunately couldn’t make it because I had to take care of my newborn that evening. Hopefully Black Bear can finally crack the code with this one in terms of generating good buzz for one of their films.

• Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War, the film intended to wrap up the Amazon streaming series starring John Krasinski as the iconic American agent, will also be out this weekend, via their streamer. As most of you know by now I typically don’t keep up with television, but I actually have watched this series, and honestly, I feel like it’s lost steam quality-wise as it’s gone on, so I’m okay with finally wrapping this thing up.

• And Netflix will have a new straight-to-streaming comedy in Ladies First, in which Sacha Baron Cohen stars as a man who wakes up in a world dominated by women. This will either be a really fun flick or a complete disaster.

What Else Is On My Mind

• Anyone catch that Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano fight on Netflix? It literally lasted just sixteen seconds. There’s already been speculation that the outcome was fixed or rigged, but as veteran combat sports journalist Dave Meltzer pointed out, if that were the case, Carano probably would’ve wanted to at least sell the idea that she could put up more of a fight than that.

  I don’t think there’s any conspiracy here. Carano hasn’t been in the ring in nearly two decades, while Rousey has at least remained active through professional wrestling, which still requires a level of athleticism and conditioning. On top of that, Rousey used to win fights in exactly this kind of quick fashion before she began struggling toward the end of her UFC run. This was basically a fight between two athletes well past their primes, and the one who’s spent more time doing MAGA podcasts got rocked by the one who actually seemed locked in and serious about the fight.

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 05.11.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez reviews Mortal Kombat II as the 2026 Cannes Film Festival lurks around the corner, talks the new Oscars rules, gives tribute to Ted Turner’s contributions to film, calls out an embarrassing moment for Melissa Barrera, and looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  04:55 Review Of Mortal Kombat II

  10:04 Cannes 2026 Begins

  16:29 New Oscars Rules

  20:31 Ted Turner Passes Away
  22:53 Melissa Barrera Embarrasses Herself

  27:19 A Lot Of New Planned Movies Announced

  28:38 New Regal Cinemas Rollercoaster Intro

  30:16 This Past Weekend At The Box Office

  33:58 The Next Weekend At The Box Office

  36:12 What Else Is On My Mind

  39:52 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 05.11.2026

• Film Review: Mortal Kombat II

• Media Appearances: Talking The State Of Movie Theatres On The Watchdog Morning Show

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 05.11.2026.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• The Cannes Film Festival kicks off this week, and while we do get some early-year genre films and blockbusters that break into the awards conversation, the first real murmurs of what Oscar season could look like usually begin at Cannes as international and American auteur films jockey for position to build early buzz. Of course, one studio has loomed especially large over the festival since 2019 with Neon. They have won the prestigious Palme d’Or (or golden palme) every single year since then (outside of the cancelled 2020 pandemic edition) and have basically turned Cannes into their personal playground for future awards contenders. Neon enters this year’s festival, which just so happens to have acclaimed director Park Chan-wook serving as Jury President (in a lineup that also includes names like Demi Moore and Chloe Zhao), once again favored to keep the streak alive. Personally though, as an A24 guy, I’m half-jokingly hoping somebody finally snaps the streak and gives Neon a little bit of a hubris check. That said, Neon absolutely delivered one of the best studio lineups of last year for me personally, with multiple films making my year-end favorites list, the most the studio has ever had in a single year from my perspective. They also managed to land two films in the Best Picture lineup for the first time ever. Still, Cannes has also been known to humble presumed contenders very quickly. Just look at Megalopolis two years ago or Alpha last year. So it’ll be fascinating to see how this year’s festival plays out, and once Cannes comes and goes and we have a better outlook on these potential awards hopefuls, I’ll finally have my initial 99th Oscar projections ready to go.

• The Academy revealed brand new rules for awards consideration last week, which I decided to hold off on mentioning because more context on the changes was still coming in. There are some smaller tidbits such as the Makeup branch now having to attend at least one of the category’s “bake-off” presentations, voters being required to watch the VFX sizzle reels before voting in that category, and International Feature films now officially crediting the directors during the award presentation even though directors still won’t be formal Oscar winners in the category the way producers and directors are for Documentary and Animated Feature. The two biggest changes, however, are much more interesting. The first is that actors are now eligible to make the same acting category twice in either Lead or Supporting in the same year. That means there hypothetically could have been a world during the 2006 Oscar season where Leonardo DiCaprio not only got nominated for Blood Diamond in Lead Actor, but also managed to make the category for The Departed as well. The Academy allowing this makes me think this scenario has probably already happened during nomination voting multiple times over the years. The other major change is that international films will now be allowed to be submitted directly by their producers if the film was selected to represent its country but only if it won at an approved major film festival. So while this would have helped a film like, say, Anatomy of A Fall, the new rule still would not have helped movies like RRR or even Ran. The Academy’s heart is in the right place here and it is legitimate progress, but it still doesn’t fully solve the longstanding problem of too many acclaimed international films missing out on competing for the International Feature Oscar simply because they were never selected as their country’s official submission.

• Ted Turner passed away at the age of 87, and I want to mention him because, for one, he was the boogeyman to a lot of WWE fans (like myself) in the nineties when WWE was able to build up this image of “Billionaire Ted” and WCW coming to shut the company down, even though WWE itself was run by a man who was already worth hundreds of millions and would eventually join the billionaire club himself. Two, Turner gave us twenty four hour news cycles, he was iconic in Atlanta Braves baseball as an owner of the team, he helped to save the species of Buffalo, and he was vital in the cable TV boomlet of the eighties and nineties. But we also have to thank Ted Turner for his commitment to preserving and presenting classic Hollywood films through his efforts of buying film libraries and giving us Turner Classic Movies, which miraculously still thrives today in a media world where golden age Hollywood films struggle to even get proper exposure. Granted, Turner also tried to lead the charge in colorizing these films back in the eighties, and many Hollywood veterans had to tell him to stop; but he alongside ex-wife Jane Fonda still played a huge role in creating generations of film fans, myself included, through TCM airing many of the greatest films of all time uncut and commercial-free. It’s something then rival station AMC eventually stopped being able to promise, and honestly that channel is barely recognizable now compared to what it once was. It went through the same kind of transformation TLC did over the years. But rest in peace to Ted Turner, and I thank him for helping create the chain of events that led me to discovering so many classic films growing up.

• Melissa Barrera made some major waves this past week, and sadly I think she low-key made an ass out of herself if I can be frank. Barrera, of course, made headlines when she was kicked off Scream 7 after her pro-Palestine views seemingly got her blackballed by Paramount, who are now owned by the Ellisons and in turn handed the keys of the CBS News division to outspoken Zionist and right-wing figure Bari Weiss. (CBS News’ ratings have reportedly been in freefall since she took over, but I won’t go further on that.)

  Barrera’s exit was followed by Jenna Ortega’s, and with that the direction of the franchise shifted away from the newer cast introduced in parts 5 and 6 toward a more nostalgia-driven legacy reboot with part 7. Of course, part 7 ended up receiving poor critical reviews alongside only decent audience scores, but the point is Barrera is clearly still bitter about having that franchise taken away from her. On one hand, I can’t really blame her. I personally wasn’t the biggest fan of Scream 5, 6, or even 7, but I do think she and Ortega were done dirty. I also fully support Barrera’s right to call out the suffering and destruction taking place in Gaza. You can abhor the October 7 attacks and still strongly oppose the actions of the Israeli government since then. However, Barrera did herself and her supporters a disservice in a recent Variety article where she claimed the box office numbers for Scream 7 were completely fabricated by the studio. There’s just no realistic way for studios to get away with that when financial reports and independent trade publications track those numbers closely, and for Barrera to get caught up in that kind of conspiratorial rhetoric is exactly the sort of thing she does not need out there publicly as she reportedly looks to launch her own production company. I also don’t think calling the Scream 7 cast “picket line crossers” was a good idea either, for the record. I support Melissa on a lot of issues, but she should absolutely look into some PR training if she’s going to keep burning bridges this aggressively in interviews.

• We got a slew of interesting new movies announced to be in production this past week, including the follow-up to one of my favorite films from 2024, Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes. However, it will apparently be a more self-contained story that moves away from the original idea of building a new trilogy, perhaps in response to the previous film having good box office, critical, and audience scores, but not quite reaching the heights of the prior trilogy’s numbers. We’ll also be seeing a new Hocus Pocus film with the entire trio of Sanderson sisters in Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy poised to return. This third film will actually get a theatrical release unlike the second film’s straight-to-streaming debut, and as someone who considers the 1993 original one of my favorite films from that year and grew up watching it every Halloween season, the sequel was much more middling for me and I can’t pretend I have great faith this third one will be any better.

  Nintendo also finally announced that they and Illumination plan to release an animated Star Fox film, likely with Glen Powell returning to the role he voiced in the latest Mario animated film; I just hope this is an actual movie with actual character arcs unlike the Mario slop fests.

• Regal Cinemas have come out with a new version of their iconic rollercoaster ride intro package that plays either right before their trailers begin or when the movie is about to start. A lot of people’s first experience with the theatrical experience tends to be AMC theatres, but when I moved to the states the local theatre close by for hot new releases was a Regal Cinema that had 20 screens, which blew my mind coming from my toddler days in Puerto Rico when the biggest nearby theatre to me had only two or three screens.

  My parents took me to that theatre a lot growing up (which now happens to be replaced by an AMC theatre), and the classic Regal popcorn intro would always play. It’s the closest you’ll ever see me having the experience of a roller coaster because I don’t do them. Amazingly, they kept that very same intro around that I watched as a kid in the nineties all the way up to when I was a full-grown man in the mid-2010s, when they finally made a much more modern version of it, and here they are now with yet another new version.

  As someone whose closest theatre to him is a multi-screen Regal theatre, I’ll take these any day over their failed attempt to capture the magic AMC did with their Nicole Kidman intro through that cringe movie quotes package that didn’t even last a year.

This Past Weekend At The Box Office

• Mortal Kombat II (you can read my review here) barely failed to dethrone The Devil Wears Prada 2 from the top spot, but it’s on track to be a very respectable box office success. The movie has earned the best critical scores a Mortal Kombat film has ever received with a 47 on Metacritic and, as I write this, a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the first film in the franchise to achieve a “fresh” score on RT. As for the audience scores, they’ve been okay but nothing mind-blowing either with a 3.1 on Letterboxd, 7.0 on IMDb, 90% recommending it on the Popcornmeter, and a B CinemaScore. These numbers are actually not that dramatically higher than the 2021 film, but it seems a chunk of critics felt as I did and viewed this sequel as a notable step up from its predecessor, enough to land in the mostly positive territory. With the critical reviews being just positive enough and the nice box office, a third part in this continuity for the franchise is absolutely plausible.

• The Sheep Detectives has also enjoyed a nice showing for a British family film, with strong critical reviews (72 on Metacritic and a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes) alongside very good audience scores like a 3.8 on Letterboxd, 7.7 on IMDb, 96% recommending it on the Popcornmeter, and an A- CinemaScore. I still haven’t seen this one as of writing, but I’m hoping to check it off my list before the end of the week.

This Next Weekend At The Box Office

• With the industry mostly focused on the middle stretch of the Cannes Film Festival this upcoming weekend, the box office will generally be quiet when it comes to new releases. But we are getting a few small films that have garnered my attention.

• We do have a new Guy Ritchie film, In The Grey, which thankfully looks like one of his more fun efforts, but the movie will likely struggle at the box office. Black Bear Pictures, who are brand spanking new to distributing films they themselves produced, have taken up the film’s rights, and I’ve seen almost no marketing for it.

• There’s also a brand new Blumhouse horror flick arriving this weekend with Obsession, a movie that has reportedly been gaining strong word of mouth among critics who’ve seen it. My favorite tidbit regarding the making of the film is that its director, Curry Barker, is in fact not related to horror icon Clive Barker.

• We’re also getting a thriller in Is God Is, a film adaptation of a play in which two young women seek revenge on their own father for his act of violence against their mother.

What Else Is On My Mind

• I hope all mothers out there had a great Mother’s Day weekend. I spoke in the previous podcast episode about how surreal this year’s was for me, given my current wife had started to give up hope that she’d ever become a mom, so I know how precious the opportunity for motherhood is to those who get to experience it.

• The NBA and NHL playoffs have each entered the second round, and with both of my teams (the Heat and the Lightning) eliminated from contention, I find myself just enjoying the ride as a neutral observer. I’d get a kick out of seeing the New York Knicks go all the way, but I don’t know if they can beat the Pistons, Spurs, or Thunder. Maybe they can pull off an upset in the conference finals, but the NBA Finals themselves feel like a tall order. As for the NHL, after years of underperforming in the playoffs, the big question for me is whether the Avalanche can get back to the Final as the Presidents’ Trophy curse hangs over them. The Eastern Conference, at the very least, must be breathing a sigh of relief that no Florida team will be winning their side of the bracket for the first time since 2019.

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Introduction

I came on to the latest episode of The Watchdog Morning Show to talk the state of movie theatres. Below you’ll find hour two of the show, my fifteen minute segment starts around the sixteen minute mark.

Podcast

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film Mortal Kombat II. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: The fan favorite champions, now joined by Johnny Cage himself, are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.

Review

I’ve rarely spent much time playing the Mortal Kombat video game series. My biggest connection to the franchise comes from my dad renting the two nineties films for us when we were way too young to be watching them. Those movies are, of course, not great or critically well-regarded. The 1995 film is a fun nostalgia trip, but the 1997 sequel is one of the worst video game adaptations ever made.

And yet, the franchise has refused to give up on film. In 2021 (after being delayed from 2020), Mortal Kombat was rebooted for the big screen. Unfortunately, that film made the baffling decision to move away from what makes Mortal Kombat what it is; there was no proper tournament, the signature fatalities and ultra-violence were mostly saved for one big moment near the end, and the story centered on a completely new protagonist with absolutely no connection to the games. On top of that, it was a messy, poorly paced, and badly written movie. It had its moments, but ultimately felt like an underwhelming attempt at a proper adaptation.

Despite mixed reviews, middling audience scores, and a same-day streaming release, the film performed well enough for Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema to move forward with a sequel. Originally slated for release late last year, Mortal Kombat II was pushed to Mother’s Day weekend (of all dates) as a follow-up to The Devil Wears Prada 2, helping unofficially kick off the summer box office season (though some might argue that honor belongs to the upcoming Star Wars release).

This was my first press screening in months, as I’ve been busy at home taking care of the little woman. I saw it with my best friend, who’s a gamer and even a fan of the maligned 2021 film. We grabbed some drinks beforehand, so maybe that added to the experience, but in short…I liked it. This is a pretty significant step up from the previous movie.

Most importantly, this film doesn’t shy away from its source material. There’s an actual tournament this time, real stakes, and the ultra-violent fights, complete with brutal fatalities, are present throughout. It finally feels like a Mortal Kombat game brought to life, while still giving the characters some motivation and arcs.

The ensemble is fairly large, featuring returning characters, but the biggest addition is Johnny Cage, played by Karl Urban. His version of Cage is a breath of fresh air and a major upgrade as the central figure compared to Cole from the last film, who didn’t resonate much. Cole is now relegated to a supporting role, and to his credit, Lewis Tan returns and is a trooper over the demotion, trying to do his best with the little screen time he has compared to before.

With Cage’s introduction comes a lighter tone. The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, and I found myself laughing out loud at several of his quips and comedic moments. Impressively, this balance works even alongside the film’s gnarly violence. It ends up being a solid popcorn flick for audiences to head out to this weekend, and I think hardcore fans will especially love it. Honestly, I’d even call this the best film in the franchise so far.

That said, this isn’t necessarily a great movie either. Some of the same issues from the 2021 film return, messy editing, rushed pacing, and clunky exposition that leads to awkward dialogue and moments that may confuse non-fans. The film clearly isn’t aiming to be much more than a blood-soaked action spectacle.

All in all, this is a noticeable upgrade from the 2021 entry and a decent popcorn flick, even if its flaws keep it from ranking among the better video game adaptations out there. It’s no Mario, but it’s also no Sonic. I’d give Mortal Kombat II an okay enough B-. I was barely negative on the first film, and I’m barely positive on its sequel.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: Leans into the source material much harder than the previous film did; Features much lighter comedic moments that make it a fun audience film; Karl Urban brings a breath of fresh air as our new protagonist; Gnarly fatality kills that match the gory action of the games

• Cons: Messy editing that creates some hurried pacing; Exposition heavy dialogue and scenes that could easily lose a non-gamer; Feels very much “for the fans” and less so like its trying to give us a well put together film that has lasting power

Grading

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 05.04.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez talks about The Devil Wears Prada 2 coming out just in time for Mother’s Day, Netflix waving the white flag on a proper theatrical window for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia, rumors of a Tom Cruise and Christopher McGuire split, and looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  02:42 Happy Mother’s Day Week

  03:59 Review Of The Devil Wears Prada 2

  19:30 Netflix Blinks On A Theatrical Window For Greta Gerwig’s Narnia

  25:39 Rumors Of A Tom Cruise And Christopher McGuire Split

  29:57 Neon Picks Up Bong’s Next Film

  32:55 Nintendo’s Plans For Future Film Adaptations

  35:08 This Past Weekend At The Box Office

  39:32 The Next Weekend At The Box Office

  42:12 What Else Is On My Mind

  46:11 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 05.04.2026

• Film Review: The Devil Wears Prada 2

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film The Devil Wears Prada 2. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: Miranda Priestly navigates her career amid the decline of traditional magazine publishing. She faces off against Emily Charlton, her one-time assistant, now a high-powered executive for a luxury group, with advertising dollars that Priestly desperately needs.

Review

Note: Apologies on this review coming out on the Monday after opening weekend. My market didn’t get a press screening, I’ve had my busy time at home helping to take care of my newborn, and this past weekend I learned of a death in the family. But here’s my review of The Devil Wears Prada 2:

I can still vaguely remember where I was when the trailer for The Devil Wears Prada dropped back in 2006. Twenty years ago, I was in my final year of high school, and because I wasn’t a film critic yet, I could pick and choose what to watch; so I never got around to Prada. It wasn’t some deliberate avoidance because it skewed toward a female audience; I just never got around to it. Still, I was curious, especially with Meryl Streep earning an Oscar nomination and the film growing beyond its source material into a modern classic, one that plenty people rank among their all-time favorites. There was even a recent stage musical adaptation that, notably, didn’t do as well as the movie.

Now, two decades later, a legacy sequel has arrived, well after the original book received its own unrelated sequels, and that meant I couldn’t ignore this world and these characters any longer. Since I planned to review the new film, I turned opening day into a double feature. I watched the original at home, followed almost immediately by the sequel at my local theater.

Before getting into the new film, I have to admit that finally watching The Devil Wears Prada left me pretty underwhelmed. From what I understand, the source novel leans less comedic and tracks a sharper arc of the protagonist losing herself under the influence of “the devil” in her boss, Miranda Priestly. The film opts for a lighter tone and a more hopeful ending, tweaking character dynamics along the way such as her best friends personality, her boyfriend’s profession, and even softening Miranda slightly, though not consistently.

What really didn’t work for me was how unlikable I found most of the characters. Nigel (played by Stanley Tucci) is the lone exception. The Runway workplace feels outright toxic, Miranda never meaningfully redeems herself, Emily (Emily Blunt) leans more bully than potential ally, and Anne Hathaway’s “Andy” gradually becomes everything she claimed she wouldn’t be. I’ve heard the “boring boyfriend is the real villain” argument for years, but while Nate is severely underwritten, Andy treats him poorly and then jumps into a romance with an even flatter character who feels parachuted into the story.

So I went into the sequel with low expectations after that first viewing, and to its credit, it does address some of those issues.

The biggest improvement is that the characters are simply more likable. Andy feels more confident and grounded, Emily is closer to what her personality should be, and Miranda is given a more deliberate attempt at humanity, even earning something resembling a redemption arc this time. Nigel, once again, is the standout. Their arcs land in more satisfying places compared to the uneven, sometimes bleak endings of the original.

The film also delivers on what fans loved the first time around. The fan service will absolutely work for its target audience, and seeing these characters get more fulfilling conclusions will likely be a big plus for longtime fans.

And despite my issues, Meryl Streep is clearly having a great time as Miranda. Her performance is still magnetic, and it’s easy to see why the character became so iconic, regardless of how you feel about the writing.

But that smoothing of edges comes with trade-offs. The sequel introduces contradictions that don’t quite line up with the original. Andy being excited to return to Runway clashes with where we left her. Miranda shifts from an intimidating, inscrutable figure to someone hosting parties and navigating a safer, more conventional personal arc, particularly in her marriage to Kenneth Branagh’s character, who’s portrayed as a straightforwardly supportive husband. Even Nigel’s storyline is wrapped up a bit too neatly, contradicting how Miranda treated his ambitions before.

So while the characters are more approachable and the arcs are more satisfying, the film itself feels blander, like it’s trying too hard to please everyone whether they be original fans or detractors.

There are other issues, too. The direction lacks the style and specificity I actually appreciated in the original, opting instead for a more generic presentation. The comedy is broader and less subtle. The film leans heavily on celebrity cameos (and apparently cut even more in the editing room), falls into the usual legacy sequel trap of overusing callbacks, and once again fumbles a lifeless romance subplot.

In the end, The Devil Wears Prada 2 both improves and regresses on what worked and didn’t in its predecessor. It’s very much a movie for fans of the original, and if you’re not already on that wavelength, it may leave you cold. I may simply not be the target audience here. I am a boring CIS straight guy who actually watches the Super Bowl for the game and couldn’t tell the difference between any brand of fashion pieces. Either way, I land in the same place as I did with the original - a straight up C+. If you’re a big fan of the original, you should enjoy this. If you’re not, don’t even bother or wait to see it when it shows up on streaming later this year.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: Characters are more likable and interesting than previous film, with arcs that finish off in a more fulfilling fashion in comparison; Plenty of fan service for the fans of the original; Meryl Streep truly enjoys herself playing Miranda Priestly and it shines in her performance

• Cons: Contradictions with softening of characters compared to its predecessor; The more unique and interesting style of the direction from the last film is now replaced by something more bland and generic; Falls into typical legacy sequel traps like forced celebrity cameos and calling back to the last film

Grading

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 05.04.2026.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• Netflix has announced a notable first as Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia adaptation is shifting from a holiday 2026 release to spring 2027. The film is now set to debut on February 12, with a planned IMAX rollout, another first for Netflix, alongside an exclusive 54-day theatrical window before hitting the platform. This move comes roughly a year after Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos publicly dismissed traditional movie theaters as outdated.

• There are rumors, via controversial scooper Jeff Sneider, a man that has me blocked on social media for calling him out for his antics which includes him confessing publicly to taking part in sexual acts during a screening, and no I did not make that up, that Tom Cruise is blaming director Christopher McQuarrie for the recent box office struggles of the last two Mission: Impossible films, and as a result doesn’t want him in contention to direct a third Top Gun installment. However, Sneider’s actual reporting suggests something far less dramatic in that both men may simply be looking to take a break from working together, with no real animosity involved.

• Meanwhile, Bong Joon Ho’s next project, the animated film Ally, about a piglet squid dreaming of appearing in an ocean documentary, has been picked up by Neon, with eyes on a 2027 release and a potential run at the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize. The project has reportedly been in development since the release of Bongs Oscar Best Picture winning Parasite back in 2019, with his more divisively recieved Mickey 17 arriving in the interim.

• Nintendo and Illumination have announced a new film slated for April 12, 2028, coincidentally, my wedding anniversary. Speculation points to this being a third Mario animated film, though expectations remain cautious. At the same time, Nintendo is reportedly fielding competing bids from Universal Pictures and Sony Pictures for a Metroid adaptation, while Warner Bros. retains the rights to Pokémon films and Sony continues development on a live-action Zelda project. At this point all I’m asking for from Nintendo is a half-way decent film adaptation because so far I’ve been unimpressed aside from 2019’s Detective Pikachu.

This Past Weekend At The Box Office

• The Devil Wears Prada 2, which you can read my C+ review of, stormed out to a 200-plus million worldwide opening, proving the brand still has juice even if the movie itself doesn’t fully justify it in my mind. Critics have been mildly positive (78% on Rotten Tomatoes and 63 on Metacritic), while audiences seem content but not exactly enthusiastic (3.4 on Letterboxd, 6.9 on IMDb, and 87% on the Popcornmeter). The last major event film of the Spring box office season ended things with a bang.

• Meanwhile, Angel Studios’ gamble on Andy Serkis’ animated take on Animal Farm has completely faceplanted. A three million opening is bad enough, but the real damage is in the critical reception with 24% on Rotten Tomatoes, 28 on Metacritic, and downright toxic audience scores (1.8 on Letterboxd, 2.7 on IMDb). I haven’t seen it yet, but nothing about these numbers suggests it’s worth rushing out to watch.

• On the streaming side, Netflix and Skydance Media’s Swapped is landing exactly where these kinds of releases tend to,squarely in the middle. Critics are lukewarm (65% on Rotten Tomatoes, 54 on Metacritic), audiences are a bit kinder (3.5 on Letterboxd, 7.4 on IMDb, 85% on the Popcornmeter). I’m lower on it than most seem to be.

This Next Weekend At The Box Office

• What I’d consider the first true summer box office event film arrives with Mortal Kombat II. Ironically, it’s dropping over Mother’s Day weekend, of all weeks. The sequel to the 2021 film is clearly banking on a course correction, most notably with its decision to recast the central protagonist, something that should, in theory, win back at least some of the skeptics. I’ll have a full review up for this one as I will be attending a press screening for it.

• For counterprogramming, The Sheep Detectives, which I unfortunately missed at my invited press screening, is also hitting theaters. Early buzz has been surprisingly decent, with good enough reviews pointing to it as a viable family-friendly alternative.

What Else Is On My Mind

• My Tampa Bay Lightning were eliminated from playoff contention this past weekend, losing in seven games to the Montreal Canadiens, the very team we handled with a gentleman’s sweep in the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals. It’s a disappointing end, especially after a 50-win season and home-ice advantage had me thinking a return to the Finals was very much on the table. Instead, we spent the entire series playing catch-up and somehow went 1–3 at home. This group feels like it needs the same kind of wake-up call it got after that embarrassing first-round sweep following the 60+ win season back in 2019.

• On a much more personal note, my grandfather on my father’s side, Luis Mendez Senior, passed away this past Saturday. My parents were literally walking through my front door to visit the baby when my dad got the call. He was nearing 90 and had been in poor health for a long time, so it wasn’t unexpected, but that doesn’t make it feel any less significant. Both sides of my family tend to have strong genetics and long lives, and I never got to know my maternal grandfather, so this is the first time I’ve lost someone this close. I’ve lost great-grandparents before, but this is different. I have clear memories, real conversations, with my Abuelo, especially about his love for Westerns. He grew up in the thirties and forties and would tell me about going to local nickelodeon theaters, dropping in a nickel to watch whatever new Western Hollywood was churning out at the time. Since his passing, I’ve found myself revisiting some of those classics. It’s surreal to think about the films he experienced on the big screen when they were brand new, stories that, in a small way, now feel like a bridge between us. Rest in peace, Abuelo. We’ll catch up in due time.

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the second part of the week of 04.27.2026, Film critic Luis A. Mendez breaks down CinemaCon 2026 and why it offered some short-term hope for the theatrical experience, Sony’s Exec telling theatre owners to “get off the ad crack”, Stephen Spielberg getting a major honor, reviews the new Michael Jackson biopic Michael while addressing the discourse around the divide between critics and audiences on it, and looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  00:38 Cinemacon 2026 Highlights

  09:14 Sony Exec Tells Theatre Owners To Get Off “The Ad Crack”

  13:51 Spielberg Given America 250 Honor

  16:34 Letterboxd Might Be Up For Sale

  19:31 Talking Phantom Thread with Matthew Anderson

  22:17 Michael Moonwalks Into Discourse

  42:07 This Past Weekend At The Box Office

  46:34 The Next Weekend At The Box Office

  49:45 What Else Is On My Mind

  54:01 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 04.27.2026

• Film Impressions: April 2026

• Talking Phantom Thread On The After Hours Podcast

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