Yeah. February was just OK and March was even worse. April, on the other hand, went by so easily I had to wonder if it was playing a month-long joke on me.
But no, it shaped up to be a pretty good month, moviewise and otherwise, and after a while I simply sat back and let things happen.
All right, without further ado, we’re just going to get into it. Click the images for the reviews, of course…
Death of A Unicorn
Death of A Unicorn could have been so much more than it was. It’s billed as a horror-comedy, but it’s more horror than comedy, and not anything really groundbreaking. It also very much underutilizes Paul Rudd and his unique comedy style, which is too bad. I did like he and Jenna Ortega playing father and daughter, though.
The unicorns in the movie are hardly of the Lisa Frank variety. They’re more on the line of the evil unicorns in The Sims 3, only these critters have serrated horns.
All in all, I felt pretty “meh” about the movie and ready to move on once it was over.
A Minecraft Movie
Minecraft meets Napoleon Dynamite and hilarity ensues. At least, we hope so. While this movie is fun, I felt like it could be a sequel to that infamous 2004 classic. We’ve got tots. We’ve got a self-defense dojo. We’ve got llamas. It’s set in Idaho. There’s a faded hotshot looking to recapture former glory.
No Starla, though. And no Lafawndah. And instead of a delicious bass, we have lava chicken. Instead of voting for Pedro, we learn how to build stuff. Instead of tetherball, we have a battle between the Overworld and the Nether. It felt like the movie didn’t know where it most wanted to be.
Oh, and there’s a cringe-y romance between a villager and the local school principal. Ugh.
My main reason for seeing Minecraft was to get my son’s reaction, as he used to play the game on the regular. He kinda liked the movie but said it was full of cliches.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Twenty years later, Revenge of the Sith is back in theaters. I remember liking it better than the first two prequels when I saw it in 2005. Now, in 2025, it’s still better than the first two prequels. It’s miles ahead of the sequel trilogy, even Episode Seven.
How is it as a movie, though? It’s undoubtedly a mixed bag. I still think it was boneheaded to cut Padme’s entire story arc, because not only do we miss seeing her character fleshed out, but a lot of gorgeous costumes were absolutely wasted.
On the other hand, the scene in which we see Darth Vader’s mask for the first time is still pretty iconic.
Drop
I knew I’d like Drop, and it didn’t disappoint. A widowed mother, Violet, goes on her first date in years, and while everything seems to go well at first, she gets threatening messages on her phone. She tries ignoring them. Her date, Henry, who seems to be a good guy, jokes with her about them. And then the messages get more insistent: Kill your date or your son dies. Violet has to figure out who’s sending the messages and how she’s going to get out of this jam. Also, she really doesn’t want to kill Henry.
Meghann Fahy is perfect here, as is Brandon Sklenar, and it’s rather ironically fitting that he’s in this movie, as it has a domestic abuse angle to it. One of Sklenar’s previous credits is Atlas in It Ends With Us.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
This quiet movie was, by far, the best surprise of April. A retired male nurse and widower, Charles, wants to see his favorite folk duo, Mortimer and McGwyer, get back together, and when Herb McGwyer shows up, Charles is nervously indulgent in a “Cheese, Gromit” kind of way. Can’t really blame him. It’s not every day we host our favorite singers at our personal abodes, if we ever get that chance.
We expect sparks to fly when Herb’s old bandmate, Nell Mortimer shows up, hinting at something between them long ago, but it all dissipates when Herb notices Nell has her husband in tow. Still, the two of them find some of their old magic and we get to come along for the ride.
My post for Gill and Barry’s Adventurethon is coming out Sunday. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…
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