Movie Reviews

Movie Review: 'A Minecraft Movie' – Catholic Review

Published

9 months ago

April 4, 2025

Movie Review: 'A Minecraft Movie' – Catholic Review

NEW YORK (OSV News) – Motion pictures based on popular video games may have found their perfected form in “A Minecraft Movie” (Warner Bros.).

The film is unrelentingly upbeat and undistracted by manufactured sentiment. Its positive mood is struck and sustained, moreover, without resort to the cheap jokes or occasional vulgarity that often plague such adaptations.

Rather than follow the easy path of anthropomorphizing video characters, the filmmakers instead take a group of people who are frustrated with the paths of their lives in the real world and insert them into a kinetic 3D immersive version of the Swedish game’s landscape where they learn to achieve their goals.

Since their source material is the best-selling video game of all time, the quintet of screenwriters — Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James and Chris Galletta — assume the pool of veteran players-turned-moviegoers is large enough for them to get away with the occasional in-joke. But even newcomers can savor the nuances on offer here.

Director Jared Hess’ production is not the type of picture from which viewers expect to take away an especially meaningful message. But it does carry with it an implied theme about better living through gameplay — in other words, you’re not just killing time, you’re building your life.

In the game, protagonist Steve, one of only two playable human characters, has a dark backstory about being the lone survivor of a worldwide virus. There’s none of that here.

On the contrary, Jack Black gives us a perpetually optimistic — albeit initially dissatisfied — version of the character. His Steve longs to escape the drudgery of being a doorknob salesman and become a miner instead.

Steve gets his opportunity when he comes across the glowing blue cube known within the game as the Orb of Dominance and finds that it opens a portal to a utopian place called The Overworld. Here, players construct their own mini-environments. They also interact with blocky people and animals.

Among the latter are creatures called piglins. The inhabitants of an evil empire known as the Nether, piglins are on a greedy quest for gold.

Steve is eventually joined by a group of other visitors to the Overwrold who are just as happy as he is to leave their unfulfilling pasts behind them. Garrett (Jason Momoa), an arcade video-game champ from decades ago, has fallen on hard times. Failed real estate agent Dawn (Danielle Brooks) wants to be a zookeeper.

For their part, youthful siblings Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers) share a belief that their lives have taken a wrong turn. Additionally, Henry finds himself mocked at school for his creative impulses.

There’s no fear of that in this dimension. Having characterized the Overworld as “the biggest sandbox in the universe,” Steve observes, “Creativity in this world is the key to survival.”

Ultimately, of course, the ensemble of characters must head for home, and their return journey is, unsurprisingly, reminiscent of “The Wizard of Oz.” As in that classic, the cast learn lessons along the way and discover talents they didn’t previously know they had.

The film contains intense action sequences and some scenes of cartoonish violence. The OSV News classification is A-II – adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may be inappropriate for children.

Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu Review: USA Premiere Report

Published

12 hours ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu Review: USA Premiere Report

U.S. Premiere Report:

#MSG Review: Free Flowing Chiru Fun

It’s an easy, fun festive watch with a better first half that presents Chiru in a free-flowing, at-ease with subtle humor. On the flip side, much-anticipated Chiru-Venky track is okay, which could have elevated the second half.

#AnilRavipudi gets the credit for presenting Chiru in his best, most likable form, something that was missing from his comeback.

With a simple story, fun moments and songs, this has enough to become a commercial success this #Sankranthi

Rating: 2.5/5

First Half Report:

#MSG Decent Fun 1st Half!

Chiru’s restrained body language and acting working well, paired with consistent subtle humor along with the songs and the father’s emotion which works to an extent, though the kids’ track feels a bit melodramatic – all come together to make the first half a decent fun, easy watch.

– Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu show starts with Anil Ravipudi-style comedy, with his signature backdrop, a gang, and silly gags, followed by a Megastar fight and a song. Stay tuned for the report.

U.S. Premiere begins at 10.30 AM EST (9 PM IST). Stay tuned Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu review, report.

Cast: Megastar Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh Daggubati, Nayanthara, Catherine Tresa

Writer & Director – Anil Ravipudi
Producers – Sahu Garapati and Sushmita Konidela
Presents – Smt.Archana
Banners – Shine Screens and Gold Box Entertainments
Music Director – Bheems Ceciroleo
Cinematographer – Sameer Reddy
Production Designer – A S Prakash
Editor – Tammiraju
Co-Writers – S Krishna, G AdiNarayana
Line Producer – Naveen Garapati
U.S. Distributor: Sarigama Cinemas

Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu Movie Review by M9

Movie Reviews

Primate

Published

24 hours ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

Every horror fan deserves the occasional (decent) fix, andin the midst of one of the bleakest movie months of the year, Primatedelivers. There’s nothing terribly original about Johannes Roberts’ rabidchimpanzee tale, but that’s kind of the …

Movie Reviews

1986 Movie Reviews – Black Moon Rising | The Nerdy

Published

1 day ago

January 10, 2026

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1986 Movie Reviews – Black Moon Rising | The Nerdy

by Sean P. Aune | January 10, 2026

Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1986 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.

We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.

Yes, we’re insane, but 1986 was that great of a year for film.

The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1986 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.

This time around, it’s Jan. 10, 1986, and we’re off to see Black Moon Rising.

Black Moon Rising

What was the obsession in the 1980s with super vehicles?

Sam Quint (Tommy Lee Jones) is hired to steal a computer tape with evidence against a company on it. While being pursued, he tucks it in the parachute of a prototype vehicle called the Black Moon. While trying to retrieve it, the car is stolen by Nina (Linda Hamilton), a car thief working for a car theft ring. Both of them want out of their lives, and it looks like the Black Moon could be their ticket out.

Blue Thunder in the movies, Airwolf and Knight Rider on TV, the 1980s loved an impractical ‘super’ vehicle. In this case, the car plays a very minor role up until the final action set piece, and the story is far more about the characters and their motivations.

The movie is silly as you would expect it to be, but it is never a bad watch. It’s just not anything particularly memorable.

1986 Movie Reviews will continue on Jan. 17, 2026, with The Adventures of the American Rabbit, The Adventures of Mark Twain, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Iron Eagle, The Longshot, and Troll.