Lilo & Stitch And Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning Are Both Fun Summer Movies & Other Reviews

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Summer at the box office is officially here. Lilo & Stitch and Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning are both expected to make over $250 million dollars combined domestically. I'm happy to say they are good movies as well. Here's mini-reviews of them both as well as the fun Final Destination: Bloodlines, the awful Hurry Up Tomorrow and more.

Is Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning the best Mission Impossible movie? Not even close. But that’s a very high bar. You could make a case that this is the best action film series ever made. The question we should be asking is if this is an entertaining movie worth seeing? It absolutely is.

Tom Cruise may seem more odd than human in real life at this point but he’s also such a great movie star. He cares so much that it’s infectious. Most of this plot is either inane or just stupid. None of that really matters though. You’re there for the ride. You don’t need to know how a car works to enjoy going fast.

I have this as the 2nd to worst MI movie (the 2nd one is a distant last). But that sounds so much worse than it is. This is an ideal summer movie. The last action sequence is stunning. Cruise and the supporting cast all buys in. Go and enjoy the spectacle. Movies are supposed to be fun. This accomplishes exactly that.

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning: B+

Lilo & Stitch works so well where other Disney remakes have failed. I think the reason is because it treats the characters in the movie like actual people. The casting is also superb especially Sydney Elizebeth Agudong (as Nani) and Maia Kealoha (as Lilo in her first role).

You could remove the character of Stitch and this would still be an entertaining movie about an older sister trying to be the guardian of her younger sibling. I love that they used Hawaii as the setting. It makes the story feel more unique and the shots are beautiful. The Elvis Presley music also works so well.

I never saw the original so this story was totally new to me. I really appreciated how they never had the human characters try to hard to make “adult” jokes that you see in so many kids movies now. They are always real people and because of that, you care about them so much more.

I didn’t know what to expect and after the dreadful Snow White, I wasn’t looking forward to another Disney remake. But, I found this to be so much more entertaining and thankfully weird (which is a rare thing for Disney). This one is easy to recommend.

Lilo & Stitch: B-

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Final Destination: Bloodlines is a movie that always remains true to itself. It has a blast with the great but simple concept of death chasing you. When the filmmakers are having this much fun, it’s really hard not to enjoy yourself watching this.

Other than Tony Todd (in a perfect farewell cameo), this is a no name cast that mostly does a decent job. Of course, the strength of any Final Destination is the creative deaths (and the suspenseful non-deaths). This may not have a single great death that will keep you up at night, you’ll never look at an MRI machine the same way again.

Why this might be the best Final Destination movie is how funny it is. There is a ton of gore throughout but it’s almost cartoonish and the script never takes itself too seriously.

I enjoyed the Hell out of this. It knows exactly what it is and embraced it. What more can you ask from something?

Final Destination: Bloodlines: B

Hurry Up Tomorrow is an atrocious movie that only exists to feed The Weeknd’s gigantic ego. It’s sloppy, poorly edited and nowhere near as smart as it thinks it is. Having said all of that, I must admit I was never bored.

This is a laughably bad movie that could easily become a cult classic played at midnight screening 20 years from now. The great mystery of this movie has nothing to do with the story but why talented actors like Barry Keoghan and Jenna Ortega would be in this?

Some of Ortega’s scenes are so bizarre, they feel like an SNL sketch. I don’t see any universe where this script would be even remotely decent. How was she convinced to do this?

You have to appreciate on some level any movie that is written by The Weeknd where The Weeknd is told that he is a God and people need him. Maybe appreciate is the wrong word. 

This may be a horrible embarrassment but I won’t forget seeing it anytime soon.

Hurry Up Tomorrow: D

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This has been a great year for horror from Sinners to Presence to even schlockier fun like Final Destination: Bloodlines. Clown In A Cornfield never reaches those heights but it’s another solid scary movie in 2025.

I don’t give spoilers in these reviews so I don’t want to get into any specifics but there is a twist when the 3rd act begins that does make this a unique take on a slasher movie. The movie tries to shift in messaging which if it was a little more subtle, could have worked a lot better.

That’s the biggest negative but I enjoyed this movie and recommend it. It has a likable cast and felt just different enough to be entertaining. If you enjoy horror, this is absolutely worth seeing even with so many scary movies out there.

Clown In A Cornfield: B-

Juliet & Romeo is a truly dreadful movie with no redeeming qualities. It’s a re-telling of Romeo & Juliet with just enough changes to defeat the purpose of the story. It also has original songs that are awful but somehow outdone by even worse choreography.

The lip syncing was off in multiple songs. This can’t even do what basic music videos accomplish. If that wasn’t bad enough, the fake blood and wound makeup made the stuff you find at Spencer’s Gifts look like something out of a Spielberg movie.

But even if this was done right with Meryl Streep and Christian Bale as parents of our star-crossed lovers instead of Rebel Wilson and Jason Isaacs, who needs this movie? This story is beyond exhausted.

This has been told so many times in so many ways. A musical Romeo and Juliet? Yeah, we have West Side Story. TWICE.

Stay away from this. It’s From Justin To Kelly meets PBS. I even felt embarrassed for the horses used with carriages in this. They didn’t ask to be associated with this shit.

Juliet & Romeo: F

2025 

1)Sinners 

2)Presence 

3)Black Bag 

4)The Ballad Of Wallis Island 

5)Warfare 

6)Friendship 

7)MISSION IMPOSSIBLE:THE FINAL RECKONING 

8)Novocaine 

9)FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES

10)The Amateur 

11)Drop 

12)Death Of A Unicorn 

13)The Accountant 2 

14)The Damned 

15)One Of Them Days 

16)LILO & STITCH

17)Paddington 3 

18)Thunderbolts

19)CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD

20)Hell Of A Summer 

21)Fight Or Flight 

22)Valiant One

23)Rule Breakers 

24)Heart Eyes 

25)Mickey 17 

26)The Surfer 

27)Last Breath 

28)Flight Risk 

29)Minecraft 

30)Den Of Thieves 2 

31)Dogman 

32)Companion 

33)A Working Man 

34)Shadow Force 

35)The Alto Knights 

36)The Penguin Lessons 

37)The Chosen Part 2 

38)Looney Tunes 

39)Opus 

40)Becoming Led Zeppelin 

41)Captain America: BNW 

42)Until Dawn 

43)The Chosen Part 1 

44)Riff Raff 

45)Inheritance

46)The Chosen Part 3 

47)The Wedding Banquet 

48)The Legend Of Ochi 

49)Night Of The Zoopocalypse 

50)Sneaks 

51)Ash 

52)The King Of Kings 

53)The Friend 

54)Snow White 

55)The Unbreakable Boy 

56)Brave The Dark 

57)Wolf Man 

58)HURRY UP TOMORROW 

59)The Monkey 

60)Love Hurts 

61)The Last Supper

62)Woman In The Yard 

63)JULIET & ROMEO

64)In The Lost Lands