Jon Loder's Reviews
It's an Angel Studios remake. Pretty much what you'd expect
Zero woke. Western action. Bad guy finds his conscience and changes his evil ways. It's back to the classic era of Louis L'Amour where the good guys always set things straight. There's a lot of Biblical reference if you what to look for.
This is another remake of the classic John Wayne movie from the '40's. There was another one in 2009 staring Lou Diamond Phillips.
This one has a mediocre rating on IMDB (6.7 last I checked). The regular movie critics didn't like it. Mostly, they get around 2-3 out of 5 stars. The religious reviews are all more like 4.5. It's a party-line split. That's interesting to me because there is zero political agenda. I think this may be because all of the minorities represented are bad-guys and the women all have more traditional roles. This movie went outside the bounds of modern Hollywood. I read some of the negative reviews. To sum them up, this movie was "preachy." I wonder what they would think of the original John Wayne version, or maybe Sergent York, or It's a Wonderful Life.
Tommy Lee Jones was great as expected. Zach Levi did a great job as the protagonist. I think it was his first western.
It's a clean movie you can take the kids to.
Created: 10-12-2026
Great Sci-Fi. No woke
It's tough to explain this one without spoilers. Sam Rockwell is the sole actor for the majority of the movie. Kevin Spacey voices the computer.
The story takes place on the moon in the near future. Sam plays the sole employee at a processing plant for harvesting helium-3 and shipping it back to Earth. It's a 3-year stint that he's nearing the end of. Something goes wrong with a harvester. That causes a chain of events revealing that things aren't what they seem.
Great story well told with no woke. Enjoy.
Created: 10-06-2026
Great Science Fiction
This is somewhat loosely based on a book from 1964 that was ahead of its time. It's a murder mystery involving Virtual Reality. Anything more about it could qualify as spoilers. The acting, directing, and cinematography are all top notch. It's an enjoyable story with no woke. Enjoy.
Created: 10-06-2026
Another outlandish shoot-em-up
There was only one woke element. That is, an androgynous character. When referred to as a daughter, it was wrong. Either SHE identified as a male or HE was effeminate. I didn't figure it out. I didn't really care. The alphabet inclusion gestapo hath spoken.
The movie itself was very much like a combination of John Wick and Nobody. Outlandish action with lethal-slapstick deathing abounding. It's entertaining if you can stomach the he-she.
Created: 10-06-2026
If you liked Roger Rabbit, you'll like this.
If there's a woke agenda, I missed it. The protagonist is a lawyer who rediscovers his conscience with the help of his young law student niece.
I had high hopes for this one. I wasn't disappointed. They did a great job recapturing what made the original Roadrunner cartoons great.
It was very much like Roger Rabbit. There were a lot of references to the original cartoons. The animation / live action blend was well done.
Created: 10-05-2026
Much like Tarantino and Ritchie
This is a dark comedy with James Spader playing a sociopathic bad guy. He did a great job of it. Several sub-stories come together into a hostage situation. There's good bad-guys and bad good-guys. Every character is quirky. The acting is top-notch.
The closest thing to wokeness is a gay car thief stealing a convertible from the front of a gay bar. There's no agenda.
Caution: there's a couple minutes of soft-porn between James Spader and Charleze Theron. It's unnecessary to the story.
I watched it because it was on a list of Tarantino inspired movies. I would have to agree with that assessment.
Created: 09-24-2026
Predictable, major crimes solved in single episode.
Dominant female character who can kick butt.
Forced story lines.
Bad guys are predominately greedy, insecure, white guys.
Created: 09-05-2026
If you like Melissa McCarthy, you'll like this.
The Woke:
Girls kicking butt. Girl boss. Girl mastermind criminal.
The movie:
In short, this movie is a platform for Melissa's wit. She really is a funny lady. If you like her humor, you'll like this. Confession: I probably wouldn't have sat through the whole movie, but my wife is a serious fan of Melissa McCarthy. It's outlandish and silly.
Jason Statham plays a parody of himself. In my opinion, that's the best part of the movie.
Created: 09-05-2026
It's Ryan Reynolds. It's witty and entertaining.
Woke:
There is a minor character who is a lesbian. The movie made it a point that, in the USSR, being a lesbian is a crime. She had to hide from KGB. It was a minor agenda of the movie to depict it as a violation of human rights.
The more significant Woke, in my opinion, is the apologetic view of Communism. Communist governments lie to their people. Our government lies to us. That doesn't make it the same thing. Communism is dangerous and has caused more human suffering than any form of government. In this movie, people living under communism are charitable and kind. That is used to convey the message that communism isn't such a bad thing.
The Movie:
Ryan Reynolds is a spy plane pilot who is shot down over Russia during the Cold War. He's fortunate enough to be found by a Russian man who is obsessed with USA culture. Together, they look for a way to the other side of the Iron Curtain. Ryan is constantly witty in the face of every situation in his usual way. It's an enjoyable movie. There's Deadpool level violence as you would expect.
As enjoyable as this is, I still contend that Communism is a dangerous threat that grows by seducing with deception.
Created: 09-05-2026
Pleasant surprise
I wasn't sure what to expect from this. Most dystopian style movies find some way to blame plastic straws and Styrofoam for the bleak future of rising oceans, poverty and climate change. There's nothing like that here. If there's any woke in this flick, I completely missed it.
The acting and directing are top tier.
The special effects are as good as anything going.
The movie continued to develop the original story in a very interesting direction. It was a little slow moving at times but that works here. At 164 minutes, it still somehow seemed too short. I saw this in the theaters when it first came out. It took watching it a second time to get the full impact of the story. It's not shallow. It's real science fiction. It's rare that a sequel is as good as the original. I would call this a must-see for any fan of the original Blade Runner.
Created: 09-03-2026
