Those of you who aren’t rabid Star Wars fans like me, please indulge me for a moment. We’re only a few weeks away from Star Wars returning to the big screen for the first time since 2019. “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is the duo’s next chapter following three seasons on Disney+. And while we have already been treated to one teaser and one full trailer, it looks as if director Jon Favreau has saved the best look for last. Yesterday we got the film’s final trailer and it is exactly what I was looking for.

The latest trailer gives Star Wars fans plenty of cool things to soak up. We see Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his young Mandalorian apprentice Grogu enlisted by the New Republic to hunt down remnants of the Galactic Empire. But it looks like they get in over their heads with Imperial warlords, gangsters, and fellow bounty hunters. The trailer shows off the franchise’s signature locations, some thrilling action set pieces, and a vast collection of characters who I can’t wait to see on the big screen.

“The Mandalorian and Grogu” soars into theaters on May 22nd. Check out the final trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment partners with Paramount Home Entertainment and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in putting together an extraordinary limited edition box set highlighting eight defining films from the career of visionary director Steven Spielberg. Only 5,700 units of this incredible collection will be available and sold exclusively on Amazon. The packaging features an 8-Slot SteelBook Library Case with each film getting its own individual 4K SteelBook.

Steve Spielberg: The Spotlight Collection includes these iconic movies: Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and War of the Worlds. In addition to presenting each film in sparking 4K Ultra HD, The Spotlight Collection also features over 25 hours of bonus content across the eight titles. This is truly the ultimate box set for Spielberg fans and cinema lovers.

Steve Spielberg: The Spotlight Collection will be available on 4K Ultra HD and will include Blu-ray and digital copies. Preorders begin April 14th with the full release following on June 9th. See below for a full details of the box set including a list of special features.

About the Films:

JAWS (1975)
Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton
Screenwriters: Peter Benchley & Carl Gottlieb
Based on the Novel By: Peter Benchley
Music By: John Williams
Director: Steven Spielberg

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Francois Truffaut
Music: John Williams
Visual Effects: Douglas Trumbull
Director of Photography: Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC
Writer and Director: Steven Spielberg

E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
Cast: Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Drew Barrymore, Henry Thomas
Music: John Williams
Director of Photography: Allen Daviau
Screenwriter: Melissa Mathison
Director: Steven Spielberg

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott
Music: John Williams
Screenwriter: Lawrence Kasdan
Story By: George Lucas & Philip Kaufman
Director: Steven Spielberg

JURASSIC PARK (1993)
Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, B.D. Wong, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards
Music: John Williams
Based on the Novel By: Michael Crichton
Screenwriters: Michael Crichton & David Koepp
Director: Steven Spielberg

SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)
Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagalle, Embeth Davidtz, Małgorzata Gebel
Music: John Williams
Based on the novel by: Thomas Keneally
Screenwriter: Steven Zaillian
Director: Steven Spielberg

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998)
Cast: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Jeremy Davies, Dennis Farina
Music: John Williams
Director of Photography: Janusz Kaminski, ASC
Screenwriter: Robert Rodat
Director: Steven Spielberg

WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)
Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Tim Robbins
Music: John Williams
Director of Photography: Janusz Kaminski, ASC
Based on the Novel By: H.G. Wells
Screenwriters: Josh Friedman & David Koepp
Director: Steven Spielberg

Special Features:

Jaws

• JAWS @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
• The Making of JAWS
• The Shark Is Still Working: The Impact & Legacy of JAWS
• JAWS: The Restoration
• Deleted Scenes and Outtakes
• From The Set
• Theatrical Trailer
• Galleries 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

• Includes all 3 versionof the film (Theatrical Version, Special Edition, Director’s Cut)
• Three Kinds of Close Encounters
• Steven’s Home Videos & Outtakes 
• Steven Spielberg: 30 Years of Close Encounters 
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Making of Documentary 
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Watch the Skies 
• Deleted Scenes 
• Storyboard Comparisons 
• Extensive Photo Gallery 
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Original Theatrical Trailer 
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Special Edition Trailer

Raiders of the Lost Ark

• Teaser Trailer 
• Theatrical Trailer 
• Re-Issue Trailer

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 

• 40 Years of E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL
• TCM Classic Film Festival: An Evening with Steven Spielberg
• The E.T. Journals
• Deleted Scenes
• Steven Spielberg & E.T.
• A Look Back
• The Evolution and Creation of E.T. 
• The E.T. Reunion 
• The Music of E.T.: A Discussion with John Williams
• The 20th Anniversary Premiere
• Designs, Photographs, and Marketing
• Theatrical Trailer
• Special Olympics TV Spot 

Jurassic Park

• Return to Jurassic Park: Dawn of A New Era
• Return to Jurassic Park: Making Prehistory
• Return to Jurassic Park: The Next Step in Evolution
• Archival Featurettes:
  • The Making of Jurassic Park
  • Original Featurette on the Making of the Film
  • Steven Spielberg Directs Jurassic Park
  • Hurricane in Kauai Featurette
• Behind The Scenes:
  • Early Pre-Production Meetings
  • Location Scouting
  • Phil Tippett Animatics: Raptors in the Kitchen
  • Animatics: T-Rex Attack
  • ILM and Jurassic Park: Before and After the Visual Effects
  • Foley Artists
  • Storyboards
  • Production Archives
• Theatrical Trailer

Schindler’s List

• Schindler’s List: 25 Years Later
• Voices from the List
• USC Shoah Foundation Story with Steven Spielberg (2008)
• Let Their Testimonies Speak – Stronger Than Hate
• About iWitness (2018)

Saving Private Ryan

• An Introduction
• Looking Into The Past
• Miller and His Platoon
• Boot Camp
• Making Saving Private Ryan
• Re-Creating Omaha Beach
• Music and Sound 
• Parting Thoughts
• Into the Breach: Saving Private Ryan
• Theatrical Trailer
• Re-Release Trailer
• Shooting War

War of the Worlds

• Revisiting the Invasion
• The H.G. Wells Legacy
• Steven Spielberg and the Original War of the Worlds
• Characters: The Family Unit
• Previsualization
• Production Diaries
• Designing the Enemy: Tripods and Aliens
• Scoring War of the Worlds
• We Are Not Alone
• Galleries
• Theatrical Teaser Trailer

Like clockwork, you can count on getting a new Jason Statham movie every year. And while many of them follow the same basic blueprint, they usually all feature the same ingredients that fans of the 58-year-old action star crave. That’s certainly the case for Statham’s latest action thriller “Mutiny”. This time he teams up with director Jean-François Richet for what looks to be another bullet-flying, bone-cracking good time.

For many, the story of “Mutiny” will ring strikingly familiar. Statham plays another former Special Forces soldier keeping a low profile after being framed for a crime he didn’t commit. While working private security on a cargo freighter, he discovers a human trafficking operation with powerful military connections. Like any good hero he fights back, using everything he has at his disposal. The first trailer lays out the fairly by-the-book story. But it’s the kinetic action sequences and Statham’s steely charisma that make this a film to see.

“Mutiny” swings its way into theaters on August 21st. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

I still remember the wild controversy surrounding John Alan Schwartz’s mondo horror film “Faces of Death”. The movie first released in theaters in late 1978, and due to its intensely graphic content, the movie was censored or outright banned in multiple countries. Yet it was a success at the box office where it gained a notable cult following. But for many, the disturbingly gruesome feature earned more attention following its VHS home video release in 1983. It became quite the topic of conversation between those able to rent it from their local video store.

Now director Daniel Goldhaber is bringing back “Faces of Death” but in his own unique way. Where the original version played as an unsettling shockumentary, Goldhaber’s is a more straightforward narrative film that references the 1978 movie rather than remakes it. The results are surprisingly intriguing and at times fittingly unnerving. That is until everything threatens to crumble in a wobbly final act where absurdity undermines the big finish the film is going for.

Thematically, “Faces of Death” 2026 deserves credit for taking a scalpel to our current TikTok culture. It’s not the most incisive examination, but it does poke at the addictive nature of social media and our numbing consciences towards extreme content. Barbie Ferreira plays Margot, a struggling young woman who has mostly isolated herself following the traumatic death of her sister which was captured live in a now infamous viral video.

Margot works as a content moderator for a TikTok-esque video platform called Kino. She spends her entire work days viewing submitted videos and flagging explicit content with warnings or for removal. Her job is to view, approve or flag, and then move to the next submission. But she’s deeply shaken after seeing a video of what looks like a real-life beheading. A man’s voice calmly narrates the grisly ritual with startling detail. Later she comes across a chilling video of an electric chair execution from the very same account.

Margot shares her concerns with her friend and boss Josh (Jermaine Fowler) who tells her to let it go. Instead, the obsessed Margot breaks company rules and starts investigating the account after hours, coming to the conclusion that the content creator is recreating the deaths from the controversial 1978 film “Faces of Death”. The trail she follows takes her into the path of a deranged serial killer named Arthur (Dacre Montgomery). Their battling obsessions leads to an inevitable face-to-face with blood-drenched consequences.

It’s a solid setup with several disturbing reveals that should appeal to the genre faithful. And while the climax is predictable, it’s built up with a palpable sense of dread. Unfortunately logic flies out the window in the final 20 minutes or so. It begins with Margot seeking help from two of the most inept cops ever put on a screen. An equally incompetent doctor follows. And then Margot herself goes braindead in ways that are just too ridiculous to look past.

Thankfully its final act flub-up doesn’t totally derail “Faces of Death”. But it’s enough of a hindrance to keep a potentially audacious chiller from leaving the impression it’s clearly going for. Instead it limps towards a finish that could have been effective if the final leg of the story wasn’t so absurd. Still, there are things to admire in this unique horror movie swing that tips its hat to the 1978 cult classic instead of remaking or reimagining it. If only Goldhaber could have seen all of his ideas through to the end.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

When James Gunn was handed the keys to the DC Comics cinematic universe, he wasted no time leaving his mark with last year’s “Superman”. For many fans of the self-reverential filmmaker, it was exactly what they love and expect from Gunn. For many fans of the Superman character, it was far from the faithful adaptation of the beloved icon they had hoped for. Gunn made a James Gunn movie rather than a Superman movie.

Now we are getting his second big screen DCU installment with “Supergirl”. And while Gunn hands the directing reins to Craig Gillespie, his influence looks to be all over this thing. The first full trailer gives us a good sense of that. It features all the James Gunn hallmarks: gratuitous needle drops, irreverent humor, overly stylized action, etc.

Molly Alcock takes over as Kara Zor-El, the angsty cousin of Kal-El, aka Superman. As she and her CGI dog Krypto party across the galaxy, she is recruited by a young girl (Eve Ridley) to avenge her father’s death. Space pirates, mercenaries, human traffickers, and bounty hunters are all included in writer Ana Nogueira’s script. But the only piece that stands out is Jason Momoa as Lobo, the snarling anti-hero who the actor has long desired to play. Everything else looks like Gunn’s usual product.

“Supergirl” mopes her way into theaters on June 26th. Check out the trailer below and let me know of you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

“You’re Dating a Narcissist!” teases itself as a smart and sincere anti-romcom. But the film quickly devolves into an unrelatable, formulaic, and borderline obnoxious swing-and-miss. Director Ann Marie Allison attempts to offer a modern examination of love and commitment. And she certainly has a capable star in Marisa Tomei. But it all gets lost amid the movie’s strained attempts at humor and too many half-baked characters who only exist to complicate things.

But arguably worse is the baffling journey of the film’s lead character Judy. Played by the immensely talented Tomei, Judy begins as an intelligent, self-assured and accomplished woman, albeit confident to a fault. She’s a successful author, a psychologist, and a professor at a prominent New York university. But over the course of the story, the script turns her into a raving, obsessive lunatic, often for comic purposes which generate more eye-rolls than laughs.

Judy is riding the success of her popular new book “You’re Dating a Narcissist!”, leading her to teach a class on empowering her students to recognize narcissists when looking for a partner. At the same time, her preoccupation with narcissists has turned her extremely cynical towards relationships. That’s why she’s shocked when she gets a call from her 22-year-old daughter Eva (Ciara Bravo) who has some exciting news.

Eva is an art student studying in Los Angeles which is where she meets a hunky young doctor named Theo (Marco Pigossi). After only six weeks of dating the two get engaged. But once the lovesick Eva shares the news with her mother, a panicking Judy immediately flies across the country to “save” her daughter. She brings along her best friend Diane (Sherry Cola) because movies like this seem compelled to throw in a comedic confidante and sidekick.

Once she arrives in LA it’s almost as if a switch is flipped, turning Judy into a deranged person. Of course the movie doesn’t see her that way, and it tries to offset her bizarre behavior with thinly sketched allusions to her past that are meant to earn our sympathy. The problem is that Judy gets more unbearable as the movie bops forward, to the point that it’s hard to feel anything for her. And outside of Eva, the side characters surrounding Judy are too shallow and inconsequential to be anything other than props for her story.

“You’re Dating a Narcissist!” begins as an alluring feature with a lot of promise. But over time it’s like binge-watching a mediocre-at-best sitcom that’s not nearly as smart or funny as it wants to be. Even more frustrating is that it squanders Marisa Tomei who hasn’t missed a step and deserves more prominent starring roles. Sadly the material here doesn’t do her justice, leaving her to carry a load that’s not worth the effort.

VERDICT – 2 STARS