Sammie W.

Visually stunning and emotionally charged, the new Frankenstein on Netflix is a beautifully crafted reimagining of a timeless story. The film bursts with color and artistic depth, turning every scene into a living painting. The poetic love story between Elizabeth and the Creature is tender, tragic, and haunting in all the right ways, a connection that feels almost fated in its sorrow. Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s inner turbulence and growing obsession are portrayed with remarkable intensity. His disappointment with the Creature and his descent into madness reveal that he, not the creation, embodies the true monstrosity. The Creature, by contrast, emerges as the story’s most innocent and human soul, a victim of rejection and cruelty rather than evil itself. The acting is superb across the board, bringing new dimension and emotion to these classic characters. It’s a visually mesmerizing and deeply human interpretation of Frankenstein, one that lingers in your thoughts long after the final frame.

I’m clearly the odd one out among all the four-star glowing reviews for Taylor Sheridan’s Landmen. I gave the first two episodes a shot, and I was out. The cast is undeniably impressive. Jon Hamm, Demi Moore, and familiar faces from other Sheridan projects, but none of it matters because Billy Bob Thornton’s performance is a disaster. And this is coming from someone who knows he’s supposed to be a great actor. Here, he’s flat, unbelievable, and frankly below average. Lead casting him was a huge mistake. Jon Hamm would have carried this show far better, it would have felt real. The writing and storylines also fall flat. The attempts at humor or side plots fail completely, and giving the first two episodes told me everything I needed to know: this series, in my humble opinion, is not going to be an award winner. It’s a shame because everyone else in the cast is phenomenal. I think something has gone wrong with Sheridan’s writing and directing. They just don’t have the spark they usually do, and it drags the whole series down. Landmen had potential, but between the flat writing, lackluster direction, and Thornton’s underwhelming lead performance, it completely misses the mark. I have no choice but to give it one star.

Sean Penn’s 2024 film, September 5, based on the 1972 Munich Olympics, is yet another example of his far-left political bias and complete lack of historical research. His portrayal of 1930s and 1940s Germany is riddled with inaccuracies, proving once again that he cares more about pushing an agenda than understanding the truth. One of the film’s most egregious falsehoods is its claim that the German people were fully aware of the Holocaust and the extermination of Jewish citizens. This is simply not true. If Penn had taken the time to conduct real research, interview Germans who lived through that era, or even approach the subject with a shred of intellectual honesty, he might have learned the truth instead of spewing ignorance and hate. I know firsthand that his portrayal is historically inaccurate. My parents and grandparents grew up in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. Under Hitler’s totalitarian regime, fear ruled every aspect of daily life. Many Germans despised Hitler, including my mother’s family, who remained loyal to the old Kaiser and detested the Nazi regime. But speaking out was not an option—doing so meant imprisonment or death. If you were heard criticizing Hitler, you could be arrested and sent to a concentration camp yourself. The idea that everyday Germans could freely resist or openly discuss what was happening is absurd and shows Penn’s complete ignorance of life under a dictatorship. The truth is, unless someone lived near a concentration camp, they had little to no knowledge of the atrocities taking place. It wasn’t until after the war that the full horrors of the Holocaust were exposed. When the Allies liberated Germany, they forced citizens to confront the truth—those who lived near camps were made to walk through them, while others, like my mother’s family, were shown films of the extermination camps. My grandmother returned home that day in tears, horrified and in disbelief at what had happened in her own country. She wept for the Jewish Germans who had been slaughtered, devastated by the nightmare that had unfolded without her knowledge. Yet Penn, in his usual arrogant and uninformed fashion, disregards these historical realities. Instead, he paints all Germans with the same brush, portraying them as fully complicit in Hitler’s crimes. This isn’t just historically inaccurate—it’s an insult to the millions of Germans who lived in fear, resisted in the only ways they could, and suffered under the Nazi regime. Sean Penn has once again proven that he is more interested in promoting his own warped, hate-fueled worldview than telling the truth. His complete lack of research and understanding of history is both disgraceful and irresponsible. For that reason, I give September 5 one star—a generous rating for a movie built on ignorance, bias, and blatant historical falsehoods.

111 minutes of my life, I will never get back. This movie was an absolute disappointment and flop. I don’t even know where to begin as to how awful this movie was. When is Hollywood going to learn to leave well enough alone? I will say the Rob Lowe remake in 2004 was brilliantly written, acted, cinematography was Beautiful and the make up was fantastically frightening. This new version felt like it was put together in less than a month. Shame on everybody involved in this Cinemax movie. The original Salem lot movie from 1979 is a classic gem. You don’t mess with perfection Unless you know what the you are doing and you have some type of talent. All these involved just embarrassed themselves in making this movie.