An Honest Trailer for Masters of the Universe

If you recall, there was a new remake of the He-Man story called Masters of the Universe  set to open in 2026. Apparently it did open a couple of months ago, and you missed it. Its run in theaters brought in less than its production budget, and that doesn't event count the marketing costs. The movie was expected to appeal to Gen X for nostalgia, as if they didn't see the previous versions. They forgot that the lasting legacy of He-Man was less about the wonderful '80s cartoon and more about the goofy shared experience. Screen Junkies decided to look in and she what happened. 

What they found was a movie that went out of its way to look like it came from the 1980s, except not as funny. Masters of the Universe is colorful and heavy on special effects, but the script gives the viewer no reason to recommend it, much less buy the toys. The producers are hoping for a better response on home video, where people don't have to risk as much cash to see it. 

The Rock Falls

The bigger they are, the harder they fall! Maybe that's why Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson always manages to get a scene in every movie where he falls -and always survives, mostly unscathed. Nerdist put together a supercut so we can appreciate just how often it happens. You have to admit it looks cool. (via Tastefully Offensive)

About Those Women Tied to the Railroad Tracks

The plot device of a villain tying his victim to a railroad track is quite familiar to us, even though it doesn't make much sense. This murder method doesn't work because the hero will arrive just in time to unbind the victim, yet it creates suspense in that it takes an excruciating amount of time. You've also seen modern variations, like Goldfinger initiating a very slow industrial laser that will cut James Bond in half. It would be so much more efficient to just shoot the victim (a la Indiana Jones), but where's the drama in that? 

Still, the trope gave us an easy way to illustrate the ethical dilemma of the Trolley Problem. But has it ever happened in real life? Sadly, yes, and not always with a hero coming to the rescue. Simon Whistler gives us the history of the railroad track drama, which predates cinema, and its fallout.  

Bring Matt Damon Home!

(via Fark)

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a 1978 spoof of the low-budget monster movies of the 1950s and '60s. It was cheaply made and critically panned, but made back five times its budget. It became a cult classic, and spawned several sequels. Almost 50 years later, it's time for a remake!  

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence is the updated 2026 version. It premiered with a showing in February at the USS Midway Museum in San Diego. The movie is scheduled for a limited release in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Diego on August 7, 2026, obviously so it can qualify for the Razzies. After that we expect it to be on YouTube soon. The timing of the release coincides with tomato harvest season. The scenes from this teaser reminds me of the tomatoes I have on my counters, in my windows, in my refrigerator, and even the freezer. (via Geeks Are Sexy) 

An Honest Trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu

Going into the Honest Trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, I realized I didn't know anything about the movie because its promotion was kind of lackluster and after it opened, no one talked about it at all. Oh, it made money, because that's what Disney does, but it performed more poorly than any Star Wars movie since Disney bought the franchise. Critics were "meh." 

Today I found out this movie continues resurrecting dead aliens by putting new characters in the their CGI suits, first with Grogu and now with Jabba the Hutt, whose offspring are both heroes and villains. Also, Grogu learns to speak English, a skill that Yoda never mastered. And, of course, there's a lot of killing with no blood. The Mandalorian and Grogu is now available for digital download, and goes on sale on home media August 25th. 

The Truman Show

(via Pleated-Jeans)

Ebenezer

Oh look! It's July, and we have a trailer for a Christmas ghost story! The trailer says "The name you know, the story you don't." Hogwash. Everyone knows the story of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. There have been over a hundred movie and TV adaptations of it. Knowing the story doesn't keep us from watching it again and again. The 2026 version titled Ebenezer stars Johnny Depp in the title role, along with Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit, Daisy Ridley as his wife, and Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley. 

The trailer focuses on the star power of Depp and the many oddball characters he's played before. We can assume with this cast that the acting will be good. As far as I'm concerned, the success of Ebenezer will depend on how they portray the ghosts. Meanwhile, it is kind of nice to see scenes of falling snow while we swelter in the summer heat. Ebenezer opens on November 13th.  

Abduction As Romance

We might not realize how much of our pop culture stories involve taking women against their will. It's often dressed up as romance. It's an "old, a deeply troubling media convention." It's an outgrowth of the idea that women are passive participants in relationships, and the best ones are too virtuous to seek out sex, but men know best who belongs with who. We can be better than this. (via Boing Boing)

Why RoboCop is a Directing Masterclass

Can you recall all the reasons you loved the 1987 movie RoboCop? Was it because of the cool robots and the violent action scenes? Was it because of your empathy with the character Alex Murphy, who was doomed to live as a robot- as long as he was useful? Is it because of its satirical take on government corruption, corporate monopolies, and late-stage capitalism? That may depend on how old you were at each viewing. But there are other reasons that RoboCop is held in cinematic high esteem.  

Forty years later, RoboCop holds up better than most action films of the '80s because it just plain looks good. Dutch director Paul Verhoeven was criticized by some at the time for his European style of filmmaking, but overall, his care for crafting each scene as a work of art paid off, and audiences didn't even know it. Rowan J Coleman breaks down what Verhoeven did to make RoboCop a timeless film. There's an ad from 5:58 to 6:37. (via the Awesomer) 

The Frog

An experimental film from 1908 shows what Spanish surrealist filmmaker Segundo De Chomon could do with a playground carousel, a frog costume, and the patience to play with special effects. Imagine the effort it took to color each film frame by hand! The result is truly bizarre. (via Boing Boing)

The Trailer for Digger

The new movie Digger is the story of Digger Rockwell, a wealthy and powerful oil tycoon whose previous actions have set the world on a course of total environmental destruction. Facing old age and possibly death, he decides he now has to save the world. The real kicker is that it's a satirical comedy. This trailer contains NSFW language. 

You might not recognize Tom Cruise at all in the title role. The actor is 64 years old, and has taken some criticism in the past few years for continuing to portray much younger characters. He seems to have finally come to terms about playing someone his age, or older in this case. The movie also stars Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, and John Goodman as the president of the United States. But we can tell right now that the real star of the movie is Digger's beloved cat. Digger is scheduled to open nationwide on October 2.  

An Honest Trailer for Troy

As the Odyssey may be considered a sequel to the Iliad, the new film opening this weekend The Odyssey may be considered a sequel to the 2004 film Troy, at least by certain fans of the genre, even though the two movies are separated by more than 20 years and completely different casts and crews. At least the poems were written by the same author. So in honor of the occasion, Screen Junkies goes back in the vault and gives us an Honest Trailer for Troy. 

Of course, they quickly focus on the beefcake that the movie was so derided over. Give the audience what they want. There's plenty of bloodshed, too. When you've got this much sex and violence, you don't need much historical accuracy- or even literary accuracy. That said, you might want to go back and rewatch Troy before seeing The Odyssey this weekend. And then let us know how they compare. 

Yellow

Homemade movies have long used LEGO minifigs as characters, because they are attainable, first for stop-motion, then computer-generated. Eventually, we got full-length official LEGO movies, but like the homemade films, they are often parodies of live action movies starring toys. Technically, Yellow is a parody of psychological horror films, and may remind you of the movie Us at first, but the twist reveals that it makes plenty of sense within the world of LEGO minifigs, and mirrors what happened to the toys in the real world. 

Sure, this trailer gives away the twist, but that's okay when you realize that there is no full-length movie. Yet. LEGO fans in the comments are clamoring for the full story in an extended version, so creator George Coley is making plans to do just that.  (via Geeks Are Sexy) 

If Jurassic Park Had a $10 Budget

This homemade Sweded version of Jurassic Park is pretty good considering. They got the scenery right, the weather right, the costumes right, and some of the vehicles right (although others are cardboard). Even the acting is passable. The main shortcut is making pets into dinosaurs, which is funny enough on its own. 

The First Teaser Trailer for Not Alone

Not Alone is described as an "animated science fiction romantic comedy," which is a mouthful but sounds like it could be good. The voices of Timothée Chalamet and Selena Gomez star as Joe and Fran, ground workers on a space mission, hence the "science fiction." They awkwardly like each other, hence the "romantic comedy." The teaser makes it seem like there's some epic event, like the end of the world, that's driving them closer. Could this be an original thought-provoking drama?

But then we suddenly find out where the "comedy" really comes from. The aliens from outer space who find Joe seem like a combination of the Yip Yips, the Minions, and the Three Stooges. The plot seems like a '60s comedy or sitcom, in which an everyman is charged with hiding something magically incredible, like a sentient Volkswagen or a talking cat or a genie. I guess it really is a kids movie. After all, it's from Illumination, who brought us the Despicable Me franchise. Not Alone is scheduled to open in April of 2027. 

An Honest Trailer for Idiocracy

The movie is 20 years old, and predicted what would happen in 500 years. Yet much of it has already happened. You can't tell me you didn't think about the film when you saw the setup for a cage match at the White House. 

Idiocracy Wasn't a Comedy, It Was a Prophecy!

Maybe not exactly prophesy, because the trends were already there in 2006. But 20 years later, Idiocracy seems to have already come true. It is too late to reverse? 

The Dinosaur and the Missing Link

The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy was created by Willis O'Brien in 1915, released by Edison Studios in 1917. The stop-motion animated tale concerns a courtship among prehistoric cave people, an ape-creature (the missing link), and a dinosaur. The real comedy comes in the intertitles, which would be quite at home in an Edwardian romantic comedy. I found this in an interesting article about the evolution of dinosaurs in movies at Vulture. 

The Plot

I'm sick of these movies being so on the nose.

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— GodlessPrimate (@godlessprimate.bsky.social) June 27, 2026 at 9:44 AM