Up first this week is one of the biggest films of 2026, Project Hail Mary. Based on the book by the author of The Martian, starring Ryan Gosling and from directors Lord & Miller, this was an absolute slam dunk for me right? Well, no. It’s actually one of my biggest disappointments of the year if I’m being honest. Yep, I’m one of the few people who didn’t absolutely love the Gosling flick. My biggest issue with it is that it’s nothing like The Martian which I loved. That film is one of the best sci-fi films of the past 20 years. That film is science based and realistic. This is a buddy comedy with a rock crab alien. Whereas Matt Damon gets left behind because the crew thinks he’s dead and he has to science his way out alone, here Gosling is given a rock crab alien to bounce one-liners off of. It grew tiresome quickly to me. The worst part is, I actually liked the premise of the film and that the upcoming end of the world isn’t because of humans creating climate change and every other junk plot device they tend to use nowadays. The Earth could end because of an alien life form draining our Sun. Gosling is sent into space to find a suitable environment for mankind to survive. That’s a solid premise and the flashbacks showing how he ended up in space all worked for me as well. I just didn’t like the buddy comedy aspect of it. But it was a box office hit and people seemed to love it. The film looks fantastic on 4K and sounds just as good as well. It comes with commentary from Lord & Miller, deleted scenes and a bonus feature based on the crab alien.
Second we have Hokum, an Irish gothic flick starring Adam Scott. Scott plays a writer who goes to Ireland to spread his parents’ ashes and get some writing done. He can’t solve the ending to his latest story and stays at a hotel where his parents honeymooned. Of course it has its own story and he’s told of a witch that lives in the honeymoon suite. He doesn’t buy into any of it, does something that sends him to the hospital and when he gets out the whole hotel is going crazy. A woman has gone missing, the authorities blame a vagabond living in the woods so Scott sticks around to figure it out. Now I’m not the biggest fan of supernatural horror especially ones that rely heavily on jumpscares, but I didn’t mind this. Scott plays the arrogant American well and you understand why those around him don’t particularly care for him. You also understand why he would stick around to find out what’s really happening. It’s from the director of Oddity which like this is just different enough to be watchable. I believe Hokum was a solid little hit at the box office for its genre and I can see it gaining more of a following on physical media and streaming. The 4K looks sharp and sounds great and the bonus features include a Making Of, Commentary with Director and more.
Next we have Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC (Elvis Presley in Concert) documentary. Luhrmann directed the Austin Butler starring Elvis, well this is a documentary using actual footage of Presley’s concerts from Las Vegas in the 1960s and 70s. Luhrmann had wanted to use unseen footage for his Elvis biopic and found almost 70 boxes worth of material, but unfortunately the audio was bad. The resulting remastering is pretty much this film. To this day my mom is still an Elvis fan so I grew up on his music. Watching the concert footage I pretty much knew every song he performed. It’s a mix of his own hits and cover songs. It has gospel, bluegrass, country, soul, R&B all done in his own unique way. He had backing singers, a live band, costume changes and everything you expect in an Elvis Las Vegas show. I clearly never got to see an Elvis performance in person so this is the closest thing I’ll ever get to it. The 4K looks gorgeous and sounds meticulous. If you are a fan of The King, EPiC is a must own.
Last we have Hungry. Now I’m a sucker for a cheesy animal attack movie and this is about a hippo in New Orleans. Are there hippos in New Orleans? Who knows? Do the characters make terrible life decisions? Yes. Is there a character you want violently killed immediately? Also yes. There are two attractive women, a kid, a grizzled old timer, a random actor you recognize and a hippo trying to eat everyone. All of that is just good enough to make the movie watchable. That and the use of practical effects which is a major positive over the normal use of terrible CGI. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a good movie, but it’s a dumb, fun flick that knows what it’s trying to accomplish and for the most part it does just that. We’ve been bombarded with shark movies so it’s cool seeing something different in the animal kingdom. I think Crawl is better, but if you liked that movie, check this out.
The Nerds Templar 