How to Train Your Dragon (2025) Movie Review by Dr. Adnan Khalid

How to Train Your Dragon (2025)

Director: Dean DeBlois

Writers: Dean DeBlois

Cast: Mason Thames — Hiccup Nico Parker — Astrid Gerard Butler — Stoick Nick Frost — Gobber

IMDb 7.9/10 (IMDb)

Iconic Frames

Hiccup & Toothless

Stoick

Astrid

Quick Verdict

✅ What Works: Dragon-flight spectacle; warm father–son beats; John Powell’s themes soar in live-action.

❌ What Doesn’t: Familiar story beats; some daylight CGI feels too clean.

🎯 Best For: Fans wanting nostalgia with big-screen scale.

On Berk, a young Viking bonds with a Night Fury, challenging tradition and forging a bond that could change the world.

Dean DeBlois returns to Berk with heart and thunder. Mason Thames brings soft edges to Hiccup while Butler’s gravitas lands. The remake hits familiar beats, but the sky-swoops and creature intimacy are big-screen worthy—comfort food done with craft.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Trivia Corner

• DreamWorks’ first live-action feature; Dean DeBlois returns to write/direct. 3
• Bill Pope served as cinematographer. 4
• Released June 13, 2025 (US). 5

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Pete’s Dragon (2016)

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Labels: #MovieReview, #Trailer, Fantasy, Adventure, Live-Action, Dean DeBlois, Mason Thames, Nico Parker, 2025, English, USA

Megan 2.0 Movie Review

Megan 2.0 (2025)

Director: Gerard Johnstone

Writers: Akela Cooper, Gerard Johnstone

Cast: Allison Williams — Gemma Violet McGraw — Cady Amie Donald — M3GAN (body) Jenna Davis — M3GAN (voice)

IMDb: 6.1/10 RT: RT_PERCENT_HERE

Iconic Frames

Quick Verdict 🎬

✅ What Works: High-energy doll-on-doll action, witty one-liners, slick visuals.

❌ What Doesn’t: Predictable beats, slightly overlong runtime.

🎯 Best For: Fans of campy horror with a tech twist.

Two years after M3GAN’s rampage, Gemma revives her infamous A.I. doll to stop AMELIA — a stolen, militarized upgrade that can pass as human and doesn’t take orders.

A slicker, louder follow-up that trades some creep factor for glossy Terminator-style rivalry. The meme-y quips are back, the doll-on-doll brawls land, and Allison Williams keeps the chaos grounded. It runs a touch long and telegraphs a few beats, but as a crowd-pleasing upgrade with sharper action and just-enough satire about runaway A.I., it delivers exactly what a Friday-night horror craving needs.

Rating: 4/5

Trivia Corner 🎥

• Working title was “M3GAN: Fully Loaded.”
• Ivanna Sakhno trained in doll-like fight choreography.
• Mix of animatronics and facial capture enhances the doll performance.

My Reaction

Tap how it felt — it’ll stick for you.

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M3GAN (2022)

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Sir Alfred Hitchcock's Collection - A Series of Reviews

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE was an English film director and producer, widely regarded as one of the most influential and widely studied filmmakers in the history of cinema.

  

 
I realized that it is very often that we consider someone a master of his trait, only because his reputation precedes him. Many a times our appreciation is only a rat race that stems from the repetitive praise that we have heard for a particular artist. It is therefore an effort, through this series of reviews to analyze the undoubted brilliance of Sir Alfred Hitchcock by not only confining ourselves to the popular "Psycho" or "the birds", but through a rigorous examination of his entire directorial endeavor.

Lets start with The Lodger: A story of a London Fog (1927)

So Far in the Series: 

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) | Alfred Hitchcock's Collection | A Series of Reviews

Alfred Hitchcock may be known for his more popular films like Psycho, Notorious and The birds, but the movie that got him recognition as a mainstream filmmaker and opened his way to Hollywood was the 1934 crime thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much. The movie was later remade by Sir Hitchcock for Hollywood and with a much larger budget in 1956.  

A perfect mix of espionage and action, the movie is highlighted by a villain that is masterfully played by a menacing Peter Lorre who looks convincing as a scary, intimidating anti-hero with no remorse or fear of the consequences of his actions.

Featuring a shoot-out that saw bodies fall like a house of cards and a hostage situation that is suspenseful and thrilling, the man who knew too much is definitely an action flick that is crisp and engaging. 

Made in a near to nothing budget, the film is a masterful effort in storytelling and shows the directorial greatness of Sir Alfred Hitchcock. 

Giving nothing away, I can just say that it is a movie, still relevant as a thriller and still good enough to keep one interested. The class of Hitchcock makes his work timeless and fresh.   

BACK TO THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK REVIEW SERIES

Movie Review The Man Who Knew Too Much | Latest Movie Ratings

Downhill [ When boys Leave Home ] (1927) | Alfred Hitchcock's Collection | A Series of Reviews

Public schoolboy Roddy Berwick is expelled from school when he takes the blame for a friend's charge and his life falls apart in a series of misadventures.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Stars:

Ivor Novello, Ben Webster, Norman McKinnel

Stamping his jaw dropping mastery on the silver screen in his self proclaimed first true Hitchcock movie, The Lodger, Sir Alfred Hitchcock set the bar extremely high for the upcoming 1928 adventure thriller Downhill also known as When boys leave home.

The movie follows the misadventures of a bright school boy who sacrifices his career in order to save his friend's. The story is a simple tale of friendship and love and the uncertainty that life holds for us.

Although, Sir Hitchcock delivered the same remarkable technical flawlessness and directorial perfection that made The Lodger a success, it was the patchy and jerky story that made Downhill one of his weakest movies ever. In my humble opinion the fact that The lodgers was based on a novel and Downhill was written by the main lead Ivor Novello might be the main difference in the entire experience. Ivor, though a very captivating actor and a heartthrob of his times clearly did not have the story that could match Hitchcock's brilliance. Some may argue that Ivor's body of work is more in the writing department than in acting, but upon closer examination he was more a sounds guy than either and actor or a writer. His looks and expression are impressive in both The Lodger and Downhill, something that can't really be said about his writing in Downhill.

All in all, a silent movie that manages to keep you interested at least half the way and that does show you the brilliance of Sir Alfred Hitchcock in many parts, but eventually fails to deliver due to some very ordinary script. I would recommend everyone to watch it just to understand the importance of a story, or the lack of it.  

NEXT:  The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

BACK TO THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK REVIEW SERIES

Movie Review Alfred Hitchcock's Downhill | Latest Movie Ratings

The Lodger (1927) | Alfred Hitchcock's Collection | A series of reviews

A landlady suspects her new lodger is the madman killing women in London.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

 CAST: June Tripp, Ivor Novello, Marie Ault

Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger is a testimony to the fact that the master did not require language, color or words to weave his magic and display his genius. To think in this day and age where one often disregards a movie for the lack of depth in dialog or for the ineffectiveness of CGI as an aid to creating horror, that a movie with no dialogs and that too for a longish duration for a silent film at one hour and 30 minutes, would be so captivating and gripping as the lodger is, is simply amazing. 

The wonderful haunting music and a couple of exceptional romantic tunes punctuate some masterful performances by June Tripp, Marie Ault and Ivor Novello. A suspenseful thrill ride with nothing but expressions, is no less than an acting academy that many a plastic actors if this era can take a lead from.

Hitchcock uses jealousy, anger, revenge, irony, love, passion and repentance as his tools to narrate a fairly simple tale with just the right amount of twists and turns to keep the audience interested. 

NEXT: Alfred Hitchcock's Downhill (1928) Review 

BACK TO THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK REVIEW SERIES

Movie Review The Lodger (1927) | Latest Movie Ratings

Brightburn Review | The Film Guide

The evil Superman rocks! Love every minute of brightburn and would love for it to develop into a franchise. What a performance by Superboy Jackson A Dunn.

Horror: 8/10
Gore: 4/10
Jump scares: 6/10
Thrill: 8/10
Overall Rating: 7/10

The Film Guide - Views and Reviews - Episode 2 | Hollywood | Box Office | Movies

Regular reviews on box office, movies and actors. This week we have reviews for The silence of the lambs starring Anthony Hopkins, isn't it romantic starting Rebel Wilson, Escape room, house that Jack built and we will have a look at the box office too.

The Nun 2018 Movie Review by The Film Guide

A priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate the death of a young nun in Romania and confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun.


Latest Movie Ratings
Initial release: 06 September 2018
Director:  Corin Hardy
Cast:  Taissa Farmiga, Bonnie Aarons, Charlotte Hope  

Written By: Ijlal Chaudhry

The Conjuring Universe after two lackluster installments (Conjuring 2 and Annabelle) finally got it right with Annabelle Creation and are finally going to Release their most anticipated and potentially the most frightening prequel/spin off “The Nun”. The trailer clearly shows that James Wan has created an eerie Gothic atmosphere in what seems to be a haunted Monastery.

Valak aka the aforementioned Nun always had screen stealing Cameos in the previous installments but takes the center stage this time. This is more of the origin story taking place in 1952 so well before the events of Conjuring and Annabelle Creation, And the setting might be a nod to previous classics like The Exorcist.

The religion elements always add a touch of eerie to the horror movie and finally we have one with all the right elements of making it a classic. The trailer promises us no cheap thrills which have become the norm in the recent blew of horror movies but an actual edge of the seat frightening story based cinematic experience. 

As the Latin inscription on the church door reads “God ends here” but this certainly is just the beginning of a new evil unleashed in The Conjuring Universe.

Movie Review The Nun | Latest Movie Ratings