Cereal At Midnight

The majority opinion seems to be that Project Hail Mary  is a near-perfect cinematic experience. "The first truly great movie of 2026," reads the headline from various cinematic pundits and online outlets. There's an adoration associated with it that we rarely see post-pandemic. It seems to work for just about everyone, but I find myself in the minority in thinking that the movie is momentarily pleasing but ultimately fails to fly. I think part of its success is that it's entirely inoffensive, carefully crafted to appeal to the widest market possible with 1) a main character who reflects the weariness of our current times but rises above it, 2) a cute (and marketable) alien sidekick, and 3) a story that has lots of emotional twists. It's the kind of thing general movie audiences eat up. Because the average person only goes to the movie theater four or less times per year, they want those experiences to pack in everything they want in a single package: big visuals,...

First Book review video of 2026! See it on YouTube or on Patreon .

Every time I watch a movie that's based on real events or real people, my defenses go up. Biopics, seemingly by their very nature, are often fictions, making superheroes out of people who are far more interesting in reality because their lives aren't sanitized or sanctified by screenwriters. Somewhere in the middle of Song Sung Blue , I decided I was being served up a string of tall tales. Surely nobody went through as much triumph and tragedy as the real Mike and Claire Sardina, better known by their stage name, Lightning and Thunder. When the end credits rolled and I saw that the film was based on a 2008 documentary of the same name, I knew I needed to see that  film to unravel just how much of the story I'd just been told was actually real.  As it turns out, many of the events presented in the movie really happened. Sure, the Neil Diamond tribute act called Lightning and Thunder never soared quite to the heights that the Hollywood film would have us believe, and it goes ...

For those that are new to Andy Kaufman's unique brand of surrealist performance art, Thank You Very Much is a squirmy-yet-alluring portrait of the confusing, infuriating, and occasionally endearing guy who so convincingly befuddled the masses that none of us are sure, even decades later, that he didn't fake his own death over 40 years ago.  For those that have seen the Biopic starring Jim Carrey ( Man on the Moon ), read the books by Kaufman's friend and partner in comedy crime, Bob Zmuda, and his girlfriend, Lynne Margulies (sister of My Breakfast with Blassie filmmaker Johnny Legend), this is well-worn territory.  It's all here: the roots of the foreign man character at the Improvisation comedy club, Mighty Mouse on the first episode of SNL , the meteoric rise of the sitcom Taxi , the birth of bad boy Tony Clifton, professional wrestling, and a cancer diagnosis that people still question as authentic. To the credit of the filmmakers, they've assembled this mate...

Cereal At Midnight's Top 10 Best Movies of 2025! More movie reviews **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive and ad free videos, early access, and much more at Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight or through YouTube Memberships at  https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membership **************************************************************** Commentaries:  https://www.cerealatmidnight.com/p/commentaries.html **************************************************************** Need collecting storage solutions? Use code CAM15 to save 15% on your order at  https://bit.ly/t3lshopCAM  and see how it works here:  https://youtu.be/GX0fTq_VYs4 **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please use Cereal At Midnight's affiliate link to support the channel:  https://amzn.to/3LAgnlt **************************************************************** Movie Review Archive...

The Shining is back in theaters (in IMAX!) for its 45th anniversary. Here's my review, exclusively for Cereal At Midnight channel members.  You can also view this episode on Patreon

In this turntable unboxing, assembly, and review video, we're checking out the Angels Horn H00501 record player, which retails for less than $300 and has lots of cool features including Bluetooth input, pitch control, and built-in-preamp.  The H00501 at Angels Horn: https://www.angelshorn.com/products/angels-horn-h00501-hi-fi-bluetooth-turntable The H00501 at Amazon: https://amzn.to/48NDJ2v My review of the Angels Horn PHANTOM model: https://youtu.be/Nkfr2ISiWxs My review of the Angels Horn AH6 Model: https://youtu.be/Ju-bsXQ2plU **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive and ad free videos, early access, and much more at Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight or through YouTube Memberships at  https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membership **************************************************************** Commentaries:  https://www.cerealatmidnight.com/p/commentaries.html ***********************************************...

In this video, I give my honest review of the ANGELS HORN AH6 record player. Can an all-in-one turntable under $300 deliver good sound and quality features? Let's find out! The AH6 on the Angels Horn Website: https://www.angelshorn.com/products/angels-horn-ah6-turntable-hifi-system-premium-record-player-with-speaker use code CEREAL15 to save 15% on your purchase at https://www.angelshorn.com/?ref=cedanoxr   Angels Horn AH6 on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4fxHJ8N My review of the Angels Horn Phantom: https://youtu.be/Nkfr2ISiWxs **************************************************************** Commentaries:  https://www.cerealatmidnight.com/p/commentaries.html **************************************************************** Need collecting storage solutions? Use code CAM15 to save 15% on your order at  https://bit.ly/t3lshopCAM  and see how it works here:  https://youtu.be/GX0fTq_VYs4 **************************************************************** Become a Member and ...

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman has arrived on Blu-ray! In this video review, we'll discuss not only the release's technical merits, but also how the show has (or has not) stood the test of time as a piece of the Superman's nearly 90-year legacy. Get Lois & Clark on Blu-ray HERE: https://amzn.to/46M6BY3 More Superman from Cereal At Midnight: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLms82QIo-B9mFThaihm65Hnkndg-ghJOD **************************************************************** Commentaries:  https://www.cerealatmidnight.com/p/commentaries.html **************************************************************** Need collecting storage solutions? Use code CAM15 to save 15% on your order at  https://bit.ly/t3lshopCAM  and see how it works here:  https://youtu.be/GX0fTq_VYs4 **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive and ad free videos, early access, and much more at  Patreon.com/CerealAtMi...

Knight Rider: The Complete Series is now on 4K! In this FIRST LOOK video, we're exploring the packaging, the video quality, and the BRAND NEW bonus material.  Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/4nF0uum Nick Nugent, author of The Knight Rider Companion: https://youtu.be/ur6A6EuVk68 **************************************************************** Commentaries:  https://www.cerealatmidnight.com/p/commentaries.html **************************************************************** Need collecting storage solutions? Use code CAM15 to save 15% on your order at  https://bit.ly/t3lshopCAM  and see how it works here:  https://youtu.be/GX0fTq_VYs4 **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive and ad free videos, early access, and much more at  Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight  or through YouTube Memberships at  https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membership ********************************************...

More movie reviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLms82QIo-B9kqjBHba54q12B6clP4R6Dj **************************************************************** Commentaries:  https://www.cerealatmidnight.com/p/commentaries.html **************************************************************** Need collecting storage solutions? Use code CAM15 to save 15% on your order at  https://bit.ly/t3lshopCAM  and see how it works here:  https://youtu.be/GX0fTq_VYs4 **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive and ad free videos, early access, and much more at  Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight  or through YouTube Memberships at  https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membership **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please use Cereal At Midnight's affiliate link to support the channel:  https://amzn.to/3LAgnlt ************************************************...

The Unholy Trinity has a lot going for it. First, there's Pierce Brosnan, who has matured into a character actor that consistently delivers some of the most interesting work of his entire career. Then there's Samuel L. Jackson, who seems visibly delighted to be in another western. Even David Arquette, no stranger to westerns himself, provides an interesting and unconventional performance. The natural majesty of Montana, with its snow-capped mountains and wide-open vistas, is a perfect setting for a tale of revenge and greed, with the seasonal backdrop of winter providing visual distinction from the many dusty oaters that take place in arid deserts and harkening back to such classics as Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller .  Unfortunately--and it pains me to write this-- The Unholy Trinity simply doesn't work. Many of the elements for success are here, but without a cohesive story, it never quite comes together. The plot of the film is confusing and needlessly convo...

Lilo and Stitch is the latest in what has become a long line of "live action" remakes of Disney animated classics, a blatant attempt by the House of Mouse to inject some fresh life back into properties that were once successful, but that might have cooled over the years. With Disney, everything in their storied history is fodder for a remake or sequel. Bob Iger, the divisive head of the company, calls this "IP mining," which is every bit as cold and calculating as it sounds. Now, just a couple of months after Disney's new refresh of Snow White , they turn their attention to one of the most beloved properties of the last 25 years.  This new version of Lilo and Stitch is fun and heartwarming, but also completely forgettable. Certain elements of the production, such as the aliens that pursue Experiment 626 (played here by Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen) don't really lend themselves to live action, so these characters are therefore "in disguise...

It’s no secret that Nicolas Cage has been getting even better with age and that this current era of his career has been filled with wild surprises and unconventional risks . The Surfer is—and I say this with no hyperbole—one of the best films Nicolas Cage has ever made. This is a wild ride.  Cage plays a father who has returned to Australia, the country of his character’s birth, where he plans to buy the house he lived in as a boy. The house overlooks the beach and an endless ocean, the perfect place to raise his own son, surfing the same waves that he surfed as a child before life took a tragic turn and he had to leave paradise. But there are cracks in the dream: the house may be lost to a higher bidder, and even worse, a distance grows between Cage and his son that seems irreparable. Worst of all, the beach is guarded by a gang of toughs who have a “you don’t live here, you don’t surf here” policy, and they’re willing to guard their waves with violence. These roughnecks are led ...

Sinners is a tour de force from Ryan Coogler, the director of  Creed  and Black Panther. The movie takes the viewers on a magical mystery tour of music and horror that spans 24 hours in Clarksdale, Mississippi during the early 1930s. The film is so vast and ambitious in its scope that it's almost impossible to fully wrap one's arms around it in a single viewing. Against the setting is the segregated Deep South at a time when racial tensions were high, we meet two brothers (twins, both played by Michael B. Jordan) who have taken their future in their own hands and tried to forge a path for themselves outside of the law. But that's just part of this tale, which is also about the blues and the rich history of American folklore and occult beliefs that have been bleeding into one another for hundreds of years. African traditions meld with those of Ireland, with Native American culture adding seasoning, too.  At the center of the story is a burgeoning bluesman (Miles Caton), th...

Once upon a time, there was Disney magic. What is it? Hard to say. We only know how it makes us feel, and we know that as we get older, that feeling becomes more and more difficult to recapture. It doesn't help that Disney floods the market with remakes, reboots, and sequels, watering down a once-potent brand that many of us associate with originality. Disney Head Honcho Bob Iger calls it "IP mining," a term that is as accurate as it is cynical.  With this baggage, I went into Snow White hoping for a spark of that thing that largely now only survives as nostalgia. Enthusiasm was low and my guard was up. After all, the discussion around this film has been exhausting, and it began long before any of us even had a chance to see it. Movies made before this modern era never had to overcome so much outrage before a single second had been projected for an audience.  But before long, probably about 20 minutes in, my defenses began to lower. I found myself smiling. The music--lar...

Jack Quaid is having a moment. The Boys , the ensemble superheroes-gone-wrong streaming series he stars on, is firing on all cylinders. Just six weeks ago, the movie Companion , in which he shares co-lead status, opened to great reviews and decent ticket sales. Now his latest film, Novocaine , is the number one movie in the country, securing his box office appeal and putting him on the it-list.  The premise of Novocaine is unique in the action movie pantheon: our lead character, Nathan Caine, suffers from a genetic disorder in which he cannot feel pain. This impacts him in a variety of ways, as he is constantly injuring himself without knowing it. In a scene early in the film during a first date with bank co-worker Sherry ( Prey 's Amber Midthunder), he hesitantly tries cherry pie for the very first time and we learn that he's heretofore been living on a liquid diet for fear of chewing off his own tongue. His life has been gray, but with the arrival of Sherry, everything has b...

Steven Soderbergh makes it look easy.  The filmmaker behind Sex, Lies, and Videotape , Out of Sight , The Limey , Erin Brockovich , Traffic , and The Ocean's Trilogy conquered Hollywood long ago by making movies that appealed to both audiences and critics. He was the rare creator who was able to translate his unique style and approach into movies that pretty much everyone enjoyed...and then, about a decade ago, he retired--frustrated by a system that valued dollars more than creativity and art. It didn't last long, but when Soderbergh returned from his brief hiatus, he seemed like a creator reinvigorated, telling stories in just about every medium available: he painted, he made a movie on an iPhone, he worked in television, and he created an off-Broadway play. He sought out challenges and set goals.  Black Bag is the latest result of one of these challenges, Soderbergh's mission to bring the 90-minute movie back to prominence. With running times of everything from kids m...