TRIPLE MOVIE DAY - WITH REVIEWS
My first triple movie day of 2026, second one I have ever done.
In 2025 I saw Together, Fantastic Four and Weapons all in one day.
They will be getting more common for me with the fuel prices soaring.
It is just sitting on ya bum taking in movies but 3 in a day can be a lot, especially when you plan on reviewing them.
That is why I decided to just briefly review all of them in one blog.
I wanted to go and see Lee Cronin’s The Mummy and Undertone but the closest cinemas showing those are quite the drive. So I decided to go to my local Matakana Cinemas and take in some lesser known films.
MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN
PLOT
“A Russian teacher secretly documents his school becoming a war recruitment centre during the Ukraine invasion, revealing the ethical dilemmas educators face with propaganda and militarization.”
BRIEF REVIEW
The film is set in Karabash, Russia during the beginning of Russia’s special military operation into Ukraine. It looks a lot like Greymouth in New Zealand, bleak, grey, overcast and it’s like you went back in time 50 years. If I was forced to choose whether to live in Russia or Greymouth, I would gleefully jump into a wood chipper.
I’m not sure why this won an Oscar. Like Sinners, when I watched it, at no point did “this will win awards” pop into my mind.
Put aside the content of the film, the editing and tone were pretty scattered. At times it felt like a Taika Waititi film, at others just a bleak documentary, and sometimes it felt like watching a vlog.
The content on the other hand is what I would have expected was going on in Russia, but just not to this extent. I felt a little naive, I think most people are to what is going on. I’m not going to dig into the politics of it all.
SUMMARY
The film is what it is but I felt it could have been more raw and impactful.
It seemed like it had no idea what it wanted to be.
The content isn’t shocking, it just drives the already deeply embedded nail that much deeper. Another sign a major conflict is on the horizon. That’s just downright depressing.
THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE
PLOT
“ As people in Iraq struggle to survive, 9-year-old Lamia has been selected to prepare a cake to celebrate the president's birthday. In a landscape of fear and scarcity, she sets out on a journey through the big city in search of eggs, flour and sugar.”
BRIEF REVIEW
I don’t how someone went about writing something like The President’s Cake. Where would one start? What was the first idea? Turns out, it was based on writer and director Hasan Hadi’s childhood memories in 1990’s Iraq under Saddam Hussein so that was probably a great starting point lol.
The story was exquisite
I don’t know what it was shot with but it looked like it was shot on film to me. The graininess, the warmth. Turns out it was all digital which to me is even more impressive that it looked like film.
The cinematography was unreal. At times I just admired the shots like I was admiring an amazing photo.
It’s contrasting. Childhood innocence in a war setting, even in the streets of Iraq setting.
The actors were amazing and none of them were trained actors. I don’t speak the language though so it may have been poorly delivered lol. It seemed genuine to me. The girl who played Lamia was fantastic. Not to mention the chook. I thought it may be CGI but it wasn’t and I felt the rooster had so much character and that was real too. Apparently there were multiple roosters involved but one was the superstar who delivered the necessary takes.
SUMMARY
They say to never work with children and animals in film. Well this is Hasan Hadi’s debut feature film starring untrained child actors and a rooster. How was it this good?
It’s probably in my top 3 foreign films I have seen this year with Sirat and No Other Choice.
Out of all the films I saw today I recommend this one.
SOLO MIO
PLOT
“Matt, a man abandoned at the altar in Rome who decides to take his Italian honeymoon alone. Supported by fellow tourists, he meets Gia, a local cafe owner, finding renewed joy and love before navigating the fallout of his heartbreak, set against a stunning Italian backdrop.”
BRIEF REVIEW
This was a sweet movie. The problem for me was it felt like it should have been an Adam Sandler produced film. The whole time it was trying to have the same tone and charm as those movies but didn’t quite get there. Then at sporadic times it hit those marks and really shined. It took me a while to settle into what the tone of the film was.
It seemed like this was leaning about a quarter of the way to being a serious drama movie. I would love to see Kevin James star in a serious movie, I think he has the chops. I just rewatched Reign Over Me starting Adam Sandler which he was amazing in and I think Kevin should tackle something like that one day.
I am 44yo and the demographic for this film I say is about 50yo+. That was the ages of most people in my sitting and they laughed and reacted at things I didn’t which helped me understand the film a bit better.
It was fairly predictable but there is a twist type thing towards the end I did not see coming and it really made the story great.
SUMMARY
It’s dialled back from what you would usually expect from a Kevin James film but it makes for a sweet, uplifting and more mature experience.
