The Bobke Summer Movie Challenge

 I've found myself in a bit of a cinephile era in the past few years, due to both my academic elective choices and the new friends I found through them. One of these folks, my good friend Ben, decided to design his own summer movie watch list: an eclectic mix of fifteen criteria that you had to fill with fifteen first-time watches. I thought I'd give it a try, given that I'd already set the goal for myself to watch fifty movies before the end of the year. This challenge would be a good way to get in some films that I might not have watched otherwise. Then I... forgot about the challenge for like two months. Luckily, a lot of my watches filled a bunch of criteria accidentally and I only had to cram in a few more in like a week. Anyway, I figured I'd use this space to give a mini review for each. (This will probably be a lot longer than my usual posts, but lucky you for getting to see so many of my great opinions at once.)

Composed by Hans Zimmer or Ludwig Goransson: Mission Impossible II

Also inspired by Ben, I decided to slowly start making my way through all eight Mission Impossible movies and I thought the first one was pretty good. Actually, I just thought it was ok until they flew a helicopter into a train tunnel and like a light from the heavens, I instantly understood the hype behind these movies. And, as it turned out, Hans Zimmer composed the sequel! Which... isn't very good. Even though I was slightly more engaged with the plot this time around, none of the stunts in this one have nearly as much sauce as the original. It also has that early 2000's problem of being distractingly misogynistic. Luckily, I hear this is more or less universally acknowledged as a black sheep of the series, so I look forward to it hopefully being all up from here.

Letterboxd Top 250: Sing Sing

I've had my eye on this movie since Oscars season and I am so happy I finally had a chance to watch it. Colman Domingo does miracles with every scene he's in, which is to be expected at this point. This movie does a great job balancing the dour tone of its prison setting with the hopeful themes of its narrative. Most of the cast are playing themselves, which does wonders for their overall chemistry and creating a friendly tone between each character. All in all, I'm always a sucker for anything about the power of stories and their ability to form community. Definitely check it out if you haven't already.

Title with Five or More Words: The Fantastic Four: First Steps

I don't think I'm alone in falling out of love with Marvel movies in the last few years, but this movie serves as a very welcome light in the midst of mediocrity. Luckily, this movie doesn't have to be bogged down in complex continuity or arbitrary interpersonal conflict, allowing us to see these characters in their most fully formed state. The retro-futurist setting is also an inspired choice for Marvel's first family, paying homage to the time period in which they originated. However, this movie is far from perfect. It is very easy to tell that this was supposed to be 15-20 minutes longer and the cuts aren't exactly clean. This is particularly egregious surrounding Ben's seemingly cut subplot, making him the only team member that I don't think got the spotlight he deserved. But overall, this movie is a good time and I can't wait for the dumpster fire of Avengers: Doomsday to make it even better in retrospect.

Best Picture Winner: Anora

I am historically very bad at catching any Oscar winners, so I appreciate this chance to hold myself accountable to watch this most recent winner. I definitely wasn't expecting how funny this movie is going in, especially the slapstick sequence around the midpoint, but I feel like that works very well towards the magic trick this movie pulls off. That trick being that I fully bought into the love story that's established in the first hour, even though the rest of the movie proves there wasn't anything there in retrospect. Another big part of that trick is the infectious charm of Mikey Madison, who plays the progressive consequences of Anora's vulnerability so well, especially in that hauntingly uncomfortable final scene.

Director Whose Name Starts with the Same First Letter as Yours: Jurassic World Dominion

After seeing Rebirth in theaters, I realized that somehow I missed this entry in the series, which was strange because I remember being very interested in where the story left off at the time. But after watching this... yeah, I understand why I skipped out. To start with the positives, there are some sequences where this movie is so confidently stupid with it that I have to give it respect. There's an action chase scene around the end of the first act that's truly everything I could have wanted out of the premise of dinosaurs in the modern world. However, that sequence is where my interest begins to shallow out as it quickly becomes clear that this movie is just five or six shorts stumbling around in a trench coat which eventually drains into just another bout of running from dinosaurs in the jungle. I'm fine with that on most occasions, but man was I hoping for something different.

Language You Haven't Seen a Movie in: Godzilla Minus One

NO THIS ISN'T CHEATING. I know I've watched Ghibli. I know I've watched anime movies. But I watch that shit dubbed. I don't turn the TV on to read! So yeah, this is the first Japanese film I've watched in its original Japanese. And I'm really glad I did! I'm not usually the biggest fan of war movies, but I'd probably be a bigger fan if more war movies had Godzilla in them. At the same time though, Godzilla isn't really the star of this one. I found myself much more engaged with the human drama than I expected, which I understand is a bit of an irregularity with these movies. More than a monster movie, more than a war movie, this is a deeply touching drama about survivor's guilt and the need to keep living even when the world around you feel suffocating. Definitely worth the hype and I wish I caught this in theaters a few years back.

Documentary or Concert Film: Will and Harper

I'll be honest, I wan't expecting much out of this movie going into it. Partly because I already know quite a bit about transgenderism and partly because I find Will Ferrel only kinda funny at best. But I'm not made of stone, this movie is very sweet. This is kind of the perfect ally movie to me, the kind of movie you show to your uncle as you ween him off Fox News to test the waters. It's very encouraging that cis people are willing to make heartwarming stuff like this about transness, especially in times like these and especially because it takes the burden off trans artists to make strictly feel-good stuff about our transness. When I make art about my identity, I gotta get a little depressing and a little weird with it.

Released in 2025: Superman

Thank God I get to talk about Superman now. This is the movie of the summer for me, a true return to form for comic book films. This is such a refreshing take on the genre, again shrugging off the burden of an origin story and embracing both a comic book aesthetic and tone. I really hope this signals the final death of the dark and gritty Dark Knight era of superhero films. That tone has its place of course, but man, does this kind of movie just stick with me so much more. So much so, in fact, that after watching this, I did something unprecedented: I bought a comic book and read it. Suffice it to say, Supergirl is now my most anticipated film of 2026. I haven't been this excited about new comic book movies in such a long time. This is a great start to the new DCU and I hope beyond hope that the following films can keep the same momentum.

Based on a Non-Marvel or DC Comic: One Piece: Film Z

I don't know if you guys know this, but I'm kind of a big fan of One Piece. Like to a normal extent I'd say. Which is why it devastates me to say that this movie isn't that good. I've seen a few One Piece films so far and I've learned to not expect the same peak as I routinely get from the manga, but they all tend to at least bring something interesting to the table. But this movie revolves around the least interesting faction in the series, the Marines: ocean cops who just can't stop doing war crimes. Except the villain of the film wants to do so much war crimes that even the Marines are freaked out. The heart of this series to me has always been in the connections formed between the Straw Hat Crew and their devotion to each other, but this movie largely puts that to the side in favor of world ending stakes that I just can't buy into. Combine that with the animators putting their extra movie budget strictly into jiggle physics and it's just not what I want out of One Piece.

Hand-Drawn Animation: Castle in the Sky

Can you believe that this is only the second Ghibli movie I've seen all the way through? I've really got to get around to changing that, because what I've seen of the studio has been some of the best storytelling and animation out there. This movie in particular does a great job of balancing the whimsical tone of its central adventure with the overall melancholy of its setting. It's also very fun to see what so many of my other interests (namely Breath of the Wild) have clearly taken inspiration from. Don't have a ton more to say about this one. Just a solid watch and I looking forward to seeing more. (This was also the movie that put me over my original fifty movie goal for the year, yippee!)

BIPOC Director: Sinners

Oh man, is this movie special. This is one of those rare movies that get better and better the more I think about it. There's so much here in the writing alone, so many nuances about culture, community, assimilation, music, race, vampires (both figurative and literal), I might need many more rewatches to peel it all back. That's not to mention the presentation, performances, and score, all of which come together to form such a complete feeling film. Big ideas, big feeling, big screens because can we talk about the aspect ratio changes? There's one long take in this that has such a sheer feeling of scale that blows me away every time I think about it. It's a sequence that I truly believe is going to be cited by the next generation of filmmakers as what inspired them to get into their craft. Definitely the best movie of 2025 I've seen, at least maybe until Frankenstein comes out this fall.

Nominated for a Razzie: Madame Web

This is the only category that I had to do research into because I had no idea what a Razzie was going into this. Apparently, its an independent parody awards show celebrating the worst films and performances of any given year. Well, I've seen the best picture of 2024, I may as well check out the worst one as well! I did this as a double feature with Anora. It was... an experience. All I can say is that this was just about as funny as Anora and I want to study Dakota Johnson under a microscope.

Musical: KPop Demon Hunters

This movie holds an interesting space as one of the most exciting films of the year, even if its not perfect on its own. The music in this movie is phenomenal, as is the animation, character work, and voice acting. However, this has the same problem as in Fantastic Four where you can tell that a solid chunk of this movie was cut for time that I feel like it could have used to fill in some rather obvious gaps in the plot. But that's besides the point because this movie's success seems to have come out of nowhere, which seems to be built off of word of mouth alone because Netflix did not do anything to advertise this. I do think this success is very deserved and I'm excited to see what else the filmmakers can do in this world. I feel like a sequel has the opportunity to fill in some of the gaps left in this film and flesh out the other girls who were kind of left out of this one's narrative.

Rom Com: Dirty Dancing

This is one of my mom's favorite films and we all watched it together for her birthday. And I'm very sorry but that's kind of the extent of what I have to say on it. It's a solid film all in all, just very much not for my time. That being said, it does make for an interesting feminism time capsule that I'm sure was likely downright groundbreaking when it came out. Just not my thing. Happy birthday, Mom.

A Fish Appears on Screen (Diegetic Drawings of a Fish Don't Count): The Wild Robot

This movie also wins the award of the film to make Casey cry the most so far this year. Found family stories will always be my Achilles heel, especially between those who definitely should not fit together under usual circumstances. The bond between Roz and Brightbill is doubtless the highlight of the film, but what really got me was the winter sequence where Roz had to bring all the animals together under dire circumstances. Just instantly torn apart. I never had a chance. This movie is so so close to perfect, except that I don't feel it needed an action climax as a finale. All in all a fantastic story, stellar animation, and you bet your ass fish do be appearing on screen.

Erm that's the end I guess. Do you love giganotosaurus and hate me for not mentioning it in my Jurassic World Dominion review? Do let me know along with any other movies you think I should watch. I doubt I'll do any other roundup reviews that are as long as this one, but if I watch something that I have something to say about, this is the place to find it.