“Lilo & Stitch (2025)” - Open your eyes wide and say ahhh.

I was in college when the original Lilo & Stitch was released (2002), so, no, I didn’t see it back when it came out. I saw parts of it on a cruise once, but that’s as close as I ever got to watching the whole thing. The point is I have no idea if this new version tracks closely with the original. But I’m told by a fellow critic that it was very close. So, this 2025 version is just as wacky as the original.

Yes, it’s wacky. An alien chaos monster known as Experiment 626 escapes intergalactic custody, steals a spaceship, crash lands on Earth in Hawaii, pretends to be a dog to avoid capture by two aliens posing as humans, is adopted by six-year-old Lilo (Maia Kealoha) who names him Stitch because he tore a hole in the seat of a truck that her sister Nani (Sydney Agudong) said will need stitches, and helps the two sisters come to terms with the death of their parents and heal their relationship. Other than the dead parents, it’s not exactly following the Disney princess fairy tale script, is it? 

The thing is: I like wacky. One of my favorite movies (and stories) is Alice in Wonderland and it doesn’t get wackier than Alice in Wonderland. No, not the Tim Burton remake (which I also liked), but the original animated feature. Alien-chaos-monster is right up my mischievous-disappearing-cat alley.

For the first half of the film, the wackiness is plentiful. Stitch causes all kinds of mayhem, just like he was created to do. Lilo gets in on the action as well, running amok with Stitch, the two of them driving Nani crazy. In addition, the two aliens chasing Stitch provide some Abbott-and-Costello-esque laughs as well. Their names are Dr. Jumba (Zack Galifianakis) and Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) and they are easily my favorite part of the film. Galifianakis delivers a character trying to be serious, but dropping dry humor all over the place. Conversely, Magnussen’s Pleakley is a manic and slapsticky “Earth expert.” Magnussen is clearly having a ball in this role, which is written all over his face in every scene. And what an expressive face he has, perfect for conveying a vast range of reactions and emotions. Perhaps my favorite facial expression is when he opens is eyes so wide they like they’re half the size of his entire face. Between this movie and his role in Hulu’s The Franchise, Magnussen is quickly making me a fan.

Unfortunately, the film isn’t all craziness and chaos. Remember, this movie is also about a grieving pair of sisters. Nani is also forced to assume the role of Lilo’s mother and provide for the both of them. After a meeting with a social worker (Tia Carrere) goes a bit off the rails, Nani is given a week to get things or else Lilo will be taken in custody of by the state. Obviously, the chaos from Lilo and Stitch is antithetical to this, always resulting in the worst outcome. This storyline plays out a bit like a romantic comedy, albeit one that is doomed from the start. It starts rather lightly, includes a misunderstanding that leads to a kind of breakup, then ends in a tidy and predictable way. Booo. Bring back the chaos!

There are also a couple of extraneous characters that are given so little to do, one wonders why they are even there. The original film featured a character named Cobra Bubbles, an ex-CIA agent turned social worker. For no logical reason, the filmmakers of this remake broke Cobra Bubbles into two characters - the social worker and current CIA agent Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance). Cobra spends most of his scenes trying to capture Stitch, even posing as the social worker’s boss. When he finally does, Nani easily convinces Cobra to release them during the climax with Jumba. Oh, I forgot to mention Jumba is the villain. I told you this movie was chaos, even when it’s kind of boring chaos.

Despite the film’s uneven mix of stories, I appreciate that Disney took a swing with this one back in 2002. I also appreciate the good performances from all of the cast, including Kealoha (surprising from an eight-year-old), Agudong, and Hannah Waddingham (voicing the Grand Councilwoman, leader of the United Galactic Federation who ordered the capture of Stitch). And I really appreciate the great special effects bringing Stitch and the other aliens to life. I don’t want to give Disney too much credit - this is yet another live-action remake trying to cash in on nostalgia. But I never saw the original, so it’s new enough for me.

Rating: Ask for three dollars back because there wasn’t enough chaos.

“The Fall Guy” - A successful stunt.

Let’s jump right into it...The Fall Guy is an exceptionally fun movie. If you enjoyed Tropic Thunder and Bullet Train, put your hands together. If you didn’t enjoy those movies, well...maybe you just hate fun. The Fall Guy director David Leitch and writer Drew Pearce definitely like fun.

Depending on how old you are, you might remember The Fall Guy television show that ran in the early 1980s. I barely do. I remember that the main character was a stuntman and I remember his truck (mostly because I had the Hot Wheels copy of it). When the theme song started playing in the theater as the movie began, I found myself singing along with it, already starting to have fun.

(Very mild spoilers ahead.)

That stuntman’s name is Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling). On top of his game as the stuntman for A-list action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), he’s also working with the love of his life on a daily basis, camerawoman Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). When he suffers a near-fatal accident during filming, he disappears from everyone and his life, including Jody. Eighteen months later, old friend and film producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) tracks Colt down and convinces him to fill in as a stuntman in a movie called Metalstorm, goading him into it on the basis that the film is also Jody’s directorial debut. After wrapping up his first day on set, Gail pulls Colt aside and reveals that Tom Ryder has disappeared and she asks Colt to track him down.

When Gail tells Colt she believes Tom has gotten mixed up with drug dealers, the first question the audience asks is “shouldn’t this be a job for the cops?” In poorly written movies, this question is either completely ignored or answered in a way that makes you roll your eyes so hard your seat reclines. In The Fall Guy, the first question Colt asks Gail is “should you call the cops?” Yay! And the answer from Gail is logical and believable - “if the cops get involved, the studio will find out the movie is way over budget and missing its star and they’ll kill production and you wouldn’t want that to happen to Jody, would you?” Yay!

With that final bit of setup complete, the movie plunges right into why it exists in the first place - action, romance, and comedy in heaping piles of deliciousness. The action was the easy part. The Fall Guy being an ode to practical stunts and stuntmen, Leitch crammed as many practical stunts into the film as he could. Wild car chases, jumps to and from helicopters, fight scenes, shootouts, explosions, people set on fire, even a world-record breaking cannon roll (where an explosion causes a vehicle to roll multiple times). The best thing about the action is it all serves a purpose other than action for action’s sake. Sometimes it’s to move the romance plotline, sometimes it’s for the movie within the movie, and sometimes it’s moving the plot to find Tom forward. For anyone who complains about too much CGI, happy birthday.

The comedy part is just as good as the action. Sometimes, the action is also the comedy. In one scene, Colt is set on fire and blown into a large rock over and over again as Jody expresses her displeasure at Colt abandoning her after his accident. In another, it’s the fake weapons Colt and stunt coordinator/best friend Dan (Winson Duke) must wield to fend off some bad guys. And when the action isn’t providing the comedy, it’s provided by the actors, who are delivering wonderfully likeable and hilarious performances. You’ll be cackling at Taylor-Johnson delivering one of the big, climactic, inspirational, pre-battle speeches in his best exaggerated Matthew McConaughey accent, but not until after you nearly pee yourself during a split-screen scene between Blunt and Gosling. And all of this happens in the context of making fun of blockbuster movie productions, much in the way Tropic Thunder did.

Finally, there’s the romance, which is mostly an extension of the comedy, but elicits real emotions from the audience. While the relationship between Jody and Colt is presented as mostly light-hearted and airy, there are moments that come across as really genuine, even when the film is trying to keep the tone light. Go back to the scene with Colt being all-but tortured by Jody as she confronts his abandonment over and over again. She’s doing this to him in the form of shooting multiple takes of the scene, substituting her own emotions as her movie character’s motivations while directing the scene. Everyone involved in the scene knows what’s going on, even to the point of being supportive of doing the scene over and over again. Blunt portrays real hurt in Jody, Gosling portrays real guilt and sorrow in Colt, all while everyone is trying not to laugh as Colt is slammed aflame into a rock wall over and over. It’s brilliant and, yes, extremely fun to watch.

While there is still a load of movies left to see this year, I have a hard time believing any will be as entertaining as The Fall Guy (yes, I’m well aware Deadpool 3 is one of them). It’s a near perfect blend of great acting, clever writing, amazing stunt work, and just the right amount of self-awareness. I could have done without the forced cameos from Lee Majors and Heather Thomas that felt like an afterthought, but even the best stunt people don’t get everything perfect.

Rating: That much fun is worth double what you paid for it.