Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Love seeing A Fistful of Dollars getting some love from David Ball.
“You see, I understand you men were just playin’ around, but the mule, he just doesn’t get it. Course, if you were to all apologize…” – Joe
Honey Don’t (2025)
Director: Ethan Coen
Screenplay: Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke
Stars: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day, Kristen Connolly, Don Swayze, Christian Antidormi, Billy Eichner, Kinna McInroe and Gabby Beans.
Tagline: She only has two desires, and one of them is justice.
The Plot…
Honey O’Donahue learns that Mia Novotny was found stabbed to death. Honey is a private investigator who Mia had planned to meet the following day. When Mia called Honey she said she couldn’t go to the police and was afraid.
Obviously for good reason.
Honey is determined to find Mia’s killer. The clues will lead to the Four-Way Temple led by Reverend Drew Devlin. Devlin is interested in a lot more than saving souls. Devlin also has another money-making enterprise that could have something to do with Mia’s murder.
Honey won’t rest until she finds Mia’s assassin… even if it kills her.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
I loved the film’s creative use of opening credits.
Margaret Qualley, the star of Honey Don’t, is the daughter of actress Andie MacDowell. They look so much alike they could be twins.
The film earns an “R” rating because it doesn’t shy away during the lesbian sex scenes.
Honey Don’t (2025) rates 3 of 5 stars.
If you’re following Rich Davies, you might have already seen his haunting Sinners art. Even so, it’s worth another look.
“You keep dancing with the devil… one day he’s gonna follow you home.” – Jedidiah
Chuck (born Carlos Ray) Norris died yesterday at the age of 86. No cause of death was given.
Surprisingly, Carlos Ray Norris described himself growing up as a shy, nonathletic and mediocre student. His parents divorced when Carlos was 16. His family suffered financially, since his father didn’t always work and had a drinking problem.
When Carlos was 18 he joined the Air Force. That move changed his life. Carlos was was sent to Osan Air Base, South Korea. That’s where he folks began calling him Chuck (which stuck) and he started learning the martial arts.
Upon his discharge, Chuck Norris opened a chain of martial arts schools and he began entering martial arts competitions. Mr. Norris competed from 1968 to 1974 compiling a 183 win, 10 loss, 2 draw record. Chuck Norris was a six-time undefeated World Professional Middleweight Karate champion. He held multiple black belts in serveral different martial arts forms. It was during this time, that Chuck Norris met Bruce Lee. They became friends and occassionally trained together.
Mr. Norris’ martial arts schools attracted several celebrities including Steve McQueen, Bob Barker, Priscilla Presley, as well as Donny and Marie Osmond.
Chuck Norris’ first acting role was in a small part in the Dean Martin film, The Wrecking Crew. It was his role in Bruce Lee’s Way of the Dragon (titled Return of the Dragon in the US) that brought Chuck Norris to the attention of Hollywood. Chuck Norris became a star, headlining dozens of feature films as well as Walker, Texas Ranger the hit television series that ran for nine seasons and several made-for-tv movies.
Some of the television projects that feature Chuck Norris acting include: Room 222; Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos (5 episodes); Wind in the Wire; Walker, Texas Ranger (196 episodes); Logan’s War: Bound by Honor; Sons of Thunder (4 episodes); Martial Law; The President’s Man; The President’s Man: A Line in the Sand; Walker Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire; The Goldbergs and Hawaii 5-0.
Some feature films that Chuck Norris appeared in include: The Wrecking Crew; The Way of the Dragon; Breaker! Breaker!; Good Guys Wear Black; A Force of One; The Octagon; An Eye for an Eye; Silent Rage; Forced Vengeance; Lone Wolf McQuade; Missing in Action; Missing in Action II: The Beginning; Code of Silence; Invasion USA; The Delta Force; Firewalker; Braddock: Missiing in Action III; Hero and the Terror; Delta Force 2: The Columbian Connection; The Hitman; Sidekicks; Dodgeball: A True Underdog’s Story and The Expendables 2.
I first saw Chuick Norris acting in Way of the Dragon. What an impression he made! I was always excited to see each film when Mr. Norris began starring in action movies. Favorites include A Force of One and The Octagon. Of course I loved when Chuck Norris showed up in Expendables 2. Chuck Norris is one of the few actors that I like as much off screen as on.
Out thoughts and prayers go out to Chuck Norris’ family, friends and fans.
Leo Leibelman is a freelance artist who has provided art for comics, trading cards, novels, instructional materials, film storyboards and more. Leo Leibelman takes commissions.
Leibelman presents the movie that launched a franchise and made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star!
“Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop… ever, until you are dead!” – Kyle Reese
The Mist has one of the most horrifying and brutal endings ever. I love how this alt poster by Creepy Duck Design captures the scene. If you know, you know.
“It appears we may have a problem of some magnitude.” – Bud Brown
Dead of Winter (2025)
Director: Brian Kirk
Screenplay: Nicholas Jacobson-Larson, Dalton Leeb
Stars: Emma Thompson, Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca, Laurel Marsden and Brían F. O’Byrne.
Tagline: Wrong place. Wrong crime.
The Plot…
Barb and Karl had their first date ice fishing on Lake Hilda in Northern Minnesota decades ago when they were young. They fell in love, were married and had a great life. Now that Karl has passed, Barb has returned to the remote lake to spread his ashes.
It’s the dead of winter. Lake Hilda is still a wilderness location. No cell service. No people.
Barb is shocked when she sees in the distance a woman with her hands bound trying to run from a man. The man catches the woman and takes her away. Barb follows them to a cabin.
If the woman is to survive, it will be up to Barb.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Emma Thompson’s daughter, Gaia Wise, plays young Barb.
Dead of Winter (2025) rates 3 of 5 stars.
THE UNDERTAKER VOLUME 1: THE GOLD EATER & DANCE OF THE VULTURES by Ralph Meyer, Caroline Delabie and Xavier Dorison is coming. Here’s the scoop…
A gold-toothed corpse, a town hungry for vengeance, and a hearse full of secrets ― a gripping opening to a groundbreaking graphic novel series by expert duo Xavier Dorison and Ralph Meyer.
Jonas Crow is not your average mortician. Tall, lean, and accompanied by a carrion-eating vulture, he travels the Old West in a black hearse, providing final rites for those who can afford them. But Jonas is a man with a past as dark as the clothes he wears―and his newest client is about to make life very difficult for the living.
When the wealthy and hated mining tycoon Joe Cusco summons Crow, it’s for a peculiar request: Cusco knows he’s dying, and he plans to take his vast fortune with him. By swallowing his hoard of gold nuggets before drawing his last breath, he turns his own body into a literal treasure chest.
Now Jonas Crow must transport the gold-filled corpse across a desert crawling with outlaws, desperate miners, and Cusco’s own vengeful former employees. With a straight-laced English governess and a mysterious woman named Rose by his side, Crow must navigate a trail of greed where the line between the “good guys” and the vultures is razor-thin.
Why You’ll Love The Undertaker:
A Masterclass in Visual Storytelling: Winner of multiple European comic awards, featuring the gritty, high-contrast art of Ralph Meyer.
The Modern Western: Perfect for fans of True Grit, The Sisters Brothers, or Django Unchained.
Darkly Humorous & Action-Packed: A blend of cynical wit, high-stakes shootouts, and a deep, unfolding mystery regarding Jonas Crow’s true identity.
Click on preview pages below to get a biggie-sized look!
THE UNDERTAKER VOLUME 1 Hardcover
THE UNDERTAKER VOLUME 1 Kindle
The Guilty (2021)
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Screenplay: Nic Pizzolatto; based on Den skyldige by Gustav Möller, Emil Nygaard Albertsen
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Riley Keough (voice), Peter Sarsgaard (voice), Eli Goree, David Castañeda, Adrian Martinez, Beau Knapp (voice), Edi Patterson (voice), Paul Dano (voice), Gillian Zinser (voice) and Ethan Hawke (voice).
Tagline: Listen Carefully.
The Plot…
Joe Baylor is a LA police officer regulated to the night shift at a 911 Call Center pending the outcome of a complaint filed against him. It is the night before a court decision deciding his fate. It’s been eight months of hell. It took a toll on Baylor and his family. He and his wife (and their child) are estranged.
Baylor’s shift is almost over. He cannot wait to get home and put this night behind him. Then he takes a call. A six year old girl is home alone with her baby brother. She’s afraid. The child says her father took her mother out of the house. As Baylor tries to find her location to send a unit for a welfare check, he discovers the father has a record — for assault. Now worried for the children and the mother, Baylor begins to try to locate the girl’s parents.
Joe Baylor is about to go down a path that he’s not expecting and will change his life.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
The Guilty is a remake of a 2018 Danish film of the same name.
The Guilty (2021) rates3 of 5 stars.
I absolutely love Thobias Daneluz’s take on Sly Stallone as Rocky Balboa. It would be so cool to see Thobias adapt all of the Rocky films. Well, one can dream, right? Check out Thobias’ Instgram to see more of his art.
“Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood.” – Rocky Balboa
Marv from Frank Miller’s Sin City is one of my all-time favorite characters. I love seeing artists do their “take” on the big lug. Today we have a Marv by Claudio Stassi.
Jordan Harper’s A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE sounds like it’s going to be a banger…
This epic crime novel tells a story of Los Angeles power brokers and those at the edge — and a single shattering incident that threatens to bring it all crashing down.
Los Angeles, right now. America with its back up against the wall. This Frankenstein’s monster of crimes and lurid dreams sewn together into something like a city.
A city ready to explode: A Hollywood pedophile is arrested, and is ready to tear down the city to get his freedom. A young woman goes missing — and men in black rubber gloves who look like cops clean out her apartment in the middle of the night. And the serial killer known as the LA Ripper is on the loose, leaving tragic/graphic/brutal crime scenes in his wake. Three people trying to keep their heads above the dirty water will find themselves coming together to unite these strands into one enormous, unspeakable crime …
Jake Deal is a gonzo live-streaming nightcrawler, beaming the city’s chaos straight to his audience of blood-hungry subscribers, giving them the view from the top of the mushroom cloud — until a job he can’t refuse drags him back into his old life of Hollywood glamour, drugs, sex and sleaze. Armed with cameras and hidden mics, he’ll infiltrate private clubs, gather high-class dirt — and stumble onto a conspiracy woven into the center of LA’s most powerful men, who call themselves “The Kids in the Candy Store.”
Doug Gibson is a street lawyer, who fights for his clients against the army of cops, prosecutors and judges—he is the knife they bring to the gunfight. But when he’s hired by a Hollywood pedophile ready to sell out his friends for a chance for freedom, he’ll take on a fight bigger than he could have imagined. And when his client “commits suicide” in prison, Gibson will have to stop being a weapon — and become a warrior.
Kara Delgado works for an underground private concierge company—a make-a-wish foundation for the terminally rich. She scores drugs, makes connections, and plans multi-million dollar sex parties.She has learned the secret truth of this world: there are no rules, only prices. Her best friend Phoebe has gone missing, and Kara’s the only person who knows that Phoebe’s place was wiped clean of evidence by men in black rubber gloves. But when she begins to unravel the mystery of what happened to Phoebe, and its connection to the killer known as the LA Ripper, it will drag her into the dark heart of the city.
As Jake, Doug and Kara all investigate these crimes, they’ll encounter ketamine-addled sitcom stars, bloody riots, homeless gangsters, a killer cop on death row, secret vaults in Beverly Hills, tech-bro orgies, medical cannibals, true crime junkies, private security wet-work teams, reality shows, street takeovers, car chases, coyotes, a sadistic Tarzan, and a three day, fifty million dollar wedding, before everything is revealed and they must each make their choice about how to fight back in this violent world before the bloody, blazing conclusion.
A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE HARDCOVER
A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE PAPERBACK
A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE KINDLE
Check out the trailer for Tom Clancey’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War. I enjoyed the series and will check out the movie.
Deal me in.
Jack Ryan returns in a major movie event. Stream Ghost War – May 20 on Prime Video.
When CIA analyst Jack Ryan stumbles upon a suspicious series of bank transfers his search for answers pulls him from the safety of his desk job and catapults him into a deadly game of cat and mouse throughout Europe and the Middle East, with a rising terrorist figurehead preparing for a massive attack against the US and her allies.
This sweet John Wick: Chapter 3 – Paradbellum alt poster was created by Mark Levy.
“Are services still off limit to me?”
James Byron Huggins’ THE LAST HUNT (the third in the Hunter trilogy) is a hit! It currently has a 4.5 / 5 star rating at Amazon. Its Goodreads rating is even better – 4.65 / 5 stars.
Perhaps even more impressive is that THE LAST HUNT sits in Goodreads’ Listopia #1 spot on the list of Best Action & Thrillers Ever. Huggins is in the company of legends (Child, Clancey, Lundlum and Evanovich) and leads the pack! (See chart below.)
Long time readers of this site know that James Byron Huggins wrote HUNTER with Sylvester Stallone in mind as the lead character. In fact Sly discussed ideas with Byron prior to the novel being written and the second edition is dedicated to Sylvester Stallone.
Sly Stallone has held the movie rights to HUNTER since the start. A couple of times it appeared that the movie adaptation of Hunter would be soon on Sly’s agenda. But the movie business proceeds in mysterious ways, and HUNTER has yet to reach the production stage. Sly’s Balboa Productions still has the rights and hopefully fans will get to HUNTER as a feature film or television series.
Every book in the HUNTER trilogy gets my highest recommendation.