Latest / The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of / Sean Means Movie Reviews from August 28th, 2026

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Sean Means Movie Reviews from August 28th, 2026 · The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Sean Means is here to review movies. He's the invisible
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: hand at the Salt Lake Tribune.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: I can see his hand right there. At the Tribune. Oh,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: I see.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Moviecricket.net is his website where you can read his film reviews.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: He's got a whole library there. What do we got today?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: We got four new movies to talk about this week.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: We will start with The Dog Stars. So, yeah, it's
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: been a bad week for 80-year-olds.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Frank. And today we have a movie that's
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: directed by a guy who's 88 years old, Ridley Scott.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: 88.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: And he swears he's going to keep going.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, he will until time finally stops him, I guess.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: He's been making great movies for half a century. Alien,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, Martian,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: you know, long list. The Dog Stars is his 30th
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: feature film. I actually can't. And I hope it's not
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: his last because, I mean, it's okay, but he could
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: do better. Oh. Jacob Elordi stars here as Hig. He's
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: a bush pilot in Colorado. He's too tall to be
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: a pilot. He folds himself into those little planes. This
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: is my problem with that casting. He lives in a
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: hangar with his old buddy, Bangley, played by Josh Brolin.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Bangley has taught Higg enough about firearms to keep them
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: both alive in these years after a pandemic has wiped
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: out most of the population. And the people that are
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: left are sort of scavenging and scrounging and so on.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: This is about 10 years into the future. Higg spends
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: his time scavenging in the nearby city, which is a
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: very overgrown Denver. He also hears radio signals from Grand Junction,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: which may be a paradise that has escaped the pandemic's horrors. Uh,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: those horrors include the death of his, of Higg's wife.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: So Higg wants to find out what's happening outside the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: security zone that he and his friend have set up.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: So he flies off at one point, uh, runs into
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: a father and daughter played by Guy Pierce and Margaret Qualley. Um,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: this is, this is a solid movie. I mean, really
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Scott knows how to stage action and bring it together
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: with the human story. It does come off a little
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: too close to, uh, 28 years later, the bone temple. Oh, really?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: It's sort of same idea, but that, that one did
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: it better. this is worth it for Elordi. He's sort
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: of growing into a strong leading man, if, yes, 6'5,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: or whatever it is he is. And the ending is
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: a little off, but it's still pretty good. Three stars
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: for The Dark Stars. By the way, the book is fantastic. Todd,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: you're a reader. Peter Heller, read everything he writes. It's great.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: I will do that. All right.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Do you want to do It Ends?
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Yes. It Ends is a horror movie of sorts. There's
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: lots to be afraid of, but not a lot of gore.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: We have four college-age friends on a road trip. They
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: get turned around, and after a while, they wonder where
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: the turnoff is that they thought they would get them home.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: And the more they look for the turnoff, the more
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: they realize it's not there, and the road just keeps
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: going and going and going and going. They also figure
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: out that they can't stop for long because if they stop,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: other young people storm the car and rip everything apart.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: So they got to keep going. They got to keep moving. Wow.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: And the longer the drive, the longer it doesn't make sense.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: It's like they're not using up any gas. Yeah. It's
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: like they're at a quarter tank the entire time. Can
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: they turn around? They try turning around, and it was
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: a dead end. Doesn't work. So they can only go forward.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: And they're not hungry. They don't have to pee. Weird.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Everything is stopped. Okay. All right. And so now they
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: got to figure out what's happening, what's going on, and
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: how are they going to do this. Yeah, there isn't,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: like I said, there's no gore here. The chills come
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: from watching these four figure out how to get out
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: of this situation. First time director named Alexander Ulam. The
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: cast is nobody you've heard of. And it's a very,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I would place it in the category of the liminal thriller.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: If you remember Back Rooms a few months ago. Yeah.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: where the atmosphere is the cause of the tension. It
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: sounds kind of cool. And, I mean, filmed very cheaply.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's all in the car or just outside
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: the car.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, this didn't cost much to make.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: No, it's three and a half stars. It's very effective.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: You're describing the last time I drove to Tooele.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Imagine that, but then another 100,000 miles. And then you're
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: about midway through the movie. Yeah, three and a half
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: stars for It Ends, and it's playing in a few places. Buddy. Buddy. Okay,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: this is the horror movie that has the gore in it.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: It also has a fuzzy unicorn. Yeah. We start on
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: a children's TV show, very Barney-coded here. Buddy is a
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: big orange unicorn who entertains the four kids, and the
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: kids dance and sing, and they learn lessons about being
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: brave and cleaning up after themselves and so on. And
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: at the end, the kids all hug Buddy, and then
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: the credits roll, and that's how it always ends. It's
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: a good show. But when the kids don't hug Buddy...
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Bad things happen. Oh, no. And Buddy gets to murdering. Oh.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: And then he has to replace the kids or sometimes
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: the adults that he kills by sucking new recruits through
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: the TV screen. Oh. And after a few minutes of this,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: we switch over to the real world, and we meet Grace,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: who is married, has two kids. But she's starting to
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: sense that something is not quite right in all this.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: She starts to remember that they have a third child,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: and the whole family has just forgotten about it. And
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Grace is played by Kristen Milioti, who we love. And
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: her husband is played by Topher Grace.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Now, what does Grace's story have to do with the
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: kids trying to escape Buddy's show? Well, that's why you
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: see the movie. That's what you find out watching the film.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Does anybody get skewered by the unicorn horn? Yeah, I
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: was wondering that, too. Spoilers. Buddy is voiced by Keegan-Michael Key. Yeah.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: And it's like he has finally realized that if he
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: ever wants to work with Jordan Peele again, he has
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: to work in horror more. Apparently. The other voice is
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: in here. Patton Oswalt's in here. Michael Shannon is in here.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Clint Howard. Really? Shows up in here in a very
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: strange role. Clint Howard, yeah. Yeah. The director here is
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Casper Kelly. He made that viral video, Too Many Cooks. Yes.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: A few years ago, that one. So he's really good
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: at turning familiar pop culture ideas into something sinister. You
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: like this. Three and a half for Buddy. He's playing
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: in a lot of places. All right, here it is.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Coyote vs. Acme. Coyote vs. Acme, yes. This is a
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: satire of corporate greed featuring the Looney Tunes characters. Because,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: of course.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: This is a great idea in itself. We get to
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: add the irony that the movie was almost killed by
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: corporate greed when Warner Brothers said they were going to
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: shelve the movie as a tax write-off.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Fans rebelled, and Warner Brothers sold the movie to a
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: small distributor. And so now it's up to the fans,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: looking at you, everybody, to show up and make it worthwhile.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Because we've had way too many examples of fans saying,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: you have to bring this back, and then they bring
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: it back, and the fans don't show up. Nothing happens.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Jericho is the great example. Oh, yeah. So go. Yes.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: So we start with Wile E. Coyote out in the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: desert trying to catch the Roadrunner, as he always does. Yes.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: And as he always does, he's using Acme products like
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: the rocket skates. And as always, they malfunction. This time, though,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: there's something different. Wiley sees a billboard. He sees a
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: commercial for a lawyer, Kevin Avery, who specializes in tune-related
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: accident law. Avery. Oh, yes. The law firm is Avery, Jones,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: and Maltese. Love it.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Maltese.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Oh, there you go. Animation nerds. Animation nerds, no. Yeah,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: so he gets small settlements for individual cases against Acme,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: and Acme pays them off because it's cheaper than fighting them,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: usually just for like $ 100, a couple hundred bucks, whatever,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: because cartoons are resilient. Exactly. They can't claim lasting damages, right?
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: I see. So Wiley is Kevin Avery's new client, but
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Wiley doesn't want to settle one little claim. He wants
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: to file a bigger lawsuit for all the years of
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: faulty Acme products. That's a lot of years. That's a
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: lot of years, and it's a giant pile of Acme stuff. Yeah.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: So that gets the company's attention. And Acme's head lawyer,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Buddy Crane, played by John Cena, he's very slick. He
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: makes an offer to settle for $ 50, 000, but Wiley doesn't
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: want to settle. He wants to go to court. He
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: wants to go to court. And he wants to be
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: there when the roadrunner testifies. Yay. So meanwhile, the CEO
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: of Acme has had enough, I say enough. He is
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Foghorn Leghorn.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: And I love the idea that Foghorn Leghorn is like
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: the John Huston character from Chinatown. Exactly. Foghorn is worried
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: that Wile E. Coyote's case is cutting a little too
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: close to some dirty secrets that Acme has been hiding
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: for a long time. So there are some toons who
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: work for Foghorn Leghorn, and there are some toons who
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: are trying to uncover the conspiracy. There's this one mystery
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: figure who's trying to help Kevin. Our only clue is
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: that he keeps calling Kevin Doc. Mm-hmm. Yay. This is
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: one of the more inventive movies we've seen in a
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: long time. Director Dave Green, writer Sammy Birch, and all
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: the animators and the producers. James Gunn is one of
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: the producers here, which really makes me question how much
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: clout he actually has at Warner Brothers. Yeah, to not
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: get this made.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: It's DC Studios that he really is in charge of.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: He probably doesn't have much clout outside of that.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: You'd think he'd be able to pull some strings.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: You'd think.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Anyway. They definitely know their Looney Tunes lore. There are
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: references here that are such deep cuts.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: This movie's made for me. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent gags. And
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: here's the other thing. The movie has heart. You actually
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: start tearing up toward the end because we get into
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: the relationship between the Roadrunner and the Coyote. And something
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: that we have never considered before, which is what does
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: the Roadrunner think of the Coyote?
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Oh. I've never.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: We've never pondered that before. No. This is very funny.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: It's very sweet. Will Forte plays the Lord. He's very fun.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Lana Condor is his intern. Great supporting cast. All the
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: great characters. Yeah, Forte's character is great because he's been
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: a loser all his life, so he has complete empathy
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: with Wiley. And when they uncover the secret secret at Acme.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: It's something called Project Sisyphus. If you know, you know. Yeah.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Three and a half for Coyote versus Acme. And it's
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: playing everywhere. Wow, that's great.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Harry, when you go see that, I think you should
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: just bring some breakfast cereal.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Just sit there and have some cookies. In my pajamas.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: That's what the popcorn bucket should be. It should be
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: a cereal bowl. Yes.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: All right. Thank you, Sean.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Thank you.