I love that there are some people who are super jazzed about cinematicfbombs.com, but there’s a difference between showing that excitement and spamming.

One follower comments incessantly about missing titles on the website and YouTube. I’m a proponent of this because it’s a great way to find out about films I’ve missed through my own research. The issue, however, is that I thank them for the suggestion, they acknowledge that reply, and then proceed to keep suggesting it again multiple more times on different pages.

I know this is a person who probably can’t cease this practice (it happens), but I’ve added some links and verbiage to the site, YouTube, and Letterboxd in hopes of mitigating this behavior by catching others before they can fall into the same pattern. It pretty much boils down to transferring my queues to public places so fans know which titles are already on my radar before reaching out.

These include:

• Index (~970) – Contains links to individual “live” pages and “unlinked” placeholders for titles I have verified and clipped (but haven’t had time to officially add yet).

• Watchlist (~250) – Contains those titles I have either been told include an f-bomb or have subtitle files suggesting one that haven’t yet been verified or clipped.

So, if anyone has any suggestions not included on those two links, please feel free to reach out here. Thanks in advance!

What I Watched:

BLACK BAG

(streaming on Peacock)

George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) doesn't like liars. Just ask his father—a man he exposed and ultimately drove to suicide as a result. So, Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgård) knows the delicate nature of what he asks him to do upon turning over a list of names with the top five suspects of having stolen a sensitive government weapon with the capability of killing thousands. Why is it so delicate? Because George's wife Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett) is amongst those names. She had the clearance, motive, and capacity to commit the crime. And he has the steely resolve to prove it if she did. Would he, though?

That's the question at the core of David Koepp's script for Black Bag. Not who did the deed or even whether its potential carnage comes true. No, the real intrigue is whether George will turn her in if she's guilty or become the exact sort of liar he abhors to save her. What makes Steven Soderbergh's direction of the film so entertaining, however, is that we never actually need to ask the question. Not because we know he'd kill for Kathryn or because we can assume she'd do the same for him, but because their love and trust in one another means they'd never put the other in a position where they'd need to consider the choice. The fun is therefore in the knowledge that everyone else knows this too.

Because it is their biggest weakness as covert operatives for British intelligence. They are each other's pressure point—the one person they'd willingly compromise themselves to save. But they are also each other's greatest asset due to that certainty. People can play their loyalty against the other for their own gain, but George and Kathryn are smart enough and confident enough to suss it out and use it to their advantage once their roads converge to reveal both of their strings have been pulled. And that doesn't mean she's innocent. Maybe she did steal the device. Maybe she did it to save George while he's put on her trail to close the loop so the real perpetrator escapes scot-free. Their weakness being their strength can be their weakness yet again.

So, we have no choice but to be on high alert when considering everyone else's role in this game. Freddie (Tom Burke) and Clarissa (Marisa Abela)—dating. Col. Stokes (Regé-Jean Page) and Dr. Vaughan (Naomie Harris)—also dating. They all know this couple well enough to set this intricately devised chaos in motion and each other to maintain alibis and, perhaps, enlist accomplices. And since they all believe themselves the smartest person in the room, they possess the hubris to think playing George and Kathryn against each other might distract them long enough to get away with it. That their love could be clouded by suspicion rather than prove so ironclad that any move to out the other becomes a move to protect them and thus a tell for the fact they were the one being played the whole time.

Add Pierce Brosnan's perpetually grumpy office leader Stieglitz and you truly cannot tell when a maneuver is meant to subvert an operation or ensure its success. Why? Because none of these people can be trusted. As Clarissa frustratingly admits at one point, someone who literally lies for a living can never be relied upon to tell the truth. So, they can't date a civilian (it would never be real) and they can't succeed in dating another operative (because the transactional nature of the relationship would always be undercut by the ability to hide beneath mutually accepted confidentiality). One could say it's precisely why George and Kathryn became the perfect marks. The rest are jealous that they've not only made it work, but somehow made it look easy.

Therein lies the real fun for us, but especially for them. Because that relentless love means there is no line they wouldn't cross for or with the other. To give them the room to join together and ferret out their puppet master? That's foreplay for them. That gets them more excited than any of the tasks they are assigned because it lets them off-leash. They are no boundaries here. No bureaucratic red tape. The question of whether they would keep country above marriage becomes moot because neither would ever willingly do anything to sacrifice the former. In fact, the latter inevitably becomes the one thing they can use to save the former. And they'll mow through anyone standing in their way.

Brosnan and Skarsgård are cameos at best, but the other six principal actors are all an absolute delight. Page and Harris are duplicitous to a fault for some great, no-holds-barred interactions in private and at George and Kathryn's dinner table. Fassbender and Blanchett are so coldly calculating that the sexual tension of their romance can't help screaming out whenever they're alone (not to mention his moments of fear upon realizing he's been used and her bloodlust for revenge upon realizing the same). My favorites, though, are Burke and Abela. They're the messy couple. The emotional ones. They're as unpredictable as potential villains as they are obvious leverage points. Stick each to a polygraph and enjoy the ride.

- 8/10

BONO: STORIES OF SURRENDER

(streaming on AppleTV+)

Bono is one helluva showman ... I say as if the world didn't already know. I knew nothing about Andrew Dominik's film based upon the U2 frontman's one-man stage show "Stories of Surrender: An Evening of Words, Music and Some Mischief…" (written by Bill Flanagan and directed by Willie Williams), nor the memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story it was in turn based upon for the purposes of self-promotion. I won't say I had any interest in watching it once I found out about those things either. But, man, if it didn't end up being an enthralling piece of performance art.

I wouldn't say I'm a U2 fan insofar as following their music, but I do absolutely love many of their radio singles and will sometimes take their greatest hits cd for a spin. It was therefore Dominik's name that actually piqued my interest—as well as Bono: Stories of Surrender releasing straight to AppleTV+ considering the fiasco that was Songs of Innocence suddenly appearing in every iTunes account free of charge on September 9th, 2014. I figured I would enjoy the music if nothing else and hoped the event would at least look pretty on-screen in the process. I didn't expect the finished work to become a separate entity all its own.

Because this isn't a concert film. Yes, most of it frames Bono on a bare stage (save for some tables and chairs to use with spotlights implying characters within his stories while a giant LED screen flashes programmed patterns and shapes behind) as he performs (complete with flubs and ad-libbed responses to audience reactions), but there's also overlaid text, juxtaposed alternate dialogue (presumably taken from a confessional revealed in the third act), and gorgeously constructed compositions by Oscar-winner Erik Messerschmidt that I wouldn't be surprised to learn were done without an audience and simply spliced in. Dominik also fades moments in and out to excise the dead air of applause and prop set-ups, even speeding one section up for extra flair. That's why it's "based on" the show rather than simply being "the show."

It's at once a beautiful, kinetic picture book of black and white rockstar prowess and a stripped down, self-deprecating and vulnerable account of a life. Every snippet of songs played reverberates around the theater to mimic the arena bombast they're used to while these new arrangements (by Jacknife Lee, with Kate Ellis and Gemma Doherty's accompaniment) render their emotive essence wholly unique to the space of NYC's Beacon Theatre. And the anecdotes are perfectly measured for dramatic impact as each one builds to either a laugh-out-loud punch line or sobering gut-punch of a revelation to leave us in silence.

There's just enough to show why the show was a good way to market the book (the implicit "buy it to find out more" schtick) and why a filmed version proved a worthwhile endeavor to stand on its own. The insight into the band is fun. Bono's fight for justice and world peace is presented with transparency both in its capacity to inspire and its proliferation being born out of the privilege to afford it. And the tales pitting him against his "da" Bob Hewson are the unequivocal highlight—turning Bono's monologues into a conversation with himself to reconcile who he is against who his father was.

So, while I wouldn't begrudge you for dismissing Stories of Surrender as a vanity project, doing so will inevitably prove you never allowed yourself to fully engage with what the show was doing despite that veneer. Because whatever its origins or optics, the resulting emotional resonance hits hard.

- 7/10

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD

(streaming on Disney+)

Man, it'll be great if Marvel ever decides to plan an arc again rather than just tying things together slapdash because they need content to sell subscriptions and tickets. Because you can say the whole Jonathan Majors assault fallout threw a wrench in their plans all you want, but there wasn't really a "plan" to destroy. Sure, Kang was being set-up to be the next big bad via "Loki" and Quantumania, but neither of those properties truly delivered something worthwhile to the bigger picture than that villain. "Loki" for all intents and purposes was a two-part, self-contained miniseries (beyond its multiverse infrastructure) and everyone—Kevin Feige included—seems to want to believe Quantumania never happened.

The post-Endgame doldrums didn't start there, though. No, it began with the desire to give every superhero in the world a property so they'd be in the arsenal for later. Shang-Chi. Ms. Marvel. Kate Bishop. Moon Knight. She-Hulk. Daredevil and The Punisher back from the dead. Black Widow resurrected for a prequel as if a feature film was Scarlett Johansson's consolation prize for a decade of being the sidekick (and to introduce Yelena Belova). Feige was simply restocking the cabinets after rightfully letting a handful of original heroes die. But what was there to show for it beyond a rudderless trajectory towards an as yet unknown Thunderbolts* led by the enigmatic Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus filling Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury's shoes—despite him not being one of those dead heroes)?

They spread themselves too thin. They made their new releases expendable, disposable, and, inevitably, inconsequential. The only exciting thing to happen during this time was the potential of bringing X-Men and Fantastic Four into the fold after Disney bought Fox. (I'd argue Eternals was an exciting change of pace too while most of the world would argue it was No Way Home—we'll have to agree to disagree.) If anything, the deletion of Kang from the "plan" might have woken Feige to the reality that something had to change. Unfortunately, that wake-up call necessitates a phase of "bridge" episodes to get things back on-track and move forward. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 said goodbye to James Gunn. Deadpool & Wolverine said goodnight to Fox. And Captain America: Brave New World says hello to the new destination.

It's no surprise then that the latter has five credited screenwriters. Or that the latest controversial pivot away from letting Israeli Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) fully reveal herself as Sabra while the character's (and actor's) country continues their genocide of the Palestinian people made her inclusion in the film seem wholly unnecessary. (Why is a foreign national leading US security if she's just a human without a larger purpose?) I feel bad for Julius Onah (director of the fantastic Luce) because there was no real path to success here as a result. I think he did the best he could to deliver an entertaining actioner, but I'd still love to see what he can do with a script that allows him to also deliver a great story.

Built as a sequel to "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" as far as Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) taking up the mantle of Captain America, Brave New World is also a nexus point for connective tissue back to The Incredible Hulk (see Harrison Ford, replacing William Hurt, as Thaddeus Ross and Tim Blake Nelson reprising his role as Samuel Sterns) and Eternals (see Celestial Island) as well as forward towards whatever Earth-616 iteration of the X-Men arises. On a small scale it's about Sam shaking his imposter syndrome to become his own Captain America (again) and Ross shedding his tempestuous, fascist past to reform his legacy as President of the United States. On a large scale it's about revealing adamantium and planting the seed for a new team of Avengers to protect the world from what's coming.

Old characters return in Carl Lumbly's Isaiah Bradley and Danny Ramirez's Joaquin Torres—albeit as pawns to be used, sidelined, and remembered again only when it's time for goodbyes. New characters are born in Haas' Ruth and Giancarlo Esposito's Sidewinder—albeit as one-dimensional friends and foes respectively to also serve a purpose and little more. Thankfully, Tim Blake Nelson is as good as he is so we're able to pretend he isn't also just a cog in the machine who's always being relegated to the shadows as a catalyst instead of a fighter. Sure, he pops up only to progress a plot that all but excludes him, but he's so much fun that we applaud every single appearance.

I'll give Ford credit for providing Ross more pathos than the page probably deserved, but even he's just one arm of many meant to push and pull Sam in as many directions as possible. The film wants Wilson to teach him, stop Sterns, protect Torres, exonerate Bradley, and somehow accept the complexities of his position as the Black savior of a nation that might never see him as anything but inferior to the white one he replaced. So, it's pretty much the same plot lines as "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", but tweaked for variety (and never truly mined deep enough). This is his personal gauntlet to become the leader he must and the MCU's reminder that bona fide human heroes still exist despite most other properties showcasing unadulterated power (the Eternals, Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock) or flawed, villain-adjacent antiheroes (the Thunderbolts* collective) instead.

Is it a chapter I'd be excited to return to removed from the bigger picture like The Winter Soldier, Guardians Vol.1, or Black Panther? No. But it was refreshing to not be forced into starting fresh with someone new (like so many of the television shows now being orphaned courtesy of Marvel's latest mandate to separate mediums as far as film characters appearing on the small screen moving forward). Brave New World might just be bridging the gap with disposable entertainment, but it at least feels moored to this world. It holds onto the history of what came before it and the promise of what might be if Secret Wars lives up to the (perhaps unearned) hype. The MCU still isn't must-see appointment viewing for me anymore, but it's finally starting to seem like it could get there again.

- 6/10

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

(streaming on Disney+)

Zero percent. That's how important Ryan Reynolds is to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "sacred timeline." It's why he was allowed to do whatever he wanted besides snort cocaine on-screen.

Wade Wilson (Reynolds) used Cable's time-travel device in Deadpool 2 to save the lives of everyone he loved while also flippantly deleting Origins-era Deadpool (Reynolds) and Green Lantern's lead actor (Reynolds) without any consequences whatsoever. The TVA couldn't have cared less about these shenanigans because each one proves an inconsequential speck of money-printing dust in canon (heck, one isn't even a Marvel property). Wolverine, though? Hugh Jackman? The moment James Mangold earned an Oscar nomination killing him in Logan was the moment Fox Marvel died (sorry, Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants).

This is fact. It's known. And now it's become the paper-thin metaphor holding Deadpool & Wolverine together. Because this is a nothingburger of a film in the sense of independent narrative weight or MCU lore. It's a fun, irreverent lark—a gift from Kevin Feige to both Reynolds (to finally fight alongside Wolverine while in possession of a mouth) and Jackman (to finally act in an MCU film) for filling Marvel's coffers for so long as the bastard stepchild that wouldn't play ball when Sony did. (Perhaps that's the real reason Disney purchased 20th Century Fox?) It's a eulogy for a bygone institution given heartfelt tribute during a mid-credits behind-the-scenes montage of Fox's many X-Men and Fantastic Four iterations.

How is this movie over two hours then? Because Reynolds and new BFF Shawn Levy love a cameo-heavy, nonsensical actioner that puts fan service above everything. I can imagine the script breaking and pitch to Marvel was pretty much: let Wade stumble backwards into becoming a bona fide hero while also bringing Logan back to life both to introduce mutants into the MCU (since Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were never allowed to use that term and thus were believed, by way of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", to be Inhumans instead) and keep Jackman as a viable entity for future films. Everything else is loose filler and explosive set-pieces connecting the dots.

It does work, though. Reynolds and Jackman know their characters and their audience too well for it to simply fail. Sure, critics lambasted the finished product because it is objectively a bad movie, but no one involved in its creation sought to make the opposite. They merely sought to entertain a rabid (yet frustrated) fanbase with a joke that simultaneously rewarded those of us who understand the callbacks spanning multiple studios and decades of work (including Furiosa because someone thought the Void looking like Mad Max was funny) and didn't punish those who couldn't since none of it matters to the bigger MCU picture beyond the folding-in of estranged IP anyway.

It's therefore impossible to really comment on the script since it's all action figures on a shelf being taken down to be used on the floor for the current conflict before getting tossed aside until their specific powers can be exploited again. The TVA? An easy explainer for the dissolution of Fox Marvel as a "pruned timeline." Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen)? A one-off bureaucratic self-insert for Feige that expands on the self-deprecating robotic AI joke set forth in "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" that makes him into a vindictive villain looking to cannibalize ultimate Marvel power. Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin)? A badass antagonist who wields the power of Xavier and malice of Magneto without needing to pay Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen.

Do those three entities matter beyond helping Wade and Logan advance along their roller coaster tracks towards infamy? No. They're each as briefly rendered, subversively wrought, and purposefully expendable as the litany of famous faces (Chris Evans, Wesley Snipes, Dafne Keen, Jennifer Garner, Channing Tatum, and Aaron Stanford—amongst others) who grace the screen. They push, pull, and die so Deadpool and Wolverine can work out their much-needed trauma through the ultra-violent therapy of R-rated fantasy juxtaposed against classic jukebox pop tunes. It's not a coincidence either that Reynolds breaks the fourth wall to mention how long fans have waited for every subsequent action sequence. This is moviemaking by Reddit thread at its core.

So, it's also the perfect last/next chapters within its dueling enterprises. For the trilogy: Deadpool had a story with purpose that was augmented by its humor. Deadpool 2 had humor failing to hide the reality that there was neither a story nor a purpose. Deadpool & Wolverine gives us purpose augmented by humor despite not having a story. For Fox/Disney: it's an effective metatextual conclusion for a studio that doubles as a multi-million-dollar intermission gag of dancing concessions seeking to reinvigorate an audience grown tired of a middling post-Endgame phase of executives publicly throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. New fans won't be made from watching it, but existing ones might just get their second wind.

- 6/10

Cinematic F-Bombs:

This week saw The Banker (2020), Black Girl (1972), Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Fly Me to the Moon (2024), Incarnate (2016), The Life List (2025), Meet the Spartans (2008), Noises Off… (1992), RED (2010), Runaway (1984), and Swing Vote (2008) added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com).

Samuel L. Jackson with a comical f-bomb in The Banker.

New Releases This Week:

(Review links where applicable)

Opening Buffalo-area theaters 5/30/25 -

• Bhairavam at Regal Elmwood
• Bring Her Back at Dipson Amherst, Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge, Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker
• Desert of Namibia at North Park Theatre (late show)
• Detective Kien: The Headless Horror at Regal Galleria
• Fluxx at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Quaker
• Karate Kid: Legends at Dipson Flix, Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge, Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker
• Khaleja (2010 Re-Release) at Regal Elmwood
• Saunkan Saunkanay 2 at Regal Elmwood
• Tornado at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker

Streaming from 5/30/25 -

• Bono: Stories of Surrender – AppleTV+ on 5/30

  Thoughts are above.

• Dog Man – Peacock on 5/30

• The Heart Knows – Netflix on 5/30

• Lost in Starlight – Netflix on 5/30

• Vampire Hunter D (40th Anniversary) –Shudder on 5/30

• Viaje de fin de curso: Mallorca – Prime on 5/30

• A Widow’s Game – Netflix on 5/30

• Mountainhead – Max on 5/31

• Presence – Hulu on 6/3

Now on VOD/Digital HD -

• A Desert (5/27)

• Juliet & Romeo (5/27)

• The Prosecutor (5/27)

• Stand Your Ground (5/27)

• The Teacher (5/27)

  “There's no vagueness here to the fact that a clandestine war is being waged by rebels as opposed to terrorists. That's not to say it condones their actions either. It merely contextualizes them.” – Full thoughts at The Film Stage.

• Youth (Hard Times) (5/27)

• Youth (Homecoming) (5/27)

• Shadow Force (5/30)

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