Hi, it is Bill and Teddy the Chihuahua again and time for our APRIL Barking Mad About Films Newsletter.
So, without any further ado, welcome to our April review….
BARKING MAD ABOUT APRIL 2025
We watched quite a few classics in April, which again included revisits to some old favourties.
One thing we have been doing this year is trying to watch a Robin Williams film every Wednesday, he is always a joy to watch, including one of his most loved performances as Mrs. Doubtfire and a first time watch of Jack for director Francis Ford Coppola.
We loved G20 starring our Will Trent fav, Ramon Rodriguez on Amazon.
Over on Netflix, we also enjoyed Tom Hardy action movie, Havoc from Gareth Evans director of The 2 Raid movies.
We also watched romantic time loop film The Greatest Hits, just to see David Corenswet, the new Superman.
We also revisited Rogue One, ahead of the new season of Andor and A Simple Favor ahead of its forthcoming sequel.
We also were surprised how much we enjoyed a rewatch of M3gan ahead of its sequel, as we found it again a lot of fun.
One of the surprises was Danny DeVito’s War of the Roses, the dark comedy drama about a couple going through a divorce, it really was a great watch, and one we had completely forgotten.
We will be certainly curious to see its forthcoming remake, The Roses.
BARKING MAD ABOUT CINEMA
April can be a strange month, as can be a dumping ground for films, after award season and before blockbuster season, but we chose well this month as enjoyed all our choices.
Our first April watch, looks like it will be the biggest film of the year, on current form and that was A Minecraft Movie, we had no idea what it would be like as never played the game, and truthfully we only saw it as our cinema did not show Drop =(
But it was surprisingly entertaining, with Jack Black being a lot of fun.
Next up was Death of a Unicorn, this was a fun quirky tale and also fun was that it started Jenna Ortega so it connected to our previous Minecraft watch, which starred her Wednesday co-star, Emma Myers.
We then watched a film that was on our top ten of most anticipated films, The Penguin Lessons and we did love it, but on reflection, we definitely preferred the book it was based on.
We ended the month with one that will surely feature in our end of year top ten, Sinners, it was film unlike anything we had seen before, because the music felt like it was one of the lead actors, given the significant part it played in the film.
We certainly can’t stop playing the Sinners soundtrack.
BARKING MAD ABOUT MOVIE CONNECTIONS
Last month, we watched a film that would connect to the one we that day at the cinema.
So, before A Minecraft Movie, we watched Nacho Libre, which was also directed by Jared Hess and starred Jack Black.
Before Death of a Unicorn, we watched director Jared Hess’s animated musical film, Thelma the Unicorn, which also fitted in with the animated April we were doing.
Before The Penguin Lessons, we used it as an excuse to revisit Steve Coogan in the Alan Partridge movie, Alpha Papa.
And before Sinners, we watched Michael B. Jordan in Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse.
BARKING MAD ABOUT BOOKS
We again had a few books in our read list that have been inspired by forthcoming films or films recently announced.
We read a few books that are heading to the screen, imminently and in the future:
Grief is a thing with feathers by Max Porter, A story about a crow helping a husband and his children deal with death of their mother/wife, soon to be a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
A short story about vampires called Abraham’s Boys by Joe Hill which is to be a movie.
Primitive War by Ethan Pettus, which sees a wormhole land dinosaurs in the Vietnam war, again soon to be a movie.
And then coming to TV
Icelandic crime thriller The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson
Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum which is to star Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Dreamland by Rosa Rankin Gee, a really dark futuristic tale coming to BBC about a seaside resort being left to die out so it can be turning into barriers against the rising waters.
Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach about a twin sister returning home after leaving, when hearing her twin has died in a fire, to star Lucy Hale.
And finally, Secret Service by Tom Bradby, a spy thriller that will star Gemma Arterton.
BARKING MAD ABOUT TV.
We watched some great shows in April:
We enjoyed the new version of Bergerac starring Damien Molony.
The latest season of Grace on ITV based on the hugely successful Peter James books.
We did enjoy another bonkers Channel 5 drama, in The Feud.
And it has so far been a great new season of Doctor Who.
BARKING MAD ABOUT ANIMATED MOVIES
We had a mini–Animated April, and we caught up with some recent movies we have still to watch including Inside Out 2 and Moana 2.
It also lets us revisit Aladdin and Robots for our Robin Williams Wednesdays.
For Easter Sunday, we gave Hop a rewatch, which luckily treated the rabbits a lot better than our first time watch of the original classic, Watership Down.
A new Doctor Who episode featured both live action and animation, inspired us to revisit the great Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Ahead of its Live Action remake, we rewatched Lilo and Stitch, the original we would safely say is our favourite Animated film of all time, and that opinion looks like not changing any time soon.
BARKING MAD ABOUT REMEMBERING THE GREATS WE LOST.
April started with the heart-breaking news that Val Kilmer had passed away, it was not that long again we had revisited Top Secret, but as soon as we heard, we rewatched him in one of his most loved roles as Doc Holiday in Tombstone.
Director Ted Kotcheff also passed away, probably best remembered for directing the first Rambo movie, First Blood, we used it as an excuse to watch his comedy classic Weekend at Bernie’s.
BARKING MAD ABOUT FRANCHISES.
In April we revisited the previous 5 films of the Final Destination franchise, ahead of the new movie.
We also did a double bill of Allan Quartermain films, starring the late Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone.
Our rewatch of Weekend at Bernie’s also saw a first time rewatch of its sequel.
And having watched the original recently, we watched a couple of Beethoven sequels.
BARKING MAD ABOUT MAY
Two of our most anticipated films are released in May
Final Destination: Bloodlines, which having revisited the previous movies, we really can’t wait to see what crazy kills they come up with for this new film.
And the big one, Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning, we love these movies and we are currently rewatching the previous movies in the series in anticipation.
One we are struggling with, but sure we will see is the live action remake of Lilo and Stitch, it is one of our favourite movies of all time, and hope it can do the original justice.
At home, we have a few shows starting that we are looking forward to.
Poker Face returns this month, and we loved the first season.
Welcome to Wrexham returns to Disney+ and we love this documentary about this Welsh football team.
Long Bright River starring Amanda Seyfried, is coming to Channel Four, we loved the book so can’t wait to see it come to life, so to speak.
We very much liked the book Prom Queen by R L Stine and look forward to its forthcoming Netflix movie adaptation.
Having seen a new trailer for the latest attempt to bring the Fantastic Four to the screen, we will try and visit a rewatch of some of the previous attempts.
Ever since seeing Sinners, we want to revisit From Dusk Till Dawn, but we will be inspired by what we find to watch for other rewatches.
We will continue with our Robin Williams Wednesdays of course.
So, what were your April highlights and what are you looking forward to in May?
We would love to hear from you.
You can always keep up with what we are watching by following us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/barkingmadaboutfilms/
Or you can follow us on Letterboxd to see all the movies we watch: https://letterboxd.com/Bill626/
We hope you enjoyed our monthly reviews and if this has given you inspiration for films to watch or you want more ideas for what to watch then why not check out our digital calendar full of ideas and dates in movies https://barkingmadaboutfilms-com.stackstaging.com/introducing-the-bmaf-film-club-calendar/
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