Neeko Watches Movies

Hello, I am Neeko. I love to rank directors filmographies, watch and review terrible movies, and breakdown some of the newest releases.

Ongoing changes to the channel being made. Hopefully videos back up by Jan 2024. Getting the home studio done, expect big job in quality. Stick around.

My Favorite Current Movie: Barry Lyndon
My Favorite Current TV Show: Mad Men

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Neeko Watches Movies

OUT NOW

2 months ago | [YT] | 0

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Neeko Watches Movies

Tomorrow...

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Neeko Watches Movies

Been pretty busy. Should have a video out by the end of the week.

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Neeko Watches Movies

BEST MOVIE EVER

3 months ago | [YT] | 4

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Neeko Watches Movies

I thought I'd leave my notes for Weapons since I didn't have time to make a video.

Weapons was my most anticipated film of 2025. This has been one of the hottest scripts in hollywood, New Line Cinema ended up winning a massive bidding war at the price point of 38 MILLION DOLLARS. For an original horror idea from a director with one horror film to his name, that received moderate success, i assumed the script was the second coming of the exorcist.

Jordan Peele literally fired people over not getting this script and you know, he knows a thing or two about this genre. Also it was being compared to Magnolia which is my favorite film of all time.

With all of this context, and a cast i can really get behind, featuring Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, my boy Han Solo, and Benedict Wong, it earned being my most anticipated film of the year.

This is where I end up telling you, this is the biggest disappointment of the year for me. Let me tell you why.

My one sentence review would be Weapons felt like a crappy longlegs met barbarian that was written by a guy that watched lost highway and magnolia within the week. Goddamn what a disappointment

Weapons is the newest film from sketch comedian turned Horror director Zach Cregger. The plot of this film is 17 kids from the same classroom walk out at 2:17AM causing outrage and sadness to the community. Julia Garner is the teacher of the classroom, Josh Brolin plays a father that loses his kid, Benedict Wong plays the principal, Mr Han Solo plays the cop of the town that has a history with Julia Garner. I want this to be a spoiler filled review so you are being warned right here.

Something that is immediately revealed in the film but hidden from the trailer is the fact that one kid did not run away. As soon as this is revealed, the common interpretation of this film was confirmed to me. Before it came out, it was assumed to be about school shootings. How else does an entire classroom go missing? This was also an aspect to the film I was really looking forward to, a horror film abstract take on school shootings is a really interesting and devastating idea, that with good execution could be really haunting and moving. Within about 30 minutes, we see Josh Brolin looking at a massive AR-15 in the sky over a house, so yeah guys pretty safe where this is heading. Right???

We are introduced to this character named Gladdis, a crossdresser that has some wizardry to her. With Cregger admitting that the AR-15 scene felt Lynchian when he wrote it, it makes sense to me that this character that is the one magical force of the movie reminded me of Lost Highway. This reminded me of the Mystery Man that represents Evil. Its not grounded in reality obviously, as its a Lynch movie but i thought that was the direction we were headed here.

This character comes into the film, and its later revealed its just a witch. A witch just decided to do this, we heavily hint towards the kid being bullied and most likely wanting revenge on his child classmates, but no, i dont see how you can get to that interpretation after watching the film.

Now many people are going to get something different out of this, but this film just goes back in forth from being vaguely about school shootings, and also trying to be magnolia with bouncing a lot of characters and flirting the same idea that Magnolia flirts with which is “these things happen”. Well i guess these things happen, i guess sometimes a witch just comes and takes the kids for a month and hides them.

I keep seeing this idea come up online, that this film is about nothing. Now i wouldnt go that far, but it does really seem to be a very surface level film that prides itself into thinking its saying much more by flirting with these larger concept ideas. When people talk to me about how the final act really wrapped things together, id love to know what they mean. Because yeah plotwise it does, back to spoilers, theres a crackhead that shows the cop where the kids are, and the teacher and the father find the house where the kids are, theres a big fight with the witch, some witchcraft happens and the kids chase her out and the kids are all restored to their parents but they dont really talk anymore.

One aspect i do like is how they made it so they are a shell of themselves, demonstrating the trauma they went through. But i am sorry, if youre going to flirt about this movie being about school shootings, the kids have to die. I am sorry the kids cant be alive. You cant have the scene where the father reunites with the kid. You cant leave this film this empty under the guise of its Lynchian and its up to your interpretation.

I hate to sound like the guy thats knit-picking but this film just feels like it promises something, and delivers 70% of a film, while also delivering two different films. There is a film that wants to tackle school shootings under the guise of horror which is the film i am more interested in, and the other half of the film is well actually witchcraft just entered this city and it happened. I do think there is a world where these two ideas mesh and work but its not in this film.

This film also just feels bloated because they waste so many opportunities, like the cop subplot just kinda turns into a plot device that gets us into the house of kids quicker. I thought it was going to be some sort of message about policing in small towns or how they historically handle shootings in a cowardly way. But no, hes just a bad cop thats a bad person that has a relationship with the teacher just because.

I also have an issue with the tone of this movie. Barbarians tone never bothered me and it got me some hilarious laughs. The last act of this film honestly just feels like a comedy sketch, especially when you have the kids chasing the witch around, it is funny but it just took away from any message i could possibly extract from the entire film.

Let me tackle the themes that i could gather and why i think it could have been more.

It is more accurate to label the theme of school shooting as adults failing vulnerable kids. Gladdis represents adults that abuse kids as she quite literally drains their life and makes it so they can barely move. But also she is able to command the kids as shes an authority figure to them. My issue with this is that she can do this to anyone. We see it done to the principal, the cop, the crackhead, so shes just a witch that can do whatever she wants man.

We tackle issues of scapegoating as well with the father initially blaming the teacher saying “she most of known something” and “it doesnt make any sense”. And i guess this is where the magnolia influence happens because the father witnesses the principal being possessed and he stops his scapegoating, he is taught the lesson of Magnolia that “these things happen”.

In his first two films, he has decided to become a very structure oriented director. Barbarian has 2 hard cuts to black transitions into the next act. Weapons has the same thing going on but hard cuts into a new characters perspective. This film becomes something interesting happens, then we cut to the next character and catch up to that very point. I have nothing against this structure but i do think it becomes a self defeating prophecy in this film. I especially take issue when you dont utilize this opportunity to show how the characters see these events in their own perspective. Nothing ever changes in these different characters perspective, there is an ultimate truth and avoids any post-modernist perspectives.

I know this feels like a long rant but it just frustrated me so much that Cregger has such great control, received some fantastic performances, and kinda just fumbles the script that for some reason, everyone acted like was the next Godfather.

This film frustrated me and a frustrating film is worse than a bad film. There is a world where a few tweaks happen, and this is one of my favorite films of the year.

I am still interested in Creggers work but I think he needs to rewatch Magnolia again to see how great that film was at introducing themes, sticking to them, and showing these ideas in profound ways that illicit true emotion. When i still believed this film was being consistent about its central theme, and they show the kid being bullied, i started to get emotional because i realized where i THOUGHT this was headed, then its just abandoned for meaningless witchcraft.

I gave this a 5 but maybe im a little too harsh on it.