John Candy: I Like Me 2025 * * 1/2 Stars

"WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET"

3rd time director (and actor) Colin Hanks helms John Candy: I Like Me. And how it took over thirty years to make a documentary about Candy's short existence is beyond me. "I Like Me" is a portrait of John, one of Canada's most successful comedic talents via film and TV. "This is a guy who, the minute you see his face, you're gonna smile". You tell 'em Dave Thomas. You tell 'em bro.

John Candy: I Like Me, well it's like the most garden variety docu you've ever seen, told chronologically like some bullet point presentation inspired by Last Dance monger and occasional producer Jason Hehir. I mean we know Candy was part owner of the Toronto Argonauts, we know he got his start playing various characters on SCTV, and we know he was a big, lovable galoot who was taken from us much too early (Candy died at age 43 in 1994). So why do we keeping watching the swipe that is "I Like Me?" Well everyone "likes" John Candy and myself, I'm just fascinating by his acting talent in films like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, JFK, and Splash. As Bert Lance said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". 

So yeah, John Candy: I Like Me has interviews from John's buds like Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, and the late Harold Ramis. There are also archives from Candy's career in the industry and revelations about his health (Johnny boy lost over 100 pounds before Hollywood encouraged him to put the weight back on, yikes!). What "I Like Me" fails to do however, is bring anything new to the transmission ring. The flick just feels like it's slightly fan-made, kind of akin to some safe paean without the panache. If it wasn't for the way Colin Hanks thinks in cuts or provides the pic with crisp, sprightly editing I would have panned John Candy: I Like Me completely. "Like" it or lump it. Natch. 

Written by Jesse Burleson

My Father, the BTK Killer 2025 * * Stars

KILLER CROC

"Can you imagine finding out that your father is one of the most evil people on earth". That would be totally rough, especially if pops hid that murderous smoke for many decades. Dennis Rader, we hardly knew ya! Ugh.

Anyway My Father, the BTK Killer is a product of good old Netflix, slightly skewed, merely dated, and almost half-done at 93 minutes. I mean this documentary is like two films in one, colliding with each other like freaking passing ships. You have one flick depicting serial slayer Rader, the John Wayne Gacy of Wichita and Park City, Kansas. The other involves Dennis Rader's daughter in one Kerri Rawson, a woman that doesn't know the meaning of time healing all wounds and actual abstemiousness. 

Um, why dredge up the past with one more interview Kerri? And why the need to hug the spotlight of daddy when everyone still keeps giving you the business about it? Rawson's soapbox-like plight combined with law enforcement's relentless pursuit of a deranged lunatic gives "BTK Killer" the feel of being a very uneven viewing experience. "He doesn't just fool an entire family, he fools an entire city". Yikes!

Directed by TV veteran Skye Borgman and released in October of 2025, My Father, the BTK Killer is decently paced, has some eerie moments, some solid interviews, and provides grainy archives from 1974 to 1991 (the years Dennis Rader offed ten people under the radar, nudge nudge). I mean if you take away the presence of drawn-out Kerri Rawson, "BTK Killer" unfolds nicely, like an enthralling Dateline episode a la creep-o Keith Morrison at the helm. But Rawson just has to chew the almighty scenery mind you, inhabiting most of the screen time and eyeing My Father, the BTK Killer like an unintentional vanity enterprise on the low. "Father lasher". 

Written by Jesse Burleson

Trainwreck: P.I. Moms 2025 * * Stars

MOMMY DEARESTS 

"Finally, he actually answered." What?? If I'm a private investigator looking to become a star of the next Cold Justice I need a little more smoke than that.

So OK, another tell-all doc, brief, filmed with reenactments like some Unsolved Mysteries episode without the poser. Yeah I'm talking about Trainwreck: P.I. Moms, a Netflix flick so eleventh-hour and pasted together it might as well just float away. So, are the moms in "P.I." looking to grab another fifteen minutes of fame as they take a break from their supposed jobs at Dollar General, Mickey D's, and/or Bird's Nest pub? And does one of said moms have some parlous anger issues? "What is going on?" For 45 minutes, a lot of hot air, a little shenanigans, and some good old claptrap.

So yeah, there's unfocused bits and bobs going on with Trainwreck: P.I. Moms. For realz. I mean this isn't just about some soccer dames who want to be freelance gumshoes with their own reality show on tap. There's corrupt cops involved and whistleblowers and showrunners and drug trafficking oh my! Um, you want your docus going off on tangents and then ending with an abrupt, bestial threat? Do ya? Well "P.I." will provide that fix, like a hyena jonesing for fentanyl. Yikes!

Directed by TV monger Phil Bowman and shot at breakneck speed (that's not always a good thing), Trainwreck: P.I. Moms could've benefited from being longer in length and more attuned to the story of the four ladies who just wanted to be eminent and get their freaking Kardashian on. I mean have you ultimately heard of Amy Wiltz, Denise Antoon, Charmagne Peters, and/or Michelle Allen? Neither have I. Explaining their plight from 2010 in just over a half hour seems like a moot point doesn't it? "Investigator shoaled."

Written by Jesse Burleson

Trainwreck: Balloon Boy 2025 * * * Stars

TRAIN SPOTTING

A documentary that seems to unfold like enigmatic prose in the throes of northern Colorado and on the non-low. Yeah I'm talking about 2025' s Trainwreck: Balloon Boy, one of those short-lived shorts that definitely earns its two-syllable title. I mean is the family involved in "Balloon Boy" pulling a supposed hoax? And is said family a bunch of kooky kooks with potty mouths and recurved teeth? And uh, did people actually enjoy watching a TV show called um, Wife Swap. "This is a very unusual situation". You don't say boss. You don't say. 

So OK, there's a grainy look to "Balloon Boy", some news footage archives that feel mentally involved, and a rather passing running time of 52 minutes that is so prevalent with these so-called Trainwreck anthology endeavors. Basically with Trainwreck: Balloon Boy you're looking at a snapshot, a brief, cinematic abridgment that surprisingly lingers long after the credits roll. You want a 2-hour, feature-length film starring Bryan Cranston as an eccentric dad who makes his kids do spaceship arts and crafts while he gives the impression that he kicked it old school at MIT? Good luck with that chief. Good freaking luck!

Distributed by Netflix because they can and uh, will, Trainwreck: Balloon Boy is about the Heene fam, a husband, wife, and kids who decide to build a homemade flying saucer out of what looks like good old Pop-Tarts foil (lol). Here's the thing: when the saucer in question accidently floats away with what the media thinks is a Heene tyke trapped inside, all controversy and chaos ensue. I mean talk about the ultimate jape my young Padawans. "Balloon Boy", well it excels as a docu that paints sympathy for yet also makes a paradox of the pseudo-protagonists included. It's just polarizing and/or unearthly enough to recommend. Astro "boy".  

Written by Jesse Burleson

Dangerous Animals 2025 * * Stars

SHARK TAILED

"I feel the same about what I do, it's my true calling." What, to feed defenseless women to hungry sharks via the waters of good old Australia? And camcorder-shoot the whole darn thing like you're Federico Fellini on the low? Might wanna question your own soundness pal.

2025's Dangerous Animals, well it's about a serial killer who picks up a surfer who may have different plans other than being maimed by those creepy, long-bodied marine fish (see first paragraph). Said surfer is cutie-pie Zephyr and she is played without reticence by Hassie Harrison, the poor man's lookalike a la Jennifer Lawrence. 

So yeah, "Animals" is in fact a shark flick and just because it includes the hook of some psycho who's Matt Hooper-obsessed with beach beard in tote doesn't mean it's wholly original. Remember Meg 2: The Trench and Deep Blue Sea 3 came out just recently and um, they had credible special effects, not low grant Hitchcockian leavings. 

Starring Harrison (mentioned earlier), Jai Courtney, and Josh Heuston and shot in the Gold Coast near Queensland, Dangerous Animals has some disturbing and compelling moments saddled with a decent soundtrack comprised of punk and classic rock remnants. I mean one might even say there's a serviceable vehicle there for horror enthusiasts so bent on getting their fix they'd see anything blood-soaked in a blackened theater. 

The problem however lies in Sean Byrne's pedestrian direction, his lack of implausibility with his rather pliant characters, and his need to drag out "Animals" to the point where it drains the viewer of any real dramatic momentum. I mean you take out Jai Courtney's solid, transformative performance as evil boat captain Tucker and you're left with a VOD in the Best Buy bin, a Split wannabe that poses as a weak memo in the M. Night Shama Lama Ding Dong canon. "Dangerous grounded."

Written by Jesse Burleson