Steven Helmer Publications

We made a long-discussed family trip to Circus World in Baraboo, WI, the first time we have been there in about 14 years. This was motivated both by my oldest daughter turning 19 (she loves circuses) and because this is final season their elephants will perform. They are being retired later this year (and they are the same elephants that were there when we visited last time). This is something I would highly recommend. In addition to a one-ring circus, a music review and a highwire motorcycle act, there were a ton of circus artifacts throughout the property, housed in some original circus buildings. The circus wagons are must-see. Just make sure you have plenty of space on your camera memory card. I took a lot of photos today. Here are a bunch of them. Sorry in advance if some of the circus photos are a little blurry. I didn't bring my camera because I didn't want to carry it all day, just my phone.

Synopsis: Alice is in love with her artist boyfriend, Simon. However, Simon's emotional abuse is beginning to take a toll on her, creating an eating disorder and causing her to rip her hair out. She lies to him so she can take a girls' trip with her friends, Sophie and Tess, to a cabin and the stress from the abuse nearly damages the friendship until her friends learn why. As they help her realize the abuse and become her former self, their work is potentially derailed by Simon arriving unannounced. Who's in it? The movie stars Anna Kendrick ,  Kaniehtiio Horn ,  Charlie Carrick ,  Wunmi Mosaku and  Mark Winnick . Review: There wasn't much on television when we sat down with dinner, so I found a movie to watch with my wife. This one looked interesting, so we picked it. It turned out to be an OK choice though not what we were expecting. I'll start out by saying Kendrick's performance was fantastic. It's one thing to portray physical abuse. Emotional abuse ...

Synopsis: Following her parents' divorce, Maggie moves with her mom to her mom's former hometown and makes friends with some of the kids at her new high school. She helps her new friends convince a lonely woman, Sue Ann, to supply them with alcohol and she takes it a step further by allowing them to drink and party at her house on the condition they remain in the basement, and one remains sober enough to drive. However, Maggie soon realizes there may be more to Sue Ann than first appears and, as she tries to convince her friends not to take advantage of the woman's offer, Sue Ann counters back in extreme and violent ways. Who's in it? The movie stars  Octavia Spencer ,  Diana Silvers ,  Juliette Lewis ,  McKaley Miller and  Corey Fogelmanis . Review: It was too hot to do too much outside yesterday afternoon, so I convinced my wife to watch a movie in front of the air conditioning instead. After some consideration, I picked this one and it ended up being an O...

Synopsis: Barbie lives in a perfect world run by other Barbies and has never had a bad day. So, when she wakes up one morning with thoughts about death in her mind and cellulite on her perfect body, she knows something is wrong and learns she needs to travel to the real world and find the girl playing with her doll and transmitting her dark thoughts and insecurities between the two worlds. When she arrives in the real world, however, she learns she isn't having the positive impact on women she thought she was and, thanks to her traveling companion, Ken, Barbieland is soon in danger as well. Who's in it? The movie stars Margot Robbie , Ryan Gosling , America Ferrera , Ariana Greenblatt and Will Ferrell . Review: Normally, when I hear about a movie featuring a toy coming to life, I would prefer that movie to be about a toy going on a murderous rampage. However, since my daughters both had birthdays this month and wanted to see it, we had a family movie night at the theater ye...

Synopsis: A team of researchers discover a hidden ocean trench 200 miles off China's coast and send a submarine team to explore it only to have the crew attacked by a megalodon, an enormous prehistoric shark thought to be extinct for millions of years. The team is rescued, minus one, but the researchers soon learn two of the megalodons have followed them out of the trench. Who's in it? The movie stars Jason Stratham ,  Bingbing Li ,  Rainn Wilson ,  Cliff Curtis and Ruby Rose. Review: This has been on my watch list for a while but after a pair of very bad shark movies, I've been somewhat reluctant to watch it.  However, I recently saw trailers for the sequel and, intrigued, finally gave it a chance last night. I wasn't disappointed. The film reminds me a lot of the classic 1960s monster films I used to enjoy (the ones with Godzilla, Mothra, etc) with humans (and just about every other living creature) trying to survive a relentless assault from a creature that is...

Synopsis: Henry Frankenstein's son, Wolf, returns with his family to claim his inheritance and is quickly met with hostility from the villagers. When a half-crazed blacksmith, Ygor, reveals the creature still lives, Wolf decides to continue his father's experiments in an effort to redeem his family's now-forsaken name. However, while he is successful, he quickly learns the blacksmith has an ulterior motive for helping him. Who's in it?   The movie stars Boris Karloff , Bela Lugosi , Basil Rathbone , Lionel Atwill and Josephine Hutchinson. You can read my review here:  Movie Review: Son of Frankenstein (1939) (wizzley.com)

Synopsis: Grieving the loss of his wife, upset over the changes happening around him and angry at the world, Otto plans to kill himself. However, the task proves to be a lot harder than he thought and, as he reluctantly becomes acquainted with his new neighbor, Marisol, and her family, his life begins to slowly change. Who's in it? The movie stars Tom Hanks ,  Mariana Treviño , Rachel Keller , Cameron Britton and  Mack Bayda. Review: There is an old saying, "never judge a book by its cover." The same saying could also be "never judge a movie by its trailer," something that definitely applies to this film, which my wife and I finally had a chance to watch last night. From the trailers, I thought this was going to be a classic Tom Hanks comedy. In fact, the whole reason I wanted to watch it is Otto seemed like the kind of guy I would aspire to be when I'm older, not afraid to speak his mind even if it makes him seem grumpy and unfriendly. Instead, this film...

Synopsis: This nature documentary talks about the African dung beetle, its role in nature and the hazards it faces while collecting animal feces both for food and procreation. Who's in it? The movie is narrated by  Joe Szymanski . Review: Since it was once again my wife's MMA night last night, I used my alone time to find another movie to watch in her absence. This one caught my attention on Paramount Plus solely because of the title and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. I knew the basic concept of a dung beetle but honestly didn't know a whole lot of details about the insect until watching this documentary. For one, I didn't even know there was more than one type of dung beetle and thought it was interesting how the different types play different roles even as they are essentially accomplishing the same mission. Overall, I ended up gaining a whole new appreciation for the insect species and just how complex nature is. I thought it was fasci...

Synopsis:  Insurance adjustor John Forbes feels his life is in a rut and talks about running away to South America with his wife, Sue, and son, Tommy. When his investigator, MacDonald, discovers imprisoned embezzler Bill Smiley spent the stolen money on presents for his girlfriend, Mona Stevens, Forbes visits Mona to collect and ends up having an affair with her. She calls it off when she learns he is married but a jealous MacDonald, who knows about the affair and wants Mona for himself, attempts to leverage Mona's desire to protect Forbes' family life to his advantage. Who's in it? The movie stars Dick Powell , Raymond Burr , Lizabeth Scott , Jane Wyatt , Ann Doran and Byron Barr . Review: My wife had martial arts until 8 last night and since a steady rain meant I didn't need to water the garden or do any yardwork; I used my free time to watch a movie. This was one I had saved a few days ago and it turned out to be a good choice. At first, I wasn't really sure w...

Synopsis: Mills, a pilot from the planet Somaris, agrees to a 2-year space expedition to fund treatments for his daughter, Nevine, who is suffering from a deadly illness. The ship is struck by an asteroid and crash lands on prehistoric Earth, killing all on board except for Mills and the 9-year-old Koa. Their only hope is the escape shuttle that landed on a mountain top 15 kilometers away, a journey that requires them to face both dinosaurs and other potential dangers, before an asteroid much larger than the one that brought the ship down crashes into the planet. Who's in it? The movie stars Adam Driver ,  Ariana Greenblatt ,  Chloe Coleman and  Nika King . Review: I briefly considered seeing this movie when it was at our local theater but could only afford to see one film and chose Scream VI instead. Even though it didn't do well as a theatrical release, I remained intrigued and was finally able to watch it on Netflix last night. Overall, I thought it was an enterta...

  I don't normally spend money on things I don't technically need and already own an electric air compressor. However, I came across this product on Amazon a couple weeks ago and, even though it was $112, ended up purchasing it. As I mentioned, I own a compressor, and that works really well. However, it is also kind of bulky, requires me to use an extension cord for most things and isn't always convenient. In addition, I have arthritis in both of my knees and kneeling down to put air in a low car tire can be quite uncomfortable, especially when it is taking a long time. The thing I liked most about this product was it had two potential power sources. I can either plug it into the car or use the 24-volt battery. The latter is a game changer because it means I can use this device pretty much anywhere without worrying about having a long enough cord. I also like the fact the compressor monitors the air pressure and shuts off automatically. This saved my knees when I used it on...

Synopsis: When a research lab on Mars is locked down for unknown reasons, a group of marines are sent to the planet to investigate and soon discover a problem that presents a danger to themselves and to Earth. Who's in it? The movie stars Dwayne Johnson , Karl Urban ,  Rosamund Pike ,  Deobia Oparei and Ben Daniels. Review: There wasn't much on television yesterday evening, so my wife and I decided to watch a movie. Since she was tired after being in the sun most of the day, I decided to skip the movies on our preferred list and pick something that looked like it would be reasonably entertaining. That ended up being this film. My wife and I both were sure we had seen this movie before but neither of us could remember anything about it. As it turns out, the most likely reason for that was we didn't think it was very memorable. I think the thing that really hurts this film is, as is the case with the video games that inspired them, it's difficult to watch this movie wit...

Synopsis: After murdering her own parents, Amber takes pity on fellow River Falls University student, Agnis, and helps build the other woman's self-esteem by giving her a makeover. However, when Agnis jilts her in favor of a group of bullying sorority sisters who are just using Agnis, Amber begins a murder spree, partly out of revenge and partly to protect Agnis from a plan to drug and gang rape her at a frat party. Who's in it? The movie stars  Anna Rizzo ,  Sarah Nicklin ,  Lilith Astaroth ,  Allie Marshall and  Jordan Pacheco.  Review: I ended up watching this movie with my wife last night solely because the fictional college, River Falls University, sounded a whole lot like my alma mater, University of Wisconsin - River Falls. In fact, the buildings were so similar, I wound up looking to see if maybe it was filmed at that location (I wasn't able to find an answer but am guessing it wasn't). Since it was a newer slasher movie, I didn't have high expe...

Synopsis: Brian dreams of being an award-winning broadcast journalist but instead has a career making "click bait" videos for the internet, causing him to grow increasingly frustrated. This includes his latest assignment, going into the Georgia woods with a Bigfoot hunter for a week. However, that assignment ends up with a surprise discovery. Who's in it? The movie stars Brian Emond , Mo Arora ,  Justin Beaudrot ,  William Childress ,  Will Copeland and  Kimberly Hamilton .  Review: I came across this movie on Paramount Plus some time ago and was intrigued by it but also knew it would likely be a movie my wife wouldn't enjoy. As a result, I waited until yesterday evening, when she was at martial arts classes, to watch it. I was right about it being a movie she wouldn't enjoy and my own opinion is a bit mixed. First of all, and I'm sorry for the spoiler but it's kind of important, this movie is by design, a click bait movie. If you think you are going t...

Synopsis: When people are mysteriously killed in the cornfields around Druid Hills, Kentucky, police are left baffled. However, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation - there are sharks swimming between the rows that draw their power from Stonehenge, along with the cult that worships them. Who's in it? The movie stars  Shannon Stockin , Ford Windstar , Steve Guynn , Rebecca Rinehart and Casey Miracle . Review: I came across this film on Amazon Prime a couple days ago and wound up watching it purely because I was curious how the movie would explain sharks being able to swim in a cornfield. My wife and I ended up viewing the film in its entirety and both felt like it melted some of our brain cells. It's really hard to make a shark movie that isn't at least somewhat entertaining, either from a horror movie perspective or a comedy perspective. I think I'll say the same about this one too. However, that doesn't mean it wasn't a terrible film overall. This mo...

Synopsis: In the last 1960s, an elderly Indiana Jones is in mourning over the loss of his son, living on his own after a separation from his wife, Marion, and struggling to find his place in a world that just landed me on the moon. He receives a visit from his 30-year-old goddaughter, Helena, who is seeking the half of Archimedes' Dial Indiana and her father rescued from the Nazis during World War II. Indiana both learns she plans to sell the artifact and a group of men, led by a Nazi mathematician who now works for NASA under an assumed name, are looking to reassemble the full dial because of it is believed to let people travel through time. Who's in it? The movie stars Harrison Ford , Phoebe Waller-Bridge , Antonio Banderas , Ethann Isidore , Karen Allen and Mads Mikkelsen .  Review: Indiana Jones (Ford) is easily my favorite movie character and while I'll never claim to love all Indiana Jones films equally, I can honestly say there wasn't one I didn't enjoy (...