Carson Kelly Blogs

Stranger Things is finally back, and somehow it feels both like we never left Hawkins and like we have been waiting a lifetime to return. Season five, episodes one through four, hit me as a full volume, not just a handful of episodes. It feels like an opening act that is already playing at a finale level, packed to the brim with emotion, tension, and character moments that remind me why I fell in love with this show in the first place. Before anything else, a quick promise. This is a spoiler-free review. I will not reveal plot twists, deaths, big set pieces, or that massive reveal at the end of episode four. I am going to stay vague on purpose. Think of this as sitting outside the Upside Down, looking at the flickering lights on the wall, but never kicking the door open. From the very first episode, you can feel how much the show is building toward the end. These four chapters are dense. There are very few slow moments, but it never feels rushed either. It is more like being strapp...

  CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 7 — CAMPAIGN REVIEW For more than twenty years, Call of Duty has been a constant in my life. My journey began with Call of Duty 2: Big Red One , and through every sequel, spin, reinvention, and experiment, I’ve stuck around. I’ve watched the series climb to its golden eras, slip into rough patches, claw its way back, and chase new ambitions. No matter the trend or the decade, the campaigns always offered something solid to hold onto clarity, intensity, and purpose. That’s why this review is difficult to write. The campaign for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is, without exaggeration, one of the weakest entries the franchise has ever delivered. And it hurts to say that. I’ve never been the type to enjoy negativity. I respect the work that goes into making anything, especially a project on this scale. I love creativity, I admire the craft, and I know how many hands, hearts, and hours go into games like this. But Black Ops 7 ’s campaign is an uneven, disorganized ...

  Regretting You arrived as one of those films that sneaks up on you the kind of story that doesn’t need spectacle or noise to leave a mark. What begins as a grounded family drama slowly turns into an emotional exploration of grief, forgiveness, and the fragile threads that hold people together when life breaks them apart. What surprised me most was how deeply the film pulled me in, despite not usually gravitating toward this specific genre. Something is refreshing about a movie that chooses sincerity over cynicism, and Regretting You embraces that fully. The performances feel lived-in, the relationships messy in the most human ways, and the story carries an emotional honesty that never tries to manipulate the audience. The film is based on a novel, and after watching the adaptation, I found myself genuinely interested in reading the book. That curiosity speaks to the strength of the storytelling not just on the page but in the way the filmmakers translate it to the screen. There...

                          THE BLACK PHONE 2 (2025) Review By Carson Kelly Some stories return not with noise, but with a pulse, a quiet throb beneath the floorboards that tells you something is still alive down there, still moving, still waiting to be found. The Black Phone 2 is one of those stories. This sequel arrives years after the original, carrying the strange tension of expectation: could the world of The Black Phone sustain its mystique without diluting it? Could its ghosts speak twice and still carry the same power? Surprisingly and refreshingly, the answer is yes. The film steps forward with quiet assurance. It doesn’t repeat the first movie’s rhythms; it expands them. What emerges is a broader, darker landscape, one wired with new characters, new hauntings, and a mythology that reaches back farther than the audience expects. The tonal DNA remains unmistakable, yet the sequel refuses to stand in the shadow of...