Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | July 25, 2025
I recently sat through the new I Know What You Did Last Summer film and was assaulted with nostalgia. It’s an hour and forty minutes of zero tension, massive plot holes, and copious references to one movie. They reference the original film as if the events kept happening over eight or nine movies. You’d think the film was trying to comment on nostalgia, but, at one point, a character who is strictly there for nostalgia purposes almost looks to camera and says “nostalgia is overrated” with a straight face. Barf.
We live in a society (hits blunt) that is overcome by nostalgia. Folks in my generation sport jackets covered with characters they only enjoyed as children. They clamor for the days of yore when their only responsibility was keeping a reasonable eye on TV Guide so they wouldn’t miss their favorite show. There is no need to find anything new, because the things they used to love are being shined up and spit back out like they’re brand new. It sucks ass, but it also makes talentless executives a lot of money.
It’s gotten to the point where the nostalgia isn’t even being hidden. Films are being released with the same exact name as their predecessor, just so the title can be sufficiently cashed in on. Characters are making references so direct that they may as well start each sentence by saying, “Well, in the last movie…” Even a franchise like Scream can’t avoid it. The fifth film, released in 2022, satirized the new trends. But by the next movie, they ended up falling victim to them. It could be worse. One of the characters could have found a VHS of the original film to start the movie! That’d be dumb as f***!
Enter Air Bud. Member him?! Have you heard a joke where someone says, “Nothing in the rulebook that says a [insert joke answer] can’t play basketball?” Then, you get the gist. Air Bud was about a dog with an abusive clown owner (played by Mr. Noodle’s Brother himself, Michael Jeter) who is adopted by a boy and learns to play basketball and, at one point, uncovers the physical abuse of the boy’s coach toward a member of the team. It’s weird as f*** and went on to spawn an enormous franchise! Seriously!
There are, currently, fourteen films in the Air Bud canon. Half of them are about Bud going on to play soccer, football, baseball, and volleyball. The other half are Air Buddies films, which are about his kids, but they also talk and can go to space, it seems. They feel like a result of the DVD boom and died off in 2013. Yes, it’s been twelve years since the last film was released. The Buddies became superheroes (because of course they did). The Air Buddies films were made available on Disney+ and have presumably been a big hit, because the basketball-playing dog is making a return to theaters (f*** them kids).
A new Air Bud movie will be released in theaters in 2026, and it sounds painful as hell. The press release specifically fawns over the nostalgia of it all several times. They also claim it will entice older fans and new ones alike. But the craziest details can be found in the plot synopsis.
“In Air Bud Returns, 12-year-old Jacob has always dreamt of being a star basketball player. After the passing of his father, that dream felt even more impossible. But everything changes when he and his mom move into his dad’s childhood home in Fernfield. There, Jacob discovers an original VHS of the Air Bud movie in his father’s belongings and has a chance meeting of a stray golden retriever he names Buddy. Together, they embark on a journey of healing, unite a team of misfits, and chase a championship. Through it all, they learn to play from the heart, believe in each other, and always take the shot!”
Fah! It’s not even going the “my dad played with the original Bud” route. Dad dies, the kid finds a VHS of the first movie, presumably has no idea what to do with it, looks up clips on TikTok, and ends up only seeing a kid pelted with basketballs by an angry coach. But seriously, I cannot think of a lazier way to connect your new movie to the fourteen that preceded it. It’s not even nostalgia-bait, it’s just lazy. But I’m sure there will be plenty of rubes in SNICK jackets that will take their kids to see it.
