No Time to Die is a gorgeous entry in the Bond canon, but abysmally paced and expository to a fault. After 15 years, Daniel Craig’s…
The Card Counter takes a similar shape to many of Schrader’s Lonely Man films, but this latest can’t quite overcome the template and thrive…
Kate isn’t doing anything new from an action-narrative perspective, but slick choreography and gleeful violence helps this girlboss brutality go down smoothly. Kate, a…
In Barbarian Invasion, retired actress Moon Lee (Tan Chui Mui, who also directs), not to be confused with actual retired martial arts actress Moon…
The end of the Edo period in Japan in 1867 was basically the end of the samurai era, and has, accordingly, been the inspiration…
Bernard Rose’s 1992 film Candyman, freely adapted from a Clive Barker short story, is the tale of a white academic who inadvertently summons a…
Shang-Chi is perfunctory origin story work boasting little characterization and an overestimation of its representational currency. The Marvel Cinematic Universe marches on undaunted with Shang-Chi…
Reminiscence is silly, arch, and derivative, an objective failure that nonetheless manages to entertain even as it induces eye rolls. It’s kind of fashionable these…
The Protégé is sometimes tonally ungainly, but its no-frills, old-school action filmmaking are a breath of fresh air in an increasingly CGI-saturated genre. When she’s…
Horror-comedy is one of the hardest cinematic lines to toe, but 1981’s An American Werewolf in London is perhaps the greatest existing instance of…
On the strength of Gunn’s outré humor and filmmaking sensibilities, The Suicide Squad is nothing less than the most enjoyable comic book flick in a…
Naked Singularity is generic as a heist film and barely-conceived as science fiction, leaving almost nothing here to care about. Just about as unexciting as…
The Last Mercenary isn’t much as a JCVD actioner, but it’s modestly held together by the aging star’s pronounced comedic chops. Legendary action figure Jean-Claude…
Tailgate is a thriller in name only, mostly devoid of tension and entirely schematic. One wonders what exactly the point is of such a thoroughly…
Jungle Cruise’s attempts at throwback family adventuring are lost to a miasma of awful VFX and greenscreen compositing. For some reason, Disney’s Jungle Cruise,…
Snake Eyes is all boring backstory and cliched tropes, and not remotely as weird as the material demands. Apparently, it’s absurdly hard to make…
Stuntman is a more modest effort than similar docu-efforts, but greatly benefits from Braun’s sincerity and likability. On September 8, 1974, with a ton…
Gunpowder Milkshake is a dog of a film, utterly derivative and lacking in any recommendable action spectacle. Take the weird mythology of the Johns Wick,…