Sonic the Hedgehog 2 doesn’t offer much for either the fetish crowd or kids looking for unencumbered adventure spectacle. Ever since bursting onto the scene in…
The Bad Guys is an energetic crowd-pleaser with some inspired animation, but it’s hampered by lazy storytelling and an overreliance on meta-ness and winking reference. Based…
The Secret of Dumbledore is yet another bloated franchise entry that further flattens the Wizarding World’s profoundly diminished appeal. It’s 2022 and whatever magic a new…
The Northman is a brutal and beautiful bit of mythic spectacle, but can still sometimes feel restrained despite its outsized production. Gather round: it’s time for…
Ambulance is pure action mastery and Michael Bay’s best film in 20 years. Let’s just get this out of the way up front: you’re not likely…
Turning Red is another Pixar dud that trades in cheap cribbing at the expense of real originality. Once an unimpeachable bastion of creativity and imagination,…
The Batman is an entirely overlong and overextended affair, but otherwise delivers gorgeous imagery, thoughtful mythos, and playfully brooding emo inflection. The Dark Knight is moodier…
Uncharted is a bland, National Treasure-esque mess of CGI and hackneyed globe-trotter tropes. Uncharted is the umpteenth attempt by Hollywood to turn a globally popular…
Dog thankfully avoids propagandist war dog tropes and instead builds something sweet and poignant from its mismatched buddy comedy conceit. Having vanished at the peak…
Marry Me isn’t even worth a second date. New romantic comedy Marry Me marks a reunion for stars Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, both of whom…
Branagh seems more preocuppied with his acting than his directing, but Death on the Nile retains a high enough enjoyment floor according to its playful whodunnit-isms…
Moonfall is big, dumb, exuberant fun and a welcome blockbuster-sized tonic from the endless IP regurgitation clogging theaters. Who’s ready for another disasterpiece from the…
Jackass Forever manages to once again up the ante, delivering not just the series’ best entry, but one of the most truly cinematic films in…
2022’s Scream is a sincere betrayal of the franchise’s legacy and devoid of Craven’s masterful craft and play. A rejoinder to a dead subgenre, Wes Craven’s 1996…
Misguided as female-driven blockbuster and unappealing as actioner, The 355 offers little to chew on. There is something rather refreshing in the fact that new action…
The King’s Man is a tale of two films, neither of which belong in the other’s world. Every year, there’s at least one. In the odd…
American Underdog is an inoffensive but utterly bland bit of hagiography, only slightly elevated by its surprising visual merit and an affable leading man. By all…
It’s impossible to replicate the essential newness of the original Matrix, but Resurrections is another deeply idiosyncratic huge swing that’s destined to be underappreciated for the near future.…
No Way Home offers some genuinely playful noodling with Spider-Man’s cinematic legacy, even as it often stumbles in execution and suggests a muddled future for the MCU.…
Nightmare Alley suffers from some tonal imbalance and isn’t always suited to its epic style, but the strength of craft and del Toro’s familiar heart-on-sleeve…