Brian Truitt

Heart Eyes is tastier than a box of candy hearts, unleashes some highly entertaining kills and sticks mostly to its genre scripts. But if it drags even one horror-hating significant other over to the dark side, that’s a bloody win.

It’s a bizarrely off-kilter affair that’s forcibly heartfelt and sentimental in one scene and overly mean-spirited in the next, and not even a few choice moments and some enjoyable surrounding weirdos can help two A-listers in way over their heads.

The movie also has a lot in common with Gracey’s most famous effort, “The Greatest Showman,” featuring well-crafted, effervescent musical numbers doing what they can to make up for oversentimentality and an unfocused narrative.

Visually sumptuous and surprisingly sensual, "Nosferatu" isn’t as wonderfully original (or bonkers) as Eggers' top-notch flicks “The Witch” and “The Northman,” but great turns from Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård sell its disturbing, otherworldly beauty-and-the-beast tale.

The Brutalist is a toxic tale of the immigrant experience and a gripping narrative of love and hope tested through vice and struggle.

That Circle of Life everybody was singing about three decades ago? Thanks to Jenkins’ inimitable grace and Miranda’s tuneful swagger, it continues to feel vibrant.

The melodrama is packed with more style – so, so much style – than narrative substance, though Jolie...fully commits to the role both emotionally and musically.

Director James Mangold’s biopic wonderfully keeps him a mysterious minstrel, studying a complex artist reaching the early heights of his talents when times were a-changin'.

The follow-up plots an extremely familiar course but at least does so with fresh new personalities and more inspired Pacific Island influence.

As one might say in Oz, “Wicked” is thrillifying in its melodiousness even if overlongical and ponderrific.

Earnest to the point of stultifying, “Red One” offers a busy landscape of plastic action figures come to life, visually appealing and plenty colorful, though as hard as it tries, the movie doesn’t deliver the joy and emotion you’d want in a seasonal treat.

The stellar acting and assorted songs boost much of the familiar elements in "Emilia Pérez,” creating something inventively original and never, ever bland.

Director Ridley Scott unleashes a pumped-up, action-packed sequel that lacks the gravitas of the 2000 original, mainly because it’s way more interested in pulpy soap opera.

This overly sentimental, unduly earnest journey based on Richard McGuire's graphic novel is more gimmick than substance, one overflowing with moments and characters that proves ultimately unfulfilling.

The thriller is both a thought-provoking investigation into real-life themes and human flaws but also an undoubtedly entertaining exercise, one where the simple act of dropping off ballots becomes a crucial aspect of a scintillating, white-knuckle affair.

The result is another middling comic-book adventure for the fan-favorite Spider-Man antihero that leans kooky and earnest and even saps some of its title character’s bite, though does give the snarling Venom a new aspect: a big baddie daddy.

A film like, say, all-time weepie cancer tale “Love Story” crescendos toward the eventual waterworks – while it may leave some looking for a tissue, “We Live in Time” ends up thwarting rather than boosting that catharsis.

Instead of slowing down, you get used to its speedy pace, enough to sit back in awe of the indisputable acting talent – familiar names and fresh faces alike – Reitman’s pulled together to revisit a TV miracle.

While “Folie à Deux” embraces a heightened, even cartoonish quality in continuing the story of Phoenix’s troubled soul, Phillips really misses a chance to go full musical and do something truly different. Just dipping its toes in that genre, with those strong performers, is enough to drive you mad.

While the ending loses steam as “Different Man” gets in its own bizarre head, the film maintains a certain heady, psychological trippiness.

While the movie overcomplicates matters as the plot tosses in assorted criminal types and various twists, the leads always keep it watchable just riffing off each other with verbal barbs and sharp looks as their unnamed characters’ icy relationship melts and they find a mutual respect.

The sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice boasts a big heart and fleeting moments of inspired fun, often featuring Keaton’s moldy-faced menace. Compared to the brilliant original, however, the overstuffed follow-up lacks the same unhinged, kooky magic.

The filmmaker embraces unpredictability and plenty of gore for his graphic spectacle, yet Alvarez first makes us care for his main characters before unleashing sheer terror.

Most of the silliness lands, and the stuff that doesn’t is enveloped by the total chaos, anyway. That’s all to be expected with Deadpool around. The meat of the matter, surprisingly, is the loving closure given to the Fox movie run, plus a reminder how much an unleashed Jackman rules now, and always did.

Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, “Twisters” is a monster truck of a summer movie, an often-enjoyable ride rocking a “Hell yeah, science rules!” bumper sticker that gets stuck in muddy subplots and looking at the original in its rear-view mirror.

It’s an irresistibly arresting “Beverly Hills Cop” that knows when to play the hits.

The original movie took a similar tack but did it better, and the sequel misses a real chance to flesh out the intriguing new emotions more. Aside from Anxiety, a truly inspired Disney antagonist, they feel more like side characters than Anger, Fear, Disgust and Sadness did in the first outing.

It does deliver on the mayhem front.