Ferdosa Abdi

The film is an effective, thrilling, frightening horror, perfect for those who enjoyed Bird Box and are thrilled by the prospect of more.

The Seven Faces Of Jane is an experiment that just does not deliver the right results.

There needs to be a vision, an ambition to make something good and memorable. Ida Red, unfortunately, seems to fall into the trap of emulating better crime dramas instead of trying to stand out on the merits of its own story.

Ultimately, Sweet Girl doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel or anything, but it tries to have fun with its material nonetheless.

There are some good moments in Shotgun Wedding. Lopez, Coolidge, and Lenny Kravitz are game and there is a Herculean effort from the trio to do something worthwhile with the script they are given.

One Way won’t carve a place into the crime thriller pantheon, but its most notable achievement should be setting the stage for Andrew Baird and Colson Baker’s inevitable rises in the film industry.

It's not outright terrible, but it's nothing to get too excited about, either. There's even a sweet subplot about mother and daughters and familial trust. It's an overall cute family movie and anyone who adores Diaz and Foxx will find a way to enjoy it.

They/Them is impactful for its reason for existing and the excellent ensemble cast that deserves to shine. The film is not unwatchable; it is merely without excitement. Satisfying as it is for the film to directly take aim at dangerous institutions, there is sadness in knowing this horror couldn't find a happy middle.

If one is wanting something substantive, with big laughs and surprising twists, Murder Mystery 2 should be avoided at all costs.

Praise This is wildly uneven but not entirely unenjoyable. There is enough here that makes the film perfectly fine. It is formulaic, but its earnestness and impactful narrative will touch many.

Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City is a fun and faithful adaptation of the games it is based on, but is lacking in character substance.

It's entertaining, and there are a few chuckles to be had. One can appreciate the referential and situational humor as they are timely and apt for the characters. Lester and Gentry are a winning combo.

This story isn't the flashiest werewolf tale, but it is worth seeing thanks to a fresh perspective. As flawed as the story may be, the story from a child's eyes offers a new and unique entry point for the subgenre.

Those who may be new to the genre or merely want to disengage for a little bit will find merit in Choose or Die. But for bona fide horror fans, the derivativeness and the flatness of the execution is too much to tolerate.

Retribution is comically familiar, yet that familiarity breeds a sense of comfort for the average movie watcher who wants something not too complicated or tedious.

It does not reinvent the wheel, but it engages viewers on a visual and cerebral level. There is a precarious balance between the heavy themes of the script and the upbeat nature of this Bad Boys-esque action film, but somehow it sticks the landing.

With dazzling lead performances from Jimmy O. Yang and Nina Dobrev, Love Hard will surely be a Christmas romantic comedy worth revisiting every year.

It is great that this blended family is so diverse, but if there is no thoughtful integration of their stories, they remain merely set dressing.

Falling For Christmas was the best comeback film for Lohan; it could have been better quality, but it is better than nothing. She's in her element, and her natural charisma is illuminated, partially by how uninteresting her costar is. The script and overall production leave much to be desired, but with how low expectations usually are, this one is okay.

The convergence of the story of a bereaved mother with a cult-like presence in the new country she calls home does not blend as effortlessly as one would like. The third act proves it cannot. Despite this, however, The Twin makes for a fairly constructive horror that is worth a watch.

The drama feels undercooked, and the characters barely escape one-dimensionality.

In the end, Escape the Field is tolerable at best. It doesn't shatter any expectations, but it won’t be utterly hated if one decides to give it a go. There are more charming and innovative horror-thrillers about escaping a maze, but Escape the Field tries. For a first feature, it is serviceable for a small-budget venture.

Mother of the Bride's success rests on the filmmakers' abilities to not oversell anything and trust that the collective charisma of the assembled cast will do what it needs to do — and it does, though a flimsy script and one major miscast can be distracting.

It's the right amount of romantic, funny, and thrilling, and it does what it needs to do to make its narrative feel less derivative and more dynamic and fun.

This is a terribly unfunny venture, which fails at the film’s only job.

DeVine is entertaining enough, and the gag of watching Bronson and Barkin playing cool criminals can intrigue just about anyone. For all its flaws, The Out-Laws will win over those who flock to Happy Madison’s movies time after time, even if you'll promptly forget what you have watched.

The Royal Treatment is ultimately benign fun. It is sweet, simple, and boring.

Much like The Mother, Trigger Warner is all setup with little payoff. The emotional sentiments are effective but drawn out in uninteresting ways, and Alba, a capable actress, is not nearly as charismatic as the middling script requires her to be.

The Eternal City struggles with finding the tonal balance between a child-friendly action-comedy and an adult-appropriate action-comedy.

Knights of the Zodiac, despite its reasonably minor flaws, is fun.

Best. Christmas. Ever! is not the most splendiferous Christmas movie ever, but it will satisfy those hungry for new sentimental holiday movies every year.

For what it is, and for who it is for, Redeeming Love is in its own way an effective showing of the power of love. Undoubtedly, however, a more compelling romantic drama about a woman finding peace with herself could have been told.

Sadly, this adaptation fails to stand out from all the other sci-fi horrors about people being used for experiments. It doesn't even compare to the original 1984 film nor does it stand tall alongside great recent Stephen King adaptations like 2017's IT and 2019's Doctor Sleep. Firestarter is more like Pet Sematary and Carrie, a dull, exhausting remake that doesn't do anything new.

There could have been a lot to love about The King’s Daughter, but it seems the creative team simply did not know what to do with it.

Memorable? Hardly. Entertaining? Somewhat. Ultimately, the film will resonate with the people eager to devour more Stephen King-inspired projects; sadly, there is nothing genuinely inspired to enjoy.

It is easy to see the potential in the first act, but Purple Hearts leans too much into over-sentimentality, with narrative tricks designed to trigger tears and subdue thinking.

The dynamics needed to be defined better, and despite some compelling filmmaking, the flagrant disregard for characterization reduces Fear The Night to a mildly tolerable home invasion horror.

Assassin Club has the benefit of starring a relatively well-known actor, but even Golding can't save this movie from its mediocrity. Any hope Assassin Club had of being good is squandered within the first ten minutes.

Although the film's narrative is passable at best, it struggles to maintain any momentum due to uninteresting characters and predictably bad writing.

Asking For It is a pop-rock take on the revenge thriller that tries to take a stance, but fails to make a case for why it exists. Asking For It often feels like a mansplaining version of what a modern revenge thriller should be.

No matter how ridiculous the plot, and no matter how super Christmas-y these films get, Hudgens will remain the steadfast north star.

The film is very pleasant and manages to succeed in what many romantic comedies often fail to do — be entertaining and worth revisiting.

Sex Appeal has good intentions and good instincts, but a lack of nuance torpedoes the whole endeavor.

Achoura is by no means a bad film — quite the opposite in fact. There is potential for Selhami’s career as a horror writer-director as his vision and ambition shine bright through his film.

Borrego, written and directed by Jesse Harris, is misguided and fails to be thought-provoking or contemplative on the matters it seems to be about.

Conventional choices are thrown out the window and the audience is left with a delightful adventure worth revisiting time and time again.

Despite its flaws, it encourages a re-examination of Apartheid South Africa and a closer look at the tiny sparks that lit the flame known as the Free Nelson Mandela campaign and the overall cultural shift against Apartheid.

The film is a basic thriller with little to offer audiences who enjoy the genre.

Johnny & Clyde is a chaotic, unamusing mess.

Fangs Out is not great and hardly promising, but there is an admirable quality to it that you can’t help but embrace.

Overall, Puppy Love is very dull. The movie has all the clichés at its disposal but can't make much of it. The writing is witless and dry, and the directing — by Nick Fabiano and Richard Alan Reid — equally so.

The film manages to be a very straightforward horror, but the lackluster character work diminishes whatever good comes from its genre shift, and the shift is substantial.