James Berardinelli

It's hard to imagine a D&D-branded movie doing a better job than this one of bringing the game to a cinematic platform.

John Wick Chapter 4 has its high points, including a well-earned ending, but it’s characterized by an exhaustive repetitiveness that diminishes what was so good and unique about the first two installments of the series. The time has come to put John Wick to rest.

Taken as a whole, the second Shazam! is an overlong mess with an awful ending that feels like it was assembled as a result of reading focus group responses.

By keeping its goals limited, it’s able to deliver what it promises, and that stands for something. I’ll admit I was more entertained by this high-concept sci-fi adventure than half the films I have seen thus far in 2023.

Scream VI offers two hours of fan service while serving up enough gore to appeal to many generic slasher/horror movie aficionados, but there’s not much beyond that.

Unfortunately, the lukewarm spy thriller offers a convoluted, meandering storyline that’s almost entirely devoid of tension and suspense. There’s less action than one might expect and the character development is so thin that even when a character is in danger, it’s hard to care.

In short, by delivering the expected and doing so with style and intensity, it lands in the top tier of the nine Rocky universe movies, although falling short by a few titles from the pinnacle.

Cocaine Bear is imperfect. By traditional cinematic standards, it’s probably not very good. But it is fun and won’t disappoint many who are titillated by the title.

Jesus Revolution takes a fascinating period of American history – the hippie movement and its associated fallout within the Christian community – and transforms it into a bland, TV movie-of-the-week experience.

For this homage, Emily, actor-turned-director Frances O’Connor uses speculation and outright fiction to fill in the threadbare historical tapestry. The result, although impressively mounted and passably entertaining, has the generic feel of many woman-centered 19th century period pieces.

Quantumania is the best of the three Ant-Man movies, outshining the previous installment by a good bit and even edging out the first one. It can be amusing when appropriate and serious when necessary and maintains a high level of energy to go along with its eccentricity. For all its epic aspirations, however, it feels slight.

The movie doesn’t exactly do Philip Marlowe a disservice but neither does it successfully re-invent the character for a new era and its attendant audience.

The actors may not have perfect chemistry but they are as likable as they’ve ever been and it’s not a chore to spend 110 minutes with them even though one can’t help but wish the fantasy is better realized and the ending doesn’t feel rushed and unearned.

Magic Mike’s Last Dance is one of Soderbergh’s most notable misfires and, although one can justifiably argue that sub-par Soderbergh is as good as a solid effort by many other directors, that doesn’t change the end result: there’s something unsatisfying about this motion picture.

Although there are occasions when individual set pieces are effective (such as a short bit involving a locked bathroom door), the film as a whole seems more like a series of missed opportunities than a “return to form” for director M. Night Shyamalan, who continues to trade on a name he made two decades ago.

Like Possessor, Infinity Pool is challenging and eclectic but it’s not one of those pretentious movies that’s weird for weirdness’ sake. The film piques the intellect and feeds the bloodlust while offering an experience that only a Cronenberg can deliver.

Missing works well enough as a popcorn flick that doesn’t demand much in the way of concentration. That makes it a solid throw-way that offers a couple hours of forgettable entertainment.

With a less probing screenplay and an amplification of the manipulative elements, Broker could have been a generic melodrama. However, Kore-eda strives for something more thought-provoking.

Written without much concern for logic and coherence, the movie wavers between being a drama and a thriller and, as is too often the case in situations like these, doesn’t work as either.

The movie offers limited entertainment for those who enjoy this sort of fare but it’s impossible to recommend as anything more than a throw-away at-home selection when all the better streaming titles have been watched.

Although very little of what appears on screen could be classified as original (most of the issues have been addressed ad nauseum in science fiction since the days of pulp magazines), the modern spin is commendable even if the script could have used considerable tightening up.

The movie does everything LARGE, whether it’s an action sequence or an emotional connection. By the time the 3-hour running time has expired, most viewers will be exhausted from the nonstop energy of the experience.

Although the level of manipulation is several notches higher than in the Swedish original, A Man Called Otto boasts fine performances from Tom Hanks and Mariana Trevino and offers the kind of crowd-pleasing arc that runs counter to the prevalent mood of worldwide cynicism.

A by-the-numbers, slightly fictionalized chronicle of the rise and fall of pop singer Whitney Houston (Naomie Ackie), the film struggles to find a reason to exist beyond providing fans with an opportunity to listen to some of her most popular songs.

Without offering more than dialogue, Women Talking has difficulty sustaining itself for 104 minutes.

Living offers restrained optimism leavened with enough cynicism to win over those who might be less enamored of something more artificial. It’s one of the year’s best films.

Babylon is uneven, to be sure, but any missteps are more than compensated for by the exultation derived from the moments of frenetic exuberance that have become Chazelle’s bread-and-butter since he exploded on the scene with Whiplash and took La La Land to the brink of an Oscar victory.

There’s an energy here that has been sadly absent from too many recent Hollywood blockbusters. For 2022, The Way of Water may not be the most intricately made or intellectually rigorous motion picture, but it exemplifies what “cinematic” means today.