Jeff Ewing

The Outlaws is a lean Western tale of paranoia and betrayal that mostly hits the target, but lacks greater all-around development.

It's clearly intended to be a companion to and showcase of the simultaneously released album instead of a fleshed-out, standalone film. Regrettably, it never lets the audience forget that fact, feeling far more like a long music video than a feature film.

Smurfs is better than its maligned predecessors, but it's still an absolute mess.

When it's sexy, violent, or bonkers, it's a wildly enjoyable romp, and lead Sydney Sweeney kills it any time she's allowed to dial emotions up to 10 (as fans of Euphoria or Immaculate can attest to). Was it great? For the majority of its runtime, no. Would I watch the sequel it teases? Yes. Inside you are two wolves, and if they're watching The Housemaid in different parts, the one watching the ending is the happier wolf by far.

Some elements and moments are effective, but they're layered with subplot details, character performances, and related choices that don't work as well as intended, firmly grounding an otherwise promising concept.

Uppercut, by director Torsten Ruether, benefits from Ving Rhames' strong screen presence, but a lack of believability in both character development and plotting keep the character study from working.

Mob Cops has an interesting true story at its heart, and a talented central cast to convey it, but there are self-imposed limitations baked into its core. There may have been a great movie here, but it simply doesn't achieve that potential.

Alarum is a genuine disappointment, putting a set of strong performers (who do quite well in action-heavy projects) in a situation that could produce memorable, excellent action scenes. It needs extra shine in the script and a stronger directorial vision to do so, which essentially damns the film to action thriller purgatory.

It's a film that largely rests on an edifice of clichés, contrivances, and ungrounded choices, needing greater development to actually land.

At the center of this mess sits a set of performances that are, beyond some writing oddities, pretty good.

It's an oddly cobbled-together hodgepodge of ideas and little real inspiration that could have graduated to fun schlock with a little more love.