Jim Vejvoda

1917 is an expertly crafted and emotionally exhausting thrill-ride behind enemy lines. Gloriously shot, deftly paced, and striking in its gruesome recreation of the time and place, Sam Mendes’ 1917 wisely never loses sight of the smaller, intimate elements in a fast-paced story with immense scale and action.

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is a riveting, immersive experience that brings the King back to life for one last show.

Black Panther delivers the goods as an adventure film, a political statement, and a cultural celebration. It shakes off a sluggish start thanks to a memorable cast of characters going up against Marvel’s best-realized villain in almost a decade.

While no entry in the franchise has surpassed the original film, this Halloween sequel is truly a cut above the rest and a great piece of horror entertainment even for those unfamiliar with the series.

Guillermo del Toro’s engrossing fairy tale The Shape of Water offers so much to be enamored of in terms of performance, execution and design that it’s disappointing when its story veers into formula.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is great fun, filled with heart, humor and lots of cool stuff for fans to geek out over.

Shazam! is a lot of fun and it further proves how, in the wake of the success of Wonder Woman and Aquaman, DC’s movie future is indeed bright. Zachary Levi was born to play this superpowered man-child, delivering lots of laughs alongside sarcastic but amiable co-star Jack Dylan Grazer.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is sweet, witty, and fast-moving fun.

Chock full of inventive set-pieces and brutal kills, while also providing new facets to the intricate underworld lore fans of the franchise have come to enjoy, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum pushes its title character to his breaking point and back while offering fresh information about his backstory.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is as cheeky, cartoonish, and crazy as its predecessor, but it’s also commendably unafraid to demolish what had come before it if it’s in service of the story. The new dynamic between Eggsy and his team is great, and the Statesman prove amusing counterparts to these gentlemen spies from across the pond.

Bad Times at the El Royale may overstay its welcome a bit, and it never realizes the potential of its villain, but it’s still an engrossing, well-made crime flick bolstered by several fine performances from its ensemble cast.

The Sheep Detectives is a very sweet, and often quite moving, family comedy about grief and death. I know that sounds weird, but director Kyle Balda and screenwriter Craig Mazin are mostly successful at threading that needle, with the broad humor of some of the human characters being the film’s weakest aspect. The sheep characters Lily and Sebastian have compelling arcs that highlight the movie’s themes of acceptance and growth. As dark as the story can sometimes get, there’s still enough warmth and wit to make The Sheep Detectives appropriate for younger audiences.

Tim Miller’s film deftly builds upon what worked in the first two James Cameron-helmed entities while bringing in a new host of characters and circumstances to challenge the course of humankind. While there’s definitely some frantic leap-frogging involved in terms of accepting why some characters have evolved the way they did, Terminator: Dark Fate ultimately succeeds in serving as both a suitable closing chapter for the original two films and a possible gateway to exciting new chapters ahead.

Director John Krasinski delivers that rare horror sequel that (almost) stands toe-to-toe with its predecessor.

While some purists may balk at the changes and omissions made here, those simply looking for a horror movie as compelling as it is wicked should enjoy this new Pet Sematary.

While the fun had at the expense of the internet isn’t exactly the freshest material, Ralph Breaks the Internet works well not because of where it sends its two main characters physically but rather emotionally.

The respective performances of DiCaprio and Pitt and the film’s meticulous attention to period detail are all great and keep you invested in where this cruise around Tinseltown will ultimately take you.

A goofy, kitschy- but- fun romp and the most purely entertaining of the three Thor movies, marked by its distinctive designs, ‘80s synth score, and assemblage of spirited characters. It’s carried by the excellent chemistry between Thor, Hulk, and Valkyrie, who give humanity to a visual effects-heavy spectacle that finally makes good on Thor’s title of God of Thunder.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout is a fun but very familiar entry in the long-running franchise.

Crawl is a fun albeit familiar human vs. beast movie, one that gets plenty of mileage out of its setting and people’s deep-set fear of being eaten.

Featuring one of Tom Cruise's best performances in recent years, American Made is a darkly funny, dizzying crime film that nevertheless ultimately feels inconsequential and overly familiar.

Annihilation isn’t always as consistently well-executed or involving as it might have been, and it’s told in a manner that robs the story of some much needed life-or-death suspense, but overall it’s a bold undertaking that doesn’t play it safe and features some strong performances.

The glee that director James Wan clearly has playing in the world of Aquaman is infectious. He’s made a movie for both types of 10-year-olds: literal kids and those who are 10 at heart. Aquaman is one hell of a popcorn movie.

Bohemian Rhapsody is fun but entirely superficial, playing it safe rather than trying to be as bold or brazen as its larger-than-life subject. It ultimately relies on the magnetism of Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury and Queen’s bombastic, beloved music to make up for its narrative shortcomings and by-the-numbers direction.

The New Mutants didn’t deserve to be locked away for years. It’s not some unwatchable mess but rather a perfectly fine, entertaining, if at times formulaic small-scale genre movie.

For as much love, passion, and nostalgia is evident in this movie, it’s also a film very palpably made from a place driven by fear of disappointing the audience, and that anxiety fuels a lot of the story’s curious creative choices and unwieldy execution.

Josh Trank’s somber, small-scale drama is not the guns-blazing Al Capone biopic some gangster movie fans might be expecting, but it’s a curiosity that nevertheless demands a look-see for a fresh take on a crime legend whose most notorious exploits have been retold many times already.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web has essentially refashioned Lisbeth Salander into a superhero.