Kristy Puchko

Michael Showalter and company aren't reinventing the wheel here, but it's a solidly made wheel. Following in the footsteps of similar comedies, The Lovebirds offers a wild ride with outlandish action, plenty of popping punch lines, and a romance you can really root for.

Cruella's gonzo fashion, complicated characters, and truly bonkers backstory are compromised by obligations to be kid-friendly and its time-consuming need to over-explain everything it does.

Justin Lin knows exactly what makes a great Fast & Furious movie. He’s directed several. For the latest, he re-teamed with cast and crew to allow this fantastic film series do what it does best. He delivers bold plot twists, grit-teethed gravitas, and out-of-this-world action to create the kind of cinematic spectacle that demands to be seen on the biggest screen with the loudest sound system possible.

All in all, An American Pickle is a solidly entertaining comedy. Its oddball conceit dares audiences to take the plunge, and Seth Rogen rewards them with Herschel, who is bold, thrilling, and a little bit bonkers.

Hayes and Papadimitropoulos' script is meticulous in its capturing of the internal contradictions that make up real people. Stan and Gough fearlessly embrace it all. Together, they give us such an honest and intimate exploration of an adult relationship that Monday feels almost like prying. Yet the most fascinating element of this rich drama is that there is no determination of judgment. No easy blame may be laid.

Rebellious game developer Midway's rise and fall gets a surprisingly tame retelling in the doc Insert Coin.

Though Jessica Chastain delivers a heartfelt performance as Tammy Faye, her faith in the filmmakers can’t save this drama from falling flat.

I absolutely love the first half of this film. Lister-Jones recaptures the magic of the original by welcoming the audience into a cool coven with warmth and radiant leads. It's a pleasure to tag along with this dynamic squad, whether they're dabbling in telekinesis, flirting with a crush, or taking on the forces of evil and misogyny. Slow-motion of moments awkward, lusty, and celebratory envelop us in the overwhelming emotions of the heady time that is teendom. Sadly, this spirited and powerful path is abandoned to lay the groundwork for a sequel that is -- as far we know -- not a certainty. Such plotting bogs down the rich and rewarding story of friendship, self-acceptance, and growth. Still, that franchise-forward choice aside, this sequel is wickedly fun and bewitching.

Though entertaining, the funky flourishes offered in plotting, visuals, and voiceover ultimately become a superficial rebellion, draped over a disappointingly stale form. Basically, it’s like sticking safety pins on a t-shirt pre-torn at The Gap.

Ultimately, Materna feels like a hodgepodge of half-finished drafts from one-act plays, pompous short films, and dusty first screenplays.

The Last Thing Mary Saw is an intriguing and atmospheric but uneven horror offering, with a disappointingly lackluster romance at its center.

Netflix's Earthquake Bird is a not particularly engaging thriller featuring an inert performance from Alicia Vikander.

It's for kids and it's cute. It's also an absolute eyesore, crassly overstuffed with retina-scorching color combinations and explosions of glitter. Frankly, it's disappointing that an animated movie with so much talent attached didn’t strive to be more than just "cute for kids." But hey, at least you can dance to it.

While the destination is too easy to determine, this ride-along is solidly thrilling.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions twists the puzzle premise of its hit predecessor into an unsolvable slog.

Even if you loved Host, skip Dashcam, Rob Savage’s provocative but woefully shallow, ugly, and cruel follow-up.

The cast is wasted in such lame roles, and the horror story’s uncertain tone falls far short of intriguing. So, despite one supremely frightening moment, this movie is not scary. It just stinks.

This journey from sun-soaked beaches to chilly English country, from heart-racing flirtation to soul-shattering stress, from new love to old regrets, feels dry and flaccid. Much like Mrs. de Winter, the long shadow of Hitchcock's Rebecca proves just too powerful to ignore.

There's a throbbing theme at You Should Have Left's core about what it means to be a man. But if subtext isn't your jam, you can kick back, switch off, and enjoy the eerie thrills and jolting scares of this satisfying horror-thriller.

It’s astonishing that the helmer of The LEGO Batman Movie followed that vibrant, funny, and wildly entertaining offering with an action movie that is such an inane eyesore. And yet that turn still makes more sense than the plot of The Tomorrow War.

Bloodshot is unapologetically a popcorn movie of the switch-off-your-brain-and-kick-back variety. Diesel and company soldier through a wonky plot to deliver glowers, superhero poses, and loads of action. Director Wilson brings the heat with solid visual effects and a relentless pace. But keen-eyed viewers will notice the telltale signs of "fix it in post" fiddling.

It’s frankly galling that a princess movie is this utterly lacking in grandeur. All Cannon has delivered is a cringe-worthy eyesore that’s deadly dull and intellectually shallow.

There’s nothing fresh, exciting, or particularly unique about Nicolas Pesce’s take on The Grudge. His passion for character-focused drama fails to spark in a barrage of scenes that feel like tedious outtakes from Lifetime movies.

Though Chbosky’s staging is uninspired, the songs — both old and new — are nonetheless powerful, which might be enough of a lure for fans of the show or musicals in general. Sadly, Platt’s calamitous casting dooms this adaptation to cringe-worthy awkwardness.

The performances range from wooden Moussi to full-on Cage, so it's tonally all over the place. As a whole, it's an absolute mess, which makes it kind of perfect for 2020. Still, within this swamp of style, wildness, and TOO too much, there are some truly exhilarating treasures, chief among them Cage. In short, it's not good, but maybe being a lot just enough.

There are moments in The Unholy that strive for shocking, even sacrilegious. But Spiliotopoulos lacks either the imagination or the guts to create something truly soul-rattling.

Ultimately, it's bland, not bold, and achingly absent of enchantment.

Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer have sparkling screen presence, but can’t thrive under Ben Falcone’s utter lack of vision. Thunder Force doesn’t work as a superhero movie or a buddy comedy, as it refuses to revel in the big moments of either.