Matt Goldberg

How to Make a Killing has the acuity to know that even if you are willing to play such a rigged game in ruthless fashion, you’ll still lose. The film’s magic trick is taking this bleak idea and knowing how to find the fun in such brutal sport.

Working from a script by Matthew Robinson, the dark comedy, like other Verbinski works, feels like it’s bursting at the seams and threatening to collapse under its big ideas. And yet the threat of combustion, along with a terrific performance from Sam Rockwell, helps provide the film with its off-kilter energy that will keep you hooked until you’re exhausted.

There are some moments where the film clings a bit too heavily to genre tropes, but thankfully, its main focus is on coping with loss and the complexity of grief.

“The Grand Finale” is pure, uncut “Downton,” but one where screenwriter Julian Fellowes finally seems at peace with not trying to cram in every character into every scene.

This is a big, broad action movie, so director Ilya Naishuller isn’t trying to be particularly subtle by implying that just as Will and Sam must work through their differences, so too must the global community.

There are times when its soap opera trappings struggle to exist along its goofier aspects, but with a collection of upbeat tunes and colorful animation, KPop Demon Hunters, makes for a charming little Netflix movie.

It still manages to arrive at a fairly charming albeit unsteady picture that should win over a new generation of younger viewers. But for older members of the audience, the second half of Karate Kid: Legends feels like an insecure fighter changing his approach halfway through a match.

The movie never feels like an attempt to recapture past glory as much as fit Evans’ style onto a well-trod narrative. It’s a B-actioner elevated thanks to a singular director, and while I know “Gangs of London” has plenty of fans, I hope we won’t have to wait another seven years for Evans’ next action film.

Cooley’s movie feels like what the Transformers films always should have been — adventure films the whole family can enjoy regardless of any pre-existing affection for the world of Transformers.

While I wish the film got more into the weeds of where Williams and his work exists in comparison to those who preceded and those who followed him, this is still the kind of inoffensive celebratory piece that will have you eager to revisit his most beloved scores while gaining a bit more insight into their creation.

There’s nothing particularly unexpected in Lawrence Lamont’s buddy comedy, but when it has no issue providing laughs thanks to stars Keke Palmer and SZA and their supporting cast, you can escape to the theater and have a good time rather than laughing by yourself in front of your TV.

Perhaps Beatles ’64 will only appeal to Beatlemaniacs like myself, but that doesn’t diminish its strength showing the birth of Beatlemania in America.

Although The Instigators can at times feel like a Coen Brothers movie without the polish, there’s enough charm and energy flowing through Doug Liman’s picture to keep the film humming.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die shows that not only is there still life in this series, but as long as it stars Smith and Lawrence with skilled directors like Adil & Bilall, you could have Lowrey and Burnett wheeling themselves around the old folks’ home and have a blast.

As we’ve seen from Arrested Development and Succession, rich people belittling each other over their petty grievances as they lust for real power is incredibly entertaining, but House of Gucci never seems entirely sure how seriously it should take its characters. It should have just followed Leto’s lead and been a blast.