House of Gucci takes a seemingly can't-miss combination of talent and material and produces what feels like the knockoff version of a really grand drama. Lady Gaga and Adam Driver bring buzz to director Ridley Scott's dive into the dysfunctional family behind the fashion empire, but in a movie that doesn't rise to the level of delicious trash, winding up largely defined by its stylish accessories.

No matter how many times you've watched those classic "I Love Lucy" episodes (or not at all), it's likely you'll come away from Being the Ricardos with a greater appreciation for the central couple's talents as well as their personal failings and foibles. In that, Sorkin has delivered a colorful portrait that goes beyond the nostalgia-tinted hues of black and white.

Makes puzzling choices in harvesting the material, mostly providing an incentive to go back and watch the last one again.

After a lengthy buildup, this "thrilla" in the "MonsterVerse" -- for anyone with even modest expectations -- qualifies as a pretty sizable letdown.

Part French sex comedy, part “American Pie”-like coming-of-age story, this raunchy vehicle for Jennifer Lawrence also possesses darker and deeper streaks that elevate it above its “Pretty. Awkward.” posters.

Add "Stephen King's Doctor Sleep" -- the long-delayed sequel to "The Shining" -- to the list of movie and TV adaptations based on the author's work that shine at first, before flaming out down the stretch.

Watching Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani riff off each other is intermittently fun, but that's all there is to recommend The Lovebirds, a dark, somewhat chaotic romantic comedy.

As is, this update of a brand of buddy action-comedy Hollywood churned out with regularity way back when is a pretty shoot-by-numbers affair, beyond the mild kick of acknowledging that the central duo are getting a bit old for this sort of thing.

Director Todd Phillips is best known for "The Hangover" trilogy, and has seemingly overcompensated for his comedy roots by delivering a movie virtually devoid of humor.

The Little Mermaid is both slick and satisfying, meeting the primary challenge of allowing parents and kids to create memories around seeing it together. Setting aside its other assets, Bailey’s out-of-this-world contribution alone serves up the kind of splashy entertainment that justifies getting out of the summer sun, and in terms of being enjoyed far beyond that, might even have legs.

The story chronicles a fascinating moment in the civil rights movement, without yielding quite the returns that it should.

"Cruella" confounds expectations in mostly delightful ways, particularly for what amounts to a supervillain origin-story prequel inspired by a 60-year-old animated movie. Credit much of that to a twin dose of Emma power -- as in Stone and Thompson -- in a movie that might owe its life to "101 Dalmatians," but which centers around a tasty cat fight.

The key performances are strong, but director/co-writer Julie Taymor's movie meanders too much, dragging through the beginning and again toward the end.

"Ruth" admirably contextualizes Ginsburg's lingering legal influence, and how her writing in dissent during her 27 years as a justice often influenced subsequent opinions from lower courts.

It drags on nearly three hours, until a level of numbing repetition creeps into its elaborately staged scares.

After a year where people could pause and rewind to catch missed dialogue, this is one of those movies where missed lines don’t matter, and the only direction this vehicle goes is forward, even when it’s just spinning its wheels.

Playfully presented, it’s the kind of mildly tasty cinematic snack that doesn’t exactly stick to your ribs.

“Stan Lee” is obviously intended to be celebratory in nature, but by allowing Lee to tell the story largely in his own words, it conveys a genuine sense of what made him as big and colorful as any of the spandex-clad figures that he helped birth and spring off the page.

Given the enduring fascination with such material, underscored by all the recent productions about Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, this is one of those stories that seems ripe for a redo. Because even with the uncertainty the one thing “Boston Strangler” makes clear – 55 years after the previous movie – is that when it comes to true crime, some things never go out of style.

This adaptation of Simon Rich's novella has some fun contemplating how the modern world would like to a 20th-century immigrant, before scraping the barrel for deeper themes.

George Clooney takes his biggest directorial swing yet with "The Midnight Sky," and comes away with a decidedly mixed result. A beyond-bleak post-apocalyptic thriller, the sci-fi film reaches a reasonably satisfying finish, but follows an uneven orbit in getting there.

A fun ride all the way through. [30 Oct 2008]

An awkward, uneven film, with writer-director Taika Waititi conjuring some touching moments, but unable to pull off the magic act this "Rabbit" trick requires.

An understated, uneventful slog of a movie that feels like a misguided merger of "Gran Torino" and "Bronco Billy."

The High Note is a breezy way to kill a few hours. Granted, it's more an opening act than a headliner, but that simply makes its digital, on-demand residency feel like the venue where the film rightfully belongs.

The primary avatars -- Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black -- seem to be having an awfully good time with all this silliness, which is mildly infectious, even when the movie sags.

Mean Girls might recycle old tropes about high school’s caste system, but for those who just want a boisterous couple of hours in a theater, it aces that test.

The Equalizer 3 might not be totally convincing as a “final” anything; still, the latest outing does have the benefit of feeling like it reaches a nice point at which to close the books for now on Robert McCall, all things, you know, being equal.

The closing kick of The One and Only Ivan is somewhat stirring -- and certainly works hard at being so -- but it's pretty tepid until then.

Feeling the years and the miles, Harrison Ford cracks the whip for the last time, in a film that offers the requisite thrills and proves fairly emotional before it’s over.

Elemental doesn’t quite join the studio’s hallowed top tier, but it does yield moments of magic and beauty – reflecting both the immigrant experience as well as the power of love – worthy of that legacy.

The Laundromat makes a pointed political statement, while spinning out a garbled mess of a movie. In the process, director Steven Soderbergh mostly squanders a cast toplined by Meryl Streep, in a Netflix film that plays like a darkly satiric connection of vignettes that lost something -- mostly, a coherent narrative -- in the rinse cycle.

The net effect isn't necessarily bad assuming that expectations are modest, and there's something to be said for a more understated, small-scale approach to horror that doesn't confuse body count with scares. Yet considering where the story starts, the place where Antlers winds up doesn't leave much to hang one's hat on.

The challenge with any reboot invariably involves capturing what people liked about its inspiration while bringing fresh wrinkles to it. On that level “Road House” moderately works – specifically, for the intended audience – with the disclaimer that trying to look bigger and being bigger aren’t necessarily one and the same.

While this might represent a diverting lark in its dizzying combination of movie conventions, this is another one of those instances where what happens in Vegas probably should stay there.

The sequel, Extraction 2, hammers away at the same basic outline, while feeling particularly simple minded even by the standards of the genre.

The result is a sturdy but unspectacular film, one that honors Chisholm’s place in history while representing just one, too-concentrated facet of her giant shadow.

The impressive mix of tones and styles that director Taika Waititi pulled off in “Thor: Ragnarok” largely fizzles in “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which isn’t as funny as it wants to be, as stirring as it needs to be or romantic as it ought to be.

A wholly forgettable movie, most likely to be remembered, lamentably, for its contributing role in Neeson landing in hot water.

Director Miguel Sapochnik ("Game of Thrones") does what he can to wring the maximum amount of emotion out of this unlikely trio, finding moments of tenderness and humor in their interactions.

The Perfect Find falls well short of perfection, but it’s the kind of low-key romance that often finds an appreciative audience on Netflix.

Taken on its terms, the movie isn't terrible strictly as mindless escapism. But beyond the most basic, visceral thrills, Wrath of Man's bitter fruit yields a slim harvest.

Sweeney ably carries the film on that level, though there are beats courtesy of director Michael Mohan and screenwriter Andrew Lobel as likely to elicit uncomfortable chuckles from the audience as fear.

Far more interested in stunts than story, Extraction is a simple-minded action vehicle for Chris Hemsworth that should benefit from providing a theatrical-style adrenaline rush when the spigot for such fare has closed. Basically, Netflix is serving up an old-fashioned B movie, at a moment when the A-list blockbusters have been postponed.

"Minions” certainly has to be evaluated in the modest context of what it’s trying to achieve – like fueling fast-food giveaways and toy sales – but even compared to the earlier movies in the franchise, this one feels particularly limited in its scope and ambitions.

Ultimately, though, the movie feels most notable for the cast assembled, from Harrison -- who subsequently starred in "Waves" and "Luce," and is again very good here -- to smallish roles for Jerome (an Emmy winner for "When They See Us") as a witness and Washington ("Tenet" and "BlacKkKlansman") as James' partner in crime.

The best one can say about this mildly fun film is that it runs a brisk 80-something minutes, meaning parents can take the kids and have time left over for other holiday errands.

Neither film is especially memorable, which is too bad, squandering Rosamund Pike as Marie Curie and Ethan Hawke, very intense and brooding as Nikola Tesla.

Like its predecessors, Deadpool & Wolverine is loud, proudly vulgar and repeatedly shatters the fourth wall with gleeful naughtiness. Yet beneath the outlandishness, half-dozen belly laughs and nerd-centric beats resides sweet nostalgia for the last quarter-century of superhero movies, while demonstrating that Marvel Studios possesses the power to laugh at itself.

What makes this Hocus Pocus gel is the nifty mix of old and new, replicating the basic template from the original while introducing a new and more diverse contingent of teens to do battle with the centuries-old witches.

Who's a good movie? Not "DC League of Super-Pets," a big colorful idea that proves promising in theory -- tailor-made for a two-minute trailer -- but a rather tedious slog as a full-length animated film.

Yet for all its high-octane action this tenth film is really just revving its engine for more sequels to come, kicking off a multi-part story that offers an appropriately bloated way to bring this very loud enterprise to a (no doubt temporary) finish.

For those craving an action distraction, it's a reasonably entertaining way to kill time.

Spaceman feels a little too weighty in its reliance on emotional cliches. Whether that’s ultimately due to the underlying material or the heavy hand brought to translating it, the net effect is a failure to launch.

Safety feels like it aims a bit higher than some of the service's fare, and it's good-hearted and uplifting. If you're only going to score a couple of points, right now, that's not a bad place to start.

As war movies go, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare ends up in a kind of no-man’s land, draping elements of “Mission: Impossible,” “Inglourious Basterds” and director Guy Ritchie’s brand of violent action-comedy over the bones of a fascinating World War II true story. The underwritten, somewhat messy results are broadly entertaining if not fully seaworthy from a dramatic point of view.

The casting alone should spur interest in The Devil All the Tim -- Batman (Robert Pattinson) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland), together at last -- but can't make the movie feel like less of a slog. Adapting Dale Ray Pollock's grim novel, awful characters proceed along parallel tracks, en route to a whole lot of violence and unpleasantness.

As big as he is, you still have to look pretty hard and uncritically to find much magic in "Clifford."

M. Night Shyamalan is up to his old tricks in "Old," but after his heralded breakthrough with "Split," he's back on a downward trajectory. While the premise again has an eerie "Twilight Zone"-type quality, the long journey to a payoff -- littered with pretty awful dialogue -- might be picturesque, but it's no walk on the beach.

As is so often the case with these movies, the buildup is generally more terrifying than the payoff, and Savage doesn’t scrimp when it comes to jump-at-you scares.

Still, as first impressions go, “Love at First Sight” works nicely on the intended level for those sent in its “You might like” direction. For Netflix’s purposes, the odds are that adds up to all the love it needs.

The idea of a nasty Christmas movie is nothing new, but Violent Night still manages to deliver the goods, mixing “Die Hard” and “Rambo”-style action with a fair amount of hokey ho-ho-hokum. David Harbour makes a particularly good cranky, butt-kicking Santa, in a movie that offers the sort of shared experience that should bring theaters some much-needed cheer.

Add Mr. Harrigan’s Phone to the relatively short list of really good Stephen King adaptations, garnishing a coming-of-age story with understated hints of the supernatural and thoughtful rumination about cellphones that finds true horror in their ubiquity. Amid a month of Halloween-tinged offerings, it might be one of the few to share with the kids – at least, before the next time you punish them by taking their phone away.

DC finds itself at a bit of a crossroads. Yet that timing makes it all the more impressive to see how “The Flash” has managed to click on all cylinders, pay respect to the company’s past while achieving the kind of balance that could and perhaps should point the way to its future.

For those wondering who would build a giant holiday musical-comedy around Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, the “produced by Will Ferrell” credit provides a helpful clue. “Spirited” tries turning “A Christmas Carol” on its head, and while it’s big and boisterous, the movie (hitting theaters before Apple TV+) isn’t consistently irreverent enough to feel like much more than a streaming stocking stuffer.

A movie that offers gore, comedy and just plain silliness, but falls somewhat short of a complete meal.

It's much more enjoyable than this sort of date-movie thing normally is, and that success can mostly be credited to the big names populating the film.

The Current War is a fascinating story, badly told.

The Prom is indeed a demonstration of star power at work, but it's mostly a valentine to theater -- at a time when theaters are closed -- coupled with an overt message about LGBTQ acceptance and inclusion. All of that comes wrapped in a big neon bow, a joyous holiday gift for fans of musical theater, made by people who love the medium every bit as much as they do.

A polished and satisfying film, yet one that conspicuously feels even more like a consumer product than most Disney revivals of its animated classics.

The world-class pairing of Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen is the only calling card that The Good Liar needs. Yet even these two knighted performers -- in a rare star vehicle for a pair of senior citizens -- can't elevate this adaptation of Nicholas Searle's book, which clearly wants to be twisty and Hitchcockian but never quite gets there.

The stars outshine the movie in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, a dazzling showcase for Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield as Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker in a dutiful, somewhat disjointed chronicle of how the televangelists amassed great wealth before his disgraced fall.

Reuniting star-producer Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy after their winning collaboration on "Free Guy," The Adam Project has the generic feel of a project created by committee, combining action, humor and smart-alecky one-liners in a way that's at best aggressively okay. That's probably enough for Netflix coming off a success with Reynolds in "Red Notice," but like the film's plot, this amounts to rehashing history.

Hellraiser is obviously operating within fairly well-defined parameters, and leveraging 35 years of screen history, delivers on the most basic level in terms of special effects and gore, without – the “reimagining” claim notwithstanding – bringing much freshness to the formula.

Directed by Bartlett Sher and adapted by the play's author J.T. Rogers, "Oslo" serves as a haunting portrayal of what was, and a sobering reflection on conditions as they currently exist.

This is one of those movies that’s forgotten almost as soon as it ends, and it doesn’t even require any chemical intervention in order to erase the memory.

It's a fascinating exercise and superior to its predecessor, but clocking in at four hours, the operatic highs are somewhat offset by the lack of any pressure to say "cut."

Slick and briskly paced, the film incorporates its origins while conjuring enough laughs and fun to effectively deliver for parents and their cubs.

Helen Reddy might seem so 1970s, but her song "I Am Woman" became a feminist anthem of its time, and serves as the title and centerpiece of a reasonably good movie biography, if one that -- perhaps due to the nature of her life -- feels a little like the Hallmark Channel version of "Bohemian Rhapsody."

The result has that calculated, tired feel about it, with a few moments of kinetic action but not enough to make the film play like anything more than a relic.

Those who give in to the gleeful crudeness of it all will be rewarded with some funny moments courtesy of the near-unrelenting dog’s-eye view, although fair warning, most of the best stuff is in the red-band trailer.

Late twists ratchet up the drama, but also make the movie feel as it has rushed toward a resolution.

Steeped in old-fashioned virtues and a feel-good underdog story, The Boys in the Boat isn’t bad, but it doesn’t ever navigate its way out of the shallow end of the sports-movie pool either.

A warmed-over collection of cinematic cliches that misses its shot what could have been a fertile premise, in don't-quit-your-day-job fashion.

Director Elizabeth Banks conjures bursts of absurdist energy and humor without delivering anything approaching a sustained rush.

Luckiest Girl Alive falls short of its promise, a reminder that, however ironic the title is intended to be, fortune tends to favor the bold.

Splitting the movie into three chapters seems appropriate, since the film delivers a trifecta: overwrought, overacted, and overlong.

Ultimately, The Little Things meanders a bit too much with stakeouts and the drudgery of police work before getting to the meat of its psychological core, which offers a provocative payoff, if not perhaps one good enough to fully justify the journey.

Penguin Bloom is harmless enough as family fare goes, which counts for something, with an inspirational message for these trying times. The real drawback lies in how the story flits around in the telling and seems unable to choose a lane, leaving a movie that feels as if it's neither fish nor fowl.

"Dark Fate" earns its favorable judgment by cleverly and effectively adding to that legacy. The only drawback is that accomplishment merely makes it more likely that in one form or another, sooner or later, yep, they'll be back.

The star’s latest film should attract flies, all right, not with honey, but rather the stale aroma of its inane premise.

There are no icebergs here, but that doesn't prevent the movie from sinking under its own weight.

“Axel F” only turns up the heat to a low simmer, but as breezy escapism goes, those armed with the proper attitude might find themselves doing the neutron dance, or a version of it, all over again.

The Rise of Skywalker feels like a welcome course correction, featuring sequences and references that more cynical minds will dismiss as "fan service," but which derive emotion and power precisely from the bond and investment the audience has forged not just with this permutation on the story, but all of it going back to the original trilogy.

The Mauritanian is a bit of a throwback -- a solid, old-fashioned piece of entertainment, but not a great movie. But in its objective to present what being wrong meant for our view of "American justice" and democracy, that's one thing that the film gets very right.

Chalk it up to modest expectations -- starting with early previews that rubbed people the wrong way -- but Aladdin is a great deal of fun, with charming leads and elaborately mounted songs. It's hardly a whole new world, but in this suddenly well-populated land of live-action reboots, makes the most out of its familiar one.

The Forever Purge's once-over-lightly politics don't merit much of a fuss, playing like a cynical exploitation of real-world issues.

While the haunting aspect of the photograph grounds “Emancipation” in reality, there’s a pronounced Hollywood-ized feel to the finished product, one that doesn’t compare favorably with other projects that have covered similar territory, among recent examples the biographical “Harriet” and Amazon’s fictionalized miniseries “The Underground Railroad.”