With a messy story and confusing characters, Aïnouz's Firebrand is a disappointment to behold no matter how exquisite the film looks.

The problem is The Curse of Bridge Hollow isn’t clever enough to carve out a niche of its own and is defined by the diminishing returns of derivative genre riffs from start to finish.

Gunslingers can't quite escape feeling like forgettable VOD junk. It does at least try to rise above its standing, and, at times, it comes close to pulling it off.

Frozen Empire attempts to evoke the past with constant callbacks, while trying to make the audience care about a more modern story with characters for a new generation, and ends up failing on both counts.

There's Something Wrong With the Children is fine as it is for a casual watch, but it’s painful to watch such a talented cast trying to salvage a bland horror film that had so much potential to be unforgettable.

Maslany can effectively react to shadows and reflections, and Perkins can navigate this cabin to maximize its horror potential, but without the screenplay to back them up, this just becomes a curious experiment without much focus.

In the end, The Cow ends up a collection of tonal blunders and performances that are too big for this smaller-scale thriller.

While parts of it are laudable, unfortunately, Emmi’s film feels underbaked, never truly elevating its story to generate the kind of deeper effect that similar thrillers have managed to elicit.

Dan Farah's directorial debut is the kind of movie that is bound to stir up conversation, especially if it ends up being bought up by a streaming service (this feels tailor-made for Netflix). Unfortunately, it's executed in the most bland way possible.

There are very few classic hallmarks of horror films in The Black Phone. They arrive in the third act, but before that, it is a lot of… nothing. Talking. No cat-and-mouse chasing. No killing. Not even any suspense.

For all the ways that Darby and the Dead tries to give its abundantly safe story some life, it can’t break free of a narrative hellbent on dragging it to the grave.

The Pod Generation ends with a thud, leaving the audience to question what the purpose of this endeavor even was.

Even though the brutality is seemingly never-ending, we never dull to the constant barrage of pain—both physically and emotionally. Yet when Fuqua and Collage aren’t focusing on the cruelty of this world, the film stops dead, lumbering through the motions, complete with derivative choices, characters, and dialogue.

Measures for a Funeral is brimming with style and painstakingly researched, but the fact Bohdanowicz seems to insist on showcasing every tiny detail she discovered at the sacrifice of making a leaner, more focused, and riveting story causes a dissonance that makes it feel dead on arrival.

Trap is another promising thriller from M. Night Shyamalan, but his filmmaking choices simply can't do this conceit justice.

All the clear love the film has for the references it is throwing out is never molded into anything memorable of its own.

There's nothing about The Family Plan 2 that particularly stands out aside from the European Christmas setting. Despite having a slightly different premise from the original, much of the film plays out like a sitcom. Yes, it's an improvement over the first movie, that's not saying much when your predecessor was already lackluster.

Bloody Axe Wound may not be a satirical masterpiece, a profound coming-of-age work or a belly-aching comedy, but its surface is shiny enough to guarantee a bloody good time while watching it -- just don't bite the blade any deeper.

While the title promises fire, the only riddle remaining is where the adventure it was searching for ended up disappearing to.

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.

Fans of space-based thrillers may get enough out of the movie to be moderately entertained, but anyone else intrigued by the idea of six astronauts floating above a world that may have blown itself to hell is likely going to find themselves disappointed by the fact that I.S.S. barely takes the time to reckon with the unimaginable horror that should have been dawning on these characters.

The film feels like it's making use of storytelling devices and clichés that have been used over and over again in other stories. The end product is something that is serviceable and easy to digest, but also far too familiar, lacking any major innovations.

Disney Channel's latest sequel has all the bells and whistles, but not much in the way of substance.

You won't forget Alan Ritchson. If he can make crap entertaining, imagine him in a comedic role with a much better script

Despite its flaws, the film still stands out for its bold visual approach and Golding’s performance to offer a thoughtful yet imperfect reflection on what it’s like to really move on from loss.

Father Mother Sister Brother does have little pockets of Jarmusch's genius scattered throughout, but not enough to make up for how unfulfilling the entire experience is.

The best thing Whistle has going for it is that the "monster" is actually pretty creepy, and the rules created behind what it does are intriguing enough. The gore and death scenes are effective, pulling in the viewer, as the character building pushes them away.

The Swearing Jar is a decent idea, but the screenplay and editing draws attention to itself in a way that takes away from the film’s biggest moments—a shame considering these moments could’ve been extremely effective if handled in a slightly different way.

It's all a bit "been there, done that," and though it's not abysmal for its time, it doesn't feel particularly fresh or enjoyable.

Though there are shocking moments, it mostly plays things safe, refusing to fully embrace the intensity it occasionally flirts with.

It's a real shame that The Alto Knights doesn't explore its real-life story as thoroughly as it should have, as there is a genuinely interesting story to tell here. The film details historical events that didn't just dramatically impact the shadowy world of organized crime, it changed the public perception of the Mafia forever. The Alto Knights perhaps would have been better served if it had been a documentary narrated by one Robert De Niro instead of a meandering feature film that stars two.

While the unique shooting style and the talents of Dynevor and Ifans should have set the film up for success, the underdeveloped characters and underwhelming twists render Inheritance a tedious watch rather than a gripping espionage action flick.

Lilly becomes a chiseled-down Wikipedia summary version of a life, dipping in here and there to show you the big moments, but in the process, characterization and emotion are stripped away.

The cast is sufficiently fun and the remote location a proper backdrop for the offbeat story to play out. It just never brings all its pieces together, revealing that the greatest paranormal force haunting the entire affair is the ghost of a better film.

With Garner at the helm of a film that fires up some endearing energy from start to finish, Family Switch is not a perfect film, but it’s glossy, humble, and good-natured enough for an easy watch this holiday season.

The problem with He Knows You're Alone is that it's, well, boring. The characters are likable enough but dull, the subplots go on too long, there are more jump scares than suspense, the killer isn't all that scary, and his kills are mostly bloodless.

Michael Jai White's million-dollar presence and fancy fighting techniques aren't powerful enough to overcome dull scripting and odd performance choices.

Although your mileage may vary when it comes to Honey Don't's tone, what's undeniable is that Qualley was made to play Honey. She's cool, slick, and wildly charismatic.

Kramer plays with surreal department store catalog visuals and body-swap quirkiness, leaning heavily on interpretive dance to convey meaning. There's nothing like it, but with such extravagant boldness comes risks, and they don’t always pay off.

It's a frustratingly one-note experience that boasts technique and potential, ultimately undone by a narrative blandness painted by numbers. Separately, everything works — the plan just never comes together.

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

Despite beautiful shots and strong performances in the film, what ultimately comes up lacking is the story.

Crater's stakes are low for its characters and the audience. It abuses clichés, never deviates from its formulaic script, and fails to surprise the viewer.

A Road House movie shouldn’t be boring, especially this boring. A Road House movie shouldn’t have to enhance its fight choreography in post-production, nor should it be such a tonal mishmash. I guess Liman didn’t get the memo? His Road House remake is an uninspired chore that never properly unleashes Gyllenhaal or nails even the most basic functions of bar fight nostalgia porn.

The Mardini sisters in real life went through hell, and their journey is incredibly powerful, considering what they went through. But The Swimmers only occasionally gives this story the power that it needs, instead, falling into easy tropes and an unfocused narrative.

Io Capitano fails its stirring lead performance with generic filmmaking and storytelling impulses.

All held together by a transcendent performance from Imogen Poots, The Chronology of Water isn’t the strongest directorial debut, but it does hold glimpses of what Stewart is capable of.

The American Society of Magical Negroes is a film that needs bite for its high concept to work, and unfortunately, Libii’s film doesn’t have teeth.

Under the right circumstances, the story that The Trouble with Jessica tries to tell could work if it paired its comedy with a meaningful perspective on depression and self-harm. Instead, this misguided take on a dark comedy ultimately lacks laughs, thrills, and overall reverence for severe topics.

If you were an HQtie (as Rogowsky affectionately dubbed regular players) back in the day, you might find watching this documentary to be 90 minutes well spent. But if you weren't playing the game, there's not much of a case to be made for checking out Glitch.

Guadagino’s second film as a director isn’t unwatchable by any stretch of the imagination but lacks the clarity of vision that would dominate his later work. While it certainly features impressive performances from young stars Maria Valverde and Primo Reggiani, there’s not much that distinguishes Melissa P. from other coming-of-age dramas.

If you are looking for a light and fluffy holiday movie that you can stream with the whole family while sipping on some spiked eggnog, you can do a whole lot worse than Candy Cane Lane.

The thoroughly entertaining villains should have played more of a role, as should the store, and the material should have been more comedy-focused and delivered by actors with more of a knack for it. Once this heist was over, they could have spun it out into sequels, where each year a new operation got underway. It's a shame that this one falls so flat.

Sugar Babies is an intimate look at poverty and the changing of the American dream, but it fails to look deep enough to make the impact it intends to.

Lazareth is sluggish, low-energy, and not particularly suspenseful, but most of all, it squanders a stellar Ashley Judd performance in a period where her silver screen appearances are becoming scarcer and scarcer.

Even though zi isn’t quite the powerhouse of independent cinema that films like Columbus and After Yang were, it does feel like the work that Kogonada needed to do in order to right his sails and figure out where to go next.

In the beginning, it feels like this will be a fresh and fun take on all of those masked villains, but sadly, it quickly becomes little more than a paint-by-numbers slasher that forgot what it was trying to be in the opening scene.

Sweeney takes plenty of risks in a lead role that’s rigorous and emotionally demanding, but the film ultimately feels a bit surface level considering how it approaches horror.

If you're looking for a narrative and humor that matches the heights of the first movie, you'll likely walk away disappointed in how it takes such a hard pivot towards mean-spirited and juvenile attempts at shock value, leaving the heart and relatable stakes of the original completely in the dust.

Ty Roberts’ inspirational sports drama You Gotta Believe relies on age-old playbooks to a fault. It’s a true story and a surefire tear-jerker, but Lane Garrison’s screenplay is reductively hokey at the worst times.

Tafdrup defangs his feature in the final act, choosing to forego the road less traveled, completely breaking up the tension of an otherwise uncomfortable, tension-filled story.

There’s promise, but Vengeance at times feels like a West Texas version of Under the Silver Lake, but without the focus and care. Unfortunately, Ben’s editor was right, Vengeance is more a theory than a story.

The Bubble feels like the least personal film Apatow has directed so far, a film that seems like more of an excuse to just do something during the pandemic, instead of Apatow having something to say.

If viewers manage to sync with this specific wavelength, they will definitely enjoy Sen’s methodical noir deconstruction. Still, it might be asking too much from the audience, especially where there’s so little payoff to be found in this corner of the Australian outback.

Unfortunately, Lee Cronin's The Mummy is so focused on replicating other horror movies and relying on familiar tropes that it honestly has very little in common with the bandaged monster it's supposed to be about.

Don't Tell Larry feels like it really should have been a half-hour episode of a television sitcom rather than a movie.

Struggling through an identity crisis, The Crow is doing too much and, as a result, doesn't do enough to serve its core narrative.

The Sound of Falling may be one of the most grim films on the female experience you’ll ever see, but it never rises above this darkness to deliver anything illuminating about being a woman.

Reverse the Curse calls its shot with confidence but doesn’t possess the fundamentals to bomb a home run, barely getting on base with this out-of-synch heartwarmer that’s icy to the touch.

There are several interesting ideas and stories floating around Eric LaRue, but Shannon can’t seem to decide which ones to focus on. While there are some genuinely fantastic, inspired moments, they frustratingly never quite come together, leading to a baffling viewing experience. Hopefully, Greer will get another chance in the spotlight of a more worthy film.

Rather than embracing the more nuanced themes, the film shies away from deeper introspection.

If you want to give the 2024 film as fair a shot as possible, go in without seeing the original. However, if you only want to devote your time to seeing one version of this story, it should be the original Speak No Evil. It's truly one of the darkest, meanest, and most devastating horror films out there

Fuze has the bones of a great idea, and one that does seem like a great fit for Mackenzie, given his past work. But Hopkins’ script is too generic an action exercise, from its bland plot to its nothing characters, that it’s hard to find anything to truly care about.

My Spy: The Eternal City is an underwhelming action-comedy sequel that is best as a covert coming-of-age tale, but more frequently suffers as a grab-bag of tonality that abandons what helped My Spy succeed in the first place.

V/H/S/Halloween is dark and demented, and is the funniest movie of this franchise. But if the V/H/S series just turned it down a notch and tried some different storytelling formats, the next one could be even better.

While better than its prior installment, Mufasa: The Lion King still feels like an unnecessary prequel to an unnecessary remake.

The style, tone, heart, and comedy of Aardman deserve better than Dawn of the Nugget’s formulaic story which doesn’t hold a candle to the original.

While it’s certainly great that Daniel Day-Lewis is back in his element, and Ronan Day-Lewis can craft impressive, imposing imagery, Anemone is just too much empty space, waiting to be filled with something.

I do believe that there was a scenario where A Minecraft Movie could have been the next Lego Movie. That's clearly what Warner Bros. likely wanted out of this, but instead, we're left with a mostly disposable live-action family movie that will certainly please the young ones in the audience and will be tolerated by the parents.

Unlike the real-life woman, Lee settles on being ordinary when it could have been extraordinary.

The Sweet East ends up saying quite a bit, though little leaves any real impression.

The Seven Faces of Jane is a curious experiment, but ultimately, a failed one.

Stanton has done truly incredible, groundbreaking things in animation, and he’s almost certainly got a great live-action film in him, but In the Blink of an Eye makes one wonder if Stanton should go a bit smaller and work his way up to such grandiose concepts like this.

It's a suspenseful family drama that drowns in the location's surroundings, unable to capitalize on its Shyamalanian influences.

Gudegast's film feels almost artificially programmed in its adherence to criminal caper tropes, unable to steal our hearts with the bromantic charms of cops and robbers with boundary issues.

If you haven’t feasted on Indonesia’s bounty of recent horror releases, don’t start here. Dancing Village: The Curse Begins is like elevator music in comparison.

All in all, See How They Run is a derivative amalgamation of too much tribute and too little originality. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun and the perfect film to bring your Nana to, but it's ultimately pretty forgettable.

The budget might have ballooned to ten times what Terrifier had, and the kills have gotten far more gruesome, yet Terrifier 3 is still the same mixed bag that this franchise has always been.

Ultimately, Dìdi's problem is that it is charming but aimless. Izaac Wang is perfectly cast as Chris, and he has amazing chemistry with this cast, but there just isn't enough to go off of. It feels like we're looking into a vignette of someone's life rather than taking in a fully realized story.

It’s moderately entertaining thanks to its VFX but falls short on its performances and story as the overall idea exceeds the final product.

Chaos ensues, dozens of better movies are ripped off, and despite a few fun kills, it leaves you feeling not very much of anything.

Pablo Larraín's Maria is a one-note exploration of another public figure that just makes the same points over and over again.

Englert has talent, and there's ambition and chunks here that work in bits and pieces, but unfortunately, Bad Behaviour is too scattered and too unfocused to add up to much at all.

With more time and focus, Aum could have been the next hit series bought by a streamer, but as it is now, it doesn't dig deep enough and leaves an incomplete narrative about this deadly cult.

Slingshot is more of a murky mystery where the big revelations don't hold up under scrutiny.

The Last Breath is competent to a point, without ever exceeding — or even achieving — baseline aquatic horror standards.

Fixed has the stylish hand-drawn animation that Genndy Tartakovsky is so well-known for, but the juvenile humor feels beneath a filmmaker of his stature.

With a great voice cast, curious characters, and glimpses of an engaging art style, all the movie had to do to be great was rely more on the original things it brings to the DC universe. Instead, DC League of Super-Pets is satisfied being just another commonplace superhero tale.