Extraction 2 feels like a glossier and more by-the-numbers extension of the first movie. By giving Rake, their Sad Action Hero, something more to fight for, the filmmakers accidentally stripped the character of what made him so compelling in the first place.

The character-driven action epic from director Niki Caro is at times imbalanced and lacks subtlety. Yet, like its lead, it manages to get the job done.

At the end of the day, Soft & Quiet shows a shocking and unbelievable series of events that are meant to cause a reaction and leave the audience with thought-provoking questions. This is not a film for the faint of heart, and might just leave you a bit shell-shocked in the aftermath.

Sick is a decent slasher that hits all the right buttons, has some good scares and bloody kills, and has a unique take on the slasher tale—as long as you have the patience to get there. But considering this is from the writer of Scream, it’s hard to not hope for a little bit more than this.

Occupied City starts off strong, but after the intermission, you can feel how aimless the documentary is at times, with the final act feeling almost excruciatingly long.

The Survivor is too frequently going through the motions of tried-and-true biopic stories that we’ve seen countless times before, or making choices that seem daring, but ultimately hold back the power of Harry’s story.

Power Rangers: Once & Always doesn’t make the same mistake as the 2017 feature film Power Rangers, which took itself way too seriously when it didn’t need to. At the same time, the special is too aware that it should be a little serious, which prevents viewers from having fun with the truly campy moments that, although rare, fire up the screen when they pop.

Especially compared to the 2015 adaptation, A Man Called Otto is a clunky update that often feels like it's full of cartoonish characters, with poor music choices, and cloying sentimentality. But when Forster and Magee pull away from these eccentricities, the story of Otto and Marisol is often a thing of beauty, and wonderful friendship that is lovely to watch grow.

Yet even though it never quite reaches its full potential, Day Shift is enjoyable for the aspects it does want to focus on, even though it’s hard not to wish it would investigate the larger world further.

Jamojaya is at its weakest when it pushes its music industry storyline to the forefront and the family drama into the background. But Imanuel and Unru's performances are enough to give this film praise, and it will be exciting to see where Imanuel goes next in his burgeoning acting career.

DuVernay took a big swing with Origin, and that’s certainly to be commended, but the film sadly doesn’t work more often than it does. The impact of the end makes the journey worthwhile, but it’s a rocky road to that conclusion.

While often bloody, It's a Wonderful Knife is never too spooky for non-horror fans and never too focused on a cheesy love story for those watching the film for its gory delights. There is a little bit for everyone here, making for a pleasant enough viewing experience for this holiday season.

Even with its faults, The Beanie Bubble isn't a bad way to kill some time. All four leads remain gleefully committed to their roles and bring the kind of energy that the screenplay is lacking, but it never fully justifies why this story needed to be told in this way.

Rosaline's shows its strengths when it focuses on the parallel story of Rosaline and Dario, but when the narrative crosses paths directly with Shakespeare’s story, Rosaline starts to fall apart, becoming a muddled mess of modern references, unusual characterizations, and ideas that don’t mix as well as they should.

After the dregs of the first five Transformers films, Bumblebee felt like the shot in the arm that this series needed to make it what it should’ve been all this time. Coming off that, Rise of the Beasts feels like both a step forward and a step back.

Foe, the beautifully shot yet scattered lo-fi sci-fi mystery thriller starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, is not a good movie. However, it is an interesting one.

As a complete portrait of youth on the cusp of the rest of their lives, it never manages to be authentically sharp enough to transcend the more tiresome narrative trappings it falls into and a grating over reliance on musical cues as punchlines.

Beast has its flaws and is mostly by-the-numbers, but if the idea of Idris Elba fighting a lion is something that is of interest to you, then Beast is going to deliver.

A familiar underdog story made engaging by the flashes of patience with which it approaches its material, Sanaa Lathan’s On the Come Up doesn’t reinvent the wheel as much as it tries to roll along with it.

Father of the Bride has its heart in the right place, trying to adapt this beloved story for another generation and audience, but by shifting too much away from the traditions of the past, Father of the Bride doesn’t have the same magic that its previous versions have been able to generate.

There is a good film in The Harbinger that we catch glimpses of in moments of horror and the conversations we do get to see play out. It just is struggling to break through the uncertain confines of the story it is trapped in.

Where Slumberland truly shines is with its cast. While Slumberland is one of Barkley’s first feature credits, along with Spirited, the young actress already shows she can deal with a huge range of emotions. And while Slumberland’s story can feel bloated, Barkley’s Nemo is the emotional anchor that holds everything together. The biggest surprise of Slumberland, though, is Momoa, who embraces a dad energy we didn’t know he had.

Given that the two leads in this project don't seem to have a clear driving force to their actions, this feminist thriller does more to show the challenges that women face than to create fully developed characters. Although the film does end with a bang, these missteps leading up to the resolution make the final scene bittersweet.

Of the two classic Universal sequels, Son of Dracula has more to it, even with such bad miscasting as the all-American Lon Chaney Jr. as Dracula (and it is Dracula himself here, despite the title). He gives it the ol' college try, and he was the first to play Dracula in a moustache, but there's no getting around his voice or his blue-collar demeanor.

The Machine has enough going in its favor to warrant a recommendation to fans of Kreischer's stand-up comedy, but other audience members may walk out feeling empty.

Cameos and fan service are fine to have, but the story has to be there to back them up, and it’s not quite there with The Flash.

Please Don't Destroy's debut film isn't necessarily a treasure, but there are a few gems to make the future look solid for this trio.

When creative directors are given the chance to take big swings and actually do so, the result can bring about nightmarish experiences unlike anything out there. The glimpses of this in V/H/S/85 serve as a reminder of the value of the series and the visions it can ultimately provide a home for.