Though possibly well-intentioned, the execution of The Covenant ensures its narrative and thematic potential is drowned out in the roar of gunfire it becomes far too enamored by.

Trust does a great job of showing what Turner is capable of. The problem is everything around her. Pardon the pun, but it takes an interesting premise and doesn't trust itself to craft a compelling story with interesting characters around it.

There's some fun to be had here, but overall, Jurassic World Rebirth feels indicative that this franchise is not dissimilar from what the original film is trying to say about the ethics of cloning dinosaurs.

The Old Guard 2 feels like nothing more than setup, with scene after scene of dialogue and exposition and little actual fighting.

Daddio is a repetitive and reductive experiment in dialogue-driven storytelling.

A fun concept does not automatically mean a quality film, as the overly intense direction, hollow scares, and imbalance of tone make it a thrown-together mess.

Is Venom: The Last Dance the best film in the trilogy? I would say so, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have quite a bit of fun while watching it.

Moonfall, unfortunately, becomes a mixture of Emmerich’s usual clichés that are starting to show their age, a script that only occasionally embraces the insanity of this idea (even though the third act goes all-in on getting mind-numbingly stupid), and a scope that doesn’t do this story justice.

We Bury The Dead is a sprawling but sparse zombie remix that's too far removed from the genre it's exploiting.

With disregard to elements it itself establishes and featuring more characters than it knows what to do with, the film forgets to flesh out its comedic potential and sticks to the repetition of a handful of jokes, even when some of them fall flat.

It’s more than just a failure of a remake — it’s disappointing on its own standalone merits, too.

Carmoon establishes a plot that could have been great, but becomes too caught up in the visuals of it all, and the script pays the price.

If The Killer teaches us anything, it’s that any director, no matter how legendary they are, can fall victim to a bad script. While Fincher’s iconic style permeates the two-hour runtime, the hollow plot and uninspired writing are impossible to ignore.

Overall, The Electric State doesn’t hold a candle to any of its esteemed cast’s other films, but impressive visual effects and great music help it from being a totally pointless foray into the wasteland.

Dunham's latest has a particularly game cast, and a solid concept, but Dunham makes this feel like a collection of mismatched ideas and inconsistent characters.

The ensemble is the main reason why the film has its delightful instances, especially when it comes to the scenes in which He, Ka-Yan Lam, and Chau are featured. But, ultimately, the script lacks the originality or the character development necessary to give its multiple couples their ideal sendoffs.

It's a nice slice-of-life character-driven film, which is always great to see, but there is very little drama or conflict to keep the viewer invested past the colorful animation.

Hulu's Whitney Wolfe biopic never tries to break free from the predictable confines of the genre.

If anyone could’ve updated this story for 2023, it’s Barris—as he's shown with black-ish. But instead, You People is a missed opportunity, a half-assed reinterpretation that is only sporadically funny, and without the heart or the substance that this story would need for it to truly work.

For all the ways it takes flight towards the end, Plane is an action flick that is mostly plain, the greatest sin for any film that should and could have gotten wilder.

What hurts Waking Karma more than anything else is the lack of polishing both the screenplay and direction got. And with a little more production time, the movie could have become something more memorable.

While fans of Cox and Beckinsale‘s work might still enjoy some moments of Prisoner’s Daughter, the overall lack of polish in the script makes for a dull experience that’s filled with inconsistencies.

My Father’s Dragon abandons a truly heartfelt storyline with complex layers in favor of a generic adventure with vague threats, vague solutions, and predictable outcomes.

It is a film that sets out to sink its teeth into something a bit deeper and more inventive only to merely serve up an experience with little to actually chew on.

If written well and with the same care as its direction, this could have conveyed a sense of more genuine tragedy. Regrettably, for all the ways the performances try to eschew convention for a bit more substance, it is a losing battle from start to finish.

Yates makes Pain Hustlers part-rowdy dramedy, part-half-assed takedown, and entirely an underwhelming film that attempts to make apparent and bland points.

Poker Face constantly tries to raise the bet and bring new elements to the table, but you quickly realize it’s all a bluff. It doesn’t know how to build tension and anticipation and does no effort to work on its characters. It also doesn’t know how to convey a thrilling poker game, and after stumbling through completely disposable plot points, it tries to wrap its story up with life lessons that are as generic as the movie itself.

There is a cacophony of sound and color which provides some spark to it all. It just is burdened by unshakably tiresome plotting that is made all the more meaningless when it decides to walk back much of what already felt far too small in its creative and emotional scope.