There are some funny lines peppered throughout, but more often than not, it feels like the easiest and most simplistic version of this story rather than going for something either truly darkly subversive or hitting the emotional heights it’s going for.

Exit 8 can feel inspired, but only in fits and starts.

If you think ballerinas using their dance skills to fight and kill bad guys sounds fun, Pretty Lethal does deliver on its premise. However, it takes too long to get going, and is ultimately a somewhat amusing trifle instead of the more fun spectacle it could have been.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ditches an engaging story in favor of a pipe-bursting amount of Easter eggs, but that’s not an all-together bad thing.

A tale of miserable spouses plotting each other’s demise, it doesn’t always work, but its action comedy stylings are enough to keep it entertaining even when it swerves into ugly excess or extraneous subplots.

The sequel to Bollywood’s biggest hit is bigger, longer, and just as vicious in its on-screen butchery, but has far less artistry and visceral allure. The continued spy-revenge saga runs a mind-numbing four hours, during which it sheds all semblance of human drama in favor of naked political propaganda that reveals the emperor has no clothes.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is an agreeable, if unnecessary sequel which, through its larger scale, proves that less is often more.

Effectively moody, but disjointed and over-reliant on played-out horror audio gags, Undertone sounds better in concept than it plays on screen.

War Machine has just enough juice to prevent it from being a Snore Machine.

Scream 7 packs in plenty of satisfying slasher action, and may even bring some lapsed fans back into the fold by focusing down the scope of that action after Scream 6, but the new ideas it does bring to the table are either too thin to fully explore or ill-advised enough to detract from the success the movie does find in playing the hits, the deep cuts, and the killer tracks.

Psycho Killer may "have a Hulk," but it's also a parade of missteps and missed opportunities.

Crime 101 has everything a heist thriller ought to have… but not much else.

In the Blink of an Eye is a disaster of its own making, living in the shadow of far better sci-fi films of old, and never doing anything interesting with any of the ideas it throws out.

On the heels of several other Dracula-based films in very recent memory, Luc Besson’s take on the story doesn't do enough to set itself apart, despite its fair share of weird comedic moments.

Iron Lung has terrible pacing and very low energy from the start. The scenarios that Fischbach has put his character in just aren’t compelling enough to watch unfold, with scenes that drag on and on.

Shelter ticks all the action boxes for a Jason Statham film, boasting a charismatic supporting cast to ground the conspiratorial stakes with some thrillingly playful fight sequences to boot. But its lackluster script works against the acting calibre of its stars.

A headache-inducing screenlife film that straps Chris Pratt to a chair and holds its audience hostage too, Mercy squanders its potential as a sci-fi thriller about the dangers of entwining justice and artificial intelligence. The result plays less like the tongue-in-cheek mystery-thriller director Timur Bekmambetov seems to be aiming for, and more like an advertisement to tech investors, making the movie chilling in unintended ways.

Return to Silent Hill isn’t the worst entry in this video game movie series, but it fails to accomplish anything that the source material doesn’t do better.

Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman’s performances are a treat in Song Sung Blue. They sing and perform their hearts out, but none of it ends up in service to a coherent vision, let alone one that says something meaningful or profound.

Anaconda is a disappointing follow-up for Gormican, who cannot crack the code on Sony's bewildering aquatic not-really-horror reboot. A cast of proven funny people are lost in a thick brush of hacky bits and ineffective storytelling, unable to machete their way through to a redeeming climax. There are brief bursts of creature-feature excitement and belly-tickling humor, but way more stretches of bafflingly unclear ambitions that feel like they're struggling to keep the "movie within a movie" gimmick afloat. It's Anaconda without the aqua-horror chills, throwback practical effects, and midnight-movie entertainment—what an odd choice.

The film’s themes may be fundamental in their commentaries on parental gender disparity or qualities about motherhood so many refuse to publicly acknowledge, but they still land like a haymaker. You’ve gotta hand it to Ramsay; she’s a fearless visionary when rocking on all cylinders—which, frustratingly, Die My Love only dishes out in smaller servings.

Wicked: For Good brings Jon M. Chu’s movie-musical duology to a climactic conclusion that’s dark in every sense of the word. With harrowing action scenes, heart-wrenching musical numbers, and excessively dimly-lit scenery, this sequel compounds all of the problems of the first movie while introducing some wholly new ones of its own. Dual leads Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are as luminous as ever, electric whenever they’re sharing the screen together, but there’s a lot of movie to slog through to get there.

Osgood Perkins’ latest dark trip has a powerful Tatiana Maslany performance and cool aesthetics to thank for keeping Keeper from getting completely lost in the woods.

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t serves as a reminder of how they manage to coast by just enough, providing a good time thanks to the notable talent and charm of their expanding cast and the inclusion of the magic trick element to provide a unique flair. It’s the epitome of “We’re just having fun here” entertainment, and while little of it resonates, it mostly gets the job done.

Roofman’s excellent performances are hampered by a middling script that’s executed with minimal visual flair or excitement.

A House of Dynamite has the acting and directing goods, but its weak resolve arrives late in the game.

The Astronaut has a game lead in Kate Mara and the decent stagings of a monster mystery, but it winds up being a humdrum offering in a genre usually teeming with imagination and innovation.

Tron: Ares somehow forgets where it came from and relentlessly revisits the original, only making the latest version of the Grid paler by comparison.