Netflix's Earthquake Bird is a not particularly engaging thriller featuring an inert performance from Alicia Vikander.

It’s not simply cashing in on the popularity of the TMNT cartoon, but is actually a thoughtful, emotional, and challenging movie about the loss and reconstruction of family. It’s got lots of hilarious one-liners and ninja action too, making it one of the most well-rounded comic book movies that’s not afraid to hold reverence to the source material while also having some fun with it.

The pacing drags through action set-pieces left obscured by messy compositions and limp, over-stylized visual choices. New Orleans, as the film’s setting, is wasted while the film’s gritty concept fails to deliver the desired intensity.

Robert Rodriguez delivers a family-friendly film that feels like his most personal project yet. We Can Be Heroes is a cheerful and colorful take on the superhero genre with a powerful message about empowering younger generations to take the reins and do better than their parents.

The slapstick comedy works wonders, and stands in stark contrast to the endless pop culture-based animated comedies of the past 20 years. But it's the heart at the center of the movie – the dynamic between the dogs played by the likes of Adam DeVine, Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn – that sells the story and makes this more than a one-joke movie.

Living up to the legacy of Die Hard is a tall order, and Skyscraper never reaches those heights. But it's a gigantic and silly blockbuster matinee of a movie, with likable performances, absurd action sequences, and a heck of a lot of duct tape.

It's a fun film that presents an interesting scenario and raises a unique possibility. What it lacks in depth and acting skills it more than makes up for as a thoroughly enjoyable popcorn film.

Directorially, last minute replacement director Jeannot Szwarc has done a nice job and there's some really nice photography here.

Umma isn’t scary, but the themes behind it are terrifying as it deals with generational trauma and guilt. Though the cultural references run deep, it’s overstuffed with symbolic imagery that is never fully explained. Though Oh and Stewart give solid performances, the tone and tension of the story ends up being choppy and underwhelming.

Dr. Seuss' The Grinch is a fun and fast holiday movie, updating the classic story for the audience that made the Minions a billion-dollar industry. However, the straightforward moral of the 30-page children’s book and one of Dr. Seuss’ most memorable characters get a little handcuffed by this update.

The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot lays all its cards on the table up front, but then still manages to never quite be what you expect it to be. It juggles a lot of ostensibly ridiculous ideas, but they all land just right because the film's deliciously dour tone, that sort of snuggles everything within the warm embrace of Sam Elliott's ruggedness and regret.

The only question Paul Schrader's murder mystery will leave you with is how long before you fall asleep?

Sadly, this routine remake doesn't manage to recapture the surreal strangeness of the original Disney classic or elevate the dated premise into something better.

Rough Night is a movie that, perhaps, is a lot like one of these parties – it manages to be remembered not as the best time ever, but fondly.

Director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, The Mask of Zorro) offers some reliably, well, clean hand-to-hand combat without showing us anything we haven’t seen before. Only a mid-film twist and the oddly sympathetic motives of the bad guys distinguish Cleaner from a thousand other movies with basically the same sturdy premise.

The relentlessly slapstick Peter Rabbit may please the kids, but the film never quite realizes its full potential.

Overall the biggest problem with What Just Happened is that its character studies and conflicts are so far inside the eye of Hollywood's celebrity-clad storm that its melancholy calm completely fails to interest anyone.

A Man Called Otto is a benign comedy-drama that peppers a heart-wrenching story with plenty of eye-rolling jokes to distract you from its perfectly pedestrian plot.

More unsettling than outright terrifying, The Woman in the Yard is smaller-scale horror that works as a return to fundamentals for a talented filmmaker, and is further proof of Danielle Deadwyler’s immense skill as a lead performer who knows how to pull off the psychological ramp-up required for a movie like this.

Coming off the triumph of its extension into TV with Cobra Kai, The Karate Kid franchise returns to theaters with Legends, a movie which is far less impactful than that show, yet still reminds us why the underlying story and themes of this series can still connect.

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.

Jim Brown: All American is visually impressive, but about halfway through the documentary it gets so defensive and excusive that it stalls. It's as if Lee is forming a defense case rather than exhibiting the man's life.

It's for kids and it's cute. It's also an absolute eyesore, crassly overstuffed with retina-scorching color combinations and explosions of glitter. Frankly, it's disappointing that an animated movie with so much talent attached didn’t strive to be more than just "cute for kids." But hey, at least you can dance to it.

Despite game performances by a slew of returning cast members, it doesn’t justify its existence as anything other than a mercenary attempt by Paramount+ to cash in on audience nostalgia for familiar faces.

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two, directed and co-written by Chris Columbus, once again takes full advantage of Kurt Russell's exuberance as Santa -- and the full addition of Goldie Hawn's Mrs. Claus -- for a rewarding romp about young Kate Pierce's need to rediscover the holiday spirit.

The movie doesn’t end up going anywhere and serves as little more than an excuse to get the movie’s stars into dapper suits and flat caps.

The "live action" footage simply looks "blah" when interacting with the animated characters. It breaks apart the look of the movie, and really hurts it.

It’s intellectually intriguing and well-acted, but the inconsistent visual effects undermine the necessary suspension of disbelief when it comes to mixing live-action humans with talking CG animals in such a serious and somber adaptation of the Kipling classic. Still, it’s a thoughtful and dramatic interpretation, which sets it apart from most incarnations of The Jungle Book.