It’s no Purple Rain – though Jenna Ortega is a much better onscreen foil for Tesfaye than Apollonia was for Prince – but it at least manages to find a handful of visually stimulating moments amid the vapidity.

There’s plenty to flinch (or even gag) at when directors Danny and Michael Philippou spill some blood , and Sally Hawkins and young Jonah Wren Phillips commit to the intensity of their roles, but the decidedly unanswered questions posed by the plot contribute to some dissatisfaction

Shadow Force is more like the idea of a movie than a movie proper, totally generic and completely inert.

While its action is reliably thrilling and a few of its most exciting sequences are sure to hold up through the years, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning tries to deal with no less than the end of every living thing on the planet – and suffers because of it. The somber tone and melodramatic dialogue miss the mark of what’s made this franchise so much fun for 30 years, but the door is left open for more impossible missions and the hope that this self-serious reckoning isn’t actually final.

In Final Destination: Bloodlines, death is the life of the party. There’s little novelty to the boilerplate family trauma plot of this sixth Final Destination movie, but what its comedy-forward take on the franchise’s established formula lacks in thematic depth, it more than makes up for with delightful, well-designed kills and boundless gallows humor.

Josh Hartnett does a fine job in Fight or Flight’s intensely physical, one-versus-100 lead role, but the movie doesn’t have much to offer beyond 15 minutes of inventive action and 80 minutes of aggressive mediocrity.

Though it starts out as a promising slasher throwback, Clown in a Cornfield struggles with a jokey tone and a political message that lacks teeth.

Thunderbolts* is the most solid the sacred timeline has felt in a little while, providing an adventure befitting its overlooked title characters. While it very capably dabbles in a darker tone – touching on the mental health of heroes and villains alike – the filmmakers struggle to balance that dabbling with a snappy, comedic energy. While the movie as a whole left me feeling like it was a downer on the balance, it’s at least the good kind of downer, filled with characters I’m looking forward to seeing again.

The movie leaps to life whenever the bullets start flying. It's the generic gangland stuff in between that's not up to snuff, even with Hardy lending his trusty gruffness to the haunted-cop boilerplate.

Until Dawn is more disappointing than deadly, leaving all the promise of the horror game behind for a jumble of horror-movie re-creations.

The movie plays its fun, spooky premise as straight as possible, while winking at the absurdity of its analog aesthetic.

Ryan Coogler enters the horror realm and nails it in Sinners, which drops vampires into a deeply personal, heartfelt, emotional, sexy, and bloody story that’ll stick with you.

825 Forest Road is a stodgy paranormal thriller that doesn’t boast enough character or intensity to reach the heights of its director’s Hell House LLC movies.

It mixes the throwback feel of an old-school spy story with an engaging scenario about a tech-savvy CIA analyst thrust into the field for decidedly dark reasons. The direction and a strong cast help sell this vibe and make for an entertaining time, even if it comes to a less-than-satisfying conclusion.

Screamboat isn't a good movie, but it can be an entertaining experience if you only care about indulgently bloody kill sequences.

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.

For a big-studio adaptation of a massively popular video-game, A Minecraft Movie lets a surprising amount of its director’s personality shine through. Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess manages to fit some laugh-out-loud silliness into his Overworld saga before surrendering to the obligations of CG-driven fantasy adventure. Thematically, A Minecraft Movie offers a pat world-is-what-you-make-it lesson, but Jack Black and Jason Momoa in particular sell it with a lot of comic enthusiasm.

Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Warfare is incredibly effective at putting you into the middle of combat, evoking feelings of dread and terror usually reserved for the darkest horror movies.

Writer-director Elijah Bynum fills the screen with some impressive imagery, but it’s all in service of an ugliness that Magazine Dreams cops out on depicting.

Although this psychological thriller can be uncomfortable to watch at times, the performances – combined with the disturbing puppet imagery – bring a lot of life and imagination to a story about a petty dictator and an unlikely rebel.

Ayer and Stallone's script is messily realized and cornily directed – even its violent fight sequences fail to measure up to the impressive feats of action we're so used to seeing Statham serve up.

It can’t decide whether it wants to tell the real-life story of respected mob boss Frank Costello and his comrade-turned-scheming-enemy Vito Genovese, or if it wants to skewer the entire genre of films they helped inspire. However, with Robert De Niro in both leading roles, there’s always something interesting to watch, even if it’s buried by mountains of repetitive dialogue.

Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League is equal parts exciting action and completely ludicrous comedy, making it a faithful, loving tribute to both anime and Western superheroes.

Although Holland takes place in a unique setting full of kitschy Midwestern details, even Nicole Kidman in frustrated-housewife mode can’t sustain the sloppily plotted thriller.

The best Disney live-action remake in a decade (not that that’s a particularly high bar to clear), Snow White adapts the broad strokes of the 1937 original, while fleshing out its themes of kindness. Rachel Zegler crafts a remarkable, melodic version of the classic princess who leads with her heart, even if her CGI co-stars are difficult on the eyes.

With heavy inspirations from games like Dead Space and movies like Alien and The Thing, Flying Lotus' Ash is an ambitious, visually enthralling sci-fi horror movie. But its tale of a space station terrorized by a mysterious, gooey threat is otherwise empty and derivative, and takes too long to get going.

Opus isn't a tremendously effective horror film, often feeling like a number of A24 horror movies rolled into one. Those looking for scares will be disappointed. The first film from writer director Mark Anthony Green is, however, interesting enough when it has things to say about pop stars and the people who write about them – not that it makes the movie any more chilling.

O'Dessa delivers a bold, catchy musical set in a vibrant cyberpunk world that mixes naturalistic visuals with an aesthetic indebted to 1980s sci-fi and fantasy films. Sadie Sink shines as a singer who can change the world with her ballads, with a gender norm-defying performance and an enchanting singing voice.