Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc has some issues and it sacrifices some of the first season's experimental approach, but it compensates with a compelling romance and one of the best soundtracks of the year.

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.

Good Fortune is a witty, warm, celestial comedy of errors that splendidly blends the wry world of the Frat Pack with the dopiness of Bill & Ted. It's got great performances -- including a devilishly angelic one from Keanu Reeves -- and offers a fresh, funny look at modern hardships.

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a crowning achievement for the beloved genre director and one of the most effective adaptations of the Mary Shelley story ever put to film.

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

If the film doesn’t add up to the sum of its parts, it’s important to note that most of those parts are still pretty great.

Sisu: Road to Revenge offers a ludicrous and punishing take on the same fantastic action-forward indulgence as the original, resulting in a sublime outcome. Writer-director Jalmari Helander's brand of excitement is loud, resilient, and pushes breakneck intensity to the maximum.

At its best, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is a laugh-filled yet incredibly dark and poignant fever dream that pleads for a safer AI tomorrow. Verbinski's command over utter chaos is nothing short of marvelous, even if the pacing slows while jumping between storylines that eventually all fit together.

Swiped is constructed well-enough for the movie it’s trying to be, but its lack of ambition and nuance keep it from being its best self. It can still be a worthwhile enough watch for Lily James’ admirable performance as Whitney Wolfe, but the movie never affords its subject the same level of depth as what James tries to imbue her with.

The Strangers – Chapter 2 makes a couple of minor improvements on the first film, but it’s ultimately just as slapdash as its predecessor.

Bugonia is a film that tries to balance barbed sci-fi themes and conspiracy looniness funneled through Lanthimos’ trademark quirks, but it slips off the pommel horse on the dismount.

Obsession should and will put Barker on the map as a horror filmmaker you need to watch. Thanks to fantastic turns by Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette, you'll be addicted to this sour Valentine's Day counterprogramming.

You’ll believe a dog can star in a horror movie with Good Boy, which makes the most of its high-concept approach of centering a haunted house story not on a man but on man’s best friend.

V/H/S/Halloween is an enjoyable assortment of vicious holiday horror shorts that might take a step backward after last year’s fantastic V/H/S/Beyond, but it’s hardly a throwaway sequel.

Black Phone 2 is a template for how sequels can reach further and push for standalone appeal, bringing us as close to Freddy Krueger as we'll get until there's another A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Justin Tipping’s flimsy football horror movie Him is papered over with colorful lighting but underscored by bland ideas. Despite Marlon Wayans’ bravura performance, it makes very little visceral impact while en route to one of the most confounding third acts of any horror movie this year.

There are so many little details, seemingly inconsequential touches – the filmmaker’s style, if you will – that all add up bit by bit to turn this amazing movie into a masterpiece.

Wake Up Dead Man is a solid third entry for Benoit Blanc, finally delivering the classic-style mystery the series has sorely needed.

Eternity is a bizarre but heartfelt dramedy that balances a wacky vision of the afterlife with strong performances and direction.

While it picks up threads from the original, like the mysterious curse of their dying drummers or stage props misbehaving, nothing gets anywhere close to the original.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle offers plenty of action and some emotional flashbacks, but it suffers from an overuse of flashbacks that undermine the story's pacing.

After a strong first act, The Conjuring’s intended finale disappoints, keeping its central duo of Ed and Lorraine away from the action for too long.

Anchored by strong performances from Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, The Long Walk overcomes the repetitive nature of its story to deliver a timely and powerful condemnation of normalized violence . . . with some seriously brutal, R-rated violence.

Ne Zha 2 starts out tedious and juvenile, but after its first hour it pivots to enormous and spectacular fist-pumping action and tear-jerking intimacy.

As is expected from a sequel to a surprise action-comedy hit, Bob Odenkirk’s second round of ass-kicking gets a bit more goofy than the first film, in the process losing some of the charm of the original’s more grounded look at an assassin now living as a suburbanite. But Odenkirk’s commitment to the role and director Timo Tjahjanto’s flourishes make this an entertaining sequel that proves that there is a lot of joy to still be found in watching a legendary comedian turn into a one-man army when he’s pushed too far.

Freakier Friday clumsily juggles way more plotlines than the original, but the movie shines bright when it focuses on the original duo.