What Beat Takeshi’s mob comedy lacks in explosions, it more than makes up for in jokes that bomb.

While the movie's points are clear, they're also cliché – as is the movie's horror. The director's ambition exceeds his grasp, telling a story about characters who are not well-drawn enough to feel either universal or specific. The result is a fraught romance that should be nerve-wracking but instead is mostly dull.

Even when The Gorge disappears into generic run-and-shoot action, it benefits from the colorful confidence of Derrickson’s staging and a ’50s-inflected sci-fi score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. At its worst, this solid genre exercise still looks worthy of the theatrical release Apple didn’t grant it.

Captain America: Brave New World feels neither brave, nor all that new.

Crackling comedy, a sizzling age-gap romance and a new kind of sincerity make Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy second-best only to the original.

Doug Cockle’s return as Geralt of Rivia is a casting coup worth celebrating. Too bad the movie he stars in is so boilerplate.

But as a comedy, Love Hurts is pretty stale; when not trotting out dopey crime-flick caricatures, it’s simply leaning on the supposed hilarity of a sunny house hunter with a secret talent for breaking bones. You’ve seen many versions of this premise, and better ones, too.

An obvious codependency metaphor becomes a body-horror blast in Michael Shanks’ Together.

Benedict Cumberbatch gives it his all in The Thing with Feathers, but the horror movie lives up to neither his performance, nor its own heavy-handed metaphor of a bullying crow-creature representing grief.

The Monkey is one of the best horror-comedies (and Stephen King adaptations) in recent memory, exploding off the screen with both gory kills and big laughs.

OBEX is a lo-fi stunner of a video game movie, merging a deeper understanding of the way games work with playful and creative sequences that also pack a deeply emotional punch.

From the sincerity of the lead performances to the cartoonish gore offered by Werewolves Within director Josh Rubenn. There are much worse ways to spend Valentine’s Day than a genre cocktail for saps and gorehounds alike.

Isaiah Saxon’s adventure fairytale ends up unique and beautiful, much like the adorable animatronic foundling of its title.

Grafted makes a patchwork of its ideas but manages to be an entertaining, mindful, gore-saturated charge through social hell.

Drew Hancock’s Companion is a funny and clever thriller, carefully balancing dark moments of violence and unsetting reveals with a disarming sense of humor.

Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon can’t quite salvage You're Cordially Invited, a comedy that's as overcrowded as the dueling nuptials it depicts.

It has a wacky premise involving a woman swapping places with a chair, but the uncompromising consumerist satire By Design is more performance art than camp classic.

The Ugly Stepsister’s torture-porn take on a classic fairy tale is told from a teenager’s point of view, but the grotesque elements are appropriate for gorehounds of all ages.

Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk manages to entertain despite goofy dialogue and the equally goofy concept of a U.S. Marshal and the prisoner she’s transporting finding themselves onboard a tiny plane with a killer. The character types are familiar and the story is simple, but there’s enough panache to keep it in the air right up until its explosive ending.

The Michelle Yeoh fronted spin-off movie Section 31 is 100 minutes of generic schlock containing only trace elements of Star Trek.

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is a bleak, mean-spirited take on a childhood classic that trades Peter’s sparkle-bright magic for overbearing seriousness and disappointingly straightforward thrills.

Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx do their jobs in Back in Action, assuring that it remains mostly watchable. But it’s ultimately a bummer to watch two well-established stars and versatile actors returning to big-budget filmmaking just to make another spies-versus-real-life action-comedy.

Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man is impeccably made, with a unique take on werewolf lore. But the emphasis is on craft over storytelling.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is neither better nor worse than the sleeper-hit crime caper that preceded it. Like the original, it’s too long and threatens to become overwhelmed by its own web of underworld intricacies. Nonetheless, with appealing chemistry between stars Gerard Butler and O'Shea Jackson Jr., and a suitably tense third-act heist sequence, it rewards the goodwill the original has built up since its 2018 release.

The bold risk of transforming Robbie Williams into an enjoyable CGI chimp pays off both emotionally and visually. Turning his back catalogue into epic musical numbers with stunning choreography and heart-wrenching storytelling, Better Man comes out swinging and winning.

Like the imposing, unadorned structures of brutalism (think: Boston City Hall, the blocky public housing of the Soviet Union, modern additions to any university campus), it can feel at times intentionally ugly or rudimentary. But it’s also a breathtaking work that’s simultaneously maximalist and minimalist – a searing movie that’s poetic on a formal, storytelling, and thematic level.

Better jokes, better imagery, and two (!) inspired comic performances by Jim Carrey give this Sonic sequel an edge on its predecessors.

Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa is a strong, uncomplicated effort that should charm kids. The Moonlight directors involvement in a CGI-heavey Disney prequel caused serious film lovers to wring their hands, but the results speak for themselves: This is simply a lovely movie.