Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, and especially Stephen Graham do their level best, but they're let down by a bafflingly inept script and unimaginative filmmaking from Scott Cooper.

Black Phone 2 hits, it hits – and that's the case pretty much as soon as they make it up into the mountains. With clever set pieces that utilize Ethan Hawke to his best advantage as an even more disturbing Freddy Krueger, Black Phone 2 ups the creepiness factor.

As its clichéd and underwritten story progresses, however, it goes from mildly interesting to underwhelming to actively bad in the end. By the standards of a major release in competition for Halloween season screens with some of the best horror movies of 2025, it's a failure.

It's another triumph from a singular voice in cinema, and another Lanthimos movie you sort of never see coming.

The majority of the movie is great. Funny and zesty, but still with something to say, Good Fortune is a good time even if the ending leaves something to be desired.

It's intelligent without being profound, amusing without being hilarious, empathetic without being gut-wrenching. "Cute" is the word I'd use to describe it overall. By nature it's nothing special, but it's not bad either.

It speeds through the plot beats so fast, in fact, that it never properly allows you to take part in the murder mystery guessing game for yourself, barely developing its characters beyond the one note they're introduced on, so the question of a motive becomes an irrelevance to anybody watching.

After the Hunt is a slog that wastes the talents of its stars on unlikeable characters in befuddling situations, rarely coming near a coherent plot point with any degree of competence.

Though it may sound like a fascinating sci-fi rumination on the intersection of technology and human life, "Ares" works best as a rollicking action picture with some strong visuals and incredible soundscapes. It lacks the acting acumen and depth of writing to achieve much more. 

Transcending its gimmick status within its opening stretch and only growing more resonant from there, it becomes that rare horror film you could recommend to people who hate the genre — the set pieces are well constructed, but their impact pales next to a haunting, moving story about a dog and his owner. 

While DDL's acting genius gives the film some spark, those sparks are sapped by lethargic pacing and serious pretentiousness.

While it doesn't offer anything you haven't seen in a slasher movie before, the pivot to survival thriller mode feels like a breath of fresh air after a tiresome prior installment with no unique ideas, and no suggestion of any impending change to the worn out formula.

Him is a decent time at the movies and possesses an impressive sense of execution. It's just that the vision its putting forth feels like one we've seen a lot of in recent years, and some pretty pictures and scene stealing moments from the performers can't overcome the sense we've been here before.

A thoughtful meditation on love and grief, Hamnet features career-best performances from Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, and is Zhao's most intimate work to date.

Beyond just being clever and unexpected, there's something quietly powerful to this story of truth-seekers in a post-truth world.

It's difficult not to fall in love with all of the characters in the film, and its breezy sense of humor makes Eternity a veritable crowdpleaser.

Rental Family is a clear crowdpleaser with a sense of humor and charm that will make audiences fall in love with it — if they're willing to accept its unvarnished sentimentality, that is.

The meta-narrative of where The Smashing Machine fits into Johnson's career is more interesting than the film itself, which I found a bit of a bore. Johnson's performance is good enough, and Emily Blunt is truly transformative as Kerr's unstable wife Dawn Staples, but neither get that much to do beyond repeat the same sort of fights (physical or verbal) over the course of two hours in a film that fails to justify why we should be so interested.

Taken on its own terms, Frankenstein is a compelling, at times moving, and utterly gorgeous epic. As a fan of both Del Toro and Shelley, I can't help but nitpick the details.

This is a surprisingly sad movie — just one that also happens to be funny.

While the movie does a fine job sending off the Warrens, it lacks some of the charm of its predecessors, and in the end, feels more like a comforting rerun than an exciting new horror effort.

Lawrence and screenwriter J.T. Mollner's take on "The Long Walk" is a reminder of why King's stories have historically been well-suited for the screen, replicating the blend of melancholy, coming-of-age character study, and fatalistic horror that defined the very best adaptations of his work.

It's not a terrible film, to be sure. At times it's even deeply entertaining, because Coen and Cooke clearly still have a certain sense of magic and charm in everything they do. But this dark crime comedy starring Margaret Qualley as a determined private eye is still lacking in a sense of real direction.

This is the only genre where you can paper over the flaws with a handful of well-staged set pieces, and thanks to Timo Tjahjanto, it manages to upstage the original on that front.

Its narrative structure keeps Weapons continually engaging, while its talented cast of actors brings depth to each character, making this one of the best horror films of the year. 

Overall, this is a comedy that doesn't skimp on the sentimental stuff, although it never comes off as cloying or overly sweet.

The vastly overqualified cast stubbornly refuses to phone it in, with their high-wattage charisma acting as the ultimate special effect; their banter is entertaining enough to help distract from just how cheap everything else onscreen looks.

It's not a good movie, but it's not that bad for a streaming flick either. If you liked the first one, give this one a try. It won't give you the same warm and fuzzy feeling as the original, but you could do worse.