Ironically for something titled The Watchers, this production lacks the basic quality of watchability.

It’s cinematic fast-food but not of the delicious, addictive variety. It’s a little overcooked and has gone cold – still edible but by no means satisfying.

Hit Man is smartly written, with Linklater and Powell deftly melding screwball comedy elements with rom-com beats against a Hitchcockian thriller backdrop. The small twists have big payoffs.

Take away the spectacle aspect and the movie may seem repetitive and underwritten. In a premium movie house, however, the immersion is so complete that viewers may require a short recovery period once it’s all over.

My reaction is that I could learn a lot more about Winehouse by listening to her music than by watching this by-the-numbers sketch of her adult life.

As a follow-up/homage, Chapter 1 isn’t bad but it feels superfluous, adding little substantive to what was previously provided by The Strangers and the second film in the series, 2018’s The Strangers: Prey at Night.

The narrative is all over the place. Character motivation is confusing. And, worst of all, the story simply isn’t interesting.

The battles and a climactic action sequence are well filmed but Kingdom isn’t trying to outdo the other summer films when it comes to edge-of-the-seat viewing. In a strange way, I find that refreshing.

The Fall Guy delivers where it matters – it’s a fun, uplifting excursion into big-screen escapism.

It’s not a complete package but it’s fresher than much of what’s out there today and is difficult to dismiss even if it sometimes feels like a graphic novel married to a video game.

Despite all its flaws, Challengers represents watchable high-end soap opera material. The story is undercooked but the dialogue contains some nice zingers and the actors are wholly invested.

It's easy to nitpick Abigail’s narrative. Parts don’t hold together well, there are significant plot holes, story elements violate just-established rules, and (in true horror movie fashion) characters sometimes make head-scratchingly stupid decisions. But, for those willing to overlook these often-familiar conventions, the movie is gorily diverting.

It’s all in good fun, if a little shallow.

Sasquatch Sunset is sufficiently different that it’s almost worth seeing for that reason alone. Alas, I don’t think it sufficiently rises above the gimmick of its premise to provide a compelling reason to spend 90 minutes in a movie theater.

When focusing on the micro-verse inside a news van and the four passengers taking the trip, Civil War does a good job dissecting the damage done by a desensitization to violence. But it botches the background and features an ending that belongs in another movie (preferably one featuring Gerard Butler).

Monkey Man may be a silly-sounding title but the story it tells is anything but silly.

The performances of Buckley and Colman rescue much of what’s salvageable in the narrative and there’s some interest in how the truth will be revealed but the movie isn’t as funny as it needs to be for the satirical elements to work.

The 94-minute running time is too skinny to do the premise justice and The Greatest Hits feels like a Cliffs Notes version of a longer, better story. Plus, for a movie that relies on music for its emotional core, the soundtrack is lackluster at best.

Even for those who have an orgasmic reaction to kaiju confrontations, far too little of the film is devoted to them and the overreliance on CGI leeches away the immediacy and awe associated with the spectacle. This isn’t as bad as the 1998 Godzilla misfire but it’s perilously close.

In the Land of Saints and Sinners is a clear, unqualified improvement over such recent Neeson-led thrillers like Retribution and Blacklight. And, although one can argue that his once-prodigious talents are wasted in cash-grab projects of this sort, at least the movie provides 90 minutes of entertainment rather than turning into a by-the-numbers slog.

Immaculate is at times unsettling and the ending contains a strong shock element but the movie as a whole feels a little too familiar to engage its audience.

As scattershot and uneven as it is unnecessary, it fails to effectively build on the foundation laid in Afterlife while at the same time relegating the “old timers” into oddly-integrated super-cameo appearances.

There’s still quite a bit to like here, from the strong sense of atmosphere to the layers of a Hitchcockian plot, but this is not a complete movie. And when viewers are laughing at a movie rather than with it, something has gone awry.

One Life feels like something straight out of the 1990s when many low-key, non-U.S. dramas were being embraced by art house devotees and more adventurous multiplex visitors. The movie is neither showy nor ostentatious. It tells a story in a workmanlike fashion that allows viewers to learn a little bit more about the central figure and why his life is deserving of a big-screen treatment.

There’s nothing imaginary about how bad a misfire this movie is even for the Blumhouse base.

Although the movie has a conventional structure, the straightforward chronological approach works for this material, allowing the viewer to come to know Cabrini and become invested in her efforts to develop an orphanage, first in New York’s Five Points slum then in rural West Park.

Dune: Part Two is a spectacle to behold with an underlying arc that makes it more satisfying than a 2 1/2-hour bite of eye candy.

It’s not a terrible movie but it feels like a failed attempt to infuse the Coen Brothers’ wry aesthetic into a B-movie tableau.

For nearly two hours, the movie plods along, offering little beyond hackneyed dialogue that can’t be gleaned from a quick read-through of Marley’s Wikipedia entry.

Sadly, Madame Web fails to rise above its pedigree as a lesser superhero movie. It does nothing to convince viewers that there’s value to be found in a story not featuring a marquee comic book character.

Lisa Frankenstein obviously wants to be different and it at least succeeds in that aim. However, as a story of female empowerment with grand guignol overtones, it has the great misfortune of coming out in too-close proximity to the vastly superior Poor Things.

I didn’t laugh once and the movie’s stylized and satirical tone defused any connection I might have felt for the characters. Perhaps if the proceedings hadn’t dragged on well past the two-hour mark, it wouldn’t have seemed like such a chore to sit through.

Origin offers the best of both worlds: a well-developed story with a three-dimensional lead character who grows over the course of the movie and an intellectually satisfying element folded into the screenplay.

For those interested only in a visual fleshing-out of a Wikipedia entry, Class Action Park does the job. Anyone hoping for more won’t find it in this unremarkable piece of nostalgia-bait.

I.S.S. doesn’t disappoint but neither does it go above or beyond what one might reasonably expect based on the trailer.

Although aspects of All of Us Strangers have a cheesy flavor, the raw honesty of the movie’s best moments propel the narrative through its less credible pitstops.

Remove the musical elements and the 2024 version, directed by newcomers Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., resembles an amateurish imitation of the 2004 original. Add in the mostly-awful songs and it becomes an in-your-face assault on the senses.

In The Beekeeper, as has been the case with pretty much anything Statham has done in the past half-decade, the actor is on hand to collect a paycheck in exchange for bringing a recognizable name to the proceedings.

For those whose only requirements for horror movies are that they avoid the excesses of blood/gore/violence prevalent in R-rated fare and incorporate a few good jump-scares, Night Swim checks the requisite boxes. For those looking for a more complete experience, however, the movie struggles even to achieve the level where it would be considered worthwhile as a streaming option.

The strength of Anatomy of a Fall comes from its willingness to embrace ambiguity and a lack of closure in ways that intrigue (rather than frustrate) the viewer.

The first Aquaman may have been low-brow fun but the second is a chore from start to finish.

It’s an enjoyable enough parfait but far from a theatrical destination.

Offering inspiration in both the truth of its basis and the way in which it is presented, The Boys in the Boat is an antidote to the pervasive cynicism of the modern era.

The 2023 The Color Purple is a handsomely mounted motion picture and there are fleeting moments when it touches magic.

As a well-acted standard-order bio-pic, Ferrari delivers but as something more, it falls short.

This is an American tragedy. Although the participants may be famous, the demons they fight in their intimate moments are familiar and relatable.

Although not as openly crowd-pleasing as Cooper’s A Star Is Born remake, there are enough interesting touches in the film – both in its aesthetic and some of the individual scenes – to demonstrate Cooper’s evolution as a filmmaker.

Gifted with a surprisingly large budget (reportedly ~$70M), Bayona is able to effectively recreate not only the crash but the dangers faced by the survivors while seamlessly incorporating on-location footage with studio-based material. The remarkable accomplishment results in a breathtaking motion picture that enthralls across the length of its 140+ minute running time.

It’s challenging but neither inaccessible nor impossibly dense. Kore-eda invites intellectual engagement but doesn’t leave the viewer unrewarded. This is one of the year’s best movies – the third time in the last decade I have made that statement about one of the director’s productions.

Even though it is rather obviously trading on a familiar and beloved brand, Wonka is nevertheless a fun and imaginative family film – certainly better than one might expect from a production crassly viewed by some as a “cash grab.”

This is one of the most effective depictions of Arendt’s “banality of evil” that I have seen and that’s in large part due to the unconventional tactics employed by Glazer in bringing this story to the screen.

American Fiction is the best kind of satire – one that is full-throated in its message, which it delivers with a cutting edge, while simultaneously taking the time to develop the characters in a meaningful way.

Regardless of whether the future will bring another Miyazaki movie, The Boy and the Heron is a wonderful gift for everyone who expected The Wind Rises to be his swansong. It’s proof that, no matter how hard Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, and others try, there’s only one animator who finds magic in every release.

Poor Things offers an opportunity for cinematic discovery. It’s brave, unconventional, and unique and easily one of the year’s best.

Is Woo using this ultra-violent experience to make an anti-violence statement? Perhaps, but even if that’s the case, it doesn’t work. Whatever the director is trying to do with the movie, it makes it for one big lump of coal in the 2023 cinematic stocking.

Godzilla Minus One isn’t just a good Godzilla movie. It’s an excellent Godzilla movie – arguably among the best ever to grace the screen.

With its offbeat blend of warped humor, dramatic and horror elements, social commentary, and Talking Heads, Dream Scenario may not always be comfortable but it is undeniably provocative.

I’ll be the first to admit that not everything in Saltburn works and, during some of the cringe-inducing instances when it fails, it does so rather spectacularly. Yet Emerald Fennell’s film is just bonkers enough to be wildly entertaining and completely disturbing in equal parts.

Napoleon was without a doubt a complex and controversial character whose shadow loomed large over the first quarter of the 19th century. He deserves a better-focused, more passionate movie than the one Scott has provided.

This may be the worst major animated film Disney has released in the past 40 years and its lack of creative energy doesn’t augur well for the immediate future.

In the 1980s, this would have been deemed generic and forgettable. In the 2020s, it stands out because of its unapologetic exhumation of a partly-dormant genre.

If someone was going to make a Hunger Games prequel, this is about the best one might hope for.

Although not on the same level as Haynes’ best movie (2015’s Carol), this one highlights the director’s ability to explore complex and dysfunctional human relationships with insight and intelligence.

The Killer is the kind of production that works both on the big screen and the smaller one (where most people will see it). It engages in a typically perverse Fincher fashion, exerting its pull as much by the development of the plot as by Fassbender’s magnetic presence, and proves to be one of 2023’s most disturbing, stylistic successes.

Instead of offering engaging storytelling, it give us flashes, bangs, bad dialogue, and a mountain of fakery (a reminder that things that work in comic books don’t always translate to the silver screen). It’s sound and fury signifying nothing except to expose another chink in the once-impervious armor of the MCU.

This mean-spirited and unpleasant production is unlikely to find favor with many either inside or outside of Elvis’ fan base.

Like most rom-coms, it is comfort food although it lacks the fantasy element associated with characters who are less seasoned.

Although engaging at times, Fingernails is ultimately frustrating.

Although aspects of the overall storyline wallow in familiarity, the sharpness of the writing, the precision of Giamatti’s portrayal, and the well-honed relationships among the principals make the movie better than one might assume from a one or two-sentence summation.

As a motion picture (in the traditional sense of the term), Five Nights at Freddy’s is disjointed and ultimately unsatisfying but as part of a larger cog in a cross-platform franchise, it does everything (and more) that is expected from it.

This is epic filmmaking and a reminder that the kinds of antisocial, amoral characters who have long represented Scorsese’s bread-and-butter don’t exist exclusively on the mean streets of modern-day America.

Some genre fans may feel cheated by the lack of overt gore (there is some but, although it's explicit enough to have warranted an R-rating, it falls considerably short of the graphic bloodletting of slasher films), the unhurried pace, and the lack of many horror tropes, but the movie isn’t a carbon copy of every other “demon possession” movie out there.

This is far from the worst horror movie I have seen. In fact, it’s not even the worst Exorcist movie. No, it’s not scary. It lacks suspense and tension. But the first hour isn’t half-bad and there are isolated moments when Green seems to be onto something.

The action is genuinely exciting and, perhaps most importantly, the concept of “Artificial Intelligence” is given more than lip service. It is addressed in an intelligent, penetrating fashion rather than being thrown in as a plot point.

Fair Play is a tidy, engaging thriller. It asks questions about the male ego and some of the difficulties faced by women ascending the ladder of power in a traditionally male-dominated field. But, although the movie has a message, it isn’t about the message. Instead, this is a tragic love story that devolves into something darker and, although it doesn’t qualify as a white-knuckle sort of movie, it exerts a magnetism that’s difficult to turn away from.

Expend4bles feels like a movie that never should have been made for a franchise that, having lain dormant for nine years, didn’t deserve a resurrection.

An engagingly lighthearted rags-to-riches romp with a David vs. Goliath element, the movie uses its real-life basis to formulate a modern day fairy tale.

For those who enjoy their sleuthing on the big screen (even IMAX) with impressively conceived set pieces, evocative performances, gothic twists and turns, and a drizzling of ghostly apparitions, A Haunting in Venice delivers.

Bottoms achieves what it sets out to do and, in the process, provides a multiplex-friendly indie movie with breakout potential.

The Equalizer 3 is the messiest of the three movies and the most narratively fractured, but it should still satisfy those who consider themselves to be fans.

Like a rom-com that spends the first half getting the characters together before showing the ugliness that sometimes happens when “happily ever after” becomes impossible, Blackberry depicts the unraveling that occurred at the back end. It’s a fascinating motion picture that gives life to Paul Harvey’s famous phrase: “Now for the rest of the story…”

Retribution seems especially disappointing, however, because of its untapped potential to be cheesily entertaining. The finished product is so bad that I can’t even recommend it for viewing on a streaming service – somewhere it should land very quickly.

For those with a particular interest in Meir, Israel, or 20th century Middle East history, there’s enough here to hold a viewer’s attention. But, as theatrical experiences go, this one underwhelms.

There’s enough here to keep the film from being a car wreck but it’s hardly an example of championship caliber filmmaking.

The primary sin isn’t that Blue Beetle stinks the way really bad movies do but that it is so deeply mired in mediocrity that it’s tough to find a reason to care about its existence.

Provided the viewer is broad-minded enough not to be bothered by a nearly constant stream of profanity, Strays offers a kennel of off-color laughter.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a harrowing journey but, for those who appreciate horror, it’s well worth taking.

Meg 2 (it lost the “The” somewhere along the way) is pretty awful stuff even in comparison to its predecessor.

It appears custom-made for a streaming service and will lose nothing from a home viewing. Regardless, with its smart and irreverent screenplay and trio of strong performances, the movie is a winner in whatever circumstances a viewer discovers it.

Talk to Me isn’t for the faint of heart. It isn’t for those who believe horror movies can easily be shaken off. And it isn’t for those who aren’t willing to pay attention and allow the film’s unsettling aesthetic to seep into one’s bones.

It’s not a bad movie but it is too long and lifeless for what amounts to a two-hour commercial for a three-minute ride. Even the wait time to get into one of the moving chairs doesn’t take as long as watching the film.

A degree of unevenness is expected and that’s what Barbie delivers: a delightful confection at its best, an unfocused jumble at its worst.

Oppenheimer is an indication that Nolan refuses to be pigeonholed as a director. While there’s something to be admired about that, this isn’t a home run. Still, many of the flaws are more than compensated for by the flashes of brilliance and the strength of the central character’s presentation.

The emotions roiling beneath the surface of this seemingly placid drama make watching it an intense and involving experience.

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is an oversized, big budget popcorn flick, with all the positives and negatives one associates with that sort of glorious but ephemeral brand of filmmaking.

While it’s possible to conceive a compelling story constructed out of the strands forming Joy Ride’s threadbare cloak, that narrative would require a better screenplay and a series of grounded, less ostentatious performances.

Although the movie has the capacity to engage and entertain young children, its bland storyline and cut-rate animation won’t impress many adults. This is a classic case of an animated film being targeted exclusively at younger viewers without much consideration about keeping parents from falling asleep.

Although there’s nothing in The Dial of Destiny that damages the character’s legacy, this is as unnecessary as any franchise entry in recent years. Indy’s time has passed. It’s time to let him go gently into that good night.