It’s a reasonable way to get out of the heat for a few hours and give your kid a treat but don’t expect to get as much out of it as you would if you were part of the under-10 crowd.

It’s a step up from 28 Weeks Later but it remains to be seen whether Nia DaCosta is able to bring this chapter across the finish line.

I found Materialists to be overlong but not unpleasant but there’s a lack of balance in the way the secondary characters and side-plots are more engaging than the bland central romantic triangle.

Watching The Life of Chuck, I was inspired to remember how wonderful it can be to find a movie that offers the thrill of discovery and the comfort of real emotions. That’s such a rare combination these days and when a film unlocks the secret, it deserves to be seen and lauded for the accomplishment.

How to Train Your Dragon represents solid family entertainment even if it feels like it’s tracing over an existing pattern rather than developing something new.

For those who enjoy Anderson’s patented quirkiness, The Phoenician Scheme doesn’t disappoint. Assembled with the abettance of longtime friend and collaborator Roman Coppola, Anderson has almost completely dispensed with a conventional storyline in service of a movie that delights in parodying seemingly anything and everything.

The concept of expanding the John Wick “world” by adding a worthy female counterpoint isn’t an inherently bad idea. The flaw is in the execution.

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is too low-key for its own good and could have benefitted from a stronger connection to the titular author than the finished product delivers.

The overall production is bland and overcooked and the reliance on nostalgia and regurgitation often renders things dull and routine.

While the experience it offers may not be to everyone’s taste, it is off-the-beaten path and effective for what it attempts to be.

Fountain of Youth is a perfect example of something that can play in the background but proves singularly unable to hold anyone’s attention for the entirety of its running length.

While the result is far from the pinnacle of Disney’s family-friendly production hill, it’s at least as good as most of the other animated-to-live-action transformations.

It’s a no-holds-barred action-oriented epic that doesn’t much care if it makes sense as long as viewers are amped-up and engaged. When the end credits roar onto screen with a full-throated rendition of Lalo Schifrin’s iconic theme song, it’s hard to argue that a good time wasn’t had by all, even if that “time” lasts longer than necessary.

In large part because of a great beginning and a solid ending, this is one of the better entries into the series, at least on par with Final Destination 3 and 5 and far and away better than the others.

Part music video, part bizarro psychological thriller, and part David Lynch-inspired descent into existential purgatory (I kept looking for Michael J. Anderson), the film’s weirdness is sometimes extreme enough to exert an almost hypnotic attraction. But, as good as he may be on stage and in a music studio, The Weeknd (a.k.a. Abel Tesfaye) is not a good actor.

One thing missing from Fight or Flight is the kind of Tarantino-inspired banter that elevated Bullet Train. In fact, the production is only fitfully successful in transcending the boundaries of a generic action film.

Another Simple Favor feels lazy and overplotted, and it definitely overstays its welcome.

Watching Thunderbolts*, it’s easy to forget this is Marvel. Bringing together the flotsam and jetsam of the MCU and allowing them to have their own adventure (without any major cameos) goes against the grain for a film studio whose mantra seems to be “Always Be Escalating.”

I can think of bad slasher sequels from the ‘80s that were more engaging than this one.

The movie works when focused on character interaction and buddy-movie tropes, but the action elements are perfunctory at best and boring at worst. Bill Dubuque’s script is never able to balance out the ledger.

I wanted to love Sinners more than I did but the energy level is so infectious that it’s impossible not to get swept up and pulled in. It’s a sloppy concoction that carves out a new niche for vampires not unlike what Let the Right One In achieved.

What starts out as a devilishly clever exercise in evasion and detection turns into a self-parody that climaxes with several eye-rolling whoppers. Well, at least it’s never boring.

This is yet another early 2025 movie where there’s just enough material in the film to assemble an intriguing three-minute trailer but not enough to make the other 120 minutes of more than passing interest.

Some players will enjoy the flashes of familiarity but others will find the production to be lacking. “Cringey” might be too harsh but this is unlikely to become the next video game-to-movie classic.

Those who want something substantial in their cinematic diet may recoil from what A Working Man offers. But for anyone whose primary concern is to see the righteous slaughter of bad guys at the hands of the noble Statham, A Working Man doesn’t disappoint.

Overall, Death of Unicorn falls short of being the Next Great Cult Classic but there’s enough here to enjoy for those who appreciate offbeat horror that doesn’t skimp on the grotesque aspects of the genre.

It’s not the worst we’ve seen from either Levinson or De Niro but there’s a sense that a pairing of these two working with a Pileggi script should have borne juicer fruits.

It’s disposable entertainment that will put some spare change in the distributor’s coffers while never coming close to replacing its venerable antecedent in viewers' hearts.