Liking "Ex Machina" is no guarantee of liking Annihilation or vice versa. In terms of tone, Annihilation is a close cousin to "Arrival." There’s the same dark atmosphere and bleak sense of discovery.

Outside of the insects, nothing else is either creepy or compelling. For a better version of pretty much the same story, invest the time in watching "Aliens."

The plot is sparse. This is about acting, dialogue, and character interaction, not narrative.

The Cured suffers from a common marketing problem that afflicts many horror-cross-something hybrids: it’s at times too slow and existential for pure blood and gore lovers and too grotesque for those with a penchant for offbeat, idea-based allegories.

There are some problems but most are related to the uneven screenplay and not the performances of Cage or his co-star, Robin Tunney.

This is the closest Marvel has come to making a stand-alone tale in many years. Even Doctor Strange felt more connected to the larger MCU.

Double Lover may not represent Ozon in peak form but it’s too weirdly entertaining to dismiss out-of-hand.

Instead of vying for a so-bad-it’s-entertaining categorization, it falls squarely into the hell of cinematic mediocrity.

This is as surprising a romantic comedy as I have seen in some time.

As for the movie itself, it’s not worth much ink. A kluge of bad science and worse science fiction clichés, it tries to be atmospheric and scary but succeeds only at being frustrating and tedious.

Although there are numerous problems with Fifty Shades Freed, the third and final installment of E.L. James’ trilogy, the fundamental one is also the most obvious: the lack of a compelling story.

Aside from being a showcase for up-and-coming action star Jason Momoa, it offers little else of note.

The promise of Before We Vanish’s early moments is never fully realized, however, as the movie plods and meanders through an overly-familiar narrative on its way to a half-baked and uneven conclusion.

If I knew definitively what the plural was for the term deus ex machina, I’d apply it here. Rarely can I remember a movie filled with so many miraculous rescues and associated contrivances.

It’s a small gem that deserves to be discovered.

Den of Thieves delivers an above-average cops-and-robbers heist film.

12 Strong represents a recent war as depicted on screen in an old-fashioned way.

Paddington 2 is a charming early-year offering and, although the main character is better known in the U.K. than the U.S., no cultural leap is required to fall in love with the bear and enjoy his adventures.

The Commuter falls into line with Neeson’s other high-octane, low-intelligence efforts and part of the reason it works (to the degree that it works) is because of the sincerity with which the actor attacks the part.

Although prone to occasional sermonizing, The Post offers a stirring reminder of the importance of these kinds of unsung heroes in protecting the American way of life.

There’s ample evidence that the producers (and writer/actor Leigh Whannell) are milking a familiar title for all it’s worth – of the four Insidious films, only one has been any good and, although The Last Key may not be the worst of them, it’s easily the most irrelevant and generic.

In true Sorkin style, the movie is all about the nonstop dialogue, which pours out at a mile-a-minute but, as a result of the way the words flow (not to mention the skill with which they are delivered), they function as momentum builders rather than verbal diarrhea.

When Getty isn’t on-screen, the movie is a bit of a bore and it doesn’t help that Mark Wahlberg is woefully miscast and the thriller elements are anything but tense or suspenseful.

Despite some great acting, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is a largely unpleasant viewing experience and the downbeat tone isn’t helped by a narrative that flits back and forth in time without rhyme or reason, sometimes confusing the viewer with the needlessly convoluted transitions from flashback to present (and vice versa).

Although there is a political element to this movie, however, it works on a primal level – that of a person struggling to find not only a path forward but some kind of meaning in an act that lacks reason, compassion, or sense.

Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson’s follow-up to 2014’s Inherent Vice, feels a little like a mash-up of Bergman and Hitchcock without the verve of the latter and the subtleties of the former.

The character arc of Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) lacks verve and, although some will appreciate the low-key denouement, the film as a whole exudes unfulfilled potential and the ending provokes little more than a shrug of the shoulders.

In style, if not substance, The Greatest Showman is reminiscent of the Disney film, "Newsies." Like the 1992 live-action musical, The Greatest Showman comes to life when the characters are singing or dancing but struggles through the sequences in between.