Though it's an often beautiful showcase for the Arabian desert landscape, Desert Warrior is a slow, awkward jumble, trying so hard to be cool and lacking any of the style or charisma to pull it off. The climactic battle has some redeeming qualities, but after waiting 90 minutes to see it and finding it so choppily edited as to be distracting, the prevailing feeling I carried with me after it ended was still disappointment.

With thin character work and a familiar story surrounding it, the movie ultimately proves more disposable than enjoyable.

Some adaptations, it seems, are far less equal than others.

While Lowery's film is ripe for interpretation, and will no doubt be better received by those who enjoy that style of filmmaking, those wanting actual answers will find frustratingly little satisfaction. Mother Mary is, at heart, more about vibes and style than anything else.

Despite having a decent budget and some recognizable actors to work with, writer-director Tommy Wirkola, known for Nazi zombie film Dead Snow and his Santa action film Violent Night, ensured what ended up on screen was a pretty fun B picture. It doesn't have the stylistic touch that can sometimes bring a little something extra to playful genre films, nor does it have a true standout sequence that could give it a chance at a longer cultural life. But it does have just the tone you'd hope it would, especially as it nears its climax, and that's all it really needs to deliver the goods.

Hill is willing to look critically at some of his industry's darkness, but he's also far too inclined to let his lead off the hook, and his film is weaker for it. As dark comedy, Outcome feels underbaked; as drama, it lacks sufficient introspection to have earned its emotional catharsis. Part of that is length: At under 90 minutes, the film is sometimes choppy and out of breath, and more time to flesh out its ideas might have helped it feel more tonally balanced. But no one change could fix a problem that's rooted in the vision for this material.

The movie asks a lot of its audience in terms of suspended disbelief, and while it occasionally handles its cheesier moments by poking fun at itself, there are times when cringe-worthy lines are delivered with absolute sincerity. Particularly early on, in fact, You, Me & Tuscany seems doomed to be yet another trope-y romcom that fails to set itself apart. What ultimately saves the movie is unquestionably its cast. Unsurprisingly, given their respective romance backgrounds, Bailey and Page are everything audiences want in romcom leads.

Not all movies need to be action-packed, and that was never Mermaid's goal, despite what its opening, horror-themed mermaid encounter might have led one to believe. However, for a film that sets out to take viewers into the mind of a broken man clinging to his last shot at change, Mermaid does not pack the emotional punch that is needed to hook the audience all the way through.

Margot knows the dangers of social media – her backstory has shades of cliché, but it's still effective in pushing her down the rabbit hole that her coworkers' superficiality precludes them from exploring. That investigation involves a string of missing persons and a killer obsessed with the dark corners of the internet. The biggest issue with Faces of Death, though, is that it's just not all that dark down there.

In The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, as in the 2023 film, surprise character cameos, nonstop gags and action, and references to 40 years’ worth of games that fly across the screen at 100 mph take precedence over plot, character development, and pacing. However, if you’re ready to turn off your brain for a little under two hours and bask in the impressive animation and countless Easter eggs, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this sugar rush of a sequel.

It sits somewhere at the intersection of Quentin Tarantino and Sam Raimi, though without the former's control of form and the latter's splatstick comedic timing, it can't quite live up to the potential of that mashup. Still, it's plenty of fun. Zazie Beetz is the ideal badass heroine to carry this movie, and there are more than enough moments of stylish violence (and violent style) to get the whole theater cackling.

Sam somewhat shrinks into the periphery of the story to make way for Amanda Peet's Dianne, whose tonal world is welcome, but certainly different. Rather than hold things together, Shear the filmmaker seems to step back, too. The result is a film that only exists in moments: sometimes funny, sometimes interesting, always lacking the cohesion necessary to add up to anything.

Director Vicky Jewson and her stunt team... properly make dance a large part of its central characters' fight sequences, which gives them a very different flavor. However, this only elevates the film so far beyond its fairly underwhelming script.

She Dances seems almost scared of its own premise.

Ultimately, Over Your Dead Body is too messy for its own good. It is unable to settle into any one choice. The repeated motif of flashbacks and plot twists is fun, but not always useful in keeping the ball up.

It's something of a disappointment that the film, as a whole, fails to live up to Byrne's great work in it. But it's certainly not a bad film.

The film boasts a twee quirkiness in style, but in its narrative, that promise never really comes to fruition. It is, in other words, a much more normal affair than what is promised. In spite of many genuine laughs, that just translates into a disappointing experience.

In between nonchalant murders, Beers, Bacon, and Sedgwick aim for grounded heart-to-heart conversations of a kind that don't exactly feel at home in the movie's otherwise topsy-turvy world. But being that this is a real family that has worked together for decades, their chemistry elevates the somewhat lackluster writing to deliver a pleasurable, if tame experience.

If Ready or Not was a chess match, Here I Come is tic-tac-toe.

Thankfully, despite the movie feeling imbalanced in parts, One Another still proves to be a generally charming enough diversion.

Unfortunately, Reminders of Him isn't a very good film, at least in the traditional sense. But, like Regretting You, there's a certain level of lizard brain enjoyment that transcends much of the film's flaws and allows for all the soapy, melodramatic elements to be enjoyed at their own level.

Perhaps it's fitting that a horror film set around a podcast flits in and out of being engaging, since that's more or less the experience of listening to one, but it doesn't exactly make for a cohesive viewing experience.

This Is Not a Test suggests a filmmaker content to operate within the familiar confines of the horror genre rather than push beyond them.

To put it simply: it's just not very stimulating to watch two people who have a hard time talking... have a hard time talking. Stella and Gerry's love may be stuck in the wintry cold, but so is the film, utterly unable to be thawed.

For all of its missteps, calling Dolly an outright bad movie still doesn't quite prove an accurate descriptor for Blackhurst's slasher thriller. It's got a solid cast of performers, occasionally stylish direction, and some shocking brutality, but can never quite find the right rhythm to bring it all together.

Every life is a universe unto itself, and Ricciardi was clearly the kind of unique soul whose spirit enriched everyone around him, but its actually in the margins of this sometimes preening doc that Benna's film really hits its target. When the film rests, it destigmatizes a process that everyone will eventually go through (albeit in a range of ways).

While it has a mix of fresh and familiar concepts, Protector ultimately still feels too routine to stand out from the crowd.

Thankfully, Boon, Graham, and Riseborough do enough to anchor the film and bring it home as it lands on a strangely poignant note both chilling and endearing.

It doesn't quite have the courage to be the best version of itself. Still, it works. War Machine is an action movie you feel in your body, and it mixes in the right dose of sci-fi VFX without losing sight of the character that keeps you caring.

It reaches for the spiritual vastness of Cloud Atlas and the hushed introspection of Ad Astra, yet ultimately struggles to stir even the faintest flicker of emotion or hope.

Despite a series of beautiful gowns worn by Chastain, the film doesn't offer much intrigue nor sociopolitical interest, instead reducing itself to the lowest common denominator by the time it reaches its exceedingly cruel ending.

A surprisingly bland film that somehow manages to dampen even Glen Powell's usual brand of effortless charm, How to Make a Killing is sketched together with thin characterizations, limp commentary and a sluggish pace.

It's to the actors' credit that it works when it does, and what it ultimately posits about marriage is as grossly haunting as it is disturbingly poetic.

Despite having some really good parts driving it forward, it's unfortunate that The Mortuary Assistant never quite finds its rhythm.

Lang really goes for it here, and he sells the material as best as he can, but suffice it to say that Hellfire is only as entertaining as your bandwidth for bog-standard action fare.

This is a purposefully languid movie that proves real, genuine tension can be built without crash landing right on your head. In an era of fast cuts and escalating explosions — the kind that Hemsworth, Ruffalo and Halle Berry all know intimately from their time in Marvel's universe — it is refreshing to watch something this confident in its own particular DNA.

What they cannot ignore is that the film is otherwise still lacking. For all the epithets one could throw out about Wuthering Heights, the most surprising may be that it is an abject snooze, and that its nonchalance about color-specific casting reveals a filmmaker completely insensitive to the implications of race in the late 18th century.

It grows tedious because it feels like we’re holding our breath waiting for something more significant to happen for the lead’s character development, and yet it remains largely stagnant. Exit 8 has so much squandered potential. It might have made for a better short film than a full feature, but as a psychological horror, the film falls flat.

If American Pachuco leaves you wanting more, perhaps that's not a bad thing; Valdez deserves the last word, anyway, and he's not finished.

Its approach is so diffuse that its uncertain and purposefully ambiguous ending is misguided at best.

It's a standard-bearer film, a real fastball down the middle, which hits all of its assumed itinerant emotional beats right on target, without ever really challenging us in any major way.

The Gallerist is a tepid satire. Even calling it such feels generous, as the film is almost entirely devoid of genuine humor.

Candy-colored and ebullient, I Want Your Sex is not a bad film, but its hard to think of it positively when we know just how much more effective Araki has been behind the camera. The film is just never sure of what it is.

Islands feels less like a destination than a prolonged pause. It’s watchable, occasionally absorbing, but rarely urgent. It’s hard to shake off the feeling that Gerster introduces narrative ideas he has little interest in fully developing.

Worldbreaker has the skeletal framework of a great dystopian thriller, but never progresses beyond surface-level worldbuilding. Even so, it effectively captures the resilience of a family that doggedly battles the odds for survival in a world teeming with chaos.

Waugh knows how to build an action sequence with the best of them, and Shelter is, ultimately, an electric actioner, so long as it is sticking to the action.

The circumstances around Audrey and Eli's union (Moon Choi and Son Suk-ku, respectively) is tender, yet forceful, beautiful, yet pained; but the film is otherwise formless, uninspiring and moves like molasses.

Gans and co-writers Sandra Vo-Anh and Will Schneider clearly wanted to try and make a faithful translation of the second game in the series, but between unnecessary lore changes and a lack of thematic heft in some of its storytelling, the filmmaker's return to the franchise is a weird mix of exciting recreations, gorgeous visuals and disappointing execution.

The best parts of Mother of Flies are in the margins. At its most lucid, it tells us that life, death and healing are magic — both of the Western and witchy varieties.

No disrespect to Foy, who showed with The Crown just how capable she is of revealing entire histories through her open visage, but watching her go through the extremely repetitious (and, one supposes, accurate) steps of training a Eurasian Goshawk is exceptionally tiresome. H is for Hawk induces the same effect as taking a sedative.

The process of searching through all manner of cloud-based applications and information in a video-game-like manner is a tantalizing prospect, one just wishes it wasn't done for something so harebrained.

In implicit ways, Deepfaking Sam Altman demonstrates just how out of touch from basic humanity these programs still are, which makes it all the more terrifying when we hear how they are being peddled as tools which can literally decide the fate of human lives.

Co-writer/director Ryan Prows has assembled a star-studded cast, some of whom wonderfully elevate their potentially one-note characters into intriguing figures, and its base structure of corrupt cops being vampires is one rife for tackling the very real issues of police corruption in the world, yet the mix never quite comes together.

Ultimately, Brechin appears less interested in crafting a vicious aquatic thriller than in condemning the cruelty of animal captivity. While Killer Whale succeeds as a somber meditation on that subject, it falters as a survival film, offering too little spectacle, tension, or invention to justify its genre trappings.

It's possible to watch this movie thinking mostly of what could have been – if the script was as deft as it sometimes pretends to be, this had the makings of a truly great thriller. But The Rip is a good time when experienced on its wavelength, and worthy material for a relaxed night in.

ALL YOU NEED IS KILL is not a film that'll have you scratching your head for meaning. It wears its empathy and its plea for life on its sleeve like a badge of honor. Admirable though that is, that directness does translate into threadbare writing.

Shuffle is a solid primer for a massive subject, and Flaherty's approach is a maddening introduction to a world that needs massive reform.

After its more interesting first hour, the intimate access gets tiresome, and it's hard to say what is gained by being introduced to the personal lives of the members of a notorious hate group.

Overall, the pulpier and the dumber it gets, Primate provides a pretty good reason to get to the theater in January. And, it gets pretty pulpy and dumb indeed.

When Ma focuses on the grounded journey of Sara's fish-out-of-water story and the genuine chemistry between her and Sam, the film sings.

With Holland and Mara, the commitment to The Dutchman is apparent and though its ending feels as if things are wrapped up a bit too cleanly, the film succeeds in being an unnerving odyssey over one New York night.

It's far from a poorly-constructed movie, but the tonal issues and refusal to invest in its strongest personalities make it a frustrating watch.

Its sometimes rushed pacing and overstuffed arcs often work against the meaningful messages at the core of the story, particularly the ending, but with enough charming moments and soulful performances from its cast, particularly Bacon and Sedgwick, it really toes the line between being a must-watch and an acceptable skip.

Anaconda aims to be Bowfinger for a new generation but ends up feeling as insipid as the film it is loosely based on. Its target audience is people nostalgic for the salad days of studio blockbusters, who are righteously frustrated with executives for cashing in on material they don't understand.

It would be unfair to assign blame to any one performance, or even to Winslet's direction, when the script is the obvious culprit. Story or character hurdles are thrown up and surmounted with the same neatness, sapping them of their impact. The movie becomes so certain of its footing that the two-hour runtime starts to feel like a chore.

Silent Night, Deadly Night, is at its best when Nelson remembers how schlocky this material is, and he falters when he tries too hard to take it seriously.

Though rooted in familiar territory, it lands on an unexpectedly resonant note, blending humor, heartache, and hard-won connection into a conclusion that works marginally better than its formula suggests.

Heretical or not, it's a captivating story, even when it seems predicated solely on vibes. It's a shame, then, that the film is not as accessible as Jupe is as an actor. The first two acts move like molasses, brimming with allegory that never quite translates off the page.

Even when removed from the implications of his prolific career, there isn't a ton here that gives us an unbridled look into the man's inner life.

Ultimately, the film is far too placid and noncommittal to earn its more moving climax. It's hard to really care about these characters when their stream of decisions seems either improperly motivated or else frustratingly selfish.

Even more than its two predecessors, the film relies on being condescension to sell its so-called magic.

Comedically, the film also falters . . . Nor is there much that is distinctive about the animation style.

Younger children will delight in the film's atmospheric wonder, but older children may be bored by the simple yet nonspecific comedy.

Dan Trachtenberg's third Predator entry is exciting, but also tonally askew in ways that prevent it from hitting its stride.

What the film does have is a sense of style and an ability to keep us engaged through a riotous cast that is clearly having a lot of fun.

The film would've been better served had it stuck to either satire or tense drama, but whatever the case, the climax of Saleh's film is aces and as taut as can be.

The film's best attribute is the romance between Bruce and Faye. White and Young's chemistry is palpable, and Cooper solidly helps us understand why an artist on the verge of overwhelming fame might be interested in a working-class single mother, whose planted smile belies the pain of someone abandoned and bereft. There's a nuance here that the rest of the film sorely lacks and needs.

Cervera’s film is consistently intriguing, elevated by the dynamic between Winstead and Monroe, who have solid onscreen chemistry.

The combination of crime film and romantic gothic horror never really gels. It is successful in its invocation of old Hollywood (including a very fun opening credits sequence), and its horror beats are effective, but it doesn't work in total.

Black Phone 2 is still a solid horror film, with gory kills and exciting set pieces. But the question of why still lingers over the film, even as it delivers on its many promises.

Shell is funny and nice to look at it, but it lacks the depth or the darkness that it needs.

If anything, She Loved Blossoms More isn’t weird enough, holding out on exploring what’s beyond the time machine, which is the most compelling aspect of the film.

At its best, Mr. K is like being immersed in Hieronymous Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. More often, however, it's like living inside a trash heap.

This is classic B-movie creature-feature stuff.

The movie possesses reams of intriguing ideas, but instead reheats much of Legacy's plot and then busies itself with semi-incomprehensible set pieces.

Thompson and Greer really are extraordinary, however, and their tête-à-tête nearly saves Kirk's enterprise from the doldrums.

Ultimately, it is a gorgeous film that's empty inside despite all of its interesting ideas and good intentions.

Xeno doesn't make any gross missteps, but it doesn't have the juice to stand the test of time.

What the film does exceedingly well is make us see the inherent irony of moderating online violence to the exclusion of the real-life violence in front of our faces.

I can't deny Krawchuk has absolutely improved on some of his missteps from the first film, but in his apparent effort to pull from the success of Terrifier 2, he learned the wrong lessons regarding mythology pacing and crafting a compelling final girl, making this slasher sequel another learning experience rather than a celebration.

Tipping and his co-writers have a lot of great ideas and thought-provoking commentary about the way we treat athletes, but the lead-up to an admittedly explosive conclusion doesn’t land. Wayans and the score seem to be doing most of the tension-building. It’s a shame the rest of the film couldn’t rise to the same level.

Driver's Ed hardly reinvents the wheel when it comes to the YA world, and it's far from perfect. Still, with its string of solid laughs and a very game cast, it makes for an entertaining adventure that goes down easy.

A rousing story about finding someone and falling in love this is not — nor does it truly contend with the need for human connection very well.

Messy, strange, and somewhat baffling, Gavras’ film is chaos personified. For this sometimes funny film, I wish that were a good thing.

The biggest selling point is Squibb. With a mischievous twinkle in her eye, she shoots off wisecracks and plenty of grandmotherly affection, and you almost wish you could be friends with Eleanor too.

Its best moments aren't in the octagon — they're in the quiet moments when Johnson's Kerr is talking to an interviewer backstage or when Dawn and Mark are exchanging barbs in between affections in their cozy Arizona home.

All told, Swiped is a conventional, even hopeful biopic. Lily James is great in the lead role.

Eternity isn’t a bad rom-com; it’s charming and wildly entertaining for the most part, but by skirting a conventional narrative to be more creative, the story loses some of its effectiveness in the process.