Netflix's The Knight Before Christmas is a perfectly charming holiday rom-com, with plenty of time-travel hijinks and a valiant effort from its stars.

Renfield is goofy, with fantastic action sequences and a few comedic beats that land, but it could have also been so much more.

There needs to be a vision, an ambition to make something good and memorable. Ida Red, unfortunately, seems to fall into the trap of emulating better crime dramas instead of trying to stand out on the merits of its own story.

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.

A Million Miles Away is genuine in the way it presents its story, and the struggle Hernández endures, but it’s also so laser-focused on his space goals that it forgets to explore his inner life.

There's a real sweetness at the center of the film, but Like A Boss surrounds that heart with middling raunch comedy.

Despite everything, it has its fair of shining moments. There's a clear direction Snyder's Justice League has that the 2017 version of the film does not, and for that alone viewers can appreciate this film a whole lot more because of it.

Rather than pushing the streamer's holiday content in a unique new direction, the movie delivers a rote, cookie-cutter fish-out-of-water comedy that proves it's really no different from any other high-concept Netflix rom-com.

Cleaner is a pretty good reminder of how fun it can be to watch someone with movie star charisma do a Die Hard.

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.

The film’s disparate elements and overarching themes don’t entirely come together by the end, leaving the story’s emotional throughline weakened as a result.

With so many people and life going back to some semblance of normalcy, Alone Together may feel slightly too late, but Holmes' film offers something worth engaging with.

Both amusingly ridiculous and completely by the numbers, The Main Event makes for generally watchable (though very disposable) kid-friendly fluff.

Although The Quarry feels lackluster in its execution, it's an intriguing story of redemption that's largely carried by a captivating Michael Shannon.

India Sweets and Spices has a lot of overall great ideas and themes, even if it doesn’t always rise up to the potential of its setup and story.

The problem is that the film wants to be too many things. It wants to be an action/adventure that takes its characters to exciting locales, a heart-warming story of family, an incisive commentary on global warming, and a cautionary tale of how vengeance can consume a person.

This story isn't the flashiest werewolf tale, but it is worth seeing thanks to a fresh perspective. As flawed as the story may be, the story from a child's eyes offers a new and unique entry point for the subgenre.

Falling For Christmas was the best comeback film for Lohan; it could have been better quality, but it is better than nothing. She's in her element, and her natural charisma is illuminated, partially by how uninteresting her costar is. The script and overall production leave much to be desired, but with how low expectations usually are, this one is okay.

It has plenty of logic gaps, over-the-top action, and is generally a lot of fun. Red Notice doesn't quite coalesce into something that could become a timeless classic of its own, but it provides plenty of entertainment.

The actors inhabit these characters well, but they don't have the benefit of juxtaposition with normality to really put their work in context.

Aided by solid performances, National Champions has a great story, but ultimately its individual parts aren't enough to score the winning touchdown.

The talent is abundant on screen and behind the camera, but a flimsy screenplay fails them all.

Fear Street Part 3: 1666 wraps up the horror trilogy's story in a satisfying conclusion that's finally less homage and more its own original slasher.

Resort to Love doesn’t do anything unexpected or exciting and, despite its overly saccharine silliness, it is entertaining enough to watch in passing.

While Small Engine Repair’s message is clear, it doesn’t completely take off and is fragmented in its pacing, with a twisted turn that doesn't land.

The film manages to be a very straightforward horror, but the lackluster character work diminishes whatever good comes from its genre shift, and the shift is substantial.

Notturno is sometimes beautiful and Rosi makes good use of private spaces. But, the film comes off as an exploitation of the region and its people’s pain.

Far from being a full-blown disaster, Downhill is a middle of the road comedy-drama that would've benefitted from a more incisive technique and a little extra faith in its audience's ability to grasp the subtleties of its story.

It is great that this blended family is so diverse, but if there is no thoughtful integration of their stories, they remain merely set dressing.

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.

Without Cena and Elba’s committed and charming performances, as well as great supporting turns from Considine and Carla Gugino as Vice President Elizabeth Kirk, Heads of State wouldn’t be worth discussing

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has a lot of potential and a chilling new villain, but too many characters and a slower plot leads to dimmed thrills.

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.

It's a fun, but forgettable movie.

It's commendable that the narrative never tries to explain the magic system of the world or bring up questions of potential paradoxes. However, it equally avoids questions about the nature of consequences. Without any real stakes or time crunch, the story builds and builds, but ends up going nowhere.

One True Loves may not be Reid's most popular novel, but its adaptation is nevertheless handled with genuine care. The soapy premise won't be for everyone, and its heavy-handed approach can alienate. Still, those willing to join Emma on this (mostly) complicated journey may very well find themselves charmed by the end.

It's a mindless good time.

Praise This is wildly uneven but not entirely unenjoyable. There is enough here that makes the film perfectly fine. It is formulaic, but its earnestness and impactful narrative will touch many.

Layne's performance is a real strength, and she does a great job of not only anchoring us in her character's emotions, but embodying how she feels about singing in any given scene.

Egerton's got something in this vein. Cruise-esque exceptionalism, but cut with relatability like he came from the everyday world but clearly wasn't meant to stay there.

Lohan's latest Netflix movie is an inoffensive rom-com with ample amounts of cheesiness and heart.

The Ultimate Playlist of Noise has some lovely and heartwarming moments, but it lacks a strong central relationship and is often too formulaic.

Even though it doesn’t take its own storyline seriously enough, Smile 2 is entertaining. Don’t expect the horror film to have the best commentary on mental health issues, but be ready for some jump-scare fun.

While the movie may never fully overcome its feeling of familiarity, Panettiere and Williams' performances truly ground us throughout the tense ride.

Hiding within Stars at Noon is a lean erotic thriller, one where the lack of chemistry between Alwyn and Qualley can be overlooked both because of Denis' directing and the standalone performances of its cast. Unfortunately, the film gets bogged down by pacing issues, hoping to coast on the chemistry of Qualley and Alwyn, but runs out of gas long before danger starts to creep in just past the hour mark.

Ambitious, occasionally thrilling, and visually striking, Dune is mostly set up, building out a heartless world that never truly feels complete.

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 New Mutants tries to offer a compelling blend of teen drama, horror and X-Men mythos, but ultimately fails to deliver a good entry in any genre.

The movie starts off quickly and provides an in-your-face introduction to the film's intended direction. However, the momentum quickly fizzles out, and the plot begins to meander towards the finish line, taking several unnecessary detours along the way.

While it's far from a refined genre-blending thrill ride, there's enough about Project Power that works to partially offset its fundamental problems.

It's fun enough to keep audiences mostly entertained for its hour and 45 minute runtime, but there's nothing particularly memorable to latch onto - not the CGI animals, not the fantasy world and not even Downey Jr's performance.

Too often, though, the creativity gets bogged down beneath the references and standard mystery. Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers still makes for an entertaining viewing experience, just as long as one doesn't mind the extra baggage.

With such a slow and empty buildup, After Yang often feels as disconnected as most everyone is in the film.

Copshop won't be for everyone, but those looking for some old-fashioned gun-slinging hijinks will get some enjoyment out of it.

With lots of tongue-in-cheek humor, first-time director Ives has delivered a movie that knows it’s a little bit ridiculous but just runs with it.

While its performances are lovely and tender, with the execution somewhat messy in its handling of themes, All My Puny Sorrows doesn’t dig past the surface enough to make a strong enough case for itself.

While the film does win some laughs, and the third act is noticeably better than the first two, Summer Camp won't be for everyone.

House of Gucci boasts strong performances and is hammy enough to be occasionally enjoyable, but falls flat in the overall effectiveness of its story.

For what it is, and for who it is for, Redeeming Love is in its own way an effective showing of the power of love. Undoubtedly, however, a more compelling romantic drama about a woman finding peace with herself could have been told.

Fans of De Niro and the gangster movie will have fun with this addition to the genre, but they won't find anything new in its well-tread story.

Krieps has such a clear vision of who Vivienne is when she isn’t the object of romance, violence or intolerance. Her quirks and quiet dominance ultimately shift the film toward the direction Mortensen thought he was headed.

There are great moments in the quiet of Treasure, the scenes where director Julia von Heinz's camera lingers on a look, an item, or a landscape. But Treasure finds itself stuck in the middle of these tender moments and a heavy-handed way with emotion that has good intentions but doesn't land the same.

Federer: Twelve Final Days is a slightly flavorless digestif after the main course that was the Swiss' inimitable career.

There's a lot to like in this engaging and unnerving drama, but the finale doesn’t come together to deliver on an intriguing and chilling first half.

Despite a raw performance from Willem Dafoe, Tommaso feels more like a self-indulgent male fantasy than an introspective character study.

Ultimately, Michel Franco’s Sundown feels hollow and too nihilistic for its own good.

While the animation may struggle to convey some character nuance, its voice cast is more than up to the task. This is particularly true for Doug Cockle.

As hypnotic as Eileen is, the film ultimately falls short. Its final moments suggest that it could have become a completely different film than what was initially presented. Had there been enough time to flesh out the story and build up the tension, the final Rebecca twist would have worked a lot better.

For a story centered on childhood trauma, domestic violence, and the cycle of abuse, these themes feel like afterthoughts when they could have been its strength. It’s certainly lacking, but hearts were in the right place.

There are flashes of cleverness here, but they are concealed by the arms-length approach.

Prieto also does manage to craft some beautiful images in the flashback sequences. While he doesn't harness his cinematography experience often enough to push the story forward visually, it is impossible to deny the power of certain images.

Retribution is comically familiar, yet that familiarity breeds a sense of comfort for the average movie watcher who wants something not too complicated or tedious.

Its strong characters and performances can only do so much to elevate a lackluster, unfocused story that often feels stuck waiting for the third act to kick in.

When You Finish Saving the World is filled with interesting ideas and scenes, yet is hindered by character development that feels incomplete.

Night Shift blows by characters and sequences on its way to the twist; the movie could have used a little longer runtime.

The Silencing is a decently exhilarating thriller movie, even if the twists in the story aren't always well-earned or well thought out.

Sadly, None But The Brave suffers from numerous cliches with the characters, including Clint Walker (The Dirty Dozen) as Captain Bourke, mostly being archetypes instead of fleshed-out human beings. The message is also painfully on the nose, but at least it's earnest.

Hurry Up Tomorrow isn’t awful. It stays at the surface, really afraid to interrogate any deeper than required, but it has its moments and aesthetic flair.

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.

There's something comforting about the way in which My Fake Boyfriend doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. It's content living in its charming version of New York where everything works out in the end.

Despite a solid performance from the film’s lead and an interesting character arc, Rounding winds up getting a bit lost in all it’s trying to accomplish.

When its focus is on Agatha Rousselle’s Alexia and the lack of control she has over her own body, Titane digs a bit deeper. However, the film’s true weakness is in its inability to explore Alexia as a person, keeping things vague while centering the extreme body horror aspects.

While it has entertaining moments, Black as Night isn't very balanced and the overall lack of levity ultimately makes the film a slog to get through.

It may not be breaking ground in any major way, but Family Switch knows how to play within the absurd rules of a body swap situation, and it does so in an entertaining way.

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.

They/Them is impactful for its reason for existing and the excellent ensemble cast that deserves to shine. The film is not unwatchable; it is merely without excitement. Satisfying as it is for the film to directly take aim at dangerous institutions, there is sadness in knowing this horror couldn't find a happy middle.

Compared to other, stronger animated films, Spellbound sits comfortably in the middle. Kids will likely be delighted with it — though at nearly two hours long the wait to get to the end might be a struggle — and it offers just enough for them to keep watching.

Despite some genuinely funny and endearingly nostalgic moments, Coming 2 America attempts to do way too much with its plot rather than keep it simple.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter fails to deliver on its early promise of being a compelling horror experience. The focus on jump scares and a skeptic character detracts from the potential scares and fails to bring authenticity to the storytelling.

There are minimal bursts of potential lurking in Chaos Walking’s messy execution, but it doesn’t deliver much but stagnant characters and dull action.

After nine years, Aaron Taylor-Johnson returns to Marvel superhero fare, but while Kraven the Hunter has potential, it's a middling origin story.

The film did not nail it in many regards, but it is a truly entertaining tribute to queer pop and obsessed fandoms. Queens of Drama is, in the end, a delightful hot mess.

While Bloom and MacDowell anchor the film with their strong performances, leading an ensemble cast that is foundational to this rugged Western, the score by Mondo Boys and cinematography by Johnny Derango do a lot to embed the themes and concepts into the atmosphere of the film.

Being halfway between film and TV gives it the weaknesses of both and strengths of neither; trying to straddle the real with the mythic gives us characters that mostly feel too representative to connect with as individuals, and too individual to make compelling representatives.

Bloodshot puts a surprisingly clever spin on the superhero origin story that's fun and funny, but Diesel's performance ultimately leaves it lacking.

As far as middling entertainment goes, Five Nights at Freddy’s fits the bill.

The cast does a lot of the heavy lifting in the film, which evades exploring the characters' trauma. The emotional drama is a vehicle fueling a messy story in a film primarily concerned with elevating the mystery that so easily unravels by the end.

Instead of being the next John Wick, Nobody plays out more as John Wick lite, which could be disappointing for some. It's fun to see Odenkirk try something new at this stage in his career, and Nobody clearly knows what it is and never takes itself too seriously (see: the moments of levity, the soundtrack full of licensed classics). Still, these merits don't truly help elevate the final product beyond fleeting entertainment.