As The Death of Robin Hood crawled towards its inevitable conclusion, I found myself growing wistful, though I can't quite say why. It wasn't that I felt a particular emotional connection to any of the characters. It was more that the narrative was so abundant with feelings of regret and loss that it drilled down into my chest and brought out a vague sense of pensive sadness.

Kenji Tanigaki's direction during the fights, combined with the intricate choreography, puts Hollywood action movies to shame. As Nicole Kidman continues to say in those AMC bumpers that really should be retired by now, "We come to this place for magic." And magic is what "The Furious" gives us. Violent, bloody, ass-kicking magic.

At the heart of all the sci-fi shenanigans going on here is a longing for empathy in the face of things we can't quite understand. With Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg is attempting to give us a little hope in a hopeless world. The truth may not actually be out there, but wouldn't it be wonderful if it was?

A solid 20 minutes of this film is nothing but disconnected vignettes and freestyle spoofery that can, even when not especially funny, be admired for its directionless chaos.

Is the film a mostly accurate version of the cartoon, jokey tone intact? Sure, but it also needs to tell a story, and at that, "Masters of the Universe" is powerless.

The result is an unnerving psychological horror-drama that thrives on atmosphere, uncertainty, and the queasy feeling that reality itself has quietly slipped off its axis.

The film, like fashion, like life itself, could be seen as just something pretty. Yet to those who take Riley's invite to go beyond the surface, it can reveal much more. To quote Shakira: underneath your clothes, there's an endless story.

while the filmmaker attempts to inject some style into Passenger, he simply can't overcome a clunky script and two highly uninteresting lead characters. But hey, if you like loud noises and ghoul faces shrieking directly into the camera, you might have some fun here.

In its desperate attempt to satisfy everyone, "The Mandalorian and Grogu" neglects to tell a meaningful tale worth anyone's time. Instead of the pulpy, thrill-a-minute adventure that was promised, "Star Wars" has never felt duller or more mundane. This ain't the way, folks.

Is God Is is an amazing piece of work. One of those "bolt from the blue" movies that is coming from a new artist with a new voice that audiences and critics alike will look forward to hearing again. This is Harris' first feature film, and I am eager to see more.

It's easily one of the biggest surprises of this year. While it doesn't yet settle the debate about where video game movies will go from here, it proves the subgenre is evolving. Video game movies, especially "Mortal Kombat" movies, don't have to be radical reinventions, nor do they need to be relegated to fan service slop. They can be more.

For a movie that insists on the value of artistry, it certainly plays like an expensive knock-off. I liked it fine, because I love these characters in this world, but ultimately... that's all.

I'm sure most of the film's scenes will slip from my memory as the days go on, but while I watched, I enjoyed the battle between Theron and Egerton.

"Michael" emerges as whatever the opposite of a warts-and-all biography is. This is a polished, flavorless, cracks-free paean to Jackson, celebrating his highs and only sometimes looking at the lows, as if they were mere dust-bunnies under the couch.

Obsession has a nasty sense of humor at the heart of the story, but the reality of what's going on is extremely dark.

Cronin and his team work overtime to make this movie gross, filled with goo and guts and uncomfortable squelching noises. A lifetime of horror movies has made me mostly immune to such things, but the third act of this film goes to such gruesome places that a woman at my screening who had inexplicably brought her very young child to this R-rated movie quickly scooped her kid up and hurried out of the theater.

Mother Mary is an emotionally distant, confounding, and ultimately unsatisfying work of art. Though its visual ambition and lead performances are commendable, it never gives enough of itself to let the rest of us in.

Sometimes you want to see a fine-tuned work of precision pop art like "Jaws," and sometimes you just want to watch a CGI shark bite a guy on the ass. We, as movie-watchers, contain multitudes.

Ultimately, your enjoyment of Exit 8 will hinge on how much repetitiveness you're willing to tolerate. Liminal space horror fans will likely enjoy the film's moody aesthetic, and there are times where Exit 8 feels like a movie to be digested via spooky gifs and screenshots. Exit 8 may very well give you the creeps, but that might not be enough.

There's a lot of room for cheap, silly schlock here, but Goldhaber and Mazzei actually attempt to take this (sort of) seriously, which results in a far better movie than you might be expecting.

Over Your Dead Body pulls off the magic trick of bringing exploitation cinema into a timeline that's a walking parody of itself, delivering one of the bloodiest and most entertaining films of the year.

At the end of the day, "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" was nothing more than a video game I couldn't play. After the credits — including not one but two post-credits scenes — rolled, though, I didn't want to go home and load a Mario game onto my Switch; I wanted to watch a better movie.

The Drama is a cinematic Trojan horse: it's a breezy farce that feels uncomfortably ominous, and it's also a star-studded romance movie which could set off a discourse bomb.

Although much of the pleasures of They Will Kill You come with the caveat that the movie doesn't quite lead anywhere memorable, one aspect that is fully fantastic and very memorable is Zazie Beetz.

With such a large ensemble and diversity of personalities, Happy New Year fails to flesh them out.

It's not "elevated" horror attempting to reinvent any wheels. It is, however, a very satisfying, very fun, and very well executed scary movie.

Horror sequels often divide fans, especially when the original develops a passionate cult following like Ready or Not. Matching that film's sharp humor, bloody chaos, and bonkers energy would be no small feat. Fortunately, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come proves to be just as explosively fun as its predecessor, even if it's essentially "the same, but more."

undertone is so effectively spooky that I found my eyes nervously darting to shadows as I walked to my car after the screening. The best horror movies don't need cheap jumpscares, they just need to make you feel like something dreadful is out there, lurking, waiting to make itself heard.