Poorly written and with hardly any thrills, The Mule disappointingly depends on the amiability of Eastwood’s character, whose extreme social ineptness is far beyond the redeeming powers of star power.

Brimming with wide-eyed invention and featuring an ensemble cast on solid form, Four Samosas is a concise piece of cultural comedy, with some B-movie heist elements thrown in for good measure.

Blazingly and brilliantly over the top, Jojo Rabbit’s total dismissal of subtlety is its most ferocious ally and, only occasionally, its most frustrating foe in the war against hate.

Happy Death Day is a generic PG-13 horror purgatory that's lived on repeat until even weaker motivations take us farther out of any semblance of storytelling thrills.

Despite Fuqua firing on all cylinders and Washington making the most of what will probably be his final outing as McCall, the narrative foundation of The Equalizer 3 is sadly far too rocky for even the best in the business to breathe the proper life into it, only managing gasps of what could have been if the script (and, again, the possibly-guilty final cut discussions) hadn’t been so gutless.

The Greasy Strangler is a perverted fever dream that will please few audiences, but those who enjoy it are in for one f*#ked up treat.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a solid action-packed blockbuster that ticks all of the franchise's required boxes, even if it isn't quite a farewell worthy of a cinematic icon.

The script is equal parts juicy and loose, but in the hands of Scott Derrickson, 'The Gorge' is ultimately worth gorging oneself on.

Pet Sematary is proficiently tense, dashingly macabre and soaked in nightmarish tones that thrive on audience screams.

Doug Liman's 'Road House' weighs in with sizzling performances, a hearty helping of great action, a script that needed a much longer timeout, and the most self-assured identity crisis we may ever see on the small screen.

As a whole, Army of the Dead is big, loud, incredibly stupid and probably 20 minutes too long, but it’s a deliriously bonkers delight once it finally finds its footing.

Mixing Nicolas Cage's unique talent for weird horror movies and a post-apocalyptic family drama story, Arcadian stretches thin in too many directions. Fortunately, the movie’s unique creature design makes up for every plot mistake.

Extraction 2 is everything you'd expect it to be; bigger, bolder, brasher, louder, and more spectacular. Unfortunately, it peaks way too early and fails to recapture that early momentum.

Happy Death Day 2U is a more ambitious, more entertaining - albeit less horror powered - time-warp sequel that proves Jessica Rothe's blinding talent no matter what dimension she's in.

With Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Tim Burton focuses all his energy on a dusty, far-too-droll buildup that's far from worth whatever short-lived excitement his finale brings.

It’s exhilarating while it lasts, creating an unwavering feeling of giddy excitement and palpable enthusiasm in doing so, but by the time the credits roll on a pair of post-credits scenes that hint towards where Thor is heading next, you might be left wishing you’d consumed something more substantial, instead of gorging on instant gratification simply because it’s right there in front of you.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson deserves more credit as an actor, because he's the only reason this Iraq War thriller hobbles steadily on two legs.

Charlie Says may not reach deep enough into the horrors that birthed the Manson Family, but as an exhibit of pathetically prophetic garble used to dehumanize and control women, it’s attentive and provocative.

Finch isn't the most original or exciting sci-fi movie you'll ever see, but it's a charming road trip adventure anchored by yet another incredible performance from Tom Hanks.

An imperfect but fascinating film, The Dinner's stellar cast delivers a deeply troubling and psychologically complex treatment of class and family.

Significant Other is a substandard supernatural hybrid, which wastes the talent of all those involved. Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy may work hard to breathe life into this ponderous fireside fable, but often fall short through no fault of their own.

Wrath of Man is a slick action thriller from writer director Guy Ritchie, where retribution is only half the story.

The Ritual may start on familiar footing, but trust in David Bruckner's ability to summon some nasty tension and a third act that horror fans will be talking about all year.

With the best will in the world, audiences looking to enjoy some festive movie moments this year, should avoid Christmas at the Campbells and opt for anything else. Not even the presence of Long should factor into the decision because honestly, he looks like he would rather be anywhere else but on screen.

It may not reach the heights of Disney classics of yesteryear, but Mufasa: The Lion King is a movie worth watching for the clear attempt to turn it into something it could never have been.

Perhaps it’s a relief that the film does not, as is a trope in recent films, end in Gru’s temporary redemption, but at least that would be a conclusion of some sort. Instead, we’re left with entertaining but toothless villain-lair-building.

James Franco is a stand-out in I Am Michael, but the film's specific story struggles to relate on a broader scale.

Us And Them might be a little slighter than expected, but Jack Roth's charismatic fire-starter has enough anarchistic anger to appreciate.

Falling despairingly into the franchise trap of meta-irony, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be remembered as an attempt of self-sabotage.

Fragmented, incoherent, and disjointed in the worst way, ‘Bad Behavior’ allows Jennifer Connelly and Ben Whitshaw a narrow escape. Writer and director Alice Englert wastes some world class talent, in a story which never really hangs together.

Dear Joe Lynch, please let me see your Director’s Cut ASAP? Knights Of Badassdom is an unfinished product, but it passes based on the content our director was able to salvage.

A stay-at-home mother's slow descent into lycanthropy serves as a metaphor for maternal struggles in this uneven adaptation that never fully commits to its provocative premise, despite Amy Adams' raw and transformative performance.

It's a fun time at the movies for genuine fans of Marvel superheroes who have been keeping up with the franchise for the last couple of decades. It won't really land for anyone else, and that's okay.

The Sanderson sisters are devoted to their act but their campy return to Salem is far from bewitching as it tries to find its way amidst a listless plot and the repeated detours down nostalgia lane.

Haaga knows what works, and ensures that we get heavy doses of the good stuff (although more Alisha Boe would have been nice).

This is just the sweeps-week Fast And Furious that jumps the shark, ready to right itself come next season – and it better. Dominic Toretto’s team deserves to go out in a blaze of glory, not a slippery skid that can’t be controlled.

Storks is momentarily funny when it’s not boorishly and exhaustively begging for your attention.

Michôd’s military dramedy is more about press tours, TV interviews and power plays. That’s what makes this Netflix new release redeeming in its political poignancy – but having Brad Pitt doesn’t hurt.

Take Me is a sunny little daydream about fetishistic domination, spun around one man’s jabby little gender battle. There is a sweetness to it all, as well as an undeniable creep factor.

Anyone who's ever wondered how Michael Shannon would fare as a smoldering romantic lead or how Imogen Poots might handle the role of a femme fatale has their answer in Matthew Ross' engaging psycho-thriller.

Fast X doubles down on everything longtime fans have come to know and love about the franchise, but anyone who isn't sold on the saga at this stage isn't going to be won over.

For a film that has such an intriguing premise at its core, The Yellow Birds seems to drag due to Moor’s abrupt tempo changes and flat visual style.

Beautifully crafted but tragically underbaked, 'Spaceman' had the blueprints for Adam Sandler's best-ever dramatic vehicle, but wound up becoming the most unrealized one.

Almost Christmas doesn't set a new standard for family holiday comedies, but its cast and a handful of outrageously funny moments make it worthwhile for fans of the genre.

The Devil All the Time is an emotionally powerful look at familial trauma, religious corruption, and one man's will to challenge his fate.

Although Ordinary World hits a number of familiar story beats, a real heart appears to be beating behind the material, allowing Armstrong and his castmates to maximize the emotional impact it has.

Put simply, Old distils the human life cycle down into one unique cinematic experience. One that will cause arguments, promote debates and lead to further discussions. Something which confirms M. Night Shyamalan remains a force to be reckoned with.

Yesterday’s lackluster, underwritten script both births its golden egg concept, and also restrains it from ever reaching the next level of sophistication or interest.

It might be way too long and suffer from many familiar problems, but 'Ambulance' still has enough action-packed thrills in the tank to rank as Michael Bay's best movie in years.

Impeccably casted and narratively confident, one really only wishes that 'The Thicket' spread its wings just a bit more. Dinklage has great taste in passion projects, and is great in them, too.

Despite some third act wobbles, A Lot of Nothing marks a strong, stylish, and suspenseful debut from co-writer and first-time feature director Mo McRae.

Megalopolis is at once one of the least-accessible films of the year, but the sheer depth and insanity of its accomplishment is one we may never see again.

Aquaman is imaginatively ambitious superhero cinema with no rules, which is more positive than negative as Wan's vision is realized like an underwater laser light spectacle that the DCEU so desperately needs right now.

Violent Night delivers everything that was promised, and it's destined to find long-lasting life as a cult classic, but there's barely anything of note beyond the superficial.

The Flash is good, and occasionally flirts with excellence, but anyone who goes in heading the game-changer that was promised may be left feeling a touch short-changed.

Rainbow Time is all over the place dramatically, but somehow Linas Phillips ties together a sometimes wacky, otherwise off-beat family dramedy from perspectives unknown.

Big on spectacle and bigger on life lessons, Spirited manages to surprise, inspire and entertain in equal measure.

Zombieland: Double Tap winks and nudges its way through a long-time-coming sequel, but earns its survival badges when cracking wits around new casts of characters.

Based on the popular toy line, Trolls bears all the earmarks of a blatant cash-in on a recognizable property, with little imagination to speak of and predictable creative choices from beginning to end.

Nearly every aesthetic decision that went into this version of the The Lion King detracts from the artistry and the heart that helped its predecessor surpass immortality.

Something Else promises monsters but delivers more demons of the human experience variety, as this sweet and sincere creature feature is far more romantically heartfelt than expected.

The Duelist isn’t deep enough for the viewer to attempt to draw meaning from beneath its glam surface, but it’s still interesting to watch the film as a look at where Russia is at as a nation.

Song To Song is one of the more accessible Malick films as of late, succeeding largely in part thanks to a cast who plays their dramatic beats like poetry in motion.

National Lampoon's Vacation is a comedic cross-country adventure like no other, thanks to Chevy Chase and the rest of the Griswold family. It's not the best Vacation movie by any stretch, but it's a wild ride from start to finish.

It isn’t always entirely successful, but when The Adam Project is firing on all cylinders and zeroing in on the family drama that’s never too far away from the surface, you may just find yourself fighting back tears.

Hellraiser is a fresh entry to the decades-old franchise and it's also a fresh breath of air to the many fans that have long suffered from below-par sequels.

Despite an excellent secondary cast and an interesting story, Dabka fails in its aspirations due almost entirely to its own smugness.

Life toes a line between underwhelming and just-good-enough, but performances help elevate an otherwise generic sci-fi clone with nothing new to add.

There’s definitely something vastly superior that was agonizingly close to being unleashed, but as it stands, Kosinski and his collaborators have delivered a solid summertime Netflix original that’s destined to play extremely well for the next couple of weeks, albeit one you almost certainly won’t hear anybody talking about six months from now.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is excessive and overlong to the point that trimming anywhere up to an hour would have elevated it significantly, but it’s still a triumph of circumstance, style and execution.

SiREN never takes Bruckner's original idea and runs with it, failing to capitalize on a demonic romance that so many V/H/S fans demanded to see more of.

Well-equipped to succeed but ill-prepared to do so, 'The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim' drowns its potential in a far too hesitant narrative.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die leans heavily on nostalgia and fan service. While Smith and Lawrence's chemistry remains, the film's predictable plot and over-reliance on past glories make it a forgettable experience for all but diehard fans.

House of Darkness leaves audiences with much to consider as the credits roll and blood red titles draw a discreet veil over this contemporary Gothic offering.

An average, predictable script is rescued from being truly irredeemable by an excellent cast of voice actors and a few bright jokes.

The First Purge doubles-down on bloody opposition against true-to-life societal fears, but abandons the subtlety needed to prevent Gerard McMurray’s prequel from becoming anything more than hateful retribution.

The Discovery has a fantastic premise but lacks the ambition. imagination or intellect to explore it satisfyingly. Instead, we're left with a gloomy, thinly written emotional drama.

In hindsight, irrespective of the solid performances from Cuthbert as Andrea and the headliner, this film suffers from an overabundance of ideas. Leading in short order to a stylistically slick but confusingly over-packed genre mash up.

Plenty of blood splatter brutality throughout Orphan: First Kill will satisfy gore hounds looking for their next fix. Bell, who previously directed the similarly themed The Boy and grizzly werewolf film Wer, proves to be a deft hand at creating tension without resorting to cheap jump scares.

Cocaine Bear almost runs its premise into the ground, but delivers some outrageous rampage sequences and laughs along the way.

The film is mindless entertainment by way of scoundrels, dynamite and honor – not quite magnificent, but “The Watchable Seven” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Despite uneven pacing and inconsistent acting, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a triumphant prequel and the most impressive depiction of Panem representative of a director firing on all cylinders.

Terminator: Dark Fate is a good Terminator franchise entry by comparison, but still falls into many of the pitfalls that modern reboots/remakes/sequels struggle to sidestep when balancing nostalgia with hyper-CGI action.

The Dead Don't Die is a procedurally bland zomcom with little genre personality, playing as if Jarmusch invents a subgenre horror fans haven't been watching for decades.

Adopt A Highway seems as confused as its lead character, wandering around and never quite figuring out what story it wants to tell.

Trying to juggle complex theories of metaphysics and cosmology with simple themes of self-acceptance and the deterioration of the “darkness,” A Wrinkle in Time comes off as a disjointed and miscalculated project, rather than a visual and contemplative journey.

By ordinary metrics, it leaves everything to be desired. But, 'The Beekeeper' understands that better than anyone, and occupies the 'Fast & Furious'-esque niche of action filmmaking in a way that's arguably genuinely brilliant.

Anchored by a mighty Blake Lively, It Ends with Us brings Colleen Hoover's story to smartly cinematic and tremendously touching life.

Prisoners of the Ghostland isn't going to be for everyone, but if you're on board with one of the craziest movies you'll see this year, then strap in and prepare for Nicolas Cage at his most unhinged.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F struggles to balance nostalgia and reinvention, with Eddie Murphy's charm unable to save it from a muddled script.

Once Upon A Deadpool supports the worthiest of causes, but "PG-13 Deadpool 2" is a much duller, hacked-up sequel than this year's *already inflated* R-rated release.

Though it's no easy task to connect and absorb everything it throws at you, Inside is a captivating thematic feast anchored by the ever-masterful Willem Dafoe.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker suffers the misfortune of having a director who cares more about digging up a franchise's past than moving forward with an original story.

Unfriended: Dark Web takes all the most engaging and horrifying techno-horror qualities from Unfriended and wipes the cache disappointingly clean.

Annabelle Comes Home is crowd-pleasing horror entertainment that’s both fun and eerily frightening.

Guy Ritchie fails to mesh his own style with that of the hand-drawn classic, resulting in an Aladdin remake that's an exquisite corpse of CGI nonsense.

Unfortunately, Smith’s would-be comeback vehicle is hamstrung by a weak script, paper-thin characters, and gets caught too often being overly earnest rather than emotionally honest, something that ultimately taints the integrity of the endeavor and will leave audiences disappointed.

Ma is a showcase for Octavia Spencer's ability to turn her typecasted traits into utterly disturbing obsession destabilization, but the film's less potent genre punch never lives up to its main character's psychotic allure.