Film Reviews

Although it’s a visual spectacle of fantastical characters, Victorian flair, and Johnny Depp’s creepy interpretation of Hatter, James Bobin’s sequel to 2010’s Alice in Wonderland flounders and flails as it struggles to be entertaining.

Offbeat, amusing, slightly demented, and throughly entertaining, The Nice Guys is quintessential Shane Black, presenting a series of out-of-the-ordinary events that link together in the most ordinary way.

The Seth Rogen-Zac Efron sequel is set up to be another hysterical and delightfully crude college romp but ends up being more of a mandatory orientation mixer.

The scariest part of The Darkness isn’t anything that occurs onscreen. Rather, it’s a slow, creeping feeling as the minutes drag on that this movie simply will never end.

While Money Monster could easily be cast aside as the latest pop culture fodder to depict the financial woes of modern society, it manages to stand out as a no-frills thriller and a solid movie.

As far as X-Men movies are concerned, Apocalypse lands a few rungs lower than Days of Future Past. After a strong start, the movie loses steam as it tries to decide which of the many mutants’ stories is most important.

On the fortieth anniversary of The Bad News Bears, we take a look back at the hard drinking Coach Buttermaker and his merry band of ball playing misfits.

Garry Marshall is one step closer to completing his plan to dominate the cinematic world of holiday movies. Mother’s Day is the director’s latest calendar-centric rom-com, and if you’ve seen either of the first two films, there’s little that will come as a surprise this time around.

Between the shootouts, the kittens, and the George Michael soundtrack, Keanu combines a lot of things that don’t normally go together. But in the hands of Key and Peele, it somehow makes sense.

It’s truly remarkable to see a movie filled with the talents of Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, and Chris Hemsworth that involves dwarves, evil queens, ice magic, and giant goblins manage to be completely forgettable.

If nothing else, Criminal shows us the exciting possibilities of science. Namely, that if you’re a high-level CIA agent who gets tortured to death with a cattle prod, you can rest assured that your memories will live on inside the mind of a violent convicted felon with a bad haircut.

One of the many strengths of Civil War is that, even though this is Cap’s movie, it’s not clear at all which side is in the right. It’s a thinking man’s superhero movie, asking the audience to choose whether the responsibility to do good in the world falls on each of us individually or all of us together.

Disney’s 1967 production of The Jungle Book has long been considered an animated classic. As Disney’s live-action version of The Jungle Book hits theaters, we’re taking a look at its predecessor, and how its universal themes has helped it hold up after all these years.

Director Jon Favreau does a remarkable job of creating an outstanding family film – one that represents the epitome of Disney magic.

Superb writing, top-notch acting, and the message about modern warfare Eye in the Sky imparts all contribute to an absolutely terrific film.

If you go into The Boss expecting a lot of laughs, you might be disappointed as Melissa McCarthy’s latest is a been-there-done-that story that is filled with more jokes that fall flat than serve their comedic purpose.

There aren’t many films that manage to push a blatant agenda while also executing that agenda in such a horribly ham-fisted way as God’s Not Dead 2, a movie packed with one-dimensional characters so cartoonish that they make Saturday morning children’s programming look like grounded, serious reflections of humanity.

In this “spiritual sequel” to Dazed and Confused, Richard Linklater proves once again that he’s able to do a lot with very little story.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is easily digestible, where the most exciting part of the movie is trying to spot who aged the worst in the 14 years since the first Greek Wedding (I’m looking at you, Joey Fatone).

They say that death and taxes are the two certainties in life, but I’d like to add a third: Splitting the last book of a young adult film franchise into two movies. And now, in spite of the dull chapter that is Allegiant, we still have one more to go: Ascendant.

And Punching The Clown stands well on its own as a subtle and well-crafted comedy that makes sure every laugh is worth it.

On the surface, The Dwarvenaut seems like a doc about an eccentric Dungeons and Dragons fanatic, but it quickly turns into a well-told story about an orphan who became a successful entrepreneur.

Hush is a combo of Straw Dogs and The Strangers — but the victim is completely void of hearing and speaking which takes it to another level of terrifying.

Just when you thought there isn’t room for another movie about a music legend, Born to be Blue comes out. The Robert Budreau-directed film about jazz trumpeter Chet Baker is a music biopic that is fine, but forgettable.

On the surface, Pet seems like an ordinary psychological thriller, but as the story progresses it twists itself into a knot of an emotional instability that will make your brain bleed.

Half bone-breaking action movie and half amusement park thrill ride, Hardcore Henry is pure unadulterated fun.

Miles Ahead is a passion project that Don Cheadle decided to share with the world. At times, it wobbles about, but you have to appreciate its passion.

Pee-wee’s Big Holiday was supposed to be welcomed with an uproarious standing ovation and a heaping of praise. Instead, it deserves seated applause and a pat on the back.

Operator is painful, heartfelt, and funny — as all relationships should be.

Alvarez’s mysterious twisted home invasion movie is a brutal thrill ride that could very well be the best thing to come out of SXSW this year.