2016 was a big year in film, and now that it’s over, critics are weighing in on all the hottest titles. Unfortunately, it could take them months to resolve their disagreements…
Even though it happens mostly in England, this movie is a classic American action movie. Lots of gun action? Check. Lots of dead bad guys? Check. Lots of honorary American Gerard Butler kicking ass and taking names? Double, triple, quadruple check.
9 users found this review useful
It’s always painful when a franchise lurches back to life, much more so when the original was so well regarded as launching a genre. Seventeen years on, this direct sequel feels more like the reanimated remains of a rotting corpse than a new installment.
9 users found this review useful
It’s easy to dismiss Pixar’s current trend of chasing sequels as nothing but creative laziness, but this follow-up to a 2003 film has turned out to be more than a worthy successor, giving us the full tale on one of the most memorable characters the studio ever created. Thumbs way up.
9 users found this review useful
This movie is great—everything is so beautiful! The evil queens, the costumes, the castles, star-crossed lovers, Chris Hemsworth…
9 users found this review useful
I am sick and tired of the animated movie switcheroo: you take your kids to something with a bunch of fuzzy animals that won’t drive you nuts, and the movie ends up being about cutesy violent warriors that can’t die. Apparently, the only character who can die is the main character’s mom. Good job, Hollywood.
8 users found this review useful
I wish I lived the life in this movie! Gabby is a medical student who’s in a relationship with Ryan, but while he’s out of town, hunky Travis whisks her off her feet and literally wins her heart when he and Ryan get into a fight. I can’t say I want to end up in a coma, but after Gabby recovers, she and Travis do basically live happily ever after, so it all worked out in the end.
8 users found this review useful
This story about a black garbage collector in Pittsburgh whose experiences prevent him from sharing in his son’s success strikes a deeply human chord. What makes this film remarkable is how beautifully it guides us on a journey of hurt and redemption.
8 users found this review useful
With the return of director Paul Greengrass at the helm and Matt Damon as the compelling lead, this explosive fifth film breathes very welcome life into a franchise that had started to go stale.
8 users found this review useful
Call me a curmudgeon, but I struggle to find the merit in yet another liveaction, CG-laden adaptation of a fairy tale. This movie is especially egregious: Why bother using the Snow White branding if you’re going to make a movie that bears absolutely no resemblance to the source material? Sometimes I think all of Hollywood would curl up and die if they didn’t have the coattails of already-established franchises to ride on.
7 users found this review useful
It’s the latest cinematic vogue to spotlight damaged or unstable women in the name of girl power. Certainly, this film was based in a position to capture the zeitgeist defined by movies like Monster and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Unfortunately, something must have gotten lost in translation from print to screen.
7 users found this review useful
Schmaltzy, joyless and predictable, the only sparks to be found in this film are in the writer’s name. If you were looking for sparks of passion between the main characters or a general spark of creativity, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong chick flick.
7 users found this review useful
This whole movie feels like somebody bet the director he couldn’t make an uninteresting film about aliens. “No way can you make aliens boring, dude.” “Challenge accepted! I’ll set the movie at a snail’s pace, use a weird blue filter to remove all joy from every shot, cast a set of lifeless mannequins as leads, make the aliens disappointing CGI squids that live inside of giant unmoving potato chips, and focus the entire plot on a dry, academic breakdown of the linguistic hurdles involved in first contact! Bwahaha!”
7 users found this review useful
Viola Davis absolutely earned her Academy Award in a heartbreaking film full of stellar performances. Her character is the film’s barometer, by which we measure the actions of a tragically flawed lead. Overall, this is a wonderful film full of grace and power.
7 users found this review useful
Why do directors hate numbers so much? When I go to see the Nth installment of a series, I expect it to be called “Series Name N: Return of the thing!”, not just “Series Name… again” or even worse “Main Character”. If numbered sequels were good enough for Star Wars and Die Hard then they’re good enough for this knock-off spy movie nonsense. Just to clear things up for first-time viewers, this movie is NOT the first in its series—it’s the fifth.
7 users found this review useful
It’s almost comical to compare this film to Gone Girl, against which it comes up particularly short. This movie is a shadow of the former by any metric—the source material, the characters, the narrative, the twist. It’s as if they spent the entire budget securing Emily Blunt.
6 users found this review useful
It’s amazing how large of a juggernaut the original was for its time, given its shoestring budget of $60,000. This sequel expertly delivers by returning to the Maryland woods where it all began and expanding on the supernatural horror and legends that made the first movie a classic of the genre.
6 users found this review useful
This latest feature by American stop-motion animation studio Laika is a brave movie about a brave boy who is thrust into an adventure straight out of the tales his mother told him. The art style does especial service to the narrative, making the entire film look and feel as if it’s a moving woodblock print. Absolutely a joy to behold.
6 users found this review useful
This maudlin Denzel Washington vehicle holds a dim candle to the original Broadway production. Then again, it’s hard to win against James Earl Jones.
6 users found this review useful
A happy whirlwind of color, 3D dazzle and kick-punch madness, this franchise continues to grow like its portly protagonist, who learns to become his best through a journey of learning about self-worth and belonging.
5 users found this review useful
Honestly, I was sold as soon as I heard this film had both Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. This film gave me more of what I wanted, plus Brits. I hope there’s a sequel.
5 users found this review useful
Like any proper noir, this thriller is unafraid to delve into the strange and sordid lives of its protagonists in service of the greater mystery. The all-star cast knocks it out of the park, although my particular favorite is Allison Janney, who serves as valuable counterweight to the rich drama that unfolds.
5 users found this review useful
If you think this movie is just a retread of the first, you’re wrong. There are new characters, new scary things, a new look at the found-footage genre, and of course new ways for people to mysteriously go missing. Highly recommend this movie if you’re looking for a reason to wear those brown pants.
4 users found this review useful
It’s always been a lot of fun watching the two superheroes that drive this franchise: on one side, you’ve got Mr. Star-spangled America and on the other, you’ve got the ridiculous genius billionaire playboy. They’re like oil and water! This movie does a fantastic job of getting to the heart of what drives these heroes, and seeing them actually oppose each other really packs a punch.
4 users found this review useful
Like the mysterious, monolithic alien structures that drive the film itself, this deeply thoughtful blockbuster has much hidden beneath the surface. Ostensibly a story about communicating with extraterrestrials, the narrative has much more to say about the strength and perseverance of people put into impossible situations. This ultimately optimistic movie is a welcome breath of fresh air.
4 users found this review useful
Ever since Disney’s Aladdin, no animated feature can resist signing up big names for big characters. This is the first such venture for Matthew McConaughey, and it’s hard to say he was a positive contribution to a clumsy film that was already tent-poled by A-listers. Without fail, his drawl breaks immersion in a movie that is ostensibly set in Japan.
3 users found this review useful
Something smells fishy in the theater, and it’s this flop of a movie. Imagine the following: An animated children’s movie comes out about a bunch of adorable ocean creatures, and everybody falls in love with it. Then, a few years later, a sequel comes out that involves the SAME adorable ocean creatures, but this time instead of having an adventure, we’re delving into the existential horror that afflicts them due to the very real and adult mental illness that one of the cute little fish is struggling with. That is this movie. Oddly dark, tone deaf to its audience of kids, and totally not worth your time.
3 users found this review useful
This movie is spastic unbearable schlock. If I’d wanted to spend 90 minutes watching hairy overweight weirdos eat dumplings and attack each other, I would have gone to dinner with my in-laws.
2 users found this review useful
This movie stands as immortal proof that no matter how much Hollywood Alist talent, advanced CGI and money you have, you still cannot save a film which has a sufficiently stupid premise. Serving as both sequel AND prequel to its predecessor, this fairy-tale themed nightmare is a blight on the career of everyone who worked on it.
2 users found this review useful
What would life be like in a world where individuals have the power to level entire cities? The Russo brothers tackle this difficult question in a fun, actionpacked film which does credit to its beloved brand. Whose side will you choose?
2 users found this review useful
A horribly disappointing sequel from director Babak Najafi, the action sequences in this train wreck are so bad they make Paul Greengrass’s camera-shaking nonsense look like high art.
1 user found this review useful
Hollywood’s response to superhero fatigue: double-down. Then double down again. Then throw in a bunch more superdudes until we have absolutely no idea who we’re seeing or what they do, then have them fight each other for stupid contrived reasons until nothing makes sense anymore and I walk out of the theater and get drunk. At least they toned it down on the helicarriers this time.
1 user found this review useful
Like its sister film, Sicario, this new venture by Denis Villeneuve explores the capability of the people to rise to meet the challenges set before them. In this case, the conceit is the threat of a mysterious alien race that talks in Jackson Pollock paintings, but Amy Adams’s acting elevates a story about grief, time, communication, compassion and, ultimately, catharsis.
1 user found this review useful
Stop me if this plot sounds familiar: A little kid with dead parents is forced by the actions of an evil relative to embark on a 90-minute quest rife with toyetic companions and marketable enemies in order to gain vague set of superpowers that involve believing in yourself, somehow allowing the kid to defeat a full-grown adult with infinitely more knowledge, experience and power. Pour a little Japanese-flavored batter into that tired old mold, frost it with some musicality and voila! You’ve got this uninspired CGI cupcake.
1 user found this review useful
The romance between leads Benjamin Walker and Teresa Palmer absolutely sparks in this movie. If you’re looking for a good excuse to laugh, cry and indulge in some romantic wish-fulfillment, this is the film for you.
1 user found this review useful
This shapeless entry to a once-beloved franchise feels utterly lifeless and perfunctory. I mean sure, it hits all of the obligatory standbys like shaky-cam fight sequences and globetrotting espionage, but the whole enterprise feels like the last sad twitches of a well-beaten dead horse. If I had to sum this unfortunate movie up in single word, I would call it “stillborn”.
1 user found this review useful
Watching this film is kinda like going out for drinks with your coworkers, then getting trapped listening to one of them drunkenly cry about their recent breakup all night: you thought you were signing up for some lighthearted fun with a couple people you sorta like, but you ended up getting a cringingly awkward look into their horrifying personal issues. Slap a cutesy ocean motif on that, and you’ve pretty much got this movie. I would erase this from my mind if I could.
1 user found this review useful