Review: “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” begins with what may be my favorite opening sequence of any Marvel movie to date: a thousand years ago, the warrior Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) finds and takes control of the ten rings, a weapon that grants their user great power and immortality. As the centuries pass, […]

Review: “Free Guy”

Guy is not the kind of character you’d usually want to play in a shooter game. In fact, he’s not the kind of character you’d normally be able to play at all. Guy is a non-playable character, or NPC, a background figure created to populate a video game’s environment, whether to just provide atmosphere or […]

Review: “The Suicide Squad”

The DC Extended Universe got off to a rough start—so much so that over the last year, we’ve seen Warner Brothers attempt to course correct the DCEU, not by investing in bringing new characters and stories to life, but by tinkering with their past failures. This past spring saw the release of Zack Snyder’s four […]

Streaming Movie Reviews

Happy August to all who celebrate! Today I’m recapping some direct-to-streaming films that were released in July, including one of the year’s best movies (“Summer of Soul”) and Netflix’s very fun horror trilogy event, “Fear Street.” You can find my capsule reviews of those movies and others down below! “SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE […]

Review: “Snake Eyes”

Do you remember the “G.I. Joe” movies? I say movies, plural, because there were two of them—2009’s “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and 2013’s “G.I. Joe: Retaliation“—although it has been so long since the films based on the line of Hasbro toys was released that I can’t imagine anyone but the most diehard fans […]

Review: “Black Widow”

Regardless of your feelings on the dominance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the film industry, it does feel like a signal of some normalcy returning seeing an MCU film in the movie theaters for the first time since 2019’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” which immediately followed the franchise’s massive “Avengers: Endgame.” But what makes […]

Review: “F9”

At some point, we’re all just going to have to stop questioning how much gas the “Fast & Furious” franchise has left in the tank and accept the fact that a series about fast cars and the people who push them beyond their limits isn’t slowing down anytime soon. And honestly, that’s fine by me. […]

Review: “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard”

Few movies recently have broken my brain so thoroughly as “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard,” that mouthful of a clumsy title being just the first indicator of how inane this film is. If you saw its 2017 predecessor, “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” then you have an idea of what this action comedy is like. Ryan Reynolds is […]

Review: “Army of the Dead”

I’m pretty sure that the title of director Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead” refers to the zombie horde that has overtaken Las Vegas, but it also fits the posse of inert human characters assembled to combat them. “Army of the Dead” kicks off its truly great premise really strong, but soon devolves into an […]

Review: “Those Who Wish Me Dead”

It’s been a minute since Angelina Jolie has starred in a proper adult action movie- in fact, her last one was “The Tourist” in 2010 (god, remember “The Tourist“?). But Jolie is back at it, soon to appear in Marvel’s “The Eternals,” and currently starring in writer/director Taylor Sheridan’s “Those Who Wish Me Dead.” But […]