'Don't Worry Darling' (2022) Movie Review

So…I like Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde’s much-discussed tabloid-fodder sophomore feature, well enough. At its best, this modern iteration of a Stepford Wives-style dystopia is creepy and unsettling in an uncanny valley kind of way, even if it is a bit up its own ass and so, so assured of its own importance.

'The Contractor' (2022) Movie Review

The Contractor is fine, just fine. Director Tarik Saleh and writer J.P. Davis deliver precisely the airport-dad-novel-come-to-life story it promises. Chris Pine turns in strong central performance that grounds the slick Bourne-light premise and execution. And the film has aims to say something about how America treats its military veterans that, while clunky and heavy-handed, is admirable and earnest. It’s fine, just fine, which is both the best and worst one can say about the film. This fact also makes it imminently forgettable.

Ava DuVernay's 'A Wrinkle In Time' Trailer Is A Thing Of Candy-Colored Beauty

Cinematic adaptations of beloved literary works are a dicey proposition at best. No matter how good a job filmmakers do, there will forever be those who decry it as an abomination. I’m normally whatever about these—a good movie is a good movie, even if it’s based on a book I love and even if it’s nothing like said book. I’m not hugely invested in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time either way. I read it once as a youngster, I remember one of my sister’s elementary school classes turning it into a play, but that’s about it. That said, the trailer for Ava Duverney’s adaptation looks bonkers and epic and all kinds of rad. Take a look for yourself.

'Wonder Woman' (2017) Movie Review

Here’s the bad news: Wonder Woman is a flawed superhero origin story. Now that we have that out of the way, the good news is that it’s mostly awesome, finally brings one of the greatest comic book characters ever to the big screen after more than 75 years, breaks up just a little bit of the boys’ club that is contemporary superhero movies, and is easily the best thing the DC Extended Universe has produced thus far.

'Star Trek Beyond' (2016) Movie Review

So, I finally saw Star Trek Beyond this weekend (just a wee bit late, I know). While I’m too lazy to write a real review—and who the hell cares this far after the fact—it’s a damn fine time. Not the best movie of the summer by far, it’s still in the upper echelon as far as big-budget studio blockbusters go—though that’s admittedly not the highest bar this year.

'Star Trek Beyond': Watch Everyone Be Sad In The Final Trailer

We’re just a few weeks away from Star Trek Beyond, which feels strange to say as there’s been a noticeable lack of hype surrounding the film—at least aside from the backlash stirred up by the first trailer. Maybe Paramount is still shell-shocked by the hatred for Star Trek Into Darkness (which, despite its reputation for being critically panned, has an 86% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes). But there is a new “final” trailer to check out, and it’s a total downer.

'Star Trek Beyond' Trailer: It's Starting To Look A Lot Like 'Star Trek'

Remember how that last Star Trek Beyond trailer sucked so bad even the guy who wrote the movie admitted it wasn’t very good? Yeah, well, apparently Paramount took that to heart and released a new, much better trailer. There’s not a single Beastie Boys track to be found. Check it out.

Movie Review: 'The Finest Hours'

When The Finest Hours, a movie about the true life heroism of a rag tag group of Coast Guard members battling a fierce New England storm in the early 1950s to save the stranded crew of a wrecked tanker, is actually about that, it’s not bad. Giant waves flinging various vessels around willy-nilly, a crew racing to the rescue, another struggling to stay afloat long enough for them to arrive; all of this works. The problem is whenever the movie does anything else.

'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit' Movie Review

Over the last 20-plus years, and now five movies, Tom Clancy’s creation Jack Ryan has never been the deepest film character. In all of his various incarnations—Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and now Chris Pine—he’s the exact same type, a CIA analyst with a family who reluctantly gets drawn into action. Other than that, there’s not much to him. The latest Ryan adventure, “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” is his origin story, but follows the path laid out in the previous films. Director Kenneth Branagh attempts to make you care about Ryan, but all of his efforts only amount to emotional blackmail, Cold-War style fear mongering, and a tedious romantic angle that sinks the film. I do, however, love that the Russians are the bad guys. As a child of the 1980s, no movie villain will ever be as nefarious as those Ruskies. But nostalgia aside, “Shadow Recruit” is, at the best of times, nothing more than a middle of the road thriller with zero bite, and at the worst, horrifically dull.