Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel star as a bickering couple whose tropical wedding is interrupted by terrorists in this not-half-bad actioner (call it ‘Die Hard at Sandals’) from ‘Pitch Perfect’ director Jason Moore. It’s played for laughs more than anything else, but there’s some decent stuff going on here, and […]
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You People
Directed by Kenya Barris (‘black-ish’) and co-written by Jonah Hill, this lazy retread of the fantastic ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ may have its heart in the right place, but it collapses under a barrage of tired tropes and the very stereotypes it’s trying to combat. Yes, having Eddie Murphy/Nia […]
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The Drop
A wannabe cringe comedy and societal commentary, this film—about a gaggle of friends at a destination wedding in Mexico who go into upheaval when one accidentally drops another’s infant (don’t worry, she’s fine)—never comes close to getting off the ground. Instead, we’re presented with a weekend in the life of […]
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Joyride
The never-not-awesome Olivia Colman stars alongside newcomer Charlie Reid in this road-trippy seriocomedy about an Irish woman looking to give up her newborn baby but who, instead, crosses paths with a young boy and forms a heartfelt bond. It’s a warm and tender (and occasionally tear-jerky) coming-of-age tale that sucks […]
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The Pale Blue Eye
Adapted and directed by Scott Cooper, the king of underappreciated cinema (2013’s ‘Out of the Furnace’, 2017’s ‘Hostiles’), this dark and twisted period mystery thriller stars the always-excellent Christian Bale as the investigator of a grisly murder at West Point in 1830, with the help of young cadet Edgar Allan […]
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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
After eleven years, Shrek’s feline sidekick is back with a fun and largely whimsical (though too dark for very young eyes) adventure. From the creative team behind ‘The Croods: A New Age’, the film finds Puss (Antonio Banderas) down to the last of his nine lives and on the quest […]
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The Quiet Girl
Sparse on dialogue and even more sparse on veritable plot points, ‘An Cailín Ciúin’ (in its original Irish) is a bonafide multiple-tissue weepie about the heartbreaking things some children have to endure. A beautiful and subtly powerful film by writer-director Colm Bairéad, it stars young Catherine Clinch (in her debut) […]
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Avatar: The Way of Water
He still occasionally has a hard time writing dialogue that doesn’t sound like how adults think tweens speak, but damn, James Cameron can spin a yarn and, more importantly, create a true motion picture experience. An epic wonder of visual effects, this ambitious follow-up to the 2009 original brings us […]
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I Believe in Santa
Real-life spouses John Ducey (who also wrote the script) and Christina Moore are a meet-cute couple who start out swimmingly but take an unexpected turn at the holidays when it’s revealed that he believes in Santa—like legit believes. Of course, it’s all just pretense for a holiday film designed to […]
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Something from Tiffany’s
Zoey Deutch and Kendrick Sampson star in this lukewarm adaptation of best-selling author Melissa Hill’s 2011 book about two couples whose lives are intertwined when Christmas presents go wrong. While it’s certainly a step up from most rom-com schlock you see these days, the super-quick (and unrealistically painless) resolution cheapens […]
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