It’s not even Thanksgiving, and of course Netflix is already rolling out the Santa-stuffed fare. Let’s just hope it gets better from here. Heather Graham and Jason Biggs star as Charlotte and Rob, a quintessentially bland middle-class couple who wind up spending the holidays with one of Charlotte’s friends (Brandy)—the […]
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Five Nights at Freddy’s
Based on the recent video game series, this horror film (in theory, anyway) is designed to bring all our deep-seated childhood fears of animatronic animals to life. What we end up getting, though, is a beyond-sluggish snoozer that meanders all over the place before fizzling out with a whimper. Josh […]
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Old Dads
If you haven’t had your fill of tired and lazy boomer jokes lately, this Netflix original should be right up your alley. Written and directed by and starring comedian Bill Burr alongside Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine, it’s a non-stop softball rant about the Gen X/Gen Z divide, stuffed with […]
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Heart of Stone
Oh my word, what happened HERE?! Gal Gadot stars in this woefully uninspired action flick as a secret agent assigned to keep a new-fangled AI system out of the hands of the bad guys. Director Tom Harper, who gave us 2019’s fairly entertaining ‘The Aeronauts’ has fallen flat on his […]
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Meg 2: The Trench
You would think a movie about giant terrorizing sea monsters would prominently feature giant, terrorizing sea monsters. Not so much, with this forgettable sequel to the also-forgettable 2018 original. Jason Statham is back as noble ocean-guy Jonas Taylor, helping explore the depths in the name of science. Yes, the big […]
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Robots
It may have a decent amount of promise—Shailene Woodley and Jack Whitehall starring, a thought-provoking plot, a script co-written by Ant Hines (‘Borat’)—but nothing in this horrible misfire comes together to become anything even remotely entertaining. A decade in the future, people can buy lifelike robotic versions of themselves, but […]
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Fool’s Paradise
What could have been a fairly sharp Hollywood satire instead lands with one of the louder thuds heard in recent years. Written and directed by (and also starring) Charlie Day, it’s the story of a mute mental patient who is released from a facility only to somehow land on a […]
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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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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a #@%!
After his wildly successful 2016 ‘self-help’ book, blogger and author Mark Manson brings his mantra of not sweating the small stuff to the big screen. Alas, the worthwhile message gets diluted in the presentation, which is essentially Manson giving a profane Ted Talk while mostly-nonsensical video plays over it. Without […]
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