the @popcollin reviews

In case you hadn’t heard, there are large tech companies based in the San Francisco area that are very interested in your internet habits–what products you buy, what topics you discuss, what places you visit. And if they had their way, there would soon be hundreds of cameras on every […]

Dax Shepard says he’s a fan of the original CHiPs television series from the late 70s/early 80s. Watching the big-screen version, which he wrote and directed, you may find that difficult to believe. Aside from the presence of motorcycles and the characters John and Ponch, you’ll be hard-pressed to find […]

Word of advice for anyone ever planning on becoming a villain: don’t waste time explaining your nefarious plot to your intended target; you will surely end up dead, and your plot will be foiled. That’s the way it always has been (at least in the movies), and if Inferno is […]

When Jack Reacher hit theaters in 2012 it did okay for itself, making just under a quarter-billion dollars and winning over the majority of both critics (myself included) and audiences. Much of the box office, though, came from overseas─perhaps a testament to the fact that there are still plenty of […]

As the ol’ saying goes, “Explain it to me like I’m a five-year-old.” And it’s a message that the Belgium-based nWave animation studio took to heart in The Wild Life. There’s precious little that anyone who’s graduated kindergarten will enjoy, including a non-sensical plot (and the word “plot” is used […]

The world is full of healthy competitions– Ford vs. Chevy, Verizon vs. AT&T, Coke vs. Pepsi– but one place where you won’t find anything close to a competition is in the comic book movie world. After the disasters that were 2013’s Man of Steel and this year’s Batman v. Superman, […]

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43 famously asked, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” First I suppose I should apologize for even mentioning it in the same breath as the god-awful Independence Day: Resurgence, but I only bring it up because I spent so much of the […]

Anyone with the phrase “Less is More” hanging in needlepoint above the fireplace needs to run the other way. X-Men: Apocalypse will not go over well. Actually, anyone who’s even close to being burned out on superhero movies should flee quickly, too. The only people who might enjoy it? Folks […]

I’m not sure what happened in the two years since Neighbors hit theaters. Back in May 2014, I gave the film a 4.5-star review and said, “Not only is it a well-scripted, riotous comedy that will more than satisfy its target audience, it takes things up a notch further with […]

Toward the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the Caped Crusader plonks the Man of Steel over the head with porcelain sink. It’s one of the movie’s more subtle moments. Interminably long, mind-bogglingly dull, and incredibly silly, BvS lands with an deafening thud and, along the way, reminds […]