the @popcollin reviews

Though the 2020 original managed to squeak by as an entertaining-enough bit of fun, this wholly necessary sequel has way too much going on to interest whoever the target audience is. (And that’s still up for debate; it’s a solidly PG-13 flick with a young teen at its center.) Sure, […]

As a tepid fan (at best) of the 2015 original film, I admittedly didn’t rush into the sequel with bells on, but I didn’t expect to come out of it abjectly bummed out at Pixar’s latest effort. The premise is that young Riley is now hitting puberty, so her core […]

This seafaring tale of two scallop-fishing brothers and the struggles they face both out on the ocean and back on dry land has the promise of at-sea dramas like ‘The Perfect Storm’, but it falls woefully short. Hampered by an ultra-clichéd plot and groan-worthy dialogue, even the top-shelf cast (Ben […]

About a third of the way through this odd caper about two young women on a road trip to Florida, unknowingly chased by a pair of inept criminal henchmen, you may find yourself thinking it’s a B-movie from someone trying to do their best Coen Brothers impression. Turns out you’d […]

Imagine a world where, just by yanking a fingernail out and running it through a machine alongside your partner’s, you can find out if you’re truly in love. That’s the bizarre premise of this heady sci-fi drama starring Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed, which feels designed solely to be one […]

Lil Rel Howery tackles what is essentially a one-man show in this sci-fi thriller about an employee who wakes up in a dirt and concrete cell and is made to push his own Sisyphus’ stone around in a circle repeatedly for unknown reasons. What might have actually worked as a […]

Based loosely on the true story of the 1988 heist of the First National Bank of Chicago, this wholly forgettable film had plenty of promise to be sure, but a weak, pedestrian script dooms it pretty much from the get-go. Courtney B. Vance stars as the ringleader, who recruits four […]

This Aussie cheeseball wannabe-Hallmark flick stars pop singer Delta Goodrem alongside Joshua Sasse as a predictably oil-and-water duo who, of course, wind up falling in luuuuv. He’s a big-money British guy sent to shut down her unprofitable mom-and-pop single-plane airline—before, that is, he realizes it’s not all about money; sometimes, […]

The latest interchangeable Liam Neeson action extravaganza finds our hero in a very ‘Speed’-like situation after he gets a phone call that a bomb has been planted in his car, and that it’ll go off unless he keeps driving, and (gasp!) his kids are along for the ride! Sounds like […]

I’m not entirely sure 2021’s ‘Vacation Friends’ was crying out for a sequel, but here we are. Yes, the first outing (a Hulu original) was relatively entertaining, but not so much this lazy and pointless follow-up. Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji, John Cena, and Meredith Hagner are all back as […]