the @popcollin reviews

Loosely inspired by an ancient Ming Dynasty novel, this animated effort from Pearl Studios arrives with all the promise of being something close to ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ or ‘Wolfwalkers’, but it instead seems to have gone out of its way to be as middle-of-the-road as possible, with the […]

This halfway-charming Indie coming-of-age comedy stars Kiernan Shipka as a teenager who feels responsible for looking after her own intellectually disabled parents. Written and directed by Matt Smukler (based on his own short film), it’s a semisweet and quirky film about family and love with an all-star supporting cast, including […]

Returning to your hometown only to run into your ex on the eve of his wedding isn’t exactly a unique plotline, and it’s most of what dooms this forgettable Amazon original, even though it seems to think it’s a quirky little Indie. Written by the husband-wife team of Dave Franco […]

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 […]

Anna Kendrick does perhaps her best work to date in this slow-burn drama about a woman obliviously trapped in a psychologically abusive relationship and the friends who try to help open her eyes. Unfortunately, Kendrick’s power and talent can’t make up for an uneven script that gives her all the […]

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 […]

Co-starring for a third time together in a schmaltzy holiday TV movie, Danica McKellar and Neal Bledsoe keep the Christmas spirit kinda afloat with a cute but ultimately forgettable tale about a big city real estate developer (Bledsoe) threatening to tear down the local drive-in. Of course, this is much […]

I know, I know…it’s Lindsay Lohan. It’s a ridiculous holiday movie on Netflix. It co-stars Chord Overstreet. And the last time I checked, it wasn’t 2003. I get it. There’s very little redeeming about this thing, but as a back-in-the-day Lohan-ite, it’s nice to see her back in action and […]

The David Gordon Green-helmed trilogy comes to an end with a sometimes-fun but ultimately unsatisfying conclusion, as Jamie Lee Curtis—playing Laurie Strode one last time—ties a ribbon on the whole pesky Michael Myers thing. Sure, it’s a solid slasher in its own right, but is this really what we’ve been […]

Based on a true story, this tale of a Merchant Mariner who decides to head to Vietnam in the middle of the war, just to deliver beers to his buddies from the neighborhood, suffers from a wildly uneven (and often preachy) script. Zac Efron, continuing to prove that he’s far […]