the @popcollin reviews

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 […]

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 […]

Musical theater actress Annelise Cepero stars in this predictable but still somewhat decent bit of Christmastime schmaltz about a wandering minstrel looking for her big break. When she gets the call to come to Hollywood, she only makes it as far as Oklahoma before her van breaks down, stranding her […]

The folks behind Disney’s ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ (director Don Hall and screenwriter Qui Nguyen) re-team for this animated adventure about explorers who find themselves stranded in a mysterious land with no way home. Dennis Quaid, Gabrielle Union, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Lucy Liu lead the voice cast, and the […]

Set ten years after the events of ‘Enchanted’ (but released 15 years after the original), it has all the parts and pieces in place to be a worthy successor, but ‘Disenchanted’ simmers more than it soars. Director Adam Shankman threw his all into it, and the stars—including returnees Amy Adams, […]

Julia and George and sun-drenched South Pacific beaches—what more do you need? How about having them incessantly snipe at each other, because they’re a decades-divorced couple who can’t stand to be in the same room, much less be forced to join forces to talk some sense into their daughter? Turns […]

Sigourney Weaver serves up an award-worthy performance in this tragi-comic adaptation of Ann Leary’s 2013 beach read novel. Starring as a functioning alcoholic struggling to stay afloat in a sleepy New England town, Weaver reunites with Kevin Kline for the third time (‘Dave’, ‘The Ice Storm’), and their chemistry alone […]

Hot on the heels of 2020’s better-than-expected ‘Holidate’, star Emma Roberts and screenwriter Tiffany Paulsen reunite for this similarly-themed flick about a young woman who recruits a stranger to be her plus-one at her sister’s wedding. With a plot as entirely unoriginal as that, it falls on the script and […]

Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall knock it out of the park in this acerbic comedy from first-time feature director Adamma Ebo. A modern-day, fictional film very much in the vein of ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’, it chronicles the fall and attempted rise of a disgraced Georgia megachurch preacher. […]

If you know Lili Reinhart at all, it’s from her turn as Betty on the hit teen show ‘Riverdale’, but based on her sparkling work in this largely silly and ultimately forgettable Netflix rom-com, she may have a bright and lasting career in front of her. Playing like a modern-day […]