As spinoffs go, The LEGO Batman Movie has more than its fair share of super moments, and with so many seemingly sturdy building blocks in place I’m curious to see how the studio will continue to piece these LEGOs together in the future.
Attempting to take Samara’s murderous video online, the long-in-coming Rings is terrible, and other than a suitably larger-than-life performance from D’Onofrio, there’s precious little to recommend.
Not to say I believe The Space Between Us is worth a viewer’s time and money, not even that of the teenage audience this story is so clearly targeted at, this interplanetary romance a rocket ship of schmaltz and cliché that’s impossible to take seriously.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is easily the most entertaining of the sequels, and while not as consistently engaging as Anderson’s first film, still the best video game to film adaptation to ever see the light of day, that doesn’t make the portions here that do work any less fun.
In short, those that choose to go with the flow and let the not-so-subtle emotional charms fueling A Dog’s Purpose work their magic are likely to come out of the theatre sobbing in heartfelt joy. Everyone else? Well, they’ll have a bone to pick with the film, and it’s likely they won’t be able to stop barking about their issues.
Gaghan’s Gold is a risky venture with a lot on its mind, mixing fact and fiction together to come up with a cinematic mirror that reflects back to the viewer topical images that aren’t always easy to witness. The thing is, if the combination isn’t right, if the balance is off, then good intentions and lofty ideals don’t end up meaning a single thing substantive, making the finished feature nothing more than celluloid pyrite barely worth the cost of a rental let alone a full-blown first run multiplex ticket.
I’m shaken in ways that go beyond description, the long-lasting impact of Julieta’s story deserving of additional exploration and discussion, not to mention multiple viewings. Julieta is superb, and to say any more could potentially ruin any number of its more intimate surprises.
20th Century Women is a sparkling, intimately moving drama of growth, friendship and family that springs to life with invigorating authority, its easygoing truth rapturous to behold.
Split is an aggressively nasty bit of pulp filmmaking, all of it building to a conclusion that’s as insidiously open-ended as it is fearlessly cathartic.