Cleaner understands the retro action-thriller assignment, and that’s what ultimately matters the most.

Captain America: Brave New World is a toothless attempt at topicality.

. Even at a blink-and-it’s-over 83 minutes, it pains me to say it but Love Hurts is an agonizingly unappealing disaster.

The Prosecutor is exceedingly entertaining. It’s also not even passingly believable.

I walked away from The Count of Monte Cristo invigorated. Its intensity, its majesty, its larger-than-life virtuosity, all of that and more filled my heart with glee.

This return to the realm of Rohan won me over. These riders still know how to awaken primal forces lurking within my soul, and I cheer every impossible charge against the forces of evil they make. Forth Eorlingas!

This superpowered comic book origin story could easily be mistaken for the dictionary definition of “meh.”

For all my misgivings, I was entertained by Gladiator II. I call that a victory.

While I am as cynical about the current state of the human condition as anyone, Red One taps into something honest and hopeful. Right now, with all that’s going on in the real world, those aren’t emotional states of being I want to take for granted. More importantly, I’d like to believe I’m not the only one who feels that way.