I Can Only Imagine 2
Extracting more drama from the life of MercyMe frontman Bart Millard proves difficult for this unnecessary sequel.
Hollywood
Wuthering Heights
Emerald Fennell’s take on Emily Brontë offers the sumptuous trash that has become the auteur’s trademark, but her departures from the original story fall flat.
KPop Demon Hunters
Wit, style, and some inescapably catchy songs has earned this Sony-Netflix animated feature a well-deserved global fandom.
F1: The Movie
The cars go vroom but the characters fail to register in this technically proficient and dramatically vacant auto-racing saga.
28 Years Later
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland reteam for a sequel to their zombie smash that’s got a lot of heart – and other organs.
How to Train Your Dragon
Fans of the original have no reason to seek out the live-action remake, which competently rehashes the beloved animated classic while adding almost nothing new.
The Phoenician Scheme
A Wes Anderson with all of the typefaces and upholsteries you’d expect, but none of the heart or soul of his best films.
Karate Kid: Legends
This reboot-remake-sequel never strays far from what’s expected but succeeds thanks to cornball charm and some stirring fight sequences.
Lilo & Stitch
This pleasant-enough remake of the animated film never quite justifies why that animated film needed to be remade in the first place.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Taking itself seriously while defying audiences to do likewise, this eighth entry features enough globe-trotting, jaw-dropping action to make the nearly three-hour running time fly right by.
Final Destination: Bloodlines
More snappy, shocking deaths in a satisfying sequel crafted to bring the mayhem to a conclusion. Maybe.
Juliet & Romeo
Something is rotten in the state of Verona — namely, this insipid Kidz Bop take on one of the greatest romantic tragedies of all time.
Thunderbolts*
Entertaining Marvel team-up tale proves you can make a banquet out of odds and ends that were stuck in the back of the fridge.
Snow White
Disney’s umpteenth live-action remake of an animated classic turns out to be another bad apple.
Last Breath
Director Alex Parkinson remakes his own deep-sea doc as a narrative feature but gets lost in the shallows.
Paddington in Peru
Might not reach the heights of its predecessor, but this latest adventure of the globe-trotting naif has all the heart, wit, musicality, and meaning that the Paddington franchise brings to bear.
Love Hurts
This mediocre and thoroughly forgettable action-comedy will, one hopes, be but a bump on the road of Ke Huy Quan’s big-screen resurgence.
Mufasa: The Lion King
Better than a CG-animated prequel to a remake has any right to be, but director Barry Jenkins’ time and effort could surely be better applied elsewhere.
Kraven the Hunter
This absurd (and violent) Spider-Man spinoff plays it so straight that it’s quite frequently hilarious, whether or not that was the intent.
Gladiator II
Ridley Scott displays his prodigious gifts for violence and camp in this Roman sequel, but there’s a lot of filler.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
A cadre of feral siblings teach a small town the true meaning of Christmas in a rare faith-based film that doesn’t oversell its message.
Venom: The Last Dance
Nothing means anything in the conclusion of Tom Hardy’s comic-book trilogy, which makes it either a complete waste of time or a superhero movie in its purest form.
Saturday Night
Jason Reitman’s print-the-legend look behind the scenes of the birth of a legendary comedy TV fixture succeeds on its breathless “let’s put on a show” energy.
White Bird
This platitude-heavy infomercial for kindness benefits from strong performances and handsome production design.
The Killer’s Game
An action-comedy that contains neither, this generic exercise will remain forgotten as Dave Bautista’s star continues to rise.
Transformers One
Lore-crazed fans will devour this animated prequel that is, at the very least, slightly more intentionally funny than the Michael Bay live-action franchise.
The Wild Robot
Animator Chris Sanders concocts a sweet fable about love, parenting, and finding your own path.
Blink Twice
Zoë Kravitz makes an impressive directorial debut with a twisty, topical thriller in the Jordan Peele/Ira Levin vein.
Alien: Romulus
Fede Alvarez returns to the well of the original 1979 Ridley Scott hit while adding a few space-screams of his own.
Deadpool & Wolverine
Ryan Reynolds fires off quips and bullets with equal precision, but both the meta-comedy and the exaggerated violence wear thin before the film’s denouement.
Fly Me to the Moon
The space race is back in the peppy, bouncy ‘Fly Me to the Moon’, but a sparky face-off between NASA launch director Channing Tatum and marketing wizard Scarlett Johansson can’t disguise an outdated feeling.
Despicable Me 4
Even die-hard Minions fans may come away disappointed from this half-hearted fourquel.
A Quiet Place: Day One
Not much here that the earlier two films didn’t already establish more effectively; its only depth comes from Lupita Nyong’o’s intuitive lead performance.
The Bikeriders
Writer-director Jeff Nichols relies more on mood than narrative to capture the rebellious spirit of 1960s biker gangs.
Inside Out 2
This Pixar sequel brings its protagonist into puberty and examines, with humor and poignancy, the complicated process of building an identity.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence radiate real “I’d rather be playing golf” energy in this fourth entry of a played-out franchise.