The Suicide Squad (2021) - 4/5

This movie is a tour de force rebuttal to its previous installment. It’s a colorful, blood-spattered comedy corral, with a plot that actually works and consistent stakes. It retreads some story beats from the first installment but improves them just to flex. It takes bizarre situations and obscure characters, then injects them with pathos and treats them with more care than the rest of these non-MCU superhero cash-grabs.

Content warning: Gore

Closest comparison: It’s like Guardians of the Galaxy by way of Deadpool.

Setting: Military
Plot: Super Hero
Tone: Dark Comedy

Dawn of the Dead (2004) - 3/5

This movie has all the zombie tropes, from the rag-tag group holed up in a mall to the zombie hordes mindlessly wandering around or beating down the doors. There are plenty of bone-crunching and flesh-ripping deaths for fans of the genre, delivered with visceral special effects, but nothing can save the dearth of relatable, well-written characters. Zombie movies live and die on the interpersonal drama of the survivors and this movie forgot to make the audience want them to survive at all, with two exceptions that aren’t enough to carry the story along.

Content warning: gore (obviously), female nudity

Closest comparison: It’s a flashier, shallower remake of the 1978 classic.

Setting: Zombie
Plot: Zombie
Tone: Zombie

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 - 3/5

First off, the good: lots of beautiful visuals and some great character moments with tertiary characters. The opening sequence is fantastic, and if the whole movie was like that it might have been a 5. Unfortunately, most of the humor in the film is mean-spirited, which for me is intolerable. And for a movie that is relying largely on the humor it's just painful.