This is a sloppy, silly comedy that is too lazy to be great. It’s ostensibly a parody of The Fugitive but casts a wide parody net. The jokes are uninspired and while it’s still fairly entertaining overall it’s too bland to be memorable.
Closest comparison: It’s like Spy Hard by way of Men at Work (1990).
Setting: Drama
Plot: Thriller
Tone: Screwball Comedy
This movie is the standard David Mamet formula in a fun, small-town comedy. It’s sufficiently interesting and fairly funny, but best of all it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Holiday by way of The Spanish Prisoner.
Setting: Small Town Drama
Plot: Comedy of Errors
Tone: Slow-burn Comedy
This is a confused movie, with each of the characters being either detestable or impotent, and often both. It’s meandering and vague, which makes its pointless ending an insult to the audience’s time and intelligence. The film tries to convey solidarity through compassion for the main character, but only succeeds in eliciting scornful pity as her villainy is revealed through the film. The only redeeming feature of this story is its tragically poetic dialogue, which is beautiful but falls flat without a meaningful story to tell.
Closest comparison: It’s like Gone With the Wind by way of Sunset Boulevard.
Setting: Drama
Plot: Tragedy
Tone: Tragedy
This film is a pointless look at a troubled young man with a fatalistic woe-is-me attitude. As far as the narrative is concerned there’s no real reason for his disaffected ennui but he mopes about for the duration, before coming to a conclusion without a resolution. Nothing about this movie stands out as worth watching on its own, and the story does not justify its own existence.
Closest comparison: It’s like The 400 Blows by way of Rebel Without a Cause.
Setting: Family Drama
Plot: Self-pity
Tone: Dour Drama
This movie initially promises to provide a break from the dour mystery genre with a bit of a more lighthearted tone than its peers, but a few scenes make up for the rest of the film. Including Edgar Allen Poe as a main character is an interesting choice, and capitalizes only on certain aspects of the tone of some of his stories and poems while largely ignoring historical accuracy and any potential literary poetic value. The mystery solution is mostly fine, but leaves a few unanswered questions along with a sense of unfinished narrative.
Closest comparison: It’s like Antlers by way of The Raven (2012).
Setting: Military Drama
Plot: Dour Mystery
Tone: Psychological Tragedy
This movie is a slow but competent thriller centering around sound recording that has a few good scenes of tension. The plot ambles around distractedly, manages an explosive but jumbled discovery, then wanders off aimlessly. The core conceit is well executed, if a bit long and redundant in the protagonist’s search for clarity, but he doesn’t have nearly as much character depth as the film seems to think he does, so the ending falls flat.
Content warning: brief female nudity
Closest comparison: It’s like Blow Out by way of Taxi Driver.
Setting: Corporate Drama
Plot: Corporate Espionage
Tone: Depressed Thriller
This movie is a condensed whodunnit that loses some of the intrigue in its briefness. It’s a bit dry and the culprit is fairly obvious too early, leaving nothing but impotent suspense and bland patter for a significant portion of the runtime.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Lady In Green by way of The Lady Vanishes.
Setting: Mystery
Plot: Mystery
Tone: Cozy Mystery
This movie revels in its status as a dumb action flick, and doesn’t disappoint in delivering fun, vehicle-based, over-the-top action. And when it does deliver even moderate emotional payoff it hits much harder because it’s unexpected.
Closest comparison: It’s the next ratchet up in The Fast And The Furious series.
Setting: Super Hero
Plot: Espionage
Tone: Action
This film is an all-time classic for a reason. Its themes are heroic and timeless, the music has at least half a dozen enduring masterpieces, and it’s genuinely funny to boot. It’s so rare to see a meaningful story these days, which only emphasizes its importance by contrast. It’s a long movie but never outstays its welcome, and the finale is much more tense than the rest of the film would suggest is possible at first blush. It’s a must-watch for everyone.
Closest comparison: It’s like Casablanca by way of The King And I.
Setting: Family Drama
Plot: Romance
Tone: Comedy
This movie tries to be so cool and edgy, but just comes off as cheesy and sleazy. It’s unfortunately par for the course for Dolph Lundgren movies of this era, and this one stoops lower in the sleaze category than some of his comparable fare. The action isn’t even good, which for Bruce Lee’s son is downright shameful.
Content warning: female nudity
Closest comparison: It’s like Lethal Weapon by way of The Punisher (1989).
Setting: Buddy Cop
Plot: Buddy Cop
Tone: Buddy Cop
This movie takes a good idea for a super hero story and muddies the water with bad dialogue, clunky exposition, and forced character motivations. The special effects are very good, but its penchant for depicting violent deaths stands head and shoulders above its peers in the genre. It suffers from the same problem as Superman, granting its protagonist too much power to allow for coherent stakes. Surprisingly, Pierce Brosnan’s Dr. Fate gets the best character arc in the whole runtime.
Content warning: violence
Closest comparison: It’s like Suicide Squad (2021) by way of Man of Steel (2013).
Setting: Adventure
Plot: Super hero
Tone: Action
This movie is directed by a completely different team than the first film and it shows. There’s a noticeable ‘woke’ filter over everything, but even putting that aside the film has some huge flaws. It’s a 1.5 hour movie stretched out into 2.5 hours by sloppy, repetitive dialogue and a bloated script. The villain is pretty good in theory but overstays his welcome by the end, let alone anticipation for the sequel. The art styles in the first film were varied but each one was tight and well-crafted; here, most of the art styles are sloppy to the point of being unappealing and hard to read. The editing here also loses all finesse from the first film, layering audio and visual information on top of itself in a confusing, distracting mess. Some of the fights had a few good moments, though.
Closest comparison: It’s like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse gone the way of Legend of Korra.
Setting: Super hero
Plot: Sci-fi
Tone: Comedy
This movie is a straightforward Holmes mystery, faithful enough to the source but uninspired in its telling.
Closest comparison: It’s like Terror by Night with the production values of Knights of the Round Table.
Setting: Cozy Mystery
Plot: Murder Mystery
Tone: Mystery Thriller
This movie is a by-the-numbers spy film that is reminiscent of both Mission: Impossible and James Bond. It unfortunately doesn’t utilize any of the dark antics or snappy editing that the director Guy Richie is known for. The premise has a lot of promise, but the constant bickering among the central three characters drags the film down considerably. Still, it has excellent production values and a capable enough plot to carry it through. Also, Henry Cavill’s accent goes in and out, for what it’s worth.
Content warning: brief female nudity
Closest comparison: It’s like Where Eagles Dare by way of Skyfall.
Setting: Adventure
Plot: Espionage
Tone: Action
This movie is mostly fine; not great, but fine. The noir elements come through strongly with the palpable setting and Robert Mitchum’s voiceover. Unfortunately most of the actors are phoning in their lines and the scenes all play out like everyone just wants to be done for the day. The plot is more of a procedural than a mystery, and the protagonist never adapts to the same thing happening to him over and again. Even if you like gritty noir, you can do much better than this.
Content warning: female nudity
Closest comparison: It’s like The Long Goodbye (1973) by way of The Big Sleep (1978).
Setting: Crime
Plot: Detective
Tone: Noir
This is another in the Thin Man series, and leans even more into the family side of the series. The mystery solution is still solid, but sometimes takes a back seat to the antics of the child of the main characters.
Closest comparison: It’s more like Another Thin Man than the others in the series.
Setting: High Society
Plot: Mystery
Tone: Family
This movie is stunning; visually, obviously, but also narratively. The production values are excellent, with outstanding action sequences that feel right at home among the best that Marvel has to offer. Some of the animal performances are evident as CGI, but not to the extent that it detracts from the scenes in particular or the film as a whole. The most surprisingly exceptional aspect, however, is the narrative; it’s moving and meaningful without sacrificing fun or excitement.
Closest comparison: It’s like a Bollywood take on a blend of The Patriot and The Departed.
Setting: Adventure
Plot: Thriller
Tone: Adventure
This movie is so much better than it has any reason to be. The inter-character chemistry among the main party isn’t anything spectacular and the narrative is long and meandering. But the story never gets ahead of itself and all of the characters endear themselves to the audience so well that it carries the whole film. All of the D&D specific lore is either background set dressing for eagle-eyed fans or explained well enough that even the casual, disinterested audience members will understand what’s going on.
Closest comparison: It’s like a mix of Logan Lucky, Labyrinth, and Stardust.
Setting: Fantasy
Plot: Heist
Tone: Comedy
This movie is a delectable ‘90s action thriller that is criminally overlooked compared to its peers. It has solid action and great tension, everything an action movie needs. The ensemble cast has great chemistry and some of the surprises are downright outstanding.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Rock by way of Air Force One.
Setting: Action
Plot: Action
Tone: Thriller
This movie is a fun sci-fi adventure, but shouldn’t be seen as a follow-up to 2010’s Troll Hunter, even though the comparison will be inevitable. There’s more overt action here than in Troll Hunter, and geography-hopping and great CGI make for a fun American-style blockbuster than a clever, moody indie piece. The main detractor is a tone shift going into the third act that has some darkly tragic implications, even though nothing too sensitive is shown on-screen. Still, the movie as a whole is a much-needed injection of fun in the dour landscape of 2022 films.
Closest comparison: It’s like Trollhunter crossed with Jurassic Park and Godzilla (1999).
Setting: Adventure
Plot: Hidden World
Tone: Adventure
