By the time Mamma Mia! debuted in movie theaters in 2008, the stage show on which it’s based was already an international pop-culture phenomenon, with resident Read More

Given how many franchises Dwayne Johnson has been recruited to enhance and/or revive (G.I. Joe, Fast and Furious, Jumanji, Rampage, etc.), it’s probably only fair that Read More

The concept of the Purge makes no logical sense. Consequently, the more that the Purge movies try to delve into the inner workings of the future Read More

In 2015’s Sicario, the characters played by Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro were menacing enigmas, government agents of nebulous provenance who ignored protocol, morality and Read More

For a movie series based on a novel full of detailed scientific explanations, the Jurassic franchise has become almost mind-bogglingly dumb. The idea of cloned dinosaurs Read More

In 1983, Tami Oldham survived 41 days lost at sea in a damaged sailboat, relying on her wits, her sailing knowledge, a few salvaged pieces of Read More

The circumstances under which Mary Shelley conceived of and began writing Frankenstein have become almost as well-known as the novel itself, and have been dramatized onscreen Read More

Book Club opens with a series of painfully fake-looking photos featuring the younger versions of its main characters, supposedly four college friends who started the group Read More

When Jen (Matilda Lutz) first shows up onscreen in Revenge, she’s literally sucking on a lollipop, like a caricature of a ditzy blonde sex doll. She’s Read More

A little over halfway through the screening of 1928 silent comedy Show People at this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, the fire alarm in Read More

When Amy Schumer made her debut as a big-screen lead with 2015’s Trainwreck, she brought a strong personal perspective to the movie, as both the writer Read More

The very first thing that alleged best friends Olivia (Pretty Little Liars’ Lucy Hale) and Markie (Violett Beane) do in the moronic horror movie Truth or Read More

When Tony Gilroy first wrote the screenplay for Beirut in 1991, it was considered too politically risky to make. While movie producers may be bolder about Read More

The selling point in the trailers for Blockers has been its over-the-top comedy featuring stars Leslie Mann, John Cena and Ike Barinholtz as overprotective parents attempting Read More

There are plenty of easy jokes to make about the title of Where Is Kyra?, given how purposely underlit the entire movie is. But director and Read More

Director Lynn Shelton’s most successful movies (including Humpday, Your Sister’s Sister and Laggies) have deftly balanced emotionally resonant drama with gentle comedy, but with Outside In Read More

Teenager Katie Price (Bella Thorne), the main character of Midnight Sun, suffers from a real disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum, but she might as well suffer Read More

The giants that young teenager Barbara Thorson (Madison Wolfe) claims to kill in I Kill Giants are almost certainly not real, but for most of its Read More

The opening of 7 Days in Entebbe lays out its historical context in title cards that appear to the rhythm of a dance troupe’s performance, but Read More

When the trailers for Red Sparrow were first released, they drew numerous comparisons to Marvel’s Black Widow character, a Russian spy trained from an early age Read More