WICKED: FOR GOOD Review

With a More Interesting Narrative Perspective and Higher Stakes, Jon M. Chu's Follow-Up is a Meaningful and Compelling Conclusion to the Saga of the Wicked Witch.

RUNNING MAN Review

Despite Glen Powell's Star Power this is Director Edgar Wright's Least Distinctive Effort to Date as it's Never as Biting or Specific as His Riffs on Other Genres.

PREDATOR: BADLANDS Review

Dan Trachtenberg Continues to Expand on the Predator Franchise, this Time Making the Titular Antagonist a Protagonist we Root For and Want to See More Of.

AFTER THE HUNT Review

Director Luca Guadagnino's Latest May Not Have Been Made to Make Audiences Feel Comfortable, but it Might Have at Least Alluded to Something More Bold.

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER Review

Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio Team-Up for the First Time to Deliver a Thrilling, Timely and Ambitious Film that Delivers on Every Front One Might Hope.

852/

TROLLS WORLD TOUR Review

The Trolls franchise has had a somewhat varied journey in my collective memory as things began with hesitation at the concept alone though interest was piqued after Justin Timberlake released the ultimate feel-good summertime jam in that final, peaceful summer of 2016 with "Can't Stop the Feeling". Maybe this would be some kind of cool, animated riff on a musical with remixes of modern and classic songs as overseen by JT; something that was for the children, but made by one of the biggest pop stars of their parents childhood. Then came that November when all I remember about trying to cobble together a review was the fact I was writing about Trolls as I watched the Presidential election descend into madness. I gave the original film a straight-up-the-middle two and a half stars and thought of it essentially as colorful, but slight. It was fate that would have my wife and (three year-old at the time) daughter discover the movie some months later and as young children do my daughter latched onto Trolls just as I had Robin Hood some twenty-plus years prior and naturally decided to watch it on repeat until there was no other choice but for the characters to become endearing, the versions of the songs they sang to become the new normal and the weirdness of the world in which it existed to no longer feel strange or far-fetched, but more like home. We bought the soundtrack, we watched the Netflix animated series, and we anxiously awaited the sequel.