Spin-off movies for Batman villains have been a mixed bag over the years. “Joker” won an Oscar, but it was followed up with the terrible “Joker: Folie à Deux.” “Suicide Squad” took Harley Quinn from niche fan-favorite to mainstream icon, but “Catwoman” somehow managed to bungle one of the most marketable castings in movie history. Now comes “Clayface,” based a character known to those who follo...
Bob Garver · Oct 30, 2026
The biggest problem with new video game adaptation “Street Fighter” is that it’s bad on purpose. Not “delightfully over the top” or “destined to become a cult classic,” just bad. As if having a degree of self-awareness about its unapologetic badness somehow justifies wasting two hours of its audience’s time. The story follows a pair of former best friends — Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken (Noah Ce...
Bob Garver · Oct 23, 2026
The title “Other Mommy” is misleading. The villainous demon haunting 8-year-old Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark) can take any form, including her father (Jay Duplass), her babysitter (Sean Kaufman), or even a complete stranger. But yes, much of the time it impersonates her mother (Jessica Chastain). The reason, I suspect, has less to do with the fraught mother-daughter relationship and more to do...
Bob Garver · Oct 14, 2026
“Verity” wishes it was a twisty thriller. It is indeed twisty, but it doesn’t have the heart to be a thriller. The film’s advertising is clearly positioning it as a successor to last year’s hit front-of-the-bookstore novel adaptation “The Housemaid,” though it is based on a book that predates that film’s source material by four years. In fact, it is based on a novel by the popular Colleen Hoo...
Bob Garver · Oct 9, 2026
In “Primetime,” Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen, host of “To Catch a Predator,” an offshoot of NBC’s “Dateline” news program in the mid-2000’s. Hansen and the show’s production team would coordinate with police to lure child predators (via Internet chatrooms where there would be no ambiguity as to their intent) to locations where they would be ambushed, first by Hansen and his cameras, th...
Bob Garver · Oct 2, 2026
I had never eaten ratatouille before, let alone cooked it. But it has always captured my imagination. I have seen bits and pieces of the Pixar movie of the same name and have also seen this dish in other media as well. Why does a dish made up of seemingly normal vegetables have so much hype around it? I have zucchini, onions, and tomatoes growing in my garden. And that got me to thinking about...
Connor Cooks · Sep 25, 2026
The streak is over. The last time I started a review with that phrase, it was to mean something bad — 2022’s “Lightyear” was the first Pixar movie that I didn’t recommend. This time, it’s something good — Zach Cregger’s new take on “Resident Evil” is the first movie based on a video game that I do recommend. Not surprisingly, the man who directed Amy Madigan to an Oscar last year for “Weapons”...
Bob Garver · Sep 25, 2026
A few days before I saw “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” a friend of mine asked me about my plans for the weekend. I told her that I planned to see the film, and I was excited. When she asked me why I was excited to see yet another entry in the generally-middling “Conjuring” series, I blurted out, “They make such a cute couple!” “They” of course being Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as real-life...
Bob Garver · Sep 12, 2025
“Thunderbolts*” certainly scared off the competition in its second weekend at the domestic box office. This sometimes happens the weekend after the opening of a huge blockbuster. Other studios will know that they can’t compete against the powerhouse, so they hold off on releasing anything that they think has the potential to be a big or even midsize hit. THEN that happens, I have to review e...
Bob Garver · May 16, 2025
We spent a lovely day at the beach on Sunday. The weather was perfect, seals and dolphins were bobbing in the ocean, and the kids built an epic shell sandcastle with their Baba. IT’S one of those beach days we will remember forever. But we got home around 5 and dinner is usually a little before 6, if I can help it. So I had a cooking speed challenge on my hands! My wife suggested boxed Mac &...
Connor Forbes · Feb 4, 2022
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