Hell or High Water movie review: there will be blood
Alongside plenty of heist-movie humor and suspense is a bleak fatalism grounded in depressing reality and resignation to the miserable necessity it demands.
suspense/thriller
Anthropoid movie review: human-shaped but lacking in human substance
Familiar-feeling tale of a real-life plot to kill a high-ranking Nazi in 1942 Prague manages some suspense thrills but mostly misses the emotional ones.
Equity movie review: a disappointing return on investment
We’ve never seen this before, multiple female characters open about ambition, power, and money. But representation alone does not make for a gripping tale.
Mechanic: Resurrection movie review: the Jessica Alba-centered fanfic that makes this work
It’s supposed to be intense, but it’s just silly. Unless it’s secretly about one woman ridding the world of notorious arms dealers through sly manipulation.
The Purge: Election Year movie review: soylent green is Donald Trump!
A few hints of stagnation aside, this franchise remains a terrifyingly trenchant dystopia. A brutal vision of an America not far removed from our own.
The Shallows movie review: she’s gonna need a bigger surfboard
Pure popcorn thrills. Whips up visceral suspense and maintains it till you’re breathless as it cements the arrival of “woman versus nature” as a subgenre.
Jason Bourne movie review: Bourne again, but why?
Everything looks great on paper here: Damon’s brawny presence; the smartly staged action, etc. And it’s not unfun. But it feels less black ops than old hat.
Disorder (aka Maryland) movie review: security blank
Moments of genuine tension are few in this would-be suspenseful thriller, which can’t settle on a state of mind for its protagonist, or for its own story.
Train to Busan (Busanhaeng) movie review: delays due to zombies
This South Korean hit is an oozy doozy of a horror-thriller; confidently spins out its own unique — and breathless — take on familiar genre tropes.
Now You See Me 2 movie review: now you don’t
The delicately balanced foolishness of Now You See Me gives way to impossibly supernatural magic tricks aimed at thwarting the least menacing villain ever.
