question of the weekend: what terrible movie do you love enthusiastically?
My choice has got to be Roland Emmerich’s disaster of a disaster flick, 2012. Honestly, I never tire of how stupendously, entertainingly awful it is.
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Infinite movie review: whoa no
Knee-jerk clichés abound in a shameless retread of The Matrix in which many levels of storytelling ineptitude are the only depth on offer. Can Hollywood please stop reincarnating the same old movies?
Locked Down movie review: criminally awful
Ejiofor and Hathaway are game, but they’re grasping for something solid, and don’t find it. A deeply unsatisfying novelty artifact of the pandemic that fails to create a necessary sense of transgression.
The Old Guard movie review: saving the world, one century at a time
There’s plenty of bruising action, but this fantastic slice of comic-book pulp emphasizes the humanity of its immortal heroes. Gina Prince-Bythewood elevates the familiar with emotional authenticity.
Sherlock Gnomes movie review: oh gnome they didn’t… (they did)
A flimsy treasure-hunt plot, a sexy song-and-dance number, and more of the same Elton John songs deployed with trite, lazy tedium. They mean to keep cranking out these dumb, dull movies, don’t they?
Mary Magdalene movie review: the Gospel of Mary
A fiercely feminist and proudly revisionist historical drama that offers a powerful and much-needed rebuke to modern Christianity. Enrapturingly beautiful and intensely emotional.
Doctor Strange movie review: even Marvel is now tired of origin stories
Busy with CGI to hide the emptiness where the emotional core should be. Even the mechanics of getting a man from mere mortal to demigod-in-a-cape are rote.
Triple 9 movie review: ordinary criminals
How did a genre-smashing director make a heist thriller so generic, with characters too unlikable to be engaging but not twisted enough to be intriguing?
Secret in Their Eyes movie review: it should have remained untold
The 2009 Oscar-winning Best Foreign Language Film has been given a listless Hollywood makeover, one that wastes Chiwetel Ejiofor’s effortless sincerity.
The Martian movie review: life on Mars
An excellent complement to the novel, simplifying the science without dumbing it down yet retaining the suspense and urgency of its interplanetary stranding.
