You frequently hear the term "they don't make 'em like they used to" when it comes to modern film. Padraic McKinley's The Weight attempts to blow that notion out of the water with a down-and-dirty adult drama that is never anything less than fully captivating.

Guy Moshe's The Fix should have been a thrifty disposable action thriller that makes a bit of an impact, and moves on. Instead, the film attempts to inject gross political messaging and a bloated narrative into a film that doesn't warrant that much thought.

I can't watch everything when it comes out, but I'll watch it all eventually. Here are a few mini-reviews of some recent releases: I Want Your Sex, Her Private Hell, and Scary Movie.

I will always appreciate a film knowing what it is. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley's Mayday has no qualms about what kind of film they mean to deliver. Inspired by 1980s buddy action comedies, they deliver a fun, low-stakes 80s buddy action comedy, exactly what you expect.

Director Yeon Sang-ho doesn't want to deviate from the zombie films that have become his bread and butter. With Colony, Yeon tries a lot of different things, but ends up with much of the same result, despite giving the audience a pretty entertaining time.

Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars is an exceedingly strange film. Despite an intriguing premise and based off a well-received book, the film never gets to any point of narrative flow or meaning outside of some high-water visuals and fine performances.

Filled with quirk, fantastical imagination, and unrelenting whimsy, Ben Gregor's The Magic Faraway Tree is a harmless adaptation of a series of children's books that never blinks from it's message of unplugging and finding joy in your surroundings.

I can't watch everything when it comes out, but I'll watch it all eventually. Here are a few mini-reviews of some recent releases: Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Death of Robin Hood, and EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.

Filled with unlikeable characters and poor, misguided motivations, Lee Kirk's Nimrods prioritizes asinine road trip hijinks and unimaginative plot barriers to drive the action. The result is a barely watchable soup of poor decisions and dumb results.

It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised. Julia Hart's Don't Say Good Luck might have all the makings of a nothingburger direct-to-streaming film, but instead delivers a character-focused film filled with emotion and devoid of cliches. It's also one of the unexpectedly great films of the year.

I personally abhor the term "love letter to cinema," but that's exactly what director Jane Schoenbrun has done with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. With nodes to problematic cinema and the slasher genre, Schoenbrun delivers a wholly unique film where things are much more obvious than they appear.

You have certain expectations with a film centered around feudal Japan. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's The Samurai and the Prisoner takes those base elements and fuses them with a combinations of Shakespearian intrigue, religious fervor, and Sherlock Holmes detective mysteries. It's like nothing else in theaters today.

The idea of a high-concept romantic comedy only works if you focus more on the romantic comedy over the high concept. Will Gluck's One Night Only takes a silly idea and expands it so far, the real-world implications are too serious and far-reaching to oversimplify with a silly romance.

While watching Matt Johnson's Tony, there were long stretches I forgot I was watching a biopic. Instead of focusing on the well-documented mythology of famed chef Anthony Bourdain, this film decides to tell a worthwhile story, which just happens to include a future famous person.

You would think the director of Barb & Star Go to Vista del Mar would know how to wrangle some laughs out of a silly premise. Unfortunately, director Josh Greenbaum's The Dink is a one-joke film that forgets to make anything funny.

I can't watch everything when it comes out, but I'll watch it all eventually. Here are a few mini-reviews of some recent releases: The Invite, Girls Like Girls, and The Christophers

13 feature films into his career, director Christopher Nolan has developed a string of touchstones for his films. You can expect an all-star cast, massive practical set pieces, underdeveloped women, stunning visuals, and clunky dialogue. With his new film The Odyssey, Nolan again delivers on everything you come to expect from a Nolan movie.

I can't watch everything when it comes out, but I'll watch it all eventually. Here are a few mini-reviews of some recent releases: The Furious, Wasteman, and Crime 101.

I support the idea of farce. But, if a film is going to be wall to wall ridiculous, you had better deliver the laughs to back up the chaos. David Wain's Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is good for a few light chuckles here and there, but the light comedy never justifies the goofy insanity presented on screen.

I can't watch everything when it comes out, but I'll watch it all eventually. Here are a few mini-reviews of some recent releases: The Devil Wears Prada 2, Savage House, and Little Brother.

I would never blame a director for sticking to a formula that has proven successful, commercially or otherwise. That being said, Pierre Morrel's Minions & Monsters breaks out of the most just enough to keep the series fresh and fun.

I can't watch everything when it comes out, but I'll watch it all eventually. Here are a few mini-reviews of some recent releases: Ask E. Jean, I Love Boosters, and Voicemails for Isabelle.

You can blame Superman for plenty of the failures with Craig Gillespie's Supergirl. The critical and audience success of that entry reignited the DC Universe. Now, the expectations are too great and the middle-of-the-road film that follows is sure to be considered a disappointment.

Let's not mince words. Julian Schnabel's In the Hand of Dante is bad. While it isn't boring and is pretty to look at, every filmmaking choice is misguided and undercooked. Despite how bad it is, I can't say I had a bad time watching it.

I can't watch everything when it comes out, but I'll watch it all eventually. Here are a few mini-reviews of some recent releases: Backrooms, Masters of the Universe, and Pressure

For pride month, straight critic Ben Miller takes a look back at a gay film he otherwise would hav...

Whether it's James Bond, Fast and Furious, Saw, or the Rocky movies, sequels can't deliver the exact same thing and expect audiences to jump at the opportunity. Filmmakers have to be able to shift the franchise in a direction that will feel fresh and exciting to their existing audience. Andrew Stanton's Toy Story 5 might not reinvent the genre, but the message and impact more than justifies the film's existence.

I can't watch everything when it comes out, but I'll watch it all eventually. Here are a few mini-reviews of some recent releases: Obsession, Office Romance, and Mortal Kombat II

Let's make an assumption, shall we? Let's assume Steven Spielberg, one of the most consistently successful and acclaimed filmmakers of the last 50 years, knows what he is doing. You might go into his new sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day expecting a certain kind of film, but that's on you, not him.

A film featuring Paul Rudd as a wedding singer and Nick Jonas as a former boy band member knows what it's doing right out of the gate. With John Carney's Power Ballad, the two stars utilize their own personas to deliver a mindful musical tale that is sure to enchant moviegoers.

Critics often bemoan a film's reliance on style over substance. I am not immune to that exact sentiment (check out my review of Tron: Ares as an example). While it is often used as a critique, Adam Carter Rehmeier's Carolina Caroline manages to use the style to enhance an otherwise tired narrative.

For pride month, straight critic Ben Miller takes a look back at a gay film he otherwise would h...

Daniel Roher's Tuner fits into many buckets. Combining lighthearted comedy, adult romance, and crime thriller, the film manages a delicate balance between typical film classifications rarely seen in modern films.

Despite a commitment to gross-out horror included with food, Natalie Erika James' Saccharine eventually falls victim to its own ideas. While it tries to include modern issues on body image into horror, the end result concludes with no clear message to speak of. While the idea of incorporating larger societal issues into horror is a great idea (and one of the staples of the genre), the film never figures out how to land the plane.

I finally finished up my Oscar charts, just before the Cannes awards are announced [hold for applause]. Check out the new charts as well as updates on all my predictions.