Author: Derrick Murray

They Will Kill You exists solely to entertain. It’s a just girl fighting a satanic cult with as many weapons as she can get her hands on in the bloodiest fashion you can imagine. Do you really need more than that to have a good time at the movies?

Remember hope? Joy? Crowd-pleasing escapism? Remember going to the movies and in true Nicole Kidman fashion, “we go somewhere we’ve never been before. Dazzling images on a huge silver screen….heartbreak feels good in a place like this?” I remember, and even for all the movies I watch, I can say that I miss that feeling sometimes. Project Hail Mary restores that faith in cinema, transporting us to the far reaches of the universe with a familiar yet triumphant sci-fi adventure filled to the brim with heart and humor. Even with its flaws – and it certainly has them – THIS…

“The Bride” may be a trainwreck, but at least it’s actually trying something. Something different, something reimagined, something with a pulse in a dying world.

“Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” is hindered by its medium transfer, feeling more like an extended series finale than a film surviving on its own merits.

I’m on record for not being the biggest kaiju fan. There are some exceptions, “Godzilla Minus One” most notably, but most of the westernized versions of monsters and monster movies just don’t do it for me. Their biggest problem have always been extremely uninteresting characters, so a TV show primarily focused on those humans really isn’t in my wheelhouse. Nevertheless, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” is a tale of two cities: one that has some really strong ideas and world building and the other that saddles them with often unlikeable characters at its core. Season 2 on the whole dials up…

“Blades of the Guardian” is pure, unadulterated martial arts action cinema that never lets up as soon as it begins. The choreography is stunning, with each battle feeling unique and exciting and constant, the clanging of swords and high wire flying so enthralling you forget why we’re here in the first place.

“How To Make a Killing” removes all sense of wit and whimsy that makes this satire of the rich and pursuit of wealth so intriguing, leaving it with very little commentary on its own framework and not really saying anything at all about the 1 Percenters it’s supposedly mocking.

“Redux Redux,” an inventive and fresh take on both multiverse storytelling and revenge thrillers. When we say we want original cinema, THIS is the kind of film we’re talking about. Emotionally intelligent, violent, and armed with an excellent premise…the kind of film that is full of surprises and an engaging grit that keeps you locked in until the final frame.

Every time I’m forced to interact with some kind of AI, I die a little inside. It is a technology forced upon us whether we want it or not, and outside of living off the grid completely, it has already become ubiquitous in both our personal and professional lives. Enter “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” a blunt force satire that extends Gore Verbinski’s ire beyond AI and includes pretty much all existing technology in his 10 year absence from Hollywood. What transpires is a deeply weird film that spouts its anger so directly and is so sprawling it becomes more “old…

In the age of AI slop and relentless streaming fodder, we’re often left saying things like “they just don’t make ’em like they used to!” A longing nostalgia for a simpler time when movies were just that – movies – meant to entertain and stay in their genre lane with no franchise IP being its only reason for existing. An ode to a bygone era almost to a fault, “Crime 101” is tried and true throwback crime thriller that channels the greats of Michael Mann and mid 90s cinema. That said, it sticks too close to its inspirations to stand…