Spike Walters

CHICAGO – While Kenneth Branagh still isn’t a favorite Hercule Poirot, I was as surprised as anyone to find that this third go around as the Belgian detective was my favorite. As the title implies, there are jump scares a-plenty as Poirot tries to get his little gray cells around the strange goings-on in a spooky house, and solve the mystery.

CHICAGO – “Gran Turismo” uses the life story of a gamer named Jann Mardenborough to get its message across … he was a college dropout in the UK who used the hours spent behind the steering wheel in his bedroom to become a real race car driver. While the racing scenes deliver the goods, this poorly conceived piece of product placement never gets its narrative out of first gear. 


CHICAGO – “Strays” is a film that features a cast full of legitimately funny people, but this Hard-R-Rated talking dog movie poops out long before the final credits roll. The film tries to have heart, but is too busy making labored poo-poo jokes to give the schmaltz much gusto. 


CHICAGO – With “Oppenheimer,” director Christopher Nolan reminds us of what a blockbuster can be. They need not all be brain dead exercises in grunting and effects. Instead he delivers a thoughtful film that manages to synthesize complex elements like quantum physics into a piece of cinematic entertainment that just might be his most profound film yet.

CHICAGO – By all accounts the Indiana Jones series had nowhere to go but up after the woebegone “Crystal Skull.” But “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” manages to clear that admittedly low bar to add a sense of adventure back to the tales of the graying archeologist. That said there’s a certain pointlessness to the whole endeavor.

CHICAGO – Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t hold back and gives it her all in the “Hard R” rated sex comedy “No Hard Feelings.” But despite her herculean efforts, the film only manages the occasional tee-hee when it should be scoring guffaws. You’ve got to hand it to Lawrence for going all in, I just wish the script rewarded her efforts.

CHICAGO – It amazes me to say it but with “The Flash” the DC cinematic universe has managed to actually make a movie that’s fun, for at least a little while. Even previously heralded DC movies like “Wonder Woman” left me cold with their incessant insistence on bludgeoning the audience with digital destruction.

CHICAGO – When it comes to bad movies there are three types … fun bad, memorably bad, and ordinary bad. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” belongs in the latter category. It’s a clinking, clanking calamity that fails on almost every level, which is about par for the course when it comes to this series.

CHICAGO – A lot of blockbusters require you to check your brain at the door. “Fast X” requires a full scale lobotomy. To the uninitiated, Vin Diesel’s blatant disregard for the laws of gravity and physics represents a full scale assault on the senses, reason, and logic in its effort to bring audiences down to its star’s lunkheaded level.

CHICAGO – The Guardians of the Galaxy have lost some of their freshness over the years. They’re no long the scrappy obscurities who came out of nowhere to deliver one of the more idiosyncratic and enjoyable adventures in the Marvel Cinema Universe. But while familiarity has taken some of the elements of surprise, they’re still an agreeable bunch to watch.