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The Outside Scoop (Substack)

The Outside Scoop (Substack) is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Scott Mendelson.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
7/10
The Housemaid (2025) Scott Mendelson Paul Feig and Rebecca Sonnenshine’s adaptation of Freida McFadden’s best-seller is a genre revival that, powered by game turns from Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, still plays like a new movie that isn’t afraid to, uh... rock the cradle.
Posted Jan 23, 2026  Edit critic review
4/10
Mercy (2026) Scott Mendelson The Chris Pratt/Rebecca Ferguson sci-fi thriller is caught between expanding the notion of what a "screenlife" movie can be and acting as a corporate-friendly/quasi-fascist endorsement of artificial intelligence.
Posted Jan 23, 2026  Edit critic review
6/10
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) Scott Mendelson Nia DaCosta directs the hell out of 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE. However, up until a splendid third act, this middle chapter mostly ambles about as if afraid to lay too many cards on the table before the (presumed) finale.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
4/10
Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (2025) Scott Mendelson Fans of the games and young moviegoers hoping for a gateway horror film deserve better than this willfully lousy (after a solid first act) snooze-fest that treats its IP as an excuse to barely try.
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) Scott Mendelson At its best, and even with too much reappropriated from its predecessor, there’s a lot of "at its best," ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ plays like James Cameron knows that it’s potentially Hollywood’s last auteur-driven mega-budget franchise blockbuster.
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
8/10
Zootopia 2 (2025) Scott Mendelson While not as disciplined or confrontational as its modern-classic predecessor, Disney’s endlessly clever and consistently funny animated sequel is the studio’s best film since the one-two punch of SHANG-CHI and ENCANTO in late 2021.
Posted Nov 25, 2025  Edit critic review
5/10
The Running Man (2025) Scott Mendelson The faithful-to-a-fault adaptation of Stephen King’s novel trades ‘American Gladiators’ for ‘Most Dangerous Game,’ but now feels quaint in an America that was stupid enough to elect *its* favorite psychopathic game show host as President… twice.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Now You See Me: Now You Don't (2025) Scott Mendelson Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age, but I’ve come to accept that these “fight with the power with magic tricks” movies take place in an alternate Saturday morning cartoon dimension.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Predator: Badlands (2025) Scott Mendelson Dan Trachtenberg and Patrick Aison again deliver a 'Predator' movie that skews the curve for what was previously, at best, a B-movie grindhouse franchise.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
8/10
Good Fortune (2025) Scott Mendelson Aziz Ansari's winning directorial debut is a modern miracle. This hilarious, big-screen worthy comic original is refreshingly of-this-moment, playing like a gently optimistic cousin to the likes of 'Parasite,' 'Anora' and 'The Brutalist'.
Posted Oct 17, 2025  Edit critic review
5/10
Black Phone 2 (2025) Scott Mendelson A surprisingly kid-friendly sequel (that’s fine) that trips itself up with world-shrinking and character-diminishing revelations and retcons (that’s not).
Posted Oct 15, 2025  Edit critic review
8/10
The Long Walk (2025) Scott Mendelson Francis Lawrence and JT Mollner’s spectacular adaptation renders an "unfilmable" book vividly cinematic and bitterly relevant, sitting alongside 'The Life of Chuck' as one of the best Stephen King pics in nearly 20 years.
Posted Sep 11, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
Captain America (1990) Scott Mendelson Albert Pyun’s intended cut, with a haunting Tangerine Dream-like score, traumatizing violence, and eulogies for the failed promise of the Baby Boomers, feels like a relic from when Hollywood’s power fantasies didn’t mostly focus on the already powerful.
Posted Sep 06, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) Scott Mendelson The "final" chapter of what's become Hollywood's only unmitigated post-'Avengers' cinematic universe success story goes out on a note high enough to see heaven.
Posted Sep 06, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Sketch (2024) Scott Mendelson Seth Worley delivers a promising feature debut with this excellent kid-sized “horror” fantasy; a compelling and nuanced fable anchored by clever effects, a thoughtful screenplay, and a dedicated cast. 'Sketch' is not religious, but it is divine.
Posted Aug 06, 2025  Edit critic review
9/10
Weapons (2025) Scott Mendelson ‘Weapons’ implicitly targets the generations of “grown-ups” who have let the world rot for their convenience and comfort while expecting the young(er) generations to live -- sans protest -- with the consequences.
Posted Aug 05, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
Eddington (2025) Scott Mendelson Without arguing that movies can change the world or make a macro-sized difference, a film like Eddington might have been more useful *before* a nationwide PTSD-caused amnesia contributed to our current political hellscape.
Posted Aug 01, 2025  Edit critic review
5/10
Smurfs (2025) Scott Mendelson It’s still IP for IP’s sake, and — noting periodically creative animation and occasionally clever wordplay — I’m not arguing that it’s “good.” If your younger kids want to check it out, you might find it exactly entertaining enough.
Posted Aug 01, 2025  Edit critic review
3/10
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Scott Mendelson In ways both expected and not, I Know What You Did Last Summer feels like the rock bottom culmination of everything I warned about ten years ago upon exiting Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was true. All of it, it was all true.
Posted Aug 01, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
The Naked Gun (2025) Scott Mendelson With little reliance on nostalgia and plenty of "can't get this anywhere else" entertainment value, this Liam Neeson-starring action comedy is content to just be consistently hilarious.
Posted Aug 01, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Superman (2025) Scott Mendelson James Gunn’s colorful, yet cartoonish ‘Superman’ relaunch justifies itself, despite broad dialogue, a periodic focus on plot over character, and sometimes weightless spectacle, by planting America’s definitive fictional hero on the right side of history.
Posted Jul 08, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) Scott Mendelson ‘Dino Park Massacre 7’ is a well-acted and visually stunning adventure, featuring numerous spectacular set pieces, that serves as a placeholder amid grander franchise ambitions.
Posted Jun 30, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
Ballerina (2025) Scott Mendelson 'Ballerina' mostly works on its own merits, but the “World of John Wick” branding should stand for franchise-specific spectacle and high quality, high-production value action movies rather than merely reminding audiences that they liked John Wick movies.
Posted Jun 06, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Bring Her Back (2025) Scott Mendelson Michael and Danny Philippou’s visually dazzling and unapologetically grim follow-up to ‘Talk to Me’ operates a post-breakout filmmaker-flex akin to ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Us'
Posted May 30, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Karate Kid: Legends (2025) Scott Mendelson Sony's shockingly enjoyable legacy sequel prioritizes charming, kid-friendly new characters over pandering to now-adult fans of a 41-year-old franchise.
Posted May 28, 2025  Edit critic review
3/10
Lilo & Stitch (2025) Scott Mendelson A generationally beloved toon that won raves for its emotional rawness and unconventional heroines gets a live-action redo that sands down its rough edges.
Posted May 23, 2025  Edit critic review
4/10
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) Scott Mendelson With retcons, callbacks and endless irrelevant exposition dumps, a series that thrived apart from Hollywood's misguided 2010s conventional tentpole wisdom concludes with a whimper by drowning in it.
Posted May 20, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
Final Destination Bloodlines (2025) Scott Mendelson The prologue rocks, but otherwise, this initially HBO Max-intended sequel looks and feels streaming-small. At least it doesn’t rely on nostalgia and callbacks.
Posted May 20, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
Thunderbolts* (2025) Scott Mendelson This latest MCU action comedy is both a return to "good-enough" form and an on-point metaphor for Disney's Marvel Studios wrestling with so-called superhero fatigue.
Posted May 02, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Sinners (2025) Scott Mendelson Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s latest has much on its mind while offering the Hollywood power team an opportunity to play in the IMAX-worthy horror film sandbox.
Posted Apr 12, 2025  Edit critic review
3/10
The Electric State (2025) Scott Mendelson It’s a generic Mad Libs approximation of what a big-budget film intended to start a franchise—although, to its credit, it’s pretty closed-ended—tentpole should look like while lacking individuality, specificity or even the scale that might set it apart.
Posted Mar 28, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
Magazine Dreams (2023) Scott Mendelson The "fallen" star is terrific in this otherwise small-scale drama which saw its value as a likely Oscar nominee undercut by skewed "real life imitates art" circumstances.
Posted Mar 28, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
Novocaine (2025) Scott Mendelson In a creative sense, the Paramount release is the kind of movie that used to sustain studios and create stars. In a commercial sense, it’s from a time when “good enough” was “good enough.”
Posted Mar 28, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Mickey 17 (2025) Scott Mendelson 'Mickey 17' plays like a *very good* Bong Joon-ho mix tape.
Posted Mar 28, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Black Bag (2025) Scott Mendelson Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp’s latest is “What if Harry Palmer was a bad-ass mf-er who is a sex machine to exactly one chick (who was cooler than him) while together they treated British spy craft as a cosplay of The Thin Man?”
Posted Mar 28, 2025  Edit critic review
5/10
Disney's Snow White (2025) Scott Mendelson This potential unintentional camp classic is livelier and less dutifully dull than the likes of 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'The Little Mermaid'. But that's not saying much.
Posted Mar 28, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
Death of a Unicorn (2025) Scott Mendelson A spectacular ensemble cast engergizes a fun creature feature that yearns to be of a time when movies like this had the budgets and tools needed to really cut loose.
Posted Mar 28, 2025  Edit critic review
4/10
Captain America: Brave New World (2025) Scott Mendelson 'Brave New World' is very bad. Imagine that Roger Moore's first 007 flick was 'A View to a Kill.' It's a lazily-retrofitted and dumbed-down hybrid of 'Winter Soldier' and 'Civil War' that trades present-tense topicality for 'Incredible Hulk' nostalgia.
Posted Feb 12, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Paddington in Peru (2024) Scott Mendelson A Paddington flick that merely isn't as good as Paddington 2 is still a pretty damn good Paddington flick.
Posted Feb 11, 2025  Edit critic review
4/10
Wolf Man (2025) Scott Mendelson A strained and inorganic attempt to recapture the magic of 'Invisible Man', this 'Wolf Man' lacks nards.
Posted Jan 17, 2025  Edit critic review
5/10
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) Scott Mendelson SONIC THE HEDGEHOG was surprisingly decent, while SONIC 2 was legitimately good. The busier, more frantic, action-focused SONIC 3 comparatively disappoints by merely being "Okay, I guess."
Posted Dec 20, 2024  Edit critic review
6/10
Mufasa: The Lion King (2024) Scott Mendelson Barry Jenkins' prequel is better than Jon Favreau's Lion King' remake and closer in spirit to Disney's "better than they need to be" mid-2010s tentpoles (like Jon Favreau's 'Jungle Book') than their recent nostalgia-chasing, culturally timid rehashes.
Posted Dec 18, 2024  Edit critic review
8/10
Thelma (2024) Scott Mendelson It’s a thoughtful, nuanced and compelling character study that’s as much about specific relationships as the gee-whiz notion of our elderly heroine “protecting the hive.” It’s a showcase for June Squib and a well-deserved swan song for Richard Roundtree.
Posted Dec 11, 2024  Edit critic review
7/10
Wicked (2024) Scott Mendelson Jon M. Chu's first "act" succeeds - with terrific turns from Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande - as a satisfying fantastical musical tragedy that doesn't feel like half a movie. =
Posted Dec 11, 2024  Edit critic review
6/10
Venom: The Last Dance (2024) Scott Mendelson The Venom series began as a lazy, cynical IP cash-in born from the wrongheaded notion that moviegoers want cinematic universes and superheroes in the abstract. It is now oddly innocent and specific, even compared to the brand it tried to emulate.
Posted Dec 11, 2024  Edit critic review
4/10
Moana 2 (2024) Scott Mendelson Disney ruled the 2010s because they made toons as good as Zootopia. They are now “ruling” the 2020s because… they once made toons as good as Zootopia.
Posted Dec 11, 2024  Edit critic review
6/10
Juror #2 (2024) Scott Mendelson I *like* movies like this. Warts and all, I'd still would rather sit through more like this (alongside offbeat near-misses like Book of Henry or Collateral Beauty) than pretend to be excited about Princess Diaries 3, Alien 10 or Transformers + G.I. Joe.
Posted Dec 11, 2024  Edit critic review
5/10
Red One (2024) Scott Mendelson Amazon's would-be theatrical tentpole, starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, is better when it prioritizes Christmas cheer instead of generic action spectacle.
Posted Dec 11, 2024  Edit critic review
5/10
Gladiator II (2024) Scott Mendelson Ridley Scott's 'Gladiator' follow-up is timely and appropriately angry, but its reverence for the original film's protagonist eventually undercuts its narrative and its convictions.
Posted Dec 11, 2024  Edit critic review
6/10
Megalopolis (2024) Scott Mendelson Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is a fascinating “mess,” existing primarily as an epic, must-see, PLF-worthy ode to its own existence.
Posted Dec 11, 2024  Edit critic review
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