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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
3/5
Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) Pete Vonder Haar And if you’re anticipating That Scene, you’re in luck. I swear, I’ve never anticipated a series of (fictional, onscreen) murders as much as I have when a certain someone said, "I’m dreaming of a white power Christmas."
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Wicked: For Good (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Is it too long? Sure. Is it still painfully washed out? Yes. Does it stretch out subplots better left abandoned? Also yes. But the chemistry between Grande and Erivo feels more authentic, and the so-called "weaker" numbers pack more of a punch.
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Due respect to the Monsignor, but the Church really has no one to blame for its massive list of enemies but itself.
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
2/5
The Running Man (2025) Pete Vonder Haar The movie’s utter cop-out of an ending (and ham-fisted credits buzzwords) now make me doubt if the director of Hot Fuzz really understands satire as much as I previously thought.
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/5
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Though authentic to its surroundings and featuring solid performances all around, it doesn’t have a lot new to say. It doesn’t stray significantly from formula, and is also strangely inert And that may be the biggest slight of all against its subject.
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
1.5/5
Black Phone 2 (2025) Pete Vonder Haar There’s an almost temporal distortion about the first hour, where Gwen’s sleepwalking is at the fore and not a lot happens until events contrive to get our trio to the camp.
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
TRON: Ares (2025) Pete Vonder Haar If you want for a nuanced look at the ontological implications of A.I., I can recommend a few Substacks. Ares, on the other hand, is entertaining in the same way as an amusement park ride: loud, visually arresting, and the thrill wears off in minutes.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Predators (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Osit and de Rond ultimately spell out what’s pretty apparent to anyone who’s watched an episode: “understanding isn’t a goal of the show.” The instant gratification of watching these guys get humiliated, then taken down by the cops, is why we watched.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Good Boy (2025) Pete Vonder Haar A dog in the lead role is just a gimmick if there’s not a solid film around it, and Leonberg never lets Good Boy descend into horror-comedy. It’s tense and atmospheric, and there are enough jolts in there to keep you off balance.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
4.5/5
One Battle After Another (2025) Pete Vonder Haar As much as OBAA is a breakneck adventure, barely letting up for its almost 3-hour running time (the climactic car chase is somehow not overindulgent), it’s also a study in fatherhood and nontraditional families. It seems a revolution takes a village too.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
2/5
HIM (2025) Pete Vonder Haar If the cabal at the end of Him is intended to represent the often blatant evil of NFL ownership, it’s about as subtle as a nail through your hand. Jerry Jones probably commits worse crimes against humanity on a typical Wednesday.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025) Pete Vonder Haar The horrors of The Great War and the 1918 pandemic may drift over the transoms of the Granthams’ lives, causing temporary consternation. But in the end, things are wrapped up nicely with a cup of tea and the reinforcement of comfy class divisions.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/5
The Long Walk (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Well-meaning people might say, “Society would never tolerate an event like this where young people are needlessly gunned down.” Some of those same people would still vote against regulating firearms even after kids were shot in a school or church.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Honey Don't! (2025) Pete Vonder Haar As much as you may not want to hand it to a guy who looks like Chris Evans, he’s shown a great knack for playing scumbags. Reverend Devlin continues that trend, further proving Evans’ ability to pivot from America’s Ass to simply an American ass.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/5
Nobody 2 (2025) Pete Vonder Haar A friend of mine referred to this series as “Temu John Wick,” which is a bit unfair. It may not be as flashy, but Nobody 2 will satisfy our country’s apparent fascination with watching old guys whoop ass a little while longer.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Weapons (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Full disclosure: I wasn't a fan of Barbarian, but Weapons' mix of genuine horror with physical and situational comedy is an accomplished one, and sets Cregger apart within the current genre.
Posted Aug 08, 2025  Edit critic review
1.5/5
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Much will be made of the return of Julie James and Ray Bronson, and they're an admitted highlight, if for no other reason than to marvel that 1) Julie only moved 45 minutes away from the scene of the grisly killings, and 2) Ray never left!
Posted Aug 08, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Superman (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Best Man of Steel since Donner.
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
2/5
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Does calling something "formulaic" pack any punch if that formula grosses stupid money with every release? Probably not, but after spinning its wheels yet again, another extinction level event is what this franchise needs.
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
28 Years Later (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Much as with Jim, Selena, and Hannah in the first movie, the relationship between Spike and his mom carries the second act, with Comer doing an incredible job as a stricken mother whose instincts still kick in at key moments.
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Dangerous Animals (2025) Pete Vonder Haar And after unsuccessful attempts at leading man roles (Divergent, Terminator Genisys), it’s nice to see Courtney cutting loose and leaning into his weird scumbag stage (see also The Suicide Squad).
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Watching these guys firing a concussive beam weapon against a bunch of Vikings, or dogfighting WW2 Corsairs with a f*cking spaceship is some Camp Mohawk sh*t.
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) Pete Vonder Haar And it takes a looong time to get to the fireworks factory. We sit through a good hour of exposition and flashbacks before embarking on the mission to retrieve MacGuffin #2 in the submarine we saw sink *last* movie.
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Final Destination Bloodlines (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Bloodlines introduces an interesting wrinkle to the usual chain reaction shenanigans; not only will Death go after your ass for escaping, but he'll hunt down any offspring resulting from your survival.
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
2/5
Fight or Flight (2024) Pete Vonder Haar Most of what follows is familiar if you've seen The Raid or Bullet Train or Free Fire or … you get the idea.
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Thunderbolts* (2025) Pete Vonder Haar The credits tell us Thunderbolts* is "based on the Marvel comics," and that much is true, inasmuch as there was a comic book called Thunderbolts, and it was published by Marvel.
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
The Shrouds (2024) Pete Vonder Haar It isn't the first time Cronenberg has drawn on personal experiences for his films (The Brood was written during his divorce from Margaret Hindson), and while The Shrouds offers some glimpses into that process, it never fully coalesces.
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
5/5
Sinners (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Speaks to experiences I can never fully comprehend, but he tells the story in such a way that anyone can relate. Its heartfelt, suspenseful, horny, gentle, funny, terrifying, and riveting — all often within the span of seconds.
Posted Jul 12, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/5
A Minecraft Movie (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Garrett zooming about Chuglass in a Trans Am, is a better Napoleon Dynamite character than anyone actually in that movie, and Henry using nerd powers to prove his bullies wrong has nothing to do with piglins, creepers, or orbs that are actually cubes.
Posted Apr 11, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/5
Gladiator II (2024) Pete Vonder Haar Mescal is stoic, Pascal is tragic, and Nielsen is pointless, but Denzel is having a fucking blast. Nobody told him this was another redemptive revenge story, or if they did, he simply doesn't care.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Wicked (2024) Pete Vonder Haar It's inevitable, in a way, that the end result of what felt like years of press (but was really a mere 11 months) disappoints. Chu is shooting for a sprawling epic, earnest in its messaging, but it's mostly exhausting. And we're only halfway there.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
The Order (2024) Pete Vonder Haar Director Justin Kurzel mostly avoids comparison to current events — concentrating on the dissonance of violence among the serene surroundings — but the parallels are unavoidable nonetheless.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
September 5 (2024) Pete Vonder Haar As documentary-style cinema goes, it's top notch. Cigarettes in the studio! Tape spools! Walkie talkies! Secondary sources for news stories! Peter Jennings talking down to the sports team! It's all so quaint, yet still gripping.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
The Count of Monte Cristo (2024) Pete Vonder Haar Even if some of the shot choices are a bit overwrought, The Count of Monte Cristo is a worthy epic. And hey, a climactic sword fight! You don't see many of those these days.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Nosferatu (2024) Pete Vonder Haar Eggers conducts his "Symphony of Horror" with such dead seriousness it threatens to veer into camp. How much you buy into it depends on your embrace of his aesthetic. And rats. Lots of rats.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
A Complete Unknown (2024) Pete Vonder Haar The Newport climax threatens to be a bit of a letdown, until the performances start. The opening piano chords to "Like A Rolling Stone" still give you chills 60 years after they first dropped. And the look of betrayal on those beatniks' faces...beautiful.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
The Damned (2024) Pete Vonder Haar When gimmicks and jump scares have become the mainstream horror norm, a little 19th century spookery is just what the bloodletter ordered.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/5
Wolf Man (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Whannell's approach wants to recall the dying humanity in the werewolf character that dates all the way back to Lon Chaney, Jr., but the marrying of ancient fears with modern tech that made <i>Invisible Man</i> so intriguing is completely missing here.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
1/5
Flight Risk (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Wahlberg and Gibson have starred twice together (Daddy's Home 2 and Father Stu). There's a joke to be made here about Catholicism and paternal issues but laughing off anti-Semitism and violence against women doesn't seem so funny now, for some reason.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
The Gorge (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Love in the time of <i>Cordyceps</i>.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Last Breath (2025) Pete Vonder Haar As Dad Movies go, this is still a good one. I can definitely see myself falling asleep on the couch to this some Sunday in the future.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Novocaine (2025) Pete Vonder Haar Berk and Olsen take the concept as far as they can, but as the drawn-out lead up to the action proves, there's not much to prop up the violence. Fortunately, in this case, violence is enough to carry the day.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Freaky Tales (2024) Pete Vonder Haar I was curious if the Gilman crowd's plan would backfire. Like, suddenly arming a bunch of former pacifists doesn't sound like a great strategy, but strength in numbers and all that. And watching Nazis get the shit kicked out of them never gets old.
Posted Apr 05, 2025  Edit critic review
2/5
Trap (2024) Pete Vonder Haar The highlight of the whole film might be the bit part played by Kid Cudi in absolute diva/bitch mode.
Posted Nov 20, 2024  Edit critic review
2.5/5
The Instigators (2024) Pete Vonder Haar It's fun to see Damon play an idiot (even if the "taking notes at a criminal conspiracy" line was ripped off from The Wire), but Chau is the only factor making this even a mild recommend.
Posted Nov 20, 2024  Edit critic review
2/5
It Ends With Us (2024) Pete Vonder Haar Whatever your issues with the source material, Hoover at least tried to dig into the generational cycle of abuse. Baldoni wants to couch all that in rom-com trappings, diluting the impact and ending up with something more mawkish than moving.
Posted Nov 20, 2024  Edit critic review
2.5/5
Alien: Romulus (2024) Pete Vonder Haar If Alvarez has leaned more into the horror of what takes place in the movie's final 20 minutes instead of fan servicing us, maybe we would've come away with a more original vision. As it is, Romulus is mostly pastiche, albeit a beautifully rendered one.
Posted Nov 20, 2024  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) Pete Vonder Haar In the end, Death remains the Great Equalizer. We lose some beloved (and not so beloved) characters, as Lydia's isolation is replaced by something approaching satisfaction. It's about the best Gen X can hope for.
Posted Nov 20, 2024  Edit critic review
3/5
My Old Ass (2024) Pete Vonder Haar There's an Arrival-esque sense of inevitability to how the third act plays out. It's sad, but not overwhelmingly so, and stays true to Park's message: that seemingly trivial events can carry weight so immense we didn't realize it.
Posted Nov 20, 2024  Edit critic review
2/5
Wolfs (2024) Pete Vonder Haar Wolfs wants to be a Dad Movie but isn't kinetic or funny or violent enough to qualify. Speaking as a father myself, I'm not mad, just disappointed.
Posted Nov 20, 2024  Edit critic review
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