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Firing the Canon

Firing the Canon is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Joshua Starnes.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
7.5/10
Rule Breakers (2025) Joshua Starnes Rule Breakers is exactly what it says on the tin, a satisfying and uplifting tale of struggle against the forces it seems like we should have left behind by now.
Posted Apr 20, 2025  Edit critic review
6.5/20
Captain America: Brave New World (2025) Joshua Starnes It’s a Marvel film, no more, no less.
Posted Feb 12, 2025  Edit critic review
7.5/10
Brave the Dark (2023) Joshua Starnes It’s easy to be cynical about the inspiring melodrama because of its tendency (like the sports film or romantic comedy) to fall into formula and offer little surprise or insight, but that misses the point of the genre.
Posted Feb 02, 2025  Edit critic review
7/10
Homestead (2024) Joshua Starnes Ben Smallbone’s Homestead flies in the face of hoary cliches, suggesting even in the darkest hours grace is not a weakness.
Posted Nov 30, 2024  Edit critic review
6.50/10
Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. (2024) Joshua Starnes Give up on the idea of spies or overwrought war film and grab onto the real words somewhat hidden within and Bonhoeffer has its own worthwhile truths to share.
Posted Nov 29, 2024  Edit critic review
7/10
Effigy: Poison and the City (2019) Joshua Starnes Why do people do what they do? Don’t expect anyone to ever tell you, or even be able to tell you, especially if they’re a serial killer in a movie. The answer is both obvious and capricious because that’s what people are much of the time.
Posted Nov 19, 2024  Edit critic review
8/10
Pratfall (2023) Joshua Starnes A little bit of John Cassavetes and a little bit of Whit Stilman mixed into a heady New York stew, Alex Andre’s Pratfall feels like an artifact of 80s and 90s independent cinema escaped into the now.
Posted Nov 18, 2024  Edit critic review
7.5/10
Gladiator II (2024) Joshua Starnes Gladiator II has its twists and turns and if nothing else a bravura sense of scale only studio epics have ever managed (and only a handful of working directors can do as well) but also a studied refusal to ignore how much of the original it is repeating.
Posted Nov 11, 2024  Edit critic review
3/10
Venom: The Last Dance (2024) Joshua Starnes Nothing but random scenes which go nowhere but eat up screen time allowing for a technically feature length film to be attached to the appropriate numeral of related derivations to separate suckers from their money.
Posted Oct 28, 2024  Edit critic review
6.5/10
Escape from Extinction Rewilding (2024) Joshua Starnes As Brady’s camera tells us with every lush visage and flowing animal form there is life still out there and where there is life, there is hope.
Posted Oct 17, 2024  Edit critic review
7/10
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024) Joshua Starnes A dedicated approbation to the work of a local religious community trying to provide families for an epidemic of orphaned children Sound of Hope is one of those elegies that means well even if that means ignoring the rougher portions of their story.
Posted Sep 03, 2024  Edit critic review
4.5/10
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) Joshua Starnes It's a stew no one has bothered to taste even as they throw more and more into it because it doesn’t matter what it tastes like, only what can be put into it.
Posted Jul 26, 2024  Edit critic review
6.5/10
Sight (2023) Joshua Starnes Everyone involved knows exactly how to make this film and Sight flows, easily and without trouble.
Posted Jul 26, 2024  Edit critic review
7.5/10
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) Joshua Starnes The unbelievability of A Quiet Place’s central conceit hasn’t held the series back the way it could due to focus on characters as much as suspense. Day One takes that even further, pushing its threats to the edge of the screen to better center its humans.
Posted Jun 29, 2024  Edit critic review
7/10
The Fall Guy (2024) Joshua Starnes An easy, breezy romantic adventure that makes some passing gestures at the language of film and how it works, and some pointed ones at the role (and appreciation) of stunts within the larger production world, but not much else.
Posted May 06, 2024  Edit critic review
6.5/10
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) Joshua Starnes There are times we go to the movies to see complex investigations of compelling characters or themes we must spend time with and change us. Then there are times when we just want to see a bunch of evildoers meet grizzly ends because they deserve it.
Posted Apr 24, 2024  Edit critic review
6.5/10
Monkey Man (2024) Joshua Starnes Simultaneously kinetic and thrilling, and long and drawn out, Dev Patel’s directorial debut Monkey Man is a study in contrasts, both succeeding wildly and falling short and frequently within the same scene.
Posted Apr 06, 2024  Edit critic review
5/10
The First Omen (2024) Joshua Starnes There are some gloriously disturbing moments that question what reality is for a large number of people.  But it will as quickly turn to another very heavy handed horror film which can’t trust it’s audience to be truly disturbed.
Posted Apr 06, 2024  Edit critic review
7/10
Cabrini (2024) Joshua Starnes Small in stature but big in heart and determined with a specific and heartfelt message, Cabrini is a classic studio biopic lionizing its subject and her accomplishments but also reminding us what is due each other as humans.
Posted Apr 05, 2024  Edit critic review
5/10
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) Joshua Starnes Brash, loud, obnoxious and occasionally delivering what it promises, Godzilla x Kong throws every idea it has and then some into the blender but still struggles to create realistic stakes or characters to attach to.
Posted Mar 29, 2024  Edit critic review
5/10
Argylle (2024) Joshua Starnes Outsized, overdone and ill-conceived, Argylle takes what could have been a fun concept about mistaken identity amid hidden identity into a convoluted mess which consistently undercuts itself.
Posted Feb 27, 2024  Edit critic review
6/10
Detained (2024) Joshua Starnes If it didn’t have as good a cast as it does, Detained might fly to pieces under the strain. As it is, Cornish holds sway bouncing with chaotic energy from victim to victor depending on the need of the scene and twists still needing to be revealed.
Posted Feb 27, 2024  Edit critic review
6.5/10
Ordinary Angels (2024) Joshua Starnes Ordinary Angels could be a hopelessly sentimental sop, easily brushed off as ‘Hallmark-lite’, but there really is more to it than that. It ignores easy spiritual answers (in favor of easy physical ones) to remind how precious real gifts are.
Posted Feb 27, 2024  Edit critic review
7/10
The Seeds of Vandana Shiva (2021) Joshua Starnes “Can you be right about something even if you don’t know what you are talking about?” That question is at the heart of the complexities of Vandana Shiva’s life and work, and the massive push back she faces as she stares down global corporate forces.
Posted Jan 16, 2024  Edit critic review
9/10
To Kill a Tiger (2022) Joshua Starnes Similar to Hotel Terminus, the main goal of the everyday people is to put everything behind them and forget about it, not realizing that in their zeal to do that they are committing a sin almost as vile as the initial crime.
Posted Jan 15, 2024  Edit critic review
8/10
Apolonia, Apolonia (2022) Joshua Starnes Director Lea Glob was gifted with the opportunity to follow the life of an esteemed artist in the making, to watch them create themselves in real time over years and realize that she is asking it of herself (and the price to be paid for it), as well.
Posted Jan 15, 2024  Edit critic review
6/10
The Beekeeper (2024) Joshua Starnes It is gloriously, wonderfully, joyously stupid.
Posted Jan 14, 2024  Edit critic review
6.75/10
Everything In Between (2022) Joshua Starnes As philosophical think piece on existence, Everything trends towards empty pop psychology but as interpersonal character drama it soars. The worse things get, the better Everything becomes.
Posted Jul 29, 2023  Edit critic review
7/10
Showing Up (2022) Joshua Starnes Showing Up is as fascinating and intricate a character study as Reichardt and Williams have managed.
Posted Apr 20, 2023  Edit critic review
4/10
Mafia Mamma (2023) Joshua Starnes Maybe if it had come out a few decades ago it would have been just another mafia comedy at least. Now it’s not even that.
Posted Apr 20, 2023  Edit critic review
7/10
Fairways to Happiness (2022) Joshua Starnes There’s more than a little advertising to wade through but as ambiguous as it can be there is truth to take from it.
Posted Mar 17, 2023  Edit critic review
7/10
Take the Night (2022) Joshua Starnes Hopefully McTigue takes what he’s learned here and returns to the genre – it feels like a real classic is somewhere just in the making.
Posted Oct 31, 2022  Edit critic review
7/10
By Night's End (2020) Joshua Starnes Quiet, tense and occasionally energetic, <i>By Night’s End</i> is an excellent advocation for the adage that ‘it’s the singer, not the song.’
Posted Jul 18, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
Vietnam: Fast Forward (2021) Joshua Starnes Arvelo does indeed open a world in front of us and the quick peeks at it are enticing. If only we were able to get the full course instead of just the appetizer.
Posted Jan 07, 2022  Edit critic review
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