Movies

G20, directed by Patricia Riggen and made available on Amazon Prime Video, attempts to weave an action-thriller narrative around a G20 summit in South Africa. Featuring Viola Davis as President Danielle Sutton, the film sought to engage viewers with themes of political tension, global economics, and the intersections of leadership under threat. I approached the film with anticipation, fueled by my admiration for Davis from her roles in How to Get Away with Murder and The Woman King. Unfortunately, as the credits rolled, I found myself grappling with profound disappointment as G20 tumbled into absurdity, failing to deliver on its ambitious premise.

Gunslingers, the latest addition to the Western genre, comes to us courtesy of the amateurish antics of director Brian Skiba, released in 2025 and notably available on streaming platforms for those unfortunate enough to stumble upon it. This film supposedly delves into themes of vengeance, redemption, and the convoluted nature of morality in the old West. However, if you're looking for a meaningful exploration of these concepts, you might be disappointed. In reality, it serves as a cautionary tale about how not to make a Western and how not to cast talented actors like Nicolas Cage in a script that seems to have been penned at the local saloon after an all-night poker game.

Love Hurts is intended to be a romantic action-comedy that whisks viewers away on a thrilling ride sprinkled with heartwarming moments. Unfortunately, it delivers more cringes than it does charm. Directed by Jonathan Eusebio, the film tries to find the gleeful intersection of love and mayhem, yet ends up as an unwelcome appliance left out in the cold, constantly reminding you of how much you despise its very existence. With an optional course on unoriginal storytelling, bland acting, and a perplexing absence of chemistry, you might be left scratching your head and questioning whether this was all just a punchline.

In the Lost Lands is the latest endeavor from Paul W.S. Anderson, a film that might just leave you questioning whether you accidentally wandered into a multi-franchise mashup gone wrong. This epic dark fantasy features the talents of Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista. One could say it’s a thrilling adventure, but only if your definition of ‘thrilling’ includes cramming Van Helsing, Mad Max, and a handful of other unrelated properties into a blender and hitting purée. What we’re left with is a cinematic concoction that raises the age-old question: Was anyone in the room when all these creative decisions were made?

In a world where hostage situations can spiral into cinematic gold mines, iHostage emerges as an enthusiastic yet utterly uninspired attempt to make you care about the life inside your local Apple Store. Directed by Bobby Boermans, this 2025 Dutch crime film attempts to serve up the thrills of a high-stakes standoff in Amsterdam, but instead leaves you wondering if it’s time to upgrade your popcorn to something a bit more exciting. If you ever wanted to see a movie that captures the inside baseball of Apple Stores while failing to uncover the depths of human motivation, this is your ticket to total tedium. Spoiler alert: It’s a hard pass.

The release of Cleaner, a British action thriller directed by Martin Campbell, is a compelling reminder of why we should be wary of cinema that showcases an all-star cast splashed across a muddled plot. Marketed as a high-octane, edge-of-your-seat adventure, this film often feels more like a laboriously constructed thesis on how to squander a riveting premise. With Daisy Ridley in the lead role as Joanna "Joey" Locke, a former soldier turned window cleaner—who takes her autistic brother to her workplace amidst a hostage situation—you can almost hear the collective groan of the audience when they realize their cinematic experience is about to take a nosedive.

Well, folks, grab your popcorn — or maybe just a gigantic bottle of aspirin — because we’re diving headfirst into the cinematic disaster known as WarGames: The Dead Code. Directed by Stuart Gillard, this 2008 sequel to the beloved 1983 classic attempts to rekindle the magic of hacking and Cold War paranoia with a plot so convoluted it could make a pretzel jealous. If you thought the original had some stretches of plausibility, then buckle up for this joyride — or should I say, slog — through the convoluted world of government surveillance, high school shenanigans, and “advanced” artificial intelligence. Spoiler alert: the only thing advanced here is my dislike for this film.

Tyler Perry's latest offering, Duplicity, recently arrived on Amazon Prime Video, and I must admit, while it attempts to explore critical themes of justice and police violence, I found the film to be a disappointing exercise rather than a compelling mystery thriller. With a runtime pushing almost two hours, it seems to weave a complex narrative but ultimately reveals a collection of tired tropes. The setup presents an intriguing premise, but what unfolded felt tedious and far from engaging.

This movie is shit shit shit. Yes, you heard that right—three times for emphasis, just like the movie's incessantly annoying soundtrack that drowns out any semblance of narrative or character development. The Hard Hit, or as I hilariously prefer to call it, The Hard Shit, is a cinematic experience that promises so much with its stellar Rotten Tomatoes 5-star reviews, likely written by the director himself in a fit of self-delusion. Trust me, don't be fooled by the star rating; it's about as authentic as the movie's dialogue, which is akin to a bad high school play.

Hellhound, a film that somehow pulls off the rare feat of being slightly better than the Nicolas Cage debacle known as Bangkok Dangerous, is a cinematic experience you might want to forget — yet one that inspires such curiosity that you can't help but wonder if you’re watching a parody of the hitman genre. This thriller revolves around Loreno, a hitman looking for a way out after tackling what he describes as his “last job.” Spoiler alert: his “last job” turns out to be just as cliché as the title suggests, featuring a mind-numbingly predictable plot that, unfortunately, falls flat of anything original.