Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey

Undoubtedly one of the worst pieces of hyena shit I've ever seen on a screen. It's incoherent, unfocused, an absurd, ugly freak show that commits an even worse sin: it's boring, too. One has to draw the conclusion that there's just no hope for the DC franchise if this piece represents its ultimate direction. They can only go to the Batman well so often. Speaking of which, where the hell was he during all this mess? That's the problem with this sort of spinoff project: if the original big draw never shows up, the work inevitably feels like an obvious and low-rent knockoff. And this turd didn't need any help getting down to that level; it' so ineptly written and directed that even a most obvious sight gag, one that practically screams at the viewer that it's coming, never gets paid off. One wonders, were they even looking at their own set? Shame gets heaped upon a number of the participants: Ewen McGregor is better than this, Margot Robbie can be better than this (and has been). Only a true Generation AA moron could like this third-rate junk--which is a scathing indictment considering infinitely better movies from the same franchise came out a mere dozen or so years ago. Seriously, if you can't pull off a comic-book movie--pretty much the lowest of low-hanging fruit--with some amount of competence, you pretty much have to be done. How the allegedly mighty have fallen.

10 Cloverfield Lane

Two things can be true at once. That's a fact that many people forget in many circumstances. It's also an idea that clever filmmakers can use to their advantage. Such a two-sided truth can be useful in keeping an audience guessing. Then again, it's also true that a filmmaker, as someone once said, has got to know his limitations. Making one thing so obviously true threatens to turn a good plot point into something of an absurdity, if you're not careful. This crew teeters right on the edge of that line, but never (I think) crosses it, and thus this flick remains entertaining and within the realm of audience goodwill all the way through.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

After five minutes, I really wanted to hate this movie. It seemed determined to prove that video games really do make you stupid. Plus it seems to declare, in giant flaming letters, the end of the "Michael Cera era"--you get the worn out feeling of watching the same guy playing the same character in the same kind of movie...And yet, somehow, the movie finds away, through all of its visual hokum, its all-too-clever hipster/millenial street cred, and all of the reworked Matrix and Kill Bill moves, to rise above and deliver enough wit, good cheer and fun times to make for a movie that's impossible not to enjoy. A neat trick, and worthy of our appreciation.