Movie reviews of Hope Madden

Bloodlines delivers as fresh an idea within the bounds of the mythology as you could ask for. Review

The scares are too telegraphed and borrowed to amount to much. Worse still are plot holes so deep and wide you could lose a combine. Review

Until Dawnis not a complete waste of time. Sandberg doesn’t skimp on bloodshed, and the cast really elevates the material. It’s no classic, but it offers a bit of bloody fun. Review

Skiles looks past knee jerk, self-congratulatory action in favor of context, his camera lingering on the blight of old suburbia. In this unglamorous world of perms and coupons, polyester and bus passes, two losers that life passed by just try to do one good thing. The humble simplicity is surprisingly moving. Review

The pace is slow, the performances stilted to match the dialog, and the resolution is nonexistent. The Shrouds has a grotesquely beautiful dreamlike quality, and it teems with notions both weird and fascinating. It just can’t pull that pull it all together into an entertaining whole. Review

Clarke opens strong and her cast keeps you guessing and engaged for as long as they can, but in the end, it feels as if she clung too closely to tales we already know. That can’t erase the mounting dread and nightmare imagery, though. Review

The FX are bad. The Raiders of the Lost Ark moment is silly. But in terms of reconsidering exorcism tropes, Shadow of God has some big ideas. They don’t entirely work, but at least it’s novel. Review

It’s scary. It’s sexy. The action slaps. It’s funny when it needs to be, sad just as often. It looks and sounds incredible. And there’s a cameo from Buddy F. Guy, in case you needed a little authenticity. Review

Filmmaker and cast investment pays off. Dead Mail is clever, intriguing and wholly satisfying little thriller. Review

Yang struggles with the dramatic needs of his character while Tran has trouble with the comedic, but there’s charm in the mess. Ahn conjures a bubbly, romantic confection and maybe that’s needed right now. Review

The Amateur is no masterpiece. But it is a nice change of pace. Review

Drop exceeds low expectations mainly on the charisma of the cast and two universal fears: technology and first dates. Review

It’s probably not the worst movie Cage has made, but lord, it is not good. Review

Not everything works, but every performance is remarkable and there is bravery and power behind the message that life and death are messy things. Review

The plot itself could have used a few more solid surprises. Hell of a Summer does not set out to reinvent the wheel, and even commits to one of the genre’s most tiresome new stereotypes. Still, it’s fun while it lasts. And Fred Hechinger is a treasure. Review

The movie plays like a rehearsal that could have turned into something fun with a couple more rounds of script revisions. Review

It’s a fascinating performance and fearless in many ways. The film around her is no masterpiece, but it is a solid piece of genre filmmaking enlivened by bright performances and dark, nasty shadows. Review

The three leads shine, none of them blameless and yet all forgivable. Review

It’s a capably made, solid movie but there’s not much to distinguish it from a lot of other gangster pictures except that you get two times the star power from the actor who continues to prove he’s America’s greatest onscreen gangster. Review

There are unexplored ideas and mixed messages that keep Hood Witch from becoming a great film, but it’s an angry, observant thriller and solid reflection of the time. Review

The kills (and near kills) are often clever and the characterizations are funny. The film’s mythology gets mushy and the story comes to a close with more of a nod to horror tropes than an acknowledgment of the internal conflicts and genuine emotion the story built, but it’s still fun. Review

Directors Ben Berkand and Robert Olsen invest in the comedic possibilities of every action set up without overpowering the action itself. Car chases, fisticuffs, shoot outs and more are choreographed for thrill, performed for laughs. It’s a delightful mix. Review

It all becomes muddy, no specific layer of the film ever entirely satisfying, all of it obscured by a metaphor that doesn’t quite fit. Review

It gets weird, this one. But when the chips are down and the gum zombies are chewin’, these two will rise to the occasion. Review