Movie reviews of Alex Brannan

Ultimately, this makes for a hollow experience, one in which we may root for the character, but we root for her to do anything other than what she chooses to do. Review

For all the cynicism and fatigue that I personally face when it comes to the superhero genre, I believe Marvel has made the long ride to Endgame worthwhile. Review

The personal story of redemption, which is the most promising, is ultimately unfulfilling. The result is a film with high aspirations and low yield. Review

Even if you can find some scenes to grasp onto to fuel your enjoyment of the film, the utter lack of cohesion in the narrative, the tepid attempts at cheeky humor in the dialogue, the grotesque audio-visual landscape, and the lazily conventional character development will make it difficult to see the entire product as anything worth recommending. Review

Transit is intensely effective. It takes comedic and heartfelt relationships and twists them, perverts them in the mire of oppression, until they come out the other side colored only by strife. Review

The overall experience of Pet Sematary is a lackluster one, and I would not fault someone who is too jilted by the first hour to enjoy the festivities in the second. Review

The bottom line with Dumbo is that it is a competent addition to the live action Disney universe. While none of these Disney reimaginations have been thoroughly compelling, a handful of them have sufficed. Review

There is fun to be had, a contact high during the journey, but the film sags under its own freewheeling carelessness. Review

Us is a wild ride bolstered by Peele’s vision and a crucial ensemble cast. Lupita Nyong’o, in particular, gives a flooring performance that provides both an emotional current and a ceaselessly unsettling atmosphere. Additional noteworthy nodes in this horror romp: cinematographer Mike Gioulakis and composer Michael Abels. Review

In the end, Captive State is not the bombastic-yet-heady science fiction spectacle Wyatt set out to make. But it is dense with plotting and incident and intrigue. A fan of the genre may find themselves immersed enough in the world to ignore its numerous shortcomings. Review

The end result can be fun and bombastic, but it also fails on its aspirations to live up to something bigger. Review

Captain Marvel does its job. It front-loads all of the information needed to understand the Kree and their place in the MCU. It ties up continuity threads that have been left dangling. It presents us another hero to add to the hefty Marvel Studios stable. And it has some fun along the way. Review

Alita: Battle Angel has its glossy surface. It has its tactical set pieces. But it is not a story told smoothly. The narrative is not compelling, because everything that needs to be set-up is done so inelegantly. Ultimately, this makes the film read bland, less exciting. Review

The film is dressed as a parody, yet its comedy comes predominantly from a recognition of its parodic premise, as opposed to parody proper. Review

It is incisive and sharp, and the dialogue cuts through to your attention span and takes control. Review

In the end, The LEGO Movie 2 is an upbeat yet relatively underwhelming sequel. It is fluffy and over-stuffed, and it is a machine of pop culture references and tongue-in-cheek gags. Review

A strange tonal experiment that plucks its frigid setting and its crime-comedy mashup straight out of Fargo but fails to thread the needle as effectively. Review

Ultimately, this genre exercise yields little in the way of fear, critical dissection, or mystique. Review

A glamorized Hollywood remake, a shoot-em-up thriller that makes a non-American locale seem exotic and dangerous to Americans and that dabbles in very serious subject matter without nuance. Review

The narrative is not particularly novel, but it has its charms. Review

A film that is too hand-holding, too overt in its genre deconstruction, too blunt in its story-telling. And this takes away from what could be enjoyable about the premise. Review

The film can recite familiar feelings, but it doesn’t produce much out of that. It is a film which is soured by its sweetness. Review

The conflict is ever-present and the persistence of its central figure is inspiring, but the film does not quite rise to the level of inspiration of its real-life subject. Review

There is a fun inventiveness to the staging of the escape rooms. It does not grow tiresome when the characters find themselves in the third or fourth room, as each room has an individual aesthetic. For what it is, it is a good time at the movies. Review