Movie reviews of Don Shanahan

Through it all, there’s still the unconvincing Kristen Stewart. She just cannot transform into this icon. Review

Such heady motivations, coupled with heroism, is a lovely core away from the usual costumed good vs. evil throwdowns, but it’s very, very profuse, complete with all of the intergalactic gibberish in between. Review

A level of extra oomph and shock is missing for the viewer. What was sensationally painted to linger doesn’t get the fullest chance to stain and sear more than just pretty clothes. Review

The Harder They Fall brims with as much flair you’ll see in a western this side of Sam Raimi’s flashy The Quick and the Dead from 26 years ago. Review

Either Jimmy and Annie are too good for this movie or the movie failed around them. The latter seems more precise. Review

While Scott’s film may follow the charted multiple perspectives of Jager’s well-researched novel, folding its painful and triggering trauma three times makes for an exorbitant and unsettling movie experience. Review

Daniel Craig has earned this culmination, one that challenges the film’s very title. Review

We’re stuck with the immature, cussing adolescent version that’s funny for five minutes and dismissed in the next five. Review

Simply put, Surge and its Joseph are more petrifying when you cannot assign labels or explain them away with diagnoses. That is a maddening and riveting draw to behold. Review

That’s a pie-in-the-sky stretch in real-life where consequences and risks are more difficult, but I call that a welcome, escapist hope to strive for and celebrate in a movie that can give it earnest treatment. But sure, gripe about weird age picadilloes instead. We see your callous pettiness. Review

Lingering on after the public fall, Chastain’s Tammy Faye gives her “The sun will shine again” sendoff cry of unbroken spirit, but does such absolution deserve to rise for both her and her crowd? Review

A plucked indie director, a strict critical darling heavyweight crossing the Pacific after decades to make his Hollywood debut, a raucous comedienne dialing it down, and a host of fresh faces, including a charismatic lead, came together to adapt a very non-household comic book property with all the winking wuxia love in the world. The result is a fully realized success. Review

Lurking with evil as piercing as the social commentary, there’s a summer popcorn movie being molded by these heavy and overarching messages. To pull such gravity off and still entertain is a hell of a slick punch coming from not-so-invisible phantasms. Review

The combined heroic and creative energy of this movie, and all involved in pushing it, cannot help but keep the hoots and hollers coming in a very steady, pixelated stream. Review

With brevity and profundity wholly rooted in the preciousness of life, Nine Days leaves its mark as one of the best films of 2021. Discover this unique and crushingly beautiful gem immediately. Review

Shucking the usual angst and doubt found in superhero movies, more characters than not love who they are and what they do. The very same commitment and lack of pussy-footing can readily be seen by the people making the movie. Top to bottom,The Suicide Squad gambled on love, going all-in for maximum pervasive fun. Review

Mulling over the complex totality of The Green Knight and how it portrays the 14th-century Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the befuddling result comes down, equally so for the main character’s quest, to choices. Review

Look, Jungle Cruise knows exactly what it is, much like the brand of comedy coming from Dwayne’s skipper that’s called out by Blunt’s pragmatic presence. The jokes are corny, the hijinks aim for hilarity, and the spectacle is large. Review

Even while adapting someone else’s work instead of shoveling his own dreck, Shyamalan has not improved. He takes another electric cocktail napkin concept and hammers it into the ground, well, sand this time instead of rain-filled potholes with forced overcomplication. Once again, his overused crutch of manufacturing twists cannot cover for him anymore. Review

Joe Bell deserved to be a catapulting performance for Reid Miller. His scenes immersed in pain and persecution are difficult, yet affecting in their empathy. It’s all too much about his father, even when those around Joe in the movie let him know that very fact. Review

Long Story Short is a phenomenal showcase for Rafe Spall. Review

Sure, as the usual counterargument always goes about the “journey” mattering more, this Marvel prequel feels like a tardy reward for what could have really been something special when the time was right and the fire was hot years ago. Review

More importantly and along the same lines as the ensemble, Allyn mined a solid example of history that eschews the overused and trumpeted white savior narratives that folks like Ken Loach rightfully besmirch. Review

This is horror and feels, without a hint of torturn porn or sadistic bloodlust in sight. What a visceral combination once again! Review