The Doctor’s Diagnosis: A- I really didn’t know what to expect going into The Menu, so it’s fitting that it shares several things in common with Barbarian from a couple of months ago. First, they are from directors that have primarily been chugging along with television work and have few films to their credit. […]
The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C Based on the trailers, I expected Don’t Worry Darling to be a straightforward ripoff of The Stepford Wives. I was wrong. It is a ripoff of The Stepford Wives, but it also rips off elements from several other films to keep you on your toes. Despite some strong performances and […]
The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C- In the pantheon of great man vs. animal thrillers, Beast isn’t one of them. The biggest downfall of this movie is its inability to commit to being either a straight, serious take on the subgenre (like Jaws or Cujo) or a an intentionally campy take on the genre (like Lake […]
The Doctor’s Diagnosis: B Watcher is a solid Hitchcockian thriller that only played in theaters for about five minutes. That’s a shame because, despite some issues, this is one of the best thrillers that I’ve seen in years. Anchored by an excellent performance by Maika Monroe, this is an old-school suspense film that delivers […]
The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C- The original Don’t Breathe was a clever, tense horror flick that cleverly subverted the home-invasion subgenre. The story of a group of thieve that break into a blind veteran’s home to steal his considerable savings only to discover that the seemingly defenseless old guy is actually a quite capable maniac, […]
The Doctor’s Diagnosis: B- I’ll preface this by saying that I’m being generous with the B- grade. Old is a movie that doesn’t live up to its own concept and can never make the leap from decent to great. The core idea of the film lays a foundation something greater than what was actually […]
The Doctor’s Diagnosis: D Well, my demands have been met and my pleas have finally been answered. Here is a sequel to Escape Room. Yay. While the first film is a maddeningly bland version of Cube, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is, well, the exact same goddamn thing. But, for anybody that saw the […]
The Doctor’s Diagnosis: F I saw this movie yesterday and my initial reaction was that it was in the D-D+ range. I expected it to be awful and it was, but I wasn’t surprised by the awfulness and, consequently, it didn’t particularly piss me off. After a day of reflection, that doesn’t make any sense. […]
The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C+ Between Fatale and The Little Things, 2021 feels a lot like the 90s so far. In this case, I mean that both literally and figuratively. The Little Things is set in the 90s and that’s not an artistic choice; it was actually written in the 90s and the script has been […]
The Doctor’s Diagnosis: B- This is another case where I had never heard of a movie prior to heading to the theater to see it, but it was the only thing playing that I hadn’t seen and that seemed to make it my best option. Fortunately, while it’s nothing groundbreaking, there are far worse ways […]