Chris Klimek : NPR

Keanu Reeves returns as John Wick in John Wick: Chapter 3--Parabellum. Summit Entertainment hide caption

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Summit Entertainment

Review

John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum

May 17, 2019 • Once upon a time, a man named John Wick retired from his successful career as an assassin. But then he returned to it. And across what's now a three-film series, he's been having a heck of a week ever since.

John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum

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There's No Spoon, But Plenty Of Knives In 'John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum'

Keanu Reeves is back in the over the top John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. Summit Entertainment hide caption

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Summit Entertainment

Review

There's No Spoon, But Plenty Of Knives In 'John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum'

May 16, 2019 • The third installment of the Keanu-as-super-assassin series triples down on the gorgeously staged violence, but little things like his character's motivation get hopelessly muddled.

Aw, crap: David Harbour stars in the 2019 reboot of Hellboy. Mark Rogers/Lionsgate hide caption

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Mark Rogers/Lionsgate

Review

'Hellboy': Hell, No

April 11, 2019 • Comics creator Mike Mignola's gruff demon-hero gets a hard-R reboot that swaps out the charm of director Guillermo del Toro's previous iterations and replaces it with "chaotic, repetitive" gore.

Zachary Levi and Jack Dylan Grazer star in the new movie Shazam! Warner Bros. hide caption

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Warner Bros.

Review

'Shazam!' Is Shockingly Good

April 5, 2019 • "Shazam!" is what young Billy Batson says to morph into a big red superhero. It's also the name of the new movie about him. Starring Zachary Levi as the big lug in the suit, Shazam! makes for a lighter DC Comics movie.

'Shazam!' Is Shockingly Good

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'Dumbo': Elephants Never Forget, But Audiences Will

Tim Burton's Dumbo re-imagines the 1942 animated Disney classic. Disney hide caption

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Disney

Review

'Dumbo': Elephants Never Forget, But Audiences Will

March 28, 2019 • Tim Burton's take on the classic Disney animated feature does what it sets out to do in a kid-friendly, safe and unsurprising way devoid of the director's onetime idiosyncratic flair.

Teenage Wasteland: 'Alita: Battle Angel' Doesn't Quite Earn Its Wings

Alita: Battle Angel leaves the Uncanny Valley behind to map the Uncanny Canyon. Eye-yi-yi. Twentieth Century Fox hide caption

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Twentieth Century Fox

Review

Teenage Wasteland: 'Alita: Battle Angel' Doesn't Quite Earn Its Wings

February 14, 2019 • Despite a surfeit of impressive talent behind and before the camera, and solid set-pieces, Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of a popular manga about a deadly teenage-ish robot feels thin, and dated.

Gina Rodriguez Kicks Butt And Takes Nombres In 'Miss Bala'

Gina Rodriguez is Gloria, a young woman drawn against her will into crime and violence by a skeezy drug kingpin, in Miss Bala. Columbia hide caption

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Columbia

Review

Gina Rodriguez Kicks Butt And Takes Nombres In 'Miss Bala'

January 31, 2019 • Miss Bala invites comparisons to other, more effective films with similar butt-kicking protagonists, but as compelling, well-acted genre filmmaking, it succeeds.

Matthew McConaughey, looking none too serene, plays Baker Dill — no, seriously — in Serenity. Graham Bartholomew /Aviron Pictures hide caption

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Graham Bartholomew /Aviron Pictures

Review

'Serenity' Is All Wet. Literally.

January 24, 2019 • A perpetually sodden Matthew McConaughey plays a fishing-charter captain drawn into a murder plot in this soapy, dopey tale that turns into an unconvincing fish story.

The superheroes Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), The Horde (James McAvoy) and The Overseer (Bruce Willis) are assembled for a crappy therapy session in M. Night Shyamalan's Glass. Jessica Kourkounis/Blumhouse Pictures hide caption

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Jessica Kourkounis/Blumhouse Pictures

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Glass' Isn't Quite 'Unbreakable'

January 18, 2019 • In 2000, director M. Night Shyamalan presented Unbreakable, the story of two men whose epic tales of good and evil collided. Then came 2016's Split, a stealth sequel. Now, Shyamalan wraps up the trilogy with Glass.

'Glass' Isn't Quite 'Unbreakable'

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'They Shall Not Grow Old': World War I Brought To Astonishing, Harrowing Life

Peter Jackson restores archival footage of British soldiers enjoying a meal in the documentary They Shall Not Grow Old. Warner Bros. Pictures hide caption

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Movie Reviews

'They Shall Not Grow Old': World War I Brought To Astonishing, Harrowing Life

January 10, 2019 • Peter Jackson's documentary, featuring expertly restored archival footage from the first World War, is "astonishing"; his "digital tools summon empathy, not spectacle."

Review

Movie Reviews

'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Celebrates Inclusion

December 22, 2018 • "Anyone can wear the mask," the film says, and indeed, multiple characters do — including Miles Morales, the first Afro-Latino Spidey.

'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Celebrates Inclusion

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Transcript

Well-Versed: 'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Is A Fun, Warm-Hearted Treat

Listen, bud: Peter Parker (voiced by Jake Johnson) and Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) swing into action in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Sony Pictures hide caption

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Sony Pictures

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Movie Reviews

Well-Versed: 'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Is A Fun, Warm-Hearted Treat

December 13, 2018 • Many Spider-Men and -Women meet up in this "graphically dazzling, generously imaginative, nakedly optimistic, mercilessly funny" and refreshingly inclusive animated film.

We Celebrate Our Favorite Christmas Songs

Carly Rae Jepsen demonstrates her Christmas prowess at Rockefeller Center in 2015. Peter Kramer/NBC/Getty Images hide caption

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Peter Kramer/NBC/Getty Images

Pop Culture Happy Hour

We Celebrate Our Favorite Christmas Songs

December 5, 2018 • You can't have an abundance of Christmas songs without also having an abundance of opinions about Christmas songs — songs we love, songs we hate, songs we love when they're sung by one person, but hate when they're sung by another. This week on Pop Culture Happy Hour, we've convened a special panel to tackle our favorite songs for the season.

We Celebrate Our Favorite Christmas Songs

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Ricky Jay Remembered, From The Wings: An Assistant's Thoughts On The Late Magician

Ricky Jay performs his show Ricky Jay & his 52 Assistants at the Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles in 1996. Ken Hively/LA Times via Getty Images hide caption

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Ken Hively/LA Times via Getty Images

Obituaries

Ricky Jay Remembered, From The Wings: An Assistant's Thoughts On The Late Magician

November 30, 2018 • Critic Chris Klimek offers a remembrance of the late illusionist, author and actor Ricky Jay, for whom he worked as a personal assistant over a decade ago.

Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone are back in the ring for Creed II. Barry Wetcher/MGM hide caption

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Barry Wetcher/MGM

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Does 'Creed II' Go The Distance?

November 28, 2018 • It's been three years since the Rocky movies were reborn with Creed, starring Michael B. Jordan as Apollo Creed's son, Adonis. Now, in Creed 2, Adonis is up against the son of Ivan Drago, the man who killed his father in the ring in 1985.

Does 'Creed II' Go The Distance?

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