"Mutiny" asks, What If "Plane," but on a Boat?

Take my word for it: his stubble is as perfect here as in every other scene. (Dan Smith / Lionsgate)

No camera subject has ever had a more magnificent stubble than competitive diver-turned-model-turned-action star Jason Statham. His lithe and lethal physicality, even at the silverback age of 59, remains impressive, but his shadow not-quite-beard is perfect. It’s always five o’clock somewhere, and that somewhere is wherever Jason Goddamn Statham happens to be scowling. 

My Washington City Paper review of Mutiny, from the director of Plane and the producer/star of The Transporter, The Bank Job, A Working Man, and too many others to contemplate, is here.

Party Like It's 1982: "The End of Oak Street," reviewed.

Anne Hathaway can’t believe what’s happened to the roads in her neighborhood. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

The End of Oak Street is a fun, late-summer Spielberg pastiche from It Follows and Under the Silver Lake writer-director David Robert Mitchell. You could do worse!

Movie Death Match: "Spider-Man 2" v. "Into the Spider-Verse"

With Spider-Man: Brand New Day a bigger hit than anyone predicted, Movie Death Match executive producer Sam Van Hallgren’s impulse to pivot away from our planned Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma-themed contest to a battle of the most beloved Spidey-flicks proved to be more than sound.

My frequent Pop Culture Happy Hour co-panelist Daisy Rosario reps the 2018 Oscar-winning animated flick Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse while Screencrush editor and lifelong Spidey fan Matt Singer argues on behalf of Sam Raimi’s 2004 Spider-Man 2. It’s our most amazing / spectacular / ultmate / web-of / 2099 death match yet! Listen below, True Believers!

Great Power, Great Responsibility 4eva: Spidey's Got a "Brand New Day"

It seems I’m a little higher on this Thunderball / Ghost Protocol (read: fourth) installment of the Tom Holland-era Spidey series than many of my esteemed colleagues. My Washington City Paper review is here.

Equine Intervention: "The Odyssey," reviewed.

Never leave Pattinson alone to brood. (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal)

My Washington City Paper review of The Odyssey is here.

Movie Death Match: "Inception" v. "Interstellar"

With just a week until the release of The Odyssey, two time-dilating Christopher Nolan joints go cowl-to-cowl in an IMAX melee so epic Homer could’ve written it. New York magazine / Vulture critic Bilge Ebiri rides for 2010’s Inception while Pop Culture Scientist (and University of Oxford scientist) Abigail James reps 2014’s Interstellar in an all-new, mostly-different Movie Death Match!

Welcome to the Planet(s): "Supergirl," reviewed.

Supergirl is unique in that it’s a largely faithful adaptation of one specific comic book story, and a recent one at that. But it never reaches the heights of inspiration ascended by its source material, Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. It doesn’t even come close. My Washington City Paper review is here.

You've Got a Friend in These: "Toy Story 5," reviewed.

It’s the best fifth chapter of a film franchise since Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation! My Washington City Paper review is here.