List of All Articles with Tag 'review'

Netflix spends a lot of money on prestigious Oscar bait, but its subscriber/viewership numbers probably owe as much to the light romances that the service spits out with regularity. Add "Love at First Sight" to that column, playing like a slightly darker fairy tale -- rom without much com -- about the odds against finding your soulmate, filtered through one of the young lovers' preoccupation with math.

Kenneth Branagh has found a nice rhythm in his Hercule Poirot mysteries, serving as director, producer and star. "A Haunting in Venice," his third go-round with writer Michael Green, derives its main wrinkle from the vaguely supernatural tone, a just-in-time-for-Halloween adornment that might add a small commercial boost to a formula otherwise as neatly manicured as the great detective's moustache.

Having brought a "Star Wars" fan's instincts to the animated "The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars Rebels," writer-director Dave Filoni transferred that sensibility to live-action series. Clunky at times, at its best that unapologetic approach has yielded lump-in-the-throat moments, and it was on full display in the fifth episode of "Ahsoka," which reunited the titular character with Anakin Skywalker, creating another opportunity for Hayden Christensen to reprise the role.

"The Morning Show" has the look and polish of a smart, prestige TV show, which makes its detours into stupid situations and implausible corners more frustrating. The third season of the Apple TV+ drama again weaves real-world events into its narrative, but this starrily-cast serial would fare better if it stuck to soap-opera-style fantasy instead of positioning itself as a "Succession" wannabe.

Eerie, gothic and gradually a little too weird for its own good, "The Changeling" lays out what feels like a modern-day Grimm's fairy tale, set in and around the strange land of New York.

Although the final episode aired 10 months ago, "The Walking Dead" was too valuable a commodity for AMC to let the franchise actually die. Instead, the network has splintered off various limbs under that banner, with "Dead City" now followed by "Daryl Dixon," a slightly undernourished showcase for one of its best characters that could be subtitled "A Crossbow-Wielding American in Paris."

When it comes to horror, there's really no substitute for atmosphere, and the murky doorways and long dark hallways that come with old European buildings in the 1950s. Enter "The Nun II," a slick if familiar addition to the very fertile "Conjuring" universe that, by deftly expanding on the 2018 hit, appears destined to become another cinematic habit.

Having carved out a niche in vaguely sleazy "Secrets of" docuseries beginning with Hugh Hefner and Playboy, A&E finds an ideal and perhaps inevitable playground for the franchise with "Secrets of Penthouse," which basically serves as a four-part biography of the magazine's founder, Bob Guccione. As trashy as one might expect, it's also a rise-and-fall story, told heavily through Guccione's children, about an empire built and lost.

Traditionally, the doldrums of late summer give way to a mix of heady and prestige titles at the box office each autumn, as studios begin rolling out what they hope to be award-worthy contenders that also are popular enough to get people in theaters and make some actual money.

Although the comparison doesn't set the bar terribly high, "The Equalizer 3" might be the best in this Denzel Washington film series, not by honoring its TV roots but rather embracing an old western formula -- specifically, "Shane." The "final chapter" thus carries a bit more dramatic heft, while still offering plenty of, um, equalizing to satisfy those hungry for it.

Young-adult romance would seem like a fertile genre for Netflix's periodic adventures in interactivity, allowing viewers to make decisions for the protagonist and even select the guy they'd like to see her pick. Yet "Choose Love" strains the storytelling to fit the gimmick, in a special that does its central character no favors by making her race through the trio of suitors suddenly in her life.

There is a small strata of Hollywood deal-making where who's behind a project -- and with whom the programmer gets to align itself -- carries more weight than the specifics. That would seem to define Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry's producing arrangement with Netflix, which bears fruit this week with "Heart of Invictus," a docuseries about the games devoted to wounded, ill and injured veterans.