The Nun

Conjures up all of franchise’s religious weight but nun of its trademark subtlety and suspense. Sister acts well but Demian’s Damian-hunter feels like even more of a caricature than Frenchie the Frenchman. Branches out from base series to hang itself on a fraid yarn and bury itself in shallow shocks.

The Conjuring 2

And Then There Were Nun is convent-ional but very well executed. A perfectly crafted opening act uses brilliantly self-aware camerawork to wind audience tension tight, but this tragically lapses into an overlong paranormal part 2 and an over-simplified anti-climactic finale where the answer to the riddle is ultimately who cares?

The Judge

Stark becomes a Lannister, with incest, odd siblings, and a principled but morally questionable patriarch.  Duvall delivers best performance in bleak and tedious character study that’s frequently distracted by irrelevant bench discussions.  Overwhelming burden of choosing genre crushes this Grisham reject resulting in a case that must appeal… to few.

Source Code

Gyllenhaal’s video game vantage point, again and again and again. Jones moon’s us again, and again he satisfies. Sure there are some plot holes to be ignored. But then, maybe if viewed 50 times they start to make sense. Regardless, it’s a fun ride, albeit not for the other passengers.

The Departed

Scorsese directs incredible cast in brilliantly scripted adaptation of Korean crime caper. Nicholson and Wahlberg’s quirky caricatures provide an excellent contrast for Damon and Dicaprio’s impressively nuanced lead roles. A few moments of stylized editing feel out of place but don’t even come close to killing this nearly perfect picture.

Up in the Air

Reitman hybridizes his previous films into a flaccid pseudo-comedy that emulates American economy by being bleak and frustrating. Various celebs try to bail it out but cannot from the confines of their 30 second roles. Even Clooney runs out of fuel halfway and coasts on in a dissatisfying melancholy mess.