Why do this spring’s blockbusters feel so smug?

From action thrillers to sci-fi flicks, a deluge of recent releases are riddled with self-satisfied smarm

The Guardian
A ★★½ review of Love Object (2003)

Tonally inconsister horror movie about an incel who buys a sex doll that looks like a coworker. Nothing bad can happen after that. Tries using broad humor to make the incel less creepy, but when that fails just goes to standard horror tropes. Udo Kier steals his scenes as an overtly evil landlord. He looks and sounds like he's acting in a different movie. It's a good thing. Rip Torn is in this. Strap in. If you like lonely guys that you wouldn't want to meet in real life, this you might like but not love.

They Will Kill You review – satanic beat-’em-up offers gore, bad jokes and deja vu

A housekeeping role turns into a fight for survival in a derivative cocktail of action, comedy and horror that doesn’t go down all that well

The Guardian
A ★★★ review of Popcorn (1991)

Progress- now all you have to worry about when you go to a movie theater is someone shooting it up. I do wish there was more popcorn. The D in Dee Wallace stands for fun!

I was happy to join Robert for another episode of #CreepyAndGeeky, this time for his #JohnCarpenter series. We had a blast talking about what was considered his "lost" TV film for a long time---"Someone's Watching Me!" from 1978. #horrorfilms #nerdlyfe https://open.spotify.com/episode/7J2jCgBZ49ddb6TBI9iOGv?si=8342aaa9d95446e1
Someone's Watching Me with Ashley Thomas

Creepy and Geeky · Episode

Spotify
A ★★★½ review of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026)

Not quite the beat-by-beat redux of the first Ready or Not, but comes pretty close. Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton play well off each other despite their backstory feeling forced. Elijah Wood looks like he's having a lot of fun force feeding the audience necessary exposition. Radio Silence handles these scenes as well as you can as the info dumps rarely feel droning or tedious. If you're a fan of the first movie (I am) you don't mind seeing things retread as everything is bigger and bloodier. Set pieces are more elaborate, though you intuit the diminishing returns and miss

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come review – comedy horror sequel goes big and you should stay home https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/19/ready-or-not-2-here-i-come-review #HorrorFilms #ComedyFilms #ActionAndAdventureFilms #Comedy #Culture #Film
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come review – comedy horror sequel goes big and you should stay home

There’s even more screaming, running, swearing and exploding rich people in a follow-up to the 2019 sleeper hit that expands mythology we didn’t need expanded

The Guardian