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Latest by Rick Marshall

Keke Palmer stands in front of Daniel Kaluuya and Brandon Perea on a long dirt road in a scene from Nope.

Nope review: Jordan Peele’s intelligent sci-fi horror delivers

Jordan Peele's third film, Nope, continues his trend of delivering thought-provoking horror, this time in a cinematic feature filled with great performances.
A hooded figure holding a bloody chainsaw stands amid prison cells in a scene from the Resident Evil series.

Resident Evil review: Netflix series aims high, falls short

Netflix series Resident Evil takes big risks with its adaptation of the game franchise, but ultimately doesn't deliver the series fans are probably hoping for.
The captain and crew of the ship The Inevitable looks at stowaway Maisie in a scene from The Sea Beast.

The Sea Beast review: Netflix channels Disney in fun monster tale

Thrilling, funny, and deeper than its premise suggests, The Sea Beast is a Netflix animated movie that feels positively Disney in all the best ways.
Paul Walter Hauser and Taron Egerton sit at a small table in prison, facing each other, in a scene from Black Bird.

Black Bird review: An outstanding cast lifts Apple TV+’s dark series

Black Bird, an adaptation of James Keene's tale of befriending a serial killer, packs plenty of award-friendly performances into a compact, efficient drama.
Chip and Dale stand in a tunnel, confused by their surroundings.

Why Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a master class in animation

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers mixed multiple generations of animation styles using clever tricks and an innovative approach to visual effects.
Gru and a Minion march through San Francisco's Chinatown toward the camera.

Minions: The Rise of Gru review: Fast and funny, but fading

Minions: The Rise of Gru delivers plenty of fun moments, but its colorful, crazy world is beginning to feel a bit too familiar.
Joey King and Veronica Ngo stand back to back with swords in a scene from The Princess.

The Princess review: Hulu’s fairytale fight film packs a punch

Hulu's genre-mashing action film The Princess is a fun, hard-hitting fairytale adventure that subverts expectations and delivers plenty of surprises.
Chris Hemsworth stares through a large glass window in a scene from Spiderhead.

Deadpool writers on Spiderhead and mainlining joy in the MCU

Spiderhead writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick weigh in on their Netflix thriller with Chris Hemsworth, Deadpool 3 in the MCU, and the Twisted Metal series.
Marcel the Shell and his grandmother, Connie, stand in a tiny garden bed lined with stones.

How Marcel the Shell became 2022’s best feel-good movie

The director of Marcel the Shell With Shoes On shares the story of how his film's tiny hero found his way to the big screen, and kept his heart along the way.
Marcel the Shell stands on the record player's needle, smiling.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On review: Tiny story, big heart

Hilarious and charming, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On is a coming-of-age story about a tiny shell that's cinematic chicken soup for your soul.
The cast of The Umbrella Academy stands together in the main room of the family mansion.

The Umbrella Academy season 3 review: A beautiful apocalypse

The Umbrella Academy keeps getting weirder with each season, but season 3 is a reminder that it keeps getting better, too.
Doctor Strange stands on a street facing the monstrous, tentacled creature Gargantos in a scene from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

How VFX gave Doctor Strange’s Gargantos a magic makeover

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opened with a wild battle scene featuring the creature Gargantos. Here's how visual effects helped create it.
A view inside the cockpit of a crowded ship in Lightyear, with Buzz piloting it.

Lightyear review: Taking fun to infinity and beyond

Disney and Pixar's Lightyear does an impressive job of transforming Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear from a toy into a bona fide sci-fi action hero.
Chris Hemsworth smirks in front of a mi crophone in a scene from Spiderhead.

Spiderhead review: Chris Hemsworth shines in slick thriller

The Netflix thriller Spiderhead doesn't aspire to be an Oscar darling, but it is an entertaining psycho-drama with excellent performances from its cast.
The cast of Jurassic World: Dominion tries to avoid the jaws of a dinosaur attempting to reach them.

Jurassic World Dominion review: Dinosaur doldrums

Jurassic World Dominion gets the whole team back together, but in doing so, it sidelines the franchise's greatest asset: Its amazing, terrifying dinosaurs.
The Assassin lights a flare in a scene from Mad God.

Mad God review: A gory, gorgeous nightmare

Stop-motion and visual effects master Phil Tippett's film Mad God is a project 30 years in the making, and the nightmare it delivers is worth the wait.
Kamala Khan, played by Iman Vellani, imagines confetti and a party around her in a scene from Ms. Marvel.

Ms. Marvel season 1 review: A super start for MCU’s new hero

Disney's Ms. Marvel series gets off to a great start with its introduction of Kamala Khan to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat and Jared Keeso stand on a backyard deck in the winter in a scene from Shoresy.

How Shoresy does right by its Indigenous characters

Like Letterkenny, the show that inspired it, Hulu's hockey comedy Shoresy puts Indigenous characters in the spotlight on the ice and off it.
Erin Moriarty as Starlight looks upset in a scene from The Boys season 3.

The Boys season 3 review: Superhero torture porn

Season 3 of Amazon Studios' The Boys drops the humor and ups the darkness and depravity, and makes the whole show less entertaining in the process.
The cast of Shoresy stands on the street.

How smart casting turned Shoresy into TV’s best hockey show

Hulu's Shoresy is one of the best hockey shows ever, and it took some daring casting choices to pull off season 1 of the Letterkenny spinoff so successfully.
Gaten Matarazzo, Finn Wolfhard, and Sadie Sink stand in a crowd during a high-school rally in a scene from Stranger Things 4.

Stranger Things 4 Volume 1 review: Changing up the formula

By taking big swings and blowing up past seasons' formula, Stranger Things season 4 delivers a new chapter of the saga that's worth the long wait.
The men of Shoresy smile at the camera, shirtless, with missing teeth.

Shoresy review: It’s an absolute legend

The first season of Letterkenny spinoff series Shoresy isn't just good. It might be the best hockey show ever.
Rory Kinnear stares upward, naked, from a pit, with scratches on his body and a leaf on his head.

Rory Kinnear on his multiple roles in Men and that wild final scene

Men actor Rory Kinnear opens up about filming that crazy final scene, as well as why he keeps playing multiple characters in films and series.
Rory Kinnear's character stares through a door's mail slot in a scene from Men.

How anime and seasons shaped that final, wild scene in Men

The final scene in Men is wild, but as filmmaker Alex Garland explains, it took some inspiration from anime to bring it to the screen in its final form.
Dale and Chip walk toward the camera in a scene from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers review: A wild, welcome return

You don't need to be a '90s kid to enjoy the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers film, which delivers a fun, all-ages adventure filled with heart and humor.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong screams at the camera in a scene from Firestarter.

Firestarter review: All smoke, no flame

The remake of 1984's Firestarter features a fantastic score and a strong performance by its lead, but wastes its potential on a tame, unsatisfying story.
Xochitl Gomez, Benedict Wong, and Benedict Cumberbatch stare into the camera in a scene from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Doctor Strange 2 writer on Sam Raimi and Marvel’s multiverse

From mystery villains to uncertain endings, the screenwriter for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness discusses the creation of Marvel's latest film.
Two British officers stare at a corpse inside a morgue in a scene from Operation Mincemeat.

Operation Mincemeat review: A deceptively good WWII thriller

Although it meanders a bit, Netflix's WW II thriller Operation Mincemeat still delivers a compelling account of one of history greatest wartime deceptions.
A train hurtles the snow against a red horizon in an early visual effects shot from the Snowpiercer series.

How visual effects created Snowpiercer’s frozen world

FuseFX studio's visual effects supervisor on the TNT series Snowpiercer explains how his team created the frozen world outside the train's windows.
Jessie Buckley picks an apple from a tree in a scene from Men.

Men review: The female gaze, darkly

Alex Garland's latest film is a terrifying journey through the female gaze and the horrors lurking in the English countryside.
Mike Myers plays three members of The Pentaverate, saluting the camera, in a scene from the Netflix series.

Mike Myers on The Pentaverate and playing multiple characters

Mike Myers and the cast of The Pentaverate discuss the challenges of playing multiple characters and getting lost in conspiracies in the Netflix series.
Benedict Cumberbatch casts a spell as Doctor Strange in a scene from "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness review: Messy magic

Marvel's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness tries to pack a lot in -- including plenty of horror -- but has trouble supporting all of that ambition.
Rebecca Romijn, Anson Mount, and Ethan Peck walk in the hallway of the USS Enterprise in a scene from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds review: Old school is new again

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds finds inspiration in the past to deliver a series set within the sci-fi saga's universe that feels fresh and new.
An image from the DMZ series featuring actors against a backdrop created with visual effects.

How visual effects made Manhattan a war zone in HBO’s DMZ

A VFX supervisor on HBO Max series DMZ explains how visual effects turned Manhattan into a war-torn landscape for the four-part saga.