REVIEW: “The Whisper Man” (2026)

September 16, 2026 by Keith Garlington

Netflix’s latest streaming thriller is director James Ashcroft’s “The Whisper Man”, a stuffed-to-the-gills adaptation of Alex North’s 2019 best-selling novel of the same name. There’s a little bit of everything in “The Whisper Man”. It can be considered a crime thriller, a police procedural, a family drama, and there may even be a hint of the supernatural depending on how you read certain things. Unfortunately it’s all threaded together by a derivative story that borrows more than it offers.

In the once quiet town of Garretton, New Jersey, police officers led by Detective Amanda Beck (Michelle Monaghan) are on the lookout for a missing boy named Neil Spencer. During their search they discover the body of another child, whose body is bound similar to other recent victims. With a potential serial killer on the loose, Amanda seeks the help of a retired detective named Pete Willis (Robert De Niro) who was responsible for catching a previous serial killer years earlier.

At the same time, a recently widowed novelist named Tom Kennedy (Adam Scott) and his young son Jake move to Garretton, the town where his late wife Rebecca was born and raised. Both Tom and Jake are struggling with their family’s loss in their own distinct ways. For Jake, it’s his imaginary friend – a young girl in a blue sweater who he routinely confides in. Tom hopes making new friends in Garretton might give his son a fresh start.

But horror strikes after Jake is abducted in the middle of the night. Frustrated at the police’s lack of results, Tom reluctantly but desperately looks for help from his estranged father, Pete. Old family wounds immediately begin to fester, but they put them aside for the sake of finding Jake. Pete starts tapping into his old connections within the police department while an impatient Tom begins an investigation of his own. At the same time, Amanda remains on the case. Soon all of their efforts intersect in an underwhelming final act that struggles to move the dramatic needle.

Screenwriters Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer do a good job setting things up. They also create and mostly sustain a fittingly dark atmosphere. But it’s not the most involving mystery. And it’s slightly undermined by the fairly routine blueprint it follows. The family drama, especially between Tom and his father, is too thinly explored to leave much of a mark. The thrills are a bit undercooked and the twists we get aren’t the most compelling.

While the material may let them down, “The Whisper Man” features some solid performances. With the exception of De Niro who seems to be operating in cruise control, everyone works at the right temperature. There’s even a surprising cameo by Michael Keaton that is chillingly effective. But considering the mix of subject matter and genre, the movie should pack more of a punch. Instead it’s an overly familiar crime thriller that leaves us wishing for the richer and heavier movie it could have been.

VERDICT – 2 STARS

REVIEW: “Hope” (2026)

September 14, 2026 by Keith Garlington

It’s not often that a science fiction action epic like “Hope” finds itself competing for the Cannes Film Festival’s illustrious Palme d’Or. But such was the case for South Korean writer-director Na Hong-jin’s ambitious feature “Hope”. Of course it didn’t win, but its inclusion was a big step in getting the movie recognized. Neon ended up nabbing distribution rights and immediately put into motion a stateside theatrical release.

Few trailers have raised my expectations for a movie quite like this one. They teased us with exhilarating slices of the film, showing off tension-soaked action, the epic sci-fi scale, and some compelling mystery. Those things are all present in “Hope”. But sadly, the finished product doesn’t quite live up to Hong-jin’s lofty aspirations. He delivers a movie with plenty of cool ideas, most of which find their way on screen. But the frustrations set in as the film’s issues come more into focus.

Near the small town of Hope Harbor, police chief Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) is called out to meet his second cousin Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) who has discovered a dead cow covered with massive claw marks. Sung-ki convinces Bum-seok the wounds are from a tiger. So the chief rushes back to Hope Harbor to warn the townsfolk of the danger while the headstrong Sung-ki and his hunting buddies track the dead cow’s demise to a nearby farm where they discover more carnage.

From there the majority of the story follows two separate but connected storylines. The first involves Bum-seok who returns to Hope Harbor only to find it in shambles. Most of the buildings lie in ruin and many of the people have been savagely killed. As Bum-seok investigates, he runs into several locals who frantically tell of a hideous monster rampaging through the city. He finally encounters the horrific creature and is almost killed. He ends up being rescued by a rookie cop named Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon).

Elsewhere, Sung-ki and his buddies continue to track what they believe to be the creature. The trail leads them deep into the forest where they find more carnage at a ravaged trappers camp. They quickly realize that they are not alone in the woods. And as they venture further they stumble upon some alarming truths that help bring the story’s mystery to light. But those truths come at a cost. And for them, it’s a brutal confrontation with the very thing they’ve been hunting.

The parallel storylines work really well, with both packing their own cool moments and big surprises. Each take their time revealing their otherworldly threats. And each comes with harrowing encounters, gruesome deaths, bizarre revelations, and pitch-black humor. Of course they inevitably converge for the film’s huge finish which does more to setup a sequel than tie-up any existing narrative threads.

But both storylines are also hindered by the same problems. They often take far too long to get where they’re going, overextending numerous scenes and wasting time on meaningless chatter and panic-driven potty-mouthed bickering. Also, numerous characters are noticeably underwritten and lacking depth, despite the movie’s hefty runtime. As for the CGI, it ranges from incredible to micro-budget awful. There are some wild tonal shifts, some shaky editing, and a final action sequence that is as endless as it is ridiculous.

Yet the most frustrating thing about “Hope” is that there is a truly great 100-minute movie somewhere inside of its overly long 156 minutes. Hong-jin treats us to some thrilling action, jaw-dropping set pieces, incredible production design, and some all-out gnarly moments (the alien autopsy scene is a grisly delight). But after a promising setup, the movie struggles to maintain its momentum and grows more repetitive the longer it goes. It’s an unfortunate result considering how great “Hope” can be when it’s hitting its marks.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

REVIEW: “Runner” (2026)

September 12, 2026 by Keith Garlington

Not to be confused with last week’s debacle titled “THE Runner“, Scott Waugh’s action comedy “Runner” is a vastly different movie in terms of style, tone, and overall quality. It’s every bit a straightforward, hard-hitting, fast-paced actioner. But it’s just as much a breezy buddy comedy built upon some good chemistry between its two leads. It certainly doesn’t break either mold. But what it does, it does well.

Written by Miles Hubley and Tommy White, “Runner” is set in Brisbane, Australia. Alan Ritchson plays Hank Malone, a former Navy SEAL who now works as a “runner” in Brisbane. A runner is someone who transports all sorts of important items, sometimes legally and sometimes not. Hank is a recovering alcoholic whose drinking cost him his marriage to his ex-wife Monica (Geraldine Hakewill). But he has worked hard to turn his life around, and has just reached one year of sobriety.

Hank gets a call from his handler, Iggy (Gyton Grantley) informing him of an urgent high-paying run. He’s to travel to the airport where he will receive a highly sensitive medical package from Honolulu, Hawaii. From there he is to take the package to the address provided by Iggy and they will get a big payday. But at the airport, Hank is surprised to learn the package has an escort named Ben Bishop (Owen Wilson). Ben reveals to Hank that inside of his state-of-the-art cooler is a liver that’s a rare match for a little girl awaiting a transplant.

So Hank heads to Gold Coast Children’s Hospital with his unexpected passenger and their precious cargo. But the unlikely duo learn that there are other people after the priceless liver, namely Damian Zaldívar (Rodrigo Santoro), the psychopathic son of a powerful Columbian cartel boss. He and his heavily armed goons set their sights on Hank and Ben. And they’ll stop at nothing to get their hands on the cooler and its invaluable contents.

That sets the table for what is a steady wave of action as Hank and Ben bounce from one violent encounter with Damian to another. At the same time, they’re racing against the clock. If they don’t get the liver to hospital before its window of viability closes, her body will no longer accept the organ and she will almost certainly die. Meanwhile at the hospital, the little girl’s mom, Kate (Leila George) desperately holds out hope that Hank can get Ben and his cooler there in time to save her daughter.

The action scenes are ferocious and at times push the limits of its PG-13 rating. As a former stuntman, Waugh leans into practical effects and old-fashioned stunt work. As a result we get some exhilarating sequences, from brutal fight scenes that fully utilize Ritchson’s massive physique to high-speed car chases, many of which tear through the bustling city streets. It’s pure throwback action entertainment that rarely lets off the gas.

While the action is a major strength, the movie would sink without the chemistry between the beefy straight-faced Ritchson and the infinitely likable Wilson. Together they generate some good laughs without overdoing it, and create a believable and eventually heartfelt camaraderie between their two polar opposite characters. In many ways, the story is about Hank finally dealing with his personal trauma and forgiving himself for his failures. And Ben ends up playing a crucial part in that process.

“Runner” can be a little over-the-top with the violence and it may throw a few too many twists at us, especially in its second half. But it never fails to be entertaining. The action is routinely hard-hitting and thrilling, with Ritchson fully committing himself physically and emotionally. As for the chatty and charming Wilson, he adds levity and heart, often at the most unexpected times. They help make “Runner” a wildly satisfying, action-fueled romp that fully embraces some familiar formulas yet still goes places I wasn’t quite expecting.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

REVIEW: “The Fix” (2026)

September 11, 2026 by Keith Garlington

Zachary Levi gets a gritty and intense lead role while Liam Neeson steps away from the frontline for a supporting turn in the action-thriller “The Fix”. Written, directed, and produced by Guy Moshe, “The Fix” is an unexpectedly dense and layered feature that tries to cover too much ground but that manages to keep us glued to the screen every step of its long and winding way. It may be a little lengthy at 141 minutes. But there’s no downtime and the story is steadily moving forward.

“The Fix” is a genre mashup made up of equal parts military actioner, espionage thriller, and heist movie. Moshe blends these ingredients into something routinely compelling and often thrilling. It tells a story that features so many moving parts that keeping up with them can be a bit demanding. And it can be too mechanical in its efforts to move us from one point to the next, sometimes leaving emotions feeling like an afterthought. At the same time, I found myself locked in for the duration.

**Image Courtesy of Inaugural Entertainment**

The story opens in 2021 as the United States scrambles to withdrawal its forces from Afghanistan. During the debacle, a team of CIA operatives are summoned to Kabul by their handler, Larry (Neeson). Led by their stern but trustworthy leader Tucker (Levi), the operatives are given an undercover mission to retrieve a valuable local asset from a town heavily occupied by the Taliban. But the mission gets messy and Tucker’s squad find themselves in over their heads.

A few years pass and the story takes us back in the States where Tucker and his team have left active duty and went back to their civilian lives. Tucker pays a visit to Larry who is homebound while battling dementia. As they visit, Larry begins speaking in remarkable detail about a secret mission from 1981. More specifically, he talks about $25 million stashed in the wall of Room 705 of the Hotel Tehran in Iran.

After confirming the Iranian mission with Larry’s associate (Titus Welliver), Tucker calls on his old squad for a crazy yet potentially lucrative heist. To pull it off, they’ll need to slip into Iran, find the hotel, and retrieve the money that Larry insists is still there. Of course none of those steps are as easy as they sound. Getting into and around Iran will require trusting several strangers on the inside. Learning the unknown location of the undocumented Hotel Tehran requires a side mission that adds more danger. And once there, who knows what Tucker and his team will find?

As expected for a movie of this scope and scale, there are a number of supporting characters who factor into the story. Quincy Isaiah plays a young hotshot sniper who is new to Tucker’s team. Elnaaz Norouzi plays an Iranian American who Tucker recruits to pose as his wife. Lara Wolf plays a humanitarian activist being hunted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Numan Acar plays an Iranian mobster with deep connections. And Navid Negahban plays a high-ranking leader in the Revolutionary Guard who becomes the film’s chief antagonist.

Neeson vanishes for most of the film’s second half as the story’s boots-on-the-ground focus shifts almost exclusively to Tucker and his team (believably played by Isaiah, Jake Choi, Wes Chatham, and Augusto Aguilera). Moshe’s script offers up an intriguing balance of geopolitical tension and classic heist movie mechanics. He definitely takes his time laying out their plan and defining the stakes. But you never lose interest thanks to the steady pacing and buildup.

As far as the action scenes, Moshe shoots them in ways that are both intense, immersive, and thrilling. They help energize the path to the film’s overstuffed payoff that tries to tie-up too many loose ends in one neat and tidy finish. Yet it’s a satisfying enough ending for a movie that covers so much ground and entertains nearly every step of the way. Neeson makes the most of his limited screentime and Levi does well in a role that’s grittier and studier than anything he has taken on to date.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

REVIEW: “Batman: Knightfall – Part 1” (2026)

September 10, 2026 by Keith Garlington

For many, the state of DC Studios under the command and control of James Gunn has been underwhelming at best. I respect that Gunn has his loyal fans who view most everything he touches as pure gold. But his handling of the flagship DC Universe has been a letdown. His “Superman” movie kicked things off with a thud, and “Supergirl” somehow managed to be even worse. And while the streaming series “Lanterns” is getting its praise, it’s a far cry from the source material that many of us grew up loving.

Thankfully there are some notable exceptions. There is Matt Reeves’ exceptional “Batman” and its two upcoming sequels which fall underneath the untethered DC Elseworlds banner. Then there are the DC animated movies, most of which tell standalone stories operating within their own continuity. The wizards at Warner Bros. Animation have delivered some knock-out original features. And it’s no different with their latest release.

“Batman: Knightfall – Part 1” is the first film in an adult animated trilogy that’s based on the acclaimed DC Comics arc which ran from 1993 to 1994. The “Knightfall” comics run consisted of three storylines titled “Knightfall”, “Knightquest”, and “KnightsEnd”. This new adaption sees director Jeff Wamester and screenwriter Jeremy Adams looking to follow the same basic blueprint. And they start things off with a bang.

**Image Courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation**

After being forced to grow up in a violent Caribbean prison ran by a cruel and oppressive warden, a young boy spends years subduing his rage, educating himself, and training his body. Once an adult, he is forced into an experiment involving a volatile super-steroid called Venom. He survives the injections and gains superhuman strength which he uses to brutally kill the warden and his guards. He takes on the name Bane (now voiced by Michael Mando) and sets off for Gotham City.

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne (voiced by Anson Mount) is struggling to navigate the death of his second Robin, Jason Todd. To make matters worse, rather than dealing with his trauma, Bruce has isolated himself to the point of pushing away his closest ally, Dick Grayson. Now his biggest fear is that the current Robin, Tim Drake (Jack Griffo) might suffer a similar fate. That fear pushes the harshly overprotective Bruce to relegate Tim to the sidelines.

But Gotham is plunged into chaos after Bane detonates a bomb inside Arkham Asylum, freeing many villains from Batman’s stellar rogues’ gallery. Refusing any help, Bruce aka Batman sets out to capture the escaped inmates who immediately begin terrorizing the city. Mad Hatter, Victor Zsasz, the Ventriloquist and Scarface, Mr. Freeze, Firefly, Scarecrow – each confrontation wears him down more. And despite the pleas of his loyal butler Alfred (Simon Templeman), Bruce refuses to slow down which plays right into Bane’s hands.

The story careens towards an inevitable showdown between Batman and Bane. And if you’re familiar with the original storyline you already know how things turn out. Yet much of the joy is in getting to that epic cliffhanger finish. Adams pens a tightly focused and faithful adaptation that features all the Batman signatures. But he dives deeper into Bruce’s strained psychology, showing his self-inflicted wounds and the emotional toll they’re taking on him and those around him.

Wamester takes the needed time to set up the story, establish his key characters, and flesh out their dynamics. At the same time, he keeps things moving at a kinetic pace, and he doesn’t shortchange the action. This is where the animation stands out most. From its opening scene, “Knightfall” earns its R-rating. It’s aggressive, fittingly brutal, and at times shockingly gory. And it’s enhanced by the fluid choreography, crisp physics, and sharp colors.

Several other familiar Batman regulars add to the story, each accompanied by solid voicework. There’s Commissioner Gordon (Bruce Boxleitner), Riddler (David Dastmalchian), Harvey Bullock (Mick Wingert), Renee Montoya (Jessica Camacho), and Azrael (Pablo Schreiber) among others. It’s a great collection of characters with a top-to-bottom strong ensemble to go along with the enthralling story and jaw-dropping animation. They’re all key ingredients in this exhilarating trilogy kickoff that wonderfully sets the table for what’s to come.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS

First Glance: “The Mosquito Bowl” Official Teaser

September 9, 2026 by Keith Garlington

The first teaser trailer for Netflix’s upcoming feature “The Mosquito Bowl” has dropped and it leaves a pretty strong impression. Part sports drama, part war movie, the film is an adaptation of author Buzz Bissinger’s 2022 novel “The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II”. It’s directed by Peter Berg who co-wrote the script with Mark L. Smith. The new teaser offers up a compelling first look that highlights the film’s four stars while showing off some impressive production value.

The film is based on a true story. Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson, and Tom Francis play four elite college football players who put aside their promising careers to enlist in the United States Marines following the attack on Pearl Harbor. While stationed in the South Pacific, the four take part in a Christmas Eve football game between regiments mere days before the brutal invasion of Okinawa. The game boosts morale but also carries the emotional weight of knowing it will be the last game many of the boys play.

“The Mosquito Bowl” is set to open in theaters on October 30th before streaming on Netflix November 25th. Check out the teaser below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.