One of my most anticipated films of the year has been director Padraic McKinley’s “The Weight”. Everything about the movie excited me – the rich period setting, the rugged throwback story, and especially the impressive cast. I missed seeing the movie during its world premiere at Sundance, but early word of mouth only raised my excitement. Now here’s the best part – “The Weight” doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it stands out as one of the year’s best films.

“The Weight” is an astonishing feature debut for McKinley. He’s made a film that calls back to a kind of against-the-odds action-adventure movie that was once a staple of Hollywood. Sadly we rarely get them anymore which is one of many reasons that this one stands out so strongly. But there’s more than just nostalgia. It’s the riveting storytelling, the compelling characters, the immersive world-building, and the savvy craftsmanship. It also doesn’t hurt having Ethan Hawke doing some of his very best work.

The story takes place in 1933 Oregon, some four years into the Great Depression. Hawke plays Samuel Murphy, a street-smart mechanic and single father who’s struggling to make enough money to provide for his beloved young daughter Penny (Avy Berry). After being evicted from his small apartment in Eugene, Murphy sells what little they have in order to afford another place for them to stay. But while looking, a misunderstanding leads to a tussle with an unforgiving cop. Murphy is arrested and sent to prison while Penny is placed in a shelter.

Murphy finds himself caught in the gears of a broken system. He’s sent to a labor camp ran by Warden Clancy (Russell Crowe) where he has to serve at least six months. But Penny only has one month until she’s handed over to the state to be put up for adoption. After hearing of Murphy’s predicament, Clancy makes him a high-stakes proposition – complete an illegal and potentially dangerous job and he’ll have his sentence commuted in time to be reunited with his daughter.

So what’s the job? Murphy is to select three inmates he trusts and report to an area mining camp to receive their orders. Once there, they meet a man named Taggert (Alec Newman) who informs them that President Roosevelt has ordered the seizure of all hoarded gold from mining operations. But rather than letting the government take it, Taggert tasks Murphy and his fellow inmates Rankin (Austin Amelio), Singh (Avi Nash) and Olson (Lucas Lynggaad Tonnesen) with smuggling four backpacks full of stolen gold bars through the unforgiving Oregon wilderness to a secret rendezvous point.

To ensure the inmates follow their orders, they’re escorted by two of Taggert’s armed henchmen, Amis (Sam Hazeldine) and Letender (George Burgess). They’re also accompanied by Anna (Julia Jonesy), an Indigenous runaway who shrewdly maneuvers her way into their group. Together they form an intriguing cadre of characters who are firmly rooted in the world McKinley creates. And at the center is Hawke’s Murphy, grizzled and world-weary, but also a man of honor and integrity. And the only thing that drives him is reuniting with his daughter.

With the party set and on their way, “The Weight” turns into a good old-fashioned survival thriller that brings to mind such rugged classics as William Friedkin’s “Sorcerer” and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s “The Wages of Fear”. Their first battle is with the land itself, with its steep rocky terrain, vast gorges, and perilous rivers. Then there are the people living off the land who may not take kindly to strangers. Lastly and most deadly, is the battle within their ranks. “People get funny around gold” are words that ominously linger throughout their journey. And soon trust is the hardest thing to come buy.

Matthew Booi and Shelby Gaines co-write the film’s muscular script, infusing their story with a slow-boiling tension and a potent allegorical undercurrent. McKinley douses it all in rich atmosphere and a gritty authenticity. Visually, he and DP Matteo Cocco use a combination of sweeping landscape shots, realistic natural lighting, and deep nighttime shadows to capture nature in all its beauty and menace. Their use of extreme closeups have a similar effect, but on intensely emotional and psychological levels.

“The Weight” has all the ingredients you look for in an old-school period thriller. Hawke offers up a sturdily classic film protagonist while Crowe’s quiet, calculated menace can be felt in every second of his limited screentime. Even the throwback end credits conjure feelings of nostalgia. But surprisingly, the engine that runs it all is a gripping father-daughter story with emotional stakes that can felt throughout. McKinley’s ability to balance it all is what makes “The Weight” such a profoundly satisfying experience.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS

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

In “Wardriver”, Dane DeHaan plays a low-level criminal named Cole. His racket is simple but clever. He drives around swiping people’s credentials by hacking into Wi-Fi networks and/or rigging phony card readers onto ATM machines. Once he has his victim’s information, he drains their bank accounts without leaving a digital trail. He only targets small scores which keeps him off the law’s radar. But when he’s pulled into a dangerous cyberheist, Cole finds himself caught in a web he can’t escape.

That’s a good introduction to director Rebecca Thomas’ “Wardriver”. It’s a slow-building crime thriller that takes some time to get going. Much of the first half is Cole driving around Salt Lake City, typing on his keyboard, sucking on lollipops, and puffing on his vape. Still screenwriter Daniel Casey’s script does a good enough job dropping us into Cole’s lonely, isolated existence, even if it doesn’t amount to much dramatically.

Things finally rev up after Cole is grabbed and beaten down by a local hood named Oscar (Mamoudou Athie). We learn Oscar works as a doorman at a swanky hotel’s restaurant that is frequented by a young woman named Sarah (Sasha Calle) and a man he believes to be her father. Oscar puts together a plan using an unaware Sarah to steal a chunk of money from her wealthy father. But he needs a hacker to pull it off. So he forces Cole to join his heist.

Cole skillfully pulls off the robbery, transferring over $800k out of Sarah’s account and getting Oscar off his back. But he quickly learns the older man is a powerful attorney with political connections named Mark Bilson (Jeffrey Donovan). And he’s not Sarah’s father. It turns out he’s her sugar daddy and he blames her for stealing his money. A guilt-ridden and slightly smitten Cole jumps back in to help Sarah. But he quickly discovers he’s in over his head.

The final act of “Wardriver” picks up momentum while adding a few interesting twists that liven things up a bit. The ending leaves several obvious questions but none that really bother us. That’s mainly because the characters remain at arm’s length for the duration of the movie. We never know them well enough to fully invest in their situations or circumstances. Even with solid performances, we only maintain a surface-level connection to them throughout.

There are several things to appreciate about Thomas’ direction, from her choices with the camera to her trust in her actors. She also does a good job capturing atmosphere and mood similar to that of popular neo-noirs. But the story, and more specifically the characters, are practically begging for more depth. That one emphasis could have taken “Wardriver” from a minor key crime thriller to something considerably more memorable.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

Maybe it’s just me, but movies like “War Machine” don’t seem to come around very often these days. There has never been a notable shortage of genre films in movie theaters, direct to video store shelves, and now via streaming. But rarely are we treated to movies from the cool military sci-fi sub-genre. I’m talking about movies in the vein of “Predator”, “Starship Troopers”, or even the lesser yet underappreciated “Battle: Los Angeles”.

Enter “War Machine”, an unashamed and unapologetic slice of military sci-fi that openly wears its influences like badges of honor. The film routinely calls back to great movies that inspired it including the aforementioned “Predator”, James Cameron’s “Aliens”, and even “Top Gun”. Director Patrick Hughes keenly and confidently corrals all of these inspirations, fusing them together with visceral action sequences and jaw-dropping set pieces.

Alan Ritchson plays a soldier who has entered the Army’s Ranger Assessment Selection Program. It’s eight weeks of arduous testing, ending with a handpicked chosen few joining the ranks of the elite Army Rangers. Designated with the number 81, becoming a Ranger has a deeply personal meaning for him. While serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan, 81 witnessed his kid brother die during a Taliban attack. Guiltridden over his inability to save his brother, 81 sets out to keep their pledge to become Rangers.

Despite the concerns of his superior officers Sheridan (Dennis Quaid) and Torres (Esai Morales), 81 makes it to the final challenge, which is a recon and rescue simulation. He and his team are dropped high in the Rocky Mountains by two Blackhawks and given 24 hours to complete their mission. If they cross the finish line in time, they will be given their Ranger scroll. 81 reluctantly takes the role of team leader and leads the soldiers towards their objective.

Their military exercise turns into a fight for survival after the squad stumbles upon a strange metal wreckage. Believing it to be part of their mission, the team investigates. But in the process they awaken a massive mechanized monstrosity that is the size of a building and is armed to the teeth with out-of-this-world weaponry. Suddenly the soldiers find themselves under attack and hunted by the killer mech with ineffective weapons, jammed comms, and compasses going haywire.

Hughes (who co-wrote the script with James Beaufort) keeps the story simple, focusing most on the team’s fight for survival. You can’t miss the steady flow of familiar tropes. But Hughes cleverly integrates them rather than rely on them. And he smartly avoids bogging his movie down in some otherworldly backstory. Instead he leaves much of the mech, its origins, and its motivations a mystery. Also, it maintains a needed human element, mostly through 81’s emotional struggles with lingering trauma.

Ultimately it’s the spectacular action that drives “War Machine”. It’s intense, visually astounding, and at times shockingly gory. The effects are an impressive mix of digital and practical, while New Zealand and Australia (filling in for the Colorado Rockies) provide a perfectly rugged setting that’s both breathtaking and treacherous. As for Ritchson, he more than holds his own. He obviously has the imposing build and raw physicality. But he commits to every scene, whether he’s squaring off against a galactic threat or quietly wrestling with painful memories.

Those hoping for a more fleshed-out science-fiction deep dive might leave “War Machine” disappointed. It’s only at the very end that we get any significant world-building. But thats not this movie’s focus. Hughes wants to put us in the soldiers’ shoes as they navigate fear, isolation, and the unknown while facing overwhelming odds. Admittedly it does leave us with several questions along the way. And we get more cornball one-liners than answers. But I never felt shortchanged, narratively or cinematically. I was having too much fun, glued to my seat and anxious to see what Hughes was going to hit us with next.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

As a kid from the 1980s, I have an undeniable soft spot for meathead action movies and buddy comedies. The 80s gave us plenty of them, sometimes in a single film. From more highly regarded features like “Lethal Weapon”, “48 Hours”, and “Midnight Run” to more forgotten flicks like “Tango & Cash”, “Red Heat”, and “The Last Boy Scout”. I admit, their quality may vary. But they still entertain me some forty years later.

Perhaps that’s why I’m a little lenient when it comes to “The Wrecking Crew”, an unabashed throwback to those 80s bangers and semi-bangers. It’s a movie littered with action-comedy clichés, silly set pieces, and generic plot twists. But it gets by on the charm and playful energy of its two beefcake leads, Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista. And it helps that the movie never takes itself too seriously.

With its big stars and genre appeal, “The Wrecking Crew” seems custom-made for the big screen. Yet it released straight to streaming, exclusively on Prime Video. It comes from director Ángel Manuel Soto (“Blue Beetle”) and screenwriter Jonathan Tropper (the upcoming “Star Wars: Starfighter”). Together they make a bombastic and proudly goofy cocktail that should be a money-maker for the streaming platform.

The premise is a simple one. After their father, a Hawaiian private investigator named Walter Hale (Brian Keaulana), is killed in a suspicious hit and run, two estranged half-brothers reluctantly reunite to determine whether it was an accident or if he was murdered. James (Bautista) is a Navy SEAL and a dedicated family man still living in Hawaii. Johnny (Momoa) is a hard-drinking and recently suspended police detective in Oklahoma.

Johnny returns home to Honolulu where he immediately clashes with James. The two haven’t spoken in ten years and old family wounds instantly begin to fester. But they’re forced to work together after evidence points to their father being targeted. The film becomes two bickering brothers working through old baggage while piecing together the mystery of Walter’s death. And of course the more they snoop, the more they become targets.

Several side characters fill out the story with varying degrees of success. Stephen Root pops up as an unhelpful police sergeant. Jacob Batalon gets another annoying foul-mouthed sidekick role. And Temuera Morrison plays the state’s Governor and an uncle to the brothers. But it’s the ladies who fare best. Roimata Fox is great as James’ firm and straight-shooting wife. Equally good is Morena Baccarin as Johnny’s fed-up girlfriend.

Much of the fun comes with the silly, over-the-top action. The fight scenes are particularly good as Bautista and Momoa are no strangers to roughhousing. There are also a couple of wild set pieces as the brothers fight off local crime syndicates and even the Yakuza. At the same time, some of the crazier action scenes are overly digitalized to the point of being obvious and gaudy.

There’s not much in “The Wrecking Crew” that will catch you by surprise. The story follows a fairly predictable trajectory, right down to the big baddie and how everything ultimately plays out. But Momoa and Bautista bring enough of their charisma and chemistry to make this by-the-book buddy action-comedy click. They even tease a possible second adventure which I would be onboard for. So in that regard, I guess this movie does its job.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

Emerald Fennell follows the empty shock value and cheap psychosexual spectacle of her previous film, “Saltburn” with an overheated and underdeveloped reimagining of a literary classic. Fennell’s new spin on “Wuthering Heights” is more in love with itself than with anything Emily Brontë put to page in her highly regarded 1847 novel. Sadly, it results in a surprisingly hollow and frustratingly scattershot exercise in overindulgence.

Fennell significantly reshapes Brontë’s story in a number of peculiar ways. So fans of the novel shouldn’t go in expecting a faithful adaptation. It starts with Fennell’s decision to transform the book’s dark, haunting, gothic tale into a soapy, sexually charged, period romance. Pseudo-eroticism is more of a focus than the raw dysfunction that Brontë explored. Also, any hint of the supernatural is erased. And main characters undergo jarring dramatic changes, often to fit within the film’s bawdy vision.

For the entirety of it unnecessarily long running time, Fennell’s story remains fixated on the relationship between Catherine (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi), essentially cutting out the entire second half of the novel. As a child, Catherine lived with her alcoholic and cartoonishly abusive father (Martin Clunes) in the family’s remote estate on the Yorkshire Moors. One day her father brings home an orphan boy he rescued from the street. The bossy and possessive Catherine names him Heathcliff and treats him as her pet. But over time the two children develop a close yet vaguely defined relationship.

From there the film lurches forward several years with Catherine and Heathcliff now young adults yet still playfully cavorting around the neglected estate like children. That is until Catherine lays eyes on their wealthy new neighbors, the Lintons. With her father having gambled away the family’s fortune, Catherine maneuvers herself into the arms of Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif). When he overhears her plans to marry Edgar, a heartbroken Heathcliff rides away and doesn’t return.

More years pass. Catherine is now married to Edgar and living a life of luxury at the Linton’s villa. But everything changes when Heathcliff suddenly returns, now mysteriously rich and more dapper than ever. Suddenly the emotions she never expressed come rushing to the surface and the two begin a torrid affair. But outside of rampant sex, Catherine refuses to commit to Heathcliff due to her marriage to Edgar and the child they’re expecting which she keeps a secret.

The rest of the story erratically bops from point to point, force-feeding us a wild array of emotions that always feel more contrived than organic. Following along is never easy because there’s never a steady measurement of passing time. Worse are the gaps in the story that lead to bizarre character shifts with little buildup, as well as undercooked relationships that never make sense. This is especially true for the increasingly mopey second half.

But while she leaves her characters and her stories begging for more attention, Fennell finds the time to inject her kinky fascinations, often to the detriment of her movie. Pointlessly crude flourishes are thrown in, seemingly to jolt the audience more than anything else. Meanwhile character work gets back-burnered to satisfy some lusty appetite. Take Edgar conveniently vanishing without a mention so that Catherine and Heathcliff can repeatedly and openly hook-up. As for Robbie and Elordi, they’re mostly served up as rain-soaked eye-candy, doing their best with what they’re given.

Whatever the goal, it’s hard to see 2026’s “Wuthering Heights” pleasing longtime fans of the novel or drawing new fans to it. But even if you take away its literary inspiration, Emerald Fennell’s latest even fails as a simple melodrama. The choppy storytelling impacts everything, including the characters who are left shuffling through ambiguity and absurdity. This despite the efforts of Robbie and Elordi, and great supporting turns from Alison Oliver and Hong Chau.

On a positive note, “Wuthering Heights” isn’t as galling or insufferable as “Saltburn”. And while its attempts at eroticism often feel silly and performative, the movie is visually sumptuous in ways that highlight Fennell’s impressive technical savvy. But overall it does nothing to recreate the excitement we felt with her debut film, “Promising Young Woman”. Instead it demonstrates a concerning trend where her expression is overwhelmed by excess.

VERDICT – 2 STARS