Landing in our theaters looking like a burnt meringue drawn with dirty pastels, Disney’s live-action Dumbo is a disappointment. A dour exercise, seemingly written by people who have never actually had a proper conversation with another human being before. Based on Helen Aberson’s book, and the hour-long animated film from 1941, modern-day Dumbo is equal parts mean spirited and dull. Its thinly drawn characters waste the talents of Eva Green, Michael Keaton, and Collin Farrell, and the CGI rendering of the titular elephant isn’t all that impressive. The attempts to cover the effects of child ab ..read more

Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is a 14-year-old kid who’s been in the foster care system since he was abandoned by his mother. Teleported to a magical realm by, The Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) as a sort of last-ditch attempt to find ‘the chosen one,’ Billy is given superpowers that he can activate whenever he says “Shazam!” It’s clear that Shazam! has set its sights on the barely-teen demographic, and for the most part, it delivers decent family-friendly entertainment. It felt like a mash-up of The Goonies and a Power Rangers movie, though it struggles to set a consistent tone and the visual effects a ..read more