American Pickle

The entire point of American Pickle is for Seth Rogen to banter and riff with an old Jewish version of himself. It’s an admirable shtick with technological chutzpah, but the plot is bupkis. So, meh.

Superintelligence

A perfectly pleasant but kind of dull airplane movie. Melissa McCarthy and Bobby Cannavale have an easy rapport. The stakes for a comedy are pretty high. McCarthy’s character only has to save the world in this winky, War Games scenario that pits her against a sentient, blood-thirsty AI played by James Corden. It must be watched on a plane. No other venue will be suitable.

Gunpowder Milkshake

Another hit-man/hit-woman movie. There have been SO MANY movies like this lately -- The reluctant assassin. This is fun to watch and the cast is great, mainly because of Karen Gillan, who’s been solid in ensembles, and now gets to be a leading lady. Or bleeding lady. They didn’t really reinvent the action movie wheel here. It respectfully borrows from Atomic Blonde and others. It’s just a visceral rush with lots of girl-based “gun-foo.”

Nobody

I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this meditation on emasculated, middle-aged dads. It’s well-written, well-filmed, well-acted, and really violent. It descends into a big gun battle at the end, which is unfortunate and a little anti-climactic. The bruising, painful, brawls in the middle are where you get your money’s worth. Bob Odenkirk et al deliver the goods here – a balls-out, full-HAM action movie, that peppers in a tiny, but very welcome bit of social satire. So far one of my favorite movies of the year.

The Suicide Squad

Moments of this are brilliant. Perverse, comedic, and deranged. I couldn’t really tell you what the plot is. But there’s a battle with a big-bad at the end, and some of the characters survive. James Gunn loves moves, surprises, and perverse physical comedy – the goopier the better. It’s a circus, and it deliberately juxtaposes the super-serious DC Batman and Joker movies some of which could maybe use a little more Gunn.

Jolt

Kate Beckensale stars in this Amazon release about a hit-woman with rage issues. While she’s skillful at the Jason Bourne/human weapon schtick, efforts to make this on a low budget and turn it into a John Wick-type sequel universe fall short.