#2,272: X-Men: Apocalypse

Dead Ringer - ★★★★☆
Just very satisfying. A plot is wound up, put into motion, and the consequences uncoil one by one. I could do with more of that.

It was tempting to throw in a little line about how there're no capes or lasers to be found, but of course, this _is_ a visual effect-heavy movie for its day...

The Nice Guys - ★★★★☆
This is the latest version of The Shane Black Movie. If it's not the best one, it's definitely top five.

It's the kind of movie that people talk about when they lament that Hollywood is all comic books and remakes and why aren't there any cool movies that stand on their own, but then they skip because it's not one of those big spectacle movies you've gotta get down to the theater to see.

The Night of the Hunter  - ★★☆☆☆
I know this is on a lot of best-movie-ever type lists, but it just doesn't quite hit the mark for me. I don't know what else to say.

X-Men: Apocalypse - ★☆☆☆☆
Well, you know what they say: the third one in the series is the worst. Then, as now, I can't believe Singer made Days of Future Past. This installment manages to undermine or ignore everything that made the last one so good, and fills the void with a bunch of the garbage from the original trilogy we had just gotten rid of.

If this were advertised as a demo for the latest version of a visual effects software package, it would probably still seem a little incoherent.