The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
site categories
Latest movie reviews, ‘the union’ review: mark wahlberg and halle berry star in a standard netflix action flick that gets the job done.
A blue-collar construction worker is recruited by a secret spy organization in this film co-starring Jackie Earle Haley and J.K. Simmons.
- Movie Reviews
- By Frank Scheck
Critic’s Appreciation: Gena Rowlands, a Woman of Influence
The celebrated actress was both muse and motor for her husband John Cassavetes — half of an artistic partnership that would help transform American cinema.
- 2 hours ago
- By Jordan Mintzer
‘Drowning Dry’ Review: A Penetrating Lithuanian Drama Depicts a Family Tragedy Through Multiple Fragments
Writer, director and cinematographer Laurynas Bareisa’s second feature follows two sisters who experience a life-altering event during their summer holiday in the country.
‘Alien: Romulus’ Review: Cailee Spaeny Is Compelling in a Flawed but Pulse-Pounding Homage to the Franchise’s Origins
David Jonsson, Archie Renaux and Isabela Merced also star in Fede Alvarez’s sci-fi/horror installment, set between the events of Ridley Scott’s original and James Cameron’s sequel.
- By David Rooney
‘Blink Twice’ Review: Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie in Zoë Kravitz’s Skillful but Scattered #MeToo Thriller
A tech mogul invites a waitress and her friend to vacation on a private island in the directorial debut, also starring Adria Arjona, Alia Shawkat, Simon Rex and Haley Joel Osment.
- By Lovia Gyarkye
‘Jackpot!’ Review: John Cena and Awkwafina Make a Winning Team in Paul Feig’s Hilariously Violent Action-Comedy
The Amazon feature, also starring Simu Liu, revolves around a twisted lottery game where anyone can claim the prize by murdering the person with the winning ticket.
‘Skincare’ Review: Elizabeth Banks Stars in a Mildly Entertaining Tale of Facials and Fixation
A famous Los Angeles facialist becomes obsessed with her rival in Austin Peters' debut narrative feature co-starring Lewis Pullman and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez.
‘Mexico 86’ Review: Bérénice Béjo Toplines a Compelling Political Drama That Never Drums Up Enough Emotion
In Cannes Caméra d'Or winner César Díaz’s second feature, the 'Artist' co-star plays a Guatemalan leftist militant desperately trying to raise her estranged son.
- Aug 10, 2024 2:00 pm
‘Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision’ Review: Straightforward Doc Illuminates a Momentous Offstage Chapter of Rock History
The people who helped the music icon realize his groundbreaking idea for a recording studio tell the story of how it was done in John McDermott's oral history.
- Aug 9, 2024 11:45 am
- By Sheri Linden
‘Borderlands’ Review: Cate Blanchett Is a Gunslinging Bounty Hunter in Eli Roth’s Joylessly Gonzo Adaptation of the Popular Video Game
Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt and Jamie Lee Curtis also star in this fight to survive on the lawless planet Pandora, with Jack Black providing the voice of a wisecracking robot.
- Aug 8, 2024 12:00 am
‘The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat’ Review: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Uzo Aduba and Sanaa Lathan Buoy Routine Female-Friendship Drama
The stars play women who endure life's ups and downs together in Tina Mabry's feature adapted from the novel of the same name by Edward Kelsey Moore.
- Aug 7, 2024 7:30 pm
‘The Flood’ Review: An Intriguing Palace Drama Chronicling the Last Days of France’s Ultimate Royal Couple
Guillaume Canet and Mélanie Laurent star as Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in Italian director Gianluca Jodice’s latest feature, opening the Locarno Film Festival.
- Aug 7, 2024 1:00 pm
‘It Ends With Us’ Review: Blake Lively Stars in Serviceable Adaptation of Colleen Hoover Novel
A young flower shop owner navigates a new romance and her traumatic past in a high-emotional-stakes drama directed by and also starring Justin Baldoni.
- Aug 7, 2024 7:00 am
‘Trap’ Review: A Wily Josh Hartnett Propels M. Night Shyamalan’s Moderately Entertaining Thriller
In the director's latest film, a father and daughter attend a pop concert that becomes part of a ploy to catch a deadly serial killer.
- Aug 1, 2024 9:04 pm
‘Dreams in Nightmares’ Review: Shatara Michelle Ford’s Queer Road Movie Is Equal Parts Soothing and Opaque
The 'Test Pattern' director's latest, which premiered at BlackStar Film Festival, follows a group of queer Black femmes journeying across America's heartland in search of their friend.
- Aug 1, 2024 6:15 pm
‘The Instigators’ Review: Matt Damon and Casey Affleck Can’t Goose Doug Liman’s Limp Heist Movie
Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Ving Rhames and Alfred Molina also appear in Apple TV+'s Boston-set crime caper about a botched robbery with spiraling consequences.
- Aug 1, 2024 9:00 am
Film Reviews
‘alien: romulus’ review: chest-bursting reboot is as thrilling and scary as the original, ‘jackpot’ review: wacky action-comedy with odd couple awkwafina and john cena, ‘tuesday’ review: julia louis-dreyfus’ arthouse oddity with a big heart, ‘borderlands’ review: video game bust plays like a bot wrote it, ‘i saw the tv glow’ review: an instant cult horror classic, ‘kneecap’ review: ballsy, brave and one of the best music biopics ever made, ‘blackpink world tour [born pink] in cinemas’ review: a fizzing k-pop party, ‘deadpool & wolverine’ review: a sarky, time-skipping superhero send-up, ‘victory’ review: put pep in your step with this cute cheerleading romp, ‘twisters’ review: ‘90s-style blockbuster sweeps in to save the day.
- Tickets & Showtimes
- Trending on RT
News & Interviews
37 Best Space Horror Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer
August 15, 2024
25 Best Jennifer Lawrence Movies Ranked
Alien: Romulus First Reviews: The Best in the Franchise Since Aliens
August 14, 2024
All-Time Lists
The 100 Best Asian-American Movies of All Time
July 26, 2024
All 96 Best Picture Winners, Ranked by Tomatometer
March 10, 2024
Golden Globes Best Picture Winners by Tomatometer
January 7, 2024
Countdown Guides
The 100 Best Movies of 2009, Ranked by Tomatometer
The Best TV Seasons Certified Fresh at 100%
April 22, 2024
Marvel TV Ranked by Tomatometer
March 20, 2024
Star Trek TV Shows Ranked by Tomatometer
September 8, 2023
24 Predictions For 2019 (According To The Movies)
December 31, 2018
24 Best Movie Posters of 2018
December 27, 2018
24 Great Monster Movie Posters
August 7, 2018
Binge Guides
7 TV and Streaming Shows You Should Binge-Watch in August
August 6, 2024
The Best Shows on Amazon Prime Video to Watch Right Now (August 2024)
August 1, 2024
Netflix’s 100 Best Movies Right Now (August 2024)
Comics On TV
What’s Next For Marvel’s Merry Mutants In X-Men ’97 ?
May 17, 2024
After Echo : What Can Marvel Learn from Its First “Spotlight” Series?
January 11, 2024
Loki Season 2 at the Half: Loki as TVA Agent Muddles Expectations for the Kang–Timely–He Who Remains Future
October 20, 2023
Critics Consensus
Eternals Is Underpowered
November 4, 2021
Venom: Let There Be Carnage Leans Hard Into the Ridiculous
September 30, 2021
Dear Evan Hansen Misses the High Note
September 23, 2021
Everything We Know
Captain America: Brave New World : Release Date, Trailer, Cast & More
August 8, 2024
Nosferatu : Release Date, Trailer, Cast & More
July 24, 2024
Gladiator II : Release Date, Trailer, Cast & More
July 17, 2024
Five Favorite Films
Immaculate Director Michael Mohan’s Five Favorite Horror Films
April 16, 2024
Morgan Freeman’s Five Favorite Films
April 12, 2023
Praise This Director Tina Gordon’s Five Favorite Films
April 6, 2023
Hear Us Out
Hear Us Out: Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas Is A Modern Holiday Classic
November 17, 2023
4 Ways House of the Dragon Honors Game of Thrones ’ Legacy (and 4 Ways It Doesn’t)
August 23, 2022
Hear Us Out: Better Call Saul Is a Better Show Than Breaking Bad
August 16, 2022
Indie Fresh List
Indie Fresh List: Decision to Leave , TÁR , Triangle of Sadness , and More
October 14, 2022
Indie Fresh List: Not Okay , Resurrection , Vengeance , and More
July 28, 2022
Indie Fresh List: C’mon C’mon , tick, tick… BOOM! , and More
November 19, 2021
Now Streaming
New Movies & TV Shows Streaming in April 2024: What To Watch on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and More
April 4, 2024
New Movies & TV Shows Streaming in March 2024: What To Watch on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and More
March 4, 2024
New Movies & TV Shows Streaming in February 2024: What To Watch on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and More
February 6, 2024
Oral Histories
An Oral History of Guardians of the Galaxy by Chris Pratt and James Gunn
May 5, 2023
How Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski Expanded the John Wick Universe with Chapter 2 and 3
March 23, 2023
An Oral History of Jackass
February 3, 2022
Parental Guidance
How Family-Friendly Is Captain Marvel ?
March 8, 2019
How Family-Friendly Is Alita: Battle Angel ?
February 15, 2019
How Family-Friendly Are Aquaman and Bumblebee ?
December 21, 2018
Photo Galleries
2023 San Diego Comic-Con Cosplay Gallery
July 21, 2023
Emmys 2022 Red Carpet Arrivals
September 12, 2022
2022 Venice Film Festival Arrivals
September 6, 2022
Red Carpet Roundup
Gallery: Grammys Red Carpet & More
February 6, 2023
Emmys 2021 Red Carpet Arrivals
September 19, 2021
Oscars 2020 Red Carpet Arrivals
February 9, 2020
New On DVD in April: Paddington 2 , Phantom Thread , The Post and More
April 2, 2018
New On DVD in March: Thor: Ragnarok , Lady Bird , Jumanji and More
February 27, 2018
New On DVD in February: Coco , Three Billboards , Only the Brave and More
January 30, 2018
RT Users Crown The Matrix The Best Movie of 1999!
June 21, 2024
RT Fans Crown Christopher Nolan the Best Director of the Last 25 Years
August 30, 2023
RT Fans Crown Jurassic Park the Ultimate Steven Spielberg Movie
November 30, 2022
How Role Models Made Paul Rudd a Bankable Leading Man
July 24, 2018
Limitless Is Preposterous but Enjoyable If You Turn Off Your Brain
June 27, 2018
How Mystery Team Revealed Donald Glover Was a Star in the Making
May 23, 2018
Total Recall
The Worst Horror Movies of All Time
October 2, 2023
Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer
November 23, 2022
Jurassic Park Movies Ranked By Tomatometer
Trophy Talk
2024 Emmy Nominations: Full List of Nominees
August 12, 2024
Sing Sing ’s Colman Domingo Talks Fashion as He Breaks Down His Career
The Bikeriders Director Jeff Nichols on His Filmography and How He Lucked Out with Jodie Comer and Austin Butler
June 27, 2024
Kaley Cuoco’s Latest Comedy Is ‘Fresh’ Out of the Gate: Critics Call Based on a True Story ‘Pleasingly Perverse’
June 9, 2023
Critics Weigh In on Succession , Barry & More of the Biggest Series Finales of the Year
June 2, 2023
The Wrath of Cannes: Critics Batter The Idol , Starring Lily-Rose Depp and Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye
May 25, 2023
Video Interviews
The Freakier Friday Cast on New Music, Filming the Iconic Scream Scene, and More
The Deadpool & Wolverine Cast Talk Fight Scenes, Dance Numbers, and Much More
July 25, 2024
The Cast of Cobra Kai Share Final Season Secrets
July 16, 2024
Weekend Box Office
Weekend Box Office: Deadpool & Wolverine Crosses $1 Billion
Weekend Box Office: Deadpool & Wolverine Is Officially the Highest-Grossing R-Rated Film of All Time
August 5, 2024
Box Office 2024: Top 10 Movies of the Year
August 4, 2024
Weekly Ketchup
Disney Is Conjuring Up Hocus Pocus 3 , and More Movie News
Dwayne Johnson to Return to Fast and Furious Franchise for Another Spin-Off, and More Movie News
John Wick Universe Will Expand with a 5th Film and Spin-offs, and More Movie News
May 26, 2023
What to Watch
What to Watch: Most Anticipated Black-Led Shows and Movies of 2024
February 2, 2024
What to Watch This Week: 2023 Golden Tomato Award Winners
What to Watch This Week: Jury Duty , Shin Kamen Rider , and More Staff Picks
December 28, 2023
Movie & TV News
Featured on rt.
Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2024
Top Headlines
- 37 Best Space Horror Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer –
- 25 Best Jennifer Lawrence Movies Ranked –
- The 100 Best Movies of 2009, Ranked by Tomatometer –
- All Alien Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer –
- DC Animated Movies In Order: How to Watch 54 Original and Universe Films –
- All Alien Movies In Order: How to Watch Chronologically –
Advertisement
Supported by
7 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week
Whether you’re a casual moviegoer or an avid buff, our reviewers think these films are worth knowing about.
- Share full article
By The New York Times
A bouquet of red flags.
‘It Ends With Us’
In this romance based on the book of the same name by Colleen Hoover , flower-lover Lily (Blake Lively) falls in love with picture-perfect neurosurgeon Ryle (Justin Baldoni, who also directed), but discovers he may not be so perfect.
From our review:
It Ends With Us” is fitfully diverting, at times touching, often ridiculous and, at 2 hours and 10 minutes, almost offensively long. It’s visually and narratively overbusy, stuffed with flashbacks of Lily as an adolescent (Isabela Ferrer) that create two parallel lines of action. … The flashbacks add information, yet they also pull you away from the adult Lily, which fragments Lively’s performance and drains the slow-building momentum of her scenes. Just as unfortunately, Baldoni prettifies everything — trees, cityscapes, people — to the point that each detail, pose and smile seems lifted from a lifestyle ad instead of true, messy reality.
In theaters. Read the full review .
Bullets over back story.
‘borderlands’.
This action caper from Eli Roth, based on the video game franchise of the same name, follows the bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett), joined by a band of outlaws, as she tracks down, a tycoon’s daughter (Ariana Greenblatt).
You can see the jokes, but most of them don’t land. Still, there is some neat design work if you squint. The masks are pretty cool, like the ones worn by a handful of goons who sport glow-in-the-dark face coverings with eerie green slits, and a digital technology allows people to wear other people’s pixelated faces over their own. … In voice-over narration at the beginning, [Blanchett] drolly intones that the plot to come is “some wacko B.S.” We don’t disagree.
Critic’s Pick
Coming-of-age with men who don’t act theirs.
On a camping trip, 17-year-old Sam (Lily Collias) grapples with the immature behavior of her father (James Le Gros) and his old friend (Danny McCarthy) in this drama.
“Good One” is the writer and director India Donaldson’s feature debut, and an astounding one, full of the kind of emotional detail that can only come from personal experience. The movie smoothly shifts from gentle comedy to emotional punch, modest in a way that sneaks up on you in the end, backed by Celia Hollander’s acoustic, folk-inflected score. For most of the film, we’re expecting something to happen to Sam — it feels inevitable, out here in the woods with two grown men. But when something does happen, it’s totally unexpected and revelatory.
The boys are back in Beantown.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in .
Want all of The Times? Subscribe .
After the misfiring Potter-esque fantasy The School For Good And Evil, Paul...
Movies | 15 08 2024
Sequels to the landmark 1979 space horror Alien have ranged from the...
After striking recent performances in the High Fidelity series, Steven...
Movies | 14 08 2024
No-one understands the laconic, downtrodden Umer (Faraz Ayub). The manager at...
Movies | 12 08 2024
Somewhere deep inside Trap there’s a good movie bound, gagged and...
Movies | 09 08 2024
Here is a film that, for many people, arrives with the burden of expectation....
Movies | 08 08 2024
After The Last Of Us and Fallout, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we are...
In the 1970s, Bob Guccione — publisher of the porn magazine Penthouse —...
Movies | 02 08 2024
Given that pregnancy is quite literally a matter of life and death, it’s...
Here is another film that ponders the big life-or-death existential questions,...
The perfectly serviceable mid-budget movie is an increasingly rare beast, too...
Movies | 01 08 2024
Michael, the child (voiced by Aaron MacGregor) at the centre of British...
The problem with adapting books written for tiny children is that there’s...
Movies | 31 07 2024
Star-crossed lovers are always ripe for the big screen — a fact understood...
Movies | 29 07 2024
“Remember, gentlemen,” says Henry Cavill’s Gus March-Phillipps in The...
Movies | 25 07 2024
A word of warning: if you’re a deep-cut Marvel fan, you may want to arrive at...
Movies | 23 07 2024
The stories we encounter when we’re young can sometimes speak to us so deeply...
Movies | 22 07 2024
The latest film from buzzy US studio A24 delves into the complexity of a...
Movies | 19 07 2024
“This film contains extremely dangerous and illegal activities,” reads the...
For a generation, Jan de Bont’s 1996 rip-roaring tornado rager Twister was...
Movies | 18 07 2024
If she hasn’t earned it already by now, June Squibb certainly deserves...
Movies | 16 07 2024
Working class British dramas historically — and still — often fall into a...
Alright, sweethearts, you heard the man and you know the drill. There have been...
Movies | 15 07 2024
Just when you think that horror — currently in a major gold rush — is all...
Movies | 12 07 2024
If you predicted that one of the most entertaining films of the summer would be...
The first few minutes of Osgood Perkins’ unsettling new psychological...
Movies | 10 07 2024
If there were any suspicion that the Apollo 11 moon landing had been thoroughly...
Movies | 09 07 2024
Indian cinema — and in particular its perception here in the West — has...
Movies | 05 07 2024
Given the series’ hit rate so far, the prospect of a new Beverly Hills...
Movies | 03 07 2024
More From Forbes
The ‘borderlands’ movie debuts with a 0% on rotten tomatoes (update).
- Share to Facebook
- Share to Twitter
- Share to Linkedin
Borderlands
This post was published on 8/8 and republished on 8/10.
I’m not sure I knew of anyone, Borderlands fan or not, who believed that the movie adaptation of the game was going to be good, based on everything from casting to trailers. Now as reviews come in ahead of its release tomorrow, those fears have been validated. And then some.
As I write this, the Borderlands movie has a flat 0% on Rotten Tomatoes . No positive reviews whatsoever ( Update : A single positive review has come in raising it to a 3%), and the ones that are in are not just negative, but brutal . Here’s a sampling:
- Discussing Film: “The fans deserve a lot better than whatever director Eli Roth is trying to do with Borderlands. This is the video game movie curse at its worst.”
- Men’s Journal: “If Borderlands doesn't stop studio executives from salivating at the sight of every single IP that comes across their desks, nothing will.”
- Next Best Picture : “It’s impressive how Roth can elicit the poor quality of 2000s video game adaptation energy yet somehow forget the discernable sense of fun or style that made even those terrible movies stand out.”
- IGN : “Borderlands is an abysmal waste of a beloved franchise that takes a kooky band of murderous misfits and drains the life out of their first adventure together.”
It’s true there are not many reviews in yet, and the score may tick up, but everything I’ve seen outside of some video game influencers who attended premieres (or are literally extras in the movie) has been relentlessly negative, and I would be surprised to find more than a handful of positive reviews come in when all is said and done. If any.
Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024
Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024.
A 0% on Rotten Tomatoes is of course as low as you can go. If we are looking at the worst-scored video game movies ever made, that list would now be (Updated list with the 4%):
- Alone in the Dark (2005) – 1%
- Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) – 3%
- House of the Dead (2003) – 3%
- Borderlands (2024) – 3%
- In the Name of the King (2007) – 4%
- Bloodrayne (2005) – 4%
- Mortal Kombat Annihilation- 4%
- Silent Hill Revelation (2012) – 8%
- Hitman Agent: 47 (2015) – 8%
- Postal (2007) – 9%
I put the year there so you can see that most of these ultra-terrible ones are in a decade or so when making a good video game adaptation was borderline impossible and the only people trying were directors like Uwe Boll half the time. As of late, we have seen very solid live action video game adaptations on both film (Sonic) and TV (The Last of Us, Fallout), and Borderlands seems to be a 10-15 year step backward.
I do expect it to rise above a zero percent. There are so many critics on Rotten Tomatoes of questionable quality and taste that probably someone will like it and knock it above some of these (I am one of those critics, so no judgement), but that has not happened at the time of this writing.
Who saw this coming? Everyone. Everyone did. And here we are.
Update (8/10): We have 92 reviews in now, and Borderlands has gone from 0% to 3% to now settling at around 10%. This puts it outside much higher on the “worst video game adaptations ever” list, which would now look like
- Borderlands (2024) - 10%
Of course there is absolutely no pretending a 10% is good. I do agree, however, that it does not deserve to be quite as low as that terrible decade of Uwe Boll movies and a few other very poor ones. Like no, this is definitely not on par with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.
I have indeed now seen the movie myself, and a 10% is something I can get behind. My own negative review is now on Rotten Tomatoes, and here’s an excerpt:
“This is neither a good Borderlands movie or nor a good movie, period. It feels like Gearbox and Eli Roth tried to split the difference here, making a mass-appeal PG-13 action film but gesturing vaguely at the games to try to get that crowd to show up too.
But the end result is throwing the Borderlands games at a wall, watching them shatter, and gluing back together a handful of mildly recognizable pieces.”
I said in the piece that the casting of Kevin Hart and Cate Blanchett are big problems, as expected. Hart mostly acts like a barely toned-down version of his usual self, and is nothing like game Roland. Blanchett is of course normally a great actress but a 30 year or so age increase from Lilith is bizarre, and also makes no sense within the confines of the film as actresses close to her age appear to remember her as a child.
This is a franchise killer. Gearbox had big plans for a Borderlands cinematic universe that is clearly going nowhere after this. And given how this went, that is fully justified.
Follow me on Twitter , YouTube , and Instagram .
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .
- Editorial Standards
- Reprints & Permissions
Join The Conversation
One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.
Forbes Community Guidelines
Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.
In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's Terms of Service. We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.
Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:
- False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
- Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
- Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
- Content that otherwise violates our site's terms.
User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:
- Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
- Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
- Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
- Actions that otherwise violate our site's terms.
So, how can you be a power user?
- Stay on topic and share your insights
- Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
- ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
- Protect your community.
- Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.
Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's Terms of Service.
Movie Reviews
Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors.
Now streaming on:
“ Jackpot! ” is a trashy and repetitive action comedy about greed and bloodlust set in a world full of people who are proud to be awful. Directed by Paul Feig (“ Spy ”), it's set in near-future Los Angeles, which begins to seem like a statement in itself as the movie goes along. There’s a statewide lottery. For some reason, the state government has decreed that citizens are permitted to hunt and kill winners to try and take their prize money. A handful of rules govern the hunt. One is, only those who’ve purchased a ticket and lost the draw can take part. Another rule is: no guns allowed. A third is: the hunt can only go on for 24 hours. If the original winner has survived at the end of that period, they get to keep their winnings.
Other than that, anything goes. Participants can use knives, clubs, broken bottles, bats, chains, rubber hoses, spears, curtain rods, mop handles, and presumably automobiles (though I don’t recall anyone trying to run anyone down deliberately, which seems like a strange omission in retrospect). They can hunt alone or in groups, even very large groups.
Awkwafina plays the target of the latest hunt, Katie Kim, a former actress who just returned home from many years spent visiting her dying mother in another state. Her dad died a while before. She didn’t have a good relationship with either parent. We get a bit of detail about her personal life to explain why she doesn’t know anything about the California state lottery turning into a murderous manhunt (she’s been spending time with her mom; no, really, that’s the reason) and also why she’s worthy of our sympathy (beyond the fact that, like other past lottery winners, she doesn’t deserve to be hunted like an animal; nobody does). Katie comes into her own winning ticket purely by accident and doesn’t realize she has it until her number comes up during an audition (which she doesn’t get) and everybody starts looking at her like a cartoon wolf staring at a lamb and imagining lamb chops.
An entire economy seems to have grown up around the lottery hunt, though the movie only zeros in on one part: the security experts who locate winners and offer them protection from harm in exchange for a cut of their fortune. John Cena plays one such security guard, a lovable bruiser named Noel. He used to work for a very successful lottery security company run by a snotty badass named Louie Lewis ( Simu Liu ). He saves Katie from death after the audition, when everyone in the building, including other actresses and a gymnasium full of karate students, have turned on her. She studied stage fighting but didn’t learn a lot. Her instincts are good, but she lacks the moves to survive. Without Noel, she’d be dead meat. And without Katie, Noel would be just another square-jawed he-man. (He’s got a backstory, of course, which Katie will gradually pry out of him.)
Written by Rob Yescombe , whose prior work was mainly on video games, “Jackpot!” doesn’t make a lick of real-world sense, and it’s not supposed to. It has a video game-like repetitiousness and gradual escalation, leading to a Big Boss showdown. There’s a lot of obviously improvised comedy that sometimes lands but more often feels like somebody filmed the exercises in a comedy performance workshop. It’s all in service of a movie that’s more half-baked goof than full-blown satire.
And it seems committed to not investigating the deeper implications of the scenario it’s presenting, in which the lottery hunt is the logical outgrowth of a society that seems to have completely given up on modeling decent values and has decided instead to monetize the worst human behavior. When Katie rents a tiny room from a website and realizes when she gets there that it doesn’t look anything like the pictures online, the young woman who rents it, appropriately named Shadi ( Ayden Mayeri ), chirps “we used fake photos, because who’s gonna stay here if we don’t?” Early in the movie, Katie sees a hateful stage dad loudly and profanely griping about his young daughter, who just failed an audition. “Sorry for all the bad words,” he tells the kid. “I only curse when your mom’s being a f—--g b—h.”
Ace character actress Becky Ann Baker gives us a glimpse of what the movie could’ve become in her brief performance as a lady who seems gentle and kind but is anything but. She captures the professional predator’s self-satisfied inward smirk at fooling somebody who trusts them, a marrow-deep rottenness that is expressed through fleeting glimmers in the eyes, and that is visible only to people who know what to look for.
But with a few exceptions, the movie’s way shallower than its best character moments. We don’t know what the state gets out of letting people hunt lottery winners–as in the “Purge” series, it seems on its face as if the cleanup required the next day would outweigh whatever value the exercise has in collectively permitting a society to let off some steam–but this is frankly not the kind of movie where you are supposed to think anything except, “that was a pretty funny line,” or “that looks like that must’ve hurt” or “cool stunt.”
There are seeds here that could’ve flowered into an audacious action comedy, perhaps in the vein of “Robocop” or “ The Running Man ” or “Battle Royale.” I kept thinking of that last one throughout “Jackpot!” because, unlike “Jackpot!,” it’s so cynical that it has moved beyond bitterness and into a kind of blase matter-of-factness, and also because it has an actual vision rather than a notion, and the action is imaginatively framed, lit, choreographed, and edited, an area of filmmaking that has never been Feig’s strength or, honestly, one of his main areas of interest (though “Spy” had its kickass moments, such as the kitchen fight ).
The two stars have good chemistry – they seem to genuinely enjoy being around each other – but there’s nothing in the script that challenges either of them in the way that James Gunn challenged Cena in two genuinely special superhero projects, “ The Suicide Squad ” and “Peacemaker,” or that Lulu Wang challenged Awkwafina in “ The Farewell .” For the most part, this is a lackadaisical project that is an example of the coarsened sensibilities it’s making fun of. As is often the case with improv-driven movies, the outtakes that play during the end credits are more natural and pleasurable than the movie.
Matt Zoller Seitz
Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.
Now playing
Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam
Brian tallerico.
Deadpool & Wolverine
The Instigators
Robert daniels.
Sisi & I
Tomris laffly.
Glenn Kenny
Film credits.
Jackpot! (2024)
106 minutes
Awkwafina as Katie Kim
John Cena as Noel Cassidy
Simu Liu as Louis Lewis
Ayden Mayeri
Seann William Scott
- Rob Yescombe
Latest blog posts
Locarno Film Festival 2024: Youth (Hard Times), Transamazonia, Moon
Thumbnails 8/15/24: Six Must-Reads You Don’t Want To Miss This Week
One Big Fortune: Remembering Corey Yuen
Female Filmmakers in Focus: Angela Patton and Natalie Rae
- Cast & crew
- User reviews
Alien: Romulus
While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
- Fede Alvarez
- Rodo Sayagues
- Dan O'Bannon
- Cailee Spaeny
- David Jonsson
- Archie Renaux
- 144 User reviews
- 106 Critic reviews
- 63 Metascore
- 1 nomination
Top cast 15
- 10-Year Old Punk #1
- 10-Year Old Punk #2
- 10-Year Old Punk #3
- Voice of MU
- Rook (facial and vocal reference)
- Rook (facial and vocal performance)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Close Encounters With Xenomorphs
More like this
Did you know
- Trivia Director Fede Alvarez sought out the special effects crew from Aliens (1986) to work on the creatures. Physical sets, practical creatures, and miniatures were used wherever possible to help ground later VFX work.
- Goofs When the characters first enter the space station, the artificial gravity briefly turns on and then off again. Shortly thereafter, they enter a room where several objects are hovering in mid-air. If the objects had momentum immediately after the gravity switched off they should be moving on a trajectory, and if not they should still be against the floor. Either way, they should not be unmoving several feet off the floor.
- Connections Featured in Nerdrotic: The Acolyte: Force is Female CONFIRMED? The Death of Theaters - The Real BBC @MauLer @HeelvsBabyface (2024)
- Soundtracks Theme from Alien Written by Jerry Goldsmith
User reviews 144
- and_mikkelsen
- Aug 14, 2024
- When will Alien: Romulus be released? Powered by Alexa
- When will this film take place in the Alien timeline?
- August 16, 2024 (United States)
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Official Website
- Quái Vật Không Gian: Romulus
- Origo Studios, Budapest, Hungary
- 20th Century Studios
- Scott Free Productions
- Brandywine Productions
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Technical specs
- Runtime 1 hour 59 minutes
- Dolby Atmos
- IMAX 6-Track
Related news
Contribute to this page.
- See more gaps
- Learn more about contributing
More to explore
Recently viewed.
Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes
Trouble logging in?
By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .
By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .
By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.
Email not verified
Let's keep in touch.
Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:
- Upcoming Movies and TV shows
- Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
- Media News + More
By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.
OK, got it!
- What's the Tomatometer®?
- Login/signup
Movies in theaters
- Opening this week
- Top box office
- Coming soon to theaters
- Certified fresh movies
Movies at home
- Fandango at Home
- Prime Video
- Most popular streaming movies
- What to Watch New
Certified fresh picks
- 82% Alien: Romulus Link to Alien: Romulus
- 78% Cuckoo Link to Cuckoo
- 97% Good One Link to Good One
New TV Tonight
- 96% Industry: Season 3
- 92% Bad Monkey: Season 1
- 100% Solar Opposites: Season 5
- 67% Emily in Paris: Season 4
- -- Bel-Air: Season 3
- -- Rick and Morty: The Anime: Season 1
- -- SEAL Team: Season 7
- -- RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars: Season 1
- -- Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 2
- -- Worst Ex Ever: Season 1
Most Popular TV on RT
- 54% The Umbrella Academy: Season 4
- 100% Women in Blue: Season 1
- 82% A Good Girl's Guide to Murder: Season 1
- 78% Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1
- 100% Supacell: Season 1
- 90% Sunny: Season 1
- 78% Presumed Innocent: Season 1
- Best TV Shows
- Most Popular TV
- TV & Streaming News
Certified fresh pick
- 92% Bad Monkey: Season 1 Link to Bad Monkey: Season 1
- All-Time Lists
- Binge Guide
- Comics on TV
- Five Favorite Films
- Video Interviews
- Weekend Box Office
- Weekly Ketchup
- What to Watch
37 Best Space Horror Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer
25 Best Jennifer Lawrence Movies Ranked
What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming
Awards Tour
Alien: Romulus First Reviews: The Best in the Franchise Since Aliens
Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2024
- Trending on RT
- Renewed and Cancelled TV
- Best Movies of 2024
- Popular TV Shows
- Re-Release Calendar
Browse Reviews
The incoherent drama Browse tries to look like a suspenseful horror movie, but there's nothing scary or thrilling about this rambling dud of a film.
Full Review | Jul 30, 2020
A great deal of the movie consists of unfinished ideas, plot points, story threads, and character arcs.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 22, 2020
It's a thoughtful, curious piece of work which may not quite be successful in finding its destination but which manages to intrigue along the way.
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 21, 2020
Skip the film if you need an ending that answers the questions raised throughout. But check it out if you enjoy seeing a psychological thriller that makes you come to your own conclusions.
Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 20, 2020
With such a tangled mess of a film it is hard to put your finger on what went wrong in the bringing it to the screen.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 13, 2020
In a perfect world, this thriller, with its onslaught of stomach-churning "oh no!" moments, would've had a point, something that connected it all together (or at least a conclusion), but it doesn't.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 12, 2020
An identity theft "nightmare" that fails every attempted thrill and chill. Quite possibly one of the most unimaginative and unmemorable films I've ever seen.
Full Review | Original Score: .5/5 | Jul 10, 2020
An everyman's identify theft -- or is he just a deluded creeper? -- is fitfully explored in this underwhelming psychological thriller.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 7, 2020
Browse feels like glimpsing through a problematic story with little context as to why you should care let alone watch it.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/10 | Jul 7, 2020
This thriller doesn't thrill. It occasionally amuses, and it rarely makes any real sense.
Full Review | Original Score: 4 | Jul 6, 2020
IMAGES
COMMENTS
Find the latest and best movies and TV shows to watch, with ratings, reviews, and trailers from Rotten Tomatoes. Browse by genre, popularity, release date, or certification, and get tickets for your local theater.
Find the latest movie reviews and ratings by Roger Ebert and his team of critics. Browse by genre, year, or collection, or read the blog for insights and opinions on cinema.
Rotten Less than 60% of reviews for a movie or TV show are positive. Apply Tomatometer ® Clear all Close Certified Fresh A special distinction awarded to the best reviewed movies and TV Shows.
Looking for the best movies in theaters right now? Check out Rotten Tomatoes' guide to the latest releases, featuring ratings, reviews, trailers, and showtimes. Find out which films are fresh or ...
Ninotchka - 95 percent with 40 reviews. Rustin - 88 percent with 42 reviews. The Persian Version - 81 percent with 58 reviews. May December - 91 percent with 79 reviews. How to Have Sex - 95 percent with 40 reviews. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt - 90 percent with 41 reviews. Perfect Days - 92 percent with 53 reviews.
Find your next captivating movie moment with Metacritic, the gold standard in critical analysis. Browse new releases, upcoming movies, best movies, Pixar films, Palme d'Or winners and more.
All movie reviews Filter movie reviews. Reset filters. Title. Order by. Only Great Movies Release date to Star rating. to Include non-rated movies Reviewers. Genres. Alien: Romulus Brian Tallerico Mothers' Instinct ... Star rating to Include non-rated movies ...
IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers.
Ma Belle, My Beauty76%. #226. Critics Consensus: Flawed but ultimately compelling, Ma Belle, My Beauty uses the aftermath of a polyamorous relationship to explore the intersections of love and ambition. Synopsis: Lane, Bertie and Fred once shared a polyamorous relationship in New Orleans. Lane loved Bertie, Fred loved Bertie, they had...
Find a list of the best movies and TV shows recently added to Paramount+ and Paramount+ With Showtime, plus a list of titles coming soon to the streaming services. tv show. Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was ...
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)78%. #3. Critics Consensus: Ryan Reynolds makes himself at home in the MCU with acerbic wit while Hugh Jackman provides an Adamantium backbone to proceedings in Deadpool & Wolverine, an irreverent romp with a surprising soft spot for a bygone era of superhero movies.
Great Absence. Jul 19, 2024. Distanced from his father Yohji for twenty years, Takashi is brought back home by a jarring police call-Yohji has disconnected from reality due to dementia, and his second wife Naomi is missing. Asked where she is, the old man replies that she committed suicide.
We can help. 'The Matrix,' 25 Years Later: Judged solely on cultural relevance, "The Matrix" might be the most consequential release of 1999. Here's why. Josh Hartnett's Dad Era: The ...
Good Bad Things Opens Aug 15, 2024. Watchlist. Stree 2 Opens Aug 15, 2024. Watchlist. The Metropolitan Opera: Porgy and Bess Re-released Aug 14, 2024. Watchlist. Lawrence of Arabia Re-released Aug ...
Dìdi Review: A Relatable Coming-Of-Age Tale. Growing up can be a real pain. Set in the summer of 2008, Dìdi (弟弟) is a coming-of-age comedy-drama movie…. Movies Jonathan Sim 3 weeks ago ...
A young flower shop owner navigates a new romance and her traumatic past in a high-emotional-stakes drama directed by and also starring Justin Baldoni. Movie Reviews. Aug 7, 2024 7:00 am. By ...
Movie Reviews. Fandango is your source for movie reviews and movie ratings to help maximize your movie-going-experience. Our easy to use movie reviews and movie ratings are based on scores and opinions from respected movie critics, family advocacy groups and movie fans like you. Whether it's a family movie outing, first date or girls' night ...
Get the latest film and movie reviews on NME.com. From horror to cult classics, we review every new release with expert film writers.
The 100 Best Asian-American Movies of All Time. July 26, 2024. All 96 Best Picture Winners, Ranked by Tomatometer. March 10, 2024. Golden Globes Best Picture Winners by Tomatometer. January 7, 2024. More All-Time Lists > ... Kaley Cuoco's Latest Comedy Is 'Fresh' Out of the Gate: ...
Whether you're a casual moviegoer or an avid buff, our reviewers think these films are worth knowing about. By The New York Times In this romance based on the book of the same name by Colleen ...
Metascore. 2. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell. Jan 19, 2024. After a car accident claims the life of his sister-in-law and leaves his 5-year-old nephew an orphan, a thirtysomething man named Thien (Le Phong Vu) leaves Saigon for a trip back to his rural hometown.
10. 20. >. Find the latest movie reviews from Empire, the world's biggest movie destination. Discover Empire's take on the latest cinema, Blu-ray and DVD releases.
Since the first two films in the 1980s, the sci-fi horror series has been a very mixed bag. But this latest gets back to basics, and makes for a superbly scary monster movie. There have already ...
Rotten Less than 60% of reviews for a movie or TV show are positive. Apply Tomatometer ® Clear all Close Certified Fresh A special distinction awarded to the best reviewed movies and TV Shows.
Update (8/10): We have 92 reviews in now, and Borderlands has gone from 0% to 3% to now settling at around 10%. This puts it outside much higher on the "worst video game adaptations ever" list ...
"Jackpot!" is a trashy and repetitive action comedy about greed and bloodlust set in a world full of people who are proud to be awful. Directed by Paul Feig ("Spy"), it's set in near-future Los Angeles, which begins to seem like a statement in itself as the movie goes along. There's a statewide lottery.
Alien: Romulus: Directed by Fede Alvarez. With Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced. While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 13, 2020. Jeffrey M. Anderson Common Sense Media. In a perfect world, this thriller, with its onslaught of stomach-churning "oh no!" moments, would've had a ...