Luna Guthrie

It's fairly common for creature features to be populated by characters we feel little to nothing for: flat, cardboard people whose only real purpose is to fill the runtime until they get eaten. Thrash does a solid job of avoiding this standard pitfall.

I imagine there are a select few out there whose taste in comedy earnestly leans towards the likes of dadaism, and they might find actual humor in this almost anti-comedic story. There are perhaps a few more who will get the odd sensible chuckle out of the movie and forget it ever existed within a month.

Through Wang's astute direction, some moving performances, and well-rounded vision, it is just as provocative as it needs to be, while making for a very entertaining watch.

Dolly is a miss of considerable proportions.

With its depth, style, and surprisingly outlandish ending, Night Patrol is the latest feather in Long's mightily-quilled cap.

It settles into a steady rhythm by the halfway point, and goes against the grain of your average survival thriller by emphasizing just how brutal and unfeeling nature is, regardless of how big and strong you are.

Rosemead is an absorbing and thoroughly heartbreaking movie that deals blow after grievous blow to its audience, and Lucy Liu is just astounding.

Ultimately, My Secret Santa feels like one of the more forgettable Christmas movies of the year. It is not funny or wacky enough to appeal to kids the way Doubtfire does, and it isn't charming or thoughtful enough to appeal to adults.

Sutherland truly is the star here, and he holds the movie in the palm of his hand. Between the self-deprecating humor and the 110% effort he puts into a silly British Christmas movie, he creates a really friendly and inviting vibe that just radiates off the screen.

The thoroughly entertaining villains should have played more of a role, as should the store, and the material should have been more comedy-focused and delivered by actors with more of a knack for it. Once this heist was over, they could have spun it out into sequels, where each year a new operation got underway. It's a shame that this one falls so flat.