Spike Walters

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Nicolas Cage makes a welcome return to Charlie Kaufman-like mind bending drama in “Dream Scenario.” He stars as Paul Matthews, a bald and schlubby college professor always clad in an ever present winter coat. His unremarkable life takes a turn when he mysteriously begins appearing in millions of people’s dreams.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Some Marvel movies are essential viewing for those following the ongoing advancements in the Marvel Cinema Universe (MCU). “The Marvels” is eminently skippable, and draws from so many different MCU properties it almost feels like you’d have to cram for a comic book final exam to understand half of what is going on.

Rating: 1.5/5.0

CHICAGO – For the uninitiated, “Five Nights At Freddy’s” is based on a popular series of video games with a simple premise … you play a security guard trapped inside a Chuck E Cheese-type pizzeria where the animatronics come to life and keep trying to kill you. Yet the biggest threat facing audiences with the film is that they just might die… of boredom.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – While Kenneth Branagh still isn’t a favorite Hercule Poirot, I was as surprised as anyone to find that this third go around as the Belgian detective was my favorite. As the title implies, there are jump scares a-plenty as Poirot tries to get his little gray cells around the strange goings-on in a spooky house, and solve the mystery.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – “Gran Turismo” uses the life story of a gamer named Jann Mardenborough to get its message across … he was a college dropout in the UK who used the hours spent behind the steering wheel in his bedroom to become a real race car driver. While the racing scenes deliver the goods, this poorly conceived piece of product placement never gets its narrative out of first gear.

Rating: 1.5/5.0

CHICAGO – “Strays” is a film that features a cast full of legitimately funny people, but this Hard-R-Rated talking dog movie poops out long before the final credits roll. The film tries to have heart, but is too busy making labored poo-poo jokes to give the schmaltz much gusto.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

CHICAGO – With “Oppenheimer,” director Christopher Nolan reminds us of what a blockbuster can be. They need not all be brain dead exercises in grunting and effects. Instead he delivers a thoughtful film that manages to synthesize complex elements like quantum physics into a piece of cinematic entertainment that just might be his most profound film yet.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – By all accounts the Indiana Jones series had nowhere to go but up after the woebegone “Crystal Skull.” But “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” manages to clear that admittedly low bar to add a sense of adventure back to the tales of the graying archeologist. That said there’s a certain pointlessness to the whole endeavor.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t hold back and gives it her all in the “Hard R” rated sex comedy “No Hard Feelings.” But despite her herculean efforts, the film only manages the occasional tee-hee when it should be scoring guffaws. You’ve got to hand it to Lawrence for going all in, I just wish the script rewarded her efforts.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – It amazes me to say it but with “The Flash” the DC cinematic universe has managed to actually make a movie that’s fun, for at least a little while. Even previously heralded DC movies like “Wonder Woman” left me cold with their incessant insistence on bludgeoning the audience with digital destruction.