PERIPHERY Toronto

The first six minutes of The Smashing Machine set the tone for what follows — slow, uninspired, and honestly, a bit dull. Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson both turn in lackluster performances, with little chemistry to make them believable. Some scenes between them are tough to sit through, and the writing and direction try to force emotional moments that never quite land. Too many scenes use exposition to try and tell the story - just show us the story. Even a simple story can be compelling, but here it feels like the director was determined to test our patience instead.

Gosh, the American military definitely won’t love House of Dynamite. The film paints them as a pack of untrained, overly emotional bumbling fools. Every single character seems to react to chaos in the exact same idiotic way. And the worst part? Having to sit through the same sequence three times (or was is four, who cares) — from the perspectives of mindless characters. Add in Bigelow’s overused handheld shaky-cam style, Rebecca Ferguson’s revolving door of accents, and the overacting all around, and it’s just exhausting. Skip it.

The villain feels like something out of a looney tunes cartoon, while DiCaprio’s rebel character behaves more like a quirky Coen Big Lebowski’s knock-off than a believable revolutionary — it’s hard to take him, or this film, seriously. Save your bucks.

Was forcing myself to kinda enjoy it until Episode 5 - it’s packed with bad moments and bizarre choices — Mia’s reactions make no sense, the backpack storyline is ridiculous , the lead detective continues to be inexplicably clueless - constantly jumping to conclusions, and the cops showing up at a sports game to “spot someone suspicious” feels straight out of a bad ’80s movie, the bad acting and direction at the rugby game. On and on…. The episode just keeps going down hill from the start. We couldn’t stop laughing.

This show is a mind-numbing parade of not very smart people making bad choices, and the writers have the audacity to ask you to care about characters you’d rather see go away.

Got to the end of episode 2. The writing, the acting, the everything - painful. Skip it.

Did anyone else nearly nod off during the endless submarine roaming or that drawn-out airplane sequence? Editors, where were you? This installment kinda lost its way—off-brand and lacking the signature charm and romance that made the earlier films so memorable. Its attempt at Mission: Impossible-style comedic banter fell flat. The overuse of flashbacks came off as self-congratulatory—like a victory lap about what the franchise did for the industry. Okay, yeah sure, we get it. But did we need that many? The storyline itself felt a bit dated and uninspired. It’s watchable, sure—but far from an essential must see. For a more thrilling ride, revisit one of the earlier entries in the series.

The Accountant 2 is a complete mess from start to finish. The script feels like it was slapped together in a weekend, the writing is uninspired, and the acting, ugh. Any attempts at improv (why so much improv?) fall flat, making scenes feel awkward and disjointed. The action, which should be a redeeming factor, is laughable and poorly choreographed. I genuinely pity the editors who had to piece this disaster into something vaguely resembling a film. It’s as if no one involved could agree on the tone, pacing, or even what kind of movie they were making. Watching this was painful. A sequel no one asked for—and one we definitely didn’t need.

This movie is kind of a mess. So many dropped storylines. Obvious they were made to edit it down. Robert P’s performance in this movie is the only reason to see it. Quite commendable. However Toni C’s played this character this way many times prior. Mark G’s performance channeling of Trump is way too direct. Their Hunger Games type banter seems old and gets tiring, especially in the latter half of the movie. They could have edited out a good 10 minutes of them. Nothing really new here visually. Story line and message is basic. Wait till it free streams.

The concept, the writing, content, scene construction, filmmaking, cinematography, JP…. all so impressive. Unfortunately LG ruins every scene she is in- wrongly cast. That wedding musical number? Painful. Shoulda cut that.