Nathan Weinbender

Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody broke out with Oscar-winning film "Juno," about a pregnant teenager with an acid tongue. Now they're on their third collaboration, "Tully," another story about pregnancy. But this one is much different and much bolder, and, Nathan Weinbender says, even better than that 2007 comedy. 

Nathan Weinbender takes a look at the new blockbuster, which he proclaims to be overstuffed and quite long, and actually, pretty fun!

The big winner at the box office last week was a mostly silent affair. A Quiet Place, directed by and starring John Krasinski, is about monsters that kill you if you make noise, and the film follows suit. It's also, Nathan Weinbender says, an effective exercise in mounting tension.

More than two decades ago, we were introduced to Lara Croft, the pistol-packing adventurer in the video game "Tomb Raider." She's inspired movies before but now she's back in a gritty reboot, and played by Oscar winner Alicia Vikander. Nathan Weinbender takes a lookat the new game-turned-film, which he says, is about as much fun as watching someone else play Nintendo. 

Madeleine L'Engle's novel A Wrinkle in Time has been a kid lit favorite since the '60s, but it's only now made its way to the big screen. Director Ava DuVernay has taken on the planet-hopping sci-fi odyssey, and Nathan Weinbender says it's a refreshingly earnest children's film that works better in theory than practice.

Just when you thought Hollywood had run out of movies to remake, here comes "Death Wish," starring Bruce Willis in a role originated by Charles Bronson. Nathan Weinbender takes a look at the rehashed vigilante thriller, which is no less reactionary than its predecessor and even more confused.  

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has now produced eighteen movies, all of them big hits, but none has seemed as seismic as Black Panther. Nathan Weinbender looks at the new cultural phenomenon, about a young African prince and his reign over the prosperous nation of Wakanda.

At 87, Clint Eastwood is still one of Hollywood's most active and unpredictable film makers, and his latest is the strange experiment in realism called The 15:17 to Paris. Nathan Weinbender takes a look at the film, which casts the real people involved in a 2015 terrorist attack and asks them to reenact it, but it's (unfortunately) not nearly as fascinating as it sounds.

If you're familiar with "National Lampoon" magazine, "Animal House" and "Caddyshack," you can blame Doug Kenney. The new Netflix biopic A Futile & Stupid Gesture, casts Will Forte as the legendary - and legendarily troubled - comedy writer, and while it's a noble attempt to upend the structure, Nathan Weinbender says the movie's title is sadly appropriate.

Over the course of three films, "The Purge" horror franchise had covered its outlandish violence with a thin veil of political satire. But with its fourth installment, a prequel called "The First Purge," the series takes a much darker turn, and Nathan Weinbendersays it's all the better for it.