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Vol. 2 is a great time at the mall multiplex, if not the nearly perfect blockbuster experience that Vol. 1 was. Faint praise perhaps, but then this first sequel has nearly impossible shoes to fill, as the origin movie was so effortless in its joyous affectations. Still, a great blockbuster like t…

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk sets a new standard in faux cinéma vérité, so extreme is its IMAX-sized verisimilitude. As to its subject, it’s not as if the Miracle of Dunkirk has been ignored in World War II movies, most recently forming the backdrop of Their Finest…

Kingsman II is a fully-realized exercise in high style, low blows, expensive tricks and lots of big laughs. You could call it a brilliant blockbuster, in the British sense of brilliant: bright, bold, brisk, buttoned down.

• Brilliant casting: The ensemble includes big stars old and new, with…

Black Panther joins Wonder Woman as the second cultural-phenomena superhero blockbuster in half a year, each a terrific specimen of the superhero genre, yet transcending it in social impact. Females saw themselves anew in Gal Gadot; The African diaspora gains a new and fantastic folklore in *…

12 Strong is no run-of-the-mill war movie, to be valued on its moral complexity and clever comebacks. No, 12 Strong is morally simple and often wooden, making it rather unfashionable in our morally confused era. Of course, we also live in the Islamist Era, sharing God’s Earth with a medieval …