Karl Urban Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Karl Urban-whose latest project "Mortal Kombat II" releases in theaters today.

Karl Urban's Filmography Ranked:

16.The Loft (D+)

15.Priest (C-)

14.The Chronicles of Riddick (C)

13.The Bourne Supremacy (C) 

12.The Bluff (B-)

11.Riddick (B-)

10.Star Trek Beyond (B-)

9.Doom (B-)

8.Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (B-)

7.Acts of Vengeance (B) 

6.Red (B)

5.Star Trek Into Darkness (B+)

4.The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (B+)

3.Dredd (B+)

2.Star Trek (A)

1.Thor: Ragnarok (A)

Top Dog: Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Taika Waititi coming in and revitalizing Thor after The Dark World turned the Norse God into the MCU's biggest liability as a solo movie headliner is one of the best things that's ever happened in the history of this massive franchise. Ragnarok is a big, colorful blast of a movie that is unafraid to get weird and show off Chris Hemsworth's underutilized range by turning Thor into this magnetic goofball who is finally forced to be vulnerable as his home faces extinction from his estranged sister Hela (Cate Blanchett in a delightful scenery-chewing villain turn).

Bottom Feeder: The Loft (2015)

It would be very hard to find a throwback sleazeball thriller attempt that's as misguided as The Loft. Belgian director Erik Van Looy-who is remaking his own 2008 movie Loft in English!-establishes a bafflingly serious tone for a movie with a logline that basically amounts to "five friends find a dead woman in the luxury apartment that they all use for their extramarital affairs and have to figure out who is responsible for this unidentified corpse before the authorities are alerted", none of the actors save for Matthias Scohenaerts-who also appeared in the original-invest any energy into trying to sell the fractures in the group's dynamic that this heinous crime has exposed and the obligatory avalanche of plot twists that arrives in the final act is too clumsily deployed to provide the intended seismic reconfiguring of the lens that the preceding events are viewed through. 

Most Underrated: Dredd (2012)

Plan and simple, Dredd fucking tips. The bloody, slow motion-driven action sequences hit like a truck, the simple plotting and confined apartment complex setting keep the suspense at a very high level throughout and the interactions between Urban's stoic brute Judge Dredd and Lena Headey's cartoonishly evil drug lord Ma-Ma are consistently electrifying. I would be absolutely overjoyed if Urban finally got his longstanding wish to get a sequel off the ground.

Most Overrated: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Being on an island when it comes to Return of the King is one of the loneliest places you can ever find yourself in the world of movie takes. The reality is that I was very underwhelmed by this as a kid and that feeling has stuck with me as an adult. Padding out the runtime by tacking on nearly an hour of inert drama following the destruction of the ring adds a huge anticlimactic streak to what is supposed to be this soaring conclusion to an epic story. Looking back on it now, I'd argue that this creative choice proved to be a harbringer of what was to come with Peter Jackson's drawn-out adaptation of The Hobbit. Perhaps, a rewatch of the full trilogy would unlock something that I missed all of those years ago but for now, I remain firm in my belief that this is easily one of the most overrated movies I've ever watched.  

2026 NFL Position Rankings: Top 25 Quarterbacks

Blooming flowers and the promise that summer is within reach isn't the only thing that May always brings. That's right, there's also the considerably less exciting arrival of my annual NFL Position Ranking series. This was a tradition that was born out of pure boredom during the seemingly endless offseason about a decade ago and it's something that I really enjoy putting together every year. Here are a few notes on how this series works before we get started.

1.Rookies are barred from inclusion.

2.Players are judged on where they currently stand in my opinion, not the player they once were or could potentially go onto be.

3.Each player is listed as a member of the team they're currently rostered by. If a player is not on a roster at the time of the publishing of their position's rankings, they'll be listed as a free agent.

Quarterback has the honor of kicking things off as per usual and for the first time in a long time, there's a new guy occupying the top spot. Hope you enjoy and I encourage you to regularly check back over the next 8-9 weeks as the remainder of the series is published. 

()=2025 ranking 

+=Unranked or ineligible in 2025

25.(16) Kyler Murray (Vikings)

24.(+) Kirk Cousins (Raiders)

23.(+) Jacoby Brissett (Cardinals)

22.(23) Bryce Young (Panthers)

21.(25) Aaron Rodgers (Steelers)

20.(+) Daniel Jones (Colts)

19.(12) C.J. Stroud (Texans)

18.(+) Bo Nix (Broncos)

17.(8) Jayden Daniels (Commanders)

16.(11) Baker Mayfield (Buccaneers)

15.(24) Caleb Williams (Bears)

14.(18) Trevor Lawrence (Jaguars)

13.(9) Jared Goff (Lions)

12.(13) Brock Purdy (49ers)

11.(17) Jordan Love (Packers)

10.(20) Drake Maye (Patriots)

9.(5) Jalen Hurts (Eagles)

8.(10) Dak Prescott (Cowboys)

7.(6) Justin Herbert (Chargers)

6.(15) Sam Darnold (Seahawks)

5.(2) Lamar Jackson (Ravens)

4.(4) Joe Burrow (Bengals)

3.(1) Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs)

2.(7) Matthew Stafford (Rams)

1.(3) Josh Allen (Bills)

Movie Review: Deep Water

 

Picture this: It's the first weekend of the summer movie season and you're in the lobby of your local multiplex. Among the offerings playing is a Renny Harlin-directed disaster movie-turned-shark survival thriller starring Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley and Angus Sampson. A reasonable follow up question would be what year is it? 1998? 2004? Perhaps, 2010? Believe it or not, this was a scenario that could've played out if you had walked into any of the 1,675 theaters in the United States/Canada that were playing Deep Water this past weekend. What's just as surprising as something like this making its way to the big screen in 2026 is that it's a legitimately solid piece of throwback entertainment.

Deep Water is the kind of movie that Harlin should always be considered for but rarely gets hired to make these days. His largely uninspiring filmography over the past 25 years has painted a distorted picture of who he is as a filmmaker and getting the chance to direct this two-for-one schlock special is his way of proving that he's still the same guy he was in the 90's when he was one of Hollywood's preferred hires when they needed a reliable pro to direct a dumb blockbuster. The pride he takes in being able to stage a massive plane crash that kills dozens of people via flying objects, slamming their heads off their tray tables, etc. then immediately shift gears to having the some of the people that survived the impact of the plane hitting the open ocean water promptly get eaten by sharks can be felt through the screen. This material doesn't require buy-in from the director, but Harlin can't help but get earnestly invested in the plight of these one-note characters, their struggle to survive back-to-back catastrophic events and the horrific dismemberment of the (mostly) unlikable souls who don't make it out of the shark-infested, debris-filled waters alive. After seeing him slip back into his old form here, I'm actually kind of excited to see what he did on the whale attack movie he made with Melissa Barrera and 2-4 Travoltas last summer.

Deep Water isn't the next Deep Blue Sea (although there are a few moments in the final 20 minutes where Harlin channels the same demented over-the-top cartoonish energy that made that movie so much fun), let alone the next Jaws. It is however a reminder of the special entertainment value that a disaster/survival movie that's earnestly cheesy and dumb enough can hold. This is a recipe that has threatened to be lost with time, and it was nice to see a trusted steward of its legacy allow it to stave off extinction for now by cooking up a damn fine meal with it at a time where it was widely believed he longer knew his way around a kitchen. 

Grade: B-

Movie Review: Hokum

Hollywood has tasked the blockbuster trio of The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Mandalorian & Grogu and Mortal Kombat II with being the primary driver of audiences to theaters during the month of May. What's lurking in the shadows and eager to feast on whatever scraps come their way during this opening month of 2026's summer movie season is a whole lot of horror movies. There are a whopping five horror movies releasing in May (which as of this writing, is more than June-August combined!) and this upcoming weekend is the only one this month that doesn't have one on the calendar. Batting leadoff in this spooky lineup is the Neon-backed supernatural/psychological chiller Hokum from Irish filmmaker Damian Mc Carthy (Oddity, Caveat). If Hokum is a harbinger of what's to come from Obsession, Passenger, Corporate Retreat and Backrooms in the coming weeks, this is going to be a very enjoyable stretch for fans of the horror genre. 

The setup to Hokum is a pretty familiar one as it centers around an American writer (a really terrific Adam Scott) who travels to Ireland to spread the ashes of his deceased parents outside of the remote countryside hotel they honeymooned at, only to quick discover that this idyllic place is haunted by a witch and some other evils that aren't of the supernatural variety. Seeing another story involving a haunted hotel and tortured creatives confronting the trauma that made them miserable is going to have zero appeal to some folks out there that have had their fill of movies that are in the mold of The Shining or 1408 over the years. Safe to say, I'm not one of these people. Once Hokum settles into a groove after a pretty slow first act where it establishes the central players that are going to help make this writer's trip to Ireland unforgettable (the desk clerk who is seemingly only employed there because he's the owner's son-in-law, a psychedelic mushroom-loving drifter with a troubling past who lives in a van in the woods next to the hotel, a friendly bartender who is the only member of the hotel staff that Scott's prickly character is even somewhat nice to, the aspiring writer bellhop who is naive enough to believe that a famous author would be anything other than bluntly dismissive upon being asked if they were interested in reading a stranger's manuscript, the hotheaded groundskeeper) and a bit of folklore surrounding the witch that haunts the hotel's long decommissioned honeymoon suite, the film becomes so fucking terrifying that I didn't give two shits about any similarities it may or may not have shared with other movies.  

It's been quite a bit since I've watched a haunted house movie where it felt like the main character was being haunted by a dangerous evil that could be lurking around every corner. The seemingly endless corridors and ambient wall-mounted lighting that run through the hotel are designed in a way that screams "SOMETHING EVIL LIVES WITHIN THESE WALLS" without feeling like they were explicitly built as a nightmare playground for a horror movie. Naturally, this feeling of unease and inherent creepiness intensifies when the action eventually shifts to the honeymoon suite. This long vacant space is a cavernous maze full of secret tunnels and old elevators that serve as portals to various evils that are better left unspoken until you actually see the movie. Trapping the viewer in an area where the sense of confinement and danger from the various threats the protagonist is facing aren't just seen but felt in the deepest pits of your stomach is the most surefire way to know that a horror movie has done its job and Mc Carthy finds so much success on that front that I hope the producers give him a bonus for all of the internal distress he caused through the relentlessly nightmarish materialization of his vision.  

Hokum isn't quite as successful with handling the subtext around the long-held trauma that has made Scott's character the miserable loner alcoholic writer he is today. But when the movie is this scary and compelling, it becomes a lot easier to forgive a somewhat underwritten emotional arc that forces the main character to finally obtain the courage to face their inner demons. Mc Carthy is well on his way to keep on rising through the horror ranks and may he not lose sight of the meticulous visceral craftsmanship that fueled his ascent once he moves onto bigger projects. 

Grade: B+

Aaron Eckhart Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Aaron Eckhart-whose latest project "Deep Water" releases in theaters tonight. 

Aaron Eckhart's Filmography Ranked:

16.The Bricklayer (D)

15.The Pledge (D+)

14.Any Given Sunday (C-)

13.I, Frankenstein (C)

12.Paycheck (C)

11.Line of Duty (C)

10.The Rum Diary (B-)

9.Battle: Los Angeles (B-)

8.London Has Fallen (B-)

7.Olympus Has Fallen (B-)

6.Bleed for This (B)

5.Thank You for Smoking (B)

4.Erin Brockovich (B)

3.Sully (B)

2.Rabbit Hole (B+)

1.The Dark Knight (B+)

Top Dog: The Dark Knight (2008)

While I'm downright negative on it compared to a lot of people out there, The Dark Knight is an unquestionable cultural touchstone movie that really cemented Christopher Nolan as the Hollywood pillar that he is today and provided the world with one final showcase of the late Heath Ledger's extraordinary talent with his career-defining turn as The Joker. 

Bottom Feeder: The Bricklayer (2024)

Deep Water is the second collaboration between Eckhart and Renny Harlin in recent years. It won't take much for it to be an improvement over their first. Ironically, The Bricklayer is considered to be one of the better VOD action vehicles Eckhart has fronted since he got demoted to Hollywood's minor leagues in the late 2010's and if that's the case, I'm glad that I haven't bothered to watch the ones that are viewed as the worst. This is just a completely lifeless slog with incoherent action and an even more incoherent espionage thriller storyline that takes itself far too seriously for something that's so deeply stupid at its core. Both Harlin and Eckhart are above this kind of thing and it's a shame to see them be forced to take on these kinds of projects to remain steadily employed.  

Most Underrated: Rabbit Hole (2010)

Thumbing through streaming service to find a couple of Nicole Kidman titles to watch for this piece ahead of the release of The Northman 4 years ago this month led me to watching Rabbit Hole and I'm thankful that it happened to be on HBO Max at that time because this is a great little movie that otherwise would've evaded my radar. Kidman and Eckhart are terrific are a married couple trying to put the pieces of their life back together after their 4-year-old son is killed in a tragic accident and the film manages to tackle the grieving process with a full compassionate heart without glossing over the ugly emotions that accompany it or resorting to shamelessly over-the-top melodrama to upsell the emotional turmoil its characters are facing. 

Most Overrated: Any Given Sunday (1999)

The timing of Any Given Sunday showing up here once again couldn't be more impeccable as some clips from it have been recirculating online in honor of Al Pacino celebrating his 86th birthday last weekend. Oliver Stone let's all of his worst impulses take the wheel here as he churns out a cartoonish, shockingly dull examination of the petty, ego-driven landscape that is a professional football organization. Pacino and Jamie Foxx's swagger gives the movie pulse at times, but a couple of cool scenery-chewing performances can't provide this film with the level of maximalist spark it needs to deliver on its aspirations to be a relentlessly chaotic gridiron soap opera.

10 Most Anticipated Albums of Summer 2026

10.Your Spirit Dies-It Is Well... (Release Date: May 22)

9.Ariana Grande-Petal (Release Date: July 31)

8.Vince Staples-Cry Baby (Release Date: June 5)

7.Boundaries-Yearning: The Unbeautiful After (Release Date: July 17)

6.Genesis Owusu-Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge (Release Date: May 15)

5.Periphery-A Pale White Dot (Release Date: May 15)

4.Static Dress-Injury Episode (Release Date: May 29)

3.August Burns Red-Season of Surrender (Release Date: June 5)

2.Converge-Hum of Hurt (Release Date: June 5)

1.Loathe-A Stranger to You (Release Date: July 17)

Also Plan on Listening To:

Haste the Day-Dissenter (Release Date: May 1)

Isaiah Rashad-It's Been Awful (Release Date: May 1)

Kacey Musgraves-Middle of Nowhere (Release Date: May 1)

Frozen Soul-No Place of Warmth (Release Date: May 8)

Ingested-Denigration (Release Date: May 8)

Drake-Iceman (Release Date: May 15)

JPEGMAFIA-Experimental Rap (Release Date: May 21)

Sublime-Until the Sun Explodes (Release Date: June 5)

Kelsey Lu-So Help Me God (Release Date: June 12)

Olivia Rodrigo-You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love (Release Date: June 12)

Muse-The Wow! Signal (Release Date: June 26)

Electric Callboy-Tanzeid (Release Date: August 7)

10 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2026

Somehow someway, the beginning of the summer movie season is imminent. What Hollywood has lined up for the next four months is frankly absurd and should have theater owners doing cartwheels. Starting this week with The Devil Wears Prada 2 and running up until roughly the beginning of August when Spider-Man: Brand New Day debuts , there's a near constant stream of huge titles on the docket that should inspire many a "Is the box office back to pre-pandemic levels?!?" pieces in the trades. 

Beyond this lengthy hit parade, there's still a lot of intrigue to be found including a deep slate of horror titles (Hokum, Obsession, Passenger, Backrooms, Leviticus, Evil Dead Burn, Ice Cream Man, Insidious: Out of the Further), Jason Statham's latest massacre of human traffickers (Mutiny), Will Gluck's attempt to replicate the success of Anyone But You with another R-rated romcom led by a pair of rising stars (One Night Only), audacious indies from some of Hollywood's favorite weirdo filmmakers (I Love Boosters, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, I Want Your Sex) and of course, a family comedy about a group of sheep trying to solve the murder of their shepherd (The Sheep Detectives). 

Here are the 10 movies currently set to release from May-August that I'm most excited to see. Hope you enjoy. 

Already seen and really enjoyed: Obsession (May 15)

10.Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31):

The ending of No Way Home left MCU Peter Parker in a dark, lonely place and with Destin Daniel Cretton taking over the directorial duties from Jon Watts, I'm cautiously optimistic that he'll be able to pull off the big tonal shift that accompanies this stage of Parker's journey and make the best Tom Holland-era Spider-Man movie yet. 

9.Tuner (May 22):

Documentarian Daniel Roher's narrative feature debut quietly drew strong reviews on the festival circuit last fall, and its plot surrounding a piano tuner with hypersensitive hearing (Leo Woodall) who inadvertently discovers he has a gift for cracking safes sounds like a really unique spin on the heist/ crime thriller genre. 

8.Carolina Caroline (June 5):

We've seen quite a few Bonnie and Clyde-style crime romances over the years, but Carolina Caroline is the first one to be led by the perpetually underrated Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner and helmed by soulful indie filmmaker Adam Carter Rehmeier. If all of the ingredients are blended together properly, this could be one of the season's most endearing gems.   

7.Hokum (May 1):

Kicking off May's particularly busy horror slate is this Irish folk horror flick from Damian Mc Carthy, whose profile raised significantly after the release of his last feature Oddity in the summer of 2024. Hokum has picked up a good amount of buzz since it premiered to strong reviews at SXSW last month and the trailer has an eerie atmosphere that gives off the vibe of a good old fashioned campfire ghost story.  

6.Toy Story 5 (June 19):

Oddly enough, I feel like Toy Story 5 is a more "necessary" sequel than Toy Story 4 as it confronts the very timely issue of technology infringing on the space that toys used to occupy and what impact that can have on a child's capacity to use their imagination, find joy through play, etc. Plus, Pixar legend Andrew Stanton finally getting to direct an entry in the franchise that he helped build as a writer and animator just feels right. 

5.Supergirl (June 26):

A moody space western about Superman's cousin (Mily Alcock) embarking on an intergalactic mission to save her beloved dog Krypto from dying is precisely the kind of big swing James Gunn promised he would take when he was hired as the creative head of DC Studios in the fall of 2022. Alcock looks to be very well-cast as the cynical hero who's tortured by witnessing the death of her home planet, the action scenes teased in the trailers look really cool and getting to see Jason Momoa take on the role of Lobo after actively campaigning for it for so long should be a real treat. 

4.Jackass: Best and Last (June 26):

While I felt that Jackass Forever was kind of the perfect sendoff for the crew, I'm never going to be anything less than thrilled to spend 90 or so minutes watching these reckless goofballs inflict harm on themselves in the name of making an audience laugh.

3.The Invite (June 26):

Olivia Wilde was in desperate need of a bounceback directorial effort after the drama-filled rollout of Don't Worry Darling and all indications are that that she was able to pull it off with The Invite. This intimate dramedy starring Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, Penelope Cruz and Wilde herself inspired an old school frenzied bidding war following its rowdy Sundance premiere in January and the victor in that battle (A24) made it one of the cornerstones of their summer release slate, which is a really encouraging sign of just how much confidence they have in its ability to succeed as a counterprogramming option in this titan-filled portion of the calendar.  

2.Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (August 7):

I Saw the TV Glow is a completely singular piece of filmmaking that provided a clear window into what it feels like when a person has to grapple with their gender identity. Whatever Jane Schoenbrun cooked up next was going to land in a prime spot on my most anticipated movies of the year list and their take on the slasher genre that features an absolutely insane collection of actors (Hannah Einbinder, Gillan Anderson, Eva Victor, Jack Haven, Sarah Sherman, Zach Cherry, Patrick Fischler, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Quintessa Swindell, Dylan Baker) sounds it like could be another mesmerizing face-melter.   

1.The Furious (June 12):

Action movie buffs have been starved of the experience of seeing a pure martial arts spectacle on the big screen for far too long. That all changes with The Furious. Japanese director Kenji Tanigaki was able to assemble a cast featuring a number of virtuoso martial artists from all over the world (Mo Tse, Joe Taslim, Brian Le, Yayan Ruhian, Jeeja Yanin) for this project and unsurprisingly given the pedigree of these folks, the early word is that the fight choreography here is some of the most insane ever committed to film. If The Furious can match or exceed the quality of The Raid movies, there's a real chance that I'll levitate out of the theater. 

Also Plan on Seeing:

Deep Water (May 1)

The Devil Wears Prada 2 (May 1)

One Spoon of Chocolate (May 1)

Mortal Kombat II (May 8)

The Sheep Detectives (May 8)

In the Grey (May 15)

Is God Is (May 15)

I Love Boosters (May 22)

Passenger (May 22)

Saccharine (May 22)

Backrooms (May 29)

Power Ballad (May 29)

Masters of the Universe (June 5)

Scary Movie (June 5)

Disclosure Day (June 12)

Maddie's Secret (June 12)

The Death of Robin Hood (June 19)

Leviticus (June 19)

Voicemails for Isabelle (June 19)

Little Brother (June 26)

Evil Dead Burn (July 10)

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass (July 10)

The Odyssey (July 17)

72 Hours (July 24)

Motor City (July 24)

I Want Your Sex (July 31)

The Last House (August 7)

One Night Only (August 7)

Super Troopers 3 (August 7)

The End of Oak Street (August 14)

The Rivals of Amziah King (August 14)

The Wrong Girls (August 14)

Mutiny (August 21)

Spa Weekend (August 21)

Coyote vs. Acme (August 28)

The Dog Stars (August 28)

Idiots (August 28)

The Whisper Man (August 28)