Nelson Carvajal

"You know what my problem is with every fanatic fundamentalist, from the Catholics, to the Orthodox, to the KKK? The one thing you all have in common is, and you're too ignorant to see it, is that you're too inept to get by in the world, so your only recourse is to try and curtail the enjoyment of others." Those are some of the first words we hear at the start of Justin Kurzel's The Order, the best film of 2024.

Disney dropped a surprise TV spot of their upcoming live-action remake of Aladdin. It gave us our first look at Will Smith as the Genie, a role made legendary by the late Robin Williams in the 1992 animated feature. While it's unfair (and definitely too early) to say whether the film -- or Smith's complete performance -- will be a massive failure, it is fair to say that the visual effects rendering of Smith as the larger-than-life blue Genie is anything but impressive.

Josh Cooley's Toy Story 4 -- perhaps the bleakest entry of the series (and that's not a bad thing) -- I remembered how insanely serious this Pixar flagship really is. I'm not kidding. Remember the theme of mortality during that incinerator scene in Toy Story 3? This is heavy stuff for the targeted children audience. Toy Story 4 is no different — but instead of death it looks closely at the next scariest thing: breaking up with someone.