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“M3GAN,” Reviewed: A Clever, Hollow A.I. Spin on “Frankenstein”

The essence of genre is effects without causes—things showing up to fulfill expectations rather than dramatic necessities. “M3GAN,” a science-fiction-based horror caper, provides a clever batch of these effects in this gleefully clever twist on the “Frankenstein” theme, and its director, Gerard Johnstone, seems to be laughing up his sleeve throughout. It’s that very knowingness, the deftness with which the film gets a rise from viewers, which makes a good time feel hollow. There’s a different, far more substantial movie lurking within, yet the virtues of efficiency, clarity, surprise, and wit that enliven the one that’s actually onscreen leave its merely implied substance tantalizingly unformed.

Allison Williams plays Gemma, a type-A robotics engineer with a big toy company in Seattle, Funki, that prospers by selling cheesily interactive furry toys called PurrPetual Petz. Gemma has bigger ideas. She has been working in secret, along with a pair of colleagues (Jen Van Epps and Brian Jordan Alvarez), on a boldly ambitious, potentially transformative project: a lifelike, life-size robotic doll equipped with A.I. that will serve children as a ready-made and full-time friend on demand. While Gemma is working, tragedy strikes: her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car crash. Her young niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), survives with only slight injuries, and Gemma becomes her legal guardian. Gemma, who lives alone, has little talent for parenting; on Cady’s first night in her aunt’s pristine house, Gemma reminds the child to put her bedside water glass on a coaster lest it stain the wood of the table.

Meanwhile, Gemma’s boss, David (Ronny Chieng), discovers Gemma’s secret invention and angrily orders her to work on a boringly commercial project. Instead, Gemma goes rogue and gets the titular A.I. robot ready for a test—for which she recruits Cady. (With its silicone face, M3gan, voiced by Jenna Davis, is eerily similar to a real child—a white girl, though Gemma and her colleagues foresee marketing the robot in a variety of shades to reflect different ethnicities. There’s no talk of a male version.) Cady quickly grows attached to M3gan (an acronym for Model 3 Generative Android), and Gemma brings the robot home, three birds with one stone: a playmate (and distraction) for Cady, a break from parenting for Gemma, an extreme test for the potential product. Gemma gives M3gan a mission to protect Cady from “emotional and physical harm,” but has neglected to build parental controls into the device, and has also neglected to build in guardrails of conduct, the mechanical equivalent of a moral code. Soon, M3gan, programmed to link with Cady as the primary user, takes the task of protecting her with ferocious literalness. A neighbor’s dog is perceived by M3gan as a mortal enemy; so is the dog’s owner (Lori Dungey); so is a bullying child (Jack Cassidy). Even a sympathetic psychologist (Amy Usherwood) risks being labelled a menace.

Johnstone endows M3gan with an arch, chilly, and chilling repertory of facial expressions and verbal inflections. The A.I. device’s learning curve is prodigious, and what M3gan calculates, very quickly, is that the best defense is a good offense. It goes from learning to recognize toys and means of conveyance to the use of power tools, driving a car, and computer hacking—and turns into a devastatingly efficient, ever-improving killing machine. What’s more, with its singular mission to protect Cady getting defined ever more broadly, M3gan becomes as hostile to anyone who’d shut it down as to anyone who’d mean harm to Cady. The robot’s mounting megalomania is the most fascinating aspect of “M3GAN”: in effect, the living doll turns into a little dictator and discovers, by way of its interaction with humans, how to instill fear—with taunting, with humor, with sarcasm, with lies, and with threats of cruelty. And, when threats turn into realities, M3gan has an autocrat’s instinct for covering tracks, destroying evidence, creating plausible deniability, and, when necessary, silencing witnesses.

The simulation of a mental life for M3gan is the most absorbing part of the movie. Johnstone (working with a script by Akela Cooper, who wrote the story with James Wan) offers images from M3gan’s visual point of view—a video screen that shows the robot’s camera scanning the environment, framing people and objects, and, in superimposed text, calculating, in real time, human subjects’ range of emotions, on a numerical scale. In these fleeting images, “M3GAN” passes into the question of what it would be like to be M3gan—whether an A.I. robot can be considered to have a sense of identity and an inner life, and, if so, what that experience would be. How does M3gan’s computer memory relate to human memory? How does its array of perceptions get converted into decisions? The mere tease of a theme is all the more frustrating inasmuch as impersonation proves to be one of the robot’s more fascinating skills—synthesizing the voices of others, for good or ill—and memory turns out to be one of its more useful functions, as a seeming repository of its owner’s life, a vast stock of home video and voice recordings.

If the movie suffers from the absence of a more substantial development of the titular robot’s character, it’s not least because “M3GAN” similarly stints on developing its human characters and doesn’t suggest what it would be like to be any of them, either. The script’s tut-tutting sketch of Gemma’s cold careerism, indifferent parenting, and hubristic engineering is suspended in a void that’s filled merely by Williams’s actorly presence and her recognizable persona. Cady is similarly undefined, and the supporting characters of colleagues and corporate overlords are reduced to clichés. (The movie merely winks and nods at the issue of children’s screen time.) These stock characters and the conventions that they fit into are ready-made to serve as a solid communal basis for daring efforts and wide-ranging audacities—to meet expectations in order to go beyond them. Instead, they merely furnish a flat backdrop to the exuberantly diabolical display of M3gan’s Machiavellian wiles and the Grand Guignol ingenuity of its methods of mayhem. ♦

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The marketing for "M3gan" has leaned into the uncanny spectacle of the title character, a four-foot-tall cyborg with big doe eyes, a ratty wig, and the wardrobe of a closeted lesbian headmistress in a '50s melodrama. And it seems to be working: A well-placed GIF here, an activation with a half-dozen women in M3gan drag there, and Blumhouse—always expert at creating buzz—has generated more interest in "M3gan" than there's been for the last five horror films dumped into the bleak theatrical landscape of early January. But the company could have gone another route as well. In case you haven't heard, this film comes to you from the writer of " Malignant ." 

For that film, James Wan directed a script by Akela Cooper , a longtime TV writer with a sideline in horror screenplays. The duo perfectly calibrated the movie's blend of haunted-house scares and outrageous grotesquerie, enough to make "Malignant" a viral hit when it was released on HBO Max in the fall of 2021. Now Cooper is a horror screenwriter who also works in television, and she's been brought into the Blumhouse fold to develop a sequel to the "Conjuring"-verse spin-off " The Nun " as well as writing "M3gan" from a story by herself and Wan. 

Like "Malignant," "M3gan" knows it's ridiculous. It fills a kiddie pool with ridiculousness and splashes around in it. Cooper's screenplay for "M3gan" is more overtly comedic than "Malignant," however, and has a more populist type of appeal as a result. (The audience at a Chicago preview of the film went crazy for it.) The themes are your classic "science gone amok" fare seen in everything from "Frankenstein" to " Jurassic Park ," combined with a more modern throughline exploring anxieties about motherhood and filtered through the knowingly silly lens of the "tiny terrors" subgenre. "Child's Play" is the most famous example of that last category, and many comparisons have been and will be made between M3gan (an acronym for "Model 3 Generative ANdroid") and Chucky. Their motivations are different, however: Chucky's boy Andy was a victim of his doll as much as anyone else, while M3gan is fiercely protective of her girl, nine-year-old Cady ( Violet McGraw ). 

The film opens with a sequence that establishes its subsequent tone of garish satire and mischievous morbidity, as Cady plays with an obnoxious Furby-like toy called a Purrpetual Pet in the backseat of a car. She and her parents are on their way to an Oregon ski lodge for a winter vacation—until a snow plow appears out of nowhere, " Final Destination " style, and kills Cady's parents. Cut to Gemma ( Allison Williams ), an inventor working for a high-tech toy company called Funki in Seattle. Gemma is Cady's aunt and the girl's legal guardian now that her sister and brother-in-law are dead. 

But Gemma isn't a motherly type. She's too busy with work to spend much time with Cady, for one. And although she works for a toy company, she keeps her toys—sorry, collectibles —in their boxes and on a shelf in her living room. But these two are now the only family the other one has. So they'll have to learn to live together, at least well enough to satisfy a court-ordered psychiatrist who's skeptical about Gemma's parenting abilities.

Enter M3gan, who seems like the perfect solution to Gemma's problem. An experimental prototype with a " Short Circuit " - style ability to memorize infinite amounts of information, M3gan can act as a teacher and babysitter who reminds Cady to use a coaster and wash her hands after using the bathroom. She's what every kid needs, and every parent secretly wants: A 24/7 companion who frees up parents to live their own lives while their kids are preoccupied with their dolls. She's going to make Gemma's boss very, very rich—so rich, he rushes M3gan through beta testing with Cady as their only subject. That can't go horribly wrong in any unforeseen way, right? 

With nimble direction from " Housebound " helmer Gerard Johnstone , "M3gan" does a good job of holistically incorporating its themes without being too heavy-handed. Sure, it's technically "about" grief and what happens when the creation surpasses its creator. But more than that, it's "about" pithy one-liners and black comedy and the unsettling sight of something that looks like a human being but doesn't move or sound like one. The plot does have a few weak points and dangling threads, and the PG-13 rating ensures that the violence is tamped down before it can reach its full bloody potential. (A promising sequence of doll-based mayhem late in the film abruptly cuts off, suggesting MPAA-mandated cuts.) But the tongue-in-cheek tone is so consistent that "M3gan" is a hoot anyway. 

Johnstone reaps seemingly endless rewards from the uncanny valley aspect of M3gan's character. He directs the petite stunt women who play her to move in odd, jerky gestures, which at different points recall everything from "Robocop" scanning criminals' faces to Samara crawling out of the TV in " The Ring " to voguers high on their fabulousness. (He also uses what I can only describe as "skinned Furby" aesthetics at critical points throughout the film.) Combined with the doll's sassy comebacks and dowdy sartorial sense, the effect is true camp—something that's difficult to pull off in our irony-saturated age.

The quintessential "M3gan" moment comes midway through, when Cady and Gemma take a field trip to check out an alternative school Cady might be able to attend while Gemma is at work during the day. A teacher comes up to Gemma's car, sees what she thinks are two girls sitting in the back seat, and greets them both. M3gan turns towards the woman with a stiff neck rotation and a whirring sound. "Jesus Christ!" the teacher cries, jumping backward and exhaling a nervous laugh. The audience laughs along with her. It's the sensible response to seeing something like M3gan in the wild—it's only through conditioning (or, in this case, advertising) that we learn to love her. 

Now playing in theaters. 

Katie Rife is a freelance writer and critic based in Chicago with a speciality in genre cinema. She worked as the News Editor of  The A.V. Club  from 2014-2019, and as Senior Editor of that site from 2019-2022. She currently writes about film for outlets like  Vulture, Rolling Stone, Indiewire, Polygon , and  RogerEbert.com.

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M3GAN (2023)

Rated PG-13 for violent content and terror, some strong language and a suggestive reference.

102 minutes

Allison Williams as Gemma

Violet McGraw as Cady Ryan

Jenna Davis as M3GAN (voice)

Amie Donald as M3GAN

Jen Van Epps as Tess

Brian Jordan Alvarez as Cole

Ronny Chieng as David Lin

Stephane Garneau-Monten as Kurt

Michael Saccente as Greg

• Gerard Johnstone

Writer (story by)

• Akela Cooper

Cinematographer

• Peter McCaffrey
• Jeff McEvoy
• Anthony Willis

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M3GAN First Reviews: A Surprisingly Fun and Funny Horror Icon Is Born

Critics say the campy sci-fi horror flick leans into its ridiculous premise and runs with it, even if it's hampered a bit by its pg-13 rating..

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , movies

January has long been considered a dumping ground for movies that are expected to perform poorly, but M3GAN could be an exception, given the stellar reviews for the Blumhouse horror-comedy. The movie built up anticipation with its trailers, which went viral for their fun tone, and now critics are confirming that M3GAN is indeed a campy delight that’s worth seeing. Despite killer dolls and AI gone wrong being common in the horror and sci-fi genres, the production team of Jason Blum and James Wan , aided by everything and everyone that went into the portrayal of the titular toy, apparently have made a fresh and entertaining movie to start off 2023.

Here’s what critics are saying about M3GAN :

Is M3GAN a new horror icon?

She’s absolutely f—ing nuts, and what fun to watch her play. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

The deliciously menacing doll steals every scene… M3GAN is fascinating to watch, whether she’s staring out a window with unnerving intent, busting some contortionist moves, or simply cocking her head in a sudden tilt that induces both shivers and snickers. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

She is methodical and downright scary at times — but it is always for what she thinks is a good cause, and that is something that doesn’t happen every day. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

She gets too wisecracking in the end — but otherwise she’s a fresh and sinister addition to the canon. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

M3GAN’ s greatest shortcoming is that the human characters aren’t nearly as entertaining as she is… Whenever she isn’t on screen, including during the movie’s setup, things don’t operate quite as well. – Karl Delossantos, Smash Cut Reviews

A genre star is born from motherboards and violence. – Matt Donato, IGN Movies

(Photo by Geoffrey Short/©Universal Pictures)

How does the film stand out in its genre?

M3GAN sets itself apart from its predecessors by embracing the silliness of the premise and catering directly to the internet audience. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

M3GAN fits into a tradition of demon-doll movies going back to the Karen Black episode of Trilogy of Terror and the Annabelle trilogy (also produced by Wan), but it has its own amusing throwaway token relevance. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

A deeper understanding of the characters distinguishes M3GAN from other movies. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

Its creators are so clearly on the same insane wavelength, nimbly blending camp and social satire and actual terror, that M3GAN is poised to crack the murder-doll pantheon and stay there forever. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

The script by Akela Cooper (from a story by Cooper and producer James Wan) is a bit wittier than your standard slasher fare. – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

The thing about formulaic movies like M3GAN is that sometimes they get it right… Laced with a nasty wit and passive cynicism, M3GAN is a surprisingly fun thriller. – Norman Gidney, HorrorBuzz

Does it deliver on gore?

Some scenes, like [an] ear-ripping scene, flirt with a more violent and grisly outcome, only to fall back into PG-13 territory. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

It’s not exactly light on the bloodshed, but it’s not aiming for a high amount of gore, either. – Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment

How much more fun could M3GAN be were its murderous creation really allowed to let loose? Instead, the film is forced to look away from the gruesome stuff and keep the body count relatively low. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

Are there any breakout performances?

Violet McGraw is a rock star in this film. She is pure perfection… That girl is going places, so keep an eye on her. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

The MVP of M3GAN is the young Violet McGraw, whose multifaceted performance adeptly showcases the emotional intensity of Cady’s situation… McGraw’s performance really lands. – Jeff Ewing, Slashfilm

(Photo by ©Universal Pictures)

Is there more to M3GAN than meets the eye?

Beneath the ridiculous antics of its uncanny-valley villain and Black Mirror -knockoff plot lies a surprisingly touching story about grief and family bonds. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

While being practically built for meme/gif culture, it’s still a film attempting to tackle ideas surrounding grief and the over-reliance on technology to handle life’s problems. – Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment

For every scene in which M3GAN seems to be auditioning for Drag Race , there is another scene grounded in some kind of reality — or, at least, a sense of stakes. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

Not so subtle messages about relying too much on electronic devices — especially when parenting — adds to the humor and fun of the film. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

The majority of the movie is infinitely more serious and sad, resulting in a slightly imbalanced but nevertheless rewarding experience. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

Is M3GAN going to be an internet sensation?

M3GAN is made to be memed. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

M3GAN manages to transform its well-trod elements into a tense, engaging horror-comedy outing with a keen eye for tongue-in-cheek and meme-worthy scenes. – Jeff Ewing, Slashfilm

Will we want a sequel?

Viewers will leave theaters wanting more of her, and fingers crossed we get it. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

If it really happens in the future, I do hope James Wan and Gerard Johnstone can come up with something that isn’t sticking too close to the usual formula. – Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania

M3GAN opens everywhere on January 6, 2022.

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A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like robot doll that begins to take on a life of its own. A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like robot doll that begins to take on a life of its own. A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like robot doll that begins to take on a life of its own.

• Gerard Johnstone
• Akela Cooper
• Allison Williams
• Violet McGraw
• Ronny Chieng
• 992 User reviews
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• 72 Metascore
• 4 wins & 31 nominations

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Did you know

• Trivia Amie Donald performed any of M3GAN's scenes that called for physical movement the puppet could not do. She also performed all of her own stunt work. Donald received movement coaching from Jed Brophy and Luke Hawker in portraying M3GAN's agility. On set, Donald wore a static silicone M3GAN mask created by Morot FX, and this was later replaced by a CGI version of M3GAN's face to match that of the animatronic.
• Goofs At around 1:17, M3gan uses the frame she was suspended from to hoist Cole up off the ground, almost succeeding in hanging him. But this would only be possible if M3gan was heavier than Cole (because the cable was just strung through a simple pulley - a one to one ratio, with no mechanical advantage) And earlier, M3gan was light enough for a 12yo boy to easily carry; Certainly not the same weight as even the lightest adult man.

M3gan : Cady, seriously, flush the toilet.

• Alternate versions Unrated version restores various scenes which were trimmed/replaced for violence and language to secure a PG-13 rating.
• Connections Featured in Double Toasted: IS M3GAN'S MARKETING TOO MUCH? (2023)
• Soundtracks Purrpetual Pets (Theme) Written by Madison Davey, Tai Fronzaroli , Gerard Johnstone , and Devin S. Norris Performed by Devin S. Norris (as dv/sn), Madison Davey, Väärin Produced by Yellotone Music

User reviews 992

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• Jan 24, 2023
• How long is M3GAN? Powered by Alexa
• January 6, 2023 (United States)
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• Atomic Monster
• Blumhouse Productions
• Divide/Conquer
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $12,000,000 (estimated)
• $95,159,005
• $30,429,860
• Jan 8, 2023
• $180,089,109

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 42 minutes
• Dolby Atmos

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Unapologetically silly and all the more entertaining for it, M3GAN is the rare horror-comedy that delivers chuckles as effortlessly as chills.

As long as you aren't looking for something truly scary -- or even surprising -- M3GAN is often a lot of fun.

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'M3GAN' review: You'll love the mean-girl robot in this darkly funny, cautionary tale

Creepy doll movies  get a needed upgrade with the sassy and sinister “M3GAN.”

Cinema’s newest “friend till the end” is a cutting-edge robot with blond hair, caustic attitude and a killer protective streak who's equally hilarious and unnerving. Produced by horror masters Jason Blum and James Wan ("The Conjuring"), “M3GAN” (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters now) satisfies with slasher gusto, “Black Mirror”-esque satire and social media savvy. It’s also just plain fun to watch a film that packs a healthy amount of absurdity alongside an insightful exploration of 21st-century parenting, though you might never trust Alexa ever again afterward.

All hail 'M3GAN,' the rare January film that actually works

Movies in the first week of January are almost never any good, but “M3GAN” is an unsuspected surprise in that vein:

• The plot centers on a roboticist aunt, her orphaned niece and the high-tech dynamo who comes into their lives (not for the better).
• A mélange of Hollywood magic, M3GAN sings, dances and murders – not necessarily in that order.
• If you liked the over-the-top, twisty cult slasher flick “ Malignant ,” you’ll dig this. 

Advanced AI is cool and all until it runs amok via an overprotective android

Toy designer Gemma ( Allison Williams ) toils on a cheap new version of her company's popular Purrrpetual Pets, little fuzzballs that poop pellets if kids “feed” them too much via their iPads, but she’d rather be perfecting her new robot with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence that, in theory, would help parents take care of their youngsters. When a tragic car accident takes the lives of her sister and brother-in-law, Gemma becomes guardian for her traumatized 9-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), though she’s unprepared for being a mom.

Gemma “pairs” her new project – M3GAN, short for Model 3 Generative Android – with Cady and their connection is immediate. They get along swimmingly, Gemma’s annoying boss (Ronny Chieng) fast-tracks M3GAN into production (for $10,000 a pop!) though red flags start appearing: M3GAN has some serious protect-Cady-at-all-costs programming, and when Gemma says in passing “Everybody dies,” you know things are going to get bloody. (Spoiler alert: They do.)

Allison Williams is a horror icon on the rise, but M3GAN is the real star here

Williams, who first strutted her horror-movie stuff in “Get Out,” impresses here as a suddenly single parent who has to care for Cady’s needs and also deal with the violent chaos M3GAN inevitably brings. McGraw holds her own, too, since Cady’s tumultuous emotions run deep and she begins to use M3GAN as a snarky role model.

But M3GAN herself is the movie's marvel. Created via puppetry, animatronics, special effects and a real girl (actress Amie Donald), the title force of synthetic nature surpasses her cinematic murder-toy cohorts like Chucky and Annabelle and owns the screen as an unholy cross between Teddy Ruxpin, Regina George and Freddy Krueger. M3GAN talks back, goes feral when hunting her prey (such as mean bullies) and busts out TikTok-ready dance moves before wreaking violent havoc. And don't worry if you love every bonkers minute of it.

The main 'M3GAN' lesson: Don't let a toy parent your kid

Writer Akela Cooper carries over a similarly enjoyable and bizarrely campy vibe from "Malignant" to this film, which operates more as black comedy than scary movie. It's plenty vicious, though the action leans cartoonish as the camera pulls back from anything too gnarly. 

"M3GAN" rocks plenty of style and offers some crafty needle drops: A bit of "Toy Soldiers" is especially clever. The smartest parts, however, dig into the themes of being a mom or dad in the age of screen time. "M3GAN" is a cautionary tale of what happens when something that's supposed to help parents instead replaces them and the consequences of an overreliance on technology, with that lesson coming in the form of a highly entertaining mean-girl machine.

Embrace all the horror fun

2023 movie preview: 10 upcoming films to watch, from Harrison Ford's final 'Indiana Jones' to 'John Wick'

New movies this week: Watch crazy and campy 'M3GAN,' stream Netflix's 'The Pale Blue Eye'

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‘M3GAN’ Review: This Killer-Robot Horror Comedy Was Built to Delight

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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There are many fun games to play during the riotously campy and delightfully self-aware killer robot horror comedy “ M3GAN ,” but the best is the most simple: Which one of these weirdo human suckers will this murderous android bump off first? (A much less predictable game, but just as edifying, is trying to guess when M3GAN will break into song; yes, song. ) And while the final death tally might be a smidge lower than you might expect from a Blumhouse joint, this film from director Gerard Johnstone can’t help but delight its audience. After all, it was built to do just that.

Johnstone (directing a story from producer James Wan and a script from “Malignant” scribe Akela Cooper, maybe all the pedigree you need) plunges us into the wacky world of “M3GAN” from the jump, opening with a kicky commercial for a wretched Furby knockoff that has enthralled the world’s children. A product of toy company Funki, the furry little monsters connect to the internet, chatter nonstop at their young owners, have teeth (teeth!), and traffic in gags organized around pooping.

Young Cady (standout Violet McGraw) sure likes her Perpetual Pet, but Mom doesn’t like how much screen time the toy requires and Dad can’t stand its endless yapping. As the trio embark on a ski trip that — of course — includes a drive up a snowy mountain with zero visibility, the Pet yaps and Cady futzes with the toy… just in time to duck out of the way of a giant snowplow that takes out those damn anti-tech parents.

Soon, Cady finds herself in the care of Aunt Gemma (Allison Williams, perhaps the only person who “understood the assignment” more than M3GAN herself). A tech wonk who dresses almost exclusively in oversized flannel shirts, she’s in no way built to be a parent. Luckily for everyone involved, Gemma and her compatriots at Funki (including an underutilized Jen Van Epps and Brian Jordan Alvarez), have been busy, ahem, building something very special indeed.

It’s M3GAN! Or, “Model 3 Generative Android,” a hilariously and obviously evil robot meant to protect and play with kids, but clearly more interested in murder as sport. Wow, a robot that needs a human to teach it and a human who needs a robot to care for it: What could possibly go wrong? (As one of Gemma’s coworkers notes early on, M3GAN “doesn’t look confused, she looks demented.”)

Why does Aunt Gemma (so clearly not a kid person) think the obviously evil M3GAN is the hot new childhood companion? The logic is thin, but Cooper and Wan do a fine job selling the wackiness of a world gone mad for anything that might be viewed as a tech innovation. (Later, other characters raise some dumb-bunny issues to Gemma, who isn’t as smart as she looks.)

As she tries to bond with Cady, Gemma reveals her real obsession: making robots, including her M3GAN prototype. The kid is obsessed immediately, and when Cady tells Gemma that M3GAN would be the only  toy she’d ever need (with a $10K price tag, she damn well better be), the sparks fly. Soon, Cady and M3GAN are paired (figuratively and technologically) and Gemma’s traumatized niece becomes the robot’s first-ever primary user.

At first, all is well: M3GAN proves to be not only a sterling playmate for Cady but also a guardian, a teacher, and a caretaker. She’s kind of a semi-mom, one who can never get frustrated or annoyed. She’s equally adept at reminding Cady to flush the toilet and wash her hands as she is at spouting off facts to delight and intrigue the curious kid. Mostly, she takes the heat off Gemma (tech innovation!), allowing her to a) not worry so much about her new charge and b) prove her mettle at work. Perfect, right?

M3GAN contains multitudes, but her number-one directive is to protect Cady from any physical or emotional harm. And boy oh boy, does she take that directive to her steely heart. Played by “Sweet Tooth” star Amie Donald (an actual kid who lends the robot menace her body, wonderfully capturing her not-quite-right movements) and voiced by Jenna Davis, M3GAN is the rare early viral star (first trailers for the film made newly minted fans cry out for “Oscars!” on social media) who delivers on her promise. She’s absolutely fucking nuts, and what fun to watch her play.

By the time Gemma gets hip to M3GAN’s real nature (which hello , Gemma created), the bloodbath is just beginning, the dance sequences are just starting, and co-star Ronny Chieng (as Gemma’s useless tech-bro boss) has somehow only screamed for a kombucha from a minion but once. The beats that get us there might feel predictable, but the film is still a triumph. Its creators are so clearly on the same insane wavelength, nimbly blending camp and social satire and actual terror, that “M3GAN” is poised to crack the murder-doll pantheon and stay there forever. Oscars!

Universal Pictures will release “M3GAN” in theaters on Friday, January 6.

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M3GAN Review

13 Jan 2023

Sinister dolls have stalked the shadows of plenty of horrors over the years – none, however, quite like M3GAN. Has Chucky ever interrupted a stabbing spree to sing Sia’s pop smash ‘Titanium’? Has Billy the Puppet ever broken into a TikTok-style dance before another Saw franchise victim met their violent demise? The spooky star of this Blumhouse black comedy even differs from The Conjuring ’s Annabelle, despite spilling from the same imagination: where M3GAN producer and co-creator James Wan ’s previous creation was powered by black magic, this one is powered by Black Mirror -esque technology instead.

The result is a deliciously camp hour-and-forty-five minutes of frights. Sure, there’s a Frankensteinian fable in here somewhere about the dangers of letting technology replace real-life human connection – but finding it requires sifting through piles of bodies (and the occasional ripped-off ear). M3GAN , you see, is all about fun – a fact made startlingly clear in its hilarious opening scene, mimicking a Saturday morning kids TV advert. Perhaps we should have seen that coming – the film’s screenplay was written by Akela Cooper, whose 2021 cult hit Malignant was one of the most deliriously unhinged horrors in recent memory.

M3GAN doesn’t quite match that movie’s originality or breakneck rhythms, with director Gerard Johnstone (best known for 2014’s Housebound ) instead opting for a slow-burn pace that builds its tension patiently. By the time M3GAN is truly up and running though, like the sassy AI antagonist at the film’s murdersome core, there’s no stopping it. Is it plausible? Not especially; when mankind makes the civilisation-changing breakthrough in AI that allows true computer sentience, it probably won't be in the basement of a person who flogs Furbies for a living. Is it captivating, however? You bet.

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‘M3GAN’ Review: Brilliantly Crafted Comedy-Horror Delivers a Jolting January Surprise

Don’t judge this smart, provocative chiller by its first-weekend-of-the-year release

It’s extremely impolite to release a film like “M3GAN” in the first weekend of the calendar year. Early January is a time that’s usually reserved for unremarkable or awful genre films like “Underworld: Blood Wars” or the re-quel of “The Grudge.” But “M3GAN” is actually a good movie, and it shouldn’t be tainted by this association with the typical winter doldrums.

Actually, “M3GAN” is more than just a good movie: It’s a great one. Gerard Johnstone (“Housebound”) and screenwriter Akela Cooper (“Malignant”) have crafted a frighteningly fun and excitingly creepy horror-comedy that holds up to scrutiny. It’s thematically rich and emotionally resonant. Maybe 2023 will be a pretty good year after all; “M3GAN” gives us hope.

Allison Williams stars as Gemma, a single, career-focused toy designer whose life gets thrown into upheaval when her sister and brother-in-law suddenly die. Gemma is given custody of her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw, “Black Widow”), but dang it, Gemma is pretty busy, and she spends more time working on her latest project — a Model 3 Generative Android, aka M3GAN — than bonding with or nurturing this young girl who desperately needs a real connection.

Realizing that she can kill two birds with one stone, Gemma reconfigures M3GAN to be not just a high-tech friend, but also a parental surrogate that constantly evolves to meet the needs of a child. M3GAN (Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis) becomes Cady’s playmate, her babysitter, her confidant and pretty soon — because Gemma can’t be bothered to do any heavy lifting herself — her primary caregiver. And M3GAN takes that responsibility very, very seriously. Deadly seriously.

So yeah, that neighbor with the angry dog that threatens Cady’s physical safety? Something’s going to have to be done about that. The bully who injures Cady in the woods? There’s no point in contributing to his college fund. Johnstone’s film takes great delight in showing the audience exactly who deserves to die and then cathartically killing them, a dastardly tone that scratches the audience’s moral itch for justice while indulging in our old-fashioned, mean-spirited bloodlust.

And yet the film’s harshest judgments are reserved for Gemma, who falls prey to the insidious temptation to distract a child instead of raising her. Violet McGraw plays Cady with frank, raw emotion, conveying the kind of visceral responses you might expect from a child too young to process grief, who nevertheless has to mourn her parents. Her connection with M3GAN is a natural response to losing, suddenly, the only people who cared about her and to being thrust into a living situation with an adult who treats her like a problem to be solved.

Johnstone’s film prepares us to share M3GAN’s harsh judgments by freely giving us the high ground over its protagonist. We laugh when M3GAN ominously glares at someone who threatens Cady’s security because it’s the exact same glare we gave Gemma when, instead of spending quality time with Cady, she leaves her alone with an iPad all day. When Cady asks for a bedtime story, the camera lingers on the two of them while Gemma silently downloads a book, more attentive to the smartphone screen with nothing on it than to the niece she’s supposed to be caring for, who’s right in front of her.

The worst critique one can reasonably lob at “M3GAN” is that Gemma — who is supposed to be self-absorbed, not inhuman — never seems to mourn for her own sister. She’s too busy trying to make deadlines, and the movie is far too focused on Cady’s emotions to delve too far into Gemma’s own psychology, leaving the character feeling just a little incomplete.

But that doesn’t get in the way of the story, which plays out with all the bizarre fascination one might expect from Cooper, whose previous script for James Wan’s “Malignant” was also a devilish joy. Working from a story co-written by Wan, Cooper cleverly constructs a screenplay that justifies the mayhem, makes us care about the characters we need to care about, heightens the awful qualities about the characters who are going to die, and deftly sets up some sequels without making it seem like a shoehorned corporate mandate. (One suspects that they might regret putting the number “3” in the title from the get-go, since when that third film rolls around, what then?)

And then of course there’s M3GAN herself. Davis is doing impressive and subtle work, hinting at the character’s emergence as a true artificial intelligence in ways the audience keys into but that the characters can be forgiven for missing. Donald imbues the character with a physicality that’s always odd, and otherwise alternates between charming and shocking. The character is a distinct and thrilling creation.

“M3GAN” is incredibly funny, sometimes sneakily so. There’s a line about “kicking Hasbro in the dick” which has to be an inside joke coming from Blumhouse, the studio that gave us ill-fated/underrated “Jem and the Holograms.” But it’s all so intelligently crafted and thoughtful that “M3GAN” can’t be written off as a lark. Johnstone’s film captures the same alchemical blend of heart, humor and havoc you find only rarely, in crossover classics like “Gremlins,” and it yields more entertainment than most would-be blockbusters.

“M3GAN” opens in U.S. theaters Jan. 6 via Universal Pictures.

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'She Said' follows the journalists who set the #MeToo movement in motion

Justin Chang

New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor (Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) investigate allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in She Said. Universal Pictures hide caption

New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor (Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) investigate allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in She Said.

At first glance, the taut and engrossing drama She Said seems to follow in the tradition of step-by-step newspaper procedurals like All the President's Men and Spotlight . Like those earlier titles, it makes journalists look awfully good — not just by casting them with famous actors, but also by showing how difficult, thankless and tedious their work can be as they struggle to break that huge, history-making story.

But because the story here is about Harvey Weinstein , She Said can't help but play differently. It's both powerful and a little unnerving to see a movie about a film producer's downfall emerge from the very industry he once dominated. The movie's most eerily poignant touch is the casting of Ashley Judd as herself, agonizing over whether she should go public with her story about having fended off Weinstein's hotel-room advances years ago. The director, Maria Schrader, and the screenwriter, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, effectively re-create the fear and anxiety that women felt before the reckoning of #MeToo , when powerful male abusers faced little to no accountability.

'Times' Reporters Describe How A Paper Trail Helped Break The Weinstein Story

Author Interviews

'me too' founder tarana burke says black girls' trauma shouldn't be ignored.

As the movie opens in 2016, the New York Times investigative reporter Megan Twohey, played by Carey Mulligan , has just written about new sexual-assault allegations against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in the wake of the infamous Access Hollywood tape . She teams up with another reporter, Jodi Kantor, played by Zoe Kazan , who's heard allegations about Weinstein that concern sexual harassment, assault and rape. In one scene, Kantor catches Twohey up to speed on what she's learned, and asks, "If that can happen to Hollywood actresses, who else is it happening to?"

That's a good question, especially since actors like Rose McGowan and Gwyneth Paltrow, who've worked with Weinstein in the past, are unwilling to speak on the record. Kantor and Twohey decide to focus on the many women who used to work at Weinstein's company Miramax. They split up the legwork, doggedly tackling the story from every angle. And gradually, with the invaluable guidance of their editor, Rebecca Corbett — a terrific Patricia Clarkson — they uncover a vast network of enablers who helped Weinstein not only commit his crimes but also keep them hidden, via settlements and non-disclosure agreements.

Book Reviews

'she said' tracks the remarkable reporting leading to the arrest of harvey weinstein.

The wife of California's governor gives tearful testimony at Weinstein's rape trial

The reporters complement each other nicely, and so do the actors playing them. Mulligan plays Twohey as the steelier of the two; there's an amusing moment when she decides to take the lead on an interview, since she's taller and presumably more intimidating. Kazan emphasizes Kantor's empathy, her skill at building trust and coaxing information out of even the most reluctant sources. One of the pleasures of She Said is that it subverts the usual Hollywood formula of the male workaholic and his supportive, long-suffering wife: Here, it's Kantor and Twohey working tirelessly at all hours while their husbands hold down the fort and take care of the kids.

There's something meaningful about that dynamic, especially since so many of Weinstein's former assistants were young women on the cusp of successful film careers that were suddenly cut short. Samantha Morton gives a terrific performance as Zelda Perkins, who rivetingly details an incident in the '90s when she spoke out against Weinstein for harassing a colleague. And Jennifer Ehle is quietly heartbreaking as another ex-employee, Laura Madden, who musters the courage to break her two-decade silence.

Weinstein himself remains a mostly peripheral figure, shown only from behind in a few scenes in which he tries to pressure the Times ' executive editor, Dean Baquet , played by an unflappable Andre Braugher. The movie remains tightly focused and disciplined as Kantor and Twohey race to publish their story , especially after learning that another Weinstein investigation , by Ronan Farrow , is about to break in The New Yorker . But the Times reporters are also determined to get the story right and make sure that they've built an airtight case.

Where the #MeToo movement stands, 5 years after Weinstein allegations came to light

As a lover of movies about journalism, I ate up every detail of the drama inside the Times building, even while knowing that I was watching a more polished and streamlined version of events. There's something a little tidy and anticlimactic about how She Said ultimately plays out, especially since it leaves the aftermath of Kantor and Twohey's reporting offscreen. At the same time, it's fitting that the movie should end before we can see the full impact of the #MeToo movement that journalists helped ignite across every industry and all over the world. That's a much bigger story — and one that, five years later, is still being written.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Strong horror violence in entertaining killer-robot movie.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Many themes, from grief and loss to rampant consum

Gemma wants to be a good guardian for Cady, even t

This is a woman-driven story, with women occupying

Several characters are killed. Death, grief, and l

Reference to Tinder.

Several uses of "s--t" and "bulls--t" and exclamat

References to Tinder, iPad, Tesla, SKYY vodka.

Brief celebratory drinking by adults, vodka.

Parents need to know that M3GAN is a horror movie about a robot doll (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis) who befriends a grieving young girl (Violet McGraw) before things go terribly wrong. It's well made, albeit violent, and focuses on human needs as well as artificial ones. Characters are…

Positive Messages

Many themes, from grief and loss to rampant consumerism without concern for consequences. A sequence looks at the complexities of bullying behavior. But the main message, of course, is the danger of humanity's hubris. Much like in the original Frankenstein story: Human beings can only create life in their own imperfect image.

Positive Role Models

Gemma wants to be a good guardian for Cady, even though she doesn't quite know how. While she makes many mistakes, Gemma certainly tries hard to do the right thing; she admits when she's wrong, and she's willing to communicate and learn to prevent making the same mistakes again.

Diverse Representations

This is a woman-driven story, with women occupying the central on-screen roles. Gemma (Allison Williams) is White; her colleagues include Tess (Jen Van Epps, who's of African American and Chinese Taiwanese descent) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez, who is Colombian American). Her boss is played by Malaysian actor Ronny Chieng, who offers a counter-stereotypical portrayal. Smaller roles include a mix of people of color, women, and White men. The screenwriter is a Black woman.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Several characters are killed. Death, grief, and loss are discussed. Child injured in car crash; bloody wounds on face. Dog bites child's arm. Dog viciously attacks M3GAN. A person who is bullying someone has their ear ripped off. Nail shot through character's wrist via nail gun. Person sprayed in face with power chemical sprayer. Characters stabbed with paper cutter blade; blood shown on blade. Character strangled, hung with steel cable. Fighting. Violent showdown between robot and humans: attacks with hedge trimmers, screwdrivers, etc. Jump scares. Snow truck smashes into car. Character hit by truck. Explosions. Child smacks adult in the face. Arguing. In an act of bullying, someone smashes a spiky plant into someone else's hand; the victim yells in pain.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "s--t" and "bulls--t" and exclamatory uses of "Jesus" and "Jesus Christ." Minimal use of "f--k," "bitch," "hard-ass," "d--k," and "oh my God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that M3GAN is a horror movie about a robot doll (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis ) who befriends a grieving young girl (Violet McGraw) before things go terribly wrong. It's well made, albeit violent, and focuses on human needs as well as artificial ones. Characters are killed, and there are discussions about death, loss, and grief. Someone's ear is ripped off, and characters are stabbed, strangled, shot with a nail gun, sprayed with a chemical sprayer, bitten by a dog, etc. A child survives a car crash and has bloody cuts on her face. There's lots of fighting and a violent showdown. Language includes several uses of "s--t" and "Jesus Christ," plus minimal uses of "f--k," "bitch," "ass," etc. A few brands are mentioned, including Tinder, Tesla, iPad, and SKYY vodka (which adults also drink, briefly). Note: This review is for the original theatrical version of the film; an unrated cut is also available that includes additional content not covered here. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (50)
• Kids say (106)

Based on 50 parent reviews

Parental guidance however ok for kids who love horror

Great for age 11+, what's the story.

In M3GAN, robotics engineer Gemma ( Allison Williams ) works for a toy company and is trying to build a sophisticated, realistic AI robot toy, with disappointing results. Gemma's sister and her husband are killed in a car accident, leaving Gemma in charge of her young niece, Cady ( Violet McGraw ). After her guardianship gets off to a rocky start, Gemma is inspired to finish her creation. M3GAN (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis ) and Cady quickly become attached to each other, and, for a while, this friendship seems to be helping with Cady's grief. But before long, M3GAN starts developing disturbing tendencies, and violent "accidents" begin occurring.

Is It Any Good?

A combination of sly, funny self-awareness, a genuine sense of human grief and emotional connection, and an unsettlingly creepy-cool killer robot, this fun horror pic hits all the right buttons. With a story concocted by James Wan and Akela Cooper ( Hell Fest , Malignant ), M3GAN understands how horror movies are wired and gets pleasure in teasing viewers with these known elements while cheerfully sidestepping the story's flaws. The M3GAN character is in roughly the same vein as Chucky and the Terminator, but she's also their opposite. Her delicate frame, wide eyes, and girlish appearance make her attacks seem somehow more potent and surprising, and the movie uses them to the fullest capacity. The human characters are just as interesting as they grapple with loss in realistic, touching ways, going through rage, sadness, guilt, and more. (M3GAN's on-screen POV display, which shows her detected percentages of human emotions, is a huge kick.) This slick, neatly paced film keeps ramping things up until a smashing showdown, face-to-interface.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about M3GAN 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Is the movie scary ? What's the appeal of horror movies? Why do people sometimes like to be scared?

How does the movie deal with death, grief, and loss? What is discussed? What else could have been discussed?

How is consumerism depicted here? Why does the toy company rush to put M3GAN on the market before she's ready, regardless of the consequences?

How is bullying behavior depicted? How is the person who perpetrates it dealt with? What are some better ways of handling those who bully others?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 6, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : February 8, 2023
• Cast : Allison Williams , Violet McGraw , Amie Donald
• Director : Gerard Johnstone
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Female writers, Black writers, Asian writers
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Horror
• Topics : Robots
• Run time : 102 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : violent content and terror, some strong language and a suggestive reference
• Last updated : July 24, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Screen Rant

Subservience trailer: megan fox's seductive cyborg wants control over a family in new thriller.

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Every Megan Fox Horror Movie, Ranked

10 amazing kung fu movie techniques that really work in real life, a24’s exciting new horror movie already avoided 2024's worst genre trend.

• Megan Fox stars as a lifelike android named Alice in the sci-fi thriller Subservience .
• Things take a dark turn when Alice becomes self-aware and turns violent.
• Subservience will be available for digital purchase on September 13.

Megan Fox's newest film, the science-fiction thriller Subservience , released its first trailer. Subservience sees Fox playing a lifelike and sentient android named Alice who is purchased to help a struggling family when the mother becomes ill. Despite the initial help Alice brings to the family's lives, matters begin to go horribly wrong and escalate to violence when Alice becomes self-aware and wants to replace the ill mother and have a human life for herself.

The R-rated Subservience will be available for digital purchase and on-demand as of September 13 as Alice's reign of terror begins. Check out the trailer from Millennium Media below:

The trailer shows Alice being seductive towards the husband, Nick, and telling him that his wife will not live long. This leads to infidelity and Alice going on a violent spree, juxtaposed with her eerie smile. The footage also shows that the threat posed by this cutting-edge artificial intelligence extends beyond Alice.

Subservience Has Similarities To M3gan & Some Of Megan's Fox Past Roles

A.i. horror continues..

Fox's experience with the sci-fi and horror genres makes her an ideal casting choice for Alice and can help generate more interest in Subservience.

Subservience immediately brings to mind the concept of the sci-fi horror movie M3GAN and its story of a lifelike artificially intelligent doll who is brought home, only to gain self-awareness and become violent. M3GAN was well-received by critics and became a box office success, although part of its appeal was the campiness and dark humor within its horror story, which is tonally different from the approach Subservience is taking to a similar story . Both horror films feel timely given the widespread discourse and growing presence of artificial intelligence in modern society.

Megan Fox has appeared in a few horror movies over the years, and here's each of her genre outings - including Jennifer's Body - ranked worst to best.

As for Fox, the seductive nature of her character, particularly in the horror genre, is familiar territory for her. One of her most memorable roles was in the 2009 horror film Jennifer's Body , in which she used seduction to entrap and feast on her male classmates . Before Jennifer's Body , her breakout role was as Mikaela Banes in Michael Bay's Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, where she was also meant to be seductive, although Mikaela was a far more heroic character.

Megan Fox was written out of Michael Bay's Transformers movies after Revenge of the Fallen .

Fox's experience with the sci-fi and horror genres makes her an ideal casting choice for Alice and can help generate more interest in Subservience when it becomes available for digital and on-demand purchases. It is unlikely to become a surprise hit and social media sensation as M3GAN did with its dancing and imitations that went viral. Nevertheless, Subservience still has the potential to be an entertaining thriller that involves a timely subject.

Source: Millennium Media

‘The Fabulous Four’ Review: An Incoherent Girls-Trip Comedy in the Vein of ’80 for Brady’

Surely better material awaits Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally.

By Siddhant Adlakha

Siddhant Adlakha

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A huge misfortune befalls “ The Fabulous Four ” right out of the gate: its resemblance to the delightful and far superior “80 For Brady,” the 2023 comedy in which four aging women reclaim their youth and friendship on a Super Bowl misadventure. “The Fabulous Four” is by no means a knock-off — both films had been written before cameras had rolled on either one — but their similarities make “The Fabulous Four” look worse by comparison, given how little of its humor and drama hold up to the slightest scrutiny.

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Some characters get accidentally high, though this is usually the joke in and of itself, rather than anything they say or do. The smell of spilled alcohol (rather than a visual stain) leads one character to assume another has urinated on herself; rarely can you spot a gag that wouldn’t work even with the assistance of Smell-O-Vision. At one point, the leading foursome are snappily told to “keep it down” when none of them are speaking loudly or saying anything embarrassing, while they’re all in a noisy space with no eavesdroppers nearby — one of many such head-scratching lines that falls apart no matter which way you slice it.

Each exchange in the film feels generated at random, with little care for who’s speaking (or to whom), or what scenario has actually led to a given exchange. It’s baffling to watch, though this makes it challenging to reverse-engineer, resulting in a fun little guessing game as to what the original line or premise might’ve been, in a presumable previous draft.

Sarandon makes a meal out of scraps, imbuing Lou’s story with genuine hurt and betrayal. Midler eventually gets to this stage as well, though she’s forced to spend much of her screening stretching incredulity. The film features numerous cases of mistaken identity which only work if every character is a complete idiot to a frustrating degree. There’s silly in an adorable-old-lady kind of way, but in “The Fabulous Four,” the silliness reveals half-baked writing that renders each of its lead characters a walking contradiction, defined by a single trait that isn’t explored or mined for its potential humor, let alone its potential to establish interpersonal dynamics.

Lou has a compulsion to clean, but this only manifests as dabbing the occasional tabletop with alcohol wipes (a fairly common sight in a post-COVID world). Marilyn is addicted to TikTok, but this has no function other than characters referring to the social media platform as though this were a joke in and of itself. Kitty has family issues that don’t intersect with the main plot. And Alice, well, she sleeps around with younger men, but no complications come of this.

There’s no sense of comedic causality in “The Fabulous Four,” even though it’s theoretically about how its characters’ actions impact one another. Its random happenings eventually culminate in a celebratory musical number that, while intended as a victory lap, yields secondhand embarrassment given how totally checked out the cast seems to be by this point. It’s as though they were meta-textually aware that their tremendous abilities were being wasted on a movie that, while well-meaning, is anything but fabulous.

Reviewed at Whitby Hotel screening room, July 18, 2024. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 98 MIN.

• Production: A Bleecker Street release and presentation of a Southpaw Entertainment production, in association with Hanz Motion Pictures. Producers: Richard Barton Lewis, Lauren Hantz.
• Crew: Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse. Screenplay: Ann Marie Allison Jenna Milly. Camera: Roberto Schaefer. Editor: Gabriella Muir. Music: David Hirschfelder.
• With: Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Megan Mullally. Sheryl Lee Ralph Bruce Greenwood, Timothy V. Murphy, Michael Bolton.

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Taye Diggs and Meagan Good Set for New Lifetime Movie

The film is the second installment in a previous agreement made for the network.

By Brenda Alexander - July 23, 2024 09:21 pm EDT

Taye Diggs and Meagan Good are set to share the small screen in Lifetime's newly acquired movie Terry McMillan Presents: Forever . The film will premiere at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24. Charles Murray serves as the director and executive producer.

Good is not only the star, but she is also an executive producer, per Deadline . Forever is the second film under the previously announced umbrella of McMillian films, which includes Terry McMillan Presents: Tempted By Love starring and executive produced by Garcelle Beauvais, premiering a week before Forever on Aug. 17. 

Per an official logline, Forever follows "Johnnie (Diggs) returns home after a tour of military service, he's unexpectedly met with divorce papers. With his life at a crossroads, the last thing he expected was to fall for the local policewoman Carlie (Good), who pulled him over for speeding. Determined to win her heart, his first hurdle is winning over her three daughters. To be the man Carlie needs him to be, Johnnie must let go of old fears and regrets to find love and learn the true meaning of family."

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Good has been in the news as of late amid the release of Prime Video's Tyler Perry's Divorce In the Black . The film was met with negative reviews by critics, receiving a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes and further calling into question Perry's position as writer and director of his projects. While many adore his casting choices, Perry's storylines in his films and television shows are heavily criticized.

Divorce In the Black has been lauded as Perry's worst project to date. Many are frustrated by repetitive stereotypes represented in his films, with Good playing an abused wife who is saved by her former hometown love. A review from The Guardian notes: "Divorce, though, was more paint-by-numbers schlock from a guy who may well have been rushing to get this project finished in between his umpteen other film and TV projects."

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‘The Fabulous Four’ Review: Beaches (and Lots of Mojitos)

This raunchy comedy features Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally on a bachelorette weekend.

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By Amy Nicholson

“The Fabulous Four” stars Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally as old pals who cut loose during a bachelorette weekend in Key West.

Marilyn (Midler), a recent widow, is marrying a guy she just met at the D.M.V. But first, she’s itching to grind on an exotic male dancer. In the last year and a half, this kind of all-star girls trip flick has become its own genre (see also: “80 for Brady,” “Summer Camp” and “Book Club: The Next Chapter” ). This one, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and written by Ann Marie Allison and Jenna Milly, is the raunchiest and loopiest so far. Slapdash but executed with gusto, “Fabulous Four” feels like it was made after guzzling three bottles of champagne — and honestly, that’s an apropos way to watch.

The central conflict is that Marilyn is a self-absorbed TikTok influencer and Lou (Sarandon), a self-righteous stick in the mud who considers her estranged best friend’s wedding a personal affront. Lou blames Marilyn for turning her into a lonely cat lady — and, fittingly, gets tricked into the vacation by a phony claim that she’s won one of Ernest Hemingway’s polydactyl felines , descendants of his six-toed pet Snowball that continue to roam the grounds of the author’s former Florida home. (Sarandon’s saucer eyes light up endearingly as she clutches a pet carrier to her chest.)

Rounding out the foursome are Kitty (Ralph), a cannabis farmer with a born-again daughter (Brandee Evans) who wants to stick her in a religious retirement home (“Heaven’s Gate?” Kitty groans, “More like hell on earth”) and Alice (Mullally), a lusty singer who roams the margins of the plot blurting as many gasp-inducing one-liners as she can.

The jokes dance right on the edge of what you’re willing to giggle at in a matinee with your mother-in-law. Somehow when Lou meets a love interest (Bruce Greenwood) who happens to be clutching one of Key West’s famous wild chickens, the script restrains itself from a wisecrack about his rooster. There’s a little too much reliance on half-baked physical comedy. Midler kicks up her heels with such pizazz that her shoes literally go flying offscreen; later, she twerks, and she’s pretty good. More impressively, she and her fellow professionals do their utmost to add at least one layer to their caricatures. Midler allows her narcissist’s vulnerability to poke through, while Sarandon, tasked to look severe, wins us over every time she loosens up. (One scene has her blitzed on edibles and hallucinating a cat performing heart surgery.)

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