Bland, predictable and seemingly chucked together with minimal effort at the last minute from the most basic ingredients.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 4, 2023

A film-maker whose movies pivot around acts of altruism has reached into the archives, gussied up a dead dog and flung it into the faces of viewers with something approaching contempt. So no, alas, not a Christmas classic.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 1, 2023

Genie is a sugar-only zone. But then, it is Christmas. Or near enough.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 1, 2023

Alan Cumming brings the right touch as Bernard’s awful and vain boss, but this is Essiedu’s opportunity to shine, and does he ever take full advantage of it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 27, 2023

Critiquing the very thing it also sets out to do, Genie is the movie equivalent of a dog chasing its own tail, but is (barely) saved from the wrapping-paper pile by the amiable chemistry of its stars.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 27, 2023

[McCarthy is] the quipster caffeine in “Genie,” but over the years she has perked up too many second-rate, throwaway comedies, and this, I’m afraid, is one more of them.

| Nov 22, 2023

Put it back in the bottle.

| Nov 22, 2023

A new Peacock movie that’s genuinely likable for a while before you realize it’s run out of new ideas and has no clue where to go with the ones it has left.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 22, 2023

It’s as if everyone involved is terrified of actually making people laugh in case that gives offence somehow, or disrupts the algorithmic calculation that theoretically makes this a palatable piece of content.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 21, 2023

Fantasy movies are of course free to be far-fetched, but some of the plot turns here are so wide as to suggest shrugging contempt... Also, the flying carpet special effects are lousy.

| Nov 21, 2023