EW Critical Mass: Inferno burns out

Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones face little competition at the box office this weekend as their Da Vinci Code threequel Inferno debuts as the week’s only new wide release.

Though the film’s parent series, which revolves around the international adventures of Harvard professor Robert Langdon (Hanks), has grossed more than $1.3 billion worldwide, critics haven’t exactly cozied up to it since its 2006 debut, with each of the Ron Howard-directed titles receiving a 37 percent (or lower) rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Inferno isn’t bucking the trend.

On the other hand, Jim Jarmusch’s festival-hopping documentary Gimme Danger, which follows the rise of the punk band The Stooges, emerges from successful runs in Cannes and Toronto with glowing reviews from film journalists.

Check out what the critics are saying about this week’s hottest new releases in the reviews below.

Inferno

Opens Oct. 28.

PEOPLE’s Simon Perry says:

The always likable Hanks is still the perfect professor with the charming touch—and don’t expect a single bead of sweat to pollute his brow as he races through steamy southern Europe. But it is the early scenes with rising star Jones, playing the bright young doctor Brooks, that are the most intriguing. Bourne it is not, but the twists come with enough regularity to keep the squishier parts of the plot from mucking up the works. Inferno may not have the zeitgeisty draw of its predecessors, but for those who haven’t read the book, it’s a diverting caper with a familiar face. B

Read the full review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 25%

Metacritic: 38

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

Now playing.

EW’s Chris Nashawaty says:

The problem is, aside from Cruise and Smulders, nothing else about Never Go Back really works or matters. Granted, we’re now only two films deep into the Jack Reacher franchise, but that seems like a fair enough sample size to come to the conclusion that he’s no Ethan Hunt—and never will be. Not every middling box-office success needs to be spun off into a franchise. Especially when it results in sequels as aggressively mediocre as this. Tom Cruise deserves better. So does the audience. C

Read the full EW review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 39%

Metacritic: 47

Ouija: Origin of Evil

Now playing.

EW’s Christian Holub says:

Ouija: Origin of Evil is an interesting exercise in watching filmmakers try to mint a franchise out of basically nothing. The movie shares some characters with the 2014 film it is a prequel to, but the connection adds hardly anything to either film. Effective horror relies on the actualization of some deep-seated cultural fear, but Ouija: Origin of Evil supplies only ineffective clichés and half-hearted attempts at franchise building.

Read the full EW review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 80%

Metacritic: 65

The Accountant

Now playing.

EW’s Leah Greenblatt says:

Director Gavin O’Connor (Warrior) seems to know at some level that it’s all camp, though it’s unclear where he picked up certain elements of his medical definition of autism, or why Wolff’s military-officer dad decides that the best response to his son’s diagnosis is to train him to be a sharpshooting, Muay Thai-kicking assassin — aside from the fact that it works out super well for the plot. The whole thing’s ludicrous, down to the last loony twist, but it’s also a lot more fun than Batman v Superman. C+

Read the full EW review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 50%

Metacritic: 51

The Girl on the Train

Now playing.

EW’s Leah Greenblatt says:

Director Tate Taylor (The Help) doesn’t bring the kind of stylistic dazzle that David Fincher, his fellow helmer in literary It Girl depravity, lavished on Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl. But he deftly translates the bleak, raw-boned menace and tricky time signatures of Train’s intertwined plotlines, and draws remarkably vivid performances from his cast, particularly his two female leads. Blunt and Bennett aren’t girls at all; they’re women on the edge of their own oblivion, wounded and furious and chillingly real. A–

Read the full EW review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 44%

Metacritic: 48