A Movie Lover’s Guide to ‘Schlock April’
From January to early May of most years, we get a sprinkling of silliness at the movie theater. As everyone collectively recovers from their awards-season hangover, a healthy dose of schlock arrives over the first months of the year. These are the Diet Coke and French fries of movies — pure, unfiltered entertainment, often consisting of building-go-boom-type narratives in lieu of capital-T Themes-driven work. 2025 was no different, with January providing Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk, but after that? Crickets. All quiet on the schlock-tern front. Until, of course, David Ayer’s A Working Man, the not-quite-sequel-but–hey-isn’t-this-familiar follow-up to The Beekeeper, which punched and kicked and shot its way into theaters on March 28. Throughout the rest of this month, each weekend brings with it a new addition to the year’s schlock catalog. Is this what people mean when they talk about abundance?
To be clear, not all schlock is necessarily bad. Often it has the potential to be truly great, foregrounding thrills, over-the-top performances, and ludicrous plot turns. But it’s not created equally. While some of these new releases promise theatrical roller-coaster rides, others are best kept for a night on the couch or even a cross-country flight. Below, a guide to what to see, stream, or snooze through this spring.
Buy a popcorn and see it big
Drop, April 11
I keep accidentally referring to Drop as Trap — can you blame me? They’re only two letters apart. Beyond their linguistic similarities, however, Drop — like Trap — hinges on a straightforward, undeniably modern premise: What if you were on a first date in a high-up restaurant and someone kept AirDropping threats to you? The trailer has elicited full belly laughs from audiences every time it’s run before a movie I’ve seen this spring. While Drop, clocking in at an economical 93 minutes, may sound like fun and games, there’s something deeper and more human at its core than mindless nonsense. “It’s a perfectly preposterous setup for a thriller, but the core of Meghann Fahy’s agonizingly distracted performance is something real and recognizable,” said our critic after the premiere at SXSW.
Sinners, April 18
Ryan Coogler is free from the Marvel machine (for now) and back with a period-set monster thriller that’s way more 30 Days of Night than Interview With the Vampire. This soapy, gory flick is a little less action-driven than its fellow schlockbusters, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth the theatrical experience. It sounds weird to say “the vampire movie with twin Michael B. Jordans is kind of a musical,” but this thing has all-out song-and-dance numbers.
A Working Man, March 28
If its box office is any indication, most people have already seen A Working Man in theaters.
Save it for the couch
Warfare, April 11
No matter how much the new Alex Garland flick wants you to respect that it’s co-written by an Iraq War veteran, the notion of seeing a movie about realistic warfare in IMAX feels pretty absurd. The big-screen viscerality of that type of experience actually seems too glorifying and too overwhelming. No one should need a screen that big to tell you war is bad (but also sometimes cool? If the trailers are any indication). Garland, no matter the quality of his movies, does tend to deliver on thrills and spills, which means this might be a perfect night-in schlockfest where you can safely turn to some comforting YouTube videos after.
The Accountant 2, April 28
The Accountant was, somehow, the most rented movie of 2017. Maybe its sequel can smash that record.
Save it for a flight
The Amateur, April 11
Rami Malek might be too weird for Hollywood, but he’s not too weird to star in a movie you boot up on Delta a few months from now. An action movie adapted from a novel from the 1980s is the backbone of the entire schlock genre and meant to be seen in its purest form: on the back of a chair that someone else is sleeping in.
Skip It
The King of Kings, April 11
The animated, Angel Studios (remember Sound of Freedom?) Jesus movie starring Oscar Isaac as the titular king of kings exists more as a vehicle for sponsored tweets and Instagram Stories than it does as a real movie in theaters. Why does this have the same storytelling mechanics as The Princess Bride? And why does the animation look like that? Unless The King of Kings intends to answer those questions, it’s safe to say this one can sail on by.
Related