Freeze Frame: "The Dog Stars" (R), "Coyote vs. Acme" (R), "Buddy" (R), "The Whisper Man" (R)

Every great filmmaker gets one Mulligan. Ridley Scott's futuristic thriller "The Dog Stars" is his. Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin star in a poorly paced and overly familiar post-apocalyptic nightmare about survivalists who face grisly dangers after a flu pandemic. There are impressive individual sequences, but “The Dog Stars” plays like scenes cobbled together instead of a cohesive whole. The hybrid cartoon and live action farce "Coyote vs. Acme" wants to be "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" but is a bit closer to "Space Jam." Wile E. Coyote and his lawyer Will Forte sue Acme Corporation for defective products used in Coyote’s endless pursuit of the Road Runner. While there are more laughs in a typical 7-minute Looney Tunes short, "Coyote vs. Acme" is a likable low-key poke at corporate America. If you're one of the people who thought Barney the Dinosaur was a little creepy, the horror flick "Buddy" should send a shudder up your spine. In this tongue-in-cheek creep fest, a malevolent unicorn character lures children into its TV realm to absorb their souls. While satirical, “Buddy” goes full-blooded horror and provides just enough chills for the midnight movie crowd. The gloomy Netflix thriller "The Whisper Man," based on a novel by Alex North, wants to be "Silence of the Lambs," but can't quite emulate that classic's impact. Robert De Niro plays a former cop who tries to help his son Adam Scott recover his son who is kidnapped by a serial killer. Michael Keaton is an imprisoned murderer who is manipulating everything from behind bars. The cast is fine, but “The Whisper Man’s” overall impact is lessened by some head scratching lapses in logic.