Amy Biancolli

If the movie packs a weaker punch than the original, it has less to do with the action sequences than the script (by Edmond Wong, son of Raymond, who wrote the first), a flimsy affair with subpar villains.

For all the hellfire histrionics and well-timed jump scares, there is actual, admirable intellect behind The Rite.

Solid performances, and a sincere faith in the dignity of the average working stiff, save it from getting too preachy.

This is a remarkable movie: lovely, slow-paced and almost silent, rich with pathos and deft comic gestures.

Despite bursts of hilarity and an A-list cast, this is a dark, difficult, weirdly existential film - like some seriocomic spin on "I and Thou."

A tough slog through emotional swamplands. It's murky when it needs to be clear. But Hedlund is the big news here.

Baughman and O'Hara's documentary spews out so much information in just 111 minutes that the movie would have benefited from a longer run time and tighter focus.

This is the first Focker installment not directed by Jay Roach, who did a good job balancing the yuks with the more outrageous gross-outs. That comic-revolting parity shouldn't be much of a challenge for "American Pie's" Paul Weitz, and yet the skeevier bits aren't especially funny.

The film is confusing and awkwardly timed, and it drags.

This sequel is also goofy, also eye-popping - see it in Imax 3-D if you really want to fry your optic nerve - and also weakly scripted. And yet the sheer size of the thing works against it: The effects are absolutely spectacular, but they blow the goofy-cheesy quotient straight through the roof.

Megamind, it turns out, is a villain to root for.

Narrated by Lomborg, the movie uses lecture excerpts, clips of terrified schoolchildren and interviews with (mostly) like-minded scientists to get his points across.

Once it gets rolling, Unstoppable doesn't pause for breath.

An arty, ruminative and slow-paced film that's being marketed as a big ol' alien-invasion flick. Just don't expect an invasion flick.

The King's Speech is a warm, wise film - the best period movie of the year and one of the year's best movies.

There aren't that many songs this time - just a handful, reprised ad infinitum. You get to sing most of them, so I'm sure you've noticed how bland they are.

The third and most uneven film adaptation in the series.

This one is a long, archetypal journey that screeches to a halt a few stops short of its destination.

A tonally confused, fitfully entertaining film about a pathologically two-faced man.

It's still a spirited look - well written, beautifully acted, full of uplift - at lovably cheeky heroines on the march for a little respect.

Spitzer was undone by his zipper, but as Client 9 makes clear, he was also undone by his refusal - or inability - to make nice with some of the state's most powerful characters.

"Hornet's Nest" isn't the best of the three (that would be the first film, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"), but it's the most challenging.

The title promises a film that never really materializes: something nastier, smellier, more nihilistic than the skittish morality tale at hand.

A first-class genre entry stacked with dandy performances and some crackerjack action to boot.

Gluck also directed "Fired Up!," another teen charade with lots of quick-witted verbal raunch. Easy A does a few things better.

This is one helluva drama, with one helluva star turn by Jennifer Lawrence as Ree.

A fine, fun remake of a movie that updates, transplants and reimagines the original without sacrificing its heart or goofy charm.

Vast, beautiful and meticulously detailed.