Bill Goodykoontz

Miles Ahead is by no means a perfect film, but it is an interesting one. In this case, driven by Cheadle’s performance, that’s more than enough.

Swank and Rockwell, both typically great in almost everything they do, act as if their lives depended on it - their lives, not their characters'.

Busy, busy. That's The Adventures of Tintin boiled down to its essence.

A funny, if slight, documentary.

There was something about the first film, about seeing not just the horror but also the joy of growing up through the kids’ eyes. That’s lost by necessity here, but It Chapter Two certainly misses it. And so do I.

It’s a good movie. It’s also a flawed one. And in this case more than most, it’s hard to separate those two things.

Every now and then you run across a film in which a really talented cast takes a crack at a well-worn genre entry. For the most part, that’s what Permission is, though writer and director Brian Crano tosses in a couple of wrinkles.

Randall Park, the actor (“Fresh Off the Boat”) making his feature-directing debut with a script Adrian Tomine adapted from his graphic novel, displays a confidence here that is infectious.

How you feel about Knight and Day will depend largely on your feelings about Cruise. If you can't divorce his performance from his off-screen antics, well, that's a problem, here and elsewhere. If you're willing to watch what's on-screen and leave it at that, there's fun to be had.

The authenticity that Collette brings to a woman desperate for some kind of change and the willingness to seek it is inspiring. She’s the real winner here.

What saves Meadowland from being an exercise in masochism is the acting. Wilson and Wilde have a light touch that makes them perfect for the comedies they often make. Here, Morano leads them to much darker places, and they plunge right in.

Inkheart is entertaining enough, if not always easy to follow. And if it does nothing else, at least it may inspire kids to read, if for no other reason than to help make sense of it all.

Alvarez puts us in the interesting position of rooting for the bad guy, and continually changing our ideas of who that is, a genuinely intriguing idea. Don’t Breathe doesn’t always live up to that potential, but for much of the movie it comes close.

Reeves was born to this kind of role — quiet, moody, looks nice in black. He’s just as good as he was in the first film, because he’s exactly the same. In many ways, so is the film. That’s fine this time around, because John Wick: Chapter 2 is just as crazily entertaining.

It’s a horror movie that is actually scary; it’s got a good idea that feels both relevant and contemporary; and it’s really gross. (That’s a plus — it is a horror movie, after all. Sometimes they skimp.) I just wish I understood its logic a little better.

The film, directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (“Little Miss Sunshine”), might have come off as too breezy were it not for the leads: Emma Stone as King and Steve Carell as Riggs.

The Fault in Our Stars is manipulative as can be, pulling out all the stops — kids with cancer — in its attempt to bring the tears. And you know what? It works.

There's plenty of gross-out humor and lots of sex jokes, some of them absurd, some really funny. But what elevates She's Out of My League - it doesn't turn a 5 into a 10, but it helps - is heart, of which its characters have a surprising plenty.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is like eating ice cream for breakfast. Sure, it sounds like a good idea, and for a while it actually is. But eventually it starts to feel like too much.

If you like martial-arts films, it's well worth your while, a non-stop orgy of brilliantly choreographed fight scenes. Eventually it's all too much, a blur of fists, blades and snapped bones that run together. Still, it's a wild ride.

But it’s Atwell who steps up the most. Like Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” her motives are fluid, which makes her more fun.

It’s nobody’s masterpiece, but it is an exceptionally promising start for Mohr, making his feature debut as a director.

It’s a good movie, so smartly directed by Ralph Fiennes, who also appears as Nureyev’s dance instructor, that at times it feels like an IQ test. But the story is intriguing and, ultimately, gripping enough to overcome all that.

Although Pasikowski is heavy-handed in his filmmaking, sometimes in the extreme, Aftermath does show the danger inherent in this kind of groupthink.

All the actors are good, but Harrington is remarkable. It’s not just the physical changes in her character, but the genuineness with which she inhabits her.

It's wider than it is deep, but Andrew Rossi's documentary is a good primer on an issue that, in varying degrees, affects almost everyone.

Alien: Covenant is much better than “Prometheus,” in that it has plenty of scares and an actual plot, which, if sometimes predictable — all of these movies are in some ways the ultimate game of survival — is still satisfying.

Like the Guardians of the Galaxy films, The Suicide Squad has a heart. Unlike those films, we actually see a heart pierced by a shard of glass from inside a character’s body. That said, Gunn cares about the characters, and it shows.

The Beguiled is an atmospheric remake that Sofia Coppola never quite manages to take from languid to lurid.

A beautifully made, glorious mess.

Seasons is a gorgeous movie that is exceedingly strange — not necessarily in the story it tells, but in the way it tells it.

In effect this is a pretty standard overcoming-adversity story, particularly with the more politically oriented social observations removed. What isn’t standard is the acting.

Mylod, working from a script by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, goes all in on the social commentary. Some of it is funny, some of it appalling, none of it as engaging as when Mylod uses food to make statements.

Certainly Anything’s Possible is a welcome unique entry into the high-school romance genre, with representation playing an important part. It’s not as deep or as deeply felt as it might have been, but at least it’s a start.

If there is a common thread, it's that for all these people life is not a passive activity. They live their lives, largely in the ways they've wanted to, and don't just wait around to see what's next.

McEwan, as is his wont, aims for something bigger here, the bigger questions — the biggest, even, of life and death. Thanks to Thompson’s outstanding performance, he mostly achieves what he sets out for.

Smile 2 is a bigger movie in every way. Bigger isn’t necessarily better, but in this case, it’s not bad.

It isn’t the kind of movie where you nitpick the details. It’s the kind of movie where you float along from one scene to the next, buoyed by catchy hits like “Golden” and “Soda Pop.” They don’t just serve the story, but drive it.

Baruchel is outstanding, giving Hiccup just the right amount of confidence buried several layers beneath the shame he feels in not continuing the family business. Butler's a head-banger from way back, so he's convincing. And Ferrera gets the grrl-power vibe just right.

It's a somewhat goofy movie that also manages some real scares. Best of all, it makes excellent use of an element of vampire stories effective since Count Dracula confronted Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's novel: I know that you know, and I also know there is nothing you can do about it.

It's never less than edge-of-your-seat fun.

Visually, the movie is amazing — jaw-droppingly so. This is as technologically impressive as anything Spielberg has done, if not more so. The story, on the other hand, based on the bestselling novel by Ernest Cline, doesn’t just allow for narrative shortcuts; it practically demands them.

There is a craggy kind of elegance to Cry Macho. You know what you’re getting for the most part. This does not include a lot of surprises. It does include comfort in the familiar. Eastwood has earned that, too.

There are obviously a lot of parts here, and they don’t all fit together successfully; the shift in tone toward the end is particularly unsettling. But it’s not for lack of ambition on the part of the Daniels, nor the performances by Dano and Radcliffe.

Batkid Begins is a good movie about great intentions and a large group of people coming together to make a stranger most of them will never meet happy.

If the film is ultimately an exercise in atmosphere, it is without question a triumph on that front. The rich textures and almost tactile visuals are astonishing.

Nightmare Alley winds up being like one of the games on the midway, its outward appearance more impressive than what lies beneath. But what an appearance it is.

Roach’s film may be light in places, even sugarcoated in others, but any reminder of the past and its impact on the future is a welcome one. Plus, we get a good Cranston performance in the bargain.

Hawkins is fantastic. She duplicates Maud’s gnarled hands, but doesn’t overdo it — she simply captures Maud’s struggle and portrays it as part of her life.

For the most part the film is an interesting, and occasionally fascinating, look at getting older and taking on responsibility.

A technically fascinating film that's best when it's angry, less good when romance rears its head.

Secretariat was such a commanding presence, the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years, a Time magazine coverboy, the focus of the public's imagination during his pursuit, that any excuse to relive that excitement is worthwhile, and Secretariat gives us one.

It never quite takes off in a stirring, inspirational way, but moves steadily forward in solid fashion.

LBJ, Rob Reiner's film, benefits greatly from an absolutely all-in performance by Woody Harrelson as the former president. But it also benefits from the current president, or at least the current administration.

Frank Serpico doesn't supersede "Serpico," and it isn't meant to. Instead it serves as an interesting companion piece, one well worth watching.

The whole isn't quite as interesting as the sum of its parts, is another way to put it. The parts, though, are quite good on their own.

The Drop could have been an ordinary crime drama, but it's elevated by extraordinary performances.

Gilchrist, Emma Roberts and, especially, Zach Galifianakis, give affecting performances, but they are ultimately let down by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's screenplay.

One of those movies that's good, but leaves you with the nagging feeling that it could have been better.

Fothergill and Linfield capture plenty of humor and drama.

Writer and director Nathalie Biancheri’s film explores the lives of those living as “The Other,” outside society’s norms. It requires commitment on the part of the actors and the audience. It’s a worthwhile investment.

A charming film. Not a great one, but a good one.

Ultimately Fury is a good, conventional war movie that might have become something more.

No blood, no gore, no hacked-off arms and legs, but plenty of creepy set pieces, quick cuts and blasts of music that will have you both squirming in your seat and jumping out of it. Until the bone-headed part kicks in.

An improvement. Not a gigantic leap forward for cinema but, armed with a new director, a new story and the return of a trying-harder Worthington and good ol' Liam Neeson as a put-upon Zeus, a marked upgrade in quality.

This is very much a mainstream movie meant to shine a light on the plight of people who were ignored for too long. For that reason alone, it's well worth seeing.

What's exciting about the film is the confidence Hittman brings to it, particularly with her visual choices. The dancing in particular is striking, with surprising cuts and edits. It Felt Like Love isn't a great movie, but it is a promising one, for everyone involved.

The course of the film's story is somewhat predictable and played broadly. But where Volpe's work really shines is when it makes the bigger issue personal.

Intense people behave in intense fashion, and that's that. No guns, no bombs, no noises louder than an argument or a father who likes to drink.

Can we ever get innocence back once it's lost? The ending suggests that we can. But at enormous cost.

The Many Saints of Newark isn’t The Sopranos. But both literally and figuratively, it’s a start.

With Lake Bell and Simon Pegg as the would-be couple involved, the emphasis is squarely on comedy. There’s some romance in there, too, but it’s nicely twisted, just enough to keep things fresh and funny.

A flawed script prevents Welcome to the Rileys from being the effective meditation on grief and healing it wants to be.

How much you enjoy all this will depend on how much you like Glazer. She’s funny, no question, and sometimes intentionally grating. But she also gives off a genuineness. Maybe she is just saying out loud what other people are thinking.

Director Kevin Macdonald offers a suffocating visual feast. Some of the particulars don't add up, so much so that you do notice them even as the action plows forward. But it's still a thrilling ride.

Zemeckis is a master of using effects, but his films sometimes don’t live up to them.... The Walk is different. The use of 3D, in particular, is so astonishing it practically wipes your memory of the silliness going on in France as Petit was learning his trade. Once Petit is on the wire, he is free, and the liberation is contagious.

Match is no masterpiece, but it is an intriguing and entertaining example of actors lifting the material they're given to greater heights, with Stewart leading the way.

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood is a fascinating and undeniably irresistible look into that world. You just feel, despite Bowers' sunny disposition, a little dirty about enjoying it.

Byrne is a delight.

“Brats” is definitely McCarthy’s journey. What saves it are the people he brings along for the ride.

There's no hard-and-fast rule that says you have to like the main character in a movie. It's more a custom, really - a custom that Ben Stiller stretches nearly to the breaking point in Greenberg.

There is nothing erotic about it, nothing sexy, nothing but a brutish satisfying of carnal desires. Without an astounding performance from Michael Fassbender, it would be almost too painful to watch (and at times, too boring). With him, it's not exactly easy.

Once you see that ape, named Caesar, riding a galloping horse in triumph, it's awfully hard not to get sucked in. It's not dumb fun, exactly. It's smart dumb fun.

There’s nothing particularly surprising in the plot, once you get past the meta-Cage business. Pretty soon it’s just an action movie. What is surprising is how enjoyable Cage and Pascal make the movie anyway.

We've been down this road before. But Pitch Perfect 2, goofier than the original, makes it an enjoyable trip.

There is a gentleness, both to Allyn’s performance and to the film overall, that draws the audience in. The movie’s path is as predictable as Jackson’s, but it’s beautifully shot and the idea is a good one — reversing the typical border-crosser-on-the-run idea. That doesn’t forgive all of its shortcomings, but it comes close.

The Armor of Light can be frustrating and painful to watch. But ultimately, there is hope here. Schenck and McBath are only two people from opposite sides of the political spectrum coming together, but at least that’s a start.

Director Shawn Seet’s film is surprisingly sweet and moving.

Cosmopolis is frustrating, funny, thought-provoking, weird, maddening, worthwhile. It isn't a great movie. Sometimes it's not a good one. Sometimes it is. Ultimately, it is one worth working through, a valuable exercise if you're willing to make the effort.

Yes, it's that sappy, in between the F-bomb barrage. But Hill brings an infectious confidence to his performance, even when he's supposedly down and out.

Dominik Moll downplays the overtly scandalous nature of the story, at least for a while, with a leisurely pace heavy on imagery. He’s made a beautiful-looking film that portends disaster. And disaster arrives, eventually. It just takes its time getting there.

The Big Year is better when it is examining the obsession of the birders, and Martin, Black and Wilson are enjoyable in toned-down mode.

The risk of telling three distinct-but-related stories is that all may not be of equal quality. That’s the case here, as the movie starts strong but gets progressively weaker, particularly in the third act.

A great movie exists in Love & Mercy, side by side with a pretty good one.

His first film, "Animal Kingdom," was a terrific examination of a low-grade crime family in Melbourne. The Rover is more ambitious but not as good. Michod's patience with scenes, while laudable, is at times too much.

Thanks to its cast, The Grand Seduction turns out to be, if not exactly groundbreaking, at least agreeable, comfortable fun.

A Single Shot never rises to the level of a great film like “Winter’s Bone,” which digs much deeper in its depiction of life in the hills among the desperate poor. But thanks largely to Rockwell, it’s not bad, either.

Patriots Day is a well-meaning, well-executed movie that tells the story of the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013 as a crime thriller — an interesting choice that works well, for the most part.

Animals may be the kind of story we've seen, but it's told in a way that makes it worth seeing again.

The Possession of Michael King is more scary than original.

Think of Julieta as Pedro Almodovar unplugged. The director tones down somewhat his signature look (loud and busy colors) and vibe (heightened melodrama) for something a little more muted in this tale of loss and tragedy.

Director Lorcan Finnegan is relentless in his pursuit of disquiet. But “The Surfer” is not just an exercise in making a hard-to-watch movie. It’s also a commentary on toxic masculinity and the absurdity of bro culture that poisons X and podcasts and other forms of media.

Morton is outstanding. The rest of the cast, which includes Rashida Jones and Bradley Whitford, is also good. Bernstein does a nice job moderating the tone of the film, which could have been depressing, but isn't.

It’s a knowing nod to the past fused with a contemporary cast confident in the present, and where the franchise might take it in the future.

Hoffman was a genius, a tremendously gifted actor who could shine in almost any role... A Most Wanted Man may not be the best example of this, but it certainly adds to the evidence.

The acting is naturalistic, with a lived-in feel. These are familiar people, it seems like, made so by performances that never drift into lazy melodrama.

I liked the movie — it’s certainly well made, and a lot of fun — but I mostly found myself laughing at it, not with it.

Exactly what it sounds like: a cowboy movie and an alien movie thrown together, a genre mash-up that's more fun than good, but pretty good nonetheless.

Lawrence is a tremendous talent, and she is what makes The Hunger Games ultimately worth spending time with. She doesn't elevate the film to the heights to which one might have wanted, but she takes it a lot higher than it would have otherwise risen.

Stone is becoming a dependable go-to choice for comedies, brimming with charisma.

Just slam the pedal to the floor, blast on past the weaknesses in the plot, and enjoy the ride.

Gibson's performance, at times subtle, at times showy and never less than remarkable, is what makes The Beaver worth seeing.

Get On Up... has some problems in the storytelling department, but Boseman tackles with gusto the unenviable task of capturing Brown.

The film is ultimately an excuse to watch and enjoy Streep, Wiest and Bergen. Sometimes roles for outstanding actors who aren’t in their 20s and 30s anymore wind up being embarrassing misfires (see the cloying “And So It Goes” or “Book Club” for examples or, better yet, don’t see them). That’s not the case here. Let Them All Talk is a low-key success.

Barsky’s film is light on biographical detail before Koch’s first term began, in 1978. That’s probably fitting. Koch obviously lived for the job.

To pretend that the film doesn't make a political statement is silly. Of course it does. It wouldn't be effective at all if it didn't.

It’s not particularly revelatory for fans, covering such a long expanse of time that it’s perhaps necessarily a little shallow in places. It is, however, a sometimes fascinating look at a career that had highs and lows even fans may not know about, as well as the tricky dynamics of creating music with your family.

It could be a really showy role, but Phoenix is patient, letting the character, and the audience, come to him. It's a journey worth taking.

The film is unexpectedly compelling, even if you’re not a teenage girl, though being one certainly wouldn’t hurt.

A feel-good romance, it’s not. A feel-bad one, more like. But Domont has loftier ideas in mind, and in Fair Play, she effectively gets them across.

Where In the Land of Blood and Honey falls short, then, is in the story itself. Too many coincidences and, ultimately, too narrow a focus. But it is a genuinely noble effort, a worthy attempt to make some sense of the inexplicable.

Horror movies are notoriously tough to end well — how can the last act match the lead-up? But credit Chase with coming up with an ending that fits the mood of the rest of the film without selling out the audience emotionally.

The performances, by Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyaté, are outstanding.

One of the things that pushes Jig beyond what it might have been otherwise is that not everything works out as you might have liked.

Tucci and Eve command the screen throughout, shifting tone and intensity as they go. It’s fascinating. So is the film, well worth watching and arguing over. Which, in LaBute’s hands, is doubtless the point.

Truly, you don't have to watch former secret agents relentlessly wipe out villains. But if you want to, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone better than Washington for the task.

In truth, the story isn't much. Just betrayal and revenge, basically. But a couple of things make Haywire a lot of fun to watch. One is the cast.

Sure, the hits would have been nice. But it says something about Jimi: All Is by My Side (and Benjamin's performance) that it is still a success without them.

It’s too straightforward, at least in terms of what we’ve come to expect from Sayles.

Luckily, Horn is so good -- as is Max von Sydow, in a wordless role -- that the film resonates in spite of the tear-jerking strings Daldry pulls.

Even at less than an hour and a half, the film is, shall we say, patient in unfolding its story. Part of this is set up, lulling the audience for the shocks to come.

Thanks to Cranston’s performance — along with a game supporting cast — and Brad Furman’s tension-building direction, the movie works.

Them That Follow is a tough slog, no doubt. But it’s also a worthwhile one, even if you might appreciate it more than you’ll enjoy it.

What’s as striking as the violence is Fargeat’s confidence as a filmmaker. She risks absurdity at every turn, fearlessly daring the audience to accept unlikely scenarios. Take that challenge. However difficult “Revenge” may be to watch at times, it’s worth it.

When he’s on, Stewart’s skewer is sharp indeed.

What's interesting is how Jacquot treats the material. It is, by any measure, a romantic drama. But he uses the score, by Bruno Coulais, as if the film were something else altogether.

A movie that makes little sense, is dumb when it's not being stupid and yet is still at times laugh-out-loud funny.

As a film, it’s like science fiction, a visit to Planet Obscenely Wealthy. It is weirdly compelling.

A perfectly serviceable thriller, smarter than many, but it has too much of a reputation to live up to.

Although the film features a powerhouse performance by Clarke Peters as Da Good Bishop Enouch Rouse, it's saddled with a sloppy story.

As events unfold, Raimi’s hand becomes more and more apparent, and that’s a good thing.

Scott does a nice job with the first part of the film, setting the stage for what is ultimately a disappointing conclusion.

Does the movie have anything new to say, anything different from John G. Avildsen's 1984 original, with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita? Not particularly.

It almost works. Actually, it does work, hitting the requisite number of hip notes. It just doesn’t dazzle, and that’s kind of a surprise.

Fichtner is always good; just trying to sort out his accent here is kind of fun. Plotnick is the key, however. He plays it straight, even as the world around him grows weirder by the minute. Often he seems confused by the proceedings, which is fitting: Join the club, pal. But we’re having a better time of it than he is.

It’s not going to make you forget “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” or “Bambi” or “Frozen” or “Tangled,” but elements of it might remind you of them. Which is by design.

Jason Schwartzman has become, without question, the go-to actor when you want a character with off-putting, even annoying traits, yet need to have the audience side with him just enough not to want to strangle him.

Emancipation, Antoine Fuqua’s well-meaning and graphic depiction of an enslaved man who escapes in search of Lincoln’s army and freedom for himself and his family, is a mostly affecting, no-holds-barred look at degradation, inhumanity and, ultimately, inspiration. But at times — too many times — Emancipation also plays like an action-adventure movie.

Clearly set up to be the first film in a franchise. It's not a bad movie, but I wouldn't hold my breath for that.

There’s something about a lot of the film as a whole that makes it feel as if Lanthimos is trying a little too hard.

The film, directed and co-written by Kevin Reynolds ("Fandango," um, "Waterworld"), is a nice-enough telling of the Resurrection of Jesus, which at times seems like it also wants to be a Very Special Episode of "CSI: Jerusalem." It's well-made and well-acted.

Just Go with It provides not only the title of the film but a one-step instruction for how best to enjoy it.

Smith’s performance, in which he resists the urge to go over the top, and the subject matter make Concussion an interesting movie, but not the urgent one it could have been.

It just sort of chugs along in predictable fashion, bolstered by a couple of good performances here, thrown off-track every now and then by implausible or unearned developments there, but overall a decent effort.

Juror #2 isn’t quite forgettable, but it’s also not the movie we’ll remember Eastwood for.

The Commuter doesn’t stand above or below most of Neeson’s action-hero fare. But you dependably get what you pay for.

Where does creativity come from? And how do the lucky few who are touched by it make it last? Can they? Touched with Fire isn't a perfect study of the question, and it can't really provide a complete answer, probably because there isn't one. But thanks to Holmes and Kirby, it at least asks in a compelling way.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a well-made movie, well-acted (Costner and Branagh seem to be having an especially good time) and a pleasant diversion. They’ll probably make several more. But it doesn’t exactly put the “thrill” in action thriller.

Goosebumps,”Rob Letterman’s film based on the R.L. Stine books (pretty much all of them), is silly, goofy, a little scary, a little poignant and a lot of fun.

I like the glitter. And I like The Prom in a general kind of way. It’s just not the show-stopper it might have been.

The script makes the characters a little too witty and spot-on with cultural references, but what makes it work, to the extent that it does, is the innate liability of Sudeikis and Brie.

Kong: Skull Island is one of those movies best described as big, dumb fun.

No one wants to live in the past, but in The Peanuts Movie, the old stuff still stands up, while the new story is just flimsy glue holding the classic bits in place.

Writer and director Mark Elijah Rosenberg paces things patiently, which in some cases is a polite way of saying there are boring stretches.

The intentions are solid here, but the execution is not... But the actors are compelling, and the issue is, of course, always worth discussion. It's not a great movie, but, if nothing else, Frontera is worthwhile on those fronts.

Allied is a decent movie, but frustrating — it should have been great, but never gets out of its own way long enough to be.

It's an interesting idea that loses steam as it gains gore. The development of the story is much better than the payoff. It's fun while it lasts.

It wants to be oh-so-serious, and it never lets us forget how hard it’s trying.

It offers Bratt maybe his best role ever as Che, a tough-guy neighborhood personality struggling to come to grips with his son's homosexuality.

Forget Team Edward vs. Team Jacob. I'm backing Team David, as in David Slade, the director who has finally managed to breathe some life into the "Twilight" series, heretofore a deadly dull undead undertaking.

The Woman isn't simply a gore-fest. It's just mostly a gore-fest, with a little more going on, as well.

Pacino and his director don't get back to basics — given that Pacino plays the title character, an aging rock star who long ago sold out, that wouldn't make sense. But the actor brings such a charming attitude to the role that his performance feels far more genuine than the story itself.

It’s a fascinating story with particular contemporary relevance. And it should be better.

The script feels not half-finished, but maybe three-quarters. Lawrence does what she can to make up the missing 25 percent, but even she can’t perform miracles.

Should you see it? Sure. The absolutely absurd, over-the-top Vegas chase scene assures you’ll get your money’s worth in ridiculousness. (Not all of Greengrass’ set pieces are smart.) But in truth, you’ll be there because it’s a Bourne movie, and you’ll like it a little better than you should because it is.

Nicolai Fuglsig’s film does a nice job of capturing the fish-out-of-water nature of the American combatants. Chris Hemsworth is suitably heroic and Michael Shannon suitably intense. But if this movie was the only context you had for the U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks, you’d walk out of the theater thinking that we won a quick war without suffering any casualties, that American gusto and bravery saved the day.

The actors are having fun here and, for a while, so will the audience. But the payoff just isn’t there. It’s not-a-stake-through-the-heart disappointment, but the only eternal life Renfield will enjoy is in late-night channel surfing.

It’s fun enough in places, outrageous (in mostly a good way) in others. Ultimately, however, the plot falters enough that it’s more like a two-hour audition for Great Actress. Chastain passes with flying colors, even if the movie doesn’t.

The film is interesting and at times enlightening, but it's all over the map.

A too-good Gru is a boring Gru. No matter how much you crank up the adorability factor or offer up the occasional laugh, there is no getting around that.

It makes for an entertaining movie, one you can tell is glossing over some details and minutiae. That's probably a good thing overall, but that, and an inability to nail down a consistent tone, leaves it feeling a little incomplete.

This trip isn’t so notable. It’s not bad. Some bits are enjoyable. But ultimately, other than some genuinely impressive visuals, it never makes a compelling-enough case to justify its existence.

Hafstrom creates a nice, creepy vibe, especially for the first part of the movie, which has a menacing atmosphere. Too bad he doesn't sustain it.

It’s Hodge’s portrayal of Banks that elevates the film.

Director Mark Waters manages to wring some charm out of the film, and out of Carrey.

When Argylle is fun, it is really fun. Watching Rockwell and Howard run around the world is entertaining, for a time, but not forever. “Because these things will change,” as Swift sings in “Change.”... Maybe she should have written the movie.

No one is going to mistake “Road House” for a masterpiece, but it succeeds far better at being what the original film set out to be.

Knoxville and the others go about their messy business with a glee that is impossibly contagious.

Odd indeed. In a good way, mostly.

Zwick can't seem to decide what the movie is - a refreshingly frank comedy about sex and commitment, or a more-serious look at illness and its effect on relationships.

The best of the lot. It's not great, but the mean-spiritedness that permeated the first film and stuck around a bit for the second is mostly gone.

The new Ghostbusters is a pretty funny movie, a goofy take on the goofy original that has some good laughs and a dopey story.

It’s a fun effort in a genre that hasn’t gotten much of a workout recently, and that’s worthwhile in itself.

It's a movie as warm and fuzzy as a comfortable blanket, and as safe as the milk Edwards prefers to anything stronger. Not as exciting, perhaps, but it gets the job done well enough.

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet is a hit-and-miss affair, easy on the eyes but nothing to write home — or a term paper — about.

Trolls World Tour isn’t a great movie, but it’s not an awful one, either — and maybe most importantly, it’s a new movie, one you can watch right now without leaving your house.

More brains and less brawn probably isn’t a prescription for box-office success for a movie like this. But it’s a movie I’d rather see.

Acting (and story) take a back seat to the visual display. Eubank shows confidence with each shot, whether it takes place in a desert vista or a clinical government slab. What's it all mean? It's unclear, except meaning that Eubank is a talent to watch.

Thanks to a good cast and a willingness to stray fairly far afield from the source material, it’s better than you might think.

The acting is good, the story of doomed lovers suitably tragic. But the film is never quite moving in the way one would hope.

Vacth is good throughout. It's tough to make a disaffected character hold your interest, but she does.

Interesting as it is, Narco Cultura aims to tell the story of what’s happened in Juarez and in Mexico (and, by virtue of its immense appetite for drugs, the U.S.). Instead, it feels more like a couple of intriguing chapters.

There are few issues more bitterly divisive than abortion, with emotions and rhetoric running at fever pitch. October Baby is a faith-based movie that resides staunchly in the pro-life camp. Yet directors Andrew and Jon Erwin, who also contributed to the story, rarely let their film get didactic, instead going for a more low-key approach.

Thus, despite being stuffed full of inventive, near-visionary visuals, “Three Thousand Years of Longing” winds up feeling a little incomplete. The story lacks the one thing the djinn promises: magic.

Probably it's a combination of those and other elements that leads to Diaz's bad teacher not being as bad as she might have been and Bad Teacher not as good as it could have been.

Without an actor like Dafoe at its center (and margins and everywhere else), it would be unwatchable torture. With him, it’s more like watchable torture, easier to admire than enjoy.

The film looks terrific, with a fantastical forest coming to 3-D life. Swooping birds, flying arrows and more make good use of the technology. But the best films use technology as a storytelling device, not as a substitute for story itself.

Immaculate goes all in on the yuck, but leaves the rest high and dry.

Without Remorse is neither a classic nor a failure; it falls somewhere in-between. But like Kelly on a seemingly doomed mission, there’s Jordan, giving it all he’s got to save the day.

While the good outweigh the bad, it's a close race. But what is good, particularly a heartbreaking performance by Allison Janney, is really good, enough so that Colfer emerges as a talent worth watching on the page, not just on the screen.

The movie drags on way too long, but there are things to like.

There's nothing bad about Skateland, in fact, particularly for those old enough to remember the clothes, the feathered hair and the soundtrack. There's just nothing new, or anything that hasn't been done before, and better.

Obama is so smart and insightful, even in response to the canned and near-sycophantic questions during the question-and-answer sessions on stage, that it makes you yearn for a real interview, a tougher documentary, one that trusts both Obama and the audience more.

Eventually, the film morphs from a horror movie to a border shootout. It’s not a seamless transition.

It’s easy to roll your eyes at what we see in “One Track Heart,” but harder to dismiss the happiness and peace on display here.

It may be haphazard and loosely focused. But thanks to Skarsgård it’s never really boring.

It’s engaging at times and wonderful to look at, but feels like it’s on the cusp of something bigger. But whatever that bigger thing is, it never arrives.

We’re left with some fun, funny and occasionally scary set pieces, but the slices don’t add up to a whole pizza, as it were.

Nanjiani is kind of like Bill Murray. There's just something about him that makes you anticipate something funny coming, if not now, soon, so why not start laughing? I don't know whether it would work in just any film, but here he's such an oasis of intelligence in a desert of comedic stupidity that I'd like to see if it would.

From its bland title to its fair-to-middlin' story, mediocre is the word that fits How Do You Know perfectly.

The balance between spunky kid film, buddy movie, comic book adventure and rugged violence is, as you might guess, difficult to find. But it’s kind of fun to watch “Project Power” try.

The filmmakers work at creating a new take on an old protagonist and then don’t really have much new to do with him once they’ve achieved that. It’s a good effort. Just not an entirely successful one.

[Pacino] and Green sometimes overplay their hand. That is, overplay the underplaying, which sounds patently ridiculous but is the exact description warranted here.

It's easy to get sucked into Begin Again, to enjoy the friendly performances and the goes-down-easy songs, and to not even notice until it's over that the film is more a feel-good fairy tale than anything else. We might not have seen much that was truly meaningful in the end, but it was warm and fuzzy while it lasted.

The overall feel is one of a generic, feel-good drama, albeit one with Harrison Ford stomping around most of the time as if someone kicked him in the shins. One suspects that this is a story that deserved better.

The jokes only make up for the pedestrian plot for so long. There was a time when animated fare with generic stories sufficed. But now we expect more from them, because they have, pardon the pun, evolved. The Croods, like its title family, hasn’t.

Unfortunately, screenwriter Christopher Bertolini has given Eckhart and Liebesman a story so riddled with war-movie cliches that it contains almost nothing else.

The problem with V/H/S, a compilation of sometimes scary horror shorts loosely bound by an overarching plot, is that, no matter how savage, evil or sadistic the killer, the victims almost always come off as bigger jerks.

While the acting draws us into the story; it plays like a daytime soap opera with really good actors and Australian accents.

In Run All Night, Neeson gives us more of the same, although with Collet-Serra's assistance, it's dressed up in a more interesting package.

There’s a weird attempt at feminism here that doesn’t quite fly – basically it boils down to young women having every bit as much right to do bong hits all day and night as young men do – but at least there is an attempt.

There is a sweetness to Radnor's character and to his film. What there is not is a sense of urgency, of a desire to find out what happens next.

Maybe the Manson murders are not meant for easy explanation, which in part seems to be what Morris is getting at. Maybe we’ll never really know the answers. But we don’t seem to be able to stop looking for them.

As statements go, it’s somewhat compelling. But really, the look of Like Me is the big draw here, and it’s what makes the film both interesting and well worth seeing. As for Mockler, it’ll be fascinating to see what comes next.

A decidedly dumb entry in the titan saga that’s still kind of fun.

You come to a Godzilla movie for the epic fights, and on that front, Dougherty delivers.

"Southern fried" is as good a phrase as any to describe The Paperboy...It fits, really, because it causes the same reaction. You eat a mess of fried okra or tater tots, and it's tasty going down. It's only after you're done that you feel a little queasy. [18 Oct 2012]

Overall, it's exactly as absurd as it sounds, but in the best way.

If you're willing to accept Killer Elite as a shoot-'em-up action movie with good actors taking the spots of the usual lunk heads (but spouting the usual nonsense), you'll be pleased with the film.

What you would expect from the third film in an unlikely franchise: less of the same.

Subtlety may not be Watkins' strong suit, but he knows how to frame a scene for maximum tension and dread.

Is it a ridiculous movie? Of course, that’s the point. Yet it’s still kind of fun, and it all but insists that you enjoy watching it.

Pete’s Dragon is a good movie. But it could have used a little more of the magic its characters are searching for.

Sing is like an album with a good song here and there, but too much filler and not enough hits

At Middleton is an almost completely inauthentic little romance that is so genuinely pleasant you’ll enjoy it anyway.

It comes down to a matter of tone, and Clooney can’t really settle on one. The Monuments Men is in no way a bad movie. Just, with this bunch, a disappointing one.

Quirky, funny and a little claustrophobic (by design), it’s confident enough in what it’s trying to accomplish to take the chance on the title. And what he’s trying to accomplish is ambitious.

Too often Washington is made to simply sit and observe -- which is not a fatal mistake because he is such a good actor that even then he's worth watching. Worse, though, at times he's gone altogether. That's not the only flaw in the fairly straightforward thriller, but it's the biggest.

Even as big-budget blockbusters go, this is a hard movie to connect with.

Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a surpassingly strange, often frustrating movie.

Whether Army of the Dead is any good isn’t really an issue. It’s more whether it sets out to do what Snyder intends for it to do. If he intended it to be an over-the-top exercise in zombie mayhem sprinkled with the occasional human emotion, he succeeded. The nice part is that this time he has actually managed to make it fun along the way.

Is it a good movie? It’s … a movie. That’s not the slight it sounds like. It’s certainly no masterpiece, though not for lack of a great performance from Lady Gaga. It’s an investment, but watching this cast do these things is worth the price of admission.

If the story is somewhat lacking, Cox is terrific.

The good news is that it's better than the second "Men in Black." The bad news is: not all that much. There are a couple of clever ideas, a few funny moments, a wealth of computer-generated special effects. But it's hollow at its core, and the asides have lost some of their spark.

Shipka is both funny and gritty as the wry observer unwillingly drawn into the action, the kind of role at which she excels.

I liked Dean. And I liked Martin’s direction. I just hope his next outing is a little more ambitious.

The problem with Peyton Reed's film is that when he shrinks the always-affable Paul Rudd, he shrinks a big part of Rudd's charisma, too.

You know you're being manipulated but you don't really mind, because it's fun to watch this bunch work.

This is an incredibly creative film, but, unlike other Gondry films such as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and the documentary "Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?" it doesn't add up to much.

Memory is a good-enough movie that could have been a lot better. Neeson is to thank for most of the good. Turns out he, like his characters, does have a particular set of skills. They involve acting.

Just good enough to pique your curiosity, but never quite good enough to captivate.

Brand ultimately can't make a watered-down Arthur as sweetly charming as the original, but he certainly makes it better than it would have been otherwise.

Thanks to Highmore's performance, George is worth sticking around for - and thanks almost exclusively to Highmore and Roberts, so is The Art of Getting By.

It’s good, it’s intriguing, but in the end it’s nothing to howl about.

There is so much to enjoy about Encanto — the songs, the gorgeous animation, the cultural traditions. All of which make the script’s serious shortcomings all the more surprising and disappointing.

Where the film falters a bit is with the story. The final act is reminiscent of any of your garden-variety sci-fi adventure movies, which is a jolt after we’ve spent the rest of the movie watching these two figure each other out and try to make peace with their situation.

Song One is an odd little movie. It seems as if there is more going on than there is, which you realize after it's over. As pleasant diversions in the moment go, however, you could do much worse.

McKenzie and Taylor-Joy are both affecting as two sides of not-quite-the-same coin. Their performances are the best thing about the film, which is good — but not as good as it might have been.

It’s mostly a biography of Holiday — nothing wrong with that, certainly when you’ve got a performance as stunning as Andra Day’s in the title role.

It’s all insanely violent and gleefully silly. Stab wounds and bullet holes just don’t slow some people down the way you think they might. Through it all the best part of the film remains the dichotomy of a bland wimp (a character Odenkirk plays so well) who can flip the switch to becoming a remorseless killer — and seeing Odenkirk as the one flipping the switch.