Claudia Puig

John Wick serves up a noxious, clashing blend of hyper-realistic and cartoonish violence. Too bad there's no cinema decontaminating service that can wash our memories clean of such useless gore.

What makes it slightly better than the others is an affable, low-key chemistry between James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan as star-crossed lovers.

One of the year's most audacious, savagely funny and unpredictable films, it features an outstanding performance by Michael Keaton as the has-been star of a superhero franchise desperate to be taken seriously.

While the story is not as mythic or fanciful as it seeks to be, its predictability is trumped by the film's beauty.

Fury does capture the brutality of war and the misery of life spent largely confined in an armored tank during the war's final weeks, in April, 1945.

As suspenseful as any episode of Showtime's "Homeland," which director Michael Cuesta also executive-produced.

The exhilarating, inventive and suspenseful story hinges on a pair of commanding performances.

A film in which precocious kids say things real kids never would, and larcenous drunks come off as adorable.

The overall message is pleasantly sweet: Bad days happen. Not only are they inevitable, but they serve to make the good times worth savoring. There's nothing dreadful about that.

A classic example of a second-rate courtroom drama.

An awkward blend of fable, travelogue and relationship drama, it's the story's hybrid style, vapid message and predictable arc that disappoint.

Annabelle invites unflattering comparisons with scary movies that came before, but its disparate parts never coalesce into a genuinely fearsome thriller.

Audiences could use a wise and probing movie about the meaning of our increasingly digital, techno-juiced lives.Men, Women & Children is about half that movie.

Lie is openhearted, earnest and well-intentioned.

Grimly dark humor and spot-on production design buttress the captivating story and heighten the unnerving atmosphere...Gone Girl will leave you breathless and haunted.

Maze Runner feels only partially formed.

As a film it feels overly familiar, with some amusing scenes, but not enough to make for a wholly satisfying experience.

Though dialogue is kept to a minimum, the deeply felt, complex performance by Mia Wasikowska and the assured direction of John Curran render the film — based on a true story — a riveting adventure, as well as a dreamy meditative saga.

Unlike his tough guy roles in "Taken" or "Non-Stop," Neeson is at least given some good dialogue. And he's a jot more world-weary than kick-ass here.

As a chronicle of the collapse of a marriage, the film is choppy, contrived and cloying.

Drop is based on Lehane's short story Animal Rescue, and the terrific cast and punchy dialogue make it particularly worth seeing, bringing energy to a deliberately-paced tale that occasionally feels plodding.

Informative, morally complex and supremely well-intentioned, it generally sidesteps sentimentality for appealingly straightforward storytelling.

As forewarned, so avoid.

Peña is a standout, and Longoria is a revelation as the vulnerable, pregnant Paulina. Hers is a decidedly un-glamorous part and Longoria compellingly fleshes out an under-written role.

It's an idea that might have made for a mildly intriguing skit, but blown out into a full-length feature it's at best campy and at worst an amateurish, sentimental schlock-fest.

Cantinflas is a nostalgic, occasionally schlocky, look at the Mexican icon. While a substantial number of scenes are heavy-handed, the actor who plays Cantinflas— Óscar Jaenada — is a standout.

Though it features no battle scenes, The Notebook shines a powerful, unflinching light on the horrors of World War II.

A predictable espionage thriller undercut further by loose ends left dangling, November Man is worth seeing only for Pierce Brosnan's dynamic lead performance.