Connie Ogle

Solid family entertainment, with thrilling action sequences and gorgeous scenery.

It still feels a little like a lesson you’re supposed to learn before you can enjoy anything truly satisfying.

The idea of cracking a secret message from the enemy during war is thrilling; making the process interesting to watch is more problematic.

Page, who died in 2008 in Los Angeles at the age of 85, makes for a blunt but engaging narrator who’s refreshingly candid about sex and her own inner demons.

This new Brideshead Revisted, though imperfectly revised, is not entirely regrettable.

A nice set of drapes and a striking ballgown or two are not enough to provide this interesting love story any serious heft or insight.

Co-written by Tony Gilroy, who penned the tricky "Michael Clayton" and the even trickier "Duplicity," State of Play displays its savvy without being quite so showy.

It turns out to be a satisfying, if occasionally wandering, adventure.

Freedom Writers is prone to throwing in unnecessary plot developments, so it never quite succeeds as anything more than "Dangerous Minds" Redux.

Soon settles down into a drizzle of steady mediocrity, never living up to all the frenzy of those first few moments.

What sets it slightly apart is a willingness to deal with a potentially tricky subject -- race -- in the context of light-hearted fluff.

This noisy, formulaic film turns out to be immediately forgettable, except for the parts that are so ridiculous they leave you shaking your head in wonder hours later.

Comes off curiously flat.

Sweet, amusing little film.

Everything in Drumline engages, from its likable cast to its breathtaking finale. Only the most jaded viewers won't be cheering by the end.

For a low-brow, psycho-on-the-loose-in-paradise thriller, A Perfect Getaway is surprisingly entertaining.

A breath of fresh air in this musty spring movie season.

Shakespeare's rich language does not fit soundly inside every mouth.

The film's opening credits are terrific, and the first 10 or 15 minutes -- in which Ford and Arthur speedily load up on beer at the local pub -- are absorbing and funny. It's such a promising start that it's doubly deflating to realize that once they land on Zaphod's spaceship, the humor vaporizes.

Dear Frankie is a small movie with a big soul and no easy formula for the happiness of its big-hearted characters.

Wright's film is visually stimulating to be sure, but he never loses sight of the raw human emotions that make Anna Karenina a classic.

Turns out to be a lot less tiresome than it sounds, aided by a wonderfully appealing cast and a strong message.

Chéri never fulfills its emotional promise.

This is a film about depression, though, and it comes awfully close to trivializing its subject by suggesting that all Craig needed, really, was a cute girl to like him back.

Green Zone is just an excuse for director Paul Greengrass to haul out his jittery hand-held camera as Miller and Co. sprint through the streets and buildings of Baghdad in pursuit of one villain or another.

Doesn't feel quite so lengthy as its predecessor. And while it still falls short of becoming the classic fans so badly want it to be, the film is livelier and better overall than "The Sorcerer's Stone."

Feels more like a lecture you've already heard than a galvanizing call to action.

The only thing missing from this winsome, madcap throwback set in London on the eve of World War II is an actual Brit in the title role.

The film is weighted down by a dour sensibility at odds with the book's insouciant charm.

These Fitzgeralds are loud, selfish and often maddening, but they're a loving group, and you wouldn't mind spending more time with them.

Ends up as colorless as Reeves' first Superman suit.

You might not think it would be easy to make a dull film about love, war and a bisexual threesome, but Head in the Clouds manages this task efficiently.

And still 42 persists in entertaining you, even when you’re cringing, because the real story is so compelling.

It's almost impossible not to respond emotionally to this fascinating, sobering and all-too-brief exploration of the politicized religious right and its hopes, dreams and power.

Begin Again manages to be romantic and cynical about the music industry, which Carney touches on but never allows to take center stage.

Screenwriter Shawn Slovo -- whose white parents were anti-apartheid activists in South Africa -- ends his finely tuned screenplay on a note not of violence and anger but of forgiveness. It's a breathtaking coda that reminds us of that undeniable human beauty: the ability to survive, to fight for right -- and then move peacefully on.

Fans of period drama will find things to like about The Duchess; it's not as ludicrous as "The Other Boleyn Girl," for instance, and it's not overly long or ponderous.

The uneven Goldmember seems to take a big step toward the extremely juvenile, with more scatological and fewer sex jokes

The only positive thing about the aimless film The Yellow Handkerchief is the idea that William Hurt may be ready for his Jeff Bridges moment.

A cheesy horror film can offer a vicarious cheap thrill or two. Darkness Falls offers only a test of the patience, not even providing much chance to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of its villain.

It makes you laugh and eagerly wish for a happy ending without any preachy soul-searching. As a bonus, it's got a Van Morrison-friendly soundtrack, and the trailers haven't revealed the best parts.

The Help will make you laugh, yes, but it can also break your heart. In the dog days of August moviegoing, that's a powerful recommendation.

Vardalos made the Portokaloses so funny they'll make your own family seem tame.

As for the Marigold Hotel, well, it's not the Delano. But overall it's a fine spot to spend a couple of hours.

Its overall ability to balance humor and drama, attention to emotional detail and a few winning performances outweighs its maudlin tendencies.

A slow-moving but heartfelt film.

The To Do List is a funny movie, but only if you’re not easily offended.

Here's what is bad: this movie.

If Magic Mike XXL is bulging with anything, it’s inane conversation.

Downey gives a nervy, riveting performance in The Soloist.

Don't forget the waves. They're the stars of this show, and Blue Crush smartly never lets you forget it.

Wah-Wah's characters are wonderfully human and flawed and still capable of stirring empathy, which is appealing. But in the end, the film isn't saying much at all.

There are not enough synonyms for ''bad'' to describe the pretension and utter banality of the masturbatory The Brown Bunny, a film so exhaustively awful even its creator Vincent Gallo once disavowed it.

17 Girls is allegedly inspired by true events, but this diffident, dreamy film is so insubstantial it's hard to believe there's a speck of reality to be found in it.

A fatal lack of character development dooms Enduring Love as little more than a fleeting curiosity.

In some ways, better than its book.

The film isn't particularly original, but its dark mood, end-of-times landscape and unique characters will seem fresher to the young audience for which it's aiming than to jaded sci-fi veterans.

Hearing Wilde's pithy lines in her mouth -- ''London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained 35 for years'' -- is worth the ticket price. In the end it's Dench who reminds us of the importance of enjoying Oscar Wilde.

What's missing most in the film, though, is a palpable sense of tension.

Made with an unerring visual dazzle -- its dark corners are shadowy, deep and melancholy, its brilliant seascapes the sparkling embodiment of why we must all find a reason to carry on.

Its sumptuous, stately pace will wither the patience of countless moviegoers, but the impressively acted and gorgeously exotic The White Countess improves the longer you mull its complexities.

Like its eponymous subject, it succeeds only in being shallow and crass and not very much fun to be around.

Zombie lore doesn't allow for redemption, only head shots, and Levine's film, amusing though it may be, is never gory enough to truly become a classic zombie movie. It also ignores the one basic necessity of monster films, even the funny ones: It really ought to be creepy or scary or gross, at least once or twice.

Love Is All You Need works despite its occasional preposterous developments.

A better primer-for-the-uninitiated than an in-depth, fresh and insightful examination of a famous and remarkable life.

Put in such an uncomfortable position, the audience needs something to fall back on, like chemistry between its stars. Here that's half-hearted at best.

Entertaining in spite of itself.

The film's appeal is universal, not just female, and, best of all, it's based on a true story.

It's a good, solid family film.

We may not understand her, this strange, solitary woman, but we know in our bones her desire for a place in the world.

The bigger problem is that neither Jolie nor the script bothers to flesh Louis out as a fully formed person with faults and fears and regrets, which keeps the film from ever capturing you emotionally.

The film, bound to bore the socks off impatient viewers, mistakes reserve for depth and ends up hamstringing its talented cast into playing characters you never care about all that much.

Stoker is the sort of stylish, cerebral movie that engages your brain instead of your emotions, and yet you’re never less than intrigued by the breathtaking visual artistry of this slow-burn thriller.

Absolutely Fabulous works best consumed bite-sized; there’s not enough here to warrant a full-length movie. Too much feels like padding.

There's nothing offensive about Barbershop 2, and maybe there should be. But even if the film plays it safe, it remains a cut above other mainstream comedies.

Maybe it's a measure of the numbing awfulness of romantic comedies in general lately, but Definitely, Maybe isn't nearly so bad as you might fear; it's actually fairly pleasant, a bit too off-color to be a family film but enjoyable just the same.

There was, however, another question the screenwriter should have asked: Why does the script focus on the wrong couple?

Mom (Elisabeth Shue) suffers from the fatal movie ailment of being so underwritten she's practically see-through.

Inherently laughable, but in all the wrong ways.

This is 40 is crude and dull, with a supporting cast that reminds you how utterly uninteresting the main characters are.

Wimbledon may have its faults, but it's the sort of upbeat fantasy that's tough to resist. Maybe love wins in tennis after all.