Connie Ogle

When it comes to exploring our peculiar blindness as to what's important in our lives, the film is a disturbing but accurate road map.

Provides the rare pleasure of a blossoming romance between two people older than Kate Hudson or Ryan Reynolds.

Slow-witted, clumsy and almost pathologically reliant on crude name-calling for laughs - Horrible Bosses represents the lowest end of the comedy spectrum.

In the wake of TV's powerhouse "The Shield," Dark Blue comes off as something of a retread, with little of "The Shield's" electric fury, edgy camera work or deft characterizations.

Funny even when it relies heavily on age-old, old-age gags.

Unfinished Song is full of predictably poignant moments; you’d be lucky to survive the film dry-eyed.

Casanova doesn't seduce so much as lull the audience into a stupor with tedious blather about the battle of the sexes, intermittent but pointless swordplay and clumsy slapstick.

Pine, who has been so good and so instrumental in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek series as Captain Kirk, turns out to be a decent Ryan.

Though its violence is searing and brutal, the film, about four FBI agents investigating a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, shows a conscience and a brain, and if it explains things a bit simplistically at times, so much the better.

Shockingly, it's an understated but amusing Ferrell who keeps Winter Passing from growing unbearable.

Due to its good humor and terrific story, Million Dollar Arm is always engaging; its power lies in its feel-good charm.

The Family Stone should have been a glittering holiday bauble along the lines of the irresistible Love Actually. Instead, Bezucha stuffs into our stockings what he thinks is good for us. It's not coal, but it's not entirely what we were hoping for, either.

Watchmen is a spectacularly violent movie.

Focus is a shiny, stylish shell game of a film that, much like its protagonists, relies on breezy chatter, a good sense of humor and a lot of misdirection to succeed.

The film improves once the assassination attempt goes awry, but the audience is never truly invested in the actions of these heroic men.

Despite its slight and vaguely silly premise, Driving Lessons turns out to be sweet, never cloying, and amusing in an understated British way.

Compare Sylvia to another, more powerful film about a tragic literary death: "Iris," about Iris Murdoch's descent into Alzheimer's, leaves you with an aching heart and reddened eyes. After the equally sorrowful Sylvia, we are entertained but unmoved.

The most interesting aspect of Danny Deckchair, though, may be that the film is based on the true story.

Unknown is never boring, and Collet-Serra mostly keeps up a lively pace, but he doesn't do the movie any favors with the flat, dull way he films the scene in which we finally learn what's going on.

A big, rambling, entertaining love letter to the late Hunter S. Thompson.

Midlands finds some measure of success in its use of regular, real-looking people -- as opposed to the oddly glamorous characters who turn up in most romantic comedies -- but it's as though the writer used up all the personality traits before he got to Shirley.

The sort of movie you enjoy much more while you're watching it in the theater than when you're deconstructing it on the way home.

What the film truly reveals is something else entirely: how Jennifer Lawrence can elevate any material, any time, even middle-of-the-pack fare like this.

Director/screenwriter Peter Landesman builds a solid dramatic story around this premise, and Smith delivers a terrific, award-worthy performance as Omalu, nailing his Nigerian accent, his intelligence, his determination to do what he knows is right.

It's López de Ayala's show, and she's relentless in her energy and passion.

This shameless cheerleader of a documentary is the sort of propaganda you might expect in a Republican campaign ad or perhaps featured at a small theater located somewhere in Fantasyland.

Friends With Kids cheerfully earns its R rating on language alone, but always in service of a good laugh.

If nothing else, Yes is certainly a brave experiment.