Connie Ogle

That rare biopic that’s shorter and swifter than it should be. This turns out to be both a blessing and a curse.

Hits the parallels between love and hip-hop a little too hard when the message is relatively easy to grasp: Don't sell out: not your art, not your heart. If only music business executives were listening.

Taylor is effective as a woman struggling to take control of her life, but Ambrose's work feels shallow in comparison.

You don't need a Ouija board to suss out where all this is heading, but Is Anybody There? counteracts its deficiencies -- predictability, sentimentality -- with a healthy dose of dark humor.

Wields some power, but it's hard to shake the feeling you've seen it all before.

Bayona is restrained here in terms of gore, but his landscape is a realistic vision of a hell we never hope to visit.

Eventually loses its cheerful goofiness and its momentum, climaxing with a lengthy and embarrassing showdown scene at a big party. But it gets worse.

The mere idea of making a musical version of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day India is delicious, though, and Chadha's lively imagination and good intentions almost make the concept work.

It’s filmed with a sharp eye and filled with good performances.

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.

The music is of course majestic, blending well with a loving cinematography.

The charms of Lucía, Lucía rely heavily on the charismatic Roth, who is funny and warm and a lot of fun to watch as she embraces her new life.

Manages to sidestep the potential overload of cheap sentimentality -- an intimate dance between an elderly couple registers with heartbreaking sweetness -- and evokes a lingering sense of loss.

A measured, magnificently understated and intense performance by Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow, Crash) as Ellis gives Pride its fire and heart.

The second installment in a likable family franchise, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island makes a nice case to your kids that reading books is a good idea.

There's an audience for old-fashioned romance, and Dear John will please most of it.

Unfortunately, the film's climactic finale grows repetitive and goes on a little too long; once you've seen bodies flying and crashing through buildings once, you've seen it plenty.

It is entertaining enough to send intelligent viewers (but only the intelligent ones) in search of the book.

Curtis pulls off some amusing moments, and he has a secret weapon: Nighy, who is so jolly and funny you wish he’d had more screen time.

The concert scenes in this biographical picture are some of its best moments — you’ll wonder just how long the actor had to practice to perfect all those splits — and Boseman’s charisma is irresistible.

Thank Segal in part, because the guy is always funny, and Timberlake gets some of the biggest laughs in a particularly crude sex scene (though the song with which his character woos Miss Squirrel is perhaps the film's funniest moment).

Predictable but enjoyable comedy, which succeeds largely on the charm of its star.

The cast brings its by-the-numbers characters alive.

Listening to people bicker for almost two hours wears thin, especially when the comedy is never quite so funny as you had hoped it would be.

The Deep Blue Sea is a suffocating movie, and it's meant to be.

Won't make you forget Kidman's better work, but it's not a film you long to excise from your memory.

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

An important and interesting story, but the reform school itself never seems terribly harsh.