Connie Ogle

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.