James Berardinelli

One of Lee's great successes with this film is that he is able to present every character, regardless of race, gender, or age, with three-dimensionality and a degree of sympathy. No one is demonized or lionized. No one individual is blamed or exonerated for the events which transpire. Each individual with significant screen time is shown to have good and bad qualities, and we come to understand what motivates them, even if we do not agree with them.

Occupation accomplishes the previously unthinkable: an alien invasion film that makes "Independence Day" look smart.

Taken 2 is more of the same, except a little bigger, a little dumber, and a little less invigorating.

The inevitable twist ties things neatly together before leading to a confusing, borderline-indecipherable ending that fails to satisfy on a number of levels.

Older viewers are more likely to appreciate the film’s intentions than fully embrace the story and its characters. Kids, on the other hand, will probably enjoy the frenetic action sequences; plucky heroine; cute, talking animals; and colorful visual representations.

Even at the attractive price of “free,” it’s not worth it because watching it requires 97 minutes and that’s not time well spent.

Hall Pass isn't by any means flawless, but its ability to integrate extreme scatological humor with moments of genuine feeling is rare.

It's all about eye candy and the quick tease. It's not over fast enough.

What's sad is that Elizabethtown contains two GREAT sequences.

A fast-food type of movie - it looks good in the commercials and is easy to sit through, but it doesn't offer much in the way of satisfaction.

A clumsy motion picture that strives so hard for the perfect romantic ending that it triggers a gag reflex along the way.

This new horror/romance mashup provides just enough flavor of Jane Austen’s classic to tease without satisfying.

This represesents the smartest high-budget, high-profile science fiction film to have come along in quite some time.

Well-made, and it held my attention throughout, but this is one of those motion pictures where it's easier to admire than like the final result.

Unfortunately, while Fanboys has moments of success, it is mostly a middling road picture that doesn't do a lot more than any average, forgettable entry into the tired genre.

Unevenly paced and with a miscast lead, the movie fails to get us to care about its automaton main character as she goes through the motions in a generic spy thriller.

It’s competently made and sporadically compelling but not likely to pique the interest of anyone unfamiliar with the main character.

As horror movies go, Boarding School is worth seeing simply because it’s different. Not weird, off-the-wall different like mother! or Hereditary, but different in a good way.

In a curious way, Snatched is a little like an Amy Schumer stand-up routine: sometimes edgy, occasionally hilarious, and lessened by the bits that fall flat.

Hawke has made this movie his way and the result is a story that is by turns romantic and disquieting. It's well worth the price of admission.

Quality-wise, however, there's a big drop off from sex, lies and videotape to Full Frontal.

It boggles the mind to consider that the fertile writing team of Alec Berg, David Mandel, and Jeff Schaffer, all of whom spent time scripting episodes of "Seinfeld," could turn out something as abysmally unfunny as Eurotrip.

There’s nothing in Paint to excite fans of the late painter and even less for those who don’t know anything about him.

Although director Jason Reitman (son of Ivan, who made the first two) has done a solid job of satisfying multiple needs while turning out a passably amusing and affecting story, the limitations of the Ghostbusters formula are apparent. Ultimately, however, nostalgia remains the main selling point and viewers attending for that reason won’t be disappointed.

Smokin' Aces is Tarantino lite - a vague and unsuccessful attempt to bring together a bunch of offbeat, unrelated characters in a situation where a bloody resolution is inescapable.

Once the setup is over, however, Indecent Proposal starts to fall apart, with the implausibilities and contrivances getting worse with every passing minute.

Somewhere buried in the structurally unsound and unevenly paced Red Joan, there exists the material for not only one but two intriguing motion pictures. Unfortunately, neither manages to struggle to the surface and we’re left with a mediocre mash-up of an old-fashioned spy movie and the story of a son coping with the sins of his mother.

Angel Has Fallen feels like it was cobbled together with cliched action scenes and circumstances overused by the once-popular TV series "24." Angel Has Fallen tries hard (and often succeeds) to topple the Kiefer Sutherland program on the “preposterousness” scale.

The problem with Rampage is that it’s not content to be mindless fun. There’s too much exposition and too many needless human villains. Plus, the tone is more lugubrious than the flippancy suggested by the trailers.

In the final analysis, The Expendables is little more than an ordinary, uninspired action feature.

Likely won't please fans of the original TV series, but the movie hasn't been made for them.

What's missing? Simple: the romance. This movie is so intent upon getting cheap laughs and putting the protagonists in uncomfortable situations that it forgets they're supposed to be falling in love.

The reason to see Chasing Mavericks is the same reason why people flock to shore locations when a hurricane approaches: the waves. This is less effective as a bio-pic of Jay Moriarty than it is as a big screen National Geographic Special.

It is possible to make an engaging action/adventure picture of this sort, but The Scorpion King isn't it. The movie isn't godawful, but it's far from inspired, and, as I sat through its 90 minute running length, I found my mind wandering.

A thoughtful, almost poetic, piece that puts forth the argument that redemption is not easily achieved.

The latest offering from Edward Zwick, the director of "Glory," is the kind of movie that doesn't require much effort to surrender to and enjoy.

The material isn't sufficiently funny to allow me to forgive the film's feeble storyline and two-dimensional inhabitants.

There are times when the Russos almost get us there but they can’t quite make it. As a result, Cherry comes across as ambitious but not entirely successful. The directors deserve credit for weaving together so many contemporary issues into a single, digestible story but there’s too much material here to do consistently well in a 2 ½-hour movie.

A grim experience, with too little wit and humor to compensate for its faults, and the upbeat ending feels like a cheat. Thornton is good, but not worth the price of a ticket.

It's familiar enough to be comfortable but not so familiar that it feels worn and repetitive.

Dull, uninspired, and redundant.

As far as the actors are concerned, Liam Neeson seems to be having fun hamming it up as the villain - a role he rarely gets to play.

Unfortunately, because of a variety of missteps, Bushwick never achieves what it sets out to do. It’s undone by a litany of bad decisions and the underlying weakness of the core material.

As a shallow tale of conscienceless bloodshed and revenge, Last Man Standing is reasonably effective. But as an updated version of the far better-realized Yojimbo, it's an unqualified failure. Last Man Standing is a surface picture -- it looks good, sounds good, and moves quickly -- but there's no depth whatsoever.

Chaos Theory stumbles from one contrived circumstance to the next, and there's not a moment in this entire mess that conveys any sort of genuine human emotion or reaction.

We're stuck with contrived plot contortions, dull interpersonal interaction, and unconvincing dialogue.

This movie probably falls within the purview of a "love it/hate it" subgenre of the psychological thriller.

There’s fun to be had but it’s not consistent and at times it’s disappointing how certain scenes play out.

The appeal of Drive Angry is much the same as that of "Piranha": a willingness to revel in absurdity to the degree where the exhilaration is infectious.

The storyline is all over the place, with numerous unresolved subplots sprouting out of thin air and being left hanging (presumably to be resolved in future movies).

Unlike so many of the bloated, disappointing entries into the 2016 big budget sweepstakes, this is good escapist entertainment.

It is possible to make a movie in which nearly the entire running length is a car chase. An example of how to do this is "Duel." An example of how not to do it is Kidnap.

Like most unintended second installments, this one is superfluous – a remix of moments, scenes, and images from its predecessor infused with the need to make everything bigger and louder.

This movie is so atrocious I kept waiting for Nick Cage to show up.

When the end credits roll, it’s hard to decide whether the most appropriate feeling should be disgust, despair, or despondency. This is one of 2019’s worst films.

Hostage has suspense and momentum.

Instead of generating a testosterone rush, the fight scenes release tryptophan. Not only are they boring, but they are choreographed in an amateurish fashion.

Of the five movies in the Despicable Me/Minions cycle, The Rise of Gru is the second-best, following the debut installment. The series has long since given up finding new avenues to explore (the way the first one and, to a degree, the second one, did), relying instead of regurgitating ideas and comedic bits. It’s almost surprising, therefore, how effectively it works.

Any time Disney tries their hand at live action, though, the results are usually pretty poor. Just not this bad.

As either a 007-inspired spy film or a comic book adventure, The King’s Man feels stale.

Renaissance Man is a movie of moments, too many of which are mediocre or unfulfilling.

Calling Delivery Man a "comedy" is a bit of a stretch, because it's rarely funny. Dumb, yes, but not in a way that's worthy of more than a half-hearted chuckle.

Grim but holds the attention; it does not, however, offer the kind of mindless action excursion that many will be anticipating.

Last Action Hero is sporadically entertaining, but it could have been a whole lot more. Trimmed down and better edited, this film might have been a top-notch satire. As it is, however, it gets caught someplace in between action and comedy, and never really comes across as a solid example of either.

Funny Games is not entertainment but it is an experience.

In order to appreciate The Ruins, one has to be a die-hard fan of horror or bloody thrillers. Those in that category will discover that The Ruins delivers the goods.

Mortal Engines, the movie adaptation of Philip Reeve’s YA novel, represents one of the most impressive examples of “world building” in recent years, surpassing such contenders as Valerian, Cloud Atlas, and even the recent Star Wars episodes.

If the legend of Dracula has become tired through overuse, there is certainly nothing in this iteration to grant the old Count a new lease on life.

The first film was significantly better and, therefore, is the place to start for anyone with a modicum of interest. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is an also-ran that is likely to be appreciated only by completists.

In the end, it's the self-mocking aura that save this film from being a waste of two hours.

The key term here is "fairy tale," because, although the movie occasionally tries for dramatic moments, they're overplayed, undercooked, and divorced from reality.

Into the Storm is as straightforward a disaster film as you're likely to find.

Your reaction to Double Team will probably depend largely on how you feel about concussive action films. While this one is better than most, it still falls considerably short of what I consider to be a "good" movie. One thing's for sure, though: like most flicks that boast more stuntmen than cast members, Double Team is unlikely to function as a Sominex. You may not enjoy it, but you won't fall asleep. And that's the best thing I can say about this loud, brash, ultimately pointless morsel of eye candy.

The Raven is period piece fun - at least until it realizes there has to be a conclusion. That's where a certain amount of inevitable disappointment sets in. The curse of the two-hour murder mystery is that the ending never seems to justify the build-up.

Parodies are hard to do well, as is shown by the mediocrity of so many recent attempts. No matter how ripe a genre is for satirizing, unless you know how to do it, there are no guarantees. Fortunately for Men in Tights, Mel Brooks has been doing this kind of thing for decades.

Unfortunately, while certain aspects of Girl 6 are handled with flair, the film's dramatic scope too often isn't compelling enough for subject matter of such rich and varied possibilities.

A "Jennifer Aniston movie" has become synonymous with "derivative, lackluster mediocrity," and it's a shame. We know she has both talent and charisma but nothing on her recent resume has allowed her to display those qualities. So we're stuck with films that are at best forgettable and at worst painful.

It delivers what it's expected to deliver, and that's likely to make it a success with anyone who laughed his ass off two summers ago.

Has plenty of funny moments, but there's no chemistry between stars Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. It's hard to accept that these two characters are, or even could be, in love. So, while the film is pleasant and sporadically entertaining, it can't be considered an unequivocal success.

An engrossing examination of the elemental forces that define human nature.

As far as I'm concerned, it's official: Hollywood has lost the art of how to make horror films.

What Dreams May Come has the sensibilities of an art film placed into a big-budget feature with an A-list cast.

Allen almost seems to be going through the motions – his jokes are flat, his stories are poorly focused, and the sense of zany energy that characterized his best films is absent.

Once Batman v Superman hits its stride, most viewers will feel equal parts pummeled and immersed. Snyder is a master of the dark spectacle and he pours it on starting around the movie’s midpoint.... Still, although viewers may be riveted at times, the net experience isn’t much fun.

Even considering some of its late-innings flaws, this is an engaging movie that doesn't mistake histrionics and bile for solid family reunion drama.

For those with an adventurous and offbeat cinematic appetite, Chandni Chowk to China offers its shares of enjoyments, although there are plenty of "downs" to go along with the "ups."

The Answer Man is a passable way to kill two hours on a lazy summer afternoon, and perhaps an excuse to get out of the heat.

For those who like the director's body of work, appreciate "The Twilight Zone," and have a high suspension of disbelief threshold, The Village is likely to satisfy.

Die-hard fans are advised to wait for the video. Everyone else would be better off pretending that this movie doesn't exist. In the long run, you'll have a higher opinion of everyone involved.

This is a bad movie with a good sense of humor.

40% fight scenes and 60% fan service, Simon McQuiod’s slash-and-gore fest will leave the uninitiated scratching their heads while the die-hards jump to their feet and applaud.

By playing it safe, One Last Thing offers tearful interludes but not a lot more.

Bloodshot suffers from a world-building failure. With too little time and emphasis placed on crafting the setting and exploring some of the rich possibilities of the milieu in which events transpire, the movie turns into little more than a ho-hum Vin Diesel action film.

"Compelling" is a word one could apply to Jobs - he was a magnetic figure - but it doesn't describe this movie. "Average" might even be a stretch, and that's something of an insult to the man whose story it tells.

Still, for those who feel that too few movies these days offer the pure bliss of a testosterone overload, The Losers provides an antidote.

Devil will do little to dispel the growing belief that Shyamalan is a one-trick pony whose horse has keeled over. The laughter during the trailer was sadly prescient; the film is a joke.

Under Lester’s aegis, Superman III loses its identity, never emerging as a true superhero adventure or a full-blown parody.

Despite having a perfect cast for a title like Killer Elite, Gary McKendry's feature debut comes across as little more than a generic Jason Statham movie with two high-profile guest stars.

For those whose only requirements for horror movies are that they avoid the excesses of blood/gore/violence prevalent in R-rated fare and incorporate a few good jump-scares, Night Swim checks the requisite boxes. For those looking for a more complete experience, however, the movie struggles even to achieve the level where it would be considered worthwhile as a streaming option.

You may end up being pleasantly surprised, especially if you have a ten-year old girl in tow.

There is no truth to the rumor that free frontal lobotomies will be performed at the entrance to all theaters showing Eagle Eye.

There's not a moment of originality in the entire motion picture.

The visuals of a blasted city are impressive but hardly reason to spend $10 to sit in a theater seat and watch a bunch of underdeveloped characters get chased by zombies for an inordinate amount of time.

There's little here that's new or interesting; the movie is for hard-core Romero devotees only.

Isn't loaded with promise, but at least the producers had the good sense to hire Bill Murray. Jack is the kind of irritable, self- absorbed guy that Murray can play perfectly, and the comedian's presence in Larger than Life lifts it to a considerably higher level than it might have otherwise attained.

Won’t win any awards for acting or writing but generates suspense when it needs to and tells an engrossing Tall Tale.

On the whole, Star Trek V is a highly forgettable motion picture, regardless of whether you're looking at it from the perspective of a Trek lover or a movie-goer.

It's an orgy for disaster porn devotees.

The Last American Virgin tries to inject some honesty and emotional depth into an otherwise silly and raunchy storyline. Its success is mixed but that element at least makes it more interesting to watch than at least 75% of its contemporaries.

Overwrought and disjointed, Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut is surprisingly faithful to aspects of the text but the overall presentation is conventional and disappointing.

Because so little of it works, the film is disposable.

Fans of the original will end up doing shot-by-shot comparisons. On every level, The Omen isn't just bad filmmaking, it's bad storytelling.

For those who aren't offended by extreme profanity and violence, Suicide Kings offers a kinetic and surprisingly funny two hours.

A lackluster melodrama with only a few inspired moments.

Travesty.

The only reason any male could have for seeing The Vow is the hope of getting laid afterwards. The only reason any female could have for seeing The Vow is if she views the plots of Harlequin romance novels as the height of modern storytelling.

For nearly two hours, the movie plods along, offering little beyond hackneyed dialogue that can’t be gleaned from a quick read-through of Marley’s Wikipedia entry.

The movie never loses sight of its twin objectives: maintain suspense and emphasize a message about the enduring, pernicious power of racism.

Calling The Angry Birds Movie an “animated film” is giving it airs. It’s a cartoon. Deal with it.

Aside from the lip service paid to the pros and cons of releasing free hydrogen onto the world market, Chain Reaction doesn't contain anything that we haven't already seen this summer. The explosive destruction that wipes out a portion of Chicago looks like it could have been excised from Independence Day. The action sequences recall Mission Impossible, Eraser, and The Rock, albeit with less energy. The concept of government agents being bad guys has been used so often that it has long since turned into a tired cliche. Chain Reaction isn't dull -- the film is paced to keep audiences attentive -- but the lack of originality dampens its enjoyability. As a result, box office reaction will almost certainly be more like a spark than an explosion.

Distilled to its essence, The Girl in the Spider’s Web is a generic espionage/crime thriller. Although briskly paced, the plot is far from airtight and demands a deus ex machina to reach its climax.

Watching this movie, I wished I knew how to use dental floss, a paper clip, and a crumpled movie ticket to break the projector.

Although the second installment is effective at moving the story forward rather than re-treading familiar ground, it enters a patch of quicksand from which it is unprepared to escape. Disney is adept at doing many things but offering a sobering and intelligent examination of genocide is not among them.

Anything Else may not be the second coming of "Annie Hall," but it has more wit and substance than almost every post-college romance that sees the inside of a projection booth.

Great premise, terrible execution.

All I See Is You ultimately fails to deliver much beyond a gradual descent into disinterest and watch-checking.

The biggest flaw of the 1990 Total Recall was how disappointingly banal the endgame was. Wiseman adds some special effects and Michael Bay-style pyrotechnics, but the result is similar. It's doubly deflating because one of the great advantages of remaking a movie is being given the opportunity to correct problems - something not attempted here.

An insipid, stillborn drama that drags its viewers through a ghetto of despair before finally, unexpectedly plopping them down in the midst of a happy ending.

With a script that waffles between being hilariously absurd and insultingly stupid, and action scenes that won't cause anyone's pulse to skip a beat, Paycheck is less appealing than a lump of coal in a Christmas stocking.

Once you leave Wonderland, you may feel like you need a shower, but, while you're in the moment, it's a compelling journey into the depths of hell on earth.

The really disgusting thing about this movie isn't the crude jokes themselves, but how grossly unfunny they all are.

Hocus Pocus is an occasionally dull, mostly pedantic motion picture with little to recommend it. It belongs on the long list of summer movies that will quickly be buried and forgotten until the surface on video in six months. For real fun at the expense of the dead, see instead Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness.

The root problem with The Wolfman is that it's a hybrid.

The appeal is there for those who crave formulaic romantic drama, but there's little of interest for a wider audience.

The story is unfocused and the character development is virtually nonexistent.

It is disappointing (and a little boring). The chief problem relates to structure. The film unspools more like a puzzle than a cohesive narrative.

Those who have seen Richard Lester's '70s tongue-in-cheek version of the adventure should avoid this one, lest they feel compelled to hurl popcorn and invectives at the screen.

As a follow-up/homage, Chapter 1 isn’t bad but it feels superfluous, adding little substantive to what was previously provided by The Strangers and the second film in the series, 2018’s The Strangers: Prey at Night.

Strong acting is one of the film's hallmarks. It has been a while since Samuel L. Jackson has given a performance with this much intensity.

With each new outing, the Final Destination movies are getting better.

Where the Crawdads Sing is not without flaws but it draws the viewer into its specific time and place and offers an engaging two-hour escape into the life of a memorable individual.

"Twister" is a rush. Dante's Peak, on the other hand, is a bore. Oh, it has its moments, but most of them are concentrated in the final forty-five minutes. The first hour, which is all typical disaster movie setup, is interminable.

This is made-for-TV material dressed up by Eddie Murphy's participation into a theatrical release.

Newell has followed up a respectable adaptation of a Harry Potter novel with an ignominious translation of something more delicate and literate. It's hard to recommend this movie to anyone except perhaps the MST3K crew.

Meet Joe Black has the dubious distinction of being the longest film to date of 1998. It is also one of the most tedious and bombastic.

Evans' goal is to do for high school baseball what "Hoosiers" did for high school basketball, but to mention both titles in one sentence is almost an insult to a picture that many rank as the first or second all-time sports film.

This movie is a vast improvement over the tired and uninspired "American Pie 2," although it fails to make it to the lofty perch occupied by the first film.

Rarely does The Man with the Golden Gun take anything seriously. Mary Goodnight is as clumsy as they come. Pepper and Nick Nack are cartoonish. There are more jokes-per-minute than in any other Bond film. Even John Barry's score is less earnest than usual, and the opening song is ridiculous.

A profoundly unsatisfying experience - and that doesn't consider the derivative nature of the plot and a lackluster performance by the lead actor.

The Uninvited is a flawed production, but gratifying in the way it delivers. The interesting and unique elements of the movie effectively compensate for the formulaic way in which the plot develops.

Joe Eszterhas' screenplay doesn't make sense, and he doesn't bother to hide this fact. In the end, Basic Instinct teases and screws us with the same efficiency that the film's femme fatale handles the protagonist.

Although it’s being marketed as a love story, The Aftermath is more about grief and recovery than romance. In fact, the film’s illicit relationship is a cold, passionless affair that generates as much heat as a dying ember in a snowstorm.

Kogonada's direction crafts a variety of visually arresting—though not ostentatious—set pieces. Yet somehow, it doesn’t all come together. The whimsical magic evident early on grows stale. The movie’s tone is herky-jerky and never settles. And the ending feels undercooked and unearned.

This movie is about mayhem on wheels, tough guys viewers can root for, and villains whose comeuppances audiences crave. That's what Death Race is all about and, for what it is, it does a solid job.

The action sequences are energetic and suspenseful but they don't always mesh well with the dramatic material.

A perfect example of how solid directing and good acting can almost redeem a derivative story.

This could easily go down as the year's best example of solid acting in a wretched motion picture.

Retribution seems especially disappointing, however, because of its untapped potential to be cheesily entertaining. The finished product is so bad that I can’t even recommend it for viewing on a streaming service – somewhere it should land very quickly.

My reaction is that I could learn a lot more about Winehouse by listening to her music than by watching this by-the-numbers sketch of her adult life.

Eternal isn't that bad. Actually, it is. But it's kind of fun, too, in a way only cheesy exploitation films can be fun.

Those who have an inherent distaste for this sort of entertainment will appreciate Conan the Barbarian's impeccable production values without enjoying the story; most everyone else will be swept away by the film's spectacle.

Its strength is its humor, which is half-"Seinfeld" and half-"Sex in the City." There's a reason why those shows ran for only 30 minutes each - it's difficult to sustain comedic momentum for longer, as becomes apparent here.

The last scene of In the Valley of Elah may be the most ridiculously ham-fisted and over-the-top moment in all of 2007’s supposed prestige cinema.

Dark Phoenix is closer to the comic book story than the previous iteration, retaining many of the core elements. Unfortunately, it suffers from a massive condensation that not only mutes the film’s emotional impact but creates an erratic tone.

Fuqua's portrait of Brooklyn is brutal and gritty; if only his characters were as vivid.

The movie, however, seems to make the wrong decision at almost every opportunity, trying for the kind of melodramatic tragedy that only works in opera.

The end result is a meandering story featuring shallow, unconvincing characters attempting to illustrate the evils of technology in its undermining of individual liberties. The Circle offers a lot of good bullet arguments but this is a movie not a Powerpoint presentation.

Glass, the third film in what has become a trilogy, comes across as a mix of half-formed ideas baked into an uneven casserole. Overlong, talky, filled with meta references, and with a strangely low-energy tone, the movie never fully gels.

Isn't much better or worse than the average James Bond movie, except, of course, that it doesn't have the cars, the gadgets, the girls, or Bond himself.

Zero-star movies are a rare and terrifying breed - films that warrant recommendation only as an alternative to physical distress.

The worst action movie of the summer. I liked Bad Boys II a little less, but making the comparison is like distinguishing between a cow turd and a horse turd. And that pretty much sums it up nicely.

There's nothing worse than a film which mistakenly believes it's the comic event of the year. For no legitimate reason whatsoever, When Nature Calls is full of itself to the point of being offensive.

The acting in Beach House is uniformly strong and that’s one reason why the film works despite various narrative shortcomings.

There are some jokes no one under 10 will get (a few of which are pretty funny) to go along with the visual diarrhea that clutters the screen with needless “action” sequences. The resolution to the emotional component of the climax feels like an unearned cheat, but I suppose it’s okay when one considers it will probably work for children.

The story told by Jackson's The Lovely Bones is the same as the one related by Sebold, but it lacks the complexity and empathy evident in the book.

The greatest flaw in My Father the Hero isn't the feeble laugh-to-running length ratio, the limp characterization, or the mediocre acting. Instead, it's the feeling of unease that pervades the first forty-five minutes as Nicole and Andre clash while the film tries unsuccessfully to make light of their dysfunctional relationship. There are serious issues bubbling away here that the movie doesn't know how to address properly. Lighthearted motion pictures should never cause discomfort, but this one does.

There's some entertainment value, but the production as a whole is unfocused.

The Time Machine is stupid -- too stupid for the impressive special effects or the competently directed action sequences to wash away the bitter taste.

Stuber is as bland and generic a mismatched buddy action-comedy as you’re likely to find.

Insurgent is more clumsy than bad, but it disappoints because it wastes the world-building of Divergent, which set the stage for something more momentous than what the sequel delivers.

Director Lucky McKee and screenwriters Jared Butler and Lars Norberg take a standard premise and tweak it sufficiently to make it interesting and, at times, even darkly humorous.

Although it's true that a father/son relationship lies at Sanctum's emotional core, the movie is at its best when it highlights the defiance of the protagonists to yield to despair and give up.

Robinson's movie flip-flops back and forth between being inept and goofy.

Had Home of the Brave presented credible stories about believable characters, it might have been a powerful drama.

This is cheap-looking, ugly filmmaking. It goes without saying that the story is nonsensical. The characters have the depth of crepe paper. But perhaps what’s most surprising is that the endless CGI hasn’t gotten a noticeable upgrade since 2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight. Modern video games look better.

It's an adequate superhero yarn, but, hopefully, it's not the best of the burgeoning genre that 2003 has to offer.

Robert the Bruce is too long by at least a half-hour for the surprisingly slight tale it has to tell.

Science fiction has an obligation to seduce the viewer into applying the "willing suspension of disbelief." With its plot holes and head-scratching incongruities, Transcendence fails in this arena thereby making the production as a whole feel bloated and unsatisfying.

With a movie of this sort, the viewer expects to undergo something grueling and disturbing. Trade's inability to deliver that sort of visceral experience makes it unworthy of anyone's hard-earned dollars.

Everything about it feels stale: the actors, the story, the comedy, everything. And, to make matters worse, that everything goes on for an interminable two hours.

A comedy without a single funny joke, Mafia Mamma will likely go down as one of the year’s worst theatrical releases.

The movie is rarely funny with much of the comedy being too broad, too predictable, or both.

The first Aquaman may have been low-brow fun but the second is a chore from start to finish.

The Ice Road may be the worst direct-to-Netflix movie to feature a major star. It may also offer the worst entry into Liam Neeson’s catalog of strong, resilient action heroes.

Despite its flaws, Total Eclipse is the kind of movie that stirs thoughts and ruminations about the nature of genius, the true meaning of art, and the unfailing capacity of great people to destroy themselves and others. Holland has not matched the success of two of her previous films -- Europa Europa and Olivier Olivier -- but this picture is still a respectable examination of a fascinating historical relationship.

The "Da Vinci Code" was adequate but forgettable. "Angels & Demons" was godawful. Inferno is somewhere in between - watchable but by no means worth the money and effort necessary to see it theatrically.

Captain America: Brave New World, the fourth title to co-opt the “Captain America” name and the first to star Anthony Mackie in the role, is another example of how badly unmoored the MCU has become in an era of unfamiliar heroes and stalled storylines.

Put simply, this movie is dumb.

The result is a poorly-focused motion picture characterized by limp satire and capped off by a final fifteen minutes that could send half of the audience into sugar shock.

A movie that is relentlessly inoffensive and completely unoriginal –- two qualities that combine to make it only sporadically charming and rarely (if ever) compelling.

This is yet another chapter in “When Smart Movies Turn Dumb.”

Stargate is peppered with numerous minor faults, some of which - although not all - are easily forgiven. It's the bigger plot problems and lackluster climax which are more difficult to excuse.

The action scenes are crisply directed, brutal, and invigorating.

It is a recognized truth of the movie industry that even the best film makers will have disappointments, and, for Woody Allen, Celebrity fits into that category.

I have never been a fan of the original Carrie, but, despite the different slant offered by The Rage, there's not enough new material here for me to like the sequel any better.

The essential problem with the movie isn't that it's loud, violent, and gory, but that, before Carpenter ratchets up the tension in the final 35 minutes, it's not especially interesting.

If the film is to work on any level, even a comedic one, it's necessary for the viewers to sympathize with Joanna and Walter. However, the script and scattershot performances keep them at arm's length. Nicole Kidman is in full scenery-chewing mode, and Matthew Broderick hasn't been this invisible since Ferris Bueller had to go back to school.

A shift in tone to something like "Kingsman" might have made this a more entertaining experience.

Armageddon is a testosterone and adrenaline cocktail, with almost no intelligence added for flavoring.

12 year old boys will love the result. That’s not a good sign for anyone who has passed beyond their teenage years.

Although For Love or Money is a marginal film by any standards, it isn't unwatchable, and it does fit nicely into the "date movie" niche. I can't honestly recommend the movie, but it isn't completely without redeeming qualities.

The movie's sincerity helps it get over some of the most difficult hurdles and the feeling after leaving theater is one of having experienced something worthwhile albeit unremarkable.

This isn't vintage De Niro but at least there's more substance here than in a lot of his other recent projects. Michelle Pfeiffer, who flirted with this sort of a role 25 years ago in "Married to the Mob," is enjoying something of a renaissance after working only sparingly for more than a decade.

Fred Claus is less enchanting than the 2003 fairy tale, "Elf" (which was directed by Vaughn's good buddy, Jon Favreau), but no worse than the inexplicably popular Tim Allen series.

It's pure comic book/popcorn action. If that's your kind of movie, it's hard to go wrong with this one.

An example of a vampire movie for the new century -- stylish, gothic, gory, and loud.

LaBeouf, who appeared to hit a low in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," has sunk to greater levels of incompetence here.

This film makes the common mistake of showing in great detail things that would be more terrifying if left to the imagination. As a result, the only thing disturbing about The Haunting is how discouraging the end product is.

It's harmless. And pointless. And dumb. This is a perfect example of a motion picture that exists exclusively because its predecessor made a lot of money.

There's probably enough content here to warrant a three-hour movie but Good People is only 90 minutes long.

One expects a movie called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter to be rich in wit and black humor, but writer Seth Grahame-Smith and director Timur Bekmambetov opt to play things reasonably straight.

Orphan is being marketed as a horror movie, but that's misdirection. It's more of a standard thriller in the "evil amongst us" mode, about a group of people who inadvertently admit a psychopath into their midst.

The wheels fall off toward the end but, until that point, Illiadis does an excellent job of generating and maintaining an intense sense of dread.

Transforming Persuasion into something generic and pitching it to viewers seduced by the likes of Bridgerton and Mr. Malcolm’s List illustrates not only a lack of imagination but a betrayal of the source material.

Fire in the Sky is grim. I'm not sure why director Robert Lieberman chose to fashion his movie like this, but the result is distinctly unpleasant -- dark, gloomy settings with harshly disagreeable characters and no sign of anything remotely resembling comic relief.

This isn't a bad movie; it's watchable but the direction in which the filmmakers choose to take it results in a vague sense of dissatisfaction.

The film revels in blood and gore, but this is not just a run-of-the-mill splatter film. There's a lot of intelligence in both the script and in Alexandre Aja's direction.

At least the set design and costumes are excellent. The movie feels overstuffed and undercooked but it always looks nice.

Go to this movie for the cheap laughs and bodily fluid jokes -- those are its strengths.

One of those plot-by-numbers sit-com movies that tries hard (perhaps too hard) to reproduce the elements that made the earlier film successful.

The plot is so thin that it's not really worth thinking about, but director Antoine Fuqua and cinematographer Peter Lyons Collister have put so much effort into the feel and appearance of the movie that it held my attention.

Halloween Kills is one of the better sequels (put it alongside Halloween 4 and H20 and a shade below the 2018 production) and contains all the elements to make it popular among horror film lovers regardless of their ages.

The Loss of Sexual Innocence is not a masterpiece (at times, its obtuseness can seem ponderous and pretentious), it is nevertheless a fascinating experience, with the focus being on the artistic elements inherent in the medium rather than on the narrative.

Wow. Just wow. Every year, movie theaters bring us their share of surprises – both good and bad. Suburbicon goes immediately to the front of the line of contenders for the most disappointing film of 2017.

With Legend of the Sword, the filmmaker isn’t remaking or adapting anything. This is his version of Arthur’s origin story and, if nothing else, it’s kinetic and attention-grabbing.

The result is an unappealing mess, made less bearable by uniformly lackluster performances and the cheesy special effects.

The first half-hour (or so) of Clue is enjoyably witty but, after that, it’s a downhill mudslide.

Science fiction fans will feel gypped, disaster movie fans will appreciate about 10 minutes of screen time and be bored by the rest, and no one else will care.

Larry Crowne should not be mistaken for a masterpiece. It is summer entertainment: genial, undemanding, lightweight.

Memory plays like a blended cop movie/revenge thriller and exhibits the strengths and weaknesses of both. At its best, it recalls the Mel Gibson movie Payback (which was similarly a remake of an earlier film based on book).

John Tucker Must Die is toothless. The jokes are obvious and unfunny, the storyline goes nowhere that's interesting or unexpected, and the only chemistry happens in a science lab.

Mad Money is a comedy caper where the caper's not interesting and the comedy's not funny.

Black Adam embraces many of the worst elements and tropes of the superhero genre, resulting in a loud, discordant experience replete with fist-fights, pyrotechnics, and an overdose of CGI.

First-time director Jonathan Watson crafts a film that’s neither funny nor exciting, although it often seems to be straining to be one or the other. It’s a tonal mess and its inconsistencies make it a frustrating viewing experience.

Everything in G.I. Joe: Retaliation is perfunctory - technically proficient but soulless. It's not exciting. It's boring.

I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. There. That just about sums it up.

Fountain of Youth is a perfect example of something that can play in the background but proves singularly unable to hold anyone’s attention for the entirety of its running length.

Those who love Robert Rodriguez's over-the-top Grindhouse-flavored spoofs will delight in this one but, ultimately, this is probably one Machete too many.

There are several painfully awkward "dead spots" in Mallrats where nothing works -- not the dialogue, the acting, or the direction.

Battleship has the IQ of a rutabaga and doesn't require much more intelligence than that to watch. Despite spending copious amounts of time with back story and so-called character development, it's really all about the explosions.

The film occasionally pokes fun at itself, although not nearly as often as it should. I don't recommend it for anything more significant than a bottom-of-the-barrel rental or a desperation cable choice, but it delivers what it advertises, and I suppose that could be considered a virtue.

One hell of a ride. For better or for worse, it will leave you stunned and reeling.

I’m not predisposed to like movies focused on hollow characters floating in their own bubble of self-absorption, whether they’re men (Entourage) or women (Sex and the City), and as soon as I realized that’s what Home Again was offering, I knew I was in for a long 97 minutes. Unfortunately, I was right.

As for Venom, the potential inherent in the creature has been wasted and squandered over the course of three movies and this final installment is the worst offender of all.

The movie doesn’t exactly do Philip Marlowe a disservice but neither does it successfully re-invent the character for a new era and its attendant audience.

The screenplay fails to provide any reason to care about the characters or their circumstances, so we sit in a theater seat, trying not to be hypnotized by all the flashes of light in the muddled brown-and-white environment or lulled to sleep by the inane babbling that passes for dialogue.

Some of the funniest scenes belong to Ice Cube's "angry black captain" who goes on profane rants that would make Samuel L. Jackson proud.

This is quite possibly the most moronic motion picture I have seen thus far in 2013 and that's saying a lot.

Offers solid entertainment, it's too uneven to be considered memorable.

Child 44 is a victim of poor adaptation. It is beset by problems related to flow and coherence; the narrative is confusing, the characters are provided with inadequate time for development, and dead-end subplots abound.

At its best, Ride Along is tolerable. At its worst, it borders on insulting.

Jumanji takes approximately one-hundred minutes for four people to play a board game. The result isn't much more fun or involving than watching a few friends play Monopoly.

It’s not enough merely to tell stories about different aspects of how drugs impact society – the connections have to be stronger and the narratives have to go deeper that what Jarecki has provided here. Crisis is well-meaning but ultimately unsatisfying.

At best, Without Remorse is a serviceable action thriller but there are times, as in the rushed and unsatisfying final 20 minutes, when such a description is overly generous.

Arguably Sandler's most enjoyable motion picture to date, but it's still far from a masterpiece.

The problem lies in the screenplay which latches on to the few clever and/or funny elements in the film and runs them into the ground via repetition.

There’s nothing worthwhile here; the landscape of wretched banality offers only wasted time and a sense of despair.

The movie as a whole is pleasant, generally satisfying, and has a heart as big as its funny bone. For an early January movie, this is sometimes as good as it gets.

Although the film's real-world credibility is shaky, it works on its own terms.

Tone isn't the movie's sole problem. There's something off-putting about Christopher Mitz-Plasse as the chief bad guy.

The Substitute has its moments, all of which fall in the realm of high camp. One scene not to be missed: Shale, attempting to get his class' attention, roars, "I'm the warrior chief! I'm the merciless god who rules over everything that stirs in my universe!" It's a hilarious moment, and I'm reasonably certain the director intended for it to be so. Nevertheless, aside from a lot of only moderately-satisfying violence, The Substitute comes across as rather lame. It's not boring, but that dubious qualification isn't enough to earn the movie a passing grade.

Stay is interesting, but it's hard to recommend to anyone but the small cadre of David Lynch devotees who will inhale anything with a whiff of similarity to their favorite auteur's scent.

When the movie goes “boo!” and the viewer tries hard to stifle a yawn, something has gone wrong.

Feels a bit like a missed opportunity. It's too bad the motion picture as a whole isn't as quirky and clever as its double-edged title.

In the best tradition of mystery thrillers of this sort, it satisfies enough on an emotional level that we're willing to forgive any intellectual, procedural, and logical shortcomings.

The "Apatow formula" is pretty simple: raunchy comedy, likeable characters, and a dash of sweetness (but nothing too sweet). Drillbit Taylor fulfills the third characteristic but falls short in the other two.

At its best, Dumb and Dumber is like an Ernest movie with a scatological bent.

Pompeii is a big, glorious, cheesy mess.

Although Tracy Letts’ adaptation is generally faithful to the source material, this is an example of something that can work well on the written page but loses a lot when condensed and brought to the screen.

When the Game Stands Tall is one of those cliché-riddled feel good movies that, by trying too hard to be inspirational, ends up as cloying and overly sentimental.

Takes the action/adventure story to new heights of preposterousness. In a way, that's not a bad thing, since it allows a certain level of guilty enjoyment.

While The Limits of Control offers some picturesque photography and grist for thought, it is ultimately too much like The Emperor's New Clothes to warrant anything approaching enthusiasm. The message is banal and the means by which it is presented reeks of artifice and pretention.

Crank 2: High Voltage is the freak show act at a carnival. It's so over-the-top that the phrase ceases to have meaning in this context. It's a bizarre concoction of testosterone, adrenaline, and psychedelics. It seeks not only to top its predecessor, "Crank," but to outdo itself at every turn.

If Superman was an eagle streaking across the sky, Supergirl is the result of that eagle’s bowel movement.

187 offers some thought-provoking ideas and several effective performances, but the script ultimately lets down both the actors and the audience members who are watching them.

The movie’s failings come during its final act when contrivances and an adherence to big budget conventions transform Passengers into a less compelling experience than what it starts out as.

There’s enough suspense to keep an itchy trigger finger from changing the channel but viewers hoping for more won’t find it here.

Unlike in many thrillers, the movie doesn't sandbag us with one last, cheap twist at the end. The Salton Sea contains its share of surprises, but none of them feels forced or artificial.

If you like kinetic movies about crime, criminals, and all sorts of bad behavior, Running Scared will catch and hold your attention.

For most of its running length, Sabotage is a gritty, compelling motion picture with twists to make a pretzel envious.

It's not so much a bad movie as it is a pointless one.

There is a reason why books are books and movies are movies, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas makes a pretty good case that the two don't always mix.

The PG-13 rating is an indication of how much the material has been neutered. And, although the lead character’s arc remains troubled and conflicted, the ending makes her seem more like a superhero than the material warrants.

Were it not for the participation of two A-list actors, Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, Before I Go to Sleep would have been headed straight to video. The inclusion of those two doesn't make the film any better, just less anonymous.

There's only so far a movie can go on loud music, nicely-framed shots, testosterone, and adrenaline. Bad Boys takes the often-traveled road, and leads the audience to a dead end.

Four Christmases is waste of time and a disappointment, but it's also relatively painless.

In the interval between the release of "Super Troopers" and its sequel, we have moved on. For better or worse, Broken Lizard hasn’t. As a result, some of what would have been side-splitting in 2001 barely provokes a chuckle in 2018.