James Berardinelli

It is, at best, an oversized, overbudgeted Saturday morning cartoon.

Much of the film's comedy feels muted; Fun with Dick and Jane isn't a lot of fun.

The most likely facial expression to be elicited by Mona Lisa Smile is a grimace.

The Beach House is a middling horror film with aspirations of recalling The Fog or The Mist but lacking the screenplay to come close to either.

Unfortunately, the film stumbles, offering too few legitimate scares and displaying an overreliance on traditional horror movie clichés.

With more attention to detail, this could have worked, but the time travel aspects are so badly executed that the movie as a whole falters and eventually rips apart at the seams.

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).

Ant-Man and the Wasp offers nothing close to what we have come to expect from entries into the MCU. Plodding, repetitive, replete with technobabble nonsense and lifeless action, this is easily the worst-written of any of the 20 MCU offerings and may be the worst all-around film featuring a Marvel superhero since Sony rebooted Spider-Man.

Let me admit to loving the premise behind Supervized. The problem is that a movie needs more than a great premise – it needs to grow and nurture that idea, and that’s where Supervized falls short.

The dialogue is routine, frequently punctuated by cliches, and the character-building scenes do little more than waste time.

Elements of Across the Universe are shockingly awful and the film lasts at least 30 minutes past the bearable stage. But if you like the Beatles and the idea of hearing about 20 covers of their work fills you with a perverse joy, this may be the movie for you.

Although Peter Straughan’s stripped-down regurgitation of the story is faithful to Tartt’s narrative in the broadest sense of the word, it lacks elegance and depth. A Dickensian coming-of-age tale, The Goldfinch is at times dull and pretentious and never earns its 2.5-hour running length as an example of either art or entertainment.

Although Shortbus doesn't work as porn (and I don't believe it's intended to), it also doesn't work as a serious drama. The storyline is juvenile and the characters remain poorly developed and incomplete.

Pitch Perfect looks, sounds, and feels like pretty much every other movie that features a singing or dancing competition.

What potentially could have been the greatest asset possessed by Che - its unapologetic length - turns into its greatest detriment.

Written without much concern for logic and coherence, the movie wavers between being a drama and a thriller and, as is too often the case in situations like these, doesn’t work as either.

The over-the-top acting is forgivable, but the plot's incoherence is not.

Black is a capable action director so the individual fight scenes are well-executed and occasionally involving. It might have helped the excitement level if we had more than a passing affinity for any of the characters.

Take away Kristen Wiig, and Masterminds offers nothing. She is by far the best thing about the movie and easily outshines her SNL compatriots Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Jason Sudeikis.

Grumpier Old Men isn't as fun, spontaneous, or amusing as the original. In short, it's a poor retread that can't be redeemed by the pleasure of seeing Lemmon and Matthau together.

The movie doesn't offer enough to make it interesting or even diverting.

Unfortunately, Never Say Never Again is a poor excuse for the veteran actor's return. The humor is over-the-top, the direction is pedestrian, and the storyline drags. Were it not for the simple pleasure of seeing Connery playing 007 one more time, this film would have been nearly unwatchable. All things considered, it's not a very good movie, but at least Connery's charisma salvages parts of it. Unfortunately, Never Say Never Again is a poor excuse for the veteran actor's return. The humor is over-the-top, the direction is pedestrian, and the storyline drags. Were it not for the simple pleasure of seeing Connery playing 007 one more time, this film would have been nearly unwatchable. All things considered, it's not a very good movie, but at least Connery's charisma salvages parts of it.

Director Brett Ratner has always been associated with spectacle but, even for him, this represents a misstep because the "wow!" factor is muted.

Never representative of more than mediocrity from a technical or story-based standpoint, the Ice Age series has reached a new nadir with its third entry.

Those looking for a quick horror fix may be satisfied – there are enough jump-scares to fill a quota – but, when one considers the number of inventive and interesting genre titles that have graced multiplex screens in recent years, this a disappointing exception.

With its blend of existential science fiction and character-based romance, it would seem to be as close to a can’t-miss premise as one can imagine yet, despite that, it somehow does miss – and by a wide margin.

There are times when the story behind the making of a film is more interesting than the finished product. This is one of those occasions.

A clear case of a narrative running out of steam. Exhaustingly repetitive, this movie attempts many of the same things its predecessor did but with less succes.

Despite its flashy production design and big budget, it's shallow and unsatisfying and primarily interesting for what it says about the views of society when it was made.

The screenplay stretches the viewer's credulity far beyond the breaking point, asking us to accept dozens of absurd contrivances and coincidences.

Although not without its merits, it’s far from a standout even when one considers how lackluster the current indie/art house landscape has become.

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.

Cyrano is a disappointment. The set design and camera work are first rate, as are the performances of Dinklage and Bennett. It causes one to wonder whether, had the songs been excised in favor a straightforward telling, Cyrano might have played better. As it is, however, it’s merely a handsome looking period piece with too many mediocre songs and a major downer of an ending. Not exactly a great way to ring in a new year.

The way it has been presented, with forced and artificial junctions, keeps the viewer at arms-length from the story and creates questions about the historicity of some scenes.

Instead of being respectful of Bram Stoker's creation, it attempts to remake him as a tragic figure with superhero powers.

Morbius is the kind of bland, by-the-numbers origin story that shows comic book movies at their least innovative.

There are no real characters in Mary Magdalene – only icons. Actress Rooney Mara does what she can with the role but she isn’t helped by a one-dimensional script whose sole purpose seems to be to turn Mary into a first century feminist crusader.

The Amityville Horror fails as a movie, but, if you are searching for are a few good scares, you'll find them here.

It's compelling in the way many B-movies are - cheap, sleazy, and lacking the depth we have come to associate with this director.

This film, which places yet another actor in the batsuit, has all the necessary hallmarks of a sorry sequel -- pointless, plodding plotting; asinine action; clueless, comatose characterization; and dumb dialogue.

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.

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

I usually give writer/director Tony Gilroy the benefit of the doubt because he has scripted some of my favorite films but Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a few steps too far in the wrong direction.

Those who love to cry at movies will doubtless get their money's worth from The Man Without a Face. Others, I imagine, will discover in this movie what I did: a curious mixture of scenes that work and situations that seem hopelessly contrived or overly-sentimental. I didn't hate the film, and after the jarring first half-hour, it kept my attention, but The Man Without a Face never strays far from familiar territory.

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

Kandahar is one of those movies that exists without having a compelling reason for doing do. As a war movie, it’s not especially insightful or gut-wrenching. As an action film, it lacks energy, momentum, and consistency. As a drama, it feels artificial and manipulative.

Quickly causes viewers to lose patience, then interest.

The problem with the film is that it's frequently more tedious than funny.

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.

The clumsy and obvious byproduct of the financial success of its predecessor last Halloween, this movie has no reason for existing except to provide Paramount Pictures with a few extra shekels.

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.

This grim, joyless motion picture is anything but fun. It’s a chore to sit through, with all the blazing, noisy pyrotechnics proving unable to lighten the mood.

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

It lacks the simple elegance and intelligence of the earlier film, and employs special effects and pointless action scenes to replace passages of dialogue.

The end product feels trite and unfinished, with the romantic plot being awkwardly and unconvincingly shoehorned into a production that lacks focus.

The limp movie seems to be an attempt by an Australian to mimic a bad American romantic comedy, and, unfortunately, he succeeds admirably.

The Dilemma downshifts from slapstick to melodrama and back so abruptly that it is at times jarring.

Mechanical and artificial, and tells you what to think.

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.

Dominion argues that not even the return of three beloved characters can rescue a franchise that has fallen and can’t get up.

Doomsday tries to cram so much into its limited 105 minutes that aspects end up feeling rushed and confused (especially the political situation in England) and the ending is perfunctory.

For a movie about magic, that’s one element sorely lacking in this retread.

It gets props for kinetic energy, bursts of suspense, and a couple of bravura performances (Will Smith & Margot Robbie). But pretty much everything else is either mediocre or substandard and that makes it hard to champion this bloated and cheerless monstrosity.

A blend of lackluster comedy and lazy plotting, the film feels a lot like bad Hitchcock.

Looking back at Psycho Killer as a whole, the missteps in the final 20–30 minutes easily overwhelm some of the earlier, better material. It's tough to recommend this even as a streaming time-waster.

Ron Livingstone plays his part relatively straight, and, as a result, comes out unscathed.

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

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

The film's disappointingly black-and-white approach robs characters and situations of badly needed ambiguity.

Not an abomination, although it is uninspired and insipid. As such, it's perfect television fare.

The Intern is a romantic comedy without the romance.

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.

There’s nothing in this third Fantastic Beasts installment that will grow the audience. In fact, the plodding pacing offers little to excite anyone outside the dwindling core fandom.

It’s a 99-minute commercial designed to drive sales of merchandise. Okay, it’s not as bad as "Super Mario Brothers," but that’s damning with faint praise.

"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.

Just because it's not boring, that doesn't mean it's worth plunking down the price of admission.

Call Project Almanac a "shaky-cam special", and it's a damn shame. The resultant production, both shaken and stirred, transforms a potentially entertaining pulp time travel story into a misbegotten exercise in frustration.

Never boring. It is, however, frustrating.

Artificial in both its dialogue and its construction, the film only works - on those occasions when it works - because of the sincere performance by the underrated Toni Collette.

What we get is a mediocre remake of a mediocre original – not exactly must-see cinema.

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.

There's nothing in Alex Cross that argues another installment is warranted, but much will depend on whether Tyler Perry's audience crosses over and continues to follow him in this new, very different role.

The premise is inherently interesting, but the screenplay (by Glen & Les Charles) is unwilling to take chances. Instead, it uses stock events to push events forward.

It’s a surprisingly flat bio-pic of King’s life between 1972-73 with little attempt to make Riggs into anything more than a two-dimensional caricature/foil.

It's a muddled, meandering affair without a thesis or a point to prove.

The root problem of The 33 is that, in attempting to do too much, it succeeds at too little.

The Santa Clause isn't an unmitigated disaster, but it's also a whole lot less impressive than it could be.

The resulting finished project is a series of skits performed by famous people doing favors for a friend, and it works about as well as one might expect from such an endeavor.

About as frightening as Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion.

The humor is typically sitcom-ish, tending more toward sophomoric gags than genuinely funny material.

Designed with Underworld fans in mind. Others need not apply.

The Clone Wars is the last nail in a coffin that has been propped up ever since George Lucas sold his creative soul in the quest for a few more pieces of gold.

This is the film to watch when pretty much everything else has been sold out and the only remaining choices are The Back-Up Plan and the latest Rob Schneider opus.

As a movie, On Stranger Tides would have to be considered a failure. The story does not engage, the characters are stick figures, the action sequences are perfunctory, and the whole enterprise reeks of being a money-grab.

The movie consists of a bunch of random events and, if you pause long enough to consider things like plot and motivation (something you’re not supposed to do), it becomes evident that most of the movie doesn’t make any sense. Add to that an anti-climactic ending, scattershot editing, and too many extraneous characters and the last Star Wars movie is the most bloated and least satisfying of all the main-line adventures.

There are lengthy stretches during this movie when it's deadly dull. This is the kind of film that's ideal for DVD viewing. Judicious use of the fast forward button will greatly increase The Ten's appeal.

This time, it's not because mainstream movie-goers in this country lack taste but because the film isn't worth buying a ticket to see. Mr. Bean's Holiday is no vacation.

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.

From that point on, the movie becomes distressingly predictable, with nary a surprise to be found.

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.

In crafting an insider's perspective, Jaglom has done an effective job. It's too bad that nearly everything else fails.

Gods of Egypt is often sloppy and fails in many ways but the cheesy momentum is hard to resist.

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

A sloppy, poorly focused comedy.

The result is not entirely uninteresting, but it suffers from some ill-advised decisions. In fact, the film's "hook" may be its greatest detraction.

The storyline is at times muddled and incoherent. This won't bother readers much since they have the "inside track" on what's happening. Then again, the narrative is so predictable that maybe it doesn't matter.

Spenser Confidential is a perfect Netflix movie – a mid-budget action/thriller featuring a recognizable star and not requiring much in the way of attention or dedication from a viewer.

Criminally underwritten characters result in actors like Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, and Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) having little to do.

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.

Despite its name, Beautiful Girls is actually about a group of irritating, twenty-something males whose adolescent attitudes have remained with them well into adulthood.

The Midwife has two things going for it: Catherine Frot and Catherine Deneuve. There’s no disputing the quality of acting in this film, at least insofar as the leads are concerned. Unfortunately, almost everything else in Martin Provost’s staid character study falls considerably short of the bar set by the two Catherines.

One of the year's most uninspired inspirational stories.

Confetti is an excellent study of what happens when someone botches Christopher Guest's mockumentary format.

Instead of being truly awful, it’s simply mediocre, although one could argue that’s the last word a comic book movie wants to have applied to it.

Mortal Kombat II falls victim to the same problems that have derailed many a game-to-movie translation: overemphasizing fan service and spectacle over a solid narrative.

This is a character we have seen a million times before and Eastwood brings little that's new or original to the part. The movie as a whole can be labeled with the same criticism.

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

It worked once, but the novelty factor is gone. The cheese is still there, but this time it's overlaid with a cynical sense that the only reason the movie exists is because the first one made so much money.

People who are addicted to romantic comedies will find something to like about this movie, with its theme of fate brining two unhappy people together. More cynical viewers will point out that nothing in this film makes enough sense to warrant such a lofty interpretation. For the most part, I agree with the latter group. The Night We Never Met is best remembered as the movie we never attended.

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.

For me, this is as deflating a movie as I have seen all year. Not the worst, to be sure, but a project so utterly unnecessary that it made me want to gnash my teeth in frustration.

Striptease is a curious mix of eroticism, comedy, and drama that, instead of blending into a pleasing whole, has a tendency to separate and curdle.

The film is too light and juvenile to be viewed as some sort of darkly subversive satire in which the director is laughing at those of us who take it all semi-seriously.

Everything about director Rachel Lee Goldenberg’s film is bright, garish, and peppy. Although watchable as a sort of mindless flashback, it doesn’t work as a movie.

Most of the movie involves Rogen interacting with Rogen and this is problematic on a number of levels. First, neither version of Rogen has a good feel for the shifting tone of the movie. Secondly, without another human to play off, Rogen is frequently stiff. Or, to put it another way, he has zero chemistry with himself.

Aloha is Crowe's worst film-to-date, eclipsing "Elizabethtown" for that distinction and raising questions about whether the director has lost his touch (á là Rob Reiner).

This is the kind of movie that isn't even worth renting when it comes out on video because, with the possible exception of Michael Lerner and Omar Epps dancing to show tunes, you've seen it all before.

Comes across as a cheesy, fundamentally unsatisfying experience.

It's dull, childish, and uninspired.

Chock full of high-tech action, with a lot of chasing and shooting and explosions.

It's an excursion into a melodramatic morass that occasionally becomes difficult to sit through because it's so cloying.

The director may be able to make a compelling case for why he made Blonde the way he did but I can make an equally compelling case for why only a masochist would want to sit through the whole thing.

The humor is spotty, character development is so- so, and there are number of significant plot problems. There's no overriding reason why anyone would want to see Made in America unless they're a fan of Danson or Goldberg.

The latest motion picture to take an intriguing premise and flush it into the septic tank.

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

Jack Reacher has the distinction of being little more than it initially appears to be: a clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movie that offers little more than every other clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movie.

The narrative is all over the place. Character motivation is confusing. And, worst of all, the story simply isn’t interesting.

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

Haphazardly plotted, it not only falls prey to absolute predictability but chooses to have nearly every important conversation (except one) occur off-screen. That sort of laziness is unacceptable and results in a strong sense of audience dissatisfaction.

A problem with this movie, as is too-often the case with productions set within the confines of a space craft/capsule, is that the filmmakers don’t trust the inherent dangers and claustrophobia of the situation to be sufficiently suspenseful.

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

This is bad melodrama, complete with hammy acting and purple prose, and far too long to be even passingly entertaining. It's soap opera quality, from beginning to sensationalistic end.

It's easy to be cynical about a movie like this which, despite its factual basis, is more product than story. The pandering is obvious.

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.

A second-rate regurgitation of "The Lord of the Rings." Everything about it, down to the set and costume design, apes Peter Jackson's epic trilogy. However, while "The Lord of the Rings" was a grand story of scope and power, In the Name of the King feels small in more ways than one.

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

As slasher movies go, Halloween II is far from the bottom of the barrel, but, given its pedigree, one has a right to expect a higher degree of quality that what is delivered.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I liked parts of Bordello of Blood -- it is, after all, a pretty sick motion picture. Alas, the sense of bloody good fun gets stretched too thin. There's not enough material here to sustain the running length, and the film goes through dead patches (most of which occur when Miller isn't on screen). All of the stuff with Chris Sarandon is a waste of time that should have been relegated to the cutting room floor -- except that would have trimmed Bordello of Blood to an unacceptably short sixty minutes or so.

With 3-D, a little goes a long way and, in the absence of a legitimate script with credible characters, the fun dries up long before the running time has expired.

Lazily written and indifferently filmed, this sendup of action/spy movies rarely works as a satire and becomes downright unbearable when it attempts to do things like character/relationship building.

There are moments that sparkle, but the whole is not a worthy sum of its parts, and, while much of what Moretti does is interesting, that doesn't mean that it's enjoyable.

Whatever the reason, the waning months of 2014 have brought us the follow-up to 1994's "Dumb and Dumber", but the lengthy gestation period hasn't resulted in an appreciably upgraded experience.

With A Rainy Day in New York, Allen is spinning his wheels – revisiting familiar themes and ideas from other, earlier films that were presented to far better effect the first time around.

It's not the unevenness of the comedy that kills Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins but the illegitimacy of the drama.

Outside of the insects, nothing else is either creepy or compelling. For a better version of pretty much the same story, invest the time in watching "Aliens."

As a shoot-'em-up, blast-'em-to-pieces film, it's not half bad. As a futuristic time travel movie, however, it has some very serious problems.

Unfortunately, where the movie falls apart is in the storyline. While Spawn fans may be delighted by this effort, the uninitiated may have a hard time getting beyond the fancy special effects and often-incoherent plot.

Anderson’s performance is the selling point but one can rightly question whether it’s enough to bolster the malnourished narrative.

It’s the same basic story recycled with slightly better special effects and a different cast. As lukewarm as I was toward the Roeg version, I was open to the possibility that Zemeckis could improve upon it – something he proved unable to do.

As a piece of religious instruction or an animated version of a crèche, it accomplishes its aims. As a movie, however, it's slow, plodding, and not terribly interesting.

The problem with the movie, whose title compresses "religious" and "ridiculous" into a single word, isn't that it milks more than one sacred cow but that it does so with minimal subtlety and intelligence.

It’s rich material, but despite having one of the greatest actors of his generation at his disposal, Ronan manages to fumble it—delivering a film that functions more as a sleep aid than a drama.

At least Jessica Alba's legion of fans will have something to smile about. If nothing else, Helfrich has shown her in the best light. If only there was something worth seeing here other than her.

The most disappointing aspect of The Iron Lady is that some of the most memorable hallmarks of Thatcher's time in power are glossed over.

The biggest flaw can be summed up in a short phrase: lack of excitement. Thrillers are supposed to be crammed with thrills (hence the name), but Anaconda is relatively barren of them.

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

For those with a burning curiosity to know how "The Lord of the Rings" as directed by Michael Bay might look, Wrath of the Titans provides an idea. This is epic fantasy for teenage boys as only Hollywood can do it: with plenty of grotesque monsters and big explosions replacing characters and narrative.

My advice is to wait and see this version of The Beverly Hillbillies the same way that you've seen all that's gone before -- on the small screen. And let's hope that when the closing song chimes in with the familiar "Y'all come back now, hear?", it's not a reference to a sequel.

To go with the good, there's plenty of bad, and it comes in the form of countless gags that misfire, far too much flatulence and urine, and (God help us) a buck naked Leslie Nielsen. Admittedly, that scene certainly puts the "scary" in Scary Movie 4.

70 minutes into the 90-minute process, I was engaged. Then it all collapsed.

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.

The problem isn’t the non-fiction book by Diane Ackerman around which the narrative has been constructed, but a series of “added” scenes and subplots that seem lifted from a bad B movie and have the unintended consequence of devaluing the story as a whole.

The last scene is unforgivably cheesy in a non-self-aware fashion. And don’t get me started on the dog…

This movie is the worst kind of offender: it thinks its funny and clever, but it is neither. The filmmakers have mistaken banality for wit and silliness for humor, and that doesn't begin to address how visually clunky this motion picture is.

Cliffhanger elements aside, I have no desire to revisit this world again. It’s played out. There’s only so far you can go with dinosaur movie and this series has gotten to that point…and beyond. Fallen Kingdom isn’t dino-myte. It’s dino doo-doo.

After a strong start, Stop-Loss becomes driven by a series of contrivances before falling prey to bad melodrama and even a little cheesiness.

See Mr. Jones at your own risk. Those who enjoy excruciatingly manipulative melodrama will probably come out of this movie spouting words of praise. Those who don't find fulfillment in that sort of "experience" would do better looking someplace where the first name of the title character is revealed.

With its hackneyed plot, feeble attempts at characterization, and predictable finale, the second half of Independence Day becomes an extremely dull and lifeless affair.

An inelegant combination of two unrelated shorts that falls far short of the director's previous work in terms of both thematic content and narrative strength.

Cage’s performance provides the glue for an uneven film.

The result makes the movie seem assembled from bits and pieces of other superhero yarns rather than existing on a plane of its own.

Death of a President is celluloid mediocrity. It's neither interesting nor convincing.

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.

If there’s a compelling reason to remake The Magnificent Seven, it can’t be found in the 2016 version, a loud, cluttered, and generally disappointing production.

If Scream is intended to re-start the franchise, things are off to a rocky start. This is what happens when Hollywood refuses to give up on a series that has run its course.

Getaway is pretty much a 90-minute car chase. That's it.

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.

In pandering to Hollywood standards about how stories like this should unfold, LaBute has lost his edge.

Old is as wrinkled and decrepit as the title makes it sound.

At his best, Carpenter was able to do amazing things with low budgets and a surfeit of creativity but, despite the arguments of its adherents, Big Trouble in Little China isn’t an example of one of those instances.

An inelegant melding of a bland origin story with a generic heist tale, Solo never generates sufficient energy or interest to elevate it above the level of a failed curiosity.

The cynic in me believes this movie may have been constructed primarily for end-of-the-year plaudits because there doesn’t seem to be another compelling reason for it to exist.

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

As good as the lead actor is, he's not enough to save this picture from landing on the scrap-heap of uninspired, derivative, and grotesquely distasteful character studies. Ferrara is definitely no Martin Scorsese.

In trying to blend a Twilight Zone-ish mystery with a more conventional approach to sorrow and death, Miele crafts a story that is too artificial to work.

Cursed with two of the least interesting bad guys in recent memory. While McGivens and Armand are unquestionably villainous, there's nothing about them to cause audiences to hiss. They're boring.

Peppermint isn’t preaching a message; it’s intended as escapist fun. The problem is, there’s nothing “fun” about sitting through this 100-minute exercise in robotic butchery.

Eastern Promises is a jumbled string of mob-related clichés that mesh into something that’s derivative and at times uninteresting.

Formulated on an idiotic idea and develops a predictably lackluster motion picture from it.

The 2018 Death Wish has been developed with a specific audience in mind – those who enjoy these kinds of thoughtlessly violent outings. The direction is workmanlike, although without the flourishes that have added some visual razzle-dazzle to similar orgies of brutality like "John Wick" and its sequel.

"Labor" isn't just a word in the title of Jason Reitman's new film, it's a description of what it feels like to sit through the movie.

Failure to Launch fails at more than just launching. It fails at romance and comedy.

While the story doesn't score points for originality, the themes addressed are important and immediate, and ultimately it's a failure in execution that keeps this film from joining the ranks of a number of recent, memorable pictures chronicling life on the streets and in the ghettos.

Recommended only for die-hard fans of the TV show. Others are advised to wait until this is available in a smaller format.

The film's comedy is lackluster, with supporting actors Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes (as Tad's manager and agent) providing a few mildly amusing moments that would be at home in a sit-com.

Viewed from the straightforward perspective of a narrative-based motion picture, writer/director Nathalie Biancheri’s sophomore feature never gains traction. There are some interesting ideas but it becomes increasingly difficult to relate to the characters or the situation the more obviously divorced from reality things become.

Unfortunately, although Blair Witch owes much to the spirit of "The Blair Witch Project," it’s an inferior production. This is as much a result of stylistic and narrative choices as it is a reflection of how the horror landscape has changed in the last 17 years.

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.

This movie desperately wants to be liked. The problem is, there's not much here to like -- at least nothing that's new or interesting.

Although A New Legacy runs at least a half hour too long and generates zero tension with the central “basketball” game, it’s not without its share of small pleasures.

Is it A Bigger Splash or A Bigger Bore? Despite a strong cast, gorgeous cinematography, and a suffocating sense of sexual tension, this movie takes far too long to get off the ground.

The absence of originality and inspiration isn't Mad City's only problem -- it also suffers from a shocking lack of subtlety.

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

As a motion picture (in the traditional sense of the term), Five Nights at Freddy’s is disjointed and ultimately unsatisfying but as part of a larger cog in a cross-platform franchise, it does everything (and more) that is expected from it.

Tobey Maguire is fine as Nick but his function is more as an observer than a participant. Carey Mulligan's Daisy is unremarkable in every way. And Joel Edgerton is just a mustache twirl away from doing a Snidely Whiplash impersonation.

If you're desperate to give something up for Lent, make it movies like this one.

It's moderately engaging for the first half-hour, somewhat trying during the second half hour, and virtually unbearable over the final twenty minutes. It's a marginally recommendable film for kids, but not necessarily for parents.

Words cannot express how weary I am of watching lifeless, hollow movies like My Life in Ruins - generic romantic comedies that have no clue when it comes to either "romance" or "comedy."

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The comedy is mostly restricted to one-liners, some of which aren't funny. And the action is uninspired, barely tapping the vast potential of an amusement park chase film.

An effective translation of the source material, but that's not necessarily a good thing.

Moody and atmospheric -- a study in tone over plot and pacing over characterization. Unfortunately, in devoting all of their efforts towards the film's look and feel, co-creators Mark and Michael Polish have crafted a motion picture that is static, occasionally opaque, and, worst of all, boring.

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

It's watchable, but barely.

If the mandate for any new interpretation is to offer something fresh, one is left wondering what this version claims as its justification for taking up over two hours of our time.

If ever there was a production that embodies all the negative Masterpiece Theater qualities, this is it.

The Proposal follows a paint-by-numbers script, it fails one key acid test: it doesn't sell the romance.

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

Be advised, however, that the idiotic ending doesn’t redeem the uneven middle portion.

The Edge comes across as a parody/adventure without a clear sense of identity.

Although the film is clearly trying to follow in the footsteps of the Beatles' classic, it's several long strides behind, lacking the same sense of originality, spontaneity, high energy, and joi de vivre.

Wonderful World feels like a modern-day half-baked riff on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

The main problem with Coach Carter can be summed up simply: too much sermonizing.

A thrill-less thriller that uses gore to obfuscate its inability to generate tension, this motion picture has the profile one might expect from a direct-to-video release.

As disaster movies go, Greenland is neither exceptionally good nor exceptionally bad.

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.

It's an orgy for disaster porn devotees.

This is a rare time when young ones will get more out of a Sandler movie than their parents, who may have grown up with him when he was on "Saturday Night Live."

The movie may attract some attention from horror/thriller fans eager for a post-Halloween fix but this is no better than a direct-to-video production masquerading as a theatrical release.

At its best, this could have been a passable distraction and at its worst, it could have been unwatchable. Barrymore manages to bring it in somewhere in between those extremes.

In the end, Conspiracy Theory fails to work as an action film, a romance, or a mystery -- all of which it aspires to be.

Unfortunately, the final act (the Mexico sequences) illustrate where to take a ghost story if you want to exchange old-fashioned horror for a grilled cheese sandwich.

The movie doesn't come close to the family-friendly comedic pseudo-incest flirted with in "Back to the Future." That, apparently, is deemed too unsettling for today's audiences. So 17 Again none-too-cleverly tap dances around these issues.

The Lazarus Effect begins with an intriguing premise then proceeds to squander all the early goodwill through a slow, inexorable descent into cheap horror gimmicks.

The film's main problems are script-related. Most of the stories aren't merely perfunctory; they're superficial.

The problem is, the characters don't grab me, and the story meanders too much.

On balance, I think I'd rather have seen Rocky 15.

At best, this film is strictly cable fare.

Dennis the Menace is basically innocuous -- creatively barren but offering the kind of light, undemanding entertainment that the under-ten crowd finds so appealing. Most children will get a kick out of it, although adults roped into accompanying their offspring may find themselves yearning to escape through the nearest exit.

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

One of Mindhunters' strengths is that it's difficult to guess who the culprit is because Harlin and his screenwriters don't play fair with the audience.

With a cast featuring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams, and Ricky Gervais, one has a right to expect something amusing from Night at the Museum. Oddly, not only is the movie unfunny, but it rarely tries for laughs.

If the idea of spending 90 minutes in a movie theater seeing gorgeously rendered versions of a hugely popular gaming world and its characters going through the motions appeals to you, then The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will scratch the itch.

The Man from Toronto is derivative and forgettable; nothing about the venue in which it is seen will change that.

Perhaps it's the lack of sex or perhaps it's the incessant, banal chattering of the characters, but this movie is more likely to inspire sleep than interest. Breillat has done something I never expected from her: made a boring film.

It’s another comedy that falls prey to two common problems: (1) predictable, uninspired humor, and (2) inept attempts to inject drama into the proceedings during the last act.

Actually, the more distance the studio places between the two films, the better, because the 1997 production can't hold a candle to the 1973 release, and an attempted comparison only makes the new Bruce Willis/Richard Gere vehicle look worse.

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.

Why bother with wit, intelligence, and emotion when children will be equally entertained by pretty images, colorful action, and the obligatory poop joke?

To be fair, there are occasional moments that succeed dramatically. These are typically the quieter, less histrionic ones.

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.

The movie falls into the category of something a viewer is likely to stick with once sitting there but it lacks anything sufficiently unique or compelling that would make it worth seeking out.

The movie is uneven in the extreme, to the extent that it feels like two imperfectly wed pictures. The first, while not extraordinary, at least contains some interesting ideas. The second borders on embarrassing: an overblown melodrama complete with coincidence building upon coincidence and plot threads that are left unresolved.

Overlong and at times tedious; the taste is gritty and lingers unpleasantly.

The promise of an intriguing premise results in expectations that the film, which rarely diverges from the familiar feel of a post-apocalyptic road movie, is unable to capture.