James Berardinelli

Ingrid Goes West is part comedy, part tragedy, part horror/thriller, and part social commentary. Although it is primarily satirical, director/co-writer Matt Spicer never loses sight of the characters.

Ghost House is a generally well-made but ultimately unsurprising excursion into the supernatural.

For me, The Hitman’s Bodyguard is the epitome of what a summer movie should be. There’s sufficient spectacle to satisfy the “wow!” factor, some hammy performances by actors in their wheelhouses, a half-dozen solid laughs, and a script that, if not likely to be called “clever” or “smart”, doesn’t demand a frontal lobotomy to be enjoyed.

Although Logan Lucky works as a heist film, it neither amazes with its narrative contortions nor keeps the audience waiting with baited breath for the unveiling of some big twist.

Links between climate change, population growth, and a potentially catastrophic worldwide famine are reduced to background plot points. The moral/ethical conundrums of the “solution” are paid lip service but not aggressively integrated into the story.

This is a feel-good tale through-and-through yet, because of the aesthetic and setting, it doesn’t feel cloying and artificial. And, perhaps most importantly, it earns the modest ending.

By laminating Walls’ story with a Hollywood sheen, the narrative climaxes in an artificial and contrived manner. The penultimate scene is so obviously scripted that its inclusion is damaging. That’s too bad, because there are some effective individual scenes earlier in the proceedings.

Lambert’s three-dimensionality elevates Wind River above the norms of the traditional crime movie so that, in addition to delivering the expected tropes, it provides a richer, more fulfilling experience.

The story is engaging and McCary provokes an emotional response with his careful and nuanced handling of the main character’s mindset and situation.

For an American/international audience, perhaps the most important contribution provided by In This Corner of the World is one of perspective.

Unfortunately, although there’s an opportunity here to do something compelling, that opportunity is largely wasted. Perfunctory characterization, lackluster acting, an inability to sustain tension, and an incoherent ending waste most of the goodwill resulting from the premise.

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.

The Dark Tower isn’t a bad movie even though there’s a clumsiness to its narrative and a cheapness to its appearance.

Detroit, despite its flaws, is compelling and deeply unsettling. Its thriller and horror elements gain resonance because, at least to some degree, they’re based on real events.

The Emoji Movie proves unable to provide even a modicum of content capable of capturing or retaining the attention of an adult. Nap time.

The result, while at times a little too visually chaotic, is bracing.

The core problem with Girls Trip is its length. What might be a fun, frivolous affair at 90 minutes turns into an endurance contest as the clock ticks toward the two-hour mark.

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.

Director/co-writer Gillian Robespierre is nowhere near as self-indulgent as Noah Baumbach but she’s aiming for the same audience.

On a purely visual level, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets deserves mention among the most technically accomplished works of those three. But as a complete motion picture experience, it falls considerably short.

Although Dunkirk is technically a war film, its tone and style are those of a high-octane thriller. For his most serious-minded film to date, Christopher Nolan has employed all the weapons in his arsenal to craft something that, despite the Oscar-unfriendly July release date, will almost certainly be remembered when the Best Picture nominations are handed out.

Despite a few instances of profanity, the film could be at home fifty years ago. Lost in Paris is a capricious diversion with enough English that subtitle-phobes won’t feel completely adrift.

This is a vital, original, and emotionally potent chapter to one of the longest-running movie series out there. It will easily be one of the summer of 2017’s best films and, at the end of the year, it will likely find a space on many respectable Top 10 lists.

The Big Sick has the qualities that could make it a sleeper hit. It’s funny, touching, and perceptive.

While the Peter Parker stuff is enjoyable, that’s only part of what the movie is giving us. Every time Peter puts on the Spidey suit, we know exactly what we’re going to get, beat-by-beat.

All-in-all, however, even though Chaplin is fitfully entertaining, it fails to touch enough emotional chords to make it of more than passing interest.

Despicable Me 3 is an example of how even the most promising animated franchises can hit a wall if allowed to continue too long.

Despite being broadly classified as a “monster movie” and featuring sequences that are as wildly bizarre as any Monty Python skit, Okja has serious messages about consumerism, ecology, and food production.

At its best, The Journey is riveting drama, with Paisley and McGuinness acting as proxies for the two sides in the long-simmering, bitter civil war that divided Northern Ireland for 40 years along sectarian lines.

It’s a near-miss that offers a captivating atmosphere and strong performances to go along with an uneven tone and a climax that’s so overcooked that it bursts at the seams with unintentional humor.

Wright is savvy enough to realize that suspense and tension require characters that are more than human figures in a CGI playground. He does just enough with the men and women populating Baby Driver for us to get a sense of who they are.

For better or worse (emphasis on the latter), it was unlike anything else on the multiplex landscape. In 2017, it’s becoming difficult for Bay to distinguish his brand of brain-dead spectacle from the brain-dead spectacle of many other sequels, prequels, and remakes.

The final chapter of the trilogy has saved the best for last and will at least deflect the most serious concerns of those who think this series has taken too many extra laps.

There’s enough variety here that everyone’s funny bone should be tickled from time-to-time.

Like Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart," this is an opportunity for a sometimes-underrated actor (Elliott has never been nominated for an Oscar) to show his range and capabilities.

Suspension of disbelief is an oh-so-tricky hurdle for a movie like this to overcome and The Book of Henry fails to achieve it.

Narratively incoherent and full of cheese and camp, this movie makes it clear that the mummy should have remained dead and buried.

With impeccable period detail, strong character development, superior acting, and a surprisingly fast pace, this film represents welcome counterprogramming to the typical loud and vacuous summertime multiplex fare.

Horror isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s not a child’s genre. It isn’t meant to be comfortable. In fact, I’m hard-pressed to think of a recent movie that’s as uncomfortable and disturbing as It Comes at Night.

The movie is fresh, fun, and breezy.

While having a female director perhaps gives Wonder Woman a subtly different perspective, the real strengths of this production are its lead actors, the period piece setting, and an unexpected emotional resonance that one doesn’t expect from a popcorn movie.

The waterlogged end product is an example of lazy writing and direction with the vague hope that perhaps the involvement of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will attract viewers.

It’s fast paced but goes nowhere new and the film’s “bigness” makes it hard to remember what an amazingly unexpected treasure The Curse of the Black Pearl was.

At its best, this film echoes the creepiness and tension of "Alien." At its worst, it sinks into the pretentiousness that at times threatened to derail "Prometheus."

As YA romances go – and there are plenty to choose from – this is a lesser option.

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.

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.

Volume 2 can claim to be bigger and better than its predecessor, although it still suffers from some of the narrative sleight-of-hand issues that kept Guardians of Galaxy from achieving greatness.

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.

Free Fire isn’t a “Reservoir Dogs for the 2010s” but there are enough similarities in approach, tone, and style to warrant a comparison. The violence, the cavalcade or profanity, the testosterone & adrenaline – they’re all present and accounted for.

The ending is muddled as an unsuccessful attempt is made to provide closure to a story that, if told frankly, shouldn’t have one.

Although the narrative for Their Finest occasionally rambles (too much time is spent buffing Ambrose’s backstory, which is only tangentially germane to the main tale), it is by-and-large a stirring drama that incorporates lighter moments with scenes of deeply felt tragedy.

When it comes to war love stories, The Promise isn’t going to challenge Casablanca. The movie is stronger when presenting the political situation than the romantic one.

“Dumbing down” was coined for productions like this: big, splashy, testosterone-fueled monstrosities whose sole purpose is to give a studio box office bragging rights for a few weeks.

Director Marc Webb brings the same kind of deft craftmanship for drama and low-key humor that he exhibited in "500 Days of Summer" and the result is emotionally true and dramatically solid.

Although Going in Style’s heist represents a high point and gets props for being suitably clever, it’s swamped by bad melodrama and lame comedy.

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.

Ghost in the Shell is visually compelling but tone deaf.

Nothing in T2 is memorable.

Just don’t expect this to be a light, escapist excursion into outer space. Even by sci-fi/horror standards, this is dark, gruesome, intense stuff.

It starts out small and reaches its crescendo 90 minutes later with an incredible sequence that generates more suspense from a series of text messages than I would have dreamed possible.

Watching The Sense of an Ending, I was struck by the realization that this should have been a good movie. Unfortunately, as is too often the case, something didn’t translate from the written page to the big screen.

It relies on gross-out scenes to earn the right to be called “disturbing” and seems more interested in delivering schlocky shocks than suffocating the viewer with suspense or dread.

A lively, workmanlike musical that only occasionally rises to the heights of its 1991 predecessor and frequently coasts on a lower plane.

As a big-budget B-grade monster movie, Kong: Skull Island is a home run. It offers all the tropes and clichés one expects from this sort of endeavor, sparing no expense when it comes to special effects. As a King Kong movie, however, Skull Island is less successful.

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

More than any other comic book character outside of Nolan’s Batman, Wolverine has evolved. With his glimpse into what superhero movies can be, James Mangold has given us something sadly lacking in recent genre entries: hope.

The R, however, isn’t for the usual “extreme gore” of a slasher movie. Instead, it’s mainly for profanity. Get Out has only a little blood and viscera; the approach of writer/first time director Jordan Peele is to approach the more stomach-churning aspects of his production with tact.

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

More galling and tedious than funny.

There’s no rule that main characters have to be likable, and DeHaan’s Lockhart isn’t, but they at least have to be interesting. He fails that litmus test.

Lacking even a line of dialogue and using hand-drawn images, The Red Turtle is more about feel and look than narrative. The story is a means to convey illustrations and emotions.

Although A United Kingdom has a social agenda, it is first and foremost a love story. Like "Loving," it’s about how the affection between a man and a woman of different races affects not only their immediate social circles but has ripples that wash over the entire world and impact history.

This is “more of the same” but, at least in this case, that’s a good thing.

This is a bad film - at times it’s nigh unwatchable - but that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

Tonally, it’s closer to the Adam West television program than to any of the subsequent incarnations, although (if possible) The Lego Batman Movie takes itself even less seriously.

The Space between Us is what it looks like when a promising premise is betrayed by a dumbed-down, hackneyed screenplay.

Taken as a whole, this is compulsive viewing and offers plenty of material for post-viewing discussions.

Despite its uneven tone, the film is compelling and, perhaps more importantly, relevant even though the actual historical events occurred two decades ago.

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

Unimaginative horror movies are a dime a dozen, but overlong, boring, unimaginative horror movies? Those are rare. However, in Split, that’s what writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has provided the early 2017 movie-going populace.

The Founder represents two hours well-spent, especially for anyone with a fascination for complex characters or an interest in the shenanigans that transformed an unpretentious local restaurant into a global force. You probably won’t ever again think of McDonald’s in quite the same way.

As with all of Berg’s films, Patriots Day does an excellent job with sets and locales and is compulsively watchable.

The film’s climax is tautly executed; the way everything plays out is a whirl of brutal, violent beauty.

The movie eventually achieves a level of powerful drama…but only after dithering for more than an hour.

A Monster Calls is a deeply moving drama that should find favor with viewers of all ages (except the very young). It’s a stunning work of artistry and emotional heft with an ending that speaks as loudly to children, parents, and grand-parents. It’s difficult to shake and impossible to forget.

By turns sad, frightening, and inspirational, the movie is impeded only by the difficulty of bridging the 25-year span between segments and accepting the older lead (Dev Patel) as a replacement for his younger self (Sunny Pawar).

Yes, Fences suffers somewhat from the bare-bones transferal of the “action” from stage to screen but the material is so compelling that viewers can easily lose sight of the movie’s “play nature.”

For a while, the movie looks like it’s going to go dark but then chickens out and leaves the viewer with a palpable sense of dissatisfaction.

Historical fudges aside, Hidden Figures provides an example of determination and talent triumphing over an unfair and repressive system.

Obtuse, narratively incoherent, and ultimately frustrating, it stands as another example of how hard it is to make a good mainstream movie out of a popular computer game.

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.

Most of Sing's creative energy was invested in the musical numbers and, fortunately, that's where it shines. But the film really can't go toe-to-toe with heavyweights "Zootopia," "Moana," "Dory" or even the little-seen but superior "Kubo."

Pretentious and manipulative, the movie bludgeons viewers with its new age philosophizing and its desire to be considered meaningful.

The title character never emerges from the iconic shell she inhabits to become a fully fleshed-out individual and the filmmakers are perhaps too reverential to make her seem real. Like Camelot, she’s a mythic figure and Jackie doesn’t do enough to humanize her.

Rogue One is a better movie than The Force Awakens - something that elevates it considerably over its “secondary” designation.

As a dramatic thriller, it does what it needs to do to keep the audience involved and interested, even if some of its most theatrical tricks and twists are more the products of a writer’s invention than actual Washington D.C. activities.

Although Barry Jenkins’ film is indeed about the struggles and difficulties of a person embracing his culturally reviled sexuality, the story is universal in scope and intent.

It’s not cinematic fast food. If you want superficial entertainment, Manchester by the Sea will disappoint. This is for those who crave a deeper experience.

La La Land isn’t just the best made-for-the-screen musical to reach theaters in a very long time, it’s arguably the best (non-animated) cinematic musical of any kind since 1986’s delightful "Little Shop of Horrors." Yes, it’s more vibrant than "Chicago," more heartfelt than "Les Miserables," and more successfully staged than a chorus of other contenders.

At its best, Bad Santa 2 feels like an echo of its predecessor. At its worst, it’s unfunny, crass, and uncomfortable (not in a good way).

Rules Don’t Apply is a strange, schizophrenic sort of movie. Despite moments of emotional strength and bursts of quirky comedy, the film is undone by its generally lethargic tone and the film’s insistence to shift its focus from the putative lead characters to a supporting player.

Moana is an entertaining and worthy way to close Disney’s 2016 animated roster.

On the whole, it works although perhaps not as well as it might have if the central relationship had more carefully established.

With a smart, perceptive script from first-time director Kelly Fremon Craig and an arresting lead performance by Hailee Steinfeld, the film rises to the top of a crowded genre.

Nocturnal Animals employs one of the most inventive uses of neo noir tropes and techniques I have seen in recent years. Intense, insightful, and strangely powerful, Tom Ford’s adaptation of Austin Wright’s novel, Tony and Susan, assumes an intelligent audience.

Fantastic Beasts is an enjoyable stand-alone but its position as the progenitor of a new franchise remains unclear.

Loving is an important and interesting motion picture but it’s not always as involving as it might have been.

Although Arrival is about first contact with extraterrestrials, it says more about the human experience than the creatures from another world. This is a singularly powerful movie, without question one of 2016’s best.

Hacksaw Ridge embraces many of the clichés of the war movie but, instead of laying them out in a rote fashion, the film synthesizes them into a visceral, ultimately inspirational result. This is about heroism, patriotism, and an adherence to convictions.

Although the comic book tropes are all in place, the acting, tone, and visual effects keep them from becoming tedious. This is yet another solid building block in the foundation to Marvel’s ever-expanding superhero fortress.

Deliciously perverse, delightfully twisty, and unapologetically erotic.

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.

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

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.

Unfortunately, as with too many films being made with the international market in mind, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is a jumble of overhyped action scenes, trite dialogue, painfully bad “character development”, and awful writing.

The thing that makes The Accountant unique, however, and elevates it above the garden variety action-thriller, is that the title character’s “superpowers” result from his autism.

The performances are universally strong - not that one would expect anything else considering the quality of the cast.

Are you a Kevin Hart fan? Then drop everything and rush to see this movie. Are you not a Kevin Hart fan? Then move along, there’s nothing here to see…

When I say that Parker is a master manipulator, that’s meant as a compliment of the highest order. He gets us into this story and puts us unequivocally behind Nat.

As a B-movie whodunnit designed for fast consumption by popcorn munching crowds of inattentive viewers, it’s solidly entertaining. But as a complex, Hitchcockian (as in the obvious inspiration, Rear Window) thriller, it misses by a wide margin.

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.

A fresh and engaging storybook adventure that should appeal to viewers both inside and out of the core demographic.

Although engaging, Deepwater Horizon ultimately offers a mixed bag of an experience. The setup is considerably better than the payoff, front-loading the experience.

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.

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.

For a director whose reputation is built on aggressively in-your-face subjects and styles, Snowden stands as a strangely inert outlier, a project that lacks passion although not perspective.

Bridget Jones’s Baby exceeds expectations and, as a result, makes us willing to forgive the delay in bringing the character back to theaters.

There’s more to this movie than offering fans an opportunity to wallow in the past. It gives the most complete portrait we’ve seen thus far of Nimoy, warts and all, as presented by the man who came the closest to knowing him.

Sully proves to be by turns engaging, exhilarating, and nail-biting.

It’s an attempt to wed philosophical science fiction concepts with bloody horror - a dubious endeavor that somehow works. The movie doesn’t seek to be a mindless gore-fest but neither does it show restraint when it comes to violence.

It’s a well-made, serious drama arriving in an era when those qualities rarely describe multiplex fare.

Traditional and uninspired, it does an adequate job of relating Duran’s story but falls short of providing an engaging cinematic experience.

From a purely narrative perspective, there’s nothing new here but like a new arrangement of a familiar tune, the slight changes make it fresh and enjoyable.

An amateurish effort that boasts direct-to-video characteristics, the latest version disappoints in almost every production aspect.

The problem with War Dogs isn’t the dark humor nor is it the cynically accurate deconstruction of military procurement and corruption. The lack of dynamism and depth in the characters is what hamstrings this production.

Anthropoid is engrossing but it isn’t happy. War movies, at least the best of them, seldom are.

The best animated feature (at least thus far) of 2016.

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.

Matt Ross’ screenplay occasionally stumbles (especially late in the proceedings) and the ending opts for a too-facile resolution but the director/writer offers moments of genuine power and pathos that make it easy to forgive the missteps.

Despite regurgitating elements from the founding trilogy, Jason Bourne represents the best the series has yet offered.

Nerve does a better job with its style and pacing than it does with its characters but, ultimately, Vee is likable enough for us to stay on the ride with her. For a late-summer throwaway, the film is surprisingly entertaining.

The plot, credited to Simon Pegg & Doug Jung, is pure Trek. Unfortunately, it’s also instantly forgettable.

A scathing satire of conspicuous consumption and a fashion-obsessed culture, Absolutely Fabulous - The Movie hits most of its targets and twists the knife but, as funny as the material sometimes is, the flimsy narrative and threadbare caricatures encounter difficulties trying to sustain a 90 minute motion picture.

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

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

This is a mediocre horror/comedy that deserves neither high praise nor disparagement.

This isn’t "Miami Vice." In fact, the intent (perhaps intentional) is for the gritty, noir-tinged The Infiltrator to tilt in the opposite direction.

Like much of what transpires during the course of this production, it’s just crass.

The Secret Life of Pets is strong enough that parents won’t fall into a catatonic state while watching it with their offspring. Unlike top-notch animated fare, however, it’s questionable whether this can be considered “destination fare” for the single adult.

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

Contrasting The BFG to "E.T." does the new film a disservice, and it’s mediocre enough that it doesn’t need the comparison to emphasize its shortcomings. In recent years, Spielberg has become a hit-and-miss filmmaker and this is closer to a “miss” than a “hit.”

The film clearly wants to be more than just a run-of-the-mill horror-thriller but the allegorical aspects are half-baked and the attempts to mimic Kubrick’s "A Clockwork Orange" and "Eyes Wide Shut" feel more like campy satire than an homage.

Tarnishes the image of its predecessor but the original Independence Day wasn’t all that good to begin with.

The film’s problem is that, after chronicling Nancy’s nightmarish 12 hours on a tiny rock island, director Jaume Collet-Serra and screenwriter Anthony Jaswinski don’t know how to end things. Their choice of a resolution is preposterous and underwhelming.

Horror fans will be so bored by the first 90 minutes that they will have either walked out or fallen into a coma by the time the blood starts flowing.

With its canned, predictable action sequences and mirthless attempts at humor, it displays an ineptitude that is frankly shocking considering the talent involved.

Finding Dory is enjoyable in its own right, even if its powerful sense of déjà vu keeps it from approaching the pinnacle of the Disney/Pixar collaborations.

Warcraft provides the shell of a great fantasy adventure saga but never effectively goes beyond that. This is much more like the bad fantasy of the 1980s and 1990s than the better brand we have recently become accustomed to.

This time around, however, the magic has fizzled. Based solely on merit, Now You See Me 2 is a sequel that should never have been made.

The Conjuring 2 proves that, with a sufficient investment of time and energy, sequels don’t have to be unsatisfying cash-grabs.

Although this might have been considered cutting edge 20 or 30 years ago, it has been done so often in recent years that it feels a little tired.

I am by nature a cynic and am easily turned off by manufactured sentiment. I dislike "Terms of Endearment" intensely. That I was fully immersed in this world and invested in the characters’ lives is a testament to the movie’s strength.

The movie is frequently incomprehensible and, on those occasions when it makes sense, the viewer may wish it didn’t.

X-Men: Apocalypse is a competently made superhero action film but it’s not a game-changer and its brand of action seems a little too familiar.

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

The follow-up proves not only to be creatively bankrupt but a disappointment on all levels and thereby tarnishes the perception of its predecessor.

The film overflows with quips, irony, and physical gags while at the same time relating a noir-tinged story of seedy corruption set in the neon-saturated underbelly of the 1977 Los Angeles porn industry.

Unfortunately, despite a surfeit of talent in front of and behind the camera, the movie is unable to overcome a shaky narrative whose increasing preposterousness ensures it’s difficult to take seriously.

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.

Those who attend this movie expecting to see a superhero smack-down won’t be disappointed, but anyone partial to Captain America’s saga may feel shortchanged.

Green Room is a simple movie with a straightforward premise. The film works for two reasons: Stewart’s presence and Saulnier’s execution.

The level of quality is such that this does not deserve a theatrical distribution and will only find appeal among pre-teen kids or those who have been fans of the games since their inception more than a decade ago.

By cramming far too much material into 114 minutes, The Huntsman: Winter’s War feels rushed and incomplete. It doesn’t help that the screenplay is at times awful, forcing accomplished actors to recite excruciatingly bad dialogue while maintaining a straight face.

As a race-against-time, Jason Bourne-inspired adrenaline cocktail, Criminal offers a couple of hours of popcorn-munching entertainment.

Well-made and deserves recognition as one of the year’s best family offerings (thus far).

Demolition founders and its overt symbolism feels forced instead of organic. The production is uncomfortable and artificial, lacking internal logic and tonal consistency.

Emotionally, Linklater’s recreation of August 1980 is spot-on. Sure, there are a few anachronistic cheats (how many college-goers in 1980 had a VCR in their room?) but the tone is just about perfect.

Eye in the Sky reminded me of "United 93" - not necessarily in terms of the subject matter but because of the apolitical, clear-headed manner in which it approaches an act.

This is a sit com. An ‘80s-style sit-com. A bad ‘80s-style sit-com.

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.

It’s a strange little movie - by turns fascinating and frustrating. Its strong thematic thrust is counterbalanced by an uneven and at times farcical narrative and the characters are more avatars than well-realized individuals.

Allegiant tries to cram too little story into too much time. This results in dead spots and uneven pacing.

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

The problems with 10 Cloverfield Lane result from attempts to tie it, however tenuously, to the earlier movie. Take away the disappointing, disjointed, and anti-climactic final act, and this is an effective white-knuckle psychological thriller.

There’s a lot here for kids to like and nearly as much to keep parents from fidgeting.

The Wave’s centerpiece is a critical ten-minute span between when the rockslide occurs and the wave reaches civilization. Played out in real time, this is a period of sustained and effective tension. It’s real, raw, and ragged.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot has surprisingly dull fangs.

As action-thrillers go, this one provides what the previews tease. Maybe that’s enough for an evening’s mindless, throw-away entertainment, but I can’t help but be disappointed that the filmmakers couldn’t have brought something more inventive to a genre that too often relies on worn-out tropes.

Like the real Eddie’s 1988 Olympic experience, however, the movie’s memory is likely to fade fast.

Triple Nine turns out to be a thoroughly entertaining (although violent) thriller.

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

Race, like "42," does a workmanlike job of bringing the lead character to life and explaining his historical importance, but it fails to transcend the genre.

If all it took was verisimilitude and atmosphere to define a movie, The Witch would earn a near-perfect rating. Unfortunately, despite a creepily effective setting and authentic setup, the movie suffers as a result of a frustratingly uneven screenplay.

Zoolander would have been better left as a stand-alone cult classic.

A horrifically bad romantic comedy that serves as a celebration of entitlement, consumerism, and shallow behavior.

Compared to Deadpool, "Guardians of the Galaxy" is a bastion of sobriety and good taste.

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

The absence of a strong narrative is the film’s weakest aspect. The Coens are so absorbed by their mimicry that they don’t invest a lot of effort in the connective tissue.

Like most sequels, it pacifies its core demographic by offering “more of the same.” To that extent, it can be said to be successful.

One would be hard-pressed to consider The Perfect Storm “triumphant” or “uplifting” but both terms could be used to describe The Finest Hours.

The film’s contribution is the unique perspective it provides about what it meant to work in a death camp.

The storyline is generic apocalyptic science fiction and feels a lot like an uninspired fusion of "Independence Day" and the TV mini-series “V”.

The movie is imperfect and overlong but it’s never boring.

At times unremarkable, at times weird, and at times tedious. At worst, it can be said that Kaufman has made a discussion-worthy animated feature.

To be fair, The Forest boasts a promising premise but squanders most of its goodwill as a result of narrative shortcuts and contrivances, horror film clichés, and haphazard editing.

The story is quirky and offbeat but the dialogue and acting set Joy up as an engaging late-year repast.

Will Smith gives his all in a role that requires him to undergo a subtle physical transformation, adopt a credible Nigerian accent, and provide a controlled, modulated performance.

Unless you’re a fan of extreme sports photography, the 2015 Point Break lags behind its predecessor in most areas.

In a year when no fewer than five films have dealt with themes of man vs. nature and survival (including The Martian, Everest, In the Heart of the Sea, and A Walk in the Woods), The Revenant is by far the most brutal, challenging, and astounding of these.

This is a high-wire thriller, full of masterfully executed twists, captivating dialogue, and a wildly entertaining narrative that gallops along at a pace to make three hours evaporate in an instant. Best film of the year? Yes.

Using gallows humor, likable protagonists, and a variety of nonstandard filmmaking techniques (like having characters address the audience directly), McKay maintains a high level of energy for more than two hours and dares us to become bored.

There are times when it borders on the pretentious but there’s a real, emotional payoff and it doesn’t hurt that veteran actors Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel give Top 10 career performances.

So what’s the final verdict? A mixed bag. It’s a good start to a new trilogy but hardly the hoped-for masterpiece. It’s a solid space opera spectacle with enough nostalgia to overpower even the most hard-hearted child of the ‘70s and ‘80s but it relies a little too much on recycling old plot elements.

There’s an inevitability about The Danish Girl being well received by critics and at awards ceremonies. This is, after all, a movie with a strong social message about tolerance and inclusivity. Dramatically, however, it’s a mixed bag.

The biggest problem with In the Heart of the Sea is its episodic nature. Especially during the post-sinking saga, things don’t flow smoothly.

Especially during the first 90 minutes, Carol is an immersive experience that invites the viewer to slow down and amble along at its leisurely pace.

Legend seems like a movie Scorsese might have made if he wasn’t paying attention - the elements are present but they are clumsily assembled and the outcome underwhelms.

Visually, The Good Dinosaur boasts some of the most amazingly photo-realistic sets I have seen in any animated film.

The only thing about Victor Frankenstein worthy of praise is the set design. Visually, the movie is impressive but pretty pictures are better left to postcards.

Coogler provides enough rousing moments to get the adrenaline pumping - there are times when the urge to jump up and cheer is almost too strong to resist. But there's more to Creed and it is elevated by the quiet, subtle elements.

Although not without moments of sadness and tragedy, Brooklyn is sublimely uplifting and life affirming.

Mockingjay Part 1, released a year ago, was a disjointed, incomplete affair and, although Mockingjay Part 2 is more polished, the pace is uneven and there’s a sense that the series has hung around too long.

Spotlight is a Valentine to investigative journalism and a stark reminder of where we’re headed now that this brand of writing has become an endangered species. The film is unique in that it focuses almost entirely on the process.

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

The voice work is on-target - the child actors, none of whom have played these parts before and many of whom have limited professional experience, nail their characters. They sound just like we expect them to sound.

Spectre is the most “traditional” of the Craig Bonds. Although a little light on gadgets, it has everything else,

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Suffragette is that it too obviously wants to be an important movie. The self-consciousness of this desire is evident.

Room is honest and challenging but it’s more uplifting than one might expect from a film with such a horrific backstory.

he movie is funny enough to get its share of laughs but, in its angry heart, it’s a tragedy - and the saddest part is that too much of this story is true.

The Last Witch Hunter feels like the first episode of a would-be series although, unlike some similar endeavors, it tells a stand-alone story.

Director Guillermo del Toro’s unique visual style is on display but the story is predictable, the characters are flat, and the supernatural elements are red herrings. To paraphrase a character, this isn’t so much a ghost story as it is a “story with ghosts.”

At a guess, I'd say that Goosebumps will satisfy its core audience - fans of R.L. Stine's popular children's books - and bore pretty much everyone else.

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Danny Boyle aren’t interested in offering another re-enactment of the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story. They have something more ambitious in mind. Their goal is to illustrate the tyranny of genius and how a “great mind” doesn’t always mean a “great person.”

With names like Spielberg, Hanks, and the Coen Brothers, it's hard not to be excited about a project like Bridge of Spies. Yet, although the workmanlike production is solidly engaging, it falls short of the loftiest expectations. It's worth seeing but not one of the best films of 2015.

The film fulfills its limited mandate of providing fast-paced adventure and some nice eye candy without adding anything memorable to the tale of The Boy Who Can Fly.

Those who go to a Villeneuve production, Sicario included, must be prepared for intense suspense, moral ambiguity, and an ending that doesn't conform to Hollywood norms.

For those who buy into the precept that "good things are worth waiting for," The Walk unquestionably delivers.

This is science fiction for sophisticated audiences and, as such, a fulfilling and satisfying experience.

The Intern is a romantic comedy without the romance.

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.

In this case, character development is neglected in favor of awe-inspiring views. There are times when we feel like we're on the mountain. Unfortunately, our companions - the men and women populating the screen - are never more than half-formed.

As a dramatic thriller, Black Mass has trouble getting into low orbit. There are some tremendous scenes but the narrative as a whole feels more like a chronology of dastardly dealings than the epic tale of a criminal's rise and fall.

Despite a promising premise and effective "Shyamalan twist", this low-budget horror film still underwhelms. "The Sixth Sense" writer/director is his own worst enemy in the choices he makes bringing The Visit to the screen.

A Walk in the Woods is surprisingly funny at times but, like many comedies, it runs out of steam about halfway through.

From narrative to character development to staging, every frame of Mistress America drips with artifice. It's a playground for unpleasant, self-absorbed characters - an excursion into the lifestyles of people most of us would prefer to bypass. If there's an antonym for self-awareness, it applies to nearly everyone populating this misfire.

The musical sequences throb with energy and this allows We Are Your Friends to maintain its trajectory when its momentum flags.

No Escape is a throwback to an era when movies of this genre were defined by suspense and tension. Dowdle isn't interested in providing a safe harbor for those who want a comfortable way to spend two hours. His vision is edgy and exhausting and, for the most part, his execution breathes life into it, tossing a firecracker into the sleepy post-summer movie doldrums.

Although Sinister 2 continues the story begun in Scott Derrickson's creepily effective "Sinister," it feels more like an unnecessary retread than an organic extension of the original.

Hitman: Agent 47 might offer a passable diversion for action junkies but, for everyone else, it's best avoided.

The movie is replete with bloody encounters, sly asides, and one-liners, but the tone is awkward and uneven. There are also some serious structural problems that we're supposed to brush aside.

It has taken Warner Brothers ten years to get this property a new life and, thankfully, the results in no way resemble those of its Cold War TV compatriot. Or, to put it another way, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) is good fun, which "The Avengers" (1998) wasn't.

Clever and atmospheric, the film has enough twists to keep the average viewer guessing.

It's an entertaining diversion - a good way to pass a couple of hours as late summer evenings lengthen - but not much more.

Perhaps surprisingly, it's no better or worse that the other superhero movies of 2015.

The film offers everything one could ask for from popcorn entertainment.

Ed Helms, a Hangover veteran, is a perfect choice to take over the reins from Chase.

In "Rocky," it was less about beating Apollo Creed than showing grit, earning respect, and getting the girl. Fundamentally, Southpaw isn't much different.

The contrived storyline offers little opportunity for characters to grow and the meandering narrative trajectory and anticlimactic ending will have some viewers wondering why they bothered.

The "characters" vary from slightly annoying to unbearable - this is a film in which a viewer can be forgiven for rooting for the old video game icons to annihilate humanity. God help us if the best savior we can muster is Sandler.

Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to make it through the entirety of Ant-Man's two hours without thinking of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" as least once, and I'm not sure that's an association the filmmakers were courting.

As written by the brash, funny, and often vulgar comedienne Amy Schumer, Trainwreck is brash, funny, and often vulgar. Its raunchiness is a perfect match for the man who made "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up."

There's enough material in Self/less to fuel a mini-series. Instead of letting the story breathe, the film rushes along at breakneck speed, using contrivances and "shortcuts" in failed attempts at character development.

Many of the jokes are either obvious or have been exposed through pre-release marketing material. I kept waiting for the clever or insightful moment that never arrives. The bar is set pretty low for Minions.

The best one-liners, like the best fight scenes, are reserved for Schwarzenegger. It's too soon to tell whether Terminator Genisys will have a catch phrase like "I'll be back" or "Hasta la vista, baby" but there are several candidates. Much of the film's comedy results from The Terminator's failed attempts to emulate human behavior.

"Magic Mike" was self-contained, made with no expectation of a second chapter - and they prove unable to surmount it. Too many elements that made the first film an enjoyable experience are missing.

It would be disingenuous for me to claim that Ted 2 isn't funny. Although I was often bored by the plodding direction of the story, I laughed from time-to-time.

The Overnight plays like the pilot of a sitcom developed for Netflix or premium cable. A hit-and-miss affair that deals in a sporadically amusing fashion with many of the mundane (and a few not-so-mundane) tribulations of long-term monogamy in marriage.

Max is a throwback of sorts - a movie about the relationship between a boy and his dog. Lassie springs to mind as the genre classic, but this has a closer kinship to Rin Tin Tin. Although its sensibilities are old-fashioned, the movie offers a modern look and feel.

Famuyiwa dabbles in the teen sex comedy, the urban gangster story, and the fish out of water scenario. He gives us suspense, gross-out humor, a cute romance, and a sermon about the status of race in America.

I won't argue that Inside Out is as profound or all-around engaging as "Toy Story 3," but the films succeed in many of the same ways.

Consistently hits the right notes, earning both the tears and smiles that result.

Gemma Bovery, which is based on a graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, possesses a deliciously sense of wit and irony.

Despite having a slim resume (the quirky indie Safety Not Guaranteed), Trevorrow handles Jurassic World like a pro. He hits all the right notes, giving the two-dimensional characters as much heft as they deserve (which isn't much) and handling the action sequences like a seasoned veteran of Hollywood tent pole features.

They say the third time's the charm. Not with the Insidious series, it isn't. Admittedly, installment #3 is an improvement over #2, but it fails to reach the highs of the chilling-but-uneven original.