James Berardinelli

It's an orgy for disaster porn devotees.

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).

There's something missing and it becomes apparent early on. The movie isn't scary - not even a little bit.

Tomorrowland is an interesting collage of moments and ideas in search of a strong narrative and a coherent ending.

Regardless of whatever ephemeral entertainment this production may offer to some, it is not by any reasonable definition a good movie. It is badly written, inexpertly directed, poorly acted, erratically paced, and features music of dubious worth.

Talk about taking things to a new level… Theaters showing Fury Road should have seat belts installed.

This is a dark comedy; the tone is such that it benefits from Jack Black emphasizing the less appealing aspects of his personality.

There's hardly an area in which Hot Pursuit is not found lacking. The comedy is unfunny with joke after joke falling painfully flat.

There's nothing here to astound or surprise; the movie neither exceeds nor falls below expectations. Those who love Hardy and/or the less-filmy romances of his era will derive the most from Far from the Madding Crowd.

The best thing that can be said about Welcome to Me, as written by Eliot Laurence and directed by Shira Piven, is that it attempts to portray the real Borderline Personality Disorder as opposed to the Hollywood movie version of the disease. Unfortunately, that's about all it does.

Age of Ultron disappoints not because it's irredeemably bad but because it fails to achieve the level of its predecessor in nearly every facet.

The final production is so jammed with subplots and secondary characters that it often feels like the Cliffs Notes version of a complex novel.

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.

In the end, there's a sense that director Olivier Assayas is more concerned about making a point than telling a story.

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.

Those looking for a clear-cut chronology of how the murders happened are destined for disappointment. Flashbacks of the crime are short and ambiguous.

In the final analysis, the movie doesn't offer much about the subject that hasn't been previously explored, but the soil is fertile and many ideas germinate.

If nothing else, Unfriended does an excellent job portraying the frenzy that is on-line teen interaction. This is the new equivalent of "hanging out."

Baumbach is 45 (roughly the same age as Josh) so he writes from personal experience. He knows what these characters are feeling which is the reason why the human elements resonate with authenticity - a quality that fades when While We're Young wanders off on the tangent about what constitutes a legitimate documentary.

As a romance, a drama, or even a sports movie, The Longest Ride never reaches a satisfying destination.

Woman in Gold is arguably of more interest for its historical perspective than for its drama. Although there is some suspense in the courtroom proceedings, no one would mistake this for the next "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "The Verdict."

Viewers who come for the spectacle will get their money's worth. Furious Seven is all about action, with some scenes being more inventive than others.

It Follows doesn't try to get viewers to jump out of their seats. Instead, employing the time-honored technique of the "slow build", it pressures fingernails to dig into arm rests.

A Girl Like Her offers an emotionally honest examination of an important and often overlooked societal problem.

Dumb, juvenile comedy has its place when it's funny. Unfortunately, too often in Get Hard, it's not.

The movie wallows in remorse. Not only is the main character paralyzed by it but the filmmakers seem to believe that every Caucasian member of the audience should face up to White Guilt for the way in which the Industrial World has encouraged unrest in Africa so resources could be strip-mined. How's that for an uplifting action movie premise?

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

The trailers make Run All Night look like a fast-paced shoot-'em-up and, although those elements are present, this is a darker and grimmer experience.

Cinderella is a wonderfully realized family feature that retains the strengths of its source material while at the same time updating it for today's audiences.

Unfinished Business is bad - not epically bad but bad enough. Little contained in this misfire of a film works and the few successful things are dragged out to the point where they die a lingering death.

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

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.

Focus is uncommonly good for a February release (damning with faint praise?) but may not clear the bar of being worthy of a trip through snow and ice to reach the multiplex. Star power, actor chemistry, and caper movie twists make for a nice diversion… but not much more.

The DUFF would make John Hughes smile. With its mixture of wit, teen friendly situations, and heart, The DUFF feels like something that might have come out of Hughes' '80s playbook.

McFarland USA, like "Hoosiers," makes characters a priority. The film, directed by New Zealander Niki Caro, focuses on the people involved in the drama. The narrative doesn't saddle them with cliché-riddled subplots; it makes them and their concerns real.

Fast-paced with a morbid sense of humor and copious pop culture references, Kingsman breezes along at a nice clip until it gets a little bogged down during its final third.

Who would have imagined that a movie about sex could be so boring? That's the bottom line when it comes to Fifty Shades of Grey.

By-the-numbers, generic plots no longer work and that, unfortunately, is what Seventh Son delivers. Impressive set design and visuals, excessive CGI, and a loud score from Marco Beltrami can't fully compensate for bland character development and a predictable narrative that rushes along on a linear trajectory.

Jupiter Ascending feels like a truncated, Cliffs Notes version of something that might have worked a lot better as a mini-series. Two hours is too short for this tale and the end result suffers greatly because of that restriction.

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.

Black Sea contains its share of fantastical elements and the ending in particular evidences gaping holes of logic and physics but, as a "refrigerator film," it works well.

The film is by no means perfect and its goals are undermined by a sloppy climax and conclusion but it avoids preaching while providing fodder for thought.

This isn't a revolutionary or thematically rich motion picture, but it's a well-told story featuring solid performances and a nice sense of atmosphere.

The film is intricately composed using the shadows created by natural lighting and some of the most astonishing sunsets and landscapes ever captured on screen. Pope's work is immersive and allows viewers to become engaged in a story that occasionally moves a little too slowly.

It's badly directed, poorly edited, and features some of the most unconvincing acting this side of a soup commercial.

Still Alice is undoubtedly a tough movie; it contains life-affirming moments but its perspective is what makes it unique.

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.

The Wedding Ringer is imperfect but its imperfections are tolerable because they're accompanied by a dollop of drama, a measure of laughter, and an oversized helping of Kevin Hart.

Despite being overlong, Blackhat is mostly engaging. The narrative features one major change of direction and things get increasingly preposterous as the climax approaches, but that's not unusual in this genre.

Taken 3 is exactly what one might anticipate from an unnecessary sequel in a mediocre franchise.

What Selma does so well is to bring to life the events of 1965, especially "Bloody Sunday" (the first march). It's one thing to read about these moments in a history book but another altogether to see them on the screen. The movie is riveting.

Predestination is science fiction for a thoughtful crowd. This isn't an action oriented film nor should it be mistaken for a blockbuster.

The 2014 iteration isn't as good as its 1974 predecessor but it offers its share of small pleasures, not the least of which is the crisp, sharp dialogue that never loses its punch even when it veers close to the edge of pretentiousness.

For the most part, Big Eyes works because of its restraint - something rarely claimed about one of Burton's cinematic offspring.

The movie not only represents the best effort from Eastwood since his Oscar-winning "Million Dollar Baby" but the finest acting we have seen thus far from two-time nominee Bradley Cooper.

Into the Woods left me out in the cold. The long-gestating cinematic adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's fairy tale-infused Broadway musical, Into the Woods can claim a clever screenplay and a few enjoyable performances but little else.

Jolie's account is mostly accurate but coldly clinical. The story is effective in relaying Zamperini's narrative but lacks both the gut punch one often gets from prisoner-of-war narratives and the full catharsis one expects at the end.

The movie feels like a vanity production, although it's difficult to determine whose ego is being stroked by this expensive adaptation.

In the end, however, the genius behind all the innovations of Bletchley was destroyed by the pettiness of a society that didn't understand him. The Imitation Game doesn't hide this dark aspect and it makes the production sobering and engrossing.

At first glance, Inherent Vice might seem to be a detective story. Look a little closer, however, and it becomes clear that this is Paul Thomas Anderson's idea of a comedy. There's slapstick, lowbrow material, and enough strange characters and "completely different" moments to make Monty Python smile.

The best film of The Hobbit's three, this final installment is closer in quality to "The Lord of the Rings" than to its immediate predecessors.

At 2 1/2 hours, the movie is actually too short to adequately tell the full tale (The Ten Commandments is 70 minutes longer) but that doesn't prevent Scott from presenting multiple, seemingly endless scenes of people crossing deserts.

While Cheryl's journey is interesting, it isn't as compelling as the one embarked upon by Christopher McCandless (Into the Wild). The most arresting aspect of Wild isn't Cheryl's perambulation along the 1000-mile long Pacific Crest Trail but the memories that percolate to the surface as flashbacks.

Diplomacy will work for those who appreciate dialogue-based character films in which plot is of secondary importance. This is a showcase for acting.

Painfully unfunny and unnecessarily long, this movie is the antithesis of its predecessor, the delightfully raunchy "Horrible Bosses."

What's missing from Mockingjay - Part 1 is a strong through-story. The previous films were characterized by engrossing, well-constructed story arcs but Mockingjay - Part 1 meanders.

Rosewater does not have blockbuster potential but it is more entertaining than one might expect from this material and it leaves an indelible impression about the Iranian justice system - something akin to the inmates running the asylum.

Like "Raging Bull", Foxcatcher is a dark drama masquerading as a sports movie.

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.

An unremarkable bio-pic about a remarkable man.

For the most part, Laggies offers an engaging portal into the life of an appealingly confused 28-year old who doesn't have all the answers and isn't afraid to admit it. Coming-of-age stories, it seems, needn't be limited to teenagers.

Although competently made and consistently engaging, there's nothing special about this animated superhero origin story.

Interstellar is simultaneously a big-budget science fiction endeavor and a very simple tale of love and sacrifice. It is by turns edgy, breathtaking, hopeful, and heartbreaking.

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

The most notable element of screenwriter Dan Gilroy's debut feature is the performance he elicits from Jake Gyllenhaal. In the tradition of Brando, Bale, Theron, and others, Gyllenhaal undergoes a radical physical transformation to play the part of Louis Bloom.

It's a noteworthy achievement for director Damien Chazelle to infuse a tale about the development of a musician with all the tension and intensity of a top-notch thriller. Whiplash is riveting.

The images in The Good Lie have the power to disturb but lack the gut-punch impact necessary to give us an immediate and lasting connection to the protagonists.

John Wick is a rousing action thriller of the sort rarely encountered in theaters these days. The once popular genre, which was headlined by the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger during its heyday, has been a dying breed during the past two decades.

The movie is punctuated by comedy that at times verges on slapstick but there's an underlying anger in evidence - anger at the popular mindset that allows movies like "Transformers" to flourish while artistic endeavors fail.

In a way, Fury and 1970's "Patton" could be considered companion pieces. Both deal extensively with tank warfare but from different perspectives.

St. Vincent may be a little kinder and gentler than the likes of "Bad Santa," but there's enough inappropriate behavior and comedic friction to fuel an entertaining 103 minutes.

The Book of Life represents Guillermo del Toro's most hands-on foray (to date) into the realm of family friendly entertainment; this is closer in tone and sensibility to one of Tim Burton's offbeat animated films than one of Pixar's more "vanilla" productions.

There's enough compelling drama here to overcome elements of artifice. Men, Women & Children feels meaningful although perhaps not profound.

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

Two words that come to mind when considering The Judge are generic and predictable. It's also well-intentioned and earnest (perhaps to a fault).

Pride will get viewers cheering while reflecting upon how far we have come in 30 years… and how far we have yet to go.

Kill the Messenger is compelling material but the recognition that the core of the narrative is based on true events gives it additional power.

Not only is this an amateurish travesty combining fundamentalist Christian eschatology with disaster movie b.s., but it's plodding and tedious.

Gone Girl is a rare movie: a delicious thriller that provides plenty of titillation and gruesome pleasure while offering a dollop of social commentary. It's smart, twisted, bloody, and almost guaranteed to satisfy anyone with a penchant for the macabre.

In order to show the "happiness" noted in the title, director Peter Chelsom ventures into some dark territory to provide a contrast. This results in a surprisingly unpleasant scene of torture and deprivation that may shock some viewers expecting to see a lightweight Simon Pegg dramedy about the meaning of joy.

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

With top-notch animation, effective voice casting, and a screenplay that falters only toward the end when faced with the need to provide a resolution, The Boxtrolls offers solid entertainment for older children and the parents that accompany them.

Director Anton Fuqua has jettisoned almost everything related to the TV series except the title, the main character's name, and the bare-bones premise. Even the theme song is gone. For all intents and purposes, The Equalizer isn't so much a reboot as it is an entirely new entity.

The white hats are stained dark gray as if by ashes and soot. The villains are twisted, cruel, and vile. The heroes aren't much better.

Despite a strong opening and riveting first 45 minutes, The Maze Runner devolves into one of the weakest post-apocalyptic Young Adult movies to reach theaters in recent years.

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

The performances are uniformly strong and there are some powerful scenes but the overall story arc is less insightful or affecting than one might hope.

The Drop's unpredictability is organic rather than sensationalistic. The movie doesn't pull surprises out of thin air for the sole purpose of shocking an audience - it lets them develop naturally.

The November Man feels like just about every B-grade spy thriller that has ever been committed to the silver screen.

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

This movie is mostly about visual razzle-dazzle and riffing on film noir conceits. Rodriguez hasn't deviated far from his mission statement for the original and that's a good thing for Sin City fans.

The problem with all of this is that Are You Here is less than two hours long and, to effectively explore issues and themes of this magnitude would require at least a full season of a TV series. So we're left with half-developed characters and quickly sketched relationships.

One of the most curious aspects of If I Stay is the way it rigorously ignores religion and spirituality. With the exception of an undefined "white light" image that recurs, the movie never once mentions "God" (as an entity). For a movie that is so much about death, it seems like an odd omission.

For a mostly brainless movie, The Expendables 3 has a surprisingly dense plot, which is part of the problem. The 2-hour running length is unnecessarily long.

The strength of the cast speaks volumes about the "prestige" aspect of the production. In addition to Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, and Alexander Skarsgard contribute.

The result, while capable of painlessly occupying 90 minutes, isn't remarkable enough to recommend as more than a home video rental.

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

When it's over, the sense is one of deep satisfaction - of having gotten to know a family in a way few motion pictures allow.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles doesn't so much provide brainless enjoyment as it pummels the viewer into submission. "Shell-shocked" is a reasonable description of the experience.

The Hundred-Foot Journey represents a pleasant diversion for those who have grown weary of traditional summer movie fare. The picture is about people and how they interact. There are no explosions or car chases.

If you're a fan of James Brown's oeuvre, the film will keep you interested. If you're not, Get on Up will quickly become tedious and will wear out its welcome long before the end of its 133-minute run.

The vibe, if not the specifics, is highly reminiscent of "The Last Starfighter," "Battlestar Galactica," "Battle Beyond the Stars," and others. The fact that the movie's "present" is defined as being 1988 and the soundtrack is peppered with '70s tunes cements the retro feeling.

Poorly paced with a tendency to veer into the pretentious and littered with contrivances and dramatic short-cuts, I Origins fails to provide a single three-dimensional character or compelling relationship.

Allen's first mistake is turning this rivalry into a May/December romance. His second misstep is "converting" Stanley, thereby neutering the delightfully acerbic quality that characterizes his and Sophie's early interactions.

Looks great and has some raw, unsettling moments, but the overall impression is of a production that fails to achieve what it sets out to do.

More bland than bad, And So It Goes is being dumped into a crowded mid-July schedule in the hope that someone tired of noisy blockbusters might see it. The problem is, as antidotes go, this one is most likely to induce sleep as a means of relief.

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

Lucy is what a superhero movie might look like if developed by Spike Jonze and/or Michael Gondry.

Two fundamental problems afflict Sex Tape (aside from the fact that it's not consistently funny): a shocking ignorance about the state of modern technology and a mistaken belief that the subject matter is inherently edgy.

The result is an action-oriented survival tale, not unlike the kind of movie that Stallone or Schwarzenegger might have made back in the '80s.

This installment inches events closer to a merge point with 1968's "Planet of the Apes" while maintaining its own unique identity. It is in every way superior to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."

This is a uniquely powerful motion picture, the kind of open and honest portrayal I can't ever recall having seen about a celebrity. Life Itself stands not only as a moving piece of documentary cinema but an epitaph.

Tammy is a road trip movie and, like many road trip movies, it embraces a meandering, aimless tone. It's often said for films of this sort that it's the journey that matters, not the destination. Unfortunately, in this case, neither is worth the price of admission.

This isn't a family-friendly film - anyone over the age of about 8 will immediately recognize that significant chunks of the story don't make sense.

This is as excruciating a movie as is likely to be experienced by anyone, anywhere. It isn't merely that the story is insulting, the characters are bland, the action is dull, and the CGI is everywhere - it's that all this goes on for nearly three hours. That's three hours of your life you'll never get back.

The film's notable quality is the music and as soon as one song is finished, we're ready for the next one. Unfortunately, there are often long passages of dialogue and narrative to endure before getting there.

Visually interesting but offers nothing groundbreaking. The animation is competent but not overwhelming. There's no moment of wonderment.

There are times when 22 Jump Street is borderline brilliant. Unfortunately, those instances are outnumbered by segments that don't work for one reason or another.

It's more heavy lifting than some will be willing to engage in but there's something welcome about a motion picture that doesn't hand out a dumbed-down resolution in a neatly wrapped package.

The acting is top-notch, the characters are three-dimensional, and the dialogue is sharp and witty.

Offers a more satisfying cinematic experience than "Oblivion."

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

Calling Maleficent a "modern-day classic," as some have asserted, is overreaching. The production is engaging and appealing but only the passage of time will determine whether it holds in the memory with the strength of its animated predecessor.

What's missing from Blended? Two key ingredients: it doesn't touch the heart and it doesn't tickle the funny bone (at least not often enough).

To reboot the X-Men franchise, director Bryan Singer, who first gave these characters screen life fourteen years ago, has crafted a continuity-lover's nightmare.

The result is sappy, saccharine, and predictable to the point where it's almost painful.

Palo Alto may not be the most exciting film about high school life to come along in the past few years, but it is among the most honest and words like "pandering" and "insulting" don't apply.

In many ways, Godzilla is a cousin to Edwards' earlier movie, "Monsters," in that it focuses more on the ineffectual humans than the monsters.

Too many comedies have become routine and predictable - qualities that don't enhance the potential for good laughs. Neighbors retains sufficient spontaneity to give it a fresh, lively feel.

The real wreckage in Locke is to the main character's old life, and the manner in which it is depicted makes this one of the year's most intriguing motion pictures.

A quirky romantic comedy that suffers from a rare cinematic malady: it's too short.

It takes something lackluster like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to remind viewers why movies like "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" are considered superior.

There's no fun to be had here and if an action movie doesn't make the grade as escapist entertainment, what's the point?

The Other Woman ignores dozens of potentially edgy possibilities to tell the most banal story imaginable - and to do it badly.

The "nature" aspects of Bears are undercut by the need to turn this into a live-action Disney cartoon, complete with cuddly heroes and nasty villains.

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

For a horror movie, Oculus is surprisingly lean on the scares. It's more interested in playing tricks with perception and bending reality.

It ends up feeling a little like warmed-over "Strictly Ballroom" without Baz Lurhmann's over-the-top sense of style.

The one thing that never falters during the course of the film is Jude Law's volcanic performance. Reminiscent of Tom Hardy's turn in Bronson, this is the kind of portrayal that garners notice and raves.

Costner, who has never been the most emotive of actors, is perfect for this role.

Wow. For those with strong constitutions, The Raid 2 offers one of the most intense motion picture experiences available; it may also be the most violent movie ever to be released into theaters.

It's as existential as a sci-fi/horror film can possibly be. It requires that the viewer slip into a meditative mood and remain there for more than 90 minutes.

It tells its own story and, unlike with "Thor 2" and "Iron Man 3," we don't feel the absence of the rest of the team.

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

The movie as a whole is a mixed bag. It's overlong and a times sluggish. The fights and battles, designed to give an epic fantasy feel to the movie, are grave miscalculations.

The performances are solid but I walked out of the theater thinking I might have been equally edified and entertained reading the man's Wikipedia entry.

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.

The inevitable sequel, arriving three years later, isn't as giddily entertaining as its predecessor but much of the charm remains, making this an ideal destination for a family excursion.

There's no debating that Bad Words contains some big, politically incorrect laughs. The movie isn't awash in them but there are enough to keep the chuckles coming. The film's problem is that, despite obvious aspirations to be more than just a profane joke factory, it never fulfills its dramatic ambitions.

Divergent is less action-oriented than "The Hunger Games" but no less compelling.

Director Scott Waugh’s intention may have been to elevate my pulse, but the only thing at which he succeeded was getting me to check my watch repeatedly.

Kristen Bell shines as Veronica, playing the character as a more mature version of her TV persona.

It's not as endearing as "Moonrise Kingdom" but not as tedious as "The Darjeeling Limited." It offers an engaging 90+ minutes of unconventional, comedy-tinged adventure that references numerous classic movies while developing a style and narrative approach all its own.

For a movie that features so much naked flesh, it’s surprising how thoroughly un-erotic Nymphomaniac is. If intent is a defining characteristic of pornography, then this could be described as “anti-porn.”

The film has a nihilistic tone and its gallows humor may turn off more viewers than it seduces. Not since "Killer Joe" has a film exerted this mix of attraction and repulsion.

The lack of a creative driver behind the film leads to a level of fundamental dissatisfaction. The movie delivers all the necessary elements but their impact is dull.

A movie that takes the hallmarks of a great career and elevates them to new heights. In terms of tone, visual beauty, and storytelling, The Wind Rises represents Miyazaki at the apex of his abilities.

Non-Stop plays like what might happen if Michael Bay directed a screenplay developed for Alfred Hitchcock.

It’s artificial, annoying, and boring.

An effective period piece thriller that incorporates love, lust, desperation, and madness into a stew thickened by a gothic atmosphere.

Pompeii is a big, glorious, cheesy mess.

On a purely narrative level, Winter's Tale missteps early and often. Its earnestness is its downfall, resulting in opportunities for unintentional humor.

A rare remake in that it's sufficiently different in the details to make it of interest to those familiar to the earlier endeavor.

Jose Padilha's Robocop reboot does some of the things a good remake should do: it retains the central ideas and themes of the original while updating and rearranging the narrative to lose a derivative feel.

This is truly a movie that children and their parents can both enjoy for different reasons.

Certainly, the story told by The Monuments Men is worth telling and it's easy to see why a luminary like Clooney would be sufficiently attracted to want to direct it. Unfortunately, this treatment, written by Clooney and long-time collaborator Grant Heslov, isn't the best fit.

Kids for Cash may not be inherently cinematic (a lot of the footage, after all, first appeared on television) but it is compelling.

"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.

It's the Judd Apatow syndrome and there are times when the blend of romance and raunchiness threatens to curdle. In the end, however, the "love conquers all" mentality wins out.

Sadly, as apt as comparisons to "Underworld" might seem, I, Frankenstein can't even clear that very low bar.

The questions posed by Like Father, Like Son are universal in nature and the manner in which Kore-eda addresses them makes for superior drama.

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

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit provides the best motion picture adventure for the title character since his introduction in "The Hunt for Red October."

One of the singular pleasures of films like The Invisible Woman is the window they offer into the lives of deceased authors who are known primarily to modern audiences only through the words they committed to paper.

August: Osage County is all about the acting. That makes sense because the storyline doesn't offer much that could be considered new or remarkable.

It's audacious but also genuine. It's emotionally true and demands much from its audience not in terms of suspension of disbelief but of empathy with the main character.

Most war films try to be epic in scope and intent. Lone Survivor opts for a smaller focus and succeeds on its own terms.

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

The most enjoyable parts of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty are his fantasies, such as one in which he stands up to his boss in a way he never would in real life.

The Wolf of Wall Street joins "After Hours" as the most openly comedic films Scorsese has made.

Taken on its own, Saving Mr. Banks is a pleasant, crowd-pleasing endeavor. For those with a soft spot for Mary Poppins, however, it's a treasure.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues could easily be called Anchorman 2: More of the Same.

American Hustle runs a little long with the strongest scenes occurring toward the end. Although the actors don't put on a clinic, they all provide worthwhile performances playing interesting characters, and there's a nice cameo thrown into the mix.

There are things to like about the second Hobbit film - the director's vision of Middle Earth is as beguiling as ever - but the bloating that was a problem with An Unexpected Journey is an even bigger issue here.

This is adult drama with an impeccable sense of period and a strong focus on character. With today's cinema sadly lacking in movies like this, it makes Inside Llewyn Davis all the more welcome, especially for those who care about the kind of music it honors.

Out of the Furnace features some nice performances and is deliciously atmospheric but it never achieves its goal of being a compelling meditation about how the economic erosion of a community influences the lives of those trapped within it.

While few will debate Lee's ability as a director, this isn't close to being in his wheelhouse. Oldboy cries out for a Brian DePalma, a Quentin Tarantino, or even a David Lynch. The end result bears out the suspicion that Lee isn't right for the material, nor it for him.

A few months from now, no one will remember it, but Homefront isn't made for the long-haul. It's assembled simply for the 100 minutes when the viewer is in theater and, on a certain level, that's sufficient.

It's simple and well-told, although nothing about it is breathtakingly original.

Nebraska is a rambling affair. It's about characters and dialogue. There's not much of a narrative to speak of - this is even more minimalist than "About Schmidt" or "Sideways."

Not great Disney but good enough to engage viewers young and old.

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

The screen translation of Catching Fire, the second volume of the series, offers its audience many of the elements that made The Hunger Games compelling, but adds to that by deepening the themes and emotional currents and traveling to darker destinations.

After starting out as a character-based ensemble piece, The Best Man Holiday turns into a predictable affair determined to hit as many familiar beats as possible while striving to wring tears and cheers in equal quantities from its audience.

A misfire in far too many meaningful aspects, The Book Thief is so bad that it's tough to decide whether it's better used as a sleep aid or watched while under the influence as an object of derision.

The movie is pretty to look at in a "Transformers" sort of way and moves briskly enough that it never threatens to bore, but it's hard to feel much of anything about the characters and, when it's all over, there's a sense that everything that happens is obligatory.

Regardless of who sees or doesn't see Dallas Buyers Club, however, the movie does what it sets out to do by providing a striking portrait of a remarkable character and offering a history lesson to those too young to remember how things were for AIDS sufferers during the dark ages of the 1980s.

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.

Sixteen years after her death, Princess Diana is still capable of generating interest, which is probably the only reason why this dull, pointless movie was greenlighted.

It has the sensibilities of a late-'80s/early-'90s forgettable big-screen sit com and probably won't find many interested viewers who aren't card-carrying AARP members.

Ender's Game is uneven - at times almost maddeningly so - with the first half offering more enjoyment than the second. Perhaps that's because, in military-style movies, I often prefer the training segments to the battle sequences.

Watching Blue is the Warmest Color provides viewers with that rarest of motion picture opportunities: the ability to lose oneself in the life of another for three hours and to emerge having felt something.

It's not so much a bad film as it is a disappointing one. A very disappointing one.

The film is unusual not so much because of its content - the man vs. nature story has always been a popular one, whether in print or on film - but in its restraint. Putting an actor, even an accomplished one such as Redford, alone on screen for more than 90 minutes is a risk.

12 Years a Slave is by no means light entertainment but it provides a more worthwhile cinematic experience than about 90% of what's out there and the impressions it leaves aren't easily dismissed or dispelled.

The heist-inspired elements aren't well thought through and it becomes a question of which is harder to swallow: the mechanics of the story or the idea that a couple of sixtysomethings can kick this much ass.

There are problems with De Palma's version, especially in its portrayal of the key relationship between Carrie and her mother, but it's a more engaging and insightful portrayal than Kimberly Peirce's too-slick remake.

Perhaps the most curious and counterproductive aspect of The Fifth Estate, the so-called "Wikileaks movie," is the decision by director Bill Condon and screenwriter Josh Singer to establish the film as a thriller.

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.

This is a competent, technically proficient rendering that may find favor with those who have never seen Romeo & Juliet on the big screen but it's little more than a curiosity for those with a long history of watching Shakespeare's works translated to the cinema.

Captain Phillips works precisely because Hanks isn't a muscle-bound, gun-toting figure (nor does he turn into one during the course of the movie). Placed in an untenable position, he uses guile and intelligence instead of brawn and weapons to enhance his survival chances.

Various subplots are given short shrift and the whole thing feels more like a Cliff's Notes version of a longer piece than an actual finished motion picture.

Gravity isn't just a movie; it's almost transformative, and the visceral element is enhanced by the 3-D.

The film's dramatic underpinning and the way it addresses impending empty nest syndrome are solid but the comedy varies from mildly amusing to achingly awful.

Formula One fans who remember 1976 will no doubt delight in the film but, for those who (like me) were more interested in other things during the year of America's bicentennial, it's not only a good lesson in sports history but an entertaining two hours to spend in a theater.

Gordon-Levitt wears three hats (director, writer, actor) and all of them fit.

The cast is remarkable. Five of the seven principal cast members own previous Oscar nominations.

It is now weighed down by a second half that's equal parts incoherent, tedious, and repetitive.

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

Riddick isn't perfect but it's a good high-octane sci-fi tinged action/thriller.

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

The sophomore feature effort from director Destin Cretton (remaking and expanding upon his 2008 short), this movie avoids the numerous landmines awaiting someone venturing into this territory and, as a result, emerges triumphant.

The movie is low-key but each scene is packed with information. Full understanding demands full attention.

There's a lot of fun to be had in watching The World's End and, surprisingly, more thematic depth than one might expect. The humor, true to its British roots, may baffle some Americans but those who "get" it will laugh quite a bit.

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.

With The Butler, director Lee Daniels has managed to "Gump" the Civil Rights movement. That's not necessarily a bad thing but there are times when so many famous cameos threaten to become a distraction, especially since they're only tangentially germane to the main story.

However, once you realize there's no "pleasure" to be had from something this wantonly dumb and idiotically constructed, all that's left is "guilt" - guilt that you actually spent money to see this.

"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.

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

The actors can't be faulted for any of Lovelace's missteps.

Blue Jasmine is an exercise in examining the lead character's mental degeneration. The end result, a performance-driven character study, offers an experience more akin to what one might expect from the late John Cassavetes than from the still very much alive Woody Allen.

Blomkamp's universe is a fascinating place to visit and the movie is stuffed with ideas - there's far too much here to satisfactorily explore in 109 minutes, especially when one considers that room must be made for action scenes. I departed the theater satisfied with what I'd seen but wanting more.

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

The Canyons is a sleazy soap opera that fails primarily because it gives us no one to care about and no reason why we should be interested that we don't care.

The Spectacular Now's DNA contains elements of the John Hughes teen dramadies of the '80s. There's also a little Cameron Crowe - in fact, replace the soundtrack with something more dynamic and it might be easy to mistake this with a Crowe film.

The movie is loud, fun, quick moving, and features some nice acting turns.

The movie is pleasingly vulgar and, although there's no nudity, the whole thing is about sex.

Finally - a superhero movie that doesn't feel like every other superhero movie.

It's a compelling tale that offers the opportunity for reflection and discussion about issues that have never really gone away and continue to lurk in the cultural background.

In R.I.P.D., we have a legitimate train wreck of a motion picture: a film that doesn't work on any level. It's not funny. It's not exciting. It's not engaging. It's a waste of time and money.

The film has its charms but the end result feels like warmed-over James Bond… and not even especially good 007, at that.

The pervasive aura of creepiness more than compensates for the low body count and inventive use of sharp instrumentation.

It's funny, affecting, and appealing, and more worthy than much of what's out there. Often, coming-of-age stories rely forcefully on formulaic narrative developments but The Way Way Back remains fresh from start to finish.

There's not a single original moment to be found in Pacific Rim's 130-minute running time, but that doesn't much matter because the familiar beats are conveyed with maximum expertise intended to provide a visceral experience.

Despicable Me 2 provides a good bonding opportunity for parents and children with enough palatable elements to please members of both generations.

Though the story is mostly faithful to the established origin of the character, it's not until the last 15 minutes, when "The William Tell Overture" arrives in its full glory, that this starts to feel a little like The Lone Ranger. But that's too little, too late. And when The Ranger (played here by Armie Hammer) finally shouts "Hi-yo Silver," the moment is spoiled by turning it into a joke.

This sloppy mess also pales in comparison to the better-paced, taut "Olympus Has Fallen," which represents 2013's better White House invasion story.

A charming, family friendly endeavor and, although it falls short of the best Pixar has brought to the screen over its long association with Disney, it's nevertheless worth a trip to the theater, especially for kids.

The screenplay feels like the culmination of all sorts of things being thrown against a wall to see what sticks. As it turns out, there's not enough.

Whedon has made the Bard accessible and that achievement places him alongside Branagh in the exclusive club of directors who can handle both superheroes and Shakespeare effectively.

Man of Steel is, first and foremost, a great spectacle.

By the time September arrives, This is the End will probably be in the running for "funniest comedy of the 2013 summer."

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

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

I didn't feel strongly one way or another about The Kings of Summer. It's too innocuous to actively dislike but there's nothing memorable here. The characters are bland; the comedy, while occasionally eliciting laughs, is lukewarm; and the relationships never gel.

The sad truth about After Earth is that not only is it difficult to find things it does well, but there are numerous examples of outright incompetence dotting the landscape.

It's a little along the same lines as "Ocean's 11" in what it achieves and, like that film, there's plenty of Oscar power among the actors - a combined 15 nominations, to be precise.

"Entertainment" is in the eye of the beholder. For me, watching Fast & Furious 6 was more work than fun.

Generic and forgettable.

"The Hangover" was high octane fun. "The Hangover Part II," despite its repetitive nature, was enjoyable. The Hangover Part III is some kind of hideous experiment in mass consumer torture.

It's a rare and powerful thing to confront something honest and real on the big screen. It stays with you in a way that nothing else can. Before Midnight is fiction but it might as well be a documentary.

The special effects are first rate - not always the case with Star Trek movies, although Abrams has been given a budget the likes of which directors Nicholas Meyer, Leonard Nimoy, and William Shatner would have salivated over.

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.

It's an unsettling piece that reminds us how even monsters aspire to living the American dream.

Iron Man 3 has the stuff to please the devotees and divert everyone else, which is pretty much what's expected from the curtain-raiser of any summer season.

It's tired and dated with too few laughs to justify the stultifying attempts at drama and the impossible-to-swallow plot contortions.

It's funny as hell at times with a twisted sense of humor that one typically expects from the likes of the Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino.