Jeff Ewing

It is a somewhat decent movie hampered by so many preventable oversights and missteps.

There are successful elements in the script, certainly, but there are also several frustrating moments that simply needed another draft to work the knots out. All that said, it's a successful foray into sci-fi territory thanks to a willingness to stretch the subgenre's established rules, making for a fun murder mystery that keeps audiences guessing.

Smurfs is better than its maligned predecessors, but it's still an absolute mess.

It's clearly intended to be a companion to and showcase of the simultaneously released album instead of a fleshed-out, standalone film. Regrettably, it never lets the audience forget that fact, feeling far more like a long music video than a feature film.

Alarum is a genuine disappointment, putting a set of strong performers (who do quite well in action-heavy projects) in a situation that could produce memorable, excellent action scenes. It needs extra shine in the script and a stronger directorial vision to do so, which essentially damns the film to action thriller purgatory.

The Outlaws is a lean Western tale of paranoia and betrayal that mostly hits the target, but lacks greater all-around development.

It's a film with several strong elements, though some issues in the scripting and execution limit its ultimate impact.

It's a good adaptation that stays true to the source material, but Chapter 2 still falls short of adaptational greatness.

Striking Rescue follows familiar beats, but there are enough twists and solid performances to land it well, while the action sequences are delivered with Jaa's characteristic uncompromising intensity.

Uppercut, by director Torsten Ruether, benefits from Ving Rhames' strong screen presence, but a lack of believability in both character development and plotting keep the character study from working.

It's an oddly cobbled-together hodgepodge of ideas and little real inspiration that could have graduated to fun schlock with a little more love.