Joe Neumaier

No Good Deed is an example of the worst kind of exploitative thriller — and it’s being released during the worst possible week.

Like Gandolfini, the deep Brooklyn of The Drop is formidable, bona fide and memorable.

The modern, gritty Western Frontera takes a lot of the clichés and delicately upends them to tell a tale about undocumented immigrants.

The Identical is one wacky movie, based on a bit of truth.

Kline sinks his old smoothie teeth into the part of Flynn, but is careful not to draw blood too easily. The man’s pathetic nature, after all, doesn’t spring from his movies. (Flynn worked right up to his death, in 1959.) It’s deeper than that, but also more shallow. Walking that knife’s edge is a trick. Kline finds exactly the right path.

Despite the human drama here, we’re kept at a remove by stolid direction and by-the-numbers storytelling.

After a summer of robots, mutants and explosions, the beautifully honest, grownup Love is Strange is a treat.

The sequel to one of the most visually striking movies of the last 10 years continues the graphic novel-inspired landscape of its predecessor. But the characters don’t click, and the action feels dull.

To sing the praises of the movie but not give away the revelations is difficult. Let’s just say this: The less you know about what happens in this funny, tasty twisteroo, the better.

The Giver was ahead of its time as a book. But as a movie, it’s too late.

The Expendables 3 lets down its cast with a film that’s about as thrilling as the arrival of a monthly Social Security check.

Quiet moments after big decisions are where the power lies in this absorbing French drama.

And always there’s Wojtowicz himself, who died in 2006. His patter and persona must be seen to be believed. This guy was a piece of work, and so is The Dog.

The cloddish, confusing action scenes make no sense. Young viewers’ eyes will glaze from the first-person video-game style. Nonaction scenes feature people sniping at each other, or, in Arnett’s case, croaking out the script’s half-assed witticisms, until the Turtles show up.

Any movie with food as a motif runs the risk of pouring on the metaphor, and that happens here, too.

Calvary is like a philosophical Agatha Christie mystery. That’s certainly not the worst thing to be. But it’s also the film’s undoing, because the reliance on specific genre cliches undermines the movie’s more serious intentions.

Inside these average American lives are futures far too often passed over or, worse, written off. This terrific film gives the teenagers their due.

Duchovny tamps down his sardonic style to play a quiet guy, but the result is blandness. Timothy Hutton gives a solid turn as a standup businessman. In all, director Anthony Fabian isn’t sure how to build a nontreacly movie out of an inspiring true-life story.

Like Brown, the movie is dynamic and entertaining as hell.

This bold movie may sound like a stunt, but it’s so much more than that. Linklater is an effortless, genial auteur, and his passions are woven through “Dazed and Confused,” “School of Rock” and the “Before Sunrise” trilogy. Here, his mellow groove becomes an everyday rhythm.

Affleck is playing someone split down the middle, but we're stuck seeing only one side of him.

If director Rob Reiner’s AARP-aimed comedy stumbles on several fronts, at least it provides a stage for some seasoned pros to strut their stuff.

Stone, last seen in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” is served best. Gliding through the film in sailor-girl outfits that evoke film stars of the 1920s, Stone’s big kewpie eyes and long-limbed gamine appeal fit in this era of silent films.

One problem with “Wish” is that Braff tries to cram so much into it, no scene ever exists for its own sake, to establish rhythm or help us know these characters outside of the ongoing family crises.

Cahill, who did the equally heady, intriguing drama “Another Earth” (2011), keeps the tone consistent. He makes certain his cast walks a savvy tightrope, keeping things taut.

The modern stuff is undeniably fawning. But given the eye-popping visuals, you understand the enthusiasm. Especially if you left your heart, and thousands of dollars in quarters, in an arcade.

Monument Valley makes an appearance, and there are soulful moments of slow motion. There’s enough heart here to make up for whatever first-timer miscalculations ride along too.

The movie’s ennui feels like so much posing, and the Bret Easton Ellis-lite characters are monotone. It’s rich in effort, but it all comes to diminishing returns.