Scott Bowles

While Challenge makes for a pretty dull glimpse into the inner workings of the sea, it provides a fascinating look at the inner workings of Cameron, whose obsessive and demanding personality translated to movies that included "Titanic" and "Avatar."

And So It Goes plays a little like the graying lounge act it honors: It's impressive for its age, though not altogether impressive.

Here has a great soundtrack and some fine performances, particularly from King, who is a wonder. And credit Braff with some great imagery, deep thinking and moments of eloquent dialogue, however schmaltzy.

A picture that isn't as terrible as its title suggests now as deep as its story aspires to be.

Even horror neophytes won't be spooked by a film that looks as if it were shot with a smartphone and an Itty Bitty Booklight.

Deafening, deadening and about two hours too long, Extinction would mark the weakest installment yet of the 7-year-old Hasbro franchise — if the previous three movies were discernible from one another.

Had Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch made a movie together, it might have looked something like The Signal.

The problem is the movie's comedians, who are, to the last, unfunny.

July is solid throwback storytelling, a crime yarn that may not blow you away but can cut to the bone.

Palo Alto marks one of those rare films that is so accurate in its portrayal of characters that the movie suffers for it.

Alas, Wolf tries too hard to shock to be effective.

A slow-cooked film that's one of the most heartwarming of the young year.

And that's Fed Up's ultimate, if not fatal, weakness: The movie seems to acquit consumers of any culpability in our health crisis.

Draft's reverence for the gridiron, its heroes and the cities that worship them (particularly Cleveland) will make the movie a first-round pick of diehards.

Indisputably the most violent film of the year and disputably the worst.

Stunningly shot and stupidly written.

The result is a convoluted mess that has one good twist and two good car chases. But it's hardly enough to bring this spy flick in from the cold.

Preachy, manipulative and emotionally barren.

Hart is much like Murphy: fast-talking, mischievous and irresistible. He's so confident and good-natured that we see how Angela fell for her pint-sized slacker.

Despite some high-caliber voice talent and shimmering animation, it's hard to get a bead on this tale.

There's a fun retro camp to Hercules, with nods to classics such as Ben-Hur and Spartacus, as Hercules finds himself rowing slave ships and crossing desert expanses.

Survivor is a pummeling, frenzied ride, one of fall's most charged action films. The gunfights and rocket-propelled grenades are palpable, and Berg manages to make the chaos followable.

Grudge could have saved itself with a rousing finale, but the buildup is so tedious you just want the fight to end.

Homefront is what "Breaking Bad" may have resembled had Sylvester Stallone written the TV show.

Most Ender's fans, of course, won't care about comparisons and consider the film adaptation a long-awaited victory in itself. Those fresh to the tale — or at least expecting something fresh from it — may wonder what the fuss was about.

Alas, this all-star ensemble comedy that trumpets (too loudly) that it's a "Hangover" on hemorrhoid cream musters enough laughs to be passable, if not memorable. And that's thanks to Morgan Freeman's showmanship.

Rude, wrong and laugh-till-you-snort funny, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa not only stands as the best installment (by bounds) of Johnny Knoxville's hidden-camera franchise; it's one of the sharpest comedies of the year.

Action fans -- particularly devotees of brainless '80s shoot-em-ups -- may find enough to like here, particularly the preposterous mayhem of the third act.

Machete Kills dulls more than anything. It's not that Robert Rodriguez's sequel lacks any of the camp or exploitative violence of the 2010 original. The mayhem has just become boring.

While not as revelatory as Al Gore's 2006 Oscar-winning documentary, Inequality makes a resounding case that the middle class is facing its own planetary crisis: becoming an endangered species.

If you rely on films to keep your kids entertained and distracted for an hour and a half, Meatballs is a masterwork, a visual stunner that manages to break from animation's current 3-D rut.

Inspired and inspiring, this documentary about 7- and 8-year-olds competing for the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship is too fawning to be consistently gifted, but it manages to be occasionally, perhaps accidentally, profound.

Hell Baby is what happens when you try to parody a parody. The result is a film that's less than half as funny as its predecessor, and a sliver as clever as the original.

A car-chase clunker that can't escape its own noxious emissions.

It's no "Taxi Driver" or even "Open Water," but Route has enough attractions to warrant the trip.

An historical opus that is equal parts ballet and biography, though the second component pales in comparison with the first.

A film of repetition, a bloody dance consisting of three steps: stab, scream, repeat.

Though it has flashes of promise, Bones traces the footsteps of its fantasy film predecessors too closely to blaze anything close to an original narrative.

It plays more like a "21 Jump Street," full of pretty people and a thumping soundtrack but offering little in the way of something to say.

Red 2 is one of those sequels that's easier to follow if you've seen the original but more entertaining if you haven't.

This comedy deserves credit for taking a decided viewpoint — and delivering a heartfelt if occasionally misguided message.

It's mostly smoke and mirrors. After Freeman's snooze became a YouTube fixture, the actor jokingly dismissed the nap, saying he was using "Google eyelids" to check his Facebook account. You may find yourself attempting the same feat, because Now has little up its sleeve.

A more sure-footed shoot-'em-up that finds some heart, wit and perhaps enough momentum to spawn a formidable action franchise.

Preposterous, goofy and a clear ripoff of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” Identity still manages to make off with just enough laughs to work, thanks to the wondrous McCarthy, one of the few actresses in Hollywood allowed to showcase her wit and charisma as much as her physique.

Like a lot of meds, it loses its effectiveness over time, and you'll build a resistance to Effects eventually, particularly when it dissolves into a standard crime flick.

Geared for teens who perhaps found the Twilight series too profound, Warm Bodies is an unabashed homage to that wildly successful franchise. One of its stars, Teresa Palmer, is even done up to be a carbon copy of Kristen Stewart, the anchor of the vampire series.

It's been a long time since a movie wasted as much talent as Stand Up Guys, a film that aims to be a geezer "Goodfellas" but whose execution is a misfire.

Alas, shell casings, switchblades and severed limbs are all that's offered in this vile film, whose sole redeeming quality is that it ends. Eventually.

The movie spends too much time wedging the couple into a May-December moment, where Crystal cracks nostalgic about the good old days. It's sweet, but it grows old.

The latest undead-soldier story carries on the franchise tradition of graphic violence and bad acting.

RZA's directorial debut is heavy on bloody kung fu action...and light on just about everything else.

When the comedy connects, it can deliver with funny force

Despite the hype, this horror story can't shake its run-of-the-mill storytelling.

Has a near-impossible mission: its title.

It's been a long time since a movie wasted this much talent.

The first half of Taken 2 is a serviceable action flick, but the second half descends into cliches.

Despite an abrupt ending and the worst title of the year, Arbitrage manages to leverage real tension from its veteran stars in one of Hollywood's first pedigreed films of the fall.

Alas, if you're someone who enjoys movies as, say, a two-hour escape, you may find this documentary on the death of film at digital's hands a bit too inside baseball.

Does its share of teasing, but amounts to nothing serious.

What snookered Slater (not to mention Donald Sutherland) into this film is a wonder, because there's not a genuine bone in it. Think the Bourne franchise meets the Bond franchise, without the wit or action.

Maintains the franchise's knack for getting kids right.

Revolution tries a few plot moves, but, narratively, it has two left feet.

A stylish slasher of a movie, a monster flick that does its vampires right, if not their real-life counterparts.

One of those movies that makes for a fantastic trailer. Much beyond that can feel like repeat viewing.

Filmmakers must have been tripping pretty badly when they made High School, a flub that's about as lucid as a stoner at a spelling bee.

Sprinkled with riffs, concert footage and home videos, the family-authorized documentary does what the artist usually did: When in doubt, return to the beat.

Visually stunning and narratively stunted, this IMAX documentary is the family version of 2006's "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary on global warming.

Just earnest enough to blend its religious theme with a beer-chugging hero for a surprisingly contemporary look at faith.

A putrid film that comes dead-weighted with hammy one-liners and a plot so silly it borders on comedy?

The action is brisk, the acting is solid, and barring an unlikely failure at the box office, a franchise is born. Let the games begin.

An hour into Earth and we're waiting for the film to end, not just the planet.

Unapologetically brutal and unencumbered by much plot, Raid is the year's most turbo-charged film.

The side story about Muslim extremists is a little ham-handed for a film that otherwise exercises such restraint.

Sarandon is worth leaving home for, even if Jeff won't.

There's nothing wrong in the setup: It worked fine in films like "Adventures in Babysitting" and "Uncle Buck." But director David Gordon Green populates the movie with so many soap opera asides it's hard to keep count.

A Dangerous Method has plenty to say about sex, but it lacks much fire for it.

Crisply shot and voiced by a legion of Brits, the animated Arthur seems aimed at the Scrooge and caroler in all of us.

It is in many respects the best installment of the franchise as its stars go from sullen kids to sullen young adults, where their expressions look more natural.

A comedy that has one good joke, four strange cameos and a spirit so juvenile kids may wonder what Sandler's deal is.

What undercuts sharper than Poseidon's trident is a script that sees its characters as cardboard, not flesh and blood. For a film meant to be spectacle over substance, it's not a fatal blow. But it is a mortal wound.

Tower Heist feigns being an "Ocean's 11" for schmucks, but plays like a retread of "48 Hours."

In Time has about 50 minutes of good movie in it. Alas, the sci-fi thriller runs nearly twice that length, and despite a terrific concept that could make for an "Inception" for 2011, we get "Logan's Run" meets "Robin Hood." And not the good parts.

It's breezy stuff, to be sure. And while English is far from becoming the Pink Panther for the Facebook generation, Atkinson has a breezy rapport with junior Agent Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya) that's reminiscent of Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau and his relationship with sidekick Kato.

Part horror film, part space thriller and all gore-fest, the movie ends up being a lot like its protagonist: a mess of a monster that stretches itself too thin to scare much.

Even by today's standards, some scenes are jaw-dropping in their bloodshed. To that end, Lurie accomplishes some of what Peckinpah evoked 40 years ago.

Conan the Barbarian lives by a pretty simple ethos: He lives, he loves, he slays. What he doesn't do, alas, is act.

Fright is way too quick on its feet to be slowed by clichés. David Tennant seizes McDowall's role as Peter Vincent, now a Criss Angel-style clown vampire slayer. Christopher Mintz-Plasse was born to play a high school nerd.

Glee the TV show has become a cult phenom with three essential ingredients: whip-smart kids, adult-sized issues, all blended to sugary pop tunes. About a third of those components made it into Glee: The 3D Concert Movie.

Even by today's horror standards, Destination has some ghastly scenes. After seeing them, parents may want to reconsider letting their daughters try gymnastics or laser eye surgery.

Smurfs is utterly kid-friendly.

Sarah's Key is, for the most part, an exercise in reserve. We never see Hitler, never enter battle. Paquet-Brenner (Pretty Things, Walled In), rightly tells his Holocaust story as it now lives: through survivors and descendants.

Pooh succeeds by embracing much of what modern films (including Potter's) have largely forgotten: old-fashioned movie pleasures.

There isn't much in the way of plot to get in the way of Sandler's world: There's poo, ripped pants and hot girls falling for fat guys.

It's over-the-top stuff, to be sure. But Bosses never crosses that line into the macabre.

Black is clearly suited for the role of a modern-day Inspector Clouseau, a hero clown who can't help but save the day.

Hangover II marks one of the most derivative sequels of the year: The opening and closing scenes are taken almost shot-for-shot from the original. Just substitute Asians for Americans, gross-outs for guffaws.

Speaking of that middle-finger finale, there is one redeeming trait: At least it signals the end credits.

As he did in "Stranger Than Fiction," Ferrell displays surprising range when he ratchets down the volume.