Steve Persall

It's a lesson that African-American culture offers more inspiring stories than Hollywood has chosen to tell.

Eye in the Sky remains gripping even when Hibbert tosses in one or two side-taking circumstances too many.

There are a few typos in The Paper, but they're honest - and honestly funny - mistakes. [25 March 1994, p.5]

Much Ado About Nothing is simply a fun time among Whedon and his friends, and for the most part it's contagious.

Farrell's diction is a noticeable upgrade from Schwarzenegger's but there's also his superior portrayal of sweaty apprehension and killer instinct.

Director Charles Martin Smith presents the kind of movie that gives squeaky-clean a good name.

If Fences occasionally feels cinematically inert, it's emotionally resonant thanks to Davis and Washington the actor, not the director as much.

This is what the holidays need: a good, Swift kick in the funny bone.

If this was December, Kevin Hart might be in the Oscar mix, he's that good in About Last Night. Explosively good, a comedy nova who won't shut up and never should.

Even when Magic Mike is skimpier than a g-string it soars on daring, as if Soderbergh asked himself who could possibly make a good movie from such offbeat material, answered "I can," and did.

Ronan is Brooklyn's linchpin, and its saving grace.

True Grit is a very good movie that might be more embraceable if we didn't know who was pulling the trigger.

I'll See You in My Dreams is a disarming romantic dramedy, constructed from "geezer flick" cliches, to be sure, yet lifted to another level by the performances, top-to-bottom.

These characters don't realize they're funny, and the actors are determined not to push it. Willis fares best, playing against in-control type; Murray fans expecting a comedy explosion won't find it here.

It's silly, derivative and too wacky for its own narrative good; traits that the director and Proft wear like a Congressional Medal of Honor. But it's also the funniest 86 minutes I've spent in a movie theater since, well, Hot Shots! Anybody else ready for Part Trois?

The movie always fascinates thanks to Olsen, who'll never be just a semifamous sister again.

This is old-school monumental filmmaking, without CGI tricks or many soundstage comforts for a dedicated cast. David Lean would probably approve.

There are no boundaries in this movie, so deal with it or leave.

For the initiated, however, Alfredson weaves a tidy web from loose ends left dangling.

Creed proceeds to hit the same beats as six Rocky movies preceding it, all the way to the Big Fight. But there's a difference here. This is the first Rocky movie Stallone didn't write, enabling Coogler and co-writer Aaron Covington to bring new perspective and respect.

In addition to being one of the finest golf movies ever, this film raises the bar on faith-based cinema.

A Most Violent Year has its share of wham-bam moments — a car-truck-foot chase into the city's bowels is superb — but the action never speaks louder than Chandor's hard-boiled words.

This movie embraces its inner yokel.

Lawrence makes every moments as Katniss count, pouring out mixed feelings through puffy eyes.

The Jungle Book could use better lighting and less of John Debney's musical score insisting each moment be melodically underlined twice. Still, it's a movie to thrill and perhaps inspire kids to play Mowgli games again. Not outside, of course. Now there's an app for that.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is how to make a sequel, when it gets its head out of the clouds.

Arbitrage is a classy soap opera with a charismatic louse at its center, without "Margin Call" didactics, or the misplaced empathy of "The Company Men."

War Horse takes time reaching its full emotional gallop with a late sequence combining man, beast and barbed wire. Yet it remains a technically magnificent ride throughout, and a checklist of visual influences from "All Quiet on the Western Front" to "Gone with the Wind."