You’ve heard this song before and can predict all the emotional high notes before they hit, but sometimes that’s all you need from a summer bop.

The Many Saints of Newark isn’t The Sopranos. But both literally and figuratively, it’s a start.

With Lake Bell and Simon Pegg as the would-be couple involved, the emphasis is squarely on comedy. There’s some romance in there, too, but it’s nicely twisted, just enough to keep things fresh and funny.

A flawed script prevents Welcome to the Rileys from being the effective meditation on grief and healing it wants to be.

How much you enjoy all this will depend on how much you like Glazer. She’s funny, no question, and sometimes intentionally grating. But she also gives off a genuineness. Maybe she is just saying out loud what other people are thinking.

It’s a bit of a letdown, though still entertaining.

While 43 points heavily to the corruption and the lies of the government, the truth about what happened to those students still remains a mystery. Perhaps the true point of the film is to spur discussion and not let the story fade as just another unsolved crime against the poor.

Director Kevin Macdonald offers a suffocating visual feast. Some of the particulars don't add up, so much so that you do notice them even as the action plows forward. But it's still a thrilling ride.

Despite its slow pace at times, the film builds on multiple themes such as flying too close to the sun, self-discovery and a tinge of romance.

Zemeckis is a master of using effects, but his films sometimes don’t live up to them.... The Walk is different. The use of 3D, in particular, is so astonishing it practically wipes your memory of the silliness going on in France as Petit was learning his trade. Once Petit is on the wire, he is free, and the liberation is contagious.

This film has enough stunning special effects and adorable baby animals to keep you entertained for 2½ hours.

Match is no masterpiece, but it is an intriguing and entertaining example of actors lifting the material they're given to greater heights, with Stewart leading the way.

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood is a fascinating and undeniably irresistible look into that world. You just feel, despite Bowers' sunny disposition, a little dirty about enjoying it.

Byrne is a delight.

“Brats” is definitely McCarthy’s journey. What saves it are the people he brings along for the ride.

There's no hard-and-fast rule that says you have to like the main character in a movie. It's more a custom, really - a custom that Ben Stiller stretches nearly to the breaking point in Greenberg.

There is nothing erotic about it, nothing sexy, nothing but a brutish satisfying of carnal desires. Without an astounding performance from Michael Fassbender, it would be almost too painful to watch (and at times, too boring). With him, it's not exactly easy.

As mysteries go, writer-director Aaron Katz hasn't really created an effective one. Gemini is entertaining, but Jill isn't much of a detective, and the big puzzle at the center of the film just sort of falls together. You never completely check out of the plot, but don't feel fully invested, either.

Unlike, say, Val Kilmer's Jim Morrison in "The Doors," Thomas makes no attempt to create a convincing facsimile of Hank Williams, which is just as well, since he bears little resemblance to the sinewy singer.

Once you see that ape, named Caesar, riding a galloping horse in triumph, it's awfully hard not to get sucked in. It's not dumb fun, exactly. It's smart dumb fun.

There’s nothing particularly surprising in the plot, once you get past the meta-Cage business. Pretty soon it’s just an action movie. What is surprising is how enjoyable Cage and Pascal make the movie anyway.

We've been down this road before. But Pitch Perfect 2, goofier than the original, makes it an enjoyable trip.

There is a gentleness, both to Allyn’s performance and to the film overall, that draws the audience in. The movie’s path is as predictable as Jackson’s, but it’s beautifully shot and the idea is a good one — reversing the typical border-crosser-on-the-run idea. That doesn’t forgive all of its shortcomings, but it comes close.

If you were a theater kid, this movie will feel like an inside joke written just for you.

Foxtrot is far too interior to be called flashy, but there’s something striking in director Samuel Maoz’s visual confidence, the way he translates his characters’ states of mind into images.

The Armor of Light can be frustrating and painful to watch. But ultimately, there is hope here. Schenck and McBath are only two people from opposite sides of the political spectrum coming together, but at least that’s a start.

Director Shawn Seet’s film is surprisingly sweet and moving.

Paddington is a mostly smart update loaded with charm, and it preserves enough of the fuzzy feelings for purists to walk away with a smile.

Like Tom Hanks in Big, Levy does a great job of capturing — or parodying — the giddiness of a kid flexing his adult muscles (literally and figuratively). The two-hour-plus running time breezes by in a well-paced adventure that mines familiar comic-book tropes for laughs.

Fly Me to the Moon shines when it doesn’t try to just tell a story about the moon landing, but instead examines how those stories get constructed, and why.

Cosmopolis is frustrating, funny, thought-provoking, weird, maddening, worthwhile. It isn't a great movie. Sometimes it's not a good one. Sometimes it is. Ultimately, it is one worth working through, a valuable exercise if you're willing to make the effort.

That everything is held at such a remove is the artistry of The Assassin, but it comes at the cost of emotional investment. It’s so elliptical in its approach that there’s no love for anyone, or anything, outside of beauty. It can be admired — greatly, even — but it can’t be felt.

Yes, it's that sappy, in between the F-bomb barrage. But Hill brings an infectious confidence to his performance, even when he's supposedly down and out.

Dominik Moll downplays the overtly scandalous nature of the story, at least for a while, with a leisurely pace heavy on imagery. He’s made a beautiful-looking film that portends disaster. And disaster arrives, eventually. It just takes its time getting there.

Muscled and ruggedly un-manscaped, Stapleton is an intimidating presence based on physicality alone, but the actor ratchets up the menace factor with a gripping portrayal of a man driven by emotions more complex than mere anger.

The Big Year is better when it is examining the obsession of the birders, and Martin, Black and Wilson are enjoyable in toned-down mode.

The risk of telling three distinct-but-related stories is that all may not be of equal quality. That’s the case here, as the movie starts strong but gets progressively weaker, particularly in the third act.

A great movie exists in Love & Mercy, side by side with a pretty good one.

His first film, "Animal Kingdom," was a terrific examination of a low-grade crime family in Melbourne. The Rover is more ambitious but not as good. Michod's patience with scenes, while laudable, is at times too much.

Thanks to its cast, The Grand Seduction turns out to be, if not exactly groundbreaking, at least agreeable, comfortable fun.

A Single Shot never rises to the level of a great film like “Winter’s Bone,” which digs much deeper in its depiction of life in the hills among the desperate poor. But thanks largely to Rockwell, it’s not bad, either.

My Policeman weaves a compelling tale of star-crossed love through different perspectives and timelines.

The film is choppy in parts, but it is George Takei's approachability, his constant big laughter, even his singing (he performs "Don't Fence Me In" after explaining how the internment camps made the lyrics poignant to him) that tie it together.

Patriots Day is a well-meaning, well-executed movie that tells the story of the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013 as a crime thriller — an interesting choice that works well, for the most part.

Civil-rights movements are never really over because they're never really won. She's Beautiful When She's Angry doesn't overtly make that case until its closing minutes, but when it does, it's made all the more powerful by the footage that preceded it.

Animals may be the kind of story we've seen, but it's told in a way that makes it worth seeing again.

The Possession of Michael King is more scary than original.

The movie’s biggest strength is that it’s not too deep. It's visually stunning but is ultimately empty calories.

Granted, the film lacks the kicky element of surprise that made the first movie so enjoyable, but it's hard to gripe too much. Taken 2 aims to be a fast-paced, workmanlike sequel that shows off its charismatic leading man, and that's exactly what it does.

Think of Julieta as Pedro Almodovar unplugged. The director tones down somewhat his signature look (loud and busy colors) and vibe (heightened melodrama) for something a little more muted in this tale of loss and tragedy.

Director Lorcan Finnegan is relentless in his pursuit of disquiet. But “The Surfer” is not just an exercise in making a hard-to-watch movie. It’s also a commentary on toxic masculinity and the absurdity of bro culture that poisons X and podcasts and other forms of media.

Morton is outstanding. The rest of the cast, which includes Rashida Jones and Bradley Whitford, is also good. Bernstein does a nice job moderating the tone of the film, which could have been depressing, but isn't.

In Return to Seoul, 25-year-old Parisian Frédérique Benoît (Park Ji-Min), aka Freddie, copes with learning about her Korean heritage during a spontaneous trip to South Korea. And the journey to finding herself and accepting her background is anything but linear.

It’s a knowing nod to the past fused with a contemporary cast confident in the present, and where the franchise might take it in the future.

Hoffman was a genius, a tremendously gifted actor who could shine in almost any role... A Most Wanted Man may not be the best example of this, but it certainly adds to the evidence.

The acting is naturalistic, with a lived-in feel. These are familiar people, it seems like, made so by performances that never drift into lazy melodrama.

Cars 3 doesn’t have enough velocity to escape that lesser tier. It does, however, offer a course correction for the franchise with a kinetic and emotionally resonant sports film that’s big on character – and blessedly light on Mater.

I liked the movie — it’s certainly well made, and a lot of fun — but I mostly found myself laughing at it, not with it.

Exactly what it sounds like: a cowboy movie and an alien movie thrown together, a genre mash-up that's more fun than good, but pretty good nonetheless.

The children may tug at the heartstrings, but it’s the adults who give the film its heart.

Even if you've never watched a whole episode of "Dora the Explorer," you'd have to be a grinch not to be slightly charmed by the whole thing.

Granted, all the fine elements don't add up to make the deepest or most compelling film. Instead, it's a series of self-contained scenes that don't always hang together as a whole. But like a good hotel, there are enough comforts to make the stay worthwhile.

Lawrence is a tremendous talent, and she is what makes The Hunger Games ultimately worth spending time with. She doesn't elevate the film to the heights to which one might have wanted, but she takes it a lot higher than it would have otherwise risen.

Stone is becoming a dependable go-to choice for comedies, brimming with charisma.

Just slam the pedal to the floor, blast on past the weaknesses in the plot, and enjoy the ride.

Gibson's performance, at times subtle, at times showy and never less than remarkable, is what makes The Beaver worth seeing.

Get On Up... has some problems in the storytelling department, but Boseman tackles with gusto the unenviable task of capturing Brown.

The film is ultimately an excuse to watch and enjoy Streep, Wiest and Bergen. Sometimes roles for outstanding actors who aren’t in their 20s and 30s anymore wind up being embarrassing misfires (see the cloying “And So It Goes” or “Book Club” for examples or, better yet, don’t see them). That’s not the case here. Let Them All Talk is a low-key success.

Barsky’s film is light on biographical detail before Koch’s first term began, in 1978. That’s probably fitting. Koch obviously lived for the job.

Weinstein normally directs documentaries, and Menashe has a fly-on-the-wall feel at times, particularly in the warmly believable interplay between father and son.

To pretend that the film doesn't make a political statement is silly. Of course it does. It wouldn't be effective at all if it didn't.

It’s not particularly revelatory for fans, covering such a long expanse of time that it’s perhaps necessarily a little shallow in places. It is, however, a sometimes fascinating look at a career that had highs and lows even fans may not know about, as well as the tricky dynamics of creating music with your family.

As an analysis of the causes of migration, it is one-dimensional and unconvincing. But as a social history of Latinos in America, it is provocative and fascinating. And as an indictment of decades of economic injustice and covert military action committed in the name of freedom, it is devastating.

It could be a really showy role, but Phoenix is patient, letting the character, and the audience, come to him. It's a journey worth taking.

The film is unexpectedly compelling, even if you’re not a teenage girl, though being one certainly wouldn’t hurt.

A feel-good romance, it’s not. A feel-bad one, more like. But Domont has loftier ideas in mind, and in Fair Play, she effectively gets them across.

While it necessarily lacks the joy of discovery the first movie brought, “The Lego Movie 2” is still a breathless romp, landing enough jokes a minute to discourage over-analysis. It’s a good time at the movies, which is all a Lego movie really owes us for the price of admission.

Where In the Land of Blood and Honey falls short, then, is in the story itself. Too many coincidences and, ultimately, too narrow a focus. But it is a genuinely noble effort, a worthy attempt to make some sense of the inexplicable.

The writing and editing aren’t up to the task of retrofitting Alcott’s straightforward narrative with a sophisticated chronology and rob it of dramatic tension in the process.

Horror movies are notoriously tough to end well — how can the last act match the lead-up? But credit Chase with coming up with an ending that fits the mood of the rest of the film without selling out the audience emotionally.

The performances, by Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyaté, are outstanding.

Violette doesn't abandon that playbook, but it does a better job than most of putting the viewer in its artist's headspace.

One of the things that pushes Jig beyond what it might have been otherwise is that not everything works out as you might have liked.

Turns out You’re Next isn’t a slave to horror-movie conventions after all — rather, it’s having tongue-in-cheek fun with conventions while playing up to them, complete with a killer retro ’80s-horror synth score and a gruesome finale that recalls the excess of Peter Jackson’s “Dead Alive.”

Tucci and Eve command the screen throughout, shifting tone and intensity as they go. It’s fascinating. So is the film, well worth watching and arguing over. Which, in LaBute’s hands, is doubtless the point.

Truly, you don't have to watch former secret agents relentlessly wipe out villains. But if you want to, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone better than Washington for the task.

In truth, the story isn't much. Just betrayal and revenge, basically. But a couple of things make Haywire a lot of fun to watch. One is the cast.

There are no princesses, monsters or castles in the sky, but that doesn't mean there is no magic.

Sure, the hits would have been nice. But it says something about Jimi: All Is by My Side (and Benjamin's performance) that it is still a success without them.

It’s too straightforward, at least in terms of what we’ve come to expect from Sayles.

Luckily, Horn is so good -- as is Max von Sydow, in a wordless role -- that the film resonates in spite of the tear-jerking strings Daldry pulls.

Even at less than an hour and a half, the film is, shall we say, patient in unfolding its story. Part of this is set up, lulling the audience for the shocks to come.

Thanks to Cranston’s performance — along with a game supporting cast — and Brad Furman’s tension-building direction, the movie works.

Them That Follow is a tough slog, no doubt. But it’s also a worthwhile one, even if you might appreciate it more than you’ll enjoy it.

What’s as striking as the violence is Fargeat’s confidence as a filmmaker. She risks absurdity at every turn, fearlessly daring the audience to accept unlikely scenarios. Take that challenge. However difficult “Revenge” may be to watch at times, it’s worth it.

When he’s on, Stewart’s skewer is sharp indeed.

What's interesting is how Jacquot treats the material. It is, by any measure, a romantic drama. But he uses the score, by Bruno Coulais, as if the film were something else altogether.

Depending on your own relationship with food, the pro-vegetarian documentary Forks Over Knives may be an inspiring call to action, a tedious bit of propaganda or a 90-minute guilt trip.