The film is anchored by a searing, incredibly intense performance by Michael Shannon, whose remorselessness as a hit man is as relentless as Shannon’s portrayal of him.

Despite the film's predictable nature, it's hard not to become engaged. The performances are excellent and Härö directs with a clean hand, pushing toward a suspenseful, stirring climax that hinges on the team's success as well as Endel's freedom.

There’s a fine line between homage and rip-off, between a clever mashup and a messy pileup of tired tropes. But, much like a rainbow, where that line appears is in the eye of the beholder.

Madagascar 3 has a problem: It rarely slows down enough to let us really enjoy it.

It’s a slight film, but one that hits all the tricky emotional and comedic notes without a hint of cruelty.

You know you're being manipulated but you don't really mind, because it's fun to watch this bunch work.

Berg immerses us so completely into the horror of these men’s situation that we are gripped throughout. The fighting is incredibly intense.

Is it a good movie? It’s … a movie. That’s not the slight it sounds like. It’s certainly no masterpiece, though not for lack of a great performance from Lady Gaga. It’s an investment, but watching this cast do these things is worth the price of admission.

Being the Ricardos is a fascinating look at a time in American life when a number of facades were beginning to crumble. The film examines several of those issues, including racism and cultural bias, sexuality, beauty and the role of women in society. It does all of those things while telling a truly engaging story.

It’s not the moms that are bad — it’s the movie.

This “Mamma Mia” takes a lot of the original’s qualities and then amplifies them to the nth degree. It’s bigger and crazier, and the emotions actually seem to run a bit deeper at times.

Mostly, it's fine. The acting is fine. The writing is fine. The story is fine. There are a few laughs. And that should be fine enough. But with material as rich as Leonard's serving as the foundation, just fine is a disappointment.

It's an entertaining film and a deceptively gritty thriller, and Kinnear conveys Mickey's mounting desperation in winning fashion.

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.

It is a tremendous performance by Jones, who co-wrote the script with her own ex-boyfriend Will McCormick, who appears as a drug-dealing friend with surprisingly grounded advice for just about anything.

There are some laughs (a well-placed police baton, for one). But Metal Lords feels unfinished, rough, like a solo the guitarist never mastered.

Ultimately, Anthropoid is quite gripping, even if it feels like two movies in one.

Writer-director Amat Escalante was named best director at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for this project, and although it obviously is made with some skill, it also is unrelentingly dire.

Purely from a standpoint of craft and storytelling, it’s a good flick, although maybe not well attuned to the bombastic times.

It’s a fun effort in a genre that hasn’t gotten much of a workout recently, and that’s worthwhile in itself.

A beautifully made, glorious mess.

It is a harrowing journey, and an inspirational one. But, as director, Jolie takes far too long to tell it, particularly in such a conventional manner.

The Shallows is pretty much a woman stranded on a rock, with a big shark between her and the shore. “We’re gonna need a bigger boat?” “We’re gonna need a smaller bikini,” more like.

One reason the movie works so well: Writer-director Malcolm D. Lee returns from the original, so the characters feel true to the first film. Secondly, most of the cast is back, and they have the kind of comfortable chemistry you can’t fake. It’s easy to believe these people have a history together.

An epic film about Algeria's fight for liberation from France, with three outstanding performances and a grand, sweeping feel.

You can't help leaving the film with the following thought: Man, it's good to see Murphy being funny again.

Shown in flashbacks, the story of 10-year-old Sarah Starzynski is powerful, thanks in large part to the luminous screen presence of young Mélusine Mayance.

Even though Five Armies is the shortest Hobbit movie, it also is the least thrilling as it chugs toward the finish line weighted down with all the added characters and confusing subplots that have been tacked on along the way.

How do you make a legend as imposing as Shakespeare flesh? All Is True suggests you can't, if not even Branagh, Dench, McKellen, et al. can bring him down to earth. Maybe it's for the best that the real man is unknowable, that man is simply the work itself.

The film is leisurely paced, as many French films are, and not much actually happens, but as a character study, it feels true, and ultimately moving.

Wasikowska is outstanding. She’s got the most-interesting character arc, and she plays Judy at all stages of the story with a genuineness that never wavers, whether it’s as the quiet, put-upon secret weapon of the puppet show or the woman she becomes, which is something far from where she begins.

Picks up where the first film left off, literally, and offers at least as many laughs (if not more for adults), retaining the goofy attitude. Cameron and Pearn throw a lot at the wall, just like their predecessors, and most of it sticks.

A decidedly dumb entry in the titan saga that’s still kind of fun.

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

Lawrence delivers a performance that’s long overdue. She finally gets an opportunity to show off her comedic chops and her biting humor and executes it with years of dramatic acting in her bag. She is brash yet warm, making this character extremely believable.

When it’s good, Doctor Sleep is mighty good.

It is flawed but ultimately captivating.

Rob Minkoff’s film has the generic feel of a kids’ movie that’s trying to please everyone. It’s not horrible. In fact, it’s agreeable enough. But nothing more.

Scafaria gives her characters and the situation an absurdist tone that makes the whole concept a little more palatable.

The movie boasts a tricky structure, but director Jonathan Teplitzky ("Burning Man") does an expert job of sewing together the World War II moments with sequences set in the '80s.

Sing is like an album with a good song here and there, but too much filler and not enough hits

It has a serviceable, conventional approach that summarizes the extraordinary achievements of a remarkable woman but offers little more than predictable and inspirational Pinterest-quote fare that would have been better suited for an HBO TV movie.

In Run All Night, Neeson gives us more of the same, although with Collet-Serra's assistance, it's dressed up in a more interesting package.

The film could merely coast on the charms of its three stars, but it's smarter and brighter than you'd expect.

It's a weird movie. In a good way.

Todd Strauss-Schulson’s meta send-up of ’80s sex-equals-death slasher movies keeps its goofy good humor throughout, and tosses in a little almost-genuine feeling into the mix for good measure.

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.

The charms of the leading ladies are hard to resist, as are their rare moments of clarity and self-awareness. Saunders is a tumbledown hoot while Lumley can generate a laugh with simply a deadpan stare, yet both seem a tad more human this time around. Just a tad.

This is, in fact, one of the more violent movies in recent memory. But Stone doesn't let anyone off easy. Violence has an effect here, has meaning, has relevance to the story. And that's a good thing; otherwise, it would be hard to stomach.

For a Woman, Diane Kurys' semi-autobiographical film, benefits greatly from its intimate nature, in which a woman discovers secrets from her family's past.

A frenetic movie that combines a video-game sensibility with cartoonish, whacked-out violence. As with all good modern horror, one minute you're laughing out loud and the next you're covering your eyes. [19 Mar 2004, p.1P]

Some of its conceits may not hold up under intense scrutiny, but, generally speaking, it's a good time at the movies.

Every third person on the planet will go to see this movie, and they will find exactly what they seek, nothing more but certainly nothing less. It's that nothing more part that ultimately disappoints.

It is an offbeat gem.

Maybe Rubber is an homage, maybe it's a statement on horror films and their audiences, maybe it's a total goof.

A technically fascinating film that's best when it's angry, less good when romance rears its head.

You come away from watching the film with a moral bellyache.

It doesn’t help that Barrymore and Collette don’t have much chemistry for best friends forever, but Collette’s work is so compulsively watchable that Miss You Already is worth a watch for that reason alone. And precious few others.

Really, every actor is likable and, all by themselves, good here. It’s that each situation is more ridiculous than the last and none of it fits together, even when everything gets tossed into the narrative blender toward the end.

If you enjoyed the first two “Bad Boys” movies, you’ll want to see how the characters have developed. If you aren’t a fan of the series, there is a strong enough story to make the film worthwhile.

What spares Learning to Drive is an awful lot of comedic talent and artistic good will. Clarkson and Kingsley imbue average material with easy charm and wit, clicking onscreen with the smooth platonic chemistry of old friends.

More of the same, using the found-footage tricks the first two films employed to try to shock the audience. But man, are those some good tricks.

The Joker’s superpower is his resentment, his narcissism, and Phoenix cultivates these methodically in his performance, slowly transmuting the character’s awkward fragility into a kind of raging charisma — aided and abetted, of course, by all the tricks of art direction, sound design and editing that a journeyman filmmaker has at his disposal.

The Little Mermaid delivers on every front and will likely be one of the summer’s biggest box-office winners.

Director Michael Dowse (from the underrated Topher Grace comedy "Take Me Home Tonight") fuels the story with atmosphere, with lots of nighttime activity and bustle. He keeps things grounded in reality, though little touches (Chantry imagines her drawings coming to life) add an extra — and, perhaps, excessive — sweetness.

It's interesting to wonder how the film will age, given the short shelf life of technology. In two years all this might seem as dated as a dial-up modem, technology not nearly advanced enough to support the action here. But for now Unfriended lives in the moment, as do its characters.

We aren't used to comedies that make us squirm like this. That doesn't mean they aren't worth our time. This Is 40 is.

When she’s playing Cruella, Stone is definitely in charge. It’s a bravura performance, filled with a crackling energy that never spills over into parody. That’s what saves it. Stone makes Cruella a believable character — if not relatable, then at least recognizable.

Far-fetched? Yes. A little sugary? Also yes, especially if Thomas were removed from the equation. Happily, she is not, and that, combined with the performances of McGregor, Blunt and Waked, makes Salmon Fishing in the Yemen a charming little movie.

The humor here is on the dry side of zany, and it won't tickle every funny bone, any more than Mike Myers does, or - perhaps a more apt comparison - Terry Gilliam's tart filmic fantasies. But no matter what, you have to admit this mix of lowbrow humor and French erudition has a style of its own.

Mostly “Novocaine” is just fun. And mostly, that’s enough.

Much is promised and too little is delivered. What is delivered are intense performances by two terrific actors.

Monster Party is a twisted, grisly little shocker that isn’t afraid to grab you by the guts — or to show you a man’s guts cascading to the floor. It’s that kind of movie. It’s also pretty effective and rather fun, if you have the stomach for this sort of thing.

Without any movie-specific spoilers, it’s hard not to be moved and inspired when you reach the end of the film and realize after everything Steinem and the other pioneering feminists of her day have done to advance the position of women in society, there is still much more work to do.

It’s a lazy, thoroughly unoriginal bit of storytelling, but it has just enough cheeky humor and bass-thumping action scenes to be a potential crowd-pleaser.

It's adorable. It's also very thin. There's a disconcerting literalism to the songs' dramatic representation that chokes the drama.

It’s a promising debut for Böhm, with a lot of promise. But it’s a home run for Powley, who makes Wildling worth watching even when it shouldn’t be.

It’s Hodge’s portrayal of Banks that elevates the film.

In To the Wonder [Malick] doesn’t give us enough to work with, leaving us with a thing of great beauty, but not much more.

A Kid Like Jake, isn't terrible, but it sure could be better.

The acting is great, but screenwriter Matthew Orton’s attempts to give the film the philosophical heft that it deserve fall somewhat short.

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

Life lessons are learned, children do some growing up, nothing too terribly upsetting happens, and the corniness is, mostly, kept to tolerable levels.

August: Osage County is at times affecting (Cooper’s tender moment with Cumberbatch, who has slept through an important event, is especially so), but mostly it’s all about actors acting and never letting us forget they’re doing so.

There was something about the first film, about seeing not just the horror but also the joy of growing up through the kids’ eyes. That’s lost by necessity here, but It Chapter Two certainly misses it. And so do I.

The result is a movie that’s fun in spots — a good dish here and there, you might say — that doesn’t add up to a fully satisfying meal.

Is it a ridiculous movie? Of course, that’s the point. Yet it’s still kind of fun, and it all but insists that you enjoy watching it.

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.

This Footloose it's a pleasant reminder of the past for fans of the first one, and an agreeable-enough experience for everyone else.

Should you see it? Sure. The absolutely absurd, over-the-top Vegas chase scene assures you’ll get your money’s worth in ridiculousness. (Not all of Greengrass’ set pieces are smart.) But in truth, you’ll be there because it’s a Bourne movie, and you’ll like it a little better than you should because it is.

It’s more creepy than scary. But at least, you reckon, this not happening to you.

On the whole, Flamin’ Hot plays like a feel-good family flick. Nothing is too heavy, and some parts feel a bit overdone, but it’s fun for the most part.

It’s a fascinating story with particular contemporary relevance. And it should be better.

Despite the heavy themes, "100-Year-Old Man" keeps the tone light. It is a comedy, after all. The laugh-o-meter needle hovers fairly consistently on "amused grin."

Wolf Totem doesn’t feel so much like fully formed narrative film as it does a trumped up National Geographic special on Inner Mongolia eager to make use of shiny new IMAX cameras.

There is something immensely rewarding about being in the hands of a director whose confidence is such that he can lead us to uncomfortable places and we’ll go eagerly along for the ride, just to see where it leads.

There is something to be said for giving people what they want, but there are no surprises in Randy Brown's script, and Lorenz plays it safe. It's feel-good stuff; you wonder what Eastwood, a terrific director, might have done with it behind the camera.

You certainly won't be bored. And if you go into Nerve looking for a thrill ride, you won't be disappointed. If you're hoping for more, that's a different story.