Bigger, louder and dumber than its predecessor, Iron Man 2 is still a lot of fun.

The film is a mad whirl of influencer phoniness, paranoia, imposter syndrome and parenting nightmares.

What Cars 2 lacks is that moment the best Pixar films have, when parents and children alike stand slack-jawed with awe at something wonderful happening on-screen - when the films move beyond mere entertainment and become something more, something better.

Horror comedies can be wildly entertaining -- "The Return of the Living Dead," from 1985, for instance. It sends up horror movies in hilarious fashion while still managing to be gross-out scary. The Revenant never rises to that level. Nor does it seem to want to.

Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find … another Liam-Neeson-gets-revenge action thriller. But one with quite a few laughs thrown in amidst the unlikely ugly heroics.

Never quite delivers on its promise -- a dark retelling of the fairy tale in which women hold the true power, good and evil -- but it certainly is an attractive misfire.

The Quiet One could have used a lot more complexity.

There are moments in The Dinner, Oren Moverman’s tense drama based on the Herman Koch novel, in which you sit back and watch four terrific actors go at it. There just aren’t enough of them.

Scott Frank's atmospheric thriller is a step up from Neeson's usual shoot-'em-ups. Not a giant leap, but a step up nonetheless.

It's a slight movie that makes "Broadcast News" look like "All the President's Men" in comparison.

Not at the top of the list, necessarily, but writer and director Kiah Roache-Turner’s film is a solid if unspectacular entry into the eww-gross-spiders category. It’s pretty good on that front. But when it tries to wedge in some version of Meaningful Family Drama, it loses its way a little bit.

The story has potential and the acting is good, but the buildup is thrown away as the movie draws to a close. It feels divided, as if it were two different films.

“Pleasant” is probably the word best used to describe the whole film. Mostly Jules is just an excuse to spend some time with Kingsley, Harris and Curtin doing things we don’t always see them do.

Let's not pretend otherwise: The comedy here is profane, juvenile, silly. Fine by me, because some of it also is hilarious.

The atmosphere is appropriately creepy, and there are some starts, if not outright scares...But it just gets stupid.

Long-winded, tiresome and free of any tension, The Company You Keep will ultimately be remembered as a Redford vanity project, in every sense of the word.

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.

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.

Despite its ostensive seriousness, Galveston is a tepid crime drama without talons sharp enough to sink into the audience.

The struggle between faith and reason somehow gets sidetracked, resulting in a sometimes silly, too-obvious journey.

It’s predictable. It’s saccharine. It’s silly. It’s also, thanks to the consummate talents of Stamp and Redgrave, occasionally a joy.

There’s a limit to how much patience one has for spending time with terrible people living large. But for all the lackluster familiarity of the film’s style, the story is too interesting, too baffling to deny.

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.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a well-made movie, well-acted (Costner and Branagh seem to be having an especially good time) and a pleasant diversion. They’ll probably make several more. But it doesn’t exactly put the “thrill” in action thriller.

Immaculate goes all in on the yuck, but leaves the rest high and dry.

The film, wisely, is built around Hemsworth. He’s good at this kind of thing, and no matter how many throats he slits, you still root for him.

The film really pops to life only when it gets a little messy, and it's never messier than when it loses itself in family dynamics.

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.

As a retelling of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," "The Lion King" has it all: drama, an interesting love story, personal growth, dynamic characters and a satisfying ending — all things "Mufasa" ultimately lacks.

Minions: The Rise of Gru is the perfect movie if you’ve been needing a moment to just laugh, no matter what age you are. Yes, it is an animated film that will appeal to kids for sure, but it's written with adults in mind, too.

The Commuter doesn’t stand above or below most of Neeson’s action-hero fare. But you dependably get what you pay for.

Jason Schwartzman has become, without question, the go-to actor when you want a character with off-putting, even annoying traits, yet need to have the audience side with him just enough not to want to strangle him.

It’s a sobering reminder, during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, how undervalued Black lives have been, and for so long, in this country.

Not just an enjoyable story to watch but an educational look into hidden history that seeks to show its never a good idea to paint anyone with a broad brush.

After a predictable opening hour, Paradise Lost manages to deliver a surprise or two as it switches gears into a full-on thriller. But it never gets close to the epic heights to which it aspires.

Despite predictability, flashback hopping and cheesy lines, Adrift takes viewers on a trip through beautiful cinematography and gut-wrenching performances that are worth seeing.

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.

It's a smart, well-crafted tale that is thoroughly contemporary, yet somewhat old-school in that it doesn't go for cheap shocks. Instead, the emphasis is on mood, atmosphere and some sharply etched characterizations.

Monster is a good movie that could have been a better one. Mandler needs to trust both his film and his audience more. Give him points for trying, but he’s just trying too hard.

The biggest problem is the whiplash-inducing tonal shifts. Director Jeff Tomsic, working from a script by Mark Steilen and Rob McKittrick, swings from violent slapstick to tender moments in slapdash fashion. You can’t get a handle on it, though maybe that’s fitting in a movie about trying to keep from being tagged.

It's all very pleasant, very inspiring, just not very surprising.

It's a little too obvious -- interesting, sometimes kind of fun but, ultimately, not as satisfying as it might have been.

For every crisis there’s a line of homespun wisdom, in every failure a universal lesson to impart. The film highlights each symbol, making explicit that which would be stronger left implicit, until Rex’s glass castle becomes an overbearing metaphor.

If you’re a literature junkie, and I cringe at typing the phrase because it sounds so quaint in a world of 140-character expressions of self, then the film has its fascinating moments. The performances aren’t really among them.

A lot of fun for horror fans, a nice little jaunt through paranoia and conspiracy theories.

There’s a lot to be angry about. And though Rosebraugh shines a light on plenty of jaw-dropping corruption, it plays out like a shrill rallying cry without catharsis for the already initiated.

Overall, Radioactive is a fitting tribute that is not entirely glowing (outside of the bottle of radium Curie takes to bed every night), but rather an honest and touching depiction of one of the finest scientists to ever live.

The ambitious visual stylings don’t do enough to buoy a film that lacks a certain soaring spirit. If the adaptation is serviceable, it’s also dull — a disappointing fate for a story that’s anything but.

It’s engaging at times and wonderful to look at, but feels like it’s on the cusp of something bigger. But whatever that bigger thing is, it never arrives.

There’s a danger in critiquing the movie you wish a director had made instead of the one they did, but in this case, Heller did make a horror film and then backed off from the horror aspects.

Superfans of the entire Marvel universe will find this film filled with top-notch comedy and action, Easter eggs, cameos that left the audience gasping and cheering, a lot of meta jokes and digs at 20th Century Fox...It's the perfect way to wrap up the "Deadpool" franchise for good.

A mean-spirited little movie, investing its limited charms in all the wrong characters.

Although it brings nothing new to the con-artist fold, or even anything thrilling, Focus is a seductive enough rehash that benefits from the built-in pleasures of the trade.

Two narcissists do not a couple make, and without any actual relationship, there really isn't a movie.

We’ve seen the elements that make up Paper Towns before, but that’s OK. Schreier proves adept at avoiding clichés, and is helped by his actors.

Some new elements do work . . . But Hocus Pocus 2’s best parts are familiar and beloved to fans of the original movie.

Really, the movie is the third cheeseburger, the fourth beer, the fifth ice-cream sandwich. It’s gluttony, which is kind of enjoyable when you’re in the middle of committing it but leaves you feeling sluggish and remorseful later when you’ve had time to think about it.

There’s no rescuing Non-Stop from its own worse impulses. The likable Neeson’s implausible second act as an action star continues, but not in a believable direction.

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.

Storks is charmless with rote obligation. This is a kid’s film for hire, with none of the creativity, emotion and design that elevate the genre to art, or even simply a fun time at the movies.

Wants to scare you, but it can't quite seal the deal.

While Drive-Away Dolls is a literal journey, it doesn’t have the sense of reaching its destination in the same way…It’s not a road to nowhere — it’s better than that. But it’s also not the joy ride it could have been.

It's an uneven proposition, veering wildly from genuinely funny scenes directly into ridiculousness and back again. But every time Shawn Levy's movie makes that journey, it's harder to get back on solid footing.

There are many things to enjoy — a cat named Small Frank is up there pretty high for me, as is Pfeiffer’s performance. But it snows you under with a small army of quirky characters and situations.

It almost works. Actually, it does work, hitting the requisite number of hip notes. It just doesn’t dazzle, and that’s kind of a surprise.

The Minions themselves aren't as endearing as they are in the previous movies, maybe because there are fewer of them bumbling around, or maybe because they just haven't found their true supervillain love yet. Or maybe some sidekicks, no matter how loveable, just aren't cartoon-hero material

There's a little "Kramer vs. Kramer" here, a dash of "Transformers" there, and it's all topped with big heap of "Rocky." But it's hard to argue with the results, because, at times, Real Steal is close to a knockout.

Steadman is great fodder for a documentary, as he has continued to produce his signature works. But if you're going to make a movie about Ralph Steadman, make it about Ralph Steadman.

There are a couple of intriguing ideas floating around here and there, but that's all they do - float around, unmoored by any sense of reality and, thus, suspense.

You also get drinking. Lots and lots of drinking. By the time the movie is half over, you'll feel hungover.

True enough, she's trying to do the right thing. But she never quite gets there. And that gets old, making "Ramona" wear out its welcome long before it should have.

Taking the bad-cop genre to the extreme, Filth lives up to its title and then some, but a no-holds performance by James McAvoy is reason enough to watch.

Damon's portrayal is perfectly understated yet powerful. It's also sneaky; you don't realize how invested you've become in it until the final act, when the characters' stories merge in what seems like too much of a rushed coincidence.

Like the first film, The Croods: A New Age is a pleasant enough movie. It may not make you forget the original, but only because you probably already had.

Fans of the “Fast and Furious” franchise are sure to enjoy the latest model.

Jolie's performance so overshadows the rest of the cast (and the rest of the movie) that you sometimes feel as if the other characters are, like us, just standing around watching her. This is not, however, the fault of the other actors. It's the fault of screenwriter Linda Woolverton, who doesn't give them much to do that's challenging or interesting.

Most of all I enjoyed watching Bale and Melling together. Poe wants to impress Landor, who after all is a famous detective, but he just can’t help himself.

[Pacino] and Green sometimes overplay their hand. That is, overplay the underplaying, which sounds patently ridiculous but is the exact description warranted here.

There’s a prayer repeated throughout the film: “blessed be the goddess of all worlds that has not made me a man.” Well, blessed be the goddess of all worlds that has let me survive this film.

The Man Who Knew Infinity is a good movie about a great subject, but one that should have been bett

Although it's enjoyable, actor Chris Messina's directorial debut is somehow less than the sum of its parts, wading only through the shallow end of familiar human conflicts resolved too conveniently to satisfy.

It's outstanding work (Carell). It's also a really funny movie.

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.

The script feels not half-finished, but maybe three-quarters. Lawrence does what she can to make up the missing 25 percent, but even she can’t perform miracles.

The movie is content to simply mimic the old Stooges, bringing nothing new to the table.

What ultimately waters down a movie like Touchback, aside from a really sappy ending, is that we know the answers going in.

Smith’s performance, in which he resists the urge to go over the top, and the subject matter make Concussion an interesting movie, but not the urgent one it could have been.

Both the film and television project were directed by Martin Campbell. He creates a nice level of tension throughout, and there are a couple of legitimate shocks (including one jaw-dropper).

Dom Hemingway is a naughty good time while it lives up to the unpredictable bawdiness of its opening line.

Granted, a trip to Jupiter is a long way to go to find yourself, and if this were the Sandler we see in movies like “Grown Ups,” it would be interminable. But with this version of Sandler, it’s a worthwhile trip.

The gags are stale, the characters uninvolving and bits meant to titillate don’t.

It is all very respectful, all very serious, all very important-feeling and often a little dull. As such, it’s a good start for Portman, with promise of better things to come.

It’s a compelling topic, even if directors Steve Brown and Jessie Deeter don’t dig deeply into the cultural and psychological significance of it.

Some of the comic bits are a little too broad and silly, but Derbez, in his feature debut, makes Instructions Not Included a balancing act more successful than it should be.

It's an interesting premise, if a bit far-fetched for anyone who has spent long nights washing sheets and pillowcases that kids have thrown up on.

If you like your summer-movie explosions huge, Man of Steel delivers. But it seems as if it might have delivered even more than a glorious noise.

The plain facts, presented without commentary, are an effective plea for a more compassionate immigration policy.

Freeland does a fine job, waiting for her characters to converge in a way that doesn't feel overly forced, though there is a bit of that "Crash" tidiness in how things fall together. Still, the film is moving and human.