At best, Ride Along 2 is what you’ve seen in every other comedic cop movie. Nothing outstanding, but mindless fun.

There is a hazy, gauzy quality to all of this, which keeps things just out of reach. Certainly, it looks like a lot of fun to be young, beautiful and rich in Naples. But Parthenope is also out of reach, almost an idea as much as a character. What that idea is I’m not quite certain.

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

The many battle sequences, though carefully detailed, are lacking in energy and originality. There is some ambition here, but the results fall short.

It’s still more of a spectacle than a movie. But as spectacles go, it’s a big one. And with more elements of an actual film creeping in here and there, who knows? By the time we get to the fifth one, we might have some actual cinema on our hands.

The movie is much like its hero, Freddie — straightforward, sweet, hard-working and predictable.

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.

An enjoyable movie, in many ways a beautiful movie to look at. One only wishes he'd been a little more ambitious.

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

Instead of delving into the moral questions WikiLeaks asks by its very existence, Condon gives those a passing nod in a couple of weak subplots.

There’s a lot to be admired here, and After the Wedding certainly gives you a lot to think about. It just doesn’t quite make you feel all the feels.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie is a worthwhile entry into this growing universe, expanding it but not really evolving it. It’s fun, but not especially memorable.

Delving into Argentinian politics, grief and growth, while the film had room to explore these themes, it remains somewhat lighthearted — which is where it falls short.

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

What it lacks in comedy, “Dog” makes up with heart. It celebrates a different kind of love as Briggs and Lulu learn how to trust each other despite their postwar trauma.

The story lacks the same intensity of the original. Not that everyone will have seen the first one. Those who have will almost certainly find the new version lacking. Those who haven’t will find a solid mystery, nothing more. Given the cast, that’s a letdown.

Yes, questions regarding violence and mayhem are drowned out by violence and mayhem. Such is the superhero life as directed by Zack Snyder. There is no problem that can't be solved with a cranium-rattling explosion or two.

At least [Teller's] presence, along with Woodley's, makes Insurgent good, if not great. And it's not too late to keep improving.

It's entertaining enough to see once, just to say you've seen it. But it surely isn't for everyone. You've got to have a dark and dirty sense of humor.

Though lacking in subtlety, Robert Zemeckis' Welcome to Marwen delivers a sentimental fantasy world worth wading in.

The Miracle Season is a pleasant surprise, the rare inspirational sports movie that actually earns its tears.

There's just nothing magical about the story, nothing that lifts it above its status as an agreeable song-and-dance movie, a laugh here, a laugh there, pleasant but overly busy, for seemingly no real reason other than to throw a few more set pieces at the wall to see what sticks.

What we see onscreen instead is mere competence, handsomely shot but bereft of purpose. One gets the sense that it was remade for no other reason than because more tolerant 21st-century content standards mean you can spill a man’s guts onscreen.

While individually some of the scenes are terrific, they don't add up to much, making Hail, Caesar! one of the Coens' lesser comedies, better than "Intolerable Cruelty," say, but nowhere near the genius of "The Big Lewbowski."

The sequel's target audience may be too young to realize that the best punch lines are long past their expiration date, but at least they're learning the idea of the catchphrase. They can hear the exclamation points.

For a film about art forgeries, The Art of the Steal is itself something of a forgery, a painstaking, brushstroke-by-brushstroke re-creation of masterworks dreamed up by better artists. And like a good forgery, it's enjoyable on the surface, but loses its charm a bit once you do some digging.

It's all too much on the surface, not enough underneath. In other words, fans of the first film will love it.

Ultimately, the best relationship in the movie remains that of Holmes and Watson, which is to say, Downey and Law. Their pairing is what makes the movie; the explosions and bells and whistles Ritchie employs are mere distractions.

It's a soapy, predictable ride where everyone learns about the importance of family. And though it's just a Christmas tree away from being a holiday special, the stellar cast wrings just enough genuine emotion out of a stale premise to make it mostly sweet.

There's no question that a soft-spoken person can be a great leader, but Caviezel underplays Ladouceur to the point that you wonder how the players could even hear him, much less be inspired by him.

Close's performance is a study in repression -- too much so, really.

Trachtenberg is patient building this world, and the actors do a good job inhabiting it. Winstead is a terrific actress, and she makes Michelle's desperation and inventiveness believable. Goodman is never better than when playing a nut, and while we aren't sure if that's what he's doing here, the possibility makes for an intriguing portrayal.

If Free Guy really was a video game, it’s not one you’d play over and over. But as a one-time lark, it’s entertaining enough to invest in.

It leads exactly where we think it will on a sometimes funny, ultimately predictable, journey.

It’s a variation on a theme that Solondz has been working through his whole filmography, and when he’s successful, he convinces you to believe the worst in people and laugh at it. But when he’s not, the film can feel like punishment.

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.

Despite the best efforts of Plaza and the rest of the cast, Life After Beth never winds up being as scary or as funny as it ought to be.

“Lightyear” is an OK movie. Chris Evans as the voice of this version of Buzz is a nice touch. But there’s just no magic here.

If you like your musicals enormous, over the top and bang-on-the-head manipulative, Les Miserables is the movie for you.

Riddick aims much lower than the stars and still doesn't quite hit its target. But when you consider a summer overstuffed with disappointing prestige pics that cost the GDP of several island nations to produce, Riddick's more modest (and less expensive) stumbling doesn't seem so bad in comparison.

This is the first time in ages some of the old stand-up Crystal shows through, flashes of quick wit instead of Borscht-belt antics. Not to the extent that it used to in such movies as "When Harry Met Sally ..." (which was, ahem, 23 years ago). But better than you'd expect...Just like the movie.

As far as acting, DeVito steals the show with characteristic energy a ringleader would be proud of. But Farrell's chemistry with the kids never takes off, costing the film a portion of emotion. And the writing doesn't help much, either. The family's relationship is supposed to be strained, but it never feels like they convincingly resolve insecure feelings around each other. Still, no matter how fans look at it, it's hard to deny how adorable Dumbo is.

It’s an admirable film, though not a particularly memorable one.

There’s far too little of MacArthur’s strutting on display. Granted, that’s not the movie Webber was making. But you kind of wish it was.

Unfortunately, stretching things out dilutes the charms of Segel and Blunt, which are considerable.

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.

There is nothing about Evil Dead as groundbreaking as Raimi’s films (particularly the first two). But it’s smarter and better done than a lot of what’s come since those movies were made, which is to say there is at least some thought behind the killings.

The story, based on the Michael Connelly novel, grows increasingly far-fetched - at times it plays like an expensive pilot for a TV series, maybe a "Young Barnaby Jones" or something.

The images are impressive. But the characters and their development leave something to be desired.

The filmmaking is gorgeous and unsettling, giving the Midwest of the early 1980s a Gothic feel. The acting is hit or miss — two performances stand head and shoulders above the rest — but it’s the story that never quite gels.

It's entertaining at face value, but they never let it be just that.

Spare Parts is the kind of feel-good underdog movie that almost can't help getting waylaid by cliches.

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.

Director McG proves perfectly adept at blowing things up in interesting ways, but there's not so much acting here as there is yelling at different volumes.

It falls to Wright and Watts to shoulder the heavy lifting here, and they do so with as much grace as the plot will allow. Adore isn’t the feminist medication Fontaine probably means it to be, but it’s not the unintentional laugh riot it could have been in lesser hands, either.

Gosling and Evans are movie stars, no doubt about it. How far that charisma can take a film is a question “The Gray Man” asks and answers: pretty far, but not far enough.

In the end, How to Make a Killing is fine, fun, a nice diversion starring, if no longer the flavor of the month, then a good actor elevating the material around him.

One can forgive the trying-too-hard aphorisms -- "You don't choose a life ... you live one" -- but savvy cinephiles are sure to be annoyed by Tyler Bates' hypnotic ambient-folk soundtrack, studded with such despoiled musical gems as Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" and the Shins' "New Slang."

Ultimately, however, what prevents The Oranges from being the movie it might have been is Farino's inability to settle on a tone.

Jensen has a real gift for comedic editing, knowing just how long to play out a bit and when to move on. And Mikkelsen goes all in with his performance (as does everyone else).

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

His (Borte) film would have been much better had it stuck to its guns as social commentary and not lapsed into a predictable, and predictably lame, love story.

The narrative feels undercooked, its life lessons just a bit too glib.

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.

The Day is not a classic, not by a long shot. But it's not a disaster, either. With movies like this, that counts as a small victory.

It all adds up to a decent movie — one that, for those in the know, stands in the shadow of a better one.

Geography Club almost makes up in good intentions what it lacks in technique and execution. Almost.

The Call of the Wild is a fascinating movie, visually.

A curious misfire, a stylized biography of one of the most powerful women in politics, portrayed by the greatest actress of our time, that asks more questions than it answers.

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.

Arlo & Julie is a comedy, a mystery and a romance rolled together, yet it barely adds up to one movie.

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.

Come see Wildlife for Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan, but stay for the young actor who plays their 14-year-old son.

There's no question it looks fantastic...As for the story, well, much like the original Frankenstein's monster, it is a haphazard assemblage of well-aged source materials jolted back to life with new technology, but it isn't quite as sophisticated as one might hope.

When it comes to dumb fun, generally speaking you want a pretty good balance between the two elements. “Normal” ignores this notion, gleefully so.

It’s not a bad movie, by any means. Just repetitive in its relentless praise.

It’s not the best movie you’ll see this year, but it’s the most movie by a long shot.

I'm happy to report that Blue Beetle doesn’t suffer from the ponderousness that weighs down so many other DC movies. It's lighter, more fun, and delivers the jokes, bright colors and nods to ridiculousness that you want from a superhero movie. And speaking of the superhero, the Blue Beetle emerges as relatable and easy to cheer for.

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.

Neeson's performance is so eerie, in a buttoned-down sort of way.

Genisys is more entertaining than the last two installments, although it's not nearly as good as the first two.

Under the Electric Sky is a bedazzled (if not quite dazzling) 3D documentary.

The road-trip comedy is well-traveled territory, especially in indie films. But there's something unexpectedly refreshing about Land Ho!

“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.

Wendy is not glossy by any means but it feels like an escape from the soulless live-action Disney remakes audiences have become accustomed to.

Elliott's performance as Barr makes the movie.

Ultimately it's not the lives of the characters that need adjusting here. It's the story itself.

It's funny enough, and Grace is an engaging actor, always making a good impression but never quite getting over the hump to become the star it seems like he ought to be.

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.

Moving On, a dark comedy written and directed by Paul Weitz, isn’t a great movie by any means, but it’s a pretty good one. It’s also a relief to see Fonda and Tomlin play women whose age is not discounted, but is also not disqualifying.

The rest of the cast is fine, actually, but Rudd spares nothing in making Ned a lovable loser, with the emphasis on "loser."

It’s a mix of good films that could have been a single outstanding one.

Although Johnson performs admirably in the drama-heavy role — far better than many of his action-hero colleagues would manage — John Matthews is a character as boring as his name.

The film itself begins to feel like Gray, a pretty bird in a gilded cage with nowhere to fly.

Despite the silly-sounding premise, it's a wistful, bittersweet meditation on aging and death.

With “Maleficent’s” feminist message suffering a relapse, the sequel looks more like generic film fantasy than a fresh take on an old story. The cuddly creatures and razzle-dazzle action are enough to make two hours disappear, but it’s only Jolie’s bat-winged charisma that will rattle on in your memory.

The Zero Theorem feels like Gilliam's keen intellect chasing its own tail.

A stripped-down affair, from title to characters to plot. It never strives to be more, instead concentrating on making the most of its self-imposed limitations.