It never feels contrived, never panders to our illusions. When the ending comes, it is neither expected nor a twist. It’s just what happens.

the performances, even from some really good actors, are wooden, the huge CGI effects are a distraction and the best thing about the movie is the one thing that, other than the casting, will probably make the most people angry: God is a kid.

By the time the film reaches its implausible climax, it is far too late to rescue the story from the limbo that lies between ugly history and slick entertainment.

While it is a perfectly serviceable placeholder in the larger series, its contributions to the Potterverse are disappointingly minor.

The franchise... concludes with a genuinely stirring ending. ... But [Stewart's] acting hasn't improved, and the dialogue remains laughable. Bad actress, bad lines. Bad combination.

To pretend that the film’s pleasures are more than modest is just that — pretending.

Perhaps the problem isn’t one of too little ambition, but of too much. The Spy Who Dumped Me is, after all, trying earnestly to be about half a dozen different things: a buddy comedy, a spy drama, a raunch fest, a thrilling action film. It’s just that it doesn't have the focus to do any of those things particularly well.

The story is good enough to tell itself, and the filmmakers should have let it.

You expect the big joke in Casa de Mi Padre to involve Will Ferrell mangling the Spanish language. Instead, the movie is funny because of just how commendable the actor's Spanish is.

In creating the ultimate movie for sword-and-sandal blood-spatter fetishists, director Zack Snyder scores on the spectacle side—300 looks amazing—but his mechanical story line and over-the-top melodramatics don't support the action. [9 March 2007, p.1]

A fast-starting film that quickly piles meta, self-referential elements on top of each other until they no longer make much sense, and the whole thing collapses under the weight of its own coolness.

Add romantic chemistry to the list of things that fall flat in the film, alongside dialogue and acting.

It feels flat, disjointed, with too many moving parts.

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.

It comes down to a matter of tone, and Clooney can’t really settle on one. The Monuments Men is in no way a bad movie. Just, with this bunch, a disappointing one.

Rudderless is a quietly ambitious film, and if it eventually collapses under the dramatic weight it's asked to shoulder — and it does — at least it's trying.

If you’re going to keep your audience guessing, you need to provide them with answers they care about. Beckett doesn’t.

It’s a compelling journey into the deep, if a meandering one, guided by a moral compass that operates by a different magnetic field than our own, and often leads astray.

Everything, Everything is a flawed film in many ways, but there is one that’s a deal breaker: It doesn’t make you cry.

The film looks terrific, with a fantastical forest coming to 3-D life. Swooping birds, flying arrows and more make good use of the technology. But the best films use technology as a storytelling device, not as a substitute for story itself.

Too often Washington is made to simply sit and observe -- which is not a fatal mistake because he is such a good actor that even then he's worth watching. Worse, though, at times he's gone altogether. That's not the only flaw in the fairly straightforward thriller, but it's the biggest.

The elements are all there. They’re just thrown together in haphazard fashion. A funny scene here, an attempt at a touching scene there, toss, repeat randomly, the end.

Even with the talent involved, almost everything about Labor Day plays less like something you’d buy a ticket to watch and more like something you’d buy in an airport bookstore to read.

Thanks to a good cast and a willingness to stray fairly far afield from the source material, it’s better than you might think.

Beautiful Creatures rises above the rabble thanks to an eminently watchable cast and a sharp screenplay by writer-director Richard LaGravenese.

Matthias Hoene’s delightfully chipper film delivers, even on the “not-a-lot-more” front. He set out to make a funny, fast-moving gross-out zombie flick, nothing beyond that, and he has succeeded with style. And humor. And guts. Lots of spilling, dangling guts (and other body parts).

The Intern is idiotic, unrealistic, Boomer wish fulfillment that has no business working on any level. I quite enjoyed it.

Lee Toland Krieger's film masquerades for a while as a romantic drama brainier than most, getting good mileage out of an intriguingly odd performance from Blake Lively. But ultimately, the movie relies far too much on contrivance and coincidence.

There's nothing bad about Skateland, in fact, particularly for those old enough to remember the clothes, the feathered hair and the soundtrack. There's just nothing new, or anything that hasn't been done before, and better.

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau never made a movie called Grumpy Old Men Go Camping. If they had, it surely would look a lot like A Walk in the Woods.

J.A. Bayona's film never figures out what it wants to be, casting about for a coherent tone. Thanks in large part to Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow's script, it doesn't find one. But at least it has some fun making the effort.

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 film is visually striking, even if the images don’t always make sense.

Procedural and uninspired, the Vietnam War-focused melodrama The Last Full Measure isn't as strong as its real-life hero.

Ribisi has become the go-to guy for movie psychos, giving everything to performances like this one or as Moburg, the dissolute reporter in "The Rum Diary."

Breathe is a valentine, but it's a valentine that is quite moving.

It never quite takes off in a stirring, inspirational way, but moves steadily forward in solid fashion.

It's asked in the film, "How many new lives can we have?" The answer, it turns, is however many we want. And as long as Dench, Smith, Nighy and Imrie stick around, the same probably is true of "Marigold" movies.

Surprisingly, character actor Sam Anderson winds up stealing a lot of the film as Bruce and Frank's dad. He can take a line as innocuous as "We don't have cars right now. Bruce stole them for drugs" and turn it into something hilarious.

Although there are moments of humor in the film, many of them supplied by the delightful Jones, there are also long stretches of, um . . . "blah" might be the best word for it.

Gregg really reaches far, scattering in bits of magical realism and an art-house ending that is simultaneously wondrous and a trifle heavy-handed. The finale may be a bit much for some, but movie buffs will likely give Gregg the benefit of the doubt.

Due Date should be a disaster, derivative of every road-trip movie you've ever seen. What prevents that are the efforts of the two stars.

How to Be Single has enough laughs and heartfelt moments to appeal to all generations.

One reason it works so well: The film always looks believable, and it’s easy to get wrapped into Singer’s fairy-tale world.

At its best, it hits the gut with the free-fall feel of a theme-park ride. But it’s a long and winding path back to the gate, and “Valerian” loses its way many times, however beautifully.

While Cuaron’s technical chops are beyond question, his storytelling could use some honing here.

A LEGO Brickumentary feels like one of those cheerful corporate videos that gets screened at team meetings, designed to rouse employees into a rah-rah fervor. The down side: Most videos of that ilk don’t last for 90 minutes.

Bird Box is scary, but it also feels very human.

It recycles the same tired battle-of-the-sexes premise employed by every third romantic comedy that gets made.

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 balance between spunky kid film, buddy movie, comic book adventure and rugged violence is, as you might guess, difficult to find. But it’s kind of fun to watch “Project Power” try.

Johnson is his usual amiable self, but the best thing about the movie is Campbell.

Even though Trial by Fire is less than a masterpiece, it still came as a gut punch that forced me to examine my own complicated feelings on the issue. In short, it taught me something, and that was a surprise.

It's a maudlin, superficial exercise in obsession masquerading as a heartfelt romance and study of grief, and character development is sorely lacking. Although well-acted, particularly by Annette Bening, the story feels contrived.

Although it contains some interesting characters, God's Pocket, like the neighborhood it depicts, is the kind of place you can't wait to escape, even if its inhabitants cannot.

The film, directed and co-written by Kevin Reynolds ("Fandango," um, "Waterworld"), is a nice-enough telling of the Resurrection of Jesus, which at times seems like it also wants to be a Very Special Episode of "CSI: Jerusalem." It's well-made and well-acted.

So sickeningly sweet dentists should show it in their waiting rooms to ensure business, the film just isn’t very good, even by treacly holiday film standards.

It’s an unnecessarily complicated puzzle-box construction that only serves to cheapen the story and diminish its impact

How disappointing that a movie about challenging authority should be such a slave to convention.

Elliott's performance as Barr makes the movie.

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.

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.

Rough Night has a couple of halfway good ideas, but they never add up to a whole.

For anyone familiar with the original Peter Rabbit, it’s a little depressing to see its storybook charm reduced to slapstick. You can only see a person get electrocuted so many times before the gag wears thin, and with it the movie’s welcome.

Overall the movie is a delightful escape with several laugh-out-loud moments. It's definitely worth "girls night out" or "mom-and-daughter" trip to the movies.

Reynolds is a good actor but he's miscast. Mirren is great, and she makes Woman in Gold better than it otherwise would have been. Still, it's just kind of boring and straightforward, even if its inspiration is not.

Slow-moving and occasionally ponderous in tone, "Creation" nonetheless is an intriguing portrait of a man and a time that changed everything.

The premise wears thin after a while and the humor is hit-and-miss, but when it's on its game The Wedding Video can be laugh-out-loud funny.

Me Before You is enjoyable in places, and Claflin eventually gives his character some depth beyond simply being angry. But the film exists mostly as a tear-production delivery system.

The script, by Bill Dubuque, goes sideways in a hurry. Characters do inexplicable things for no reason other than advancing the plot, and sometimes not even that. There is a jaw-dropping coincidence that is as ridiculous as it is obvious.

Trolls World Tour isn’t a great movie, but it’s not an awful one, either — and maybe most importantly, it’s a new movie, one you can watch right now without leaving your house.

It's a modestly interesting coming-of-age movie, and a totally forgettable mystery.

Broadway Idiot is entertaining enough. Certainly if you’re a Green Day fan, it’s something close to essential. But it never goes too deeply into anything.

One is left wishing a little more time were spent on the clothes and the creative process, but Yves Saint Laurent is still a lovely escape into an elegant, evolving world.

Visually, the film is sumptuous and the costumes are suitably wow-inspiring, but the humans are a blah bunch.

A pretty good action movie for about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, it lasts 106.

Nothing seems real here, with everything too broadly drawn.

Character development, dramatic tension and emotional resonance all get short shrift in the checklist exposition by writer-director Gavin Hood.

Half of a Yellow Sun winds up being one of those movies in which a pesky event of great historical import keeps getting in the way of a soap-opera romance.

Take away the confusing plot and throwaway punchlines and the cast is by far the best part of the film — and the reason many will go see it. If only they were part of a different movie. The Gentlemen doesn't live up to the hype.

When Going the Distance works, it works well, and it feels genuine. But like a bad relationship, the movie will continually let you down.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates gives us too much hangover and not enough buzz.

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.

The best thing “Day Shift” has going for it is the best things the dopey ’80s films had going for them — a willingness not to take itself too seriously. And that only gets you so far. But who knows, maybe in 40 years this will look better in retrospect, too.

An improvement over its predecessor.

Despite a couple of powerful performances, a big-name cast and an ambitious structure, Lovelace...feels oddly half-baked, almost unfinished.

While its audacity is laudable, the film ultimately has all the thrill of watching someone else play a first-person-shooter video game.

The acting is first rate, the story still heartbreakingly urgent. But ultimately Parkland plays more like a re-enactment than a film in its own right.

It's all too much, and it's too hard to follow. Less is more, and this movie proves it.

Tremendously entertaining.

In the movie version at least, efforts to render the hero larger than life result in a story that is less than convincing.

It's plenty gory. And it definitely rocks. As for hilarious? It must've felt that way to Grohl, who liked the "Pearl Jam high-five" joke well enough to use it twice.

It’s good, it’s intriguing, but in the end it’s nothing to howl about.

Overall, Kill the Irishman is an entertaining look at a brutal time in an ugly place.

True Story never really soars in the way it might, but the performances more than keep it aloft.

Supporting turns by Philip Rosenthal and David Alan Grier as two pals in the business are fun, but they can't prevent the movie's rather aimless nature or self-indulgent feel.

A jumbled, messy movie that has some winning moments but jumps around too much to hold your interest for long.

All pleasures in Last Christmas are as slight. Like the Christmas shop and its baubles, it’s shiny and attractive and intermittently distracting, but it’s all just so much glitter on cheap plastic. It’s angling hard for holiday cheer, but there’s nothing more joyless than forced whimsy.