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

It is, at times, a charming reprieve from the usually dour cinematic explorations of Middle Eastern conflicts. But big-hearted and well-intentioned as the film is, it's frequently undone by its own silliness.

The performances are certainly compelling.

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.

A clever, funny movie that will entertain kids and adults.

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

Even with the revolving door of characters and plot developments, there are some laughs in Almost Christmas.

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.

Pacino, long ago having given up subtlety for bombast, continues along that path here, but he's still fun to watch.

Jeunet's new film, Micmacs, mixes the dark, claustrophobic world of "Delicatessen" and "City of Lost Children," with the happy-ending optimism of "Amélie" and "A Very Long Engagement." It isn't a convincing graft of moods.

Billed as a musical comedy, Magic Mike’s Last Dance should be a lighthearted Valentine’s Day/Super Bowl weekend watch. Unfortunately, it’s not funny in the ways it expects to be.

It’s never a boring film to look at, but it is often a tiring one. Running over two hours, the film is bloated with portent and repetition, each story taking too long to get to its inevitable moral.

It's good enough for a brainless night of fun at the movies, though your enjoyment might hinge on your nostalgia for old-fashioned dude movies, complete with a soundtrack of wailing electric-guitar solos and a wealth of random topless babes. Unfortunately, it could have been a lot better if someone had taken out a hit on the script.

Chemical Hearts is sad, dark and depending on how much heartbreak you can take, almost too depressing at times. But it definitely provides something different in the teenage romance genre — except that something different may make you miss the days of cheesy high school rom-coms by the end.

The hyperreal CGI animated Over the Moon is fun, visually stunning and poignant, even if there are spurts of aimless psychedelic chaos along the way.

Wild Grass retains a literary feel with the help of an unseen narrator, who offers intriguing poetic observations. And Resnais' visuals are equally lyrical. What can you say: The French sure know how to make pretty pictures.

Everest is a sprawling mess of a movie, one you feel like could have been great but instead roams all over the place and winds up being just pretty good.

It’s a serviceable movie, nothing more but — also important — nothing less. And did we mention it has George Clooney and Brad Pitt?

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.

A mix of solid action and an underused cast, with star Hugh Jackman left shouldering the burden of bad lines and forced emotion, it leaves you longing for more editing and a tighter story.

Niccol looks at the pilot's struggles and the toll this remote form of warfare takes on his life. It's certainly intriguing, but he tells his story in such broad, obvious strokes that the movie isn't as powerful as it could be.

Levine shows some of the promise that would serve him so well later, but beyond an intriguing look and an initial attempt to put a new spin on the teen-horror genre, “Mandy Lane” winds up being pretty conventional.

If the cast wasn’t so talented and so committed to doing some heavy lifting, Finding Your Feet would be a gigantic misstep.

The makers of Wish Upon must love the “Final Destination” films, because they perfectly mimic the style, which is alternately nerve-wracking and slightly silly.

All the glossy, kinetic animation and inventive action sequences get lost in the gag machine. The film throws jokes out like a tennis-ball machine on the fritz: gross humor, slapstick pratfalls, bizarre non sequiturs. The randomness does land a few laughs, but it's also exhausting.

Téchiné's fidelity to the facts delivers a disappointing denouement to an intriguing character study.

It’s probably best to think of Suicide Squad as a primer, an entry into a side world of the DC Universe that may pay bigger benefits in later films. It certainly seems like that’s how the filmmakers thought of it.

Southpaw is all about the fist. There’s no delicate footwork here, no lingering grace notes. It’s a film played entirely in power chords.