Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is a rather lackluster affair, a cash grab that tries to aim a little higher but confuses sappy shortcuts with real emotion.

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

Probably it's a combination of those and other elements that leads to Diaz's bad teacher not being as bad as she might have been and Bad Teacher not as good as it could have been.

Doesn't attempt much, doesn't accomplish much, doesn't offer much and doesn't leave you with anything memorable to take home with you.

Dog Days isn't so much a movie as an emotional delivery system, meant to make you laugh a little, cry a little and say, "Awww" about 10,000 times. On that front, it's a complete success. As an actual film, well, not so much.

The bad news - it's not interesting enough to be a disaster.

Verbinski manages some squirm-worthy moments, and cinematographer Bojan Bazelli creates a creepy look throughout. But the story doesn’t make sense as it goes along and then devolves into absurdity.

You also aren't sure what the film is about or if it's about anything at all, except fluid filmmaking.

The first scene in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back promises something interesting but delivers something considerably less. That’s a problem with the whole movie.

Winslet and Davis salvage what they can from the movie — a heroic effort, almost, making it a fun trifle, albeit one with some deadly serious overtones.

We’re left with some fun, funny and occasionally scary set pieces, but the slices don’t add up to a whole pizza, as it were.

If this is the end — and who are we kidding, the film’s box-office returns will determine that, not its plot — it’s a disappointing one. But it’s long past time to let it die.

It’s not going to make you forget “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” or “Bambi” or “Frozen” or “Tangled,” but elements of it might remind you of them. Which is by design.

By the time the main vampire shows up, Salem’s Lot has already been rendered toothless.

What Sauvaire shows in these films is the intense human emotions that infuse these dramatic action movies.

While the movie doesn’t break new ground, it’s a story pretty well told. If you’re a fan of war epics of movies about flying, you’ll find something that holds your interest.

The problem is the movie itself – the script, the editing, the construction, all of which combine to make the whole thing feel flat, lifeless and confusing.

Ultimately, the whole affair is forgettable. The original film was promoted with the tagline "It knows what scares you." If there was a truth-in-advertising law regarding films, this movie's ad copy would read: "Poltergeist: Meh."

A movie with a title like Puerto Ricans in Paris comes with certain expectations. Low ones. Thanks to the efforts of Luis Guzman — and they are mighty — Ian Edelman's slight film manages to rise above them. Not by much, but above them, still.

There's a welcome lack of pretension to the proceedings. Stalwarts like Hurt and Ian McShane are on hand to class up the joint — everyone's got a British accent except for Johnson — while the predictable story bludgeons its way towards an inevitable conclusion.

It is hard to imagine that a Scandinavian-set comedy starring Jenny Slate would lack charisma, but unfortunately, the most interesting characters in The Sunlit Night are a yellow barn and the sprawling scenery of rural Norway.

It's the Walmart of feel-good family films: accessible, cheaply made, useful in a pinch and full of American flags.

When he’s on, Stewart’s skewer is sharp indeed.

It’s nobody’s masterpiece, but it is an exceptionally promising start for Mohr, making his feature debut as a director.

Sometimes it’s absurdist comedy. Sometimes it’s dark comedy. Sometimes it’s out-and-out killing-people drama (almost, but not quite). It’s often funny, but it never quite hangs together as a coherent movie.

Journalists deserve to be heralded — just not in this holier-than-thou cinematic cri de coeur. So, on behalf of journalists everywhere, I have to tell Mr. Reiner thanks, but no thanks.

There are some compelling elements here, probably too many for one film, but they're too often presented in a cliched way. Connor and co-director Michael Worth go for the easy sentiment, the expected route, leading to middling results.

Director Adam Wingard knows how to make a movie, as seen with 2014's "The Guest," and the visuals are well done in this film, the CGI looks nice, the shots and angles are good. What's lost here is the plot.