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

The club scenes, initially exciting, are ultimately wearying, and the movie meanders about much of the time.

Forbes' story and her direction of it may seem too sunny for some. But she keeps us refreshingly off-balance throughout, by letting us in on her memories the way she recalls them.

It's a short film, weighing in at 79 minutes, but that feels about right. You probably wouldn't want to spend a lot more time with these folks, no matter how intriguing their company. You won't necessarily enjoy the visit, not all of it. But you won't be bored, and for grown-ups with kids looking for a night out, that's something.

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

To the film's credit, it knows it's ridiculous. It's aiming for ridiculous, and it hits the mark as precisely as the strippers groove half-naked to their beats.

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.

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

It's stunning (and amazingly well done) and hard to believe.

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

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

The film, like most of MacFarlane's work, is a mix of occasional laugh-out-loud moments — there are some here — and cringe-worthy misfires that play a lot more tone-deaf than he seems to intend.

There aren't any scares to speak of, though there is some gore. The cast is game to try anything, but there's just not much here for them to work with. Like most zombies, Burying the Ex is an idea that should have stayed dead.

It's a fine line between being gratingly self-conscious and really smart; more times than not, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl comes out on the winning side of that equation.

Throughout the film Famuyiwa, who also wrote the script, uses split screens and backs up the film and jumps around and freezes the action, but he's not showing off. He uses these techniques to tell his story, and doesn't overuse them to the point of annoyance.

Inside Out is terrific, a mind-bending concept turned into a brilliant film, a return to form for Pixar not just in terms of quality but in taking risks — risks that pay off.

It actually is quite funny. It is also warm and empathetic, though a viewer's reaction to the film might vary depending how they view the subject of assisted suicide.

The Nightmare is a different kind of documentary, shelving the usual experts and talking heads for a more personal experience of the title subject. That's good and bad.

The film spends more time lingering on Emma's love affairs than it does in making sense of them; her declarations of passion and despair lack both.

This is World War I from a woman's point of view, a different perspective than we usually see. It's the story of someone who doesn't fight — who would be so shaped by tragedy that she would vow never to — but for whom the horrors of war are just as vivid and devastating.

Every third person on the planet will go to see this movie, and they will find exactly what they seek, nothing more but certainly nothing less. It's that nothing more part that ultimately disappoints.

The Connection is long and occasionally long-winded and determinedly old-fashioned in its approach. That's why I liked it.

Insidious: Chapter 3 is almost more a spoof of a classic like "The Exorcist" than it is an homage. It's not scary horror, it's silly horror, and the audience is in on the joke.

There are no princesses, monsters or castles in the sky, but that doesn't mean there is no magic.

Everything feels pat and oversimplified, with no gray areas. That's not uncommon in films of this nature, but Christensen is unable to make the movie feel like anything more than propaganda.

Spy is hilarious and heartfelt, a terrific movie.

A great movie exists in Love & Mercy, side by side with a pretty good one.

The big-screen version of Entourage is constructed like the series, another chapter in a sequel-ready story. If you wanted something more, you won't get it. But you will get this, and if it does well, likely more of it.