There are surprises and plenty of action. What's good about Snowpiercer is how they all blend together; each element informs the other.

The found-footage approach loses its shine quickly.

The film ricochets between Tammy being an oblivious cartoon goblin and a textured, sympathetic human being who just wants to be loved. Perhaps if the film had catered a little less to McCarthy's comedic gifts — the curse-word fugue states, the slapstick humor, the non sequiturs — the end result would have felt more balanced and rewarding.

If it is not as urgent as the first film, this is still an excellent companion piece. Together, the movies paint a complete picture of the physicality and mentality of war, and it is riveting.

Violette doesn't abandon that playbook, but it does a better job than most of putting the viewer in its artist's headspace.

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

Night Moves is an unexpected pleasure, offering more than what we expect and taking its time to deliver.

It's big, it's loud and it's all over the place, never really making a lick of sense. To his credit, sort of, director Michael Bay tries to insert a little story into the film early on, even a little humor, but that's overrun at some point by explosions and plot digressions.

What makes the film more than just a starstruck string of great stories is that it also gets at the loss and longing in Gordon's life.

Citizen Koch is undisciplined and depressing, yet still strangely worthwhile.

The girls bring a passion to the band that they can muster nowhere else in their lives. Not everyone gets what they're doing — well, no one, really — but that's the point. This is a knowing film, and a liberating one.

Thanks to its cast, The Grand Seduction turns out to be, if not exactly groundbreaking, at least agreeable, comfortable fun.

His first film, "Animal Kingdom," was a terrific examination of a low-grade crime family in Melbourne. The Rover is more ambitious but not as good. Michod's patience with scenes, while laudable, is at times too much.

Jersey Boys is a good movie, and the performances are first-rate. But Eastwood should have roughed things up a little more.

It's the PG-13 version of "The Hangover," and more than anything, that's just boring.

Vacth is good throughout. It's tough to make a disaffected character hold your interest, but she does.

Lucky Them isn't a great film, all told, but thanks to the good-natured performances and the general vibe, it's an immensely enjoyable one.

Acting (and story) take a back seat to the visual display. Eubank shows confidence with each shot, whether it takes place in a desert vista or a clinical government slab. What's it all mean? It's unclear, except meaning that Eubank is a talent to watch.

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.

It's a well-written rom-com with rascally charm, a modest story of an awkward Brooklyn girl making a go of life. It's irreverent and rough around the edges with an imperfect protagonist, blue language, scatological humor and rambling confessional stand-up monologues, sometimes about bodily fluids. The laughs are frequent and ribald.

22 Jump Street is, ultimately, a celebration of the silly and the sweet, a combination that's welcome again and again.

The look of the film is amazing. The animation, particularly when the dragons take flight, is seamless.

The filmmaker's seeming lack of skepticism makes for rough going if you don't buy into Kenyon's vision.

The script feels structurally inept, building up scenes and characters then cutting them off, never to be revisited. The end result is a film that feels full of staircases that lead nowhere.

Taking the bad-cop genre to the extreme, Filth lives up to its title and then some, but a no-holds performance by James McAvoy is reason enough to watch.

Owen and Binoche both are quite good, rising above the material for the most part. But even they can't save the film from itself, or from an ending that's downright bizarre.

Edge of Tomorrow repeats itself without being repetitive, takes itself seriously while providing some laughs and offers plenty of action without short-changing us on the intelligence front.

The Fault in Our Stars is manipulative as can be, pulling out all the stops — kids with cancer — in its attempt to bring the tears. And you know what? It works.