It never really comes together in a satisfying way, and given the talent involved, that adds up to a big disappointment.

A great movie, an astonishing achievement on nearly every level.

Solid, enjoyable, good, but not great.

Whatever you like or hate, or like and hate, about Quentin Tarantino's movies, is in full display here. It's long (too long) and bloody, profane and gleeful, with movie-genre references stuffed so tightly into each scene they practically spill out onto the theater floor. Restraint is not his strong suit...Entertainment is, and Django has plenty of that.

This is the first time in ages some of the old stand-up Crystal shows through, flashes of quick wit instead of Borscht-belt antics. Not to the extent that it used to in such movies as "When Harry Met Sally ..." (which was, ahem, 23 years ago). But better than you'd expect...Just like the movie.

If you like your musicals enormous, over the top and bang-on-the-head manipulative, Les Miserables is the movie for you.

A satisfying story of yearning and, eventually, satisfaction.

We aren't used to comedies that make us squirm like this. That doesn't mean they aren't worth our time. This Is 40 is.

One of those movies that's good, but leaves you with the nagging feeling that it could have been better.

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

The Guilt Trip surprises by avoiding the obvious. It zigs when you expect it to zag. It's perceptive and thoughtful as it swerves around potholes that easily could have broken an axle.

You shouldn't be able to read a book faster than you can see it play out on-screen.

Simply put, it's a mess.

Hitchcock is, well, fun. More fun than good, really. It feels weird to call it a disappointment, because it is entertaining. But you can't help feeling a little shortchanged on the deep-thinking front.

For a movie that seems at times to have no idea what it's trying to do, 'Silver Linings Playbook' is compulsively watchable. ... Throwing together so many movie tropes and blending them is both a brilliant idea and a scary one, but one that Russell proves well capable of handling.

It's not that the artificiality doesn't work sometimes. It does, as some of the scenes are gorgeous to look at. But too often it serves as more of a distraction than an effective tool for telling the story.

The look of the film is jaw-dropping at times, beautiful to behold. If the story... can't quite keep pace with the look of the film (and, alas, it can't) it will take you awhile to notice.

Could be fun, you might think. No. Bad acting and worse dialogue quickly put an end to that notion.

It has a great voice cast, a kinda-sorta interesting premise and the 3-D is effective, but somehow it just doesn't add up.

Set in 18th-century Denmark, it's an intellectual costume drama. It's a romance involving big ideas, the biggest ideas. It's long, it's serious, it's a lot of fun.

If it sounds like so much backroom politicking, it is. But it's exceptionally interesting, entertaining backroom politicking.

It's hard to imagine sitting through the film without Penn in the role of Cheyenne. But there he is, in all his intense, bizarre glory, almost daring us to come along for the ride and rewarding us with a compelling trip when we accept.

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.

The great success for Mendes and Craig, however, is that while Skyfall obviously has a great fondness for the past, it's not trapped there. It also anticipates Bond's future. In this immensely satisfying movie, so do we.

Despite its emotional coldness, the film still manages to end on a note of something like hope.

There is a sad sweetness to the whole affair, for lack of a better term. Or maybe it's a sweet sadness. But O'Brien's outlook on life (he thinks his use-by date may be approaching), and Hawkes' portrayal of it, elevates the film beyond what's on the page, making what's on the screen a lot more satisfying.

It's a small movie but an effective one, using found footage as a means to an end and not as an end in itself. More like it would be a welcome trend.

If you're willing to let a movie wash over you and work at what it might mean, you'll love "Holy Motors," Leos Carax's surreal ode to … identity? Movies? Performance?