Writer/director Tim Blake Nelson manages a finely tuned balance that is rare in cinema. Moving from the far reaches of comedy to the nether regions of drama, he never skips a beat or sets the pitch too high.

Men in Black 3 is exactly what you'd expect: amiable mediocrity and nicely laid-back performances with pricy special effects plugging in the gaps where jokes should be.

Filled to the brim with top-shelf performances from an impressive cast, and with enough well-executed (and often shocking) violence to keep moviegoers of all stripes wide awake, Lawless is a minor classic in the making.

The Hobbit is just good enough to make you aware of how it could have been much, much better. If you take your kids-while shielding them from various nonhuman bad guys getting decapitated both repeatedly and, worse, bloodlessly-they'll have a good time. Bilbo Baggins' quest for adventure and Warner Bros' quest for cash will take him through three films. But your quest for epic, truly entertaining filmmaking will be more successful if you just stay home.

Stunningly shot by cinematographer Nigel Bluck (Handsome Harry) the film captures beautifully the magic of the foliage and the surrounding landscapes.

An uneven mix of middle-age anxiety and family comedy.

Stone is highly charged and vibrant, and pits Edward Norton against Robert De Niro for two utterly electrifying performances.

This is a soap opera that stands at a distance from its characters (that distance being the length of a lawyer's briefcase) and, though handsome and capable, feels as inert as mannequins in a shop window.

The Spierigs make exciting use of their clever vampire premise and the result is a potential horror/action franchise equal to "Underworld."

Severe Clear provides a view of the early days of the war and reminds you of all the promotion and idealism that conflict came with.

Paul is a close encounter with the comic brilliance of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost that makes going to the movies fun again.

It may be the most glaringly, if unintentionally, personal film that Zhang has made since 1994's "To Live."

What it provides (instead of the thematically clever dialogue of typically subtle French comedy) is biting wit, poignancy and, forsaking some structural nuisances, the summer's best bromance.

Unfortunately, the committee-designed script never finds a consistent balance between building characters, delivering action and pushing the story forward.

Much of the film is taken up with Wexler's musings about his own mortality and physical, shall we say, decomposition.

Part of Me strains so hard to make Perry seem at once triumphant but totally relatable that it veers toward a self-seriousness you won't find in her music, image or Hershey's Kiss bra.

Repression is one thing, but discontent generally breeds self-knowledge and rich interior lives, two things that are eerily absent here. Regardless, the film features some really intriguing conflicts and solid performances throughout.

Kids should especially like this magnificent and heartwarming look at the life of young Oscar.

Landau and Burstyn remain compelling throughout.

That tension between silly comedy and poignant drama could have been dicey, but Stebbings and Harrelson maintain just the right balance between the two.

The filmmakers do bang-up job expanding the frontline perspectives, aiming to subvert a ruling regime’s course and expose its cloudy human rights record.

Tsui Hark's films aren't famous for their coherence, but Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is such a wantonly incomprehensible experience that it occasionally feels like an epic piece of outsider art.

Fans of the first will not be bored. This Iron Man may not be the Godfather II of comic book movie sequels critics hope for but it is a complete blast anyway.

Boasting impressive production values, engaging storytelling and a standout lead performance by German star Ulrich Tukur, John Rabe will receive enthusiastic word of mouth from select arthouse audiences.

Formally, everything's in order-it's an attractive film with some ingenious action sequences-but the problems overwhelm the pleasures, leading to the conclusion that this film's trouble is under the hood.

Upbeat, bitter, sweet and always gripping, Shut Up! Little Man gives remix culture the ucky origin story it likely won't heed, but could sorely use nonetheless.

Part saga of days gone by, part psychological portrait of the mountaineering spirit, as well as a tale of adventure, Anthony Geffen's documentary will rivet fans of the sport and history buffs alike.

It's hard to imagine who will thrill to this violent, gorgeous, and empty film.

Control's Sam Riley steps into a role made unforgettable by a young Richard Attenborough in the 1947 original and makes it his own, slipping into the character like a second skin.

Ford is hilarious and brooding, deeply wrinkled and deeply intimidating. He's got the best lines, courtesy of screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (of the repellent "27 Dresses" and the much better "The Devil Wears Prada").

It has sufficient flavor to perform relatively well in markets with significant South Asian populations or amongst serious foodies who'll flock to anything remotely germane to their passion.

The laughs are proportionate to the stakes, which are middle-of-the-road.

Even given narrative license, South African-born screenwriter Ann Peacock has trouble cobbling together a truly compelling plot that deals with Kenyan history, including tribalism, in a detailed way.

The way the film handles relationships has a similarly light but lived in air to it as well.

A thing of endless contrivances. Jolie's phony plotting and graphic depictions of sexual assault and murder are transparent attempts to bluntly convey the war's atrocities.

The laughs are a little uneven and director Jeff Tremaine does not always take full advantage of the 3D technology, but the movie has enough going for it to satisfy Jackass' legions of fans and make some new ones.

The most compelling thing about it is what it captures: a snapshot of America's ongoing and endless cultural war at a moment when things begin to shift.

You'll laugh and be offended, but if you watch it and don't want to be part of the solution, you'll know which side of the line you're on. Activism takes some unique forms.

Smarter than expected, even if it's too ragged to truly resonate.

An entertaining fright movie that’s crazy fun and full of genuine scares.

On the Road is rich with evocative period atmosphere and anchored by a trio of compellingly lived-in performances from Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, and Kristen Stewart. Nevertheless, it's another staid adaptation that misses the forest for the trees and confuses people into thinking that some novels truly are "unfilmmable."

Gordon is bit too good looking to really be the Greg Heffley the books detail, but he's not obnoxious in the role and will appeal to the target 'tween set.

A sumptuous recreation of 1920s France and the unbridled affair between two of the century's most iconic figures.

Never finds a satisfactory way of examining its subject aside from soapy melodrama.

A black comedy lacking somewhat in both blackness and comedy-isn't a bad film, exactly, but it is undistinguished, in the sense that its ideas and emotional payloads are both safe and small.

Blame director Troy Nixey for lacking the touch, or blame the basic material which is better suited to TV - either way, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark never gets you jumping out of your seat.

A broadly promising premise and well-matched stars prove no match for an abominably unfunny screenplay and the work of the poisonously untalented Shawn Levy--arguably the worst director making big-budget studio films today.

Although the marketing looks like "Transformers 4," Real Steel is the real deal, a Rocky with robots that ought to have audiences standing up and cheering.

While in many respects Spoken Word is adequately specific, it's still not very deep.

Jones delivers her line readings so robotically that even her truths sound like lies. She's got the look of a Hitchcock blonde, and the movements of a deer in the headlights. Even her kisses look fake.

The Rum Diary is so visually enchanting that many viewers may be too lost in a haze of charm to care that the film never develops Thompson's then-nascent wisdom any further than the young writer did in the novel itself.

While it isn't the only adaptation to give flesh (or ink) to Cleary's indomitable misfit, it's the most accessible retelling to date.

Though Hereafter has plenty to give you pause: its plot flatly insists there's an afterlife without really doing much with the matter, metaphorically or otherwise.

It's impossible to watch this movie without feeling that you're in the presence of a good and decent man.

In sum, the film is not without its sweetness. Carell's Barry retells the story of his life in dioramas populated completely with costumed, stuffed mice.

Sure you could just go and rent the original DVDs, but this kind of gut-busting, hit 'em in the groin humor is still funny as hell, especially in the hands of the Farrelly Brothers.

The original Jonathan Ames novel from 1998 is a rich, funny and unusual work. The movie opts for the funny and unusual, leaving us with characters ill-equipped to rise above their shtick or engage our sympathy.

They’ve shed all of the Brit-centric political aspects and updated it to make a riveting, pulse-pounding suspense thriller that really does keep you on ‘edge.’

Although Westfeldt's sharp screenplay is mostly talk, it's very good talk.

The storytelling falters throughout and The Eagle, despite its grandeur.

The movie version has the exciting and challenging parts down but the moral awakening it so strenuously wants us to experience remains beyond its reach.

A "Good Evening" indeed at the movies.

A competent period costume drama, this intimate character study is light as air - and probably more suited to Masterpiece Theatre than as a major theatrical release.

Hugh Hefner has earned the gift of a fawning, non-confrontational greatest hits package and that's exactly what he's received, even if it's not what we necessarily wanted. As such, this will only preach to the converted (and maybe the perverted) and is best suited to DVD or cable.

It's a great time at the movies and a wickedly clever cinematic treat.

In his densely constructed and pretty damn brilliant film The Juche Idea, Finn takes aim at North Korean president Kim Jong-il's theories on cinema and how its ultimate purpose is to advance political ideology and party loyalty.

This is a wholly accessible story that most filmgoers will find pithy and generally well done.

Will appeal to upscale adult audiences with its mix of gorgeous Chinese locations, splendid dance sequences and compelling personal story.

Safe bangs along respectably enough, all thrown fists and cheeky comments, but it never feels like more than a second-tier video game brought to life.

Best enjoyed as a rousing period piece.

Director David Mackenzie's quietly accomplished film straddles the arthouse world and cult movies with a unique poetic vision.

Hobo is trash cinema through and through and gives fans everything they want from a drive-in throwback. That's something that doesn't happen often.

The movie never strikes a balance between its comic and dramatic halves and that dooms it. It is an almost good film that flounders, because there is no treatment for tone deafness.

This handsome period piece should develop a strong afterlife on DVD and in schools.

This foreign view of the subject is anthropologically useful, however the film's photo animation technique transforms family photos (used extensively to fill in historical plot holes) into something that resembles zombie-resurrection.

Not to be overlooked are the film's wealth of fine supporting performances and technical contributions-the always wonderful Emily Mortimer, Martin Ruhe's extraordinary cinematography and Kave Quinn's incisive production design each playing a part in what must be considered one of the very best films of the first half of 2010.

Boote's strong film will make you look at the floating plastic bag from American Beauty in a new, wholly suspicious way.

Borte supports his jewel of a story idea with dead-on casting, stunning images and product placement that's intentionally heavy-handed.

The melodrama is tiresome, overwrought and clichéd.

Viewers will find its emotional arc obvious and familiar, although the summoning of those emotions is where the movie derives its power.

An historical drama so swamped by its soap opera crescendos, no resonant story can survive the wet.

Sure it's fun - and painful - but it's not thin.

Puncture is rarely more convincing than the usual legal saga.

Scott excels in maintaining a low, persistent hum of eroticism whose purpose is not titillation or camp.

The shadow of Whitney Houston's stardom and crushing recent death hang heavy over this midrange movie that promises its female audience at least three good cries during its somewhat overlong run time.

Andresevic includes photogenic clips of the vibrant and diverse areas of New York City, giving a strong sense of the settings of the different love stories spread around the city.

Fox is smart to keep turning this stuff out before star Gordon grows too old for the role. He's terrific in a Leave it to Beaver way, perfectly capturing the angst of being in-betweener.

The film proves a gripping, if uneven, cinematic journey.

A highly entertaining and richly human movie experience with a gem of a performance from Jenna Fischer.

Sullivan's easygoing performance as a Brooklyn musician dumped by his girlfriend prior to a planned Jamaican cruise together syncs perfectly with writers/directors Ben Chace and Sam Fleischner's dreamlike storytelling.

With a premise better suited to comedy than drama, The Freebie is more somber and less stimulating than expected.

While well known to many Down-Under fans, Bran Nue Dae has too much comic kitsch for U.S. specialty film audiences.

This is a quirky, imaginative and outrageously funny little movie that will speak to more of us than any of us would like to admit - even if we aren't sporks, persay.

Serves as both a sequel and a prequel, and the team Oren Peli has assembled deserves credit for beefing up and rounding out his original narrative without letting it mutate into something unrecognizable.

Documents the development of a crime lord from his beginnings in petty childhood activities. Fresh details enliven a conventional story arc. This absorbing view of urban decay has the potential to draw audiences beyond the arthouse.

Sinister is pretty much everything to hate about modern horror in one mixed bag, a ramshackle teardown of jump-scares and creaky tricks, saw-it-coming "surprises" and the lead-footed thud of inevitability as it tediously places one clumsy foot in front of the other, plodding towards a finale that comes far too late.

Tim Burton, plus Alice, plus 3D equals an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind movie experience. It will clean up.

The Big Year turns out to be one of the smartest and funniest films this year.