Sound of My Voice offers promise and pay off at the same time. Star and writer Brit Marling is having a rare double-whammy of a debut.

Bernie is an interesting guy, but he doesn't make for very good company.

The bad news is that if you haven't seen "Thor," "Captain America" and "Iron Man 2" - that's six hours and three minutes of homework - The Avengers won't make sense. The good news is if you're a human under the age of 45, you probably already have.

A winning cast and solid writing from screenwriters Keith Merryman and David A. Newman (Friends With Benefits) should appeal to men and women alike.

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

The emotions are flat, predictable and forced when they ought to be romantic.

With bubbles of nascent arousal frothing at the film's feminine surface, Moth Diaries' commercial potential is likely to hinge on whether or not audiences can stand to be confronted with the confusion they felt as adolescents.

Stolidly maudlin, this enervating sub-middlebrow pic is doomed to well-deserved commercial obscurity.

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 kids, especially Néron and Nélisse are irresistible and supporting players are well-cast. Human dramas like Monsieur Lazhar are a rare breed these days and this exceptional example is one to be cherished.

Lockout isn't high art, but it's ridiculous fun.

Visually sumptuous and with a real literary beauty in both its narrative structure and dialogue.

Still, the fans are lovable no matter how mixed the Comic-Con bag is, and Morgan Spurlock is precisely the doc maker to tell us about it.

The result is the best slice of Pie yet: a savvy sequel that's flat-out hilarious raunchy fun.

Piccoli in a role that relies on looks, gestures and very few words, does not hit an off note, making him into a silent, everyman figure.

A gripping new documentary that's essential viewing for anybody who believes that the impact of global warming is tomorrow's problem.

It's a mixed blessing to see these dramas play out in Norwegian, surrounded by what we tend to imagine are more liberal perspectives on sex.

While the scenario has all the smirking charm of Stillman's earlier movies, the sobering realities of off-campus life are never even alluded to, and the humor of insularity eventually becomes stifling.

Graceful cinematography captures the loneliness and isolation of these kids with understatement, even when the director succumbs to twinkling piano that pulls a tad too hard on the heartstrings.

Strictly for kids, but pure movie fun nonetheless,

Wrath of the Titans delivers blockbuster bluster with single-minded blandness.

An orgiastic barrage of violence, The Raid: Redemption is, at least in its finest moments, one of the most breathless, blistering action movies in recent memory.

As action, as allegory, as cinema, The Hunger Games is the best American science-fiction film since "The Matrix," and if Ross and his crew stay with the series for the next two books, we may get that rarest of things: a blockbuster franchise that earns our money through craft, emotion and execution, not merely marketing and effects.

Is the result - a slapstick, bizarro melodrama where Ferrell plays the Mexican born and bred scion of a wealthy farmer - meant more for Spanish speakers or stoned and giggly Americans? It's a tough call.

It is the boy's tough exterior and lack of self-pity that binds the narrative together, making this one of the Dardennes' most appealing undertakings.

Drew Goddard's giddily brilliant The Cabin in the Woods has a lot on its twisted mind.

While A Thousand Words features some reverent flashes and even has the potential to touch audiences (a moment involving a mother with Alzheimer's particularly hits home), it suffers from being too broad.

A family drama that looks for answers in coincidence (is it really ever coincidence?), this endearing and breezy comic fable watches Jeff's coming of age and promises nothing after his moment of truth.