While the picture doesn't rise to the level of instant holiday classic, younger members of the audience are guaranteed to get a Christmas kick out of it. If disappointment awaits, it awaits Ferrell's older fans.

The opening sequence is an amazing horror scene and sets a tone that the rest of the movie doesn’t even try to follow until the climactic finale.

This delicately observed story, deeply felt and masterfully stylized, is a triumph for its maverick director.

Those who may not care quite as much about the economic messaging underpinning the film may still find Dinklage careening through windows and getting seduced by hot graduate students worthy of the time investment. Still, there’s no denying that this could have been so much more.

A guilty pleasure diversion. Yeah, it is dumber than a bag of hair. But it is also fast, occasionally funny and genuinely entertaining in an old-fashion no-brainer manner.

It’s a fun diversion.

Once “Spiderwick” gets to the fantasy, the story gets going.

It strives as hard for authenticity as its protagonist does to remain relevant; the strain shows.

The movie is engrossing and well-acted throughout (especially Khan), but ultimately leaves us less optimistic about the prospects for peace.

Funny and well-acted, but it’s just shy of being compelling enough to be remembered.

For all its claims to be rebellious, Good Boys is surprisingly tame by today’s standards.

Overall, Tape is an interestingly staged play that, with the proper actors could have made a great film, instead of an adequate one.

Those individual, deeply felt, beautiful moments sadly fail to add up to a deeply felt, beautiful whole. As such, Revoir Paris gets a B- for effort.

A stirring and touching production, and it is difficult not to be moved by the women’s medical progress. However, it suffers from a somewhat leisurely pacing.

Welcome to Acapulco – at least partially – warrants your investment. It may not reach levels of great trash, but it sure aspires to such, and is always watchable, if only for the sight of thespians hamming it up for a buck. Here’s (vainly) hoping that Welcome to Acapulco will put those fallen legends back on the map.

This film moves in directions that make you scratch your head more than sympathize for the character.

Hurt and Sewell are both quite believable as their respective characters, while Sutherland's performance is lacking in more than a few catagories.

While certainly an entertaining and intriguing film, one simply can't get past the notion that we're watching semi-famous actors pretending to be their more famous characters.

The plot, characters, story and dialogue were all secondary -– or lower. With this in mind, Torque really wasn't that bad. In fact, with this in mind, Torque was actually pretty good.

This is pure cinematic meditation, requiring a surrender to its languid tempo and hallucinatory vibes.

A good laugh is almost never a bad thing and almost every frame of Old School is grade A goofball fun.

Definitely designed to tug on its audience's heartstrings, a task at which it completely succeeds, In America is ultimately a solid, if unspectacular family film.

If you can’t check your brain at the door then don’t even bother with The Predator. The film is loud, improbable, manufactured within an inch of its life, and takes absolutely no real risks with the franchise. If you want action movie comfort food, this might be your movie.

The heart of Ray, of course, is the music and, whatever other shortcomings the film may have, it does not fall short as a showcase for the artist's greatest hits.

It's in the characters that the film works beautifully, right up to the clever and tender final sequence.

If you happen to be in the mindset for a long, leisurely, spiritual cinematic rumination about the fragility of life, the futility of our professional pursuits, the power of femininity, and the sheer bliss of living in the moment, then delve right in. The writer and director’s aim is not to shock or devastate, nor elicit any strong reaction, but to make one ponder the Meaning of It All.

For those who never heard of "The Goldbergs" and its amazing star, Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg will provide a special introduction to a special person.

Of the many themes shown in Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams, the two most prominent are failure and passion.

A victory for ambitious filmmaking if not always a successful attempt at character study.

The film's acting is superb. Best known as a gritty wiseass, Denis Leary creates a fine dramatic performance.

Starts out as a first-rate chick movie and winds up a second-rate guy movie. But if this somehow proves to be a formula for the perfect date movie, then Kidman is even more brilliant than we thought.

Unfortunately, the script is a light romantic comedy and unwilling to go the extra distance to really make it stick.

There are many flaws in Animal Farm, but its message is what I’m recommending the film for. Look, it will make great dinner conversation with your toddlers.

If you’re a big fan of the Farrelly Brothers' films, you should like Stuck on You. If their films repulse you, stay home and rent "The Hours" again.

It's disappointing that he (Soderbergh) couldn't make something more cohesive out of his admirable experiment.

This simple film can be quite a great diversion from our every day grind. The camera style, characters, and visual look are all quite impressive, while maintaining an easy accessibility for the audience's eyes. It is only too bad that the film feels so sluggish.

It would be nearly impossible to make a totally bad documentary about the festival, but I have yet to see the perfect documentary depiction of Burning Man.

An original and utterly unconventional tragedy of fantasy and reality, and the potential lethal results of worlds colliding. Ed, glad to have you back.

An interesting and shocking film that tells a story many of us knew nothing about but are affected by it nonetheless.

Blue Beetle is worth seeing, but it has many missed opportunities.

Harrowing, heroic, and occasionally gripping.

A reasonably intelligent timekiller.

A well-done, oft-times entertaining documentary as it presents this unique brand of matchmaking that may or may not be the ideal situation for both parties.

A good film, but it should’ve been a great one.

1. It has the potential to supplant "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" as the greatest audience participation movie of all time. 2. It is, simultaneously, one of the worst and best movies I’ve ever seen.

This isn't a straight-on comedy by a long shot. It's a quirky character study that will make everyone in the audience laugh at different places.

Ultimately comes off as so restrained as to be detached and almost as chilly as LaBute's darker films -- not exactly what one would want from a story about a love so strong that it echoes through the ages.

It’s important to understand that the irony and the less-than-ideal qualities of The Hill and the Hole lead to something resembling comedy rather than the intended drama.

This is a big, silly film. Is it full of explosions and one-liners? Of course. Is it entertaining? Of course.

Yes, it’s all uber-violent, in-your-face, completely lacking sophistication – but I’ll be damned if it’s not entertaining.

Those looking for a message are missing the point. Grennan’s goal is to literally ravage your senses, leave you breathless and ashamed of humanity.

Anyone with a weak heart or a queasy stomach should stay away. In fact, most everyone everywhere should stay away. But if you still want to see Irreversible, be prepared to see images that will upset and disturb you for a long, long time. Be prepared to be shaken to the very core.

Part of the reason Condor’s Nest works as well as it does is that none of it feels forced or showy. Blattenberger truly set out to make a kick-ass WWII flick, albeit with his tongue planted firmly in cheek.

Levin has proven a great director with Union Bridge, sadly, the story he is telling needs work.

Hampstead is a perfectly good romantic dramedy.

What ultimately keeps The Weather Man from being a better film than it is that it doesn't no when to quit.

An interesting idea, thoughtfully acted and visually intriguing. However, it is nearly undone by a lead character that fails to represent the general idea that the film is allegedly about.

This is a timeless tale; the time period is irrelevant as the story is a profoundly personal one about trying to reject the strong internal drive for vengeance.

Bonilla has directing chops, but she needs to refine them. She does show real potential and is a director to watch as her career proceeds.

The story was painfully dull to me, and the entire thing (aside from the aforementioned storybook sequences) takes place in a dull looking school setting with hardly any change of scenery to break up the dreadful monotony. As far as the story goes, it’s a painfully basic story about two friends growing apart from one another. The drama here is as low-stakes as it gets.

It's a tough one to recommend to everyone. Just know now this isn't a horror film as they're making it out to be nor is it a true return to form for Friedkin. Even so, it's worth seeing but perhaps as a DVD rental further down the road.

The mystery behind Jandek is still intact at the end of the eighty-eight minute-long film, but it’s diminished substantially because you feel like you know too much.

What is most frustrating about 15 Years is just how much it gets right while so narrowly missing the mark.

Frida favors us with plenty of color, a feast of eye candy. As food for the soul, however...there are always her paintings.

If you're hard up for raunchy college humor, this is your ticket right here.

Barber may not be a mind-bending mystery, but Aiden Gillen’s performance and the cinematography elevate it to something worth seeing.

Silly and scary, atmospheric and disjointed, I Trapped the Devil showcases Lobo’s affection for the genre. He wisely avoids falling into the “gore” trap, instead relying on characterization and our fear of the unknown to raise the hair on the back of your neck.

The adaptation of Penelope Fitzgerald’s 1978 novel The Bookshop by Spanish director Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, Elegy, Learning To Drive) is not devoid of plot disturbances but provides fair moments of gorgeous filmmaking and acceptable entertainment.

Brimming with sincere intentions and a few interesting thoughts. It brings a rare sort of realism to the movie world.

After a slowly developed first section, the low-key indie drama gets some grittiness coming from the hostile relationships, leading us to an offbeat finale that, understandably, may be classified as pointless or unsatisfying by many viewers.

A courageous film, especially from a first-time director, and deserves all the audience support it can attract. It’s a People Story, and it’s About Something. However, it’s also something of a heavy sit.

It's rare to see Luke Wilson in such a serious role. He does an admirable job of ignoring his mostly comedic background but the real scene-stealer is Frank Whaley.

Let's be honest; a great deal of the sh-- you find funny when you're high really isn't (as anyone who's smoked a few bowls and laughed like a hyena to "Assy McGee" can attest). So hopefully nobody will be too disappointed when I tell them that "Express" is largely hit and miss.

This film felt more like an “afterschool special.” What I mean by that is that this movie felt very “safe."

Isn’t a bad film, simply an unspectacular one, which might be a more damaging statement.

Kutcher gives a surprisingly proficient performance as does Heche who is the shining star of the film.

A handful of nifty battle scenes and some decent performances aren't quite enough to make Kingdom memorable.

How much you join in will depend on how big a fan you are of the collegiate comedy formula, how many times you've seen "Animal House" and "Caddyshack," and how much you hate Long in those smarmy Mac commercials.

It's worth a look, even taking into consideration the lack of zombies.

Rashid's love of cinema is obvious in every frame. He interweaves nostalgia with modern subject matter. Pace and comic timing are perfect.

Despite the fact that we are watching Reynolds do the same schtick yet again, director Roger Kumble never lets him outlast a joke or take a gimmick too far. The plot is nothing short of formulaic but what comedy of this nature isn’t these days?

If you can’t laugh at stuff like this, there are still a few days left in the theatrical run of “Santa Clause 2”. I hear the reindeer are horny as hell.

It’s shocking how much Dark Blue hates cops.

Intermittently amusing.

There are worse ways to pass 90 minutes for those willing to disregard the film’s numerous, glaring flaws. Call it a Chinese Mission Impossible, minus Ethan Hunt’s budget and brains.

Fast 9: The Fast Saga is a stupid, stupid movie. It lacks the fun and humor of some of the better entries, and it also lacks in the character development department.

It's technologically more advanced, far more thrilling and there's infinitely more dinos per minute.

Hard-headed to the end, the three women in Face prove that if nothing else, stubborness and inflexibilty run in the family.

A faithful translation of the character and one of his more memorable tales on the page; it satisfies as an adventure and as a more intimate story.

At the end of the day, though, this is Charlie Kaufman's movie and I'm not sure he proves quite the visionary puppetmaster many in the media are making him out to be.

Your enjoyment of Alpha Dog may very well depend on how put off you are by these facts, as well as how much you buy Timberlake in his role, and how in the mood you are to sit through "River’s Edge" set in the "Entourage" universe.

Takes a relatively easy route by bestowing happy endings on the principals, but at least it’s savvy enough to realize that showbiz isn’t all there is to life.

Hobbled melodrama with obvious "Terms of Endearment" pretensions.

As a film on its own, Ghost Rider isn't amazing, but it is definitely a decent popcorn flick. As an entry into the superhero genre, Ghost Rider is only a couple notches above the "X-Men: The Last Stand."

In the end, you’re entertained, but not so invested in the characters that you’re hooked to every word. It’s enjoyable, but not memorable, and certainly, nothing that lingers in the mind or makes you want to gush to your coworkers the next day.

As we all creep back into the theaters from our COVID cocoons, it serves up just the right amount of cinematic comfort food to keep us coming back for another serving.

An above average film, and features fine performances (Theron and McDormand are probably stone locks for more Oscar nominations), but be wary of the advertising pointing out the film's similarities to movies like "Erin Brockovich."

While many questions and motivations are left unanswered, overall the film wins out with it's stark truths and slightly twisted pay off's along the way.