While decent in capable directorial hands – or as a supporting character – based on the evidence on display here, Carano doesn’t seem quite capable of carrying a film yet, let alone pull a dreary feature like Daughter of the Wolf out of the murk.

The movie also finds the right balance of light and dark for the material. Too dark and people would be depressed and disgusted by what’s on the screen, too light and it would have no effect. Deadgirl gets it just right. No small feat if you think about it.

Takes a while to get rolling, but builds fairly well once it finally does. Part of the problem, no doubt, is Shokrina's decision to have the dialogue rapidly alternate between English and (presumably) Persian, with subtitles. This is a highly disorienting distraction.

Painfully boring.

I'd like to recognize Russell Gewirtz for a screenplay that boasts humor, an impressive plot twist, and for setting up plenty of room for De Niro and Pacino to get their grooves back in order.

The biggest strength of Cradle 2 the Grave is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

My Name Is Bruce can be read as a man coming to terms with the career that he has been dealt, or it can be read as simply a trashy B-movie directed by the man who knows best.

Lady is more of an ensemble picture, and truly the Cove is the most ethnically diverse and community-minded apartment complex in the continental United States.

The action sequences are still pretty imaginative, if not nonsensical.

Overall, I have to recommend the film for its alternate take on the whole "Leaving Las Vegas," "Basketball Diaries," "Less Than Zero" drug-induced tragedy genre.

Quezon’s Game adds something that is missed in war films as well as history books.

There's just something maddeningly upbeat about this film's shameless hokiness. Combine that with the film's colorful art and wardrobe designs, spiffy choreography, the joy of seeing some veteran faces on screen for the first time in a while, and a soundtrack that'll make even the dead tap their toes, and Swing simply makes for some serious jump-jivin' fun.

It’s tough to watch, and you will fight the urge to walk out but stick with it.

Turistas fails in almost every way a movie like this can.

Undeniably fun for the kids, though it requires a camp sensibility in its adult audience. But in doing so, it is a warm return to the live-action Disney movies of yesteryear.

The fourth best virtual reality film of 1999. The best is "The Matrix". The second best is "eXistenZ". The third best, well, there's got to be something better than this.

The Reaping isn't a total failure. Swank is never less than competent.

If What Happens in Vegas... serves any purpose, it's to make me consider spending my gambling money in Reno or on a riverboat instead.

The movie fails on nearly every level. The film is has good intentions and moments of energy, but it's merely a faint echo of the great 1960s counterculture pictures.

Yes, the film is an allegorical modern fairy tale with plenty of pretty obvious social commentary, but if I can't identify with one character or be made to care, then what's the point?

Worthy of attention. Susman has put together a well-crafted, witty commentary on corporate culture and the deals all of us make with ourselves to come to terms with modern existence.

The story is enhanced by solid performances all around by Bonnie Hunt, Aidan Quinn and Kevin Pollack.

For devotees of the series, the gore is still there and the traps are just as weird as they were in the other entries but for the rest of us, your mind will forget it the second the end credits roll.

The direction keeps things visually engaging, and the editing is flawless. Sadly, for me, the stories don’t connect well enough to justify the whole fated aspect and all but a single song, in this musical, are some of the worst I have had to ever endure.

Knights of the Zodiac is a good production in terms of its action and cast. But when one focuses so much on the fantasy-action set-pieces, having a soulless story makes all efforts fall flat.

A sweet, introspective, and touching story serves as the heart of this outrageous and twisted dark comedy.

Packs a full plate of gasps and giggles.

Technically impressive horror film and sometimes fun to watch, but totally undistinguished.

It’s a good-looking movie overall.

A young man wanders the streets looking for love. There you have most of the plot of Julián Hernández's masterful debut feature. But what a rich cinematic journey this is!

The whole thing feels like a continuation of Lucas' experiments to see how much sh-- his dwindling supporters will take before finally saying "enough" and moving on to adult pursuits.

The action is dumb, the plot is weak, and the story is pitiful. Venom is a bad movie, yet surprisingly I still loved the hell out of it.

The major weakness in Jumper is the piling on of action and narrative in the last ten to twelve minutes. It's as though the editor was rushing to meet a deadline and did the best he could with too much footage.

At least the 20 people who saw it with me -- found it hysterically funny. On the other hand, they all seemed pretty stoned.

Polson offers up a few chilling scares, but the underwritten screenplay really does show off its weaknesses.

Overall, the movie’s performances are good, not great, but enjoyable nonetheless.

A monstrosity of a movie that I am all too eager to forget.

Sommers suspends the laws of time and physics and forces his characters to spout some of the cheesiest dialogue imaginable.

Were it not for the presence of higher-level acting talent, A Rumor of Angels would have been a banal TV movie.

Seek this out if you like superhero films that are especially dark.

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

Much of Dreamcatcher just doesn’t make sense.

In the end, what’s left is yet another bad Amityville movie that fails to entertain or scare. Still, the house does look scary. Maybe if they try one more time…

Hilarious and a must-see.

This film is arguably one of the most unsatisfying films I’ve had the disservice to watch.

In the end, I’m not sure if thriller, drama, or action would be best suited to describe Lakewood. Maybe it is not quite the edge-of-the-seat movie one might expect, but it is entertaining enough to keep one fully engaged.

Though there's nothing especially terrible about Stateside, there's nothing terribly special about it either.

Kraven The Hunter doesn’t entertain. The only thing it does right is release the hostages after two hours.

Let's start with the obvious: Olyphant just isn't that intimidating an assassin. Think of some of cinema's more memorable button men: Léon, Luca Brasi, Frank Nitti...that's right, not a pretty boy in the bunch.

Safer at Home starts on an off-putting note, and the epilogue muddies the timeline to the point of confusion. But, nestled between those two baffling sequences lies a gripping thriller brought to life by astute direction, an intelligent screenplay, and a great cast. While not perfect, this independent production is still worth an adventurous audiences’ time.

One does not require cinematic genius to have fun, and this movie is indeed fun.

The Last Thing He Wanted is trying to be too many things at once. It goes off on several tangents that don’t ever conclude.

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.

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."

The Child Remains strives to be a unique amalgamation of horror themes, however, it ultimately results in a confounded muddling through mismatched generic set pieces.

Rebel Moon-Part 2: The Scargiver is the cinematic sci-fi equivalent of that delicious chicken sandwich people punch each other in the face to get. Unscrunch your face and allow yourself to have an intergalactic blast like you did before you grew up to be so picky.

No less than four screenwriters are credited, yet the script is filled with the usual clichés (hello, red digital readout!) and supposed twists that can be seen a mile away.

It is a charming affair featuring a stellar cast with believable chemistry. Plus, there is enjoyment in getting to decide Cami’s fate and seeing where it takes you. I am going to rewatch this and choose another path.

This is essentially a by-the-numbers revenge film with some attempts at deeper characterization. The difference between this film and, say, "Batman Begins" is that Bruce Wayne, upon finding the tormentors of his youth, never tried to kill and eat them.

Because much of the dialogue exchanged between the brothers and some of Kyle’s auditory flashbacks allude to situations that aren’t clarified until over sixty minutes of the film have passed, there’s strong motivation to pay attention.

The story is so ridiculously obvious it's not even remotely enjoyable.

Likely to exceed expectations.

An almost constant misfire. From its paper-thin plot to the utterly flat script, virtually nothing works.

Not a good film. In fact, it's a rather bad example of that already barrel-bottom-scraping genre, the teenybopper romantic comedy.

You've seen it in "Carrie", you've seen it in "Prom Night 2", and you've seen it in "Urban Legends 2: Bloody Mary". Oh, you haven't seen that one? Well, join the club. Tamara is a hybrid of all three films.

Whether you’re a casual or an ardent follower of M. Night Shyamalan's films, The Happening could alienate or dominate your thinking cap. Remember--it's perfectly acceptable to laugh one second and shriek the next.

With The Haunted Mansion, Eddie Murphy continues in a long line of family film stinkers.

The question isn't whether Nispel's remake is better than the 1980 original (it isn't) but whether anything original is brought into the mix. And minus a mild plot twist you"ll probably see coming from the first five minutes, there isn't.

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.

This is shtick that’s minimally a generation past its expiration date.

Little kids should like this film. But the smarter humor and in-jokes from the first are gone, which is going to lose a lot of the older audience.

Doesn’t break any new ground – it actually steals from half a dozen other sci-fi movies – but it’ll make enough at the box office to justify further game flicks.

The Fourth Kind has nowhere to go and sticks to its real-life/reel-life device. It feels like mud by the second act.

Never quite clicks, primarily because the central male characters are badly miscast.

While we do get a bit of gore, the movie is really about this wacky bunch of people jumping on each other's nerves, kind of a zany hero's journey.

Travolta’s performance in Basic is irritatingly familiar to his overacted, spastic performance in "The General’s Daughter." Either that, or he’s channeling Nicholas Cage from “Face Off” again.

Caught between worlds, Disturbing the Peace isn’t as fun as it begs to be or as eloquent as it’s trying to be.

The film teeters on a fine line between soulful triumph and B-movie cheese.

What chaps my hide more is that I've seen 10,000 BC. I've seen it three times in the last year and a half. Except in the one that I saw, it centered instead on Mayans, was mostly historically accurate, and was called "Apocalypto."

Schadt’s story is solid in choosing the three paths for his characters to go down. He then takes the consequences of their inaction to its logical conclusions and a decidedly thriller-esque conclusion.

Did what I had yet to see any other entrant in this arena do, it crossed generational lines and had 18 year-olds and 50 year-olds talking about the merits of the same film.... and that is truly it’s greatest accomplishment.

New territory for the Vermont director, and he shows every sign of feeling right at home in it.

It is films like this that make me think that if Mexico suddenly went to war with a superpower, and the Cancun area was nuked into oblivion during a spring break weekend, that the world might actually be a better place.

Ultimately, Trading Paint doesn’t amount to much more than an easy way to mindlessly kill eighty-nine minutes.

What really grabs your attention about Undead, however, are the effects. For a movie budgeted under $1 million, the Spierigs have done an amazing job putting together believable visuals.

It's more about watching an ensemble cast try to one-up one another's performance than anything else – and for what it is, it works.

Elektra isn't just poorly executed, it's emotionally false and makes absolutely no narrative sense.

A complete bloodbath.

Love Hurts is a prime example of what happens when a film spreads itself too thin trying to juggle multiple genres—it drops all the balls. Ultimately, it’s a forgettable attempt at blending action and romance, proving once again that genre mashups rarely deliver a knockout.

It's throwback, formula Ah-nuld all the way, a straightforward and simple revenge thriller.

Since Equilibrium shamelessly rips off every Orwellian science fiction thriller in film history, what other reason is there besides sheer desperation for the film to be so stupidly violent?

A touch above the usual adolescent male friendly films of Happy Madison's previous on-screen massacres (see "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" for example”) but it isn't quite as smart or funny as other recent comedies like "40 Year-Old Virgin" or "Wedding Crashers."

The same problems that plagued the original are on display here. Most notably, the lack of any coherent plot. Lots of creepy kids jump out at us, but these scenes are never satisfactorily meshed into the story itself.

The visual effects are haunting, the costume design by Juliana Hoffpauir is delightfully fanciful, particularly for Shaw’s scenes as a nameless masked demon. The cinematography from veteran cinematographer Shane F. Kelly is a sight to behold. Basically, The Blazing World is gorgeous. It’s also incredibly well written by Peirce Brown and Young.

If you love KISS, you'll probably see this movie anyway. If you don't, there's no point.

Too bad Guy Pearce who plays Kendall, the obvious villain, couldn't do the same thing. His awful performance here will almost make you forget he was "Memento" and "L.A. Confidential."

Not exactly screwball, and not exactly sentimental, but an uneasy and uncertain mix of the two.

Its cardinal sin is a complete, total, utter, extreme lack of originality. The title does it justice, really. Sacrilege will most likely be viewed as such by horror film aficionados.