Madame Sata may be based on real events, but it's certainly not a very pleasant introduction to Rio's bohemian scene, circa 1931. Nor is it a very pleasant movie to endure in its own right.

Bratt's fast-talking, all-attitude interpretation is showboating without soul -- which can be said of the entire movie.

While it might have made a good short, as a feature film The Illusionist comes across like a magician whose tricks are transparent.

Sometimes whimsical, at others quaint, flirting with darkness but brimming with childlike naivety, the plot provides a hell of a tonal whiplash, never finding its rhythm.

Content-wise, Cruise is dull, with a script that brims of potential but is done injustice by uninspired leads.

Cash Out contains flashes that give a wistful look into what this could have been. But the truth is that the title tells you everything you need to know: this action-thriller is nothing more than a paycheck for Travolta, Davis, and everyone else involved.

Repetitive interaction between characters in an aimless story can't hold up the film's weight, and it eventually collapses on its noble attempt to capture life's frustrations and compromises.

Doesn't do much besides giving original "Ringu" and "Ringu 2" director Hideo Nakata the chance to strut his stuff in front of a wide-release audience.

Ultimately sinks beneath the waves of the Caspian Sea.

Despite some brief nudity and much swearing, the whole endeavor feels like some sort of half-assed Christian "Adventures in Faith" story I might have endured in Sunday school.

What may have seemed energetic and innovative four decades ago is fairly enervated today, and only the most rabid Godard fanatics will find reason to seek out its new theatrical re-release.

Billed as a comedy but it would be every bit as accurate to categorize it as science fiction or a World War II drama. It is simply not a funny film.

This moves along pretty quickly and has a lot of over-the-top action and explosions. There’s a whole Missing in Action trilogy, but I can’t see how someone could sit through a second one.

All Mr. Woodcock gives us is mediocre comedy at its finest.

There’s something fundamentally unconvincing and contrived about the story. Forget the fact that O’Connor hauls out every cliché in the bad cop handbook and the dialogue is more boilerplate than hard-boiled. The premise itself is just plain preposterous.

The best way to describe Callie Khouri’s Mad Money is as “Ocean’s Eleven” if it were geared to the drones at the Oprah Winfrey book club.

A clichéd and painfully formulaic little film.

A two-time Oscar winner playing a crazy person in a big studio film released in late October. Can't you just smell the pretension? Probably not, given the other ways in which this film stinks.

BRILLIANT and WITTY. Those are two words that will not be used to described this film.

Ultimately, Hurry Up Tomorrow is an example of style over substance. Its visuals try to shock and awe while leaving its narrative a confusing mess.

Watts is extra-watchable and, as I say, the filmmaker does achieve a style and tone the script never comes close to living up to. Otherwise, Verbinski's adaptation of the 1998 Japanese hit "Ringu" misses the mark almost completely.

From what I can tell, the film is generally accurate regarding the events of Dec. 8. But I got as much out of it as I did by looking up Chapman on Wikipedia.

ANIARA has plenty going for it — a great concept, a coherent tone, an uncompromising vision, and an ending that’s the ballsiest thing I’ve seen since AI. Sadly these virtues are undercut by some unforgivable sins — it is boring, has underdeveloped characters, and has a childlike understanding of the scientific concepts supposedly undergirding the plot. One of those could be forgivable, but all together they spell doom.

Could have been a beautiful and suspenseful thriller, lukewarm performances make the film just another movie to add to one's "rent-it-when-it-comes-to-DVD" list.

The bottom line is the movie's a mess. Friedkin would like one to believe there's more than meets the eye to his tale of two trackers.

A spot-on homage/parody of bad 1950's sci-fi movies.

Dead Trigger isn’t the worst film ever, but it oddly plays things safe. The characters have no discernible personalities, the story threads are very familiar, and the action is as generic as you can imagine. There are still only three good video game movie adaptations, and this is not one of them.

In throwing hatchets at Murdoch and his silly Fox network while pretending the rest of the media world is fine and objective, the film comes across as a shrill, one-note slam against a very easy target.