We should expect more of summer fare than that it merely be a visual junk-food snack as we cool off in the chill of a darkened theater.

Simplistic and non-controversial, and thus is virtually guaranteed commercial success.

Not even Goldberg's near-flawless central performance can polish Kingdom Come beyond mere soap opera pap.

Over-plotty, convoluted, full of unanswered questions and unquestioned assumptions — is a big part of the problem here, but director Neil Burger (“Limitless”) pulls off a neat trick here, in that Divergent is a pretty diverting piece of moviemaking pulled from a not-especially-good story.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that Douglas, De Niro, Freeman, and Kline are just plain fun to watch together. As predictable and occasionally uncomfortable as Last Vegas can be, it’s an assured crowd-pleaser.

A darkly tense drama that rarely hits anything resembling an emotional beat.

Mandy Nelson's sugar-high bright-'n'-cheerful script takes a series of easy ways out, avoiding completely the prospective pitfalls of having to see any of these characters as complicated, contradictory, not entirely nice or identifiable-with -- actual human beings, in other words.

Destined to be remembered not for its laugh-per-minute ratio, but for breaking a barrier of crudeness in mainstream movies.

Emperor may not be the most dazzling of history lessons, but it never treats the past as a dusty, deserted place.

Vertical Limit has its share of intrigue, but there ain't no mountain high enough to make O'Donnell look deep.

What makes Hit and Runway uniquely fun, however, is the unapologetic extent to which Livingston and Cohen turn it into an index of beloved Woody-isms.

It’s minor LaBute, but nonetheless short and bittersweet.

The empty violence and pointless style are only the biggest problems.

Unfortunately the bulk of the picture is cut together like a beer commercial on poorly lit cheap video without much panache. Unless primary colors with a gauzy halo is panache.

A sweet, if slender, surprise.

Actions do have their consequences, though, and Weitz doesn’t try to end things too tidily for their own good. Were only that he had succeeded in committing to one of those films over the other, then Admission might have been this year’s “Liberal Arts” rather than this year’s “Smart People.”

While the film certainly targets a particular audiences, those viewers who don’t fall squarely into that demographic should nevertheless find the film pleasant enough, its pastoral ambitions compensating for its lack of finesse.

A long portrait of someone who outstays his welcome fairly early on.

Mostly he's (Fraser) trapped in a sequel that's too wrapped up in a desire to top itself.

This is not a great comedy, but it has some honest laughs, a few touching moments.

Fails as a movie, it works OK as a long-form video.

Every double-cross and ticking clock is familiar in the worst ways.

A dark comedy that squanders its potential and never quite, as they say, suspends disbelief.

The brainchild of English director Ben Hopkins, who takes his time getting going. Too much time, really, as the first hour passes rather antsily, without quite achieving forward motion.

The sex we see in Lies does not feel in any way enticing; the protagonists are left seeming pathetic by the end of the film, and few viewers are likely to go scavenging for sticks after leaving the theater.

Hewitt's twin assets may be enough for a lot of moviegoers -- which may be the biggest con Heartbreakers pulls off.

The result is fantasy that wafts away.

Stretched too thin, looks cheap, and can't quite go the distance.

A pulsing, wooshing, visceral experience that amounts to great fun and an entirely disposable movie.

When your characters are only skin deep, so is your message.

Maniac is a bit like watching an amputee play hopscotch: there’s no way that it’s polite to stare for this long, but you just have to see if this guy’s gonna make it to the end.

Burdge is left to do much of the heavy lifting in terms of inviting the audience into her protagonist’s shaky state, and her performance boasts a remarkable emotional precision throughout — if ever there’s a reason to seek this one out, it would be for her.

The screenplay is far too obsessed with the setup, and not at all concerned with making the villains even the least bit believable or scary.

Using current hand-held camera technology to ape the political and esthetic sensibility of the 1960s.

Script, setting, attitude, and especially casting add up to a smart exercise in dark comedy that's never over-the-top funny, but always engaging for its clever details.

A reminder of why Bullock became a movie star in the first place.

There's something about The Woman Chaser that isn't quite thought through, in a basic way.

It has a nose for what's cool, but is completely inept at execution.

Even the love story doesn’t work, because Moretz and Blackley exhibit zero romantic chemistry, and it’s never exactly clear why the pair love each other so much.

Has its - very - occasionally funny moments, so does a car crash.

If McCulloch can draw this much humanity out of his actors, and do it in comedies with a deceptively easygoing poignancy, he's definitely a director to watch.

The heart of this movie isn't two sizes too small; it's just slightly misplaced.

[Aja] has outfitted Horns with enough talent that the film is rather easy to admire aesthetically. The problems are more foundational, even conceptual—and they are thus harder to reconcile.

Schreiber saves it to an extent with some unusual performance choices, but when you compare this ending to the emotional supernova of Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine” it comes way short.

Lawrence's style is purely will-it-stick-the-wall-or-not, and when it doesn't he looks pretty puny up there on the big screen.

Though the film is generally weak, treading very familiar ground, those dashes of insight and humor - along with Griffiths' performance - pull you into the film.

Appears to be several different movies spliced together, with unfortunate results.

Sometimes star power alone can keep you from walking out of a movie, and this is one of those times.

Flat and thoroughly predictable piece of filmmaking.

For adults, the film will drag in spots, but it's filled with all those values you hope to instill in your children.

Both Tipton and Teller are better than this material.

A clumsy and tone-deaf comedy.

Has its clunky and wince-worthy moments, it does explore some new territory, and there are moments when it's quite fresh and moving.

It's solid, if ultimately uninspired, July entertainment.

The only thing moviegoers will hate more than the phony, faux-felt conversations of About Alex at its worst is the unfulfilled promise its high points suggest when it’s at its best.

It just doesn't work. Worse, it's downright offensive.

Silly in some parts, but sheer fun in most, Bootmen will get you wiggling in your seat with a big grin pasted on your face.

Like the back half of its namesake, Wonderstone isn’t terribly hip, edgy or new itself, just amusing enough to pass the time. While Scardino and friends do manage to end the film on an admirably nutty note, this gathering of comedic minds ultimately fails to produce any true movie magic.

The latest installment in the "Boys Life" series has just as many hits as misses -- more misses, actually -- but the high points easily stand alongside past triumphs.

Raimi manages to keep things engaging, which is a very real act of wizardry in and of itself.

A relentlessly unfunny, charmless send-up of better films with better ideas.

Afailed attempt at a hipster screwball comedy. Very failed.

A nonsensical mishmash.

The audience for this film would be those people who like their cinematic fare pre-digested and painfully familiar.

Slick, polished to perfection, derivative and stripped of any of the real quirks or idiosyncrasies that make a romantic comedy fly.

Parts of this three-hour World War II epic are brilliant -- especially the 40-minute sequence in which the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor is stunningly re-created.

Vatel is really about production design, so if you're not absolutely passionate about 18th century table-settings, wigs and bodices, you might as well just stay at home and watch the Food Channel.

It's really too bad the film remains so resolutely flimsy, because the novice cast is so clearly delighted to be putting on a show, their glee is contagious enough to carry us along -- for a while.

A film that strives to make you think, and even tug at your heart. But the central foundation of the entire enterprise is so shaky that the walls and plaster are falling down all around you, even as you’re trying to make sense of it all.

In this case, I have to say, the sense of boredom.

It does... apply Kitano's black-comic style to a different setting, and individual scenes sparkle with unexpected jokes, twists, and occasional cruelties.

It doesn't really hang together. And waaay too much style. Pity.

Some provocative filmmakers seem intent on irritating or turning off the audience. With Haneke, I get the feeling that once you understand what he’s up to, he’s glad to have you in on the joke. He certainly goes about executing it in a masterful way.

It’s half of a good movie, and another half that no one asked for or wanted.

It may have a good liberal conscience, and genuine sympathy for the rare perspective of a homeless person, but this movie is a fundamentally sentimental exercise.

In many ways the indie equivalent of your average multiplex action picture: fun and forgettable.

Tina Fey is in the film, for heaven’s sake, and I love her to pieces, but by now we know to expect something humdrum when she’s on a movie screen.

You just watch one carefully constructed but emotionally vacant image piled up on another - sometimes with regard to an overall effect, but often just for the sake of style over substance.

As flat as the brim of a Mountie hat.

It's a film in which nothing is at stake, that's safe and sentimental to the core.

A decent, smart, well-acted film.

It's just not funny.

Has even less directorial initiative than it has romantic spark.

Look to the cast as the best reason to see this film.

Obvious in its observations, predictable in its conclusions, and a little dull in the telling.

Sprawling between plot lines and shifting between tones for longer than it ought to, but laden with enough pockets of truth to make you wish it had been better, more restrained, more disciplined, more trusting in its own emotional sensitivity to spare us all manner of dorky detours.

Even at thirty seconds a piece, 26 shorts would feel, fittingly, like overkill. The ABCs of Death has no shortage of inventive, ironic and gruesome sketches, but the novelty of its successes just barely outweighs its stillborn stuff.

Despite the numerous patchy moments The Brass Teapot by and large squeaks by as an enjoyable entertainment.

So self-conscious that it alienates the viewer early and often.

Call it baseball interruptus, or just call it a missed opportunity.

A rather flimsy but moderately charming British romance comedy.

It all coalesces in a TV-level pleasantness, which isn't quite enough to fill a big screen.

For 8- to 12-year-olds and the grownups who love them, Recess is a pleasant Saturday-matinee diversion. The fact that it doesn't aim to be anything more is, in its own way, a blessed relief.

What were they thinking?

Doesn't go the distance in either story or style, unwilling to liberate itself from real or presumed expectations about what it takes to sell a movie featuring teenagers.

Unquestionably the work of both a newbie director and a green screenwriter.

In fact, The Internship rivals the aggressively bland “Larry Crowne” for sheer tepidness, if not worse due to the exhaustive product placement for a company whose real-life presence is unlikely to soon wane.

Gun Shy can't rise on wobbly legs, and its real potential is lost for good.