For a genre that so often sacrifices character development and smaller narrative developments, the majority of The Maze Runner feels quite refreshing and worth the navigation.

Even when it seems mercenary and muddled, X-Men Days of Future Past is enjoyable and well-made and actually about character, a necessary shot of adrenaline born of both inspiration and desperation for a franchise that desperately needed one.

The film itself is sly and smug in kind, fleetingly enjoyable for all of its old-school showmanship and high-tech hokiness.

The film’s finely tuned middle act, a fast-paced and quick-witted journey into (possible) madness, eventually gives way to an unsettlingly over the top final section that relies far too much on larger setpieces and supposed “big scares” that are never as good as the smaller, weirder stuff.

The Fog of War is the superior film, but The Unknown Known is more unsettling.

The F Word would be commendable on the strength of its unusual wit and warmth alone, but it becomes a far more satisfying (even somewhat illuminating) experience because it doesn’t shy away from the often ugly psychology engendered by cross-gendered friendships.

While American Hustle succeeds when it comes to casting and characters, it’s dragged down by a murky and poorly-paced narrative.

The sequel quadruples the recipe, with gags on top of gags on top of gags in a way only animation could achieve. Like a foodie “Jurassic Park” conjured up by Tex Avery, “Cloudy 2″ is a sight to behold … as long as your brain hasn’t turned to mush by the halfway point.

The nuanced performances by Maud Forget and Lou Doillon help give Bad Company its extraordinary credibility.

Although Mansfield Park is an enjoyable film, you can't help but wish that it were as brave, feisty and unconventional as it keeps telling us its heroine is.

Egoyan and Hoskins fans will definitely want to see this film. Others will feel their fingernails grow as they watch it.

Tender souls who don't like a lot of noise and violence should probably stay away from this very in-your-face film.

The warm humanizing element in all the cool stuff is Crowe.

It's a great ride, gorgeous, silly and deeply intellectual by turns, but, for all its inventive fireworks, sad to say, it finally doesn't quite work.

The gravity-defying harness maneuvers popularized in the U.S. with "The Matrix" -- ... look really cool, but seem out of place in a realistic gang-style action movie.

Has a warm and intimate feel that helps push it a little deeper than its cable movie-of-the-week blueprint.

Questions loom heavily over this entertaining but not-too-deep film, making it more a commercial than real exploration.

One of those hybrid projects: a major studio film, big star, homely storyline, but tempered by an indie director working in his own idiosyncratic style.

Few movies this year have been quite so rewarding with their 11th hour epiphanies.

Its own, tough-minded antidote to the grab-the-brass-ring whimsy of its premise.

Love it or hate it -- and I suspect, frankly, most people are going to hate it -- this is like no other film you've ever seen.

A fascinating portrayal.

The darkly comic tone is often just right, and the casting occasionally pays off.

While The Messenger feeds our appetite for visual panache, it starves the soul.

Funny, immediately and consistently engaging, and -- well done on almost every level.

Someone should confiscate Mann's synthesizer. Just when a scene starts rolling along, this synth beat fades in and destroys the mood.

More whimsical than gloomy, for all the horrors it alludes to or depicts.

There's something thin about the picture-both in its ideas and its visual texture.

An absurdist Eastern European version of "The Godfather," starring the Marx Brothers (and sisters and nephews and...).

Much more mythic and risk-taking than the usual Hollywood product.

Cronenberg’s map doesn’t lead to a satisfying destination in a typical story sense, but it is a remarkable quest. For a movie that has so many problems, it is one of the more watchable ones.

All these years later, the film is far more infuriating than it is exciting.

Quills -- like the Marquis himself--is a posey, pungent, ultra-theatrical yet weirdly seductive mess which wants to have its cake, eat it too and discuss the whole concept and context of its meal (constantly, contradictorily) while it does so.

For the most part, a delight.

Barrymore's sunny energy pushes the movie along, but halfway through you realize there just isn't that much to push.

Best of all is a Halloween party where the Falls are complimented on their "costume," then outed.

Glover and Bassett ground the film, in the flashbacks and in the body of the film, and lessen the riskiness of maintaining the play's theatricality.

The filmmaker has given us two films for the price of one. Unfortunately, the second film, a gripping thriller which occupies the last 45 minutes of Space Cowboys, is much better and more involving than the first film.

Were the casting stronger, the film -- would have had a better chance of transcending its lack of subtlety.

Worth seeing.

Xiaoshuai isn't really interested in glamorizing or even exploring the gangster lifestyle; nor is he interested in conventional dramatic arcs.

Aerves up so much visual wizardry and thought-provoking ideas that even the inevitable Silver touch -- a finale with more bullets than the opening of "Saving Private Ryan" -- can't destroy the magic.

Like it or hate it, Titanic lives and breathes as a piece of pure cinema.

At its core is a feminine realm (the beauty parlor) through which modern issues of alienation and casual-sex-as-a-drug are coupled with timeless questions about the natures of love and desire.

This might have been a very good movie if it had lost about one of its three hours.

Well worth the price of admission.

If you're in the mood for fairy tales, you've come to the right place.

I'm not even sure the movie makes sense at times, yet Campion's offbeat rhythms and eye for startling images always made me happy to be looking at the screen.

The great power of the film lies in its simplicity, in the slow-building tension and psychological melt-downs that are the result of stark, bare-bones film-making.

It goes without saying that the film is worth seeing simply for Bill Murray's Polonius.

A funny, frenetic and surprising comedy.

The jokes fly so furiously that it'd be impossible for a single weak performance (Graham) to unravel this very funny film.

A movie that keeps you wondering about its characters' true feelings and motives long after you've left the theater.

The kind of minor work that may very well speak greater volumes about (Stone's) thoughts and feelings right now than another masterpiece would.

A sweet, funny exercise in nostalgia, though it's also self-congratulatory and awfully calculating.

Nothing less than stunning: a slapstick ballet of choreographed buffoonery.

If it is never really as profound as it seems to think it is, American Beauty is consistently entertaining, and it earns points simply for acknowledging that all may not be perfect in the current boom years.

Blanchett projects a wounded dignity that anchors her character even when the film slips into silly hokum; she's never less than fantastic, and as such manages to keep the film on course.

An often affecting, if standard-issue, Hollywood biopic.

LL Cool J... is downright scary -- a mix of coiled charm and underlying menace.

A nice enough reminder that as time goes forward, we have to as well.

Closer to "M*A*S*H" than "Dr. Strangelove," which in itself wouldn't be a bad thing. But for all its engaging qualities, Three Kings doesn't seem to know what kind of beast it is.

Scott Thomas and Penn finally develop a bit of unlikely chemistry, aided by the Hitchcockian atmosphere. I found myself rooting for these foolish, pampered, naïve people, and rooting for the movie as well.

Best of all are the supporting players. Everett (who played the Prince of Wales in "The Madness of King George") is smartly urbane, giving a polished refinement to the stereotypical "gay best buddy'' role.

Beyond the fantastic contrivances of Gods and Monsters, these performances are startlingly human.

A small, scruffy, but agreeably energized comedy.