S-VHS isn’t as pants-pooping scary as the first, but it is funnier, tighter and slicker.

Wrong is more absurd and more laugh-out-loud silly than “Rubber;” it’s also less focused and more pointless.

It is a rather sly affair, slipping in some genuine food for thought amongst its snickering.

There is true beauty in the despair that pervades The Place Beyond the Pines, a film plotted out in triptych, a treatise on the moral compromises we all make to protect and provide for our loved ones.

A kind and decent film, but doesn't add to Robinson's legacy.

The beats and trappings are all standard-issue, but the gags are funny enough, often enough, to offset such routine proceedings.

This Chris Sanders fellow knows how to craft a heart-warming animation, and if not for a few minor problems this would have had a legitimate shot at the best animated movie of 2013.

Faxon and Rush’s screenplay doesn’t deviate too far from formula, but their sturdy direction, bolstered by handsome production values, evokes a wistful sense of carefree summers and conjures up a potent amount of simmering teenage angst beneath the frequent chuckles.

The remarkable storytelling that eventually emerges in Eden is something you should see, providing you feel that you can stomach it.

A funny, sly directorial debut

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

This funny and touching film could do with a bit of editing. It tends to drag a bit, especially near the end, and though we’re privy to the thoughts and feelings of Polley’s family, we’re given scant verbalized insight into her own thinking.

It never quite elevates itself above something like a really well produced behind-the-scenes featurette on a high end Blu-ray. But if you’ve got that Jodorowsky T-shirt aping the Judas Priest logo, you may as well start lining up now.

Snowpiercer is bold and brutal and committed, but no setting, no matter how inventive or beautiful, can compensate for storytelling that strains plausibility even as it batters your senses and sensibilities.

Two Buckleys for the price of one, but the real star here is Penn Badgley.

This portrait of the actor winds up being a parable about all of us.

It’s not exceedingly original, it is well-made and a solid entry into the subgenre.

While hardly insightful as a character study, Tracks can’t help but flourish as an Aussie travelogue, with cinematographer Mandy Walker doing justice to these vast and harsh environments.

A relatively high-flying adventure, injecting the always-entertaining airplane-set thriller with some fresh thrills and a cadre of characters worth getting invested in.

A truly entertaining and dizzyingly wild horror film.

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.