Katniss is gritty, she's flinty, she's intimidating -- and she doesn't have to compromise one iota of her femininity for it. And Ross' movie tells her story wonderfully.

Boasting a rock-solid academic architecture, Bhutto is a film bursting at the seams with gravitas.

The engine that really makes Crazy Stupid Love go is the same one that has made Ficarra and Requa's films to this point so appealing: While they thrust their characters into outrageous situations, they always keep things grounded in real, relatable emotion.

With Deepwater Horizon, Berg strikes an unlikely but impressively delicate balance. On one hand, his film honors the men and women killed and injured in the explosion off Louisiana's coast. At the same time, it works just as well as a fast-moving and absorbing disaster drama.

The central performances are solid, and Kris Kristoffersen contributes a tantalizing turn as a smiling, dark-souled adventurer. Still, these successful elements only point up the unfocused, undeveloped nature of everything around them. Director Sayles should have been a lot tougher on screenwriter Sayles. [25 Jun 1999, p.L24]

Potiche never becomes funny enough or interesting enough.

Being a fan of the character is not a prerequisite for enjoying the film.

While Bopha's belatedly tragic story is an affecting one - and is made all the more poignant by strong performances by Woodard and Eziashi - it will not seem entirely fresh to movie-goers weaned on such superior cinematic treatments of the subject as Chris Menges' "A World Apart" and Euzhan Palcy's "A Dry White Season." [29 Oct 1993, p.L25]

Flaws aside, the journey will be largely worth it for audiences, particularly for fans of the genre.

Gorgeous production design lends to the growing sense of dread, and there are fine performances by Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, and child actors Vidal Peterson and Shawn Carson. [28 Oct 2005, p.7]

Even if it doesn't provide all the answers, "The East" asks some pretty darn good questions.

A highly enjoyable -- and, for better or for worse, a very Tarantino -- movie.

As with everything in which he appears, Schreiber is one of the best things about the movie.

That's not to say the sobering Take This Waltz is nearly as emotionally agonizing as "Blue Valentine." Still, it's every bit as truthful in its examination of the evolution, and subsequent devolution, of love.

The result is a hoot, as Nelson breathes comic life into the proceedings with an effortless, unselfconscious joie de vivre.

Presley, though not the strongest actor in the world, deserves credit for taking a risk in playing an edgy character who is unsympathetic for much of the film. [03 Aug 2007, p.13]

John Wick makes a few feeble attempts at witty repartee, but, in the end, Leitch and Stahelski's film feels like an unintentional parody of itself.

The Way, Way Back is way, way good -- and a welcome breath of fresh air at the summertime box office.

Here's a film that feeds the heart and the soul.

One only wishes that Ewing and Grady had chosen to dig deeper as they explored it.

Unfortunately, on the way to delivering that message, it becomes weighted down by its own dreary self-importance.

It does enough things right, and generates enough powerful moments, to make it an effective social-justice drama.

It's not a perfect film. There's still room for Cianfrance to grow as a storyteller. But it is entirely rewarding -- and I, for one, can't wait to see where he takes us next.

A surprisingly uplifting examination of life and loss.

Most real horror fans, however, will likely be left wondering where the heat is.

12 O'Clock Boys is reminiscent of the Ross brothers' far more lyrically shot 2012 film "Tchoupitoulas," which tagged along with three New Orleans boys for a night of exploration and boundary-testing in the French Quarter. The setting is different in Nathan's film, and Nathan doesn't commit as fully as the Rosses did to visual artistry. But there are thematic similarities, to be sure.

Can it be considered a comic masterpiece on the same level as "Animal House," that mother of frat-house comedies? Not by a long shot.

Granted, nobody should expect Black Widow to unseat Spider-Man as the world’s favorite arachnid-inspired superhero. But between Shortland’s storytelling chops, the cast’s charm and Eric Pearson’s solid screenplay, this “Black Widow” has plenty of bite of its own.

The result is a film that is equal parts fluff and tough.

The whole thing is kind of comforting in a damn-the-torpedoes, laugh-at-what-scares-you-most kind of way.

More than anything this is an intelligent film, a satisfying bit of old-school sci-fi suspense.

An enjoyable diversion, a lightweight bit of philosophizing that blends humor with the bittersweet. It won't likely stick in your memory for too terribly long.

Manny & Lo surely benefits from the emotionally naked performances of all three leading ladies, yet it's Krueger's quirky, psychologically driven humor and ability to fashion motives fraught with irony and ambiguity that make her female buddy flick so fresh.[20 Sep 1996, p.L29]

The real point of This is The End, however, is to make people laugh -- and it accomplishes that. Often, in fact -- and satisfyingly.

Open-ended and decidedly un-Hollywood, it is faintly dissatisfying, especially coming on the heels of such as engaging and crisply presented story. But it offers movie-goers a wonderful opportunity to roll it all around in their heads and discuss it, even debate it, as they drive back to that cozy little cult compound they call home.

The result is a documentary that is as interesting as it is irresistible.

It wasn't until Gibney's film was already largely shot that the truth caught up to Armstrong.

In addition to being the rare modern romantic comedy that manages to nail both the "romantic" and the "comedy" with equal aplomb, Juliet, Naked is also a wonderful, welcome late-summer fling, the kind that can be enjoyed with no regrets and no apologies before harsh reality resumes once more.

The sort of movie you should go see with someone you love. You should also hold their hand during the movie. And be thankful that that hand is there.

Both taut and satisfyingly relevant, it presents a portrait of a compromised elections system -- one that should give the left wing, the right wing and the fringe-dwelling nutjobs something they can all agree on. Namely: We're in deep doo-doo.

There isn't a whole lot of nuance in writer-director Rachid Bouchareb's unapologetically political movie. As such, it doesn't take much brainpower for a viewer to stay a step or two ahead of his plot the entire way.

It is, in its best moments, an interesting exercise for Bullock — and a just-passable diversion for audiences in the mood for something a little more gritty and somber than a repeat airing of It’s a Wonderful Life or some other feel-good holiday standard.

Furious 7, formulaic or not, knows exactly what kind of movie it is. It is a superhero movie without the tights. It is a comic-book franchise without the radioactive spider bite. It is, plain and simple, an automotive "Avengers."

Even if a filmmaker is dealing with familiar themes, when he or she fills in the blanks as sweetly and amiably as writer-director Geremy Gasper does in Patti Cake$, any desire to pick things apart all but vanishes.

Like the work of Callahan, Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot is dark, it is irreverent, it is often willfully offensive. But there's also an admirable frankness at work there, an honestly that helps keep things rolling forward -- even when its own wheels occasionally get stuck in the sand.

Rarely is an actress asked to do so much with so little -- and even rarer does that actress succeed as well as Clarkson does.

That character flaw makes for some great shock-fueled laughs in Lewis' film -- Giamatti does full-on comic rage as well as anyone.

An up-tempo and upbeat concert documentary that celebrates, rather than mourns, the last hurrah of a pop-culture touchstone.

Slowly becomes a thoughtful and interesting deconstruction and demythologizing of American celebrity.

An enchantment, plain and simple. And while it won't make many forget Disney's iconic animated version, it certainly joins it as one of the more enjoyable re-tellings of this classic tale.

A satisfyingly fresh take on a character we all only thought we knew well.

Has potential to be fun and meaningful, but it's not exactly a novel idea. In fact, it feels like a literary-minded "Lars and the Real Girl," the 2007 dramatic comedy that starred Ryan Gosling as a man who falls in love with a sex doll, and which coasted along on its charm and smarts.

The result is a movie that, in its best moments, is delightful. It does lose a significant amount of steam halfway through -- likely due in part to its two hours of running time.

Age of Ultron -- for all the eye candy and mindless entertainment it has to offer -- stays safely within the franchise's established parameters. Here, there are no real surprises.

If you're a mom or dad bringing your own little primates to the movie, that's a good thing.

There's a certain triteness to the overarching message -- secrets will keep us apart, and the truth will set us free -- but the kind of sweetness and earnestness that's on display in City Island makes such quibbles easy to forgive.

Seizing the role, and the screen, Gelber actually makes us care what happens to his surly, thoroughly unlikable character.

Messages, metaphors and micturation aside, the journey is the thing, and in this case, “Sasquatch Sunset” is a pretty good journey — and thus a pretty good thing.

Some of those detours are fun ideas - like Marty's O. Henry-esque tale of the Amish psychopath. Mostly, though, they feel out of place, like so much filler that distracts from the half-developed main story. Call me crazy, but I need more from my movie.

Watching it, one gets the feeling that Coppola knows these vampiric types all too well. What unfolds feels like a cross between "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and "Natural Born Killers," and a film that is far more disapproving than glamorizing of the go-go-go Los Angeles lifestyle -- but fascinating nonetheless.

A small, wonderfully minimalist film that nonetheless packs an emotional wallop while delivering a beautifully heartbreaking portrait of the power of human connection.

The truth, however, is that for much of Soderbergh's film, it's all as yawn-inducing as its premise.

Spurlock banks on his charm and likability -- and it's that charm and likability that make The Greatest Movie Ever Sold so much fun to watch.

Admittedly, it won’t likely supplant 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” in many people’s hearts as the definitive cinematic adaptation of Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Still, it is a delight in its own right, a sweet, funny, colorful and suitably wondrous burst of family-friendliness.

It's all good, goofy fun.

Visually stunning.

It's easy to forget that you're watching a sci-fi film at all. That's because it's just a shade or two from not even being a sci-fi film.

The result is a simple film -- one that doesn’t try to do too much from a story standpoint, perhaps to its detriment -- but one that has a definite sense of time and place. Every step of the way, it feels honest and genuine. In this case, that makes all the difference.

Beautifully shot, but terribly dull.

The problem is that the film must re-establish a great deal of mythology, much of which is already familiar to most moviegoers. Unfortunately, Webb's film never quite makes usshake the feeling that we've done all this before.

A very human story and a very well-told one -- which, in the end, makes it very hard to forget.

Is Premium Rush a two-wheeled "French Connection"? No, not by a long shot. (Although it does include a racing-beneath-the-el-train homage.) But when it comes to lightweight, synapse-free action fare, Premium Rush delivers.

A surprisingly embraceable courtroom drama.

Part "The Great Escape" and part "Lawrence of Arabia, " Weir's epic The Way Back is ambitious in scope, grand in vision and rich with examples of the resilience of the human spirit.

Cruise and Hoffman, who previously worked together on "Magnolia," are quite good in M:I:III. Cruise has a couple of powerfully emotional moments (neither involving Oprah Winfrey's couch or a silent birth), and Hoffman is a treat in an uncharacteristic tough-guy role. [5 May 2006, p.24]

Sommersby's admirable script, by Nicholas Meyer and Sarah Kernochan (based on a story by Meyer and Anthony Shaffer that's in turn based on "Martin Guerre"), turns what might have been merely a pretext for melodrama into a provocative exploration of the meaning of identity. [05 Feb 1993, p.L27]

The music, of course, is the engine that makes the whole exercise go, tapping into a genre-spanning collection of tunes, but every bit as important to the film's success is its unexpected humor, which flirts with raunchy but stops juuuust short of crossing any lines that would have earned it an R rating.

Mary Poppins is Mary Poppins; magic is what she does best. And magic is precisely what she delivers in a film that is -- since we're borrowing so much from the 1964 original -- nothing short of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Billed as a dramatic comedy, and it lives up to that billing, even if it tends more toward chuckles than guffaws. In other words, one thing it's not is "It's Complicated," Streep's previous -- and often riotous -- relationship dramedy.

It's a dutiful but rarely lively effort, and hardly an inspired one - a film destined, perhaps, to please those unacquainted with earlier and richer cinematic adaptations. [01 May 1998, p.L40]

As she tells that story, Asante gets a little lost in the weeds here and there in the political machinations, which don't always make for a riveting narrative and tends to slow the film's forward momentum. Even as it does, the love story between Seretse and Ruth serves nicely as the film's foundation.

Garland may be the star, but it's Lansbury's turn as the bad girl that audiences will remember. [26 Apr 2002, p.40]

Unfortunately, Franklin isn't quite as successful at capturing the depth of the traditions for which Anaya's source material is so well known.

Making it even more intriguing is the fact that the whole thing is, extraordinarily, inspired by a true story.

There are some nice surprises in store, as well, but the longer Madden's story goes on, the more manufactured things tend to feel.

Sarandon offers a lovely performance as the brash but starkly vulnerable Love, while Jones delivers a slickly entertaining portrait of a legal eagle who's more like a vulture. [22 July 1994, p.L28]

Mr. Malcolm’s List, like “Bridgerton,” is a highly enjoyable, low-calorie bit of cinematic frippery.

It's in the film's Africa-set scenes -- at the film's start and again in its closing 25 minutes or so -- when The Good Lie is at its best. This is where the story is at its most moving and rewarding.

For a movie about the value of memories, it won’t go down as particularly memorable. Ten or 15 years ago, its visual effects might have been something approaching stunning. Today, they — like the dialogue, the pacing and pretty much every other element of the film — are only just good enough to allow audiences to suspend their disbelief.

The result is a film that feels breezy at times, but also grounded in a sense of emotional honesty.

Parnassus is a cold film that delights in dancing along that fine line separating "fantastical" and "nonsensical." Then, when a movie is supposed to hit things home -- in that all-important third act -- it lands with a thud on the wrong side.

For her part, Stewart has Jett down pat: her strut, her slouch, her sexiness. This is a performance that goes far beyond Jett's shag haircut.

Along the way, Krokidas' story becomes a touch schizophrenic, at times a coming-of-age story, a love story, a crime drama and a literary drama. It's hard to say which it functions as best, as none are given too much time to germinate before Krokidas moves on to the next.

What Noyce and company don't seem to realize is that there's a huge difference between a superspy and a superhuman.

It's fun, and it's funny, and -- the best part -- it comes carrying a "yeehaw"-inducing sense of a treasure found.

The movie is quietly affecting, as Rush offers a moving and rewarding yarn about the need to move on in the face of personal tragedy, and about the strength of human connections.

Speaking of good storytelling, Hancock knows a thing or two about that. Not only does the "Blind Side" director deftly navigate the double narrative of Saving Mr. Banks, but his film is also a visual treat.

What Monsters University fails to do, though, is to scare up any real emotion.