Perhaps no movie could do Muhammad Ali justice. But this overlong but sketchy biopic by Michael Mann, in which style repeatedly tramples substance, actually does the great man a disservice.

A fulsomely, aggressively modest no-star picture, it’s a plotless, pointless two-hour hangout.

A bizarre and campily amusing "tribute" to the late dance legend starring drag queen Richard Move.

Soulful though the film is, melodrama gradually sneaks in, and then it takes over.

Like a thick slice of ham - tasty, elegantly prepared and served - that aspires to be gourmet fare but in the end turns out to be only half-baked.

Centering around a stoic woman who elbowed her way to the top of her field in a world of men in tweed suits, only for it all to be put at risk, the plot has heavy shades of 2022’s “Tar,” which is a much better movie.

For all its virtues, this is not a film to see on less than a good night's sleep.

As lovely as Jimmy’s Hall is, Paul Laverty’s script is not so much talky as speech-y. Some conversations play like bullet points about Irish politics and the iron grip of the Catholic Church.

The highlight is a meta touch: A funny on-screen résumé is posted each time we meet a new character.

Picture "Raging Bull" with a sleazy prep from the Brooklyn hipsteropolis of Williamsburg, and you'll get the idea of The Comedy, a character study that tries to make the revolting compelling.

This digitally tricked-out fairy tale makes for a reasonably engaging kids’ fantasy, but at best we’re talking about a junior varsity “Lord of the Rings.” It’s March. What did you expect?

But on evidence of the likable but draggy and awfully thin Muppets from Space, Kermit & Co. are showing their age. Miss Piggy is about five years away from Norma Desmondhood, and Kermit is ready for his pipe and cardigan, Mr. DeMille. [14 July 1999, p.048]

Looking at the Mexican drug wars from both sides of the border, Cartel Land is punchy and vital but not particularly informative.

The Sons of Tennessee Williams, which offers touching interviews with many older gay men, somewhat awkwardly connects this history with the efforts of a gay Mardi Gras crew to keep going in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

There's a winning emotional truth in the father-son scenes in this Spokane-shot sleeper, directed with skill and sensitivity by Jonathan Segal.

Given the rarity of such movies, and such opportunities for an actress like Clarkson, Cairo Time earns some indulgence for a pace that Westerners may find languid.

It's good-natured myth-making cut into kid-size pieces.

While Fienberg's direction is no great shakes, the film showcases its veteran cast.

Despite its visual brilliance, its all-round cleverness, and the way it demonstrates a profound understanding of genre, the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There doesn't quite come off.

Some of the film's flourishes are ill-judged.

A satisfying Irish stew made from very familiar ingredients.

A movie that won’t knock you out with originality but may charm you with its wit.

The sincerity and simplicity of the film, however, lift it somewhat above the ordinary run.

When a movie wades into the vast pool of World War II and Holocaust titles, the viewer expects a splash. One Life is, at best, a spritz. It delivers a lot of what we’ve already seen before, but on a less-than-cinematic scale. Yet spending some time with Hopkins and exploring a speck of light in one of the world’s darkest chapters is just satisfying enough.

As mechanical and predictable as a cuckoo clock, it shouldn't work half as well as it does.

Generally rises above the easy clichés you find in most such movies.

Finally, someone took the source material at its terribly written word and stopped treating the whole affair so seriously.

Often charming and sweet, and always prettily photographed.

Too much screen time is devoted to producers Lloyd and Susan Ecker, fans who serve as on-screen narrators and serve up tidbits from Tucker’s 400 scrapbooks, some of which, frankly, seem highly improbable.

Having written this script for themselves, Sharp and Jackson are a scream. Imagine if a vodka Redbull transformed into two human beings — that’s who they are.

A ragged piece of filmmaking, but the odds are you'll have as good a time watching it as Nicholson and Sandler seemed to have making it.

Don Cheadle has a fine time jiving through Talk to Me - accent, please, on the middle word. It's a black "Good Morning, Vietnam."

The animation IS great and absolutely so fantastic you'll want to reach out and touch the creatures - or swat them off your uncomfortable 3-D glasses.

Instructive, cathartic or just too painful? You decide.

The gospel according to The Gospel is this: There's a party at God's house, and you're invited.

A compelling and beautifully photographed documentary.

Simply not as involving or moving as it should be.

Delpy's good at keeping Marion's complaints sharp and funny, rather than wan and whiny. Even so, the movie's a bumpy ride as her good farcical instincts vie with the yen for cheap laughs.

If you've seen either of the first two flicks in this outrageous series - "Oldboy" and "Sympathy for Mister Vengeance" - you know what's coming. Novices should prepare for mind-bending bloodshed and violence.

It may be impossible to make an uninteresting documentary about Hunter S. Thompson, but is it unfair to ask Gonzo for more Hunter and less Jimmy Carter?

Turns out to be a choppily written, unevenly acted exercise, no less shlocky and predictable than any of Hollywood's average second-string heterosexual comedies.

Familiar elements such as a dark family secret, a ghost and a Ouija board start to seem trite after a while, and the third act is a little ridiculous, but debut writer-director Nicholas McCarthy does a lot with a little and seems fully prepared to handle a big-studio horror project.

With uncommon ineptitude even by the standards of contemporary action flicks, Kyle's script submerges the inherently dramatic tale of the K-19 under a pile of clichés, while failing to tell you enough about the characters for their actions to make much sense.

Delivers one of those classic movie moments in which two screen legends go toe to toe, both barrels metaphorically blazing.

In attempting to dramatize their harrowing story in the film Thirteen Lives...the director doesn’t make quick, from-the-gut decisions the way that the intrepid team did. Instead, he takes a chill ride on the Lazy River.

Laughably predictable in its plotting, crude in its symbolism, ploddingly paced and often rendered almost comical by the heavy-breathing overacting of Johansson's supporting cast.

Anyone expecting a hard-hitting biography will be disappointed by Julian Schnabel's soft-edged, dreamy and relatively nonpolitical film.

The trouble is that the film also wants to make Kev at least partly sympathetic, despite his monstrous treatment of his son, and nothing we learn about him ever does, or could, accomplish that.

Disney's disappointing Atlantis, sadly, is a lot like much of the studio's recent animated output: eye-popping visuals and great vocal characterizations sunk by a dead-in-the-water script.

Has enough material to supply an entire year of a soap opera - in Inner Mongolia, that is.

The flaws of Flash of Genius are worth putting up with for Kinnear's committed performance.

Talky, overlong and, ultimately, just as predictable and repetitive as the maddening relationship it depicts.

A lean, deftly shot, well-acted, weirdly retro thriller that recalls a raft of '60s and '70s European-set spy pictures. There are even moments when you hope it could turn into a modern "Charade."

A sobering, if exploitative, portrait of the real-life hitchhiking hooker portrayed so realistically by Charlize Theron in "Monster."

An admirably realistic portrait of police life.

Despite inadequate editing and overreliance on bad background music, The Girl Next Door doesn't disappoint.

Kelemer doesn't offer anything that hasn't been done before in documentaries of this type. Still, Won't Anybody Listen makes for interesting viewing as a study of true-life underdogs.

The Nut Job has an interesting anti-socialist subtext, with the seemingly benevolent raccoon revealing himself as a power-mad dictator. It’s the most political non-Pixar cartoon feature since the very left-leaning “The Ant Bully’’ eight years ago.

The journey to this foregone conclusion features several dance-offs mashing up contemporary and classical styles, which director Michael Damian (“Love By Design”) shoots with gusto. Sure, this is all a familiar tune — but it’s still catchy.

Visually unimpressive and laden with awkward dialogue; its primary interest doesn't lie in its storytelling but in its sociology -- in the window it opens onto a Muslim Middle Eastern society in transition.

Doesn't do enough with a righteous premise.

Manages to entertain while saying something about loneliness and culture shock.

It’s involving, as biopics go, but the shattering debates that still swirl around Arendt’s view of the Holocaust are relegated to walk-ons.

If you go with the flow, there's seductive imagery and a terrific performance by John Malkovich as a decadent baron.

In his feature debut, Bormatov doesn't much bother with things like character development, relying instead on raw brutality, profanity and sex. It shouldn't be long before the Hollywood remake with Angelina Jolie.

Writer-director Keith Bearden was also smart enough to round up a couple of other old pros: Brian Dennehy, as the hero's eccentric grandfather, and Keith David, as a wise collector of pop-culture artifacts.

Still, the proceedings move so quietly and thoughtfully as to be occasionally somnolent, though they’re punctuated with spasms of the violence that marked the Troubles.

Chop Suey is, in the end, as much a tease as Weber's photographs -- not much substance, but rather sweet and with style to burn.

Spanning two decades in a little under two hours, Higher Ground is a well-acted if slow-moving drama that will reward adventurous audiences with fine performances and a thoughtful approach.

A better than adequate date movie.

A sun-splashed noir that loses its appeal in the last act.

“It’s a little self-congratulatory and light on story,” says one student of another’s film project in Dear White People, which feels like director Justin Simien getting out ahead of inevitable (and accurate) criticism.

Slightly radical in portraying high schoolers as human beings of normal niceness and intelligence. That means this winsome comedy is a little low in the stakes department, not to mention predictable, but it gets an “A” for charm.

Bugonia buzzes by, if sometimes nauseastingly, and is a huge improvement from Lanthimos’ episodic drivel last year.

Bate is to be congratulated for reminding the world of Leopold's wickedness, even if he does OD on re-enactments.

As always in Veber's films, the predictability is part of the fun.

Hurt, who starred in Kwietniowski's earlier study in compulsion, "Life and Death on Long Island," is oily perfection as the devious Victor.

Lawrence’s script for The Rewrite could have used one, and his direction is uneven, but it’s still rewarding watching Grant dispensing his dithery charm surrounded by old pros.

If you can overlook its TV-episode look, occasional lapses in logic and detours into lurid overkill, this old-school psychological thriller, which marries a tracking-the-serial-killer narrative with occult themes, is a creepy diversion.

Basically a two-hour argument for regime change that isn't half as incendiary or persuasive as its maker would have you believe.

Jia's message is that globalization has failed to help the Chinese masses. We hear you, dude, but did you really need 143 minutes to get your point across?

Despite all of the hideous critters Hellboy encounters, there is a hint that things are considerably weirder elsewhere.

For rock fans, hearing many Led Zeppelin and U2 classics on a theater sound system is worth the price of a ticket.

Seth Rogen’s raunchy Sausage Party contains occasional flashes of satirical brilliance. But in true stoner form, it also thinks a lot of stuff is funnier than it actually is.

Mock didn't find room for any of the many critics who accuse Kushner of being an anti-Zionist - and the film unfortunately ends in 2004, just before its subject began working on his controversial script for Steven Spielberg's "Munich."

Somewhat refreshingly aspiring to be nothing more than a disposable summer popcorn movie, this is a flick that delivers more smiles than laughs and has some wonderful special effects.

Perfectly enjoyable swashbuckling, eye-catching entertainment.

If Top Five doesn’t go deep, though, it is intermittently very funny.

The sheer loathesomeness of protagonist Stephen Glass as portrayed by Hayden Christensen makes Shattered Glass hard to watch.

Scored by Bruce Hornsby, Lee’s film veers all over the place tonally, juxtaposing scenes of spurting gore with soothing jazz. Hess’ WASP-y mansion, with its huge photo portraits of African warriors, is an interesting study in mashing up race and class stereotypes, though the film’s rambling plot may leave your brain feeling a little mashed, too.

Freaked-out funky weirdness starts to happen all around him (Rockwell).

Fly Away is more situation than story, though, and the Germann character's welcoming, almost saintly vibe doesn't fit.

A perfectly enjoyable sci-fi thriller.

G.B.F., which concludes with a clumsy parody of the prom climax from “Carrie,’’ offers an admirable message of tolerance for teen audiences — too bad it’s been absurdly saddled with an R rating, even though there’s far less innuendo than in “Easy A.’’

A high school coming-of-age film that dares to push the envelope. It doesn't always succeed, but that's not for lack of trying.

Corcuera's unflinching documentary Back of the World is a real-life horror story told in three parts.

The tedious film might have been worth watching if Burman had given reasons to care about Ariel or anyone else. He doesn't and we don't.

More fun and somewhat more coherent than its Sylvester Stallone-directed predecessor, The Expendables 2 serves up a planeload of thickly sliced, well-aged beef and ham amid lots of stuff getting blown up.