There are a few interesting moments, but basically Up at the Villa is dangerously short of sympathetic characters.

Suffers from an air of frosty detachment and a disappointingly stiff performance from Jagger, who also provides an unnecessary voice-over narration.

Gitai's characters are meant to represent the Israeli people as a whole. Just as they question their lives, the filmmaker questions 21st-century Israel.

Wrath of Man isn’t as blatantly funny as “The Gentlemen” is, though it has its laughs, but it is taut and exhilarating without a single wasted moment.

Charming and mouthwatering.

Slight but utterly charming.

Idiocy can be funny, but let's not forget that for all of this movie's aspirations to be out-there, it relies on the staple of the sitcom mentality.

Wonderfully quirky love story.

First-time writer-director Andy Muschietti, an Argentine discovered by Guillermo del Toro, relies too much, especially in the early going, on horror clichés (sudden loud noises and jagged blasts of music), but he does make the tension hum.

The disappointing The Company You Keep consistently stretches credulity way past the breaking point in its depiction of journalism, police procedure and political activism.

Some ideas are auto-stolen (from Coupland's last novel, "JPod"), but those quirky atmospherics aren't enough to sustain a largely plotless film.

The preachy movie is hardly worth the hassle and money required to see it in a theater. Better to download it or wait for it to pop up on TV.

The chatty killer and the nervy atmosphere are both so depraved that the film, though it contains hardly any explicit violence, is like stepping into a blood Jacuzzi, and there is a biblical severity to the ending.

Just as spectacular as seeing the view from Everest or other natural wonders caught by the IMAX technology.

The screenplay also fails to put the unconventional relationship into context. It never lets on that Andrea helped Duras produce some of her best work, including the autobiographical "The Lovers."

Ron Shelton effectively ratchets up the tension without resorting to the stylistic flourishes of a more recent flick about dirty cops, "Narc."

Best advice: Wait for Two Men Went to War to go to the small screen.

A clever and stylish Dutch twist on the old good-twin/bad-twin plot.

Solidly old-fashioned entertainment.

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

An intelligent and entertaining exploration of racial and sexual politics that brings alive the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, and draws parallels with African-American identity crises of today.

Colpaert makes nice use of blue and green hues, and he makes some valid points about the Iraqi war. But the script lacks coherence and ends with a 180-degree flip that lessens the impact of what has gone before.

It's Complicated is basically "Avatar" for women of a certain age, with blond highlights replacing blue skin.

Your baby is near death. Instead of dropping everything to save his life, you make sure the video camera keeps rolling.

The attraction between the resolutely empirical scientist and his “spiritual,” hippy-dippy girlfriend gives the film an unpredictable quality.

It’s not exactly giving away anything to reveal that Stamp also sings three numbers in Unfinished Song — the last one so stirring that you should bring at least one box of Kleenex.

Don't confuse the 18th-century Vene tian setting in Casanova with sophisti cation. The film's one-dimensional characters and lame one-liners make it a sitcom with petticoats.

After an hour or so, when the would-be comedy War Dogs finally gets around to a point to focus on, it’s stale ammunition that’s been sitting in a dusty Albanian warehouse for 40 years. I assume the movie got its jokes from the same place.

There’s nothing hugely original about the script by Richard Wenk (who cowrote “Expendables 2” with Sylvester Stallone), but Washington is a master at putting his own inimitable and stylish spin on even the most familiar situations.

Soundly structured, smart and fast, with a plausible central scenario, several gripping moments and well-wrought dialogue.

Sherlock Holmes dumbs down a century-old synonym for intelligence with S&M gags, witless sarcasm, murky bombast and twirling action-hero moves that belong in a ninja flick.

It’s a blatantly terrible idea with potential for comedy, but DuVall’s sometimes amusing screenplay has trouble finding its footing as an ensemble portrait of struggling relationships.

Disappointing and surprisingly crude.

It's hardly a dramatic story. You learn absolutely nothing about her personal life. But there is plenty of drama in that amazing, soulful voice and the songs she sang.

Has a desolate air, but Eyre, a Native American raised by white parents, manages to infuse the rocky path to sibling reconciliation with flashes of warmth and gentle humor.

May be the most purely entertaining foreign-language crossover since "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

The trouble here is the fizzling story. The viewer can’t help but feel the loss of Ross.

Too bad the script is predictable at every turn.

A heartwarming family fable that parents and kids can enjoy.

Both characters are riveting, and they even manage to earn most of the freight that Donovan loads onto his heavily ironic title.

The opening montage raises expectations of a serious, politically incisive depiction of the region. What we actually get is an offensively pandering, Bruckheimer-esque riff on the real-life Khobar Towers bombing of 1996, a Saudi Hezbollah attack that killed 19 Americans.

Sometimes it’s refreshing when a movie is just an improper noun that delivers what it promises.

Sounds like a great idea for a gay porno, but the soapy Save Me actually takes itself seriously.

On this overstuffed ride, we also learn where wise Rafiki, royal aide Zazu, evil Scar and even Pride Rock come from. Who cares? The backstories only make us crave the peerless 2D original.

While a tad too light, as these films often are, nobody is making animated characters as funny or likable (or marketable) as the Minions.

Phoenix gives an electric performance as amoral Army supply clerk Ray Elwood.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, crosses over from thriller into magic realism for a lavishly staged climax that's a bit much.

Fresh, fast and funny movie.

Lizzie McGuire's "Movie" doesn't try to be anything more than a superficial escapist fantasy for fans of the show.

The result is anti-Army propaganda rather than a balanced piece of reporting.

It all leads nowhere. There are pull-the-rug-out endings, and then there are pull-the-floor-out endings. The Escapist leaves you standing on nothing, like Wile E. Coyote, wondering why you bothered to come this far.

The plot isn't a new one (remember Lady Chatterley?), but Corsini gives it a few twists and turns that keep matters fresh and suspenseful.

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.’’

Aside from a jarringly fake computer-generated avalanche scene that momentarily challenges the necessary suspension of disbelief, the big-bang set pieces are superbly crafted.

Feels like an homage to the early work of Wes Anderson with its plinky soundtrack, solipsistic banter and emphasis on uniforms.

Has some terrific aerial sequences and exciting dogfights. But the clichés in the script by Zdenek Sverak (the director's father) keep the film firmly grounded when the action's not aloft.

Their conversation is so insipid that watching this movie is no more interesting than talking to any random New York couple about what makes them tick.

Doreen's scenes are meant to highlight the cost to the people surrounding Eddie. But the many efforts to link his psyche to his war experiences never gel, and Eddie remains a wraith, his real emotions as pallid as the film's colors.

Poehler isn’t quite cynical enough to pull off a comedy in which, to paraphrase “Seinfeld,” there’s no hugging and learning, but Wine Country could have been improved by keeping its emotional scenes more in reserve — like a high-end cabernet.

It's the chemistry between the Arquettes (they met on the first film and married after the second) and their rapport with Campbell that sustains Scream 3 through its overly convoluted plot.

A laugh-filled comedy that might be described as "The Full Monty" meets the Three Stooges.

Writer-director Greg Jardin’s seductive — if occasionally difficult to follow — movie is a wicked spin on a familiar tale: a group of friends spending a dramatic drunken evening in a big, luxe house.

Hutcherson isn’t particularly adept at playing moral anguish, but the film maintains an electrifying tension for its first half as we wonder just how far his character will go. In the second half, though, the film degenerates into a desultory action movie as everybody starts creeping around trying to shoot one another.

The movie includes a recurring motif of immigrant taxi drivers - like them, the movie is constantly going around in circles.

Adrift is paced like its title, and the story’s momentum is slowed somewhat by constant toggling between past and present.

Rarely have filmmakers had a more wildly improbable happy ending forced on them. Well, you need all the help you can get, divine or otherwise, when your two stars - Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon - have no chemistry whatsoever.

So the film is a head-spinning mix of dead babies and romantic dinners, pillow talk and mass executions. Blood and honey don't taste right together.

The film can be rough going for those who know little of Berger’s work. That’s especially true of the second part, a stupefying collage about Berger’s home in rural Quincy, France.

Deschanel manages to make Winter Passing almost matter. That's real talent.

One of the funniest films of the summer so far, it tells the story of five scruffy Peter Pans, who have been playing the same game of tag for 30 years. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, the tale is (almost) all true.

I'd guess Turtle: The Incredible Journey will appeal most to kids, though they will have to wrestle with 3-D glasses.

This is a useful primer on what went wrong — and right — in 2008.

An interesting failure, not a fascinating one.

If Martin Scorsese were 30 and a Los Angeleno, he'd be making movies much like this one.

Oh, and one more thing the comedy of Jackass 3D has in common with "The Divine Comedy": Neither of them is funny.

A treat for aficionados of oddball movies.

Tends to run low on steam well before the end, though Waters gamely tries to pump things up with filthy novelty tunes and clips from old stag films.

Produced for peanuts (and looks it), but offers enough laughs to please even those who don't usually venture into downtown art houses.

It busts the credibility meter early on, quickly becomes preposterous, and then really lets its imagination rip.

Fatally mild, slow and factory-made, Million Dollar Arm belongs somewhere less competitive than the multiplex. Like the ABC Family Channel — the entertainment industry minor leagues.

Plodding drama.

It's condescending, it's vague, it's unfair and, ultimately, it's pointless.

There are so many monologues about obnoxious behavior that they begin to lose their luster - something I'd never have thought possible.

Time has robbed Blume’s subjects of shock value, but her perceptiveness hasn’t dimmed. The movie’s sincerity carries it along, and makes this story endearing despite its filmmaking clichés.

Maher's sense of humor deserts him in the end, though, when in an apocalyptic montage of fire and hate (bin Laden, Pat Robertson), he suggests all religions are equally bent on destruction of the Earth. It's fatuous to suggest that the Iraq war was launched because of religion or that belief in the Book of Revelation is the same as organizing terrorist attacks.

It's the snobs against the slobs at a Martha's Vine yard wedding in Jumping the Broom. Mostly, it's a tie: Both sides are equally irritating.

A satisfying, big-hearted celebration of diversity that will brighten holiday moviegoing.

Movie adaptations shouldn’t require that you know their source material. But in the case of The Glass Castle, it’s impossible not to just say it: You’re better off reading the book.

There have been many untraditional film adaptations of Shakespeare's, but few have been as unorthodox as this one.

What’s different from the previous entry is that humor here, despite a formulaic plot, is balanced with surprising dramatic heft.

Jude Law gives arguably the worst performance of his career as Wolfe in Genius, the ham-fisted directing debut of noted British theater figure Michael Grandage, bombastically adapted by John Logan (“Gladiator’’) from a biography by A. Scott Berg.

Even for a horror movie, The Crazies is a bore, and we're talking about the most boring genre this side of dysfunctional-family indie drama.

The beautifully crafted Adam offers no pat or easy answers.

Very sentimental.

Simply not as involving or moving as it should be.

The film's strong point is its stylish, arty look, carefully chosen composition and shadowy lighting.

An atmospheric but sluggish and needlessly confusing British contemporary film noir that may indeed leave some audience members struggling to stay awake.

Who says you need a big crew and tons of money to make an enjoyable movie?