Algenis Perez Soto was a baseball player in real life, which helps to explain his sensitive, understated performance as Sugar. But he's let down by a manipulative script recycled from dozens of sports and immigrant movies. At least it dispenses with a Hollywood ending.

Too bad the film around Brody is fairly by-the-numbers, with a mean-spirited kicker that doesn’t imbue much originality to its imperiled-female plotline.

It’s a disappointment as a movie, though Shannon is especially fine in a rare sympathetic role.

The siblings react with humor and horror to what they discover. So will many viewers of this self-indulgent but engaging work.

Sweet and funny — largely thanks to James Corden in the lead role — it’s never particularly surprising.

It's a drawn-out look at politics that's largely devoid of the trademark humor that long ago got New Wave veteran Chabrol labeled the Gallic Hitchcock.

Sexploitation and art blend uneasily in Crazy Horse.

Starts out promisingly, but quickly sinks under the weight of its own plot twists, ponderous pacing and Val Kilmer's monotonous performance as a ruthless special-ops agent.

Boasts a stellar ensemble cast and some priceless one-liners -- but those pearls of acerbic wit have been strung together on a cheap piece of thread which almost inevitably breaks in the third act.

Technically competent. What it needs is an original script.

What could have been an intriguing look at a bizarre and complex woman plays like just another cog in the Annabel Chong publicity machine.

The sort of enigmatic movie that many critics embrace because it's open to endless interpretation.

The contrived script lacks subtlety, rendering most characters as stereotypes.

The densely plotted Generation War sweeps past implausibilities and offers the can’t-put-it-down qualities of a superior airport novel; its last third is affecting. But a bold confrontation with the past? Not so much.

The doc consists of interviews with the absurdly grandiose Jodorowsky (whose fans include Kanye West) plus acolytes like current director Nicolas Winding Refn and film nerds, all of whom walk us through storyboards and tell us how awesome this “greatest film never made” would have been.

The character of ZigZag is not sufficiently developed to support a film constructed around him.

Skarsgård is dangerous as ever here, but writer-director Dan Krauss’ drama offers very little insight into the minds of these men, and we’re left with no satisfying takeaway. It’s just one upsetting scene after another.

This is hardly reinventing the wheel, but it is serviceable, if you're looking for a few shivery communal scares.

Although Hill failed to derail Thomas’ career, she seems to consider her testimony a success: She remains a highly sought public speaker about workplace sexual harassment, which in large part thanks to her is much less tolerated than it once was.

Bad Santa 2 is vulgar, nasty and offensive, but it has flawed aspects also.

Can't decide if it's a martial-arts thriller or a sappy soap opera.

The sad truth is that TV series like "Dawson's Creek" do a better job with precocious teen dialogue.

The leads are likeable enough, but the script reanimates "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" tactics - a monster story supposedly made hilarious by being told by a savvy high schooler. These lines aren't even jokes, though, they're just collisions of the brutal and the banal.

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

It’s all headed for a showdown, of course, and duly delivers, though Crudup and Taylor are the only ones who really seem to have a handle on the New Yawk accent.

Regina Hall is always extraordinary — even in projects that are mediocre.

Its intriguing subject matter is diluted by too many bland performances.

A beautifully acted if fairly poky coming-of-age story.