Combining narrative heavy-handedness with an airy disdain for the details of the situation, director Julian Schnabel gives us a one-sided view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Miral.

Seventh-graders are far cooler and more anarchic than depicted in this often-dopey movie, which is aimed at more of a fourth-grade sensibility.

A soul-deadening mash-up of "Kill Bill," "Showgirls" and dozens of other better flicks that's not the least bit exciting or sexy, Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch is what happens when a studio gives carte blanche to a filmmaker who has absolutely nothing original or even coherent to say.

Suffers from a lack of focus and a sitcom script.

The noise level reminds me of Canal Street in Chinatown on a Sunday afternoon.

May serve as a useful way to introduce teens to what World War II in Europe was like.

Scott's feature debut is beautifully filmed and offers an unexpectedly shocking ending.

An essential document of bad taste that needs to go right into the time capsule. History must not forget.

At the end, as Shadyac proclaims, "I stopped flying privately" (well, hurrah for you, Mahatma), renounces his Pasadena mansion and moves into a trailer park, the results of his epiphany grow funnier than any of his movies.

Beautifully filmed and well-acted, "The Gift to Stalin," directed by Rustem Abdrashev, has its schmaltzy, cliched moments, including an unnecessary finale in Jerusalem.

Unpretentious and unexpectedly moving.

It's a bit less good than McCarthy's earlier films -- Jeffrey Tambor has a large, superfluous role that abruptly disappears, and Ryan, a fine actress, makes a less than entirely convincing spouse for Giamatti. This one is a crowd-pleaser nonetheless.

Bateman has rarely had the opportunity to play a snarling lawman, but with his cool aviators and his bristling putdowns he's perfect, too.

Limitless may please a few looking for a shallow fantasy thriller, but won't fire up the synapses of the intellectually demanding.

It goes down as smoothly as a milkshake thanks to an impressive cast.

Plotwise, the movie can (like many a Brooklynite) barely be bothered to comb its hair. Just when the pace needs to pick up, everyone sits around discussing fruity drinks.

Sadly, with the Soviet Union gone, the art faces a new enemy: Islamic extremists.

Well-acted and acutely observed.

The hopelessly dated 1968 play "The Boys in the Band" yields a surprisingly sprightly and multifaceted documentary, Making the Boys.

The movie, a sequel to 2009's much more sprightly and amusing indie "Women in Trouble," seems to be reaching for Robert Altman territory. Instead of offering many intriguing stories, though, it can't come up with even one.

If you're in the mood for a clichéd gangland B-movie, though, you could do worse.

Literate and engrossing, with excellent performances.

Though deadly serious, Christopher Smith's European-made bubonic- plague melodrama provides good value with lots of blood and guts, as well as a solid cast.

Aside from a relatively brief appearance by Joan Cusack's avatar as the kidnapped mother, there are no involving characters or situations.

This silly extraterrestrial-invasion epic somehow manages the feat of making the destruction of La La Land seem tedious.

After 160 years, this is a story that still grips the heart and the mind.

I have no idea how to blow up a two-page fairy tale into 100 minutes of blockbuster, but frankly I was hoping for more backstory about the titular cape in Red Riding Hood. Thread count? Machine washability?

An enjoyable mix of tragedy and comedy.