At best, the film serves up mild chuckles, with occasional cute jokes.

Briskly effective, humanizing.

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

Unpleasant as it is, you can't exactly call Sherman's perspective misogynistic, if only because the protagonist hates himself every bit as much.

A decent idea for an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond," The Do-Deca-Pentathlon falls short as a movie.

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.

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.

Chang doesn't pull his punches in this continuing look at a changing, out-of-control China.

Even in an underwritten role, the delightful Madsen shines in her best performance since her comeback role in "Sideways."

Despite its excesses, Savage" is never unintentionally funny, just gritty and mean. The run time is more than two hours, yet it's also tight: no drag, no waste, no message.

Sometimes dull and mostly uninspired, it's much less a satisfying reboot like "Batman Begins'' than a pointless rehash in the mode of "Superman Returns.''

The nicest thing I can think of to say about the doc Neil Young Journeys is that at least it isn't in 3-D.

It's apt that the Rome weather in this stodgy film, contrary to the title, seems quite temperate.

Both Venice and Bouquet are photographed to ravishing effect, and like the city, Judith is meant to suggest something trapped into being a fantasy for others.

The overall mood of Gypsy is despair.

Canadian actor Kirby's bedroom-eyes shtick is infused with just the right amount of creepiness, as Polley's film plays with the blurry line between soulful romantic obsession and just plain stalking.

The considerable talents of Banks make the movie bearable.

The best reason to wade into this (let's be honest) challenging but hugely rewarding film is Quvenzhané Wallis.

The surprise of Ted is that it goes for honest Spielbergian wonder, too, and even earns some tears.

As we face yet another summer of brooding superheroes, it's Magic Mike to the rescue! He's got the civilian alter ego and the acrobatic skills to rival Spidey or Batman.

Provides a fascinating tour of the city's past.

Sheen's throwback portrayal is appealing enough, but flat characters, dull revelations and uninvolving complications make this deliberately small film feel nearly microscopic.

Gandhi is talented enough, and compassionate enough, that his tour of the human need to believe in something becomes not just mocking, but touching.

For sheer infuriation value, you can't do much better than Kirby Dick's quietly scathing documentary on rape in the US military.

In To Rome With Love, Allen approaches the leitmotif in a strange, oblique and interesting way. I fear, though, that the Italian entry in his "Let's Go: Grab Some Euro-Film Subsidies" period will be remembered as being forgettable.

Has its laughs, but pretty much every single one of them is in the trailer. And even more unfortunately, the improbable new romantic comedy team of Steve Carell and Keira Knightley works about as well as you'd guess - like oil and water.

You can't help wishing they'd thought a little further outside the box.

I didn't know whether to be more offended as a moviegoer or as an American, but I do know I'd rather gargle nitroglycerine than watch this again, though given that the film looks like it were buried under a log cabin for a century, I barely saw it the first time.