For at least three-fourths of its running time, The Concert is predictable, soft-edged and unremarkable. Then the titular performance, of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, begins, and the music elicits the emotional response the rest of the film has been striving for the whole time. It's enough to almost make the whole thing worthwhile.

King is good enough that you can't help but root for her. But frankly, I can't imagine paying full ticket price plus concessions for that privilege.

Salt is hooey, but in a medium in which hooey is the stock-in-trade, it's effective hooey, and hooey with admirable craft, and, most of all, breezy hooey.

The biggest problems are Solondz's themes of forgiveness and glib, misplaced patriotism.

This is the first full-length movie about his painting and his being that gets anywhere near close to comprehending both.

This is a deeply felt work of art in the form of a big, brassy movie-movie.

What saves Kisses from its missteps is the chemistry between O'Neill and Curry.

There's almost nothing to grab onto. It's like a gorgeous graphic novel with a protagonist and story that vanish utterly from the mind as soon as the last page is turned.

Turteltaub has a workmanlike touch and an easy sense of humor here, and he and his team do a better-than-expected job of keeping you interested in the story, despite it being yet another Tale of a Reluctant Young Man With A Supernatural Hero's Calling.

There's no reason to actively dislike the film, but that's not enough, not at today's ticket prices. Just because you're not despicable, after all, doesn't mean you're the pick of the litter.

While Predators isn't nearly as vivid or fresh as the original, it's certainly its strongest sequel.

A solid, twisting, well-acted mystery, but it strains credulity at times, and its ultimate revelations are unsurprising and, when you think back on the whole film, confusing. It also lacks a distinctive atmosphere, shot in an almost TV-style flatness.

Ultimately, a heart in the film to go with Rebney's considerable bile.

The fun thing about Eclipse is watching Lautner emerge as the Han Solo of this series, getting all the laughs and calling Edward and Bella on their preciousness.

You can't help but share the feelings, many of them subrational, that coarse through the soldiers as they live a hellish year in a hellish place.

Still, when a director of his pedigree and years brings so much life to the screen, inconsistency hardly seems to matter.

Incomplete, shrill and smug.

If you can settle into its odd, low-key groove, I think you'll find it's a light pop beverage that goes down easy during one of the lamest blockbuster summers in recent memory.

In the year's least surprising news, Toy Story 3 continues Pixar's near-perfect streak.

As the eye-opening documentary Stonewall Uprising shows through interviews and frequently horrifying old footage, homosexuality in this country was once a highly illegal behavior, widely viewed, at the very least, as a mental disorder, possibly even psychopathic.

How pleasant to report, then, that a new romantic comedy -- small, smart, funny, tender and dear -- should emerge from a pair of filmmaking brothers still in their 30s and with a distinct indie film pedigree that informs, while not dominating, their work.

Here the homages/critiques of old craft and form are often laughably mangled, and nothing sexy, profound or illuminating results. For all its prettiness, it's the sort of picture that gives the arthouse a bad name.

Ultimately, it's a formulaic sports movie for kids that hits the expected dramatic beats.

It's shaping up to be a long, dry summer, at least at the multiplex.

Rarely has a documentary subject projected such palpable fear and anxiety as Joan Rivers in Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.

With a level-gazed approach to its milieu, empathetic but clear-eyed, Winter's Bone practically makes up for 40 years of "Deliverance"-style hillbilly cartoons.

Unfortunately, neither of these fascinating artistic giants is given much of a personality.

Well, if Jordan believes he's made an excellent film, that's one thing, but the fact is it's a minor, though mostly enjoyable, one.