There are times when it borders on the pretentious but there’s a real, emotional payoff and it doesn’t hurt that veteran actors Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel give Top 10 career performances.

So what’s the final verdict? A mixed bag. It’s a good start to a new trilogy but hardly the hoped-for masterpiece. It’s a solid space opera spectacle with enough nostalgia to overpower even the most hard-hearted child of the ‘70s and ‘80s but it relies a little too much on recycling old plot elements.

There’s an inevitability about The Danish Girl being well received by critics and at awards ceremonies. This is, after all, a movie with a strong social message about tolerance and inclusivity. Dramatically, however, it’s a mixed bag.

The biggest problem with In the Heart of the Sea is its episodic nature. Especially during the post-sinking saga, things don’t flow smoothly.

Especially during the first 90 minutes, Carol is an immersive experience that invites the viewer to slow down and amble along at its leisurely pace.

Legend seems like a movie Scorsese might have made if he wasn’t paying attention - the elements are present but they are clumsily assembled and the outcome underwhelms.

Visually, The Good Dinosaur boasts some of the most amazingly photo-realistic sets I have seen in any animated film.

The only thing about Victor Frankenstein worthy of praise is the set design. Visually, the movie is impressive but pretty pictures are better left to postcards.

Coogler provides enough rousing moments to get the adrenaline pumping - there are times when the urge to jump up and cheer is almost too strong to resist. But there's more to Creed and it is elevated by the quiet, subtle elements.

Although not without moments of sadness and tragedy, Brooklyn is sublimely uplifting and life affirming.

Mockingjay Part 1, released a year ago, was a disjointed, incomplete affair and, although Mockingjay Part 2 is more polished, the pace is uneven and there’s a sense that the series has hung around too long.

Spotlight is a Valentine to investigative journalism and a stark reminder of where we’re headed now that this brand of writing has become an endangered species. The film is unique in that it focuses almost entirely on the process.

The root problem of The 33 is that, in attempting to do too much, it succeeds at too little.

The voice work is on-target - the child actors, none of whom have played these parts before and many of whom have limited professional experience, nail their characters. They sound just like we expect them to sound.

Spectre is the most “traditional” of the Craig Bonds. Although a little light on gadgets, it has everything else,

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Suffragette is that it too obviously wants to be an important movie. The self-consciousness of this desire is evident.

Room is honest and challenging but it’s more uplifting than one might expect from a film with such a horrific backstory.

he movie is funny enough to get its share of laughs but, in its angry heart, it’s a tragedy - and the saddest part is that too much of this story is true.

The Last Witch Hunter feels like the first episode of a would-be series although, unlike some similar endeavors, it tells a stand-alone story.

Director Guillermo del Toro’s unique visual style is on display but the story is predictable, the characters are flat, and the supernatural elements are red herrings. To paraphrase a character, this isn’t so much a ghost story as it is a “story with ghosts.”

At a guess, I'd say that Goosebumps will satisfy its core audience - fans of R.L. Stine's popular children's books - and bore pretty much everyone else.

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Danny Boyle aren’t interested in offering another re-enactment of the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story. They have something more ambitious in mind. Their goal is to illustrate the tyranny of genius and how a “great mind” doesn’t always mean a “great person.”

With names like Spielberg, Hanks, and the Coen Brothers, it's hard not to be excited about a project like Bridge of Spies. Yet, although the workmanlike production is solidly engaging, it falls short of the loftiest expectations. It's worth seeing but not one of the best films of 2015.

The film fulfills its limited mandate of providing fast-paced adventure and some nice eye candy without adding anything memorable to the tale of The Boy Who Can Fly.

Those who go to a Villeneuve production, Sicario included, must be prepared for intense suspense, moral ambiguity, and an ending that doesn't conform to Hollywood norms.

For those who buy into the precept that "good things are worth waiting for," The Walk unquestionably delivers.

This is science fiction for sophisticated audiences and, as such, a fulfilling and satisfying experience.

The Intern is a romantic comedy without the romance.

The visuals of a blasted city are impressive but hardly reason to spend $10 to sit in a theater seat and watch a bunch of underdeveloped characters get chased by zombies for an inordinate amount of time.

In this case, character development is neglected in favor of awe-inspiring views. There are times when we feel like we're on the mountain. Unfortunately, our companions - the men and women populating the screen - are never more than half-formed.

As a dramatic thriller, Black Mass has trouble getting into low orbit. There are some tremendous scenes but the narrative as a whole feels more like a chronology of dastardly dealings than the epic tale of a criminal's rise and fall.

Despite a promising premise and effective "Shyamalan twist", this low-budget horror film still underwhelms. "The Sixth Sense" writer/director is his own worst enemy in the choices he makes bringing The Visit to the screen.

A Walk in the Woods is surprisingly funny at times but, like many comedies, it runs out of steam about halfway through.

From narrative to character development to staging, every frame of Mistress America drips with artifice. It's a playground for unpleasant, self-absorbed characters - an excursion into the lifestyles of people most of us would prefer to bypass. If there's an antonym for self-awareness, it applies to nearly everyone populating this misfire.

The musical sequences throb with energy and this allows We Are Your Friends to maintain its trajectory when its momentum flags.

No Escape is a throwback to an era when movies of this genre were defined by suspense and tension. Dowdle isn't interested in providing a safe harbor for those who want a comfortable way to spend two hours. His vision is edgy and exhausting and, for the most part, his execution breathes life into it, tossing a firecracker into the sleepy post-summer movie doldrums.

Although Sinister 2 continues the story begun in Scott Derrickson's creepily effective "Sinister," it feels more like an unnecessary retread than an organic extension of the original.

Hitman: Agent 47 might offer a passable diversion for action junkies but, for everyone else, it's best avoided.

The movie is replete with bloody encounters, sly asides, and one-liners, but the tone is awkward and uneven. There are also some serious structural problems that we're supposed to brush aside.

It has taken Warner Brothers ten years to get this property a new life and, thankfully, the results in no way resemble those of its Cold War TV compatriot. Or, to put it another way, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) is good fun, which "The Avengers" (1998) wasn't.

Clever and atmospheric, the film has enough twists to keep the average viewer guessing.

It's an entertaining diversion - a good way to pass a couple of hours as late summer evenings lengthen - but not much more.

Perhaps surprisingly, it's no better or worse that the other superhero movies of 2015.

The film offers everything one could ask for from popcorn entertainment.

Ed Helms, a Hangover veteran, is a perfect choice to take over the reins from Chase.

In "Rocky," it was less about beating Apollo Creed than showing grit, earning respect, and getting the girl. Fundamentally, Southpaw isn't much different.

The contrived storyline offers little opportunity for characters to grow and the meandering narrative trajectory and anticlimactic ending will have some viewers wondering why they bothered.

The "characters" vary from slightly annoying to unbearable - this is a film in which a viewer can be forgiven for rooting for the old video game icons to annihilate humanity. God help us if the best savior we can muster is Sandler.

Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to make it through the entirety of Ant-Man's two hours without thinking of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" as least once, and I'm not sure that's an association the filmmakers were courting.

As written by the brash, funny, and often vulgar comedienne Amy Schumer, Trainwreck is brash, funny, and often vulgar. Its raunchiness is a perfect match for the man who made "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up."

There's enough material in Self/less to fuel a mini-series. Instead of letting the story breathe, the film rushes along at breakneck speed, using contrivances and "shortcuts" in failed attempts at character development.

Many of the jokes are either obvious or have been exposed through pre-release marketing material. I kept waiting for the clever or insightful moment that never arrives. The bar is set pretty low for Minions.

The best one-liners, like the best fight scenes, are reserved for Schwarzenegger. It's too soon to tell whether Terminator Genisys will have a catch phrase like "I'll be back" or "Hasta la vista, baby" but there are several candidates. Much of the film's comedy results from The Terminator's failed attempts to emulate human behavior.

"Magic Mike" was self-contained, made with no expectation of a second chapter - and they prove unable to surmount it. Too many elements that made the first film an enjoyable experience are missing.

It would be disingenuous for me to claim that Ted 2 isn't funny. Although I was often bored by the plodding direction of the story, I laughed from time-to-time.

The Overnight plays like the pilot of a sitcom developed for Netflix or premium cable. A hit-and-miss affair that deals in a sporadically amusing fashion with many of the mundane (and a few not-so-mundane) tribulations of long-term monogamy in marriage.

Max is a throwback of sorts - a movie about the relationship between a boy and his dog. Lassie springs to mind as the genre classic, but this has a closer kinship to Rin Tin Tin. Although its sensibilities are old-fashioned, the movie offers a modern look and feel.

Famuyiwa dabbles in the teen sex comedy, the urban gangster story, and the fish out of water scenario. He gives us suspense, gross-out humor, a cute romance, and a sermon about the status of race in America.

I won't argue that Inside Out is as profound or all-around engaging as "Toy Story 3," but the films succeed in many of the same ways.

Consistently hits the right notes, earning both the tears and smiles that result.

Gemma Bovery, which is based on a graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, possesses a deliciously sense of wit and irony.

Despite having a slim resume (the quirky indie Safety Not Guaranteed), Trevorrow handles Jurassic World like a pro. He hits all the right notes, giving the two-dimensional characters as much heft as they deserve (which isn't much) and handling the action sequences like a seasoned veteran of Hollywood tent pole features.

They say the third time's the charm. Not with the Insidious series, it isn't. Admittedly, installment #3 is an improvement over #2, but it fails to reach the highs of the chilling-but-uneven original.

If nothing else, Entourage (the movie) can be considered a faithful follow-up to Entourage (the TV program). That's good news for anyone who enjoyed the series up to the end and not-so-good news for those who lost interest along the way or never were interested in the first place.

The problem is that writer/director Paul Feig became too enamored with his storyline which, at best, could be described as a lame James Bond parody.

It's an orgy for disaster porn devotees.

Aloha is Crowe's worst film-to-date, eclipsing "Elizabethtown" for that distinction and raising questions about whether the director has lost his touch (á là Rob Reiner).

There's something missing and it becomes apparent early on. The movie isn't scary - not even a little bit.

Tomorrowland is an interesting collage of moments and ideas in search of a strong narrative and a coherent ending.

Regardless of whatever ephemeral entertainment this production may offer to some, it is not by any reasonable definition a good movie. It is badly written, inexpertly directed, poorly acted, erratically paced, and features music of dubious worth.

Talk about taking things to a new level… Theaters showing Fury Road should have seat belts installed.

This is a dark comedy; the tone is such that it benefits from Jack Black emphasizing the less appealing aspects of his personality.

There's hardly an area in which Hot Pursuit is not found lacking. The comedy is unfunny with joke after joke falling painfully flat.

There's nothing here to astound or surprise; the movie neither exceeds nor falls below expectations. Those who love Hardy and/or the less-filmy romances of his era will derive the most from Far from the Madding Crowd.

The best thing that can be said about Welcome to Me, as written by Eliot Laurence and directed by Shira Piven, is that it attempts to portray the real Borderline Personality Disorder as opposed to the Hollywood movie version of the disease. Unfortunately, that's about all it does.

Age of Ultron disappoints not because it's irredeemably bad but because it fails to achieve the level of its predecessor in nearly every facet.

The final production is so jammed with subplots and secondary characters that it often feels like the Cliffs Notes version of a complex novel.

Haphazardly plotted, it not only falls prey to absolute predictability but chooses to have nearly every important conversation (except one) occur off-screen. That sort of laziness is unacceptable and results in a strong sense of audience dissatisfaction.

In the end, there's a sense that director Olivier Assayas is more concerned about making a point than telling a story.

Child 44 is a victim of poor adaptation. It is beset by problems related to flow and coherence; the narrative is confusing, the characters are provided with inadequate time for development, and dead-end subplots abound.

Those looking for a clear-cut chronology of how the murders happened are destined for disappointment. Flashbacks of the crime are short and ambiguous.

In the final analysis, the movie doesn't offer much about the subject that hasn't been previously explored, but the soil is fertile and many ideas germinate.

If nothing else, Unfriended does an excellent job portraying the frenzy that is on-line teen interaction. This is the new equivalent of "hanging out."

Baumbach is 45 (roughly the same age as Josh) so he writes from personal experience. He knows what these characters are feeling which is the reason why the human elements resonate with authenticity - a quality that fades when While We're Young wanders off on the tangent about what constitutes a legitimate documentary.

As a romance, a drama, or even a sports movie, The Longest Ride never reaches a satisfying destination.

Woman in Gold is arguably of more interest for its historical perspective than for its drama. Although there is some suspense in the courtroom proceedings, no one would mistake this for the next "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "The Verdict."

Viewers who come for the spectacle will get their money's worth. Furious Seven is all about action, with some scenes being more inventive than others.

It Follows doesn't try to get viewers to jump out of their seats. Instead, employing the time-honored technique of the "slow build", it pressures fingernails to dig into arm rests.

A Girl Like Her offers an emotionally honest examination of an important and often overlooked societal problem.

Dumb, juvenile comedy has its place when it's funny. Unfortunately, too often in Get Hard, it's not.

The movie wallows in remorse. Not only is the main character paralyzed by it but the filmmakers seem to believe that every Caucasian member of the audience should face up to White Guilt for the way in which the Industrial World has encouraged unrest in Africa so resources could be strip-mined. How's that for an uplifting action movie premise?

Insurgent is more clumsy than bad, but it disappoints because it wastes the world-building of Divergent, which set the stage for something more momentous than what the sequel delivers.

The trailers make Run All Night look like a fast-paced shoot-'em-up and, although those elements are present, this is a darker and grimmer experience.

Cinderella is a wonderfully realized family feature that retains the strengths of its source material while at the same time updating it for today's audiences.

Unfinished Business is bad - not epically bad but bad enough. Little contained in this misfire of a film works and the few successful things are dragged out to the point where they die a lingering death.

Criminally underwritten characters result in actors like Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, and Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) having little to do.

The Lazarus Effect begins with an intriguing premise then proceeds to squander all the early goodwill through a slow, inexorable descent into cheap horror gimmicks.

Focus is uncommonly good for a February release (damning with faint praise?) but may not clear the bar of being worthy of a trip through snow and ice to reach the multiplex. Star power, actor chemistry, and caper movie twists make for a nice diversion… but not much more.