Obviously not a movie for everyone, Man Bites Dog boasts graphic displays of murder and rape. There's very little of the human body -- inside or out -- that isn't shown at one time or another during the course of this movie. Nevertheless, if you do venture to see Man Bites Dog, you would have to be made out of stone to miss the visceral, sardonic impact of a highly-unusual film.

It's an unsettling piece that reminds us how even monsters aspire to living the American dream.

Sully proves to be by turns engaging, exhilarating, and nail-biting.

When a director can take a reprehensible monster and, over the course of a scant 90 minutes, turn audience reaction from distaste to sympathy, that's the mark of an adept filmmaker. This occurs in Tsotsi.

In terms of overall visceral impact, The Foreigner is perhaps not as satisfying as a John Wick or the aforementioned Payback because it’s a more serious, complex movie. Nevertheless, it’s well-made, nicely paced and accomplishes what we expect from this sort of film.

Enjoyable for a movie in which pretty much nothing happens.

The film's emotional truth and honesty allows us to forgive a great many flaws.

There’s more to this movie than offering fans an opportunity to wallow in the past. It gives the most complete portrait we’ve seen thus far of Nimoy, warts and all, as presented by the man who came the closest to knowing him.

The two best words to describe the 2006 motion picture Miami Vice are "stylish" and "intense."

By the time September arrives, This is the End will probably be in the running for "funniest comedy of the 2013 summer."

This isn't vintage De Niro but at least there's more substance here than in a lot of his other recent projects. Michelle Pfeiffer, who flirted with this sort of a role 25 years ago in "Married to the Mob," is enjoying something of a renaissance after working only sparingly for more than a decade.

A rare remake in that it's sufficiently different in the details to make it of interest to those familiar to the earlier endeavor.

There are no humans in the film and their only participation was doing voiceover work. Of all the recent Disney recreations, that makes The Lion King the most curious.

The Equalizer 2 represents a solid follow-up to "The Equalizer" and an effectively understated entry into the 2018 summer movie sweepstakes.

Like a rom-com that spends the first half getting the characters together before showing the ugliness that sometimes happens when “happily ever after” becomes impossible, Blackberry depicts the unraveling that occurred at the back end. It’s a fascinating motion picture that gives life to Paul Harvey’s famous phrase: “Now for the rest of the story…”

Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy may be the best possible movie version of the story, but it illustrates that the big screen is not the ideal medium for a tale of this complexity.

Many of the characters might have longer, more fully fleshed-out arcs. But what Prince-Bythewood provides is more than enough for a rousing motion picture filled with well-choreographed battle scenes effectively folded into stories of human interest.

A curious mix of smarts and schmaltz.

Although the storyline is predictable, the intelligent dialogue and top-drawer acting more than make up for the possible deficiency.

The comedy in The Sure Thing is genial and unforced. Most of it develops organically out of the characters and their situations. It doesn't grate and it doesn't interfere with the evolution of the central relationship, and it's effective enough to provoke the occasional laugh or smile.

One of the better offerings to be found in a year that has seen a drop-off in the quality of animated films.

For Your Consideration will not go down as one of Guest's crown jewels, but it's nevertheless engaging.

Broken Arrow is "Speed" gone nuclear. Yet, despite all the explosions, violence, special effects, and other choreographed excesses, this film doesn't have quite the same impact. It's fun, to be sure, and the wild ride doesn't let up for a moment, but the level of tension isn't quite as high.

This is as surprising a romantic comedy as I have seen in some time.

A Game of Shadows is a stronger, better realized movie that builds upon the strengths of the original and jettisons some of the weaknesses.

The film is far from perfect - the soundtrack occasionally chooses the wrong songs, there are times when the acting (especially by the supporting players) falters, and there are scenes (most of them throw-ways) that don't work. Aside from jump-starting so many promising motion picture careers (including Crowe, Heckerling, and members of the cast), Fast Times will always be remembered for one thing: showing respect for and insight into the members of its core audience, something that was as rare in the 1980s as it is today.

The movie's realistic portrayal of the ingredients that can lead to bullying and other forms of unkindness inflicted on outsiders by those in power, speaks strongly to viewers watching in the 21st century.

Works uncommonly well because of the effective manner in which it blends together its various elements: the WW2 prison camp setting, the courtroom aspects, and the issues of honor, racism, and redemption.

Rise of the Guardians is enjoyable as a stand-alone adventure - not groundbreaking animation but a solidly entertaining 90 minutes for older children and adults.

The Black Phone is as solid a horror film as has come out post-pandemic and brings back memories of when “horror” meant more than an assembled sequence of shocks and blood-soaked clichés.

Although aspects of the overall storyline wallow in familiarity, the sharpness of the writing, the precision of Giamatti’s portrayal, and the well-honed relationships among the principals make the movie better than one might assume from a one or two-sentence summation.

A rich, multi- layered portrait of a director from Hollywood's Golden Age whose own life was as interesting as any of his movies.

For those with the patience to sit through this kind of unhurried motion picture, Time Out offers a compelling character study of an individual under the kind of strain we can all relate to.

This film offers a compelling scenario of what could have happened. And Burger's look back through the recent mists of time is certainly no less likely or fascinating that Oliver Stone's in "JFK."

Land is both a tribute to the triumph of the human spirit and an examination of the difficulties of setting aside modern conveniences for primitive survival. It also represents an announcement by Wright that her first feature foray behind the camera is unlikely to be her last.

Although Gladiator II is an engaging diversion, it never feels like the epic one expects nor does it truly escape the shadow cast by the earlier chapter.

Kauf, whose Stakeout was a lighter blend of the same kind of elements at work here, knows just how to play the material to keep it enjoyable. That's not an easy task, considering that the main characters are pretty reprehensible and the basic plotline is about covering up the accidental murder of a cop. Nevertheless, in part because of a series of good performances and in part because Kauf approaches things with confidence, the results are positive. Gang Related may not be Pulp Fiction, but it's not a bad foray into tangential territory.

Luhrmann’s movie achieves its goals of highlighting Elvis’ music while providing a capable, if imperfect, abstract of his life. For fans of the icon and his music, it hits enough sweet spots to be worthy of a theatrical viewing.

It’s an entertaining enough movie and the sound design and visual palette make a strong case for theatrical viewing (over the phone/tablet/TV alternative) but the elliptical narrative may frustrate some viewers and the lack of an epic scope make this a most atypical would-be blockbuster. Still, Peele’s name recognition is strong and the less-is-more style of the trailer has created a level of buzz. Those who see Nope might not get exactly what they’re expecting but they may enjoy it anyway.

Blue Jasmine is an exercise in examining the lead character's mental degeneration. The end result, a performance-driven character study, offers an experience more akin to what one might expect from the late John Cassavetes than from the still very much alive Woody Allen.

It mostly works although the tension never quite escalates to the levels reached by Ridley Scott’s original and James Cameron’s even-better direct follow-up.

Overall this is a compelling and sometimes disturbing motion picture.

Cold War features a few too many ellipses and occasionally substitutes operatic tragedy for credible motivations. This results in a film that, although breathtaking to watch and emotionally wrenching, is strangely unsatisfying.

Hawke has made this movie his way and the result is a story that is by turns romantic and disquieting. It's well worth the price of admission.

It’s experimental without being off-putting and it uses its 100 minutes to build out a character who was frustratingly incomplete in X.

A compelling piece of cinema.

In many ways, the concept underlying Lolita is more provocative than the actual material, which tends to be a bit long-winded. This is more the fault of the book than of Lyne's approach.

The transformation sequences on their own are disturbing enough to upset sensitive viewers (even though the first one doesn't occur until an hour into the 97 minute film, making the first two-thirds of the movie relatively tame, with the exception of a few appearances by Jack, who looks like a "walking meatloaf").

Brandon has apparently inherited a great deal from his father both in terms of his filmmaking techniques and his taste in material. As science fiction, Possessor is a little disappointing – it does too little with a pregnant premise crying out for deeper inspection. As horror, however, it’s a rousing success – a shocking and disturbing gem that doesn’t betray itself by softening things during the final act.

Gordon-Levitt wears three hats (director, writer, actor) and all of them fit.

Although competently made and consistently engaging, there's nothing special about this animated superhero origin story.

From an historical perspective, the story is interesting because it shows a different side of the war than what we're used to observing in motion pictures.

Monsters works not because of its representation of alien creatures or its somewhat derivative back story but because of the atypical manner in which it approaches the character-based narrative.

Hanks’ script is an example of economical storytelling and the end result is a thrilling 75 minutes of the kinds of things one expects from well-made submarine movies.

It’s crisply paced and, although there are times when Lady Chatterley’s Lover seems like little more than an intellectually-approved bodice-ripper, it’s an impressively mounted production that looks good and is emotionally true to the characters and their era.

First time director Jonathan Frakes (who also plays Riker, the Enterprise's second-in-command) injects some badly-needed energy and inventiveness into a series that, prior to this effort, was sinking under its own weight and boldly going nowhere.

The Governess is solidly entertaining material with enough substance to lift it above the traditional period drama.

For the most part, Laggies offers an engaging portal into the life of an appealingly confused 28-year old who doesn't have all the answers and isn't afraid to admit it. Coming-of-age stories, it seems, needn't be limited to teenagers.

It’s as worthy an extension of the first film as one can imagine and its existence does nothing to diminish A Quiet Place. Considering what has happened to too many movies gifted with unnecessary follow-ups, that’s an accomplishment in its own right.

It has two modes: dark and darker, and dares to do some things with the Christmas motif that haven't been done since Norman Rene's "Reckless."

For an American/international audience, perhaps the most important contribution provided by In This Corner of the World is one of perspective.

Arbitrage is actually a fairly straightforward thriller in the John Grisham vein. It doesn't demand that the viewer know the difference between a hedge fund and a hedgehog. Arbitrage also reminds us that thrillers do not have to be action-packed to generate tension.

Formula One fans who remember 1976 will no doubt delight in the film but, for those who (like me) were more interested in other things during the year of America's bicentennial, it's not only a good lesson in sports history but an entertaining two hours to spend in a theater.

While this is certainly not the first motion picture to blend drawn creations with real life actors, no movie to date has approached it quite this way.

Hellboy likely won't be the best comic-to-screen adaptation this year, but, squared off against its early-season challenger, Marvel's "The Punisher," this is the winner.

While the experience it offers may not be to everyone’s taste, it is off-the-beaten path and effective for what it attempts to be.

For a movie that features so much naked flesh, it’s surprising how thoroughly un-erotic Nymphomaniac is. If intent is a defining characteristic of pornography, then this could be described as “anti-porn.”

Although mysteries remain, the film uncovers enough to re-enforce the maxim that fame and stardom can exacerbate rather than cure some ills of the soul.

A fascinating portrait not only of a lady, but of the society and marriage that entrap, then attempt to destroy, her.

Some genre fans may feel cheated by the lack of overt gore (there is some but, although it's explicit enough to have warranted an R-rating, it falls considerably short of the graphic bloodletting of slasher films), the unhurried pace, and the lack of many horror tropes, but the movie isn’t a carbon copy of every other “demon possession” movie out there.

The strengths of The Underneath -- its atmosphere and character-centered basis -- are also its weaknesses.

After the Sunset is a mess, but it's a breezy, fun mess.

The result, while at times a little too visually chaotic, is bracing.

The Laundromat uses a format not unlike that of "The Big Short" (without Margot Robbie in a bubble bath) to shine the light on the kinds of activities uncovered by The Panama Papers.

Haggis' dialogue is virtually without clunkers, and it is delivered with the appropriate weight by a solid cast. Braff's limp performance is countered by Barrett's emotional riveting one (although he's in more scenes than she is).

This is off-the-beaten-path movie-making that calls attention to itself by how different it is from the cookie-cutter stuff playing next door while never losing the capacity to entertain those who enter this bizarre world.

Rogue One is a better movie than The Force Awakens - something that elevates it considerably over its “secondary” designation.

Memory plays like a blended cop movie/revenge thriller and exhibits the strengths and weaknesses of both. At its best, it recalls the Mel Gibson movie Payback (which was similarly a remake of an earlier film based on book).

Dogville isn't for everyone, but there's some intellectually stimulating conversation fodder for those with the patience to navigate the film's rough terrain.

Isn't an especially good horror movie, it succeeds in enough different ways that such a defect hardly matters.

The violence has the straightforward, unflinching characteristic evident in "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," although Yakin's dialogue falls considerably short of Tarantino's, both in terms of substance and offbeat humor.

Those expecting an action film may be disappointed by what The Last Duel offers. While the climactic battle is rousing, suspenseful, and suitably brutal, the majority of the film is more about dialogue, perception, and character interaction.

Easy isn't much of an acting challenge, but Washington's mix of charm and intensity creates an appealing personae.

With the exception of a few slow spots, Outlaw King flows briskly. It’s one of the better “Netflix originals” the service has provided and worth the expense of two hours.

The Scent of Green Papaya is made all the more enchanting by its simplicity.

An appealing, offbeat, one-hundred minute diversion for those who really are tired of monsters tearing down buildings and action heroes saving the world.

There is an audience out there for slower, more intellectual thrillers. This is a motion picture for them to discover.

For those who appreciate movies with a bite, Ridicule shows its teeth early and keeps them razor-sharp throughout.

A low-key holiday drama that's refreshing not only because it lacks the big discovery melodrama of most similar movies but because it's entirely believable.

Only a handful of working film makers are capable of presenting the English language with the artistry and rhythm employed here (Tarantino and Mamet come to mind), and the director's approach makes apparently-banal conversations come alive.

With its combination of intrigue, romance, and adventure set against a World War II backdrop, the movie has an undeniable appeal. Flaws aside, Enigma is engaging and ambitious.

Although King’s film may not accomplish everything it sets out to do, it represents an important perspective of a time period whose essential injustices have gained renewed attention some 50 years later.

The production company is Hammer Films, a venerable name in British horror. Responsible for some of the best monster movies of the '50s and '60s, when Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were a favorite team, Hammer has endured over the years. Now, as then, the Hammer name is an assurance that terror, not soulless special effects, lies at the heart of the production. The Woman in Black bears this out.

The result is an involving experience for all but the most fidgety children and an opportunity for parents to enjoy (rather than endure) a motion picture with their offspring.

Well-made, and it held my attention throughout, but this is one of those motion pictures where it's easier to admire than like the final result.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is a straightforward action/adventure film, filled to the brim with over-the-top chases and stunts.

An emotionally rewarding experience: strong performances from leads Henry Hooper and Mia Wasikowska and a tender love story conveyed with genuine feeling.

An enjoyable, although not ambitious, holiday outing.