Fast-paced with a morbid sense of humor and copious pop culture references, Kingsman breezes along at a nice clip until it gets a little bogged down during its final third.

Who would have imagined that a movie about sex could be so boring? That's the bottom line when it comes to Fifty Shades of Grey.

By-the-numbers, generic plots no longer work and that, unfortunately, is what Seventh Son delivers. Impressive set design and visuals, excessive CGI, and a loud score from Marco Beltrami can't fully compensate for bland character development and a predictable narrative that rushes along on a linear trajectory.

Jupiter Ascending feels like a truncated, Cliffs Notes version of something that might have worked a lot better as a mini-series. Two hours is too short for this tale and the end result suffers greatly because of that restriction.

Call Project Almanac a "shaky-cam special", and it's a damn shame. The resultant production, both shaken and stirred, transforms a potentially entertaining pulp time travel story into a misbegotten exercise in frustration.

Black Sea contains its share of fantastical elements and the ending in particular evidences gaping holes of logic and physics but, as a "refrigerator film," it works well.

The film is by no means perfect and its goals are undermined by a sloppy climax and conclusion but it avoids preaching while providing fodder for thought.

This isn't a revolutionary or thematically rich motion picture, but it's a well-told story featuring solid performances and a nice sense of atmosphere.

The film is intricately composed using the shadows created by natural lighting and some of the most astonishing sunsets and landscapes ever captured on screen. Pope's work is immersive and allows viewers to become engaged in a story that occasionally moves a little too slowly.

It's badly directed, poorly edited, and features some of the most unconvincing acting this side of a soup commercial.

Still Alice is undoubtedly a tough movie; it contains life-affirming moments but its perspective is what makes it unique.

It's easy to be cynical about a movie like this which, despite its factual basis, is more product than story. The pandering is obvious.

The Wedding Ringer is imperfect but its imperfections are tolerable because they're accompanied by a dollop of drama, a measure of laughter, and an oversized helping of Kevin Hart.

Despite being overlong, Blackhat is mostly engaging. The narrative features one major change of direction and things get increasingly preposterous as the climax approaches, but that's not unusual in this genre.

Taken 3 is exactly what one might anticipate from an unnecessary sequel in a mediocre franchise.

What Selma does so well is to bring to life the events of 1965, especially "Bloody Sunday" (the first march). It's one thing to read about these moments in a history book but another altogether to see them on the screen. The movie is riveting.

Predestination is science fiction for a thoughtful crowd. This isn't an action oriented film nor should it be mistaken for a blockbuster.

The 2014 iteration isn't as good as its 1974 predecessor but it offers its share of small pleasures, not the least of which is the crisp, sharp dialogue that never loses its punch even when it veers close to the edge of pretentiousness.

For the most part, Big Eyes works because of its restraint - something rarely claimed about one of Burton's cinematic offspring.

The movie not only represents the best effort from Eastwood since his Oscar-winning "Million Dollar Baby" but the finest acting we have seen thus far from two-time nominee Bradley Cooper.

Into the Woods left me out in the cold. The long-gestating cinematic adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's fairy tale-infused Broadway musical, Into the Woods can claim a clever screenplay and a few enjoyable performances but little else.

Jolie's account is mostly accurate but coldly clinical. The story is effective in relaying Zamperini's narrative but lacks both the gut punch one often gets from prisoner-of-war narratives and the full catharsis one expects at the end.

The movie feels like a vanity production, although it's difficult to determine whose ego is being stroked by this expensive adaptation.

In the end, however, the genius behind all the innovations of Bletchley was destroyed by the pettiness of a society that didn't understand him. The Imitation Game doesn't hide this dark aspect and it makes the production sobering and engrossing.

At first glance, Inherent Vice might seem to be a detective story. Look a little closer, however, and it becomes clear that this is Paul Thomas Anderson's idea of a comedy. There's slapstick, lowbrow material, and enough strange characters and "completely different" moments to make Monty Python smile.

The best film of The Hobbit's three, this final installment is closer in quality to "The Lord of the Rings" than to its immediate predecessors.

At 2 1/2 hours, the movie is actually too short to adequately tell the full tale (The Ten Commandments is 70 minutes longer) but that doesn't prevent Scott from presenting multiple, seemingly endless scenes of people crossing deserts.

While Cheryl's journey is interesting, it isn't as compelling as the one embarked upon by Christopher McCandless (Into the Wild). The most arresting aspect of Wild isn't Cheryl's perambulation along the 1000-mile long Pacific Crest Trail but the memories that percolate to the surface as flashbacks.

Diplomacy will work for those who appreciate dialogue-based character films in which plot is of secondary importance. This is a showcase for acting.

Painfully unfunny and unnecessarily long, this movie is the antithesis of its predecessor, the delightfully raunchy "Horrible Bosses."

What's missing from Mockingjay - Part 1 is a strong through-story. The previous films were characterized by engrossing, well-constructed story arcs but Mockingjay - Part 1 meanders.

Rosewater does not have blockbuster potential but it is more entertaining than one might expect from this material and it leaves an indelible impression about the Iranian justice system - something akin to the inmates running the asylum.

Like "Raging Bull", Foxcatcher is a dark drama masquerading as a sports movie.

Whatever the reason, the waning months of 2014 have brought us the follow-up to 1994's "Dumb and Dumber", but the lengthy gestation period hasn't resulted in an appreciably upgraded experience.

An unremarkable bio-pic about a remarkable man.

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.

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

Interstellar is simultaneously a big-budget science fiction endeavor and a very simple tale of love and sacrifice. It is by turns edgy, breathtaking, hopeful, and heartbreaking.

Were it not for the participation of two A-list actors, Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, Before I Go to Sleep would have been headed straight to video. The inclusion of those two doesn't make the film any better, just less anonymous.

The most notable element of screenwriter Dan Gilroy's debut feature is the performance he elicits from Jake Gyllenhaal. In the tradition of Brando, Bale, Theron, and others, Gyllenhaal undergoes a radical physical transformation to play the part of Louis Bloom.

It's a noteworthy achievement for director Damien Chazelle to infuse a tale about the development of a musician with all the tension and intensity of a top-notch thriller. Whiplash is riveting.

The images in The Good Lie have the power to disturb but lack the gut-punch impact necessary to give us an immediate and lasting connection to the protagonists.

John Wick is a rousing action thriller of the sort rarely encountered in theaters these days. The once popular genre, which was headlined by the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger during its heyday, has been a dying breed during the past two decades.

The movie is punctuated by comedy that at times verges on slapstick but there's an underlying anger in evidence - anger at the popular mindset that allows movies like "Transformers" to flourish while artistic endeavors fail.

In a way, Fury and 1970's "Patton" could be considered companion pieces. Both deal extensively with tank warfare but from different perspectives.

St. Vincent may be a little kinder and gentler than the likes of "Bad Santa," but there's enough inappropriate behavior and comedic friction to fuel an entertaining 103 minutes.

The Book of Life represents Guillermo del Toro's most hands-on foray (to date) into the realm of family friendly entertainment; this is closer in tone and sensibility to one of Tim Burton's offbeat animated films than one of Pixar's more "vanilla" productions.

There's enough compelling drama here to overcome elements of artifice. Men, Women & Children feels meaningful although perhaps not profound.

Instead of being respectful of Bram Stoker's creation, it attempts to remake him as a tragic figure with superhero powers.

Two words that come to mind when considering The Judge are generic and predictable. It's also well-intentioned and earnest (perhaps to a fault).

Pride will get viewers cheering while reflecting upon how far we have come in 30 years… and how far we have yet to go.

Kill the Messenger is compelling material but the recognition that the core of the narrative is based on true events gives it additional power.

Not only is this an amateurish travesty combining fundamentalist Christian eschatology with disaster movie b.s., but it's plodding and tedious.

Gone Girl is a rare movie: a delicious thriller that provides plenty of titillation and gruesome pleasure while offering a dollop of social commentary. It's smart, twisted, bloody, and almost guaranteed to satisfy anyone with a penchant for the macabre.

In order to show the "happiness" noted in the title, director Peter Chelsom ventures into some dark territory to provide a contrast. This results in a surprisingly unpleasant scene of torture and deprivation that may shock some viewers expecting to see a lightweight Simon Pegg dramedy about the meaning of joy.

There's probably enough content here to warrant a three-hour movie but Good People is only 90 minutes long.

With top-notch animation, effective voice casting, and a screenplay that falters only toward the end when faced with the need to provide a resolution, The Boxtrolls offers solid entertainment for older children and the parents that accompany them.

Director Anton Fuqua has jettisoned almost everything related to the TV series except the title, the main character's name, and the bare-bones premise. Even the theme song is gone. For all intents and purposes, The Equalizer isn't so much a reboot as it is an entirely new entity.

The white hats are stained dark gray as if by ashes and soot. The villains are twisted, cruel, and vile. The heroes aren't much better.

Despite a strong opening and riveting first 45 minutes, The Maze Runner devolves into one of the weakest post-apocalyptic Young Adult movies to reach theaters in recent years.

Even considering some of its late-innings flaws, this is an engaging movie that doesn't mistake histrionics and bile for solid family reunion drama.

The performances are uniformly strong and there are some powerful scenes but the overall story arc is less insightful or affecting than one might hope.

The Drop's unpredictability is organic rather than sensationalistic. The movie doesn't pull surprises out of thin air for the sole purpose of shocking an audience - it lets them develop naturally.

The November Man feels like just about every B-grade spy thriller that has ever been committed to the silver screen.

When the Game Stands Tall is one of those cliché-riddled feel good movies that, by trying too hard to be inspirational, ends up as cloying and overly sentimental.

This movie is mostly about visual razzle-dazzle and riffing on film noir conceits. Rodriguez hasn't deviated far from his mission statement for the original and that's a good thing for Sin City fans.

The problem with all of this is that Are You Here is less than two hours long and, to effectively explore issues and themes of this magnitude would require at least a full season of a TV series. So we're left with half-developed characters and quickly sketched relationships.

One of the most curious aspects of If I Stay is the way it rigorously ignores religion and spirituality. With the exception of an undefined "white light" image that recurs, the movie never once mentions "God" (as an entity). For a movie that is so much about death, it seems like an odd omission.

For a mostly brainless movie, The Expendables 3 has a surprisingly dense plot, which is part of the problem. The 2-hour running length is unnecessarily long.

The strength of the cast speaks volumes about the "prestige" aspect of the production. In addition to Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, and Alexander Skarsgard contribute.

The result, while capable of painlessly occupying 90 minutes, isn't remarkable enough to recommend as more than a home video rental.

Into the Storm is as straightforward a disaster film as you're likely to find.

When it's over, the sense is one of deep satisfaction - of having gotten to know a family in a way few motion pictures allow.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles doesn't so much provide brainless enjoyment as it pummels the viewer into submission. "Shell-shocked" is a reasonable description of the experience.

The Hundred-Foot Journey represents a pleasant diversion for those who have grown weary of traditional summer movie fare. The picture is about people and how they interact. There are no explosions or car chases.

If you're a fan of James Brown's oeuvre, the film will keep you interested. If you're not, Get on Up will quickly become tedious and will wear out its welcome long before the end of its 133-minute run.

The vibe, if not the specifics, is highly reminiscent of "The Last Starfighter," "Battlestar Galactica," "Battle Beyond the Stars," and others. The fact that the movie's "present" is defined as being 1988 and the soundtrack is peppered with '70s tunes cements the retro feeling.

Poorly paced with a tendency to veer into the pretentious and littered with contrivances and dramatic short-cuts, I Origins fails to provide a single three-dimensional character or compelling relationship.

Allen's first mistake is turning this rivalry into a May/December romance. His second misstep is "converting" Stanley, thereby neutering the delightfully acerbic quality that characterizes his and Sophie's early interactions.

Looks great and has some raw, unsettling moments, but the overall impression is of a production that fails to achieve what it sets out to do.

More bland than bad, And So It Goes is being dumped into a crowded mid-July schedule in the hope that someone tired of noisy blockbusters might see it. The problem is, as antidotes go, this one is most likely to induce sleep as a means of relief.

Director Brett Ratner has always been associated with spectacle but, even for him, this represents a misstep because the "wow!" factor is muted.

Lucy is what a superhero movie might look like if developed by Spike Jonze and/or Michael Gondry.

Two fundamental problems afflict Sex Tape (aside from the fact that it's not consistently funny): a shocking ignorance about the state of modern technology and a mistaken belief that the subject matter is inherently edgy.

The result is an action-oriented survival tale, not unlike the kind of movie that Stallone or Schwarzenegger might have made back in the '80s.

This installment inches events closer to a merge point with 1968's "Planet of the Apes" while maintaining its own unique identity. It is in every way superior to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."

This is a uniquely powerful motion picture, the kind of open and honest portrayal I can't ever recall having seen about a celebrity. Life Itself stands not only as a moving piece of documentary cinema but an epitaph.

Tammy is a road trip movie and, like many road trip movies, it embraces a meandering, aimless tone. It's often said for films of this sort that it's the journey that matters, not the destination. Unfortunately, in this case, neither is worth the price of admission.

This isn't a family-friendly film - anyone over the age of about 8 will immediately recognize that significant chunks of the story don't make sense.

This is as excruciating a movie as is likely to be experienced by anyone, anywhere. It isn't merely that the story is insulting, the characters are bland, the action is dull, and the CGI is everywhere - it's that all this goes on for nearly three hours. That's three hours of your life you'll never get back.

The film's notable quality is the music and as soon as one song is finished, we're ready for the next one. Unfortunately, there are often long passages of dialogue and narrative to endure before getting there.

Visually interesting but offers nothing groundbreaking. The animation is competent but not overwhelming. There's no moment of wonderment.

There are times when 22 Jump Street is borderline brilliant. Unfortunately, those instances are outnumbered by segments that don't work for one reason or another.

It's more heavy lifting than some will be willing to engage in but there's something welcome about a motion picture that doesn't hand out a dumbed-down resolution in a neatly wrapped package.

The acting is top-notch, the characters are three-dimensional, and the dialogue is sharp and witty.

Offers a more satisfying cinematic experience than "Oblivion."

As far as the actors are concerned, Liam Neeson seems to be having fun hamming it up as the villain - a role he rarely gets to play.

Calling Maleficent a "modern-day classic," as some have asserted, is overreaching. The production is engaging and appealing but only the passage of time will determine whether it holds in the memory with the strength of its animated predecessor.