The problem with The Book of Eli is that the narrative isn't a match for its sentiments. The script feels like it's an iteration or two short of a final draft.

It's not comfortable but it is engrossing.

On balance, however, there are more things to like about Daybreakers than to dislike. The production is loaded with impressive touches, some more nuanced than others.

We believe the dislike at the onset but not the romance at the payoff. And that's a major flaw.

From the beginning, it's apparent that there's something "off" about Youth in Revolt. It's not that the film is fatally flawed, but the tone is uneven, the satire is blunt, the comedy rarely generates more than feeble laughs, and the lead character never comes fully to life.

Wonderful World feels like a modern-day half-baked riff on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

As in all powerful films, the content unfolds onion-like, with each level being peeled back to show something fascinating beneath.

The reason Sherlock Holmes fails at least as often as it succeeds is because more effort and attention was lavished upon the concept than upon the script. Given a worthy story, Downey's Holmes might have been memorable. Here, he's an interesting character in search of a worthwhile story.

Ends up being one of the end-year's best sources of pure entertainment. And for those who believe laughter is the best medicine, there's more than a bellyful or two to be found here.

A movie assembled from diverse pieces that don't quite match. It's the cinematic equivalent of a patchwork quilt.

Did You Hear about the Morgans? Yes and, to be perfectly frank, I wish I had been spared the experience.

Avatar is entertainment of the highest order. It's the best movie of 2009.

Despite following its stage inspiration and bringing structure to Fellini's "8 1/2" (the ultimate source material), Nine still suffers at times from a lack of narrative drive and it doesn't have the surreal, dreamlike quality of "8 1/2" to fall back upon.

The Young Victoria feels like a wasted opportunity and is among the least impressive in a long line of motion pictures about British royalty.

Crazy Heart is the country music version of "The Wrestler": a grizzled veteran whose days in the spotlight are behind him struggles to keep going while seeing the world through a haze of regret and booze.

The story told by Jackson's The Lovely Bones is the same as the one related by Sebold, but it lacks the complexity and empathy evident in the book.

Eastwood has crafted something that works both as a sports drama and as an examination of the birth pains of the racially unified South Africa.

A Single Man tells us about love, isolation, and sorrow, but never makes us feel any of those things.

Brothers is arguably the most successful remake of a foreign film since Martin Scorsese reworked "Infernal Affairs" into "The Departed" and won the Oscar.

Reitman brings the same mixture of comedy and drama to this movie that he brought to "Juno."

The movie works because so much of what's on screen will resonate with viewers.

It's fascinating to see how life imitates art; the closing months of Tolstoy's life read like something he might have penned. One need not be familiar with "War and Peace," "Anna Karenina," or anything else written by the Russian great to appreciate the movie, however.

The movie The Road is nowhere close to its literary sire, but it's probably the best one could hope for from a movie version.

Randy Newman's songs are catchy and are effective within the movie's context, but I can't see any of them having "legs" beyond the screen the way tunes from the earlier animated musicals did.

What's wrong with this movie? A better question might be: What's right? Every attempt at comedy is not only obvious but delivered in such a forced manner that any hope of generating laughter dies before the joke has been told.

Designed primarily for those who are intrigued by theater, curious about Welles, or some combination of both.

The storyline is all over the place, with numerous unresolved subplots sprouting out of thin air and being left hanging (presumably to be resolved in future movies).

In a head-to-head comparison, one would be hard-pressed not to declare that "Precious" is the better film - it makes fewer compromises and doesn't shy from showing the true ugliness only hinted at in this movie, but The Blind Side is more accessible. It's easier to digest. In the end, both films tell stories of triumph over adversity - a category of drama that uplifts while offering a dollop of social commentary.

Comparisons to the original Bad Lieutenant are unnecessary; Port of Call New Orleans can stand - and fall - on its own merits, inconsistent though they may be.

The final half-hour of Broken Embraces is littered with facile contrivances and plot turns worthy of a soap opera. It's almost mystifying, and more than a little frustrating, to watch a movie cruising at such a high level suddenly suffer a complete breakdown and lose too much altitude.

Perhaps the strangest thing about 2012 is that the bad parts of the film are among the most enjoyable, because they're so over-the-top ridiculous that it's impossible not to break out laughing.

If there's an argument against the film (and, admittedly, it's not much of an argument), it's that the movie may not be suitably childish to appeal to younger viewers.

The result, although uneven, is generally enjoyable, especially for those who attend with the right mindset. Character and narrative are secondary concerns for a movie primarily driven to provide a Valentine to '60s rock-and-roll.

Despite its flaws, The Box remains intriguing; however, as its mysteries are solved, the prevailing sense is one of frustration rather than satisfaction. That makes The Box worthy of the dubious label of "an interesting failure."

Manages the task of being both heartbreaking and heart-warming.

The result is not entirely uninteresting, but it suffers from some ill-advised decisions. In fact, the film's "hook" may be its greatest detraction.

There's something to be said for the power of a classic, even if it has been given an imperfect makeover.

The film is more than a little odd but it has fun with its offbeat premise and moves along breezily until it gets bogged down in the third act.

This movie was made to be shown to junior high history classes, not audiences in a movie theater.

A profoundly unsatisfying experience - and that doesn't consider the derivative nature of the plot and a lackluster performance by the lead actor.

Bottom line: Do I recommend Antichrist? Tough to do, but tough not to. For those who are intrigued by the controversy, it may be worth the sacrifice, if only so you can evaluate it from a position of knowledge.

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.

The biggest problem with Law Abiding Citizen, however, is that the plot is just plain dumb.

Oddly, the filmmaker best known for his Valentines to New York, Woody Allen, is not participant.

Despite being mediocre and largely forgettable, Couples Retreat is not unpleasant, although it's easier to recommend it for home viewing than for a trip to a theater.

In the end, this is more a character study of Jenny than a tale of tortured love, and a reminder that any education worth having comes with its share of trauma.

It's lively and vivid but ends up leaving the viewer indifferent to the central character, his life, and his dubious place in British pop culture.

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

It's surprising to admit that the British comedian, known far and wide for his willingness to take risks, plays it safe in The Invention of Lying - a fault from which the movie never truly recovers.

At its best, this could have been a passable distraction and at its worst, it could have been unwatchable. Barrymore manages to bring it in somewhere in between those extremes.

The presence of so many low-key performers gives A Serious Man a very different, distinctly non-Hollywood vibe. The absence of familiar faces allows the Coens to fully immerse their audience in the time (1967) and place (the U.S. Midwest) of the story.

A cheesy production with underdeveloped characters that feels more like a TV pilot than a self-contained motion picture.

Technically, it's superbly made; dramatically, it fails to achieve escape velocity.

This represesents the smartest high-budget, high-profile science fiction film to have come along in quite some time.

Hicks has made a technically adept film, but one that, for all of its strong acting and vivid photography, left me less moved than I should have been.

Vintage Moore, which means that it will enthrall many and enrage an equal number of viewers.

With Steven Soderbergh at the helm, this has become a whimsical, semi-comedic romp, complete with a score by Marvin Hamlisch that recalls kitschy '70s TV shows, cutesy captions, and a tongue-and-cheek approach to the entire story.

Is this a movie or a feature-length advertisement for Qwest? We're not just talking one product placement; this brand name is nearly omnipresent.

Jennifer's Body mixes, matches, and crosses three popular genres: horror, comedy, and teen angst. Unfortunately, it fails at all of them - and "fails" might be too kind a term.

Not much happens during the course of the movie but, as with all good dramas, the protagonists are richly drawn and the events of their lives become of interest.

Bright Star is a nice ode to the poet, the love of his life, and the period in which he lived.

This is post-apocalyptic adventure as imagined for a teen crowd, and what it lacks in depth it makes up for in action. With a slight running time of 80 minutes, 9 doesn't contain an ounce of fat on its animated bones.

I wonder if Gamer might make a good game; it certainly doesn't make a good movie.

Extract is no masterpiece, but it's considerably better than many 2009 films that have received a more robust backing.

Structured as a comedy, albeit a dark one.

Halloween II is an affront to Halloween and horror fans. It's the kind of cataclysmic misstep from which a franchise cannot recover. It has transformed Michael Myers from an iconic movie monster into a laughingstock.

The movie hits its stride when it deals directly with the concert. The more peripheral Elliot is to the story, the better things become.

Post Grad isn't funny, surprising, or insightful enough to provoke more than a ho-hum reaction. It's not bad in the way that many failed comedies are bad; it's simply uninspired.

With Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino has made his best movie since "Pulp Fiction." He has also made what could arguably be considered the most audacious World War II movie of all-time.

On balance, it's a good movie but not a great one. Probably the only reason it's getting North American distribution is because of the involvement of Liam Neeson.

Goldthwaite's script has the honesty of someone speaking with the voice of experience.

The tone is perfect; this is one of those rare films that, despite being rooted firmly in the world around us, is utterly absorbing and capable of reducing the immediacies of life into abstract thoughts in the back of one's mind.

Anyone who watches District 9 and doesn't think of Apartheid, Nazis, and Josef Mengele needs to spend some time reading a few history books.

My sense is that adults will be more taken with Ponyo than their offspring.

The book is richer, but this is a solid, endearing telling of the same essential story, and is well worth the price of admission for those who appreciate romantic fantasy.

Chock full of high-tech action, with a lot of chasing and shooting and explosions.

The marriage of these two tales, however, should have ended in divorce court.

The end product feels trite and unfinished, with the romantic plot being awkwardly and unconvincingly shoehorned into a production that lacks focus.

Just a run-of-the-mill slasher/thriller.

The chief pleasure to be derived from watching Cold Souls is that it's a journey into the unexpected.

The movie wears thin its welcome a couple of reels before Apatow has finished telling his story.

The movie often feels more like film noir than a war picture both in the way it is shot and in the manner in which the characters are handled.

The tendency for an actor in a role like this is to overact. The result is often disastrous, reducing a character into a caricature. Hugh Dancy, adopting an American accent as effectively as the mannerisms of someone on the moderate portion of the Asperger's spectrum, makes Adam believable and generally sympathetic.

The only thing that differentiates it from far too many other uninspired rom-coms is that some of the material is funny and there is an occasional edge to the repartee. Beyond that, however, it's a cookie-cutter movie, and the cookies are pretty stale.

It's not so much a bad movie as it is a pointless one.

Orphan is being marketed as a horror movie, but that's misdirection. It's more of a standard thriller in the "evil amongst us" mode, about a group of people who inadvertently admit a psychopath into their midst.

The Answer Man is a passable way to kill two hours on a lazy summer afternoon, and perhaps an excuse to get out of the heat.

Dancing along a line just shy of the edge of brilliance, In the Loop possesses an incisive, take-no-prisoners comedic style that offers plenty of solid laughs while making a point about the stupidity, selfishness, and lack of awareness that exists within the highest echelons of government.

The casting is perfect. Webb has chosen leads who are familiar but not overexposed, and who are on equal footing (neither overshadows the other).

The critical question for the movies' producers is whether Harry will be as popular now that his legions of stalwarts know how it all ends. The smart money would be on answering that question with a resounding "yes!"

There's a sense that a much better movie is trying to get out but it never attains escape velocity.

It's hard to deny that Brüno succeeds in being both outrageous and outrageously funny, and it's hard to damn a comedy, regardless of its faults, for those qualities.

Never representative of more than mediocrity from a technical or story-based standpoint, the Ice Age series has reached a new nadir with its third entry.

It's quite engaging. It is competently constructed and often compelling, but it will not be mentioned in the same breath as some of its classic predecessors.

The strength of the acting and the modulation of the screenplay transforms what could have been a run-of-the-mill Lifetime disease-of-the-week movie into something more insightful and intelligent.

This is a tense, well-crafted motion picture that keeps viewers on edge. It's an exhausting 130 minutes; many viewers will leave the theater feeling drained.

A respectable and satisfying historical romantic melodrama.

The storyline is so infantile that it will appeal to young kids.