While "Love, Actually" succeeded in providing well-developed characters in (mostly) interesting situations, He's Just Not That Into You is often flat with subplots that feel rushed and/or contrived.

The ending is muddled as an unsuccessful attempt is made to provide closure to a story that, if told frankly, shouldn’t have one.

Unfortunately, a little too much pointless running around coupled with the underdevelopment of several key characters results in a movie that's never more than mildly diverting.

Grim but holds the attention; it does not, however, offer the kind of mindless action excursion that many will be anticipating.

More like the dramatization of an Encyclopedia Britannica entry than a fully rendered movie, Tolkien provides details about the fantasy author’s life and tries to explore his motivations and influences but loses sight of the character in the process.

For the most part, the documentary segments, in addition to being unilluminating, are intrusive.

Narrative weakness and bad horror tropes get in the way and Mama's ending disappoints.

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.

Although the How to Train Your Dragon series hasn’t been reduced to the harebrained level of a big-screen children’s cartoon, the latest chapter is the least sophisticated of the movies, emphasizing slapstick humor, one-dimensional characterization, and obvious messages.

Most of the humor in Your Highness is obvious, tepid, and often crude. There are some amusing one-liners but the majority of the comedy makes one realize how brilliant "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is.

The 1972 movie was better paced and presented a superior story but this one has its own pleasures. It's an interesting failure - a film that works more successfully as a study of technique and writing than as a motion picture.

At best, Without Remorse is a serviceable action thriller but there are times, as in the rushed and unsatisfying final 20 minutes, when such a description is overly generous.

The jokes, which are frequent and frequently successful, make this motion picture worth sitting through, even though, at nearly two hours, it runs on for far too long. For those who are just looking for a movie that scores high on the feel-good comedy scale, Multiplicity is a can't- miss choice. In the end, however, I couldn't help wishing that Ramis had tried for something a little more ambitious, rather than settling for a multiplicity of laughs without much genuine substance.

For what it is, Summerland is solidly made, but don’t expect anything extraordinary from the production.

The problem with the movie isn't the acting, it's the story, which falls considerably short of the promise of its premise. For a plot about super-intelligent people, the screenplay is surprisingly dumb.

District B13 is action porn. It's a series of amazingly choreographed, kinetic action sequences tied together by a laughably bad script and worse acting.

Unfortunately, an A-list group of actors doesn't mean a lot when there isn't much of a script.

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.

Devotees of either the classic animated Disney cartoon or the remake featuring real, live actors may find a few reasons to delight in Cruella. If one puts aside the film’s antecedents, however, what’s left is an unremarkable (although certainly not awful) family film (with a PG-13 rating) that lacks a compelling reason to exist.

It’s a passable production with some interesting performances but the bumpy screenplay and uneven pacing keep the audience at arm’s-length and limit the effectiveness of the narrative.

Lovers of drama featuring quirky characters will find things to appreciate.

On balance, one could argue that Seven Psychopaths warrants a better rating than a mediocre **1/2, but the aftertaste is so bitter that it diminishes the sweetness that started off the meal.

In the Rambo canon, where does this one fit? The tone is closer to "First Blood" but the body count is more "Rambo III." No matter how one dices and slices this new Rambo, the first one in 20 years, it will likely please fans of the long-in-the-tooth series.

What's missing? Simple: the romance. This movie is so intent upon getting cheap laughs and putting the protagonists in uncomfortable situations that it forgets they're supposed to be falling in love.

Violent Night isn’t going to go down as a classic (although it may have cult classic potential) but, despite all the gore and violence and other R-rated material, it’s arguably less offensive than the kind of bilge proliferated by Netflix and Lifetime/Hallmark/etc. in the name of Holiday Cheer. There are certainly worse ways to spend a chilly December evening.

Kogonada's direction crafts a variety of visually arresting—though not ostentatious—set pieces. Yet somehow, it doesn’t all come together. The whimsical magic evident early on grows stale. The movie’s tone is herky-jerky and never settles. And the ending feels undercooked and unearned.

A mildly enjoyable romantic comedy.

This movie is about mayhem on wheels, tough guys viewers can root for, and villains whose comeuppances audiences crave. That's what Death Race is all about and, for what it is, it does a solid job.

Great premise, terrible execution.

Despite the predictability of the overall story arc, there's suspense and tension to be found between the credit sequences, but the movie is saddled with an ending that is both improbable and borderline insulting.

One Fine Day has a few enchanting moments, such as a scene where Jack sweeps Melanie off her feet (literally), then splashes around in a large puddle of water. However, as a romantic comedy, this is a spotty affair because it's not really funny or romantic enough. Keeping the leads apart might work for something like Sleepless in Seattle, where the intention is to develop an old-fashioned, long-distance romance, but, in a movie like this -- one that's being pulled in so many directions that it's coming apart at the seams -- it's a mistake. For much of its running length, One Fine Day lacks focus and direction, and that makes it one fine mess.

It’s not a terrible movie but it feels like a failed attempt to infuse the Coen Brothers’ wry aesthetic into a B-movie tableau.

It’s too bad no one working on the production recognized the disparity in quality between the performance/non-performance scenes or they might have leaned more heavily on the former at the welcome expense of the latter.

It’s far less engaging than the recent "3:10 to Yuma" remake and concentrates more on the details than the broad picture.

The action scenes are crisply directed, brutal, and invigorating.

It's the kind of high energy, fast-paced film where you can guiltlessly root for the heroine to persevere -- but that's all it succeeds at.

Generations spends its running length searching for, and never completely finding, its niche.

Because I so enjoyed the last 45 minutes, I'm tempted to recommend it. The problem is that you have to sit through an hour to get to the worthwhile parts.

Die-hard fans of Witherspoon and the romantic comedy genre will probably find enough to like in this film to make it worth a trip to the theater. Everyone else would be best served by spending their hard-earned money on something else.

The movie starts with a series of kaleidoscopic, high-energy scenes that prove to be Birds of Prey’s high point. Even in these early moments, there’s a sense that narrative isn’t going to be a big selling point for this movie and those misgivings prove to be correct.

Crawl is an old-fashioned B-grade monster movie made with 2019 technology. In short, that means plenty of gore and jump-scares to go along with creatures that no longer look like puppets or men in rubber suits.

Although Where’d You Go, Bernadette suffers from an ungainly structure and uneven pacing, the production as a whole is engaging and uplifting.

Director Lucky McKee and screenwriters Jared Butler and Lars Norberg take a standard premise and tweak it sufficiently to make it interesting and, at times, even darkly humorous.

sStarts and finishes strong, but, somewhere in the middle, it loses its focus and its way.

Intriguing but ultimately unfulfilling.

Quality-wise, however, there's a big drop off from sex, lies and videotape to Full Frontal.

Little of the film is new or innovative and, although director Ang Lee can boast some interesting choreography with one of the fight scenes (something involving the use of a motorcycle as a martial arts weapon), his inventiveness doesn’t extend to the tired storyline, which feels like recycled pulp material.

The movie is at times funny, at times blistering, and at times insightful, but it lacks consistency, thereby arguing that perhaps the short film that provided its basis offered a better length.

The ideas underlying Aeon Flux's plot are the film's strength, and the filmmakers deserve some credit for doing more than paying lip service to them.

The film has the twin virtues of being bold and dizzying...The greatest disappointment with Night Watch is that, at a critical juncture, it fizzles.

Ambitious material for a first-time directorial outing, but, even with a huge assist from his lead actor, Malkovich doesn't nail it.

Deeply flawed though it may be, Perfume is a challenging motion picture, and one whose impressions are not easily shaken.

It’s easily digestible and, although some of the less successful elements may try the patience from time-to-time, the companionable chemistry – screwball banter mixed with romantic frisson – between Bullock (who’s much better in this sort of part than her more serious outings) and Tatum smooths out many of the rough patches.

By compressing everything into an overheated 24-hour period, Duck Butter is able to explore the highs and lows in extreme circumstances, where the importance of every moment and action is heightened.

For every thing that Stage Beauty does right, it fumbles at least one other element, resulting in a movie-going experience that is of the glass half-full/half-empty variety.

Breach is competently made but, aside from Cooper's performance, there's nothing here worth getting excited about.

The problem with The Affair is that once the World War II segments have ended, the movie loses its momentum and ability to balance both sides of the romance.

The plot, credited to Simon Pegg & Doug Jung, is pure Trek. Unfortunately, it’s also instantly forgettable.

For those with a particular interest in Meir, Israel, or 20th century Middle East history, there’s enough here to hold a viewer’s attention. But, as theatrical experiences go, this one underwhelms.

A pleasant but relatively inconsequential movie.

Ghost House is a generally well-made but ultimately unsurprising excursion into the supernatural.

Manages to mix in a few good gags with the requisite gore.

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.

Eventually, it had to happen: a computer-animated dud.

Casting turns out to be the best thing Bezucha could have done for this uneven screenplay. The pair makes Let Him Go worthwhile even when the storyline is poised to let us down.

Old School is exactly what director Todd Phillips intends for it to be: low-brow, moronic to a fault, and occasionally side-splittingly funny.

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

There are fitful sparks between him (Kutcher) and Portman, but he is unable to sustain viewer interest in his character. She becomes the dominant figure and that throws off No Strings Attached's balance and impacts the all-important chemistry.

By laminating Walls’ story with a Hollywood sheen, the narrative climaxes in an artificial and contrived manner. The penultimate scene is so obviously scripted that its inclusion is damaging. That’s too bad, because there are some effective individual scenes earlier in the proceedings.

While Malice won't win any awards, it's a cut above the average. The result is a curious mixture that provides one-hundred minutes of entertainment.

Unlike its predecessor, this is not a light, mystical romance, but a somewhat muddled narrative that ends up resembling an offbeat action/adventure movie. It's still a film about issues -- humanity, the soul, time, and Nazism -- but it lacks many of the "art" aspect of Wings, relying more on straightforward storytelling.

For most of the movie, Cody and Reitman jape at her until, in the last 20 minutes or so, they attempt to turn her into an object of sympathy. It doesn't work and, on balance, neither does Young Adult.

She Hate Me is a mixed bag, but at least it's interesting and almost never boring.

Most of the film is dull and soporific. Breathtaking photography without emotional involvement can take an audience only so far.

Scott is by no-means a “can’t miss” filmmaker. Although this is far from the worst films he has made, House of Gucci is among his most disappointing. With such a strong cast and the pedigree of a high-profile true crime story, viewers are likely to expect something with more octane. But the movie is too long and starts to spin its wheels long before it reaches its destination.

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.

In terms of storytelling, voice characterization, and visual appeal, Lilo & Stitch seems more like a wannabe production than an actual Disney effort.

This is Diane English's directing debut, and it shows. Also in evidence is her familiarity with television. The movie is shot like a TV show, with frequent intercut close-ups.

The movie is pleasant but unspectacular, and at times it borders on being too cute.

Bug is creepy and hard to dismiss, but it's not a lot of fun and its weaknesses leave a bitter aftertaste.

The only reason Soul Kitchen is being marketed as an "art film" in the United States is because it is subtitled. On merit, this is as mainstream as one can imagine - a generic, feel-good plot that's fit for a sit-com. Call it My Big Fat Greek Restaurant.

The film embraces the value of pursuing one’s dreams while extolling the virtues of haute couture. My guess is that it will appeal strongly to the Downton Abbey faithful.

Despite a threadbare screenplay featuring overfamiliar motifs, the movie gains traction as a result of a committed, riveting performance by Evan Rachel Wood.

The "nature" aspects of Bears are undercut by the need to turn this into a live-action Disney cartoon, complete with cuddly heroes and nasty villains.

Individual scenes are entertaining in their own right, but the production as a whole is a lumbering mess.

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.

Director Philip Saville, working from a script by Adrian Hodges (which, in turn, is based on the novel by Julian Barnes), has crafted a competent, character-based tale, but the issues examined are stale, and Saville is unable to find a way to take the story to a newer, more interesting level

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.

At any rate, Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise take on the Deadite universe is better than Alvarez’s but remains considerably below that of Sam Raimi, who helmed the original trilogy.

Despite a terrific performance by Kate Winslet and some powerful moments during the film’s final third, Lee falls into the bio-pic trap of trying to encapsulate too much of a famous person’s life into a two-hour chunk.

Unfortunately, following a key narrative inflection point, the suspense starts to leak out like the air from a slightly punctured balloon as the screenplay stumbles through minefield of hostage movie clichés on its way to a predictable and moderately unsatisfying conclusion.

The Broken Hearts Gallery meanders through its fantasy island version of New York City with meet-cutes and complications-with-exes until it reaches the inevitable climax.

For a director whose reputation is built on aggressively in-your-face subjects and styles, Snowden stands as a strangely inert outlier, a project that lacks passion although not perspective.

As disappointing as the wrap-up is, it can't erase the chilling psychological warfare that represents the majority of what precedes it.

The final minute of Halloween 4 remains as unsettling today as it was during its 1988 theatrical run. The real reason to see this movie is not for the predictable build-up, but for the cliffhanger provided by director Dwight H. Little and screenwriter Alan B. McElroy.

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is too low-key for its own good and could have benefitted from a stronger connection to the titular author than the finished product delivers.

Lost Highway is unusually bizarre even for this atypical director. Co-written by Barry Gifford, the film ventures deeper into the nearly psychotic supernatural than any feature Lynch has previous overseen.

The end result is an unremarkable, unmemorable movie that deserves neither praise nor approbation.