This is as pure a narrative-based film as one is likely to find; the men and women populating 6 Days exist primarily to move the story along.

The 2011 version of Conan the Barbarian looks cheap and feels rushed. The few good elements are dwarfed by a generic, nonsensical plot and shoddy storytelling.

This is sloppy filmmaking, and it's likely to wipe away whatever luster still remains to Shyamalan's reputation.

It's the Judd Apatow syndrome and there are times when the blend of romance and raunchiness threatens to curdle. In the end, however, the "love conquers all" mentality wins out.

Various subplots are given short shrift and the whole thing feels more like a Cliff's Notes version of a longer piece than an actual finished motion picture.

The Watch is a studio turd marinated in eau de skunk that stinks worse than week-old fish.

Starts out as an effective little horror movie before devolving into an incoherent mess during its final 30 minutes.

The Thirteenth Floor shows what can happen when film makers fail to recognize that they need more than a concept to establish a full-length motion picture.

It's hard to say what is more responsible for the film's utter failure: Hopkins direction, the editing, or the screenplay. The result is such a muddle that one assumes each aspect deserves part of the blame.

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.

The recycling goes as deep as the dialogue, which is a mangled and blended refrain of clichés.

Sadly, about the nicest thing I can say about What Happens in Vegas is that I didn't hate it - although I suppose that's something.

The breath of fresh air, to the extent that one can be identified in the staleness of this recycled refuse, is John Cleese.

There are a lot of other bad things I could talk about -- the overblown score, the silly portrayal of the police, the bad dialogue, the poor lighting in almost every scene -- but I think it's pretty clear how few virtues Striking Distance has. In fact, one of the movie's few positive aspects is that it's too loud to fall asleep during, which is surely what most people would do if their attention was based on story and character.

Overlong and at times tedious; the taste is gritty and lingers unpleasantly.

I suppose there are reasons to see That Darn Cat, but only if you're under twelve and desperate, or accompanying someone in that category.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I liked parts of Bordello of Blood -- it is, after all, a pretty sick motion picture. Alas, the sense of bloody good fun gets stretched too thin. There's not enough material here to sustain the running length, and the film goes through dead patches (most of which occur when Miller isn't on screen). All of the stuff with Chris Sarandon is a waste of time that should have been relegated to the cutting room floor -- except that would have trimmed Bordello of Blood to an unacceptably short sixty minutes or so.

Johnny Mnemonic is brash, flashy, and loud, but it lacks a few key ingredients -- namely heart, soul, and intelligence.

It's a depressing experience to view something like Saw IV. It's not just the soullessness that's dispiriting, but the lack of invention. When a movie does little more than repeat what its predecessors accomplished with grotesque effectiveness, it's past time to tip this corpse into its grave and bury it.

The strength of Push is its relentlessness. The movie doesn't pause for anything and, when it provides exposition, it does so without bringing the action to a grinding halt.

At times dull and plodding and at other times cartoonishly silly, Kin rarely works and, when it does, it’s often for the wrong reasons.

A godawful teen-magnet utterly devoid of entertainment value beyond the lure of its popular, photogenic cast and the dubious attraction of playing the “guess who gets it next” game. The little bit of cleverness that ends the film comes far too late to save this movie.

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.

By cramming far too much material into 114 minutes, The Huntsman: Winter’s War feels rushed and incomplete. It doesn’t help that the screenplay is at times awful, forcing accomplished actors to recite excruciatingly bad dialogue while maintaining a straight face.

On balance, I think I'd rather have seen Rocky 15.

Feels jumbled and disorganized. It's not altogether unpalatable, but that doesn't present it from being a mess.

The promise of an intriguing premise results in expectations that the film, which rarely diverges from the familiar feel of a post-apocalyptic road movie, is unable to capture.

Plastic characters, chaotic camerawork, lots of things blowing up, and an incredibly dumb screenplay. In short, it represents a great time at the movies for anyone who has recently undergone a frontal lobotomy.

The Clone Wars is the last nail in a coffin that has been propped up ever since George Lucas sold his creative soul in the quest for a few more pieces of gold.

To the extent that Venom works, it’s as a comedy not an action/adventure superhero film.

70 minutes into the 90-minute process, I was engaged. Then it all collapsed.

Liman applies the same frenetic approach to action scenes that made "The Bourne Identity" such an engaging and exciting affair.

An unfocused mess, with poor chemistry all around and an ending that's as firm and satisfying as an overcooked noodle.

I didn’t laugh once and the movie’s stylized and satirical tone defused any connection I might have felt for the characters. Perhaps if the proceedings hadn’t dragged on well past the two-hour mark, it wouldn’t have seemed like such a chore to sit through.

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

Captures the essence of its TV inspiration, which is to say that it's not nearly as clever as it thinks it is. It also feels very, very long.

It is a ghastly experience, and I left the theater feeling as if I had waded neck-deep through a stream of raw sewage.

This film mistakes action for energy, ridiculous circumstances for comedy, and a mismatched male/female pairing for romance.

There's nothing remotely memorable about this walk.

To work, The Host would have required a visionary interpretation rather than the mundane telling that Niccol opts for.

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.

Half of what's going on is never explained, and what is explained, doesn't make much sense. And that's just the beginning of the problems encountered in director Paul Anderson's ("Mortal Kombat") poorly executed endeavor.

The end result is something that feels like it should have been much better than it is.

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.

There are quite a few unintentionally funny moments, although the overall experience was too intensely painful for me to be able to advocate it as being "so bad, it's good."

Kids will probably love this film but, to be frank, most children aren't that discriminating (apologies to the few who are). There's nothing in the film that's reprehensible (although some may find the concept of a one-hundred five minute commercial for a game offensive in itself), but I find it hard to believe that many adults accompanying their youngsters will be entertained. In general, about the best recommendation I can come up with regarding this movie is to turn on the Nintendo and play a game yourself. You'll have more fun, spend less money, and it will be over a whole lot faster.

This feels a lot like some of the recent, unwatchable Adam Sandler offerings: boorish, unfunny comedy colliding with saccharine, quasi-dramatic filler.

It will bore you.

There's no compelling reason to see Deal. Everything it offers is familiar to the extent where even though it's not a remake, it feels like one.

Morbius is the kind of bland, by-the-numbers origin story that shows comic book movies at their least innovative.

Isn't worth the time, money, or effort. For Stephen King aficionados, it's just the latest cinematic nightmare.

With each death, the film becomes less interesting. By the end, it's just a routine slasher flick with a too-predictable final "twist."

A tepid affair, distinguished by bland character development, uninspired and insipid dialogue, and a nonexistent plot.

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.

Would probably have been more enjoyable if Berkowitz was less irritating. As a character, his only redeeming quality is his self-deprecating humor.

The energy is missing in the remake because the techniques, which are replicated in a straightforward fashion, are stale.

Misses the mark.

Instead of being truly awful, it’s simply mediocre, although one could argue that’s the last word a comic book movie wants to have applied to it.

The gore is so badly done that it's borderline comical and poor lighting passes for "atmosphere."

By the end of the film, I was hoping everyone on two legs would die, preferably suffering as much on screen as I was in the audience.

There’s only so far you can take a slasher series without doing something truly off-the-wall. Since the studio refused to attempt a radical refit, we’re left with this: a franchise-charring dumpster fire.

With its cheesy special effects and blasphemously imbecilic storyline, one wonders whether the celluloid version of Ghost Rider will find an audience.

By trying to satisfy every kind of viewer, it's possible that Sphere may end up pleasing no one.

This is probably Murphy's best comedic performance since "Bowfinger." The adrenaline is pumping and the outrageousness is dialed all the way up. Murphy is often funny, and occasionally hilarious.

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.

Sixteen years after her death, Princess Diana is still capable of generating interest, which is probably the only reason why this dull, pointless movie was greenlighted.

The funniest movie of the year - a true laugh riot. Viewers will be holding their sides to contain the laughter. Forget Borat - if you're looking for something hilarious, this is the movie to see. What's that? It's not supposed to be a comedy. Oops.

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.

The motion picture version of Bewitched is a travesty of monumental proportions that belongs in the "What the hell were they thinking?" category.

This is the film to watch when pretty much everything else has been sold out and the only remaining choices are The Back-Up Plan and the latest Rob Schneider opus.

Perhaps in the hands of a visionary genius in touch with their inner child, it might have been possible to achieve something better than an overlong throwaway distraction for a preschooler. In the hands of these filmmakers, however, it feels like a soulless cash-grab – an attempt to tap into the family-friendly frenzy that has emerged this summer.

Lazily written and indifferently filmed, this sendup of action/spy movies rarely works as a satire and becomes downright unbearable when it attempts to do things like character/relationship building.

It's a little sad that The Messengers is ultimately a good candidate for burial in a toxic waste dump because there are some good elements contained herein.

To be fair, The Forest boasts a promising premise but squanders most of its goodwill as a result of narrative shortcuts and contrivances, horror film clichés, and haphazard editing.

Lacks the kind of forceful, attention-grabbing chemistry that elevates a movie in this genre from a passable diversion to a lasting source of entertainment.

Doesn't have the decency to end when it should.

Words cannot express how weary I am of watching lifeless, hollow movies like My Life in Ruins - generic romantic comedies that have no clue when it comes to either "romance" or "comedy."

The Happening is a movie to walk out of, sleep through, or - best of all - not to bother with.

The Dark Tower isn’t a bad movie even though there’s a clumsiness to its narrative and a cheapness to its appearance.

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.

Chock-full of unfunny humor, bland characters with nonsensical motivations, and tedious subplots, the entire endeavor might have been shelved if not for the participation of De Niro, Uma Thurman, Cheech Marin, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Walken. A cast like that doesn’t get swept under the rug or sent direct-to-video.

It's dull, childish, and uninspired.

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

At least there are some decent special effects to distract the viewer's attention from the story, right? Wrong. The visual effects aren't much better than those found in any typical video game system. They're repetitive and unimaginative.

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

Yes, this film is worse than "Cliffhanger," Stallone's last venture into chaos.

If all you're looking for is breasts, blood, and gore, this film hits pay dirt. None of the killings are terribly inventive, but they are plentiful, and why bother being devious when axes, machetes, knives, and pointed sticks will do the job just as well?

Celtic Pride has numerous weaknesses, most obviously an overly-happy ending that seems distressingly sincere (as opposed to lampooning this kind of finale). The film also exhibits an unwillingness to divorce itself completely from sports film cliches and conventions. On the whole, however, Celtic Pride is surprisingly effective and entertaining. You don't even have to be a Celtics fan to appreciate it. In fact, considering who becomes the butt of the film's ultimate joke, perhaps it's best if you're not one.

For acting to be this bad in movie not directed by Michael Bay or George Lucas, it has to be intentional.

Belly-flopping into the superhero movie pool, Thunder Force illustrates what happens when filmmakers take a moderately interesting premise and surround it with witless writing, cringe-inducing acting, stagnant action, humor-deprived comedy, and feckless drama.

I found the most extreme material to be so tasteless that it voided all comedy.

Outside of a clever re-invention of how the North Pole works, Red One doesn’t do a lot right, which is surprising considering that the project re-teams director Jake Kasdan and actor Dwayne Johnson, who made the thoroughly enjoyable Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

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.

A dreadful, hackneyed piece of cinema.

At best, this is a late-night time-waster to be watched on Prime Video when all better options have been exhausted.

The movie is frequently incomprehensible and, on those occasions when it makes sense, the viewer may wish it didn’t.

The Man from Toronto is derivative and forgettable; nothing about the venue in which it is seen will change that.

Jingle All the Way is forgettable, and that, more than anything else, is why I recommend passing up this holiday offering.