For all its faults, Gracie is made with enough grace to get us rooting for the protagonist.

This picture doesn't have deep enough currents to succeed as a psychological thriller and, as a ghost story, there are times when it has trouble treading water.

A stillborn affair that could have been -- and should have been -- a whole lot hipper and funnier. If you've seen the two- minute theatrical trailer, you've seen nearly everything that's worthwhile in the feature.

Besson may have misfired with The Fifth Element, but at least he does it with flair and a sense of humor.

It’s an enjoyable enough parfait but far from a theatrical destination.

Ghost in the Shell is visually compelling but tone deaf.

Magic Mike’s Last Dance is one of Soderbergh’s most notable misfires and, although one can justifiably argue that sub-par Soderbergh is as good as a solid effort by many other directors, that doesn’t change the end result: there’s something unsatisfying about this motion picture.

With its canned, predictable action sequences and mirthless attempts at humor, it displays an ineptitude that is frankly shocking considering the talent involved.

If there's a complaint to be made about Insidious, it's that the film's second half is unable to live up to the impossibly high standards set by the first half.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a harrowing journey but, for those who appreciate horror, it’s well worth taking.

"Before Sunrise" is a great movie. The Sun is also a Star isn’t. It’s not horrible and it may please its target audience but it misses an opportunity to have a deeper and less surgically-targeted impact than what it achieves.

The most disappointing aspect of The Iron Lady is that some of the most memorable hallmarks of Thatcher's time in power are glossed over.

A viscerally effective, fast paced thriller.

Every time An Ordinary Man seems to be headed into a minefield of clichés, it takes an unexpected detour and the film’s final such excursion comes like a gut-punch.

I have come to the conclusion that it's impossible for a Steven Segal movie to be anything better than mediocre, and this particular travesty may be his worst yet. The title Under Siege is supposed to represent the situation faced by Segal's character, but it's equally appropriate in describing the experience of the poor viewer who sits through this film.

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.

Although none of the characters are fleshed out much beyond the comic book level, we nevertheless find our sympathies aligning with them.

Despite being light in the story department, The Crimes of Grindelwald offers plenty of small pleasures and tightens up the linkage between this series and Harry Potter.

I'm not a religious man but, Hallelujah! I may not be done with Meyer but at least I'll never again have to cope with the angst, self-absorption, and vampire mythology mutilation that characterized these five movies.

National Champions remains effective as an ode to cynical realism but it’s uneven at best as a slice of drama.

Those who want something substantial in their cinematic diet may recoil from what A Working Man offers. But for anyone whose primary concern is to see the righteous slaughter of bad guys at the hands of the noble Statham, A Working Man doesn’t disappoint.

The biggest crime committed by The Spy Who Dumped Me isn’t its dearth of humor or reliance on an unimaginative espionage plot but the way it wastes the talents of its leads, Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon.

Has enough charm and whimsy to capture the attention and imagination of children and parents alike, and arguably represents one of the best live-action family films to enter theaters this year.

Predictable this isn't, but that can be seen as both an asset and a detriment.

Despite the negatives, I'm still recommending Fallen on the strength of its complex plot and especially its ending, which I loved. The final scenes are startling, audacious, and unexpected. It's not often that a plot development takes me by surprise the way this one did.

It's a funny movie, although rarely is the humor of the loud, obnoxious kind we have come to associate with Ferrell. It's not unlike "Blazing Saddles."

300 may not offer masterful storytelling in a conventional sense, but it's hard to beat as a spectacle and that makes it worthwhile viewing for all but the most squeamish of potential audience members.

This is not a story that cries out to be remade every 15-20 years. And, while the special effects and acting are getting better, the story isn't.