Ender's Game is uneven - at times almost maddeningly so - with the first half offering more enjoyment than the second. Perhaps that's because, in military-style movies, I often prefer the training segments to the battle sequences.

Indian Summer is a mish-mash of mediocre formulas. Although there are several good comedy sequences, this uneven humor is unable to camouflage the essential weakness of the storyline. The script, which relies heavily on conflict, doesn't present us with any believable characters. Reunion stories have been done so often that for one to make an impression, it needs a new angle (Peter's Friends, Kenneth Branagh's recent film, fell into the same trap). Indian Summer doesn't even attempt to strike out towards new ground. It finds a comfortable, cliche-filled groove and sits there.

Ritchie’s strengths as a filmmaker don’t include developing complex female personalities so Dockery’s Rosalind is more like a male fantasy caricature of a strong woman than an actual character.

On the whole, The Expendables 2 is more satisfying than "The Expendables."

The venerable series is looking outmoded and outdated. Media saturation and age have taken their toll.

Stay away from Birth not because of what goes on (or doesn't) in a bathtub, but because this is not a very good movie.

Saint Judy has a serious agenda and, in service of that, it eschews action scenes, thriller elements, and conventional contrivances. It tells a worthwhile story and provides a primer on aspects of immigration law without becoming didactic.

Labeling The Call as "relentlessly dumb" would be an overestimation of its intelligence. This is as brain-dead as a movie can be and it assumes the audience will have the I.Q. of a rutabaga.

To date, no motion picture has adequately captured the soaring highs and devastating lows associated with a long distance relationship, but Going the Distance comes as close as any movie has.

Like much of what transpires during the course of this production, it’s just crass.

The Brown Bunny is one long, self-indulgent bore topped off with a hard-core porn scene featuring Gallo and co-star Chloë Sevigny.

The movie is still a little rough around the edges, featuring its share of scenes that, for one reason or another, don't work, but the overall effect is one of pleasant entertainment.

The Night Listener is by no means an example of perfect filmmaking, but it is the kind of movie that stays with you.

The actors can't be faulted for any of Lovelace's missteps.

Marry Me isn’t good enough to transcend the limitations of the genre but it’s a passably enjoyable throwback to the heyday of rom-coms.

The result is an entertaining diversion but it lacks the magnificence one desires in the opening chapter of a would-be franchise.

Mulholland Falls isn't a bad film, but it definitely is disappointing, especially coming from director Lee Tamahori, who brought the powerful Once Were Warriors to the screen. Tamahori's direction is inconsistent, but, ultimately, this movie is undermined by its screenplay. Certain aspects are laudable, but, all things considered, those elements aren't enough to keep Mulholland Falls from slipping over the edge into mediocrity.

If there are any "24" fans who have wondered what the TV series might be like if Liam Neeson replaced Kiefer Sutherland, Taken provides an opportunity to have that question answered.

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.

Humor is subjective, but this movie made me feel as if I had been subjected to something unpleasant.

Anonymous is well-paced and never threatens to bore or become too scholarly.

Jack Reacher has the distinction of being little more than it initially appears to be: a clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movie that offers little more than every other clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movie.

Without Lena Olin's performance, Romeo is Bleeding could have been an ordinary, or even sub-par, film noir. However, with a villainess as fun as Mona Demarkov, it's impossible not to find some enjoyment amidst Gary Oldman's dreadful seriousness and all the bloody corpses. There are some plot twists, and a few unexpected happenings, but in the end, it's Olin's character that keeps the audience in their seats.

Smith has infused this final chapter of the accidental trilogy with an odd tone. It’s a comedy that wants to be serious but has trouble finding the right pitch.

The delicate air of romance that often makes this sort of film worthwhile is absent. French Kiss does it by the numbers, not from the heart.

The film has an undeniable energy, and, at times, it works as light entertainment, but there is a problem. The central character is consistently aggravating.

The Saint is more of a character-based thriller than a strict stunts-and-explosions film, which is a good thing because the action sequences are mostly flat and obligatory. Even when he generates a degree of tension, director Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger) is unable to sustain it, and the disappointing ending is not only long and drawn out, but lacks a sense of closure.

Life with Mikey is a subpar piece of film making for which the producers' intentions are all-too- apparent. In slapping together a formula-riddled picture, they hope to cash in on the early-summer family-oriented audience (those that are questing for something to see before the re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves). Considering the creative limitations of this project, such blatant marketing is patently offensive. Those with a yen to see something for the whole family can find hundreds of better offerings on video, and fans of Michael J. Fox would do better to peruse old episodes of Family Ties. At least back then, he appeared to care about what he was doing.