Because the script is smart enough not to insult us and to develop a group of interesting characters, the act of watching the film is an entertaining experience rather than a tedious exercise.

There are times when it borders on the pretentious but there’s a real, emotional payoff and it doesn’t hurt that veteran actors Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel give Top 10 career performances.

The movie is imperfect and overlong but it’s never boring.

Once you leave Wonderland, you may feel like you need a shower, but, while you're in the moment, it's a compelling journey into the depths of hell on earth.

While any or all of the events related during the course of the film might seem to form the backbone of an unendurably boring motion picture, everything comes alive because of Poppy.

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.

X-Men: Apocalypse is a competently made superhero action film but it’s not a game-changer and its brand of action seems a little too familiar.

The final chapter of the trilogy has saved the best for last and will at least deflect the most serious concerns of those who think this series has taken too many extra laps.

Functions as much as a primer on how to conduct underground filmmaking as it does an offbeat romantic comedy.

Bridget Jones’s Baby exceeds expectations and, as a result, makes us willing to forgive the delay in bringing the character back to theaters.

Life Itself starts out with great promise – a dizzying first act that creates the tapestry of a character’s life by offering a kaleidoscope of moments from his past. It’s poignant, effective, and punctuated by actions that are breathtakingly sudden and unexpected. However, after the strong beginning, the movie takes a conventional turn.

Catch a Fire isn't edgy like some of Noyce's previous titles nor is it a big-budget endeavor with A-list stars. Instead, it's a simple and sincere tale of inspiration.

Despite being well made and supremely acted, Candy is a true feel-bad experience.

Under the relentless glare of the Midnight Sun, the only darkness is in the hearts and actions of the characters.

With Honeydripper, Sayles has done what he always does: bring together a group of characters and allow us to relish their interaction. His affection for the characters is both obvious and infectious. We like them, warts and all.

The Upside of Anger belongs to Joan Allen (for whom director/screenwriter Mike Binder developed the project).

Although targeted primarily for girls in the 12-to-19-year old range, there's enough truth about friendship, love, and life in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants to offer solid entertainment to almost anyone who gives it a chance.

Cocaine Bear is imperfect. By traditional cinematic standards, it’s probably not very good. But it is fun and won’t disappoint many who are titillated by the title.

Five Fingers of Marseilles is simultaneously familiar and unique. As befits a film set in an isolated corner of the pre-and-post-Apartheid country, the movie incorporates its contemporaneous circumstances into the plot.

The Stepfather doesn’t hold up quite as well as it did during the late 1980s (some of the film’s technical aspects are dated) but it still generates tension and suspense and O’Quinn’s performance has lost none of its power.

Scream is a rarity: a horror movie spoof that succeeds almost as well at provoking scares as laughs.

Structured as a comedy, albeit a dark one.

This is an American tragedy. Although the participants may be famous, the demons they fight in their intimate moments are familiar and relatable.

A flawed but entertaining (and perhaps informative) tale.

The movie works in large part because of the depth of Steinfeld’s performance. We haven’t seen such a well-realized character in any of the other Transformers movies.

As a well-acted standard-order bio-pic, Ferrari delivers but as something more, it falls short.

This isn’t Jarmusch at his best but it’s more accessible than some of his films and doesn’t demand more from an audience than to sit back and be amused.

With a less probing screenplay and an amplification of the manipulative elements, Broker could have been a generic melodrama. However, Kore-eda strives for something more thought-provoking.