A dark satire that skewers privilege and eviscerates the famous, the wealthy, and professional critics (gulp), this film from prolific TV director Mark Mylod takes no prisoners.

It's smart, strange, unpredictable, and defies the formulas that typically define this sort of motion picture.

As a source of light pleasure and solid laughs, it delivers. This particular cookie may not fill the belly, but it goes down easy.

Rudy is intended to be triumphant and inspirational, and, in a cliche-riddled fashion, it attains those aims. Critics of the film will rightfully point out the instances when it wallows in sentimentality, but much of the story is true-to-life. While events along the way have been "Hollywoodized", at least the ending has not been overtly embellished; films of the 1975 game exist to prove that this is how events transpired.

This is a comic amusement park ride – a wildly uneven movie that offers tremendous pleasure for the moment, even if it doesn't stand up well to post-screening analysis and scrutiny.

Despite its many strengths, Thank You for Smoking hovers around mediocrity, and its lasting impression is like a puff of smoke that is dissipated by a strong gust of wind.

It gets under the skin and into the mind and does what good psychological horror does best: leaves the viewer unsettled and perhaps a little shaken even after the end credits roll and the lights turn back on.

Despite a number of narrative holes, The Long Walk succeeds largely on the strength of its performances.

Offers nothing more spectacular than a character study. And, although The Good Girl's protagonist may be trapped by routine, that's one claim that can never be made about the movie.

Takes the traditional romantic comedy and tweaks it by way of "The War of the Roses." Rarely has strife between the sexes been so ruthless, so civilized, and so funny.

After a while, Factotum surrenders to monotony and only the performances are likely to retain the viewer's interest.

Tropic Thunder understands movies, understands the system in which they are created and, most of all, knows what it takes to make an audience roar with laughter.

The film is so boisterously entertaining that it's easy for the unsuspecting viewer not to realize that there's a message here.

An ordinary story told well. Taken as a whole, there's little that's special about this tale -- it follows a traditional narrative path, leaves the audience with a warm, fuzzy feeling, and never really challenges or surprises us.

The supercharged CGI effects are fine and the battles are eye-popping, but the character interactions make No Way Home work.

It’s breezy and fun and, like its predecessor, relies more for its appeal on nostalgia and familiarity than a strong narrative thrust.

With its lack of car chases, fist fights, and over-the-top melodrama, the film has to rely on solid acting, an intelligent script, and capable directing.

Taken as a whole, Mad Dog and Glory is a disappointingly mixed bag. What's on the screen is passably diverting, but I often felt as if I was seeing only half the movie. With this intriguing premise and cast, the film should have offered more complete entertainment.

A silly script and uneven pacing.

The battle between Max and The Blaster in Beyond Thunderdome may be the best the series has to offer.

As a melding of new techniques and technology with old-fashioned methods of storytelling, it's an opportunity for the Magic Kingdom to remind audiences that, when it comes to putting fairy tales on screen, they remain on a higher level.

Offers a more satisfying cinematic experience than "Oblivion."

Wonderstruck is an evocative movie with a vaguely disappointing narrative that, although it reaches a conclusion, doesn’t justify the patience viewers must exhibit to reach that point

Hacksaw Ridge embraces many of the clichés of the war movie but, instead of laying them out in a rote fashion, the film synthesizes them into a visceral, ultimately inspirational result. This is about heroism, patriotism, and an adherence to convictions.

Although Hanks' film starts out strong, it finishes on shaky ground... A serio-comedy/fantasy whose light dramatic arc can't support the awkward and unnecessarily melodramatic ending.

An effective character study of a figure who has attained an almost-mythical status among track-and-field followers.

There are times when 22 Jump Street is borderline brilliant. Unfortunately, those instances are outnumbered by segments that don't work for one reason or another.

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.