On the whole, it works although perhaps not as well as it might have if the central relationship had more carefully established.

With a smart, perceptive script from first-time director Kelly Fremon Craig and an arresting lead performance by Hailee Steinfeld, the film rises to the top of a crowded genre.

Nocturnal Animals employs one of the most inventive uses of neo noir tropes and techniques I have seen in recent years. Intense, insightful, and strangely powerful, Tom Ford’s adaptation of Austin Wright’s novel, Tony and Susan, assumes an intelligent audience.

Fantastic Beasts is an enjoyable stand-alone but its position as the progenitor of a new franchise remains unclear.

Loving is an important and interesting motion picture but it’s not always as involving as it might have been.

Although Arrival is about first contact with extraterrestrials, it says more about the human experience than the creatures from another world. This is a singularly powerful movie, without question one of 2016’s best.

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 the comic book tropes are all in place, the acting, tone, and visual effects keep them from becoming tedious. This is yet another solid building block in the foundation to Marvel’s ever-expanding superhero fortress.

Deliciously perverse, delightfully twisty, and unapologetically erotic.

The "Da Vinci Code" was adequate but forgettable. "Angels & Demons" was godawful. Inferno is somewhere in between - watchable but by no means worth the money and effort necessary to see it theatrically.

Overwrought and disjointed, Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut is surprisingly faithful to aspects of the text but the overall presentation is conventional and disappointing.

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.

Unfortunately, as with too many films being made with the international market in mind, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is a jumble of overhyped action scenes, trite dialogue, painfully bad “character development”, and awful writing.

The thing that makes The Accountant unique, however, and elevates it above the garden variety action-thriller, is that the title character’s “superpowers” result from his autism.

The performances are universally strong - not that one would expect anything else considering the quality of the cast.

Are you a Kevin Hart fan? Then drop everything and rush to see this movie. Are you not a Kevin Hart fan? Then move along, there’s nothing here to see…

When I say that Parker is a master manipulator, that’s meant as a compliment of the highest order. He gets us into this story and puts us unequivocally behind Nat.

As a B-movie whodunnit designed for fast consumption by popcorn munching crowds of inattentive viewers, it’s solidly entertaining. But as a complex, Hitchcockian (as in the obvious inspiration, Rear Window) thriller, it misses by a wide margin.

Take away Kristen Wiig, and Masterminds offers nothing. She is by far the best thing about the movie and easily outshines her SNL compatriots Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Jason Sudeikis.

A fresh and engaging storybook adventure that should appeal to viewers both inside and out of the core demographic.

Although engaging, Deepwater Horizon ultimately offers a mixed bag of an experience. The setup is considerably better than the payoff, front-loading the experience.

Unfortunately, although Blair Witch owes much to the spirit of "The Blair Witch Project," it’s an inferior production. This is as much a result of stylistic and narrative choices as it is a reflection of how the horror landscape has changed in the last 17 years.

If there’s a compelling reason to remake The Magnificent Seven, it can’t be found in the 2016 version, a loud, cluttered, and generally disappointing production.

For a director whose reputation is built on aggressively in-your-face subjects and styles, Snowden stands as a strangely inert outlier, a project that lacks passion although not perspective.

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

There’s more to this movie than offering fans an opportunity to wallow in the past. It gives the most complete portrait we’ve seen thus far of Nimoy, warts and all, as presented by the man who came the closest to knowing him.

Sully proves to be by turns engaging, exhilarating, and nail-biting.

It’s an attempt to wed philosophical science fiction concepts with bloody horror - a dubious endeavor that somehow works. The movie doesn’t seek to be a mindless gore-fest but neither does it show restraint when it comes to violence.