Gordon-Levitt wears three hats (director, writer, actor) and all of them fit.

The cast is remarkable. Five of the seven principal cast members own previous Oscar nominations.

It is now weighed down by a second half that's equal parts incoherent, tedious, and repetitive.

This isn't vintage De Niro but at least there's more substance here than in a lot of his other recent projects. Michelle Pfeiffer, who flirted with this sort of a role 25 years ago in "Married to the Mob," is enjoying something of a renaissance after working only sparingly for more than a decade.

Riddick isn't perfect but it's a good high-octane sci-fi tinged action/thriller.

Getaway is pretty much a 90-minute car chase. That's it.

The sophomore feature effort from director Destin Cretton (remaking and expanding upon his 2008 short), this movie avoids the numerous landmines awaiting someone venturing into this territory and, as a result, emerges triumphant.

The movie is low-key but each scene is packed with information. Full understanding demands full attention.

There's a lot of fun to be had in watching The World's End and, surprisingly, more thematic depth than one might expect. The humor, true to its British roots, may baffle some Americans but those who "get" it will laugh quite a bit.

The storyline is at times muddled and incoherent. This won't bother readers much since they have the "inside track" on what's happening. Then again, the narrative is so predictable that maybe it doesn't matter.

With The Butler, director Lee Daniels has managed to "Gump" the Civil Rights movement. That's not necessarily a bad thing but there are times when so many famous cameos threaten to become a distraction, especially since they're only tangentially germane to the main story.

However, once you realize there's no "pleasure" to be had from something this wantonly dumb and idiotically constructed, all that's left is "guilt" - guilt that you actually spent money to see this.

"Compelling" is a word one could apply to Jobs - he was a magnetic figure - but it doesn't describe this movie. "Average" might even be a stretch, and that's something of an insult to the man whose story it tells.

Tone isn't the movie's sole problem. There's something off-putting about Christopher Mitz-Plasse as the chief bad guy.

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

Blue Jasmine is an exercise in examining the lead character's mental degeneration. The end result, a performance-driven character study, offers an experience more akin to what one might expect from the late John Cassavetes than from the still very much alive Woody Allen.

Blomkamp's universe is a fascinating place to visit and the movie is stuffed with ideas - there's far too much here to satisfactorily explore in 109 minutes, especially when one considers that room must be made for action scenes. I departed the theater satisfied with what I'd seen but wanting more.

A "Jennifer Aniston movie" has become synonymous with "derivative, lackluster mediocrity," and it's a shame. We know she has both talent and charisma but nothing on her recent resume has allowed her to display those qualities. So we're stuck with films that are at best forgettable and at worst painful.

The Canyons is a sleazy soap opera that fails primarily because it gives us no one to care about and no reason why we should be interested that we don't care.

The Spectacular Now's DNA contains elements of the John Hughes teen dramadies of the '80s. There's also a little Cameron Crowe - in fact, replace the soundtrack with something more dynamic and it might be easy to mistake this with a Crowe film.

The movie is loud, fun, quick moving, and features some nice acting turns.

The movie is pleasingly vulgar and, although there's no nudity, the whole thing is about sex.

Finally - a superhero movie that doesn't feel like every other superhero movie.

It's a compelling tale that offers the opportunity for reflection and discussion about issues that have never really gone away and continue to lurk in the cultural background.

In R.I.P.D., we have a legitimate train wreck of a motion picture: a film that doesn't work on any level. It's not funny. It's not exciting. It's not engaging. It's a waste of time and money.

The film has its charms but the end result feels like warmed-over James Bond… and not even especially good 007, at that.

The pervasive aura of creepiness more than compensates for the low body count and inventive use of sharp instrumentation.

It's funny, affecting, and appealing, and more worthy than much of what's out there. Often, coming-of-age stories rely forcefully on formulaic narrative developments but The Way Way Back remains fresh from start to finish.