A very noble movie, which makes it interesting at times, but not often enough.

It's engaging and transparent at once.

Muddled.

With a novel idea at its center and some good jokes scattered throughout, Pixels is a relief from the self-serious action films that invade movie theaters at this time of year. For most of the way, it’s good enough to enjoy, and for the rest of the way, it’s good enough to root for. But ultimately, it’s not quite good enough ... to be good enough.

There should be a special category for movies, like “Dog,” that are hard to enjoy but easy to take. They’re not entertainment. They’re more like a vague form of companionship. They aspire to little but demand nothing, and, if you like, they can keep you company. You can’t call that a good movie, but you’d have to be a creep to call it a bad movie.

The action is violent and improbable but not staged with particular pizazz.

Downhill is not a funny movie and wasn’t intended to be. It has moments of humor, but of the more uncomfortable variety, not the kind that provoke laughter, but cringing.

Survivors get to tell the history, but Robbie Robertson is pushing it. The guitarist does not come off as a wholly reliable narrator in his cinematic account of the illustrious career of the Band, Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band.

The film is a vehement drama and a fitfully amusing snark fest set to Nicola Piovani's jaunty circus music. It winds up only half-succeeding at both.

At times, the script gets too dense with technicalities and boardroom arguments for lay folk to comprehend. But at its best, it humanizes the plight of families who cope day-to-day with disabling illness

The cheesiness has increased, but it's surprising how clever low-budget film makers can be when they throw every nut and bolt within reach into a film, and stir wildly with computer-generated images. [15 Jan 1996, p.E6]

The movie consistently delivers in lots of little ways, but in a big way only once, in a spectacular sequence that begins with a series of earthquakes and culminates in an airline catastrophe.

Not up to Ozon's standards.

Chef Flynn seems more suited for an hour-long show on the Food Network. Its 82-minute running time, although short for a feature film, seems too bloated for this story.

Vitus is likable enough and definitely suitable entertainment for young people willing to read subtitles.

In some respects, this feels like two movies, and the filmmakers couldn’t decide which story should be the focus.

Life of the Party presents a situation more than a story, and in that it’s more like a sitcom than a conventional movie.

It’s a sweet movie that accidentally expresses ideas that are complicated and perverse. This isn’t enough to make “Upgraded” transcend its formula, but it does make it slightly better than it had to be.

In the end, though, the movie’s superior craftsmanship can’t overcome its aura of joylessness.

The audience is made to wait a long time for an ending that's not worth waiting for.

Although this story line’s turns are easy to anticipate, the seriousness with which Fellowes approaches it is refreshing in an otherwise lightweight film.

But it’s also kind of a mess. Even as the animated film piles on mismatched funny animals, uninspired songs with on-the-nose lyrics and a plot-driving motivation that appears universal but is in fact hard to buy, the project feels both generic and misguidedly overstuffed.

The sentimentality overtakes Wonder Boys when, in the last half hour, it tries to make nice with its characters and fashion a deep message from a trivial story.

A messy, ambitious comedy.

There’s nothing unique about the setup. But Flanagan and Howard’s script has charming touches, wringing humor out of characters rather than gags. Even the retro opening title card foretells its self-aware sense of humor.

Would be a completely routine horror movie, except that it has a superior director. Watch this film for five minutes, and it's clear that Victor Salva knows how to make movies.

In the end, all the bitterness seems like window-dressing to disguise a trite story.

The movie as a whole isn't exactly ground-breaking, and some of the humor tanks. But it has enough action, laughs and candy-hued visuals to satisfy the target audience without plunging grown-ups into despair.

For adults, Earth misses the mark of riveting storytelling. Earth crams in the dramatic adventures of several species (including penguins) - with the result that it comes up short on telling one really good story.

A B-movie with a few thrills and plenty of inane dialogue.

Goodwin radiates probity and makes waiting almost look interesting, and so, for all the movie's awkwardness, it remains watchable.

A pedestrian film that provides little more than a superficial treat.

Despite some real virtues, Brian Banks as a whole, is only a break-even experience.

Pretty insubstantial.

Not cheesy enough to be fun/bad (the recent loss of Raquel Welch reminds us of what a hoot such junk films like her 1966 “One Million Years B.C.” could be) nor awesome enough to compete with the “Jurassic” movies of the world, this production is an in-betweener whose biggest asset is a tight, 93-minute running time.

It’s a pretty good movie that automatically goes up one full notch because of a single great scene, which is one more than most movies have.

An exceptionally good movie in its first hour and an exceptionally bad one in its second.

French Exit is worth seeing because it gives a juicy role to Michelle Pfeiffer, who is something to marvel at. But it’s a frustrating film because, as a whole, it’s just not nearly as good as its central performance.

It's not all bad. It's just part bad: It suffers from cliches and corniness, from the same kinds of scenes played over and over, and from more false endings than the last "Lord of the Rings" movie.

Not only less than horrible, but actually occasionally enjoyable.

A relatively harmless movie that becomes killing-a-mockingbird sinful for what it does to its leads.

The idea of a worldwide calamity returning with a vengeance is an awful prospect that audiences, at this moment in particular, might find dreadful. So, it’s especially easy to sympathize with the characters in these early moments. Yet after the opening, A Quiet Place II doesn’t show us anything new, and soon the movie’s energy flags.

One can admire it, but it's hard to get caught up in it.

The Art of Racing in the Rain, a sure-handed but predictable adaptation of Garth Stein’s best-selling 2008 novel, is a sloppy wet-kiss of a movie that demands nothing more from its viewer than to engage and empathize. Awww!

Too grotesque for children and just too silly for their parents.

When Paper Towns works, it’s fun.

It would be wrong to say Close’s performance in The Wife is wasted, but it certainly deserves a better movie.

An earnest film, a well-acted film and, despite the presence of a star director, a generous film. As a director, McGregor is good to his co-stars and highlights them throughout. But the energy drops out of the last third of the picture, and takes with it much of its aura of importance.

As a stand-alone vehicle, the sensual and atmospheric Innocence is interesting enough to hold your attention to the end credits. But when you consider the source material, the film's flaws become too great to ignore.

There’s a difference between extending a story and deepening it. While this latest entry is thoughtful and stirring, it doesn’t exactly improve upon the elegant finality the series granted Tommy Shelby four years ago. Sometimes the most powerful ending is the one that understands when enough has been said.

Beautiful but flimsy film.

The technically elegant Voyagers, about a space colonization trip run amok, is easy enough to sit through, but it’s a story in need of more rocket fuel. There isn’t a bad scene in the movie, yet there isn’t a really good scene, either. It’s a quiet psychological thriller, even when it’s trying to stir mayhem.

A strange and thoughtful little movie.

Whenever Roberts is onscreen, Closer freezes and starts to atrophy. And when she's off, tender shoots of life begin to sprout.

Moreover, what the film lacks in temporal credibility, it amply makes up for in sheer rawness -- the rawness being literal.

Jones has many good moments, and “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” is a decent remake of a decent movie.

The movie might work better if the psychological puzzle tucked inside it were more engaging or surprising. But as the pieces fall into place, in a clunky resolution, the story turns as flat as the screens that contain it.

An informative and valuable documentary about the past 30 years of messy times in Peru, but it is also frustrating.

We end up with a movie in which it becomes very possible to respect the intent and yet be frustrated by the result.

If Insidious 2 exists solely because Insidious 1 made a ton of money, then at least credit Wan for making quality control a priority.

Levinson is careful not to make the Afghan people into buffoons, which is good, but it doesn’t change the fact that these folks are cardboard characters.

The filmmakers throw in an extended flatulence routine and enough graphic references to female anatomy to make "The Vagina Monologues" blush.

The superhero part of the movie will leave audiences with a flat feeling, thanks to computery-looking special effects and a sagging story line.

Here Today is a weird case — not mediocre, not lukewarm, but genuinely bad and good, cringe-worthy and moving. Take this as a recommendation, and a warning.

A promising idea turns into nothing, and we're left with a painfully dull kids' picture.

Oslo ultimately acknowledges that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is anything but resolved, and shows why even this first, limited step toward settling it was so immensely difficult. Whether we’re in the mood to find it entertaining right now remains in dispute.

If one can accept the story’s videogame logic and cope with the kinetosis, “Hardcore” is often exhilaratingly extreme.

It’s brilliant, and extremely moving. One Week and a Day has its moments, just not enough of them.

In White Chicks, the gross-out humor is minimal, no character comes off too badly and lessons are learned. Oh Wayanses, where are thy teeth?

The always fierce Bassett is a little too fierce here, reacting with unwarranted emotion to each romantic twist and turn.

Has the three elements we've come to expect from Eastwood: the steady pace, the shadowy cinematography and, of course, the presence of the Big Guy.

Will have anyone over the age of eight squirming in their seats.

Hunnam makes a strong impression as a tough guy in the title role, but there’s something about either him or the filmmaking or the subject matter that allows viewers to resist making his problems our problems.

A strange film, because it seems designed specifically for extremely old moviegoers to see with their great-great-grandchildren.

So restrained that viewers may start to yearn for a bogeyman to burst from the closet.

There are some nice things to be said about Hairspray, the John Waters movie which opened over the weekend, but not enough to explain all you've been hearing about it. It's a fairly run-of-the-mill teenage dance movie, set in Baltimore in the early '60s, with a certain oddball humor that only occasionally lifts it out of its class. [29 Feb 1988, p.F3]

Even his wife barely knew him, recalling for her son the peculiarities of raising a family amid Daddy's cloak and dagger - and if she's baffled by his behavior, what hope is there for anyone else?

Routine, genial sports movie.

Has its moments, and Schwarzenegger is as buff and tough as ever. But there's a flat feeling about this effort that's unmistakable and inescapable.

Though Butcher’s Crossing has its share of conflicts and drama, it can move as slowly as the glaciers that cut its imposing scenery.

There aren't that many songs this time - just a handful, reprised ad infinitum. You get to sing most of them, so I'm sure you've noticed how bland they are.

Asks a lot of the viewer, but it gives something back, though I'm not sure exactly what. It's an amusing and exasperating catnip dream about the adventures of a 1-year-old cartoon kitten.

If there’s a weakness to the movie, it’s that, despite its gut-level appeal, it doesn’t dazzle us with anything brilliant or unexpected. However, there are some nifty turns here and there, so it’s not entirely mediocre.

Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which credits the documentary as its inspiration, recreates some of the doc’s scenes almost verbatim. But while imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, Abe Sylvia’s ambitious but shallow script has something spiritually missing — namely, a point to it all.

Stone does everything he can to do justice to the real-life people he's depicting, and yet nothing he does can cover up the film's single but overarching weakness: The personal story he uses to portray the larger event is limited in scope and impact.

The directorial talent is there. Now if he can just be persuaded to let someone else write the script next time, we might have something serious to talk about.

Do Not Resist amounts to little more than a grab bag. Viewers looking for depth will have to find it elsewhere.

By and large a misguided and lame affair. Except for gratuitous gunplay so extreme it actually jolts you awake, it's a major snore. [28 Aug 1993, p.F1]

A not-insubstantial comedy.

A street-dance film that's lively and silly and about as "street" as a Britney Spears video.

If you needed that explanation, April and the Extraordinary World might not be for you. If you’re a steampunk fan, by all means go. Just don’t expect a classic.

It’s hard to know what Maiwenn was trying to accomplish here, besides giving herself a juicy and an entirely sympathetic historically-based role. She achieves that, and she’s good in the film — Maiwenn always is — but the “what’s the point of all this” question takes “Jeanne du Barry” down just a notch.

Night Moves, which shows her at her best and worst, also shows two roads, right and wrong, that Reichardt can choose to pursue. As someone who likes this filmmaker even when I don't like her movies, I hope she takes the harder road.

The subtle ironies of Austen's novel are rendered obvious, and the book's social satire gives way here to more straightforward romantic comedy.

This is a film that starts out promisingly and finishes with an effective epilogue. In between, there are some interesting bits - including a scene in which Errol Flynn tries to snag a big-time role in "Lolita." But outlandish as that moment might sound, it's not. Everything here, in fact, is just a tad too respectful.

Certainly, the actors seem to be having a good time, even if the people they’re playing are utterly miserable. Hathaway’s comic timing has become a marvel in recent years, but Ejiofor, too, exults in the chance to throw off his usual gravity.

In the end, the film shakes down as a kind of eat-your-spinach exercise, a movie that’s worthy and perhaps good for you, but is labored and only enjoyable intermittently.

The Condemned isn't post-modern junk, smirky junk, faux junk or clever junk. It's pure junk, with a certain integrity to it.