The saving grace of Old School is that it has about a dozen funny moments. These moments aren't mildly funny or chuckle funny but really funny.

Screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith may not have any original ideas, but they write some good lines and have a great actress to deliver them.

The result is a movie that serves as little more than an excuse for Moore and Bridges to camp it up.

The result is like any other Lynne Ramsay movie, whether it’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” or “Ratcatcher” — slow, soporific and, here and there, wonderful.

If the writing and direction carry Sphere most of the way, the actors manage to bring it home.

Regardless of how one might feel about its inherently icky subject matter, Dark Crimes needs more narrative momentum. The cast is game, the production design is impressive and a few surprises await — but even as things heat up, the film somehow remains cold.

The problem with “The Tiger’s Apprentice” is it sacrifices character and story for the repetitive mind-numbing action we have come to expect from such fantasy and superhero films.

The best-case scenario for a movie based on a soft-drink advertisement. It is a disjointed and inconsistent comedy, shoddily filmed at times, while occasionally abandoning storytelling effort altogether.

Twixt is fun, but fairly flimsy - it doesn't have the ambition of his previous film, the black-and-white character piece "Tetro." It's also not really scary, although there are some nice creepy visuals here and there.

At times, the sight of reserved English actors slapping, hugging and acting all Russian looks bizarre, though one casting choice is prime: Bob Hoskins has the ideal air of impish menace in the featured role of Khrushchev.

Never dull and never loses its audience, but there is, inevitably, a certain sameness to the scenes, with Garfield spending a lot of time just sitting there with a goofy smile on his face.

Emilio Martinez-Lazaro fails to provide a consistent tone for his movie, which totters between earnest realism and camp.

This “Guide” is not for everyone; it gleefully earns its hard-R rating. But folks who enjoy their teen humor splattered with zombie guts won’t be disappointed. Scout’s honor.

As a grab bag of reminiscences by veteran funny people, bolstered with richly entertaining performance footage, it's boffo.

Vampire in Brooklyn is neither funny nor frightening and comes up a tedious middle-road hybrid from veteran scaremeister Wes Craven, who directed.

There is an affecting story within first-time filmmaker Fay Ann Lee's Falling for Grace, but it is merely a subplot, one among too many that decorate this thin, unsatisfying romantic comedy-drama.

A bleak, at times fascinating but strangely inert Chinese animated film.

A creditable genre entry, the rare action movie with a discernible story, an assured pace and a charismatic central character. It falls apart in the end.

As haunted-house thrillers go, Cold Creek Manor is more ludicrous than the average but at the same time more handsomely produced.

Painless and predictable, with an amusing if overwrought featured performance by Woody Harrelson.

It's marred by loaded language and a propagandistic tone that undercuts rather than promotes its purposes.

Shot almost entirely within a hotel, the film operates as a low-budget answer to “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón’s much-lauded film that also centers on the life of a domestic worker.

This sometimes funny but ultimately convoluted movie would have benefited enormously from letting Lawrence loose.

Perhaps the humor has been lost in translation.

The last 15 minutes of “Twisters” are so much fun that they might easily convince viewers that they’ve seen a good movie. So this leaves you with a choice: Is it worth suffering through a boring hour and a so-so half hour, just to see an entertaining opening and a genuinely exciting finish? I know what I’d say (nope), but this is one you’ll have to decide for yourself.

An endearingly quirky independent film from Australia, with very likable characters and an intriguing premise.

Silly and soulful.

Take Shelter has a problem, the simplest of all problems but no less serious for its being simple. It's a film without suspense and with a slow-moving story that unfolds without surprise or embellishment.