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.