It's just another example of technology intruding upon storytelling, that's been happening since kinetoscopes cranked one frame at a time.

Not even J.K. Rowling can say abracadabra and make a worthwhile movie franchise appear. The lightning that struck Harry Potter once merely grazes Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, turning the sorcerer's mentor into a fantasy apprentice.

Christine is a movie as bleak and withdrawn as its protagonist, with Hall making the most of her best role in years, a slow death spiral that's hard to look away from.

It's one of a handful of movies that have legitimately fooled me; not with an abrupt twist but a dawning awareness of where it's going thematically, how deeply and how distanced from sci-fi as usual.

A nice balance of solemn myth making and genre irreverence lifts Doctor Strange to Marvel's first tier of movie franchises.

It feels disingenuous to celebrate Doss' moral code by vividly pretending to demolish it. Nobody disputes the notion that war is hell. But maybe this particular war movie didn't need that.

Inferno is another docent tour dressed as an action movie, a baby boomer's fantasy of travel and intrigue.

Tom Cruise may be an A-list action star, but the Jack Reacher films are beginning to feel like the B-movies of his career.

Keeping Up With the Joneses is the sort of strenuous comedy giving zany a bad name.

David Hare's screenplay based on Lipstadt's book is intrinsically stacked toward her eventual triumph, with each familiar step worth watching.

Sure, Arnold's movie is aimless, at times frustrating, like its characters. It's also a harshly poetic reflection on what being young must mean today.

Ben Affleck is Agent Double-OCD in The Accountant, an effortlessly dumb thriller barely more entertaining than an audit.

When we-know-who finally gets what's coming, The Girl on the Train briefly reaches its campy feminist potential, after two hours of taking a transparent mystery too seriously.

Parker makes an assured feature filmmaking debut, with poetic imagery and powerful narrative.

The Hollars plays like a Zach Braff cast-off, with its strenuous quirks and strummy musical interludes.

Lewis' performance is a spectacle of ego and last-chance craft that could only be possible for a legend near the end.

Burton's manner is changed, not drastically or consistently but more controlled, making strangeness the story's accessory rather than its purpose. He seems inspired by this material for the first time in years, in a creative vein where he finds the most satisfaction.

Deepwater Horizon is a brawny hybrid of technical expertise and real-life tragedy, with neither quality getting shortchanged.

The film is able to overcome some of its narrative familiarity just by showcasing characters, locations and music we rarely see on screen. Having Monsoon Wedding director Mira Nair at the helm also brings a visual vibrancy and communal energy to the proceedings.

It's occasional fun, but that's about all, folks.

The Magnificent Seven had me smiling throughout, tapping into Saturday matinee memories without seeming entirely old-fashioned.

A wheel-spinning homage gone terribly awry.

There's a funny, healthy element of slapstick at play, as with all Bridget movies. A doctor played dryly by Emma Thompson is a biting, welcome addition.

Even with its flaws, Snowden is Stone's return to relevance, in subject and execution.

Hanks keeps things interesting with an array of concerned expressions and distant gazes. But there's no tension in faked suffering. The actor and Eastwood's movie are limited by the goodness of their subject, the flawlessness of his actions.

Director Derek Cianfrance attempts to bring the emotional rawness of his previous films and influences to the melodrama genre with The Light Between Oceans, but he never quite pulls off the feat.

What lifts Equity above ordinary corporate melodrama is its staunchly feminine perspective, and not only in its lead character.

War Dogs is cocked with an irreverent pedigree and loaded with the genius teaming of Jonah Hill and Miles Teller as high rolling gun runners making up everything as they go. It's a splendid mismatch, physically and tempermentally, folded into a screenplay that's only occasionally as razored as it might be.