There is a nice mix of action with tender moments -- especially among the misfit monsters

What seemed sharp and pointed onstage comes across pedantically in the film, which treats its subject with a clumsy heavy-handedness.

Although the impressively acted ensemble piece occasionally gets tripped up by Peter Elkoff's overtly literate script, it travels in some unexpected, thoughtful directions.

Cena is no Jason Statham. His stolid seriousness sucks the life right out of any scene in which he's required to speak. It's a bad sign when you repeatedly wish a runaway trolley would silence the hero.

Often engrossing and humorous.

Haunting tweaks familiar tropes enough to make them interesting. Just not so interesting as to inspire many nightmares after the credits roll.

Misunderstandings, new turns and stratagems mark the rest of this delightful divertimento, which navigates between burlesque and romantic comedy.

Director Alex Proyas resolutely thinks in B-movie terms. Even with an A-list budget, he oversells every plot point and gooses the thrills with hokey lighting, bombastic music and serious overacting.

Fukunaga clearly exhibits a flair for spirited storytelling, but when Sin Nombre departs from the specifics of its unique world in favor of more conventional genre execution, it leaves the characters and audience adrift.

It's a rare comedy that actually grows funnier on reflection. It benefits enormously from the talents of the two stars.

The movie is fun, with plenty of intrigue and suspense that will have audiences clutching at their arm rests.

A warm, amiable glimpse at the end of the showbiz road.

Entertaining and even poignant.

Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are two highly attractive, naturally funny actresses on the cusp of stardom so their pairing here as two lost souls is genius.

Here's the deal: The worst sex cartoon in Playboy's long history can't compete with the sheer vacuousness of this inane comedy.

Adheres sufficiently closely to the original template so as not to offend purists and manages to pack an intensely visceral punch of its own, most effectively in the extended setup.

The story is certainly predictable, but it contains just enough conflict and drama to engage the viewer.

The film belongs to the women, with Knightley going from strength to strength (and showing she can sing!) and Miller again proving that she has everything it takes to be a major movie star.

It's entertaining with a crafty mixture of action, humor and drama.

Thanks to the script which invests the smallest scenes with dramatic significance, Tokyo Sonata enthrals audiences for the first hour with the pacing of a thriller.

Snyder and writers David Hayter and Alex Tse never find a reason for those unfamiliar with the graphic novel to care about any of this nonsense. And it is nonsense.

The mesmerizing performance of Fanning as the gifted and troubled young Phoebe sparks the picture.

An affecting film that manages to find glimmers of beauty in the encroaching bleakness, and coaxing richly dimensional performances which, like Maria's photographs, transcend the conventionally black and white.

The film simply has too many tiredly predictable elements for its own good, and despite the handsome cinematography of the extremely picturesque California locations, "Sherman's" never really finds its way.

Though these vignettes appear frivolous and inconsequential when set beside the directors' features, they will tickle the funny bones of a general audience. A safe choice for fantastic fests, worldwide cinemas will open to the kind of audiences who bought tickets to see "Paris J'taime" or "To Each His Own Cinema."

Webber's way with his young cast is as unforced as the movie itself, which easily could have been overwrought and maudlin but is instead oddly affirming.

The film plays like a garish melodrama that reproduces the most ham-fisted, polemical aspects of "Crash."

Certainly their musicianship and onstage professionalism are smooth, though maybe a bit too smooth. There is little spontaneity in anything they do.