This wrongheaded biopic that bears her name does nothing to burnish her legacy. In fact, the tedious movie lacks any insight into the characters involved, and surely would have the late Princess of Wales rolling in her grave. And it can't be easy on her sons to see their mother depicted in such a one-dimensional fashion.

Alas, this all-star ensemble comedy that trumpets (too loudly) that it's a "Hangover" on hemorrhoid cream musters enough laughs to be passable, if not memorable. And that's thanks to Morgan Freeman's showmanship.

Through its detailed depiction of the lead character and McConaughey's outstanding portrayal, Dallas Buyers Club enlightens compellingly without sermonizing.

Rude, wrong and laugh-till-you-snort funny, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa not only stands as the best installment (by bounds) of Johnny Knoxville's hidden-camera franchise; it's one of the sharpest comedies of the year.

The overwritten script and the ridiculous plot combine to make The Counselor a frustrating experience.

Action fans -- particularly devotees of brainless '80s shoot-em-ups -- may find enough to like here, particularly the preposterous mayhem of the third act.

Rather than offering new blood, Carrie is a purely cosmetic revamp.

The Fifth Estate doesn't seem to be presenting the full story. Instead, it's a fairly dull thriller about a hugely influential Internet phenomenon.

The harrowing 12 Years a Slave is a mesmerizing period drama for the ages.

In this spare, unusual and intimate action thriller, Redford's expressions do nearly all of the communicating. He is the sole human cast member and utters only one word during the entire movie, which covers a span of eight days. The ocean — super-charged and becalmed — gets equal billing. If this sounds bizarre, or like an exercise in tedium, it is neither.

Far more coherent than last year's aimless "On the Road" and more sharply focused than 2010's "Howl," it centers on a youthful Ginsberg finding his nascent artistic voice.

Director George Tillman Jr. compellingly probes how parentless kids cope without financial resources or adults who give a damn.

Machete Kills dulls more than anything. It's not that Robert Rodriguez's sequel lacks any of the camp or exploitative violence of the 2010 original. The mayhem has just become boring.

The climactic rescue by Navy SEALs is riveting. But it's Phillips' devastating after-the-fact shock that leaves the most haunting impression in this ambitious, taut and captivating thriller.

While there is a pleasantness about this faithful Shakespearean reboot, there also is some woeful miscasting and a lukewarm feeling about the straightforward production.

A spotty comedy with a great cast and a catchy title that falls apart in the final third.

The events of those days would have been better covered in greater depth in a miniseries, rather than a 90-minute movie.

One of the film's biggest problems is that Richie is an unsympathetic and rather dim character. The badly drawn role does the likable Timberlake no favors.

The telling of this simple tale of survival required cutting-edge technology, but we don't notice the bells and whistles: They're on hand to immerse us in an unforgettable personal story.

While not as revelatory as Al Gore's 2006 Oscar-winning documentary, Inequality makes a resounding case that the middle class is facing its own planetary crisis: becoming an endangered species.

If you rely on films to keep your kids entertained and distracted for an hour and a half, Meatballs is a masterwork, a visual stunner that manages to break from animation's current 3-D rut.

Johansson gives one of her best performances as the bossy, gum-chewing Jersey girl determined to change Jon into her image of a romantic hero. Tony Danza and Glenne Headly are hilarious as Jon's parents. Gordon-Levitt proves he can act, write and direct with equal dexterity.

It would have worked better if the silly premise had been played for farcical satire, rather than following the cookie-cutter rules of the romantic comedy playbook.

Inspired and inspiring, this documentary about 7- and 8-year-olds competing for the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship is too fawning to be consistently gifted, but it manages to be occasionally, perhaps accidentally, profound.

Brilliantly captures the exhilaration that comes from facing death head-on. It's also an ode to joyous rivalry.

Prisoners is infused with a poetic intensity that's rare in American thrillers. The closest cinematic comparisons would be "Zodiac," "In the Bedroom" and "Mystic River."

It's clever, farcical and offers wry social commentary. With its heartfelt performances, intelligent writing and subtle humor, this is easily one of the most perceptive and engaging movies of the year.

Well-written, terrifically acted and compelling. It deftly avoids sentimentality and offers a window into the lives of believable, multilayered characters.

Insidious: Chapter 2 appears to be the sum of the unusable parts from James Wan's recent haunted house feature "The Conjuring."

Self-indulgent, heavy-handed and lumbering, Jayne Mansfield's Car is not a wreck, but it's certainly a vehicle for boredom.

Not only is this a deftly crafted and superbly acted film, but Wadjda sheds a powerful light on what women face, starting in childhood, in an oppressive regime.

The Family is a fish-out-of-water/buddy comedy/Mob flick. But most of all, it's a missed opportunity.

Hell Baby is what happens when you try to parody a parody. The result is a film that's less than half as funny as its predecessor, and a sliver as clever as the original.

Populaire takes an intrinsically boring activity — typing — and makes it unusually entertaining.

Insightful gems are unearthed throughout the flawed but engrossing Salinger,a much-anticipated documentary about the author of The Catcher in the Rye.

Move along, there's nothing to see and no one to root for in this murky franchise reboot.

Winnie Mandela is a simplistic look at a complex figure.

It's misleading to call this a documentary — fan fodder is more like it.

A clever, likable comedy that sends up sexism, satirizes Hollywood, examines family ties and features a surprisingly tender romance at its core.

It's a meandering film that prompts the viewer to anticipate characters' actions. Fortunately, they don't take predictable paths.

A car-chase clunker that can't escape its own noxious emissions.

Not only an intelligent, well-told and deftly acted story, it provides refreshing counter-programming in a season filled with noisy, uninspired sequels and mindless action movies.

It's no "Taxi Driver" or even "Open Water," but Route has enough attractions to warrant the trip.

An historical opus that is equal parts ballet and biography, though the second component pales in comparison with the first.

A film of repetition, a bloody dance consisting of three steps: stab, scream, repeat.

The premise of visiting so many pubs as a narrative device, however, bogs down the initially energetic pacing and goofiness. Piling on the mayhem renders The World's End a sometimes chaotic and uneven comedy.

Though it has flashes of promise, Bones traces the footsteps of its fantasy film predecessors too closely to blaze anything close to an original narrative.

Authentic emotion competes with manufactured sentiment for the heart of Lee Daniels' The Butler.

Kick-Ass is a prime example of a movie that never should have bothered with a sequel. Not only is its successor played-out, but it revels in carnage while lacking the visual style and gleeful humor of the original.

One thing it doesn't do is offer a revealing look at the mercurial entrepreneur. The movie that bears his name settles on a blandly superficial treatment of a deeply complex man.

It plays more like a "21 Jump Street," full of pretty people and a thumping soundtrack but offering little in the way of something to say.

A humorous chick flick for well-read audiences, Austenland is a novel concept.

Lovelace is a lackluster, skin-deep biopic.

The Canyons is billed as an erotic thriller, but the sexcapades of these empty-headed twentysomethings are far more likely to elicit yawns than titillation.

Essentially Cars in midair.

This sweetly eccentric and low-key buddy picture/bromance bears little resemblance to more well-known examples of the genre, such as "Lethal Weapon" or "Pineapple Express."

Decidedly more thought-provoking than most big-studio summer fare.

We're the Millers is a twisted road trip worth avoiding. Not only is it not funny, it's offensive.

Nathan Fillion is the movie's brightest spot as Hermes, re-envisioned as a UPS manager. He makes a quip about how the best TV series always get canceled, in a nod to Firefly, the iconic sci-fi show in which he starred.

By its conclusion the story has worked so hard to be twisting and clever that it runs out of steam and becomes outlandish, marked by a surplus of violence — too often casual and gratuitous — for what essentially is a buddy cop movie.

A marvel of well-rounded characters, strong performances and disarming chemistry, this deeply felt film is like a loving elegy to the end of childhood. It's easily one of summer's best films.

This insipid, and sometimes awkward, blend of animation, computer generation and live action wastes a ton of talent and lacks a true sense of whimsy.

Like the fumbling around of first-time sex, The To Do List has its enjoyable moments but doesn't exactly feel like a peak experience.

An intermittently exciting action film anchored by a strong performance by Jackman, who embodies Wolverine like no one else could.

It's one of the year's finest, most complex portrayals, in one of Allen's best films in years.

Perhaps there was a clever germ of an idea here, but the five credited writers didn't develop characters, scenarios or rules in this sci-fi world well enough to engage the audience.

The net result is an entertainingly frightening film that keeps the audience in a state of alarmed, but eager, anticipation.

A failure from start to finish.

Red 2 is one of those sequels that's easier to follow if you've seen the original but more entertaining if you haven't.

God may forgive you for seeing this needlessly brutal film. But you won't forgive yourself.

Has some appealing characters, a few laughs and then devolves into a predictable Tortoise and the Hare spinoff.

Even as temporary visitors, the audience can feel IQ points slipping away.

An outstanding lead performance by Mads Mikkelsen (who won best actor for the role at Cannes in 2012) anchors this hauntingly layered and nuanced drama of a man falsely accused of a terrible deed.

This comedy deserves credit for taking a decided viewpoint — and delivering a heartfelt if occasionally misguided message.

The story's appeal is lost in all the fights between the monsters and robots.

Michael B. Jordan is superbly multi-dimensional as Grant.

This shallow sequel to 2010's much cleverer Despicable Me — the 10th-biggest animated movie in U.S. history — seems to be merely going through the motions.

Intermittently funny. But the movie's first 20 minutes is devoted to tediously showing how his career has taken off around the world. That might be fine if this were a documentary, or if it were done more artfully, and with humor — since we go into the movie expecting a 75-minute laugh-fest.

It's a 2 1/2-hour slog, with tonal inconsistencies and monotonous, drawn-out action sequences. Scenes alternate between frenetic and tedious.

While the plot strives to be a raunchy-clever sex farce, it feels more like a leaden repurposing of Airplane with drunken pilots, mile-high dalliances and dancing flight attendants.

The Heat is the best female buddy-cop movie since, well, ever.

While director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) piles on outlandish scenarios, the chemistry of the lead actors mitigates the contrived setup and numbing explosions.

The movie works mostly because of the artistry of its stellar cast and heartfelt script by writer-director Paul Andrew Williams.

The visuals are impressive, while the goodhearted and endearing story is a little slight.

Essentially, it boils down to familiar fare: a well-paced, entertaining, conventional action thriller where a reluctant hero saves the day.

Audiences meet the most memorable voices in the world of backup singers. They perform with world-famous musical acts, but theirs are not household names. Their stories, however, are inspiring, heartbreaking and enthralling.

The Bling Ring is the cinematic equivalent of the vapid, superficial kids it features — all visual panache and minimal substance.

The story, while sometimes soaring, is other times grounded by a hyperactive and numbing vibe. But Henry Cavill has the strapping good looks of the comic icon, and humanity to match his superheroism.

The film is uneven and about 15 minutes too long. But when it's funny, it's hilarious.

This low-key and engrossing Belfast-based drama is as much a well-acted character study as it is a thriller about the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Makes its point ham-fistedly and then devolves into a blood-spattered slasher movie. It also unashamedly cribs from more disturbing films like "Straw Dogs," "Funny Games" and "A Clockwork Orange."

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson may be the worst interns since Monica Lewinsky.

It's mostly smoke and mirrors. After Freeman's snooze became a YouTube fixture, the actor jokingly dismissed the nap, saying he was using "Google eyelids" to check his Facebook account. You may find yourself attempting the same feat, because Now has little up its sleeve.

The coming-of-age film is poignant and comical, sitting squarely on that threshold, focusing on the time when a teen is part boy, part man and all adolescent.

Provocative, issue-oriented thrillers are in sadly short supply these days. But The East fills the bill with its examination of the intense commitment and anarchic impulses of eco-terrorist organizations. It's a fascinating subject on which to anchor a spy thriller.

Though it's meant to be pulse-pounding, After Earth is a lethargic slog.

The film's clever use of emerald-colored hummingbirds as transportation is a highlight.

Who would have thought that one of the most provocative and affecting films made about the fallout from 21st century divorce would have emanated from a 19th century novel?