Let Me In is going to lure and please fans of the original; like the first, the remake is graphically violent but as tense as good horror gets.

Menacing and meditative, Hallows is arguably the best installment of the planned eight-film franchise, though audiences who haven't kept up with previous chapters will be hopelessly lost.

Unapologetically brutal and unencumbered by much plot, Raid is the year's most turbo-charged film.

Sprinkled with riffs, concert footage and home videos, the family-authorized documentary does what the artist usually did: When in doubt, return to the beat.

The film is surprisingly deft and entertains at both the adult and juvenile levels. If something in Guardians catches your eye, trust your gizzard.

It's simple stuff, but the movie's heart is in the right place.

Scott paces the film like its mechanized star: deliberately and, ultimately, with enough speed to keep its passengers satisfied.

Black is clearly suited for the role of a modern-day Inspector Clouseau, a hero clown who can't help but save the day.

It is in many respects the best installment of the franchise as its stars go from sullen kids to sullen young adults, where their expressions look more natural.

The action is brisk, the acting is solid, and barring an unlikely failure at the box office, a franchise is born. Let the games begin.

Pooh succeeds by embracing much of what modern films (including Potter's) have largely forgotten: old-fashioned movie pleasures.

Fright is way too quick on its feet to be slowed by clichés. David Tennant seizes McDowall's role as Peter Vincent, now a Criss Angel-style clown vampire slayer. Christopher Mintz-Plasse was born to play a high school nerd.

Crisply shot and voiced by a legion of Brits, the animated Arthur seems aimed at the Scrooge and caroler in all of us.

Even by today's standards, some scenes are jaw-dropping in their bloodshed. To that end, Lurie accomplishes some of what Peckinpah evoked 40 years ago.

It's over-the-top stuff, to be sure. But Bosses never crosses that line into the macabre.

Sarandon is worth leaving home for, even if Jeff won't.

As he did in "Stranger Than Fiction," Ferrell displays surprising range when he ratchets down the volume.

Sarah's Key is, for the most part, an exercise in reserve. We never see Hitler, never enter battle. Paquet-Brenner (Pretty Things, Walled In), rightly tells his Holocaust story as it now lives: through survivors and descendants.

The side story about Muslim extremists is a little ham-handed for a film that otherwise exercises such restraint.

Visually stunning and narratively stunted, this IMAX documentary is the family version of 2006's "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary on global warming.

Despite an abrupt ending and the worst title of the year, Arbitrage manages to leverage real tension from its veteran stars in one of Hollywood's first pedigreed films of the fall.

He hasn't mastered the craft yet, but M. Night Shyamalan may be on to something with this action-movie thing.

There are plenty of strong performances, and LaBeouf does a nice job of becoming the tough-skinned pragmatist. Mulligan is as earnest as ever, and Susan Sarandon and, particularly, Frank Langella make strong cameos.

Jack Goes Boating won't knock you over, but it lulls you with its slow-warming heart.

Brisk, brutal and unconcerned with collateral damage, The Mechanic doesn't pave much of anything new in the assassin-for-hire genre. But when it kills, it does so with style.

For added heehaws, the normally dependable Nick Swardson comes along to act the ass and delve into some of Sandler's more nuanced scatological humor.

Where Paul takes off is in its embrace and knowledge of sci-fi icons.

One of the coldest action films in years and an odd showcase for Saoirse Ronan, a deft actress who is one of the few youngsters capable of pulling off action with acting.

Leave it to a wimpy kid to show Hollywood how to make a family movie with live people in it.

Even by today's horror standards, Destination has some ghastly scenes. After seeing them, parents may want to reconsider letting their daughters try gymnastics or laser eye surgery.

A Dangerous Method has plenty to say about sex, but it lacks much fire for it.

In Time has about 50 minutes of good movie in it. Alas, the sci-fi thriller runs nearly twice that length, and despite a terrific concept that could make for an "Inception" for 2011, we get "Logan's Run" meets "Robin Hood." And not the good parts.

One of those movies that makes for a fantastic trailer. Much beyond that can feel like repeat viewing.

It's breezy stuff, to be sure. And while English is far from becoming the Pink Panther for the Facebook generation, Atkinson has a breezy rapport with junior Agent Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya) that's reminiscent of Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau and his relationship with sidekick Kato.

A stylish slasher of a movie, a monster flick that does its vampires right, if not their real-life counterparts.

When the comedy connects, it can deliver with funny force

A more sure-footed shoot-'em-up that finds some heart, wit and perhaps enough momentum to spawn a formidable action franchise.

Maintains the franchise's knack for getting kids right.

The first half of Taken 2 is a serviceable action flick, but the second half descends into cliches.

Preposterous, goofy and a clear ripoff of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” Identity still manages to make off with just enough laughs to work, thanks to the wondrous McCarthy, one of the few actresses in Hollywood allowed to showcase her wit and charisma as much as her physique.

Just earnest enough to blend its religious theme with a beer-chugging hero for a surprisingly contemporary look at faith.

Just as its characters need a reason to live, Go needs a reason for audiences to watch. Neither find much satisfaction.

For a movie with a star wrestler at the center of it, Legendary doesn't pack much of a punch.

It bristles with exuberant numbers that strain beneath the weight of cliché.

This just in: Morning Glory can't decide whether to skewer the morning news or wallow in its pap.

Far-fetched is fine in most action flicks. And it would work here if Days were a straightforward police story.

A flimsy, occasionally spooky demon tale.

Never works as a gum-snapper concert movie and does provide a glimpse into instant stardom in the Twitter generation.

Four is so cobbled with bits of other sci-fi and comic-book movies, there's little to distinguish it.

You've never seen a movie like Sucker Punch. And depending on your entertainment preferences, you may not want to.

A mishmash of horror and history genres that's not as bad as its trailers but ultimately is dragged down by, of all things, its star.

You have to give director Jonathan Liebesman some points for sparing no shell casings or standing buildings to hustle us through the film's languorous two hours.

Hangover II marks one of the most derivative sequels of the year: The opening and closing scenes are taken almost shot-for-shot from the original. Just substitute Asians for Americans, gross-outs for guffaws.

Smurfs is utterly kid-friendly.

Part horror film, part space thriller and all gore-fest, the movie ends up being a lot like its protagonist: a mess of a monster that stretches itself too thin to scare much.

What undercuts sharper than Poseidon's trident is a script that sees its characters as cardboard, not flesh and blood. For a film meant to be spectacle over substance, it's not a fatal blow. But it is a mortal wound.

Tower Heist feigns being an "Ocean's 11" for schmucks, but plays like a retread of "48 Hours."

Glee the TV show has become a cult phenom with three essential ingredients: whip-smart kids, adult-sized issues, all blended to sugary pop tunes. About a third of those components made it into Glee: The 3D Concert Movie.

Geared for teens who perhaps found the Twilight series too profound, Warm Bodies is an unabashed homage to that wildly successful franchise. One of its stars, Teresa Palmer, is even done up to be a carbon copy of Kristen Stewart, the anchor of the vampire series.

An hour into Earth and we're waiting for the film to end, not just the planet.

Despite the hype, this horror story can't shake its run-of-the-mill storytelling.

Does its share of teasing, but amounts to nothing serious.

Like a lot of meds, it loses its effectiveness over time, and you'll build a resistance to Effects eventually, particularly when it dissolves into a standard crime flick.

Alas, if you're someone who enjoys movies as, say, a two-hour escape, you may find this documentary on the death of film at digital's hands a bit too inside baseball.

Has a near-impossible mission: its title.

Alpha and Omega is one of those rarities in the modern era of Hollywood animation: bad.

Vaughn and James are likable enough, and they would have real chemistry in, say, an all-out comedy.

What it became was bad. A movie that hopes to blend "Lethal Weapon" with "Gladiator" winds up not being a fraction of either.

There isn't much in the way of plot to get in the way of Sandler's world: There's poo, ripped pants and hot girls falling for fat guys.

There's nothing wrong in the setup: It worked fine in films like "Adventures in Babysitting" and "Uncle Buck." But director David Gordon Green populates the movie with so many soap opera asides it's hard to keep count.

Conan the Barbarian lives by a pretty simple ethos: He lives, he loves, he slays. What he doesn't do, alas, is act.

It's been a long time since a movie wasted this much talent.

A putrid film that comes dead-weighted with hammy one-liners and a plot so silly it borders on comedy?

Speaking of that middle-finger finale, there is one redeeming trait: At least it signals the end credits.

Revolution tries a few plot moves, but, narratively, it has two left feet.

The movie spends too much time wedging the couple into a May-December moment, where Crystal cracks nostalgic about the good old days. It's sweet, but it grows old.

Filmmakers must have been tripping pretty badly when they made High School, a flub that's about as lucid as a stoner at a spelling bee.

RZA's directorial debut is heavy on bloody kung fu action...and light on just about everything else.

It's been a long time since a movie wasted as much talent as Stand Up Guys, a film that aims to be a geezer "Goodfellas" but whose execution is a misfire.

Alas, shell casings, switchblades and severed limbs are all that's offered in this vile film, whose sole redeeming quality is that it ends. Eventually.

What snookered Slater (not to mention Donald Sutherland) into this film is a wonder, because there's not a genuine bone in it. Think the Bourne franchise meets the Bond franchise, without the wit or action.

The latest undead-soldier story carries on the franchise tradition of graphic violence and bad acting.