Claudia Puig

A thoughtful film about ideas — creativity, the power of language and the eloquence of visuals — it features two impeccable performances full of vitality.

Cruise and Blunt have a measure of chemistry, however their characters go undeveloped, given short shrift amid the spectacle. But the pulse-pounding action scenes are briskly directed by Doug Liman.

The movie is well-written, well-acted, acerbic, funny and wisely observed. Fans of the book will be glad to hear it is faithful to Green's tale.

Night Moves is a thoughtful, clear-eyed and provocative film that raises thorny questions but doesn't offer easy answers.

A remake of a 2003 French Canadian movie, The Grand Seduction is more bland than grand and more eccentric than seductive.

It fails to live up to its early promise, mostly because of an uneven tone and murky character development

Like "Blazing Saddles", A Million Ways to Die in the West has a slew of comic set-ups and one-liners that kill. And, as with Mel Brooks' classic 1974 film, it steps unabashedly into vulgar terrain.

The Love Punch is a romantic comedy as painfully unfunny as a sock in the jaw.

Think of it as a thrill ride with gravitas.

You have to work hard to make an African vacation seem unpleasant. And Adam Sandler nearly pulls it off in Blended.

Godzilla 2014 is a more somber and frightening reboot than the cartoonish 1998 movie.

Glimmers of a fascinating and lively period film surface and fade in the first half-hour of The Immigrant. What predominates is a dully morose, overheated and implausible story.

When it focuses on the clash of cultures, laughs naturally flow. When it follows the familiar sports movie playbook too slavishly, it grows tedious.

Neighbors is the "Animal House" for an era in which food fights seem quaint.

Mothers deserve a much better break than the hectic, shrill and dismally unpleasant Moms' Night Out.

While the film is not nearly as evocative as Egoyan's 1997 masterpiece "The Sweet Hereafter" (also about children who died tragically), it is still an intrinsically fascinating story.

The layered film's blend of Austen-style romance, courtroom drama and historical look at the British slave trade works surprisingly well, though there are moments — especially involving the conniving suitors — that teeter on melodrama.

Aerial sequences are often thrilling. However, interpersonal relations are front and center in this installment.

Narrated by Johnny Depp, a portrait emerges of an anarchic, humble spirit who now fears becoming "a visual polluter."

Blue Ruin is the rare film that is nearly consistently tense, the suspense only temporarily subsiding about an hour into the story. It's a welcome respite.

The story soon devolves into a far-fetched, futuristic snooze-fest that often defies its own logic. Characters' motivations are rarely clear, and allegiances shift with no explanation.

The breezy and sometime absurd Fading Gigolo is reminiscent of vintage Italian films and early Woody Allen movies.

It has lighthearted moments, but is also suspenseful at the right times.

A wide-eyed 4-year-old makes a fairly convincing case for the existence of an afterlife in Heaven is for Real. But it's Greg Kinnear — with his characteristic affability — that just about seals the deal.

Rio 2 teems with colorful animated splendor and elaborate musical numbers, but its rambling, hectic, if good-hearted, story is for the birds.

Unsettling and well-acted story.

For those who puzzled over the "Twilight" hoopla here are Adam and Eve, the artiest, most sophisticated pair of vampires to hit screens in a long time.

For a well-acted movie about the horrors of war and the lure of revenge, it's surprisingly dull and starchy.