'Erased' never sketches in decent villain for Eckhart

Just once, it'd be nice if the couple fleeing from a trigger-happy hit man through, say, a crowded hospital, would yell out - "Run for your lives!" And if the hospital's in Belgium, say, it'd be nice for them to yell it in French.

The student, teacher become chillingly obsessed with family

The teacher is a veteran of the French school system, not burnt out but resigned to the mediocrity of each new crop of high school sophomores. That first assignment - "Write about what you did last weekend" - confirms what he tells his gallery manager wife: "This is the worst class I've had …

DiCaprio shines as director's vision, classic 'Gatsby' clash

Jazzy, fizzy and often quite fun, Baz Luhrmann's "Pretty Good Gatsby" takes F. Scott Fizgerald's Great American Novel out for a sometimes dazzling, always irreverent, spin.

Tech is tool of alienation in well-acted 'Disconnect'

We unplug our phone from the charger, pop in our ear buds and go out to seize the day. We text compulsively, post on Facebook obsessively, and when it comes time to shop, date or hook-up, we log on, boot up and tune out.

'Pain, Gain': When gym rats go bad

Once you've destroyed Pearl Harbor and let robots rampage across the Earth a few times, your whole idea of a buddy picture has got to be warped. Elephantiasis sets in, even on a caper comedy with daft characters and silly situations.

Actine fine in "The Company You Keep"; ages don't add up

Robert Redford delivers one last lecture on '60s idealism and passes another baton to Shia LaBeouf in "The Company You Keep," an engrossing thriller about the last anti-Vietnam War radicals still underground.

Southern melodrama 'Mud' revels in authentic milieu

The cinema's leading purveyor of Southern Gothic, Jeff Nichols, hands Matthew McConaughey his latest tour de force turn in "Mud," a down and dirty if entirely-too-long mythic melodrama in the "Tobacco Road" tradition.

'Oblivion' no summer blockbuster

Science fiction is one film genre that seems to wear its ancestors, the films that inspired it or, less charitably, that it "borrowed" from, with pride.

'Gatekeepers' forces Shin Bet chiefs to face Israel's divisions

The Oscar-nominated documentary "The Gatekeepers" is built around interviews with the last six chiefs of the Israeli intelligence service, Shin Bet. And with all due respect to a "divided America," these guys will tell you what a really divided country looks like.

Film aims for jugular of warming deniers

Seven years after "An Inconvenient Truth," what has changed in the world's efforts to come to grips with global warming? The scientific consensus has firmed up, even further. Public opinion has, at last, fallen in line with the science, assisted by any number of in-your-face extreme weather …

Surprising 'Croods' has wit, warmth, first-rate animation

Skip past the lame title and weary Stone Age premise. "The Croods" is the first pleasant surprise of spring, a gorgeous kids' cartoon with heart and wit, if not exactly a firm grasp of paleontology.

'Olympus Has Fallen' never quite gets up; not much more than a shoot-'em-up

For those who thought the last Bruce Willis movie was a little light on the casualty list, "Olympus Has Fallen" arrives toting the biggest body count since "Die Hard II."

Divided theme hurts 'Admission'

Tina Fey makes funny TV shows, funny movies and funny books.

Weak love story undercuts historical reach of 'Emperor'

Hirohito sat on the Chrysanthemum Throne through the Japanese invasion of China, the attack on Pearl Harbor and all through World War II.

Raimi's 'Oz' gets story, effects right, but the witches ...

In the movies' version of March Madness, Sam Raimi turns out to be a much better Tim Burton than Bryan Singer. Unlike "Giant Slayer" Singer, Sam's got a sense of humor. Taking on a prequel to the fairytale that frightened generations, Sam does scary. And does it well.

'Jack' is a genial but uninspired tale

One thing this current run of blockbuster fairytales inspired by Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" has taught us is how very hard it is to be Tim Burton.

'Place at Table' explores hunger, food politics

America's twin ills, the swollen ranks of hungry people in the country and the national "obesity epidemic" are explained, in blunt and poignant terms, in "A Place at the Table," a new documentary about "food politics" and the forces that let hunger in America make a comeback.

'Ultima' engaging but shorts key character

"Bless Me, Ultima," the film based on Rudolfo Anaya's landmark Chicano novel, is a meticulously observed time capsule, a vivid re-creation of a self-contained world of Mexican-Americans in 1944 New Mexico.

Dwayne Johnson gets in over his head, and survives being a 'Snitch'

It takes forever to get going, and lollygags along even after that.

'Haven' a safe, treacly romance based on Sparks' 'beach book'

The movies based on the novels of Nicholas Sparks always emphasize the simple pleasures. A quiet locale, a leisurely stroll down the beach, a romance that doesn't begin in a bar and end in bed that same night.

'Die Hard' series needs to retire

Yeah, Happy Valentine's Day, Mother Russia.

'Beautiful Creatures' rejects vampires, zombies for witches

Young love, so sorely tested by vampirism and zombification in "Twilight" and "Warm Bodies," finds the road to romance sunnier in "Beautiful Creatures," in which two teens pair up despite the fact that one of them is a witch in training.

Best to pass on 'Identity Thief'

"Oooh, honey, less is more," the flamboyant hair stylist whispers, out of earshot, at Diana (Melissa McCarthy) as she bombs her head with hairspray and trowels on the eye shadow.

'Warm Bodies' is deathly slow, but at least it's in on the joke

Imagine a "Twilight" where the panting, flirting teens were in on the joke, where the gulf between them was more about communication skills than supernatural schisms.

'Beware of Mr. Baker' delivers a solid beat (and a beating)

"He had time" is the finest compliment the drummer Ginger Baker can give.

'Quartet' is adorably predictable

Old musicians - they have the best insults.

'Mama' is a moving big-screen ghost story

"Mama" breaks a lot of horror movie rules, right off the proverbial bat.

'Gangster Squad' makes for decent gangland Western

The Old West died hard in the City of Angels. And in the years after World War II, battle-hardened veterans came home to a town "under enemy occupation," when the only way to fight off the Mob was with a six gun, your two fists and the right hat.

'The Impossible' is a vivid, gripping, stellar film

It begins with a disaster, a huge one witnessed not from a distance, not via the safety of a TV news report, but up close and personal.

'Promised Land' entertains but misses the mark

"Promised Land" is an engaging and entertaining - if preachy - look at Big Energy and fracking - the land-and-water-wrecking practice of drilling and pumping water and chemicals into the ground to extract natural gas from shale.

A sappy, schmaltzy and safe seasonal bet

The family-friendliest movie comedy this holiday season is also the sappiest and schmaltziest.

'This is 40' fails - at length

Stupid freaking Judd Apatow, with his stupid freaking foul-mouthed and sentimental "Hobbit"-length comedies, his stupid freaking insistence on not only peopling them with his old comic cronies, but his wife and cursing kids.

'Cirque' film just doesn't compare to a live show

Cirque du Soleil movies are a lot like ballet films - long on beauty and artistry, short on story.

'Chasing Ice' focus is to quell climate change denial, skeptics

"It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness" was a favorite Chinese proverb of the late "Peanuts" cartoonist Charles Schultz. Photographer James Balog must have taken that to heart as he noticed changes to the wild world he documents, and heard all the cursing dominatin…

'Smashed' gazes at alcoholism with fresh, unblinking honesty

You can't simply warn them. They can't see it. They won't. They're young. They're immortal.

Gritty 'Killing Them Softly' strips glitz from hit-men genre

"Killing Them Softly" is, in its own chatty and slight way, the "Unforgiven" of hit-man thrillers. It's a gritty, riveting nuts-and-bolts-of-murder tale that vividly illustrates what it is that these much-glamorized thugs do, and the gruesome, agonizing fate of their victims.

Holiday-themed 'Guardians' a poor effort by DreamWorks

DreamWorks Animation President Jeffrey Katzenberg recently lamented the dearth of holiday-themed movies headed to your multiplex this year. But in foisting "Rise of the Guardians" upon unsuspecting audiences for the holidays, it's clear he just wanted some cover. Other holiday films would ta…

'Red Dawn' silly action flick about North Korean invasion

"Red Dawn" is a lot funnier than you remember.

Comedy about mental illness has plenty of 'Silver Linings'

Movies about the mentally ill tend to render them in cute, charming strokes - with only the occasional blast of ugly to remind us, "Oh yeah, this gorgeous, lovelorn soul is still crazy."

Snickers, some surprises but few laughs in 'Fun Size'

It's funny how the beloved movies of one's less politically correct youth turn out to have a lot more edge to them once you show them to your own kids. "Back to the Future" has more sexuality than you remember, and little blasts of profanity. "Adventures in Babysitting," "Bad News Bears" and…

'Cloud Atlas' unfulfilling eye candy

A work of stunning images, staggering ambition and epic length, "Cloud Atlas" is an attempt to create nothing less than a "unified field" theory of science fiction.

'Chasing Mavericks' tells true surfing story with charm and heart

Watch any surfing documentary, from "Whipped!" to "Riding Giants," and you'll hear the dudes speak - in hushed tones - about the treacherous and epic waves that show up off the coast of Northern California when the conditions are just right. The Mavericks break is legendary, and for years, w…

Super-sleuth gets younger and loses a lot in the process

"Alex Cross" is an interesting exercise in back-engineering, a prequel that takes us back to the days before the psychologist/ police profiler was the sage, solemn and inscrutable sleuth Morgan Freeman ably brought to the screen in two films over a decade ago.

'Psychopaths' a bloody lark for Farrell, Walken, Rockwell

The writer-director of "In Bruges," the playwright turned filmmaker Martin McDonagh, sells out and makes his first Hollywood film, "Seven Psychopaths," a commentary on selling out. Well, that and Hollywood's obsession with psychopaths. And his own.

Kevin James raises 'Boom' with his gruff, goofy charm

Kid-friendly funnyman Kevin James is at his cuddliest in "Here Comes the Boom." And he has to be. This amusing but sometimes unsettling comedy marries the teacher-turns-to-mixed martial arts mayhem of "Warrior" to that wholesome family dramedy "Mr. Holland's Opus."

This time, ticket buyers get 'Taken'

In nature, lightning occasionally strikes the same place twice. In the movies, it almost never happens.

'Compliance' plays us all for suckers

There are still people out there who are sending their savings to Nigeria. So for every jaw-dropping "How could they BE so gullible?" moment of "Compliance," there's justification. We are that gullible.

Collision with future 'Looper'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt utterly masters the Bruce Willis squint, where the action hero narrows his eyes, furrows his brow and purses his lips. He gives us a little of the Willis smirk, the one Bruce breaks out when he's about to let-go a whispered threat. Yeah, JGL has that whispered threat thi…

Masterful 'End of Watch' has characters you'll care about

The writer of "Training Day" and "Harsh Times" brings us more cop movie grit with "End of Watch," a vivid series of impressionistic sketches of a year in the lives of two Los Angeles police officers.

'Just keep swimming': Find Nemo all over again, in 3-D

It's the details that stand out whenever a classic film is converted to 3-D. With "Finding Nemo," the shimmering sea surface, scratches on the lens of a diver's goggles, and smudge marks Nemo the clownfish makes when he mashes his face up against the glass wall of the aquarium that imprisons…