Samuel L. Jackson

Superficially, it resembles exhilarating action films of the past, but the paint-by-numbers approach just doesn't do the trick. With all-around bad acting, hyperactive production, and a script that passes 'camp' and goes right on through to 'bad'...

An epic battle between conformity and exceptionality...which will be catnip for superhero buffs and a great time at the movies for everyone else.

A rather exceptionally counter-cultural "teen movie"...raises authentic youth concerns and answers them with convincing integrity.

A wasted opportunity to tell in filmic terms two important histories: the crimes of apartheid and the love with which they were answered.

So sound in its construction and...[its] space-operatic catharsis that even the nitpickiest fanboy will likely adopt a humbly mumbled "All is forgiven" as a daily mantra.

So full of self-aware speechifying, howlingly bad verbal pissing contests, and audacious bulls**t plotting that it almost flies as a parody of itself. Almost.

The uncommon flavor and unconventional rhythms of Price's writing make Freedomland compelling.

A terrifying triumph of hype, but...also the movie to preserve for all of Earth's recorded history Samuel L. Jackson lowering his gaze at Julianna Margulies and asking, "Sporks?" I dare you to look away.

Welcome to the Lazarus Rehabilitation Center, where tarts become dear hearts since 2007...Mandinga to Maria--that's our motto.

If Jumper too often feels like a special-effects demo reel in search of a story, at least the eye candy is pretty darn sweet.

Soul Men may get by on novelty, but what novelty!

A war between the states...

This highly incredible story lives and dies on its leading performances, so it's a damn good thing someone hired Jackson and Spacey to go toe to toe.

The characters in the latest Disney film frequently attack each other, sometimes eat each other, and spend the whole time running around naked.

A balls-out postmodern comedy par excellence. It's a Royale with Cheese. 

Succeeds as a witty Elmore Leonard crime story...but also as a surprisingly affecting mid-life romance.

It's quite possible that The Avengers has more action than any movie ever made...[but] for all its thrill-ride clutter, The Avengers is just about as simplistic as them fightin'-robot pictures...

While The War at times leaves one yearning for more intellectually curious analysis, it remains a potent emotional montage...

There's a case to be made that blood-spattering revenge pictures, no matter how evil the villain, are cultural poison, but if this is what it takes to [get] Don Johnson as a dyed-in-the-wool racist done up as Colonel Sanders, well, so be it.

Kids...will probably ho-hum their way through Turbo happily enough and forget it moments later. But they deserve better, too, than this lackluster, generic kiddie flick.

Though Captain America: The Winter Soldier never strays far from preposterousness, the picture's real-world implications give its high-flying action at least a tug of gravity.

[Has] a soupçon of military-industrial complexity...Judged on its own merits, this RoboCop pump-fakes in some interesting directions without getting to fully explore any of them.

Doubles down on glib ultraviolence while pressing buttons of class-consciousness and teasing out pop-culture allusions and self-aware witticisms. But this time, the postmodernism feels played out.

When Lee cooks up a stew this heady, one best recognize...the right film at the right time, Lee’s most creatively fertile and socially immediate narrative feature in years.

[A] general absence of something to say...Recycles the filmmaker’s own work: the leaner if no meaner dog-eat-dog plotting of Reservoir Dogs...and a roster of no-longer-shocking offenses...

Builds to the fulfillment of the 'MonsterVerse' promise (further teased in a post-credits scene) of monster-on-monster action...It's all very silly...and also a kind of bruising primordial thrill ride.

Plays it safe...another issue of the Incredibles comic book, another big-scale adventure with full-throttle action sequences, a bit of mystery, and career complications testing the structural integrity of this nuclear family of superheroes.

To watch another obscure hero beget a franchise-building smash-hit movie means marveling at Marvel once again.

Marvel deserves credit for the ways it has so far managed to freshen up formula, harness genres to its purposes, and hold a mirror up to contemporary society.