Like Bill Condon's seriocomic film Kinsey, Masters of Sex takes a sociohistorical perspective on a subject of inherent fascination to us all.

Considerably ahead of the curve in taking on the character and meaning and consequences of torture as a fruitless and brutal human rights abuse...shows The Next Generation operating at the top of its game.

By its sixth season, Star Trek: The Next Generation had figured out how to maximize its cast and characters.

Neither theatrical fish nor cinematic foul...literalized on film, the theatrical reduction of the [Four Seasons]’s story has an anemic complexion.

Robespierre has conceived something you don't see every day: a feminist rom-com that unapologetically allows its flawed protagonist to let it all hang out...But [it's] one of those pictures that's just good enough that you dearly wish it were better.

[Katami:] You know, watching the film did one thing for us. It made sense of what happened, because when you're living it, it's very odd to have to go to court and defend your life, and have to testify about your love and how that cannot change.

[Wiggins:] He really does have a good heart. He just doesn't know how to use it...'cause he's been polluted by all this stuff that's happened in his life......there's a lot of stuff going on in that head of his.

[Young:] Valli offered me much more help than he ever knew. Because I stole from him shamelessly every time I've seen him over all of these years. You can learn something about somebody's psychology more by what they choose to evade...

Purposely blurs the lines between the actors and their characters for 'meta' gags, but it doesn't change what the movie is: just another dumb sequel.

While delivering the epic goods, the How to Train Your Dragon franchise continues to keep its eye on helping kids become better people, and that's a cause worth fighting for.

[Jay Baruchel:] Dean always allows us time to 'find daylight,' to sort of try to make it our own and kinda do what I call 'handmade acting,' right? Make it a bit clumsy, rough around the edges, homemade.

A fairly eye-popping futuristic war story with a clever (to a point) structure.

Almost certainly wouldn't have been made were it not for Angelina Jolie, whose extraordinarily striking presence recalls the Old Hollywood potency of Garbo. If only the film around Jolie were worthy of her.

Within spitting distance of good...lesser than the sum of its parts due to deficits of ambition, invention and commitment.

Sincere in enobling the working class, and there's something magical and poignant in the way these 'low-rent' stories came on each week to the tune of the romantic, impossibly swanky 'You're My Greatest Love'...

A network sitcom with predictable conflicts meandering their way to 'all's well that ends well' resolutions, but the show—starting out on its now-historic eight-year run—functions not unlike its bucolic setting: it's a nice place to visit.

This otherwise wispy two-hander-plus-one could easily collapse under a sociopolitical weight it isn't all that interested in lifting...so it's no surprise that the play has returned very much as a star vehicle, with old-pro actors...

What makes [it] more than just a thrilling science-fiction actioner is the past-present poignancy allowed by time travel and astral projection, indulging everyone's fantasy of telling a younger self what he or she needs to hear.

Purees your brain for two hours...proudly and pointedly credited as 'A Frank Coraci Movie'—not a film, y’hear? Nerd-os, go home!

Coppola shows genuine interest in emotional detail, and it accumulates into a depth of real feeling.

Ford may have made it for a quick buck—or perhaps as a favor to Columbia chief Harry Cohn—but the impact of the resulting film is far more that of a provocative drama than a tossed-off oater.

All about the riff...it's not easy having less story than a Will Ferrell movie, but Neighbors is undaunted.

In its broad strokes, Belle captures the intrigue of the real Dido, subject of a famously captivating portrait that is more fascinating and extraordinary than the film positioned around it.

Succeeds in being a largely well-produced comic-book movie extravaganza, but its weighty baggage may leave audiences wishing it had traveled light.

There's never been a comedian quite like Lucille Ball before or since: with beauty she was entirely willing to contort for laughs and phenomenal comic instincts...the redheaded star was and remains impossible not to love.

If this is girl power, we're experiencing rolling blackouts.

Even a science dunce will walk away with a basic understanding of the project and a strong impression of the community around this important research...a film about the idealistic pursuit of knowledge...

If not everything works in Enterprise's Season Four, it's certainly the most consistently entertaining and well-written season of the show, a bitter irony for a show that was doomed to cancellation.

A throwback to the fear-mongering science fiction of the past...the lab-bound likes of The Andromeda Strain and Demon Seed, circa the paranoid '70s.

This combo of 'inside football' and Capra-corn fable of being one's own man in the face of total opposition...amounts to a corporate training film full of Trump-card koans...

When you watch the last ten minutes of the film, and all that is me, you think, 'That’s why I did that.' But when you’re in it, it’s like...'when’s this going to end?'

Evans can't compete with more or less obvious influences like Oldboy and Infernal Affairs, but he's certainly no slouch in the sadism department, making his films in some ways exhilarating but also wearying, for better and worse.

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.

Absent the electricity of live-wire live performance, the play's paucity of depth becomes more obvious. What's left to carry the day are a nasty streak of black comedy and the redoubtable acting ensemble.

Doesn't seem to know what to do with itself once it gets where it's going...And yet, it's hard to throw on the trash heap, because Jason Bateman.

The play of light and dark elements in what's arguably Akira Kurosawa's most broadly appealing and entertaining picture...explores a dichotomy of the idiocy of greed and the rewards of sacrifice.

Though Coogan's the avowed funnyman, twinkly-eyed Dench makes beautiful comic music with him...and though Dame Judi's the classically trained tragedian, Coogan holds his own when matters get serious.

Plays at times like a more conventional, less daring version of 1972’s Roma...On its own merits, Sorrentino’s film ain’t half-bad, but it’s no Fellini picture.

About the unimaginative struggle to maintain conventional respectability, and the transgender child who is having none of it...

The state of the Muppet union remains strong...self-reference sits comfortably along hip pop-cultural references for the 'rents: stylish parodies and retro musical numbers along with vintage Muppet gags...

It’s an incredible thing to sit as far as I’m sitting from you, and have this incredible noise come at you. And that human beings can make these sounds is remarkable.

The picture belongs to world-class actor Khan. I'll wager right now that there won't be a better performance all year, though it's not the type to win awards.

Both blood-bathetic and deliriously entertaining high camp...will appeal mainly to meatheads, but those with a tolerance for over-the-top violence may appreciate it on other levels.

Earns its keep by being informative and briskly entertaining. It helps that the likeably wry Jenison is such an interesting character in his own right, a true Renaissance man...

Looking at it from the perspective of today, you can’t help but look at them then and say they’re the original Modern Family. It’s an alternative family, and what’s wrong with that?

To look into García's face is to see the movie, a loving character study, in miniature at any moment: Gloria refuses to be your stereotype or a writer's stock character. She's complicated, like you...

As much as it deeply understands the artistic mindset of a driven creator, it also acknowledges the darker implications of a genius' tunnel vision.

A bit like its own villain, Mount Vesuvius: massive, full of hot air, and brainless.

To revisit King of the Hill—or to discover it—is to realize how seldom American cinema deems it worthwhile to tell a child's story with anything approaching serious psychological intent.