Lights Out
Effective creeper
Movies
Little Boy
Big bore
Star Trek Beyond
Star Trek retro
Song of the Sea
Animated Irish enchantment
Ghostbusters
Genial, sporadically amusing timewaster
X-Men: Apocalypse
Superhero burnout
Race
Standard inspirational biopic about the great Jesse Owens
The Jungle Book
Exciting, gorgeously rendered storytelling
While We’re Young
This battle between Gen-Xers and Millennials is highly satisfying
High-Rise
Captivating for Ben Wheatley fans
The Legend of Tarzan
The dazzling but irrelevant 3-D action keeps you awake
Unfriended
I hit “Like”
Dope
An insightful indie gift that’s loaded with heart
The Shallows
A diverting night at the movies for fans of the killer shark genre
Trumbo
A great story, well-written, and entertainingly told
Finding Dory
Lacks the momentum, empathy, and intimacy of “Finding Nemo”
Amy
A poignant tribute to a rare talent
Desperate Sunflowers
Not much different from standard Japanese melodramatic fare
Aloha BBQ Garden
Rooftop barbecue grill and beer garden offers al fresco fun
The Program
Stephen Frears’ film will teach you little that’s new
Dare to be Wild
I wonder why director Vivienne De Courcy deemed it film-worthy
Alice Through the Looking Glass
There’s no wonder in this wonderland
Sing Street
A slick crowd-pleaser where there used to be grit
Independence Day: Resurgence
Roland Emmerich doesn’t get “less is more”
Brooklyn
Masterfully crafted, sweetly sincere, and robustly romantic
After the Storm
Touching and eminently realistic portrayal of a man down on his luck
Legend
Worth viewing for Tom Hardy’s acting, if nothing else
10 Cloverfield Lane
Like an episode of Twilight Zone… but on steroids
Citizenfour
Remarkably intimate and profoundly chilling
Collide
Think “Fast and Furious,” but with smaller budget and better acting
The Lazarus Effect
Little more than a generic zombie movie
Burnt
A bad-boy celebrity chef searches for edible perfection
Irrational Man
A philosophy professor finds a unique approach to bringing himself out of an existential funk
Ex Machina
Thematically epic look at the philosophy of artificial intelligence
Money Monster
Far from perfect, but an amiable directing effort by Jodie Foster
Secret in Their Eyes
Star-studded but misguided adaptation of an Oscar-winning classic