James Berardinelli

Ultimately, this feels more like a placeholder than a fully realized motion picture.

This is a modern interpretation of old-fashioned filmmaking at its finest, and it results in one of the year's most consistently engaging epics.

Regardless of how much money this makes for Disney, it will never feel like a true motion picture. It's nostalgia-fueled kitsch—a bright, gaudy bauble to attract family audiences and people who crave the familiar.

With the horror genre as a whole turning out more interesting and offbeat stories, this one feels almost retro in its scope, scale, and intent.

When it comes to animated sequels, I can be something of a curmudgeon, but Minions & Monsters hits the right spot for me. It's the first mainstream release of the summer that I feel comfortable wholeheartedly recommending for family viewing, and the first one that didn't leave me with at least an inkling of disappointment.

Despite an intriguing arc for Milly Alcock's title character, the film repeatedly stumbles, losing momentum through a series of self-inflicted wounds.

I'll admit to enjoying spending a little more time with these characters, but this new adventure doesn't feel significant, and its best elements are just rehashes of things that have gone before.

Ultimately, Disclosure Day won't go down among Spielberg's greatest or best-remembered films, although ufologists may disagree. There are just too many basic flaws. However, I appreciate its scope and ambition, and it does enough to represent solid, blockbuster-level entertainment.

Masters of the Universe inhabits a gray zone where it's not quite humorous enough to be dismissed as a parody and enjoyed on that level, but it's also not strong enough to be viewed as some kind of epic fantasy.

[Parsons] is not so much a conventional storyteller as a director who establishes a mood and sets the viewer adrift in a sea of moments. The experience can be frustrating, but it's also rewarding. And that alone allows it to stand out in the current "play it safe" era of big-screen entertainment.