Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

[7] J.J. Abrams (Lost, Super 8) takes the directing reigns from creator George Lucas and delivers a better film than any of the prequels. Original core cast members join new players in a script co-written by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan,…
Ghost (1990)

Ghost (1990)

[8] A surprisingly effective blend of romance, comedy, and supernatural horror, Ghost stars Patrick Swayze as a murdered man who works through a flim-flam psychic (Whoopi Goldberg) to save the life of his endangered girlfriend (Demi Moore). Ghost became so…
Casper (1995)

Casper (1995)

[7] Beneath the cutesy veneer of this big-budget family spectacle is a surprisingly morose Ghost and Mrs. Muir subplot. The screenplay is a bit scattershot in its aim, but I have to give this flick major kudos for tackling the…
Crimson Peak (2015)

Crimson Peak (2015)

[8] Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim) serves up an old-fashioned gothic romance the likes of which we haven't seen on the big screen since Roger Corman last dabbled with tales from Edgar Allen Poe. Heavily inspired by the…
Survive Style 5+ (2004)

Survive Style 5+ (2004)

[7] Five disparate stories intertwine in absurd ways in this bizarre but beautifully executed Tarantino-esque flick from Japan. The main story, by a narrow margin, focuses on a man who keeps killing and burying his wife only to find her…
Jurassic World (2015)

Jurassic World (2015)

[9] I enjoyed the hell out of Jurassic World and I don't care who knows it. I don't know who the director is (Colin Trevorrow, anyone?), but I thought this was easily the scariest and most entertaining Jurassic Park flick…
Altered States (1980)

Altered States (1980)

[4] William Hurt makes his big-screen debut in this blend of psychedelia and cockamamy psychology based on a novel by Paddy Chayefsky (Network). Hurt plays a college professor of science who experiments with drugs inside isolation tanks to, oh, I…
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

[6] My favorite part of this Avengers sequel is when the bad guy, a robot voiced by James Spader, first pulls himself together and wobbles confidently in front of the superheroes at the end of a house party. It's a…
Green Lantern (2011)

Green Lantern (2011)

[4] Green Lantern is probably the single-most generic superhero movie I've ever seen. It's not terrible so much as it is wholly unremarkable. It's mired in a scatter-shot script that dwells on plot points and secondary characters I couldn't give…
Ghostbusters II (1989)

Ghostbusters II (1989)

[5] The gang is back for another outing, five years after the enormous success of the first Ghostbusters. But its a mediocre follow-up at best. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, and…