BURLESQUE - C-

Christina Aguilera, Cher, Stanley Tucci
Burlesque wisely makes good use of Aguilera’s pipes in its big musical numbers and it is admittedly nice to see Cher again, but otherwise this is a dazzling mess. The film runs out of story about an hour in and Aguilera’s cliched small-town girl character never meshes with her stage persona.

RED - C+

Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren
This throwaway action film has a nice collection of old pros strapping on guns for a last hurrah but the screenplay is too haphazard. There’s too much shifting of the audience’s loyalty with regard to characters and a mid-way death that is treated with too much blithe nonchalance.

A-TEAM, THE - C+

Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel
This adaptation of the ‘80s TV series may boast some monster action pieces, but it also shows far too much effort for what is supposed to be a slickly ridiculous extravaganza. Not helping matters is a woefully miscast Biel and a mumbling Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the old Mr. T role.

NEVER LET ME GO - C+

Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley
There’s a disturbing underbelly beneath the lush visuals of Never Let Me Go – I won’t spoil the secrets here – but it is surprising just how minimally the film gets beneath the skin. Most of this is due to the overall passivity of the characters, especially with regard to each other.

BURIED - B

Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds plays a truck driver in Iraq who wakes up to find he’s trapped in a wooden coffin underground. Buried is as much a stunt as a film but director Rodrigo Cortes skillfully builds the claustrophic tension, only occasionally stepping on a nail of obvious political commentary.

ANIMAL KINGDOM - B

Ben Mendelsohn, Guy Pearce, Jacki Weaver
This debut feature from writer-director David Michod occasionally falls short of its ambitions, but it is still a potent and engrossing look at the downfall of a family of bank robbers. As the mother hen, Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver is a diabolical combination of sunshine and thirst for blood.

HOWL - C+

James Franco, Jon Hamm, David Strathairn
In this style-heavy drama, James Franco gives a passionate reading of Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 poem Howl – a piece that spoke to the soul of the Beat Generation. But by awkwardly mixing Ginsberg’s story with a trial about whether or not the piece is obsene, it all feels oddly minimal.