Hard to judge what’s more exasperating, the undependable divorced dad of two visiting sons or the shaky camera and sandpapery image. Ronald Bronstein is at least very convincing as the constant fuck-up. With Sage Ranaldo, Frey Ranaldo, Eleanore Hendricks, and Abel Ferrara; written and directed by Josh and Benny Safdie.

A hedged bet, marital comedy cum action thriller, with a “boring” New Jersey couple enlivening their stale marriage by getting themselves mistaken for high-stakes blackmailers. Tina Fey will never in her lifetime use up the eternal gratitude she earned for her role in the 2008 presidential campaign (the faux Palin), …

Yellow-eyed, blue-lit vampires dominate the world of the future, to such extent that the blood supply is running out. Some bumptious social comment amid repulsive special effects: fire-hose projectile vomit, exploding head, decapitation, etc. With Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, Michael Dorman, and Sam Neill; directed by the Spierig …

Wartime romance beginning in the spring of 2001 (you know what’s coming) and stretching up to the present, staggeringly basic and banal in its specifics, turning on a senseless withholding of information for the sole purpose of contrived misunderstanding and revealed nobility. It issues from a novel by Nicholas Sparks, …

The American remake, a scant three years after the British version, is tantamount to a summer-stock production in Cleveland, a black comedy made over into a black comedy, or more distinctly a dark comedy made over into an African-American comedy. Beyond the casting of Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, …

Computer cartoon available, but not imperative, in 3-D. Admittedly the Universal logo, our planet on a blanket of stars, looks good in 3-D, and the closing credits have some fun with the extra dimension, trying with the aid of an outthrusting steel tape measure to see how far off the …

Something is making the wrong people burst into flame prior to the Empress’s inauguration, and Detective Dee is summoned to crack the case. Like a good modern detective, he rejects supernatural explanations for the deaths, instead focusing on the thrillingly mundane realms of chemistry, zoology, and political intrigue. Unlike a …

Mechanical and efficient spook story in a stalled elevator occupied by, among four others, a disguised Satan. Builds atmosphere, maintains pressure, keeps it brief, tests belief. Story by M. Night Shyamalan. With Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Jenny O’Hara, Geoffrey Arend, Jacob Vargas, and Matt Craven; directed …

The live-action adaptation of Jeff Kinney’s popular series of cartoonishly illustrated “tween” books is not in diary form but is nonetheless sufficiently episodic (the “Cheese Touch” episode, the “Devil Worship Woods” episode, and so on), covering the hero’s traumatic first year in middle school, with no help from his tormenting …

Softened, mushed-up remake of a rather distasteful French farce, called here The Dinner Game, concerning a clique of fat cats who periodically convene for a soirée to which each of them for their shared amusement brings along an unwitting idiot to compete for the laurel of biggest idiot. For the …

Three teenagers are grounded in an alternate world by their overprotective parents, when a female outsider bursts into their bizarre family bubble, with shocking and strangely amusing results. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

Road comedy. Odd-couple comedy. Male-bonding comedy. In sum, computer-programmed comedy. An expectant father (Robert Downey, Jr.), desperate to reach the delivery room in time, is compelled by contrived circumstances to hitch a ride with a Hollywood-bound wannabe actor (Zach Galifianakis). The jokes, such as Dad’s ashes in a coffee can …

Surprisingly bright teen comedy, littered with tidbits of literary and cinematic erudition, about a viral high-school rumor that transmutes a studious virgin into a “dirty skank,” a lesson in “the accelerated velocity of terminological inexactitude.” The path the story takes is not always judicious (the girl plays up her new …

Not a remake of the Rodney Dangerfield rollick, but a Swedish crime thriller brought to American shores under the aegis “Martin Scorsese Presents.” A coke dealer who looks more like a tennis coach (Joel Kinnaman) is forced to draw allegiance with an ex-con (Matias Varela), hunted by criminal and lawman …

Self-affirming, boastful, best-selling piece of nonfiction Chick Lit transformed into a two-and-a-quarter-hour blandishment for a major star. While there is a lot of sightseeing on the heroine’s Search for Self (“I want to go someplace where I can just marvel”), Italy for food, India for meditation, Indonesia for romance — …