Contributor: Paul Asay

Madea represents a kind of no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners justice. She’ll get folks to act “right” even if she has to beat them to do it.

If you’re going to sit through a nearly two-hour commercial for Max Steel action figures, you might as well have a positive message or two to glean, right?

The Accountant is violent popcorn fare—an exuberant, illogical action-packed thriller that’s only message is, “Sit down and watch Ben Affleck shoot people for a while.”

While the movie leads us through its mystery via a trailing of crumbs, its problematic content comes at us in gratuitous waves.

The Birth of a Nation is a powerful, convicting tale. But it’s steeped in horrific displays of violence. And it wallows in human suffering and uses theology to, essentially, justify wholesale butchery.

By PG-13 standards, Masterminds doesn’t push the envelope to the edge in terms of sexual content, violence or profanity. But, man, the film’s underlying, conscience-free ethos is just sad.

Denial is anchored by strong acting and even stronger subject matter: The importance of protecting truth and history. And it does so while staying relatively clean.

Queen of Katwe is a story about hope—and about the courage, determination and skill that goes hand-in-hand with that hope.

Even in films otherwise chockfull of uplifting, pro-family messages, parents have to stay vigilant to the very end.

This violent remake presents its seven stars as flawed heroes—bad men with good hearts who sacrifice themselves to deal with even worse men.

Bridget Jones’s Baby wasn’t a horrible movie. It’s funny in places. But even though I laughed, it made me sad, too. Sad that the definition of integrity is now whatever we want it to mean.

Eastwood’s Sully is a deeply humanistic movie in the best possible way.

This movie’s title is fitting: It’s a disappointment all the way ’round.

Mechanic: Resurrection is the Donkey Kong of the cinematic world. There’s not much of a plot, and what there is doesn’t make a lot of sense. But there is a girl to save, a bad guy to beat.

At its core, Hands of Stone is a movie about men pounding each other into submission, even to the point of humiliation.