Contributor: Paul Asay

Sometimes it takes a dead planet to make us appreciate the value of a single life.

It just goes to show you that you don’t need a lot of R-rated content to make a pretty thrilling feature.

An overlong frenetic freefall of a film that, for all its action, feels surprisingly bereft of drama.

Sicario asks us questions of morality: How far is too far? To fight such monstrous evil, is it necessary to become evil ourselves?

The most real thing that happens is here on earth. Not a bad thing, maybe, since it resonates far more than the digital visions of heaven.

The Transporter Refueled is more—which means less—than a piece of silly, late-summer theater filler. It’s a loathsome exercise in rationalization.

Nature can even feel like church sometimes, with birds supplying the worship music and lichen padding the pews. This movie, on the other hand, is not very much like church at all.

Tony Stark has a bigger brain than Einstein, a bigger bank account than Queen Elizabeth and a bigger ego than Def Jam’s combined roster of rappers. So why wouldn’t he be back for a sequel?

Turns out, Mike isn’t the tree: This movie is. It’s a disaster waiting to happen, and it truly is trying to keep you from moving on to better fare.

Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro desperately try to claw their way up out of the depths of human despair. One is imprisoned by grief. The other by drugs.

Life is all about making mistakes, Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler want you to know. And to try to prove it, they teamed up with Hitch and Fool’s Gold director Andy Tennant to make this movie.

It feels strangely cynical, and its pseudo aversion to cursing—while welcome—can’t completely ameliorate the moral hole at its core.

No matter how you parse these spiritual musings, though, there are plenty of other reasons not to see Hercules.

This is a story that, in its own damaged way, is about family, healing and grace. It’s about how the better road is sometimes the more difficult, but how important it is to walk on.

Descendants offers some great lessons on the power of love, second chances and the acknowledgement that we’re all worthy and beautiful … warts and all.