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A disappointingly half-baked sequel, Kick-Ass 2 follows Aaron Taylor-Johnson's title character as he and Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) are reluctantly forced to team up after Christopher Mintz-Plasse's Chris D'Amico transforms himself into a reprehensible supervillain named The Motherfucker. There's little doubt that Kick-Ass 2 fares relatively well in its opening stretch, as writer/director Jeff Wadlow does an effective job of catching up with the various characters from 2010's Kick-Ass and, as well, introducing scores of new (and admittedly) intriguing figures - including Donald Faison's Dr. Gravity, John Leguizamo's Javier, and Jim Carrey's Colonel Stars and Stripes. (The latter is especially good here and it is, as a result, disappointing to note that Carrey's role amounts to less than 10 minutes of screen time.) Wadlow's first major misstep is his continuing emphasis on Hit-Girl's tedious high-school-based exploits, as it's virtually impossible to work up any real interest in the character's efforts at ingratiating herself among several popular students (ie such elements are unreasonably familiar and hackneyed, to be sure). It's clear, to an increasingly problematic extent, that Wadlow simply doesn't have enough material to sustain a full-length feature, with the lack of momentum ensuring that the film's midsection generally progresses at a crawl. (It doesn't help, either, that the movie's many action scenes are rather underwhelming, which is especially disappointing given the strength of such moments in the original.) And although the film does improve slightly in its final stretch, Kick-Ass 2 has long-since established itself as an entirely needless followup that adds very little to the universe laid out in the original.

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An unmitigated disaster virtually from start to finish, Runner Runner follows Justin Timberlake's Richie Furst as he loses his life's savings in a game of online poker and decides to ask the owner of the site (Ben Affleck's Ivan Block) for his money back - with this ludicrous setup paving the way for a hackneyed and hopelessly by-the-numbers thriller. There's just never a point at which the viewer is wholeheartedly drawn into the deliberately-paced proceedings, with the movie's arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by a surprisingly underwhelming performance by Timberlake. Though he's been quite good in films like The Social Network and Black Snake Moan, Timberlake just doesn't possess the necessary gravitas or presence required of a leading man - with the actor's inability to command the screen especially noticeable during his scenes alongside Affleck (ie Affleck's certainly got that movie-star quality that Timberlake lacks). Far more problematic, however, is Brian Koppelman and David Levien's aggressively run-of-the-mill screenplay, as the scripters place a continuous emphasis on elements that couldn't possibly be more familiar and tiresome (ie the movie often feels as though it's emerged directly from a template for thrillers of this ilk). Runner Runner's completely uninvolving midsection leads into an action-heavy finale that's as boring as it is misguided, and it's ultimately impossible to downplay the rampant ineffectiveness of virtually every aspect of the proceedings.

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Based on the (comparatively stellar) book by Markus Zusak, The Book Thief follows nine-year-old Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) as she and her adoptive parents (Geoffrey Rush's Hans and Emily Watson's Rosa) attempt to survive during the Second World War. It's really quite remarkable the degree to which The Book Thief ultimately fails, as the movie suffers from a lack of positive attributes that's nothing short of disastrous - with filmmaker Brian Percival's inability to even fleetingly hold the viewer's interest compounded by an almost comically deliberate pace. There is, as such, never a point at which the viewer is able to work up any interest in or sympathy for the film's thinly-developed central characters, and it's clear that the pervasive lack of momentum highlights the absence of compelling elements within Michael Petroni's misguided screenplay. Far more problematic is the palpably less-than-authentic feel that's been hard-wired into virtually every aspect of the proceedings, with the rampant artificiality - eg the sets look like sets - exacerbating The Book Thief's hands-off, perpetually uninvolving atmosphere. Percival's last-ditch efforts at tugging at the viewer's heartstrings fall hopelessly flat, and it's ultimately impossible to label The Book Thief as anything less than a complete misfire on almost every level. (The performances are pretty good, admittedly.)

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The Thor saga continues with this terminally underwhelming entry that details the title character's (Chris Hemsworth) efforts at preventing Christopher Eccleston's Malekith from destroying the galaxy, with the overstuffed narrative also detailing the exploits of several one-dimensional (and thoroughly dull) periphery figures - including Natalie Portman's Jane Foster, Anthony Hopkins' Odin, Stellan Skarsgård's Erik Selvig, and Kat Dennings' Darcy Lewis. Thor: The Dark World kicks off with an impossibly tedious prologue and grows more and more uninvolving as it progresses, with the movie's reliance on over-the-top (and entirely unremarkable) special effects holding the viewer at arms length virtually from start to finish (ie there's hardly a single shot here that isn't bathed in subpar computer-generated imagery). Hemsworth's competent yet charmless turn as the bland protagonist remains a serious problem within this apparently ongoing series, as the actor, despite his best efforts, is simply unable to transform Thor into a character worthy of the viewer's interest or sympathy - which, in turn, ensures that his various scenes with Portman's Jane fall completely flat (ie there's not an ounce of chemistry between these two). (It's ultimately interesting to note that Tom Hiddleston's Loki, arguably the weakest aspect of Marvel's The Avengers, turns in the movie's only interesting/compelling performance.) It doesn't help, either, that the movie, devoid of anything resembling momentum, lurches from one ill-conceived (and aggressively noisy) set piece to the next, with the interminable climax faring especially poorly and ensuring that Thor: The Dark World ends on as underwhelming a note as one could possibly envision.

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