In a summer where most of the big, event movies have been overly cheerless, 'Pacific Rim' arrives like a titan to defend moviegoers from the gloom of monster blockbusters. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the strength to prevent a' barrage of clichés from beating it down.

Movies featuring bowling are extraordinarily rare. Sadly, the majority of bowling movies are lowbrow comedies such as 'King Ralph' or 'She’s Out of My League,' limited-appeal documentaries like 'League of Ordinary Gentlemen,' or whatever the hell 'Sorority Babes in Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama' is. Still, there are some that not only feature this great sport but are also great films.

Terrence Malick's 'Badlands,' in many ways, feels like the movie that Quentin Tarantino has spent his entire career trying to make. It is an astonishingly confident effort by a first time filmmaker, and one that remains a touchstone for others even decades later.

Once the limitations and quirks of 'Much Ado About Nothing' are accepted, the film’s strengths become abundantly clear. Even within the limitations of a micro-budget and dated dialogue there’s a tremendous feeling of playfulness and freedom within the film.

'World War Z' has the star, the budget, the scope; all it needs is a smarter script and the will to be better. Done correctly, zombie movies don’t need ripped throats and smashed heads to be good, but they do need guts and brains.

Sure, the effects aren’t that great, and the ethics of the movie are questionable at best, but the Apatow crew has never been accused of particularly high quality, socially uplifting humor. That doesn’t make 'This is the End' any less funny in a thoroughly disgusting way.

'Man of Steel' is not a bad movie, it’s just an incomplete one. It’s heavy on the super and light on the man.

If 'The Iceman" is in any way important it’s as proof that the mob/hitman genre already has its masterpieces, and a new entry in the genre should only be attempted if it offers something entirely new.

While people who prefer their music as predictable background noise may find the shifts in 'The Architect Becomes a Tree' unsettling, those who appreciate growth and progression in their music will find a lot to enjoy with successive plays.

In all, 'Evangelion 3.33' is that most unfortunate of films – one with dynamite potential, but does nothing with it.

If 'Side Effects' is indeed Stephen Soderbergh’s final film (please, no!) he goes out in a predictably unpredictable manner. The auteur's finale, like that of this film, comes well before its welcome is worn.

The biggest problems with Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' are what should have been its biggest strengths. What should be crescendos of sensory bombast equate more to pageantry without payoff.

'Premium Rush' satisfies itself by being a quick, jaunty interlude before moving onto more important matters - the kind of things that absolutely, positively have to be done as soon as possible.

The half way point of the 'Rebuild of Evangelion' has managed to remain true to the spirit of original series while blazing its own path forward.

On its own there is little to make Evangelion: 1.11 standout, either as an individual film or from the original shows, making it valuable solely for those willing to invest in the entire series.