'Breaking Bad' effectively stretches America’s “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” mentality to its snapping point. It satirizes America’s private insurance health care system and demonstrates the price Americans must pay to continue living.

There were very few people in attendance when I saw 'Fruitvale Station,' but every one of us sat in shocked silence as the credits rolled. This is a film that deserves open and thoughtful discussion about why young men like Oscar Grant wind up in such situations and how we as a society can prevent this from happening again.

'Pacific Rim' is neither an argument for or against nuclear power but reflects humanity’s own careful and at times hypocritical balance of it. Meanwhile, the original 'Godzilla' was a clear and strong anti-nuclear message.

'The Way, Way Back' is a nostalgia film that doesn’t trade-in emotional depth for shallow warm-fuzzies. The result isn't new, but it is refreshing.

Jay-Z’s 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' is the exact opposite of a sellout album; it sounds like every other Jay-Z album. It may as well have come out in 2003. Samsung didn’t make Jay-Z sacrifice his integrity anymore than those previous endorsement deals did. No, Jay-Z sold out years ago.

It’s hard to look at the Comic Con coverage and not feel like some small part of comic book culture is gone now. This refuge of pure geekdom, which only the most fanatical were willing to spend their money and time to attend, is no more - at least not the way it used to be. Even if it was only a fantasy to begin with, it gave us hope, once.

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.