Director Samuel Maoz's film, based on his own experiences during Israel’s 1982 incursion into Lebanon, sets virtually all its action either within the tight confines of an Israeli tank alone in a hostile town, or as seen from the gun sight of it. The four young soldiers are grimy, sweaty, nervous, scared, sometimes profane, sometimes philosophical, sometimes heroic and sometimes not. In this, they seem very human — which is the film’s main draw after one tires of the limited setting. Grade: B-plus.  

Oliver Stone makes a winning attempt at staying true to his original 'Wall Street' storytelling about the warped mentality of the center of the economic universe. In keeping with the energized rhythms of his 1987 film, when greed was "good" (now it's "legal"), Stone masterfully applies stylistic, narrative and character details. Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon impeccably fulfill their dream-team roles. Grade: B.  

I have to question the decision to dedicate this animated adventure about a couple of young wolves (voiced by Justin Long and Hayden Panettiere) from opposite sides of the pack to the late Dennis Hopper. I can fully appreciate the desire to honor his last performance, but everything about his work here — and the movie as a whole, if truth be told — just feels wrong. Grade: D.  

'Fired Up' director Will Gluck hands his 'Scarlet Letter' high school update to Emma Stone and she delivers, making her hard sell pitch for promotion to the A-list look as easy as Sunday morning. Her good girl pretending to be bad has the one thing every smart 'Juno'-esque teen needs: parents in Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson who are hip and understanding. Grade: B-plus.  

Producer M. Night Shyamalan pulls off a neat and quite surprising trick here, mimicking the best of the 'Saw' franchise (the preachy tension) without succumbing to the torture porn thrills of snapping traps and raw gaping wounds. Coming from a filmmaker caught in a horrific slump, it's a risky endeavor but ultimately a positive step in his career. Grade: C.  

Based on real-life exploits of the husband-and-wife team that opened and operated Nevada's Mustang Ranch (the first legal brothel in the country), 'Love Ranch' holds the seedy promise of a 1970s period piece bubbling over with all the nudity, camp humor and tantalizing danger of a Russ Meyers' movie. Instead, the film plays it so safe that the only thing holding it together is Helen Mirren's flawless performance as an elegant brothel madam with a showboating husband (played by a miscast Joe Pesci). Grade: C-.  

Boston native Ben Affleck takes us into the city's capital of sorts for criminal activity, Charlestown, where a life of crime is a vocation. Co-writing, acting, directing ... there's not a job in 'The Town' that he can't do and do well. And there's not a weak performance in the entire cast, which isn't exactly surprising considering the collection of talent. Grade: A-.  

In spite of its prosaic dramatic trappings, 'Legendary' is brought to fitful life with perceptive performances from its ensemble cast that includes a strong turn from an underrated John Cena and a solid homerun by Patricia Clarkson as the small-town mother of two polar-opposite sons (Cena and Devon Gray). Grade: B-.  

Milla Jovovich returns once again to battle the insane viral infection that has transformed most of the human race into undead creatures, but this time she's bringing friends, including a battalion of butt-kicking clones, tough sidekick Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and newbee warriors. This feels like zombiefied life after death, and I for one wish the genre would just stay dead. Grade: D.  

As movie catch phrases go, it's up there with "I drink your milkshake" from 'There Will Be Blood.' Janine "Smurf" Cody (Jacki Weaver), the Lady MacBethian mother of a dysfunctional family of Melbourne criminals in 'Animal Kingdom,' stares at a crooked cop — her eyes alight with knowingness as she smiles — and states, "And you've done some bad things, sweetie." Grade: A-.  

Robert Rodriguez, sharing directing duties with longtime editing assistant Ethan Maniquis, expands the mock-trailer from Grindhouse about an ex-Federale (Danny Trejo) taking on corruption all over the place into a mash-up of what, in the hands of his buddy Quentin Tarantino, would have been epic proportions. But Rodriguez lacks the focus to bring his large-scale vision to inglorious life. Grade: D-plus.  

Nanette Burstein, whose “documentary” American Teen proved a nice warm-up for the romantic-comedy hijinks here, works from a script by Geoff LaTulippe that tries hard to inject new life into a long-listless genre. The surprise is that it often succeeds, delivering unique character details (its use of pop culture is relatively keen) and a central duo that seems naturally at ease. Grade: B-.  

America's foolhardy occupation of Afghanistan, in the interest of huge private military contracts and maintaining an oil pipeline that the U.S. media ignores, is examined in microcosm via one platoon's deployment in Afghanistan's dangerous Korengal Valley. Filmed from June 2007 to July 2008, documentarians Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger put faces to the names of soldiers from Second Platoon Battle Company as they secure outpost 'Restrepo,' named after one of their early fallen comrades. Grade: B.  

I'll skip the diatribe about how the year in movies has been so far. It sucks. Let's look forward. The second half of the year brings everything from film festival favorites and art house Oscar bait to documentaries and big-budget blockbusters.  

Usually when people talk about a movie feeling "European," it isn't exactly a compliment. It's shorthand for languid pacing, character-based drama, maybe a few casually naked boobs and a general lack of Hollywood conventionality. 'The American' feels very much like the product of people who want to make a "European"-style movie, except that they forgot to pay attention to the last word in that equation. Grade: C.