Non-Stop

Over the past decade, Liam Neeson has experienced a career resurgence as an action movie star: he trained the Dark Knight in Batman Begins, tracked down his daughter in Taken, released the Kraken in Clash of the Titans, battled the elements in The Grey, and barked orders in Battleship. Now Neeson is taking to the skies in Non-Stop, in which he plays an alcoholic Federal Air Marshal who receives a series of texts from a mysterious passenger threatening to kill one person every twenty minutes.

Non-Stop
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a formulaic, spiritless attempt to resurrect an iconic cinematic character, and if this film is any indication of how this franchise will look moving forward, I'd prefer if it stayed buried. Chris Pine stars as the title character, an analyst-turned-operational CIA agent who discovers an international conspiracy to crash the US stock exchange and plunge America into a second Great Depression. A paint-by-numbers screenplay and questionable direction from co-star Kenneth Branagh results in a film so lifeless and uninspired I could barely muster enough effort to roll my eyes at it.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh, Keira Knightley

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

It took three or four viewings of 2004's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy before I fell in love with it. The movie was so idiosyncratic, so ridiculous, and so weird that I wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first, but little by little, Ron Burgundy and the Channel 4 News Team won me over and eventually I became an Anchorman superfan. I've written countless articles about these movies, attended a Live Read of the first film in Los Angeles, and dressed as Ron Burgundy at a Halloween party. I'm telling you all of this because I think it's important for you to know how much I love the first film in order for you to get an accurate gauge of my feelings toward the sequel. Our reactions to films are all going to be different, but I feel like comedies may be even more subjective than dramas because everyone's sense of humor is so specific. We can all relate to a dramatic theme like unrequited love, but there are only so many people who will think Will Ferrell singing to a shark is funny.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Director: Adam McKay
Starring: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Steve Carell

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Ben Stiller's version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is the second major film to come through Hollywood, but it scarcely resembles the 1947 take starring Danny Kaye. Loosely based on a short story by James Thurber, Stiller's Mitty presents a dull photo specialist as a stand-in for the American everyman and allows the actor/director to give audiences a piece of escapism that aims to be inspiring but only occasionally hits its mark.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Director: Ben Stiller
Starring: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott