Hard-to-hear movie dialogue rarely has one culprit. Performance, creative mixing, dynamic range, audio conversion, speakers, room acoustics and viewing volume can all contribute.
Ridley Scott makes competence exciting in a smart, optimistic Mars survival story powered by Matt Damon’s wit and an irresistible faith in collective expertise.
The Avengers remains a hugely entertaining ensemble blockbuster, powered by combative chemistry, sharp comic timing and unusually readable action, even if its personality eventually gives way to a familiar, overextended city-smashing finale.
Jonathan Mostow’s Breakdown is a lean roadside nightmare in which Kurt Russell’s vulnerability, not invincibility, becomes its greatest strength.
Ex Machina is an impeccably controlled AI chamber thriller whose unnerving design and Alicia Vikander’s elusive performance outclass a screenplay that raises provocative questions without exploring enough of them.
A masterful slow-burn thriller in which apocalyptic dread becomes painfully intimate. Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain give Jeff Nichols’ storm visions their real force: the terrifying possibility that fear itself can destroy a family.