Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

CHICAGO – Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy can’t be blamed for the deteriorating state of modern action films any more than Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” can be held accountable for commercializing American cinema. Yet the spectacular box office performance of Nolan’s terrific series has naturally caused studios to misinterpret the root of their success.

CHICAGO – 1993 will be nostalgically remembered by many members of my generation as the summer of “Jurassic Park” and the spring of “The Sandlot.” If you were a movie-loving kid during this year, it’s highly likely both of these films occupied a corner of your imagination. I clearly remember how the junkyard dog, dubbed by neighborhood pals in “The Sandlot” as “the Beast,” seemed as terrifying as any T-Rex.

CHICAGO – It’s a shame how box office numbers play such a large factor in Oscar votes. Just imagine if “The Blind Side” was a flop. Sandra Bullock wouldn’t have been allowed within a billion miles of the Oscar podium. If Ben Lewin’s “The Sessions” was given a fair shot with audiences, it would’ve easily brought its star, John Hawkes, an Oscar nomination.

CHICAGO – If a film were meant to be judged purely on the basis of its final shot, then Daniel Barnz’s “Won’t Back Down” would be an unqualified success. The image of a little girl finally learning to pronounce the word “hope” could’ve easily been a cheesy contrivance straight out of a Feldco commercial. Even on paper, the shot sounds downright silly.

CHICAGO – Mark Tonderai’s “House at the End of the Street” is not to be confused with this year’s “The House Across the Street” or either version of “Last House on the Left.” What Tonderai hopes you mistake it for is a classy Hitchcockian homage evocative of the Master’s most shocking and immortal picture, 1960’s “Psycho.”

CHICAGO – Most former kids can agree that junior high is pure hell. It’s the dividing line between the carefree bliss of elementary school and the budding maturity of high school. Suddenly kids are faced with a decision: either assert their dominance over the weakest of their peers or risk joining them. Become a bully or be bullied. Neither option is enticing.

CHICAGO – It ain’t over until the fat mammoth sings, and that’s precisely what happens—more or less—in “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” the fourth installment of Blue Sky Studios’ increasingly tedious, decade-old franchise. Why can’t any of Pixar’s rival animation studios come up with a marketable formula better than Celebrities Voicing Animals Delivering Tired Sitcom Dialogue?

CHICAGO – John Cusack is an enormously likable actor, and for the first third of James McTeigue’s period thriller, he holds audience interest long enough to inspire hope for a better two thirds. Alas, the film crash lands soon after that, as McTeigue proves to have little to no interest in his central subject, one of the greatest writers in the history of literature.

CHICAGO – In between the pulse-pounding jitters of “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and the mesmerizing opaqueness of “The Master,” Fox Searchlight released a decidedly less-showy exploration of cult dynamics. Zal Batmanglij’s “Sound of My Voice” doesn’t quite have the dizzying depth of the other two films, but what it lacks in complexity, it makes up for in tantalizing dialogue, expert pacing and deliciously involving suspense.

CHICAGO – From “(500) Days of Summer” to “Ruby Sparks,” Fox Searchlight has been distributing some of the most refreshingly honest films about twentysomething romance in recent memory. The unapologetically flawed titular heroine in “Lola Versus” may have appeared more groundbreaking had she not debuted the same year as HBO’s “Girls,” which has the market cornered on such heroines.