Not exactly the emotional knockout most are calling it, but a good film. The vistas of America get their due, and Frances McDormand and David Strathairn along with the rest of the cast are stupendous. The central character can’t find a real home, and only bonds with those who are like her — constantly wandering. Three and a half stars.

A fat let down. A newlywed couple chafe as they spend their honeymoon on the groom’s scuzzy boat, wandering down the Seine River into Paris. Rare occasional visual interest breaks up a highly monotonous bore of a picture. Needed more kitties. Two stars.

The futility of war and class divide are exposed in “La Grande Illusion.” This one doesn’t live up to the praise for me, it’s okay. I think it felt overly artificial, like a studio production. The cinematography looked fantastic and the theming was good, but I didn’t care too much about the characters when they were having a relatively pleasant time in a prisoner of war camp. It wasn’t funny like in “The Great Escape,” but still felt the need to have humor, so it felt tonally adrift. Three stars.

The original is a fine, humble science fiction film, made at the beginning of James Cameron’s career. By the time of this one, he had gained a high reputation and therefore high budget to craft a sequel. But in a great reversal of expectations, this improves on everything done in the original, upping the action well, the stakes, the menace and threat of the evil terminator, and adding a great new character in the young John Connor.

The tightest screenplay and the best casting ever.