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When you assemble a cast like the one in Now You See Me, something magical happens. Terrible pun aside, an ensemble like this really is capable of pulling off some onscreen magic. As clichéd as it might be to say, there's a part in a lot of us that wants to believe in something as cool as magic. What may seem like impossible tricks often have very simple and logical explanations, but where's the fun in that? It's better to sit back and enjoy what the great cast of Now You See Me delivers.

The incredibly charismatic Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), a talented all-around magician; a beautiful illusionist, Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher); a mentalist, Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson); and an elusive pickpocket, Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) are four street magicians who are brought together under mysterious circumstances by an unknown force. A year after we're first introduced to them, they are the stars of their own traveling magic show. At the finale of their first show, they seemingly rob a back in Paris, all the way from Las Vegas in under five seconds. This draws the ire of investigator Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and Interpol agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent).

Now You See Me isn't told like your typical heist film. We are almost entirely with the investigative perspective of the movie, which gets us in close with Ruffalo and Laurent's characters. That isn't a bad thing at all because they are fantastic actors, and they are given a lot to do with with the clever writing of the script. The same goes for the four actors playing the magicians. Every character is given their moment to shine, and with a cast like this that also includes screen legends Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, this is without doubt a fun film to watch in the summertime.

Once again I find myself asking the question, "WHY does anyone keep letting M. Night Shyamalan make movies?" In 2010 he single-handedly decimated The Last Airbender, creating the sort of flop that not only ends careers but makes people re-examine a director's previous body of work with a sour eye. After that flop he has returned with After Earth, co-written with Gary Whitta, based on a story idea by Will Smith.

Starring Smith and his son Jaden, After Earth is a family-friendly adventure movie that couches itself in the elements of good sci-fi but fails to realize even a hint of the greatness of the films from which it derives. The reason can be boiled down to one simple statement: Good sci-fi doesn't insult the audience's intelligence.  After Earth does so in dozens of simple ways.

The basic setup is that 1,000 years in the future, mankind has exploited Earth to the point of uninhabitability and therefore has left to colonize other systems. Somewhere along the way, we met a hostile alien race who rather than attack us with superior technology, sends giant angry sightless monsters that can smell (and track us by) the pheremones released by fear. Smith is the first warrior who can completely suppress his fear, thus making himself invisible to the enemy. Due to a freak accident, he and his son crash-land on Earth and must survive until help arrives.

Before going into any details, even the basic idea has flaws. Aliens that can only track us by scent, and we can't simply wear sealed suits?  A thousand years in the future, and we have to fight with bladed weapons instead of guns and lasers?

Getting into the execution of these ideas in the script, even worse problems jump out. A routine flight is forced off course by an "asteroid storm"?  In order to effect their rescue, they must recover a distress beacon that for some reason wasn't activated BEFORE the ship crash-landed. These are supposed to be people a thousand years more advanced, but they have been scripted as stupid in unnecessary ways to set up a very contrived plot.

Other blunders in After Earth include an Earth that is a virtual paradise despite nightly flash-freezes worthy of the worst Roland Emmerich threw at his characters in The Day AFter Tomorrow, which is also listed as "Class A deadly" with every life form evolved to kill man ... but the deadliest thing they face is the alien they brought with them; zero remnants of the civilization that supposedly made the planet uninhabitable; unintelligible accents because hey, it's the future and people will talk different; an amputee with no prosthetic in an awkward scene that exists only to set up Smith repeating the line "Stand me up" at the end of the film; and finally, a plot ripped straight from The Matrix, which requires Jaden Smith to effectively become Neo by conquering his mental block and realizing there is no spoon, or in this case, fear.

In 2009 audiences were treated to one of the funniest comedies in recent history: The Hangover. The Todd Phillips-helmed film demonstrated that adult comedy could turn out serious box office numbers. The success of The Hangover was accomplished by weaving together a highly engaging story that can be classified as a comedic whodunnit. The hook for this film was the mystery surrounding the "who" and the "dunnit." The first part was the "who." Who wrecked the expensive Las Vegas suite? Who is this baby we just found in our wrecked hotel room? And finally who does this tiger belong to? The second part was the "dunnit." What happened to Doug (Justin Bartha)? What happened to Stu's (Ed Helms) tooth? And finally: What the hell happened last night? The characters retrace their steps from the prior evening, slowly unraveling the story layer by layer.

2011 brought the return of the "Wolfpack" in The Hangover Part II. This time the boys wake up in a wrecked hotel room in Bangkok. Now, instead of a tooth missing, Stu has a brand new tattoo ... on ... his face! This film is pretty much a beat-for-beat rehash of the original film, possessing some fresh jokes and situations thrown in. While successful at the box office, this movie didn’t enchant audiences like the original.

Now 2013 brings us the Wolfpack once more in The Hangover Part III. This time no one wakes up in a wrecked hotel room, nor is anyone missing. The story now revolves around the kidnapping of Doug by a drug kingpin named Marshall (John Goodman). Marshall wants his stolen gold returned and enlists the Wolfpack to do his bidding. Why the Wolfpack? Marshall blames them for his gold getting stolen by rival drug kingpin Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong), the drug dealer from the previous movies. The film is spent in a series of capers that take the characters from Arizona to Tijuana and finally the place where it all started: Las Vegas!

How do you up the ante of the high-octane blockbuster that was Fast Five in 2011? You take  action that was already ramped up to 11, and you crank it up to whatever insanely high number you can conjure up in your head. But Fast & Furious 6 isn't just a good action film, it's done something far more fascinating. It has made the entire Fast and Furious series one of the great movie franchises out there.

We didn't know it at the time, but on June 18, 2001, when a silly Point Break ripoff about street racing hit theaters, we had just entered Phase One of a classic action franchise that didn't even exist yet. The Fast and the Furious spawned a silly sequel, and we figured that'd be the end of it. A third one came out, different plot, different characters, was it even from the same universe? Just when we thought we had enough, a fourth had arrived, and it brought back the original band and one of the characters from three. We had to have been done with the franchise because the fourth entry was kind of weak, but we were treated to a fifth, and treated is absolutely the appropriate word.

Fast & Furious 6 begins where Fast Five left off. Dom (Vin Diesel), Bryan (Paul Walker) and the rest of the family are living in a country that doesn't extradite. With plenty of money from their last job, they're living the high life. Special Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), however, never let them out of his sight. Now, Hobbs needs their help catching some ultra-ruthless thieves who plan to build a particularly dangerous device.

The entire team comes back, and they do what they do best. Yeah, it's a paper-thin plot, and only two new characters are introduced. None of that matters because the film is fantastic, plain and simple. Ultimately, what Fast & Furious 6 is, is the best reward imaginable for those fans who've been with this franchise from Day One. If you've loved every film in this franchise, and every time you've left the theater after watching these movies you've wanted to race the guy next to you leaving the parking lot, this sequel is better than the best-tasting candy.

Hyperbole aside, yes, it's a dumb action movie. It's not going to win any awards, but it doesn't need to. The most important thing this movie has done is make a series that is now six movies deep a classic action franchise. Fans can sit down and watch all six of these back-to-back and not flinch through any one of them, because this sixth one ties it all in so perfectly. There isn't one that's a little off, or has to be defended as kind of okay. Every Fast and Furious movie is essential to this point, and you just don't see that kind of quality in franchises anymore (I'm talking to you, Resident Evil).

Documentary films often tell us the facts about a particular subject. They can be political or religious, or perhaps based on an idea that most people cannot wrap their minds around. But sometimes, you get lucky and see a film that lets you behind the scenes of something most people only dream about. That's how I felt about Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's, opening Friday in Austin.

I may not know much about fashion, but having a fashion merchandising major/style guru for a sister, I had a little bit of knowledge under my belt -- certainly enough to appreciate a good movie about fashion. The trailer had enticed me, clearly riddled with various designers talking about how getting to show their line at the esteemed Bergdorf Goodman's was the highlight of their career. Writer/director Matthew Miele takes his viewers not only into the heart of the store, but to some areas that you would not have thought twice about -- for example, the elaborate window displays the store produces every few months.

Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's spotlights some well-known names in fashion, such as Vera Wang, Michael Kors, and Dolce & Gabanna, giving us their opinion on the glory that is Bergdorf's (or "BG's," as some designers lovingly call it). Even though these designers are everywhere in retail, they all talk about how their one goal, the Academy Award of their career, was to be sold and showcased at Bergdorf's. The story then goes on to talk about the history of the store, as well as how fashion has evolved over the past century. A few new designers when the film was shot in 2011 are followed, and we as the audience get to sit in on a few meetings with them and Bergdorf's executives such as Linda Fargo, who is compared in status to the well-known Vogue editor, Anna Wintour.

In addition, cosmetics, shoe and purse designers also share their tales of getting into the store. Bobbi Brown talks about how she hoped that she could sell at least 100 tubes of lipstick her first month at Bergdorf's; she ended up selling over 100 tubes on her first day alone.

Here's hoping you haven't seen the first trailer for Before Midnight, which is basically a big spoiler. There seems to be a shared thought among fans of Richard Linklater's "Before" films that one wants to be surprised when they walk into the theatre and see how Celine and Jesse work out this time. Before I caught the SXSW screening in March, I did read Debbie's review because I was too excited and had to know. That being said, is it possible to review this movie without giving too much away? I will try.

Before Midnight takes place during one long day in Greece. First we see Jesse (Ethan Hawke) at the Kalamata airport, talking to his adolescent son before the kid has to fly back to the States where he lives with his mom. Jesse's face during this scene is periodically pierced with regret, as he wishes his son could stay longer. After Jesse is picked up from the airport, he and Celine (Julie Delpy) talk while driving through Greek countryside -- after the SXSW screening, Linklater noted during his Q&A that this car scene is over 13 minutes long, with no cuts. He also commented that every location they used in Greece was found during a two-day visit.

Although he now lives in Brooklyn, filmmaker Terence Nance was born and raised in Dallas, where his movie An Oversimplification of Her Beauty premiered at the Dallas International Film Fest in 2012. The Alamo Drafthouse Ritz will host two screenings of this art film over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, including a Skype Q&A with Nance after both showings.

Nance's feature-length debut has received much attention, with pop culture figures such as Jay-Z, Joy Bryant and Wyatt Cenac jumping in as producers (Questlove is listed as an associate producer). The film is narrated in part by Reg E. Cathey (Square One, y'all!), but Nance is all over this movie. He wrote, edited, directed, produced, scored and even worked on some of the animation for this picture.

In 2009, J.J. Abrams accomplished the impossible and successfully negotiated an unwinnable scenario by rebooting the Star Trek franchise with a new cast in a story that maintained continuity -- yet also broke somewhat -- with the establish Trek universe.  This reset gave him license to play with the characters in entirely new ways; for instance, the relationship between Uhura and Spock. With the newly released Star Trek Into Darkness, Abrams plays with the entire character of the Federation itself, playing out logically the results of events that created his alternate universe and arriving at a colder, harder conclusion that doesn't sit well with many hardcore fans.

Based on his Daily Show appearance this week, in which Abrams explained his goal was to make a movie for moviegoers and not just Star Trek fans, some have said he is only concerned with his film making as much money as possible. My own feeling was that Abrams again succeeded in bringing to life a story that is true to the characters on the Enterprise, but a disturbing departure from Gene Roddenberry's vision of The United Federation of Planets.

This is not the first time Trek fans have seen a darker vision of the future: The clandestine agency known as Section 31 mentioned in Star Trek Into Darkness has appeared a number of times in the various TV shows, which have also hinted at a much darker future for the Federation in centuries to come.

But the events on screen now, in this movie, are the darkest we've seen for the classic Trek characters, aren't they? As much as we might want to blame the effects of Christopher Nolan's Batman films for the darkening of comic-book and sci-fi films, there is precedent for a darker side of the Federation scattered through classic episodes. A 13-year-old Jim Kirk witnessed the massacre of 4,000 colonists by Governor Kodos during a food shortage on Tarsus IV (episode "The Conscience of the King"). The Federation also was known to have violent criminals and treated the criminal behavior as a sickness to be cured via therapy in one of several installations known as asylums ("Whom Gods Destroy").

It is also very well established that pre-Federation history included a series of wars that nearly destroyed civilization on Earth, and that but for the civilizing influence of the Vulcans, the UFP would have been a much more warlike body. In fact, classic Trek includes a mirror universe in which events did play out differently, resulting in a fleet where starship captains murder their way into command.

Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. -- F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rich Boy

This often-repeated quote begins F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story Rich Boy, but it could be from Fitzgerald's magnum opus The Great Gatsby, a novel about the very rich. And the latest film adaptation of The Great Gatsby brings to mind a twist on the quote: Let me tell you about Baz Luhrmann's films. They are different.

Different, of course, can be wonderful. Luhrmann's proudly over-the-top style -- a mix of grand scale, busy, color-saturated visuals, daring anachronisms, hyperactive pacing and general excess -- works very well in his most successful features, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!.

Luhrmann's brand of filmmaking, however, doesn't work so well in The Great Gatsby for two reasons: The story is character driven, not visually driven. And Luhrmann doesn't realize that a little 3D goes a long, long way.

The Great Gatsby and Luhrmann should be a great match, as the filmmaker and the novel's central figure, the Jazz Age millionaire Jay Gatsby, share a love of artifice and excess. Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) lives in an ostentatious mansion in the fictional Long Island village of New Egg, where he leads a life of leisure, self indulgence and extravagant parties, punctuated with the occasional shady business deal that finances his lifestyle.

As the crème de la crème of the film industry begins invading the French Riviera for the 2013 Festival de Cannes, it is quite apropros for a movie about one of the Impressionist masters who spent his last days in the lush French countryside to open this week at the Regal Arbor here in Austin.

Based upon Jacques Renoir's work Le Tableau Amoureux, director and screenwriter Gilles Bourdos' drama Renoir paints a lush vignette of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet) at the age of 74. Arthritis wreaks havoc on his body, and his middle son Jean (Vincent Rottiers) is dealing with his own combat wounds from his World War I mobilization.

The pair are both enamored and inspired by Renoir's latest model, the fiery headstrong young Andrée (Christa Theret). Pierre-Auguste's grief over the death of his wife Aline is lightened by Andrée's free-spirited nature and graceful body. Despite Jean's determination to rejoin his comrades once he's recovered from his injuries, his love for Andree inspires him to plan for a future in cinema as a filmmaker.