Sentiment analysis seeks to determine the general attitude of a writer, given some text they have written. For example, given the movie review “The film was a breath of fresh air” a sentiment analysis

4 The Bai brothers have taken an small slice of history and opened it up for all of us to understand , and they 've told a nice little story in the process .

3 Ramsay and Morton fill this character study with poetic force and buoyant feeling .

1 You emerge dazed , confused as to whether you 've seen pornography or documentary .

1 Viewers are asked so often to suspend belief that were it not for Holm 's performance , the film would be a total washout .

1 This is a film living far too much in its own head .

4 This fascinating look at Israel in ferment feels as immediate as the latest news footage from Gaza and , because of its heightened , well-shaped dramas , twice as powerful .

1 This is a truly , truly bad movie .

2 While Howard 's appreciation of Brown and his writing is clearly well-meaning and sincere , the movie would be impossible to sit through were it not for the supporting cast .

2 ... Jones , despite a definitely distinctive screen presence , just is n't able to muster for a movie that , its title notwithstanding , should have been a lot nastier if it wanted to fully capitalize on its lead 's specific gifts .

2 If you ignore the cliches and concentrate on City by the Sea 's interpersonal drama , it ai n't half-bad .

3 God bless Crudup and his aversion to taking the easy Hollywood road and cashing in on his movie-star gorgeousness .

0 Feels strangely hollow at its emotional core .

1 is a question for philosophers , not filmmakers ; all the filmmakers need to do is engage an audience .

0 A boring , pretentious muddle that uses a sensational , real-life 19th-Century crime as a metaphor for -- well , I 'm not exactly sure what -- and has all the dramatic weight of a raindrop .

2 ... manages to fall closer in quality to Silence than to the abysmal Hannibal .

2 With not a lot of help from the screenplay -LRB- proficient , but singularly cursory -RRB- , -LRB- Testud -RRB- acts with the feral intensity of the young Bette Davis .

1 This latest installment of the horror film franchise that is apparently as invulnerable as its trademark villain has arrived for an incongruous summer playoff , demonstrating yet again that the era of the intelligent , well-made B movie is long gone .

2 You wo n't exactly know what 's happening but you 'll be blissfully exhausted .

4 Best of all is Garcia , who perfectly portrays the desperation of a very insecure man .

0 Personally , I 'd rather watch them on the Animal Planet .

1 McTiernan 's remake may be lighter on its feet -- the sober-minded original was as graceful as a tap-dancing rhino -- but it is just as boring and as obvious .

1 The connected stories of Breitbart and Hanussen are actually fascinating , but the filmmaking in Invincible is such that the movie does not do them justice .

1 The actors must indeed be good to recite some of this laughable dialogue with a straight face .

2 The film affords us intriguing glimpses of the insights gleaned from a lifetime of spiritual inquiry , but Ram Dass : Fierce Grace does n't organize it with any particular insight .

3 As a film director , LaBute continues to improve .

2 Auto Focus is not your standard Hollywood bio-pic .

3 Reggio and Glass put on an intoxicating show .

1 With a `` Spy Kids '' sequel opening next week , why bother with a contemptible imitator starring a `` SNL '' has-been acting like an 8-year-old channeling Roberto Benigni ?

1 A fairly harmless but ultimately lifeless feature-length afterschool special .

2 While this has the making of melodrama , the filmmaker cuts against this natural grain , producing a work that 's more interested in asking questions than in answering them .

3 Watching this film , one is left with the inescapable conclusion that Hitchens ' obsession with Kissinger is , at bottom , a sophisticated flower child 's desire to purge the world of the tooth and claw of human power .

4 Not only a coming-of-age story and cautionary parable , but also a perfectly rendered period piece .

1 Maybe there 's a metaphor here , but figuring it out would n't make Trouble Every Day any better .

1 ` Linklater fans , or pretentious types who want to appear avant-garde will suck up to this project ... '

0 A generic bloodbath that often becomes laughably unbearable when it is n't merely offensive .

3 Prepare to marvel again .

1 Disreputable doings and exquisite trappings are dampened by a lackluster script and substandard performances .

0 A thoroughly awful movie -- dumb , narratively chaotic , visually sloppy ... a weird amalgam of ` The Thing ' and a geriatric ` Scream . '

3 Warm and exotic .

4 I like this movie a lot .

1 For casual moviegoers who stumble into Rules expecting a slice of American Pie hijinks starring the kid from Dawson 's Creek , they 'll probably run out screaming .

2 If Reno is to the left of liberal on the political spectrum , her tough , funny , rather chaotic show is n't subversive so much as it is nit-picky about the hypocrisies of our time .

3 A heartening tale of small victories and enduring hope .

0 Such a bad movie that its luckiest viewers will be seated next to one of those ignorant pinheads who talk throughout the show .

0 This one aims for the toilet and scores a direct hit .

3 A coming-of-age tale from New Zealand whose boozy , languid air is balanced by a rich visual clarity and deeply felt performances across the board .

2 But you 'd never guess that from the performances .

2 The people in ABC Africa are treated as docile , mostly wordless ethnographic extras .

2 Collateral Damage offers formula payback and the Big Payoff , but the explosions tend to simply hit their marks , pyro-correctly .

3 Even the digressions are funny .

3 But the actors make this worth a peek .

3 And there 's an element of heartbreak to watching it now , with older and wiser eyes , because we know what will happen after Greene 's story ends .

1 The explosion essentially ruined -- or , rather , overpowered -- the fiction of the movie for me .

4 A poignant comedy that offers food for thought .

2 It 's not difficult to spot the culprit early-on in this predictable thriller .

1 Murder by Numbers just does n't add up .

4 His work with actors is particularly impressive .

2 While this gentle and affecting melodrama will have luvvies in raptures , it 's far too slight and introspective to appeal to anything wider than a niche audience .

1 Showtime is n't particularly assaultive , but it can still make you feel that you never want to see another car chase , explosion or gunfight again .

3 Finally , the French-produced `` Read My Lips '' is a movie that understands characters must come first .

2 We could have expected a little more human being , and a little less product .

1 Overwrought , melodramatic bodice-ripper .

2 There 's a neat twist , subtly rendered , that could have wrapped things up at 80 minutes , but Kang tacks on three or four more endings .

0 In my own very humble opinion , In Praise of Love lacks even the most fragmented charms I have found in almost all of his previous works .

1 Beware the quirky Brit-com .

1 An EXIT sign , that is .

3 -LRB- A -RRB- strong piece of work .

1 It 's makes a better travelogue than movie .

1 Just send it to Cranky .

3 Able to provide insight into a fascinating part of theater history .

3 The best thing about the movie is its personable , amusing cast .

1 To the vast majority of more casual filmgoers , it will probably be a talky bore .

0 Evelyn may be based on a true and historically significant story , but the filmmakers have made every effort to disguise it as an unimaginative screenwriter 's invention .

2 ... best seen as speculative history , as much an exploration of the paranoid impulse as a creative sequel to the Warren Report .

3 Cremaster 3 is at once a tough pill to swallow and a minor miracle of self-expression .

2 Despite a performance of sustained intelligence from Stanford and another of subtle humour from Bebe Neuwirth , as an older woman who seduces Oscar , the film founders on its lack of empathy for the social milieu - rich New York intelligentsia - and its off

2 Gone are the flamboyant mannerisms that are the trademark of several of his performances .

4 First and foremost ... the reason to go see `` Blue Crush '' is the phenomenal , water-born cinematography by David Hennings .

1 Yet another Arnold vehicle that fails to make adequate use of his particular talents .

1 It gets the details of its time frame right but it completely misses its emotions .

3 ... quite good at providing some good old fashioned spooks .

3 It makes you believe the cast and crew thoroughly enjoyed themselves and believed in their small-budget film .

3 Expands the limits of what a film can be , taking us into the lives of women to whom we might not give a second look if we passed them on the street .

1 Just because A Walk to Remember is shrewd enough to activate girlish tear ducts does n't mean it 's good enough for our girls .

3 There 's absolutely no reason why Blue Crush , a late-summer surfer girl entry , should be as entertaining as it is

3 If you like blood , guts and crazy beasts stalking men with guns though ... you will likely enjoy this monster .

1 Hawke 's film , a boring , pretentious waste of nearly two hours , does n't tell you anything except that the Chelsea Hotel today is populated by whiny , pathetic , starving and untalented artistes .

1 There are just too many characters saying too many clever things and getting into too many pointless situations .

0 This little film is so slovenly done , so primitive in technique , that it ca n't really be called animation .

3 Even though many of these guys are less than adorable -LRB- their lamentations are pretty much self-centered -RRB- , there 's something vital about the movie .

2 Fubar is very funny , but not always in a laugh-out-loud way .

3 Although largely a heavy-handed indictment of parental failings and the indifference of Spanish social workers and legal system towards child abuse , the film retains ambiguities that make it well worth watching .

1 Coupling disgracefully written dialogue with flailing bodily movements that substitute for acting , Circuit is the awkwardly paced soap opera-ish story .

2 It 's difficult for a longtime admirer of his work to not be swept up in Invincible and overlook its drawbacks .

1 ... stumbles over every cheap trick in the book trying to make the outrage come even easier .

1 A fan film that for the uninitiated plays better on video with the sound turned down .

2 If this silly little cartoon can inspire a few kids not to grow up to be greedy bastards , more power to it .

3 Touches smartly and wistfully on a number of themes , not least the notion that the marginal members of society ... might benefit from a helping hand and a friendly kick in the pants .

1 There 's nothing remotely topical or sexy here .

4 While general audiences might not come away with a greater knowledge of the facts of Cuban music , they 'll be treated to an impressive and highly entertaining celebration of its sounds .

2 The smash 'em - up , crash 'em - up , shoot 'em - up ending comes out of nowhere substituting mayhem for suspense .

3 Director Todd Solondz has made a movie about critical reaction to his two previous movies , and about his responsibility to the characters that he creates .

0 a huge disappointment coming , as it does , from filmmakers and performers of this calibre

3 Despite its old-hat set-up and predictable plot , Empire still has enough moments to keep it entertaining .

1 Though Harris is affecting at times , he can not overcome the sense that Pumpkin is a mere plot pawn for two directors with far less endearing disabilities .

0 McKay seems embarrassed by his own invention and tries to rush through the intermediary passages , apparently hoping that the audience will not notice the glaring triteness of the plot device he has put in service .

1 A soulless jumble of ineptly assembled cliches and pabulum that plays like a 95-minute commercial for NBA properties .

3 For a long time the film succeeds with its dark , delicate treatment of these characters and its unerring respect for them .

0 -LRB- A -RRB- rather thinly-conceived movie .

1 A dark-as-pitch comedy that frequently veers into corny sentimentality , probably would not improve much after a therapeutic zap of shock treatment .

2 scenario that will give most parents pause ... Then , something terrible happens .

1 -LRB- Seems -RRB- even more uselessly redundant and shamelessly money-grubbing than most third-rate horror sequels .

3 A film of epic scale with an intimate feeling , a saga of the ups and downs of friendships .

3 Exactly what its title implies : lusty , boisterous and utterly charming .

2 Open-ended and composed of layer upon layer , Talk to Her is a cinephile 's feast , an invitation to countless interpretations .

4 Nicholson 's understated performance is wonderful .

4 Sweet and memorable film .

1 It 's not only dull because we 've seen -LRB- Eddie -RRB- Murphy do the genial-rogue shtick to death , but because the plot is equally hackneyed .

2 Suffice to say that after seeing this movie in IMAX form , you 'll be more acquainted with the tiniest details of Tom Hanks ' face than his wife is .

0 A cheap scam put together by some cynical creeps at Revolution Studios and Imagine Entertainment to make the suckers out there surrender $ 9 and 93 minutes of unrecoverable life .

2 Is `` Ballistic '' worth the price of admission ?

3 ` Stock up on silver bullets for director Neil Marshall 's intense freight train of a film . '

2 Arnie blows things up .

0 ... feels as if -LRB- there 's -RRB- a choke leash around your neck so director Nick Cassavetes can give it a good , hard yank whenever he wants you to feel something .

1 Watching Queen of the Damned is like reading a research paper , with special effects tossed in .

4 There is no substitute for on-screen chemistry , and when Friel pulls the strings that make Williams sink into melancholia , the reaction in Williams is as visceral as a gut punch .

2 Presents a good case while failing to provide a reason for us to care beyond the very basic dictums of human decency .

2 Pure of intention and passably diverting , His Secret Life is light , innocuous and unremarkable .

3 It 's a visual delight and a decent popcorn adventure , as long as you do n't try to look too deep into the story

2 Silly , loud and goofy .

1 As underwater ghost stories go , Below casts its spooky net out into the Atlantic Ocean and spits it back , grizzled and charred , somewhere northwest of the Bermuda Triangle .

3 Yet this one makes up for in heart what it lacks in outright newness .

2 ... will always be remembered for the 9-11 terrorist attacks .

3 What 's invigorating about it is that it does n't give a damn .

3 If a big musical number like ` Praise the Lord , He 's the God of Second Chances ' does n't put you off , this will be an enjoyable choice for younger kids .

4 The film has a terrific look and Salma Hayek has a feel for the character at all stages of her life .

4 Brosnan gives a portrayal as solid and as perfect as his outstanding performance as Bond in Die Another Day .

3 Strange occurrences build in the mind of the viewer and take on extreme urgency .

4 The kind of sweet-and-sour insider movie that film buffs will eat up like so much gelati .

2 Falls short in explaining the music and its roots .

4 A wry , affectionate delight .

3 Its flame-like , roiling black-and-white inspires trembling and gratitude .

2 Please .

1 Plays like one long , meandering sketch inspired by the works of John Waters and Todd Solondz , rather than a fully developed story .

3 It 's a sharp movie about otherwise dull subjects .

3 Sitting in the third row of the IMAX cinema at Sydney 's Darling Harbour , but I sometimes felt as though I was in the tiny two seater plane that carried the giant camera around Australia , sweeping and gliding , banking and hovering over some of the most not

1 The most excruciating 86 minutes one might sit through this summer that do not involve a dentist drill .

1 It squanders Chan 's uniqueness ; it could even be said to squander Jennifer Love Hewitt !

2 Even with Harris 's strong effort , the script gives him little to effectively probe Lear 's soul-stripping breakdown .

3 Gets better after Foster leaves that little room .

3 Grant carries the day with impeccable comic timing , raffish charm and piercing intellect .

2 Like the series , the movie is funny , smart , visually inventive , and most of all , alive .

0 Bad and baffling from the get-go .

4 Very well-written and very well-acted .

4 It 's been done before but never so vividly or with so much passion .

4 Even if the Naipaul original remains the real masterpiece , the movie possesses its own languorous charm .

2 Bad in such a bizarre way that it 's almost worth seeing , if only to witness the crazy confluence of purpose and taste .

3 -LRB- The film -RRB- tackles the topic of relationships in such a straightforward , emotionally honest manner that by the end , it 's impossible to ascertain whether the film is , at its core , deeply pessimistic or quietly hopeful .

2 It depends on how well flatulence gags fit into your holiday concept .

1 You can drive right by it without noticing anything special , save for a few comic turns , intended and otherwise .

4 Thanks to a small star with big heart , this family film sequel is plenty of fun for all .

1 The screenplay is hugely overwritten , with tons and tons of dialogue -- most of it given to children .

2 The characters are interesting and the relationship between Yosuke and Saeko is worth watching as it develops , but there 's not enough to the story to fill two hours .

0 The French director has turned out nearly 21\/2 hours of unfocused , excruciatingly tedious cinema that , half an hour in , starts making water torture seem appealing .

3 She nearly glows with enthusiasm , sensuality and a conniving wit .

3 An engaging criminal romp that will have viewers guessing just who 's being conned right up to the finale .

3 Featherweight romantic comedy has a few nice twists in a standard plot and the charisma of Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock .

1 Supposedly authentic account of a historical event that 's far too tragic to merit such superficial treatment .

1 The Master of Disguise falls under the category of ` should have been a sketch on Saturday Night Live . '

1 More dutiful than enchanting ... terribly episodic and lacking the spark of imagination that might have made it an exhilarating treat .

1 A hit - and-miss affair , consistently amusing but not as outrageous or funny as Cho may have intended or as imaginative as one might have hoped .

3 It 's a square , sentimental drama that satisfies , as comfort food often can .

4 A fiercely clever and subtle film , capturing the precarious balance between the extravagant confidence of the exiled aristocracy and the cruel earnestness of the victorious revolutionaries .

3 The charming result is Festival in Cannes .

2 Each scene wreaks of routine ; the film never manages to generate a single threat of suspense .

2 This is mostly well-constructed fluff , which is all it seems intended to be .

4 Still , this flick is fun , and host to some truly excellent sequences .

3 Playing a role of almost Bergmanesque intensity ... Bisset is both convincing and radiant .

3 It 's Burns ' visuals , characters and his punchy dialogue , not his plot , that carry waydowntown .

1 We get the comedy we settle for .

4 Remarkable for its intelligence and intensity .

4 Funny , sexy , devastating and incurably romantic .

2 It is n't that the picture is unfamiliar , but that it manages to find new avenues of discourse on old problems .

3 A lot of the credit for the film 's winning tone must go to Grant , who has n't lost a bit of the dry humor that first made audiences on both sides of the Atlantic love him .

4 I walked away from this new version of E.T. just as I hoped I would -- with moist eyes .

2 Being latently gay and liking to read are hardly enough .

0 This stuck pig of a movie flails limply between bizarre comedy and pallid horror .

4 It picked me up , swung me around , and dropped me back in my seat with more emotional force than any other recent film .

4 The performances are remarkable .

3 ... the plot weaves us into a complex web .

2 If only there were one for this kind of movie .

2 How I Killed My Father would be a rarity in Hollywood .

4 Skillfully weaves both the elements of the plot and a powerfully evocative mood combining heated sexuality with a haunting sense of malaise .

4 The result is a powerful , naturally dramatic piece of low-budget filmmaking .

2 with a couple of burnt-out cylinders

3 If The Man from Elysian Fields is doomed by its smallness , it is also elevated by it -- the kind of movie that you enjoy more because you 're one of the lucky few who sought it out .

2 After all the big build-up , the payoff for the audience , as well as the characters , is messy , murky , unsatisfying .

3 A flawed but engrossing thriller .

0 ... an hour-and-a-half of inoffensive , unmemorable filler .

3 I 'm sure mainstream audiences will be baffled , but , for those with at least a minimal appreciation of Woolf and Clarissa Dalloway , The Hours represents two of those well spent .

4 Chamber of Secrets will find millions of eager fans .

2 ... tackling a low-budget movie in which inexperienced children play the two main characters might not be the best way to cut your teeth in the film industry .

3 Birthday Girl lucks out with Chaplin and Kidman , who are capable of anteing up some movie star charisma when they need it to sell us on this twisted love story , but who can also negotiate the movie 's darker turns .

3 A little uneven to be the cat 's meow , but it 's good enough to be the purr .

2 Very well made , but does n't generate a lot of tension .

2 Mana gives us compelling , damaged characters who we want to help -- or hurt .

2 OK arthouse .

3 A suffocating rape-payback horror show that hinges on the subgenre 's most enabling victim ... and an ebullient affection for industrial-model meat freezers .

4 Beautifully crafted and brutally honest , Promises offers an unexpected window into the complexities of the Middle East struggle and into the humanity of its people .

3 Bravo for history rewritten , and for the uncompromising knowledge that the highest power of all is the power of love .

1 During The Tuxedo 's 90 minutes of screen time , there is n't one true ` Chan moment ' .

2 When the violence actually shocked ?

2 If the idea of the white man arriving on foreign shores to show wary natives the true light is abhorrent to you , the simplistic Heaven will quite likely be more like hell .

1 It hates its characters .

4 It sends you away a believer again and quite cheered at just that .

4 A film centering on a traditional Indian wedding in contemporary New Delhi may not sound like specialized fare , but Mira Nair 's film is an absolute delight for all audiences .

1 SC2 is an autopilot Hollywood concoction lacking in imagination and authentic Christmas spirit , yet it 's geared toward an audience full of masters of both .

2 Chances are you wo n't , either .

4 Secret Ballot is a funny , puzzling movie ambiguous enough to be engaging and oddly moving .

2 This one is strictly a lightweight escapist film .

3 Chilling in its objective portrait of dreary , lost twenty-first century America .

1 A slow-moving police-procedural thriller that takes its title all too literally .

0 Tries so hard to be quirky and funny that the strain is all too evident .

4 ` Anyone with a passion for cinema , and indeed sex , should see it as soon as possible . '

0 This mess of a movie is nothing short of a travesty of a transvestite comedy .

1 Hmmm ... might I suggest that the wayward wooden one end it all by stuffing himself into an electric pencil sharpener ?

1 The uneven movie does have its charms and its funny moments but not quite enough of them .

0 `` Analyze That '' is one of those crass , contrived sequels that not only fails on its own , but makes you second-guess your affection for the original .

2 There 's no doubting that this is a highly ambitious and personal project for Egoyan , but it 's also one that , next to his best work , feels clumsy and convoluted .

3 One of the funniest motion pictures of the year , but ... also one of the most curiously depressing .

3 Jacquot 's strategy allows his cast the benefit of being able to give full performances ... while demonstrating vividly that the beauty and power of the opera reside primarily in the music itself .

3 Mr. Spielberg and his company just want you to enjoy yourselves without feeling conned .

4 A stirring tribute to the bravery and dedication of the world 's reporters who willingly walk into the nightmare of war not only to record the events for posterity , but to help us clearly see the world of our making .

3 A polished and vastly entertaining caper film that puts the sting back into the con .

0 Loses its sense of humor in a vat of failed jokes , twitchy acting , and general boorishness .

3 Steers refreshingly clear of the usual cliches .

0 This is just lazy writing .

2 The Master of Disguise is funny -- not `` ha ha '' funny , `` dead circus performer '' funny .

2 A close-to-solid espionage thriller with the misfortune of being released a few decades too late .

3 When the movie mixes the cornpone and the Cosa Nostra , it finds a nice rhythm .

0 Unfunny and lacking any sense of commitment to or affection for its characters , the Reginald Hudlin comedy relies on toilet humor , ethnic slurs .

2 If there ai n't none , you have a problem .

0 A frustrating ` tweener ' -- too slick , contrived and exploitative for the art houses and too cynical , small and decadent for the malls .

1 Writer-director Randall Wallace has bitten off more than he or anyone else could chew , and his movie veers like a drunken driver through heavy traffic .

3 A crisp psychological drama -LRB- and -RRB- a fascinating little thriller that would have been perfect for an old `` Twilight Zone '' episode .

3 A charmer from Belgium .

0 The movie is virtually without context -- journalistic or historical .

2 But when it does , you 're entirely unprepared .

4 A moving and solidly entertaining comedy\/drama that should bolster director and co-writer

1 Well , Jason 's gone to Manhattan and Hell , I guess a space station in the year 2455 can be crossed off the list of ideas for the inevitable future sequels -LRB- hey , do n't shoot the messenger -RRB- .

2 Although Barbershop boasts some of today 's hottest and hippest acts from the world of television , music and stand-up comedy , this movie strangely enough has the outdated swagger of a shameless ` 70s blaxploitation shuck-and-jive sitcom .

4 Hartley adds enough quirky and satirical touches in the screenplay to keep the film entertaining .

3 It cooks Conduct in a low , smoky and inviting sizzle .

3 This is a nicely handled affair , a film about human darkness but etched with a light -LRB- yet unsentimental -RRB- touch .

4 Bloody Sunday has the grace to call for prevention rather than to place blame , making it one of the best war movies ever made .

1 There 's a whole heap of nothing at the core of this slight coming-of-age\/coming-out tale .

1 This off-putting French romantic comedy

3 You do n't need to be a hip-hop fan to appreciate Scratch , and that 's the mark of a documentary that works .

0 Some writer dude , I think his name was , uh , Michael Zaidan , was supposed to have like written the screenplay or something , but , dude , the only thing that I ever saw that was written down were the zeroes on my paycheck .

1 The advantage of a postapocalyptic setting is that it can be made on the cheap .

1 For all its violence , the movie is remarkably dull with only Caine making much of an impression .

0 Deep down , I realized the harsh reality of my situation : I would leave the theater with a lower I.Q. than when I had entered .

2 Don Michael Paul uses quick-cuts , -LRB- very -RRB- large shadows and wide-angle shots taken from a distance to hide the liberal use of a body double -LRB- for Seagal -RRB- .

1 Unless you come in to the film with a skateboard under your arm , you 're going to feel like you were n't invited to the party .

3 The Komediant is a tale worth catching .

0 The actors improvise and scream their way around this movie directionless , lacking any of the rollicking dark humor so necessary to make this kind of idea work on screen .

0 It should be doing a lot of things , but does n't .

4 An entertaining British hybrid of comedy , caper thrills and quirky romance .

4 A slick , engrossing melodrama .

3 Like Kubrick , Soderbergh is n't afraid to try any genre and to do it his own way .

4 Terrific performances , great to look at , and funny .

3 All in all , a great party .

1 At 90 minutes this movie is short , but it feels much longer .

2 Denver should not get the first and last look at one of the most triumphant performances of Vanessa Redgrave 's career .

3 Worth a look as a curiosity .

0 For a story set at sea , Ghost Ship is pretty landbound , with its leaden acting , dull exposition and telegraphed ` surprises . '

1 Aspires to the cracked lunacy of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai , but thanks to an astonishingly witless script ends up more like The Adventures of Ford Fairlane .

3 Naomi Watts is terrific as Rachel ; her petite frame and vulnerable persona emphasising her plight and isolation .

1 Goes on and on to the point of nausea .

4 This is a superior horror flick .

3 Becomes a fascinating study of isolation and frustration that successfully recreates both the physical setting and emotional tensions of the Papin sisters .

3 This is n't a stand up and cheer flick ; it 's a sit down and ponder affair .

0 In all the annals of the movies , few films have been this odd , inexplicable and unpleasant .

4 Raimi crafted a complicated hero who is a welcome relief from the usual two-dimensional offerings .

2 Only at the prospect of Beck 's next project .

2 I admit it , I hate to like it .

4 As quiet , patient and tenacious as Mr. Lopez himself , who approaches his difficult , endless work with remarkable serenity and discipline .

2 A chick flick for guys .

2 Succeeds only because Bullock and Grant were made to share the silver screen .

1 Godard uses his characters -- if that 's not too glorified a term -- as art things , mouthpieces , visual motifs , blanks .

0 A derivative collection of horror and sci-fi cliches .

3 In the disturbingly involving family dysfunctional drama How I Killed My Father , French director Anne Fontaine delivers an inspired portrait of male-ridden angst and the emotional blockage that accompanies this human condition

3 There are deeply religious and spiritual people in this world who would argue that entering a church , synagogue or temple does n't mean you have to check your brain at the door .

1 But it would be better to wait for the video .

3 The result is somewhat satisfying -- it still comes from Spielberg , who has never made anything that was n't at least watchable .

1 -LRB- Lin Chung 's -RRB- voice is rather unexceptional , even irritating -LRB- at least to this Western ear -RRB- , making it awfully hard to buy the impetus for the complicated love triangle that develops between the three central characters .

0 A summary of the plot does n't quite do justice to the awfulness of the movie , for that comes through all too painfully in the execution .

3 The first Bond movie in ages that is n't fake fun .

2 Norton holds the film together .

3 ` Possession , ' based on the book by A.S. Byatt , demands that LaBute deal with the subject of love head-on ; trading in his cynicism for reverence and a little wit

1 Sorvino makes the princess seem smug and cartoonish , and the film only really comes alive when poor Hermocrates and Leontine pathetically compare notes about their budding amours .

1 For a film about action , Ultimate X is the gabbiest giant-screen movie ever , bogging down in a barrage of hype .

1 Do we really need the Tiger Beat version ?

1 If Damon and Affleck attempt another Project Greenlight , next time out they might try paying less attention to the miniseries and more attention to the film it is about .

4 Despite its floating narrative , this is a remarkably accessible and haunting film .

3 `` Frailty '' has been written so well , that even a simple `` Goddammit ! ''

1 Though her fans will assuredly have their funny bones tickled , others will find their humor-seeking dollars best spent elsewhere .

1 ... less a story than an inexplicable nightmare , right down to the population 's shrugging acceptance to each new horror .

3 Here is a VH1 Behind the Music special that has something a little more special behind it : music that did n't sell many records but helped change a nation .

0 Stitch is a bad mannered , ugly and destructive little \*\*\*\* .

1 It has the requisite faux-urban vibe and hotter-two-years-ago rap and R&B names and references .

0 Nair just does n't have the necessary self-control to guide a loose , poorly structured film through the pitfalls of incoherence and redundancy .

2 Whether you like it or not is basically a matter of taste .

1 -LRB- Jackson and Bledel -RRB- seem to have been picked not for their acting chops , but for their looks and appeal to the pre-teen crowd .

2 Noyce creates a film of near-hypnotic physical beauty even as he tells a story as horrifying as any in the heart-breakingly extensive annals of white-on-black racism .

4 The film is a verbal duel between two gifted performers .

3 Nettelbeck has crafted an engaging fantasy of flavours and emotions , one part romance novel , one part recipe book .

2 While not quite a comedy , the film tackles its relatively serious subject with an open mind and considerable good cheer , and is never less than engaging .

0 A rip-off twice removed , modeled after -LRB- Seagal 's -RRB- earlier copycat Under Siege , sometimes referred to as Die Hard on a boat .

1 As the sulking , moody male hustler in the title role , -LRB- Franco -RRB- has all of Dean 's mannerisms and self-indulgence , but none of his sweetness and vulnerability .

2 You just know something terrible is going to happen .

3 Late Marriage is an in-your-face family drama and black comedy that is filled with raw emotions conveying despair and love .

3 While the film is not entirely successful , it still manages to string together enough charming moments to work .

0 It would be churlish to begrudge anyone for receiving whatever consolation that can be found in Dragonfly , yet it is impossible to find the film anything but appalling , shamelessly manipulative and contrived , and totally lacking in conviction .

3 It 's a clear-eyed portrait of an intensely lived time , filled with nervous energy , moral ambiguity and great uncertainties .

1 There is a difference between movies with the courage to go over the top and movies that do n't care about being stupid

1 Behan 's memoir is great material for a film -- rowdy , brawny and lyrical in the best Irish sense -- but Sheridan has settled for a lugubrious romance .

3 It has plenty of laughs .

1 The script is a dim-witted pairing of teen-speak and animal gibberish .

3 ... certainly an entertaining ride , despite many talky , slow scenes .

0 The script , the gags , the characters are all direct-to-video stuff , and that 's where this film should have remained .

3 Deliberately and skillfully uses ambiguity to suggest possibilities which imbue the theme with added depth and resonance .

1 This New Zealand coming-of-age movie is n't really about anything .

0 A markedly inactive film , City is conversational bordering on confessional .

4 Refreshing .

4 finely crafted , finely written , exquisitely performed

0 -LRB- Swimfan -RRB- falls victim to sloppy plotting , an insultingly unbelievable final act and a villainess who is too crazy to be interesting .

3 there is truth here

3 About the best thing you could say about Narc is that it 's a rock-solid little genre picture .

4 Surprisingly powerful and universal .

2 For all of its insights into the dream world of teen life , and its electronic expression through cyber culture

3 Wonderful fencing scenes and an exciting plot make this an eminently engrossing film .

0 Although the sequel has all the outward elements of the original , the first film 's lovely flakiness is gone , replaced by the forced funniness found in the dullest kiddie flicks .

3 A quiet , disquieting triumph .

3 An edifying glimpse into the wit and revolutionary spirit of these performers and their era .

4 This is a finely written , superbly acted offbeat thriller .

4 Consummate actor Barry has done excellent work here .

2 The farcical elements seemed too pat and familiar to hold my interest , yet its diverting grim message is a good one .

4 From a deceptively simple premise , this deeply moving French drama develops a startling story that works both as a detailed personal portrait and as a rather frightening examination of modern times .

3 The first shocking thing about Sorority Boys is that it 's actually watchable .

2 You could love Safe Conduct -LRB- Laissez Passer -RRB- for being a subtitled French movie that is 170 minutes long .

1 A little weak -- and it is n't that funny .

2 ` Enigma ' is the kind of engaging historical drama that Hollywood appears to have given up on in favor of sentimental war movies in the vein of ` We Were Soldiers . '

1 Formula 51 promises a new kind of high but delivers the same old bad trip .

2 A gem , captured in the unhurried , low-key style favored by many directors of the Iranian new wave .

1 Allegiance to Chekhov , which director Michael Cacoyannis displays with somber earnestness in the new adaptation of The Cherry Orchard , is a particularly vexing handicap .

1 Only masochistic moviegoers need apply .

4 A wild , endearing , masterful documentary .

4 Sweetly sexy , funny and touching .

4 Not many movies have that kind of impact on me these days .

3 It 's unlikely we 'll see a better thriller this year .

1 If swimfan does catch on , it may be because teens are looking for something to make them laugh .

4 In his U.S. debut , Mr. Schnitzler proves himself a deft pace master and stylist .

1 Clare Peploe 's airless movie adaptation could use a little American Pie-like irreverence .

1 Uzumaki 's interesting social parallel and defiant aesthetic seems a prostituted muse ...

0 Those of you who are not an eighth grade girl will most likely doze off during this one .

4 It is sentimental but feels free to offend , is analytical and then surrenders to the illogic of its characters , is about grief and yet permits laughter .

2 Sitting through the last reel -LRB- spoiler alert ! -RRB-

0 If you value your time and money , find an escape clause and avoid seeing this trite , predictable rehash .

2 A dark , dull thriller with a parting shot that misfires .

4 Runs on the pure adrenalin of Pacino 's performance .

1 More tiring than anything .

3 Thirteen Conversations About One Thing lays out a narrative puzzle that interweaves individual stories , and , like a Mobius strip , elliptically loops back to where it began .

1 There 's a persistent theatrical sentiment and a woozy quality to the manner of the storytelling , which undercuts the devastatingly telling impact of utter loss personified in the film 's simple title .

1 ... most viewers will wish there had been more of the `` Queen '' and less of the `` Damned . ''

4 This comic gem is as delightful as it is derivative .

3 Like many Western action films , this thriller is too loud and thoroughly overbearing , but its heartfelt concern about North Korea 's recent past and South Korea 's future adds a much needed moral weight .

1 A big fat pain .

1 Too bad writer-director Adam Rifkin situates it all in a plot as musty as one of the Golden Eagle 's carpets .

3 Tsai has a well-deserved reputation as one of the cinema world 's great visual stylists , and in this film , every shot enhances the excellent performances .

3 By not averting his eyes , Solondz forces us to consider the unthinkable , the unacceptable , the unmentionable .

2 Skillful as he is , Mr. Shyamalan is undone by his pretensions .

3 It 's a spectacular performance - ahem , we hope it 's only acting .

3 Aniston has at last decisively broken with her Friends image in an independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil .

2 But not a whit more .

1 entertaining enough , but nothing new

4 Steers , in his feature film debut , has created a brilliant motion picture .

2 has some visual wit ... but little imagination elsewhere .

3 An encouraging effort from McCrudden

1 But for the most part , The Weight of Water comes off as a two-way time-switching myopic mystery that stalls in its lackluster gear of emotional blandness .

2 A fascinating but choppy documentary .

2 `` The Tuxedo '' should have been the vehicle for Chan that `` The Mask '' was for Jim Carrey .

3 ... a great , participatory spectator sport . '

4 Visually captivating .

2 ending .

4 A very charming and funny movie .

0 Bears is even worse than I imagined a movie ever could be .

2 Tian emphasizes the isolation of these characters by confining color to Liyan 's backyard .

1 It dabbles all around , never gaining much momentum .

1 The gifted Crudup has the perfect face to play a handsome blank yearning to find himself , and his cipherlike personality and bad behavior would play fine if the movie knew what to do with him .

1 Contains all the substance of a Twinkie -- easy to swallow , but scarcely nourishing .

3 By turns pretentious , fascinating , ludicrous , provocative and vainglorious .

2 ... Myers has turned his franchise into the movie version of an adolescent dirty-joke book done up in post-Tarantino pop-culture riffs ...

2 Not as good as the original , but what is ...

1 If you 're not a fan , it might be like trying to eat Brussels sprouts .

1 Collapses under its own meager weight .

1 Its screenplay serves as auto-critique , and its clumsiness as its own most damning censure .

0 ... you can be forgiven for realizing that you 've spent the past 20 minutes looking at your watch and waiting for Frida to just die already .

0 Done in mostly by a weak script that ca n't support the epic treatment .

3 There are n't many conclusive answers in the film , but there is an interesting story of pointed personalities , courage , tragedy and the little guys vs. the big guys .

1 The movie 's vision of a white American zealously spreading a Puritanical brand of Christianity to South Seas islanders is one only a true believer could relish .

0 Lacks the spirit of the previous two , and makes all those jokes about hos and even more unmentionable subjects seem like mere splashing around in the muck .

4 As an actress , Madonna is one helluva singer .

4 classic cinema served up with heart and humor

1 Could this be the first major studio production shot on video tape instead of film ?

1 Suffers from its timid parsing of the barn-side target of sons trying to breach gaps in their relationships with their fathers .

3 Though intrepid in exploring an attraction that crosses sexual identity , Ozpetek falls short in showing us Antonia 's true emotions ... But at the very least , His Secret Life will leave you thinking .

2 It 's an actor 's showcase that accomplishes its primary goal without the use of special effects , but rather by emphasizing the characters -- including the supporting ones .

3 You watch for that sense of openness , the little surprises .

3 It 's always fascinating to watch Marker the essayist at work .

4 -LRB- Leigh -RRB- has a true talent for drawing wrenching performances from his actors -LRB- improvised over many months -RRB- and for conveying the way tiny acts of kindness make ordinary life survivable .

3 Bolstered by an astonishing voice cast -LRB- excepting Love Hewitt -RRB- , an interesting racial tension , and a storyline that I have n't encountered since at least Pete 's Dragon .

2 Suffers from a decided lack of creative storytelling .

3 Watching the chemistry between Freeman and Judd , however , almost makes this movie worth seeing .

2 It wraps up a classic mother\/daughter struggle in recycled paper with a shiny new bow and while the audience can tell it 's not all new , at least it looks pretty .

4 At 78 minutes it just zings along with vibrance and warmth .

0 It 's also not smart or barbed enough for older viewers -- not everyone thinks poo-poo jokes are ` edgy . '

2 The sequel is everything the original was not : contrived , overblown and tie-in ready .

3 With an obvious rapport with her actors and a striking style behind the camera

2 The action is reasonably well-done ... yet story , character and comedy bits are too ragged to ever fit smoothly together .

1 For all its brilliant touches , Dragon loses its fire midway , nearly flickering out by its perfunctory conclusion .

3 A tasty masala .

1 A movie where story is almost an afterthought amidst a swirl of colors and inexplicable events .

2 Parker should be commended for taking a fresh approach to familiar material , but his determination to remain true to the original text leads him to adopt a somewhat mannered tone ... that ultimately dulls the human tragedy at the story 's core .

3 A faster paced family flick .

3 It 's bright , pristine style and bold colors make it as much fun as reading an oversized picture book before bedtime .

0 This is a fudged opportunity of gigantic proportions -- a lunar mission with no signs of life .

3 Its story about a young Chinese woman , Ah Na , who has come to New York City to replace past tragedy with the American Dream is one that any art-house moviegoer is likely to find compelling .

1 plays like some corny television production from a bygone era

1 This is a poster movie , a mediocre tribute to films like Them !

1 Since Dahmer resorts to standard slasher flick thrills when it should be most in the mind of the killer , it misses a major opportunity to be truly revelatory about his psyche .

2 Flawed , but worth seeing for Ambrose 's performance .

1 By turns numbingly dull-witted and disquietingly creepy .

1 Is it really an advantage to invest such subtlety and warmth in an animatronic bear when the humans are acting like puppets ?

4 For devotees of French cinema , Safe Conduct is so rich with period minutiae it 's like dying and going to celluloid heaven .

1 More busy than exciting , more frantic than involving , more chaotic than entertaining .

2 But even with the two-wrongs-make-a-right chemistry between Jolie and Burns ... this otherwise appealing picture loses its soul to Screenwriting For Dummies conformity .

4 Jones ... makes a great impression as the writer-director of this little $ 1.8 million charmer , which may not be cutting-edge indie filmmaking but has a huge heart .

0 Extremely bad .

2 This sci-fi techno-sex thriller starts out bizarre and just keeps getting weirder .

2 And I expect much more from a talent as outstanding as director Bruce McCulloch .

2 Goldmember is funny enough to justify the embarrassment of bringing a barf bag to the moviehouse .

3 Certainly the performances are worthwhile .

4 Impossible as it may sound , this film 's heart is even more embracing than Monty , if only because it accepts nasty behavior and severe flaws as part of the human condition .

2 A porn film without the sex scenes .

3 Exhilarating but blatantly biased .

1 A party-hearty teen flick that scalds like acid .

1 The darker elements of misogyny and unprovoked violence suffocate the illumination created by the two daughters and the sparse instances of humor meant to shine through the gloomy film noir veil .

3 Assayas ' ambitious , sometimes beautiful adaptation of Jacques Chardonne 's novel .

3 Offers an interesting look at the rapidly changing face of Beijing .

1 It does n't really know or care about the characters , and uses them as markers for a series of preordained events .

3 Would be an unendurable viewing experience for this ultra-provincial New Yorker if 26-year-old Reese Witherspoon were not on hand to inject her pure fantasy character , Melanie Carmichael , with a massive infusion of old-fashioned Hollywood magic .

2 Handsome and sincere but slightly awkward in its combination of entertainment and evangelical boosterism .

1 the film never rises above a conventional , two dimension tale

4 Scherfig , the writer-director , has made a film so unabashedly hopeful that it actually makes the heart soar .

2 A fast-paced , glitzy but extremely silly piece .

2 One of -LRB- Jaglom 's -RRB- better efforts -- a wry and sometime bitter movie about love .

1 It 's only in fairy tales that princesses that are married for political reason live happily ever after .

3 A movie that sends you out of the theater feeling like you 've actually spent time living in another community .

1 More trifle than triumph .

1 Cassavetes thinks he 's making Dog Day Afternoon with a cause , but all he 's done is to reduce everything he touches to a shrill , didactic cartoon .

4 Stevens has a flair for dialogue comedy , the film operates nicely off the element of surprise , and the large cast is solid .

2 Innocuous enough to make even Jean-Claude Van Damme look good .

1 Give Shapiro , Goldman , and Bolado credit for good intentions , but there 's nothing here that they could n't have done in half an hour .

3 Downbeat , period-perfect biopic hammers home a heavy-handed moralistic message .

0 A muddled limp biscuit of a movie , a vampire soap opera that does n't make much sense even on its own terms .

0 Skip this turd and pick your nose instead because you 're sure to get more out of the latter experience .

4 A well-executed spy-thriller .

0 We never truly come to care about the main characters and whether or not they 'll wind up together , and Michele 's spiritual quest is neither amusing nor dramatic enough to sustain interest .

2 The movie does has some entertainment value - how much depends on how well you like Chris Rock .

3 More of the same from Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang , which is good news to anyone who 's fallen under the sweet , melancholy spell of this unique director 's previous films .

0 The animation and game phenomenon that peaked about three years ago is actually dying a slow death , if the poor quality of Pokemon 4 Ever is any indication .

2 The Ring is worth a look , if you do n't demand much more than a few cheap thrills from your Halloween entertainment .

2 If you can tolerate the redneck-versus-blueblood cliches that the film trades in , Sweet Home Alabama is diverting in the manner of Jeff Foxworthy 's stand-up act .

3 What 's most memorable about Circuit is that it 's shot on digital video , whose tiny camera enables Shafer to navigate spaces both large ... and small ... with considerable aplomb .

3 The film delivers what it promises : A look at the `` wild ride '' that ensues when brash young men set out to conquer the online world with laptops , cell phones and sketchy business plans .

4 The most brilliant work in this genre since the 1984 uncut version of Sergio Leone 's flawed but staggering Once Upon a Time in America .

1 Make Chan 's action sequences boring .

0 The Sum of All Fears pretends to be a serious exploration of nuclear terrorism , but it 's really nothing more than warmed-over Cold War paranoia .

0 Most of the storylines feel like time fillers between surf shots .

2 The funny thing is , I did n't mind all this contrived nonsense a bit .

3 You never know where Changing Lanes is going to take you but it 's a heck of a ride .

1 Never comes together as a coherent whole .

1 If the predictability of bland comfort food appeals to you , then the film is a pleasant enough dish .

1 Friday After Next is the kind of film that could only be made by African-Americans because of its broad racial insensitivity towards African-Americans .

2 Davis has energy , but she does n't bother to make her heroine 's book sound convincing , the gender-war ideas original , or the comic scenes fly .

3 A sweet-tempered comedy that forgoes the knee-jerk misogyny that passes for humor in so many teenage comedies .

2 The actresses may have worked up a back story for the women they portray so convincingly , but viewers do n't get enough of that background for the characters to be involving as individuals rather than types .

2 If horses could fly , this is surely what they 'd look like .

2 Perhaps the most annoying thing about Who Is Cletis Tout ?

4 The characters are complex and quirky , but entirely believable as the remarkable ensemble cast brings them to life .

0 The misery of these people becomes just another voyeuristic spectacle , to be consumed and forgotten .

3 A formula family tearjerker told with a heavy Irish brogue ... accentuating , rather than muting , the plot 's saccharine thrust .

1 There might be some sort of credible gender-provoking philosophy submerged here , but who the hell cares ?

4 Solaris is rigid and evasive in ways that Soderbergh 's best films , `` Erin Brockovich , '' `` Out of Sight '' and `` Ocean 's Eleven , '' never were .

2 It 's hard to believe that a relationship like Holly and Marina 's could survive the hothouse emotions of teendom , and its longevity gets more inexplicable as the characterizations turn more crassly reductive .

1 There 's no excuse for following up a delightful , well-crafted family film with a computer-generated cold fish .

4 -LRB- Dong -RRB- makes a valiant effort to understand everyone 's point of view , and he does such a good job of it that Family Fundamentals gets you riled up .

3 One of the best of a growing strain of daring films ... that argue that any sexual relationship that does n't hurt anyone and works for its participants is a relationship that is worthy of our respect .

2 Oh , and Booty Call .

2 Some people want the ol' ball-and-chain and then there are those who just want the Ball and Chain .

1 Woo has as much right to make a huge action sequence as any director , but how long will filmmakers copy the `` Saving Private Ryan '' battle scenes before realizing Steven Spielberg got it right the first time ?

4 As satisfyingly odd and intriguing a tale as it was a century and a half ago ... has a delightfully dour , deadpan tone and stylistic consistency .

2 Egoyan 's work often elegantly considers various levels of reality and uses shifting points of view , but here he has constructed a film so labyrinthine that it defeats his larger purpose .

1 The corpse count ultimately overrides what little we learn along the way about vicarious redemption .

1 It 's hard to care about a film that proposes as epic tragedy the plight of a callow rich boy who is forced to choose between his beautiful , self-satisfied 22-year-old girlfriend and an equally beautiful , self-satisfied 18-year-old mistress .

4 A sensitive , cultivated treatment of Greene 's work as well as a remarkably faithful one .

1 An instantly forgettable snow-and-stuntwork extravaganza that likely will be upstaged by an avalanche of more appealing holiday-season product .

1 This is a third-person story now , told by Hollywood , and much more ordinary for it .

1 A well-intentioned effort that 's still too burdened by the actor 's offbeat sensibilities for the earnest emotional core to emerge with any degree of accessibility .

0 It 's not a bad premise , just a bad movie .

1 This may be the first cartoon ever to look as if it were being shown on the projection television screen of a sports bar .

3 Claude Chabrol 's camera has a way of gently swaying back and forth as it cradles its characters , veiling tension beneath otherwise tender movements .

1 A bit too eager to please .

4 About as big a crowdpleaser as they possibly come .

2 A rather average action film that benefits from several funny moments supplied by Epps .

3 You 've already seen City by the Sea under a variety of titles , but it 's worth yet another visit .

3 He 's one of the few ` cool ' actors who never seems aware of his own coolness .

2 At its worst , the movie is pretty diverting ; the pity is that it rarely achieves its best .

4 Filmmaker Tian Zhuangzhuang triumphantly returns to narrative filmmaking with a visually masterful work of quiet power .

4 ... a solid , well-formed satire .

2 A puzzling experience .

1 A painfully slow cliche-ridden film filled with more holes than Clyde Barrow 's car .

0 It shows that some studios firmly believe that people have lost the ability to think and will forgive any shoddy product as long as there 's a little girl-on-girl action .

2 Merci pour le movie .

3 Fessenden has nurtured his metaphors at the expense of his narrative , but he does display an original talent .

4 Beautifully shot against the frozen winter landscapes of Grenoble and Geneva , the film unfolds with all the mounting tension of an expert thriller , until the tragedy beneath it all gradually reveals itself .

2 Or both .

1 If you 're looking for a story , do n't bother .

0 Mr. Deeds is not really a film as much as it is a loose collection of not-so-funny gags , scattered moments of lazy humor .

2 It was filled with shootings , beatings , and more cussing than you could shake a stick at .

2 Like shave ice without the topping , this cinematic snow cone is as innocuous as it is flavorless .

1 A characteristically engorged and sloppy coming-of-age movie .

3 Affable if not timeless , Like Mike raises some worthwhile themes while delivering a wholesome fantasy for kids .

4 Salma goes native and she 's never been better in this colorful bio-pic of a Mexican icon .

1 I have a confession to make : I did n't particularly like E.T. the first time I saw it as a young boy .

2 Showtime 's starry cast could be both an asset and a detriment .

1 Grating and tedious .

1 It 's a big idea , but the film itself is small and shriveled .

2 I wish Windtalkers had had more faith in the dramatic potential of this true story .

2 Fulfills the minimum requirement of Disney animation .

2 Better than the tepid Star Trek : Insurrection ; falls short of First Contact because the villain could n't pick the lint off Borg Queen Alice Krige 's cape ; and finishes half a parsec -LRB- a nose -RRB- ahead of Generations .

0 The movie is a desperate miscalculation .

1 A sub-formulaic slap in the face to seasonal cheer .

0 There are now two signs that M. Night Shyamalan 's debut feature sucked up all he has to give to the mystic genres of cinema : Unbreakable and Signs .

2 The members manage to pronounce KOK exactly as you think they might , thus giving the cast ample opportunity to use that term as often as possible .

2 The film thrusts the inchoate but already eldritch Christian Right propaganda machine into national media circles .

3 Damon brings the proper conviction to his role as -LRB- Jason Bourne -RRB- .

0 Disgusting .

3 In all fairness , I must report that the children of varying ages in my audience never coughed , fidgeted or romped up and down the aisles for bathroom breaks .

3 Even if you do n't know the band or the album 's songs by heart , you will enjoy seeing how both evolve , and you will also learn a good deal about the state of the music business in the 21st Century .

1 the film does n't sustain its initial promise with a jarring , new-agey tone creeping into the second half

4 As warm as it is wise , deftly setting off uproarious humor with an underlying seriousness that sneaks up on the viewer , providing an experience that is richer than anticipated .

3 It offers a glimpse of the Solomonic decision facing Jewish parents in those turbulent times : to save their children and yet to lose them .

2 It wo n't harm anyone , but neither can I think of a very good reason to rush right out and see it .

0 The film is so busy making reference to other films and trying to be other films that it fails to have a heart , mind or humor of its own .

1 It 's mildly interesting to ponder the peculiar American style of justice that plays out here , but it 's so muddled and derivative that few will bother thinking it all through .

4 A colorful , joyous celebration of life ; a tapestry woven of romance , dancing , singing , and unforgettable characters .

2 The execution is so pedestrian that the most positive comment we can make is that Rob Schneider actually turns in a pretty convincing performance as a prissy teenage girl .

2 Freundlich 's made -LRB- Crudup -RRB- a suburban architect , and a cipher .

3 Maryam is a small film , but it offers large rewards .

3 Hollywood Ending is not show-stoppingly hilarious , but scathingly witty nonetheless .

0 Of all the Halloween 's , this is the most visually unappealing .

1 What could have been right at home as a nifty plot line in Steven Soderbergh 's Traffic fails to arrive at any satisfying destination .

0 Should have gone straight to video .

3 One of those joyous films that leaps over national boundaries and celebrates universal human nature .

3 What begins as a conventional thriller evolves into a gorgeously atmospheric meditation on life-changing chance encounters .

4 Every individual will see the movie through the prism of his or her own beliefs and prejudices , but the one thing most will take away is the sense that peace is possible .

0 ... the story is far-flung , illogical , and plain stupid .

2 Explosions , jokes , and sexual innuendoes abound .

2 The vistas are sweeping and the acting is far from painful .

4 Executed with such gentle but insistent sincerity , with such good humor and appreciation of the daily grind that only the most hardhearted Scrooge could fail to respond .

1 Bad Company has one of the most moronic screenplays of the year , full of holes that will be obvious even to those who are n't looking for them .

1 This film is too busy hitting all of its assigned marks to take on any life of its own .

4 Arguably the best script that Besson has written in years .

2 The film is a masterpiece of nuance and characterization , marred only by an inexplicable , utterly distracting blunder at the very end .

3 Stevens ' vibrant creative instincts are the difference between this and countless other flicks about guys and dolls .

3 ... a solid , unassuming drama .

4 Like Shrek , Spirit 's visual imagination reminds you of why animation is such a perfect medium for children , because of the way it allows the mind to enter and accept another world .

3 ... a guiltless film for nice evening out .

4 Brutally honest and told with humor and poignancy , which makes its message resonate .

3 After the first 10 minutes , which is worth seeing

2 If Jews were Catholics , this would be Catechism

1 Did we really need a remake of `` Charade ? ''

4 Fantastic !

4 This is a movie that refreshes the mind and spirit along with the body , so original is its content , look , and style .

1 Low comedy does n't come much lower .

3 And more than that , it 's an observant , unfussily poetic meditation about identity and alienation .

3 Jae-eun Jeong 's Take Care of My Cat brings a beguiling freshness to a coming-of-age story with such a buoyant , expressive flow of images that it emerges as another key contribution to the flowering of the South Korean cinema .

1 A sugar-coated Rocky whose valuable messages are forgotten 10 minutes after the last trombone honks .

3 By and large this is Mr. Kilmer 's movie , and it 's his strongest performance since The Doors .

3 Amazingly dopey .

2 Those of you who do n't believe in Santa Claus probably also think that sequels can never capture the magic of the original .

2 A drama of great power , yet some members of the audience will leave the theater believing they have seen a comedy .

0 A limp Eddie Murphy vehicle that even he seems embarrassed to be part of .

3 Shiri is an action film that delivers on the promise of excitement , but it also has a strong dramatic and emotional pull that gradually sneaks up on the audience .

4 Lovingly photographed in the manner of a Golden Book sprung to life , Stuart Little 2 manages sweetness largely without stickiness .

1 Problem is , we have no idea what in creation is going on .

2 A late-night cable sexploitation romp masquerading as a thriller about the ruthless social order that governs college cliques .

3 Almost everyone growing up believes their family must look like `` The Addams Family '' to everyone looking in ... `` My Big Fat Greek Wedding '' comes from the heart ...

3 Watching The Powerpuff Girls Movie , my mind kept returning to one anecdote for comparison : the cartoon in Japan that gave people seizures .

2 A mess , but it 's a sincere mess .

2 Oops , she 's really done it this time .

2 Cube 's charisma and chemistry compensate for corniness and cliche .

4 A moving and important film .

3 every once in a while , a movie will come along that turns me into that annoying specimen of humanity that I usually dread encountering the most - The Fanboy

1 Lisa Rinzler 's cinematography may be lovely , but Love Liza 's tale itself virtually collapses into an inhalant blackout , maintaining consciousness just long enough to achieve callow pretension .

3 This is popcorn movie fun with equal doses of action , cheese , ham and cheek -LRB- as well as a serious debt to The Road Warrior -RRB- , but it feels like unrealized potential

3 Entirely appropriately , the tale unfolds like a lazy summer afternoon and concludes with the crisp clarity of a fall dawn .

0 It ends up being neither , and fails at both endeavors .

3 In painting an unabashedly romantic picture of a nation whose songs spring directly from the lives of the people , the movie exalts the Marxian dream of honest working folk , with little to show for their labor , living harmoniously , joined in song .

3 An interesting look behind the scenes of Chicago-based rock group Wilco ...

3 This is a shrewd and effective film from a director who understands how to create and sustain a mood .

3 The Pianist is the film Roman Polanski may have been born to make .

0 The thing just never gets off the ground .

2 A very pretty after-school special .

3 Any movie that makes hard work seem heroic deserves a look .

4 With ` Bowling for Columbine , ' Michael Moore gives us the perfect starting point for a national conversation about guns , violence , and fear .

0 Once Ice-T sticks his mug in the window of the couple 's BMW and begins haranguing the wife in bad stage dialogue , all credibility flies out the window .

4 Seems based on ugly ideas instead of ugly behavior , as Happiness was ... Hence , Storytelling is far more appealing .

1 a stereotype

2 Walsh ca n't quite negotiate the many inconsistencies in Janice 's behavior or compensate for them by sheer force of charm .

0 Much like its easily dismissive take on the upscale lifestyle , there is n't much there here .

1 A sad and rote exercise in milking a played-out idea -- a straight guy has to dress up in drag -- that shockingly manages to be even worse than its title would imply .

3 Fessenden continues to do interesting work , and it would be nice to see what he could make with a decent budget .

0 This is a movie filled with unlikable , spiteful idiots ; whether or not their friendship is salvaged makes no difference in the least .

1 Should have been worth cheering as a breakthrough but is devoid of wit and humor .

3 A bright , inventive , thoroughly winning flight of revisionist fancy .

1 It takes a really long , slow and dreary time to dope out what TUCK EVERLASTING is about .

3 Leigh succeeds in delivering a dramatic slap in the face that 's simultaneously painful and refreshing .

1 It 's a strange film , one that was hard for me to warm up to .

3 I 'm not a fan of the phrase ` life affirming ' because it usually means ` schmaltzy , ' but Real Women Have Curves truly is life affirming .

4 Top-notch action powers this romantic drama .

4 Maggie Smith as the Ya-Ya member with the O2-tank will absolutely crack you up with her crass , then gasp for gas , verbal deportment .

4 A powerful , chilling , and affecting study of one man 's dying fall .

3 It 's a day at the beach -- with air conditioning and popcorn .

3 Plus , like I already mentioned ... it 's Robert Duvall !

3 I liked the movie , but I know I would have liked it more if it had just gone that one step further .

0 Unfortunately , the experience of actually watching the movie is less compelling than the circumstances of its making .

3 The power of Shanghai Ghetto , a documentary by Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann , rests in the voices of men and women , now in their 70s , who lived there in the 1940s .

3 The bodily function jokes are about what you 'd expect , but there are rich veins of funny stuff in this movie .

2 The pace of the film is very slow -LRB- for obvious reasons -RRB- and that too becomes off-putting .

3 Screenwriter Dan Schneider and director Shawn Levy substitute volume and primary colors for humor and bite .

2 Ultimately feels like just one more in the long line of films this year about the business of making movies .

1 Decent but dull .

0 ` Martin Lawrence Live ' is so self-pitying , I almost expected there to be a collection taken for the comedian at the end of the show .

4 A movie that both thrills the eye and , in its over-the-top way , touches the heart .

0 What we get in FearDotCom is more like something from a bad Clive Barker movie .

2 So-so entertainment .

3 The film proves unrelentingly grim -- and equally engrossing .

2 Exploring value choices is a worthwhile topic for a film -- but here the choices are as contrived and artificial as Kerrigan 's platinum-blonde hair .

4 Could I have been more geeked when I heard that Apollo 13 was going to be released in IMAX format ?

1 Tedious Norwegian offering which somehow snagged an Oscar nomination .

2 The film 's stagecrafts are intimate and therefore bolder than the otherwise calculated artifice that defines and overwhelms the film 's production design .

3 The script manages the rare trick of seeming at once both refreshingly different and reassuringly familiar .

0 It could have been something special , but two things drag it down to mediocrity -- director Clare Peploe 's misunderstanding of Marivaux 's rhythms , and Mira Sorvino 's limitations as a classical actress .

2 Wallace directs with such patronising reverence , it turns the stomach .

1 It has become apparent that the franchise 's best years are long past .

2 You bet there is and it 's what makes this rather convoluted journey worth taking .

1 It 's like going to a house party and watching the host defend himself against a frothing ex-girlfriend .

3 Though its story is only surface deep , the visuals and enveloping sounds of Blue Crush make this surprisingly decent flick worth a summertime look-see .

2 At its best when the guarded , resentful Betty and the manipulative yet needy Margot are front and center .

1 Whatever the movie 's sentimental , hypocritical lessons about sexism , its true colors come out in various wet T-shirt and shower scenes .

1 Plot , characters , drama , emotions , ideas -- all are irrelevant to the experience of seeing The Scorpion King .

1 Befuddled in its characterizations as it begins to seem as long as the two year affair which is its subject

0 Bread , My Sweet has so many flaws it would be easy for critics to shred it .

1 I did n't laugh .

2 Every five minutes or so , someone gets clocked .

1 Has nothing good to speak about other than the fact that it is relatively short , tries its best to hide the fact that Seagal 's overweight and out of shape .

1 It never rises to its clever what-if concept .

3 And it marks him as one of the most interesting writer\/directors working today .

1 It leers , offering next to little insight into its intriguing subject .

2 While certain cues , like the happy music , suggest that this movie is supposed to warm our hearts , Jeong-Hyang Lee 's film is just as likely to blacken that organ with cold vengefulness .

0 Festers in just such a dungpile that you 'd swear you were watching monkeys flinging their feces at you .

3 K-19 will not go down in the annals of cinema as one of the great submarine stories , but it is an engaging and exciting narrative of Man confronting the Demons of his own fear and paranoia .

1 This picture is mostly a lump of run-of-the-mill profanity sprinkled with a few remarks so geared toward engendering audience sympathy that you might think he was running for office -- or trying to win over a probation officer .

3 ... enthusiastically invokes the percussion rhythm , the brass soul and the sense of fierce competition that helps make great marching bands half the fun of college football games .

2 There are problems with this film that even 3 Oscar winners ca n't overcome , but it 's a nice girl-buddy movie once it gets rock-n-rolling .

1 Could as easily have been called ` Under Siege 3 : In Alcatraz ' ... a cinematic corpse that never springs to life .

1 ... while certainly clever in spots , this too-long , spoofy update of Shakespeare 's Macbeth does n't sustain a high enough level of invention .

1 A lot like the imaginary sport it projects onto the screen -- loud , violent and mindless .

2 Might best be enjoyed as a daytime soaper .

0 ... it was n't the subject matter that ultimately defeated the film ... It was the unfulfilling , incongruous , `` wait a second , did I miss something ? ''

1 The audacity to view one of Shakespeare 's better known tragedies as a dark comedy is , by itself , deserving of discussion .

4 Enjoyably fast-moving , hard-hitting documentary .

3 Too damn weird to pass up , and for the blacklight crowd , way cheaper -LRB- and better -RRB- than Pink Floyd tickets .

0 It 's a bad sign when you 're rooting for the film to hurry up and get to its subjects ' deaths just so the documentary will be over , but it 's indicative of how uncompelling the movie is unless it happens to cover your particular area of interest .

1 Ver Wiel 's desperate attempt at wit is lost , leaving the character of Critical Jim two-dimensional and pointless .

3 A culture-clash comedy that , in addition to being very funny , captures some of the discomfort and embarrassment of being a bumbling American in Europe .

3 It 's an interesting effort -LRB- particularly for JFK conspiracy nuts -RRB- , and Barry 's cold-fish act makes the experience worthwhile .

4 Leigh is one of the rare directors who feels acting is the heart and soul of cinema .

3 The stars may be college kids , but the subject matter is as adult as you can get : the temptations of the flesh are unleashed by a slightly crazed , overtly determined young woman and a one-night swim turns into an ocean of trouble .

2 Paxton 's uneven directorial debut fails to unlock the full potential of what is in many ways a fresh and dramatically substantial spin on the genre .

3 The film 's appeal has a lot to do with the casting of Juliette Binoche as Sand , who brings to the role her pale , dark beauty and characteristic warmth .

1 And people make fun of me for liking Showgirls .

2 It 's all pretty tame .

1 Once the downward spiral comes to pass , Auto Focus bears out as your typical junkie opera ...

0 A loud , witless mess that has none of the charm and little of the intrigue from the TV series .

0 But if the essence of magic is its make-believe promise of life that soars above the material realm , this is the opposite of a truly magical movie .

4 A lot of fun , with an undeniable energy sparked by two actresses in their 50s working at the peak of their powers .

2 Some elements of it really blow the big one , but other parts are decent .

1 Little more than a well-mounted history lesson .

3 While the story does seem pretty unbelievable at times , it 's awfully entertaining to watch .

1 With Zoe Clarke-Williams 's lackluster thriller `` New Best Friend '' , who needs enemies ?

0 No one involved , save Dash , shows the slightest aptitude for acting , and the script , credited to director Abdul Malik Abbott and Ernest ` Tron ' Anderson , seems entirely improvised .

2 A melancholy , emotional film .

3 A great cast and a wonderful but sometimes confusing flashback movie about growing up in a dysfunctional family .

1 A small fortune in salaries and stunt cars might have been saved if the director , Tom Dey , had spliced together bits and pieces of Midnight Run and 48 Hours -LRB- and , for that matter , Shrek -RRB- .

0 If you go , pack your knitting needles .

1 I did n't smile .

4 Not only is it a charming , funny and beautifully crafted import , it uses very little dialogue , making it relatively effortless to read and follow the action at the same time .

3 Not everything in this ambitious comic escapade works , but Coppola , along with his sister , Sofia , is a real filmmaker .

0 It 's crap on a leash -- far too polite to scale the lunatic heights of Joe Dante 's similarly styled Gremlins .

2 True Hollywood Story .

0 The kind of film that leaves you scratching your head in amazement over the fact that so many talented people could participate in such an ill-advised and poorly executed idea .

4 Driven by a fantastic dual performance from Ian Holm ... the film is funny , insightfully human and a delightful lark for history buffs .

4 Fast-paced and wonderfully edited , the film is extremely thorough .

0 Starts as an intense political and psychological thriller but is sabotaged by ticking time bombs and other Hollywood-action cliches .

3 Told just proficiently enough to trounce its overly comfortable trappings .

1 About half of them are funny , a few are sexy and none are useful in telling the story , which is paper-thin and decidedly unoriginal .

0 ... unbearably lame .

2 If you 're a Crocodile Hunter fan , you 'll enjoy at least the `` real '' portions of the film .

4 Marvelously entertaining and deliriously joyous documentary .

0 Muddled , simplistic and more than a little pretentious .

4 I love the robust middle of this picture .

3 Takes you by the face , strokes your cheeks and coos beseechingly at you : slow down , shake off your tensions and take this picture at its own breezy , distracted rhythms .

0 Oversexed , at times overwrought comedy\/drama that offers little insight into the experience of being forty , female and single .

0 Does n't come close to justifying the hype that surrounded its debut at the Sundance Film Festival two years ago .

3 The film grows on you .

4 What makes this film special is Serry 's ability to take what is essentially a contained family conflict and put it into a much larger historical context .

3 Despite its faults , Gangs excels in spectacle and pacing .

1 ` It looks good , Sonny , but you missed the point . '

0 It 's hard to imagine that even very small children will be impressed by this tired retread .

3 The best of the Pierce Brosnan James Bond films to date .

1 Just another generic drama that has nothing going for it other than its exploitive array of obligatory cheap thrills .

2 Far-fetched premise , convoluted plot , and thematic mumbo jumbo about destiny and redemptive love .

1 There 's something fishy about a seasonal holiday kids ' movie ... that derives its moment of most convincing emotional gravity from a scene where Santa gives gifts to grownups .

1 It all comes down to whether you can tolerate Leon Barlow .

3 has far more energy , wit and warmth than should be expected from any movie with a `` 2 '' at the end of its title .

2 The film makes strong arguments regarding the social status of America 's indigenous people , but really only exists to try to eke out an emotional tug of the heart , one which it fails to get .

2 I 'm sure the filmmakers found this a remarkable and novel concept , but

2 It 's a gag that 's worn a bit thin over the years , though Do n't Ask still finds a few chuckles .

4 One of the most important and exhilarating forms of animated filmmaking since old Walt doodled Steamboat Willie .

3 But though he only scratches the surface , at least he provides a strong itch to explore more .

4 It 's never dull and always looks good .

2 Everything else about High Crimes is , like the military system of justice it portrays , tiresomely regimented .

2 I had more fun with Ben Stiller 's Zoolander , which I thought was rather clever .

3 From the dull , surreal ache of mortal awareness emerges a radiant character portrait .

2 God is great , the movie 's not .

0 In other words , it 's badder than bad .

2 would have been benefited from a sharper , cleaner script before it went in front of the camera .

4 `` Frailty '' starts out like a typical Bible killer story , but it turns out to be significantly different -LRB- and better -RRB- than most films with this theme .

4 The slam-bang superheroics are kinetic enough to engross even the most antsy youngsters .

2 It 's been 20 years since 48 Hrs .

4 Vividly conveys the passion , creativity , and fearlessness of one of Mexico 's most colorful and controversial artists -- a captivating drama that will speak to the nonconformist in us all .

1 It winds up moving in many directions as it searches -LRB- vainly , I think -RRB- for something fresh to say .

2 There 's no getting around the fact that this is Revenge Of The Nerds Revisited -- again .

3 A fast paced and suspenseful Argentinian thriller about the shadow side of play .

4 By the standards of knucklehead swill , The Hot Chick is pretty damned funny .

1 Although sensitive to a fault , it 's often overwritten , with a surfeit of weighty revelations , flowery dialogue , and nostalgia for the past and roads not taken .

3 With amazing finesse , the film shadows Heidi 's trip back to Vietnam and the city where her mother , Mai Thi Kim , still lives .

4 But believe it or not , it 's one of the most beautiful , evocative works I 've seen .

2 Less-than-compelling documentary of a Yiddish theater clan .

4 Assured , vital and well wrought , the film is , arguably , the most accomplished work to date from Hong Kong 's versatile Stanley Kwan .

3 It 's at once laughable and compulsively watchable , in its committed dumbness .

3 Originality ai n't on the menu , but there 's never a dull moment in the giant spider invasion comic chiller .

1 With elements cribbed from Lang 's Metropolis , Welles ' Kane , and Eisenstein 's Potemkin

3 Rodriguez does a splendid job of racial profiling Hollywood style -- casting excellent Latin actors of all ages -- a trend long overdue .

2 Though it flirts with bathos and pathos and the further Oprahfication of the world as we know it , it still cuts all the way down to broken bone .

4 Simply put , `` Far From Heaven '' is a masterpiece .

3 Yes , it 's as good as you remember .

1 The director seems to take an unseemly pleasure in -LRB- the characters ' -RRB- misery and at the same time to congratulate himself for having the guts to confront it .

4 Apart from anything else , this is one of the best-sustained ideas I have ever seen on the screen .

2 ... a somber film , almost completely unrelieved by any comedy beyond the wistful everyday ironies of the working poor .

2 The talk-heavy film plays like one of Robert Altman 's lesser works .

1 The young stars are too cute ; the story and ensuing complications are too manipulative ; the message is too blatant ; the resolutions are too convenient .

2 Feels slight , as if it were an extended short , albeit one made by the smartest kids in class .

0 The comedy is nonexistent .

2 downtown

0 The movie is almost completely lacking in suspense , surprise and consistent emotional conviction .

1 his -LRB- Nelson 's -RRB- screenplay needs some serious re-working to show more of the dilemma , rather than have his characters stage shouting matches about it .

1 Nohe has made a decent ` intro ' documentary , but he feels like a spectator and not a participant .

4 The most compelling performance of the year adds substantial depth to this shocking testament to anti-Semitism and neo-fascism .

2 More vaudeville show than well-constructed narrative , but on those terms it 's inoffensive and actually rather sweet .

3 Overcomes its visual hideousness with a sharp script and strong performances .

0 What ultimately makes Windtalkers a disappointment is the superficial way it deals with its story .

2 The stripped-down dramatic constructs , austere imagery and abstract characters are equal parts poetry and politics , obvious at times but evocative and heartfelt .

0 The characters ... are paper-thin , and their personalities undergo radical changes when it suits the script .

2 Courtney CHASES Stuart with a CELL PHONE .

3 You need n't be steeped in '50s sociology , pop culture or movie lore to appreciate the emotional depth of Haynes ' work .

3 waydowntown manages to nail the spirit-crushing ennui of denuded urban living without giving in to it .

4 are both superb , while Huppert ... is magnificent .

3 Twohy 's a good yarn-spinner , and ultimately the story compels .

1 ... a low rate Annie featuring some kid who ca n't act , only echoes of Jordan , and weirdo actor Crispin Glover screwing things up old school .

3 It 's an entertaining movie , and the effects , boosted to the size of a downtown hotel , will all but take you to outer space .

4 Overall , it 's a very entertaining , thought-provoking film with a simple message : God is love .

4 In IMAX in short , it 's just as wonderful on the big screen .

3 Poignant if familiar story of a young person suspended between two cultures .

4 A burst of color , music , and dance that only the most practiced curmudgeon could fail to crack a smile at .

3 Plunges you into a reality that is , more often then not , difficult and sad , and then , without sentimentalizing it or denying its brutality , transforms that reality into a lyrical and celebratory vision .

3 A film that will enthrall the whole family .

2 I was sent a copyof this film to review on DVD .

1 When it comes to the battle of Hollywood vs. Woo , it looks like Woo 's a P.O.W.

1 Like Schindler 's List , The Grey Zone attempts to be grandiloquent , but ends up merely pretentious -- in a grisly sort of way .

2 There are many things that solid acting can do for a movie , but crafting something promising from a mediocre screenplay is not one of them .

3 It 's fun , but it 's a real howler .

2 If Borstal Boy is n't especially realistic , it is an engaging nostalgia piece .

3 What -LRB- Denis -RRB- accomplishes in his chilling , unnerving film is a double portrait of two young women whose lives were as claustrophic , suffocating and chilly as the attics to which they were inevitably consigned .

2 It may not be as cutting , as witty or as true as back in the glory days of Weekend and Two or Three Things I Know About Her , but who else engaged in filmmaking today is so cognizant of the cultural and moral issues involved in the process ?

0 This ludicrous film is predictable at every turn .

3 Stage director Sam Mendes showcases Tom Hanks as a depression era hit-man in this dark tale of revenge .

3 The film is hard to dismiss -- moody , thoughtful , and lit by flashes of mordant humor .

1 A few hours after you 've seen it , you forget you 've been to the movies .

4 Eric Schweig and Graham Greene both exude an air of dignity that 's perfect for the proud warrior that still lingers in the souls of these characters .

2 While puerile men dominate the story , the women shine .

3 It 's full of cheesy dialogue , but great trashy fun that finally returns De Palma to his pulpy thrillers of the early '80s .

4 This sensitive , smart , savvy , compelling coming-of-age drama delves into the passive-aggressive psychology of co-dependence and the struggle for self-esteem .

0 A movie more to be prescribed than recommended -- as visually bland as a dentist 's waiting room , complete with soothing Muzak and a cushion of predictable narrative rhythms .

1 works on the whodunit level as its larger themes get lost in the murk of its own making

3 A deft , delightful mix of sulky teen drama and overcoming-obstacles sports-movie triumph .

3 The difference is that I truly enjoyed most of Mostly Martha while I ne

1 The film is strictly routine .

1 Mattei so completely loses himself to the film 's circular structure to ever offer any insightful discourse on , well , Love in the Time of Money .

2 Its juxtaposition of overwrought existentialism and stomach-churning gore will have you forever on the verge of either cracking up or throwing up .

3 Though Lan Yu lacks a sense of dramatic urgency , the film makes up for it with a pleasing verisimilitude .

2 At times THE GUYS taps into some powerful emotions , but this kind of material is more effective on stage .

0 `` The Adventures of Pluto Nash '' is a big time stinker .

2 Pascale Bailly 's rom-com

1 This is an action movie with an action icon who 's been all but decommissioned .

2 The film was n't preachy , but it was feminism by the book .

2 Like an episode of MTV 's Undressed , with 20 times the creativity but without any more substance ... indulgently entertaining but could have and should have been deeper .

1 No thanks .

3 It 's pretty linear and only makeup-deep , but Bogdanovich ties it together with efficiency and an affection for the period .

2 The narrative is so consistently unimaginative that probably the only way to have saved the film is with the aid of those wisecracking Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys .

3 In fact , it 's quite fun in places .

3 A living testament to the power of the eccentric and the strange .

2 Crikey indeed .

3 ` Blue Crush ' swims away with the Sleeper Movie of the Summer award .

2 Nothing more than a run-of-the-mill action flick .

0 The exclamation point seems to be the only bit of glee you 'll find in this dreary mess .

1 Though there are many tense scenes in Trapped , they prove more distressing than suspenseful .

2 Gorgeous scenes , masterful performances , but the sickly sweet gender normative narrative left an acrid test in this gourmet 's mouth .

1 Lan Yu seems altogether too slight to be called any kind of masterpiece .

3 There is a freedom to watching stunts that are this crude , this fast-paced and this insane .

1 In the process of trimming the movie to an expeditious 84 minutes , director Roger Kumble seems to have dumped a whole lot of plot in favor of ... outrageous gags .

1 Before it collapses into exactly the kind of buddy cop comedy it set out to lampoon , anyway .

4 With each of her three protagonists , Miller eloquently captures the moment when a woman 's life , out of a deep-seated , emotional need , is about to turn onto a different path .

3 He watches them as they float within the seas of their personalities .

2 Who knew ...

3 A showcase for both the scenic splendor of the mountains and for legendary actor Michel Serrault , the film is less successful on other levels .

0 Ms. Phoenix is completely lacking in charm and charisma , and is unable to project either Esther 's initial anomie or her eventual awakening .

4 Here is a divine monument to a single man 's struggle to regain his life , his dignity and his music .

2 An average coming-of-age tale elevated by the wholesome twist of a pesky mother interfering during her son 's discovery of his homosexuality .

1 A sustained fest of self-congratulation between actor and director that leaves scant place for the viewer .

1 The script has less spice than a rat burger and The Rock 's fighting skills are more in line with Steven Seagal .

1 Rumor , a muddled drama about coming to terms with death , feels impersonal , almost generic .

3 A dazzling thing to behold -- as long as you 're wearing the somewhat cumbersome 3D goggles the theater provides .

0 As pure over-the-top trash , any John Waters movie has it beat by a country mile .

1 A very slow , uneventful ride around a pretty tattered old carousel .

0 It 's a road-trip drama with too many wrong turns .

1 While Scorsese 's bold images and generally smart casting ensure that `` Gangs '' is never lethargic , the movie is hindered by a central plot that 's peppered with false starts and populated by characters who are nearly impossible to care about .

4 One of the best films of the year with its exquisite acting , inventive screenplay , mesmerizing music , and many inimitable scenes of tenderness , loss , discontent , and yearning .

1 Not exaggerated enough to be a parody of gross-out flicks , college flicks , or even flicks in general .

1 Once he starts learning to compromise with reality enough to become comparatively sane and healthy , the film becomes predictably conventional .

2 Possibly not since Grumpy Old Men have I heard a film so solidly connect with one demographic while striking out with another .

0 Despite all the closed-door hanky-panky , the film is essentially juiceless .

1 It 's a pedestrian , flat drama that screams out ` amateur ' in almost every frame .

2 A direct-to-void release , heading nowhere .

3 A weird , arresting little ride .

3 Mel Gibson fights the good fight in Vietnam in director Randall Wallace 's flag-waving war flick with a core of decency .

4 Intelligent and moving .

1 And that is where Ararat went astray .

2 This new Time Machine is hardly perfect ... yet it proves surprisingly serviceable .

3 If S&M seems like a strange route to true love , maybe it is , but it 's to this film 's -LRB- and its makers ' -RRB- credit that we believe that that 's exactly what these two people need to find each other -- and themselves .

3 But Kouyate elicits strong performances from his cast , and he delivers a powerful commentary on how governments lie , no matter who runs them .

4 Smart , sassy interpretation of the Oscar Wilde play .

0 I have to admit I walked out of Runteldat .

2 As Allen 's execution date closes in , the documentary gives an especially poignant portrait of her friendship with the never flagging legal investigator David Presson .

1 What they see in each other also is difficult to fathom .

3 By its modest , straight-ahead standards , Undisputed scores a direct hit .

0 Unspeakable , of course , barely begins to describe the plot and its complications .

4 Though in some ways similar to Catherine Breillat 's Fat Girl , Rain is the far superior film .

1 A film that loses sight of its own story .

4 A fresh-faced , big-hearted and frequently funny thrill ride for the kiddies , with enough eye candy and cheeky wit to keep parents away from the concession stand . '

0 -LRB- A -RRB- crushing disappointment .

1 Serving Sara is little more than a mall movie designed to kill time .

1 A processed comedy chop suey .

4 A smart , provocative drama that does the nearly impossible : It gets under the skin of a man we only know as an evil , monstrous lunatic .

1 Ritchie 's film is easier to swallow than Wertmuller 's polemical allegory , but it 's self-defeatingly decorous .

1 The beautiful images and solemn words can not disguise the slack complacency of -LRB- Godard 's -RRB- vision , any more than the gorgeous piano and strings on the soundtrack can drown out the tinny self-righteousness of his voice .

1 The trappings of I Spy are so familiar you might as well be watching a rerun .

1 The film is an earnest try at beachcombing verismo , but it would be even more indistinct than it is were it not for the striking , quietly vulnerable personality of Ms. Ambrose .

3 ... the story , like Ravel 's Bolero , builds to a crescendo that encompasses many more paths than we started with .

3 Horns and Halos benefits from serendipity but also reminds us of our own responsibility to question what is told as the truth .

1 Lacks dramatic punch and depth .

4 Mostly honest , this somber picture reveals itself slowly , intelligently , artfully .

3 If you come from a family that eats , meddles , argues , laughs , kibbitzes and fights together , then go see this delightful comedy .

1 Kurys seems intimidated by both her subject matter and the period trappings of this debut venture into the heritage business .

1 Incoherence reigns .

1 An affable but undernourished romantic comedy that fails to match the freshness of the actress-producer and writer 's previous collaboration , Miss Congeniality .

0 Hopelessly inane , humorless and under-inspired .

1 It still feels like a prison stretch .

2 Davis the performer is plenty fetching enough , but she needs to shake up the mix , and work in something that does n't feel like a half-baked stand-up routine .

3 Interesting both as a historical study and as a tragic love story .

2 Viewing this underdramatized but overstated film is like watching a transcript of a therapy session brought to humdrum life by some Freudian puppet .

0 the script assumes that not only would subtlety be lost on the target audience , but that it 's also too stupid to realize that they 've already seen this exact same movie a hundred times

3 It 's a boring movie about a boring man , made watchable by a bravura performance from a consummate actor incapable of being boring .

1 Debut effort by `` Project Greenlight '' winner is sappy and amateurish .

1 Although it starts off so bad that you feel like running out screaming , it eventually works its way up to merely bad rather than painfully awful .

3 Together , Miller , Kuras and the actresses make Personal Velocity into an intricate , intimate and intelligent journey .

0 Chalk it up as the worst kind of hubristic folly .

2 It 's harmless , diverting fluff .

0 It just did n't mean much to me and played too skewed to ever get a hold on -LRB- or be entertained by -RRB- .

3 Even though we know the outcome , the seesawing of the general 's fate in the arguments of competing lawyers has the stomach-knotting suspense of a legal thriller , while the testimony of witnesses lends the film a resonant undertone of tragedy .

1 The film ultimately offers nothing more than people in an urban jungle needing other people to survive ...

0 It is n't quite one of the worst movies of the year .

4 The byplay and bickering between the now spy-savvy siblings , Carmen -LRB- Vega -RRB- and Juni -LRB- Sabara -RRB- Cortez , anchor the film in a very real and amusing give-and-take .

0 Offers no new insight on the matter , nor do its characters exactly spring to life .

3 A charming but slight comedy .

3 A journey that is as difficult for the audience to take as it is for the protagonist -- yet it 's potentially just as rewarding .

4 As averse as I usually am to feel-good , follow-your-dream Hollywood fantasies , this one got to me .

2 Though it was made with careful attention to detail and is well-acted by James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal , I felt disrespected .

4 As a director , Paxton is surprisingly brilliant , deftly sewing together what could have been a confusing and horrifying vision into an intense and engrossing head-trip .

1 Its audacious ambitions sabotaged by pomposity , Steven Soderbergh 's space opera emerges as a numbingly dull experience .

4 Holofcener rejects patent solutions to dramatize life 's messiness from inside out , in all its strange quirks .

3 It is also a testament to the integrity and vision of the band .

2 Often overwrought and at times positively irritating , the film turns into an engrossing thriller almost in spite of itself .

2 Underachieves only in not taking the Shakespeare parallels quite far enough .

1 Translation : ` We do n't need to try very hard . '

1 ... may work as an addictive guilty pleasure but the material never overcomes its questionable satirical ambivalence .

4 Exciting and well-paced .

2 -LRB- It -RRB- has the feel of a summer popcorn movie .

3 The story that emerges has elements of romance , tragedy and even silent-movie comedy .

4 As improbable as this premise may seem , Abbass 's understated , shining performance offers us the sense that on some elemental level , Lilia deeply wants to break free of her old life .

3 Two tedious acts light on great scares and a good surprise ending .

1 Silly stuff , all mixed up together like a term paper from a kid who ca n't quite distinguish one sci-fi work from another .

1 Those who are only mildly curious , I fear , will be put to sleep or bewildered by the artsy and often pointless visuals .

3 Successfully blended satire , high camp and yet another sexual taboo into a really funny movie .

0 MIB II is a movie that makes it possible for the viewer to doze off for a few minutes or make several runs to the concession stand and\/or restroom and not feel as if he or she has missed anything .

0 Sheridan 's take on the author 's schoolboy memoir ... is a rather toothless take on a hard young life .

1 Surprisingly , considering that Baird is a former film editor , the movie is rather choppy .

4 The trailer is a riot .

0 This is the kind of movie that gets a quick release before real contenders arrive in September .

0 It looks like an action movie , but it 's so poorly made , on all levels , that it does n't even qualify as a spoof of such .

1 The Hanukkah spirit seems fried in pork .

0 As David Letterman and The Onion have proven , the worst of tragedies can be fertile sources of humor , but Lawrence has only a fleeting grasp of how to develop them .

3 Enjoyably dumb , sweet , and intermittently hilarious -- if you 've a taste for the quirky , steal a glimpse .

0 Other than a mildly engaging central romance , Hospital is sickly entertainment at best and mind-destroying cinematic pollution at worst .

3 May lack the pungent bite of its title , but it 's an enjoyable trifle nonetheless .

1 There is no solace here , no entertainment value , merely a fierce lesson in where filmmaking can take us .

1 Feels familiar and tired .

3 Ratliff 's two previous titles , Plutonium Circus and Purgatory County show his penchant for wry , contentious configurations , and this film is part of that delicate canon .

2 s face is chillingly unemotive , yet he communicates a great deal in his performance .

2 It 's clear that Mehta simply wanted to update her beloved genre for the thousands of Indians who fancy themselves too sophisticated for the cheese-laced spectacles that pack 'em in on the subcontinent .

1 They presume their audience wo n't sit still for a sociology lesson , however entertainingly presented , so they trot out the conventional science-fiction elements of bug-eyed monsters and futuristic women in skimpy clothes .

1 Schneidermeister ... Makin ' a fool of himself ... Losin ' his fan base ...

1 Trailer trash cinema so uncool the only thing missing is the `` Gadzooks ! ''

2 Mildly entertaining .

2 Serviceable at best , slightly less than serviceable at worst .

1 White has n't developed characters so much as caricatures , one-dimensional buffoons that get him a few laughs but nothing else .

0 Is there a group of more self-absorbed women than the mother and daughters featured in this film ?

4 A fun family movie that 's suitable for all ages -- a movie that will make you laugh , cry and realize , ` It 's never too late to believe in your dreams . '

1 One of these days Hollywood will come up with an original idea for a teen movie , but until then there 's always these rehashes to feed to the younger generations .

0 Goldmember has none of the visual wit of the previous pictures , and it looks as though Jay Roach directed the film from the back of a taxicab .

0 is never quite able to overcome the cultural moat surrounding its ludicrous and contrived plot . '

4 One of the most splendid entertainments to emerge from the French film industry in years .

4 A minor film with major pleasures from Portuguese master Manoel de Oliviera ...

0 Not only is entry number twenty the worst of the Brosnan bunch , it 's one of the worst of the entire franchise .

4 A wild ride with eight boarders from Venice Beach that was a deserved co-winner of the Audience Award for documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival .

1 While you have to admit it 's semi-amusing to watch Robert DeNiro belt out `` When you 're a Jet , you 're a Jet all the way , '' it 's equally distasteful to watch him sing the lyrics to `` Tonight . ''

3 As a thoughtful and unflinching examination of an alternative lifestyle , Sex with Strangers is a success .

1 It does n't make for great cinema , but it is interesting to see where one 's imagination will lead when given the opportunity .

2 Feardotcom 's thrills are all cheap , but they mostly work .

1 But ... in trying to capture the novel 's deeper intimate resonances , the film has -- ironically - distanced us from the characters .

3 The result puts a human face on Derrida , and makes one of the great minds of our times interesting and accessible to people who normally could n't care less .

0 My precious new Star Wars movie is a lumbering , wheezy drag ...

3 Goldbacher draws on an elegant visual sense and a talent for easy , seductive pacing ... but she and writing partner Laurence Coriat do n't manage an equally assured narrative coinage .

0 A period story about a Catholic boy who tries to help a Jewish friend get into heaven by sending the audience straight to hell .

3 A very well-meaning movie , and it will stand in future years as an eloquent memorial to the World Trade Center tragedy .

3 -LRB- D -RRB- espite its familiar subject matter , Ice Age is consistently amusing and engrossing ...

1 In spite of featuring a script credited to no fewer than five writers , apparently nobody here bothered to check it twice .

1 He 's not good with people .

2 A sly dissection of the inanities of the contemporary music business and a rather sad story of the difficulties of artistic collaboration .

4 I stopped thinking about how good it all was , and started doing nothing but reacting to it - feeling a part of its grand locations , thinking urgently as the protagonists struggled , feeling at the mercy of its inventiveness , gasping at its visual delights .

4 And thanks to Kline 's superbly nuanced performance , that pondering is highly pleasurable .

3 When it 's this rich and luscious , who cares ?

3 That rare film whose real-life basis is , in fact , so interesting that no embellishment is needed .

2 Some may choose to interpret the film 's end as hopeful or optimistic but I think Payne is after something darker .

2 It 's up to you to decide whether to admire these people 's dedication to their cause or be repelled by their dogmatism , manipulativeness and narrow , fearful view of American life .

3 One feels the dimming of a certain ambition , but in its place a sweetness , clarity and emotional openness that recalls the classics of early Italian neorealism .

3 The Salton Sea has moments of inspired humour , though every scrap is of the darkest variety .

3 Take nothing seriously and enjoy the ride .

2 ... little more than a well-acted television melodrama shot for the big screen .

0 The story is bogus and its characters tissue-thin .

2 is clever enough , though thin writing proves its undoing .

1 ... too sappy for its own good .

2 He gets his secretary to fax it . ''

3 I liked it because it was so endlessly , grotesquely , inventive .

1 If I want a real movie , I 'll buy the Criterion DVD .

2 One of the pleasures in Walter 's documentary ... is the parade of veteran painters , confounded dealers , and miscellaneous bohos who expound upon the subject 's mysterious personality without ever explaining him .

0 Rob Schneider 's infantile cross-dressing routines fill The Hot Chick , the latest gimmick from this unimaginative comedian .

3 Pretty good little movie .

3 Not about scares but a mood in which an ominous , pervasive , and unknown threat lurks just below the proceedings and adds an almost constant mindset of suspense .

0 There 's not a comedic moment in this romantic comedy .

2 Dodgy mixture of cutesy romance , dark satire and murder mystery .

2 Cattaneo should have followed the runaway success of his first film , The Full Monty , with something different .

4 The determination of Pinochet 's victims to seek justice , and their often heartbreaking testimony , spoken directly into director Patricio Guzman 's camera , pack a powerful emotional wallop .

2 Made-Up lampoons the moviemaking process itself , while shining a not particularly flattering spotlight on America 's skin-deep notions of pulchritude .

3 If you like an extreme action-packed film with a hint of humor , then Triple X marks the spot .

3 And it sees those relationships , including that between the son and his wife , and the wife and the father , and between the two brothers , with incredible subtlety and acumen .

3 An intimate contemplation of two marvelously messy lives .

2 Trailer park Magnolia : too long , too cutesy , too sure of its own importance , and possessed of that peculiar tension of being too dense & about nothing at all .

4 Griffin & Co. manage to be spectacularly outrageous .

1 The setting turns out to be more interesting than any of the character dramas , which never reach satisfying conclusions .

4 This is more fascinating -- being real -- than anything seen on Jerry Springer .

1 Though it pretends to expose the life of male hustlers , it 's exploitive without being insightful .

2 A feature-length , R-rated , road-trip version of Mama 's Family .

4 Fontaine 's direction , especially her agreeably startling use of close-ups and her grace with a moving camera , creates sheerly cinematic appeal .

0 But the 2002 film does n't really believe in it , and breaks the mood with absurdly inappropriate ` comedy ' scenes .

0 I 'd rather watch a rerun of The Powerpuff Girls

0 The emotional overload of female angst irreparably drags the film down .

2 Does what should seem impossible : it makes serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer boring .

4 One of the best looking and stylish animated movies in quite a while ...

3 Oh , and more entertaining , too .

2 While kids will probably eat the whole thing up , most adults will be way ahead of the plot .

1 `` Freaky Friday , '' it 's not .

0 This is one of the biggest disappointments of the year .

4 One of the most original American productions this year , you 'll find yourself remembering this refreshing visit to a Sunshine State .

3 Marshall puts a suspenseful spin on standard horror flick formula .

2 Veers uncomfortably close to pro-Serb propaganda .

2 Ice Age posits a heretofore unfathomable question : Is it possible for computer-generated characters to go through the motions ?

3 A knowing look at female friendship , spiked with raw urban humor .

1 Upper Teens may get cynical .

1 A light , engaging comedy that fumbles away almost all of its accumulated enjoyment with a crucial third act miscalculation .

1 Interview With the Assassin is structured less as a documentary and more as a found relic , and as such the film has a difficult time shaking its Blair Witch Project real-time roots .

1 Pap invested in undergraduate doubling subtexts and ridiculous stabs at existentialism reminding of the discovery of the wizard of God in the fifth Trek flick .

1 It 's like a drive-by .

4 Both a successful adaptation and an enjoyable film in its own right .

3 This movie has the usual impossible stunts ... But it has just as many scenes that are lean and tough enough to fit in any modern action movie .

1 With a tone as variable as the cinematography , Schaeffer 's film never settles into the light-footed enchantment the material needs , and the characters ' quirks and foibles never jell into charm .

3 Beyond the cleverness , the weirdness and the pristine camerawork , One Hour Photo is a sobering meditation on why we take pictures .

1 Slap her - she 's not funny !

0 The slapstick is labored , and the bigger setpieces flat .

4 This may be Burns 's strongest film since The Brothers McMullen .

0 Philosophically , intellectually and logistically a mess .

3 A meatier deeper beginning and\/or ending would have easily tipped this film into the `` A '' range , as is , it 's a very very strong `` B + . ''

3 The best part about `` Gangs '' was Daniel Day-Lewis .

1 Uneven performances and a spotty script add up to a biting satire that has no teeth .

1 But seriously , folks , it does n't work .

3 A movie that will thrill you , touch you and make you laugh as well .

1 The story is predictable , the jokes are typical Sandler fare , and the romance with Ryder is puzzling .

4 Return to Never Land is reliable , standard Disney animated fare , with enough creative energy and wit to entertain all ages .

2 Feels like nothing quite so much as a middle-aged moviemaker 's attempt to surround himself with beautiful , half-naked women .

1 Instead of contriving a climactic hero 's death for the beloved-major - character-who-shall - remain-nameless , why not invite some genuine spontaneity into the film by having the evil aliens ' laser guns actually hit something for once ?

1 Too much of Storytelling moves away from Solondz 's social critique , casting its audience as that of intellectual lector in contemplation of the auteur 's professional injuries .

0 Big Fat Liar is little more than Home Alone raised to a new , self-deprecating level .

4 But darned if it does n't also keep us riveted to our seats .

0 What should have been a cutting Hollywood satire is instead about as fresh as last week 's issue of Variety .

0 On a cutting room floor somewhere lies ... footage that might have made No Such Thing a trenchant , ironic cultural satire instead of a frustrating misfire .

1 Video games are more involving than this mess .

2 While Hoffman 's performance is great , the subject matter goes nowhere .

1 Borrows from other movies like it in the most ordinary and obvious fashion .

3 It 's definitely a step in the right direction .

3 One of the most gloriously unsubtle and adrenalized extreme shockers since The Evil Dead .

4 A fantastically vital movie that manages to invest real humor , sensuality , and sympathy into a story about two adolescent boys .

1 contrasting the original Ringu with the current Americanized adaptation is akin to comparing The Evil Dead with Evil Dead II

2 Has its moments , but it 's pretty far from a treasure .

1 This 100-minute movie only has about 25 minutes of decent material .

1 The fact that it is n't very good is almost beside the point .

3 A sharp , amusing study of the cult of celebrity .

3 Although the subject matter may still be too close to recent national events , the film works - mostly due to its superior cast of characters .

3 Even if Invincible is not quite the career peak that The Pianist is for Roman Polanski , it demonstrates that Werner Herzog can still leave us with a sense of wonder at the diverse , marvelously twisted shapes history has taken .

3 Familiar but utterly delightful .

0 A less-than-thrilling thriller .

4 The actors are fantastic .

3 Close enough in spirit to its freewheeling trash-cinema roots to be a breath of fresh air .

2 The movie is a little tired ; maybe the original inspiration has run its course .

2 Gives us a lot to chew on , but not all of it has been properly digested .

1 What starts off as a satisfying kids flck becomes increasingly implausible as it races through contrived plot points .

4 -LRB- A -RRB- wonderfully loopy tale of love , longing , and voting .

3 Mariah Carey gives us another peek at some of the magic we saw in Glitter here in Wisegirls .

3 Jackie Chan movies are a guilty pleasure - he 's easy to like and always leaves us laughing .

1 A few pieces of the film buzz and whir ; very little of it actually clicks .

1 Shame on writer\/director Vicente Aranda for making a florid biopic about mad queens , obsessive relationships , and rampant adultery so dull .

2 An involving , inspirational drama that sometimes falls prey to its sob-story trappings .

2 Dolman confines himself to shtick and sentimentality -- the one bald and the other sloppy .

3 Shyamalan takes a potentially trite and overused concept -LRB- aliens come to Earth -RRB- and infuses it into a rustic , realistic , and altogether creepy tale of hidden invasion .

4 Robinson 's web of suspense matches the page-turning frenzy that Clancy creates .

0 Abysmally pathetic

4 Is not so much a work of entertainment as it is a unique , well-crafted psychological study of grief .

2 A poorly scripted , preachy fable that forgets about unfolding a coherent , believable story in its zeal to spread propaganda .

4 -LRB- Westbrook -RRB- makes a wonderful subject for the camera .

2 Are monsters born , or made ?

1 Steve Oedekerk is , alas , no Woody Allen .

3 Jackson and co have brought back the value and respect for the term epic cinema .

1 What the audience feels is exhaustion , from watching a movie that is dark -LRB- dark green , to be exact -RRB- , sour , bloody and mean .

3 Simone is not a bad film .

1 Watchable up until the point where the situations and the dialogue spin hopelessly out of control -- that is to say , when Carol Kane appears on the screen .

1 -LRB- Toback 's -RRB- fondness for fancy split-screen , stuttering editing and pompous references to Wittgenstein and Kirkegaard ... blends uneasily with the titillating material .

1 It just does n't have anything really interesting to say .

4 Ben Kingsley is truly funny , playing a kind of Ghandi gone bad .

3 By the end of the movie , you 're definitely convinced that these women are spectacular .

1 The Pool drowned me in boredom .

0 Plays like a bad blend of an overripe episode of TV 's Dawson 's Creek and a recycled and dumbed-down version of Love Story .

4 a screenplay more ingeniously constructed than `` Memento ''

1 For every articulate player , such as skateboarder Tony Hawk or BMX rider Mat Hoffman , are about a half dozen young Turks angling to see how many times they can work the words `` radical '' or `` suck '' into a sentence .

3 Large budget notwithstanding , the movie is such a blip on the year 's radar screen that it 's tempting just to go with it for the ride .

3 A competent , unpretentious entertainment destined to fill the after-school slot at shopping mall theaters across the country .

1 A droll , bitchy frolic which pokes fun at the price of popularity and small-town pretension in the Lone Star State .

4 Moore provides an invaluable service by sparking debate and encouraging thought .

4 If anything , the film is doing something of a public service -- shedding light on a group of extremely talented musicians who might otherwise go unnoticed and underappreciated by music fans .

2 Any Chekhov is better than no Chekhov , but it would be a shame if this was your introduction to one of the greatest plays of the last 100 years .

1 In any case , I would recommend Big Bad Love only to Winger fans who have missed her since 1995 's Forget Paris .

0 Plodding , poorly written , murky and weakly acted , the picture feels as if everyone making it lost their movie mojo .

3 Somehow Ms. Griffiths and Mr. Pryce bring off this wild Welsh whimsy .

1 A film which presses familiar Herzog tropes into the service of a limpid and conventional historical fiction , when really what we demand of the director is to be mesmerised .

3 Holland lets things peter out midway , but it 's notably better acted -- and far less crass - than some other recent efforts in the burgeoning genre of films about black urban professionals .

3 Phillip Noyce and all of his actors -- as well as his cinematographer , Christopher Doyle -- understand the delicate forcefulness of Greene 's prose , and it 's there on the screen in their version of The Quiet American .

2 A decidedly mixed bag .

1 Certainly not a good movie , but it was n't horrible either .

1 By the final whistle you 're convinced that this Mean Machine was a decent TV outing that just does n't have big screen magic .

3 Soderbergh skims the fat from the 1972 film .

4 I have n't laughed that hard in years !

2 -LRB- The digital effects -RRB- reminded me of Terry Gilliam 's rudimentary old Monty Python cartoons , in which he would cut out figures from drawings and photographs and paste them together .

1 overstylized

1 The problem with the film is whether these ambitions , laudable in themselves , justify a theatrical simulation of the death camp of Auschwitz II-Birkenau .

2 A crisply made movie that is no more than mildly amusing .

0 The biggest problem with Roger Avary 's uproar against the MPAA is that , even in all its director 's cut glory , he 's made a film that 's barely shocking , barely interesting and most of all , barely anything .

4 You feel good , you feel sad , you feel pissed off , but in the end , you feel alive - which is what they did .

2 ... they missed the boat .

3 It 's more enjoyable than I expected , though , and that 's because the laughs come from fairly basic comedic constructs .

2 Gangs , despite the gravity of its subject matter , is often as fun to watch as a good spaghetti western .

1 A muted freak-out

1 Tries too hard to be funny in a way that 's too loud , too goofy and too short of an attention span .

0 A loud , ugly , irritating movie without any of its satirical salvos hitting a discernible target .

2 There 's very little sense to what 's going on here , but the makers serve up the cliches with considerable dash .

0 Hey everybody , wanna watch a movie in which a guy dressed as a children 's party clown gets violently gang-raped ?

3 Worth seeing just for Weaver and LaPaglia .

2 There 's a thin line between likably old-fashioned and fuddy-duddy , and The Count of Monte Cristo ... never quite settles on either side .

0 Please , someone , stop Eric Schaeffer before he makes another film .

0 Given too much time to consider the looseness of the piece , the picture begins to resemble the shapeless , grasping actors ' workshop that it is .

0 The sinister inspiration that fuelled DeVito 's early work is confused in Death to Smoochy into something both ugly and mindless .

3 Charming and witty , it 's also somewhat clumsy .

3 The film has the high-buffed gloss and high-octane jolts you expect of De Palma , but what makes it transporting is that it 's also one of the smartest , most pleasurable expressions of pure movie love to come from an American director in years .

1 ... too contrived to be as naturally charming as it needs to be .

3 There are laughs aplenty , and , as a bonus , viewers do n't have to worry about being subjected to farts , urine , feces , semen , or any of the other foul substances that have overrun modern-day comedies .

0 A DOA dud from frame one .

0 So bland and utterly forgettable that it might as well have been titled Generic Jennifer Lopez Romantic Comedy .

0 It 's probably not easy to make such a worthless film ...

1 Wimps out by going for that PG-13 rating , so the more graphic violence is mostly off-screen and the sexuality is muted .

4 Michael Moore 's latest documentary about America 's thirst for violence is his best film yet ...

4 A visual spectacle full of stunning images and effects .

4 A venturesome , beautifully realized psychological mood piece that reveals its first-time feature director 's understanding of the expressive power of the camera .

2 Warmed-over hash .

1 A manipulative feminist empowerment tale thinly posing as a serious drama about spousal abuse .

3 May not be a breakthrough in filmmaking , but it is unwavering and arresting .

0 `` Solaris '' is a shapeless inconsequential move relying on the viewer to do most of the work .

4 Captures the raw comic energy of one of our most flamboyant female comics .

3 A sharp satire of desperation and cinematic deception .

1 Nothing more or less than an outright bodice-ripper -- it should have ditched the artsy pretensions and revelled in the entertaining shallows .

4 A man leaving the screening said the film was better than Saving Private Ryan .

4 Ramsay is clearly extraordinarily talented , and based on three short films and two features , here 's betting her third feature will be something to behold .

3 When it 's not wallowing in hormonal melodrama , `` Real Women Have Curves '' is a sweet , honest , and enjoyable comedy-drama about a young woman who wants many things in life , but fears she 'll become her mother before she gets to fulfill her dreams .

4 `` Home Movie '' is a sweet treasure and something well worth your time .

0 Enough said , except : Film overboard !

1 They ought to be a whole lot scarier than they are in this tepid genre offering .

3 Weighty and ponderous but every bit as filling as the treat of the title .

1 This odd , distant Portuguese import more or less borrows from Bad Lieutenant and Les Vampires , and comes up with a kind of art-house gay porn film .

1 I am more offended by his lack of faith in his audience than by anything on display here .

1 We 're left with a story that tries to grab us , only to keep letting go at all the wrong moments .

3 A deeply felt and vividly detailed story about newcomers in a strange new world .

3 Sure , it 's contrived and predictable , but its performances are so well tuned that the film comes off winningly , even though it 's never as solid as you want it to be .

3 Cinematic poetry showcases the city 's old-world charm before machines change nearly everything .

4 Writer-director David Jacobson and his star , Jeremy Renner , have made a remarkable film that explores the monster 's psychology not in order to excuse him but rather to demonstrate that his pathology evolved from human impulses that grew hideously twisted .

1 Flashy gadgets and whirling fight sequences may look cool , but they ca n't distract from the flawed support structure holding Equilibrium up .

3 Everybody loves a David and Goliath story , and this one is told almost entirely from David 's point of view .

1 A bland animated sequel that hardly seems worth the effort .

3 A marvelous performance by Allison Lohman as an identity-seeking foster child .

3 An enjoyable , if occasionally flawed , experiment .

3 It can be safely recommended as a video\/DVD babysitter .

1 There 's some outrageously creative action in The Transporter ... -LRB- b -RRB- ut by the time Frank parachutes down onto a moving truck , it 's just another cartoon with an unstoppable superman .

3 Miller tells this very compelling tale with little fuss or noise , expertly plucking tension from quiet .

1 Even if it is generally amusing from time to time , I Spy has all the same problems the majority of action comedies have .

1 This misty-eyed Southern nostalgia piece , in treading the line between sappy and sanguine , winds up mired in tear-drenched quicksand .

4 Graphic sex may be what 's attracting audiences to Unfaithful , but gripping performances by Lane and Gere are what will keep them awake .

1 I admire it and yet can not recommend it , because it overstays its natural running time .

3 Most consumers of lo mein and General Tso 's chicken barely give a thought to the folks who prepare and deliver it , so , hopefully , this film will attach a human face to all those little steaming cartons .

4 The story , once it gets rolling , is nothing short of a great one .

4 The storylines are woven together skilfully , the magnificent swooping aerial shots are breathtaking , and the overall experience is awesome .

3 Metaphors abound , but it is easy to take this film at face value and enjoy its slightly humorous and tender story .

4 Overall , Cletis Tout is a winning comedy that excites the imagination and tickles the funny bone .

4 All three actresses are simply dazzling , particularly Balk , who 's finally been given a part worthy of her considerable talents .

2 Solondz creates some effective moments of discomfort for character and viewer alike .

2 Famuyiwa 's feature

2 The cast comes through even when the movie does n't .

4 The lively appeal of The Last Kiss lies in the ease with which it integrates thoughtfulness and pasta-fagioli comedy .

2 It 's a good film , but it falls short of its aspiration to be a true ` epic ' .

2 The dose is strong and funny , for the first 15 minutes anyway ; after that , the potency wanes dramatically .

3 In the director 's cut , the film is not only a love song to the movies but it also is more fully an example of the kind of lush , all-enveloping movie experience it rhapsodizes .

3 A compelling coming-of-age drama about the arduous journey of a sensitive young girl through a series of foster homes and a fierce struggle to pull free from her dangerous and domineering mother 's hold over her .

4 The urban landscapes are detailed down to the signs on the kiosks , and the color palette , with lots of somber blues and pinks , is dreamy and evocative .

1 Like its title character , Esther Kahn is unusual but unfortunately also irritating .

2 An ambitious , serious film that manages to do virtually everything wrong ; sitting through it is something akin to an act of cinematic penance .

3 The Lady and the Duke is a smart , romantic drama that dares to depict the French Revolution from the aristocrats ' perspective .

2 Whatever about warning kids about the dangers of ouija boards , someone should dispense the same advice to film directors .

1 Unlike Trey Parker , Sandler does n't understand that the idea of exploiting molestation for laughs is funny , not actually exploiting it yourself .

4 This is one of the year 's best films .

2 A fantastic premise anchors this movie , but what it needs is either a more rigid , Blair Witch-style commitment to its mockumentary format , or a more straightforward , dramatic treatment , with all the grandiosity that that implies .

0 Nothing sticks , really , except a lingering creepiness one feels from being dragged through a sad , sordid universe of guns , drugs , avarice and damaged dreams .

2 It 's difficult to discern if this is a crazy work of disturbed genius or merely 90 minutes of post-adolescent Electra rebellion .

1 Gorgeous to look at but insufferably tedious and turgid ... a curiously constricted epic .

2 As home movie gone haywire , it 's pretty enjoyable , but as sexual manifesto , I 'd rather listen to old Tori Amos records .

3 The story line may be 127 years old , but El Crimen del Padre Amaro ... could n't be more timely in its despairing vision of corruption within the Catholic establishment .

3 With a large cast representing a broad cross-section , Tavernier 's film bounds along with the rat-a-tat energy of `` His Girl Friday , '' maintaining a light touch while tackling serious themes .

3 A compelling allegory about the last days of Germany 's democratic Weimar Republic .

1 Has all the values of a straight-to-video movie , but because it has a bigger-name cast , it gets a full theatrical release .

2 Gaghan

1 The only question ... is to determine how well the schmaltz is manufactured -- to assess the quality of the manipulative engineering .

3 A three-hour cinema master class .

3 Its almost too-spectacular coastal setting distracts slightly from an eccentric and good-naturedly aimless story .

2 Like being invited to a classy dinner soiree and not knowing anyone .

3 Essentially a collection of bits -- and they 're all naughty .

2 Weird , vulgar comedy that 's definitely an acquired taste .

3 While Cherish does n't completely survive its tonal transformation from dark comedy to suspense thriller , it 's got just enough charm and appealing character quirks to forgive that still serious problem .

0 Swiftly deteriorates into a terribly obvious melodrama and rough-hewn vanity project for lead actress Andie MacDowell .

1 The screenwriters dig themselves in deeper every time they toss logic and science into what is essentially a `` Dungeons and Dragons '' fantasy with modern military weaponry ...

1 Jaw-droppingly superficial , straining to get by on humor that is not even as daring as John Ritter 's glory days on Three 's Company .

0 It is messy , uncouth , incomprehensible , vicious and absurd .

0 ... an airless , prepackaged Julia Roberts wannabe that stinks so badly of hard-sell image-mongering you 'll wonder if Lopez 's publicist should share screenwriting credit .

4 Peppered with witty dialogue and inventive moments .

3 The film is ... determined to treat its characters , weak and strong , as fallible human beings , not caricatures , and to carefully delineate the cost of the inevitable conflicts between human urges and an institution concerned with self-preservation .

0 Aggravating and tedious .

0 The issues are presented in such a lousy way , complete with some of the year 's -LRB- unintentionally -RRB- funniest moments , that it 's impossible to care .

4 Because the film deliberately lacks irony , it has a genuine dramatic impact ; it plays like a powerful 1957 drama we 've somehow never seen before .

3 There is a beautiful , aching sadness to it all .

3 A stylish cast and some clever scripting solutions help Chicago make the transition from stage to screen with considerable appeal intact .

4 The film is small in scope , yet perfectly formed .

1 Disjointed parody .

2 Barely .

3 Alternates between deadpan comedy and heartbreaking loneliness and is n't afraid to provoke introspection in both its characters and its audience .

1 ` God help us , but Capra and Cooper are rolling over in their graves . '

1 All too familiar ... basically the sort of cautionary tale that was old when ` Angels With Dirty Faces ' appeared in 1938 .

1 A sometimes incisive and sensitive portrait that is undercut by its awkward structure and a final veering toward melodrama .

1 Sex ironically has little to do with the story , which becomes something about how lame it is to try and evade your responsibilities and that you should never , ever , leave a large dog alone with a toddler .

4 Those who are n't put off by the film 's austerity will find it more than capable of rewarding them .

2 Ultimate X is a ride , basically the kind of greatest-hits reel that might come with a subscription to ESPN the Magazine .

4 For those who pride themselves on sophisticated , discerning taste , this might not seem like the proper cup of tea , however it is almost guaranteed that even the stuffiest cinema goers will laugh their \*\*\* off for an hour-and-a-half .

1 This story of unrequited love does n't sustain interest beyond the first half-hour .

3 Plummer steals the show without resorting to camp as Nicholas ' wounded and wounding Uncle Ralph .

2 The umpteenth summer skinny dip in Jerry Bruckheimer 's putrid pond of retread action twaddle .

2 Sinks into the usual cafeteria goulash of fart jokes , masturbation jokes , and racist Japanese jokes .

1 Forget the misleading title , what 's with the unexplained baboon cameo ?

0 By the time the plot grinds itself out in increasingly incoherent fashion , you might be wishing for a watch that makes time go faster rather than the other way around .

4 As commander-in-chief of this film , Bigelow demonstrates a breadth of vision and an attention to detail that propels her into the upper echelons of the directing world .

1 Go back to sleep .

2 Heaven is a haunting dramatization of a couple 's moral ascension .

1 Throughout all the tumult , a question comes to mind : So why is this so boring ?

4 A true-blue delight .

2 Quelle surprise !

4 Delirious fun .

2 Spider-Man is in the same category as X-Men - occasionally brilliant but mostly average , showing signs of potential for the sequels , but not giving us much this time around .

3 That old adage about women being unknowable gets an exhilarating new interpretation in Morvern Callar .

2 There 's an epic here , but you have to put it together yourself .

3 Though Jackson does n't always succeed in integrating the characters in the foreground into the extraordinarily rich landscape , it must be said that he is an imaginative filmmaker who can see the forest for the trees .

1 The film itself is about something very interesting and odd that would probably work better as a real documentary without the insinuation of mediocre acting or a fairly trite narrative .

2 It 's packed to bursting with incident , and with scores of characters , some fictional , some from history .

3 The picture runs a mere 84 minutes , but it 's no glance .

2 Sensitively examines general issues of race and justice among the poor , and specifically raises serious questions about the death penalty and asks what good the execution of a mentally challenged woman could possibly do .

3 A quirky comedy set in Newfoundland that cleverly captures the dry wit that 's so prevalent on The Rock .

2 The film did n't move me one way or the other , but it was an honest effort and if you want to see a flick about telemarketers this one will due .

2 Much of the digitally altered footage

4 I can easily imagine Benigni 's Pinocchio becoming a Christmas perennial .

3 Remember it .

1 A feeble Tootsie knockoff .

1 But its storytelling prowess and special effects are both listless .

3 Land , people and narrative flow together in a stark portrait of motherhood deferred and desire explored .

3 Happily , some things are immune to the folly of changing taste and attitude .

4 Road to Perdition does display greatness , and it 's worth seeing .

4 It is definitely worth seeing .

2 Thin period piece .

1 A negligible British comedy .

2 An enigmatic film that 's too clever for its own good , it 's a conundrum not worth solving .

4 Intensely romantic , thought-provoking and even an engaging mystery .

3 The work of an exhausted , desiccated talent who ca n't get out of his own way .

1 Exhibits the shallow sensationalism characteristic of soap opera ... more salacious telenovela than serious drama .

3 Steven Soderbergh 's digital video experiment is a clever and cutting , quick and dirty look at modern living and movie life .

2 into Scrooge .

0 Shallow , noisy and pretentious .

4 This is one of the outstanding thrillers of recent years .

0 The big-screen Scooby makes the silly original cartoon seem smart and well-crafted in comparison .

0 It 's tough to be startled when you 're almost dozing .

0 One sloughs one 's way through the mire of this alleged psychological thriller in search of purpose or even a plot .

3 The mood , look and tone of the film fit the incredible storyline to a T.

0 Humorless , self-conscious art drivel , made without a glimmer of intelligence or invention .

3 A chilling movie without oppressive gore .

0 It 's a visual Rorschach test and I must have failed .

0 Ozpetek offers an AIDS subtext , skims over the realities of gay sex , and presents yet another tired old vision of the gay community as an all-inclusive world where uptight , middle class bores like Antonia can feel good about themselves .

3 The film 's images give a backbone to the company and provide an emotional edge to its ultimate demise .

3 Savvy director Robert J. Siegel and his co-writers keep the story subtle and us in suspense .

0 This hastily mounted production exists only to capitalize on Hopkins ' inclination to play Hannibal Lecter again , even though Harris has no immediate inclination to provide a fourth book .

4 Especially give credit to Affleck .

3 works , it 's thanks to Huston 's revelatory performance .

2 A crude teen-oriented variation on a theme that the playwright Craig Lucas explored with infinitely more grace and eloquence in his Prelude to a Kiss .

3 There 's something poignant about an artist of 90-plus years taking the effort to share his impressions of life and loss and time and art with us .

3 A solidly constructed , entertaining thriller that stops short of true inspiration .

4 The large-frame IMAX camera lends itself beautifully to filming the teeming life on the reefs , making this gorgeous film a must for everyone from junior scientists to grown-up fish lovers .

2 It may not be history -- but then again , what if it is ?

0 A dull , inconsistent , dishonest female bonding picture .

1 It 's so tedious that it makes you forgive every fake , dishonest , entertaining and , ultimately , more perceptive moment in Bridget Jones 's Diary .

1 The rollerball sequences feel sanitised and stagey .

3 It has a caffeinated , sloppy brilliance , sparkling with ideas you wish had been developed with more care , but animated by an energy that puts the dutiful efforts of more disciplined grade-grubbers to shame .

2 Boy oh boy , it 's a howler .

0 The Irwins ' scenes are fascinating ; the movie as a whole is cheap junk and an insult to their death-defying efforts .

3 If you 've grown tired of going where no man has gone before , but several movies have - take heart .

2 An unremarkable , modern action\/comedy buddy movie whose only nod to nostalgia is in the title .

1 By no means a slam-dunk and sure to ultimately disappoint the action fans who will be moved to the edge of their seats by the dynamic first act , it still comes off as a touching , transcendent love story .

3 The actresses find their own rhythm and protect each other from the script 's bad ideas and awkwardness .

4 ... spellbinding fun and deliciously exploitative .

2 Eric Byler 's nuanced pic avoids easy sentiments and explanations ...

4 It tends to remind one of a really solid Woody Allen film , with its excellent use of New York locales and sharp writing

1 The film 's maudlin focus on the young woman 's infirmity and her naive dreams play like the worst kind of Hollywood heart-string plucking .

4 More timely than its director could ever have dreamed , this quietly lyrical tale probes the ambiguous welcome extended by Iran to the Afghani refugees who streamed across its borders , desperate for work and food .

0 If you 're over 25 , have an IQ over 90 , and have a driver 's license , you should be able to find better entertainment .

3 A moving essay about the specter of death , especially suicide .

3 -LRB- The Cockettes -RRB- provides a window into a subculture hell-bent on expressing itself in every way imaginable . '

0 The Tuxedo miscalculates badly by forcing the star to play second fiddle to the dull effects that allow the suit to come to life .

1 Complex , sinuously plotted and , somehow , off-puttingly cold .

0 A dull , simple-minded and stereotypical tale of drugs , death and mind-numbing indifference on the inner-city streets .

2 Arnold !

3 As Janice , Eileen Walsh , an engaging , wide-eyed actress whose teeth are a little too big for her mouth , infuses the movie with much of its slender , glinting charm .

2 Mostly the film is just hectic and homiletic : two parts exhausting Men in Black mayhem to one part family values .

1 An occasionally interesting but mostly repetitive look at a slice of counterculture that might be best forgotten .

1 A soap-opera quality twist in the last 20 minutes ... almost puts the kibosh on what is otherwise a sumptuous work of B-movie imagination .

2 More than simply a portrait of early extreme sports , this peek into the 1970s skateboard revolution is a skateboard film as social anthropology ...

3 The film is insightful about Kissinger 's background and history .

3 The beauty of Alexander Payne 's ode to the Everyman is in the details .

3 - West Coast rap wars , this modern mob music drama never fails to fascinate .

3 Thoroughly enjoyable .

1 The script covers huge , heavy topics in a bland , surfacey way that does n't offer any insight into why , for instance , good things happen to bad people .

2 Tom Green and an Ivy League college should never appear together on a marquee , especially when the payoff is an unschooled comedy like Stealing Harvard , which fails to keep 80 minutes from seeming like 800 .

4 It 's an exhilarating place to visit , this laboratory of laughter .

0 I was trying to decide what annoyed me most about God is Great ... I 'm Not , and then I realized that I just did n't care .

0 It 's a bad action movie because there 's no rooting interest and the spectacle is grotesque and boring .

1 He does n't , however , deliver nearly enough of the show 's trademark style and flash .

2 Peralta 's mythmaking could have used some informed , adult hindsight .

3 This film is so different from The Apple and so striking that it can only encourage us to see Samira Makhmalbaf as a very distinctive sensibility , working to develop her own film language with conspicuous success .

2 With one exception , every blighter in this particular South London housing project digs into dysfunction like it 's a big , comforting jar of Marmite , to be slathered on crackers and served as a feast of bleakness .

2 A lack of thesis makes Maryam , in the end , play out with the intellectual and emotional impact of an after-school special .

3 Much of The Lady and the Duke is about quiet , decisive moments between members of the cultural elite as they determine how to proceed as the world implodes .

0 Sets animation back 30 years , musicals back 40 years and Judaism back at least 50 .

4 I was amused and entertained by the unfolding of Bielinsky 's cleverly constructed scenario , and greatly impressed by the skill of the actors involved in the enterprise .

3 Those who want to be jolted out of their gourd should drop everything and run to Ichi .

2 ... hopefully it 'll be at the dollar theatres by the time Christmas rolls around .

1 Terminally bland , painfully slow and needlessly confusing ... The movie , shot on digital videotape rather than film , is frequently indecipherable .

3 Poetic , heartbreaking .

1 Cinematic pyrotechnics aside , the only thing Avary seems to care about are mean giggles and pulchritude .

2 It 's just plain boring .

3 What 's next ?

2 Would n't it be funny if a bunch of Allied soldiers went undercover as women in a German factory during World War II ?

0 The 50-something lovebirds are too immature and unappealing to care about .

4 But mostly it 's a work that , with humor , warmth , and intelligence , captures a life interestingly lived .

1 Just a string of stale gags , with no good inside dope , and no particular bite .

2 it somehow managed to make its way past my crappola radar and find a small place in my heart

2 Most folks with a real stake in the American sexual landscape will find it either moderately amusing or just plain irrelevant .

4 Director Charles Stone III applies more detail to the film 's music than to the story line ; what 's best about Drumline is its energy .

1 Long on twinkly-eyed close-ups and short on shame .

1 You can tell almost immediately that Welcome to Collinwood is n't going to jell .

3 Smart and alert , Thirteen Conversations About One Thing is a small gem .

3 The film is old-fashioned , occasionally charming and as subtle as boldface .

1 The satire is just too easy to be genuinely satisfying .

4 Knows how to make our imagination wonder .

3 It goes down easy , leaving virtually no aftertaste .

1 Were Dylan Thomas alive to witness first-time director Ethan Hawke 's strained Chelsea Walls , he might have been tempted to change his landmark poem to , ` Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Theatre . '

2 Wiseman reveals the victims of domestic abuse in all of their pity and terror .

1 This dubious product of a college-spawned -LRB- Colgate U. -RRB- comedy ensemble known as Broken Lizard plays like a mix of Cheech and Chong and CHiPs .

3 The film is a fierce dance of destruction .

1 If Oscar had a category called Best Bad Film You Thought Was Going To Be Really Awful But Was n't , Guys would probably be duking it out with The Queen of the Damned for the honor .

3 of whimsicality , narrative discipline and serious improvisation

2 The story is so light and sugary that were it a Macy 's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon , extra heavy-duty ropes would be needed to keep it from floating away .

4 A thoughtful , reverent portrait of what is essentially a subculture , with its own rules regarding love and family , governance and hierarchy .

1 It is most of the things Costner movies are known for ; it 's sanctimonious , self-righteous and so eager to earn our love that you want to slap it .

1 While it is interesting to witness the conflict from the Palestinian side , Longley 's film lacks balance ... and fails to put the struggle into meaningful historical context .

4 Leaping from one arresting image to another , Songs from the Second Floor has all the enjoyable randomness of a very lively dream and so manages to be compelling , amusing and unsettling at the same time .

4 Matthew Lillard is born to play Shaggy !

2 Nair and writer Laura Cahill dare to build a movie around some flawed but rather unexceptional women , emerging with a fine character study that 's short on plot but rich in the tiny revelations of real life .

3 `` The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys '' has flaws , but it also has humor and heart and very talented young actors

4 A classic fairy tale that perfectly captures the wonders and worries of childhood in a way that few movies have ever approached .

4 Canadian filmmaker Gary Burns ' inventive and mordantly humorous take on the soullessness of work in the city .

2 The director and her capable cast appear to be caught in a heady whirl of New Age-inspired good intentions , but the spell they cast is n't the least bit mesmerizing .

1 Ultimately this is a frustrating patchwork : an uneasy marriage of Louis Begley 's source novel -LRB- About Schmidt -RRB- and an old Payne screenplay .

3 A sobering and powerful documentary about the most severe kind of personal loss : rejection by one 's mother .

1 An unsophisticated sci-fi drama that takes itself all too seriously .

3 At times a bit melodramatic and even a little dated -LRB- depending upon where you live -RRB- , Ignorant Fairies is still quite good-natured and not a bad way to spend an hour or two .

2 It is a testament of quiet endurance , of common concern , of reconciled survival .

1 With flashbulb editing as cover for the absence of narrative continuity , Undisputed is nearly incoherent , an excuse to get to the closing bout ... by which time it 's impossible to care who wins .

3 Stuffed to the brim with ideas , American instigator Michael Moore 's film is a rambling examination of American gun culture that uses his usual modus operandi of crucifixion through juxtaposition .

2 Like being trapped inside a huge video game , where exciting , inane images keep popping past your head and the same illogical things keep happening over and over again .

1 Not just unlikable .

3 The director explores all three sides of his story with a sensitivity and an inquisitiveness reminiscent of Truffaut .

1 Inconsequential road-and-buddy pic .

2 That 's not vintage Spielberg and that , finally , is minimally satisfying .

3 An ambitiously naturalistic , albeit half-baked , drama about an abused , inner-city autistic teen .

2 This sort of cute and cloying material is far from Zhang 's forte and it shows .

3 Welles groupie\/scholar Peter Bogdanovich took a long time to do it , but he 's finally provided his own broadside at publishing giant William Randolph Hearst .

1 Never inspires more than an interested detachment .

3 A huge box-office hit in Korea , Shiri is a must for genre fans .

3 Meyjes ... has done his homework and soaked up some jazzy new revisionist theories about the origins of Nazi politics and aesthetics .

3 A rather brilliant little cult item : a pastiche of children 's entertainment , superhero comics , and Japanese animation .

3 A movie that will surely be profane , politically charged music to the ears of Cho 's fans .

1 It 's Tommy 's job to clean the peep booths surrounding her , and after viewing this one , you 'll feel like mopping up , too .

3 Elaborate special effects take centre screen , so that the human story is pushed to one side .

3 The filmmakers try to balance pointed , often incisive satire and unabashed sweetness , with results that are sometimes bracing , sometimes baffling and quite often , and in unexpected ways , touching .

3 While not quite `` Shrek '' or `` Monsters , Inc. '' , it 's not too bad .

2 A picture as erratic as its central character .

4 A fine production with splendid singing by Angela Gheorghiu , Ruggero Raimondi , and Roberto Alagna .

3 But on the whole , you 're gonna like this movie .

3 It might be ` easier ' to watch on video at home , but that should n't stop die-hard French film connoisseurs from going out and enjoying the big-screen experience .

1 Stale first act , Scrooge story , blatant product placement , some very good comedic songs , strong finish , dumb fart jokes .

2 A virtual roller-coaster ride of glamour and sleaze .

2 A Jewish WW II doc that is n't trying simply to out-shock , out-outrage or out-depress its potential audience !

3 Standing by Yourself is haunting ... -LRB- It 's -RRB- what punk rock music used to be , and what the video medium could use more of : spirit , perception , conviction .

1 Suspend your disbelief here and now , or you 'll be shaking your head all the way to the credits .

3 Angel presents events partly from the perspective of Aurelie and Christelle , and infuses the film with the sensibility of a particularly nightmarish fairytale .

2 Just a Kiss wants desperately to come off as a fanciful film about the typical problems of average people .

1 It 's replaced by some dramatic scenes that are jarring and deeply out of place in what could have -LRB- and probably should have -RRB- been a lighthearted comedy .

2 But , no , we get another scene , and then another .

1 Ear-splitting exercise in formula crash-and-bash action .

3 ` What 's the Russian word for Wow !? '

0 It 's hard to imagine another director ever making his wife look so bad in a major movie .

1 ... the kind of movie you see because the theater has air conditioning .

2 ... is there a deeper , more direct connection between these women , one that spans time and reveals meaning ?

2 What begins as a film in the tradition of The Graduate quickly switches into something more recyclable than significant .

1 Resident Evil is n't a product of its cinematic predecessors so much as an MTV , sugar hysteria , and PlayStation cocktail .

3 If you open yourself up to Mr. Reggio 's theory of this imagery as the movie 's set ... it can impart an almost visceral sense of dislocation and change .

0 A plodding teen remake that 's so mechanical you can smell the grease on the plot twists .

4 Ong 's promising debut is a warm and well-told tale of one recent Chinese immigrant 's experiences in New York City .

1 Although God Is Great addresses interesting matters of identity and heritage , it 's hard to shake the feeling that it was intended to be a different kind of film .

1 Stone seems to have a knack for wrapping the theater in a cold blanket of urban desperation .

1 Too bad .

3 Wise and deadpan humorous .

2 Then Nadia 's birthday might not have been such a bad day after all .

0 Take away the controversy , and it 's not much more watchable than a Mexican soap opera .

0 Distances you by throwing out so many red herrings , so many false scares , that the genuine ones barely register .

3 Well-made but mush-hearted .

4 An action\/thriller of the finest kind , evoking memories of Day of the Jackal , The French Connection , and Heat .

2 Harris is supposed to be the star of the story , but comes across as pretty dull and wooden .

3 And the reason for that is a self-aware , often self-mocking , intelligence .

1 Wishy-washy .

4 An enthralling aesthetic experience , one that 's steeped in mystery and a ravishing , baroque beauty .

2 About a Boy vividly recalls the Cary Grant of Room for One More , Houseboat and Father Goose in its affectionate depiction of the gentle war between a reluctant , irresponsible man and the kid who latches onto him .

1 For something as splendid-looking as this particular film , the viewer expects something special but instead gets -LRB- sci-fi -RRB- rehash .

0 If I could have looked into my future and saw how bad this movie was , I would go back and choose to skip it .

0 This is one baaaaaaaaad movie .

3 ` If you are in the mood for an intelligent weepy , it can easily worm its way into your heart . '

3 J. Lo will earn her share of the holiday box office pie , although this movie makes one thing perfectly clear : She 's a pretty woman , but she 's no working girl .

3 Far From Heaven is a dazzling conceptual feat , but more than that , it 's a work of enthralling drama .

2 Mildly amusing .

3 As it turns out , you can go home again .

1 Unless you 're a fanatic , the best advice is : ` Scooby ' do n't .

3 Simple , poignant and leavened with humor , it 's a film that affirms the nourishing aspects of love and companionship .

3 dramatic snapshot

1 Can I admit XXX is as deep as a Petri dish and as well-characterized as a telephone book but still say it was a guilty pleasure ?

4 It is different from others in its genre in that it is does not rely on dumb gags , anatomical humor , or character cliches ; it primarily relies on character to tell its story .

0 A predictable , manipulative stinker .

1 Cold , pretentious , thoroughly dislikable study in sociopathy .

3 Despite the surface attractions -- Conrad L. Hall 's cinematography will likely be nominated for an Oscar next year -- there 's something impressive and yet lacking about everything .

3 Director Roger Kumble offers just enough sweet and traditional romantic comedy to counter the crudity .

0 For dance completists only .

3 This filmed Tosca -- not the first , by the way -- is a pretty good job , if it 's filmed Tosca that you want .

1 At times Auto Focus feels so distant you might as well be watching it through a telescope .

1 Solondz is so intent on hammering home his message that he forgets to make it entertaining .

2 The result is good gossip , entertainingly delivered , yet with a distinctly musty odour , its expiry date long gone .

0 This kiddie-oriented stinker is so bad that I even caught the gum stuck under my seat trying to sneak out of the theater

3 Comedian , like its subjects , delivers the goods and audiences will have a fun , no-frills ride .

0 A relative letdown .

3 Cut through the layers of soap-opera emotion and you find a scathing portrayal of a powerful entity strangling the life out of the people who want to believe in it the most .

3 The cast is spot on and the mood is laid back .

0 Where 's the movie here ?

4 -LRB- A -RRB- real pleasure in its laid-back way .

4 While it 's nothing we have n't seen before from Murphy , I Spy is still fun and enjoyable and so aggressively silly that it 's more than a worthwhile effort .

2 The plot 's clearly mythic structure may owe more to Disney 's strong sense of formula than to the original story .

2 A frustrating yet deeply watchable melodrama that makes you think it 's a tougher picture than it is .

0 Most of the dialogue made me want to pack raw dough in my ears .

2 The real charm of this trifle is the deadpan comic face of its star , Jean Reno , who resembles Sly Stallone in a hot sake half-sleep .

0 Weighted down with slow , uninvolving storytelling and flat acting .

3 This is the kind of subject matter that could so easily have been fumbled by a lesser filmmaker , but Ayres makes the right choices at every turn .

2 Bisset delivers a game performance , but she is unable to save the movie .

1 Quitting , however , manages just to be depressing , as the lead actor phones in his autobiographical performance .

1 May offend viewers not amused by the sick sense of humor .

0 Makes 98 minutes feel like three hours .

3 Beautifully directed and convincingly acted .

1 Spectators will indeed sit open-mouthed before the screen , not screaming but yawning .

2 A thunderous ride at first , quiet cadences of pure finesse are few and far between ; their shortage dilutes the potency of otherwise respectable action .

2 A movie that 's just plain awful but still manages to entertain on a guilty-pleasure , so-bad-it 's - funny level .

3 There 's lots of cool stuff packed into ESPN 's Ultimate X.

4 Stands as one of the year 's most intriguing movie experiences , letting its imagery speak for it while it forces you to ponder anew what a movie can be .

3 Arteta paints a picture of lives lived in a state of quiet desperation .

3 A hallmark film in an increasingly important film industry and worth the look .

1 Hard-core slasher aficionados will find things to like ... but overall the Halloween series has lost its edge .

0 Imagine O. Henry 's The Gift of the Magi relocated to the scuzzy underbelly of NYC 's drug scene .

4 This beautifully animated epic is never dull .

1 I could just feel the screenwriter at every moment ` Tap , tap , tap , tap , tapping away ' on this screenplay .

4 This documentary is a dazzling , remarkably unpretentious reminder of what -LRB- Evans -RRB- had , lost , and got back .

2 While Holm is terrific as both men and Hjejle quite appealing , the film fails to make the most out of the intriguing premise .

1 Novak contemplates a heartland so overwhelmed by its lack of purpose that it seeks excitement in manufactured high drama .

0 A preposterous , prurient whodunit .

3 Rarely has skin looked as beautiful , desirable , even delectable , as it does in Trouble Every Day .

4 Many a parent and their teen -LRB- or preteen -RRB- kid could bond while watching A Walk To Remember .

4 A breathtaking adventure for all ages , Spirit tells its poignant and uplifting story in a stunning fusion of music and images .

0 Obvious , obnoxious and didactic burlesque .

1 Comes off like a bad imitation of the Bard .

3 Not all of the stories work and the ones that do are thin and scattered , but the film works well enough to make it worth watching .

1 Reign of Fire never comes close to recovering from its demented premise , but it does sustain an enjoyable level of ridiculousness .

2 The messy emotions raging throughout this three-hour effort are instantly recognizable , allowing the film to paradoxically feel familiar and foreign at the same time .

2 See it now , before the inevitable Hollywood remake flattens out all its odd , intriguing wrinkles .

2 Parts

4 It 's a perfect show of respect to just one of those underrated professionals who deserve but rarely receive it .

3 The story is smart and entirely charming in intent and execution .

3 The humor and humanity of Monsoon Wedding are in perfect balance .

3 Earnest , unsubtle and Hollywood-predictable , Green Dragon is still a deeply moving effort to put a human face on the travail of thousands of Vietnamese .

1 I walked away not really know who `` they '' were , what `` they '' looked like .

3 Fresnadillo has something serious to say about the ways in which extravagant chance can distort our perspective and throw us off the path of good sense .

1 The pairing does sound promising in theory ... but their lack of chemistry makes Eddie Murphy and Robert DeNiro in Showtime look like old , familiar vaudeville partners .

3 Bluto Blutarsky , we miss you .

4 It 's a rollicking adventure for you and all your mateys , regardless of their ages .

0 Imagine Kevin Smith , the blasphemous bad boy of suburban Jersey , if he were stripped of most of his budget and all of his sense of humor .

3 An effective portrait of a life in stasis -- of the power of inertia to arrest development in a dead-end existence .

2 Yes they can swim , the title is merely Anne-Sophie Birot 's off-handed way of saying girls find adolescence difficult to wade through .

4 Infidelity drama is nicely shot , well-edited and features a standout performance by Diane Lane .

1 Let 's see , a haunted house , a haunted ship , what 's next ... Ghost Blimp ?

3 The cast delivers without sham the raw-nerved story .

0 Has no reason to exist , other than to employ Hollywood kids and people who owe favors to their famous parents .

2 Your taste for Jonah - A Veggie Tales Movie may well depend on your threshold for pop manifestations of the Holy Spirit .

0 What starts off as a possible Argentine American Beauty reeks like a room stacked with pungent flowers .

2 A dreary indulgence .

2 Takes one character we do n't like and another we do n't believe , and puts them into a battle of wills that is impossible to care about and is n't very funny .

4 Like a skillful fisher , the director uses the last act to reel in the audience since its poignancy hooks us completely .

3 About Schmidt is Nicholson 's goofy , heartfelt , mesmerizing King Lear .

3 A hypnotic cyber hymn and a cruel story of youth culture .

2 She 's a cipher , played by an actress who smiles and frowns but does n't reveal an inner life .

2 Resident Evil is what comes from taking John Carpenter 's Ghosts of Mars and eliminating the beheadings .

4 If you can get past the taboo subject matter , it will be well worth your time .

1 The direction occasionally rises to the level of marginal competence , but for most of the film it is hard to tell who is chasing who or why .

0 The characters are so generic and the plot so bland that even as rogue CIA assassins working for Chris Cooper 's agency boss close in on the resourceful amnesiac , we do n't feel much for Damon\/Bourne or his predicament .

0 No French people were harmed during the making of this movie , but they were insulted and the audience was put through torture for an hour and a half .

4 Best indie of the year , so far .

3 Instead of hitting the audience over the head with a moral , Schrader relies on subtle ironies and visual devices to convey point of view .

2 At once emotional and richly analytical , the Cosby-Seinfeld encounter alone confirms the serious weight behind this superficially loose , larky documentary .

1 ... The movie feels stitched together from stock situations and characters from other movies .

1 A noble failure .

1 How do you make a movie with depth about a man who lacked any ?

2 Lillard and Cardellini earn their Scooby Snacks , but not anyone else .

3 Quaid is utterly fearless as the tortured husband living a painful lie , and Moore wonderfully underplays the long-suffering heroine with an unflappable '50s dignity somewhere between Jane Wyman and June Cleaver .

1 The film was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Joel Schumacher , and reflects the worst of their shallow styles : wildly overproduced , inadequately motivated every step of the way and demographically targeted to please every one -LRB- and no one -RRB- .

1 Director Jay Russell stomps in hobnail boots over Natalie Babbitt 's gentle , endearing 1975 children 's novel .

2 less on forced air

0 As it is , it 's too long and unfocused .

1 In The New Guy , even the bull gets recycled .

1 It gets old quickly .

1 This is a movie so insecure about its capacity to excite that it churns up not one but two flagrantly fake thunderstorms to underscore the action .

0 Strong filmmaking requires a clear sense of purpose , and in that oh-so-important category , The Four Feathers comes up short .

1 Yet why it fails is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma .

3 Witty dialog between realistic characters showing honest emotions .

4 Steven Spielberg brings us another masterpiece

3 The film is a very good viewing alternative for young women .

1 Whether this is art imitating life or life imitating art , it 's an unhappy situation all around .

2 A good-looking but ultimately pointless political thriller with plenty of action and almost no substance .

1 What Jackson has done is proven that no amount of imagination , no creature , no fantasy story and no incredibly outlandish scenery

1 This dreadfully earnest inversion of the Concubine love triangle eschews the previous film 's historical panorama and roiling pathos for bug-eyed mugging and gay-niche condescension .

1 The thing about guys like Evans is this : You 're never quite sure where self-promotion ends and the truth begins .

2 If you adored The Full Monty so resoundingly that you 're dying to see the same old thing in a tired old setting , then this should keep you reasonably entertained .

0 Downright transparent is the script 's endless assault of embarrassingly ham-fisted sex jokes that reek of a script rewrite designed to garner the film a `` cooler '' PG-13 rating .

1 about gays in what is essentially an extended soap opera

3 Gently humorous and touching .

3 A chronicle not only of one man 's quest to be president , but of how that man single-handedly turned a plane full of hard-bitten , cynical journalists into what was essentially , by campaign 's end , an extended publicity department .

0 Staggers between flaccid satire and what is supposed to be madcap farce .

3 Transforms one of -LRB- Shakespeare 's -RRB- deepest tragedies into a smart new comedy .

3 Wonder , hope and magic can never escape the heart of the boy when the right movie comes along , especially if it begins with the name of Star Wars

0 Journalistically dubious , inept and often lethally dull .

2 It 's time to let your hair down -- Greek style .

1 Nicolas Cage is n't the first actor to lead a group of talented friends astray , and this movie wo n't create a ruffle in what is already an erratic career .

3 Beautifully filmed and well acted ... but admittedly problematic in its narrative specifics .

4 The film has the courage of its convictions and excellent performances on its side .

0 Our culture is headed down the toilet with the ferocity of a frozen burrito after an all-night tequila bender -- and I know this because I 've seen ` jackass : the movie . '

2 With its paint fights , motorized scooter chases and dewy-eyed sentiment

3 Filmmaker Stacy Peralta has a flashy editing style that does n't always jell with Sean Penn 's monotone narration , but he respects the material without sentimentalizing it .

1 Weirdly , Broomfield has compelling new material but he does n't unveil it until the end , after endless scenes of him wheedling reluctant witnesses and pointing his camera through the smeared windshield of his rental car .

3 You come away from his film overwhelmed , hopeful and , perhaps paradoxically , illuminated .

1 ` Butterfingered ' is the word for the big-fisted direction of Jez Butterworth , who manages to blast even the smallest sensitivities from the romance with his clamorous approach .

1 It finds no way to entertain or inspire its viewers .

2 They were right .

3 This is a more fascinating look at the future than `` Bladerunner '' and one of the most high-concept sci fi adventures attempted for the screen .

3 A wildly erratic drama with sequences that make you wince in embarrassment and others , thanks to the actors , that are quite touching .

3 Rubbo runs through a remarkable amount of material in the film 's short 90 minutes .

4 Uplifting as only a document of the worst possibilities of mankind can be , and among the best films of the year .

4 Enormously enjoyable , high-adrenaline documentary .

4 A riveting documentary .

3 Secretary is just too original to be ignored .

4 With this masterful , flawless film , -LRB- Wang -RRB- emerges in the front ranks of China 's now numerous , world-renowned filmmakers .

3 What 's surprising is how well it holds up in an era in which computer-generated images are the norm .

0 The performances are so overstated , the effect comes off as self-parody .

2 Despite its raucous intent , XXX is as conventional as a Nike ad and as rebellious as spring break .

1 A not-so-Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood with a hefty helping of Re-Fried Green Tomatoes .

1 Director David Fincher and writer David Koepp ca n't sustain it .

3 A real audience-pleaser that will strike a chord with anyone who 's ever waited in a doctor 's office , emergency room , hospital bed or insurance company office .

1 Presents nothing special and , until the final act , nothing overtly disagreeable .

4 ... is funny in the way that makes you ache with sadness -LRB- the way Chekhov is funny -RRB- , profound without ever being self-important , warm without ever succumbing to sentimentality .

2 Swimfan , like Fatal Attraction , eventually goes overboard with a loony melodramatic denouement in which a high school swimming pool substitutes for a bathtub .

3 Everything about The Quiet American is good , except its timing .

3 Well , it probably wo n't have you swinging from the trees hooting it 's praises , but it 's definitely worth taking a look .

0 In a big corner office in Hell , Satan is throwing up his hands in surrender , is firing his R&D people , and has decided he will just screen The Master of Disguise 24\/7 .

4 An invaluable historical document thanks to the filmmaker 's extraordinary access to Massoud , whose charm , cultivation and devotion to his people are readily apparent .

2 What 's the most positive thing that can be said about the new Rob Schneider vehicle ?

2 , Skins has its heart in the right place

0 And it 's a lousy one at that .

2 The movie is our story as much as it is Schmidt 's , no matter if it 's viewed as a self-reflection or cautionary tale .

3 Munch 's screenplay is tenderly observant of his characters .

0 Horrible .

0 What more can be expected from a college comedy that 's target audience has n't graduated from junior high school ?

4 A straight-shooting family film which awards animals the respect they 've rarely been given .

4 Topics that could make a sailor blush - but lots of laughs .

4 I encourage young and old alike to go see this unique and entertaining twist on the classic whale 's tale -- you wo n't be sorry !

2 Curling may be a unique sport but Men with Brooms is distinctly ordinary .

1 There are some laughs in this movie , but Williams ' anarchy gets tiresome , the satire is weak .

2 Far away .

1 Drowning 's too good for this sucker .

2 Renner ?

0 It 's an 88-minute highlight reel that 's 86 minutes too long .

3 It 's a talking head documentary , but a great one .

4 Promises is one film that 's truly deserving of its Oscar nomination .

3 A smart and funny , albeit sometimes superficial , cautionary tale of a technology in search of an artist .

2 to be more engaging on an emotional level , funnier , and on the whole less detached .

0 A depressingly retrograde , ` post-feminist ' romantic comedy that takes an astonishingly condescending attitude toward women .

3 Combines improbable melodrama -LRB- gored bullfighters , comatose ballerinas -RRB- with subtly kinky bedside vigils and sensational denouements , and yet at the end , we are undeniably touched .

1 plays like an unbalanced mixture of graphic combat footage and almost saccharine domestic interludes that are pure Hollywood .

1 Despite Juliet Stevenon 's attempt to bring cohesion to Pamela 's emotional roller coaster life , it is not enough to give the film the substance it so desperately needs .

4 If you ever wanted to be an astronaut , this is the ultimate movie experience - it 's informative and breathtakingly spectacular .

0 There is n't one moment in the film that surprises or delights .

0 Kitschy , flashy , overlong soap opera .

2 Creeps you out in high style , even if Nakata did it better .

0 This flat run at a hip-hop Tootsie is so poorly paced you could fit all of Pootie Tang in between its punchlines .

3 Fans of critics ' darling band Wilco will marvel at the sometimes murky , always brooding look of I Am Trying to Break Your Heart .

1 Its salient points are simultaneously buried , drowned and smothered in the excesses of writer-director Roger Avary .

1 Where This was lazy but enjoyable , a formula comedy redeemed by its stars , That is even lazier and far less enjoyable .

1 The histrionic muse still eludes Madonna and , playing a charmless witch , she is merely a charmless witch .

3 Despite Besson 's high-profile name being Wasabi 's big selling point , there is no doubt that Krawczyk deserves a huge amount of the credit for the film 's thoroughly winning tone .

1 It 's in the action scenes that things fall apart .

1 Michele is a such a brainless flibbertigibbet that it 's hard to take her spiritual quest at all seriously .

1 As a story of dramatic enlightenment , the screenplay by Billy Ray and Terry George leaves something to be desired .

4 -LRB- Danny Huston gives -RRB- an astounding performance that deftly , gradually reveals a real human soul buried beneath a spellbinding serpent 's smirk .

1 Though Tom Shadyac 's film kicks off spookily enough , around the halfway mark it takes an abrupt turn into glucose sentimentality and laughable contrivance .

1 It 's a bad sign in a thriller when you instantly know whodunit .

3 It 's the perfect star vehicle for Grant , allowing him to finally move away from his usual bumbling , tongue-tied screen persona .

3 The characters are more deeply thought through than in most ` right-thinking ' films .

0 Even a hardened voyeur would require the patience of Job to get through this interminable , shapeless documentary about the swinging subculture .

1 It 's a Frankenstein-monster of a film that does n't know what it wants to be .

4 A miraculous movie , I 'm Going Home is so slight , yet overflows with wisdom and emotion .

2 It 's likely that whatever you thought of the first production -- pro or con -- you 'll likely think of this one .

3 A mischievous visual style and oodles of charm make ` Cherish ' a very good -LRB- but not great -RRB- movie .

2 Wallace gets a bit heavy handed with his message at times , and has a visual flair that waxes poetic far too much for our taste .

0 Forages for audience sympathy like a temperamental child begging for attention , giving audiences no reason to truly care for its decrepit freaks beyond the promise of a reprieve from their incessant whining .

1 Meandering and confusing .

1 While it is welcome to see a Chinese film depict a homosexual relationship in a mature and frank fashion , Lan Yu never catches dramatic fire .

1 If Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood suffers from a ploddingly melodramatic structure , it comes to life in the performances .

1 There 's a reason the studio did n't offer an advance screening .

2 Fans of so-bad-they 're - good cinema may find some fun in this jumbled mess .

3 The underworld urban angst is derivative of Martin Scorsese 's Taxi Driver and Goodfellas , but this film speaks for itself .

3 Pipe Dream does have its charms .

2 It 's too bad nothing else is .

4 A pleasant piece of escapist entertainment .

3 Brave and sweetly rendered love story .

3 Beautiful , angry and sad , with a curious sick poetry , as if the Marquis de Sade had gone in for pastel landscapes .

1 It sticks rigidly to the paradigm , rarely permitting its characters more than two obvious dimensions and repeatedly placing them in contrived , well-worn situations .

4 Bogdanovich taps deep into the Hearst mystique , entertainingly reenacting a historic scandal .

0 It is depressing , ruthlessly pained and depraved , the movie equivalent of staring into an open wound .

2 Authentic , and at times endearing , humorous , spooky , educational , but at other times as bland as a block of snow .

3 There 's undeniable enjoyment to be had from films crammed with movie references , but the fun wears thin -- then out -- when there 's nothing else happening .

1 I wanted more .

3 Spielberg 's picture is smarter and subtler than -LRB- Total Recall and Blade Runner -RRB- , although its plot may prove too convoluted for fun-seeking summer audiences .

4 But the performances of Pacino , Williams , and Swank keep the viewer wide-awake all the way through .

3 Kwan is a master of shadow , quietude , and room noise , and Lan Yu is a disarmingly lived-in movie .

1 A few zingers aside , the writing is indifferent , and Jordan Brady 's direction is prosaic .

2 ... one big laugh , three or four mild giggles , and a whole lot of not much else .

3 -LRB- F -RRB- rom the performances and the cinematography to the outstanding soundtrack and unconventional narrative , the film is blazingly alive and admirable on many levels .

4 The story ... is inspiring , ironic , and revelatory of just how ridiculous and money-oriented the record industry really is .

0 -LRB- T -RRB- his slop does n't even have potential as a cult film , as it 's too loud to shout insults at the screen .

3 The pain , loneliness and insecurity of the screenwriting process are vividly and painfully brought to slovenly life in this self-deprecating , biting and witty feature written by Charlie Kaufman and his twin brother , Donald , and directed by Spike Jonze .

1 Some Body often looks like an episode of the TV show Blind Date , only less technically proficient and without the pop-up comments .

0 frustratingly refuses to give Pinochet 's crimes a political context

3 It 's refreshing to see a romance this smart .

1 Pretty much sucks , but has a funny moment or two .

1 ... a bland , pretentious mess .

3 The lightest , most breezy movie Steven Spielberg has made in more than a decade .

1 Feels less like a change in -LRB- Herzog 's -RRB- personal policy than a half-hearted fluke .

3 When one hears Harry Shearer is going to make his debut as a film director , one would hope for the best

4 A fascinating case study of flower-power liberation -- and the price that was paid for it .

1 The movie is a mess from start to finish .

0 Unfortunately , Kapur modernizes A.E.W. Mason 's story to suit the sensibilities of a young American , a decision that plucks `` The Four Feathers '' bare .

2 Thriller directorial debut for Traffic scribe Gaghan has all the right parts , but the pieces do n't quite fit together .

3 This is unusual , food-for-thought cinema that 's as entertaining as it is instructive .

3 Their computer-animated faces are very expressive .

1 One well-timed explosion in a movie can be a knockout , but a hundred of them can be numbing .

4 It 's always enthralling .

2 ` All in all , Reign of Fire will be a good -LRB- successful -RRB- rental . '

3 Those with a modicum of patience will find in these characters ' foibles a timeless and unique perspective .

1 Works better in the conception than it does in the execution ... winds up seeming just a little too clever .

1 Although ... visually striking and slickly staged , it 's also cold , grey , antiseptic and emotionally desiccated .

1 A waste of fearless purity in the acting craft .

1 Would that Greengrass had gone a tad less for grit and a lot more for intelligibility .

4 Great performances , stylish cinematography and a gritty feel help make Gangster No. 1 a worthwhile moviegoing experience .

0 I ca n't begin to tell you how tedious , how resolutely unamusing , how thoroughly unrewarding all of this is , and what a reckless squandering of four fine acting talents ...

3 out ballsy and stylish

0 Wedding feels a bit anachronistic .

4 Astonishing ... -LRB- frames -RRB- profound ethical and philosophical questions in the form of dazzling pop entertainment .

0 Men in Black II achieves ultimate insignificance -- it 's the sci-fi comedy spectacle as Whiffle-Ball epic .

2 About as original as a gangster sweating bullets while worrying about a contract on his life .

3 ... an adorably whimsical comedy that deserves more than a passing twinkle .

1 If The Full Monty was a freshman fluke , Lucky Break is -LRB- Cattaneo -RRB- sophomore slump .

3 This bracingly truthful antidote to Hollywood teenage movies that slather Clearasil over the blemishes of youth captures the combustible mixture of a chafing inner loneliness and desperate grandiosity that tend to characterize puberty .

0 It 's difficult to conceive of anyone who has reached puberty actually finding the characters in Slackers or their antics amusing , let alone funny .

4 A must see for all sides of the political spectrum

2 A drama ?

3 It 's touching and tender and proves that even in sorrow you can find humor .

3 You wo n't have any trouble getting kids to eat up these Veggies .

3 A good film with a solid pedigree both in front of and , more specifically , behind the camera .

1 Choppy , overlong documentary about ` The Lifestyle . '

2 The origin story is well told , and the characters will not disappoint anyone who values the original comic books .

4 A lovely film ... elegant , witty and beneath a prim exterior unabashedly romantic ... hugely enjoyable in its own right though not really faithful to its source 's complexity .

2 Here 's my advice , Kev .

3 As literary desecrations go , this makes for perfectly acceptable , occasionally very enjoyable children 's entertainment .

4 If ever a concept came handed down from the movie gods on a silver platter , this is it .

0 Highly uneven and inconsistent ... Margarita Happy Hour kinda resembles the el cheapo margaritas served within .

3 Malcolm McDowell is cool .

0 Maid in Manhattan proves that it 's easier to change the sheets than to change hackneyed concepts when it comes to dreaming up romantic comedies .

3 A psychic journey deep into the very fabric of Iranian ... life .

4 The film is one of the year 's best .

2 Draggin ' about dragons

1 The inherent limitations of using a video game as the source material movie are once again made all too clear in this schlocky horror\/action hybrid .

3 -LRB- Sports -RRB- admirable energy , full-bodied characterizations and narrative urgency .

1 Painfully padded .

2 Many shallower movies these days seem too long , but this one is egregiously short .

2 Sean Penn , you owe Nicolas Cage an apology .

2 Sayles is making a statement about the inability of dreams and aspirations to carry forward into the next generation .

3 Robert John Burke as The Monster horns in and steals the show .

3 Robin Williams has thankfully ditched the saccharine sentimentality of Bicentennial Man in favour of an altogether darker side .

1 But the problem with Wendigo , for all its effective moments , is n't really one of resources .

3 This is lightweight filmmaking , to be sure , but it 's pleasant enough -- and oozing with attractive men .

1 The Christ allegory does n't work because there is no foundation for it

2 Your stomach for Heaven depends largely on your appetite for canned corn .

0 An erotic thriller that 's neither too erotic nor very thrilling , either .

1 I do n't think most of the people who loved the 1989 Paradiso will prefer this new version .

1 If nothing else , `` Rollerball '' 2002 may go down in cinema history as the only movie ever in which the rest of the cast was outshined by LL Cool J.

2 You might be shocked to discover that Seinfeld 's real life is boring .

4 Exciting documentary .

0 Borstal Boy represents the worst kind of filmmaking , the kind that pretends to be passionate and truthful but is really frustratingly timid and soggy .

0 Every sequel you skip will be two hours gained .

3 As dumb and cheesy as they may be , the cartoons look almost Shakespearean -- both in depth and breadth -- after watching this digital-effects-heavy , supposed family-friendly comedy .

2 ... only Bond can save us from the latest eccentric , super-wealthy megalomaniac bent on world domination and destruction .

3 A wild ride of a movie that keeps throwing fastballs .

3 For his first attempt at film noir , Spielberg presents a fascinating but flawed look at the near future .

1 can be as tiresome as 9 seconds of Jesse Helms ' anti- Castro rhetoric , which are included

3 A solid cast , assured direction and complete lack of modern day irony .

4 The emotion is impressively true for being so hot-blooded , and both leads are up to the task .

2 When the precise nature of Matthew 's predicament finally comes into sharp focus , the revelation fails to justify the build-up .

1 Director Uwe Boll and writer Robert Dean Klein fail to generate any interest in an unsympathetic hero caught up in an intricate plot that while cleverly worked out , can not overcome blah characters .

2 The plot plummets into a comedy graveyard before Janice comes racing to the rescue in the final reel .

4 I loved this film .

0 Contrived , maudlin and cliche-ridden ... if this sappy script was the best the contest received , those rejected must have been astronomically bad .

0 ... a hokey piece of nonsense that tries too hard to be emotional .

1 It 's a movie that ends with Truckzilla , for cryin ' out loud .

4 Judith and Zaza 's extended bedroom sequence ... is so intimate and sensual and funny and psychologically self-revealing that it makes most of what passes for sex in the movies look like cheap hysterics .

2 It is an indelible epic American story about two families , one black and one white , facing change in both their inner and outer lives .

0 The only thing `` swept away '' is the one hour and thirty-three minutes spent watching this waste of time .

3 Blade II merges bits and pieces from fighting games , wire fu , horror movies , mystery , James Bond , wrestling , sci-fi and anime into one big bloody stew .

4 With Dirty Deeds , David Caesar has stepped into the mainstream of filmmaking with an assurance worthy of international acclaim and with every cinematic tool well under his control -- driven by a natural sense for what works on screen .

1 Rock 's stand-up magic wanes .

1 The end result is like cold porridge with only the odd enjoyably chewy lump .

0 The only thing to fear about `` Fear Dot Com '' is hitting your head on the theater seat in front of you when you doze off thirty minutes into the film .

2 Ninety minutes of Viva Castro !

1 There is simply not enough of interest onscreen to sustain its seventy-minute running time .

4 Handled correctly , Wilde 's play is a masterpiece of elegant wit and artifice .

0 The very simple story seems too simple and the working out of the plot almost arbitrary .

1 The Merchant-Ivory team continues to systematically destroy everything we hold dear about cinema , only now it 's begun to split up so that it can do even more damage .

1 Fans of Plympton 's shorts may marginally enjoy the film , but it is doubtful this listless feature will win him any new viewers .

1 It 's a shame the marvelous first 101 minutes have to be combined with the misconceived final 5 .

1 I found myself growing more and more frustrated and detached as Vincent became more and more abhorrent .

3 For all the charm of Kevin Kline and a story that puts old-fashioned values under the microscope , there 's something creepy about this movie .

1 The lousy lead performances ... keep the movie from ever reaching the comic heights it obviously desired .

1 Julie Davis is the Kathie Lee Gifford of film directors , sadly proving once again ego does n't always go hand in hand with talent .

3 Giggling at the absurdities and inconsistencies is part of the fun .

4 Boisterous , heartfelt comedy .

3 Sweet Home Alabama is n't going to win any Academy Awards , but this date-night diversion will definitely win some hearts .

3 Moonlight Mile does n't quite go the distance but the cast is impressive and they all give life to these broken characters who are trying to make their way through this tragedy .

3 has a whip-smart sense of narrative bluffs .

1 Thoroughly engrossing and ultimately tragic .

1 Some Body smacks of exhibitionism more than it does cathartic truth telling .

0 Even if you 're an Elvis person , you wo n't find anything to get excited about on this DVD .

0 This is not one of the movies you 'd want to watch if you only had a week to live .

3 Nicole Holofcenter , the insightful writer\/director responsible for this illuminating comedy does n't wrap the proceedings up neatly but the ideas tie together beautifully .

1 The dialogue is very choppy and monosyllabic despite the fact that it is being dubbed .

1 ` CQ may one day be fondly remembered as Roman Coppola 's brief pretentious period before going on to other films that actually tell a story worth caring about

1 This 10th film in the series looks and feels tired .

0 Comes off as a long , laborious whine , the bellyaching of a paranoid and unlikable man .

0 It 's also curious to note that this film , like the similarly ill-timed Antitrust , is easily as bad at a fraction the budget .

3 A grittily beautiful film that looks , sounds , and feels more like an extended , open-ended poem than a traditionally structured story .

2 has -RRB-

1 Every so often a film comes along that is so insanely stupid , so awful in so many ways that watching it leaves you giddy .

1 Unfortunately , we 'd prefer a simple misfire .

0 Sinks so low in a poorly played game of absurd plot twists , idiotic court maneuvers and stupid characters that even Freeman ca n't save it .

1 The major problem with Windtalkers is that the bulk of the movie centers on the wrong character .

3 -LRB- While The Last Metro -RRB- was more melodramatic , confined to a single theater company and its strategies and deceptions , while Tavernier is more concerned with the entire period of history .

0 Cinematic poo .

3 Leigh is n't breaking new ground , but he knows how a daily grind can kill love .

3 A hard look at one man 's occupational angst and its subsequent reinvention , a terrifying study of bourgeois desperation worthy of Claude Chabrol .

1 If any of them list this ` credit ' on their resumes in the future , that 'll be much funnier than anything in the film ...

2 Directors John Musker and Ron Clements , the team behind The Little Mermaid , have produced sparkling retina candy , but they are n't able to muster a lot of emotional resonance in the cold vacuum of space .

1 Here the love scenes all end in someone screaming .

3 We 're drawn in by the dark luster .

1 A visually flashy but narratively opaque and emotionally vapid exercise in style and mystification .

3 This is Christmas Future for a lot of baby boomers .

0 Comes across as a relic from a bygone era , and its convolutions ... feel silly rather than plausible .

1 ... built on the premise that middle-class Arkansas consists of monster truck-loving good ol' boys and peroxide blond honeys whose worldly knowledge comes from TV reruns and supermarket tabloids .

1 Not only does LeBlanc make one spectacularly ugly-looking broad , but he appears miserable throughout as he swaggers through his scenes .

1 Jackson shamefully strolls through this mess with a smug grin , inexplicably wearing a kilt and carrying a bag of golf clubs over one shoulder .

3 A creepy , intermittently powerful study of a self-destructive man ... about as unsettling to watch as an exploratory medical procedure or an autopsy .

2 than ` Magnifique ' .

1 Nemesis suffers from a paunchy midsection , several plodding action sequences and a wickedly undramatic central theme .

2 The tone errs on the shrill side , tempered by a soft southern gentility that speaks of beauty , grace and a closet full of skeletons .

2 It 's easy to be cynical about documentaries in which underdogs beat the odds and the human spirit triumphs , but Westbrook 's foundation and Dalrymple 's film earn their uplift .

0 As pedestrian as they come .

0 It is dark , brooding and slow , and takes its central idea way too seriously .

3 Even when it drags , we are forced to reflect that its visual imagination is breathtaking

3 It 'll keep you wide awake and ... very tense .

1 Though a capable thriller , somewhere along the way K-19 jettisoned some crucial drama .

2 The camera whirls !

2 Punitively affirmational parable .

0 This would-be ` James Bond for the Extreme Generation ' pic is one big , dumb action movie .

3 Boasts a handful of virtuosic set pieces and offers a fair amount of trashy , kinky fun .

3 Lee 's achievement extends to his supple understanding of the role that Brown played in American culture as an athlete , a movie star , and an image of black indomitability .

1 The pretensions -- and disposable story -- sink the movie .

0 None of this is very original , and it is n't particularly funny .

3 Death to Smoochy is often very funny , but what 's even more remarkable is the integrity of DeVito 's misanthropic vision .

4 For all its visual panache and compelling supporting characters , the heart of the film rests in the relationship between Sullivan and his son .

4 Witty and often surprising , a dark little morality tale disguised as a romantic comedy .

0 Horrendously amateurish filmmaking that is plainly dull and visually ugly when it is n't incomprehensible .

3 It 's not just a feel-good movie , it 's a feel movie .

4 `` Spider-man is better than any summer blockbuster we had to endure last summer , and hopefully , sets the tone for a summer of good stuff .

0 Not only does the thoroughly formulaic film represent totally exemplify middle-of-the-road mainstream , it also represents glossy Hollywood at its laziest .

4 But what 's nice is that there 's a casual intelligence that permeates the script .

4 Kids will love its fantasy and adventure , and grownups should appreciate its whimsical humor .

4 This movie may not have the highest production values you 've ever seen , but it 's the work of an artist , one whose view of America , history and the awkwardness of human life is generous and deep .

4 The movie is a trove of delights .

0 For its 100 minutes running time , you 'll wait in vain for a movie to happen .

0 It may as well be called `` Jar-Jar Binks : The Movie . ''

2 It 's a fanboy ` what if ? '

0 It 's horribly depressing and not very well done .

1 While The Importance of Being Earnest offers opportunities for occasional smiles and chuckles , it does n't give us a reason to be in the theater beyond Wilde 's wit and the actors ' performances .

3 For every cheesy scene , though , there is a really cool bit -- the movie 's conception of a future-world holographic librarian -LRB- Orlando Jones -RRB- who knows everything and answers all questions , is visually smart , cleverly written , and nicely realized .

2 I survived .

2 The Pinochet Case is a searing album of remembrance from those who , having survived , suffered most .

3 The quirky and recessive charms of co-stars Martin Donovan and Mary-Louise Parker help overcome the problematic script .

1 Scherfig , who has had a successful career in TV , tackles more than she can handle .

3 It 's far from a frothy piece , and the characters are complex , laden with plenty of baggage and tinged with tragic undertones .

0 Control-Alt-Delete Simone as quickly as possible

3 A little better than Sorcerer 's Stone .

4 Amari has dressed up this little parable in a fairly irresistible package full of privileged moments and memorable performances .

0 This thing works on no level whatsoever for me .

3 The film has an infectious enthusiasm and we 're touched by the film 's conviction that all life centered on that place , that time and that sport .

4 Devos and Cassel have tremendous chemistry -- their sexual and romantic tension , while never really vocalized , is palpable .

3 A diverse and astonishingly articulate cast of Palestinian and Israeli children .

0 Long before it 's over , you 'll be thinking of 51 ways to leave this loser .

1 A movie that 's held captive by mediocrity .

4 Enticing and often funny documentary .

4 P.T. Anderson understands the grandness of romance and how love is the great equalizer that can calm us of our daily ills and bring out joys in our lives that we never knew were possible .

3 For those in search of something different , Wendigo is a genuinely bone-chilling tale .

4 The writing is clever and the cast is appealing .

0 Kung Pow seems like some futile concoction that was developed hastily after Oedekerk and his fellow moviemakers got through crashing a college keg party .

3 The word that comes to mind , while watching Eric Rohmer 's tribute to a courageous Scottish lady , is painterly .

1 ... Liotta is put in an impossible spot because his character 's deceptions ultimately undo him and the believability of the entire scenario .

2 Brown 's saga , like many before his , makes for snappy prose but a stumblebum of a movie .

3 Puts a refreshing and comical spin on the all-too-familiar saga of the contemporary single woman .

0 The appeal of the vulgar , sexist , racist humour went over my head or -- considering just how low brow it is -- perhaps it snuck under my feet .

3 The complex , politically charged tapestry of contemporary Chinese life this exciting new filmmaker has brought to the screen is like nothing we Westerners have seen before .

3 A headline-fresh thriller set among orthodox Jews on the West Bank , Joseph Cedar 's Time Of Favor manages not only to find a compelling dramatic means of addressing a complex situation , it does so without compromising that complexity .

3 A great companion piece to other Napoleon films .

2 Rodriguez ... was unable to reproduce the special spark between the characters that made the first film such a delight .

0 once she lets her love depraved leads meet , -LRB- Denis ' -RRB- story becomes a hopeless , unsatisfying muddle

3 Cannon 's confidence and laid-back good spirits are , with the drumming routines , among the film 's saving graces .

1 Such a wildly uneven hit-and-miss enterprise , you ca n't help suspecting that it was improvised on a day-to-day basis during production .

1 Sadly , Full Frontal plays like the work of a dilettante .

3 Contradicts everything we 've come to expect from movies nowadays .

2 I highly recommend Irwin , but not in the way this film showcases him .

3 Unlike lots of Hollywood fluff , this has layered , well-developed characters and some surprises .

1 Spider-Man is about growing strange hairs , getting a more mature body , and finding it necessary to hide new secretions from the parental units .

2 Lucky Break is perfectly inoffensive and harmless , but it 's also drab and inert .

1 For those of us who respond more strongly to storytelling than computer-generated effects , the new Star Wars installment has n't escaped the rut dug by the last one .

0 No film could possibly be more contemptuous of the single female population .

3 Tsai Ming-liang 's witty , wistful new film , What Time Is It There ?

4 An engrossing and infectiously enthusiastic documentary .

2 One gets the impression the creators of Do n't Ask Do n't Tell laughed a hell of a lot at their own jokes .

3 A sensitive and astute first feature by Anne-Sophie Birot .

3 Funny and touching .

4 A delightful , if minor , pastry of a movie .

1 It follows the Blair Witch formula for an hour , in which we 're told something creepy and vague is in the works , and then it goes awry in the final 30 minutes .

1 For this sort of thing to work , we need agile performers , but the proficient , dull Sorvino has no light touch , and Rodan is out of his league .

3 A dreadful day in Irish history is given passionate , if somewhat flawed , treatment .

2 A serviceable Euro-trash action extravaganza , with a decent sense of humor and plenty of things that go boom -- handguns , BMWs and seaside chateaus .

1 With very little to add beyond the dark visions already relayed by superb recent predecessors like Swimming With Sharks and The Player , this latest skewering ... may put off insiders and outsiders alike .

2 If you thought Tom Hanks was just an ordinary big-screen star , wait until you 've seen him eight stories tall .

3 City by the Sea is a gritty police thriller with all the dysfunctional family dynamics one could wish for .

3 Audiences are advised to sit near the back and squint to avoid noticing some truly egregious lip-non-synching , but otherwise the production is suitably elegant .

4 Jeffrey Tambor 's performance as the intelligent jazz-playing exterminator is Oscar-worthy .

1 It 's virtually impossible to like any of these despicable characters .

1 Too clumsy in key moments ... to make a big splash .

2 Schnitzler 's film has a great hook , some clever bits and well-drawn , if standard issue , characters , but is still only partly satisfying .

3 A surprisingly ` solid ' achievement by director Malcolm D. Lee and writer John Ridley .

3 Walter Hill 's Undisputed is like a 1940s Warner Bros. .

0 Seemingly a vehicle to showcase the Canadian 's inane ramblings , Stealing Harvard is a smorgasbord of soliloquies about nothing delivered by the former Mr. Drew Barrymore .

3 A stirring road movie .

3 Sly , sophisticated and surprising .

3 - I also wanted a little alien as a friend !

0 You 'll forget about it by Monday , though , and if they 're old enough to have developed some taste , so will your kids .

2 Whether Quitting will prove absorbing to American audiences is debatable .

1 It 's coherent , well shot , and tartly acted , but i