'moore is like a progressive bull in a china shop , a provocateur crashing into ideas and special-interest groups as he slaps together his own brand of liberalism . '
idiotic and ugly . 
even if the naipaul original remains the real masterpiece , the movie possesses its own languorous charm . 
the movie is amateurish , but it's a minor treat . 
some people march to the beat of a different drum , and if you ever wondered what kind of houses those people live in , this documentary takes a look at 5 alternative housing options . 
the movie plays up the cartoon's more obvious strength of snazziness while neglecting its less conspicuous writing strength . 
apesar de seus graves problemas , o filme consegue entreter . 
superb production values & christian bale's charisma make up for a derivative plot . 
kiarostami has crafted a deceptively casual ode to children and managed to convey a tiny sense of hope . 
an engrossing story that combines psychological drama , sociological reflection , and high-octane thriller . 
like its predecessor , it's no classic , but it provides a reasonably attractive holiday contraption , one that families looking for a clean , kid-friendly outing should investigate . 
ranks among willams' best screen work . 
it's a drawling , slobbering , lovable run-on sentence of a film , a southern gothic with the emotional arc of its raw blues soundtrack . 
even if you don't understand what on earth is going on , this is a movie that will stimulate hours of post viewing discussion , if only to be reminded of who did what to whom and why . 
the sight of the spaceship on the launching pad is duly impressive in imax dimensions , as are shots of the astronauts floating in their cabins . 
this new zealand coming-of-age movie isn't really about anything . when it's this rich and luscious , who cares ? 
the all-french cast is marveilleux . 
it's [ricci's] best work yet , this girl-woman who sincerely believes she can thwart the world's misery with blind good will . 
harmless fun . 
the fast runner' transports the viewer into an unusual space
it may be a somewhat backhanded compliment to say that the film makes the viewer feel like the movie's various victimized audience members after a while , but it also happens to be the movie's most admirable quality
a very funny movie . 
imagine a scenario where bergman approaches swedish fatalism using gary larson's far side humor
at about 95 minutes , treasure planet maintains a brisk pace as it races through the familiar story . however , it lacks grandeur and that epic quality often associated with stevenson's tale as well as with earlier disney efforts . 
a lot of fun , with an undeniable energy sparked by two actresses in their 50s working at the peak of their powers . 
a vivid , sometimes surreal , glimpse into the mysteries of human behavior . 
the film is a verbal duel between two gifted performers . 
it's a very valuable film . . . 
director kapur is a filmmaker with a real flair for epic landscapes and adventure , and this is a better film than his earlier english-language movie , the overpraised elizabeth . 
i love the way that it took chances and really asks you to take these great leaps of faith and pays off . 
take care is nicely performed by a quintet of actresses , but nonetheless it drags during its 112-minute length . 
expect no major discoveries , nor any stylish sizzle , but the film sits with square conviction and touching good sense on the experience of its women . 
while not all transitions to adulthood are so fraught , there's much truth and no small amount of poetry in girls can't swim . 
funny , sexy , devastating and incurably romantic . 
that death is merely a transition is a common tenet in the world's religions . this deeply spiritual film taps into the meaning and consolation in afterlife communications . 
a highly personal look at the effects of living a dysfunctionally privileged lifestyle , and by the end , we only wish we could have spent more time in its world . 
absorbing character study by andr turpin . 
skins has a desolate air , but eyre , a native american raised by white parents , manages to infuse the rocky path to sibling reconciliation with flashes of warmth and gentle humor . 
world traveler might not go anywhere new , or arrive anyplace special , but it's certainly an honest attempt to get at something . 
a pleasing , often-funny comedy . 
what enlivens this film , beyond the astute direction of cardoso and beautifully detailed performances by all of the actors , is a note of defiance over social dictates . 
a fascinating , bombshell documentary that should shame americans , regardless of whether or not ultimate blame finally lies with kissinger . should be required viewing for civics classes and would-be public servants alike . 
it's like going to a house party and watching the host defend himself against a frothing ex-girlfriend . you don't want to call the cops . you want to call domino's . 
contrasting the original ringu with the current americanized adaptation is akin to comparing the evil dead with evil dead ii
fans of critics' darling band wilco will marvel at the sometimes murky , always brooding look of i am trying to break your heart . 
a film of precious increments artfully camouflaged as everyday activities . 
greene delivers a typically solid performance in a role that is a bit of a departure from the noble characters he has played in the past , and he is matched by schweig , who carries the film on his broad , handsome shoulders . 
the film is a fierce dance of destruction . its flame-like , roiling black-and-white inspires trembling and gratitude . 
a wonderful , ghastly film . 
stanley kwan has directed not only one of the best gay love stories ever made , but one of the best love stories of any stripe . 
people cinema at its finest . 
one of the funniest motion pictures of the year , but . . . also one of the most curiously depressing . 
steven soderbergh's digital video experiment is a clever and cutting , quick and dirty look at modern living and movie life . 
suffers from its timid parsing of the barn-side target of sons trying to breach gaps in their relationships with their fathers . 
a moving and important film . 
4 friends , 2 couples , 2000 miles , and all the pabst blue ribbon beer they can drink - it's the ultimate redneck road-trip . 
all comedy is subversive , but this unrelenting bleak insistence on opting out of any opportunity for finding meaning in relationships or work just becomes sad . 
only two words will tell you what you know when deciding to see it : anthony . hopkins . 
it's a coming-of-age story we've all seen bits of in other films -- but it's rarely been told with such affecting grace and cultural specificity . 
claire is a terrific role for someone like judd , who really ought to be playing villains . 
for those who are intrigued by politics of the '70s , the film is every bit as fascinating as it is flawed . 
by taking entertainment tonight subject matter and giving it humor and poignancy , auto focus becomes both gut-bustingly funny and crushingly depressing . 
a clever script and skilled actors bring new energy to the familiar topic of office politics . 
the cast is phenomenal , especially the women . 
nettelbeck has crafted an engaging fantasy of flavours and emotions , one part romance novel , one part recipe book . 
i admired it , particularly that unexpected downer of an ending . 
the film's almost unbearable portrait of sadness and grief transcends its specific story to speak to the ways in which need , history and presumption tangle , and sometimes destroy , blood ties . 
payne constructs a hilarious ode to middle america and middle age with this unlikely odyssey , featuring a pathetic , endearing hero who is all too human . 
the first half bursts with a goofy energy previous disney films only used for a few minutes here and there . 
about schmidt is nicholson's goofy , heartfelt , mesmerizing king lear . 
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 . 
see it . debate it . remember it . 
it's tough to watch , but it's a fantastic movie . 
exciting documentary . 
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 . 
highly engaging . 
succeeds only because bullock and grant were made to share the silver screen . 
mazel tov to a film about a family's joyous life acting on the yiddish stage . 
these characters are so well established that the gang feels comfortable with taking insane liberties and doing the goofiest stuff out of left field , and i'm all for that . 
it celebrates the group's playful spark of nonconformity , glancing vividly back at what hibiscus grandly called his 'angels of light . '
strange and beautiful film . 
makes an aborbing if arguable case for the man's greatness . 
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 . 
the amazing film work is so convincing that by movies' end you'll swear you are wet in some places and feel sand creeping in others . 
it's a great deal of sizzle and very little steak . but what spectacular sizzle it is ! . . . in this incarnation its fizz is infectious . 
an indispensable peek at the art and the agony of making people laugh . 
evokes a little of the fear that parents have for the possible futures of their children--and the sometimes bad choices mothers and fathers make in the interests of doing them good . 
a stylistic romp that's always fun to watch . 
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 . 
britney has been delivered to the big screen safe and sound , the way we like our 20-year-old superstar girls to travel on the fame freeway . 
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 . 
an old-fashioned drama of substance about a teacher's slide down the slippery slope of dishonesty after an encounter with the rich and the powerful who have nothing but disdain for virtue . 
 . . . a visually seductive , unrepentantly trashy take on rice's second installment of her vampire chronicles . 
argento , at only 26 , brings a youthful , out-to-change-the-world aggressiveness to the project , as if she's cut open a vein and bled the raw film stock . 
graced with the kind of social texture and realism that would be foreign in american teen comedies . 
what makes esther kahn so demanding is that it progresses in such a low-key manner that it risks monotony . but it's worth the concentration . 
anyone who ever fantasized about space travel but can't afford the $20 million ticket to ride a russian rocket should catch this imax offering . 
thoroughly enjoyable . 
a terrific b movie -- in fact , the best in recent memory . 
at times funny and at other times candidly revealing , it's an intriguing look at two performers who put themselves out there because they love what they do . 
a film in a class with spike lee's masterful do the right thing . 
building slowly and subtly , the film , sporting a breezy spontaneity and realistically drawn characterizations , develops into a significant character study that is both moving and wise . 
you watch for that sense of openness , the little surprises . 
[gulpilil] is a commanding screen presence , and his character's abundant humanism makes him the film's moral compass . 
an enjoyable feel-good family comedy regardless of race . 
it's not a great monster movie . but if you've paid a matinee price and bought a big tub of popcorn , there's guilty fun to be had here . chomp chomp ! 
for a film that's being advertised as a comedy , sweet home alabama isn't as funny as you'd hoped . for a film that's being advertised as a comedy , sweet home alabama isn't as funny as you'd hoped . 
heaven is a haunting dramatization of a couple's moral ascension . 
while some will object to the idea of a vietnam picture with such a rah-rah , patriotic tone , soldiers ultimately achieves its main strategic objective : dramatizing the human cost of the conflict that came to define a generation . 
if you're looking for an intelligent movie in which you can release your pent up anger , enough is just the ticket you need . 
my wife is an actress is an utterly charming french comedy that feels so american in sensibility and style it's virtually its own hollywood remake . 
 " it's all about the image . " 
to honestly address the flaws inherent in how medical aid is made available to american workers , a more balanced or fair portrayal of both sides will be needed . 
an ingenious and often harrowing look at damaged people and how families can offer either despair or consolation . 
it's the best film of the year so far , the benchmark against which all other best picture contenders should be measured . 
not a film to rival to live , but a fine little amuse-bouche to keep your appetite whetted . 
it's a diverting enough hour-and-a-half for the family audience . 
on its own , big trouble could be considered a funny little film . 
there's no reason to miss interview with the assassin
just about the surest bet for an all-around good time at the movies this summer . 
perhaps it's cliche to call the film 'refreshing , ' but it is . 'drumline' shows a level of young , black manhood that is funny , touching , smart and complicated . 
if you're not totally weirded- out by the notion of cinema as community-therapy spectacle , quitting hits home with disorienting force . 
jeffrey tambor's performance as the intelligent jazz-playing exterminator is oscar-worthy . 
despite its old-hat set-up and predictable plot , empire still has enough moments to keep it entertaining . 
more than anything else , kissing jessica stein injects freshness and spirit into the romantic comedy genre , which has been held hostage by generic scripts that seek to remake sleepless in seattle again and again . 
pray's film works well and will appeal even to those who aren't too familiar with turntablism . 
jones has tackled a meaty subject and drawn engaging characters while peppering the pages with memorable zingers . 
a stirring road movie . 
suspend your disbelief here and now , or you'll be shaking your head all the way to the credits . 
effective but too-tepid biopic
works as pretty contagious fun . 
we want the funk - and this movie's got it . 
the film is darkly funny in its observation of just how much more grueling and time-consuming the illusion of work is than actual work . 
one of the funnier movies in town . 
[has] an immediacy and an intimacy that sucks you in and dares you not to believe it's all true . 
fans of the modern day hong kong action film finally have the worthy successor to a better tomorrow and the killer which they have been patiently waiting for . 
it's a good film , but it falls short of its aspiration to be a true 'epic' . 
its rawness and vitality give it considerable punch . 
take any 12-year-old boy to see this picture , and he'll be your slave for a year . 
a rather brilliant little cult item : a pastiche of children's entertainment , superhero comics , and japanese animation . 
both exuberantly romantic and serenely melancholy , what time is it there ? may prove to be [tsai's] masterpiece . 
a good piece of work more often than not . 
a compelling story of musical passion against governmental odds . 
invigorating , surreal , and resonant with a rainbow of emotion . 
a resonant tale of racism , revenge and retribution . 
frei assembles a fascinating profile of a deeply humanistic artist who , in spite of all that he's witnessed , remains surprisingly idealistic , and retains an extraordinary faith in the ability of images to communicate the truth of the world around him . 
mr . polanski is in his element here : alone , abandoned , but still consoled by his art , which is more than he has ever revealed before about the source of his spiritual survival . 
at nearly three hours , the whole of safe conduct is less than the sum of its parts . 
that rare documentary that incorporates so much of human experience -- drama , conflict , tears and surprise -- that it transcends the normal divisions between fiction and nonfiction film . 
haynes has so fanatically fetishized every bizarre old-movie idiosyncrasy with such monastic devotion you're not sure if you should applaud or look into having him committed . 
the film grows on you . and how . 
what makes the movie work  to an admittedly limited extent  is the commitment of two genuinely engaging performers . weaver and lapaglia are both excellent , in the kind of low-key way that allows us to forget that they are actually movie folk . 
goofy , nutty , consistently funny . and educational ! 
a subtle , humorous , illuminating study of politics , power and social mobility . 
steers , in his feature film debut , has created a brilliant motion picture . 
wickedly funny , visually engrossing , never boring , this movie challenges us to think about the ways we consume pop culture . 
a plethora of engaging diatribes on the meaning of 'home , ' delivered in grand passion by the members of the various households . 
altogether , this is successful as a film , while at the same time being a most touching reconsideration of the familiar masterpiece . 
impresses you with its open-endedness and surprises . 
although occasionally static to the point of resembling a stage play , the film delivers a solid mixture of sweetness and laughs . 
full of bland hotels , highways , parking lots , with some glimpses of nature and family warmth , time out is a discreet moan of despair about entrapment in the maze of modern life . 
its compelling mix of trial movie , escape movie and unexpected fable ensures the film never feels draggy . 
the paradiso's rusted-out ruin and ultimate collapse during the film's final ( restored ) thirdemotionally belittle a cinema classic . sometimes shorter is better . 
a captivating coming-of-age story that may also be the first narrative film to be truly informed by the wireless age . 
the script's snazzy dialogue establishes a realistic atmosphere that involves us in the unfolding crisis , but the lazy plotting ensures that little of our emotional investment pays off . 
the second chapter of the harry potter series is even more magical than the first and simply the best family film of the year . 
but this is lohman's film . her performance moves between heartbreak and rebellion as she continually tries to accommodate to fit in and gain the unconditional love she seeks . 
anchored by a terrific performance by abbass , satin rouge shows that the idea of women's self-actualization knows few continental divides . 
[scherfig] has made a movie that will leave you wondering about the characters' lives after the clever credits roll . 
it's stylishly directed with verve . . . 
great fun both for sports aficionados and for ordinary louts whose idea of exercise is climbing the steps of a stadium-seat megaplex . 
the whole mildly pleasant outing -- the r rating is for brief nudity and a grisly corpse -- remains aloft not on its own self-referential hot air , but on the inspired performance of tim allen . 
most of crush is a clever and captivating romantic comedy with a welcome pinch of tartness . 
several degrees shy of the gross-out contests one expects from current teen fare . 
i don't know precisely what to make of steven soderbergh's full frontal , though that didn't stop me from enjoying much of it . 
certainly the performances are worthwhile . 
there's a disreputable air about the whole thing , and that's what makes it irresistible . 
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
buy is an accomplished actress , and this is a big , juicy role . 
this one is strictly a lightweight escapist film . 
it's something of the ultimate scorsese film , with all the stomach-turning violence , colorful new york gang lore and other hallmarks of his personal cinema painted on their largest-ever historical canvas . 
the movie is a trove of delights . 
an elegant , exquisitely modulated psychological thriller . 
you will emerge with a clearer view of how the gears of justice grind on and the death report comes to share airtime alongside the farm report . 
 . . . while dark water isn't a complete wash ( no pun intended ) , watched side-by-side with ringu , it ultimately comes off as a pale successor . 
intimate and panoramic . 
an exquisitely crafted and acted tale . 
still pretentious and filled with subtext , but entertaining enough at 'face value' to recommend to anyone looking for something different . 
an amusing , breezily apolitical documentary about life on the campaign trail . 
a very capable nailbiter . 
this is one of those war movies that focuses on human interaction rather than battle and action sequences . . . and it's all the stronger because of it . 
stevens has a flair for dialogue comedy , the film operates nicely off the element of surprise , and the large cast is solid . 
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 . 
entirely suspenseful , extremely well-paced and ultimately . . . dare i say , entertaining ! 
we can see the wheels turning , and we might resent it sometimes , but this is still a nice little picture , made by bright and friendly souls with a lot of good cheer . 
foster breathes life into a roll that could have otherwise been bland and run of the mill . 
a serviceable euro-trash action extravaganza , with a decent sense of humor and plenty of things that go boom  handguns , bmws and seaside chateaus . 
'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
watching these two actors play against each other so intensely , but with restraint , is a treat . 
it's no accident that the accidental spy is a solid action pic that returns the martial arts master to top form . 
a masterpiece four years in the making . 
if reno is to the left of liberal on the political spectrum , her tough , funny , rather chaotic show isn't subversive so much as it is nit-picky about the hypocrisies of our time . 
angel presents events partly from the perspective of aurelie and christelle , and infuses the film with the sensibility of a particularly nightmarish fairytale . 
an intelligent , multi-layered and profoundly humanist ( not to mention gently political ) meditation on the values of knowledge , education , and the affects of cultural and geographical displacement . 
a slick , skillful little horror film . 
while the plot follows a predictable connect-the-dots course . . . director john schultz colors the picture in some evocative shades . 
it's about individual moments of mood , and an aimlessness that's actually sort of amazing . 
a witty , whimsical feature debut . 
an extraordinary swedish film about the soul adventure of marriage -- the kind of intimate and character-driven film that bille august does best . 
the word that comes to mind , while watching eric rohmer's tribute to a courageous scottish lady , is painterly . 
each of these stories has the potential for touched by an angel simplicity and sappiness , but thirteen conversations about one thing , for all its generosity and optimism , never resorts to easy feel-good sentiments . 
fast , frantic and fun , but also soon forgotten
not so much a movie as a picture book for the big screen . this isn't my favorite in the series , still i enjoyed it enough to recommend . 
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 . 
could this be the first major studio production shot on video tape instead of film ? 
for most of the distance the picture provides a satisfyingly unsettling ride into the dark places of our national psyche . 
bloody sunday has the grace to call for prevention rather than to place blame , making it one of the best war movies ever made . it's a movie that accomplishes so much that one viewing can't possibly be enough . 
lovely and amazing is holofcener's deep , uncompromising curtsy to women she knows , and very likely is . when all is said and done , she loves them to pieces -- and so , i trust , will you . 
though overall an overwhelmingly positive portrayal , the film doesn't ignore the more problematic aspects of brown's life . 
watstein handily directs and edits around his screenplay's sappier elements . . . and sustains off the hook's buildup with remarkable assuredness for a first-timer . 
it's a testament to de niro and director michael caton-jones that by movie's end , we accept the characters and the film , flaws and all . 
evokes the 19th century with a subtlety that is an object lesson in period filmmaking . 
una pelcula oscura , precisa , por momentos grandiosa y casi siempre conmovedora . 
it is great summer fun to watch arnold and his buddy gerald bounce off a quirky cast of characters . 
leigh is one of the rare directors who feels acting is the heart and soul of cinema . he allows his cast members to make creative contributions to the story and dialogue . this method almost never fails him , and it works superbly here . 
a reminder that beyond all the hype and recent digital glitz , spielberg knows how to tell us about people . 
manages to transcend the sex , drugs and show-tunes plot into something far richer . 
the principals in this cast are all fine , but bishop and stevenson are standouts . 
an average coming-of-age tale elevated by the wholesome twist of a pesky mother interfering during her son's discovery of his homosexuality . 
in scope , ambition and accomplishment , children of the century . . . takes kurys' career to a whole new level . 
there are moments in this account of the life of artist frida kahlo that are among cinema's finest this year . unfortunately , they're sandwiched in between the most impossibly dry account of kahlo's life imaginable . 
one of the smarter offerings the horror genre has produced in recent memory , even if it's far tamer than advertised . 
my wife is an actress works as well as it does because [the leads] are such a companionable couple . 
 . . . myers has turned his franchise into the movie version of an adolescent dirty-joke book done up in post-tarantino pop-culture riffs . . . 
the way the roundelay of partners functions , and the interplay within partnerships and among partnerships and the general air of gator-bashing are consistently delightful . 
you walk out of the good girl with mixed emotions  disapproval of justine combined with a tinge of understanding for her actions . 
lohman adapts to the changes required of her , but the actress and director peter kosminsky never get the audience to break through the wall her character erects
a delightful entree in the tradition of food movies . 
 " the turntable is now outselling the electric guitar . . . " 
skin of man gets a few cheap shocks from its kids-in-peril theatrics , but it also taps into the primal fears of young people trying to cope with the mysterious and brutal nature of adults . 
it's good , hard-edged stuff , violent and a bit exploitative but also nicely done , morally alert and street-smart . 
though of particular interest to students and enthusiast of international dance and world music , the film is designed to make viewers of all ages , cultural backgrounds and rhythmic ability want to get up and dance . 
 ( danny huston gives ) an astounding performance that deftly , gradually reveals a real human soul buried beneath a spellbinding serpent's smirk . 
harsh , effective documentary on life in the israeli-occupied palestinian territories . 
the case is a convincing one , and should give anyone with a conscience reason to pause . 
it extends the writings of jean genet and john rechy , the films of fassbinder , perhaps even the nocturnal works of goya . 
dogtown & z-boys evokes the blithe rebel fantasy with the kind of insouciance embedded in the sexy demise of james dean . 
between the drama of cube ? s personal revelations regarding what the shop means in the big picture , iconic characters gambol fluidly through the story , with charming results . 
the entire cast is extraordinarily good . 
you can take the grandkids or the grandparents and never worry about anyone being bored . . . audience is a sea of constant smiles and frequent laughter . 
an impossible romance , but we root for the patronized iranian lad . 
a sharp , amusing study of the cult of celebrity . 
on the surface a silly comedy , scotland , pa would be forgettable if it weren't such a clever adaptation of the bard's tragic play . 
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 . 
a journey spanning nearly three decades of bittersweet camaraderie and history , in which we feel that we truly know what makes holly and marina tick , and our hearts go out to them as both continue to negotiate their imperfect , love-hate relationship . 
shamelessly resorting to pee-related sight gags that might even cause tom green a grimace ; still , myer's energy and the silliness of it all eventually prevail
this is a movie that refreshes the mind and spirit along with the body , so original is its content , look , and style . 
go see it and enjoy . 
director david jacobson gives dahmer a consideration that the murderer never game his victims . 
it inspires a continuing and deeply satisfying awareness of the best movies as monumental 'picture shows . '
the wwii drama is well plotted , visually striking and filled with enjoyably complex characters who are never what they first appear . 
the stripped-down dramatic constructs , austere imagery and abstract characters are equal parts poetry and politics , obvious at times but evocative and heartfelt . 
the draw [for " big bad love " ] is a solid performance by arliss howard . 
the pianist is polanski's best film . 
while the stoically delivered hokum of hart's war is never fun , it's still a worthy addition to the growing canon of post-saving private ryan tributes to the greatest generation . 
it strikes hardest when it reminds you how pertinent its dynamics remain . fifty years after the fact , the world's political situation seems little different , and [director phillip] noyce brings out the allegory with remarkable skill . 
a very funny romantic comedy about two skittish new york middle-agers who stumble into a relationship and then struggle furiously with their fears and foibles . 
 . . . a lesson in prehistoric hilarity . 
broomfield turns his distinctive 'blundering' style into something that could really help clear up the case . 
passionate , irrational , long-suffering but cruel as a tarantula , helga figures prominently in this movie , and helps keep the proceedings as funny for grown-ups as for rugrats . 
mel gibson fights the good fight in vietnam in director randall wallace's flag-waving war flick with a core of decency . 
a tremendous piece of work . 
overall , it's a wacky and inspired little film that works effortlessly at delivering genuine , acerbic laughs . 
call me a wimp , but i cried , not once , but three times in this animated sweet film . 
slow and ponderous , but rohmer's drama builds to an intense indoor drama about compassion , sacrifice , and christian love in the face of political corruption . 
straightforward and old-fashioned in the best possible senses of both those words , possession is a movie that puts itself squarely in the service of the lovers who inhabit it . 
most of the things that made the original men in black such a pleasure are still there . 
more intimate than spectacular , e . t . is carried less by wow factors than by its funny , moving yarn that holds up well after two decades . 
as a singular character study , it's perfect . it's also the year's sweetest movie . 
martin and barbara are complex characters -- sometimes tender , sometimes angry -- and the delicate performances by sven wollter and viveka seldahl make their hopes and frustrations vivid . 
leave it to rohmer , now 82 , to find a way to bend current technique to the service of a vision of the past that is faithful to both architectural glories and commanding open spaces of the city as it was more than two centuries ago . 
a sensitive , cultivated treatment of greene's work as well as a remarkably faithful one . 
charles' entertaining film chronicles seinfeld's return to stand-up comedy after the wrap of his legendary sitcom , alongside wannabe comic adams' attempts to get his shot at the big time . 
at once disarmingly straightforward and strikingly devious . 
woody allen's latest is an ambling , broad comedy about all there is to love -- and hate -- about the movie biz . 
if your senses haven't been dulled by slasher films and gorefests , if you're a connoisseur of psychological horror , this is your ticket . 
buy popcorn . take nothing seriously and enjoy the ride . 
a smart , witty follow-up . 
as if to prove a female director can make a movie with no soft edges , kathryn bigelow offers no sugar-coating or interludes of lightness . her film is unrelentingly claustrophobic and unpleasant . 
the film's 45-minute running time stops shy of overkill , though viewers may be more exhausted than the athletes onscreen . 
combine the paranoid claustrophobia of a submarine movie with the unsettling spookiness of the supernatural -- why didn't hollywood think of this sooner ? 
family fare . 
adaptation is simply brilliant . 
film can't quite maintain its initial momentum , but remains sporadically funny throughout . 
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 . 
assayas' ambitious , sometimes beautiful adaptation of jacques chardonne's novel . 
the story . . . is inspiring , ironic , and revelatory of just how ridiculous and money-oriented the record industry really is . it is also a testament to the integrity and vision of the band . 
neither the funniest film that eddie murphy nor robert de niro has ever made , showtime is nevertheless efficiently amusing for a good while . before it collapses into exactly the kind of buddy cop comedy it set out to lampoon , anyway . 
you should pay nine bucks for this : because you can hear about suffering afghan refugees on the news and still be unaffected . dramas like this make it human . 
you never know where changing lanes is going to take you but it's a heck of a ride . samuel l . jackson is one of the best actors there is . 
good car chases , great fight scenes , and a distinctive blend of european , american and asian influences . 
the inhospitability of the land emphasizes the spare precision of the narratives and helps to give them an atavistic power , as if they were tales that had been handed down since the beginning of time . 
while not quite " shrek " or monsters , inc . " , it's not too bad . it's worth taking the kids to . 
shanghai ghetto , much stranger than any fiction , brings this unknown slice of history affectingly to life . 
it may not be particularly innovative , but the film's crisp , unaffected style and air of gentle longing make it unexpectedly rewarding . 
kinnear's performance is a career-defining revelation . 
despite its flaws , secretary stays in your head and makes you question your own firmly held positions . 
to get at the root psychology of this film would require many sessions on the couch of dr . freud . 
jose campanella delivers a loosely autobiographical story brushed with sentimentality but brimming with gentle humor , bittersweet pathos , and lyric moments that linger like snapshots of memory . 
a creaky staircase gothic . 
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 . 
it's like rocky and bullwinkle on speed , but that's neither completely enlightening , nor does it catch the intensity of the movie's strangeness . 
maybe it is formula filmmaking , but there's nothing wrong with that if the film is well-crafted and this one is . 
broomfield is energized by volletta wallace's maternal fury , her fearlessness , and because of that , his film crackles . 
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 . 
[reno] delivers a monologue that manages to incorporate both the horror and the absurdity of the situation in a well-balanced fashion . 
it's refreshing to see a girl-power movie that doesn't feel it has to prove anything . 
a splendid entertainment , young in spirit but accomplished in all aspects with the fullness of spirit and sense of ease that comes only with experience . 
in addition to hoffman's powerful acting clinic , this is that rare drama that offers a thoughtful and rewarding glimpse into the sort of heartache everyone has felt , or will feel someday . 
even if it pushes its agenda too forcefully , this remains a film about something , one that attempts and often achieves a level of connection and concern . 
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 . 
one of the finest , most humane and important holocaust movies ever made . 
a distinguished and thoughtful film , marked by acute writing and a host of splendid performances . 
godard has never made a more sheerly beautiful film than this unexpectedly moving meditation on love , history , memory , resistance and artistic transcendence . 
splendidly illustrates the ability of the human spirit to overcome adversity . 
the hypnotic imagery and fragmentary tale explore the connections between place and personal identity . 
like kissing jessica stein , amy's orgasm has a key strength in its willingness to explore its principal characters with honesty , insight and humor . 
this cheery , down-to-earth film is warm with the cozy feeling of relaxing around old friends . 
one of the very best movies ever made about the life of moviemaking . 
in a normal screen process , these bromides would be barely enough to sustain an interstitial program on the discovery channel . but in imax 3-d , the clichs disappear into the vertiginous perspectives opened up by the photography . 
a fleet-footed and pleasingly upbeat family diversion . 
irwin is so earnest that it's hard to resist his pleas to spare wildlife and respect their environs . there are far worse messages to teach a young audience , which will probably be perfectly happy with the sloppy slapstick comedy . 
this is mostly well-constructed fluff , which is all it seems intended to be . 
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 . 
a stirring , funny and finally transporting re-imagining of beauty and the beast and 1930s horror films
a film of epic scale with an intimate feeling , a saga of the ups and downs of friendships . 
a good documentary can make interesting a subject you thought would leave you cold . a case in point : doug pray's scratch . 
fairy-tale formula , serves as a paper skeleton for some very good acting , dialogue , comedy , direction and especially charm . 
if you can get past the taboo subject matter , it will be well worth your time . 
a film of quiet power . 
there are moments of hilarity to be had . 
neither parker nor donovan is a typical romantic lead , but they bring a fresh , quirky charm to the formula . 
a captivatingly quirky hybrid of character portrait , romantic comedy and beat-the-clock thriller . 
a thriller made from a completist's checklist rather than with a cultist's passion . 
an endearingly offbeat romantic comedy with a great meet-cute gimmick . 
an experience so engrossing it is like being buried in a new environment . 
an engrossing portrait of a man whose engaging manner and flamboyant style made him a truly larger-than-life character . 
an intense and effective film about loneliness and the chilly anonymity of the environments where so many of us spend so much of our time . 
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 . 
[city] reminds us how realistically nuanced a robert de niro performance can be when he is not more lucratively engaged in the shameless self-caricature of 'analyze this' ( 1999 ) and 'analyze that , ' promised ( or threatened ) for later this year . 
in many ways , reminiscent of 1992's unforgiven which also utilized the scintillating force of its actors to draw out the menace of its sparse dialogue . 
there's a lot of tooth in roger dodger . but what's nice is that there's a casual intelligence that permeates the script . 
a moving tale of love and destruction in unexpected places , unexamined lives . 
what could have been a daytime soap opera is actually a compelling look at a young woman's tragic odyssey . 
a fine , rousing , g-rated family film , aimed mainly at little kids but with plenty of entertainment value to keep grown-ups from squirming in their seats . 
[the digital effects] 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 . 
the genius of the work speaks volumes , offering up a hallucinatory dreamscape that frustrates and captivates . 
 . . . the plot weaves us into a complex web . 
as surreal as a dream and as detailed as a photograph , as visually dexterous as it is at times imaginatively overwhelming . 
it is ridiculous , of course . . . but it is also refreshing , disarming , and just outright enjoyable despite its ridiculousness . 
trades run-of-the-mill revulsion for extreme unease . 
a remarkable 179-minute meditation on the nature of revolution . 
in an era where big stars and high production values are standard procedure , narc strikes a defiantly retro chord , and outpaces its contemporaries with daring and verve . 
it is an indelible epic american story about two families , one black and one white , facing change in both their inner and outer lives . 
a solid cast , assured direction and complete lack of modern day irony . 
the year's greatest adventure , and jackson's limited but enthusiastic adaptation has made literature literal without killing its soul -- a feat any thinking person is bound to appreciate . 
an edifying glimpse into the wit and revolutionary spirit of these performers and their era . 
nothing short of wonderful with its ten-year-old female protagonist and its steadfast refusal to set up a dualistic battle between good and evil . 
throwing caution to the wind with an invitation to the hedonist in us all , nair has constructed this motion picture in such a way that even the most cynical curmudgeon with find himself or herself smiling at one time or another . 
[ns] directed the stage version of elling , and gets fine performances from his two leads who originated the characters on stage . 
films are made of little moments . changing lanes tries for more . it doesn't reach them , but the effort is gratefully received . 
a b-movie you can sit through , enjoy on a certain level and then forget . 
other than the slightly flawed ( and fairly unbelievable ) finale , everything else is top shelf . 
this sensitive , smart , savvy , compelling coming-of-age drama delves into the passive-aggressive psychology of co-dependence and the struggle for self-esteem . 
alain choquart's camera barely stops moving , portraying both the turmoil of the time and giving conduct a perpetual sense of urgency , which , for a film that takes nearly three hours to unspool , is both funny and irritating . 
the philosophical musings of the dialogue jar against the tawdry soap opera antics of the film's action in a way that is surprisingly enjoyable . 
like the english patient and the unbearable lightness of being , the hours is one of those reputedly " unfilmable " novels that has bucked the odds to emerge as an exquisite motion picture in its own right . 
highly irritating at first , mr . koury's passive technique eventually begins to yield some interesting results . 
reveals how important our special talents can be when put in service of of others . it also shows how deeply felt emotions can draw people together across the walls that might otherwise separate them . 
the movie ultimately relies a bit too heavily on grandstanding , emotional , rocky-like moments . . . but it's such a warm and charming package that you'll feel too happy to argue much . 
insanely hilarious ! i haven't laughed that hard in years ! 
the gags are often a stitch . 
an unbelievably fun film just a leading man away from perfection . 
i complain all the time about seeing the same ideas repeated in films over and over again , but the bourne identity proves that a fresh take is always possible . 
it confirms fincher's status as a film maker who artfully bends technical know-how to the service of psychological insight . 
combines a comically dismal social realism with a farcically bawdy fantasy of redemption and regeneration . 
what the film lacks in general focus it makes up for in compassion , as corcuera manages to find the seeds of hope in the form of collective action . 
piercingly affecting . . . while clearly a manipulative film , emerges as powerful rather than cloying . 
it asks nothing of the audience other than to sit back and enjoy a couple of great actors hamming it up . 
there are flaws , but also stretches of impact and moments of awe ; we're wrapped up in the characters , how they make their choices , and why . 
one of the best films i have ever seen , constantly pulling the rug from underneath us , seeing things from new sides , plunging deeper , getting more intense . 
thankfully , the film , which skirts that rapidly deteriorating line between fantasy and reality . . . takes a tongue-in-cheek attitude even as it pushes the croc hunter agenda . 
the film is painfully authentic , and the performances of the young players are utterly convincing . 
call this the full monty on ice , the underdog sports team formula redux . 
this is a smart movie that knows its classical music , knows its freud and knows its sade . 
this is a good script , good dialogue , funny even for adults . the characters are interesting and often very creatively constructed from figure to backstory . the film will play equally well on both the standard and giant screens . 
sillier , cuter , and shorter than the first ( as best i remember ) , but still a very good time at the cinema . 
hard , endearing , caring , warm . bring tissues . 
gay or straight , kissing jessica stein is one of the greatest date movies in years . 
a beguiling , slow-moving parable about the collision of past and present on a remote seacoast in iran . 
charming and funny ( but ultimately silly ) movie . 
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 ? 
an entertaining , colorful , action-filled crime story with an intimate heart . 
pete's screenplay manages to find that real natural , even-flowing tone that few movies are able to accomplish . 
though lan yu lacks a sense of dramatic urgency , the film makes up for it with a pleasing verisimilitude . 
despite an overwrought ending , the film works as well as it does because of the performances . 
a well paced and satisfying little drama that deserved better than a direct-to-video' release . 
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 . 
it's still adam sandler , and it's not little nicky . and for many of us , that's good enough . 
labute's careful handling makes the material seem genuine rather than pandering . 
shainberg weaves a carefully balanced scenario that is controlled by neither character , is weirdly sympathetic to both and manages to be tender and darkly comic . 
a tender and touching drama , based on the true story of a troubled african-american's quest to come to terms with his origins , reveals the yearning we all have in our hearts for acceptance within the family circle . 
 . . . a good , if not entirely fresh , look at war . 
chicago offers much colorful eye candy , including the spectacle of gere in his dancing shoes , hoofing and crooning with the best of them . 
an enjoyable film for the family , amusing and cute for both adults and kids . 
this is one of the outstanding thrillers of recent years . 
as animation increasingly emphasizes the computer and the cool , this is a film that takes a stand in favor of tradition and warmth . 
a lot smarter than your average bond . 
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 . 
13 conversations may be a bit too enigmatic and overly ambitious to be fully successful , but sprecher and her screenwriting partner and sister , karen sprecher , don't seem ever to run out of ideas . 
director peter kosminsky gives these women a forum to demonstrate their acting 'chops' and they take full advantage . 
reno himself can take credit for most of the movie's success . he's one of the few 'cool' actors who never seems aware of his own coolness . 
really is a pan-american movie , with moments of genuine insight into the urban heart . 
daring and beautifully made . 
aniston has at last decisively broken with her friends image in an independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil . 
 . . . is there a deeper , more direct connection between these women , one that spans time and reveals meaning ? you bet there is and it's what makes this rather convoluted journey worth taking . 
spielberg's picture is smarter and subtler than [total recall and blade runner] , although its plot may prove too convoluted for fun-seeking summer audiences . 
one of the most genuinely sweet films to come along in quite some time . 
 . . . brian de palma is utterly mad : cinema mad , set-piece mad , style mad . it's a beautiful madness . 
the wild thornberrys movie has all the sibling rivalry and general family chaos to which anyone can relate . 
nine queens is not only than a frighteningly capable debut and genre piece , but also a snapshot of a dangerous political situation on the verge of coming to a head . 
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 . 
a generation x artifact , capturing a brief era of insanity in the sports arena that surely cannot last . 
a sexy , surprising romance . . . idemoto and kim make a gorgeous pair . . . their scenes brim with sexual possibility and emotional danger . 
300 years of russian history and culture compressed into an evanescent , seamless and sumptuous stream of consciousness . 
though it is by no means his best work , laissez-passer is a distinguished and distinctive effort by a bona-fide master , a fascinating film replete with rewards to be had by all willing to make the effort to reap them . 
beautifully shot , delicately scored and powered by a set of heartfelt performances , it's a lyrical endeavour . 
the symbols float like butterflies and the spinning styx sting like bees . i wanted more . 
somewhat blurred , but kinnear's performance is razor sharp . 
those who love cinema paradiso will find the new scenes interesting , but few will find the movie improved . 
recoing's fantastic performance doesn't exactly reveal what makes vincent tick , but perhaps any definitive explanation for it would have felt like a cheat . 
k 19 stays afloat as decent drama/action flick
with an unflappable air of decadent urbanity , everett remains a perfect wildean actor , and a relaxed firth displays impeccable comic skill . 
as adapted by kevin molony from simon leys' novel " the death of napoleon " and directed by alan taylor , napoleon's journey is interesting but his parisian rebirth is stillborn
writer/director joe carnahan's grimy crime drama is a manual of precinct cliches , but it moves fast enough to cover its clunky dialogue and lapses in logic . 
you can fire a torpedo through some of clancy's holes , and the scripters don't deserve any oscars . but the nerve-raked acting , the crackle of lines , the impressive stagings of hardware , make for some robust and scary entertainment . 
overall very good for what it's trying to do . 
 . . . a gleefully grungy , hilariously wicked black comedy . . . 
the thing about guys like evans is this : you're never quite sure where self-promotion ends and the truth begins . but as you watch the movie , you're too interested to care . 
this is as respectful a film as byatt fans could hope for , though lovers of the book may wonder why it's necessary . 
mais um momento inspirado de david fincher . 
if " lilo & stitch " isn't the most edgy piece of disney animation to hit the silver screen , then this first film to use a watercolor background since " dumbo " certainly ranks as the most original in years . 
a perfectly respectable , perfectly inoffensive , easily forgettable film . 
few films have captured the chaos of an urban conflagration with such fury , and audience members will leave feeling as shaken as nesbitt's cooper looks when the bullets stop flying . 
it represents better-than-average movie-making that doesn't demand a dumb , distracted audience . 
zhang . . . has done an amazing job of getting realistic performances from his mainly nonprofessional cast . 
this is a stunning film , a one-of-a-kind tour de force . 
though in some ways similar to catherine breillat's fat girl , rain is the far superior film . 
an uncluttered , resonant gem that relays its universal points without lectures or confrontations . 
twohy's a good yarn-spinner , and ultimately the story compels . 
scotland looks wonderful , the fans are often funny fanatics , the showdown sure beats a bad day of golf . 
while undercover brother is definitely one for the masses , it's also full of sharp , smart satire . 
while mcfarlane's animation lifts the film firmly above the level of other coming-of-age films . . . it's also so jarring that it's hard to get back into the boys' story . 
as the dominant christine , sylvie testud is icily brilliant . 
plummer steals the show without resorting to camp as nicholas' wounded and wounding uncle ralph . it's a great performance and a reminder of dickens' grandeur . 
the slam-bang superheroics are kinetic enough to engross even the most antsy youngsters . 
a life-size reenactment of those jack chick cartoon tracts that always ended with some hippie getting tossed into the lake of fire . 
it all plays out . . . like a high-end john hughes comedy , a kind of elder bueller's time out . 
maelstrom is a deliberately unsteady mixture of stylistic elements . 
it's an unusual , thoughtful bio-drama with a rich subject and some fantastic moments and scenes . 
one funny popcorn flick . 
the bourne identity shouldn't be half as entertaining as it is , but director doug liman and his colleagues have managed to pack it with enough action to satisfy the boom-bam crowd without a huge sacrifice of character and mood . 
a must see for all sides of the political spectrum
there's no clear picture of who killed bob crane . but here's a glimpse at his life . 
the film's messages of tolerance and diversity aren't particularly original , but one can't help but be drawn in by the sympathetic characters . 
it might be 'easier' to watch on video at home , but that shouldn't stop die-hard french film connoisseurs from going out and enjoying the big-screen experience . 
it's great escapist fun that recreates a place and time that will never happen again . 
a sports movie with action that's exciting on the field and a story you care about off it . 
it's never dull and always looks good . 
 . . . a series of tales told with the intricate preciseness of the best short story writing . 
these are lives worth watching , paths worth following . 
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 . 
a jaw-droppingly beautiful work that upends nearly every clich of japanese animation while delivering a more than satisfactory amount of carnage . 
a wild ride of a movie that keeps throwing fastballs . 
spectacular in every sense of the word , even if you don' t know an orc from a uruk-hai . 
passion , melodrama , sorrow , laugther , and tears cascade over the screen effortlessly . . . 
hands down the year's most thought-provoking film . but it pays a price for its intricate intellectual gamesmanship . 
an overly melodramatic but somewhat insightful french coming-of-age film . . . 
george clooney , in his first directorial effort , presents this utterly ridiculous shaggy dog story as one of the most creative , energetic and original comedies to hit the screen in years . 
a real winner -- smart , funny , subtle , and resonant . 
you emerge dazed , confused as to whether you've seen pornography or documentary . 
'si bien no logra desarrollarse como un gran drama , tampoco es tan superficial como muchas cintas que pecan de pretenciosas y que resultan totalmente banales . '
a taut psychological thriller that doesn't waste a moment of its two-hour running time . 
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 . 
it's a wise and powerful tale of race and culture forcefully told , with superb performances throughout . 
as antonia is assimilated into this newfangled community , the film settles in and becomes compulsively watchable in a guilty-pleasure , daytime-drama sort of fashion . 
the beautifully choreographed kitchen ballet is simple but absorbing . 
driven by a fantastic dual performance from ian holm . . . the film is funny , insightfully human and a delightful lark for history buffs . 
a compelling allegory about the last days of germany's democratic weimar republic . 
though mama takes a bit too long to find its rhythm and a third-act plot development is somewhat melodramatic , its ribald humor and touching nostalgia are sure to please anyone in search of a jules and jim for the new millennium . 
what's not to like about a movie with a 'children's' song that includes the line 'my stepdad's not mean , he's just adjusting' ? 
the drama is played out with such aching beauty and truth that it brings tears to your eyes . 
it's rare to find a film that dazzles the eye , challenges the brain , and satisfies our lust for fast-paced action , but minority report delivers all that and a whole lot more . 
yakusho , as always , is wonderful as the long-faced sad sack . . . and his chemistry with shimizu is very believable . 
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 . 
the sentimental cliches mar an otherwise excellent film . a powerful performance from mel gibson and a brutal 90-minute battle sequence that does everything but issue you a dog-tag and an m-16 . 
it makes compelling , provocative and prescient viewing . 
a perceptive , good-natured movie . 
even if you can't pronounce " gyro " correctly , you'll appreciate much of vardalos' humor , which transcends ethnic boundaries . 
an irresistible combination of a rousing good story set on a truly grand scale . 
neither quite a comedy nor a romance , more of an impish divertissement of themes that interest attal and gainsbourg -- they live together -- the film has a lot of charm . 
nicely combines the enigmatic features of 'memento' with the hallucinatory drug culture of 'requiem for a dream . '
nicely serves as an examination of a society in transition . 
soderbergh skims the fat from the 1972 film . what's left is a rich stew of longing . 
for all its serious sense of purpose . . . [it] finds a way to lay bare the tragedies of its setting with a good deal of warmth and humor . 
there has always been something likable about the marquis de sade . 
the one-liners are snappy , the situations volatile and the comic opportunities richly rewarded . 
'anyone with a passion for cinema , and indeed sex , should see it as soon as possible . '
even in its most tedious scenes , russian ark is mesmerizing . 
jackson tries to keep the plates spinning as best he can , but all the bouncing back and forth can't help but become a bit tedious -- even with the breathtaking landscapes and villainous varmints there to distract you from the ricocheting . 
brian tufano's handsome widescreen photography and paul grabowsky's excellent music turn this fairly parochial melodrama into something really rather special . 
a charming romantic comedy that is by far the lightest dogme film and among the most enjoyable . 
an oddity , to be sure , but one that you might wind up remembering with a degree of affection rather than revulsion . 
for his first attempt at film noir , spielberg presents a fascinating but flawed look at the near future . 
brings together some of the biggest names in japanese anime , with impressive results . 
the plot is so amusingly contrived and outlandish in its coincidences that no one could ever mistake it for anything resembling reality
superbly photographed and staged by mendes with a series of riveting set pieces the likes of which mainstream audiences have rarely seen . 
a gentle blend of present day testimonials , surviving footage of burstein and his family performing , historical archives , and telling stills . 
the film becomes an overwhelming pleasure , and you find yourself rooting for gai's character to avoid the fate that has befallen every other carmen before her . 
the vitality of the actors keeps the intensity of the film high , even as the strafings blend together . 
not only a reminder of how they used to make movies , but also how they sometimes still can be made . 
don't judge this one too soon - it's a dark , gritty story but it takes off in totally unexpected directions and keeps on going . 
a hard look at one man's occupational angst and its subsequent reinvention , a terrifying study of bourgeois desperation worthy of claude chabrol . 
a dark , quirky road movie that constantly defies expectation . 
it's a rollicking adventure for you and all your mateys , regardless of their ages . 
for decades we've marveled at disney's rendering of water , snow , flames and shadows in a hand-drawn animated world . prepare to marvel again . 
an effectively creepy , fear-inducing ( not fear-reducing ) film from japanese director hideo nakata , who takes the superstitious curse on chain letters and actually applies it . 
gosling provides an amazing performance that dwarfs everything else in the film . 
compulsively watchable , no matter how degraded things get . 
huppert gives erika a persona that is so intriguing that you find yourself staring hypnotically at her , trying to understand her and wondering if she'll crack . 
a beautiful paean to a time long past . 
it's a refreshing change from the self-interest and paranoia that shape most american representations of castro . 
liotta put on 30 pounds for the role , and has completely transformed himself from his smooth , goodfellas image . 
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 . 
if you're as happy listening to movies as you are watching them , and the slow parade of human frailty fascinates you , then you're at the right film . 
poetic , heartbreaking . 
hugh grant , who has a good line in charm , has never been more charming than in about a boy . 
the powers team has fashioned a comedy with more laughs than many , no question . but this time there's some mold on the gold . 
like brosnan's performance , evelyn comes from the heart . 
a quiet family drama with a little bit of romance and a dose of darkness . 
critics need a good laugh , too , and this too-extreme-for-tv rendition of the notorious mtv show delivers the outrageous , sickening , sidesplitting goods in steaming , visceral heaps . 
a triumph of art direction over narrative , but what art direction ! 
an intelligently made ( and beautifully edited ) picture that at the very least has a spark of life to it -- more than you can say for plenty of movies that flow through the hollywood pipeline without a hitch . 
isn't quite the equal of woo's best earlier work , but it's easily his finest american film . . . comes close to recapturing the brilliance of his hong kong films . 
a refreshingly realistic , affectation-free coming-of-age tale . 
if the film's vision of sport as a secular religion is a bit cloying , its through-line of family and community is heartening in the same way that each season marks a new start . 
as lively an account as seinfeld is deadpan . 
while dutifully pulling on heartstrings , directors dean deblois and chris sanders valiantly keep punching up the mix . 
an inuit masterpiece that will give you goosebumps as its uncanny tale of love , communal discord , and justice unfolds . 
enjoyably fast-moving , hard-hitting documentary . 
the son of the bride's humour is born out of an engaging storyline , which also isn't embarrassed to make you reach for the tissues . this movie is to be cherished . 
the film is one of the year's best . 
a mostly believable , refreshingly low-key and quietly inspirational little sports drama . 
it's excessively quirky and a little underconfident in its delivery , but otherwise this is the best 'old neighborhood' project since christopher walken kinda romanced cyndi lauper in the opportunists . 
one of the greatest films i've ever seen . 
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 . 
schtte's dramatic snapshot of the artist three days before his death offers an interesting bit of speculation as to the issues brecht faced as his life drew to a close . 
the quality of the art combined with the humor and intelligence of the script allow the filmmakers to present the biblical message of forgiveness without it ever becoming preachy or syrupy . 
the film , despite the gratuitous cinematic distractions impressed upon it , is still good fun . 
talk to her is not the perfect movie many have made it out to be , but it's still quite worth seeing . 
baran isn't the most transporting or gripping film from iran -- or , indeed , by its director -- but it's a worthy companion to the many fine , focused films emerging from that most surprising of nations . 
the acting , for the most part , is terrific , although the actors must struggle with the fact that they're playing characters who sometimes feel more like literary conceits than flesh-and-blood humans . 
what's really so appealing about the characters is their resemblance to everyday children . 
vibrantly colored and beautifully designed , metropolis is a feast for the eyes . 
a bittersweet drama about the limbo of grief and how truth-telling can open the door to liberation . 
an enjoyable , if occasionally flawed , experiment . 
a tour de force drama about the astonishingly pivotal role of imagination in the soulful development of two rowdy teenagers . 
i'd be lying if i said my ribcage didn't ache by the end of kung pow . 
koury frighteningly and honestly exposes one teenager's uncomfortable class resentment and , in turn , his self-inflicted retaliation . 
one of the best rock documentaries ever . wilco is a phenomenal band with such an engrossing story that will capture the minds and hearts of many . 
despite these annoyances , the capable clayburgh and tambor really do a great job of anchoring the characters in the emotional realities of middle age . 
a frisky and fresh romantic comedy exporing sexual politics and the challenges of friendships between women . 
metaphors abound , but it is easy to take this film at face value and enjoy its slightly humorous and tender story . 
hardly a masterpiece , but it introduces viewers to a good charitable enterprise and some interesting real people . 
what 'dumb and dumber' would have been without the vulgarity and with an intelligent , life-affirming script . 
dark , resonant , inventively detailed and packed with fleet turns of plot and a feast of visual amazement . 
fresh and raw like a blown-out vein , narc takes a walking-dead , cop-flick subgenre and beats new life into it . 
a damn fine and a truly distinctive and a deeply pertinent film . 
a moving story of determination and the human spirit . 
the script manages the rare trick of seeming at once both refreshingly different and reassuringly familiar . 
the script is smart , not cloying . 
this warm and gentle romantic comedy has enough interesting characters to fill several movies , and its ample charms should win over the most hard-hearted cynics . 
williams plays sy , another of his open-faced , smiling madmen , like the killer in insomnia . he does this so well you don't have the slightest difficulty accepting him in the role . 
for all its brooding quality , ash wednesday is suspenseful and ultimately unpredictable , with a sterling ensemble cast . 
tadpole may be one of the most appealing movies ever made about an otherwise appalling , and downright creepy , subject -- a teenage boy in love with his stepmother . 
it will not appeal to the impatient , but those who like long books and movies will admire the way it accumulates power and depth . 
flawed , but worth seeing for ambrose's performance . 
no , it's not as single-minded as john carpenter's original , but it's sure a lot smarter and more unnerving than the sequels . 
what makes salton sea surprisingly engrossing is that caruso takes an atypically hypnotic approach to a world that's often handled in fast-edit , hopped-up fashion . 
while i can't say it's on par with the first one , stuart little 2 is a light , fun cheese puff of a movie . 
hardly a film that comes along every day . 
uplifting , funny and wise . 
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 . 
huppert's show to steal and she makes a meal of it , channeling kathy baker's creepy turn as the repressed mother on boston public just as much as 8 women's augustine . 
a solid , psychological action film from hong kong . 
but this is not a movie about an inhuman monster ; it's about a very human one . 
a marvel like none you've seen . 
the film's plot may be shallow , but you've never seen the deep like you see it in these harrowing surf shots . 
 . . . there are enough moments of heartbreaking honesty to keep one glued to the screen . 
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 . 
the performances are remarkable . 
as refreshing as a drink from a woodland stream . 
writer/director mark romanek spotlights the underlying caste system in america . it's a scathing portrayal . 
the kind of primal storytelling that george lucas can only dream of . 
there are times when you wish that the movie had worked a little harder to conceal its contrivances , but brown sugar turns out to be a sweet and enjoyable fantasy . 
a good music documentary , probably one of the best since the last waltz . 
very well-written and very well-acted . 
terrific as nadia , a russian mail-order bride who comes to america speaking not a word of english , it's kidman who holds the film together with a supremely kittenish performance that gradually accumulates more layers . 
for movie lovers as well as opera lovers , tosca is a real treat . 
it's hard not to be seduced by [witherspoon's] charisma , even in this run-of-the-mill vehicle , because this girl knows how to drive it to the max . 
the fact is that the screen is most alive when it seems most likely that broomfield's interviewees , or even himself , will not be for much longer . 
though the aboriginal aspect lends the ending an extraordinary poignancy , and the story itself could be played out in any working class community in the nation . 
corny , schmaltzy and predictable , but still manages to be kind of heartwarming , nonetheless . it's the perfect kind of film to see when you don't want to use your brain . at all . 
a welcome relief from baseball movies that try too hard to be mythic , this one is a sweet and modest and ultimately winning story . 
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 . 
i love the opening scenes of a wintry new york city in 1899 . cinematic poetry showcases the city's old-world charm before machines change nearly everything . 
a savvy exploration of paranoia and insecurity in america's culture of fear . 
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 . 
an enjoyable comedy of lingual and cultural differences the chteau is a film -- full of life and small delights -- that has all the wiggling energy of young kitten . 
when a movie has stuck around for this long , you know there's something there . it's that good . 
a tone poem of transgression . 
 . . . the implication is kissinger may have decided that  when it comes to truncheoning  it's better to give than to receive . 
while we no longer possess the lack-of-attention span that we did at seventeen , we had no trouble sitting for blade ii . 
light-years ahead of paint-by-number american blockbusters like pearl harbor , at least artistically . 
a tasty masala . 
while not for every taste , this often very funny collegiate gross-out comedy goes a long way toward restoring the luster of the national lampoon film franchise , too long reduced to direct-to-video irrelevancy . 
asks what truth can be discerned from non-firsthand experience , and specifically questions cinema's capability for recording truth . 
has enough wit , energy and geniality to please not only the fanatical adherents on either side , but also people who know nothing about the subject and think they're not interested . 
whether kiss is a future cult classic or destined to be completely forgotten is open to question , but the risk-takers in the crowd should check it out and form their own opinion . 
[cuarn has] created a substantive movie out of several cliched movie structures : the road movie , the coming-of-age movie , and the teenage sex comedy . 
moonlight mile gives itself the freedom to feel contradictory things . 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 . 
a riveting documentary . 
an earnest , roughshod document , it serves as a workable primer for the region's recent history , and would make a terrific 10th-grade learning tool . 
if cinema had been around to capture the chaos of france in the 1790's , one imagines the result would look like something like this . 
it will make you think twice about what might be going on inside each trailer park you drive past -- even if it chiefly inspires you to drive a little faster . 
it provides an honest look at a community striving to anchor itself in new grounds . 
allen's funniest and most likeable movie in years . 
campbell scott finds the ideal outlet for his flick-knife diction in the role of roger swanson . 
highlights are the terrific performances by christopher plummer , as the prime villain , and nathan lane as vincent crummles , the eccentric theater company manager . 
the pianist lacks the quick emotional connections of steven spielberg's schindler's list . but mr . polanski creates images even more haunting than those in mr . spielberg's 1993 classic . 
as part of mr . dong's continuing exploration of homosexuality in america , family fundamentals is an earnest study in despair . 
what the movie lacks in action it more than makes up for in drama , suspense , revenge , and romance . 
an enormously entertaining movie , like nothing we've ever seen before , and yet completely familiar . 
the importance of being earnest , so thick with wit it plays like a reading from bartlett's familiar quotations
the cast , collectively a successful example of the lovable-loser protagonist , shows deft comic timing . 
this is unusual , food-for-thought cinema that's as entertaining as it is instructive . 
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 . 
apuestas fuertes para el futuro del director , y apuestas bien fundadas , pues la suerte ya la tiene , y la cinta lo comprueba . . . . 
mark pellington's latest pop thriller is as kooky and overeager as it is spooky and subtly in love with myth . 
the chateau is a risky venture that never quite goes where you expect and often surprises you with unexpected comedy . 
it's a movie -- and an album -- you won't want to miss . 
elegantly produced and expressively performed , the six musical numbers crystallize key plot moments into minutely detailed wonders of dreamlike ecstasy . 
it's the perfect star vehicle for grant , allowing him to finally move away from his usual bumbling , tongue-tied screen persona . 
the continued good chemistry between carmen and juni is what keeps this slightly disappointing sequel going , with enough amusing banter -- blessedly curse-free -- to keep both kids and parents entertained . 
not since ghostbusters has a film used manhattan's architecture in such a gloriously goofy way . 
the locations go from stark desert to gorgeous beaches . the story plays out slowly , but the characters are intriguing and realistic . 
as giddy and whimsical and relevant today as it was 270 years ago . 
the film delivers not just the full assault of reno's immense wit and insight , but a time travel back to what it felt like during those unforgettably uncertain days . 
 . . . a delightfully unpredictable , hilarious comedy with wonderful performances that tug at your heart in ways that utterly transcend gender labels . 
a classy , sprightly spin on film . 
manages to please its intended audience -- children -- without placing their parents in a coma-like state . 
the wonder of mostly martha is the performance of gedeck , who makes martha enormously endearing . 
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 . 
a beautifully tooled action thriller about love and terrorism in korea . 
stone seems to have a knack for wrapping the theater in a cold blanket of urban desperation . 
while centered on the life experiences of a particular theatrical family , this marvelous documentary touches -- ever so gracefully -- on the entire history of the yiddish theater , both in america and israel . 
it's a beautiful film , full of elaborate and twisted characters - and it's also pretty funny . 
it's mildly entertaining , especially if you find comfort in familiarity . but it's hardly a necessary enterprise . 
offers that rare combination of entertainment and education . 
perhaps the grossest movie ever made . funny , though . 
infidelity drama is nicely shot , well-edited and features a standout performance by diane lane . 
mcgrath has deftly trimmed dickens' wonderfully sprawling soap opera , the better to focus on the hero's odyssey from cowering poverty to courage and happiness . 
it was filled with shootings , beatings , and more cussing than you could shake a stick at . 
if you like quirky , odd movies and/or the ironic , here's a fun one . 
gives us a lot to chew on , but not all of it has been properly digested . 
though few will argue that it ranks with the best of herzog's works , invincible shows he's back in form , with an astoundingly rich film . 
a sensitive and expertly acted crowd-pleaser that isn't above a little broad comedy and a few unabashedly sentimental tears . 
grant carries the day with impeccable comic timing , raffish charm and piercing intellect . 
this is pretty dicey material . but some unexpected zigs and zags help . 
stage director sam mendes showcases tom hanks as a depression era hit-man in this dark tale of revenge . 
it's the unsettling images of a war-ravaged land that prove more potent and riveting than the unlikely story of sarah and harrison . 
 ( a ) hollywood sheen bedevils the film from the very beginning . . . ( but ) lohman's moist , deeply emotional eyes shine through this bogus veneer . . . 
even as it pays earnest homage to turntablists and beat jugglers , old schoolers and current innovators , scratch is great fun , full of the kind of energy it's documenting . 
this breezy caper movie becomes a soulful , incisive meditation on the way we were , and the way we are . 
the film will appeal to discovery channel fans and will surely widen the perspective of those of us who see the continent through rose-colored glasses . 
the usual movie rah-rah , pleasantly and predictably delivered in low-key style by director michael apted and writer tom stoppard . 
leigh's film is full of memorable performances from top to bottom . 
devotees of star trek ii : the wrath of khan will feel a nagging sense of deja vu , and the grandeur of the best next generation episodes is lacking . 
reggio and glass put on an intoxicating show . 
the closest thing to the experience of space travel
a cop story that understands the medium amazingly well . 
although estela bravo's documentary is cloyingly hagiographic in its portrait of cuban leader fidel castro , it's still a guilty pleasure to watch . 
this boisterous comedy serves up a cruel reminder of the fate of hundreds of thousands of chinese , one which can only qualify as a terrible tragedy . 
 . . . a good film that must have baffled the folks in the marketing department . 
windtalkers celebrates the human spirit and packs an emotional wallop . 
manages to delight without much of a story . 
a thoroughly enjoyable , heartfelt coming-of-age comedy . 
on the surface , it's a lovers-on-the-run crime flick , but it has a lot in common with piesiewicz's and kieslowski's earlier work , films like the double life of veronique . 
the trinity assembly approaches the endeavor with a shocking lack of irony , and george ratliff's documentary , hell house , reflects their earnestness  which makes for a terrifying film . 
it certainly won't win any awards in the plot department but it sets out with no pretensions and delivers big time . 
while the now 72-year-old robert evans been slowed down by a stroke , he has at least one more story to tell : his own . 
a lean , deftly shot , well-acted , weirdly retro thriller that recalls a raft of '60s and '70s european-set spy pictures . 
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 . 
mana gives us compelling , damaged characters who we want to help -- or hurt . 
nachtwey clears the cynicism right out of you . he makes you realize that deep inside righteousness can be found a tough beauty . 
a wry , affectionate delight . 
moving and vibrant . 
everything that has to do with yvan and charlotte , and everything that has to do with yvan's rambunctious , jewish sister and her non-jew husband , feels funny and true . 
absorbing and disturbing -- perhaps more disturbing than originally intended -- but a little clarity would have gone a long way . 
makes the case for a strong education and good teachers being more valuable in the way they help increase an average student's self-esteem , and not strictly in the knowledge imparted . 
if it seems like a minor miracle that its septuagenarian star is young enough to be the nonagenarian filmmaker's son , more incredible still are the clear-eyed boldness and quiet irony with which actor and director take on life's urgent questions . 
ultimate x is a ride , basically the kind of greatest-hits reel that might come with a subscription to espn the magazine . 
it's another retelling of alexandre dumas' classic . why ? who knows , but it works under the direction of kevin reynolds . 
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 . 
an undeniably moving film to experience , and ultimately that's what makes it worth a recommendation . 
sure , it's more of the same , but as the film proves , that's not always a bad thing . 
a mildly enjoyable if toothless adaptation of a much better book . 
it's funny , touching , dramatically forceful , and beautifully shot . 
a dreadful day in irish history is given passionate , if somewhat flawed , treatment . 
douglas mcgrath's nicholas nickleby does dickens as it should be done cinematically . 
nothing can detract from the affection of that moral favorite : friends will be friends through thick and thin . 
worse than 'silence of the lambs' better than 'hannibal'
'like a child with an important message to tell . . . [skins'] faults are easy to forgive because the intentions are lofty . '
the picture uses humor and a heartfelt conviction to tell a story about discovering your destination in life , but also acknowledging the places , and the people , from whence you came . 
a genuinely moving and wisely unsentimental drama . 
this familiar rise-and-fall tale is long on glamour and short on larger moralistic consequences , though it's told with sharp ears and eyes for the tenor of the times . 
a new film from bill plympton , the animation master , is always welcome . 
takashi miike keeps pushing the envelope : ichi the killer
charming and witty , it's also somewhat clumsy . 
a poignant and compelling story about relationships , food of love takes us on a bumpy but satisfying journey of the heart . 
seldahl's barbara is a precise and moving portrait of someone whose world is turned upside down , first by passion and then by illness . 
by the time we learn that andrew's turnabout is fair play is every bit as awful as borchardt's coven , we can enjoy it anyway . 
a mature , deeply felt fantasy of a director's travel through 300 years of russian history . 
grenier is terrific , bringing an unforced , rapid-fire delivery to toback's heidegger- and nietzsche-referencing dialogue . 
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 . 
mr . deeds is sure to give you a lot of laughs in this simple , sweet and romantic comedy . 
kept aloft largely by a comically adept ensemble . 
evokes the style and flash of the double-cross that made mamet's " house of games " and last fall's " heist " so much fun . 
a charmer from belgium . 
it's an old story , but a lively script , sharp acting and partially animated interludes make just a kiss seem minty fresh . 
with few respites , marshall keeps the energy humming , and his edits , unlike those in moulin rouge , are crisp and purposeful without overdoing it . 
i couldn't recommend this film more . 
first and foremost . . . the reason to go see " blue crush " is the phenomenal , water-born cinematography by david hennings . 
the far future may be awesome to consider , but from period detail to matters of the heart , this film is most transporting when it stays put in the past . 
the result is mesmerizing -- filled with menace and squalor . 
an elegant film with often surprising twists and an intermingling of naivet and sophistication . 
brosnan gives a portrayal as solid and as perfect as his outstanding performance as bond in die another day . 
she's all-powerful , a voice for a pop-cyber culture that feeds on her bjorkness . 
a charming yet poignant tale of the irrevocable ties that bind . 
[barry] gives assassin a disquieting authority . 
it's not a classic spy-action or buddy movie , but it's entertaining enough and worth a look . 
alternating between facetious comic parody and pulp melodrama , this smart-aleck movie . . . tosses around some intriguing questions about the difference between human and android life . 
it has a dashing and resourceful hero ; a lisping , reptilian villain ; big fights ; big hair ; lavish period scenery ; and a story just complicated enough to let you bask in your own cleverness as you figure it out . 
mordantly funny and intimately knowing . . . 
a soul-stirring documentary about the israeli/palestinian conflict as revealed through the eyes of some children who remain curious about each other against all odds . 
a riveting profile of law enforcement , and a visceral , nasty journey into an urban hades . 
its direction , its script , and weaver's performance as a vaguely discontented woman of substance make for a mildly entertaining 77 minutes , if that's what you're in the mood for . 
nair's cast is so large it's altman-esque , but she deftly spins the multiple stories in a vibrant and intoxicating fashion . 
the salton sea has moments of inspired humour , though every scrap is of the darkest variety . 
it's unlikely we'll see a better thriller this year . 
 . . . while each moment of this broken character study is rich in emotional texture , the journey doesn't really go anywhere . 
the movie is for fans who can't stop loving anime , and the fanatical excess built into it . 
most haunting about " fence " is its conclusion , when we hear the ultimate fate of these girls and realize , much to our dismay , that this really did happen . noyce's greatest mistake is thinking that we needed sweeping , dramatic , hollywood moments to keep us
a rip-roaring comedy action fest that'll put hairs on your chest . 
a modestly made but profoundly moving documentary . 
a chilly , brooding but quietly resonant psychological study of domestic tension and unhappiness . 
a work of intricate elegance , literary lyricism and profound common sense . 
it's jagger's bone-dry , mournfully brittle delivery that gives the film its bittersweet bite . 
a chilling tale of one of the great crimes of 20th century france : the murder of two rich women by their servants in 1933 . 
 . . . 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 . 
the level of maturity displayed by this 33-year-old first-time feature director is astonishing , considering her inexperience and her subject matter . 
the film's sharp , often mischievous sense of humor will catch some off guard . . . 
the movie's relatively simple plot and uncomplicated morality play well with the affable cast . 
this is cool , slick stuff , ready to quench the thirst of an audience that misses the summer blockbusters . 
it's a smartly directed , grown-up film of ideas . 
cantet beautifully illuminates what it means sometimes to be inside looking out , and at other times outside looking in . 
a sly dissection of the inanities of the contemporary music business and a rather sad story of the difficulties of artistic collaboration . 
secretary is just too original to be ignored . 
a perfectly competent and often imaginative film that lacks what little lilo & stitch had in spades -- charisma . 
easily one of the best and most exciting movies of the year . 
the movie is brilliant , really . it is philosophy , illustrated through everyday events . 
a beguiling evocation of the quality that keeps dickens evergreen : the exuberant openness with which he expresses our most basic emotions . 
further proof that the epicenter of cool , beautiful , thought-provoking foreign cinema is smack-dab in the middle of dubya's axis of evil . 
high on melodrama . but it's emotionally engrossing , too , thanks to strong , credible performances from the whole cast . 
when compared to the usual , more somber festival entries , davis' highly personal brand of romantic comedy is a tart , smart breath of fresh air that stands out from the pack even if the picture itself is somewhat problematic . 
in questioning the election process , payami graphically illustrates the problems of fledgling democracies , but also the strength and sense of freedom the iranian people already possess , with or without access to the ballot box . 
newton draws our attention like a magnet , and acts circles around her better known co-star , mark wahlberg . 
a deeply felt and vividly detailed story about newcomers in a strange new world . 
falls neatly into the category of good stupid fun . 
chris columbus' sequel is faster , livelier and a good deal funnier than his original . 
captures that perverse element of the kafkaesque where identity , overnight , is robbed and replaced with a persecuted " other . " 
ozpetek joins the ranks of those gay filmmakers who have used the emigre experience to explore same-sex culture in ways that elude the more nationally settled . 
this is an undeniably intriguing film from an adventurous young talent who finds his inspiration on the fringes of the american underground . 
takes a fresh and absorbing look at a figure whose legacy had begun to bronze . 
bon apptit ! just like a splendid meal , red dragon satisfies  from its ripe recipe , inspiring ingredients , certified cuisine and palatable presentation . 
tsai ming-liang has taken his trademark style and refined it to a crystalline point . 
in addition to gluing you to the edge of your seat , changing lanes is also a film of freshness , imagination and insight . 
thrilling , provocative and darkly funny , this timely sci-fi mystery works on so many different levels that it not only invites , it demands repeated viewings . 
the film is an enjoyable family film -- pretty much aimed at any youngster who loves horses . 
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 . 
hatfield and hicks make the oddest of couples , and in this sense the movie becomes a study of the gambles of the publishing world , offering a case study that exists apart from all the movie's political ramifications . 
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 . 
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 . 
do we really need a 77-minute film to tell us exactly why a romantic relationship between a 15-year-old boy and a 40-year-old woman doesn't work ? 
from its invitingly upbeat overture to its pathos-filled but ultimately life-affirming finale , martin is a masterfully conducted work . 
earns its laughs from stock redneck 'types' and from the many , many moments when we recognize even without the elizabethan prose , the play behind the thing . 
with its hint of an awkward hitchcockian theme in tact , harmon's daunting narrative promotes a reasonable landscape of conflict and pathos to support the scattershot terrorizing tone
i found myself liking the film , though in this case one man's treasure could prove to be another man's garbage . 
american and european cinema has amassed a vast holocaust literature , but it is impossible to think of any film more challenging or depressing than the grey zone . 
allen's underestimated charm delivers more goodies than lumps of coal . 
a captivating cross-cultural comedy of manners . 
aside from minor tinkering , this is the same movie you probably loved in 1994 , except that it looks even better . 
the passions aroused by the discord between old and new cultures are set against the strange , stark beauty of the mideast desert , so lovingly and perceptively filmed that you can almost taste the desiccated air . 
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 . 
poetry in motion captured on film . while it can be a bit repetitive , overall it's an entertaining and informative documentary . 
swimming is above all about a young woman's face , and by casting an actress whose face projects that woman's doubts and yearnings , it succeeds . 
as bundy , michael reilly burke ( octopus 2 : river of fear ) has just the right amount of charisma and menace . 
captivates as it shows excess in business and pleasure , allowing us to find the small , human moments , and leaving off with a grand whimper . 
zany , exuberantly irreverent animated space adventure . 
it turns out to be a cut above the norm , thanks to some clever writing and sprightly acting . 
it's not exactly a gourmet meal but the fare is fair , even coming from the drive-thru . 
a much better documentary -- more revealing , more emotional and more surprising -- than its pedestrian english title would have you believe . 
it's plotless , shapeless -- and yet , it must be admitted , not entirely humorless . indeed , the more outrageous bits achieve a shock-you-into-laughter intensity of almost dadaist proportions . 
although frailty fits into a classic genre , in its script and execution it is a remarkably original work . 
es divertida , visualmente espectacular y muy entretenida . simple y sencillamente te sorprender . 
the am-radio soundtrack and game cast -- tierney and the inimitable walken especially -- keep this unusual comedy from choking on its own conceit . 
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 . 
cletis is playful but highly studied and dependent for its success on a patient viewer . 
you won't believe much of it , but you will laugh at the audacity , at the who's who casting and the sheer insanity of it all . 
if you sometimes like to go to the movies to have fun , wasabi is a good place to start . 
some of the visual flourishes are a little too obvious , but restrained and subtle storytelling , and fine performances make this delicate coming-of-age tale a treat . 
mr . spielberg and his company just want you to enjoy yourselves without feeling conned . and they succeed merrily at their noble endeavor . 
khouri manages , with terrific flair , to keep the extremes of screwball farce and blood-curdling family intensity on one continuum . 
in all , this is a watchable movie that's not quite the memorable experience it might have been . 
a rare and lightly entertaining look behind the curtain that separates comics from the people laughing in the crowd . 
this is a superior horror flick . 
 . . . a guiltless film for nice evening out . 
combines improbable melodrama ( gored bullfighters , comatose ballerinas ) with subtly kinky bedside vigils and sensational denouements , and yet at the end , we are undeniably touched . 
i've never seen or heard anything quite like this film , and i recommend it for its originality alone . 
no sophomore slump for director sam mendes , who segues from oscar winner to oscar-winning potential with a smooth sleight of hand . 
one of the most original american productions this year , you'll find yourself remembering this refreshing visit to a sunshine state . 
dogtown and z-boys more than exposes the roots of the skateboarding boom that would become " the punk kids' revolution . " 
spielberg has managed to marry science fiction with film noir and action flicks with philosophical inquiry . 
when it really counts . . . bloody sunday connects on a visceral level that transcends language . 
i know that i'll never listen to marvin gaye or the supremes the same way again
a uniquely sensual metaphorical dramatization of sexual obsession that spends a bit too much time on its fairly ludicrous plot . 
 . . . a quietly introspective portrait of the self-esteem of employment and the shame of losing a job . . . 
one of the best examples of how to treat a subject , you're not fully aware is being examined , much like a photo of yourself you didn't know was being taken . 
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 . 
in a summer overrun with movies dominated by cgi aliens and super heroes , it revigorates the mind to see a feature that concentrates on people , a project in which the script and characters hold sway . 
saddled with an unwieldy cast of characters and angles , but the payoff is powerful and revelatory . 
the way coppola professes his love for movies -- both colorful pop junk and the classics that unequivocally qualify as art -- is giddily entertaining . 
succeeds as a well-made evocation of a subculture . 
enjoyably dumb , sweet , and intermittently hilarious -- if you've a taste for the quirky , steal a glimpse . 
methodical , measured , and gently tedious in its comedy , secret ballot is a purposefully reductive movie -- which may be why it's so successful at lodging itself in the brain . 
writer/director alexander payne ( election ) and his co-writer jim taylor brilliantly employ their quirky and fearless ability to look american angst in the eye and end up laughing . 
often hilarious . 
a bracing , unblinking work that serves as a painful elegy and sobering cautionary tale . 
a thoughtful and surprisingly affecting portrait of a screwed-up man who dared to mess with some powerful people , seen through the eyes of the idealistic kid who chooses to champion his ultimately losing cause . 
ambitious , unsettling psychodrama that takes full , chilling advantage of its rough-around-the-edges , low-budget constraints . 
the cat's meow marks a return to form for director peter bogdanovich . . . 
like old myths and wonder tales spun afresh . 
it's a perfect show of respect to just one of those underrated professionals who deserve but rarely receive it . 
a seriocomic debut of extravagant promise by georgian-israeli director dover kosashvili . 
best of all is garcia , who perfectly portrays the desperation of a very insecure man . 
barry convinces us he's a dangerous , secretly unhinged guy who could easily have killed a president because it made him feel powerful . 
denver should not get the first and last look at one of the most triumphant performances of vanessa redgrave's career . it deserves to be seen everywhere . 
there's a vastness implied in metropolis that is just breathtaking . 
it's a lovely , eerie film that casts an odd , rapt spell . 
vividly demonstrates that the director of such hollywood blockbusters as patriot games can still turn out a small , personal film with an emotional wallop . 
 . . . the tale of her passionate , tumultuous affair with musset unfolds as sand's masculine persona , with its love of life and beauty , takes form . 
it's a fine , focused piece of work that reopens an interesting controversy and never succumbs to sensationalism . 
very psychoanalytical -- provocatively so -- and also refreshingly literary . 
a compelling journey . . . and " his best friend remembers " is up there with the finest of specials . 
as tricky and satisfying as any of david mamet's airless cinematic shell games . 
this isn't a retooled genre piece , the tale of a guy and his gun , but an amiably idiosyncratic work . 
lauren ambrose comes alive under the attention from two strangers in town - with honest performances and realistic interaction between the characters , this is a coming-of-age story with a twist . 
stock up on silver bullets for director neil marshall's intense freight train of a film . 
macdowell . . . gives give a solid , anguished performance that eclipses nearly everything else she's ever done . 
a grimly competent and stolid and earnest military courtroom drama . 
the biggest problem with this movie is that it's not nearly long enough . 
if ayurveda can help us return to a sane regimen of eating , sleeping and stress-reducing contemplation , it is clearly a good thing . 
a lot of the credit for the film's winning tone must go to grant , who hasn't lost a bit of the dry humor that first made audiences on both sides of the atlantic love him . 
this is an extraordinary film , not least because it is japanese and yet feels universal . 
his work transcends the boy-meets-girl posturing of typical love stories . 
astonishingly skillful and moving . . . it could become a historically significant work as well as a masterfully made one . 
much smarter and more attentive than it first sets out to be . 
maybe it's just because this past year has seen the release of some of the worst film comedies in decades . . . but honestly , analyze that really isn't all that bad . 
this is one of those rare docs that paints a grand picture of an era and makes the journey feel like a party . 
has it ever been possible to say that williams has truly inhabited a character ? it is now . 
all right , so it's not a brilliant piece of filmmaking , but it is a funny ( sometimes hilarious ) comedy with a deft sense of humor about itself , a playful spirit and a game cast . 
there's much tongue in cheek in the film and there's no doubt the filmmaker is having fun with it all . 
it's not particularly well made , but since i found myself howling more than cringing , i'd say the film works . 
an energetic , violent movie with a momentum that never lets up . 
watching this film , what we feel isn't mainly suspense or excitement . the dominant feeling is something like nostalgia . 
hoffman notches in the nuances of pain , but his smart , edgy voice and waddling profile ( emphasized here ) accent the humor of wilson's plight , and that saves his pathos from drippiness . 
by not averting his eyes , solondz forces us to consider the unthinkable , the unacceptable , the unmentionable . 
if we sometimes need comforting fantasies about mental illness , we also need movies like tim mccann's revolution no . 9 . 
although german cooking does not come readily to mind when considering the world's best cuisine , mostly martha could make deutchland a popular destination for hungry tourists . 
brutally honest and told with humor and poignancy , which makes its message resonate . 
life on the rez is no picnic : this picture shows you why . 
reminiscent of alfred hitchcock's thrillers , most of the scary parts in 'signs' occur while waiting for things to happen . 
a bilingual charmer , just like the woman who inspired it
it is life affirming and heartbreaking , sweet without the decay factor , funny and sad . 
the charms of the lead performances allow us to forget most of the film's problems . 
it's a brave attempt to tap into the heartbeat of the world , a salute to the universal language of rhythm and a zippy sampling of sounds . 
one of those rare films that seems as though it was written for no one , but somehow manages to convince almost everyone that it was put on the screen , just for them . 
features one of the most affecting depictions of a love affair ever committed to film . 
[director peter] jackson and his crew have so steeped themselves in the majesty of tolkien's writing that every frame produces new joys , whether you're a fan of the books or not . 
cuts right through the b . s . giving a big middle-fingered " shut up " to those who talk up what is nothing more than two guys beating the hell outta one another . 
allen se atreve a atacar , a atacarse y nos ofrece gags que van de la sonrisa a la risa de larga duracin
gangs , despite the gravity of its subject matter , is often as fun to watch as a good spaghetti western . 
at its best early on as it plays the culture clashes between the brothers . 
the subtitled costume drama is set in a remote african empire before cell phones , guns , and the internal combustion engine , but the politics that thump through it are as timely as tomorrow . 
the result is something quite fresh and delightful . 
it dares to be a little different , and that shading is what makes it worthwhile . 
hoffman's performance is authentic to the core of his being . 
poignant if familiar story of a young person suspended between two cultures . 
white oleander may leave you rolling your eyes in the dark , but that doesn't mean you won't like looking at it . 
ice cube holds the film together with an engaging and warm performance . . . 
the film may not hit as hard as some of the better drug-related pictures , but it still manages to get a few punches in . 
digital-video documentary about stand-up comedians is a great glimpse into a very different world . 
sensual , funny and , in the end , very touching . 
there's not much to fatale , outside of its stylish surprises . . . but that's ok . 
gooding is the energetic frontman , and it's hard to resist his enthusiasm , even if the filmmakers come up with nothing original in the way of slapstick sequences . 
deliberately and skillfully uses ambiguity to suggest possibilities which imbue the theme with added depth and resonance . 
the storylines are woven together skilfully , the magnificent swooping aerial shots are breathtaking , and the overall experience is awesome . 
a miniscule little bleep on the film radar , but one that many more people should check out
it gives devastating testimony to both people's capacity for evil and their heroic capacity for good . 
the whole cast looks to be having so much fun with the slapstick antics and silly street patois , tossing around obscure expressions like bellini and mullinski , that the compact 86 minutes breezes by . 
a solidly seaworthy chiller . 
it helps that lil bow wow . . . tones down his pint-sized gangsta act to play someone who resembles a real kid . 
goldmember is funny enough to justify the embarrassment of bringing a barf bag to the moviehouse . 
a fascinating , unnerving examination of the delusions of one unstable man . 
as broad and cartoonish as the screenplay is , there is an accuracy of observation in the work of the director , frank novak , that keeps the film grounded in an undeniable social realism . 
allows us to hope that nolan is poised to embark a major career as a commercial yet inventive filmmaker . 
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 . 
if you're like me , a sucker for a good old fashion romance and someone who shamelessly loves to eat , then mostly martha offers all the perfect ingredients to more than satisfy your appetite . 
like other great documentaries . . . this goes after one truth ( the ford administration's complicity in tearing 'orphans' from their mothers ) and stumbles upon others even more compelling . 
a map of the inner rhythms of love and jealousy and sacrifice drawn with a master's steady stroke . 
collateral damage finally delivers the goods for schwarzenegger fans . 
run , don't walk , to see this barbed and bracing comedy on the big screen . 
the emperor's club , ruthless in its own placid way , finds one of our most conservative and hidebound movie-making traditions and gives it new texture , new relevance , new reality . 
what makes the film special is the refreshingly unhibited enthusiasm that the people , in spite of clearly evident poverty and hardship , bring to their music . 
a biopic about crane's life in the classic tradition but evolves into what has become of us all in the era of video . 
 . . . manages to fall closer in quality to silence than to the abysmal hannibal . 
it's fun , wispy , wise and surprisingly inoffensive for a film about a teen in love with his stepmom . 
from blushing to gushing---imamura squirts the screen in warm water under a red bridge'
as the princess , sorvino glides gracefully from male persona to female without missing a beat . ben kingsley is truly funny , playing a kind of ghandi gone bad . 
marvelously entertaining and deliriously joyous documentary . 
it's always fascinating to watch marker the essayist at work . 
peppering this urban study with references to norwegian folktales , villeneuve creates in maelstrom a world where the bizarre is credible and the real turns magical . 
good performances and a realistic , non-exploitive approach make paid in full worth seeing . 
tsai convincingly paints a specifically urban sense of disassociation here . 
human resources was a good , straightforward tale , but time out is better . it's haunting . it's like a poem . 
not only better than its predecessor , it may rate as the most magical and most fun family fare of this or any recent holiday season . 
the movie is one of the best examples of artful large format filmmaking you are likely to see anytime soon . 
whether or not you're enlightened by any of derrida's lectures on " the other " and " the self , " derrida is an undeniably fascinating and playful fellow . 
that storytelling has value cannot be denied . not even solondz's thirst for controversy , sketchy characters and immature provocations can fully succeed at cheapening it . 
a terrific insider look at the star-making machinery of tinseltown . 
it's truly awful and heartbreaking subject matter , but one whose lessons are well worth revisiting as many times as possible . 
an intimate , good-humored ethnic comedy like numerous others but cuts deeper than expected . 
 the film is powerful , accessible and funny . you won't miss its messages , but you'll be entertained as well . 
an alternately fascinating and frustrating documentary . 
a compelling spanish film about the withering effects of jealousy in the life of a young monarch whose sexual passion for her husband becomes an obsession . 
smith finds amusing juxtapositions that justify his exercise . 
a psychologically rich and suspenseful moral thriller with a stellar performance by al pacino . 
piccoli gives a superb performance full of deep feeling . 
tender yet lacerating and darkly funny fable . 
it's as raw and action-packed an experience as a ringside seat at a tough-man contest . 
elling , portrayed with quiet fastidiousness by per christian ellefsen , is a truly singular character , one whose frailties are only slightly magnified versions of the ones that vex nearly everyone . 
you have enough finely tuned acting to compensate for the movie's failings . 
some people want the ol' ball-and-chain and then there are those who just want the ball and chain . 
a fast paced and suspenseful argentinian thriller about the shadow side of play . 
while the filmmaking may be a bit disjointed , the subject matter is so fascinating that you won't care . 
with " ichi the killer " , takashi miike , japan's wildest filmmaker gives us a crime fighter carrying more emotional baggage than batman . . . 
intriguing and downright intoxicating . 
nair doesn't use [monsoon wedding] to lament the loss of culture . instead , she sees it as a chance to revitalize what is and always has been remarkable about clung-to traditions . 
your response to its new sequel , analyze that , may hinge on what you thought of the first film . 
it may be a no-brainer , but at least it's a funny no-brainer . 
although jackson is doubtless reserving the darkest hours for the return of the king , we long for a greater sense of urgency in the here and now of the two towers . 
it's definitely a step in the right direction . 
 . . . wise and elegiac . . . 
mostly works because of the universal themes , earnest performances . . . and excellent use of music by india's popular gulzar and jagjit singh . 
despite its flaws , crazy as hell marks an encouraging new direction for la salle . 
best enjoyed as a work of fiction inspired by real-life events . those seeking a definitive account of eisenstein's life would do better elsewhere . 
both an admirable reconstruction of terrible events , and a fitting memorial to the dead of that day , and of the thousands thereafter . 
the storytelling may be ordinary , but the cast is one of those all-star reunions that fans of gosford park have come to assume is just another day of brit cinema . 
its almost too-spectacular coastal setting distracts slightly from an eccentric and good-naturedly aimless story . 
wonder of wonders -- a teen movie with a humanistic message . 
the kind of trifle that date nights were invented for . 
this story still seems timely and important . 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 . 
director nancy savoca's no-frills record of a show forged in still-raw emotions captures the unsettled tenor of that post 9-11 period far better than a more measured or polished production ever could . 
has the capability of effecting change and inspiring hope . 
for the most part , it works beautifully as a movie without sacrificing the integrity of the opera . 
a deceivingly simple film , one that grows in power in retrospect . 
with youthful high spirits , tautou remains captivating throughout michele's religious and romantic quests , and she is backed by a likable cast . 
special p . o . v . camera mounts on bikes , skateboards , and motorcycles provide an intense experience when splashed across the immense imax screen . 
what elevates the movie above the run-of-the-mill singles blender is its surreal sense of humor and technological finish . 
the sheer joy and pride they took in their work -- and in each other -- shines through every frame . 
 . . . digs beyond the usual portrayals of good kids and bad seeds to reveal a more ambivalent set of characters and motivations . 
blessed with two fine , nuanced lead performances . 
a modest masterpiece . 
nolan bravely treads where few american films dare to delve -- into the world of ambivalence and ambiguity . . . 
it's good to see michael caine whipping out the dirty words and punching people in the stomach again . 
brims with passion : for words , for its eccentric , accident-prone characters , and for the crazy things that keep people going in this crazy life . 
devos delivers a perfect performance that captures the innocence and budding demons within a wallflower . 
a much more successful translation than its most famous previous film adaptation , writer-director anthony friedman's similarly updated 1970 british production . 
a small movie with a big impact . 
the performances of the four main actresses bring their characters to life . a little melodramatic , but with enough hope to keep you engaged . 
sturdy , entertaining period drama . . . both caine and fraser have their moments . 
the early and middle passages are surprising in how much they engage and even touch us . this is not a classical dramatic animated feature , nor a hip , contemporary , in-jokey one . it's sort of in-between , and it works . 
on this tricky topic , tadpole is very much a step in the right direction , with its blend of frankness , civility and compassion . 
all the filmmakers are asking of us , is to believe in something that is improbable . 
the story line may be 127 years old , but el crimen del padre amaro . . . couldn't be more timely in its despairing vision of corruption within the catholic establishment . 
enormously likable , partly because it is aware of its own grasp of the absurd . 
a subtle and well-crafted ( for the most part ) chiller . 
k-19 : the widowmaker is a great yarn . 
the soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission . 
worth a look by those on both sides of the issues , if only for the perspective it offers , one the public rarely sees . 
spectacularly beautiful , not to mention mysterious , sensual , emotionally intense , and replete with virtuoso throat-singing . 
japanese director shohei imamura's latest film is an odd but ultimately satisfying blend of the sophomoric and the sublime . 
you may leave the theater with more questions than answers , but darned if your toes won't still be tapping . 
although it includes a fair share of dumb drug jokes and predictable slapstick , " orange county " is far funnier than it would seem to have any right to be . 
there's no conversion effort , much of the writing is genuinely witty and both stars are appealing enough to probably have a good shot at a hollywood career , if they want one . 
shyamalan offers copious hints along the way -- myriad signs , if you will -- that beneath the familiar , funny surface is a far bigger , far more meaningful story than one in which little green men come to earth for harvesting purposes . 
like vardalos and corbett , who play their roles with vibrant charm , the film , directed by joel zwick , is heartfelt and hilarious in ways you can't fake . 
it's traditional moviemaking all the way , but it's done with a lot of careful period attention as well as some very welcome wit . 
both a grand tour through 300 hundred years of russian cultural identity and a stunning technical achievement . 
the search for redemption makes for a touching love story , mainly because blanchett and ribisi compellingly tap into a spiritual aspect of their characters' suffering . 
it's this memory-as-identity obviation that gives secret life its intermittent unease , reaffirming that long-held illusions are indeed reality , and that erasing them recasts the self . 
famuyiwa's feature deals with its subject matter in a tasteful , intelligent manner , rather than forcing us to endure every plot contrivance that the clich-riddled genre can offer . 
an unusually dry-eyed , even analytical approach to material that is generally played for maximum moisture . 
if you love the music , and i do , its hard to imagine having more fun watching a documentary . . . 
in its ragged , cheap and unassuming way , the movie works . 
director lee has a true cinematic knack , but it's also nice to see a movie with its heart so thoroughly , unabashedly on its sleeve . 
like mike isn't going to make box office money that makes michael jordan jealous , but it has some cute moments , funny scenes , and hits the target audience ( young bow wow fans ) - with nothing but net . 
nair doesn't treat the issues lightly . she allows each character to confront their problems openly and honestly . 
cho's timing is priceless . 
it would take a complete moron to foul up a screen adaptation of oscar wilde's classic satire . 
a flick about our infantilized culture that isn't entirely infantile . 
a painfully funny ode to bad behavior . 
birthday girl is an amusing joy ride , with some surprisingly violent moments . 
the inherent strength of the material as well as the integrity of the filmmakers gives this coming-of-age story restraint as well as warmth . 
despite the long running time , the pace never feels slack -- there's no scene that screams " bathroom break ! " 
together , miller , kuras and the actresses make personal velocity into an intricate , intimate and intelligent journey . 
after watching it , you can only love the players it brings to the fore for the gifted but no-nonsense human beings they are and for the still-inestimable contribution they have made to our shared history . 
it may not be history  but then again , what if it is ?  but it makes for one of the most purely enjoyable and satisfying evenings at the movies i've had in a while . 
garca bernal and talancn are an immensely appealing couple , and even though their story is predictable , you'll want things to work out . 
slight but enjoyable documentary . 
they crush each other under cars , throw each other out windows , electrocute and dismember their victims in full consciousness . and we don't avert our eyes for a moment . 
a gem of a movie . 
while the film is not entirely successful , it still manages to string together enough charming moments to work . 
romantic comedy and dogme 95 filmmaking may seem odd bedfellows , but they turn out to be delightfully compatible here . 
griffin & co . manage to be spectacularly outrageous . 
audiard successfully maintains suspense on different levels throughout a film that is both gripping and compelling . 
it's never laugh-out-loud funny , but it is frequently amusing . 
it's a humble effort , but spiced with wry humor and genuine pathos , especially between morgan and redgrave . 
demonstrates the unusual power of thoughtful , subjective filmmaking . 
there's real visual charge to the filmmaking , and a strong erotic spark to the most crucial lip-reading sequence . 
is truth stranger than fiction ? in [screenwriter] charlie kaufman's world , truth and fiction are equally strange , and his for the taking . 
the heart of the film is a touching reflection on aging , suffering and the prospect of death . 
for all its problems . . . the lady and the duke surprisingly manages never to grow boring . . . which proves that rohmer still has a sense of his audience . 
noyce has worked wonders with the material . 
a difficult , absorbing film that manages to convey more substance despite its repetitions and inconsistencies than do most films than are far more pointed and clear . 
the off-center humor is a constant , and the ensemble gives it a buoyant delivery . 
whether our action-and-popcorn obsessed culture will embrace this engaging and literate psychodrama isn't much of a mystery , unfortunately . 
lead actress ga , she of the impossibly long limbs and sweetly conspiratorial smile , is a towering siren . 
director nalin pan doesn't do much to weigh any arguments one way or the other . he simply presents his point of view that ayurveda works . no question . 
that rara avis : the intelligent romantic comedy with actual ideas on its mind . 
exciting and well-paced . 
this is human comedy at its most amusing , interesting and confirming . 
'the film is stark , straightforward and deadly . . . an unnatural calm that's occasionally shaken by . . . blasts of rage , and later , violent jealousy . '
the people in dogtown and z-boys are so funny , aggressive and alive , you have to watch them because you can't wait to see what they do next . 
the work of an artist tormented by his heritage , using his storytelling ability to honor the many faceless victims . 
when your leading ladies are a couple of screen-eating dominatrixes like goldie hawn and susan sarandon at their raunchy best , even hokum goes down easily . 
less front-loaded and more shapely than the two-hour version released here in 1990 . 
aside from rohmer's bold choices regarding point of view , the lady and the duke represents the filmmaker's lifelong concern with formalist experimentation in cinematic art . 
the movie has an infectious exuberance that will engage anyone with a passing interest in the skate/surf culture , the l . a . beach scene and the imaginative ( and sometimes illegal ) ways kids can make a playground out of the refuse of adults . 
very predictable but still entertaining
the ring is worth a look , if you don't demand much more than a few cheap thrills from your halloween entertainment . 
while locals will get a kick out of spotting cleveland sites , the rest of the world will enjoy a fast-paced comedy with quirks that might make the award-winning coen brothers envious . 
this is a gorgeous film - vivid with color , music and life . delight your senses and crash this wedding ! 
although it bangs a very cliched drum at times , this crowd-pleaser's fresh dialogue , energetic music , and good-natured spunk are often infectious . 
even if the ring has a familiar ring , it's still unusually crafty and intelligent for hollywood horror . 
boasts a handful of virtuosic set pieces and offers a fair amount of trashy , kinky fun . 
the beauty of the piece is that it counts heart as important as humor . 
quietly engaging . 
atom egoyan has conjured up a multilayered work that tackles any number of fascinating issues
it's endlessly inventive , consistently intelligent and sickeningly savage . 
a sobering and powerful documentary about the most severe kind of personal loss : rejection by one's mother . 
overall , cletis tout is a winning comedy that excites the imagination and tickles the funny bone . 
a strangely stirring experience that finds warmth in the coldest environment and makes each crumb of emotional comfort feel like a 10-course banquet . 
reassuring , retro uplifter . 
maintains your interest until the end and even leaves you with a few lingering animated thoughts . 
 " nicholas nickleby " is a perfect family film to take everyone to since there's no new " a christmas carol " out in the theaters this year . charlie hunnam has the twinkling eyes , repressed smile and determined face needed to carry out a dickensian hero . 
spider-man is about growing strange hairs , getting a more mature body , and finding it necessary to hide new secretions from the parental units . 
a powerful and telling story that examines forbidden love , racial tension , and other issues that are as valid today as they were in the 1950s . 
one from the heart . 
writer/director david caesar ladles on the local flavour with a hugely enjoyable film about changing times , clashing cultures and the pleasures of a well-made pizza . 
remarkably accessible and affecting . 
it picked me up , swung me around , and dropped me back in my seat with more emotional force than any other recent film . 
despite the 2-d animation , the wild thornberrys movie makes for a surprisingly cinematic experience . 
it's probably worth catching solely on its visual merits . if only it had the story to match . 
a slam-bang extravaganza that is all about a wild-and-woolly , wall-to-wall good time . 
with a romantic comedy plotline straight from the ages , this cinderella story doesn't have a single surprise up its sleeve . but it does somehow manage to get you under its spell . 
while its careful pace and seemingly opaque story may not satisfy every moviegoer's appetite , the film's final scene is soaringly , transparently moving . 
the entire movie has a truncated feeling , but what's available is lovely and lovable . 
this is a harrowing movie about how parents know where all the buttons are , and how to push them . 
for those who like quirky , slightly strange french films , this is a must ! 
a gorgeous , high-spirited musical from india that exquisitely blends music , dance , song , and high drama . 
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 . 
so fiendishly cunning that even the most jaded cinema audiences will leave the auditorium feeling dizzy , confused , and totally disorientated . not to mention absolutely refreshed . 
max pokes , provokes , takes expressionistic license and hits a nerve . . . as far as art is concerned , it's mission accomplished . 
some of the most ravaging , gut-wrenching , frightening war scenes since " saving private ryan " have been recreated by john woo in this little-known story of native americans and their role in the second great war . 
much as we might be interested in gratuitous sexualization , haneke has a different objective in mind--namely the implications of our craving for fake stimulation . 
it has the charm of the original american road movies , feasting on the gorgeous , ramshackle landscape of the filmmaker's motherland . 
despite its shortcomings , girls can't swim represents an engaging and intimate first feature by a talented director to watch , and it's a worthy entry in the french coming-of-age genre . 
graas s interaes entre seus personagens , o filme torna-se no apenas uma histria divertida sobre uma curiosa perseguio , mas tambm um belo estudo de personagens . 
whenever it threatens to get bogged down in earnest dramaturgy , a stirring visual sequence like a surge through swirling rapids or a leap from pinnacle to pinnacle rouses us . if horses could fly , this is surely what they'd look like . 
though this film can be clumsy , its ambitions are equally -- and admirably -- uncommercial . 
strip it of all its excess debris , and you'd have a 90-minute , four-star movie . as it is , it's too long and unfocused . 
all in all , the count of monte cristo is okay , but it is surely no classic , like the novel upon which it is based . 
if it's not entirely memorable , the movie is certainly easy to watch . 
the stunning , dreamlike visuals will impress even those viewers who have little patience for euro-film pretension . 
though the film is static , its writer-director's heart is in the right place , his plea for democracy and civic action laudable . 
the film is beautifully mounted , but , more to the point , the issues are subtly presented , managing to walk a fine line with regard to the question of joan's madness . 
colorful and deceptively buoyant until it suddenly pulls the rug out from under you , burkinabe filmmaker dani kouyate's reworking of a folk story whose roots go back to 7th-century oral traditions is also a pointed political allegory . 
as the two leads , lathan and diggs are charming and have chemistry both as friends and lovers . 
tailored to entertain ! 
i have no way of knowing exactly how much is exaggeration , but i've got a creepy feeling that the film is closer to the mark than i want to believe . 
touch ! 
all the performances are top notch and , once you get through the accents , all or nothing becomes an emotional , though still positive , wrench of a sit . 
the success of undercover brother is found in its ability to spoof both black and white stereotypes equally . 
that the e-graveyard holds as many good ideas as bad is the cold comfort that chin's film serves up with style and empathy . 
much of all about lily chou-chou is mesmerizing : some of its plaintiveness could make you weep . 
half submarine flick , half ghost story , all in one criminally neglected film
gaunt , silver-haired and leonine , [harris] brings a tragic dimension and savage full-bodied wit and cunning to the aging sandeman . 
watching spirited away is like watching an eastern imagination explode . 
a thought-provoking picture . 
it finds its moviegoing pleasures in the tiny events that could make a person who has lived her life half-asleep suddenly wake up and take notice . 
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 . 
though only 60 minutes long , the film is packed with information and impressions . 
bubba ho-tep is a wonderful film with a bravura lead performance by bruce campbell that doesn't deserve to leave the building until everyone is aware of it . 
an absorbing , slice-of-depression life that touches nerves and rings true . 
a compelling pre-wwii drama with vivid characters and a warm , moving message . 
the pleasures that it does afford may be enough to keep many moviegoers occupied amidst some of the more serious-minded concerns of other year-end movies . 
[a] rare , beautiful film . 
enormously entertaining for moviegoers of any age . 
[ramsay] visually transforms the dreary expanse of dead-end distaste the characters inhabit into a poem of art , music and metaphor . 
you can sip your vintage wines and watch your merchant ivory productions ; i'll settle for a nice cool glass of iced tea and a jerry bruckheimer flick any day of the week . 
 . . . a poignant and powerful narrative that reveals that reading writing and arithmetic are not the only subjects to learn in life . 
a complex psychological drama about a father who returns to his son's home after decades away . 
the immersive powers of the giant screen and its hyper-realistic images are put to perfect use in the breathtakingly beautiful outer-space documentary space station 3d . 
bogdanovich tantalizes by offering a peep show into the lives of the era's creme de la celluloid . 
talk to her is so darned assured , we have absolutely no idea who the main characters are until the film is well under way -- and yet it's hard to stop watching . 
an inspiring and heart-affecting film about the desperate attempts of vietnamese refugees living in u . s . relocation camps to keep their hopes alive in 1975 . 
though it runs 163 minutes , safe conduct is anything but languorous . it's packed to bursting with incident , and with scores of characters , some fictional , some from history . 
a coming-of-age movie that hollywood wouldn't have the guts to make . 
boomers and their kids will have a barrie good time . 
even though many of these guys are less than adorable ( their lamentations are pretty much self-centered ) , there's something vital about the movie . 
ub equally spoofs and celebrates the more outre aspects of 'black culture' and the dorkier aspects of 'white culture , ' even as it points out how inseparable the two are . 
it cuts to the core of what it actually means to face your fears , to be a girl in a world of boys , to be a boy truly in love with a girl , and to ride the big metaphorical wave that is life -- wherever it takes you . 
it is nature against progress . in fessenden's horror trilogy , this theme has proved important to him and is especially so in the finale . 
the ingenuity that parker displays in freshening the play is almost in a class with that of wilde himself . 
this is a story that zings all the way through with originality , humour and pathos . 
a poignant , artfully crafted meditation on mortality . 
steven soderbergh doesn't remake andrei tarkovsky's solaris so much as distill it . 
easier to respect than enthuse over , andersson's rigorous personal vision is not only distanced but distancing . 
leguizamo and jones are both excellent and the rest of the cast is uniformly superb . 
 " 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 . if you're a comic fan , you can't miss it . if you're not , you'll still have a good time . " 
an involving , inspirational drama that sometimes falls prey to its sob-story trappings . 
a full experience , a love story and a murder mystery that expands into a meditation on the deep deceptions of innocence . 
[russell] makes good b movies ( the mask , the blob ) , and the scorpion king more than ably meets those standards . 
campanella's competent direction and his excellent cast overcome the obstacles of a predictable outcome and a screenplay that glosses over rafael's evolution . 
 . . . a cute and sometimes side-splittingly funny blend of legally blonde and drop dead gorgeous , starring piper perabo in what could be her breakthrough role . 
if it tried to do anything more , it would fail and perhaps explode , but at this level of manic whimsy , it is just about right . 
fierce , glaring and unforgettable . 
unexpected moments of authentically impulsive humor are the hallmark of this bittersweet , uncommonly sincere movie that portrays the frank humanity ofemotional recovery . 
one of the most exciting action films to come out of china in recent years . 
a disturbing and frighteningly evocative assembly of imagery and hypnotic music composed by philip glass . 
psychologically savvy . 
a portrait of hell so shattering it's impossible to shake . 
lovingly photographed in the manner of a golden book sprung to life , stuart little 2 manages sweetness largely without stickiness . 
sum " is jack ryan's " do-over . " give credit to everyone from robinson down to the key grip that this bold move works . especially give credit to affleck . 
if borstal boy isn't especially realistic , it is an engaging nostalgia piece . 
warm in its loving yet unforgivingly inconsistent depiction of everyday people , relaxed in its perfect quiet pace and proud in its message . i loved this film . 
a certain sexiness underlines even the dullest tangents . 
this charming but slight tale has warmth , wit and interesting characters compassionately portrayed . 
much of the movie's charm lies in the utter cuteness of stuart and margolo . their computer-animated faces are very expressive . 
a movie that reminds us of just how exciting and satisfying the fantasy cinema can be when it's approached with imagination and flair . 
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 . that , in itself , is extraordinary . 
gloriously goofy ( and gory ) midnight movie stuff . 
it has its faults , but it is a kind , unapologetic , sweetheart of a movie , and mandy moore leaves a positive impression . 
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 . 
this seductive tease of a thriller gets the job done . it's a scorcher . 
hawn and sarandon form an acting bond that makes the banger sisters a fascinating character study with laughs to spare . 
by its modest , straight-ahead standards , undisputed scores a direct hit . 
witty dialog between realistic characters showing honest emotions . it's touching and tender and proves that even in sorrow you can find humor . like blended shades of lipstick , these components combine into one terrific story with lots of laughs . 
mike leigh populates his movie with a wonderful ensemble cast of characters that bring the routine day to day struggles of the working class to life
[d]espite its familiar subject matter , ice age is consistently amusing and engrossing . . . 
[it] has the feel of a summer popcorn movie . nothing too deep or substantial . explosions , jokes , and sexual innuendoes abound . 
this version moves beyond the original's nostalgia for the communal film experiences of yesteryear to a deeper realization of cinema's inability to stand in for true , lived experience . 
it treats ana's journey with honesty that is tragically rare in the depiction of young women in film . 
without ever becoming didactic , director carlos carrera expertly weaves this novelistic story of entangled interrelationships and complex morality . 
blisteringly rude , scarily funny , sorrowfully sympathetic to the damage it surveys , the film has in kieran culkin a pitch-perfect holden . 
a directorial tour de force by bernard rose , ivans xtc . is one of this year's very best pictures . 
this odd , poetic road movie , spiked by jolts of pop music , pretty much takes place in morton's ever-watchful gaze -- and it's a tribute to the actress , and to her inventive director , that the journey is such a mesmerizing one . 
the new insomnia is a surprisingly faithful remake of its chilly predecessor , and when it does elect to head off in its own direction , it employs changes that fit it well rather than ones that were imposed for the sake of commercial sensibilities . 
one of those exceedingly rare films in which the talk alone is enough to keep us involved . 
boisterous , heartfelt comedy . 
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 . 
functions as both a revealing look at the collaborative process and a timely , tongue-in-cheek profile of the corporate circus that is the recording industry in the current climate of mergers and downsizing . 
a poignant and gently humorous parable that loves its characters and communicates something rather beautiful about human nature . 
would make an excellent companion piece to the similarly themed 'the french lieutenant's woman . '
the magic of the film lies not in the mysterious spring but in the richness of its performances . 
a bodice-ripper for intellectuals . 
there has been much puzzlement among critics about what the election symbolizes . i believe the message is in the messenger : the agent is a woman . 
elegant and eloquent [meditation] on death and that most elusive of passions , love . 
a beguiling splash of pastel colors and prankish comedy from disney . 
a hugely rewarding experience that's every bit as enlightening , insightful and entertaining as grant's two best films -- four weddings and a funeral and bridget jones's diary . 
williams creates a stunning , taxi driver-esque portrayal of a man teetering on the edge of sanity . 
both flawed and delayed , martin scorcese's gangs of new york still emerges as his most vital work since goodfellas . 
a heartbreakingly thoughtful minor classic , the work of a genuine and singular artist . 
a taut , sobering film . 
familiar but utterly delightful . 
led by griffin's smartly nuanced performance and enthusiasm , the cast has a lot of fun with the material . 
leigh isn't breaking new ground , but he knows how a daily grind can kill love . 
the byplay and bickering between the now spy-savvy siblings , carmen ( vega ) and juni ( sabara ) cortez , anchor the film in a very real and amusing give-and-take . 
os problemas tm incio a partir do momento em que samos do cinema e comeamos a pensar sobre o que acabamos de ver .  ento que sinais realmente desaponta . 
a lovely film for the holiday season . 
witherspoon puts to rest her valley-girl image , but it's dench who really steals the show . 
the cast is uniformly excellent and relaxed . 
tsai has managed to create an underplayed melodrama about family dynamics and dysfunction that harks back to the spare , unchecked heartache of yasujiro ozu . 
like mike is a winner for kids , and no doubt a winner for lil bow wow , who can now add movies to the list of things he does well . 
this version's no classic like its predecessor , but its pleasures are still plentiful . 
tian emphasizes the isolation of these characters by confining color to liyan's backyard . 
others , more attuned to the anarchist maxim that 'the urge to destroy is also a creative urge' , or more willing to see with their own eyes , will find morrison's iconoclastic uses of technology to be liberating . 
you won't look at religious fanatics -- or backyard sheds -- the same way again . 
cq's reflection of artists and the love of cinema-and-self suggests nothing less than a new voice that deserves to be considered as a possible successor to the best european directors . 
the ingenious construction ( adapted by david hare from michael cunningham's novel ) constantly flows forwards and back , weaving themes among three strands which allow us to view events as if through a prism
painful to watch , but viewers willing to take a chance will be rewarded with two of the year's most accomplished and riveting film performances . 
it's a masterpiece . 
more a load of enjoyable , conan-esque claptrap than the punishing , special-effects soul assaults the mummy pictures represent . 
behan himself knew how to spin a tale and one can't help but think he'd appreciate this attempt to turn his life into art . 
a refreshing change from the usual whoopee-cushion effort aimed at the youth market . 
it's often infuriatingly glib and posturing , and yet it has been made with great evident care and manages to deliver up the man in a way to arouse further curiosity in even the most unknowing viewer . 
it seems like i have been waiting my whole life for this movie and now i can't wait for the sequel . 
much monkeyfun for all . 
bourne , jason bourne . he can scale a building like a super hero , he can out-stealth any agent , he'll get the girl . he's super spy ! 
a competent , unpretentious entertainment destined to fill the after-school slot at shopping mall theaters across the country . 
far from heaven is a dazzling conceptual feat , but more than that , it's a work of enthralling drama . 
the film has the courage of its convictions and excellent performances on its side . 
jackson and co have brought back the value and respect for the term epic cinema . 
a triumph , a film that hews out a world and carries us effortlessly from darkness to light . 
much credit must be given to the water-camera operating team of don king , sonny miller , and michael stewart . their work is fantastic . 
pure cinematic intoxication , a wildly inventive mixture of comedy and melodrama , tastelessness and swooning elegance . 
 " birthday girl " is an actor's movie first and foremost . 
 . . . one of the most ingenious and entertaining thrillers i've seen in quite a long time . 
skip work to see it at the first opportunity . 
at just over an hour , home movie will leave you wanting more , not to mention leaving you with some laughs and a smile on your face . 
connoisseurs of chinese film will be pleased to discover that tian's meticulous talent has not withered during his enforced hiatus . 
francophiles will snicker knowingly and you'll want to slap them . 
with notorious c . h . o . cho proves she has the stuff to stand tall with pryor , carlin and murphy . 
culkin , who's in virtually every scene , shines as a young man who uses sarcastic lies like a shield . 
the film is hard to dismiss -- moody , thoughtful , and lit by flashes of mordant humor . 
the story , like life , refuses to be simple , and the result is a compelling slice of awkward emotions . 
rouge is less about a superficial midlife crisis than it is about the need to stay in touch with your own skin , at 18 or 80 . 
it looks closely , insightfully at fragile , complex relationships . 
satin rouge is not a new , or inventive , journey , but it's encouraging to see a three-dimensional , average , middle-aged woman's experience of self-discovery handled with such sensitivity . 
the footage of the rappers at play and the prison interview with suge knight are just two of the elements that will grab you . 
throughout , mr . audiard's direction is fluid and quick . 
a touching , sophisticated film that almost seems like a documentary in the way it captures an italian immigrant family on the brink of major changes . 
medem may have disrobed most of the cast , leaving their bodies exposed , but the plot remains as guarded as a virgin with a chastity belt . that's why sex and lucia is so alluring . 
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 . 
while there are times when the film's reach exceeds its grasp , the production works more often than it doesn't . 
an off-beat and fanciful film about the human need for monsters to blame for all that is amiss in the world . 
a fascinating documentary that provides a rounded and revealing overview of this ancient holistic healing system
there aren't too many films that can be as simultaneously funny , offbeat and heartwarming ( without a thick shmear of the goo , at least ) , but " elling " manages to do all three quite well , making it one of the year's most enjoyable releases . 
works because we're never sure if ohlinger's on the level or merely a dying , delusional man trying to get into the history books before he croaks . 
a tender , heartfelt family drama . 
the saigon of 1952 is an uneasy mix of sensual delights and simmering violence , and the quiet american brings us right into the center of that world . 
it's . . . worth the extra effort to see an artist , still committed to growth in his ninth decade , change while remaining true to his principles with a film whose very subject is , quite pointedly , about the peril of such efforts . 
it uses some of the figures from the real-life story to portray themselves in the film . the result is a powerful , naturally dramatic piece of low-budget filmmaking . 
an emotionally and spiritually compelling journey seen through the right eyes , with the right actors and with the kind of visual flair that shows what great cinema can really do . 
hey , who else needs a shower ? 
one of those joyous films that leaps over national boundaries and celebrates universal human nature . 
real women may have many agendas , but it also will win you over , in a big way . 
a searing , epic treatment of a nationwide blight that seems to be , horrifyingly , ever on the rise . 
for those in search of something different , wendigo is a genuinely bone-chilling tale . 
schepisi , aided by a cast that seems to include every top-notch british actor who did not appear in gosford park ( as well as one , ms . mirren , who did ) , has succeeded beyond all expectation . 
don't wait to see this terrific film with your kids -- if you don't have kids borrow some . 
horns and halos benefits from serendipity but also reminds us of our own responsibility to question what is told as the truth . 
the film's unhurried pace is actually one of its strengths . entirely appropriately , the tale unfolds like a lazy summer afternoon and concludes with the crisp clarity of a fall dawn . 
you will likely prefer to keep on watching . 
some movies suck you in despite their flaws , and heaven is one such beast . 
a breezy , diverting , conventional , well-acted tale of two men locked in an ongoing game of cat-and-cat . 
a fascinating glimpse into an insular world that gives the lie to many clichs and showcases a group of dedicated artists . 
challenging , intermittently engrossing and unflaggingly creative . but it's too long and too convoluted and it ends in a muddle . 
a stunning and overwhelmingly cogent case for kissinger as a calculating war criminal . 
an unflinching , complex portrait of a modern israel that is rarely seen on-screen . 
both a detective story and a romance spiced with the intrigue of academic skullduggery and politics . 
that rare film whose real-life basis is , in fact , so interesting that no embellishment is needed . 
a worthy addition to the cinematic canon , which , at last count , numbered 52 different versions . 
instead of a hyperbolic beat-charged urban western , it's an unpretentious , sociologically pointed slice of life . 
all in all , a great party . 
sensitive , insightful and beautifully rendered film . one of the best of the year . 
miyazaki is one of world cinema's most wondrously gifted artists and storytellers . 
 . . . a haunting vision , with images that seem more like disturbing hallucinations . 
compelling as it is exotic , fast runner has a plot that rivals shakespeare for intrigue , treachery and murder . 
a sad , superior human comedy played out on the back roads of life . 
the color sense of stuart little 2 is its most immediate and most obvious pleasure , but it would count for very little if the movie weren't as beautifully shaped and as delicately calibrated in tone as it is . 
rich in atmosphere of the post-war art world , it manages to instruct without reeking of research library dust . 
an excellent romp that boasts both a heart and a mind . 
topics that could make a sailor blush - but lots of laughs . 
i had more fun watching spy than i had with most of the big summer movies . 
karmen moves like rhythm itself , her lips chanting to the beat , her long , braided hair doing little to wipe away the jeweled beads of sweat . 
rubbo runs through a remarkable amount of material in the film's short 90 minutes . 
the film aims to be funny , uplifting and moving , sometimes all at once . the extent to which it succeeds is impressive . 
there was time on that second round to see the subtleties of ramsay's portrait of grief . 
even when it drags , we are forced to reflect that its visual imagination is breathtaking
 ( rises ) above its oh-so-hollywood rejiggering and its conventional direction to give the film a soul and an unabashed sense of good old-fashioned escapism . 
it provides the grand , intelligent entertainment of a superior cast playing smart people amid a compelling plot . 
the pinochet case is a searing album of remembrance from those who , having survived , suffered most . 
foster nails the role , giving a tight , focused performance illuminated by shards of feeling . 
a delicious , quirky movie with a terrific screenplay and fanciful direction by michael gondry . 
a crisp psychological drama [and] a fascinating little thriller that would have been perfect for an old " twilight zone " episode . 
' . . . despite lagging near the finish line , the movie runs a good race , one that will have you at the edge of your seat for long stretches . '
the 3-d vistas from orbit , with the space station suspended like a huge set of wind chimes over the great blue globe , are stanzas of breathtaking , awe-inspiring visual poetry . 
equilibrium is what george orwell might have imagined had today's mood-altering drug therapy been envisioned by chemists in 1949 . 
worth catching for griffiths' warm and winning central performance . 
qutting may be a flawed film , but it is nothing if not sincere . 
 " home movie " is the film equivalent of a lovingly rendered coffee table book . 
 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 . 
tends to pile too many " serious issues " on its plate at times , yet remains fairly light , always entertaining , and smartly written . 
[allen] manages to breathe life into this somewhat tired premise . 
a portrait of an artist . 
an adorably whimsical comedy that deserves more than a passing twinkle . 
this is so de palma . if you love him , you'll like it . if you don't . . . well , skip to another review . 
a fast , funny , highly enjoyable movie . 
bouquet gives a performance that is masterly . 
it's both a necessary political work and a fascinating documentary . . . 
all leather pants & augmented boobs , hawn is hilarious as she tries to resuscitate the fun-loving libertine lost somewhere inside the conservative , handbag-clutching sarandon . 
provides a very moving and revelatory footnote to the holocaust . 
like rudy yellow lodge , eyre needs to take a good sweat to clarify his cinematic vision before his next creation and remember the lessons of the trickster spider . 
you don't need to be a hip-hop fan to appreciate scratch , and that's the mark of a documentary that works . 
if the plot seems a bit on the skinny side , that's because panic room is interested in nothing more than sucking you inand making you sweat . 
while it regards 1967 as the key turning point of the 20th century , and returns again and again to images of dissidents in the streets , it's alarmingly current . 
an action/thriller of the finest kind , evoking memories of day of the jackal , the french connection , and heat . 
a woman's pic directed with resonance by ilya chaiken . 
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 . 
 . . . the gentle melding of drama and comedy makes " what time is it there ? " something the true film buff will enjoy . 
i found the ring moderately absorbing , largely for its elegantly colorful look and sound . 
this film seems thirsty for reflection , itself taking on adolescent qualities . 
made-up lampoons the moviemaking process itself , while shining a not particularly flattering spotlight on america's skin-deep notions of pulchritude . 
just what makes us happy , anyway ? 
sleek and arty . 
bogdanovich puts history in perspective and , via kirsten dunst's remarkable performance , he showcases davies as a young woman of great charm , generosity and diplomacy . 
emerges as something rare , an issue movie that's so honest and keenly observed that it doesn't feel like one . 
i am highly amused by the idea that we have come to a point in society where it has been deemed important enough to make a film in which someone has to be hired to portray richard dawson . 
[ " take care of my cat " ] is an honestly nice little film that takes us on an examination of young adult life in urban south korea through the hearts and minds of the five principals . 
there is a kind of attentive concern that hoffman brings to his characters , as if he has been giving them private lessons , and now it is time for their first public recital . 
whether [binoche and magimel] are being charming or angst-ridden , they easily fill their scenes and , fine judges both , never overcook the hysteria . 
bart and berling are both superb , while huppert . . . is magnificent . 
it's a satisfying summer blockbuster and worth a look . 
if you're the kind of parent who enjoys intentionally introducing your kids to films which will cause loads of irreparable damage that years and years of costly analysis could never fix , i have just one word for you - decasia
if director michael dowse only superficially understands his characters , he doesn't hold them in contempt . 
spielberg is the rare director who does not want to invite viewers to gawk at or applaud his special effects . he just wants them to be part of the action , the wallpaper of his chosen reality . here , thankfully , they are . 
the laser-projected paintings provide a spell-casting beauty , while russell and dreyfus are a romantic pairing of hearts , preciously exposed as history corners them . 
a yarn that respects the marvel version without becoming ensnared by it . 
10 minutes into the film you'll be white-knuckled and unable to look away . 
in visual fertility treasure planet rivals the top japanese animations of recent vintage . 
more than makes up for its mawkish posing by offering rousing spates of genuine feeling . 
you won't like roger , but you will quickly recognize him . and that's a big part of why we go to the movies . 
a romantic comedy enriched by a sharp eye for manners and mores . 
a quietly reflective and melancholy new zealand film about an eventful summer in a 13-year-old girl's life . 
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
the leaping story line , shaped by director peter kosminsky into sharp slivers and cutting impressions , shows all the signs of rich detail condensed into a few evocative images and striking character traits . 
lan yu is at times too restrained , yet there are moments it captures the erotics of intimacy in a way that makes most american love stories look downright unfree . 
its gross-out gags and colorful set pieces . . . are of course stultifyingly contrived and too stylized by half . still , it gets the job done -- a sleepy afternoon rental . 
a breezy blend of art , history , esoteric musings and philosophy . 
not as distinctive or even as humorous as its needs to be to stand out , but it has clearly been made with affection and care . 
a gripping movie , played with performances that are all understated and touching . 
how i killed my father would be a rarity in hollywood . 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 . 
much has been written about those years when the psychedelic '60s grooved over into the gay '70s , but words don't really do the era justice . you have to see it . 
frailty isn't as gory or explicit . but in its child-centered , claustrophobic context , it can be just as frightening and disturbing -- even punishing . 
a worthwhile way to spend two hours . 
from both a great and a terrible story , mr . nelson has made a film that is an undeniably worthy and devastating experience . 
this is one of polanski's best films . 
colorful , energetic and sweetly whimsical . . . the rare sequel that's better than its predecessor . 
waiting for godard can be fruitful : 'in praise of love' is the director's epitaph for himself . 
an exhilarating experience . 
a film that's flawed and brilliant in equal measure . 
 " the ring " is pretty much an english-language copy of the film that inspired it , and it carries the same strengths and flaws . 
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 . 
[gai] comes closer to any actress i can remember to personifying independence in its purest and , yes , most intimidating form . 
beautifully produced . 
the movie has no respect for laws , political correctness or common decency , but it displays something more important : respect for its flawed , crazy people . 
it's a square , sentimental drama that satisfies , as comfort food often can . 
it's a bit disappointing that it only manages to be decent instead of dead brilliant . 
seeing seinfeld at home as he watches his own appearance on letterman with a clinical eye reminds you that the key to stand-up is to always make it look easy , even though the reality is anything but . 
the movie is not as terrible as the synergistic impulse that created it . 
the solid filmmaking and convincing characters makes this a high water mark for this genre . 
ramsay succeeds primarily with her typical blend of unsettling atmospherics , delivering a series of abrasive , stylized sequences that burn themselves upon the viewer's memory . 
it's an entertaining movie , and the effects , boosted to the size of a downtown hotel , will all but take you to outer space . 
against all odds in heaven and hell , it creeped me out just fine . 
despite modest aspirations its occasional charms are not to be dismissed . 
witty , vibrant , and intelligent . 
amari has dressed up this little parable in a fairly irresistible package full of privileged moments and memorable performances . 
it's up to [watts] to lend credibility to this strange scenario , and her presence succeeds in making us believe . 
a warm but realistic meditation on friendship , family and affection . 
the best movie of its kind since 'brazil . ' lucas , take notes . this is how you use special effects . 
the film is darkly atmospheric , with herrmann quietly suggesting the sadness and obsession beneath hearst's forced avuncular chortles . 
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 . 
the wild thornberrys movie is pleasant enough and the message of our close ties with animals can certainly not be emphasized enough . 
bursting through the constraints of its source , this is one adapted- from-television movie that actually looks as if it belongs on the big screen . 
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 . 
this is a movie full of grace and , ultimately , hope . 
among the many pleasures are the lively intelligence of the artists and their perceptiveness about their own situations . 
i am not generally a huge fan of cartoons derived from tv shows , but hey arnold ! the movie is clever , offbeat and even gritty enough to overcome my resistance . 
the unexplored story opportunities of " punch-drunk love " may have worked against the maker's minimalist intent but it is an interesting exercise by talented writer/director anderson . 
it's rather like a lifetime special -- pleasant , sweet and forgettable . 
good , solid storytelling . 
the obnoxious title character provides the drama that gives added clout to this doc . 
provides the kind of 'laugh therapy' i need from movie comedies -- offbeat humor , amusing characters , and a happy ending . after seeing 'analyze that , ' i feel better already . 
the film's heady yet far from impenetrable theory suggests that russians take comfort in their closed-off nationalist reality . 
stevenson's performance is at once clueless and fiercely committed , a volatile combination . 
a rarity among recent iranian films : it's a comedy full of gentle humor that chides the absurdity of its protagonist's plight . 
reggio's continual visual barrage is absorbing as well as thought-provoking . 
in the end , punch-drunk love is one of those films that i wanted to like much more than i actually did . sometimes , that's enough . 
too damn weird to pass up , and for the blacklight crowd , way cheaper ( and better ) than pink floyd tickets . 
without resorting to camp or parody , haynes ( like sirk , but differently ) has transformed the rhetoric of hollywood melodrama into something provocative , rich , and strange . 
vera's three actors -- moll , gil and bardem -- excel in insightful , empathetic performances . 
a compelling , moving film that respects its audience and its source material . 
renner's performance as dahmer is unforgettable , deeply absorbing . 
the premise of jason x is silly but strangely believable . 
coy but exhilarating , with really solid performances by ving rhames and wesley snipes . 
offers enough playful fun to entertain the preschool set while embracing a wholesome attitude . 
jarecki and gibney do find enough material to bring kissinger's record into question and explain how the diplomat's tweaked version of statecraft may have cost thousands and possibly millions of lives . 
this is a sincerely crafted picture that deserves to emerge from the traffic jam of holiday movies . 
brilliantly explores the conflict between following one's heart and following the demands of tradition . 
it's worth seeing just on the basis of the wisdom , and at times , the startling optimism , of the children . 
a fascinating case study of flower-power liberation -- and the price that was paid for it . 
the otherwise good-naturedness of mr . deeds , with its embrace of sheer goofiness and cameos of less- than-likely new york celebrities . . . certainly raises the film above anything sandler's been attached to before . 
funny in a sick , twisted sort of way . 
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 . 
as the story moves inexorably through its seven day timeframe , the picture becomes increasingly mesmerizing . 
[woo's] most resonant film since the killer . 
the film's images give a backbone to the company and provide an emotional edge to its ultimate demise . 
davis . . . gets vivid performances from her cast and pulls off some deft ally mcbeal-style fantasy sequences . 
it's a pleasure to see seinfeld griping about the biz with buddies chris rock , garry shandling and colin quinn . 
my wife's plotting is nothing special ; it's the delivery that matters here . 
at a time when commercialism has squeezed the life out of whatever idealism american moviemaking ever had , godfrey reggio's career shines like a lonely beacon . 
a lovably old-school hollywood confection . 
those of you who don't believe in santa claus probably also think that sequels can never capture the magic of the original . well , this movie proves you wrong on both counts . 
is office work really as alienating as 'bartleby' so effectively makes it ? 
the emotions are raw and will strike a nerve with anyone who's ever had family trauma . 
arteta paints a picture of lives lived in a state of quiet desperation . 
a macabre and very stylized swedish fillm about a modern city where all the religious and civic virtues that hold society in place are in tatters . 
it's like a " big chill " reunion of the baader-meinhof gang , only these guys are more harmless pranksters than political activists . 
often demented in a good way , but it is an uneven film for the most part . 
unflinchingly bleak and desperate
antwone fisher certainly does the trick of making us care about its protagonist and celebrate his victories but , with few exceptions , it rarely stoops to cheap manipulation or corny conventions to do it . 
the spaniel-eyed jean reno infuses hubert with a mixture of deadpan cool , wry humor and just the measure of tenderness required to give this comic slugfest some heart . 
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 . 
it's a great american adventure and a wonderful film to bring to imax . 
between them , de niro and murphy make showtime the most savory and hilarious guilty pleasure of many a recent movie season . 
changing lanes is an anomaly for a hollywood movie ; it's a well-written and occasionally challenging social drama that actually has something interesting to say . 
offers an interesting look at the rapidly changing face of beijing . 
an almost unbearably morbid love story . 
more mature than fatal attraction , more complete than indecent proposal and more relevant than 9  weeks , unfaithful is at once intimate and universal cinema . 
 . . . a solid , unassuming drama . 
the bottom line is the piece works brilliantly . 
reign of fire looks as if it was made without much thought -- and is best watched that way . 
in spite of good housekeeping's unsavory characters and wwf mentality , this white trash war of the roses is a surprisingly engaging film . 
while tattoo borrows heavily from both seven and the silence of the lambs , it manages to maintain both a level of sophisticated intrigue and human-scale characters that suck the audience in . 
broomfield reveals an ironic manifestation of institutionalized slavery that ties a black-owned record label with a white-empowered police force . 
an intelligent romantic thriller of a very old-school kind of quality . 
although i didn't hate this one , it's not very good either . it can be safely recommended as a video/dvd babysitter . 
somehow ms . griffiths and mr . pryce bring off this wild welsh whimsy . 
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 . 
the film's performances are thrilling . 
one of the most splendid entertainments to emerge from the french film industry in years . 
this kind of hands-on storytelling is ultimately what makes shanghai ghetto move beyond a good , dry , reliable textbook and what allows it to rank with its worthy predecessors . 
a dashing and absorbing outing with one of france's most inventive directors . 
 " the best disney movie since the lion king " 
two generations within one family test boundaries in this intelligent and restrained coming-of-age drama . 
kudos to the most enchanting film of the year . 
contrived as this may sound , mr . rose's updating works surprisingly well . 
the animated subplot keenly depicts the inner struggles of our adolescent heroes - insecure , uncontrolled , and intense . 
one of the most haunting , viciously honest coming-of-age films in recent memory . 
cusack's just brilliant in this . 
even though it is infused with the sensibility of a video director , it doesn't make for completely empty entertainment
this is one of the rarest kinds of films : a family-oriented non-disney film that is actually funny without hitting below the belt . 
just another fish-out-of-water story that barely stays afloat . 
it's mostly a pleasure to watch . and the reason for that is a self-aware , often self-mocking , intelligence . 
she may not be real , but the laughs are . 
ludicrous , but director carl franklin adds enough flourishes and freak-outs to make it entertaining . 
exudes the fizz of a busby berkeley musical and the visceral excitement of a sports extravaganza . 
if no one singles out any of these performances as award-worthy , it's only because we would expect nothing less from this bunch . 
the dragons are the real stars of reign of fire and you won't be disappointed . 
though a touch too arthouse 101 in its poetic symbolism , heaven proves to be a good match of the sensibilities of two directors . 
i have a new favorite musical -- and i'm not even a fan of the genre
'frailty " starts out like a typical bible killer story , but it turns out to be significantly different ( and better ) than most films with this theme . 
nothing denis has made before , like beau travil and nenette et boni , could prepare us for this gory , perverted , sex-soaked riff on the cannibal genre . 
although devoid of objectivity and full of nostalgic comments from the now middle-aged participants , dogtown and z-boys has a compelling story to tell . 
it's a sharp movie about otherwise dull subjects . 
genuinely touching because it's realistic about all kinds of love . 
it's nice to see piscopo again after all these years , and chaykin and headly are priceless . 
the tug of war that ensues is as much a snapshot of modern china in microcosm as it is a crash course in movie mythology . 
twenty years after its first release , e . t . remains the most wondrous of all hollywood fantasies -- and the apex of steven spielberg's misunderstood career . 
a harrowing account of a psychological breakdown . 
merci pour le movie . 
if you're burnt out on it's a wonderful life marathons and bored with a christmas carol , it might just be the movie you're looking for . it depends on how well flatulence gags fit into your holiday concept . 
barney has created a tour de force that is weird , wacky and wonderful . 
the sword fighting is well done and auteuil is a goofy pleasure . 
apart from anything else , this is one of the best-sustained ideas i have ever seen on the screen . 
roman coppola may never become the filmmaker his dad was , but heck  few filmmakers will . but based on cq , i'll certainly be keeping an eye out for his next project . 
the filmmakers skillfully evoke the sense of menace that nature holds for many urban dwellers . 
a solidly constructed , entertaining thriller that stops short of true inspiration . 
a four star performance from kevin kline who unfortunately works with a two star script . 
as home movie gone haywire , it's pretty enjoyable , but as sexual manifesto , i'd rather listen to old tori amos records . 
dark and disturbing , yet compelling to watch . 
for devotees of french cinema , safe conduct is so rich with period minutiae it's like dying and going to celluloid heaven . 
if nothing else , this movie introduces a promising , unusual kind of psychological horror . 
 . . . by the time it's done with us , mira nair's new movie has its audience giddy with the delight of discovery , of having been immersed in a foreign culture only to find that human nature is pretty much the same all over . 
maid in manhattan might not look so appealing on third or fourth viewing down the road . . . but as a high concept vehicle for two bright stars of the moment who can rise to fans' lofty expectations , the movie passes inspection . 
there's enough science to make it count as educational , and enough beauty to make it unforgettable . 
son of the bride may be a good half-hour too long but comes replete with a flattering sense of mystery and quietness . 
it's neither as romantic nor as thrilling as it should be . but it offers plenty to ponder and chew on as its unusual relationship slowly unfolds . 
the action sequences are fun and reminiscent of combat scenes from the star wars series . 
the film is a hoot , and is just as good , if not better than much of what's on saturday morning tv especially the pseudo-educational stuff we all can't stand . 
the most compelling performance of the year adds substantial depth to this shocking testament to anti-semitism and neo-fascism . 
a strong and confident work which works so well for the first 89 minutes , but ends so horrendously confusing in the final two
quiet , adult and just about more stately than any contemporary movie this year . . . a true study , a film with a questioning heart and mind that isn't afraid to admit it doesn't have all the answers . 
tsai ming-liang's witty , wistful new film , what time is it there ? , is a temporal inquiry that shoulders its philosophical burden lightly . 
there's an energy to y tu mam tambin . much of it comes from the brave , uninhibited performances by its lead actors . 
 . . . tunney is allowed to build an uncommonly human character , an almost real-live girl complete with trouble and hope . 
the quirky and recessive charms of co-stars martin donovan and mary-louise parker help overcome the problematic script . 
the terrific and bewilderingly underrated campbell scott gives a star performance that is nothing short of mesmerizing . 
a whole lot foul , freaky and funny . 
the journey is worth your time , especially if you have ellen pompeo sitting next to you for the ride . 
like a poor man's you can count on me
has enough gun battles and throwaway humor to cover up the yawning chasm where the plot should be . 
exploits [headbanger] stereotypes in good fun , while adding a bit of heart and unsettling subject matter . 
promises is one film that's truly deserving of its oscar nomination . 
the characters are complex and quirky , but entirely believable as the remarkable ensemble cast brings them to life . 
though filmed partly in canada , paid in full has clever ways of capturing inner-city life during the reagan years . 
[dong] 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 . 
a screenplay more ingeniously constructed than " memento " 
never lets go your emotions , taking them to surprising highs , sorrowful lows and hidden impulsive niches . . . gorgeous , passionate , and at times uncommonly moving . 
boldly engineering a collision between tawdry b-movie flamboyance and grandiose spiritual anomie , rose's film , true to its source material , provides a tenacious demonstration of death as the great equalizer . 
not the kind of film that will appeal to a mainstream american audience , but there is a certain charm about the film that makes it a suitable entry into the fest circuit . 
is this love or is it masochism ? binoche makes it interesting trying to find out . 
generally provides its target audience of youngsters enough stimulating eye and ear candy to make its moral medicine go down . 
feardotcom's thrills are all cheap , but they mostly work . 
finally , a genre movie that delivers -- in a couple of genres , no less . 
a minor work yet there's no denying the potency of miller's strange , fleeting brew of hopeful perseverance and hopeless closure . 
beresford nicely mixes in as much humor as pathos to take us on his sentimental journey of the heart . it really is a shame that more won't get an opportunity to embrace small , sweet 'evelyn . '
brings to a spectacular completion one of the most complex , generous and subversive artworks of the last decade . 
a superbly acted and funny/gritty fable of the humanizing of one woman at the hands of the unseen forces of fate . 
a thoughtful movie , a movie that is concerned with souls and risk and schemes and the consequences of one's actions . 
hailed as a clever exercise in neo-hitchcockianism , this clever and very satisfying picture is more accurately chabrolian . 
windtalkers is shapelessly gratifying , the kind of movie that invites you to pick apart its faults even as you have to admit that somehow it hit you where you live . 
an appealingly juvenile trifle that delivers its share of laughs and smiles . 
although made on a shoestring and unevenly acted , conjures a lynch-like vision of the rotting underbelly of middle america . 
for more than two decades mr . nachtwey has traveled to places in the world devastated by war , famine and poverty and documented the cruelty and suffering he has found with an devastating , eloquent clarity . 
it's a day at the beach -- with air conditioning and popcorn . 
rabbit-proof fence will probably make you angry . but it will just as likely make you weep , and it will do so in a way that doesn't make you feel like a sucker . 
hilarious , touching and wonderfully dyspeptic . 
one-of-a-kind near-masterpiece . 
miller comes at film with bracing intelligence and a vision both painterly and literary . 
that rare movie that works on any number of levels -- as a film of magic and whimsy for children , a heartfelt romance for teenagers and a compelling argument about death , both pro and con , for adults . 
on its own cinematic terms , it successfully showcases the passions of both the director and novelist byatt . 
the film is enriched by an imaginatively mixed cast of antic spirits , headed by christopher plummer as the subtlest and most complexly evil uncle ralph i've ever seen in the many film and stage adaptations of the work . 
claude miller airs out a tight plot with an easy pace and a focus on character drama over crime-film complications . 
it's a technically superb film , shining with all the usual spielberg flair , expertly utilizing the talents of his top-notch creative team . 
remember the kind of movie we were hoping " ecks vs . sever " or " xxx " was going to be ? this is it . 
it's not life-affirming  its vulgar and mean , but i liked it . 
a brilliant , absurd collection of vignettes that , in their own idiosyncratic way , sum up the strange horror of life in the new millennium . 
post 9/11 the philosophical message of " personal freedom first " might not be as palatable as intended . 
a deftly entertaining film , smartly played and smartly directed . 
a winning and wildly fascinating work . 
the tenderness of the piece is still intact . 
byler reveals his characters in a way that intrigues and even fascinates us , and he never reduces the situation to simple melodrama . 
its engaging simplicity is driven by appealing leads . 
the movie's quiet affirmation of neighborhood values gives it an honest , lived-in glow . 
young everlyn sampi , as the courageous molly craig , simply radiates star-power potential in this remarkable and memorable film . 
the best thing the film does is to show us not only what that mind looks like , but how the creative process itself operates . 
the film was immensely enjoyable thanks to great performances by both steve buscemi and rosario dawson . . . 
as literary desecrations go , this makes for perfectly acceptable , occasionally very enjoyable children's entertainment . you'll forget about it by monday , though , and if they're old enough to have developed some taste , so will your kids . 
who is the audience for cletis tout ? anybody who enjoys quirky , fun , popcorn movies with a touch of silliness and a little bloodshed . 
it is hard not to be especially grateful for freedom after a film like this . 
if divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood suffers from a ploddingly melodramatic structure , it comes to life in the performances . 
with a confrontational stance , todd solondz takes aim on political correctness and suburban families . 
frida's artistic brilliance is undeniable -- it's among the most breathtakingly designed films i've ever seen . 
it was only a matter of time before some savvy producer saw the potential success inherent in the mixture of bullock bubble and hugh goo . 
coral reef adventure is a heavyweight film that fights a good fight on behalf of the world's endangered reefs -- and it lets the pictures do the punching . 
where this was lazy but enjoyable , a formula comedy redeemed by its stars , that is even lazier and far less enjoyable . 
the crime matters less than the characters , although the filmmakers supply enough complications , close calls and double-crosses to satisfy us . 
fred schepisi's tale of four englishmen facing the prospect of their own mortality views youthful affluence not as a lost ideal but a starting point . 
the powerpuff girls arrive on the big screen with their super-powers , their super-simple animation and their super-dooper-adorability intact . 
a movie where story is almost an afterthought amidst a swirl of colors and inexplicable events . 
a well-executed spy-thriller . 
montias . . . pumps a lot of energy into his nicely nuanced narrative and surrounds himself with a cast of quirky -- but not stereotyped -- street characters . 
if mostly martha is mostly unsurprising , it's still a sweet , even delectable diversion . 
it's no surprise that as a director washington demands and receives excellent performances , from himself and from newcomer derek luke . 
cho's fearless in picking apart human foibles , not afraid to lay her life bare in front of an audience . her delivery and timing are flawless . 
a bowel-curdling , heart-stopping recipe for terror . 
could use a little more humanity , but it never lacks in eye-popping visuals . 
cool gadgets and creatures keep this fresh . not as good as the original , but what is . . . 
cremaster 3 is at once a tough pill to swallow and a minor miracle of self-expression . 
likely to expertly drum up repressed teenage memories in any viewer . 
offers a guilt-free trip into feel-good territory . 
about a manga-like heroine who fights back at her abusers , it's energetic and satisfying if not deep and psychological . 
munch's screenplay is tenderly observant of his characters . he watches them as they float within the seas of their personalities . his scenes are short and often unexpected . 
the movie exists for its soccer action and its fine acting . 
this is one of the year's best films . 
in imax in short , it's just as wonderful on the big screen . 
i'm not generally a fan of vegetables but this batch is pretty cute . 
daughter from danang sticks with its subjects a little longer and tells a deeper story
a time machine , a journey back to your childhood , when cares melted away in the dark theater , and films had the ability to mesmerize , astonish and entertain . 
soderbergh , like kubrick before him , may not touch the planet's skin , but understands the workings of its spirit . 
o fantasma is boldly , confidently orchestrated , aesthetically and sexually , and its impact is deeply and rightly disturbing . 
spend your benjamins on a matinee . 
while guzmn frustratingly refuses to give pinochet's crimes a political context , his distance from the material is mostly admirable . 
a love for films shines through each frame and the era is recreated with obvious affection , scored to perfection with some tasty boogaloo beats . 
a moving and weighty depiction of one family's attempts to heal after the death of a child . 
starts off with a bang , but then fizzles like a wet stick of dynamite at the very end . it's still worth a look . 
hashiguchi covers this territory with wit and originality , suggesting that with his fourth feature -- the first to be released in the u . s . -- a major director is emerging in world cinema . 
 " mostly martha " is a bright , light modern day family parable that wears its heart on its sleeve for all to see . 
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 . 
once folks started hanging out at the barbershop , they never wanted to leave . chances are you won't , either . 
 . . . a triumph of emotionally and narratively complex filmmaking . 
as a witness to several greek-american weddings -- but , happily , a victim of none -- i can testify to the comparative accuracy of ms . vardalos' memories and insights . 
thumbs up to paxton for not falling into the hollywood trap and making a vanity project with nothing new to offer . 
the work of a filmmaker who has secrets buried at the heart of his story and knows how to take time revealing them . strange occurrences build in the mind of the viewer and take on extreme urgency . 
as action-adventure , this space-based homage to robert louis stevenson's treasure island fires on all plasma conduits . 
troubling and powerful . 
there's really only one good idea in this movie , but the director runs with it and presents it with an unforgettable visual panache . 
not everything in this ambitious comic escapade works , but coppola , along with his sister , sofia , is a real filmmaker . it must be in the genes . 
a solid examination of the male midlife crisis . 
with three excellent principal singers , a youthful and good-looking diva and tenor and richly handsome locations , it's enough to make you wish jacquot had left well enough alone and just filmed the opera without all these distortions of perspective . 
unlike the speedy wham-bam effect of most hollywood offerings , character development -- and more importantly , character empathy -- is at the heart of italian for beginners . 
the hook is the drama within the drama , as an unsolved murder and an unresolved moral conflict jockey for the spotlight . 
flavorful and romantic , you could call this how martha got her groove back -- assuming , that is , she ever had one to begin with . 
all three actresses are simply dazzling , particularly balk , who's finally been given a part worthy of her considerable talents . 
thanks to haynes' absolute control of the film's mood , and buoyed by three terrific performances , far from heaven actually pulls off this stylistic juggling act . 
it's a scattershot affair , but when it hits its mark it's brilliant . 
foster and whitaker are especially fine . she is a lioness , protecting her cub , and he a reluctant villain , incapable of controlling his crew . 
the film jolts the laughs from the audience--as if by cattle prod . 
it's a sweet , laugh-a-minute crowd pleaser that lifts your spirits as well as the corners of your mouth . 
the story that emerges has elements of romance , tragedy and even silent-movie comedy . 
ranging from funny to shattering and featuring some of the year's best acting , personal velocity gathers plenty of dramatic momentum . 
rare birds has more than enough charm to make it memorable . 
the magic ( and original running time ) of ace japanimator hayao miyazaki's spirited away survives intact in bv's re-voiced version . 
a glorious mess . 
a delightful romantic comedy with plenty of bite . it's far from a frothy piece , and the characters are complex , laden with plenty of baggage and tinged with tragic undertones . 
one of the best , most understated performances of [jack nicholson's] career . 
another entertaining romp from robert rodriguez . 
for a movie audience , the hours doesn't connect in a neat way , but introduces characters who illuminate mysteries of sex , duty and love . 
until its final minutes this is a perceptive study of two families in crisis -- and of two girls whose friendship is severely tested by bad luck and their own immaturity . 
it never fails to engage us . 
the chateau cleverly probes the cross-cultural differences between gauls and yanks . 
top-notch action powers this romantic drama . 
the film has a laundry list of minor shortcomings , but the numerous scenes of gory mayhem are worth the price of admission . . . if " gory mayhem " is your idea of a good time . 
washington overcomes the script's flaws and envelops the audience in his character's anguish , anger and frustration . 
it has a subtle way of getting under your skin and sticking with you long after it's over . 
this cuddly sequel to the 1999 hit is a little more visually polished , a little funnier , and a little more madcap . 
coppola's directorial debut is an incredibly layered and stylistic film that , despite a fairly slow paced , almost humdrum approach to character development , still manages at least a decent attempt at meaningful cinema . 
affectionately reminds us that , in any language , the huge stuff in life can usually be traced back to the little things . 
jolie gives it that extra little something that makes it worth checking out at theaters , especially if you're in the mood for something more comfortable than challenging . 
seldom has a movie so closely matched the spirit of a man and his work . 
very solid , very watchable first feature for director peter sheridan
drama of temptation , salvation and good intentions is a thoughtful examination of faith , love and power . 
chalk it up to my adoration for both de niro and murphy , but i had a pretty good time with this movie - despite its myriad flaws . 
it's bright , pristine style and bold colors make it as much fun as reading an oversized picture book before bedtime . 
the message is that even the most unlikely can link together to conquer all kinds of obstacles , whether they be of nature , of man or of one another . 
 i admire the closing scenes of the film , which seem to ask whether our civilization offers a cure for vincent's complaint . 
the charm of the first movie is still there , and the story feels like the logical , unforced continuation of the careers of a pair of spy kids . 
humorous and heartfelt , douglas mcgrath's version of 'nicholas nickleby' left me feeling refreshed and hopeful . not many movies have that kind of impact on me these days . 
the perfect film for those who like sick comedies that can be snide . 
andersson creates a world that's at once surreal and disturbingly familiar ; absurd , yet tremendously sad . 
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 . 
the seaside splendor and shallow , beautiful people are nice to look at while you wait for the story to get going . 
it is a happy , heady jumble of thought and storytelling , an insane comic undertaking that ultimately coheres into a sane and breathtakingly creative film . 
as a film director , labute continues to improve . 
if the real-life story is genuinely inspirational , the movie stirs us as well . 
a must-see for fans of thoughtful war films and those interested in the sights and sounds of battle . 
escapism in its purest form . 
all of it works smoothly under the direction of spielberg , who does a convincing impersonation here of a director enjoying himself immensely . 
triple x is a double agent , and he's one bad dude . when you've got the wildly popular vin diesel in the equation , it adds up to big box office bucks all but guaranteed . 
the two leads chomp considerably more scenery with their acting than fire-breathing monsters barbecue with their breath . . . 
'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 . '
it gets onto the screen just about as much of the novella as one could reasonably expect , and is engrossing and moving in its own right . 
a low-key labor of love that strikes a very resonant chord . 
directing with a sure and measured hand , [haneke] steers clear of the sensational and offers instead an unflinching and objective look at a decidedly perverse pathology . 
so unassuming and pure of heart , you can't help but warmly extend your arms and yell 'safe ! '
 . . . a rich and intelligent film that uses its pulpy core conceit to probe questions of attraction and interdependence and how the heart accomodates practical needs . it is an unstinting look at a collaboration between damaged people that may or may not qual
one can't deny its seriousness and quality . 
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 . 
pacino is brilliant as the sleep-deprived dormer , his increasing weariness as much existential as it is physical . 
fans of nijinsky will savor every minute of cox's work . 
lee jeong-hyang tells it so lovingly and films it so beautifully that i couldn't help being captivated by it . 
evokes a palpable sense of disconnection , made all the more poignant by the incessant use of cell phones . 
this is a winning ensemble comedy that shows canadians can put gentle laughs and equally gentle sentiments on the button , just as easily as their counterparts anywhere else in the world . 
tells a fascinating , compelling story . 
delivers roughly equal amounts of beautiful movement and inside information . 
the modern master of the chase sequence returns with a chase to end all chases
zhang yimou delivers warm , genuine characters who lie not through dishonesty , but because they genuinely believe it's the only way to bring happiness to their loved ones . 
both deeply weird and charmingly dear . 
the movie understands like few others how the depth and breadth of emotional intimacy give the physical act all of its meaning and most of its pleasure . 
sorvino is delightful in the central role . she nearly glows with enthusiasm , sensuality and a conniving wit . 
 . . . could easily be called the best korean film of 2002 . 
once you get into its rhythm . . . the movie becomes a heady experience . 
rife with the rueful , wry humor springing out of yiddish culture and language . 
if there's a way to effectively teach kids about the dangers of drugs , i think it's in projects like the ( unfortunately r-rated ) paid . 
hawke draws out the best from his large cast in beautifully articulated portrayals that are subtle and so expressive they can sustain the poetic flights in burdette's dialogue . 
a true-blue delight . 
otto-sallies has a real filmmaker's eye . 
it is interesting and fun to see goodall and her chimpanzees on the bigger-than-life screen . 
sometimes charming , sometimes infuriating , this argentinean 'dramedy' succeeds mainly on the shoulders of its actors . 
the film is reasonably entertaining , though it begins to drag two-thirds through , when the melodramatic aspects start to overtake the comedy . 
you really have to salute writer-director haneke ( he adapted elfriede jelinek's novel ) for making a film that isn't nearly as graphic but much more powerful , brutally shocking and difficult to watch . 
if there's no art here , it's still a good yarn -- which is nothing to sneeze at these days . 
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 . 
hugely entertaining from start to finish , featuring a fall from grace that still leaves shockwaves , it will gratify anyone who has ever suspected hollywood of being overrun by corrupt and hedonistic weasels . 
yes , it's as good as you remember . in fact , even better . 
the best part about " gangs " was daniel day-lewis . 
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 . 
works because , for the most part , it avoids the stupid cliches and formulaic potholes that befall its brethren . 
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 . 
a gracious , eloquent film that by its end offers a ray of hope to the refugees able to look ahead and resist living in a past forever lost . 
jolting into charleston rhythms , the story has the sizzle of old news that has finally found the right vent ( accurate ? who cares ? ) . 
it's not like having a real film of nijinsky , but at least it's better than that eponymous 1980 biopic that used soap in the places where the mysteries lingered . 
same song , second verse , coulda been better , but it coulda been worse . 
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 . 
the performers are so spot on , it is hard to conceive anyone else in their roles . 
what's surprising is how well it holds up in an era in which computer-generated images are the norm . 
fun and nimble . 
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 . 
mnch's genuine insight makes the film's occasional overindulgence forgivable . 
[f]rom the performances and the cinematography to the outstanding soundtrack and unconventional narrative , the film is blazingly alive and admirable on many levels . 
light , cute and forgettable . 
if you love motown music , you'll love this documentary . 
the best of the pierce brosnan james bond films to date . 
it is a likable story , told with competence . 
an exceedingly clever piece of cinema . another great what you don't see' is much more terrifying than what you do see thriller , coupled with some arresting effects , incandescent tones and stupendous performances
nair does capture the complexity of a big family and its trials and tribulations . . . 
bring on the sequel . 
this fascinating experiment plays as more of a poetic than a strict reality , creating an intriguing species of artifice that gives the lady and the duke something of a theatrical air . 
the weight of the piece , the unerring professionalism of the chilly production , and the fascination embedded in the lurid topic prove recommendation enough . 
a realistically terrifying movie that puts another notch in the belt of the long list of renegade-cop tales . 
it is so refreshing to see robin williams turn 180 degrees from the string of insultingly innocuous and sappy fiascoes he's been making for the last several years . 
although olivier assayas' elegantly appointed period drama seems , at times , padded with incident in the way of a too-conscientious adaptation . . . its three-hour running time plays closer to two . 
i'd rather watch a rerun of the powerpuff girls
there's something auspicious , and daring , too , about the artistic instinct that pushes a majority-oriented director like steven spielberg to follow a . i . with this challenging report so liable to unnerve the majority . 
even though it's common knowledge that park and his founding partner , yong kang , lost kozmo in the end , you can't help but get caught up in the thrill of the company's astonishing growth . 
an eerily suspenseful , deeply absorbing piece that works as a treatise on spirituality as well as a solid sci-fi thriller . 
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 . . . 
 " austin powers in goldmember " has the right stuff for silly summer entertainment and has enough laughs to sustain interest to the end . 
some body will take you places you haven't been , and also places you have . 
not since tom cruise in risky business has an actor made such a strong impression in his underwear . 
this is a film well worth seeing , talking and singing heads and all . 
highbrow self-appointed guardians of culture need not apply , but those who loved cool as ice have at last found a worthy follow-up . 
provides a satisfactory overview of the bizarre world of extreme athletes as several daredevils express their own views . 
witty and often surprising , a dark little morality tale disguised as a romantic comedy . 
writer/director walter hill is in his hypermasculine element here , once again able to inject some real vitality and even art into a pulpy concept that , in many other hands would be completely forgettable . 
though it's not very well shot or composed or edited , the score is too insistent and the dialogue is frequently overwrought and crudely literal , the film shatters you in waves . 
 . . . plenty of warmth to go around , with music and laughter and the love of family . 
a movie that will touch the hearts of both children and adults , as well as bring audiences to the edge of their seats . 
if you haven't seen the film lately , you may be surprised at the variety of tones in spielberg's work . much of it is funny , but there are also some startling , surrealistic moments . . . 
australian filmmaker david flatman uses the huge-screen format to make an old-fashioned nature film that educates viewers with words and pictures while entertaining them . 
the riveting performances by the incredibly flexible cast make love a joy to behold . 
the bourne identity is what summer screen escapism used to be in the decades when it was geared more to grownups . 
if the first men in black was money , the second is small change . but it still jingles in the pocket . it's fun lite . 
caruso sometimes descends into sub-tarantino cuteness . . . but for the most part he makes sure the salton sea works the way a good noir should , keeping it tight and nasty . 
a witty , low-key romantic comedy . 
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 . 
a visual spectacle full of stunning images and effects . 
the culmination of everyone's efforts is given life when a selection appears in its final form [in " last dance " ] . 
you don't know whether to admire the film's stately nature and call it classicism or be exasperated by a noticeable lack of pace . or both . 
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 . 
[shyamalan] continues to cut a swathe through mainstream hollywood , while retaining an integrity and refusing to compromise his vision . 
thoroughly engrossing and ultimately tragic . 
a beautifully observed character piece . 
a compelling , gut-clutching piece of advocacy cinema that carries you along in a torrent of emotion as it explores the awful complications of one terrifying day . 
ranges from laugh-out-loud hilarious to wonder-what- time-it-is tedious . 
a sweet-natured reconsideration of one of san francisco's most vital , if least widely recognized , creative fountainheads . 
the movie's ripe , enrapturing beauty will tempt those willing to probe its inscrutable mysteries . 
it somehow managed to make its way past my crappola radar and find a small place in my heart
this may be burns's strongest film since the brothers mcmullen . 
a charming , banter-filled comedy . . . one of those airy cinematic bon bons whose aims -- and by extension , accomplishments -- seem deceptively slight on the surface . 
more than their unique residences , home movie is about the people who live in them , who have carved their own comfortable niche in the world and have been kind enough to share it . 
'tobey maguire is a poster boy for the geek generation . '
while this movie , by necessity , lacks fellowship's heart , two towers outdoes its spectacle . 
there is simply no doubt that this film asks the right questions at the right time in the history of our country . 
 . . . wallace is smart to vary the pitch of his movie , balancing deafening battle scenes with quieter domestic scenes of women back home receiving war department telegrams . 
leave it to the french to truly capture the terrifying angst of the modern working man without turning the film into a cheap thriller , a dumb comedy or a sappy melodrama . 
most impressive , though , is the film's open-ended finale that refuses to entirely close its characters' emotional wounds . 
moore provides an invaluable service by sparking debate and encouraging thought . better still , he does all of this , and more , while remaining one of the most savagely hilarious social critics this side of jonathan swift . 
a witty , trenchant , wildly unsentimental but flawed look at the ins and outs of modern moviemaking . 
this is not an easy film . but it could be , by its art and heart , a necessary one . 
murderous maids pulls no punches in its depiction of the lives of the papin sister and the events that led to their notorious rise to infamy . . . 
what [denis] 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 . 
sem se preocupar em criar momentos melodramticos para arrancar lgrimas do espectador , o pianista  um filme triste sem que , para isso , precise ser emocionante . 
chilling , well-acted , and finely directed : david jacobson's dahmer . 
even when he's not at his most critically insightful , godard can still be smarter than any 50 other filmmakers still at work . 
though jackson doesn'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 . 
a quiet , pure , elliptical film
at the film's centre is a precisely layered performance by an actor in his mid-seventies , michel piccoli . 
at once emotional and richly analytical , the cosby-seinfeld encounter alone confirms the serious weight behind this superficially loose , larky documentary . 
it's rare for any movie to be as subtle and touching as the son's room . 
as a belated nod to some neglected all-stars , standing in the shadows of motown is cultural history of the best kind : informative , revealing and richly entertaining . 
the best didacticism is one carried by a strong sense of humanism , and bertrand tavernier's oft-brilliant safe conduct ( " laissez-passer " ) wears its heart on its sleeve . 
the movie is a blast of educational energy , as bouncy animation and catchy songs escort you through the entire 85 minutes . 
don't plan on the perfect ending , but sweet home alabama hits the mark with critics who escaped from a small town life . 
assured , vital and well wrought , the film is , arguably , the most accomplished work to date from hong kong's versatile stanley kwan . 
ferrara's strongest and most touching movie of recent years . 
ultimately engages less for its story of actorly existential despair than for its boundary-hopping formal innovations and glimpse into another kind of chinese 'cultural revolution . '
it rapidly develops into a gut-wrenching examination of the way cultural differences and emotional expectations collide . 
the camera soars above the globe in dazzling panoramic shots that make the most of the large-screen format , before swooping down on a string of exotic locales , scooping the whole world up in a joyous communal festival of rhythm . 
as they used to say in the 1950s sci-fi movies , signs is a tribute to shyamalan's gifts , which are such that we'll keep watching the skies for his next project . 
allen shows he can outgag any of those young whippersnappers making moving pictures today . 
it's refreshing to see a romance this smart . 
caviezel embodies the transformation of his character completely . 
[cho's face is] an amazing slapstick instrument , creating a scrapbook of living mug shots . 
the film , while not exactly assured in its execution , is notable for its sheer audacity and openness . 
an engaging , formulaic sports drama that carries a charge of genuine excitement . 
 " on guard ! " won't be placed in the pantheon of the best of the swashbucklers but it is a whole lot of fun and you get to see the one of the world's best actors , daniel auteuil , have a whale of a good time . 
this is such a dazzlingly self-assured directorial debut that it's hard to know what to praise first . 
a burst of color , music , and dance that only the most practiced curmudgeon could fail to crack a smile at . 
this is what imax was made for : strap on a pair of 3-d goggles , shut out the real world , and take a vicarious voyage to the last frontier -- space . 
as a thoughtful and unflinching examination of an alternative lifestyle , sex with strangers is a success . 
[raimi's] matured quite a bit with spider-man , even though it's one of the most plain white toast comic book films you'll ever see . 
 . . . a trashy little bit of fluff stuffed with enjoyable performances and a bewildering sense of self-importance
the best animated feature to hit theaters since beauty and the beast 11 years ago . 
an enchanting film that presents an audacious tour of the past and takes within its warm embrace the bounties of cultural artifacts inside st . petersburg's hermitage museum . 
a depressing confirmation of everything those of us who don't object to the description " unelected " have suspected all along : george w . bush is an incurious , uncharismatic , overgrown frat boy with a mean streak a mile wide . 
simply and eloquently articulates the tangled feelings of particular new yorkers deeply touched by an unprecedented tragedy . 
the increasingly diverse french director has created a film that one can honestly describe as looking , sounding and simply feeling like no other film in recent history . 
the film is a contrivance , as artificial as the video games japanese teens play in a nightclub sequence , but it's an enjoyable one . 
the characters are more deeply thought through than in most 'right-thinking' films . 
the appearance of treebeard and gollum's expanded role will either have you loving what you're seeing , or rolling your eyes . i loved it ! gollum's 'performance' is incredible ! 
dog soldiers doesn't transcend genre -- it embraces it , energizes it and takes big bloody chomps out of it . 
 . . . either you're willing to go with this claustrophobic concept or you're not . 
jeong-hyang lee's film is deceptively simple , deeply satisfying . 
an average kid-empowerment fantasy with slightly above-average brains . 
the director explores all three sides of his story with a sensitivity and an inquisitiveness reminiscent of truffaut . 
unfolds as one of the most politically audacious films of recent decades from any country , but especially from france . 
para hitler , o mundo era sua tela ; e o horror , seu pincel . e max retrata este fato com elegante abandono , numa triste constatao da realidade histrica . 
damon brings the proper conviction to his role as [jason bourne] . 
good movie . good actress . but if you expect light romantic comedy , good gosh , will you be shocked . 
poignant and funny . 
feature debuter d . j . caruso directs a crack ensemble cast , bringing screenwriter tony gayton's narcotics noir to life . 
[shyamalan] turns the goose-pimple genre on its empty head and fills it with spirit , purpose and emotionally bruised characters who add up to more than body count . 
the movie starts with a legend and ends with a story that is so far-fetched it would be impossible to believe if it weren't true . this is the stuff that disney movies are made of . 
funny and also heartwarming without stooping to gooeyness . 
george clooney proves he's quite a talented director and sam rockwell shows us he's a world-class actor with confessions of a dangerous mind . 
whether or not ram dass proves as clear and reliable an authority on that as he was about inner consciousness , fierce grace reassures us that he will once again be an honest and loving one . 
melodrama with a message . 
this is one of the most visually stunning and thematically moving epics in recent memory , and in spite of numerous minor flaws , scorsese's best in more than a decade . 
spare yet audacious . . . 
the film gets close to the chimps the same way goodall did , with a serious minded patience , respect and affection . 
all but the most persnickety preteens should enjoy this nonthreatening but thrilling adventure . 
as a tolerable diversion , the film suffices ; a triumph , however , it is not . 
simultaneously heartbreakingly beautiful and exquisitely sad . 
there's so much to look at in metropolis you hate to tear your eyes away from the images long enough to read the subtitles . 
if the count of monte cristo doesn't transform caviezel into a movie star , then the game is even more rigged than it was two centuries ago . 
cho continues her exploration of the outer limits of raunch with considerable brio . 
not only are the special effects and narrative flow much improved , and daniel radcliffe more emotionally assertive this time around as harry , but the film conjures the magic of author j . k . rowling's books . 
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 . 
a rock-solid gangster movie with a fair amount of suspense , intriguing characters and bizarre bank robberies , plus a heavy dose of father-and-son dynamics . 
it is inspirational in characterizing how people from such diverse cultures share the same human and spiritual needs . 
engrossing and affecting , if ultimately not quite satisfying . 
the problems and characters it reveals are universal and involving , and the film itself -- as well its delightful cast -- is so breezy , pretty and gifted , it really won my heart . 
an unforgettable look at morality , family , and social expectation through the prism of that omnibus tradition called marriage . 
has far more energy , wit and warmth than should be expected from any movie with a " 2 " at the end of its title . 
director benoit jacquot , making his first opera-to-film translation with tosca , conveys the heaving passion of puccini's famous love-jealousy- murder-suicide fandango with great cinematic innovation . 
 " punch-drunk love " is a little like a chocolate milk moustache . . . 
so vivid a portrait of a woman consumed by lust and love and crushed by betrayal that it conjures up the intoxicating fumes and emotional ghosts of a freshly painted rembrandt . 
like mike doesn't win any points for originality . it does succeed by following a feel-good formula with a winning style , and by offering its target audience of urban kids some welcome role models and optimism . 
arliss howard's ambitious , moving , and adventurous directorial debut , big bad love , meets so many of the challenges it poses for itself that one can forgive the film its flaws . 
what makes the movie special is its utter sincerity . 
intriguing and beautiful film , but those of you who read the book are likely to be disappointed . 
martyr gets royally screwed and comes back for more . 
a genuine mind-bender . 
there is no denying the power of polanski's film . . . 
uneven but a lot of fun . 
if you're a fan of the series you'll love it and probably want to see it twice . i will be . 
there is truth here
a smart and funny , albeit sometimes superficial , cautionary tale of a technology in search of an artist . 
a canny , derivative , wildly gruesome portrait of a london sociopath who's the scariest of sadists . 
it's the kind of effectively creepy-scary thriller that has you fixating on a far corner of the screen at times because your nerves just can't take it any more . 
a highly intriguing thriller , coupled with some ingenious plot devices and some lavishly built settings . . it's a worthwhile tutorial in quantum physics and slash-dash
i don't think most of the people who loved the 1989 paradiso will prefer this new version . but i do . 
 . . . has freaky scenes where the crew wonder if they're ghosts imagining themselves as alive . it's a sly wink to the others without becoming a postmodern joke , made creepy by its " men in a sardine can " warped logic . 
an absurdist comedy about alienation , separation and loss . 
legendary irish writer brendan behan's memoir , borstal boy , has been given a loving screen transferral . 
though the film's scenario is certainly not earthshaking , this depiction of fluctuating female sexuality has two winning lead performances and charm to spare . 
there are some movies that hit you from the first scene and you know it's going to be a trip . igby goes down is one of those movies . 
a gentle , compassionate drama about grief and healing . 
what might have been readily dismissed as the tiresome rant of an aging filmmaker still thumbing his nose at convention takes a surprising , subtle turn at the midway point . 
a sweet , tender sermon about a 12-year-old welsh boy more curious about god than girls , who learns that believing in something does matter . 
if you ever wondered what it would be like to be smack in the middle of a war zone armed with nothing but a camera , this oscar-nominated documentary takes you there . 
woven together handsomely , recalling sixties' rockumentary milestones from lonely boy to don't look back . 
the pianist is a fine valedictory work for polanski , made richer by his own experiences , making his other movies somehow richer in the bargain . 
desta vez , columbus capturou o pomo de ouro . 
worth the effort to watch . 
visually imaginative , thematically instructive and thoroughly delightful , it takes us on a roller-coaster ride from innocence to experience without even a hint of that typical kiddie-flick sentimentality . 
even if you have no interest in the gang-infested , east-vs . -west coast rap wars , this modern mob music drama never fails to fascinate . 
worth watching for dong jie's performance -- and for the way it documents a culture in the throes of rapid change . 
the acting , costumes , music , cinematography and sound are all astounding given the production's austere locales . 
every dance becomes about seduction , where backstabbing and betrayals are celebrated , and sex is currency . 
a moving and not infrequently breathtaking film . 
the film is moody , oozing , chilling and heart-warming all at once . . . a twisting , unpredictable , cat-and-mouse thriller . 
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 . 
although some viewers will not be able to stomach so much tongue-in-cheek weirdness , those who do will have found a cult favorite to enjoy for a lifetime . 
drumline ably captures the complicated relationships in a marching band . 
the story is a rather simplistic one : grief drives her , love drives him , and a second chance to find love in the most unlikely place - it struck a chord in me . 
this time out , [sade] is an unsettlingly familiar figure -- in turns loyal and deceitful , responsible and reckless , idealistically selfless and coldly self-interested . 
it may scream low budget , but this charmer has a spirit that cannot be denied . 
yeah , these flicks are just that damn good . isn't it great ? 
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 . 
a hidden-agenda drama that shouts classic french nuance . 
a vibrant , colorful , semimusical rendition . 
a thoughtful , provocative , insistently humanizing film . 
comedian , like its subjects , delivers the goods and audiences will have a fun , no-frills ride . 
a gently funny , sweetly adventurous film that makes you feel genuinely good , that is to say , entirely unconned by false sentiment or sharp , overmanipulative hollywood practices . 
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 . 
fast and funny , an action cartoon that's suspenseful enough for older kids but not too scary for the school-age crowd . 
measured against practically any like-themed film other than its oscar-sweeping franchise predecessor the silence of the lambs , red dragon rates as an exceptional thriller . 
it's a stunning lyrical work of considerable force and truth . 
it works its magic with such exuberance and passion that the film's length becomes a part of its fun . 
a gentle and engrossing character study . 
the pianist [is] a supremely hopeful cautionary tale of war's madness remembered that we , today , can prevent its tragic waste of life . here is a divine monument to a single man's struggle to regain his life , his dignity and his music . 
excellent performances from jacqueline bisset and martha plimpton grace this deeply touching melodrama . 
the filmmakers want nothing else than to show us a good time , and in their cheap , b movie way , they succeed . 
triumph of love is a very silly movie , but the silliness has a pedigree . 
between bursts of automatic gunfire , the story offers a trenchant critique of capitalism . 
morvern rocks . 
sandra nettelbeck beautifully orchestrates the transformation of the chilly , neurotic , and self-absorbed martha as her heart begins to open . 
it's still a comic book , but maguire makes it a comic book with soul . 
at its best ( and it does have some very funny sequences ) looking for leonard reminds you just how comically subversive silence can be . 
it's a treat watching shaw , a british stage icon , melting under the heat of phocion's attentions . 
generates an enormous feeling of empathy for its characters . 
the tonal shifts are jolting , and though wen's messages are profound and thoughtfully delivered , more thorough transitions would have made the film more cohesive . 
not a schlocky creature feature but something far more stylish and cerebral--and , hence , more chillingly effective . 
sly , sophisticated and surprising . 
pacino and williams seem to keep upping the ante on each other , just as their characters do in the film . what results is the best performance from either in years . 
precocious smarter-than-thou wayward teen struggles to rebel against his oppressive , right-wing , propriety-obsessed family . anyone else seen this before ? 
the movie addresses a hungry need for pg-rated , nonthreatening family movies , but it doesn't go too much further . 
with an admirably dark first script by brent hanley , paxton , making his directorial feature debut , does strong , measured work . 
the cast delivers without sham the raw-nerved story . 
some remarkable achival film about how shanghai ( of all places ) served jews who escaped the holocaust . 
fuller would surely have called this gutsy and at times exhilarating movie a great yarn . 
one hour photo may seem disappointing in its generalities , but it's the little nuances that perhaps had to escape from director mark romanek's self-conscious scrutiny to happen , that finally get under your skin . 
eric byler's nuanced pic avoids easy sentiments and explanations . . . 
the warnings to resist temptation in this film . . . are blunt and challenging and offer no easy rewards for staying clean . 
those who don't entirely 'get' godard's distinctive discourse will still come away with a sense of his reserved but existential poignancy . 
 . . . an inviting piece of film . 
wise and deadpan humorous . 
a mix of gritty realism , crisp storytelling and radiant compassion that effortlessly draws you in . 
it's dark but has wonderfully funny moments ; you care about the characters ; and the action and special effects are first-rate . 
though the plot is predictable , the movie never feels formulaic , because the attention is on the nuances of the emotional development of the delicate characters . 
a loving little film of considerable appeal . 
noyce films it more as a shocking history lesson than as drama . 
still rapturous after all these years , cinema paradiso stands as one of the great films about movie love . 
it would be interesting to hear from the other side , but in talk to her , the women are down for the count . 
an edgy thriller that delivers a surprising punch . 
far more imaginative and ambitious than the trivial , cash-in features nickelodeon has made from its other animated tv series . 
wang xiaoshuai directs this intricately structured and well-realized drama that presents a fascinating glimpse of urban life and the class warfare that embroils two young men . 
the dangerous lives of altar boys' take on adolescence feels painfully true . 
amazing ! a college story that works even without vulgarity , sex scenes , and cussing ! 
it further declares its director , zhang yang of shower , as a boldly experimental , contemporary stylist with a bright future . 
the story is smart and entirely charming in intent and execution . 
impresses as a skillfully assembled , highly polished and professional adaptation . . . just about as chilling and unsettling as 'manhunter' was . 
the overall result is an intelligent , realistic portrayal of testing boundaries . 
it moves quickly , adroitly , and without fuss ; it doesn't give you time to reflect on the inanity -- and the cold war datedness -- of its premise . 
a flawed but engrossing thriller . 
a strong first act and absolutely , inescapably gorgeous , skyscraper-trapeze motion of the amazing spider-man . 
like a less dizzily gorgeous companion to mr . wong's in the mood for love -- very much a hong kong movie despite its mainland setting . 
it has the courage to wonder about big questions with sincerity and devotion . it risks seeming slow and pretentious , because it thinks the gamble is worth the promise . 
the transporter is as lively and as fun as it is unapologetically dumb
a memorable experience that , like many of his works , presents weighty issues colorfully wrapped up in his own idiosyncratic strain of kitschy goodwill . 
rarely , a movie is more than a movie . go . 
claude chabrol has here a thriller without thrills , but that's okay . 
how good this film might be , depends if you believe that the shocking conclusion is too much of a plunge or not . 
flawed but worthy look at life in u . s . relocation camps . 
ana is a vivid , vibrant individual and the movie's focus upon her makes it successful and accessible . 
tim allen is great in his role but never hogs the scenes from his fellow cast , as there are plenty of laughs and good lines for everyone in this comedy . 
thanks to ice cube , benjamins feels an awful lot like friday in miami . 
going to this movie is a little like chewing whale blubber - it's an acquired taste that takes time to enjoy , but it's worth it , even if it does take 3 hours to get through . 
a subject like this should inspire reaction in its audience ; the pianist does not . 
tuck everlasting achieves a delicate balance of romantic innocence and philosophical depth . 
you have to pay attention to follow all the stories , but they're each interesting . the movie is well shot and very tragic , and one to ponder after the credits roll . 
crammed with incident , and bristles with passion and energy . 
an enthralling , playful film that constantly frustrates our desire to know the 'truth' about this man , while deconstructing the very format of the biography in a manner that derrida would doubtless give his blessing to . 
a chilling movie without oppressive gore . 
a feel-good picture in the best sense of the term . 
ultimately , the message of trouble every day seems to be that all sexual desire disrupts life's stasis . 
we've seen the hippie-turned-yuppie plot before , but there's an enthusiastic charm in <i ? fire that makes the formula fresh again . 
intelligent , caustic take on a great writer and dubious human being . 
if you're down for a silly hack-and-slash flick , you can do no wrong with jason x . 
one of [jaglom's] better efforts -- a wry and sometime bitter movie about love . 
a zinger-filled crowd-pleaser that open-minded elvis fans ( but by no means all ) will have fun with . 
laced with liberal doses of dark humor , gorgeous exterior photography , and a stable-full of solid performances , no such thing is a fascinating little tale . 
 . . . the story , like ravel's bolero , builds to a crescendo that encompasses many more paths than we started with . 
a sober and affecting chronicle of the leveling effect of loss . 
a touching , small-scale story of family responsibility and care in the community . 
who knows what exactly godard is on about in this film , but his words and images don't have to add up to mesmerize you . 
a wild comedy that could only spring from the demented mind of the writer of being john malkovich . 
while insomnia is in many ways a conventional , even predictable remake , nolan's penetrating undercurrent of cerebral and cinemantic flair lends ( it ) stimulating depth . 
this is not chabrol's best , but even his lesser works outshine the best some directors can offer . 
at once a testament to the divine calling of education and a demonstration of the painstaking process of imparting knowledge . 
a smart , compelling drama . 
the ya-ya's have many secrets and one is - the books are better . translating complex characters from novels to the big screen is an impossible task but they are true to the essence of what it is to be ya-ya . 
lapaglia's ability to convey grief and hope works with weaver's sensitive reactions to make this a two-actor master class . 
the film's greatest asset is how much it's not just another connect-the-dots , spy-on-the-run picture . 
gangster no . 1 is solid , satisfying fare for adults . 
although the level of the comedy declines as the movie proceeds , there's no denying the fun of watching de niro and crystal having fun . 
both heartbreaking and heartwarming . . . just a simple fable done in an artless sytle , but it's tremendously moving . 
though a capable thriller , somewhere along the way k-19 jettisoned some crucial drama . 
possession is elizabeth barrett browning meets nancy drew , and it's directed by . . . neil labute . hmm . 
at times auto focus feels so distant you might as well be watching it through a telescope . yet in its own aloof , unreachable way it's so fascinating you won't be able to look away for a second . 
an invaluable historical document thanks to the filmmaker's extraordinary access to massoud , whose charm , cultivation and devotion to his people are readily apparent . 
exhilarating but blatantly biased . 
you'll end up moved . 
a wildly funny prison caper . 
wonderful fencing scenes and an exciting plot make this an eminently engrossing film . 
weird , vulgar comedy that's definitely an acquired taste . 
a big , gorgeous , sprawling swashbuckler that delivers its diversions in grand , uncomplicated fashion . 
the re-release of ron howard's apollo 13 in the imax format proves absolutely that really , really , really good things can come in enormous packages . 
steve irwin's method is ernest hemmingway at accelerated speed and volume . 
with the prospect of films like kangaroo jack about to burst across america's winter movie screens it's a pleasure to have a film like the hours as an alternative . 
the trick when watching godard is to catch the pitch of his poetics , savor the pleasure of his sounds and images , and ponder the historical , philosophical , and ethical issues that intersect with them . 
[it's] a clever thriller with enough unexpected twists to keep our interest . 
sure , i hated myself in the morning . but then again , i hate myself most mornings . i still like moonlight mile , better judgment be damned . 
ramsay and morton fill this character study with poetic force and buoyant feeling . 
overall , it's a very entertaining , thought-provoking film with a simple message : god is love . 
a beautiful and haunting examination of the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the mundane horrors of the world . 
raimi and his team couldn't have done any better in bringing the story of spider-man to the big screen . 
enticing and often funny documentary . 
the film is often filled with a sense of pure wonderment and excitement not often seen in today's cinema du sarcasm
proves that some movie formulas don't need messing with -- like the big-bug movie . 
not since japanese filmmaker akira kurosawa's ran have the savagery of combat and the specter of death been visualized with such operatic grandeur . 
it is far from the worst , thanks to the topical issues it raises , the performances of stewart and hardy , and that essential feature -- a decent full-on space battle . 
a fast-moving and remarkable film that appears destined to become a landmark in japanese animation . 
undoubtedly the scariest movie ever made about tattoos . 
a slick , engrossing melodrama . 
the woodman seems to have directly influenced this girl-meets-girl love story , but even more reassuring is how its makers actually seem to understand what made allen's romantic comedies so pertinent and enduring . 
manages to be original , even though it rips off many of its ideas . 
it's hard to imagine alan arkin being better than he is in this performance . 
part of the charm of satin rouge is that it avoids the obvious with humour and lightness . 
a densely constructed , highly referential film , and an audacious return to form that can comfortably sit among jean-luc godard's finest work . 
be prepared to cling to the edge of your seat , tense with suspense . the ring never lets you off the hook . 
deep intelligence and a warm , enveloping affection breathe out of every frame . 
despite its title , punch-drunk love is never heavy-handed . the jabs it employs are short , carefully placed and dead-center . 
achieves a sort of filmic epiphany that revels in the true potential of the medium . 
as the movie traces mr . brown's athletic exploits , it is impossible not to be awed by the power and grace of one of the greatest natural sportsmen of modern times . 
although it's a bit smug and repetitive , this documentary engages your brain in a way few current films do . 
the actors are so terrific at conveying their young angst , we do indeed feel for them . 
berry's saucy , full-bodied performance gives this aging series a much needed kick , making " die another day " one of the most entertaining bonds in years
a fine effort , an interesting topic , some intriguing characters and a sad ending . certainly the big finish wasn't something galinsky and hawley could have planned for . . . but part of being a good documentarian is being there when the rope snaps . 
if you've the patience , there are great rewards here . 
the second coming of harry potter is a film far superior to its predecessor . a movie that successfully crushes a best selling novel into a timeframe that mandates that you avoid the godzilla sized soda . 
brave and sweetly rendered love story . 
though nijinsky's words grow increasingly disturbed , the film maintains a beguiling serenity and poise that make it accessible for a non-narrative feature . 
some of the most inventive silliness you are likely to witness in a movie theatre for some time . 
brings awareness to an issue often overlooked -- women's depression . 
stevens' vibrant creative instincts are the difference between this and countless other flicks about guys and dolls . 
working from elliott's memoir , rohmer fashions the sort of delicate , articulate character- and- relationship study he's favored for decades . 
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 . 
this is a very fine movie -- go see it . 
a breezy romantic comedy that has the punch of a good sitcom , while offering exceptionally well-detailed characters . 
 . . . an agreeable time-wasting device -- but george pal's low-tech 1960 version still rules the epochs . 
full of detail about the man and his country , and is well worth seeing . 
i prefer soderbergh's concentration on his two lovers over tarkovsky's mostly male , mostly patriarchal debating societies . 
together writer-director danny verete's three tales comprise a powerful and reasonably fulfilling gestalt . 
there's nothing like love to give a movie a b-12 shot , and cq shimmers with it . 
left me with the visceral sensation of longing , lasting traces of charlotte's web of desire and desperation . 
a comprehensive and provocative film -- one that pushes the boundaries of biography , and challenges its audience . 
a well-put-together piece of urban satire . 
a terrific date movie , whatever your orientation . 
for the most part stevens glides through on some solid performances and witty dialogue . 
nolan proves that he can cross swords with the best of them and helm a more traditionally plotted popcorn thriller while surrendering little of his intellectual rigor or creative composure . 
george lucas returns as a visionary with a tale full of nuance and character dimension . 
its vision of that awkward age when sex threatens to overwhelm everything else is acute enough to make everyone who has been there squirm with recognition . 
features what is surely the funniest and most accurate depiction of writer's block ever . 
it's about as convincing as any other arnie musclefest , but has a little too much resonance with real world events and ultimately comes off as insultingly simplistic . 
credit director ramsay for taking the sometimes improbable story and making it feel realistic . 
a fascinating examination of the joyous , turbulent self-discovery made by a proper , middle-aged woman . 
a conventional , but well-crafted film about a historic legal battle in ireland over a man's right to raise his own children . 
enriched by a strong and unforced supporting cast . 
the vivid lead performances sustain interest and empathy , but the journey is far more interesting than the final destination . 
engages us in constant fits of laughter , until we find ourselves surprised at how much we care about the story , and end up walking out not only satisfied but also somewhat touched . 
fulfills the minimum requirement of disney animation . 
no wonder they're talking about " talk to her . " it's astonishing . 
a distant , even sterile , yet compulsively watchable look at the sordid life of hogan's heroes star bob crane . 
it has a way of seeping into your consciousness , with lingering questions about what the film is really getting at . 
there has to be a few advantages to never growing old . like being able to hit on a 15-year old when you're over 100 . 
this masterfully calibrated psychological thriller thrives on its taut performances and creepy atmosphere even if the screenplay falls somewhat short . 
a story about intelligent high school students that deals with first love sweetly but also seriously . it is also beautifully acted . 
it's all stitched together with energy , intelligence and verve , enhanced by a surplus of vintage archive footage . 
robinson's web of suspense matches the page-turning frenzy that clancy creates . 
an amused indictment of jaglom's own profession . 
takes a simple premise and carries it to unexpected heights . 
it's both degrading and strangely liberating to see people working so hard at leading lives of sexy intrigue , only to be revealed by the dispassionate gantz brothers as ordinary , pasty lumpen . 
birthday girl doesn't try to surprise us with plot twists , but rather seems to enjoy its own transparency . 
while somewhat less than it might have been , the film is a good one , and you've got to hand it to director george clooney for biting off such a big job the first time out . 
were it not for a sentimental resolution that explains way more about cal than does the movie or the character any good , freundlich's world traveler might have been one of the more daring and surprising american movies of the year . 
what's so striking about jolie's performance is that she never lets her character become a caricature -- not even with that radioactive hair . 
ana's journey is not a stereotypical one of self-discovery , as she's already comfortable enough in her own skin to be proud of her rubenesque physique . . . 
whenever you think you've figured out late marriage , it throws you for a loop . 
an energetic and engaging film that never pretends to be something it isn't . 
it's not particularly subtle . . . however , it still manages to build to a terrifying , if obvious , conclusion . 
almost peerlessly unsettling . 
there's just something about watching a squad of psychopathic underdogs whale the tar out of unsuspecting lawmen that reaches across time and distance . 
a tale of horror and revenge that is nearly perfect in its relentless descent to the depths of one man's tortured soul . 
a potent allegorical love story . 
just watch bettany strut his stuff . you'll know a star when you see one . 
many insightful moments . 
gran historia sobre el amor , la familia , la lealtad y la traicin que seguramente se convertir en un nuevo clsico del gnero . 
ultimately too repellent to fully endear itself to american art house audiences , but it is notable for its stylistic austerity and forcefulness . 
this real-life hollywood fairy-tale is more engaging than the usual fantasies hollywood produces . 
it won't bust your gut -- and it's not intended to -- it's merely a blandly cinematic surgical examination of what makes a joke a joke . 
it's rare to find a film to which the adjective 'gentle' applies , but the word perfectly describes pauline & paulette . 
it is amusing , and that's all it needs to be . 
an involving true story of a chinese actor who takes up drugs and winds up in an institution--acted mostly by the actual people involved . 
the movie enters a realm where few non-porn films venture , and comes across as darkly funny , energetic , and surprisingly gentle . 
sweetly sexy , funny and touching . 
brosnan is more feral in this film than i've seen him before and halle berry does her best to keep up with him . 
the movie is well crafted , and well executed . if you're paying attention , the " big twists " are pretty easy to guess - but that doesn't make the movie any less entertaining . 
yakusho and shimizu . . . create engaging characterizations in imamura's lively and enjoyable cultural mix . 
toes the fine line between cheese and earnestness remarkably well ; everything is delivered with such conviction that it's hard not to be carried away . 
miyazaki's nonstop images are so stunning , and his imagination so vivid , that the only possible complaint you could have about spirited away is that there is no rest period , no timeout . 
i whole-heartedly recommend that everyone see this movie-- for its historical significance alone . 
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 . 
'divertida , enternecedora , universal y profundamente sincera , es una de las mejores comedias romnticas en mucho tiempo . una verdadera delicia . '
a great comedy filmmaker knows great comedy needn't always make us laugh . tim story's not there yet - but 'barbershop' shows he's on his way . 
with or without the sex , a wonderful tale of love and destiny , told well by a master storyteller
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 . 
this is historical filmmaking without the balm of right-thinking ideology , either liberal or conservative . mr . scorsese's bravery and integrity in advancing this vision can hardly be underestimated . 
a deviant topical comedy which is funny from start to finish . 
perhaps the best sports movie i've ever seen . 
making such a tragedy the backdrop to a love story risks trivializing it , though chouraqui no doubt intended the film to affirm love's power to help people endure almost unimaginable horror . 
very well written and directed with brutal honesty and respect for its audience . 
it must be the end of the world : the best film so far this year is a franchise sequel starring wesley snipes . 
the filmmakers' eye for detail and the high standards of performance convey a strong sense of the girls' environment . 
it has more than a few moments that are insightful enough to be fondly remembered in the endlessly challenging maze of moviegoing . 
in its dry and forceful way , it delivers the same message as jiri menzel's closely watched trains and danis tanovic's no man's land . 
an undeniably gorgeous , terminally smitten document of a troubadour , his acolytes , and the triumph of his band . 
a carefully structured scream of consciousness that is tortured and unsettling--but unquestionably alive . 
<em>ash wednesday</em> is not edward burns' best film , but it is a good and ambitious film . and it marks him as one of the most interesting writer/directors working today . 
murderous maids has a lot going for it , not least the brilliant performances by testud . . . and parmentier . 
a spunky , original take on a theme that will resonate with singles of many ages . 
a reasonably entertaining sequel to 1994's surprise family hit that may strain adult credibility . 
darkly funny and frequently insightful . 
the additional storyline is interesting and entertaining , but it doesn't have the same magical quality as the beginning of the story . i like the new footage and still love the old stuff . 
fast-paced and wonderfully edited , the film is extremely thorough . 
polished korean political-action film is just as good -- and bad -- as hollywood action epics . is this progress ? 
rodriguez does a splendid job of racial profiling hollywood style--casting excellent latin actors of all ages--a trend long overdue . 
a chick flick for guys . 
chilling but uncommercial look into the mind of jeffrey dahmer , serial killer . 
a fine production with splendid singing by angela gheorghiu , ruggero raimondi , and roberto alagna . 
easily the most thoughtful fictional examination of the root causes of anti-semitism ever seen on screen . 
one of those movies that make us pause and think of what we have given up to acquire the fast-paced contemporary society . 
invincible is a wonderful movie . 
a creepy , intermittently powerful study of a self-destructive man . . . about as unsettling to watch as an exploratory medical procedure or an autopsy . 
it's an example of sophisticated , challenging filmmaking that stands , despite its noticeable lack of emotional heft , in welcome contrast to the indulgent dead-end experimentation of the director's previous full frontal . 
you'll gasp appalled and laugh outraged and possibly , watching the spectacle of a promising young lad treading desperately in a nasty sea , shed an errant tear . 
presents a side of contemporary chinese life that many outsiders will be surprised to know exists , and does so with an artistry that also smacks of revelation . 
a fun ride . 
a strong script , powerful direction and splendid production design allows us to be transported into the life of wladyslaw szpilman , who is not only a pianist , but a good human being . 
deepa mehta provides an accessible introduction as well as some intelligent observations on the success of bollywood in the western world . 
the movie's thesis -- elegant technology for the masses -- is surprisingly refreshing . 
tunney , brimming with coltish , neurotic energy , holds the screen like a true star . 
a charming , quirky and leisurely paced scottish comedy -- except with an outrageous central gimmick that could have been a reject from monty python's meaning of life . 
one of the most important and exhilarating forms of animated filmmaking since old walt doodled steamboat willie . 
stuart's poor-me persona needs a whole bunch of snowball's cynicism to cut through the sugar coating . but once the falcon arrives in the skies above manhattan , the adventure is on red alert . 
with the same sort of good-natured fun found in films like tremors , eight legged freaks is prime escapist fare . 
one of the most slyly exquisite anti-adult movies ever made . 
it remains to be seen whether statham can move beyond the crime-land action genre , but then again , who says he has to ? 
whether you like rap music or loathe it , you can't deny either the tragic loss of two young men in the prime of their talent or the power of this movie . 
 . . . quite good at providing some good old fashioned spooks . 
offers laughs and insight into one of the toughest ages a kid can go through . 
 . . . best seen as speculative history , as much an exploration of the paranoid impulse as a creative sequel to the warren report . 
not a bad choice here , assuming that . . . the air-conditioning in the theater is working properly . 
sometimes we feel as if the film careens from one colorful event to another without respite , but sometimes it must have seemed to frida kahlo as if her life did , too . 
a fascinating literary mystery story with multiple strands about the controversy of who really wrote shakespeare's plays . 
never mind whether you buy the stuff about barris being a cia hit man . the kooky yet shadowy vision clooney sustains throughout is daring , inventive and impressive . 
paid in full is remarkably engaging despite being noticeably derivative of goodfellas and at least a half dozen other trouble-in-the-ghetto flicks . 
a passionately inquisitive film determined to uncover the truth and hopefully inspire action . 
the film overcomes the regular minefield of coming-of-age cliches with potent doses of honesty and sensitivity . 
time is a beautiful film to watch , an interesting and at times captivating take on loss and loneliness . 
the large-format film is well suited to capture these musicians in full regalia and the incredible imax sound system lets you feel the beat down to your toes . 
a fine film , but it would be a lot better if it stuck to betty fisher and left out the other stories . 
often moving and explores the discomfort inherent in the contacts between the american 'hosts' and their 'guests . '
the real triumphs in igby come from philippe , who makes oliver far more interesting than the character's lines would suggest , and sarandon , who couldn't be better as a cruel but weirdly likable wasp matron . 
a properly spooky film about the power of spirits to influence us whether we believe in them or not . 
holm does his sly , intricate magic , and iben hjelje is entirely appealing as pumpkin . 
craig bartlett and director tuck tucker should be commended for illustrating the merits of fighting hard for something that really matters . 
the film sometimes flags . . . but there is enough secondary action to keep things moving along at a brisk , amusing pace . 
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 . 
it may not be a huge cut of above the rest , but i enjoyed barbershop . it's a funny little movie with clever dialogue and likeable characters . 
the touch is generally light enough and the performances , for the most part , credible . 
even if you don't think [kissinger's] any more guilty of criminal activity than most contemporary statesmen , he'd sure make a courtroom trial great fun to watch . 
together [time out and human resources] establish mr . cantet as france's foremost cinematic poet of the workplace . 
 . . . a vivid , thoughtful , unapologetically raw coming-of-age tale full of sex , drugs and rock 'n' roll . 
an entertaining documentary that freshly considers arguments the bard's immortal plays were written by somebody else . 
can be viewed as pure composition and form -- film as music
 " extreme ops " exceeds expectations . good fun , good action , good acting , good dialogue , good pace , good cinematography . 
 . . . a joke at once flaky and resonant , lightweight and bizarrely original . 
shyamalan takes a potentially trite and overused concept ( aliens come to earth ) and infuses it into a rustic , realistic , and altogether creepy tale of hidden invasion . 
what makes it worth watching is quaid's performance . 
you can almost see mendes and company getting together before a single frame had been shot and collectively vowing , 'this is going to be something really good . ' and it is . 
perhaps not since nelson eddy crooned his indian love call to jeanette macdonald has there been a movie so unabashedly canadian , not afraid to risk american scorn or disinterest . 
it's an experience in understanding a unique culture that is presented with universal appeal . 
the hours , a delicately crafted film , is an impressive achievement in spite of a river of sadness that pours into every frame . 
offers an unusual opportunity to observe the inequities in the death penalty , not just the inherent immorality but also the haphazard administration of it and public misperception of how the whole thing works . 
an endlessly fascinating , landmark movie that is as bold as anything the cinema has seen in years . 
 . . . a thoughtful what-if for the heart as well as the mind . 
a difficult but worthy film that bites off more than it can chew by linking the massacre of armenians in 1915 with some difficult relationships in the present . 
the new guy does have a heart . now , if it only had a brain . 
i don't feel the least bit ashamed in admitting that my enjoyment came at the expense of seeing justice served , even if it's a dish that's best served cold . 
a decent-enough nail-biter that stands a good chance of being the big hit franklin needs to stay afloat in hollywood . 
there's something to be said for a studio-produced film that never bothers to hand viewers a suitcase full of easy answers . 
it's somewhat clumsy and too lethargically paced -- but its story about a mysterious creature with psychic abilities offers a solid build-up , a terrific climax , and some nice chills along the way . 
a gem , captured in the unhurried , low-key style favored by many directors of the iranian new wave . 
very amusing , not the usual route in a thriller , and the performances are odd and pixilated and sometimes both . 
for a long time the film succeeds with its dark , delicate treatment of these characters and its unerring respect for them . 
the powerful success of read my lips with such provocative material shows why , after only three films , director/co-writer jacques audiard , though little known in this country , belongs in the very top rank of french filmmakers . 
the lion king was a roaring success when it was released eight years ago , but on imax it seems better , not just bigger . 
bogdanovich taps deep into the hearst mystique , entertainingly reenacting a historic scandal . 
[a] devastatingly powerful and astonishingly vivid holocaust drama . 
the overall effect is awe and affection -- and a strange urge to get on a board and , uh , shred , dude . 
a compelling portrait of moral emptiness
this is one of mr . chabrol's subtlest works , but also one of his most uncanny . 
what a concept , what an idea , what a thrill ride . 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 . 
an imaginative comedy/thriller . 
so many documentaries like this presuppose religious bigotry or zealous nuttiness of its antagonists , but family fundamentals displays a rare gift for unflinching impartiality . 
it's a shame the marvelous first 101 minutes have to be combined with the misconceived final 5 . 
like leon , it's frustrating and still oddly likable . 
even through its flaws , revolution #9 proves to be a compelling , interestingly told film . 
an exhilarating futuristic thriller-noir , minority report twists the best of technology around a gripping story , delivering a riveting , pulse intensifying escapist adventure of the first order
austin powers in goldmember is a cinematic car wreck , a catastrophic collision of tastelessness and gall that nevertheless will leave fans clamoring for another ride . 
an incredibly thoughtful , deeply meditative picture that neatly and effectively captures the debilitating grief felt in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks . 
me without you has a bracing truth that's refreshing after the phoniness of female-bonding pictures like divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood . 
the piano teacher is not an easy film . it forces you to watch people doing unpleasant things to each other and themselves , and it maintains a cool distance from its material that is deliberately unsettling . 
borrows a bit from the classics " wait until dark " and " extremities " . . . but in terms of its style , the movie is in a class by itself . 
a very good film sits in the place where a masterpiece should be . 
the movie is hardly a masterpiece , but it does mark ms . bullock's best work in some time . 
i can't say that i liked homeboy ; it'd be more accurate to say that i found it intriguing , bizarre , dogma-like in spots - and quite truthful , in its way . 
it has charm to spare , and unlike many romantic comedies , it does not alienate either gender in the audience . 
at heart the movie is a deftly wrought suspense yarn whose richer shadings work as coloring rather than substance . 
sayles is making a statement about the inability of dreams and aspirations to carry forward into the next generation . 
majidi's poetic love story is a ravishing consciousness-raiser , if a bit draggy at times . 
a pretty decent kid-pleasing , tolerable-to-adults lark of a movie . 
an incendiary , deeply thought-provoking look at one of the most peculiar ( and peculiarly venomous ) bigotries in our increasingly frightening theocracy
after making several adaptations of other writers' work , armenian-canadian director atom egoyan broached an original treatment of a deeply personal subject . 
mike white's deft combination of serious subject matter and dark , funny humor make " " the good girl " a film worth watching . 
underachieves only in not taking the shakespeare parallels quite far enough . 
the actors are fantastic . they are what makes it worth the trip to the theatre . 
maryam is more timely now than ever . 
jason x has cheesy effects and a hoary plot , but its macabre , self-deprecating sense of humor makes up for a lot . 
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 . 
'aunque recurre a ciertos clichs del gnero , la poderosa actuacin de robin williams perdona las fallas del guin . '
full of surprises . 
a slick , well-oiled machine , exquisitely polished and upholstered . 
if you like blood , guts and crazy beasts stalking men with guns though . . . you will likely enjoy this monster . 
surprisingly insightful
drawing on an irresistible , languid romanticism , byler reveals the ways in which a sultry evening or a beer-fueled afternoon in the sun can inspire even the most retiring heart to venture forth . 
cedar takes a very open-minded approach to this sensitive material , showing impressive control , both visually and in the writing . 
alan and his fellow survivors are idiosyncratic enough to lift the movie above its playwriting 101 premise . 
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 . it's very beavis and butthead , yet always seems to elicit a chuckle . 
the filmmakers wisely decided to let crocodile hunter steve irwin do what he does best , and fashion a story around him . 
greengrass has delivered an undoubted stylistic tour-de-force , and has managed elements such as sound and cinematography with skill
an unabashedly schmaltzy and thoroughly enjoyable true story . 
one of those terrific documentaries that collect a bunch of people who are enthusiastic about something and then figures out how to make us share their enthusiasm . 
smart and fun , but far more witty than it is wise . 
the film is full of charm . 
beautifully crafted , engaging filmmaking that should attract upscale audiences hungry for quality and a nostalgic , twisty yarn that will keep them guessing . 
like the film's almost anthropologically detailed realization of early-'80s suburbia , it's significant without being overstated . 
a journey that is as difficult for the audience to take as it is for the protagonist -- yet it's potentially just as rewarding . 
meyjes' provocative film might be called an example of the haphazardness of evil . 
denis forges out of the theories of class- based rage and sisterly obsession a razor-sided tuning fork that rings with cultural , sexual and social discord . 
those who aren't put off by the film's austerity will find it more than capable of rewarding them . 
it is a strength of a documentary to disregard available bias , especially as temptingly easy as it would have been with this premise . 
the rare imax movie that you'll wish was longer than an hour . 
an engaging overview of johnson's eccentric career . 
a grittily beautiful film that looks , sounds , and feels more like an extended , open-ended poem than a traditionally structured story . 
more sophisticated and literate than such pictures usually are . . . an amusing little catch . 
cho's latest comic set isn't as sharp or as fresh as i'm the one that i want . . . but it's still damn funny stuff . 
whatever complaints i might have , i'd take [its] earnest errors and hard-won rewards over the bombastic self-glorification of other feel-good fiascos like antwone fisher or the emperor's club any time . 
deflated ending aside , there's much to recommend the film . 
a mess when it comes to the characters and writing . . . but works its way underneath the skin like few movies have in recent memory . 
this version does justice both to stevenson and to the sci-fi genre . 
significantly better than its 2002 children's-movie competition . 
i've never bought from telemarketers , but i bought this movie . 
while it would be easy to give crush the new title of two weddings and a funeral , it's a far more thoughtful film than any slice of hugh grant whimsy . 
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 ? 
michael moore has perfected the art of highly entertaining , self-aggrandizing , politically motivated documentary-making , and he's got as potent a topic as ever here . 
will warm your heart without making you feel guilty about it . 
creepy , authentic and dark . this disturbing bio-pic is hard to forget . 
[majidi] makes us think twice about immigrants we see around us every day . 
romanek keeps the film constantly taut . . . reflecting the character's instability with a metaphorical visual style and an unnerving , heartbeat-like score . 
if i have to choose between gorgeous animation and a lame story ( like , say , treasure planet ) or so-so animation and an exciting , clever story with a batch of appealing characters , i'll take the latter every time . 
by candidly detailing the politics involved in the creation of an extraordinary piece of music , [jones] calls our attention to the inherent conflict between commerce and creativity . 
it is ok for a movie to be something of a sitcom apparatus , if the lines work , the humor has point and the actors are humanly engaged . 
[broomfield] uncovers a story powerful enough to leave the screen sizzling with intrigue . 
'no es la mejor cinta de la serie , ni la mejor con brosnan a la cabeza , pero de que entretiene ni duda cabe . '
on the granger movie gauge of 1 to 10 , the powerpuff girls is a fast , frenetic , funny , even punny 6 -- aimed specifically at a grade-school audience . 
not everything works , but the average is higher than in mary and most other recent comedies . 
the film is delicately narrated by martin landau and directed with sensitivity and skill by dana janklowicz-mann . 
michel piccoli's moving performance is this films reason for being . 
the comic performances are all spot on , especially lee ross's turn as ken . 
a " black austin powers ? " i prefer to think of it as " pootie tang with a budget . " sa da tay ! 
michael moore's latest documentary about america's thirst for violence is his best film yet . . . 
a quirky comedy set in newfoundland that cleverly captures the dry wit that's so prevalent on the rock . 
 . . . a delicious crime drama on par with the slickest of mamet . 
a film with contemporary political resonance illustrated by a winning family story . 
morton uses her face and her body language to bring us morvern's soul , even though the character is almost completely deadpan . 
a thriller with an edge -- which is to say that it doesn't follow the stale , standard , connect-the-dots storyline which has become commonplace in movies that explore the seamy underbelly of the criminal world . 
even if you've seen " stomp " ( the stage show ) , you still have to see this ! 
efficient , suitably anonymous chiller . 
this beautifully animated epic is never dull . 
there's nothing more satisfying during a summer of event movies than a spy thriller like the bourne identity that's packed with just as much intelligence as action . 
entertains by providing good , lively company . 
if you're content with a clever pseudo-bio that manages to have a good time as it doles out pieces of the famous director's life , eisenstein delivers . 
a deliciously nonsensical comedy about a city coming apart at its seams . 
a film about a young man finding god that is accessible and touching to the marrow . 
depending upon your reaction to this movie , you may never again be able to look at a red felt sharpie pen without disgust , a thrill , or the giggles . 
warm water under a red bridge is a quirky and poignant japanese film that explores the fascinating connections between women , water , nature , and sexuality . 
a true pleasure . 
thanks to the chteau's balance of whimsicality , narrative discipline and serious improvisation , almost every relationship and personality in the film yields surprises . 
it is not a mass-market entertainment but an uncompromising attempt by one artist to think about another . 
a sensitive , moving , brilliantly constructed work . 
those prone to indignation need not apply ; those susceptible to blue hilarity , step right up . 
when the movie mixes the cornpone and the cosa nostra , it finds a nice rhythm . 
this is a happy throwback to the time when cartoons were cinema's most idiosyncratic form instead of one of its most predictable . 
nicks sustains the level of exaggerated , stylized humor throughout by taking your expectations and twisting them just a bit . 
it's the cute frissons of discovery and humor between chaplin and kidman that keep this nicely wound clock not just ticking , but humming . 
roman polanski's autobiographical gesture at redemption is better than 'shindler's list' - it is more than merely a holocaust movie . 
even if you don'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 . 
bittersweet comedy/drama full of life , hand gestures , and some really adorable italian guys . 
occasionally funny and consistently odd , and it works reasonably well as a star vehicle for zhao . 
the entire cast is first-rate , especially sorvino . 
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 . 
as expected , sayles' smart wordplay and clever plot contrivances are as sharp as ever , though they may be overshadowed by some strong performances . 
this concoction , so bizarre to the adult mind , is actually a charming triumph where its intended under-12 audience is concerned . 
mostly , [goldbacher] just lets her complicated characters be unruly , confusing and , through it all , human . 
it's an often-cute film but either needs more substance to fill the time or some judicious editing . 
add yet another hat to a talented head , clooney's a good director . 
rare is the 'urban comedy' that even attempts the insight and honesty of this disarming indie . 
although mainstream american movies tend to exploit the familiar , every once in a while a film arrives from the margin that gives viewers a chance to learn , to grow , to travel . 
provide[s] nail-biting suspense and credible characters without relying on technology-of-the-moment technique or pretentious dialogue . 
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 . 
the movie is pretty funny now and then without in any way demeaning its subjects . 
an incredibly low-rent danish film , it brings a group of people together in a sweet and charming way , if a little convenient
a devastating indictment of unbridled greed and materalism . 
one hour photo is an intriguing snapshot of one man and his delusions ; it's just too bad it doesn't have more flashes of insight . 
will grab your children by the imagination and amaze them and amuse them . 
[hayek] throws herself into this dream hispanic role with a teeth-clenching gusto , she strikes a potent chemistry with molina and she gradually makes us believe she is kahlo . 
first-time writer-director serry shows a remarkable gift for storytelling with this moving , effective little film . 
huston nails both the glad-handing and the choking sense of hollow despair . 
we need [moore's] noisy , cocky energy , his passion and class consciousness ; we need his shticks , we need his stones . 
isabelle huppert excels as the enigmatic mika and anna mouglalis is a stunning new young talent in one of chabrol's most intense psychological mysteries . 
just the labour involved in creating the layered richness of the imagery in this chiaroscuro of madness and light is astonishing . 
lilia's transformation from strict mother to sensual siren is superficially preposterous , but abbas infuses the role with an unimpeachable core of emotional truth . 
what one is left with , even after the most awful acts are committed , is an overwhelming sadness that feels as if it has made its way into your very bloodstream . 
it's amazingly perceptive in its subtle , supportive but unsentimental look at the marks family . 
what bloody sunday lacks in clarity , it makes up for with a great , fiery passion . 
efteriades gives the neighborhood -- scenery , vibe and all -- the cinematic equivalent of a big , tender hug . 
like most bond outings in recent years , some of the stunts are so outlandish that they border on being cartoonlike . a heavy reliance on cgi technology is beginning to creep into the series . 
may take its sweet time to get wherever it's going , but if you have the patience for it , you won't feel like it's wasted yours . 
' . . . both hokey and super-cool , and definitely not in a hurry , so sit back , relax and have a few laughs while the little ones get a fuzzy treat . '
the direction has a fluid , no-nonsense authority , and the performances by harris , phifer and cam'ron seal the deal . 
a hypnotic portrait of this sad , compulsive life . 
a romantic comedy , yes , but one with characters who think and talk about their goals , and are working on hard decisions . 
a beautiful , entertaining two hours . you get the idea , though , that kapur intended the film to be more than that . 
where janice beard falters in its recycled aspects , implausibility , and sags in pace , it rises in its courageousness , and comedic employment . 
for the first time in years , de niro digs deep emotionally , perhaps because he's been stirred by the powerful work of his co-stars . 
as it turns out , you can go home again . 
i'm happy to have seen it -- not as an alternate version , but as the ultimate exercise in viewing deleted scenes . 
it makes you believe the cast and crew thoroughly enjoyed themselves and believed in their small-budget film . 
the performances of the children , untrained in acting , have an honesty and dignity that breaks your heart . 
it's too harsh to work as a piece of storytelling , but as an intellectual exercise -- an unpleasant debate that's been given the drive of a narrative and that's been acted out -- the believer is nothing less than a provocative piece of work . 
a delightful coming-of-age story . 
maybe thomas wolfe was right : you can't go home again . 
a sloppy , amusing comedy that proceeds from a stunningly unoriginal premise . 
dolgin and franco fashion a fascinating portrait of a vietnamese-born youngster who eagerly and easily assimilated as an all-american girl with a brand new name in southern tennessee . 
the real star of this movie is the score , as in the songs translate well to film , and it's really well directed . 
knows how to make our imagination wonder . 
i had a dream that a smart comedy would come along to rescue me from a summer of teen-driven , toilet-humor codswallop , and its name was earnest . 
it works well enough , since the thrills pop up frequently , and the dispatching of the cast is as often imaginative as it is gory . 
writer-director juan carlos fresnadillo makes a feature debut that is fully formed and remarkably assured . 
wilco fans will have a great time , and the movie should win the band a few new converts , too . 
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 . 
this starts off with a 1950's doris day feel and it gets very ugly , very fast . the first five minutes will have you talking 'til the end of the year ! 
[stephen] earnhart's film is more about the optimism of a group of people who are struggling to give themselves a better lot in life than the ones they currently have . 
a richly imagined and admirably mature work from a gifted director who definitely has something on his mind . 
quando tiros em columbine acerta o alvo ( com o perdo do trocadilho ) , no h como negar o brilhantismo da argumentao de seu diretor . 
passable entertainment , but it's the kind of motion picture that won't make much of a splash when it's released , and will not be remembered long afterwards . 
it's anchored by splendid performances from an honored screen veteran and a sparkling newcomer who instantly transform themselves into a believable mother/daughter pair . 
try as you might to scrutinize the ethics of kaufman's approach , somehow it all comes together to create a very compelling , sensitive , intelligent and almost cohesive piece of film entertainment . 
if this story must be told and retold -- and indeed it must -- then the grey zone is to be lauded for finding a new and ingenious angle . 
 . . . understands that a generation defines its music as much as the music defines a generation . 
it made me want to get made-up and go see this movie with my sisters . i thought the relationships were wonderful , the comedy was funny , and the love 'real' . 
a lot more dimensional and complex than its sunny disposition would lead you to believe . 
salma goes native and she's never been better in this colorful bio-pic of a mexican icon . 
by the time it ends in a rush of sequins , flashbulbs , blaring brass and back-stabbing babes , it has said plenty about how show business has infiltrated every corner of society -- and not always for the better . 
a truly moving experience , and a perfect example of how art -- when done right -- can help heal , clarify , and comfort . 
u . s . audiences may find [attal and gainsbourg's] unfamiliar personas give the film an intimate and quaint reality that is a little closer to human nature than what hollywood typically concocts . 
it may sound like a mere disease-of- the-week tv movie , but a song for martin is made infinitely more wrenching by the performances of real-life spouses seldahl and wollter . 
a chance to see three splendid actors turn a larky chase movie into an emotionally satisfying exploration of the very human need to be somebody , and to belong to somebody . 
a surprisingly 'solid' achievement by director malcolm d . lee and writer john ridley . 
return to never land is reliable , standard disney animated fare , with enough creative energy and wit to entertain all ages . 
anchored by friel and williams's exceptional performances , the film's power lies in its complexity . nothing is black and white . 
fessenden's narrative is just as much about the ownership and redefinition of myth as it is about a domestic unit finding their way to joy . 
visually , 'santa clause 2' is wondrously creative . 
a movie that both thrills the eye and , in its over-the-top way , touches the heart . 
it's a remarkably solid and subtly satirical tour de force . 
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 . 
performances are potent , and the women's stories are ably intercut and involving . 
davis is funny , charming and quirky in her feature film acting debut as amy . 
handsome and sophisticated approach to the workplace romantic comedy . 
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
a naturally funny film , home movie makes you crave chris smith's next movie . 
the film sounds like the stuff of lurid melodrama , but what makes it interesting as a character study is the fact that the story is told from paul's perspective . 
sometimes this 'blood' seems as tired as its protagonist . . . still , the pulse never disappears entirely , and the picture crosses the finish line winded but still game . 
less cinematically powerful than quietly and deeply moving , which is powerful in itself . 
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 . 
the acting alone is worth the price of admission . 
it's refreshing to see a movie that embraces its old-fashioned themes and in the process comes out looking like something wholly original . 
if your taste runs to 'difficult' films you absolutely can't miss it . 
a bittersweet contemporary comedy about benevolent deception , which , while it may not rival the filmmaker's period pieces , is still very much worth seeing . 
after one gets the feeling that the typical hollywood disregard for historical truth and realism is at work here , it's a matter of finding entertainment in the experiences of zishe and the fiery presence of hanussen . 
oddly compelling . 
the universal theme of becoming a better person through love has never been filmed more irresistibly than in 'baran . '
that haynes can both maintain and dismantle the facades that his genre and his character construct is a wonderous accomplishment of veracity and narrative grace . 
ms . seigner and mr . serrault bring fresh , unforced naturalism to their characters . 
for the first time in several years , mr . allen has surpassed himself with the magic he's spun with the hollywood empress of ms . leoni's ellie . 
anyone who welcomes a dash of the avant-garde fused with their humor should take pleasure in this crazed , joyous romp of a film . 
defies logic , the laws of physics and almost anyone's willingness to believe in it . but darned if it doesn't also keep us riveted to our seats . 
worth a salute just for trying to be more complex than your average film . 
an uplifting , near-masterpiece . 
meant for star wars fans . it is there to give them a good time . 
as hugh grant says repeatedly throughout the movie , 'lovely ! brilliant ! '
here is a vh1 behind the music special that has something a little more special behind it : music that didn't sell many records but helped change a nation . 
 . . . certainly an entertaining ride , despite many talky , slow scenes . but something seems to be missing . a sense of real magic , perhaps . 
solondz creates some effective moments of discomfort for character and viewer alike . 
audacious-impossible yet compelling . . . 
the film offers an intriguing what-if premise . 
a breathtaking adventure for all ages , spirit tells its poignant and uplifting story in a stunning fusion of music and images . 
may be spoofing an easy target -- those old '50's giant creature features -- but . . . it acknowledges and celebrates their cheesiness as the reason why people get a kick out of watching them today . 
this new time machine is hardly perfect yet it proves surprisingly serviceable . even at its worst , it's not half-bad . 
what really surprises about wisegirls is its low-key quality and genuine tenderness . 
those with an interest in new or singular sorts of film experiences will find what time is it there ? well worth the time . 
it isn't that the picture is unfamiliar , but that it manages to find new avenues of discourse on old problems . 
the komediant is a tale worth catching . 
sharp edges and a deep vein of sadness run through its otherwise comic narrative . 
[hawn's character]is so bluntly written , without a trace of sentimentality , and so blisteringly defined , that every other character seems overlooked and underwritten . 
affirms the gifts of all involved , starting with spielberg and going right through the ranks of the players -- on-camera and off -- that he brings together . 
there's no denying the physically spectacular qualities of the film . . . or the emotional integrity of the performances . 
the film's welcome breeziness and some unbelievably hilarious moments -- most portraying the idiocy of the film industry -- make it mostly worth the trip . 
this is a very funny , heartwarming film . it has fun with the quirks of family life , but it also treats the subject with fondness and respect . 
the film's desire to be liked sometimes undermines the possibility for an exploration of the thornier aspects of the nature/nurture argument in regards to homosexuality . 
like kubrick , soderbergh isn't afraid to try any genre and to do it his own way . 
a romantic comedy that operates by the rules of its own self-contained universe . 
at its best when the guarded , resentful betty and the manipulative yet needy margot are front and center . 
even before it builds up to its insanely staged ballroom scene , in which 3000 actors appear in full regalia , it's waltzed itself into the art film pantheon . 
everyone's insecure in lovely and amazing , a poignant and wryly amusing film about mothers , daughters and their relationships . 
it's one thing to read about or rail against the ongoing - and unprecedented - construction project going on over our heads . it's quite another to feel physically caught up in the process . 
a fresh , entertaining comedy that looks at relationships minus traditional gender roles . 
a giggle-inducing comedy with snappy dialogue and winning performances by an unlikely team of oscar-winners : susan sarandon and goldie hawn . 
it took 19 predecessors to get this ? 
divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood may not be exactly divine , but it's definitely -- defiantly -- ya ya , what with all of those terrific songs and spirited performances . 
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 . 
working from a surprisingly sensitive script co-written by gianni romoli . . . ozpetek avoids most of the pitfalls you'd expect in such a potentially sudsy set-up . 
arteta directs one of the best ensemble casts of the year
a drama of great power , yet some members of the audience will leave the theater believing they have seen a comedy . 
weird . rewarding . 
shanghai ghetto may not be as dramatic as roman polanski's the pianist , but its compassionate spirit soars every bit as high . 
a fascinating documentary about the long and eventful spiritual journey of the guru who helped launch the new age . 
a pleasurably jacked-up piece of action moviemaking . 
there is nothing outstanding about this film , but it is good enough and will likely be appreciated most by sailors and folks who know their way around a submarine . 
 " what really happened ? " is a question for philosophers , not filmmakers ; all the filmmakers need to do is engage an audience . 
a fascinating and fun film . 
adaptation is intricately constructed and in a strange way nails all of orlean's themes without being a true adaptation of her book . 
heartwarming and gently comic even as the film breaks your heart . 
all three women deliver remarkable performances . 
it's predictable , but it jumps through the expected hoops with style and even some depth . 
rarely do films come along that are as intelligent , exuberant , and moving as monsoon wedding . 
what's most striking about this largely celebratory film . . . is the sense of isolation that permeates these bastions of individuality in an ikea world . 
brilliantly written and well-acted , yellow asphalt is an uncompromising film . 
would you laugh if a tuba-playing dwarf rolled down a hill in a trash can ? do you chuckle at the thought of an ancient librarian whacking a certain part of a man's body ? if you answered yes , by all means enjoy the new guy . 
henry bean's thoughtful screenplay provides no easy answers , but offers a compelling investigation of faith versus intellect
real women have curves wears its empowerment on its sleeve but even its worst harangues are easy to swallow thanks to remarkable performances by ferrera and ontiveros . 
the asylum material is gripping , as are the scenes of jia with his family . 
an epic of grandeur and scale that's been decades gone from the popcorn pushing sound stages of hollywood . 
goes a long way on hedonistic gusto . 
it's consistently funny , in an irresistible junior-high way , and consistently free of any gag that would force you to give it a millisecond of thought . 
'alice's adventure through the looking glass and into zombie-land' is filled with strange and wonderful creatures . 
an artful , intelligent film that stays within the confines of a well-established genre . 
bow's best moments are when he's getting busy on the basketball court because that's when he really scores . 
twenty years later , e . t . is still a cinematic touchstone . 
directors brett morgen and nanette burstein have put together a bold biographical fantasia . 
this documentary is a dazzling , remarkably unpretentious reminder of what [evans] had , lost , and got back . 
you could say that it's slow at times , you could say that a few of the characters act in ways that real people wouldn't , but one thing you couldn't say is that alias betty is predictable . 
unfolds in a low-key , organic way that encourages you to accept it as life and go with its flow . 
we admire this film for its harsh objectivity and refusal to seek our tears , our sympathies . 
this big screen caper has a good bark , far from being a bow-wow . 
an intelligent , moving and invigorating film . 
farrell . . . thankfully manages to outshine the role and successfully plays the foil to willis's world-weary colonel . 
if you can read the subtitles ( the opera is sung in italian ) and you like 'masterpiece theatre' type costumes , you'll enjoy this movie . 
what " empire " lacks in depth it makes up for with its heart . 
the evocative imagery and gentle , lapping rhythms of this film are infectious -- it gets under our skin and draws us in long before the plot kicks into gear . 
better than the tepid star trek : insurrection ; falls short of first contact because the villain couldn't pick the lint off borg queen alice krige's cape ; and finishes half a parsec ( a nose ) ahead of generations . 
about as big a crowdpleaser as they possibly come . 
this humbling little film , fueled by the light comedic work of zhao benshan and the delicate ways of dong jie , is just the sort for those moviegoers who complain that 'they don't make movies like they used to anymore . '
haneke challenges us to confront the reality of sexual aberration . 
[moore's] better at fingering problems than finding solutions . but though he only scratches the surface , at least he provides a strong itch to explore more . 
beating the austin powers films at their own game , this blaxploitation spoof downplays the raunch in favor of gags that rely on the strength of their own cleverness as opposed to the extent of their outrageousness . 
ao sair do cinema , eu estava feliz e com saudades de um tempo em que , para mim , a existncia de papai noel era um fato inquestionvel . 
stephen rea , aidan quinn , and alan bates play desmond's legal eagles , and when joined by brosnan , the sight of this grandiloquent quartet lolling in pretty irish settings is a pleasant enough thing , 'tis . 
taken outside the context of the current political climate ( see : terrorists are more evil than ever ! ) , the sum of all fears is simply a well-made and satisfying thriller . 
lan yu seems altogether too slight to be called any kind of masterpiece . it is , however , a completely honest , open-hearted film that should appeal to anyone willing to succumb to it . 
part of the film's cheeky charm comes from its vintage schmaltz . 
great character interaction . 
plays out with a dogged and eventually winning squareness that would make it the darling of many a kids-and-family-oriented cable channel . 
the chateau belongs to rudd , whose portrait of a therapy-dependent flakeball spouting french malapropisms . . . is a nonstop hoot . 
continually challenges perceptions of guilt and innocence , of good guys and bad , and asks us whether a noble end can justify evil means . 
it's a film that's destined to win a wide summer audience through word-of-mouth reviews and , not far down the line , to find a place among the studio's animated classics . 
a whale of a good time for both children and parents seeking christian-themed fun . 
it reaffirms life as it looks in the face of death . 
this is a dark , gritty , sometimes funny little gem . 
exquisitely acted and masterfully if preciously interwoven [the film] addresses in a fascinating , intelligent manner the intermingling of race , politics and local commerce . 
gambling and throwing a basketball game for money isn't a new plot -- in fact toback himself used it in black and white . but toback's deranged immediacy makes it seem fresh again . 
perhaps no picture ever made has more literally showed that the road to hell is paved with good intentions . 
a modestly surprising movie . 
the best way to describe it is as a cross between paul thomas anderson's magnolia and david lynch's mulholland dr . 
kaufman creates an eerie sense of not only being there at the time of these events but the very night matthew was killed . 
with spy kids 2 : the island of lost dreams , the spy kids franchise establishes itself as a durable part of the movie landscape : a james bond series for kids . 
the quiet american isn't a bad film , it's just one that could easily wait for your pay per view dollar . 
captures all the longing , anguish and ache , the confusing sexual messages and the wish to be a part of that elusive adult world . 
watching haneke's film is , aptly enough , a challenge and a punishment . but watching huppert , a great actress tearing into a landmark role , is riveting . 
an engrossing iranian film about two itinerant teachers and some lost and desolate people they encounter in a place where war has savaged the lives and liberties of the poor and the dispossessed . 
while cherish doesn'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 . 
what emerges is an unsettling picture of childhood innocence combined with indoctrinated prejudice . promises is a compelling piece that demonstrates just how well children can be trained to live out and carry on their parents' anguish . 
contando com uma premissa curiosa , o filme mergulha o espectador em um clima de forte suspense , culminando em um desfecho que certamente fica na memria . 
spielberg's first real masterpiece , it deserved all the hearts it won -- and wins still , 20 years later . 
an uneven but intriguing drama that is part homage and part remake of the italian masterpiece . 
macdowell , whose wifty southern charm has anchored lighter affairs . . . brings an absolutely riveting conviction to her role . 
the subtle strength of " elling " is that it never loses touch with the reality of the grim situation . 
terrific casting and solid execution give all three stories life . 
spinning a web of dazzling entertainment may be overstating it , but " spider-man " certainly delivers the goods . 
if the very concept makes you nervous . . . you'll have an idea of the film's creepy , scary effectiveness . 
tony gayton's script doesn't give us anything we haven't seen before , but director d . j . caruso's grimy visual veneer and kilmer's absorbing performance increase the gravitational pull considerably . 
you'd have to be a most hard-hearted person not to be moved by this drama . 
in the end there is one word that best describes this film : honest . 
i liked this film a lot . . . 
it's not going to be everyone's bag of popcorn , but it definitely gives you something to chew on . 
but tongue-in-cheek preposterousness has always been part of for the most part wilde's droll whimsy helps " being earnest " overcome its weaknesses and parker's creative interference . . . 
 . . . strips bible stores of the potential for sanctimoniousness , making them meaningful for both kids and church-wary adults . 
essentially an exceptionally well-written , well-edited , well-directed , well-acted , bald rip-off of aliens . 
poignant and moving , a walk to remember is an inspirational love story , capturing the innocence and idealism of that first encounter . 
for every cheesy scene , though , there is a really cool bit -- the movie's conception of a future-world holographic librarian ( orlando jones ) who knows everything and answers all questions , is visually smart , cleverly written , and nicely realized . 
red dragon is less baroque and showy than hannibal , and less emotionally affecting than silence . but , like silence , it's a movie that gets under your skin . 
 ( wendigo is ) why we go to the cinema : to be fed through the eye , the heart , the mind . 
nicole holofcener's lovely and amazing , from her own screenplay , jumps to the head of the class of women's films that manage to avoid the ghetto of sentimental chick-flicks by treating female follies with a satirical style . 
daughter from danang is a film that should be seen by all , especially those who aren't aware of , or have forgotten about the unmentioned victims of war . 
made me unintentionally famous  as the queasy-stomached critic who staggered from the theater and blacked out in the lobby . but believe it or not , it's one of the most beautiful , evocative works i've seen . 
'film aficionados cannot help but love cinema paradiso , whether the original version or new director's cut . '
as chilling and fascinating as philippe mora's modern hitler-study , snide and prejudice . 
a cockamamie tone poem pitched precipitously between swoony lyricism and violent catastrophe . . . the most aggressively nerve-wracking and screamingly neurotic romantic comedy in cinema history . 
this is the kind of movie that used to be right at home at the saturday matinee , and it still is . 
ferrara directs the entire film with the kind of detachment that makes any given frame look like a family's custom-made christmas card . 
monte cristo smartly emphasizes the well-wrought story and omits needless chase scenes and swordfights as the revenge unfolds . 
a worthy tribute to a great humanitarian and her vibrant 'co-stars . '
a thoroughly engaging , surprisingly touching british comedy . 
it's a nicely detailed world of pawns , bishops and kings , of wagers in dingy backrooms or pristine forests . 
the movie's seams may show . . . but pellington gives " mothman " an irresistibly uncanny ambience that goes a long way toward keeping the picture compelling . 
literary purists may not be pleased , but as far as mainstream matinee-style entertainment goes , it does a bang-up job of pleasing the crowds . 
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 . 
for the most part , it's a work of incendiary genius , steering clear of knee-jerk reactions and quick solutions . 
a rigorously structured and exquisitely filmed drama about a father and son connection that is a brief shooting star of love . 
at its worst the screenplay is callow , but at its best it is a young artist's thoughtful consideration of fatherhood . 
the performances are immaculate , with roussillon providing comic relief . 
an amusing and unexpectedly insightful examination of sexual jealousy , resentment and the fine line between passion and pretence . 
director-writer bille august . . . depicts this relationship with economical grace , letting his superb actors convey martin's deterioration and barbara's sadness -- and , occasionally , anger . 
spy kids 2 also happens to be that rarity among sequels : it actually improves upon the original hit movie . 
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 . 
the powder blues and sun-splashed whites of tunis make an alluring backdrop for this sensuous and spirited tale of a prim widow who finds an unlikely release in belly-dancing clubs . 
berling and bart . . . continue to impress , and isabelle huppert . . . again shows uncanny skill in getting under the skin of her characters . 
a slight but sweet film . 
inside the film's conflict-powered plot there is a decent moral trying to get out , but it's not that , it's the tension that keeps you in your seat . affleck and jackson are good sparring partners . 
likeable thanks to its cast , its cuisine and its quirky tunes . 
nohe's documentary about the event is sympathetic without being gullible : he isn't blind to the silliness , but also captures moments of spontaneous creativity and authentic co-operative interaction . 
beautiful to watch and holds a certain charm . 
a picture that extols the virtues of comradeship and community in a spunky , spirited fashion . 
if you can get past the fantastical aspects and harsh realities of " the isle " you'll get a sock-you-in-the-eye flick that is a visual tour-de-force and a story that is unlike any you will likely see anywhere else . 
a powerful , inflammatory film about religion that dares to question an ancient faith , and about hatred that offers no easy , comfortable resolution . 
this is a startling film that gives you a fascinating , albeit depressing view of iranian rural life close to the iraqi border . 
what jackson has accomplished here is amazing on a technical level . 
an intriguing and entertaining introduction to johnson . 
this isn't a stand up and cheer flick ; it's a sit down and ponder affair . and thanks to kline's superbly nuanced performance , that pondering is highly pleasurable . 
nothing is sacred in this gut-buster . 
there is a fabric of complex ideas here , and feelings that profoundly deepen them . 
i liked about schmidt a lot , but i have a feeling that i would have liked it much more if harry & tonto never existed . 
there's plenty to impress about e . t . 
the gentle comic treatment of adolescent sturm und drang should please fans of chris fuhrman's posthumously published cult novel . 
a weird , arresting little ride . 
if you don't flee , you might be seduced . if you don't laugh , flee . 
if you're not into the pokemon franchise , this fourth animated movie in four years won't convert you -- or even keep your eyes open . but fans should have fun meeting a brand-new pokemon called celebi . 
highly recommended as an engrossing story about a horrifying historical event and the elements which contributed to it . 
a wildly entertaining scan of evans' career . 
about the best thing you could say about narc is that it's a rock-solid little genre picture . whether you like it or not is basically a matter of taste . 
a typically observant , carefully nuanced and intimate french coming-of-age film that is an encouraging debut feature but has a needlessly downbeat ending that is too heavy for all that has preceded it . 
for all its plot twists , and some of them verge on the bizarre as the film winds down , blood work is a strong , character-oriented piece . 
tells ( the story ) with such atmospheric ballast that shrugging off the plot's persnickety problems is simply a matter of ( being ) in a shrugging mood . 
even these tales of just seven children seem at times too many , although in reality they are not enough . every child's story is what matters . this film can only point the way -- but thank goodness for this signpost . 
as lo-fi as the special effects are , the folks who cobbled nemesis together indulge the force of humanity over hardware in a way that george lucas has long forgotten . 
' . . . a great , participatory spectator sport . '
a positively thrilling combination of ethnography and all the intrigue , betrayal , deceit and murder of a shakespearean tragedy or a juicy soap opera . 
as blunt as it is in depicting child abuse , el bola is a movie steeped in an ambiguity that lends its conflicts a symbolic resonance . 
it's one heck of a character study -- not of hearst or davies but of the unique relationship between them . 
waydowntown is by no means a perfect film , but its boasts a huge charm factor and smacks of originality . 
we get an image of big papa spanning history , rather than suspending it . 
has a solid emotional impact . 
the diversity of the artists represented , both in terms of style and ethnicity , prevents the proceedings from feeling repetitious , as does the appropriately brief 40-minute running time . 
it's a good film -- not a classic , but odd , entertaining and authentic . 
not as well-written as sexy beast , not as gloriously flippant as lock , stock and two smoking barrels , but stylish and moody and exceptionally well-acted . 
day is not a great bond movie , but it is a good bond movie , which still makes it much better than your typical bond knock-offs . 
consummate actor barry has done excellent work here . 
like a veteran head cutter , barbershop is tuned in to its community . 
while the story does seem pretty unbelievable at times , it's awfully entertaining to watch . 
it tends to remind one of a really solid woody allen film , with its excellent use of new york locales and sharp writing
hayek is stunning as frida and . . . a star-making project . 
a powerful , chilling , and affecting study of one man's dying fall . 
confessions is without a doubt a memorable directorial debut from king hunk . 
one of the smartest takes on singles culture i've seen in a long time . 
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 . 
what could have easily become a cold , calculated exercise in postmodern pastiche winds up a powerful and deeply moving example of melodramatic moviemaking . 
good actors have a radar for juicy roles -- there's a plethora of characters in this picture , and not one of them is flat . 
director douglas mcgrath takes on nickleby with all the halfhearted zeal of an 8th grade boy delving into required reading . 
as if trying to grab a lump of play-doh , the harder that liman tries to squeeze his story , the more details slip out between his fingers . 
as a first-time director , paxton has tapped something in himself as an actor that provides frailty with its dark soul . 
it's one of the most honest films ever made about hollywood . 
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 . 
steers turns in a snappy screenplay that curls at the edges ; it's so clever you want to hate it . but he somehow pulls it off . 
a must-see for the david mamet enthusiast and for anyone who appreciates intelligent , stylish moviemaking . 
i simply can't recommend it enough . 
a winning comedy with its wry observations about long-lived friendships and the ways in which we all lose track of ourselves by trying to please others . 
even better than the first one ! 
it is intensely personal and yet -- unlike quills -- deftly shows us the temper of the times . 
opening with some contrived banter , cliches and some loose ends , the screenplay only comes into its own in the second half . 
the dirty jokes provide the funniest moments in this oddly sweet comedy about jokester highway patrolmen . 
attal mixes comedy with a serious exploration of ego and jealousy within a seemingly serene marriage . 
a movie i loved on first sight and , even more important , love in remembrance . 
delivers more than its fair share of saucy hilarity . 
in a summer of clones , harvard man is something rare and riveting : a wild ride that relies on more than special effects . 
if a horror movie's primary goal is to frighten and disturb , then they works spectacularly well . . . a shiver-inducing , nerve-rattling ride . 
amy and matthew have a bit of a phony relationship , but the film works in spite of it . 
a classic fairy tale that perfectly captures the wonders and worries of childhood in a way that few movies have ever approached . 
gets under the skin of a man who has just lost his wife . 
a keep-'em-guessing plot and an affectionate take on its screwed-up characters . 
upsetting and thought-provoking , the film has an odd purity that doesn't bring you into the characters so much as it has you study them . 
an infectious cultural fable with a tasty balance of family drama and frenetic comedy . 
this surreal gilliam-esque film is also a troubling interpretation of ecclesiastes . a rewarding work of art for only the most patient and challenge-hungry moviegoers . 
photographed with melancholy richness and eloquently performed yet also decidedly uncinematic . 
a stunning piece of visual poetry that will , hopefully , be remembered as one of the most important stories to be told in australia's film history . 
it's been made with an innocent yet fervid conviction that our hollywood has all but lost . 
if the message seems more facile than the earlier films , the images have such a terrible beauty you may not care . 
a quiet treasure -- a film to be savored . 
smart and taut . 
a coda in every sense , the pinochet case splits time between a minute-by-minute account of the british court's extradition chess game and the regime's talking-head survivors . 
once again , director jackson strikes a rewarding balance between emotion on the human scale and action/effects on the spectacular scale . 
this chicago has hugely imaginative and successful casting to its great credit , as well as one terrific score and attitude to spare . 
the warm presence of zhao benshan makes the preposterous lying hero into something more than he reasonably should be . 
 . . . somehow manages to escape the shackles of its own clichs to be the best espionage picture to come out in weeks . 
rich in detail , gorgeously shot and beautifully acted , les destinees is , in its quiet , epic way , daring , inventive and refreshingly unusual . 
this comic gem is as delightful as it is derivative . 
as directed by dani kouyate of burkina faso , sia lacks visual flair . but kouyate elicits strong performances from his cast , and he delivers a powerful commentary on how governments lie , no matter who runs them . 
veret has a whip-smart sense of narrative bluffs . 
the film may appear naked in its narrative form . . . but it goes deeper than that , to fundamental choices that include the complexity of the catholic doctrine
you may think you have figured out the con and the players in this debut film by argentine director fabian bielinsky , but while you were thinking someone made off with your wallet . 
a different movie -- sometimes tedious -- by a director many viewers would like to skip but film buffs should get to know . 
greengrass ( working from don mullan's script ) forgoes the larger socio-political picture of the situation in northern ireland in favour of an approach that throws one in the pulsating thick of a truly frightening situation . 
has its share of arresting images . 
it's a bittersweet and lyrical mix of elements . 
a journey through memory , a celebration of living , and a sobering rumination on fatality , classism , and ignorance . 
dense , exhilarating documentary . 
energetic and boldly provocative . 
there has been a string of ensemble cast romances recently . . . but peter mattei's love in the time of money sets itself apart by forming a chain of relationships that come full circle to end on a positive ( if tragic ) note . 
if you're willing to have fun with it , you won't feel cheated by the high infidelity of unfaithful . 
none of his actors stand out , but that's less of a problem here than it would be in another film : characterization matters less than atmosphere . 
has an unmistakable , easy joie de vivre . 
sean penn , you owe nicolas cage an apology . 
katz's documentary doesn't have much panache , but with material this rich it doesn't need it . 
some actors have so much charisma that you'd be happy to listen to them reading the phone book . hugh grant and sandra bullock are two such likeable actors . 
the movie is saved from unbearable lightness by the simplicity of the storytelling and the authenticity of the performances . 
a highly watchable , giggly little story with a sweet edge to it . 
a movie with a real anarchic flair . 
like the best 60 minutes expos , the film ( at 80 minutes ) is actually quite entertaining . 
a hip ride into hyper-time , clockstoppers is a lively and enjoyable adventure for all ages at any time . 
an engrossing and infectiously enthusiastic documentary . 
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 . 
there are so few films about the plight of american indians in modern america that skins comes as a welcome , if downbeat , missive from a forgotten front . 
'barbershop " is a good-hearted ensemble comedy with a variety of quirky characters and an engaging story . 
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 . 
'blue crush' swims away with the sleeper movie of the summer award . 
another trumpet blast that there may be a new mexican cinema a-bornin' . 
each punch seen through prison bars , the fights become not so much a struggle of man vs . man as brother-man vs . the man . 
this is an elegantly balanced movie -- every member of the ensemble has something fascinating to do -- that doesn't reveal even a hint of artifice . 
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 . 
binoche and magimel are perfect in these roles . 
with the film's striking ending , one realizes that we have a long way to go before we fully understand all the sexual permutations involved . 
wiseman reveals the victims of domestic abuse in all of their pity and terror . 
the film runs on a little longer than it needs to -- muccino either doesn't notice when his story ends or just can't tear himself away from the characters -- but it's smooth and professional . 
writer-director's mehta's effort has tons of charm and the whimsy is in the mixture , the intoxicating masala , of cultures and film genres . 
peter jackson and company once again dazzle and delight us , fulfilling practically every expectation either a longtime tolkien fan or a movie-going neophyte could want . 
a violent initiation rite for the audience , as much as it is for angelique , the [opening] dance guarantees karmen's enthronement among the cinema's memorable women . 
 " the emperor's new clothes " begins with a simple plan . . . . well , at least that's the plan . 
almost every scene in this film is a gem that could stand alone , a perfectly realized observation of mood , behavior and intent . 
majidi is an unconventional storyteller , capable of finding beauty in the most depressing places . 
robin williams has thankfully ditched the saccharine sentimentality of bicentennial man in favour of an altogether darker side . 
 " 13 conversations " holds its goodwill close , but is relatively slow to come to the point . 
too sincere to exploit its subjects and too honest to manipulate its audience . 
pacino is the best he's been in years and keener is marvelous . 
a cartoon that's truly cinematic in scope , and a story that's compelling and heartfelt -- even if the heart belongs to a big , four-legged herbivore . 
well-done supernatural thriller with keen insights into parapsychological phenomena and the soulful nuances of the grieving process . 
a three-hour cinema master class . 
the cast is top-notch and i predict there will be plenty of female audience members drooling over michael idemoto as michael . 
the experience of watching blobby old-school cgi animation in this superlarge format is just surreal enough to be diverting . 
quite funny for the type of movie it is . . . 
lathan and diggs have considerable personal charm , and their screen rapport makes the old story seem new . 
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 couldn't care less . 
having never been a huge fan of dickens' 800-page novel , it surprised me how much pleasure i had watching mcgrath's version . 
will certainly appeal to asian cult cinema fans and asiaphiles interested to see what all the fuss is about . 
the story has some nice twists but the ending and some of the back-story is a little tired . the performances are all solid ; it merely lacks originality to make it a great movie . 
garcia and the other actors help make the wobbly premise work . 
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 . 
peter jackson has done the nearly impossible . he has improved upon the first and taken it a step further , richer and deeper . what jackson has done is proven that no amount of imagination , no creature , no fantasy story and no incredibly outlandish scenery
what better message than 'love thyself' could young women of any size receive ? 
miller tells this very compelling tale with little fuss or noise , expertly plucking tension from quiet . 
exciting and direct , with ghost imagery that shows just enough to keep us on our toes . 
transforms one of [shakespeare's] deepest tragedies into a smart new comedy . 
collateral damage is trash , but it earns extra points by acting as if it weren't . 
though everything might be literate and smart , it never took off and always seemed static . 
the film is faithful to what one presumes are the book's twin premises -- that we become who we are on the backs of our parents , but we have no idea who they were at our age ; and that time is a fleeting and precious commodity no matter how old you are . 
a historical epic with the courage of its convictions about both scope and detail . 
a startling and fresh examination of how the bike still remains an ambiguous icon in chinese society . 
what's surprising about full frontal is that despite its overt self-awareness , parts of the movie still manage to break past the artifice and thoroughly engage you . 
much of what we see is horrible but it's also undeniably exceedingly clever . 
though it never rises to its full potential as a film , still offers a great deal of insight into the female condition and the timeless danger of emotions repressed . 
thurman and lewis are hilarious throughout . 
 . . . begins with promise , but runs aground after being snared in its own tangled plot . 
the movie , despite its rough edges and a tendency to sag in certain places , is wry and engrossing . 
so unique and stubborn and charismatic that you want it to be better and more successful than it is . 
despite a story predictable enough to make the sound of music play like a nail-biting thriller , its heart is so much in the right place it is difficult to get really peeved at it . 
it may not be " last tango in paris " but . . . 
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 . 
occasionally amateurishly made but a winsome cast and nice dialogue keeps it going . 
illuminating if overly talky documentary . 
this film is not a love letter for the slain rappers , it's a taunt -a call for justice for two crimes from which many of us have not yet recovered . 
this charming , thought-provoking new york fest of life and love has its rewards . 
if this movie leaves you cool , it also leaves you intriguingly contemplative . 
campanella gets the tone just right -- funny in the middle of sad in the middle of hopeful . 
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 . 
the beauty of alexander payne's ode to the everyman is in the details . 
another love story in 2002's remarkable procession of sweeping pictures that have reinvigorated the romance genre . 
one of those movies that catches you up in something bigger than yourself , namely , an archetypal desire to enjoy good trash every now and then . 
by the end of no such thing the audience , like beatrice , has a watchful affection for the monster . 
a fantastically vital movie that manages to invest real humor , sensuality , and sympathy into a story about two adolescent boys . 
even the digressions are funny . 
until it goes off the rails in its final 10 or 15 minutes , wendigo , larry fessenden's spooky new thriller , is a refreshingly smart and newfangled variation on several themes derived from far less sophisticated and knowing horror films . 
what it lacks in originality it makes up for in intelligence and b-grade stylishness . 
watching beanie and his gang put together his slasher video from spare parts and borrowed materials is as much fun as it must have been for them to make it . 
its maker , steven spielberg , hasn't had so much fun in two decades , since he was schlepping indiana jones around the globe in search of a giant misplaced ashtray . 
an asian neo-realist treasure . 
cold , nervy and memorable . 
no worse a film than breaking out , and breaking out was utterly charming . 
one of those rare , exhilarating cinematic delights that gets even better in hindsight , as you mull over its every nuance in your mind . 
katz uses archival footage , horrifying documents of lynchings , still photographs and charming old reel-to-reel recordings of meeropol entertaining his children to create his song history , but most powerful of all is the song itself
daughter from danang reveals that efforts toward closure only open new wounds . it doesn't flinch from its unsettling prognosis , namely , that the legacy of war is a kind of perpetual pain . 
as a director , mr . ratliff wisely rejects the temptation to make fun of his subjects . 
[a]n utterly charming and hilarious film that reminded me of the best of the disney comedies from the 60s . 
o ltimo suspeito ganha fora ao tambm funcionar em uma esfera adicional : a do drama familiar . 
a delightful little film that revels in its own simplicity , mostly martha will leave you with a smile on your face and a grumble in your stomach . 
a recent favourite at sundance , this white-trash satire will inspire the affection of even those unlucky people who never owned a cassette of def leppard's pyromania . 
a cultural wildcard experience : wacky , different , unusual , even nutty . 
confessions may not be a straightforward bio , nor does it offer much in the way of barris' motivations , but the film is an oddly fascinating depiction of an architect of pop culture . 
a graceful , contemplative film that gradually and artfully draws us into a world where the personal and the political get fatally intertwined . 
the delicious trimmingsarrive early and stay late , filling nearly every minutewith a lighthearted glow , some impudent snickers , and a glorious dose of humankind's liberating ability to triumph over a scrooge or two . 
a remarkable movie with an unsatisfying ending , which is just the point . 
if not a home run , then at least a solid base hit . 
the sentimental script has problems , but the actors pick up the slack . 
while maintaining the appearance of clinical objectivity , this sad , occasionally horrifying but often inspiring film is among wiseman's warmest . 
a muckraking job , the cinematic equivalent of a legal indictment , and a fairly effective one at that . 
it's fun , splashy and entertainingly nasty . 
the setting is so cool that it chills the characters , reducing our emotional stake in the outcome of " intacto's " dangerous and seductively stylish game . 
franco is an excellent choice for the walled-off but combustible hustler , but he does not give the transcendent performance sonny needs to overcome gaps in character development and story logic . 
polanski has found the perfect material with which to address his own world war ii experience in his signature style . 
 . . . a story we haven't seen on the big screen before , and it's a story that we as americans , and human beings , should know . 
a metaphor for a modern-day urban china searching for its identity . 
i admired this work a lot . 
a shimmeringly lovely coming-of-age portrait , shot in artful , watery tones of blue , green and brown . 
a movie that's just plain awful but still manages to entertain on a guilty-pleasure , so-bad-it's-funny level . 
parker holds true to wilde's own vision of a pure comedy with absolutely no meaning , and no desire to be anything but a polished , sophisticated entertainment that is in love with its own cleverness . 
the hard-to-predict and absolutely essential chemistry between the down-to-earth bullock and the nonchalant grant proves to be sensational , and everything meshes in this elegant entertainment . 
creeps you out in high style , even if nakata did it better . 
proves a servicable world war ii drama that can't totally hide its contrivances , but it at least calls attention to a problem hollywood too long has ignored . 
for its seriousness , high literary aspirations and stunning acting , the film can only be applauded . 
huppert and girardot give performances of exceptional honesty . 
my big fat greek wedding uses stereotypes in a delightful blend of sweet romance and lovingly dished out humor . 
with amazing finesse , the film shadows heidi's trip back to vietnam and the city where her mother , mai thi kim , still lives . 
for all its visual panache and compelling supporting characters , the heart of the film rests in the relationship between sullivan and his son . 
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 . 
ozpetek's effort has the scope and shape of an especially well-executed television movie . 
really quite funny . 
a gift to anyone who loves both dance and cinema
hey , happy ! is many things -- stoner midnight flick , sci-fi deconstruction , gay fantasia -- but above all it's a love story as sanguine as its title . 
it is a challenging film , if not always a narratively cohesive one . 
leading a double life in an american film only comes to no good , but not here . matters play out realistically if not always fairly . 
a bittersweet film , simple in form but rich with human events . 
while undisputed isn't exactly a high , it is a gripping , tidy little movie that takes mr . hill higher than he's been in a while . 
showtime is a fine-looking film with a bouncy score and a clutch of lively songs for deft punctuation . 
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 . 
the best thing i can say about this film is that i can't wait to see what the director does next . 
featuring a dangerously seductive performance from the great daniel auteuil , " sade " covers the same period as kaufmann's " quills " with more unsettlingly realistic results . 
so original in its base concept that you cannot help but get caught up . 
the mark of a respectable summer blockbuster is one of two things : unadulterated thrills or genuine laughs . 
it's virtually impossible to like any of these despicable characters . 
genuinely unnerving . 
see scratch for the history , see scratch for the music , see scratch for a lesson in scratching , but , most of all , see it for the passion . 
an exhilarating serving of movie fluff . 
[while the last metro] 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 . 
it's surprisingly decent , particularly for a tenth installment in a series . 
an extraordinary dramatic experience . 
this ecologically minded , wildlife friendly film teaches good ethics while entertaining with its unconventionally wacky but loving family
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 . 
the acting in pauline and paulette is good all round , but what really sets the film apart is debrauwer's refusal to push the easy emotional buttons . 
gently humorous and touching . 
it might be tempting to regard mr . andrew and his collaborators as oddballs , but mr . earnhart's quizzical , charming movie allows us to see them , finally , as artists . 
beneath the film's obvious determination to shock at any cost lies considerable skill and determination , backed by sheer nerve . 
the charm of revolution os is rather the way it introduces you to new , fervently held ideas and fanciful thinkers . 
may lack the pungent bite of its title , but it's an enjoyable trifle nonetheless . 
a generous , inspiring film that unfolds with grace and humor and gradually becomes a testament to faith . 
by presenting an impossible romance in an impossible world , pumpkin dares us to say why either is impossible -- which forces us to confront what's possible and what we might do to make it so . 
the film is a blunt indictment , part of a perhaps surreal campaign to bring kissinger to trial for crimes against humanity . 
disney aficionados will notice distinct parallels between this story and the 1971 musical " bedknobs and broomsticks , " which also dealt with british children rediscovering the power of fantasy during wartime . 
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 . 
one of the best inside-show-biz yarns ever . 
i am more offended by his lack of faith in his audience than by anything on display here . 
a poignant comedy that offers food for thought . 
that dogged good will of the parents and 'vain' jia's defoliation of ego , make the film touching despite some doldrums . 
exactly what its title implies : lusty , boisterous and utterly charming . 
a brutally dry satire of middle american numbness . 
payne has created a beautiful canvas , and nicholson proves once again that he's the best brush in the business . 
there's a spontaneity to the chateau , a sense of light-heartedness , that makes it attractive throughout . 
despite the film's bizarre developments , hoffman keeps us riveted with every painful nuance , unexpected flashes of dark comedy and the character's gripping humanity . 
 . . . a sweetly affecting story about four sisters who are coping , in one way or another , with life's endgame . 
a rude black comedy about the catalytic effect a holy fool has upon those around him in the cutthroat world of children's television . 
narc may not get an 'a' for originality , but it wears its b-movie heritage like a badge of honor . 
i know i shouldn't have laughed , but hey , those farts got to my inner nine-year-old . 
jason patric and ray liotta make for one splendidly cast pair . 
 " home movie " is a sweet treasure and something well worth your time . 
it's a tour de force , written and directed so quietly that it's implosion rather than explosion you fear . 
although it lacks the detail of the book , the film does pack some serious suspense . 
wiseman is patient and uncompromising , letting his camera observe and record the lives of women torn apart by a legacy of abuse . 
renner carries much of the film with a creepy and dead-on performance . 
[reaches] wholly believable and heart-wrenching depths of despair . 
shot largely in small rooms , the film has a gentle , unforced intimacy that never becomes claustrophobic . 
this riveting world war ii moral suspense story deals with the shadow side of american culture : racial prejudice in its ugly and diverse forms . 
beautiful , cold , oddly colorful and just plain otherworldly , a freaky bit of art that's there to scare while we delight in the images . 
the film's snags and stumblings are more than compensated for by its wryly subversive tone . 
transcends its agenda to deliver awe-inspiring , at times sublime , visuals and offer a fascinating glimpse into the subculture of extreme athletes whose derring-do puts the x into the games . 
a sharp satire of desperation and cinematic deception . 
what lifts the film high above run-of-the-filth gangster flicks is its refusal to recognise any of the signposts , as if discovering a way through to the bitter end without a map . 
an engrossing portrait of uncompromising artists trying to create something original against the backdrop of a corporate music industry that only seems to care about the bottom line . 
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 . 
as i settled into my world war ii memories , i found myself strangely moved by even the corniest and most hackneyed contrivances . 
finds a way to tell a simple story , perhaps the simplest story of all , in a way that seems compelling and even original . 
return to never land may be another shameless attempt by disney to rake in dough from baby boomer families , but it's not half-bad . 
nakata's technique is to imply terror by suggestion , rather than the overuse of special effects . 
michael gerbosi's script is economically packed with telling scenes . 
the long-range appeal of " minority report " should transcend any awards it bags . this is one for the ages . 
here's yet another studio horror franchise mucking up its storyline with glitches casual fans could correct in their sleep . but taken as a stylish and energetic one-shot , the queen of the damned cannot be said to suck . 
it's hard to imagine anybody ever being " in the mood " to view a movie as harrowing and painful as the grey zone , but it's equally hard to imagine anybody being able to tear their eyes away from the screen once it's started . 
 . . . once the true impact of the day unfolds , the power of this movie is undeniable . 
rarely , indeed almost never , is such high-wattage brainpower coupled with pitch-perfect acting and an exquisite , unfakable sense of cinema . 
ford deserves to be remembered at oscar time for crafting this wonderful portrait of a conflicted soldier . 
discursive but oddly riveting documentary . 
it's a glorious groove that leaves you wanting more . 
just about the best straight-up , old-school horror film of the last 15 years . 
if there's nothing fresh about wannabes , which was written by mr . demeo , who produced and directed the film with charles a . addessi , much of the time the movie feels authentic . 
the wonderful combination of the sweetness and the extraordinary technical accomplishments of the first film are maintained , but its overall impact falls a little flat with a storyline that never quite delivers the original magic . 
 . . . planos fijos , tomas largas , un ritmo pausado y una sutil observacin de sus personajes , sin estridencias ni grandes revelaciones . 
if it's unnerving suspense you're after -- you'll find it with ring , an indisputably spooky film ; with a screenplay to die for . 
robert harmon's less-is-more approach delivers real bump-in -the-night chills -- his greatest triumph is keeping the creepy crawlies hidden in the film's thick shadows . 
a surprisingly funny movie . 
the mothman prophecies is best when illustrating the demons bedevilling the modern masculine journey . 
pipe dream does have its charms . the leads are natural and lovely , the pace is serene , the humor wry and sprightly . 
throws in enough clever and unexpected twists to make the formula feel fresh . 
despite its many infuriating flaws -- not the least of which is amy's self-absorbed personality -- amy's o's honesty will win you over . 
brown sugar signals director rick famuyiwa's emergence as an articulate , grown-up voice in african-american cinema . 
bolstered by exceptional performances and a clear-eyed take on the economics of dealing and the pathology of ghetto fabulousness . 
the difference between cho and most comics is that her confidence in her material is merited . 
 . . . a fun little timewaster , helped especially by the cool presence of jean reno . 
lookin' for sin , american-style ? try hell house , which documents the cautionary christian spook-a-rama of the same name . 
the best comedy concert movie i've seen since cho's previous concert comedy film , i'm the one that i want , in 2000 . 
the movie stays afloat thanks to its hallucinatory production design . 
a tone of rueful compassion . . . reverberates throughout this film , whose meaning and impact is sadly heightened by current world events . 
unexpected , and often contradictory , truths emerge . 
formuliac , but fun . 
for those of an indulgent , slightly sunbaked and summery mind , sex and lucia may well prove diverting enough . 
scherfig , the writer-director , has made a film so unabashedly hopeful that it actually makes the heart soar . yes , soar . 
count on his movie to work at the back of your neck long after you leave the theater . 
evokes the frustration , the awkwardness and the euphoria of growing up , without relying on the usual tropes . 
even with all those rough edges safely sanded down , the american insomnia is still pretty darned good . 
the director , steven shainberg , has succeeded by focusing intently on his characters , making them quirky individuals rather than figures of fun . 
able to provide insight into a fascinating part of theater history . 
it's a powerful though flawed movie , guaranteed to put a lump in your throat while reaffirming washington as possibly the best actor working in movies today . 
a funny , triumphant , and moving documentary . 
cuaron repeatedly , perversely undercuts the joie de vivre even as he creates it , giving the movie a mournful undercurrent that places the good-time shenanigans in welcome perspective . 
on its own staggeringly unoriginal terms , this gender-bending comedy is generally quite funny . 
elling builds gradually until you feel fully embraced by this gentle comedy . 
it seems grant doesn't need the floppy hair and the self-deprecating stammers after all . 
an impressive debut for first-time writer-director mark romanek , especially considering his background is in music video . 
woo's fights have a distinct flair . his warriors collide in balletic explosion that implies an underlying order throughout the chaos . 
jacquot's tosca is a treat . 
travels a fascinating arc from hope and euphoria to reality and disillusionment . 
well-written , nicely acted and beautifully shot and scored , the film works on several levels , openly questioning social mores while ensnaring the audience with its emotional pull . 
based on a devilishly witty script by heather mcgowan and niels mueller , the film gets great laughs , but never at the expense of its characters
this is an exercise in chilling style , and twohy films the sub , inside and out , with an eye on preserving a sense of mystery . 
the movie itself is far from disappointing , offering an original take on courtroom movies , a few nifty twists that are so crucial to the genre and another first-rate performance by top-billed star bruce willis . 
pratfalls aside , barbershop gets its greatest play from the timeless spectacle of people really talking to each other . 
it all adds up to good fun . 
despite what anyone believes about the goal of its makers , the show . . . represents a spectacular piece of theater , and there's no denying the talent of the creative forces behind it . 
everything about the quiet american is good , except its timing . 
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+ . " i love the robust middle of this picture . 
dazzling and sugar-sweet , a blast of shallow magnificence that only sex , scandal , and a chorus line of dangerous damsels can deliver . 
great performances , stylish cinematography and a gritty feel help make gangster no . 1 a worthwhile moviegoing experience . 
effectively feeds our senses with the chilling sights and sounds from within the camp to create a completely numbing experience . 
just as the recent argentine film son of the bride reminded us that a feel-good movie can still show real heart , time of favor presents us with an action movie that actually has a brain . 
cox creates a fluid and mesmerizing sequence of images to match the words of nijinsky's diaries . 
a pleasant piece of escapist entertainment . 
an overly familiar scenario is made fresh by an intelligent screenplay and gripping performances in this low-budget , video-shot , debut indie effort . 
it is scott's convincing portrayal of roger the sad cad that really gives the film its oomph . 
though writer/director bart freundlich's film ultimately becomes a simplistic story about a dysfunctional parent-child relationship , it has some special qualities and the soulful gravity of crudup's anchoring performance . 
offers a breath of the fresh air of true sophistication . 
the kind of sense of humor that derives from a workman's grasp of pun and entendre and its attendant need to constantly draw attention to itself . 
this tenth feature is a big deal , indeed -- at least the third-best , and maybe even a notch above the previous runner-up , nicholas meyer's star trek vi : the undiscovered country . 
viveka seldahl and sven wollter will touch you to the core in a film you will never forget -- that you should never forget . 
 . . . breathes surprising new life into the familiar by amalgamating genres and adding true human complexity to its not-so-stock characters . 
the filmmaker's heart is in the right place . . . 
what saves this deeply affecting film from being merely a collection of wrenching cases is corcuera's attention to detail . 
this is a nervy , risky film , and villeneuve has inspired croze to give herself over completely to the tormented persona of bibi . 
the directive to protect the code at all costs also begins to blur as the importance of the man and the code merge
using an endearing cast , writer/director dover kosashvili takes a slightly dark look at relationships , both sexual and kindred . 
the movie is . . . very funny as you peek at it through the fingers in front of your eyes . 
i would be shocked if there was actually one correct interpretation , but that shouldn't make the movie or the discussion any less enjoyable . 
too often , son of the bride becomes an exercise in trying to predict when a preordained " big moment " will occur and not " if . " 
if you dig on david mamet's mind tricks . . . rent this movie and enjoy ! 
serious movie-goers embarking upon this journey will find that the road to perdition leads to a satisfying destination . 
a knowing sense of humor and a lot of warmth ignite son of the bride . 
almodovar is an imaginative teacher of emotional intelligence in this engaging film about two men who discover what william james once called 'the gift of tears . '
though it's equally solipsistic in tone , the movie has enough vitality to justify the notion of creating a screen adaptation of evans' saga of hollywood excess . 
workmanlike , maybe , but still a film with all the elements that made the other three great , scary times at the movies . 
a good thriller . 
smith is careful not to make fun of these curious owners of architectural oddities . instead , he shows them the respect they are due . 
holy mad maniac in a mask , splat-man ! good old-fashioned slash-and-hack is back ! 
worth a look as a curiosity . 
a very well-made , funny and entertaining picture . 
a movie for 11-year-old boys with sports dreams of their own and the preteen girls who worship lil' bow wow . 
to some eyes this will seem like a recycling of clichs , an assassin's greatest hits . to others , it will remind them that hong kong action cinema is still alive and kicking . 
the volatile dynamics of female friendship is the subject of this unhurried , low-key film that is so off-hollywood that it seems positively french in its rhythms and resonance . 
sex with strangers is fascinating . . . 
the funny thing is , i didn't mind all this contrived nonsense a bit . 
it's a visual delight and a decent popcorn adventure , as long as you don't try to look too deep into the story
there is a certain sense of experimentation and improvisation to this film that may not always work , but it is nevertheless compelling . 
goyer's screenplay and direction are thankfully understated , and he has drawn excellent performances from his cast . 
secretary is not a movie about fetishism . it is a movie about passion . 
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 . 
mr . parker has brilliantly updated his source and grasped its essence , composing a sorrowful and hilarious tone poem about alienated labor , or an absurdist workplace sitcom . 
sayles has an eye for the ways people of different ethnicities talk to and about others outside the group . 
visually striking and viscerally repellent . 
lavishly , exhilaratingly tasteless . 
a confluence of kiddie entertainment , sophisticated wit and symbolic graphic design . 
a huge box-office hit in korea , shiri is a must for genre fans . 
viewed on its own terms , treasure planet is better-than-average family entertainment , but true fans of the stevenson's novel will likely prefer disney's more faithful 1950 live-action swashbuckling classic . 
a triumph of pure craft and passionate heart . 
the socio-histo-political treatise is told in earnest strides . . . [and] personal illusion is deconstructed with poignancy . 
what sets this romantic comedy apart from most hollywood romantic comedies is its low-key way of tackling what seems like done-to-death material . 
the film proves unrelentingly grim -- and equally engrossing . 
what full frontal lacks in thematic coherence it largely makes up for as loosey-goosey , experimental entertainment . still , i'm not quite sure what the point is
rain is a small treasure , enveloping the viewer in a literal and spiritual torpor that is anything but cathartic . 
there is little question that this is a serious work by an important director who has something new to say about how , in the flip-flop of courtship , we often reel in when we should be playing out . 
filled with alexandre desplat's haunting and sublime music , the movie completely transfixes the audience . 
the path ice age follows most closely , though , is the one established by warner bros . giant chuck jones , who died a matter of weeks before the movie's release . 
while the isle is both preposterous and thoroughly misogynistic , its vistas are incredibly beautiful to look at . 
one of the more intelligent children's movies to hit theaters this year . 
though it lacks the utter authority of a genre gem , there's a certain robustness to this engaging mix of love and bloodletting . 
an ideal love story for those intolerant of the more common saccharine genre . 
a droll , bitchy frolic which pokes fun at the price of popularity and small-town pretension in the lone star state . 
this submarine drama earns the right to be favorably compared to das boot . 
the story's scope and pageantry are mesmerizing , and mr . day-lewis roars with leonine power . 
its use of the thriller form to examine the labyrinthine ways in which people's lives cross and change , buffeted by events seemingly out of their control , is intriguing , provocative stuff . 
the film presents visceral and dangerously honest revelations about the men and machines behind the curtains of our planet . 
de oliveira creates an emotionally rich , poetically plump and visually fulsome , but never showy , film whose bittersweet themes are reinforced and brilliantly personified by michel piccoli . 
a provocative movie about loss , anger , greed , jealousy , sickness and love . 
the enjoyable undercover brother , a zany mix of saturday night live-style parody , '70s blaxploitation films and goofball action comedy gone wild , dishes out a ton of laughs that everyone can enjoy . 
one of the best of a growing strain of daring films . . . that argue that any sexual relationship that doesn't hurt anyone and works for its participants is a relationship that is worthy of our respect . 
'estupendamente actuada , sumamente emotiva y profundamente humana , es una experiencia flmica imposible de olvidar'
originality ain't on the menu , but there's never a dull moment in the giant spider invasion comic chiller . 
[taymor] utilizes the idea of making kahlo's art a living , breathing part of the movie , often catapulting the artist into her own work . this isn't a new idea . it's been done before but never so vividly or with so much passion . 
hardly an objective documentary , but it's great cinematic polemic . . . love moore or loathe him , you've got to admire . . . the intensity with which he's willing to express his convictions . 
the wanton slipperiness of * corpus and its amiable jerking and reshaping of physical time and space would make it a great piece to watch with kids and use to introduce video as art . 
one fantastic ( and educational ) documentary . 
a meditation on faith and madness , frailty is blood-curdling stuff . 
moretti . . . is the rare common-man artist who's wise enough to recognize that there are few things in this world more complex -- and , as it turns out , more fragile -- than happiness . 
its adult themes of familial separation and societal betrayal are head and shoulders above much of the director's previous popcorn work . 
while it's nothing we haven't seen before from murphy , i spy is still fun and enjoyable and so aggressively silly that it's more than a worthwhile effort . 
everyone should be able to appreciate the wonderful cinematography and naturalistic acting . 
this rush to profits has created a predictably efficient piece of business notable largely for its overwhelming creepiness , for an eagerness to create images you wish you hadn't seen , which , in this day and age , is of course the point . 
a playful iranian parable about openness , particularly the need for people of diverse political perspectives to get along despite their ideological differences . 
if you're in the mood for a bollywood film , here's one for you . 
a whole lot of fun and funny in the middle , though somewhat less hard-hitting at the start and finish . 
what's most refreshing about real women have curves is its unforced comedy-drama and its relaxed , natural-seeming actors . 
it is a testament of quiet endurance , of common concern , of reconciled survival . 
shot in rich , shadowy black-and-white , devils chronicles , with increasingly amused irony , the relationship between reluctant captors and befuddled captives . 
blanchett's performance confirms her power once again . 
a quietly moving look back at what it was to be iranian-american in 1979 . 
boisterous and daft documentary . 
this examination of aquatic life off the shores of the baja california peninsula of mexico offers an engrossing way to demonstrate the virtues of the imax format . 
it doesn't make for great cinema , but it is interesting to see where one's imagination will lead when given the opportunity . 
mr . clooney , mr . kaufman and all their collaborators are entitled to take a deep bow for fashioning an engrossing entertainment out of an almost sure-fire prescription for a critical and commercial disaster . 
moore's performance impresses almost as much as her work with haynes in 1995's safe . 
it's a beautifully accomplished lyrical meditation on a bunch of despondent and vulnerable characters living in the renown chelsea hotel . . . 
hashiguchi uses the situation to evoke a japan bustling atop an undercurrent of loneliness and isolation . 
consistently clever and suspenseful . 
more honest about alzheimer's disease , i think , than iris . 
as averse as i usually am to feel-good , follow-your-dream hollywood fantasies , this one got to me . 
[a] satisfying niblet . 
it is risky , intelligent , romantic and rapturous from start to finish . 
in other words , it's just another sports drama/character study . yet this one makes up for in heart what it lacks in outright newness . plus , like i already mentioned . . . it's robert duvall ! c'mon ! 
fans of the animated wildlife adventure show will be in warthog heaven ; others need not necessarily apply . 
the writing is clever and the cast is appealing . 
trademark american triteness and simplicity are tossed out the window with the intelligent french drama that deftly explores the difficult relationship between a father and son . 
if you want to see a train wreck that you can't look away from , then look no further , because here it is . 
[an] absorbing documentary . 
elling really is about a couple of crazy guys , and it's therapeutic to laugh along with them . 
a very witty take on change , risk and romance , and the film uses humour to make its points about acceptance and growth . 
at times a bit melodramatic and even a little dated ( depending upon where you live ) , ignorant fairies is still quite good-natured and not a bad way to spend an hour or two . 
feeling like a dope has rarely been more fun than it is in nine queens . 
when twentysomething hotsies make movies about their lives , hard-driving narcissism is a given , but what a world we'd live in if argento's hollywood counterparts . . . had this much imagination and nerve . 
if you can stomach the rough content , it's worth checking out for the performances alone . 
you wouldn't want to live waydowntown , but it is a hilarious place to visit . 
[breheny's] lensing of the new zealand and cook island locations captures both the beauty of the land and the people . 
despite its faults , gangs excels in spectacle and pacing . 
i was impressed by how many tit-for-tat retaliatory responses the filmmakers allow before pulling the plug on the conspirators and averting an american-russian armageddon . 
unlike most anime , whose most ardent fans outside japan seem to be introverted young men with fantasy fetishes , metropolis never seems hopelessly juvenile . 
a movie that will surely be profane , politically charged music to the ears of cho's fans . 
bennett's dramatization of her personal descent into post-breakup perdition has a morbid appeal that's tough to shake . 
i like it . there is a freedom to watching stunts that are this crude , this fast-paced and this insane . 
if you like peace , you'll like promises . 
surprisingly , the film is a hilarious adventure and i shamelessly enjoyed it . 
makmalbaf follows a resolutely realistic path in this uncompromising insight into the harsh existence of the kurdish refugees of iran's borderlands . 
a piquant meditation on the things that prevent people from reaching happiness . 
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 . 
though not for everyone , the guys is a somber trip worth taking . 
perfectly pitched between comedy and tragedy , hope and despair , about schmidt instead comes far closer than many movies to expressing the way many of us live -- someplace between consuming self-absorption and insistently demanding otherness . 
a well-rounded tribute to a man whose achievements -- and complexities -- reached far beyond the end zone . 
majidi's direction has never been smoother or more confident . 
celebrated at sundance , this slight comedy of manners has winning performances and a glossy , glib charm that's hard to beat . 
speaks eloquently about the symbiotic relationship between art and life . 
rarely have i seen a film so willing to champion the fallibility of the human heart . 
smart , provocative and blisteringly funny . 
an absorbing and unsettling psychological drama . 
 . . . rogers's mouth never stops shut about the war between the sexes and how to win the battle . 
a work of extraordinary journalism , but it is also a work of deft and subtle poetry . 
 . . . fuses the events of her life with the imagery in her paintings so vividly that the artist's work may take on a striking new significance for anyone who sees the film . 
while the path may be familiar , first-time director denzel washington and a top-notch cast manage to keep things interesting . 
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 . 
affable if not timeless , like mike raises some worthwhile themes while delivering a wholesome fantasy for kids . 
a mess , but it's a sincere mess . 
while it has definite weaknesses -- like a rather unbelievable love interest and a meandering ending -- this '60s caper film is a riveting , brisk delight . 
the director , mark pellington , does a terrific job conjuring up a sinister , menacing atmosphere though unfortunately all the story gives us is flashing red lights , a rattling noise , and a bump on the head . 
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 . 
the film is bright and flashy in all the right ways . 
its sheer dynamism is infectious . 
with tightly organized efficiency , numerous flashbacks and a constant edge of tension , miller's film is one of 2002's involvingly adult surprises . 
a brisk , reverent , and subtly different sequel . 
it's got some pretentious eye-rolling moments and it didn't entirely grab me , but there's stuff here to like . 
the film is just a big , gorgeous , mind-blowing , breath-taking mess . 
a poignant lyricism runs through balzac and the little chinese seamstress that transforms this story about love and culture into a cinematic poem . 
steers refreshingly clear of the usual cliches . 
about nowhere kids who appropriated turfs as they found them and become self-made celebrity athletes -- a low-down version of the american dream . 
feels untidily honest . 
the journey to the secret's eventual discovery is a separate adventure , and thrill enough . 
the very definition of the 'small' movie , but it is a good stepping stone for director sprecher . 
a heartening tale of small victories and enduring hope . 
it's a wonderful , sobering , heart-felt drama . 
much of this slick and sprightly cgi feature is sufficiently funny to amuse even the most resolutely unreligious parents who escort their little ones to megaplex screenings . 
in between all the emotional seesawing , it's hard to figure the depth of these two literary figures , and even the times in which they lived . but they fascinate in their recklessness . 
a dream cast of solid female talent who build a seamless ensemble . there isn't a weak or careless performance amongst them . 
it suggests the wide-ranging effects of media manipulation , from the kind of reporting that is done by the supposedly liberal media . . . to the intimate and ultimately tragic heartache of maverick individuals like hatfield and hicks . 
the movie sticks much closer to hornby's drop-dead confessional tone than the film version of high fidelity did . 
a somewhat crudely constructed but gripping , questing look at a person so racked with self-loathing , he becomes an enemy to his own race . 
it ain't art , by a long shot , but unlike last year's lame musketeer , this dumas adaptation entertains . 
films about loss , grief and recovery are pretty valuable these days . seen in that light , moonlight mile should strike a nerve in many . 
among the year's most intriguing explorations of alientation . 
the best film about baseball to hit theaters since field of dreams . 
the film often achieves a mesmerizing poetry . 
fortunately , elling never gets too cloying thanks to the actors' perfect comic timing and sweet , genuine chemistry . 
exhilarating , funny and fun . 
the best movie in many a moon about the passions that sometimes fuel our best achievements and other times leave us stranded with nothing more than our lesser appetites . 
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 . 
returning director rob minkoff . . . and screenwriter bruce joel rubin . . . have done a fine job of updating white's dry wit to a new age . 
old-fashioned but thoroughly satisfying entertainment . 
the production has been made with an enormous amount of affection , so we believe these characters love each other . 
sayles has a knack for casting , often resurrecting performers who rarely work in movies now . . . and drawing flavorful performances from bland actors . 
oscar wilde's masterpiece , the importance of being earnest , may be the best play of the 19th century . it's so good that its relentless , polished wit can withstand not only inept school productions , but even oliver parker's movie adaptation . 
conceptually brilliant . . . plays like a living-room war of the worlds , gaining most of its unsettling force from the suggested and the unknown . 
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 . 
made to be jaglomized is the cannes film festival , the annual riviera spree of flesh , buzz , blab and money . the charming result is festival in cannes . 
marvelous , merry and , yes , melancholy film . 
unpretentious , charming , quirky , original
it's fairly solid--not to mention well edited so that it certainly doesn't feel like a film that strays past the two and a half mark . 
throwing it all away for the fleeting joys of love's brief moment . 
what sets ms . birot's film apart from others in the genre is a greater attention to the parents -- and particularly the fateful fathers -- in the emotional evolution of the two bewitched adolescents . 
it's a glorious spectacle like those d . w . griffith made in the early days of silent film . 
an important movie , a reminder of the power of film to move us and to make us examine our values . 
smarter than its commercials make it seem . 
by turns touching , raucously amusing , uncomfortable , and , yes , even sexy , never again is a welcome and heartwarming addition to the romantic comedy genre . 
all the pieces fall together without much surprise , but little moments give it a boost . 
it's a rare window on an artistic collaboration . 
the 1960s rebellion was misdirected : you can't fight your culture . 
it's hard to imagine anyone managing to steal a movie not only from charismatic rising star jake gyllenhaal but also from accomplished oscar winners susan sarandon , dustin hoffman and holly hunter , yet newcomer ellen pompeo pulls off the feat with aplomb . 
 . it's a testament to the film's considerable charm that it succeeds in entertaining , despite playing out like a feature-length sitcom replete with stereotypical familial quandaries . there's a sheer unbridled delight in the way the story unfurls . . . 
both lead performances are oscar-size . 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 . 
diane lane works nothing short of a minor miracle in unfaithful . 
remarkable for its excellent storytelling , its economical , compressed characterisations and for its profound humanity , it's an adventure story and history lesson all in one . 
a compelling motion picture that illustrates an american tragedy . 
like the chilled breath of oral storytelling frozen onto film . 
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 . . . 
its mysteries are transparently obvious , and it's too slowly paced to be a thriller . [but it's] worth recommending because of two marvelous performances by michael caine and brendan fraser . 
gosling creates a staggeringly compelling character , a young man whose sharp intellect is at the very root of his contradictory , self-hating , self-destructive ways . 
raimi crafted a complicated hero who is a welcome relief from the usual two-dimensional offerings . 
implicitly acknowledges and celebrates the glorious chicanery and self-delusion of this most american of businesses , and for that reason it may be the most oddly honest hollywood document of all . 
although life or something like it is very much in the mold of feel-good movies , the cast and director stephen herek's polished direction pour delightfully piquant wine from aged bottles . 
the story wraps back around on itself in the kind of elegant symmetry that's rare in film today , but be warned : it's a slow slog to get there . 
lawrence plumbs personal tragedy and also the human comedy . 
you might not buy the ideas . but you'll definitely want the t-shirt . 
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 . 
it is a film that will have people walking out halfway through , will encourage others to stand up and applaud , and will , undoubtedly , leave both camps engaged in a ferocious debate for years to come . 
a wild , endearing , masterful documentary . 
this version incarnates the prophetic book in a way even its exacting author might admire . 
nicholson's understated performance is wonderful . as warren he stumbles in search of all the emotions and life experiences he's neglected over the years . 
a sharp and quick documentary that is funny and pithy , while illuminating an era of theatrical comedy that , while past , really isn't . 
warm and exotic . 
manages to be both hugely entertaining and uplifting . 
one of the best looking and stylish animated movies in quite a while . . . 
 " antwone fisher " is an earnest , by-the-numbers effort by washington . it won't rock any boats but is solid meat-and-potatoes filmmaking . 
an uncomfortable experience , but one as brave and challenging as you could possibly expect these days from american cinema . 
texan director george ratliff had unlimited access to families and church meetings , and he delivers fascinating psychological fare . 
the heat of the moment prevails . it cooks conduct in a low , smoky and inviting sizzle . 
the invincible werner herzog is alive and well and living in la
best indie of the year , so far . 
none of this is meaningful or memorable , but frosting isn't , either , and you wouldn't turn down a big bowl of that , would you ? 
intensely romantic , thought-provoking and even an engaging mystery . 
the farcical elements seemed too pat and familiar to hold my interest , yet its diverting grim message is a good one . 
refreshing . 
as relationships shift , director robert j . siegel allows the characters to inhabit their world without cleaving to a narrative arc . 
awkward but sincere and , ultimately , it wins you over . 
morton is , as usual , brilliant . 
daily struggles and simple pleasures usurp the preaching message so that , by the time the credits roll across the pat ending , a warm , fuzzy feeling prevails . 
a comedy-drama of nearly epic proportions rooted in a sincere performance by the title character undergoing midlife crisis . 
a mischievous visual style and oodles of charm make 'cherish' a very good ( but not great ) movie . 
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 . 
in some ways , lagaan is quintessential bollywood . except it's much , much better . 
kaufman and jonze take huge risks to ponder the whole notion of passion -- our desire as human beings for passion in our lives and the emptiness one feels when it is missing . 
[ " safe conduct " ] is a long movie at 163 minutes but it fills the time with drama , romance , tragedy , bravery , political intrigue , partisans and sabotage . viva le resistance ! 
what doesn't this film have that an impressionable kid couldn't stand to hear ? 
there is a refreshing absence of cynicism in stuart little 2--quite a rarity , even in the family film market . eventually , it wins you over . 
an inventive , absorbing movie that's as hard to classify as it is hard to resist . 
there is greatness here . 
 . . . the one thing this wild film has that other imax films don't : chimps , lots of chimps , all blown up to the size of a house . that's fun for kids of any age . 
hilarious , acidic brit comedy . 
less the sensational true-crime hell-jaunt purists might like and more experimental in its storytelling ( though no less horrifying for it ) . 
[grant] goes beyond his usual fluttering and stammering and captures the soul of a man in pain who gradually comes to recognize it and deal with it . 
a wild ride juiced with enough energy and excitement for at least three films . 
nicole kidman makes it a party worth attending . 
an entertaining , if ultimately minor , thriller . 
ian holm conquers france as an earthy napoleon
in death to smoochy , we don't get williams' usual tear and a smile , just sneers and bile , and the spectacle is nothing short of refreshing . 
believes so fervently in humanity that it feels almost anachronistic , and it is too cute by half . but arriving at a particularly dark moment in history , it offers flickering reminders of the ties that bind us . 
a gripping documentary that reveals how deep the antagonism lies in war-torn jerusalem . 
 . . . there's enough cool fun here to warm the hearts of animation enthusiasts of all ages . 
williams absolutely nails sy's queasy infatuation and overall strangeness . 
fisher has bared his soul and confronted his own shortcomings here in a way . . . that feels very human and very true to life . 
the visuals alone make metropolis worth seeing . 
happily for mr . chin -- though unhappily for his subjects -- the invisible hand of the marketplace wrote a script that no human screenwriter could have hoped to match . 
it's sweet , funny , charming , and completely delightful . 
inherently caustic and oddly whimsical , the film chimes in on the grieving process and strangely draws the audience into the unexplainable pain and eccentricities that are attached to the concept of loss . 
 " cremaster 3 " should come with the warning " for serious film buffs only ! " 
charlotte sometimes is a brilliant movie . it is about irrational , unexplainable life and it seems so real because it does not attempt to filter out the complexity . 
inventive , fun , intoxicatingly sexy , violent , self-indulgent and maddening . 
mixes likeable personalities , inventive photography and cutting , and wall-to-wall toe-tapping music to paint a picture of a subculture that is at once exhilarating , silly , perverse , hopeful and always fun . 
doesn't do more than expand a tv show to movie length . however , it's pleasant enough and its ecological , pro-wildlife sentiments are certainly welcome . 
[fessenden] is much more into ambiguity and creating mood than he is for on screen thrills
auto focus is not your standard hollywood bio-pic . schrader aims to present an unflinching look at one man's downfall , brought about by his lack of self-awareness . 
as a vehicle to savour binoche's skill , the film is well worthwhile . 
red dragon makes one appreciate silence of the lambs . 
'[the cockettes] provides a window into a subculture hell-bent on expressing itself in every way imaginable . '
an instance of an old dog not only learning but inventing a remarkable new trick . 
what it lacks in originality it makes up for in effective if cheap moments of fright and dread . 
time out is existential drama without any of the pretension associated with the term . 
bluer than the atlantic and more biologically detailed than an autopsy , the movie . . . is , also , frequently hilarious . 
about schmidt belongs to nicholson . gone are the flamboyant mannerisms that are the trademark of several of his performances . as schmidt , nicholson walks with a slow , deliberate gait , chooses his words carefully and subdues his natural exuberance . 
it's a hoot watching the rock chomp on jumbo ants , pull an arrow out of his back , and leap unscathed through raging fire ! 
may be the most undeserving victim of critical overkill since town and country . 
this gorgeous epic is guaranteed to lift the spirits of the whole family . 
a surprisingly charming and even witty match for the best of hollywood's comic-book adaptations . 
' . . . mafia , rap stars and hood rats butt their ugly heads in a regurgitation of cinematic violence that gives brutal birth to an unlikely , but likable , hero . '
tully is worth a look for its true-to-life characters , its sensitive acting , its unadorned view of rural life and the subtle direction of first-timer hilary birmingham . 
it's a setup so easy it borders on facile , but keeping the film from cheap-shot mediocrity is its crack cast . 
we get some truly unique character studies and a cross-section of americana that hollywood couldn't possibly fictionalize and be believed . 
it establishes its ominous mood and tension swiftly , and if the suspense never rises to a higher level , it is nevertheless maintained throughout . 
if you've grown tired of going where no man has gone before , but several movies have - take heart . this is the best star trek movie in a long time . 
an escapist confection that's pure entertainment . 
not only a coming-of-age story and cautionary parable , but also a perfectly rendered period piece . 
a bold and subversive film that cuts across the grain of what is popular and powerful in this high-tech age , speaking its truths with spellbinding imagery and the entrancing music of philip glass . 
think of it as gidget , only with muscles and a lot more smarts , but just as endearing and easy to watch . 
while broomfield's film doesn't capture the effect of these tragic deaths on hip-hop culture , it succeeds as a powerful look at a failure of our justice system . 
cool ? this movie is a snow emergency . 
not as good as the full monty , but a really strong second effort . 
while parker and co-writer catherine di napoli are faithful to melville's plotline , they and a fully engaged supporting cast . . . have made the old boy's characters more quick-witted than any english lit major would have thought possible . 
edited and shot with a syncopated style mimicking the work of his subjects , pray turns the idea of the documentary on its head , making it rousing , invigorating fun lacking any mtv puffery . 
there's lots of cool stuff packed into espn's ultimate x . 
shattering , devastating documentary on two maladjusted teens in a downward narcotized spiral . extraordinary debut from josh koury . 
the combination of lightness and strictness in this instance gives italian for beginners an amiable aimlessness that keeps it from seeming predictably formulaic . 
a sly female empowerment movie , although not in a way anyone would expect . 
writer/ director m . night shyamalan's ability to pull together easily accessible stories that resonate with profundity is undeniable . 
a literate presentation that wonderfully weaves a murderous event in 1873 with murderous rage in 2002 . 
it lets you brush up against the humanity of a psycho , without making him any less psycho . 
another best of the year selection . 
a gangster movie with the capacity to surprise . 
girls gone wild and gone civil again
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 . 
the minor figures surrounding [bobby] . . . form a gritty urban mosaic . 
finely crafted , finely written , exquisitely performed
what begins as a conventional thriller evolves into a gorgeously atmospheric meditation on life-changing chance encounters . 
without resorting to hyperbole , i can state that kissing jessica stein may be the best same-sex romance i have seen . 
this illuminating documentary transcends our preconceived vision of the holy land and its inhabitants , revealing the human complexities beneath . 
with 'bowling for columbine , ' michael moore gives us the perfect starting point for a national conversation about guns , violence , and fear . 
spiderman rocks
preaches to two completely different choirs at the same time , which is a pretty amazing accomplishment . 
death to smoochy is often very funny , but what's even more remarkable is the integrity of devito's misanthropic vision . 
it's a charming and often affecting journey . 
the film benefits greatly from a less manic tone than its predecessor , as cho appears to have settled comfortably into her skin . 
when you think you've figured out bielinsky's great game , that's when you're in the most trouble : he's the con , and you're just the mark . 
mastering its formidable arithmetic of cameras and souls , group articulates a flood of emotion . 
jagger the actor is someone you want to see again . 
not for everyone , but for those with whom it will connect , it's a nice departure from standard moviegoing fare . 
there is no solace here , no entertainment value , merely a fierce lesson in where filmmaking can take us . 
even when there are lulls , the emotions seem authentic , and the picture is so lovely toward the end . . . you almost don't notice the 129-minute running time . 
streamlined to a tight , brisk 85-minute screwball thriller , " big trouble " is funny , harmless and as substantial as a tub of popcorn with extra butter . 
if you like an extreme action-packed film with a hint of humor , then triple x marks the spot . 
you'll be left with the sensation of having just witnessed a great performance and , perhaps , give in to the urge to get on your feet and shake it . 
visually captivating . 
jackie chan movies are a guilty pleasure - he's easy to like and always leaves us laughing . 
vividly conveys both the pitfalls and the pleasures of over-the-top love . 
this romantic thriller is steeped in the atmosphere of wartime england , and ably captures the speech patterns , moral codes and ideals of the 1940s . 
ryan gosling . . . is at 22 a powerful young actor . 
fantastic ! 
the main story . . . is compelling enough , but it's difficult to shrug off the annoyance of that chatty fish . 
a polished and vastly entertaining caper film that puts the sting back into the con . 
even during the climactic hourlong cricket match , boredom never takes hold . 
 . . . a polished and relatively sincere piece of escapism . 
for veggietales fans , this is more appetizing than a side dish of asparagus . if you're not a fan , it might be like trying to eat brussels sprouts . 
once the downward spiral comes to pass , auto focus bears out as your typical junkie opera . . . 
a joyous occasion
an intriguing cinematic omnibus and round-robin that occasionally is more interesting in concept than in execution . 
nicolas philibert observes life inside a one-room schoolhouse in northern france in his documentary to be and to have , easily one of the best films of the year . 
sexy and romantic . 
you come away from his film overwhelmed , hopeful and , perhaps paradoxically , illuminated . 
it's fairly self-aware in its dumbness . 
[villeneuve] seems to realize intuitively that even morality is reduced to an option by the ultimate mysteries of life and death . 
feral and uncomfortable . 
starts slowly , but adrien brody  in the title role  helps make the film's conclusion powerful and satisfying . 
informative , intriguing , observant , often touching . . . gives a human face to what's often discussed in purely abstract terms . 
 a thought-provoking look at how western foreign policy - however well intentioned - can wreak havoc in other cultures . 
the overall fabric is hypnotic , and mr . mattei fosters moments of spontaneous intimacy . 
overall , interesting as a documentary -- but not very imaxy . 
like smoke signals , the film is also imbued with strong themes of familial ties and spirituality that are powerful and moving without stooping to base melodrama
as a girl-meets-girl romantic comedy , kissing jessica steinis quirky , charming and often hilarious . yet it's not quite the genre-busting film it's been hyped to be because it plays everything too safe . 
it won't hold up over the long haul , but in the moment , finch's tale provides the forgettable pleasures of a saturday matinee . 
you needn't be steeped in '50s sociology , pop culture or movie lore to appreciate the emotional depth of haynes' work . though haynes' style apes films from the period . . . its message is not rooted in that decade . 
a knowing look at female friendship , spiked with raw urban humor . 
a cruelly funny twist on teen comedy packed with inventive cinematic tricks and an ironically killer soundtrack
close enough in spirit to its freewheeling trash-cinema roots to be a breath of fresh air . 
like these russo guys lookin' for their mamet instead found their sturges . 
[a] smarter and much funnier version of the old police academy flicks . 
director paul cox's unorthodox , abstract approach to visualizing nijinsky's diaries is both stimulating and demanding . 
ofrece una buena oportunidad de cultura ( aunque sea condensada ) que bien vale la pena aprovechar . 
insomnia is one of the year's best films and pacino gives one of his most daring , and complicated , performances . 
what makes the movie a comedy is the way it avoids the more serious emotions involved . 
true tale of courage -- and complicity -- at auschwitz is a harrowing drama that tries to tell of the unspeakable . 
a tender , witty , captivating film about friendship , love , memory , trust and loyalty . 
[anderson] uses a hit-or-miss aesthetic that hits often enough to keep the film entertaining even if none of it makes a lick of sense . 
pull[s] off the rare trick of recreating not only the look of a certain era , but also the feel . 
exposing the ways we fool ourselves is one hour photo's real strength . 
lasker's canny , meditative script distances sex and love , as byron and luther . . . realize they can't get no satisfaction without the latter . 
playfully profound . . . and crazier than michael jackson on the top floor of a skyscraper nursery surrounded by open windows . 
a wonderful character-based comedy . 
the humor and humanity of monsoon wedding are in perfect balance . 
what a dumb , fun , curiously adolescent movie this is . 
it has the ability to offend and put off everyone , but it holds you with its outrageousness . 
[fincher's] camera sense and assured pacing make it an above-average thriller . 
definitely worth 95 minutes of your time . 
i won't argue with anyone who calls 'slackers' dumb , insulting , or childish . . . but i laughed so much that i didn't mind . 
an incredibly clever and superbly paced caper filled with scams within scams within scams . 
in the affable maid in manhattan , jennifer lopez's most aggressive and most sincere attempt to take movies by storm , the diva shrewdly surrounds herself with a company of strictly a-list players . 
a lively and engaging examination of how similar obsessions can dominate a family . 
it's a strange film , one that was hard for me to warm up to . 
 . . . a well-observed and disturbing little movie
neatly constructed thriller . 
singer/composer bryan adams contributes a slew of songs  a few potential hits , a few more simply intrusive to the story  but the whole package certainly captures the intended , er , spirit of the piece . 
 . . . spiced with humor ( 'i speak fluent flatula , ' advises denlopp after a rather , er , bubbly exchange with an alien deckhand ) and witty updatings ( silver's parrot has been replaced with morph , a cute alien creature who mimics everyone and everything around ) 
constantly touching , surprisingly funny , semi-surrealist exploration of the creative act . 
with so many bad romances out there , this is the kind of movie that deserves a chance to shine . 
os universos de chuck barris e charlie kaufman so complementares . e igualmente fascinantes . 
a film about female friendship that men can embrace and women will talk about for hours . 
the last kiss will probably never achieve the popularity of my big fat greek wedding , but its provocative central wedding sequence has far more impact . 
if you enjoy more thoughtful comedies with interesting conflicted characters ; this one is for you . 
the film is visually dazzling , the depicted events dramatic , funny and poignant . 
this often-hilarious farce manages to generate the belly laughs of lowbrow comedy without sacrificing its high-minded appeal . 
it's made with deftly unsettling genre flair . 
fulford-wierzbicki . . . deftly captures the wise-beyond-her-years teen . 
ruzowitzky has taken this mothball-y stuff and made a rather sturdy , old-fashioned entertainment out of it . 
a thoughtful , moving piece that faces difficult issues with honesty and beauty . 
if you ignore the cliches and concentrate on city by the sea's interpersonal drama , it ain't half-bad . 
subversive , meditative , clinical and poetic , the piano teacher is a daring work of genius . 
it's soulful and unslick , and that's apparently just what [aniston] has always needed to grow into a movie career . 
rifkin's references are . . . impeccable throughout . 
japan's premier stylist of sex and blood hits audiences with what may be his most demented film to date . 
i'm going to give it a marginal thumbs up . i liked it just enough . 
a well-made and often lovely depiction of the mysteries of friendship . 
this isn't exactly profound cinema , but it's good-natured and sometimes quite funny . 
if mr . zhang's subject matter is , to some degree at least , quintessentially american , his approach to storytelling might be called iranian . 
pray has really done his subject justice . 
with spy kids 2 : the island of lost dreams , however , robert rodriguez adorns his family-film plot with an elegance and maturity that even most contemporary adult movies are lacking . 
bravo for history rewritten , and for the uncompromising knowledge that the highest power of all is the power of love . 
the story and structure are well-honed . fresnadillo's dark and jolting images have a way of plying into your subconscious like the nightmare you had a week ago that won't go away . 
claude chabrol's camera has a way of gently swaying back and forth as it cradles its characters , veiling tension beneath otherwise tender movements . 
nothing short of a masterpiece -- and a challenging one . 
the level of acting elevates the material above pat inspirational status and gives it a sturdiness and solidity that we've long associated with washington the actor . 
the format gets used best . . . to capture the dizzying heights achieved by motocross and bmx riders , whose balletic hotdogging occasionally ends in bone-crushing screwups . 
it manages to squeeze by on angelina jolie's surprising flair for self-deprecating comedy . 
it's a compelling and horrifying story , and the laramie project is worthwhile for reminding us that this sort of thing does , in fact , still happen in america . 
it's the kind of movie that , aside from robert altman , spike lee , the coen brothers and a few others , our moviemakers don't make often enough . 
skillfully weaves both the elements of the plot and a powerfully evocative mood combining heated sexuality with a haunting sense of malaise . 
[westbrook] makes a wonderful subject for the camera . 
ryan gosling is , in a word , brilliant as the conflicted daniel . 
dense with characters and contains some thrilling moments . 
a dazzling thing to behold -- as long as you're wearing the somewhat cumbersome 3d goggles the theater provides . 
astonishing . . . [frames] profound ethical and philosophical questions in the form of dazzling pop entertainment . 
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 . 
rich in shadowy metaphor and as sharp as a samurai sword , jiang wen's devils on the doorstep is a wartime farce in the alternately comic and gut-wrenching style of joseph heller or kurt vonnegut . 
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 . 
in my opinion , analyze that is not as funny or entertaining as analyze this , but it is a respectable sequel . 
this clever caper movie has twists worthy of david mamet and is enormous fun for thinking audiences . 
nonchalantly freaky and uncommonly pleasurable , warm water may well be the year's best and most unpredictable comedy . 
abderrahmane sissako's heremakono ( waiting for happiness ) is an elegiac portrait of a transit city on the west african coast struggling against foreign influences . 
gorgeous scenes , masterful performances , but the sickly sweet gender normative narrative left an acrid test in this gourmet's mouth . 
majidi gets uniformly engaging performances from his largely amateur cast . 
an 83 minute document of a project which started in a muddle , seesawed back and forth between controlling interests multiple times , then found its sweet spot
even though the film doesn't manage to hit all of its marks , it's still entertaining to watch the target practice . 
whatever one makes of its political edge , this is beautiful filmmaking from one of french cinema's master craftsmen . 
in his u . s . debut , mr . schnitzler proves himself a deft pace master and stylist . 
a flawed film but an admirable one that tries to immerse us in a world of artistic abandon and political madness and very nearly succeeds . 
one of the best films of the year with its exploration of the obstacles to happiness faced by five contemporary individuals . . . a psychological masterpiece . 
y tu mam tambin is hilariously , gloriously alive , and quite often hotter than georgia asphalt . 
the most ingenious film comedy since being john malkovich . 
sheds light on a subject few are familiar with , and makes you care about music you may not have heard before . 
it proves quite compelling as an intense , brooding character study . 
like the best of godard's movies . . . it is visually ravishing , penetrating , impenetrable . 
the film fearlessly gets under the skin of the people involved . . . this makes it not only a detailed historical document , but an engaging and moving portrait of a subculture . 
serious and thoughtful . 
it is a kickass , dense sci-fi action thriller hybrid that delivers and then some . i haven't seen one in so long , no wonder i didn't recognize it at first . 
although what time offers tsai's usual style and themes , it has a more colorful , more playful tone than his other films . 
old-form moviemaking at its best . 
[d]oesn't bother being as cloying or preachy as equivalent evangelical christian movies -- maybe the filmmakers know that the likely audience will already be among the faithful . 
an elegant work , food of love is as consistently engaging as it is revealing . 
as any creature-feature fan knows , when you cross toxic chemicals with a bunch of exotic creatures , you get a lot of running around , screaming and death . on that score , the film certainly doesn't disappoint . 
the reason to see " sade " lay with the chemistry and complex relationship between the marquis ( auteil ) and emilie ( le besco ) . 
you live the mood rather than savour the story . 
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 . 
a solid piece of journalistic work that draws a picture of a man for whom political expedience became a deadly foreign policy . 
it will delight newcomers to the story and those who know it from bygone days . 
a solid and refined piece of moviemaking imbued with passion and attitude . 
if you can push on through the slow spots , you'll be rewarded with some fine acting . 
a marvelous performance by allison lohman as an identity-seeking foster child . 
the attraction between these two marginal characters is complex from the start -- and , refreshingly , stays that way . 
sam jones became a very lucky filmmaker the day wilco got dropped from their record label , proving that one man's ruin may be another's fortune . 
murder by numbers' isn't a great movie , but it's a perfectly acceptable widget . 
an effortlessly accomplished and richly resonant work . 
extremely well acted by the four primary actors , this is a seriously intended movie that is not easily forgotten . 
one of [herzog's] least inspired works . 
a very charming and funny movie . 
maud and roland's search for an unknowable past makes for a haunting literary detective story , but labute pulls off a neater trick in possession : he makes language sexy . 
gives everyone something to shout about . 
at its best , the good girl is a refreshingly adult take on adultery . . . 
hard to resist . 
while most films these days are about nothing , this film seems to be about everything that's plaguing the human spirit in a relentlessly globalizing world . 
this is a visually stunning rumination on love , memory , history and the war between art and commerce . 
what begins as a film in the tradition of the graduate quickly switches into something more recyclable than significant . 
both grant and hoult carry the movie because they are believable as people -- flawed , assured of the wrong things , and scared to admit how much they may really need the company of others . 
insomnia is involving . still , i thought it could have been more . 
the hot topics of the plot are relegated to the background -- a welcome step forward from the sally jesse raphael atmosphere of films like philadelphia and american beauty . 
as weber and weissman demonstrate with such insight and celebratory verve , the cockettes weren't as much about gender , sexual preference or political agitprop as they were simply a triumph of the indomitable human will to rebel , connect and create . 
you wouldn't call the good girl a date movie ( an anti-date movie is more like it ) , but when it's good , it's good and horrid . 
the performances are an absolute joy . 
tully is in many ways the perfect festival film : a calm , self-assured portrait of small town regret , love , duty and friendship that appeals to the storytelling instincts of a slightly more literate filmgoing audience . 
land , people and narrative flow together in a stark portrait of motherhood deferred and desire explored . 
a documentary to make the stones weep -- as shameful as it is scary . 
parts of the film feel a bit too much like an infomercial for ram dass's latest book aimed at the boomer demographic . but mostly it's a work that , with humor , warmth , and intelligence , captures a life interestingly lived . 
old people will love this movie , and i mean that in the nicest possible way : last orders will touch the heart of anyone old enough to have earned a 50-year friendship . 
the plot twists give i am trying to break your heart an attraction it desperately needed . 
it's a talking head documentary , but a great one . 
happily stays close to the ground in a spare and simple manner and doesn't pummel us with phony imagery or music . 
'compleja e intelectualmente retadora , el ladrn de orqudeas es uno de esos filmes que vale la pena ver precisamente por su originalidad . '
in capturing the understated comedic agony of an ever-ruminating , genteel yet decadent aristocracy that can no longer pay its bills , the film could just as well be addressing the turn of the 20th century into the 21st . 
it trusts the story it sets out to tell . 
a smart , steamy mix of road movie , coming-of-age story and political satire . 
it's full of cheesy dialogue , but great trashy fun that finally returns de palma to his pulpy thrillers of the early '80s . 
whether seen on a 10-inch television screen or at your local multiplex , the edge-of-your-seat , educational antics of steve irwin are priceless entertainment . 
secretary manages a neat trick , bundling the flowers of perversity , comedy and romance into a strangely tempting bouquet of a movie . 
it's about issues most adults have to face in marriage and i think that's what i liked about it -- the real issues tucked between the silly and crude storyline . 
 . . . a somber film , almost completely unrelieved by any comedy beyond the wistful everyday ironies of the working poor . 
cube's charisma and chemistry compensate for corniness and cliche . 
the performances are strong , though the subject matter demands acting that borders on hammy at times . 
it's a fun adventure movie for kids ( of all ages ) that like adventure . 
my little eye is the best little " horror " movie i've seen in years . 
kids five and up will be delighted with the fast , funny , and even touching story . parents may even find that it goes by quickly , because it has some of the funniest jokes of any movie this year , including those intended for adults . 
the gorgeously elaborate continuation of " the lord of the rings " trilogy is so huge that a column of words cannot adequately describe co-writer/director peter jackson's expanded vision of j . r . r . tolkien's middle-earth . 
a perverse little truffle , dainty psychological terror on the outside with a creamy filling of familial jealousy and unrepentant domestic psychopathy . 
there is a real subject here , and it is handled with intelligence and care . 
high crimes steals so freely from other movies and combines enough disparate types of films that it can't help but engage an audience . 
a disoriented but occasionally disarming saga packed with moments out of an alice in wonderland adventure , a stalker thriller , and a condensed season of tv's big brother . 
manages to be wholesome and subversive at the same time . 
ou've got to love a disney pic with as little cleavage as this one has , and a heroine as feisty and principled as jane . 
the film has just enough of everything -- re-enactments , archival footage , talking-head interviews -- and the music is simply sublime . 
 " me without you " is a probing examination of a female friendship set against a few dynamic decades . 
compared to his series of spectacular belly flops both on and off the screen , runteldat is something of a triumph . 
 . . . it's as comprehensible as any dummies guide , something even non-techies can enjoy . 
it's burns' visuals , characters and his punchy dialogue , not his plot , that carry waydowntown . 
 . . . a powerful sequel and one of the best films of the year . 
while the glass slipper doesn't quite fit , pumpkin is definitely a unique modern fairytale . 
the saturation bombing of reggio's images and glass' evocative music . . . ultimately leaves viewers with the task of divining meaning . 
richard gere and diane lane put in fine performances as does french actor oliver martinez . 
this may be dover kosashvili's feature directing debut , but it looks an awful lot like life -- gritty , awkward and ironic . 
australia : land beyond time is an enjoyable big movie primarily because australia is a weirdly beautiful place . 
director alfonso cuaron gets vivid , convincing performances from a fine cast , and generally keeps things going at a rapid pace , occasionally using an omniscient voice-over narrator in the manner of french new wave films . 
a moving essay about the specter of death , especially suicide . 
an energizing , intoxicating documentary charting the rise of hip-hop culture in general and the art of scratching ( or turntablism ) in particular . 
often hilarious , well-shot and , importantly , entertaining , hell house is a fascinating document of an event that has to be seen to be believed . 
saved from being merely way-cool by a basic , credible compassion . 
tense , terrific , sweaty-palmed fun . 
what eric schaeffer has accomplished with never again may not , strictly speaking , qualify as revolutionary . but it's defiantly and delightfully against the grain . 
richly entertaining and suggestive of any number of metaphorical readings . 
y tu mam tambin es un buen filme gracias a lo poco convencional de su narrativa , y es quiz el proyecto ms arriesgado en la carrera de alfonso cuarn
a winning piece of work filled with love for the movies of the 1960s . 
those who want to be jolted out of their gourd should drop everything and run to ichi . 
byler is too savvy a filmmaker to let this morph into a typical romantic triangle . instead , he focuses on the anguish that can develop when one mulls leaving the familiar to traverse uncharted ground . 
lan yu is a genuine love story , full of traditional layers of awakening and ripening and separation and recovery . 
schnitzler does a fine job contrasting the sleekness of the film's present with the playful paranoia of the film's past . 
 . . . even if you've never heard of chaplin , you'll still be glued to the screen . 
children may not understand everything that happens -- i'm not sure even miyazaki himself does -- but they will almost certainly be fascinated , and undoubtedly delighted . 
merely as a technical , logistical feat , russian ark marks a cinematic milestone . 
a haunting tale of murder and mayhem . 
the film is impressive for the sights and sounds of the wondrous beats the world has to offer . 
grainy photography mars an otherwise delightful comedy of errors . 
both a beautifully made nature film and a tribute to a woman whose passion for this region and its inhabitants still shines in her quiet blue eyes . 
it's a fine , old-fashioned-movie movie , which is to say it's unburdened by pretensions to great artistic significance . 
looking aristocratic , luminous yet careworn in jane hamilton's exemplary costumes , rampling gives a performance that could not be improved upon . 
despite its flaws . . . belinsky is still able to create an engaging story that keeps you guessing at almost every turn . 
if a big musical number like 'praise the lord , he's the god of second chances' doesn't put you off , this will be an enjoyable choice for younger kids . 
i hope the movie is widely seen and debated with appropriate ferocity and thoughtfulness . 
[ferrera] has the charisma of a young woman who knows how to hold the screen . 
not only is undercover brother as funny , if not more so , than both austin powers films , but it's also one of the smarter , savvier spoofs to come along in some time . 
gondry's direction is adequate . . . but what gives human nature its unique feel is kaufman's script . 
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 . 
by no means a great movie , but it is a refreshingly forthright one . 
if you're part of her targeted audience , you'll cheer . otherwise , maybe . 
a thriller whose style , structure and rhythms are so integrated with the story , you cannot separate them . 
full frontal is the antidote for soderbergh fans who think he's gone too commercial since his two oscar nominated films in 2000
'easily my choice for one of the year's best films . '
this harrowing journey into combat hell vividly captures the chaotic insanity and personal tragedies that are all too abundant when human hatred spews forth unchecked . 
director rob marshall went out gunning to make a great one . 
though frodo's quest remains unfulfilled , a hardy group of determined new zealanders has proved its creative mettle . 
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 . 
a worthwhile documentary , whether you're into rap or not , even if it may still leave you wanting more answers as the credits roll . 
if s&m seems like a strange route to true love , maybe it is , but it's to this film's ( and its makers' ) credit that we believe that that's exactly what these two people need to find each other -- and themselves . 
steers has an unexpectedly adamant streak of warm-blooded empathy for all his disparate manhattan denizens--especially the a * * holes . 
entertaining despite its one-joke premise with the thesis that women from venus and men from mars can indeed get together . 
stephen earnhart's homespun documentary mule skinner blues has nothing but love for its posse of trailer park denizens . 
even if you're an agnostic carnivore , you can enjoy much of jonah simply , and gratefully , as laugh-out-loud lunacy with a pronounced monty pythonesque flavor . 
it's light on the chills and heavy on the atmospheric weirdness , and there are moments of jaw-droppingly odd behavior -- yet i found it weirdly appealing . 
kids should have a stirring time at this beautifully drawn movie . and adults will at least have a dream image of the west to savor whenever the film's lamer instincts are in the saddle . 
a hypnotic cyber hymn and a cruel story of youth culture . 
a small movie with a big heart . 
clint eastwood's blood work is a lot like a well-made pb& j sandwich : familiar , fairly uneventful and boasting no real surprises  but still quite tasty and inviting all the same . 
standing in the shadows of motown is the best kind of documentary , one that makes a depleted yesterday feel very much like a brand-new tomorrow . 
faithful without being forceful , sad without being shrill , " a walk to remember " succeeds through sincerity . 
the climactic events are so well realized that you may forget all about the original conflict , just like the movie does
a graceful , moving tribute to the courage of new york's finest and a nicely understated expression of the grief shared by the nation at their sacrifice . 
[an] hilarious romantic comedy . 
any movie that makes hard work seem heroic deserves a look . 
a pleasant ramble through the sort of idoosyncratic terrain that errol morris has often dealt with . . . it does possess a loose , lackadaisical charm . 
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 . 
the whole is quite entertaining , but despite its virtues , there is an unsettled feeling to the film . 
jackson is always watchable . 
a mostly intelligent , engrossing and psychologically resonant suspenser . 
smith examines the intimate , unguarded moments of folks who live in unusual homes -- which pop up in nearly every corner of the country . 
it takes this never-ending confusion and hatred , puts a human face on it , evokes shame among all who are party to it and even promotes understanding . 
writer-director burger imaginatively fans the embers of a dormant national grief and curiosity that has calcified into chronic cynicism and fear . 
hip-hop has a history , and it's a metaphor for this love story . 
demonstrates a vivid imagination and an impressive style that result in some terrific setpieces . 
it may seem long at 110 minutes if you're not a fan , because it includes segments of 12 songs at a reunion concert . 
the banter between calvin and his fellow barbers feels like a streetwise mclaughlin group . . . and never fails to entertain . 
family portrait of need , neurosis and nervy negativity is a rare treat that shows the promise of digital filmmaking . 
 . . . gripping and handsome execution , ( but ) there isn't much about k-19 that's unique or memorable . 
hatosy . . . portrays young brendan with his usual intelligence and subtlety , not to mention a convincing brogue . 
 . . . a sour little movie at its core ; an exploration of the emptiness that underlay the relentless gaiety of the 1920's . . . the film's ending has a " what was it all for ? " feeling to it , but like the 1920's , the trip there is a great deal of fun . 
this movie has a strong message about never giving up on a loved one , but it's not an easy movie to watch and will probably disturb many who see it . 
tres greek writer and star nia vardalos has crafted here a worldly-wise and very funny script . 
i just loved every minute of this film . 
not everyone will welcome or accept the trials of henry kissinger as faithful portraiture , but few can argue that the debate it joins is a necessary and timely one . 
there are moments it can be heart-rending in an honest and unaffected ( and gentle ) way . 
an offbeat , sometimes gross and surprisingly appealing animated film about the true meaning of the holidays . 
an odd drama set in the world of lingerie models and bar dancers in the midwest that held my interest precisely because it didn't try to . 
tackles the difficult subject of grief and loss with such life-embracing spirit that the theme doesn't drag an audience down . 
the colorful masseur wastes its time on mood rather than riding with the inherent absurdity of ganesh's rise up the social ladder . 
it's the humanizing stuff that will probably sink the film for anyone who doesn't think about percentages all day long . 
a so-so , made-for-tv something posing as a real movie . 
a movie to forget
its and pieces of the hot chick are so hilarious , and schneider's performance is so fine , it's a real shame that so much of the movie -- again , as in the animal -- is a slapdash mess . 
a bold ( and lovely ) experiment that will almost certainly bore most audiences into their own brightly colored dreams . 
[lin chung's] voice is rather unexceptional , even irritating ( at least to this western ear ) , making it awfully hard to buy the impetus for the complicated love triangle that develops between the three central characters . 
an opportunity missed . 
a well-crafted letdown . 
even on its own ludicrous terms , the sum of all fears generates little narrative momentum , and invites unflattering comparisons to other installments in the ryan series . 
if i could have looked into my future and saw how bad this movie was , i would go back and choose to skip it . fortunately , you still have that option . 
 . . . the film suffers from a lack of humor ( something needed to balance out the violence ) . . . 
the actors must indeed be good to recite some of this laughable dialogue with a straight face . 
though catch me if you can isn't badly made , the fun slowly leaks out of the movie . 
plays less like a coming-of-age romance than an infomercial . 
there's a delightfully quirky movie to be made from curling , but brooms isn't it . 
slackers' jokey approach to college education is disappointingly simplistic -- the film's biggest problem -- and there are no unforgettably stupid stunts or uproariously rude lines of dialogue to remember it by . 
director brian levant , who never strays far from his sitcom roots , skates blithely from one implausible situation to another , pausing only to tie up loose ends with more bows than you'll find on a french poodle . 
writhing under dialogue like 'you're from two different worlds' and 'tonight the maid is a lie and this , this is who you are , ' this schlock-filled fairy tale hits new depths of unoriginality and predictability . 
i like all four of the lead actors a lot and they manage to squeeze a few laughs out of the material , but they're treading water at best in this forgettable effort . 
gets better after foster leaves that little room . 
the emotional overload of female angst irreparably drags the film down . 
the experience of going to a film festival is a rewarding one ; the experiencing of sampling one through this movie is not . 
it wants to be thought of as a subversive little indie film , but it has all the qualities of a modern situation comedy . 
cacoyannis is perhaps too effective in creating an atmosphere of dust-caked stagnation and labored gentility . 
perry's good and his is an interesting character , but " serving sara " hasn't much more to serve than silly fluff . nor is it a romantic comedy . 
for single digits kidlets stuart little 2 is still a no brainer . if you're looking to rekindle the magic of the first film , you'll need a stronger stomach than us . 
the star who helped give a spark to " chasing amy " and " changing lanes " falls flat as thinking man cia agent jack ryan in this summer's new action film , " the sum of all fears . " 
the doofus-on- the-loose banter of welcome to collinwood has a cocky , after-hours loopiness to it . and as with most late-night bull sessions , eventually the content isn't nearly as captivating as the rowdy participants think it is . 
it's also curious to note that this film , like the similarly ill-timed antitrust , is easily as bad at a fraction the budget . 
 . . . plays like a badly edited , 91-minute trailer ( and ) the director can't seem to get a coherent rhythm going . in fact , it doesn't even seem like she tried . 
louiso lets the movie dawdle in classic disaffected-indie-film mode , and brother hoffman's script stumbles over a late-inning twist that just doesn't make sense . 
it's impossible to indulge the fanciful daydreams of janice beard ( eileen walsh ) when her real-life persona is so charmless and vacant . 
[it's] difficult to get beyond the overall blandness of american chai , despite its likable performances and refreshingly naive point of view . 
horrid little propaganda film with fascinating connections not only to the serbs themselves but also to a network of american right-wing extremists . 
whether jason x is this bad on purpose is never clear . but one thing's for sure : it never comes close to being either funny or scary . 
a tv style murder mystery with a few big screen moments ( including one that seems to be made for a different film altogether ) . 
there's a scientific law to be discerned here that producers would be well to heed : mediocre movies start to drag as soon as the action speeds up ; when the explosions start , they fall to pieces . 
every good actor needs to do his or her own hamlet . for benigni it wasn't shakespeare whom he wanted to define his career with but pinocchio . it might as well have been problem child iv . 
don't expect any subtlety from this latest entry in the increasingly threadbare gross-out comedy cycle . 
director tom shadyac and star kevin costner glumly mishandle the story's promising premise of a physician who needs to heal himself . 
billy crystal and robert de niro sleepwalk through vulgarities in a sequel you can refuse . 
takes a clunky tv-movie approach to detailing a chapter in the life of the celebrated irish playwright , poet and drinker . 
if you want a movie time trip , the 1960 version is a far smoother ride . 
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 . 
 . . . generically , forgettably pleasant from start to finish . 
green might want to hang onto that ski mask , as robbery may be the only way to pay for his next project . 
the most hopelessly monotonous film of the year , noteworthy only for the gimmick of being filmed as a single unbroken 87-minute take . 
sometimes this modest little number clicks , and sometimes it doesn't . 
sheridan seems terrified of the book's irreverent energy , and scotches most of its lan , humor , bile , and irony . 
has all the right elements but completely fails to gel together . 
the director has injected self-consciousness into the proceedings at every turn . the results are far more alienating than involving . 
not a stereotype is omitted nor a clich left unsaid . 
bears resemblance to , and shares the weaknesses of , too many recent action-fantasy extravaganzas in which special effects overpower cogent story-telling and visual clarity during the big action sequences . 
what's at stake in this film is nothing more than an obsolete , if irritating , notion of class . 
feels aimless for much of its running time , until late in the film when a tidal wave of plot arrives , leaving questions in its wake . 
we may never think of band camp as a geeky or nerdy thing again . 
the kind of movie that leaves vague impressions and a nasty aftertaste but little clear memory of its operational mechanics . 
everybody loves a david and goliath story , and this one is told almost entirely from david's point of view . 
the movie bounces all over the map . 
hill looks to be going through the motions , beginning with the pale script . 
you wonder why enough wasn't just a music video rather than a full-length movie . 
[garbus] discards the potential for pathological study , exhuming instead , the skewed melodrama of the circumstantial situation . 
there's nothing exactly wrong here , but there's not nearly enough that's right . 
none of this so-called satire has any sting to it , as if woody is afraid of biting the hand that has finally , to some extent , warmed up to him . 
everything's serious , poetic , earnest and -- sadly -- dull . 
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 . 
a solid film . . . but more conscientious than it is truly stirring . 
an instantly forgettable snow-and-stuntwork extravaganza that likely will be upstaged by an avalanche of more appealing holiday-season product . 
it's always disappointing when a documentary fails to live up to -- or offer any new insight into -- its chosen topic . unfortunately , that's precisely what arthur dong's family fundamentals does . 
mushes the college-friends genre ( the big chill ) together with the contrivances and overwrought emotion of soap operas . 
the pacing is glacial , the screenplay is stiff as a board , and things heat up only in the movie's final scenes . 
[davis] has a bright , chipper style that keeps things moving , while never quite managing to connect her wish-fulfilling characters to the human race . 
the movie resolutely avoids all the comic possibilities of its situation , and becomes one more dumb high school comedy about sex gags and prom dates . 
its over-reliance on genre conventions , character types and formulaic conflict resolutions crushes all the goodwill it otherwise develops . 
the lower your expectations , the more you'll enjoy it . 
a cellophane-pop remake of the punk classic ladies and gentlemen , the fabulous stains . . . crossroads is never much worse than bland or better than inconsequential . 
some episodes work , some don't . 
it's like every bad idea that's ever gone into an after-school special compiled in one place , minus those daytime programs' slickness and sophistication ( and who knew they even had any ? ) . 
never again , while nothing special , is pleasant , diverting and modest -- definitely a step in the right direction . 
 . . . 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 . 
the bottom line with nemesis is the same as it has been with all the films in the series : fans will undoubtedly enjoy it , and the uncommitted needn't waste their time on it . 
theological matters aside , the movie is so clumsily sentimental and ineptly directed it may leave you speaking in tongues . 
it's dumb , but more importantly , it's just not scary . 
elicits more groans from the audience than jar jar binks , scrappy doo and scooby dumb , all wrapped up into one . 
a very familiar tale , one that's been told by countless filmmakers about italian- , chinese- , irish- , latin- , indian- , russian- and other hyphenate american young men struggling to balance conflicting cultural messages . 
as it stands , there's some fine sex onscreen , and some tense arguing , but not a whole lot more . 
what ensues are much blood-splattering , mass drug-induced bowel evacuations , and none-too-funny commentary on the cultural distinctions between americans and brits . 
city by the sea is the cinematic equivalent of defensive driving : it's careful , conscientious and makes no major mistakes . but what saves lives on the freeway does not necessarily make for persuasive viewing . 
things really get weird , though not particularly scary : the movie is all portent and no content . 
a tired , unimaginative and derivative variation of that already-shallow genre . 
as a hybrid teen thriller and murder mystery , murder by numbers fits the profile too closely . 
you can tell almost immediately that welcome to collinwood isn't going to jell . 
a boring , formulaic mix of serial killers and stalk'n'slash . 
you can practically hear george orwell turning over . 
totally overwrought , deeply biased , and wholly designed to make you feel guilty about ignoring what the filmmakers clearly believe are the greatest musicians of all time . 
a waste of fearless purity in the acting craft . 
viewers are asked so often to suspend belief that were it not for holm's performance , the film would be a total washout . 
walsh can't quite negotiate the many inconsistencies in janice's behavior or compensate for them by sheer force of charm . 
[sen's] soap opera-ish approach undermines his good intentions . 
i wonder what the reaction of israelis will be to this supposedly evenhanded presentation . 
despite slick production values and director roger michell's tick-tock pacing , the final effect is like having two guys yelling in your face for two hours . 
admirably ambitious but self-indulgent . 
parents beware ; this is downright movie penance . 
to me , it sounds like a cruel deception carried out by men of marginal intelligence , with reactionary ideas about women and a total lack of empathy . 
some movies can get by without being funny simply by structuring the scenes as if they were jokes : a setup , delivery and payoff . stealing harvard can't even do that much . each scene immediately succumbs to gravity and plummets to earth . 
enduring love but exhausting cinema . 
if only it were , well , funnier . 
helmer devito . . . attempts to do too many things in this story about ethics , payola , vice , murder , kids' tv and revenge . 
visually exciting sci-fi film which suffers from a lackluster screenplay . 
the timing in nearly every scene seems a half beat off . 
the concept is a hoot . the trailer is a riot . the movie is a dud . 
the innocence of holiday cheer ain't what it used to be . 
can't seem to get anywhere near the story's center . 
scooby dooby doo / and shaggy too / you both look and sound great . / but daphne , you're too buff / fred thinks he's tough / and velma - wow , you've lost weight ! 
in the end , we are left with something like two ships passing in the night rather than any insights into gay love , chinese society or the price one pays for being dishonest . 
it kinda works and qualifies as cool at times , but is just too lame to work or be cool at others . 
credibility levels are low and character development a non-starter . 
the story is also as unoriginal as they come , already having been recycled more times than i'd care to count . 
about as cutting-edge as pet rock : the movie . 
an inept , tedious spoof of '70s kung fu pictures , it contains almost enough chuckles for a three-minute sketch , and no more . 
it's not a bad plot ; but , unfortunately , the movie is nowhere near as refined as all the classic dramas it borrows from . 
it's loud and boring ; watching it is like being trapped at a bad rock concert . 
this is sandler running on empty , repeating what he's already done way too often . 
the only thing worse than your substandard , run-of-the-mill hollywood picture is an angst-ridden attempt to be profound . 
becomes a bit of a mishmash : a tearjerker that doesn't and a thriller that won't . 
as saccharine as it is disposable . 
an empty shell of an epic rather than the real deal . 
what you expect is just what you get . . . assuming the bar of expectations hasn't been raised above sixth-grade height . 
potty-mouthed enough for pg-13 , yet not as hilariously raunchy as south park , this strangely schizo cartoon seems suited neither to kids or adults . 
big fat liar is little more than home alone raised to a new , self-deprecating level . 
kitschy , flashy , overlong soap opera . 
kurys never shows why , of all the period's volatile romantic lives , sand and musset are worth particular attention . 
these are textbook lives of quiet desperation . 
the film is hampered by its predictable plot and paper-thin supporting characters . 
i realized that no matter how fantastic reign of fire looked , its story was making no sense at all . 
it's been 20 years since 48 hrs . made eddie murphy a movie star and the man hasn't aged a day . but his showboating wise-cracker stock persona sure is getting old . 
'in this poor remake of such a well loved classic , parker exposes the limitations of his skill and the basic flaws in his vision . '
the disjointed mess flows as naturally as jolie's hideous yellow 'do . 
the story is naturally poignant , but first-time screenwriter paul pender overloads it with sugary bits of business . 
a few hours after you've seen it , you forget you've been to the movies . 
weiss and speck never make a convincing case for the relevance of these two 20th-century footnotes . 
this u-boat doesn't have a captain . 
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 . 
the piano teacher , like its title character , is repellantly out of control . 
contrived , awkward and filled with unintended laughs , the film shows signs that someone other than the director got into the editing room and tried to improve things by making the movie go faster . 
what remains is a variant of the nincompoop benigni persona , here a more annoying , though less angry version of the irresponsible sandlerian manchild , undercut by the voice of the star of road trip . 
the film's overall mood and focus is interesting but constantly unfulfilling . 
glazed with a tawdry b-movie scum . 
i wish i could say " thank god it's friday " , but the truth of the matter is i was glad when it was over . 
best described as i know what you did last winter . 
pompous and garbled . 
the gantzes' interviews tend to let the guys off the hook . 
labute can't avoid a fatal mistake in the modern era : he's changed the male academic from a lower-class brit to an american , a choice that upsets the novel's exquisite balance and shreds the fabric of the film . 
i'm sure the filmmakers found this a remarkable and novel concept , but anybody who has ever seen an independent film can report that it is instead a cheap clich . 
there is not an ounce of honesty in the entire production . 
certainly beautiful to look at , but its not very informative about its titular character and no more challenging than your average television biopic . 
not at all clear what it's trying to say and even if it were  i doubt it would be all that interesting . 
so putrid it is not worth the price of the match that should be used to burn every print of the film . 
this is for the most part a useless movie , even with a great director at the helm . 
the jokes are telegraphed so far in advance they must have been lost in the mail . 
in the end , tuck everlasting falls victim to that everlasting conundrum experienced by every human who ever lived : too much to do , too little time to do it in . 
weighted down with slow , uninvolving storytelling and flat acting . 
the thing looks like a made-for-home-video quickie . 
it's a decent glimpse into a time period , and an outcast , that is no longer accessible , but it doesn't necessarily shed more light on its subject than the popular predecessor . 
the pace of the film is very slow ( for obvious reasons ) and that too becomes off-putting . 
a bad movie that happened to good actors . 
the movie straddles the fence between escapism and social commentary , and on both sides it falls short . 
flaccid drama and exasperatingly slow journey . 
works better in the conception than it does in the execution . . . winds up seeming just a little too clever . 
when 'science fiction' takes advantage of the fact that its intended audience hasn't yet had much science , it does a disservice to the audience and to the genre . 
gangs of new york is an unapologetic mess , whose only saving grace is that it ends by blowing just about everything up . 
about amy's cuteness , amy's career success ( she's a best-selling writer of self-help books who can't help herself ) , and amy's neuroses when it comes to men . 
without a strong script and energetic acting , dogma films can produce the same sleep-inducing effects as watching your neighbor's home videos . 
more precious than perspicacious
the sweetest thing leaves an awful sour taste . 
director jay russell stomps in hobnail boots over natalie babbitt's gentle , endearing 1975 children's novel . 
fear permeates the whole of stortelling , todd solondz' oftentimes funny , yet ultimately cowardly autocritique . 
while this one gets off with a good natured warning , future lizard endeavors will need to adhere more closely to the laws of laughter
one can't shake the feeling that crossroads is nothing more than an hour-and-a-half-long commercial for britney's latest album . 
most of the movie is so deadly dull that watching the proverbial paint dry would be a welcome improvement . 
the romance between the leads isn't as compelling or as believable as it should be . 
a modestly comic , modestly action-oriented world war ii adventure that , in terms of authenticity , is one of those films that requires the enemy to never shoot straight . 
with a story as bizarre and mysterious as this , you don't want to be worrying about whether the ineffectual broomfield is going to have the courage to knock on that door . 
it's mighty tedious for the viewer who has to contend with unpleasant characters , hit-and-miss performances and awkwardly staged scenes . 
a non-britney person might survive a screening with little harm done , except maybe for the last 15 minutes , which are as maudlin as any after-school special you can imagine . 
 . . . while certainly clever in spots , this too-long , spoofy update of shakespeare's macbeth doesn't sustain a high enough level of invention . 
the reason we keep seeing the same movie with roughly the same people every year is because so many of us keep going and then , out of embarrassment or stupidity , not warning anyone . 
tries to work in the same vein as the brilliance of animal house but instead comes closer to the failure of the third revenge of the nerds sequel . 
predictable and cloying , though brown sugar is so earnest in its yearning for the days before rap went nihilistic that it summons more spirit and bite than your average formulaic romantic quadrangle . 
it's tough being a black man in america , especially when the man has taken away your car , your work-hours and denied you health insurance . 
though uniformly well acted , especially by young ballesta and galan ( a first-time actor ) , writer/director achero manas's film is schematic and obvious . 
in execution , this clever idea is far less funny than the original , killers from space . 
there's not a comedic moment in this romantic comedy . 
 . . . about as exciting to watch as two last-place basketball teams playing one another on the final day of the season . 
does little to elaborate the conceit of setting this blood-soaked tragedy of murderous ambition in the era of richard nixon . 
william shatner , as a pompous professor , is the sole bright spot . . . 
 . . . ( like ) channel surfing between the discovery channel and a late-night made-for-cable action movie . 
it's not only dull because we've seen [eddie] murphy do the genial-rogue shtick to death , but because the plot is equally hackneyed . 
sandra bullock's best dramatic performance to date ( is ) almost enough to lift ( this ) thrill-kill cat-and-mouser . . . above its paint-by-numbers plot . 
not a movie but a live-action agitprop cartoon so shameless and coarse , it's almost funny . 
a film so tedious that it is impossible to care whether that boast is true or not . 
just a kiss is a just a waste . 
die another day is only intermittently entertaining but it's hard not to be a sucker for its charms , or perhaps it's just impossible not to feel nostalgia for movies you grew up with . 
this is not one of the movies you'd want to watch if you only had a week to live . 
this 10th film in the series looks and feels tired . 
guilty of the worst sin of attributable to a movie like this : it's not scary in the slightest . 
shame on writer/director vicente aranda for making a florid biopic about mad queens , obsessive relationships , and rampant adultery so dull . 
it's a trifle of a movie , with a few laughs surrounding an unremarkable soft center . 
 . . . expands the horizons of boredom to the point of collapse , turning into a black hole of dullness , from which no interesting concept can escape . 
'abandon all hope , ye who enter here' . . . you should definitely let dante's gloomy words be your guide . 
here's a case of two actors who do everything humanly possible to create characters who are sweet and believable , and are defeated by a screenplay that forces them into bizarre , implausible behavior . 
crush could be the worst film a man has made about women since valley of the dolls . 
deserving of its critical backlash and more . 
when the fire burns out , we've only come face-to-face with a couple dragons and that's where the film ultimately fails . 
i cry for i spy -- or i would if this latest and laziest imaginable of all vintage-tv spinoffs were capable of engendering an emotional response of any kind . 
perhaps the most annoying thing about who is cletis tout ? is that it's a crime movie made by someone who obviously knows nothing about crime . 
it doesn't quite deserve the gong , but there are more fascinating acts than " confessions of a dangerous mind . " 
despite terrific special effects and funnier gags , harry potter and the chamber of secrets finds a way to make j . k . rowling's marvelous series into a deadly bore . 
you can see where big bad love is trying to go , but it never quite gets there . 
even legends like alfred hitchcock and john huston occasionally directed trifles . . . so it's no surprise to see a world-class filmmaker like zhang yimou behind the camera for a yarn that's ultimately rather inconsequential . 
entertains not so much because of its music or comic antics , but through the perverse pleasure of watching disney scrape the bottom of its own cracker barrel . 
to the civilized mind , a movie like ballistic : ecks vs . sever is more of an ordeal than an amusement . 
remember back when thrillers actually thrilled ? when the twist endings were actually surprising ? when the violence actually shocked ? when the heroes were actually under 40 ? sadly , as blood work proves , that was a long , long time ago . 
another week , another gross-out college comedy--ugh . 
i don't even care that there's no plot in this antonio banderas-lucy liu faceoff . it's still terrible ! 
comes off like a bad imitation of the bard . 
an alternately raucous and sappy ethnic sitcom . . . you'd be wise to send your regrets . 
sandra bullock , despite downplaying her good looks , carries a little too much ain't- she-cute baggage into her lead role as a troubled and determined homicide cop to quite pull off the heavy stuff . 
it's actually too sincere -- the crime movie equivalent of a chick flick . 
you have no affinity for most of the characters . nothing about them is attractive . what they see in each other also is difficult to fathom . 
with nary a glimmer of self-knowledge , [crane] becomes more specimen than character -- and auto focus remains a chilly , clinical lab report . 
resurrection has the dubious distinction of being a really bad imitation of the really bad blair witch project . 
the production values are up there . the use of cgi and digital ink-and-paint make the thing look really slick . the voices are fine as well . the problem , it is with most of these things , is the script . 
like its parade of predecessors , this halloween is a gory slash-fest . it can't escape its past , and it doesn't want to . 
kim ki-deok seems to have in mind an ( emotionally at least ) adolescent audience demanding regular shocks and bouts of barely defensible sexual violence to keep it interested . 
it's never a good sign when a film's star spends the entirety of the film in a coma . it's a worse sign when you begin to envy her condition . 
calculated swill . 
i suspect that you'll be as bored watching morvern callar as the characters are in it . if you go , pack your knitting needles . 
not so much farcical as sour . 
[sam's] self-flagellation is more depressing than entertaining . 
a straight-ahead thriller that never rises above superficiality . 
when perry fists a bull at the moore farm , it's only a matter of time before he gets the upper hand in matters of the heart . 
[a] shapeless blob of desperate entertainment . 
the director , with his fake backdrops and stately pacing , never settles on a consistent tone . 
two-bit potboiler . 
the film lapses too often into sugary sentiment and withholds delivery on the pell-mell pyrotechnics its punchy style promises . 
nicks and steinberg match their own creations for pure venality -- that's giving it the old college try . 
the stunt work is top-notch ; the dialogue and drama often food-spittingly funny . 
despite the holes in the story and the somewhat predictable plot , moments of the movie caused me to jump in my chair . . . 
the acting is just fine , but there's not enough substance here to sustain interest for the full 90 minutes , especially with the weak payoff . 
those eternally devoted to the insanity of black will have an intermittently good time . feel free to go get popcorn whenever he's not onscreen . 
on the whole , the movie lacks wit , feeling and believability to compensate for its incessant coarseness and banality . 
a worthy idea , but the uninspired scripts , acting and direction never rise above the level of an after-school tv special . 
where tom green stages his gags as assaults on america's knee-jerk moral sanctimony , jackass lacks aspirations of social upheaval . 
 . . . the kind of movie you see because the theater has air conditioning . 
 " freaky friday , " it's not . 
to paraphrase a line from another dickens' novel , nicholas nickleby is too much like a fragment of an underdone potato . 
this story of unrequited love doesn't sustain interest beyond the first half-hour . 
much of what is meant to be 'inspirational' and 'uplifting' is simply distasteful to audiences not already sharing [the movie's] mindset . 
one of those strained caper movies that's hardly any fun to watch and begins to vaporize from your memory minutes after it ends . 
the result , however well-intentioned , is ironically just the sort of disposable , kitchen-sink homage that illustrates why the whole is so often less than the sum of its parts in today's hollywood . 
[allen's] been making piffle for a long while , and hollywood ending may be his way of saying that piffle is all that the airhead movie business deserves from him right now . 
being unique doesn't necessarily equate to being good , no matter how admirably the filmmakers have gone for broke . 
a few pieces of the film buzz and whir ; very little of it actually clicks . the thing just never gets off the ground . 
one regards reign of fire with awe . what a vast enterprise has been marshaled in the service of such a minute idea . 
for all of its insights into the dream world of teen life , and its electronic expression through cyber culture , the film gives no quarter to anyone seeking to pull a cohesive story out of its 2 1/2-hour running time . 
the tone shifts abruptly from tense to celebratory to soppy . 
it isn't that stealing harvard is a horrible movieif only it were that grand a failure ! it's just that it's so not-at-all-good . and i expect much more from a talent as outstanding as director bruce mcculloch . 
a few nonbelievers may rethink their attitudes when they see the joy the characters take in this creed , but skeptics aren't likely to enter the theater . 
as it abruptly crosscuts among the five friends , it fails to lend the characters' individual stories enough dramatic resonance to make us care about them . 
the title trapped turns out to be a pretty fair description of how you feel while you're watching this ultra-manipulative thriller . 
with generic sets and b-grade special effects , jason is about as convincing on the sci-fi front as tv's defunct cleopatra 2525 . 
i highly recommend irwin , but not in the way this film showcases him . 
it's difficult to discern if this is a crazy work of disturbed genius or merely 90 minutes of post-adolescent electra rebellion . 
my own minority report is that it stinks . 
it's all arty and jazzy and people sit and stare and turn away from one another instead of talking and it's all about the silences and if you're into that , have at it . 
some elements of it really blow the big one , but other parts are decent . 
it's a big idea , but the film itself is small and shriveled . 
a little more intensity and a little less charm would have saved this film a world of hurt . 
instead of panoramic sweep , kapur gives us episodic choppiness , undermining the story's emotional thrust . 
it's a stale , overused cocktail using the same olives since 1962 as garnish . not only is entry number twenty the worst of the brosnan bunch , it's one of the worst of the entire franchise . 
coppola has made a film of intoxicating atmosphere and little else . 
for those for whom the name woody allen was once a guarantee of something fresh , sometimes funny , and usually genuinely worthwhile , hollywood ending is a depressing experience
it is one more celluloid testimonial to the cruelties experienced by southern blacks as distilled through a caucasian perspective . 
too daft by half . . . but supremely good natured . 
a few zingers aside , the writing is indifferent , and jordan brady's direction is prosaic . 
derailed by bad writing and possibly also by some of that extensive post-production reworking to aim the film at young males in the throes of their first full flush of testosterone . 
there's a disturbing 'great white hope' undertone to the other side of heaven that subtly undermines its message of christian love and compassion . 
schaeffer has to find some hook on which to hang his persistently useless movies , and it might as well be the resuscitation of the middle-aged character . 
as it stands , crocodile hunter has the hurried , badly cobbled look of the 1959 godzilla , which combined scenes of a japanese monster flick with canned shots of raymond burr commenting on the monster's path of destruction . 
romanek keeps adding flourishes -- artsy fantasy sequences -- that simply feel wrong . they cheapen the overall effect . 
the big finish is a bit like getting all excited about a chocolate eclair and then biting into it and finding the filling missing . 
the film's few ideas are stretched to the point of evaporation ; the whole central section is one big chase that seems to have no goal and no urgency . it's just filler . 
like life on the island , the movie grows boring despite the scenery . 
feels as if the inmates have actually taken over the asylum . 
mindless yet impressively lean spinoff of last summer's bloated effects fest the mummy returns . 
the skirmishes for power waged among victims and predators settle into an undistinguished rhythm of artificial suspense . 
julia is played with exasperating blandness by laura regan . 
 . . . the movie is just a plain old monster . 
instead of trying to bust some blondes , [diggs] should be probing why a guy with his talent ended up in a movie this bad . 
what could have been right at home as a nifty plot line in steven soderbergh's traffic fails to arrive at any satisfying destination . 
where the film falters is in its tone . 
a tired , unnecessary retread . . . a stale copy of a picture that wasn't all that great to begin with . 
troll the cult section of your local video store for the real deal . 
the plot is paper-thin and the characters aren't interesting enough to watch them go about their daily activities for two whole hours . 
 . . . this isn't even a movie we can enjoy as mild escapism ; it is one in which fear and frustration are provoked to intolerable levels . 
flashy gadgets and whirling fight sequences may look cool , but they can't distract from the flawed support structure holding equilibrium up . 
i still can't relate to stuart : he's a mouse , for cryin' out loud , and all he does is milk it with despondent eyes and whine that nobody treats him human enough . 
ultimately the project comes across as clinical , detached , uninvolving , possibly prompting audience members to wonder , 'what's the point ? '
the latest adam sandler assault and possibly the worst film of the year . 
little more than a well-mounted history lesson . 
it never rises to its clever what-if concept . 
as aimless as an old pickup skidding completely out of control on a long patch of black ice , the movie makes two hours feel like four . 
the umpteenth summer skinny dip in jerry bruckheimer's putrid pond of retread action twaddle . 
chalk it up as the worst kind of hubristic folly . 
once the 50 year old benigni appears as the title character , we find ourselves longing for the block of wood to come back . 
borstal boy represents the worst kind of filmmaking , the kind that pretends to be passionate and truthful but is really frustratingly timid and soggy . 
not really a thriller so much as a movie for teens to laugh , groan and hiss at . 
the cartoon is about as true to the spirit of the festival of lights as mr . deeds was to that of frank capra . 
the film is directed by wally wolodarsky from a script by joe jarvis and greg coolidge . these are names to remember , in order to avoid them in the future . 
there are films that try the patience of even the most cinema-besotted critic -- and this was one of them . 
plays like one long , meandering sketch inspired by the works of john waters and todd solondz , rather than a fully developed story . 
enough similarities to gymkata and howie long's firestorm that my fingernails instinctively crawled towards my long-suffering eyeballs . 
kurys seems intimidated by both her subject matter and the period trappings of this debut venture into the heritage business . 
there's only one way to kill michael myers for good : stop buying tickets to these movies . 
britney's performance cannot be faulted . lucy's a dull girl , that's all . 
one problem with the movie , directed by joel schumacher , is that it jams too many prefabricated story elements into the running time . 
it's a bizarre curiosity memorable mainly for the way it fritters away its potentially interesting subject matter via a banal script , unimpressive acting and indifferent direction . 
dreary tale of middle-class angst
exists then as an occasionally insightful acting exercise . 
this is an action movie with an action icon who's been all but decommissioned . 
full frontal had no effect and elicited no sympathies for any of the characters . by that measure , it is a failure . 
a modest and messy metaphysical thriller offering more questions than answers . 
the code talkers deserved better than a hollow tribute . 
expect the same-old , lame-old slasher nonsense , just with different scenery . 
if melville is creatively a great whale , this film is canned tuna . 
the movie , directed by mick jackson , leaves no cliche unturned , from the predictable plot to the characters straight out of central casting . 
it's easy to love robin tunney -- she's pretty and she can act -- but it gets harder and harder to understand her choices . 
it's both sitcomishly predictable and cloying in its attempts to be poignant . 
a bloated gasbag thesis grotesquely impressed by its own gargantuan aura of self-importance . . . 
the movie is undone by a filmmaking methodology that's just experimental enough to alienate the mainstream audience while ringing cliched to hardened indie-heads . 
it's fitting that a movie as artificial and soulless as the country bears owes its genesis to an animatronic display at disneyland . 
a waterlogged version of 'fatal attraction' for the teeny-bopper set . . . a sad , soggy potboiler that wastes the talents of its attractive young leads . 
do not , under any circumstances , consider taking a child younger than middle school age to this wallow in crude humor . 
john leguizamo may be a dramatic actor -- just not in this movie . 
like many such biographical melodramas , it suffers from the awkwardness that results from adhering to the messiness of true stories . 
whereas last year's exemplary sexy beast seemed to revitalize the british gangster movie , this equally brutal outing merely sustains it . 
the film's hero is a bore and his innocence soon becomes a questionable kind of inexcusable dumb innocence . 
there are deeply religious and spiritual people in this world who would argue that entering a church , synagogue or temple doesn't mean you have to check your brain at the door . the same should go for movie theaters . 
if this silly little cartoon can inspire a few kids not to grow up to be greedy bastards , more power to it . 
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 . 
just one more collection of penis , breast and flatulence gags in search of a story . or a profit . or some damn thing . 
it has the air of a surprisingly juvenile lark , a pop-influenced prank whose charms are immediately apparent and wear thin with repetition . 
veers uncomfortably close to pro-serb propaganda . 
without the dark spookiness of crystal lake camp , the horror concept completely loses its creepy menace . 
serving sara should be served an eviction notice at every theater stuck with it . 
starts out with tremendous promise , introducing an intriguing and alluring premise , only to fall prey to a boatload of screenwriting cliches that sink it faster than a leaky freighter . 
on a certain base level , blue crush delivers what it promises , just not well enough to recommend it . 
 . . . has about 3/4th the fun of its spry 2001 predecessor  but it's a rushed , slapdash , sequel-for-the-sake- of-a-sequel with less than half the plot and ingenuity . 
despite the fact that this film wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be , it's still not a good movie
journalistically dubious , inept and often lethally dull . 
the only surprise is that heavyweights joel silver and robert zemeckis agreed to produce this ; i assume the director has pictures of them cavorting in ladies' underwear . 
the movie is concocted and carried out by folks worthy of scorn , and the nicest thing i can say is that i can't remember a single name responsible for it . 
it won't be long before you'll spy i spy at a video store near you . 
take away the controversy , and it's not much more watchable than a mexican soap opera . 
even with harris's strong effort , the script gives him little to effectively probe lear's soul-stripping breakdown . 
most folks with a real stake in the american sexual landscape will find it either moderately amusing or just plain irrelevant . 
an exercise in cynicism every bit as ugly as the shabby digital photography and muddy sound . 
the film's tone and pacing are off almost from the get-go . 
a thriller without thrills and a mystery devoid of urgent questions . 
as steamy as last week's pork dumplings . 
every now and again , a movie comes along to remind us of how very bad a motion picture can truly be . frank mcklusky c . i . is that movie ! 
draggin' about dragons
possibly the most irresponsible picture ever released by a major film studio . 
sheridan had a wonderful account to work from , but , curiously , he waters it down , turning grit and vulnerability into light reading . 
a film that suffers because of its many excesses . 
'synthetic' is the best description of this well-meaning , beautifully produced film that sacrifices its promise for a high-powered star pedigree . 
hopelessly inane , humorless and under-inspired . 
a weird little movie that's amusing enough while you watch it , offering fine acting moments and pungent insights into modern l . a . 's show-biz and media subcultures . but it doesn't leave you with much . 
mattei is tiresomely grave and long-winded , as if circularity itself indicated profundity . 
equlibrium could pass for a thirteen-year-old's book report on the totalitarian themes of 1984 and farenheit 451 . 
 . . . [a] strained comedy that jettisons all opportunities for rock to make his mark by serving up the usual chaotic nonsense . 
woody allen used to ridicule movies like hollywood ending . now he makes them . 
fairly successful at faking some pretty cool stunts but a complete failure at trying to create some pretty cool characters . and forget about any attempt at a plot ! 
did the film inform and educate me ? yes . did it move me to care about what happened in 1915 armenia ? no . and that is where ararat went astray . 
a broad , melodramatic estrogen opera that's pretty toxic in its own right . 
you expect more from director michael apted ( enigma ) and screenwriter nicholas kazan ( reversal of fortune ) than this cliche pileup . 
while it's all quite tasteful to look at , the attention process tends to do a little fleeing of its own . 
jones helps breathe some life into the insubstantial plot , but even he is overwhelmed by predictability . 
the sequel has turned completely and irrevocably bizarre to the point of utter nonsense . 
this may be the dumbest , sketchiest movie on record about an aspiring writer's coming-of-age . 
even murphy's expert comic timing and famed charisma can't rescue this effort . 
if hill isn't quite his generation's don siegel ( or robert aldrich ) , it's because there's no discernible feeling beneath the chest hair ; it's all bluster and clich . 
contrived pastiche of caper clichs . 
the film seems all but destined to pop up on a television screen in the background of a scene in a future quentin tarantino picture
a dull , dumb and derivative horror film . 
the adventures of pluto nash is a whole lot of nada . 
a pathetically inane and unimaginative cross between xxx and vertical limit . 
the film's needlessly opaque intro takes its doe-eyed crudup out of pre-9/11 new york and onto a cross-country road trip of the homeric kind . 
distinctly sub-par . . . more likely to drown a viewer in boredom than to send any shivers down his spine . 
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 . 
too timid to bring a sense of closure to an ugly chapter of the twentieth century . 
affleck merely creates an outline for a role he still needs to grow into , a role that ford effortlessly filled with authority . 
in old-fashioned screenwriting parlance , ms . shreve's novel proved too difficult a text to 'lick , ' despite the efforts of a first-rate cast . 
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 . 
the scriptwriters are no less a menace to society than the film's characters . 
newcomer helmer kevin donovan is hamstrung by a badly handled screenplay of what is really an amusing concept  a high-tech tux that transforms its wearer into a superman . 
eccentric enough to stave off doldrums , caruso's self-conscious debut is also eminently forgettable . 
it's one long bore . 
how about starting with a more original story instead of just slapping extreme humor and gross-out gags on top of the same old crap ? 
jam-packed with literally bruising jokes . every five minutes or so , someone gets clocked . 
 " an entire film about researchers quietly reading dusty old letters . " 
it's played in the most straight-faced fashion , with little humor to lighten things up . the heavy-handed film is almost laughable as a consequence . 
preposterous and tedious , sonny is spiked with unintentional laughter that , unfortunately , occurs too infrequently to make the film even a guilty pleasure . 
the pool drowned me in boredom . 
somewhere inside the mess that is world traveler , there is a mediocre movie trying to get out . 
the hackneyed story about an affluent damsel in distress who decides to fight her bully of a husband is simply too overdone . 
to call the other side of heaven " appalling " would be to underestimate just how dangerous entertainments like it can be . 
an unclassifiably awful study in self- and audience-abuse . 
adam sandler's 8 crazy nights is 75 wasted minutes of sandler as the voice-over hero in columbia pictures' perverse idea of an animated holiday movie . 
the movie fails to live up to the sum of its parts . 
manages to be both repulsively sadistic and mundane . 
 . . . plot holes so large and obvious a marching band might as well be stomping through them in clown clothes , playing a college football fight song on untuned instruments . 
i can easily imagine benigni's pinocchio becoming a christmas perennial . coal isn't as easy to come by as it used to be and this would be a worthy substitute for naughty children's stockings . 
there is no psychology here , and no real narrative logic -- just a series of carefully choreographed atrocities , which become strangely impersonal and abstract . 
the journey toward redemption feels more like a cinematic experiment than a full-blown movie . 
[seems] even more uselessly redundant and shamelessly money-grubbing than most third-rate horror sequels . 
we never feel anything for these characters , and as a result the film is basically just a curiosity . 
showtime's starry cast could be both an asset and a detriment . those who trek to the 'plex predisposed to like it probably will enjoy themselves . but ticket-buyers with great expectations will wind up as glum as mr . de niro . 
somewhere in the middle , the film compels , as demme experiments he harvests a few movie moment gems , but the field of roughage dominates . 
after seeing swept away , i feel sorry for madonna . 
collapses after 30 minutes into a slap-happy series of adolescent violence . 
at the very least , if you don't know anything about derrida when you walk into the theater , you won't know much more when you leave . 
brainless , but enjoyably over-the-top , the retro gang melodrama , deuces wild represents fifties teen-gang machismo in a way that borders on rough-trade homo-eroticism . 
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 . 
no amount of good intentions is able to overcome the triviality of the story . 
show me the mugging . 
madonna has made herself over so often now , there's apparently nothing left to work with , sort of like michael jackson's nose . 
about the only thing to give the movie points for is bravado -- to take an entirely stale concept and push it through the audience's meat grinder one more time . 
lanie's professional success means she must be a failure at life , because she's driven by ambition and doesn't know how to have fun . 
ultimately , the film never recovers from the clumsy clich of the ugly american abroad , and the too-frosty exterior ms . paltrow employs to authenticate her british persona is another liability . 
just the sort of lazy tearjerker that gives movies about ordinary folk a bad name . 
an overblown clunker full of bad jokes , howling cliches and by-the-numbers action sequences . 
this one is definitely one to skip , even for horror movie fanatics . 
shatner is probably the funniest person in the film , which gives you an idea just how bad it was . 
 . . . perhaps the heaviest , most joyless movie ever made about giant dragons taking over the world . 
more of a career curio than a major work . 
oedekerk mugs mercilessly , and the genuinely funny jokes are few and far between . 
the plot's contrivances are uncomfortably strained . 
the dose is strong and funny , for the first 15 minutes anyway ; after that , the potency wanes dramatically . 
the good girl is a film in which the talent is undeniable but the results are underwhelming . 
fessenden continues to do interesting work , and it would be nice to see what he could make with a decent budget . but the problem with wendigo , for all its effective moments , isn't really one of resources . 
it is bad , but certainly not without merit as entertainment . 
 . . . an unimaginative , nasty , glibly cynical piece of work . 
meandering , sub-aquatic mess : it's so bad it's good , but only if you slide in on a freebie . 
for a movie about the power of poetry and passion , there is precious little of either . 
 " my god , i'm behaving like an idiot ! " yes , you are , ben kingsley . 
denis o'neill's script avoids the prime sports cliche , a last-second goal to win the championship , but it neglects few others . 
there's something with potential here , but the movie decides , like lavinia , to go the conservative route . 
it's hard to pity the 'plain' girl who becomes a ravishing waif after applying a smear of lip-gloss . rather , pity anyone who sees this mishmash . 
the filmmakers keep pushing the jokes at the expense of character until things fall apart . 
it has the right approach and the right opening premise , but it lacks the zest and it goes for a plot twist instead of trusting the material . 
the only thing in pauline and paulette that you haven't seen before is a scene featuring a football field-sized oriental rug crafted out of millions of vibrant flowers . 
automatically pegs itself for the straight-to-video sci-fi rental shelf . 
your taste for jonah - a veggie tales movie may well depend on your threshold for pop manifestations of the holy spirit . 
[hell is] looking down at your watch and realizing serving sara isn't even halfway through . 
the story has its redundancies , and the young actors , not very experienced , are sometimes inexpressive . 
though jones and snipes are enthralling , the movie bogs down in rhetoric and clich . 
seeing as the film lacks momentum and its position remains mostly undeterminable , the director's experiment is a successful one . 
as the movie dragged on , i thought i heard a mysterious voice , and felt myself powerfully drawn toward the light -- the light of the exit sign . i have returned from the beyond to warn you : this movie is 90 minutes long , and life is too short . 
[it's] a prison soccer movie starring charismatic tough guy vinnie jones , but it had too much spitting for me to enjoy . 
the problem with this film is that it's forced to make its characters idiots in order to advance the plot . had anyone here done anything remotely intelligent , we all could have stopped watching long ago . 
stale , futile scenario . 
none of these characters resembles anyone you've ever met in real life , unless you happen to know annoyingly self-involved people who speak in glib sentences that could have only come from the pen of a screenwriter . 
it's tommy's job to clean the peep booths surrounding her , and after viewing this one , you'll feel like mopping up , too . 
the unceasing sadism is so graphically excessive , the director just ends up exposing his own obsession . 
may cause you to bite your tongue to keep from laughing at the ridiculous dialog or the oh-so convenient plot twists . 
staggeringly dreadful romance . 
a story which fails to rise above its disgusting source material . 
the superior plotline isn't quite enough to drag along the dead ( water ) weight of the other . 
the best drug addition movies are usually depressing but rewarding . quitting , however , manages just to be depressing , as the lead actor phones in his autobiographical performance . 
feels like the grittiest movie that was ever made for the lifetime cable television network . 
director dirk shafer and co-writer greg hinton ride the dubious divide where gay porn reaches for serious drama . 
a dark comedy that goes for sick and demented humor simply to do so . the movie is without intent . 
despite its good nature and some genuinely funny moments , super troopers suffers from a bad case of arrested development . 
human nature is a goofball movie , in the way that malkovich was , but it tries too hard . 
'men in black ii creates a new threat for the mib , but recycles the same premise . 
there's something fundamental missing from this story : something or someone to care about . 
britney spears' phoniness is nothing compared to the movie's contrived , lame screenplay and listless direction . 
about as original as a gangster sweating bullets while worrying about a contract on his life . 
it's not just the vampires that are damned in queen of the damned -- the viewers will feel they suffer the same fate . 
coughs and sputters on its own postmodern conceit . 
suggests puns about ingredients and soup and somebody being off their noodle , but let's just say the ingredients don't quite add up to a meal . 
the filmmakers juggle and juxtapose three story lines but fail to come up with one cogent point , unless it's that life stinks , especially for sensitive married women who really love other women . 
the dramatic scenes are frequently unintentionally funny , and the action sequences -- clearly the main event -- are surprisingly uninvolving . 
the movie is virtually without context -- journalistic or historical . what's worse is that pelosi knows it . 
the picture , scored by a perversely cheerful marcus miller accordion/harmonica/banjo abomination , is a monument to bad in all its florid variety . 
this ludicrous film is predictable at every turn . 
it should be doing a lot of things , but doesn't . 
an unintentional parody of every teen movie made in the last five years . 
shamelessly sappy and , worse , runs away from its own provocative theme . 
there seems to be no clear path as to where the story's going , or how long it's going to take to get there . 
just another disjointed , fairly predictable psychological thriller . 
loud , chaotic and largely unfunny . 
a bigger holiday downer than your end-of-year 401 ( k ) statement . 
it's mindless junk like this that makes you appreciate original romantic comedies like punch-drunk love . 
while there's something intrinsically funny about sir anthony hopkins saying 'get in the car , bitch , ' this jerry bruckheimer production has little else to offer
it's frustrating to see these guys -- who are obviously pretty clever -- waste their talent on parodies of things they probably thought were funniest when they were high . 
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 . 
manipulative claptrap , a period-piece movie-of-the-week , plain old blarney . . . take your pick . all three descriptions suit evelyn , a besotted and obvious drama that tells us nothing new . 
about one in three gags in white's intermittently wise script hits its mark ; the rest are padding unashamedly appropriated from the teen-exploitation playbook . 
if sinise's character had a brain his ordeal would be over in five minutes but instead the plot goes out of its way to introduce obstacles for him to stumble over . 
at the bottom rung of the series' entries . 
the crassness of this reactionary thriller is matched only by the ridiculousness of its premise . 
competently directed but terminally cute drama . 
i can't remember the last time i saw worse stunt editing or cheaper action movie production values than in extreme ops . 
scarlet diva has a voyeuristic tug , but all in all it's a lot less sensational than it wants to be . 
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 . 
any attempts at nuance given by the capable cast is drowned out by director jon purdy's sledgehammer sap . 
lstima por schwarzenegger , pero es hora de que deje la estafeta a las nuevas generaciones . 
what's missing is what we call the 'wow' factor . 
aan opportunity wasted . 
i've had more interesting -- and , dare i say , thematically complex -- bowel movements than this long-on-the-shelf , point-and-shoot exercise in gimmicky crime drama . 
wanker goths are on the loose ! run for your lives ! 
stephen earnhart's documentary is a decomposition of healthy eccentric inspiration and ambition  wearing a cloak of unsentimental , straightforward text  when it's really an exercise in gross romanticization of the delusional personality type . 
so stupid , so ill-conceived , so badly drawn , it created whole new levels of ugly . 
my precious new star wars movie is a lumbering , wheezy drag . . . 
delivers the same old same old , tarted up with latin flava and turned out by hollywood playas . 
flotsam in the sea of moviemaking , not big enough for us to worry about it causing significant harm and not smelly enough to bother despising . 
pc stability notwithstanding , the film suffers from a simplistic narrative and a pat , fairy-tale conclusion . 
directors john musker and ron clements , the team behind the little mermaid , have produced sparkling retina candy , but they aren't able to muster a lot of emotional resonance in the cold vacuum of space . 
a cumbersome and cliche-ridden movie greased with every emotional device known to man . 
largely , this is a movie that also does it by the numbers . 
the words , 'frankly , my dear , i don't give a damn , ' have never been more appropriate . 
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 . 
for all its technical virtuosity , the film is so mired in juvenile and near-xenophobic pedagogy that it's enough to make one pine for the day when godard can no longer handle the rigors of filmmaking . 
nonsensical , dull " cyber-horror " flick is a grim , hollow exercise in flat scares and bad acting . 
completely awful iranian drama . . . as much fun as a grouchy ayatollah in a cold mosque . 
there is nothing redeeming about this movie . 
 . . little action , almost no suspense or believable tension , one-dimensional characters up the wazoo and sets that can only be described as sci-fi generic . 
like the world of his film , hartley created a monster but didn't know how to handle it . 
a string of rehashed sight gags based in insipid vulgarity . 
every nanosecond of the the new guy reminds you that you could be doing something else far more pleasurable . something like scrubbing the toilet . or emptying rat traps . or doing last year's taxes with your ex-wife . 
no worse than a lot of the crap we've been offered this summer , and slightly better than men in black 2 as far as slapdash extraterrestrial comedies go . 
like the excruciating end of days , collateral damage presents schwarzenegger as a tragic figure , but sympathy really belongs with any viewer forced to watch him try out so many complicated facial expressions . 
it just didn't mean much to me and played too skewed to ever get a hold on ( or be entertained by ) . 
though impostor deviously adopts the guise of a modern motion picture , it too is a bomb . 
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 . 
like most sequels , it takes what worked last time , repeats it and adds more characters , more stunts , more stuff in attempt to camouflage its sameness . 
however clever nelson has been in providing variation within the confines of her structure and staging , the question remains whether this should , indeed , have been presented as a theatrical release . 
observant intelligence constantly vies with pretension -- and sometimes plain wacky implausibility -- throughout maelstrom . 
the film has the thrown-together feel of a summer-camp talent show : hastily written , underrehearsed , arbitrarily plotted and filled with crude humor and vulgar innuendo . 
deuces wild treads heavily into romeo and juliet/west side story territory , where it plainly has no business going . 
for all its highfalutin title and corkscrew narrative , the movie turns out to be not much more than a shaggy human tale . 
most of the characters come off as pantomimesque sterotypes . 
the structure the film takes may find matt damon and ben affleck once again looking for residuals as this officially completes a good will hunting trilogy that was never planned . 
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 . 
it's push-the-limits teen comedy , the type written by people who can't come up with legitimate funny , and it's used so extensively that good bits are hopelessly overshadowed . 
the end result is like cold porridge with only the odd enjoyably chewy lump . 
sad nonsense , this . but not without cheesy fun factor . 
what an embarrassment . 
it's the kind of under-inspired , overblown enterprise that gives hollywood sequels a bad name . 
falters when it takes itself too seriously and when it depends too heavily on its otherwise talented cast to clown in situations that aren't funny . 
bottom-rung new jack city wannabe . 
barely manages for but a few seconds over its seemingly eternal running time to pique your interest , your imagination , your empathy or anything , really , save your disgust and your indifference . 
the film has a childlike quality about it . but the feelings evoked in the film are lukewarm and quick to pass . 
curling may be a unique sport but men with brooms is distinctly ordinary . 
mildly entertaining . 
a bland , obnoxious 88-minute infomercial for universal studios and its ancillary products . 
going to the website may be just as fun ( and scary ) as going to the film . 
dense and enigmatic . . . elusive . . . stagy and stilted
the new film of anton chekhov's the cherry orchard puts the 'ick' in 'classic . '
a mimetic approximation of better films like contempt and 8 1/2 . 
ostensibly celebrates middle-aged girl power , even as it presents friendship between women as pathetic , dysfunctional and destructive . 
 . . . a movie that , quite simply , shouldn't have been made . 
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 , cannot overcome blah characters . 
the characters seem one-dimensional , and the film is superficial and will probably be of interest primarily to its target audience . 
at once overly old-fashioned in its sudsy plotting and heavy-handed in its effort to modernize it with encomia to diversity and tolerance . 
a cockeyed shot all the way . 
the name says it all . jackass is a vulgar and cheap-looking version of candid camera staged for the marquis de sade set . 
this slender plot feels especially thin stretched over the nearly 80-minute running time . 
nemesis suffers from a paunchy midsection , several plodding action sequences and a wickedly undramatic central theme . 
like a documentary version of fight club , shorn of social insight , intellectual pretension and cinematic interest . 
the only fun part of the movie is playing the obvious game . you try to guess the order in which the kids in the house will be gored . 
uncertain in tone . . . a garbled exercise in sexual politics , a junior varsity short cuts by way of very bad things . 
it's bedeviled by labored writing and slack direction . 
the parts are better than the whole ( bizarre , funny , tragic - like love in new york ) . 
 . . . unlikable , uninteresting , unfunny , and completely , utterly inept . 
there's not enough to sustain the comedy . 
this charmless nonsense ensues amid clanging film references that make jay and silent bob's excellent adventure seem understated . 
meandering and glacially paced , and often just plain dull . 
yo , it's the days of our lives meets electric boogaloo . 
a fake street drama that keeps telling you things instead of showing them . 
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 . 
a beyond-lame satire , teddy bears' picnic ranks among the most pitiful directing debuts by an esteemed writer-actor . 
eckstraordinarily lame and severely boring . 
ultimately , in the history of the academy , people may be wondering what all that jazz was about " chicago " in 2002 . zellweger's whiny pouty-lipped poof faced and spindly attempt at playing an ingenue makes her nomination as best actress even more of a an a
time of favor could have given audiences the time of day by concentrating on the elements of a revealing alienation among a culture of people who sadly are at hostile odds with one another through recklessness and retaliation . 
the drama discloses almost nothing . 
fails to convince the audience that these brats will ever be anything more than losers . 
even by the intentionally low standards of frat-boy humor , sorority boys is a bowser . 
a ragbag of promising ideas and failed narrative , of good acting and plain old bad filmmaking . 
this time kaufman's imagination has failed him . 
unfunny and lacking any sense of commitment to or affection for its characters , the reginald hudlin comedy relies on toilet humor , ethnic slurs . 
little more than a super-sized infomercial for the cable-sports channel and its summer x games . 
writer/director burr steers emphasizes the q in quirky , with mixed results . 
what happens when something goes bump in the night and nobody cares ? 
while holm is terrific as both men and hjejle quite appealing , the film fails to make the most out of the intriguing premise . 
plays like an unbalanced mixture of graphic combat footage and almost saccharine domestic interludes that are pure hollywood . 
the plot is plastered with one hollywood cliche after another , most of which involve precocious kids getting the better of obnoxious adults . 
an ambitious , guilt-suffused melodrama crippled by poor casting . 
the plot is straight off the shelf , the performances are television- caliber and the message of providing solace through deception is a little creepy . 
the movie feels like it's going to be great , and it carries on feeling that way for a long time , but takeoff just never happens . 
this misty-eyed southern nostalgia piece , in treading the line between sappy and sanguine , winds up mired in tear-drenched quicksand . 
 is an arthritic attempt at directing by callie khouri . i had to look away - this was god awful . 
it shares the first two films' loose-jointed structure , but laugh-out-loud bits are few and far between . 
it is that rare combination of bad writing , bad direction and bad acting -- the trifecta of badness . 
though it inspires some ( out-of-field ) creative thought , the film is -- to its own detriment -- much more a cinematic collage than a polemical tract . 
claims to sort the bad guys from the good , which is its essential problem . 
 . . . a bland , pretentious mess . 
blessed with immense physical prowess he may well be , but ahola is simply not an actor . and in truth , cruel as it may sound , he makes arnold schwarzenegger look like spencer tracy . 
the script kicks in , and mr . hartley's distended pace and foot-dragging rhythms follow . 
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 ? 
the big ending surprise almost saves the movie . it's too bad that the rest isn't more compelling . 
it's a brilliant , honest performance by nicholson , but the film is an agonizing bore except when the fantastic kathy bates turns up . bravado kathy ! 
the drama was so uninspiring that even a story immersed in love , lust , and sin couldn't keep my attention . 
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 . 
it's fitfully funny but never really takes off . 
several of steven soderbergh's earlier films were hailed as the works of an artist . sadly , full frontal plays like the work of a dilettante . 
we get the comedy we settle for . 
the most excruciating 86 minutes one might sit through this summer that do not involve a dentist drill . 
so mind-numbingly awful that you hope britney won't do it one more time , as far as movies are concerned . 
the episodic film makes valid points about the depersonalization of modern life . but the characters tend to be cliches whose lives are never fully explored . 
i like my christmas movies with more elves and snow and less pimps and ho's . 
abandons all pretense of creating historical context and waltzes off into a hectic soap about the ups and downs of the heavy breathing between the two artists . 
more intellectually scary than dramatically involving . 
the entire movie is about a boring , sad man being boring and sad . 
there's a reason why halftime is only fifteen minutes long . 
reggio falls victim to relying on the very digital technology that he fervently scorns , creating a meandering , inarticulate and ultimately disappointing film . 
except for paymer as the boss who ultimately expresses empathy for bartleby's pain , the performances are so stylized as to be drained of human emotion . 
far-fetched premise , convoluted plot , and thematic mumbo jumbo about destiny and redemptive love . 
an overemphatic , would-be wacky , ultimately tedious sex farce . 
the threat implied in the title pokmon 4ever is terrifying  like locusts in a horde these things will keep coming . 
adults , other than the parents . . . will be hard pressed to succumb to the call of the wild . 
ice age is the first computer-generated feature cartoon to feel like other movies , and that makes for some glacial pacing early on . 
odd and weird . 
essentially , the film is weak on detail and strong on personality
if the movie succeeds in instilling a wary sense of 'there but for the grace of god , ' it is far too self-conscious to draw you deeply into its world . 
the picture doesn't know it's a comedy . 
the creaking , rusty ship makes a fine backdrop , but the ghosts' haunting is routine . 
the christ allegory doesn't work because there is no foundation for it
so earnest and well-meaning , and so stocked with talent , that you almost forget the sheer , ponderous awfulness of its script . 
the movie is a lumbering load of hokum but . . . it's at least watchable . 
they presume their audience won'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 . 
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 isn't the least bit mesmerizing . 
there is an almost poignant dimension to the way that every major stunt seagal's character . . . performs is shot from behind , as if it could fool us into thinking that we're not watching a double . 
everything else about high crimes is , like the military system of justice it portrays , tiresomely regimented . 
 . . . standard guns versus martial arts cliche with little new added . 
shows moments of promise but ultimately succumbs to cliches and pat storytelling . 
bad . very bad . stultifyingly , dumbfoundingly , mind-numbingly bad . 
ong chooses to present ah na's life as a slight , weightless fairy tale , whose most unpleasant details seem to melt away in the face of the character's blank-faced optimism . 
scores no points for originality , wit , or intelligence . it's a cookie-cutter movie , a cut-and-paste job . 
the film's hackneyed message is not helped by the thin characterizations , nonexistent plot and pretentious visual style . 
has all the hallmarks of a movie designed strictly for children's home video , a market so insatiable it absorbs all manner of lame entertainment , as long as 3-year-olds find it diverting . 
contains all the substance of a twinkie -- easy to swallow , but scarcely nourishing . 
[h]ad i suffered and bled on the hard ground of ia drang , i'd want something a bit more complex than we were soldiers to be remembered by . 
the plot grows thin soon , and you find yourself praying for a quick resolution . 
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 . 
new ways of describing badness need to be invented to describe exactly how bad it is . 
less than fresh . 
too often , the viewer isn't reacting to humor so much as they are wincing back in repugnance . 
crummy
an unpredictable blend of gal-pal smart talk , romantic comedy and dark tragedy that bites off considerably more than writer/director john mckay can swallow . 
adults will certainly want to spend their time in the theater thinking up grocery lists and ways to tell their kids how not to act like pinocchio . as for children , they won't enjoy the movie at all . 
a slow-moving police-procedural thriller that takes its title all too literally . 
there is not a character in the movie with a shred of plausibility , not an event that is believable , not a confrontation that is not staged , not a moment that is not false . 
even a hardened voyeur would require the patience of job to get through this interminable , shapeless documentary about the swinging subculture . 
a depraved , incoherent , instantly disposable piece of hackery . 
this movie , a certain scene in particular , brought me uncomfortably close to losing my lunch . 
a banal , virulently unpleasant excuse for a romantic comedy . 
the documentary does little , apart from raising the topic , to further stoke the conversation . 
there's too much falseness to the second half , and what began as an intriguing look at youth fizzles into a dull , ridiculous attempt at heart-tugging . 
passion , lip-synching , tragedy , and lots of really really high notes . for me , this opera isn't a favorite , so it's a long time before the fat lady sings . 
 " feardotcom " has the makings of an interesting meditation on the ethereal nature of the internet and the otherworldly energies it could channel , but it simply becomes a routine shocker . 
sometimes makes less sense than the bruckheimeresque american action flicks it emulates . 
the movie just has too much on its plate to really stay afloat for its just under ninety minute running time . 
in spite of featuring a script credited to no fewer than five writers , apparently nobody here bothered to check it twice . 
green ruins every single scene he's in , and the film , while it's not completely wreaked , is seriously compromised by that . 
it's hard to quibble with a flick boasting this many genuine cackles , but notorious c . h . o . still feels like a promising work-in-progress . 
barry sonnenfeld owes frank the pug big time
a singularly off-putting romantic comedy . 
the story is familiar from its many predecessors ; like them , it eventually culminates in the not-exactly -stunning insight that crime doesn't pay . 
barely goes beyond comic book status . 
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 . 
 . . . tara reid plays a college journalist , but she looks like the six-time winner of the miss hawaiian tropic pageant , so i don't know what she's doing in here . . . 
half of it is composed of snappy patter and pseudo-sophisticated cultural observations , while the remainder . . . would be more at home on a daytime television serial . 
its appeal will probably limited to lds church members and undemanding armchair tourists . 
perceptive in its vision of nascent industrialized world politics as a new art form , but far too clunky , didactic and saddled with scenes that seem simply an ill fit for this movie . 
too lazy to take advantage of its semi-humorous premise . 
just an average comedic dateflick but not a waste of time . 
morrissette has performed a difficult task indeed - he's taken one of the world's most fascinating stories and made it dull , lifeless , and irritating . 
viewers will need all the luck they can muster just figuring out who's who in this pretentious mess . 
one of the most unpleasant things the studio has ever produced . 
unless you are in dire need of a diesel fix , there is no real reason to see it . wait for video -- and then don't rent it . 
the most remarkable ( and frustrating ) thing about world traveler , which opens today in manhattan , is that its protagonist , after being an object of intense scrutiny for 104 minutes , remains a complete blank . 
so genial is the conceit , this is one of those rare pictures that you root for throughout , dearly hoping that the rich promise of the script will be realized on the screen . it never is , not fully . 
will undoubtedly play well in european markets , where mr . besson is a brand name , and in asia , where ms . shu is an institution , but american audiences will probably find it familiar and insufficiently cathartic . 
 . . . the last time i saw a theater full of people constantly checking their watches was during my sats . 
reno does what he can in a thankless situation , the film ricochets from humor to violence and back again , and ryoko hirosue makes us wonder if she is always like that . 
just like hearst's enormous yacht , it's slow and unwieldy and takes a long time to reach its destination . 
behind the glitz , hollywood is sordid and disgusting . quelle surprise ! 
less dizzying than just dizzy , the jaunt is practically over before it begins . 
do not see this film . 
not even steven spielberg has dreamed up such blatant and sickening product placement in a movie . 
there is one surefire way to get a nomination for a best-foreign-film oscar : make a movie about whimsical folk who learn a nonchallenging , life-affirming lesson while walking around a foreign city with stunning architecture . 
es triste tener que decirles que lo nico grato de la cinta es el cuerpo desnudo de la heather . . . 
samira makhmalbaf's new film blackboards is much like the ethos of a stream of consciousness , although , it's unfortunate for the viewer that the thoughts and reflections coming through are torpid and banal
doesn't really add up to much . 
an unencouraging threefold expansion on the former mtv series , accompanying the stunt-hungry dimwits in a random series of collected gags , pranks , pratfalls , dares , injuries , etc . 
it's sort of a 21st century morality play with a latino hip hop beat . but the second half of the movie really goes downhill . 
the acting is fine but the script is about as interesting as a recording of conversations at the wal-mart checkout line . 
during the tuxedo's 90 minutes of screen time , there isn't one true 'chan moment' . 
this is a throwaway , junk-food movie whose rap soundtrack was better tended to than the film itself . 
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 . 
it's hard to imagine another director ever making his wife look so bad in a major movie . 
apparently designed as a reverie about memory and regret , but the only thing you'll regret is remembering the experience of sitting through it . 
the film meant well in its horse tale about freedom , but wasn't able to reach the heart because it was too overbearing . 
as an actor , the rock is aptly named . 
further sad evidence that tom tykwer , director of the resonant and sense-spinning run lola run , has turned out to be a one-trick pony -- a maker of softheaded metaphysical claptrap . 
an admitted egomaniac , evans is no hollywood villain , and yet this grating showcase almost makes you wish he'd gone the way of don simpson . 
it wouldn't be my preferred way of spending 100 minutes or $7 . 00 . 
for a shoot-'em-up , ballistic is oddly lifeless . 
collateral damage offers formula payback and the big payoff , but the explosions tend to simply hit their marks , pyro-correctly . 
while the importance of being earnest offers opportunities for occasional smiles and chuckles , it doesn't give us a reason to be in the theater beyond wilde's wit and the actors' performances . 
set in a 1986 harlem that doesn't look much like anywhere in new york . 
the thought of watching this film with an audience full of teenagers fixating on its body humour and reinforcement of stereotypes ( of which they'll get plenty ) fills me with revulsion . 
 . . . stumbles over every cheap trick in the book trying to make the outrage come even easier . 
this is rote spookiness , with nary an original idea ( or role , or edit , or score , or anything , really ) in sight , and the whole of the proceedings beg the question 'why ? '
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 . 
as is often the case with ambitious , eager first-time filmmakers , mr . murray , a prolific director of music videos , stuffs his debut with more plot than it can comfortably hold . 
 . . . this movie has a glossy coat of action movie excess while remaining heartless at its core . 
[n]o matter how much good will the actors generate , showtime eventually folds under its own thinness . 
this is the kind of movie where people who have never picked a lock do so easily after a few tries and become expert fighters after a few weeks . 
the film is really not so much bad as bland . 
one scene after another in this supposedly funny movie falls to the floor with a sickening thud . 
a bizarre piece of work , with premise and dialogue at the level of kids' television and plot threads as morose as teen pregnancy , rape and suspected murder
hey arnold ! is now stretched to barely feature length , with a little more attention paid to the animation . still , the updated dickensian sensibility of writer craig bartlett's story is appealing . 
this is no " waterboy ! " 
although bright , well-acted and thought-provoking , tuck everlasting suffers from a laconic pace and a lack of traditional action . 
 . . . plays like somebody spliced random moments of a chris rock routine into what is otherwise a cliche-riddled but self-serious spy thriller . 
ruh-roh ! romething's really wrong with this ricture ! 
a loud , ugly , irritating movie without any of its satirical salvos hitting a discernible target . 
well-nigh unendurable . . . though the picture strains to become cinematic poetry , it remains depressingly prosaic and dull . 
as gamely as the movie tries to make sense of its title character , there remains a huge gap between the film's creepy , clean-cut dahmer ( jeremy renner ) and fiendish acts that no amount of earnest textbook psychologizing can bridge . 
it smacks of purely commercial motivation , with no great love for the original . 
master of disguise runs for only 71 minutes and feels like three hours . 
a somewhat disappointing and meandering saga . 
disjointed parody . 
portentous and pretentious , the weight of water is appropriately titled , given the heavy-handedness of it drama . 
imagine ( if possible ) a pasolini film without passion or politics , or an almodovar movie without beauty or humor , and you have some idea of the glum , numb experience of watching o fantasma . 
the following things are not at all entertaining : the bad sound , the lack of climax and , worst of all , watching seinfeld ( who is also one of the film's producers ) do everything he can to look like a good guy . 
suffocated at conception by its munchausen-by-proxy mum . punish the vehicle to adore the star . 
 . . . a cinematic disaster so inadvertently sidesplitting it's worth the price of admission for the ridicule factor alone . 
directed by kevin bray , whose crisp framing , edgy camera work , and wholesale ineptitude with acting , tone and pace very obviously mark him as a video helmer making his feature debut . 
so bland and utterly forgettable that it might as well have been titled generic jennifer lopez romantic comedy . 
the movie fails to portray its literarily talented and notorious subject as anything much more than a dirty old man . 
big fat liar is just futile silliness looking to tap into the kiddie sensibilities . 
while some of the camera work is interesting , the film's mid-to-low budget is betrayed by the surprisingly shoddy makeup work . 
works on the whodunit level as its larger themes get lost in the murk of its own making
all prints of this film should be sent to and buried on pluto . 
a technical triumph and an extraordinary bore . 
obvious politics and rudimentary animation reduce the chances that the appeal of hey arnold ! the movie will reach far beyond its core demographic . 
clever but not especially compelling . 
 . . . an hour-and-a-half of inoffensive , unmemorable filler . 
the ethos of the chelsea hotel may shape hawke's artistic aspirations , but he hasn't yet coordinated his own dv poetry with the beat he hears in his soul . 
the x potion gives the quickly named blossom , bubbles and buttercup supernatural powers that include extraordinary strength and laser-beam eyes , which unfortunately don't enable them to discern flimsy screenplays . 
there's something deeply creepy about never again , a new arrow in schaeffer's quiver of ineptitudes . 
[plays] in broad outline as pandering middle-age buddy-comedy . 
splashes its drama all over the screen , subjecting its audience and characters to action that feels not only manufactured , but also so false you can see the filmmakers' puppet strings . 
this is junk food cinema at its greasiest . 
plays like a glossy melodrama that occasionally verges on camp . 
has not so much been written as assembled , frankenstein-like , out of other , marginally better shoot-em-ups . 
it's not difficult to spot the culprit early-on in this predictable thriller . 
although based on a real-life person , john , in the movie , is a rather dull person to be stuck with for two hours . 
the story the movie tells is of brian de palma's addiction to the junk-calorie suspense tropes that have all but ruined his career . 
 . curiously , super troopers suffers because it doesn't have enough vices to merit its 103-minute length . 
the pretensions -- and disposable story -- sink the movie . and diesel isn't the actor to save it . 
a film that plays things so nice 'n safe as to often play like a milquetoast movie of the week blown up for the big screen . 
'god help us , but capra and cooper are rolling over in their graves . '
director yu seems far more interested in gross-out humor than in showing us well-thought stunts or a car chase that we haven't seen 10 , 000 times . 
kapur's contradictory feelings about his material result in a movie that works against itself . 
a minor-league soccer remake of the longest yard . 
unfortunately the story and the actors are served with a hack script . 
made with no discernible craft and monstrously sanctimonious in dealing with childhood loss . 
unambitious writing emerges in the movie , using a plot that could have come from an animated-movie screenwriting textbook . 
 . . . hopefully it'll be at the dollar theatres by the time christmas rolls around . wait to see it then . 
his comedy premises are often hackneyed or just plain crude , calculated to provoke shocked laughter , without following up on a deeper level . 
definitely a crowd-pleaser , but then , so was the roman colosseum . 
it believes it's revealing some great human truths , when , in reality , it's churning ground that has long passed the point of being fertile . 
shunji iwai's all about lily chou chou is a beautifully shot , but ultimately flawed film about growing up in japan . 
on the bright side , it contains jesse ventura's best work since the xfl . 
it makes me feel weird / thinking about all the bad things in the world / like puppies with broken legs / and butterflies that die / and movies starring pop queens
 . . . for all its social and political potential , state property doesn't end up being very inspiring or insightful . 
nothing more than an amiable but unfocused bagatelle that plays like a loosely-connected string of acting-workshop exercises . 
there are few things more frustrating to a film buff than seeing an otherwise good movie marred beyond redemption by a disastrous ending . 
it's obvious [je-gyu is] trying for poetry ; what he gets instead has all the lyricism of a limerick scrawled in a public restroom . 
a pint-sized 'goodfellas' designed to appeal to the younger set , it's not a very good movie in any objective sense , but it does mostly hold one's interest . 
frenetic but not really funny . 
i firmly believe that a good video game movie is going to show up soon . i also believe that resident evil is not it . 
before it takes a sudden turn and devolves into a bizarre sort of romantic comedy , steven shainberg's adaptation of mary gaitskill's harrowing short story . . . is a brilliantly played , deeply unsettling experience . 
strictly a 'guy's film' in the worst sense of the expression . 
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 . 
a prison comedy that never really busts out of its comfy little cell . 
this film is too busy hitting all of its assigned marks to take on any life of its own . 
an imponderably stilted and self-consciously arty movie . 
for the most part , i spy was an amusing lark that will probably rank as one of murphy's better performances in one of his lesser-praised movies . 
while hoffman's performance is great , the subject matter goes nowhere . 
not everything in the film works , including its somewhat convenient ending . 
there's no getting around the fact that this is revenge of the nerds revisited -- again . 
enigma is well-made , but it's just too dry and too placid . 
unfortunately , heartbreak hospital wants to convey the same kind of haughtiness in its own sketchy material but this territory has already been explored previously with better aplomb and sardonic wit . 
k-19 may not hold a lot of water as a submarine epic , but it holds even less when it turns into an elegiacally soggy saving private ryanovich . 
one of the most depressing movie-going experiences i can think of is to sit through about 90 minutes of a so-called 'comedy' and not laugh once . 
snoots will no doubt rally to its cause , trotting out threadbare standbys like 'masterpiece' and 'triumph' and all that malarkey , but rarely does an established filmmaker so ardently waste viewers' time with a gobbler like this . 
fails to bring as much to the table . 
when you resurrect a dead man , hard copy should come a-knocking , no ? 
the cinematic equivalent of patronizing a bar favored by pretentious , untalented artistes who enjoy moaning about their cruel fate . 
though frida is easier to swallow than julie taymor's preposterous titus , the eye candy here lacks considerable brio . 
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 . 
an unbelievably stupid film , though occasionally fun enough to make you forget its absurdity . 
parker probably thinks he's shaking up a classic the way kenneth branagh and baz luhrmann have , but this half-hearted messing-about just makes us miss wilde's still-contemporary play . 
john mctiernan's botched remake may be subtler than norman jewison's 1975 ultraviolent futuristic corporate-sports saga . it's also stupider . 
when a set of pre-shooting guidelines a director came up with for his actors turns out to be cleverer , better written and of considerable more interest than the finished film , that's a bad sign . a very bad sign . 
the humor is forced and heavy-handed , and occasionally simply unpleasant . 
there's surely something wrong with a comedy where the only belly laughs come from the selection of outtakes tacked onto the end credits . 
 at its best , it's black hawk down with more heart . at its worst , it's rambo- meets-john ford . 
hey arnold ! the movie could have been made 40 years ago , and parents' appreciation of it may depend on whether they consider that a good thing . 
a by-the-numbers effort that won't do much to enhance the franchise . 
the problematic characters and overly convenient plot twists foul up shum's good intentions . 
there is so much plodding sensitivity . 
i was trying to decide what annoyed me most about god is great . . . i'm not , and then i realized that i just didn't care . 
passable enough for a shoot-out in the o . k . court house of life type of flick . strictly middle of the road . 
it plods along methodically , somehow under the assumption that its " dead wife communicating from beyond the grave " framework is even remotely new or interesting . 
while it may not add up to the sum of its parts , holofcener's film offers just enough insight to keep it from being simpleminded , and the ensemble cast is engaging enough to keep you from shifting in your chair too often . 
the characters are never more than sketches . . . which leaves any true emotional connection or identification frustratingly out of reach . 
a poky and pseudo-serious exercise in sham actor workshops and an affected malaise . 
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 . 
the movie makes absolutely no sense . its underlying mythology is a hodgepodge of inconsistencies that pose the question : since when did dumb entertainment have to be this dumb ? 
bears is even worse than i imagined a movie ever could be . 
has an uppity musical beat that you can dance to , but its energy can't compare to the wit , humor and snappy dialogue of the original . if i want music , i'll buy the soundtrack . if i want a real movie , i'll buy the criterion dvd . 
oops , she's really done it this time . that chirpy songbird britney spears has popped up with more mindless drivel . 
we are left with a superficial snapshot that , however engaging , is insufficiently enlightening and inviting . 
the only time 8 crazy nights comes close to hitting a comedic or satirical target is during the offbeat musical numbers . 
shrewd but pointless . 
an awkward and indigestible movie . 
no big whoop , nothing new to see , zero thrills , too many flashbacks and a choppy ending make for a bad film . 
unless you come in to the film with a skateboard under your arm , you're going to feel like you weren't invited to the party . 
a 94-minute travesty of unparalleled proportions , writer-director parker seems to go out of his way to turn the legendary wit's classic mistaken identity farce into brutally labored and unfunny hokum . 
slack and uninspired , and peopled mainly by characters so unsympathetic that you're left with a sour taste in your mouth . 
presents a good case while failing to provide a reason for us to care beyond the very basic dictums of human decency . 
hard-core slasher aficionados will find things to like . . . but overall the halloween series has lost its edge . 
i hate the feeling of having been slimed in the name of high art . 
frank capra played this story straight . but the 2002 film doesn't really believe in it , and breaks the mood with absurdly inappropriate 'comedy' scenes . 
a fitfully amusing romp that , if nothing else , will appeal to fans of malcolm in the middle and its pubescent star , frankie muniz . 
naipaul fans may be disappointed . those who are not acquainted with the author's work , on the other hand , may fall fast asleep . 
pumpkin wants to have it both ways . 
the holiday message of the 37-minute santa vs . the snowman leaves a lot to be desired . 
something akin to a japanese alice through the looking glass , except that it seems to take itself far more seriously . 
a 93-minute condensation of a 26-episode tv series , with all of the pitfalls of such you'd expect . 
it feels like very light errol morris , focusing on eccentricity but failing , ultimately , to make something bigger out of its scrapbook of oddballs . 
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 . 
obvious
first-time director joo pedro rodrigues' unwillingness to define his hero's background or motivations becomes more and more frustrating as the film goes on . 
the movie is a desperate miscalculation . it gives poor dana carvey nothing to do that is really funny , and then expects us to laugh because he acts so goofy all the time . 
so relentlessly wholesome it made me want to swipe something . 
boasting some of the most poorly staged and lit action in memory , impostor is as close as you can get to an imitation movie . 
lucky break is perfectly inoffensive and harmless , but it's also drab and inert . 
responsvel direto pelo fracasso 'artstico' de doce lar , o roteirista c . jay cox no consegue sequer aproveitar os pouqussimos momentos em que escapa da mediocridade . 
possibly not since grumpy old men have i heard a film so solidly connect with one demographic while striking out with another . 
ice cube isn't quite out of ripe screwball ideas , but friday after next spreads them pretty thin . 
impostor doesn't do much with its template , despite a remarkably strong cast . 
davis has energy , but she doesn't bother to make her heroine's book sound convincing , the gender-war ideas original , or the comic scenes fly . 
[t]he ideas of revolution #9 are more compelling than the execution
a really good premise is frittered away in middle-of-the-road blandness . 
a selection of scenes in search of a movie . 
spectators will indeed sit open-mouthed before the screen , not screaming but yawning . 
too long , and larded with exposition , this somber cop drama ultimately feels as flat as the scruffy sands of its titular community . 
rambles on in a disjointed , substandard fashion from one poorly executed action sequence to the next . 
it made me realize that we really haven't had a good cheesy b-movie playing in theaters since . . . well . . . since last week's reign of fire . 
slow , dry , poorly cast , but beautifully shot . 
starts out ballsy and stylish but fails to keep it up and settles into clichs . 
it's difficult for a longtime admirer of his work to not be swept up in invincible and overlook its drawbacks . 
what might have emerged as hilarious lunacy in the hands of woody allen or mel brooks ( at least during their '70s heyday ) comes across as lame and sophomoric in this debut indie feature . 
unintelligible , poorly acted , brain-slappingly bad , harvard man is ludicrous enough that it could become a cult classic . 
not only does the thoroughly formulaic film represent totally exemplify middle-of-the-road mainstream , it also represents glossy hollywood at its laziest . 
whether this is art imitating life or life imitating art , it's an unhappy situation all around . 
the skills of a calculus major at m . i . t . are required to balance all the formulaic equations in the long-winded heist comedy who is cletis tout ? 
dissing a bond movie is quite like calling a dog stupid , but when it has the temerity to run over two hours , you feel like winding up with a kick . 
when the screenwriter responsible for one of the worst movies of one year directs an equally miserable film the following year , you'd have a hard time believing it was just coincidence . 
they were afraid to show this movie to reviewers before its opening , afraid of the bad reviews they thought they'd earn . they were right . 
the kids in the audience at the preview screening seemed bored , cheering the pratfalls but little else ; their parents , wise folks that they are , read books . 
the problem is the needlessly poor quality of its archival prints and film footage . the images lack contrast , are murky and are frequently too dark to be decipherable . 
it's a pedestrian , flat drama that screams out 'amateur' in almost every frame . 
the title helpfully offers the most succinct review of it you'll read anywhere . 
unlike trey parker , sandler doesn't understand that the idea of exploiting molestation for laughs is funny , not actually exploiting it yourself . 
an ill-conceived jumble that's not scary , not smart and not engaging . 
as violent , profane and exploitative as the most offensive action flick you've ever seen . 
payami tries to raise some serious issues about iran's electoral process , but the result is a film that's about as subtle as a party political broadcast . 
a rote exercise in both animation and storytelling . 
when the plot kicks in , the film loses credibility . 
limps along on a squirm-inducing fish-out-of-water formula that goes nowhere and goes there very , very slowly . 
harvard man is a semi-throwback , a reminiscence without nostalgia or sentimentality . 
[t]his slop doesn't even have potential as a cult film , as it's too loud to shout insults at the screen . 
 . . . a weak and ineffective ghost story without a conclusion or pay off . 
the four feathers is definitely horse feathers , but if you go in knowing that , you might have fun in this cinematic sandbox . 
a movie that hovers somewhere between an acute character study and a trite power struggle . 
more whiny downer than corruscating commentary . 
deliberately and devotedly constructed , far from heaven is too picture postcard perfect , too neat and new pin-like , too obviously a recreation to resonate . 
holden caulfield did it better . 
there's not a spark of new inspiration in it , just more of the same , done with noticeably less energy and imagination . 
snipes relies too much on a scorchingly plotted dramatic scenario for its own good . 
shallow , noisy and pretentious . 
seems content to dog-paddle in the mediocre end of the pool , and it's a sad , sick sight . 
beware the quirky brit-com . they can and will turn on a dime from oddly humorous to tediously sentimental . 
real-life strongman ahola lacks the charisma and ability to carry the film on his admittedly broad shoulders . 
an uneven film dealing with too many problems to be taken seriously . 
every bit as bogus as most disney live action family movies are -- no real plot , no real conflict , no real point . 
the film , like jimmy's routines , could use a few good laughs . 
i walked away not really know who " they " were , what " they " looked like . why " they " were here and what " they " wanted and quite honestly , i didn't care . 
the campy results make mel brooks' borscht belt schtick look sophisticated . 
nights feels more like a quickie tv special than a feature film . . . it's not even a tv special you'd bother watching past the second commercial break . 
we have an actor who is great fun to watch performing in a film that is only mildly diverting . 
the fourth in a series that i'll bet most parents had thought --hoped ! -- was a fad that had long since vanished . 
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 . 
comedy troupe broken lizard's first movie is very funny but too concerned with giving us a plot . 
sweet home alabama is one dumb movie , but its stupidity is so relentlessly harmless that it almost wins you over in the end . 
sweet home alabama certainly won't be remembered as one of [witherspoon's] better films . 
the three leads produce adequate performances , but what's missing from this material is any depth of feeling . 
the film affords us intriguing glimpses of the insights gleaned from a lifetime of spiritual inquiry , but ram dass : fierce grace doesn't organize it with any particular insight . 
it's absolutely amazing how first-time director kevin donovan managed to find something new to add to the canon of chan . make chan's action sequences boring . 
snipes is both a snore and utter tripe . 
one well-timed explosion in a movie can be a knockout , but a hundred of them can be numbing . proof of this is ballistic : ecks vs . sever . 
instead of hiding pinocchio from critics , miramax should have hidden it from everyone . 
resident evil isn't a product of its cinematic predecessors so much as an mtv , sugar hysteria , and playstation cocktail . 
putting the primitive murderer inside a high-tech space station unleashes a pandora's box of special effects that run the gamut from cheesy to cheesier to cheesiest . 
gaping plot holes sink this 'sub'-standard thriller and drag audience enthusiasm to crush depth . 
the adventure doesn't contain half the excitement of balto , or quarter the fun of toy story 2 . 
could as easily have been called 'under siege 3 : in alcatraz' . . . a cinematic corpse that never springs to life . 
professionally speaking , it's tempting to jump ship in january to avoid ridiculous schlock like this shoddy suspense thriller . 
hampered -- no , paralyzed -- by a self-indulgent script . . . that aims for poetry and ends up sounding like satire . 
even horror fans will most likely not find what they're seeking with trouble every day ; the movie lacks both thrills and humor . 
you'd be hard put to find a movie character more unattractive or odorous [than leon] . 
a film neither bitter nor sweet , neither romantic nor comedic , neither warm nor fuzzy . 
producer john penotti surveyed high school students . . . and came back with the astonishing revelation that " they wanted to see something that didn't talk down to them . " ignoring that , he made swimfan anyway
 . . . overly melodramatic . . . 
degenerates into hogwash . 
this pathetic junk is barely an hour long . nevertheless , it still seems endless . 
the piano teacher is the sort of movie that discourages american audiences from ever wanting to see another foreign film . 
feels less like a cousin to blade runner than like a bottom-feeder sequel in the escape from new york series . 
it leers , offering next to little insight into its intriguing subject . 
like shave ice without the topping , this cinematic snow cone is as innocuous as it is flavorless . 
with an unusual protagonist ( a kilt-wearing jackson ) and subject matter , the improbable " formula 51 " is somewhat entertaining , but it could have been much stronger . 
needs more impressionistic cinematography and exhilarating point-of-view shots and fewer slow-motion 'grandeur' shots and quick-cut edits that often detract from the athleticism . 
though it goes further than both , anyone who has seen the hunger or cat people will find little new here , but a tasty performance from vincent gallo lifts this tale of cannibal lust above the ordinary . 
a slight and obvious effort , even for one whose target demographic is likely still in the single digits , age-wise . 
characters still need to function according to some set of believable and comprehensible impulses , no matter how many drugs they do or how much artistic license avary employs . 
in moonlight mile , no one gets shut out of the hug cycle . 
gibney and jarecki just want to string the bastard up . 
you see robert de niro singing - and dancing to - west side story show tunes . choose your reaction : a . ) that sure is funny ! b . ) that sure is pathetic ! 
despite the pyrotechnics , narc is strictly by the book . 
no new plot conceptions or environmental changes , just different bodies for sharp objects to rip through . 
the film . . . presents classic moral-condundrum drama : what would you have done to survive ? the problem with the film is whether these ambitions , laudable in themselves , justify a theatrical simulation of the death camp of auschwitz ii-birkenau . 
drumline is -- the mere suggestion , albeit a visually compelling one , of a fully realized story . 
its impressive images of crematorium chimney fires and stacks of dead bodies are undermined by the movie's presentation , which is way too stagy . 
an encouraging effort from mccrudden
the obligatory break-ups and hook-ups don't seem to have much emotional impact on the characters . 
it's not the worst comedy of the year , but it certainly won't win any honors . 
a loquacious and dreary piece of business . 
any reasonably creative eighth-grader could have written a more credible script , though with the same number of continuity errors . 
i'd give real money to see the perpetrators of chicago torn apart by dingoes . 
one of the oddest and most inexplicable sequels in movie history . 
it's supposed to be a romantic comedy - it suffers from too much norma rae and not enough pretty woman . 
mendes still doesn't quite know how to fill a frame . like the hanks character , he's a slow study : the action is stilted and the tabloid energy embalmed . 
feels too formulaic and too familiar to produce the transgressive thrills of early underground work . 
the title's lameness should clue you in on how bad the movie is . 
whether quitting will prove absorbing to american audiences is debatable . 
will probably stay in the shadow of its two older , more accessible qatsi siblings . 
the action clichs just pile up . 
don't hate el crimen del padre amaro because it's anti-catholic . hate it because it's lousy . 
a film of empty , fetishistic violence in which murder is casual and fun . 
the irwins emerge unscathed , but the fictional footage is unconvincing and criminally badly acted . 
as with so many merchandised-to-the-max movies of this type , more time appears to have gone into recruiting the right bands for the playlist and the costuming of the stars than into the script , which has a handful of smart jokes and not much else . 
fairly run-of-the-mill . 
an uneasy mix of run-of-the-mill raunchy humor and seemingly sincere personal reflection . 
the movie does such an excellent job of critiquing itself at every faltering half-step of its development that criticizing feels more like commiserating . 
a sermonizing and lifeless paean to teenage dullards . 
'enigma' is a good name for a movie this delibrately obtuse and unapproachable . a waste of good performances . 
a grand fart coming from a director beginning to resemble someone's crazy french grandfather . 
loosely speaking , we're in all of me territory again , and , strictly speaking , schneider is no steve martin . 
black-and-white and unrealistic . 
frankly , it's kind of insulting , both to men and women . and it's not that funny -- which is just generally insulting . 
nothing in waking up in reno ever inspired me to think of its inhabitants as anything more than markers in a screenplay . 
purports to be a hollywood satire but winds up as the kind of film that should be the target of something deeper and more engaging . oh , and more entertaining , too . 
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 don't feel much for damon/bourne or his predicament . 
watching " ending " is too often like looking over the outdated clothes and plastic knickknacks at your neighbor's garage sale . you can't believe anyone would really buy this stuff . 
the whole thing comes off like a particularly amateurish episode of bewitched that takes place during spring break . 
the verdict : two bodies and hardly a laugh between them . 
it's an earnest debut full of heartfelt performances , but is ultimately let down by a story that is all too predictable . 
it's a loathsome movie , it really is and it makes absolutely no sense . 
bang ! zoom ! it's actually pretty funny , but in all the wrong places . 
a porn film without the sex scenes . 
this is a film living far too much in its own head . 
despite a blue-chip cast and a provocative title , writer-director peter mattei's first feature microwaves dull leftover romantic motifs basted in faux-contemporary gravy . 
i'm not sure these words have ever been together in the same sentence : this erotic cannibal movie is boring . 
about as satisfying and predictable as the fare at your local drive through . 
this remake of lina wertmuller's 1975 eroti-comedy might just be the biggest husband-and-wife disaster since john and bo derek made the ridiculous bolero . 
the cold turkey would've been a far better title . 
i felt trapped and with no obvious escape for the entire 100 minutes . 
 . . . del toro maintains a dark mood that makes the film seem like something to endure instead of enjoy . 
an inelegant combination of two unrelated shorts that falls far short of the director's previous work in terms of both thematic content and narrative strength . 
the script is a dim-witted pairing of teen-speak and animal gibberish . 
a summary of the plot doesn't quite do justice to the awfulness of the movie , for that comes through all too painfully in the execution . 
bad and baffling from the get-go . 
this kind of dark comedy requires a delicate , surgical touch . but director danny devito and screenwriter adam resnick ( remember cabin boy ? ) just pound away . 
dong never pushes for insights beyond the superficial tensions of the dynamic he's dissecting , and the film settles too easily along the contours of expectation . 
koepp's screenplay isn't nearly surprising or clever enough to sustain a reasonable degree of suspense on its own . 
it's rare to see a movie that takes such a speedy swan dive from " promising " to " interesting " to " familiar " before landing squarely on " stupid " . 
give shapiro , goldman , and bolado credit for good intentions , but there's nothing here that they couldn't have done in half an hour . 
the first question to ask about bad company is why anthony hopkins is in it . we assume he had a bad run in the market or a costly divorce , because there is no earthly reason other than money why this distinguished actor would stoop so low . 
even as i valiantly struggled to remain interested , or at least conscious , i could feel my eyelids . . . getting . . . very . . . heavy . . . 
extremely bad . 
this is a train wreck of an action film -- a stupefying attempt by the filmmakers to force-feed james bond into the mindless xxx mold and throw 40 years of cinematic history down the toilet in favor of bright flashes and loud bangs . 
little is done to support the premise other than fling gags at it to see which ones shtick . 
it's difficult to say whether the tuxedo is more boring or embarrassing--i'm prepared to call it a draw . 
for all the writhing and wailing , tears , rage and opium overdoses , there's no sense of actual passion being washed away in love's dissolution . 
the sweetest thing leaves a bitter taste . 
it's too self-important and plodding to be funny , and too clipped and abbreviated to be an epic . 
offers very little genuine romance and even fewer laughs . . . a sad sitcom of a movie , largely devoid of charm . 
another boorish movie from the i-heard-a-joke- at-a-frat-party school of screenwriting . 
with its paint fights , motorized scooter chases and dewy-eyed sentiment , it's a pretty listless collection of kid-movie clichs . 
you're better off staying home and watching the x-files . 
a gratingly unfunny groaner littered with zero-dimensional , unlikable characters and hackneyed , threadbare comic setups . 
feels more like a rejected x-files episode than a credible account of a puzzling real-life happening . 
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 . 
its juxtaposition of overwrought existentialism and stomach-churning gore will have you forever on the verge of either cracking up or throwing up . 
[creates] the worst kind of mythologizing , the kind that sacrifices real heroism and abject suffering for melodrama . 
is anyone else out there getting tired of the whole slo-mo , double-pistoled , ballistic-pyrotechnic hong kong action aesthetic ? 
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 . 
no amount of good acting is enough to save oleander's uninspired story . 
the waterlogged script plumbs uncharted depths of stupidity , incoherence and sub-sophomoric sexual banter . 
this painfully unfunny farce traffics in tired stereotypes and encumbers itself with complications . . . that have no bearing on the story . 
it's lost the politics and the social observation and become just another situation romance about a couple of saps stuck in an inarticulate screenplay . 
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 . 
they threw loads of money at an idea that should've been so much more even if it was only made for teenage boys and wrestling fans . 
less-than-compelling documentary of a yiddish theater clan . 
sometimes , fond memories should stay in the past : a lesson this film teaches all too well . 
i suspect this is the kind of production that would have been funnier if the director had released the outtakes theatrically and used the film as a bonus feature on the dvd . 
nothing more than a widget cranked out on an assembly line to see if stupid americans will get a kick out of goofy brits with cute accents performing ages-old slapstick and unfunny tricks . 
for the most part , the ingredients are there . but an unwillingness to explore beyond the surfaces of her characters prevents nettelbeck's film from coming together . 
yes , i suppose it's lovely that cal works out his issues with his dad and comes to terms with his picture-perfect life -- but world traveler gave me no reason to care , so i didn't . 
outer-space buffs might love this film , but others will find its pleasures intermittent . 
only those most addicted to film violence in all its forms will find anything here to appreciate . 
the most surprising thing about this film is that they are actually releasing it into theaters . 
like schindler's list , the grey zone attempts to be grandiloquent , but ends up merely pretentious -- in a grisly sort of way . 
a small independent film suffering from a severe case of hollywood-itis . 
like being trapped at a perpetual frat party . . . how can something so gross be so boring ? 
nothing more substantial than a fitfully clever doodle . 
madonna still can't act a lick . 
so clichd that , at one point , they literally upset an apple cart . 
the lack of opposing viewpoints soon grows tiresome -- the film feels more like a series of toasts at a testimonial dinner than a documentary . 
the real question this movie poses is not 'who ? ' but 'why ? '
another rent installment for the ian fleming estate . 
charlize chases kevin with a gun . courtney chases stuart with a cell phone . the sound of gunfire and cell phones ringing . 
what more can be expected from a college comedy that's target audience hasn't graduated from junior high school ? 
 . . . one big laugh , three or four mild giggles , and a whole lot of not much else . 
it's deep-sixed by a compulsion to catalog every bodily fluids gag in there's something about mary and devise a parallel clone-gag . 
it's not original enough . 
this little film is so slovenly done , so primitive in technique , that it can't really be called animation . 
we could have expected a little more human being , and a little less product . 
haneke's script ( from elfriede jelinek's novel ) is contrived , unmotivated , and psychologically unpersuasive , with an inconclusive ending . 
it briefly flirts with player masochism , but the point of real interest - audience sadism -- is evaded completely . 
it is depressing , ruthlessly pained and depraved , the movie equivalent of staring into an open wound . 
in its best moments , resembles a bad high school production of grease , without benefit of song . 
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 . 
so verbally flatfooted and so emotionally predictable or bland that it plays like the standard made-for-tv movie . 
the film would have been more enjoyable had the balance shifted in favor of water-bound action over the land-based 'drama , ' but the emphasis on the latter leaves blue crush waterlogged . 
it's provocative stuff , but the speculative effort is hampered by taylor's cartoonish performance and the film's ill-considered notion that hitler's destiny was shaped by the most random of chances . 
pryor lite , with half the demons , half the daring , much less talent , many fewer laughs . 
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 . 
i have to admit i walked out of runteldat . i did go back and check out the last 10 minutes , but these were more repulsive than the first 30 or 40 minutes . 
essentially a collection of bits -- and they're all naughty . 
 . . . a bland murder-on-campus yawner . 
k-19 exploits our substantial collective fear of nuclear holocaust to generate cheap hollywood tension . 
drags along in a dazed and enervated , drenched-in-the- past numbness . 
90 punitive minutes of eardrum-dicing gunplay , screeching-metal smashups , and flaccid odd-couple sniping . 
kids don't mind crappy movies as much as adults , provided there's lots of cute animals and clumsy people . 'snow dogs' has both . 
abysmally pathetic
it's kind of sad that so many people put so much time and energy into this turkey . 
as befits its title , this pg-13-rated piffle is ultimately as threatening as the snuggle fabric softener bear . 
depressingly thin and exhaustingly contrived . only masochistic moviegoers need apply . 
violent , vulgar and forgettably entertaining . 
director david fincher and writer david koepp can't sustain it . 
despite her relentless vim and winsome facial symmetry , witherspoon is just too dialed-up to be america's sweetheart . 
the master of disguise is funny--not " ha ha " funny , " dead circus performer " funny . and for all the wrong reasons besides . 
chao was chen kaige's assistant for years in china . he has not learnt that storytelling is what the movies are about . 
not counting a few gross-out comedies i've been trying to forget , this is the first film in a long time that made me want to bolt the theater in the first 10 minutes . 
in the end , the weight of water comes to resemble the kind of soft-core twaddle you'd expect to see on showtime's 'red shoe diaries . '
that such a horrible movie could have sprung from such a great one is one of the year's worst cinematic tragedies . 
the movie barely makes sense , with its unbelievable navet and arbitrary flashbacks . 
interesting , but not compelling . 
no film could possibly be more contemptuous of the single female population . 
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 . 
whole stretches of the film may be incomprehensible to moviegoers not already clad in basic black . 
doesn't get the job done , running off the limited chemistry created by ralph fiennes and jennifer lopez . 
a processed comedy chop suey . 
thin period piece . 
the 70-year-old godard has become , to judge from in praise of love , the sort of bitter old crank who sits behind his light meter and harangues the supposed injustices of the artistic world-at-large without doing all that much to correct them . 
very much a home video , and so devoid of artifice and purpose that it appears not to have been edited at all . 
a ragbag of cliches . 
plays as hollow catharsis , with lots of tears but very little in the way of insights . 
ram dass fierce grace moulds itself as an example to up-and-coming documentarians , of the overlooked pitfalls of such an endeavour . 
instead of letting the laughs come as they may , lawrence unleashes his trademark misogyny -- er , comedy -- like a human volcano or an overflowing septic tank , take your pick . 
this is a good movie in spurts , but when it doesn't work , it's at important times . 
nobody seems to have cared much about any aspect of it , from its cheesy screenplay to the grayish quality of its lighting to its last-minute , haphazard theatrical release . 
its characters are thinner than cardboard -- or even comic-book paper . 
dripping with cliche and bypassing no opportunity to trivialize the material . 
with the exception of some fleetingly amusing improvisations by cedric the entertainer as perry's boss , there isn't a redeeming moment here . 
eddie murphy and owen wilson have a cute partnership in i spy , but the movie around them is so often nearly nothing that their charm doesn't do a load of good . 
rosenthal ( halloween ii ) seems to have forgotten everything he ever knew about generating suspense . 
it's so tedious that it makes you forgive every fake , dishonest , entertaining and , ultimately , more perceptive moment in bridget jones's diary . 
a " home alone " film that is staged like " rosemary's baby , " but is not as well-conceived as either of those films . 
my advice is to skip the film and pick up the soundtrack . 
in trying to be daring and original , it comes off as only occasionally satirical and never fresh . 
rather than real figures , elling and kjell bjarne become symbolic characters whose actions are supposed to relate something about the naf's encounter with the world . 
the best you can say about it is it's so uninspired , it barely gives one pause when considering some of the other dreck out there right now . 
lucas has in fact come closer than anyone could desire to the cheap , graceless , hackneyed sci-fi serials of the '30s and '40s . 
animated drivel meant to enhance the self-image of drooling idiots . 
by turns pretentious , fascinating , ludicrous , provocative and vainglorious . 
velocity represents everything wrong with ''independent film'' as a commodified , sold-out concept on the american filmmaking scene . 
its audacious ambitions sabotaged by pomposity , steven soderbergh's space opera emerges as a numbingly dull experience . 
the film rehashes several old themes and is capped with pointless extremes -- it's insanely violent and very graphic . 
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 . 
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 . 
'opening up' the play more has partly closed it down . 
even by dumb action-movie standards , ballistic : ecks vs . sever is a dumb action movie . 
i couldn't help but feel the wasted potential of this slapstick comedy . 
dull and mechanical , kinda like a very goofy museum exhibit
full of witless jokes , dealing in broad stereotypes and outrageously unbelievable scenarios , and saddled with a general air of misogyny
the actors pull out all the stops in nearly every scene , but to diminishing effect . the characters never change . 
i'll bet the video game is a lot more fun than the film . 
skip this dreck , rent animal house and go back to the source . 
director oliver parker labors so hard to whip life into the importance of being earnest that he probably pulled a muscle or two . 
after several scenes of this tacky nonsense , you'll be wistful for the testosterone-charged wizardry of jerry bruckheimer productions , especially because half past dead is like the rock on a wal-mart budget . 
not only does the movie fail to make us part of its reality , it fails the most basic relevancy test as well . 
this limp gender-bender-baller from a first-time director and rookie screenwriter steals wholesale from that 1982's tootsie , forgetting only to retain a single laugh . 
this mess of a movie is nothing short of a travesty of a transvestite comedy . 
 . . . a low rate annie featuring some kid who can't act , only echoes of jordan , and weirdo actor crispin glover screwing things up old school . 
an even more predictable , cliche-ridden endeavor than its predecessor . 
it is parochial , accessible to a chosen few , standoffish to everyone else , and smugly suggests a superior moral tone is more important than filmmaking skill
the film wasn't preachy , but it was feminism by the book . 
well made but uninvolving , bloodwork isn't a terrible movie , just a stultifyingly obvious one -- an unrewarding collar for a murder mystery . 
all the movie's narrative gymnastics can't disguise the fact that it's inauthentic at its core and that its story just isn't worth telling . 
a real snooze . 
dull , lifeless , and amateurishly assembled . 
eight legged freaks ? no big hairy deal . 
roger michell , who did an appealing job directing persuasion and notting hill in england , gets too artsy in his american debut . 
a dull , simple-minded and stereotypical tale of drugs , death and mind-numbing indifference on the inner-city streets . 
busy urban comedy is clearly not zhang's forte , his directorial touch is neither light nor magical enough to bring off this kind of whimsy . 
 . . . a plotline that's as lumpy as two-day old porridge . . . the filmmakers' paws , sad to say , were all over this " un-bear-able " project ! 
a shame that stealing harvard is too busy getting in its own way to be anything but frustrating , boring , and forgettable . 
this time mr . burns is trying something in the martin scorsese street-realist mode , but his self-regarding sentimentality trips him up again . 
occasionally loud and offensive , but more often , it simply lulls you into a gentle waking coma . 
this movie is about the worst thing chan has done in the united states . 
cox is far more concerned with aggrandizing madness , not the man , and the results might drive you crazy . 
the tale of tok ( andy lau ) , a sleek sociopath on the trail of o ( takashi sorimachi ) , the most legendary of asian hitmen , is too scattershot to take hold . 
an earnest , heartrending look at the divide between religious fundamentalists and their gay relatives . it's also heavy-handed and devotes too much time to bigoted views . 
the movie succumbs to being nothing more than a formulaic chase in the dark . 
nothing debases a concept comedy quite like the grinding of bad ideas , and showtime is crammed full of them . 
we may get the full visceral impact of a ruthless army on the warpath but no sense of the devilish complexity of the balkans conflict . 
you can thank me for this . i saw juwanna mann so you don't have to . 
oversexed , at times overwrought comedy/drama that offers little insight into the experience of being forty , female and single . 
the only type of lives this glossy comedy-drama resembles are ones in formulaic mainstream movies . 
sustains its dreamlike glide through a succession of cheesy coincidences and voluptuous cheap effects , not the least of which is rebecca romijn-stamos . 
what might've been an exhilarating exploration of an odd love triangle becomes a sprawl of uncoordinated vectors . 
a formula family tearjerker told with a heavy irish brogue . . . accentuating , rather than muting , the plot's saccharine thrust . 
adrift , bentley and hudson stare and sniffle , respectively , as ledger attempts , in vain , to prove that movie-star intensity can overcome bad hair design . 
even if the enticing prospect of a lot of nubile young actors in a film about campus depravity didn't fade amid the deliberate , tiresome ugliness , it would be rendered tedious by avary's failure to construct a story with even a trace of dramatic interest . 
an already thin story boils down to surviving invaders seeking an existent anti-virus . if only there were one for this kind of movie . 
what you would end up with if you took orwell , bradbury , kafka , george lucas and the wachowski brothers and threw them into a blender . but that's just the problem with it - the director hasn't added enough of his own ingredients . 
blue crush is as predictable as the tides . . . . the movie feels stitched together from stock situations and characters from other movies . 
the santa clause 2's plot may sound like it was co-written by mattel executives and lobbyists for the tinsel industry . 
dodgy mixture of cutesy romance , dark satire and murder mystery . 
a movie that falls victim to frazzled wackiness and frayed satire . 
the problems of the people in love in the time of money are hardly specific to their era . they just have problems , which are neither original nor are presented in convincing way . 
in his role of observer of the scene , lawrence sounds whiny and defensive , as if his life-altering experiences made him bitter and less mature . 
what a stiflingly unfunny and unoriginal mess this is ! 
[green is] the comedy equivalent of saddam hussein , and i'm just about ready to go to the u . n . and ask permission for a preemptive strike . 
ninety minutes of viva castro ! can be as tiresome as 9 seconds of jesse helms' anti- castro rhetoric , which are included
the average local news columnist has a bigger rant on the war between modern landscape architecture and small-town america . 
frustratingly , dridi tells us nothing about el gallo other than what emerges through his music . 
for all its brilliant touches , dragon loses its fire midway , nearly flickering out by its perfunctory conclusion . 
dramatically lackluster . 
the movie's something-borrowed construction feels less the product of loving , well integrated homage and more like a mere excuse for the wan , thinly sketched story . killing time , that's all that's going on here . 
at times , however , dogtown and z-boys lapses into an insider's lingo and mindset that the uninitiated may find hard to follow , or care about . 
the plot has a number of holes , and at times it's simply baffling . 
with a completely predictable plot , you'll swear that you've seen it all before , even if you've never come within a mile of the longest yard . 
the abiding impression , despite the mild hallucinogenic buzz , is of overwhelming waste -- the acres of haute couture can't quite conceal that there's nothing resembling a spine here . 
it's the funniest american comedy since graffiti bridge . 
the movie is so thoughtlessly assembled . 
those of you who are not an eighth grade girl will most likely doze off during this one . 
scotland , pa is entirely too straight-faced to transcend its clever concept . 
a 75-minute sample of puerile rubbish that is listless , witless , and devoid of anything resembling humor . 
broomfield's style of journalism is hardly journalism at all , and even those with an avid interest in the subject will grow impatient . 
resident evil is what comes from taking john carpenter's ghosts of mars and eliminating the beheadings . in other words , about as bad a film you're likely to see all year . 
roman polanski directs the pianist like a surgeon mends a broken heart ; very meticulously but without any passion . 
short and sweet , but also more than anything else slight tadpole pulls back from the consequences of its own actions and revelations . 
the result is good gossip , entertainingly delivered , yet with a distinctly musty odour , its expiry date long gone . 
this 90-minute dud could pass for mike tyson's e ! true hollywood story . 
the bottom line , at least in my opinion , is imposter makes a better short story than it does a film . 
another wholly unnecessary addition to the growing , moldering pile of , well , extreme stunt pictures . 
such a premise is ripe for all manner of lunacy , but kaufman and gondry rarely seem sure of where it should go . 
it takes talent to make a lifeless movie about the most heinous man who ever lived . 
the makers of mothman prophecies succeed in producing that most frightening of all movies -- a mediocre horror film too bad to be good and too good to be bad . 
what 'blade runner' would've looked like as a low-budget series on a uhf channel . 
'carente de imaginacin , mal dirigida , peor actuada y sin un pice de romance , es una verdadera prdida de tiempo y dinero'
a muddy psychological thriller rife with miscalculations . it makes me say the obvious : abandon all hope of a good movie ye who enter here . 
opens as promising as any war/adventure film you'll ever see and dissolves into a routine courtroom drama , better suited for a movie titled " glory : a soldier's story . " 
a dark-as-pitch comedy that frequently veers into corny sentimentality , probably would not improve much after a therapeutic zap of shock treatment . 
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 . 
hoffman waits too long to turn his movie in an unexpected direction , and even then his tone retains a genteel , prep-school quality that feels dusty and leatherbound . 
piccoli's performance is amazing , yes , but the symbols of loss and denial and life-at-arm's-length in the film seem irritatingly transparent . 
predictably soulless techno-tripe . 
[a] rather thinly-conceived movie . 
i'd be hard pressed to think of a film more cloyingly sappy than evelyn this year . 
like mike is a slight and uninventive movie : like the exalted michael jordan referred to in the title , many can aspire but none can equal . 
a prolonged extrusion of psychopathic pulp . 
the story is -- forgive me -- a little thin , and the filmmaking clumsy and rushed . 
it might be the first sci-fi comedy that could benefit from a three's company-style laugh track . 
a less-than-thrilling thriller . 
like showgirls and glitter , the most entertaining moments here are unintentional . 
visually sumptuous but intellectually stultifying . 
like its script , which nurses plot holes gaping enough to pilot an entire olympic swim team through , the characters in swimfan seem motivated by nothing short of dull , brain-deadening hangover . 
 . . . delivers few moments of inspiration amid the bland animation and simplistic story . 
between bedroom scenes , viewers may find themselves wishing they could roll over and take a nap . 
many shallower movies these days seem too long , but this one is egregiously short . 
for a guy who has waited three years with breathless anticipation for a new hal hartley movie to pore over , no such thing is a big letdown . 
[denis'] bare-bones narrative more closely resembles an outline for a '70s exploitation picture than the finished product . 
good for a few unintentional laughs , " extreme ops " was obviously made for the " xxx " crowd , people who enjoy mindless action without the benefit of decent acting , writing , and direction . 
this movie is so bad , that it's almost worth seeing because it's so bad . 
it would be hard to think of a recent movie that has worked this hard to achieve this little fun . 
sadly , 'garth' hasn't progressed as nicely as 'wayne . '
the film is so bad it doesn't improve upon the experience of staring at a blank screen . 
rifkin no doubt fancies himself something of a hubert selby jr . , but there isn't an ounce of honest poetry in his entire script ; it's simply crude and unrelentingly exploitative . 
a disaster of a drama , saved only by its winged assailants . 
plays like a series of vignettes -- clips of a film that are still looking for a common through-line . 
more trifle than triumph . 
though ganesh is successful in a midlevel sort of way , there's nothing so striking or fascinating or metaphorically significant about his career as to rate two hours of our attention . 
schnieder bounces around with limp wrists , wearing tight tummy tops and hip huggers , twirling his hair on his finger and assuming that's enough to sustain laughs . . . 
it's a road-trip drama with too many wrong turns . 
kapur fails to give his audience a single character worth rooting for ( or worth rooting against , for that matter ) . 
anemic , pretentious . 
apparently , romantic comedy with a fresh point of view just doesn't figure in the present hollywood program . 
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 . 
it wasn't the subject matter that ultimately defeated the filmit was the unfulfilling , incongruous , " wait a second , did i miss something ? " ending . 
i know we're not supposed to take it seriously , but i can't shake the thought that undercover brother missed an opportunity to strongly present some profound social commentary . 
what the director can&#8217 ; t do is make either of val kilmer&#8217 ; s two personas interesting or worth caring about . 
what little atmosphere is generated by the shadowy lighting , macabre sets , and endless rain is offset by the sheer ugliness of everything else . 
it's hard to tell with all the crashing and banging where the salesmanship ends and the movie begins . 
the moviegoing equivalent of going to a dinner party and being forced to watch the host and hostess's home video of their baby's birth . 
 . . . too dull to enjoy . 
obstacles are too easily overcome and there isn't much in the way of character development in the script . 
i hated every minute of it . 
lyne's latest , the erotic thriller unfaithful , further demonstrates just how far his storytelling skills have eroded . 
the heedless impetuousness of youth is on full , irritating display in [this] meandering and pointless french coming-of-age import from writer-director anne-sophie birot . 
all the small moments and flashbacks don't add up to much more than trite observations on the human condition . 
lurid and less than lucid work . 
exactly what you'd expect from a guy named kaos . 
men in black ii has sequel-itis something fierce . an ungainly , comedy-deficient , b-movie rush job . . . 
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 . 
the film is like sitting in a downtown caf , overhearing a bunch of typical late-twenty-somethings natter on about nothing , and desperately wishing you could change tables . 
chan's stunts are limited and so embellished by editing that there's really not much of a sense of action or even action-comedy . 
enigma looks great , has solid acting and a neat premise . yet why it fails is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma . 
frankly , it's pretty stupid . i had more fun with ben stiller's zoolander , which i thought was rather clever . but there's plenty to offend everyone . . . 
an exceptionally dreary and overwrought bit of work , every bit as imperious as katzenberg's the prince of egypt from 1998 . 
it's not hateful . it's simply stupid , irrelevant and deeply , truly , bottomlessly cynical . 
doesn't deliver a great story , nor is the action as gripping as in past seagal films . 
entertaining enough , but nothing new
it's so badly made on every level that i'm actually having a hard time believing people were paid to make it . 
those unfamiliar with mormon traditions may find the singles ward occasionally bewildering . 
even with its $50-million us budget , pinocchio never quite achieves the feel of a fanciful motion picture . 
kung pow is oedekerk's realization of his childhood dream to be in a martial-arts flick , and proves that sometimes the dreams of youth should remain just that . 
a fairly harmless but ultimately lifeless feature-length afterschool special . 
though there are many tense scenes in trapped , they prove more distressing than suspenseful . 
bogs down badly as we absorb jia's moody , bad-boy behavior which he portrays himself in a one-note performance . 
the film takes too long getting to the good stuff , then takes too long figuring out what to do next . 
it jumps around with little logic or continuity , presenting backstage bytes of information that never amount to a satisfying complete picture of this particular , anciently demanding mtier . 
not good enough to pass for a litmus test of the generation gap and not bad enough to repulse any generation of its fans . 
lots of effort and intelligence are on display but in execution it is all awkward , static , and lifeless rumblings . 
by the end , i was looking for something hard with which to bludgeon myself unconscious . 
at best , cletis tout might inspire a trip to the video store -- in search of a better movie experience . 
the film is weighed down by supporting characters who are either too goodly , wise and knowing or downright comically evil . 
merely ( and literally ) tosses around sex toys and offers half-hearted paeans to empowerment that are repeatedly undercut by the brutality of the jokes , most at women's expense . 
the only excitement comes when the credits finally roll and you get to leave the theater . 
with the dog days of august upon us , think of this dog of a movie as the cinematic equivalent of high humidity . 
nair just doesn't have the necessary self-control to guide a loose , poorly structured film through the pitfalls of incoherence and redundancy . 
a negligible british comedy . 
blue crush follows the formula , but throws in too many conflicts to keep the story compelling . 
a cinematic sleeping pill of impressive potency . 
full of the kind of obnoxious chitchat that only self-aware neurotics engage in . 
with danilo donati's witty designs and dante spinotti's luscious cinematography , this might have made a decent children's movie -- if only benigni hadn't insisted on casting himself in the title role . 
bad company . bad movie . just plain bad . 
it's drab . it's uninteresting . it squanders chan's uniqueness ; it could even be said to squander jennifer love hewitt ! 
the audience when i saw this one was chuckling at all the wrong times , and that's a bad sign when they're supposed to be having a collective heart attack . 
very stupid and annoying . 
a sequence of ridiculous shoot-'em-up scenes . 
watching harris ham it up while physically and emotionally disintegrating over the course of the movie has a certain poignancy in light of his recent death , but boyd's film offers little else of consequence . 
it's rare that a movie can be as intelligent as this one is in every regard except its storyline ; everything that's good is ultimately scuttled by a plot that's just too boring and obvious . 
what is captured during the conceptual process doesn't add up to a sufficient explanation of what the final dance work , the selection , became in its final form . 
star trek was kind of terrific once , but now it is a copy of a copy of a copy . 
far too clever by half , howard's film is really a series of strung-together moments , with all the spaces in between filled with fantasies , daydreams , memories and one fantastic visual trope after another . 
has little on its mind aside from scoring points with drag gags . 
the film makes a fatal mistake : it asks us to care about a young man whose only apparent virtue is that he is not quite as unpleasant as some of the people in his life . 
a dramatic comedy as pleasantly dishonest and pat as any hollywood fluff . 
boasts eye-catching art direction but has a forcefully quirky tone that quickly wears out its limited welcome . 
maybe it's asking too much , but if a movie is truly going to inspire me , i want a little more than this . 
nothing more than a mediocre trifle . 
the best that can be said about the work here of scottish director ritchie . . . is that he obviously doesn't have his heart in it . 
the most anti-human big studio picture since 3000 miles to graceland . 
once one experiences mr . haneke's own sadistic tendencies toward his audience , one is left with a sour taste in one's mouth , and little else . 
the irony is that this film's cast is uniformly superb ; their performances could have -- should have -- been allowed to stand on their own . 
soul is what's lacking in every character in this movie and , subsequently , the movie itself . 
aloof and lacks any real raw emotion , which is fatal for a film that relies on personal relationships . 
a valueless kiddie paean to pro basketball underwritten by the nba . 
it's a sometimes interesting remake that doesn't compare to the brilliant original . 
the ending is a cop-out . what happens to john q ? i don't have an i am sam clue . 
maudlin and melodramatic we expected . boring we didn't . 
with minimal imagination , you could restage the whole thing in your bathtub . 
eh . 
filled with low-brow humor , gratuitous violence and a disturbing disregard for life . 
the santa clause 2 is a barely adequate babysitter for older kids , but i've got to give it thumbs down . 
cherry orchard is badly edited , often awkwardly directed and suffers from the addition of a wholly unnecessary pre-credit sequence designed to give some of the characters a 'back story . '
in addition to the overcooked , ham-fisted direction , which has all the actors reaching for the back row , the dialogue sounds like horrible poetry . 
more successful at relating history than in creating an emotionally complex , dramatically satisfying heroine
this idea has lost its originality . . . and neither star appears very excited at rehashing what was basically a one-joke picture . 
a movie far more cynical and lazy than anything a fictitious charlie kaufman might object to . 
a complete waste of time . 
even in terms of the low-grade cheese standards on which it operates , it never quite makes the grade as tawdry trash . 
the isolated moments of creative insanity finally are lost in the thin soup of canned humor . 
martin scorsese cria um espetculo visual que no possui alma - um filme esteticamente belo , mas emocionalmente frio . 
would that greengrass had gone a tad less for grit and a lot more for intelligibility . 
shot perhaps 'artistically' with handheld cameras and apparently no movie lights by joaquin baca-asay , the low-budget production swings annoyingly between vertigo and opacity . 
julie davis is the kathie lee gifford of film directors , sadly proving once again ego doesn't always go hand in hand with talent . 
[director] byler may yet have a great movie in him , but charlotte sometimes is only half of one . 
it treats women like idiots . 
hollywood's answer to an air ball . 
literally nothing in the pool is new , but if you grew up on the stalker flicks of the 1980's this one should appease you for 90 minutes . 
even in this less-than-magic kingdom , reese rules . 
its weighty themes are too grave for youngsters , but the story is too steeped in fairy tales and other childish things to appeal much to teenagers . 
a recipe for cinematic disaster . . . part quentin tarantino , part guy ritchie , and part 1960s spy spoof , it's all bad . 
all the more disquieting for its relatively gore-free allusions to the serial murders , but it falls down in its attempts to humanize its subject . 
there isn't one moment in the film that surprises or delights . 
fails so fundamentally on every conventional level that it achieves some kind of goofy grandeur . 
the problem with movies about angels is they have a tendency to slip into hokum . a rumor of angels doesn't just slip -- it avalanches into forced fuzziness . 
a bit of an unwieldy mess . 
no aspirations to social import inform the movie version . this is a shameless sham , calculated to cash in on the popularity of its stars . 
the trouble with making this queen a thoroughly modern maiden is that it also makes her appear foolish and shallow rather than , as was more likely , a victim of mental illness . 
feels familiar and tired . 
pascale bailly's rom-com provides amlie's audrey tautou with another fabuleux destin -- i . e . , a banal spiritual quest . 
an often unfunny romp . 
it's another stale , kill-by-numbers flick , complete with blade-thin characters and terrible , pun-laden dialogue . 
the movie eventually snaps under the strain of its plot contrivances and its need to reassure . 
worth seeing once , but its charm quickly fades . 
if you're looking for comedy to be served up , better look elsewhere . 
its story may be a thousand years old , but why did it have to seem like it took another thousand to tell it to us ? 
 . . . has virtually no script at all . . . 
to work , love stories require the full emotional involvement and support of a viewer . that is made almost impossible by events that set the plot in motion . 
family togetherness takes a back seat to inter-family rivalry and workplace ambition&#133 ; whole subplots have no explanation or even plot relevance . 
sadly , though many of the actors throw off a spark or two when they first appear , they can't generate enough heat in this cold vacuum of a comedy to start a reaction . 
a static and sugary little half-hour , after-school special about interfaith understanding , stretched out to 90 minutes . 
just a string of stale gags , with no good inside dope , and no particular bite . 
there's some outrageously creative action in the transporter . . . [b]ut by the time frank parachutes down onto a moving truck , it's just another cartoon with an unstoppable superman . 
all of the elements are in place for a great film noir , but director george hickenlooper's approach to the material is too upbeat . 
a spooky yarn of demonic doings on the high seas that works better the less the brain is engaged . 
this is surely one of the most frantic , virulent and foul-natured christmas season pics ever delivered by a hollywood studio . 
it becomes gimmicky instead of compelling . " interview " loses its overall sense of mystery and becomes a tv episode rather than a documentary that you actually buy into . 
melanie eventually slugs the yankee . too bad the former murphy brown doesn't pop reese back . 
it's getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that hollywood isn't laughing with us , folks . it's laughing at us . 
 . . . a pretentious mess . . . 
how do you spell clich ? 
sam mendes has become valedictorian at the school for soft landings and easy ways out . 
a perplexing example of promise unfulfilled , despite many charming moments . 
'this movie sucks . '
it's just hard to believe that a life like this can sound so dull . 
whatever satire lucky break was aiming for , it certainly got lost in the " soon-to-be-forgettable " section of the quirky rip-off prison romp pile . it's petty thievery like this that puts flimsy flicks like this behind bars
too slow , too long and too little happens . 
uncommonly stylish but equally silly . . . the picture fails to generate much suspense , nor does it ask searching enough questions to justify its pretensions . 
how i killed my father is one of those art house films that makes you feel like you're watching an iceberg melt -- only it never melts . 
the densest distillation of roberts' movies ever made . 
fails to satisfactorily exploit its gender politics , genre thrills or inherent humor . 
there are touching moments in etoiles , but for the most part this is a dull , dour documentary on what ought to be a joyful or at least fascinating subject . 
the script ? please . 
it's quite an achievement to set and shoot a movie at the cannes film festival and yet fail to capture its visual appeal or its atmosphere . 
seagal , who looks more like danny aiello these days , mumbles his way through the movie . 
definitely in the guilty pleasure b-movie category , reign of fire is so incredibly inane that it is laughingly enjoyable . 
the film contains no good jokes , no good scenes , barely a moment when carvey's saturday night live-honed mimicry rises above the level of embarrassment . 
the screenplay , co-written by director imogen kimmel , lacks the wit necessary to fully exploit the comic elements of the premise , making the proceedings more bizarre than actually amusing . 
pretentious editing ruins a potentially terrific flick . 
a sleek advert for youthful anomie that never quite equals the sum of its pretensions . 
might have been better off as a documentary , with less of mr . eyre's uninspired dramatics and more of his sense of observation and outrage . 
the film's bathos often overwhelms what could have been a more multifaceted look at this interesting time and place . 
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 . 
no matter how firmly director john stainton has his tongue in his cheek , the fact remains that a wacky concept does not a movie make . 
boy , has this franchise ever run out of gas . 
deadeningly dull , mired in convoluted melodrama , nonsensical jargon and stiff-upper-lip laboriousness . 
there's an excellent 90-minute film here ; unfortunately , it runs for 170 . 
a sour attempt at making a farrelly brothers-style , down-and-dirty laugher for the female set . 
overall the film feels like a low-budget tv pilot that could not find a buyer to play it on the tube . 
like watching a dress rehearsal the week before the show goes up : everything's in place but something's just a little off-kilter . 
the twist that ends the movie is the one with the most emotional resonance , but twists are getting irritating , and this is the kind of material where the filmmakers should be very careful about raising eyebrows . 
a film that presents an interesting , even sexy premise then ruins itself with too many contrivances and goofy situations . 
one senses in world traveler and in his earlier film that freundlich bears a grievous but obscure complaint against fathers , and circles it obsessively , without making contact . 
squandering his opportunity to make absurdist observations , burns gets caught up in the rush of slapstick thoroughfare . 
a long slog for anyone but the most committed pokemon fan . 
not exactly the bees knees
there are a few chuckles , but not a single gag sequence that really scores , and the stars seem to be in two different movies . 
oozes condescension from every pore . 
i didn't find much fascination in the swinging . what they're doing is a matter of plumbing arrangements and mind games , of no erotic or sensuous charge . but that they are doing it is thought-provoking . 
while the film is competent , it's also uninspired , lacking the real talent and wit to elevate it beyond its formula to the level of classic romantic comedy to which it aspires . 
a compendium of solondz's own worst instincts in under 90 minutes . 
some actors steal scenes . tom green just gives them a bad odor . this self-infatuated goofball is far from the only thing wrong with the clumsy comedy stealing harvard , but he's the most obvious one . 
cloaks a familiar anti-feminist equation ( career - kids = misery ) in tiresome romantic-comedy duds . 
watching queen of the damned is like reading a research paper , with special effects tossed in . 
'rare birds' tries to force its quirkiness upon the audience . 
a free-for-all of half-baked thoughts , clumsily used visual tricks and self-indulgent actor moments . 
arnold's jump from little screen to big will leave frowns on more than a few faces . 
for a story set at sea , ghost ship is pretty landbound , with its leaden acting , dull exposition and telegraphed 'surprises . '
the whole thing plays like a tired tyco ad . 
screenwriter dan schneider and director shawn levy substitute volume and primary colors for humor and bite . 
demme's loose approach kills the suspense . 
as it stands it's an opera movie for the buffs . 
scooby-doo doesn't know if it wants to be a retro-refitting exercise in campy recall for older fans or a silly , nickelodeon-esque kiddie flick . 
it is a comedy that's not very funny and an action movie that is not very thrilling ( and an uneasy alliance , at that ) . 
nicolas cage isn't the first actor to lead a group of talented friends astray , and this movie won't create a ruffle in what is already an erratic career . 
get out your pooper-scoopers . 
the material and the production itself are little more than routine . 
`matrix'-style massacres erupt throughout . . . but the movie has a tougher time balancing its violence with kafka-inspired philosophy . 
as elegantly crafted as it often is , anderson's movie is essentially a one-trick pony that , hampered by an undeveloped script , ultimately pulls up lame . 
like coming into a long-running , well-written television series where you've missed the first half-dozen episodes and probably won't see the next six . 
disappointing in comparison to other recent war moviesor any other john woo flick for that matter . 
blue crush has all the trappings of an energetic , extreme-sports adventure , but ends up more of a creaky " pretty woman " retread , with the emphasis on self-empowering schmaltz and big-wave surfing that gives pic its title an afterthought . 
combining quick-cut editing and a blaring heavy metal much of the time , beck seems to be under the illusion that he's shooting the latest system of a down video . 
it's the element of condescension , as the filmmakers look down on their working-class subjects from their lofty perch , that finally makes sex with strangers , which opens today in the new york metropolitan area , so distasteful . 
there's not much going on in this movie unless you simply decide to buy into the notion that something inexplicably strange once happened in point pleasant . 
a lot of talent is wasted in this crass , low-wattage endeavor . 
this is a monumental achievement in practically every facet of inept filmmaking : joyless , idiotic , annoying , heavy-handed , visually atrocious , and often downright creepy . 
shallow . 
it takes a certain kind of horror movie to qualify as 'worse than expected , ' but ghost ship somehow manages to do exactly that . 
though its rather routine script is loaded with familiar situations , the movie has a cinematic fluidity and sense of intelligence that makes it work more than it probably should . 
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 . 
hey everybody , wanna watch a movie in which a guy dressed as a children's party clown gets violently gang-raped ? i didn't think so . 
it's definitely not made for kids or their parents , for that matter , and i think even fans of sandler's comic taste may find it uninteresting . 
you'll trudge out of the theater feeling as though you rode the zipper after eating a corn dog and an extra-large cotton candy . 
there's a little violence and lots of sex in a bid to hold our attention , but it grows monotonous after a while , as do joan and philip's repetitive arguments , schemes and treachery . 
all movie long , city by the sea swings from one approach to the other , but in the end , it stays in formula -- which is a waste of de niro , mcdormand and the other good actors in the cast . 
if you've ever entertained the notion of doing what the title of this film implies , what sex with strangers actually shows may put you off the idea forever . 
a manipulative feminist empowerment tale thinly posing as a serious drama about spousal abuse . 
the film didn'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 . 
it's a mystery how the movie could be released in this condition . 
 . . . the film falls back on the same old formula of teen sex , outrageous pranks and scenes designed to push the envelope of bad taste for laughs . 
it uses the pain and violence of war as background material for color . 
truth to tell , if you've seen more than half-a-dozen horror films , there's nothing here you haven't seen before . 
ze movie starts out so funny , then she is nothing . 
a quaint , romanticized rendering . 
bears about as much resemblance to the experiences of most battered women as spider-man does to the experiences of most teenagers . 
too bad kramer couldn't make a guest appearance to liven things up . 
it's a movie that ends with truckzilla , for cryin' out loud . if that doesn't clue you in that something's horribly wrong , nothing will . 
every visual joke is milked , every set-up obvious and lengthy , every punchline predictable . there's no energy . 
sheridan . . . smoothes over sources of conflict that could have lent the film a bit more depth . 
its initial excitement settles into a warmed over pastiche . 
imagine a film that begins as a seven rip-off , only to switch to a mix of the shining , the thing , and any naked teenagers horror flick from the 1980s . 
the movie is as padded as allen's jelly belly . 
too smart to ignore but a little too smugly superior to like , this could be a movie that ends up slapping its target audience in the face by shooting itself in the foot . 
holds limited appeal to those who like explosions , sadism and seeing people beat each other to a pulp . 
[a] boldly stroked , luridly coloured , uni-dimensional nonsense machine that strokes the eyeballs while it evaporates like so much crypt mist in the brain . 
 . . . post-september 11 , " the sum of all fears " seems more tacky and reprehensible , manipulating our collective fear without bestowing the subject with the intelligence or sincerity it unequivocally deserves . 
the director seems to take an unseemly pleasure in [the characters'] misery and at the same time to congratulate himself for having the guts to confront it . 
despite its sincere acting , signs is just another unoriginal run of the mill sci-fi film with a flimsy ending and lots of hype . 
if this movie belonged to a sorority , it would be called beta alpha delta . 
yet another entry in the sentimental oh-those-wacky-brits genre that was ushered in by the full monty and is still straining to produce another smash hit . 
cliches are as thick as the cigarette smoke . 
the worst kind of independent ; the one where actors play dress down hicks and ponderously mope around trying to strike lightning as captured by their 1970s predecessors
a full-frontal attack on audience patience . 
calling this movie brainless would be paying it a compliment : it's more like entertainment for trolls . 
it's like an all-star salute to disney's cheesy commercialism . 
the plot combines the blues brothers and almost famous ( but with bears , and a g rating ) , with an excruciating dollop of disney sentimentality mixed in for good measure . 
the self-serious equilibrium makes its point too well ; a movie , like life , isn't much fun without the highs and lows . 
comes off as a long , laborious whine , the bellyaching of a paranoid and unlikable man . 
even those of a single digit age will be able to recognize that this story is too goofy . . . even for disney . 
sewer rats could watch this movie and be so skeeved out that they'd need a shower . 
if it's another regurgitated action movie you're after , there's no better film than half past dead . 
astonishing isn't the word -- neither is incompetent , incoherent or just plain crap . indeed , none of these words really gets at the very special type of badness that is deuces wild . 
it's unfortunate that wallace , who wrote gibson's braveheart as well as the recent pearl harbor , has such an irrepressible passion for sappy situations and dialogue . 
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 . 
it's an awfully derivative story . 
some body smacks of exhibitionism more than it does cathartic truth telling . 
the story is predictable , the jokes are typical sandler fare , and the romance with ryder is puzzling . 
slow , silly and unintentionally hilarious . 
the soul-searching deliberateness of the film , although leavened nicely with dry absurdist wit , eventually becomes too heavy for the plot . 
a misogynistic piece of filth that attempts to pass itself off as hip , young adult entertainment . 
this is a third-person story now , told by hollywood , and much more ordinary for it . 
a big , loud , bang-the-drum bore . 
illiterate , often inert sci-fi action thriller . 
this tale has been told and retold ; the races and rackets change , but the song remains the same . 
qualities that were once amusing are becoming irritating . 
shanghai ghetto should be applauded for finding a new angle on a tireless story , but you might want to think twice before booking passage . 
it stars schticky chris rock and stolid anthony hopkins , who seem barely in the same movie . their contrast is neither dramatic nor comic -- it's just a weird fizzle . 
jaglom offers the none-too-original premise that everyone involved with moviemaking is a con artist and a liar . 
what will , most likely , turn out to be the most repellent movie of 2002 . 
cho's fans are sure to be entertained ; it's only fair in the interest of full disclosure to say that -- on the basis of this film alone -- i'm not one of them . 
stuffy , full of itself , morally ambiguous and nothing to shout about . 
a morality tale whose thought-provoking potential is hampered by a made-for-tv look , rigid performances and an asinine 'twist' that brazenly rips off the sixth sense . 
that frenetic spectacle [on the tv show] has usually been leavened by a charm that's conspicuously missing from the girls' big-screen blowout . 
at best this is a film for the under-7 crowd . but it would be better to wait for the video . and a very rainy day . 
a restrained ribisi convinces as an italian , though if ever a movie needed one of the actor's whiny jags to pump it up , this has to be among the rare ones . 
stupid , infantile , redundant , sloppy , over-the-top , and amateurish . yep , it's " waking up in reno . " go back to sleep . 
whatever about warning kids about the dangers of ouija boards , someone should dispense the same advice to film directors . 
[a] stuporously solemn film . 
the film ultimately offers nothing more than people in an urban jungle needing other people to survive . . . 
a jumbled fantasy comedy that did not figure out a coherent game plan at scripting , shooting or post-production stages . 
the whole damn thing is ripe for the jerry springer crowd . it's all pretty cynical and condescending , too . 
why come up with something even quasi-original , when you can pillage from shirley jackson , richard matheson . . . and puke up something like rose red ? 
we get light showers of emotion a couple of times , but then -- strangely -- these wane to an inconsistent and ultimately unsatisfying drizzle . 
don't let your festive spirit go this far . 
this flat run at a hip-hop tootsie is so poorly paced you could fit all of pootie tang in between its punchlines . 
would benigni's italian pinocchio have been any easier to sit through than this hastily dubbed disaster ? 
the animation and backdrops are lush and inventive , yet return to neverland never manages to take us to that elusive , lovely place where we suspend our disbelief . 
borrows from other movies like it in the most ordinary and obvious fashion . 
it's difficult to conceive of anyone who has reached puberty actually finding the characters in slackers or their antics amusing , let alone funny . 
' . . . the cast portrays their cartoon counterparts well . . . but quite frankly , scoob and shag don't eat enough during the film . '
'dragonfly' dwells on crossing-over mumbo jumbo , manipulative sentimentality , and sappy dialogue . 
a lot like the imaginary sport it projects onto the screen -- loud , violent and mindless . 
the issue of faith is not explored very deeply
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 . 
written , flatly , by david kendall and directed , barely , by there's something about mary co-writer ed decter . 
it's the kind of movie you can't quite recommend because it is all windup and not much of a pitch , yet you can't bring yourself to dislike it . 
silly stuff , all mixed up together like a term paper from a kid who can't quite distinguish one sci-fi work from another . 
supposedly based upon real , or at least soberly reported incidents , the film ends with a large human tragedy . alas , getting there is not even half the interest . 
 . . . irritating soul-searching garbage . 
really dumb but occasionally really funny . 
tom shadyac has learned a bit more craft since directing adams , but he still lingers over every point until the slowest viewer grasps it . 
the film doesn't show enough of the creative process or even of what was created for the non-fan to figure out what makes wilco a big deal . 
this is as lax and limp a comedy as i've seen in a while , a meander through worn-out material . 
it's hard to know whether or not to recommend this film because for every thing it does right there's at least one and occasionally two things it gets ever so wrong . 
with the exception of mccoist , the players don't have a clue on the park . the acting isn't much better . 
the big-screen scooby makes the silly original cartoon seem smart and well-crafted in comparison . 
you could easily mistake it for a sketchy work-in-progress that was inexplicably rushed to the megaplexes before its time . 
the movie is a negligible work of manipulation , an exploitation piece doing its usual worst to guilt-trip parents . 
cruel and inhuman cinematic punishment . . . simultaneously degrades its characters , its stars and its audience . 
the film tries to touch on spousal abuse but veers off course and becomes just another revenge film . 
sinks into the usual cafeteria goulash of fart jokes , masturbation jokes , and racist japanese jokes . 
4ever has the same sledgehammer appeal as pokemon videos , but it breathes more on the big screen and induces headaches more slowly . 
the picture emerges as a surprisingly anemic disappointment . 
according to wendigo , 'nature' loves the members of the upper class almost as much as they love themselves . 
i'm not sure which half of dragonfly is worse : the part where nothing's happening , or the part where something's happening , but it's stupid . 
the plot is nothing but boilerplate clichs from start to finish , and 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
it's hard to believe that something so short could be so flabby . 
jonah is only so-so . . . the addition of a biblical message will either improve the film for you , or it will lessen it . 
the very simple story seems too simple and the working out of the plot almost arbitrary . 
a punch line without a premise , a joke built entirely from musty memories of half-dimensional characters . 
the attempt to build up a pressure cooker of horrified awe emerges from the simple fact that the movie has virtually nothing to show . 
this is a movie where the most notable observation is how long you've been sitting still . 
once he starts learning to compromise with reality enough to become comparatively sane and healthy , the film becomes predictably conventional . 
yes , 4ever is harmless in the extreme and it'll mute your kids for nearly 80 minutes , but why not just treat the little yard apes to the real deal and take them to spirited away ? 
watching the film is like reading a times portrait of grief that keeps shifting focus to the journalist who wrote it . 
narc can only remind us of brilliant crime dramas without becoming one itself . 
it appears to have been made by people to whom the idea of narrative logic or cohesion is an entirely foreign concept . 
what we have is a character faced with the possibility that her life is meaningless , vapid and devoid of substance , in a movie that is definitely meaningless , vapid and devoid of substance . 
a nightmare date with a half-formed wit done a great disservice by a lack of critical distance and a sad trust in liberal arts college bumper sticker platitudes . 
you may be galled that you've wasted nearly two hours of your own precious life with this silly little puddle of a movie . 
you'll just have your head in your hands wondering why lee's character didn't just go to a bank manager and save everyone the misery . 
although it tries to be much more , it's really just another major league . 
a minor picture with a major identity crisis -- it's sort of true and it's sort of bogus and it's ho-hum all the way through . 
for all its alleged youthful fire , xxx is no less subservient to bond's tired formula of guns , girls and gadgets while brandishing a new action hero . 
the movie is so resolutely cobbled together out of older movies that it even uses a totally unnecessary prologue , just because it seems obligatory . 
mark wahlberg . . . may look classy in a '60s-homage pokepie hat , but as a character he's dry , dry , dry . 
[siegel] and co-writers lisa bazadona and grace woodard have relied too much on convention in creating the characters who surround frankie . 
[evans is] a fascinating character , and deserves a better vehicle than this facetious smirk of a movie . 
one of those films that seems tailor made to air on pay cable to offer some modest amusements when one has nothing else to watch . 
excruciatingly unfunny and pitifully unromantic . 
the plot grinds on with yawn-provoking dullness . 
i'd have to say the star and director are the big problems here . 
represents something very close to the nadir of the thriller/horror genre . 
when it comes to the battle of hollywood vs . woo , it looks like woo's a p . o . w . 
when in doubt , the film ratchets up the stirring soundtrack , throws in a fish-out-of-water gag and lets the cliched dialogue rip . or else a doggie winks . 
it's better than mid-range steven seagal , but not as sharp as jet li on rollerblades . 
there's not a fresh idea at the core of this tale . 
as is most commonly case with projects such noble and lofty ambitions , the film is less poetic than simply pretentious . 
pretend it's a werewolf itself by avoiding eye contact and walking slowly away . it's fun , but it's a real howler . 
as the sulking , moody male hustler in the title role , [franco] has all of dean's mannerisms and self-indulgence , but none of his sweetness and vulnerability . 
it won't harm anyone , but neither can i think of a very good reason to rush right out and see it . after all , it'll probably be in video stores by christmas , and it might just be better suited to a night in the living room than a night at the movies . 
[tries] to parody a genre that's already a joke in the united states . the movie is the equivalent of french hip-hop , which also seems to play on a 10-year delay . 
burns' fifth beer-soaked film feels in almost every possible way -- from the writing and direction to the soggy performances -- tossed off . 
[soderbergh] tends to place most of the psychological and philosophical material in italics rather than trust an audience's intelligence , and he creates an overall sense of brusqueness . 
the stripped-down approach does give the film a certain timeless quality , but the measured pace and lack of dramatic inflection can also seem tedious . 
less a heartfelt appeal for the handicapped than a nice belgian waffle . 
to build a feel-good fantasy around a vain dictator-madman is off-putting , to say the least , not to mention inappropriate and wildly undeserved . 
the script was reportedly rewritten a dozen times -- either 11 times too many or else too few . 
 if the predictability of bland comfort food appeals to you , then the film is a pleasant enough dish . 
there's a whole heap of nothing at the core of this slight coming-of-age/coming-out tale . 
an ultra-low-budget indie debut that smacks more of good intentions than talent . 
the movie doesn't generate a lot of energy . it is dark , brooding and slow , and takes its central idea way too seriously . 
it's like a drive-by . you can drive right by it without noticing anything special , save for a few comic turns , intended and otherwise . 
overwrought , melodramatic bodice-ripper . 
the whole thing feels like a ruse , a tactic to cover up the fact that the picture is constructed around a core of flimsy -- or , worse yet , nonexistent -- ideas . 
 . . . a hollow joke told by a cinematic gymnast having too much fun embellishing the misanthropic tale to actually engage it . 
why spend $9 on the same stuff you can get for a buck or so in that greasy little vidgame pit in the theater lobby ? 
so exaggerated and broad that it comes off as annoying rather than charming . 
forget the misleading title , what's with the unexplained baboon cameo ? 
a shoddy male hip hop fantasy filled with guns , expensive cars , lots of naked women and rocawear clothing . 
the video work is so grainy and rough , so dependent on being 'naturalistic' rather than carefully lit and set up , that it's exhausting to watch . 
simone is not a bad film . it just doesn't have anything really interesting to say . 
nair stuffs the film with dancing , henna , ornamentation , and group song , but her narrative clichs and telegraphed episodes smell of old soap opera . 
the chateau . . . is less concerned with cultural and political issues than doting on its eccentric characters . 
writer/director john mckay ignites some charming chemistry between kate and jed but , when he veers into sodden melodrama , punctuated by violins , it's disastrous and kate's jealous female friends become downright despicable . 
there's nothing provocative about this film save for the ways in which it studiously avoids provoking thought . 
christina ricci comedy about sympathy , hypocrisy and love is a misfire . 
occasionally funny , sometimes inspiring , often boring . 
a very stylish but ultimately extremely silly tale . . . a slick piece of nonsense but nothing more . 
in theory , a middle-aged romance pairing clayburgh and tambor sounds promising , but in practice it's something else altogether -- clownish and offensive and nothing at all like real life . 
a sleep-inducingly slow-paced crime drama with clumsy dialogue , heavy-handed phoney-feeling sentiment , and an overly-familiar set of plot devices . 
a really funny fifteen-minute short stretched beyond its limits to fill an almost feature-length film . 
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 . 
the problem is that the movie has no idea of it is serious or not . 
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 . 
there are many definitions of 'time waster' but this movie must surely be one of them . 
it's difficult to feel anything much while watching this movie , beyond mild disturbance or detached pleasure at the acting . 
super troopers is an odd amalgam of comedy genres , existing somewhere between the often literal riffs of early zucker brothers/abrahams films , and the decidedly foul stylings of their post-modern contemporaries , the farrelly brothers . 
if you go into the theater expecting a scary , action-packed chiller , you might soon be looking for a sign . an exit sign , that is . 
star trek : nemesis meekly goes where nearly every star trek movie has gone before . wince-inducing dialogue , thrift-shop costumes , prosthetic makeup by silly putty and kmart blue-light-special effects all conspire to test trekkie loyalty . 
caso voc sinta necessidade de sair da sala antes do trmino da projeo , no se preocupe : ningum lhe enviar penas simbolizando covardia . 
all too familiar . . . basically the sort of cautionary tale that was old when 'angels with dirty faces' appeared in 1938 . 
at first , the sight of a blind man directing a film is hilarious , but as the film goes on , the joke wears thin . 
adam sandler is to gary cooper what a gnat is to a racehorse . 
[a] mess . 
the smash 'em-up , crash 'em-up , shoot 'em-up ending comes out of nowhere substituting mayhem for suspense . 
'a' for creativity but comes across more as a sketch for a full-length comedy . 
partway through watching this saccharine , easter-egg-colored concoction , you realize that it is made up of three episodes of a rejected tv show . 
analyze that regurgitates and waters down many of the previous film's successes , with a few new swings thrown in . 
the leads are so unmemorable , despite several attempts at lengthy dialogue scenes , that one eventually resents having to inhale this gutter romancer's secondhand material . 
a sha-na-na sketch punctuated with graphic violence . 
benigni's pinocchio is extremely straight and mind-numbingly stilted , its episodic pacing keeping the film from developing any storytelling flow . 
whaley's determination to immerse you in sheer , unrelenting wretchedness is exhausting . 
painfully padded . 
while the film misfires at every level , the biggest downside is the paucity of laughter in what's supposed to be a comedy . 
birot's directorial debut ( she co-wrote the script with christophe honor ) isn't so much bad as it is bland . 
director jay russell weighs down his capricious fairy-tale with heavy sentiment and lightweight meaning . 
anyway , for one reason or another , crush turns into a dire drama partway through . after that , it just gets stupid and maudlin . too bad , but thanks to some lovely comedic moments and several fine performances , it's not a total loss . 
everything is pegged into the groove of a new york dating comedy with 'issues' to simplify . 
it's not nearly as fresh or enjoyable as its predecessor , but there are enough high points to keep this from being a complete waste of time . 
a movie that harps on media-constructed 'issues' like whether compromise is the death of self this orgasm [won't be an] exceedingly memorable one for most people . 
it's a gag that's worn a bit thin over the years , though don't ask still finds a few chuckles . 
 . . . the sum of the parts equals largely a confused mediocrity . 
it's just too bad the screenwriters eventually shoot themselves in the feet with cop flick cliches like an oily arms dealer , squad car pile-ups and the requisite screaming captain . 
it's super- violent , super-serious and super-stupid . 
like the tuck family themselves , this movie just goes on and on and on and on
by turns numbingly dull-witted and disquietingly creepy . 
though clearly well-intentioned , this cross-cultural soap opera is painfully formulaic and stilted . 
let's issue a moratorium , effective immediately , on treacly films about inspirational prep-school professors and the children they so heartwarmingly motivate . 
a dopey movie clothed in excess layers of hipness . 
'dragonfly' is a movie about a bus wreck that turns into a film wreck . 
a dreary rip-off of goodfellas that serves as a muddled and offensive cautionary tale for hispanic americans . 
one of those decades-spanning historical epics that strives to be intimate and socially encompassing but fails to do justice to either effort in three hours of screen time . 
what's surprising about this traditional thriller , moderately successful but not completely satisfying , is exactly how genteel and unsurprising the execution turns out to be . 
 . . . watching this film nearly provoked me to take my own life . and if the hours wins 'best picture' i just might . 
eastwood winces , clutches his chest and gasps for breath . it's a spectacular performance - ahem , we hope it's only acting . 
i can'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 . . . 
this isn't just the cliffsnotes version of nicholas nickleby , it's the cliffsnotes with pages missing . 
overall , it's a pretty mediocre family film . 
frida is certainly no disaster , but neither is it the kahlo movie frida fans have been looking for . 
long time dead ? not nearly long enough . 
one of the more glaring signs of this movie's servitude to its superstar is the way it skirts around any scenes that might have required genuine acting from ms . spears . 
if there was ever a movie where the upbeat ending feels like a copout , this is the one . 
depicts the sorriest and most sordid of human behavior on the screen , then laughs at how clever it's being . 
the plan to make enough into an inspiring tale of survival wrapped in the heart-pounding suspense of a stylish psychological thriller' has flopped as surely as a souffl gone wrong . 
elegantly crafted but emotionally cold , a puzzle whose intricate construction one can admire but is difficult to connect with on any deeper level . 
lazy , miserable and smug . this is one of the biggest disappointments of the year . 
puts on airs of a hal hartley wannabe film -- without the vital comic ingredient of the hilarious writer-director himself . 
a generic international version of a typical american horror film . 
but the power of these [subjects] is obscured by the majority of the film that shows a stationary camera on a subject that could be mistaken for giving a public oration , rather than contributing to a film's narrative . 
audiences will find no mention of political prisoners or persecutions that might paint the castro regime in less than saintly tones . 
exhibits the shallow sensationalism characteristic of soap opera . . . more salacious telenovela than serious drama . 
while hollywood ending has its share of belly laughs ( including a knockout of a closing line ) , the movie winds up feeling like a great missed opportunity . 
hard as this may be to believe , here on earth , a surprisingly similar teen drama , was a better film . 
this is the kind of movie where the big scene is a man shot out of a cannon into a vat of ice cream . 
friday after next is a lot more bluster than bite . 
there are weird resonances between actor and role here , and they're not exactly flattering . 
seagal is painfully foolish in trying to hold onto what's left of his passe' chopsocky glory . 
the slapstick is labored , and the bigger setpieces flat . 
bean drops the ball too many times . . . hoping the nifty premise will create enough interest to make up for an unfocused screenplay . 
with mcconaughey in an entirely irony-free zone and bale reduced mainly to batting his sensitive eyelids , there's not enough intelligence , wit or innovation on the screen to attract and sustain an older crowd . 
a film with a great premise but only a great premise . 
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 . 
ritchie's film is easier to swallow than wertmuller's polemical allegory , but it's self-defeatingly decorous . 
i can only imagine one thing worse than kevin spacey trying on an irish accent , and that's sultry linda fiorentino doing the same thing . 
it's everything you don't go to the movies for . 
there's no point in extracting the bare bones of byatt's plot for purposes of bland hollywood romance . 
this movie plays like an extended dialogue exercise in retard 101 . 
a dull , inconsistent , dishonest female bonding picture . 
the master of disguise is awful . it's pauly shore awful . don't say you weren't warned . 
an awkwardly garish showcase that diverges from anything remotely probing or penetrating . 
despite some strong performances , never rises above the level of a telanovela . 
every conceivable mistake a director could make in filming opera has been perpetrated here . 
the movie's plot is almost entirely witless and inane , carrying every gag two or three times beyond its limit to sustain a laugh . 
feels at times like a giant commercial for universal studios , where much of the action takes place . 
the dialogue is cumbersome , the simpering soundtrack and editing more so . 
the movie certainly has its share of clever moments and biting dialogue , but there's just not much lurking below its abstract surface . 
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 . 
rainy days and movies about the disintegration of families always get me down . 
so brisk is wang's pacing that none of the excellent cast are given air to breathe . 
twenty years later , reggio still knows how to make a point with poetic imagery , but his ability to startle has been stifled by the very prevalence of the fast-forward technology that he so stringently takes to task . 
a live-action cartoon , a fast-moving and cheerfully simplistic 88 minutes of exaggerated action put together with the preteen boy in mind . 
this is the first full scale wwii flick from hong kong's john woo . he's not good with people . 
see clockstoppers if you have nothing better to do with 94 minutes . but be warned , you too may feel time has decided to stand still . or that the battery on your watch has died . 
the film's implicit premise is that the faith of the tonga people is in every way inferior to that of john . 
the main characters are simply named the husband , the wife and the kidnapper , emphasizing the disappointingly generic nature of the entire effort . 
the movie attempts to mine laughs from a genre -- the gangster/crime comedy -- that wore out its welcome with audiences several years ago , and its cutesy reliance on movie-specific cliches isn't exactly endearing . 
the movie's gloomy atmosphere is fascinating , though , even if the movie itself doesn't stand a ghost of a chance . 
rob schneider's infantile cross-dressing routines fill the hot chick , the latest gimmick from this unimaginative comedian . 
the characterizations and dialogue lack depth or complexity , with the ironic exception of scooter . 
[gayton's script] telegraphs every discovery and layers on the gloss of convenience . 
by the time the surprise ending is revealed , interest cannot be revived . 
meandering and confusing . 
yes , i have given this movie a rating of zero . but fans of the show should not consider this a diss . consider it 'perfection . '
it's probably not easy to make such a worthless film . . . 
with a tighter editorial process and firmer direction this material could work , especially since the actresses in the lead roles are all more than competent , but as is , personal velocity seems to be idling in neutral . 
there's an epic here , but you have to put it together yourself . 
part comedy , part drama , the movie winds up accomplishing neither in full , and leaves us feeling touched and amused by several moments and ideas , but nevertheless dissatisfied with the movie as a whole . 
the acting is stiff , the story lacks all trace of wit , the sets look like they were borrowed from gilligan's island -- and the cgi scooby might well be the worst special-effects creation of the year . 
not only unfunny , but downright repellent . 
despite the evocative aesthetics evincing the hollow state of modern love life , the film never percolates beyond a monotonous whine . 
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 . 
 " the time machine " is a movie that has no interest in itself . it doesn't believe in itself , it has no sense of humorit's just plain bored . 
a dull , somnambulant exercise in pretension whose pervasive quiet is broken by frequent outbursts of violence and noise . 
ear-splitting exercise in formula crash-and-bash action . 
a not-so-divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood with a hefty helping of re-fried green tomatoes . 
feel bad for king , who's honestly trying , and schwartzman , who's shot himself in the foot . 
it's sweet . . . but just a little bit too precious at the start and a little too familiar at the end . 
director george hickenlooper has had some success with documentaries , but here his sense of story and his juvenile camera movements smack of a film school undergrad , and his maudlin ending might not have gotten him into film school in the first place . 
throw smoochy from the train ! 
in terms of execution this movie is careless and unfocused . 
the young stars are too cute ; the story and ensuing complications are too manipulative ; the message is too blatant ; the resolutions are too convenient . 
a reworking of die hard and cliffhanger but it's nowhere near as exciting as either . 
his best film remains his shortest , the hole , which makes many of the points that this film does but feels less repetitive . 
brosnan's finest non-bondish performance yet fails to overcome the film's manipulative sentimentality and annoying stereotypes . 
what starts off as a potentially incredibly twisting mystery becomes simply a monster chase film . 
the laughs are as rare as snake foo yung . 
the cast has a high time , but de broca has little enthusiasm for such antique pulp . 
trouble every day is a success in some sense , but it's hard to like a film so cold and dead . 
looks and feels like a low-budget hybrid of scarface or carlito's way . 
all very stylish and beautifully photographed , but far more trouble than it's worth , with fantasy mixing with reality and actors playing more than one role just to add to the confusion . 
the armenian genocide deserves a more engaged and honest treatment . 
a perfect example of rancid , well-intentioned , but shamelessly manipulative movie making . 
chen films the resolutely downbeat smokers only with every indulgent , indie trick in the book . 
spy-vs . -spy action flick with antonio banderas and lucy liu never comes together . 
terminally bland , painfully slow and needlessly confusing . . . the movie , shot on digital videotape rather than film , is frequently indecipherable . 
feels like a cold old man going through the motions . 
even if britney spears is really cute , her movie is really bad . 
it's an 88-minute highlight reel that's 86 minutes too long . 
the iditarod lasts for days - this just felt like it did . 
plot , characters , drama , emotions , ideas -- all are irrelevant to the experience of seeing the scorpion king . 
instead of accurately accounting a terrible true story , the film's more determined to become the next texas chainsaw massacre . but what about the countless other people who'd merely like to watch a solid tale about a universally interesting soul ? 
handsome and sincere but slightly awkward in its combination of entertainment and evangelical boosterism . 
all the sensuality , all the eroticism of a good vampire tale has been , pardon the pun , sucked out and replaced by goth goofiness . 
if you believe any of this , i can make you a real deal on leftover enron stock that will double in value a week from friday . 
tadpole is emblematic of the witless ageism afflicting films : young is cool , and too young is too cool . 
horrendously amateurish filmmaking that is plainly dull and visually ugly when it isn't incomprehensible . 
 . . . really horrible drek . 
rather less than the sum of its underventilated pre-fils confrontations . 
flat , but with a revelatory performance by michelle williams . 
the ring just left me cold and wet like i was out in the seattle drizzle without rainwear . 
seems like someone going through the motions . 
expect to be reminded of other , better films , especially seven , which director william malone slavishly copies . 
the misery of these people becomes just another voyeuristic spectacle , to be consumed and forgotten . 
a loud , low-budget and tired formula film that arrives cloaked in the euphemism 'urban drama . '
it's not exactly worth the bucks to expend the full price for a date , but when it comes out on video , it's well worth a rental . 
a film that clearly means to preach exclusively to the converted . 
this is a fragmented film , once a good idea that was followed by the bad idea to turn it into a movie . 
 . . . a pretentious and ultimately empty examination of a sick and evil woman . 
this version of h . g . wells' time machine was directed by h . g . wells' great-grandson . they should have found orson welles' great-grandson . 
beneath the uncanny , inevitable and seemingly shrewd facade of movie-biz farce . . . lies a plot cobbled together from largely flat and uncreative moments . 
[lee] treats his audience the same way that jim brown treats his women -- as dumb , credulous , unassuming , subordinate subjects . and lee seems just as expectant of an adoring , wide-smiling reception . 
i could have used my two hours better watching being john malkovich again . 
a predictable , manipulative stinker . the story passes time until it's time for an absurd finale of twisted metal , fireballs and revenge . 
like a three-ring circus , there are side stories aplenty -- none of them memorable . 
the story of trouble every day . . . is so sketchy it amounts to little more than preliminary notes for a science-fiction horror film , and the movie's fragmentary narrative style makes piecing the story together frustrating difficult . 
a long , dull procession of despair , set to cello music culled from a minimalist funeral . 
a lousy movie that's not merely unwatchable , but also unlistenable . 
the result is a gaudy bag of stale candy , something from a halloween that died . 
suffers from a decided lack of creative storytelling . 
nicks , seemingly uncertain what's going to make people laugh , runs the gamut from stale parody to raunchy sex gags to formula romantic comedy . 
this isn't a movie ; it's a symptom . 
an ugly , pointless , stupid movie . 
this stuck pig of a movie flails limply between bizarre comedy and pallid horror . 
always destined to be measured against anthony asquith's acclaimed 1952 screen adaptation . 
takes one character we don't like and another we don't believe , and puts them into a battle of wills that is impossible to care about and isn't very funny . 
nijinsky says , 'i know how to suffer' and if you see this film you'll know too . 
the master of disaster - it's a piece of dreck disguised as comedy . 
while american adobo has its heart ( and its palate ) in the right place , its brain is a little scattered -- ditsy , even . 
a very long movie , dull in stretches , with entirely too much focus on meal preparation and igloo construction . 
the problem with all of this : it's not really funny . 
everything was as superficial as the forced new jersey lowbrow accent uma had . 
as written by michael berg and michael j . wilson from a story by wilson , this relentless , all-wise-guys-all-the-time approach tries way too hard and gets tiring in no time at all . 
 . . . too gory to be a comedy and too silly to be an effective horror film . 
trying to figure out the rules of the country bear universe -- when are bears bears and when are they like humans , only hairier -- would tax einstein's brain . 
seriously , rent the disney version . 
just because a walk to remember is shrewd enough to activate girlish tear ducts doesn't mean it's good enough for our girls . 
by the end , you just don't care whether that cold-hearted snake petrovich ( that would be reno ) gets his comeuppance . just bring on the battle bots , please ! 
after the setup , the air leaks out of the movie , flattening its momentum with about an hour to go . 
we're left with a story that tries to grab us , only to keep letting go at all the wrong moments . 
plays like a volatile and overlong w magazine fashion spread . 
nohe has made a decent 'intro' documentary , but he feels like a spectator and not a participant . 
as inept as big-screen remakes of the avengers and the wild wild west . 
an instant candidate for worst movie of the year . 
the sheer dumbness of the plot ( other than its one good idea ) and the movie's inescapable air of sleaziness get you down . 
why , you may ask , why should you buy the movie milk when the tv cow is free ? there's no good answer to that one . 
the cartoon that isn't really good enough to be on afternoon tv is now a movie that isn't really good enough to be in theaters . 
an artful yet depressing film that makes a melodramatic mountain out of the molehill of a missing bike . 
given the fact that virtually no one is bound to show up at theatres for it , the project should have been made for the tube . 
visually rather stunning , but ultimately a handsome-looking bore , the true creativity would have been to hide treasure planet entirely and completely reimagine it . 
for all of the contemporary post-colonialist consciousness that kapur tries to bring to the four feathers , the oddest thing about the movie is how it winds up affirming the same damn moldy values the material has always held dear . 
if festival in cannes nails hard- boiled hollywood argot with a bracingly nasty accuracy , much about the film , including some of its casting , is frustratingly unconvincing . 
more of an intriguing curiosity than a gripping thriller . 
a serious movie with serious ideas . but seriously , folks , it doesn't work . 
if routine action and jokes like this are your cup of tea , then pay your $8 and get ready for the big shear . this is one baaaaaaaaad movie . 
an unholy mess , driven by the pathetic idea that if you shoot something on crummy-looking videotape , it must be labelled 'hip' , 'innovative' and 'realistic' . 
sex with strangers will shock many with its unblinking frankness . but what is missing from it all is a moral . what is the filmmakers' point ? why did they deem it necessary to document all this emotional misery ? 
 . . . there's a choppy , surface-effect feeling to the whole enterprise . 
just like the deli sandwich : lots of ham , lots of cheese , with a sickly sweet coating to disguise its excrescence until just after ( or during ) consumption of its second half . 
an achingly enthralling premise , the film is hindered by uneven dialogue and plot lapses . 
a benign but forgettable sci-fi diversion . 
the action here is unusually tame , the characters are too simplistic to maintain interest , and the plot offers few surprises . 
the streets , shot by cinematographer michael ballhaus , may be as authentic as they are mean , but it is nearly impossible to care about what happens on them . 
 . . . hokey art house pretension . 
the biggest problem with satin rouge is lilia herself . she's a cipher , played by an actress who smiles and frowns but doesn't reveal an inner life . 
the screenplay is hugely overwritten , with tons and tons of dialogue -- most of it given to children . 
comes . . . uncomfortably close to coasting in the treads of the bicycle thief . 
this low-rent -- and even lower-wit -- rip-off of the farrelly brothers' oeuvre gets way too mushy -- and in a relatively short amount of time . 
so devoid of pleasure or sensuality that it cannot even be dubbed hedonistic . 
one suspects that craven endorses they simply because this movie makes his own look much better by comparison . 
taken purely as an exercise in style , this oppressively gloomy techno-horror clambake is impossible to ignore . but as a movie , it's a humorless , disjointed mess . 
the dark and bittersweet twist feels strange as things turn nasty and tragic during the final third of the film . first-timer john mckay is never able to pull it back on course . 
pure of intention and passably diverting , his secret life is light , innocuous and unremarkable . 
we just don't really care too much about this love story . in that setting , their struggle is simply too ludicrous and borderline insulting . 
an unremarkable , modern action/comedy buddy movie whose only nod to nostalgia is in the title . 
two tedious acts light on great scares and a good surprise ending . 
the only entertainment you'll derive from this choppy and sloppy affair will be from unintentional giggles  several of them . 
as [the characters] get more depressed , the story gets more tiresome , especially as it continues to mount a conspicuous effort to be profound . 
complete lack of originality , cleverness or even visible effort
yes , spirited away is a triumph of imagination , but it's also a failure of storytelling . 
terminally brain dead production . 
there is only so much baked cardboard i need to chew . 
much like its easily dismissive take on the upscale lifestyle , there isn't much there here . 
my response to the film is best described as lukewarm . maybe i found the proceedings a little bit too conventional . 
from beginning to end , this overheated melodrama plays like a student film . 
it's such a mechanical endeavor [that] it never bothers to question why somebody might devote time to see it . 
this is just lazy writing . even kids deserve better . 
in exactly 89 minutes , most of which passed as slowly as if i'd been sitting naked on an igloo , formula 51 sank from quirky to jerky to utter turkey . 
murder by numbers just doesn't add up . 
i watched the brainless insanity of no such thing with mounting disbelief . 
well before it's over , beijing bicycle begins spinning its wheels . 
a sugar-coated rocky whose valuable messages are forgotten 10 minutes after the last trombone honks . 
[newton]wanders through charlie completely unaware she needs to show some presence and star quality . 
just a bunch of good actors flailing around in a caper that's neither original nor terribly funny . 
meticulously mounted , exasperatingly well-behaved film , which ticks off kahlo's lifetime milestones with the dutiful precision of a tax accountant . 
imagine a really bad community theater production of west side story without the songs . 
it tries too hard , and overreaches the logic of its own world . 
confirms the nagging suspicion that ethan hawke would be even worse behind the camera than he is in front of it . 
the milieu is wholly unconvincing . . . and the histrionics reach a truly annoying pitch . 
check your brain and your secret agent decoder ring at the door because you don't want to think too much about what's going on . the movie does has some entertainment value - how much depends on how well you like chris rock . 
'the chteau is never quite able to overcome the cultural moat surrounding its ludicrous and contrived plot . '
this extremely unfunny film clocks in at 80 minutes , but feels twice as long . 
a great ending doesn't make up for a weak movie , and crazy as hell doesn't even have a great ending . 
attempts by this ensemble film to impart a message are so heavy-handed that they instead pummel the audience . 
a dreary , incoherent , self-indulgent mess of a movie in which a bunch of pompous windbags drone on inanely for two hours . . . a cacophony of pretentious , meaningless prattle . 
it cannot be enjoyed , even on the level that one enjoys a bad slasher flick , primarily because it is dull . yes , dull . 
chai's structure and pacing are disconcertingly slack . 
like a fish that's lived too long , austin powers in goldmember has some unnecessary parts and is kinda wrong in places . 
simply a re-hash of the other seven films . 
imagine the cleanflicks version of 'love story , ' with ali macgraw's profanities replaced by romance-novel platitudes . 
it feels like a community theater production of a great broadway play : even at its best , it will never hold a candle to the original . 
the acting is amateurish , the cinematography is atrocious , the direction is clumsy , the writing is insipid and the violence is at once luridly graphic and laughably unconvincing . 
a well acted and well intentioned snoozer . 
solondz may be convinced that he has something significant to say , but he isn't talking a talk that appeals to me . 
well-meant but unoriginal . 
a wildly erratic drama with sequences that make you wince in embarrassment and others , thanks to the actors , that are quite touching . 
the only way to tolerate this insipid , brutally clueless film might be with a large dose of painkillers . 
life is a crock -- or something like it . 
has the disjointed feel of a bunch of strung-together tv episodes . 
the film makes a tragic error by going on for too long , trying to mirror every subsequent event in chinese history : war , revolution , communism , etc . 
clumsy , obvious , preposterous , the movie will likely set the cause of woman warriors back decades . 
there are a few laughs and clever sight gags scattered about , but not enough to make this anything more than another big-budget bust . 
most of the action setups are incoherent . 
heavy-handed exercise in time-vaulting literary pretension . 
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 . 
what happened with pluto nash ? how did it ever get made ? 
but buying into sham truths and routine " indie " filmmaking , freundlich has made just another safe movie . it's not horrible , just horribly mediocre . 
the question hanging over the time machine is not , as the main character suggests , 'what if ? ' but rather , 'how can you charge money for this ? '
fear dot com is more frustrating than a modem that disconnects every 10 seconds . 
a sterling film - a cross between boys don't cry , deliverance , and ode to billy joe - lies somewhere in the story of matthew shepard , but that film is yet to be made . 
the vampire thriller blade ii starts off as a wild hoot and then sucks the blood out of its fun  toward the end , you can feel your veins cringing from the workout . 
the exclamation point seems to be the only bit of glee you'll find in this dreary mess . 
a low-budget affair , tadpole was shot on digital video , and the images often look smeary and blurry , to the point of distraction . then again , in a better movie , you might not have noticed . 
i'm not sure which is worse : the poor acting by the ensemble cast , the flat dialogue by vincent r . nebrida or the gutless direction by laurice guillen . 
plays like one of those conversations that comic book guy on " the simpsons " has . 
it puts washington , as honest working man john q . archibald , on a pedestal , then keeps lifting the pedestal higher . 
to say that this vapid vehicle is downright doltish and uneventful is just as obvious as telling a country skunk that he has severe body odor . 
this may be the first cartoon ever to look as if it were being shown on the projection television screen of a sports bar . 
glib , satirical documentary that fudges facts , makes facile points and engages in the cinematic equivalent of tabloid journalism . 
almost nothing else -- raunchy and graphic as it may be in presentation -- is one-sided , outwardly sexist or mean-spirited . and in a sense , that's a liability . 
although no pastry is violated , this nasty comedy pokes fun at the same easy targets as other rowdy raunch-fests -- farts , boobs , unmentionables -- without much success . 
could the country bears really be as bad as its trailers ? in a word -- yes . 
trivial where it should be profound , and hyper-cliched where it should be sincere . 
every so often a film comes along that is so insanely stupid , so awful in so many ways that watching it leaves you giddy . half past dead is just such an achievement . 
winds up feeling like lots of other quirky movies that try to score hipness points with young adults . 
what begins as a seemingly brainless , bubbly romantic comedy becomes a cliche-drenched melodrama by mid-film and , by film's end , a feminist action fantasy . 
a movie so bad that it quickly enters the pantheon of wreckage that includes battlefield earth and showgirls . 
if you liked the 1982 film then , you'll still like it now . 
sorority boys , which is as bad at it is cruel , takes every potential laugh and stiletto-stomps the life out of it . 
proves that a movie about goodness is not the same thing as a good movie . 
this is standard crime drama fare . . . instantly forgettable and thoroughly dull . 
shocking only in that it reveals the filmmaker's bottomless pit of self-absorption . 
schindler's list it ain't . 
has a customarily jovial air but a deficit of flim-flam inventiveness . 
return to neverland manages to straddle the line between another classic for the company and just another run-of-the-mill disney sequel intended for the home video market . 
yes they can swim , the title is merely anne-sophie birot's off-handed way of saying girls find adolescence difficult to wade through . 
no better or worse than 'truth or consequences , n . m . ' or any other interchangeable actioner with imbecilic mafia toolbags botching a routine assignment in a western backwater . 
the movie is like a year late for tapping into our reality tv obsession , and even tardier for exploiting the novelty of the " webcast . " 
if oscar had a category called best bad film you thought was going to be really awful but wasn't , guys would probably be duking it out with the queen of the damned for the honor . 
despite some gulps the film is a fuzzy huggy . 
this re-do is so dumb and so exploitative in its violence that , ironically , it becomes everything that the rather clumsy original was railing against . 
just like every other seagal movie , only louder and without that silly ponytail . 
first good , then bothersome . excellent acting and direction . 
when [reno] lets her radical flag fly , taking angry potshots at george w . bush , henry kissinger , larry king , et al . , reno devolves into a laugh-free lecture . 
hollywood ending just isn't very funny . 
a standard haunted house tale transplanted to the high seas . 
neither as scary-funny as tremors nor demented-funny as starship troopers , the movie isn't tough to take as long as you've paid a matinee price . 
at times , the movie looks genuinely pretty . your nightmares , on the other hand , will be anything but . not even felinni would know what to make of this italian freakshow . 
so-so entertainment . 
the situations and jokes are as predictable and as lowbrow as the endless pratfalls the boys take in their high heels . 
if this is satire , it's the smug and self-congratulatory kind that lets the audience completely off the hook . 
it's a documentary that says that the alternate sexuality meant to set you free may require so much relationship maintenance that celibacy can start looking good . 
a film that loses sight of its own story . 
too many scenarios in which the hero might have an opportunity to triumphantly sermonize , and too few that allow us to wonder for ourselves if things will turn out okay . 
this series should have died long ago , but they keep bringing it back another day as punishment for paying money to see the last james bond movie . 
although . . . visually striking and slickly staged , it's also cold , grey , antiseptic and emotionally desiccated . 
a lackluster , unessential sequel to the classic disney adaptation of j . m . barrie's peter pan . 
why sit through a crummy , wannabe-hip crime comedy that refers incessantly to old movies , when you could just rent those movies instead , let alone seek out a respectable new one ? 
in the second half of the film , frei's control loosens in direct proportion to the amount of screen time he gives nachtwey for self-analysis . 
impostor has a handful of thrilling moments and a couple of good performances , but the movie doesn't quite fly . for starters , the story is just too slim . 
philosophically , intellectually and logistically a mess . 
watching the chemistry between freeman and judd , however , almost makes this movie worth seeing . almost . 
nasty , ugly , pointless and depressing , even if you hate clowns . 
it's hard to like a film about a guy who is utterly unlikeable , and shiner , starring michael caine as an aging british boxing promoter desperate for a taste of fame and fortune , is certainly that . 
a gorgeous , somnolent show that is splendidly mummified and thoroughly unsurprising . 
in an effort , i suspect , not to offend by appearing either too serious or too lighthearted , it offends by just being wishy-washy . 
russell lacks the visual panache , the comic touch , and perhaps the budget of sommers's title-bout features . 
meanders between its powerful moments . 
 . . . if you're just in the mood for a fun -- but bad -- movie , you might want to catch freaks as a matinee . 
this movie is about lying , cheating , but loving the friends you betray . 
the script's judgment and sense of weight is way , way off . 
what madonna does here can't properly be called acting -- more accurately , it's moving and it's talking and it's occasionally gesturing , sometimes all at once . 
the predominantly amateur cast is painful to watch , so stilted and unconvincing are the performances . 
rymer doesn't trust laughs -- and doesn't conjure proper respect for followers of the whole dead-undead genre , who deserve more from a vampire pic than a few shrieky special effects . 
outside of burger's desire to make some kind of film , it's really unclear why this project was undertaken
a lifetime movie about men . 
jonathan parker's bartleby should have been the be-all-end-all of the modern-office anomie films . 
it's a thin notion , repetitively stretched out to feature length , awash in self-consciously flashy camera effects , droning house music and flat , flat dialogue . 
there is more than one joke about putting the toilet seat down . and that should tell you everything you need to know about all the queen's men . 
an uplifting , largely bogus story . 
 . . . 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 . 
a preposterously melodramatic paean to gang-member teens in brooklyn circa 1958 . 
dignified ceo's meet at a rustic retreat and pee against a tree . can you bear the laughter ? 
a handsome but unfulfilling suspense drama more suited to a quiet evening on pbs than a night out at an amc . 
mckay shows crushingly little curiosity about , or is ill-equipped to examine , the interior lives of the characters in his film , much less incorporate them into his narrative . 
if you enjoy being rewarded by a script that assumes you aren't very bright , then blood work is for you . 
lame , haphazard teen comedy . 
unfortunately , contrived plotting , stereotyped characters and woo's over-the-top instincts as a director undermine the moral dilemma at the movie's heart . 
loud , silly , stupid and pointless . 
this dramatically shaky contest of wills only reiterates the old hollywood saw : evil is interesting and good is boring . 
wishy-washy . 
this rather superficial arthouse middle-brow film knows how to please a crowd , and that's about all it does well . 
two badly interlocked stories drowned by all too clever complexity . 
why would anyone cast the magnificent jackie chan in a movie full of stunt doubles and special effects ? 
like being invited to a classy dinner soiree and not knowing anyone . you leave the same way you came -- a few tasty morsels under your belt , but no new friends . 
not an objectionable or dull film ; it merely lacks everything except good intentions . 
the problem with the mayhem in formula 51 is not that it's offensive , but that it's boring . 
a movie that's about as overbearing and over-the-top as the family it depicts . 
a little objectivity could have gone a long way . 
despite hoffman's best efforts , wilson remains a silent , lumpish cipher ; his encounters reveal nothing about who he is or who he was before . 
about as enjoyable , i would imagine , as searching for a quarter in a giant pile of elephant feces . . . positively dreadful . 
never inspires more than an interested detachment . 
avary's film never quite emerges from the shadow of ellis' book . 
as spent screen series go , star trek : nemesis is even more suggestive of a 65th class reunion mixer where only eight surviving members show up -- and there's nothing to drink . 
an inconsequential , barely there bit of piffle . 
trying to make head or tail of the story in the hip-hop indie snipes is enough to give you brain strain -- and the pay-off is negligible . 
will be far more interesting to the soderbergh faithful than it will be to the casual moviegoer who might be lured in by julia roberts . . . 
every potential twist is telegraphed well in advance , every performance respectably muted ; the movie itself seems to have been made under the influence of rohypnol . 
de niro may enjoy the same free ride from critics afforded to clint eastwood in the lazy bloodwork . but like bruce springsteen's gone-to-pot asbury park , new jersey , this sad-sack waste of a movie is a city of ruins . 
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 . 
much-anticipated and ultimately lackluster movie . 
not only is it hokey , manipulative and as bland as wonder bread dipped in milk , but it also does the absolute last thing we need hollywood doing to us : it preaches . 
the impulses that produced this project . . . are commendable , but the results are uneven . 
a movie just for friday fans , critics be damned . if you already like this sort of thing , this is that sort of thing all over again . 
all of the filmmakers' calculations can't rescue brown sugar from the curse of blandness . 
i can't recommend it . but it's surprisingly harmless . 
leaves us wondering less about its ideas and more about its characterization of hitler and the contrived nature of its provocative conclusion . 
the package in which this fascinating -- and timely -- content comes wrapped is disappointingly generic . 
propelled not by characters but by caricatures . 
de ayala is required to supply too much of the energy in a film that is , overall , far too staid for its subject matter . 
you come away thinking not only that kate isn't very bright , but that she hasn't been worth caring about and that maybe she , janine and molly -- an all-woman dysfunctional family -- deserve one another . 
static , repetitive , muddy and blurry , hey arnold ! would seem to have a lock on the title of ugliest movie of the year . 
will anyone who isn't a fangoria subscriber be excited that it hasn't gone straight to video ? 
like so many other allegedly scary movies , it gets so tangled up in the twist that it chokes the energy right out of the very audience it seeks to frighten . 
despite apparent motives to the contrary , it ends up being , like [seinfeld's] revered tv show , about pretty much nothing . 
absolutely ( and unintentionally ) terrifying . 
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 . 
at a time when we've learned the hard way just how complex international terrorism is , collateral damage paints an absurdly simplistic picture . 
bray is completely at sea ; with nothing but a savage garden music video on his resume , he has no clue about making a movie . 
godawful boring slug of a movie . 
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 . 
a dark , dull thriller with a parting shot that misfires . 
the film has a few cute ideas and several modest chuckles but it isn't exactly kiddie-friendly alas , santa is more ho-hum than ho-ho-ho and the snowman ( who never gets to play that flute ) has all the charm of a meltdown . 
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 . 
characters wander into predictably treacherous situations even though they should know better . 
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 . 
doesn't offer much besides glib soullessness , raunchy language and a series of brutal set pieces . . . that raise the bar on stylized screen violence . 
the kids often appear to be reading the lines and are incapable of conveying any emotion . 
children , christian or otherwise , deserve to hear the full story of jonah's despair -- in all its agonizing , catch-22 glory -- even if they spend years trying to comprehend it . 
looks more like a travel-agency video targeted at people who like to ride bikes topless and roll in the mud than a worthwhile glimpse of independent-community guiding lights . 
just about all of the film is confusing on one level or another , making ararat far more demanding than it needs to be . 
there is no insight into the anguish of heidi's life -- only a depiction of pain , today's version of greek tragedy , the talk-show guest decrying her fate . 
fincher takes no apparent joy in making movies , and he gives none to the audience . 
comes off like a rejected abc afterschool special , freshened up by the dunce of a screenwriting 101 class . . . . designed to provide a mix of smiles and tears , " crossroads " instead provokes a handful of unintentional howlers and numerous yawns . 
any film featuring young children threatened by a terrorist bomb can no longer pass as mere entertainment . 
though certainly original in form , altar boys requires a taste for swamp thing-type animation , doubled with a deafening score . 
irwin and his director never come up with an adequate reason why we should pay money for what we can get on television for free . 
de niro cries . you'll cry for your money back . 
return to never land is much more p . c . than the original version ( no more racist portraits of indians , for instance ) , but the excitement is missing . 
though this saga would be terrific to read about , it is dicey screen material that only a genius should touch . 
i can't remember the last time i saw an audience laugh so much during a movie , but there's only one problemit's supposed to be a drama . 
filmmakers have to dig deep to sink this low . fortunately for all involved , this movie is likely to disappear as quickly as an ice cube thrown into a pot of boiling water . 
in the end , the movie collapses on its shaky foundation despite the best efforts of director joe carnahan . 
rollerball is as bad as you think , and worse than you can imagine . 
a fifty car pileup of cliches . 
the movie's blatant derivativeness is one reason it's so lackluster . 
is it possible for a documentary to be utterly entranced by its subject and still show virtually no understanding of it ? 
puportedly " based on true events , " a convolution of language that suggests it's impossible to claim that it is " based on a true story " with a straight face . 
a cautionary tale about the folly of superficiality that is itself endlessly superficial . 
the comedy is nonexistent . 
director elie chouraqui , who co-wrote the script , catches the chaotic horror of war , but why bother if you're going to subjugate truth to the tear-jerking demands of soap opera ? 
you can practically smell the patchouli oil . 
the movie strains to stay on the light , comic side of the issue , despite the difficulty of doing so when dealing with the destruction of property and , potentially , of life itself . 
starts out strongly before quickly losing its focus , point and purpose in a mess of mixed messages , over-blown drama and bruce willis with a scar . 
narc is all menace and atmosphere . 
a simpler , leaner treatment would have been preferable ; after all , being about nothing is sometimes funnier than being about something . 
it's so crammed with scenes and vistas and pretty moments that it's left a few crucial things out , like character development and coherence . 
the new faces are interesting , but the old story isn't , especially when it starts to seem more improvised than scripted . 
in the not-too-distant future , movies like ghost ship will be used as analgesic balm for overstimulated minds . right now , they're merely signposts marking the slow , lingering death of imagination . 
despite a powerful portrayal by binoche , it's a period romance that suffers from an overly deliberate pace and uneven narrative momentum . 
it's disappointing when filmmakers throw a few big-name actors and cameos at a hokey script . 
the effort is sincere and the results are honest , but the film is so bleak that it's hardly watchable . 
resembles a soft porn brian de palma pastiche . 
as pure over-the-top trash , any john waters movie has it beat by a country mile . 
call me a cold-hearted curmudgeon for not being able to enjoy a mindless action movie , but i believe a movie can be mindless without being the peak of all things insipid . 
i'm not exactly sure what this movie thinks it is about . 
what's really sad is to see two academy award winning actresses ( and one academy award winning actor ) succumb to appearing in this junk that's tv sitcom material at best . 
it winds up moving in many directions as it searches ( vainly , i think ) for something fresh to say . 
lawrence preaches strictly to the converted . 
this thing is virtually unwatchable . 
the character is too forced and overwritten to be funny or believable much of the time , and clayburgh doesn't always improve the over-the-top mix . 
all the amped-up tony hawk-style stunts and thrashing rap-metal can't disguise the fact that , really , we've been here , done that . 
an undistinguished attempt to make a classic theater piece cinematic . 
feels haphazard , as if the writers mistakenly thought they could achieve an air of frantic spontaneity by simply tossing in lots of characters doing silly stuff and stirring the pot . 
flashy , pretentious and as impenetrable as morvern's thick , working-class scottish accent . 
this movie seems to have been written using mad-libs . there can be no other explanation . hilariously inept and ridiculous . 
an awkward hybrid of genres that just doesn't work . 
scorsese at his best makes gangster films that are equally lovely but also relentlessly brutal and brutally intelligent ; perdition , meanwhile , reads more like driving miss daisy than goodfellas . 
the screenplay flounders under the weight of too many story lines . 
it's as if you're watching a movie that was made in 1978 but not released then because it was so weak , and it has been unearthed and released now , when it has become even weaker . 
life or something like it has its share of high points , but it misses too many opportunities . 
in the era of the sopranos , it feels painfully redundant and inauthentic . 
if you are into splatter movies , then you will probably have a reasonably good time with the salton sea . 
some body is a shaky , uncertain film that nevertheless touches a few raw nerves . 
turns a potentially interesting idea into an excruciating film school experience that plays better only for the film's publicists or for people who take as many drugs as the film's characters
what's most offensive isn't the waste of a good cast , but the film's denial of sincere grief and mourning in favor of bogus spiritualism . 
the april 2002 instalment of the american war for independence , complete with loads of cgi and bushels of violence , but not a drop of human blood . 
as social expos , skins has its heart in the right place , but that's not much to hang a soap opera on . 
it all looks and plays like a $40 million version of a game you're more likely to enjoy on a computer . 
[i]f you've been to more than one indie flick in your life , chances are you've already seen this kind of thing . 
an incredibly narrow in-joke targeted to the tiniest segment of an already obscure demographic . 
that the chuck norris " grenade gag " occurs about 7 times during windtalkers is a good indication of how serious-minded the film is . 
what a pity . . . that the material is so second-rate . 
begins as a promising meditation on one of america's most durable obsessions but winds up as a slender cinematic stunt . 
a little less extreme than in the past , with longer exposition sequences between them , and with fewer gags to break the tedium . 
the somber pacing and lack of dramatic fireworks make green dragon seem more like medicine than entertainment . 
it doesn't do the original any particular dishonor , but neither does it exude any charm or personality . 
the script becomes lifeless and falls apart like a cheap lawn chair . 
earnest and tentative even when it aims to shock . 
has its charming quirks and its dull spots . 
a incompetncia de marcus adams como roteirista s  superada por sua pssima direo . 
as conceived by mr . schaeffer , christopher and grace are little more than collections of quirky traits lifted from a screenwriter's outline and thrown at actors charged with the impossible task of making them jell . 
[t]hose same extremes prevent us from taking its message seriously , and the stepford wives mentality doesn't work in a modern context . 
the script by vincent r . nebrida . . . tries to cram too many ingredients into one small pot . 
simply doesn't have sufficient heft to justify its two-hour running time . 
a film that should be relegated to a dark video store corner is somehow making its way instead to theaters . it's hard to imagine acting that could be any flatter . 
lacks the visual flair and bouncing bravado that characterizes better hip-hop clips and is content to recycle images and characters that were already tired 10 years ago . 
generic slasher-movie nonsense , but it's not without style . 
marinated in clichs and mawkish dialogue . 
gooding offers a desperately ingratiating performance . 
the film desperately sinks further and further into comedy futility . 
the director knows how to apply textural gloss , but his portrait of sex-as-war is strictly sitcom . 
dilbert without the right-on satiric humor . 
the film is flat . 
like most movies about the pitfalls of bad behavior . . . circuit gets drawn into the party . 
could the whole plan here have been to produce something that makes fatal attraction look like a classic by comparison ? that's the only sane rationale i can think of for swimfan's existence . 
borrows from so many literary and cinematic sources that this future world feels absolutely deja vu . 
if there was any doubt that peter o'fallon didn't have an original bone in his body , a rumor of angels should dispel it . 
the best thing that can be said of the picture is that it does have a few cute moments . 
ritchie's treatment of the class reversal is majorly ham-fisted , from the repetitive manifestos that keep getting thrown in people's faces to the fact amber is such a joke . 
the film is like a series of beginnings and middles that never take off . 
no amount of blood and disintegrating vampire cadavers can obscure this movie's lack of ideas . 
you would be better off investing in the worthy emi recording that serves as the soundtrack , or the home video of the 1992 malfitano-domingo production . 
there ought to be a directing license , so that ed burns can have his revoked . 
goes on and on to the point of nausea . 
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 . the result might look like vulgar . 
what we get . . . is caddyshack crossed with the loyal order of raccoons . 
conforms itself with creating a game of 'who's who' . . . where the characters' moves are often more predictable than their consequences . 
rodriguez . . . was unable to reproduce the special spark between the characters that made the first film such a delight . 
a horrible , 99-minute stink bomb . 
lan yu is certainly a serviceable melodrama , but it doesn't even try for the greatness that happy together shoots for ( and misses ) . 
it's almost as if it's an elaborate dare more than a full-blooded film . 
this rather unfocused , all-over-the-map movie would be a lot better if it pared down its plots and characters to a few rather than dozens . . . or if it were subtler . . . or if it had a sense of humor . 
there are things to like about murder by numbers -- but , in the end , the disparate elements don't gel . 
i don't mind having my heartstrings pulled , but don't treat me like a fool . 
a blair witch- style adventure that plays like a bad soap opera , with passable performances from everyone in the cast . 
this is the type of movie best enjoyed by frat boys and college kids while sucking on the bong and downing one alcoholic beverage after another . 
mr . wedge and mr . saldanha handle the mix of verbal jokes and slapstick well . their film falters , however , in its adherence to the disney philosophy of required poignancy , a salute that i'd hoped the movie would avoid . 
nothing more than four or five mild chuckles surrounded by 86 minutes of overly-familiar and poorly-constructed comedy . 
an empty exercise , a florid but ultimately vapid crime melodrama with lots of surface flash but little emotional resonance . 
its message has merit and , in the hands of a brutally honest individual like prophet jack , might have made a point or two regarding life . 
the furious coherence that [deniro] brings to this part only underscores the fuzzy sentimentality of the movie itself , which feels , as it plods toward the end , less like a movie than like the filmed reading of a script in need of polishing . 
utterly lacking in charm , wit and invention , roberto benigni's pinocchio is an astonishingly bad film . 
a one-trick pony whose few t&a bits still can't save itself from being unoriginal , unfunny and unrecommendable . 
the documentary is much too conventional -- lots of boring talking heads , etc . -- to do the subject matter justice . 
doesn't add up to much . 
as a movie , it never seems fresh and vital . it never plays as dramatic even when dramatic things happen to people . it labours as storytelling . 
watching the powerpuff girls movie , my mind kept returning to one anecdote for comparison : the cartoon in japan that gave people seizures . 
seemingly disgusted with the lazy material and the finished product's unshapely look , director fisher stevens inexplicably dips key moments from the film in waking life water colors . 
the period -- swinging london in the time of the mods and the rockers -- gets the once-over once again in gangster no . 1 , but falls apart long before the end . 
 " abandon " will leave you wanting to abandon the theater . 
a preposterous , prurient whodunit . 
goldbacher draws on an elegant visual sense and a talent for easy , seductive pacing . . . but she and writing partner laurence coriat don't manage an equally assured narrative coinage . 
a late-night cable sexploitation romp masquerading as a thriller about the ruthless social order that governs college cliques . 
the secrets of time travel will have been discovered , indulged in and rejected as boring before i see this piece of crap again . 
shaky close-ups of turkey-on-rolls , stubbly chins , liver spots , red noses and the filmmakers new bobbed do draw easy chuckles but lead nowhere . 
vaguely interesting , but it's just too too much . 
the whole thing plays out with the drowsy heaviness of synchronized swimmer wearing a wool wetsuit . 
after a while , hoffman's quirks and mannerisms , particularly his penchant for tearing up on cue -- things that seem so real in small doses -- become annoying and artificial . 
the movie quickly drags on becoming boring and predictable . i tried to read the time on my watch . 
i kept thinking over and over again , 'i should be enjoying this . ' but i wasn't . 
scorsese doesn't give us a character worth giving a damn about . 
while this film has an 'a' list cast and some strong supporting players , the tale -- like its central figure , vivi -- is just a little bit hard to love . 
bravo reveals the true intent of her film by carefully selecting interview subjects who will construct a portrait of castro so predominantly charitable it can only be seen as propaganda . 
all this turns out to be neither funny nor provocative - only dull . 
for something as splendid-looking as this particular film , the viewer expects something special but instead gets [sci-fi] rehash . 
a sham construct based on theory , sleight-of-hand , and ill-wrought hypothesis . 
a mess . the screenplay does too much meandering , norton has to recite bland police procedural details , fiennes wanders around in an attempt to seem weird and distanced , hopkins looks like a drag queen . 
rife with nutty cliches and far too much dialogue . 
ill-considered , unholy hokum . 
the first mistake , i suspect , is casting shatner as a legendary professor and kunis as a brilliant college student--where's pauly shore as the rocket scientist ? 
a well-acted movie that simply doesn't gel . 
the whole affair , true story or not , feels incredibly hokey . . . [it] comes off like a hallmark commercial . 
there's no way to sort out the mess in our heads and deconstruct where it all went wrong . this is an hour and a half of daydreaming . 
strong filmmaking requires a clear sense of purpose , and in that oh-so-important category , the four feathers comes up short . 
a movie in which laughter and self-exploitation merge into jolly soft-porn 'empowerment . '
however sincere it may be , the rising place never quite justifies its own existence . 
[a] crushing disappointment . 
call me a cynic , but there's something awfully deadly about any movie with a life-affirming message . 
an enigmatic film that's too clever for its own good , it's a conundrum not worth solving . 
as tweedy talks about canning his stockbroker and repairing his pool , you yearn for a few airborne tv sets or nude groupies on the nod to liven things up . 
in the end , the movie bogs down in insignificance , saying nothing about kennedy's assassination and revealing nothing about the pathology it pretends to investigate . 
the story and the friendship proceeds in such a way that you're watching a soap opera rather than a chronicle of the ups and downs that accompany lifelong friendships . 
co-writer/director jonathan parker's attempts to fashion a brazil-like , hyper-real satire fall dreadfully short . 
will no doubt delight plympton's legion of fans ; others may find 80 minutes of these shenanigans exhausting . 
it's not a bad premise , just a bad movie . 
there may have been a good film in " trouble every day , " but it is not what is on the screen . 
john carlen's script is full of unhappy , two-dimensional characters who are anything but compelling . 
it's possible that something hip and transgressive was being attempted here that stubbornly refused to gel , but the result is more puzzling than unsettling . 
looks and feels like a project better suited for the small screen . 
diaz , applegate , blair and posey are suitably kooky which should appeal to women and they strip down often enough to keep men alert , if not amused . 
vile and tacky are the two best adjectives to describe ghost ship . 
though its atmosphere is intriguing . . . the drama is finally too predictable to leave much of an impression . 
the whole talking-animal thing is grisly . 
mostly , shafer and co-writer gregory hinton lack a strong-minded viewpoint , or a sense of humor . 
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 . 
while benigni ( who stars and co-wrote ) seems to be having a wonderful time , he might be alone in that . 
this is amusing for about three minutes . 
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 . 
stealing harvard will dip into your wallet , swipe 90 minutes of your time , and offer you precisely this in recompense : a few early laughs scattered around a plot as thin as it is repetitious . 
an ambitiously naturalistic , albeit half-baked , drama about an abused , inner-city autistic teen . 
whenever you think you've seen the end of the movie , we cut to a new scene , which also appears to be the end . but , no , we get another scene , and then another . you begin to long for the end credits as the desert does for rain . 
kung pow seems like some futile concoction that was developed hastily after oedekerk and his fellow moviemakers got through crashing a college keg party . 
what's next ? rob schneider , dana carvey and sarah michelle gellar in the philadelphia story ? david spade as citizen kane ? 
the film's most improbable feat ? it didn't go straight to video . 
though howard demonstrates a great eye as a director , this southern gothic drama is sadly a tough sit , with an undeveloped narrative and enough flashbacks and heavy-handed metaphors to choke a horse -- or at least slow him down to a canter . 
it will come as no surprise that the movie isn't scary . but here's the real damn : it isn't funny , either . 
poor ben bratt couldn't find stardom if mapquest emailed him point-to-point driving directions . 
too stagey , talky -- and long -- for its own good . 
while the mystery unravels , the characters respond by hitting on each other . 
stars matthew perry and elizabeth hurley illicit more than a chuckle , and more jokes land than crash , but ultimately serving sara doesn't distinguish itself from the herd . 
chokes on its own depiction of upper-crust decorum . 
interminably bleak , to say nothing of boring . 
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 . 
 . . . 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 . 
ultimately the , yes , snail-like pacing and lack of thematic resonance make the film more silly than scary , like some sort of martha stewart decorating program run amok . 
if you value your time and money , find an escape clause and avoid seeing this trite , predictable rehash . 
make no mistake , ivans xtc . is a mess . 
kenneth branagh's energetic sweet-and-sour performance as a curmudgeonly british playwright grounds this overstuffed , erratic dramedy in which he and his improbably forbearing wife contend with craziness and child-rearing in los angeles . 
everything about girls can't swim , even its passages of sensitive observation , feels secondhand , familiar -- and not in a good way . 
this is a movie that starts out like heathers , then becomes bring it on , then becomes unwatchable . 
indifferently implausible popcorn programmer of a movie . 
sensitive though not quite revelatory documentary . 
the movie's heavy-handed screenplay navigates a fast fade into pomposity and pretentiousness . 
the filmmakers lack the nerve . . . to fully exploit the script's potential for sick humor . 
largely a for-fans artifact . 
gets bogged down by an overly sillified plot and stop-and-start pacing . 
solaris " is a shapeless inconsequential move relying on the viewer to do most of the work . 
while the story is better-focused than the incomprehensible anne rice novel it's based upon , queen of the damned is a pointless , meandering celebration of the goth-vampire , tortured woe-is-me lifestyle . 
so muddled , repetitive and ragged that it says far less about the horrifying historical reality than about the filmmaker's characteristic style . 
with rare birds , as with the shipping news before it , an attempt is made to transplant a hollywood star into newfoundland's wild soil -- and the rock once again resists the intrusion . 
beautifully filmed and well acted . . . but admittedly problematic in its narrative specifics . 
this is the case of a pregnant premise being wasted by a script that takes few chances and manages to insult the intelligence of everyone in the audience . 
a feeble tootsie knockoff . 
donovan . . . squanders his main asset , jackie chan , and fumbles the vital action sequences . 
by the time you reach the finale , you're likely wondering why you've been watching all this strutting and posturing . 
a boring masquerade ball where normally good actors , even kingsley , are made to look bad . 
to portray modern women the way director davis has done is just unthinkable . 
a great idea becomes a not-great movie . 
[javier bardem is] one of the few reasons to watch the film , which director gerardo vera has drenched in swoony music and fever-pitched melodrama . 
such a fine idea for a film , and such a stultifying , lifeless execution . 
too restrained to be a freak show , too mercenary and obvious to be cerebral , too dull and pretentious to be engaging . . . the isle defies an easy categorization . 
the film never finds its tone and several scenes run too long . 
a horror movie with seriously dumb characters , which somewhat dilutes the pleasure of watching them stalked by creepy-crawly bug things that live only in the darkness . 
a gob of drivel so sickly sweet , even the eager consumers of moore's pasteurized ditties will retch it up like rancid crme brle . 
with lines that feel like long soliloquies -- even as they are being framed in conversation -- max is static , stilted . 
de niro looks bored , murphy recycles murphy , and you mentally add showtime to the pile of hollywood dreck that represents nothing more than the art of the deal . 
please , someone , stop eric schaeffer before he makes another film . 
the movie is dawn of the dead crossed with john carpenter's ghosts of mars , with zombies not as ghoulish as the first and trains not as big as the second . 
i am sorry that i was unable to get the full brunt of the comedy . 
unfortunately , the picture failed to capture me . i found it slow , drab , and bordering on melodramatic . 
for a film about action , ultimate x is the gabbiest giant-screen movie ever , bogging down in a barrage of hype . 
it's better suited for the history or biography channel , but there's no arguing the tone of the movie - it leaves a bad taste in your mouth and questions on your mind . 
rarely has sex on screen been so aggressively anti-erotic . 
 . . . too contrived to be as naturally charming as it needs to be . 
a distinctly minor effort that will be seen to better advantage on cable , especially considering its barely feature-length running time of one hour . 
if it's seldom boring , well , it's also rarely coherent . 
an uneven look into a grim future that doesn't come close to the level of intelligence and visual splendour that can be seen in other films based on philip k . dick stories . 
even the imaginative gore can't hide the musty scent of todd farmer's screenplay , which is a simple retread of the 1979 alien , with a plucky heroine battling a monster loose in a spaceship . 
abandon spends 90 minutes trying figure out whether or not some cocky pseudo-intellectual kid has intentionally left college or was killed . the only problem is that , by the end , no one in the audience or the film seems to really care . 
this tuxedo . . . should have been sent back to the tailor for some major alterations . 
 . . . silly humbuggery . . . 
essentially " fatal attraction " remade for viewers who were in diapers when the original was released in 1987 . . . . this story gets sillier , not scarier , as it goes along . . . 
mariah carey gives us another peek at some of the magic we saw in glitter here in wisegirls . 
this follow-up seems so similar to the 1953 disney classic that it makes one long for a geriatric peter . 
you might be shocked to discover that seinfeld's real life is boring . 
hit and miss as far as the comedy goes and a big ole' miss in the way of story . 
anyone who can count to five ( the film's target market ? ) can see where this dumbed-down concoction is going . 
that neither protagonist has a distinguishable condition hardly matters because both are just actory concoctions , defined by childlike dimness and a handful of quirks . 
although trying to balance self-referential humor and a normal ol' slasher plot seemed like a decent endeavor , the result doesn't fully satisfy either the die-hard jason fans or those who can take a good joke . 
this is cruel , misanthropic stuff with only weak claims to surrealism and black comedy . 
no cliche escapes the perfervid treatment of gang warfare called ces wild . 
just when the movie seems confident enough to handle subtlety , it dives into soapy bathos . 
plays like john le carr with a couple of burnt-out cylinders . 
 . . . one resurrection too many . 
supposedly authentic account of a historical event that's far too tragic to merit such superficial treatment . 
this is very much of a mixed bag , with enough negatives to outweigh the positives . 
it follows the basic plot trajectory of nearly every schwarzenegger film : someone crosses arnie . arnie blows things up . 
at times , the suspense is palpable , but by the end there's a sense that the crux of the mystery hinges on a technicality that strains credulity and leaves the viewer haunted by the waste of potential . 
who needs love like this ? 
been there , done that . . . a thousand times already , and better . 
ultimately , sarah's dedication to finding her husband seems more psychotic than romantic , and nothing in the movie makes a convincing case that one woman's broken heart outweighs all the loss we witness . 
murphy and wilson actually make a pretty good team . . . but the project surrounding them is distressingly rote . 
we never really feel involved with the story , as all of its ideas remain just that : abstract ideas . 
i saw knockaround guys yesterday , and already the details have faded like photographs from the spanish-american war . . . it's so unmemorable that it turned my ballpoint notes to invisible ink . 
director chris eyre is going through the paces again with his usual high melodramatic style of filmmaking . 
the editing is chaotic , the photography grainy and badly focused , the writing unintentionally hilarious , the direction unfocused , the performances as wooden . 
a frankenstein mishmash that careens from dark satire to cartoonish slapstick , bartleby performs neither one very well . 
spousal abuse is a major problem in contemporary society , but the film reduces this domestic tragedy to florid melodrama . 
from its nauseating spinning credits sequence to a very talented but underutilized supporting cast , bartleby squanders as much as it gives out . 
a crass and insulting homage to great films like some like it hot and the john wayne classics . 
sticky sweet sentimentality , clumsy plotting and a rosily myopic view of life in the wwii-era mississippi delta undermine this adaptation . 
la de salma es una versin de frida superficial , preciosista y sin ningn contenido . 
one of the worst movies of the year . 
pretension , in its own way , is a form of bravery . for this reason and this reason only -- the power of its own steadfast , hoity-toity convictions -- chelsea walls deserves a medal . 
there's a heavy stench of 'been there , done that' hanging over the film . it's everything you'd expect -- but nothing more . 
swims in mediocrity , sticking its head up for a breath of fresh air now and then . 
exploitative and largely devoid of the depth or sophistication that would make watching such a graphic treatment of the crimes bearable . 
while [hill] has learned new tricks , the tricks alone are not enough to salvage this lifeless boxing film . 
despite its title , amy's orgasm is not a porno , though it is as tedious as one . 
a chiller resolutely without chills . 
the truth is that the truth about charlie gets increasingly tiresome . 
while it's nice to watch a movie that hasn't been focus-grouped into tedium , yu's cinematic alchemy produces nearly as much lead as gold . 
yet another iteration of what's become one of the movies' creepiest conventions , in which the developmentally disabled are portrayed with almost supernatural powers to humble , teach and ultimately redeem their mentally " superior " friends , family . . . 
lacks depth . 
the problem with concept films is that if the concept is a poor one , there's no saving the movie . sorry , charlie
take away all the cliches and the carbon copy scenes from every drug movie we've seen and all you have left are john leguizamo's cool jackets . 
eisenstein lacks considerable brio for a film about one of cinema's directorial giants . 
when a film is created solely because it's a marketable product , soulless and ugly movies like this are the result . let your silly childhood nostalgia slumber unmolested . 
ah-nuld's action hero days might be over . 
an atonal estrogen opera that demonizes feminism while gifting the most sympathetic male of the piece with a nice vomit bath at his wedding . 
the beautiful images and solemn words cannot disguise the slack complacency of [godard's] vision , any more than the gorgeous piano and strings on the soundtrack can drown out the tinny self-righteousness of his voice . 
this film , starring anthony hopkins and chris rock , is your typical 'fish out of water' story . you've seen them a million times . just one problem : fish out of water usually die . this one does . 
kapur weighs down the tale with bogus profundities . 
it takes you somewhere you're not likely to have seen before , but beneath the exotic surface ( and exotic dancing ) it's surprisingly old-fashioned . 
the origin story is well told , and the characters will not disappoint anyone who values the original comic books . it's in the action scenes that things fall apart . 
a little too ponderous to work as shallow entertainment , not remotely incisive enough to qualify as drama , monsoon wedding serves mostly to whet one's appetite for the bollywood films . 
stay away . far away . 
nearly every attempt at humor here is doa . 
a vile , incoherent mess . . . a scummy ripoff of david cronenberg's brilliant 'videodrome . '
this film is full of rabbits . brimful . but like most rabbits , it seems to lack substance . 
it's also clear from the start that the transporter is running purely on adrenaline , and once the initial high wears off , the film's shortcomings start to shine through . 
the humor isn't as sharp , the effects not as innovative , nor the story as imaginative as in the original . but it could have been worse . 
the sweetest thing is expressly for idiots who don't care what kind of sewage they shovel into their mental gullets to simulate sustenance . 
returning aggressively to his formula of dimwitted comedy and even dimmer characters , sandler , who also executive produces , has made a film that makes previous vehicles look smart and sassy . 
trite , banal , cliched , mostly inoffensive . 
so much about the film is loopy and ludicrous . . . that it could have been a hoot in a bad-movie way if the laborious pacing and endless exposition had been tightened . 
constantly slips from the grasp of its maker . 
even if it made its original release date last fall , it would've reeked of a been-there , done-that sameness . 
this rough trade punch-and-judy act didn't play well then and it plays worse now . 
a sustained fest of self-congratulation between actor and director that leaves scant place for the viewer . 
the plot convolutions ultimately add up to nothing more than jerking the audience's chain . 
alas , the black-and-white archival footage of their act showcases pretty mediocre shtick . 
the art direction is often exquisite , and the anthropomorphic animal characters are beautifully realized through clever makeup design , leaving one to hope that the eventual dvd release will offer subtitles and the original italian-language soundtrack . 
if shayamalan wanted to tell a story about a man who loses his faith , why didn't he just do it , instead of using bad sci-fi as window dressing ? 
the film's final hour , where nearly all the previous unseen material resides , is unconvincing soap opera that tornatore was right to cut . 
unless there are zoning ordinances to protect your community from the dullest science fiction , impostor is opening today at a theater near you . 
cal is an unpleasantly shallow and immature character with whom to spend 110 claustrophobic minutes . 
a great script brought down by lousy direction . same guy with both hats . big mistake . 
don't let the subtitles fool you ; the movie only proves that hollywood no longer has a monopoly on mindless action . 
for all the time we spend with these people , we never really get inside of them . 
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 . 
how inept is serving sara ? it makes even elizabeth hurley seem graceless and ugly . 
better at putting you to sleep than a sound machine . 
whatever the movie's sentimental , hypocritical lessons about sexism , its true colors come out in various wet t-shirt and shower scenes . 
 . . . unspeakably , unbearably dull , featuring reams of flatly delivered dialogue and a heroine who comes across as both shallow and dim-witted . 
 coarse , cliched and clunky , this trifling romantic comedy in which opposites attract for no better reason than that the screenplay demands it squanders the charms of stars hugh grant and sandra bullock . 
it's a film that hinges on its casting , and glover really doesn't fit the part . 
one of the more irritating cartoons you will see this , or any , year . 
by halfway through this picture i was beginning to hate it , and , of course , feeling guilty for it . . . . then , miracle of miracles , the movie does a flip-flop . 
 . . . pays tribute to heroes the way julia roberts hands out awards--with phony humility barely camouflaging grotesque narcissism . 
this piece of channel 5 grade trash is , quite frankly , an insult to the intelligence of the true genre enthusiast . 
the story alone could force you to scratch a hole in your head . 
an erotic thriller that's neither too erotic nor very thrilling , either . 
directed without the expected flair or imagination by hong kong master john woo , windtalkers airs just about every cliche in the war movie compendium across its indulgent two-hour-and-fifteen-minute length . 
well , it does go on forever . 
most of the supporting characters in eastwood films are weak , as are most of the subplots . this one's weaker than most . 
one minute , you think you're watching a serious actioner ; the next , it's as though clips from the pink panther strikes again and/or sailor moon have been spliced in . 
the ga-zillionth airhead movie about a wife in distress who resorts to desperate measures . 
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 . 
it's impossible to even categorize this as a smutty guilty pleasure . 
hope keeps arising that the movie will live up to the apparent skills of its makers and the talents of its actors , but it doesn't . 
belongs in the too-hot-for-tv direct-to-video/dvd category , and this is why i have given it a one-star rating . 
a particularly joyless , and exceedingly dull , period coming-of-age tale . 
god is great , the movie's not . 
this is an insultingly inept and artificial examination of grief and its impacts upon the relationships of the survivors . 
you cannot guess why the cast and crew didn't sign a pact to burn the negative and the script and pretend the whole thing never existed . 
the film is grossly contradictory in conveying its social message , if indeed there is one . 
a rather tired exercise in nostalgia . 
[davis] wants to cause his audience an epiphany , yet he refuses to give us real situations and characters . 
chaotic , self-indulgent and remarkably ugly to look at , it's . . . like a series of pretentiously awful student films strung together into one feature-length horror . 
a gimmick in search of a movie : how to get carvey into as many silly costumes and deliver as many silly voices as possible , plot mechanics be damned . 
despite its promising cast of characters , big trouble remains a loosely tied series of vignettes which only prove that 'zany' doesn't necessarily mean 'funny . '
several uninteresting , unlikeable people do bad things to and with each other in " unfaithful . " why anyone who is not a character in this movie should care is beyond me . 
divertingly ridiculous , headbangingly noisy . 
too clumsy in key moments . . . to make a big splash . 
a suffocating rape-payback horror show that hinges on the subgenre's most enabling victim . . . and an ebullient affection for industrial-model meat freezers . 
despite suffering a sense-of-humour failure , the man who wrote rocky does not deserve to go down with a ship as leaky as this . 
a pretentious mess . 
the only thing that distinguishes a randall wallace film from any other is the fact that there is nothing distinguishing in a randall wallace film . 
one groan-inducing familiarity begets another . 
a tv episode inflated past its natural length . 
a zippy 96 minutes of mediocre special effects , hoary dialogue , fluxing accents , and -- worst of all -- silly-looking morlocks . 
showtime isn't particularly assaultive , but it can still make you feel that you never want to see another car chase , explosion or gunfight again . 
a sloppy slapstick throwback to long gone bottom-of-the-bill fare like the ghost and mr . chicken . 
while the transgressive trappings ( especially the frank sex scenes ) ensure that the film is never dull , rodrigues's beast-within metaphor is ultimately rather silly and overwrought , making the ambiguous ending seem goofy rather than provocative . 
in addition to sporting one of the worst titles in recent cinematic history , ballistic : ecks vs . sever also features terrible , banal dialogue ; convenient , hole-ridden plotting ; superficial characters and a rather dull , unimaginative car chase . 
liman , of swingers and go , makes his big-budget action film debut something of a clunker as he delivers a long , low-heat chase , interrupted by a middling car chase . 
matthew mcconaughey tries , and fails , to control the screen with swaggering machismo and over-the-top lunacy . 
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 . 
this movie feel more like a non-stop cry for attention , than an attempt at any kind of satisfying entertainment . 
it's all very cute , though not terribly funny if you're more than six years old . 
the venezuelans say things like " si , pretty much " and " por favor , go home " when talking to americans . that's muy loco , but no more ridiculous than most of the rest of " dragonfly . " 
suffocated by its fussy script and uptight characters , this musty adaptation is all the more annoying since it's been packaged and sold back to us by hollywood . 
at its best , queen is campy fun like the vincent price horror classics of the '60s . at its worst , it implodes in a series of very bad special effects . 
adults will wish the movie were less simplistic , obvious , clumsily plotted and shallowly characterized . but what are adults doing in the theater at all ? 
it's best to avoid imprisonment with the dull , nerdy folks that inhabit cherish . 
eventually arrives at its heart , as simple self-reflection meditation . 
the troubling thing about clockstoppers is that it doesn't make any sense . 
mark me down as a non-believer in werewolf films that are not serious and rely on stupidity as a substitute for humor . 
for its 100 minutes running time , you'll wait in vain for a movie to happen . 
choppy , overlong documentary about 'the lifestyle . '
time stands still in more ways that one in clockstoppers , a sci-fi thriller as lazy as it is interminable . 
schneidermeister . . . makin' a fool of himself . . . losin' his fan base . . . 
one can only assume that the jury who bestowed star hoffman's brother gordy with the waldo salt screenwriting award at 2002's sundance festival were honoring an attempt to do something different over actually pulling it off
a movie like the guys is why film criticism can be considered work . 
on its own , it's not very interesting . as a remake , it's a pale imitation . 
a picture as erratic as its central character . 
eventually , they will have a showdown , but , by then , your senses are as mushy as peas and you don't care who fires the winning shot . 
if this is cinema , i pledge allegiance to cagney and lacey . 
no doubt the star and everyone else involved had their hearts in the right place . where their heads were is anyone's guess . 
the sequel plays out like a flimsy excuse to give blade fans another look at wesley snipes' iconic hero doing battle with dozens of bad guys -- at once . 
it's clear the filmmakers weren't sure where they wanted their story to go , and even more clear that they lack the skills to get us to this undetermined destination . 
the movie is almost completely lacking in suspense , surprise and consistent emotional conviction . 
it's hard to imagine that even very small children will be impressed by this tired retread . 
an uneven mix of dark satire and childhood awakening . 
not since freddy got fingered has a major release been so painful to sit through . 
a well made indieflick in need of some trims and a more chemistry between its stars . 
the lousy john q all but spits out denzel washington's fine performance in the title role . 
sade achieves the near-impossible : it turns the marquis de sade into a dullard . 
worthy of the gong . 
the only thing scary about feardotcom is that the filmmakers and studio are brazen enough to attempt to pass this stinker off as a scary movie . 
white hasn't developed characters so much as caricatures , one-dimensional buffoons that get him a few laughs but nothing else . 
neither funny nor suspenseful nor particularly well-drawn . 
in between the icy stunts , the actors spout hilarious dialogue about following your dream and 'just letting the mountain tell you what to do . '
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 . " 
an acceptable way to pass a little over an hour with moviegoers ages 8-10 , but it's unlikely to inspire anything more than a visit to mcdonald's , let alone some savvy street activism . 
a tedious parable about honesty and good sportsmanship . 
rice never clearly defines his characters or gives us a reason to care about them . 
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 . 
may offend viewers not amused by the sick sense of humor . 
the story really has no place to go since simone is not realshe can't provide any conflict . 
hardly makes the kind of points egoyan wanted to make , nor does it exist as the kind of monument he wanted to build , to victims whose voices have never gained the ears of the world . 
i spy is an embarrassment , a monotonous , disjointed jumble of borrowed plot points and situations . it's as flat as an open can of pop left sitting in the sun . 
why make a documentary about these marginal historical figures ? wouldn't one about their famous dad , author of death in venice , etc . , be more valuable ? 
shows that jackie chan is getting older , and that's something i would rather live in denial about
so what is the point ? lovingly choreographed bloodshed taking place in a pristine movie neverland , basically . 
according to the script , grant and bullock's characters are made for each other . but you'd never guess that from the performances . 
a fairly by-the-books blend of action and romance with sprinklings of intentional and unintentional comedy . 
i suspect that there are more interesting ways of dealing with the subject . 
this romantic/comedy asks the question how much souvlaki can you take before indigestion sets in . 
rock's stand-up magic wanes . hopkins , squarely fills the screen . action - mechanical . 
the nicest thing that can be said about stealing harvard ( which might have been called freddy gets molested by a dog ) is that it's not as obnoxious as tom green's freddie got fingered . 
a sub-formulaic slap in the face to seasonal cheer . 
the filmmaker ascends , literally , to the olympus of the art world , but he would have done well to end this flawed , dazzling series with the raising of something other than his own cremaster . 
it's not that kung pow isn't funny some of the time -- it just isn't any funnier than bad martial arts movies are all by themselves , without all oedekerk's impish augmentation . 
demeo is not without talent ; he just needs better material . 
whenever its story isn't bogged down by idiocy involving the cia and a lost u . s . satellite , hunter -- starring irwin and his american wife/colleague , terri -- is a movie children should enjoy . 
after an hour and a half of wondering -- sometimes amusedly , sometimes impatiently -- just what this strenuously unconventional movie is supposed to be , you discover that the answer is as conventional as can be . 
i would have preferred a transfer down the hall to mr . holland's class for the music , or to robin williams's lecture so i could listen to a teacher with humor , passion , and verve . 
the biggest problem i have ( other than the very sluggish pace ) is we never really see her esther blossom as an actress , even though her talent is supposed to be growing . 
 . . . little more than a well-acted television melodrama shot for the big screen . 
festers in just such a dungpile that you'd swear you were watching monkeys flinging their feces at you . 
nervous breakdowns are not entertaining . 
adam sandler's eight crazy nights grows on you -- like a rash . 
the movie wavers between hallmark card sentimentality and goofy , life-affirming moments straight out of a cellular phone commercial . 
an empty , purposeless exercise . 
cedar somewhat defuses this provocative theme by submerging it in a hoary love triangle . 
cold , pretentious , thoroughly dislikable study in sociopathy . 
scherfig , who has had a successful career in tv , tackles more than she can handle . 
children of the century , though well dressed and well made , ultimately falls prey to the contradiction that afflicts so many movies about writers . 
a stupid , derivative horror film that substitutes extreme gore for suspense . 
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 . 
the rest of the plot is impossible to explain without blowing whatever tension there is , although it's more comedy than suspense de palma creates . 
the plot is so predictable and sentimental that viewers are likely to lose interest before sandrine and her goats walk off into the sunset . 
the film thrusts the inchoate but already eldritch christian right propaganda machine into national media circles . 
initially gripping , eventually cloying pow drama . 
confusion is one of my least favourite emotions , especially when i have to put up with 146 minutes of it . 
aptly named , this shimmering , beautifully costumed and filmed production doesn't work for me . 
if this disposable tissue has one wild card , it's john turturro , who's simply fab as a spanish butler with a foot fetish . 
stinks from start to finish , like a wet burlap sack of gloom . 
with virtually no interesting elements for an audience to focus on , chelsea walls is a triple-espresso endurance challenge . 
i guess it just goes to show that if you give a filmmaker an unlimited amount of phony blood , nothing good can happen . 
well-shot but badly written tale set in a future ravaged by dragons . 
oscar caliber cast doesn't live up to material
the element of surprise might be the only thing femme fatale has going for it . 
the country bears wastes an exceptionally good idea . but the movie that doesn't really deliver for country music fans or for family audiences
when seagal appeared in an orange prison jumpsuit , i wanted to stand up in the theater and shout , 'hey , kool-aid ! '
anyone who wants to start writing screenplays can just follow the same blueprint from hundreds of other films , sell it to the highest bidder and walk away without anyone truly knowing your identity . 
 . . . what a banal bore the preachy circuit turns out to be
overly stylized with lots of flash black-&-white freeze frames reminiscent of a pseudo-hip luxury car commercial , ( it's ) at its worst when it's actually inside the ring . 
a soggy , shapeless mess . . . just a dumb excuse for a waterlogged equivalent of a haunted-house movie . 
the movie's downfall is to substitute plot for personality . it doesn't really know or care about the characters , and uses them as markers for a series of preordained events . 
it showcases carvey's talent for voices , but not nearly enough and not without taxing every drop of one's patience to get to the good stuff . 
death might be a release . 
no such thing is sort of a minimalist beauty and the beast , but in this case the beast should definitely get top billing . robert john burke as the monster horns in and steals the show . 
epps has neither the charisma nor the natural affability that has made tucker a star . 
not completely loveable -- but what underdog movie since the bad news bears has been ? -- but certainly hard to hate . 
the actresses may have worked up a back story for the women they portray so convincingly , but viewers don't get enough of that background for the characters to be involving as individuals rather than types . 
horrible
there's no real reason to see it , and no real reason not to . 
we hate [madonna] within the film's first five minutes , and she lacks the skill or presence to regain any ground . 
toward the end sum of all fears morphs into a mundane '70s disaster flick . 
i found the movie as divided against itself as the dysfunctional family it portrays . 
mandel holland's direction is uninspired , and his scripting unsurprising , but the performances by phifer and black are ultimately winning . you'll find yourself wishing that you and they were in another movie . 
there's not one decent performance from the cast and not one clever line of dialogue . 
imagine if you will a tony hawk skating video interspliced with footage from behind enemy lines and set to jersey shore techno . 
just a collection of this and that -- whatever fills time -- with no unified whole . 
the film's lack of personality permeates all its aspects  from the tv movie-esque , affected child acting to the dullest irish pub scenes ever filmed . 
this is a children's film in the truest sense . it's packed with adventure and a worthwhile environmental message , so it's great for the kids . parents , on the other hand , will be ahead of the plot at all times , and there isn't enough clever innuendo to fil
unfortunately , a cast of competent performers from movies , television and the theater are cast adrift in various new york city locations with no unifying rhythm or visual style . 
coupling disgracefully written dialogue with flailing bodily movements that substitute for acting , circuit is the awkwardly paced soap opera-ish story . 
the type of dumbed-down exercise in stereotypes that gives the [teen comedy] genre a bad name . 
miller is playing so free with emotions , and the fact that children are hostages to fortune , that he makes the audience hostage to his swaggering affectation of seriousness . 
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 . 
a living testament to the power of the eccentric and the strange . the fact that it isn't very good is almost beside the point . 
the whole film has this sneaky feel to it  as if the director is trying to dupe the viewer into taking it all as very important simply because the movie is ugly to look at and not a hollywood product . 
a work that lacks both a purpose and a strong pulse . 
it's a bad thing when a movie has about as much substance as its end credits blooper reel . 
feels less like it's about teenagers , than it was written by teenagers . 
high crimes carries almost no organic intrigue as a government/ marine/legal mystery , and that's because the movie serves up all of that stuff , nearly subliminally , as the old-hat province of male intrigue . 
just isn't as weird as it ought to be . 
a silly , self-indulgent film about a silly , self-indulgent filmmaker . 
howard and his co-stars all give committed performances , but they're often undone by howard's self-conscious attempts to find a 'literary' filmmaking style to match his subject . 
this miserable excuse of a movie runs on empty , believing flatbush machismo will get it through . 
at every opportunity to do something clever , the film goes right over the edge and kills every sense of believability . . . all you have left is a no-surprise series of explosions and violence while banderas looks like he's not trying to laugh at how bad it
if you're really renting this you're not interested in discretion in your entertainment choices , you're interested in anne geddes , john grisham , and thomas kincaid . 
earnest but earthbound . . . a slow , soggy , soporific , visually dank crime melodrama/character study that would be more at home on the small screen but for its stellar cast . 
given how heavy-handed and portent-heavy it is , this could be the worst thing soderbergh has ever done . 
one of those movies where you walk out of the theater not feeling cheated exactly , but feeling pandered to , which , in the end , might be all the more infuriating . 
it's so laddish and juvenile , only teenage boys could possibly find it funny . 
it's slow -- very , very slow . it's not the ultimate depression-era gangster movie . that's pure pr hype . 
wallace directs with such patronising reverence , it turns the stomach . 
kirshner and monroe seem to be in a contest to see who can out-bad-act the other . ( kirshner wins , but it's close . ) 
[johnnie to and wai ka fai are] sure to find an enthusiastic audience among american action-adventure buffs , but the film's interests may be too narrow to attract crossover viewers . 
in gleefully , thumpingly hyperbolic terms , it covers just about every cliche in the compendium about crass , jaded movie types and the phony baloney movie biz . 
anyone who gets chills from movies with giant plot holes will find plenty to shake and shiver about in 'the ring . '
this is the first film i've ever seen that had no obvious directing involved . 
on the right track to something that's creepy and effective . . . it's just going to take more than a man in a bullwinkle costume to get there . 
hey , at least the title of this film lets you know exactly where it's heading . 
cold and scattered , minority report commands interest almost solely as an exercise in gorgeous visuals . that's not vintage spielberg and that , finally , is minimally satisfying . 
the author's devotees will probably find it fascinating ; others may find it baffling . 
none of this violates the letter of behan's book , but missing is its spirit , its ribald , full-throated humor . 
with all the sympathy , empathy and pity fogging up the screen . . . his secret life enters the land of unintentional melodrama and tiresome love triangles . 
not just unlikable . disturbing . disgusting . without any redeeming value whatsoever . 
everything -- even life on an aircraft carrier -- is sentimentalized . 
what we have here isn't a disaster , exactly , but a very handsomely produced let-down . 
she's not yet an actress , not quite a singer . . . 
merchant hasn't directed this movie so much as produced it -- like sausage . 
a long-winded and stagy session of romantic contrivances that never really gels like the shrewd feminist fairy tale it could have been . 
the movie doesn't add anything fresh to the myth . 
'you'll laugh for not quite and hour and a half , but come out feeling strangely unsatisfied . you'll feel like you ate a reeses without the peanut butter . . . '
much like robin williams , death to smoochy has already reached its expiration date . 
we have poignancy jostling against farce , thoughtful dialogue elbowed aside by one-liners , and a visual style that incorporates rotoscope animation for no apparent reason except , maybe , that it looks neat . 
[screenwriter] pimental took the farrelly brothers comedy and feminized it , but it is a rather poor imitation . 
a mix of velocity and idiocy , this ruinous remake lacks the brawn -- and the brains -- of the 1970s original . 
wendigo wants to be a monster movie for the art-house crowd , but it falls into the trap of pretention almost every time . 
a ponderous meditation on love that feels significantly longer than its relatively scant 97 minutes . 
even in the summertime , the most restless young audience deserves the dignity of an action hero motivated by something more than franchise possibilities . 
if swimfan does catch on , it may be because teens are looking for something to make them laugh . 
 . . . will always be remembered for the 9-11 terrorist attacks . after seeing the film , i can tell you that there's no other reason why anyone should bother remembering it . 
one thing is for sure : this movie does not tell you a whole lot about lily chou-chou . 
off the hook is overlong and not well-acted , but credit writer-producer-director adam watstein with finishing it at all . 
now i can see why people thought i was too hard on " the mothman prophecies " . 
 . . . while the humor aspects of 'jason x' were far more entertaining than i had expected , everything else about the film tanks . 
slap me , i saw this movie . 
though the opera itself takes place mostly indoors , jacquot seems unsure of how to evoke any sort of naturalism on the set . 
it appears that something has been lost in the translation to the screen . 
'[hopkins]doesn't so much phone in his performance as fax it . no , even that's too committed . he gets his secretary to fax it . " 
since the movie is based on a nicholas sparks best seller , you know death is lurking around the corner , just waiting to spoil things . 
while van wilder may not be the worst national lampoon film , it's far from being this generation's animal house . 
needless to say , the dramatics that follow are utter hooey . 
the movie is too impressed with its own solemn insights to work up much entertainment value . 
the rock has a great presence but one battle after another is not the same as one battle followed by killer cgi effects . 
verbinski implements every hack-artist trick to give us the ooky-spookies . 
too much of nemesis has a tired , talky feel . 
makes 98 minutes feel like three hours . 
well-meaning to a fault , antwone fisher manages the dubious feat of turning one man's triumph of will into everyman's romance comedy . 
the most horrific movie experience i've had since " can't stop the music . " it may as well be called " jar-jar binks : the movie . " it's that painful . 
to call this film a lump of coal would only be to flatter it . 
the film is way too full of itself ; it's stuffy and pretentious in a give-me-an-oscar kind of way . 
ihops don't pile on this much syrup . 
this kiddie-oriented stinker is so bad that i even caught the gum stuck under my seat trying to sneak out of the theater
while the ensemble player who gained notice in guy ritchie's lock , stock and two smoking barrels and snatch has the bod , he's unlikely to become a household name on the basis of his first starring vehicle . 
not even the hanson brothers can save it
tiresomely derivative and hammily acted . 
a soulless jumble of ineptly assembled cliches and pabulum that plays like a 95-minute commercial for nba properties . 
so much facile technique , such cute ideas , so little movie . 
not every animated film from disney will become a classic , but forgive me if i've come to expect more from this studio than some 79-minute after-school " cartoon " . 
weirdly , broomfield has compelling new material but he doesn'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 . 
might best be enjoyed as a daytime soaper . 
at some point , all this visual trickery stops being clever and devolves into flashy , vaguely silly overkill . 
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 . 
the modern-day characters are nowhere near as vivid as the 19th-century ones . 
cinematic pyrotechnics aside , the only thing avary seems to care about are mean giggles and pulchritude . it makes sense that he went back to school to check out the girls -- his film is a frat boy's idea of a good time . 
in this film we at least see a study in contrasts ; the wide range of one actor , and the limited range of a comedian . 
it's so devoid of joy and energy it makes even jason x . . . look positively shakesperean by comparison . 
even film silliness needs a little gravity , beyond good hair and humping . 
this sade is hardly a perverse , dangerous libertine and agitator -- which would have made for better drama . he's just a sad aristocrat in tattered finery , and the film seems as deflated as he does . 
the filmmakers are playing to the big boys in new york and l . a . to that end , they mock the kind of folks they don't understand , ones they figure the power-lunchers don't care to understand , either . 
jason x is positively anti-darwinian : nine sequels and 400 years later , the teens are none the wiser and jason still kills on auto-pilot . 
an eccentric little comic/thriller deeply in love with its own quirky personality . 
even the hastily and amateurishly drawn animation cannot engage . 
friday after next has the same problem that next friday did -- it's called where's chris tucker when you need him ? 
a movie that seems motivated more by a desire to match mortarboards with dead poets society and good will hunting than by its own story . 
simply put , there should have been a more compelling excuse to pair susan sarandon and goldie hawn . 
no amount of burning , blasting , stabbing , and shooting can hide a weak script . 
it is too bad that this likable movie isn't more accomplished . the actors try hard but come off too amateurish and awkward . 
we started to wonder if  some unpaid intern had just typed 'chris rock , ' 'anthony hopkins' and 'terrorists' into some univac-like script machine . 
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 . 
a cheerful enough but imminently forgettable rip-off of [besson's] earlier work . 
solondz may well be the only one laughing at his own joke
like leafing through an album of photos accompanied by the sketchiest of captions . 
it's sincere to a fault , but , unfortunately , not very compelling or much fun . 
fans of the tv series will be disappointed , and everyone else will be slightly bored . 
most of the storylines feel like time fillers between surf shots . the movie isn't horrible , but you can see mediocre cresting on the next wave . 
a very average science fiction film . 
like a grinning jack o' lantern , its apparent glee is derived from a lobotomy , having had all its vital essence scooped out and discarded . 
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 . 
clockstoppers is one of those crazy , mixed-up films that doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up . 
culkin exudes none of the charm or charisma that might keep a more general audience even vaguely interested in his bratty character . 
the whole affair is as predictable as can be . 
this thing works on no level whatsoever for me . 
[a] poorly executed comedy . 
trailer trash cinema so uncool the only thing missing is the " gadzooks ! " 
when cowering and begging at the feet a scruffy giannini , madonna gives her best performance since abel ferrara had her beaten to a pulp in his dangerous game . 
feels less like a change in [herzog's] personal policy than a half-hearted fluke . 
was that movie nothing more than a tepid exercise in trotting out a formula that worked five years ago but has since lost its fizz ? 
i can't remember the last time i saw a movie where i wanted so badly for the protagonist to fail . 
a feel-good movie that doesn't give you enough to feel good about . 
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 . 
the explosion essentially ruined -- or , rather , overpowered -- the fiction of the movie for me . 
the entire movie is in need of a scented bath . 
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 . 
phoned-in business as usual . 
should have been someone else-
you know that ten bucks you'd spend on a ticket ? just send it to cranky . we don't get paid enough to sit through crap like this . 
all in all , road to perdition is more in love with strangeness than excellence . 
too much of it feels unfocused and underdeveloped . 
nothing but an episode of smackdown ! in period costume and with a bigger budget . 
may puzzle his most ardent fans . 
just another combination of bad animation and mindless violence . . . lacking the slightest bit of wit or charm . 
verbinski substitutes atmosphere for action , tedium for thrills . 
the acting by the over-25s lacks spark , with csokas particularly unconnected . 
once [kim] begins to overplay the shock tactics and bait-and-tackle metaphors , you may decide it's too high a price to pay for a shimmering picture postcard . 
it's a shame that the storyline and its underlying themes . . . finally seem so impersonal or even shallow . 
possession is in the end an honorable , interesting failure . it falls far short of poetry , but it's not bad prose . 
has all the poignancy of a hallmark card and all the comedy of a gallagher stand-up act . 
be forewarned , if you're depressed about anything before watching this film , you may just end up trying to drown yourself in a lake afterwards . 
there's nothing interesting in unfaithful whatsoever . 
has no reason to exist , other than to employ hollywood kids and people who owe favors to their famous parents . 
too stupid to be satire , too obviously hateful to be classified otherwise , frank novak's irritating slice of lumpen life is as reliably soul-killing as its title is nearly meaningless . 
attal's hang-ups surrounding infidelity are so old-fashioned and , dare i say , outdated , it's a wonder that he couldn't have brought something fresher to the proceedings simply by accident . 
amid the clich and foreshadowing , cage manages a degree of casual realism . . . that is routinely dynamited by blethyn . 
there's an admirable rigor to jimmy's relentless anger , and to the script's refusal of a happy ending , but as those monologues stretch on and on , you realize there's no place for this story to go but down . 
however stale the material , lawrence's delivery remains perfect ; his great gift is that he can actually trick you into thinking some of this worn-out , pandering palaver is actually funny . 
whereas the extremely competent hitman films such as pulp fiction and get shorty resonate a sardonic verve to their caustic purpose for existing , who is cletis tout ? is an inexpressible and drab wannabe looking for that exact niche . 
credibility sinks into a mire of sentiment . 
like a soft drink that's been sitting open too long : it's too much syrup and not enough fizz . 
late marriage's stiffness is unlikely to demonstrate the emotional clout to sweep u . s . viewers off their feet . 
the film falls short on tension , eloquence , spiritual challenge -- things that have made the original new testament stories so compelling for 20 centuries . 
it offers little beyond the momentary joys of pretty and weightless intellectual entertainment . 
ben affleck as jack ryan , tom clancy's intrepid hero ? ridiculous . what's next ? d . j . qualls as indiana jones ? or tom green as han solo ? 
one just waits grimly for the next shock without developing much attachment to the characters . 
you . . . get a sense of good intentions derailed by a failure to seek and strike just the right tone . 
the overall feel is not unlike watching a glorified episode of " 7th heaven . " 
like a pack of dynamite sticks , built for controversy . the film is explosive , but a few of those sticks are wet . 
first , for a movie that tries to be smart , it's kinda dumb . and second , what's with all the shooting ? 
[u]nrelentingly stupid . 
do we really need another film that praises female self-sacrifice ? 
sodden and glum , even in those moments where it's supposed to feel funny and light . 
will only satisfy those who can't tell the difference between the good , the bad and the ugly . 
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 . 
diaz wears out her welcome in her most charmless performance
a series of immaculately composed shots of patch adams quietly freaking out does not make for much of a movie . 
apparently kissing leads to suicide attempts and tragic deaths . marisa tomei is good , but just a kiss is just a mess . 
este  apenas mais um ( longo ) episdio do programa da mtv . a nica diferena  que , desta vez , a paramount teve o mau gosto de exibi-lo nos cinemas . 
a good-natured ensemble comedy that tries hard to make the most of a bumper cast , but never quite gets off the ground . 
american chai encourages rueful laughter at stereotypes only an indian-american would recognize . and the lesson , in the end , is nothing new . 
it doesn't offer audiences any way of gripping what its point is , or even its attitude toward its subject . 
reyes' directorial debut has good things to offer , but ultimately it's undone by a sloppy script
sweet gentle jesus , did the screenwriters just do a cut-and-paste of every bad action-movie line in history ? 
the mothman prophecies , which is mostly a bore , seems to exist only for its climactic setpiece . 
 . . . salaciously simplistic . 
the script , the gags , the characters are all direct-to-video stuff , and that's where this film should have remained . 
unofficially , national lampoon's van wilder is son of animal house . officially , it is twice as bestial but half as funny . 
the animation is competent , and some of the gags are quite funny , but jonah . . . never shakes the oppressive , morally superior good-for-you quality that almost automatically accompanies didactic entertainment . 
i'm convinced i could keep a family of five blind , crippled , amish people alive in this situation better than these british soldiers do at keeping themselves kicking . 
a big meal of cliches that the talented cast generally chokes on . 
the boys' sparring , like the succession of blows dumped on guei , wears down the story's more cerebral , and likable , plot elements . 
like a medium-grade network sitcom--mostly inoffensive , fitfully amusing , but ultimately so weightless that a decent draft in the auditorium might blow it off the screen . 
i loved looking at this movie . i just didn't care as much for the story . 
the movie's biggest shocks come from seeing former nymphette juliette lewis playing a salt-of-the-earth mommy named minnie and watching slim travel incognito in a ridiculous wig no respectable halloween costume shop would ever try to sell . 
any movie this boring should be required to have ushers in the theater that hand you a cup of coffee every few minutes . like a marathon runner trying to finish a race , you need a constant influx of liquid just to get through it . 
showtime is one of the hapless victims of the arrogant " if we put together a wry white man and a chatty black man and give them guns , the movie will be funny " syndrome . 
the good thing -- the only good thing -- about extreme ops is that it's so inane that it gave me plenty of time to ponder my thanksgiving to-do list . 
ver wiel's desperate attempt at wit is lost , leaving the character of critical jim two-dimensional and pointless . 
the script feels as if it started to explore the obvious voyeuristic potential of 'hypertime' but then backed off when the producers saw the grosses for spy kids . 
tries to add some spice to its quirky sentiments but the taste is all too familiar . 
perfectly enjoyable , instantly forgettable , nothing to write home about . 
this film's relationship to actual tension is the same as what christmas-tree flocking in a spray can is to actual snow : a poor -- if durable -- imitation . 
a long-winded , predictable scenario . 
feels like pieces a bunch of other , better movies slapped together . 
a fast-paced , glitzy but extremely silly piece . 
creepy but ultimately unsatisfying thriller . 
meyjes focuses too much on max when he should be filling the screen with this tortured , dull artist and monster-in-the- making . 
it's been 13 months and 295 preview screenings since i last walked out on a movie , but resident evil really earned my indignant , preemptive departure . 
a profoundly stupid affair , populating its hackneyed and meanspirited storyline with cardboard characters and performers who value cash above credibility . 
this 72-minute film does have some exciting scenes , but it's a tad slow . 
its one-sidedness . . . flirts with propaganda . 
there's no question that epps scores once or twice , but it's telling that his funniest moment comes when he falls about ten feet onto his head . 
everyone's to blame here . 
will give many ministers and bible-study groups hours of material to discuss . but mainstream audiences will find little of interest in this film , which is often preachy and poorly acted . 
the rollerball sequences feel sanitised and stagey . 
no reason for anyone to invest their hard-earned bucks into a movie which obviously didn't invest much into itself either . 
there ain't a lot more painful than an unfunny movie that thinks it's hilarious . 
an excruciating demonstration of the unsalvageability of a movie saddled with an amateurish screenplay . 
obvious , obnoxious and didactic burlesque . 
 . . . they missed the boat . 
warmed-over tarantino by way of wannabe elmore leonard . 
it tells its story in a flat manner and leaves you with the impression that you should have gotten more out of it than you did . 
amazingly lame . 
i can't quite recommend it -- it's too patched together -- but i almost can ; it's the kind of movie that makes you want to like it . 
a tough go , but leigh's depth and rigor , and his skill at inspiring accomplished portrayals that are all the more impressive for their lack of showiness , offsets to a notable degree the film's often-mined and despairing milieu . 
interesting and thoroughly unfaithful version of carmen
the gags , and the script , are a mixed bag . 
less funny than it should be and less funny than it thinks it is . 
an affable but undernourished romantic comedy that fails to match the freshness of the actress-producer and writer's previous collaboration , miss congeniality . 
a movie that the less charitable might describe as a castrated cross between highlander and lolita . 
 " men in black ii , " has all the earmarks of a sequel . the story is less vibrant , the jokes are a little lukewarm , but will anyone really care ? 
 . . . jones , despite a definitely distinctive screen presence , just isn'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 . 
the high-concept scenario soon proves preposterous , the acting is robotically italicized , and truth-in-advertising hounds take note : there's very little hustling on view . 
a fragile framework upon which to hang broad , mildly fleshed-out characters that seem to have been conjured up only 10 minutes prior to filming . 
slap her - she's not funny ! 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 . 
gussied up with so many distracting special effects and visual party tricks that it's not clear whether we're supposed to shriek or laugh . 
an ambitious , serious film that manages to do virtually everything wrong ; sitting through it is something akin to an act of cinematic penance . 
pleasant but not more than recycled jock piffle . 
the master of disguise may have made a great saturday night live sketch , but a great movie it is not . 
rather quickly , the film falls into a soothing formula of brotherly conflict and reconciliation . 
who , exactly , is fighting whom here ? ah , yes , that would be me : fighting off the urge to doze . 
 " not really as bad as you might think ! " 
more tiring than anything . 
too intensely focused on the travails of being hal hartley to function as pastiche , no such thing is hartley's least accessible screed yet . 
ms . phoenix is completely lacking in charm and charisma , and is unable to project either esther's initial anomie or her eventual awakening . 
 . . . the same tired old gags , modernized for the extreme sports generation . there's already been too many of these films . . . 
when [de palma's] bad , he's really bad , and femme fatale ranks with the worst he has done . 
the film is all over the place , really . it dabbles all around , never gaining much momentum . 
the plot's clearly mythic structure may owe more to disney's strong sense of formula than to the original story . but while the highly predictable narrative falls short , treasure planet is truly gorgeous to behold . 
it's at once laughable and compulsively watchable , in its committed dumbness . 
the chteau would have been benefited from a sharper , cleaner script before it went in front of the camera . not to mention a sharper , cleaner camera lens . 
the master of disguise represents adam sandler's latest attempt to dumb down the universe . 
a didactic and dull documentary glorifying software anarchy . 
i didn't laugh . i didn't smile . i survived . 
the emperor's club is one of those films that possesses all the good intentions in the world , but . . . 
it's a frightful vanity film that , no doubt , pays off what debt miramax felt they owed to benigni . 
punitively affirmational parable . 
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 . 
the animation merely serves up a predictable , maudlin story that swipes heavily from bambi and the lion king , yet lacks the emotional resonance of either of those movies . 
it is messy , uncouth , incomprehensible , vicious and absurd . 
like an afterschool special with costumes by gianni versace , mad love looks better than it feels . 
the director's many dodges and turns add up to little more than a screenful of gamesmanship that's low on both suspense and payoff . 
reeks of rot and hack work from start to finish . 
it has its moments of swaggering camaraderie , but more often just feels generic , derivative and done to death . 
there's an audience for it , but it could have been funnier and more innocent . 
love liza is a festival film that would have been better off staying on the festival circuit . 
it's a grab bag of genres that don't add up to a whole lot of sense . 
both overstuffed and undernourished . . . the film can't be called a solid success , although there's plenty of evidence here to indicate clooney might have better luck next time . 
despite bearing the paramount imprint , it's a bargain-basement european pickup . what's hard to understand is why anybody picked it up . wiser souls would have tactfully pretended not to see it and left it lying there
make like the title and dodge this one . 
never capitalizes on this concept and opts for the breezy and amateurish feel of an after school special on the subject of tolerance . 
i'm sure the filmmaker would disagree , but , honestly , i don't see the point . it's a visual rorschach test and i must have failed . 
a cleverly crafted but ultimately hollow mockumentary . 
for each chuckle there are at least 10 complete misses , many coming from the amazingly lifelike tara reid , whose acting skills are comparable to a cardboard cutout . 
extreme oops - oops , ops , no matter how you spell it , it's still a mistake to go see it . 
you're too conscious of the effort it takes to be this spontaneous . 
myers never knows when to let a gag die ; thus , we're subjected to one mind-numbingly lengthy riff on poo and pee jokes after another . 
everything is off . 
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 . 
the whole mess boils down to a transparently hypocritical work that feels as though it's trying to set the women's liberation movement back 20 years . 
if you've got a house full of tots -- don't worry , this will be on video long before they grow up and you can wait till then . 
the cumulative effect of watching this 65-minute trifle is rather like being trapped while some weird relative trots out the video he took of the family vacation to stonehenge . before long , you're desperate for the evening to end . 
this one aims for the toilet and scores a direct hit . 
there's enough melodrama in this magnolia primavera to make pta proud yet director muccino's characters are less worthy of puccini than they are of daytime television . 
a rehash of every gangster movie from the past decade . 
wouldn't it be funny if a bunch of allied soldiers went undercover as women in a german factory during world war ii ? um , no . but here's a movie about it anyway . 
solondz is without doubt an artist of uncompromising vision , but that vision is beginning to feel , if not morally bankrupt , at least terribly monotonous . 
this mild-mannered farce , directed by one of its writers , john c . walsh , is corny in a way that bespeaks an expiration date passed a long time ago . 
it's not so much a movie as a joint promotion for the national basketball association and teenaged rap and adolescent poster-boy lil' bow wow . 
this thing is just garbage . 
fear dot com is so rambling and disconnected it never builds any suspense . 
lush and beautifully photographed ( somebody suggested the stills might make a nice coffee table book ) , but ultimately you'll leave the theater wondering why these people mattered . 
a fascinating but choppy documentary . 
this isn't a terrible film by any means , but it's also far from being a realized work . 
the pivotal narrative point is so ripe the film can't help but go soft and stinky . 
the enormous comic potential of an oafish idiot impersonating an aristocrat remains sadly unrealized . 
here , common sense flies out the window , along with the hail of bullets , none of which ever seem to hit sascha . 
the film's trailer also looked like crap , so crap is what i was expecting . 
told in scattered fashion , the movie only intermittently lives up to the stories and faces and music of the men who are its subject . 
its simplicity puts an exclamation point on the fact that this isn't something to be taken seriously , but it also wrecks any chance of the movie rising above similar fare . 
an " o bruin , where art thou ? " -style cross-country adventure . . . it has sporadic bursts of liveliness , some so-so slapstick and a few ear-pleasing songs on its soundtrack . 
the movie is so contrived , nonsensical and formulaic that , come to think of it , the day-old shelf would be a more appropriate location to store it . 
some decent actors inflict big damage upon their reputations . 
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 . 
often lingers just as long on the irrelevant as on the engaging , which gradually turns what time is it there ? into how long is this movie ? 
bears is bad . not 'terrible filmmaking' bad , but more like , 'i once had a nightmare like this , and it's now coming true' bad . 
patchy combination of soap opera , low-tech magic realism and , at times , ploddingly sociological commentary . 
the film starts promisingly , but the ending is all too predictable and far too cliched to really work . 
the attempt is courageous , even if the result is wildly uneven . 
all that ( powerpuff girls ) charm is present in the movie , but it's spread too thin . 
as an actor's showcase , hart's war has much to recommend it , even if the top-billed willis is not the most impressive player . as a story of dramatic enlightenment , the screenplay by billy ray and terry george leaves something to be desired . 
i can imagine this movie as a b&w british comedy , circa 1960 , with peter sellers , kenneth williams , et al . , but at this time , with this cast , this movie is hopeless . 
[swimfan] falls victim to sloppy plotting , an insultingly unbelievable final act and a villainess who is too crazy to be interesting . 
while certainly more naturalistic than its australian counterpart , amari's film falls short in building the drama of lilia's journey . 
a coarse and stupid gross-out . 
the script has less spice than a rat burger and the rock's fighting skills are more in line with steven seagal . 
when you find yourself rooting for the monsters in a horror movie , you know the picture is in trouble . 
believability wasn't one of the film's virtues . 
comes off more like a misdemeanor , a flat , unconvincing drama that never catches fire . 
queen of the damned is too long with too little going on . 
the film has a nearly terminal case of the cutes , and it's neither as funny nor as charming as it thinks it is . 
the characters are paper thin and the plot is so cliched and contrived that it makes your least favorite james bond movie seem as cleverly plotted as the usual suspects . 
the film is surprisingly well-directed by brett ratner , who keeps things moving well -- at least until the problematic third act . 
it desperately wants to be a wacky , screwball comedy , but the most screwy thing here is how so many talented people were convinced to waste their time . 
disturbingly superficial in its approach to the material . 
a very depressing movie of many missed opportunities . 
a movie that can't get sufficient distance from leroy's delusions to escape their maudlin influence . 
the fact that the 'best part' of the movie comes from a 60-second homage to one of demme's good films doesn't bode well for the rest of it . 
decent but dull . 
contains a few big laughs but many more that graze the funny bone or miss it altogether , in part because the consciously dumbed-down approach wears thin . 
sitting through the last reel ( spoiler alert ! ) is significantly less charming than listening to a four-year-old with a taste for exaggeration recount his halloween trip to the haunted house . 
secret ballot is too contemplative to be really funny . 
the first hour is tedious though ford and neeson capably hold our interest , but its just not a thrilling movie . 
unwieldy contraption . 
juliette binoche's sand is vivacious , but it's hard to sense that powerhouse of 19th-century prose behind her childlike smile . 
what started out as a taut contest of wills between bacon and theron , deteriorates into a protracted and borderline silly chase sequence . 
there are more shots of children smiling for the camera than typical documentary footage which hurts the overall impact of the film . it's makes a better travelogue than movie . 
while there's likely very little crossover appeal to those without much interest in the elizabethans ( as well as rank frustration from those in the know about rubbo's dumbed-down tactics ) , much ado about something is an amicable endeavor . 
a chilly , remote , emotionally distant piece . . . so dull that its tagline should be : 'in space , no one can hear you snore . '
mcconaughey's fun to watch , the dragons are okay , not much fire in the script . 
a dreary indulgence . 
the premise itself is just sooooo tired . pair that with really poor comedic writing . . . and you've got a huge mess . 
sluggish , tonally uneven . 
does not go far enough in its humor or stock ideas to stand out as particularly memorable or even all that funny . 
mattei's underdeveloped effort here is nothing but a convenient conveyor belt of brooding personalities that parade about as if they were coming back from stock character camp -- a drowsy drama infatuated by its own pretentious self-examination . 
worthless , from its pseudo-rock-video opening to the idiocy of its last frames . 
a relatively effective little potboiler until its absurd , contrived , overblown , and entirely implausible finale . 
[a] stale retread of the '53 original . 
egoyan's movie is too complicated to sustain involvement , and , if you'll excuse a little critical heresy , too intellectually ambitious . 
 . . . contains very few laughs and even less surprises . 
 " the road paved with good intentions leads to the video store " 
a baffling misfire , and possibly the weakest movie [woody allen] has made in the last twenty years . 
unfortunately , as a writer , mr . montias isn't nearly as good to his crew as he is as a director or actor . 
even the finest chef can't make a hotdog into anything more than a hotdog , and robert de niro can't make this movie anything more than a trashy cop buddy comedy . 
wasabi is slight fare indeed , with the entire project having the feel of something tossed off quickly ( like one of hubert's punches ) , but it should go down smoothly enough with popcorn . 
the whole thing's fairly lame , making it par for the course for disney sequels . 
everything in maid in manhattan is exceedingly pleasant , designed not to offend . it goes down easy , leaving virtually no aftertaste . 
it's one of those baseball pictures where the hero is stoic , the wife is patient , the kids are as cute as all get-out and the odds against success are long enough to intimidate , but short enough to make a dream seem possible . 
the actors are forced to grapple with hazy motivations that never come into focus . 
plodding , poorly written , murky and weakly acted , the picture feels as if everyone making it lost their movie mojo . 
with its parade of almost perpetually wasted characters . . . margarita feels like a hazy high that takes too long to shake . 
too slick and manufactured to claim street credibility . 
the band performances featured in drumline are red hot . . . [but] from a mere story point of view , the film's ice cold . 
a wretched movie that reduces the second world war to one man's quest to find an old flame . 
lawrence should stick to his day job . he's a better actor than a standup comedian . 
is " ballistic " worth the price of admission ? absolutely not . it sucked . would i see it again ? please see previous answer . 
this film biggest problem ? no laughs . 
if you recognize zeus ( the dog from snatch ) it will make you wish you were at home watching that movie instead of in the theater watching this one . 
fluffy neo-noir hiding behind cutesy film references . 
too leisurely paced and visually drab for its own good , it succeeds in being only sporadically amusing . 
oft-described as the antidote to american pie-type sex comedies , it actually has a bundle in common with them , as the film diffuses every opportunity for a breakthrough
[a] slummer . 
all analyze that proves is that there is really only one movie's worth of decent gags to be gleaned from the premise . 
an annoying orgy of excess and exploitation that has no point and goes nowhere . 
this picture is murder by numbers , and as easy to be bored by as your abc's , despite a few whopping shootouts . 
succumbs to the same kind of maudlin , sentimental mysticism that mars the touched by an angel school of non-god spiritual-uplift movies . 
fans of plympton's shorts may marginally enjoy the film , but it is doubtful this listless feature will win him any new viewers . 
city by the sea is a gritty police thriller with all the dysfunctional family dynamics one could wish for . but how it washed out despite all of that is the project's prime mystery . 
the exploitative , clumsily staged violence overshadows everything , including most of the actors . 
it's not a particularly good film , but neither is it a monsterous one . 
certainly not a good movie , but it wasn't horrible either . 
such a wildly uneven hit-and-miss enterprise , you can't help suspecting that it was improvised on a day-to-day basis during production . 
diane lane shines in unfaithful . almost everything else is wan . 
ultimately , clarity matters , both in breaking codes and making movies . enigma lacks it . 
the actors are appealing , but elysian fields is idiotic and absurdly sentimental . 
a puppy dog so desperate for attention it nearly breaks its little neck trying to perform entertaining tricks . 
a mild , reluctant , thumbs down . 
there are plot holes big enough for shamu the killer whale to swim through . 
unless bob crane is someone of particular interest to you , this film's impressive performances and adept direction aren't likely to leave a lasting impression . 
'it's painful to watch witherspoon's talents wasting away inside unnecessary films like legally blonde and sweet home abomination , i mean , alabama . '
includes too much obvious padding . 
often likable , but just as often it's meandering , low on energy , and too eager to be quirky at moments when a little old-fashioned storytelling would come in handy . 
this sort of cute and cloying material is far from zhang's forte and it shows . 
another useless recycling of a brutal mid-'70s american sports movie . 
the low-budget full frontal was one of the year's murkiest , intentionally obscure and self-indulgent pictures , and solaris is its big-budget brother . 
not only does leblanc make one spectacularly ugly-looking broad , but he appears miserable throughout as he swaggers through his scenes . 
better to just call it abc kiarostami . for aids and africa are nothing more than part of the scenery . 
can be classified as one of those 'alternate reality' movies . . . except that it would have worked so much better dealing in only one reality . 
under 15 ? a giggle a minute . over age 15 ? big fat waste of time . 
what you end up getting is the vertical limit of surfing movies - memorable stunts with lots of downtime in between . 
'sophisticated' viewers who refuse to admit that they don't like it will likely call it 'challenging' to their fellow sophisticates . 
you get the impression that writer and director burr steers knows the territory . . . but his sense of humor has yet to lose the smug self-satisfaction usually associated with the better private schools . 
disney again ransacks its archives for a quick-buck sequel . 
[nelson's] movie about morally compromised figures leaves viewers feeling compromised , unable to find their way out of the fog and the ashes . 
somehow we're meant to buy that this doting mother would shun her kids , travel to one of the most dangerous parts of the world , don fatigues and become g . i . jane . 
if there's a heaven for bad movies , deuces wild is on its way . 
shreve's graceful dual narrative gets clunky on the screen , and we keep getting torn away from the compelling historical tale to a less-compelling soap opera . 
it should be interesting , it should be poignant , it turns out to be affected and boring . 
only a few minutes elapse before the daddy of all slashers arrives , still with the boiler suit and white mask , which look remarkably clean for a guy who has been mass-murdering since 1978 but has never been seen doing laundry . 
for all the complications , it's all surprisingly predictable . 
a clumsily manufactured exploitation flick , a style-free exercise in manipulation and mayhem . 
i'm all for the mentally challenged getting their fair shot in the movie business , but surely it doesn't have to be as a collection of keening and self-mutilating sideshow geeks . 
the world needs more filmmakers with passionate enthusiasms like martin scorsese . but it doesn't need gangs of new york . 
a well-made but emotionally scattered film whose hero gives his heart only to the dog . 
harrison's flowers puts its heart in the right place , but its brains are in no particular place at all . 
 . . . no charm , no laughs , no fun , no reason to watch . 
the original wasn't a good movie but this remake makes it look like a masterpiece ! 
how much you are moved by the emotional tumult of [franois and michle's] relationship depends a lot on how interesting and likable you find them . 
zigzag might have been richer and more observant if it were less densely plotted . 
a clichd and shallow cautionary tale about the hard-partying lives of gay men . 
no way i can believe this load of junk . 
in his determination to lighten the heavy subject matter , silberling also , to a certain extent , trivializes the movie with too many nervous gags and pratfalls . 
an overstuffed compendium of teen-catholic-movie dogma . 
when the painted backdrops in a movie are more alive than its characters , you know you're in trouble . 
taken individually or collectively , the stories never add up to as much as they promise . 
bluto blutarsky , we miss you . 
these spiders can outrun a motorcycle and wrap a person in a sticky cocoon in seconds , but they fall short of being interesting or entertaining . 
for a film about explosions and death and spies , " ballistic : ecks vs . sever " seems as safe as a children's film . well , in some of those , the mother deer even dies . 
the script isn't very good ; not even someone as gifted as hoffman ( the actor ) can make it work . 
earnest yet curiously tepid and choppy recycling in which predictability is the only winner . 
the sad thing about knockaround guys is its lame aspiration for grasping the coolness vibes when in fact the film isn't as flippant or slick as it thinks it is . 
execrable . 
even after 90 minutes of playing opposite each other bullock and grant still look ill at ease sharing the same scene . what should have been a painless time-killer becomes instead a grating endurance test . 
sit through this one , and you won't need a magic watch to stop time ; your dvd player will do it for you . 
some stunning visuals -- and some staggeringly boring cinema . 
this pep-talk for faith , hope and charity does little to offend , but if saccharine earnestness were a crime , the film's producers would be in the clink for life . 
crossroads feels like a teenybopper ed wood film , replete with the pubescent scandalous innuendo and the high-strung but flaccid drama . 
it's tough to tell which is in more abundant supply in this woefully hackneyed movie , directed by scott kalvert , about street gangs and turf wars in 1958 brooklyn -- stale cliches , gratuitous violence , or empty machismo . 
though the book runs only about 300 pages , it is so densely packed . . . that even an ambitious adaptation and elaborate production like mr . schepisi's seems skimpy and unclear . 
proves a lovely trifle that , unfortunately , is a little too in love with its own cuteness . 
to the vast majority of more casual filmgoers , it will probably be a talky bore . 
it's crap on a leash--far too polite to scale the lunatic heights of joe dante's similarly styled gremlins . 
i'm not sure which will take longer to heal : the welt on johnny knoxville's stomach from a riot-control projectile or my own tortured psyche . 
priggish , lethargically paced parable of renewal . 
if the full monty was a freshman fluke , lucky break is [cattaneo] sophomore slump . 
when it comes to entertainment , children deserve better than pokemon 4ever . 
nothing here seems as funny as it did in analyze this , not even joe viterelli as de niro's right-hand goombah . 
it does nothing new with the old story , except to show fisticuffs in this sort of stop-go slow motion that makes the gang rumbles look like they're being streamed over a 28k modem . 
a pleasant and engaging enough sit , but in trying to have the best of both worlds it ends up falling short as a whole . 
anyone who suffers through this film deserves , at the very least , a big box of consolation candy . 
the people in abc africa are treated as docile , mostly wordless ethnographic extras . 
a film that will probably please people already fascinated by behan but leave everyone else yawning with admiration . 
the elements were all there but lack of a pyschological center knocks it flat . 
it's harmless , diverting fluff . but it's hard to imagine a more generic effort in the genre . 
as exciting as all this exoticism might sound to the typical pax viewer , the rest of us will be lulled into a coma . 
if this dud had been made in the '70s , it would have been called the hills have antlers and played for about three weeks in drive-ins . 
 . . . better described as a ghost story gone badly awry . 
undone by its overly complicated and derivative screenplay , the glacier-paced direction and the stereotypical characters . 
becomes the last thing you would expect from a film with this title or indeed from any plympton film : boring . 
[morgan] , judd and franklin can't save the script , rooted in a novel by joseph finder , from some opportunism . 
the only way this supernatural snore-fest could give anyone a case of the frights is if they were put to sleep by the movie and had a nightmare . 
a wannabe comedy of manners about a brainy prep-school kid with a mrs . robinson complex founders on its own preciousness -- and squanders its beautiful women . 
after a while , the only way for a reasonably intelligent person to get through the country bears is to ponder how a whole segment of pop-music history has been allowed to get wet , fuzzy and sticky . 
there's a solid woman- finding-herself story somewhere in here , but you'd have to dig pretty deep to uncover it . 
i like it . no , i hate it . no , i love it . . . hell , i dunno . 
the characters , cast in impossibly contrived situations , are totally estranged from reality . 
we haven't seen such hilarity since say it isn't so ! 
if you saw it on tv , you'd probably turn it off , convinced that you had already seen that movie . 
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 . but never mind all that ; the boobs are fantasti
the only camouflage carvey should now be considering is a paper bag to wear over his head when he goes out into public , to avoid being recognized as the man who bilked unsuspecting moviegoers . 
watching junk like this induces a kind of abstract guilt , as if you were paying dues for good books unread , fine music never heard . 
a synthesis of cliches and absurdities that seems positively decadent in its cinematic flash and emptiness . 
sadly , hewitt's forte is leaning forward while wearing low-cut gowns , not making snappy comebacks . 
enchanted with low-life tragedy and liberally seasoned with emotional outbursts . . . what is sorely missing , however , is the edge of wild , lunatic invention that we associate with cage's best acting . 
de niro and mcdormand give solid performances , but their screen time is sabotaged by the story's inability to create interest . 
this one is certainly well-meaning , but it's also simple-minded and contrived . 
while serving sara does have a long way to go before it reaches the level of crudity in the latest austin powers extravaganza , there's nothing here to match that movie's intermittent moments of inspiration . 
this is a particularly toxic little bonbon , palatable to only a chosen and very jaundiced few . 
 " the kid stays in the picture " is a great story , terrifically told by the man who wrote it but this cliff notes edition is a cheat . 
there's a bit of thematic meat on the bones of queen of the damned , as its origins in an anne rice novel dictate , but generally , it's a movie that emphasizes style over character and substance . 
a predictable and stereotypical little b-movie . 
a terrible movie that some people will nevertheless find moving . 
very special effects , brilliantly bold colors and heightened reality can't hide the giant achilles' heel in " stuart little 2 " : there's just no story , folks . 
shyamalan should stop trying to please his mom . 
don't be fooled by the impressive cast list - eye see you is pure junk . 
a bit too derivative to stand on its own as the psychological thriller it purports to be . 
a very slow , uneventful ride around a pretty tattered old carousel . 
whatever eyre's failings as a dramatist , he deserves credit for bringing audiences into this hard and bitter place . 
a domestic melodrama with weak dialogue and biopic cliches . 
the movie spends more time with schneider than with newcomer mcadams , even though her performance is more interesting ( and funnier ) than his . 
feels like nothing quite so much as a middle-aged moviemaker's attempt to surround himself with beautiful , half-naked women . 
it appears to have been modeled on the worst revenge-of-the-nerds clichs the filmmakers could dredge up . 
the marquis de sade couldn't have been as dull a person as this film makes him out to be . 
lame sweet home leaves no southern stereotype unturned . 
unfortunately , neither sendak nor the directors are particularly engaging or articulate . 
it's a bad sign in a thriller when you instantly know whodunit . 
a rambling ensemble piece with loosely connected characters and plots that never quite gel . 
a sincere but dramatically conflicted gay coming-of-age tale . 
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 . 
its save-the-planet message clashes with its crass marketing . 
[crystal and de niro] manage to squeeze out some good laughs but not enough to make this silly con job sing . 
a noble failure . 
jacobi , the most fluent of actors , is given relatively dry material from nijinsky's writings to perform , and the visuals , even erotically frank ones , become dullingly repetitive . 
to enjoy this movie's sharp dialogue and delightful performance by jolie and burns , you have to gloss over the no sense ending . 
there's something unintentionally comic in the film's drumbeat about authenticity , given the stale plot and pornographic way the film revels in swank apartments , clothes and parties . 
cuba gooding jr . valiantly mugs his way through snow dogs , but even his boisterous energy fails to spark this leaden comedy . 
it's badly acted , blandly directed , and could have been scripted by someone who just graduated from elementary school . 
no telegraphing is too obvious or simplistic for this movie . 
though this rude and crude film does deliver a few gut-busting laughs , its digs at modern society are all things we've seen before . 
would've been nice if the screenwriters had trusted audiences to understand a complex story , and left off the film's predictable denouement . then nadia's birthday might not have been such a bad day after all . 
cheap , vulgar dialogue and a plot that crawls along at a snail's pace . 
if you really want to understand what this story is really all about , you're far better served by the source material . 
passably entertaining but also mechanical and joyless . 
as saccharine movies go , this is likely to cause massive cardiac arrest if taken in large doses . 
solaris is rigid and evasive in ways that soderbergh's best films , " erin brockovich , " " out of sight " and " ocean's eleven , " never were . 
contains the humor , characterization , poignancy , and intelligence of a bad sitcom . 
who are 'they' ? well , they're 'they' . they're the unnamed , easily substitutable forces that serve as whatever terror the heroes of horror movies try to avoid . they exist for hushed lines like " they're back ! " , " they're out there ! " and " they're coming ! " 
let's cut to the consumer-advice bottom line : stay home . 
director clare kilner's debut is never as daft as it should have been . 
it recycles every clich about gays in what is essentially an extended soap opera . 
a great ensemble cast can't lift this heartfelt enterprise out of the familiar . 
eight legged freaks falls flat as a spoof . 
makes a joke out of car chases for an hour and then gives us half an hour of car chases . 
technically and artistically inept . 
boy oh boy , it's a howler . 
what ultimately makes windtalkers a disappointment is the superficial way it deals with its story . 
there are simply too many ideas floating around -- part farce , part sliding doors , part pop video -- and yet failing to exploit them . 
the very definition of what critics have come to term an " ambitious failure . " 
less a study in madness or love than a study in schoolgirl obsession . 
a half-assed film . 
bartlett's hero remains a reactive cipher , when opening the man's head and heart is the only imaginable reason for the film to be made . 
there is nothing funny in this every-joke-has- been-told-a- thousand-times- before movie . 
usually when i get this much syrup , i like pancakes to go with it . 
the characters are based on stock clichs , and the attempt to complicate the story only defies credibility . 
plods along , minus the twisted humor and eye-popping visuals that have made miike . . . a cult hero . 
when the first few villians are introduced as " spider " and " snake " you know you're in for a real winner , creativity at its peak . 
some movies were made for the big screen , some for the small screen , and some , like ballistic : ecks vs . sever , were made for the palm screen . 
i'm giving it thumbs down due to the endlessly repetitive scenes of embarrassment . there's got to be a more graceful way of portraying the devastation of this disease . 
the only upside to all of this unpleasantness is , given its labor day weekend upload , feardotcom should log a minimal number of hits . 
the screenplay comes across , rather unintentionally , as hip-hop scooby-doo . 
this is a film tailor-made for those who when they were in high school would choose the cliff-notes over reading a full-length classic . 
a wildly inconsistent emotional experience . 
bartleby is a one-joke movie , and a bad joke at that . 
predictably melodramatic . 
the fetid underbelly of fame has never looked uglier . 
the movie obviously seeks to re-create the excitement of such '50s flicks as jules verne's '20 , 000 leagues under the sea' and the george pal version of h . g . wells' 'the time machine . ' but its storytelling prowess and special effects are both listless . 
if there's one thing this world needs less of , it's movies about college that are written and directed by people who couldn't pass an entrance exam . 
as self-aware movies go , who is cletis tout ? is clever enough , though thin writing proves its undoing . 
the film is itself a sort of cinematic high crime , one that brings military courtroom dramas down very , very low . 
too much of the humor falls flat . 
while glover , the irrepressible eccentric of river's edge , dead man and back to the future , is perfect casting for the role , he represents bartleby's main overall flaw . 
philip k . dick must be turning in his grave , along with my stomach . 
kicks off with an inauspicious premise , mopes through a dreary tract of virtually plotless meanderings and then ends with a whimper . 
at a brief 42 minutes , we need more x and less blab . 
wow . i have not been this disappointed by a movie in a long time . 
has all the complexity and realistic human behavior of an episode of general hospital . 
low comedy doesn't come much lower . 
shankman . . . and screenwriter karen janszen bungle their way through the narrative as if it were a series of bible parables and not an actual story . 
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 . 
you come away wishing , though , that the movie spent a lot less time trying to make a credible case for reports from the afterlife and a lot more time on the romantic urgency that's at the center of the story . 
a sluggish pace and lack of genuine narrative hem the movie in every bit as much as life hems in the spirits of these young women . 
not that any of us should be complaining when a film clocks in around 90 minutes these days , but the plotting here leaves a lot to be desired . 
devoid of any of the qualities that made the first film so special . 
an unsatisfying hybrid of blair witch and typical stalk-and-slash fare , where the most conservative protagonist is always the last one living . 
this formulaic chiller will do little to boost stallone's career . 
the cold and dreary weather is a perfect metaphor for the movie itself , which contains few laughs and not much drama . 
the movie is a mess from start to finish . 
it's a mindless action flick with a twist -- far better suited to video-viewing than the multiplex . 
confuses its message with an ultimate desire to please , and contorting itself into an idea of expectation is the last thing any of these three actresses , nor their characters , deserve . 
it virtually defines a comedy that's strongly mediocre , with funny bits surfacing every once in a while . 
problem is , we have no idea what in creation is going on . 
bad company leaves a bad taste , not only because of its bad-luck timing , but also the staleness of its script . 
aimed squarely at the least demanding of demographic groups : very small children who will be delighted simply to spend more time with familiar cartoon characters . 
the pacing is deadly , the narration helps little and naipaul , a juicy writer , is negated . 
stealing harvard doesn't care about cleverness , wit or any other kind of intelligent humor . 
this is really just another genre picture . 
build some robots , haul 'em to the theatre with you for the late show , and put on your own mystery science theatre 3000 tribute to what is almost certainly going to go down as the worst -- and only -- killer website movie of this or any other year . 
originality is sorely lacking . 
it made me want to wrench my eyes out of my head and toss them at the screen . 
grant isn't cary and bullock isn't katherine . 
[janey] forgets about her other obligations , leading to a tragedy which is somehow guessable from the first few minutes , maybe because it echoes the by now intolerable morbidity of so many recent movies . 
el crimen del padre amaro would likely be most effective if used as a tool to rally anti-catholic protestors . 
directed in a flashy , empty sub-music video style by a director so self-possessed he actually adds a period to his first name
an easy watch , except for the annoying demeanour of its lead character . 
this movie . . . doesn't deserve the energy it takes to describe how bad it is . 
i thought my own watch had stopped keeping time as i slogged my way through clockstoppers . 
vera's technical prowess ends up selling his film short ; he smoothes over hard truths even as he uncovers them . 
whether it's the worst movie of 2002 , i can't say for sure : memories of rollerball have faded , and i skipped country bears . but this new jangle of noise , mayhem and stupidity must be a serious contender for the title . 
[serry] wants to blend politics and drama , an admirable ambition . it's too bad that the helping hand he uses to stir his ingredients is also a heavy one . 
a humorless journey into a philosophical void . 
much of the cast is stiff or just plain bad . 
a decidedly mixed bag . 
gooding and coburn are both oscar winners , a fact which , as you watch them clumsily mugging their way through snow dogs , seems inconceivable . 
an allegory concerning the chronically mixed signals african american professionals get about overachieving could be intriguing , but the supernatural trappings only obscure the message . 
acting , particularly by tambor , almost makes " never again " worthwhile , but [writer/director] schaeffer should follow his titular advice
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 . 
when your subject is illusion versus reality , shouldn't the reality seem at least passably real ? 
like a tone-deaf singer at a benefit concert , john q . is a bad movie appearing on behalf of a good cause . 
typical anim , with cheapo animation ( like saturday morning tv in the '60s ) , a complex sword-and-sorcery plot and characters who all have big round eyes and japanese names . 
ararat feels like a book report
the film never gets over its own investment in conventional arrangements , in terms of love , age , gender , race , and class . 
a smug and convoluted action-comedy that doesn't allow an earnest moment to pass without reminding audiences that it's only a movie . 
it's of the quality of a lesser harrison ford movie - six days , seven nights , maybe , or that dreadful sabrina remake . 
what can one say about a balding 50-year-old actor playing an innocent boy carved from a log ? 
as 'chick flicks' go , this one is pretty miserable , resorting to string-pulling rather than legitimate character development and intelligent plotting . 
 . . . an incredibly heavy-handed , manipulative dud that feels all too familiar . 
i don't think this movie loves women at all . 
it's hampered by a lifetime-channel kind of plot and a lead actress who is out of her depth . 
it gets old quickly . watch barbershop again if you're in need of a cube fix--this isn't worth sitting through . 
traffics in the kind of prechewed racial clichs that have already been through the corporate stand-up-comedy mill . 
director-chef gabriele muccino keeps it fast -- zippy , comin' at ya -- as if fearing that his film is molto superficiale . 
an earnest racial-issues picture that might have gotten respectful critical praise in a different era -- say , the '60s . 
it's hard to imagine any recent film , independent or otherwise , that makes as much of a mess as this one . 
an overwrought taiwanese soaper about three people and their mixed-up relationship . 
seems like something american and european gay movies were doing 20 years ago . 
there is something in full frontal , i guess , about artifice and acting and how it distorts reality for people who make movies and watch them , but like most movie riddles , it works only if you have an interest in the characters you see . 
the stories here suffer from the chosen format . 
though there are entertaining and audacious moments , the movie's wildly careening tone and an extremely flat lead performance do little to salvage this filmmaker's flailing reputation . 
as pedestrian as they come . 
if this is the danish idea of a good time , prospective tourists might want to consider a different destination -- some jolly country embroiled in a bloody civil war , perhaps . 
the central story lacks punch . 
the most opaque , self-indulgent and just plain goofy an excuse for a movie as you can imagine . 
they do a good job of painting this family dynamic for the audience but they tried to squeeze too many elements into the film . 
even die-hard fans of japanese animation . . . will find this one a challenge . 
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 . 
it's not without its pleasures , but i'll stick with the tune . 
the movie's major and most devastating flaw is its reliance on formula , though , and it's quite enough to lessen the overall impact the movie could have had . 
what [frei] gives us . . . is a man who uses the damage of war -- far more often than the warfare itself -- to create the kind of art shots that fill gallery shows . 
none of this sounds promising and , indeed , the first half of sorority boys is as appalling as any 'comedy' to ever spill from a projector's lens . 
alarms for duvall's throbbing sincerity and his elderly propensity for patting people while he talks . 
low rent from frame one . 
once she lets her love depraved leads meet , [denis'] story becomes a hopeless , unsatisfying muddle
so boring that even its target audience talked all the way through it . 
are monsters born , or made ? 
if anything , see it for karen black , who camps up a storm as a fringe feminist conspiracy theorist named dirty dick . 
ah , the travails of metropolitan life ! alas , another breathless movie about same ! 
there's no excuse for following up a delightful , well-crafted family film with a computer-generated cold fish . 
both the crime story and the love story are unusual . but they don't fit well together and neither is well told . 
something must have been lost in the translation . 
bad in such a bizarre way that it's almost worth seeing , if only to witness the crazy confluence of purpose and taste . 
isn't it a bit early in his career for director barry sonnenfeld to do a homage to himself ? and it's a lousy one at that . 
peralta's mythmaking could have used some informed , adult hindsight . 
i have no problem with " difficult " movies , or movies that ask the audience to meet them halfway and connect the dots instead of having things all spelled out . but first , you have to give the audience a reason to <b>want</b> to put for that effort , and " i
made by jackasses for jackasses . 
only about as sexy and dangerous as an actress in a role that reminds at every turn of elizabeth berkley's flopping dolphin-gasm . 
the result is an 'action film' mired in stasis . 
due to stodgy , soap opera-ish dialogue , the rest of the cast comes across as stick figures reading lines from a teleprompter . 
an unremittingly ugly movie to look at , listen to , and think about , it is quite possibly the sturdiest example yet of why the dv revolution has cheapened the artistry of making a film . 
every time you look , sweet home alabama is taking another bummer of a wrong turn . 
a thinly veiled excuse for wilson to play his self-deprecating act against murphy's well-honed prima donna shtick . 
 . . . too slow , too boring , and occasionally annoying . 
it's sweet , harmless , dumb , occasionally funny and about as compelling as a fishing show . 
clare peploe's airless movie adaptation could use a little american pie-like irreverence . 
let's hope -- shall we ? -- that the 'true story' by which all the queen's men is allegedly " inspired " was a lot funnier and more deftly enacted than what's been cobbled together onscreen . 
go , girls , right down the reality drain . 
yet another weepy southern bore-athon . 
if you collected all the moments of coherent dialogue , they still wouldn't add up to the time required to boil a four- minute egg . 
if they broke out into elaborate choreography , singing and finger snapping it might have held my attention , but as it stands i kept looking for the last exit from brooklyn . 
don't even bother to rent this on video . 
sets animation back 30 years , musicals back 40 years and judaism back at least 50 . 
a yawn-provoking little farm melodrama . 
your stomach for heaven depends largely on your appetite for canned corn . 
adolescents will be adequately served by the movie's sophomoric blend of shenanigans and slapstick , although the more lascivious-minded might be disappointed in the relative modesty of a movie that sports a 'topless tutorial service . '
this would-be 'james bond for the extreme generation' pic is one big , dumb action movie . stress 'dumb . '
 . . . the story simply putters along looking for astute observations and coming up blank . 
there is simply not enough of interest onscreen to sustain its seventy-minute running time . 
the story is lacking any real emotional impact , and the plot is both contrived and cliched . 
wait for pay per view or rental but don't dismiss barbershop out of hand . 
leaks treacle from every pore . 
[t]here's only so much anyone can do with a florid , overplotted , anne rice rock 'n' roll vampire novel before the built-in silliness of the whole affair defeats them . 
in the spirit of the season , i assign one bright shining star to roberto benigni's pinocchio -- but i guarantee that no wise men will be following after it . 
the trappings of i spy are so familiar you might as well be watching a rerun . 
if religious films aren't your bailiwick , stay away . otherwise , this could be a passable date film . 
what could and should have been biting and droll is instead a tepid waste of time and talent . 
the talk-heavy film plays like one of robert altman's lesser works . 
it's a glorified sitcom , and a long , unfunny one at that . 
la cinta comienza intentando ser un drama , rpidamente se transforma en una comedia y termina por ser una parodia absolutamente predecible
and people make fun of me for liking showgirls</> . 
alternately frustrating and rewarding . 
episode ii-- attack of the clones is a technological exercise that lacks juice and delight . 
a cross between blow and boyz n the hood , this movie strives to be more , but doesn't quite get there . good performances keep it from being a total rehash . 
topkapi this is not . 
too much of the movie feels contrived , as if the filmmakers were worried the story wouldn't work without all those gimmicks . 
hollywood has taken quite a nosedive from alfred hitchcock's imaginative flight to shyamalan's self-important summer fluff . 
despite impeccable acting . . . and a script that takes some rather unexpected ( even , at times , preposterous ) turns , love is just too , too precious in the end . 
the uneven movie does have its charms and its funny moments but not quite enough of them . 
like most of jaglom's films , some of it is honestly affecting , but more of it seems contrived and secondhand . 
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 . '
offers absolutely nothing i hadn't already seen . 
like a can of 2-day old coke . you can taste it , but there's no fizz . 
it has all the excitement of eating oatmeal . 
imagine the james woods character from videodrome making a home movie of audrey rose and showing it to the kid from the sixth sense and you've imagined the ring . 
yet another movie which presumes that high school social groups are at war , let alone conscious of each other's existence . 
the movie , like bartleby , is something of a stiff -- an extra-dry office comedy that seems twice as long as its 83 minutes . 
warmed-over hash . 
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 . 
a series of escapades demonstrating the adage that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander , some of which occasionally amuses but none of which amounts to much of a story . 
the notion of deleting emotion from people , even in an advanced prozac nation , is so insanely dysfunctional that the rampantly designed equilibrium becomes a concept doofus . 
blue crush is so prolonged and boring it isn't even close to being the barn-burningly bad movie it promised it would be . 
looks awfully like one long tourist spot for a mississippi that may never have existed outside of a scriptwriter's imagination . 
[two] fairly dull -- contrasting and interlocking stories about miserable scandinavian settlers in 18th-century canada , and yuppie sailboaters in the here and now . 
the overall vibe is druggy and self-indulgent , like a spring-break orgy for pretentious arts majors . 
slapstick buffoonery can tickle many a preschooler's fancy , but when it costs a family of four about $40 to see a film in theaters , why spend money on a dog like this when you can rent a pedigree instead ? 
most of the information has already appeared in one forum or another and , no matter how broomfield dresses it up , it tends to speculation , conspiracy theories or , at best , circumstantial evidence . 
sacrifices the value of its wealth of archival foot-age with its less-than-objective stance . 
i've always dreamed of attending cannes , but after seeing this film , it's not that big a deal . 
i'm sure there's a teenage boy out there somewhere who's dying for this kind of entertainment . 
home alone goes hollywood , a funny premise until the kids start pulling off stunts not even steven spielberg would know how to do . besides , real movie producers aren't this nice . 
from the choppy editing to the annoying score to 'special effects' by way of replacing objects in a character's hands below the camera line , " besotted " is misbegotten
it's lazy for a movie to avoid solving one problem by trying to distract us with the solution to another . 
'all in all , reign of fire will be a good ( successful ) rental . '
it's pretentious in a way that verges on the amateurish . 
despite its visual virtuosity , 'naqoyqatsi' is banal in its message and the choice of material to convey it . 
audiences can be expected to suspend their disbelief only so far -- and that does not include the 5 o'clock shadow on the tall wooden kid as he skips off to school . 
one-sided documentary offers simplistic explanations to a very complex situation . . . . stylistically , the movie is a disaster . 
sluggishly directed by episodic tv veteran joe zwick , it's a sitcom without the snap-crackle . 
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 . 
 . . . although this idea is " new " the results are tired . 
the movie is essentially a series of fleetingly interesting actors' moments . 
'wouldn't it be nice if all guys got a taste of what it's like on the other side of the bra ? '
if only merchant paid more attention the story . 
the one not-so-small problem with expecting is that the entire exercise has no real point . 
it seems just a long , convoluted ploy to get men into drag -- period drag , no less . 
the charms of willful eccentricity , at least as evidenced by this latest cinematic essay , are beginning to wear a bit thin . 
an amalgam of the fugitive , blade runner , and total recall , only without much energy or tension . 
done in mostly by a weak script that can't support the epic treatment . 
when the precise nature of matthew's predicament finally comes into sharp focus , the revelation fails to justify the build-up . 
a bore that tends to hammer home every one of its points . 
deuces wild is an encyclopedia of cliches that shoplifts shamelessly from farewell-to-innocence movies like the wanderers and a bronx tale without cribbing any of their intelligence . 
[jackson and bledel] seem to have been picked not for their acting chops , but for their looks and appeal to the pre-teen crowd . 
the most memorable moment was when green threw medical equipment at a window ; not because it was particularly funny , but because i had a serious urge to grab the old lady at the end of my aisle's walker and toss it at the screen in frustration . 
this long and relentlessly saccharine film is a clear case of preaching to the converted . 
gaghan . . . has thrown every suspenseful clich in the book at this nonsensical story . 
stiff and schmaltzy and clumsily directed . 
not so much funny as aggressively sitcom-cute , it's full of throwaway one-liners , not-quite jokes , and a determined tv amiability that allen personifies . 
everything that was right about blade is wrong in its sequel . 
feels strangely hollow at its emotional core . 
really does feel like a short stretched out to feature length . 
slick piece of cross-promotion . 
to be influenced chiefly by humanity's greatest shame , reality shows -- reality shows for god's sake ! -- is a crime that should be punishable by chainsaw . 
it's young guns meets goodfellas in this easily skippable hayseeds-vs . -greaseballs mob action-comedy . 
just entertaining enough not to hate , too mediocre to love . 
a era do gelo diverte , mas no convence .  um passatempo descompromissado  e s . 
there might be some sort of credible gender-provoking philosophy submerged here , but who the hell cares ? 
it's tough , astringent , darkly funny and . . . well , it's also generic , untidy , condescending and mild of impact rather than stunning . 
for those of us who respond more strongly to storytelling than computer-generated effects , the new star wars installment hasn't escaped the rut dug by the last one . 
is there a group of more self-absorbed women than the mother and daughters featured in this film ? i don't think so . nothing wrong with performances here , but the whiney characters bugged me . 
what we get in feardotcom is more like something from a bad clive barker movie . in other words , it's badder than bad . 
spirit is a visual treat , and it takes chances that are bold by studio standards , but it lacks a strong narrative . 
amidst the action , the script carries arnold ( and the viewers ) into the forbidden zone of sympathizing with terrorist motivations by presenting the " other side of the story . " 
never quite transcends jokester status . . . and the punchline doesn't live up to barry's dead-eyed , perfectly chilled delivery . 
the tug-of-war at the core of beijing bicycle becomes weighed down with agonizing contrivances , overheated pathos and long , wistful gazes . 
it's a film with an idea buried somewhere inside its fabric , but never clearly seen or felt . 
no movement , no yuks , not much of anything . 
it's a very sincere work , but it would be better as a diary or documentary . 
one of the most highly-praised disappointments i've had the misfortune to watch in quite some time . 
an appalling 'ace ventura' rip-off that somehow manages to bring together kevin pollak , former wrestler chyna and dolly parton . if any of them list this 'credit' on their resumes in the future , that'll be much funnier than anything in the film . . . 
a mawkish , implausible platonic romance that makes chaplin's city lights seem dispassionate by comparison . 
the talented and clever robert rodriguez perhaps put a little too much heart into his first film and didn't reserve enough for his second . 
so lazy and slipshod it confuses the mere flashing of kinky soft-core imagery with naughty fun . 
after sitting through this sloppy , made-for-movie comedy special , it makes me wonder if lawrence hates criticism so much that he refuses to evaluate his own work . 
has all the depth of a wading pool . 
nothing happens , and it happens to flat characters . 
a high-minded snoozer . 
the entire film is one big excuse to play one lewd scene after another . 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 . 
has a long and clunky ending . . . which forces the audience to fidget through ten pseudo-serious minutes while waiting for the ending credits and the deleted scenes montage to break the audience's awkward silence
the movie is silly beyond comprehension , and even if it weren't silly , it would still be beyond comprehension . 
'lovely and amazing , ' unhappily , is neither . . . excessively strained and contrived . 
what's next : " my mother the car ? " 
one of the worst movies of the year . . . . watching it was painful . 
the humor is hinged on the belief that knees in the crotch , elbows in the face and spit in the eye are inherently funny . 
schnitzler's film has a great hook , some clever bits and well-drawn , if standard issue , characters , but is still only partly satisfying . 
if it were any more of a turkey , it would gobble in dolby digital stereo . 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 . 
johnson has , in his first film , set himself a task he is not nearly up to . 
given that both movies expect us to root for convicted violent felons over those assigned to protect us from same , we need every bit of sympathy the cons can muster ; this time , there isn't much . 
those who are only mildly curious , i fear , will be put to sleep or bewildered by the artsy and often pointless visuals . 
a determined , ennui-hobbled slog that really doesn't have much to say beyond the news flash that loneliness can make people act weird . 
too slow for a younger crowd , too shallow for an older one . 
a feature-length , r-rated , road-trip version of mama's family . 
swiftly deteriorates into a terribly obvious melodrama and rough-hewn vanity project for lead actress andie macdowell . 
writer-director stephen gaghan has made the near-fatal mistake of being what the english call 'too clever by half . '
with more character development this might have been an eerie thriller ; with better payoffs , it could have been a thinking man's monster movie . 
a reality-snubbing hodgepodge . 
the best way to hope for any chance of enjoying this film is by lowering your expectations . then lower them a bit more . 
the premise for this kegger comedy probably sounded brilliant four six-packs and a pitcher of margaritas in , but the film must have been written . . . in the thrall of a vicious hangover . 
 . . . has its moments , but ultimately , its curmudgeon doesn't quite make the cut of being placed on any list of favorites . 
an essentially awkward version of the lightweight female empowerment picture we've been watching for decades
there isn't nearly enough fun here , despite the presence of some appealing ingredients . 
director ferzan ozpetek creates an interesting dynamic with the members of this group , who live in the same apartment building . but he loses his focus when he concentrates on any single person . 
ends up offering nothing more than the latest schwarzenegger or stallone flick would . 
kids who are into this thornberry stuff will probably be in wedgie heaven . anyone else who may , for whatever reason , be thinking about going to see this movie is hereby given fair warning . 
the problem is that rather than dramatizing this premise , mr . desplechin is content to state it . 
a tired , predictable , bordering on offensive , waste of time , money and celluloid . 
a mean-spirited film made by someone who surely read the catcher in the rye but clearly suffers from dyslexia
just because it really happened to you , honey , doesn't mean that it's interesting to anyone else . 
when it's all wet , blue crush is highly enjoyable . when it's on dry land , though , this surfer-girl melodrama starts gasping like a beached grouper . 
this goofy gangster yarn never really elevates itself from being yet another earnestly generic crime-busting comic vehicle -- a well-intentioned remake that shows some spunk and promise but fails to register as anything distinctive or daring
godard uses his characters -- if that's not too glorified a term -- as art things , mouthpieces , visual motifs , blanks . 
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 . 
the script falls back on too many tried-and-true shenanigans that hardly distinguish it from the next teen comedy . 
to better understand why this didn't connect with me would require another viewing , and i won't be sitting through this one again . . . that in itself is commentary enough . 
any film that doesn't even in passing mention political prisoners , poverty and the boat loads of people who try to escape the country is less a documentary and more propaganda by way of a valentine sealed with a kiss . 
comes across as a fairly weak retooling . 
i wish windtalkers had had more faith in the dramatic potential of this true story . this would have been better than the fiction it has concocted , and there still could have been room for the war scenes . 
talkiness isn't necessarily bad , but the dialogue frequently misses the mark . 
wildly incompetent but brilliantly named half past dead -- or for seagal pessimists : totally past his prime . 
 . . . instead go rent " shakes the clown " , a much funnier film with a similar theme and an equally great robin williams performance . 
bullock's complete lack of focus and ability quickly derails the film
the only reason you should see this movie is if you have a case of masochism and an hour and a half to blow . 
 . . . nothing scary here except for some awful acting and lame special effects . 
high drama , disney-style - a wing and a prayer and a hunky has-been pursuing his castle in the sky . 
it's all surface psychodramatics . 
this is the kind of movie that gets a quick release before real contenders arrive in september . 
you really have to wonder how on earth anyone , anywhere could have thought they'd make audiences guffaw with a script as utterly diabolical as this . 
the movie's progression into rambling incoherence gives new meaning to the phrase 'fatal script error . '
a film really has to be exceptional to justify a three hour running time , and this isn't . 
with miscast leads , banal dialogue and an absurdly overblown climax , killing me softly belongs firmly in the so-bad-it's-good camp . 
i'm not saying that ice age doesn't have some fairly pretty pictures , but there's not enough substance in the story to actually give them life . 
offers no new insight on the matter , nor do its characters exactly spring to life . 
the movie keeps coming back to the achingly unfunny phonce and his several silly subplots . 
this film was made to get laughs from the slowest person in the audience -- just pure slapstick with lots of inane , inoffensive screaming and exaggerated facial expressions . 
a zombie movie in every sense of the word--mindless , lifeless , meandering , loud , painful , obnoxious . 
rice is too pedestrian a filmmaker to bring any edge or personality to the rising place that would set it apart from other deep south stories . 
a gushy episode of " m * a * s * h " only this time from an asian perspective . 
reign of fire never comes close to recovering from its demented premise , but it does sustain an enjoyable level of ridiculousness . 
the piquant story needs more dramatic meat on its bones . 
i spied with my little eye . . . a mediocre collection of cookie-cutter action scenes and occasionally inspired dialogue bits
the chocolate factory without charlie . 
it's depressing to see how far herzog has fallen . 
the pacing is often way off and there are too many bona fide groaners among too few laughs . 
theology aside , why put someone who ultimately doesn't learn at the center of a kids' story ? 
barrels along at the start before becoming mired in sentimentality . 
overburdened with complicated plotting and banal dialogue
the script is a tired one , with few moments of joy rising above the stale material . 
twenty-three movies into a mostly magnificent directorial career , clint eastwood's efficiently minimalist style finally has failed him . big time . 
this is not a jackie chan movie . it's just a movie that happens to have jackie chan in it . and that makes all the difference . 
[less a movie than] an appalling , odoriferous thing . . . so rotten in almost every single facet of production that you'll want to crawl up your own * * * in embarrassment . 
a grating , emaciated flick . 
a hideous , confusing spectacle , one that may well put the nail in the coffin of any future rice adaptations . 
while the film shuns the glamour or glitz that an american movie might demand , scherfig tosses us a romantic scenario that is just as simplistic as a hollywood production . 
as a rumor of angels reveals itself to be a sudsy tub of supernatural hokum , not even ms . redgrave's noblest efforts can redeem it from hopeless sentimentality . 
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 . 
all ends well , sort of , but the frenzied comic moments never click . 
each story is built on a potentially interesting idea , but the first two are ruined by amateurish writing and acting , while the third feels limited by its short running time . 
[taylor] takes us on a ride that's consistently surprising , easy to watch -- but , oh , so dumb . 
a mawkish self-parody that plays like some weird masterpiece theater sketch with neither a point of view nor a compelling reason for being . 
it's surprisingly bland despite the heavy doses of weird performances and direction . 
it will probably prove interesting to ram dass fans , but to others it may feel like a parody of the mellow , peace-and-love side of the '60s counterculture . 
too silly to be frightening , too stolid to be funny , it projects the same lazy affability as its nominal star , david arquette . 
i felt sad for lise not so much because of what happens as because she was captured by this movie when she obviously belongs in something lighter and sunnier , by rohmer , for example . 
tsai may be ploughing the same furrow once too often . 
 . . . the good and different idea [of middle-aged romance] is not handled well and , except for the fine star performances , there is little else to recommend " never again . " 
a frantic search for laughs , with a hit-to-miss ratio that doesn't exactly favour the audience . 
most of the problems with the film don't derive from the screenplay , but rather the mediocre performances by most of the actors involved
safe conduct , however ambitious and well-intentioned , fails to hit the entertainment bull's-eye . 
these two are generating about as much chemistry as an iraqi factory poised to receive a un inspector . 
forget the psychology 101 study of romantic obsession and just watch the procession of costumes in castles and this won't seem like such a bore . 
minority report is exactly what the title indicates , a report . 
the film has too many spots where it's on slippery footing , but is acceptable entertainment for the entire family and one that's especially fit for the kiddies . 
oh come on . like you couldn't smell this turkey rotting from miles away . 
it is just too bad the film's story does not live up to its style . 
new best friend's playboy-mansion presentation of college life is laugh-out-loud ludicrous . 
all mood and no movie . 
though a bit of a patchwork in script and production , a glossy , rich green , environment almost makes the picture work . 
the punch lines that miss , unfortunately , outnumber the hits by three-to-one . but death to smoochy keeps firing until the bitter end . 
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 ( hey , don't shoot the messenger ) . 
it's the movie equivalent of a sweaty old guy in a rain coat shopping for cheap porn . 
davis the performer is plenty fetching enough , but she needs to shake up the mix , and work in something that doesn't feel like a half-baked stand-up routine . 
has its moments -- and almost as many subplots . 
clayburgh and tambor are charming performers ; neither of them deserves eric schaeffer . 
the filmmakers needed more emphasis on the storytelling and less on the glamorous machine that thrusts the audience into a future they won't much care about . 
moves in such odd plot directions and descends into such message-mongering moralism that its good qualities are obscured . 
as the latest bid in the tv-to-movie franchise game , i spy makes its big-screen entry with little of the nervy originality of its groundbreaking small-screen progenitor . 
for most movies , 84 minutes is short , but this one feels like a life sentence . 
a road trip that will get you thinking , 'are we there yet ? '
it's not a film to be taken literally on any level , but its focus always appears questionable . 
 . . . stale and uninspired . 
adroit but finally a trifle flat , mad love doesn't galvanize its outrage the way , say , jane campion might have done , but at least it possesses some . 
with spy kids 2 : the island of lost dreams writer/director/producer robert rodriguez has cobbled together a film that feels like a sugar high gone awry . 
the major problem with windtalkers is that the bulk of the movie centers on the wrong character . 
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 . 
no amount of nostalgia for carvey's glory days can disguise the fact that the new film is a lame kiddie flick and that carvey's considerable talents are wasted in it . 
being author wells' great-grandson , you'd think filmmaker simon wells would have more reverence for the material . but this costly dud is a far cry from either the book or the beloved film . 
an infuriating film . just when you think you are making sense of it , something happens that tells you there is no sense . 
denzel washington's efforts are sunk by all the sanctimony . 
movies like high crimes flog the dead horse of surprise as if it were an obligation . how about surprising us by trying something new ? 
tries so hard to be quirky and funny that the strain is all too evident . 
the stupidest , most insulting movie of 2002's first quarter . 
love may have been in the air onscreen , but i certainly wasn't feeling any of it . 
like the chelsea's denizens . . . burdette's collage-form scenario tends to over-romanticize the spiritual desolation of the struggling artiste . 
do you say " hi " to your lover when you wake up in the morning ? 
with little visible talent and no energy , colin hanks is in bad need of major acting lessons and maybe a little coffee . 
i was perplexed to watch it unfold with an astonishing lack of passion or uniqueness . 
never does " lilo & stitch " reach the emotion or timelessness of disney's great past , or even that of more recent successes such as " mulan " or " tarzan . " 
there is a difference between movies with the courage to go over the top and movies that don't care about being stupid
though the film is well-intentioned , one could rent the original and get the same love story and parable . 
in the wake of saving private ryan , black hawk down and we were soldiers , you are likely to be as heartily sick of mayhem as cage's war-weary marine . 
a movie that , rather than skip along the seine , more or less slogs its way through soggy paris , tongue uncomfortably in cheek . 
the angst-ridden , affluent slacker characters are more grating than engaging . 
jacquot's rendering of puccini's tale of devotion and double-cross is more than just a filmed opera . in his first stab at the form , jacquot takes a slightly anarchic approach that works only sporadically . 
neither revelatory nor truly edgy--merely crassly flamboyant and comedically labored . 
if myers decides to make another austin powers movie , maybe he should just stick with austin and dr evil . 
'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
chelsea walls is a case of too many chefs fussing over too weak a recipe . 
there is no entry portal in the rules of attraction , and i spent most of the movie feeling depressed by the shallow , selfish , greedy characters . 
it's inoffensive , cheerful , built to inspire the young people , set to an unending soundtrack of beach party pop numbers and aside from its remarkable camerawork and awesome scenery , it's about as exciting as a sunburn . 
so few movies explore religion that it's disappointing to see one reduce it to an idea that fits in a sampler . 
stale and clichd to a fault . 
gorgeous to look at but insufferably tedious and turgid . . . a curiously constricted epic . 
below is well below expectations . 
in any case , i would recommend big bad love only to winger fans who have missed her since 1995's forget paris . but even then , i'd recommend waiting for dvd and just skipping straight to her scenes . 
truly terrible . 
i approached the usher and said that if she had to sit through it again , she should ask for a raise . 
the film apparently takes place in a fantasy world where people in hotel hallways recite poetry in voice-over instead of speaking to each other . 
uneven performances and a spotty script add up to a biting satire that has no teeth . 
to show these characters in the act and give them no feelings of remorse -- and to cut repeatedly to the flashback of the original rape -- is overkill to the highest degree . 
been there , done that , liked it much better the first time around - when it was called the professional . 
five screenwriters are credited with the clich-laden screenplay ; it seems as if each watered down the version of the one before . 
 . . . think of it as american pie on valium . 
the screenplay sabotages the movie's strengths at almost every juncture . all the characters are stereotypes , and their interaction is numbingly predictable . 
 . . . a boring parade of talking heads and technical gibberish that will do little to advance the linux cause . 
the movie is a little tired ; maybe the original inspiration has run its course . 
you can see the would-be surprises coming a mile away , and the execution of these twists is delivered with a hammer . thumbs down . 
demme finally succeeds in diminishing his stature from oscar-winning master to lowly studio hack . 
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 . that's because relatively nothing happens . 
an unwise amalgam of broadcast news and vibes . 
high crimes is a cinematic misdemeanor , a routine crime thriller remarkable only for its lack of logic and misuse of two fine actors , morgan freeman and ashley judd . 
what's the most positive thing that can be said about the new rob schneider vehicle ? well , it's not as pathetic as the animal . 
generic thriller junk . teens only . 
the weird thing about the santa clause 2 , purportedly a children's movie , is that there is nothing in it to engage children emotionally . 
schmaltzy and unfunny , adam sandler's cartoon about hanukkah is numbingly bad , little nicky bad , 10 worst list bad . 
a bravura exercise in emptiness . 
all the necessary exposition prevents the picture from rising above your generic sand 'n' sandal adventure . 
as with too many studio pics , plot mechanics get in the way of what should be the lighter-than-air adventure . 
a meatballs for the bare-midriff generation . 
i've never seen ( a remake ) do anything as stomach-turning as the way adam sandler's new movie rapes , pillages and incinerates frank capra's classic . . . 
the niftiest trick perpetrated by the importance of being earnest is the alchemical transmogrification of wilde into austen--and a hollywood-ized austen at that . 
accuracy and realism are terrific , but if your film becomes boring , and your dialogue isn't smart , then you need to use more poetic license . 
the film's center will not hold . 
by the miserable standards to which the slasher genre has sunk , . . . actually pretty good . of course , by more objective measurements it's still quite bad . 
nearly all the fundamentals you take for granted in most films are mishandled here . 
i doubt anyone will remember the picture by the time christmas really rolls around , but maybe it'll be on video by then . 
chamber of secrets will find millions of eager fans . 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 . 
these characters become wearisome . 
the satire is just too easy to be genuinely satisfying . 
nelson's brutally unsentimental approach . . . sucks the humanity from the film , leaving behind an horrific but weirdly unemotional spectacle . 
halfway through the movie , the humor dwindles . it's replaced by some dramatic scenes that are jarring and deeply out of place in what could have ( and probably should have ) been a lighthearted comedy . 
it's dull , spiritless , silly and monotonous : an ultra-loud blast of pointless mayhem , going nowhere fast . 
hip-hop prison thriller of stupefying absurdity . 
a subtle variation on i spit on your grave in which our purported heroine pathologically avenges a hatred for men . 
the affectionate loopiness that once seemed congenital to demme's perspective has a tough time emerging from between the badly dated cutesy-pie mystery scenario and the newfangled hollywood post-production effects . 
deserves high marks for political courage but barely gets by on its artistic merits . 
this wretchedly unfunny wannabe comedy is inane and awful - no doubt , it's the worst movie i've seen this summer . 
it's hard to understand why anyone in his right mind would even think to make the attraction a movie . and it's harder still to believe that anyone in his right mind would want to see the it . 
will probably be one of those movies barely registering a blip on the radar screen of 2002 . 
quick : who wants to see a comedy about shoddy airport security ? 
directors harry gantz and joe gantz have chosen a fascinating subject matter , but the couples exposing themselves aren't all that interesting . 
narratively , trouble every day is a plodding mess . 
despite the premise of a good story . . . it wastes all its star power on cliched or meaningless roles . 
we've liked klein's other work but rollerball left us cold . 
the bland outweighs the nifty , and cletis tout never becomes the clever crime comedy it thinks it is . 
it's really just another silly hollywood action film , one among a multitude of simple-minded , yahoo-ing death shows . 
it goes on for too long and bogs down in a surfeit of characters and unnecessary subplots . 
like all abstract art , the film does not make this statement in an easily accessible way , and -- unless prewarned -- it would be very possible for a reasonably intelligent person to sit through its tidal wave of imagery and not get this vision at all . 
shot like a postcard and overacted with all the boozy self-indulgence that brings out the worst in otherwise talented actors . . . 
its strengths and weaknesses play off each other virtually to a stand-off , with the unfortunate trump card being the dreary mid-section of the film . 
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 ( and no one ) . 
i wish it would have just gone more over-the-top instead of trying to have it both ways . 
does what should seem impossible : it makes serial killer jeffrey dahmer boring . 
when mr . hundert tells us in his narration that 'this is a story without surprises , ' we nod in agreement . 
if h . g . wells had a time machine and could take a look at his kin's reworked version , what would he say ? 'it looks good , sonny , but you missed the point . '
faultlessly professional but finally slight . 
ultimately . . . the movie is too heady for children , and too preachy for adults . 
leaves viewers out in the cold and undermines some phenomenal performances . 
murder and mayhem of this sort quickly becomes monotonous . 
cacoyannis' vision is far less mature , interpreting the play as a call for pity and sympathy for anachronistic phantasms haunting the imagined glory of their own pasts . 
the entire movie is filled with deja vu moments . 
demands too much of most viewers . 
debut effort by " project greenlight " winner is sappy and amateurish . 
feels like the work of an artist who is simply tired -- of fighting the same fights , of putting the weight of the world on his shoulders , of playing with narrative form . 
what is 100% missing here is a script of even the most elemental literacy , an inkling of genuine wit , and anything resembling acting . 
serry does a fine job of capturing the climate of the times and , perhaps unwittingly , relating it to what is happening in america in 2002 . but hard-to-believe plot twists force the movie off track in its final half hour . 
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 . 
the reason i found myself finally unmoved by this film , which is immaculately produced and has serious things to say , is that it comes across rather too plainly as allegory . 
an impenetrable and insufferable ball of pseudo-philosophic twaddle . 
kidman is really the only thing that's worth watching in birthday girl , a film by the stage-trained jez butterworth ( mojo ) that serves as yet another example of the sad decline of british comedies in the post-full monty world . 
what a great shame that such a talented director as chen kaige has chosen to make his english-language debut with a film so poorly plotted and scripted . 
all the well-meaningness in the world can't erase the fact that the believer feels like a 12-step program for the jewish nazi . 
i didn't believe for a moment in these villains or their plot . 
the jokes are flat , and the action looks fake . 
 . . . a confusing drudgery . 
cattaneo reworks the formula that made the full monty a smashing success . . . but neglects to add the magic that made it all work . 
this ill-conceived and expensive project winds up looking like a bunch of talented thesps slumming it . 
the film is a travesty of the genre and even as spoof takes itself too seriously . 
a trashy , exploitative , thoroughly unpleasant experience . 
what's next ? the porky's revenge : ultimate edition ? 
a derivative collection of horror and sci-fi cliches . 
at the one-hour mark , herzog simply runs out of ideas and the pace turns positively leaden as the movie sputters to its inevitable tragic conclusion . 
equilibrium the movie , as opposed to the manifesto , is really , really stupid . 
the film's stagecrafts are intimate and therefore bolder than the otherwise calculated artifice that defines and overwhelms the film's production design . 
 . . . with the candy-like taste of it fading faster than 25-cent bubble gum , i realized this is a throwaway movie that won't stand the test of time . it's a trifle . 
serving sara doesn't serve up a whole lot of laughs . 
high crimes miscasts nearly every leading character . 
steve oedekerk is , alas , no woody allen . 
elaborate special effects take centre screen , so that the human story is pushed to one side . 
there's nothing remotely topical or sexy here . 
represents the depths to which the girls-behaving-badly film has fallen . 
'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 . 
bigelow offers some flashy twists and turns that occasionally fortify this turgid fable . 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 . 
proof that a thriller can be sleekly shot , expertly cast , paced with crisp professionalism . . . and still be a letdown if its twists and turns hold no more surprise than yesterday's weather report . 
unspools like a highbrow , low-key , 102-minute infomercial , blending entrepreneurial zeal with the testimony of satisfied customers . 
while the new film is much more eye-catching than its blood-drenched stephen norrington-directed predecessor , the new script by the returning david s . goyer is much sillier . 
mild , meandering teen flick . 
an artsploitation movie with too much exploitation and too little art . 
more busy than exciting , more frantic than involving , more chaotic than entertaining . 
an intermittently pleasing but mostly routine effort . 
blade ii has a brilliant director and charismatic star , but it suffers from rampant vampire devaluation . 
entertainment more disposable than hanna-barbera's half-hour cartoons ever were . 
too close to phantom menace for comfort . 
van wilder brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'comedy gag . ' at least one scene is so disgusting that viewers may be hard pressed to retain their lunch . 
two big things are missing -- anything approaching a visceral kick , and anything approaching even a vague reason to sit through it all . 
basically a static series of semi-improvised ( and semi-coherent ) raps between the stars . 
nothing about the film -- with the possible exception of elizabeth hurley's breasts -- is authentic . 
so routine , familiar and predictable , it raises the possibility that it wrote itself as a newly automated final draft computer program . 
this isn't even madonna's swept away . this is her blue lagoon . 
teen movies have really hit the skids . 
how do you make a movie with depth about a man who lacked any ? on the evidence before us , the answer is clear : not easily and , in the end , not well enough . 
labute was more fun when his characters were torturing each other psychologically and talking about their genitals in public . 
supposedly , pokemon can't be killed , but pokemon 4ever practically assures that the pocket monster movie franchise is nearly ready to keel over . 
too many improbabilities and rose-colored situations temper what could've been an impacting film . 
in all the annals of the movies , few films have been this odd , inexplicable and unpleasant . 
this loud and thoroughly obnoxious comedy about a pair of squabbling working-class spouses is a deeply unpleasant experience . 
the only thing that could possibly make them less interesting than they already are is for them to get full montied into a scrappy , jovial team . 
lacking gravitas , macdowell is a placeholder for grief , and ergo this sloppy drama is an empty vessel . leave these flowers unpicked -- they're dead on the vine . 
if legendary shlockmeister ed wood had ever made a movie about a vampire , it probably would look a lot like this alarming production , adapted from anne rice's novel the vampire chronicles . 
dragonfly has no atmosphere , no tension -- nothing but costner , flailing away . it's a buggy drag . 
it doesn't matter that the film is less than 90 minutes . it still feels like a prison stretch . 
the party scenes deliver some tawdry kicks . the rest of the film . . . is dudsville . 
viewing this underdramatized but overstated film is like watching a transcript of a therapy session brought to humdrum life by some freudian puppet . 
this bond film goes off the beaten path , not necessarily for the better . 
its inescapable absurdities are tantamount to insulting the intelligence of anyone who hasn't been living under a rock ( since sept . 11 ) . 
a workshop mentality prevails . 
while the material is slight , the movie is better than you might think . 
screenwriters scott abbott and michael petroni have turned rice's complex akasha into a cartoon monster . 
i kept wishing i was watching a documentary about the wartime navajos and what they accomplished instead of all this specious hollywood hoo-ha . 
a frustrating combination of strained humor and heavy-handed sentimentality . 
finally coming down off of miramax's deep shelves after a couple of aborted attempts , waking up in reno makes a strong case for letting sleeping dogs lie . 
the movie is too amateurishly square to make the most of its own ironic implications . 
there's more repetition than creativity throughout the movie . 
 . . . grows decidedly flimsier with its many out-sized , out of character and logically porous action set pieces . 
it made me feel unclean , and i'm the guy who liked there's something about mary and both american pie movies . oh , and booty call . 
it's one pussy-ass world when even killer-thrillers revolve around group therapy sessions . 
it's basically an overlong episode of tales from the crypt . 
except as an acting exercise or an exceptionally dark joke , you wonder what anyone saw in this film that allowed it to get made . 
a real clunker . a well-made , thoughtful , well-acted clunker , but a clunker nonetheless . 
