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Version 1.0.0 Assignment A05 - Movie Review Sentiment Analysis – CSCI 242 - Computer Science II Page 1 of 5
Assignment A05 - Movie Review Sentiment
Analysis
CSCI 242 - Computer Science II :: Version 1.0.0

Due date is posted in the LMS.
Please read the entire assignment description before beginning the project.
Objective
The objective of this assignment is to reinforce the concepts of generics and collections. In addition,
the objective of this assignment is to reinforce the concepts of linked data structures, in particular,
linked lists. To accomplish this, you will implement your own generic HashMap data structure from
scratch and use it in a Data Science application that performs movie review sentiment analysis.
Introduction
“War is 90% information.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Background
The background for this assignment is in two parts: 1) sentiment analysis and machine learning and
2) Maps (data structures, not geographical).
Sentiment Analysis and Machine Learning
Machine Learning (ML) is a branch of computer science that explores the construction and study of
algorithms that can learn from the data it is provided. Such algorithms operate by building a model
of a system from existing data inputs and using that to make predictions or decisions. It is a branch
of artificial intelligence based on the idea that systems can learn from data, identify patterns and
make decisions with minimal human intervention.
ML has many, many applications. One such application is the
idea of a machine making predictions based on its previous
experiences (data). For example, ML can make traffic
predictions and estimate the regions where congestion can be
found on the basis of daily experiences. Another example of ML
in action is when our favorite retail web site predicts what we
might like to purchase based on our previous purchases.
ML can also be applied to Sentiment Analysis. Sentiment
Analysis is the process of computationally identifying and
categorizing opinions expressed in a piece of text, especially in
order to determine whether the writer's attitude towards a
particular topic, product, etc., is positive, negative, or neutral.
The Map
A map, as we discussed in class, is a container object that stores
its data as key/value pairs. The key is similar to an array index. Figure 1 - A Java map data structure
Version 1.0.0 Assignment A05 - Movie Review Sentiment Analysis – CSCI 242 - Computer Science II Page 2 of 5
The key is used to find, update and delete the value and its usage allows very efficient access to the
values. The key maps to the value – the two, the key and the value, are conformant. See Figure 1.
While the indices (keys) of an array can only be integers, keys in a map must be objects – objects of
any type. Also, the values must be objects of some type.
A HashMap (or hash table) is a map – a data structure that maps keys to values for highly efficient
lookup. Typically, the keys of a HashMap are hashes that are computed by the data structure.
A HashMap Implementation
There are a number of ways to implement this data structure. One simple implementation of
HashMap’s in Java is to use an array of a linked lists. In this approach, the array is thought of as a
“bucket list” where each bucket contains a linked list of entries. A hash is computed based on some
program-defined criteria and the hash is modulated (via modulus) to restrict the number of buckets
to some reasonable number. This number becomes the array’s index.
Unfortunately, sometimes hashes modulate to the same number – there can be an infinite number of
entries and a finite number of hashes. This is called a collision. When a collision occurs (i.e., two
entries compute the same bucket index), the new entry is added to that bucket’s linked list. See
Figure 2.
Remember that the bucket list is an array where each bucket contains a linked list of entities (as
shown above in Figure 2). The entries in the bucket list (the linked list) look something like this:
class Entry
{
final K key;
V value;
Entry next;

public Entry(K key, V value, Entry next)
{
this.key = key;
this.value = value;
this.next = next;
}

// getters, equals, hashCode and toString
}
You should recognize the structure of the Entry class as a node of a linked list.
Figure 2 - HashMap implementation/visualization
Version 1.0.0 Assignment A05 - Movie Review Sentiment Analysis – CSCI 242 - Computer Science II Page 3 of 5
Inserting an Element
To insert an element into the HashMap (i.e., a key and value), we do the following:
1. Compute the key's hash code, which will be an int. Remember, the two different objects could
have the same hash code. See above.
2. Calculate the index in the bucket array using the hash code modulated by the number of buckets.
Something like this: hashCode (key) % array_length. Here also, two different array indices
could map to the same index.
3. Get the linked list at the index calculated above.
4. Store the element in linked list. Note that the use of a linked list is important because of
collisions: you could have two different keys with the same hash code or two different hash codes
that map to the same index.
Retrieving an Element
The retrieval of the element from the HashMap can be done with the following steps:
1. Compute the hash code from the key.
2. Compute the index from the hash code as described above.
3. Get the linked list at the index computed.
4. Search through the linked list for the value with this value.
The Project
You are required to use IntelliJ IDEA for your assignment. The following is your project information:
Package: edu.uwp.cs.csci242.assignments.a05.mrsa
IntelliJ Project Name: A05_Mrsa
Zip filename: A05.zip
The Assignment
Your assignment is to implement a Java program to compute the sentiment of a movie review using a
simple sentiment analysis algorithm and your very own HashMap implementation. The assignment is
in two parts: the implementation of the HashMap and the implementation of the sentiment analysis.
Part 1: Implement the HashMap
Use the description above to implement your own generic HashMap as a Java array (the bucket list)
of linked lists (the data in the buckets). Note that you must use a Java array not an ArrayList.
Also, the implementation of the linked list must be done by hand, not via Java’s LinkedList.
Your HashMap implementation must minimally have the following methods:
• Two constructors: a no-arg and a one-arg.
• put
• get
• size
• getBucketSize
• getHash
• toString

In addition, your Entry should be implemented as an inner class within the HapMap class. See the
code listing for an Entry above.
Version 1.0.0 Assignment A05 - Movie Review Sentiment Analysis – CSCI 242 - Computer Science II Page 4 of 5
Part 2: Implement the movie review sentiment analysis
Remember that the goal of sentiment analysis is to predict the sentiment of a set of text. The
text/data that our sentiment analysis algorithm is going to “learn” from is a set of 8,529 movie
reviews from Rotten Tomatoes in which the sentiment of each review has been manually rated on a
scale from 0 to 4. The sentiment labels are:
0 – negative
1 - somewhat negative
2 – neutral
3 - somewhat positive
4 – positive
The data has been formatted so it is easy for programs to identify each word (or punctuation). The
data looks like this:

Figure 3 - The sentiment analyzer data file
The assignment is to use the provided data to develop an algorithm and Java class that will allow a
user to input a new review. The program will then automatically score the sentiment of the review.
The first thing that will need to happen is to “seed” the learning system. To do this, your program
will require that you:
1. Read in a review from the data file.
2. Create a WordEntry object that allows you to assign each word in the review the score attributed
to the entire review. For example, the line in the data file that says,

1 You could hate it for the same reason .

would require you to assign a value of 1 for “you”, “could”, “hate”, “it”, “for”, “the”, “same”
and “reason. A WordEnrty object consists of the word, its total score, and the number of
occurrences.
3. Enter the WordEntry object into your HashMap. If word already exists in the hash table, update
the score and number of occurrences to the existing record.
4. Continue to do steps 1 through 3 while there is data to be processed.

Version 1.0.0 Assignment A05 - Movie Review Sentiment Analysis – CSCI 242 - Computer Science II Page 5 of 5
After seeding the learning system, the program should prompt the user to input a movie review.
Once an is typed in, the program should automatically score the review based on the
average score of the words in the review.
Output
Here is a sample run from your instructor’s program:
Enter a review -- Press return to exit:
A weak script that ends with a quick and boring finale
The review has an average value of 1.79128
Negative Sentiment

enter a review -- Press return to exit:
Loved every minute of it
The review has an average value of 2.39219
Positive Sentiment
Submission
Zip up your entire project folder into a single zip file named A05.zip and submit that one file.
Submit the Zip file to the LMS “dropbox” labeled Assignment A05 – MRSA >>> DROPBOX. Your
instructor should be able to unzip the entire project and load the entire project their IDE without
incident.
Grading
The LMS has a rubric attached to the assignment. This rubric is similar to the one shown in the
document titled, “Programming Requirements and Rubric” found in the LMS.
Good software engineering is expected. Remember to follow the Coding Guidelines 1.0.0 found in
the LMS. Use lots of comments throughout the code, lots of methods, and appropriate variable
names. Make sure you validate your input.
Ω
48351 - Sentiment HashMap/Solution/Idea Project/A05_Mrsa/inp2.txt
1 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 .
4 This quiet , introspective and entertaining independent is worth seeking .
1 Even fans of Ismail Merchant 's work , I suspect , would have a hard time sitting through this one .
3 A positively thrilling combination of ethnography and all the intrigue , betrayal , deceit and murder of a Shakespearean tragedy or a juicy soap opera .
1 Aggressive self-glorification and a manipulative whitewash .
4 A comedy-drama of nearly epic proportions rooted in a sincere performance by the title character undergoing midlife crisis .
1 Narratively , Trouble Every Day is a plodding mess .
3 The Importance of Being Earnest , so thick with wit it plays like a reading from Bartlett 's Familiar Quotations
1 But it does n't leave you with much .
1 You could hate it for the same reason .
1 There 's little to recommend Snow Dogs , unless one considers cliched dialogue and perverse escapism a source of high hilarity .
1 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 .
4 The performances are an absolute joy .
3 Fresnadillo has something serious to say about the ways in which extravagant chance can distort our perspective and throw us off the path of good sense .
3 I still like Moonlight Mile , better judgment be damned .
3 A welcome relief from baseball movies that try too hard to be mythic , this one is a sweet and modest and ultimately winning story .
3 a bilingual charmer , just like the woman who inspired it
2 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 .
1 As inept as big-screen remakes of The Avengers and The Wild Wild West .
2 It 's everything you 'd expect -- but nothing more .
4 Best indie of the year , so far .
3 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 .
1 It 's like going to a house party and watching the host defend himself against a frothing ex-girlfriend .
2 That the Chuck Norris `` grenade gag '' occurs about 7 times during Windtalkers is a good indication of how serious-minded the film is .
2 The plot is romantic comedy boilerplate from start to finish .
2 It arrives with an impeccable pedigree , mongrel pep , and almost indecipherable plot complications .
2 A film that clearly means to preach exclusively to the converted .
1 While The Importance of Being Earnest offers opportunities for occasional smiles and chuckles , it does n't give us a reason to be in the theater beyond Wilde 's wit and the actors ' performances .
1 The latest vapid actor 's exercise to appropriate the structure of Arthur Schnitzler 's Reigen .
2 More vaudeville show than well-constructed narrative , but on those terms it 's inoffensive and actually rather sweet .
2 Nothing more than a run-of-the-mill action flick .
0 Hampered -- no , paralyzed -- by a self-indulgent script ... that aims for poetry and ends up sounding like satire .
2 Ice Age is the first computer-generated feature cartoon to feel like other movies , and that makes for some glacial pacing early on .
2 There 's very little sense to what 's going on here , but the makers serve up the cliches with considerable dash .
2 Cattaneo should have followed the runaway success of his first film , The Full Monty , with something different .
1 They 're the unnamed , easily substitutable forces that serve as whatever terror the heroes of horror movies try to avoid .
1 It almost feels as if the movie is more interested in entertaining itself than in amusing us .
0 The movie 's progression into rambling incoherence gives new meaning to the phrase ` fatal script error . '
3 Do n't judge this one too soon - it 's a dark , gritty story but it takes off in totally unexpected directions and keeps on going .
3 So could young romantics out on a date .
0 Tartakovsky 's team has some freakish powers of visual charm , but the five writers slip into the modern rut of narrative banality .
3 Vincent Gallo is right at home in this French shocker playing his usual bad boy weirdo role .
4 If a horror movie 's primary goal is to frighten and disturb , then They works spectacularly well ... A shiver-inducing , nerve-rattling ride .
1 This 100-minute movie only has about 25 minutes of decent material .
2 Fortunately , you still have that option .
3 Less the sensational true-crime hell-jaunt purists might like and more experimental in its storytelling -LRB- though no less horrifying for it -RRB- .
3 As tricky and satisfying as any of David Mamet 's airless cinematic shell games .
1 I 'm sure the filmmaker would disagree , but , honestly , I do n't see the point .
4 Jones has tackled a meaty subject and drawn engaging characters while peppering the pages with memorable zingers .
4 Bloody Sunday has the grace to call for prevention rather than to place blame , making it one of the best war movies ever made .
1 Takes a clunky TV-movie approach to detailing a chapter in the life of the celebrated Irish playwright , poet and drinker .
2 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 .
0 Thanks largely to Williams , all the interesting developments are processed in 60 minutes -- the rest is just an overexposed waste of film .
0 Comes across as a relic from a bygone era , and its convolutions ... feel silly rather than plausible .
4 Perhaps it 's cliche to call the film ` refreshing , ' but it is .
4 Both lead performances are Oscar-size .
0 Run for your lives !
3 Mark Pellington 's latest pop thriller is as kooky and overeager as it is spooky and subtly in love with myth .
3 Claude Chabrol 's camera has a way of gently swaying back and forth as it cradles its characters , veiling tension beneath otherwise tender movements .
3 Transforms one of -LRB- Shakespeare 's -RRB- deepest tragedies into a smart new comedy .
1 The screenplay by James Eric , James Horton and director Peter O'Fallon ... is so pat it makes your teeth hurt .
3 But arriving at a particularly dark moment in history , it offers flickering reminders of the ties that bind us .
1 Its generic villains lack any intrigue -LRB- other than their funny accents -RRB- and the action scenes are poorly delivered .
3 The characters are more deeply thought through than in most ` right-thinking ' films .
3 The film , despite the gratuitous cinematic distractions impressed upon it , is still good fun .
0 Downright transparent is the script 's endless assault of embarrassingly ham-fisted sex jokes that reek of a script rewrite designed to garner the film a `` cooler '' PG-13 rating .
4 A smart , provocative drama that does the nearly impossible : It gets under the skin of a man we only know as an evil , monstrous lunatic .
1 It 's like a drive-by .
3 is many things -- stoner midnight flick , sci-fi deconstruction , gay fantasia -- but above all it 's a love story as sanguine as its title .
3 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 .
1 But it has an ambition to say something about its subjects , but not a willingness .
3 -LRB- Scherfig -RRB- has made a movie that will leave you wondering about the characters ' lives after the clever credits roll .
3 -LRB- An -RRB- absorbing documentary .
2 Reeks of rot and hack work from start to finish .
1 Plays like a series of vignettes -- clips of a film that are still looking for a common through-line .
1
1 The major problem with Windtalkers is that the bulk of the movie centers on the wrong character .
2 Swimfan , like Fatal Attraction , eventually goes overboard with a loony melodramatic denouement in which a high school swimming pool substitutes for a bathtub .
1 This is a heartfelt story ... it just is n't a very involving one .
4 An unsettling , memorable cinematic experience that does its predecessors proud .
3 All in all , it 's a pretty good execution of a story that 's a lot richer than the ones Hollywood action screenwriters usually come up with on their own .
3 Phillip Noyce and all of his actors -- as well as his cinematographer , Christopher Doyle -- understand the delicate forcefulness of Greene 's prose , and it 's there on the screen in their version of The Quiet American .
2 The Pianist lacks the quick emotional connections of Steven Spielberg 's Schindler 's List .
3 Inventive , fun , intoxicatingly sexy , violent , self-indulgent and maddening .
4 Tells a fascinating , compelling story .
1 Written , flatly , by David Kendall and directed , barely , by There 's Something About Mary co-writer Ed Decter .
4 Highly recommended viewing for its courage , ideas , technical proficiency and great acting .
4 In IMAX in short , it 's just as wonderful on the big screen .
3 It shows us a slice of life that 's very different from our own and yet instantly recognizable .
1 Amid the shock and curiosity factors , the film is just a corny examination of a young actress trying to find her way .
2 It 's lazy for a movie to avoid solving one problem by trying to distract us with the solution to another .
3 ... it 's as comprehensible as any Dummies guide , something even non-techies can enjoy .
1 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 .
3 Writer\/director Burr Steers emphasizes the Q in Quirky , with mixed results .
0 Scarcely worth a mention apart from reporting on the number of tumbleweeds blowing through the empty theatres graced with its company .
4 Invigorating , surreal , and resonant with a rainbow of emotion .
0 `` Analyze That '' is one of those crass , contrived sequels that not only fails on its own , but makes you second-guess your affection for the original .
1 Report card : Does n't live up to the exalted tagline - there 's definite room for improvement .
2 It 's not a particularly good film , but neither is it a monsterous one .
2 Tsai may be ploughing the same furrow once too often .
1 -LRB- Green is -RRB- 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 .
3 A surprisingly ` solid ' achievement by director Malcolm D. Lee and writer John Ridley .
2 Massoud 's story is an epic , but also a tragedy , the record of a tenacious , humane fighter who was also the prisoner -LRB- and ultimately the victim -RRB- of history .
3 Changing Lanes tries for more .
1 Shyamalan should stop trying to please his mom .
3 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 .
4 One of recent memory 's most thoughtful films about art , ethics , and the cost of moral compromise .
2 The narrative is so consistently unimaginative that probably the only way to have saved the film is with the aid of those wisecracking Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys .
4 Filmmaker Tian Zhuangzhuang triumphantly returns to narrative filmmaking with a visually masterful work of quiet power .
1 A mawkish self-parody that plays like some weird Masterpiece Theater sketch with neither a point of view nor a compelling reason for being .
2 Takes one character we do n't like and another we do n't believe , and puts them into a battle of wills that is impossible to care about and is n't very funny .
1 And if you appreciate the one-sided theme to Lawrence 's over-indulgent tirade , then knock yourself out and enjoy the big screen postcard that is a self-glorified Martin Lawrence lovefest .
0 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 .
3 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 .
1 Swinging , the film makes it seem , is not a hobby that attracts the young and fit .
2 But when it does , you 're entirely unprepared .
3 Devos delivers a perfect performance that captures the innocence and budding demons within a wallflower .
4 300 years of Russian history and culture compressed into an evanescent , seamless and sumptuous stream of consciousness .
3 The filmmakers want nothing else than to show us a good time , and in their cheap , B movie way , they succeed .
3 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 .
4 `` Spider-man is better than any summer blockbuster we had to endure last summer , and hopefully , sets the tone for a summer of good stuff .
2 Absorbing character
1 Violent , vulgar and forgettably entertaining .
2 It 's the unsettling images of a war-ravaged land that prove more potent and riveting than the unlikely story of Sarah and Harrison .
3 Winds up being both revelatory and narcissistic , achieving some honest insight into relationships that most high-concept films candy-coat with pat storylines , precious circumstances and beautiful stars .
3 If Mostly Martha is mostly unsurprising , it 's still a sweet , even delectable diversion .
4 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 .
3 Keenly observed and refreshingly natural , Swimming gets the details right , from its promenade of barely clad bodies in Myrtle Beach , S.C. , to the adrenaline jolt of a sudden lunch rush at the diner .
2 A brilliant gag at the expense of those who paid for it and those who pay to see it .
4 A triumph , a film that hews out a world and carries us effortlessly from darkness to light .
1 Just about everyone involved here seems to be coasting .
3 A fascinating , dark thriller that keeps you hooked on the delicious pulpiness of its lurid fiction .
1 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 .
1 It 's hard to say who might enjoy this , are there Tolstoy groupies out there ?
1 Daughter From Danang reveals that efforts toward closure only open new wounds .
4 One of the year 's most weirdly engaging and unpredictable character pieces .
4 Intriguing and downright intoxicating .
1 Although fairly involving as far as it goes , the film does n't end up having much that is fresh to say about growing up Catholic or , really , anything .
0 The movie is silly beyond comprehension , and even if it were n't silly , it would still be beyond comprehension .
3 Sleek and arty .
0 Poor editing , bad bluescreen , and ultra-cheesy dialogue highlight the radical action .
3 -LRB- Cho 's face is -RRB- an amazing slapstick instrument , creating a scrapbook of living mug shots .
1 It gets the details of its time frame right but it completely misses its emotions .
2 Initial strangeness inexorably gives way to rote sentimentality and mystical tenderness becomes narrative expedience .
3 It lets you brush up against the humanity of a psycho , without making him any less psycho .
1 Like the world of his film , Hartley created a monster but did n't know how to handle it .
4 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 .
1 Too clumsy in key moments ... to make a big splash .
2 Because Eight Legged Freaks is partly an homage to Them , Tarantula and other low - budget B-movie thrillers of the 1950s and '60s , the movie is a silly -LRB- but not sophomoric -RRB- romp through horror and hellish conditions .
1 It feels like very light Errol Morris , focusing on eccentricity but failing , ultimately , to make something bigger out of its scrapbook of oddballs .
4 Spielberg 's realization of a near-future America is masterful .
0 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 .
3 He 's one of the few ` cool ' actors who never seems aware of his own coolness .
1 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 .
1 ... stale and uninspired .
3 In the director 's cut , the film is not only a love song to the movies but it also is more fully an example of the kind of lush , all-enveloping movie experience it rhapsodizes .
3 Has the rare capability to soothe and break your heart with a single stroke .
1 Eerily accurate depiction of depression .
1 As a feature-length film , it wears out its welcome as tryingly as the title character .
3 An uncluttered , resonant gem that relays its universal points without lectures or confrontations . '
1 The story alone could force you to scratch a hole in your head .
3 It 's the filmmakers ' post-camp comprehension of what made old-time B movies good-bad that makes Eight Legged Freaks a perfectly entertaining summer diversion .
2 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 .
2 You bet there is and it 's what makes this rather convoluted journey worth taking .
3 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 .
1 Kim Ki-Deok seems to have in mind an -LRB- emotionally at least -RRB- adolescent audience demanding regular shocks and bouts of barely defensible sexual violence to keep it interested .
0 Has no reason to exist , other than to employ Hollywood kids and people who owe favors to their famous parents .
2 A well-made but emotionally scattered film whose hero gives his heart only to the dog .
2 Those who love Cinema Paradiso will find the new scenes interesting , but few will find the movie improved .
3 Campanella gets the tone just right -- funny in the middle of sad in the middle of hopeful .
0 Nothing more than an amiable but unfocused bagatelle that plays like a loosely-connected string of acting-workshop exercises .
3 It 's a sharp movie about otherwise dull subjects .
2 Wallace gets a bit heavy handed with his message at times , and has a visual flair that waxes poetic far too much for our taste .
2 Charming and funny -LRB- but ultimately silly -RRB- movie .
2 ... the one thing this Wild film has that other Imax films do n't : chimps , lots of chimps , all blown up to the size of a house .
0 Starts out mediocre , spirals downward , and thuds to the bottom of the pool with an utterly incompetent conclusion .
3 This is a children 's film in the truest sense .
0 Horrendously amateurish filmmaking that is plainly dull and visually ugly when it is n't incomprehensible .
4 Beautifully crafted , engaging filmmaking that should attract upscale audiences hungry for quality and a nostalgic , twisty yarn that will keep them guessing .
1 An awkwardly contrived exercise in magic realism .
1 The punch lines that miss , unfortunately , outnumber the hits by three-to-one .
3 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
3 Evokes the style and flash of the double-cross that made Mamet 's `` House of Games '' and last fall 's `` Heist '' so much fun .
3 The film aims to be funny , uplifting and moving , sometimes all at once .
2 At a brief 42 minutes , we need more X and less blab .
2 The Spalding Gray equivalent of a teen gross-out comedy .
1 There 's a great deal of corny dialogue and preposterous moments .
3 Uneven but a lot of fun .
2 The result might look like Vulgar .
0 The film rehashes several old themes and is capped with pointless extremes -- it 's insanely violent and very graphic .
3 The dragons are the real stars of Reign of Fire and you wo n't be disappointed .
1 It never plays as dramatic even when dramatic things happen to people .
3 Manages to please its intended audience -- children -- without placing their parents in a coma-like state .
1 The movie generates plot points with a degree of randomness usually achieved only by lottery drawing .
2 Though the film never veers from its comic course , its unintentional parallels might inadvertently evoke memories and emotions which are anything but humorous .
1 The film can depress you about life itself .
1 If you saw it on TV , you 'd probably turn it off , convinced that you had already seen that movie .
1 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 .
4 This is a superior horror flick .
2 The movie 's heavy-handed screenplay navigates a fast fade into pomposity and pretentiousness .
1 A little weak -- and it is n't that funny .
1 But they do n't fit well together and neither is well told .
2 Being latently gay and liking to read are hardly enough .
3 More sophisticated and literate than such pictures usually are ... an amusing little catch .
1 Storytelling feels slight .
4 Monte Cristo smartly emphasizes the well-wrought story and omits needless chase scenes and swordfights as the revenge unfolds .
4 It 's a fairy tale that comes from a renowned Indian film culture that allows Americans to finally revel in its splendor .
3 Well-done supernatural thriller with keen insights into parapsychological phenomena and the soulful nuances of the grieving process .
2 ... only Bond can save us from the latest eccentric , super-wealthy megalomaniac bent on world domination and destruction .
0 It is depressing , ruthlessly pained and depraved , the movie equivalent of staring into an open wound .
3 Damon brings the proper conviction to his role as -LRB- Jason Bourne -RRB- .
1 Parents beware ; this is downright movie penance .
3 When it 's this rich and luscious , who cares ?
1 A singularly off-putting romantic comedy .
2 Director Boris von Sychowski instead opts for a routine slasher film that was probably more fun to make than it is to sit through .
0 Would 've been nice if the screenwriters had trusted audiences to understand a complex story , and left off the film 's predictable denouement .
1 A superfluous sequel ... plagued by that old familiar feeling of ` let 's get this thing over with ' : Everyone has shown up at the appointed time and place , but visible enthusiasm is mighty hard to find .
3 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 .
1 Cloaks a familiar anti-feminist equation -LRB- career - kids = misery -RRB- in tiresome romantic-comedy duds .
1 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 .
3 His work transcends the boy-meets-girl posturing of typical love stories .
1 An even more predictable , cliche-ridden endeavor than its predecessor .
0 Plays like a bad blend of an overripe episode of TV 's Dawson 's Creek and a recycled and dumbed-down version of Love Story .
1 The script covers huge , heavy topics in a bland , surfacey way that does n't offer any insight into why , for instance , good things happen to bad people .
0 The film is so bad it does n't improve upon the experience of staring at a blank screen .
1 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 .
0 It 's difficult to imagine that a more confused , less interesting and more sloppily made film could possibly come down the road in 2002 .
3 Though the film is well-intentioned , one could rent the original and get the same love story and parable .
2 Jolting into Charleston rhythms , the story has the sizzle of old news that has finally found the right vent -LRB- accurate ?
2 Or both .
2 Williams plays Sy , another of his open-faced , smiling madmen , like the killer in Insomnia .
1 Phoned-in business as usual .
1 With its lackadaisical plotting and mindless action , All About the Benjamins evokes the bottom tier of blaxploitation flicks from the 1970s .
0 Ah , yes , that would be me : fighting off the urge to doze .
0 Thoughtless , random , superficial humour and a lot of very bad Scouse accents
3 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 .
3 A rip-roaring comedy action fest that 'll put hairs on your chest .
4 ... a thoughtful what-if for the heart as well as the mind .
4 Miyazaki is one of world cinema 's most wondrously gifted artists and storytellers .
3 A chronicle not only of one man 's quest to be president , but of how that man single-handedly turned a plane full of hard-bitten , cynical journalists into what was essentially , by campaign 's end , an extended publicity department .
4 Provides the kind of ` laugh therapy ' I need from movie comedies -- offbeat humor , amusing characters , and a happy ending .
0 Feels strangely hollow at its emotional core .
3 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 .
2 Director Roger Michell does so many of the little things right that it 's difficult not to cuss him out severely for bungling the big stuff .
3 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 .
4 This movie may not have the highest production values you 've ever seen , but it 's the work of an artist , one whose view of America , history and the awkwardness of human life is generous and deep .
1 Feral and uncomfortable .
4 Sillier , cuter , and shorter than the first -LRB- as best I remember -RRB- , but still a very good time at the cinema .
3 It 's more enjoyable than I expected , though , and that 's because the laughs come from fairly basic comedic constructs .
0 Black-and-white and unrealistic .
3 The film is predictable in the reassuring manner of a beautifully sung holiday carol .
0 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 .
3 Not about scares but a mood in which an ominous , pervasive , and unknown threat lurks just below the proceedings and adds an almost constant mindset of suspense .
1 Some of the computer animation is handsome , and various amusing sidekicks add much-needed levity to the otherwise bleak tale , but overall the film never rises above mediocrity .
4 Offers the flash of rock videos fused with solid performances and eerie atmosphere .
3 A breezy blend of art , history , esoteric musings and philosophy .
3 Now as a former Gong Show addict , I 'll admit it , my only complaint is that we did n't get more re-creations of all those famous moments from the show .
3 Genuinely unnerving .
4 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 .
3 One of those joyous films that leaps over national boundaries and celebrates universal human nature .
2 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 .
1 Halfway through the movie , the humor dwindles .
4 Witty and often surprising , a dark little morality tale disguised as a romantic comedy .
1 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 .
3 In fact , even better .
2 ... a preachy parable stylized with a touch of John Woo bullet ballet .
2 Proves that some movie formulas do n't need messing with -- like the big-bug movie .
2 An uplifting , largely bogus story .
4 Thanks to confident filmmaking and a pair of fascinating performances , the way to that destination is a really special walk in the woods .
4 Superbly photographed and staged by Mendes with a series of riveting set pieces the likes of which mainstream audiences have rarely seen .
4 A mesmerizing cinematic poem from the first frame to the last .
3 After the first 10 minutes , which is worth seeing
1 It has become apparent that the franchise 's best years are long past .
2 Screenwriter Chris ver Weil 's directing debut is good-natured and never dull , but its virtues are small and easily overshadowed by its predictability .
1 Too much of Storytelling moves away from Solondz 's social critique , casting its audience as that of intellectual lector in contemplation of the auteur 's professional injuries .
1 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 .
0 The jokes are flat , and the action looks fake .
2 A mildly enjoyable if toothless adaptation of a much better book .
0 Festers in just such a dungpile that you 'd swear you were watching monkeys flinging their feces at you .
0 In addition to the overcooked , ham-fisted direction , which has all the actors reaching for the back row , the dialogue sounds like horrible poetry .
0 A vile , incoherent mess ... a scummy ripoff of David Cronenberg 's brilliant ` Videodrome . '
1 First , for a movie that tries to be smart , it 's kinda dumb .
2 I was sent a copyof this film to review on DVD .
1 ... silly humbuggery ...
1 Is n't as sharp as the original ... Despite some visual virtues , ` Blade II ' just does n't cut it .
3 A smart , arch and rather cold-blooded comedy .
0 -LRB- A -RRB- rather thinly-conceived movie .
3 Its flame-like , roiling black-and-white inspires trembling and gratitude .
4 Robinson 's web of suspense matches the page-turning frenzy that Clancy creates .
3 A slight but sweet film .
2 Got a David Lynch jones ?
2 Earnest and tentative even when it aims to shock .
1 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 .
4 `` Austin Powers in Goldmember '' has the right stuff for silly summer entertainment and has enough laughs to sustain interest to the end .
2 What puzzles me is the lack of emphasis on music in Britney Spears ' first movie .
2 The filmmakers might want to look it up .
4 While maintaining the appearance of clinical objectivity , this sad , occasionally horrifying but often inspiring film is among Wiseman 's warmest .
4 There is simply no doubt that this film asks the right questions at the right time in the history of our country .
0 A dreary movie .
1 Sadly , though many of the actors throw off a spark or two when they first appear , they ca n't generate enough heat in this cold vacuum of a comedy to start a reaction .
1 To the filmmakers , Ivan is a prince of a fellow , but he comes across as shallow and glib though not mean-spirited , and there 's no indication that he 's been responsible for putting together any movies of particular value or merit .
3 Using a stock plot , About a Boy injects just enough freshness into the proceedings to provide an enjoyable 100 minutes in a movie theater .
3 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 .
3 What begins as a conventional thriller evolves into a gorgeously atmospheric meditation on life-changing chance encounters .
2 Buy popcorn .
2 A late-night cable sexploitation romp masquerading as a thriller about the ruthless social order that governs college cliques .
1 A well-intentioned effort that 's still too burdened by the actor 's offbeat sensibilities for the earnest emotional core to emerge with any degree of accessibility .
2 -LRB- Allen 's -RRB- 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 .
3 Seeing as the film lacks momentum and its position remains mostly undeterminable , the director 's experiment is a successful one .
4 Judith and Zaza 's extended bedroom sequence ... is so intimate and sensual and funny and psychologically self-revealing that it makes most of what passes for sex in the movies look like cheap hysterics .
1 Uneven performances and a spotty script add up to a biting satire that has no teeth .
0 ... irritating soul-searching garbage .
3 A solid , spooky entertainment worthy of the price of a ticket .
2 Ultimately , clarity matters , both in breaking codes and making movies .
0 In comparison to his earlier films it seems a disappointingly thin slice of lower-class London life ; despite the title ... amounts to surprisingly little .
2 Proves mainly that South Korean filmmakers can make undemanding action movies with all the alacrity of their Hollywood counterparts .
4 Except it 's much , much better .
4 It is a happy , heady jumble of thought and storytelling , an insane comic undertaking that ultimately coheres into a sane and breathtakingly creative film .
2 There is more than one joke about putting the toilet seat down .
2 has -RRB-
4 So original in its base concept that you can not help but get caught up .
0 It appears to have been made by people to whom the idea of narrative logic or cohesion is an entirely foreign concept .
2 If you ignore the cliches and concentrate on City by the Sea 's interpersonal drama , it ai n't half-bad .
3 A dreadful day in Irish history is given passionate , if somewhat flawed , treatment .
4 See it .
1 Nothing but an episode of Smackdown !
2 A guilty pleasure at best , and not worth seeing unless you want to laugh at it .
1 Perhaps a better celebration of these unfairly dismissed heroes would be a film that is n't this painfully forced , false and fabricated .
0 A relative letdown .
2 ` Hey Arnold ! '
3 But though he only scratches the surface , at least he provides a strong itch to explore more .
2 The band performances featured in Drumline are red hot ... -LRB- but -RRB- from a mere story point of view , the film 's ice cold .
1 A non-mystery mystery .
4 Leigh is one of the rare directors who feels acting is the heart and soul of cinema .
3 The cast delivers without sham the raw-nerved story .
1 This is a monumental achievement in practically every facet of inept filmmaking : joyless , idiotic , annoying , heavy-handed , visually atrocious , and often downright creepy .
2 The filmmaker 's heart is in the right place ...
0 One of the most highly-praised disappointments I 've had the misfortune to watch in quite some time .
1 Rock 's stand-up magic wanes .
1 Roman Polanski directs The Pianist like a surgeon mends a broken heart ; very meticulously but without any passion .
1 Sadly , ` Garth ' has n't progressed as nicely as ` Wayne . '
2 With wit and empathy to spare , waydowntown acknowledges the silent screams of workaday inertia but stops short of indulging its characters ' striving solipsism .
1 It labours as storytelling .
1 Remember back when thrillers actually thrilled ?
3 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 .
1 Fails so fundamentally on every conventional level that it achieves some kind of goofy grandeur .
2 ... a ho-hum affair , always watchable yet hardly memorable .
1 I just saw this movie ... well , it 's probably not accurate to call it a movie .
2 Though uniformly well acted , especially by young Ballesta and Galan -LRB- a first-time actor -RRB- , writer\/director Achero Manas 's film is schematic and obvious .
2 When you resurrect a dead man , Hard Copy should come a-knocking , no ?
2 If the idea of the white man arriving on foreign shores to show wary natives the true light is abhorrent to you , the simplistic Heaven will quite likely be more like hell .
2 It 's hard to believe that a relationship like Holly and Marina 's could survive the hothouse emotions of teendom , and its longevity gets more inexplicable as the characterizations turn more crassly reductive .
2 For a movie audience , The Hours does n't connect in a neat way , but introduces characters who illuminate mysteries of sex , duty and love .
1 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 .
3 Too clever by about nine-tenths .
1 This is no `` Waterboy ! ''
2 They 're going through the motions , but the zip is gone .
2 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 .
2 Not as good as the original , but what is ...
4 Those moviegoers who would automatically bypass a hip-hop documentary should give `` Scratch '' a second look .
3 Bigelow offers some flashy twists and turns that occasionally fortify this turgid fable .
1 An unsophisticated sci-fi drama that takes itself all too seriously .
0 Stupid , infantile , redundant , sloppy , over-the-top , and amateurish .
2 Resident Evil is what comes from taking John Carpenter 's Ghosts of Mars and eliminating the beheadings .
0 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 .
4 With or without the sex , a wonderful tale of love and destiny , told well by a master storyteller
3 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 .
3 A terrific date movie , whatever your orientation .
0 Once the expectation of laughter has been quashed by whatever obscenity is at hand , even the funniest idea is n't funny .
1 How do you make a movie with depth about a man who lacked any ?
1 Translation : ` We do n't need to try very hard . '
4 `` Frailty '' offers chills much like those that you get when sitting around a campfire around midnight , telling creepy stories to give each other the willies .
2 Less front-loaded and more shapely than the two-hour version released here in 1990 .
4 An ambitious movie that , like Shiner 's organizing of the big fight , pulls off enough of its effects to make up for the ones that do n't come off .
4 Some movies suck you in despite their flaws , and Heaven is one such beast .
4 Very well written and directed with brutal honesty and respect for its audience .
4 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 .
1 Gooding offers a desperately ingratiating performance .
1 ... stumbles over every cheap trick in the book trying to make the outrage come even easier .
3 Nicely combines the enigmatic features of ` Memento ' with the hallucinatory drug culture of ` Requiem for a Dream . '
4 Every individual will see the movie through the prism of his or her own beliefs and prejudices , but the one thing most will take away is the sense that peace is possible .
0 Just a bunch of good actors flailing around in a caper that 's neither original nor terribly funny .
0 This ill-conceived and expensive project winds up looking like a bunch of talented thesps slumming it .
1 Broder 's screenplay is shallow , offensive and redundant , with pitifully few real laughs .
4 Leguizamo and Jones are both excellent and the rest of the cast is uniformly superb .
1 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 .
2 `` 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 .
4 Delia , Greta , and Paula rank as three of the most multilayered and sympathetic female characters of the year .
3 The beauty of Alexander Payne 's ode to the Everyman is in the details .
1 The town has kind of an authentic feel , but each one of these people stand out and everybody else is in the background and it just seems manufactured to me and artificial .
1 Julie Davis is the Kathie Lee Gifford of film directors , sadly proving once again ego does n't always go hand in hand with talent .
3 Much credit must be given to the water-camera operating team of Don King , Sonny Miller , and Michael Stewart .
2 In this film , Aussie David Caesar channels the not-quite-dead career of Guy Ritchie .
4 As averse as I usually am to feel-good , follow-your-dream Hollywood fantasies , this one got to me .
3 Maybe it is formula filmmaking , but there 's nothing wrong with that if the film is well-crafted and this one is .
2 Would you laugh if a tuba-playing dwarf rolled down a hill in a trash can ?
0 Loses its sense of humor in a vat of failed jokes , twitchy acting , and general boorishness .
1 This misty-eyed Southern nostalgia piece , in treading the line between sappy and sanguine , winds up mired in tear-drenched quicksand .
1 To be oblivious to the existence of this film would be very sweet indeed .
3 Despite its flaws ... Belinsky is still able to create an engaging story that keeps you guessing at almost every turn .
2 A porn film without the sex scenes .
2 The movie plays up the cartoon 's more obvious strength of snazziness while neglecting its less conspicuous writing strength .
3 Notwithstanding my problem with the movie 's final half hour , I 'm going to recommend SECRETARY , based on the wonderful acting clinic put on by Spader and Gyllenhaal , and also the unique way Shainberg goes about telling what at heart is a sweet little girl -
1 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 .
3 `` Barbershop '' is a good-hearted ensemble comedy with a variety of quirky characters and an engaging story .
1 A soulless jumble of ineptly assembled cliches and pabulum that plays like a 95-minute commercial for NBA properties .
2 An ambitious , serious film that manages to do virtually everything wrong ; sitting through it is something akin to an act of cinematic penance .
4 Consistently clever and suspenseful .
3 Soderbergh skims the fat from the 1972 film .
2 Hilarious musical comedy though stymied by accents thick as mud .
1 A movie like The Guys is why film criticism can be considered work .
0 Anyone who suffers through this film deserves , at the very least , a big box of consolation candy .
2 Bearable .
3 Cremaster 3 is at once a tough pill to swallow and a minor miracle of self-expression .
3 But Kouyate elicits strong performances from his cast , and he delivers a powerful commentary on how governments lie , no matter who runs them .
3 See it for his performance if nothing else .
4 The asylum material is gripping , as are the scenes of Jia with his family .
4 I walked away from this new version of E.T. just as I hoped I would -- with moist eyes .
0 Attal pushes too hard to make this a comedy or serious drama .
1 plays like some corny television production from a bygone era
4 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 .
1 Solondz may well be the only one laughing at his own joke
1 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 .
3 Any enjoyment will be hinge from a personal threshold of watching sad but endearing characters do extremely unconventional things .
1 Some Body smacks of exhibitionism more than it does cathartic truth telling .
3 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 .
0 -LRB- Carvey 's -RRB- characters are both overplayed and exaggerated , but then again , subtlety has never been his trademark .
4 This beautifully animated epic is never dull .
3 Charming and witty , it 's also somewhat clumsy .
1 In one scene , we get a stab at soccer hooliganism , a double-barreled rip-off of Quentin Tarantino 's climactic shootout -- and Meat Loaf explodes .
0 frustratingly refuses to give Pinochet 's crimes a political context
2 Paul Bettany playing Malcolm McDowell ?
2 A serviceable Euro-trash action extravaganza , with a decent sense of humor and plenty of things that go boom -- handguns , BMWs and seaside chateaus .
2 Veterans of the dating wars will smirk uneasily at the film 's nightmare versions of everyday sex-in-the-city misadventures .
4 It sends you away a believer again and quite cheered at just that .
1 The rollerball sequences feel sanitised and stagey .
1 Interview With the Assassin is structured less as a documentary and more as a found relic , and as such the film has a difficult time shaking its Blair Witch Project real-time roots .
4 It is most remarkable not because of its epic scope , but because of the startling intimacy it achieves despite that breadth .
1 A nearly 21\/2 hours , the film is way too indulgent .
1 Seems like something American and European gay movies were doing 20 years ago .
1 Claims to sort the bad guys from the good , which is its essential problem .
2 Mana gives us compelling , damaged characters who we want to help -- or hurt .
1 Good-looking but relentlessly lowbrow outing plays like Clueless Does South Fork .
3 Evokes a palpable sense of disconnection , made all the more poignant by the incessant use of cell phones .
3 The concept is a hoot .
4 A straight-shooting family film which awards animals the respect they 've rarely been given .
2 The directive to protect the code at all costs also begins to blur as the importance of the man and the code merge
2 What Eric Schaeffer has accomplished with Never Again may not , strictly speaking , qualify as revolutionary .
0 Obvious , obnoxious and didactic burlesque .
2 What can one say about a balding 50-year-old actor playing an innocent boy carved from a log ?
2 Ca n't seem to get anywhere near the story 's center .
1 Even with its $ 50-million US budget , Pinocchio never quite achieves the feel of a fanciful motion picture .
1 A little more intensity and a little less charm would have saved this film a world of hurt .
1 Like most of Jaglom 's films , some of it is honestly affecting , but more of it seems contrived and secondhand .
2 Maelstrom is a deliberately unsteady mixture of stylistic elements .
3 Just bring on the Battle Bots , please !
3 Sweet Home Alabama is n't going to win any Academy Awards , but this date-night diversion will definitely win some hearts .
1 Love may have been in the air onscreen , but I certainly was n't feeling any of it .
1 Too long , and larded with exposition , this somber cop drama ultimately feels as flat as the scruffy sands of its titular community .
1 The young stars are too cute ; the story and ensuing complications are too manipulative ; the message is too blatant ; the resolutions are too convenient .
2 In some ways , Lagaan is quintessential Bollywood .
1 A characteristically engorged and sloppy coming-of-age movie .
4 A wry , affectionate delight .
3 Credit director Ramsay for taking the sometimes improbable story and making it feel realistic .
3 The auteur 's ear for the way fears and slights are telegraphed in the most blithe exchanges gives the film its lingering tug .
3 Gets better after Foster leaves that little room .
3 Despite its lavish formalism and intellectual austerity , the film manages to keep you at the edge of your seat with its shape-shifting perils , political intrigue and brushes with calamity .
1 Friday After Next is the kind of film that could only be made by African-Americans because of its broad racial insensitivity towards African-Americans .
1 As lively an account as Seinfeld is deadpan .
2 Brings awareness to an issue often overlooked -- women 's depression .
1 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 .
3 Definitely funny stuff , but it 's more of the ` laughing at ' variety than the ` laughing with . '
3 A heartening tale of small victories and enduring hope .
4 An emotionally strong and politically potent piece of cinema .
0 An extremely unpleasant film .
1 More intellectually scary than dramatically involving .
2 A puzzling experience .
2 Jonah is only so-so ... the addition of a biblical message will either improve the film for you , or it will lessen it .
4 I hope the movie is widely seen and debated with appropriate ferocity and thoughtfulness .
4 Intelligent and moving .
1 This film is too busy hitting all of its assigned marks to take on any life of its own .
2 Mark Wahlberg ... may look classy in a '60s - homage pokepie hat , but as a character he 's dry , dry , dry .
3 The moral shrapnel and mental shellshock will linger long after this film has ended .
2 As Warren he stumbles in search of all the emotions and life experiences he 's neglected over the years .
1 It should have stayed there .
0 ... in the pile of useless actioners from MTV schmucks who do n't know how to tell a story for more than four minutes .
0 It is not the first time that director Sara Sugarman stoops to having characters drop their pants for laughs and not the last time she fails to provoke them .
1 There 's no point of view , no contemporary interpretation of Joan 's prefeminist plight , so we 're left thinking the only reason to make the movie is because present standards allow for plenty of nudity .
3 There is a strong directorial stamp on every frame of this stylish film that is able to visualize schizophrenia but is still confident enough to step back and look at the sick character with a sane eye .
4 Romantic , riveting and handsomely animated .
0 This overproduced piece of dreck is shockingly bad and absolutely unnecessary .
1 As saccharine as it is disposable .
4 Captures the raw comic energy of one of our most flamboyant female comics .
2 A subtle , poignant picture of goodness that is flawed , compromised and sad .
4 An exceptionally acted , quietly affecting cop drama .
1 Even in the summertime , the most restless young audience deserves the dignity of an action hero motivated by something more than franchise possibilities .
4 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 .
3 She nearly glows with enthusiasm , sensuality and a conniving wit .
3 Despite modest aspirations its occasional charms are not to be dismissed .
1 So exaggerated and broad that it comes off as annoying rather than charming .
4 Strange , funny , twisted , brilliant and macabre .
1 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 .
2 The cast comes through even when the movie does n't .
3 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 .
3 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 .
2 Innocuous enough to make even Jean-Claude Van Damme look good .
0 But if the essence of magic is its make-believe promise of life that soars above the material realm , this is the opposite of a truly magical movie .
1 But its storytelling prowess and special effects are both listless .
4 I stopped thinking about how good it all was , and started doing nothing but reacting to it - feeling a part of its grand locations , thinking urgently as the protagonists struggled , feeling at the mercy of its inventiveness , gasping at its visual delights .
2 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 .
1 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 .
2 With a confrontational stance , Todd Solondz takes aim on political correctness and suburban families .
1 A processed comedy chop suey .
3 eventually arrives at its heart , as simple self-reflection meditation .
1 Proves a lovely trifle that , unfortunately , is a little too in love with its own cuteness .
3 So purely enjoyable that you might not even notice it 's a fairly straightforward remake of Hollywood comedies such as Father of the Bride .
4 An intelligent , multi-layered and profoundly humanist -LRB- not to mention gently political -RRB- meditation on the values of knowledge , education , and the affects of cultural and geographical displacement .
0 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 .
4 A sexy , peculiar and always entertaining costume drama set in Renaissance Spain , and the fact that it 's based on true events somehow makes it all the more compelling .
3 The Santa Clause 2 proves itself a more streamlined and thought out encounter than the original could ever have hoped to be .
0 Goldmember has none of the visual wit of the previous pictures , and it looks as though Jay Roach directed the film from the back of a taxicab .
3 It 's a sweet , laugh-a-minute crowd pleaser that lifts your spirits as well as the corners of your mouth .
3 Highly recommended as an engrossing story about a horrifying historical event and the elements which contributed to it .
1 Goes on and on to the point of nausea .
2 -LRB- Raimi 's -RRB- 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 .
1 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 .
1 An unbelievably stupid film , though occasionally fun enough to make you forget its absurdity .
3 In between the icy stunts , the actors spout hilarious dialogue about following your dream and ` just letting the mountain tell you what to do . '
3 A modestly surprising movie .
4 ... a powerful sequel and one of the best films of the year .
3 Combines improbable melodrama -LRB- gored bullfighters , comatose ballerinas -RRB- with subtly kinky bedside vigils and sensational denouements , and yet at the end , we are undeniably touched .
3 This is one of Mr. Chabrol 's subtlest works , but also one of his most uncanny .
2 This one is strictly a lightweight escapist film .
2 It 's actually too sincere -- the crime movie equivalent of a chick flick .
1 If the title is a Jeopardy question , then the answer might be `` How does Steven Seagal come across these days ? ''
1 Unambitious writing emerges in the movie , using a plot that could have come from an animated-movie screenwriting textbook .
1 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 .
3 There is a freedom to watching stunts that are this crude , this fast-paced and this insane .
0 ` This movie sucks . '
1 Dignified CEO 's meet at a rustic retreat and pee against a tree .
1 A sugar-coated Rocky whose valuable messages are forgotten 10 minutes after the last trombone honks .
1 The movie is too amateurishly square to make the most of its own ironic implications .
3 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 .
4 The film 's constant mood of melancholy and its unhurried narrative are masterfully controlled .
2 Barry Sonnenfeld owes Frank the Pug big time
2 One gets the impression the creators of Do n't Ask Do n't Tell laughed a hell of a lot at their own jokes .
1 Schrader aims to present an unflinching look at one man 's downfall , brought about by his lack of self-awareness .
0 After that it becomes long and tedious like a classroom play in a college history course .
1 Blue Crush follows the formula , but throws in too many conflicts to keep the story compelling .
3 A small gem of a movie that defies classification and is as thought-provoking as it is funny , scary and sad .
2 Somewhere in the middle , the film compels , as Demme experiments he harvests a few movie moment gems , but the field of roughage dominates .
0 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 .
3 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 were n't as beautifully shaped and as delicately calibrated in tone as it is .
2 Parts
3 In visual fertility Treasure Planet rivals the top Japanese animations of recent vintage .
1 This toothless Dog , already on cable , loses all bite on the big screen .
1 Make Chan 's action sequences boring .
1 It all comes down to whether you can tolerate Leon Barlow .
3 The Wild Thornberrys Movie has all the sibling rivalry and general family chaos to which anyone can relate .
4 Peralta captures , in luminous interviews and amazingly evocative film from three decades ago , the essence of the Dogtown experience .
0 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 .
3 Will certainly appeal to Asian cult cinema fans and Asiaphiles interested to see what all the fuss is about .
1 Green ruins every single scene he 's in , and the film , while it 's not completely wreaked , is seriously compromised by that .
1 Evokes the frustration , the awkwardness and the euphoria of growing up , without relying on the usual tropes .
4 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 .
3 This is a very ambitious project for a fairly inexperienced filmmaker , but good actors , good poetry and good music help sustain it .
3 A thriller whose style , structure and rhythms are so integrated with the story , you can not separate them .
3 It 's mostly a pleasure to watch .
1 The first question to ask about Bad Company is why Anthony Hopkins is in it .
2 Nair and writer Laura Cahill dare to build a movie around some flawed but rather unexceptional women , emerging with a fine character study that 's short on plot but rich in the tiny revelations of real life .
4 Goofy , nutty , consistently funny .
4 Audiard successfully maintains suspense on different levels throughout a film that is both gripping and compelling .
3 Welles groupie\/scholar Peter Bogdanovich took a long time to do it , but he 's finally provided his own broadside at publishing giant William Randolph Hearst .
1 The most excruciating 86 minutes one might sit through this summer that do not involve a dentist drill .
2 Skillful as he is , Mr. Shyamalan is undone by his pretensions .
2 Fans of so-bad-they 're - good cinema may find some fun in this jumbled mess .
0 We started to wonder if ... some unpaid intern had just typed ` Chris Rock , ' ` Anthony Hopkins ' and ` terrorists ' into some Univac-like script machine .
4 Mostly works because of the universal themes , earnest performances ... and excellent use of music by India 's popular Gulzar and Jagjit Singh .
3 A perceptive , good-natured movie .
3 This is n't a stand up and cheer flick ; it 's a sit down and ponder affair .
2 One of the pleasures in Walter 's documentary ... is the parade of veteran painters , confounded dealers , and miscellaneous bohos who expound upon the subject 's mysterious personality without ever explaining him .
1 Adrift , Bentley and Hudson stare and sniffle , respectively , as Ledger attempts , in vain , to prove that movie-star intensity can overcome bad hair design .
2 The real charm of this trifle is the deadpan comic face of its star , Jean Reno , who resembles Sly Stallone in a hot sake half-sleep .
3 And there 's an element of heartbreak to watching it now , with older and wiser eyes , because we know what will happen after Greene 's story ends .
1 Rather than real figures
3 By no means a great movie , but it is a refreshingly forthright one .
1 Not just unlikable .
2 Show me the mugging .
3 Hashiguchi uses the situation to evoke a Japan bustling atop an undercurrent of loneliness and isolation .
4 It 's a rollicking adventure for you and all your mateys , regardless of their ages .
2 The next big thing 's not-so-big -LRB- and not-so-hot -RRB- directorial debut .
3 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 .
1 Overly long and worshipful bio-doc .
4 A visual spectacle full of stunning images and effects .
3 There is something that is so meditative and lyrical about Babak Payami 's boldly quirky Iranian drama Secret Ballot ... a charming and evoking little ditty that manages to show the gentle and humane side of Middle Eastern world politics
2 It 's easy to be cynical about documentaries in which underdogs beat the odds and the human spirit triumphs , but Westbrook 's foundation and Dalrymple 's film earn their uplift .
3 The difference is that I truly enjoyed most of Mostly Martha while I ne
2 I ca n't remember the last time I saw a movie where I wanted so badly for the protagonist to fail .
1 Falsehoods pile up , undermining the movie 's reality and stifling its creator 's comic voice .
4 The early and middle passages are surprising in how much they engage and even touch us .
1 Limps along on a squirm-inducing fish-out-of-water formula that goes nowhere and goes there very , very slowly .
2 A really funny fifteen-minute short stretched beyond its limits to fill an almost feature-length film .
4 Writer and director Otar Iosseliani 's pleasant tale about a factory worker who escapes for a holiday in Venice reveals how we all need a playful respite from the grind to refresh our souls .
0 A mechanical action-comedy whose seeming purpose is to market the charismatic Jackie Chan to even younger audiences .
0 Chalk it up as the worst kind of hubristic folly .
2 Though Haynes ' style apes films from the period ... its message is not rooted in that decade .
2 But I do .
3 A compelling allegory about the last days of Germany 's democratic Weimar Republic .
1 Director Jay Russell stomps in hobnail boots over Natalie Babbitt 's gentle , endearing 1975 children 's novel .
2 It is an indelible epic American story about two families , one black and one white , facing change in both their inner and outer lives .
4 It 's as raw and action-packed an experience as a ringside seat at a tough-man contest .
3 ... -LRB- the film -RRB- works , due mostly to the tongue-in-cheek attitude of the screenplay .
3 You walk out of The Good Girl with mixed emotions -- disapproval of Justine combined with a tinge of understanding for her actions .
2 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 .
1 Unfortunately the story and the actors are served with a hack script .
1 This is an insultingly inept and artificial examination of grief and its impacts upon the relationships of the survivors .
4 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 .
0 A tired , unnecessary retread ... a stale copy of a picture that was n't all that great to begin with .
1 Its initial excitement settles into a warmed over pastiche .
4 Muccino , who directed from his own screenplay , is a canny crowd pleaser , and The Last Kiss ... provides more than enough sentimental catharsis for a satisfying evening at the multiplex .
3 It challenges , this nervy oddity , like modern art should .
4 Read My Lips is to be viewed and treasured for its extraordinary intelligence and originality as well as its lyrical variations on the game of love .
4 An hour and a half of joyful solo performance .
3 Like its parade of predecessors , this Halloween is a gory slash-fest .
2 Better than the tepid Star Trek : Insurrection ; falls short of First Contact because the villain could n't pick the lint off Borg Queen Alice Krige 's cape ; and finishes half a parsec -LRB- a nose -RRB- ahead of Generations .
3 Exploits -LRB- headbanger -RRB- stereotypes in good fun , while adding a bit of heart and unsettling subject matter .
0 It 's just rather leaden and dull .
1 Rice never clearly defines his characters or gives us a reason to care about them .
3 Although the subject matter may still be too close to recent national events , the film works - mostly due to its superior cast of characters .
3 A deeply felt and vividly detailed story about newcomers in a strange new world .
2 The film 's darker moments become smoothed over by an overwhelming need to tender inspirational tidings , especially in the last few cloying moments .
3 From the opening strains of the Average White Band 's `` Pick up the Pieces '' , you can feel the love .
1 Its impressive images of crematorium chimney fires and stacks of dead bodies are undermined by the movie 's presentation , which is way too stagy .
3 Triple X is a double agent , and he 's one bad dude .
3 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 -LRB- if tragic -RRB- note .
3 This is popcorn movie fun with equal doses of action , cheese , ham and cheek -LRB- as well as a serious debt to The Road Warrior -RRB- , but it feels like unrealized potential
4 As an actress , Madonna is one helluva singer .
1 Jaglom offers the none-too-original premise that everyone involved with moviemaking is a con artist and a liar .
3 The filmmakers ' eye for detail and the high standards of performance convey a strong sense of the girls ' environment .
2 It wraps up a classic mother\/daughter struggle in recycled paper with a shiny new bow and while the audience can tell it 's not all new , at least it looks pretty .
0 or maybe `` How will you feel after an 88-minute rip-off of The Rock with action confined to slo-mo gun firing and random glass-shattering ? ''
3 Enough may pander to our basest desires for payback , but unlike many revenge fantasies , it ultimately delivers .
1 How can such a cold movie claim to express warmth and longing ?
2 Only at the prospect of Beck 's next project .
4 ... a vivid , thoughtful , unapologetically raw coming-of-age tale full of sex , drugs and rock 'n' roll .
4 A bittersweet contemporary comedy about benevolent deception , which , while it may not rival the filmmaker 's period pieces , is still very much worth seeing .
0 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 .
3 They can and will turn on a dime from oddly humorous to tediously sentimental .
0 It 's a terrible movie in every regard , and utterly painful to watch .
0 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 ?
3 Evokes the 19th century with a subtlety that is an object lesson in period filmmaking .
4 All three actresses are simply dazzling , particularly Balk , who 's finally been given a part worthy of her considerable talents .
2 The beautiful , unusual music is this film 's chief draw , but its dreaminess may lull you to sleep .
3 You may be captivated , as I was , by its moods , and by its subtly transformed star , and still wonder why Paul Thomas Anderson ever had the inclination to make the most sincere and artful movie in which Adam Sandler will probably ever appear .
1 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 .
1 Ver Wiel 's desperate attempt at wit is lost , leaving the character of Critical Jim two-dimensional and pointless .
4 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 .
1 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 .
0 In other words , it 's badder than bad .
0 Wedding feels a bit anachronistic .
1 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 .
1 Little is done to support the premise other than fling gags at it to see which ones shtick .
4 Brings to a spectacular completion one of the most complex , generous and subversive artworks of the last decade .
3 With an obvious rapport with her actors and a striking style behind the camera
2 You can see where Big Bad Love is trying to go , but it never quite gets there .
1 A sleek advert for youthful anomie that never quite equals the sum of its pretensions .
1 Statham employs an accent that I think is supposed to be an attempt at hardass American but sometimes just lapses into unhidden British .
2 If A Few Good Men told us that we `` ca n't handle the truth '' than High Crimes poetically states at one point in this movie that we `` do n't care about the truth . ''
0 So boring that even its target audience talked all the way through it .
2 Wiser souls would have tactfully pretended not to see it and left it lying there
0 Rarely has sex on screen been so aggressively anti-erotic .
3 The Hours , a delicately crafted film , is an impressive achievement in spite of a river of sadness that pours into every frame .
3 Delivers roughly equal amounts of beautiful movement and inside information .
2 Showtime 's starry cast could be both an asset and a detriment .
4 -LRB- Dong -RRB- makes a valiant effort to understand everyone 's point of view , and he does such a good job of it that Family Fundamentals gets you riled up .
4 Light the candles , bring out the cake and do n't fret about the calories because there 's precious little substance in Birthday Girl -- it 's simply , and surprisingly , a nice , light treat .
4 In his debut as a director , Washington has a sure hand .
4 -- but it makes for one of the most purely enjoyable and satisfying evenings at the movies I 've had in a while .
2 This is not Chabrol 's best , but even his lesser works outshine the best some directors can offer .
3 The heart of the film is a touching reflection on aging , suffering and the prospect of death .
4 It 's a glorious spectacle like those D.W. Griffith made in the early days of silent film .
1 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 .
4 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 .
2 If this movie leaves you cool , it also leaves you intriguingly contemplative .
3 When all is said and done , she loves them to pieces -- and so , I trust , will you .
3 It takes you somewhere you 're not likely to have seen before , but beneath the exotic surface -LRB- and exotic dancing -RRB- it 's surprisingly old-fashioned .
3 Director Claude Chabrol has become the master of innuendo .
3 Woven together handsomely , recalling sixties ' rockumentary milestones from Lonely Boy to Do n't Look Back .
0 It 's petty thievery like this that puts flimsy flicks like this behind bars
1 Paul Cox needed to show it .
2 A film that will probably please people already fascinated by Behan but leave everyone else yawning with admiration .
3 The huskies are beautiful , the border collie is funny and the overall feeling is genial and decent .
1 They ought to be a whole lot scarier than they are in this tepid genre offering .
3 moved
0 Nearly every attempt at humor here is DOA .
2 A piquant meditation on the things that prevent people from reaching happiness .
4 This movie is to be cherished .
4 The Bard as black comedy -- Willie would have loved it .
1 Too bland and fustily tasteful to be truly prurient .
4 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 .
1 Once he starts learning to compromise with reality enough to become comparatively sane and healthy , the film becomes predictably conventional .
3 The film is ... determined to treat its characters , weak and strong , as fallible human beings , not caricatures , and to carefully delineate the cost of the inevitable conflicts between human urges and an institution concerned with self-preservation .
3 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 .
1 While it is interesting to witness the conflict from the Palestinian side , Longley 's film lacks balance ... and fails to put the struggle into meaningful historical context .
3 Producer John Penotti surveyed high school students ... and came back with the astonishing revelation that `` they wanted to see something that did n't talk down to them . ''
4 A real winner -- smart , funny , subtle , and resonant .
2 Ultimate X is a ride , basically the kind of greatest-hits reel that might come with a subscription to ESPN the Magazine .
2 Unfortunately , contrived plotting , stereotyped characters and Woo 's over-the-top instincts as a director undermine the moral dilemma at the movie 's heart .
4 Jones ... makes a great impression as the writer-director of this little $ 1.8 million charmer , which may not be cutting-edge indie filmmaking but has a huge heart .
0 Even a hardened voyeur would require the patience of Job to get through this interminable , shapeless documentary about the swinging subculture .
4 I 'd watch these two together again in a New York minute .
0 You can practically hear George Orwell turning over .
4 Ferrara 's best film in years .
2 Possibly not since Grumpy Old Men have I heard a film so solidly connect with one demographic while striking out with another .
3 No doubt the star and everyone else involved had their hearts in the right place .
2 ... a visually seductive , unrepentantly trashy take on Rice 's second installment of her Vampire Chronicles .
4 Poetry in motion captured on film .
1 Pretend like your SAT scores are below 120 and you might not notice the flaws .
1 None of Birthday Girl 's calculated events take us by surprise ...
1 Twenty-three movies into a mostly magnificent directorial career , Clint Eastwood 's efficiently minimalist style finally has failed him .
2 It 's like a `` Big Chill '' reunion of the Baader-Meinhof Gang , only these guys are more harmless pranksters than political activists .
4 Ms. Hutchins is talented enough and charismatic enough to make us care about Zelda 's ultimate fate .
3 Successfully blended satire , high camp and yet another sexual taboo into a really funny movie .
3 Really is a pan-American movie , with moments of genuine insight into the urban heart .
2 Same song , second verse , coulda been better , but it coulda been worse .
1 The superior plotline is n't quite enough to drag along the dead -LRB- water -RRB- weight of the other .
2 Crikey indeed .
2 It 's exactly what you 'd expect .
1 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 .
0 You can not guess why the cast and crew did n't sign a pact to burn the negative and the script and pretend the whole thing never existed .
3 A stirring road movie .
3 If you 've grown tired of going where no man has gone before , but several movies have - take heart .
3 It has more than a few moments that are insightful enough to be fondly remembered in the endlessly challenging maze of moviegoing .
1 It just goes to show , an intelligent person is n't necessarily an admirable storyteller .
4 Perhaps the best sports movie I 've ever seen .
1 Just send it to Cranky .
1 Steven Soderbergh does n't remake Andrei Tarkovsky 's Solaris so much as distill it .
1 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 .
1 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 .
1 Works better in the conception than it does in the execution ... winds up seeming just a little too clever .
2 New Yorkers always seem to find the oddest places to dwell ...
1 Vaguely interesting , but it 's just too too much .
1 With all the sympathy , empathy and pity fogging up the screen ... His Secret Life enters the land of unintentional melodrama and tiresome love triangles .
1 Van Wilder has a built-in audience , but only among those who are drying out from spring break and are still unconcerned about what they ingest .
1 No , even that 's too committed .
4 The large-frame IMAX camera lends itself beautifully to filming the teeming life on the reefs , making this gorgeous film a must for everyone from junior scientists to grown-up fish lovers .
1 Low comedy does n't come much lower .
1 The characterizations and dialogue lack depth or complexity , with the ironic exception of Scooter .
3 dramatic snapshot
2 What we get ... is Caddyshack crossed with the Loyal Order of Raccoons .
3 It 'll keep you wide awake and ... very tense .
1 The movie is loaded with good intentions , but in his zeal to squeeze the action and our emotions into the all-too-familiar dramatic arc of the Holocaust escape story , Minac drains his movie of all individuality .
3 It may scream low budget , but this charmer has a spirit that can not be denied .
3 Less an examination of neo-Nazism than a probe into the nature of faith itself .
4 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 .
3 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 .
3 There are no special effects , and no Hollywood endings .
1 Despite Juliet Stevenon 's attempt to bring cohesion to Pamela 's emotional roller coaster life , it is not enough to give the film the substance it so desperately needs .
3 Not a schlocky creature feature but something far more stylish and cerebral -- and , hence , more chillingly effective .
4 From a deceptively simple premise , this deeply moving French drama develops a startling story that works both as a detailed personal portrait and as a rather frightening examination of modern times .
2 The movie is obviously a labour of love so Howard appears to have had free rein to be as pretentious as he wanted .
3 A stylish cast and some clever scripting solutions help Chicago make the transition from stage to screen with considerable appeal intact .
3 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 .
3 It 's a movie that accomplishes so much that one viewing ca n't possibly be enough .
4 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 .
3 A quiet , disquieting triumph .
0 A muddled limp biscuit of a movie , a vampire soap opera that does n't make much sense even on its own terms .
2 It looks much more like a cartoon in the end than The Simpsons ever has .
3 Hugely accomplished slice of Hitchcockian suspense .
1 A generic international version of a typical American horror film .
2 The result is good gossip , entertainingly delivered , yet with a distinctly musty odour , its expiry date long gone .
4 Just the labour involved in creating the layered richness of the imagery in this chiaroscuro of madness and light is astonishing .
3 Charlotte Sometimes is a gem .
3 Stage director Sam Mendes showcases Tom Hanks as a depression era hit-man in this dark tale of revenge .
3 Brady
1 Upper Teens may get cynical .
3 A gift to anyone who loves both dance and cinema
3 A small movie with a big heart .
1 Like a comedian who starts off promisingly but then proceeds to flop , Comedian runs out of steam after a half hour .
3 feeling to it , but like the 1920 's , the trip there is a great deal of fun .
3 Essentially a collection of bits -- and they 're all naughty .
1 A cartoon ?
2 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 .
1 These guys seem great to knock back a beer with but they 're simply not funny performers .
0 It 's not a motion picture ; it 's an utterly static picture .
3 The Powerpuff Girls arrive on the big screen with their super-powers , their super-simple animation and their super-dooper-adorability intact .
1 Coal is n't as easy to come by as it used to be and this would be a worthy substitute for naughty children 's stockings .
3 I love the opening scenes of a wintry New York City in 1899 .
3 If -LRB- Jaglom 's -RRB- latest effort is not the director at his most sparkling , some of its repartee is still worth hearing .
2 It shares the first two films ' loose-jointed structure , but laugh-out-loud bits are few and far between .
4 The movie is a trove of delights .
1 With `` Ichi the Killer '' , Takashi Miike , Japan 's wildest filmmaker gives us a crime fighter carrying more emotional baggage than Batman ...
2 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 .
2 Thin period piece .
4 A well-executed spy-thriller .
2 The stripped-down dramatic constructs , austere imagery and abstract characters are equal parts poetry and politics , obvious at times but evocative and heartfelt .
3 ... the tale of her passionate , tumultuous affair with Musset unfolds as Sand 's masculine persona , with its love of life and beauty , takes form .
0 More of the same old garbage Hollywood has been trying to pass off as acceptable teen entertainment for some time now .
2 Strident and inelegant in its ` message-movie ' posturing .
3 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 .
3 Gives an intriguing twist to the French coming-of-age genre .
3 I 'd be lying if I said my ribcage did n't ache by the end of Kung Pow .
3 Has the capability of effecting change and inspiring hope .
0 Kitschy , flashy , overlong soap opera .
1 White has n't developed characters so much as caricatures , one-dimensional buffoons that get him a few laughs but nothing else .
1 ... one resurrection too many .
0 Execrable .
3 It may be a no-brainer , but at least it 's a funny no-brainer .
3 I liked the movie , but I know I would have liked it more if it had just gone that one step further .
3 -LRB- Allen 's -RRB- best works understand why snobbery is a better satiric target than middle-America diversions could ever be .
1 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 .
2 Bernal and
2 An ambitious and moving but bleak film .
3 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 .
3 Slight but enjoyable documentary .
2 Did the film inform and educate me ?
1 If you are curious to see the darker side of what 's going on with young TV actors -LRB- Dawson Leery did what ?!? -RRB- , or see some interesting storytelling devices , you might want to check it out , but there 's nothing very attractive about this movie .
2 At the end of the movie , my 6-year-old nephew said , `` I guess I come from a broken family , and my uncles are all aliens , too . ''
2 All the actors are good in Pauline & Paulette but van der Groen , described as ` Belgium 's national treasure , ' is especially terrific as Pauline .
2 Curling may be a unique sport but Men with Brooms is distinctly ordinary .
3 ` Yes , that 's right : it 's Forrest Gump , Angel Of Death . '
3 Metaphors abound , but it is easy to take this film at face value and enjoy its slightly humorous and tender story .
1 Comes across as a fairly weak retooling .
1 This Orange has some juice , but it 's far from fresh-squeezed .
3 By not averting his eyes , Solondz forces us to consider the unthinkable , the unacceptable , the unmentionable .
3 A remarkably alluring film set in the constrictive Eisenhower era about one suburban woman 's yearning in the face of a loss that shatters her cheery and tranquil suburban life .
1 Ultimately this is a frustrating patchwork : an uneasy marriage of Louis Begley 's source novel -LRB- About Schmidt -RRB- and an old Payne screenplay .
1 The movie is like a year late for tapping into our reality tv obsession , and even tardier for exploiting the novelty of the `` webcast . ''
1 Chai 's structure and pacing are disconcertingly slack .
2 Or else a doggie winks .
3 You need n't be steeped in '50s sociology , pop culture or movie lore to appreciate the emotional depth of Haynes ' work .
2 Decasia is what has happened already to so many silent movies , newsreels and the like .
4 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 .
3 Fast and funny , an action cartoon that 's suspenseful enough for older kids but not too scary for the school-age crowd .
2 After all the big build-up , the payoff for the audience , as well as the characters , is messy , murky , unsatisfying .
4 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 .
2 Once again , the intelligence of gay audiences has been grossly underestimated , and a meaty plot and well-developed characters have been sacrificed for skin and flash that barely fizzle .
1 A film without surprise geared toward maximum comfort and familiarity .
3 Definitely a crowd-pleaser , but then , so was the Roman Colosseum .
3 Here is a VH1 Behind the Music special that has something a little more special behind it : music that did n't sell many records but helped change a nation .
4 Kids will love its fantasy and adventure , and grownups should appreciate its whimsical humor .
1 After all , he took three minutes of dialogue , 30 seconds of plot and turned them into a 90-minute movie that feels five hours long .
0 Interminably bleak , to say nothing of boring .
4 A naturally funny film , Home Movie makes you crave Chris Smith 's next movie .
4 The Bai brothers have taken an small slice of history and opened it up for all of us to understand , and they 've told a nice little story in the process .
2 A Meatballs for the bare-midriff generation .
0 This movie is about the worst thing Chan has done in the United States .
3 Maintains your interest until the end and even leaves you with a few lingering animated thoughts .
3 From blushing to gushing -- Imamura squirts the screen in ` Warm Water Under a Red Bridge '
2 Entertainment more disposable than Hanna-Barbera 's half-hour cartoons ever were .
1 The beautiful images and solemn words can not disguise the slack complacency of -LRB- Godard 's -RRB- vision , any more than the gorgeous piano and strings on the soundtrack can drown out the tinny self-righteousness of his voice .
1 Were Dylan Thomas alive to witness first-time director Ethan Hawke 's strained Chelsea Walls , he might have been tempted to change his landmark poem to , ` Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Theatre . '
3 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 .
2 A somewhat disappointing and meandering saga .
1 It 's in the action scenes that things fall apart .
0 There 's no palpable chemistry between Lopez and male lead Ralph Fiennes , plus the script by Working Girl scribe Kevin Wade is workmanlike in the extreme .
1 A cleverly crafted but ultimately hollow mockumentary .
1 The uneven movie does have its charms and its funny moments but not quite enough of them .
1 An unintentionally surreal kid 's picture ... in which actors in bad bear suits enact a sort of inter-species parody of a VH1 Behind the Music episode .
2 It will break your heart many times over .
1 This is as lax and limp a comedy as I 've seen in a while , a meander through worn-out material .
1 It 's both sitcomishly predictable and cloying in its attempts to be poignant .
1 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 .
1 -LRB- A -RRB- mess .
0 A work that lacks both a purpose and a strong pulse .
3 The sword fighting is well done and Auteuil is a goofy pleasure .
1 a stereotype
4 The IMAX screen enhances the personal touch of manual animation .
2 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 .
3 God bless Crudup and his aversion to taking the easy Hollywood road and cashing in on his movie-star gorgeousness .
1 Is it a comedy ?
3 Unlike most surf movies , Blue Crush thrillingly uses modern technology to take the viewer inside the wave .
3 The best part about `` Gangs '' was Daniel Day-Lewis .
3 Waiting for Godard can be fruitful : ` In Praise of Love ' is the director 's epitaph for himself .
3 An edgy thriller that delivers a surprising punch .
1 The movie would seem less of a trifle if Ms. Sugarman followed through on her defiance of the saccharine .
0 ` The War of the Roses , ' trailer-trash style .
4 The result is a powerful , naturally dramatic piece of low-budget filmmaking .
0 A fifty car pileup of cliches .
1 Whole stretches of the film may be incomprehensible to moviegoers not already clad in basic black .
0 ... pitiful , slapdash disaster .
4 Charlotte Sometimes is a brilliant movie .
2 You end up simply admiring this bit or that , this performance or that .
4 Godard has never made a more sheerly beautiful film than this unexpectedly moving meditation on love , history , memory , resistance and artistic transcendence .
0 An erotic thriller that 's neither too erotic nor very thrilling , either .
3 Carrying off a spot-on Scottish burr , Duvall -LRB- also a producer -RRB- peels layers from this character that may well not have existed on paper .
2 A solid piece of journalistic work that draws a picture of a man for whom political expedience became a deadly foreign policy .
4 Hopkins , squarely fills the screen .
0 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 .
2 Everything its title implies , a standard-issue crime drama spat out from the Tinseltown assembly line .
3 Unfolds as one of the most politically audacious films of recent decades from any country , but especially from France .
0 `` Abandon '' will leave you wanting to abandon the theater .
3 Probably the best case for Christianity since Chesterton and Lewis .
0 Before long , you 're desperate for the evening to end .
2 It 's all a rather shapeless good time ...
0 Feels more like a rejected X-Files episode than a credible account of a puzzling real-life happening .
0 No amount of good intentions is able to overcome the triviality of the story .
4 -LRB- Ramsay -RRB- visually transforms the dreary expanse of dead-end distaste the characters inhabit into a poem of art , music and metaphor .
1 The film has -LRB- its -RRB- moments , but they are few and far between .
3 ... a sweetly affecting story about four sisters who are coping , in one way or another , with life 's endgame .
2 A disturbing examination of what appears to be the definition of a ` bad ' police shooting .
0 Distances you by throwing out so many red herrings , so many false scares , that the genuine ones barely register .
2 Almost .
0 Every sequel you skip will be two hours gained .
1 Been there done that .
2 They exist for hushed lines like `` They 're back ! ''
3 Somehow Ms. Griffiths and Mr. Pryce bring off this wild Welsh whimsy .
1 The densest distillation of Roberts ' movies ever made .
0 Lots of effort and intelligence are on display but in execution it is all awkward , static , and lifeless rumblings .
4 This is one of the outstanding thrillers of recent years .
1 Consider the film a celluloid litmus test for the intellectual and emotional pedigree of your date and a giant step backward for a director I admire .
3 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 .
2 Opening with some contrived banter , cliches and some loose ends , the screenplay only comes into its own in the second half .
4 A captivating new film .
2 If you adored The Full Monty so resoundingly that you 're dying to see the same old thing in a tired old setting , then this should keep you reasonably entertained .
3 Worth catching for Griffiths ' warm and winning central performance .
1 Sorvino makes the princess seem smug and cartoonish , and the film only really comes alive when poor Hermocrates and Leontine pathetically compare notes about their budding amours .
2 While this has the making of melodrama , the filmmaker cuts against this natural grain , producing a work that 's more interested in asking questions than in answering them .
3 Davis is funny , charming and quirky in her feature film acting debut as Amy .
0 An uncomfortable movie , suffocating and sometimes almost senseless , The Grey Zone does have a center , though a morbid one .
1 The lousy John Q all but spits out Denzel Washington 's fine performance in the title role .
0 So devoid of pleasure or sensuality that it can not even be dubbed hedonistic .
3 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 .
3 A pointed , often tender , examination of the pros and cons of unconditional love and familial duties .
3 Another trumpet blast that there may be a New Mexican Cinema a-bornin ' . '
1 Gorgeous to look at but insufferably tedious and turgid ... a curiously constricted epic .
1 Only about as sexy and dangerous as an actress in a role that reminds at every turn of Elizabeth Berkley 's flopping dolphin-gasm .
1 Their contrast is neither dramatic nor comic -- it 's just a weird fizzle .
0 Collateral Damage is trash , but it earns extra points by acting as if it were n't .
2 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 .
4 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 .
2 It 's packed to bursting with incident , and with scores of characters , some fictional , some from history .
2 You want to call Domino 's .
2 The umpteenth summer skinny dip in Jerry Bruckheimer 's putrid pond of retread action twaddle .
3 `` the road paved with good intentions leads to the video store ''
3 Chris Columbus ' sequel is faster , livelier and a good deal funnier than his original .
1 Full of flatulence jokes and mild sexual references , Kung Pow !
2 The whole affair is as predictable as can be .
3 The film is a very good viewing alternative for young women .
3 To those who have not read the book , the film is a much better mother-daughter tale than last summer 's ` Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood , ' but that 's not saying much .
3 But it also has many of the things that made the first one charming .
2 Sheridan
3 This slight premise ... works because of the ideal casting of the masterful British actor Ian Holm as the aged Napoleon .
3 But never mind all that ; the boobs are fantasti
3 About Schmidt is Nicholson 's goofy , heartfelt , mesmerizing King Lear .
1 It is most of the things Costner movies are known for ; it 's sanctimonious , self-righteous and so eager to earn our love that you want to slap it .
4 This is a very funny , heartwarming film .
3 It 's a piece of handiwork that shows its indie tatters and self-conscious seams in places , but has some quietly moving moments and an intelligent subtlety .
4 I was amused and entertained by the unfolding of Bielinsky 's cleverly constructed scenario , and greatly impressed by the skill of the actors involved in the enterprise .
3 For most of the distance the picture provides a satisfyingly unsettling ride into the dark places of our national psyche .
1 With very little to add beyond the dark visions already relayed by superb recent predecessors like Swimming With Sharks and The Player , this latest skewering ... may put off insiders and outsiders alike .
1 Being unique does n't necessarily equate to being good , no matter how admirably the filmmakers have gone for broke .
2 The respective charms of Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant have worn threadbare .
1 Like the Hanks character , he 's a slow study : The action is stilted and the tabloid energy embalmed .
3 ... enthusiastically invokes the percussion rhythm , the brass soul and the sense of fierce competition that helps make great marching bands half the fun of college football games .
3 What 's invigorating about it is that it does n't give a damn .
2 Cacoyannis is perhaps too effective in creating an atmosphere of dust-caked stagnation and labored gentility .
3 An entertaining , if ultimately minor , thriller .
3 The real star of this movie is the score , as in the songs translate well to film , and it 's really well directed .
2 Punitively affirmational parable .
1 Demme finally succeeds in diminishing his stature from Oscar-winning master to lowly studio hack .
3 Horrid little propaganda film with fascinating connections not only to the Serbs themselves but also to a network of American right-wing extremists .
3 Star\/producer Salma Hayek and director Julie Taymor have infused Frida with a visual style unique and inherent to the titular character 's paintings and in the process created a masterful work of art of their own .
3 This one is not nearly as dreadful as expected .
1 But ... in trying to capture the novel 's deeper intimate resonances , the film has -- ironically - distanced us from the characters .
3 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 .
1 There 's a whole heap of nothing at the core of this slight coming-of-age\/coming-out tale .
4 A sensitive , moving , brilliantly constructed work .
2 It pulls the rug out from under you , just when you 're ready to hate one character , or really sympathize with another character , something happens to send you off in different direction .
4 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 .
0 It 's probably not easy to make such a worthless film ...
3 The creative animation work may not look as fully ` rendered ' as Pixar 's industry standard , but it uses lighting effects and innovative backgrounds to an equally impressive degree .
2 An often unfunny romp .
2 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 .
2 Clever but not especially compelling .
1 An EXIT sign , that is .
2 It 's an actor 's showcase that accomplishes its primary goal without the use of special effects , but rather by emphasizing the characters -- including the supporting ones .
4 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 .
1 ... if it had been only half-an-hour long or a TV special , the humor would have been fast and furious -- at ninety minutes , it drags .
3 Its compelling mix of trial movie , escape movie and unexpected fable ensures the film never feels draggy .
1 It drowns in sap .
2 ` Rare Birds ' tries to force its quirkiness upon the audience .
4 A solid and refined piece of moviemaking imbued with passion and attitude .
3 `` Red Dragon '' never cuts corners .
2 modeled
1 Alternative medicine obviously has its merits ... but Ayurveda does the field no favors .
1 Bland but harmless .
1 Viewers are asked so often to suspend belief that were it not for Holm 's performance , the film would be a total washout .
1 A small fortune in salaries and stunt cars might have been saved if the director , Tom Dey , had spliced together bits and pieces of Midnight Run and 48 Hours -LRB- and , for that matter , Shrek -RRB- .
3 It 's good to see Michael Caine whipping out the dirty words and punching people in the stomach again .
1 No Such Thing breaks no new ground and treads old turf like a hippopotamus ballerina .
3 The film exudes the urbane sweetness that Woody Allen seems to have bitterly forsaken .
1 The script is a dim-witted pairing of teen-speak and animal gibberish .
3 Cedar somewhat defuses this provocative theme by submerging it in a hoary love triangle .
0 What might have emerged as hilarious lunacy in the hands of Woody Allen or Mel Brooks -LRB- at least during their '70s heyday -RRB- comes across as lame and sophomoric in this debut indie feature .
0 I have not been this disappointed by a movie in a long time .
0 There 's not a comedic moment in this romantic comedy .
1 I admire it and yet can not recommend it , because it overstays its natural running time .
3 There 's plenty to enjoy -- in no small part thanks to Lau .
1 Action - mechanical .
1 None of this is half as moving as the filmmakers seem to think .
0 An incredibly irritating comedy about thoroughly vacuous people ... manages to embody the worst excesses of nouvelle vague without any of its sense of fun or energy .
1 Wait to see it then .
0 None of this is very original , and it is n't particularly funny .
2 -- was a fad that had long since vanished .
1 An uneasy mix of run-of-the-mill raunchy humor and seemingly sincere personal reflection .
1 Should have been worth cheering as a breakthrough but is devoid of wit and humor .
2 I found myself more appreciative of what the director was trying to do than of what he had actually done .
2 is clever enough , though thin writing proves its undoing .
1 Stone seems to have a knack for wrapping the theater in a cold blanket of urban desperation .
0 Done in mostly by a weak script that ca n't support the epic treatment .
1 The whole thing plays like a tired Tyco ad .
1 That 's muy loco , but no more ridiculous than most of the rest of `` Dragonfly . ''
2 Solondz creates some effective moments of discomfort for character and viewer alike .
1 Includes too much obvious padding .
2 Well , they 're ` they ' .
1 Any attempts at nuance given by the capable cast is drowned out by director Jon Purdy 's sledgehammer sap .
4 -LRB- A -RRB- wonderfully loopy tale of love , longing , and voting .
1 The characters , cast in impossibly contrived situations , are totally estranged from reality .
3 For every cheesy scene , though , there is a really cool bit -- the movie 's conception of a future-world holographic librarian -LRB- Orlando Jones -RRB- who knows everything and answers all questions , is visually smart , cleverly written , and nicely realized .
4 The mark of a respectable summer blockbuster is one of two things : unadulterated thrills or genuine laughs .
2 As a hybrid teen thriller and murder mystery , Murder by Numbers fits the profile too closely .
3 Alternately frustrating and rewarding .
2 I highly recommend Irwin , but not in the way this film showcases him .
1 It 's hard to believe that something so short could be so flabby .
4 Anyone who welcomes a dash of the avant-garde fused with their humor should take pleasure in this crazed , joyous romp of a film .
1 It merely indulges in the worst elements of all of them .
1 -- 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 .
2 Interesting , but not compelling .
3 `` Catch Me '' feels capable of charming the masses with star power , a pop-induced score and sentimental moments that have become a Spielberg trademark .
2 An enigmatic film that 's too clever for its own good , it 's a conundrum not worth solving .
3 The fascination comes in the power of the Huston performance , which seems so larger than life and yet so fragile , and in the way the Ivan character accepts the news of his illness so quickly but still finds himself unable to react .
2 Eh .
0 Highly uneven and inconsistent ... Margarita Happy Hour kinda resembles the el cheapo margaritas served within .
2 The film tries to touch on spousal abuse but veers off course and becomes just another revenge film .
3 -LRB- Stephen -RRB- 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 .
1 Glizty but formulaic and silly ... Cagney 's ` top of the world ' has been replaced by the bottom of the barrel .
1 Queen of the Damned as you might have guessed , makes sorry use of Aaliyah in her one and only starring role -- she does little here but point at things that explode into flame .
4 The modern master of the chase sequence returns with a chase to end all chases
2 into Scrooge .
1 A sub-formulaic slap in the face to seasonal cheer .
1 A baffling mixed platter of gritty realism and magic realism with a hard-to-swallow premise .
1 -LRB- I -RRB- t 's certainly laudable that the movie deals with hot-button issues in a comedic context , but Barbershop is n't as funny as it should be .
3 But once the falcon arrives in the skies above Manhattan , the adventure is on red alert .
2 All the filmmakers are asking of us , is to believe in something that is improbable .
4 A fascinating literary mystery story with multiple strands about the controversy of who really wrote Shakespeare 's plays .
0 My own minority report is that it stinks .
1 Unless there are zoning ordinances to protect your community from the dullest science fiction , Impostor is opening today at a theater near you .
1 A handsome but unfulfilling suspense drama more suited to a quiet evening on PBS than a night out at an AMC .
0 Not only are the film 's Sopranos gags incredibly dated and unfunny , they also demonstrate how desperate the makers of this ` we 're - doing-it-for - the-cash ' sequel were .
1 To the vast majority of more casual filmgoers , it will probably be a talky bore .
4 finely crafted , finely written , exquisitely performed
2 There 's no real reason to see it , and no real reason not to .
2 -LRB- Crystal and De Niro -RRB- manage to squeeze out some good laughs but not enough to make this silly con job sing .
0 Master of Disguise runs for only 71 minutes and feels like three hours .
4 ... a delightfully unpredictable , hilarious comedy with wonderful performances that tug at your heart in ways that utterly transcend gender labels .
3 It does n't matter that the film is less than 90 minutes .
2 Do n't hate El Crimen del Padre Amaro because it 's anti-Catholic .
3 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 .
3 Its sheer dynamism is infectious .
2 Troll the cult section of your local video store for the real deal .
0 Bears is even worse than I imagined a movie ever could be .
0 Crush could be the worst film a man has made about women since Valley of the Dolls .
1 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 .
1 A light , engaging comedy that fumbles away almost all of its accumulated enjoyment with a crucial third act miscalculation .
1 They presume their audience wo n't sit still for a sociology lesson , however entertainingly presented , so they trot out the conventional science-fiction elements of bug-eyed monsters and futuristic women in skimpy clothes .
1 It does n't offer audiences any way of gripping what its point is , or even its attitude toward its subject .
1 A loquacious and dreary piece of business .
1 Blue Crush is as predictable as the tides .
3 waydowntown manages to nail the spirit-crushing ennui of denuded urban living without giving in to it .
1 Disturbing .
3 But it 's defiantly and delightfully against the grain .
3 A compelling coming-of-age drama about the arduous journey of a sensitive young girl through a series of foster homes and a fierce struggle to pull free from her dangerous and domineering mother 's hold over her .
3 Strange it is , but delightfully so .
1 A clash between the artificial structure of the story and the more contemporary , naturalistic tone of the film ...
4 Jagger , Stoppard and director Michael Apted ... deliver a riveting and surprisingly romantic ride .
3 If the material is slight and admittedly manipulative , Jacquot preserves Tosca 's intoxicating ardor through his use of the camera .
1 -LRB- A -RRB- slummer .
1 Ultimately , in the history of the Academy , people may be wondering what all that jazz was about `` Chicago '' in 2002 .
1 The direction occasionally rises to the level of marginal competence , but for most of the film it is hard to tell who is chasing who or why .
0 For a story set at sea , Ghost Ship is pretty landbound , with its leaden acting , dull exposition and telegraphed ` surprises . '
0 On its icy face , the new film is a subzero version of Monsters , Inc. , without the latter 's imagination , visual charm or texture .
2 The 1960s rebellion was misdirected : you ca n't fight your culture .
1 Millions of dollars heaped upon a project of such vast proportions need to reap more rewards than spiffy bluescreen technique and stylish weaponry .
3 Family portrait of need , neurosis and nervy negativity is a rare treat that shows the promise of digital filmmaking .
4 A poignant and gently humorous parable that loves its characters and communicates something rather beautiful about human nature .
2 Smug , artificial , ill-constructed and fatally overlong ... it never finds a consistent tone and lacks bite , degenerating into a pious , preachy soap opera .
4 Charlie Hunnam has the twinkling eyes , repressed smile and determined face needed to carry out a Dickensian hero .
4 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 .
1 Watching a Brian DePalma movie is like watching an Alfred Hitchcock movie after drinking twelve beers .
0 Guy gets girl , guy loses girl , audience falls asleep .
1 ... this story gets sillier , not scarier , as it goes along ...
2 You can thank me for this .
1 Despite its Hawaiian setting , the science-fiction trimmings and some moments of rowdy slapstick , the basic plot of `` Lilo '' could have been pulled from a tear-stained vintage Shirley Temple script .
4 Reassuring , retro uplifter .
1 An alternately raucous and sappy ethnic sitcom ... you 'd be wise to send your regrets .
3 The sheer joy and pride they took in their work -- and in each other -- shines through every frame .
3 Filmmaker Stacy Peralta has a flashy editing style that does n't always jell with Sean Penn 's monotone narration , but he respects the material without sentimentalizing it .
0 The nonstop artifice ultimately proves tiresome , with the surface histrionics failing to compensate for the paper-thin characterizations and facile situations .
1 TV skit-com material fervently deposited on the big screen .
0 Is there a group of more self-absorbed women than the mother and daughters featured in this film ?
2 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
2 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 .
3 Although commentary on Nachtwey is provided ... it 's the image that really tells the tale .
1 Everyone 's to blame here .
3 Instead , she sees it as a chance to revitalize what is and always has been remarkable about clung-to traditions .
3 the film belongs to the marvelous Verdu , a sexy slip of an earth mother who mourns her tragedies in private and embraces life in public
3 Assured , glossy and shot through with brittle desperation .
1 Those who are only mildly curious , I fear , will be put to sleep or bewildered by the artsy and often pointless visuals .
0 What ultimately makes Windtalkers a disappointment is the superficial way it deals with its story .
4 At least it 's a fairly impressive debut from the director , Charles Stone III .
0 Instead , it 'll only put you to sleep .
3 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 .
4 Not only is it a charming , funny and beautifully crafted import , it uses very little dialogue , making it relatively effortless to read and follow the action at the same time .
0 Truly terrible .
4 LaBute masterfully balances both Traditional or Modern stories together in a manner that one never overwhelms the other .
1 Perry 's good and his is an interesting character , but `` Serving Sara '' has n't much more to serve than silly fluff .
1 Anemic , pretentious .
2 If the very concept makes you nervous ... you 'll have an idea of the film 's creepy , scary effectiveness .
1 Watchable up until the point where the situations and the dialogue spin hopelessly out of control -- that is to say , when Carol Kane appears on the screen .
1 There might be some sort of credible gender-provoking philosophy submerged here , but who the hell cares ?
1 `` -LRB- Hopkins -RRB- does n't so much phone in his performance as fax it .
1 The film is a confusing melange of tones and styles , one moment a romantic trifle and the next a turgid drama .
4 The film is one of the year 's best .
3 A buoyant romantic comedy about friendship , love , and the truth that we 're all in this together .
4 Davis ... gets vivid performances from her cast and pulls off some deft Ally McBeal-style fantasy sequences .
2 The Sundance Film Festival has become so buzz-obsessed that fans and producers descend upon Utah each January to ferret out The Next Great Thing .
4 One of the most slyly exquisite anti-adult movies ever made .
4 What a bewilderingly brilliant and entertaining movie this is .
2 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 .
4 Matthew Lillard is born to play Shaggy !
4 Light , silly , photographed with colour and depth , and rather a good time .
4 ... is funny in the way that makes you ache with sadness -LRB- the way Chekhov is funny -RRB- , profound without ever being self-important , warm without ever succumbing to sentimentality .
1 Ultimately too repellent to fully endear itself to American art house audiences , but it is notable for its stylistic austerity and forcefulness .
1 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 .
2 The combination of lightness and strictness in this instance gives Italian for Beginners an amiable aimlessness that keeps it from seeming predictably formulaic .
3 Continually challenges perceptions of guilt and innocence , of good guys and bad , and asks us whether a noble end can justify evil means .
3 Good-naturedly cornball sequel .
3 Moonlight Mile does n't quite go the distance but the cast is impressive and they all give life to these broken characters who are trying to make their way through this tragedy .
1 And that is where Ararat went astray .
0 The documentary is much too conventional -- lots of boring talking heads , etc. -- to do the subject matter justice .
3 Discursive but oddly riveting documentary .
1 This feature is about as necessary as a hole in the head
3 This movie got me grinning .
2 The film virtually chokes on its own self-consciousness .
1 One of the most plain , unimaginative romantic comedies I 've ever seen .
3 The rare Imax movie that you 'll wish was longer than an hour .
1 ` Matrix ' - style massacres erupt throughout ... but the movie has a tougher time balancing its violence with Kafka-inspired philosophy .
4 Elegantly produced and expressively performed , the six musical numbers crystallize key plot moments into minutely detailed wonders of dreamlike ecstasy .
3 This filmed Tosca -- not the first , by the way -- is a pretty good job , if it 's filmed Tosca that you want .
2 Lavishly , exhilaratingly tasteless .
3 Would be an unendurable viewing experience for this ultra-provincial New Yorker if 26-year-old Reese Witherspoon were not on hand to inject her pure fantasy character , Melanie Carmichael , with a massive infusion of old-fashioned Hollywood magic .
1 Richard Pryor mined his personal horrors and came up with a treasure chest of material , but Lawrence gives us mostly fool 's gold .
2 The thing looks like a made-for-home-video quickie .
1 This slender plot feels especially thin stretched over the nearly 80-minute running time .
3 Reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock 's thrillers , most of the scary parts in ` Signs ' occur while waiting for things to happen .
1 The Merchant-Ivory team continues to systematically destroy everything we hold dear about cinema , only now it 's begun to split up so that it can do even more damage .
1 It 's a bad sign in a thriller when you instantly know whodunit .
3 As a thoughtful and unflinching examination of an alternative lifestyle , Sex with Strangers is a success .
1 A cockeyed shot all the way .
1 Befuddled in its characterizations as it begins to seem as long as the two year affair which is its subject
0 Press the delete key .
0 The plot is paper-thin and the characters are n't interesting enough to watch them go about their daily activities for two whole hours .
3 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 .
3 I like that Smith , he 's not making fun of these people , he 's not laughing at them .
2 At its best when the guarded , resentful Betty and the manipulative yet needy Margot are front and center .
3 Director Tom Dey demonstrated a knack for mixing action and idiosyncratic humor in his charming 2000 debut Shanghai Noon , but Showtime 's uninspired send-up of TV cop show cliches mostly leaves him shooting blanks .
2 I wo n't argue with anyone who calls ` Slackers ' dumb , insulting , or childish ... but I laughed so much that I did n't mind .
4 Sparkling , often hilarious romantic jealousy comedy ... Attal looks so much like a young Robert DeNiro that it seems the film should instead be called ` My Husband Is Travis Bickle ' .
3 It throws quirky characters , odd situations , and off-kilter dialogue at us , all as if to say , `` Look at this !
0 A surprisingly flat retread , hobbled by half-baked setups and sluggish pacing .
0 It 's hard to understand why anyone in his right mind would even think to make the attraction a movie .
2 aside from showing us in explicit detail how difficult it is to win over the two-drink-minimum crowd , there 's little to be learned from watching ` Comedian '
4 One of the best , most understated performances of -LRB- Jack Nicholson 's -RRB- career .
3 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 .
3 It 's still a comic book , but Maguire makes it a comic book with soul .
1 Where the film falters is in its tone .
4 Amazing !
2 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 .
3 Wow , so who knew Charles Dickens could be so light-hearted ?
3 Hey , Happy !
1 But here 's a movie about it anyway .
1 Does n't get the job done , running off the limited chemistry created by Ralph Fiennes and Jennifer Lopez .
2 More than simply a portrait of early extreme sports , this peek into the 1970s skateboard revolution is a skateboard film as social anthropology ...
4 A live-wire film that never loses its ability to shock and amaze .
2 -LRB- Kirshner wins , but it 's close . -RRB-
0 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 .
4 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 .
1 Even bigger and more ambitious than the first installment , Spy Kids 2 looks as if it were made by a highly gifted 12-year-old instead of a grown man .
0 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 .
2 None of this has the suavity or classical familiarity of Bond , but much of it is good for a laugh .
3 The heat of the moment prevails .
2 Wait for it to hit cable .
1 Bigelow handles the nuclear crisis sequences evenly but milks drama when she should be building suspense , and drags out too many scenes toward the end that should move quickly .
3 -LRB- A -RRB- satisfying niblet .
3 But they fascinate in their recklessness .
3 If you have n't seen the film lately , you may be surprised at the variety of tones in Spielberg 's work .
3 Me no lika da accents so good , but I thoroughly enjoyed the love story .
1 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 .
1 A timid , soggy near miss .
1 hard as this may be to believe , Here on Earth , a surprisingly similar teen drama , was a better film .
3 It 's far from a frothy piece , and the characters are complex , laden with plenty of baggage and tinged with tragic undertones .
2 The execution is so pedestrian that the most positive comment we can make is that Rob Schneider actually turns in a pretty convincing performance as a prissy teenage girl .
2 Watching E.T now , in an era dominated by cold , loud special-effects-laden extravaganzas , one is struck less by its lavish grandeur than by its intimacy and precision .
1 If you 're looking for a story , do n't bother .
3 The cast is spot on and the mood is laid back .
2 Absurdities and
1 A party-hearty teen flick that scalds like acid .
4 A moving and stark reminder that the casualties of war reach much further than we imagine .
0 A so-so , made-for-TV something posing as a real movie .
4 Astonishing ... -LRB- frames -RRB- profound ethical and philosophical questions in the form of dazzling pop entertainment .
1 Fans of Plympton 's shorts may marginally enjoy the film , but it is doubtful this listless feature will win him any new viewers .
1 The problem with The Bread , My Sweet is that it 's far too sentimental .
2 If you can tolerate the redneck-versus-blueblood cliches that the film trades in , Sweet Home Alabama is diverting in the manner of Jeff Foxworthy 's stand-up act .
3 Oh , look at that clever angle !
0 A crass and insulting homage to great films like Some Like It Hot and the John Wayne classics .
2 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 .
2 Since Lee is a sentimentalist , the film is more worshipful than your random E !
3 I do n't know if Frailty will turn Bill Paxton into an A-list director , but he can rest contentedly with the knowledge that he 's made at least one damn fine horror movie .
0 This movie , a certain scene in particular , brought me uncomfortably close to losing my lunch .
1 There 's a heavy stench of ` been there , done that ' hanging over the film .
2 Only those most addicted to film violence in all its forms will find anything here to appreciate .
1 The Santa Clause 2 's plot may sound like it was co-written by Mattel executives and lobbyists for the tinsel industry .
4 An energizing , intoxicating documentary charting the rise of hip-hop culture in general and the art of scratching -LRB- or turntablism -RRB- in particular .
1 ... for all its social and political potential , State Property does n't end up being very inspiring or insightful .
3 Instead of hitting the audience over the head with a moral , Schrader relies on subtle ironies and visual devices to convey point of view .
4 Compellingly watchable .
3 Other than the slightly flawed -LRB- and fairly unbelievable -RRB- finale , everything else is top shelf .
2 This heist flick about young Brooklyn hoods is off the shelf after two years to capitalize on the popularity of Vin Diesel , Seth Green and Barry Pepper .
1 The movie spends more time with Schneider than with newcomer McAdams , even though her performance is more interesting -LRB- and funnier -RRB- than his .
1 Certainly not a good movie , but it was n't horrible either .
4 Blisteringly rude , scarily funny , sorrowfully sympathetic to the damage it surveys , the film has in Kieran Culkin a pitch-perfect Holden .
1 It is n't scary .
3 And it sees those relationships , including that between the son and his wife , and the wife and the father , and between the two brothers , with incredible subtlety and acumen .
1 Like a fish that 's lived too long , Austin Powers in Goldmember has some unnecessary parts and is kinda wrong in places .
1 Grant is n't Cary and Bullock is n't Katherine .
3 A seriocomic debut of extravagant promise by Georgian-Israeli director Dover Kosashvili .
3 -LRB- It 's -RRB- a clever thriller with enough unexpected twists to keep our interest .
1 If you 're not a fan , it might be like trying to eat Brussels sprouts .
1 The movie eventually snaps under the strain of its plot contrivances and its need to reassure .
4 Maelstrom is strange and compelling , engrossing and different , a moral tale with a twisted sense of humor .
3 A touching , small-scale story of family responsibility and care in the community .
1 Boasts eye-catching art direction but has a forcefully quirky tone that quickly wears out its limited welcome .
3 This is a smart movie that knows its classical music , knows its Freud and knows its Sade .
4 Kinnear ... gives his best screen performance with an oddly winning portrayal of one of life 's ultimate losers .
4 Their work is fantastic .
2 As a movie , it never seems fresh and vital .
0 Plodding , poorly written , murky and weakly acted , the picture feels as if everyone making it lost their movie mojo .
3 With Notorious C.H.O. Cho proves she has the stuff to stand tall with Pryor , Carlin and Murphy .
2 near the end takes on a whole other meaning .
0 the script assumes that not only would subtlety be lost on the target audience , but that it 's also too stupid to realize that they 've already seen this exact same movie a hundred times
1 ` Linklater fans , or pretentious types who want to appear avant-garde will suck up to this project ... '
2 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 .
1 It plods along methodically , somehow under the assumption that its `` dead wife communicating from beyond the grave '' framework is even remotely new or interesting .
2 LaBute ca n'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 .
2 A virtual roller-coaster ride of glamour and sleaze .
2 Mostly the film is just hectic and homiletic : two parts exhausting Men in Black mayhem to one part family values .
1 You might want to take a reality check before you pay the full ticket price to see `` Simone , '' and consider a DVD rental instead .
2 About a Boy vividly recalls the Cary Grant of Room for One More , Houseboat and Father Goose in its affectionate depiction of the gentle war between a reluctant , irresponsible man and the kid who latches onto him .
3 ... a light , yet engrossing piece .
0 The problem is that it is one that allows him to churn out one mediocre movie after another .
4 unpretentious , charming , quirky , original
3 Where Janice Beard falters in its recycled aspects , implausibility , and sags in pace , it rises in its courageousness , and comedic employment .
1 The movie is as padded as Allen 's jelly belly .
4 A dazzling dream of a documentary .
4 An intelligently made -LRB- and beautifully edited -RRB- 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 .
3 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 .
1 Aspires to the cracked lunacy of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai , but thanks to an astonishingly witless script ends up more like The Adventures of Ford Fairlane .
3 Mariah Carey gives us another peek at some of the magic we saw in Glitter here in Wisegirls .
3 Rock solid family fun out of the gates , extremely imaginative through out , but wanes in the middle
4 Clever and unflinching in its comic barbs , Slap Her is a small but rewarding comedy that takes aim at contemporary southern adolescence and never lets up .
3 The Scorpion King is more fun than Conan the Barbarian .
2 Pedro Rodrigues '
3 A college story that works even without vulgarity , sex scenes , and cussing !
0 There are cheesy backdrops , ridiculous action sequences , and many tired jokes about men in heels .
1 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 .
0 A lame romantic comedy about an unsympathetic character and someone who would not likely be so stupid as to get involved with her .
1 Once the downward spiral comes to pass , Auto Focus bears out as your typical junkie opera ...
1 In the book-on-tape market , the film of `` The Kid Stays in the Picture '' would be an abridged edition
2 I wish Windtalkers had had more faith in the dramatic potential of this true story .
1 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 .
1 We hate -LRB- Madonna -RRB- within the film 's first five minutes , and she lacks the skill or presence to regain any ground .
3 An ebullient Tunisian film about the startling transformation of a tradition-bound widow who is drawn into the exotic world of belly dancing .
2 A Frankenstein mishmash that careens from dark satire to cartoonish slapstick , Bartleby performs neither one very well .
2 There 's something not entirely convincing about The Quiet American .
1 Chelsea Walls is a case of too many chefs fussing over too weak a recipe .
3 Though filmed partly in Canada , Paid in Full has clever ways of capturing inner-city life during the Reagan years .
1 It still feels like a prison stretch .
2 As home movie gone haywire , it 's pretty enjoyable , but as sexual manifesto , I 'd rather listen to old Tori Amos records .
1 Ah-nuld 's action hero days might be over .
2 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 .
0 The Sweetest Thing leaves a bitter taste .
2 After the setup , the air leaks out of the movie , flattening its momentum with about an hour to go .
4 Because the film deliberately lacks irony , it has a genuine dramatic impact ; it plays like a powerful 1957 drama we 've somehow never seen before .
3 In an ART FILM !
1 The satire is just too easy to be genuinely satisfying .
2 A gem , captured in the unhurried , low-key style favored by many directors of the Iranian new wave .
4 -LRB- A -RRB- real pleasure in its laid-back way .
0 Aloof and lacks any real raw emotion , which is fatal for a film that relies on personal relationships .
1 This is cruel , misanthropic stuff with only weak claims to surrealism and black comedy .
3 there is truth here
2 The symbols float like butterflies and the spinning styx sting like bees .
3 I 'm going to give it a marginal thumbs up .
2 Otherwise , maybe .
3 While the path may be familiar , first-time director Denzel Washington and a top-notch cast manage to keep things interesting .
3 If you answered yes , by all means enjoy The New Guy .
4 Throws in enough clever and unexpected twists to make the formula feel fresh .
4 He does this so well you do n't have the slightest difficulty accepting him in the role .
3 The premise of Jason X is silly but strangely believable .
3 Ya-Yas everywhere will forgive the flaws and love the film .
3 I will be .
4 -LRB- Washington 's -RRB- strong hand , keen eye , sweet spirit and good taste are reflected in almost every scene .
3 What a dumb , fun , curiously adolescent movie this is .
2 Cold and scattered , Minority Report commands interest almost solely as an exercise in gorgeous visuals .
2 National Lampoon 's Van Wilder may aim to be the next Animal House , but it more closely resembles this year 's version of Tomcats .
3 A well made indieflick in need of some trims and a more chemistry between its stars .
2 The film truly does rescue -LRB- the Funk Brothers -RRB- from Motown 's shadows .
3 Director Chris Wedge and screenwriters Michael Berg , Michael J. Wilson and Peter Ackerman create some episodes that rival vintage Looney Tunes for the most creative mayhem in a brief amount of time .
1 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 . ''
3 A playful Iranian parable about openness , particularly the need for people of diverse political perspectives to get along despite their ideological differences .
2 If only there were one for this kind of movie .
1 You can taste it , but there 's no fizz .
0 Control-Alt-Delete Simone as quickly as possible
0 Strong filmmaking requires a clear sense of purpose , and in that oh-so-important category , The Four Feathers comes up short .
4 Enriched by a strong and unforced supporting cast .
3 Nothing overly original , mind you , but solidly entertaining .
4 At its best , this is grand-scale moviemaking for a larger-than-life figure , an artist who has been awarded mythic status in contemporary culture .
3 Funny in a sick , twisted sort of way .
3 It 's fun , but it 's a real howler .
1 A manipulative feminist empowerment tale thinly posing as a serious drama about spousal abuse .
0 A semi-autobiographical film that 's so sloppily written and cast that you can not believe anyone more central to the creation of Bugsy than the caterer had anything to do with it .
2 Renner ?
1 For all its violence , the movie is remarkably dull with only Caine making much of an impression .
2 Trades run-of-the-mill revulsion for extreme unease .
3 She 's all-powerful , a voice for a pop-cyber culture that feeds on her Bjorkness .
3 Like many Western action films , this thriller is too loud and thoroughly overbearing , but its heartfelt concern about North Korea 's recent past and South Korea 's future adds a much needed moral weight .
4 The actors are fantastic .
3 It 's got all the familiar Bruckheimer elements , and Schumacher does probably as good a job as anyone at bringing off the Hopkins\/Rock collision of acting styles and onscreen personas .
2 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 .
1 Becomes the last thing you would expect from a film with this title or indeed from any Plympton film : boring .
2 But it is set in a world that is very , very far from the one most of us inhabit .
1 Call me a cynic , but there 's something awfully deadly about any movie with a life-affirming message .
2 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 .
3 By surrounding us with hyper-artificiality , Haynes makes us see familiar issues , like racism and homophobia , in a fresh way .
1 Though Frida is easier to swallow than Julie Taymor 's preposterous Titus , the eye candy here lacks considerable brio .
1 Full Frontal , which opens today nationwide , could almost be classified as a movie-industry satire , but it lacks the generous inclusiveness that is the genre 's definitive , if disingenuous , feature .
3 While the humor is recognizably Plympton , he has actually bothered to construct a real story this time .
4 ` Drumline ' shows a level of young , Black manhood that is funny , touching , smart and complicated .
0 This is a movie filled with unlikable , spiteful idiots ; whether or not their friendship is salvaged makes no difference in the least .
1 This insufferable movie is meant to make you think about existential suffering .
4 This sensitive , smart , savvy , compelling coming-of-age drama delves into the passive-aggressive psychology of co-dependence and the struggle for self-esteem .
1 All the small moments and flashbacks do n't add up to much more than trite observations on the human condition .
4 A beautifully observed character piece .
2 Though it inspires some -LRB- out-of-field -RRB- creative thought , the film is -- to its own detriment -- much more a cinematic collage than a polemical tract .
0 Perhaps the grossest movie ever made .
3 Does a good job of establishing a time and place , and of telling a fascinating character 's story .
0 In fact , it does n't even seem like she tried .
2 Spare yet audacious ...
2 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 .
0 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 .
1 Could n't someone take Rob Schneider and have him switch bodies with a funny person ?
3 Formuliac , but fun .
0 What might have been acceptable on the printed page of Iles ' book does not translate well to the screen .
3 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 .
3 As Hannibal would say , yes , ` It 's like having an old friend for dinner ' .
3 Williams absolutely nails Sy 's queasy infatuation and overall strangeness .
1 Paul Bettany is good at being the ultra-violent gangster wannabe , but the movie is certainly not number 1 .
0 This is the kind of movie that you only need to watch for about thirty seconds before you say to yourself , ` Ah , yes , here we have a bad , bad , bad movie . '
0 Personally , I 'd rather watch them on the Animal Planet .
4 The lively appeal of The Last Kiss lies in the ease with which it integrates thoughtfulness and pasta-fagioli comedy .
0 An annoying orgy of excess and exploitation that has no point and goes nowhere .
3 This deeply spiritual film taps into the meaning and consolation in afterlife communications .
0 There are now two signs that M. Night Shyamalan 's debut feature sucked up all he has to give to the mystic genres of cinema : Unbreakable and Signs .
3 The filmmakers try to balance pointed , often incisive satire and unabashed sweetness , with results that are sometimes bracing , sometimes baffling and quite often , and in unexpected ways , touching .
2 Does little to elaborate the conceit of setting this blood-soaked tragedy of murderous ambition in the era of Richard Nixon .
1 Go , girls , right down the reality drain .
3 The power of Shanghai Ghetto , a documentary by Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann , rests in the voices of men and women , now in their 70s , who lived there in the 1940s .
3 Funny and touching .
0 There is nothing redeeming about this movie .
3 It 's a spectacular performance - ahem , we hope it 's only acting .
0 The waterlogged script plumbs uncharted depths of stupidity , incoherence and sub-sophomoric sexual banter .
1 It concentrates far too much on the awkward interplay and utter lack of chemistry between Chan and Hewitt .
4 A stirring tribute to the bravery and dedication of the world 's reporters who willingly walk into the nightmare of war not only to record the events for posterity , but to help us clearly see the world of our making .
1 A lot like the imaginary sport it projects onto the screen -- loud , violent and mindless .
3 If you like an extreme action-packed film with a hint of humor , then Triple X marks the spot .
2 The simplicity of The Way Home has few equals this side of Aesop
1 The only reason you should see this movie is if you have a case of masochism and an hour and a half to blow .
3 The film is saved from are n't - kids-cute sentimentality by a warmth that is n't faked and a stately sense of composition .
1 A few pieces of the film buzz and whir ; very little of it actually clicks .
3 Like any good romance , Son of the Bride , proves it 's never too late to learn .
3 One of the funniest motion pictures of the year , but ... also one of the most curiously depressing .
3 A film that 's flawed and brilliant in equal measure .
1 An imponderably stilted and self-consciously arty movie .
3 ... the story , like Ravel 's Bolero , builds to a crescendo that encompasses many more paths than we started with .
0 This thing is virtually unwatchable .
3 The movie does its best to work us over , with second helpings of love , romance , tragedy , false dawns , real dawns , comic relief , two separate crises during marriage ceremonies , and the lush scenery of the Cotswolds .
4 What a concept , what an idea , what a thrill ride .
3 And , thanks to the presence of ` the King , ' it also rocks .
3 I do n'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 .
3 Everybody loves a David and Goliath story , and this one is told almost entirely from David 's point of view .
3 The performances are strong , though the subject matter demands acting that borders on hammy at times .
1 An inexperienced director , Mehta has much to learn .
2 Ryosuke has created a wry , winning , if languidly paced , meditation on the meaning and value of family .
3 It has a caffeinated , sloppy brilliance , sparkling with ideas you wish had been developed with more care , but animated by an energy that puts the dutiful efforts of more disciplined grade-grubbers to shame .
1 It 's just not very smart .
1 It wears its heart on the sleeve of its gaudy Hawaiian shirt .
4 Like a skillful fisher , the director uses the last act to reel in the audience since its poignancy hooks us completely .
4 A wild ride with eight boarders from Venice Beach that was a deserved co-winner of the Audience Award for documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival .
0 But the 2002 film does n't really believe in it , and breaks the mood with absurdly inappropriate ` comedy ' scenes .
3 Birot creates a drama with such a well-defined sense of place and age -- as in , 15 years old -- that the torments and angst become almost as operatic to us as they are to her characters .
1 Toward the end Sum of All Fears morphs into a mundane '70s disaster flick .
3 Your 20th outing shows off a lot of stamina and vitality , and get this , Madonna 's cameo does n't suck !
4 The production design , score and choreography are simply intoxicating .
3 For almost the first two-thirds of Martin Scorsese 's 168-minute Gangs of New York , I was entranced .
1 A brutally dry satire of Middle American numbness .
2 A perfectly acceptable , perfectly bland , competently acted but by no means scary horror movie .
3 The tasteful little revision works wonders , enhancing the cultural and economic subtext , bringing richer meaning to the story 's morals .
1 And Diesel is n't the actor to save it .
0 Wendigo wants to be a monster movie for the art-house crowd , but it falls into the trap of pretention almost every time .
4 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 .
3 Drumline is -- the mere suggestion , albeit a visually compelling one , of a fully realized story .
2 With lesser talents , High Crimes would be entertaining , but forgettable .
4 The history is fascinating ; the action is dazzling .
1 I could n't help but feel the wasted potential of this slapstick comedy .
3 All in all , Road to Perdition is more in love with strangeness than excellence .
2 DeMeo is not without talent ; he just needs better material .
1 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 .
2 ... gripping and handsome execution , -LRB- but -RRB- there is n't much about K-19 that 's unique or memorable .
0 I liked the original short story but this movie , even at an hour and twenty-some minutes , it 's too long and it goes nowhere .
0 An artsploitation movie with too much exploitation and too little art .
0 ... 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 ? ''
1 Check your brain and your secret agent decoder ring at the door because you do n't want to think too much about what 's going on .
1 Talkiness is n't necessarily bad , but the dialogue frequently misses the mark .
3 The Pianist is the film Roman Polanski may have been born to make .
3 It 's funny and human and really pretty damned wonderful , all at once .
4 The first Tunisian film I have ever seen , and it 's also probably the most good-hearted yet sensual entertainment I 'm likely to see all year .
2 There are more shots of children smiling for the camera than typical documentary footage which hurts the overall impact of the film .
1 Like a pack of dynamite sticks , built for controversy .
2 Alas , another breathless movie about same !
3 -LRB- Reaches -RRB- wholly believable and heart-wrenching depths of despair .
2 If you do n't ... well , skip to another review .
2 In my opinion , Analyze That is not as funny or entertaining as Analyze This , but it is a respectable sequel .
0 A generic bloodbath that often becomes laughably unbearable when it is n't merely offensive .
1 Can be classified as one of those ` alternate reality ' movies ... except that it would have worked so much better dealing in only one reality .
1 This wretchedly unfunny wannabe comedy is inane and awful - no doubt , it 's the worst movie I 've seen this summer .
4 Entirely suspenseful , extremely well-paced and ultimately ... dare I say , entertaining !
4 `` Red Dragon '' is entertaining .
3 Quitting offers piercing domestic drama with spikes of sly humor .
1 It winds up moving in many directions as it searches -LRB- vainly , I think -RRB- for something fresh to say .
3 An improvement on the feeble examples of big-screen Poke-mania that have preceded it .
3 Fear permeates the whole of Stortelling , Todd Solondz ' oftentimes funny , yet ultimately cowardly autocritique .
3 As a film director , LaBute continues to improve .
0 Dull , a road-trip movie that 's surprisingly short of both adventure and song .
3 You wo n't have any trouble getting kids to eat up these Veggies .
2 Some may choose to interpret the film 's end as hopeful or optimistic but I think Payne is after something darker .
4 Scott delivers a terrific performance in this fascinating portrait of a modern Lothario .
1 Overwrought , melodramatic bodice-ripper .
2 Steers has an unexpectedly adamant streak of warm-blooded empathy for all his disparate Manhattan denizens -- especially the a \*\* holes .
2 These two are generating about as much chemistry as an Iraqi factory poised to receive a UN inspector .
4 Jeffrey Tambor 's performance as the intelligent jazz-playing exterminator is Oscar-worthy .
3 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 .
0 Even the hastily and amateurishly drawn animation can not engage .
1 Plodding , peevish and gimmicky .
2 Insomnia does not become one of those rare remakes to eclipse the original , but it does n't disgrace it , either .
1 No. .
0 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 .
0 It 's crap on a leash -- far too polite to scale the lunatic heights of Joe Dante 's similarly styled Gremlins .
4 At 78 minutes it just zings along with vibrance and warmth .
4 You have to see it .
0 If ever such a dependable concept was botched in execution , this is it .
2 A tasty slice of droll whimsy .
1 ... while the humor aspects of ` Jason X ' were far more entertaining than I had expected , everything else about the film tanks .
1 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 .
2 Broomfield reveals an ironic manifestation of institutionalized slavery that ties a black-owned record label with a white-empowered police force .
1 Ritchie 's film is easier to swallow than Wertmuller 's polemical allegory , but it 's self-defeatingly decorous .
1 The film is ultimately about as inspiring as a Hallmark card .
0 With little visible talent and no energy , Colin Hanks is in bad need of major acting lessons and maybe a little coffee .
3 The film oozes craft .
3 Stevens ' vibrant creative instincts are the difference between this and countless other flicks about guys and dolls .
3 Weighty and ponderous but every bit as filling as the treat of the title .
1 There 's an excellent 90-minute film here ; unfortunately , it runs for 170 .
3 But it does somehow manage to get you under its spell .
4 Brian Tufano 's handsome widescreen photography and Paul Grabowsky 's excellent music turn this fairly parochial melodrama into something really rather special .
3 Uplifting , funny and wise .
2 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 .
0 A poky and pseudo-serious exercise in sham actor workshops and an affected malaise .
3 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 .
4 Just about the surest bet for an all-around good time at the movies this summer .
4 It 's all about Anakin ... and the lustrous polished visuals rich in color and creativity and , of course , special effect .
1 ... the efforts of its star , Kline , to lend some dignity to a dumb story are for naught .
1 A sometimes incisive and sensitive portrait that is undercut by its awkward structure and a final veering toward melodrama .
3 That ` Alabama ' manages to be pleasant in spite of its predictability and occasional slowness is due primarily to the perkiness of Witherspoon -LRB- who is always a joy to watch , even when her material is not first-rate -RRB- ...
0 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 .
3 World Traveler might not go anywhere new , or arrive anyplace special , but it 's certainly an honest attempt to get at something .
3 You would n't want to live waydowntown , but it is a hilarious place to visit .
1 Too intensely focused on the travails of being Hal Hartley to function as pastiche , No Such Thing is Hartley 's least accessible screed yet .
4 A simple tale of an unlikely friendship , but thanks to the gorgeous locales and exceptional lead performances , it has considerable charm .
3 Those who do n't entirely ` get ' Godard 's distinctive discourse will still come away with a sense of his reserved but existential poignancy .
3 Yes , soar .
4 A genuinely funny ensemble comedy that also asks its audience -- in a heartwarming , nonjudgmental kind of way -- to consider what we value in our daily lives .
0 Kirshner and Monroe seem to be in a contest to see who can out-bad-act the other .
2 Qutting may be a flawed film , but it is nothing if not sincere .
3 has far more energy , wit and warmth than should be expected from any movie with a `` 2 '' at the end of its title .
3 Throughout , Mr. Audiard 's direction is fluid and quick .
1 A painfully slow cliche-ridden film filled with more holes than Clyde Barrow 's car .
0 A wishy-washy melodramatic movie that shows us plenty of sturm und drung , but explains its characters ' decisions only unsatisfactorily .
4 One of the best looking and stylish animated movies in quite a while ...
3 Nicole Kidman evolved from star to superstar some time over the past year , which means that Birthday Girl is the kind of quirkily appealing minor movie she might not make for a while .
2 It seems Grant does n't need the floppy hair and the self-deprecating stammers after all .
2 Oops , she 's really done it this time .
4 The characters are complex and quirky , but entirely believable as the remarkable ensemble cast brings them to life .
3 Jackson is always watchable .
4 Deep intelligence and a warm , enveloping affection breathe out of every frame .
3 Terry is a sort of geriatric Dirty Harry , which will please Eastwood 's loyal fans -- and suits the story , wherein our hero must ride roughshod over incompetent cops to get his man .
1 -LRB- Soderbergh -RRB- 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 .
3 It 's fairly solid -- not to mention well edited so that it certainly does n't feel like a film that strays past the two and a half mark .
1 Predecessors The Mummy and The Mummy Returns stand as intellectual masterpieces next to The Scorpion King .
1 A really good premise is frittered away in middle-of-the-road blandness .
1 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 .
4 Time is a beautiful film to watch , an interesting and at times captivating take on loss and loneliness .
1 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 .
3 While Insomnia is in many ways a conventional , even predictable remake , Nolan 's penetrating undercurrent of cerebral and cinemantic flair lends -LRB- it -RRB- stimulating depth .
4 The Pianist -LRB- is -RRB- a supremely hopeful cautionary tale of war 's madness remembered that we , today , can prevent its tragic waste of life .
3 It does n't reach them , but the effort is gratefully received .
2 Jam-packed with literally bruising jokes .
1 Seems like someone going through the motions .
3 While I ca n't say it 's on par with the first one , Stuart Little 2 is a light , fun cheese puff of a movie .
3 And he allows a gawky actor like Spall -- who could too easily become comic relief in any other film -- to reveal his impressively delicate range .
3 The Chateau belongs to Rudd , whose portrait of a therapy-dependent flakeball spouting French malapropisms ... is a nonstop hoot .
0 The film does n't have enough innovation or pizazz to attract teenagers , and it lacks the novel charm that made Spy Kids a surprising winner with both adults and younger audiences .
1 At once overly old-fashioned in its sudsy plotting and heavy-handed in its effort to modernize it with encomia to diversity and tolerance .
2 What is the filmmakers ' point ?
0 Maid in Manhattan proves that it 's easier to change the sheets than to change hackneyed concepts when it comes to dreaming up romantic comedies .
3 Wonderful fencing scenes and an exciting plot make this an eminently engrossing film .
2 Another in a long line of ultra-violent war movies , this one is not quite what it could have been as a film , but the story and theme make up for it .
3 The concert footage is stirring , the recording sessions are intriguing , and -- on the way to striking a blow for artistic integrity -- this quality band may pick up new admirers .
2 Many of Benjamins ' elements feel like they 've been patched in from an episode of Miami Vice .
3 There are a couple of things that elevate `` Glory '' above most of its ilk , most notably the mere presence of Duvall .
3 The Way Home is an ode to unconditional love and compassion garnered from years of seeing it all , a condition only the old are privy to , and ... often misconstrued as weakness .
1 An ugly , revolting movie .
3 It never quite makes it to the boiling point , but manages to sustain a good simmer for most of its running time .
3 Like Kissing Jessica Stein , Amy 's Orgasm has a key strength in its willingness to explore its principal characters with honesty , insight and humor .
2 The main problem being that it 's only a peek .
0 As predictable as the outcome of a Globetrotters-Generals game , Juwanna Mann is even more ludicrous than you 'd expect from the guy-in-a-dress genre , and a personal low for everyone involved .
0 But it 's hard to imagine a more generic effort in the genre .
4 Jason Patric and Ray Liotta make for one splendidly cast pair .
4 This often-hilarious farce manages to generate the belly laughs of lowbrow comedy without sacrificing its high-minded appeal .
0 It 's simply stupid , irrelevant and deeply , truly , bottomlessly cynical .
3 The actresses find their own rhythm and protect each other from the script 's bad ideas and awkwardness .
1 It 's just hard to believe that a life like this can sound so dull .
1 If you 're not fans of the adventues of Steve and Terri , you should avoid this like the dreaded King Brown snake .
2 Wait for pay per view or rental but do n't dismiss BarberShop out of hand .
2 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 .
3 `` The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys '' has flaws , but it also has humor and heart and very talented young actors
1 This is not a classical dramatic animated feature , nor a hip , contemporary , in-jokey one .
2 A technically well-made suspenser ... but its abrupt drop in IQ points as it races to the finish line proves simply too discouraging to let slide .
4 A funny and well-contructed black comedy where the old adage `` be careful what you wish for '' is given a full workout .
2 Ram Dass Fierce Grace moulds itself as an example to up-and-coming documentarians , of the overlooked pitfalls of such an endeavour .
4 A sun-drenched masterpiece , part parlor game , part psychological case study , part droll social satire .
0 So bland and utterly forgettable that it might as well have been titled Generic Jennifer Lopez Romantic Comedy .
1 Cal is an unpleasantly shallow and immature character with whom to spend 110 claustrophobic minutes .
1 It lacks the compassion , good-natured humor and the level of insight that made -LRB- Eyre 's -RRB- first film something of a sleeper success .
4 And thanks to Kline 's superbly nuanced performance , that pondering is highly pleasurable .
2 The film was n't preachy , but it was feminism by the book .
3 A lot more dimensional and complex than its sunny disposition would lead you to believe .
4 Miller comes at film with bracing intelligence and a vision both painterly and literary .
4 Grenier is terrific , bringing an unforced , rapid-fire delivery to Toback 's Heidegger - and Nietzsche-referencing dialogue .
3 Rubbo runs through a remarkable amount of material in the film 's short 90 minutes .
0 Deep down , I realized the harsh reality of my situation : I would leave the theater with a lower I.Q. than when I had entered .
0 A story which fails to rise above its disgusting source material .
1 To Blandly Go Where We Went 8 Movies Ago ...
1 ... Liotta is put in an impossible spot because his character 's deceptions ultimately undo him and the believability of the entire scenario .
4 Vividly demonstrates that the director of such Hollywood blockbusters as Patriot Games can still turn out a small , personal film with an emotional wallop .
3 An overly familiar scenario is made fresh by an intelligent screenplay and gripping performances in this low-budget , video-shot , debut indie effort .
0 It 's still terrible !
2 Represents something very close to the nadir of the thriller\/horror genre .
4 Beautifully shot against the frozen winter landscapes of Grenoble and Geneva , the film unfolds with all the mounting tension of an expert thriller , until the tragedy beneath it all gradually reveals itself .
4 A man leaving the screening said the film was better than Saving Private Ryan .
3 Oddly compelling .
4 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 .
3 Certainly the performances are worthwhile .
1 Apparently designed as a reverie about memory and regret , but the only thing you 'll regret is remembering the experience of sitting through it .
4 It trusts the story it sets out to tell .
1 Bad company .
4 An engrossing and infectiously enthusiastic documentary .
3 A memorable experience that , like many of his works , presents weighty issues colorfully wrapped up in his own idiosyncratic strain of kitschy goodwill .
4 Its gentle , touching story creeps into your heart .
0 ... 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 .
2 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 .
2 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 .
0 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 .
2 The Fast Runner ' transports the viewer into an unusual space
1 Every joke is repeated at least four times .
2 What you end up getting is the Vertical Limit of surfing movies - memorable stunts with lots of downtime in between .
3 Should be required viewing for civics classes and would-be public servants alike .
4 Noyce has worked wonders with the material .
1 Wes Craven 's presence is felt ; not the Craven of ' A Nightmare on Elm Street ' or ` The Hills Have Eyes , ' but the sad schlock merchant of ` Deadly Friend . '
3 , is a temporal inquiry that shoulders its philosophical burden lightly .
3 You may feel compelled to watch the film twice or pick up a book on the subject .
0 Loosely speaking , we 're in All of Me territory again , and , strictly speaking , Schneider is no Steve Martin .
2 On a certain base level , Blue Crush delivers what it promises , just not well enough to recommend it .
1 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 .
1 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 .
1 That 's because relatively nothing happens .
2 ` Snow Dogs ' has both .
3 A decent-enough nail-biter that stands a good chance of being the big hit Franklin needs to stay afloat in Hollywood .
0 The movie is concocted and carried out by folks worthy of scorn , and the nicest thing I can say is that I ca n't remember a single name responsible for it .
2 The impulses that produced this project ... are commendable , but the results are uneven .
2 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 .
4 As quiet , patient and tenacious as Mr. Lopez himself , who approaches his difficult , endless work with remarkable serenity and discipline .
4 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 .
1 Squandering his opportunity to make absurdist observations , Burns gets caught up in the rush of slapstick thoroughfare .
4 Topics that could make a sailor blush - but lots of laughs .
2 It 's so laddish and juvenile , only teenage boys could possibly find it funny .
3 One of those movies that make us pause and think of what we have given up to acquire the fast-paced contemporary society .
0 A loud , brash and mainly unfunny high school comedy .
4 ... one of the most entertaining monster movies in ages ...
1 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 .
1 With tiny little jokes and nary an original idea , this sappy ethnic sleeper proves that not only blockbusters pollute the summer movie pool .
1 The movie keeps coming back to the achingly unfunny Phonce and his several silly subplots .
2 ... a mostly boring affair with a confusing sudden finale that 's likely to irk viewers .
1 A reality-snubbing hodgepodge .
0 ... grows decidedly flimsier with its many out-sized , out of character and logically porous action set pieces .
3 The humor and humanity of Monsoon Wedding are in perfect balance .
2 There are things to like about Murder By Numbers -- but , in the end , the disparate elements do n't gel .
3 Quaid is utterly fearless as the tortured husband living a painful lie , and Moore wonderfully underplays the long-suffering heroine with an unflappable '50s dignity somewhere between Jane Wyman and June Cleaver .
2 What begins as a film in the tradition of The Graduate quickly switches into something more recyclable than significant .
1 Apparently reassembled from the cutting-room floor of any given daytime soap .
4 A brisk , reverent , and subtly different sequel .
4 The story , once it gets rolling , is nothing short of a great one .
2 It 's not the worst comedy of the year , but it certainly wo n't win any honors .
2 Some people want the ol' ball-and-chain and then there are those who just want the Ball and Chain .
4 One of the funnier movies in town .
4 The universal theme of becoming a better person through love has never been filmed more irresistibly than in ` Baran . '
1 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 .
2 An elegant film
4 An example of quiet , confident craftsmanship that tells a sweet , charming tale of intergalactic friendship .
0 A plodding teen remake that 's so mechanical you can smell the grease on the plot twists .
4 A stylistic romp that 's always fun to watch .
3 Like its title character , this Nicholas Nickleby finds itself in reduced circumstances -- and , also like its hero , it remains brightly optimistic , coming through in the end .
3 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 .
2 Film ca n't quite maintain its initial momentum , but remains sporadically funny throughout .
3 It seems impossible that an epic four-hour Indian musical about a cricket game could be this good , but it is .
4 A zinger-filled crowd-pleaser that open-minded Elvis fans -LRB- but by no means all -RRB- will have fun with .
1 Kicks off with an inauspicious premise , mopes through a dreary tract of virtually plotless meanderings and then ends with a whimper .
0 Most of the problems with the film do n't derive from the screenplay , but rather the mediocre performances by most of the actors involved
3 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 .
1 The movie turns out to be -LRB- Assayas ' -RRB- homage to the Gallic ` tradition of quality , ' in all its fusty squareness .
1 Mattei so completely loses himself to the film 's circular structure to ever offer any insightful discourse on , well , Love in the Time of Money .
4 Returning director Rob Minkoff ... and screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin ... have done a fine job of updating White 's dry wit to a new age .
3 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 .
2 That is because - damn it !
0 It would be great to see this turd squashed under a truck , preferably a semi .
2 What a vast enterprise has been marshaled in the service of such a minute idea .
4 This may be Burns 's strongest film since The Brothers McMullen .
1 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 .
3 Deliciously mean-spirited and wryly observant .
3 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 .
3 But it 's worth the concentration .
1 Despite its promising cast of characters , Big Trouble remains a loosely tied series of vignettes which only prove that ` zany ' does n't necessarily mean ` funny . '
0 But the second half of the movie really goes downhill .
0 It is supremely unfunny and unentertaining to watch middle-age and older men drink to excess , piss on trees , b.s. one another and put on a show in drag .
1 The big finish is a bit like getting all excited about a chocolate eclair and then biting into it and finding the filling missing .
4 A good music documentary , probably one of the best since The Last Waltz .
2 It is a movie about passion .
2 Certainly .
4 But what 's nice is that there 's a casual intelligence that permeates the script .
1 Lush and beautifully photographed -LRB- somebody suggested the stills might make a nice coffee table book -RRB- , but ultimately you 'll leave the theater wondering why these people mattered .
1 ... another example of how Sandler is losing his touch .
4 This is an undeniably intriguing film from an adventurous young talent who finds his inspiration on the fringes of the American underground .
3 A fleet-footed and pleasingly upbeat family diversion .
3 Efficient , suitably anonymous chiller .
2 This follow-up seems so similar to the 1953 Disney classic that it makes one long for a geriatric Peter .
0 The movie 's plot is almost entirely witless and inane , carrying every gag two or three times beyond its limit to sustain a laugh .
1 This movie is so bad , that it 's almost worth seeing because it 's so bad .
3 Gently humorous and touching .
2 At its worst , the movie is pretty diverting ; the pity is that it rarely achieves its best .
4 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 .
2 Spider-Man is in the same category as X-Men - occasionally brilliant but mostly average , showing signs of potential for the sequels , but not giving us much this time around .
2 When the twist endings were actually surprising ?
1 Much of the cast is stiff or just plain bad .
2 The last three narcissists left on earth compete for each others ' affections .
3 Represents a worthy departure from the culture clash comedies that have marked an emerging Indian American cinema .
4 A compelling film .
1 The movie is well done , but slow .
2 It is up to you to decide if you need to see it .
3 Yet in its own aloof , unreachable way it 's so fascinating you wo n't be able to look away for a second .
0 `` Bad '' is the operative word for `` Bad Company , '' and I do n't mean that in a good way .
3 I 'm not a fan of the phrase ` life affirming ' because it usually means ` schmaltzy , ' but Real Women Have Curves truly is life affirming .
1 No one can doubt the filmmakers ' motives , but The Guys still feels counterproductive .
4 Offers a clear-eyed chronicle of a female friendship that is more complex and honest than anything represented in a Hollywood film .
0 The worst film of the year .
1 ` Christian Bale 's Quinn -LRB- is -RRB- a leather clad grunge-pirate with a hairdo like Gandalf in a wind-tunnel and a simply astounding cor-blimey-luv-a-duck cockney accent . '
0 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 .
2 Throwing it all away for the fleeting joys of love 's brief moment .
0 Take away the controversy , and it 's not much more watchable than a Mexican soap opera .
3 A raunchy and frequently hilarious follow-up to the gifted Korean American stand-up 's I 'm the One That I Want .
4 Painful , horrifying and oppressively tragic , this film should not be missed .
4 The most brilliant and brutal UK crime film since Jack Carter went back to Newcastle , the first half of Gangster No. 1 drips with style and , at times , blood .
0 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 did n't .
4 Broomfield is energized by Volletta Wallace 's maternal fury , her fearlessness , and because of that , his film crackles .
3 Yet the act is still charming here .
1 The plot 's contrivances are uncomfortably strained .
4 It has that rare quality of being able to creep the living hell out of you ...
3 He drags it back , single-handed .
2 It may not be `` Last Tango in Paris '' but ...
1 A `` Home Alone '' film that is staged like `` Rosemary 's Baby , '' but is not as well-conceived as either of those films .
2 A rather average action film that benefits from several funny moments supplied by Epps .
3 of whimsicality , narrative discipline and serious improvisation
3 Often hilarious .
1 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 .
3 An elegant work , Food of Love is as consistently engaging as it is revealing .
1 The jokes are telegraphed so far in advance they must have been lost in the mail .
1 Give Shapiro , Goldman , and Bolado credit for good intentions , but there 's nothing here that they could n't have done in half an hour .
0 ... this is n't even a movie we can enjoy as mild escapism ; it is one in which fear and frustration are provoked to intolerable levels .
3 It 's good , hard-edged stuff , violent and a bit exploitative but also nicely done , morally alert and street-smart .
3 I like it .
3 On its own , Big Trouble could be considered a funny little film .
3 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 .
1 This tale has been told and retold ; the races and rackets change , but the song remains the same .
0 Worthless , from its pseudo-rock-video opening to the idiocy of its last frames .
0 Makes a joke out of car chases for an hour and then gives us half an hour of car chases .
4 A knowing sense of humor and a lot of warmth ignite Son of the Bride .
1 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 .
4 The Son Of The Bride 's humour is born out of an engaging storyline , which also is n't embarrassed to make you reach for the tissues .
4 Even if the Naipaul original remains the real masterpiece , the movie possesses its own languorous charm .
3 Ambitious , unsettling psychodrama that takes full , chilling advantage of its rough-around-the-edges , low-budget constraints .
3 Most of the things that made the original Men in Black such a pleasure are still there .
3 At times a bit melodramatic and even a little dated -LRB- depending upon where you live -RRB- , Ignorant Fairies is still quite good-natured and not a bad way to spend an hour or two .
2 Or for the year , for that matter .
4 I had more fun watching Spy than I had with most of the big summer movies .
0 It 's just merely very bad .
2 the shackles
3 Watching this gentle , mesmerizing portrait of a man coming to terms with time , you barely realize your mind is being blown .
3 You can watch , giggle and get an adrenaline boost without feeling like you 've completely lowered your entertainment standards .
2 Some movies blend together as they become distant memories .
0 Nair just does n't have the necessary self-control to guide a loose , poorly structured film through the pitfalls of incoherence and redundancy .
3 Chouraqui brings documentary-like credibility to the horrors of the killing field and the barbarism of ` ethnic cleansing . '
1 Woody Allen used to ridicule movies like Hollywood Ending .
1 It 's mildly amusing , but I certainly ca n't recommend it .
0 And it 's not that funny -- which is just generally insulting .
0 As David Letterman and The Onion have proven , the worst of tragedies can be fertile sources of humor , but Lawrence has only a fleeting grasp of how to develop them .
1 They just have problems , which are neither original nor are presented in convincing way .
3 For all the dolorous trim , Secretary is a genial romance that maintains a surprisingly buoyant tone throughout , notwithstanding some of the writers ' sporadic dips into pop Freudianism .
3 Like the original , this version is raised a few notches above kiddie fantasy pablum by Allen 's astringent wit .
4 A taut , sobering film .
2 Far-fetched premise , convoluted plot , and thematic mumbo jumbo about destiny and redemptive love .
3 A muddle splashed with bloody beauty as vivid as any Scorsese has ever given us .
4 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 .
4 But while the highly predictable narrative falls short , Treasure Planet is truly gorgeous to behold .
4 Directed with purpose and finesse by England 's Roger Mitchell , who handily makes the move from pleasing , relatively lightweight commercial fare such as Notting Hill to commercial fare with real thematic heft .
1 One of these days Hollywood will come up with an original idea for a teen movie , but until then there 's always these rehashes to feed to the younger generations .
3 A wild ride juiced with enough energy and excitement for at least three films .
1 Nemesis suffers from a paunchy midsection , several plodding action sequences and a wickedly undramatic central theme .
2 Lucky Break is perfectly inoffensive and harmless , but it 's also drab and inert .
4 Elvira fans could hardly ask for more .
2 Exactly what you 'd expect from a guy named Kaos .
4 Like all great films about a life you never knew existed , it offers much to absorb and even more to think about after the final frame .
0 It 's pretentious in a way that verges on the amateurish .
0 ... unlike -LRB- Scorsese 's Mean Streets -RRB- , Ash Wednesday is essentially devoid of interesting characters or even a halfway intriguing plot .
2 Only two-fifths of a satisfying movie experience .
1 ... the good and different idea -LRB- of middle-aged romance -RRB- is not handled well and , except for the fine star performances , there is little else to recommend `` Never Again . ''
2 Murder by Numbers ' is n't a great movie , but it 's a perfectly acceptable widget .
0 It may as well be called `` Jar-Jar Binks : The Movie . ''
1 But it would be better to wait for the video .
4 Delirious fun .
1 There are some fairly unsettling scenes , but they never succeed in really rattling the viewer .
4 Special P.O.V. camera mounts on bikes , skateboards , and motorcycles provide an intense experience when splashed across the immense IMAX screen .
4 There are scenes of cinematic perfection that steal your heart away .
2 A fantastic premise anchors this movie , but what it needs is either a more rigid , Blair Witch-style commitment to its mockumentary format , or a more straightforward , dramatic treatment , with all the grandiosity that that implies .
0 `` Interview '' loses its overall sense of mystery and becomes a TV episode rather than a documentary that you actually buy into .
4 ... the first 2\/3 of the film are incredibly captivating and insanely funny , thanks in part to interesting cinematic devices -LRB- cool visual backmasking -RRB- , a solid cast , and some wickedly sick and twisted humor ...
4 This is the best Star Trek movie in a long time .
2 Auto Focus is not your standard Hollywood bio-pic .
2 `` Not really as bad as you might think ! ''
3 Beautifully filmed and well acted ... but admittedly problematic in its narrative specifics .
1 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 .
4 One of the best films of the year with its exquisite acting , inventive screenplay , mesmerizing music , and many inimitable scenes of tenderness , loss , discontent , and yearning .
2 I saw Juwanna Mann so you do n't have to .
0 Why anyone who is not a character in this movie should care is beyond me .
1 What starts off as a potentially incredibly twisting mystery becomes simply a monster chase film .
2 ... they missed the boat .
0 Characterisation has been sacrificed for the sake of spectacle .
3 As an introduction to the man 's theories and influence , Derrida is all but useless ; as a portrait of the artist as an endlessly inquisitive old man , however , it 's invaluable .
4 A delightful , if minor , pastry of a movie .
3 ... 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 . '
1 Clockstoppers is one of those crazy , mixed-up films that does n't know what it wants to be when it grows up .
1 Fear Dot Com is more frustrating than a modem that disconnects every 10 seconds .
3 And Vin Diesel is the man .
1 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 .
3 While there are times when the film 's reach exceeds its grasp , the production works more often than it does n't .
4 Richly entertaining and suggestive of any number of metaphorical readings .
3 It 's a day at the beach -- with air conditioning and popcorn .
1 ... a bland , pretentious mess .
0 The actors try hard but come off too amateurish and awkward .
3 Goldbacher draws on an elegant visual sense and a talent for easy , seductive pacing ... but she and writing partner Laurence Coriat do n't manage an equally assured narrative coinage .
1 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 .
3 Becomes a fascinating study of isolation and frustration that successfully recreates both the physical setting and emotional tensions of the Papin sisters .
1 Though Harris is affecting at times , he can not overcome the sense that Pumpkin is a mere plot pawn for two directors with far less endearing disabilities .
4 The overall result is an intelligent , realistic portrayal of testing boundaries .
1 Never decides whether it wants to be a black comedy , drama , melodrama or some combination of the three .
1 An authentically vague , but ultimately purposeless , study in total pandemonium .
2 ` Tadpole ' was one of the films so declared this year , but it 's really more of The Next Pretty Good Thing .
3 Those prone to indignation need not apply ; those susceptible to blue hilarity , step right up .
4 She 's as rude and profane as ever , always hilarious and , most of the time , absolutely right in her stinging social observations .
0 Even as I valiantly struggled to remain interested , or at least conscious , I could feel my eyelids ... getting ... very ... heavy ...
3 It may not be particularly innovative , but the film 's crisp , unaffected style and air of gentle longing make it unexpectedly rewarding .
2 At its best ... Festival in Cannes bubbles with the excitement of the festival in Cannes .
4 Bill Morrison 's Decasia is uncompromising , difficult and unbearably beautiful .
3 -LRB- Shyamalan -RRB- 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 .
1 I 'd be hard pressed to think of a film more cloyingly sappy than Evelyn this year .
3 I know that I 'll never listen to Marvin Gaye or the Supremes the same way again
4 Like Shrek , Spirit 's visual imagination reminds you of why animation is such a perfect medium for children , because of the way it allows the mind to enter and accept another world .
3 Saddled with an unwieldy cast of characters and angles , but the payoff is powerful and revelatory .
1 I 'll stay with the stage versions , however , which bite cleaner , and deeper .
3 Tsai convincingly paints a specifically urban sense of disassociation here .
1 Despite the opulent lushness of every scene , the characters never seem to match the power of their surroundings .
1 And people make fun of me for liking Showgirls .
2 You just know something terrible is going to happen .
3 Much of what we see is horrible but it 's also undeniably exceedingly clever .
3 Writer \/ director M. Night Shyamalan 's ability to pull together easily accessible stories that resonate with profundity is undeniable .
1 Not once in the rush to save the day did I become very involved in the proceedings ; to me , it was just a matter of ` eh . '
1 This 10th film in the series looks and feels tired .
0 A long , dull procession of despair , set to cello music culled from a minimalist funeral .
1 Cherish is a dud -- a romantic comedy that 's not the least bit romantic and only mildly funny .
2 is now stretched to barely feature length , with a little more attention paid to the animation .
0 For most movies , 84 minutes is short , but this one feels like a life sentence .
1 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 .
1 For a movie about the power of poetry and passion , there is precious little of either .
2 Not to mention a sharper , cleaner camera lens .
2 would have been benefited from a sharper , cleaner script before it went in front of the camera .
0 This Tuxedo ... should have been sent back to the tailor for some major alterations .
3 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 .
3 Poignant and delicately complex .
4 Intriguing and stylish .
2 It was filled with shootings , beatings , and more cussing than you could shake a stick at .
1 It 's a mindless action flick with a twist -- far better suited to video-viewing than the multiplex .
3 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 .
2 A biopic about Crane 's life in the classic tradition but evolves into what has become of us all in the era of video .
3 With exquisite craftsmanship ... Olivier Assayas has fashioned an absorbing look at provincial bourgeois French society .
1 However sincere it may be , The Rising Place never quite justifies its own existence .
2 The central character is n't complex enough to hold our interest .
1 What could have been right at home as a nifty plot line in Steven Soderbergh 's Traffic fails to arrive at any satisfying destination .
0 Tykwer 's surface flash is n't just a poor fit with Kieslowski 's lyrical pessimism ; it completely contradicts everything Kieslowski 's work aspired to , including the condition of art .
0 Skip this turd and pick your nose instead because you 're sure to get more out of the latter experience .
2 You get the idea , though , that Kapur intended the film to be more than that .
2 O.K. , not really .
1 Both deserve better .
4 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 .
3 A tasty appetizer that leaves you wanting more .
2 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 .
2 Two hours of sepia-tinted heavy metal images and surround sound effects of people moaning .
1 Even kids deserve better .
4 That the real Antwone Fisher was able to overcome his personal obstacles and become a good man is a wonderful thing ; that he has been able to share his story so compellingly with us is a minor miracle .
3 Meticulously mounted , exasperatingly well-behaved film , which ticks off Kahlo 's lifetime milestones with the dutiful precision of a tax accountant .
0 Men in Black II achieves ultimate insignificance -- it 's the sci-fi comedy spectacle as Whiffle-Ball epic .
2 Those unfamiliar with Mormon traditions may find The Singles Ward occasionally bewildering .
0 Stiff and schmaltzy and clumsily directed .
1 If The Last Man were the last movie left on earth , there would be a toss-up between presiding over the end of cinema as we know it and another night of delightful hand shadows .
2 `` I blame all men for war , '' -LRB- the warden 's daughter -RRB- tells her father .
2 If you do n't laugh , flee .
3 that it 'll probably be the best and most mature comedy of the 2002 summer season speaks more of the season than the picture
1 On its own , it 's not very interesting .
3 Leigh is n't breaking new ground , but he knows how a daily grind can kill love .
3 The rich performances by Friel -- and especially Williams , an American actress who becomes fully English -- round out the square edges .
0 The appeal of the vulgar , sexist , racist humour went over my head or -- considering just how low brow it is -- perhaps it snuck under my feet .
3 The 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 .
2 Five screenwriters
1 About half of them are funny , a few are sexy and none are useful in telling the story , which is paper-thin and decidedly unoriginal .
1 Its one-sidedness ... flirts with propaganda .
0 Final verdict : You 've seen it all before .
3 Nicole Holofcenter , the insightful writer\/director responsible for this illuminating comedy does n't wrap the proceedings up neatly but the ideas tie together beautifully .
2 One of those staggeringly well-produced , joylessly extravagant pictures that keep whooshing you from one visual marvel to the next , hastily , emptily .
1 Even as the hero of the story rediscovers his passion in life , the mood remains oddly detached .
0 Boring and meandering .
1 No matter how much he runs around and acts like a doofus , accepting a 50-year-old in the role is creepy in a Michael Jackson sort of way .
4 The emotion is impressively true for being so hot-blooded , and both leads are up to the task .
1 Gooding and Coburn are both Oscar winners , a fact which , as you watch them clumsily mugging their way through Snow Dogs , seems inconceivable .
1 Why ?
1 Brosnan 's finest non-Bondish performance yet fails to overcome the film 's manipulative sentimentality and annoying stereotypes .
1 It leers , offering next to little insight into its intriguing subject .
0 A 75-minute sample of puerile rubbish that is listless , witless , and devoid of anything resembling humor .
1 Throwing in everything except someone pulling the pin from a grenade with his teeth , Windtalkers seems to have ransacked every old World War II movie for overly familiar material .
1 A reworking of Die Hard and Cliffhanger but it 's nowhere near as exciting as either .
1 -LRB- The kid 's -RRB- just too bratty for sympathy , and as the film grows to its finale , his little changes ring hollow .
4 Texan director George Ratliff had unlimited access to families and church meetings , and he delivers fascinating psychological fare .
1 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 .
1 Star Trek was kind of terrific once , but now it is a copy of a copy of a copy .
0 Ms. Phoenix is completely lacking in charm and charisma , and is unable to project either Esther 's initial anomie or her eventual awakening .
3 The Wild Thornberrys Movie is pleasant enough and the message of our close ties with animals can certainly not be emphasized enough .
1 The audacity to view one of Shakespeare 's better known tragedies as a dark comedy is , by itself , deserving of discussion .
1 Throw Smoochy from the train !
4 If you 're looking for something new and hoping for something entertaining , you 're in luck .
2 De Ayala is required to supply too much of the energy in a film that is , overall , far too staid for its subject matter .
0 Cold , Sterile And Lacking Any Color Or Warmth .
1 Mindless and boring martial arts and gunplay with too little excitement and zero compelling storyline .
1 A puppy dog so desperate for attention it nearly breaks its little neck trying to perform entertaining tricks .
3 In the end there is one word that best describes this film : honest .
4 It 's the funniest American comedy since Graffiti Bridge .
2 Secretary is not a movie about fetishism .
3 ` Film aficionados can not help but love Cinema Paradiso , whether the original version or new Director 's Cut . '
0 A rip-off twice removed , modeled after -LRB- Seagal 's -RRB- earlier copycat Under Siege , sometimes referred to as Die Hard on a boat .
1 More dutiful than enchanting ... terribly episodic and lacking the spark of imagination that might have made it an exhilarating treat .
2 The only upside to all of this unpleasantness is , given its Labor Day weekend upload , FearDotCom should log a minimal number of hits .
3 What the movie lacks in action it more than makes up for in drama , suspense , revenge , and romance .
1 The type of dumbed-down exercise in stereotypes that gives the -LRB- teen comedy -RRB- genre a bad name .
2 an `` O Bruin , Where Art Thou ? ''
0 ... no charm , no laughs , no fun , no reason to watch .
3 A deft , delightful mix of sulky teen drama and overcoming-obstacles sports-movie triumph .
1 ... there 's a choppy , surface-effect feeling to the whole enterprise .
3 Predictable storyline and by-the-book scripting is all but washed away by sumptuous ocean visuals and the cinematic stylings of director John Stockwell .
4 At times , the movie looks genuinely pretty .
2 Warmed-over hash .
2 It was a dark and stormy night ...
1 Drowning 's too good for this sucker .
3 A full experience , a love story and a murder mystery that expands into a meditation on the deep deceptions of innocence .
1 At times Auto Focus feels so distant you might as well be watching it through a telescope .
3 Rarely does such high-profile talent serve such literate material .
1 For all its shoot-outs , fistfights , and car chases , this movie is a phlegmatic bore , so tedious it makes the silly spy vs. spy film The Sum of All Fears , starring Ben Affleck , seem downright Hitchcockian .
4 A true-blue delight .
4 Kinnear 's performance is a career-defining revelation .
2 Less about Shakespeare than the spawn of fools who saw Quentin Tarantino 's handful of raucous gangster films and branched out into their own pseudo-witty copycat interpretations .
1 Leaves us wondering less about its ideas and more about its characterization of Hitler and the contrived nature of its provocative conclusion .
4 Far more enjoyable than its predecessor .
2 It 's hard to fairly judge a film like RINGU when you 've seen the remake first .
2 It 's not hateful .
4 The delicious trimmings ... arrive early and stay late , filling nearly every minute ... with a lighthearted glow , some impudent snickers , and a glorious dose of humankind 's liberating ability to triumph over a Scrooge or two .
1 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 .
3 With a large cast representing a broad cross-section , Tavernier 's film bounds along with the rat-a-tat energy of `` His Girl Friday , '' maintaining a light touch while tackling serious themes .
3 One of the most gloriously unsubtle and adrenalized extreme shockers since The Evil Dead .
1 Lisa Rinzler 's cinematography may be lovely , but Love Liza 's tale itself virtually collapses into an inhalant blackout , maintaining consciousness just long enough to achieve callow pretension .
1 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 .
3 The Bourne Identity should n'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 .
2 In -LRB- screenwriter -RRB- Charlie Kaufman 's world , truth and fiction are equally strange , and his for the taking .
0 ... a pretentious mess ...
3 -LRB- Gulpilil -RRB- is a commanding screen presence , and his character 's abundant humanism makes him the film 's moral compass .
1 The modern-day characters are nowhere near as vivid as the 19th-century ones .
3 -LRB- At least -RRB- Moore is a real charmer .
3 ... there 's enough cool fun here to warm the hearts of animation enthusiasts of all ages .
2 All Analyze That proves is that there is really only one movie 's worth of decent gags to be gleaned from the premise .
0 A thriller without a lot of thrills .
4 Adaptation 's success in engaging the audience in the travails of creating a screenplay is extraordinary .
3 You never know where Changing Lanes is going to take you but it 's a heck of a ride .
4 It is sentimental but feels free to offend , is analytical and then surrenders to the illogic of its characters , is about grief and yet permits laughter .
3 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 .
1 Enigma lacks it .
3 Poetic , heartbreaking .
4 Real Women may have many agendas , but it also will win you over , in a big way .
3 And it is .
2 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 .
0 Astonishing is n't the word -- neither is incompetent , incoherent or just plain crap .
1 The film did n't convince me that Calvin Jr. 's Barbershop represents some sort of beacon of hope in the middle of Chicago 's South Side .
1 Anyone else who may , for whatever reason , be thinking about going to see this movie is hereby given fair warning .
3 An edifying glimpse into the wit and revolutionary spirit of these performers and their era .
0 ... about as exciting to watch as two last-place basketball teams playing one another on the final day of the season .
3 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 .
1 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 .
2 Famuyiwa 's feature
2 Ruh-roh !
1 A beyond-lame satire , Teddy Bears ' Picnic ranks among the most pitiful directing debuts by an esteemed writer-actor .
2 directed in a flashy , empty sub-music video style by a director so self-possessed he actually adds a period to his first name
2 A dreary indulgence .
1 A gushy episode of `` M \* A \* S \* H '' only this time from an Asian perspective .
3 As literary desecrations go , this makes for perfectly acceptable , occasionally very enjoyable children 's entertainment .
1 I ca n't remember the last time I saw worse stunt editing or cheaper action movie production values than in Extreme Ops .
4 It 's a lovely , sad dance highlighted by Kwan 's unique directing style .
2 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 .
2 When the precise nature of Matthew 's predicament finally comes into sharp focus , the revelation fails to justify the build-up .
1 Unless you 're a fanatic , the best advice is : ` Scooby ' do n't .
4 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 .
1 One suspects that Craven endorses They simply because this movie makes his own look much better by comparison .
1 Hill looks to be going through the motions , beginning with the pale script .
0 is significantly less charming than listening to a four-year-old with a taste for exaggeration recount his Halloween trip to the Haunted House .
3 It 's nice to see Piscopo again after all these years , and Chaykin and Headly are priceless .
3 For a long time the film succeeds with its dark , delicate treatment of these characters and its unerring respect for them .
3 Enigma looks great , has solid acting and a neat premise .
3 Manages to be wholesome and subversive at the same time .
1 Sweet gentle Jesus , did the screenwriters just do a cut-and-paste of every bad action-movie line in history ?
3 The touch is generally light enough and the performances , for the most part , credible .
3 An enjoyable above average summer diversion .
0 So muddled , repetitive and ragged that it says far less about the horrifying historical reality than about the filmmaker 's characteristic style .
2 The pace of the film is very slow -LRB- for obvious reasons -RRB- and that too becomes off-putting .
0 It 's an 88-minute highlight reel that 's 86 minutes too long .
0 Laughably , irredeemably awful .
3 Twohy 's a good yarn-spinner , and ultimately the story compels .
1 Steve Oedekerk is , alas , no Woody Allen .
1 The whole thing comes off like a particularly amateurish episode of Bewitched that takes place during Spring Break .
3 Clooney directs this film always keeping the balance between the fantastic and the believable ...
4 Handled correctly , Wilde 's play is a masterpiece of elegant wit and artifice .
3 I liked About Schmidt a lot , but I have a feeling that I would have liked it much more if Harry & Tonto never existed .
3 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 ' ?
3 A quaint , romanticized rendering .
2 The dominant feeling is something like nostalgia . '
0 A loud , witless mess that has none of the charm and little of the intrigue from the TV series .
0 An empty , purposeless exercise .
1 Offers big , fat , dumb laughs that may make you hate yourself for giving in .
3 A lot smarter than your average Bond .
1 Deadly dull , pointless meditation on losers in a gone-to-seed hotel .
3 A French film with a more down-home flavor .
4 The kind of movie that comes along only occasionally , one so unconventional , gutsy and perfectly executed it takes your breath away .
0 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 .
1 Is it really an advantage to invest such subtlety and warmth in an animatronic bear when the humans are acting like puppets ?
2 His best film remains his shortest , The Hole , which makes many of the points that this film does but feels less repetitive .
2 Director David Jacobson gives Dahmer a consideration that the murderer never game his victims .
3 Captures all the longing , anguish and ache , the confusing sexual messages and the wish to be a part of that elusive adult world .
1 Empire ca n't make up its mind whether it wants to be a gangster flick or an art film .
2 The sequel is everything the original was not : contrived , overblown and tie-in ready .
1 What happens when something goes bump in the night and nobody cares ?
0 Slack and uninspired , and peopled mainly by characters so unsympathetic that you 're left with a sour taste in your mouth .
2 underventilated
3 Smith examines the intimate , unguarded moments of folks who live in unusual homes -- which pop up in nearly every corner of the country .
3 For 95 often hilarious minutes
4 It picked me up , swung me around , and dropped me back in my seat with more emotional force than any other recent film .
1 The script by Vincent R. Nebrida ... tries to cram too many ingredients into one small pot .
3 Birthday Girl lucks out with Chaplin and Kidman , who are capable of anteing up some movie star charisma when they need it to sell us on this twisted love story , but who can also negotiate the movie 's darker turns .
1 Suffers from its timid parsing of the barn-side target of sons trying to breach gaps in their relationships with their fathers .
0 ... you can be forgiven for realizing that you 've spent the past 20 minutes looking at your watch and waiting for Frida to just die already .
3 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 .
2 fast , frantic and fun , but also soon forgotten
3 Deliciously slow .
0 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 .
1 Suffice to say its total promise is left slightly unfulfilled .
3 Those who want to be jolted out of their gourd should drop everything and run to Ichi .
3 An energetic and engaging film that never pretends to be something it is n't .
4 An enormously entertaining movie , like nothing we 've ever seen before , and yet completely familiar .
4 An odd drama set in the world of lingerie models and bar dancers in the Midwest that held my interest precisely because it did n't try to .
3 Australian actor\/director John Polson and award-winning English cinematographer Giles Nuttgens make a terrific effort at disguising the obvious with energy and innovation .
1 Belongs in the too-hot-for-TV direct-to-video\/DVD category , and this is why I have given it a one-star rating .
2 Ultimately feels like just one more in the long line of films this year about the business of making movies .
2 A wordy wisp of a comedy .
2 A punch line without a premise , a joke built entirely from musty memories of half-dimensional characters .
2 Nachtwey clears the cynicism right out of you .
3 she of the impossibly long limbs and sweetly conspiratorial smile
3 The film delivers what it promises : A look at the `` wild ride '' that ensues when brash young men set out to conquer the online world with laptops , cell phones and sketchy business plans .
3 Bring on the sequel .
2 -LRB- It -RRB- highlights not so much the crime lord 's messianic bent , but Spacey 's .
2 The date movie that Franz Kafka would have made .
4 This charming , thought-provoking New York fest of life and love has its rewards .
2 Frida is certainly no disaster , but neither is it the Kahlo movie Frida fans have been looking for .
3 We 've seen the hippie-turned-yuppie plot before , but there 's an enthusiastic charm in Fire that makes the formula fresh again .
3 Neither the funniest film that Eddie Murphy nor Robert De Niro has ever made , Showtime is nevertheless efficiently amusing for a good while .
2 Mild , meandering teen flick .
2 Viewed as a comedy , a romance , a fairy tale , or a drama , there 's nothing remotely triumphant about this motion picture .
3 An intriguing look at the French film industry during the German occupation ; its most delightful moments come when various characters express their quirky inner selves .
4 A special kind of movie , this melancholic film noir reminded me a lot of Memento ...
2 ... hopefully it 'll be at the dollar theatres by the time Christmas rolls around .
2 Exposing the ways we fool ourselves is One Hour Photo 's real strength .
0 Just another combination of bad animation and mindless violence ... lacking the slightest bit of wit or charm .
4 Proof once again that if the filmmakers just follow the books , they ca n't go wrong .
4 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 .
2 Basically , it 's pretty but dumb .
0 -LRB- A -RRB- soulless , stupid sequel ...
3 The low-key direction is pleasingly emphatic in this properly intense , claustrophobic tale of obsessive love .
4 The art direction and costumes are gorgeous and finely detailed , and Kurys ' direction is clever and insightful .
1 It sticks rigidly to the paradigm , rarely permitting its characters more than two obvious dimensions and repeatedly placing them in contrived , well-worn situations .
1 They crush each other under cars , throw each other out windows , electrocute and dismember their victims in full consciousness .
1 He seems to want both , but succeeds in making neither .
3 Full of surprises .
1 Forgettable , if good-hearted , movie .
1 Just as the lousy Tarantino imitations have subsided , here comes the first lousy Guy Ritchie imitation .
0 Not even Felinni would know what to make of this Italian freakshow .
2 About Amy 's cuteness , Amy 's career success -LRB- she 's a best-selling writer of self-help books who ca n't help herself -RRB- , and Amy 's neuroses when it comes to men .
0 Fails as a dystopian movie , as a retooling of Fahrenheit 451 , and even as a rip-off of The Matrix .
4 Tunney , brimming with coltish , neurotic energy , holds the screen like a true star .
3 Beautiful , cold , oddly colorful and just plain otherworldly , a freaky bit of art that 's there to scare while we delight in the images .
4 A wild , endearing , masterful documentary .
4 Cool gadgets and creatures keep this fresh .
2 LaBute was more fun when his characters were torturing each other psychologically and talking about their genitals in public .
3 A charmer from Belgium .
3 I 've never bought from telemarketers , but I bought this movie .
4 Executed with such gentle but insistent sincerity , with such good humor and appreciation of the daily grind that only the most hardhearted Scrooge could fail to respond .
1 Appropriately cynical social commentary aside , # 9 never quite ignites .
2 Gorgeous scenes , masterful performances , but the sickly sweet gender normative narrative left an acrid test in this gourmet 's mouth .
3 Stuffed to the brim with ideas , American instigator Michael Moore 's film is a rambling examination of American gun culture that uses his usual modus operandi of crucifixion through juxtaposition .
3 At its best , it 's Black Hawk Down with more heart .
2 Although Barbershop boasts some of today 's hottest and hippest acts from the world of television , music and stand-up comedy , this movie strangely enough has the outdated swagger of a shameless ` 70s blaxploitation shuck-and-jive sitcom .
3 If you 're looking for a smart , nuanced look at de Sade and what might have happened at Picpus , Sade is your film .
1 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 .
2 Arnold !
3 Far more successful , if considerably less ambitious , than last year 's Kubrick-meets-Spielberg exercise .
3 There are plenty of scenes in Frida that do work , but rarely do they involve the title character herself .
3 Elling builds gradually until you feel fully embraced by this gentle comedy .
2 It bites hard .
3 If the film has a problem , its shortness disappoints : You want the story to go on and on .
3 Cut through the layers of soap-opera emotion and you find a scathing portrayal of a powerful entity strangling the life out of the people who want to believe in it the most .
2 This is a harrowing movie about how parents know where all the buttons are , and how to push them .
2 It understands , in a way that speaks forcefully enough about the mechanisms of poverty to transcend the rather simplistic filmmaking .
4 It 's a smartly directed , grown-up film of ideas .
3 ... strips Bible stores of the potential for sanctimoniousness , making them meaningful for both kids and church-wary adults .
1 Spider-Man is about growing strange hairs , getting a more mature body , and finding it necessary to hide new secretions from the parental units .
2 while -LRB- Roman Coppola -RRB- scores points for style , he staggers in terms of story .
4 is one of this year 's very best pictures .
3 Too daft by half ... but supremely good natured .
3 Mostly , -LRB- Goldbacher -RRB- just lets her complicated characters be unruly , confusing and , through it all , human .
1 jumps around with little logic or continuity ,
2 A static and sugary little half-hour , after-school special about interfaith understanding , stretched out to 90 minutes .
3 Visually striking and viscerally repellent .
1 Too slow for a younger crowd , too shallow for an older one .
1 The fact that the ` best part ' of the movie comes from a 60-second homage to one of Demme 's good films does n't bode well for the rest of it .
2 The tone errs on the shrill side , tempered by a soft southern gentility that speaks of beauty , grace and a closet full of skeletons .
2 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 .
2 Benigni 's Pinocchio is extremely straight and mind-numbingly stilted , its episodic pacing keeping the film from developing any storytelling flow .
1 A pale Xerox of other , better crime movies .
0 It 's a visual Rorschach test and I must have failed .
3 Great dragons !
4 A small movie with a big impact .
3 Daughter From Danang sticks with its subjects a little longer and tells a deeper story
1 Sodden and glum , even in those moments where it 's supposed to feel funny and light .
3 -- but certainly hard to hate .
3 In the disturbingly involving family dysfunctional drama How I Killed My Father , French director Anne Fontaine delivers an inspired portrait of male-ridden angst and the emotional blockage that accompanies this human condition
3 The film feels uncomfortably real , its language and locations bearing the unmistakable stamp of authority .
4 Good performances and a realistic , non-exploitive approach make Paid in Full worth seeing .
4 An honest , sensitive story from a Vietnamese point of view .
2 Who knew ...
4 Beautifully produced .
3 Those eternally devoted to the insanity of Black will have an intermittently good time .
4 A film with almost as many delights for adults as there are for children and dog lovers .
3 It 's rare to find a film to which the adjective ` gentle ' applies , but the word perfectly describes Pauline & Paulette .
2 Grainy photography mars an otherwise delightful comedy of errors .
0 Guilty of the worst sin of attributable to a movie like this : it 's not scary in the slightest .
1 One of those films where the characters inhabit that special annex of hell where adults behave like kids , children behave like adults and everyone screams at the top of their lungs no matter what the situation .
1 A sloppy slapstick throwback to long gone bottom-of-the-bill fare like The Ghost and Mr. Chicken .
1 The script is a tired one , with few moments of joy rising above the stale material .
3 -LRB- City -RRB- 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 ' -LRB- 1999 -RRB- and ` Analyze That , ' promised -LRB- or threatened -RRB- for later this year .
3 would make an excellent companion piece to the similarly themed ` The French Lieutenant 's Woman . '
3 Harmless fun .
4 Infidelity drama is nicely shot , well-edited and features a standout performance by Diane Lane .
1 The filmmakers needed more emphasis on the storytelling and less on the glamorous machine that thrusts the audience into a future they wo n't much care about .
1 ... a fascinating curiosity piece -- fascinating , that is , for about ten minutes .
4 The strength of the film comes not from any cinematic razzle-dazzle but from its recovery of an historical episode that , in the simple telling , proves simultaneously harrowing and uplifting .
4 Spielberg 's first real masterpiece , it deserved all the hearts it won -- and wins still , 20 years later .
3 Bielinsky is a filmmaker of impressive talent .
4 Fathers and sons , and the uneasy bonds between them , rarely have received such a sophisticated and unsentimental treatment on the big screen as they do in this marvelous film .
3 Criminal conspiracies and true romances move so easily across racial and cultural lines in the film that it makes My Big Fat Greek Wedding look like an apartheid drama .
1 With more character development this might have been an eerie thriller ; with better payoffs , it could have been a thinking man 's monster movie .
1 Tries too hard to be funny in a way that 's too loud , too goofy and too short of an attention span .
3 It 's the sweet Cinderella story that `` Pretty Woman '' wanted to be .
0 Does n't deserve a passing grade -LRB- even on a curve -RRB- .
1 First-timer John McKay is never able to pull it back on course .
4 A return to pure Disney magic and is enjoyable family fare .
1 This Sade is hardly a perverse , dangerous libertine and agitator -- which would have made for better drama .
2 ` All in all , Reign of Fire will be a good -LRB- successful -RRB- rental . '
2 Sunshine State surveys the landscape and assesses the issues with a clear passion for sociology .
4 With the same sort of good-natured fun found in films like Tremors , Eight Legged Freaks is prime escapist fare .
3 An ambitiously naturalistic , albeit half-baked , drama about an abused , inner-city autistic teen .
1 It 's just a movie that happens to have Jackie Chan in it .
1 You do n't need to know your Ice-T 's from your Cool-J 's to realize that as far as these shootings are concerned , something is rotten in the state of California .
3 The movie should jolt you out of your seat a couple of times , give you a few laughs , and leave you feeling like it was worth your seven bucks , even though it does turn out to be a bit of a cheat in the end .
0 You can fire a torpedo through some of Clancy 's holes , and the scripters do n't deserve any Oscars .
1 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 .
1 Obviously , a lot of people wasted a lot of their time -LRB- including mine -RRB- on something very inconsequential .
1 A moving picture that does not move .
1 Just about all of the film is confusing on one level or another , making Ararat far more demanding than it needs to be .
4 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 .
3 Hatosy ... portrays young Brendan with his usual intelligence and subtlety , not to mention a convincing brogue .
3 A uniquely sensual metaphorical dramatization of sexual obsession that spends a bit too much time on its fairly ludicrous plot .
2 ... Jones , despite a definitely distinctive screen presence , just is n't able to muster for a movie that , its title notwithstanding , should have been a lot nastier if it wanted to fully capitalize on its lead 's specific gifts .
4 Fudges fact and fancy with such confidence that we feel as if we 're seeing something purer than the real thing .
3 Could have been crisper and punchier , but it 's likely to please audiences who like movies that demand four hankies .
1 Naipaul fans may be disappointed .
1 The screenplay is hugely overwritten , with tons and tons of dialogue -- most of it given to children .
4 A beautiful , entertaining two hours .
0 Enough said , except : Film overboard !
3 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 .
1 For all the time we spend with these people , we never really get inside of them .
1 Eisenstein lacks considerable brio for a film about one of cinema 's directorial giants .
3 Naomi Watts is terrific as Rachel ; her petite frame and vulnerable persona emphasising her plight and isolation .
3 A giddy and provocative sexual romp that has something to say .
0 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 .
2 Life on the rez is no picnic : this picture shows you why .
2 As Allen 's execution date closes in , the documentary gives an especially poignant portrait of her friendship with the never flagging legal investigator David Presson .
2 It is there to give them a good time .
3 Sly , sophisticated and surprising .
3 All the pieces fall together without much surprise , but little moments give it a boost .
2 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 .
1 Like coming into a long-running , well-written television series where you 've missed the first half-dozen episodes and probably wo n't see the next six .
0 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 .
3 In its understanding , often funny way , it tells a story whose restatement is validated by the changing composition of the nation .
2 The movie does has some entertainment value - how much depends on how well you like Chris Rock .
4 Speaks eloquently about the symbiotic relationship between art and life .
3 Not everything in this ambitious comic escapade works , but Coppola , along with his sister , Sofia , is a real filmmaker .
1 Nothing more than a stifling morality tale dressed up in peekaboo clothing .
1 A series of immaculately composed shots of Patch Adams quietly freaking out does not make for much of a movie .
1 The movie does n't add anything fresh to the myth .
1 Upper West Sidey exercise in narcissism and self-congratulation disguised as a tribute .
4 The entire cast is extraordinarily good .
2 Like shave ice without the topping , this cinematic snow cone is as innocuous as it is flavorless .
1 Um ... is n't that the basis for the entire plot ?
4 Cho 's timing is priceless .
3 Meyjes ... has done his homework and soaked up some jazzy new revisionist theories about the origins of Nazi politics and aesthetics .
2 It 's a drawling , slobbering , lovable run-on sentence of a film , a Southern Gothic with the emotional arc of its raw blues soundtrack .
0 ... a weak and ineffective ghost story without a conclusion or pay off .
2 Rabbit-Proof Fence will probably make you angry .
1 Time stands still in more ways that one in Clockstoppers , a sci-fi thriller as lazy as it is interminable .
3 It cooks Conduct in a low , smoky and inviting sizzle .
2 This is the first film I 've ever seen that had no obvious directing involved .
2 ... Ice Age treads predictably along familiar territory , making it a passable family film that wo n't win many fans over the age of 12 .
4 One of the very best movies ever made about the life of moviemaking .
3 A perfectly pleasant if slightly pokey comedy .
3 A flawed but engrossing thriller .
3 Both damning and damned compelling .
2 The film sometimes flags ... but there is enough secondary action to keep things moving along at a brisk , amusing pace .
2 ... creates a visceral sense of its characters ' lives and conflicted emotions that carries it far above ... what could have been a melodramatic , Lifetime Channel-style anthology .
1 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 .
3 A charming , banter-filled comedy ... one of those airy cinematic bon bons whose aims -- and by extension , accomplishments -- seem deceptively slight on the surface .
3 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 .
0 It just did n't mean much to me and played too skewed to ever get a hold on -LRB- or be entertained by -RRB- .
3 The Four Feathers has rewards , from the exoticism of its seas of sand to the fierce grandeur of its sweeping battle scenes .
3 A comedy that swings and jostles to the rhythms of life .
4 It 's never dull and always looks good .
0 Unfunny and lacking any sense of commitment to or affection for its characters , the Reginald Hudlin comedy relies on toilet humor , ethnic slurs .
4 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 .
3 Reggio and Glass put on an intoxicating show .
4 likeable thanks to its cast , its cuisine and its quirky tunes .
1 What with all the blanket statements and dime-store ruminations on vanity , the worries of the rich and sudden wisdom , the film becomes a sermon for most of its running time .
1 Breen 's script is sketchy with actorish notations on the margin of acting .
2 Has its moments , but it 's pretty far from a treasure .
0 This loud and thoroughly obnoxious comedy about a pair of squabbling working-class spouses is a deeply unpleasant experience .
0 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 .
3 Witty , vibrant , and intelligent .
4 The best thing I can say about this film is that I ca n't wait to see what the director does next .
1 May puzzle his most ardent fans .
4 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 .
1 Try this obscenely bad dark comedy , so crass that it makes Edward Burns ' Sidewalks of New York look like Oscar Wilde .
1 The Tuxedo was n't just bad ; it was , as my friend David Cross would call it , ` Hungry-Man portions of bad ' .
1 Human Nature , in short , is n't nearly as funny as it thinks it is ; neither is it as smart .
3 It 's fun , splashy and entertainingly nasty .
2 A little objectivity could have gone a long way .
3 The film boasts at least a few good ideas and features some decent performances , but the result is disappointing .
0 Boll uses a lot of quick cutting and blurry step-printing to goose things up , but dopey dialogue and sometimes inadequate performances kill the effect .
0 ... unlikable , uninteresting , unfunny , and completely , utterly inept .
3 A creepy , intermittently powerful study of a self-destructive man ... about as unsettling to watch as an exploratory medical procedure or an autopsy .
1 The crassness of this reactionary thriller is matched only by the ridiculousness of its premise .
2 The Porky 's Revenge : Ultimate Edition ?
3 None of this is meaningful or memorable , but frosting is n't , either , and you would n't turn down a big bowl of that , would you ?
3 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 .
1 In its chicken heart , Crush goes to absurd lengths to duck the very issues it raises .
2 I 'm all for the mentally challenged getting their fair shot in the movie business , but surely it does n't have to be as a collection of keening and self-mutilating sideshow geeks .
2 Worth seeing once , but its charm quickly fades .
3 If The Man from Elysian Fields is doomed by its smallness , it is also elevated by it -- the kind of movie that you enjoy more because you 're one of the lucky few who sought it out .
0 There 's nothing interesting in Unfaithful whatsoever .
0 There 's already been too many of these films ...
1 Almost peerlessly unsettling .
3 Maybe he was reading the minds of the audience .
3 A sly female empowerment movie , although not in a way anyone would expect .
2 Go for La Salle 's performance , and make do as best you can with a stuttering script .
1 ... The movie feels stitched together from stock situations and characters from other movies .
2 It remains to be seen whether Statham can move beyond the crime-land action genre , but then again , who says he has to ?
4 Though in some ways similar to Catherine Breillat 's Fat Girl , Rain is the far superior film .
0 It shows that some studios firmly believe that people have lost the ability to think and will forgive any shoddy product as long as there 's a little girl-on-girl action .
1 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 .
2 A poorly scripted , preachy fable that forgets about unfolding a coherent , believable story in its zeal to spread propaganda .
2 -LRB- A -RRB- rare movie that makes us re-assess the basis for our lives and evaluate what is truly ours in a world of meaningless activity .
3 If a big musical number like ` Praise the Lord , He 's the God of Second Chances ' does n't put you off , this will be an enjoyable choice for younger kids .
4 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 .
3 But Toback 's deranged immediacy makes it seem fresh again .
4 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 .
2 There 's a neat twist , subtly rendered , that could have wrapped things up at 80 minutes , but Kang tacks on three or four more endings .
0 Godard 's ode to tackling life 's wonderment is a rambling and incoherent manifesto about the vagueness of topical excess ... In Praise of Love remains a ponderous and pretentious endeavor that 's unfocused and tediously exasperating .
3 Amazingly dopey .
0 It 's hard to imagine that even very small children will be impressed by this tired retread .
1 A beautifully shot but dull and ankle-deep ` epic . '
3 The performances of the four main actresses bring their characters to life .
0 The emotional overload of female angst irreparably drags the film down .
3 Comedian , like its subjects , delivers the goods and audiences will have a fun , no-frills ride .
3 -LRB- Woo 's -RRB- most resonant film since The Killer .
3 Muccino seems to be exploring the idea of why human beings long for what they do n't have , and how this gets us in trouble .
4 Even when there are lulls , the emotions seem authentic , and the picture is so lovely toward the end ... you almost do n't notice the 129-minute running time .
3 In a movie full of surprises , the biggest is that Secret Ballot is a comedy , both gentle and biting .
4 A fascinating case study of flower-power liberation -- and the price that was paid for it .
0 The pacing is deadly , the narration helps little and Naipaul , a juicy writer , is negated .
3 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 .
1 -- is a crime that should be punishable by chainsaw .
3 Delivers more than its fair share of saucy hilarity .
2 While the mystery unravels , the characters respond by hitting on each other .
3 Now here 's a sadistic bike flick that would have made Vittorio De Sica proud .
3 Meticulously uncovers a trail of outrageous force and craven concealment .
4 A pretty funny movie , with most of the humor coming , as before , from the incongruous but chemically perfect teaming of Crystal and De Niro .
3 From both a great and a terrible story , Mr. Nelson has made a film that is an undeniably worthy and devastating experience .
2 ... will always be remembered for the 9-11 terrorist attacks .
0 For the rest of us , sitting through Dahmer 's two hours amounts to little more than punishment .
1 More tiring than anything .
3 If you 're not , you 'll still have a good time . ''
2 Occasionally funny , sometimes inspiring , often boring .
3 On the surface a silly comedy , Scotland , PA would be forgettable if it were n't such a clever adaptation of the bard 's tragic play .
1 Cassavetes thinks he 's making Dog Day Afternoon with a cause , but all he 's done is to reduce everything he touches to a shrill , didactic cartoon .
2 ... delivers few moments of inspiration amid the bland animation and simplistic story .
1 When not wallowing in its characters ' frustrations , the movie is busy contriving false , sitcom-worthy solutions to their problems .
3 Fans of critics ' darling band Wilco will marvel at the sometimes murky , always brooding look of I Am Trying to Break Your Heart .
4 A truly wonderful tale combined with stunning animation .
1 Just when you think you are making sense of it , something happens that tells you there is no sense .
4 Easily one of the best and most exciting movies of the year .
4 Daring and beautifully made .
1 An impenetrable and insufferable ball of pseudo-philosophic twaddle .
0 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 ?
2 At no point during K-19 : The Widowmaker did this viewer feel enveloped in a story that , though meant to be universal in its themes of loyalty , courage and dedication to a common goal , never seems to leave the lot .
1 A lightweight , uneven action comedy that freely mingles French , Japanese and Hollywood cultures .
3 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 .
1 When a movie asks you to feel sorry for Mick Jagger 's sex life , it already has one strike against it .
2 The movie 's gloomy atmosphere is fascinating , though , even if the movie itself does n't stand a ghost of a chance .
0 There 's surely something wrong with a comedy where the only belly laughs come from the selection of outtakes tacked onto the end credits .
4 a confident , richly acted , emotionally devastating piece of work and 2002 's first great film
3 Starts slowly , but Adrien Brody -- in the title role -- helps make the film 's conclusion powerful and satisfying .
4 Jeffs has created a breathtakingly assured and stylish work of spare dialogue and acute expressiveness .
1 Those who are not acquainted with the author 's work , on the other hand , may fall fast asleep .
2 in period costume and with a bigger budget .
3 But it could be , by its art and heart , a necessary one .
4 A generous , inspiring film that unfolds with grace and humor and gradually becomes a testament to faith .
0 The project 's filmmakers forgot to include anything even halfway scary as they poorly rejigger Fatal Attraction into a high school setting .
3 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 ...
2 When Seagal appeared in an orange prison jumpsuit , I wanted to stand up in the theater and shout , ` Hey , Kool-Aid ! '
1 For this sort of thing to work , we need agile performers , but the proficient , dull Sorvino has no light touch , and Rodan is out of his league .
4 The film is impressive for the sights and sounds of the wondrous beats the world has to offer .
4 Mr. Deeds is sure to give you a lot of laughs in this simple , sweet and romantic comedy .
3 Pretty good little movie .
1 The story is also as unoriginal as they come , already having been recycled more times than I 'd care to count .
3 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 .
3 Initially gripping , eventually cloying POW drama .
4 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 .
3 Offers an interesting look at the rapidly changing face of Beijing .
3 Gaunt , silver-haired and leonine , -LRB- Harris -RRB- brings a tragic dimension and savage full-bodied wit and cunning to the aging Sandeman .
2 Just plain silly .
3 When it 's not wallowing in hormonal melodrama , `` Real Women Have Curves '' is a sweet , honest , and enjoyable comedy-drama about a young woman who wants many things in life , but fears she 'll become her mother before she gets to fulfill her dreams .
3 There 's just something about watching a squad of psychopathic underdogs whale the tar out of unsuspecting lawmen that reaches across time and distance .
0 This flat run at a hip-hop Tootsie is so poorly paced you could fit all of Pootie Tang in between its punchlines .
4 A triumph of pure craft and passionate heart .
3 imagine a scenario where Bergman approaches Swedish fatalism using Gary Larson 's Far Side humor
2 It 's really just another silly Hollywood action film , one among a multitude of simple-minded , yahoo-ing death shows .
0 This is a fudged opportunity of gigantic proportions -- a lunar mission with no signs of life .
3 Deliberately and skillfully uses ambiguity to suggest possibilities which imbue the theme with added depth and resonance .
4 All of it works smoothly under the direction of Spielberg , who does a convincing impersonation here of a director enjoying himself immensely .
1 The whole thing 's fairly lame , making it par for the course for Disney sequels .
3 Even at its worst , it 's not half-bad .
1 A visionary marvel , but it 's lacking a depth in storytelling usually found in anime like this .
3 Graced with the kind of social texture and realism that would be foreign in American teen comedies .
0 Like a bad improvisation exercise , the superficially written characters ramble on tediously about their lives , loves and the art they 're struggling to create .
3 A three-hour cinema master class .
3 Beresford nicely mixes in as much humor as pathos to take us on his sentimental journey of the heart .
4 If you can get past the taboo subject matter , it will be well worth your time .
3 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 .
1 More busy than exciting , more frantic than involving , more chaotic than entertaining .
3 Precocious smarter-than-thou wayward teen struggles to rebel against his oppressive , right-wing , propriety-obsessed family .
2 Any Chekhov is better than no Chekhov , but it would be a shame if this was your introduction to one of the greatest plays of the last 100 years .
3 Its adult themes of familial separation and societal betrayal are head and shoulders above much of the director 's previous popcorn work .
0 You may be galled that you 've wasted nearly two hours of your own precious life with this silly little puddle of a movie .
1 I did n't smile .
1 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 .
1 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 .
1 Shafer 's feature does n't offer much in terms of plot or acting .
2 Was I scared ?
1 But Windtalkers does n't beat that one , either .
3 It 's funny .
2 A case in point : Doug Pray 's Scratch .
1 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 .
4 MacDowell ... gives give a solid , anguished performance that eclipses nearly everything else she 's ever done .
1 This is a poster movie , a mediocre tribute to films like Them !
3 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 .
1 No , I do n't know why Steven Seagal is considered a star , nor why he keeps being cast in action films when none of them are ever any good or make any money .
1 In the era of The Sopranos , it feels painfully redundant and inauthentic .
0 You ca n't believe anyone would really buy this stuff .
1 Long on twinkly-eyed close-ups and short on shame .
1 It 's plotless , shapeless -- and yet , it must be admitted , not entirely humorless .
1 Each scene drags , underscoring the obvious , and sentiment is slathered on top .
1 Outside of Burger 's desire to make some kind of film , it 's really unclear why this project was undertaken
0 I 'd rather watch a rerun of The Powerpuff Girls
3 It 's a talking head documentary , but a great one .
2 C'mon !
1 Director Shekhar Kapur and screenwriters Michael Schiffer and Hossein Amini have tried hard to modernize and reconceptualize things , but the barriers finally prove to be too great .
4 This is DiCaprio 's best performance in anything ever , and easily the most watchable film of the year .
1 Everything about it from the bland songs to the colorful but flat drawings is completely serviceable and quickly forgettable .
3 Cineasts will revel in those visual in-jokes , as in the film 's verbal pokes at everything from the likes of Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein 's bluff personal style to the stylistic rigors of Denmark 's Dogma movement .
1 An uneven look into a grim future that does n't come close to the level of intelligence and visual splendour that can be seen in other films based on Philip K. Dick stories .
2 You have enough finely tuned acting to compensate for the movie 's failings .
0 All of the filmmakers ' calculations ca n't rescue Brown Sugar from the curse of blandness .
2 The dramatic crisis does n't always succeed in its quest to be taken seriously , but Huppert 's volatile performance makes for a riveting movie experience .
1 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 does n't do a load of good .
0 There 's only one way to kill Michael Myers for good : stop buying tickets to these movies .
4 It makes compelling , provocative and prescient viewing .
0 The Country Bears wastes an exceptionally good idea .
1 Conforms itself with creating a game of ` who 's who ' ... where the characters ' moves are often more predictable than their consequences .
3 A different and emotionally reserved type of survival story -- a film less about refracting all of World War II through the specific conditions of one man , and more about that man lost in its midst .
1 Sure , I hated myself in the morning .
4 A rollicking ride , with jaw-dropping action sequences , striking villains , a gorgeous color palette , astounding technology , stirring music and a boffo last hour that leads up to a strangely sinister happy ending .
0 Swims in mediocrity , sticking its head up for a breath of fresh air now and then .
3 Happily , some things are immune to the folly of changing taste and attitude .
4 Great over-the-top moviemaking if you 're in a slap-happy mood .
0 Swiftly deteriorates into a terribly obvious melodrama and rough-hewn vanity project for lead actress Andie MacDowell .
0 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 -LRB- Jeremy Renner -RRB- and fiendish acts that no amount of earnest textbook psychologizing can bridge .
2 foreshadowing
3 This film is so different from The Apple and so striking that it can only encourage us to see Samira Makhmalbaf as a very distinctive sensibility , working to develop her own film language with conspicuous success .
1 Sometimes makes less sense than the Bruckheimeresque American action flicks it emulates .
0 Terrible .
0 Tiresomely derivative and hammily acted .
1 The film 's final hour , where nearly all the previous unseen material resides , is unconvincing soap opera that Tornatore was right to cut .
2 Witherspoon puts to rest her valley-girl image , but it 's Dench who really steals the show .
1 Lookin ' for sin , American-style ?
2 Dolman confines himself to shtick and sentimentality -- the one bald and the other sloppy .
3 An intelligent romantic thriller of a very old-school kind of quality .
3 Even if The Ring has a familiar ring , it 's still unusually crafty and intelligent for Hollywood horror .
3 The usual movie rah-rah , pleasantly and predictably delivered in low-key style by director Michael Apted and writer Tom Stoppard .
4 An intelligent and deeply felt work about impossible , irrevocable choices and the price of making them .
3 A diverse and astonishingly articulate cast of Palestinian and Israeli children .
0 ... what a banal bore the preachy Circuit turns out to be
2 It would be disingenuous to call Reno a great film , but you can say that about most of the flicks moving in and out of the multiplex .
1 By-the-numbers yarn .
3 Part of the charm of Satin Rouge is that it avoids the obvious with humour and lightness .
4 A movie of technical skill and rare depth of intellect and feeling .
0 Cruel and inhuman cinematic punishment ... simultaneously degrades its characters , its stars and its audience .
1 The only fun part of the movie is playing the obvious game .
2 Photographed with melancholy richness and eloquently performed yet also decidedly uncinematic .
1 Kapur fails to give his audience a single character worth rooting for -LRB- or worth rooting against , for that matter -RRB- .
1 Has lost some of the dramatic conviction that underlies the best of comedies ...
2 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 .
4 An engrossing story that combines psychological drama , sociological reflection , and high-octane thriller .
3 A movie in which laughter and self-exploitation merge into jolly soft-porn 'em powerment . '
0 If you really want to understand what this story is really all about , you 're far better served by the source material .
3 Lightweight but appealing .
1 Well , this movie proves you wrong on both counts .
2 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 .
4 That 's fun for kids of any age .
1 Why would anyone cast the magnificent Jackie Chan in a movie full of stunt doubles and special effects ?
3 Koury frighteningly and honestly exposes one teenager 's uncomfortable class resentment and , in turn , his self-inflicted retaliation .
4 Terrific performances , great to look at , and funny .
3 An unorthodox little film noir organized crime story that includes one of the strangest love stories you will ever see .
3 Neatly constructed thriller .
4 One of the best silly horror movies of recent memory , with some real shocks in store for unwary viewers .
4 The most brilliant work in this genre since the 1984 uncut version of Sergio Leone 's flawed but staggering Once Upon a Time in America .
3 The beautifully choreographed kitchen ballet is simple but absorbing .
3 Cool .
2 `` Me Without You '' is a probing examination of a female friendship set against a few dynamic decades .
2 This sort of cute and cloying material is far from Zhang 's forte and it shows .
2 The first half bursts with a goofy energy previous Disney films only used for a few minutes here and there .
0 A peculiar misfire that even Tunney ca n't save .
3 Coppola has made a film of intoxicating atmosphere and little else .
2 The film has a childlike quality about it .
1 There 's some good material in their story about a retail clerk wanting more out of life , but the movie too often spins its wheels with familiar situations and repetitive scenes .
3 Broomfield has a rather unique approach to documentary .
3 -LRB- There 's -RRB- quite a bit of heart , as you would expect from the directors of The Little Mermaid and Aladdin .
1 Never inspires more than an interested detachment .
3 Combines a comically dismal social realism with a farcically bawdy fantasy of redemption and regeneration .
4 If `` Lilo & Stitch '' is n'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 .
3 Indeed , the more outrageous bits achieve a shock-you-into-laughter intensity of almost Dadaist proportions .
1 A grating , emaciated flick .
2 Dense and thoughtful and brimming with ideas that are too complex to be rapidly absorbed .
3 It ai n't art , by a long shot , but unlike last year 's lame Musketeer , this Dumas adaptation entertains .
0 What 's missing in Murder by Numbers is any real psychological grounding for the teens ' deviant behaviour .
0 The Master of Disguise is awful .
1 Nelson 's intentions are good , but the end result does no justice to the story itself .
3 A hypnotic portrait of this sad , compulsive life .
3 -LRB- The film -RRB- tackles the topic of relationships in such a straightforward , emotionally honest manner that by the end , it 's impossible to ascertain whether the film is , at its core , deeply pessimistic or quietly hopeful .
3 Troubling and powerful .
0 Director Douglas McGrath takes on Nickleby with all the halfhearted zeal of an 8th grade boy delving into required reading .
1 What 's infuriating about Full Frontal is that it 's too close to real life to make sense .
4 Piccoli gives a superb performance full of deep feeling .
1 -LRB- Stevens is -RRB- so stoked to make an important film about human infidelity and happenstance that he tosses a kitchen sink onto a story already overladen with plot conceits .
3 Funny and also heartwarming without stooping to gooeyness .
0 Most of the dialogue made me want to pack raw dough in my ears .
2 A sincere but dramatically conflicted gay coming-of-age tale .
3 A wild ride of a movie that keeps throwing fastballs .
0 It 's a bad action movie because there 's no rooting interest and the spectacle is grotesque and boring .
1 A very slow , uneventful ride around a pretty tattered old carousel .
3 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 .
0 Like life on the island , the movie grows boring despite the scenery .
4 Jones has delivered a solidly entertaining and moving family drama .
2 An intriguing near-miss .
1 Scooby-Doo does n't know if it wants to be a retro-refitting exercise in campy recall for older fans or a silly , Nickelodeon-esque kiddie flick .
1 ... del Toro maintains a dark mood that makes the film seem like something to endure instead of enjoy .
2 Sometimes shorter is better .
4 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 .
1 David Spade as Citizen Kane ?
4 It 's a great American adventure and a wonderful film to bring to IMAX .
2 A glorious mess .
0 Never having seen the first two films in the series , I ca n't compare Friday After Next to them , but nothing would change the fact that what we have here is a load of clams left in the broiling sun for a good three days .
3 ... standard guns versus martial arts cliche with little new added .
3 Pratfalls aside , Barbershop gets its greatest play from the timeless spectacle of people really talking to each other .
1 tale will be all too familiar for anyone who 's seen George Roy Hill 's 1973 film , `` The Sting . ''
1 Showtime is n't particularly assaultive , but it can still make you feel that you never want to see another car chase , explosion or gunfight again .
2 A savage John Waters-like humor that dances on the edge of tastelessness without ever quite falling over .
4 Victor Rosa is Leguizamo 's best movie work so far , a subtle and richly internalized performance .
1 But it 's also disappointing to a certain degree .
4 Pete 's screenplay manages to find that real natural , even-flowing tone that few movies are able to accomplish .
1 This is a third-person story now , told by Hollywood , and much more ordinary for it .
1 Fails to convince the audience that these brats will ever be anything more than losers .
3 It 's a smart , funny look at an arcane area of popular culture , and if it is n't entirely persuasive , it does give exposure to some talented performers .
2 Does what should seem impossible : it makes serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer boring .
1 `` One look at a girl in tight pants and big tits and you turn stupid ? ''
4 This Chicago has hugely imaginative and successful casting to its great credit , as well as one terrific score and attitude to spare .
4 Pacino and Williams seem to keep upping the ante on each other , just as their characters do in the film .
4 A fiercely clever and subtle film , capturing the precarious balance between the extravagant confidence of the exiled aristocracy and the cruel earnestness of the victorious revolutionaries .
4 The best didacticism is one carried by a strong sense of humanism , and Bertrand Tavernier 's oft-brilliant Safe Conduct -LRB- `` Laissez-passer '' -RRB- wears its heart on its sleeve .
2 The movie is a little tired ; maybe the original inspiration has run its course .
3 Schrader examines Crane 's decline with unblinking candor .
4 Like Edward Norton in American History X , Ryan Gosling -LRB- Murder By Numbers -RRB- delivers a magnetic performance .
4 If you love the music , and I do , its hard to imagine having more fun watching a documentary ...
1 But first , you have to give the audience a reason to want to put for that effort
3 As relationships shift , director Robert J. Siegel allows the characters to inhabit their world without cleaving to a narrative arc .
1 Contains all the substance of a Twinkie -- easy to swallow , but scarcely nourishing .
2 A minor work yet there 's no denying the potency of Miller 's strange , fleeting brew of hopeful perseverance and hopeless closure .
3 Harks back to a time when movies had more to do with imagination than market research .
3 Like a Tarantino movie with heart , Alias Betty is richly detailed , deftly executed and utterly absorbing .
3 The Four Feathers is definitely horse feathers , but if you go in knowing that , you might have fun in this cinematic sandbox .
2 Is truth stranger than fiction ?
3 Although it lacks the detail of the book , the film does pack some serious suspense .
4 It 's a masterpeice .
2 Diverting French comedy in which a husband has to cope with the pesky moods of jealousy .
1 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 .
2 Feels untidily honest .
0 No big whoop , nothing new to see , zero thrills , too many flashbacks and a choppy ending make for a bad film .
2 Feels slight , as if it were an extended short , albeit one made by the smartest kids in class .
3 A chilling tale of one of the great crimes of 20th Century France : the murder of two rich women by their servants in 1933 .
1 The kind of movie that leaves vague impressions and a nasty aftertaste but little clear memory of its operational mechanics .
3 S1M0NE 's satire is not subtle , but it is effective .
2 It 's all gratuitous before long , as if Schwentke were fulfilling a gross-out quota for an anticipated audience demographic instead of shaping the material to fit the story .
1 -LRB- Toback 's -RRB- fondness for fancy split-screen , stuttering editing and pompous references to Wittgenstein and Kirkegaard ... blends uneasily with the titillating material .
3 The Cat 's Meow marks a return to form for director Peter Bogdanovich ...
1 The director mostly plays it straight , turning Leys ' fable into a listless climb down the social ladder .
2 The limited sets and small confined and dark spaces also are homages to a classic low-budget film noir movie .
2 Has not so much been written as assembled , Frankenstein-like , out of other , marginally better shoot-em-ups .
1 But this time , the old MIB label stands for Milder Is n't Better .
3 Art-house to the core , Read My Lips is a genre-curling crime story that revives the free-wheeling noir spirit of old French cinema .
3 Based on Dave Barry 's popular book of the same name , the movie benefits from having a real writer plot out all of the characters ' moves and overlapping story .
1 Despite some charm and heart , this quirky soccer import is forgettable
1 The weird thing about The Santa Clause 2 , purportedly a children 's movie , is that there is nothing in it to engage children emotionally .
2 This sci-fi techno-sex thriller starts out bizarre and just keeps getting weirder .
1 Hip-hop rarely comes alive as its own fire-breathing entity in this picture .
2 The origin story is well told , and the characters will not disappoint anyone who values the original comic books .
1 Inconsequential road-and-buddy pic .
1 If Disney 's Cinderella proved that ' a dream is a wish your heart makes , ' then Cinderella II proves that a nightmare is a wish a studio 's wallet makes .
0 This strenuously unfunny Showtime deserves the hook .
3 Jonathan Parker 's Bartleby should have been the be-all-end-all of the modern-office anomie films .
4 He has a great cast and a great idea .
0 Ozpetek offers an AIDS subtext , skims over the realities of...