richly entertaining and suggestive of any number of metaphorical readings .


shunji iwai 's all about lily chou chou is a beautifully shot , but ultimately flawed film about growing up in japan .


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 .


maybe not a classic , but a movie the kids will want to see over and over again .


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 .


at a brief 42 minutes , we need more x and less blab .


franco is an excellent choice for the walled-off but combustible hustler , but he does not give the transcendent performance sonny needs to overcome gaps in character development and story logic .


even though the film does n't manage to hit all of its marks , it 's still entertaining to watch the target practice .


fans of the modern day hong kong action film finally have the worthy successor to a better tomorrow and the killer which they have been patiently waiting for .


this is not an easy film .


a spooky yarn of demonic doings on the high seas that works better the less the brain is engaged .


ram dass fierce grace moulds itself as an example to up-and-coming documentarians , of the overlooked pitfalls of such an endeavour .


some writer dude , i think his name was , uh , michael zaidan , was supposed to have like written the screenplay or something , but , dude , the only thing that i ever saw that was written down were the zeroes on my paycheck .


it challenges , this nervy oddity , like modern art should .


while obviously aimed at kids , the country bears ... should keep parents amused with its low groan-to-guffaw ratio .


the following things are not at all entertaining : the bad sound , the lack of climax and , worst of all , watching seinfeld -lrb- who is also one of the film 's producers -rrb- do everything he can to look like a good guy .


in its chicken heart , crush goes to absurd lengths to duck the very issues it raises .


a heady , biting , be-bop ride through nighttime manhattan , a loquacious videologue of the modern male and the lengths to which he 'll go to weave a protective cocoon around his own ego .


squandering his opportunity to make absurdist observations , burns gets caught up in the rush of slapstick thoroughfare .


it plays like a big-budget , after-school special with a generous cast , who at times lift the material from its well-meaning clunkiness .


skin of man gets a few cheap shocks from its kids-in-peril theatrics , but it also taps into the primal fears of young people trying to cope with the mysterious and brutal nature of adults .


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


elvira fans could hardly ask for more .


its simplicity puts an exclamation point on the fact that this is n't something to be taken seriously , but it also wrecks any chance of the movie rising above similar fare .


a coming-of-age film that avoids the cartoonish clichés and sneering humor of the genre as it provides a fresh view of an old type -- the uncertain girl on the brink of womanhood .


at times , it actually hurts to watch .


made me unintentionally famous -- as the queasy-stomached critic who staggered from the theater and blacked out in the lobby .


-lrb- taymor -rrb- utilizes the idea of making kahlo 's art a living , breathing part of the movie , often catapulting the artist into her own work .


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 . ''


one of those rare films that come by once in a while with flawless amounts of acting , direction , story and pace .


forget about one oscar nomination for julianne moore this year - she should get all five .


i like it .


philosophically , intellectually and logistically a mess .


while the humor is recognizably plympton , he has actually bothered to construct a real story this time .


highly irritating at first , mr. koury 's passive technique eventually begins to yield some interesting results .


although some viewers will not be able to stomach so much tongue-in-cheek weirdness , those who do will have found a cult favorite to enjoy for a lifetime .


a well-crafted letdown .


duvall is strong as always .


toward the end sum of all fears morphs into a mundane '70s disaster flick .


terrific performances , great to look at , and funny .


very well-written and very well-acted .


nachtwey clears the cynicism right out of you .


there 's a little violence and lots of sex in a bid to hold our attention , but it grows monotonous after a while , as do joan and philip 's repetitive arguments , schemes and treachery .


-- was a fad that had long since vanished .


girlfriends are bad , wives are worse and babies are the kiss of death in this bitter italian comedy .


adrift , bentley and hudson stare and sniffle , respectively , as ledger attempts , in vain , to prove that movie-star intensity can overcome bad hair design .


muddled , simplistic and more than a little pretentious .


morrissette has performed a difficult task indeed - he 's taken one of the world 's most fascinating stories and made it dull , lifeless , and irritating .


carrying this wafer-thin movie on his nimble shoulders , chan wades through putrid writing , direction and timing with a smile that says , ` if i stay positive , maybe i can channel one of my greatest pictures , drunken master . '


nothing short of a masterpiece -- and a challenging one .


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


it remains to be seen whether statham can move beyond the crime-land action genre , but then again , who says he has to ?


while holm is terrific as both men and hjejle quite appealing , the film fails to make the most out of the intriguing premise .


and that makes all the difference .


robert harmon 's less-is-more approach delivers real bump-in - the-night chills -- his greatest triumph is keeping the creepy crawlies hidden in the film 's thick shadows .


... a 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 ? ''


it 's good to see michael caine whipping out the dirty words and punching people in the stomach again .


slack and uninspired , and peopled mainly by characters so unsympathetic that you 're left with a sour taste in your mouth .


forgettable , if good-hearted , movie .


a riveting story well told .


for every articulate player , such as skateboarder tony hawk or bmx rider mat hoffman , are about a half dozen young turks angling to see how many times they can work the words `` radical '' or `` suck '' into a sentence .


worse than ` silence of the lambs ' better than ` hannibal '


a culture clash comedy only half as clever as it thinks it is .


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 .


this is a third-person story now , told by hollywood , and much more ordinary for it .


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


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


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 .


the big-screen scooby makes the silly original cartoon seem smart and well-crafted in comparison .


the fact is that the screen is most alive when it seems most likely that broomfield 's interviewees , or even himself , will not be for much longer .


the script ?


nicole holofcener 's lovely and amazing , from her own screenplay , jumps to the head of the class of women 's films that manage to avoid the ghetto of sentimental chick-flicks by treating female follies with a satirical style .


likeable thanks to its cast , its cuisine and its quirky tunes .


borrows a bit from the classics `` wait until dark '' and `` extremities '' ... but in terms of its style , the movie is in a class by itself .


a pleasant piece of escapist entertainment .


sweet and memorable film .


this is a movie you can trust .


whole stretches of the film may be incomprehensible to moviegoers not already clad in basic black .


impresses as a skillfully assembled , highly polished and professional adaptation ... just about as chilling and unsettling as ` manhunter ' was .


these guys seem great to knock back a beer with but they 're simply not funny performers .


there are a couple of things that elevate `` glory '' above most of its ilk , most notably the mere presence of duvall .


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


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 .


many a parent and their teen -lrb- or preteen -rrb- kid could bond while watching a walk to remember .


the trials of henry kissinger is a remarkable piece of filmmaking ... because you get it .


though the film is static , its writer-director 's heart is in the right place , his plea for democracy and civic action laudable .


grown-up quibbles are beside the point here .


evelyn 's strong cast and surehanded direction make for a winning , heartwarming yarn .


... bibbidy-bobbidi-bland .


one thing 's for sure -- if george romero had directed this movie , it would n't have taken the protagonists a full hour to determine that in order to kill a zombie you must shoot it in the head .


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 .


epps has neither the charisma nor the natural affability that has made tucker a star .


it 's rare to find a film to which the adjective ` gentle ' applies , but the word perfectly describes pauline & paulette .


` blue crush ' swims away with the sleeper movie of the summer award .


needed a little less bling-bling and a lot more romance .


it lets you brush up against the humanity of a psycho , without making him any less psycho .


but the movie 's narrative hook is way too muddled to be an effectively chilling guilty pleasure .


so fiendishly cunning that even the most jaded cinema audiences will leave the auditorium feeling dizzy , confused , and totally disorientated .


the real question this movie poses is not ` who ? '


despite an overwrought ending , the film works as well as it does because of the performances .


a film of ideas and wry comic mayhem .


in the end , though , it is only mildly amusing when it could have been so much more .


effective in all its aspects , margarita happy hour represents an auspicious feature debut for chaiken .


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 .


it 's an unusual , thoughtful bio-drama with a rich subject and some fantastic moments and scenes .


quietly engaging .


what could have been a daytime soap opera is actually a compelling look at a young woman 's tragic odyssey .


gambling and throwing a basketball game for money is n't a new plot -- in fact toback himself used it in black and white .


not completely loveable -- but what underdog movie since the bad news bears has been ?


a 94-minute travesty of unparalleled proportions , writer-director parker seems to go out of his way to turn the legendary wit 's classic mistaken identity farce into brutally labored and unfunny hokum .


what starts off as a satisfying kids flck becomes increasingly implausible as it races through contrived plot points .


the dirty jokes provide the funniest moments in this oddly sweet comedy about jokester highway patrolmen .


has none of the crackle of `` fatal attraction '' , `` 9 1\/2 weeks '' , or even `` indecent proposal '' , and feels more like lyne 's stolid remake of `` lolita '' .


a sensitive , modest comic tragedy that works as both character study and symbolic examination of the huge economic changes sweeping modern china .


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 .


as a director , eastwood is off his game -- there 's no real sense of suspense , and none of the plot ` surprises ' are really surprising .


there 's much tongue in cheek in the film and there 's no doubt the filmmaker is having fun with it all .


... `` bowling for columbine '' remains a disquieting and thought-provoking film ...


it 's a loathsome movie , it really is and it makes absolutely no sense .


phoned-in business as usual .


the only thing to fear about `` fear dot com '' is hitting your head on the theater seat in front of you when you doze off thirty minutes into the film .


blade ii merges bits and pieces from fighting games , wire fu , horror movies , mystery , james bond , wrestling , sci-fi and anime into one big bloody stew .


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


there is a real subject here , and it is handled with intelligence and care .


in -lrb- screenwriter -rrb- charlie kaufman 's world , truth and fiction are equally strange , and his for the taking .


bigelow offers some flashy twists and turns that occasionally fortify this turgid fable .


dolman confines himself to shtick and sentimentality -- the one bald and the other sloppy .


the film has the uncanny ability to right itself precisely when you think it 's in danger of going wrong .


with one exception , every blighter in this particular south london housing project digs into dysfunction like it 's a big , comforting jar of marmite , to be slathered on crackers and served as a feast of bleakness .


it 's a mystery how the movie could be released in this condition .


an unforgettable look at morality , family , and social expectation through the prism of that omnibus tradition called marriage .


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


a funny film .


a gangster movie with the capacity to surprise .


a grand fart coming from a director beginning to resemble someone 's crazy french grandfather .


it 's possible that something hip and transgressive was being attempted here that stubbornly refused to gel , but the result is more puzzling than unsettling .


an entertaining , if somewhat standardized , action movie .


a generous , inspiring film that unfolds with grace and humor and gradually becomes a testament to faith .


` you 'll laugh for not quite and hour and a half , but come out feeling strangely unsatisfied .


eight legged freaks ?


malcolm mcdowell is cool .


the movie wavers between hallmark card sentimentality and goofy , life-affirming moments straight out of a cellular phone commercial .


as a thoughtful and unflinching examination of an alternative lifestyle , sex with strangers is a success .


a reality-snubbing hodgepodge .


-lrb- a -rrb- slummer .


the film is explosive , but a few of those sticks are wet .


it may play well as a double feature with mainstream foreign mush like my big fat greek wedding


the impulses that produced this project ... are commendable , but the results are uneven .


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


an engrossing portrait of a man whose engaging manner and flamboyant style made him a truly larger-than-life character .


sayles has a knack for casting , often resurrecting performers who rarely work in movies now ... and drawing flavorful performances from bland actors .


for all its violence , the movie is remarkably dull with only caine making much of an impression .


this is a finely written , superbly acted offbeat thriller .


at the end , when the now computerized yoda finally reveals his martial artistry , the film ascends to a kinetic life so teeming that even cranky adults may rediscover the quivering kid inside .


ferrara 's strongest and most touching movie of recent years .


... a cinematic disaster so inadvertently sidesplitting it 's worth the price of admission for the ridicule factor alone .


even if it made its original release date last fall , it would 've reeked of a been-there , done-that sameness .


unfortunately , it 's also not very good .


the most wondrous love story in years , it is a great film .


too much power , not enough puff .


despite an impressive roster of stars and direction from kathryn bigelow , the weight of water is oppressively heavy .


finally , the french-produced `` read my lips '' is a movie that understands characters must come first .


even before it builds up to its insanely staged ballroom scene , in which 3000 actors appear in full regalia , it 's waltzed itself into the art film pantheon .


a film which presses familiar herzog tropes into the service of a limpid and conventional historical fiction , when really what we demand of the director is to be mesmerised .


the rare movie that 's as crisp and to the point as the novel on which it 's based .


a brilliant gag at the expense of those who paid for it and those who pay to see it .


here , common sense flies out the window , along with the hail of bullets , none of which ever seem to hit sascha .


-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 .


recoing 's fantastic performance does n't exactly reveal what makes vincent tick , but perhaps any definitive explanation for it would have felt like a cheat .


not everyone will play the dark , challenging tune taught by the piano teacher .


once she lets her love depraved leads meet , -lrb- denis ' -rrb- story becomes a hopeless , unsatisfying muddle


nothing too deep or substantial .


but what is missing from it all is a moral .


splendidly illustrates the ability of the human spirit to overcome adversity .


obvious , obnoxious and didactic burlesque .


it 's definitely a step in the right direction .


vaguely interesting , but it 's just too too much .


the film sounds like the stuff of lurid melodrama , but what makes it interesting as a character study is the fact that the story is told from paul 's perspective .


this one is a few bits funnier than malle 's dud , if only because the cast is so engagingly messing around like slob city reductions of damon runyon crooks .


the writing is clever and the cast is appealing .


although commentary on nachtwey is provided ... it 's the image that really tells the tale .


a nearly 21\/2 hours , the film is way too indulgent .


... unlikable , uninteresting , unfunny , and completely , utterly inept .


some of the visual flourishes are a little too obvious , but restrained and subtle storytelling , and fine performances make this delicate coming-of-age tale a treat .


but the talented cast alone will keep you watching , as will the fight scenes .


earnest , unsubtle and hollywood-predictable , green dragon is still a deeply moving effort to put a human face on the travail of thousands of vietnamese .


jeffrey tambor 's performance as the intelligent jazz-playing exterminator is oscar-worthy .


an overly familiar scenario is made fresh by an intelligent screenplay and gripping performances in this low-budget , video-shot , debut indie effort .


a clash between the artificial structure of the story and the more contemporary , naturalistic tone of the film ...


` 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 . '


i 'm not exactly sure what this movie thinks it is about .


somewhere in the middle , the film compels , as demme experiments he harvests a few movie moment gems , but the field of roughage dominates .


it 's a scorcher .


a real snooze .


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 .


the kids in the audience at the preview screening seemed bored , cheering the pratfalls but little else ; their parents , wise folks that they are , read books .


partly a schmaltzy , by-the-numbers romantic comedy , partly a shallow rumination on the emptiness of success -- and entirely soulless .


for its 100 minutes running time , you 'll wait in vain for a movie to happen .


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 .


a movie that harps on media-constructed ` issues ' like whether compromise is the death of self ... this orgasm -lrb- wo n't be an -rrb- exceedingly memorable one for most people .


a guilty pleasure at best , and not worth seeing unless you want to laugh at it .


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 .


this is not one of the movies you 'd want to watch if you only had a week to live .


but mainstream audiences will find little of interest in this film , which is often preachy and poorly acted .


at once subtle and visceral , the film never succumbs to the trap of the maudlin or tearful , offering instead with its unflinching gaze a measure of faith in the future .


lookin ' for sin , american-style ?


it drowns in sap .


laggard drama wending its way to an uninspired philosophical epiphany .


interminably bleak , to say nothing of boring .


believability was n't one of the film 's virtues .


filled with alexandre desplat 's haunting and sublime music , the movie completely transfixes the audience .


the four feathers is definitely horse feathers , but if you go in knowing that , you might have fun in this cinematic sandbox .


the movie attempts to mine laughs from a genre -- the gangster\/crime comedy -- that wore out its welcome with audiences several years ago , and its cutesy reliance on movie-specific cliches is n't exactly endearing .


steadfastly uncinematic but powerfully dramatic .


... del toro maintains a dark mood that makes the film seem like something to endure instead of enjoy .


this filmed tosca -- not the first , by the way -- is a pretty good job , if it 's filmed tosca that you want .


features one of the most affecting depictions of a love affair ever committed to film .


a journey spanning nearly three decades of bittersweet camaraderie and history , in which we feel that we truly know what makes holly and marina tick , and our hearts go out to them as both continue to negotiate their imperfect , love-hate relationship .


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 .


comedy troupe broken lizard 's first movie is very funny but too concerned with giving us a plot .


though an important political documentary , this does not really make the case the kissinger should be tried as a war criminal .


director kevin bray excels in breaking glass and marking off the `` miami vice '' checklist of power boats , latin music and dog tracks .


swims in mediocrity , sticking its head up for a breath of fresh air now and then .


although the film boils down to a lightweight story about matchmaking , the characters make italian for beginners worth the journey


even fans of ismail merchant 's work , i suspect , would have a hard time sitting through this one .


the high-concept scenario soon proves preposterous , the acting is robotically italicized , and truth-in-advertising hounds take note : there 's very little hustling on view .


what 's worse is that pelosi knows it .


a `` home alone '' film that is staged like `` rosemary 's baby , '' but is not as well-conceived as either of those films .


although made on a shoestring and unevenly acted , conjures a lynch-like vision of the rotting underbelly of middle america .


some are fascinating and others are not , and in the end , it is almost a good movie .


everything about girls ca n't swim , even its passages of sensitive observation , feels secondhand , familiar -- and not in a good way .


brian tufano 's handsome widescreen photography and paul grabowsky 's excellent music turn this fairly parochial melodrama into something really rather special .


it is definitely worth seeing .


a heroic tale of persistence that is sure to win viewers ' hearts .


will probably be one of those movies barely registering a blip on the radar screen of 2002 .


a bilingual charmer , just like the woman who inspired it


allen 's underestimated charm delivers more goodies than lumps of coal .


everybody loves a david and goliath story , and this one is told almost entirely from david 's point of view .


both lead performances are oscar-size .


as a good old-fashioned adventure for kids , spirit : stallion of the cimarron is a winner .


it 's super - violent , super-serious and super-stupid .


all the small moments and flashbacks do n't add up to much more than trite observations on the human condition .


elaborate special effects take centre screen , so that the human story is pushed to one side .


this new time machine is hardly perfect ... yet it proves surprisingly serviceable .


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 .


i found the movie as divided against itself as the dysfunctional family it portrays .


too daft by half ... but supremely good natured .


though frida is easier to swallow than julie taymor 's preposterous titus , the eye candy here lacks considerable brio .


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


the first five minutes will have you talking 'til the end of the year !


... silly humbuggery ...


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 .


predecessors the mummy and the mummy returns stand as intellectual masterpieces next to the scorpion king .


worth a look by those on both sides of the issues , if only for the perspective it offers , one the public rarely sees .


it zips along with b-movie verve while adding the rich details and go-for-broke acting that heralds something special .


... too sappy for its own good .


this flat run at a hip-hop tootsie is so poorly paced you could fit all of pootie tang in between its punchlines .


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 .


if s&m seems like a strange route to true love , maybe it is , but it 's to this film 's -lrb- and its makers ' -rrb- credit that we believe that that 's exactly what these two people need to find each other -- and themselves .


little is done to support the premise other than fling gags at it to see which ones shtick .


one of those decades-spanning historical epics that strives to be intimate and socially encompassing but fails to do justice to either effort in three hours of screen time .


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


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


for a film that 's being advertised as a comedy , sweet home alabama is n't as funny as you 'd hoped .


there 's something not entirely convincing about the quiet american .


richard pryor mined his personal horrors and came up with a treasure chest of material , but lawrence gives us mostly fool 's gold .


a movie of riveting power and sadness .


robert john burke as the monster horns in and steals the show .


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 .


witless but watchable .


just offbeat enough to keep you interested without coming close to bowling you over .


written , flatly , by david kendall and directed , barely , by there 's something about mary co-writer ed decter .


it 's a film with an idea buried somewhere inside its fabric , but never clearly seen or felt .


one can only assume that the jury who bestowed star hoffman 's brother gordy with the waldo salt screenwriting award at 2002 's sundance festival were honoring an attempt to do something different over actually pulling it off


seeks to transcend its genre with a curiously stylized , quasi-shakespearean portrait of pure misogynist evil .


not a stereotype is omitted nor a cliché left unsaid .


a smart , steamy mix of road movie , coming-of-age story and political satire .


it 's coherent , well shot , and tartly acted , but it wears you down like a dinner guest showing off his doctorate .


wraps itself in the guise of a dark and quirky comedy , but it is n't as quirky as it thinks it is and its comedy is generally mean-spirited .


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


a four star performance from kevin kline who unfortunately works with a two star script .


god bless crudup and his aversion to taking the easy hollywood road and cashing in on his movie-star gorgeousness .


it 's a feel-good movie about which you can actually feel good .


the movie is our story as much as it is schmidt 's , no matter if it 's viewed as a self-reflection or cautionary tale .


if anything , see it for karen black , who camps up a storm as a fringe feminist conspiracy theorist named dirty dick .


watching the chemistry between freeman and judd , however , almost makes this movie worth seeing .


mark wahlberg ... may look classy in a '60s - homage pokepie hat , but as a character he 's dry , dry , dry .


a film that will probably please people already fascinated by behan but leave everyone else yawning with admiration .


moonlight mile gives itself the freedom to feel contradictory things .


it 's a movie that accomplishes so much that one viewing ca n't possibly be enough .


the film aims to be funny , uplifting and moving , sometimes all at once .


like being trapped inside a huge video game , where exciting , inane images keep popping past your head and the same illogical things keep happening over and over again .


the film never gets over its own investment in conventional arrangements , in terms of love , age , gender , race , and class .


nicely combines the enigmatic features of ` memento ' with the hallucinatory drug culture of ` requiem for a dream . '


last dance , whatever its flaws , fulfills one facet of its mission in making me want to find out whether , in this case , that 's true .


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 .


-lrb- a -rrb- stale retread of the '53 original .


more concerned with overall feelings , broader ideas , and open-ended questions than concrete story and definitive answers , soderbergh 's solaris is a gorgeous and deceptively minimalist cinematic tone poem .


alarms for duvall 's throbbing sincerity and his elderly propensity for patting people while he talks .


there 's no point in extracting the bare bones of byatt 's plot for purposes of bland hollywood romance .


the performances are amiable and committed , and the comedy more often than not hits the bullseye .


zigzag might have been richer and more observant if it were less densely plotted .


to better understand why this did n't connect with me would require another viewing , and i wo n't be sitting through this one again ... that in itself is commentary enough .


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


at some point , all this visual trickery stops being clever and devolves into flashy , vaguely silly overkill .


a ragbag of cliches .


overburdened with complicated plotting and banal dialogue


the picture runs a mere 84 minutes , but it 's no glance .


steers refreshingly clear of the usual cliches .


niccol the filmmaker merges his collaborators ' symbolic images with his words , insinuating , for example , that in hollywood , only god speaks to the press


it 's a beautiful film , full of elaborate and twisted characters - and it 's also pretty funny .


the milieu is wholly unconvincing ... and the histrionics reach a truly annoying pitch .


the picture emerges as a surprisingly anemic disappointment .


whatever complaints i might have , i 'd take -lrb- its -rrb- earnest errors and hard-won rewards over the bombastic self-glorification of other feel-good fiascos like antwone fisher or the emperor 's club any time .


rice never clearly defines his characters or gives us a reason to care about them .


though not for everyone , the guys is a somber trip worth taking .


another entertaining romp from robert rodriguez .


but here 's a movie about it anyway .


if -lrb- jaglom 's -rrb- latest effort is not the director at his most sparkling , some of its repartee is still worth hearing .


i did n't smile .


the script by david koepp is perfectly serviceable and because he gives the story some soul ... he elevates the experience to a more mythic level .


kapur fails to give his audience a single character worth rooting for -lrb- or worth rooting against , for that matter -rrb- .


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


see it now , before the inevitable hollywood remake flattens out all its odd , intriguing wrinkles .


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


nothing more than an amiable but unfocused bagatelle that plays like a loosely-connected string of acting-workshop exercises .


it 's horribly depressing and not very well done .


veterans of the dating wars will smirk uneasily at the film 's nightmare versions of everyday sex-in-the-city misadventures .


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 .


ryosuke has created a wry , winning , if languidly paced , meditation on the meaning and value of family .


enough may pander to our basest desires for payback , but unlike many revenge fantasies , it ultimately delivers .


i prefer soderbergh 's concentration on his two lovers over tarkovsky 's mostly male , mostly patriarchal debating societies .


this is cruel , misanthropic stuff with only weak claims to surrealism and black comedy .


a pale xerox of other , better crime movies .


strange it is , but delightfully so .


the story has little wit and no surprises .


crummy .


just another disjointed , fairly predictable psychological thriller .


this is a very funny , heartwarming film .


` rare birds ' tries to force its quirkiness upon the audience .


good-naturedly cornball sequel .


the tone errs on the shrill side , tempered by a soft southern gentility that speaks of beauty , grace and a closet full of skeletons .


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


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


feardotcom 's thrills are all cheap , but they mostly work .


a static and sugary little half-hour , after-school special about interfaith understanding , stretched out to 90 minutes .


a small movie with a big impact .


the sort of picture in which , whenever one of the characters has some serious soul searching to do , they go to a picture-perfect beach during sunset .


crammed with incident , and bristles with passion and energy .


an intelligent and deeply felt work about impossible , irrevocable choices and the price of making them .


-lrb- gosling 's -rrb- combination of explosive physical energy and convincing intelligence helps create a complex , unpredictable character .


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 .


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 .


in the new guy , even the bull gets recycled .


reggio and glass so rhapsodize cynicism , with repetition and languorous slo-mo sequences , that glass 's dirgelike score becomes a fang-baring lullaby .


marshall puts a suspenseful spin on standard horror flick formula .


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


a movie that 's held captive by mediocrity .


screenwriter chris ver weil 's directing debut is good-natured and never dull , but its virtues are small and easily overshadowed by its predictability .


an admirable , sometimes exceptional film


this is a film that manages to find greatness in the hue of its drastic iconography .


a whole lot of fun and funny in the middle , though somewhat less hard-hitting at the start and finish .


... spiced with humor -lrb- ' i speak fluent flatula , ' advises denlopp after a rather , er , bubbly exchange with an alien deckhand -rrb- and witty updatings -lrb- silver 's parrot has been replaced with morph , a cute alien creature who mimics everyone and everything around -rrb-


has a customarily jovial air but a deficit of flim-flam inventiveness .


not all of the stories work and the ones that do are thin and scattered , but the film works well enough to make it worth watching .


a strangely stirring experience that finds warmth in the coldest environment and makes each crumb of emotional comfort feel like a 10-course banquet .


matthew lillard is born to play shaggy !


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


there 's lots of cool stuff packed into espn 's ultimate x.


the mothman prophecies is best when illustrating the demons bedevilling the modern masculine journey .


at its best , it 's black hawk down with more heart .


`` home movie '' is the film equivalent of a lovingly rendered coffee table book .


invigorating , surreal , and resonant with a rainbow of emotion .


a tired , unimaginative and derivative variation of that already-shallow genre .


patchy combination of soap opera , low-tech magic realism and , at times , ploddingly sociological commentary .


a frustrating yet deeply watchable melodrama that makes you think it 's a tougher picture than it is .


a solid cast , assured direction and complete lack of modern day irony .


rodriguez has the chops of a smart-aleck film school brat and the imagination of a big kid ...


arnie blows things up .


if you 're really renting this you 're not interested in discretion in your entertainment choices , you 're interested in anne geddes , john grisham , and thomas kincaid .


a movie you observe , rather than one you enter into .


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


-lrb- barry -rrb- gives assassin a disquieting authority .


its plot and animation offer daytime tv serviceability , but little more .


a moving and important film .


these people are really going to love the piano teacher .


a disappointment for a movie that should have been the ultimate imax trip .


a portrait of alienation so perfect , it will certainly succeed in alienating most viewers .


yes , but also intriguing and honorable , a worthwhile addition to a distinguished film legacy .


`` cremaster 3 '' should come with the warning `` for serious film buffs only ! ''


this big screen caper has a good bark , far from being a bow-wow .


what 's most refreshing about real women have curves is its unforced comedy-drama and its relaxed , natural-seeming actors .


surprisingly insightful


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 .


the director , with his fake backdrops and stately pacing , never settles on a consistent tone .


earnest yet curiously tepid and choppy recycling in which predictability is the only winner .


brash , intelligent and erotically perplexing , haneke 's portrait of an upper class austrian society and the suppression of its tucked away demons is uniquely felt with a sardonic jolt .


a glorious mess .


unfortunately , contrived plotting , stereotyped characters and woo 's over-the-top instincts as a director undermine the moral dilemma at the movie 's heart .


arguably the best script that besson has written in years .


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 .


pretend it 's a werewolf itself by avoiding eye contact and walking slowly away .


you can fire a torpedo through some of clancy 's holes , and the scripters do n't deserve any oscars .


truly terrible .


it 's hard to imagine acting that could be any flatter .


you just know something terrible is going to happen .


each scene drags , underscoring the obvious , and sentiment is slathered on top .


fluffy neo-noir hiding behind cutesy film references .


a special kind of movie , this melancholic film noir reminded me a lot of memento ...


do n't expect any subtlety from this latest entry in the increasingly threadbare gross-out comedy cycle .


one of the most genuinely sweet films to come along in quite some time .


a film really has to be exceptional to justify a three hour running time , and this is n't .


too ordinary to restore -lrb- harmon -rrb- to prominence , despite some creepy scenes that evoke childish night terrors , and a praiseworthy attempt to generate suspense rather than gross out the audience .


highly watchable stuff .


exceptionally well acted by diane lane and richard gere .


there 's no real reason to see it , and no real reason not to .


content merely to lionize its title character and exploit his anger - all for easy sanctimony , formulaic thrills and a ham-fisted sermon on the need for national health insurance .


a charming but slight comedy .


you know that ten bucks you 'd spend on a ticket ?


everything else about high crimes is , like the military system of justice it portrays , tiresomely regimented .


an unusually dry-eyed , even analytical approach to material that is generally played for maximum moisture .


a beyond-lame satire , teddy bears ' picnic ranks among the most pitiful directing debuts by an esteemed writer-actor .


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


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 .


but mostly it 's a work that , with humor , warmth , and intelligence , captures a life interestingly lived .


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 .


young hanks and fisk , who vaguely resemble their celebrity parents , bring fresh good looks and an ease in front of the camera to the work .


excellent performances from jacqueline bisset and martha plimpton grace this deeply touching melodrama .


the cast is spot on and the mood is laid back .


its generic villains lack any intrigue -lrb- other than their funny accents -rrb- and the action scenes are poorly delivered .


while bollywood\/hollywood will undoubtedly provide its keenest pleasures to those familiar with bombay musicals , it also has plenty for those -lrb- like me -rrb- who are n't .


has no reason to exist , other than to employ hollywood kids and people who owe favors to their famous parents .


in a big corner office in hell , satan is throwing up his hands in surrender , is firing his r&d people , and has decided he will just screen the master of disguise 24\/7 .


captures all the longing , anguish and ache , the confusing sexual messages and the wish to be a part of that elusive adult world .


in a movie full of surprises , the biggest is that secret ballot is a comedy , both gentle and biting .


... passable enough for a shoot-out in the o.k. court house of life type of flick .


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 .


a chance to see three splendid actors turn a larky chase movie into an emotionally satisfying exploration of the very human need to be somebody , and to belong to somebody .


well cast and well directed - a powerful drama with enough sardonic wit to keep it from being maudlin .


an ambitiously naturalistic , albeit half-baked , drama about an abused , inner-city autistic teen .


it is just too bad the film 's story does not live up to its style .


just how these families interact may surprise you .


a wild ride juiced with enough energy and excitement for at least three films .


a muted freak-out


lead actress gaï , she of the impossibly long limbs and sweetly conspiratorial smile , is a towering siren .


absolutely not .


by turns gripping , amusing , tender and heart-wrenching , laissez-passer has all the earmarks of french cinema at its best .


the cat 's meow marks a return to form for director peter bogdanovich ...


... 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 .


generic slasher-movie nonsense , but it 's not without style .


fans of so-bad-they 're - good cinema may find some fun in this jumbled mess .


vibrantly colored and beautifully designed , metropolis is a feast for the eyes .


brown 's saga , like many before his , makes for snappy prose but a stumblebum of a movie .


` stock up on silver bullets for director neil marshall 's intense freight train of a film . '


at its best , which occurs often , michael moore 's bowling for columbine rekindles the muckraking , soul-searching spirit of the ` are we a sick society ? '


in the real world , an actor this uncharismatically beautiful would have a résumé loaded with credits like `` girl in bar # 3 . ''


hope keeps arising that the movie will live up to the apparent skills of its makers and the talents of its actors , but it does n't .


barney throws away the goodwill the first half of his movie generates by orchestrating a finale that is impenetrable and dull .


an indispensable peek at the art and the agony of making people laugh .


at 78 minutes it just zings along with vibrance and warmth .


the film , while not exactly assured in its execution , is notable for its sheer audacity and openness .


dull and mechanical , kinda like a very goofy museum exhibit


it 's sweet and fluffy at the time , but it may leave you feeling a little sticky and unsatisfied .


sayles has an eye for the ways people of different ethnicities talk to and about others outside the group .


brady achieves the remarkable feat of squandering a topnotch foursome of actors ... by shoving them into every clichéd white-trash situation imaginable .


the irony is that this film 's cast is uniformly superb ; their performances could have -- should have -- been allowed to stand on their own .


this slow-moving swedish film offers not even a hint of joy , preferring to focus on the humiliation of martin as he defecates in bed and urinates on the plants at his own birthday party .


i admire the closing scenes of the film , which seem to ask whether our civilization offers a cure for vincent 's complaint .


a dreary movie .


a thriller whose style , structure and rhythms are so integrated with the story , you can not separate them .


cruel and inhuman cinematic punishment ... simultaneously degrades its characters , its stars and its audience .


you may think you have figured out the con and the players in this debut film by argentine director fabian bielinsky , but while you were thinking someone made off with your wallet .


the premise itself is just sooooo tired .


like any good romance , son of the bride , proves it 's never too late to learn .


the emotional overload of female angst irreparably drags the film down .


there 's undeniable enjoyment to be had from films crammed with movie references , but the fun wears thin -- then out -- when there 's nothing else happening .


an engrossing and grim portrait of hookers : what they think of themselves and their clients .


like mike is a harmlessly naïve slice of b-ball fantasy , fit for filling in during the real nba 's off-season .


a lovely and beautifully photographed romance .


in the end , all you can do is admire the ensemble players and wonder what the point of it is .


... while each moment of this broken character study is rich in emotional texture , the journey does n't really go anywhere .


the film 's messages of tolerance and diversity are n't particularly original , but one ca n't help but be drawn in by the sympathetic characters .


aside from the fact that the film idiotically uses the website feardotcom.com or the improperly hammy performance from poor stephen rea , the film gets added disdain for the fact that it is nearly impossible to look at or understand .


i had more fun watching spy than i had with most of the big summer movies .


a simple tale of an unlikely friendship , but thanks to the gorgeous locales and exceptional lead performances , it has considerable charm .


no such thing is sort of a minimalist beauty and the beast , but in this case the beast should definitely get top billing .


it 's not particularly well made , but since i found myself howling more than cringing , i 'd say the film works .


aniston has at last decisively broken with her friends image in an independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil .


... blade ii is still top-heavy with blazing guns , cheatfully filmed martial arts , disintegrating bloodsucker computer effects and jagged camera moves that serve no other purpose than to call attention to themselves .


every joke is repeated at least four times .


a smart and funny , albeit sometimes superficial , cautionary tale of a technology in search of an artist .


if you like an extreme action-packed film with a hint of humor , then triple x marks the spot .


otherwise , maybe .


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 .


just about the best straight-up , old-school horror film of the last 15 years .


please see previous answer .


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 .


`` not really as bad as you might think ! ''


samuel l. jackson is one of the best actors there is .


it does give a taste of the burning man ethos , an appealing blend of counter-cultural idealism and hedonistic creativity .


a plethora of engaging diatribes on the meaning of ` home , ' delivered in grand passion by the members of the various households .


the result is good gossip , entertainingly delivered , yet with a distinctly musty odour , its expiry date long gone .


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


an imponderably stilted and self-consciously arty movie .


this real-life hollywood fairy-tale is more engaging than the usual fantasies hollywood produces .


waiting for godard can be fruitful : ` in praise of love ' is the director 's epitaph for himself .


it 's all about anakin ... and the lustrous polished visuals rich in color and creativity and , of course , special effect .


solondz is so intent on hammering home his message that he forgets to make it entertaining .


so here it is : it 's about a family of sour immortals .


... pitiful , slapdash disaster .


the crap continues .


while the story 's undeniably hard to follow , iwai 's gorgeous visuals seduce .


it 's a terrible movie in every regard , and utterly painful to watch .


this is a monumental achievement in practically every facet of inept filmmaking : joyless , idiotic , annoying , heavy-handed , visually atrocious , and often downright creepy .


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 .


a terrific b movie -- in fact , the best in recent memory .


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


i liked about schmidt a lot , but i have a feeling that i would have liked it much more if harry & tonto never existed .


what starts off as a potentially incredibly twisting mystery becomes simply a monster chase film .


you may leave the theater with more questions than answers , but darned if your toes wo n't still be tapping .


nobody seems to have cared much about any aspect of it , from its cheesy screenplay to the grayish quality of its lighting to its last-minute , haphazard theatrical release .


as in aimless , arduous , and arbitrary .


aside from rohmer 's bold choices regarding point of view , the lady and the duke represents the filmmaker 's lifelong concern with formalist experimentation in cinematic art .


a fascinating glimpse into an insular world that gives the lie to many clichés and showcases a group of dedicated artists .


this is a poster movie , a mediocre tribute to films like them !


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


the graphic carnage and re-creation of war-torn croatia is uncomfortably timely , relevant , and sickeningly real .


the ingenious construction -lrb- adapted by david hare from michael cunningham 's novel -rrb- constantly flows forwards and back , weaving themes among three strands which allow us to view events as if through a prism


or both .


the most horrific movie experience i 've had since `` ca n't stop the music . ''


but it also has many of the things that made the first one charming .


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


weaver and lapaglia are both excellent , in the kind of low-key way that allows us to forget that they are actually movie folk .


it 's never laugh-out-loud funny , but it is frequently amusing .


a movie in which laughter and self-exploitation merge into jolly soft-porn 'em powerment . '


quite simply , a joy to watch and -- especially -- to listen to .


not to mention absolutely refreshed .


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 .


both the crime story and the love story are unusual .


arteta paints a picture of lives lived in a state of quiet desperation .


there 's no reason to miss interview with the assassin


sayles is making a statement about the inability of dreams and aspirations to carry forward into the next generation .


i like this movie a lot .


comes off more like a misdemeanor , a flat , unconvincing drama that never catches fire .


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


close enough in spirit to its freewheeling trash-cinema roots to be a breath of fresh air .


a dreary indulgence .


teens only .


while the transgressive trappings -lrb- especially the frank sex scenes -rrb- ensure that the film is never dull , rodrigues 's beast-within metaphor is ultimately rather silly and overwrought , making the ambiguous ending seem goofy rather than provocative .


blue crush has all the trappings of an energetic , extreme-sports adventure , but ends up more of a creaky `` pretty woman '' retread , with the emphasis on self-empowering schmaltz and big-wave surfing that gives pic its title an afterthought .


the movie does has some entertainment value - how much depends on how well you like chris rock .


a man leaving the screening said the film was better than saving private ryan .


the niftiest trick perpetrated by the importance of being earnest is the alchemical transmogrification of wilde into austen -- and a hollywood-ized austen at that .


-lrb- a -rrb- strong piece of work .


daring and beautifully made .


there has to be a few advantages to never growing old .


a well-crafted film that is all the more remarkable because it achieves its emotional power and moments of revelation with restraint and a delicate ambiguity .


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 .


... hits every cliche we 've come to expect , including the assumption that `` crazy '' people are innocent , childlike and inherently funny .


slight but enjoyable documentary .


adam sandler 's eight crazy nights grows on you -- like a rash .


when compared to the usual , more somber festival entries , davis ' highly personal brand of romantic comedy is a tart , smart breath of fresh air that stands out from the pack even if the picture itself is somewhat problematic .


nicks and steinberg match their own creations for pure venality -- that 's giving it the old college try .


not even solondz 's thirst for controversy , sketchy characters and immature provocations can fully succeed at cheapening it .


and in a sense , that 's a liability .


the romance between the leads is n't as compelling or as believable as it should be .


hugh grant , who has a good line in charm , has never been more charming than in about a boy .


poignant and funny .


this is pure , exciting moviemaking .


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 .


the film is a blunt indictment , part of a perhaps surreal campaign to bring kissinger to trial for crimes against humanity .


a straight-ahead thriller that never rises above superficiality .


the film 's constant mood of melancholy and its unhurried narrative are masterfully controlled .


there are scenes of cinematic perfection that steal your heart away .


a low-key labor of love that strikes a very resonant chord .


one of those movies that catches you up in something bigger than yourself , namely , an archetypal desire to enjoy good trash every now and then .


an old-fashioned scary movie , one that relies on lingering terror punctuated by sudden shocks and not constant bloodshed punctuated by flying guts .


there 's an energy to y tu mamá también .


the problem with the film is whether these ambitions , laudable in themselves , justify a theatrical simulation of the death camp of auschwitz ii-birkenau .


the whole mess boils down to a transparently hypocritical work that feels as though it 's trying to set the women 's liberation movement back 20 years . '


not even steven spielberg has dreamed up such blatant and sickening product placement in a movie .


miyazaki is one of world cinema 's most wondrously gifted artists and storytellers .


the paradiso 's rusted-out ruin and ultimate collapse during the film 's final -lrb- restored -rrb- third ... emotionally belittle a cinema classic .


if you 're down for a silly hack-and-slash flick , you can do no wrong with jason x.


all in all , an interesting look at the life of the campaign-trail press , especially ones that do n't really care for the candidate they 're forced to follow .


in the not-too-distant future , movies like ghost ship will be used as analgesic balm for overstimulated minds .


some movies can get by without being funny simply by structuring the scenes as if they were jokes : a setup , delivery and payoff .


ryan gosling is , in a word , brilliant as the conflicted daniel .


i do n't think so .


at best this is a film for the under-7 crowd .


a fresh , entertaining comedy that looks at relationships minus traditional gender roles .


poetry in motion captured on film .


the fourth in a series that i 'll bet most parents had thought -- hoped !


parts of the film feel a bit too much like an infomercial for ram dass 's latest book aimed at the boomer demographic .


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


but here 's a glimpse at his life .


almost peerlessly unsettling .


despite auteuil 's performance , it 's a rather listless amble down the middle of the road , where the thematic ironies are too obvious and the sexual politics too smug .


-lrb- ferrera -rrb- has the charisma of a young woman who knows how to hold the screen .


a solid and refined piece of moviemaking imbued with passion and attitude .


flamboyant in some movies and artfully restrained in others , 65-year-old jack nicholson could be looking at his 12th oscar nomination by proving that he 's now , more than ever , choosing his roles with the precision of the insurance actuary .


while this one gets off with a good natured warning , future lizard endeavors will need to adhere more closely to the laws of laughter


the hot topics of the plot are relegated to the background -- a welcome step forward from the sally jesse raphael atmosphere of films like philadelphia and american beauty .


daughter from danang reveals that efforts toward closure only open new wounds .


if not a home run , then at least a solid base hit .


it 's a fine , old-fashioned-movie movie , which is to say it 's unburdened by pretensions to great artistic significance .


what it lacks in substance it makes up for in heart .


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 .


there are enough throwaway references to faith and rainbows to plant smile-button faces on that segment of the populace that made a walk to remember a niche hit .


a well-acted , but one-note film .


suffice to say its total promise is left slightly unfulfilled .


the picture 's fascinating byways are littered with trenchant satirical jabs at the peculiar egocentricities of the acting breed .


walter hill 's undisputed is like a 1940s warner bros. .


parents beware ; this is downright movie penance .


whatever satire lucky break was aiming for , it certainly got lost in the `` soon-to-be-forgettable '' section of the quirky rip-off prison romp pile .


it did n't go straight to video .


fred schepisi 's tale of four englishmen facing the prospect of their own mortality views youthful affluence not as a lost ideal but a starting point .


there 's no energy .


the movie tries to be ethereal , but ends up seeming goofy .


starts off witty and sophisticated and you want to love it -- but filmmaker yvan attal quickly writes himself into a corner .


kosminsky ... puts enough salt into the wounds of the tortured and self-conscious material to make it sting .


a well made indieflick in need of some trims and a more chemistry between its stars .


seems based on ugly ideas instead of ugly behavior , as happiness was ... hence , storytelling is far more appealing .


it 's the unsettling images of a war-ravaged land that prove more potent and riveting than the unlikely story of sarah and harrison .


alternates between deadpan comedy and heartbreaking loneliness and is n't afraid to provoke introspection in both its characters and its audience .


true to its title , it traps audiences in a series of relentlessly nasty situations that we would pay a considerable ransom not to be looking at .


at its best when the guarded , resentful betty and the manipulative yet needy margot are front and center .


with exquisite craftsmanship ... olivier assayas has fashioned an absorbing look at provincial bourgeois french society .


your response to its new sequel , analyze that , may hinge on what you thought of the first film .


a hard look at one man 's occupational angst and its subsequent reinvention , a terrifying study of bourgeois desperation worthy of claude chabrol .


the ethos of the chelsea hotel may shape hawke 's artistic aspirations , but he has n't yet coordinated his own dv poetry with the beat he hears in his soul .


grant is certainly amusing , but the very hollowness of the character he plays keeps him at arms length


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


definitely in the guilty pleasure b-movie category , reign of fire is so incredibly inane that it is laughingly enjoyable .


it 's not just the vampires that are damned in queen of the damned -- the viewers will feel they suffer the same fate .


as simple and innocent a movie as you can imagine .


as we have come to learn -- as many times as we have fingers to count on -- jason is a killer who does n't know the meaning of the word ` quit . '


extremely bad .


a relatively effective little potboiler until its absurd , contrived , overblown , and entirely implausible finale .


although disney follows its standard formula in this animated adventure , it feels more forced than usual .


deserves a place of honor next to nanook as a landmark in film history .


a solid piece of journalistic work that draws a picture of a man for whom political expedience became a deadly foreign policy .


what 's missing in murder by numbers is any real psychological grounding for the teens ' deviant behaviour .


any attempts at nuance given by the capable cast is drowned out by director jon purdy 's sledgehammer sap .


it 's lost the politics and the social observation and become just another situation romance about a couple of saps stuck in an inarticulate screenplay .


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 .


it made me want to get made-up and go see this movie with my sisters .


argento , at only 26 , brings a youthful , out-to-change-the-world aggressiveness to the project , as if she 's cut open a vein and bled the raw film stock .


as refreshing as a drink from a woodland stream .


... a sweetly affecting story about four sisters who are coping , in one way or another , with life 's endgame .


beautifully directed and convincingly acted .


it is an unstinting look at a collaboration between damaged people that may or may not qual


ritchie 's film is easier to swallow than wertmuller 's polemical allegory , but it 's self-defeatingly decorous .


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 .


the charm of the first movie is still there , and the story feels like the logical , unforced continuation of the careers of a pair of spy kids .


depending upon your reaction to this movie , you may never again be able to look at a red felt sharpie pen without disgust , a thrill , or the giggles .


despite a performance of sustained intelligence from stanford and another of subtle humour from bebe neuwirth , as an older woman who seduces oscar , the film founders on its lack of empathy for the social milieu - rich new york intelligentsia - and its off


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 .


any enjoyment will be hinge from a personal threshold of watching sad but endearing characters do extremely unconventional things .


an undeniably gorgeous , terminally smitten document of a troubadour , his acolytes , and the triumph of his band .


halfway through the movie , the humor dwindles .


the magic -lrb- and original running time -rrb- of ace japanimator hayao miyazaki 's spirited away survives intact in bv 's re-voiced version .


michael moore has perfected the art of highly entertaining , self-aggrandizing , politically motivated documentary-making , and he 's got as potent a topic as ever here .


frei assembles a fascinating profile of a deeply humanistic artist who , in spite of all that he 's witnessed , remains surprisingly idealistic , and retains an extraordinary faith in the ability of images to communicate the truth of the world around him .


predictable and cloying , though brown sugar is so earnest in its yearning for the days before rap went nihilistic that it summons more spirit and bite than your average formulaic romantic quadrangle .


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 .


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


a modest masterpiece .


neil burger here succeeded in ... making the mystery of four decades back the springboard for a more immediate mystery in the present .


and thanks to kline 's superbly nuanced performance , that pondering is highly pleasurable .


it 's still a comic book , but maguire makes it a comic book with soul .


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


seems content to dog-paddle in the mediocre end of the pool , and it 's a sad , sick sight .


takes a fresh and absorbing look at a figure whose legacy had begun to bronze .


but it does n't leave you with much .


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 .


broomfield has a rather unique approach to documentary .


as the mediterranean sparkles , ` swept away ' sinks .


two-bit potboiler .


a poignant and gently humorous parable that loves its characters and communicates something rather beautiful about human nature .


mushes the college-friends genre -lrb- the big chill -rrb- together with the contrivances and overwrought emotion of soap operas .


an amalgam of the fugitive , blade runner , and total recall , only without much energy or tension .


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 .


at once overly old-fashioned in its sudsy plotting and heavy-handed in its effort to modernize it with encomia to diversity and tolerance .


it 's just rather leaden and dull .


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


the movie is a mess from start to finish .


its rawness and vitality give it considerable punch .


one of the best inside-show-biz yarns ever .


but the feelings evoked in the film are lukewarm and quick to pass .


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


the best animated feature to hit theaters since beauty and the beast 11 years ago .


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 .


scarcely worth a mention apart from reporting on the number of tumbleweeds blowing through the empty theatres graced with its company .


i was hoping that it would be sleazy and fun , but it was neither .


a beautifully observed character piece .


compared to his series of spectacular belly flops both on and off the screen , runteldat is something of a triumph .


as plain and pedestrian as catsup --


some people march to the beat of a different drum , and if you ever wondered what kind of houses those people live in , this documentary takes a look at 5 alternative housing options .


that jack nicholson makes this man so watchable is a tribute not only to his craft , but to his legend .


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


if borstal boy is n't especially realistic , it is an engaging nostalgia piece .


a college story that works even without vulgarity , sex scenes , and cussing !


a loquacious and dreary piece of business .


behan 's memoir is great material for a film -- rowdy , brawny and lyrical in the best irish sense -- but sheridan has settled for a lugubrious romance .


a rather tired exercise in nostalgia .


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


there 's little to recommend snow dogs , unless one considers cliched dialogue and perverse escapism a source of high hilarity .


certainly beautiful to look at , but its not very informative about its titular character and no more challenging than your average television biopic .


one lousy movie .


it 's such a mechanical endeavor -lrb- that -rrb- it never bothers to question why somebody might devote time to see it .


a blair witch - style adventure that plays like a bad soap opera , with passable performances from everyone in the cast .


until its final minutes this is a perceptive study of two families in crisis -- and of two girls whose friendship is severely tested by bad luck and their own immaturity .


abandon spends 90 minutes trying figure out whether or not some cocky pseudo-intellectual kid has intentionally left college or was killed .


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 .


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 .


with the prospect of films like kangaroo jack about to burst across america 's winter movie screens it 's a pleasure to have a film like the hours as an alternative .


where this was lazy but enjoyable , a formula comedy redeemed by its stars , that is even lazier and far less enjoyable .


a highly watchable , giggly little story with a sweet edge to it .


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


-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 .


writer-director juan carlos fresnadillo makes a feature debut that is fully formed and remarkably assured .


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


falls short in explaining the music and its roots .


each story is built on a potentially interesting idea , but the first two are ruined by amateurish writing and acting , while the third feels limited by its short running time .


a fascinating but choppy documentary .


sweetly sexy , funny and touching .


like all of egoyan 's work , ararat is fiercely intelligent and uncommonly ambitious .


even if invincible is not quite the career peak that the pianist is for roman polanski , it demonstrates that werner herzog can still leave us with a sense of wonder at the diverse , marvelously twisted shapes history has taken .


the film is really closer to porn than a serious critique of what 's wrong with this increasingly pervasive aspect of gay culture .


this is a movie that starts out like heathers , then becomes bring it on , then becomes unwatchable .


it 's a cool event for the whole family .


time literally stops on a dime in the tries-so-hard-to-be-cool `` clockstoppers , '' but that does n't mean it still wo n't feel like the longest 90 minutes of your movie-going life .


yep , it 's `` waking up in reno . ''


a beautiful , entertaining two hours .


though it pretends to expose the life of male hustlers , it 's exploitive without being insightful .


too long , and larded with exposition , this somber cop drama ultimately feels as flat as the scruffy sands of its titular community .


another love story in 2002 's remarkable procession of sweeping pictures that have reinvigorated the romance genre .


it 's sobering , particularly if anyone still thinks this conflict can be resolved easily , or soon .


the chateau belongs to rudd , whose portrait of a therapy-dependent flakeball spouting french malapropisms ... is a nonstop hoot .


the story ... is inspiring , ironic , and revelatory of just how ridiculous and money-oriented the record industry really is .


love may have been in the air onscreen , but i certainly was n't feeling any of it .


this director 's cut -- which adds 51 minutes -- takes a great film and turns it into a mundane soap opera .


`` the dangerous lives of altar boys '' has flaws , but it also has humor and heart and very talented young actors


when you resurrect a dead man , hard copy should come a-knocking , no ?


i admit it , i hate to like it .


movies like high crimes flog the dead horse of surprise as if it were an obligation .


an amusing and unexpectedly insightful examination of sexual jealousy , resentment and the fine line between passion and pretence .


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 . ''


it 's just a movie that happens to have jackie chan in it .


what redeems the film is the cast , particularly the ya-yas themselves .


but what 's nice is that there 's a casual intelligence that permeates the script .


adam sandler 's 8 crazy nights is 75 wasted minutes of sandler as the voice-over hero in columbia pictures ' perverse idea of an animated holiday movie .


a mess .


the filmmakers wisely decided to let crocodile hunter steve irwin do what he does best , and fashion a story around him .


so purely enjoyable that you might not even notice it 's a fairly straightforward remake of hollywood comedies such as father of the bride .


talk to her is so darned assured , we have absolutely no idea who the main characters are until the film is well under way -- and yet it 's hard to stop watching .


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 .


it 's so laddish and juvenile , only teenage boys could possibly find it funny .


after seeing ` analyze that , ' i feel better already .


mazel tov to a film about a family 's joyous life acting on the yiddish stage .


the characters are never more than sketches ... which leaves any true emotional connection or identification frustratingly out of reach .


reign of fire just might go down as one of the all-time great apocalypse movies .


visually sumptuous but intellectually stultifying .


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 .


the simplicity of the way home has few equals this side of aesop


monte cristo smartly emphasizes the well-wrought story and omits needless chase scenes and swordfights as the revenge unfolds .


it shows us a slice of life that 's very different from our own and yet instantly recognizable .


a fine film , but it would be a lot better if it stuck to betty fisher and left out the other stories .


interesting both as a historical study and as a tragic love story .


feels untidily honest .


what we have here is n't a disaster , exactly , but a very handsomely produced let-down .


there 's a reason the studio did n't offer an advance screening .


there is a certain sense of experimentation and improvisation to this film that may not always work , but it is nevertheless compelling .


though it 's equally solipsistic in tone , the movie has enough vitality to justify the notion of creating a screen adaptation of evans ' saga of hollywood excess .


one of the worst films of 2002 .


the film 's overall mood and focus is interesting but constantly unfulfilling .


lazy , miserable and smug .


-lrb- t -rrb- he script is n't up to the level of the direction , nor are the uneven performances by the cast members , who seem bound and determined to duplicate bela lugosi 's now-cliched vampire accent .


often demented in a good way , but it is an uneven film for the most part .


i wish windtalkers had had more faith in the dramatic potential of this true story .


an animation landmark as monumental as disney 's 1937 breakthrough snow white and the seven dwarfs .


this thing is just garbage .


`` the road paved with good intentions leads to the video store ''


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


a disoriented but occasionally disarming saga packed with moments out of an alice in wonderland adventure , a stalker thriller , and a condensed season of tv 's big brother .


`` juwanna mann ? ''


like the world of his film , hartley created a monster but did n't know how to handle it .


what 's surprising is how well it holds up in an era in which computer-generated images are the norm .


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


the extent to which it succeeds is impressive .


proves a servicable world war ii drama that ca n't totally hide its contrivances , but it at least calls attention to a problem hollywood too long has ignored .


` tobey maguire is a poster boy for the geek generation . '


a fascinating , bombshell documentary that should shame americans , regardless of whether or not ultimate blame finally lies with kissinger .


never inspires more than an interested detachment .


ultimately , clarity matters , both in breaking codes and making movies .


a sharp and quick documentary that is funny and pithy , while illuminating an era of theatrical comedy that , while past , really is n't .


this is a smart movie that knows its classical music , knows its freud and knows its sade .


instead of trying to bust some blondes , -lrb- diggs -rrb- should be probing why a guy with his talent ended up in a movie this bad .


a film that presents an interesting , even sexy premise then ruins itself with too many contrivances and goofy situations .


delivers roughly equal amounts of beautiful movement and inside information .


meyjes 's movie , like max rothman 's future , does not work .


a weird , arresting little ride .


but i had a lot of problems with this movie .


a dopey movie clothed in excess layers of hipness .


it 's dull , spiritless , silly and monotonous : an ultra-loud blast of pointless mayhem , going nowhere fast .


the year 2002 has conjured up more coming-of-age stories than seem possible , but take care of my cat emerges as the very best of them .


nakata 's technique is to imply terror by suggestion , rather than the overuse of special effects .


but it does n't need gangs of new york .


the cinematic equivalent of patronizing a bar favored by pretentious , untalented artistes who enjoy moaning about their cruel fate .


there 's a part of us that can not help be entertained by the sight of someone getting away with something .


but mr. polanski creates images even more haunting than those in mr. spielberg 's 1993 classic .


the performances are strong , though the subject matter demands acting that borders on hammy at times .


never does `` lilo & stitch '' reach the emotion or timelessness of disney 's great past , or even that of more recent successes such as `` mulan '' or `` tarzan . ''


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 .


the mushy finale turns john q into a movie-of-the-week tearjerker .


a venturesome , beautifully realized psychological mood piece that reveals its first-time feature director 's understanding of the expressive power of the camera .


that it 'll probably be the best and most mature comedy of the 2002 summer season speaks more of the season than the picture


it 's still adam sandler , and it 's not little nicky .


your nightmares , on the other hand , will be anything but .


my own minority report is that it stinks .


cage makes an unusual but pleasantly haunting debut behind the camera .


brosnan is more feral in this film than i 've seen him before and halle berry does her best to keep up with him .


ben kingsley is truly funny , playing a kind of ghandi gone bad .


frankly , it 's pretty stupid .


ozpetek 's effort has the scope and shape of an especially well-executed television movie .


too clever by about nine-tenths .


you should pay nine bucks for this : because you can hear about suffering afghan refugees on the news and still be unaffected .


the whole mildly pleasant outing -- the r rating is for brief nudity and a grisly corpse -- remains aloft not on its own self-referential hot air , but on the inspired performance of tim allen .


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


a particularly joyless , and exceedingly dull , period coming-of-age tale .


an unorthodox little film noir organized crime story that includes one of the strangest love stories you will ever see .


watching the powerpuff girls movie , my mind kept returning to one anecdote for comparison : the cartoon in japan that gave people seizures .


there 's no good answer to that one .


-lrb- while the last metro -rrb- was more melodramatic , confined to a single theater company and its strategies and deceptions , while tavernier is more concerned with the entire period of history .


cantet beautifully illuminates what it means sometimes to be inside looking out , and at other times outside looking in .


if you think it 's a riot to see rob schneider in a young woman 's clothes , then you 'll enjoy the hot chick .


with the same sort of good-natured fun found in films like tremors , eight legged freaks is prime escapist fare .


a bore that tends to hammer home every one of its points .


a non-mystery mystery .


there 's back-stabbing , inter-racial desire and , most importantly , singing and dancing .


there 's more repetition than creativity throughout the movie .


together , miller , kuras and the actresses make personal velocity into an intricate , intimate and intelligent journey .


i enjoyed the movie in a superficial way , while never sure what its purpose was .


the film sometimes flags ... but there is enough secondary action to keep things moving along at a brisk , amusing pace .


fear dot com is more frustrating than a modem that disconnects every 10 seconds .


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


instead of a witty expose on the banality and hypocrisy of too much kid-vid , we get an ugly , mean-spirited lashing out by an adult who 's apparently been forced by his kids to watch too many barney videos .


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 .


it is very difficult to care about the character , and that is the central flaw of the film .


gangster no. 1 is solid , satisfying fare for adults .


why did they deem it necessary to document all this emotional misery ?


no doubt the star and everyone else involved had their hearts in the right place .


-lrb- rises -rrb- above its oh-so-hollywood rejiggering and its conventional direction to give the film a soul and an unabashed sense of good old-fashioned escapism .


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 .


this is the first film i 've ever seen that had no obvious directing involved .


captures that perverse element of the kafkaesque where identity , overnight , is robbed and replaced with a persecuted `` other . ''


never once predictable .


the film does n't really care about the thousands of americans who die hideously , it cares about how ryan meets his future wife and makes his start at the cia .


offers a guilt-free trip into feel-good territory .


the filmmakers are playing to the big boys in new york and l.a. to that end , they mock the kind of folks they do n't understand , ones they figure the power-lunchers do n't care to understand , either .


i wish it would have just gone more over-the-top instead of trying to have it both ways .


the whole affair , true story or not , feels incredibly hokey ... -lrb- it -rrb- comes off like a hallmark commercial .


-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 .


cacoyannis is perhaps too effective in creating an atmosphere of dust-caked stagnation and labored gentility .


the structure is simple , but in its own way , rabbit-proof fence is a quest story as grand as the lord of the rings .


o.k. , not really .


a puppy dog so desperate for attention it nearly breaks its little neck trying to perform entertaining tricks .


nice piece of work .


-lrb- kirshner wins , but it 's close . -rrb-


a road trip that will get you thinking , ` are we there yet ? '


the events of the film are just so weird that i honestly never knew what the hell was coming next .


the ring is worth a look , if you do n't demand much more than a few cheap thrills from your halloween entertainment .


who knew ...


episode ii -- attack of the clones is a technological exercise that lacks juice and delight .


this is a dark , gritty , sometimes funny little gem .


though there 's a clarity of purpose and even-handedness to the film 's direction , the drama feels rigged and sluggish .


noyce 's greatest mistake is thinking that we needed sweeping , dramatic , hollywood moments to keep us


the country bears has no scenes that will upset or frighten young viewers .


what emerges is an unsettling picture of childhood innocence combined with indoctrinated prejudice .


the 3-d vistas from orbit , with the space station suspended like a huge set of wind chimes over the great blue globe , are stanzas of breathtaking , awe-inspiring visual poetry .


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 .


jackie chan movies are a guilty pleasure - he 's easy to like and always leaves us laughing .


-lrb- gayton 's script -rrb- telegraphs every discovery and layers on the gloss of convenience .


i know i should n't have laughed , but hey , those farts got to my inner nine-year-old .


... 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 .


there is a general air of exuberance in all about the benjamins that 's hard to resist .


plays like one of those conversations that comic book guy on `` the simpsons '' has .


a sha-na-na sketch punctuated with graphic violence .


a drama ?


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 .


this charming but slight tale has warmth , wit and interesting characters compassionately portrayed .


the movie slides downhill as soon as macho action conventions assert themselves .


streamlined to a tight , brisk 85-minute screwball thriller , `` big trouble '' is funny , harmless and as substantial as a tub of popcorn with extra butter .


as it stands , there 's some fine sex onscreen , and some tense arguing , but not a whole lot more .


delightfully rendered


shows that jackie chan is getting older , and that 's something i would rather live in denial about


many insightful moments .


it is a movie about passion .


made to be jaglomized is the cannes film festival , the annual riviera spree of flesh , buzz , blab and money .


the performances are immaculate , with roussillon providing comic relief .


anyone not into high-tech splatterfests is advised to take the warning literally , and log on to something more user-friendly .


director claude chabrol has become the master of innuendo .


as comedic spotlights go , notorious c.h.o. hits all the verbal marks it should .


-lrb- tries -rrb- to parody a genre that 's already a joke in the united states .


they were afraid to show this movie to reviewers before its opening , afraid of the bad reviews they thought they 'd earn .


especially give credit to affleck .


a fragile framework upon which to hang broad , mildly fleshed-out characters that seem to have been conjured up only 10 minutes prior to filming .


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


this picture is murder by numbers , and as easy to be bored by as your abc 's , despite a few whopping shootouts .


though jones and snipes are enthralling , the movie bogs down in rhetoric and cliché .


according to wendigo , ` nature ' loves the members of the upper class almost as much as they love themselves .


even a hardened voyeur would require the patience of job to get through this interminable , shapeless documentary about the swinging subculture .


it is refreshingly undogmatic about its characters .


a gratingly unfunny groaner littered with zero-dimensional , unlikable characters and hackneyed , threadbare comic setups .


a vibrant , colorful , semimusical rendition .


but as you watch the movie , you 're too interested to care .


a mediocre exercise in target demographics , unaware that it 's the butt of its own joke .


the funny thing is , i did n't mind all this contrived nonsense a bit .


thumbs down .


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


at a time when we 've learned the hard way just how complex international terrorism is , collateral damage paints an absurdly simplistic picture .


adam sandler !


upper west sidey exercise in narcissism and self-congratulation disguised as a tribute .


as a kind of colorful , dramatized pbs program , frida gets the job done .


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 .


-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 .


totally overwrought , deeply biased , and wholly designed to make you feel guilty about ignoring what the filmmakers clearly believe are the greatest musicians of all time .


there 's so much to look at in metropolis you hate to tear your eyes away from the images long enough to read the subtitles .


woody allen used to ridicule movies like hollywood ending .


either a fascinating study of the relationship between mothers and their children or a disturbing story about sociopaths and their marks .


lightweight but appealing .


there is nothing redeeming about this movie .


what 's infuriating about full frontal is that it 's too close to real life to make sense .


touché !


the movie 's seams may show ... but pellington gives `` mothman '' an irresistibly uncanny ambience that goes a long way toward keeping the picture compelling .


macdowell ... gives give a solid , anguished performance that eclipses nearly everything else she 's ever done .


director paul cox 's unorthodox , abstract approach to visualizing nijinsky 's diaries is both stimulating and demanding .


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 .


the unique niche of self-critical , behind-the-scenes navel-gazing kaufman has carved from orleans ' story and his own infinite insecurity is a work of outstanding originality .


the stunt work is top-notch ; the dialogue and drama often food-spittingly funny .


lucas has in fact come closer than anyone could desire to the cheap , graceless , hackneyed sci-fi serials of the '30s and '40s .


a fine effort , an interesting topic , some intriguing characters and a sad ending .


`` ... something appears to have been lost in the translation this time .


featherweight romantic comedy has a few nice twists in a standard plot and the charisma of hugh grant and sandra bullock .


hypnotically dull , relentlessly downbeat , laughably predictable wail pitched to the cadence of a depressed fifteen-year-old 's suicidal poetry .


everything about the quiet american is good , except its timing .


it 's a smartly directed , grown-up film of ideas .