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A Rumor of Angels doesn't just slip -- it avalanches into forced fuzziness.

Mindless yet impressively lean spinoff of last summer's bloated effects fest The Mummy Returns.

What's needed so badly but what is virtually absent here is either a saving dark humor or the feel of poetic tragedy.

Stone seems to have a knack for wrapping the theater in a cold blanket of urban desperation.

'Alice's adventure through the looking glass and into zombie-land' is filled with strange and wonderful creatures.

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

Remember it.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

Begins like a docu-drama but builds its multi-character story with a flourish.

The best comedy concert movie I've seen since Cho's previous concert comedy film, I'm the One That I Want, in 2000.

You'll end up moved.

I've yet to find an actual Vietnam War combat movie actually produced by either the North or South Vietnamese, but at least now we've got something pretty damn close.

While it's all quite tasteful to look at, the attention process tends to do a little fleeing of its own.

A visual spectacle full of stunning images and effects.

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

The film, despite the gratuitous cinematic distractions impressed upon it, is still good fun.

But even while his characters are acting horribly, he is always sympathetic.

Narc is all menace and atmosphere.

There is simply not enough of interest onscreen to sustain its seventy-minute running time.

(Stevens is) so stoked to make an important film about human infidelity and happenstance that he tosses a kitchen sink onto a story already overladen with plot conceits.

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

It dabbles all around, never gaining much momentum.

Being unique doesn't necessarily equate to being good, no matter how admirably the filmmakers have gone for broke.

That rare documentary that incorporates so much of human experience -- drama, conflict, tears and surprise -- that it transcends the normal divisions between fiction and nonfiction film.

Hashiguchi covers this territory with wit and originality, suggesting that with his fourth feature -- the first to be released in the U.S. -- a major director is emerging in world cinema.

When (Reno) lets her radical flag fly, taking angry potshots at George W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Larry King, et al., Reno devolves into a laugh-free lecture.

Never capitalizes on this concept and opts for the breezy and amateurish feel of an after school special on the subject of tolerance.

Despite its visual virtuosity, 'Naqoyqatsi' is banal in its message and the choice of material to convey it.

While the filmmaking may be a bit disjointed, the subject matter is so fascinating that you won't care.

Paul Bettany is cool.

Collateral Damage is trash, but it earns extra points by acting as if it weren't.

It's anchored by splendid performances from an honored screen veteran and a sparkling newcomer who instantly transform themselves into a believable mother/daughter pair.

The one not-so-small problem with Expecting is that the entire exercise has no real point.

When you've got the wildly popular Vin Diesel in the equation, it adds up to big box office bucks all but guaranteed.

The problem with all of this: It's not really funny.

One Hour Photo may seem disappointing in its generalities, but it's the little nuances that perhaps had to escape from director Mark Romanek's self-conscious scrutiny to happen, that finally get under your skin.

A modestly surprising movie.

It's impossible to indulge the fanciful daydreams of Janice Beard (Eileen Walsh) when her real-life persona is so charmless and vacant.

As the movie traces Mr. Brown's athletic exploits, it is impossible not to be awed by the power and grace of one of the greatest natural sportsmen of modern times.

To others, it will remind them that Hong Kong action cinema is still alive and kicking.

With tiny little jokes and nary an original idea, this sappy ethnic sleeper proves that not only blockbusters pollute the summer movie pool.

Confuses its message with an ultimate desire to please, and contorting itself into an idea of expectation is the last thing any of these three actresses, nor their characters, deserve.

It's a fine, focused piece of work that reopens an interesting controversy and never succumbs to sensationalism.

A heartening tale of small victories and enduring hope.

This franchise has not spawned a single good film.

A taut, sobering film.

Ear-splitting exercise in formula crash-and-bash action.

Just about everyone involved here seems to be coasting.

What sets this romantic comedy apart from most Hollywood romantic comedies is its low-key way of tackling what seems like done-to-death material.

Claims to sort the bad guys from the good, which is its essential problem.

Surprisingly, the film is a hilarious adventure and I shamelessly enjoyed it.

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

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

Makes 98 minutes feel like three hours.

The entire point of a shaggy dog story, of course, is that it goes nowhere, and this is classic nowheresville in every sense.

Shame on writer/director Vicente Aranda for making a florid biopic about mad queens, obsessive relationships, and rampant adultery so dull.

Spinning a web of dazzling entertainment may be overstating it, but "Spider-Man" certainly delivers the goods.

Like the Hanks character, he's a slow study: The action is stilted and the tabloid energy embalmed.

A poignant lyricism runs through Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress that transforms this story about love and culture into a cinematic poem.

...is funny in the way that makes you ache with sadness (the way Chekhov is funny), profound without ever being self-important, warm without ever succumbing to sentimentality.

Paul Bettany is good at being the ultra-violent gangster wannabe, but the movie is certainly not number 1.

The verdict: Two bodies and hardly a laugh between them.

In XXX, Diesel is that rare creature -- an action hero with table manners, and one who proves that elegance is more than tattoo deep.

There is a strong directorial stamp on every frame of this stylish film that is able to visualize schizophrenia but is still confident enough to step back and look at the sick character with a sane eye.

It's funny, as the old saying goes, because it's true.

Special P.O.V. camera mounts on bikes, skateboards, and motorcycles provide an intense experience when splashed across the immense IMAX screen.

Taken outside the context of the current political climate (see: terrorists are more evil than ever!)

A little weak -- and it isn't that funny.

Writer-director Ritchie reduces Wertmuller's social mores and politics to tiresome jargon.

A forceful drama of an alienated executive who re-invents himself.

One of those exceedingly rare films in which the talk alone is enough to keep us involved.

An almost unbearably morbid love story.

A mean-spirited film made by someone who surely read The Catcher in the Rye but clearly suffers from dyslexia

If they broke out into elaborate choreography, singing and finger snapping it might have held my attention, but as it stands I kept looking for the last exit from Brooklyn.

There's a sheer unbridled delight in the way the story unfurls...

Implicitly acknowledges and celebrates the glorious chicanery and self-delusion of this most American of businesses, and for that reason it may be the most oddly honest Hollywood document of all.

Very well written and directed with brutal honesty and respect for its audience.

Impostor is a step down for director Gary Fleder.

Moving and vibrant.

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

Hawn and Sarandon form an acting bond that makes The Banger Sisters a fascinating character study with laughs to spare.

May puzzle his most ardent fans.

In other words, it's badder than bad.

may prove to be (Tsai's) masterpiece.

One of the best, most understated performances of (Jack Nicholson's) career.

After all, he took three minutes of dialogue, 30 seconds of plot and turned them into a 90-minute movie that feels five hours long.

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

shows Holmes has the screen presence to become a major-league leading lady, (but) the movie itself is an underachiever, a psychological mystery that takes its sweet time building to a climax that's scarcely a surprise by the time it arrives.

But it wasn't.

Foster breathes life into a roll that could have otherwise been bland and run of the mill.

In old-fashioned screenwriting parlance, Ms. Shreve's novel proved too difficult a text to 'lick,' despite the efforts of a first-rate cast.

Well-acted, well-directed and, for all its moodiness, not too pretentious.

A tired, predictable, bordering on offensive, waste of time, money and celluloid.

There's no disguising this as one of the worst films of the summer.

Frida isn't that much different from many a Hollywood romance.

Follows the original film virtually scene for scene and yet manages to bleed it almost completely dry of humor, verve and fun.

Scott Baio is turning in some delightful work on indie projects.

Keenly observed and refreshingly natural, Swimming gets the details right, from its promenade of barely clad bodies in Myrtle Beach, S.C., to the adrenaline jolt of a sudden lunch rush at the diner.

Like Vardalos and Corbett, who play their roles with vibrant charm, the film, directed by Joel Zwick, is heartfelt and hilarious in ways you can't fake.

A lame comedy.