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Deliberately and devotedly constructed, Far from Heaven is too picture postcard perfect, too neat and new pin-like, too obviously a recreation to resonate.

Morvern rocks.

A positively thrilling combination of ethnography and all the intrigue, betrayal, deceit and murder of a Shakespearean tragedy or a juicy soap opera.

When 'science fiction' takes advantage of the fact that its intended audience hasn't yet had much science, it does a disservice to the audience and to the genre.

Illiterate, often inert sci-fi action thriller.

As Janice, Eileen Walsh, an engaging, wide-eyed actress whose teeth are a little too big for her mouth, infuses the movie with much of its slender, glinting charm.

A film of quiet power.

Overwrought, melodramatic bodice-ripper.

Zhuangzhuang creates delicate balance of style, text, and subtext that's so simple and precise that anything discordant would topple the balance, but against all odds, nothing does.

Because the film deliberately lacks irony, it has a genuine dramatic impact; it plays like a powerful 1957 drama we've somehow never seen before.

It's a very valuable film...

Bad movie.

Just when you think you are making sense of it, something happens that tells you there is no sense.

The rich performances by Friel -- and especially Williams, an American actress who becomes fully English -- round out the square edges.

The film rehashes several old themes and is capped with pointless extremes -- it's insanely violent and very graphic.

An undistinguished attempt to make a classic theater piece cinematic.

It's Pauly Shore awful.

, "They're out there!"

A sour attempt at making a Farrelly Brothers-style, down-and-dirty laugher for the female set.

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

Oh, James!

Got some good, organic character work, lots of obvious political insights and little room for engaging, imaginative filmmaking in its nearly 2 1/2-hour, dissipated length.

An emotionally and spiritually compelling journey seen through the right eyes, with the right actors and with the kind of visual flair that shows what great cinema can really do.

An inept, tedious spoof of '70s kung fu pictures, it contains almost enough chuckles for a three-minute sketch, and no more.

A vivid, sometimes surreal, glimpse into the mysteries of human behavior.

It's no accident that The Accidental Spy is a solid action pic that returns the martial arts master to top form.

A wild comedy that could only spring from the demented mind of the writer of Being John Malkovich.

It's affecting, amusing, sad and reflective.

How can such a cold movie claim to express warmth and longing?

The film didn't convince me that Calvin Jr.'s Barbershop represents some sort of beacon of hope in the middle of Chicago's South Side.

Exciting documentary.

At its most basic, this cartoon adventure is that wind-in-the-hair exhilarating.

A winning piece of work filled with love for the movies of the 1960s.

Her film is like a beautiful food entrée that isn't heated properly, so that it ends up a bit cold and relatively flavorless.

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

Gives everyone something to shout about.

It's a setup so easy it borders on facile, but keeping the film from cheap-shot mediocrity is its crack cast.

The Chateau is a risky venture that never quite goes where you expect and often surprises you with unexpected comedy.

Deliciously mean-spirited and wryly observant.

As dumb and cheesy as they may be, the cartoons look almost Shakespearean -- both in depth and breadth -- after watching this digital-effects-heavy, supposed family-friendly comedy.

Though clearly well-intentioned, this cross-cultural soap opera is painfully formulaic and stilted.

Jones has tackled a meaty subject and drawn engaging characters while peppering the pages with memorable zingers.

Reassuring, retro uplifter.

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

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

This is unusual, food-for-thought cinema that's as entertaining as it is instructive.

Much credit must be given to the water-camera operating team of Don King, Sonny Miller, and Michael Stewart.

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

What begins brightly gets bogged down over 140 minutes.

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

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

Drumline is -- the mere suggestion, albeit a visually compelling one, of a fully realized story.

To be influenced chiefly by humanity's greatest shame, reality shows -- reality shows for God's sake!

Take away the controversy, and it's not much more watchable than a Mexican soap opera.

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

The success of Undercover Brother is found in its ability to spoof both black and white stereotypes equally.

Too damn weird to pass up, and for the blacklight crowd, way cheaper (and better) than Pink Floyd tickets.

You expect more from director Michael Apted (Enigma) and screenwriter Nicholas Kazan (Reversal of Fortune) than this cliche pileup.

Director Jay Russell weighs down his capricious fairy-tale with heavy sentiment and lightweight meaning.

A good-natured ensemble comedy that tries hard to make the most of a bumper cast, but never quite gets off the ground.

A moving and solidly entertaining comedy/drama that should bolster director and co-writer Juan José Campanella's reputation in the United States.

Everything is off.

Working from a surprisingly sensitive script co-written by Gianni Romoli ... Ozpetek avoids most of the pitfalls you'd expect in such a potentially sudsy set-up.

Pretend like your SAT scores are below 120 and you might not notice the flaws.

Mordantly funny and intimately knowing ...

I can't remember the last time I saw worse stunt editing or cheaper action movie production values than in Extreme Ops.

It's Tommy's job to clean the peep booths surrounding her, and after viewing this one, you'll feel like mopping up, too.

Each of these stories has the potential for Touched by an Angel simplicity and sappiness, but Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, for all its generosity and optimism, never resorts to easy feel-good sentiments.

There's...an underlying Old World sexism to Monday Morning that undercuts its charm.

What a great shame that such a talented director as Chen Kaige has chosen to make his English-language debut with a film so poorly plotted and scripted.

I liked a lot of the smaller scenes.

Some of the computer animation is handsome, and various amusing sidekicks add much-needed levity to the otherwise bleak tale, but overall the film never rises above mediocrity.

Beresford nicely mixes in as much humor as pathos to take us on his sentimental journey of the heart.

Nothing can detract from the affection of that moral favorite: friends will be friends through thick and thin.

Bring tissues.

An enthralling, entertaining feature.

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

Well-made but mush-hearted.

LaBute masterfully balances both Traditional or Modern stories together in a manner that one never overwhelms the other.

Assured, glossy and shot through with brittle desperation.

A damn fine and a truly distinctive and a deeply pertinent film.

Filmmaker Stacy Peralta has a flashy editing style that doesn't always jell with Sean Penn's monotone narration, but he respects the material without sentimentalizing it.

Despite its promising cast of characters, Big Trouble remains a loosely tied series of vignettes which only prove that 'zany' doesn't necessarily mean 'funny.'

A surprisingly sweet and gentle comedy.

...begins with promise, but runs aground after being snared in its own tangled plot.

Although What Time offers Tsai's usual style and themes, it has a more colorful, more playful tone than his other films.

A dull, inconsistent, dishonest female bonding picture.

A must-see for fans of thoughtful war films and those interested in the sights and sounds of battle.

With an unflappable air of decadent urbanity, Everett remains a perfect Wildean actor, and a relaxed Firth displays impeccable comic skill.

By no means a slam-dunk and sure to ultimately disappoint the action fans who will be moved to the edge of their seats by the dynamic first act, it still comes off as a touching, transcendent love story.

It has that rare quality of being able to creep the living hell out of you...

I encourage young and old alike to go see this unique and entertaining twist on the classic whale's tale -- you won't be sorry!

What goes on for the 110 minutes of "Panic Room" is a battle of witlessness between a not-so-bright mother and daughter and an even less capable trio of criminals.

In comparison to his earlier films it seems a disappointingly thin slice of lower-class London life; despite the title...amounts to surprisingly little.

The script was reportedly rewritten a dozen times -- either 11 times too many or else too few.

The Master of Disguise may have made a great Saturday Night Live sketch, but a great movie it is not.

If we're to slap protagonist Genevieve LePlouff because she's French, do we have that same option to slap her creators because they're clueless and inept?

I've had more interesting -- and, dare I say, thematically complex -- bowel movements than this long-on-the-shelf, point-and-shoot exercise in gimmicky crime drama.

I've seen some bad singer-turned actors, but Lil Bow Wow takes the cake.

"Nicholas Nickleby" is a perfect family film to take everyone to since there's no new "A Christmas Carol" out in the theaters this year.