Carla Meyer

Self-indulgent and admirable.

A British costume film that's funny but not at all fusty.

Swayze's presence crosses the line from curious to bizarre and adds a heavy layer of cheese to Havana Nights.

The slasher scenes, though relatively few, are amazingly evocative for such a low-budget movie.

It's engaging and transparent at once.

A snapshot of the festival, one that radiates good cheer and offers moments of true, godly goodness.

In White Chicks, the gross-out humor is minimal, no character comes off too badly and lessons are learned. Oh Wayanses, where are thy teeth?

The always fierce Bassett is a little too fierce here, reacting with unwarranted emotion to each romantic twist and turn.

Delivers laughs most of the way through.

A street-dance film that's lively and silly and about as "street" as a Britney Spears video.

Not as profound as it is pretty, Hero nevertheless gives us something to ponder beyond Zhang's feat in mounting such a magnificent production.

An intriguing brain-teaser.

Intoxicating and flawed.

The visual and emotional hues are darker [than previous Pixar films], and the focus rests more on middle age than coming of age. The adventures of a family of superheroes are likely to thrill and amuse children, but the film's more grown-up themes might go over their heads.

A dreary, distasteful exercise, "Off the Leash'' favors dogs over humans, framing canine high jinks with an ugly story of domestic abuse.

A heartbreaking, powerful drama.

Goes disappointingly soft despite two dynamite lead performances.

A famous French actor using his art to work through the loss of his wife and daughter in a car accident. The strategy works, at least for a while.

Visually accomplished and loads of fun.

The brave men who fought and perished at the Alamo believed fervently in their cause. For The Alamo to work, the audience must believe as well. That never really happens.

Offers enough glossy good cheer to appeal to everyone.

The achievement of Saved!, a very funny teen comedy set in a Christian high school, lies in its careful avoidance of obvious traps.

Gorgeous animated film.

Misbegotten mess.

There's no hiding a hokey love story that undercuts the picture's compelling tennis scenes.

Funny, affectionate documentary.

Delightful blend of comedy, kung fu, soccer and special effects.

probably less painful than actual childbirth, but it's still a very long 86 minutes.

This tale of tortured love between a Mormon missionary and a West Hollywood tomcat renders its gay and religious characters so stereotypical that neither lifestyle appears attractive.

Highly entertaining, in a schadenfreude sense, but incomplete.

It's strung together, with cliches instead of puka shells.

Sometimes demure, sometimes funny and other times flat-out crazed, Wuornos was effusive and confrontational when Broomfield filmed her just before her 2002 execution in Florida.

Were there an award for most bizarre and dispiriting comedy-horror hybrid featuring killer dolls, the latest installment in the "Child's Play" series would have it locked up.

A rather boring horror film.

The film, winsome and tragic at once and finely attuned to the rhythms of childhood, always seems quite close to real life.

Frank, funny and true as "Ghost World."

A tense, expertly acted Russian film clouded by its intentional ambiguity.

The movie is like one of those newfangled Vegas casinos, where what appears to be open sky is really painted ceiling. What's initially dazzling becomes stifling.

Remarkably fresh and inventive.

A witty, energetic adaptation.

The sequel might have the formula down, but it lacks everything that made "Anaconda'' fun.

Good storytelling.

Sly and insightful fable.

Filled with overly processed situations it tries to sell with manic energy, "Kranks" is canned, hammy and rolling as fast as it can.

Light on inner conflict and heavy on cliches.

It's moving, romantic, dreamlike, flawlessly acted and so engaging as to make you forget about euthanasia before it jolts you back into recognition.

Pretty and vague, the kind of film that might play on a loop at a county fair's Americana exhibit.

An awkward and aggressively unfunny film.

To earnest for its own good. Sincere and heartfelt, it's the kind of family film that might be at home on cable.

Moving.

First Daughter can be measured in degrees of Holmes' discomfort... There's never a moment when she doesn't appear as if she'd rather be in a different movie.

Confusing, mixing messages of self-empowerment with those of conformity.

The problems lie not with the actors but with a glib approach that exposes the flaws of the original story.

The less in control Smith and his co- stars Eva Mendes and Kevin James appear, the better Hitch becomes, until it's rather delightful.

Compelling.

The tense, stylish thriller turns into soft-core, slapdash psychodrama.

It's a prevailing sense of humor that makes this an entertaining, if silly, film adaptation of the Marvel comic.

It's a fascinating concept, gorgeously rendered. Seeing the paint actually dry, however, would probably be more fun than most of this overly expository film.

Celebrates the craft of acting both in its story and in fine performances.

Loses momentum midway into the boys' journey.

Features bursts of humor and electrifying energy offset by speechifying and a dud of a subplot.

Clunky adventure story.

Sweaty, filthy, miserable and well acted.

Bests most other teen comedies right off the bat. If you got a kick out of "Crumb," this film will crack you up.

[Duhmel] brings surprising nuance to an ostensibly shallow character, a guy who's not really bad, just caught up in his own celebrity.

Lacks the clever twists and turns that made the original such fun. The sequel has exactly one twist, and it's not very clever.

It's not a terrible movie, just a disappointingly pleasant one.

It's merely adequate, with one riveting element but limited chills.

The picture never comes out from under the weight of its dreariness, despite fine acting, foot chases and conspiracy theories galore.

Offers a lively but jumbled insider's view of a world of great talent and greater risk.

Fascinating context but awkwardly told.

The film pays off eventually with a lovely story of friendship between two lonely men.

A warmhearted and surprisingly ambitious sequel.

Updates a classic premise -- the struggle for personal freedom -- by pairing it with ethical and moral quandaries.

Intimate, quietly illuminating documentary.

Negotiating the role of a forward-thinking woman constrained by family demands and era, Elliott elevates a picture that's lovely to look at but lacking in dramatic impact.

Much credit for this delightfully morose children's film must go to director Brad Silberling's careful orchestration. Please note, in the vocabulary-building spirit of the Snicket books, that the word "orchestration'' here means "coaxing good performances out of child actors and keeping Jim Carrey in check.''

Unique.

Bright Leaves' takes on a sizable foe -- in this case, big tobacco -- but with such grace and wit that his message never seems medicinal.

Beautiful but hollow.

Real acting replaces re-enacting, and amazing cinematography pits the limits of human will against the unruliness of nature.

A good-hearted 'tween comedy hampered by uneven direction and a misguided plot twist.

Timeless.

Poignant and carefully observed, the Italian drama Facing Windows portrays two consuming, illicit romances: one in the present, the other kept alive in faulty memory. The long-ago relationship holds far more intrigue.

Beautifully shot and compelling blend of thriller and coming-of-age drama.

Has to be enjoyed in spurts. There's no cohesive story, just a series of opportunities for the title character (Jon Heder) to strut his gawky stuff.

Tries screwball and gross-out comedy and fails on both counts.

In I'll Sleep When I'm Dead,' master of stylish criminality Mike Hodges presents a nighttime London of sharp suits, distorted jazz notes and shiny luxury sedans cruising dirty streets.

Pretty standard stuff, mixing a few truly clever moments with facile drug humor and throwaway female characters.

[Brody's] mannered performance helps downgrade this picture from a middling sci-fi film to a bad, borderline-camp sci-fi film.

The studio behind Wicker Park bills it as a "romantic thriller.'' But it's actually an example of an even more unusual subgenre: the dumb, suspense- free and undersexed stalker drama.

A superb film.

The concept is high, the humor lowbrow and the joy of experimentation evident in every frame of this wonderful picture.

Sexy and intoxicating.