Chris Kaltenbach

A marvelously subversive, slyly manipulative effort.

There's not a false moment within the film's 88-minute running time, nor many that could be done any better.

Brimming with values that should serve its young audience well: altruism, friendship, self-sacrifice, responsibility.

Good intentions are no substitute for good filmmaking, and Spy Kids 3D is nothing more than a retread in flashier clothing.

Romantically nostalgic, a love letter to growing up in simpler times.

A grade-B rumination on what a nasty guy the devil can be.

Disturbing, maddening, often confusing, but also charming, engaging and challenging in all the best ways.

The determinedly cynical needn't bother, but just about everyone else should love Eight Below.

Doesn't display a single deep thought, or even a middlingly profound one.

An odd little movie. And not in a good way.

The cinematic equivalent of a beautifully wrapped gift box with nothing inside.

It fails to dig beneath that surface picture and offer up anything in the way of explanation or motivation.

Will keep kids happy and parents mildly entertained.

The cast doesn't impress, the story doesn't compel and the characters are too bland to make people remember them.

This is Forster's show, and he doesn't disappoint.

A return to form -- bad form. Lifeless, unimaginative and almost determinedly uninspired, it's paint-by-numbers filmmaking at its dreariest.

It's a blast!

Rocky and Bullwinkle have not only returned, but they've been placed in the hands of filmmakers who know what they're doing.

Fitfully thrilling.

In a stroke of voice-casting genius, the voices of Marjane and her mother are provided by real-life mother and daughter Chiara Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve, respectively, both of whom bring heft and measured emotion to the characters.

Stupid. Illogical. Simplistic. Pandering. And those are its good points.

Come Undone would have benefited immensely from less constricted performances from Elkaim and Rideau, both of whom go through the film determined not to crack a smile.

There's little time for nuance in Stop-Loss, and it doesn't deny any of the film's power to wish Peirce would occasionally slow things down enough to let her audience ponder what they're seeing.

If only La Mujer de mi Hermano had a dollop of humor and at least one character worth rooting for.

The film may not be art, but it's got a beat and you can definitely dance to it.

Some might find the whole thing exhilarating, but exhausting is more the word that comes to this man's mind.

The whole cast is good. It's too bad all that good work isn't in service to a better, or certainly more original, script.

Things may work out predictably, but The Ultimate Gift does not yank on the heartstrings so much as pluck them gently.

Paycheck is one of those movies in which all the ingenuity went into the original idea and none into its execution.

Painfully earnest, The Astronaut Farmer is, sad to say, a bunch of hooey. It's Frank Capra without the genuine heart, certainly without any sense of perspective.

"His eye is incredibly sharp and amazing, in regard to visceral cinema," says Uma Thurman, who has worked with Tarantino on both Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. "He's a great storyteller. He's very seductive as a filmmaker."

Takes a great idea -- what if the inhabitants of a museum came to life at night? -- and milks it for every drop of fun it's worth.

The film ultimately is a letdown, leaving too many questions unanswered and ending in a gesture that doesn't really solve anything.

A movie like this could easy slide into Shirley Temple territory, showcasing a child actor so full of sweetness and light and good, old-fashioned spunk that audiences wince. But Palmer, whose enthusiasm and energy never seem forced, avoids all those traps; her Akeelah is never less than believable.

A twisted little comic gem.

But The Ugly Truth can't escape its own ugly truth, that the central characters are written to extremes both ludicrous and tiring.

Foxx is magnificent, taking a role that could be exorbitantly showy (actors playing the mentally disabled tend to forget the word "restraint") and turning in a performance that's controlled and mesmerizing.

The vocal canines appear for about 30 humorous seconds, in a dream sequence, and are then never seen again. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the rest of the film, which runs an additional 98.5 excruciating minutes.

In some ways, Thank You for Smoking does not bemoan smoking as much as it bemoans people's willingness to be duped by smooth-tongued orators.

Anna Faris, her deadpan comic timing still a joy to watch, returns as Cindy Campbell, one of two main holdovers from the first three movies.

Buy your ticket, sit yourself down, and let ol' John take you for a ride. You'll have a blast.

The material has a definite "haven't-we-been over-this-before?" feel.

An overly gimmicky and fatally repetitive terrorist thriller that quickly wears out its welcome.

The residents of Beauty Shop never quite gel. Instead of camaraderie, the feeling is one of bare tolerance.

The Legend of Bagger Vance is nothing but "The Natural" with Will Smith playing the bat.

It offers top actors in Fiennes and Richardson, plus a rare joint appearance by the sisters Redgrave.

The movie's not nearly as cool as the setup.

There's a power to Woman Thou Art Loosed that transcends its limitations, a determined, heartfelt belief in the possibility of redemption.

For at least two-thirds of its length, all elements combine for a taut thriller, a Hitchcockian exercise in suspense pitting human frailty - can our minds be trusted? - against human resourcefulness.

Lackluster in narrative and in no way original or innovative, the movie is pretty much generic Disney, a film about universal brotherhood stitched together from parts that worked better in other films.

Kids, except for the very youngest, are going to be bored.

Crush is the kind of movie that gives friendship a bad name.

The film's impact and poignancy are undeniable.

There's enough here to keep the movie light and avoid the curse of interminableness. Will there be enough to warrant a third Scooby-Doo film? Must we find out?

Go see Crossroads if you want to hear Britney sing or see her wear next-to-nothing. But otherwise, avoid this train wreck at all costs.

Think you know where this film is going? You do, and the best thing about Must Love Dogs is that it takes only 88 minutes to get there - short enough to enjoy the film's modest, well-worn pleasures, but not so long that you feel your time could have been put to better use elsewhere.

The most exhilaratingly horrifying movie to come out in years.

The Banger Sisters stands as proof that no movie is so bad it can't be redeemed by a single stellar performance. That performance is by Susan Sarandon.

Eventually becomes cliched, predictable and crude. And that's a real sin.

Yes, the movie asks hard questions, but it would be better - or at least more honest - if it weren't so insistent that everyone arrive at the same answer.

There's a moving, complicated love story at the center of Angel Eyes. It's too bad a peripheral plot line draws attention away from it.

Other than portraying Mary as an overwhelmed teenager, mystified that God has chosen her to be the mother of his child, it doesn't offer anything that hasn't been playing out in grade-school pageants for decades.

The performances of Luna and, especially, Reilly, make the film more enthralling than it perhaps deserves to be.

The movie's already peaked, even before the opening credits.

All this might be forgivable if Just My Luck had a little more substance, but it never moves beyond the single joke of its premise.