Chris Kaltenbach

An enjoyably complex sci-fi suspense thriller.

A twisted little comic gem.

Has its heart in the right place, and could have been an insightful rumination on corporate shortsightedness and mid-life obsolescence. Instead, it's another one of those Hollywood films whose feel for the workingman's life seems to come exclusively from other movies.

What's surprising is that the film has genuine laughs and smart-aleck asides that will keep even nonfans happy (although it helps if you at least like the genre).

Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton are so good in Something's Gotta Give, it's a shame writer-director Nancy Meyers couldn't rein herself in a little more.

With Diary of the Dead, Romero goes back to the beginning, only this time the amateurish look is calculated and the resulting film far less effective - if only because a handful of filmmakers have beaten him to the punch.

Manages to pretty much ignore all the strengths of the earlier film while exacerbating all its faults.

In this day of overstuffed action flicks and dumbed-down "comedies," (Snow Day) is kinda refreshing.

Charming has devolved into almost a pejorative these days, but Tuck Everlasting is the sort of film that could change that.

It's deliciously warped, deceptively smart and undeniably funny. Isn't that enough?

Steadily, stealthily, The Eye works its way into your psyche, playing with your mind and always keeping a surprise or two up its sleeve.

A joyful celebration of spirit and endurance.

In the end, there's enough movie magic in The Prestige to keep you guessing, even after the film's over.

There's no character to root for in this movie, no potential triumphs or resounding failures, just the sense of people going through the motions because they can't bother to think of anything better to do. And that's not a lot to hang your moviegoing hat on.

There are moments, heaven forgive me, that left me chuckling. Not to mention eternally grateful that it's these guys doing this stuff, and not me.

Not everyone is going to appreciate the politics of Barbershop, but you've got to admire it for having a political view at all.

Elf tries so hard to be a holiday classic, to be a sweet-natured, charming little piece of holiday gloss, it's tempting to declare it so and simply go with it.

Sometimes sly and witty, sometimes dull and forced, Coffee and Cigarettes is Jim Jarmusch's testimony to the difficulties and delights of communication.

Great book, great cast, average film: Les Miserables is all pedigree, no passion.

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

The Cell is eye candy - but it could give your brain a bad case of indigestion.

With all its cloying, tone-deaf attempts at genuine emotional warmth, all it really deserves is to be avoided.

An insightful, clear-headed look at relations within a Chinese-American family.

About as clunky as a movie gets. It lurches from scene to scene with no sense of narrative grace, gives its roster of prominent actors nothing to work with and screeches to a halt with all the grace of a sprinter whose shoelaces have been tied together.

Yes, the characters in Clerks II hardly qualify as role models, but they can be blisteringly funny in an in-your-face, to-heck-with-taste way.

At times, Sex and Lucia is too precious for its own good; a movie that demands its own flow chart isn't always a good thing. And events turn on one coincidence too many. But Medem's exquisite craftsmanship and full-throttle eroticism make his film a morass worth the attempt to unravel.

This would be an excellent movie from a first-time filmmaker, but from one of America's premiere directors, it's a disappointment.

Gloriously retro, unashamedly celebratory of the joy of moviemaking and the love of old-fashioned heroism.