Claudia Puig

With its unflinching style, Training Day can be hard to sit through at times. But it's worth the discomfort for the adrenaline rush of the plot and Washington's compelling performance.

A hard-core war film with raw violence, intense action, graphic sexuality and a twisting plot that offers a series of surprises.

It's a meandering film that prompts the viewer to anticipate characters' actions. Fortunately, they don't take predictable paths.

The film is involving, nimbly acted and smartly directed, though conventional in its narrative style.

It's made expressly for fans of unmitigated gore.

The musical numbers, with Brown's remixed vocals and Boseman re-creating his signature dance moves, are mesmerizing.

Prisoners is infused with a poetic intensity that's rare in American thrillers. The closest cinematic comparisons would be "Zodiac," "In the Bedroom" and "Mystic River."

An engaging tragicomedy, exploring the consequences of single-minded fervor in a humorous and humane fashion.

Displays so much promise with its beautiful cinematography and superb portrayal by Cate Blanchett that you scarcely notice (or even care) that the story is a bit thin.

Irresistibly endearing, with a visual verve all its own.

The visionary filmmaker's psychological thriller weaves a too-complicated tapestry.

It may be the most disturbing film you'll see in a long time.

There are ribald jokes and gross-out episodes, but the movie works because everything hinges on the camaraderie and undeniable chemistry between Rudd and Segel.

Lovely visuals are key for the success of any animated film, arguably more so even than for live-action movies. But a compelling story is also essential, and that’s where “Long Way North” trips up.

As exhilarating, captivating and enjoyable as a summer romance in an exotic city.

A welcome adult alternative to summer's sophomoric blockbusters. The only transforming going on here is actors skillfully taking on roles of '30s-era gangsters and lawmen.

Though the story teeters on easy sentimentality, it doesn't succumb. Though unabashedly emotional, it isn't maudlin. Tsotsi's story feels believable. It is made all the more engaging by a wonderful soundtrack of African Kwaito music.

The novella’s tale of the power of love is essentially a graceful story within that larger, clunkier contemporary story, beautifully rendered in stop motion. It’s enchanting, painterly and timeless, befitting the iconic French classic, with a style that feels both fresh and appropriately reverential.

Worth seeing just for the superb prosthetic makeup and seamless computer-generated effects in which Pitt's head is digitally imposed onto older bodies.

There are some effectively suspenseful moments in the movie, particularly during the gambling sequences, but one longs for more context and probing into the psyche of an ordinary man with an extraordinary compulsion.

An often breathlessly exciting action thriller told with humor and intelligence.

It all adds up to belly laughs aplenty and a rollicking good time.

The concept is unoriginal, the scenarios aren't funny, and its message is banal. Plus, Murphy alternately hams it up and phones it in.

Joyeux Noël is gritty and disturbing with its extended scenes of war and destruction. It also is emotional, even a touch sentimental.

Well-acted and intriguing exploration of dishonesty in its varied forms, leavened with a dry comic touch.

As coldly calculating and infuriating as it can be, the film and its production design are stunning. But characters' actions and motivations are beyond comprehension.

The Curse of the Golden Flower is the year's most operatic and visually lavish film.

The look of the film is dazzling, even hallucinatory, and the concept is beyond quirky as conceived by Gondry, a talented visual stylist, in his first film based on his own script. The story is compelling, unconventional and diverting in its blurring of reality and fantasy.