Derek Elley

Script is sometimes confusingly structured, and in its second half doesn't move as smoothly from scene to scene as in Kim's best pics.

An overlong stygian comedy that badly needs a transfusion of genuine inspiration.

Sverak's sheer technical finesse, and ability to spin on a dime between comedy and tragedy, the personal and the historical, makes Dark Blue World succeed where other similarly themed movies, from "Battle of Britain" to "The Blue Max," seem heavy-handed by comparison.

A smoothly made period romancer that's elevated by strong playing from its whole cast, led by John Turturro and Emily Watson as the starstruck lovers.

Pleasant rather than rollicking entertainment.

Solidly entertaining for those who like their dialogue crisp and with a main verb in every sentence.

Visceral and sweat-drenched, but also attaining a genuinely epic stature in its final reels.

An often remarkable, often infuriating lateral spin on genre material that desperately needs another sesh at the editing table.

Mixed Indian and Western cast --turn the true story of a case that changed British law into an old-style melodrama (in the best sense) complete with a feel-good ending.

Stripped of "Royale's" humor, elegance and reinvented old-school stylishness, Quantum has little left except its plot, which is rudimentary and slightly barmy, in the line of the Roger Moore pics of the '70s and '80s.

Contains some brilliant invention between duller stretches.

Though Ritchie’s screenplay scores a 10 for sheer complexity and cleverness, it rates much lower down the scale for comprehensibility and audience involvement.

An often grippingly staged mountain movie that's good but not great.

Some fine screen chemistry between its leads and a spikey, offhandedly comic script by young writer-director John McKay put spice into Crush.

An out-and-out charmer. It's almost impossible to do justice in words either to the visual richness of the movie, which melanges traditional Japanese clothes and architecture with both Victorian and modern-day artifacts, or to the character-filled storyline, with human figures, harpies and grotesque creatures.

Feature debut by Yank duo Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe isn't so far from their engrossing docus on Terry Gilliam's filmic adventures, "The Hamster Factor" (1996) and "Lost in La Mancha" (2001), except here the madness and exploitation is part of the music scene.

Plays as a blackly comic slice of mock '70s-style exploitation that flirts with the viewer before applying its chokehold.

This well-played, often very sparky dramedy about the shenanigans in a northern brass band composed of miners threatened with pit closure gets a bad attack of social realism in the latter stages that rocks the crowded craft.

An intellectual-cum-sexual teaser whose twist is apparent far too early on.

Very Korean in its emotional content, while also preserving a quizzical distance that is quite French, picture is one of his lightest and most easily digestible metaphysical meals to date.

A London drag queen and a bunch of Midlands working stiffs find common ground and, uh, mutual respect in Kinky Boots, a slick, cross-tracks Britcom whose stride is hampered by its desire not to offend.

Leigh’s gallery of haves and have-nots, of emotional anorexics and exploited deadbeats, carries a strong political charge that’s there for the taking. But the pic also plays simply as a black, offbeat comedy with a romantic undertow.

A stunning feature -- another hypnotic meditation on popular demagogy and mental manipulation.

For all its digressions and occasional flat moments, Iwai's movie is a remarkable, acutely involving one, working on an emotional level that can only really be expressed through music -- a strong component in all of Iwai's pics.

An intriguing spin on the British crime genre that's more a series of strong performances than a fully worked-out character drama.

Often nastily violent, and defiantly foul-mouthed in a realistic but dramatically unnecessary way, this portrait of a ruthless young hood in '60s London has several fine qualities but dilutes them with disorganized direction.

Triad oozes a confidence that carries the viewer almost without pause to its shocking climax and ironic close.

Devoid of genuine inspiration or involving character development.

Game ride that makes the two previous installments look like models of classic filmmaking.

At heart, Best Men is a modest picture that harks back in many ways to U.S. movies of the late ’60s and early ’70s in its unconventional attitudes and anti-establishment tone. Pacing never lingers, and, unlike in Guncrazy, there’s no narrative fat; at the same time, there isn’t much emotional residue either. In short, it’s simply a quality B movie.

A slick, entertaining, if never very original, study of family and roots.

Though the movie sounds irredeemably depressing on paper, there’s a real warmth to the central relationship that lifts “Ladybird” above similar-sounding exercises in Brit self-loathing.

Slickly packaged, unashamedly exploitative popcorn movie.

Picture generally stays afloat on the strength of its characters but sometimes threatens to sink under its overlong running time and vignettish structure.

An often genuinely funny mockumentary.

A fairly conventional heartwarmer, lifted by likable performances, good-looking production values and (for movie buffs) a story centered on an outdoor cinema in rural China.

Pic's potentially inspiring story too often remains grounded by a problematic script and unshapely direction.

East meets West meets East again, with palate-tingling results, in The Good the Bad the Weird, a kimchi Western that draws shamelessly on its spaghetti forebears but remains utterly, bracingly Korean.

A curate's egg of a movie that starts intriguingly but becomes increasingly frustrating.

Stays resolutely grounded thanks to miscasting of Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno as the leads and a script that contrarily breaks every rule of the genre.

The movie essentially mirrors the non-diva, down-to-earth personalities on which their act is based, and which include a sizable amount of self-parody.

Beautiful but lifeless, poetic but unelevated, The Mistress of Spices reps a brave but flawed attempt at that most unforgiving of contemporary genres, magical realism.

The temptation of artists to fiddle with their earlier works brings predictably mixed results in Ashes of Time: Redux.

15 is Asian Kid Rebels 101. So predictable it could almost be a parody of the genre -- though that would require a sense of humor above and beyond the self-reflexive comedy on display here.

Makes engrossing viewing for much of the way...but stumbles dramatically in its final leg.

A slickly mounted slice of can-do nonsense.

It's a very small pic but engagingly played by a fine cast.

Kaneshiro is all long flowing locks and smoldering disdain, the visual F/X are only so-so, and pacing is almost brisk enough to hide the plot holes.

Political realities are a powerful bonus to, rather than the only reason for, Private, an emotionally gripping drama.

The tangled tale of love and disguise is awesome in its action sequences but doesn't touch the heart to the same degree.

Easy on the eye but light on originality.

Deadly dull in stretches, and just plain embarrassing in others.

Marvelously involving family saga.

Works as both an adaptation and a movie in its own right

Highly enjoyable when all its gears are clicking, but rarely as good as it should be.

A risky idea only occasionally gets both wheels off the ground in "The Theory of Flight," a sometimes wryly amusing, oftimes dramatically awkward story

Well-groomed, upscale, three-hankie entertainment for the “Masterpiece Theater” crowd.

The film spins a beguiling web of detail that builds to a surprisingly throat-clutching finish.

First hour is an often gripping look at the realities of modern Islam ("You can do anything you want, as long as it's not in public," says a soldier's wife), before silliness takes over.

Highly engaging, beautifully played romancer.

A seductively lensed but emotionally uninvolving drama about two male Peking Opera stars and the ex-prostie who comes between them, Chen Kaige's fourth feature, Farewell to My Concubine, reps a stylistic U-turn compared with his earlier abstract parables like Life on a String and Yellow Earth.

Some general viewers may feel let down by the relatively scant action.

Solidly crafted, strongly cast pic doesn't hit a thoroughgoing comic tone.

Both the pic's power and its problems stem from Love deliberately taking no moral position nor offering any solutions; he gives his audience what it wants at a gut level and doesn't wimp out at the end.

The most emotionally satisfying pic to date by Korean iconoclast Kim Ki-duk.

Though McDonald and Gleeson pair off well as the unlikely fellow travelers, and have some funny moments of physical shtick, the picture mostly springs to life when either Caffrey, as Grogan, or the excellent Doyle, as French, are onscreen.

Several large leaps of faith take some of the dramatic steam out of Unveiled, an otherwise well-acted and accessible lesbian drama that also flirts with issues like loss of identity and anti-Muslim tensions.

A terrific performance by young actress Patricia Kovacs makes the high-stakes gamble of Down by Love -- a light psychodrama almost entirely centered on one character in an apartment -- into an engrossing 90-odd minutes.

Overplays its slim hand by a good two reels.

An entertaining chick pic for all ages and sexes.

The film offers a frequently obscure but (for fans) always watchable look at history, memory and -- in the most rarefied sense -- love.

A cracking slice of old-fashioned, widescreen entertainment.

A funny, touching, off-the-wall relationer that's one of the freshest helming debuts in world cinema this year.

Scores high on the tech front but considerably lower on script smarts.

A wannabe romantic comedy with miscast leads and a script in desperate need of a good editor.

Poetic, bawdy, contemplative, often side-wrenchingly funny and finally quite touching, this tale about a nerdy garbage man whose life is changed by an egocentric hobo philosopher is flawed only by its length.

Too much caution and too little lust squeeze much of the dramatic juice out of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, a 2½--hour period drama that's a long haul for relatively few returns.

Charmingly eccentric light comedy.

Gotham-based documaker Laura Poitras ("Flag Wars") comes up with a still-timely, quietly hard-hitting look at the Iraqi situation with My Country, My Country, focusing on the lead-up to and outcome of the Jan. 30, 2005, Iraq election.

As a series of action set pieces, the movie is frequently gripping and always highly watchable. However, when the movie strays into weirder territory --- where, one feels, Jeunet's heart really lies --- there's a growing feeling of inadequacy.

A true original…Beautifully shot, full of droll humor and at 77 minutes never overstaying its welcome.

Contains interesting ideas, but often those ideas are not fully realized.

A charming relationships comedy about food, gourmet cooking and emotionally chilling out. Anchored by a career-best performance from German thesp Martina Gedeck.

Rarely has a book sprung so vividly to life, but also worked so enthrallingly in pure movie terms, as with Atonement, Brit helmer Joe Wright’s smart, dazzlingly upholstered adaptation of Ian McEwan’s celebrated 2001 novel.

A warm, often invigorating and ultimately moving ode to community values.

Rani Mukerji provides the star power, but up-and-coming actress Konkona Sen Sharma is the revelation in Laaga chunari mein daag, a glossy throwback to '90s Bollywood that proves a treat, if you check most of your brains at the door.

Despite some magnificent widescreen lensing, faultless ethnographic detail and a timely sympathy for the plight of the Tibetan people, director Jean-Jacques Annaud's true-life tale about a self-obsessed Austrian mountaineer who learns selflessness in the Himalayas too rarely delivers at a simple emotional level.

After several years of transition, Jackie Chan finally gets the mix right in The Accidental Spy, an entertaining meld of far-flung locales and criminal shenanigans that sees the 47-year-old action star comfortably combining the twin demands of action and maturity.

Combines scares and chuckles with good production values.

OK entertainment but nothing more.

Taken as a film about muddling along, "Woman" never bores the viewer with indecisive filmmaking. Basically, it's an elegant jeu, played and constructed with an almost Gallic lightness heightened by Jeong Yong-jin's bursts of music, all bouncy piano and pizzicato.

As in many of Laverty's scripts, problems of overall tone and character development aren't solved by Loach's easygoing direction, though when it works, "Eric" has many incidental pleasures.

Pic's busy direction and bright performances partly compensate for a script that goes in too many directions at the same time.

A small picture with a big heart.

A martial arts fantasy in modern dress, but set in an unidentified country and era, The Princess Blade is a tough toasted sandwich with a soft filling.

Despite its sudsy storyline, this second tour through the punk-infested Rio slums could attract more mature arthouse auds, drawn by character rather than the minutiae of guns 'n' drugs, though it's unlikely to match "God's" muscular $7.5 million U.S. take.

A check-your-brains-at-the-door, almost non-stop actioner that finally wins the viewer over with its sheer single-mindedness.

Strength of Davies’ vision is the crux, and it holds the line to the final, confident fadeout.