Derek Elley

Overlong and very Euro-flavored.

Doesn't ring true as a love story between a cocky scam artist and a clever biology student, despite a game effort by Charlotte Ayanna in an impossible role and Adrien Brody at his loosest.

Japanese helmer Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ongoing interest in love, loss and souls in limbo is stretched way too thin in Air Doll, a beautifully lensed (by Taiwanese ace Mark Lee) and charmingly played (by South Korean icon Bae Du-na) modern fairy tale about an inflatable doll who takes on a life of her own. Recut to a trim 90 minutes, this fragile yarn would work perfectly and have a chance of an afterlife as a specialty item. In its present form, pic may not get much farther than the fest netherworld.

More often a noirish action drama, a melancholy meditation on history and nationalism, than the high-tech thriller promised by its hype and artwork.

A thinly scripted mood piece centered on an estranged fortysomething among vacationing friends in Italy, Unrelated doesn’t carry the viewer along with its protag’s emotional problems.

Four years after Frantic, Roman Polanski approaches rock bottom with Bitter Moon, a phony slice of huis clos drama between two couples aboard a Euro ocean liner. Strong playing by topliner Peter Coyote can't compensate for a script that's all over the map and a tone that veers from outre comedy to erotic game-playing.

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.

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.

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.

Overplays its slim hand by a good two reels.

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

OK entertainment but nothing more.

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

It's a silly but enjoyable farrago from the cult quickie-meister, again set in an amoral universe-on-a-budget.

A drama of impeccable intentions flawed by arch dialogue and only OK direction.

Though unrecognizable, Amitabh Bachchan is the star of -- and the only reason to go see -- Paa.

A shake 'n' bake Brit teen-spy actioner, without a smidgeon of originality, humor or involving characterization, Stormbreaker is a high-profile bust.

A mildly entertaining but dramatically messy kidpic.

Mixes a rites-of-passage story with political and sexual elements to solid but finally uninvolving results.

Shows a consistent inability to generate any kind of drama when characters open their mouths.

A movie that keeps jumping the gate and finally unravels all over the floor.

Simply fuzzy filmmaking of the worst sort.

Starts intriguingly but ends up thrashing around as a toothless wonder.

A monumental piece of miscasting in the title role, and an apparently tin ear for the nuances of English dialogue by Gallic helmer Francois Ozon.

As shocking and deliberately manipulative as the original movie and -- some may reckon -- even more pointless.

Chained to the floor by a script that isn't particularly funny, direction that goes for realism rather than stylization and an almost complete lack of comic timing.

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

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