Derek Elley

Attempts to meld reality and artifice but to uninspiring results.

Ultimately, this is a striking-looking film -- consciously recalling the paintings of Edward Hopper in its architectural use of space -- which, like its protag, is a little short on real feeling.

Second time round, Bridget is still fat, funny and endearing -- but "all a bit, um, familiar, actually."

A sexy, good-looking political bodice-ripper with an almost flawless cast at the top of its game.

Tendency to go for art rather than action, and a leisurely pace that isn't bolstered by much dialogue or food for thought.

A slowly inspiring saga of blood, sweat and horse dung, played with conviction.

Like a passable bottle of champagne, Cheri fizzes and slides down quite easily but lacks real body and doesn't really hit the spot.

A long-limbed story that is utterly simple in structure, but decorated with enough character interplay and side plots to keep the movie ticking over to a powerful finale.

This is upscale French entertainment at its best.

Admirably balanced production that pulls the curtain back slightly on a little-charted period of modern Chinese history.

With very little dialogue, and even less plot, five chapter stops lend the movie a skeletal structure: "Wrath," "Silent Warrior," "Men of God," "The Holy Land" and "Hell." But any discussion of the Dark Ages conflict between paganism and Christianity is reduced to just grunts or insults.

A largely dull history lesson…stripped of any backgrounding, peopled with archetypes rather than fully-drawn characters, and features self-consciously arty direction that gets in the way of story-telling.

Balances character, grit, spectacle and visceral action in a meaty, dramatically satisfying pie that delivers on the hype and will surprise many who felt the Hong Kong helmer progressively lost his mojo during his long years stateside.

Always imaginative, often arresting, but sometimes just too clever by half.

Has all the classic faults of a picture not only directed by an actor but by an actor who is his own producer.

Though the film is never dull, and playing by the cast is spirited, it's actually a surprisingly gentle movie, with no big "Full Monty"-like finale to send auds buzzing into the street.

A dazzlingly lensed, highly stylized meditation on heroism.

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

A polished genre piece with superior fright elements.

Despite the emotive subject matter, picture is often too sluggish dramatically, and never knits together its stock Western characters into a satisfying whole.

Chekhov has never seemed such a long haul as in this awkward adaptation of The Cherry Orchard by veteran director Michael Cacoyannis, 77, who's assembled a good roster of names but ones that are not necessarily right for their roles.

Using the familiar device of cuisine as a metaphor for national identity and personal feelings, bitter-sweet pic about a man torn between his ethnicity (Greek) and the country of his birth (Turkey) makes its points lightly and entertainingly, with only a routine third act letting down the package.

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

A rarefied love story, conducted with no dialogue between the principals.

A crackerjack serial-killer chiller in "Seven" mold, Tell Me Something cleverly disguises its thoroughly generic content and leaps of logic with highly honed technique and an involving approach to narrative.

A haunted-house one-trick pony.

Maintains a bankable charm and innocence even when overdrawn on the special effects side.

Gay's the way, but the way's not really gay, in the fluffy and largely entertaining Dostana.