Jami Bernard

There's a thin line between smart-stupid and just plain stupid, and Super Troopers walks it with ease.

While this is not exactly a hopeful movie, it's a polished exercise in the kind of social commentary that can wake people up.

Thanks to Grant's script and direction, the exotic Swaziland location (a film first) and an engaging cast, this smartly crafted drama radiates a gently comic pulse.

The segments are introduced with little clichés or homilies, like "Ignorance Is Bliss," but the fierce intelligence of the script reminds us that sometimes a cliché is the only way to express the ineffable.

Pretty thin feature-film subject. But the silliness is so contagious that it doesn't matter.

The suspense is as tingly as jalapenos on the tongue.

A stately and deeply affecting look at the human condition, told in something like a series of snapshots.

Tense, fiercely optimistic movie.

Although rife with comic possibilities, The Personals develops into a somber tale of personal identity.

Any which way you describe this uncompromising movie, it will never sound palatable. Still, it features one of the most spectacular physical transformations by an actress hungry for a meaty role. I haven't used the term "tour de force" in all of 2003, but now it is time.

Annaud is a filmmaker who often works with a bare minimum of dialogue. Yet his storytelling is so strong and emotional that words are barely necessary.

A standout feature of the movie is its representation of female friendship.

This challenging, inventive movie from Thailand is not for everyone.

For all its folksy jocularity, the movie inspires a sense of global patriotism. In the big picture, every little dish counts.

Shangri-La is in your own backyard.

A lyrical, subtle, chaste and nearly wordless romance.

A perversely enjoyable entry in that new genre, the biopic of the tawdry TV personality.

A smart, old-fashioned spy thriller in which the weapon of choice is brainpower.

What is unusual and exciting about the movie is the assemblage of raw talent in the cast.

Among the many skills required by a documentary maker is the ability to make reticent people blossom. Michael Almereyda has done that in This So-Called Disaster with several of the film industry's most notorious iconoclasts.

Holm is dazzling as the grubby little misfit, just a little brilliant and a little insane.

An enjoyable, gorgeously photographed aquatic adventure whose stars are blissfully bodacious.

The movie tells you right up front you're going to get what you came for: big stars, winking inside jokes and a spin on something so familiar it doesn't matter that you don't buy it for one minute. You're not meant to.

The mere fact that Shakespeare can teach hardened criminals to search their souls gives hope that forgiveness and redemption are possible.

Any woman who wears more than a size 12 -- and that would be the majority of adult females in the United States -- will get buckets of self-esteem from Real Women Have Curves.

Garcia's somber narration is a turnoff, but this plucky little diatribe gets you thinking about the larger implications facing future generations.

Here's one movie you'll want to see with an audience of squealing, excited, terrified kids, their arms extended greedily to grab, squish or ward off all things exoskeletal and beady-eyed. It's gross, but in the nicest way (meaning no roaches).

Kinetic, sexy and full of meaningful coincidences and intertwined fates.