Jonathan Foreman

This otherwise undistinguished thriller about cloning is the most entertaining movie from the aging action star for some time.

Uneven, self-conscious but often hilarious spoof.

Formulaic but surprisingly charming.

Thanks to a superb performance by Isabelle Huppert, it's compulsively, gruesomely watchable.

Too often seems like a slightly silly film.

Sometimes hilarious but mostly sitcom-esque geezer comedy.

Works unexpectedly well for its first three quarters.

It's only because the performances are so vividly entertaining -- Mandvi and Puri are particularly good -- and the painstakingly reconstructed locations so lovely that the saggier sequences are tolerable.

One of the most thrilling - and authentic - mountain-climbing films in recent memory. Unfortunately, it's also burdened by one of those every-line-a-wretched-cliché Hollywood screenplays.

Francois Ozon, perhaps France's hottest director of the moment, is often better creating stylish visuals than dramatically credible situations, but Criminal Lovers is never boring.

This film is fighting the good fight, albeit in a rather heavy-handed way.

Unfortunately, the mind and motivation of Otomo -- remain a mystery.

Transcends ironic grunge-glamour and achieves a beguiling combination of dark comedy and genuine sweetness.

Surprisingly enjoyable, as adaptations of cult comic books go, thanks to a sense of humor all too rare in the genre, winning performances by Ron Perlman and Selma Blair, and a sweet romance of the kind that made "Spider-Man" a richer experience than its competitors.

Quickly morphs into a messy double message movie with motifs and clichés lifted from military courtroom films like "A Soldier's Story" and "A Few Good Men."

Perhaps no movie could do Muhammad Ali justice. But this overlong but sketchy biopic by Michael Mann, in which style repeatedly tramples substance, actually does the great man a disservice.

For all its virtues, this is not a film to see on less than a good night's sleep.

Despite its visual brilliance, its all-round cleverness, and the way it demonstrates a profound understanding of genre, the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There doesn't quite come off.

As mechanical and predictable as a cuckoo clock, it shouldn't work half as well as it does.

Often charming and sweet, and always prettily photographed.

Turns out to be a choppily written, unevenly acted exercise, no less shlocky and predictable than any of Hollywood's average second-string heterosexual comedies.

With uncommon ineptitude even by the standards of contemporary action flicks, Kyle's script submerges the inherently dramatic tale of the K-19 under a pile of clichés, while failing to tell you enough about the characters for their actions to make much sense.

Laughably predictable in its plotting, crude in its symbolism, ploddingly paced and often rendered almost comical by the heavy-breathing overacting of Johansson's supporting cast.

A lean, deftly shot, well-acted, weirdly retro thriller that recalls a raft of '60s and '70s European-set spy pictures. There are even moments when you hope it could turn into a modern "Charade."

Despite inadequate editing and overreliance on bad background music, The Girl Next Door doesn't disappoint.

Visually unimpressive and laden with awkward dialogue; its primary interest doesn't lie in its storytelling but in its sociology -- in the window it opens onto a Muslim Middle Eastern society in transition.

Perfectly enjoyable swashbuckling, eye-catching entertainment.

The sheer loathesomeness of protagonist Stephen Glass as portrayed by Hayden Christensen makes Shattered Glass hard to watch.

A perfectly enjoyable sci-fi thriller.

It's hardly a dramatic story. You learn absolutely nothing about her personal life. But there is plenty of drama in that amazing, soulful voice and the songs she sang.

Undeniably powerful, grimly fascinating.

Almost everything about Ice Age proves to be disappointingly generic.

Prime date fare, but cotton-candy light and occasionally just a little too whimsical.

Unfortunately, you are often distractingly aware that you are watching re-enactments of real events.

So daring and unsparing in its depiction of the psyche and experience of adolescent girls that it's hard to imagine an audience that wouldn't find it deeply provocative despite a slow pace.

Entertaining as he is, there are many times when you wish you'd been given a few more facts and numbers so you could understand what the young CEO and his colleagues were celebrating or bemoaning.

Almost too creepy to be poignant, and generally funny only in an uncomfortable, squirm-in-your seat way.

Boisterously amusing.

Kevin Smith's attempt to combine sketchy low comedy with long-winded theological speculation results in a mostly unfunny and occasionally tedious mess.

Even if this film may irritate some people who remember "the movement" differently, it's nevertheless a fascinating and often moving document of recent history.

Egoyan treats the Armenian genocide and its aftermath as a metaphor for cruelty and denial -- an exercise in either pretension or timidity that exploits this tragedy.

Contains too many weak performances and predictable lines to succeed, but it's probably the best rave movie so far.

Though shamelessly derivative and amoral, The Girl Next Door is nevertheless funnier and smarter than most of the pathetic dreck aimed at the nation's teens.

Long stretches of Mike Figgis' film are jaw-droppingly pretentious or painfully dull... Nevertheless, there are clever, funny, erotic and visually beautiful moments scattered throughout the film.

Boasts several fine performances and some elegant, eerie black-and- white photography.

Visually stunning.

The very effectiveness of After the Life's depiction of its main characters makes its immediate predecessor seem that much more of a waste.

Very, very funny, albeit inferior in a number of ways to the original.

Like "Beneath the Veil," it gives a human face to those who have suffered from the Taliban's tremendous cruelty, and those who have been maimed in the war to end their rule.

Though not as witty or accomplished as you'd expect from its pedigree, "Le Divorce" provides welcome relief from the lame-brained trash Hollywood has foisted on the public this summer.

Fluffy, inconsistent, but enjoyable.

While Star Trek: Nemesis isn't nearly as good as the best Nicholas Meyer-written movies like "The Undiscovered Country," it is far from the worst, thanks to the topical issues it raises, the performances of Stewart and Hardy, and that essential feature -- a decent full-on space battle.

A lame, glossy and disastrously misconceived film about three ditsy sisters dealing with the death of their horrible father.

Unashamedly vulgar and exuberantly politically incorrect.

A cute, often very funny romantic comedy and an effective vehicle for Matthew Perry.

By far the best and cutest thing about How the Grinch Stole Christmas is the dog Max.

It too often looks and feels like a high-concept home movie, thanks to cinematography that's crude and ugly even by the standards of documentary video. But Group is also a remarkably believable piece of improvised theater.

Has its heart in the right place -- and in a season filled with somber or goopy Oscar contenders, it makes a perfectly decent date movie.

Moves at a leisurely pace, and it cries out for a narrator or even just an organizing principle.

Branagh's attempt to meld Shakespeare's densely verbal early comedy with Broadway show tunes fails, thanks to stunt casting, poor singing and dancing, and the incompatibility of the two art forms.

There's some lumpy writing and uneasy acting, but it's easy to see why this charming, inventive film won prizes at festivals in Berlin, San Francisco and Newport, R.I.

Has moments that are eerily beautiful and genuinely moving -- and some that are surprisingly vulgar.

Much has, and will, be made of the grisly scenes throughout the film.

Much of the resulting material is very funny, though there are a few times when the filmmakers patronize or mock their subjects in a way that makes you uncomfortable.

Peter Farrelly is angry at Miramax for marketing his and his brother Bobby's new film as a follow-up to their surprise smash hit, "There's Something About Mary."

Exciting stuff in its primitive, predictable way.

Adequately funny but predictable sitcom

The filmmakers' smug Bay Area bigotry is all too obvious in gratuitous, mocking swipes at Heidi's Southern background.

A relentlessly grim, rather heavy-handed drama of family dysfunction.

Doesn't live up to the promise of its trailers.