Kim Morgan

If you've recently watched that great skateboarding documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys," Grind will play like a soft-pedaled Afterschool Special.

Every once in a while a picture comes along that captures not just love, but romance in all its fear, yearning, fantasy, eroticism and unexpected epiphanies. German filmmaker Tom Tykwer's The Princess and the Warrior is one such film.

It easily is the most beautiful picture released in America so far this year, perhaps one of the most beautiful films ever made.

Marshall does such a good job re-creating the otherworldly energy of a temple of youth that the rest of the picture feels strained and sometimes trite. Nevertheless, parts can be absorbing, reflective and touching.

So often out of control that it becomes absurd and exasperating.

A slow burn. A portrait of the mundane humor and horror of everyday life, it scalds nerves you may have never thought existed. And yet the film is funny, almost hilariously at times.

Quite simply, the "Tomb Raider" series has been flat-out boring, even with the talented and fun Jolie -- who needs to take off those harnesses and get back to real movies. She deserves better.

The clothes are worth it; nothing else is.

An annoying, unclever, unlikable movie.

Aronson's intriguing, complicated and well-filmed documentary will keep you talking for days.

Accuracy and realism are terrific, but if your film becomes boring, and your dialogue isn't smart, then you need to use more poetic license.

A slight, smartly dressed bit of melodrama that thinks it's gritty when it's really a bit of puff.

Though no classic, the concept is a clever one.

Hollow, frequently boring picture.

Funny, dumb, cruel and sick, Girls Will Be Girls is a relentlessly mean picture that will tickle those tired of sweet comedies whether in drag or plainclothes. In short, "Tootsie" it ain't.

A spare, internally emotional movie like One requires something called screen presence. Its two leads have it.

Not just love, but maybe an escape from a wretched world. We're not sure, but that's what makes Heaven so inexplicably, intriguingly soulful, even in its most remote and architectural instances.

Somewhere along the way, Stephen Herek's Rock Star decided to become a dippy, cliche-ridden drama and, worse, an odd indictment of metal music. Joy.

Corky Romano is merely grating. Until he finds a better director than Rob Pritts, Kattan's best bet is to stick with "SNL" impresario Lorne Michaels.

With its eye-popping color, bold personality and snazzy tunes, Chicago is a breathtaking experience.

She (Cho) can tell a joke, mimic, offer commentary, play cute, play ugly and be so hilariously absurd that tears will run down your cheeks.

Not that Chan isn't lovable; he is. But he's making it harder to feel warm and fuzzy about him with films like The Medallion. It's OK to age, but Chan needs to broaden his horizons. He is a trained singer. Where's that musical he's always dreamed of making?

A grating experience from start to finish.

Sometimes complicated, sometimes incredibly simple, the film explicates or fawns over the human condition with occasional charm and poignancy but too often it's just cloying.

All guts, no glory and, worse, bad story.

With understated skill and absolute authenticity, the film builds with enough layers that by its powerful ending, you'll feel as if you have been kicked in the stomach.

Surprisingly bland even within its dubious genre of "chick flick."

Plot, comedy and characterization? It's absolutely anemic.