Kirk Honeycutt

Earns an A for effort but a much lower grade in the entertainment department.

The film is messy the way Piaf's life was messy: It's unafraid of extravagant gestures even when they fail to come off.

The best science fiction tells stories about people in extraordinary environments or situations that serve to open up the vast, still largely unexplored terrain of the human heart. Mike Cahill's Another Earth is science fiction at its best.

A complete wipeout.

The film's dramatic moments are small but exquisitely rendered so that you feel the emotions experienced so many years ago. The film lingers afterward in your mind like a favorite vacation that triggered moments of sheer intensity.

While the film is made in English by a mostly Greek crew, Buzz"seems geared to foreign audiences. The film's "historians" spend too much time explaining things about Hollywood that are common knowledge to many Americans.

Smith, sporting a newly buffed physique, delivers an extraordinary performance as a man slowly coming unglued under the strain of no human contact and a constantly alternating role of hunter and prey.

A disappointing and manipulative look at one family's loss in the Iraq war.

Lemming does possess a mordant humor as it watches characters spin out of control. But the payoff is slight.

The film, while slavishly faithful, contains little innovative juice outside of its visual richness.

Has a demented sense of humor, and the cleverness of its taut narrative structure and misanthropic characterizations constantly surprises a viewer. The movie does what you wish more first-time features would do: tell a story economically with first-rate actors and no hint of self-consciousness.

A slim idea for a pulp-fiction short story padded out to 81 minutes with random encounters and celebrity sightings.

Determined to be faithful to the strong, often shocking language and in-your-face drama in Marber's mannered writing, Nichols and his actors find no way to lift Closer into a realm that enlightens.

As a thriller, The Debt performs many if not all the right moves. Where the John Madden-directed film gets into trouble is in wanting to deal with the Holocaust without being entirely a period film.

Not a bad film and veteran star Daniel Auteuil makes any film he inhabits an interesting place to visit. Perversely, its tissue-thin substance may even make the comedy more commercial in North America than such films of his as "Monsieur Hire" and "Ridicule."

An earnest drama about the search for self-esteem and sense of responsibility among young black people that successfully relies on its fine actors.

The guy really goes all out in these performances.

A delightful though wafer-thin starring vehicle for one of our finest actresses, Annette Bening.

It's undeniably fascinating, but you might want to take a shower after hanging out with this unsavory bunch.

By the movie's end, writer-director Karen Moncrieff's The Dead Girl delivers considerable emotional impact. But that doesn't mean you've enjoyed the journey.

The vigor and pace is electric, and the movie features three showy performances by Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning and Michael Shannon.

Director Steven Spielberg seems intent on celebrating his entire early career here. Whatever the story there is, a vague journey to return a spectacular archeological find to its rightful home -- an unusual goal of the old grave-robber, you must admit -- gets swamped in a sea of stunts and CGI that are relentless as the scenes and character relationships are charmless.

Salt moves ever forward -- pushing, pushing, pushing its heroine to greater feats every minute. It doesn't stop for martinis, either shaken or stirred, or any other detours. The movie is lean and muscular, looking for action even in situations where a little sleight of hand might have done the trick.

The film just doesn't mine enough humor or drama from this situation. Meanwhile most of the developments are wholly predictable.

The Matador gets a 151-proof tequila shot of sharp comedy from the droll byplay between Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear.

Things are too predictable. Perhaps the viewpoint is to blame.

Provides Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche with comic roles that fit them like designer threads.

In watching this film, it's best not to worry much about the film's fidelity to history but rather simply lean back and enjoy one great jam session on film.