Pete Vonder Haar

A thoroughly enjoyable film, and ranks with Pixar's best.

You’re unlikely to come across a more powerful film this year.

Borat isn't just one of the funniest movies of the year, it might be one of the funniest movies of all time.

A visual triumph, and also a work of surprising warmth. No small accomplishment for a bunch of cadavers.

An arresting and disturbing piece of work that gets its message across without coming off as overly preachy.

The results are by turns fascinating, horrifying, and maddening.

Maybe if PETA tried being funny instead of comparing eating meat to the Holocaust, they’d have a bigger following.

A perfectly serviceable action movie…better than most, in fact. The entire premise is growing creaky, however, leading us to think we might want to leave this particular spy out in the cold a while, before he becomes completely tiresome.

This isn't to say The Departed is a bad movie, far from it, but knowing who's directing it and the amount of talent he had to work with, it's hard not to be disappointed that Scorsese didn't knock us on our asses. Is it his best movie since "Goodfellas?" Sure, but it falls shy of that film's excellence.

The Dark Knight may not be a masterpiece, but it easily vaults to the top of any list of "best superhero movies."

A wholly entertaining film, both as a musical experience and in seeing a fairly relaxed Dave Chappelle doing some of what he does best.

Far and away the best of the Star Wars prequels (tough chore, that) and also holds its own with the hallowed films of the original trilogy.

It’s not just one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen, it’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Period.

A genuinely engrossing film.

I know a lot of people with no knowledge of Sondheim’s musical (much less Bond’s play) are going to buy tickets for a cute holiday movie starring that handsome Johnny Depp and end up experiencing something else entirely. Bon appétit.

Baumbach crams an impressive amount of characterization and humor into 82 minutes.

Star Trek is pretty damn enjoyable. By resetting the franchise to what is essentially Year One, Abrams has the luxury of...gently reshaping the core characters.

While Howl’s Moving Castle is far from perfect, it’s still a very good movie. It’s just not a great one.

Quite possibly Clooney’s best effort to date.

The film's quick pace and near-constant action carries you along quite nicely, and by the time Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) makes his climactic appearance, one can't help but look forward to the remaining films.

Hairspray isn’t all that bad, frankly. The songs are catchy, most of the leads are engaging enough (Blonksy and Bynes especially), and there’s just enough low-key subversiveness to keep everything from getting too saccharine.

Here is a movie that celebrates the heyday of adventure cinema even as it embraces technology's bleeding edge. And I'm willing to forgive a lot when giant gorillas and tyrannosaurs are involved. Must be the art snob in me.

Casino Royale is quite possibly the best action movie of the year.

It’s funny, it’s smart, and it pokes fun at exactly the things it should (organized religion, big business, and audience itself).

It's the journey that offers the most enjoyment. Well, that and the beauty pageant climax, which I won't spoil here, but is one of the funniest scenes from film in recent memory.

Smartly edited, utterly engrossing, and as intelligent an examination of American race relations as I've seen.

As comic book movies go, Iron Man is a solid entry. Downey and company help drag Favreau out of the genre holes he digs, making for a decent experience.

A low-key, warm-without-being-schmaltzy childhood adventure story that will engage younger viewers without driving their parents too crazy.