Pete Vonder Haar

Firewall’s predictable second half betrays the film's early promise.

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

So who did kill the electric car? There are many suspects, and as it turns out, most of them are guilty.

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

Fails to satisfy.

The Longest Yard lives or dies with its physical humor, a form of recent comedy I like to call slapstick sadism.

On the whole, The Brothers Grimm is a mess; a formerly daring director’s attempt to cash in on big studio backing even after the rug has been pulled out from under him.

Works best when it sticks to some of the tenets of successful horror; namely, gore and surprise.

I thoroughly enjoyed the street level perspective of the world being destroyed, it just would've been nice if they hadn't crapped out at the end.

One of the drawbacks to rushing your sequel to theaters is that there's not a lot of time to hone dialogue and performances.

It's noisy, nonsensical, and will fade from your consciousness even before you make it out of the theater lobby, but it's entertaining enough, and Tamahori throws us a few curve balls to keep things interesting.

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.

Leatherheads is as trifling as Clooney’s second movie (“Good Night and Good Luck”) was significant, but that’s okay. It succeeds where so many other romantic comedies fail because of a superior script and because everyone involved has the good sense not to take themselves too seriously.

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

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

It has its share of eye-rolling moments, but at its heart there's a decent story.

Too often, the movie follows up Adams’ chaotic humor with weak slapstick and the incongruous love story.

If Cars is indicative of the kind of movie we can expect from Pixar post-Disney merger, well, there's always Miyazaki.

Should have billed itself as a fairy tale, as that’s the only possible way to swallow what Prince-Bythewood and Kidd are feeding us.

Breach is a look at the insecurities and flaws we all carry, it just happens to be embedded in the story of the worst traitor in FBI history.

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

Giamatti has his hands full trying to keep us from thinking about Burgess Meredith.

First-time director James Gartner has managed to whittle away whatever was compelling about the 1966 Miners championship run.

One of the best movies of the year, and a great accomplishment for Messrs. Harmon and Schrab. Maybe now we’ll get a feature length "Robot Bastard" movie.

Like all of his previous films, it's visually arresting - if any recent film embodies the concept of cinema as poetry, this it it - but unlike "Pi" or "Requiem for a Dream," these aren't characters we're ever invested in.

What's more refreshing about Severance is how the movie's humor offsets the violence, and even that is pretty restrained (at least by modern standards).

So remarkably free of laughs I might as well have been watching John Wayne Gacy’s home movies.

It’s a thoroughly intense and mostly entertaining movie.