Pete Vonder Haar

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

Comedy, like most everything else, is subjective, and this may be the greatest example out there of "getting it" or not. If you thought the first movie, the original TV show, the Three Stooges, or "Football in the Groin," was funny, chances are “ackass: Number Two is right up your alley.

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

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

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.

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.

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

This is a superior horror film. It hits hard and fast, letting up only to inject some black humor and amp up the tension again before coming back for more. Feast is nasty, brutish, and short, just like Hobbes said all horror flicks should be.

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.

The July 4th release is fitting, for Thompson was a true patriot. His longstanding association with the counterculture notwithstanding, Thompson loved this country and the things it once stood for, and his voice is sorely missed today, and whether you were a fan of his work or not, you'll find Gonzo well worth your time.

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

If nothing else, Into the Wild is a beautiful film. Penn meticulously shot in the actual locations McCandless visited, and Eric Gautier's cinematography is breathtaking, many scenes are framed in such a way as to almost Hirsch entirely, further emphasizing how solitary his trek actually was.

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

With striking visuals reminiscent of Matisse and Chagall and a refreshingly (for domestic animation audiences) grown-up storyline, The Painting is almost reminiscent of, well, a work of art.

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

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.

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).

Kirk and Mol are convincing, easily inhabiting their respective roles.

A straight-ahead exercise in brutality.

Noonan's life is one few of us can comprehend, and Mac Intyre's documentary, A Very British Gangster, is like a Guy Ritchie film come to life, only with a better dressed cast.

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.

Decent vampire movies are few and far between, and I’m having a hard time remembering a recent one that impressed me like 30 Days of Night.

For all of its shortcomings, Wanted is a strangely enjoyable flick.

Millions is that rarest of creatures: a family film - one of surprising warmth – that won't have adults reaching for an airsick bag.

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

It elicits so many laughs, in fact, that you have to wonder just what Judge did to piss off the suits at Fox so much that they would willingly torpedo one of the only genuinely hilarious movies to come out this year.