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.

The question isn't whether Nispel's remake is better than the 1980 original (it isn't) but whether anything original is brought into the mix. And minus a mild plot twist you"ll probably see coming from the first five minutes, there isn't.

Clearly, Gomorrah is supposed to represent the best of today’s European cinema...and if this is the best, I would hate to imagine the worst! Gomorrah is a boring mess focusing on how the mob in today’s Naples has its tentacles stretched far and wide

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.

The real problem is that Sex and the City is, except for a few laughs, mostly just irritating.

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."

Especially to anyone with kids, the film packs some punch. Apart from that, The Pursuit of Happyness is emotionally manipulative and way too glossy to really hit home.

Diggers isn't a bad film, but the underlying premise - the longing one feels to escape from a dead-end, small town life - has been so beaten to death in the movies that no amount of accurate 70s design or subtlety in the performances can hide the fact.

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.

That legendary adolescent tolerance for garbage may be severely tested by Supercross.

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.

Computer movies have come a long way since the good old days of monitors projecting vector graphics on hackers’ faces, but there are still some forehead slappers in Untraceable.

What starts as a somewhat charming — if prosaic — story of love in the time of gentrification inexplicably spends most of its third act mired in the finer points of apartment hunting, like a tastefully lit HGTV show.

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.