Phil Hall

A style-rich, substance-weak B-level gangster movie which is noteworthy for two unusual reasons: it is one of the very few films from Thailand to gain international release and it is the perhaps the only film of its genre to feature a love story between a hit man and a pharmacist.

Watching these old pros elbow their way into the spotlight is the film’s finest surprise, but watching Plowright out-act them all is the ultimate joy.

A delightfully silly romp which reinvents the legendary Italian lover's adventures into the realm of broad farce.

Although the film is handsomely filmed and features a surprisingly frank view of the political machinations within the upper ranks of Tibetan Buddhism – even the Dalai Lama comes across as a bit of a wheeler-dealer – Unmistaken Child is more than a little disappointing.

The results are either darkly comic and tragic, depending on the viewer's mindframe. But McElhinney's route to these results, as with the Bertolucci, is nothing short of stunning.

It is not only the year's best documentary, but it is also among the finest films ever made about religion.

While it would be foolish to expect a completely faithful Shakespeare adaptation from Godard, there is no pleasure in being fooled into thinking that this vague, obscure, annoying, cacophonous wreck of a film is anything but a joke being played by a self-indulgent filmmaker.

One of the year's best films. It is an extraordinary triumph of nonfiction filmmaking, presenting a wild mind game that leaves the viewer invigorated by its sheer audacity and complexity.

A dull film, inspired by a true story.

About as funny as a funeral.

The film is a visceral overload of wordplay ranging from the spontaneous neighborhood park jams to the overflowing concert venues.

It is a shame the film doesn't cast a wider net into deeper political waters – the outrage is barely scratched in this production.

A small, no-budget, seemingly unsophisticated film that creates a minor energy miracle by fueling its running time on pure raffish charm.

With a stronger actress who could have been in greater command of the character, Freeze Me would have been a cold-hearted masterpiece rather than the okay thriller it turned out.

Paltrow gives the performance of the year, and perhaps of her career, in this extraordinary and powerful dissection of genius, jealousy, madness and serenity.

Never quite clicks, primarily because the central male characters are badly miscast.

At the risk of being called an anti-Semite, I would like to propose a moratorium on Holocaust movies -- While it would be crass to discount the importance of the subject, at the same time one has to admit there is some degree of excess going on here.

If you want pure, undiluted, 100% guaranteed entertainment, Soap Girl is the film to enjoy. This film is a wonderful work of fun, with a marvelous ensemble cast who have more energy, sex-appeal and charm than any group to strut and vamp across the camera in recent memory.

Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou has created so many memorable films (most recently the wuxia double-play "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers") that one can easily excuse his new clinker Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles.

The single worst Shakespeare film ever made.

Handsomely produced but emotionally inert offering.

Beautifully produced but emotionally vacant drama.

A lopsided effort which is part-thriller, part-social commentary, and totally forgettable.

A noisy, chaotic affair.

A pleasant diversion which mixes snatches of Wilde's waspish humor with a stylish Art Deco environment. The result is amusing to the ears and easy on the eyes.

The true power of the film comes from young Marko Kovacevic, who plays the poetic child lost in a family and culture where poetry has no meaning.

The result is a great-looking bore.

Maybe someday an enterprising filmmaker will make a film about this forgotten chapter in Muslim-Jewish relations. It would be a lot more compelling and memorable than the nonsense in Monsieur Ibrahim.

One of the greatest art documentaries ever made. Through an imaginative mixture of rare footage, audio recordings and contemporary interviews with the living legends of modern art, Rosen has created a cinematic portrait which is, in itself, a work of art.

The film is a bore.

After sitting through this movie, you will want to throw something more pungent than rice at The Groomsmen.

A guilty pleasure diversion. Yeah, it is dumber than a bag of hair. But it is also fast, occasionally funny and genuinely entertaining in an old-fashion no-brainer manner.

A diverting and delightful visit with two unheralded indie cinema veterans with a surplus amount of anecdotes and zany film clips.

A stirring and touching production, and it is difficult not to be moved by the women’s medical progress. However, it suffers from a somewhat leisurely pacing.

Typical of too many films produced in Israel: plodding, verbose, badly-made and completely monotonous.

Small, amateurish Israeli feature.

Sadly, Naqoyqatsi quickly degenerates into a monotonous skein of banal images which strangely reinforces the message that we're living in a damn dull society.

For those who never heard of "The Goldbergs" and its amazing star, Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg will provide a special introduction to a special person.

A stale and poorly researched documentary.

This is an excellent movie -- by all means, flock to it!

Sometimes Duck Season is amusing. More often, though, it is boring and icky.

Okay, this isn’t a great film. Maybe it’s not even a good film. But for 1954, “The Last Time I Saw Paris” filled the bill with enough mindless silliness to keep people amused for two hours. Even today, it’s good for a cynical laugh.

This extraordinary work of cinematic art is among the most sublime, compelling and beautifully crafted films to grace the big screen.

Cimino fashioned a deep, multi-textured screenplay rich with fully dimensional characters. His ensemble cast brought the story to vivid life. Kristofferson gave a career peak performance here as a man who seems perpetually out of his element.

Offers the Iraqis a rare chance to share their anger and their lives with the outside world. The resulting production is a raw and powerful film that demands to be seen.

Zhang Yimou is seriously off his game with the utterly ridiculous Curse of the Golden Flower, a new epic that feels like "Hero" meets "The Lion in Winter" meets "Peyton Place." The film is worthless as a serious work of art, but it may offer the jaded viewer a surplus source of MST3K-inspired wisecracks.

Fairly mundane and frequently boring.

A thoroughly awful Korean production which vainly attempts to recast the slam-bang conventions of American action-adventure flicks into the sticky world of contemporary Korean politics.

A good film, but it should’ve been a great one.

Valeria Bertucelli and Ingrid Rubio as Elena and Natalia barely register for the camera, either in their adult incarnations or as the mod teens of 1975 Argentina.

The film presents the Rwandans in the worst possible way: venal, corrupt, vicious, stupid, barbaric and completely incapable of governing themselves. Honestly, I've seen more intelligent and sympathetic depictions of Africans in Tarzan movies.

A mild but diverting farce about misperceptions involving gays and goombas.

The film's leisurely pacing is often too slow for its own good, and many scenes meander endlessly with no true payoff.

Clooney has littered his film with such a high quantity of mistakes that it is hard to know where exactly to begin finding fault.

London is the independent film world's equivalent of a fiasco.

A well-intended but hopelessly ill-focused documentary which wants to be the "That's Entertainment!" for the New York theater but seems like a hodgepodge of anecdotes, factoids and moldy memories.

This sounds an awful lot like "Memento." But unlike that movie, the French-Swiss-Spanish-Italian co-production Novo opts for a Eurotrash sex comedy approach instead.

Unfortunately, Brooks errs badly by having his film centered in India. Yes, India - which, as most people know, is not a predominantly Muslim country. Rather than look for comedy in the Muslim world, Brooks uses this film to make fun of contemporary Indian society.

Fans of prison flicks would do better to catch the HBO series "Oz" or the five millionth rebroadcast of "The Shawshank Redemption."

It is a horrifying and devastating spectacle of life gone dreadfully out of control, yet it is also riveting and hypnotic in such a dramatic sensation that you are left breathless by the sequence of events which will haunt and torture for as long as your memory remains intact.

Alas, the big screen also magnifies the problems with Once Upon a Time in the West. Specifically, Leone’s insistence on style trumped the need for substance. The film is basically a B-Western stretched an agonizing 165 minutes.

A raw, brutal, hypnotic journey into the world of seven heroin addicts who barely survive on the streets of New York City. It is a film of great sadness and pain.

With a clumsy hip-hop score permeating every free inch of the soundtrack and ugly 16mm cinematography that would never be allowed out of Film School 101, the audio-visual experience is a wreck. The quality of Quality of Life is non-existent.

What may have seemed energetic and innovative four decades ago is fairly enervated today, and only the most rabid Godard fanatics will find reason to seek out its new theatrical re-release.

How does Xanadu qualify as the greatest movie musical? Simple: it offers nothing but pure wall-to-wall fun and nonsense to keep a smile on one’s face from the opening credits (which cleverly spoof the logo of Universal Pictures) through the end of the picture. [11 Aug 2005]

Such garbage that taking a shower at the Bates Motel is a more appealing alternative.

One could literally milk a thesaurus in trying to find the right words to lavish on Saraband: brilliant, towering, majestic, challenging, remarkable.

In many ways, Let it Be is the best Beatles film of all since they are not playing the Beatles but rather are being themselves.

Inert, inept epic.

Quirky, entertaining documentary.

In throwing hatchets at Murdoch and his silly Fox network while pretending the rest of the media world is fine and objective, the film comes across as a shrill, one-note slam against a very easy target.

Achieves the impossible by taking one of the most compelling and harrowing stories imaginable and channeling it into one of the most ordinary movies of the year.

A beautifully crafted documentary.

One of the year's best films. An extraordinary work of intellectual maturity and emotional depth.

About as much fun as a grouchy ayatollah in a cold mosque.

Painfully boring.

Grim and frequently depressing, and despite the artistry of its framing it nonetheless is a very difficult movie to endure.

Chicago is a failure, but that should not come as a surprise. Bob Fosse, who directed and choreographed the original 1975 Broadway production, was long baffled in making a film of the show and eventually gave up trying.

If Dogville has a reason for importance, it is the astonishing all-star ensemble who try very hard to put life into their cardboard characters and make this silly film work.

Through the Fire is a fraud masquerading as a documentary.

Tsotsi emerges as being among the finest films ever to come out of Africa. It is a brilliant, jolting and altogether powerful blast of energy and emotion.

Reconfigured into a very different one-woman movie by Gibson and director Jeremy Kagan. Unfortunately, the transformation was not successful.

The film's screenplay is thick with major lapses in logic, resulting in a story that ultimately makes little sense.

An extraordinary achievement on all possible levels.

Filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, who helmed the excellent "Rana's Wedding," missed the boat on this one. He may have hoped to give a human voice to the suicide bombers, but instead he gave them a misfired movie.

For telling America to acknowledge how far the country has deviated from its values and how painfully it has failed to make the world safer, this is the most important movie of the year.

The Quiet is best for cheap laughs by jaded moviegoers with absolutely nothing better to do with their time.

A documentary which wobbles and weaves as much as often as it soars.

Such a hopeless mess that there's no fun in tossing insults at its endless shortcomings.

Provides lethal evidence of what becomes of those who deposit their sincerity into the command of a religious lunatic.

Where Song of the South errs badly is in its regurgitation of the horrible myth that black slaves were always singing and happy and just loved working on massah’s plantation.

Quite frankly, the film looks terrible and moves with painful slowness, while the voice performances by both the juvenile and adult actors are so lacking in character that one could almost assume the cast performed their lines phonetically.

A potentially great film stuck inside a not-so-great film. Watching Dog Run is fairly painful since flashes of brilliance peek out and shine at unexpected moments.

It is a painful but important subject, to be certain, but the film dilutes its own effectiveness by devolving into a collection of talking heads who often seem to be repeating each other.

Achieves the impossible in taking a genuine socio-political tragedy and turning it into an anvil drama which will fray the patience of the most sympathetic audiences.

While Fryar is a charming man and his work clearly deserves recognition, A Man Called Pearl is an obvious case of building a three-story house on a one-story foundation. Really, can you make a feature-length film about a man who carves unique shapes out of trees, shrubs and bushes?

If there is one film which makes the most out of life, this is it.

Nothing more than a big old chunk of horse poop.

The primary problem with “Rabbit Test” was that it was based on a hoary one-joke concept – in this case, a man becomes pregnant. But Rivers had no clue how to take the concept and expand it into a flowing, coherent comedy script.

Do not, under any circumstance, approach this film lightly. Prepare to be depressed, agitated and shocked. And prepare to see a brilliant work of cinematic art.

The film is professionally made but a thorough bore at every imaginable level.

It is an entertaining bit of fluff, with a few engaging performances and enough visual panache to keep audiences diverted and amused.

Wilson overstuffs the film with endless artsy shots of nature.

What’s a muscular guy like John Cena doing in a flabby movie like this? This connect-the-dots action-adventure may appeal to undemanding ten-year-old boys but will bore everyone else.

While the screen didn't really need another Carmen, it certainly needs a knockout femme fatale like Diop Gai. Hopefully, Carmen can get a much-needed rest and audiences can get much more of this stunning African icon-in-waiting.

An Inconvenient Truth is something you rarely see in movies today: a blatant intellectual fraud. Shame on all of the people involved in this travesty.

A compelling screenplay, to be certain. But sadly, Omarova's direction is too leisurely to wring any emotional power.

An astonishing mess.

While imperfect, it does provide an intriguing glimpse into a subculture, which many people will be surprised to learn, still exists.

Easily the most surprising comedy of his career. The surprise: it's not funny.

Truly magnificent.

By the end of the 99 minute running time, there is a terrible sense of been-there/done-that. And for artists of the Quays' caliber, that is a huge mistake.

Even if you love all things Yiddish, there is precious little to embrace here.

Rarely has a film been cast with so many gifted performers who are either wrong for their roles or are given nothing to do.

Cantet weaves a dark, disturbing story of hedonism, casual racism and the lethal consequences of self-indulgence in his superb drama Heading South.

A symphony of small gestures, throwaway glances, brief exchanges of unexpected observation and silences which actually say more than pages of dialogue.

Theaters showing Mad Cowgirl should install seatbelts, because audiences are in for the ultimate wild ride.

The ultimate rarity: a sequel that is miles ahead of its predecessor in every imaginable department.

If anything saves Elling, it is the trio of supporting performances that are closer to the real world.

The idea of a gay version of "American Pie" might not seem too tasty, but Another Gay Movie offers a fabulous surprise in not only matching that rude boy classic's unapologetic rude humor but by establishing its own identity as a genuinely funny and often touching coming of age comedy.

A remarkable triumph of documentary filmmaking. It is impossible to walk away from this film without being jolted.

This one deserves to go back in the refrigerator – preferably to the very back of the refrigerator!

Whereas "Cuckoo’s Nest" is a brilliantly over-the-top accomplishment, The Passenger is more brilliant with the most effortless underplaying one can ever hope to witness on screen.

Being released at the same time that Bowie's latest album "Heathen" is being unveiled. Bowie fans who need a reason to celebrate the trajectory of the artist's career can make use of this cinematic Alpha and CD Omega.

Engrossing and brilliantly insightful production.

Thoroughly obnoxious and relentlessly unfunny comedy.

At 100 minutes in running time, Dallas 362 can be called "The Amateur Hour-and-40-Minutes."

A treasure in celebrating remarkable women with a unparalleled zest for life.

While the Raymond Burr sequences and the subsequent clumsy English dubbing of the remaining Japanese footage made the U.S. version an unintentionally funny movie, the complete Japanese version is an unfunny bore.

Although not a great film by any stretch, it is a fascinating slice of a fractious period in American history.

A painfully awful film.

This amazing tour-de-force presents Huppert in a role, which is equal parts abrasive and vulnerable, exasperating and pathetic, monstrous and saintly.

The Stranger may not be at the same level as Citizen Kane, but what is? On its own terms, it is a fine and invigorating experience that deserves to be sought out and enjoyed.

Tiresome, trite and choked with every lousy Dixie-fried stereotype imaginable.

A strangely inert affair. The stories devolve into one-dimensional squabbling and too many loose threads flap around the edges.

Sadly, the whole affair is little more than ennui with a pedigree.

Little more than a travelogue designed to show off the grandeur of the Hermitage, with the silly actors in fancy costumes getting in the way of the paintings and sculptures on display.

This is clearly not a pleasant film to watch on many levels.

More of a hangnail sketch -- no one can come away from this offering with a clue on what makes Wall Street click.

One of the most towering and extraordinary films to grace the screen.

The only obvious question that Oswald’s Ghost raises is: how come Mort Sahl wasn’t in the movie? (If you don’t get that joke, you need to brush up on your Kennedy conspiracy lessons.)

Wooden, one-dimensional epic.

Rich with wonderful music and images.

While I admire Bishop Jakes and I frequently watch his sermons on TV, I have to question his tactic of charging people admission to generate hosannas on his behalf.

Rich with compelling, often heartbreaking stories.

Bubble is among his (Soderbergh) worst films. What in the world was he thinking with this?

There is a wealth of smaller dramatic triumphs of sly gestures, body language working at odds with spoken words, and minor goofiness (such as repeatedly blowing the rim of an opened beer bottle to create a rough whistle) which makes Home more humane (not to mention more human) than the vast majority of today's movies.

Bruno Dumont’s Flanders is something you don't see everyday: a decidedly non-sentimental love story.

For the most part, Fleck doesn't seem particularly intrigued on finding the banjo’s African heritage – the film offers little in the way of historic value in understanding the origin of the instrument.

Kung Fu Hustle is something you rarely encounter in theaters: a genuinely original comedy.

The one lesson learned from watching this film is that Canadians can make movies just as badly as anyone else.

An Italian-British-French-Spanish-Romanian co-production. A better argument against multinational cooperation cannot be imagined.

Has a terrible air of been-there/done-that.

There is some very un-Mormon gender bending going on here.

Writer/director Gary Burns offers a suffocating experience which is too boring to be accepted as a satire, too lame to be accepted as a farce, and too infantile to be accepted as a drama.

Finally receiving a theatrical release 20 years after it was made, Philip Hartman’s “No Picnic” emerges as an entertaining if flawed relic from a very different era.

While the film is admittedly imperfect, it nonetheless deserves to be seen by all Americans to provide a clear understanding of what kind of a country we are currently at war within.

Rare vehicle which gives the Palestinian people (rather than their failed, double-talking leadership) an opportunity to speak freely and openly, and that feat in itself makes this one of the most important documentaries of recent times.

The production values on Dirty are so painfully amateurish that it is often hard to determine what is happening. The cinematography is murky and shaky, the editing is dull and clumsy, and the sound recording isn't exactly pristine. Not that any of this matters when you have a script where every third word is scatological.

If the state government in Massachusetts refuses to acknowledge its execution of innocent men, then at least this compelling and powerful production can serve as a graceful elegy to the doomed men who were murdered by their adopted homeland.

So ham-handed and relentlessly overbaked that it is easy to see why audiences initially stayed away from it. Just when and how did anyone come to see this as a classic?

Among the finest films made in the Middle East. This small, subtle gem offers a vivid portrait of life in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, presenting its message with an intelligence and vibrancy that celebrates the human spirit in an environment where humanity is routinely crushed and assaulted.

A meandering and disappointing documentary about one of Africa's most beloved yet elusive musical giants.

Perhaps it is a shame that no one thought of digitally restoring and theatrically releasing the sex videos that Crane made with the many women he pleasured...that would have been far more entertaining than anything found in Auto Focus.

Quite simply, House of Flying Daggers is a film that sets several new standards for production and entertainment values. It is a wild riot of color, music, passion, action, mystery, pure old-fashioned thrills and even dancing.

The result is a mature, graceful and extraordinary accomplishment.

If Stalin's Wife doesn't provide solid answers, it nonetheless offers a fascinating tapestry of love, madness, politics, suspicions and jealousies.

Yiddish Theater: A Love Story is a slight but moving documentary focusing on the final performances given by Zypora Spaisman, the Polish-born star of New York’s Yiddish theater.

Jaglom has the good sense to cast the legendary Lee Grant in an extraordinary role.

Emily Blunt’s Victoria and Rupert Friend’s Albert come across like museum mannequins – utterly devoid of any genuine passion.

A powerful film worthy of a truly extraordinary American.

This is a curious example of taking a hair-raising story and draining the drama from every corner, leaving it a bit flat and ultimately forgettable.

Provocative and poignant.

Something of a surprise: a gay-oriented feature that is genuinely touching and sincere.

Obviously, this is one subject which may not seem to require the attention of documentary filmmakers.

It seems as if every possible cliche and story twist from any seafaring picture of the past 80 years made its way into this flick.

To its credit, the film's costume design is stunning. But unless you have a kimono fetish, there's no reason to pay a good dollar (or a yen, for that matter) on this junk.

Although it runs 78 minutes, it feels like 78 hours.

I would like to praise My Big Fat Independent Movie for achieving something that most independently-produced comedies fail to do: it creates laughs.

This much-ballyhooed gay cowboy melodrama is an inert disappointment.

A small, tacky non-comedy.

Put simply, Mind Game is a mind-blowing experience.

An original and highly memorable comedy, and mention should be made of Ebiri’s work beyond filmmaking: he is also a film critic for New York Magazine, thus giving proof that those who review films for a living can also turn around and make a damn fine movie.

While the images presented here are peerless, James Nachtwey is a fascinating individual and it is a shame we cannot learn more about the man behind these extraordinary images.

A mediocre film that presents the troubled poet Sylvia Plath as a jealous, possessive and irritating woman. It is hard to recall another biopic which is so unflattering to its subject.

By the time the film is over it is not so much a "who-done-it?" but a "why-did-we-sit-through-this?"

A minor and forgettable bore.

It's all a case of been-there, done-that, although the singing is nice. Still, do we really need another movie with thirtysomethings who ache to re-live their college years? C’mon, guys, grow up!

McGrath's new film offers a treat for fans of Dickens and moviegoers who love to see a fairly large cast ham it up with delirious abandon.

The new bad movie from Clint Eastwood which takes Dennis Lehane's best-selling thriller and turns it into an inert mess that clocks in at 137 minutes but feels like 137 hours.

Offers a remarkable tribute to one of the few people who genuinely deserves to be known as a pioneer of filmmaking. In the genre of films about films, In the Mirror of Maya Deren is among the best.

More of a curio than a classic and it takes the strongest of constitutions to endure this film without entertaining notions of matricide

Unless you are severely addicted to Johnny Depp, this film offers very little in the way of genuine entertainment value. Ultimately, “The Brave” should have been renamed “The Foolish.”

To its favor, the film is blessed with strong peformances by Ozgu Namal as Meryem and Murat Han as Cemal.

Ghastly.