Robert K. Elder

Seems a little lightweight, even for a kids' movie.

Bobby Long can enchant you. It's a film that feels lived in, confident despite its conventions.

Takes us to familiar lands but without any of the original's magic.

Stands as a successful cinematic experiment and a gripping -- though a little too long -- study of humanity's most primitive instincts.

A superbly crafted piece of humanistic cinema.

Sky Blue slows things down, creating a ponderous, almost languid movie-going experience.

Whatever is lost in translation can't keep Appleseed from feeling a decade late--and its animation from looking like a relic on arrival.

All in all, it's a fascinating, kid-friendly journey.

The kind of well-crafted, character-driven work that wows regional film festival crowds and public television audiences but seldom gets seen outside those circles.

Tries hard to be sweet but plays like "Pollyanna" with fleas.

Against "Whale Rider's" well-acted, intimate story, Gordon's film feels like an endless spiral of sub-par soap-opera acting, mired in trite, predictable dialogue.

When applied properly, short-form animation can bring dreams and nightmares to life like no other medium.

Jimmy Stewart's signature role as amiably soused Elwood P. Dowd, who navigates his way through a contentious and mercenary world with the aid of his best friend, the invisible 6-foot-3-inch rabbit Harvey. [27 Jun 2008, p.C2]

A sweetly benign comedy that allows the actor (Jones) to lampoon his tough guy image honed in "The Fugitive" and "U.S. Marshals."

Doesn't revert to hairpin plot twists or other dramatic trickery to hook us in; Auerbach simply lets us live with her characters-which, it turns out, is reward enough.

Wildly inventive, sweetly subversive.

Though Katsuhiro Otomo's animated Victorian-era adventure Steamboy stars British characters, it's a Japanese film through and through.

Action films can't be this consistently absurd, can't paint their heroes into such dangerous corners, from which only cocktails of luck and divine intervention can save them, over and over. It's a bad-faith bargain with the audience and bad storytelling.

Chow's savagely funny cinematic love letter places Hong Kong legends Yuen Wah, Leung Siu Lung and former Bond girl Yuen Qiu in well-cast pivotal parts, establishing Kung Fu Hustle not only as an endearing homage to a genre's history, but an astonishing piece of cinema in its own right.

Even if this new version of "Hitchhiker" doesn't quite capture it all, you'll still want to stick your thumb out and catch a ride.

Odd Man Out is the extraordinary thriller about a botched IRA bank robbery and the badly wounded and increasingly feverish rebel, Johnny (James Mason), who wanders Belfast with both his mates and the police on his trail. [29 Feb 2008, p.C8]

Gratuitous gore and young, nubile flesh bind together a cardboard plot.

It's a terrific mix of screwball comedy and detective story, full of wit, romance and suspense. [23 Nov 2007, p.C10]

While the film's strength lies in an ensemble effort, it's really Sarah and Jannik who provide the film with its most compelling characters, its momentum and, ultimately, its heart.

It's Ferrell who is the vehicle, a mow-you-down comic engine, and everyone else is just along for the ride in this marginally effective, starkly unoriginal family comedy.

Younger viewers might be annoyed with Saving Face for not being more in-your-face progressive and edgy. Older audiences will be happy that it's not.

Ultimately, it's Paul Giamatti ("Sideways"), playing Braddock's manager Joe Gould, who shines. In another actor's hands, Gould would be a secondary character lost in Crowe's shadow, but Giamatti outshines his co-stars at times with his everyman looks and delivery.

In terms of pure visual scope, Deep Blue might be one of the best IMAX films never created for the IMAX screen.