V.A. Musetto

Politics aside, Trudell plays like an infomercial for its subject rather than a serious examination of the man and his beliefs.

The story is told in fractured time. This might not be a problem if his visuals were more fear-inducing.

You might be tempted to walk out. Don't.

Argento keeps the suspense level high while throwing in trademark cringe-inducing moments.

A documentary hardly anybody has been waiting for.

Despite strong performances by Gerard Jugnot as the crime-busting prosecutor and Veronica D'Agostino as the adult Rita, The Sicilian Girl never lives up to its potential.

Andy Lau and Siu Fai Mak, the men behind the successful Hong Kong police thriller trio "Infernal Affairs," should be arrested for directing Initial D.

What could have been a biting dark comedy is, instead, uninspired and generic. The contrived, everybody's-happy finale just makes things worse.

Pleasant but lifeless love story.

What is missing is any sort of psychological insight. Just what made Renato run? You won't find out here.

You can't fault the film's elegant look. But you have to wonder why Shakhnazarov, one of Russian's most experienced filmmakers, didn't take more care with the script.

Ultimately breaks down under the weight of too many characters and unbelievable twists.

You are unlikely to see a movie about incest made as sensitively and tastefully as Womb. And although the characters speak English, the film is firmly anchored in European sensibilities, thanks to its Hungarian director, Benedek Fliegauf.

There is also a fair amount of boy-on-boy sex, which would be the main reason for seeing No Regret, no matter what your sexual orientation might be.

Unpretentious, TV-style documentary.

It's hard to make a dull movie with copious nudity and all kinds of sex (straight, bi and gay), although French filmmakers Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau manage to do so in Cote d'Azur.

Pity that the direction and narrative lack passion. If there's anything a story of interracial adultery needs, it's passion.

The movie's only redeeming qualities are its stars.

Will go down in history as the movie that showed a turtle getting an enema. It also features a hot performance by Marguerite Moreau.

Utterly predictable and full of trite dialogue.

It would have been nice to learn as much about Sar the man as about Sar the dancer.

Lacks excitement, although its solid story makes for decent viewing.

When all is said and done, Lies is just good, dirty fun.

Has a promising start. But it quickly becomes tiresome and cliché-ridden - not to mention depressing and pointless.

Marchand capably builds suspense, thanks to a twisty script and nervy performances by Lucas and Quinton.

The Italian film industry must be in sad shape when its latest import to the US is a tired bit of trash from 1997, To Die for Tano.

A gut-wrenching look at the human cost of war.

A plot? Tony Jaa don't need no stinking plot.

The real star, however, is Michael Simmonds, whose manic black-and-white camerawork captures the unique vibrancy of New York City. He helps turn one woman's obsession into a valentine to Gotham.

The feature debut by hot, young Singapore director Royston Tan, 15, is a descent into hell -- a hell inhabited by five scuzzy 15-year-old boys whose world, as one puts it, "only consists of darkness."

Loads of fun, especially if you use the site yourself. But it plays too much like a paid ad.

Well-done documentary.

My only question: Why does Kleine -- who's married to Andre Gregory of "My Dinner With Andre" fame -- think that anybody outside her family gives a damn?

If the sight of naked, sweaty French hunks gets you going, well, then, Three Dancing Slaves is a must-see.

Mainstream moviegoers will be put off by the subtitles, and art-house fans will be insulted by the story's shallowness.

Clichéd stories, clichéd characters. All that's missing is Ed Burns.

Desert Wind will be of interest to men - and especially to women, who might learn much they didn't know about the opposite sex.

Dysfunctional families don't come much more messed up than the one in Agnes and His Brothers, a comic drama from Germany.

Zhang Yimou, one of China's best-known filmmakers, deserves a great big lump of coal in his holiday stocking thanks to his ludicrous soap opera The Flowers of War.

Wolman gets his point across, but he does so in such a predictable, contrived and sappy manner that viewers aren't likely to care. And the final plot twist is a cop-out.

Director-writer Seth Grossman provides a lazy narrative, with stereotypical characters and plot.

Raises an interesting question. Do you clamp down on corporations in order to protect the environment or do you let them go about their business because they help feed countless families.

Touches on issues raised in "Bad Education," but without Pedro Almodovar's flamboyant elegance.

Promoted as "the year's scariest movie," it's anything but.

Matthews is supposed to be the star here, but it's Englund's hilarious, over-the-top performance that keeps Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, by director Jon Knautz, from becoming another forgettable exercise in horror.

It is a boring parade of talking heads and technical gibberish that will do little to advance the Linux cause. Try again, guys.

Viewers willing to accept the contrived plot at face value will find much to like.

[REC] 3 Genesis is a prequel to the first two "[REC]" movies, but that doesn't much matter. You don't need to have seen them to enjoy this film, which provides fresh blood for a tired genre.

The director is, you won't be surprised to learn, Tsai Ming-laing, whose deadpan humor and minimalist lensing has made him a god among film geeks.

Not one of Hartley's most successful efforts, but it's witty, daring, different and a welcome alternative to Hollywood pap.

The film is light on those kitschy musical numbers that make Bollywood movies fun to watch.

Vladimir Garin and Ivan Dobronravov are amazingly natural as the boys, and Konstantin Lavronenko impresses as the taciturn father.

Here the characters aren't compelling enough to ask viewers to give their brains a workout to determine exactly what's going on.

Never rises above the level of a soap opera, although the steamy sex and Lo's abundant nudity might make it worthwhile for some viewers.

Makes about as much sense as most dreams. But that's to be expected, because the video feature is a series of successive dreams.

Director Jacob Rosenberg makes heavy use of family photos and talking heads, but the person we want most to hear from, Way himself, is largely missing. Go figure.

The shooting sprees are full of razzle dazzle. The final gun battle -- between Kong and the police -- is especially effective.

The story is so contrived and the dialogue so stilted that no amount of talent could save Exist.

Make no mistake: Casuistry isn't easy to watch. Cat lovers might be especially turned off. But Asher had every right to make it, and you have every right to see it.

The non-linear plot makes for confusion and, except for the inspired final shootout, the action sequences are mediocre.

This poorly done, digitally animated work, directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo, might be of interest to die-hard fans of anime. Others should pass it by.

Makes a convincing argument that the decades-old Cuban blockade has outlived its usefulness.

How can it be that a movie as beautiful to look at as Saawariya is so . . . boring?

A brutal shocker that is difficult to watch.

The movie's one-star rating is solely for Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who provides eye candy as Morris' film-student granddaughter, Lisa.

Little more than a rehash of old news.

A movie so bad it's not even worth watching on DVD.

Take "Thelma & Louise," throw in hot girl-girl sex and you have Gasoline, a flammable import from Italy directed by Monica Stambrini.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's reformist two-term president, gets the once-over-lightly treatment in Lula, Son of Brazil.

The landscape cinematography is often eye-pleasing, but the script is labored, filled with clichés and never allows for character development.

Eventually turns somber, with stark depiction of mass graves and suffering refugees. The final scene will break your heart.

A slight movie. But it has its share of charm and is a pleasant way to spend a little over an hour. It also is a sign that Burns might actually have talent.

Not even Sandra Oh, as Phoebe's boss, and Elodie Bouchez ("The Dreamlife of Angels"), as Ashade's sister-in-law, can keep Sorry, Haters from becoming a sorry mess.

The opening and closing scenes are scary and should please fans of the genre, especially at Halloween time.

Under writer-helmer Rehana Mirza, the acting and direction are workmanlike, but the plot is full of hackneyed characters and contrived events better suited to TV than the big screen.

Most are exercises in sickening bad taste, with an emphasis on human bodily functions. The biggest stinkers? “T Is for Toilet” and “F Is for Fart.”

The documentary tells us little we don't already know and is overwhelmingly one-sided. It would make a nice TV infomercial, but certainly doesn't deserve a big-screen release.

More violent than anything Wood ever did, Automatons nevertheless has the kitschy feel and look of something he might have concocted. And I mean that as a compliment.

Even parents might find themselves having fun.

At turns sexy, ultra-violent and sweet, it will infiltrate your brain long after you've seen it.

Provides a few minor thrills, but overall is talky and implausible.

The writing, acting and direction are so amateurish that the only thing you'll care about is escaping the theater.

But by the time events unfold, viewers will most likely have given up on this melodramatic.

Horvath has a sensitive eye and ear, mixing good-looking shots of the barren landscape with portraits of the land's eccentric inhabitants. It's a world (scary at times) that most New Yorkers have no idea exists. [25 Aug 2004, p.40]

Hugh Jackman appears briefly as Sophia's Aussie boyfriend, and gets to perform a lively song-and-dance number. But for some strange reason, his name isn't in the credits.

A vast improvement over Schenkman's previous effort, "The Pompatus of Love."

There are many new Japanese movies that deserve a stateside release. Why this hapless mess beat them out is a question that deserves an answer.

Proves that you don't need a big budget to make a dynamite film.

There's certainly a good movie to be made about Muslim punk musicians in the US, but this isn't it.

Director-writer Roger Stigliano used a tiny budget to fashion an endearing screwball comedy that brings to mind Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild" (1986).

There's little reason to see the claustrophobic Chronicling a Crisis unless you have a fascination with the Kolleks. Watching the vanity project is like being forced to sit through a friend's boring home movies.

Splinterheads might suffice some late night on cable, but that's about it.

On the plus side, Derek McKane's moody camerawork makes Gotham look grand. Too bad it's wasted on The Last New Yorker.

The landscapes are exotic and Kilcher is erotic, but the film plays like a generic made-for-TV biopic.

Comes off as nothing more than a TV soap opera, with overwrought acting, simplistic dialogue and a generic plot.

The charming cast...brightens up the screen, but the TV-sitcom script does them in.

There's plenty of material here for a dark comedy, but director Martin Curland isn't up to the job. His film - like Luke - plods along, unsure of exactly what it's supposed to be.

Only the French could or would make a movie like this. You'll enjoy it if you turn off your brain and concentrate on the eye candy.

The dreadful acting, direction and script make Nowhere Man a nowhere movie.

Weatherford and Murphy lead a young and bright cast. All in all, Money Buys Happiness shows that Lachow is a director worth keeping an eye on.

The documentary is unapologetically one-sided, and spends more time canonizing Abu-Jamal than exploring the murder and trial themselves. Still it raises issues of racism in America (flashback to George Wallace) that are worthy of discussion.

Fails to elicit any substantive information from his (Tommy Davis) subjects. And he fails to put their plight into perspective.

Gerren's story is fascinating, but Roberts dilutes it by going off on tangents about unsafe cosmetics and phony plastic surgeons. Both topics need exploring - just not here. There's more than enough drama in Gerren's life.

Sex can be fun and exciting and wonderful. It also can be deadly boring, as in Psychopathia Sexu alis.

We keep waiting for one of those outlandish musical treats to bring some life to the clichéd script. Kunder throws in a few breaks, but they're tepid and brief.

Directed by Susan Montford, While She Was Out is a straight-to-DVD movie making a brief stop in theaters.

The generic plot is redeemed by exciting action sequences, good-looking location photography and a hot sex scene involving a femme fatale named Lea (pixie-haired Melanie Thierry).

Lackluster anime.

If only its characters weren't such stereotypes.

An impressive screen debut.

If you have an appetite for audacious, one-of-a-kind filmmaking, this one's for you. Just don't say you weren't warned.

Has some witty dialogue and sprightly performances by Karen Black, Andrea Marcovicci, Victoria Tennant and others.

The result is a hodgepodge of plots and styles, a fault compounded by stiff acting and, except for a few scenes, wooden direction.

A clueless Mundhra tackles the subject with a heavy hand and a contrived script. The result is a daytime soap mixed with a second-rate women-behind-bars flick.

Who needs a big budget when you have a quirky script, an energetic cast and a soundtrack that features Union 13, the Blondes, Future Pigeon and Omega Man?

It's full of Plympton's trademark twisted humor, with lots of sex thrown in.

Whaley gives an earnest performance, especially when he's articulating his frustrations during his monologues. But it's all relentlessly glum. The film, like Jimmy's routines, could use a few good laughs.

An uplifting story to be sure, but director-producer David Swajeski doesn't do it justice.

Yunus would seem to be a prime candidate for a movie about his work. Unfortunately, director Holly Mosher's by-the-numbers documentary Bonsai People isn't the answer.

Sweet but not especially original.

Burning Annie has funny moments, but it suffers from an overflow of characters.

An amateurish, pointless exercise in filmmaking.

The cinematography and sets look great, but the script is a bummer. It's overlong, overwrought and overblown.

Sucky vampire flick.

The result is mystifying - intentionally so - and frustrating. But it's worth a look.

If the script serves any purpose at all, it is to allow jocks to show off their buff bodies. They're hot, but not worth 12 bucks at the box office.

Dom DeLuise, as a fruitcake director, and John Waters fave Mink Stole, as Robin's Jewish mother, spice things up, but not enough to make Girl Play worthwhile.

Going Under is the feature directorial debut of 65-year-old Eric Werthman, who has been a practicing psychotherapist for a quarter of a century. If you're not already seeing a shrink, Mr. Werthman, may we suggest that you start immediately.

An old-fashioned soaper that will please or not, depending on a viewer's tolerance for schmaltz.

A bland look at professional surfing.

Dirk Shafer's feature doesn't offer much in terms of plot or acting. But it does have oodles of hunky male bodies. The choice is yours.

Lou Diamond Phillips is let down by an uninspired supporting cast, including Bruce Weitz as a crippled con artist and Tracy Middendorf as the requisite femme fatale, a clichéd script, and flat direction by Stephen Purvis.

With so many worthwhile movies out there just waiting for a release, it's a shame that this tired drama is getting a run.

Anybody involved in the underground scene might get a kick out of Maestro -- but others will likely be bored stiff.

Tucker's message is sometimes on target, even if his film isn't.

Would that somebody had fired Gurwitch before she could have finished Fired!

The street action is a grabber, but the story itself isn't.

It’s doubtful that Scorsese will redo this new Lau thriller, which is OK because the Chinese original is all fans need.

Huppert is wonderful, as usual, and she's to be congratulated for taking this daring role. But, alas, even she can't save Ma Mere.

There are a few sweet moments as the story reaches its unsurprising conclusion. But, all in all, Flakes isn't going to bowl you over.

[Hernandez] is obviously a man more concerned with art than commerce, but good intentions don't always make for good filmmaking.

Director-writer Shimon Dotan takes this iffy story and makes it nearly unwatchable by jumping back and forth in time, using screens within screens and bouncing between color and black-and-white.

So bland that it fails to make an impression.

If there's a fresh idea in When Harry Tries To Marry, I couldn't find it.

Fails as a detective story, but it does offer an entertaining look at the punk scene in the 1970s.

Watching Wake is akin to listening to anonymous neighbors argue about matters you know nothing about -- nor care about. You only wish they'd shut up.

The director, Queens-born Adam Watstein, who also edited and co-produced, deserves credit for making a film with modest resources.

The movies of prolific and popular Japanese director Takashi Miike evoke many emotions -- nausea, excitement, awe, amazement, shock. One emotion they don't often evoke is boredom. Sad to say,Dead or Alive: Final is boring.

Has a split personality. It starts as a comedy but morphs into an icky family melodrama. It should have stuck with the yuks.

Why make a documentary about these marginal historical figures? Wouldn't one about their famous dad, author of "Death in Venice," etc., be more valuable?

Isn't very good. Not only has Ritter made his documentary a one-sided one, but he commits the journalistic sin of using himself as the film's main talking head. In other words, he's interviewing himself.

LaBruce devotees will be tickled pink; others will be perplexed and/or disgusted.

Brainless and pointless.

Utter junk.

As a narrative, Shem, directed by Caroline Roboh, is a pointless hodgepodge, with a finale that will leave viewers scratching their heads.

A cheesy and unpleasant splatterfest.

Nothing would help make this dud understandable.

It boggles the mind to think that Elite Squad won the top prize at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival in February.

Dieter Laser is grand as the doc, a character Christopher Walken would be comfortable doing, and Akihiro Kitamura provides laughs as the first part of the centipede.

A satirical blast at America's gun culture. But it's so entertaining that even a die-hard NRA member might be impressed.

Nothing happens that hasn't been done better in other films, among them Thomas Vinterberg's excellent 1998 "The Celebration."

Green's odd little movie is clever -- too clever, as it turns out.

Light on dialogue and heavy on creepy atmosphere. See this movie and a visit to the tailor's will never be the same.

Peros probably intends Footprints to be an homage to Hollywood's Golden Age. But the script's so incoherent and the acting so amateurish that it makes the worst old-time Hollywood B-flick seem like "Citizen Kane."

Melodramatic and heavy-handed.

Has little to offer beyond titillation and pretty landscapes.

A Hole in My Heart will disgust many (probably most) viewers as it cements Moodysson's reputation as one of today's most daring filmmakers.

Earnest but not terribly original.

Unlike Cursed, which resorts to blatant but unconvincing gore and violence, "The Wolf Man" (1941) gets its point across through suggestion, makeup and spooky sets.

The Greeks have a word for Blackmail Boy: boring.

The NYU film grad steals liberally from Woody (especially "Annie Hall") - from camera placement to body language to plot twists to the whole Ingmar Bergman thing. That's not necessarily bad, if the project works. This one doesn't - it just annoys.

Approach is too heavy-handed to have much effect. Rod Serling probably could have turned the premise into an enjoyable episode of "The Twilight Zone."

My Way is not, as the title might suggest, a Frank Sinatra biopic. No, it's an eye-popping, empty-headed World War II epic made in South Korea.

You will be so put off by the bland couple (what do you expect from people named Joe and Jane?) and their dumb arguing - not to mention the grating score - that you won't really care.

The autobiographical script meanders and the acting never solidifies. Besides, the leads look too old to be in high school - maybe even college.

Director Bolton could easily have exploited the film's unsettling issues, but he takes a nonsensationalized approach that leaves viewers to decide the moral questions for themselves.

While the original was an art-house success, this English-language redo, now getting a one-week run after sitting on the shelf for a year and a half, doesn't measure up.

The cast includes rappers Da Brat, Mos Def and MC Lyte. Their fans might get some pleasure from Civil Brand. Everybody else best stay away.

The one highlight is Julia Nickson, who breathes life into the role of Ethan's evil stepmom.

If there is anything positive in The Girl Next Door, it is the brave performance by Auffarth, who is in her early 20s. Other than that, there's little reason to see the movie. Unless, of course, you get off on watching the sexual exploitation of underage girls.

Features some good acting, but most of it doesn't ring true.

It might take a while to figure out what is happening, because Khoo provides no expository dialogue. But viewers' patience will be rewarded as the stories come together in a moving fashion.

Ranks high on the squirm meter. But, unlike in most of her earlier work, there's no emotional payoff.

The script is obvious and cliched and the action is more disgusting than frightening.

Marlene Rhein has directed 40 music videos, including ones for Tupac Shakur and Amy Winehouse. Judging by this, her feature debut, she should stick with the music.

Not only isn't the new effort up to the standards of the anime, it's bloody awful by any standard.

A self-indulgent work.

The people who are inflicting this movie on us intend it as some sort of inspirational epic. But the only thing it will motivate viewers to do is get out of the theater.

Exploitation pure and simple. But it's artistically redeeming exploitation. If you can handle it, see it.

Sappy and simplistic.

Never rises above the level of a second-rate TV sit-com.

Will there be a “Hatchet IV’’? I shudder to think about it.

Dumb and unwatchable.

The noise level reminds me of Canal Street in Chinatown on a Sunday afternoon.

Burzynski is dull, dull, dull, even for an infomercial.

The dialogue is banal and the acting, especially Wortham's, is unconvincing. Even the sex and nudity, of which there is a lot, grows tiresome after a while.

With so many worthy movies being made in Europe, it's a crime that something as mediocre as Erotic Tales gets a release here.

Sickeningly violent and inane movie.

The longer the movie goes on, the more annoying Benigni's infantile behavior becomes.

Levy's innovative movie should appeal to mumblecore fans while perplexing mainstream audiences.

In his feature debut, Bormatov doesn't much bother with things like character development, relying instead on raw brutality, profanity and sex. It shouldn't be long before the Hollywood remake with Angelina Jolie.

Plays like a bad daytime soap opera. The acting is amateurish. Ditto the uninspired script (continuity? what's that?) and direction.

Offensive and unwatchable.

It would be easy to dismiss House of the Sleeping Beauties as a lewd male fantasy, but that would be ignoring the German film's deeper purpose as - in the words of the director, Vadim Glowna - a meditation on "transition, remembrance, mourning, guilt, loneliness, sex and death, eroticism and dying."

The movie, directed by Mick Jackson, leaves no cliché unturned, from the predictable plot to the characters straight out of central casting.

Having Damon Wayans in the cast might attract viewers to Harlem Aria, but they're bound to be disappointed by the amateurish drama.

After Fall, Winter would play better minus at least half an hour of flab.

For one thing, it goes on too long. But it looks good, the cast is perky.

It's hard to believe that the distributors of See No Evil were so afraid of what critics would say about their movie that they refused to provide advance screenings. The movie's target viewers aren't the type who read reviews, if they read at all.

Sick, disgusting and vile. It's also demonically funny, stylish and ingenious.

The overall result is superficial and deadly boring.

Makes little attempt to be credible or original. And the acting is poor.

The toilet caper is the lowest point of a movie with many low points, including bad acting and a generic script.

Loud, crass and full of slapstick humor that the Three Stooges would be ashamed of. And it is almost completely lacking in charm and nuance.

Schwartz throws in so many characters and implausible subplots - none worth mentioning - that Perception sinks under its own weight.

A chaotic mess.

Akerman uses simple long shots and beautiful composition to give the film a smooth, fluid look. She is assisted by understated but convincing acting, especially by Testud, who is also on New York screens in "Murderous Maids."

Technically competent. What it needs is an original script.

The director, 30-year-old Dalibor Matanic, allows himself a few weepy moments, but mostly the script stays on target, accompanied by strong acting and lensing.

The script is fresh and accessible - even for folks who don't know Croatia from Cambodia - and it is put over by solid acting and direction.

Mary is a mess. An interesting one, yet still a mess.

Mendoza gives a heart-tugging performance as Mariana.

It's an interesting story, but the presentation is more like a home movie than something you'd pay to see in a theater.