Walter Addiego

While the film adopts a sometimes jaunty tone, the fact is that gerrymandering is bad news, assuming you believe that elections should mean something.

A misfire.

A frantic, epic-sized blowout of campy, "Indiana Jones" -style derring-do mixed with lots of computer-generated gee-whizzes.

The veteran Baker anchors the proceedings, and you would like to see more of her character.

This ambitious and sometimes entertaining Brazilian feature tries to pull off a tricky maneuver but doesn't quite get it done.

The ending is a disappointment, a perfunctory upbeat gesture.

The best of the longer segments is "Steve," a piece of Pinter light starring Firth as a passive-aggressive neighbor from hell who repeatedly turns up at the door of a bickering couple (Knightley and Tom Mison) to register a series of baseless complaints.

A relentlessly quirky British comedy-drama that demonstrates why more is not always more.

As a grab bag of reminiscences by veteran funny people, bolstered with richly entertaining performance footage, it's boffo.

While there's a certain staid feeling to the production, it does deliver a solid working-over to the era's gentry.

Perhaps the film's greatest strength is the performance by Kwanten, who appears in HBO's "True Blood" and may be familiar from his lead role in the big-screen Aussie thriller "Red Hill." Dermody also does well.

There's more than a touch of whimsy in A Touch of Spice, a sentimental Greek offering that's been immensely popular in its home country but doesn't translate well.

Has more in common with a horror movie than with a genuine political work.

The glory of the picture is the eye-popping, surreal backgrounds that blast the conventional characters off the screen.

It's an intriguing portrait, but it makes no pretense at objectivity, erring on the side of hero worship.

Demon Knight may be a good career move by director Ernest Dickerson ( "Juice" ), proving that he can work with a reasonably large budget on a genre film. But the picture breaks no ground, and in terms of his own development, it's hardly a step forward.

Amenta was deeply moved by Rita's story, but his prosaic direction can't do it justice.

It seems like another misstep - the story just doesn't hold up to Ritchie's treatment.

Surprisingly pedestrian.

Overall, it's pretty elementary stuff, along the lines of a Disney Channel TV movie. It's uplifting, and it's in a good cause.

This film is mainly for “Night at the Museum” diehards.

The film was clearly a labor of love, for good or ill. At one point, Galinsky jokingly refers to the production as “semi-unprofessional.” This is unusual and welcome frankness from a moviemaker.

The film is morbid and mawkish, and packed with enough forced whimsy to make you scream.

Besides some fine dogfight sequences, it often feels threadbare, just an exercise in recycling.

Despite highly enjoyable moments and the welcome presence of Kate Winslet, even sympathetic viewers will be put off by the movie’s bewildering variety of genres and tones.

Lust on the Grand Prix circuit. [30 Sep 2007, p.N34]

The handsome and appealing Max, by the way, is played by five dogs. For the record, he is a Belgian Malinois, a breed that in real life is often used in police and military work.

If only it wasn't such bloody nonsense.