A frenetic movie that combines a video-game sensibility with cartoonish, whacked-out violence. As with all good modern horror, one minute you're laughing out loud and the next you're covering your eyes. [19 Mar 2004, p.1P]

Some of its conceits may not hold up under intense scrutiny, but, generally speaking, it's a good time at the movies.

Every third person on the planet will go to see this movie, and they will find exactly what they seek, nothing more but certainly nothing less. It's that nothing more part that ultimately disappoints.

It is an offbeat gem.

Maybe Rubber is an homage, maybe it's a statement on horror films and their audiences, maybe it's a total goof.

A technically fascinating film that's best when it's angry, less good when romance rears its head.

You come away from watching the film with a moral bellyache.

It doesn’t help that Barrymore and Collette don’t have much chemistry for best friends forever, but Collette’s work is so compulsively watchable that Miss You Already is worth a watch for that reason alone. And precious few others.

Really, every actor is likable and, all by themselves, good here. It’s that each situation is more ridiculous than the last and none of it fits together, even when everything gets tossed into the narrative blender toward the end.

If you enjoyed the first two “Bad Boys” movies, you’ll want to see how the characters have developed. If you aren’t a fan of the series, there is a strong enough story to make the film worthwhile.

What spares Learning to Drive is an awful lot of comedic talent and artistic good will. Clarkson and Kingsley imbue average material with easy charm and wit, clicking onscreen with the smooth platonic chemistry of old friends.

More of the same, using the found-footage tricks the first two films employed to try to shock the audience. But man, are those some good tricks.

The Joker’s superpower is his resentment, his narcissism, and Phoenix cultivates these methodically in his performance, slowly transmuting the character’s awkward fragility into a kind of raging charisma — aided and abetted, of course, by all the tricks of art direction, sound design and editing that a journeyman filmmaker has at his disposal.

The Little Mermaid delivers on every front and will likely be one of the summer’s biggest box-office winners.

Director Michael Dowse (from the underrated Topher Grace comedy "Take Me Home Tonight") fuels the story with atmosphere, with lots of nighttime activity and bustle. He keeps things grounded in reality, though little touches (Chantry imagines her drawings coming to life) add an extra — and, perhaps, excessive — sweetness.

It's interesting to wonder how the film will age, given the short shelf life of technology. In two years all this might seem as dated as a dial-up modem, technology not nearly advanced enough to support the action here. But for now Unfriended lives in the moment, as do its characters.

We aren't used to comedies that make us squirm like this. That doesn't mean they aren't worth our time. This Is 40 is.

When she’s playing Cruella, Stone is definitely in charge. It’s a bravura performance, filled with a crackling energy that never spills over into parody. That’s what saves it. Stone makes Cruella a believable character — if not relatable, then at least recognizable.

Far-fetched? Yes. A little sugary? Also yes, especially if Thomas were removed from the equation. Happily, she is not, and that, combined with the performances of McGregor, Blunt and Waked, makes Salmon Fishing in the Yemen a charming little movie.

The humor here is on the dry side of zany, and it won't tickle every funny bone, any more than Mike Myers does, or - perhaps a more apt comparison - Terry Gilliam's tart filmic fantasies. But no matter what, you have to admit this mix of lowbrow humor and French erudition has a style of its own.

Mostly “Novocaine” is just fun. And mostly, that’s enough.

Much is promised and too little is delivered. What is delivered are intense performances by two terrific actors.

Monster Party is a twisted, grisly little shocker that isn’t afraid to grab you by the guts — or to show you a man’s guts cascading to the floor. It’s that kind of movie. It’s also pretty effective and rather fun, if you have the stomach for this sort of thing.

Without any movie-specific spoilers, it’s hard not to be moved and inspired when you reach the end of the film and realize after everything Steinem and the other pioneering feminists of her day have done to advance the position of women in society, there is still much more work to do.

It’s a lazy, thoroughly unoriginal bit of storytelling, but it has just enough cheeky humor and bass-thumping action scenes to be a potential crowd-pleaser.

It's adorable. It's also very thin. There's a disconcerting literalism to the songs' dramatic representation that chokes the drama.

It’s a promising debut for Böhm, with a lot of promise. But it’s a home run for Powley, who makes Wildling worth watching even when it shouldn’t be.

It’s Hodge’s portrayal of Banks that elevates the film.