The film is sufficiently methodical and well-researched to walk the walk behind its controversial premise. More to the point, it's terribly involving, intriguing enough to hook documentary-shy viewers.

The resultant film is all surface and plush, with nary a hard edge or demanding note. Despite the movie's well-intentioned heart, its head is out to lunch, neglecting its responsibility to provide these powerhouse actresses with a script half as smart or compelling as they.

Offers too small a dose of the blood-and-sand adventure you expect from this sort of big-budget Hollywood remake. As it is, it borders on The English Patient's on again-off again heroics, minus Anthony Minghella's patient skill in eliciting romantic suspense.

Secretary is a testament to the importance of tonality in telling a story.

To make a bad movie worse, even Ballistic's fight scenes, which ought to be the film's strong suit, are poorly edited, slice 'n' diced into incomprehensible blurs.

Proves to be a pleasant romp. Girls just wanna have fun -- even onscreen.

Fiercely original in every respect.

Doesn't tell you anything about human nature you probably haven't already suspected, but then again it's good to be reminded of these dark things from time to time. Especially these days.

Makes it pretty difficult to tell the difference between good mothers and bad.

Never really sure what to say about its subject.

Smart, uncanny, resistant to the short cuts of pop psychology, and shocking in the best since of the word, Steers' debut is a stunner.

Towers head and hairpiece above much of what passes for urban comedy these days.

With all the wrong Stealing Harvard has done, it at least bestows one gift upon its audience: the gift of forgettableness.

The biggest shame in this movie is how it wastes Frances McDormand.

In all honesty I'd advise you to go rent the stunning (and brand-new) DVD of the director's great "Le Mépris (Contempt)," which seems to me to be much more Godardian and much less hopeless.

Promises thrills galore but delivers only limp non-frights and predictable yawns.

Would have made a hell of a short -- but falls flat on its hyperstylized face as a feature.

Pretty to look at, tamely racy, and fairly fluffy, despite its two-hour running time.

Again, Hill gives us a world filled with morally complex characters, but that just may be this film's undoing.

It's a shame that the subjects of Gazecki's film come off as so many quasi-mystical loonies.

There's a bright spot in the form of Amy's publicist (screen veteran Aaron), a salty, whiskey-voiced lesbian; it's a pity the movie isn't about her.

It's the kind of bad movie that gives bad movies a bad name.

Torpedoed by its own overarching idealism -- the film targets the new star system, the media, the studios, digital technology, and pretty much everything else you might care to think of -- and not enough script to back it all up.

Anchored by a terrific performance by Abbass, Satin Rouge shows that the idea of women's self-actualization knows few continental divides.

Offers a very interesting snapshot of some decidedly modern pathologies.

In terms of execution this movie is careless and unfocused.

The script also takes the occasional dip into hokeyness, but even that is buoyed by its ballsy leading ladies.

The film is by no means a disaster. Possession is prettily performed, prettily put-together. Yet, for a story set so firmly in the center of a fire, LaBute and his players have suited themselves in some mighty flame-retardant threads.