The result is as flat as a year-old beer commercial.

If only it had a plot mere humans could follow.

Rampling's authority over splintered emotions has the force of revelation.

Too bad you can see this sort of thing done more amusingly every week on ABC-TV and Comedy Central.

The surprise behind Town and Country isn't that the director started filming without a finished script, but that he ever thought he had the start of one.

Takes a literary milestone of ambiguity and makes everything about it blisteringly obvious.

What we have here is a film where the first 20 minutes are repeated again and again until everything comes to an absolutely predictable end.

Critically lacks Highsmith's sixth sense for drawing you into the heart and soul of sociopaths, then jolting you with the realization that things are much worse even than they seem.

Handsome and well-acted, yet it can't hold a pawn to Nabokov's harrowing and moving character study.

Like "Tango," Wang's film also seeks to uncover whether sex without emotion is really possible, or worth the effort.

Zellweger has a ticklish furriness reminiscent of Jean Arthur in her screwball comic prime.

A terrific social drama, the work of an artist, not a pleader.

Even with help from a pathetic Kid Rock and a boost from always-on Christopher Walken, Spade can't pull this off.

A comic-book rock band starring in a film that actually makes a point? Now that's something worth singing about.

Modest, tasty, and it goes down easy, like home cooking.

There's an awful lot of kinetic energy to Chopper, and the violence is portrayed as graphically as imaginable.

Too soft on its lead character and too willing to chalk up America's drug appetites to the times-that-were-a-changin' in the '60s.

Best advice: Just sit back and watch Freeman anyway. The man's a cinematic treasure.

Takes 20 minutes to burst into fierce, inspired filmmaking.

A mess.

Brosnan turns his typical talent on its head. So does director Boorman, who forsakes his usual tingling virtuosity.

A headlong pastiche of lower-depth melodrama and absurd black comedy.

The movie's not nearly as cool as the setup.

This chick flick never should have made it out of the incubator.

So minimalist that you wouldn't miss much if you watched semi-awake and listened to a friend's running commentary.

As each male-female relationship works itself out in ways either contrived or predictable, here's betting you wind up more disappointed than enlightened.

To its credit, Heartbreakers lives up to expectations. Almost.

Most of the film is one big blooper reel. There's not enough of a gap between the rejects and the finished movie.

A remarkable film about a remarkable man who's lived the kind of life usually reserved for adventure novels and pulp fiction.

Keeps its eye on the big picture even when focusing on the small scene.

The dramatic content in Memento is as blank as Leonard's post-traumatic mental state.

It was a time in history eminently worth celebrating on film.

This movie is about the survival of the open-minded. As far as current American independents go, it's the fastest and the funniest.

Poses as the story of a wild, eccentric love match but is really about a match made in limbo.

A delightful and exuberant bit of romantic comedy and, as a bonus, it breathes new life into a pair of '70s musical chestnuts long off our culture's radar screens.

The unearned air of moralism that wafts through 15 Minutes pollutes its entertainment value.

A feel-good us-against-them tale that panders mercilessly to its audience, yet displays a few moments of honest humor.

From the start, this movie sets the bar high -- then, unfortunately, runs smack into it.

Unpretentious and brashly exploitative.

The Mexican is its own worst enemy, consistently undermining its best efforts. The result is an over-long series of quirks, a film that's far less than the sum of its often amusing and ingenious parts.

This sophomoric film has little to do with Elvis, and everything to do with putting as much carnage as possible on screen under the guise of art, poetry, choreography, taxidermy.

A raunchy, remorseless "Curious George."

Thanks to the wonderful performances from both Korzun and Considine, there isn't a forced or dishonest moment on-screen.

Its heart and head are in the right place, but its feet and hands aren't busy enough.

Hannibal isn't art. But for filmgoers with a taste for the absurd and a tolerance for the blackest of black humor, it's one heck of a thrill ride.

All about mood, and not one bit about action - which explains why it's at once both the most passionate film of the year so far, and the most determinedly inert.

A more honest version of "Summer of '42."

When the women are onscreen and their relationship is on display, Head Over Heels trips merrily along. But every time the focus shifts to Prinze, the film suffers from a bad case of fallen arches.

Nicholson is terrific here, in a role that demands he act, rather than just be Jack.

In the full-house ensemble of Henry Bromell's Panic, Neve Campbell is the wild card.

Paints a vivid and darkly humorous picture of a world where directors are all-powerful and vampires are real; whether you want to buy into either fantasy is up to you. I did, and had a grand old time.

It's every bit as thrilling and engrossing as the best spy thriller or cop flick.

A terrifically engrossing war film in which not a single shot is fired, a movie about shaping events rather than being shaped by them.

Even a full week after seeing it, I'm still influenced enough by the film's many enchantments not to be overly concerned with its flaws.

A thoughtful, bittersweet film biography of the Cuban writer that captures both his irrepressible spirit and his sometimes overwhelming melancholy.

Anderson brings real gravitas to the unfortunate Lily Bart, in an Oscar-caliber performance that makes one wonder what Academy voters are looking for.

It's a startling physical transformation, as Noland goes from flabby desk jockey to lean, mean fishing machine. But even more remarkable is the mental transformation Hanks effects.

While it displays its share of quirky charm, off-kilter characters and outlandish situations, this is really the first film where you can feel the Coens straining to keep up with themselves.

A snarling satire of Hollywood single-mindedness and its lack of any moral underpinning.

Connery and Brown absolutely shine in their roles.

Outside of a strong (and largely misused) cast and an abundance of moody atmosphere, there's precious little to recommend this exploitative mess.

A frequently hilarious exercise in one sex desperately trying to figure out the other.

Truth is, one can probably tell as much about Jackson Pollock the man by looking at his paintings than by watching this movie.

Nobody does this stuff better than Disney, and there's plenty here to like.

Has an unerring capacity for going soft whenever a hard edge is called for.

OK, so some of the scenes are a sham, but the mountain of suspense and adventure is enough to keep you captivated.

Fortunately, this film doesn't have to depend on off-screen dalliances to prove its worth.

The plot is as thin and confusing as it sounds.

Rarely has combat been portrayed as beautifully as in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Taiwanese director Ang Lee's thoughtful meditation on menace, mortality and the martial arts.

It should come as no surprise that the dogs are as cute as caninely possible. But is it conceivable that, once you've seen 101 adorable dogs, 102 seems redundant?

One gets the feeling Kaufman was so intent on putting fury and fanaticism on-screen, he forgot about having it serve any greater purpose. Which makes Quills the film equivalent of one of de Sade's novels: artifice, without art.

Ultimately, the film can't help but disappoint. Movies where you're continually waiting for the other shoe to drop are never as much fun as those where you never expected the first one to fall.

Misfires on nearly every possible level.

Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow are so immensely appealing, and their chemistry together is so unforced, that their presence alone makes a movie worth seeing. Thankfully, Bounce has even more going for it.

Closely follows the Schwarzenegger formula, right down to the fiery, explosive-rife finale. If you like the formula, you'll probably enjoy the movie.

Wildly entertaining.

Goes to such great lengths to show the greatness of its Navy diver hero that it neglects to add much depth to his character - or the story.

The Legend of Bagger Vance is nothing but "The Natural" with Will Smith playing the bat.

Irresistible, campy fun.

Love, however implausible, is simply beautiful in Venus.

Ephron's attempt at dark humor isn't a complete payoff overall in Lucky Numbers, but it doesn't fail either.

The real hero here is Ghobadi, whose love and respect for the culture in which he was raised shines through every frame.

It's not meant to be scary. It's meant to be Disney -- a fun and warm children's fantasy.

Gets credit for avoiding the easy path. Too bad the path it chooses doesn't lead us anywhere we want to be taken.

Should sell its soul for a joke.

Vintage Chan, with amazingly well-choreographed fight scenes.

Caan is so good as a man who watches helplessly as everything he's worked for crumbles around him, that he steals the picture from both Wahlberg and Phoenix, the ostensible stars.

More of a sales pitch than a movie.

This would be an excellent movie from a first-time filmmaker, but from one of America's premiere directors, it's a disappointment.

Why would anyone pay to see this movie?

The performances of Bell, Walters and Lewis make this movie worth seeing - as long as you silence your cynical side and bring some Kleenex.

A grade-B rumination on what a nasty guy the devil can be.

Has the fingerprints of earnest, first-time filmmakers all over it.

Misfires by constantly tossing out liberal feel-goodisms.

Well-acted, lovingly put together and heartbreakingly honest.

Stay away from this movie. Brainless cartoonish violence.

Nothing seriously detracts from the film's overall brilliance.

De Niro and Stiller combine to bring on laughs you don't have to feel guilty about.