The assault is against our ears, as the soundtrack pours forth a stream of thrash and Goth music.

The opposite of memorable.

Goes down easily enough.

Won't startle or surprise you but will satisfy your need to see good actors at work.

Best of all, Billy (Jamie Bell) is that rarity in a film distributed by Hollywood: a real boy, confused at 11 about almost everything.

Supplies the three key elements of the best political thrillers: suspense, credibility and the feeling that you're really sitting in the Oval Office.

Yi Yi is an intimate movie, for all its length and complexity.

A frenzied, cacophonic cartoon.

The film's as chaotic and heavy-handed as "Summer of Sam" without the same sense of harsh reality.

The effect is as potent as a straight right to the solar plexus.

The script's hokiness flattens the performances.

If this new film doesn't quite go to 11, it's a healthy 8½.

Can be unbearably moving or annoyingly mawkish, sometimes in the same scene.

John Hancock must be the best filmmaker working in LaPorte County, Ind.

Crowe gave Kate Hudson one pointer while making Almost Famous: Her character simply had to light up every room as soon as she walked into it.

Betty moves into Coen Brothers territory, a land so unreal that horrific behavior wrings laughter from a disbelieving audience.

Chaotic, sometimes funny.

This picture won't attract white audiences. I doubt that blacks would flock to a Jerry Seinfeld concert film. But we'd all get along better if we realized we had the right to laugh at each other's foibles

The movie is somewhat below average. The plot doesn't always hold together.

Sometimes seems longer than a rainy Super Bowl.

Far too clever for its own good.

Blethyn glides through the proceedings elegantly, a comic swan among ducks.

The part that caters to older fans is funny and satisfying, if unbelievable. The part that plays to action-movie devotees is muddled, unsatisfying and unbelievable. Luckily, the first part is about two-thirds of the movie.

Should appeal to anyone who likes films as mushy and unsurprising as baby food.

A painful bore.

He (Murphy) can't make chicken a la king from the chicken manure supplied by the writers.

A picture sufficiently shallow that you'll discover everything that lies beneath it well before the end.

It is a gimmick, rather than an idea worth exploring.