Images about imagery can be diverting, even insightful, but this painterly 1999 feature piles up studies in elaborately choreographed motion that are their own reason for being.

The kind of ugly-duckling role that's long been ironic for her (Bullock).

I laughed a lot at the anti-Hollywood humor and generally had a fine time, in spite of the holier-than-thou hypocrisy that makes this movie easily and even intentionally Mamet's most Hollywoodish picture to date.

The movie is impressive for its even mix of snarky humor and sincere sentiment, and even more impressive when one considers that director Isao Takahata made his name with the harrowing antiwar drama Grave of the Fireflies (1988).

Not even D.W. Griffith, Steven Spielberg, and Stanley Kubrick working together could succeed in making this pandering piece of nonsense work dramatically on any level except the most egregiously phony.

Would have proved the point if it weren't so mechanically scripted.

Writer Philip Stark ("That '70s Show") and director Danny Leiner ("Freaks and Geeks") apply mature comic instincts to an adolescent genre.

Exciting, clever sequences driven by surprisingly little plot and culminating in a climax full of the transmogrification animation was invented for.

The director (Hallstrom) and cast are all excellent.

This asthma-inducing adventure set on K2 starts out seeming as if its corny storytelling and phony-looking settings were designed to show that it's as much about genre-movie conventions as anything else.

Enchanting, multilayered fable.

Against the lush backdrop of the Andes, Crowe and Caruso define on-screen cool: good guys in a match of wits and firepower who even talk about their emotions.

The plot somehow manages to be both hackneyed and convoluted.

The first Ang Lee film I've seen that I've liked without qualification.

The best short on this program of five is Bradley Rust Gray's 18-minute "Hitch."

The elaborate climax set in a Paris bakery is the least boring part of this trained-animal movie.

Ridiculous enough to be hilarious, but this didn't prevent me from thoroughly enjoying Philip Kaufman's silly romp.

Mesmerizing dark fable, which also contains moments of comedy and action that don't disrupt its oddly earnest tone

Boyd brings no new insights to this drama of men in a confined space, a situation that's been the basis for many powerful war films.

Entrancingly lurid live-action fantasy.

The unusually thoughtful dialogue and soul-searching performances make this romantic drama seem deeper than it is.

The plot turns on the complicated lives of the daughters, who are played by Sabine Azema, Emmanuelle Beart, and Charlotte Gainsbourg; they, Fabian, and Rich are the main reasons for seeing this picture.

Tom Courtenay is quite good in the title role, and Julie Christie makes a memorable early appearance .

This movie is a clone itself, a far cry from "Total Recall" but vastly superior to "End of Days."

The makers of this eclectically animated adventure, a follow-up to "The Rugrats Movie," know their audience, though all the "Godfather" references will be thoroughly puzzling to at least half of it.

Adam Sandler displays no virtuosity and stirs no pathos in this special-effects comedy.

Definitely worth checking out.

The real drama is the city itself, steeped in history yet undergoing a Western face-lift.