The film is attractively designed and energetically edited, in the usual Disney fashion, and it's interesting to see the Disney folks convey such a hearty endorsement of interracial dating.

There's no reason for stretching this tale to more than two hours, but Huston is amusingly tart as the stepmom, and it's hard to resist a movie that substitutes Leonardo da Vinci for the traditional fairy godmother.

Clint Eastwood transcends the story's cliches with a classically restrained yet steadily imaginative filmmaking style.

Combines a celebration of tolerance with an affirmation of family and community values, and a surprising amount of laugh-out-loud hilarity.

At best, Helena's wiggy adventures recall such Jean Cocteau films as "Orpheus" and "Blood of a Poet." At worst, they resemble the Vegas act of Cirque du Soleil.

Always energetic and sometimes cockamamie enough to be genuinely fun, Hulk is the blockbuster to beat this season.

War Horse, despite its excellences, is a supreme demonstration of a director phoning it in.

Compellingly acted and rich in visual ideas, but a bit thin in its psychological approach.

The picture's thoughtfulness and ambition make it unusually suspenseful, gripping, and disturbing.

Streep’s performance has been criticized for being too theatrical, but that’s off the mark: The character she’s playing is supposed to be theatrical. She’s a woman playing a part – the ravaged matriarch.

The documentary is like the cinematic equivalent of humblebragging. But it does provide one great “told you so” moment.

Princess, as a singer, is the real deal, with a throaty resonance that at times recalls Nina Simone. What Kutiman, whom she eventually meets in Israel, has given her is a newfound and miraculous platform for her talent.

As a frightfest it's better than today's average.

Peter Cattaneo's comedy has brash and boisterous scenes, but its message about the humiliations of unemployment is serious and insightful, and applies far beyond the English setting of this story.

If, like me, you find the movie technique known as motion capture creepy, you might be put off going to see Steven Spielberg's 3-D The Adventures of Tintin.

Wang's A Thousand Years of Good Prayers gives the impression of a director reborn, or at least a director who has his mojo back.

Stylishly directed and smartly acted, especially by the filmmaker-star, who gives one of his best performances as the unerring swordsman.

Renoir at least looks like a great movie. If you want a full-scale immersion in this material, I recommend “Renoir, My Father,” Jean Renoir’s wonderful 1958 biography. This book is the touchstone for all matters Renoir, both père and fils.

The violent story is standard "film noir" fare, but Soderbergh treats it with oomph and imagination.

The movie has enough color and spirit to make lively viewing.

Following the shows from rehearsals to Tony Awards night, she gets behind the scenes and does a good job conveying the incessant anxieties and glee of the talents involved.

If lush landscapes and exotic wildlife are what you're after, this isn't the safari for you. But many moviegoers will respond to its mixture of family drama and Holocaust-era history.

Kevin Spacey gives a richly nuanced performance as the accused killer, and director Clint Eastwood makes the sometimes sordid story less sensationalistic than it might have seemed in less accomplished hands.

Edward Zwick directed this reasonably thoughtful drama, helped by Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan in the main roles.

This intellectual allegory would carry more punch if it didn't slip into melodrama so often, but it marks Aronofsky as an exceptionally promising new filmmaker.

Overlong and repetitive as it is, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, at least delivers the goods.

The problem with The Good Shepherd is that it's a closed-off movie about a closed-off individual. Wilson is inscrutable from the get-go, and remains so. Damon does subtle work within the narrowest of confines.

It's an uneven film, but Dickens admirers shouldn't miss it.