When the film goes into its second half, the initial fascination has almost worn off. You still want to see how the puzzle is put together, but you want to see it rather sooner than later.

The kind of film in which you pretty much know that everything is going to turn out all right in the end. That doesn't mean, however, that one won't enjoy watching this warm and fuzzy exercise in escapism in the process.

Do we really want to live in a world void of "Wild Man" Fischers, and all their unique forms of creative expression? Savor the fascinating, thought-provoking Derailroaded, and you be the judge.

One of the drawbacks to rushing your sequel to theaters is that there's not a lot of time to hone dialogue and performances.

What ultimately keeps The Weather Man from being a better film than it is that it doesn't no when to quit.

Overall, New York Doll is an affectionate (occasionally too much so) look at Arthur Kane.

Filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, who helmed the excellent "Rana's Wedding," missed the boat on this one. He may have hoped to give a human voice to the suicide bombers, but instead he gave them a misfired movie.

Whereas "Cuckoo’s Nest" is a brilliantly over-the-top accomplishment, The Passenger is more brilliant with the most effortless underplaying one can ever hope to witness on screen.

So here it is, an arena rock type film event for lovers of Asian cinema. Good news is that you won’t have that annoying ringing in your ears the day after. Better news is that you’ll have food for thought way after witnessing these spectacles.

This very conventional PBS style videodoc should not be viewed before operating heavy machinery. However, there's plenty to fascinate devotees of the dance.

Doesn’t break any new ground – it actually steals from half a dozen other sci-fi movies – but it’ll make enough at the box office to justify further game flicks.

One of the coolest and most memorable films of 2005 – I just want to see it again.

Jessica Sanders has observed a collection of lives dramatically altered by a flawed legal system.

A remarkable triumph of documentary filmmaking. It is impossible to walk away from this film without being jolted.

A touching and almost ridiculously inspirational story for all of us.

Takes a personal, kinder-gentler Michael Moore/Nick Broomfield approach to exposing anti-Semitism.

It's clear right away that The Roost is no hack job. It's made by people who have a major love for the genre and generally anything that goes bump in the night.

When a film is more conducive to a scholarly dissection than a consumerist examination, the film is incredibly clever, pragmatic, or pretentious. In the case of Domino, it's all of the above.

The biggest problem with Elizabethtown isn't in its shopworn theme, but that it's perhaps the first of Crowe's movies (though "Jerry Maguire"comes very close) that really feels forced.

It's too mediocre (and PG-13) to be classified as a horror film, too inane to be taken seriously and too uninteresting to be bothered with.

An above average film, and features fine performances (Theron and McDormand are probably stone locks for more Oscar nominations), but be wary of the advertising pointing out the film's similarities to movies like "Erin Brockovich."

As impatient as I was with Loggerheads, I can't hate it. The sincerity of its performances is too real; its compassion for its characters is too strong. On the other hand, I haven't mentioned yet that the loggerhead is a species of turtle.

Garcia is a thoughtful filmmaker not only by the group of actors he has gathered, but in remembering that there has been and will be people watching his movie.

Summer Storm is director/co-writer Marco Kreuzpaintner's entry into the "I'm not gay but my boyfriend is" genre.

The Dark Hours is one of those rare gems out of Canada.

Clooney has littered his film with such a high quantity of mistakes that it is hard to know where exactly to begin finding fault.

For you guys out there stuck with a lady-friend looking for that "Beaches" replacement, here it is.

Has its rollicking moments and snappy lines but even Pacino can't elevate them into more than a fleetingly juicy treat. This is a movie that desperately wishes it had been written by David Mamet.

Waiting… is only intermittently funny, but when it is, it's hilarious.

What might just be this film's greatest strength is how it shows that no matter how "different" we might appear to be on the outside, what's on the inside is what provides our common bonds.

The two young leads--Vincent Kartheiser and Taryn Manning--bring a sense of reality to their roles. This combines with Milgard’s direction and choice of backdrops to make Dandelion an unassuming journey.

I'm a sucker for so-called "mockumentaries." They're charming, usually outlandish, and you never have to worry if anyone is getting exploited. NBT is no exception.

Baumbach crams an impressive amount of characterization and humor into 82 minutes.

Maybe if PETA tried being funny instead of comparing eating meat to the Holocaust, they’d have a bigger following.

At last, the hopeless romantics and the gorehounds can feast at the same table.

This is a film that exists because of fans, was written for the fans and yet can be enjoyed by just about anyone willing to have a good time.

One of the most beautifully stark, yet provocative and powerful films of 2005 has to be Capote. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who gives his finest screen performance to date, literally becomes Truman Capote through effete mannerism, nasaly voice & self-absorbed tone.

Jaglom has the good sense to cast the legendary Lee Grant in an extraordinary role.

What it makes up for with sheer visual magic it lacks in coherent plotline.

Alas, the big screen also magnifies the problems with Once Upon a Time in the West. Specifically, Leone’s insistence on style trumped the need for substance. The film is basically a B-Western stretched an agonizing 165 minutes.

I would like to praise My Big Fat Independent Movie for achieving something that most independently-produced comedies fail to do: it creates laughs.

Repetitive interaction between characters in an aimless story can't hold up the film's weight, and it eventually collapses on its noble attempt to capture life's frustrations and compromises.

As it is, Flightplan is half of a pretty good movie. But to maintain that impression, I recommend you take a nap for the last 40 minutes.

Nothing about this film is as cathartic as it tries to make itself be because the characters just aren't that absorbing. Instead of tugging your heart, it just spits in your eye.

The film is challenging and consistently interesting, but also trite and overbearing to the extent that it damages its message.

Hollywood is definitely at its worst here and not the type of Hollywood which would dare to greenlight this; just Hollywood being portrayed on film.

Has a terrible air of been-there/done-that.

This is definitely not your typical Cronenberg. No matter if you either love his cinematic oddities, or if you’re put off by them, watching A History of Violence would prove beneficial. It’s no doubt one of the best films of the year.

The greatest accomplishment of Occupation: Dreamland is showing those of us on the home front that it really is possible, Republican howling to the contrary aside, to support our troops without supporting the war itself.

Handsomely produced but emotionally inert offering.

This sounds an awful lot like "Memento." But unlike that movie, the French-Swiss-Spanish-Italian co-production Novo opts for a Eurotrash sex comedy approach instead.

Paltrow gives the performance of the year, and perhaps of her career, in this extraordinary and powerful dissection of genius, jealousy, madness and serenity.

Writer-Director Paul Etheredge-Ouzts has a clear understanding of the beauty of a slasher film. A formulaic genre, it’s not the blueprint that’s important, it’s what you do inside it that matters.

Cry_Wolf has nothing going for it.

You won’t want to sit through.

An arresting and disturbing piece of work that gets its message across without coming off as overly preachy.

A visual triumph, and also a work of surprising warmth. No small accomplishment for a bunch of cadavers.

Part of what makes the film engaging is the carefully nuanced performances Panayotopoulou gets from her actors. In particular, Giorgos Karayannis.

Benefits from a goofy yet incisive sense of humor and some extremely strong performances.

Sadly, the death scenes are so unimaginative and the gore is so minimal that you might miss it if you blink.

I haven't seen such meaningful insight into the nature of human cooperation since this morning's "Sesame Street."

Could have been both a gripping courtroom drama and a chilling "is she or isn’t she?" horror tale. What we have instead is a movie that drifts, almost unmanned, from plot point to plot point.

There’s enough character development for a 20-minute short, and 75 additional minutes are manufactured with slight variations on the same scenes in different rooms of the house.

Typical of too many films produced in Israel: plodding, verbose, badly-made and completely monotonous.

A great film because of it's realism and the ability to show viewers a world that exists even today, but not everyone knows about.

Fluff. The cinematic equivalent of too much cotton candy Tetsuya Nanashima's Kamikaze Girls is a hyperkinetic fun house ride that is about forty five minutes too long.

The cast is genuine in their emotions, the film depicts them that way, and the camera doesn’t feel compelled to go hand-held crazy--which is refreshing.

Transporter 2 was directed by Louis Leterrier and he exemplifies a perfect style for this type of film by showing us the action without editing it to bits.

A guilty pleasure diversion. Yeah, it is dumber than a bag of hair. But it is also fast, occasionally funny and genuinely entertaining in an old-fashion no-brainer manner.

If you have nothing more stimulating to do on a Friday night, Underclassman could provide the entertainment--not enlightenment--you seek.

Put simply, Mind Game is a mind-blowing experience.

The film is able to be a thriller, a political statement and a haunting romance all at once.

On the whole, The Brothers Grimm is a mess; a formerly daring director’s attempt to cash in on big studio backing even after the rug has been pulled out from under him.

Much of the film rests on the shoulders of Conrad Pla who plays Raymond Pope. He is the focus of the movie and proves himself an excellent leading man.

One of the most interesting and two-sided films to be made about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Violent, vulgar, disgusting and incredibly funny.

Craven eschews horror trappings and gore for a well-paced and engaging thriller that keeps the audience involved despite the fact that most of what takes place onscreen is a conversation between two people.

A wicked good time.

Certainly a stylish affair, but also an extremely bleak and unpleasant one.

That legendary adolescent tolerance for garbage may be severely tested by Supercross.

An honest look at the experience of a family who lives a yearlong tropical movie adventure on a remote island in Fiji.

Isn’t exactly dull, but it isn’t scary either.

It’s more than adequate as an old school action movie slightly updated for modern audiences.

The results are by turns fascinating, horrifying, and maddening.

Kills itself with unrestrained negativism, but almost resuscitates itself with some great comedy.

A horror film that scares you to insomnia is good in the sense that it succeeds in what it sets out to do.

Just make sure you exit the theater before Simpson's god-awful version of "These Boots Are Made for Walking" starts playing during the end credits, or you may find yourself taking the straw from your drink and puncturing your own eardrums in self defense.

Possibly the most European of major American directors, Jim Jarmusch wears his influences on his sleeve and makes no bones about it.

The fascinating visuals and performances by Leung and the assortment of actresses like Gong, Zhang Ziyi and Maggie Cheung ensure that the film is still worth watching.

Any film that can make you cringe at it's honesty, laugh at it's insanity and yet follow along hook line and sinker is something special.

McGowan’s film isn’t just about following this boy’s private quest to accomplish the impossible. It is also about how he affects the other characters in the film.

A series of pretentious social commentary punctuated by windows of excellence that only make it more frustrating.

An admirable film, but its charms will be visible only to the most patient filmgoers.

The movie wastes the talents of its two leads by refusing to take any risks with the material, marching in lockstep to every genre cliché.

Surprisingly good.

An essential for all serious humor fans who don't mind verbal grossness of the most extreme sort.

You really have to be in the right mood to sit through Tony Takitani. You have to be ready to take in a thoroughly depressing story that moves...very...slowly.

Shows that war is horrible, but fails to fully understand the people who experience the horror beyond their sad exteriors.