It's blunt, to the point, aggressively manipulative and, at 86 minutes, not a minute longer than it needs to be.

This delicate, transporting movie, which keeps dialogue to a minimum to tell its story primarily through images, is also a triumph of sheer cinematic craft that mirrors its characters' contemplative natures while extolling the virtues of lives simply led.

It's an unabashedly square picture, and proud of it. It is also a warm, funny, earnest movie, a stand-up exercise in a kind of Hollywood melodrama -- the feel-good weepie -- that has long been out of fashion.

Irritating when it should be amusing, dumb when it should be zany, flat when it should be snappy.

Intentionally designed to rile as much as entertain.

Energetic, nostalgic, occasionally troubling movie.

The first film was tedious in the extreme; Monsters Unleashed, though it feels way too long and padded, it shows at least brief flashes of imagination.

A thoughtful, audacious meditation on love and relationships that finds a group of wildly disparate talents clicking together in perfect unison.

Even though Taking Lives is not very good, it does contain a) a cool car chase and b) a sex scene in which Jolie goes topless. For some, this will be enough entertainment.

Faster, leaner and more compact than the original. Dumber, too, but that's almost always the case with remakes.

Despite its flaws, The Gatekeeper will keep you engaged.

A high-wire act of storytelling, tone and old-fashioned chutzpah.

In the end Secret Window asks too much, demands allegiance when only incredulity can be mustered.

Bergman's debut feature is tender yet disturbing, sad yet at times funny.

Like most movies about death, the gentle, quirky Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself ultimately turns out to be a story about embracing life.

The scattershot nature of the script, which feels as if it had been made up on the spot, leaves the actors looking like they're enjoying some private joke not shared with the audience. Self-indulgent does not even begin to describe it.

The racing itself is entertaining enough, though it's not so mesmerizing as the shorter, more focused competition in the far-superior "Seabiscuit."

That the film avoids the conflicts making the daily headlines out of Israel is one good reason why James' Journey, though not very well made, is interesting.

Far more imaginative and intriguingly moody than other recent thrillers.

In the end, they are only moments, and even at a merciful 86 minutes, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights feels formidably long.

Twisted is a movie so derivative it's hard to pinpoint exactly how many other thrillers it poaches from.

There's a strange, bittersweet melancholy in watching the protagonists of Good Bye, Lenin! being buffeted about by change, but refusing to let go of each other.

It's a strange kind of spiritual movie -- one that aims for the gut more often than the heart.

The film's concept is so absurd and Hamer goes about developing it with such a regimented structure that you have to believe that the filmmaker is poking fun at himself and the world he knows well.

A cliché-ridden, condescending and ham-handed film that clumsily fails to bring to life what should be an interesting story. You might say none of its punches even comes close to connecting.

But the blame for the stultifying Mooseport lies squarely on the shoulders of the screenwriters and anyone else who assumed the limited Romano could carry such a dated, lousy film. The results are in: He can't do it, at least not without a lot more help.

You can tell they're desperate when they unashamedly resort to showcasing cutesy sea-creature behavior. Sandler is a funny guy. Let him work for his own laughs. He doesn't need a puking walrus to prop him up.

Some scenes drag, but Seagull's Laughter is still delightful.