Worth navigating for its refusal to play to the crowd. There's certainly nothing safe or sweet about Weaver's performance.

It's a satisfying swan song.

Reed's manic direction rarely lets up between show-stopping cheer numbers.

It's a larky hoot in its best moments, and it has a refreshingly unforced sense of fun that buoys the scenes that are straight out of Lame Movie Laffs 101.

If you're in the mood for a helping of lite cheesecake, you ought to find plenty of reason to shake your pom-poms.

The entire ensemble is first-rate.

Faithless, filmed mostly during Sweden's endless winter, will chill you to the bone.

The year's first sure-fire Oscar nominee has arrived with flying colors.

Contains more than a handful of big laughs and a highly charismatic cast that knows how to put them over.

One of the year's best imports and one of the very few queer movies that transcends its sexual orientation.

Savy script... terrific performances... [yet] the movie's herky jerky pacing may leave you wanting.

Comes off as an exceedingly pleasant, wistful romantic romp.

A film that's bound to be loathed for its irrationalities and narrative drunkenness, just as it will be beloved for its original risks and manic visual energy.

Disturbing, powerful essay on one aspect of the rock and drug culture at the end of the 1960s.

An entertaining but insubstantial romantic thriller loaded with Euro-chic trappings and no small amount of sex appeal.

All in all, she comes off as quite a complex creature.

Doesn't come close to the pulp beauty and complexity of classic noir.

Works best as a mood piece — the mood, however, is grim.

It's a tad too generic to be a slam dunk.

Zahn's dazed and confused, droopy-mustached dude steals every scene he's in...a movie that will make you smile and put a lump in your throat.

First-time writer-director Mark Hanlon creates a solidly trippy atmosphere.

A charming movie.

Tries to have it both ways -- as a kitschy ode to bodybuilding culture and as a tragic story of a man who was persecuted for his dreams.

Ultimately nothing more than a live-action cartoon. A high-minded, inspiring cartoon, but a cartoon nonetheless.

Crawford's such a good-hearted guy, you can't help but want a cut from his clippers.

After an uproarious first half, Saving Grace arrives at its conclusion somewhat hastily and conveniently.

A genre-busting film that deserves to be seen.

There's talent to burn in this movie. But the flame is cold.

It's another subtle, fantastic performance from McKee ("Notting Hill," "Croupier").

Strangely, what it most lacks is the genuine tension found in the first "Mission"'s signature set pieces.

An ambitious film, nearly an exploitative one, but its lingering effects are positive.

He's (Eastwood) made a mature film that bests nearly all of the summer's highly touted blockbusters for pure escapism.

Even if it sometimes skips, it's consistently wittier and more idiosyncratic that most studio movies.

Banderas may have been crazy to make such a heady directorial debut, but it's hard not to be charmed by his ambitions.

A near-perfect confection, a beautifully executed Hollywood all-you-can-eat salad bar of glamour, plot twists, breathtaking Mediterranean vistas, and jazz.

Seems truncated, incomplete -- mostly because the patented Shyamalan twist is revealed in the dénouement, not the climax.

An adroitly made, perfectly acted little nightmare.

A remarkable debut, and its first half is a genuine jolt.

You could do a lot worse than spend two hours in the company of two such talented actresses.

Rarely falters but neither does it ever take flight.

Proof of Life won't hold your heart hostage for very long after it's over, but here's looking at Russell Crowe -- he's the real deal, sweetheart.

Juggles a few too many subplots, cramming in more issues than your average nightly newscast. But more often than not, this is a film to savor.

A thoughtful, stunning piece of work in what, of late, has been an otherwise arid indie landscape.

Rodriguez has made a movie for kids, and the most and least that can be said about it is that parents, while hardly being catered to, will experience profound relief that the movie knows how to entertain and does so.

An agreeably and unapologetically lightweight late-summer blockbuster.

(Paradis) delivers what might be the most affecting film performance ever given by a supermodel.

There's a lot of satisfaction in seeing two stars given this much time and space to examine a complex relationship.

Shot on location, handheld camera, available light, no props, no music, no filters, etc. We may wonder, "What are we doing here?" But we won't look away.

The film's details are spot-on, its tone ludicrously ironic, and its casting deft.

Follows a predictable low-comedy path, but does it with such fierce appeal and beautifully wrought wit that it doesn't feel quite like any comedy American theaters have seen since the equally underrated "Grosse Pointe Blank."

A warm, glossy holiday fable that hits some surprisingly sweet notes.

Offers up keys and cakes and plunges its characters down a deep rabbit hole.

How well you respond to this handsomely mounted, cold-blooded tragedy will depend on your feelings toward Gillian Anderson's highly theatrical lead performance.

A satisfying, sentimental trip.

All this artful violence won't change your life, but Non-Stop is a satisfying quickie.

Though Lee's movie is dripping with action and beautiful details, it's aimless and, eventually, tedious.

Praise will get under your skin.

Boasts a fine cast and makes enough cogent points that it rises above standard cop fare.

Nico and Dani merely retells a not uncommon tale without significantly enriching it. It's just too familiar to play as poignantly as it would like to.

A clever but routine science fiction flick.

A disarming helping of Capra-esque corn served up by writer-director Rob Sitch.

Filthy fun, if not much more.

Despite Arteta's best efforts, I eventually stopped caring about their bond because Chuck's character is conceived as such a two-dimensional yuppie.

Proudly wears its heart on its sleeve, but it never becomes so swoony that you'll reach for your hanky.

The story is a pleasant one despite its pointed righteousness.

A well-crafted, great looking adventure, with some spirited performances.

For audiences new to this type of moon-mad magical realism and unembarrassed romanticism, Orfeu can spellbind.

In terms of raw wit and fearless satire, the South Park kids put Mike Myers and Adam Sandler to shame.

But for all its pretensions toward exemplifying a brave new way of making movies, Time Code offers less and less worth discovering as it slouches toward its tritely "fatal" climax.

The two leads have a wonderful chemistry together.

A shell of a film. It's a stripped-down and blown-out thriller than can only be measured by the sum of its action sequences.

As a snapshot of Hungarian history, Glamour's watchability trumps that of "Sunshine" — the droll absurdity of the former leaves a much deeper impression than the latter's bruising moralism.

A jauntily entertaining ride.

This lightweight thriller has an enjoyable premise.

A brooding, stunningly realistic portrait of familial self-destruction that raises far more questions than it can possibly answer.

Elevates the horror genre with a refreshing intelligence and humor -- too bad it's not half as good at generating scares.

Plays like a Chinese "Cinema Paradiso," full of feeling without succumbing to sentimentality.

A raunchy, scattershot, but often hilarious spoof.

A witty, if overextended, take on pornography.

None of their efforts can turn this ho-hum, mildly entertaining line-drive single into a solid, explosive home run.

Has a credibly gritty texture, thanks in large part to Fishburne's generosity with his fellow actors.

A trifle of a farce fashioned into a '30s musical that gaily trips as much as it lightly skips, but nonetheless marks a welcome return to form.

Works best as romantic melodrama and is least convincing as a psychological suspenser.

They make a believable trio of siblings, but not even their combined wit can lift this script above the maudlin.

Though far from a sophomore slump, Snatch, like "Smoking Barrels," is such a grab bag of other influences that it's tough to figure out what, if anything, about Ritchie's style is uniquely his own.

Almereyda never plays up the gimmickry at the expense of the performances, and as a result, his movie largely succeeds, despite an overabundance of pretentious pokes at our consumer culture and the risky casting of Ethan Hawke in the lead role.

An elegant, haunting folktale.

Jon Reiss' compelling documentary on the people, music, and social constructs of dance culture, may perhaps provide some needed balance to the mass media attention.

A fresh and beautifully timed, if slight, romantic comedy.

It's such an accomplished, beguiling film in its details that you almost don't notice that the story is scattershot, arbitrary, and thin -- almost.

Mad About Mambo's steps may be as familiar as the hokeypokey, but there's just enough gusto in the execution to make it a guilty pleasure.

It is only once the movie has exhausted its roster of "weird" notions and contrived images that it finds its emotional footing, leaving you with one half of a lovely, woebegone film.

Has storytelling rambles and lapses that no amount of electrifying jump-cuts and original image-making can compensate for.

The good news is that they've resurrected a franchise with wonderful potential and may eventually grow bored enough of recapping past triumphs to take it in more daring directions.

It's Besson's stunning visual fluency that takes center stage, and in the end, that's not quite enough.

A classic Sundance résumé movie -- texturally interesting, bubbling with ideas, and as structurally predictable as a cardboard box.

A bright, lively picture.

Despite terrific comic acting...and an atomic first hour, Fight Club makes a few wrong turns and ends up lost itself.