An unconventional movie that requires an unconventional mindset to appreciate.

Douglas Langway's middling comedy is sort of a "Sex and the City" for big, hirsute gay guys and the younger cubs who fancy them.

There's certainly a good movie to be made about Muslim punk musicians in the US, but this isn't it.

See his movie now, brag about your discerning taste for undiscovered talent later.

There isn't enough plot in this amateurish mope-athon to fill up a half-hour TV show.

A 2010 movie that could have been made in 1940.

Milks the very real problem of "organ tourism" for all the melodrama and car chases it's worth.

Really belongs on Lifetime rather than in theaters.

When an 80-year-old director turns his attention to death, you hope for some insight, or gravitas, or even whimsy or anger. Hereafter has none of that.

A real old-fashioned crowd-pleaser.

Although the film is, by design, an unwatchable mess on one level and its one joke about 8 mm filmmaking would play better as a music video or a TV commercial, there's no denying the crazed dedication to detail.

A movie steeped in sin that squats awkwardly in a cinematic purgatory between tawdry and talky.

If you find hedge funds hard to wrap your head around, the movie Human Capital won’t do much to ease the confusion.

Oh, and one more thing the comedy of Jackass 3D has in common with "The Divine Comedy": Neither of them is funny.

Red has more snappy joy in store than practically all of last summer's busted blockbusters.

It's full of funny stuff, from a hitman forced to drag along his 3-year-old when he can't get a sitter, to one of the goons being asked, "Do you have a Web presence?"

Carlos is exciting entertainment, even if its subject's two-decade reign of terror is reprehensible.

Secretariat ultimately delivers where it matters, in the home stretch.

Possibly because Heigl is one of the producers, the most beautiful woman in the film -- the stunning Christina Hendricks of "Mad Men" -- dies in an off-screen car crash barely before the opening credits are over.

There's not a moment of true wildness in It's Kind of a Funny Story, which never gets any more outrageous than projective vomiting.

Name names, please. Or shut up.

It's strange enough to be raised by your aunt. For young John Lennon, things get stranger still when he finds himself dating his mother.

First-time director Jeff Malmberg tells Hogancamp's fascinating story with sensitivity, never resorting to exploitation.

Exploitation pure and simple. But it's artistically redeeming exploitation. If you can handle it, see it.

Letters could be dismissed as a soap opera, but that would be unfair to this beautiful work. It features tender performances by Kaarina Hazard (Leila) and Jukka Keinonen (Jacob), as well as beautiful cinematography by Tuomo Hutri.

Quite possibly the first truly great fact-based movie of the 21st century.

The scariest, creepiest and most elegantly filmed horror movie I've seen in years - it positively drives a stake through the competition.

An invigorating and surprising journey.

Douchebag belies its abrasive title with a soft touch for two wobbly souls.

The plot isn't a new one (remember Lady Chatterley?), but Corsini gives it a few twists and turns that keep matters fresh and suspenseful.

If you're looking for great action scenes, you've found them. But if you desire more than eye candy, such as character and plot development and historical accuracy, you'll have to look elsewhere.

This movie is so self- combustingly bad it could never be good. But it's damn great fun to watch the thing go up in flames anyway.

Say a prayer that there's no "Hatchet III" in the future.

Hot Summer Days makes a lukewarm case for global warming. It's a better argument that the production of mindless fluff is not just limited to Hollywood.

The movie is at its best when Gekko gets back into the game, with his impish smile and his perfect hair.

You Again could be taught at film schools as an example of how not to make a movie. And how not to humiliate veteran actors.

As a former president of the United States remarked, "Childrens do learn," and what they learn in the heartbreaking yet thrillingly hopeful documentary Waiting for 'Superman' is that adults are finally starting to notice how badly kids have been betrayed by teachers unions.

On a technical level Buried is impressive, at times blisteringly suspenseful.

The movie is still a mess, stumbling from comic-relief scenes that aren't funny to a job-training interlude in which we learn that, among other things, owls make excellent . . . blacksmiths?

This multi-pronged labor of love doesn't always work, but it often does, sometimes in ways that take your breath away.

From the rapid-fire, purposely unreadable opening credits to the final baby POV shot of a birth, this is a dazzling and brutal exercise in cinematic envelope-pushing.

An exciting and extremely well acted film. Even a nearly unrecognizable Blake Lively impresses in the key role of Jem's sister and Doug's sometime girlfriend.

The ruefully funny Jack Goes Boating, which, refreshingly, takes a generous view of its flawed characters, is a must for us many Hoffman fans.

Writer-director Will Gluck has written a stiletto-sharp, zinger-filled script that recalls "Mean Girls" as well as the films of John Hughes, which are sampled to amusing effect in a clever clip montage.

I won't reveal the twist -- but the marketing crew is aware that their only chance of selling this non-mind-blowing documentary about the people you might meet on Facebook is by promising a big surprise.

One of the most beautiful per formances I've seen this year is given by Blanca Engstrom in the Swedish coming-of-age charmer The Girl.

The meditative Swedish movie The Anchorage takes minimalism to the maximum.

Katie Aselton has achieved the seemingly impossible. She's turned a movie about sex into a boring, talky snooze.

Its personal, newsmagazine touch will make your heart ache for its cross-section of humanity.

Science fiction movies don't come much more ponderous than the beautifully filmed Never Let Me Go, which reduces the debate over genetic engineering to a mild, moist romantic soap opera.

When I'm Still Here reached its climactic moment -- Joaquin Phoenix puking into a toilet -- I had never before felt quite so much like a toilet.

If you're old enough to pluck gray hairs, you may find yourself rubbing away a few tears.

The Romantics isn't as consistent or as well-rounded as its parent, "The Big Chill," or as entertaining as its less literate but more extroverted cousin, "St. Elmo's Fire," but with its tart dialogue and its perfect ending, it is sensitive as well as sagacious. It's a rare combination.

Splashed with Monte Carlo glamour, physical comedy and nimble scams, the movie rolls along enjoyably to its goofy but endearing big scene: an homage to "Dirty Dancing."

This rousingly sweet little flick is certainly nothing to go out of your way to avoid.

The film is conventional in style and is likely to mean more to the sadly forgotten musician's fans than to others.

At last, someone has figured out that there might be laughs in teens trying to lose their virginity.

Just as my mind was floating back to the summery movies directed by Eric Rohmer, Marie Riviére -- a Rohmer favorite -- shows up as a mysterious woman on the beach. Surely, Ozon had Rohmer in mind when he co-wrote and directed this lovely film.

It may not have songs by ABBA, but Bran Nue Dae is roughly Australia's far less elaborate answer to "Mamma Mia!" -- a cheerful and proudly corny musical that's pretty hard to resist if you're in the right frame of mind.

Any movie that finds a plausible reason to give Lindsay Lohan a nun's habit and a machine gun is worth your attention.

The stars' utter failure to create sparks is only one of the problems with this Labor Day weekend dump job.

Sam Rockwell's films are almost always worth watching be cause of this indie stalwart's taste in offbeat projects -- and his refusal to play to the audience's sympathy.

A twisty, spectacular farce.

A startling look at the devastating human cost of China's newfound embrace of capitalism.

This rousing, fact-based Norwegian movie covers an unusual subject -- the resistance movement in that country during World War II, whose best-known depiction came in "Edge of Darkness," a 1943 Hollywood adventure movie starring Errol Flynn as a stalwart fisherman outwitting the Nazi occupiers.

An affable comedy that, unfortunately, has too many characters and subplots for its own good. The film also could do without the stereotypical character of a gay wedding planner who is supposed to be funny -- but is just embarrassing and clichéd.

A pretentious Euro-snore that should occasion a fraud prosecution for any marketer who calls it a thriller -- and which stars an actor who seems to wish his name were Jorg Clooné.

Mesrine's gentler side is explored, too, as he gets caught up with women portrayed by two of France's leading actresses, Ludivine Sagnier and Cecile de France.

A bland look at professional surfing.

Even if the movie had more shadings, though, Marshall's political point would undo his he-man action-flick format. If you're looking for a rallying cry to make the emotions sizzle, "Quagmire!" isn't it.

One of the pleasures of films about being stuck in a place -- "The Wicker Man" is maybe the best example -- comes from the skill with which the writers keep their protagonist locked in his box. On this test, The Last Exorcism pretty much flunks.

You could make a worse choice for a late- summer popcorn movie than Takers, a Michael Mann-ish heist thriller with a pulse-pounding foot chase and some terrific stunt work offsetting its hackneyed plot and dialogue.

Magaly Solier is compelling as the teen. She has little to say, as the camera remains fixated on her expressionless face.

The acting by Seigner, Marina Hands, Karin Viard, Patrick Bruel and other French notables is first-rate, although their characters and what they have to say are trite.

Ranks somewhere between the barely watchable "The Back-Up Plan" and the good but wildly overrated "The Kids Are All Right."

Pigs fly and perform a Busby Berkeley-style water ballet. Maggie Gyllenhaal sports a posh British accent. Everybody steps in dung repeatedly. These are the high points of Nanny McPhee Returns.

There are moments of fun (an aphrodisiac-laced dessert, for example), but generally the humor seems warmed-over.

The Tillman Story purports to be an exposé of the cover-up of the death by friendly fire of the Army Ranger and one time NFL star Pat Tillman. But, provocative and colorful as the film is, it does the very thing it denounces -- massaging the facts to seize Tillman for a political agenda.

There are nice cameos by Joan Chen and Kyle MacLachlan as Li's mother and lawyer, respectively.

Ice Cube's well-worn performance as a wise old geezer is the only bright spot in a movie that otherwise fumbles every opportunity to be funny, exciting or insightful.

Under writer-helmer Rehana Mirza, the acting and direction are workmanlike, but the plot is full of hackneyed characters and contrived events better suited to TV than the big screen.

Extremely unsettling and thought- provoking.

A very shallow, very glossy 2½-hour travelogue starring a miscast Julia Roberts as a spoiled, self-centered divorcée who decides to get away from it all.

Incoherent, inept, testosterone-drenched mess, which is very much the brain-dead male equivalent of "Sex and the City 2."

A big warm cinematic jelly doughnut stuffed with youth, vitality, style, whimsy and other equally alarming properties. I tried to love it. But after 20 minutes, I sensed I was intruding on the movie's love affair with itself.

The film is shaky as a procedural, and the level of official corruption seems more Moscow than Melbourne. Yet as a fable of power, vengeance and betrayal it exerts a quiet, increasingly wicked pull, equivalent to that of the wrinkly but ruthless grandma.

The Miyazaki legacy is in good hands.

If animal slaughter makes you queasy, this movie isn't for you. Along with several cockfights, there's a long scene in which a pig is butchered. The folks at PETA would be most unhappy. People don't fare much better than the animals, with blood flowing in a seemingly unending barrage of violence.

Starts out as a hilarious take on cop-movie cliches, then turns into Will Ferrell's own "Capitalism: A Love Story."

It feels as shopworn as a dusty VHS tape of "Less Than Zero."

Step Up 3D is strictly 1D. Tired choreography and moldy hip-hop gestures accompany insipid characters.

The writer-director, who goes by the name J Blakeson, keeps the suspense level high for the first hour or so, but he then indulges in a few plot twists that strain credibility.

Luke Wilson, who has appeared in a long run of bad movies, seizes on his juiciest role since "The Royal Tenenbaums" here.

Given the rarity of such movies, and such opportunities for an actress like Clarkson, Cairo Time earns some indulgence for a pace that Westerners may find languid.

Lebanon is inspired by the director's traumatic days at the front, giving his work a sense of authority.

Interesting enough that you wish it were better.

Despite strong performances by Gerard Jugnot as the crime-busting prosecutor and Veronica D'Agostino as the adult Rita, The Sicilian Girl never lives up to its potential.

It's suprisingly flat.