Starts out as a thriller inspired by that city's 2005 Tube and bus bombings but gets bogged down in a family soap opera.

It's very sad to watch Keaton here. In the most excruciating scene, she gets drunk in a bar, staggers up to a microphone and starts to sing, or rather squawk. For those of us who still revere Annie Hall and her blissfully unaffected rendition of "Seems Like Old Times," this is sacrilege.

A documentary that uses against Atwater images of lynch mobs, decades-old racist comments of his onetime boss Strom Thurmond, and a clip of Bryant Gumbel calling him "the architect of the evil campaign."

It boggles the mind to think that Elite Squad won the top prize at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival in February.

The twists are executed superbly, right up to a climax that fits the David Mamet definition of what makes for a perfect ending: It is both surprising and inevitable.

Molly Shannon is dementedly charming as Eva.

Lakeview Terrace holds your interest, though the bad faith on all sides makes it something of an endurance test.

An intelligent look at family dynamics set in a boring Washington State suburb where Bible-thumping Mormons come knocking on your door.

Beautifully photographed by Dean Semler, Appaloosa is the best Western since "Open Range" and shows there's still life in this most unfashionable of genres.

In his directing debut Battle in Seattle, actor Stuart Towns end does an impressive job (on a shoestring budget) of re-creating the massive street protests that forced the cancellation of the World Trade Organization summit in 1999.

Everything is predictable three scenes in advance, and it's all stale, stuck, stolid.

Fanning gives a sensitive and fairly impressive performance. But like her over-the-top movie family, Hounddog is still trailer trash of the worst kind.

It examines other crises faced by JFK - Cuba, the Berlin Wall, civil war in Laos, the insurgency in Vietnam - and finds that in each case Kennedy chose talk over tanks. (Often, he went against advice of aides and generals.)

The film has enough funny lines and weird situations - some comedy business with a sex chair lovingly constructed by the Clooney character is the highlight - that it could age into a cult film like "The Big Lebowski."

A total disaster.

A slow-moving, ridiculous police thriller that would have been shipped straight to the remainder bin at Blockbuster if it starred anyone else.

According to Irene Salina's eye-opening documentary Flow, 500,000 to 7 million US residents are sickened by tap water each year.

The result is a hodgepodge of plots and styles, a fault compounded by stiff acting and, except for a few scenes, wooden direction.

The oddly compelling documentary Moving Midway is an engineering tale combined with a family history and a ghost story.

A blackly funny provocation.

The fractured timeline covers five decades, which Miller weaves together, with the past shot in color and the present in black and white. Still, the soapy climax is unnecessary.

Pedro Castaneda, a nonprofessional appearing in his first film, and Veronica Loren tug at your heartstrings with their portrayals of the lead characters.

The film plays out pretty much exactly as you would expect - which won't bother some people one iota.

Especially worthwhile for the chemistry between Bell and Myles.

Sounds like a great idea for a gay porno, but the soapy Save Me actually takes itself seriously.

A charming and enjoyable movie.

Charming to the max.

Boring movie.

Darkly funny (par for the course with Miike), visually stunning and full of references to other films.

The film's unusual look lends a magical feeling.

A mildly raunchy comedy that might be more accurately titled "Love: Canadian Style."

The best end-of-August movie I've seen in years.

Statham is an essential tough guy, what the Brits call "well'ard," as self-assured as Lee Marvin.

So haphazardly written and directed that it barely qualifies as a movie, The House Bunny is watchable solely for the comic stylings of the blond veteran of the "Scary Movie" series.

Its characters are likable enough to settle in with for a pleasant hour and a half.

The laughs begin with the excellent title Hamlet 2 - and they end there.

Slowly builds power to devastating effect.

It's time to stop calling Azazel Jacobs a "promising" filmmaker. With Momma's Man, Jacobs achieves the promise.

This familiar scenario works because of well-written and acted characters. The disciplined direction is by Peter Cattaneo, who tackled somewhat similar material in "The Full Monty" a decade ago.

Lucas' films are like Cher's face. No matter how many times you rework the same material, it's never going to be new and fresh again. And so it is with his latest, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

After years of diminishing returns, Woody Allen spectacularly returns to form with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, his funniest movie in years and arguably his sexiest.

Chabrol, who is often called the French Hitchcock because of his intricate thrillers, is approaching the big 8-0, yet he continues to do quality work, as shown by A Girl Cut in Two.

A high point shows O'Day, in a black-and-white hat and form-fitting dress, singing "Sweet Georgia Brown" at the Newport Jazz Festival. That scene alone confirms O'Day's place among the greats.

Sappy and corny, but there are a few lovely moments.

The animation IS great and absolutely so fantastic you'll want to reach out and touch the creatures - or swat them off your uncomfortable 3-D glasses.

Matthews is supposed to be the star here, but it's Englund's hilarious, over-the-top performance that keeps Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, by director Jon Knautz, from becoming another forgettable exercise in horror.

Basically a mega-budget war movie that makes fun of mega-budget war movies.

A windbaggy film of Phillip Roth's novella "The Dying Animal."

Names of the other artists - such as Barry McGee, Ed Templeton, Margaret Kilgallen and Jo Jackson - won't necessarily ring a bell, but they all have interesting stories to tell in this pleasant film, which sings the praises of nonconformity.

If you enjoy foulmouth dialogue mixed with sex, violence, bikes, badass bikers, boobs, babes, booze, brawling, broken noses and broken promises - then the Quentin Tarantino-produced Hell Ride should make you one happy guy.

Cox brilliantly underplays Avery, Sizemore is perfect as the arrogant dad, and the three boys (Noel Fisher, Kyle Gallner and Shiloh Fernandez) are right on pitch. Red the dog's pretty wonderful, too.

An unsatisfying biopic.

Good-natured, lightweight fun, although clichéd and more suited to DVD and cable than the big screen.

Frequently hilarious, occasionally sweet and often graphically violent, Pineapple Express may not be the greatest stoner movie ever made, but it will do perfectly well until we get another hit of Harold and Kumar.

Beautifully shot by Michael J. Ozier, the dominating taste in Bottle Shock is Rickman's beautiful performance as a snob - a snob who is secretly open to being delightfully surprised.

This isn't a performance film, and it is far from a definitive portrait of the androgynous performer.

Demonstrates that not only is sisterhood powerful, it can be awfully entertaining.

When I go to a Mummy movie, I don't want ninjas and yetis and men turned to stone. I want embalmed corpses and hieroglyphics. I want pharaoh. I want pyramids and sphinxes and Ace bandages. Did "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" take place on the Nile?

Brain-dead political satire/tear-jerker.

On the plus side is a good cast, including Eddie Marsan and Helena Bonham Carter as Bernie's hapless parents and Stephen Rea as a sympathetic doctor.

Takes a bit of "Swingers" and a bit of "Manhattan" to create a slacktacular vision of uncertain youth in today's L.A.

Gerren's story is fascinating, but Roberts dilutes it by going off on tangents about unsafe cosmetics and phony plastic surgeons. Both topics need exploring - just not here. There's more than enough drama in Gerren's life.

There is no shortage of indie movies about economically challenged women. This one is different, in that the women actually do something besides just talk about it.

Atmospheric and moves briskly, but it's basically TV writ large.

There is too much funny here for a movie (even though it continues into the closing credits). Step Brothers should be a TV show.

The poster art for Nanette Burstein's American Teen, which follows five students through their senior year at a high school in Indiana, is modeled after the one for "The Breakfast Club." So, to a large extent, is this ultra-slick and predictable documentary.

The actors are engaging enough that you only occasionally remember that there really isn't much going on. Then, unfortunately for the audience, something does actually happen.

As familiar as the costumes and decoration are, the conflicts are unsettlingly vivid and strange.

If Young ever converses with the gentlemen from al Qaeda, I expect his comments to be along the lines of "Please don't cut my head off."

Engrossing and exhilarating documentary.

There is also a fair amount of boy-on-boy sex, which would be the main reason for seeing No Regret, no matter what your sexual orientation might be.

Moves in a predictable path that includes some remarkable coincidences.

The highest praise I can give a superhero movie is that it makes me forget about its 10-cent-comic-book soul.

An exuberant if not always brilliantly crafted adaptation of the campy ABBA musical.

I went in expecting to be disappointed, but even so, I was disappointed.

A good cast and disciplined direction add some distinction to Ric Roman Waugh's Felon, which is basically the old tale about an innocent man corrupted by a stay in prison.

Your enjoyment will hinge entirely on whether you think the album is a masterpiece or a bore.

Doesn't always make sense, and you cannot always tell what is real and what is imaginary, but viewers will be having too much zonked-out fun to care.

A woefully earnest indie about a crime and its aftermath.

Brad Anderson's Transsiberian is a genuine sleeper that jump-starts an almost extinct genre.

Despite all of the hideous critters Hellboy encounters, there is a hint that things are considerably weirder elsewhere.

The most entertaining 3-D movie I've ever seen.

Murphy has fallen back into the comfortable rut of sloppy family comedies that are low on laughs and high on toilet jokes.

The 66-year-old African-American, the subject of the inspiring documentary A Man Named Pearl, doesn't have scissors where his hands should be, but he turns trees and bushes into topiary sculptures every bit as amazing as the ones Johnny Depp's character crafts in the Tim Burton film.

A lesson in the perils of trying to cram a hefty Canadian novel that spans decades into a movie running just under two hours.

As usual, Hartnett exhibits the acting ability of linoleum; his performance would not be measurably changed if he lapsed into a coma halfway through. Only an amusing cameo by David Bowie enlivens things, but he's onscreen for just about two minutes at the end.

Has little to offer beyond titillation and pretty landscapes.

A slow ride to nowhere.

A genuine oddity that's more watchable than it sounds.

The ingredients are there for a cute con game, but instead the movie turns out to be a mushy melodrama.

It is up to each viewer to decide if the Mojave project is a stroke of genius or a very expensive boondoggle.

It may be impossible to make an uninteresting documentary about Hunter S. Thompson, but is it unfair to ask Gonzo for more Hunter and less Jimmy Carter?

The smart indie comedy Diminished Capacity deals with three kinds of dementia: those relating to aging, concussions and being a Chicago Cubs fan. Tying those three things together is a task that the witty script does with surprising adroitness.

Strange and quirky.

Nostalgic for those bad old days, The Wackness was shot at a time when it actually looked like "America's Mayor" was going to be in a position to perform a similar cleanup on the entire country. That, of course, turned out to be a pipe dream.

This movie fails so spectacularly - and on so many levels - that it's like watching a train plummet off a bridge.

The story becomes so convoluted and contrived that much of the tension dissipates.

Much of Finding Amanda doesn't stand up to close scrutiny, but at its best the still-boyish Broderick suggests his most famous character, Ferris Bueller, going through a midlife crisis.