Tasteful and gorgeously photographed coming-of-age story.

Even with his clothes on, this is Mortensen's best and richest performance, worthy of serious awards consideration. He lends a moral complexity to Eastern Promises that makes it much more than just a very accomplished action thriller.

The laughs flow, but Zobel isn't content to rely solely on them. To his credit, he allows Martin and Clarence - and the film - to develop consciences.

Theron is very good as a woman struggling for respect in a sexist environment. There are also small but telling performances by Susan Sarandon as Hank's worried wife, and Frances Fisher as a topless bartender who aids in the investigation.

Isn't as sharply directed as "Jessica Stein," but it's still a formidable crowd-pleaser.

A caper comedy that forgot to put in the laughs.

The insult comedy is sometimes brilliant.

As sensuous as its title, Silk is an exquisitely felt love story that unfolds as delicately as a blooming flower. And as slowly.

The way-too-neat ending of The Brave One especially strains credulity, but it's worth watching for Foster's fiercely arresting performance.

Uninspired in style, and Joan Allen's narration is dry.

An extremely well-acted and well-directed remake of a 1957 oater.

Director Griffin Dunne's adaptation of Dirk Wittenborn's fiercely personal novel ambles pleasantly through coming-of-age movie territory, then takes a jarring Agatha Christie detour.

Director Adam Green's genuine affection for the genre helps make Hatchet a cut above average.

It's a stirring reminder of a time when anything seemed possible - these American heroes boosted morale eroded by the Vietnam War, as well as bringing the whole world together to celebrate their success.

It has cult item stamped all over it, and fans of (severely) experimental cinema might see it as a revelation. Most others will find that watching this movie is like having your senses beaten with a rake.

The season's first guilty pleasure, Shoot 'Em Up is a joyously silly, R-rated, John Woo-in flected Looney Tune, with Clive Owen as a carrot-chomping, gun-toting Bugs Bunny matching wits with Elmer Fudd-ish assassin Paul Giamatti.

Excruciatingly acted and ineptly directed by Bob Odenkirk, The Brothers Solomon is faux Farrelly brothers that should have gone straight to video.

The comedy is without distinction and the conclusion is melodramatic. I must note that ads for the film are misleading because they give no hint of the dark side of The Bubble.

Shepard, who directed "The Matador" and the pilot for "Ugly Betty," can't quite get the disparate elements of The Hunting Party to mesh into a satisfying whole.

Slight but charming.

A very belated and very silly follow-up to "Death Wish."

A grabber from start to finish that should win new fans for cult-favorite To.

Crude and cheerfully sophomoric teen sex comedy.

Wavers uncomfortably between satire and dime-store existentialism on the big screen. It's sort of as if Charlie Kaufman rewrote "The Fountain."

Mostly unfunny, extremely silly pingpong comedy.

Gronkjaer's cinematography is pleasing, with beautiful sunsets and tranquil snowscapes. I won't give away the ending, but it might bring a tear to your eye.

A pleasingly weird, dryly funny little indie.

Could be an overwrought mess if it were in less capable hands. But Webber and Moreno are so good, it's hard to believe they're not really deeply and meaningfully in lust.

The real mystery here is why this slapdash semi-effort didn't go straight to video.

Picks up steam when it finally arrives in Cannes just in time to wreak yet more havoc at the big film festival, but getting there is pretty tedious. A little of the wildly mugging Atkinson goes a long way.

A comedic sinkhole, a dramatic tundra.

Well, it smells, all right, but authentic isn't the word I'd use for this maudlin male weepie, a compendium of the worst clichés of sports and journalism movies.

As frightening as it intends to be, but not enjoyably so.

Succeeds completely at failure; the unified incompetence of its writing, directing and acting suggest a man who manages to be on fire and drowning at the same time, just as the bus runs him over.

How can a movie with such a charming cast (let's not forget Ry Russo-Young as Hannah's female roommate) and believable dialogue (seemingly taken from the actors' real lives) go wrong? It can't.

A welcome change from horror movies like "Hostel' and "Saw" and their mind-numbing gore and violence.

The movie is a gentle British ensemble comedy much like "Four Weddings and a Funeral" - minus the four weddings and four-fifths of the wit.

Super-vulgar, ridiculously sophomoric, horribly nasty and so hilarious you’ll probably squirt Diet Coke out of your nose within the first 20 minutes.

Perhaps the most sobering statistic in The 11th Hour: Some 50,000 species a year are disappearing. Someday, it might be humans.

In the fourth and by far the worst screen version of "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers," Nicole Kidman's character struggles to stay awake - as will the audience.

Not since "300" have I seen such manly mano-a-mano-ing as the iron clash of wills in the docu mentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

It pains me to report that his Zebraman is a disappointment.

Despite some plot holes, Delirious, hits the bull's-eye with razor-sharp performances and dialogue.

Hermila Guedes is hot as the damsel in distress. She carries the movie on her slender shoulders, providing erotic charm and believable acting.

The movie is just a situation salad, at least until the end, when things start to pull together a bit.

The release of Crossing the Line couldn't be more timely. Earlier this week, it was announced that the two Koreas would hold a summit this month in Pyongyang. Perhaps Kim will bring Dresnok with him.

Even worse than the hacky chick revenge fantasy now showing on channel 186 of your box.

To his credit, Blitz throws in an unexpected twist that delivers a more ambivalent ending than your typical sports movie.

"Rush Hour" was acceptable. It was to "Rush Hour 2" what McDonald's is to White Castle. "Rush Hour 2" is to Rush Hour 3 what White Castle is to cat food.

an overstuffed, overlong epic with a tongue-in-cheek approach.

A comedy for no ages, has an amazing amount of CGI - Cuba Gooding Incompetence.

Make a movie about depressed people, and what do you get? A depressing movie.

The funniest and arguably most envelope-pushing episode stars Winona Ryder as a newlywed who falls in love on her honeymoon - and steals the object of her lust: a ventriloquist's dummy.

Instead of trying to make Austen's life entertaining by pretending it was just like her work - as in the dull recent French movie "Molière" - Becoming Jane has a more astute appreciation of how Austen, or any fiction writer, works. There's a bit of stealing from life, lots of exaggeration, some wish fulfillment, mix-and-match character assembly.

Blame It on Fidel doesn't aim for the profundity of Costa-Gavras films like "State of Siege" and "Z" - but who's complaining?

Director Paul Greengrass - who directed the superb "United 93" between the second and third "Bourne" installments - knows how to stage and edit bravura action sequences, generating almost unbearable suspense while deploying a superb cast.

No, Bratz, an unwitting and witless critique of American consumerism run amok, does not star Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.

A sizzling soundtrack and Jennifer Lopez's best performance since "Out of Sight" go only so far in El Cantante, a downer of a musical biopic that leaves no cliché unturned.

Hot Rod started to go wrong at about the time someone in casting said, "You know what? I'll bet America's just about ready for the comedy stylings of Sissy Spacek."

Remember how "Double Indemnity" featured smart criminals and a smarter investigator? The indie film If I Didn't Care, with its dumb criminals and dumb cops, is a sort of "Double Stupidity."

The bite and bark of Underdog are both pretty awful, but little kids might take this pooch for a walk.

Ruscio's script is grim and darkly funny, but the big attraction is Wright's right-on performance. She's an actress waiting to be discovered.

Sony dumped this sleazy, inept and worthless piece of torture porn into theaters yesterday.

The Great Playwrights for Dummies series that began with "Shakespeare in Love" continues with Molière, a French clone of that grating and smarmy Best Picture winner.

Some documentaries are a fervent search for truth; others are a fervent search for snickers. This one is the latter, providing via interviews and old film clips a Greatest Hits for Bush haters.

A soufflé of a romantic and family comedy that stubbornly refuses to rise.

Though it does have a handful of dirty jokes meant to earn the audience-pleasing PG-13 rating and features Marge swearing, it falls short of classic status.

The 34-year-old Meadows has assembled an effective cast, especially newcomer Thomas Turgoose as Shaun and veteran Stephen Graham as Combo.

The script, narrated by Queen Latifah, is so embarrassingly dorky (it was co-written by Kristin Gore) that it's like Fred Rogers gone hip-hop.

Imagine "Clerks" director Kevin Smith with a background in poetry and painting instead of comic books and bestiality jokes, and you'll have an idea of what to expect from an exciting new filmmaker named Sean Ellis, whose terrific debut is called Cashback.

The Spanish Inquisition was better summed up in an eight-minute musical number by Mel Brooks than in the entirety of Goya's Ghosts, an across-the-board disaster from one of my favorite directors, Milos Forman.

The best and most entertaining movie adaptation of a stage musical so far this century - and yes, I’m including the Oscar-winning "Chicago."

The movie isn't insulting to homosexuals but to comedy.

So what starts out as fascinating sci-fi becomes just fi, and winds up pulp fi.

Low-key yet has a lot to say about class struggle.

Captivity is torture porn without the sex. Cuthbert squirms, screams, weeps and pleads for her life with great conviction. Slick, sick sleaze.

Proves, if anything, that sappy feel-good movies aren't restricted to Hollywood.

Some bits are too stagy, but for the most part this long night feels like an interview that could have actually happened. Miller is so good - dumb, smart, wounded, wounding, a lollipop of sweet poison that you'd buy every day until it killed you - that you feel you not only understand her but all actresses.

Formulaic but entertaining, My Best Friend climaxes with a lengthy, surprisingly heartfelt sequence set on the French version of "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire."

As much as we like Alec as an actor, it's hard to imagine that any amount of editing and reshooting under his supervision could salvage his complete ineptitude as a director.

Don Cheadle has a fine time jiving through Talk to Me - accent, please, on the middle word. It's a black "Good Morning, Vietnam."

A wonder to look at, even as its increasingly pretentious manga-inspired story line outstays its welcome.

Viewers in Gotham will be perplexed, frightened, disgusted - and, mostly, entertained.

You want to hate his characters? Go ahead. You want to feel sympathy for them? That's OK too. In either case, you'll be shaken by Drama/Mex.

There are lots of special effects, but sadly, no real magic.

Isn't perfect, but it's light years ahead of "Ong-Bak."

Joshua falls a bit flat at the end, but overall it delivers some genuine old-school chills - something that was missing when Macaulay Culkin played a similar role in "The Good Son."

No matter how good Blethyn is at playing up the sweet hurt of a woman who is well on the decline but never made it in the first place, your admiration for her shrieking-and-drinking breakdown scenes is likely to be tested after about the fifth go-round.

What a sweet collision is Rescue Dawn: the American psycho meets the German kook.

Deafeningly loud and proudly silly epic.

Watching Robin Williams as a pastor giving premarital counseling to lovebirds John Krasinski and Mandy Moore in License to Wed is like having a laugh chastity belt cinched up tight around your funny bone.

The silliness of Moore's oeuvre is so self-evident that being able to spot it is not liberal or conservative, either; it's a basic intelligence test, like the ability to match square peg with square hole. His documentaries are political slapstick that could have been made by a third Farrelly brother or a fourth Stooge.

If there is a genius working in Hollywood today, it's animation director Brad Bird, who tops the delightful "The Incredibles" with arguably the finest 'toon in the Pixar canon, Ratatouille.

Vanessa Redgrave spends Evening dying, and so does Evening.

Only the French could or would make a movie like this. You'll enjoy it if you turn off your brain and concentrate on the eye candy.

A sappy look at the title character, a 12-year-old boy who's a math and music prodigy.

Albert elicits good performances from her cast, but she fails to give viewers reason to care about their characters.

Willis, who at 52 looks great in an intensely physical role and can still spit out wisecracks and insults with the best of them.