A brutal shocker that is difficult to watch.

Only mildly diverting and way too long for a movie aimed at kids.

A great-looking but torturously slow and often hokey cross between "The Exorcist" and "Dirty Harry."

A witless and vulgar sequel.

Becomes more and more confused, unpleasant and preposterous.

It's like "Waiting for Guffman" without the wit or irony.

It's the well-wrought details that explain, perhaps better than any earlier film, how an entire country bought into Hitler's genocidal madness.

This is ultimately a sunny movie full of likable characters.

A sweet and charming treat.

This isn't a war movie. Rather, it's a powerful, heart-tugging portrait of the innocent victims of conflict.

The highlight of this package of 12 recent animated shorts from around the world is Australia's "Ward 13."

Sitting through three totally unrelated documentaries in a row -- with all that puzzling (subtitled) dialogue and those long (enigmatic) silences? That's a migraine waiting to happen.

Having root-canal surgery would be less painful than sitting through the martial-arts disaster Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior.

You could do worse for a date movie than Gurinder Chadha's campy, exuberant cross-cultural take on Austen's much-filmed 1812 novel.

To enjoy this film, it helps to check your brain at the box office.

A thorough but highly entertaining documentary details the making of the notorious 1972 film, the series of legal battles that helped make it immensely popular and the flick's considerable cultural legacy.

A thoughtful, provocative film that understandably ruffled a few feathers in its native Italy -- the portrayal of the church is far less than beatific.

In the charming new documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, we learn all about the tragedy and comedy of being a bird on the loose in San Francisco.

This Disney film is all pretty simple, with messages about bigotry and ignorance, friendship and growing up. But at least they don't hit you over the head with them.

Produced for peanuts (and looks it), but offers enough laughs to please even those who don't usually venture into downtown art houses.

In the last 20 minutes, the film moves as breathlessly as a Hollywood thriller -- only it's much more frightening, because it's true.

The MPAA's rating explanation for this PG-13-rated snoozer misleadingly claims it contains "intense sequences of terror/violence"; it would be more accurate to state that Boogeyman contains "virtually every horror-movie cliché of the past 30 years."

A witless, stale and half-hearted rehash of cliches borrowed from the likes of "The Wedding Planner," "The Wedding Singer" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral," this pathetic, alleged comedy certainly wasn't improved by clueless direction by Clare Kilner.

The dreamy drama Emile shows how a talented cast can turn a tentative plot into pleasant viewing.

If boy bands weren't already passé, Harry and Max would finish the job.

Kore-eda presents the deeply moving story in a documentary style that is both gentle and compelling.

Horn bookends his documentary with clips from "It Came From Outer Space."

Grows ever more manipulative and predictable.

Treads water.

You'll delight in their friendship - and weep when they're separated by the inevitable.

Jarringly insensitive and amateurish debut feature.

Dark, depressing drama.

Mostly, Freak Weather is just pathetic.

A pretentious, unsatisfying and ultra-slow-moving thriller.

Delightful performances are delivered by all in this ingenious work of cinema that is worth seeing if only for its glorious views of the Himalayas.

Just Tara-ble.

A schlocky thriller choking under the weight of its own psychobabble.

The latest in a series of entertaining IMAX underwater documentaries.

The tedious film might have been worth watching if Burman had given reasons to care about Ariel or anyone else. He doesn't and we don't.

Often, the movie feels like sitting through a college lecture class.

Goodman doesn't preach or point fingers. She lets the three recruits have their say, and allows viewers to make up their own minds on the issues her film raises.

A vulgar, grating alleged "family" comedy.

An intelligent work that avoids exploitation and cheap laughs.

An intoxicating, heartbreaking Turkish-German drama that's already won a slew of awards from international film festivals.

The film tends to be pretentious and melodramatic; and Grant, better suited to comic roles, gives a heavy-handed performance.

Ultimately a moving, poignant tale about triumph in the face of the unthinkable.

The cryptic finale raises more questions than it solves. But She's One of Us is such a fine work that answers aren't necessary.

The movie is overwhelmingly positive. It would have helped if Araki's critics had more of a say.

For those with a high tolerance for violence, Asssault on Precinct 13 is a thriller that actually thrills.

You don't have to know Chile's bloody history to be moved by the poignant new film Machuca, the first movie made by a Chilean about the country's 1973 military coup.

Stands in stark contrast to the quickie political documentaries that have flooded into specialty venues since last year.

Predictable.

Deadly dull.

A predictable but pleasant kids movie that veers between old-fashioned girl-and-her-horse sentiment and "Ren & Stimpy"-style poo jokes.

A shameless heart-tugger from France, The Chorus leaves no cliché unturned.

Lackluster anime.

Reaches its climax on the main bathing day, with a throng of naked holy men leading the charge into the Ganges. You would be forgiven for thinking you're watching a hot July day at Coney Island.

Lets both sides sound off without offering a spin of its own. [12 Jan 2005, p.70]

Poor Keaton, a capable actor who was absent from the screen for several years, is hamstrung by the material even more than in last year's dismal "First Daughter."

Aspires to be a highly stylized exploration of the mind of a serial killer, but it's nothing more than a gory, bloodsoaked snuff film, reveling in its own shock value.

A soggy love story doesn't help this instance of style over substance.

A star is born in In Good Company, which showcases Topher Grace.

Not even a compelling performance by Al Pacino as Shylock can make The Merchant of Venice work in its first major big-screen adaptation.

Macht is the best thing in A Love Song for Bobby Long, but his intelligent performance doesn't justify a tough, and very long, sit.

It features Sean Penn in a mesmerizing portrayal of the would-be hijacker.

Lumpy, preachy and soporific.

One of the year's best.

It says a lot about the sequel that the funniest moment belongs to none of the big stars, but to Owen Wilson.

Crashing chandelier, crashing bore.

One of the year's best.

Yu presents a compelling, somewhat disturbing portrait of the artist, who in 2000 was the subject of a major exhibit that toured the world.

Kim Rossi Stuart gives an excellent performance.

The movie equivalent of a lavish coffee-table book, a love letter to the Golden Age of Hollywood from one of its foremost students.

A lavishly mounted blockbuster that has little personality of its own except on a purely visual level.

Whatever message Brooks was trying to put across with Spanglish, it clearly got lost in translaaaaaaaaaaation.

This new low-octane version is hardly going to make anyone forget Robert Aldrich's semi-classic, testosterone-laden original starring Jimmy Stewart.

The willfully eccentric Beyond the Sea seems to be telling us a lot more about its star and director, Kevin Spacey, than its ostensible subject.

Bardem gives such a brilliant performance in The Sea Inside, it's a crime that the film itself drowns in tears.

If you think you've seen Imaginary Heroes before, you're right -- only it was called "The Ice Storm," or maybe "Ordinary People."

A spare, exquisitely realized masterpiece about faith, redemption and boxing that beautifully illustrates his longtime philosophy that "less is more."

Who says you need a big crew and tons of money to make an enjoyable movie?

Forget the plot of Ocean's Twelve - you will by the time you leave the theater, if not sooner. This slickly entertaining sequel is all about savoring eye candy.

Intermittently brilliant, intermittently hilarious -- and occasionally tedious.

Lush and poetic, Dolls proves once again that Kitano is one of the world's most original filmmakers.

Moves along its tranquil way until about five minutes before the closing credits, when it turns into a terrorist thriller.

An old-fashioned soaper that will please or not, depending on a viewer's tolerance for schmaltz.

Sucky vampire flick.

Briski, a New York photographer, spent several years with the pre-teens. But she did more than just film them -- she tried to help them.

An impeccably acted and directed - but quite icy - portrait of deception and betrayal.

The movie equivalent of a 12-course feast crammed with unforgettable images and mind-boggling stunts.

An Italian romantic comedy that's irresistibly set in Mole Antonelliana, the cavernous Museum of Cinema in Turin.

Touches on issues raised in "Bad Education," but without Pedro Almodovar's flamboyant elegance.

The sweet script, crisp direction and a delightful performance by Leila Hatami, as the sad-eyed wife, should put Deserted Station on your must-see list.

Fairly suspenseful.

A flawed black comedy about two buddies who open a butcher's shop in a small Danish town.

Inventive and bold, Jesus, You Know will especially resonate with people, like this critic, whose strict Catholic upbringing (some might call it brainwashing) inalterably shaped their lives.

No "Schindler's List," to put it mildly.

A clever and stylish Dutch twist on the old good-twin/bad-twin plot.