Directed without wit or energy.

The worst crime perpetrated in the Swiss-cheese screenplay by Gerald Di Pego ("Angel Eyes") is the cynical use of a mother's love for her child as a plot device for an intelligence-insulting sci-fi dud.

A gorgeous, poetic and stirring epic.

Wildly uneven, but contains moments that are right up there with "The Player."

It'll mainly appeal to film-biz insiders.

Pleasant but lifeless love story.

Eric Schaeffer's rip-off -- er, homage -- to "Magnolia," is a marginally better movie than his previous self-absorbed atrocities like "My Life's in Turnaround" and "Wirey Spindell."

Ranks high on the squirm meter. But, unlike in most of her earlier work, there's no emotional payoff.

Tends to run low on steam well before the end, though Waters gamely tries to pump things up with filthy novelty tunes and clips from old stag films.

A devilish updating of Verdi's "Rigoletto."

An amusing side dish to the sober political documentaries flooding the art houses, The Yes Men effectively uses high farce to mock the status quo as a way of questioning it.

A surprisingly edgy comedy.

An ultra-predictable if essentially painless romantic comedy.

A collection of such dazzling digital illusions you can't wait for it to hit DVD so you can freeze individual images.

An overlong melodrama-by-numbers.

It's rather sweet and life-affirming, although the transformation from sophisticate to peasant happens too conveniently and quickly.

A wickedly sexy Daryl Hannah is particularly memorable as the Pilager family's black sheep Maddy.

Brainless and pointless.

One big cliche.

Some advice: Don't even bother trying to figure out what's going on in Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence -- just sit back and enjoy the lush, trippy visuals.

A loving tribute to cinema by Tsai Ming-liang, one of Taiwan's most accomplished and popular directors.

Can be taken as a parable about cinema art vs. commerce. If that's too much to think about, just enjoy the off-beat humor.

One of those painfully earnest -- and pretentious -- little indies in which a pair of emotional cripples neatly resolve all of their problems within 48 hours of meeting each other.

Certainly the most painfully unfunny of the countless bad movies that have licensed the name of the long-defunct humor magazine.

Basinger appears to be literally phoning in from another movie in the highly improbable, maniacally action-packed thriller-cum-comedy Cellular.

There is nothing startlingly new in Resident Evil: Apocalpyse, but it is delivered with some panache and humor.

Jacobs keeps the action moving rapidly and gets solid performances from an ensemble cast, especially the rumpled Reilly.

There's really nothing new here, though, and lacking the drama and humor of "Fahrenheit 9/11," it is even more likely to be preaching to the converted.

Uber-hip technique triumphs over substance in Reconstruction.

Dangerously low on laughs and sex, not to mention believability.

When Will I Be Loved would rate no stars except for Campbell's brave, totally committed performance -- which deserves a far better movie than this.

These were people willing to take chances. Would that Trank had taken chances in telling their stories.

About as exciting as watching someone else's home movies -- albeit, beautifully photographed ones.

A throwback to the kind of '80s action flicks that had titles like "Adrenaline Force," is enlivened by a raft of celebrity cameos, including a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance by Gibson.

Many of Kampmeier's characters are either ill-defined or clichéd.

One of the silliest, most sieve-like screenplays of the year.

Falters when it gets involved with supernatural gobbledygook.

Their often touching stories of how their lives - and livelihoods - were disrupted are effectively intercut with excerpts from press conferences in which Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Nasty, borderline bigoted, stunningly amateurish film.

Shamelessly contrived and manipulative, Tae Guk Gi packs a visceral wallop.

Long-winded and often over-the-top Italian soap opera about a neurotic, middle-class Roman family.

Nair makes Vanity Fair an elegant showcase for an unforgettable heroine.

As evident from The Brown Bunny and his directing debut, "Buffalo 66," Gallo is talented, although in an unconventional way. Call him an angry young man with a future.

It's full of passionate performances (except for the wooden Li), sizzling swordplay, bold and dazzling hues, and breathtaking landscapes.

The biggest problem with the corny horror film Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid is that its titular reptiles are about as scary as jellied eels.

Spectacularly awful.

The clichéd and predictable Suspect Zero is the latest evidence that Hollywood has run the serial-killer thriller into the ground through overuse - the same way it earlier exhausted, say, buddy action-comedies.

One of the better political documentaries flooding into theaters after "Fahrenheit 9/11" and before the election.

Little more than an infomercial for the candidate.

Stars Carmine Famiglietti, Joseph Summa and Gino Cafarelli apparently also wrote Chooch and directed it under a trio of aliases. They shoulda applied to the witness-protection program instead.

In a season of hyperven tilating political docu mentaries - witness Michael Moore and his imitators - Ross McElwee shows just how far subtlety can go with his latest charming effort, Bright Leaves.

A likable trio of actors struggles valiantly but ultimately fails to keep this dopey buddy comedy afloat.

Disco may still be dead, but Benji: Off the Leash! resurrects another dubious artifact of the '70s - the crudely made family films starring that lovable mutt.

The acting is serviceable at best, the direction unfocused - and the special effects and makeup cheesy-looking. This is surely the most dreary-looking film ever shot by the great Vittorio Storaro ("Apocalypse Now").

Presumably, Deville wants to show life returning to normal after WWII, but in the context of this inert movie, "normal" equals "tedious."

Ultimately, though, the lively whirl of debauched, drug-fueled parties and toffee-nosed exchanges between heiresses and aristocrats fails to mask the essential hollowness of the narrative.

A true fan's nirvana.

Greenwald does nothing with the interviews, basically just posting them, one after the other, with the hope that viewers will do his job for him. The result is one-sided and bone-dry.

Mawkish and manipulative, the film isn't worthy of its widely praised German director.

Many indie films about adolescents these days - like Gus Van Sant's "Elephants" - are willfully amoral. Mean Creek isn't - and it's the first indie since "Thirteen" that parents should make required viewing for teens.

Overlong and heavy-handed.

Somewhat leisurely paced, by American standards, especially in the beginning, but it's well worth sticking around for the payoff.

Lightweight but enjoyable entertainment.

It’s often hard to figure out who’s winning, much less care about it. One thing is certain: Nobody is going to be demanding a rematch.

Exploitative rubbish.

At heart a rather chilly and clinical portrait of four very selfish people.

Has just enough fairy dust to charm its target audience.

Stylish - if predictable - thriller.

The jaw-droppingly nasty second act is intriguing, but it veers into territory so dark that it sucks the air out of the bouncy chick flick that surrounds it, making for one confused -- and confusing -- comedy.

There's extreme brutality, gore and violence, scads of severed body parts and oceans of squirting blood, as the brave -- and buffed -- people of Bang Rajan fight to the death.

An intriguing, if seriously flawed, film noir.

Enthralling performances are given by Tadanobu Asano (Miike's "Ichi the Killer") as Kenji and first-timer Sinitta Boonyasak as the pot-smoking Noi.

While immersed in the horror of their plight, you might forget to breathe.

Mostly a second-rate action picture that's content to use apartheid as a colorful background.

This furious finger-pointer's doc is so one-sided, it undermines its own integrity.

A melodramatic import from Algeria, is so relevant in this age of global terrorism, it's a shame it isn't much better.

Uniformly excellent performances keep this destabilizing tale ticking, yet one can't help wishing Hollywood had combined this cast and these timely themes with a little bit of imagination to come up with something fresh.

Beautiful Brit actress Sophia Myles ("From Hell") is so arch, canny and amusing as the posh, pink-obsessed spy Lady Penelope, it's as if she is acting in the movie this should have been.

Pours on creepy atmosphere, but this dud is too intent on delivering its liberal "message" to actually deliver the kinds of scares it promises in the terrific trailer.

As this Woodstock-on-wheels careens through the countryside, stopping only to play for thousands of hirsute revelers -- and, once, to stock up on booze in Saskatoon -- its famous passengers celebrate with delirious joy the pure, unadulterated magic of music.

The film is less violent and bloody than much of the director's work, but the absurdity level is sky high. Takashi Miike is at the top of his game, loving every minute of his surreal visit to the twilight zone.

The most gut-bustingly funny movie so far this year.

No "Girl on the Bridge," but this comic thriller does generate a fair amount of erotic tension and sly commentary on psychoanalysis.

This Canadian-South African labor of love has its heart in the right place, even if the leads seem to have been cast more for their hunky looks than their stiff acting.

There’s little dialogue in this gem of a movie, but little is needed. Aman’s anguished face – which recalls Maria Falconetti in “The Passion of Joan of Arc” -- conveys all the information we need.

A fanciful little indie brimming with emo music and curious little vignettes, marks a self-conscious but very promising debut for "Scrubs" star Zach Braff.

So terrifically entertaining, it would be a shame if it didn't inspire a companion piece on New York.

A messy -- but uproarious, timely and provocative -- farce.

The film is lousy with cartoonishly off-putting characters.

The tap-dance finale is a gem.

The strapping Damon's lived-in performance makes us happy to follow Bourne wherever he may go.

Catwoman is pretty well summed up by Hedare: “This is a disaster. It’s a total bloody disaster.”

Well-meaning yawn-fest.

Brims with energy, carefully drawn characters and fine acting.

It's a far more effective leftist argument than the bombastic "Fahrenheit 9/11."

The story is told in fractured time. This might not be a problem if his visuals were more fear-inducing.

A cheaply made, occasionally repetitive, but passionately argued documentary.

Not as vile as "Sleepover," nor as tangy as "Mean Girls."