Seems to go on for several days and nights, though in fact it lasts just 105 minutes. I checked my watch. A lot.

Time for another of Steven Soderbergh's "experimental," i.e., half-assed, films.

Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and a host of other notables sing the praises of the estranged siblings, whose work is illustrated by copious film clips.

A crass, heavy- handed and -- most unforgivably -- largely laugh-free adaptation of The Master's infrequently revived 1924 comic melodrama.

At 86 minutes, the film spends exactly 86 more minutes with its subjects than can possibly be tolerated. Coincidence?

Yet what makes this movie is the digital effects. It's got all the heart of a demolition derby.

The news footage, so powerful on its own, needs no enhancement. The dramatized scenes only slow the film's momentum.

It's got enough going on to sustain five blockbuster thrillers. That is its blessing and its curse.

The movie fails to add up to the sum of its laborious parts. There's no emotional investment in any of the characters, and you can see the writer-director's windup con coming a mile away.

At nearly two hours, Big Man Japan is clever (in a sick sort of way) but overlong. It needs judicious editing -- more mockumentary, fewer superhero antics.

Marlene Rhein has directed 40 music videos, including ones for Tupac Shakur and Amy Winehouse. Judging by this, her feature debut, she should stick with the music.

The final twist is completely unexpected.

The film is a failure if it can't convince us that these two people belong together. It can't, and barely tries.

Even for a French drama, Summer Hours is so slow as to be practically still.

Adoration, which hinges on a number of coincidences, contains some really fine performances.

Picture "Fargo" played with no sense of comedy, and you'll get some idea of the absurdity of this drunken floozy, clicking and wobbling on high heels, often with bits of her anatomy hanging out, trying to pull off the perfect crime.

An exceedingly silly historical fantasy.

Routine stuff, but things move quickly, with several offhand funny moments. Mos Def is hilarious in a cameo as another delivery guy.

What is Dick's excuse for outing one cable news anchor but not a rival counterpart who is far better known? The anchor isn't antigay, but Dick likes the other network's politics better. Hypocrisy? Your call.

An occasionally amusing but strained fable about the dangers and delights of sibling rivalry that asks us to believe (for instance) that soccer scouts roam Mexico looking for 30-year-old recruits.

Vigorously played as a young man by Chris Pine, Kirk is a brilliant, sports-car driving, bar-brawling rebel who is finally shamed into joining Starfleet Academy.

Last week I thought watching women take their clothes off was sexy. This week I saw A Wink and a Smile.

Aggressively ugly and intergalactically boring, the dismal sci-fi kiddie cartoon Battle for Terra is too weak to be shown anywhere except maybe on the next flight to Saturn.

The season's first genuine guilty pleasure.

This is one of those movies that's too cool to have a plot.

The potential for suspense is dropped (there's a subplot about the receptionist's flight from her violent husband, but he appears in only a couple of scenes) in favor of lots of hushed interludes in which nothing happens.

The coincidences might be too much for some, but viewers who can get past them will be treated to a suspenseful, well-acted, crisply photographed character study.

This is powerful filmmaking for discerning viewers.