Camp often means a lack of feeling and generalized disdain; not so in Spork, which has as much heart as "Sixteen Candles."

A raw mix of documentary and fiction, directed by Koji Wakamatsu, a veteran of soft-core porn ("Go, Go Second Time Virgin") whose anti-war stunner "Caterpillar" just played here.

It wouldn't be right to say that, half an hour after Kung Fu Panda 2 ended, I was starving for laughs again. In truth, I was starving pretty much all the way through.

First-time writer-director Adam Reid has a lightly endearing touch as he allows the actors plenty of space to be warm without being cute.

For all its flaws, The Tree of Life is a stunning exception to the rule that you can safely check your brain at the popcorn counter until after Labor Day. That's enough to place it among the year's best movies, or at least most-talked-about ones.

They breathe originality into an oft-told story.

I found this more elaborate, play-it-safe sequel far less fresh or funny.

When disaster struck, the documentary says, the powerful corps went to extraordinary lengths to silence, discredit and punish whistleblowers, many of whose allegations were supported by congressional investigators.

Call it the rape of Carnegie Hall.

Rookie director Sean Kirkpatrick keeps stomping on the drama pedal while blowing the cliché horn, yielding scene after tired scene of predictable developments as the principals keep shoving guns into mouths and screaming obscenities.

Owen Wilson turns out to be the best Woody Allen surrogate by far.

I suppose you have to give credit to the movie for coming up with some badass killer mermaids.

The poetry has more in common with rap lyrics than Baudelaire, but that just increases the fun.

Their '50s-style comedy mugging not only don't come across to Americans, it's hard to believe even New Zealanders would care.

Not a definitive portrait of the designer, nor does it pretend to be. But it should be of interest to viewers even if there's not a single YSL label in their wardrobes.

Less than compelling as drama -- but boy is this an impressive collection of wildly ugly hairstyles, moustaches, clothing and "earth tone" furniture from 1983.

For a noir, the film is way too talky and convoluted, yet for a physics lesson, it's trash.

Legendary is an overworked adjective, but surely it applies to Jack Cardiff, the British cinematographer whose awe-inspiring resume includes some of the most beautiful Technicolor films ever shot, among them "The Red Shoes," "Black Narcissus" and "Stairway to Heaven."

If action's your thing, then the Chinese-Hong Kong martial-arts epic True Legend is your movie.

Everything Must Go is cinematic pointilism. The big picture is familiar -- busted middle-age man, suburban alcoholic despair -- yet the details are so finely rendered that the overall impression is potently strange.

Lee hasn't given an interview in 45 years, and even her 99-year-old sister (still practicing as a lawyer) only hazards a guess in Mary Murphy's old-school documentary: Her younger sister had nothing to prove, and nowhere to go but down after her astonishing debut novel.

Too bad the script is predictable at every turn.

Unlike many films that hope to be called black comedy, it does not skimp on either the black or the comedy.

By the time two hours had dragged by, I felt a lot like I had sat through a five-hour wedding.

Octubre has the feel of something Jim Jarmusch might have made in his early years -- lots of dark humor that you'll think of in the middle of the night, and laugh about.

The preachy movie is hardly worth the hassle and money required to see it in a theater. Better to download it or wait for it to pop up on TV.

The Japanese anti-war drama Caterpillar is difficult to watch. But it's directed, acted and photographed well, and it's worth seeing even if it makes you uncomfortable.

Even when scary, Murray is somehow funny, too, and he steals the show as always.