A schmaltzy, smutty and mean-spirited quasi-satire.

Despite the lingering aroma of Victorian rot shrouding 1961, An Education is excitingly young.

Barely watchable, despite the presence of such pros as Michael McKean and Jane Lynch.

Tom Hardy gives an amazing performance as Peterson, who took on the nickname Charlie Bronson, after the "Death Wish" actor.

As the two coaches head for a faceoff in a climactic live TV interview, writer Morgan starts to seem like a rip-off -- of himself.

About the only question not answered by Good Hair is whether Michelle Obama wears a hair extension (most come from religious ceremonies in India) or straightens her hair.

You know a low-budget indie has problems when it's less emotionally honest than a studio-backed project like "(500) Days."

Strip away the alt-country soundtrack, though, and you've got a Bette Davis fallen-woman-redeemed picture from 1937.

I'm not sure why it took 50 years for Araya to reach New York, but let us be thankful to Milestone Films for giving life to this forgotten film.

Hilarious.

Zombieland is still the funniest broad comedy since "The Hangover." Its yowling, marching, munching corpses are as scary as grad students and as hilarious as the plot of "G.I. Joe."

Turns out to be a dour, shouty atheist manifesto. With a change of scenery it could have been called "Godless in Seattle."

Sweet without being sticky and funny without getting silly, Whip It introduces Barrymore as a director with a keen eye, a good ear for tone and an inspired touch with actors.

May not have the starry casts of the Coens' more recent films, but it has plenty of heart and soul.

Like one of those five-minute featurettes on star athletes deployed to soak up time on the pregame show -- expanded to a paralytic length.

Makes little attempt to be credible or original. And the acting is poor.

Though thin on story, the film shows poise and vision, using bleak cinema-realité techniques with chilling effect. Campos promises to be heard from again.

Rambles a bit, but it's a real slice of New York history.

It could be set during the war in Iraq, but the brutal French film Intimate Enemies takes place in 1959, at the height of the Algerian struggle against French rule.

Unfortunately, Angelou's detached and often superfluous narration lessens the film's impact.

The story is nothing if not uplifting, but it unfolds in a conventional, uninspired documentary style better suited to the small screen, where it soon will reside. Wait.

The cowardly producers have banished the grit and darkness of Parker’s original.

The movie is neither an affecting romance (Coco even considers marrying Balsan because "I'd achieve social status") nor an inspiring success story. Chanel sold herself to one guy, happened to get customers through him, and took a start-up loan from another lover.

Among cheesy sci-fi movies meant to make you think, I'll take Surrogates over "District 9." Both are highly derivative, but in the course of recombining the basic chromosomes of "Blade Runner," "The Matrix" and especially "I, Robot," Surrogates nudges the robo-thriller in an interesting direction.

Set in a bar that echoes the far superior "Big Night," this labored two-hander plays more like an acting exercise than an actual movie.

An uneven quasi-weepie.

A blast from the 1980s, when the idea that men were essentially rapists and women rapees was a popular way to score chicks on campus.

Like legendary producer Val Lewton in the '40s, director Oren Peli, who shot "Paranormal" in seven days in his own home, understands that what's most frightening is what you don't see but merely suggested.