A witty and wise midlife comedy, not only represents Peter Riegert's debut as a feature director but gives this gifted veteran performer his juiciest big-screen role in quite some time.

A great movie, period. It's great because it's so real.

Scenes of the probe are less successful. They feel contrived, and actress Lee Yeong-ae is not especially effective as Major Jang.

Call it a spiritual Woodstock.

An action comedy for suburban women that's as toothless as a newborn, and nearly as stupid. It tries so hard to be cute that it practically drools on your shoulder.

A bland, dull and only occasionally funny waste of time that will very soon be gathering dust in the remainder bins.

A chainsaw-cut above recent entries in the genre: a pure, unapologetic, unironic homage to the likes of "Friday the 13th" that respectfully salutes all the old shtick.

You can't get this kind of full-on sensory-jolt anywhere else, not legally anyway. "Sharkboy" will be equally beloved in elementary schools and in college dorms.

The story, which also involves an asthmatic dog and a scarecrow, is more accessible than "Spirited Away" but less transporting than that Oscar-winning masterpiece.

Tries to be a gay version of "Sex and the City," which was pretty gay to begin with.

Viewers are either going to walk out after 10 minutes or, like this tolerant critic, get caught up in the sordid lives of the three misfits and stick around for the ambiguous ending.

"I am surrounded by oceans of boredom," the campy Abraham complains at one point. It's a sentiment audiences are bound to share.

France's François Ozon's 5 x 2, which resembles Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage" told in reverse, could be played for laughs, or suspense -- who killed this marriage? -- or with the rueful irony of Stephen Sondheim's backward musical "Merrily We Roll Along."

The three are appealing characters, and you can't help but root for them in their quest, which gives a whole new meaning to the term "family values."

The writing, acting and direction are so amateurish that the only thing you'll care about is escaping the theater.

Ron Howard's bio-pic is an Oscar-baiting fairy tale that manipulates the audience at every turn of the clich.

The story meanders from competition to competition (up the ramps, down the ramps) and seems like it could end at any point. The characters are similarly underdeveloped.

A rousing, garage-band-style documentary.

Après Vous arranges for a normal guy to get stuck with a blithering wreck. But whenever things threaten to get really silly, it pulls back.

A beautiful but empty-headed documentary.

Never-quite-believable crime drama.

A fluffy and fun coming-of-age-in-Rome comedy, with a sparkling turn by its 16-year-old star, Alice Teghil.

Though the story may be cut from the same cloth as the female-empowering "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," it's never as cute, cloying or overbearing as that movie eventually became.

Like mother, like daughter best sums up Or (My Treasure), a raw drama.

Magnificent shots of waterfalls and other natural phenomena abound, but it's far too late in the history of nature photography to expect anyone to gawk at them.

Isn't always easy to watch, but Bojanov's film is so compelling you just can't turn away.

"The Waterboy" was funny because Sandler doesn't look like a football player. When he swaggers around The Longest Yard starting fights and taking beatings without flinching, he only reminds us how little Steve McQueen and how much Woody Allen there is in him.

More than a few will agree with the penguins, who netted the film a PG rating with the utterance, "Well, this sucks."